Parliament House Canberra
I prepared a submission
for the Parliament House Competition in 1978. It was an almost entirely single-handed
effort. Needless to say - I didn't win, but it was a very interesting study.
My proposal included a
number of things the Brief had not asked for, simply because I believed that
they should have been part of the design:
- Solar or ambient
energy utilisation for air conditioning,
- space for future
accommodation of Parliamentary and Senate Committees (see picture below)
near the centre of the building (minimum travel time for Members), as it
appeared even then that they became part of the decision making processes
,
- complete separation
of the movement of Members and Senators from service traffic, such as catering,
messengers, maintenance of mechanical electrical services.
The extending arms were not just a symbolic
connection with the "outside world", but were useful for a physical link with
the external service facilities of the wider public service.
Maybe a competition
is not the place for introducing ideas beyond the Brief, but in most cases
the Client looks to the Architect for looking beyond the initial ideas.
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