Design costs for the creation of certain categories of built asset could be removed completely by the commoditisation of the prefab building process. (Sourceable Magazine)

The prefab sector is gaining strong momentum in its push to modernise Australia’s construction industry, according to new director of PrefabAUS and Wood and Grieve Engineers principal John Lucchetti.

First let's rewind to 1855, when a church was blessed by Bishops in the UK. There's nothing particularly remarkable about that so far...except that the 'church' looks more like a Meccano set, still in pieces. Pre-blessed and prefabricated in the UK well before radio was invented, let alone television and Grand Designs.

After last years' highly successful sell-out inaugural conference, the 2015 PrefabAUS Conference includes optional Monday Half-Day Site Visit program, Tuesday and Wednesday expert speaker presentations/discussion panels, catering, and Tuesday Cocktail Networking function.

See Events page

And let's not dwell on why that may the case - since until recently we weren't much worse than our developed counterparts around the world. But things have changed in a way that should be very confronting to an industry that has operated in something of an industrial sanctuary.

$4m in funding will be made available to establish the ARC Training Centre for Advanced Manufacturing of Prefabricated Housing administered by the University of Melbourne.

We can see YouTube videos of high rise apartment buildings being erected on site in just a few days. We hear about multi-storey school buildings being installed over the Christmas holidays to avoid a year or so of disruption.

Amy Marks made a compelling case for clients to rethink how they buy their construction projects in future. Marks is the President of US based XSite construction consulting, but her work now covers many markets. She is an international member of the Singapore Government’s Building Construction Authority (BCA) and advises on how the Singapore industry might implement their Construction Productivity Roadmap1 . BCA’s vision is to realise a highly integrated and technologically advanced construction sector led by progressive firms and supported by a skilled competent workforce by 2020, through a 4‐pronged approach which includes;

I believe it is that time, as the construction industry starts to take on a new look after a century in which it has hardly changed, especially when compared to the impressive advances in just about every other industry over that time.

Australia’s peak industry body for off-site construction, prefabAUS, has appointed a new CEO to help manage rapid growth in the sector.

Prefab Australia (PrefabAUS) will assemble industry experts from around the world to address the global expansion of prefabricated building technologies and the future of Australia’s built environment.

We are proud to have David Chandler speaking at our inaugural prefabAUS conference.

 Our Conference will be a perfect opportunity to learn from experts, while making new connections that last.

PrefabAUS is delighted to announce our Inaugural Conference in Melbourne from 11 - 13 August 2014.