The challenges of mass customization for designing and constructing residential spaces

![CDATA[Housing affects the occupants’ physical and psychological health and wellbeing while partially contributing to user affordability issues that derive from both initial construction and operating energy costs. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of ‘Mass Customization’ in designing and constructing interior residential spaces, which need to accommodate users’ diverse needs and demands for their lifestyles and conditions. It appears that mass customisation allows for users’ direct involvement in the design decision-making process and it can be considered a competitive edge to a property or building firm. When adopting the mass customisation, residential units for sale seem to be the place to start in the overall built environment as it progresses from onsite construction to off-site manufacturing assembly. Mass customised interior spaces of a building may offer a great opportunity to appeal to the construction and property industry’s customers, who seek or require affordable individualised design solutions Interior spaces are subject to a desire for unique design thus required to be heterogeneous to fit a customer’s individual tastes, needs, and expectations. Importantly, research suggests that a price premium is acceptable to buyers of customized products, so an incentive exists for mastery and implementation of mass customisation approaches to end-user products. For contractors, interior construction productivity is difficult to improve, but it has a high value to consumers. This paper concludes that a mass customisation approach is a competitive advantage in enhancing the existing value of both a property’s location and the residential unit built on it. By itself, mass customisation can add value and reduce the cost to the design and construction of interior spaces as the industry strives toward risk reduction and safety enhancement with the high predictability of cost, quality, and schedule while meeting local conditions and earning profits.]]