Functional analysis and construction

For building professionals, functional analysis is often associated with the architectural trend known as functionalism. In the 1960s, the focus was on the intended use of a structure. Notions of life cycle and environment were not as important as they are today. Applying this principle too rigidly led to "suburban sickness", characterized by spatial specialization and significant social segregation.

As a result, a whole area of functional analysis has been overlooked, even though its use in industrial environments has been growing steadily.

This article attempts to summarize the benefits of this method for the construction industry. The interest of this approach is to update a working method that seems appropriate in today's construction context.

Faced with urban problems that place technological solutions in second place, and which require us first to determine the objectives to be met, all those involved in construction feel the need for decision-support tools.

What some call sustainable development is a demanding context that calls for a rethinking of collective work methodologies, since building is by its very nature the result of interventions by a chain of players.

To proceed cumulatively, the first step is to recall the axiom of functional analysis that is commonly shared by its proponents.

"Every object is justified only by the service it provides to a user, enabling him to act on his environment to meet a need."

This statement can be represented by the figure 1 . In another form, we'd say that: rather than defining the object by its constituents (Cartesian approach), it's the results we expect from it that characterize it (constructivist approach).

In fact, functional analysis involves shifting the point of view of the analysis. Figure 2 illustrates this shift in attitude.

This formulation dates back to the 1980s. It corresponds to a gradual evolution of the concept that was formulated in 1947 by Miles when he created value analysis at General Electric.

Based on this understanding, two families of applications can be distinguished. The first aims to characterize specific construction artifacts. The second puts into perspective the capitalization that can be made of them, with the aim of obtaining design tools.