NORMANN
NORMANN is an interactive reference book for the people who plan public building work in Berlin and Brandenburg. Type in what a job will cost and it tells you which way you are allowed to award it, quoting the rule and its date as you type.
It grew out of exchanges with the consultancy Meile + Stein running since 2025. Research in progress and a public prototype — not an official service, and not legal advice.
Built with
- Static HTML, CSS and JavaScript, no build step
- no dependencies, nothing stored or transmitted
- self-hosted Urbanist (OFL)
- event log as JSON Lines, state is always a projection
- 43 rule tests in Node
The finding
Awarding public building work runs on email and fax ping-pong. Questions go back and forth between authorities and planning offices. Months of a project go into waiting rather than deciding, and both sides pay for that time. NORMANN takes one piece out of the loop: the question that gets asked most often, answered while you type.
The limits sit in three rule books, federal, state and municipal. Each with its own date. Someone has to read all three to know whether a job can be awarded quietly or has to go out to tender.
In numbers
35 rule books read 4 sources verified 2 marked unverified 43 rule tests 2,490 lines 0 dependencies rule base 2025-06-19 3 days of work
How it works
- Three dates, one answer
- 35 rule books
- Every rule sourced
- Print to file
A large job can be split into smaller contracts, which opens up simpler procedures and routes the whole job would not allow. At the end you print a PDF: the amounts, the route, and the rules behind them — the written justification the office has to file anyway.
Hardest call
NORMANN tells you which procedures the law allows for an amount, and quotes the paragraph it comes from. In Germany, telling you which one to choose would be legal advice, and only licensed lawyers may give it. So the tool stops one step short of where it would be most useful, on purpose. That limit is the reason it can exist at all.
Why there is no login
NORMANN is meant to be an open, transparent companion. No account, nothing stored, nothing sent anywhere, nothing to install. Those four keep it from counting as another piece of software that needs approval.
What's next
Awaiting reviewer input Next: the reviewers' notes, then the next iteration
What can Iget out ofyour way?
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