Retro-fitting for a Sustainable CBD

“What would the Melbourne CBD be like in 2030 if it was retro-fitted for sustainability? How would it operate and function? How would it be experienced?”

Addressing urban design issues and strategies at the urban scale as well as at site/precinct level, the charette will intend to generate/articulate projects that operationalise the concept of sustainability in Melbourne’s CBD. Dealing with “form” (as product) but also “operation” (processes and care) and “experience“(how do people live/work here and how they are involved in caring for the processes and places), this speculative process of proposing how and at what scale the urban system should function will emphasize on minimizing off-site impacts and footprints during. The type of components each charette group would deal with, at a conceptual master-planning level, could include: Retrofitting component parts/systems -- buildings, services and open spaces (including streets) Re-siting component parts -- buildings, services and open spaces (including streets) Removing and re-placing component parts -- infrastructure, buildings and other elements given issues of climate change and minimization of resource consumption. Internalising green infrastructure (productive open space and functioning ecosystems in the broadest sense – food, air, clean water) within the urban frame Movement and connectivity. Social agendas, activities, everyday life, cycles of care and civic/communal rituals/materiality.