Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects, in association with landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlean (TCL), designed this visionary project.
Following the devastating fires of 2003, the government of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) held an international design competition for the development of a National Arboretum.
It was to be constructed on a 250ha site, on the western side of Lake Burley Griffin, just six kilometres from the centre of Canberra, ACT’s capital city.
The brief called for an Arboretum of international significance that would provide a botanical collection and associated buildings to suit educational, scientific, conservation, and research purposes.
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer’s design created a series of pavilions and event spaces that nestled into both the immediate and surrounding landscape, thereby defining a comfortable relationship between nature and culture.
Their approach envisaged an aesthetic space that was capable of catering for large gatherings of visitors and events, whilst showcasing the principles of ecology, biodiversity, and touching the earth lightly.
In 2013, marking the Centenary of Canberra, the National Arboretum, the Visitor Centre, and Margaret Whitlam Pavilion opened to the public.
The National Arboretum is currently a collection of over 44,000 rare and endangered trees growing in 94 forests. Each forest showcases a single iconic species that has been selected from a worldwide list of endangered trees, curated according to the colour of foliage, the pattern of bark and leaf, the filigree of branches, scent and texture, and suitability to the local micro-climate.
Simple formal geometry was established that responds to Walter Burley Griffin’s Water Axis and interacts with the landform on which it is laid.
Forest bands, each 250 metres wide, are defined by clearings that lead to the lake.
Traversing the site, the forests engage the visitor and then sequentially open to the views outwards, creating an immersive experience of colour, form, and texture as well as a repository of biodiversity.
The spaces also provide an opportunity for themed gardens, sponsored plantings, and temporary exhibits, performances, artworks, and garden designs.
The 1,400m long Central Valley forms a focal clearing at the centre of the site, with a sculpted series of terraces linked by a cascading stream and fully accessible path.
A carefully choreographed arrival sequence, through forests and the sculpted landforms of the Central Valley, climb to the Arboretum’s ‘heart’ – the arching canopy of the Village Centre and the dramatic focus of the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion, arranged along with the multi-use Events Terrace.
National Arboretum Village Centre
The Village Centre is the main point of arrival for the Arboretum and provides a full range of visitor facilities to complement its outdoor experiences. The Centre’s architecture develops the long-standing tradition of significant garden buildings as transparent enclosures with dramatic internal volumes and a strong sense of indoor-outdoor connection. Importantly, the strong presence of the building has provided a focus for the Arboretum while the trees are maturing: a place to watch the forests grow.
The exterior of the building is a sculptural form in the site’s rolling topography, contrasting low stone-clad wings with a high arching roof clad in weathered zinc, the form of which is inspired by the fronds of the adjoining forest of Chilean Wine Palms, and by the ribbing of many tree leaves. The interior subtly recalls the branched forms of mature trees.
Carefully sited below the ridgeline, the building forms a unified composition with TCL’s dramatic sculpting of the site’s Central Valley, the six-hectare Event Terrace, and the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion, acting as a counterpoint to the Village Centre.
From the car park, visitors enter the Arboretum through the Visitor Centre, passing through the dramatic Entry Cutting formed through the ridgeline knolls, planted with forests of white-flowering crepe myrtle.
The heart of the building is its main vaulted space, which flexibly accommodates a range of functions, including exhibitions, events, retail, a café, and programmed activities.
The National Bonsai and Penjing Centre occupies the courtyard of a former caretaker’s cottage, which has been enclosed to provide shade and security. A simple palette of natural materials highlights the qualities of the trees, and forms a background for the changing display.
The dramatic, low-energy timber structure was fully computer dimensioned, prefabricated in Tasmania, and efficiently erected on site. The choice of timber reduced embodied energy by nearly 90% compared to steelwork, and the stone walls have an equally low-energy profile.
Margaret Whitlam Pavilion: Function Centre at the National Arboretum
The structure of the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion is an innovative pre-fabricated arrangement of steel beams and insulating composite panels, clad externally in zinc, which matches the ribbed roof of the Village Centre to the north.
The Pavilion is located on the south-western tip of the U-shaped Events Terrace, looking across the grassed Amphitheatre to the Visitors Centre, out towards Central Valley and to the city of Canberra beyond.
Its axis aligns with the Captain Cook water jet, continuing Walter Burley Griffin’s structuring of the city by focal radiating axes.
The building is kept below the landscaped ridge to the west, making it subordinate to the landform, whilst its roof shape is a defined angle in contrast to the rolling topography of the site, and the low arch of the Visitor Centre.
The point of the roof provides an emphatic pause in the sweep of the Arboretum’s landscape in this precinct and is a dramatic statement when viewed from the main car entry adjoining Tuggeranong Parkway.
The building includes a main internal space suitable for functions of up to 120 people, including cocktail parties, weddings, dinners, music, and other performances and ceremonial events.
It opens eastward to an outdoor terrace that projects over the lip of the slope, and north and south to smaller linking terraces, each with fully-openable glass doors.
The eastern terrace captures a panorama of the city and its surrounding mountains, with the sweep of the lake and the Parliament flagpole as a focus.
Project Details
Completion date – 2013
Project Team
Architecture
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer has a special interest in public spaces, public buildings, and “edge” architecture, often providing buildings with roles and uses outside their traditional functions.
They see the crossover between art and architecture as a springing point for a design philosophy, which takes each project as a new challenge, without reliance on established precedents.
Constant reinvention of their architecture brings a surprising diversity to their completed projects, with an ongoing sense of exploration and discovery. Their work is consistently and thoughtfully grounded by appropriateness and sustainability.
The Tonkin Zulaikha Greer team responsible for the design and delivery of this project included Peter Tonkin, John Chesterman, Juliane Wolter, Tamarind Taylor, Wolfgang Ripberger, Trina Day, and Roger O’Sullivan.
Landscape Architecture
Taylor Cullity Lethlean
TCL is one of the world’s most highly acclaimed landscape architecture and urban design firms.
Over the past twenty-five years, TCL has delivered a wide range of projects across a variety of public and private settings, from urban waterfronts to desert walking trails.
Working both nationally and internationally, TCL undertakes a detailed exploration of context, site, and community, with a focus on the poetic expression of landscape and contemporary culture.
Quantity Surveyors
WT Partnership
WT Partnership is international cost management consultants, quantity surveyors, sustainability consultants, asset and building consultants, PPP advisors, and facilities managers.
Hydraulic and Civil Engineering
Cardno
Cardno is a global infrastructure, environmental, and social development company operating in more than 100 countries with 4,000 employees.
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering
Steenson Varming
Working in close cooperation with architects, engineers, scientists, and designers, Steenson Varming is a practitioner in mechanical and electrical engineering, lighting, and sustainable designs that enhance the spatial design.
Lighting
Bluebottle 3
Bluebottle is an integrated solutions provider, specializing in lighting. Working in the commercial and entertainment sectors, they offer services ranging from full turn-key solution packages to the supply of lighting and control equipment.
Facade Engineering
Surface Design Consulting
Surface Design Consulting focuses solely on the disciplines of Environmental Sustainable Design, Facade Engineering, and Materials Science.
Building Contractors
Benro Constructions and Hanson Yuncken
Photography
John Gollings
John Gollings has been the photographer of choice, the go-to guy for many Australian architects.
He is renowned for his ability to almost always compose the best shot, the one defining image that makes a building memorable, etches it into the psyche.
Photo Gallery
Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge.
Design © 2020 Tonkin Zulaikha Greer and Taylor Cullity Lethlean. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2020 Brett Boardman and John Gollings, All Rights Reserved.
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