26 Jun 2026

Canal-side class and radical reinventions: bold designs dominate 2026 Queensland Architecture awards

26 JUNE 2026

This year’s winners pushed boundaries and showcased a level of ambition across every category, judges say

The 2026 Queensland Architecture awards have unveiled a slate of projects that signal a new chapter in the state’s built environment.

This year’s winners pushed the design boundary across every category, judges said, showcasing a level of ambition that stretched from Brisbane’s core to the far reaches of regional Queensland.

Boldness was one of the standout themes in this year’s award winners the jury chair, Prof Michael Keniger, said.

“[There are] many examples of adventurous and ambitious commercial and community buildings that are helping to revitalise Brisbane’s CBD,” he said in a statement.

“All in all, the 2026 Queensland Architecture awards program offers a broad spectrum of inviting and purposeful architecture that taken together illustrates the possibilities for an enhanced and vibrant future.”

Taking out top honours with the Queensland Medallion was a North Quay commercial high rise overlooking the Brisbane River.

BNE Commercial Tower’s exterior. The product of a Cbus Property design competition. Photograph: David Chatfield

The Hassell, REX, Richards & Spence collaboration for BNE Commercial Tower was the outcome of a design competition launched by Cbus Property, and features an elevated commercial lobby with a shaded open-air public plaza beneath. The tower offers workers high rise landscaped outdoor terraces off the sides of the building.

The project also won the Beatrice Hutton award for commercial architecture and the art and architecture prize, recognising the 31-metre long bas-relief sculpture by Brisbane-based artist Bruce Reynolds called City Reach, cast in situ across the full underside of the Herschel Street awning.