All competitors in the Canberra competition were required to submit one plan laid over a contour map prepared by Scrivener, - Surveyor of Canberra - and were free to prepare other drawings which would best illustrate their designs. Griffin's entry was presented in a series of fourteen exquisitely rendered panels and a large monochrome plan of Canberra and its environs, all prepared by Marion Mahony. In an attached report, Griffin explained that his design was a logical architectural expression of the two major design determinants - the site itself, and the function of the city. The site at Canberra, wrote Griffin, could be broken down into five principal elements - the distant tree-covered ranges; the three local mountains, Ainslie, Mugga Mugga and Black Mountain; the lower hills within the valley; the Molonglo River basin; and the gently undulating land over the major part of the city site.
Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937) - Commonwealth of Australia Federal Capital Competition. City and Environs. 1912
The structure of Griffins plan was incorporated into two major lines, each of which by 'a series of coincidences...[is] determined by the most important natural features of the site'. One the water axis, ran south-east from Black Mountain along the line of the formal central lake. The other, the land axis, started at Mount Ainslie, intersected the water axis at a right angle, crossed Camp Hill and Kurrajong (now Capital Hill) and 'produced 30 miles extends direct to the peak of Bimberi'. Within the central areas, all buildings would be set out parallel to these axes, which Griffin said would ensure that the sun could reach all faces of the existence of the city and spiritual heart of the nation, would lie in an 'accessible but still quiet area', symmetrical about the land axis and contained in a triangle by the southern shore of the lake and two major avenues linking the city across the water.
Above is a detail of Griffins design showing his Parliamentary Triangle, lake scheme and road system.
Griffin's plan comes to life! (above). This is an aerial view looking at the Government buildings and the new Parliament house (capital) under construction. Circa 1986.
It was essential, said Griffin, that the buildings in any of the major groups - governmental, municipal, educational, or military - be designed with proper attention to size and scale so that 'form any general view point of the town [they] will work together into one simple pattern [of] fundamental simplicity'. He did not presume to dictate a general style of architecture, but he made it clear how he felt about dumping neo-classical forms onto an Australian valley - 'an adaptation of any historical style [would be] a caricature instead of a reminiscence of its own proper grandeur'. It would be quite wrong to re-create Greek temples as 'boxes with glass windows instead of masses of masonry', or to 'mutilate...noble features like columns, capitals and consouls'. For the purpose of presenting his design principles, Griffin said he had suggested a 'stepped pinnacle treatment in lieu of the inevitable dome', and such a form, he added, had been 'the last word' in a number of civilisations throughout the ancient world. The buildings of this new capital, he concluded, should be designed to suit their 'specialised deliberative and educative activities'. With a 'horizontal distribution...liberally in public space...and directness and speed in communication between all points', Canberra could avoid having its buildings 'stand on end as in the congested American cities'.
It was a simple but splendid concept, all the more remarkable because of Griffin's obvious understanding of a country and valley he had never seen, and it is interesting to compare the Griffin plan with those of the Europeans placed second and third. Saarinen's scheme shows buildings tightly grouped along a waterway which would look more at home in a colder northern climate. While the plan of Professor Agache is rigid, paying little heed to the topography. The Sydney plan preferred by Coane is fussy and formless, and its fine detail cannot conceal a lack of understanding of the vast horizontal scale of the Canberra valley.Although Griffin won the competition and received the prize, his design fell prey to heavy criticism soon after the close of the competition. This obviously put tremendous pressure on O'Malley who eventually crumbled under the pressure