As a photomedia artist/researcher Canberra’s different functional urban areas have been investigated through a photobook series (www.stephaniep.com). In this talk two visual urban photobook studies from different design eras are compared looking at urban green space design. Urban Green-Fractal Aesthetics features the 1920s design era inner city suburb of Reid with significant urban forestry environment. Urban Citadel features images of the current ongoing high-rise residential redevelopment of Woden Town Centre in southern Canberra and is an example of the urban infill/density strategy at work with little complementary landscape green design. This appears to suggest a change in urban design philosophy from the original Griffin plan. In 1911 Walter and Marion Griffin won a competition to design Canberra, the Federal Capital of Australia. The Griffins incorporated the social reform ideals of the Garden City concept into residential suburban design and intended in his plan a residential grid pattern of tree-lined wide streets.The concerted development as a city in the 1960s began under the guidance of the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC). The NCDC with the Griffins original plan used as a guide, emphasised the integration between urban open green space and urban development. At ACT self-government in 1988, Canberra was given an extraordinary urban inheritance of the green streetscape. Current ACT planning & development emphasis appears to be on urban infill/density with considerably less stress on the complementary landscape and streetscape green design. Apart from the health, and climate change consequences, the pre-1988 Canberra Griffin plan vision is being overridden.
Stephanie Alexandria Parker is an Australian photomedia artist and researcher. She studied at the Australian National University and was awarded a PhD in Visual Arts in 2021.