Wednesday, at ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa I defended my PhD thesis, entitled Open ReWall: Survey-to-Production Workflow for Building Renovation, which was approved with distinction unanimously. I would like to thank my advisor, Assistant Professor Alexandra Paio for all the support and dedication. I would also like to thank the jury, Professor Jose Pinto Duarte, Associate Professor Jose Pedro Sousa and Associate Professor Vasco Moreira Rato, for the interesting and pertinent questions and thorough examination of my work. I’m also thankful for the support of the industry partners Amorim Cork Insulation, Grupo Casais and Laminar, my research lab ISTAR-Iscte, the Vitruvius FabLab ISCTE-IUL and the financing support of ISTA and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

Abstract

Building renovation of interior spaces, in the context of mass customization, requires a shift in how construction systems are designed, built, and reused. Leveraging digital frameworks for user participation, architects in collaboration with other stakeholders in the AEC industry may design and deliver customized and disassemble-able solutions to generic end-users.

The research proposes mass customization construction (MCC) systems can deliver cost-effective digitally fabricated and disassemble-able construction systems using survey-to-production workflows deployed in web configurators for end-users to co-design solutions in building renovation.

The research methodology uses theoretical inquiry and analysis to define criteria and objectives to be explored in design problem solving. From these experiments generalizable principles and a low- key workflow for the design of MCC systems of customizable and disassemble-able partition wall construction systems for open building renovation are synthetized. The workflow clarifies stakeholder roles, steps, and system architecture to implement an MCC system from survey to production.

This investigation demonstrates the proposed survey workflow is usable by non-expert and expert instance-designers, with the former having on-average better results, and that these can survey spaces with sufficient precision for design-to-production workflows. It is also shown the survey-to-production workflow, the generic grammar, and criteria are useful for architects to design customizable and disassemble-able partition wall systems for open MCC systems.

Keywords: Parametric Design; Digital Fabrication; Building Renovation; Mass Customization, As-is Surveys, Workflow