Breaking New Ground: the homes that Laing built

Easiform used metal shuttering to cast concrete cavity walls, layer by layer. Roofs were built using more traditional timber trusses and covering materials.

Watch a short film made by Laing about Easiform.

Laing's Easiform system even allowed for bay windows and a variety of exterior finishes.

As well as two-storey houses, Easiform was used to construct blocks of maisonettes, like this example in Swindon.

Swindon was designated an 'overspill' town for London and so new estates were built to house workers and families who chose to relocate away from the crowded capital.

Watch Swindon schoolchildren connecting with Laing's Easiform housing in their home town.

Laing was one of nine firms contracted to build 30,000 BISF houses in 1946.

Unlike some other prefabricated houses that were built during and after the Second World War, BISF houses were designed to have the same lifespan as traditional brick-built homes.

These Sectra flats were built to provide accommodation for nurses working at Greenwich Hospital in London.

This Jespersen scheme in Oldham featured in a 1966 film 17,000,000 New Homes By 1999, which was produced by Laing to show the benefits of factory house-building to local authorities.

The Jespersen industrialised, modular system offered a rational, speedy and economic method of building homes for local authorities in need of new housing stock.

The Jespersen 'homes from the factory' system also meant that fewer skilled workers were needed to construct the flats on the building site.

The flexibility of the Jespersen system allowed for different sizes of developments and a variety of external finishes.

The completion of new council homes and the handing over of keys to new occupants generated pride and interest. Laing was often on hand to record local dignitaries performing ceremonies.

In this Laing photograph a policeman stands on duty as eager locals watch the opening ceremony of a new flat on Bristol's Hartcliffe estate.

The key was presented to the tenant by the Lord Mayor of Bristol. The Chairman of the Housing Committee announced that the new tenant was the 16,689th tenant to be housed or rehoused by the Council following the end of the Second World War.

This photograph suggests that this street of semi-detached Easiform houses provides a welcoming, safe environment for families with young children on a Laing-built estate.

Using two different industrialised building systems, Laing's Manchester Region built 1,200 homes for the County Borough of Stockport. The Lancashire Hill estate was built on land formerly occupied by streets of terraced houses, courts, yards and works.

Pooles Park estate was built by Laing for the London Borough of Islington. It was designed by architects Max Long & Partners in association with Sydney Greenwood. The estate comprised flats and maisonettes in a twelve-storey block, a six-storey block and seven four-storey blocks, built using the 12M Jespersen system.

Emberton, Tardrew & Partners' Doddington Estate in Battersea was built by Laing between 1967 and 1971 for Wandsworth London Borough Council.

The 12M Jespersen system was used to construct five thirteen-storey blocks, one eleven-storey block, five ten-storey blocks and one six-storey block. In all, 944 dwellings were created.

Situated in the Bristol suburb of Henbury, Laing built this pair of fifteen-storey blocks for Bristol County Borough Council. Begun in 1963, each block houses eighty-six dwellings.

Designed by the architectural practice of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, the Barbican Estate was built in numbered 'Phases', or areas of construction, between 1961 and 1982. Laing was involved in a number of Phases, including the building of Cromwell Tower - a 45-storey block of 114 dwellings.

Laing photographed furnished show flats at the Barbican, including this living room.

Flats at the Barbican Estate were rented at market rates. The development was an attempt to attract City professionals to an area that previously had a low residential population.

As well as attracting members of the judiciary, bankers and politicians, it became home to a number of celebrities, including the writer and broadcaster Clive James, and footballer George Best.

The Barbican complex was designed to separate residents and pedestrians from cars. As well as over 2,000 residential flats, the Barbican includes an arts centre, church and schools and water features. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1982.

While appearing to be a development of terraced houses, this scheme of flats was designed for elderly residents, incorporating emergency alerts and a resident warden.

This three-storey block of thirty-three warden-assisted flats in Wanstead, London, was built by Laing in 1983-4.

This couple pose for the camera in the living room of their warden-assisted flat at Laing's Oak Lodge development in Wanstead, London.