Guided Walk around the Brisbane Showgrounds

On March 25, the Brisbane Showgrounds was announced as the site of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Athletes Village. Join LatStudios and Blaklash for a slow lap of the Showgrounds, exploring the fabric of this historic and culturally rich Brisbane icon and emerging inner-city precinct, as it prepares to embrace catalytic change for its future.

This walk invites participants to reflect on the layers of history embedded in the site—from its agricultural and community roots to its evolving urban fabric. Together, we’ll consider what it means for a place of rich historical and cultural significance to take on a new identity as a key Olympic site, and how design, culture, and community voices can shape its future.

The story of an ever-evolving Brisbane icon revealed…

As Brisbane’s most significant urban renewal precinct – and home to Brisbane’s much-loved Ekka – the historic Brisbane Showgrounds has been transformed from a place once only accessible during show times, to a unique mixed-use destination.

Looking back over the last 15 years the significance of this transformation is revealed as the precinct has:

• opened up the Brisbane Showgrounds to the City,
• established a new mixed-use destination with a vibrant, high quality public realm designed in tune with our subtropical climate,
• enhanced pedestrian and cyclist permeability and connections,
• protected and integrated heritage buildings and spaces celebrating its distinctive character,
• protected the iconic Fig trees for their heritage significance and deep shading canopies,
• provided new road access, parking and public transport nodes,
• introduced new public parks and plazas with improved equitable access and close to public transport, and
• created a new liveable neighbourhood.

Key design moves that facilitated this transformation included:

• the selective removal and relocation of buildings to create new public and greenspace – including The Plaza and Alexandria Park,
• the creation of King Street – the main activity spine through the heart of the wider urban renewal precinct – establishing a vital pedestrian link between The Plaza and St Pauls Terrace,
• the decision to make the southern footpath wider to take advantage of the low winter sun for outdoor living and dining,
• integrated bio retention gardens in the public spaces and into an urban streetscape for the first time in Brisbane – discretely housing the stormwater treatment devices within the gardens and tree pits, and
• introducing a native tree and plant palette for the first time in the city context referencing the Showgrounds’ rural connections.

With the announcement of the Brisbane Showgrounds as the site of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Athletes Village, this historic and culturally rich Brisbane icon will continue to evolve in new and exciting ways.

 LatStudios is an award-winning, multidisciplinary design collective of urban designers, landscape architects, architects, and landscape planners. Their design culture is drawn from a shared appreciation that the success of a place – regardless of scale or function – is fundamentally determined by responsiveness to environment and context. They are passionate about achieving positive, intergenerational outcomes, and are in the privileged position of shaping cities, places, and environments. They acknowledge the responsibility through their work to support the health and wellbeing of Country by respecting, valuing and being guided by First Nations people.

Blaklash