Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel and Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao’s view on housing

January 29, 2026·29 min·2 clips

Tatiana Bilbao: the standard house was built for the industry that serves it, not for the people inside.

Housing is the first argument. Bilbao arrives through Andrew Tuck's careful introduction as an architect and academic questioning why copied domestic models keep flattening daily life. The issue is not only shape or layout. As the excerpt presents it, standardised living can narrow the ways people show identity at home. Then the conversation gets practical. Bilbao describes units that can expand and shrink over time, with kitchenettes, collective kitchens and laundries treated as flexible parts of the plan rather than fixed assumptions. Law is the wall she keeps hitting. Approval has not arrived, though the team keeps finding openings in regulation, getting close, and then running into another barrier. Modularity comes back with a warning label. When Tuck asks about contraction, Bilbao describes same-sized rooms where adding or removing a wall can double or halve usable space. Even water has to move. Flexible water, drainage, light and fixtures make it cheaper to imagine every room as serviceable. The Utopia project broadens the conversation without drifting away from care. Bilbao describes public care units for women, mixing sport, recreation, health, care and culture. The programme then turns to Australia. Tuck moves to the recently opened Melbourne Metro and the people behind its design. Lotte from RSHP and Kate Pleven from Maynard talk about Melbourne at a planning threshold as it shifts toward a grid model. The close lands on connection, with the suburban rail loop framed as a chance to link more people to better infrastructure before Tuck signs off in full Monocle mode.

As heard by us

A thoughtful Urbanist episode on flexible housing, public care and Melbourne's changing transport map.

The Urbanist pairs Tatiana Bilbao's argument for more adaptable housing with a look at Melbourne's newly opened Metro Tunnel. Bilbao is the stronger presence here, pushing against standardized domestic space and describing rooms that can expand or contract, kitchens that become…

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You want a housing rethink and a major Melbourne transit project in one listen.

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