According to the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), Melbourne needs to implement better ‘masterplanning, safe and sustainable design, and tighter building regulations’ if it is to remain one of the world’s most liveable cities.
After seven years in the top spot, Melbourne dropped to number two in the 2018 edition of the Economist’s world’s most livable city rankings, with first place swiftly taken by Vienna. The two cities were separated by 0.7 of a per cent in the rankings, with Vienna scoring 99.1 out of 100 and Melbourne 98.4.
President of the Institute’s Victorian Chapter, Amy Muir, said the increasing urban sprawl and poorly designed apartment buildings flooding the city would have ‘undoubtedly impacted’ its liveability ranking. With the Victorian state election on the horizon (24 November 2018), Ms Muir said it was vital for all sides of politics to give attention to Melbourne’s sustainable growth, as the city prepares for its population to overtake Sydney by the middle of the century.
“As Melbourne’s population continues to skyrocket there needs to be a greater focus on future-proofing the city through planning and ensuring a high-quality and sustainable built environment. The delivery of enduring, quality design is integral to maintaining the city’s liveability,” Ms Muir announced.
“The value of masterplanning cannot be underestimated when acknowledging the liveability and performance of our cities. Building sustainable communities is integral for the effective evolution of place. This is achieved through careful masterplanning, consultation, collaboration with landscape architects and planners and adopting rigorous design review processes,” she said.
Ms Muir also commented that members of the government, no matter what political persuasion, must ensure the Office of the Victorian Government Architect has ongoing funding to ensure it ‘maintains a position of authority, and adequate resourcing to provide strategic design advocacy and advice’.
Furthermore, the AIA has called on the state government to act, stating that there needs to be a focus on design-led long-term outcomes and a concerted effort by the government to support the architectural profession.
“As it stands, the design of multi-storey buildings remains unregulated as there is no requirement for a registered architect to be engaged in the process,” said Ms Muir, “Victoria’s building standards need to fall into line with emerging best practice in other jurisdictions to improve safety and amenity and this means requiring the involvement of a registered architect for all apartment buildings three storeys and above, clamping down on inadequate building supervision, and putting an end to the practice of product substitution or short-term profits.”
Ruth White, Executive Director of the Victorian Chapter, also said there needs to be a well-planned focus on Melbourne’s growth, which is currently lacking, and a mandate for design-led development.
“There is a perception that ‘design’ correlates with ‘expensive’, and this is not the case. The essence of architecture is designing high-quality, sustainable buildings no matter what the cost,” Ms White shared, “the drop in our liveability ranking should be a call to action and we can’t take for granted that things will continue as they have – we need to work hard to make sure Melbourne remains a vibrant and livable city.”
As Melbourne’s population continues to boom the AIA believes government needs to adopt proactive, creative and sustainable solutions in order to deal with it.
“Melbourne is a beautiful city and we need to ensure it stays that way,” said Ms White.