Fitness for purpose

Purpose – The paper seeks to work out methodologies, procedures and tools to evaluate the fitness for purpose of university buildings, to be used for the brief.Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation methodology is based on an approach comparing people needs with building performances and on an integration of analytical methods with empirical ones. It has been tested on a case study.Findings – The test revealed that building occupants suffered some inconveniences with their activities that conditioned their well‐being and their work. It also attested the importance of an exact identification of the needs of the different user groups and the utility of accomplishing parametric controls and dimensional verifications together with user surveys and observation of behaviour in order to verify the fitness for purpose of the buildings.Research limitations/implications – The research theme is part of the more general issue of the evaluation of the quality of public services. Other criteria and parameters wou...