Adaptable emergency shelter: A case study in generative design and additive manufacturing in mass customization era

The current paper aims to discuss the viability of digital fabrication and its optimization requirements in architectural design processes, through the analysis of an emergency sheltering solution scenario. The emergency study case is ideal to explain the necessity for optimal cost and time production, while keeping up with structural and aesthetic requirements in a semi-automated design and fabrication process. Therefore, the design of a shelter is used as a paradigm, in order to explore, implement and evaluate technologically advanced tools and techniques, such as generative design, topological optimization and additive manufacturing in small building scale. The aim of the project is not to provide a standardized design outcome, but to create a methodology which later in time may set up a dynamic solution data-base for shelter designs. The main objective relies on how optimization tools assist in producing mass customized sheltering, capable of performing efficiently in various environments, given the fact that open data and open technologies are spread across the world. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.