
Life in Walter Segal's self-build 'anarchist' estate - markvdb
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/sep/16/anarchism-community-walter-segal-self-build-south-london-estate
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memracom
Funny to read about how this guy invented a wonderful NEW way to build houses
back in the 1960s, but the article describes the way that most Canadian houses
(and Scandinavian ones) have been built for at least 10 years or so.

Not to mention that if you go to Russia or other parts of the former Soviet
Union you can find lots of people with self-built houses made from bricks and
various sorts of stone blocks covered with plaster, whose construction is very
much life the average 30's pebble dash home in Britain. Minus the pebbles of
course. Russians prefer smooth plaster and paint or decorative tiles.

Having participated in building the Canadian way, moving around long heavy
timbers, I wonder if the European brick and block way is not superior for
self-building. Much easier to lift one block into postion, than a long timber,
or a prebuilt truss (crane required) or a prebuilt wall (half a dozen strong
helpers required and they bear the risk of it falling on them if a mistake is
made).

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markvdb
I have looked at this quite closely. It looks very similar at first sight, but
the process is quite different from conventional Canadian timber framing, in
that it has a radical focus on simplicity and self building.

On a practical level, this translates into things like much more modest
foundations (poles instead of slab), a 60 cm grid system that is perpetuated
throughout the house, plasterboard panels that get loosely fit instead of
screwed on, an extremely simple but sturdy stair design, and more.

A more contemporary descendant seems to be
[http://irishvernacular.com](http://irishvernacular.com) .

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akgerber
I would suggest that the real factor preventing more-widespread application of
this idea is a lack of developable land near frequent rail service. The houses
do appear to make extremely efficient use of land in the Japanese fashion,
however, with modest building lots on a very narrow street.

The aesthetic is very 1980s US west-coast suburbia.

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georgeoliver
As a carpenter living in the western US (where platform wood framing
dominates) I'm curious about why masonry building is the norm in England. Is
it simply lack of forest/wood products?

~~~
markvdb
I'm not an expert, but here is my speculation. Historically, in many parts of
Europe, wooden housing was cheap housing. In many places, only they rich could
afford stone houses.

Several cities, seeing wood as a fire risk, even until this day have rules
that forbid new wooden construction.

Then there's also the fact that streets are organised in a totally different
way in many European cities. US visitors sometimes tell me they feel a bit
claustrophobic in the streets of my native city. They _are_ quite a bit
narrower than the average US street, and they're all townhouses built right
next to one another.

Oh, and older generations seem to spontanuously associate wooden barracks with
soldiers, prisoners of war and cheap post war emergency housing.

The tide is turning though, with wood and even straw building gaining in
popularity year by year in many of the EU countries that I regularly visit...

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markvdb
Wonderfully simple construction method that should appeal to technically
oriented people. I'd be grateful for pointers to more contemporary work in
this regard, as the insulation value of these is getting rather problematic.

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notahacker
Simple self build houses built from wood panels are far more common in parts
of the world where - unlike London - the cost of construction labour isn't the
least of all the problems faced by people wanting housing.

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gcb0
all you can see on streetview: private property signs.

doesn't feel very anarchist to me.

[https://goo.gl/maps/JRUfk7ZRaHo](https://goo.gl/maps/JRUfk7ZRaHo)

~~~
floydnoel
Several types of anarchists believe in private property.

