Column Adriaan Mout | Speedtenders

This week you could read in the news that two speedboats, purchased in 2015 by the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) for one million euros, will be dismantled without being deployed at all. They were intended to detect illegal matters at sea. After investigation it turned out that they were not safe. They cannot navigate across a rough sea at high speed and would possibly even capsize. Rijkswaterstaat had failed to state in the tender documents that the boats had to be able to navigate at high speed and through high waves simultaneously, while the manufacturer concluded from the agreement with Rijkswaterstaat that the boats did not necessarily have to be able to do this at the same time.

It is wonderful to see that contracting authorities can go wrong not only in our sector. But it is also very frustrating to experience that the legal madness of such procedures leads to non-products. Stupid questions lead to bad products.

With the speedboats, one failed to name and demand simultaneity of properties. Regularly, we also experience so many demands at the same time that the combination at least leads to malfunctions and often is even impossible. We no longer design, but make corsets in which all requirements fit precisely, because otherwise you will be excluded from the tender. This may seem like data-driven design, which has a great future, but unfortunately it is not. The so-called parametric design makes intelligently use of data to make smarter and better models, not to make a legal monster.

This practice with tenders also often applies to (architects) selections. In addition to a clear request and reasonable requirements, the proportionality applies. What do you need to make good choices? Clients and architects, but also governments, must and can achieve a "New Normal", as the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects has put it meaningfully. To this end, it has initiated the Healthy Architects Selection Directive. The navy can learn a lesson from this too, to prevent them from demanding boats with which you, while navigating through rough seas at high speed, can hear each other whispering and your clothes stay dry.

June 2019, Cobouw.nl