Canberra Research

From www.canberra100.com.au :

The RIBA Town Planning Conference, London 1910 was the first time the issue of an Australian federal capital was raised internationally.

http://canberra100.com.au/images/gallery/
london_town_planning_conference/full/1.jpg

John Sulman made a speech at this conference entitled "The Federal Capital Territory" where he introduced the competition to design a town plan for Canberra. He mentions a number of factors which were to influence the design:

• the design must embody all recent development in the "science of town planning - here he was talking about the new generation of town planners whose ideas were responses to the living conditions suffered under industrialism, where planning was second to developing industry and the result was often polluted unlivable cities. The idea of the "garden city" came from this and was popular at the time of the competition. 
• although Australians were isolated from the rest of the world, the World Expos had allowed a "cultural, social and political exchange" and Australians wanted a city that was more like what they saw in these expos. 
• the design would be a web-like design. - Sulman was a fan of the garden city and saw that other cities in Australia "almost universally followed the prosaic chessboard model"
• the design had to consider the unique traits of the Australian people who had "developed our own idiosyncrasies very rapidly owing to our isolation from the rest of the world". Sulman encouraged competition participants to experience Australia before they submitted their designs. 
• water was important to provide the right aesthetics and for growing food.
• our politicians were seen by Sulman as unique as they came from ordinary working backgrounds and not a privileged life (apart from the Governor General) and the city had to cater for this. 
• official buildings could not be segregated and had to be accessible to the citizens
• the design had to provide for "outdoor amusements and sports", however Sulman did not consider children's playgrounds to be important as everyone would have a large back yard to play in. 
• there had to be a showground as Australia was an agricultural nation

Other issues from documents on www.idealcity.org.au

• the site had to have a "bracing climate" to stop the officials from falling asleep at work
• the site had to be away from the sea, to prevent attack, but linked to the sea for trade

Criteria for judging the competition

• include stormwater and drainage
• parks, gardens and water
• residential areas separated from industry
• grandeur
• adapted to the landscape
• symbolise a national capital

The Griffin's won because their design was sensitive to the natural features of the land, it aligned the main axes of the city with the four mountain summits, it showcased nature and Marion's drawings were beautiful. Many other designs seemed to just plonk an "ideal" plan of a garden city onto the site plan without much consideration, perhaps reflecting that people thought the idea of a garden city was so perfect the same design could be applied to any place.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-gmod34
The Griffin's Plan

Some of my initial ideas of factors which could influence our national capital today 

• carbon footprint
• cost
• is a safe location as important now? is there a safe location? spread out?
• the ease with which politicians can communicate their message
• the ease with which citizens can communicate with politicians
• grandeur may not be as important now?
• politicians are not expected to all live in the national capital today. is there a way to reduce travel?
• overpopulation has caused other countries to plant to move their capitals (most recently - Indonesia, South Korea)