The Creative Brisbane Collab is a new initiative bringing together the corporate and creative sectors to speak with a unified voice — advocating for creativity as a core driver of civic identity, liveability and economic resilience. At its heart lies a bold question: how can the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games help unlock a lasting creative legacy for Brisbane?
TCL's Lisa Howard and Tim Ivers recently joined a diverse cross-section of designers, artists, planners and entrepreneurs at the Cultural Legacies Project — a forum for ambitious thinking around what Brisbane could become in the lead-up to and beyond the Games.
What emerged was a shared sense of potential. Not just for a successful event — but for a generational shift in how Brisbane expresses itself as a city.
As landscape architects, we’re especially focused on how this moment can reshape the city physically: to make it greener, more walkable, and more welcoming for people, plants and animals. Brisbane has long prioritised cars — wide roads, fast traffic, and sparse canopy cover define much of the city’s public realm. But the Olympics offer a powerful opportunity to reframe that legacy.
Imagine a city where the footpath matters more than the carpark. Where shade and street trees are seen as civic infrastructure. Where movement is rebalanced — not just for efficiency, but for delight, equity and everyday joy.
This isn’t about “beautification.” It’s about transformation. A creative city isn’t just one with galleries and performances — it’s one whose very streets, parks, and laneways support creative life. That means designing spaces where people can walk safely, gather spontaneously, linger in shade, and experience the city at a human pace.
Brisbane’s future lies not just in building venues, but in investing in the connective tissue of public life — in the small, the green, the walkable. Now is the time to shape a legacy that reflects the best of this place: its climate, its culture, and its capacity to imagine something better.
Let’s make this moment not just about the Games — but about Brisbane.
