2046 VISION OF THE FUTURE
Wurundjeri Country, Northcote, Naarm / Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
BY ZOE MJ
I am standing in my front garden in Northcote, and the street in front of me is finally what it should have been. No cars on this stretch. The road has been given back to native grasses and plantings and the wide wooden picnic table on the corner, surrounded by flowers, where a couple of people have brought their coffee and a piece of cake and settled in for the morning.
Bike lanes run where traffic once did. In the distance I can hear the tram, the train, the ambient hum of a neighbourhood that knows how to move without burning.
It is spring. Midmorning, the air is warm, a light breeze. I can smell the earth, the flowers, the trees, and somewhere nearby, coffee and baking. Small birds dart in and out of the bird bath. Bees and butterflies move through the native bushes. Behind me the doors of my house are open, and there are voices inside, a kettle boils, and some music. I hold my coffee and watch.
This neighbourhood is dense with green; native gardens, street trees, mini orchards, wild bush spaces, ecosystems forming connecting corridors of plants and trees that run the length of the suburb. Beautifully designed multi-purpose dwellings and multi-story apartment buildings meet all types of different family formations, are covered in walls of plants. Places of heavy shade, homes to insects, places of dappled light. Every block has a community garden. On the corner of mine, there will be a shared lunch on offer later today.
There are no cars on my street, though close by, shared EVs are available. Driving here is limited to thirty kilometres an hour. Bikes and pedestrians come first. Many people might take a quick dip in the Birrarung River today. The water is clean and cool, and the platypuses are many.
There is a deep sense of belonging here. A quiet vibrancy of lives being lived. Kindness and curiosity. Truth is respected. There is no homelessness. I love this place.
On the news today: the Birrarung is the cleanest it has ever been since records were kept.
I'll meet a friend soon. We'll walk to the new bookshop on the High Street. The four-day week is done, and the day ahead is entirely my own.
Envisioned through: Imagining a Better World, Melbourne Design Week, 2026
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Image generated with Leonardo AI, 2026
PROMPT: An early morning view through a front garden full of native grasses, grevillea, framed by flowering gum trees. Warm spring hazy dappled bokeh light. Beyond the garden, a single lane residential street with a wide sandy bike lane surrounded by vibrant native trees and plants. No cars, no fences, no power lines. A cyclist rides down the street away from view and past a beautifully crafted wooden picnic table on the corner. A few people sit with steaming coffee and cake, their faces obscured, silhouettes relaxed in the shady warm light. To the left multi-storey biophillic dwellings, living walls of native plants covering their facades. To the right of view a large public citrus orchard. Cinematic photorealism, high dynamic range, ultra-realistic 8K detail, a touch of film grain.