2017 - 2019
the exchange
RMIT UNIVERSITY + LENDLEASE
The Exchange at Knowledge Market was a unique urban living lab situated in Melbourne’s Docklands, a major urban regeneration project at the edge of the city’s central business district. Over the course of two years, an interdisciplinary team of design and ethnography researchers from RMIT University partnered with Lendlease, developers of the Victoria Harbour precinct, to activate an empty shopfront retail space.
This activation involved the development of a series of projects that investigated the cultural and spatial dynamics of Victoria Harbour and formulated design propositions responding to a range of social and environmental issues encountered within the precinct. The project was staged through four interdisciplinary themes that directly addressed the inhabitation and liveability of the urban environment in the twenty first century: Carbon Neutral Futures; Social Diversity; Digitally Enabled Infrastructures; and Urban Memory and Imagination.
At various times the space was organised into a lecture theatre, public forum, design studio, creative making space, and gallery. This accommodated the program of regular public talks, exhibitions of design projects and community workshops. Through the various studios, lectures, exhibitions and public events held at The Exchange, we were able to bring together the different views and agendas of governments, corporations, developers and the community and create a forum for the exchange of ideas about the urban environment.
To view the goals and vision of the project you can watch
To understand the project in greater detail you can read
*Finalist: Sustainability Award, Melbourne Awards 2018.
