National Capital Exhibition
Client: National Capital Authority, Canberra
Opened: September 2018
Situated at Regatta Point, with a brilliant view of Lake Burley Griffin, the permanent exhibition interprets the history and development of Canberra as Australia’s capital.
After two years in development, the new National Capital Exhibition opened on 21 September 2018. Toni Roberts worked with exhibition designer Chris Mether of Studio Mether and graphic designer Bianca Tweed of Studio Tweed. Toni undertook research, interpretation strategy, content development and writing of the exhibition text.
As well as providing functional improvements such as accessibility and acoustics, the new exhibition offers a more holistic, coherent visitor experience through spatial redesign, a rich palette of materials and a consistent approach to text. The text panels offers summary sentence in place of a normal heading, so that a quick visitor (often known as skimmers or streakers) can understand the gist of the exhibition at a glance.
The exhibition interprets the diverse contributions to the development of the capital, including indigenous culture, migrants and women (most notably Marion Mahoney Griffin, who worked with Walter Burley Griffin on the winning design but wasn’t credited in their competition entry). It makes use of digital animation, digital interactives, and an augmented reality experience in the foyer. The new exhibition also interprets the view to the National Triangle and other sites of national significance through interactive touch screens.
This multi-million dollar project was commissioned by the National Capital Authority. The exhibition is open all year round and has over 150,000 visitors annually.