Food Court Arena

In preparation for 2032 Summer Olympics Games to be held in Brisbane, a new venue is proposed in the “ethnoburban” fringes to challenge notions of the assumed global and contest its homogenised visions to cement a “New World City” status. How can the Olympics better serve as a meaningful catalyst for urban rejuvenation beyond the city confines and enrich the multicultural suburbs?

By reframing our understanding of the local as having roots from elsewhere, the typical suburban shopping strip is recontextualised and new meanings can be found in blurred boundaries, liminal spaces and disjuncture.

In pursuit of a more authentic Brisbane urbanism that embraces its contested identities and privileges “otherness”, this market hall/community sports centre hybrid brings forth migrants’ critical role in place-making and cultural production of the city.

Through its flexible armatures and the invigoration of the streetscape, the migrant is imbued with architectural agency thus they are no longer the stranger or the guest, but now the local and the resident.