ASA 302 @ Georges Heights: Swedish Timber Prefabs in Australia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Partially hidden by bushland in the Sydney suburb of Georges Heights sit five unassuming, prefabricated timber houses. Saved from demolition in 2003 and now restored, these houses were manufactured in the early 1950s in Sweden by Åmåls Sågverks Aktiebolag (ASA). They were erected in 1951 for the Australian Navy and are some of the last remnants of thousands of prefabricated houses imported by the Federal and State Governments to alleviate the post-war housing shortage. By the end of 1951, approximately 70,000 prefabricated houses had been imported into Australia. While the importation of prefabricated houses was driven by urgent need, questions of quality and suitability to Australian conditions were considered important enough to warrant considerable research. Several European study tours by building experts established that the Swedish houses were of high quality, particularly in relation to their materials, detailing, and levels of insulation. In nineteen fifties Australia, this implanted example of sophisticated Swedish design would have represented a quite different cultural frame for household living. Despite their obvious quality, these prefabricated houses were not accepted into the mainstream housing market as they were in Sweden and Ormal Construction Pty Ltd, the company ASA established in Melbourne in 1950, lasted only a few years.