Sem2 2011 CAPITheticAL project

CAPITheticAL - 100-year-old original competition box
CAPITHETICAL
Historic maps outlining new plans for national capital unveiled from 100-year-old original competition box

A 100-year-old container - housing an original set of competition guidelines and documents compiled to assist with the design of Australia's national capital - was opened for the first time today.

The original competition box was officially opened at a special ceremony at Black Mountain Tower in Canberra this morning to mark the launch of CAPITheticAL - an international design ideas competition asking participants to imagine how an Australian national capital city 'might' look if created today.

The competition invites entrants to look back at the big ideas that shaped Australia's national capital and look forward to the big ideas that will shape the world's future cities in the 21st century and beyond.

Announcing the competition, Centenary of Canberra Creative Director Robyn Archer said: "In the lead up to Canberra's Centenary celebrations in 2013, it is timely to consider the factors and influences that led to the city's creation. The passionate public conversation which eventually led to the search, survey and international competition for Canberra represents a rich, complex and very entertaining episode in our national history."

Ms Archer added: "It also shows that courage and innovation sat at the heart of the idea for a new capital: the country's leaders at that time were optimistic about the new nation's future and brave in their adoption of an international competition for the design of its new capital."
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

In May 1911, competition kits were circulated across Australia and throughout the world, courtesy of many hundreds of metre-long wooden boxes containing virtually everything a prospective entrant might need. More than 170 kits alone were distributed by the British Embassy in Washington, and even more were allocated by the Australian High Commission in London. Some 725 kits were produced for circulation.

Each kit box contained: a five-part set of instructions, 'Information, Conditions and Particulars for Guidance in the Preparation of Competitive Designs for the Federal Capital City of the Commonwealth of Australia' (Invitation, Conditions, Historical and Introductory, Requirements and [Site] Description; a map of the preliminary contour survey of the Yass-Canberra area; two copies of the map of the contour survey of the actual site; a topographical map of the Federal (in 1938, the Australian) Capital Territory, which had been established formally only months earlier, on 1 January 1911; a map of NSW; a map of the south-eastern part of NSW; a geological map of the city site; a map indicating both rainfall and temperature statistics for the capital site and region; a report by the Commonwealth Meteorologist on climate in the Yass-Canberra district; and two superb cyclorama reproductions (by Charles Coulter) sketching 360 degrees of the city site landscape - one drawn at what is now City Hill and the other from Capital Hill.

Kits were despatched to: Wellington, Ottawa, Pretoria and Capetown, London, Paris, Berlin, Washington DC, New York and Chicago - and to the Public Works Departments of each Australian state. They were routinely made available, as well, at the Department of Home Affairs office in Melbourne.
CURRENT CONTEXT

A century later, on 6 May 2011, the CAPITheticAL competition has been launched internationally. The competition is designed to seek submissions from entrants from a wide range of design backgrounds, from the world's top architects and designers to landscape architects and artists. They are being challenged to reveal hypothetic solutions to the question 'If you had to plan and build a new capital now, how would you go about it?'
In summary, the competition is seeking:

* entries that demonstrate knowledge of the debates and issues that led to Canberra's design competition;
* participants that are informed by an understanding of the history and design of other planned capital cities (realised, unrealised and proposed);
* participants responses to a series of questions, among them: Would a national capital today be it be a city in the conventional sense? What ideas would drive its design and development? How will 21st century cultural, social, political and environmental factors influence the nature of the city? Of what should our national capital consist?

Entrants will vie for a total of $100,000 in prize money, with stage one submissions due in January 2012.
CENTENARY OF CANBERRA

CAPITheticAL is a project of the 2013 Centenary of Canberra celebrations. The Centenary marks the 100th anniversary of the official naming of Canberra by Lady Denman (wife of the then Governor-General, Lord Denman) on 12 March 1913. The Centenary of Canberra unit of the ACT Government is planning a a year-long celebration of memorable activities and events to commemorate the Centenary of Canberra as the national capital of Australia. Program highlights will be announced on 12 March 2011, Canberra 98th Birthday.

CAPITheticAL is a Centenary of Canberra project proudly presented by the ACT Government and administered by the Australian Institute of Architects.
www.capithetical.com.au | www.canberra100.com.au