From the Original Nissen Hut page:

"Peter Norman Nissen (August 6, 1871 – March 2, 1930) was a Canadian-American mining engineer and inventor. He held a number of patents for his inventions and developed the Nissen hut prefabricated shelter during World War I."

From the Imperial War Museum:

"A film on the assembly of a Nissen hut, probably 1917. [Silent Film]

Men of the Royal Engineers, watched by three officers (one of them a colonel with a staff armband) assemble a Nissen hut, which is described as being "cool in summer and warm in winter" and as housing twenty-four men."