White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 12designs. Exchanging ideas brings outthe best solutions and highlightsinnovation. Although the long-awaitedItalian law on architectural and urbanquality has still not been approved,thanks to the intense promotion workby the Ministry for the Heritage andCultural Activities and the professionalorders, the number of competitions inItaly has risen considerably: from 19 in1995 to 223 in 2007. lxixFigure 12.5 Number of competitions in Italy per year25020018722318515010079500483219410 17 18 2811995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007The chance to build a projectToday experimentation does not pay.Taking part in competitions involveshuge expenditure for architecturalpractices and not all of them can affordit. Moreover, even if they do manage towin the competition, the chances ofactually constructing the building areeven remoter.Although the number of competitionshas risen considerably in recent years,the percentage of works constructedfrom prize-winning designs is still verylow. This discourages many designers,especially since competition prizes arefairly insignificant and do not cover thecosts involved. Architectural firms thusreckon that the business risk inparticipating is too high. Nothingcomparable happens in other Europeancountries. For example, in France,designers are chosen on the basis oftheir curriculum and those admitted tothe competition stage receive apayment to cover the costs ofdesigning a quality work. In Italy theprocess requires improving, alsothrough the use of feasibility studiesand financial cover for the worksentered in competitions to ensure thatarchitects are encouraged toexperiment and innovate.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 289