Mass customization and design democratization

Parametric design and digital fabrication are enabling non-designers to mass produce non-standard, highly differentiated products - from shoes and tableware to furniture and even houses. The result of these newly available mass customization tools has been a 'democratization' of design. Mass Customization and Design Democratization is the first book to address this recent phenomenon. Demonstrating how the considerable potential of these tools can be realized in practice, it introduces essential technologies and design approaches and provides numerous examples of the latest, cutting edge work from leading design firms, manufacturers and thinkers. The book examines what mass customization means for architecture and the building industry and investigates its impact on the sector's most commoditized enterprise - suburban housing. Asking whether design democratization is viable in the current context and exploring what kind of mass customization is possible, useful, and desirable, it poses fundamental questions about the authorship of design and the functional and aesthetic quality of products designed by non-designers. A highly designed book featuring over 200 color illustrations, this is essential reading for professionals as well as students taking courses in digital architecture, parametric design, and mass customization.

From massive to mass customization and design democratization / Branko Kolarevic and José Pinto Duarte -- Customering : the next stage in the shift to mass customization / B. Joseph Pine II -- Creating a sustainable mass customization business model / Frank Piller -- A craft it yourself future / Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael -- Massive customization / Marc Fornes -- Continuing toward extreme mass production / Greg Lynn -- Democratic design and daily objects / Philippe Starck -- Learning as it grows : the humanization of objects / Assa Ashuach -- Customizing process, democratizing design / Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler -- Metadesigning customizable houses / Branko Kolarevic -- Customizing mass housing : toward a formalized approach / José Pinto Duarte -- Interplay of design, technology, manufacturing, and business / Karl Daubmann -- The modern modular : the mass customization of the single-family home / Joseph Tanney -- Mass prefabrication : investigating the relationship between prefabrication and mass customization in architecture / Ryan E. Smith -- Future adaptive building : mass-customized housing for an aging population / John L. Brown -- Democratizing creativity …