Episode 29: Flinders Street Students

The Flinders Street station and precinct redevelopment competition was recently decided in Melbourne, and 3RRR’s The Architects Stuart Harrison and Simon Knott recently caught up for an in-depth discussion with the surprise team who took out the People’s Choice award.

Three Melbourne University students were successful in winning all four categories of the People’s Choice award in the Flinders Street Station redevelopment competition. The proposal submitted by Eduardo Velasquez, Manuel Pineda and Santiago Medina – three University of Melbourne graduates, originally from Colombia – was victorious in the public voting. They found themselves honoured by the company of Pritzker Architecture Prize winners Zaha Hadid and Herzog & de Meuron.

Minister for Major Projects, David Hodgett, said it was a “fairy tale win” for the students, who competed against established local and international names to win the People’s Choice Award in all four categories. Based on comments lodged with online votes, Hodgett said the open park provided on the roof of Velasquez, Pineda and Medina’s submission, and the ways it integrated with Federation Square, proved particularly popular. The People’s Choice Award was decided by public votes cast online over a two-week period. The process attracted voters from people in 161 countries, said Major Projects Victoria in a statement.

The competition jury was chaired by Victorian Government Architect, Professor Geoffrey London, with Professor Rob Adams from the City of Melbourne, John Curtis from the property industry, architect Cassandra Fahey, heritage specialist Peter Lovell, Gillian Miles and Corinne Cadilhac from the Victorian Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure, international architects Caroline Bos (stage 1) and Louisa Hutton (stage 2) and chef George Calombaris.

Following the announcement, all 118 submissions to the first stage of the competition (which closed in October 2012) have been published online. View all submissions at vote.majorprojects.vic.gov.au/entrants

Producer & Director – Ron Brown

Editor – Amruta Nargundkar

Camera Assistant – Tess McCullough