Tools to enable inhabitants to co-design their house – customized housing design

In architecture, the individual needs and preferences of the end users need to be achieved in order to ensure a successful design. Standardized houses have been for long the reason for inhabitants’ lack of satisfaction. The participation of inhabitants in the design process of their own houses is a crucial aspect to address housing customization, however there is a lack of effective tools to help inhabitants co-design their houses. Generative design solutions seem to be an effective way to address mass customization problem. In this paper we present a literature review on computer aided design systems that allow inhabitants to design, or partially design, their own houses. Existing solutions are classified in several categories (as generation process, target users, type of outcome, type of interaction, availability) regarding to what they accomplish and then analyzed.

There is an identified need for housing customization that should address both social issues by increasing identity and personalization, and functional issues by incorporating the expertise of the designer. The participation of the final users in the design process is identified to be a crucial aspect for a successful design. This mass-customization problem needs to be approached with a generative design system.