Flexible house attributes as perceived by the end-users

Abstract

Flexibility is vital in housing unit design to allow more choices for users, such that they perceive control over their living environment. However, flexible house design thus far has been viewed in the literature as the output of designer“s predictions about users” future changing needs. It is arguable that if the users were allowed to identify the attributes that they need to be flexible, then flexible house design would be more relevant and effective. This article is focused on flexibility in house design based on user preferences that are mainly influenced by his/her values and is based on the authors’ study of 25 respondents from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia using the Means-End Chain (MEC) research model. The findings from this study suggest a number of important attributes of flexibility in house design, such the ability to modify window size and the possibility of enlarging some rooms. These attributes are potentially useful for designers because they facilitate design manipulation