Airey House
An Airey house is a type of prefabricated house built in Great Britain following the Second World War.
Designed by Sir Edwin Airey to the Ministry of Works Emergency Factory Made housing programme, it features a frame of prefabricated concrete columns reinforced with tubing recycled from the canvas tilt frames of military trucks. A series of shiplap style concrete panels, tied back to the columns, form the external envelope.
Prototypes were put up in Seacroft, Leeds in 1945, followed by hundreds in the London County Council area. A total of 20,000 Airey houses were ordered: they were two storey semi-detached houses, initially to be used as two flats, then to be converted into single family homes once the post-war housing crisis was over. They were intended to be permanent dwellings rather than temporary ones.