MELBOURNE PARKLANES

shortlisted entry for a landscape ideas competition

in collaboration with Chua Hong Zhi
2019, MELBOURNE FUTURE PARK DESIGN IDEAS COMPETITION

Our proposal stems from questioning what is a park for; and how does it sit in the context of Melbourne. The public park, with its English origins of recreating the idealised and internalised natural environment alongside the development of a city. We have come to understand that the development of our cities meant the destruction of our natural environment, intensified particularly by the growing population of the city. But is there another way? Both Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller calls for removal of this distinction between the built and the natural environment.

The exercise of mapping the existing green spaces in the city; including the colonial parks, green reserve areas and leisure open spaces. we saw an opportunity to connect these open spaces. Rather than a single park we proposed to connect all the parks with the intention of reintroducing natural ecosystem and wildlife back into the city. The waterways, flowing from the extinct volcanic ranges is one such opportunity and we propose various linkages such as wildlife bridges, green lanes and sky canopy to ensure safe traverse of wildlife through the city.

We anticipate the laneways inherent in the Hoddle grid to be the dominant drop-off lanes in the advent of self-driving vehicles – freeing up roads and carparks to be possible open space to be claimed back as urban parklanes. Such continuous green corridor allows wildlife to traverse from natural ecosystem through the city whilst also providing landscaped parks and gardens for leisure and enjoyment. We look towards the future of the city of Melbourne, where the distinction between the natural and the built is blurred; hopefully one day we can live side by side with wildlife kangaroos in the city.