Corperate Australia was off and racing in the design stakes at the Victorian Racing Club's 2006 Spring Racing Carnival.

Each year the design bar is raised to ever loftier heights as high-profile companies engage architects and designers from around the world to create marquees for valued clients (and some headline-grabbing celebrities) for the four days in November when Melbourne celebrates the "race that stops the nation".

In the Birdcage area of Flemington's track, it didnt get any more glamourous than Moet & Chandon's Marquee, where Melbourne-born, New York-based decorator Emma Jane Pilkington recreated a modern version of the Palace at Versailles' famous Hall of Mirrors - in the confines of a tent. "Melbourne can't do a party without the design overlay," says Amanda Henderson of Gloss Creative, who worked with Pilkington on Moet and was responsible for the design and execution of four other marquees there. "The city has a design focus, so it was only a matter of time before the fashion and interiors industries influtrated the sports event."

It may have appeared picture-perfect to guests, but Pilkinton says her latter-day Versailles wasn't without its more practical challenges. "The marquee is not perfectly square," she says. "and t create the illusion of a vaulted ceilling with an arched image, that would appear to be correct [in perspective] and stay perfect with the wind made it a triumph of engineering."

Around the corner, Lexus opted for a two-storey structure designed by local architect Chris de Campo, while Mer's mid-20th century modern bar, by Gloss Creative, showcased Jacobsen chairs and 1950s glass.

It may look like an extravagent party, but the corporate marquees are a key part of an event marketing strategy. A Moet Hennesy's marketing director Johan Coles says "Each year, our chosen designer differs in order to create a new interpretation based on their style and Moet's brand values."

But all these experiences are fleeting: "What's fabulous is that it's all temporary" says Gloss Creative's Henderson, "all people have is a memory of a moment in time." Back