ABSTRACT
A seminal writer in creating enthusiasm for “self-help” housing was architect and community activist John F. C. Turner, who studied the squatter settlements of Latin America in the 1960s, finding in them an inspiration for self-building, self-ownership, and responsive plans and street layouts (Fig. 56). Turner argued that temporary low-standard housing is often more useful to poor and marginal populations than high-standard subsidized housing; his writings gave currency to the slogan “the freedom to build”, that inspired generations of squatters and socially-conscious builders and architects. Urban historian Alison Ravetz sketches the general evolution of self-help housing, including a few of the cooperative movements also discussed by Spencer-Wood, chapter 6, this volume. Architectural historian Peter Davey and architect Mats Egelius describe two of the most successful ventures of government-sponsored versions of participatory design: the work of Hardt-Waltherr Hämer and S.T.E.R.N. in Berlin-Kreuzberg, and Ralph Erskine’s replanning and redesign of the Byker Wall section of Newcastle upon Tyne (Figs. 57, 58, 59, 60, 61). The important ways in which people modify their dwellings without building them from scratch are detailed by historian of vernacular architecture Alice Gray Read, historian of technology Carolyn Goldstein, and ethnographer Alison J. Clarke (Figs. 62, 63). Read shows how the inhabitants of the Mantua district of Philadelphia assert their ethnic identity by modifying the façades of their buildings; Goldstein describes the evolution of modern tools used in “do-it-yourself” work; and Clarke examines the interior decorating schemes of poor residents in London subsidized housing.
