|
December 10, 2005
On the way back to Adelaide on Friday morning I noticed this winning design in the Canberra Times for the new home of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.
It is currently located in Old Parliament House and in a building in Commonwealth Place.
This is the kind of innovative architecture that is missing in provincal cities like Adelaide. Adelaide lacks the courage to establish a viable regional identity for itself the 21st century.
The National Portrait Gallery is designed by the Sydney architecture firm Johnson Pilton Walker, and it will be located in the Arts and Civic Precinct of the Parliamentary Zone, and so it remains within, and respects, the urban design of Walter Burley Griffin.
Tim Dunlop says that he'd:
"...much prefer it if it [the new National Portrait Gallery] was closer to the City. I hate the way Canberra is designed, with all the national buildings away from the centre of town."
My judgement is that Canberra is one of Australia's great urban achievements, and that Griffin's great urban design of a city embedded in nature provides the city with a design heritage that can be built on over the next 50 years.
Sure, Canberra has its downside. Despite being the nation's capital it lacks a vital cosmpolitan inner city culture, the city centre (CBD) is in need of rejuvenation, and it needs to develop a public transport system that avoids the private and the atrocious taxi industry that would allow people to move around easily.
However, Canberra is a unique city with a special landscape setting. That is what makes Canberra so special. I'm not that confident that the Natonal Capital Authority will protect that heritage. It strikes me they are about selling that heritage to fund development.
|
