ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the benefits of developing a formal decision model during the briefing and outlines the design stages of a new laboratory building. A case study illustrates how understanding and communication between the design team and client can be considerably improved by the formulation of a requisite decision model based on the simple multiattribute rating technique. The chapter analyses how decision modelling techniques can be used to clarify and communicate building design objectives during briefing and outline design. It focuses on the terminology of value management as a useful way of 'selling' the techniques of decision analysis to unsophisticated clients. However, the traditional approach to value management is clearly a 'hard systems' approach in that it assumes that the functions required of a design solution are static over time. Furthermore, the literature on value management invariably assumes the existence of a coherent group of decision-makers whose values are both transitive and consistent.
