Australian War Memorial Masterplanning

Location
Canberra, Australia
Status
Completed
Client
AWM
Type
Civic & Cultural, Heritage & Adaptive Reuse, Urban Design & Master Planning

The treatment of this space is deceptively simple and precise. As with the rest of its AWM work, JPW merges architecture and landscape, detail and context, practical needs and abstract symbolism.

Nicole Porter
Landscape Architecture Australia
November 2010

Site Development Plan:

The Memorial has undergone significant change since opening in 1941, without diminishing its stature as one of Australia’s most important and revered institutions.

JPW was commissioned in 2001 to prepare a Site Development Plan (SDP) to guide future developments and for the Memorial to be able to progressively plan, fund and deliver a range of projects.

It is a comprehensive masterplan aimed at maintaining and enhancing this national monument in a long-term manner. JPW have been appointed to review this key document every five years, in 2006, 2011 and most recently in 2017.

Building Concept Masterplan:

With the completion of the First World War Galleries in 2016, the focus shifted to long term planning with JPW engaged to develop a Strategic Building Concept Masterplan.

The core purpose was to create a vision for the next 100 years with special consideration on key issues such as how best to accommodate the changing needs of the instutition while maintaining and enhancing the essential character.

The Memorial needs to manage increasing visitor numbers and changing demographics. Through detailed analysis, intensive and wide-ranging stakeholder consultation, JPW developed a Masterplan for the complex site which addressed a wide range of stakeholder interests.

Gallery Masterplan

The Gallery Masterplan completed in 2017 in collaboration with Freeman Ryan Design focused on the evolution of exhibitions and public programs at the Memorial over the next few decades. The Gallery Masterplan complements the Building Concept Masterplan completed the year before.

As audiences shift, new conflicts arise, and exhibition technologies evolve, the Memorial needs to be able to respond incrementally and in positive ways which is critical to the on-going success of the Memorial.

Visitors will be able to make personal and emotive connections with stories in unexpected and unplanned ways – when this happens the visitor experience is a deeply fulfilling one.

ANZAC Parade Lighting Plan

Although not directly related to the Australian War Memorial, JPW together with Barry Webb and Alec Tzannes were commissioned to upgrade the lighting of Anzac Parade, the major ceremonial axis of Griffin’s plan for the Capital.

The designs incorporate energy efficient luminaires that were specially designed for the project and which create an elegant image for the vista when viewed from Lake Burley Griffin or the Memorial.

JPW acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country and honours their continuing connection to lands, waters, skies and communities.

We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging – as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work; and the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation on whose land our Studio is located.