Render courtesy City of Melbourne.

The City of Melbourne has announced the four laneways that have been chosen to be transformed into green spaces through the ‘Green Your Laneway’ initiative, which aims to make the spaces more sustainable and useful.

Katherine Place, Meyers Place, Guildford Lane, and Coromandel Place were chosen from an original pool of 800 nominations made by the public, and will be transformed into practical spaces with a strong focus on being leafy and green. Chair of the City of Melbourne’s Environment Portfolio, Cr Arron Wood spoke about the project, saying that laneways would be redesigned using a mixture of planter boxes, vertical gardens, climbing plants and trees.

“There are over 200 lanes in our central city but only a small number of these lanes have greenery. This is about making Melbourne’s famous laneways more appealing, green and sustainable places.

From growing vertical gardens, to planting trees and creating pocket parks, our laneways have enormous potential to become our city’s backyards.

By greening our laneways we can create cooler microclimates, capture stormwater and continue to combat the urban heat island effect. It’s good for the environment, good for the look of our city and great for people,” he said.

Katherine Place has the highest potential of becoming a park laneway – closing off the space to traffic and opening it up as a small park in the middle of the CBD is a viable option. Meyers Place holds similar potential, but could also be host to a vertical garden, due to decent wall space and suitable sunlight access. Guildford Lane is a prime spot for a forest lane, leaving traffic access while including new trees within the space. A park or vertical garden are listed as options for Coromandel Place, which is situated off Collins Street.

The entrants will now work with the City of Melbourne to develop concept designs for the lanes, which will be on display for the public in April, before construction begins in July.

The City Of Melbourne suggests that the four laneways will only be the start of the project, stating on their website that they are “currently investigating new ways of funding a fifth Green Your Laneway project.”