With total prizes in excess of AUD$100,000, the CAPITheticAL competition asks the world‘s best designers, architects, artists and thinkers to imagine what an Australian capital city “might” look like if created today.
Officially launched at Canberra‘s Tesltra Tower on Black Mountain by Competition Ambassador His Excellency Michael Bryce AM AE - a renowned Australian architect and designer - CAPITheticAL is designed to provoke new thinking about the nature of national capitals and planned cities internationally. Entrants are being asked to consider current global challenges such as climate change and urban density, while celebrating the past, present and future of Canberra.
The CAPITheticAL competition is part of the Cenetary of Canberra celebrations. It comes 100 years after the original call for design entries for a capital city for the newly federated Australian nation, which resulted in the establishment of Canberra, designed by competition winners, American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. In 1911, in stark contrast to this ?online‘ competition, prospective entrants from around the world were sent via ship a metre long wooden box containing competition guidelines and all items which might be needed to design the nation‘s capital. Attendees of the competition launch witnessed the opening of one of the original 725 boxes, which were sent to the 1911 competition entrants.
More information on the competition box is available at
www.canberra100.com.au.
Stage one competition entries are due on 31 January 2012.
Entrants and interested parties can register for the competition at:
www.capithetical.com.au
