Introduction

Self-build housing is driven by a variety of motivations, aspirations and dreams, and takes on different forms. This chapter is principally concerned with people's reasons for assuming the responsibility for building their own homes and how they fulfil this role in the context of an aided self-build scheme. This is a particularly interesting question in light of growing policy recognition and a proliferation of self-building initiatives throughout Europe (Mullins and Moore, 2018). Policymakers and advocates assume that self-building intrinsically leads to housing that is better attuned to the values of spatial quality, affordability and sustainability (Gemeente Almere, 2009; Parvin et al, 2011). This is the case, it is argued, because self-builders are more inclined to consider use values in development and design. Accordingly, the normative case has been made for the consolidation of citizens’ ‘right to build’ (Parvin et al, 2011). This has aligned with a broader political discourse celebrating principles of subsidiarity, localism and civic autonomy in urban governance (Davoudi and Madanipour, 2015; Jarvis, 2015; Uitermark, 2015).

While there is growing attention to the social dynamics of self-build housing initiatives, this has often focused on motivations and values within discrete models. Meanwhile, there has been less qualitative understanding of residents’ rationales and strategies in the context of facilitated self-build schemes. This is important in the light of increased government attention to enabling resident-led housing development. Research on the social dynamics of self-building has identified different drivers, such as costs and customisation (Harris, 1991; Clapham et al, 1993). There has also been attention to the different social, cultural and financial processes that are implicated in self-building practices (Brown, 2007; Cox, 2016; Benson and Hamiduddin, 2018). Still less attention has been paid to the relationship between self-building practices and the institutional and regulatory context at the level of self-builders. Institutional dimensions are central to understanding how residents fulfil their roles within facilitated self-build schemes as they set out the arrangements of enabling and constraining conditions for selfbuilders’ rationales and strategies. The rich variety of commissioning arrangements through which self-building may take place are a central point of departure for this chapter.