Griffin's Land Axis is a defining element in the city plan for Canberra. It is a dominant gesture, which is intact for most of its length. Our proposal settles between building and landscape. A guiding image was of a cupped hand suggesting gathering and collection at the Lake edge. The proposed space is a precise, iconic, cupped grass field, that is in itself an expression of collection and openess. Its form inverts the mounded ends of the axis in a gentle concave: Mount Ainslie to the North and New Parliament House at the southern end. Its edges hold the axis, while the ramp extends the axial view. Materials suggest a gentle fluid monumentality. The liquid light of the glass walls softens the light and shadow of the Capital. The flickering of glass and the delicate and variegated pattern of the stone-faced back wall implies a curtain draped across the site, gradually lightening toward the ramp opening. The dark pavement emphasises the cutting and incision of the landscape and joins the recessive quality of the grassed lawns of the parliamentary axis. #2003 #ACT #architecture #Australia #awards #Block #commonwealth_place #Durbach #institute #Parkes #RAIA #Urban_design
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