Help me find a TV documetnary on a self-building housing co-operative in the UK

December 22, 2010 2:55 PM

I'm after a documentary I once saw about a self-building housing co-operative in the UK—or more information about the programmes.

Three or four years ago I saw a TV documentary on a project in the UK under which a group of disadvantaged families were invited to build their own houses in a new plot.

If I recall correctly, the Council provided land, a credit union provided some of the capital, a charity arranged for plans and expert assistance and the people owned their houses in a co-operative once they finished.

Has anyone else seen the programme, or have any information about these kinds of self-building co-operative schemes?

posted by Fiasco da Gama to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

Best answer: What comes to my mind from that timeframe locally is a couple of episodes of Grand Designs - this one or this one. I think the latter was also featured in a "revisited" episode.
posted by Pinback at 3:15 PM on December 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Perfect! It was the Birmingham episode I saw. I'd forgotten entirely that it was Grand Designs.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:25 PM on December 22, 2010

This is definitely not what you asked about, but it's related, so in case it's of interest:

Architect Christopher Alexander worked with residents of Mexico to build a community of houses in Mexicali. (There's also an update from 20 years later.)
posted by kristi at 11:21 AM on December 24, 2010

Ha ha, I read the question and thought, "I wonder if that's Grand Designs?".
posted by Sutekh at 4:16 AM on December 25, 2010