Best ADC examples in Europe

The Architects’ Council of Europe, the representative organisation of the architects ́ profession on the European level, is publishing this booklet with the support of the European Commission to show best practice examples in the procurement of architectural services. The Architectural Design Competition (ADC) is a quality based and project orientated selection procedure for the architectural services. By in depth evaluation, an independent jury selects the best solution out of a variety proposed by different architects.The criteria applied are defined beforehand and include functional,economic, environmental, energetic and esthetic aspects.Project orientated means that the procurement of the service is based on the quality of the future project, which is already possible to evaluate in beforehand. Anonymity is maintained by all involved, until the final decision of the jury. This promotes equal treatment and transparency A single participant could never offer such a variety of solutions as they are created by different authors. It is well known, that decisions taken early on in a project’s development have the most impact on the final result.
The ADC is an open, accessible, transparent, non-discriminatory and democratic procedure. Especially where public procurement is financed with tax-payers money, such open, quality-based procedures present the best solution for finding the best project and consequently the most suitable architects.Our booklet shows a variation of projects, from a small kindergarten to large university buildings or commercial centres.

ACE recommends the ADC as the best awarding procedure when procuring architectural services and provides several recommendations concerning the application of this tool."