Day three brought us back to the local context with a presentation by Rob Adams on the approach to city planning taken by the city of Melbourne. This was followed by tours of the local diverse urban context including: Docklands (Brownfield); Footscray (Central Activity District); Brunswick (Greyfields) and Carlton (People and Place).
I toured the ‘Greyfields’ area of Brunswick where the conversion from clay pits, brick factories and light industrial buildings into medium density housing has been a main feature of the last 10-20 years. In addition the strip shopping in Sydney Road has seen an emergence in new and trendy shopping, followed by the development of residential apartments of 3-10 storeys high on the main tramline as per the approach outlined by the City of Melbourne. However ten storeys directly onto Sydney Road is very intrusive. The highlight was Westwyk ecovillage, a small community around an old school site containing adaptive reuse of the heritage building with new townhouses. A hidden gem.
I found the conference imbued a mixed emotive response from hope to depression, excitement to dismay. There is much to be done by not only professionals who understand our communities potential to evolve and improve, but by all of the community.
I am left with the quotation used by Chris Brown in the TEDTalk, attributed to Edmund Burke 1729-1797.
‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing’...
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