Architecture as a Product

Mass Customisation is the principle of producing custom made items to individual unique requirements at similar prices to off-the-shelf, mass produced alternatives.

Gilmore and Pine have identified three different types of customisation and its interesting to see how the definition of the mass customisation can be changed to reflect the various possibilities.

1. Adaptive Customisation - where one standard, but customisable, product is designed so that users can alter it themselves. This strategy is described as being appropriate when the customers want the product to perform in different ways on different occasions, and available technology makes it possible for them to customise the product easily on their own. It is the product itself, rather than the provider, that interacts with customers. Example : the adjustable office chair.
   "Mass Customisation is enabling a customer to decide the exact specification of a product or service at or after the time of purchase, and have that product or service supplied to them at a price close to that for an ordinary mass produced alternative".
2. Cosmetic customisation - where a standard product is presented differently to different customers. The cosmetic approach is appropriate when customers use a product the same way and differ only in how they want it presented. Rather than being customised or customisable, the standard offering is packaged specially for each customer. For example, the product may be displayed differently, its attributes and benefits advertised in different ways, or the customer's name may be placed on each item. This type of customisation is sometimes called 'personalisation'.
   "Mass Customisation is enabling a customer to decide the exact specification or personal attributes of a product or service, at or after the time of purchase, and have that product or service supplied to them at a price close to that for an ordinary mass produced alternative".
3. Transparent customisation - This applies where the company provides individual customers with unique goods or services without letting them know explicitly that those products and services have been customised for them. The transparent approach is appropriate when customers' specific needs are predictable or can easily be deduced, and especially when customers do not want to state their needs repeatedly. Transparent customisers observe customers' behaviour without direct interaction and then inconspicuously customise their offerings within a standard package.
   "Mass Customisation is enabling a customer to decide the exact specification or personal attributes of a product or service, at or after the time of purchase, and have that product or service supplied to them at a price close to that for an ordinary mass produced alternative, or have this exact requirement supplied using the vendor's knowledge of the individual customer's needs".

Computerization profoundly impacted all aspects of design. It has transformed design processes, design economics. It allows collaboration and better interaction between designers and other professional, helping them to visualise better, finding many alternatives, options and solutions, in parallel to picking up problems sooner. It also allows communicating design ideas more effectively, making them more easy to visualise and comprehend by not only industry but by the end users (silent designer) themselves. While the implication on product design has been widely examined, the implications on architecture still stand debatable.

Can architecture be sold as a product? A product far beyond just the sizes, colour and texture.

Links:

http://www.strategichorizons.com/mass.html
http://www.klingmann.com/pdf/ArchitectureasaProduct.pdf