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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.

Emerging states confront staggering shortages in adequate housing stock. In response, governments have sought various supply-based solutions to mitigate growing housing deficits. While many of these mass housing efforts have not produced the desired outcome, the Republic of Korea’s Two Million Housing Drive (TMHD) was a comparatively successful intervention with its implementation from 1988 to 1992. The five-year initiative exceeded its objective with the construction of over 2.1 million units – of which two-thirds were built by the private sector. The purpose of this study is to analyse Korea’s relatively effective supply-based affordable housing approach and then extrapolate best practices and lessons learned with applications for real estate markets in the developing world. Comparative understanding of the TMHD can help promote greater access to adequate housing in the developing world, especially for the many who continue to live in impoverished conditions.

The research uses content-based and quantitative methods to analyze the case of the TMHD in Korea toward informing improvements in corresponding supply-based housing policies and programs in developing states.

While there were challenges with the TMHD, the program repositioned Korea’s urban housing market with greater access to affordable housing in cities for the lower-income and vulnerable. The TMHD enabled the subsequent effectiveness of demand-based housing policies.

There are research limitations in fully understanding the complex relationships between mass housing programs, economic growth and government policies. The abductive reasoning used in this case study enables in-depth analysis of the TMHD with generalizable inferences for middle-range theories with applications for emerging markets.

The experience of the TMHD can promote policy harmonization by helping optimize corresponding mass housing efforts in the developing world with the potential to similarly close quantitative housing deficits and expand access to adequate housing for lower-income and vulnerable households.

Deeper understanding of the TMHD can lead to reforms of other mass housing initiatives in emerging markets to make adequate housing more accessible and economical for the benefit of underserved segments of society.

The Korean experience with the TMHD can inform the optimization of other similar large-scale policies and programs seeking to sustainably overcome shortfalls in adequate housing that have become all too common in the developing world.

When dwellings fail to respond to residents’ needs, housing will suffer from segregation and buildings will possibly be demolished ahead of their time. This paper focuses on the lack of variation in the sizes of dwellings as a factor in residential segregation. It examines this issue in the context of Finnish mass housing built in the 1960s and 1970s. The purpose of the paper is to review how mass housing layouts can be adapted to produce the currently absent flat sizes.

The paper operates at the intersection of human geography, building stock research and adaptability research. First, statistical data are utilized to investigate how dwellings and households of different sizes are distributed over the Finnish housing stock. Second, the building layouts of mass housing are examined in detail. Third, the potential that flats in mass housing have for size modification is reviewed.

There is a disparity of available dwelling sizes between different housing types, and statistics show that the proportion of large households has decreased significantly in blocks of flats over the last decades. The lack of large dwellings in mass housing may contribute as one factor to the segregation of the neighborhoods built in the 1960s and 1970s. The findings show how the variation of apartment sizes can be increased in mass housing.

The housing stock is rarely examined in detail in segregation research, even though it is a major determinant for a city’s social structure. This paper argues that to address segregation sustainably, it is necessary to understand the housing stock better and to view it as an adaptable asset.

The perception that the repetitive nature and attributes of mass housing projects (MHPs) induce significant influence on communication among projects teams have persistently been acknowledged without an empirical accentuation. This seemingly untested knowledge tends to limit the predictive accuracy of success and effectiveness of adopted communication style, strategies and models in mass housing particularly due to the incidence of the repetitive attributes. The purpose of this study is to delineate the influence of the repetitive attributes of mass housing projects on communication performance among the project team.

Through the use of questionnaire survey and structural equation modelling analysis, a hypothesized model tested evaluated the effects of the repetitive attributes of mass housing on information flow and information composition communication performance.

In the case of influence on information flow, it was seen to be substantial whereas that of the information composition was moderate.

The findings offer empirical credence to the existing perception and indeed affirm that the repetitive features of MHPs significantly contribute to communication performance related to information flow and information composition among the project team. The implication of these findings is that, practitioners and stakeholders on mass housing are urged to explore bespoke communication methods, medium, strategies and management approaches that fit the MHP attributes and environment to engender managerial and communication efficiencies in the delivery.

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.

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 propose preliminary design models of actuator housing that enable various geometries to be compared without requiring detailed knowledge of the actuator components. Aerospace actuation systems are currently tending to become more electrical and fluid free. Methodologies and models already exist for designing the mechanical and electrical components, but the actuator housing design is still sketchy.

The approach is dedicated to linear actuators, the most common in aerospace. With special attention paid to mechanical resistance to the vibratory environment, simplified geometries are proposed to facilitate the generation of an equivalent formal development. The vibratory environment imposes the sizing of the actuator housing. Depending on the expected level of details and to vibration boundary conditions, three levels of modeling have been realized.

This paper shows that the vibrations induced by aircraft environment are not design drivers for conventional hydraulic actuators but can be an issue for new electromechanical actuators. The weight of the latter can be optimized through a judicious choice of the diameter of the housing.

This approach is applied to a comparison of six standard designs of linear actuator geometries after validation of the consistency of the different models. Early conclusions can be drawn and may lead to design perspectives for the definition of actuator architecture and the optimization of the design.

This paper has demonstrated the importance of the vibratory environment in the design of linear actuator housing, especially for electro-mechanical actuators with important strokes. Developed analytical models can be used for the overall design and optimization of these new aerospace actuators.

As the population grows, one of the major global crises is the management of human settlement. A proper solution to deal with this issue is mass housing. Given the variable needs in these projects, two constraints of height and volume of construction play an essential role in fulfilling success criteria. Hence, this paper aims to choose the most appropriate building method to satisfy time, cost, quality and safety factors considering the volume and height of construction.

In this research, the proper construction methods in mass housing projects in two volumes of up to 1000 (small) and 1000-3000 (medium) residential units in three ranges of the height of 5, 5-10, and higher than ten floors were determined with a focus on the success criteria based on real experiences through questionnaires and interviews.

The results show that steel bolt and nut and tunnel framework systems in higher than five-floor building projects act better than other methods, while in up to five-floor building projects, LSF saves time and cost and steel bolt and nut provides higher quality and safety.

Given the extent of work, the results of this research can be considered as a benchmark in the mass housing industry.

It is often necessary to assess the satisfaction of the house users with the house environment, in other words the compliance of the environment with their expectations, needs and goals.

The quality of residence and environment affects the general life satisfaction of the human. If the residents are satisfied with their residences and residence environments, this influences their psychological and physical health and these all together have an impact on the structure of the society. Therefore if the variables influencing the satisfaction of the people with their housing environment are known, this will aid us to set the criteria for the design of the housing and its environment. The aim of this study is to define the expectations of mass housing users from the houses and their environment and to assess the satisfaction of Bahcesehir Mass Housing users with the area they live in. The needs and expectations of families with different ages, cultures, educational backgrounds and income levels have been analyzed and the kinds of conditions necessary for satisfaction have been defined.

The factors necessary for the satisfaction of the users with the houses and their environment have been determined on the basis of the collected information about the features of the household, the houses and the house environment.

The survey within the scope of this study was carried out through 400 questionnaires. 327 of them were filled out in multi-family houses and 73 in single-family houses.

The findings of this study show that, not only the quality of the residence but also the environment of the residence is important. Residential environment constitutes not only the physical components of the residential area but also social and economic factors.

The assessments within this study will serve as a guide for future studies aiming to increase the quality of mass housing by taking the wants and needs of the mass housing users into consideration.

Turkey has been rapidly urbanizing since the 1950s. In quantitative and qualitative meanings, the problem of housing is one of the most important subjects on Turkey’s agenda. Increasing population, rapid cultural and economic transition and the dynamics of in-migration, changes in social life, consumption patterns and value systems have made a significant impact on housing demand and supply. If we try to realize a general analytical outlook to define the basic formal and informal categories that reflect specific values pertaining to housing typology of the twentieth century, it would be possible to make a classification under the following sub-titles: formal housing-row houses, separate houses, apartment blocks, social housing, mass-housing, luxury housing including gated communities; informal housing – squatter settlements/gecekondus, slums; inbetween –apartkondus, unpermitted constructions/building extensions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Istanbul has been experiencing these various dynamics of planned and unplanned housing settlements in a very radical way, since the 1950s. Changing typology is examined systematically under certain periods up to now. In confronting housing needs under rapid urbanization, “types of housing supply channels” appeared and as a result, urban texture has been changing by periods. In this paper, in order to understand each of these categories and the conditions under which they have been generated, an analysis will be realized to understand the urban housing concept of Istanbul within the twentieth century urban environment.

The factors playing a role in the evolution of twentieth century dwelling forms on Istanbul will be defined, and the physical/architectural, locational, neighborhood characteristics, as well as their user profile will be examined.

This study is expected to contribute to the further understanding of the urban housing stock and the future trends in housing typology.