In order to be considered for public projects, such as schools, architects are often required to participate in a formal tendering process. At ZOETMULDER, we regularly take part in these procedures because our integrated design approach provides considerable added value. This is especially relevant for public buildings, as interior design and architecture merge here, allowing us to contribute meaningfully to aspects such as usability, user experience, and sustainability.
Through our participation in tenders, we frequently experience the frustrations shared across the architectural community and caused by unclear conditions or evaluation criteria that fail to reflect design quality. To address this, we’ve shared our insights in two articles featured in De Architect.
The first article discusses how tenders are increasingly managed by project management agencies. This often shifts the focus unfairly toward themes like function or cost, instead of spatial quality. We find this remarkable. Design quality should be a key evaluation criterion. This is often lacking. It also happens that the review committee is unable to properly assess design quality, simply because there is no one at the table who is capable of properly reading a floor plan.
The second article reflects on why many promising tenders often fail to meet expectations in reality. Our positive experience with the tender for IKC Meeroevers shows that there is room for alternative approaches. In this tender procedure design and collaboration were central. This makes a real difference, not only for architects, but also for the quality of public buildings.
However, the process can still be optimized. For example, four complete designs were not considered further. This could have been avoided by selecting only three instead of five firms for the final round. A small adjustment that would benefit both architects and clients.
Read the two articles in De Architect here:
Hebben architecten het nakijken als projectmanagementbureaus worden ingeschakeld?
Waarom veelbelovende tenders, zoals die in Tilburg, toch tegenvallen
