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  • Home
    • About Walter Segal >
      • Who was Walter Segal?
      • In his own words
      • Writing on Segal
      • Segal on film
  • Events
    • Past events
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Links

In his own words

In 1983 Walter Segal recorded a talk called Learning from the Self Builders. It was recorded by Monica Pidgeon as part of a series of talks for students of architecture. A short clip can be heard here. To listen to more of the recording it is necessary to subscribe to Pigeon Digital or paying £5 for a single listen or £65 to buy the talk outright on CD or DVD. Below are some extracts from that recording.

On the UK's housing situation
The main priority in Britain and in many parts of the world will be housing, to a degree that’s to almost exclude larger stock.  Just it will be necessary to give effect to the need of accommodating more and more people, and also to take account of the effect that many of the structures which form our towns and cities are becoming obsolete in terms of structure.  On the other hand the replacement is slower and slower,  and  by  the  end  of  the  century  this  may  overwhelm the  construction industry at exists.  Other ways of building and production of housing will have to be found, and it will also be necessary to take into account that the labour force is bound to be very small indeed, and to become more specialised for the purpose of housing,  which  after  all  is  a  very  simple  technological  matter,  much  more sophisticated  tools,  our  tools  we  will  replace  methods  that  have  in  a  more centralised way been used for centuries.  We have to produce more quickly, we have to produce more simply, we have to house people in a very different way,and on the other hand the desires, wishes and needs of a population very much more aware of what they want, and desiring very much more than at any other to take  a  part  in  these  operations  will  lead  us  to  a  very  much changed role  as professionals.  We have to give up being experts in one particular field, but will have to learn to assist  the vast number of  those wishing to participate in the provision  of  dwellings  for  themselves,  we  shall  have  to  provide  that  kind   of knowledge which ordinary people cannot acquire quickly.

On the Lewisham self-build scheme (Segal Close)
Friends  of  mine  thought  it  would  be  possible  to  encourage people on their local housing list to try and build such houses within a council scheme.  The scheme of 14 houses, which I developed for them was based on the fact that the local authority was going to provide the land.  The government was to provide the money for acquiring the building materials, and the self-builders would be providing the labour.  We had a very large number of people applying for it, nearly 200, and so the 14 families were selected by ballot.  It was stipulated from the beginning that you could enter the scheme without having to have any capital or any other resources, that you were not in any way prevented by age or occupation,  that you were to build in your  own time, at  your own speed,  that women were expected to work with their husbands, in other words that this was a scheme produced by family and not a team product.  That all the children were encouraged to assist as well, and that families were giving each other mutually that  kind  of  help  that  was  required.   By  not  having  anything  regimented  the amount  of  mutual  help  was  astonishing,  but  so  was  also  the  ability  and comprehension power of  these ordinary people that  never  in  their  lives would have  thought  that  they  could  be  building  houses.   It  meant  from  their  part considerable amount of courage, a sense of enterprise, and then as I found later the pure enjoyment of doing something with their own hands and seeing results.

On the value of self-build
This whole experience has taught me personally an awful lot about human beings,and has taught me an awful lot about the ability which provided the methods of construction are not over bearing, can be brought to the fore, and where people can discover in themselves all  kinds of  talents which in their  former lives had absolutely no opportunity to use.  That in itself is very gratifying because in each form of housing there is the social factor which in this case is determined by those that are building for themselves, those that are living there, those that will  be developing as persons.  The individual level of articulation has been very great indeed.   The  imagination  of  these  self-builders  was  very  much  aroused  with motivation and enthusiasm, and one of them found a way of building two storey houses without any scaffolding.
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