Laurentian University shares housing solution research on provincial stage

Northern Ontario is currently doing some groundbreaking research into building better homes faster and more efficiently as the Ontario Government looks for ways to overcome the housing crisis.

Representatives from the McEwen School of Architecture at Laurentian University (LU) and along with other student researchers from the school just returned from Queen’s Park where they were sharing information about research into new ways of building.

“If you look at the construction industry over let's say 1957 it literally has flat-lined,” said Steven Beites, an assistant professor at the school of architecture.

“In essence, it’s not any more efficient in terms of building homes. Whereas you look at other industries automotive industries, furniture industry your iPhone for example automation is a big part of it where you can start to produce efficiently and you can start to lower costs.”

Beites and an engineering PhD student working on the research were at Queen’s Park for an advanced manufacturing event in order to share information on their research.

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Ethan McDonald is a PhD engineering student at Laurentian University doing research into modular automated affordable housing construction. (Alana Everson/CTV News Northern Ontario)“Basically we are working on a robotic construction platform that will autonomously construct houses using a parallel-driven robot,” said Ethan McDonald, an engineering student at LU working on the research.

“Which is essentially you can think of it as tandem cranes that work together to move a platform around.”

In their lab, there is a now prefabricated panel of a building wall prototype.

“The reality is that skilled trades are hard to come by. We feel that by bringing technology into construction you can start to attract young individuals,” said Beites.

“Young individuals who are interested in technology. I mean we live in a society of technology.”

Beites said there is also a strong focus on using materials that are bio-based moving away from petroleum chemical-based products in buildings.