Carolina Martín
ESR14

Supervising team
Alexandra Paio (Supervisor) Núria Martí (Co-Supervisor) Carla Sentieri (Co-Supervisor)Secondments
Casais, Portugal School of Architecture, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain School of Architecture La Salle, Ramon Llull University, SpainResearch project
ESR14 - Mass-customization of affordable and sustainable housingShe has worked in several international offices in Valencia, London and Rotterdam, gaining professional experience in residential, office and mixed-use developments in different cultural backgrounds such as London, Japan or Taiwan. Her expertise in BIM has been an essential tool to design in an efficient, precise and agile way, especially in the technical and construction stages.
She believes that architecture should be a tool at the service of people, with the capacity to regenerate the city and help solve the current needs in society. Through the use of innovation, knowledge, research and addressing contemporary needs with the current digital tools, architecture should provide mass-customized solutions at a low cost and in a sustainable framework. She is confident that creating tailor-made dwellings and promoting circularity and adaptability will enhance a resilient and affordable housing stock.
June, 23, 2023
May, 19, 2022
February, 28, 2022
Mass customisation of multi-family housing through affordable and sustainable industrialised construction
Mass Customisation (MC) is a broad term that has been in constant evolution since it was first suggested in 1987. MC is a process by which a company approaches its production in a customer-centric manner, developing products and services according to the needs and requirements of each individual customer, keeping costs near to mass production. This concept is strongly linked to the Open Building theory that emerged during the 80s influenced by Habraken’s ideas which enabled dwellings to be in a continuous evolution by grouping its elements into different control levels, allowing participation and freedom of choice. Industrialised Construction (IC) methods have the potential to leverage mass production techniques, optimising processes, standardising components, and achieving economies of scale.
The existing housing stock does not respond to the varied needs of the current households, nor is resilient enough to adapt to the future ones. Promoting mass customised housing involving all stakeholders in the process would result in a much more valuable, adaptable, and sustainable built environment. This flexibility can support long-term affordability by allowing homeowners to modify their homes rather than moving or undertaking costly renovations. It can also contribute to environmental sustainability by reducing waste and promoting an efficient use of resources. While mass customisation is a practice that has been implemented in other manufacturing industries and in the single-family housing market, it has not yet been implemented into multi-family housing. There is a lack of research on how to develop a product platform that aligns the variety of products to the variety of needs, based on different degrees of customisation. This is partly due to the lack of component standardisation, the slow digital integration, and the shortsighted strategies of the construction industry.
During the last decade there have been multiple attempts to find the right balance between the level of variety offered versus the need to standardise and adopt an economy of scale. Setting up the correct product platform is one of the operational challenges for a company to establish as a mass customiser. Many studies have examined how the location of the decoupling point in the value chain will have a decisive role in defining the level of customisation offered and consequently the manufacturing strategy of a product platform. Additionally, it has been detected that one of the elements hindering the optimisation of processes is the stratification and segregation between the different disciplines in de industry. Therefore, the product platform should be the result of a fruitful ongoing communication between the user’s needs, the internal capabilities of the IC company and all the stakeholders involved in the process.
This project will investigate the implementation of MC in multi-family housing through product platforms, identifying the design strategies, IC methods, biggest challenges and best practices.
Through a comparative case-study of the multi-family projects nominated to the EU Mies awards in the XXIst century, the research will develop a combined assessment methodology that integrates a taxonomic classification of the building components and the design strategies implemented at each building layer in conjunction with the degrees of customisation it holds, identifying level of customisation achieved. Subsequently, the research will select four multi-family housing projects from the European context with different levels customisation. Through an in-depth case study comparative analysis, it will evaluate the design flexibility, manufacturing efficiency and construction resiliency through a holistic framework, highlighting the major challenges in the design and construction processes, and evaluating its kit-of-parts. Finally, a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method would be used to evaluate and propose improvement strategies to implement mass customisation in an affordable housing project at Grupo Casais. Focus groups integrating different stakeholders will be used to evaluate the transferability of knowledge between disciplines and validating the improvement strategies proposed.
The proposed outputs will include a framework and guidelines to support multidisciplinary decision making when opting for industrialised systems of construction to effectively develop a product platform to allow mass customisation of internal layouts in affordable and sustainable multi-family housing.
Democratising housing design through Mass Customisation
A framework to implement mass customisation using industrialised methods of construction to deliver affordable and sustainable housing
Mass Customisation (MC) is a broad term that has been in continuous evolution since it was first suggested in 1987. MC is a process by which a company approaches its production in a customer-centric manner, developing products and services according to the needs and requirements of each individual customer, keeping costs near to mass production. This concept is strongly linked to the Open Building theory that emerged during the 80s influenced by Habraken’s ideas which enabled dwellings to be in a continuous evolution by grouping its elements into different control levels, allowing participation and freedom of choice. Today, MC is increasingly demanded in multiple manufacturing industries, it is paramount to make use of the latest digital tools and industrialised methods of construction to implement it into the housebuilding industry.
The existing housing stock does not respond to the varied needs of the current households, nor is resilient enough to adapt to the future ones. Promoting mass-customised housing involving all stakeholders in the process would result in a much more valuable, adaptable, and sustainable built environment. During the last decade there have been multiple attempts to find the right balance between the level of variety offered versus the need to standardise and adopt an economy of scale. Several studies have drawn their attention into how users prioritise their customisation needs and the way these could be integrated in the Industrial Construction business strategy. Setting up the correct solution space is one of the operational challenges for a company to establish as a mass customiser. Many studies have examined how the location of the decoupling point in the value chain will have a decisive role in defining the level of customisation offered and consequently the solution space. Additionally, it has been detected that one of the elements hindering the optimisation of processes is the stratification and segregation between the different disciplines in de industry. Therefore, the solution space should be the result of a fruitful ongoing communication between the user’s needs, the internal capabilities of the IC company and all the stakeholder involved in the process. Despite its importance for the integration of MC in the delivery of housing, there is little research about it.
This project will investigate the implementation of MC in the housebuilding industry through a transdisciplinary approach, using industrial and sustainable building methods and incorporating ICTs such as BIM. The research will select three case studies from the European context that have been completed with different levels of industrialisation. Through a cross-case study comparative method, it will evaluate to what extent the systems have an impact on the customisation possibilities, the role of the diverse actors in the construction process, and the implications on optimisation and scalability. A research through design method will be used to compile all the gained knowledge into a tool that will be tested by industry partners as Grupo Casais and other stakeholders to evaluate the transferability of knowledge between disciplines and showcase the relationship between the levels of industrialisation and the types of customisation.
The proposed outputs will include a framework and guidelines to develop a solution space using industrialised methods of construction to deliver mass-customised affordable and sustainable housing.
Reference documents
A framework to implement mass-customization in industrial construction companies to deliver affordable and sustainable housing
Mass Customization (MC) is a broad term that has been in continuous evolution since it was first suggested in 1987. MC is a process by which a company approaches its production in a customer-centric manner, developing products and services according to needs and requirements of each individual customer, keeping costs near to mass production. This concept is strongly linked to the Open Building (OB) theory that emerged during the 80s influenced by Habraken’s ideas which enabled dwellings to be in a continuous evolution by grouping its elements into different control levels, allowing participation and freedom of choice. Today, MC is increasingly demanded in multiple manufacturing industries, it is paramount to make use of the latest ICT tools to implement it into the housebuilding industry.
Currently, most of the affordable housing developers invest in efficient and profitable mass dwellings, reducing the typologies to the bare minimum for the sake of higher economical revenue and therefore not responding to contemporary varied family structures and necessities. Promoting mass-customized housing involving all stakeholders in the process would result in much more valuable, resilient and sustainable buildings. During the last decade there have been multiple attempts to find the right balance between the level of variety offered versus the need to standardize and adopt an economy of scale. Several studies have drawn their attention into how users prioritize their customization needs in order to integrate them in the Industrial Construction (IC) business strategy. Setting up the correct solution space is one of the operational challenges for a company to become mass customizer of affordable and sustainable housing. The solution space should be the result of a fruitful ongoing communication between the user’s needs and the internal capabilities of the company. Despite its importance, there is little research about it.
This project will investigate the implementation of mass customization in the housebuilding industry through a transdisciplinary approach, using industrial and sustainable building methods and incorporating ICTs such as BIM. Through a qualitative methodology approach, the thesis will analyze current industrial building methods in collaboration with Casais, to assess the flexibility and constraints of the different levels of industrialization in order to define the optimal workflow to develop a system capable of providing adaptable units. The research will assess the sustainability of the system based on multiple factors, such as the fulfilment of the user’s needs, the reduction of construction waste and the implementation of the shearing layers of change, supported by case studies of the OB concept. The proposed outputs will include a framework and guidelines to develop a solution space utilizing BIM for an IC company to deliver mass-customized affordable and sustainable housing.

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