The Dream of a Century: the Griffins in Australia’s Capital

The free exhibition Dream of a Century: the Griffins in Australia’s Capital  is at the National Library of Australia in Canberra until 10 June 2013. This has original works by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony, tracing their work leading up to the winning of the design competition for the plan of the city of Canberra and afterwards in Australia and India. Most striking are the architectural renderings on silk. Also the furniture and stained glass windows designed by Walter Burley Griffin, including Griffin's drafting table, is a must see for Griffin enthusiasts. Last week was the centenary of Canberra and this is one of a number of displays on to commemorate the event. The display of other entries for the design of Canberra, as well as more of Walter  and Marion 's work is on display at the nearby Archives Australia office in "Design 29 and the making of Australia’s national capital". The NLA display does not suffer from some of the problems of the Archives: the captions on each work are easy to read (a book of large captions is also available) and there are no augmented reality gimmicks. However, the low light level need to preserve the delicate works makes the architectural renderings very hard to see. The Library might have provided reproductions of the works alongside to show them as they would have been originally