![E](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/E.V.A._LanxmeerSelfconstruction_2009.jpg)
Self-build is the creation of an individual home for oneself through a variety of methods. The self-builder's input into this process varies from doing the actual construction to contracting the work to an architect or building package company.
Motivation
![Visita domiciliar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Visita_domiciliar.JPG)
People build individual homes for many reasons. One common reason, especially in poorer countries, is that they may not be able to afford such housing on the open market. Another motivation can be the wish to create something tailored to their family's requirements and/or
lifestyle
Lifestyle often refers to:
* Lifestyle (sociology), the way a person lives
* ''Otium'', ancient Roman concept of a lifestyle
* Style of life (german: Lebensstil, link=no), dealing with the dynamics of personality
Lifestyle may also refer to:
Bu ...
.
Methods
![Cathedral of Justo Gallego](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Cathedral_of_Justo_Gallego.JPG)
Self-builders create their homes through a variety of methods, and seldom build it entirely themselves. In rich countries, many of them hire an
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
to design the home, and a builder to construct it. Others use so-called 'package' companies to handle the entire project. Many others find themselves managing building sites and dealing directly with planners, tradespeople and materials suppliers.
Extent
Self-build in its wider meaning is an ordinary practice in many
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
. It is also common among certain religious communities like
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
(LDS Church) or
subculture
A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...
s such as 'hippies'. Usually
ecovillage
An ecovillage is a traditional or intentional community with the goal of becoming more socially, culturally, economically, and/or ecologically sustainable. An ecovillage strives to produce the least possible negative impact on the natural envi ...
s are realised through self-building techniques. In most
developed countries
A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country) is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastruct ...
self-build is regulated by the
public administration
Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...
, while in developing countries self-build is sometimes supported by
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s or international organisations like, for instance,
United Nations Volunteers
The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is a United Nations organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide.
Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, and ...
.
Ghana
In 2010 the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
estimated that self-build housing (also described as ''self-help'' or ''self-provided'' housing) was supplying more than 95% of
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
's total housing stock, and that it was contributing with around 300 billion
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
s per annum to the national economy. Self-build is not just practised by the poorer households but also by middle-income citizens. Most of Ghana's post-colonials governments like
Nkrumah's have been implementing
state-run housing schemes because their
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
-oriented agendas avoided to promote self-help housing in order not to boost private ownership by individuals or families. In 2009 the
Government of Ghana
The Government of Ghana was created as a parliamentary democracy, followed by alternating military and civilian governments in Ghana. In January 1993, military government gave way to the Fourth Republic after presidential and parliamentary electi ...
, in its ''Draft National Shelter Policy'', recognized the importance of self-help and self-build housing and other non-conventional approaches to housing, even if not as a priority.
Italy
In
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
self-build has been, for some decades after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, a common practice among the
lower class, widely used in
squatting areas like the ''Borgate Romane'' (
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
) or the suburbs in the north of
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
and around
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
. Nowadays self-build is rather used as a partial support to house building where the construction of the structural parts (
foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
,
wall
A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including:
* Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the supe ...
s,
roof
A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temper ...
....) is committed to professionals companies.
Another application field for self-build in Italy is the support to disadvantaged ethnic groups like
Sinti
The Sinti (also ''Sinta'' or ''Sinte''; masc. sing. ''Sinto''; fem. sing. ''Sintesa'') are a subgroup of Romani people mostly found in Germany and Central Europe that number around 200,000 people. They were traditionally itinerant, but today o ...
. In some middle-sized cities like
Ravenna
Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...
and
Padova
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...
classes and build materials were offered to people living in gypsies equipped areas in order to help them to improve their huts.
[''Padova: "Progetto Sperimentale di Autocostruzione del Comune di Padova co-finanziato dal Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali"'', 2 April 2010; on-line]
operanomadipadova.blog.tiscali.it
(accessed on 9 July 2014)
In the early 1980s self-build also entered the Italian university programmes: in the
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
faculty of
Politecnico di Torino
The Polytechnic University of Turin ( it, Politecnico di Torino) is the oldest Italian public technical university. The university offers several courses in the fields of Engineering, Architecture, Urban Planning and Industrial Design, and is co ...
Giorgio Ceragioli introduced in his course of
Architectural technology
Architectural technology, or building technology, is the application of technology to the design of buildings. It is a component of architecture and building engineering and is sometimes viewed as a distinct discipline or sub-category. New ...
the ''Laboratorio tecnologico di autocostruzione'' (Latec), a laboratory where students were allowed to practice several self-build techniques.
Mexico
In
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
a very rapid urbanization occurred between 1940s and 1970s, attracting much migration from rural areas. During this period government programmes were not able to ensure enough housing and also the private production was unattractive due to the low wages of a large part of the population. It is estimated that even after the creation of two national housing funds, ''FONHAPO'' and ''
INFONAVIT
The Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers (Spanish: ''Instituto del Fondo Nacional de la Vivienda para los Trabajadores''; ''INFONAVIT'') is the Mexican federal institute for worker's housing, founded in 1972, and located at Barranca ...
'', just 1/5 of the effective demand was satisfied. In this difficult situation, many irregular settlements developed, and some researcher and politician started to sustain that supporting and improving self-build processes rather to fight them was a possible solution to the popular housing issue. So during 1970s public policy started to support low-income self-builder offering them services, core units and in some cases land-ownership regularization. These schemes were criticised by orthodox
Marxists
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectic ...
, persuaded that ensuring proper housing to people was a government duty and that lack of houses was a structural product of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
. Anyway, self-built accommodation became the most common form of housing and, in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
area, it increased from 14% in 1952 to 60% in 1990. Later on, the public policy priority shifted from house production to enhancement of real-estate market, local infrastructures and improvement of existing houses.
United Kingdom
The term 'self build' is specifically used in the
UK and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
when an individual obtains a building plot and then builds their own home on that plot. The term doesn't necessarily refer to completing the work yourself - more usually, self-build is defined as the act of 'commissioning' a bespoke home.
It's estimated that there are between 10,000 and 20,000 self builds in the UK every year. This is less than 10% of all the homes built annually but may constitute as much as 1 in 3 new detached homes built in the UK. Over the years, self-builders have been at the forefront of advances in-house design and technology, being responsible for the dramatic uptake in recent years in eco-features such as
solar power
Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...
and heat pumps;
underfloor heating
Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling that achieves indoor climate control for thermal comfort using hydronic or electrical heating elements embedded in a floor. Heating is achieved by conduction, radiation and ...
; open plan design and
smart home
Smart or SMART may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014
* Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com
* ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper
* '' SMart'', a children's television se ...
technology. These are features that take many years to filter through to commercial housing developments. There is also an increasing drive for people to self-build overseas, either as investments, holiday homes, retirement homes or relocation.
Individual houses can take all forms from the traditional to the radically modern, and the term is also used to refer to people who create individual homes out of old buildings.
Current Issues
![09di1683-11 - Flickr - USDAgov](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/09di1683-11_-_Flickr_-_USDAgov.jpg)
The main impediment to the UK self-build market is the shortage of building plots available to the self-builder, high land prices and the restrictive planning regime. in 2008 the National Self Build Association (NaSBA) was established to order to put pressure on relevant bodies, including the Government, to remedy this situation. The founding members of NaSBA are Bath and District Self Build Association
Build It magazine BuildStore, Potton/Kingspan, Architecture Verte and Ecomotive.
The Association changed its name to the National Custom & Self Build Association (NaCSBA) in July 2014 – borne out of a desire to officially welcome the custom build community.
Since 2016, local authorities in England
are required to maintain a register of people and groups who want to build their own home.
See also
*
Green building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...
*
Walter Segal
Walter Segal (15 May 1907 – 27 October 1985) was an architect who developed a system of self-build housing, the
Segal self-build method. Based on traditional timber frame methods modified to use standard modern materials, his method eliminat ...
*
Custom Builder
''Custom Builder'' is a trade publication and web site formerly owned by Reed Business Information. It serves the informational needs of firms in the residential building industry.
History and profile
Established in 1991, the magazine was start ...
Books
*
*
References
External links
{{Sister project links, wikt=self-build , commons=Self-build , b=no , n=no , q=no , s=no , v=no , voy=no , species=no , d=no
Self Build Resources
U.K Self Build, Conversions and Extensions GuideBuild It magazine, expert advice & inspiration for UK self-builders at self-build.co.ukHomebuilding & Renovating magazine, advice, case studies, directory and ideas from homebuilding.co.ukThe Self Build GuideThe Self Build Portal - The gateway to more custom build homes (from the National Self Build Association)Other Countries
Self-building project in the NetherlandsInfo for the Self-Builder in AustraliaSelf Building Resources in America
Building
DIY culture
Do it yourself