Mass customisation and personalisation in architecture and construction An Introduction

• Published in: Mass Customisation and Personalisation in Architecture and Construction pp. 3 - 14
• Main Authors: Piroozfar, Poorang, Piller, Frank T.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2013
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Implementing Mass Customisation; Car Production Models; Robust Process Design; BIM; Mass Customisation Strategies; Regula Tions; IAC; Multi-criteria Decision Support System; Sustainable Buildings; Traditional Builder; FEMA; Sekisui House; Mass Customisation System; FEMA Trailer; Business Process; Taiwan's Housing Industry; Mass Production Efficiency; Mass Customisation; Double Skin Facade; Modular Product Architecture; IPD; Delayed Product Differentiation; Full Scale Physical Models; Product Service Systems
• ISBN: 9780415622837; 0415622840; 0415622832; 9780415622844
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203437735-2

Challenged by a global crisis, the building industry is currently seeking new orientation and strategies. Stakeholders in the built environment are being forced at an extensive and unprecedented pace to improve a set of conflicting objectives. On one hand, they want to enhance the cost efficiency and economic sustainability of their constructions. On the other hand, the market demands that the functional performance, indoor quality, comfort levels and social sustainability of the buildings shall be increased. And at the same time, building professionals concentrate on the reduction of energy consumption, the ecological footprint of a building process and its carbon emission, boosting the environmental sustainability. Finally, designers also have distinct aesthetic values they would like to realise in their design. This apparently conflicting set of goals demands a new industrial paradigm in the built environment. In industrial markets, mass customisation emerged more than two decades ago as a paradigm for exactly this purpose - offering highly customised products with mass production efficiency. From its origins in machinery and IT hardware mass customisation recently gained growing popularity in consumer goods industries. In particular, the advent of the internet enabled its introduction in many markets. This chapter briefly recaps this development and provides a common understanding of the elements of mass customisation as a business paradigm. In addition, the individual chapters in this handbook are introduced.