introducing the ishack £410

[Tarrel]

I was brought up in a WW2 prefab. We lived in it from 1962-69, at which point it was pulled down. Some of my happiest childhood memories are from there.

It was actually a miracle of good design. Everything was built around a central "service core" that housed all the plumbing and the flue. The lounge had an in-built coal stove with glass doors. This heated the hot water via a back-boiler with a back-up electric immersion heater. There was a fitted kitchen (in pressed steel!), built in gas cooker and gas fridge. It stood in a large garden, in which my Dad grew loads of fruit and veg. It had an air-raid shelter which doubled as a shed. The only problem with it by today's standards was that it was poorly insulated. It had large, single glazed windows with metal frames. The structure was a steel frame, with about 3 inches of glass fibre insulation sandwiched between an inner and outer skin of asbestos. It was f**king freezing in the winter!

You could use exactly the same design today, using modern materials and loads of insulation, stick solar PV and solar thermal on the roof, and you'd have just about the perfect dwelling for a smallish family.

I suppose compared to today's standards, they weren't very densely packed, but then land wasn't at such a premium and the population was smaller!