Demand for quality and design ideas competition: experimentation to discover good practices

Abstract

The ideas competition process is suggested as a solution that might contribute to an improvement in architectural quality. There have been numerous experiences in Italy over the last decade, but they have not always produced positive and concrete results. Although procedures of international standing might refer to consolidated guide-lines, in most cases, on the local scale, the level of attention is insufficient to ensure ubiquitous quality in results. Participation in the work on the part of a jury, was welcomed as a useful opportunity to try out an approach, outside the academic sphere, based around the technological culture of design. Whatever the limitations of a local environment, it was felt that the experience might take on a generalizable significance, in contributing to thinking about the demand for quality as a precondition to the effectiveness of processes, an objective that is more indispensable than ever, and for which the public sector client has strategic roles and responsibilities.