Table Of ContentMASS
CUSTOMIZATION
AND
DESIGN
DEMOCRATIZATION
EDITED BY
BRANKO KOLAREVIC & JOSÉ PINTO DUARTE
00 Front Matter.indd 1 2018-11-04 5:12 PM
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Branko Kolarevic and José Pinto Duarte; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Branko Kolarevic and José Pinto Duarte to be identified as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Publisher’s Note
This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the editors. Designed and
typeset in Bell Gothic by Branko Kolarevic.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-8153-6060-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-8153-6061-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-11786-9 (ebk)
00 Front Matter.indd 2 2018-11-04 5:12 PM
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................................. v
PREFACE...................................................................................................................................... vii
1 FROM MASSIVE TO MASS CUSTOMIZATION AND DESIGN DEMOCRATIZATION
Branko Kolarevic and José Pinto Duarte ........................................................................................... 1
2 CUSTOMERING: THE NEXT STAGE IN THE SHIFT TO MASS CUSTOMIZATION
B. Joseph Pine II ........................................................................................................................... 13
3 CREATING A SUSTAINABLE MASS CUSTOMIZATION BUSINESS MODEL
Frank Piller ................................................................................................................................... 29
4 A CRAFT IT YOURSELF FUTURE
Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael ............................................................................................. 41
5 MASSIVE CUSTOMIZATION
Marc Fornes ................................................................................................................................... 55
6 CONTINUING TOWARD EXTREME MASS PRODUCTION
Greg Lynn ..................................................................................................................................... 69
7 DEMOCRATIC DESIGN AND DAILY OBJECTS
Philippe Starck ............................................................................................................................. 83
8 LEARNING AS IT GROWS: THE HUMANIZATION OF OBJECTS
Assa Ashuach ................................................................................................................................ 87
9 CUSTOMIZING PROCESS, DEMOCRATIZING DESIGN
Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler ........................................................................................... 101
10 METADESIGNING CUSTOMIZABLE HOUSES
Branko Kolarevic ......................................................................................................................... 117
11 CUSTOMIZING MASS HOUSING: TOWARD A FORMALIZED APPROACH
José Pinto Duarte ........................................................................................................................ 129
12 INTERPLAY OF DESIGN, TECHNOLOGY, MANUFACTURING, AND BUSINESS
Karl Daubmann ........................................................................................................................... 143
13 THE MODERN MODULAR: THE MASS CUSTOMIZATION OF THE SINGLE FAMILY HOME
Joseph Tanney .............................................................................................................................. 157
14 MASS PREFABRICATION: INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
PREFABRICATION AND MASS CUSTOMIZATION IN ARCHITECTURE
Ryan E. Smith ............................................................................................................................. 175
15 FUTURE ADAPTIVE BUILDING: MASS-CUSTOMIZED HOUSING
FOR AN AGING POPULATION
John L. Brown ............................................................................................................................. 185
16 DEMOCRATIZING CREATIVITY
Christopher Sharples ................................................................................................................... 197
17 SENTIENCE AND THE SPECIFICITIES OF CITIES
Tom Verebes ................................................................................................................................ 215
18 CITY SCIENCE: TOWARD A NEW PROCESS FOR CREATING
HIGH-PERFORMANCE, ENTREPRENEURIAL COMMUNITIES
Kent Larson ................................................................................................................................ 231
19 THE PHYSICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A MASS-CUSTOMIZATION ECONOMY
Thomas Fisher ............................................................................................................................. 249
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES ............................................................................................................ 262
PHOTO CREDITS ........................................................................................................................ 273
PROJECT CREDITS .................................................................................................................... 275
INDEX ........................................................................................................................................ 276
00 Front Matter.indd 3 2018-11-04 5:12 PM
iv
00 Front Matter.indd 4 2018-11-04 5:12 PM
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We offer the deepest gratitude to the contributors (URGC) and with funding through the Chair for
to this book – their remarkable ideas and Integrated Design and Laboratory for Integrative
innovative, pioneering projects were the main Design (LID) at the University of Calgary.
inspiration for both this endeavor and the We are profoundly appreciative of our
eponymous symposium that preceded it. In May home institutions, the University of Calgary
of 2017, we gathered in Philadelphia to explore and the Pennsylvania State University; both are
over two days the past, present, and future of among top research universities in Canada and
mass customization and design democratization the United States, respectively. They continue to
in business, industry, design, architecture, and provide a stimulating and supportive context for
urbanism. The symposium presentations, enriched our teaching, research, and scholarly work.
by the ensuing discussions and email exchanges, Finally, and most importantly, we want to
have been further refined and captured in this thank our students and our colleagues for the
book. Not all of the authors were able to join stimulating conversations about the subject of
us at the symposium, but have kindly agreed to this book. In particular, we want to acknowledge
contribute to the book. students and staff who were involved with
The “Mass Customization and Design the ideas, content, and organization of the
Democratization” symposium was organized symposium, respectively: Eduardo Costa and
by the Penn State Stuckeman School and held Flávio Craveiro, and Jamie Perryman, Barbara
in Philadelphia on May 12 and 13, 2017. We Cutler, Janejira Kalsmith, and Scott Tucker.
are most grateful to the symposium sponsors: We are grateful to Francisca Ford at
DIRTT and the Stuckeman Center for Design Taylor and Francis for her enthusiastic support
Computing (SCDC), the Center for Research in of this project and Trudy Varciana for patiently
Design and Innovation (CRDI), Stuckeman School, navigating the editing of the manuscript and
the College of Arts and Architecture, School of production of the book. Special thanks are due to
Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Susan Dunsmore for her painstaking copyediting
Programs (SEDTAPP) at the Pennsylvania State of the manuscript.
University; without their support, the symposium At a personal level, we want to thank our
and this book would not have been possible. Initial families for putting up with us as we spent many
formative research was supported with grants evenings and weekends working on this project.
from the University Research Grants Council The book is dedicated to them.
Branko Kolarevic and José Pinto Duarte
v
00 Front Matter.indd 5 2018-11-04 5:12 PM
vi
00 Front Matter.indd 6 2018-11-04 5:12 PM
PREFACE
This book stems from our shared interest in mass under cloudy skies, as an apt metaphor for our
customization in design and architecture and in the undertaking.
digital technologies that should make customizable The idea for the symposium that was born out
designs broadly accessible. We both started with of such initial examination of the current state of
algorithmic design three decades ago, which opened mass customization quickly evolved into discussions
unprecedented opportunities for exploring shape, about design democratization as an overarching
form, and space in architecture, in a fluid, dynamic theme within which any discussion of mass
fashion. We both then engaged enthusiastically in customization should be situated. As we engaged
exploring digital fabrication and the possibilities these themes more deeply, we discovered that little
that opened up for producing economically highly had been written about them in the context of
differentiated components in a variety of materials. design and architecture. Thus, one of our goals was
These two technologies – algorithmic design to address this perceived lack of adequate coverage
and digital fabrication – made customization of in the literature. Our main motivation, however, was
components possible on a massive scale. Repetition to explore what mass customization meant broadly
was no longer an economic and technological in the context of the contemporary economy from a
necessity. The consequence was that massive design perspective, and how it is manifested.
customization is a reality today in the building That eponymous symposium led, thus, to this
industry, as demonstrated in numerous projects book. Its contents largely mirror the presentations
completed over the past two decades. and the discussions that took place over two days in
Our embrace of the technologies that made Philadelphia. The thought leaders from the worlds
massive customization possible – to which of business and industry and the well-known, highly
interactive websites were added later – led us to regarded designers, architects, technologists, and
believe that the design and making of products, theoreticians we brought together became the
from daily objects to cars and homes, would be contributors to this book, with the aim of providing
made accessible to the masses shortly after those informed views related to mass customization
technologies came into use in the early 2000s. and design democratization. Their chapters offer
Such design customization by the masses was to a diverse and divergent set of ideas about mass
be a social and cultural corollary to the massive customization in design and architecture and design
customization that emerged in the context of democratization in our contemporary culture. The
the building industry and, naturally, architecture. projects discussed in the pages that follow provide
This mass customization – and the design snapshots of emerging ideas, grounded in actual
democratization it implied – have not happened practices already taking place.
as quickly and as broadly as we had anticipated, We, as editors and contributors to this volume,
which raised the questions as to why that was obviously believe that mass customization and
the case. In an attempt to get some answers, we design democratization matter, but, as readers
decided to bring together a number of prominent will notice, they mean different things to different
thinkers, designers, and researchers and convene people. This variety of perspectives should not
a symposium on “Mass Customization and Design be seen as negative; the meanings of both mass
Democratization.” Our idea was to discuss the state customization and design democratization are
of mass customization in design, architecture, and indeed multiple, intertwined, and sometimes
urbanism (i.e. at a variety of scales), its impact – or, contradictory. We didn’t seek a simple, coherent
rather, a lack of it – in contemporary culture, and and succinct definition of these still evolving
whether design democratization has any future as a concepts. Their true meaning should become clear
viable cultural and social construct. The symposium in the future, as design customization becomes an
took place in May of 2017 in Philadelphia, embedded cultural notion.
vii
00 Front Matter.indd 7 2018-11-04 5:12 PM
viii
00 Front Matter.indd 8 2018-11-04 5:12 PM
1
FROM MASSIVE
TO MASS
CUSTOMIZATION
AND DESIGN
DEMOCRATIZATION
BRANKO KOLAREVIC AND
JOSÉ PINTO DUARTE
1
01 Kolarevic Duarte.indd 1 2018-09-08 11:35 PM
