"The cult of self-build, do-it-yourself and 'bottom up' housing has reached impressive proportions"
Opinion: Walter Segal's self-build houses in south London and Assemble's Turner Award-winning Granby Four Streets project in Liverpool are rightly celebrated, but they're not the answer to the housing crisis, says Owen Hatherley.
The awarding of the Pritzker Prize to Alejandro Aravena, whose practice, Elemental, is best known for its "half-built" affordable housing scheme in Iquique, Chile, was evidence of an idea whose time has come. In the last couple of years the cult of self-build, do-it-yourself and "bottom up" (hooray!) against "top-down" (boo!) has reached impressive proportions.
While statistics are constantly thrown around about the depth of inequality and the volume of people moving to cities, we appear to be living in an age of idealistic enclaves. Whether it's Baugruppe in Berlin, Assemble in Liverpool or Elemental in Iquique, the urban revolution seems to begin with a couple of streets at a time. The urban revolution seems to begin with a couple of streets at a time
Until 13 February, the Architecture Association in London is hosting a terrific exhibition on the work of German-English architect Walter Segal and the Self-Build Revolution he created in southeast London in the 1980s. Assemble have made a model for it too, so it's as if a torch is being passed.
I've long been familiar with Segal's work. Just round the corner from where I live in Woolwich is a 1980s scheme using the Segal system, a cul-de-sac of houses next to a rai...
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