diff --git a/docs/gst/Makefile.am b/docs/gst/Makefile.am
index 05b6aaeccc..de16f26a63 100644
--- a/docs/gst/Makefile.am
+++ b/docs/gst/Makefile.am
@@ -84,8 +84,8 @@ gstreamer-decl.txt:
 # The LD env-var below is a nasty hack to make this work on versions of
 # gtkdoc-scanobj which don't understand libtool
 scanobj: $(srcdir)/$(DOC_MODULE).types
-	cd ../../gst/;$(MAKE) libgst.la
-	cd ../../gst/elements/;$(MAKE) libgstelements.la
+	cd $(top_builddir)/gst/;$(MAKE) libgst.la
+	cd $(top_builddir)/gst/elements/;$(MAKE) libgstelements.la
 	rm gstreamer-scan.o; ln -s gstreamer-scan.lo gstreamer-scan.o
 	env CC="$(LIBTOOL) $(CC)" LD="cp gstreamer-scan.lo gstreamer-scan.o;$(LIBTOOL) $(CC)" CFLAGS="$(LIBGST_CFLAGS) $(GLIB_CFLAGS) $(XML_CFLAGS) -I../../" LDFLAGS="$(GST_LIBS)"\
 	gtkdoc-scanobj --module=$(DOC_MODULE)