Description

Discover how innovation, collaboration and place-making come together in RMIT’s City North Social Innovation Precinct.

Situated within Melbourne’s evolving City North and the broader Melbourne Innovation District, the Precinct is emerging as one of the city’s most dynamic urban innovation environments. The Precinct demonstrates how education, industry, government and community work together to address challenges ranging from social wellbeing and workforce development to clean economy innovation, climate resilience and sustainable urban futures.

This guided walking tour offers special access to a collection of landmark buildings, specialist facilities and public spaces that reflect both RMIT’s legacy and future-focused research and learning environments.

From cutting-edge innovation hubs to collaborative learning spaces and advanced research labs, visitors will step inside sites where ideas are actively explored, partnerships are formed and new approaches are tested. As a living lab, the Precinct helps turn these ideas into action, generating meaningful impact that extends beyond the Precinct and into the city.

The tour acknowledges the cultural significance of the area, highlighting First Nations histories and perspectives embedded within the Precinct and shaping its future.

Pop into the Living Places Exchange and wander around the exhibition showcasing a rotating selection of RMIT’s learning, teaching and research with meaningful impact on shaping our places – a tactile expression of RMIT’s Living Places Plan.

Can’t make the Walking Tour? You can still pop into the RMIT Living Places Exchange and take a look at the exhibition! See the opening times below.

What's On

Explore RMIT’s City North Social Innovation Precinct on a guided walking tour offering behind-the-scenes access to one of Melbourne’s most exciting urban innovation environments.

Discover how spaces of knowledge, creativity and experimentation are being opened to foster inclusion, exchange and community-driven solutions in the heart of Melbourne.

Led by expert guides, the tour visits and highlights key RMIT sites including the RMIT Activator, Design Hub, Design Archives, Advanced Manufacturing Precinct, RMIT Cisco Health Transformation Lab, RMIT Living Places Exchange and Virtual Experiences Lab (VX Lab), alongside vibrant public spaces, historical campus locations and culturally significant landmarks that together shape the Precinct.

Discover how education, industry and community come together to tackle complex challenges, from social wellbeing and enterprise development to clean economy innovation, advanced manufacturing and emerging technologies. Through engaging commentary and storytelling, participants will gain insight into how these spaces support experimentation, skill-building and cross-sector collaboration, and how ideas are translated into action.

A printed map will guide the journey, and a complimentary coffee voucher from a local City North café invites visitors to linger, explore and experience more of the precinct at their own pace.

Children's Activities

Children are welcome to attend with adult supervision, noting the walking duration and urban setting may be better suited to older children.

In Collaboration With:

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  RMIT Activator and RMIT Cisco Health Transformation Lab

  RMIT Activator supports aspiring founders, startups and organisations creating meaningful change through programs, initiatives and partnership-driven innovation focused on sustainability, community connection, health and wellbeing, digital capability and social diversity. Co-located within the City North Social Innovation Precinct alongside the Cisco Health Transformation Lab, Activator connects founders, ventures and strategic partners with the tools, networks and capabilities needed to scale impact across entrepreneurship, health innovation and social impact. Embedded within RMIT’s social innovation cluster and anchor funded by Cisco Systems, the RMIT Health Transformation Lab is a collaborative space for action-oriented insight, learning and initiatives, connecting design, systems thinking, technology and communication transformation to help reshape the future of health.

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  RMIT Design Archives, within RMIT’s Design Hub

  The RMIT Design Archives (RDA) holds a unique place among Australia’s collecting institutions for its exclusive focus on design practice across all disciplines: architecture, automotive, fashion and textile design, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, interior design and landscape architecture. The expansive archive holds over 350,000 items and 16,400+ items are available via the online database. The RMIT Design Archives’ home is RMIT University’s Building 100, known as the Design Hub, where students and researchers from RMIT’s School of Architecture and Urban Design disciplines can model, prototype, and refine projects using diverse processes, materials, and technologies.

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  RMIT Living Places Exchange

  The RMIT Living Places Exchange is a tactile expression of RMIT’s Living Places Plan – a living plan, not a master plan – and the vision and goals that underpin it. It is a platform for an evolving ecology of ideas that will help realise the Plan, showcasing a rotating selection of RMIT’s learning, teaching and research with real-world impact on shaping our places. The Living Places Exchange is now open to the public in Building 42 on Cardigan St, Carlton for people to drop in and learn more about the Living Places Plan.