Molonglo

Unlike other cities, built around an organically evolving settlement, colonial Canberra is a manufactured city, planned and built at a time when the idea of a Utopia was still possible. It’s a place where the dry bush plays a significant role. Its buildings and infrastructure are surrounded by unspoiled hills and bushland.

Molonglo worked with Broached Commissions, a narrative and research-driven furniture and object design studio, to create bespoke furniture collections for Hotel Hotel and Molonglo’s headquarters that respond to the peculiarities of Canberra and the work the city’s designers Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin.

For the hotel, Broached Commissions used a historical essay on Canberra written by John McPhee, curator of Decorative Arts & Design at the National Gallery of Australia from 1980 – 1992, as a catalyst for their creations. Adam Goodrum created a concrete bench and a series of banquet tables. Charles Wilson created two heavy sofas made of bronze. Lucy McCrae created a large mirror with angular forms for the hotel reception. As a collection, the pieces are a tribute to Griffins’ love for the rigour of geometry and their tendency to make decoration an integral part of their architecture.

For the Molonglo head office, the Canberra narrative was layered with a story of migration. It speaks to the Greek heritage of Molonglo and the rituals that move from place to place as people do. Trent Jansen created a glass ‘Diaspora’ light that draws on ideas of cultural migration and the memories of a place and culture that no longer really exists; and a ‘Nicea’ meeting table and chairs that speaks of Molonglo’s history and the importance of legacy. Adam Goodrum created a board room table with ten-heavy set chairs that references the importance of plurality through the combination of different types of wood. Seven-metre long, leather-clad behemoth workstations and glass cobbler lights also formed part of the collection.