Observing the act of specification

✍ Scribed by Stephen Emmitt

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 110 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0142-694X
• DOI: 10.1016/s0142-694x(00)00046-6

✦ Synopsis

The specification of building products is an important but neglected area of design methods research, taking place largely in the detail design phase where important decisions are made with regard to building assembly and its long term durability. In an attempt to investigate this decision-making process a specifier was observed as part of a larger investigation into how designers become aware of products that are new to them-building product innovations. The observation revealed a number of different pressures to change the specification as well as a conservative approach by the specifier, keen to minimise risk. k