Abstract:
To fit the needs of a varied and changing society, this thesis argues that architects should begin to shift their focus from the designing for the ‘nuclear’ family, and instead begin to design for the wide and varied range of housing and household types. This thesis research is based on the idea that is it more useful for architects to be focusing their efforts to design houses which can adapt to suit the needs of any family type, through all stages of the family, and the house’s lifetime. Adaptive housing modules allow for a family to change the footprint of their home as their spatial requirements and desired arrangements change. Due to the flexible design arrangements, the house can grow in parallel with its user. These adaptive houses have the potential to be constructed in ways which allows them to be customised to fit the needs of individuals, and the family they belong to, at any stage of their life through the integration of universal design principles and modular construction. A system of modular and prefabricated pieces has been investigated as a method for producing houses which can be built efficiently, as well as allowing for the aforementioned principles to be implemented universally, and on multiple scales. This thesis looks to combine these key ideas to create a cohesive system for producing a housing typology that lives and grows with its family, a lifelong domestic architecture.