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The Spanish Parliament approves the draft Law on the Quality of Architecture.

The draft Law on Architectural Quality is finally approved thanks to the support of a large majority and without any votes against it.

The new law, which was first approved in the Congress of Deputies and finally in the Senate, is one of the reforms included in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and also meets one of the milestones agreed with the European Commission for the disbursement of NextGenerationEU funds.

It is the first state law that aims to protect, promote and disseminate the quality of architecture as an asset of general interest, in addition to promoting the protection of architectural heritage, encouraging conservation, promoting research, innovation, digitization, industrialization and creativity and promoting the application of the principle of quality in the field of public procurement.

Seeking to bring architecture closer to society.

The initiative arose from the convention that a quality built environment has a very direct effect on the reduction of inequalities and seeks to respond to the increase in social and environmental awareness and the revaluation of architectural heritage, a process that has accelerated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this way, the law includes a series of specific measures to promote the national and international dissemination of Architecture, support for Spanish companies and professionals, the establishment of awards and incentives to recognize quality, and the promotion of research and innovation, etc. It also includes the promotion of sustainable urban rehabilitation, regeneration and renovation.

Two fundamental bodies will be created, the House of Architecture and the Council for Architectural Quality, which will guide the actions of the public authorities towards this necessary quality.

Casa de la Arquitectura:

It seeks to provide the warmth of architecture to society as a tool of cultural diplomacy. This institution is conceived as a state-owned and managed museum, which aims to become a national and international reference for the dissemination of architecture.

In the field of heritage protection, the Casa de la Arquitectura intends to create a catalog of architectural works of interest that will serve as a guide to the Public Administrations for the elaboration of their own catalogs and, in coordination with the Council on the Quality of Architecture, will request ex officio the initiation of protection proceedings before the competent Public Administrations in relation to examples of architecture of recognized quality.

Architecture Quality Council:

The functions of the Council for Architectural Quality are grouped into two large blocks.

The first of these contains the functions aimed at protecting, promoting and disseminating the quality of architecture and improving governance, bringing architecture closer to society through functions such as fostering society’s awareness of the values of architecture, with special attention to contemporary architecture, encouraging its protection and conservation by the competent Public Administrations, or the promotion of innovative pilot projects that encourage the practical application of R+D+i initiatives applicable to construction.

The second group of functions focuses on public procurement, such as promoting the adoption of standards or measures of a general nature to improve the quality of architecture, or the modification of existing ones, as well as providing advice to contracting bodies that request it on the estimation of fees for the determination of the base budgets for bidding on administrative service contracts for the drafting of architectural projects and service contracts complementary to works contracts promoted by the Public Administrations.

Participative process:

The background and objectives of the Architecture Quality Act were submitted to the mandatory prior public consultation through the Public Participation website of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda in July 2020, where 120 contributions were received from individuals and entities.

Mitma wanted to encourage maximum participation and debate among all the actors involved and in society as a whole, and to this end, a series of initiatives were launched in a consecutive and coordinated manner; a collaborative process of public participation through thematic debates, sectorial and inter-administrative meetings, and other outreach initiatives among the academic and collegiate sector.

Within these initiatives, during the months of November and December 2020, the participatory process PECA was developed, in which during five days of debate different topics related to the draft Law were discussed, and where more than 100 professionals belonging to different disciplines contributed their opinions.

Throughout the PECA participatory process, 80 contributions from different professionals and entities to the draft Law were collected through the web page, created for this purpose. In parallel to this process, the drafting of the basic document of the law began, which was contrasted and debated with different agents throughout June and July 2021, with a view to preparing the draft bill, prior to its approval by the Government and the start of its parliamentary process.

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