Research Proposal Application

01_ Title

            Defining the future of the Bellarine Peninsula  

02_Sub title

            A new urbanity, breaking away from unsustainable patterns of previous 

            sprawling forms

03_ Research Question

  

-     What are the 21^st century suburban living forms of Geelong and the 

    Bellarine Peninsula, with its own set of defining cultural and 

    landscape values?

-     How can I conceptualise the spatial order of suburban 

    development on the Bellarine Peninsula, which embodies existing 

    lifestyle qualities and is 

    sensitive to the existing town’s characters?

-      What can I learn from new developments that can help make inner 

    city/town living, on the Bellarine Peninsula more desirable?

-       What can be done to refocus new development from the rural 

     edge back to Geelong’s neglected centre?

04_What

           

My proposal is to create a strategy that will enhance the current lifestyle 

standards on the Bellarine Peninsula, but also to create a basis of urban

living types that could be used to suggest how other areas around the 

country, that share similar urban development pressures, could form. 

I wish to generate a deep understanding of the current and future

role that Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula together have in relation

to a large population increase expected to occur in the next 20 years.

I suggest a redirection of planning towards New Urbanism, where a 

range of housing types are part of a compact and site responsive 

development, which aim to produce walkable and mixed use communities 

and neighbourhoods -this in return helps to reduce the travel times 

and demand on the automobile, taking on an approach to sustainable growth.

           

05_Why

           

“We live today…in cities and suburbs whose form and character 

we did not choose. They were imposed upon us by federal policy, 

local zoning laws and the demand of the automobile. 

If these influences are reversed – and they can be – an environment 

designed around the true needs of individuals, conducive to the 

formation of community and preservation of the landscape 

becomes possible”[1]

With a 45% increase in population within Geelong by 2030, not including 

the Armstrong Creek development, which is expected to house between 

55,000 and 65,000 people, and a 47% increase across the 

Bellarine Peninsula, with Queenscliff alone expected to increase by 733%, 

the fate of the region is undecided. With current trends in residential 

housing and urban development, the surrounding farm land is under

pressure to be subdivided into housing estates. The character, qualities 

and uniqueness across the peninsula are under “attack”. There needs to 

be a solution/strategy in the way new urban and renovated urban areas 

are designed, which allows the population to increase whilst being sensitive 

to what makes this area attractive today, with its safe bays and 

ocean beaches, wineries, golf courses, theme parks, historic towns, 

eateries, shops, galleries and beautiful countryside.    

Precedents:

            - Armstrong Creek Urban development

            - Coastal Towns Design Frameworks

            - Rippleside, North Geelong (David Lock Associates)

            - Eynesbury Township, Melton (ESD, Contour, Land design, Tract)

- Film - Radiant City, 2006, Film, Directed by Gary BURNS and Jim BROWN, 

  Canada, National Film Board of Canada

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[1] P. xiii, Duany A., Plater-Zyberk E., Speck J. (2000) Suburban Nation: 

the rise of sprawl and the decline of the American dream. New York, North Point