There are many ways for clients to select their architects. Design competitions are a particularly suitable method of procuring important public buildings and of exploring different design approaches to buildings that will be a focus in the community.

The RIAS has a long and proud record of managing design competitions for a wide range of projects from complex ‘icon’ buildings to more basic and functional structures. The Competitions service is now managed by RIAS Consultancy and has extended its remit to include the various quality-based consultant selection procedures being promoted to achieve Best Value.

Public examples of design competitions in Scotland are the layout of Edinburgh's New Town (1767), Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art (1896), the Burrell Gallery (1972) and the new Museum of Scotland (1991 completed 1998), Stirling Tolbooth (1995 completed 2001), and Perth Concert Hall (completed 2005).

In addition to the classic open competition in one or two stages, entry can be limited to a short list selected on the basis of declared criteria or, where appropriate, to invited practices.

Competitions can also be used to explore issues of public interest and concern in advance of actual building projects. A notable example, run by the RIAS, was for new ideas for rural housing, later published as an influential source book Fields of Vision.

The RIAS provides a full service including briefing, conditions, procedures and nominations for judging, and dealing with applications and entries.

Competitions run by the RIAS have ranged in scale from the Dundonald Castle Visitor Centre for the Friends of the Castle and won by Robert Paul, to the new Museum of Scotland by Benson and Forsyth; and in scope from a small landscape project for a tenement redevelopment won by a student Sukum Lup, to a major urban realm project for Buchanan Street in Glasgow, won by Gillespies of Glasgow with MBM Arquitectes of Barcelona.

A list of RIAS Consultancy's Recent and Current Clients can be downloaded in PDF format.

Charlene Byrne
RIAS Client Services Manager
15 Rutland Square
Edinburgh EH1 2BE
t 0131 229 7545
cbyrne@rias.org.uk


Image: St Mary's Cathedral extension, Edinburgh by LDN Architects; Keith Hunter Photography