Wyndham City Council’s ‘Holographic City’ project scoops national award

Wyndham City Council has been awarded the 2017 National Award for Excellence in Local Government for its innovative modelling system – WynLens.

The project was selected from a field of 10 categories and was awarded the prestigious award at the National Awards for Local Government gala event held in Canberra this week.

The WynLens – Visualisation, Analysis and Modelling of a Holographic City project helps to enhance community engagement and improve planning outcomes by giving enabling residents to visualise local surroundings using interactive 3D and immersive landscapes.

Wyndham City’s Digital Research Lead, Adam Mowlam, who spearheaded the project, explained in a news item posted on Wyndham City Council’s website that the use of holographic mixed reality technology helps to provide stakeholders a first-hand three-dimensional vision of what the future holds for Werribee on Melbourne’s Western edge.

“Mixed reality can help bring an abstract or technical idea to life, so that a wide range of stakeholders can discuss and interrogate,” Dr Mowlam said in the news item.

“Mixed reality can also be used to document, tell stories and speculate the future – attracting future investment, influencing decision makers, using it to consult with our communities, and even as a form of simulation-based learning.”

Wyndham City’s Smart City Portfolio Holder, Aaron An, also said in the news piece that Wyndham was committed to creating and delivering “smart city” solutions embraced the benefits of new technologies.

“We are one of the fastest growing municipalities in the country, and there are definitely infrastructure gaps across our City,” Cr. An said.

“We are serious about fixing these issues, and the mixed reality technology is a fresh, new way of improving the way the City plans for its future.

Minster for Local Government and Territories Fiona Nash said in a statement that the City’s project would be a game changer for the region, with potential for the concept to be rolled out across the country.

“In developing WynLens in partnership with the tertiary and private sectors, Wyndham City has succeeded in employing cutting-edge technology to improve its local community’s understanding of planning and development proposals,” she said.

“This is an extraordinary project and is just another example of the high quality services our local councils provide rolling out across Australia.”

Ms. Nash said the National Awards for Local Government celebrate exceptional local government projects that are making a significant difference to the lives of residents across Australia.

“I am very impressed with the quality and diversity of this year’s entries,” Ms. Nash said.

“These annual awards clearly show that the local government sector continues to deliver improved services and better outcomes to help build the kinds of communities that our children and grandchildren will want to either stay in or come back to.”