The Role of Research in the Development of Performance Standards

The assumptions underlying much of the current discussion about industrialized building systems for housing are that research should investigate the needs of users of housing, that the resulting findings could be cast into explicit performance standards or specifications to permit industry the development and mass-production of housing systems conforming to these standards.

These assumptions are questioned. If user requirements research is to produce useful results, it must focus upon users in actual decision-making situations and be complemented with procedures of negotiation, conflict-detection, argumentation, debate, bargaining and conflict settling.

An approach is discussed which extends research into the implementation phase of actual projects as a part of the planning discourse and decision-making process.