ModRule: A User-Centric Mass Housing Design Platform Tian Tian Lo 1( ✉ ) , Marc Aurel Schnabel 2 , and Yan Gao 3 1 The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong skyduo@gmail.com 2 Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand marcaurel.schnabel@vuw.ac.nz 3 University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong yangao@hku.hk Abstract. This paper presents a novel platform, ModRule, designed and devel‐ oped to promote and facilitate collaboration between architects and future occu‐ pants during the design stage of mass housing buildings. Architects set the design-framework and parameters of the system, which allows the users to set their space requirements, budgets, etc., and define their desired way of living. The system utilizes gamification methodologies as a reference to promote incen‐ tives and user-friendliness for the layperson who has little or no architectural background. This enhanced integration of a both bottom-up approach (user- centric/player) with a top-down approach (architect-centric/game-maker) will greatly influence how architects design high rise living. By bridging the gap between the architect and the user, this development aims to instill a greater sense of belonging to people, as well as providing architects with a better understanding of how to give people more control over their living spaces. The paper also presents an evaluation of a design process that employed ModRule. Keywords: Mass housing · Collaborative design · Participatory system 1 Introduction Mass housing has constituted a major concern for city dwellers, especially with the increasing numbers of city dwellers, resulting in increases in population densities and limitations of urban land resources. It has, at different levels, become a major topic of discussion, politically as a form of nation building [18], economically in search of ways to provide affordable housing to the masses [16] and using housing as a form of invest‐ ment [6], and socially to develop community bonds and identity [1]. Mass housing, as the name suggests, is intended for the masses. Participation in building design can come in many forms [27]. Most of the time, urban planners have invited government officials, and even the public community, to be involved in the projects to provide better knowledge of the locals [17]. In the context of housing, there are cases [30], such as Okohaus by Frei Otto, NEXT21 by 13 archi‐ tects owned by the Osaka Gas Corporation, La Meme, and Zilvervloot by Lucien Kroll, that demonstrate the possibilities of participation of the occupants. However, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 G. Celani et al. (Eds.): CAAD Futures 2015, CCIS 527, pp. 236–254, 2015. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-47386-3_13