Melbourne’s green spaces: From sci-fi fantasy to future reality

Melbourne’s green spaces: From sci-fi fantasy to future reality is a chance to re-examine historic landscaping plans from a contemporary view point and discuss how gardens can continue to serve our communities’ needs as we look towards the future. What lessons can we take from the past to ensure that our green spaces are sustainable, social responsible and make the most of technological advancements?

Come to the Victorian Archive Centre and get up close and personal with original plans and proposals from Public Record Office Victoria’s collection – from the nineteenth century designs for Melbourne’s Botanic and Fitzroy Gardens to the overly ambitious submissions by the general public from the doomed 1978 Melbourne Landmark Design Competition.

Alongside the exhibition, our four guest speakers will discuss their visions for the future of Melbourne’s green spaces from the perspective of the public, commercial and non-profit sectors:

Peta Christensen is the Food Systems Projects and Partnerships Team Leader at Cultivating Community, an urban agriculture and community food systems agency working across Melbourne. Their gardens provide low income communities with a place to not only grow food but also a safe and familiar space for people to spend time and get to know their neighbours, fostering a stronger sense of community. In 2004 Peta was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to explore urban agriculture and food security projects in Brazil, Canada, USA, Cuba and Denmark.

Warwick Savvas is a Senior Associate at ASPECT Studios who believes “the city should be a living machine rather than a machine for living in.” As an experienced landscape architect, ecological designer, green infrastructure and living architecture practitioner, he creates built environments that respond to the pressures of urbanisation and climate change by integrating natural systems into the urban fabric.

Skye Haldane is an award-winning landscape architect who is passionate about creating and managing high quality public spaces; demonstrating how the design of a city can allow everyone to pursue their potential. As the Manager of Design at City of Melbourne, she leads an in-house team of globally recognised landscape architects, architects and industrial designers who deliver projects that shape Australia’s fastest growing city.

Andrew Laidlaw is most widely known for his work as the landscape architect at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. In this role, he has designed and developed the Long Island indigenous garden, the Perennial Border, the Rose Species Garden, the Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden and Guilfoyle’s Volcano. His projects have also won three gold medals at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, Landscape of the Year from the Landscape Industries Association of Victoria, and the 2005 Victoria Tourism Award for Best New Tourism Development.

This event is part of Melbourne Design Week 2019 organised by NGV in collaboration with Creative Victoria.

Doors open at 6pm to view the records, with the talks beginning at 6:20pm. Tickets are free but reservations are essential.

Book here.