RPAC Piazza

A FORECOURT SPACE FOR PERFORMANCE, CEREMONY AND GATHERING

Overview

Redland Performing Arts Centre (RPAC) is one of Queensland’s most acoustically pure venues, hosting shows from music to theatre and children’s entertainment. But while it’s an important cultural building, it is underutilised as a public space outside of performances.

To improve the building’s connection with the community, the addition of a piazza to RPAC’s forecourt entrance provides a place for gathering and creative events, as well as a new meeting point for show-goers.

Strategy

Redland City Council envisioned the transformed space hosting a coffee van, as well as events such as outdoor art displays and free live music. Accessibility, year-round comfort and an improved entry experience to the building were also key to ensuring the space becomes well utilised.

Our strategy was to create an outdoor piazza with subtropical landscaping that connects RPAC with its immediate streetscape, providing passersby with an invitation to enter. The building currently sits back from the footpath, so the addition of seating at the front of the piazza provides an opportunity for visitors to engage with happenings on the street. All other seating is located around the fringe of the piazza, allowing events to take place in the centre of the space. The trellis structure houses lighting and audio-visual equipment to support events, and a small pop-up stage adds further versatility to the space.

Subtropical planting around the trellis is sympathetic to the landscape of the area, providing further shade and breeze, as well as a visual connection to RPAC’s place in the Redlands. 

Outcome

The piazza activates an underutilised outdoor space, creating more opportunities for the community to engage with the building. It provides opportunities for light projections, art displays, a coffee stand and performances – all of which make the building a vibrant destination outside of show times. The structure also connects the building’s architecture with its surrounds and provides an entry courtyard for event attendees.

Carefully laid-out pathways guide visitors from the street to RPAC’s entrances, making for a seamless entry sequence. The revitalised space intuitively navigates people from the street to the piazza and then through to RPAC, creating a new community destination.

Project Summary

Completed: 2023

Client: Redland City Council

Renders: Kin Creatives