The social sustainability of standardisation in the Hungarian residential building sector

The construction industry in Europe is in transition. In the last decade, challenges related to inefficiencies in the sector, the shortage of skilled labour, and environmental concerns initiated a shift towards off-site manufacturing. In Hungary, the first examples of prefabricated residential buildings have just appeared after a 30-year-long break. At the same time, in post-socialist countries, the general attitude towards modern methods of construction is rather complex. While the Western examples of modular constructions are admired, local examples of prefabricated and standardised homes from the socialist era are neglected or criticised for their uniformity and inability to change. This thesis examines the social limits of standardisation in the Hungarian context, specifically focusing on how we can ensure that in the future, mass-manufactured buildings will be sustainable and retain their social respectability, technical qualities and economic value for a long time. It is found that standardisation does not necessarily limit creativity and can be socially sustainable, provided that it does not result in uniform constructions. Findings rely on an extensive review of the literature and real-life architectural examples, statistical results from two online surveys on preconceptions about mass-manufactured buildings, and space syntactical investigations of preferred home layouts. The findings of the project include showing that young Hungarian adults associate mass produced buildings with the loss of diversity, but they find these buildings environmentally friendly, fast to produce, progressive and fashionable. In addition, it is shown that it is possible to use small graph matching and density-based clustering to find the most suitable layouts for socially-conscious mass manufacturing. The practical outcomes of this project include an exemplar dwelling that showcases good design, a framework for discussing standardised buildings, and a Plug-in that can evaluate any new apartments created in Autodesk Revit based on the developed guidelines.