The ACT Heritage Council has registered the Red Hill historic plantings, two areas of red flowered plants at the top of Red Hill, as a heritage site.
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The plantings are of crimson bottlebrush, rosemary grevillea and Swainsona galeifolia.
A home in Deakin has also been listed.
Walter Burley Griffin, the architect who designed Canberra, originally envisioned "painting" the hills surrounding the city with different coloured flowering plants. The once-bare Red Hill is the only remnant of this plan more than a century later.
Chairman of the ACT Heritage Council David Flannery said, “It was Griffin’s vision as part of his winning competition entry to "paint" the hill red with coloured plantings.” Its listing was a homage to this plan.
The three types of surviving red flowering plants will now be cared for and maintained under heritage status to preserve the evidence of Griffin's vision.
The site is also one of the earliest known plantings in Australia made for the purpose of landscape restoration. It is described by the Heritage Council as a “unique response to environment, conservation and city design challenges” by the then officer in Charge of Afforestation, Thomas Charles George Weston, under instructions from Griffin.
The colouring of the landscape in this manner was originally an aboriginal practice.
The two sites are at the top of Red Hill when the steep road levels out and near the carousel. The two patches cover 4.2 hectares.
Mr Flannery said people could walk through the area, with the best view of the plantings being down the north-facing slope adjacent to the restaurant and cafe. A gravel path through the plantings leads up from Mugga Way.
The other new listing, 11 Northcote Crescent in Deakin, is a detached residential building designed by Harry Seidler, one of the country’s leading modernist architects in 1951.
The property has been listed because it “effectively demonstrates the characteristics” of the post-war international style of architecture.
The house has been cited by Seidler himself as an “outstanding example of Bauhas”, a modern German movement, and as one of his favourite and most important designs.
The Heritage Council says sun control is a key component of the Bauhaus design. The home's bedroom windows are southeast facing to make the most of early morning rays and the living area faces northwest, with the roofed terrace designed to protect from summer heat but benefit from the winter sun.
The terrace sliding doors were constructed using the largest sized sheet of glass available at the time.
Mr Flannery said now that the home was registered, if a development application was submitted by the owner the Heritage Council would be approached for advice.
"The council recognises that change is often required to ensure heritage homes provide a comfortable and contemporary living standard," he said.
Allhomes data indicates the 2472-square-metre property last sold in 2010 for $1.75 million.
