Articoli taggati con ‘mass customization’
A Flexible User Centered Design Model for Social Housing Units
Dwelling is the most important spatial need for everyone and the basic determinant of dwelling is its users. This paper aims to underline the importance of human needs in determining the basic living environment by discussing the design methodology developed for standard social housing units in Istanbul, TOKI Başıbüyük Housing Settlement. The design model is characterized by a flexible expert system that leads to different spatial variations by multi parametric layout generation based on parameters determined by user needs. The spatial variations embrace different interior modules answering to different activity sets concerning the basic activities that take place in living environments. The study also includes the prototyping process of basic modules and the design of an interface that contains the proposed alternatives with their material and cost estimations. The proposal of such a modular system that can be mass customized and mass-produced has the potential to be implied to different existing housing settlements in different geographical contexts. It also gives the possibility to reuse abandoned spaces by donating them with interior solutions that can answer to the needs of different users such as refugees and people who are in emergent need of dwelling. The modules can also be reconfigured and reused according to changing needs and changing users, which can also be economically very sustainable. Insights offered by this work aims to create a value that overcome the specific case as it tries to develop a flexible model that create a variety of interior solutions based on user needs.
Le nuove frontiere della produzione: la digital fabrication
Lo sviluppo tecnologico e la diffusione dei digital fabricators – macchine che consentono di fabbricare oggetti tridimensionali da file digitali in un unico processo, simile alla stampa – ha reso negli ultimi tempi più sottile la distinzione tra prototipo usato per affinare il design e oggetto finito. C’è quindi chi prospetta un futuro prossimo in cui qualunque oggetto di consumo potrà essere acquistato in foma di file e prodotto on demand. Partendo dal caso di un piccolo e pioneristico servizio italiano di digital fabrication, questo articolo illustrerà in una rapida carrelata gli elementi che sostengono questa previsione e il suo potenziale innovativo.
