25,000 dwellings a year are now produced throughout the world by..
Multi-storey Camus flats at Liverpool
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THE CAMUS SYSTEM
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AMUS, patentees of the oldest and probably the most ubiquitous of France's industrialised building sys- tems, ambitiously plan to make the system available in every part of the globe.
This plan includes the proposed establishment of factories at various points throughout South East Asia and the first steps to this end are now being taken. The area of operation of Japan-Camus Ltd.. formed in 1963 has been expanded to include Indonesia, The Philippines and Taiwan; a new company has re- cently been set up in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia, and M. Pierre Teou is now installed in Hong Kong as the group's representative.
Production of Camus dwellings has risen from 200 in 1949, when the system was first patented, to a total of more than 25,000 in 1965.
Societe Raymond Camus et Cie, Paris, is the central organisation of the world-wide network, in which factories are operated by subsidiaries or under licencing agreements of varying degree.
Economic
It is claimed for the system that it is economic to operate almost any- where in the world, in spite of dif- ferent standards of living, varied building conditions, and require- ments that alter from country to country. In current production, apart from the four factories in France, are factories in Britain, Ger- many, Austria, Italy, the Soviet Union, and Belgium. Future plans, some of which are at an advanced stage, call for factories to be erected at Strasbourg. Cologne, Rome, Swit- zerland, Palermo, Tokyo, Montreal, with a further factory in Vienna, and two more in Britain.
The Camus organisation exhibits an impressive readiness to cope. not only with local conditions of build- ing, but also with local methods of administration. Thus, they may operate in one country as part of a consortium with the contractor or, as in Britain, through a holding com- pany which appoints licencees.
In the Soviet Union, where such arrangements are obviously preclud- ed. the provision of the factories at Tachkent and Baku was on an out- right sale basis, and in Vienna. Camus retain an interest in what is
Flats at Fontainebleau for SHAPE
Far East Architect & Builder August, 1966
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