The house is an eco-system, not just a building. This is what Hassan Estaji proposes in A Review of Flexibility and Adaptability in Housing Design. The author discusses terminology, some history, and different approaches taken by various architects over time. “House as an eco-system consists of three main parts: Environment, users and system (building).” A change to any one of these has an effect on the others.
The article concludes with a useful table of the many definitions of flexibility and adaptability (accessibility and universal design) in housing design from across the globe. This study is one for architects and interior designers.
From the abstract: “This paper presents a comprehensive review of all significant research about flexibility and adaptability in architecture with particular focus on housing design. A summary of different definitions from different points of view is given. A matrix compares these definitions from social, economical and environmental aspects. In the analysis part, strengths, weaknesses and limitations of each study are compared with other researches.”
The article was featured in the International Journal of Contemporary Architecture ”The New ARCH“ Vol. 4, No. 2 (2017). It is now available to download on ResearchGate.