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Parliament House Courtyards & Precinct, Canberra
New Parliament House, Canberra, Australia
Scale: New Parliament House, Canberra occupies 33 hectares within the Parliamentary Triangle on Capital Hill, 23 hectares are landscaped with the remainder as built form and infrastructure.
Designers: Peter Rolland & Associates, New York along with the New York based architects Mitchell Giurgola Thorp Architects were responsible for the design of the landscape surrounding Parliament House in 1988.
Significance
In 1979, the combined team of Rolland & Associates and Mitchell Giurgola Thorp architects won an international design competition out of 329 entrants. New Parliament House sits within Canberra’s Parliamentary Triangle designed by Marion Mahony-Griffin and Walter Burley-Griffin. It is an extensive landscape, representative of post-modernistic style. Unlike many landscapes in Canberra, the courtyards within Parliament House and the formal gardens such as the SE terrace garden are well maintained and reflect the designer’s intent.
The design of New Parliament House and its landscape was based on geometric form and intense order but in keeping with a ‘pliable and enfolding landscape’.
Scale: New Parliament House, Canberra occupies 33 hectares within the Parliamentary Triangle on Capital Hill, 23 hectares are landscaped with the remainder as built form and infrastructure.
The Landscape
Margaret Hendry (1980) claimed “A danger exits that a European soft green landscape with emerge and the Griffin concept of hills with indigenous bushland such as Mount Ainslie, Black Mountain and Red Hill are lost.”
Whilst the Griffin’s had imagined a landscape echoing Canberra’s sense of place, the Landscape Architects commissioned for the work conceived an exotic lawn covering the building - symbolic of Australia’s passion for grass. In an interview Rolland justified this decision by saying:
“Look at the cities – people don’t want them to be brown! We didn’t introduce irrigation to Canberra; its was there, and it was as Griffin intended it to be – largely a green city.” (Neale 1988, p130)
In today’s water conscious era, many Landscape Architects view this expanse as wasteful requiring high inputs of energy to maintain its appearance and envisage some of the turf being replaced with rippling native grasses!
Until recently this lawn was viewed as part of Australia’s democracy with visitors encouraged to stroll over it. With increased concern regarding terrorist attacks (due to Australia’s support of the war in Iraq) this is no longer permitted.
Forecourt
This space is designed as a pedestrian precinct and as the main point of arrival for visitors. It was designed to house up to 100,000 people. It is a wide space with panoramic views from Capital Hill towards Lake Burley Griffin, the city, and the enclosing hills of Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura. A large pond graces this space with an elegant aboriginal mosaic of granite setts designed by the artist Michael Nelson Jagamara. Plant material is deliberately simplified to a mass planting of Grevillea ‘Royal Mantle’.
Internal Courtyards
These courtyards are accessible mainly to staff within the building. At certain times of the year tours can be arranged to visit these gardens.
The building houses 17 courtyards whose form is derived from the use of a grid system. Courtyards provide pleasant views from windows and spaces to relax in. These courtyards feature a mix of exotic and native plants and exotic turf. Order is maintained within these gardens, plant material is often clipped into shapes which can be viewed from the upper floors, native plants such as Correa are clipped into hedges. Deciduous trees are used to provide shade in Summer and allow solar access in Winter.
The President of the Senate Courtyard, due to its exclusive use of native plant material provides a distinctive Australian feel. These plants soften the hard forms of the walls and paving creating a delightful enclave.
Exterior gardens
The building is surrounded by extensive plantings of naturalistic native plantings which host a walking track. A number of recreational facilities are inserted into these including tennis courts and sporting fields. On the SE terrace of the building is a formal garden influenced by European style. It extends the geometry of the building into the landscape. This area exhibits tight symmetry, a formal central pond, parterre like garden beds filled with annuals which are regularly changed, manicured lawn and surrounding enclosing conifer hedge. Glimpses over the hedge towards the south east provide the only indication that the visitor is in Canberra.
As the precinct of New Parliament House is divided from suburban areas by an enclosing system of roads, there is little opportunity for members of the public to use its open spaces unless they make a trip especially to visit the House.
Awards: this project received a ‘Landmark Award’ in 1988 and an American Society of Landscape Architect’s ‘Honor Award’ in 1992.
Edwina Richardson (AAILA)
>> Images related to the article above
References
Hendry, Margaret (1980) The parliamentary triangle – Canberra Public Open Space, Landscape Australia 4 1980, pp 268-275
Neale, Ralph (1988) ‘An interview with Peter Rolland’ Landscape Australia 2, 1988, pp130-131.
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