A 25-year vision for Queensland University of Technology‘s riverside Gardens Point campus in Brisbane’s CBD proposes purpose-built science and engineering precincts, a new business and law faculty building co-located with a conference centre, hotel and student accommodation, and dramatically improved connections to the City Botanic Gardens and the Brisbane River.
Released in March, the 2026 to 2050 Campus Master Plan outlines the most ambitious redevelopment of the Gardens Point campus since QUT’s establishment as a university in 1989, positioning the site as a genuine city-shaping precinct in the lead-up to Brisbane 2032 and beyond.
Gardens Point campus sits in Brisbane’s city centre beside the river and the City Botanic Gardens. At its centre stands a heritage building dating to 1862. The masterplan leverages this riverside setting to better connect the campus with the surrounding city.
Science, Engineering and a Whole New Precinct for Business and Law
The most structurally significant proposals for Gardens Point involve the creation of dedicated, purpose-built precincts for science and engineering. These proposals consolidate and upgrade facilities currently spread across the campus, giving the university’s technical and research disciplines a more coherent physical home.
The plan also delivers a new building for QUT’s business and law faculties, co-located with a conference centre, hotel and student accommodation in a mixed-use development that activates the campus beyond typical university hours. QUT’s architecture and built environment, business, engineering, information technology, law, mathematics and science students are based at Gardens Point, right in the centre of Brisbane, and the new building would serve as a landmark focal point for that community.
Getting the River Connection Right
One of the consistent themes to emerge from five years of community and staff engagement that shaped the masterplan was the sense that Gardens Point has never fully capitalised on its extraordinary location beside the Brisbane River and the City Botanic Gardens.
The plan addresses this directly, proposing better pedestrian walkways to connect the campus to the gardens and the riverfront. These connections would allow students, staff and visitors to move fluidly between the academic precinct and some of Brisbane’s best public spaces, making Gardens Point feel less like an island and more like an extension of the city.
The Campus Master Plan positions the Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove campuses as vibrant, collaborative hubs that foster innovation, creativity and real-world impact, while ensuring QUT’s physical environment remains people-centred, flexible and future-focused.
A Plan Decades in the Making
QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Sheil said the vision had been shaped by genuine consultation. “By aligning with Brisbane’s broader growth and development strategy, the Campus Master Plan ensures QUT remains accessible, future-ready and central to the city’s economic, social and cultural life,” she said.
The masterplan reflects five years of engagement with staff, students, industry partners and the broader community, highlighting recurring themes including the need for more collaborative spaces, better connections to the surrounding city and a campus environment that supports both academic excellence and student wellbeing.
The full document spans both the Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove campuses and provides a high-level framework to guide development, investment and renewal across the next decade and beyond. Expressions of interest for the first elements of the plan, focusing on student accommodation at Kelvin Grove, are already underway, signalling that the university is moving from vision to action.
The full Campus Master Plan is available to download at here. Enquiries can be directed to masterplan@qut.edu.au.
Published 13-April-2026
