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63-613: Prefabs ( prefabricated homes ) were a major part of the delivery plan to address the United Kingdom's post–World War II housing shortage. They were envisaged by war-time prime minister Winston Churchill in March 1944, and legally outlined in the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 . Taking the details of the public housing plan from the output of the Burt Committee formed in 1942,

126-476: A 2 inches (5.1 cm) cavity, and reinforcement in both skins located in four horizontal bands above and below window openings. Designed by J C Tilley and manufactured by W. & C. French Limited Lecaplan came in two types, Type A were 2-storey terraced houses. Characterised with shallow pitch gable roof covered with concrete tiles. They have external walls of concrete panels throughout, or front and rear walls infilled with timber shiplap boarding. Type B were

189-512: A castle, had a moat dug around it and thus had constructed a big fortress during the night." Movable structures were used in 16th century in India by Emperor Akbar The Great . These structures were reported by Arif Qandahari in 1579. In the United States, several companies, including Sears Catalog Homes , began offering mail-order kit homes between 1902 and 1910. The Forest Products Laboratory ,

252-516: A design feature out of the joining of the two prefabricated halves. Designed by A Er v.senthil and R Tonkin for the Central Cornwall Concrete & Artificial Stone Co., they are also known as Cornish Type and Selleck Nicholls & Williams houses. The houses came in type-1 and type-2 designs, incorporating variations of a bungalow, two storey semi-detached and terraced layout with a medium pitched Mansard hipped roof . The first floor

315-629: A division of the U.S. Forest Service , put extensive research into prefabricated homes in the 1930s, including building one for the 1935 Madison Home Show. This research continued into the 1960s. Lustron houses were mass-produced, prefabricated , enameled steel , houses developed in the post- World War II era United States . Lustron Corporation manufactured homes that were clad in coated steel panels Over 2,000 homes were constructed during Lustron's brief production period, and they proved to be extremely durable with many still in use seventy years later (2020). Lustron production ceased in 1950 due to

378-458: A fitted fridge a kitchen table that folded into the wall and a bathroom. Family and friends came visiting to view the wonders. It seemed like living in a spaceship. Although impressive, the AIROH by 1947 was costing £1,610 each to produce, plus costs of the land and installation. However, as the design was so easy to produce, 54,500 AIROHs were constructed. Developed and constructed by Taylor Woodrow ,

441-480: A full-size bath and fitted steel cupboards. There was a separate toilet. The lounge and both bedrooms had steel built-in cupboards and drawers. Arcons were so well fitted (in Debden , Loughton , Essex ) that the only furniture necessary were beds, kitchen chairs, lounge seating and floor coverings. Chain-link fencing , a gate and a coal shed built with corrugated steel from Anderson shelters and brick front and rear walls

504-799: A later variant of similar profile but with an added entrance porch and exclusively concrete walling throughout. Of each type some 1600 were constructed between 1966 and 1971. Like the Laing Easi-Form, a cast in situ concrete form of construction, first used in 1952 but mainly in the period 1962 to 1981. With a solid cavity wall , the poured concrete substitutes for the inner blockwork walls of traditional housing. Solid wall types 225 millimetres (8.9 in) thick cast in lightweight concrete, rendered externally. Cavity wall types have an inner leaf of at least 100-125mm thick concrete. Designed by Czech architect Erwin Katona, who left Czechoslovakia in 1938 to move to

567-530: A number of innovations for occupants. The house retained a coal fire, but it contained a back boiler to create both central heating as well as a constant supply of hot water. For a country used to the rigours of the outside lavatory and tin bath, the bathroom included a flushing toilet and man-sized bath with hot running water. In the kitchen were housed such modern luxuries as a built-in oven, refrigerator and Baxi water heater, which only later became commonplace in all residential accommodating. All prefabs under

630-453: A permanent over a temporary solution, with the postwar radio comedy Stand Easy! with Charlie Chester creating popular skit-chants on the subject, including: Down in the jungle, Living in a tent; Better than a prefab, No rent! As the economy began to recover, the cost of the unwanted post-war excess production reduced and hence costs of manufacture rose sharply. When the Chancellor allowed

693-606: A public exhibition of five types of prefab at the Tate Gallery in London, in 1944: This proved so popular that the Tate held two follow-up exhibitions in 1945. In April 1945, in a public relations exercise, an Arcon was completed and handed over to its new occupants by 22 men in under eight hours, and in May an AIROH was erected on a bombed site in London's Oxford Street in just four hours. While

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756-428: A small estate off Edward Road, Northolt , in 1944 to demonstrate to the construction industry, parliament and the media the principles of their standards, and show that houses and flats could be built of concrete as well as brick. The highlight of the show was the live construction over two days of a Sir-Frederick-Gibberd-designed BISF house , under the watchful 24-hour eyes of the media. The Ministry of Works then held

819-575: A temporary replacement for housing that had been destroyed by bombs, particularly in London . More than 156,000 prefabricated homes were built between 1945 and 1948. Prefabs were also built in World War I , such as the still-occupied houses in Austin Village , Birmingham . Despite the intention that these dwellings would be a strictly temporary measure, many remained inhabited for years and even decades after

882-603: Is PRC clad over a single-storey concrete frame, while the type-1 house has the Mansard roof over timber trusses. Internal walls are made of PC wall block or brick. So successful was the design, 30,000 Cornish Unit houses were eventually constructed. However the roofs and wall insulation incorporated asbestos , while the wooden frame-based construction means that as the concrete decays the two parts tend to separate, resulting in large amounts of internal cracking. The major defects are: A W Hawksley Ltd of Hucclecote were formed in 1940 by

945-404: Is at the national level. EU directives that apply to housing construction and design do not directly affect the modular home sector. However, each modular home must comply with EU's Eurocodes and local building codes . In the United Kingdom, the word "prefab" is often associated with a specific type of prefabricated house built in large numbers after World War II , such as Airey houses , as

1008-626: Is expected to rise moderately in 2021. In the 1940s French designer Jean Prouvé designed an aluminum prefabricated house, the Maison Tropicale, for use in Africa. After the World War II until 1948, Sell-Fertighaus GmbH built over 5,000 prefabricated houses in Germany for the occupying force of the United States. There is no pan-EU housing standard for this kind of home construction, and regulation

1071-521: Is the foamslag internal cladding. The floors are constructed of precast concrete flooring units, with timber flooring on timber runners. Due to both the speed of construction and the quality of production, over time the PRC deteriorates, particularly at construction joints and junctions between components, with a gradual reduction in structural effectiveness. This resulted in the Orlit being designated as defective under

1134-461: Is water filled heat exchanger enclosed at the rear of the burning chamber, with a hot water output at the top of the chamber and a cold water feed at the bottom. The back boiler is typically used with a gravity feed circuit to the hot water cylinder , with a vent or overflow to prevent excess pressure build up. It can also be connected to a series of radiators to provide central heating but usually requires an electrical pump to be fitted to circulate

1197-613: The House of Lords Built Environment Committee highlighted that the UK Government needed to take a more coherent approach to addressing barriers affecting adoption of MMC: "If the Government wants the sector to be a success, it needs to take a step back, acquire a better understanding of how it works and the help that it needs, set achievable goals and develop a coherent strategy." In 2010, Bali exported 98,417 prefabricated houses, but in 2011

1260-506: The Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 , which planned to build 300,000 prefab houses in Britain over the next four years, with a structural lifetime of between 10 and 15 years. In fact just over 150,000 were built. By 1951 the EFM housing programme and its offshoots had created one million new council houses , resulting in 15 per cent of all the dwellings in Britain being state-owned, more than

1323-586: The hot water or central heating system be able to disperse all of the heat captured from the fire, otherwise boiling or overheating of the water can occur. Back boilers are strictly regulated in Ireland and the UK following explosions relating to incorrectly serviced or installed back boilers. A gravity circuit is commonly employed to connect the back boiler to an indirect hot water cylinder and sometimes one or more radiators. This hot water cylinder needs to be placed at

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1386-855: The Airey, the Cornish, the Wates , the Unity, the Reema, the Tarran- a development of the Tarran THP design, the Woolaway and Parkinson types. The city of Leeds built the highest number of PRCs. They were similar to the prefabs in that they were built by non-traditional methods from components made in a factory but unlike the prefabs they were permanent, having a 60-year expected life. The construction of these new quick-build houses seemed like part of

1449-529: The Arcon was an asbestos-clad variant of the Portal, with the same prefabricated kitchen and bathroom capsule. It had a longer life, but also came with a higher cost of construction. The later rolled top roofed Arcon Mk5 was developed by Edric Neel. 38,859 were constructed through the programme. The two bedrooms were approximately the same fairly generous size with picture windows which included an opening window. The kitchen

1512-450: The Attlee government succeeded in building. Despite the construction of 156,622 temporary housing programme prefabs the United Kingdom still faced an acute housing shortage, and waiting lists soared in urban areas. Local authorities then took the lead in building new homes despite a shortage of materials and the hard winter of 1947. New estates were created and established ones expanded. To meet

1575-672: The Hawker Siddeley group owners of the Gloster Aircraft Company to build the Albemarle aircraft designed by Armstrong Whitworth . Post-Second World War, its parent company Hawker Siddeley kept it open to supply prefab houses and bungalows to the MoW. After their MoW work finished, they continued exporting their buildings to Australia , New Zealand and Uruguay into the 1960s. Their designs included: An estate of 60 Hawksley bungalows

1638-474: The Housing Defects Act 1984, and hence a majority of mortgage lenders will not give any form of mortgage on them. Prefabricated home "Prefabricated" may refer to buildings built in components (e.g. panels), modules ( modular homes ) or transportable sections ( manufactured homes ), and may also be used to refer to mobile homes , i.e., houses on wheels. Although similar, the methods and design of

1701-488: The Howard House apart, for example the precast concrete perimeter plinth that supports a suspended steel ground floor. Only 1,500 Howard Houses were built. Designed by Laing and Co. , as they are poured in-situ into moulds type designs developed from 1919 onwards, they do not suffer the problems of many steel framed buildings. The rare Mk1 version had 8 inches (20 cm) thick solid no-fines clinker concrete walls, built in

1764-487: The Ministry of Works was what was termed the "service unit," something which they initially specified all designs had to include. A service unit was a combined back-to-back prefabricated kitchen that backed onto a bathroom, pre-built in a factory to an agreed size. It meant that the unsightly water pipes, waste pipes and electrical distribution were all in the same place, and hence easy to install. The service unit also contained

1827-434: The Portal after the minister of works, Lord Portal . With a floor area of 616 square feet (57.2 m), and an estimated cost of £600 constructed, and £675 fully furnished. It included a prefabricated slot-in kitchen and bathroom capsule, that included a pre-installed refrigerator . The proposed rent was 10 shillings (50p) a week for a life of ten years. Developed by Leeds based construction magnate Sir Edwin Airey , it

1890-783: The UK, the design is a two-storey precast reinforced concrete design. The design was produced in Scotland by the Orlit Company, resulting in most houses being located in Scotland and Ulster . On-site construction was based on a foundation which supported storey-high precast concrete columns at fixed intervals, supporting concrete beams fixed to the columns, resulting in a virtually monolithic frame. Faced externally with large concrete slabs, and internally with interlocking foamslag blocks. Internal partitions are constructed of breeze blocks finished in plaster, as

1953-581: The Uni-Seco was effectively stopped from production from the middle of 1946 through lack of supply of wood. It was stated that both the Arcon and AIROH were above budget; the British prefabs in both manufacture and construction costs combined turned out to be more costly than traditionally built brick houses, while the American sourced units were cheaper. The population allocated prefabs were also concerned that prefabs were

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2016-429: The back of this scheme, local authorities developed non-traditional building techniques, which included some prefabrication, notably pre-cast reinforced concrete (PRC), to fulfil the underestimated demand. The combined effect of war and a lack of materials had a huge impact on the volume and quality of available housing stock. Contemporary estimates suggest that there was a shortage of 200,000 houses nationally. The result

2079-628: The company's inability to pay back the startup loans it had received from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation . In the early to mid-1960s, a line of inexpensive Leisurama prefabricated houses designed by Andrew Geller , were made available for purchase from a display on the ninth floor of Macy's in New York City and shown at the 1964 New York World's Fair. The precursor to the final design had been shown in Moscow in 1959 provoking

2142-521: The conceptual stage, such as the British Powerboat Company 's proposal for the Jicwood all laminated plywood design; while others were only dismissed after the prototype stage, such as the steel framed Riley. However, a few were approved after testing for construction. The first prototype to be unveiled was the motor industry contribution, a steel panelled experimental temporary bungalow called

2205-444: The cost of the prefabs was met directly by the Ministry of Works, the sites and utility infrastructure costs were the responsibility of the local authority. The 1944 Act had envisaged problems in obtaining access to sites quickly and hence slowing the programme, and so gave councils the authority to claim sites where two or more prefabs could be constructed. Councils were also given power over the site once identified, even before purchase

2268-680: The end of the war. A small number are still in use in the 21st century, but others are being demolished. In 2011 it was announced that Britain’s largest remaining prefab estate of 187 homes in Lewisham , South-East London, was to be redeveloped except for six homes. During the 2010s, as government backing (including via Homes England ) for ' modern methods of construction ' (MMC) grew, several UK companies (for example, Ilke Homes , L&G Modular and Homes by Urban Splash ) were established to develop modular homes as an alternative to traditionally-built residences. A development of 36 apartments, called y:cube,

2331-401: The hot water, some systems can use the gravity circuit to include radiators. A back boiler can improve the efficiency of a stove by acting as a heat-sink and can also act as a method of extracting additional heat from the flue system which would otherwise have been lost. Manufacturers of stoves with back boilers quote efficiency figures of up to 80% on oil-fed models. Back boilers require that

2394-403: The housing act came pre-decorated in magnolia , with gloss-green on all additional wood, including the door trimmings and skirting boards. To speed construction many were developed on the side of municipal parks and green belts , giving their residents, who had most often come from cramped shared rooms in inner cities, the feeling of living in the rural countryside. The Ministry of Works built

2457-480: The jobsite where the home is assembled piecemeal in a similar method to traditional site-built home. Panelized homes are generally considered a halfway between more traditional site-built home and more manufactured prefabs, with the flexibility of site-build and efficiency of prefab. Modular houses are built using a system that involves a sequential process in which modern techniques such as 3D digital modeling are now being used, which allows for pre-planning to make

2520-615: The main wartime advocates of prefabricated construction – intended to address its needs for post-war housing. The outcome of the Burt Committee was that it favoured prefabricated housing as a solution to the problems. In a radio broadcast in March 1944, as the war in Europe was ending , Churchill announced a Temporary Housing Programme, known officially as the Emergency Factory Made or EFM housing programme. The vision

2583-508: The majority of contemporary firms, with considerable overlap between the construction methods. Panelized homes (also referred to as system built homes), construct the structural components, or "panels", of a home (walls, roof and floor systems) in an off site factory where the panels are cut via automated saws and laser cutters from large wooden sheets, allowing for lower amount of waste compared to site-built construction. Following their cutting and shaping, panels are stacked and delivered to

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2646-563: The noted Kitchen Debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev . Over 200 Leisurama houses were built at the Culloden Point development in Montauk, New York between 1963 and 1965. By 1958, roughly 10 percent of new houses in the United States were prefabricated. Currently, the prefabricated housing industry is divided by methodology of construction. Panelized, Modular, and Manufactured home design make up

2709-507: The period 1919 to 1928. The more common Mk2 version from 1925 to 1945 had cast in situ cavity walls, 3 inches (7.6 cm) thick inner and outer leaves with 2 inches (5.1 cm) cavity, usually finished externally with stone dashed render coat. Post-1945, the Mk3 version, which makes up the majority of houses, was modified to specification, and hence had cast in situ concrete walls, inner and outer leaves of 3 inches (7.6 cm) thickness separated by

2772-419: The pound to float freely against the dollar from 1947 onwards, a programme costing 60 per cent of government income was severely cut back. Production of the major types by local authorities continued until 1947, but only 170,000 of the 500,000 units promised were completed by 1951, when Churchill's new Conservative government took over. The prefab programme did not contribute greatly to the one million homes that

2835-494: The process more efficient. This type of construction is typically up to 50% faster and requires up to 50% less materials than conventional or traditional construction. The size of the global modular construction market is expected to reach USD 271 billion by 2028. The total market share of non-site built single-family homes (modular and panelized) was at 3% of single-family completions in 2020, according to Census Bureau Survey of Construction data and NAHB analysis. This share

2898-455: The proportion in the Soviet Union at that time. The Ministry of Works created research institutes, standards and competition authorities that resulted in core building regulations . All approved prefab units had to have a minimum floor space of 635 square feet (59.0 m), and be a maximum of 7.5 feet (2.3 m) wide to allow for transportation by road. The most innovative creation of

2961-424: The region only exported 5,007 units due to the global economic slowdown that affected a number of export destinations. These Balinese prefab houses are well known for their artistic design and practical value. Back boiler A back boiler is a device which is fitted to a residential heating stove or open fireplace to enable it to provide both room heat and domestic hot water or central heating . The device

3024-436: The shortage and bring the cost of housing down, a new form of construction was pioneered, commonly called 'PRC' (Pre-cast Reinforced Concrete). Pre-cast Reinforced Concrete houses were largely made from concrete panels reinforced with steel then bolted together or constructed with a steel frame. They were quick to assemble and required less skilled labour than traditional build. Different builders marketed new PRC designs such as

3087-461: The site on a lorry, fully furnished right down to the curtains. The proposed rate of production of complete houses was to be one every twelve minutes. This was possible because the completely equipped and furnished AIROH could be assembled from only 2,000 components, while the aircraft it would replace on the production line required 20,000. The parents of future Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock were allocated an AIROH, on which he commented: It had

3150-498: The solution to the housing crisis at the time. From 1945 to 1955, 1.5 million homes were completed, relieving some of the housing demand. The percentage of people renting from local authorities had risen from 10 per cent in 1938 to 26 per cent in 1961. NOTES: When the Ministry of Works opened up the design competition, some 1,400 designs were submitted. Reviewed by the Building Research Station , many were rejected from

3213-561: The special May/June 2015 edition of the French magazine Historia , he spoke of a castle transported by Normans in 'kit' form. According to Bouet, Wace's epic poem Roman de Rou , verses 6,516–6,526, states: "They took out of the ship beams of wood and dragged them to the ground. Then the Count (Earl) who brought them, (the beams) already pierced and planed, carved and trimmed, the pegs (raw-plugs/dowels) already trimmed and transported in barrels, erected

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3276-541: The steel-framed design was privately promoted by John Howard & Company. A more industrial aesthetic design, and more adventurous in its use of innovative technologies. Asbestos cement cladding panels are clearly expressed with metal flashings over a base course of foamed slag concrete panels, with windows and doors fitting within the module set up by the cladding. Unlike the BISF, this house proudly displays its lightweight prefab nature, but there are also technical advances that set

3339-506: The three vary widely. There are two-level home plans, as well as custom home plans. There are considerable differences in the construction types. In the U.S., mobile and manufactured houses are constructed in accordance with HUD building codes, while modular houses are constructed in accordance with the IRC (International Residential Code). The first mention of a prefabricated building was in 1160 to 1170 by Wace as confirmed by Pierre Bouet . In

3402-480: The wartime coalition government under Churchill proposed to address the need for an anticipated 200,000 shortfall in post-war housing stock, by building 500,000 prefabricated houses, with a planned life of up to 10 years, within five years of the end of the Second World War. The Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 aimed to deliver 300,000 units within 10 years, within a budget of £150 million. Through use of

3465-481: The wartime production facilities and creation of common standards developed by the Ministry of Works , the programme got off to a good start and, of 1.2 million new houses built between 1945 and 1951 when the programme officially ended, only 156,623 prefab houses were constructed. Today, a number survive, a testament to the durability of a series of housing designs and construction methods only envisaged to last 10 years. On

3528-455: Was also provided. Gardens were of sufficient size to grow vegetables, and many early residents quickly erected a chicken run. The BISF ( British Iron and Steel Federation ) house is a permanent steel-frame house designed by architect Sir Frederick Gibberd and constructed nationwide from 1946. The main structure is of steel columns with a central spine to support the first floor beams. It has distinctive upper cladding made of steel, which makes

3591-510: Was completed. The programme delivered quick housing, with properties going up at the rate in some authorities of 1.75 units per site per day, and the 100,000th house completed in January 1947 in Clapham , South London . However, the cost of the programme at £150 million met with opposition at many levels, both politically and economically. In August 1945 the Portal was abandoned for lack of steel, while

3654-500: Was constructed by SIG Plc Building Systems for the YMCA in Mitcham, South London in 2015. From its Knaresborough , Yorkshire factory (opened in 2018, closed in 2023), Ilke Homes delivered two- and three-bedroom 'modular' homes that could be erected in 36 hours. In January 2024, following the high-profile failures of Ilke Homes, L&G Modular and Homes by Urban Splash during 2022 and 2023,

3717-665: Was constructed in Letchworth Garden City in 1950–51. There are also similar houses in the Canley and Tile Hill areas of Coventry , however many of these have been demolished in favour of modern buildings for Warwick University. As of 2014, the buildings are still maintained and occupied. The company later developed an aluminium house for the Margaret MacMillan Memorial Fund, for use in tropical overseas relief missions. Another designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd,

3780-480: Was easily recognisable by its precast concrete columns and walls of precast shiplap concrete panels. Due to its variation of design, available with a flat or pitched roof, and with variations for rural or urban sites; it became one of the most prolific of the permanent designs. The AIROH (Aircraft Industries Research Organisation on Housing) house was a 675-square-foot (62.7 m), ten tonne all- aluminium bungalow assembled from four sections, each to be delivered to

3843-449: Was fitted with steel cupboards, drawers and an integral sink unit. A side door entered directly into the kitchen. A gas copper , gas oven and hob, and a fitted-in gas fridge were incorporated into the inbuilt steel kitchen units. A drop-down wall-fitted table adjacent to a built-in larder was opposite the built-in units. The lounge had an open coal fire, the heat from which heated a back boiler, thus giving "free" hot water. The bathroom had

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3906-435: Was for a Ministry of Works (MoW) emergency project to build 500,000 'new-technology' prefabricated temporary houses directly at the end of the war: The emergency programme is to be treated as a military evolution handled by the government with private industry harnessed in its service. As much thought will go into the prefabricated housing programme as went to the invasion of Africa. This vision and promise passed into law as

3969-460: Was the repeat of a strategy deployed by the government following the First World War, namely a country-wide investment programme in a national public house building scheme. To tackle the problem Prime Minister Winston Churchill set up the cross-party Burt Committee in 1942, which sent British engineers to the United States the following year to investigate how America – one of

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