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31-725: Renkioi Hospital was a pioneering prefabricated building made of wood, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as a British Army military hospital for use during the Crimean War . During 1854 Britain entered into the Crimean War, and the old Turkish Selimiye Barracks in Scutari became the British Army Hospital. Injured men contracted illnesses—including cholera , dysentery , typhoid and malaria —due to poor conditions there. After Florence Nightingale sent

62-529: A 1,000-patient hospital layout, using 60 of the unit wards. The design took Brunel six days in total to complete. From 1849 Gloucester Docks -based timber merchants Price & Co. became involved in supplying wood to local contractor William Eassie , who was supplying railway sleepers to the Gloucester and Dean Forest Railway . Eassie's company diversified after the railway boom period, manufacturing windows and doors, as well as prefabricated wooden huts to

93-429: A bathroom (a room with a bath)  — which was a novel innovation for many Britons at that time, a separate toilet, a living room and an equipped (not fitted in the modern sense) kitchen. Construction materials included steel, aluminium, timber or asbestos cement , depending on the type of dwelling. The aluminium Type B2 prefab was produced as four pre-assembled sections which could be transported by lorry anywhere in

124-665: A plea to The Times for the government to produce a solution, the British government were alarmed by the revelation of the appalling state and statistics of military hospitals in the first phase of the war. In February 1855, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was invited by the Permanent Under Secretary at the War Office, Sir Benjamin Hawes (husband of his sister Sophia), to design a pre-fabricated hospital for use in

155-478: A recent revival in prefabricated methods of construction in order to compensate for the United Kingdom's current housing shortage. Architects are incorporating modern designs into the prefabricated houses of today. Prefab housing should no longer be compared to a mobile home in terms of appearance, but to that of a complex modernist design. There has also been an increase in the use of "green" materials in

186-481: A small number of structures were left standing. Prefabricated buildings served as an inexpensive and quick way to alleviate the massive housing shortages associated with the wartime destruction and large-scale urbanization and rural flight . Prefabrication for commercial uses has a long history - a major expansion was made in the Second World War when ARCON (short for Architecture Consultants) developed

217-491: A system using steel components that could be rapidly erected and then clad with a variety of materials to suit local conditions, availability, and cost. McDonald's uses prefabricated structures for their buildings, and set a record of constructing a building and opening for business within 13 hours (on pre-prepared ground works). In the UK, the major supermarkets have each developed a modular unit system to shop building, based on

248-399: A very poor state. There was a need to reconstruct cities which had been severely damaged due to the war. For example, Warsaw had been practically razed to the ground under the planned destruction of Warsaw by German forces after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising . The centre of Dresden , Germany, had been totally destroyed by the 1945 Allied bombardment. Stalingrad had been largely destroyed and only

279-699: Is a zeitgeist or trend in architectural circles and the spirit of the age favors the small carbon footprint of "prefab". The process of building pre-fabricated buildings has become so efficient in China that a builder in Changsha built a ten- storey building in 28 hours and 45 minutes. Prefabricated construction generates less carbon footprint, improves energy use and efficiency, and produces less waste, making it more sustainable and environmentally friendly, and compliant with sustainable design standards. The modular architecture allows, thanks to 3D modeling,

310-549: The Crimean War , after Florence Nightingale wrote a letter to The Times , Isambard Kingdom Brunel was commissioned to design a prefabricated modular hospital. In five months he designed the Renkioi Hospital : a 1,000 patient hospital, with innovations in sanitation, ventilation and a flushing toilet. Fabricator William Eassie constructed the required 16 units in Gloucester Docks , shipped directly to

341-526: The Dardanelles . Only used from March 1856 to September 1857, it reduced the death rate from 42% to 3.5%. The world's first prefabricated, pre-cast panelled apartment blocks were pioneered in Liverpool . A process was invented by city engineer John Alexander Brodie , whose inventive genius also had him inventing the football goal net. The tram stables at Walton in Liverpool followed in 1906. The idea

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372-573: The Second World War due to the need for mass accommodation for military personnel. The United States used Quonset huts as military buildings, and in the United Kingdom prefabricated buildings used included Nissen huts and Bellman Hangars . 'Prefabs' were built after the war as a means of quickly and cheaply providing quality housing as a replacement for the housing destroyed during the Blitz . The proliferation of prefabricated housing across

403-597: The West Indies . Possibly the first advertised prefab house was the "Manning cottage". A London carpenter, Henry Manning, constructed a house that was built in components, then shipped and assembled by British emigrants. This was published at the time (advertisement, South Australian Record, 1837) and a few still stand in Australia. One such is the Friends Meeting House, Adelaide . The peak year for

434-494: The baby boom of the 1950s and 1960s. Many buildings were designed with a five-ten year life span, but have far exceeded this, with a number surviving today. In 2002, for example, the city of Bristol still had residents living in 700 examples. Many UK councils have been in the process of demolishing the last surviving examples of Second World War prefabs in order to comply with the British government's Decent Homes Standard , which came into effect in 2010. There has, however, been

465-545: The Crimea, that could be built in Britain and shipped out for speedy erection at a still-to-be-chosen site. Brunel initially designed a unit ward to house 50 patients, 90 feet (27 m) long by 40 feet (12 m) wide, divided into two hospital wards . The design incorporated the necessities of hygiene : access to sanitation , ventilation, drainage, and even rudimentary temperature controls. These were then integrated within

496-597: The Government had selected Dr Edmund Alexander Parkes to travel to Turkey to select a site for the hospital, organise the facility, and superintend the whole operation. Parkes had selected Erenköy on the Asiatic bank of the Dardanelles near the fabled city of Troy . This was located 500 miles (800 km)—then three or four days' journey—from the Crimea, but importantly outside the malaria zone in which Scutari

527-536: The War and ongoing slum clearance . Almost 160,000 had been built in the UK by 1948 at a cost of close to £216 million. The largest single prefab estate in Britain was at Belle Vale (South Liverpool), where more than 1,100 were built after World War 2. The estate was demolished in the 1960s amid much controversy as the prefabs were very popular with residents at the time. Prefabs were aimed at families, and typically had an entrance hall, two bedrooms (parents and children),

558-609: The age". This was in contrast to the Army medical facilities, which between them had two clinical thermometers and one ophthalmoscope . Also, despite the Royal Navy 's success in preventing scurvy through the provision of concentrated fruit juice, the army failed to learn the same lesson, and so its Crimean soldiers suffered from scurvy. Renkioi Hospital however had a short life. It received its first casualties in October 1855, after

589-418: The construction of these prefab houses. Consumers can easily select between different environmentally friendly finishes and wall systems. Since these homes are built in parts, it is easy for a home owner to add additional rooms or even solar panels to the roofs. Many prefab houses can be customized to the client's specific location and climate, making prefab homes much more flexible and modern than before. There

620-683: The country was a result of the Burt Committee and the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 . Under the Ministry of Works Emergency Factory Made housing programme, a specification was drawn up and bid on by various private construction and manufacturing companies. After approval by the MoW, companies could bid on Council led development schemes, resulting in whole estates of prefabs constructed to provide accommodation for those made homeless by

651-571: The country. The Universal House (pictured left & lounge diner right) was given to the Chiltern Open Air Museum after 40 years temporary use. The Mark 3 was manufactured by the Universal Housing Company Ltd, Rickmansworth. The United States used prefabricated housing for troops during the war and for GIs returning home. Prefab classrooms were popular with UK schools increasing their rolls during

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682-407: The design and construction of the modular structure outside the site where it will be installed. This offers several advantages such as more sustainable design, greater cost and time savings and standardization of design. This is especially important for large-scale construction projects. Many eastern European countries had suffered physical damage during World War II and their economies were in

713-739: The fall of Sevastopol , was closed in July 1856, and was sold to the Ottoman Empire in September 1856. But even for such short used institutions, it was feted as a great success. Sources state that of the approximately 1,300 patients treated in the hospital, there were only 50 deaths. In the Scutari hospital, deaths were said to be as many as 10 times this number. Nightingale referred to them as "those magnificent huts". Today almost nothing survives from it, although regular tourist trips do take in

744-666: The gold prospectors in Australia. As a result, when the Government wanted to provide shelter to the soldiers in the Dardanelles, Price & Co. chairman Richard Potter had tendered to supply Eassie design as a solution, and gained a 500-unit order. Potter then travelled to France and obtained an order from the French Emperor for a further 1,850 huts to a slightly modified design. French Army soldiers arrived in Gloucester Docks in December 1854 to learn how to erect

775-593: The huts. Supply was delayed by the need to transfer the resultant packs from broad-gauge GWR to standard-gauge LSWR tracks, with the last packs shipped from Southampton Docks in January 1855. Having worked with Eassie on creating the slipway for the SS Great Eastern , Brunel approached Price & Co. about producing the 1,000-patient hospital. The last of the units was shipped from Southampton on one of 16 ships, less than five months later. In January 1855,

806-534: The importation of portable buildings to Australia was 1853, when several hundred arrived. These have been identified as coming from Liverpool , Boston and Singapore (with Chinese instructions for re-assembly). In Barbados the Chattel house was a form of prefabricated building which was developed by emancipated slaves who had limited rights to build upon land they did not own. As the buildings were moveable they were legally regarded as chattels . In 1855 during

837-482: The site. The practice of building hospitals from prefabricated modules survives today, with hospitals such as the Bristol Royal Infirmary being created in this manner. 40°02′29″N 26°20′28″E  /  40.0413°N 26.3410°E  / 40.0413; 26.3410 Prefabricated building Buildings have been built in one place and reassembled in another throughout history. This

868-478: Was designated a civilian hospital, under the War Office but independent of the Army Medical Department, and hence outside the management of Florence Nightingale. It had a nursing staff selected by Parkes and Sir James Clark , including as a volunteer Parkes's sister; while other staff included Dr John Kirk, later of Zanzibar fame. Run as a model hospital, it "demonstrated the best practices of

899-569: Was especially true for mobile activities, or for new settlements. Elmina Castle , the first slave fort in West Africa , was also the first European prefabricated building in Sub-saharan Africa . In North America , in 1624 one of the first buildings at Cape Ann was probably partially prefabricated, and was rapidly disassembled and moved at least once. John Rollo described in 1801 earlier use of portable hospital buildings in

930-562: Was located. Parkes remained on-site until the end of the war in 1856. After William Eassie Snr had seen the awful state of construction of the previously shipped British Army huts at Balaklava , he sent his son to supervise the construction of the hospital. The whole kit of parts had reached the site by May 1856, and by July was ready to admit its first 300 patients. Although hostilities had ceased in April, by December it had reached its capacity of 1,000 beds, scheduled to expand to 2,200. Renkioi

961-588: Was not extensively adopted in Britain, however was widely adopted elsewhere, particularly in Eastern Europe. Prefabricated homes were produced during the Gold Rush in the United States, when kits were produced to enable Californian prospectors to quickly construct accommodation. Homes were available in kit form by mail order in the United States in 1908. Prefabricated housing was popular during

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