There
are 24,000 granite slabs on the curved
walls which, placed end to end, would
stretch 46 kilometres. The building
required 300,000 cubic metres of concrete,
enough to build 25 Sydney Opera Houses
and has a design life of 200 years.
The building has 4,500 rooms. The
flag flown from the 81m flagpole is
12.8m by 6.4m, about the size of half
a tennis court. Although security
has been greatly tightened in recent
years, much of the building is open
to the public. New and Old Parliament
house, seen from the northeast across
Lake Burley GriffinThe building was
designed to "sit above"
Old Parliament House when seen from
a distance, but when the idea was
floated to demolish Old Parliament
House so that there would be an uninterrupted
vista from the New Parliament House
to Lake Burley Griffin and the Australian
War Memorial, there was an outcry
at this idea. The historic building
was preserved, and it now houses a
parliamentary museum and part of the
National Portrait Gallery.
The
original concept was for Parliament
House to be freely open to the public,
and the sweeping lawns leading up
to the entrances were intended to
symbolise this. Since the terrorist
attacks of recent years, however,
security at Parliament House has been
greatly tightened. One measure has
been the erection of crash barriers
blocking access to the lawns (a 4WD
was driven through the front doors
in 1992). The ugliness of these barriers
is widely regretted, and construction
of less obtrusive barriers was completed
in 2006. Parliament House is structured
into a main foyer leading into a Great
Hall, which features a tapestry based
on a painting by Arthur Boyd (also
situated in the building on display).
Functions that have parliamentary
and federal relevance often take place
here, but the Great Hall is also open
to functions for the general public,
such as weddings, and the nearby Australian
National University hosts graduation
ceremonies here also. Below the tapestry
of The Great Hall is a removable division,
which opens on to the Member's Hall,
with a water feature at its center.
Directly ahead of the Member's Hall
is the Ministerial Wing, housing the
office suites of the Prime Minister
and government ministers. Member's
Hall has access to the House of Representatives
and the Senate buildings to the left
and right of the main entrance to
the Halls respectively. Public access
to the visitors' galleries and the
Main Committee Room is via an upper
level reached by impressive staircases
ascending from the entrance foyer.
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