Introduction
A great city is marked by the wealth of its artistic production and performance. In a world of international mobility and global competition, this has never been more apparent than it is today.
The economic strength of the contemporary city depends on its ability to attract highly educated and creative knowledge workers who are more mobile and selective about where they live than any workforce of the past. In this new competitive economy, the most successful cities are ones that offer a rich cultural life and opportunities to engage with artistic, creative people – in casual encounter as well as formal exhibition or performance settings. A city's cultural vitality obviously depends on the creativity and innovation of its artistic community. But it also depends on the number and quality of venues available for the presentation of art, in all its forms, and on the degree to which those venues are woven into the fabric of city life and play a part in the everyday activities of residents and visitors.
Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, has a lively and productive community of performing artists and maintains one of the highest levels of attendance at performances of any city in Australia. The quality of its venues for the performing arts, however, fails to match the diversity and excellence of local performances and limits the number of touring productions that come to Perth. To address this critical deficiency in the arts infrastructure of the city, the State Government, through the Department of Culture and the Arts, has committed AUD$42 million to the development of a new, state-of-the-art performing arts venue, to be operational by the end of 2008.
Given the importance of this initiative to the future of Perth and all its residents, as well as the arts community, and recognising architecture as a critical component of the performance experience, the Department of Culture and the Arts has chosen to select an architect for the project through an international design competition. The competition process is seen as a way to achieve a cutting edge facility for creative production in the performing arts, and an internationally recognized symbol of the vitality and innovation of the arts community of Perth. The Department of Culture and the Arts is committed to retaining an architectural team that will meet these challenges with originality and design excellence, delivering a building which will not only provide a functional and inspiring venue for performers and their audiences, but will also be a defining architectural landmark of the City of Perth.
