Ready For Planting In This Paddock: A Smart City
The Age
Tuesday July 7, 1998
PLANS unveiled yesterday by RMIT for a world class technology estate push Melbourne closer to its ambition of becoming a smart city.
Four clusters of technology development and a business incubator scheme set amid parkland in the city's north will form the centrepiece of the project, designed internally at RMIT.
Plans for the 110-hectare estate, on the edge of the new ring road at Bundoora, were submitted to the City of Whittlesea yesterday. An interactive VRML (virtual reality modelling language) walk-through of the design has been posted on RMIT's web server at www.rmit.edu.au/departments/tech-estate.
RMIT expects the council to exhibit the plans to generate feedback from the local community and Victorian industry.
The Janefield site, previously a Department of Human Services facility for disabled people, is 18 kilometres from Melbourne's central business district, next to RMIT's Bundoora campus on Plenty Road. It incorporates part of the former Brock property, farmed by the family of former motor racing driver Peter Brock.
Professor Leigh Peterson, chief executive of RMIT Technology Estate, said the plan that took into account the impact of a development on the nearby Plenty Gorge and stakeholders such as the local pony club that leases a portion of the land, nearby residents, Parks Victoria and fire-fighting agencies.
A public 18-hole golf course will be attached to the development as part of a fire-risk and land-management plan. RMIT hopes to sign specialist development and management partners, as well as commercial and industrial tenants to the estate.
PROFESSOR Peterson said the four focus areas for the fingers of clustered development were: information technology; advanced manufacturing and automotive design; biotechnology and health science; and environmental science.
RMIT wants to move its city-based faculty of biomedical and health science to Janefield within 12 months, if the plans are approved. The first on-site student accommodation will be placed close to the planned golf clubhouse to ensure a critical mass for catering and other facilities.
The opening of the technology business incubator and space for commercial tenants are also planned for next year. RMIT bought the land from the Urban Land Authority a year ago and took possession in November 1997. It has also acquired land from the nearby Bundoora Primary School, which will relocate to a new site next January.
Mark van den Enden, who has worked with Professor Leon van Schaik, Dean of the Faculty of Constructed Environment for three years, is the manager of design for RMIT Technology Park. He said a number of buildings of historical significance would be retained and incorporated into the plan.
Peterson said talks with telecom firms and other utility service providers had been held to plan upgrades to basic infrastructure. RMIT aimed for the world's best practice, evaluating elements of other parks in Europe and America. Van den Enden and Peterson said because RMIT was investing in the estate for the long term, it was able to include features that commercial developers overlooked.
"When we talk long term to developers they mean five years - whereas RMIT will be here in 50 and 100 years," Peterson said. Van den Enden said it took into account design elements to ensure energy efficiency and to blend the new structures and estate divisions into the natural environment. The site is on a slope with a northerly aspect, offering good opportunity for passive solar design.
Materials for the buildings on site will be an important choice, says Van den Enden. RMIT research shows construction costs over a 50-year period represent 8 per cent of total building costs. Expenditure for heating and cooling can represent up to 38 per cent of total building costs. RMIT will also have design input with the golf course facilities, the commercial industrial park and residential area.
Meanwhile, Peterson said RMIT University was still in talks with the Melbourne Docklands Authority over the delayed Technology Precinct Development. RMIT, together with Victoria University of Technology, Deakin University and Monash University, formed the Tech 2000 consortium to develop the five-hectare site.
Prohibitive up-front costs forced the consortium to withdraw from negotiations. Peterson said Docklands, or other technology parks linked to universities, were not viewed as competitors but complementary.
La Trobe University, which also operates a technology park Bundoora, plans an expansion on its 20-hectare site. Ed Hilliard, manager of the La Trobe Technology Enterprise Centre, said the three-phase program for incubator companies, graduate businesses and industrial tenants was progressing.
He said new outside tenants include the State Forensic Science Lab and Environmental Protection Authority, while four new incubator companies were being inducted.
© 1998 The Age
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