Canberra’s urban design should shun artifice, posturing and the non-genuine because that is the nature of Australians, according to the chair of the National Capital Planning Authority, Evan Walker. Professor Walker said yesterday that recent research showed that Australians outside Canberra thought that in time Canberra would acquire its own history and be itself; that there was no need for it to become a microcosm of the rest of the country.
People thought the city should not be filled with artificial symbolism. In an address to the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Canberra he said the media had focused on the findings that Canberra was “”beautiful but boring”, however, the Australian public were very thoughtful about their capital; that they did not want development for its own sake and that the capital should develop at its own pace. None the less it should show the best Australia could do. Professor Walker said good urban design “”does not depend on universal principles or national codes but is grounded in local characteristics and needs, so much so that when it is well-managed, it is often hard to notice”. This should be true of Canberra’s development. That was reinforced by the ideas competition for Jerrabomberra which showed the quality of life in cities “”is dependent on a complex response rooted in the unique circumstances of each and every individual city”.
Professor Walker supported some of the ideas that had come from community consultation and NCPA work in Canberra planning: 1. A new interstate road entrance to Canberra along the Majura Valley behind Mount Anise dropping in at the Russell point of the Triangle so the first view of Canberra would the Parliamentary Triangle with the Brindabellas as a backdrop. 2. Constitution Avenue to be a high street of human activity, commerce and culture. 3. Retention of Anzac Parade as the spiritual place for the celebration of the heroic deeds and acknowledgement of service and sacrifice _ “”but not exclusively in the military sense”. 4. An esplanade with retail and social components on the southern shore of the lake within the triangle. 5. Redevelopment and development including medium density housing along the shore of West Basin and on Acton Peninsula and Sterling Ridge.