A mass-customized housing shape grammar application – The Orange County Sustainability Decathlon experience

Prompted by an international competition, a multinational team developed a sustainable, affordable housing solution to be built in California. The Orange County Sustainability Decathlon proposed a platform to test the system's viability. The generative system created encompasses a design system, a structural strategy, and an infill/cladding process. The method chosen was a descriptive shape grammar, a system that uses a finite number of graphical rules, and parametric schemata to produce a family of solutions, based on an offsite volumetric pod. The grammar allows basic design rules each one targeted at the combination of adjacent spaces: a bathroom, a kitchen, an entrance space, a living area, a sleeping area and additional accommodation. The spatial variations allow for several parametric solutions. Once the spaces are associated, they are constructed using light structural framing systems. The experiment has proved to be operational and could be scaled up for commercial applications.