A social media poll by travel guide company Rough Guides has ranked Brisbane a more beautiful city than Kyoto, Seville, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney.
Brisbane’s position at number eight in the poll is the result of its “lush green spaces and the enormous Brisbane River that snakes its way through the centre before emptying itself into the azure Moreton Bay,” as well as its “high-rise modern architecture,” said the Rough Guides website.
Of late the River City has stepped up its architecture game, opening the world’s first flood resilient terminal designed by Aurecon and Cox Rayner Architects, welcoming Australia’s first Green Star – Communities rating for its airport, and reshaping its inner north with a new $650 million curved mixed-use development by Australasian design firm Custance.
World's first flood resilient ferry terminal
ICON by Custance
Other hotly anticipated projects include Zaha Hadid’s Brisbane glass towers, the design battle for the Queen’s Wharf casino precinct, and the new Brisbane cultural precinct.
Zaha Hadid's designs for Brisbane
Brisbane has traditionally been overshadowed by its southern counterparts Sydney and Melbourne, but has made significant traction in recent times – it was rated as Australia’s hippest city in the latest edition of the Lonely Planet guidebook, and became more of a tourist destination after last year’s G20 Summit .
A spokesperson from Brisbane Marketing said the city's aesthetic appeal was thanks to a combination of beautiful parks and public spaces, tree-lined streets, public art works and a wonderful mixture of heritage and modern architecture, the Brisbane Times reports.
