Launch of Two New Activations

Two student-led initiatives, the Growroom and Fair Food UniCycle, will be officially launched in the New Student Precinct site on Wednesday 16 August.

The Growroom is an immersive, spherical garden structure that will be constructed as part of a collaborative build by students. The 2.6m meter high, edible garden has interior seating, making it an ideal place for students to meet and unwind amongst the foliage. Designed as part of IKEA’s SPACE 10 Innovation Lab, this open-sourced project will be a permanent fixture on the Parkville campus.

The Fair Food UniCycle is a mobile cargo-bike designed to make fair and sustainable on-campus catering and cooking easier. The bike will also provide opportunities for food education, skills development and outreach programs for students and the broader community. The bike is currently in construction by the fabulous workshop team in Campus Services, as seen below.

Students Marie-Luise Schega, Sophie Jackson and Sophie Lamond have played leading roles in the development of these activations.

‘The Fair Food Challenge was created to help universities make fairer, healthier and more sustainable food environments and co-create good food policy’, said Sophie Lamond who founded the Fair Food Challenge.

‘Getting involved with the development of the New Student Precinct and building a bike kitchen and a Growroom is a fun and engaging way to bring these ideas alive in our University community. From research and teaching to sharing new skills with a student just out of home for the first time, with these projects we hope to test out ideas that can come to life as the new Precinct is built.’

Both initiatives are part of the New Student Precinct Project program of activations and seek to encourage student engagement, place-making and interest in the Project more broadly. An opportunity to share your ideas about the sustainability principals that will underpin the design and build of the New Student Precinct will also form part of the launch.

To be at the launch please register via this link. Refreshments will be provided.

To view the construction of the Growroom head to the North Eastern curved wall of the Frank Tate Building on Friday 4 August between 9am – 5pm. The build will also be captured digitally via time-lapse which will be available to view on the New Student Precinct webpage post the event.

These activations have been generously supported by our friends at Burnley Campus, Campus Services, MaxiPly, Pollinate Energy, Melbourne School of Design, Campus Services, Cosurround and Fair Food Challenge.