Yarra Ranges Council is known for their excellent urban design work, including the recent award-winning project in nearby Monbulk. The Council began to define their vision for Healesville by commencing preliminary studies to inform a future draft urban design framework.
Our team identified opportunities to improve the activity centre of Healesville, which centres around the Maroondah Highway, a key thoroughfare connecting metropolitan Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and North Eastern Victoria. Taking a precinct approach to the study, Ratio’s team highlighted a range of safety, placemaking and walkability improvements around the township. We identified several challenges, including the inherent conflict between the movement of vehicles and goods through the town and popular tourist and local attractions such as local breweries, bakeries, and the nearby Yarra Valley.
In many similar projects, a movement study and a place study are undertaken independently. To assist the Yarra Ranges Council in determining the priorities and best possible outcomes for the streets of Healesville, Ratio’s team applied the Movement and Place framework as a key input for the future draft urban design framework.
The Movement and Place framework, developed by the Department of Transport, was used to define a vision for Healesville. By balancing the competing priorities of the activity centre, the framework helped to understand the gaps between the existing performance and long-term aspirational performance.
We look forward to seeing the draft urban design framework come to life soon through community engagement and further investigations.
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