Building Mixity!

In times of explosive metropolitan growth and inflationaryinvestment, Building Mixity! challenges the status quo ofexpansive and unequal urban development in Melbourne,Australia.The idiosyncratic and often forgotten post-industrial precinctof inner-city Cremorne serves as a blueprint for a new visionand an alternative approach to robust and productive city-making.Building Mixity! uniquely examines the potentials of combiningadaptive re-use tactics with new densities as a holistic andtangible urban transformation strategy for professionals,academics and contributors to urban discourse. Especiallyrelevant is its reflection upon the effects of rapid growth onurban development within the Asian-Pacific context.Building on the existing rich atmospheres and assets of theplace, strategies and practical steps to cultivate mixity arediscussed from a design perspective, alongside contributionsfrom economic, historic, legal, and social angles. How candesigners, planners and crucial decision-makers sustain andfurther encourage mixity in a critical stage of extreme investmentpressure: not only fostering the coexistence of different buildingtypes, eras and character, but also enhancing the variety of publicspaces and the diversity of inhabitants, activities and economies,programs and architectures?Building Mixity! collects and combines mutually-informingresearch strategies: Design approaches are interspersed withhistorical investigations, discussion of community engagementand self-conducted interviews, critiquing Melbourne’s currenturban climate and development as part of a post-Global FinancialCrisis phenomenon.