ABSTRACT
As noted in the introduction to this book, part of the interest of the investiga-
tors in researching the scope of wider social participation in the architectural
process is their previous involvement in what has been loosely termed ‘Com-
munity Technical Aid’ and ‘Community Architecture’. In the United Kingdom
this largely developed in the 1970s but became eclipsed by the mid-1980s, sur-
viving for longer in the US (the experience of some in more international activ-
ities as described in Chapter 3). The history of the UK movement has been
written up in a number of key texts (Blundell-Jones et al. 2005; O’Sullivan 1988;
Towers 1995; Wates and Knevitt 1987), but the literature dries up in the latter
part of the 1980s. Thus, as an entry point for the research the study reviewed
previous experience with the intention of identifying what happened to these
movements. The objective of this chapter is to examine the origins, activities
and experience of some of the community technical aid and architecture move-
ment actors in the UK and from this review draw issues of relevance for the
contemporary context.1
