Creating a plan that keeps people active and connected

City of Wyndham Design-led City Discussion Document

Located on the western edge of the Melbourne metropolitan area, Wyndham is one of the fastest growing communities in Australia. The speed of growth meant that Wyndham City Council was overly dependent on existing plans, standards and approaches to urban design and transport-land use integration. A fresh approach was needed to make urban design central to all key city-building conversations and processes and to bring place and movement together—our team was there to help.

Our main goal was to bring staff out of their workload challenges, raise the altitude of their thinking, and invite them to imagine how things could be better if urban design took a more central role in city-building processes. We delivered a design-led city discussion document based on case studies, our own professional experience, and workshops with a broad range of council staff. This suggested a range of ways that the city could practically and easily move forward. It was organised around four key thematic areas: moving from a two-hour city to a 20-minute city, putting the heart back into central Wyndham, developing a transit-supportive city, and creating a design-led city.

When implemented, the ideas generated through this project will support Wyndham to move from a reactive to proactive approach for managing fast growth. It will leverage significant state government investments, build on the rediscovery of local communities, and create a city culture and way of working that has urban design at its heart.