Project: New Melbourne - A Tale of Three Cities
Supervisor: Lindsay Holland
Team member: Xiangyu Guo and Serena Nguyen

Urban speculations focusing on the future of Melbourne's inner west -e-Gate, the existing docks, Fishermans Bend and the areas immediately to the west of the Yarra, could be regarded as something of a litmus test of the capacity for Melbourne's political, economic and planning culture to imagine real urban innovation appropriate to the twenty-first century.

To date, proposals for future urban growth in these areas appear at best reactive, if not expedient.

Ideas seem limited to responses to, and extrapolation of, existing trends and pressures often originating from narrowly focussed vested interest stakeholders singularly pre-occupied with one-dimensional concerns and biased towards transport logistics and speculative development.

Urban design is perceived as incremental, interstitial and pragmatic, if not simply remedial, and reactionary.

It is urbanism that is object-fixated and seldom explores any concerns for truly urban, much less and sustainable systems.

Proposals are devoid of any 'visionary' intentions or aspirations and make little or no claim to place a future Melbourne in any like a global context demonstrably informed by the wealth of contemporary thinking on future urban possibilities.