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Back to the future: the pragmatic classicism of Australia's Parliament House

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2004

Paolo Tombesi
Paolo Tombesi
Affiliation:
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia, [email protected]
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Extract

Until the launch of Federation Square in Melbourne, in 1997, Australia's contribution to the history of international architectural competitions consisted essentially of two buildings: the Sydney Opera House, won by Jørn Utzon in 1957, and the Federal Parliament House in Canberra, won by Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorp (MGT) in 1980. While Utzon's building is widely acknowledged as a daring piece of innovative design and one of the architectural icons of this century, MGT's winning scheme for Parliament House drew heavy criticism from the moment the proposal was unveiled: neo-Classicist lines, a Beaux-Arts parti, and the building's occupation of Capital Hill – at the top of the Griffins' 1912 scheme for Canberra – were seen by many as displaying a lack of sensibility towards Australian landscape, culture, and ingenuity, and as the result of a conservative approach to contemporary urban design.

Type
Design
Information
arq: Architectural Research Quarterly , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 2003 , pp. 140 - 154
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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