Brisbane 2032 – a catalyst for transformationSustainable stadia and arenas – sharing lessons learned for 2032 Brisbane Games

Q: What other insights have you gained from being involved in stadium projects?

Quentin: We've all been to lots of stadiums and sat looking at a game or an event and I suddenly realised that they’re all very inward-looking. You're building this box, this building, that looks inwards at something, which means sometimes from the outside it can feel a bit monolithic, a bit prison-like; almost where you can’t get in; you don't really know what's going on. And I think that was a big lesson to say, well, how can we create stadiums that have an outward look and connect better with the community?

Q: What are the lessons you will take forward to future projects, such as for the 2032 Brisbane Games?

Quentin: There's several things that stadiums just must do. For example, during the week they’re probably sitting there dormant. And then over the weekend they ramp up for a massive event, but then they drop down again. And that was one of the challenges when we were designing CommBank Stadium. Like most stadiums and entertainment precincts, they have a very peaky usage pattern and it's very hard to design for that usage because you're having to design for an enormous facility to come up to mode very, very quickly, do what it needs to do, and then drop down again.

That tends to mean it becomes very inefficient, either when it's sitting dormant or when it’s at full mode. So, one of the challenges and one of the things I think we need to think about is how do we make the stadium a 24/7 facility so that it can be used when there's an event on and function efficiently and provide what people need, but it can also be used every day by the community.

So that means thinking about the stadium and that facility as part of an urban precinct, because a lot of these big stadiums like the one in Western Sydney, are in areas where there's a huge community environment. We think about some of the other stadiums that are right in the CBD. There is existing infrastructure there that they could tap into.

We can generate a lot of energy and a lot of water at a simple level because they are physically big objects, but because of that peak mode, they can't use that. So, can we distribute that energy and water throughout the community around it? Can we create a space that people can come to, maybe in a disaster event? Often, it's got large roofs, many spaces to sit.

Can we use those in a disaster event where people can come in and take shelter? Could there be office facilities in there? Could we have education facilities in there that can perhaps play off the fact that it's an event and sporting facility, so may provide an educational opportunity around sports, but create a community environment, create a space that people can be in?

Q: For the 2032 Brisbane Games, there is likely to be some demolishing and rebuilding. What do we need to think about with regard to that, from a sustainability perspective?

Quentin: Definitely design before demolishing. There's always going to be a need to demolish and change something, and that's just the nature of what we do. We don't always have a greenfield site to start with. So, we’ve really got to think carefully about the design of the final piece before we just jump ahead and demolish that. What’s really important on large stadia are materials.

There's an opportunity, especially with an existing stadium, that may be demolished and need to be upgraded or changed or rebuilt, that we can re-use a lot of that material in the redesign of the stadium. But it's very difficult to do that after that's occurred. It's very difficult to design for something when you don't actually know is there because you're taking on a site that's been cleared, for example.

If you can look at something that's already there, understand the componentry of it, the strength of the objects and the materials, the size and the shape, because stadiums have a very distinct shape, and take that forward into the design of the new stadium, maybe mimicking the shape, the curve of the seating, because structurally that's very important. You might be able to re-use a significant portion, which downstream impact means there are some cost savings, but that has a huge impact on embodied energy for stadiums.

And that's a massive part of the stadium issue and embodied energy, that amount of energy that goes into the materials and the creation of the object. Once it's built, it's done. You can't change it. You can change operational carbon, you can't change embodied carbon. Just think about sustainability on day one, think about what you're looking at – a very large object with a lot of materials in it and ask: What can we do differently?

Q: Are there any other things that could be done to improve the sustainability of the Games and venues and other infrastructure that's going to be developed?

Quentin: I think if we want to change the way we look at how events are held and how we get more sustainable outcomes, we do have to stop thinking about the cups that are used to serve people drinks and pull it right back to saying, often we're designing for an event that might only occur for a two-week period, like the Olympics.

It’s a couple of weeks, a very big event, huge amount of people. But the legacy is what we need to be thinking about from a sustainability standpoint. We should be thinking about the long-term legacy of that project. This goes back to connecting to the urban environment or the environment in which it sits in the community and saying: How do we better serve that community with this facility? How can we flatten out the usage?

So, it's being used all the time and once in a while a big event comes in and it may be that we can make it a temporary event scenario where you bring in extra equipment, maybe extra air conditioning, for example, extra seating that comes in just for that event and then disappears somewhere else. So, you're not buying brand new materials, you're re-using materials that are already being used and you're designing for the long-term legacy.

Q: Are you feeling optimistic about the Games being a catalyst for reaching Southeast Queensland’s sustainability goals?

Quentin: Having an event like the Olympics does catalyse the industry to say, there's a significant amount of change that can occur because this event is coming. We've got other infrastructure projects like Cross-River Rail happening, so there's almost a convergence at that time when the Olympics is happening, when all those infrastructure pieces are starting to come together. But you have to set some very clear and tough goals now because all of these projects are decades-long in some cases. And, if you don't set a very tough goal now, by the time it's done, it'll be business-as-usual and we won’t have achieved that high goal.

How the government and the Olympics committee is set up to say: We want to see world leading sustainability so that we can achieve our carbon neutral goals, so that we can achieve environments that people can still survive and respond to climate – is so important. I think big events do catalyse cities and states and countries to create change, but it's really important we think about the legacy that leaves. That's just a small event in time. It's not the end goal. It's the start of something that creates a longer legacy.