Self-Build
Self-Build
Definition
Self-build is the practice of ordinary, non-professional people constructing their own homes. Unlike speculative or mass housing, self-build transfers agency from the developer and the architect-as-author to the inhabitant-as-builder. The Segal method (developed by Walter Segal and documented by Jon Broome) is its most systematic architectural framework: a rational timber-frame building system characterized as "an attitude of mind rather than a system of construction" — a rigorous simplification of the whole building process from design to completion, using standard, readily available materials in market sizes. The method's openness and simplicity mean "it is possible for someone with no previous building experience to plan the layout and carry out the work." Self-build homes are adaptable, easy to extend, and produce variety and vitality absent from uniform mass housing (each family builds its own, "not constrained by the usual requirement to build identical houses").
Key Thinkers
- (Related, not yet paged: Walter Segal — developed the method; Jon Broome — documented and extended it as self-builder and joint architect on the Lewisham schemes.)
Related Concepts
- Everyday Architecture — self-build as the most radically de-professionalized form of everyday architectural production.
- Authorship — self-build erodes single authorship; the architect shifts from author to enabler.
- Housing — self-build as an alternative to both speculative developer housing and state mass housing.
- Modal Architecture — self-build works with modal conditions (standard materials, market availability, non-skilled labour) as generative principles.
Source Support
Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:
Open Questions
- Can self-build scale beyond individual sites to address housing crises at the urban level, or does its reliance on individual land ownership and voluntary labour structurally limit it?
- How does self-build relate to the "right to the city" — is it a tactic within the existing property regime, or does it prefigure a post-property form of urban production?