Sir, – The need for a massive increase in the supply of housing is at the core of many of the economic and social problems with which Ireland is now faced. Established building methods have no real hope of meeting the colossal demand and the time-honoured but slow weather-dependant system of laying bricks and tiling roofs is incapable of providing homes quickly enough to deal with the crisis. It is therefore imperative that faster methods of producing acceptable homes are adopted immediately.
The recent experiments with factory-built houses has made some contribution to the demand but are clearly not able to produce homes fast enough to ease the problem.
For a solution which is capable of delivering on a scale which has some hope of meeting the demand it is necessary to examine the problem which confronted Britain as the war ended in 1945. Over 200,000 houses had been destroyed by bombing and even as the war was raging in 1943 Churchill’s government recognised that the bricks and mortar system was not capable of meeting the demand. An all-party task force was established to find a solution and that produced the “prefab” house. Several companies created designs of homes which could be produced rapidly in factories and transported in sections for assembly on prepared foundations. Teams, many of whom were Irish, laid the concrete slabs with water and other pipework positioned for the easy assembly of the housing units. The designs of the two- and three-bedroom prefabs were complete with fitted kitchens including a fridge – a rare luxury at the time – a hot-water system, cupboards, and each prefab had a small garden.
Unfortunately, in Ireland, the word “prefab” has negative connotations resulting from the leaking roofs and rotting floors of “temporary” school accommodation. However, the origin of the word in the context of buildings is very much more positive in the UK where over 156,000 prefabs were occupied between 1945 and 1949. They were intended to have a 10-year service life but many prefab residents resisted efforts to replace them and, even now, some 75 years later, many prefabs in London and Birmingham are still occupied by contented elderly people. In 2009, in Catford, London a group of prefabs were designated grade II listed buildings and many prefabs after serving their occupants for many years were exported to other countries.
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The layout and fittings of the original prefabs would be very acceptable today but of course materials such as asbestos could be replaced by modern options. With robotics and much more efficient equipment the rapid production and installation of prefabs could be achieved even more quickly than the shovel and on-site concrete mixer of the postwar days which then allowed each unit to be occupied within two or three days.
The Government must include the production of prefab housing in its efforts to deal with the housing catastrophe if it is to have any hope of success. Grants and tax concessions to factories who produce acceptable prefabs will be necessary and local authorities must be compelled to identify and prepare sites for well-designed prefab estates. The starting point, as in postwar UK, would be an all-party group to eliminate the political squabbling which obstructs so much progress and the need for urgency cannot be overemphasised.
If anyone doubts the suitability of prefabs as a solution to Ireland’s homeless crisis, they would do well to read some of the extensive material on the internet which sets out the very positive history of the prefab as a solution to another housing crisis. – Yours, etc,
PETER COOGAN,
Celbridge,
Co Kildare.