Equipping Project Teams for Competitions. Architecture Practices in the Italian Market

First, we review existing literature on project-based organisations as a way to cope with a dilemma typical of architectural firms that are caught between creativity and efficiency. Due to these coexisting drivers, architecture often needs and relies on heterogeneous features, also typical of the actors involved, that help pursue innovation, manage complexity and cross-functional expertise. Furthermore architectural products result from projects and architecture relies on project-based structures, despite the difficulties the architecture profession seems sometimes to have in forming effective teams (Evbuomwan and Anumba, 1998). Secondly, we investigate team composition for competitions from a multiple perspective in the Italian setting. We focus on the following variables: age, nationality and reputation of the architects or practices involved. We analyse whether and how these dimensions influence project performance, in terms of award outcome, looking at some recent Italian architecture competitions. Finally, we present some reflections and suggestions for architectural practices, together with directions for future research.