Housing as mass customization

Google images, Casas GEO Ixtapaluca

Isadora Hastings, Ixtapaluca

Low income housing, Mexico City

In countries like Mexico where the mass production of living is a must due to the enormous demand of the population, mass customization has become a real solution.

In front of the absence of planning and construction of the public space, in addition to the constant demand of the government for getting more and more land for building living properties for the increasing demand of the population; the public space has started to disappear. Almost all the land surrounding the city area that used to be designated for agriculture or even as a protected area is condemned to be urbanized.

This phenomenon has developed the mass customization in living, real state companies have adopted this kind of solution creating kilometric rows of identical houses without any urban equipment, far away of any idea of the appropriation of the public space ignoring the needs of its inhabitants.

But this idea of mass customization disappear as the time goes by, any individual transforms it’s own living space into a constant changing space, the original idea of the constructor of using one solution for everyone eventually turns to be a serial of individual changes not controlled by anyone that at the ends suits the same necessities but transform the urban space in a more inhospitable space.

So is this idea of mass customization for the masses is really a good idea?

It could be for other countries, the development of a project allowing small changes that suit every client that can be controlled from the beginning by the architect is a good idea, but what happens when the budget is limited and the main idea is to give a home to thousands of people that do not have the opportunity to reach something better; this kind of solutions end up being ghettos.

These spaces where people are isolated from the rest of the city, where the idea of individualism or quality living disappears, become the result of a non-stopping mass customization development where real estate companies can make a lot of money by cutting expenses and repeating the same solution again and again, no matter the climate, or the close environment, it is like a “copy-paste” phenomena, where the final result can be seen long before the construction starts.

So when it comes to peoples homes, the result in the living quality is not as a good idea as it first seemed.We might think either way, but the reality is that this phenomena gives a lot of people the opportunity of acquiring a house, and by this fact, they might trigger a personal influence over their homes, which gives them the opportunity to at least differentiate themselves from the people next to them. We just think that the approach that has been taken towards this kind of mass customization, must be revaluated in order to give the city and its people quality living spaces which can merge with the urban mesh, rather than just neglect it, and to give the opportunity to the owners as to really feel as part of the process.

Bibliography

Hastings, Isadora
"De la auto-construcción a la vivienda en serie"
Arquine International Architecture and Design Magazine
# 35 spring 2006 pp. 4-8