The importance of procurement negotiations for project success

The allocation of a contract for public construction projects in Europe usually requires a European tender procedure. This has to do with the size, the use of public means and the complexity of this type of projects. Compared to regular partnerships, it is hard to develop trust between the buyer and supplier in procurement situations. Inspired...

Heart and mind: The role of time in design related decisions

We make numerous decisions every day. Some decisions are based on a range of explicit and material alternatives, others are constructed from implicit ideas about the options we have in mind. In preparing a construction project, creating a vision on how the future would look like appears to be one of the most important activities. This is usually...

Deciding about Design Quality: Value judgements and decision making in the selection of architects by public clients under European tendering regulations

In the past few years the image of tender procedures in which Dutch public clients selected an architect has been dominated by distressing newspaper headlines. Architects fear that the current tender culture will harm the quality of our built environment due to a potential lack of diversity, creativity and innovation in architectural design. Due...