Page 1194 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Now, do we observe any recent office buildings in Canberra, in Civic particularly, that consider places before buildings or show humility to learn from the past? We have kept nothing from our early architectural concepts. Is anything now designed on a human scale? Are these buildings that we are in and others near us built to last and adapt? Certainly not. They are built to be pulled down. Initially, Canberra had an identifiable federal capital architecture along with strong elements of Art Deco and a Californian or Spanish influence. The Sydney and Melbourne Buildings reflect that style. A newer building that has successfully blended a unique Art Deco style with extensive rebuilding is the Canberra Institute of the Arts, where the architects recognised the importance of the retention of the past to give depth to the present and future.
The cultural tragedy of most of our new instant buildings is that they retain no recognisable links with the past. They contain no features that mark them as belonging to Canberra. Federal capital architecture has lost its role in the soap opera and has been replaced by mediocre talent and unconvincing buildings that have no lasting qualities, no internal or external architectural or social strength, and no indication that they were built for people. The Canberra and Civic that we as the people's representatives have inherited historically is the work of many designers and bureaucrats. Its future is in our hands.
I am not confident that the present Government's environmental and heritage policy mentions the necessary legislation that would lead to aesthetic buildings in our city. I recognise that it does not exclude this happening, and I hope that this will be incorporated in the Government's policy. At the present moment, the policy makes no mention of the visual impact of buildings. Under the policy it would be possible to build a nondescript high-rise dome if it covered policy items of being energy efficient, had trees in the car park and dual flushing cisterns.
The future development of Civic needs a special section in any government's legislation. This Government's policies on development and the environment do not adequately address the specific problem that is Civic. There is no strong architectural thrust in the policy. If Canberra is to retain its advantage of being different from other cities and if Civic is to become something other than just another central business district, it is time to return to Griffin's visions. This is the Assembly's first Heritage Week. It is time to make sure that we leave some worthwhile heritage to the next generation. Let us make a commitment to pass the heritage test.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (3.43): I must say that I welcome this matter of public importance. It is most timely that it should be brought up for debate in Heritage Week and I thank Mr Wood for putting it on the agenda so that the question can be discussed. I will be making a ministerial statement later this week to mark Heritage
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .