A Culture of Community

Collective Self Build

Megan and I currently live in a converted steading, arranged around a shared courtyard space, from which the individual houses are accessed. Having previously lived in tenements with sociable ‘stairwell communities’, we enjoy the conviviality of chatting to neighbours in the courtyard, occasional gatherings in the summer, as well as the practicalities of looking out for one another. We’d like to see more houses built like this, with a connectedness at their core.

Collective Self Build (or Collective Custom Build as it’s also known) is a route to ‘self-building’ a home, as part of a group of like-minded individuals.

The term ‘self-build’ essentially means building a house on your own plot of land. This might mean actually doing building work yourself, working with an architect and a builder, or some combination of these. In the UK, this has tended to be the only route to building a house, and for a number of reasons, it’s prohibitive to many people. In Berlin, around 1 in 10 houses are built by groups of collective self-builders. The benefits are quite obvious.

As part of a group, rather than as an individual, land costs, access arrangements, services connections, and potentially even energy generation costs can be shared. There’s also an economy of scale in building several houses at one time, and an increased borrowing power. Aside from practical benefits, there are opportunities for community participation and shared resources. For example, developments might include a shared allotment, guest house, or workspace, relieving the need for duplicated spaces in each house, which may only be used occasionally. In terms of efficient land use alone, there’s an inherent sustainability in this model, and it feels hugely underutilised in rural communities like ours, where there’s an acute shortage of housing.

Thankfully, the resources available are improving, and the Scottish Government are supportive of Collective Self Build as a model. Follow the links at the bottom of this page for recently published guidance documents.

One of the biggest difficulties for individuals that might be interested in a collective build, is finding like-minded people and forming a group. We work all over Scotland, but given the housing need in the area we live - Skye and Lochalsh – we’re looking to gauge interest in our community. If this is you – drop us a note via our contact form.

Roadmap — Assemble Collective Self Build (assemble-csb.co.uk)

(We have no connection to Assemble CSB, but they have some great info and links to the Scottish Government’s guidance documents).