Leading By Design: Richard Breslin

In the first of our Leading By Design video series, Richard Breslin shares how projects like Wembley Stadium, ICC Sydney and Kai Tak Sports Park have become more than their physical structures, ingrained into the fabric of a city.

Raised in Australia, Richard is Managing Director of the Asia Pacific region for Populous. He takes design inspiration from the outdoor communal lifestyle and subtropical climate of his hometown of Brisbane – a city readying itself to host the 2032 Olympic & Paralympic Games, and where Populous designed one of the world’s most atmospheric rectangular stadiums – Suncorp.

He combines a design-focused outlook with more than 25 years of global stadia, arena and COEX experience across the UK, Hong Kong, Portugal, Italy, South Africa and New Zealand, as well as Australia, designing places where fans gather to celebrate their teams and where the world’s most inspirational music artists love to perform.

Richard is people-focused, not only in designing for the emotions of those who visit the venues he has worked on, but in ‘leading by design’, inspiring the next generation of architects through his work.

As he says of Wembley Stadium, one of his most high-profile projects: “All that hope and expectation… lies in bricks and mortar… so how do you try and get one of our buildings to be an expression of the city, of the culture of the people?”