The functional brief. As the name implies, the functional brief describes the clients functional requirements. The emphasis is on spatial requirements. The two questions the functional brief needs to answer are: What activities must the building accommodate? And how do these translate into spaces or rooms and associated requirements concerning capacity, size and functionality? For the design team, the answers to these questions are crucial input for the design development. They need the information to be able to transform their conceptual ideas into more specific schemes with detailed floor plans and sections. They need a comprehensive overview of all the required spaces, their quantities and sizes, and an understanding of the desired user experience in these spaces. In addition, the design team will need an insight into how spaces should be clustered or zoned in relation to the logistics, security and the desired communication patterns in the building. The most rudimentary and most intensely consulted part of the functional brief is the overall space list. This is usually a spreadsheet or table that outlines all the spaces that need to be realized in the building. The room list is essential because it fixes the total size and scope of the project. All the parties involvedthe users, the project team, cost calculators and the design teamtend to use the list as their main point of reference in discussions about what needs to be delivered. It is thus important that the underlying assumptions are correct and that there are no omissions or ambiguities that might cause unwanted surprises later in the process. Producing a good functional brief requires a thorough analysis of the clients activities and space usage. This starts with a detailed examination of the existing situation, looking at the users current activities and the way the current building is used (i.e. by examining occupancy data). The next step is to try to determine how activities will or should change in the future and how this will affect the need for space. Simultaneously, it will be a good idea to recheck the financial feasibility of the brief now that the projects size and scope are much more concrete than in the earlier phase. A functional brief will usually address the following topics: -Organization/users-Activities-Primary spaces-Support spaces-Facility management spaces-Adjacencies-Zoning -Space list-Capacities and sizes31