Can self-building solve the London housing crisis?

With many Londoners affected by a shortage of affordable, available housing, Dr Michaela Benson from Goldsmiths, University of London, suggests that self-built social housing could be the answer.

On Thursday 19 March - the 30th anniversary of architect Walter Segal’s death - Dr Benson is hosting an event at Goldsmiths on the community-led self-build social housing schemes Segal pioneered in South East London, supported in the 1970s and 1980s by Lewisham Council.

The event will include a showing of the BBC Open Door programme The House that Mum and Dad Built (1982) that captures the experiences of families involved in the first project, Segal Close.

There will also be a discussion led by people who were involved in the various Segal schemes rolled out in Lewisham at this time.

Segal’s first scheme of 14 houses saw the local authority provide land and the government provide money for building materials. Self-builders provided the labour, with families coming together to create their own accommodation at their own speed.

“Within the context of the wider housing crisis, both in terms of supply and access,  it is more timely than ever that we examine the legacy of progressive schemes such as self-building in Lewisham,” explains Dr Benson from the Department of Sociology, in an article for Open Democracy.

Dr Michaela Benson is currently working on the ESRC-funded research project Self-building: the production and consumption of new homes from the perspective of households. 

 

Revisiting Segal: Learning from the Lewisham self-build schemes

Thursday 19 March

7pm – 9pm

Richard Hoggart Building (RHB) Cinema

Goldsmiths, University of London

New Cross, London, SE14 6NW

Free entry

 

Photo: Flickr/tamaki