MEDIA RELEASE
Thursday 17 December: NOTE - Embargoed 1AM FRIDAY 18 December 2009 –
shortlisted teams not to be contacted in advance
24 plans revealed for Australia’s urban survival
A
shortlist of 24 proposals addressing the most crucial issue facing
mankind – how to manage our burgeoning cities – and that dare to
imagine Australia’s urban spaces in 2050 and beyond has been
announced today (Friday 18 December).
The proposals were selected from 129 submissions entered into the national Ideas for
Australia’s cities 2050+ competition, run by the Australian Institute of Architects’
2010 Venice Architecture Biennale Creative Directors, John Gollings and Ivan Rijavec,
to source material for next year’s exhibition in the Australian Pavilion in Venice.
The team’s two-part ‘NOW + WHEN Australian Urbanism’ exhibition will highlight three of
Australia’s most interesting urban regions as they are ‘NOW’, before dramatically representing
around seven futuristic urban environments from the competition as they may be ‘WHEN’ we
reach 2050 and beyond.
The competition fired the imagination of Australia’s architects and designers, resulting in
inspired, possible solutions and imaginative proposals addressing the critical issue of
Australian urbanism - examining possibilities across the terrestrial, underwater and airborne
realms.
Shortlisted ideas range from proposals for:
New cities housing between 50,000-100,000 people in current desert areas to
address our expected population growth;
Cities in which urban development is concentrated in ‘peripheral’ areas, such
as large landholdings on university campuses, 'big box' shopping centres, business
parks, industrial estates, recreational reserves, and market gardens to establish a
series of interlinked, self-sustaining districts dispersed along a transport ring.
Cities which feature a ‘tartan-like texture of pure urban areas (or cells), pure
rural cells, and cells which are a hybrid of rural and urban’, providing a ‘vital
flexibility for a sustainable future’.
Cities designed for ‘urban life without fear’, based on the belief that ‘any design
for a good, sustainable city for the 21st century will demand a theory of hope and the
desirable’.
Cities in which ‘within tightly controlled boundaries exist Multiple Cities’.
Cities which address issues such as: what if a city grows not out, but up or down?
What if a city’s growth boundary is not on its periphery but at its heart? What if new
planning initiatives were introduced governing the use of air space? ‘A Green City,
where the top plane provides wind and solar energy to power (and cool) the multiple
cities below’, as well as all food production.
Cities ‘woven into the landscape’ – balancing dense human settlement with flora
and fauna biodiversity, with major roadways converted into natural landscape
corridors.
Cities hugging the coast from Noosa to Geelong to accommodate population
growth and the preferred coastal climate; connected by a ‘very fast train running from
North Qld to Victoria; pockets of vertical sprawl; new cities in pristine locations such as
Botany Bay and the Royal National Park.
…/more
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Co-Creative Director and well-known Melbourne-based photographer John Gollings said: “The
large number of entries and range of approach and philosophy exceeded expectations. We felt
that more than 50 per cent of the entries could have made an important contribution to the
Venice Architecture Biennale, and narrowing the selection down to 24 was difficult.
“Of great interest now, is that these varied ideas must be turned into tangible 3D models
which can be screened as virtual, built projects for exhibition in the Australian Pavilion in
Venice. This process will challenge the normal speculative imaging often produced by
architects, and lead to new presentation techniques benefiting the whole profession as the
world embraces 3D, virtual, and holographic media. From the test results with our 3D
projectors, now running in Melbourne, the Australian pavilion at the 2010 Venice Biennale will
be a standout attraction."
The Creative Directors said those shortlisted were far more than hypotheticals. Each uniquely
responded to future challenges including population growth, environmental degradation,
dwindling resources and climate change. Each entry reflected a highly creative diversity of
possibilities fused with a diversity of design that mapped out possible cities of the future.
Co-director Ivan Rijavec, Principal of innovative Australian architectural practice Rijavec
Architects, said: “NOW+WHEN Australian Urbanism has spotlighted our most pressing national
concern – how we best manage our cities and their future growth.”
“We currently have 93 per cent of Australians living in urban environments being affected
every living minute by the way in which our cities function. Our management of these centres
is fundamental to arresting global warming, and it wouldn’t be too an extravagant a claim to
say there’s nothing more important in the contemporary Australian debate.
“The number of responses received for this competition confirms that in Australia and
internationally, urbanism - more than at any other period in history - has become fundamental
to our prosperity and critical to our survival.
“Venice itself has shown how a city might blossom in a global context, but also how the
vicissitudes of a changing world can turn it into a caricature of itself - some 60,000 people live
there, while more than 20million visit it annually. It floods 50 times a year and, saving
protective measures, by 2030 it will be under water.”
12th Venice Architecture Biennale – Confirmed Dates:
Vernissage: 26, 27, 28 August 2010;
Exhibition: 29 August – 28 November 2010
This update for the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale is proudly sponsored by Zip Industries.
The Australian Exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale is a major project of the
Australian Institute of Architects. The Institute would like to thank sponsors Austral Bricks,
Virgin Atlantic Airways, Zip Industries, Autodesk and Architecture Media. The Institute also
recognises the significant contribution of Network Venice practices and donors, and gratefully
acknowledges the help and support given by the Australia Council for the Arts, including the
use of the Pavilion for this exhibition.
For information, full submissions, and images of ‘NOW + WHEN Australian Urbanism’, contact:
Australian Institute of Architects | Media Contacts
Trish Croaker, National Media/PR Advisor
trish.croaker@raia.com.au; 0408 756 163
Margot Paul, National Media/PR Advisor
margot.paul@raia.com.au; 0402 669 463
The Australian Institute of Architects is the peak body for the architectural profession, representing more than 9800
members across Australia and overseas. The Institute actively works to improve the quality of our built environment
by promoting quality, responsible and sustainable design. Visit the Institute for more information -
architecture.com.au .
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Venice Architecture Biennale 2010 - shortlist of submissions:
WHEN Ideas for Australia’s Cities 2050+ competition
REF#
SUBMISSION TITLE
ORGANISATION
CONTACT
STAT
E
6
Sydney 2050: Fraying
Ground
Terroir
Gerard Reinmuth
NSW
15
Networks Eco-polis
Whitford and Brearley
Steven Whitford
VIC
23
Urban Life Without Fear
Faculty of Architecture
Building and Planning,
University of Melbourne
Justyna Karakiewicz
VIC
30
A Future Australian City
EDMOND & CORRIGAN
Maggie Edmond
VIC
31
Mould City
Colony Architects
Peter Raisbeck
VIC
33
Sedimentary City
University of Queensland
Brit Andresen
QLD
34
Not All Arrows Hit the
Target
NH Architecture
Francesca Black
VIC
49
Multiple Cities
John Wardle Architects
John Wardle
VIC
52
biomimetic city
Arup Sydney
Alanna Howe,
Alexander Hespe
NSW
54
fmd architects
Fiona Dunin, Alex
Peck, Martina Johnson
VIC
61
Love and Movement
Woodhead & Bangarra
Dance
Angelo Di Marco
NSW
70
Rubix Cube
BKK Architects, Village
Well, Charter Keck Kramer
George Huon
VIC
86
Hassell, Holopoint,
University of Adelaide
Timothy Horton
SA
77
e-agora 2059
Lean Productions
Tom Rivard
NSW
79
Cities of Resilience
Arup Sydney
Diana Griffiths
NSW
84
Speciation City
Curtin Uni + The University
of Western Australia
Rene Van Meeuwen
WA
92
Island Proposition 2100
room11 hobart + Katrina
Stoll
Scott Lloyd
TAS
93
When 2100
Lacoste + Stevenson
Architects, Craig Allchin,
FROST design
angela rowson
NSW
95
Implementing the Rhetoric
Harrison and White Pty Ltd
Marcus White
VIC
103
How Does it Make You
Feel?
Statkus Architecture +
others
Ben Statkus
VIC
104
Loop City
MGS with BILD + DYSKORS
and MATERIAL THINKING
Jocelyn Chiew
VIC
117
A Tale of Two Cities 2100
Billard Leece Partnership
Rajith Senanayake
VIC
122
The Mangrove occupying
the Now and WHEN of the
waters edge
Innovarchi
Stephanie Smith
NSW
126
Cloudnets
Minifie Nixon Architects +
RMIT
Paul Minifie
VIC
NEWS 
