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About Kooky and Shaka →The architects for the main Brisbane 2032 athlete village have been appointed, the Queensland Government announced in a Delivering 2032 update dated 1 June 2026. Woods Bagot, Cottee Parker, DBI and Plus Studio, working with the United Kingdom practice Howells, will design a village of 1,800 apartments at the Brisbane Showgrounds, while BVN has been appointed for the wider showgrounds precinct.
The update names Lendlease and the RNA, the association that owns the showgrounds and runs the Ekka, as the project partners. The apartments are to house athletes during the Games and become permanent housing afterwards, which makes this one of the largest single residential projects in inner Brisbane to carry a fixed completion date.
Delivering 2032 update, 1 June 2026; 2032 Delivery Plan for the Games-time capacity.
What was announced
The announcement is short and concrete. It gives the number of apartments, 1,800; the purpose, which is to accommodate athletes during the Games and convert to permanent housing afterwards; the partners; and the names of the practices.
Four of the five village practices are Australian, and the fifth, Howells, is described in the update as a collaborator based in the United Kingdom. BVN's appointment is separate: it concerns the showgrounds precinct as a whole, of which the village is one part.
| Role | Organisation | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Project partners | Lendlease and the RNA | Development of the village on showgrounds land |
| Village design team | Woods Bagot, Cottee Parker, DBI, Plus Studio, with Howells | The 1,800 apartments of the main athlete village |
| Precinct design | BVN | The wider Brisbane Showgrounds precinct |
| Village program | Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning | The State's Games villages program |
Delivering 2032 update, 1 June 2026; 2032 Delivery Plan for the department's role.
The stated objective, in the Government's words, is to establish the showgrounds as a vibrant inner-city community and a major entertainment destination well into the future. No design images, building heights or staging were released with the appointment, and the update gives no construction start date.
Why the village is at the showgrounds
The site is a product of the 2025 reset of Games planning. The 2032 Delivery Plan, released by the Queensland Government on 25 March 2025, placed the Brisbane village at the Brisbane Showgrounds in Bowen Hills. The earlier plan had put it at Northshore Hamilton, on the river to the east.
Related readAquatic centre design revealed for the Centenary Pool siteThe independent 100 Day Review that fed into the plan had recommended that the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning assess alternative sites for the Brisbane village, confirm a preferred one and begin procurement as soon as possible, so that a contract could be closed by early 2027. The Government accepted that recommendation, according to its published response.
The trade publication Wood Central reported at the time of the plan that moving the village from Hamilton to the showgrounds was expected to save about $2 billion in connecting infrastructure such as sewerage, water and power. That figure comes from press reporting of the announcement and has not been broken down in a public document.
The RNA said in its media release of 25 March 2025 that the showgrounds had been chosen and that Lendlease was its partner in the proposal. The release noted that Lendlease had delivered the athlete villages for Sydney 2000 and London 2012, and that the Ekka was first held on the site in 1876.
How many people it has to house
The Delivery Plan sets the scale. The Brisbane village is to accommodate more than 10,000 athletes and team officials during the Olympic Games and more than 5,000 during the Paralympic Games. Across all the villages, the plan counts approximately 16,400 beds for athletes and officials.
That makes Brisbane much the largest of the four. The plan also lists villages on the Gold Coast, as part of the Royal Pines Resort development; on the Sunshine Coast, in the Maroochydore city centre; and in Rockhampton, in the railyards precinct, close to the rowing and canoe course on the Fitzroy River.
Related readState Budget puts $417m into Games venues and $348m into villagesAn athlete village is used twice in quick succession, once for each Games, and the Paralympic use shapes the design. Lifts, corridor widths, bathrooms and the paths between buildings all have to work for a large number of wheelchair users at once. Homes built to that standard are, as a by-product, more accessible than most of the existing apartment stock, which is one of the quieter legacies of a village.
On those figures, more than 10,000 people will live for a time in 1,800 apartments, between five and six to an apartment, since 10,000 divided by 1,800 is 5.6.
What a village becomes afterwards
The update is explicit that the apartments are intended as permanent housing after 2032. It does not say how they will be offered, whether sold individually, held for rent, or a mix, and it gives no figure for social or affordable housing.
That detail matters to the surrounding market and is still to come. The RNA describes Lendlease as its long-term development partner at the showgrounds, so the village extends an existing relationship on the site. For Bowen Hills and the neighbouring inner-north suburbs, 1,800 apartments arriving together after the Games is a meaningful addition, and whether they are rented or sold will shape how the market absorbs them.
The mechanics follow from the double use. During the Games, apartments serve as simple accommodation for athletes and officials. After the Paralympics they are completed as ordinary homes and released. No timetable for that conversion, or for the first residents moving in, has been published for Brisbane.
Related readRockhampton's Games rowing course is endorsed; now it needs 1,200 roomsWho pays for the villages
The village is not part of the $7.1 billion Games Venues Infrastructure Program, which pays for the stadiums, pools and halls built by the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority. The Delivery Plan assigns the Games Villages Program to the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning.
The only total on the public record is an early one. AAP reported on 22 January 2025 that Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie put the projected cost of the four villages then proposed at $3.5 billion, attributing the figure to Treasury and his department, and said only $155 million had been allocated at that point. The same report noted that the previous government had set aside $410 million for the Hamilton site. Those figures predate the move to the showgrounds, and no updated cost for the Bowen Hills village has been published since.
A partnership with a developer and a landowner changes how such a cost falls. Where a private partner builds apartments it expects to sell or rent afterwards, the public contribution is generally directed to what the Games require beyond an ordinary project. How that is divided at the showgrounds will be set out in the agreement between the State, Lendlease and the RNA, which has not been released.
What it means for the Ekka and Bowen Hills
The village shares its site with a working showground. The Delivery Plan lists the Brisbane Showgrounds as a venue in its own right, with an upgraded main arena of 20,000 seats, and describes the legacy as both housing and an enhanced home for the Ekka.
Related readSunshine Coast Stadium: demolition tender opens as clubs prepare to moveThe appointment of BVN to the precinct as a whole reflects that double purpose. The village buildings, the arena, the show's pavilions and the streets between them have to work as one place, in Games mode and for the nine days of the show each August. The RNA's 2025 release presented the project as securing the show's future on its original site.
For neighbouring owners and tenants, the appointment is an early signal that design work is now under way on a site with good existing transport. The Delivery Plan's transport section lists the upgraded Exhibition station on Cross River Rail, which sits beside the showgrounds, among the projects supporting the Games.
A village is the one Games building that is designed from the first sketch to be lived in by someone else.
What comes next
Three things are still to be published, and each will say more about the effect on the area than the appointment does.
The first is the design itself: the number and height of the buildings, how they sit against the arena and the heritage parts of the showgrounds, and how much open space the precinct gains. The second is the commercial agreement. The 100 Day Review's recommendation, accepted by the Government, points to a contract close by early 2027. The third is the housing mix after the Games, which will determine who the 1,800 homes are for.
The same package of announcements on 1 June included the start of site works for the stadium at Victoria Park, a short distance to the west. With the National Aquatic Centre planned at the Spring Hill edge of that park, the stadium, the pool and the village form a single cluster of Games projects across Herston, Spring Hill and Bowen Hills.
Design teams of this size are appointed when a client wants several buildings drawn at the same time. On a project that cannot move its deadline, that is the point of this week's announcement: the drawing has begun.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
