Citylink is calling for ideas from designers, artists and creative thinkers as to how the unused Power Street Loop site in Melbourne’s Southbank might be transformed.
The site is an urban island bounded by the exit ramp from the Domain Tunnel onto Power Street. It is the first in a series of unused road-side sites under consideration by Citylink for urban transformation.
Aerial photography of Southbank precinct.
Image: Google
Situated in the heart of Melbourne’s cultural precinct, the Power Street Loop is co-located with the Malthouse Theatre, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Victorian College of the Arts, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Arts Centre. It also falls within the state government’s Southbank Cultural Precinct Redevelopment Masterplan.
While the site cannot be accessed by the public, since its completion in 2000, rapid urban development of the Southbank area has seen residential and commercial towers sprout up around the Loop, making it highly visible from surrounding developments and roadways.
Citylink has partnered with Landcare Australia to undertake an ecological regeneration of the site. The plan includes reinstating indigenous and drought tolerant plants – Eucalypts, Sheoaks, shrub, grasses and herbs – as well as the creation of a wetland within the site. Through the ideas competition, designers, artists and creative thinkers are being challenged to imagine an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable future for the site that could be realistically implemented.
A total prize pool of $25,000 is on offer with $20,000 awarded for first prize and $2,500 each for the most innovative and most sustainable responses.
The competition has been developed in consultation with Landcare Australia, Melbourne City Council, Victorian College of the Arts and VicRoads.
Entries close 13 March 2015. Finalists will be announced 25 March and the overall winner will be announced in an award event on 30 March 2015. For full submission details, click here.
