John Turner - publications

Works selected, ordered and annotated by John FC Turner (May 2007)

1949
The Geddes Diagrams: Part 2. Their Contribution Towards a Synthetic Form of Thought, John
(F.C.) Turner and W.P. Keating Clay (with Bruce Martin in Cities in Evolution, Patrick Geddes, (1915),
Second Edition, editor Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, Williams and Northgate, London.
[The interpretation of Geddes pioneering general systems scheme of human activity triggered a lifelong search for holistic ways of understanding relationships between people and environment. While
Geddes approach has been inspirational for Bruce Martin and myself throughout our very different
careers, neither of us could make practical use of his key diagram. Bruce, the senior student, is now
helping me with the development of the Framework for Mapping Activity which I am now testing].
1963
Dwelling Resources in South America with William Mangin (pp 366-370), Margaret Grenfell
(p.378) Editors Patrick Crooks, Monica Pidgeon (General Editor). Architectural Design Vol 33 August
1963.
[The issue was prepared in response to a Sunday Times supplement bleeding-heart article by (the
then) James Morris on the barriadas of Lima. As well as learning from the barriada builders
themselves, close association with Bill Mangin, anthropologist, had taught me to understand city
growth in terms of peoples lives].
1970
A New View of the Housing Deficit, paper prepared for a seminar at the Social Science Center of
the University of Puerto Rico, April 1966. The Architects Year Book XII, 1970 editor David Lewis.
[If I have ever had an original thought, then this was it: that the independent variability of motivating
priorities explains the counter-productivity of prescriptive housing production systems].
1968
Uncontrolled Urban Settlement: Problems and Policies, Working Paper No.11 Agenda Item No 4.
and (illus) for the UN Inter-Regional Seminar at Pittsburgh Oct-Nov 1966. Published in International
Social Development Review No. 1, Urbanization: development policies and planning, United Nations,
New York, 1968.
[This and other papers given at the Seminar led to decisions by the UN agency to suspend support
for conventional housing projects and, subsequently by the World Bank (see Housing Issues and the
Standards Problem, 1971, below)].
1967
Barriers and Channels for Housing Development in Modernizing Countries, Journal of the
American Institute of Planners. Vol 33 No 3. Reprint series Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT and
Harvard University.
[A case history illustrating the main points about priorities and standards id 134, about powers and
procedures iid 262].
1968
Housing Priorities, Settlement Patterns and Urban Development in Modernizing
Countries, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, November 1968.
[An overview of rural and provincial to urban and intra-city migrations in some Latin American
countries at the time].
1969
Self-Help Housing in the USA: A Preliminary Report to the United States Department of
Housing & Urban Development, Co-directed by JFCT with a team contracted by the Organization
for Social & Technical Innovation, (Director Donald A Schon), Cambridge, Mass.
[The findings from all regions of the USA, significantly similar to those from Peru, confirmed the far
greater productivity of traditional independent self-help construction and management than
procedures imposed by agencies].
1972
Housing Issues and the Standards Problem, Rehovot Conference on Urbaization and
Development in Developing Countries, Israel, August 1971. Limited circulation. Publ. in Ekistics No
196 vol 33, Athens, 1972.
[This paper was prepared with a view to getting in touch with the Conference co- participant Robert
Sadov, Directror of the newly established division for urban development at the World Bank. It led to
meetings with Bank staff see Summary of the Points Discussed, below].

1971
Summary of the Points Discussed with jacques Yenny and co. with a copy ofLevels of Housing
Action sent to Robert Sadov Memo to m. Jacques Yenny in charge of the Sngal Sites and
Services Project re discussion with Messrs Carrrere, Moss, and Yenny at the IBRD Nov. 3-4, 1971.
[These notes record efforts to point out the limitations of Sites and Services projects and the
necessity of using them to initiate a reversal of priorities from prescriptive Package projects to the
providing components of infrastructure and maxmising the most effective and economic level of
institutional changes to the elements of land and its tenure and credit].
1972
Freedom to Build, Dweller Control of the Housing Process, Co-edited with Robert Fichter
including the authored and co-authored chapters listed below; Macmillan, New York 1972, Libertad
para Construir, Siglio XXI, Mexico 1976,Libert di Costruiri, Il Saggiatore, Milan, 1979.
[This neglected book contains important chapters by erstwhile colleagues other than those with
whom I co-authored the chapters listed below: Rolf Goetze, Peter Grenell, William Grindley, Hans
Harms, Richard Spohn and the late Ian Donald Terner. All of whom were members of the team who
prepared the 1969 report to the US Congress on Self-Help Housing in the USA, 1969 under the
direction of the late Donald A Schon, Founder and Director of the Organization for Social and
Technical Innovation, Cambridge, Mass.]
The Re-education of a Professional (Ch.6). An anecdotal account of experience during my fist year
in Peru.
Housing as a Verb, (Ch.7).
[If I ever made an original point it is from the key observation I made on peoples housing priorities in
A new View of the Housing Deficit, The chapters in Part 2 below set out the basic propositions
discussed in the book].
Part 2 Increasing Autonomy in Housing: A review and Conclusions with Peter Grenell and
Robert Fichter;
The Meaning of Autonomy.
The Necessity for Networks.
Increasing Housing Autonomy.
1977
Housing By People: Towards Autonomy in Building Environments,Marion Boyars, London,
1976, New York 1977. Translations: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish.
[The book summarises my views on key issues discussed in papers published between 1963 and
1975].
1978
Housing in Three Dimensions: Terms of Reference for the Housing Question Revisited, World
Development Vol 6 No. 9/10.
[This paper reflects the debate on the issues raised by bottom-up and top-down systems before
the collapse of the USSR and the generalised awareness of climate change]
1984
The Architect as Enabler of User House Planning and Design, Editor and co-author. Irina
Lambert: architecture+competition, International Competition for Students of Architecture, UNESCO
Prize 1984, also Able Enablers in The Architects Journal, Vol 80 No. 41, 1984.
[The brief was to design the tools, or ways and means by which local groups or communities can or
could design their own dwellings. It drew far more interest from non-Western countries reflecting a
deeper understanding of development].
1988
Building Community, A Third World Case Book Foreword by Dom Helder Camara; Bertha Turner
Editor co-authored with John F C Turner and Andrew Maskrey, for Habitat International Coalitions
Project for the UN International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, 1987. Building Communities
Books/Habitat Forum Berlin, 1988
[The 20 case histories in the book are versions of A1 poster format presentations prepared and
published by Habitat Forum Berlin, directed by Rainer Ernest, for the International Conference for
the Year of Shelter for the Homeless held at the Reichstag in 1987].
1990
Barriers, Channels and Community Control, Ch.9 in The Living City, Towards a Sustainable
Future, editors David Cadman and Geoffrey Payne Routledge, London.
[This paper marks the beginning of efforts to make use of what I have learned for my own home

town. As an intended complement to the use of Tony Gibsons Planning for Real, giving emphasis to
differentiating between tools and tasks or the ways and mean of carrying out a project in ways that
enable local groups to assemble their own programmes to fit their own situations and capacities].
1998
Tools for Building Community (TCR) A Hastings Trust Project, Renate Ruether-Greaves and
John F C Turner. Building Civil Society, Current Initiatives in Voluntary Action, Ch. 8.
[A first but premature attempt to apply the method described in the Barriers, Channels and
Community Control paper, subsequently used by Dr. Ruether-Greaves in Stratford, London].
2000
Interview of John F C Turner, World Bank, Washington DC 11 September 2000 From Google. An
edited transcript by Roberto Chavez with Julie Viloria & Melanie Zipperer, audited by Rufolf V van
Puyembroeck, Legal Department and Assistant.
[It was a lively conversation with plenty of laughter (the text is headed by an odd sentence that
makes no sense)].
2002
Tools, Nuts & Bolts: Reflections on Scale and Subsidiarirty in Urban Development and
Poverty Alleviation: a personal view of development by people. Keynote address for the Urban
Forum 2002, Washington DC, April 2-3 2002.
[Tools for Community Regeneration was demonstrated by Renate Ruether-Greaves and Jonathan
Greaves at the Forum. The paper introduces my views on the necessity of Subsidiarity understood
as bottom-up relationships, and Power as peoples capacities as well as institutionalised powers over
people].
2007
A Framework for Mapping Activity,
[Current work-in-progress, stemming from the initial student work on Patrick Geddes diagram. A
database has been developed together with an up-dated vocabulary that overcome the limitations of
Geddes synthesis; on-going work with Bruce Martins assistance in continuing correspondence. I am
using the innovative facet-indexed database for reviewing my own past work with a view to
identifying and clarifying relevant issues].