Major push towards solving Europe's housing needs

4 February 1999

Europe's housing is set to dramatically improve due to 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.

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 long-standing, 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 (See Note to editors 1).

Leading European research institutes and universities in this field will work alongside the industrial partners in this Brite-Euram funded project (See Note to editors 2).

The project's coordinator, Dr Robert Wing, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, 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 IT oriented approach, ranging from on and off-site robotic devices to simulation tools for support of the design and construction process".

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 (See Note to editors 3).

For further information:

Dr Robert Wing
FutureHome project coordinator
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Tel: 0171-594 5997 Fax: 0171-225 2716

David Cobb
FutureHome project manager
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Tel/Fax: 01442-851 098

Notes to editors:

1. The industrial partners within FutureHome are:

• British Steel plc (UK)
  
• Unisys Ltd (UK)
  
• Dyckerhoff & Widmann AG (Germany)
  
• Dragados Y Construcciones SA (Spain)
  
• Rautaruukki Oy (Finland)
  
• Slavenburg's Bouwbedrijven BV (The Netherlands)
  

2. The research institutes and universities involved are:

• Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (UK) (Coordinating contractor)
  
• Construct IT Centre of Excellence (UK)
  
• City University (UK)
  
• Lancaster University (UK)
  
• Building Research Establishment (UK)
  
• VTT Building Technology (Finland)
  
• Technische Universitat Munchen (Germany)
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• Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain)
  
• The Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden)
  

3. The Japanese consortium includes:

• Hitachi Zosen Corporation (Coordinating contractor)
  
• Kajima Corporation
  
• Shimizu Corporation
  
• Hazama Corporation
  
• Aoyama Gakuin University
  
• Mechanical Engineering Laboratory
  
• Osaka University
  
• Tokyo University
  

4. The project website is at: http://www.cv.ic.ac.uk/futurehome