Kevin McCloud has praised Canberra for showing the most potential of Australian cities in how it approaches an increase in density and population.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"The reason I say this is it's a garden city, it was laid out with space," he said.
"It hasn't been overdeveloped and it has potential."
McCloud spoke at the National Press Club on Monday afternoon and pointed to the Kingston Foreshore as being a good model for this.
"It's been very controversial because it's been built on the foreshore, which is considered an inalienable place to build because it's right next to the water," he said.
"But what is so interesting about it, it has resulted from the planning conditions around the opportunity here, it's an entirely different model.
"There is a mixture of typologies, houses and offices and workshops and the planning constraints have been relaxed to allow that mix.
"It's much more of what I recognise as a European model where you pack it all in and you get people to share resources, share public space and share amenity."
The Grand Designs host highlighted the foreshore's Kingsborough complex in his speech- a development with five buildings designed by four different architects.
McCloud had visited Kingston Foreshore, among a flurry of other Canberra sites, on Monday morning with the ACT chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects.
He visited houses by Roy Grounds and Robin Boyd, among other Canberra institutions such as the National Museum of Australia.
Prior to visiting Canberra, McCloud spoke about his fondness for the national capital.
McCloud visited Canberra as part of a tour but was also asked to deliver the Australian Institute of Architects' annual Griffin Lecture.
In his talk, he spoke about the the experience of architecture, and how people needed to encounter buildings as opposed to making a judgement on a visual.
"Architecture should be comfortable, not a visual," he said.
"Buildings are meant to be used, not things to be gawked at."