The ARCH-E White Paper culminates the efforts of the Creative Europe project to date. Based on research activities and previous work on country-specific architectural design competition (ADC) systems and their legal frameworks, the project consortium has defined 10 recommendations to improve the European ADC system. In addition, the White Paper presents country-specific recommendations and a detailed data collection on the economic viability of ADCs, the analysis of which shows that ADCs produce extremely positive economic effects. In times of tight public budgets, such results should not be ignored; ADCs are used far too rarely in public procurement of planning contracts. ADCs are also an important steppingstone for young architects and SMEs, which account for the vast majority of European architectural firms, 81% of offices are even one- or two-person offices. These are often excluded by revenue thresholds, thus untapped creative potential and technical expertise.
The ARCH-E White Paper highlights precisely these problems and potentials for promoting Baukultur in all its aspects through the use of quality-based procurement procedures.