Brisbane Needs Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals and a Plan: Peter Edwards

Peter Edwards, a key contributor to the early visioning of the 2032 Olympic precinct, is looking beyond the “2032 moment”.

Ahead of his hotly anticipated presentation at Urbanity, Archipelago founding director Peter Edwards spoke with The Urban Developer about making the city of his dreams a reality. 

But it will be what happens next that will be the key to transforming Brisbane into a world city, he says. 

“Our job is not just to host an event for a few weeks in 2032. It’s to actually catalyse a once-ever step change in the city’s growth. And you can use that moment as leverage to set the city up for success,” he says. 

While debate rages over the location of the Victoria Park stadium, Edwards says he’s “not worried about that” and that we should leave that to the bureaucrats and focus on the bigger picture. 

“It’s how those venues are delivered … and how do we use them as part of a bigger story about the city. This is our once-ever Olympic and Paralympic moment. It is the moment for us to have a really powerful and proud story about our city,” he says.

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Edwards is charging the industry and Queensland’s leaders to create some “big, hairy, audacious goals” for south-east Queensland, to attract investment, business, tourism and infrastructure in the afterglow of the Olympics. 

He points to London as a good example of using the Olympic moment as a catalyst for BHAGs. The city attracted big businesses, including Google and Microsoft, to establish their European headquarters in London. 

Edwards is encouraging south-east Queensland mayors to develop a similar mindset. 

“If we don’t give ourselves permission to have the city of our dreams, we will be doomed to forever board the aeroplanes and suffer the ignoble travel to the other side of the world to visit those cities made famous for the very things we failed to build for ourselves,” he says.  

“We’re one of the fastest-growing cities in the Western world and it’s entirely in our hands. And that’s an incredible potential that we really need to get excited about.

“When growth happens to you it’s very painful—but when it happens for you it’s actually a really powerful force for positive change.”

▲ Rendering of the Victoria Park stadium, part of plans in Brisbane for the 2032 Games.

Edwards, who was involved in the masterplanning of the growth corridor through Fortitude Valley and Newstead, is running the rule over another key growth corridor. 

“The city of Brisbane is going to double in size,” he says. 

“A strategic framework needs to be established for our moment in 2032. We need to plan for the north-east arc of growth.”

The corridor Edwards is referring to would connect University of Queensland to Boggo Road, the Gabba, South Brisbane and South Bank precincts, the CBD, Roma Street, Kelvin Grove Urban Village, through Victoria Park (the home of the Olympic stadium), the showgrounds, Bowen Hills, Albion through to the state priority development area of Hamilton Northshore. 

It’s a large swathe of land but one that Edwards believes can help to elevate and signpost the city’s growth opportunity. 

Edwards says it’s time to “start rowing our boats in the same direction” and plan for the future of the city beyond the Games. 

Editor’s note: While Peter Edwards has contributed to the urban design thinking around the Games precinct and Victoria Park, no architect or architectural firm has been officially appointed to deliver any 2032 Olympic venues, including the Stadium and Aquatic Centre. GIICA remains the authority overseeing all future appointments.