Prefabrication experiments - 74 - Vic Hallam ltd.'s sectional kitchen unit

The integrated manufacturer capable of producing assorted components for building’s varying scales and needs was a benefit of broadening factory production and equipment. In order to increase their capacity and relevance, creative industrialists took advantage of housing shortages, military contracts, and the general change in demographics from the turn of the 20^th century to the post-war construction booms. The demand for more houses, schools, and buildings, including factories to supply the burgeoning commodity economy, fuelled the industrial progress. Companies that contracted with governments benefited from steady contracts and the exchange of knowledge from military to civilian use. Governments subsidized and supported the commercial drive to build more for less.

Vic Hallam ltd best known for the simple timber structures it provided for classrooms and schools, the Derwent building system, exemplifies this pivotal link between military contracts, housing shortages and post-war construction booms.  The timber post and plywood box beam system braced by rigid tongue and groove boards was infilled with single pane glass. Along with the school systems, the company contracted with the military for various timber shelters, rooms and ammunition boxes. The school systems were planned for speed of assembly and unfortunately not for the rigours of time as the envelope was scarcely insulated and wrought with thermal bridges. The company’s business model was based on offering different products for construction from a central workshop. Along with the school system, the company marketed a wood framed bungalow and looking to diversity in the late 1960s advertised a fully integrated kitchen unit.

The wall kitchen unit included base cabinets, high storage units and counter cabinets with or without the kitchen sink. The units were manufactured and shipped on site as a complete sub-system that could be added to any building type whether prefabricated or not. The kitchen units were modularly designed to fit multiple kitchen plan designs. Analogous to today’s Ikea kitchen, the Vic Hallam kitchen units were sold as sectional modules, each cabinet representing a combinable unit. The kitchen was marketed in three different wood finishes and in various lengths coordinated and fabricated to order. The company’s wood building know-how showcased the diversity and versatility of wood products as well as its potential industrialisation.

A Vic Hallam Ltd kitchen unit