Timeless flexible building: Matching demand and supply in flexible housing

The concepts of Open Building and Lean Construction suggest strategies for designing, building and operating the built environment. These concepts create value and take into account all present and future stakeholders who are in control during construction and use. It gives guidelines on how to manage a construction process to create a built environment that is sustainable. At the same time we can see that in practice the concept is less flexible than the value it hopes to create. The starting point of this research project was the assumption that there is a major mismatch between consumers’ demands for flexibility on the one hand, and the flexibility that is actually supplied. This paper reports on this research project, which finally provides easily understandable guidelines to manage housing during the different stages of the life cycle. The questions this paper will attempt to answer include the following: which flexibility initiatives were promised and actually adopted by the developers and landlords of the houses; how did the users actually make use of all the offered flexibility during the use phase; and is it possible to optimize the demand and supply for future flexibility based on the principles of lean construction? A description of long-term value is provided, based on user interviews and case studies have been conducted in order to identify obstacles on the way to long-time flexibility. References are made to the Netherlands IFD (Industrial, Flexible, Demountable) Governmental initiative that ran from 1999 to 2006. Five experimental projects from this initiative are used as case studies in this research project. This study builds on the assumption that a foolproof product will add to the adaptability of a building, thus extending its life cycle, preventing waste and contributing to the sustainability of the built environment. In the final analysis the conclusion is drawn that among other things, house manuals should be compulsory and that a house that is easy to understand and “read” would only require a short manual. Such a manual would guarantee a natural hand over of IFD responsibilities to the next generations