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Introduction
Published in Derek Worthing, Nigel Dann, Roger Heath, of Houses, 2021
Derek Worthing, Nigel Dann, Roger Heath
An alternative and increasingly popular means of new house construction is that of self-build. This involves an individual, or group of individuals, who wish to have a new house or houses built for their own occupation, finding suitable land, organising plans from a professional designer and then actually getting involved in the construction process itself, often by physically building the house or houses themselves. Alternatively, they appoint specialist contractors to undertake all or some of the construction work under their own general direction or that of a professional project manager. Self-build currently provides approximately 20 per cent of all new homes in the UK.
Making Practices in Pursuit of Ecological Ethos: Learnings from Three Ecovillages in Australia
Published in International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 2023
In parallel, tools and methods were developed in the self-build movement to enable non-professionals to build their own homes. Yona Friedman proposed a design model of architectural do-it-yourself-ism, enabled by a resilient technological infrastructure (Friedman, 1975). Based on Friedman’s philosophy and design method, Nicholas Negroponte founded the Architecture Machine Group at MIT, the predecessor of MIT Media Lab, which combined computation and participatory design and led pioneering research in the field of HCI. Friedman and Negroponte worked on the “architecture-by-yourself” project, which focuses on developing design aids for DIY designers or non-expert users who design their own homes without the architect-as-middleman creating complete solutions for them (Weinzapfel & Negroponte, 1976). In like manner, Walter Segal developed a method to help inexperienced constructors and residents build homes for themselves at a low cost by simplifying the design and construction of building (Gierszon, 2014). His approach emphasised users’ subjectivity and community collaboration in the context characterised by a lack of resources and a low-skilled workforce. The Segal Method is characterised by a timber-framed system on a modular grid, based on the stock sizes of the materials, to avoid cutting and waste. The frame is flexible for room layouts to suit the changing needs of users and is devised to be quick and relatively straightforward to construct (Broome, 2007). Similar experiments of alternative systems focus on energy-efficient affordable housing, regenerative food production, creative waste management, and self-governance, which are seen as ways to subvert the consumerism (Kirk, 2001). These DIY countercultures from the 1960s have a lasting impact on how technologies can be developed to facilitate sustainable making for non-experts.