Professor Alan Pert launches IBA Melbourne

On Friday 26 July Professor Alan Pert, Director of the Melbourne School of Design, launched IBA Melbourne as part of the Housing Futures Conference run by Architecture Media.

IBA Melbourne has been a four year dialogue with the Minister for Planning Richard Wynne MP, about the need for academia, practice and government to participate in the discussion on the future of the city, as well as the active shaping of it. Using internationally established formats such as IBA’s and Housing Expos, the team behind IBA Melbourne, led by the University of Melbourne, proposed a series of demonstration projects with the aim of effecting positive changes across the housing system. Importantly, IBA Melbourne proposes that the outcome of an IBA or Expo is more than just an exhibition where visitors only see buildings; IBA is a toolkit and a framework to change the face of urban development.

For more than one hundred years, the letters IBA have stood for Internationale Bauausstellung – or International Building Exhibition. Historically, all building exhibitions have been led by one common goal: to generate ideas on shaping the future of urban life, survival in this modern age, and to have an impact far beyond their immediate location and remit. It is within this context that IBA Melbourne arises. The team behind IBA Melbourne believe that demonstration projects can develop necessary conversations and consensus between key stakeholders in affordable housing through testing strategies and ideas relating to design, construction, land capture, and financing. Melbourne’s shortage of affordable housing has reached chronic levels for both renters and first-time owner-occupiers. With a widening gap between housing costs and household income in our cities, the lack of affordable housing is a growing problem for many Australian residents. The affordability crisis is further exacerbated by a lack of housing options in many regions and suburbs, and ongoing constraints on innovation in construction and financing as a result of policy and regulation barriers and settings.

The market alone is not meeting the need and it is the IBA Melbourne team's belief that working with all levels of government, as well as the private & not-for-profit sectors, can effect change and bring about a response to the crisis. Through the productive interaction of researchers and practitioners, investors and real estate owners, Melbourne can take advantage of the exceptional situation of an IBA in order to set a new course for the future.

The IBA Melbourne webpage will be available for public visitation in the coming weeks.

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Melbourne photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash
Apartment Building photo by Andrea Ang on Unsplash