Dulwich College is located in a 70 acre estate in Dulwich. The main building was designed by Charles Barry Junior in the 1870’s; over the years, a number of buildings have been added without much attention being given to an overall estates strategy.
Winners
The competition was won by John McAslan + Partners
The other four shortlisted teams were: Arup Associates, Feilden Clegg Bradley StudiosGrimshaw, Marks Barfield Architects
Process
This invited competition, to identify a master planner with whom the College could develop proposals, was formatted as a competitive interview. No specific designs were requested.
Twelve architects were invited to visit the site, converse with the client and then submit an Expression of Interest; five teams were selected to attend an interview with the College, following interviews, a winner was selected.
Our involvement
- Designing the right competitive process
- Researching and identifying potential competitors to invite
- Writing the competition rules
- Writing the competition brief
- Planning the competition timetable and budget to meet client requirements
- Acting as point of contact for the competition
- Ensuring a clear and ethical process
- Briefing the jury panel
- Briefing competitors
- Managing the competitive process
- Advising on and then managing the scoring/evaluation procedures
- Arranging and facilitating interviews and presentations
- Creating an audit trail
- Competition administration
- Debriefing and follow up
Facts
- This was a complex master planning project of an existing, convoluted estate.
- The client wanted to attract interest from architects who had not necessarily been involved with school design before.
- The client wanted to select from some of the very best established and up-and-coming practitioners from the London area.
- The client put as much emphasis on creating places for people as it did on creating a built environment.
- The competition involved a rigorous, auditable procurement route.
- The very nature of the client’s organisation meant that the selection panel included a wide variety of people: teachers and pupils as well as estates management.
"We recently participated in a selective and competitive interview for the provision of Masterplanning services for Dulwich College which was organised by Colander. The brief and the organisation of this competition was exemplary in terms of the clarity and concision of the project parameters and needs. It makes the whole process of consultant appointment so much more effective when the client requirements are so clearly expressed and defined from the outset."
— Aidan Potter, Director, John McAslan & Partners