ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a brief history which charts the international development of housing performance evaluation over the last century - from public health work in the 19th century, via building science departments in the 1960s, through its exploration in the social sciences, right up to the latest interdisciplinary ventures. The ancient Vitruvian building principles of firmitas, utilitas and venustas remain key design goals for housing. Victorian housing reformers such as Octavia Hill also made a connection between the quality of houses and the character and habits of the people living in them. A significant gap remained between the physical monitoring of housing and the separate activity of tenant surveys in the UK, with neither providing a satisfactory account of why homes were performing in the way they did. Participatory planning and design has strong roots in the USA community protest movements centred on maintaining affordable housing and its link to 'programming'.
