Parliament House Canberra

Site Information

Official Name: Parliament House, Canberra

Location: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Type: Building

Parliament House, Canberra, is the home of the federal government of Australia. Opened in 1988, it replaced the Old Parliament House that had served as the provisional seat of Parliament from 1927 until that time. Designed by American architectural firm Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorp, the building was based on a design brief so extensive that it was contained in a set of twenty volumes. An overarching requirement was to create a building that was both functional for the business of government and accessible to the public. Parliament House is among the world's most open parliamentary buildings and is used to host ceremonial events as well as political and social events. It is home to numerous art treasures and historical documents.

Parliament House is composed of four wings, or zones, placed along two huge curved walls to appear as one building. Each zone is dedicated to one of its four functions: House of Representatives, Senate, Executive and Visitors. The two largest zones are for the House of Representatives, which is on the eastern side, and the Senate, which is on the western side. The largest rooms in both zones are the chambers, where members of the government debate and vote on bills. Several smaller rooms are committee rooms, which are used for parliamentary committees to meet. The Executive zone is on the southern side and contains the Cabinet Room and other spaces for the premier and ministers. The centre of the building is for the public and contains spaces used for ceremonial purposes.

Built to last for two hundred years, Parliament House contains space for increased numbers of members of both Houses of Parliament. It took seven years to build and cost about $1.1 billion. One of the largest buildings in the Southern Hemisphere, it is 300 metres long and 300 metres wide and contains 24,000 tonnes of steel and 300,000 cubic metres of concrete.

History

Canberra was chosen as the site of Australia's capital in 1908, and a competition followed to design the new capital city. American architect Walter Burley Griffin won that competition and designed Canberra as a garden city. While his plan included a future Parliament House to be built on a site known as Camp Hill, a provisional one was built to house the members of Parliament (MPs) temporarily until a permanent Parliament House could be built. When it opened in 1927 the Provisional Parliament House was home to 101 MPs. Within a few decades the number of MPs had increased. Coupled with the growing numbers of people who worked in the building, this made it evident that a larger building was needed. A Joint Select Committee on the New and Permanent Parliament House was established in 1965 to determine the specifications for an international design competition. Between the 1950s and 1970s a debate ensued over the location of the permanent Parliament House. Potential sites included Camp Hill, Capital Hill and the banks of Lake Burley Griffin. In 1974 Capital Hill was chosen as the site and confirmed by the Parliament Act 1974.

On 22 November 1978 Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser announced plans to build a new Parliament House and to have the building ready to open by Australia Day 1988 to celebrate the bicentennial of European settlement. The Parliament House Construction Authority was established to oversee the building's design and construction. A two-stage international design competition was held in 1979, and the winning entry out of 329 entries from twenty-eight countries was announced in 1980 as the American firm Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorp, with Romaldo Giurgola the chief architect. Two building and civil engineering groups merged to form the Concrete–Holland Joint Venture to manage the building's construction. The first shovel of dirt was uncovered in a ceremony in 1980, and construction started in October 1981. In 1982 the Art Advisory Committee was formed. It oversaw the creation of works of art in glass, fabric, clay, timber, stone and metal by artists and craftspeople for various locations within the building as well as the collection of existing works of art.

In January 1988 MPs gradually began moving into the new building. Parliament House was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 9 May 1988. That same year the Parliamentary Precincts Act 1988 was passed, giving control and management of Parliament House to the Parliament of Australia.

Significance

Parliament House is a symbol of both Australia and Australian democracy. Designed to represent Australia's architectural expertise and status as a developed nation, it was also designed to be a building for all Australians. Its location, architecture and design features were chosen for their symbolic significance. Griffin's planned city was laid out on three axes that formed a triangle, known as the Parliament Triangle. At the centre of the triangle was Capital Hill, which Griffin considered the centre of Canberra and the physical and symbolic centre of the nation. He envisioned Capital Hill as the site of a building for public events, but the site was later chosen for Parliament House. In keeping with Griffin's vision, the architect chose to build into Capital Hill rather than atop the hill to show that the government is not above the people.

The two chambers of Parliament are located on opposite ends of one axis. That axis intersects with the Land axis at the very centre of Parliament House, symbolically representing the heart of Australian democracy and the unity of the Houses of Parliament and the public. Located at this intersection is Members Hall, a space for ceremonial events and informal meetings. It is located directly underneath the eighty-one-metre-high stainless steel flag sculpture that stands above the roof of Parliament House at its exact centre.

The entrances of each zone also have symbolic significance. The grandest entrance is for the Visitors zone, which includes a large open space known as the Forecourt and the Great Verandah. The entrance represents the importance of the public to the democratic process and invites visitors to be involved in that process. The Forecourt Mosaic covers the surface of the Forecourt. Designed by Australian artist Michael Nelson Jagamara (Tjakamarra), an elder of the Warlpiri people, the mosaic is based on his painting Possum and Wallaby Dreaming and represents Australia's beginnings. The Forecourt is used for protests, marches and community events. The entrances to the House of Representatives and Senate zones are less grand. Each has a porte cochère decorated with marble inlays in their traditional colours. In contrast, the prime minister's entrance in the Executive zone is smaller and humbler.

Bibliography

"Art@Parliament: There's Always Something New to See." Parliament of Australia, Government of Australia, www.aph.gov.au/Visit‗Parliament/Art. Accessed 18 June 2024.

"Australia's Parliament House." Parliamentary Education Office, Government of Australia, www.peo.gov.au/learning/closer-look/australias-parliament-house.html. Accessed 18 June 2024.

Beck, Haig, editor. Parliament House, Canberra: A Building for the Nation. Rev. ed. Watermark Press, 2000.

"Discover the Architecture." Parliament of Australia, Government of Australia, www.aph.gov.au/Visit‗Parliament/About‗the‗Building. Accessed 18 June 2024.

Fewtrell, Terry. "House on Hill Sets Standard." The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 May 2013, www.smh.com.au/comment/house-on-hill-sets-standard-20130508-2j7xy.html. Accessed 18 June 2024.

Fitzgerald, Alan. Canberra and the New Parliament House. Lansdowne Press, 2009.

Jarratt, Phil. "Open House." Australian Geographic, Nov.–Dec. 2013, pp. 52–61.

McCann, Joy. "Australia's Parliament House—More Than 25 Years in the Making! A Chronology." Parliament of Australia, Government of Australia, 3 Dec. 2013, www.aph.gov.au/About‗Parliament/Parliamentary‗Departments/Parliamentary‗Library/25th‗Anniversary‗Chronology. Accessed 18 June 2024.