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This thesis examines social and cultural influences on housing and community planning in the native reserves of Canada. Architects and planners have tended to ignore the socio-cultural legacy of native people for a variety of unjustified reasons: insufficient local research and study, lack of understanding or appreciation, and the iniability to successfully accommodate ancient experience in the problem-solving process; approaches and techniques which may well be adapted to the contemporary context are typically overlooked. Where reference is made in housing and planning reports to socio-cultural issues, no recommendations are given as to how to interpret or apply them. / The study bases its analysis on three key terms: culture, community, and living patterns. These concepts are examined in a case study of Cree natives living on four Quebec reserves: Chisasibi, Mistissini, Nemaska, and Waswanipi. The thesis describes indigenous Cree housing; evaluates the existing housing projects built recently by the government and Cree Housing Corporation; details housing and planning problems; and presents conclusions and recommendations.

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Market demand for housing changes over time, in response to the wants and needs of both individuals and society. Changes in socio-demographics highlight the emergence of non-traditional households in Canada and influence the configuration of a house (or product) which meets buyers' individual requirements. In turn, this affects the design approach (or process). At the same time, society today requires sustainability in housing development, since building a house consumes large amounts of energy during construction and after occupancy. / Technology that improves the cost and performance of housing has advanced over time. Although some innovative design and construction systems (or approaches) that attempt to meet societal and individual demands for housing are available in today's market, homebuilders tend not to apply unfamiliar approaches to their housing developments, since their business operation is often based on convention. Another reason, which inhibits a builder's adoption of new housing technology, is the extra cost required for seeking and analysing information. Thus, the homebuilders' decision-making processes for the adoption of 'familiar' and 'unfamiliar' design and construction systems (or housing systems) which affect the configuration of housing need to be well programmed. / Accordingly, this study, composed of four parts, focuses initially on identifying housing market trends and issues in Quebec, as well as introducing the new concept of mass customisation that encourages homebuilders to standardise parts of a house---i.e. the creation of mass custom homes. Then, in consideration of this new concept, as well as a value analysis approach that helps facilitate homebuilders' buying decisions, it proposes a choice model for the design and construction approaches to the delivery of 'lower-cost and higher-performance' housing. Thirdly, to assess its practicality, the proposed decision-making model is demonstrated in collaboration with a selected homebuilder in Quebec. Finally, the results of this study are discussed in depth in order to identify future research opportunities. / In view of the demonstration project conducted in this study, the author concluded that the proposed 'choice model' could function effectively as a practical decision-making support tool (or system) that helps open the door for homebuilders to generate and select alternatives that aid them to produce lower-cost and higher-performance housing. As a consequence of programming the homebuilders' buying decision-making process, the goal identification uncertainty and goal/purchase matching uncertainty, which often hinder their adoption of unfamiliar, innovative housing systems, could be reduced, or eliminated.

Within the prefabrication industry, Kit homes have had a long history of success within the twentieth century. Kit homes are houses whose components are manufactured using a panelized or pre-cut prefabrication system, are numbered, packaged and shipped to the building site for erection. Among the different strategies in purchasing a manufactured house, buying a house as a kit has a great potential for self-help assembly. Since about one third of the cost of construction is labor costs, the author has investigated the option of self-help building using Kit homes, to eliminate the labor cost and thus further reduce the construction cost. / In order to study the Kit home potential and costs when bought from, and assembled by the manufacturer, four manufacturers of prefabricated homes who offer Kit homes were visited. In order to study the Kit home potential and costs when assembled by the buyer, the building process of a self-helper was researched and documented. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)