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Customization is a paradox in architecture, providing necessary modernization for buildings but potentially damaging their architectural integrity. In this paper, the authors introduce the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach for avoiding this paradox; this approach lets inhabitants design the customization from options created by architects that safeguard architectural rules. As a first implementation of the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach, the MyChanges tool is presented. The authors assess whether the approach avoids the customization paradox by a qualitative stakeholder evaluation of the MyChanges tool and by a comparison of the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach with existing approaches to housing customization.

MyChanges is a shape grammar-based design tool developed to enable inhabitants of the Álvaro Siza Vieira Malagueira housing complex to customize their houses in accordance with the architectural language of the complex. In this study, the authors qualitatively evaluated MyChanges with architects and other professional stakeholders. MyChanges is used in this paper to assess if the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach avoids the paradox of customization. The initial reception of MyChanges produced diverging outcomes, suggesting that Inhabitant-Driven Customization is also unable to avoid the customization paradox. For analyzing this possibility further, this paper describes the main existing approaches to housing customization, including the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach, formulates nine conditions for these approaches, and provides a qualitative comparative assessment of the approaches.

The customization paradox is demonstrated in the outcomes of the interviews with professional stakeholders on the MyChanges customization tool for the Malagueira housing complex. An argument is given that makes plausible that the Inhabitant-Driven Customization approach avoids the customization paradox by creating a co-design process in which inhabitants and architects alternately shape customization.

The originality of this paper lies in the introduction and discussion of the paradox of customization in housing. The paper identifies the conditions advanced in architecture for assessing housing customization approaches. Additionally, the authors propose a new customization approach and a design tool that to a large extent fulfills those conditions and avoids the customization paradox.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel framework and a systematic group of methodologies for constructing a computer-based design system that could support homebuyers’ participation in the design of their dwellings in the UAE housing market.

In order to construct the framework, the paper first presents an overview of current applications of mass customization in the realm of architecture, with focus on successful models in North America. Second, the authors analyze the housing market in the UAE, focusing on challenges and opportunities. This leads to structuring the proposed advanced configuration system based on ideas of technology transfer from other industries. Finally, the profile matching model emerges as a logical consequence of the proposed advanced configuration model.

The analysis of the UAE real estate market reveals interesting growth that encourages application of cutting-edge technologies not just in construction methods, but also in new modes of integrating homebuyers in a participatory dialogue for a sustainable outcome. Within the study, the authors call for new roles, digital design and information management technologies can play to enable participatory design. Additionally, the authors propose a new business model that requires extensive studies of the market, and buyers/developers behavior.

The framework proposed in this paper is considered generic and flexible. It raises various issues regarding its applicability, specifically with regard to market readiness. One of the first challenges is possibility of gathering precise data about the housing market in UAE to measure its size and readiness. Additionally, there are also challenges in finding focused developers and builders that are ready to engage in a dialog toward adopting mass customization as a business model.

Mass customization implies adopting a flexible, technology-oriented business model. This raises multiple implications: developing configuration systems, the number of design alternatives has to be limited to three or four options in order to avoid additional overhead cost; implementing a digital platform for customization requires investment in tools, systems, and accordingly operators. Higher cost associated with mass customization occur both in sales and customer interaction as well as in manufacturing; and conducting a financial framework for implementing the proposed system requires intensive market studies which is considered challenging.

The proposed framework derives its novelty by analyzing mass customization theories, technological enablers, various research endeavors in housing, and currently adopted online marketing and sales strategies in the UAE housing market. The implementation of the proposed system would represent a mile stone in the UAE housing market, being capable of redefining the process through which homebuyers, architect, and housing and developers communicate.

In housing, mass customisation is increasingly seen as a useful innovation for promoting customer satisfaction and thus for contributing to the long-run sustainability of the housing industry. A major stimulus has been the escalation in competition among housing developers in response to the increase in housing consumers' want for individuality in their purchased properties. However, in the absence of confirmatory evidence, the presumed consumers' want for individuality has remained only as a perception until now. In quest for the evidence, an empirical investigation was conducted recently through a questionnaire survey that involved housing consumers, both existing owners and prospective purchasers, in four centres of population across Peninsular Malaysia. This paper presents the findings from the survey. The evidence that was found supports the conclusion that mass customised housing is very much a way forward in Malaysia. The findings show that while buyers' dissatisfaction with current developer-delivered housing has led to a desire or preference towards customised house, buyers' satisfaction with existing situation has not weakened the desire. In the context of Malaysia, this study is important to the development of mass customised housing since it has examined market readiness on the demand side, one of the critical criteria for the concept to be successful in the country.

The concept of employing web-based configuration systems towards mass customization of housing has been implemented by some prefabricated housing companies around the globe, and has become a challenging research area in the last few decades as an outcome of advancements in communication and design technologies. Different methodologies have been employed with the aim of efficiently engaging future homebuyers in the design of their homes. The thrust of this paper is to systematically formalize an advanced configuration system for mass customization of prefabricated housing for a company operating in the Canadian market. The focus is on one floor bungalows which are common within the Province of Quebec. Such housing models targets a specific market sector; elderly couples seeking retirement homes, with the aim of improving affordability through maintaining particular design and production qualities.

This paper aims to present a mass customization model for interior spaces of mass housing projects to provide solutions that will increase flexibility in accordance with different user needs.

The research project develops a model that generates an expert system that leads to different spatial variations. The expert system is based on the parameters that are determined depending on the findings of the field study done in the selected site. A modular system that allows different configurations is designed, and the expert system has made it possible to achieve a large number of spatial variations by means of a multi-parameter layout design. In the last phase, an interface is developed as a website that presents the spatial variations for each different user according to their response to the online questionnaire.

All the variations with the outputs obtained from the project are presented to the user through a digital interface, which functions as a website. In this sense, the model acts as a mass customization tool that brings together the needs of the inhabitants and provides specific solutions to them with all the outputs obtained from the project. The main objective of the interface is to provide the user with various interior layout alternatives and modular furniture that meet their needs.

The main originality of the research project is the development of a model that consists of different stages that works as a unique mass customization tool. The most significant specialty of the model is the constitution of an expert system in relation to the raw data obtained from the field study. This expert system generates spatial configurations by the help of the design parameters, and these parameters are mainly variables that differentiate the solutions according to the specific requirements of users in the selected site.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current customer relationship management (CRM) with regard to manufacturers and retailers in the US manufactured housing (MH) industry and to present an MH industry‐specific framework of CRM system.

An overall CRM system was investigated through a questionnaire survey and interviews with industry experts. Based on the analysis of current CRM and the specific data collected, a framework of manufacturer‐retailer relationship optimization model (MRROM) for the MH industry was developed and validated trough the MH industry practitioners.

MRROM describes the overall framework of an industry‐specific CRM solution for the MH industry and suggests a new paradigm for the MH customization process as a focus area.

This research only focused on the framework of optimal CRM system at the macro levels and an optimization model in the critically constrained manufacturer‐retailer relationship areas.

The proposed framework of MRROM can be used for developing the CRM vision and CRM strategies for the MH industry. It can then be the basis of an assessment of the current and required CRM capabilities of the enterprise.

Supply chain management for the MH industry is a new area of research. The proposed MRROM will contribute to improving the effectiveness and long‐term success of the supply chain in the MH industry. In addition, the proposed MRROM can be applied to other industries in the similar circumstances as well and is expected to facilitate the overall sales process.

The current goal is to implement a description grammar that generates housing briefs based on user and site data. The ultimate goal is to customize mass housing. This paper discusses these issues. Previous research proposed a mathematical model for the automatic generation of customized designs based on description and shape grammars. This paper describes the implementation of a description grammar that codifies the Portuguese housing design guidelines, as well as the intelligence of a human designer using them inferred after experimental work. Knowledge was sequentially converted from table format into English, Mathematical notation, and then the CLIPS language. Java Experts system Shell is the rule application engine, and JAVA and XML are used for coding theinterface and information tables, respectively.It describes how to implement a description grammar and it shows the feasibility of using them for automating the generation of housing briefs that contain enough technical information for design. In a subsequent step, it permits the automatic generation of housing solutions in real time. Backtracking is limited, theinterface does not provide visual clues for improving understanding of the available options, and the brief does not record intuitive or emotional information. It can help designers identifying the specifications of their clients' houses. It can be linked to a system that automatically generates, in a given language, housing solutions that match such specifications, thereby enabling the mass customization of housing. This paper describes the first practical implementation of a description grammar found in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid decision-making model for optimizing the initial design strategies of pre-sales housing, identifying factors affecting the initial design of housing, and developing different initial design approaches and strategies based on buyers’ preferences.

Indicators and factors in line with the local initial planning and design are created according to the design quality indicator framework. The important indicators and factors are screened out preliminarily with the fuzzy Delphi method and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory based analytic network process. The performances of two actual cases under similar site conditions are checked with regard to the overall residential sales rate and time on the market (TOM).

The result shows that the proposed model can effectively improve the sales rate, shorten the TOM and better complies with buyer design strategy demands, and thus positively correlating to economic value.

Pre-sales make possible the customized strategy of allowing future residents to participate in the housing design process. However, buyers’ participation in the design process is highly limited, and developers usually determine their planning and initial residential design strategies based on experience and intuition. With the proposed approach, the initial residential design of a project can be effectively intervened, so that home users can truly participate in the design, and the residential construction service can be provided in a unique, but non-universal way.

Digital transformation (DT) innovation is a monumental contribution that has had a profound effect on several worldwide industries. The aim of this research is to evaluate the current and future trends in DT specifically focusing in construction industry.

This study adopts a qualitative analysis approach grounded on descriptive and bibliometric analyses. In total, 283 papers from Scopus between January 2015 and April 2023 were retrieved in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) review methodology. This study examines the publishing trends, most productive nation, university, publications and authors. Keyword co-occurrence analysis and thematic evolution were analyzed through Vosviewer and Biblioshiny.

The results illustrate a growing desire to use digital technologies in the construction industry, which shows the topic's power and expanding popularity. This research reveals various emerging themes based on technology usage in construction sector. Out of 14 themes, occupational health and safety, mass customization, virtual reality and artificial intelligence were identified as isolated themes. Further, this study elaborates the difficulties encountered by the construction industry while employing digital technologies and examines the interrelationships among various keywords in DT and reveals the paradoxes and hotspots.

This research adds to the body of literature as it identifies the research areas and gaps in the existing DT domain in construction industry. The integration of technology in this sector has an intense positive future vision as various subareas have immense potential for technology application.

In response to increasing demand for a fully customized and individualized home environment, mass customization (MC) has been suggested as an effective strategy to fulfill the customer’s customization needs while keeping production cost-effectiveness. However, in current practice, the implementation of the MC in the industrialized housing industry has not achieved an ideal level. Little effort was devoted to customer value generation and achieving lean production in a multi-disciplinary MC environment. In this concern, a highly efficient and flexible production information system is expected to capture accurately the customer’s demand and efficiently perform work planning for encouraging customer involvement and mass efficiency production.

To gain an insight into the development of the MC production information system for the housing industry and to depict the interaction among system modules, this study used a design science research methodology for a case study of customized cabinet production information system development.

A prototype of the production information system was proposed in this paper, supported by three information technologies to facilitate the MC implementation in the millwork manufacturer. A focus group discussion method was carried out for evaluating the system feasibility and the subsequent survey analysis on the virtual reality (VR) interface experiment. The evaluation process results showed that the VR interface is an effective medium for design information communication and encourages customer involvement. Most participants believed that the proposed production information system could generally benefit the MC implementation and improve production efficiency.

This study integrated lean production principles along with building information modelling, VR and discrete-event simulation in the production information system to assist the manufacturer in effectively handling variant product information and enabling quicker reactions in response to diverse customer requirements in housing industries. The coordination among system modules and the managed information flow could be a valuable reference for future MC production system development in housing industries.