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Essay by: Pudit Ngourangsi | M BEnv(SustDev), UNSW, FBE, 2003
If there is one building that can house the nation’s imagination, it would be an art gallery. The enthusiasm in gathering fashion objects and works of arts from all ages is a reflection of modern thinking and civilization of the whole nation. During the nineteenth century, several parts of Australia successfully constructed their institutions. Melbourne built its public library in 1854, and five years later it was opened as the Museum of Art in 1861. A Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery was built by 1863, and State Galleries were built in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, respectively (Margaret Steven, 1982, p.9)[1]. The idea of additional gallery for Canberra was embodied, when the Australian States combined in a Federation in 1901, with the notion to make it as a capital for Australian arts.
In 1963, Lord Holford’s plan [1] revealed a significant role of the Gallery on Canberra’s landscape by proposing it as the first building on the main axis of the Parliamentary triangle. The idea of finding an appropriate design for the Gallery appeared to be a limited architectural competition for the building rather than an open competition. Edwards, Madigan, Torzillo and Briggs were announced as the winners of the competition in 1968. The winning design [2] shows a long, low building arranged about a central longitudinal foyer. The connection between galleries was a ramped system that led people into the main foyer and the central foyer opened up to views of the countryside beyond. Further, the building was stepped at different level in order not to block a visual circulation of the main land axis.
The significant change, which directly affected the design of the Gallery, is the agreement of the siting of the New and Permanent Parliament House on Capital Hill site in August 1968. Consequently, the National Gallery building had to be moved as its position on the land axis would be a restraint on the design of the Parliament House, and the new appropriate site for the building is on the edge of the lake in the north-east corner of the triangle [3]. For the architect, Colin Madigan, he responded enthusiastically with this change that the new site liberalized his design from the restriction of the Griffin’s land axis.
As a final point, the new building design shows massive clustered mass of reinforced brush-hammered concrete. It stands 23 meters high above the pedestrian concourse level; hence visitors can straightforwardly sense the building’s presence and impact. The galleries are arranged on three levels connected by the remarkable ramps and stairs. When the construction was completed in 1982, the Gallery had become one of the most influential emblems of the Canberra’s landscape.
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