A Capital Adventure

When Enrico Taglietti arrived in 50s Canberra, the “invisible city” was a blank canvas ripe for the sweeping hand of this modernist visionary.

Karen Mccartney

A LITTLE KNOWN FACT about Canberra-based, Italian-born architect Enrico Taglietti, now aged 92, is that he is so passionate about Laphroaig scotch whiskey that he bought a lifetime lease on a square foot of Islay distillery in Scotland. He has the certificate to prove it.

At a Taglietti symposium, held as part of the recent Design Canberra Festival, the architect made it clear that one of the definitions of the word symposium was ‘a drinking party or convivial discussion, especially as held in ancient Greece after a banquet’. He remains as sharp as a tack and in his onstage dialogue with Italian architect and friend Gianmatteo Romegialli he is forthright in his views on the development of Canberra. He believes in the necessity of keeping additional development clear from the lake’s foreshore – preferring it be maintained as public access space. His preoccupation with Canberra has always been central to his architectural ethos right from his first sighting of it in 1955.