We are building the Tartu Defence House

On 6 November, we entered into a design-build contract with the State Defence Investments Centre for building the so-called national defence house at the Defence Forces’ Raadi base in Tartu.

The projected net area of the building is 5,200 square metres and it is home to units and institutions in the Estonian Ministry of Defence’s area of government that are currently scattered around Tartu. The primary ones are the Estonian Defence Forces, Defence Resources Agency and Estonian Centre for Defence Investments. In addition to 100 jobs and meeting rooms, 210 barracks type lodging places are planned for the building.

For the first time in Estonia, an alliance contracting model is being used for designing and building a structure in the national defence sector. In this model, all partners in the alliance take joint responsibility for the outcome. From the start of the procurement, the architect, designer and builder are all on board. The winner of the procurement was determined by way of a negotiated procurement procedure based on competition, in the course of which the exterior of the building and architectural sketch design and the teams’ cooperative abilities, among other things, were evaluated.

“Already as part of the procurement procedure, bidders put forth their proposals for the architecture and exterior space,” said Estonian Centre for Defence Investments’ Southern Portfolio Manager Peeter Karja. “The tenders took into account valid planning documents, construction and architectural requirements and the interests and objectives of the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments and local government. A development workshop refined the ideas further. The successful bid was from Merko, which has great experience building for the national defence sector, and we’re pleased to launch this new project with them.”

“In alliance contracting all of the parties work together toward the best possible result, and the final solution for the building is determined in the course of the development phase. Besides price, a good building requires other factors – architecture, team capability and collaborative skills. To sum up, it has to deliver the entire value created for the customer. We’d like to give credit to the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments for implementing this model that has been little used in Estonia so far,” said the director of Merko Ehitus Eesti, Jaan Mäe.

The total project cost has been estimated at EUR 9.5 million plus VAT. Pursuant to the alliance contracting principle, the timetable of construction works and actual cost will be determined in cooperation between the parties over the course of the contract development and performance phase.