Author:
Department of Families, Fairness and Housing
Date:
11 Apr 2022

We've prepared a draft master plan for the North Richmond housing site. Through community engagement to date, there are well-established priorities to support the transformation of the site.

Prepared for:

  • Homes Victoria

Consultant team:

  • MGS Architects
  • Aspect Studios
  • Sibling Architecture
  • Movement and Place
  • SJB Planning
  • WSP
  • Mosaic Lab
  • Yerrabingin

Acknowledgment of Country

We acknowledge the inspiration and responsibility to design with Country and her Kin.

We acknowledge Wurundjeri Country. We acknowledge the custodianship of its people and the privilege and responsibility to Connect with Country. We acknowledge the inspiration and responsibility to design with Country and her Kin.

Six layers of Country

This master plan is based on the principle of Connection with Country rather than just including it.

Below, the complexity of Country is shared as layers – the master plan seeks to connect and contribute to all of these layers, offering strategies where both Country, and People on Country, are sustained.

Wurru Wurru – Sky Country

Sky Country is a place of spirits and the ancestors and includes knowledge about navigation, the seasons, time and Songlines. It is also an important component of ceremony as it allows engagement with our ancestors and spiritual beings.

Tharangalk Biik – Forest Country

Forest Country fills the senses with colour, smells and sounds, our refuge and that for our kin, the animals. This is where we learn about the connection of all living things and our responsibilities and roles within this web of connections.

Biik-Du – On Country

Is the layer of people and community, where our spirituality is embedded in environmental consciousness. To be on Country is to be a Custodian of Country it is where we record and share our knowledge through story, song, dance and art.

Murnmut Biik – Wind Country

Wind Country carries the messages of seasonal change, the songs and words of our ancestors across Country. Where the landscape and light vibrates to a rhythm, be it the trees and the grass, or the clouds racing across the sky.

Biik Ut – Below Country

Below Country is the most Ancient of connections and one that we honour for the many gifts it shares, such as the greenstone axe, the ochres that we paint with. When we dance we are celebrating and honouring the spiritual beings below our feet and their kin in Sky Country, representing the extent and connection of Country

Baanj Biik – Water Country

Water Country is the connective tissue, the circulatory system, the confluences and paths within and between Country. The meeting of Salt and fresh water, where one drop forms setting a path through Country, connecting with story and landscape.

The story so far

North Richmond will be a safe, thriving, and connected community with high-quality homes activated by a vibrant community.

We have prepared a draft master plan for the North Richmond housing site. Through community engagement to date, there are well-established priorities to support the transformation of the site.

The Victorian Government is working to make North Richmond a better place to live, work in and visit. The master plan is one of many activities underway to achieve our vision. It will focus on improvements including new housing, uses which respond to local needs and provide opportunities for employment, new safer streets, and better green and shared places.

There are 4 key phases to developing the Master plan. In phase 2, Homes Victoria prepared a framework to provide a high-level spatial vision for the site, which was consulted on in late 2021.

We are now in phase 3. In this phase, the framework has been refined into a detailed draft master plan and we are now coming back to the community for further consultation.

The master plan process

  • Download' The master plan process'

Revitalising North Richmond

Design quality must be supported by a valued social and community network.

To achieve a safe, vibrant, and connected North Richmond community, design quality must be supported by a valued social and community network to create an ‘ecology of success.’

A successful place is brought to life by the strength of its community. Great places are created when residents and communities are empowered to succeed. The transformation of the site will celebrate its rich cultural diversity and support growth and learning opportunities that connect to North Richmond’s unique story.

A good community balances housing with great destinations to work, meet, and learn. Great homes are sustainable in their design and are respectful of their neighbours. Great spaces are diverse and connected, allowing people to be play sports or simply sit and relax. They should also represent the history and identity of the community that live there.

This master plan is based on the principle of Connection with Country, sharing the complexity of Country as layers. The master plan seeks to connect and contribute to these layers, offering ways where both Country, and People on Country are sustained.

A safe and connected North Richmond community

  • Download' A safe and connected North Richmond community'

The 6 key moves

The master plan has been shaped by our understanding of what makes North Richmond special.

Based on feedback from those who live and work in the area, the master plan has been shaped by our understanding of what makes North Richmond special.

We have listened to the North Richmond community and key stakeholders who have told us what matters most to them. This includes things that they like about where they live and opportunities for improvements.

We have developed 6 key moves to help organise the spaces within the housing site. Each key move addresses an issue or opportunity for improvement that people have told us about.

The feedback we received in the earlier phases has helped us to refine the key moves and establish a set of principles that are designed to improve outcomes for residents and the broader North Richmond community by:

  • increasing the number of social and affordable homes helping to accommodate more Victorians
  • delivering new work, shopping, community facilities and learning spaces
  • creating new safer streets, better parks, and places for recreation
  • connecting what we do and how we do it to Country and sustaining People on Country.

1. A housing site that feels separated from its neighbourhood

Neighbourhoods: Transform the site from one housing site to a series of neighbourhoods, with a mix of uses that connect into North Richmond.

2. Existing homes are not meeting the needs of residents

Homes: Build new homes that meet the needs of current and future residents.

3. Inactive and unused public spaces encourage anti-social behaviour

Open spaces: Create a network of safe parks and playgrounds for the enjoyment of the community.

4. Unsafe, indirect connections and poor way-finding

Connections: Improve connections to allow safe pedestrian, cycle and vehicle movement.

5. A diverse community that is not visible

Sustainability and culture: Provide infrastructure that supports opportunity for cultural expression and community connection.

  • Ensure continuous Indigenous involvement
  • Increase biodiversity
  • Celebrate cultural diversity
  • Increase community programming of spaces
  • Future-proof homes and other buildings
  • Create a safe place for everyone
  • Move towards Net Zero and best practice sustainability
  • Introduce productive and healthy landscapes

6. Multiple development projects delivered concurrently

Concentrate activity: Coordinate investment to align change across the precinct over time.

A reconnected North Richmond

North Richmond will be a community of quality spaces and places that celebrates the rich cultural diversity and heritage that makes it special.

North Richmond will be a community of quality spaces and places that celebrates the rich cultural diversity and heritage that makes it special.

The master plan:

  • is formed by 4 neighbourhoods to create vibrancy and activity that reconnects to North Richmond
  • balances new homes for more residents with better access, infrastructure, parks, and public spaces across the site
  • ensure the parks, the trees and the spaces in between buildings are important in creating a safe and thriving place to live
  • allows for the safe movement of people, bikes, and vehicles through well-designed streets and connections
  • paves the way to a net zero carbon site that provides a comfortable place to live, resilient to the effects of a changing climate
  • coordinates projects and upgrades, to create safe and active places for community activities, health services, and recreation.

Some of the key delivered outcomes:

  1. 23,000 square metres of community, commercial and other local services
  2. Around 800 new social and affordable homes
  3. New skills and learning opportunities
  4. More than 2 hectares of high-quality public open space
  5. More than 2km of safe pedestrian walks
  6. Upgrade existing dwellings Improved environmental standards and opportunities for site-wide solutions.