More-than-human habitat prototype installed on Lorimer Street

Last week we celebrated the installation of the More-than-human habitat prototype developed by Melbourne School of Design, at the University of Melbourne, with our partners at Vaughan Constructions. As part of Melbourne Design Week, the prototype demonstrates what a more-than-human approach to thinking about biodiversity in a rapidly changing urban context might look like.

This prototype is the result of student data collection on the site, which identified native bees and insects as potential “residents” of a more-than-human habitat at the site of 884 Lorimer Street. Using tree cut-offs (which would otherwise have been woodchipped), the prototype is fabricated with the help of robots, articulating new forms of architecture and urban design which are beyond our existing human-centred approaches.

The project imagines how we can support biodiversity repair and regeneration at Fishermans Bend. Based on a holistic approach to urban design and development, suggesting networks and corridors of biodiversity habitats, traced across the post-industrial urban terrain.

The project has been funded by FB IDEAs and Creative Futures Fund (MSD) and supported by Vaughan Constructions. It was designed and prototyped by students from the Digital Fabrication Elective, and fabricated by Michael Park and the Robotics Lab at the Melbourne School of Design MSD, University of Melbourne.

It is on display (viewable from the footpath) until Sunday 25 May as part of Melbourne Design Week.