‘We have to find a place to flatten out’: Designs revealed for Brisbane Olympic stadium

The design of the centrepiece stadium for Brisbane 2032 has been revealed, with its location all but confirmed at the centre of the 64-hectare Victoria Park.

Concept renders of the 63,000-seat venue were released by the Queensland government on Monday, the vision of Australian architecture firms Cox Architecture and Hassell, along with Japan-based Azusa Sekkei.

The four shortlisted architectural teams had different options, Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority chief executive Simon Crooks said, but generally “most of them landed on the same area” within the park.

“When I first started my role, I thought there was 200,000 cubic metres of earthworks,” he said.

“One of the solutions this team have come up with is only 60,000 cubic metres.

“Now we’ve got to work out what that actually means. We’ve then got to sit down with the master planning architect for the whole precinct, with [the Department of] State Development, and make sure we’ve got it in the right spot, level and location.”

Cox Architecture chairman Richard Coulson said the site, in a valley between Gilchrist Avenue and QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus, was the best location for the stadium.

“It’s a hilly site and we have to find a place to sort of flatten out a little bit,” he said.

“When we made that analysis, we were able to look at the quantum of cut and fill and that did influence it, but it’s also about putting in the position to retain as much park as possible.

“So the stadium is a component of the park but it’s not the whole opportunity and so there’s still opportunities around the park for game-day activation, for activities completely separate from the stadium itself.”

Hassall managing principal Lucy O’Driscoll said she did not expect the ultimate stadium design to deviate too much from the vision released on Monday.

“We really spent a lot of time thinking of that particular concept and this idea of having some open edges and really having something that speaks to the climate and the culture of Queensland,” she said.

“I think we’ll really hold on to that concept. The devil’s in the detail – how the roof will be detailed, some of the materiality, where the lift cores go – all of that may change.

“But I think that general concept of it being a really open, democratic, permeable stadium is something that we will definitely fight for through the process because that’s our key concept and we’ll hold on to that.”

Save Victoria Park spokeswoman Rosemary O’Hagan said the renders’ “latest tranche of greenwashed computer imagery” was not real.

“What’s real are the ancient trees, rolling hills, and native wildlife the government intends to obliterate for what could become one of history’s most environmentally disastrous Olympic Games,” she said.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the Save Victoria Park group was “loopy”.

“The Save Victoria Park group are just a bunch of NIMBYs that don’t want anything to happen,” he said.

“They believe this park has been activated for years. It wasn’t. It was a golf course. Before it was a golf course, it was a dump, for goodness’ sake.”

Bleijie said earthwork would begin midyear and the stadium’s planned 63,000-seat capacity could be increased – if it could be delivered within the existing budget.

“If we can squeeze more out of the budget, add a few more seats, make it happen,” he said.

“But the budget’s not changing.”

In September, Arup was announced as the firm behind the master plan for the precinct, which would take in Victoria Park and the nearby RNA Showgrounds.

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