Decision making during a tendering procedure: Case studies of restricted European tenders in architecture

As they are spending public money, public organisations are bound by national and European rules and regulations. In the case of the built environment representatives of authorities make decisions about future buildings that can substantially impact the wellbeing of building users and the general public. These decisions deal with design quality within a frame of time and money and could cause conflict with the regulations. Most of the conflicts in design decision making have to do with the psychological and managerial aspects of decision making. Although theoretically tangible and intangible costs and benefits could have equal weight in decisionmaking, in practice tangible factors are more often regarded as a valid basis for decision making than intangibles. Based on findings from two cases studies, a framework is proposed that aims to improve the decisions made by public clients by incorporating perception of architectural quality without violating European tendering procedures. Both case studies concern the selection of an architect and are based on observation, interviews and document analysis; in one case for a town hall and in the second case for a large sized elementary school. The resulting framework can be seen as a first step towards guidelines for better decision making in these tendering processes.