Using Participatory Housing Construction Methods to Develop Small Sites in Public Ownership

The research into self-build housing in this thesis was undertaken in the context of a perceived housing crisis in Britain. The shortage of decent, affordable new dwellings is widespread but particularly extreme in inner London. Hoxton, a diverse neighbourhood in the London Borough of Hackney, was thus selected as a suitable location for the examination of its urban topography and to develop designs for self-build housing. This was in part due to the author being a resident and former member of the local council, and also because of the completion in 2012 of my own self-built house/office in the locality. Four headings – Land, Delivery, Finance and Design – were used to govern the initial design approach and to provide the structure for the thesis. The initial hypothesis was that there were numerous small under-used sites within the study area which could be developed by self-builders. These sites in Hoxton were initially identified through a series of walking tours, recording potential sites in photographs. The sites were subsequently tested to explore their potential for housing designs by using simple, volumetric, three-dimensional digital models. Results confirmed the initial hypothesis, with space for around 280 potential dwellings being identified across almost 50 sites, most owned by the local council. Some sites were vacant while others held infrequently occupied garages, community halls and such like. There is an imperative in any potential construction project to involve local residents, and so – after studying useful British case-studies – a series of public engagement exercises and local exhibitions were undertaken to find potential self-builders and understand potential objections. Ultimately a number of the sites were explored to propose detailed architectural designs, leading to various planning applications, and engaging the Mayor of Hackney and local councillors in the goal of creating a local pilot project for self-build housing