Design a ‘House of Architecture’ shop, improve access and public realm around a train station, repurpose two buildings for a market town community – some of the latest architecture contracts and competitions from across the industry
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Contract
Royal Institute of British Architects is looking for a team to design an Architecture Shop as part of its main office refurbishment at 66 Portland Place
Deadline: midday, 18 August 2025
RIBA’s House of Architecture programme aims to make architecture more accessible for everyone. It includes the upgrade of the institute’s main London office - the Grade II* listed, George Grey Wornum designed building at 66 Portland Place, which was gifted to the institute in the 1930s.
Main refurbishment works are now entering RIBA Stage 4 and have been granted Planning and Listed Building consents by Westminster City Council.
According to the brief, the Architecture Shop designer should be imaginative, creative and “capable of integrating modern retail and brand experiences within an historically significant context, combining flair, commercial awareness and a collaborative approach to working with RIBA, the shop stakeholders, operating team and our building and exhibition design teams”.
Bidders are required to have experience: designing shop units or retail spaces within a museum, gallery or institution; integrating design proposals with a historic or listed building; liaising with conservation officers and statutory bodies; and advising on procurement approaches and supporting clients in overseeing works through to completion.
The full brief for the shop space will be issued at ITT stage, but it is likely to require: a flexible space that can facilitate small events; a hybrid digital approach to retail; streamlined storage solutions; and producing a creative and impactful design that encourages footfall and attracts a wide audience.
The appointment will be from autumn 2025 and the agreed concept design will need to be in place by early 2026 to coordinate within the main base build shell. The design will be developed in detail towards the end of 2026 for fit-out towards the end of the main construction programme in 2027.
RIBA has provided a link for bidders to discover more about 66 Portland Place.
Design Guardian for the main works is Benedetti Architects, with Purcell Architecture recently appointed as executive architect to lead Stage 4. Gilbert Ash has been appointed as the main contractor under a two-stage hybrid design and build process. RIBA is currently recruiting for exhibition designers to tell the ‘Story of Architecture’ throughout the building.
Evaluation questions relate to team resources, management and experience. Bidders are required to provide three recent case studies preferably with an individual minimum project value of £150,000.
Past upgrade works at 66 Portland Place include the Clore Learning Centre in 2019 and the Architecture Gallery in 2014.
Value of the two-year contract is £30,000.
Procedure Two-stage, restricted procedure: expression of interest questionnaires followed by invitations to tender (three to six candidates).
Honorarium £500 for each shortlisted team to cover a limited design response and pricing.
Location Westminster, London.
Other dates Issue of invitations to tender, around 1 September 2025. Site visits, 11 to 12 September 2025. Tender submissions, 29 September 2025. Award, 20 October 2025. Contract, 23 October 2025 to 4 November 2027.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Will Stacey, RIBA, 07913 737358, Will.Stacey@riba.org
Contract
Borough council is looking for a multidisciplinary team to work on £30 million-plus worth of improvements to the area around Wrexham General train station
Deadline: 5pm, 15 August 2025
The Wrexham Eastern Gateway Project is part of a wider £100 million Wrexham Gateway regeneration masterplan and includes around 60,000 sq ft of new-build office space, public realm fronting Wrexham General train station, a surface level car park and highway infrastructure.
According to tender documents, “there are several land parcels within the Wrexham Gateway site which forms part of the land assembly/development programme and one of the key elements of this is a piece of land within the eastern side of the site which is currently occupied by the Scouts and Guides with whom we are currently working through a relocation strategy. The site adjacent to this … the former Country Wide stores … is owned by Welsh Government [and] was purchased to ensure this would remain a site for development as part of the Gateway Project. The former Jewson’s site is currently vacant and we are currently going through a process to try and acquire the site for further development. Other parcels of land around the station are owned by Network Rail and leased by TFW”.
A RIBA Stage 2 design pack has been prepared by commercial real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield and will form the brief for the project. The team appointed to the Eastern Zone scheme will develop a procurement and funding strategy, appoint a development partner to fund and deliver the proposed scheme, produce a tender pack, participate in the tender assessment process and draw up the contract.
According to the brief, “the council is looking to engage a single lead consultancy and this is required for contract management purposes. The project requires a technical project manager to coordinate elements of the work in a highly coordinated and highly time-efficient manner”.
Works on the wider masterplan will also include a new Kop stand at Wrexham AFC’s Racecourse Ground, student and office accommodation, a multi modal transport hub offering improved access from Crispin Lane onto Wrexham Gateway and direct access to Wrexham General station.
Estimated value of the Eastern Gateway contract is £550,000. Build cost is upwards of £30 million.
Evaluation criteria are 70% quality; 30% price.
Procedure Competitive flexible procedure: the three providers scoring the highest on quality will be taken forward to a commercial assessment.
Location Wrexham, north Wales.
Other dates Contract award, 2 October 2025. Contract, 8 October 2025 to 30 May 2026, with possible extension to 31 August 2029.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Commissioning Procurement and Contract Management Unit, Wrexham County Borough Council, procurement@wrexham.gov.uk
Contract
Architects and landscape architects sought for £4.5 million programme of restoration and public realm works across the east Derbyshire market town
Deadline: midday, 8 August 2025
Dragonfly Management’s four-lot procurement for Bolsover District Council centres on two buildings – 36 to 36a Market Place and the former White Swan pub on the Town End road, plus improvements across the public realm.
Bolsover is in east Derbyshire, 18 miles from Sheffield. It is known for the 17th-century aristocratic retreat Bolsover Castle, the Creswell Crags gorge and Creswell Model Village, an arts and crafts estate built in 1895 by the Bolsover Colliery Company.
Lot 1 (contract value around £32,000) is for architectural services at Market Place; Lot 2 (£78,000) for architectural services at the former pub; Lot 3 (£236,000) for a public realm landscape architect; and Lot 4 £99,000) for a quantity surveyor for all projects. The buyer prefers to appoint different design teams for each lot, although bidders can bid for all four lots.
Plans are to turn the Market Place building into a Creative Makers Retail Outlet, which will include a refurbished ground floor for showcasing the work of local artists and the repurposing of the upper floors. According to the brief, “historical photographic references are available for this building and it is intended the appointed architects will share the vision of restoring the property reinstating historic features appropriate to the building and setting”. Build cost is around £416,000.
The former White Swan public house will become The Bolsover Community Business Centre. The project will “allow the community and voluntary sector working in the town to be co-located. It will facilitate flexible meeting and workspaces to hold events, hold meetings and a base for businesses and community groups”. Build cost is around £1 million.
A £3 million programme of public realm improvements is likely to include hard and soft landscaping, functionality and movement across the town centre, street furniture, welcome entry points, lighting and safety, resurfacing, reconfiguring for events and meeting spaces, green routes and planting to improve biodiversity, and visual wayfinding, signage and interpretation.
Bidders must have experience delivering grant-funded public sector projects, be familiar with working within a historic context of small market towns and with designated heritage assets and listed buildings. Familiarity with the locality and an awareness off the specific challenges and opportunities the regional and sub-region faces would also be beneficial.
The buyer intends to contract all lots up to practical completion. Contractors for the projects will be procured by either a traditional or design and build route.
Evaluation criteria are 70% quality; 30% price.
Dragonfly manages capital programmes and delivers construction, maintenance and repair projects on behalf of Bolsover District Council.
Procedure Open procedure.
Location Bolsover, east Derbyshire.
Other dates Award decisions, 9 September 2025. Contracts, 6 October 2025 to 31 March 2028.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Nicola Wood, nicola.wood@bolsover.gov.uk
Contract
Borough council is commissioning a masterplan for an area to the east of the West Sussex town centre
Deadline: 1pm, 29 August 2025
The council’s aim is to “unlock the area's potential as a vibrant, commercially viable and sustainable urban quarter”.
Crawley lies 28 miles south of London and is home to Gatwick Airport, Tilgate Park, Ifield Golf Club and The Hawth Crawley theatre and arts centre. It was designated a new town in 1947 and planners extended its boundaries again in 1983.
Referred to as Town Centre East, the area earmarked for improvement includes six key sites: the former Town Hall, County Buildings, Crawley College Northern Parcel, the Decathlon Block, the Queensway Block, and the Boulevard Car Parks.
According to the spec, the appointed team is expected to produce a masterplan, investment strategy and regeneration delivery proposals that will attract private sector interest and guide future development. Plans must integrate residential, commercial, cultural, amenity and public realm uses.
In October 2024 Crawley's Local Plan 2023-2040 was approved and the government awarded the borough £3.85 million from its Brownfield Release Fund to build 270 new homes.
The plan sets out targets for future housing developments, including 40% affordable properties borough-wide, 75% of which will be to be available to rent. The document also includes stricter noise controls around Gatwick Airport.
Estimated value of the six-month contract is £55,000.
Procedure Open procedure, below threshold.
Location Crawley, West Sussex.
Other dates Contract, 1 October 2025 to 28 February 2026 with possible extension to 28 March 2026.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact procurement@crawley.gov.uk
Contract
London Borough of Bromley is recruiting for a multidisciplinary design team to work on a £7m extension to the subterranean space below Crystal Palace Park
Deadline: 12 noon, 4 August 2025
The successful conservation architect-led team will work on RIBA stage 2 to 7 designs for the next phase of works at the grade II* listed Crystal Palace Subway, which is located beneath Crystal Palace Parade in the 200-acre Crystal Palace Park in south London.
The subway was built in 1865 to provide access to the Crystal Palace for first-class rail passengers arriving via the newly built High Level Station. It features groined arches in stone and coloured brick and originally had a grand glass-and-iron roofed vestibule.
Today the subway is open to the public on specified days through the year and is also available to hire as a venue for events and filming.
According to the Spec, ‘This brief will deliver an extension ancillary building to sit adjacent to the Crystal Palace subway; waterproofing of the subway vaults; and landscaping immediately around the subway’. Works will also include provision of level access via a new lift core.
This procurement follows the Borough’s completion of a three-year restoration project that included a new roof over the East Courtyard to replace one destroyed in the 1936 fire, extensive restoration works and structural remedial works to the North Elevation, the installation of West Courtyard gates and full masonry cleaning.
Evaluation criteria are 60 per cent price; 40 per cent quality. Value of the initial three-year contract is £450,000.
Procedure Open procedure.
Location London Borough of Bromley.
Other dates Award date, 18 August 2025. Contract, 28 August 2025 to 31 August 2028.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact procurement@bromley.gov.uk
Project contest
‘HOPE IN THE SQUARE’ DESIGN COMPETITION
Call-out for creatives to deliver a £100k garden zone in Peckham Square that celebrates youth and builds on legacy of Damilola Taylor
Deadline 12 noon, 14 August 2025
NLA and Southwark Council have launched a design competition for a ‘garden-like area’ in Peckham Square in south-east London.
‘The key objective of this competition,’ says organisers, ‘is to create a unique meeting place within the square for young people and local communities to gather and reflect, take a positive look towards the future and honour Peckham’s past to build on Damilola Taylor’s legacy and the work of his family as well as the Hope Collective’.
Peckham Square was originally designed in the early 1990s. It is a civic space and key part of the local area. The square is surrounded by local landmarks, including the Stirling Prize-winning Peckham Library, Peckham Pulse Leisure Centre and the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
The contest is part of Southwark Council’s larger £7 million Southwark Stands Together flagship programme of redevelopment around Peckham Square. Graeme Massie Architects and Scott Whitby Studio have been appointed to develop designs in collaboration with the community. The final designs will be shared with residents later this month, before a planning application is submitted this summer.
The ‘garden’ zone is one of seven key spaces to be transformed. According to the brief, ‘Hope in the Square will become a permanent part of the Peckham Square upgrades and is expected to be in place for a minimum of 15 to 20 years. With collaboration expected between the winning team and the local community, this competition gives creatives a real opportunity to leave a legacy in the borough’.
Suggested components for the garden zone include: sculptural elements or other forms of public art, seating, greening and soft planting, pavement treatments and lighting installations.
NLA is a London cross-sector built environment membership with 30,000+ members who work across all aspects of city governance, planning, design, development and management, spanning public and private sectors.
Hope Collective is a national partnership of cross-sector organisations working to create real change for young people and communities across the UK. It was formed originally to support the 20th anniversary legacy campaign for Damilola Taylor.
Procedure Two-stage contest. Up to six teams will be shortlisted for Stage 2. No designs are required for Stage 1.
Honorarium £1,500 for each shortlisted team.
Budget £100,000, which will need to include fees, fabrication, installation, other capital costs and contingency.
Eligibility Open to architects, designers, artists, landscape architects and other creatives. Project teams must include a qualified architect or landscape architect if selected as the winning team. Judges are keen to see applications from local organisations or those who are collaborating with local groups. They also encourage entries from teams underrepresented in architecture.
Judging criteria Stage 1: practice/team profile, 60 per cent; initial vision/response to the brief, 40 per cent. Stage 2: design, 30 per cent; costs and feasibility, 25 per cent; safety and equity, 15 per cent; sustainability and longevity, 15 per cent; contextual design and public engagement, 15 per cent.
Judging panel To be announced.
Other dates Shortlist, week of 1 September 2025. Site visit, week of 8 September 2025. Stage 2 submissions, 12 noon, 9 October 2025. Public exhibition of shortlisted proposals, week of 20 October 2025. Winner notification, week of 27 October 2025.
To find out more, go to the competition website
To express interest and submit your Stage 1 entry, go to zealous.co/hope-in-the-square
Competition contact Lucy Millichamp, NLA, lucy.millichamp@nla.london
Contract
Multidisciplinary design team sought for two industrial development projects at former Harland & Wolf site on Isle of Lewis
Deadline: now 12 noon, 11 August 2025
Highlands and Islands Enterprise is recruiting for a consultancy to work on the planning and detailed design and consents for two projects on the Arnish Point Industrial Estate in the Western Isles.
The 38ha estate is located on a peninsula one mile southeast of Stornoway and consists of an industrial site, quayside and fabrication works, including the former Harland & Wolf fabrication yard.
The site is currently tenanted by naval solutions provider Navantia UK, the Hebridean Seaweed Company, aquaculture firm Scale AQ and the Stornoway Port Authority.
Phase 1A of the project involves construction of a pipe shop industrial building, a pile rack building and associated infrastructure. Phase 1B, the demolition of an existing paint shed, removal of two rock outcrops, construction of new paint and blast shop industrial building and associated engineering and infrastructure work, including car parking area.
The successful team will be expected to prepare detailed plans for the proposed development, providing civil and structural engineering, architectural, mechanical and electrical engineering, landscape, acoustic and sustainability/whole life carbon assessment services.
The project starts from September 2025 for an initial period of 12 months, with a possible extension of six months.
Evaluation criteria are 60 per cent quality; 40 per cent price. Value of the contract is around £550,000.
Procedure Open procedure.
Location Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles), Scotland.
Other dates Contract award, 18 September 2025.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Highlands and Islands Enterprise, 01463 383084, hieprocurement@hient.co.uk
Contract
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM COLLECTIONS REFURB
Lead architect sought for six-year collections store overhaul and refurbishment at London's Cromwell Road visitor attraction
Deadline: 5pm, 29 July 2025
The Natural History Museum (NHM) is recruiting for a lead architect with principal designer and sustainability consultancy services for its Collections Store Refurbishments project.
Works will cover RIBA stages 2 to 7 and involve rehousing five specimen collections and library and archive material across nine spaces at the South Kensington site in west London.
The Alfred Waterhouse designed museum and visitor attraction opened in 1881 and is one of Britain’s most striking examples of Romanesque architecture. It is also a leading science research centre. It houses more than 80 million objects and has a mission to inspire millions to care about the natural world.
The appointed supplier will form part of a larger consultant team supporting the design and implementation of the project.
To access tender documents at selection questionnaire stage, bidders will need to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Evaluation criteria (Stage 1) are 60 per cent quality; 40 per cent price. Estimated value of the six-year contract is £475,000.
This procurement follows the recent appointment of Atelier Ten London and AOC Architecture for the museum’s Gallery 33 refurbishment. NHM is also currently recruiting for an immersive experience ideation and production specialist for the gallery as well as a consultancy to provide plans and 3D models for a feasibility study focusing on parts of the Waterhouse Building’s western side.
Procedure Procurement-specific questionnaires followed by invitations to tender (number of candidates unknown).
Location South Kensington, London.
Other dates Contract, 1 September 2025 to 16 December 2030, plus possible extension to 19 December 2031.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Thom Rhoades, Natural History Museum, thom.rhoades@nhm.ac.uk
Contract
BANK OF ENGLAND ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN SERVICES
Five-year £6.4 million contract covers the Bank’s three-acre Threadneedle Street Estate
Deadline: 12 noon, 1 August 2025
The Bank of England is looking for an architect to work on the ‘consolidation and refurbishment’ of its Threadneedle Street Estate in the City of London.
The ten-storey, Herbert Baker designed Threadneedle Street bank is grade I listed. It was built between 1921 and 1942, replacing an earlier building by John Soane. It is an island site surrounded by walls and is where the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meetings are held. Threadneedle Street is also home to the country’s gold stocks and its £100 million denomination banknotes.
The Bank of England also has a second site in the City at Moorgate, a modern office split into four villages.
The contract notice states that, ‘given the age and historic nature of the Threadneedle Street site and the fact that the last renewals programme was undertaken in 1942, the Bank considers that the underlying condition of the building is unknown and such items will only be discoverable once the services and/or construction works to the… site commence’.
Those works will be across all RIBA stages and will include design development and coordination, regulatory compliance, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders across design disciplines and other services, production of feasibility studies, technical drawings and documentation and construction oversight.
Proposed teams will need to include specialists in heritage buildings, listed buildings, planning, principal designer obligations and workplace design.
To access the associated tender documents, bidders are required to complete a non-disclosure agreement due to the ‘sensitive nature of the Threadneedle Street building and associated documentation’.
Award criteria are 70 per cent quality; 30 per cent cost. Estimated value of the contract is £6.4 million.
Procedure Two-stage competitive flexible procedure: procurement specific questionnaires followed by invitations to tender (five candidates).
Location Central London.
Other dates Contract, 3 November 2025 to 3 November 2020 (including one year’s extension). Award decision, 17 October 2025.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Bank of England, tenderteam@bankofengland.co.uk
Contract
CONSTRUCTION CONSULTANCY SERVICES DPS 2025-29
Social housing consortium EN Procure has set up a multi-lot dynamic purchasing system for UK-wide projects
Deadline: 11.55pm, 23 February 2029
According to the specification, projects under the agreement will cover ‘building and environmental work, including new-build, refurbishment, infrastructure, demolition, temporary and maintenance and environmental improvement projects and/or works’.
EN Procure is the procurement arm of Sheffield-based social housing landlord consortium Efficiency North. It specialises in the procurement of goods, works and services for the construction and maintenance of social housing properties as well as other property types owned or managed by its members.
Current members include Accent Housing, Calderdale Council, City of York Council, Guinness Partnership, Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, Lincolnshire Housing Partnership, Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing, One Manchester, Sevenoaks District Council, and Wokingham Borough Council.
There are 17 lots, covering services from employer’s agent and quantity surveying to clerk of works and retrofit co-ordination. Lot 3 is for architectural services; Lots 7 and 8 for principal designer services (CDM and BSA); and Lot 17 for multidisciplinary services. Tenders may be submitted for all lots and consultants can select the specific regions where they are active.
According to the spec, there is no limit to the number of bidders who may be admitted to the DPS and applicants can apply to join at any time during its four-year lifetime via a series of rounds.
Call-offs will be by competition with all consultants on the relevant lot. Evaluation criteria and weightings will be released at contract competition stage.
Procedure Restricted procedure: selection questionnaires followed by invitations to tender.
Location UK-wide.
Other dates Next round of applications, 5 May 2025. Expiry of DPS term, 23 February 2029.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Curtis Evans, 0330 606 1460, tenders@efficiencynorth.org
Contract
UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
£10m, 14-lot dynamic purchasing system (DPS) for buildings and works across three campuses
Deadline: 5pm, 31 January 2029
The university, which has its main campus in and around the Christopher Wren-designed buildings now known as Old Royal Naval College on Park Row in Greenwich, south-east London, is looking to establish a professional services DPS that will run from April 2025 to February 2029.
Awarded university status in 1993, the institution was, from 1970, part of Thames Polytechnic and, before that, Woolwich Polytechnic, the second-oldest polytechnic in the UK - established in 1890. There are three campuses: two in London - the main campus and Avery Hill - and one in Medway, Kent.
The estate includes not only the historic 17th century buildings and UNESCO World Heritage site of the Greenwich campus, but a Victorian Winter Garden at Avery Hill and Edwardian ex-Royal Navy site at Medway. Modern building stock includes Stockwell Street Library by Heneghan Peng Architects, shortlisted for the 2015 RIBA Stirling Prize, and the grade II listed Dreadnought building and halls of residence on King William Walk, refurbished by Dannatt Johnson Architects in the 1990s and again in 2018.
The university has net zero targets of 2030 for the Medway and Avery Hill campuses; 2033 for Greenwich.
According to the scope, DPS services will include architecture, project management, civil and structural engineering, cost management, mechanical and electrical (including building services), principal designers, acoustics, multidisciplinary, surveying, rent, rates and valuations, net zero and sustainability, fire consultancy, planning, and landscape architecture.
The architecture lot (Lot 1) covers all core service disciplines, plus conservation architecture, counter terrorism advice and design, environmental services, interior design, BIM, urban and rural areas mapping, architectural design contests, planning, landscape services, and urban planning.
Lot 6 is for principal designers; Lot 8, multidisciplinary; Lot 13, urban planning; Lot 14, landscape architecture.
A minimum of one candidate will be allocated to each lot. Maximum value of each call-off is expected to be around £2 million. Estimated total value of the DPS is £10 million.
Procedure Restricted procedure.
Location Greenwich, London.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Procurement and Commercial Services, 0208 331 8000, tenders@gre.ac.uk
Contract
BRITISH MUSEUM CONSTRUCTION SERVICES FRAMEWORK
Four-year agreement will include ‘new buildings and/or significant reconfiguration of existing wings’
Deadline: 5pm, 30 December 2025
The Trustees of the British Museum are setting up a construction services agreement for their Estates and Capital Projects Department.
The museum on Great Russell Street in Bloomsbury, central London was designed from 1823 by Robert Smirke in the Greek Revival style. Norman Foster’s redesigned two-acre Great Court with its steel and glass roof - the largest covered square in Europe - opened in 2000.
This is a seven-lot framework, covering: 1 Project management (value £12 million); 2 Quantity surveying and commercial management (£4 million); 3 Mechanical and electrical (£7 million); 4 Architecture and interior design (£12 million); 5 Structural and civil engineering (£7 million); 6 Fire safety engineering (£4 million); 7 Surveying (£2 million). Tenders may be submitted for all lots.
Projects will range from strategic reviews and light-touch refreshments to complex standalone security or safety renewal and refurbishments, and masterplan projects ‘including new buildings and / or significant reconfiguration of existing wings’. The works will cover front-of-house and back-of-house spaces.
The total value of the framework is around £48 million.
Last month the Museum announced that Paris-based practice Lina Ghotmeh Architecture had been selected to lead the redesign of its Western Range galleries following an international competition. The commission is thought to be one of the largest and most prestigious in the world.
Procedure Two-stage, restricted procedure: 10 candidates will be shortlisted for Lot 4; eight candidates for each of the remaining lots.
Location Central London.
Other dates Contracts date, 1 January 2026 to 31 July 2029.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact 0207 323 8000, procurement@britishmuseum.org
Contract
BRITISH COUNCIL GLOBAL ESTATES DPS, 2025 to 29
UK charity’s dynamic purchasing system will cover construction projects ‘across all the regions we work in’
Deadline: extended to 5pm, 23 March 2029
UK cultural organisation, British Council has over 150 offices located across the Americas, UK, Europe and wider Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia and South Asia. The charity's in-house Global Estates department manages all its facilities and property.
According to the construction DPS scope, the department wants ‘to improve the cost-effectiveness, space efficiency and sustainability metrics of the global estate against identified benchmarks, whilst working with the strategic business units and geographical directors to adapt and adjust the portfolio to meet changing business requirements over time’.
Technical and professional services covered will include: architecture and design, space planning, project management, MEP, environmental, building, construction, fire, hazard and risk, geophysical / geological, testing and analysis, and security.
Construction projects and programmes will include: new build, refurbishment, extensions, alterations, maintenance, fit-out, life cycle works, heritage / historic buildings, structures, infrastructure and modern state-of-the-art building.
Tender documents also state that ‘due to the need to meet all potential demand, British Council may appoint several suppliers for each geographical location for each type of service required’.
The British Council is a public body specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It was founded in 1934 and works in over 200 countries and territories. The council receives grant-in-aid funding from the UK government and its remaining income comes from partnership agreements, contracts, philanthropy and its teaching and exams.
Evaluation criteria are: 50 per cent quality; 10 per cent social value; 40 per cent commercial.
Procedure Open procedure (above threshold).
Locations International.
Other dates Initial decisions, 24 to 28 March 2025. Contracts, 7 April 2025 to 7 April 2029.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Maria Matas Sebastia, British Council, Maria.MatasSebastia@britishcouncil.org
Public information notice
CONSTRUCTION AND OFFSITE SOLUTIONS FRAMEWORK
CCS launches early market engagement for £80bn agreement
Deadline: Approach to market, 21 January 2026
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has published a prior information notice for a seven-year, pan-government construction framework.
The agreement, which is valued at £80 billion, launches in 2026 and will allow buyers with building asset or infrastructure projects to access suppliers in the traditional and modern methods of construction sectors, including those providing architectural, engineering and inspection services.
Users of the framework will include central government departments (Health, Education, Culture, Media and Sport, Local Communities and Housing, Defence and Security, Government Policy and Infrastructure), public bodies, those working on their behalf and all public sector organisations across England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and overseas.
According to the notice, the CCS will ‘continue partnering with NHS England to deliver the fifth generation of the Procure Framework (P24) for the provision of design and construction solutions for NHS capital projects’.
UK and international suppliers are invited to participate in an early market engagement from January 2025, after which the lotting structure around value, location and sector will be published.
Procedure To be announced.
Location UK-wide and overseas.
Other dates Expressions of interest via email to construction@crowncommercial.gov.uk by 12 noon, 13 December 2024. Framework active, 31 October 2026 to 30 October 2034.
To apply or find out more, see the prior information notice
Buyer contact 0345 410 2222, supplier@crowncommercial.gov.uk
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If you have a competition or contest you want architects to know about, email details to julie.butterworth@riba.org