Many strange things about prefabricated metal buildings
The huts were originally developed by the Navy Seabees by modifying the British Nissen hut design to include wooden lining, insulation and tongue and groove wooden flooring. They proved indispensible as lightweight, portable troop and equipment housing able to be quickly assembled in the field with just a set of hand tools. Quonset huts were so successful that returning soldiers purchased the surplus for their own post war housing, and universities purchased them for student housing. Some of these huts are still in use today. The initial Quonset huts design included arched steel rib members constructed in a T design and supported by wooden purlins.