Portable building

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A portable building, or demountable building (Australian English), is a building designed and built to be movable rather than permanently located. A common modern design is sometimes called a modular building, but portable buildings can be different in that they are more often used temporarily and taken away later. Portable buildings (e.g. yurts) have been used since prehistoric times.[1]

The most familiar modern type of portable buildings are designed so that one can be carried to or from site on a large lorry and slung on and off by a crane.

"Portakabin" is a trade mark owned by Portakabin Ltd [2] used to identify its range of relocatable and modular buildings. In Britain the word "portakabin" is used as a generic term (sometimes misspelled as "portacabin") to refer to similar temporary buildings made by other companies[3]. The first known portable building or "knock-down" building was developed by US firm Porta-Kamp in 1955, The first portable building under the tradename Portakabin was built in 1961 in England.

The description and key words of 'portable buildings' have caused contention amongst manufactures and the market leader ‘Portakabin’. ‘Portakabin’ have rightly protected their trade name. Some information surrounding this issue is available at this blog entry.

Portable modular buildings have various uses. They are often seen, alone or in groups, as temporary site offices on building sites (where they are often stacked two high with metal stairs to reach the upper level). Other uses for these and other types of portable buildings are as guard shacks, rural offices, on-site changing rooms, etc. Some portable buildings are very complex by joining units these forming large office blocks. (even over several floors). These are often disguised as a normal building often with brick style cladding and a traditional pitched roof. Tara Park developed by Liverpool City Council have even used portable buildings to create temporary/permanent domestic housing for communities complying with UK building regulations and disabily access.

In Australia, the word "demountable" in particular refers to portable classrooms. Due to population increases in many areas, portable buildings are sometimes brought in to schools to provide relief from overcrowding. Portable classroom buildings often include two classrooms separated by a partition wall and a toilet.

[edit] Images

Portable cabin, stacked on two goods containers also used as site cabins. Mere, Cheshire, England.

Stack of two portable cabins, Ashley, Cheshire, England

A line of portable toilets.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Houses in Motion: The Genesis, History and Development of the Portable Building by Robert H. Kronenburg ISBN 978-1854903952
  2. ^ UK Intellectual Property Office Case details for Trade Mark 851268
  3. ^ Oxford English Dictionary entry for "Portakabin"

[edit] External links

There are images of portable buildings on these manufacturers' sites:

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