Newcastle reimagined
The city of Newcastle is being reimagined. The lessons learned from the shift in workplaces towards agile, collaborative places that are not owned, but shared, can be thoughtfully applied to spaces such as the Broadmeadow Sports Precinct and Showground so it can be better used by the community.
This could be the Newcastle of the future and it is a concept and design that Leone Lorrimer, CEO of world leading design firm dwp | design worldwide partnership, presented at the Outlook Hunter Property Council Outlook lunch this month.
dwp undertook a hypothetical exercise that imagines repurposing the Broadmeadow Sports Precinct and Showground as a dynamic destination with multiple functions in one vibrant block that can bolster Newcastle’s brand as innovation capital of Australia.
“The Newcastle brand is about innovation. This region has been known as a centre for creative thinking, a hard-working mentality and a home to a variety of industries that established Greater Newcastle as an economic powerhouse in NSW,” Leone Lorrimer, CEO of dwp said this month.
“The link between medicine, tertiary research and sport is a seemingly easy connection to make for the Broadmeadow Sport Precinct, but further afield in the Port of Newcastle there is a link between the creative, logistics and construction industries that could drive an innovative business model.
“Central to a broader community benefit and a key attractor for the region would be a multifunctional entertainment space. Integrated with retail, carparking and an adjacent hotel it would bookend the sports and entertainment precinct, with the stadium to the west and an entertainment centre to the east.
“We can begin to use the assets we have more. Imagine if, in the case of Hamilton North Public School to the north of the showground site, the shared use of a repurposed showground as playspace and sporting field could allow for more classrooms on the school site,” Ms Lorrimer said.
“The rise of Uber, car sharing options like GoGet and driverless cars in the next decade will also alter our reliance on car ownership and private car parking and, when coupled with an improved public transport system, we will also be presented with the opportunity to repurpose carparking real estate here in Newcastle.”
“We have a fantastic opportunity in Newcastle to continue to build an innovative and productive city and these designs embrace the future while making use of the assets that already exist,” Property Council NSW Executive Director Jane Fitzgerald added.
“dwp’s designs show what we can achieve through thinking differently about the Broadmeadow Sports Precinct and the Showground and creating better spaces for the community.”