General

Tuesday, 24 January 2012 03:53

New research and collaboration in 2012

In 2012, the VEIL research team have a range of collaborative projects that have received funding.  At this early stage, there is a brief description of each project in the Research section of our website under "Current Activities". More information will be published as the projects get underway.  New design studios are soon to be announced as well.

Wednesday, 30 November 2011 05:17

This exhibition is being hosted by the Victorian Eco Innovation Lab (VEIL). It includes work from University of Melbourne Architecture and Landscape Architecture studios envisioning a sustainable future for Sunshine, as well as a selection of student works from previous studios as part of VEIL's Eco-Acupuncture studio program 2009-2011.

The exhibition will be launched by Professor Thomas Kvan, Dean, Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, University of Melbourne.

6 - 11 December

Shop 51, Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre
324-328 Hampshire Rd
Sunshine

Download a map.

Open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm.

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Tuesday, 12 July 2011 07:55

“Linking different areas relevant to food security and sustainability to facilitate urban life.”

Monday, 04 April 2011 10:29

The report of the Victorian Food Supply Scenarios: Impacts on Availability of a Nutritious Diet project has been released.

The purpose of this project was to develop and demonstrate a new methodology to link land and resource use with availability of a nutritionally adequate food supply for Victoria's population. To do so, it has built the capability of the CSIRO stocks and flows model as a platform for on-going 'what-if' investigation of Victorian and Australian food supply security.

The full report and a summary version are available for download below.

Monday, 04 April 2011 10:07

Food sensitive planning and urban design (FSPUD) recognises that access to healthy, sustainable and equitable food is an essential part of achieving liveable communities.

VEIL and David Locke Associates were commissioned by the National Heart Foundation of Australia (Victorian Division) to develop a resource further articulating the idea of 'Food Sensitive Planning and Urban Design' (first articulated by VEIL in 2008 as Food Sensitive Urban Design).

This new resource - Food Sensitive Planning and Urban Design: A conceptual framework for achieving a sustainable and just food system - is intended to raise the awareness of planners, architects, urban designers, engineers, policy makers, community members and elected representatives of the need to integrate food considerations into urban land use and development. It outlines:

• key areas in planning legislation, policy and processes to realise this outcomes;
• how meeting people's food needs contributes to the broader objectives of planning and urban design, including: health and fairness; sustainability and resilience; livelihoods and opportunity; and community and amenity; and
  
• a challenge to professionals and the broader community to take on a stronger role in ensuring that healthy, sustainable and equitable food is available for all Australians into the future.

It is available for download here.

Tuesday, 15 March 2011 05:11

Many thanks to those local and international organisations that are promoting the Visioning 2032 films.

Friday, 19 November 2010 00:43

The Victorian Eco Innovation Lab (VEIL) has been invited by the World Mayors Summit and Siemens to participate in the upcoming United Cities and Local Governments Congress in Mexico City in November.  The VEIL Sustainable Cities Blog, run by Kate Archdeacon, will be run out of the World Summit at Mexico City for the duration of the conference.

This significant event brings together 3000 mayors and city authorities from across the globe to discuss the challenges and opportunities for cities over the next two decades. The four-day conference will give participants the opportunity to debate critical issues facing our urban centres and municipalities – including effective governance, economic development, innovation and building more efficient cities for 2030.

The VEIL Sustainable Cities blog has been chosen as one of a very select group of sites to participate in the congress. Kate Archdeacon will be blogging from Mexico City through the Siemens platform for the VEIL website, Sustainable Cities and Sustainable Melbourne. With an ever expanding readership of these sites, the invitation is a significant endorsement of their profile in the international debate and conversation on achieving a sustainable future for our cities.  Check out the blog: http://www.sustainablecitiesnet.com/

From Sustainable Cities Net,

On behalf of Sustainable Cities Net, I (Kate) am attending and blogging on the United Cities and Local Governments Congress and the World Mayors’ Summit, held this week in Mexico City. The content will appear here and also on a site created by Siemens, who provided a similar service at COP 15 and will do so at COP 16 next month.  Over three thousand delegates from around the world will attend the presentations from city mayors on the pressures and responses they meet in their own city.  The opportunity to expand the discussion and learn about pressures, models, scales, successes and failures in other cities is unique, and the material from Sustainable Cities Net and Sustainable Melbourne will make its way into my perspective and reports.  Bloggers from other countries will be there too, so keep an eye on all the sites for a diversity of opinion!

To follow the posts from the Summit use or bookmark this link, http://www.sustainablecitiesnet.com/tag/mexico-city/

Sustainable Cities Net and Sustainable Melbourne are part of the Victorian Eco Innovation Lab project.

Friday, 01 October 2010 00:00

Vision: Broadmeadows 2032 - available for download from VEIL Publications.

Thursday, 23 September 2010 00:00

What might a sustainable and resilient neighbourhood look like ? How can we transform existing urban communities through design interventions?

Friday, 20 August 2010 02:43

"Australian Sustainable Energy - by the numbers" by Peter Seligman and published by the Melbourne Energy Institute at the The University of Melbourne.

Based on English Physicist David MacKay's Sustainable Energy - without the hot air, Peter Seligman has undertaken to provide a clear account of Australia's renewable energy potential. Peter has analysed a raft of available technologies, and offers a blueprint of a nation-wide renewable energy system based on the most efficient mix of technology, societal, and habitual changes.

Tuesday, 20 July 2010 02:31

Vision: Broadmeadows 2032 has really taken shape - come out and visit us!

Thursday, 01 July 2010 02:23

Tuesday, 04 May 2010 00:34

Emerging technical and social innovations for future sustainable systems.

Monday, 18 January 2010 23:19

At the completion of his keynote address at the Global Urban Summit in Rotterdam on the 4th December 2009, Prof. Chris Ryan was joined by Prof. Han Brezet, from the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, to announce the creation of the Rotterdam Eco-Innovation Lab: REIL. REIL will follow the methodology, and build on and adapt the outcomes, of VEIL within the development around the immense harbour of Rotterdam city. This development responds to the opening up of land for housing and commercial activity as the functions of the old harbour move ‘outwards’ towards the ocean. The Harbour development aims to set new environmental standards as part of an innovative new zone, known now as the “Clean Tech Delta”. In announcing the creation of REIL, with its collaboration with VEIL, Prof Brezet also announced that the Clean Tech Delta will send a staff member to Melbourne for several months (starting in Feb 2010) to work with the VEIL team to better understand the potential for similar projects in REIL.

Thursday, 05 November 2009 01:19

Among the delicious chai and the recycled tetra-pack wallets, some unexpected ideas and projects to catch the imagination...

In October 09, we were invited by Knox Council to exhibit student works at the Stringybark Suburban Sustainability Festival.  You can read about the exhibition here.  During the two-day festival, VEIL Co-ordinator Dianne Moy and Assistant Kate Archdeacon had time to explore the festival.  Below, in the gallery, are some of the interesting inclusions they spotted.

Wednesday, 28 October 2009 21:26

Are we on the edge of a 're-localisation' revolution?

A one-day conference and forum, exploring the value, diversity and implications of a networked and localised approach to infrastructure and services. 30th November, 2009

SEE RECORDS OF THE EVENT, INCLUDING PRESENTATIONS, SLIDES AND A SUMMARY OF ISSUES COVERED

With large, centralised infrastructure appearing vulnerable to climate change and ‘peak oil’, alternative solutions are emerging everywhere. Many of these are delivering food, water and energy via smaller, networked systems of localised production that can also lower carbon, increase efficiency, build resilience and strengthen local economies.

This ‘distributed’ systems model is over-turning old ideas of services and is re-shaping our image of the future. With communities and business becoming active adopters of solar panels, wind generators, rainwater tanks and neighbourhood gardens, people are breaking the mould of passive consumer - redefining themselves as active producers of critical resource.

Where can I find out more about Distributed Systems?

Research related to distributed systems is on-going. Two briefing papers covering energy and water issues can be downloaded from the publications section of this website. Additional papers will also be posted there.

VEIL Contact: Che Biggs 03 8344 0626 cbigg@unimelb.edu.au

 

Wednesday, 12 August 2009 03:45

What happens when a forward-thinking council shares its expertise with design students?

Last Thursday, August 6, VEIL and the Sustainable Landscapes studio (University of Melbourne), led by Dr Sidh Sintusingha, met with staff from Hume City Council in Broadmeadows.  The Councils' urban designers, transport planners, environmental officers and development officers spent most of the day sharing their expertise with the students and outlining their hopes for the future of the area.  The Sustainable Landscapes studio is the first foray into research for an upcoming VEIL Hub, which will focus on retrofitting existing Melbourne suburbs for sustainability and resilience. The Hub, planned for later this year, will draw on the knowledge developed over the last three years of the VEIL project, in particular the EBD Eco-City exploration, which continues inform ongoing studios.

Details of the Hub will be finalised soon.

Tuesday, 11 August 2009 00:00

Chris Ryan and VEIL ‘alumni’ Michael Trudgeon (Crowd Productions) have been successful in being selected as one of three winners in an international design competition for a new sustainable wild-life park and interpretation centre in the North of the Netherlands.  The three winning teams (the others being a Dutch Landscape design practice and a UK Architectural practice) will meet to integrate their work in a three day design workshop in the Netherlands in early September. The Ryan-Trudgeon design submission was based around an analysis of a life-cycle approach to eco-tourism (treated as a service-product) in which the material is ‘experience’ – giving an experience pathway that starts with anticipation (the equivalent to material processing and manufacturing) then moves to destination (the usual ‘use-phase’ focus for eco-design) and then to memory (the equivalent to end-of-life phase). The work builds on some of the project that formed the pre-cursor to VEIL – EcoSense – (www.eco-sense.info) and integrates intelligent use of information technology. It is hoped that an information package about the winning entry will be available from the VEIL site in the next months.

Tuesday, 11 August 2009 00:00

As part of the Victorian State of Design Festival and Melbourne Conversations program there were four ten-minute design speculations on Melbourne 2040. One of these – Melbourne: the City of Short Distances – presented a short synthesis of VEIL scenarios for Melbourne. In this presentation, Chris Ryan talked ‘from the future’ when Melbourne has won (for the second time) the prestigious international award for liveability – the City of Short Distances Award.  In the presentation, Chris took an opportunity to reflect on how Melbourne of 2010 had transformed under the influence of climate change, the need for resilient life-styles (in the face of new environmental conditions) and the end of the era of cheap oil. The ‘short-distances’ refers to the measure of the distance between production and consumption of key resources – energy, water, food – as well as transport. Neighbourhoods in the city that once (2010) had to rely on long distribution chains (based on long linear infrastructure systems) now have a dispersed (localised) network of diverse forms of renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal) , diverse sources of water (rain-water, storm water, recycled water and reticulated water) and food supplies that mix local fruit and vegetables with rural produce.  View the presentation below.

Friday, 31 July 2009 00:00

In July Chris Ryan presented two lectures on the work of VEIL; one lecture was for the Innovation and Business staff of the Forum for the Future in London (www.forumforthefuture.org) and the other for the Rotterdam Climate Initiative.

In both these well attended lectures the focus of the discussion was on the methodology, process and success of VEIL and the potential to develop similar programs in the UK and the Netherlands. In both contexts the interest revolves around developing future visions of sustainable cities in the context of climate transformation. Discussions are continuing with both organisations on the development of some on-going relationship with VEIL and Melbourne.

Peter Madden the CEO of Forum for the Future will visit Melbourne in November this year as part of the Deakins 09 events on Climate and Innovation (www.climateandinnovation.com). There is the potential for a visiting group from the Rotterdam Climate Initiative and their planned Rotterdam Climate Campus to Visit Melbourne early in 2010.