Matthew Tibballs

The Promise Ring – delivering vibrant and liveable activity centres for the Suburban Rail Loop in Melbourne

Matthew’s study “The Promise Ring: Delivering Vibrant and Liveable Activity Centres for the SRL” aims to provide a proactive framework for precinct planning with tangible design principles and urban strategies to ensure the Suburban Rail Loop in Melbourne becomes a legacy of enhanced liveability and not a symbol of missed opportunity.

Matthew believes the SRL presents a pivotal opportunity to transform and reshape Melbourne’s suburbs into dense and interconnected activity centres and that infrastructure projects like the SRL require a nuanced understanding of density, with investigations into how mid-rise and high-rise buildings can be integrated to achieve liveable and vibrant density around each activity centre. Considering Victoria’s acute housing crisis, Matthew’s study seeks to advance the debate beyond quantitative housing provision to explore the impacts (and potential) of mid-rise and high-rise towers within these areas.