A prominent hill transformed into an electric transport hub and iconic connector for the city. A First Nations-inspired amphitheatre revealed within the lake. Pop-up platforms attached to existing structures, with open-air social spaces, parks and paths below. Buildings adapted and extended for more housing, commercial and public space.
These are the signature concepts from our annual Architectus Design Charrette, a boundary-pushing event that asks designers from different disciplines, locations, and experience levels to take on a unique design challenge facing Australia’s cities.
Together, we look at what makes a city tick before proposing innovative ways to inject new energy and vitality into key destinations, fostering commerce, culture, and community in the process.
This year, our Charrette went on the road to Canberra, where Architectus set up a studio this year. Our 2024 event was also the first time we had a specialist team focused on AI and automation to amplify our design approaches.
Exploring new possibilities for Canberra’s civic heart
Informed by the city’s original planning and heritage foundations, we focused on ‘Finding Canberra’s Centre’.
Six teams from across Australia explored the scale, form, and origins of Canberra to see how we could increase activity, night life, economic diversity and liveability, focusing on the City West End precinct alongside First Nations narratives of Country.
Through this exploration, we wanted to better understand and expand on Canberra’s unique flavour and strengths, including its capacity for urban green space and its strong building character. We then proposed strategic interventions to retrofit or rebuild while also strengthening public infrastructure. The ideas cut across almost every aspect of city life, from public and commercial space to housing and transport.
Our Charrette 16 concepts are a symbiotic mix of high-impact, long-term design moves and small, sometimes temporal interventions, like ‘urban acupuncture’, explains Alex Lawlor, who convened the Charrette and leads our new Canberra Studio.
Our ultimate goal: to elevate the way people experience space and place in the nation’s capital and stimulate conversation about our city.
A landmark connector to ‘Re-centre the City’
Responding to the car-centric nature of Canberra, our teams have imagined the iconic City Hill as a hub for vital transport infrastructure and a striking visual marker – a ‘grand central station’ for Canberra.
A low dome echoing the City Hill profile and punctuated by openings for trees and other greenery, ‘Canberra Central Station’ becomes an important connector for locals and visitors alike. It serves as a hub for light rail and active transport modes, conceals an underground car park, and creates more walkable space.
Our concept also honours Walter Burley Griffin’s original planning for the capital city. The site was once viewed as a civic destination, for a potential City Hall or transport hub like New York’s Grand Central Station, or London’s St Pancras.
The place we’ve created is a station hall with a difference – a high-impact, sustainable structure for a city boldly embracing the future.
Made from rammed earth – with soil salvaged from construction – and powered by solar, it’s an innovative solution with a low-carbon footprint.
‘City Hill’ has multiple benefits. It removes cars from city streets, encourages active transport, helps locals and visitors orient themselves, and creates a new transport hub for Canberrans.
“We see ‘City Hill’ as a place where journeys begin,” says Alex.
“From this central point, you can get wherever you need to go,” she adds. “No longer a barrier or obstacle to get around like it is today, the hill becomes a destination in its own right – a place that fulfils a need and adds value to the city.”
Scale + impact of this design move:
12000m2 Gross Floor Area (GFA) transport hall
1000m2, 4 tram capacity light rail station
25000m2 underground parking, removing cars from surrounding streets
27000m2 green and open space
A restored riverbed to ‘Re-connect with Country’
Named after the architect of the city, Lake Burley Griffin looms large in Canberra. But it also represents significant interference with the natural landscape First Nations peoples lived on and looked after for thousands of years.
The lake was completed in 1963 after the damming of the Molonglo River, running between the city centre and Parliamentary Triangle. The event led to the loss of many sacred sites – something our First Nations collaborators shared with our teams during the Canberra Charrette.
To redress this, our designers came up with a unique concept for a First Nations-inspired space carved out of the lake.
The restored riverbed holds space for a new amphitheatre with terraced seating for performances and other events, as well as new native plantings and pathways.
Scale + impact of this design move:
17700m2 amphitheatre for a range of events
16300m2 public green space with a focus on native plants
New structures and social spaces to help ‘Re-activate the Streets’
In areas of the city dotted with buildings, our teams strategically introduced sustainable, lightweight timber structures (such as cross-laminated timber) to some existing architecture.
These pop-up platforms are “designed to draw people up and out, expanding public space – an approach that takes adaptive reuse to the next level,” says Alex.
Through this design move, we’re also aiming to adjust the hierarchy of movement through the area, making cars less dominant and pedestrians more prominent.
We’re adding more bike and walking paths, pocket parks, streetside dining and shopping, all surrounded by new native landscaping.
In addition, we’re better connecting the buildings, including by introducing new laneways.
“These introduced elements bring the buildings and streets to life, increasing the diversity and vibrancy of activity in the area,” notes Alex.
Scale + impact of this design move:
7600m2 green space
2800m2 civic space
9300m2 Gross Floor Area (GFA) student housing by repurposing an empty office building
4400m2 GFA research, education and innovation hub by repurposing an empty office building
Design moves to add density and ‘Re-vitalise the West End’
Zooming into individual site opportunities in the City West End precinct, our teams explored ways to add density by augmenting existing buildings – including to boost residential options and create spaces suited to start-up businesses.
Our concept adds additional levels using lightweight timber construction, creating more room to incorporate housing and green spaces.
Those new elements include rooftop gardens that will reduce the urban heat island effect.
We also revitalised existing offices and carved out new space for retail or other local businesses to spark productivity and vitality.
Scale + impact of this design move:
32200m2 GFA residential space
14000m2 GFA commercial + retail area
80600m2 public domain, including landscaped rooftops
Architectus CEO Ray Brown says Canberra was a natural fit for this year’s Charrette.
“The city has unique layers of heritage, master planning, planning controls and development criteria that make for exciting opportunities – for the design-driven, sustainable, human-centric spaces we embrace at Architectus,” he adds.
“The Charrette 16 concepts demonstrate how creative, future-focused thinking can make a tangible, lasting impact on the vitality and resilience of this distinctive capital city.”
Our practice would like to extend our thanks to this year’s Charrette speakers and collaborators:
– Acor Consultants as engineering partners
– Petr Adamek, CEO, Canberra Innovation Network
– Maeve Powell, Research Associate at the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University
– Lucy Irvine, Artist & Head of Textiles at the School of Art & Design, The Australian National University
– Mary Mudford, Ngunnawal Traditional Custodian
