Developing a Data-Driven Design Framework for Mass Customisation of Multi-Storey Residential Buildings

Abstract

The Australian building sector has increasingly encountered a two-sided challenge; meeting productivity expectations in the building delivery while accommodating the housing variety demanded by the market. These factors have driven the need to adopt mass customisation strategies in the building construction. Mass customisation enables achieving the expected efficiency while it also satisfies demands for custom-built dwellings. Multistorey buildings, the largest segment in the residential sector, are prime candidates for mass customisation due to diverse customer demands. In this area, the integration of design and manufacturing is seen as a solution to the problem of achieving the balance between customisation and mass production efficiency. However, apart from some basic studies in the literature for integrating design and manufacturing, no attempt has been made to examine the potential for mass customised design of multistorey dwellings.

To fill this gap, this research intends to assess the adaptability of multistorey residential buildings to mass customisation and propose an optimisation model for mass-customisation of multi-storey building layouts. The focus was first placed on identifying similarities in architectural layouts and structural spans of different apartments to find manufacturable design patterns that are desirable for the selected developers. To this end, architectural drawings of 710 apartment units were investigated and classified into up to five similar clusters of layouts and spans. The results indicated that more than 68% of apartments have common spans that can be prefabricated offsite by Australian mass timber panel manufacturers and precast factories.

To optimise building layouts for mass customisation, the study then developed a practical framework for integrating production processes in the building design without compromising the flexibility in architecture. The framework consists of a parametric modelling approach to floor design that can adapt a fully customised architectural layout into three mass customisable scenarios. The model is most beneficial in the preliminary design stage, and it considers both manufacturer’s and building developer’s objectives, who are the key players in the implementation of mass customisation. The model proposes floor layouts by identifying optimal placement of load-bearing walls. The architect can examine various span dimensions to gain a preliminary cost estimation before finalising the design. The study uses Cross-Laminated Timber as a mass customisable prefabricated system increasingly gaining momentum in Australia’s building sector to validate the model. The results showed that multistorey apartments can be easily adapted for mass customisation and in doing so, can result in a minimum of 10% cost saving.