The Architecture Design Competitions (ADC) is a quality based and solution orientated selection procedure. ‘ADC’ means those procedures, mainly in the fields of architecture, engineering and urban landscape planning, which enable the contracting authority to acquire a plan or design selected by a jury after being put out to competition with or without the award of prizes.
The Architects’ Council of Europe consequently promotes the design competition as a procedure perfectly tailored to the awarding of architects’ services; it defined several recommendations concerning the implementation of this tool.
ACE ADCs Map
Explore the Architecture Design Competitions in Europe
Architecture design competitions play a pivotal role in shaping the built environment, offering a platform for both emerging and established architects to present bold ideas, gain recognition, and contribute to the future of quality architecture.
The ACE ADCs Map serves as a tool to explore architecture competitions across Europe — mapping out opportunities that drive innovation & foster collaboration.
ARCH-E
ARCH-E is a project co-funded by the European Union under the Creative Europe framework (CREA). Its main objective is to promote high-quality architectural solutions for the built environment by increasing the use of architectural design competitions (ADC) in Europe and overcoming cross border market barriers in the market for architectural services; ADC structures determined by national frameworks and traditions and due to a lack of information exchange, there is very low transnational participation. This information lack excludes many architects from participating in the (cross border) market and thus hinders competition. Small/micro-enterprises – with an above- average proportion of female and/or young architects – are particularly affected, which has a detrimental effect on their professional career. Promoting ADCs will lead to a better implementation of the Davos Declaration for Baukultur and of the New European Bauhaus in European planning and building projects on a daily basis and will help to meet the climate challenge and to improve the quality of the built environment.
Main outputs are the ARCH-E Map, a comparative description of national ADC systems, the multilingual ARCH-E Glossary with technical terms and the Architects’ Needs Report. The newly developed ARCH-E online platform provides a widerange information on ADC systems (with a special focus on consideration of Baukultur und New Bauhaus standards) and facilitates transnational participation; core element is a network of >500 architects from >20 countries, from which transnational working groups can be quickly recruited for participation in ADCs which is especially important for women and young professionals who usually have less transnational business contacts. In a White Paper we inform policymakers about the project results and provide recommendations how the internationalisation of careers, equal treatment and the Green Deal goals can be achieved best in architecture.
ARCH-E website | Twitter page | Instagram page | LinkedIn page | YouTube channel
ARCH-E ADC map
The ARCH-E ADC map gives directions to architects and other experts in the field of architecture where to find procurement platforms, information on national regulations, chambers representing architects and other helpful resources supporting to orient in the international ADC landscape. ARCH-E is an ongoing project involving partners and related projects all over Europe. Therefore the ARCH-E ADC map is growing and is incorporating more information over time.
