Discussion

Uni Melb cultural paper

Refer paper & suggested actions in Theme 5: Art, heritage and history (pp13 & 14)

SueWilcox - 18 Jun 2008 09:32

Design Competitions

Michael and Ron, I too support the idea of more design competitions but it is important that the ideas of architects and designers are judged from a mic of professional and non-professionals perspectives. I have added a sentence accordingly to your proposal. See Jack Nasar's research on this. Architects aren't always the best judge of the best proposal.

-- DavidMayes - 28 May 2008 14:12

Yes, they are difficult. We have all seen competition results where the ego of designer-jurors was the most important issue, but the problem with non-designer juries is finding people with the abilities to interpret proposals and not be swayed by hype coming from entrants. I also have concerns that competitions have a tendency tend to foster the idea that flamboyance equates with creativity and design quality, and they can also tend to suppress the importance of a well-grounded sense of place in design. I think the issue here is the assumption that competitions are good in any situation - they have advantages and disadvantages relative to direct appointments of designers, so it is important that competitions are used when the public advantages they offer outweigh the disadvantages. The trick is teasing out when this the case, without encumbring FutureMelbourne with a massive thesis on the subject. So I have deleted the word 'all' in relation to competitions for major projects.

-- RonJones - 04 Jun 2008 08:35

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