We are pleased to start the year by sharing major news that is spreading across Peru. For many, it comes a bit late; for others, the timing is perfect. Regardless, it is finally here: public works in Peru can now be carried out through architectural competitions.
“We worked hard and we achieved it,” states the Peruvian Association of Architecture Firms (AEA). After several years of advocacy by the AEA, the regulations for Law No. 30225 (State Procurement Law) have been enacted, officially establishing architectural design competitions as a category of public tenders.
What does this mean for Peruvian architecture and society?
Now, different state entities will be able to call for architectural design competitions, the AEA notes:
Additionally, the growing cohort of new Peruvian architects will now find a platform to showcase their full potential in the local market. There was a clear need for public competitions to provide them with the opportunity to create significant, long-lasting projects.
Background
Since the 1990s, not only were public competitions non-existent, but any entity wishing to organize one was legally barred from doing so. While Peru previously had a strong tradition of public competitions, this practice "declined in the 1990s as a result of the economic crisis and the creation of the Consucode law, which prioritizes financial bids over technical proposals in public works," architect Claudia María Delgado noted with concern regarding the situation in 2012.
In recent years, several competitions were driven by the private sector—initiatives that have been viewed as isolated events, as each organizer had distinct visions and goals without a national body in Peru to integrate or endorse them.
Between late 2017 and throughout 2018, there was a noticeable nationwide increase in competitions organized by private companies and NGOs, which we have covered on this platform. In a way, this was seen as a response to the general lack of competitions. Although these were not state-sponsored, they challenged the inertia of a country with historically very few projects resulting from architectural competitions.
Details of this regulation can be found in the special supplement published on December 31 by the official gazette "El Peruano" at this link.
This article was written by Delia Bayona. The translation is powered by AI.
