My first look at this competition unearths something within my mind that has been there since first seeing the design of Canberra in my first year of university. A dormant thought that was fuelled during a short trip to the capital city on Australia Day 2011.
Canberra has so much more potential than what is currently standing. The city should be more provocative; a city Australian residents can be proud of and long to visit equally as much as tourists e.g. Washington DC in the USA.
From viewing the competition site (http://www.capithetical.com.au/the-competition/), I can see many of the questions that I plan to answer:
Would you build a new capital today or could the Australian Federation be expressed in a different way?
Would it be a city in the conventional sense or not? If not, what form might it take?
What ideas would drive its design and development?
How would 21st century social, political and environmental factors influence the nature of the city?
Of what should our national capital consist?
Provocations
National versus Local: The architecture of a capital is imposing as an expression of nationhood and heritage, values and aspirations. How then should such a city express itself as a place where people also live, work and play?
Size: Australia is the world’s most urbanised nation, with 57% of its population living in the five largest cities. This figure is close to double that of Europe and the USA. Should a hypothetical capital have ambitions as a sixth metropolis?
Size: Australia is the world’s most urbanised nation, with 57% of its population living in the five largest cities. This figure is close to double that of Europe and the USA. Should a hypothetical capital have ambitions as a sixth metropolis?
What: What is a city?
- event?
- infrastructure?
- home?
- market?
- government?
- landscape?
- object?
- experience?
- commerce?
- community?
- communication?
Is a capital city different?
Whose: Does our changing demographic influence the shape, substance or style of the city?
How: Do social, political and environmental pressures and expectations influence how an Australian capital might be created today?
Over the next few days, I will seek to understand how I can address the Primary Questions whilst nuturing the creative thoughts stemming from the Provocations.
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