Late-nineteenth century exhibitions as a showcase for demountable army field huts

Abstract

International fairs made up of pavilions and monuments that were designed and built quickly, as well as taken down in just a few weeks, were showcases for a variety of demountable, transportable, ephemeral and mobile constructions. They also exposed rivalries between states, industries and enterprises to the judgement of enlightened public opinion. Within the framework of these peaceful tensions, the ministries of war were among the first to take advantage of the buildings on show, related to various aspects of military life including housing troops, tending the injured and sick and providing relatively luxurious accommodation for senior military and administrative staff. They demonstrated the preparations by different states for mobile warfare and colonial conquest. Competitions were launched at international trade fairs in Anvers, Brussels and Berlin, which put on public display dozens of designs for demountable structures, many of which came later to serve as symbols of national pride, for example Döcker in Germany, Nissen in Great Britain, Dandy in Belgium and Espitallier in France. These structures can be divided into two categories: load-bearing framed structures that required skill to assemble and load-bearing panels that were easily put together and stabilised by the roof. During the exhibitions, many demonstrations of erecting and disassembling the temporary buildings were given and prizes were awarded to the best exhibitors, rewarding the rapidity, intelligence and endurance of the constructions as well as clear explanations of their practicalities to the visiting public. As with the temporary structures erected to house the international exhibitions themselves, the designers and entrepreneurs behind their smaller brothers exploited the unique opportunity to have a public platform to display their contributions to national governments' activities of war and colonialism.