Italian archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of a 6th-century BC
Greek structure in southern Italy. The ruins appeared to come with detailed assembly instructions and are being called an "ancient
IKEA building". The structure was a
temple-like building discovered at
Torre Satriano, near the southern city of
Potenza, in
Basilicata. This region was recognized as a place where local people mingled with
Greeks who had settled along the southern coast known as
Magna Graecia and in
Sicily from the 8th century BC onwards. Christopher Smith, director of the
British School at Rome, said that the discovery was, "the clearest example yet found of mason's marks of the time. It looks as if someone was instructing others how to mass-produce components and put them together in this way." Much like our modern instruction booklets, various sections of the luxury building were inscribed with coded symbols showing how the pieces slotted together. The characteristics of these inscriptions indicate they date back to around the 6th century BC, which tallies with the architectural evidence suggested by the decoration. The building was built by Greek artisans coming from the
Spartan colony of
Taranto in Apulia. In North America, there was a DIY magazine publishing niche in the first half of the twentieth century. Magazines such as
Popular Mechanics (founded in 1902) and
Mechanix Illustrated (founded in 1928) offered a way for readers to keep current on useful practical skills, techniques, tools, and materials. As many readers lived in rural or semi-rural regions, initially much of the material related to their needs on the farm or in a small town. In addition, authors such as
F. J. Christopher began to become heavy advocates for do-it-yourself projects. By the 1950s, DIY became common usage with the emergence of people undertaking home improvement projects, construction projects and smaller crafts. Artists began to fight against mass production and mass culture by claiming to be self-made. However, DIY practices also responded to geopolitical tensions, such as in the form of home-made Cold War nuclear fallout shelters, and the dark aesthetics and nihilist discourse in punk fanzines in the 1970s and onwards in the shadow of rising unemployment and social tensions. In the 1960s and 1970s, books and TV shows about the DIY movement and techniques on building and home decoration began appearing. By the 1990s, the DIY movement felt the impact of the digital age with the rise of the internet. With computers and the internet becoming mainstream, increased accessibility to the internet has led to more households undertaking DIY methods. Platforms, such as YouTube or Instagram, provide people the opportunity to share their creations and instruct others on how to replicate DIY techniques in their own home. The DIY movement is a re-introduction (often to urban and suburban dwellers) of the old pattern of personal involvement and use of skills in the upkeep of a house or apartment, making clothes; maintenance of cars, computers, websites; or any material aspect of living. The philosopher
Alan Watts (from the "
Houseboat Summit" panel discussion in a 1967 edition of the
San Francisco Oracle) reflected a growing sentiment: In the 1970s, DIY spread through the North American population of college and recent-college-graduate age groups. In part, this movement involved the renovation of affordable, rundown older homes. But, it also related to various projects expressing the social and environmental vision of the 1960s and early 1970s. The young visionary
Stewart Brand, working with friends and family, and initially using the most basic of typesetting and page-layout tools, developed the first edition of
The Whole Earth Catalog (subtitled
Access to Tools) in late 1968. The venture was partially financed by friend and mentor
Dick Raymond. Raymond's non-profit, the
Portola Institute, published the
Catalog, and the surprising success of editions in the 1970s led to a distribution arrangement with the New York publisher
Random House. The first
Catalog, and its successors, used a broad definition of the term "tools." There were informational tools, such as books (often technical in nature), professional journals, courses and classes. There were specialized, designed items, such as
carpentry and
stonemasonry tools,
garden tools,
welding equipment,
chainsaws, fiberglass materials and so on – even early personal computers. The designer
J. Baldwin served as technology editor and wrote many of the reviews of fabrication tools, tools for working soil, etc. The
Catalog publication both emerged from and spurred the great wave of experimentalism, convention-breaking, and do-it-yourself attitude of the late 1960s. Often copied, the
Catalog appealed to a wide cross-section of people in North America and had a broad influence. DIY home improvement books burgeoned in the 1970s, first created as collections of magazine articles. An early, extensive line of DIY how-to books were created by
Sunset Books, based upon previously published articles from their magazine,
Sunset, based in California.
Time-Life,
Better Homes and Gardens, Balcony Garden Web and other publishers soon followed suit. In the mid-1990s, DIY
home-improvement content began to find its way onto the
World Wide Web. HouseNet was the earliest bulletin-board style site where users could share information. The number of homeowners who blog about their experiences continues to grow, along with DIY websites from smaller organizations. In the 21st century, DIY culture has expanded through online video platforms, where creators share tutorials and creative projects. For example, New Zealand
YouTuber David Jones has produced DIY cardboard builds. ==Fashion==