By focusing on architectural projects undertaken by companies and admin-istrations, and by emphasizing the intertwining between decisions related to space and the fundamental choices of these organizations, we seeked to broaden the way in which Ramau’s work had so far explored the relationship between the question of uses and users and that of project organization : specifically, the irreducible nature of some interests and responsibilities attributed to the beneficiarie of the services that the building supports in the classic stakeholder interplay model in architectural projects in France. The French model comprising notably a contracting authority (maître d’ou-vrage) and a designer (maître d’œuvre) tends to favour conceptualizing the beneficiary within the limits of the project’s timeframe, more focused on the constructive dimensions of transforming space than on the expected services in the long term. The choice of the term “beneficiary”, rather than that of “user-specialist”, stems from understanding that an authentic consideration for the beneficiary’s concerns and for the corresponding actions implies an organisational model that goes beyond the project’s framework.

Mots-clés  : Bénéficiaire du cadre bâti et aménagé, usages, organisation de projet, processus de conception, lieux de travail
Keywords : Owner, building in use, project organisation, design process, workspace