Federal Capital Commission - Federal Capital Architectural Style

Federal Capital Architectural Style

Federal Capital Commission architects designed houses in the new city and public buildings using a mixture of elements from the Arts and Crafts movement, Mediterranean and Georgian styles. The result is known as the FCC style and is unique to Canberra. FCC style houses can be found in the suburbs of Barton, Braddon, Forrest and Reid.

Sir John Sulman began the development of Federal Capital Architecture. Before emigrating to Australia in 1885, he had been a friend of William Morris and active in the Arts and Crafts movement. Other than Sulman's leadership, the influences on the architects employed by the Federal Capital Authority and Commission were reflecting the thinking after the peak of the nationalistic Australian Federation style and looking to America for inspiration and seeking to practically respond to the Australian climate.

By the time Canberra was being built, the popularity of the uniquely Australian Federation style architecture was waning. The architect William Hardy Wilson led the reaction against the ornateness of the Federation style and advocated adopting approaches from the United States. When Leslie Wilkinson arrived in Australia in 1918 to take up his position as the first Professor of Architecture at an Australian university, he reinforced Wilson's view and advocated building appropriately for the climate, suggesting the Spanish Mission style of architecture in California and Mexico as being an appropriate style for Australia. When Walter Burley Griffin arrived in 1913, there was interest in the Prairie Style of mid-western America with which Griffin was associated. The Classical revival style was popular in America, reflected in Beaux-Arts architecture. There was also interest in Classicism by English architects, including Edwin Lutyens, who was responsible for many of the public buildings in New Delhi built from 1912 to 1929 in the wake of the decision to replace Calcutta as the seat of the British Indian government.