Australasian architecture firm The Buchan Group is designing a vibrant $550 million retail, dining, entertainment and residential precinct set to transform Gold Coast’s Southport with construction expected to begin on the Queen Street Village following the Commonwealth Games in April.
The village will be built on a 3.2 hectare site bound by Queen, Nerang and Little High streets. Buchan’s team of architects and master planners were engaged in 2014 by Brisbane developer Property Solutions to design the urban village’s master plan. The Buchan Group Gold Coast Principal Brett Saville said Queen Street Village was a large scale project with at least seven mid-rise towers.
“Queen Street Village will be an integrated master planned community, featuring showrooms, food and retail tenacies, offices, childcare and medical centres, high-rise living and a cinema,”Mr Saville said. “A key element of our design brief was to ensure the village could include a wide range of uses to keep the precinct active and vibrant over extended hours, and that it can be built in stages to suit the market demands of the Gold Coast. The overall design will complement the site’s physical characteristics and the wonderful Gold Coast climate while acknowledging the surrounding land uses. At the centre of the site is the central plaza – a large landscaped space that includes convenient parking and is surrounded by activated shopfronts and building entries.”
Buildings have been architecturally designed to maximise the views from the site across to Southport and Broadwater, as well as to Surfers Paradise at night. Likewise, the proposed material palettes for the buildings will imbue each part of the overall development with distinct character while promoting harmony across the breadth of the site.
“The materials on the towers are crisp and modern while the colour schemes maximise the impacts of light and shade on the external walls,” said Saville. “The project will really cement Southport as a place where people can work, live and play.”
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