2046 VISION OF THE FUTURE
Wurundjeri Country, Carlton, Naarm / Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 

BY KATHLEEN A

It is late afternoon on Wurundjeri Country, and the city is unrecognisable from 20 years ago - which is to say, it is more itself than it has ever been.

The spring sun is warm, casting a beautiful golden glow on everything it touches. The air smells clean and fresh. I am walking toward Carlton Gardens and the city has given itself back to life. 

The cars are gone. In their place: electric trams, bikes, pedestrians, and everywhere, the green flourishing of a biodiverse city. Plants and flowers spill from vertical walls and window boxes, fruits and vegetables growing in abundance along every available surface, in planters, on rooftops, in the shaded crevices between buildings. The old bitumen road surfaces have been lifted and replaced with sandy paths and plush, comfortable native grasses where people lay on their backs and watch the clouds drift by.

The light filters through trees and casts long, beautiful shadows onto the streets and buildings. In the shaded corridors the air is cooler, and there is the soft sound of drinkable water features everywhere, their gentle movement adding something to the atmosphere that is hard to name, but easy to feel.

People linger. There is no rush anywhere. Families walk together; friends picnic; neighbours who once passed each other in a hurry now stop and stay a while. There is a sense of contentment and awe, where those present seem deeply connected to their environment. 

Bees move between rooftop hives and the flowers below. A wombat disappears quietly into the bushes near the gardens. Small native animals, once absent from these streets, have made their way back.

This is a society no longer built around the chase for profit or competition. There is enough food, shelter, water, and resources for everyone. People care for their neighbourhoods together, tending the gardens and spaces as a matter of course. Sharing stories, learning from each other, accepting one another for who they are. Technology serves health and wellbeing, people are more present, at ease, spending more time in Nature, more time with each other, less time at a desk or screens.

Everyone feels supported to be who they want to be. To pursue what brings them alive. To simply belong.

On the news today: a neighbourhood came together to support a family in need. It isn't remarkable, it is just what people do, and it is celebrated.

I lay on the grass and watch the clouds form magical shapes in the sky.

Envisioned through: Imagining a Better World, Melbourne Design Week, 2026