"AN IDEAL CITY?"
an introduction and online exhibition.

"An Ideal City? The 1912 Competition to Design Canberra" is an online exhibition which takes the visitor back to the days when the Australian capital was just an idea, and the city site was a sparsly populated plain. From this beginning would grow the Canberra we know today...

overview

exhibition begins In 1911, architects and designers around the world were invited to enter a competition to design a new federal capital for the Commonwealth of Australia

section 1: Welcome to the Limestone Plains The site for the capital was Canberra, about 300 kilometres south west of Sydney

section 2: The Competition Architects and designers believed that, by good planning and design it was possible to create an ideal city

section 3: The Entrants Entries poured into the government offices in Melbourne. There were 137 in all. 46 plans were shortlisted, photographed and considered against the landscape of the Canberra site.

section 4: The Winner The judges chose a plan by Chicago architect, Walter Burley Griffin. He claimed, "I have planned a city not like any other in the world. I have planned an ideal city."

section 5: Vision and Reality Since 1912 there have been many changes to Griffin's plan. Canberra has expanded far beyond the area and population planned for by Griffin.

section 6: Planning - A Continuing Process This online exhibition asks whether it is possible to plan an ideal city. It also asks: should we allow the grand visions of the past- such as the Griffin plan- to influence our plans in the future?

All materials at this site, both images and text are the property of the NLA and Australian Archives and cannot be reproduced.