Please note: this is now the second day of the conference – Day One was on 1 February. It’s fine to attend Day 2 if you were unable to make the first session.

Please join the Society for an exploration of the opportunities and challenges of delivering both a benchmark proposal for urban sustainability and facilities that are fit for the organisation’s 21st century purpose.

This second day of our membership conference will commence with a 10:00am arrival, finishing by 1:00pm and some lunch.

During both days of the conference, we are looking at how can weave our scientific mission into the very fabric of the redeveloped site (both the buildings and the grounds). We have embarked on this journey with experts from a number of fields as well as our architect partners from DeciBel, who share our enthusiasm to deliver a design for the site that is influenced by, informed by and steeped in our scientific knowledge and approach.

On Day 1 (1 February) we dreamed big and imagined how the site could be used, led by Dr Anthony Boxshall from Science into Action.

Some brief presentations were provided by the following subject experts:

Professor Bill Melbourne, MEL Consultants Pty Ltd, Wind Engineering – the engineering challenge

Associate Professor Nick Williams, Melbourne School of Ecosystem & Forest Sciences – opportunities to support urban ecology through design

Professor Tim Entwisle MRSV, Director, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria – designing a demonstration site that explains its own science

Dr Gillian Sparkes, Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability – using the precinct to monitor environmental data

Ms Charley Woolmore, Wurundjeri Council – Indigenous heritage, knowledge and bush food opportunities

Mr Rob Gell MRSV, ReThink Sustainability – the site as a showcase for what is possible in sustainable building

Mr Chris Jones MRSV, DeciBel Architecture – programming the precinct space (purpose and functions)

Following presentations, we broke up into five focus groups over two sessions to capture a breadth of ideas and inputs, then fed these back into a central forum. With these outputs from Day 1, our architect colleagues from DeciBel will turn these ideas into actual design briefs for us to review and build upon further this Friday, 8 February.

So on Day 2 (8 February), we get into the details. DeciBel expertise will present our big ideas back to us as official architectural Design Briefs. We will spend the morning refining and improving them as well as responding to questions and challenges posed by our architects. From this day, there will be tangible, tractable set of site elements that can be costed and designed. These will go into the final site redevelopment plan.

Our objective is to weave your big ideas into the fabric of the design for the future of our historic site. For this co-design process, you will need to bring your scientific know-how, your creativity, your ability to constructively challenge yourself and others, as well as a sense of fun. We hope you can participate!

Subscribed RSV Members only please. We will be joined by some external colleagues with suitable expertise to contribute to planning. If you are yet to renew your membership, please contact the RSV office on 9663 5259 or login to your profile at https://www.joinit.org/o/rsv/members .