Canberra has been
demonstrated as the most significant products in the world of the 20th
century. It becomes the capital city of Australia instead of Melbourne and
Sydney. Why Canberra can defeat Melbourne and Sydney become the capital city of
Australia? What should a capital city have and how to involve people’s thought
into the plan? Why Canberra is not as famous as Melbourne and Sydney? From
those aspects I will then introduce my thoughts of Canberra as a capital city.
The
process of Canberra been a federal capital has been through three stages,
respectively, a “battle of ideas”, a “battle of sites” and a “battle of plans”.
As we know Melbourne and Sydney are well known by the others rather than
Canberra. Melbourne is the oldest city of Australia, its history and culture
can become the significant feature to form a capital city. Sydney is the
largest city at that time, most of the business trades are taking place in that
area, and if we set Sydney as the capital city it may increase the economic
income of Australia. Either choose Melbourne or Sydney will result in unfair
choice to another. Similar to China, Beijing is the capital city, it has been
considered as the oldest city like Melbourne with long history and culture.
Apart from it, Shanghai is the financial centre of China like Sydney. The argument
of shifting the capital city from Beijing to shanghai has been discussed many
times, the people who lives in Shanghai would more prefer their own city to be
the federal capital. So in this stage it is hard to balance the requirements of
the two great cities. Where Australia decide to choose Canberra as the capital
city can well balance the importance of both Melbourne and Sydney. Canberra is
a new city, it can be easily shaped and constructed. “The predominant flavour
was the need to aspire to a better urban environment than that offered by existing
cities” (Freestone, 1997). So Canberra is a good choice to be the federal
capital, especially it is in between of Melbourne and Sydney.
Figure 1
So
what should a capital city involved? “The federal capital should be a beautiful
city, occupying a commanding position, with extensive views, and embracing
distinctive features which will lend themselves to the evolution of a design
worthy of the object, not only for the present, but for all time.” (as cited in
Freestone, 1997). The requirement to form a capital city for Australia needs to
have special structure, such as fountains, constructive buildings or unusual
landmark which can impressed others. In my opinion, when someone mention a city
and we can easily figure out it is the capital city and know about the
significant feature of this place then the design of the capital city is
successful. A city like Melbourne describe by Luffmann as “no view point, no
internal spaces, no dignity, no power of revealing what we are or whence we
came, or the significance of our every day life” (as cited in Freestone, 1997).
The same as Sydney, “narrow streets, badly laid out” (as cited in Freestone,
1997) will not be suitable to be the federal capital. A capital city should be
a city that we are proud of, not shame about it. Apart from its physical view,
the transportation is also an important figure in planning a federal capital. A
well-organized transportation system can improve people’s life quality and
decrease the CO2 emission of using private vehicle so that to form a more
sustainable federal capital.
Figure 2
In some way federal capital should be
the famous city of one country. For example the capital city of England is
London where is well known by its history and landmarks when people talk about
England they will easily refer to London. Same as Paris, the capital of France,
Eiffel Tower is the significant feature of it. Why Canberra is being well plan
but is not as famous as Melbourne and Sydney, and less known overseas. Different
from England and France, when we talk about Australia, the first city come to
mind is either Melbourne or Sydney. It may relates to Canberra’s less history
or lack of significant landmark. Furthermore, the plan in Canberra is not as
good as other federal capital. Transportation will be considered as important
feature to attract more people to visit this place. But there is only one
public transportation in Canberra which is bus. Unlike Melbourne and Sydney, it
has train, tram and bus. The inconvenience of transport within different suburb
can make people concern of coming to this area. From the previous paragraph, it
said a federal capital needs to have individual landmark. Although Canberra has
been well planned, the landmark is not as significant. It is hard for people to
think of a famous structure or special place like the Great Wall in Beijing and
the Berlin wall in Berlin.
Figure 3
To
form a better and well known federal capital, it is necessary to improve the
transportation in order to attract more people. As Haefele as argued “while the
international design competition can be seen as a beginning for Canberra, it
was also a culmination…of thinking about the way Australia could create the
ideal city” (Haefele, 1995).
Reference:
Mark
Henry Haefele, “ideal visions of Canberra”, MA thesis, Australian National
University, 1995, p. 32
R.
Freestone. The federal capital of
Australia: A virtual planning history Canberra, Urban Research Program,
1997 pp.2-30
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