Readers are invited to design a monument for the dawn of a new era.

What better excuse than the millennium do you need to create a landmark? The British may not embrace the notion of grands projets to the extent that the French do, but the close of the 20th century, combined with the availability of money from the proceeds of the National Lottery, provides the best of all possible opportunities to create something in the spirit of the nation that, for a change, is not half-hearted. It could even be built.

Accordingly, The Sunday Times has teamed up with the Architecture Foundation to promote an open competition to design a Millennium Landmark. It is open to all, not just to professional architects and designers, although we welcome those. Nor is youth a bar: we shall encourage primary schools to submit ideas, and will judge those separately. But, above all, we welcome fresh thinking. New ideas are needed, for a symbolic project that will involve people rather than being monumentally daunting. The best schemes will be included in a special exhibition at the Architecture Foundation and featured in The Sunday Times.

The Architecture Foundation, chaired...