As a result of the diversity of home buyers within the current housing market, houses are increasingly designed with but little user input into the overall design process. Home builders require the development of design tools which will accommodate user needs within specific housing markets. This thesis investigates the reaction of builders to the participation of home buyers in the design process through the use of computer-aided design (CAD). / A review of the role of computers within the homebuilding industry is provided, including an historical overview of the use of CAD. The state of the art in CAD software applications is explored, with an assessment made of three low-cost software programs. Following a description of the existing design process in the homebuilding industry, a proposed system of user participation is outlined. A survey is taken of six builders in the Montreal and Ottawa regions to determine industry response to home buyer use of CAD as a design tool. / An analysis of the survey results reveals that although the builders are not currently participants in such a process, they are tentatively positive in their receptiveness to the idea of user-related CAD. The builders express many reservations concerning the available CAD systems, and they declare little interest in adopting the process as it presently exists. The relevant computer programs are found wanting, revealing a need for further development of both the software applications and the procedure for implementing CAD at the user participation level. Suggestions are offered for improvements in the process to the benefit of builder, designer, and end user.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26242 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Medek, Liza |
| Contributors | Friedman, Avi (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Architecture (School of Architecture.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001443444, proquestno: MM99885, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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