Objectives and Scope

Open Building* is the term used to indicate a number of different but related ideas about the making of environment, for instance:

• The idea of distinct Levels* of intervention in the built environment, such as those represented by 'support*' or 'base building*', and 'infill*' or 'fit-out*', or by urban design and architecture;
• The idea that users / inhabitants may make design decisions as well as professionals;
• The idea that, more generally, designing is a process with multiple participants also including different kinds of professionals;
• The idea that the interface between technical systems allows the replacement of one system with another performing the same function - as with different fit-out systems applied in a specific base building;
• The idea that built environment is in constant transformation and change must be recognized and understood;
• The idea that built environment is the product of an ongoing, never ending design process in which environment transforms part by part. (www.habraken.org/)

CIB* W104 is an international network of researchers and practitioners who subscribe to the Open Building approach.
In doing so we seek to formulate theories about the built environment seen in this dynamic way and to develop methods of design and building construction compatible with it.

Open Building provides strategies for sustainable buildings and neighborhoods Open Building enables built environments to last because they can adjust, meeting changing social and technical requirements.
This is accomplished in part by organizing physical elements at any scale (building product to urban tissue*) in such a way as to minimize their mutual interference.
Perhaps Open Building's most important goal is to combine the freedom of choice and dignity of individuals in their work places, dwellings and communities, with the ecological coherence and stability of culturally appropriate buildings and neighborhoods.

Three basic objectives of the Commission:

• To increase awareness of the principles of Open Building among professionals who shape the built environment, and among the people who live in that built environment.
• To support initiatives at national, regional and local levels that improve the efficacy of building construction and facility adaptation following Open Building methods.
• To be a platform for research and information dissemination among professionals committed to improving Open Building practices and methods.

The Commission has a relationship with the CIB Encouraged Journal OHI - Open House International: www.openhouse-int.com