Melbourne City Council will build a $5 million elevated greenhouse nine metres above Queen Street to provide space for fruit and vegetable traders during the $250 million redevelopment of the Queen Victoria Market.
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The council has awarded the design of the project to architects Breathe, which proposed the construction of a 200-metre long and 16-metre wide commercial greenhouse – suspended on columns above Queen Street.
Traders from the Queen Victoria Market's upper sheds - the market's A, B, C and D sheds near Victoria and Peel streets - will be asked to move into the greenhouse spaces.
The greenhouse will be able to digest some of the green waste from the market for reuse, and so that plants can be grown in it. The plan for the greenhouse was shown to around 50 Queen Victoria Market traders on Tuesday.
One fruit and vegetable seller who attended the briefing said that while the proposed greenhouse looked fantastic, the council had been very short on detail about which traders would move into it.
The greenhouse will be built on a series of columns so that a truck can be driven underneath it. Queen Street will remain open during its operation.
The council has worked with sustainability advocate Joost Bakker on the proposal, and would be able to sell the building for some of its expected $3.6 million purchase cost after it was no longer needed.
Constructing the elevated greenhouse will allow the council to keep its pledge to keep the market open for business throughout construction.
The council considered proposals from Jackson Clements Burrows and Kirsten Thompson architects, but selected the design from Breathe Architecture, which is behind the first Nightingale apartment project now being built in Brunswick.
Under its plans to redevelop the Queen Victoria Market, the council will move services in the heritage-listed goods sheds underground and temporarily relocate traders while the works are under way.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle was contacted by Fairfax Media for comment on Tuesday night about the elevated greenhouse, but did not return calls. Other councillors contacted about the plan declined to discuss it.
There is heightened secrecy surrounding the council's market revamp after the leaking of a confidential report to Fairfax Media ahead of October's council elections.
The Local Government Inspectorate conducted an investigation into the leak, but concluded it could not identify the source and has now finished its work.
The council's plans for Queen Victoria Market
A drawing from Melbourne City Council showing how its underground services area would work as part of the $250 million redevelopment of the Queen Victoria Market. Photo: Melbourne City Council
