Double vision for city of Brisbane

IT’S currently carved up by freeways and scarred by a massive piece of infrastructure. But as major redevelopments go on around it, this suburb is crucial to transforming Brisbane into a new-world metropolis. CHECK OUT THE PLAN

I HAVE two next big things to suggest, one about mobility and the other a place.

Of the many changes that Brisbane could undergo, I’ve long held a vision of what I think would be most transformative. It’s bridges. Not just one here and one there, but sequences that create distinct and memorable corridors of pedestrian and cycle movement, possibly light rail, connecting several hitherto unconnected precincts and places.

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I realise that there is a proposed pedestrian bridge to link South Bank with Queens Wharf Casino, but it is an example of a point-to-point connection, and not especially necessary given the Brisbane City Council’s sensible intention to ban cars on Victoria Bridge to prioritise pedestrians and the Brisbane Metro.

The major such movement “spine” I would propose begins with the Goodwill Bridge, then council’s planned Kangaroo Point Bridge, across to New Farm, and then to Hawthorne and/or Bulimba. In one line, it would connect three of our major parks (South Bank, the Botanic Gardens and New Farm Park), three high-density residential areas, the CBD, two university campuses, and destinations like the Brisbane Powerhouse.

A vision of Brisbane’s future as a buzzing metropolis created by Urbis. Picture: Urbis

The three new bridges involved would cost in the order of $300-$400 million depending upon what modes of travel cross them – seemingly a lot but not when compared to other major transport infrastructure currently in progress.

Another primary corridor I would like to see will connect the West End peninsula’s increasingly high-density residential edge via Kurilpa Bridge into the CBD’s legal precinct, and via a new pedestrian bridge up to Roma Street Parklands.

The pending redevelopment of Roma Street Station and potential “Brisbane Live” Entertainment Centre will make this link even more valuable. The corridor could extend up to a new urban precinct at the top of the parklands and on to QUT’s Kelvin Grove Campus.

A third lateral spine more or less already exists in Queen Street Mall via Victoria Bridge from South Brisbane, but it dissipates in the poor quality connection between the CBD and Fortitude Valley. A solution might lie in reducing traffic lanes around Centenary Place.

I would use these spines as a template for other connections between and beyond them, and it is good to see that the council has announced a master plan to improve the CBD’s eastern riverside edge with a view to the interface for Kangaroo Point Bridge.

I am convinced that the best future cities will be those recognised as the best connected. Brisbane has the opportunity to use the corridors to integrate walking, cycling, the CityCat ferry network, and potentially, the light rail or a derivative of it.

The ability to readily change from one mode of travel to another, at a leisurely pace, would present Brisbane as a subtropical city with an outdoor lifestyle, as well as significantly diminish the reliance on cars.

The design of the bridges is important. They should collectively evoke the subtropical city and be innovative in structure that enriches the experience of crossing.

I would like to see a concurrent focus on the river which, while often described as the city’s defining feature, is really only activated by the CityCats and events such as Riverfire.

I worked on the Helix Pedestrian Bridge in Singapore (with my previous firm) that has decks projecting out for people to view events in Marina Bay.

This could easily happen here, but we need to ramp up events to watch and participate in. There are enough straight reaches to stage rowing, kayaking, dragon boat races and the like; sailing is tight but possible.

I would love to see more engagement with the river – at South Bank as well as other frontages, and the river buzzing with life.

The second big focus I’d prioritise is Bowen Hills, presently carved up by freeways and the scar of Mayne Railyards. Around the railyards are several urban renewal precincts – the RNA Showgrounds, the emerging Herston Quarter adjoining Royal Brisbane Hospital, Newstead Riverpark, Albion Exchange and potentially Albion Park, all currently seen as separate redevelopment areas.

Mayne Railyards is the hole in the donut, with the adjoining renewal precincts, totalling an area considerably bigger than Brisbane CBD. The opportunity of seeing this vast area as a cohesive whole is, I think, huge. This will create a new type of metropolis.

Mayne would be its hub, a precinct of towers around a large central park. I don’t think it is far-fetched to imagine it as both a “smart” and “green” metropolis, powered by solar and wind into a central energy plant that shares energy between buildings according to demand.

As well as the fact that it can be served by extensions to the Cross River Rail and Brisbane Metro linking it to the CBD, from a “clean slate” it can be designed for autonomous vehicles and be virtually devoid of basement carparks.

Engaging a revitalised Breakfast Creek along its western edge, it would also be a waterfront metropolis, with multiple small bridges crossing to several existing parks.

The clean slate generates other opportunities, such as developing new models of housing affordability through design and construction techniques, such as modular construction.

Many buildings could mix residential and workplace, workplace and education, education and industry, and be conceived more as “vertical villages” than conventional towers. Elevated public spaces could complement traditional public realms of parks and squares at ground level.

Smart technologies would abound with the metropolis designed to enable provision of new technologies yet to be developed or devised.

Brisbane has endeavoured to call itself a “new world city” but the image is hindered by an existing CBD edged by old-fashioned freeways and conventional built form.

Bowen Hills is an opportunity few other cities have to radically transform our urban form to one that will set our city apart, without diminishing the fine qualities of place we already enjoy.

Michael Rayner is a director of Blight Rayner Architects. He is an adjunct professor at Griffith University and University of Queensland, and in 2011 was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for his contribution to the architecture and urban design of Queensland, and to the Queensland community.