ABSTRACT
During the 20th century, manufacturers developed a number of non-traditional building processes for the construction of housing. These forms of houses were known as system buildings. This chapter discusses some system buildings used for housing: pre-cast concrete, in-situ concrete and steel-framed housing. The use of system building really accelerated as a result of the need to provide huge amounts of housing after the Second World War. Many thousands of pre-cast reinforced concrete houses were constructed during the interwar and immediate post-war period up to about 1970. By the 1920s, cast in-situ concrete was being used in the United Kingdom by several firms including Wimpey and Laing. Most of the systems used no-fines concrete – a mix which contains no sand. ‘Permanent’ steel houses were also designed and built. British Iron and Steel Federation houses were built in large numbers after the Second World War; some 30,000 properties were completed, most of them semi-detached.
