The Cultured Landscape Sets Out a Strategy for Sustainable Transformation of an Australian Brownfield

A design proposal from the <a href="http://www.naaustudio.com/" target="_blank">Network for Advanced Architecture and Urbanism</a> (NAAU) of Melbourne, Australia, shows how an industrial brownfield region might be transformed into a center for clean-energy development, sustainable agriculture, and eco-tourism. Titled “The Cultured Landscape,” NAAU's proposal was developed as an entry in a competition called “<a href="http://www.transitingcities.com/" target="_blank">Transiting Cities -- Low Carbon Futures</a>,” organized by the <a href="http://outr.org/" target="_blank">Office of Urban Transformations Research</a> (OUTR) at Melbourne-based <a href="http://www.rmit.edu.au/" target="_blank">RMIT</a>, a university of technology and design. The competition challenges urban designers to develop a vision for transforming the City of Latrobe and the surrounding valley from a center of coal mining and conventional electrical generation into “an innovative hub for low carbon solutions.” Coal-fired generation is slated to discontinue in the valley by 2030, and OUTR is seeking solutions for development and recovery of the region after that change.

A concentrated solar array ties into the existing electrical grid.

Natural hot springs can be used to create attractive leisure and recreational sites.

Sustainable farming and local foods can be incorporated into residential housing areas.

Rather than simply let the Latrobe Valley revert to a supposed “natural” state, NAAU proposes a new urban design that retains and adaptively reuses “the significant industrial infrastructure as a visible presence within the landscape, an industrial archeology celebrating the social history of the site,” as well as inserting “new agricultural, infrastructural and cultural programs.” The existing power transmission infrastructure in the region should be used, the group believes, as a means “to tap and test the next generation of low carbon or carbon neutral generation technologies, uniquely suited to the variety of landscape and geological conditions identified within the competition site.”....<br><br><a href='https://inhabitat.com/the-cultured-landscape-sets-out-a-strategy-for-sustainable-transformation-of-an-australian-brownfield/'>READ ARTICLE</a>

Rather than simply let the Latrobe Valley revert to a supposed “natural” state, NAAU proposes a new urban design that retains and adaptively reuses “the significant industrial infrastructure as a visible presence within the landscape, an industrial archeology celebrating the social history of the site,” as well as inserting “new agricultural, infrastructural and cultural programs.” The existing power transmission infrastructure in the region should be used, the group believes, as a means “to tap and test the next generation of low carbon or carbon neutral generation technologies, uniquely suited to the variety of landscape and geological conditions identified within the competition site.”....<br><br><a href='https://inhabitat.com/the-cultured-landscape-sets-out-a-strategy-for-sustainable-transformation-of-an-australian-brownfield/'>READ ARTICLE</a>

Existing industrial sites are retained as reflections of the historical character of Latrobe.

Transition of the character of the site over time.

The sample section chosen to illustrate the kinds of changes that The Cultured Landscape would bring to Latrobe.

Rather than simply let the Latrobe Valley revert to a supposed “natural” state, NAAU proposes a new urban design that retains and adaptively reuses “the significant industrial infrastructure as a visible presence within the landscape, an industrial archeology celebrating the social history of the site,” as well as inserting “new agricultural, infrastructural and cultural programs.” The existing power transmission infrastructure in the region should be used, the group believes, as a means “to tap and test the next generation of low carbon or carbon neutral generation technologies, uniquely suited to the variety of landscape and geological conditions identified within the competition site.”....<br><br><a href='https://inhabitat.com/the-cultured-landscape-sets-out-a-strategy-for-sustainable-transformation-of-an-australian-brownfield/'>READ ARTICLE</a>

Rather than simply let the Latrobe Valley revert to a supposed “natural” state, NAAU proposes a new urban design that retains and adaptively reuses “the significant industrial infrastructure as a visible presence within the landscape, an industrial archeology celebrating the social history of the site,” as well as inserting “new agricultural, infrastructural and cultural programs.” The existing power transmission infrastructure in the region should be used, the group believes, as a means “to tap and test the next generation of low carbon or carbon neutral generation technologies, uniquely suited to the variety of landscape and geological conditions identified within the competition site.”....<br><br><a href='https://inhabitat.com/the-cultured-landscape-sets-out-a-strategy-for-sustainable-transformation-of-an-australian-brownfield/'>READ ARTICLE</a>