Architects propose ‘Gabba West’ as Brisbane Olympic stadium

Brisbane-based design practice Kirk has become the latest entrant to propose a main stadium for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics with a plan for a new ‘Gabba West’ venue.

The architects are proposing that ‘Gabba West’, a new 60,000-seat stadium, be built above the Woolloongabba Cross River Rail site adjacent to the current, smaller, Gabba.

In this latest submission to the Queensland Government’s 100-day review of Games infrastructure continues, Kirk Director Rickard Kirk and Principal Dr Andrew Magub say the near-empty site on which ‘Gabba West’ would be built is the “most accessible site in the city”.

While the Kirk proposal suggests that the current Gabba would be retained to provide warm-up, support and ancillary functions during the 2032 Olympic Games, it suggests that the historic venue be demolished and the site redeveloped after the Games.

Kirk advised “importantly the Gabba West site already has the major transport infrastructure in place - unlike all the other speculative siting options proposed.

“It is not circumstantial (that) the city built its primary sporting facility here in 1890 and it is not by chance that the Cross River Rail Station is located here as well.”

Kirk and Dr Magub say their proposal to effectively duplicate the Gabba avoids the emotional issues of vacating East Brisbane State School and the displacement for cricket and the AFL.

It also notes that plans for a new venue in Brisbane’s Victoria Park had “a number of fatal issues” including isolation from existing major transport networks and noise next to one of the city’s major hospitals.

They argue that Suncorp Stadium is too small and the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre is “almost totally void of any major transport networks and amenity”.

Dr Magub noted the Woolloongabba Cross River Rail site, owned by the Queensland Government, needed minor resumption of land and could keep the Gabba operational until 2032.

In December last year, design and consultancy organisation Arcadis set out the case for a new stadium to serve as the centrepiece of Brisbane 2032 while, in August, the Brisbane Design Alliance unveiled a proposal for a stadium and surrounding sport and hospitality precinct on the Brisbane River.

Images: Brisbane-based design practice Kirk's proposal for a new ‘Gabba West’ venue, adjacent to the current Gabba (top), the concourse of the proposed venue (middle) and the new venue in post-Games mode with the site of the original Gabba redeveloped for housing (below). Credit: Kirk.