Gungahlin Drive Extension ACT          2007

Sound Walls

The sound walls form an integral part of the architecture of the road and draw on the place of Canberra.

The design of Canberra owes its form and mystery to Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin. Hidden within the interlocking geometry of the Griffin’s plan for Canberra lie anthroposophical and philosophical meanings. Such semantic intention was also present in much of Walter Burley Griffin’s earlier work with Frank Lloyd Wright in America and his later work in Sydney, which featured rich and meaningful ornamentation, often using concrete technology. Griffin believed that the future of concrete lay in its ability to be moulded. It is fitting that the vision of Griffin is referenced in Canberra at this time after the end of the austerity of early modernism.
To this end I have chosen a pattern which Griffin developed for the Pyrmont Incinerator in Sydney, now demolished, which many consider to be Griffin’s built masterpiece. The facades of the incinerator represent the culmination of tile pattern design for the Griffins. That this building was in Sydney and not Canberra is irrelevant as the facades of the incinerator represent the culmination of pattern design by the Planners of Canberra. The design speaks of the mysticism and power of the Griffins’ vision. 

The pattern chosen will be reinterpreted at a new scale. At this scale it has a strange relationship with landscape and an ambiguous form which will intrigue the viewer.

The net effect is to pay homage to Griffin while at the same time creating new work, which speaks of the mystery of Canberra as a place.