- Parliament means ‘to speak’ or ‘to discuss’
- Two houses: The senate and The House of Representatives – this ‘bicameral system’ protects the rights of the states and the interests of the nation as a whole
- Federal parliament was made in 1901 – prior the states ran the legislative power
- States no longer had to deal with defence, customs and immigration but took control over education, hospitals and the police
- Australian Capital’s site was not meant to be closer than 160km to Sydney
- Griffin use the local topography to generate three symbolic axes which determined elements of the city
- Capital Hill was located in the centre of Canberra and symbolically the nation – expressed via the ring road, the aligned streets were named after the capitals of the states
- Griffins design reflected the hierarchical relationships in Australia’s political organisation which ordered the city both horizontally and vertically (symbol of democracy)
- The cities physical form and land use pattern would express Australian democracy and the national identity
- Symbolically, parliament commands the bureaucracy by its location and elevation, yet it is also visible and accountable to the people and constrained by judiciary
- Griffin wanted the capital building to symbolize ‘that in a democracy the people stand above their elected representatives’
- The building was to follow this criteria...
- “When we began to think of the design for the Parliament House, the observance of the interdependence between built forms and land forms became a natural assumption, and we conceived our design as an extension of this concept” Giurgola, 1982
Smith, Douglas. 1989. Interpreting the Art and Design of Parliament House. RAIA
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