Facility management (fm) concerns the management of the services that support the use of a building. Amongst other things, it is about maintenance, cleaning, internal relocation, catering and security. Clearly, the fm discipline has a great stake in a project because once the contractors and designers are done with their work, the facility managers inherit the building. This means that any inefficiencies or design mistakes will become their problem, and these can be numerous. Think of building systems that seemed cost-efficient in terms of investment, but prove to be expensive in terms of maintenance; floor finishes that looked great in the artists impressions, but soil quickly in everyday practice; or partition systems that prove to be less easy to move than the suppliers product documentation suggested. To avoid such problems, the topic of facility management should be addressed early on in the briefing process. The strategic brief should stress the general importance of maintenance and operation, and emphasize that operational costs are just as important as investment costs. The functional brief should clearly explain how much space is needed for fm functions such as storage (e.g. storing furniture, office supplies and catering supplies), cleaning (e.g. cleaning cabinets on each floor) and the facility management staff (e.g. changing rooms). In addition, there should be requirements concerning the buildings logistics, for example making sure that the distance between the delivery entrance and storage spaces is short and that corridors and elevators are large enough to transport goods and equipment through the building.Technical fm requirements will relate to the buildings components and systems. Topics of interest are warranties, the availability of spare parts, the provision of manuals for the systems installed and the general ease of maintenance. A fairly new topic concerns the use of smart building systems, such as climate control systems that can learn about user behaviour and modify their operation accordingly. The clients brief should spell out the extent of the clients ambitions on this topic. Do they want a super smart building filled with sensors and intelligent systems, or will a more of a traditional low-tech building suffice?Strategic brief-State the importance of facility management (FM) and challenge the design team to come up with smart FM solutions.-Indicate the FM activities that have to be taken into account in the design (i.e. cleaning, maintenance, security, reception, catering, internal moves, mail room).-If reliable data are available, indicate a target for the operational cost of the building.Functional brief-Define the needed FM spaces (i.e. storage rooms, delivery entrance).-Define spatial relations between the different functions (e.g. proximity of delivery entrance and storage rooms).Technical brief-Define practical requirements for the buildings components and services from the perspective of FM services (i.e. cleaning, catering, security).