Common Treasures Book Two: Housing Planning and Construction

This anthology, the
second in the Common Treasures project, developed from a series of
conversations between the architecture collective Assemble and the arts
organisation Common Ground. It takes as its premise the idea that approaches to
housing that are grounded in greater levels of community ownership, management
and maintenance have the potential to empower communities, overcome the
opposition to local development and create conditions in which skilled rural
workers are part of stronger local networks of industry and agriculture. Housing
built by, for and with the people who live in it makes characterful
neighbourhoods that last well, are able to be maintained by their residents and
facilitate investment in local labour, materials and skilled workmanship. The
contributors to this anthology share their work to overcome the many obstacles
to this way of working, and offer a vision which is grounded, imaginative and
hopeful.



Contributors: Rebecca Smith, Rob Hopkins and Frances Northrop, Ruth
Munns, Andrew Kirby, James Shorten, Loretta Bosence, Hana Loftus, Barbara
Jones, Kim Squirrell, Ken Worpole, Tim Crabtree & Summer Islam.

Cover by Polytechnic Works.