This imagined place will have a government that leads in the provision of outstanding and recognised architecture. Each new project is driven by the desire for a significant architectural story about the community, its values and its ambitions.

Sustainability is only one part of this good works program; we are talking about all aspects of architectural design. The terms under which this city’s design teams are commissioned will be fair, respectful and mutual – a partnership with industry. The over-legalised, adversarial model has gone. New public projects will be properly funded. Governments will have the benefit of sound expert advice at the highest level: a government architect.

I have a dream that the projects like the new City Hospital will be a civic landmark, a first for a public hospital. Not a health factory but a valued citizen in the city fabric, a vitalising piece of a New Athens. In my dream, architects are not only good at what they do, they want to do more; they strive to engage with the world, they push themselves; they are not coasting but are fighters for the integrity of this local culture.

I dream of a place where the big fish don’t eat all the work so that there is nothing left for even the middle-sized fish. (This is the Sydney disease, where the city has almost no emerging practises because the sharks eat all the work, leaving the young and talented with no public projects to work on). In our future there is a culture of support that lasts longer than a few years of practice. In our future the cutting edge is supported, and becomes a focus of discussion and endorsement.

This dream of hope is for a place noisy with the discussion of design and courageous argument, positions taken, a loud community of opinion. It is a dream of a culture that is everywhere in the city, of a public that engages with their environment through its design community – a city hungry for new and exciting architecture.

Is this a mad dream? Do we really want Adelaide to be like this imaginary city, a high-profile centre for design excellence, or not? After all, Adelaide is a nice place to work and to live. It is not an easy thing to go to the ideal level. It requires changes within the profession, within universities, within government, the media and the community.

I have this dream that in fact we all DO want it, and we can’t help but undertake to achieve it.

Ian McDougall is Professor in Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Adelaide and is a partner in the award-winning Melbourne-based design consultancy ARM (Ashton Raggatt McDougall).