The result of a national design competition to redevelop King George Square will fail to become a meeting point because of “thoughtless” design, Brisbane architects are saying.

The $28 million redevelopment by design consultancy UrbisJHD has received a barrage of criticism from the profession ahead of its opening later this month.

The redesigned square would become the “civic heart” of the city, UrbisJHD claimed. However, local architects have said that the design will fail to engage the community and being a blank space rather than a meeting point for city dwellers.

The new design includes no gathering space and is more like a “disparate group of huge buildings”, Gold Medal winner James Birrell said.

Dr Peter Skinner, associate professor of the School of Architecture at the University of Queensland, said that the use of a “thoughtless” layout of the busway that predated the design competition was not capitalizing on the square’s potential. “[It] looks more like a thoroughfare than a meeting place,” he told The Sun Herald.

However, the criticism is “premature”, Queensland government architect Philip Follent told Architecture & Design.

King George Square needed time to “settle” before it could be judged on its success as a meeting place and would be bolstered by the redevelopment of the Brisbane City Hall, Follent said.

“There are adverse comments about almost anything new in Queensland,” he said.

Despite this stance, Follent said he would have preferred a design in which a “dynamic and exciting built structure” provided shade for the area, rather than the vegetation in the current design.

The vegetation was “too sparse” to provide shade for such a large, crowded plaza and that could affect its success as a meeting place, he said.

UrbisJHD was unavailable to comment at the time of publication.

Gemma Battenbough

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