Customisation demands in residential buildings in Brazil: an empirical-qualitative cluster analysis based on the Skeleton/Infill System

Abstract The logic of housing production has excluded consumers from the decision-making process, assigning to them the responsibility for adapting the dwelling to their own needs after receiving the keys. This leads to waste of resources, it compromises dwellers’ safety and neighbourhood relations, and reduces a building’s lifespan. Thus, it is necessary to propose strategies to minimise the need for renovations of newly built apartments. To clarify the customisation demands in residential buildings in Brazil, we studied the scope of adaptations carried out by dwellers throughout the occupation span of a sample of 62 apartments in the cities of Sao Paulo and Santos. Based on the collected data, we conducted a cluster analysis, identifying three patterns of customisation demands: (1) alteration of finishing, equipment, layout, and openings; (2) addition of equipment unforeseen in the original design, such as bathtubs and air conditioners; (3) expansion through the addition of common areas with limited access, unclaimed by other dwellers. As the latter two patterns distress the building’s skeleton, needing works managed by specialists, we consider technical and legal approaches to enable them through mass customisation.摘要 住房开发的逻辑将消费者排除在决策流程之外，仅让他们在收房后承担起适配住宅以满足自身需求的责任。这不仅造成资源浪费，还会损害居住者的居住安全与邻里关系，同时缩短建筑的使用寿命。因此，有必要提出相关策略以尽可能减少新建公寓的翻新需求。为明确巴西住宅建筑中的定制化需求，我们对圣保罗与桑托斯两市共62套公寓样本在居住全周期内的住户改造行为范围展开了研究。基于收集到的数据，我们开展了聚类分析（cluster analysis），归纳出三类定制化需求模式：（1）对饰面、设备、布局与门窗洞口进行改造；（2）加装原设计未预置的设备，例如浴缸与空调；（3）通过加装未被其他住户认领使用的受限通行公共区域进行空间扩建。由于后两类模式会对建筑结构主体造成损害，且需要专业人员管理施工，因此我们提出从技术与法律层面入手，通过大规模定制（mass customisation）实现上述改造需求。