‘Suburban Realism – Scale Ability’ at Melbourne Design Week

Melbourne Design Week’s ‘Suburban Realism – Scale Ability’ by M Studio and RMIT Architecture speculates that a renewed civic and collective vision, Melbourne’s outer edge suburbs might rival its prized inner-city neighbourhoods.

The dual program includes a Symposium to explore the theme in detail, as well as an Exhibition by RMIT alumni including curator Esteban Montecinos.

On Thursday 1^st April, Architectus National Leader Urban Futures and Resilience, Alex Lawlor will be a panelist at the Symposium held at RMIT Design Hub.

Alex says, “Design as action and process is not well understood – and in designing for community the way that design, planning, and development finance react against each other is an important area of research – and because it has huge implications for social resilience and wellbeing.” 

Bringing together ‘a panel of speakers from a range of backgrounds to speculate on the governing planning frameworks and development systems that form the fringe conditions’, we’ll see how these conditions ‘can be warped or reformulated toward alternative patterns and visions for future suburban needs.’

An exhibition of ‘Large scale illustrations and diagnostic graphics map these suburbs’ physical manifestations through ascending scales from supermarket aisles, parking lots, connected roads and transport systems to metropolitan markers of services infrastructure, water systems and landscape’ will be open to the public at RMIT Design Hub from 26 March to 5 April 2021.

Learn more about the ‘Suburban Realism – Scale Ability’ Symposium here,
and Exhibition here.