The International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction
Publications / 1999 Proceedings of the 16th ISARC, Madrid, Spain
Futurehome - Manufactured Housing for Europe
The provision of housing in Western Europe is characterised by stark contrasts. On the one hand, Sweden considers its housing needs in terms of requiring in the region of 30,000 dwellings per year. Compare this with the UK, where more than two million homes are presently regarded as unfit. Elsewhere, the picture is generally of provision that lags demand and significantly so. The major response needed from government and industry has been significantly boosted by the European Commission's decision to fund the FutureHome programme. The essence of the project involves developing know-how to create affordable, high quality, cost effective manufactured housing, taking account of the diversity of styles, designs and materials as well as the preferences of owners and occupiers (the customer).FutureHome aims for reorganization of design and production schemes in construction, with a focus on the integration of activities, development of clean, lean and reliable systems that are adaptable to the economic, social and cultural needs of different customers. The project programme will make extensive use of new developments in IT components and subsystems for intelligent, autonomous mechatronic systems, where the emphasis is on flexibility and reconfiguration of production facilities. These leaner design and construction processes will focus on value for money, improved productivity, maintainability and sustainability.FutureHome is expected to have benefits through savings in construction cost of 30% and 35% in construction time together with a reduction in defects on completion of 60%, enabling industry to be more competitive overall. Other benefits include improving the quality of life, social fabric and health of the European economy through a more efficient and effective construction process.