Australian architecture and urban design are navigating an unprecedented geographic and structural divergence. On one side of the ledger, rapid demographic shifts, post-pandemic decentralisation, and infrastructure pipelines are supercharging regional growth corridors—most visibly across South East Queensland. On the other, Australia’s densest metropolitan cores are turning inward and upward, demanding sophisticated, multi-million-dollar vertical interventions to breathe new commercial and civic life into existing assets.
Two major developments this week underscore these twin forces shaping national practice: landscape architecture firm Arcadia’s strategic expansion into regional Queensland, and the commencement of construction on ARM Architecture’s $170 million upper-level and rooftop overhaul at Melbourne Central. Together, they illustrate how design practices must master two distinct spatial paradigms: greenfield regional urbanism and high-density, complex adaptive reuse.
Planting Roots in Maroochydore: Arcadia and the Regional Boom
In a clear signal of the Sunshine Coast’s growing architectural gravity, national landscape architecture and urban design studio Arcadia has officially established a dedicated presence in Maroochydore. As reported by Architecture & Design, the practice has appointed industry veteran Jamie Franklin as Studio Lead to drive its local operations and regional pipeline.
The move is far more than a routine branch opening. Maroochydore is currently home to Australia’s only greenfield city centre development—a 53-hectare masterplanned priority development area (PDA) designed from scratch to deliver a modern, connected, and climate-resilient commercial core. Positioned directly along the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games growth corridor, the Sunshine Coast is undergoing a rapid transition from a tourism and retirement enclave into an integrated economic powerhouse.
“Establishing a permanent studio in Maroochydore reflects the scale of transformation unfolding across South East Queensland. Regional urbanism now demands the same depth of landscape integration, Indigenous co-design, and environmental performance historically reserved for capital city centres.”
For landscape architecture practices, this regional transformation presents unique opportunities and challenges:
- Subtropical Urban Typologies: Designing public realms that reconcile intense seasonal rainfall, urban heat mitigation, and outdoor lifestyle expectations.
- Country-Centred Masterplanning: Embedding First Nations cultural narratives and endemic ecology into greenfield frameworks prior to vertical development.
- Decentralised Talent Networks: Retaining high-calibre design talent seeking lifestyle parity without sacrificing exposure to large-scale, career-defining public and commercial projects.
Rewriting the Metropolitan Sky: ARM Architecture at Melbourne Central
While Arcadia expands horizontally into South East Queensland’s regional landscape, ARM Architecture is tackling hyper-dense vertical complexity in the heart of Victoria’s capital. Construction has officially commenced on the $170 million redevelopment of Melbourne Central’s upper and rooftop levels, as reported by ArchitectureAU.
Melbourne Central represents one of the most layered architectural crucibles in Australia. Originally designed by Japanese master Kisho Kurokawa in the early 1990s around the heritage Coopers Shot Tower, the precinct underwent a seminal, radical reconfiguration by Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM Architecture) in the early 2000s. Now, ARM has returned to execute another transformative layer across 7,000 square metres of underutilised upper-level and rooftop space.
The project will deliver an open-air public and commercial precinct featuring high-end dining, immersive retail, entertainment venues, and a dynamic rooftop public realm. This intervention highlights several key industry shifts:
- The Repurposing of Retail Infrastructure: Shifting multi-level retail centres from transactional shopping boxes toward activated, experience-led civic destinations.
- Complex Structural Engineering over Transit: Intervening directly above one of Melbourne’s busiest underground train stations and active pedestrian thoroughfares without disrupting everyday operations.
- Acoustic and Climatic Mitigation: Crafting usable, sheltered open-air civic spaces at height within a dense CBD microclimate.
Comparing the Spatial Paradigms
The contrast between Maroochydore’s greenfield urbanism and Melbourne Central’s vertical retrofit illustrates the strategic diversity required by forward-looking practices today.
| Project Metric | Regional Growth Core (e.g., Maroochydore) | Metropolitan Vertical Retrofit (e.g., Melbourne Central) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Site Context | Greenfield masterplans, low-to-mid rise infill | Dense heritage-adjacent urban core, active transit hub |
| Key Drivers | Demographic decentralisation, Olympic infrastructure | Asset repositioning, experiential placemaking |
| Core Design Disciplines | Landscape architecture, precinct masterplanning, urban hydrology | Adaptive reuse, structural engineering, complex interior architecture |
| Procurement & Risk | Staged horizontal delivery, climate resilience | Live-site construction risk, structural load limitations |
Strategic Implications for Australian Practices
What do these parallel developments mean for practice leadership, project procurement, and the broader built environment profession?
1. The Demise of the 'Satellite Office' Mindset
Opening regional studios can no longer be treated as a secondary business development play staffed solely by junior support teams. By placing experienced directors and proven industry leaders like Jamie Franklin in Maroochydore, Arcadia exemplifies the new standard: regional studios must possess autonomous design authority and deep local connections to win the trust of local authorities and progressive developers.
2. Adaptive Reuse as the Primary Metropolitan Frontier
With embodied carbon targets tightening and prime metropolitan land largely developed, the future of capital city practice lies in structural adaptation rather than tabula rasa demolition. The Melbourne Central redevelopment demonstrates that client capital will increasingly flow to architects who can successfully unlock square meterage within existing building envelopes and rooftop footprints.
3. Public Realm as the Common Denominator
Despite their vastly different scales and geographies, both projects hinge on the quality of the public realm. Whether designing ground-plane water-sensitive urban corridors in Maroochydore or carving out high-altitude open-air civic spaces atop Melbourne Central, the boundary between commercial development and civic amenity is permanently dissolving.
Looking Ahead: A Dual-Track Future
As Australia approaches the 2030s, architectural practices cannot afford a monolithic outlook. The practices poised to thrive will be those that actively embrace this dual-track landscape: cultivating the grounded, climate-responsive fluency needed to establish Australia’s new regional cities, while continuously refining the technical and architectural audacity required to reinvent our metropolitan icons from the inside out.