Thursday, June 23, 2011

Melbourne Australia Soon in 3D

The city of Melbourne announced that the city will soon be seen in 3D. A three dimensional (3D) model of Melbourne is being developed to help city planners better assess and communicate their planning decisions.

Future Melbourne Committee (Planning) Chair, Cr Peter Clarke said a picture paints a thousand words and for planning it is no different.

“The potential of this technology to help planners to visualise proposed buildings in a virtual cityscape of Melbourne before they are built is very exciting and has the potential to improve both communication and understanding of planning developments,” Cr Clarke said.

“I support the development of any technology that will bring more certainty to planning, improves the community’s understanding of applications and helps planners make the best decisions for Melbourne.”

Last year City of Melbourne planners assessed 1029 applications and over the last decade have assessed more than 13,000 applications.

Cr Peter Clarke said demands on our city’s planners and the complexities that they must work around has never been greater.

“Growth in and demand for office and residential space in the City of Melbourne has reached unprecedented heights,” Cr Clarke said.

“In 2000 we had around 620,000 people using the municipality every day. In 2010 this has reached around 790,000 and in 2030 we expect over 1 million.

“By many accounts, within the next five years the central Melbourne office market is likely to surpass that of central Sydney and at the same time, more and more people are choosing to make the city their home, both within the central city – in the Hoddle Grid, Docklands and Southbank - and in inner city locations like North
Melbourne and Kensington.”

Cr Peter Clarke said the emerging technology will give planners the ability to plot the built form of a proposed development in a 3D simulation of Melbourne.

“The model can actually not just plot a proposed building design but can also be used to assess shadowing on neighbouring properties, amenity impacts at the street level, relationships with surrounding buildings and how the building fits into the current built form of Melbourne,” Cr Clarke said.

Cr Clarke said the 3D model has potential to also speed up the planning decision making process by improving communication between planners, applicants, objectors and community.

“This technology has the potential to revolutionalise communication between planners, industry and the community as people will be able to gain a real sense of how the development will fit in with the cityscape,” Cr Clarke said.

“Improved understanding will certainly result in quicker assessments and better planning outcomes.”

The technology will be used formally for the first time at a Future Melbourne Committee meeting in November 2011.

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