The Australian Institute of Architecture announced late last week the list of 17 teams who will exhibit as part of the Australian Pavilion’s “NOW + WHEN Australian Urbanism’ exhibition at the Biennale starting in August.

The three successful projects arising from the University of Melbourne are:

-    Symbiotic City (Steve Whitford with James Brearley, BAU Brearley Architects & Urbanists)
-    Mould City (Dr Peter Raisbeck, Nicola Dovey and Simon Wollan, as part of Colony Collective)
-    The Fear Free City (A/Prof Justyna Karakiewicz, Prof Tom Kvan with Steve Hatzellis, WSH Architects)

All three University connected projects on the shortlist made the final cut, making it the most represented Australian university in the final stage of this national competition. 

Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Professor Tom Kvan, says the selection highlights the range and depth of innovative design research being conducted at the Faculty. 

“With the increasing importance of cities to address our increasing population in sustainable ways, this research exemplifies the remarkable strategies that can be considered,” he says.

“For Steve (Whitford), this has meant challenging the conventional planning wisdom of large scale land use zoning and low density in favour of a design based on continuous networks of land use.

“Peter Raisbeck and the team at Colony have looked closely at the suburbs and inner city as an integrated, interacting series of environs more akin to a living organism.  Justyna’s project focuses on city design that challenges the fear of the future.

“It’s exciting for our staff and students to have this opportunity to participate in such a significant international event.”

The winning proposals were chosen from a shortlist of 24, selected from the original 129 submissions to the competition.  The exhibition will highlight six of Australia's most interesting urban and anti-urban regions as they are ‘now’, before dramatically representing in 3D the 17 futuristic urban environments from the competition imagining a ‘when’ we reach 2050 and beyond.

Interviews with the successful academics are available.