QUEENSLAND COUNTRY BANK STADIUM Location Townsville, Australia Operator Stadiums Queensland Client Department of State Development Architect COX architecture www.coxarchitecture.com.au Counterpoint Architecture www.cpoint.com.au Author COX architecture Photos Andrew Rankin SB Creative Co Official opening February 2020 Construction costs AUD 250 million (EUR 162 million)
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RUGBY AND FOOTBALL STADIUM IN TOWNSVILLE, AUSTRALIA The Queensland Country Bank Stadium took a year to design and only two years to build. A fan-focused seating bowl and food-and-beverage facilities create an optimum game experience. The stadium accommodates up to 25,000 patrons for sporting events and 40,000 patrons in concert mode. The community-based design includes event plazas for game-day and general community use. Designed in association with Counterpoint Architecture, architecture firm COX worked in a deeply collaborative process with HPW, Stadiums Queensland, WATPAC and the North Queensland Cowboys. Townsville is dominated by key geographic features: Castle Hill, Magnetic Island and Mount Stuart. The team developed a horseshoe-shaped stadium that opens towards the city and M agnetic Island to the northeast to avail of the afternoon sea breeze. The scheme developed an open northern community plaza to welcome arrival from the nearby hotel and entertainment precinct. Bridge connections were arranged to exclude vehicular traffic for major events and provide a stronger walkability to and from the city centre. The chosen site was a disused rail yard adjacent to a protected waterway.
The design allows views into the stadium from the city to support active engagement rather than a fortified form. It provides a terraced seating/standing arrangement at the northern end to reflect the community feel of the previous stadium. Additionally, it supports an end-stage concert arrangement that minimizes seat kills and a single large video screen. Allowing pre-event activities A continuous concourse is provided for the full circumference of the stadium to provide democratic access. The northern arrival to the sb 5/2021
