The City of Hume is a rapidly developing centre north of Melbourne, caught up in many of the problems of burgeoning suburban sprawl, population growth, climate change, stressed infrastructure and impending broad-brush state planning initiatives.
The Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab, VEIL, has been involved in an ongoing process of consultation, workshops and design events with Hume City Council. This work has involved Hume stakeholders such as council and local government, along with design students and academics.
Visions of a transformed future for 2032 can build desirable, optimistic expectations, but sites of intervention have to be found today, that can shift the dynamics of development and release new community energy for change. VEIL, along with the Council, has identified a number of key potential ‘Eco-Acupuncture‘ points within the Broadmeadows/Central Activities District area. VEIL is exploring and visualising a series of distributed and connected experimental visions for the future development of the region.
Broadmeadows 2032 showcases a series of design projects from Melbourne University, RMIT, Monash University and Swinburne University in the fields of architecture, landscape design, industrial design, communication design and service design. These ideas will be further developed and carried forward by Hume City Council in new and emerging strategic planning. In August 2010, the publication “Vision: Broadmeadows 2032” was launched as part of an exhibition in the foyer of Sustainability Victoria – it’s available for download here on the website.
Design Studios
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Adventures in IxD
The studio was framed as ‘Adventures in interaction design’ with the directive: ‘Design for cultural change and exchange, communication and information’.
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Human Powered Vehicles
The site of Broadmeadows is suitable to SLOW transport (super low consumptive transport), such as cycling and walking.
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Mess(2): Everyday Babylon
In this studio we wanted architecture to engage with the everyday.
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NextGen Affordable Housing
Designing the Next Generation of affordable housing for Australia: the socio-cultural transformative capacity of architecture.
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Real Sites, Research, Communities
Real sites, real research, real communities, real concerns, real constraints, real approach, real results.
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Sustainability Think Tank
Students’ immersion in Hume and Broadmeadows led to strategies for resilience to climate change and peak oil that respond to particular community needs.
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Sustainable Sprawl
Towards the objectives of ‘urban sustainability’ – what are the alternatives to Urban Sprawl?
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Peri-Urban Lounge Room
A 2nd Year Industrial Design Studio envisaging a cohesive community which has a closer, visible, connection to energy and water use.
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Design Systems and Services
Identifying opportunities – points of intervention through innovative services and systems – that will bring about positive change in individuals, neighbourhoods and communities of Broadmeadows.