Green buildings, vibrant inner-city precincts and an influx of futuristic jobs is how a renowned city-shaper predicts Brisbane will be transformed a decade on from the Olympic Games.
Speaking on The Courier-Mail and Nova podcast Toward the Games, Urbis group director (future state) James Tuma said Brisbane had been gifted a coming-of-age moment with the Olympics, with the potential to create one of the great global cities.
“The big risk for us is trying to cover all bases and do everything at a reasonable level, versus saying no to some things and getting on and being the best of the world at two or three things,” he said.
Looking ahead to 2042 – 20 years into the future and a decade on from the Olympics – Mr Tuma said he expects the city to be drastically different visually, while the way we live and work will also undergo rapid change.
“We will be much greener – we’ll have really green buildings, super canopies of fig trees on roofs, wildlife returning to the city – very different,” he said.
“I think we’ll see all the precincts which are almost gaps in the fabric of the city becoming really potent, high-energy, highly-specialised precincts that might be around research, might be around gaming, they could be around sports-tech.”
An influx of new jobs that “we don’t understand but will exist” will also be on offer, with Mr Tuma – who is the overall lead designer for the Queen’s Wharf redevelopment – also predicting more changes to how we all work.
“We got a bit of a flavour of that from Covid – a bit more work from home – but that whole model I suspect will continue to devolve and become more complex but also more flexible,” he said.
