Melbourne Design Week 2025

PRL Director, Anna Maskiell, has been invited by Urban Design Forum to guide participants in its workshop, ‘Re-framing the village at the urban edge’ as part of Melbourne Design Week.

Once a Victorian-era township 35kms from Melbourne nestled in the basalt and grassland landscape of Jacksons Creek, Sunbury has been incorporated within the metropolitan region and faces increasing pressure from nearby urban growth to become a new hub for the developing region.

This workshop invites participants to rethink the future of town centres (Activity Centres in policy speak) at the edge of Melbourne—with Sunbury as a focal example—by exploring how it could evolve into a low-carbon, walkable, and socially connected hub while reconnecting with the deep time of the omni-present landscape it sits within. How can we design strategically for the intensification of development while responding to local identity, Country, and ecological systems?

Participants will work in multi-disciplinary teams, developing rapid fire design propositions through a range of visual and spatial media. Guided by leading professionals in urban design, landscape architecture, placemaking, and sustainability, teams will craft innovative proposals that address the challenges facing Sunbury and illustrate a compelling prototype for how to adapt the town to its changing role.

Our expert guests include:

- Anna Maskiell (Architecture)

- Mark Jacques (Landscape)

- Andy Fergus (Urban Design)

- Samantha Smith (Sustainability)

More information and tickets are available here.