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Melbourne Basin?

Mr. Kite
edited July 2009 in architecture
And hello to you all, members of Butterpaper.

I’ve been tracking your forums for some time (not obsessively) and I thought I’d take the plunge and actually submit a topic for discussion. So be gentle it’s my first time.

Having just returned from my own grand tour of Europe, I came home to a pile of architecture journals and magazines that had been accruing since my departure some 3 months ago. Somewhere in the pile was the Autumn 2009 edition of Architect Victoria which focussed on Melbourne’s Docklands precinct.

Attached for your consideration, you’ll find Keith Brewis’ article ‘Docklands Half-Time – Score 3-1, Developers in the Lead?’ In it, he mulls over the future of our city’s harbour, a highly contentious topic, and actually entertains the idea of creating ‘Melbourne Basin’. This basin would be created by extending Latrobe, Lonsdale and Bourke Streets around Etihad Stadium and into the harbour as a continuation of Mr. Hoddle’s 180 year old grid. But, rather than roads, the famous thoroughfares would turn into canals, effectively creating ‘a new and uniquely Australian take on Venice or Amsterdam’.

As a young Architecture student, but half way through my degree, I found myself to be totally energised by this proposal. I have always found the Docklands to be a fascinating place, and besides harbouring not-so-secret desires to dynamite the stadium and Wurundjeri way to start again, I’ve often wondered how one can ‘save’ the Docklands before it veers off into the land of lost opportunities.

So, have a read of the article, and let me know what you think. Do you believe there to be substance to Keith’s idea? Or is it just for shits and giggles? A fantasy? And if you do think it to be ill-conceived, how would you choose to save Docklands?

Your thoughts.

Comments

  • Mr. Kite
    edited November -1
    Page 1.
  • Mr. Kite
    edited November -1
    Page 2.
  • Mr. Kite
    edited November -1
    Aaand page 3.
  • peter
    edited November -1
    <p>Welcome Mr Kite. For those with dodgy eyesight (staring at screens too late at night), this issue is online here:</p>
    <p><a href="http://digital.crowtherblayne.com.au/default.aspx?xml=raia.xml">http://digital.crowtherblayne.com.au/default.aspx?xml=raia.xml</a></p>
  • hairdresser
    edited July 2009
    Too late for that. - its all been designed - by designers down there right.
    Don't Come Mondays want to book end the city and make a balance out of the windsock.
    Mr. Come says let it happen justine because its good design.

    design in mexico = do Hedgehog and Deluded Cave Hotel design lock stock and barrel 10 years after?

    An idea - improve the view from treasury and move the broken dockland ferris wheel onto the windsock hotel...leave it broken so its iconic.
  • peter
    edited September 2009
    <p>So now, after criticism that Docklands is soulless and sterile, something not helped by the Collins boulevard of banks, they've decided to plant trees in the next precinct, and plant expensive pied-à-terres next to them. 21st Century East Melbourne?</p>
    <p>http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,26020427-661,00.html</p>
    <p>http://www.theage.com.au/national/1-billion-suburb-park-to-help-breathe-life-into-docklands-20090902-f8fg.html</p>
    <p>I don't think it's a very attractive proposition for a well-heeled buyer, stuck at the end of a draughty and shaded esplanade and right under the noxious plumes of the Bolte freeway. Don't we already have suburbs that do this better?</p>
  • hairdresser
    edited September 2009
    was better as a beautiful ruin 20 years ago. it had potential and was full of spaces.

    smart thinking would have left the city edge along spencer street and extended west melbourne into the docklands? too hard basket for their minds to get around rail yards and see things as islands/districts. real urbanists were not working on the job - just street extender plebs?
    rest of docklands coulda been a park with jelly fish on one side and a city on the other.
    would have given the bottom of the existing city new impetus and altered its rates and tax potential because it was adjacent to "something else". too simple, too long to wait & jeff's hands were tied by up by debt.

    ended up a shit sandwich with debt paste between a slice of cain/kirner and brumby/bracks white bread.

    not enough respect for the ruins either. bit of TZG thinking = recent sydney job with park in water reservoir might have been a thing. but its shiny mirvac bling and a collection of melbourne's stars worst buildings in front of a marina full of cock boats - didn't need a genius to know what it would all come out like. hard to get around that now.

    millionares slum proposition is more of the same violin playing. time for the boomers to just stop - leave it alone and let a new generation hit it fresh in 20 years. f$%ked up ferris wheel falling off says it all.
  • peter_j
    edited September 2009
    <p>Looks like MAB's 9 year already-commenced vision will beat VEIL's 15 to 25 year vision for the site under the Bolte.</p>
    <p>VEIL - bold idea to collect city's stormwater: <a href="http://www.ecoinnovationlab.com/glimpses/49-victoria-lake">http://www.ecoinnovationlab.com/glimpses/49-victoria-lake</a></p>
    <p><a href="http://bit.ly/pKBS2">http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/fresh-water-answer-on-tap/story-e6frf7ro-1111116813916</a></p>
    <p>The scheme involves cutting a canal through the 'Quay Park' site to collect fresh water from Moonee Ponds Creek. No sign of that canal in the MAB scheme...</p>
    <p>MAB - bold idea to collect water in a tank to water the gardens with it : "Core to the design of 'Quay Park' will be a series of rain gardens and water storage systems to ensure 'NewQuay's Parkland Precinct' is self sustaining to water the lawns and gardens."</p>
    <p><a href="http://bit.ly/mVFIC">http://www.docklands.com/cs/Satellite?c=VArticle&cid=1251107122830&pagename=VicUrban%2FLayout&site=Docklands</a></p>
    <p> </p>
  • hairdresser
    edited September 2009
    bold for sure - like taking your pants off at the Grand Final and running on to the ground when you have a micro penis.

    watering gardens? these mo fos must be worried that a promising new desert landscape ruins their retarded dream of mexico = psuedo paris or bum of the world boston.

    watering citizens, flushing waste and supplying industry is the pressing issue or is the hairdresser trapped in reality?
    VEIL - perfect name. see its got mexican govt. backing. just another spin department?
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