Public contracting authority prize of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation 2015

The Public Contracting Authority Prize of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation is a biennial award intended for the backers in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Instead of focusing only on the architectural qualities per se, this prize rewards the global nature of the process implemented by the contracting authority. It also puts emphasis on the importance of the contracting authority through the fundamental role he plays on a daily basis to materialise the sites according to the expectations the users can have towards the public service. This position involves estimating the strategic insight of the public backers, the communication between the stakeholders, the good use of competitive tendering procedures and the respect of the conceptual work conditions developped to make the architecture work for the community. This years' edition rewarded the municipality of Schaerbeek (with RenovaS) for the construction of the Navez Portaels housings, the federal organisation Beliris – with the municipality – for the development of the Place communale de Molenbeek Saint-Jean, the local organisation Institut du Patrimoine wallon for the Keramis Centre in La Louvière, and the city of Mons for the Mons Memorial Museum. Through these choices, the award intends to contribute to the recognition of a good practice in Wallonia and Brussels, and counts on the effect of exemplariness of the rewarded projects to create a dynamic on society in the long run. The result of the contest is the creation of plates to fix on the rewarded buildings and the publication of this book.