Here you can find out more about all the creative ways which WestWyck incorporates the latest and most effective ideas in sustainability from around the world into the development.
WestWyck ecovillage now occupies the building and grounds of the former Brunswick West Primary School in inner suburban Melbourne.
The WestWyck developers are critical of the common development pathway adopted around the globe in the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first.
At WestWyck energy efficiency is designed into all dwellings. The same principle of emphasis upon 'reduction' applies
WestWyck has passed the halfway mark and plans are approved for the second stage and design is well advanced.
WestWyck ecovillage is a convivial place to live, a place where everyone knows their neighbours and where everyone feels a sense of safety.
WestWyck has a mission to influence. Through provision of a demonstration ecovillage model, it aims to support and facilitate the evolution of sustainability policies and practices that relate to the built form within an urban community.
Art work in the grounds of WestWyck
WestWyck Ecovillage now occupies the building and grounds of the former Brunswick West Primary School in inner suburban Melbourne. The school ran out of students in the 1980s and threatened to become yet another example of quality inner-urban infrastructure that faced the bulldozer. This story has a happier ending than many as committed developers stepped in to bring the building and site to new and vibrant life as an urban demonstration showpiece of sustainable development and good design.
Brunswick, perhaps the most diverse villages on earth
The WestWyck developers are critical of the common development pathway adopted around the globe in the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. This blueprint under which we continue to roll out 'affordable' housing around the fringes of our hopelessly sprawled cities is a prime example of market failure, loaded with unaffordable social, environmental and economic costs.
WestWyck's ecovillage is designed to build community and connect people in a way which reduces their environmental footprint. When completed, the village will consist of thirty dwellings, twelve of them warehouse-style apartments skilfully designed into the classrooms and corridors of the Victorian era school building. The spaces between the buildings connect people and provide shared productive and recreation spaces artistically landscaped largely with local native or productive plants.
The WestWyck ecovillage strives for resource efficiency. Buildings are designed to high standards of energy efficiency. Water management pushes new boundaries in reducing reliance on mains water and minimising the discharge from the site of water via the stormwater and sewerage systems. The construction phase has reused and recycled where possible making careful decisions about the sourcing of other building products and reducing the amount of material going to landfill. Apartments and townhouses are built as healthy homes with careful application of benign materials and finishes.
Locals enjoying their planet
A sustainable future is not just an aspiration. Around the world One Planet Living is becoming a reality as communities, companies and regions change the way they work to meet the challenges of resource depletion and climate change. One Planet Living is a vision of a sustainable world, in which people everywhere can enjoy a high quality of life within the productive capacity of the planet.
In October 2013 Kevin McCloud of HAB Housing and Pooran Desai of BioRegional International presented WestWyck Ecovillage with a certificate acknowledging WestWyck as Australia's first endorsed One Planet Living Project.
One Planet uses ten principles of sustainability as a framework.
The entire project grows
WestWyck has passed the halfway mark and plans are approved for the second stage and design is well advanced. 2014 will be a year of action, selling apartments off the plan and getting started on the second stage of building.
The first stage has been finished for five years and thirty one people live in the new townhouses on the school grounds and seven warehouse-style apartments skilfully designed into the classrooms and corridors of the former school building.
Great care to ensure care free
WestWyck ecovillage is a convivial place to live, a place where everyone knows their neighbours and where everyone feels a sense of safety. The internal pathways, the garden, the clothesline, the letterboxes, the bikeshed and carpark are all places where you’ll encounter your neighbours. The Owners’ Corporate meetings are fully attended and there are plenty of committees an enthusiast can join.
WestWyck is living
WestWyck has a mission to influence. Through provision of a demonstration ecovillage model, it aims to support and facilitate the evolution of sustainability policies and practices that relate to the built form within an urban community. It targets change at the State Government, local government, water and energy authority and private sector levels.
WestWyck participates in various public open day schemes like Museum Victoria’s Water Smart Homes project, the Australian Open Gardens Scheme and ANZSES Sustainable House Day. In 2013 WestWyck hosted the Robin Boyd Foundation Association Open Day and received in excess of 400 visitors.
WestWyck frequently contributes to conferences both through direct participation and through hosting site visits for conference participants. The conferences have included development industry, professional association, local government and environmental events.
WestWyck has attracted a great deal of media attention at a time when the general awareness of the impact of our built environment on greenhouse emissions is on the increase.
WestWyck features in many school text books and other educational publications and students frequently use WestWyck as a resource for research projects. Currently one student is basing a PhD thesis on WestWyck and Christie Walk in Adelaide.
WestWyck has been recognised through several awards. In October 2003 the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand’s recognised WestWyck for 'making a significant improvement to the quality of our environment'. WestWyck won the award for ‘Business Enterprise’ at the United Nations Association of Australia’s ‘World Environment Day Awards in 2004’. WestWyck achieved a special commendation at the Australian Property Institute, Victorian Division’s 2008 Environmental Development Award. In July 2010 Multiplicity Architects and Designers achieved the 2010 Victorian Interior Architecture Award for their creation at WestWyck. WestWyck achieved its award of greatest personal significance in June 2011 when it won the Peter Szental Award for Sustainability Entrepreneurship a new award made by the United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) as part of its United Nations World Environment Day awards. The late Peter Szental had been a great supporter of and mentor to WestWyck and its developers.
In 2013 Lorna Pitt, co-developer at WestWyck, was honoured locally by Moreland City Council as part of its ‘Honouring Women’ program for her work at WestWyck.