There is an inherent inefficiency in a designers attempt to optimize a unique building on a unique site, too many variables exist. Throughout the 20th century, industrialization has continued its progression. Assembly line manufacturing and the mechanization of previously handcrafted products, coupled with the increased specialization of adjacent disciplines, have impacted architectural practice. Materials and construction processes have been reevaluated by theoreticians and practitioners who embraced efficiency as intrinsic to the nature of industrial production. Modernist architects such as Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller hypothesized utopian-like scenarios to accommodate post-war needs for mass housing units and single-family dwellings. Off-site fabrication techniques, material and weight efficiencies, and new industrial materials, such as steel and aluminum, dominated mid-century architectural discourse.
Architectural products have been modularized and standardized. Off the shelf components comprise most of the built environments today. The role of the architect is largely the coordination of these products to fit their architectural agenda. By using off-site fabricated modules and components, mass customization has become more cost and time effective. Further, new technologies allow for 3 dimensional visualization of building information. Our forms of representation are increasingly less abstract, enabling the architect to gain feedback from the design before it is constructed. With this new set of tools, the question of making architecture has been transformed from that of master builder to systems coordinator.
The history of the American home demonstrates these trends in architectural production. The cookie-cutter homes of Levittown can be likened to the first Model Ts, one choice, produced in mass quantity. Now, developer homes are mass customized, offering stylistic and programmatic choices to the client. Similarly, the prevalent manufactured home can be customized based on finish choices and configuration options. Based on economies of scale, developers and manufacturers can gain cost and time benefits by producing large quantities of their products, unlike their architect counterparts who largely deal with unique building designs for unique sites.
The evolution of the American home will undoubtedly be affected by the current economic crisis surrounding sub-prime mortgage loans and the subsequent decrease in property values coupled with a renewed interest in environmental concerns. Developers and manufacturers offer Energy Star appliances, recycled-content, and sustainable materials, directly catering to the incoming Millennial demographic, the largest generation since the Baby Boomers.
The upcoming Millennial generation is the next demographic to enter homeownership and their shared characteristics align with social and industrial trends toward speed, customization, sustainability and technology. Their fast-paced lifestyles are based on connecting, communicating and working with others. Proximity is no longer necessary for work, which has made working from home increasingly popular. By translating these shared Millennial values into architectural terms, the private home can be reevaluated to support this new demographic.