Civic Square and surrounding cultural precinct might fly under the radar, but there are plans in the works to reactivate the area.

The City Renewal Authority is set to expand renewal efforts at the site, by developing a precinct plan to help guide revitalisation around the area of Civic Square and the Canberra Theatre Centre. The precinct plan is in draft at the moment and should be ready for review and consultation from mid-2021.

Civic Square has the Canberra Theatre, but another key part of the precinct is the Civic Offices, which house the ACT Legislative Assembly, the Canberra Museum and Art Gallery and Craft ACT.

The dual offices in Civic Square were designed by renowned Australian architect Roy Simpson in 1959.

Part of the City Renewal Authority's plan could result in parts of the building being readapted.

Cultural planner and City Renewal Authority board member Kate Brennan was the key speaker at a panel event on the precinct on Monday night. The panel was part of the Design Canberra festival.

"[The panel is] to get the conversation going about some important things where design particularly has a role to play in the life in Canberra," she said.

"The future work that we might all do together perhaps draws upon the strength of the past but looks towards the future."

Ms Brennan said that given the precinct had both government and arts tenants, it offered a "sensational opportunity".

"The notion is that the Civic space is already a place where the visual and the performing arts, civic action, democracy, are all at play together. How wonderful is that?" she said.

"If there is not enough emphasis on that Civic place, then now is the time to be regrouping around that."

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Collaborative planning was needed to revitalise the precinct, and it needed to be about people not property, Ms Brennan said.

"We need to take into consideration all of the fixed elements, whether it's buildings or services infrastructure, as well as the contributing anchors like the Canberra Theatre, the gallery and the life of the community and the life of artists," she said.

"We need to take all of that into consideration and think 'Well, how do we actually bring all of that together and make this precinct a place for the future?'. To me, a lot of that comes down to that collaborative planning."

Kelvin Ho, founder of design firm Akin Atelier, also spoke on the panel about the role of placemaking from an architectural point of view.

"Within Canberra there's a huge amount of really interesting buildings, both private and public, similar to Sydney," he said.

"[It's important to create] a discussion around how to adapt these buildings or reinterpret them or reappropriate them in a way that is both progressive but also still maintains some sort of historical acknowledgment."