ABSTRACT
Innovation in construction is nothing new; even something as ubiquitous and traditional as brickwork didn’t become common until the seventeenth century and concrete roofing tiles only came widely into use after the Second World War. The most concentrated period of innovation and experimentation in residential construction in the UK was probably during the years immediately following the Second World War. At this time, the nation’s desperate need for housing combined with the necessity to convert manufacturing capacity from wartime production resulted in the wholesale adoption by local authorities of an almost indiscriminate variety of factory-based methods of mass construction for residential purposes. The consequences of this process, far-reaching and in many cases unfortunate, have been mentioned in several earlier chapters, most notably in the final section of Chapter 14, dealing with the construction system most seriously affected, that of PRC housing (‘Prefabricated reinforced concrete (PRC) frame’). This experience of innovation in construction has coloured the views and perceptions of a whole generation of surveyors, valuers and lenders who have consequently regarded anything of nontraditional construction with considerable scepticism, if not outright hostility.
