'Parklife'
The E-gate Urban Plan is an urban model for the E-gate brownfield site between Melbourne’s Docklands and West Melbourne. The proposal was based on an analysis and response to the failings of the neighbouring Docklands development. A high resolution PDF planning guide for this proposal can be viewed and downloaded HERE.
The proposal aims to shift the social emphasis towards lower income families with children, and the physical emphasis towards medium rise, finer grain with an emphasis on green open space. This is compared with the dominant Docklands model of tower, podium and wide streets.
The proposal is planned to accommodate over 7,500 people at high density, with ten hectares of parkland and sports facilities as well as a public school and public swimming pool. The key move is to set out all blocks with small building lots and large courtyard parks. All residential plots have both a street front as well as direct access to this green space. The narrower streets and internal courtyard configuration shelter public spaces from the wind and the smaller plot sizes create the potential for more diverse design of the streetscapes.
The proposal was designed to be developed over a twenty year period. Whilst the entire twenty-two hectare site was developed at a masterplan level only the project's first stage, a five year development, was designed at detail to a 1:200 scale.
Designed as part of RMIT coursework, 2011
