dwellings as well as fewer larger ones. Large groups can benefit from economies of scale and their combined strength as a purchasing unit.
social ties as a being a positive side-effect of building the houses themselves, or vice versa. This arguably matters even more than any particular threedimensional characteristics of the design.
2. It allows for a greater range of densities, from detached houses, terraces to low rise buildings. This is particularly important for urban sites, although groups will still struggle to compete for land with large speculative housebuilders.
In a way, we can think of group self-provision as operating at a scale similar to many small and medium sized speculative housebuilders; but the arrangement is more direct. Rather than 1 client speculatively building 30 houses for 30 imaginary, universalised households, and hoping that 30 customers will come along and buy them, why not just allow 30 households to come together, become a single cooperative client, and build their own homes?
3. The group pool their knowledge and skills, supporting and motivating each other. By becoming a single ‘client’, they make large savings by sharing all the overheads (in terms of time and money) that any project entails.
These two strategies combined form the general approach to scaling the self-provided housing sector. The question is, what are the specific obstacles facing that growth and how will they be overcome?
4. Members of a group with specific construction skills can also put in sweat-equity, if there is a sufficient diversity of skills in the group, this can significantly reduce the up-front cost. 5. Risk can be aggregated between the members, making the group a more attractive proposition for lenders. 6. Building as a group opens the door to new collaborative tenure / ownership models, such as a community land trust, or mutual home ownership.17 7. A community network is formed ‘incidentally’ by the process of working together as a group (be it positive, negative, or both). This can lead to a lasting mutual involvement in the governance of, and care for the neighbourhood and perhaps each other. In this sense we can think of building community
17. For explanation of these models, please see pages 105 and 113.
47