Archi Oz

Archive for December, 2009

You might think that the design for Canberra was developed by an Australian architect – but you’d be wrong.  It was back in 1911 when the Australian government came up with the idea for a Federal Capital Design Competition to select an architect to design the new capital city.  By the time all the entries were in for the competitition, which was not an uncommon thing at the time, there were three finalists who made the cut…and no, none of them were Australian architects.

Canberra City Design Finalists:

• Eliel Saarinen (Finland)
• Dr. Alfred Agache (Paris)
• Walter Burley Griffin (U.S.)

Out of 137 entries submitted, it was Walter Burley Griffin who beat out all of them.  Griffin is quoted as having said, “I have planned a city that is not like any other in the world.”  Some say it was Griffin’s ability to do architecture and amazing landscape art that won the government over.

There was actually some controversy over the choice that King O’Malley made (who had final say); the judging board’s chairman wanted a consortium of Australian architects to do the design but was eventually overruled.  Not that anyone can take anything away from the architects in Australia, it just appears as though this time it was meant to be that Walter Burley Griffin should design Canberra.