The Kingston Arts Precinct (KAP) Place Brief is now complete. Throughout 2022 we have worked closely with the community and key stakeholders in the development of a Place Brief that brings together aspirations of our diverse Canberra community. It integrates ideas, experiences, and values KAP will bring to life, expressed by community, arts organisations, and stakeholders – the people who will live, work and play in the precinct.

The Place Brief provides a framework for decision making to ensure the precinct stays true to its vision to become a leading arts destination, celebrating a rich living history and vibrant community life, through discovery, connection and collaboration. Created through a place-based approach, the Place Brief puts people first.

The purpose of the Place Brief is to guide SLA and arts ACT, developers, architects, landscape architects and urban designers in preparing designs and future development proposals that respond to the area’s unique character and contributes positively to a sense of place.

We are excited to announce that we have now engaged a new consulting project team that will take the project forward during 2023. RPS AAP Consulting are the Project Managers that will lead the consulting team; Turner & Townsend have joined the team as the Quantity Surveyors, and NH Architecture have joined the team as the Principal Design Group. Together the team will develop the designs for the Precinct that responds and reflects the KAP Place Brief aspirations and meets the needs for the arts community that will reside within the Precinct.

Over the next 12 months further engagement with the community and arts organisations will take place through different stages of the design to prepare submissions for formal approvals that will permit construction to commence.

It has been a busy year working in partnership with the community and key stakeholders to develop a Place Brief for the Kingston Arts Precinct. This has been a co-create journey that has involved workshops, interviews, site visits, self-led walk shops, pop up stalls, a youth PasteUp artwork, employee surveys, a creative panel discussion, a community survey and detailed conversations with Ngunnawal Elders and Knowledge Holders.

Thank you to everyone who has taken time to be part of the process and provided us with valuable feedback and insights that have helped shape the Place Brief. The Community Survey that closed in September received a very strong response with 481 people taking part. The results from the survey have been key to informing the outcomes for the design principles for the Precinct. A Listening Report has been developed outlining the results from the survey and ‘what we heard’.

Specific engagement with Ngunnawal Traditional Owners commenced earlier in the year with the assistance of Curijo. SLA is committed to undertaking a meaningful engagement with the Ngunnawal Traditional Owners and stakeholders to help understand the unique social, spiritual, and historical connection to place as part of the engagement and the development of the Kingston Arts Precinct. The outcome of this engagement is the final piece of the puzzle that will complete the Kingston Arts Precinct Place Brief. We anticipate its release in early 2023 when we welcome on board the Design Team who will be turning the outcomes from the Place Brief into a final design for the Precinct.

We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with the community and key stakeholders and we progress the Kingston Arts Precinct.

From its inception, the Arts Precinct has been a key element in the planning of the Kingston Foreshore and is a leading destination for contemporary arts and culture in the ACT region. The ACT Government has made a commitment to delivering a precinct of value to the highest standards, that is sensitive to its surroundings, its cultural heritage and future sustainable living.

The ACT Government, artsACT and the Suburban Land Agency (SLA) are now moving forward with the development of the Kingston Arts Precinct, with completion planned for end of 2025.

We acknowledge that this site which we plan to redevelop is Ngunnawal Country. The Ngunnawal are the Indigenous people of this region and its first inhabitants. We seek to work in close cooperation with the land’s Traditional Custodians where this place remains as a meeting place for all to respect its natural history.

The SLA is taking a people-first approach to developing the Kingston Arts Precinct. We have developed a draft Place Brief with the community, arts organisations, stakeholders, with a focus on public life, to guide future development of the site.

Your input will help shape a place brief for the Kingston Arts Precinct. The Place Brief will be a guide for the precincts direction, management, future development, uses and space activation of the precinct.