Customizing Building Envelopes: Retrospects and Prospects of Customization in the Building Industry

Despite the relatively long history of inadvertent using of mass customization in the building industry, very little and scattered systematic attempts have been made to apply it within the field knowingly. Almost none of them have successfully avoided the predicament imposed by the dominance of its pure manufacture interpretation or have been able to obliterate the failure of its predecessor, mass-production. This chapter attempts to set the scene for customization in the building industry with special reference to building envelopes. It investigates a series of projects in which the approach can serve the purpose of a customization approach to the design, fabrication and implementation (DFI) processes of building envelopes. Some existing examples have been chosen and investigated to show how the notion should and could get adopted by the industry. Whenever applicable, comparisons to the strategies in the manufacture industry have been given to help keep the track and support the main idea of knowledge transfer. In the end the chapter sums up the findings and comes up with some general suggestions that would improve the notion within the building industry.