Canberra’s New Acton: green spaces in the city..

The Palace Theatre, in New Acton is our favourite place to go the movies in Canberra..

New Acton is a precinct in the city that has apartment blocks, a hotel, restaurants, bars, cafe, a cinema and an art gallery all fitted around the historic former Hotel Acton.

The movie theatre is in the Nishi building,  which won the International Project of the Year in 2015 Building Awards.

The building is multi-purpose with apartments, offices and a hotel and restaurants. The apartments have an energy rating  of 8 stars with the use of solar power..

In between these old and new buildings are a range of gardens, designed by landscape architects Oculus.

A dwarf Eucalyptus leucoxylon, (possibly)  soft grey westringia, and New Zealand flax.
Westringia and the weeping wattles (Acacia cognata) and a Japanese Maple.

On a quiet autumn morning this soft green garden is a best kept secret.  Nearby office workers come for coffee, others come for tea and cake, a pizza for lunch or just a snack before the movies.

Car free zones are always welcome in the city. These spaces are sometimes used for social events and markets..

Apartments are looking over community gardens  and  sculptures..

Saltimanque by Tim Kyle

A very cute little bookshop beneath a rather scary sculpture..

and back to the Nishi building where we go to the movies…this is the striking hotel entrance and staircase.

the window looks out onto the gardens…both the stairs and the window are favourite subjects for Instagrammers from Canberra.

and as we leave the movies we pass two street paintings done by the nearby University students ..

When in Canberra you are never very far away from Cockatoos, and there are plenty of real ones in the nearby University grounds..

Landscape Australia article on New Acton says: ”We believe in the power of architecture to improve our lives.”

New Acton has the friendly charm and a village feel to it, and I think it is absolutely right that architecture can improve our lives…..do you?

I hope you are enjoying your home town where ever you are in the world, and that you have some green spaces around you.

Copyright Geraldine Mackey :All Rights Reserved.