The City of Melbourne will soon introduce draft guidelines for voluntary design competitions, as part of its Design Excellence Program.

The City of Melbourne will soon introduce draft guidelines for voluntary design competitions as part of its Design Excellence Program.

The draft guidelines are part of a package of measures endorsed by councillors, which include a continuation of the Melbourne Design Review Panel, following a 12-month trial, and updated terms of reference for the Design Excellence Advisory Committee.

The endorsement of the draft competition guidelines mean that they will now proceed to community consultation.

The guidelines, prepared by the council's City Design studio, outline equitable and transparent processes for all participants as well as remuneration and intellectual property requirements.

In its report to councillors, the City Design studio said that design competitions are "a design excellence procurement strategy to test ideas and potential teams, grow partnerships with designers and developers and lift design quality across the City of Melbourne."

"In Melbourne, the worst design outcomes occur on the largest development sites," City Design stated. The studio also said that design competitions could improve equity of access to city-shaping projects.

"The majority of city shaping projects are designed by a small cohort. Five architecture firms account for 25 percent of planning applications referred to City Design.

"This limits design diversity and innovation, and opportunities to invest in and nurture Melbourne's design talent pool.

"Design competitions are a proven mechanism for enabling design diversity and quality."

The draft guidelines outline a two- or three-stage competition structure with two options for the first stage: an expressions of interest option for the assessment of proposed teams, relevant experience, capability, and task appreciation; or, the second option, a blind expressions of interest with design ideas.

Where appropriate, a third stage of interviews would also be employed.

City Design also proposed a voluntary 18-month design competition pilot program to trial incentives and establish a pathway for mandatory design competitions.

The pilot would include three projects - a City of Melbourne development, a private development and a state significant site - which would be determined through an expressions of interest process.