Participatory building communities and the production of design knowledge

Using as my case studies postwar Levittown remodeling and present-day IKEA hacking, I explain how members of participatory building communities find creative expression through modifying standardized commercial products. By sharing their personalized design practices, commenting on each other’s ideas, and engaging in a group of like-minded customizers, community members build social capital through the merger of personal and collective intelligence. The ways in which these communities create and perform design knowledge have serious implications for questions of production and expertise within architectural practice.