This research project tackles the under-studied societal and professional challenge of users’ dissatisfaction and low involvement towards architectural design processes. Building on the assumption that most bottlenecks and frustrations could be solved as soon as the early phases of the design process, the main goal of the project is to develop renewed and dedicated interactional models, methods and tools that will help users maximize their positive input and will help architects bridge the gap they still face towards their end-users and customers.

The project unfolds around two main axes: (i) addressing “What is”, i.e. delineating current interactions, current users’ expectations and existing modalities of users’ involvement and (ii) addressing “What could be”, i.e. researching best practices from closely related design disciplines (demonstrating longer tradition of user-centred and -driven approaches) and adapting them to better leverage users’ expectations, experiences and willingness to get involved into the design process.