urban shade structure in hypothetical melbourne city street. image by Lachlan Hartnett RMIT University

Urban Shade

Presented by Leanne Zilka

DETAILS

Free, no booking required

Design Hub - Level 3
Building 100 (Design Hub) - RMIT University, Victoria Street, Carlton VIC, Australia

DATES

Thu 15 May 9am – 5pm

Fri 16 May 9am – 5pm

Sat 17 May 9am – 5pm

Sun 18 May 9am – 5pm

Mon 19 May 9am – 5pm

Tue 20 May 9am – 5pm

Wed 21 May 9am – 5pm

Thu 22 May 9am – 5pm

Fri 23 May 9am – 5pm

Sat 24 May 9am – 5pm

Sun 25 May 9am – 5pm

As the climate changes, street trees are slowly disappearing and suffering. Urban greening provides much needed relief for the public to cope with extreme heat conditions as well as moderating local climate. What do we do to protect our public when trees can’t?

Urban Shade proposes a green canopy system that uses fabric and robust planting that is irrigated to provide a cool space for public to navigate during heat. Made from custom textile knitting in the whole garment knitting machines, the knits are complex systems that promote plant growth, root systems as well as provide shade. This is a light-weight solution using alternative fabrication ideas to help us think about unique solutions to our built environment.

Participants

Lachlan Hartnett
Lachlan is a current researcher in the school of architecture and urban design at RMIT based in the Floppy Lab. Lachlan has developed this unique model of urban shade with the Floppy Lab leaders.

Dr Leanne Zilka
Leanne is an academic, architect and co-leader of the Floppy Lab situated in the school of architecture and urban design. Leanne explores fabrication techniques between fashion and textile design and architecture in order to develop useful solutions to problems in our built environments.