AR Magazine - Victorian Government - City of Hume

Royal Australian Institute of Architects

Our practice was one of the six architectural firms selected by the competition jury to take part in the final design for the city centre. 

Overview: A national urban design ideas competition to design a new city centre for the Melbourne outer suburb of Broadmeadows. The site was directly to the south of Broadmeadows shopping centre. Several existing public buildings were to be retained within the new centre, including the Town Hall, Council Offices and Global Learning Centre. 

Design response: The continuous serpentine element, part urban form, part urban strategy, weaves in and around the existing buildings to form a new urban fabric that draws the site together into a cohesive urban place. Streetscape is envisaged as diverse facades within an overall band of buildings rather than acting as individual separate objects. Siting is designed to allow the adjoining shopping centre to play the key role in activating the scheme. Existing movement flows are elaborated to define a permeable network of new and existing pathways, measured to suit an informal hierarchy of square, street, laneway and 'back way.' Open space is used with civic purpose to address public buildings with forecourt, green or square. Building envelopes widen and narrow as required to support mixed use. The Inhabited Urban Bridge draws the railway station and neighbouring area into the city centre and involves Pascoe Vale Rd by embracing it with a city gate. The densely planted 'urban jungle' at the heart of the site connects the city centre with nature, calibrates it with the surrounding garden suburbs, and offers a sustainable balance between ecology and urbanity.