An architecture competition has been launched to design of Australia’s first purpose-built Pride Centre for the LGBTI community.

Located in Melbourne, the Victorian Pride Centre (VPC) will be a gathering place for Victoria’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities, and will “celebrate, bolster and protect equality, diversity and inclusion.”

The centre will provide flexible and multi-use spaces including a theatre, gallery, café/bar, prayer room, library and health service, in addition to office space for up to ten major resident LGBTI organisations.

The Victorian State Government and the Victorian AIDS Council, in addition to private donors, are funding the VPC, while the City of Port Phillip has provided a 1,600sq m (17,200sq ft) site for the building on 79-81 Fitzroy Street in the suburb of St Kilda.

Architecture practices who have been registered in Victoria for at least a decade are eligible to enter a two-stage design competition, which will run until 11 September. Candidates must have previously led the design of a building with a total project budget of AU$10m (US$7.9m, €6.6m, £6m), and been the recipient of at least two design awards in the past ten years, one of which must be a state or national AIA Award.

Submitted designs should be costed at AU$25m (US$19.8m, €16.6m, £15.3m), including consultant fees and demolition, construction and interior fitout costs.

A jury chaired by architecture professor Dimitry Reed will announce a shortlist on 27 October, and the final winner will be revealed in early 2018.

Speaking in May, Victorian Pride Centre board chair Jude Munro described the Victorian State Government’s decision to approve the business case for the VPC and offer a AUS$15m (US$11.9m, €9.9m, £9.2m) grant for its construction as “the single most significant contribution that has been made by any level of government in Australia to the LGBTI community.”

The project was inspired by the San Francisco LGBT Community Centre, designed by a joint venture between Pfau Long Architecture and Cee Architects and opened in 2010.