This car-less suburb could soon become a reality
Just a stones throw from Melbourne city centre is a suburb which could be in line for an extreme makeover.
Plans are afoot to create a car free eco-suburb of the future, in which residents grow all of their own food and power is generated by urban wind towers.
This exciting new vision for the future has been unveiled by the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab, a State Government funded thinktank, and it could pave the way for a new kind of lifestyle.
The Lab has created the idea for a new environmentally friendly town, in which cars will be banned leading to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions.
An exhibition of the proposals from 200 university students for the ‘Eco-City Melbourne,’ is already on show in the city for the public to view.
A site has already been identified on land owned by VicTrack, the Government body that owns the state’s rail assets.
The site known as E-Gate, lies just 2kms from Melbourne city centre is the last major development site close to the city.
The Lab’s Director Professor Chris Ryan believes that the new suburb could be created on this plot.
“The site is made for walking, cycling and we are going to provide free, small, electric vehicles that can be picked up by any resident on the site and roamed around on,” he said, adding, “The site is only a 25-minute walk to Melbourne’s central business district.”
The medium-density suburb would have buildings of up to eight storeys and a centralised heating and cooling system. There would also be urban wind towers and solar panels to produce electricity.
Complete with mini urban-farms and a high tech ‘multi-storey farm,’ – a huge car park covered in glazing in which vegetables can grow under natural light – the community would be able to grow its own food, a scheme which has already been trialled successfully in China and Japan.
The Australian Government said that, whilst it had no firm plans for the site and the ideas were part of a range of views being canvassed; ecologically sustainable development was ‘no longer considered an optional extra but a necessity.’
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