Melbourne is now coming to the fore as a design hotspot. With three and a half millian inhabitants, it is on a scale that is liveable and diverse. Its rich and varied cultural intimacy has enabled it to build up a unique dynamism, which is set to shift the entire design agenda of the world - much like barcelona did in the 1980s an Antwerp did in the 1990s. Melbourne is to be the city of the noughties.