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National College of Agricultural Engineering at Silsoe, Beds., UK, was built to an 'Intergrid' system frame with vertical tile hanging external elevational treatment
for plastering or floor screeds, decora- tion being applied direct to wall or ceiling surfaces.
Erection time cut
Low rise system housing has been provided by either steel framed, tim- ber framed, precast concrete or "ra- tionalised traditional' building meth- ods.
A recent productivity study of 28 industrialised two-storey housing pro- jects in England and Wales by the Na- tional Building Agency showed that houses erected by industrialised meth- ods are being built in under half the time normally taken for similar houses built by the traditional way and that the use of site labour is highly produc- tive, requiring only 1,140 man hours per house (including foundations and site works) or about half the man hours needed for the average tradition- ally built house.
It is not surprising that the cor- responding output per operative per year is 70 per cent higher than the average value for all public sector housing. Even more dramatic results could be achieved if there were fewer local housing authorities, enabling larger sized contracts with rolling pro- grammes and continuity of production to be achieved, if individual housing
Far East BUILDER, May 1971 Page 21
authorities would accept the standard systems offered and not try to 'im- prove them, and if all contractors would give the same meticulous plan- ning to their finishing trades opera- tions as to their foundations and struc- tural operations, and also make greater use of powered hand tools.
Britain has, over the last 20 years, learned a considerable amount, not only about technicalities of system housing but about the management and co-ordination of the whole factory and site operations.
It is interesting to record that Mr. George Romney, United States of America Secretary of Housing, lead a team of housing officials to Britain in the autumn of 1969 to consult with senior officers of the British Govern- ment and top executives of leading British contractors, in connection with the U.S.A.'s proposed programme for 22-million houses in 'Operation Break- through' over the next ten years.
British management consultants
Already, some British companies are actively involved in the U.S.A. on this housing programme, either in as- sociation with American companies, under under a licensing arrangement, or just in a straight management consultancy capacity.
In the school building field also great strides have been made with system building, using steel or con- crete framed 'public' or 'private' sys- tems. The former developed by groups of public education authorities' own technical staff, the latter by private companies.
Until recent years, most systems have been structural systems of pri- mary components, comprising co- lumns, beams and floor and roof deck. ing. The secondary components (ex- ternal wall cladding, internal partition- ing, ceilings, windows, doors and kit- chen, laboratory and other fittings) have, in many instances, been 'one-off" designs and as for the mechanical and electrical services, they have in the past been left as an afterthought.
However, now the public consortia and many private system sponsors have developed their own range of secondary components. Public consor- tia systems, like C.L.A.S.P. (Consor- tium of Local Authorities Special Pro- gramme), S.C.O.L.A. (Second Consor- tium. of Local Authorities), and S.E.A.C. (South-Eastern Architects Collaboration), have been very success- ful and in Scotland a 'Joint Action Group for Schools' has been formed by five education authorities (Argyll- shire, Ayrshire, Dumbartonshire, Mid-
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