ABSTRACT
Talk of self help housing (Turner, JFC & Fichter, R 1972), community architecture (Wates, N and Knevitt, C 1987), and design participation (Lawrence, R J 1982) was very fashionable in the 1970’s and early 1980’s in the UK, USA and Europe. Various conservative commentators have more recently announced its demise as an architectural fashion (Scott Brown, D 1990, Jenks, C 1990, Farrelly, E M 1987) and it currently appears to be of less interest to many architects and architecture students. The mistake that was made by most commentators, however, was to assume that architects were responsible for introducing this new approach. Some, most notably, Rod Hackney (Hackney, R 1990) built a career on the publicity attracted by one or two relatively insignificant self help housing projects and one professional institute in the UK, the RIBA, continues to promote “community architecture” despite a scathing attack on it by its own president, Max Hutchinson (Hutchinson, M 1989). But the real reason for this new way of working was the growth of community pressure groups, user groups like cooperatives and the willingness of housing agencies to consult with their customers.
