Después el primer post y el segundo post acerca del proyecto de Open Architectural Design en el MIT, aquí podeis encontrar una tesis relacionada con este proyecto, MIT Open Source Building Alliance Operation (OSBA) desarrollada por Kalaya Kovidvisith en el MIT y presentada en el Junio 2007: “Open Source Building Alliance Ecology. The Internet Framework for Consumer Driven Participative Design”.

El objetivo principal de esta tesis es aplicar los principios Open Source en la industria de la construcción, y enseñar como la ejecución y ampliación de los actuales servicios de Internet podrían mejorar la usabilidad de los proyectos Open Source para la arquitectura construida.
La tesis propone entonces HOU.SYS, una comunidad en linea para proyectos de Open Source Building, como alternativa a los experimentos de plataformas de participación para la personalización en masa de las pequeñas unidades de vivienda y de sus productos, tecnologías y servicios.

This thesis reexamines the basic assumptions of how building products are distributed through the Open Source environment. By analyzing the impact of e-Business and Internet technology driving community participation, the integration of (1) four online Business models: Dell, Open Source, iTunes, and eBay, and (2) the advent of mass-customization through the revolution of Internet technology, Computer Aided Design (CAD), and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) for architecture and architectural product design and development will be established. The results of this evaluation identify the effective factors for the Internet augmentation framework to achieve the usability of Open Source for the design-build housing industry, and reinforce the changing relationship between homebuyers, architects, and manufacturers prior to making a final housing product.

Y en las conclusiones, cabe destacar que:

The value of information, the role of technology, the advancement of fabrication and production, and the customer initiative are the critical factors for individualization.
[...]
The result of the interface experiment indicates that the design application interface is merely a dialogue between consumers and providers to gather information and trasform it into an architectural knowledge representation. Consumers do not require comprehensive Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems, but rather interactive interfaces with communication channels to simulate and explore selected features of the product in response to information input and geographical constraints.

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