ZEMCH, a systematic review

This paper presents a systematic review to identify and synthesise significant research evidence and arguments relevant to the ZEMCH term. “Zero Energy Mass Custom Homes” was firstly utilised as a single expression to name the 2010 technical-tour to Japanese housing factories, and firstly used as an acronym for the ZEMCH International Conference in 2012. Since then, a diverse range of publications, technical tours, academic activities and networks have used it. The term merges the concepts – Mass-Customisation and Zero-Energy. Therefore, this paper presents a linked collection of texts to describe the roots of the ZEMCH theory framing it to housing and architecture. The use of timelines and graphic representations was used to highlight, reveal and mapped relationships between the collected documents. Therefore, the authors' developed a digital archive that allows relating documents, texts and references visually. This study presents Mass-Customisation as a conceptual starting point. Revisiting Walter Gropius´ documents, where he emphasise the importance of standardisation and industrialisation of dwelling parts for the conception of a whole house. Alvin Toffler, Stanley Davis and Joseph Pine´s sequence of books where the term Mass-Customisation was coined. Among additional publications which present Mass-Customisation as a strategy to solve issues on the delivery of energy efficient dwellings, including Noguchi’s editorial work on “ZEMCH: Towards the Delivery of Zero Energy Mass Custom Homes”. This study pretends to fund the basis of any research that aims to explore how industrialised processes can be utilised to achieve sustainable housing. Moreover, this study forms part of a wider research that seeks to provide strategies to overcome barriers that limit the ZEMCH applicability in contexts where other processes predominate.