- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Brett Boardman
Text description provided by the architects. In 2011 lahznimmo architects won an invited competition for the design of a new pedestrian and cyclist crossing in Bowen Place, Canberra.
Within the context of the Parliamentary Zone and the associated important heritage items, the design looks to provide a simple and elegant response. It does not seek to detract from, or compete with the existing items within the environs - enhancing existing geometries, landscape and place making opportunities.
The design response is fundamentally landscape driven - the new underpass is part of a continuous path that slices through the terrain on a trajectory that speaks to the existing geometries of the Bowen Place cloverleaf freeway and the views to the National Carillon. The new insertion is deliberately minimal to allow the landscape setting to take precedence.
The path is contained by two wall types, the Deferential Wall – a taut smooth off-white pre-cast concrete that deliberately defers to the existing palette of materials and tones within the Parliamentary Zone; and the Assertive Wall – composed of a deeply profiled weathering steel that naturally ages to a rusty ochre appearance and appears to be wrinkled and compressed as it follows the tighter inside line of the path.
