Kısıtlarla tanımlanan mimarlık: Kitlesel özelleştirme odaklı konut tasarımı

Customized production involves a high degree of manual work and customization requires increased effort and time. Consequently, these tasks have often resulted in a price increase that is higher than what most consumers can afford. Differently, mass production is the name given to the method of producing goods for masses at low costs. The process itself is characterized by mechanization to achieve high volume production, interchangeable parts and a division of labor. Organizational management concepts are needed to be developed for the stages of manufacturing and enhancing the quality standards. It also requires a high level of demand in order to get an effectiveness from this kind of production. With reduction in labor costs, as well as increased rate of production, mass production enables a company to produce larger quantities of a product at a lower cost and with a small work force than that of traditional, non-linear methods. Major experiments that eventually led to mass production were first performed for the use of military organizations. Since then, the method was started to be applied for the production of everyday goods to satisfy the increasing demand. Ultimately, use of mass production has rapidly increased the supply but in the longer term limited the individual's choice. Although it was a significant innovation in the history of industrial design, the result is a standardized product made in a fairly small number of variety. Instead of mere repetition of the same element, mass industry is capable of producing individual, customized products as well. It is possible to simultaneously achieve the tailor-made quality along with industrialized speed and cost effectiveness. This approach, describing the oxymoron of mass producing customized products, is called mass customization. In the last decades, most industries have put much effort into formalizing this hybrid character of mass customization that offers both a satisfaction of user needs at a high standard and an affordable cost in virtue of mass production. The key point is to not consider it as a stand-alone business strategy that is slowly replacing the production and distribution systems of today, but as a set of organizational capabilities that can supplement and enrich an existing system. Therefore, it is crucial to re-build the process so as to be more flexible by using computer aided design and manufacturing systems (CAD/CAM technologies). It is also essential to include the user in the system effectively while using the computer as a digital factory. Most industries, e.g. automotive, computer, and clothing, have been using mass customization methods for several decades. For example, Dell as one of the leading computer manufacturers, allows customers specify hardware and software of their choice online and market them according to their needs. Another example is Nike, a sports footwear brand that allows the customer to make their own customized choice from a variety of materials, colors and patterns to create a unique pair of footwear in accordance with their own sense of style. After specifications are submitted electronically to the manufacturing facility, product is delivered directly to the customer's address in three weeks. However, mass customization has been slow to gain traction in the architectural industry due to high complexity of buildings and the required involvement of several different professions in design and building process, even though it is crucial to focus on mass customization especially for development of housing where no two users are the same. Accordingly, the typical practice of the user choosing the best plan type from a limited number of preset options is inefficient in a broader sense and despite the fact that architects design options, the options cannot be modified. Nevertheless, a house is expected to reflect its owner as it is not a mere ordinary daily use product but a home, a place where one should feel completely comfortable. Definitions of what constitutes social housing vary greatly, from one country to another. In Latin America, the term is occasionally used for formal housing built for poor people by private sector companies and is often subsidized. As for Turkey, most of the cities have seen a rapid population growth and urbanization for the second half of the last century which is causing an urban sprawl. Especially Istanbul has been negatively affected by this kind of overcrowdedness. Consequently, the government has established TOKI (Housing Development Administration-Toplu Konut İdaresi) an administration that aims to meet the rapidly growing demand for affordable housing in a planned manner. Although the institution later has widened its scope, the main purpose has been to meet low and middle income groups' needs by producing mass houses. One of the most obvious characteristics of this sector is constructional and structural standardization as well as a homogenized housing typology that pays little regard to variables such as climate, land and culture. It also falls short in answering to the different characteristics and varying needs of occupants and results in the discomfort and otherization of them. Considering that some people do not even have the chance to choose the size, plan type or location of their homes, customization is an essential need especially for mass-produced social housing. It is, however, a challenge to effectively implement mass customization in architecture compared to other fast moving consumer goods such as computers or cars. While other industries are able to offer a broad range of alternatives and changeable components, architecture stands in a different status, because of its much more complex nature. Another difficulty in the way of application of mass customization in architecture is the requirement of participation of buyers in the design process in order to give them more freedom of choice. Meanwhile, some limitations are needed to be established since the user has practically no architectural experience. This can be achieved by through examination of the implementation of constraints in other fields and contrasting this with the adoption of them in the building industry. Therefore, it is intended to use a verification system which is useful in relation to mass customization while performing constraints in real time. In mathematics, constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) is a general problem defined as a set of variables that can take values from a finite and discrete domain and a set of constraints. Constraint propagation is another method used for such problems to make a given problem simpler to solve. Solving problems on these constraints is the process of communicating with the domain reduction of a decision variable, which could not be part of any solution to all of the constraints that are stated over this variable. While observing a design process, it can be seen that a number of constraints exists: limitations or restrictions for what can or cannot be done in the design process, and for what the design should fulfill. Each constraint defines a subset of the set of all possible designs in which it is satisfied. When several constraints are specified, the outcome is the possibilities within the intersection of all the intended subsets. This intersection becomes smaller as more constraints are added. The more values defined in a state, the more specific the design is. Ultimately, the meta-goal of design can be described as a process of transforming such constraints into design descriptions, using constraints in both a generative manner as well as in an evaluative manner. Some examples of constraints are as follows: • The height of the wall must be between 2 and 2.6 m. • Windows with metal frames must have a profile thickness of at least 30mm. • The material of floor of bathrooms must be ceramic, marble, laminate or vinyl. Architecture involves a large number of rules and constraints, as stated above. When such a constraint-based system is being established, clear and concise communication should be achieved among related professions and the users. Most commonly design process commences with client's submittal of requirements and budget to the architect. However, additional specification can be obtained from the dialogue between architect and client in order to specify complete design goals. Thus, all the design stakeholders should contribute to the process from the beginning. In the proposed system, the architect will do the base design as usual and specify a set of parametric constraints, rules and relationships through his intentions, which non-professional users cannot manipulate. Prospective residents, on the other hand, will see an interface viewing the results of their preferences and tools for generating house designs enabling them to decide and change the parameters through their preferences. This thesis examines this compelling issue by using constraint checking method in the building industry. There are two alternatives of finding solutions; first one is taking the constraints as an input and trying to find an appropriate design. Second one is making the design and then checking. These checks could be done manually, but due to a large number of design drawings and constraints this would be exceedingly labor-intensive. Finding a method of automating this checking process would greatly benefit this phase. Offering suggestions, the system will not only support but also check preferences of users while evaluating the design. The result is a series of algorithms that make design of houses a customized process, reducing costs traditionally associated with custom design and increasing quality. Both the architect and the user cannot foresee the end result of the process before entering into it. In this case, it will be more accurate to establish a system that conducts a dialogue with the user, generates a number of alternatives and visualizes them with their pros and cons. For this purpose, a two-stage model is developed considering the parametric constraints, rules and relationships specified by the design stakeholders. In the first stage, external inputs such as social structure, user profile, level of income, physical environment etc. are gathered in order to create a base for the design itself. In this way, main skeleton, footprint and core part of the building will be specified. The following stage is where a user makes preferences using a multiple-choice interface. Design gets more and more specific in accordance with the user's family structure, socio-economic level, etc. as well as establishing guidelines for the next step. After the best possible option is chosen from the variety of existing options, the user can manipulate the design directly within the pre-defined constraints in the next step. Additionally, the cost estimate will be monitorable as an additional value which enables the user to alter his/her preferences by simply following it. In recent years, computer aided drafting has been largely replaced by Building Information Modelling-based alternatives. Although not strictly speaking a necessity for using constraints, Building Information Modelling allows automated constraint checking, which is much simpler. Effective software such as Autodesk's Revit presents an interactive environment where an architect can easily attach constraints and lock elements to establish relationships. For example, the dimension tool is used to create a sequential multi-segmented dimension for the gridline. By clicking the lock icon, a constraint, which inhibited the movement of the wall, is created. Schedules are another way of representing a data in order to quantify and analyze the components and materials used in a project. This data may include dimensional information, location information, descriptive information, cost information. The thesis focuses on the study of an approach in architecture where users modify the design themselves and their designs are checked automatically for design constraints which is considered to be the key for achieving mass customization in architecture. This way, an infinite number of solutions, which can be manufactured in accordance with user requests, will be eliminated. Also the architect will naturally have a certain amount of control over the result by making the base design and determining the constraints. Most importantly, this approach ensures that the social housing residents' needs and requests are considered in design and that they achieve a much greater living standard without any cost increase.