🏆 2nd Prize in Group Winner – BMW Your Melbourne 2024 Competition
As Melbourne moves towards a more sustainable future, our project Recharge Melbourne envisions a city where coffee waste fuels mobility, fostering sustainability, connectivity, and community engagement. Through innovative design, we explored how Melbourne’s coffee culture can transform into a clean energy solution for transport.
Recharge Melbourne was developed as a collaborative project with a multidisciplinary team. I focused on design research, system ideation, and spatial concept development.
🔍 Research & Insights – Sustainability research, urban mobility trends, and stakeholder mapping.
💡 Concept Development – Circular economy strategies and coffee-based energy innovation for public and private mobility.
🛠 Modular Hub Design – Spatial system ideation for flexible, community-centered Recharge Hubs.
🏙️ 3D Visualisation – Concept renders of Recharge Hub spaces, modular layouts, and integration into urban environments.
☕ Circular Economy & Sustainability
🚋 Future Mobility Innovation
🏙 Urban Interaction & Public Spaces
🔍 Human-Centered Research
Melbourne is renowned for its coffee culture, public transport network, and sustainability goals.
Our project, Recharge Melbourne, proposes a future where coffee waste fuels urban mobility, integrating wireless EV charging, biodiesel from coffee grounds, and community-driven innovation.
- 200 million disposable cups discarded annually
- 60,000 tonnes of coffee grounds wasted
- Limited sustainable public transport solutions
Our goal was to turn Melbourne’s coffee culture into an energy source while fostering urban sustainability.
Coffee-Based Energy for Mobility
Transforming waste coffee grounds into biodiesel to power electric vehicles (EVs), reducing waste and carbon emissions.
Wireless Charging Trams
Inductive charging embedded in tram tracks to eliminate overhead wires, enhancing city aesthetics and efficiency.
Recharge Hub: A Community Space for Sustainability
A multi-functional modular hub with Smart EV charging, Urban gardens using recycled coffee grounds as fertiliser, Workshop space, Device Charging area and Zero-waste café with a coffee cup return system
Magic Melbourne App
A digital platform where users can: find nearby charging stations, track their sustainability impact and earn eco-rewards for coffee cup returns
Recharge Melbourne was a collaborative project that allowed me to explore and share ideas for reimagining Melbourne in 2030. Through this experience, I strengthened my time management, collaboration, and communication skills. Participating in the competition also gave me valuable exposure to diverse perspectives by exploring ideas from other teams, enriching my understanding of urban development through a multidisciplinary lens. It was a meaningful opportunity to think critically and act collectively toward shaping a better future for our beloved city.
