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Budget 2014/15: housing can fill growth gap The federal government has the opportunity to leverage off the expanding housing sector in order to restore growth in Budget 2014/15, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA). The home building industry generates around $70 billion each year for the Australian economy and is recognised as a key driver of employment and economic activity as the investment phase of the mining boom winds down. HIA chief executive industry policy and media, Graham Wolfe, highlighted the imperative for May’s Budget to contain measures that promote growth in new home building. ‘It is important that the Commonwealth removes impediments to growth in the sector, invests in training for the future workforce and ensures that it improves the return that it is currently getting from investments in affordable housing programs,’ said Mr Wolfe. Key measures being proposed by the industry for the 2014/15 Budget include: • A Productivity Commission Inquiry into the cost of housing, including taxation and its impact on affordability, productivity and economic activity. • Increasing incentives for employers of apprentices, and improved commencement and completion incentives for apprentices. • Continued funding for the National Rental Affordability Scheme, with greater accountability measures and tying Commonwealth housing programs to performance incentive benchmarks targeting improvements in the supply of new housing. In its foreword to its submission, the HIA notes: ‘Housing is a vital tenet of economic infrastructure, as it plays a key role enhancing competitiveness
and driving improvements in the standard of living. Accordingly, it is vital that policy settings allow the industry to provide adequate supply of new housing stock. ‘Higher residential construction activity has the potential to fill the gap in economic activity that is currently emerging. The domestically oriented nature of residential building means that growth in housing activity provides greater than proportionate returns to economic activity and public finances. Our proposals for Budget 2014/15 thus represent a roadmap for a stronger industry, healthier government finances and a more prosperous Australia.’ To view the HIA submission, go to http://bit.ly/HIAsub.
Making homes with a 3D printer by Michael Molitch-Hou on 3dprintingindustry.com The University of Southern California’s Behrokh Khoshnevis has outlined how a novel extruder mechanism combined with robotic machines could efficiently print habitats. Through a great deal of trial and error, Prof Khoshnevis was able to make a printhead that can extrude wet cement which, thanks to a trowel fixed to the head and a special hardener, can keep its form as each successive layer is printed. Using this method, the professor has created walls that are six feet high, with layers that are six inches high and four inches thick. He believes that it can be
expanded to whole buildings. The 3D printer, mounted onto a gantry frame and weighing about 500lbs, could be brought to a construction site, where it would contour craft the house either like a giant RepRap, with the ground as the build platform or, possibly, climbing up the house, one layer at a time, and returning back to the ground upon completion of a job. He also suggested placing the printer arms on rails so that they could print one house and slide on down the line to construct another, making it possible to print whole
neighbourhoods quickly. This technique, and others that the Khoshnevis research team is working on, would present a number of solutions to problems facing the modern world. The professor believes that
his technology would make the construction of efficient buildings so cheap and efficient that we could print low-income housing for people in impoverished areas the world over. 3D printing homes would save time, as well as reduce waste and human error. The process could also save lives. In the 3D printing process, steelreinforced cement can be used, but, as the professor points out, specific printed geometries will yield more stability than the traditional cubes we often find ourselves in in the A 3D printer robot could ascend the walls as it makes them.
western world. Flat walls lack the stability of the curves made possible with contour crafting. With the ability to print, quickly and affordably, architecturally sound buildings, Prof Khoshnevis believes that we could have prevented the loss of life brought about by natural disasters, such as the 40,000 people lost in an earthquake in his native Iran. The team is already focused on creating complex extruders and robotic arms that give the impression of a hybrid manufacturing process, with arms that can eject and shape concrete at the same that other arms insert plumbing, wiring, insulation and the like. See more about Contour Crafting at http://www. contourcrafting.org/.
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The Byron Shire Echo February 11, 2014 39