ABOUT THIS BOOK

This collection on the self-build home movement connects burgeoning research in the United Kingdom with commentary from international figures. Focusing on community, dwelling, and identity, the chapters engender new dialogues on self-building, calling for more recognition of the social dimensions of the process. By investigating the development of structures, the practices that shape them, and the experiences of the residents, these essays offer policy planners tangible perspective on the affordable housing crisis and one potential response.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Michaela Benson is reader in sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London. Iqbal Hamiduddin is lecturer in transport planning and housing at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL.

REVIEWS

"‘Essentially, it points to a better way to do housing, identifying practices that are invaluable for how we view housing in this period of time when so much needs to be built, so quickly.’
National Custom & Self Build Association

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"An excellent read on English self-build sector in a housing market dominated as it is by real estate speculators, building industry and fundamentally neo liberal state politics.'
International Journal of Housing Policy
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

"1 Self-build homes: social values and the lived experience of
housing in practice
Michaela Benson and Iqbal Hamiduddin

Part 1: Discourse, rationale, meaning
2 Community building: self-build and the neighbourhood
commons
Iqbal Hamiduddin

3 Models of self-build and collaborative housing in the
United Kingdom
Martin Field

4 Eco-homes for all: why the socio-cultural matters in
encouraging eco-building
Jenny Pickerill

Part 2: Values, lifestyles, imaginaries
5 From cultures of resistance to the new social
movements: DIY self-build in West Wales
Elaine Forde

6 Protohome: rethinking home through co-production
Julia Heslop

7 Of flux or finality? On the process and dynamics of a
co-housing group in formation
Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia and Kathleen Scanlon

Part 3: Community and identity
8 Self-building as a practice of homemaking: the affective
spaces of unfinished homes
Michaela Benson

9 Senior co-housing: restoring sociable community in later life
Jim Hudson

10 Something wonderful in my back yard: the social impetus
for group self-building
Emma Heffernan and Pieter de Wilde

11 Building a self: community self-build and the
reconstruction of identity
Katherine Collins

Part 4: Perspectives from practice
12 Self-build neighbourhoods for living and working: a view
from Tübingen, Germany
Andreas Feldtkeller

13 Turning the theory into reality
Ted Stevens

14 Taking self-build out of its ‘small and special box’: citizens
as agents for the political and the social of self-build
Stephen Hill

Conclusion

New directions: self-build, social values and lived experience
Iqbal Hamiduddin and Michaela Benson"