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Academics in the field of Architecture call on the President of the Republic to cancel public building tenders

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Academics in the field of Architecture call on the President of the Republic to cancel public building tenders

Experts call on the President of the Republic to cancel tenders for public buildings.

Specifically, academics in the field of Architecture, the Scientific and Technical Chamber of Cyprus and the Association of Architects of Cyprus note that the quality of the built environment is a public good.

In a joint statement, the Presidents of the Architectural Faculties of the Universities of Cyprus, the Scientific Technical Chamber of Cyprus (ETEK) and the Association of Architects of Cyprus (SAK) address the President of the Republic, Nikos Anastasiadis, calling on him to intervene and cancel the last two Mental Health Center and the Cadastral Offices and to re-announce them, “with a short-term architectural competition, in order to ensure this valuable public good for the citizens”.

Building experts say that “public works should serve as a model for the procedures applied, to be the legacy of tomorrow and to promote architectural quality with exemplary policies”.

They add that “instead, at the moment, extremely important public projects that should be a crossroads for specialized research and innovative solutions, such as the new Mental Health Center, are being processed with the sole criterion of the lowest construction price, ignoring the architectural quality. which concerns not only the aesthetics, but also the functionality, the environmental footprint, the impact on the built environment and the cost of living of the building “.

“This tactic, which is promoted by the relevant government departments and ratified by political decisions, is contrary to European policy on the issue and has serious long-term irreversible consequences,” the experts note.

They also point out that “with reference to the current climate change, but also the crisis of values at all levels – economy, culture and society – intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic, architecture at European level is considered an inalienable right of citizens “.

They also make special mention of the “Davos Declaration 2018: Towards a Structured High Quality Environment (Baukultur) in Europe”, which was adopted in 2018 by all the Ministers of Culture in Europe, according to which, architecture is culture and creates space for culture and should be promoted “as an industry that presupposes the right balance between cultural, social, economic, environmental and technical aspects for the common good”.

In particular, they note that “its devaluation is a serious blow to culture, society and the economy, creating an unsustainable structured environment and disproportionately burdening future generations.”

They also state that “citizens realize that quality architecture generates daily environmental and economic benefits to the user and society, but unfortunately, what is self-evident to the citizens does not seem to be understood by the Cypriot state because in recent years the architectural science and creation is overlooked and devalued in the processes of implementing public works “.

“The announcement of important public projects with the method of Design & Build (Design & Build), where the project is assigned to the lowest bidder without any evaluation of the architectural proposal, reveals the system's inability to understand the value of architecture for society, the environment, culture and the economy “, the group of experts notes.

He concludes that “the argument of choosing this method for supposedly timely and on-budget implementation of projects of this scale and importance is not valid, with reference to many examples internationally that prove otherwise”.

The announcement is endorsed by:

  • Natia Charalambous, President of the Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus
  • Markella Menoikou, President of the Department of Architecture, University of Nicosia
  • Panagiotis Touliatos, President of the Department of Architectural Engineering, Frederick University
  • Solon Xenopoulos, President of the Department of Architecture and Geo-Environmental Sciences, University of Naples
  • Konstantinos Konstantis, President of the Scientific and Technical Chamber of Cyprus
  • Christos Christodoulou, President of the Association of Architects of Cyprus.

Source: politis.com.cy

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