This article aimed at investigating the role of relevant social groups and their interaction in the shaping of a technological artefact, namely, a social housing project in which the future residents are themselves responsible for the construction work. In particular, it focuses on the role of the women in the group of future residents. The close observation of the development of the process together with information from documents and interviews revealed that not only the final artefact is shaped by the social groups but also that the interaction between and within such groups are considerably modified during the process. In particular, the social role of women was significantly changed: they steadly and firmly took ever the leading roles; they assumed all sorts of "heavy" and "dangerous" work and, they built, together with the houses, a new female identity.
Technology; Popular Houses; Social Groups; Women; Female Identity