Variability and validity: Flexibility of a dimensional customization system

The ultimate goal of the described research is a process for dimensional mass customization of housing. Dimensional customization is a suitable paradigm for houses, where building geometry can be tailored individually by using dimensional parameters. The current goal is the development of a customization system, a constraint-based dimensional customization toolkit that could provide for customer participation and automatic design validation in the housing industry. The novelty of the system could be addressed effectively using building information modeling (BIM) software, a simple, but layered interaction with the parametric model, and automatic design validation against dimensional constraints. This paper delineates an investigation into the development of the proposed system which is tested in a real context of prefabricated housing in Canada as a case study.