Melbourne Assembly day two as it happened: PM, ex-New York mayor share visions for more liveable Melbourne

While we take a short break from live proceedings, let’s take a look at some of the stories we’ve published in the lead-up to Melbourne Assembly.

As part of our series of stories on shaping the city, We asked planners what Melbourne would look like if it went up or out by 2101.

As Royce Millar writes, the population and housing projections from Johnny Barnard, founder of the National Forecasting Program at demographic consultancy Informed Decisions (.id), and commissioned by The Age , show where Melbourne will have to build up, or grow out, to fit more than 10 million people.

The data looks at two growth scenarios: a “business as usual” approach where the city continues to sprawl outwards, or a “containment” model where growth occurs within the city’s current official boundary.

If we settle for business as usual, our city’s footprint will swell by almost one third, from 2464 to 3436 square kilometres, gobbling up ever more farmland and green space. If we consolidate, we’ll need to squeeze an extra half a million homes into existing neighbourhoods.