Paul Stallan Studio’s response to the competition brief for the Federal National Council’s New Parliament Building Complex was to promote a monumental Islamic architecture that had both gravitas and iconic potential. A huge cubic form was proposed that held within it a major assembly space suspended within an enormous courtyard. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Externally, the architecture was layered to create an environmental buffer protecting internal activities. The proposal imagined that the architecture could at times appear solid and at other times appear permeable. The simple architectural expression belied a complex subterranean architecture of sunken gardens and ornamental water.
A massive reflecting pool was also proposed in the major public space. The studio research had determined that nearly every iconic political landscape across the world from Washington to Canberra incorporated sculptural water. The Paul Stallan Studio was interested in a culturally timeless architecture that worked on a city scale and at the level of the crafted detail.
