Xinzhuo Tian

Neglected Green "Investor" - A self-funded recycling park 

Coronavirus not only destroys health but also economics and daily life. It plunged Melbourne into the worst economic crisis since the great depression. Government is trying to revitalise economies and enhance public health services urgently. Taxes collected from housing and commercial development are decreasing and they can not be used to satisfy citizen’s strong desire for more parks and open space construction triggered by long-time lockdown. Melbourne people are custom to wear masks every day and get used to disposable things for safety concern. PPE from hospitals and quarantine hotel has amplified the overuse of plastics as well.

All these changes provide the possibility to repurpose a self-funding recycling park in Coode Island, an industrial man-made island in West Melbourne, with a funding system to recycle the covid’s waste, provide job opportunities, revitalize economics and satisfy people’s desire for broader outdoor green space. This system also recycles the island itself to balance the restoration and renovation of a post-industrial land and speculates the forms and construction of future open space in Melbourne context.