The previous motivational context allows us to establish several research questions and specific objectives to achieve. These (Q) questions and (O) objectives are enumerated in a sequential order from which the main hypothesis is derived.
Q1. How can architects leverage mass customization to address the challenges of building renovation of interior spaces? How can architects design cost-effective and disassemble-able digitally fabricated construction systems of partition walls for building renovation and deploy them in web configurators for instance-designers?
O1. Analyze the concept of mass customization and the various approaches to its implementation in the AEC industry, identifying the levels of end-user control over the design
4 and production of buildings, the roles of the stakeholders involved in the process. The aim is to propose a low-key workflow to develop survey-to-production configurators of partition walls for building renovation, identifying the involved stakeholders and their roles, and generic design principles to develop mass-customizable and disassemble-able partition systems.
Q2 What are the relevant criteria to consider when developing MCC systems of partition walls for open building renovation?
O2. Compare the theory, design guidelines and design criteria from the different fields, building renovation, open building and DfD, MCC systems and the technical requirements of partition walls to establish a framework of criteria for the design of open MCC partition wall systems. The aim is to define a framework of criteria for the design phase of the research. These criteria will guide the development of the solutions as well as their evaluation.
Q3 How can digitally fabricated partition wall systems be more reusable? How to transform materials with digital fabrication into parts that can be assembled into components which in turn must be assembled into a partition system?
O3. Identify generalizable design patterns that can guide architects in the process of designing open MCC partition wall systems to achieve a higher level of reusability potential.
These design patterns are hinged on the set of previously mentioned criteria but are also related with the selected fabrication methods, the way materials may be joined into components and components into systems.
Q4 How can end-users of web configurators do surveys with sufficient quality so they can be used in MCC systems for customizable and disassemble-able partition systems?
O4. Compare existing methods of collecting geometric survey information commonly used by AEC professionals with currently available smartphone applications for surveying interiors spaces. The aim is to determine if these semi-automated methods of capturing or generating floor plans for non-expert users are sufficiently accurate to use as a basis for generating walls for digital fabrication and if non-expert users able to use these methods reliably to produce sufficiently accurate plans.
The answer to the above questions will allows us to formulate the necessary requirements, methods, and processes to fully address the main question and propose a low-key survey workflow that instance-designers can use effectively to survey their contexts and that provides useful information for meta-designers to build design-to-fabrication workflows.
The main hypothesis of this thesis can thus be formulated. This thesis hypothesizes that MCC unlocks new opportunities for architects to address the challenges of building renovation of interior spaces. In collaboration with other designers and stakeholders in the AEC industry,
5 architects can develop customizable and disassemble-able partition systems and survey-to-production configurators for generic users to co-design solutions for their contexts.
To develop open construction systems for partitions walls, designers can use generic patterns that increase the reusability and modularity of the product system. To implement configurators for building renovation, collecting geometrical features of the context is a key step of the survey stage. Therefore, this thesis proposes a low-key workflow for implementing an interactive survey-to-production configurator, defining the key steps, components, and the distribution of the roles of the actors in the process.
Methodology
This thesis adopted a design inclusive research methodology (Horvath, 2008), which has been previously used by researchers in the development of typologies of joints for open systems buildings (Nijs et al., 2011) and end user interfaces for mass customization of housing design (Niemeijer, 2011). This methodology was adopted because of the need to synthetize basic research from many sources while also evaluating and reflecting on the application of theory through practical design experiments.
Research is divided into three main stages, theoretical research, design, and testing, that were iteratively applied to each of the specific areas of inquiry involved in open building renovation, i.e., design for generic users, MCC and DfD (Figure 1-1). It is from the cyclic process of design, prototyping and observation that generalizable principles are extracted, and solutions tested.
Figure 1-1: Main areas of research
6 The aim is not to design a product but to use the process of design to produce generalizable knowledge for mass customization construction systems. According to Habraken (2003), innovation in the construction industry cannot be developed in isolation from everyday practice and living patterns. Construction is inherently social in nature, consequently the design of products for that purpose cannot be the result of the direct application of disciplinary theoretical knowledge, requiring a broader view and a consideration of context.
The research process was not linear but involved multiple feedback loops from literature analysis to design experiments, prototyping, parameterizing, and user testing for the above areas. The reflection on the achieved results at each cycle informed the increasing focus over the problem. Figure 1-2 provides a diachronic overview of the research steps, identifying research activities and specific research outputs such as papers and prototypes for each stage.
Figure 1-2: Diagram of the research methodology
Although the methodology follows a mostly top-down approach the design stages reverse to a bottom-up strategy where the systems are considered from the materials up to systems, and from particular cases to a generalization of patterns. This modus operandi is used across the design of partition wall systems, the development of iterative triangulation algorithms or survey-to-production workflows.
Throughout the text, citations not originally written in English have been translated by the author.