Clients, managers & producers (CMP)

This International Research and Design Unit (IRU 2, formerly called Users, Managers & Producers) of USO-Built Graduate School concerns the life cycle of built environments: planning & programming, construction, exploitation & use, redevelopment (renovation, refurbishment, re-adaptation) & demounting (including recycling). Here technical and social sciences aim at incorporating functionalities and mechanisms at the meso level of spatiality in a macro level of structure and content; in short: life-time responsive production of products (such as buildings) and services. The expected building life-cycle and life-span, flexible use and industrial productions of buildings and building parts are taken into account. Forward-analysis simulation and evaluation is developed, including user-appreciation in relation to environmental and economical impact, to replace current backward life-cycle analysis. Forward analysis takes place before actual design, as part of the formulation of design requirements. The incorporation of views and results from other climatic regions, especially those with time-tested low-cost construction, results in statistical data useful for innovation. Research methodologies are mainly taken from the social and engineering sciences. Users are distributed among sociological groups that are defined empirically, such as the citizen, the worker, the dweller, and their representatives (policy makers, NGO leaders, etc.). Good, sustainable and profitable built environments are the ultimate goal. Three sub-themes exist in CMP, focussing on (i) User & Producer, (ii) User & Manager, and (iii) User & Redevelopment. CMP has found consensus for its mission, aims and focussing.