PNG’s new Parliament House

like an open village

Papua New Guinea has adopted a design for its $8.5 million Parliament House to be built over three years. As sessors, who accepted the

prize-winning design from 14

entries, said the building would be of local timbers and would “reflect the concept of an open

Papua New Guinea village.”

The designer is Mr Bill Phillips, a senior architect with the Department of Public Works headquarters in Port Moresby. He wins an award of more than $8 000 for the de

sign.

The two placings in the com petition also went to Depart ment of Works architects, Mr Brian Catchpole, a senior ar chitect, who won the second prize of $6 000 and Mr Gregory

Forgan-Smith, the depart

ment’s area architect in Rabaul, who won the third

prize of S 3 500.

The competition was restric ted to architects working in PNG, but the limited develop ment of a home-grown archi tectural profession meant that most of the entries came from non-nationals.

Parliament meets in a con verted building which was once the Port Moresby General Hospital, near the centre of the oldest part of Port Moresby.

The new building will be at Waigani, the civic centre sub urb of Port Moresby which already contains the central government executive offices

and national buildings.

The winning design will use a laminated timber frame rather than steel or concrete, employing modern wood tech

nology and PNG-grown tim

bers. Timber will also be used for other structural com ponents, for the cladding, the

internal finishings and even in the retaining walls of the sur

rounding landscaping.

The panel of judges,

presided over by the Speaker of parliament, Mr Dibela, in cluded the Prime Minister, Mr Somare, and the then Oppo sition Leader, Sir Tei Abal.