Applying the briefing process on the people s housing process projects

The briefing process is seen as one of the most important and influential activities within a conventional construction project as it has the power to eradicate potential problems and, in so doing, save the client and developer problems and delays and prevent unwanted costs. The vital aspects to a brief are seen to be communication, the role of the client, client classification, and appropriate allocation of time. South Africa hosts one of the most diverse housing schemes in the world, with a variety of subsidy options. The People s Housing Process (PHP) is a housing mechanism that encourages client engagement in the development process and the aims of this delivery system are the empowering and uplifting of the community by giving them the responsibility, skill and power to assist each other in developing their own community environment. The client or beneficiary engages in the process from the start and has a large degree of choice over matters relating to the product, the project and the development process to be followed. The objectives of this research project were to address the effectiveness of the PHP as a delivery process, the level of client satisfaction on completion of the project, the level of participation by the client, who can be defined as inexperienced, in the briefing process and the level of development experienced by the client as a result of participating in the project. This paper reports on phase one of the project namely the level of client involvement during the briefing phase of the project.