A brief describes the quality the client seeks from the building. As we explained in the earlier chapters, this is essential because without such a description, the design team can only second-guess what the client is after. Furthermore, quality descriptions will provide a basis for the assessment of design proposals at later stages.But what is quality? Every client has an intuitive notion of what quality is, but putting that notion into words, with some level of precision, at an early stage of the project, is difficult. A complicating factor is that quality can concern many things. It can concern everyday functional aspects, such as the availability of a sufficient number of power sockets in a room, but also more strategic aspects such as the buildings flexibility, and fairly elusive aspects such as its architectural expression and the way the building makes us feel. To make the concept of quality manageable, we break it down into a list of ten topics. This list is not intended to be exhaustive, but it can be used as a framework or checklist when developing the brief. The ten topics are:-Functionality-Efficiency-Flexibility-Sustainability -Architectural expression-Urban fit-Safety and security-Accessibility-Facility management-Health and well-beingWhen looking at this list, it is important to realize that most of the topics are interrelated or even overlapping. Flexibility, for example, is closely related to sustainability because flexibility will increase the lifespan of a building, which makes it more durable and thus more sustainable. Conversely, there may be tensions of conflicts between the different quality aspects. For example, a client may be asking for a highly secure building, while at the same time wanting it to be open and welcoming. Such tensions exist in almost any project. The brief should not try to hide such issues, but mark them explicitly as dilemmas that call for special design attention and creativity.