Five stories that got you reading and thinking in 2025

On this critique of Tasmania’s deliberate (since accepted) Macquarie Level Stadium, Mat Hinds argues that the undertaking has uncovered deep flaws within the state’s method to main city choices, noting specifically that Tasmania is the one state in Australia and not using a design evaluation panel. The opinion piece traces the location’s historical past from its First Nations significance via colonial occupation and years of deserted mixed-use visions. Drawing on knowledgeable recommendation, Hinds questions whether or not such a big, singular undertaking will be reconciled with the location’s constraints and civic potential. “A proposal of this scale should ship a compelling proposition of architectural and concrete high quality for the state,” he writes. “As an alternative, the potential for a high-order city consequence has been compromised as a result of a stadium, which wants spaciousness and networks to correctly function, has been predestined to a location that can’t yield these necessities.”

On this article, Malcolm Middleton unpacks the tangled planning journey of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, displaying how years of competing proposals and shifting priorities have slowed progress and sparked debate over the way forward for key public websites like Victoria Park. The article lays out the numerous iterations explored – from regional Video games concepts to present sporting amenities on the Gold Coast – and highlights the challenges of aligning metropolis and state agendas. Middleton displays on the complexity of mega-event planning, notably when a big, single metropolis council with its personal established planning tradition should work “in concord” with a state authorities that switched events at an important decision-making stage, all whereas managing the broader pursuits of a really giant state.

“Nothing might put together me for what I noticed,” wrote Jillian Walliss on revisiting Yagan Sq. in Perth, a undertaking she first reviewed in 2018 for Panorama Structure Australia. The article paperwork the extreme erosion of a once-celebrated civic area, the place public area has been carved up by “alcohol-fuelled” industrial infrastructure, and the place design parts realised via First Nations co-creation processes – such because the spectacular Waterline set up designed by artist Jon Tarry in collaboration with Facet Studios – have now been relegated to a dank undercroft inside a beer backyard. Walliss characterised the transformation as “a butchering of public area” and questioned the passive reporting of those adjustments, which came about “with minimal session with the unique designers.”

In her opinion piece “Prohibiting the general public curiosity,” Elizabeth Farrelly takes intention on the New South Wales Environmental Planning and Evaluation (Planning System Reforms) Invoice 2025, warning that it slipped via parliament with scarcely a murmur of press protection regardless of its sweeping implications. The invoice, which seeks to simplify planning processes and speed up improvement, is criticised by Farrelly as creating situations that would allow corruption. She argues that the invoice centralises planning energy in ministerial fingers, notably via the brand new Focused Evaluation Improvement pathway, which permits proposals to bypass consideration of environmental, social or financial impacts, the suitability of the location, or the general public curiosity. Farrelly describes the invoice as “trust-me laws of the worst variety.”

As one of many founders of design-build studio Balanced Earth, architect Michael Leung’s foray into “hempitecture” started with a motivation that hit near residence. After dropping a liked one to an asbestos-related sickness, he was decided to create a wholesome residence for his household. He turned to hemp – a non-toxic, carbon-negative and naturally insulative materials. This text by ArchitectureAu Merchandise editor Olivia Spherical paperwork the method of remodeling hemp right into a development materials, equivalent to hempcrete, its environmental and thermal advantages, and its value, which is akin to that of standard masonry supplies.