Is the architectural design competition award attractive?

Nearly a week ago, the Provincial Construction Investment Project Management Board announced information about the architectural design competition for the Provincial Cultural and Sports Complex. The project has a total estimated investment of 790 billion VND. According to this information, the first prize winning architectural design will be awarded 100 million VND, second prize 60 million VND and third prize 40 million VND.

The architectural design competition for the construction of the Martyrs' Temple and the Provincial Cultural Park also has the same reward level. The difference is that this project has a construction cost of 200 billion VND, equivalent to only about 1/4 of the total investment of the complex mentioned above.

Nearly 2 months ago, the Provincial Construction Investment Project Management Board announced an invitation to compete for the architectural plan of the Thai Binh River overpass and the access road of Hai Duong City's Ring Road I. The architectural plan that wins first prize will be awarded 50 million VND, second prize 20 million VND, and third prize 10 million VND.

In addition to the above projects, Hai Duong has announced an invitation to compete for architectural plans for many other projects. However, many people believe that the prize money is still low, and there are even projects where the first prize in architectural plan is only equivalent to the money that people pay to design their own houses.

For example, a 3-storey house with a total floor area of ​​about 250 m2, a total construction cost of about 2 billion VND, and a design cost of about 40-45 million VND. The design time of the house is about a few weeks, with many free revisions. This is the average design cost when people build houses with a designer in Hai Duong city.

Comparing like this, we can see that the award level of the above winning architectural projects is still low and is it enough to attract high-quality architectural projects to beautify Hai Duong?

The determination of the award structure and award level for the architectural plan is decided by the agency or organization approving the architectural plan to ensure compliance with the goals and requirements of the competition.

Back to the comparison with residential construction. On average, if a residential house takes 2 weeks to design the architecture, a public project will take about 2 months because the planning is more complicated.

Some businesses operating in the field of architecture in Hai Duong agree that there are two cases willing to participate in the "playground" of designing state works. One is that they aim for great benefits after winning the first prize. Because according to Article 22 of Decree 85/2020/ND-CP guiding the Law on Architecture, organizations and individuals with the first prize-winning architectural plan will be assigned to design the next steps without having to bid for design consultancy.

Second, there are units that are temporarily short of work, so the prize level, although low, is still their goal. Because if the plan is of sufficient quality, they will win the prize to simultaneously enhance their brand and be able to coordinate and join forces with more capable units to participate in the next steps.

The unit with the winning architectural plan will be known by many other units and organizations. That reputation can help them improve their competitiveness compared to competitors in the same industry, and also make it easier to bid for future projects.

In the above cases, the quality of the architectural plan is guaranteed. After all, if the quality is not guaranteed, it will be rejected, and the reputation will be undervalued...

However, the cost of the architectural design competition is included in the total investment of the project. Therefore, the competition organizer should review and balance the prize level to be more attractive. Higher bonuses will certainly lead to better quality products.