Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00148:reg:2017:p12
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00148
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2017 (pt 12/81)
Character Range: 71693–74471

Library building.[48]  Stone liked his buildings to stand as isolated objects in open space, a requirement for the National Library, and he used luxurious materials on often box-like buildings.[49]  Walter Bunning's own trip to Greece and the Parthenon was another major influence in the design, Bunning being inspired by the classical icon.

The Library was designed to replicate the geometric rhythm of the Parthenon, but when finally built had one fewer row of columns.  This was a result of NCDC cost-cutting.  Initially intending to build one of Bunning's smaller side wings as the first National Library building, it was found that this would be too small for current needs (as both library and institutional monument), so the central large building was to be built instead.  However, funds would not stretch to the extent needed, so in April 1962 the decision was made to leave the lower ground floors largely unfinished, to extend the construction timeframe by two years, and to remove one bay of the building, with its columns, from the design.[50]

Bunning also felt that his design was in harmony with Griffin's 1912 plan, in which buildings are drawn in a classical mode.  Bunning had supported maintaining the integrity of Griffin's plan at the 1955 Senate Inquiry (the McCallum Report).  He felt, also, that the design in what he called the 'Contemporary Classical' style, reflected the spirit of early colonial architecture.[51]

The National Library building comprised two main elements:  a bookstack in a two-level podium to house 2.5 million books in a windowless and airconditoning-efficient way, and which could be expanded to take 11 million books;  and a three-storey building centred on the podium, with the public and staff spaces with sizeable windows and fine views of Lake Burley Griffin, to which parallel side wings could be added in the future.[52]  The depth of the podium was restricted by the threat of water ingress—the level of Lower Ground 2 is generally on RL 1836, 300 mms above the 80-year flood level adopted by the NCDC.[53]

Walter Bunning himself stated that the design requirements for the National Library of Australia required the building to 'look well' when seen from all sides:

    'The possibility of an unusual form of design did not arise because the programme called for a building which is generally without large internal spaces requiring dynamic special treatment.  The scale of the internal spaces is generally more akin to those of an office building although room disposition, particularly of the ground floor, resulted in a plan shape which is a great deal wider than the modern standard office building.'[54]

The building was based on, but did not adhere in detail to, Greco-Roman architecture, and, in the words of