Creating value in housing projects: the use of postoccupancy analysis to develop new projects

Abstract

Value generation is a goal of the Lean Production/Construction philosophy. However, defining value is difficult as value may vary according to user requirements and the capacity to afford desirable products and services. This paper presents two post-occupancy studies carried out in Brazilian housing projects and discusses how the results were collected, analyzed, and how they can be used for developing new projects. The first study presents the method used to collect and analyze data regarding users’ opinions about housing units in low-income housing projects funded by the Brazilian Government. The second study presents the method used to capture the opinion of users of high-rise housing projects for medium- and high-income families. Results were categorized to reflect client satisfaction vs. how much they value specific items (importance) and provided designers and developers with clues about what clients actually value and how close/far the developers are from meeting or exceeding client expectations.