Awwal, S., Tzortzopoulos, P., Kagioglou, M. & Soliman-Jr, J. (2023). Managing requirements in social housing upgrading. Proceedings of the 31 st Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC31), 1072–1081. doi.org/10.24928/2023/0167 Product Development, Value and Design Management 1072 MANAGING USER REQUIREMENTS IN SOCIAL HOUSING UPGRADING Samira Awwal 1 , Patricia Tzortzopoulos 2 , Mike Kagioglou 3 , and Joao Soliman-Junior 4 ABSTRACT User requirement management is essential to improve value generation in construction projects. Requirements management is also vital in the context of social housing upgrading/retrofit projects, as such projects generally involve a poor consideration of user needs. Design science research is adopted to propose a process model to support the identification of user needs in the social housing upgrade context. Data was gathered through an empirical study carried out in an upgrading project in the UK. The model includes the use of BIM (Building Information Modelling) based tools. The model can help elicit users’ needs and values through a participatory approach and the early inclusion of stakeholders in design decision-making. The process model contributes to an improved approach to managing user requirements, which will promote better value generation through retrofit projects. KEYWORDS User requirements, social housing upgrading, process model, building information modelling. INTRODUCTION Social housing upgrading provides an opportunity to solve housing deficits (Jensen et al., 2018). However, such upgrading/retrofit projects are challenging to manage (Carvalho et al., 2019). These challenges often result in overlooking user needs and consequent poor value generation (Blomsterberg & Pedersen, 2015). User value can be generated through the appropriate identification, processing and communication of requirements to assist design decision-making (Parsanezhad et al., 2016; Koskela, 2000). Requirements management is essential in Lean. It includes capturing and eliciting client requirements, as well as monitoring the value generated from the user’s point of view (Koskela, 2000). The approach involves gathering and processing information, and implementing strategies to support value generation throughout the design and construction phase (Jallow et al., 2014). In the social housing context, there is a push towards upgrading/retrofitting the existing housing stock to achieve better energy efficiency. Such upgrading projects also can be an opportunity to increase user satisfaction (Kowaltowski & Granja, 2011; Baldauf et al., 2020). The conflicting interest among stakeholders and end-users highlight the need for a robust method to capture user needs during such projects (Koskela, 2000). 1 PhD Researcher, Innovative Design Lab (IDL), University of Huddersfield, UK, samira.awwal@hud.ac.uk , orcid.org/0000-0001-7771-1511 2 Professor, Head of Department of Design and Built Environment, Director, Innovative Design Lab (IDL), School of Arts and Humanities, University of Huddersfield, UK, p.tzortzopoulos@hud.ac.uk , orcid.org/0000- 0002-8740-6753 3 Professor, School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, Western Sydney University, Australia, M.Kagioglou@westernsydney.edu.au , orcid.org/0000-0003-3521-1484 4 Lecturer, Department of Design and Built Environment, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK, J.SolimanJunior@hud.ac.uk , orcid.org/0000-0002-8089-8628