Melbourne considers the future potential of high-rise parking areas as urban farms

2023-08-17T12:17:00-04:00

Urban farms and communal spaces are among the ideas for repurposing car park floors in Melbourne’s skyscrapers in the future, when it is predicted that residents will rely more on driverless and shared electric cars. The architects of Melbourne’s tallest building, Australia 108, have created designs envisioning the transformation of the building’s 10 levels of car parking into space for a vertical farm, beehives, water collection and storage, pet care, podcast studios, co-working and education.

Downtown Melbourne's potential future scenario of widely-available self-driving cars has developers rethinking millions of square feet worth of parking garages, and vertical farms are seen as a solution (along with housing, retail, and dining options). An amendment to its planning rules that would require new parking structure designs to include their retrofitting consideration has been proposed that would add an extra layer to the pedestrian-friendly ambit that mirrors policies in Oslo, Barcelona, and other global cities.

According to The Age, a 2019 City Council survey suggests an overwhelming majority (95%) of Melbourne residents support the idea of reducing vehicle traffic in Southbank by 2030.

Malaysia's Merdeka 118 tower, the world's second-tallest building, tops out

2021-12-02T15:03:00-05:00

Malaysia on Tuesday completed the tower spire of the building that’s set to become the world’s second-tallest skyscraper. The Merdeka 118 will reach a height of 678.9 meters when completed in 2022, the tallest structure after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The project will be an economic catalyst for the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said at a ceremony.

The new imposing tower in central Kuala Lumpur was designed by Australian firm Fender Katsalidis Architects.

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Melbourne considers the future potential of high-rise parking areas as urban farms

Malaysia's Merdeka 118 tower, the world's second-tallest building, tops out