National Emergency Services Memorial
In 2003, ASPECT Studios won the national design competition for a new civilian memorial to the Emergency Services personnel of Australia. The memorial celebrates and honours the people of Australia who prepare for, prevent, and protect people from natural disasters, many of whom are volunteers.
Two approaches were combined in the design of the memorial. Firstly, the design team sought to create a memorial that emphasises spatial experience rather than following the traditional approach to memorial design, which is to rely on the visual and the vertical. Secondly, ASPECT sought to create a dialogue between the memorial and its context – Canberra's parkland, architectural heritage and surrounding landscape.
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- Client National Emergency Service Personnel Steering Committee & National Capital Authority
- Location Canberra, Australia
- TRADITIONAL OWNERS & ONGOING CUSTODIANS OF THE LAND Ngunnawal Country
- Year 2004
In the subsequent extensive design and fabrication process for the memorial, ASPECT Studios developed techniques never before used in Australia to allow a remarkable level of detail and scale in the final construction. The final construction is of precast concrete, polished and routed to present a complex and finely drawn frieze of figures in a fractured landscape.
Situated on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, the memorial is grounded in the greater landscape, the paleness of its concrete echoing that of the major government buildings that surround the lake, and its silhouette following the line of distant hills.
- TEAM Charles Anderson, DCG Design, SA Precast, MB Lighting Design
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AWARDS
2016 CCAA Public Domain Awards - Best Overall Project and winner in the Public Art category
2014 Year of the Built Environment Exemplar
2014 AILA VIC Awards - Merit Award for Design in Landscape Architecture - PHOTOGRAPHY Ben Wrigley
