Sir, – At last some new – or perhaps not so new – thinking in relation to the dire housing crisis ("Prefabs may be used to ease housing crisis", September 15th.
After the second World War in 1945, the UK needed an immediate means of replacing the vast number of houses destroyed by six years of wartime bombing. It was recognised that the traditional “bricks and mortar” method of building would be far too slow to provide the answer and factories which had been used to manufacture aircraft and munitions were rapidly converted to assemble “prefabs”.
They were transported in sections by road and assembled on pre-constructed bases to form new estates in and around every major city in Britain. They were robust, low-maintenance and comfortable homes produced rapidly for thousands of families and even now, some 70 years on, there are some of them still in use. In Ireland we have come to associate the word “prefab” with temporary school classrooms, which are greatly inferior to the prefab dwellings produced in postwar Britain and certainly inferior to units which could be manufactured today.
With the advances in technology, materials and assembly processes, it must be possible to produce modern, pre-fabricated homes to form attractive long-term estates in Ireland.
Traditional house-building could continue simultaneously employing the skilled workforce available. However, the factory-built house production would be a quick and effective means of producing much-needed accommodation, unimpeded by weather and providing additional employment.
Perhaps the starting point for factory-produced homes would be a design competition to harness the abundant talent in Ireland’s educational establishments? – Yours, etc,
PETER COOGAN,
Temple Manor,
Celbridge, Co Kildare.