Designing for change: performative and flexible approaches to contemporary housing
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Contemporary housing must accommodate demographic volatility, climatic extremes, and evolving household structures. This article develops an integrated framework for “designing for change” that aligns four lenses: flexibility (design method), adaptability (long-term functional capacity), performativity (environmental interaction), and calibrated incompleteness (resident agency) to reposition housing as an open system rather than a finished object. Drawing on Open Building and Open Form theory, we test the framework through comparative case studies that bridge global precedents (e.g., Elemental’s incremental housing; Doshi’s Aranya housing) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) applications (e.g., BaityKool, Masdar Eco-Villa, Dubai’s policy reforms, and Saudi developments such as ROSHN Sedra and TAG Villa). Findings indicate that effective GCC housing couples lightweight, modular “hardware” with policy-enabled elasticity and passive-active environmental systems, enabling staged growth, post-occupancy modification, and culturally specific patterns of use. The article argues that flexibility is a sociotechnical and sociocultural imperative requiring regulatory foresight, material innovation, and meaningful participation. It concludes with an agenda for measurement (post-occupancy adaptability metrics), governance (codes that normalize change), and pedagogy (time-based design rehearsal), offering transferable lessons for resilient, inclusive, and climate-responsive housing.
Source: Frontiers in Built Environment
Institution: Ajman University
Language: English
Subfield: Architecture
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,353
OpenAlex ID: W4416099184