Breathe were engaged by the City of Melbourne to independently test the experience of working with the proposed built form controls for designers and developers, and to determine potential outcomes on actual sites in West Melbourne.

The testing was broken into four parts:

In Part 1, initial testing was undertaken on existing built form controls proposed by the City of Melbourne for the West Melbourne Structure plan, with the inclusion of basement car parking. In Part 2, we re-tested built form controls excluding basement car parking to determine and compare outcomes. In Part 3, testing was undertaken on additional key sites to proposed height controls. And finally, Part 4 proposed recommendations that provided incentive to retain existing buildings that contribute to neighbourhood character.

The resulting report provided a strategy for the West Melbourne Structure plan and clear and thorough recommendations to the City of Melbourne for its delivery.