Creating a 20-Minute City

As part of the Festival of Ideas, ABP ran a student competition calling for a video considering the idea of a 20-Minute City.

A 20-minute city suggests a compact local city based on our work, recreation and social lives played out only 20 minutes from home. Student submissions delved into what this meants for the design of communities, for the provision of systems on which we rely, and liveabiltiy for the future of our cities.

The winning team of Victor Wong, Ecknaathh Bala, Jessica Zhang, Kenneth Gho and Shervin Jaberzadeh from the University of Melbourne produced a video offering a vision of Melbourne at two scales; the neighbourhood with a focus on walking and cycling and a metropolitian area which considers other modes of commuting.

Victor, Ecknaathh, Jessica and Shervin are all students of architecture at the Melbourne School of Design (MSD) and Kenneth Gho is a Bachelor of Environments student. Their video demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of how the built environment impacts on society.

"What intrigued us about this competition was that it allowed us to draw on our everyday experiences of the city and bring our disparate ideas together to conceptualise a singular vision for Melbourne’s future urban development at a regional scale," Victor said.

Watch the winning video here.

A very close second prize was awarded to Veronica Ho, University of New South Wales and Will Hasko, University of Sydney for their submission, 2050 Beyond the Third Workplace. Veronica and Will had been considering the workplaces of the future as part of a student internship with NBRS+Partners and became interested in the idea of 20 minute 'nodes' as the ideal make up of cities.

"We looked at the difference between Separate Use Zoning and Form Based Zoning, and how a future of Activity Based Living could bring us back to 20-minute cities," Veronica said. "We believe that Activity Based Living promotes a greater level of adaptability within 20 minute neighbourhood nodes."

Watch 2050 Beyond the Third Workplace here.

The judging panel was led by Alan Pert, Director of Melbourne School of Design.

"Both 1st place and second place submissions capture the idea of the 20minute city in a graphically engaging way and the quality of both submissions is of a very high standard," Alan said. "The films have brought to life ideas that have been discussed by planners and politicians over recent years as the City of Melbourne considers a 30 year plan for sustainable urban growth. Both shortlisted films are great examples of the way in which policy documents could be transformed through film to communicate ideas that will shape the future of our towns and cities and ultimately impact on the communities in and around Melbourne."