ONE international speaker expected to stimulate lively debate at the commercial property association Sapoa's annual convention in Cape Town next month is Frank Duffy.

This founder of international architectural practice DEGW is set to challenge conventional criteria for planning and upgrading office space at the convention at the Cape Town Convention Centre from May 12 to 14.

Duffy, a visiting professor at MIT and former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architects Council of Europe, has already ruffled many feathers in the commercial property fraternity throughout the world by suggesting that designers and architects have failed to relate office space to what businesses really need.

He says tenants are either assumed to know what they want, in which case the supply side assumes that they will be able to look after themselves, or more likely assumed to not know what they want, in which case developers, real estate brokers and architects assume that all they have to do is to deliver what they find convenient with as little user research as possible.

Apr 21 2004 07:53:26:000AM Business Day Reporter Business Day 1st Edition