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- MAJOR PUSH TOWARDS SOLVING EUROPE'S HOUSING NEEDS
Europe's housing is receiving a dramatic boost from a major project funded by the European Commission. FutureHome is a 3-year, 5-million Euro project that brings together 15 partners in six European countries and forms part of a global project under the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) programme. The project commenced on 1 December 1998 and is set to last 3 years. Many of the partners in the consortium are active members of IAARC and the development of the project planning has been carried out around the world for 3 years before the proposal was finally submitted early in 1998.
FutureHome aims to apply advanced manufacturing technology to the production of houses across Europe, aiming for construction cost and time savings of at least 30% and reduction in defects on completion of 60%.
According to Professor Brian Atkin, chair of FutureHome's Management Board, "FutureHome means that we can begin to tackle a longstanding, large-scale problem with a substantial R&D effort. Preliminary studies show that high quality can be delivered at a fraction of the cost of traditional construction methods, which currently dominate many markets. It also means good business for Europe's manufacturers of specialist components."
The project is industry-driven and draws on the substantial expertise and resources of some of Europe's largest companies. The industrial partnership within FutureHome includes a blend of major manufacturers and niche contractors - all with a reputation for developing and applying innovative solutions. These include:
- Corus (formerly British Steel) and Unisys in the UK
- Dragados, Spain
- Rautaruukki, Finland
- Slavenburg's Bouwbedrijven, The Netherlands.
Leading European research institutes and universities in this field will work alongside the industrial partners in this Brite-Euram funded project. These include:
- Imperial College, Construct IT, City and Lancaster Universities and BRE in the UK
- VTT, Finland
- Technische Universität München, Germany
- Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
- The Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
The project's co-ordinator, Dr Robert Wing of Imperial College, comments "The European building industry can learn much from manufacturing industry, and the application of advanced automation techniques will provide a compelling force for change into the next century. FutureHome will use a strongly I.T. oriented approach, ranging from on and off-site robotic devices to simulation tools for support of the design and construction process".
You can download a summary pdf format (Adobe) document of the FutureHome project by clicking here.
(Please provide the link to this document which will be emailed to you on 12/7/00 - it may already have been sent to you earlier on?)
To help achieve these objectives the European consortium will benefit from collaboration with IMS project IF7, "The Intelligent Field Factory", which involves partnerships in Japan and (soon to be started) Canada. The Japanese project is primarily concerned with larger, particularly taller, structures, but in other respects its objectives parallel those of FutureHome. Their consortium includes:
Construction Companies:
- Hitachi-Zosen (co-ordinator)
- Shimizu
- Kajima
- Hazama
Universities:
- Mechanical Engineering Laboratory
- Waseda
- Osaka
- Aoyama Gakuin
Please see the separate information on the IF7 project.
FutureHome Contacts:
Dr Robert Wing, FutureHome project co-ordinator
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Imperial College, London, SW7 2BU, UK
Tel. +44 (0)171 594 5997 Fax. +44 (0)171 225 2716
Email: r.wing@ic.ac.uk
or
David Cobb, FutureHome project manager
Walnut Tree Cottage, Toms Hill Close, Aldbury, Herts, HP23 5SL, UK
Tel/fax: +44 (0)1442 851098
Email: davidcobb@compuserve.com
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