process by throwing up new ideas and demands after the brief has been agreed.First and foremost, however, the brief is a means of communication in the interaction between the client and the design team. Clients and design teams tend to think in different ways, have different vocabularies and may have different interests. The brief can be seen as a boundary object that connects these two worlds, with the aim of creating a shared understanding of the project. There is no success formula for briefing. Different projects will call for different approaches. Sometimes, the briefing process will follow a straightforward trajectory, involving a single decision maker with a dominant and clear vision. Other times, the briefing process will be complex, involving a lot of stakeholders, negotiations and consultation rounds. In some projects, the brief can be just a few pages of text; in others there will be a need for a voluminous report or even an expansive database. This book aims to explain to clients and their design teams what briefing is and how it can be done. It does not pretend to present a sure-fire recipe, but it does provide all the ingredients for making briefing processes work. The book is structured as follows: The first chapter (Process) explains the process of briefing in general. The second chapter (Sequence) discusses three sequential types of briefs: strategic, functional and technical. The following chapter (Success Factors) presents ten success factors that are relevant for any project. The chapter Topics discusses key briefing themes such as flexibility, efficiency, functionality and sustainability. Techniques gives an overview of briefing techniques, such as surveys and user interviews. Organization discusses the organization of the briefing process in terms of decision-making and activities. Briefing and BIM is dedicated to a fairly new phenomenon: the use of BIM (building information modelling) in briefing. The final chapter (Examples) presents a variety of briefing examples from practice. A few words about the terminology used. We use the term client for the party that initiates the project, hires the design team and is responsible for providing the project with a good brief. The client may be the organization that will use the building, but it can also be a real estate developer or housing corporation. Our main focus, however, is on the first type, the user-clients, such as hospitals, schools and office organizations, that have a direct interest in the design and usability of the building.We use the word design team for the combination of disciplines and actors that is responsible for the design of the building. Architects tend to take the lead in this, but there are many other relevant actors, such as interior designers, construction engineers, landscape architects, mechanical engineers and electro-technical engineers. All these play an important role in the design process and need input from the client to be able to play their part.