Education & Research

TACTICAL ENGAGEMENT - RMIT + MOONEE VALLEY CITY COUNCIL

How do you commute to and from university?

Do you walk, ride or drive?

Do you work or socialise locally?

Answers to these questions are essential to better understanding the social and physical health of our local communities.

The Victorian government (DELWP, Plan Melbourne) has recognised this, and initiated three councils to conduct ‘pilot programs’ within their local neighbourhoods.  These investigations will, among other things, better promote walking and cycling.

One of these identified local neighbourhoods was Strathmore - which is the study area for investigation in this class.

Traditionally, community consultation focuses on generating responses to a broad range of demographics from a large cross section of the community.

In this elective, we worked closely with the Design and Planning team at Moonee Valley Council, to generate creative topic dependent mechanisms for engagement (utilising 3D modeling for design and communication purposes).

Community engagement is an essential part of the design process - which is not only informative but essential in generating contextualised responses to real world problems. For students, this subject provided them with the experience of participating in a live, current and innovative project.