Mass-customisation of dwellings in the Middle East: developing a design-to-fabrication framework to resolve the housing crisis in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi government is taking the initiative to modernise the country and address critical challenges. One of its primary goals is to relieve the housing deficit. One of the challenges in supplying the houses is that potential inhabitants have denied and refused to accept them due to their design failing to meet their demands. Furthermore, the government suffers from providing high-quality housing in line with people’s needs because only a few enterprises can meet the client’s needs, but only at the price of lengthy planning and building times, in addition to increased construction expenses. This research aims to propose a mass customisation design-to-fabrication workflow, which targets environmental optimisation, reduction of construction time and reduced cost and incorporates client involvement. Our research method includes conducting a survey with Saudi Arabian architecture firms to collect data about contemporary clients' needs, analysing and reviewing mass-customisation tools and techniques, developing a bespoke algorithm capable of mass-customising housing and evaluating the algorithm through design experiments. Our findings present the advantages and challenges of our tool as well as a shape grammar of mass customised floor plan solutions.