Science, Engineering, and the Discipline of Real Estate

An attempt is made at defining the discipline of real estate by exploring the academic traditions of science and engineering and by developing an activities model of the real estate system. The resulting framework illustrates an applied discipline with four distinct cells of academic endeavor-activities science, allocation science, activities engineering, and allocation engineering. This model of the academic discipline of real estate is both descriptive and prescriptive. It is descriptive in the sense that it efficiently captures the research interests of the real estate academic community. It is prescriptive in the sense that it offers a starting point for the development of a shared definition of what the academic discipline of real estate should be.