Lake Burley Griffin

As a country surrounded by Ocean, we could treat Australia as a country full of sea. Most of cities have seas pass through. However, Canberra, as a inland city, has an artificial lake instead. 

(source:greataustralia, 2014)

 The artificial lake is called Lake Burley Griffin, named after Walter Burley Griffin, an American Architect, who had won the competition to design this city. Mr Griffin has adopted several geometric methods to design the lake. Therefore, the axes of the lake is lined up with city natural landmark to form the artificial lake.

The Lake Burley Griffin is located at geographic centre of city, also it is the centerpiece of the capital.  The whole surface area of the lake is 6.64 square kilometres, with maximum length 11km and 1.2 km maximum width. The average depth of Lake Burley Griffin is 4 meters. Besides, there are two accessible islands within the lake, one is located at West Basin, the other one is located at Central Basin. 

Lake Burley Griffin is a main part of the city, since there are numerous national public places near here. If the area only has buildings, it looks very boring and spiritless. Thanks for the lake, central area of Canberra could look peaceful and balanced. 

 

In my opinion, Lake Burley Griffin is not only the landmark of the city. It has become the recreation place with surrounding parklands for local people to  relax and do sports:

(source:greataustralia,2014)

The lake is a busy place for residents to do some activities, such as rowing, sailing, windsurfing, canoeing, fishing, etc. 

People also can have picnics, take a breath, go swimming, and walking tracks at surrounding parks. At the same time, relative services (e.g. hire boat and bike, lake cruises, ferry services, etc.) appear at here to offer convenience for people. 

(source:greataustralia, 2014)

Therefore, I think Lake Burley Griffin is a good tourist point in Canberra, the artificial design is the result of critical thinking for both aesthetics and  practicability. The urban design should consider accessibility and open space for the whole city. That is why I believe Mr Griffin is a good urban designer at least for Canberra.