ABSTRACT: Housing design can play an important role in the promotion of a better life in the perspective of a more sustainable urban environment. Nevertheless, even though the advances in the regulatory context of civil construction in Brazil, the normative references and wide range of instruments applicable to housing developments have not been sufficient to guarantee design quality, particularly (but not only) of social housing. Those references and instruments do not fully incorporate the necessary requirements for enabling satisfying people-environment relations in housing and for the improvement of change through adaptable and flexible spaces. In order to contribute to the integration of such values into housing design, the study identifies and revises the content of national and international norms and instruments of classification, evaluation and design management by normative and promoting institutes that present evaluating structures and quality indicators for housing design. The researchers conducted a comparative analysis and critical reflection over the identified data through the specific approach of considering and facilitating flexible and adaptable spaces, also identifying eventual gaps and opportunities for the improvement of such norms and instruments in further research development. Conceptual paths for a future framework of categories, requirements, criteria and design parameters are presented as an initial contribution to the design process of flexible housing in Brazil.
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