Made in Shanghai: Tropical Bungalow Kits

In the 1920s and 1930s as the colonisations of British Malaya, French Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines were underway the demand for tropical bungalows using corrugated sheets was booming. William Jacks & Co of 1 Hong Kong Road (Xianggang Lu) supplied demand straight from Shanghai in kit form – walls, floors, windows, verandahs, roofs and perimeter fencing, all in one handy easy-to-assemble kit. It’s puts IKEA to shame…