002 Reading: The Architecture of Australia’s Parliament House

· Budget was $220 million – later to be recognised as $1000 million

· Fast-tracking and the scale allowed for a new era in craftsmanship – new materials, methods and tools

· House of representatives: Green – inspired by the bush

· Senate: Red

· IDENTITY

o First thing evident is the flag – then the hill and a wall – no building

o “The idea 'Australia' is distilled in three quintessential signs: the flag, emblem of nationhood; the hill, embodiment of place; and the wall, mark of human inhabitation. These abstract yet highly representational signs prompt individual feelings about patriotism, place, people”

o Each entrance is different architecturally

o Legibility is KEY – geography, functions and symbolism

· “The built form comes to signify the experience”

· 3500 people can use the 4000 rooms. 5000 visitors daily. 1500 people for state occasions

· “Its four main activities (functions) are geographically isolated and given their own architectural settings - internally and externally”

· “The architectural setting for Parliament's public ceremonial functions is abstracted into three simple, memorable forms: the flag, the excavated embrace of Capital Hill, and the screen wall of the Great Verandah”

· “The architecture mediates between the monumentality of the building and the human scale of users to make it symbolically and functionally legible”

· Four parts of legibility (visitors- north, house of reps- east, ministers-south and senators-west)