Mass customisation in the built environment, architecture and construction: an introduction

Challenged by a global crisis, the building industry is currently seeking new orientation and strategies. Stakeholders in the built environment are being forced at an extensive and unprecedented pace to improve a set of conflicting objectives. On one hand, they want to enhance the cost efficiency and economic sustainability of their constructions. On the other hand, the market demands that the functional performance, indoor quality, comfort levels and social sustainability of the building shall be increased. And at the same time, building professionals concentrate on the reduction of energy consumption, the ecological footprint of a building process and its carbon emission, boosting the environmental sustainability. Finally, designers also have distinct aesthetic values they would like to realise in their design. This apparently conflicting set of goals demands a new industrial paradigm in the built environment. In industrial markets, mass customisation emerged more than two decade ago as a paradigm for exactly this purpose - offering highly customised products with mass production efficiency. From its origins in machinery and IT hardware mass customisation recently gained growing popularity in consumer goods industries. In particular, the advent of the internet enabled its introduction in many markets. This chapter briefly recaps this development and provides a common understanding of the elements of mass customisation as a business paradigm. In addition, the individual chapters in this handbook are introduced.