The proposed demolition of North Melbourne’s RMIT Village, a 12-storey student housing complex constructed just five years ago, has been recommended for approval, with plans for a new 19-storey student accommodation building to be constructed on the site instead.
On Tuesday 21 November, the City of Melbourne’s Future Melbourne Committee voted in favour of the $264 million knockdown and rebuild of 5-17 Flemington Road. However, councillors expressed reservation about the environmental impacts of “disposable” buildings.
The existing mock-Tudor-style building on site was retrofitted with the addition of upper levels in 2018. The application to demolish and rebuild on the site was submitted by Urban Planning Collective (UPCo) on behalf of the site’s owner Centurion Australia Investments in 2022, which went before the Melbourne Design Review Panel in March 2023 and was subsequently amended in August 2023 to ensure the building envelope no longer cast a shadow on the nearby Bedford Street Reserve and responded better to the surrounding context.
Architectus and Metier 3 have been appointed the design of the project with the amended development application proposing student housing in a 19 storey building facing Bedford Street (stage one) and build-to-rent apartments across two buildings of 19 to 22 storeys facing Flemington Road and Blackwood Street (stage two), as well as retail offerings, a medical centre and a through block link.
Andrea Zohar presented at the meeting on behalf of the permit applicant. “The site is currently looking pretty tired, grossly underutilized with a commercial carpark and dated student housing at a time when many international students are returning to Melbourne,” Zohar said.
“The proposal seeks to introduce a diversity of housing with purpose built student accommodation and a build-to-rent apartment scheme. The site offers an excellent location to public transport, including the new Arden Railway Station. It’s close to the CBD and many tertiary institutions. The housing offered in this project will contribute to the Victorian Government’s Housing Statement, recently released. Everything here supports a redevelopment opportunity in a strategic sense.
“The project also offers a net community benefit in its contribution to the immediate public realm by way of a 24/7 available through block link. This link will open up a currently uninviting laneway environment, activate it with passive surveillance and foot traffic.”
When questioned by Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece about whether alternatives for retrofitting or adaptive reuse had been taken into consideration, Zohar responded saying “all aspects of the redevelopment scheme for the site were considered,” and added that the “site was not fully redeveloped for the student housing that short while ago. It was retrofitted… it is not a newly built student accommodation that is being removed.”
Reece said while the project is compliant with planning codes and offers positive contributions to the area, demolishing a building in its infancy is a cause for concern.
“There is one aspect, which I do think is concerning and it does go to the demolition of what is a quite recently constructed new built form. In the midst of a climate emergency, in the midst of Australia stepping up its efforts to cut emissions, we are being asked to approve the demolition of a large 12-storey building that was constructed only five years ago. Yes, that construction did involve a new built form on top of the old tudor-style hotel, so there was some adaptive reuse there, but it’s still a very large 12-storey structure, which we’re now being asked, only five years later, to approve the demolition of,” he said.
“The truth is we cannot let Melbourne become a city of disposable buildings, a city where new buildings are built on the cheap to be knocked down every twenty years or so. We’ll end up with a throwaway city of junk buildings as well as the unacceptable environmental cost that comes with that.”
Despite his concerns regarding the “wastefulness” of the demolition, Reece said the project would see a low-grade building being replaced by a better quality built form with positive social benefits.
“As a result of going through the design review process we’ve seen improved architectural design of the development. I think there’s much improved solid architectural language in the design that is more fine grain detail, which is much more in keeping with the urban context of North Melbourne. The new through block link, I think that’s a really positive aspect of this development. There is a lot of people who are going to be living in this area… creating things like new through block links to allow more permeability through this area, greater pedestrian flow is a really positive thing,” he said.
“A low-grade building is being replaced with a much better one that has gone through a Melbourne Design Review Panel Process and the new building is not only better from an architectural perspective, it will also stand for many decades to come. We hope and expect. So, with those reservations outed, the proposed building does meet the planning controls and so the correct decision for us this evening is that a permit should be issued but please let the word go forth that the era of disposable buildings in Melbourne is well and truly over.”
City of Melbourne councillors resolved unanimously to advise the Department of Transport and Planning the council would not object to the planning application.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
