Flexibility in architectural design: contributions indicated by a systematic literature review

Abstract

The mass production of social housing, used as a strategy to reduce the Brazilian housing deficit, widened the discussion about the adoption of requirements that increase the quality of projects. In this sense, the concept of flexibility has been treated as an attribute to meet the needs of its users, in its diverse family groups, throughout the time of permanence in the dwelling. In this context, the objective of this work is to perform a Systematic Review of Literature (SLR) on flexibility. A research protocol was defined and articles published in the last ten years were searched in indexed journals. Through the StArt software, articles were selected and categorized into three categories: study’s area, theoretical approach, and methods. The results show that most of the work is related to housing design and the design process; has a theoretical approach on the characteristics that give flexibility to the project, and are based on empirical studies methods. Besides, the data point out that the thematic has little prominence and coverage in indexed journals, and still lacks studies on its own theoretical field and taxonomy, since there isn’t a precise characterization of concepts and similar terms such as Adaptability. The relevance of this work is highlighted by the fact that RSL is justified not only by outlining the published research but also by providing a context that elucidates what still needs to be researched.