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An Airey house is a type of prefabricated house built in 
Designed by BFI.org
/ref> Today the Airey houses are life expired and many are in disrepair. The houses are one of a number of precast concrete systems listed in the Housing Defects Act. This meant that Government help for private owners was available in certain cases. Generally they are not accepted for mortgages unless repaired in accordance with certain prescribed methods. In the mid-2000s, one company began testing a refurbishment programme. Their programme involves replacing the concrete slabs with blocks, covered the blocks with insulation, and then facing the structure withBricking round the Airey Houses
/ref>
An Airey house is a type of prefabricated house built in Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
following the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
Designed by Sir Edwin Airey
Sir Edwin Airey (7 February 1878''1939 England and Wales Register'' – 14 March 1955) was a British civil engineer and industrialist responsible for the Airey prefabricated houses constructed in the UK after the Second World War.
Life
Airey wa ...
to the Ministry of Works Emergency Factory Made
Prefabs (prefabricated homes) were a major part of the delivery plan to address the United Kingdom's post–Second World War housing shortage. They were envisaged by war-time prime minister Winston Churchill in March 1944, and legally outlined in ...
housing programme, it features a frame of prefabricated concrete column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...
s reinforced with tubing recycled from the canvas tilt frames of military trucks. A series of shiplap
Shiplap is a type of wooden board used commonly as exterior siding in the construction of residences, barns, sheds, and outbuildings.
Exterior walls
Shiplap is either rough-sawn or milled pine or similarly inexpensive wood between wide with a ...
style concrete panels, tied back to the columns, form the external envelope.
In 1947, the Central Office of Information
The Central Office of Information (COI) was the UK government's marketing and communications agency. Its Chief Executive reported to the Minister for the Cabinet Office. It was a non-ministerial department, and became an executive agency and a ...
commissioned a propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
film, ''Country Homes''. The directoral debut of the later acclaimed documentary maker Paul Dickson, the film promotes the building of Airey houses in rural areas as a solution to the poor condition (due to the 1930s depression followed by wartime neglect) of much of the housing stock outside Britain's conurbations, due to the ease with which the prefabricated sections could be transported to remote locations./ref> Today the Airey houses are life expired and many are in disrepair. The houses are one of a number of precast concrete systems listed in the Housing Defects Act. This meant that Government help for private owners was available in certain cases. Generally they are not accepted for mortgages unless repaired in accordance with certain prescribed methods. In the mid-2000s, one company began testing a refurbishment programme. Their programme involves replacing the concrete slabs with blocks, covered the blocks with insulation, and then facing the structure with
brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
. It is hoped this remodel will result in a warmer and more structurally sound house./ref>
References
House types in the United Kingdom Prefabricated houses {{house-type-stub