ABSTRACT
A former colleague of mine used to argue that there was really no such thing as cost optimisation. He was, of course, quite correct. We can only optimise within the constraints of our current knowledge and experiences. In attempting to discover where the future direction of cost studies in buildings lies, this book follows a similar argument. What is certain is that the discipline will not stand still. But we have not yet acquired all of the knowledge and experiences for all time and in our lifetime we probably never will.
