Design is where the real Canberra bubble lies, and the dangers are real
With a legacy of mid-century modern gems, comedian and design advocate Tim Ross asks what the built future could look like for Canberra
A few years ago, a well-known Danish architect was being driven to Canberra airport. As she was ferried through the sprawling new housing developments, she looked out the window at the treeless blocks, rows of timber fences and bloated brick veneer houses, and asked with genuine concern, “Why are you building slums?”
It’s a pertinent question all across our nation where the standard of residential architecture continues to disappoint. Where developers continue to dictate the appearance and liveability of our suburbs, and where consumers continue to drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on the largest house you can fit on a block to accommodate all of life’s necessities (including the now ubiquitous butler’s pantry).
The Dane’s stinging commentary on our urban sprawl is, however, even more pointed given Canberra’s rich and inspiring design history.
In the late 1950s the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) was established to (among other goals) truly turn Canberra into a dynamic, model capital. They tapped our best and brightest architects to realise this dream and the result is an assortment of some of the finest – but also undervalued and misunderstood – buildings in the country.
In the 1950s the dashingly handsome Melbourne architect Roy Grounds gave us the futuristic Academy of Science building in Acton. Warmly dubbed the “Martian Embassy” by locals and now known as the “Shine Dome”, this iconic building is a symbol of post-war optimism and our then universal belief that science was one of the great hopes for humanity.
The modernist buildings during this period came thick and fast. There were the Civic Offices by Roy Simpson of Yuncken Freeman (1959), including the enchanting Tom Bass sculpture Ethos, as well as Monaro Mall by Whitehead and Payne (1963) – Australia’s first airconditioned, three-storey shopping centre. Also joining the party was the legendary Harry Seidler, who began work on the Edmund Barton Building in the eponymous suburb of Barton in 1969.
In the 1970s, Sydney architect John Andrews was lured back from Canada by the NCDC. The hulking, blond-haired Andrews had carved out an enviable career in North America having designed the CN Tower in Toronto and the Harvard School of Architecture.
On the table for him in Canberra was the High Court, the new Parliament House, or an office development in the paddock suburb of Belconnen. Sensing “all sorts of nonsense” with the High Court and Parliament House jobs, he chose Belconnen. What resulted was the Brutalist Cameron Offices, which were part of a larger master plan for the area. Unfortunately, other sections of the plan were never implemented. Many felt Andrews’s building was impractical, citing one of the great public servant grumbles: having to walk too far to get a sandwich.
Early photos of the building show it as a utopian masterpiece, a modern mini-city in the bush. One of the exceptional design features of the building was a series of courtyard gardens between the offices, part of Andrews’s vision to create a truly Australian building for Australian conditions. Sadly, the building never reached its potential and large sections of it were demolished in the late 1990s.
Heritage protection for our modernist gems continues to be an issue in Canberra. Sadly, there seems to be little appetite from government for this to change. Melbourne architect Robin Boyd, famous of his social commentary, television shows and his controversial book, The Australian Ugliness, had a great affection for Canberra, dubbing it “the Garden City”. Unfortunately, his final building, the exceptional former Churchill Memorial Trust Building in Braddon, has been refused heritage listing, almost ensuring that it will be demolished in the future.
Boyd also contributed to the high standard of residential architecture in Canberra, including a home he designed for historian Manning Clark (1952) which survives and is used for public events and discussions. Clark was indicative of many of the new residents of Canberra who called on the services of progressive architects to help create unique houses in the new bush suburbs. A steady influx of scientists, academics, public servants and even politicians kept the architects busy, creating a legacy of exceptional Canberra homes.
Boyd’s contemporaries Theo Bischoff and Neville Ward added to the modernist dialogue between built form and the natural environment with exemplary homes on Waller Crescent in the Canberra suburb of Campbell. Bischoff’s L-shape house (1961) with its slender support columns, restrained palette of natural materials, deep eaves and courtyard is a prototype for sustainable architecture. Ward’s U-shaped, flat-roofed house (1967), arranged around a central courtyard, embraces nature and wears its Japanese influences with pride. Later, Ernest Munns of Munns Sly Moore completed an airy retreat for himself and his wife. Sited on a steep block, Munns House (1971) in Aranda gives the impression of living in a treehouse courtesy of its expressed structure, full height glazing and extensive decking.
One of the great contributors was Italian-born architect Enrico Taglietti, who came to Canberra in 1955 to find a site for the Italian embassy. Not only did he design the embassy, but on seeing the potential of Canberra as a blank canvas for his ideas, he became a resident of the city.
Among his best work there is the Paterson House, the 1970 home he designed for Canberra geophysicist and academic Mervyn Paterson and his Hungarian wife Katalin, a social worker. An adventurous yet affordable residence, it nestles into the bush effortlessly connecting with the landscape, and remains an impressive feat 50 years later.
Taglietti also left his mark with acclaimed public buildings, including his groundbreaking Giralang Primary School. Starting with the philosophy that schools should be designed for children, not teachers, the open-plan school was an instant hit with pupils when it flung open its doors in 1975. Mirroring Canberra’s uneasy relationship with its modern architecture, for a time a succession of school leaders were at odds with the open plan teaching method and, more tellingly, the design that enabled the philosophy. For a time, Taglietti was ostracised from the school community until a change in thinking emerged.
Today, a bronze bust of the architect sits in the school’s reception and until his recent death, Enrico would proudly rest his hat on his own head when visiting.
Another who saw the great potential in Canberra was Michael Dysart. The Sydney architect was a teenager when his family emigrated from the UK. Within a decade, he had evolved a sense of design for the Australian landscape that was far more developed than many of his contemporaries.
One of the exponents of the Sydney School style of architecture which favoured clinker bricks, raw exposed timber and, often, a liberal splash of mission brown paint, he had successfully designed a series of popular project homes, most notably for the firm Habitat. Architect-designed project homes which combined innovative design with affordability pitched at the masses were incredibly popular in the 1960s and ’70s.
Dysart pushed the envelope even further with two co-operative housing developments in Canberra in the 1970s under the banner of the NCDC. Both Wybalena Grove (Cook, 1975) and Urambi Village (Kambah, 1976) set the standard for what could be achieved in creating new communities in a bush setting.
A variety of medium density housing was created, complemented by vast amounts of green space and shared facilities such as a community centre, swimming pool and public meeting areas. Native landscaping and the use of brown roof tiles and bricks merge the multiple residences with the surrounding environment. A testament to this integration is that when Dysart sent the famed photographer Max Dupain to shoot the buildings, he just shook his head: he couldn’t manage a shot because there was no contrast between the buildings and the bush.
Both developments are much loved by current and former residents. In a time when we are actively questioning how we live, a broader reassessment of this style of development is in order. Housing affordability isn’t a problem that is going away. The consequence is that in order to get into the market, people have often had to settle for a poor standard of design.
When we saw the design boom in the Australian suburbs in the 1960s and ’70s, it was largely driven by young middle-class people. But as land close to the city disappeared and that demographic started renovating inner-city terrace houses, the moment was over.
The pandemic has increased the time many people spend at home and this has highlighted many issues with where and how we live. More than ever we are seeing the value of public and shared space in local communities. More and more people are seeking space, and no longer feel tied to the inner city. Could we see a design boom in the suburbs and regions again? Would people like to see a co-operative housing model that leads to more affordable housing with better amenity? I’d venture the answer is: yes.
As to the question of the value of the modern architecture in our nation’s capital, that is a more vexed question. Although we are blessed with a series of exceptional civic buildings that represent our aspirations and potential, most Australians have little relationship with Canberra and express no affinity with the place. As we continue to retreat behind state borders and champion regional parochialism, we fail to appreciate the symbols of what we create, what defines us and what we can achieve. The dark shadow of politics clouds the significance of Canberra, its culture and its architecture. Until we can feel ownership or pride in what we have in Canberra, and in doing so place more value on it, the best of our architecture will be demolished with barely a whimper.
Tim Ross is hosting a national tour of the live cinematic show Designing a Legacy which shows in Canberra on November 29 as part of DESIGN Canberra.