Digesting Melbourne
A case study of developing Melbourne City Centre through
New Urban Metabolism
City is a body, not the body we as human have, but a matter that consumes and digest through different organs, just as we consume food that turns into energy to live our daily life. This concept of ‘Urban Metabolism’ was first introduced by Dirk Sijmons when analysing the city of Rotterdam with the team of IBAR (IABR, 2014). However, we can trace the lineage of this enquiry back to Roman city planning where the ‘Forum’ and ‘Commercial’ type of buildings are placed in the heart of the town with two main axis of path leading in and out of the city (MacaulayDavid, 1974). All these studies can be framed as ‘flow’ and each of these are looked through different type of lens. Sijmons’ theory of ‘Urban Metabolism’ is about looking at a site and observing the literal path of movements of different elements. I believe this is a good way of analysing but that’s all it can get. Through understanding how real human body, I have concluded that there are two types of flow, ‘Digestion’ the act of movement and ‘Metabolism’ the act of transformation.
New Urban Metabolism movement diagram
Metabolism is defined as “The chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life” (Oxford University Press, 2015). This concept can be implemented into the design field where matters are morphing. When this idea is taken into urban design, I name it ‘Urban Metabolism’.
City is combination of many different matters and these different elements work together to live through the day. Within this lifecycle, there are constant changes, transformation happen. Waking up from an alarm is considered to be a complete change from sleep to awake.
And 'West End Park' has 4 layers of Urban Metabolism elements
Transitional: A way through West End
In order to bring Melbourne CBD and Docklands together, ‘West End Park’ is designed. A park lying on top of the train rail yard connecting the two entities together. This park is designed with 4 types of metabolisms explained from the project ‘New Urban Metabolism’. Transitional layer used to join the big picture together, Destination to bring the audience in, Barrier to articulate people’s movement and Blending to bring materialistic unity.
These design lenses also work in different scale from large transitional layer to detail of blending. This park will not only physically connect disconnected urban layer but also contains needs for the residents which will bring identity to this un-space.
Destination: Design element bringing the audience in
An example of Destination element called ‘Urban Forest’. Within the heavy urbanised heart of Melbourne lacks green space where people can escape into. This small dense forest containing acer and quarcus trees will bring more colour and touch of nature into Melbourne City Centre.
Access points and movement pattern are designed according to the trends of Melbourne’s New Urban Metabolism, where workers of Docklands need to move across this site in quick manner but still enjoy the atmosphere and residents can always escape into this forest seeking nature. All nine destination points has certain identity and unique spatial sensation.
Barrier: Design tool to transfrom people's movement
West End Park needs to be able to control the movement from people moving across the whole site to people who wants to stay in the park for longer period of time. To do this, the design tool of Barrier is used. Walls and screens are to funnel people through and vertical element such as steps are used to moving people onto a zone. The movement shouldn’t be like automobile, where everything works like a clock, but like natural stream where in detail, many different kinds of transformation occurs but in large, single type of movement is flowing.
Blending: Detail design materials joining the atmosphere together
In people scale, as Jan Gehl says, large scaled design doesn’t work as how they should since everything is done from table top. In order to avoid this, materialistic blending needs to occur. Blending occurs when design is to make people stay in one zone. Spreading of same material into different zone is used to move the audience as an entrance point.
These details from far distance can enhance the unity of the park and everything holds each other together. Thus, every design tool interacts with each other not making one more important than the other, but enhancing each lens’s ideas and helping it to active in every scale.
West End Park
The ‘New Urban Metabolism’ theory is finally transformed into real spatial design to mitigate people’s need by identifying the trends and routes the surrounding urban space offers.
Thus the ‘West End Park’ is presented to the residents of Melbourne and the council members of City of Melbourne. A green/urban park to be used as Leisure Park for the residents, passage into Docklands and CBD for the workers exiting the Southern Cross Station every morning and the international visitors can rest over this peaceful park before entering the busy ever changing heart of Melbourne CBD. This may not be the ultimate answer for Melbourne’s West End but a suggestion which will make Melbourne more functioning united city centre.