Canberra City Plan, Canberra, Australia, Plan

In 1912 Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin won one of the largest international competitions in modern history to design a new capital city for Australia at Canberra. Their entry intertwined the natural features of the site—three mountains and a river turned into a man-made lake—and axial Beaux-Arts–inspired plans. The design was intended to avoid the indifferent sprawl of the gridded industrial city for one anchored by views of landmarks and future monuments, while celebrating the democratic character of the new capital. As a new urban space created out of nothing, Walter Burley believed that their design was a model for the city and country of the future.