CONCRETE FOR HOUSES

Grey River Argus, 15 December 1937, Page 5

CONCRETE FOR HOUSES

USE OF UNSKILLED LABOUR. “Concrete for Low-Rent Housing,” is the subject of an article by Leslie M. Perrott in the “Journal” of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects. The writer mentions that experiments are being made in a suburb"'of Melbourne to ascertain the cost of building with different forms of concrete walls. “At the World Congress on Housing and Slum Clearance held in Prague recently,” states Mr. Perrott, “many countries submitted evidence of the extent to which they had successfully utilised new materials in the provision of housing, particularly concrete. In fact the countries which had achieved the greatest successes in the housing of their population had obtained their fine results largely through the aid of concrete and the application of unskilled labour, Mexico being an outstanding example. “My own observations in Europe indicate that Holland and Germany have contributed most in the way of new systems for using concrete. The outstanding contribution by the French is by the Mopin System of concrete construction. This system achieves its best results when applied to large blocks of flats. “One evidence of the appreciation of concrete in England is the fact that the Ministry of Health, the body that controls Housing in England, has given approval to thirty-five different types or block construction and twenty-four types of unit construction. Should we not be applying the best of these to our own housing needs? After all, the raw materials for concrete are possibly more readily available than any other building commodity.

“The Building Research Station in London is continuously carrying out tests regarding these new forms of concrete construction, with a view to establishing the stability of concrete block walls.

“One other big factor in the use of concrete for low-rent housing is the tact that it makes use of such a large amount of unskilled labour. It has two main advantages. Firstly, it gives relief in unemployment where it is most needed, and, secondly, it is less expensive than other forms of construction which require the employment of skilled mechanics. “As a further indication of the ex tent to which this matter of unskilled labour is being developed, certain of the pre-cast systems of concrete housing in England have actually been built with 90 per cent, of unskilled labour. Skilled labour handling some of the block systems nas executed the equivalent of laying over three thousand ordinary bricks per day. “In England and Continental countries most of the housing is under some form of Government control, in fact a large part of it is so heavily financed by Governments that they virtually become owners, in which case most important, factors are durability and low maintenance cost. Concrete efficiently serves these two requirements.”