You're looking to build a home. There's only one question. Do you pick from a catalogue of cookie-cutter plans - a streamlined process with cost certainty - or break the bank and engage the services of a design professional to create an architectural masterpiece?

There's also a third option - one that combines the design flexibility of a custom build with the streamlined process of choosing from a range of standard plans. It's called Configurable Design and it's achieved through a Product Design process called Platform - Design for Manufacturing and Assembly.

Platform Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, P-DfMA, or just simply ‘Platform’, refers to a process in which components within a library - a kit of parts - can be configured to create an assembly. Imagine a bicycle - it's made up of components that have been manufactured separately and brought together to be assembled. These components can be interchanged across many different bikes and even replaced. The same principle applies to cars, phones and many other consumer products.

Components of a bicycle - Image by fireflybicycles

Imagine a housing system that uses the same platform approach. Where the base design principles are standardised allowing it to be manufactured and then infinitely configured.

Flexi is using P-DfMA to bridge the gap between design and construction. By working with a focus on mass manufacturing of individual and interchangeable parts, we can truly optimise the efficiency of offsite construction. The real benefits are realised when we break the house down into standardised and repeatable components (like the bike) that can be used across multiple projects as a kit of parts. Since all of Flexi's panels use the same connection method, they can also be configured in different ways. Flexi's building panels can be configured to create unique architectural outcomes, from a single pavilion studio to a multi-pavilion family home. In this way, P-DfMA achieves architectural flexibility while maintaining manufacturing efficiencies.

For P-DfMA to work, our components must be standardised, repeatable, and constructed with a high level of precision so that they function as part of a system. Components are no longer project-specific so can be manufactured independently of project timelines. This unleashes the potential to mass-manufacture at scale, which will ultimately reduce the cost to consumers. In the image below, a wall panel with a tall thin window is lifted into place during the installation of our Cromwell proof of concept. Another wall panel with a different window type could also be placed here, as the connection details between the floor and the wall are universal.

If you've had a play with our Online Design Tool, you've already experienced Configurable Design and P-DfMA. The room plans and components you can configure have been designed with the manufacturing and and assembly process in mind from the start. We've curated designs that allow for creating quality architecture and flexibility while also ensuring manufacturing efficiency.

Flexi’s Platform approach offers flexibility in design

At Flexi, we believe everyone deserves a home that suits their needs. Good architecture must be flexible so it can be optimised for a specific site, but this doesn't rule out standardisation. Using P-DfMA, flexibility and standardisation go hand-in-hand. By configuring a standard kit of parts in different ways you can create unique design outcomes that are adaptable to different contexts. Unique, purposeful and jaw-dropping come standard in your Flexi House. With Configurable Design, the rest is up to you!

Configurable Design.

How to get started with Flexi

Home of the Future.