Turning Slumsinto Microcities

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/this-startup-is-turning-slums-into-microcities/

What is The Role of Community Participatory Development in Informal Urban Settlements?

Informal settlements had drawn global attention of many with its blooming population in the past few years. Numerous efforts had given since then on slums and squatters’ upgrading in order to address the negative environmental stress, however it is still a reality struggle on maintaining the sustainability and the long term interest of the slum dwellers.

Informality is a heterogenous phenomenon and is mostly regarded by the community as the fundamental characteristic of underdevelopment of a city. This multifaceted paradox is derived by the latent nature of developing economies such as low land versus human capital and by the relationship that the country establishes regulation, monitoring and provision of public infrastructures with private agents. The following articles had shown proven data that the average population of the informal settlements declines with the overall country development, increases with the stress of governance, and decreases with the reinforcement of law and regulation (Friedman et al., 2000; Schneider and Enste, 2000; and Loayza, Oviedo, and Servén, 2005).

Informal architecture is not born in a day, nor in a short period of time, although it has always been convenient for people to think otherwise. I believe informality in architecture is a way of communication by the local poor with the physical masses throughout the city and it somehow became part of the language of the city. Even the mould on decaying organic matter has its explanation, that an over-simplified analogy might be unnecessary and appeared ironic as like all architecture, informal architecture has a derivation, that is capable of being analysed and explained to its sources. One can attempt to illustrate certain trait or nature from its origins to give emphasis on various roles and contacts, thus to say the circumstances of slum dwellers should be taken into account to ensure a successful participatory invention.

Why Community Participation?

At the UN Habitat conference in Vancouver, Canada in 1976, the urban management has adopted a pro-participation agenda. The following statement sums up the consensus that was achieved from the conference:

“Public participation should be an indispensable element in human settlements, especially in planning strategies and in their formulation, implementation and management; it should influence all levels of government in the decision- making process to further the political, social and economic growth of human settlements” (UN Conference 1, 1976).

Participation has been encouraged in all sorts of tasks in urban management for the last 30 or so years, yet in majority of circumstances is not able to permeate all stages of decision-making progress, as supported by the conference. In certain circumstances, however, communities are starting to realise and depend on participatory approached due to various failures in governance for providing the necessities, such integral approaches to participation may be deemed more noteworthy in advocating civic engagement than participation appointed from top-down.

Understanding community participation

There are numerous ways to explain the term participation to make it more understandable. On a basis, ‘dichotomised means/ends’ rhetoric prevails in the debate about participatory approaches. The distinction between ‘participation as a tool’ to achieve a certain satisfactory outcome and ‘participation as a process’ which complements the capacity of individuals to improve on their lives and facilitates social changes in accordance to the advantages or disadvantages of marginalised groups (Cleaver, 1999:598). Participation as a process means ensuring the quality and sustainability of achievements through beneficiaries’ ownership and increase efficient through their contributions (Berner and Philips, 2005:18). The shortfall in the approach of tool is that participation are made subjective throughout the whole programme.

It is necessary for the beneficiaries to be able to have an overview of the outcomes of their effort, as well as to be encouraged to entrust their mindset and energy in the long term process of ‘change’. This suggests an alliance inclined more to selecting a ‘process’ than a ‘tool’ (Cleaver, 1999). A programme by its nature after all, will be defined as a ‘package’ filled with goals to be achieved within a cost-effective budget and a time-limited framework (Botes and Rensburg, 2000). The process of participation is not just a venture to establish some outcomes or priorities but rather to gain acknowledgment for an already assembled package (Botes and Rensburg, 2000:43). Community participation in several upgrading attempts seen today has been attended towards this direction.

A deeper understanding to the complexity of peoples’ lives is infinitely crucial for an intended intervention to avoid the failures over and over again in the participatory development. Failures are often seen during the promotion of. The term community are commonly identifies as a homogenous entity bounded by natural, social and administrative barriers. If so, it is equally important that to minimise the threat of defining heterogenous social structure through simple categorisation of a role such as, women, leaders, poor etc. (Cleaver, 1999:605). An oversimplified perception of the nature of community tends to exploit those in a ‘wrong’ category thus creates disharmony of the people.

The debate about appropriate methods in participatory development imposes ‘technique-based participatory orthodoxy’ which fails to address inter-linkages in social reality (individual and institutional – both horizontal and vertical) and distribution of power, information and other resources in a community (Cleaver, 1999: 600). Starting from here, the next part aims to demonstrate difficulties which have to be taken into consideration speaking about more efficient community participation in slums.

The Push Pull Factors and Effects of Rural-Urban Migration

Before even starting to engage slum dwellers in any possible upgrading movement or enabling a informal community to change its living environment into a less vulnerable one, we should first off assess any threats to deal with together with any opportunities to take advantage of in the process. Every slum is unique with its own problems, resources and possibilities, and although general strategies can be presented for slum rehabilitation, every case is exclusive (The Guardian, 2014).

While these conditions of slums are generally “defined in terms of a lack”, they should also be understood as loci of opportunity for the often marginalised poor. Due to the limitation of land in the urban areas of the city, informal settlements are often forced to move from places to places. (Basically any left over lands that could accommodate the slum dwellers.) The migration cause the dwellers to build everything temporary. If something remains in situ, it remains in its usual place (Longman, 2011). The authorities should as well include informal settlements as potential genius loci so that they could once and for all maintain the spatial substances and living quality of the slums.

Rather, the city has been pushing it away and declaring it ‘illegal’. As a consequence, almost half of the world population who are dwelling in informal urban settlements are pushed outside the border, out of the institutional horizon. The dwellers’ needs, demands, cultural activities and social relations are not acknowledged neither by governance nor by the community, including architects. Despite being declared as queer and distorted in terms of environmental and architectural quality and has been abandoned for decades, it is still remained a dominant manner of building and should be involved in the debate of future architecture developments.

Lack of Amenities

My other assertion is consequently something that is distinct which is slum communities must be embedded in all aspects of urban planning and that they must be seen as inherent parts of the urban fabric, same like public participation which is an integral process and therefore it should not be divided into partial participation. Infrastructures such as water, sanitation, drainage, roads and emergency access, street lightings, electricity, communal spaces and structural quality are some of the aspects that should be included in slum settlements. Failing to do so would not only lead to the current general conception of participation as a way of cheap and insincere effort, but also as a inefficient mechanism for the solution of partial problems at local level.

Governance and Its Impact On Slums

The basis of the human condition and quality living should be publicly raised and debated. It’s however and irony to have the will to upgrade slums but does not address them as part of the urban fabric equally. It forms limitation, of almost everything. Factors of governance being able to distract architecture from making it more responsive to the the present conditions such as outdated government qualities, inappropriate private legal systems, incompetent national as well as being short sighted on the urban development policies.

Innovations are generated through conflict and negotiation between individuals of constructing and designing. While building typology tend to be averagely basic, the hidden complexity that emerged from distinctive synthesis of regulated and non-regulated building policies maintain a profoundly hybrid spatial quality. Hence, a ground that cultivates alternative architectural proposition of the self-governing characteristics of a building speaks to the presence of others, from the prospect of everyone that has involved themselves in the building process.

The myths of slum of it being just an illegal underdevelopment and a disgrace to the city is therefore a constraint for the governance as well as the community to envision the mission of slum elimination. There is a need for the local government to stop working around the issue of slums but should work through it in his own initiative. Accordingly, if people continue to perceive these communities as marginalised, they will eventually continue to be marginalised. This in fact from an organisational and managerial point of view, should be recognised as a major obstacle for a sustainable and equitable urban development.

Communicated Limits of Participation in Malaysia Slums

A kampong (in Malay and Indonesian) is a village known in Malaysia (also Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and Cambodia). This term applies to traditional villages, especially consist mainly of indigenous peoples, and has also widely used to refer to urban slum areas and enclosed developments within towns and cities. The traditional kampong village designs and architecture have always been visioned to reform by urbanists and modernists and few successful efforts had since been adapted by contemporary architects in various projects. Nevertheless, traditional kampongs are regarded as a famous tourist attraction.

The idea of a spirit of a place refers to the direct response of the builders to climatic considerations, geographic make-up of the land and the culture of a particular society. Thus, these ‘traditional houses’ with its isolated mass, raised platform, generous verandahs, full length windows with ventilation grilles and high roof formed to ease the circulation of air and shed off heavy rainfalls which contrast strongly with those of heavy masonry walls with barrel vaults that contained only little openings or flushed with too much transparency for the sake of a work of art. The colonial and sino-eclectic heritage in Malaysia presents excellent examples of this type of natural identity.

The architecture of informality proclaim to the designing and building as part of an continuing process, where fundamental architecture values such as function, strength, and beauty are not given in advance but are gained though associations. Instead of architecture of static geometrical objects, it introduces dynamic and participatory processes and systems. It supersedes the mainstream aspects and is well distinguished by relationships over compositions, expression over mass, networks over structures and adaptation over stasis. Architectural relevance are hence reconstructed beyond hidden official protocols, by allowing the people to take full control and form their own living space. Thus, design and architecture becomes an evolutionary process that can reciprocate to a variety of initiatives. An open-ended system provides the means for the community to share and compare knowledge and all in all learn from mistakes in order to optimise spatial transformations for the better. Its sustainability is embedded in the construction process; in a world of growth and change, a building might seem incomplete or of lack, but is ideally functional and rational.

Assessment of Community Participatory Development in Slums

If participation is translated into ‘managerial exercise based on ‘toolboxes’ of procedures and techniques’, a risk of oversimplified solutions ignoring inclusion of different social groups becomes real (Cleaver, 1999: 608). There is a range of obstacles faced by community participation in all sorts of studies made by theorists all over the world. It is then divided in 2 sections of challenges which is the external and internal impediments.

External obstacles demonstrates literal approach in slum upgrading that are likely dictated by top-down and with political intervention whereas internal obstacles presents the main topics of the assessment of circumstances for slum dwellers’ participation. The divide here is not between formality and informality but rather a differentiation on within informality. This in turn means that informality must be understood not as the object if state regulation but rather as produced by the state itself (Roy, 2009 p.149). The three factors that challenge community participation in slums, which are also the most communicated limits of participation in Malaysia slums, follow:

Heterogenity: whose interests matter?

An informal settlement consists of diverse interest groups and individuals of various social, cultural or religious status, political interest, livelihood activities and needs to be fulfilled. Their perceptions of a community action and ‘common good’ differ in hand with their role in the community. In a slum new inhabitants may live with old timers, owners with tenants, employed with those unemployed, legally working with informally self-employed, dwellers of different generation, age, sex, education level, characteristics etc. ‘It is reported that the slum communities are often less likely to participate due to their divisions of language, tenure, income, gender, age or politics, than in less diverse communities’ (Botes and Rensburg, 2000: 48). Are the governance and the architects committed to opt all diversity contained in slums to make the best out of it? It is then motivated as a intervention of improvement than a one-sided approach.

Encouragement vs. Segregation

Local elites, slum leaders or agents intend to attract outsiders’ interest and to speak out for the community needs. ‘There is always the danger that decision-making at the community-level may fall into the hands of a small and self-perpetuating clique, which may act in its own interests with disregard for the wider community. In this regard, (Friedman, 1992: 29) has used the term ‘positioning for patronage’ (Botes and Rensburg, 2000: 48).Then, no recognition of exploitation and marginalisation inside the settlement is observed (Berner and Phillips, 2005: 24). The poorest, disabled, in-debt or similarly disregarded slum dwellers benefit the least, if ever. The conditions of slums in Malaysia demonstrates how the most vulnerable groups are still excluded from making their choice and from increasing their voice to the public.

The so-called ‘community leaders’ are often consciously channeling selected informated from the intervening agency towards the community to prevent a lost in social status or in an effort to gain more support from the ‘bottom’ to address those ‘above’. These in time has resulted in slum dwellers being hesitant to participate in most development programmes. The gradual role of political interest in slum population is slowly faded and has driven the slum communities further away from being in the norm.

Selective slum belief

As De Wit shows political representatives that may influence officials to implement a programme in a particular slum just before an election, making it clear that the slum people should be grateful to him, and that he expects them to vote for him (1997: 19). These promises are rarely fulfilled and often left slum dwellers in no choice but to do as what they say. Rarely satisfied expectations decrease a readiness to participate (Botes and Rensburg, 2000: 51). Slum dwellers’ memories count and as mentioned before, the readiness of participation as an individual is required. Believing process without product leaves communities feeling that nothing and promised changes are never really going to happen other than a lot of talking, thus, losing the social energy from the communities.

Conclusion

Certainly, many slum residents are poor. But in every slum, there are experiences, aspirations, engagements and great entrepreneurial energy which cannot be regarded as null. Therefore, slums must be recognised as inherent parts of the broader urban context. It also has to be recognised that slums will be around for a long time to come, whatever incentives are put forward. Consequently, planners, politicians, researchers and the general public must realise the vital functions that slums can represent. Slum communities will however remain marginalised as long as they are regarded as such. This has historically – and will in the future – lead to strategies which are not efficient, sustainable or equitable in the long run.

It is my belief that by overcoming prejudices and depreciatory attitudes, the developmental potential of slum communities may be realised and improved. Rethinking informal habitats, building on their existing socioeconomic and cultural patterns through community participation will hold many promises, both for the urban poor themselves and for the greater urbanities in which they reside. Moreover, if slums are going to constitute the primary habitat of mankind in a couple of decades, it should be regarded as a moral imperative to resolve these issues with regard to future generations within the context of sustainable development.

If our cities are to remain engines of development and progress, the “impoverishment of urbanity” must be addressed in a manner which makes such development sustainable and equitable for everyone. The continuous slum upgrading efforts through community participation and enabling strategies should be carried out unceasingly. Perhaps most importantly a rebirth of the slum lies on the way we interpret these communities and integrate them in the planning and organisational processes of formal architecture. The question of informality is then a secondary one. It should be regarded as a moral responsibility for governments and authorities to provide for, and support, basic needs and sustainable livelihoods for their inhabitants, whether they are formal or informal urban residents.

References :

Larry Lyon & Robyn Driskell (2012) The Community in Urban Society: Second Edition

Mohamad Tajuddin Haji Mohamad Rasdi (2005) Malaysian Architecture: Crisis Within

Cleaver, F. (1999) Paradoxes of participation: Questioning participatory development. Journal of International Development, 11, 597 - 612.

Berner, E. & B. Phillips (2005) Left to their own devices: Community self-help between alternative development and neoliberalism. Community Development Journal, 40, 17-29.

Botes, L. & Rensburg, D.v. (2000) Community participation in development: Nine plagues and twelve commandments. Community DevelopUN Habitat I: The Vancouver Action Plan Journal, 35, 41-58.

UN-HABITAT Conference (1976) “The Vancouver Action Plan”, (www.unhabitat.org)

UN‐HABITAT (1996) “The Habitat Agenda”, (www.unhabitat.org)

UN-HABITAT (2003) The Challenge of Slums: Global Report On Human Settlements 2003. Earth-scan Publications Ltd. London and Sterling, VA.

World Bank (1987) Global Report on Human Settlements

de Soto, H. (1989) The Other Path: the Invisible Revolution in the Third World, London

Nick Wates (2000) The Community Planning Handbook: "How People Can Shape Their Cities, Towns and Villages in Any Part of The World”

Roy, A. (2009) Why India Cannot Plan Its Cites: Informality, Insurgence and the Idiom of Urbanisation: Planning Theory

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (online) (2011) Search for: in situ.: http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/in-situ/

Wikipedia (2013) Kampong. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampong_(village)

Friedman (1992) Empowerment: the Politics of Alternative Development, Blackwell Publishing, Cambridge, Mass

Friedman (1996) Rethinking Poverty: Empowerment and Citizen's Rights: International Social Science Journal, Vol. 148, 161-172

Schneider, F. and Enste, D. (2000) Shadow Economies: Size, Causes, and Consequences. The Journal of Economic Literature, 38, 77–114.

Loayza, Norman V. & Oviedo, Ana Maria & Serven, Luis (2005) "The impact of regulation on growth and informality - cross-country evidence

Yap, Kioe Sheng (1990) Community participation in low-income housing projects: problems and prospects, Community Development Journal

James, R. (2011) A Sprawl to Enthral. Designbuild-network.com: http://www.designbuildnetwork.com/features/featurea-sprawl-to-enthral/

Herausgegeben von Konrad Otto-Zimmermann (2010) Resilient Cities: Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change - Proceedings of the Global Forum 2010

A. Graham Tipple (2000) Extending Themselves: User-initiated Transformations of Government-Built Housing in Developing Countries

How do we find a balance between formalization and the preservation of human spontaneity?

Why do informal settlements exist?

“The insufficient provision of an adequate number of well-connected serviceable plots has contributed to the increase of informal urbanization, with over 61% of dwellers in Sub-Saharan Africa, 24% in Latin America and 30% in Asia informally occupying land, often in high-risk areas.”

– UN Habitat, Habitat III Issue Papers: Urban and Spatial Planning and Design. New York, 31 May 2015.

People were first drawn towards the city in the mid-18^th century and early 19^th century when the Industrial Revolution started. This was a time of transition for most, as there was a major increase in job openings in the secondary sector, causing the primary sector to dissipate. Factories opened in the city where most of the raw materials were found, giving reason for citizens to move to the city so they could be closer to their work. However, this change happened so rapidly that the government was not able to accommodate to the change. Large families often had to live in small and compact housing of medium-density which was not an ideal solution. The overcrowding at home and at work didn’t create the best living environment, which caused many people to fall ill frequently. It was only the rich that could live a comfortable life in the city as they could afford proper housing and good health care.

Over time, there had been a substantial shift towards the tertiary sector, known as ‘tertiarisation’, where jobs moved away from manufacturing goods and towards service providence. This prolonged the need to stay in the city but at the same time, it also formed a larger gap between the rich and the poor. 

As cities grew, living standards grew with it. Those that had stable jobs belonging to the formal economy received help from governing authorities that helped to regulate manpower rights. Those that didn’t, continued to struggle. As the socio-economic gap continued to widen, and the neglect towards the lower-class citizens remained, the poor were unable to find affordable housing within the city. Affordable housing was available in the suburbs but the long traveling distance proved to be too much of a burden, causing citizens to find informal accommodation in the city which is what we know today as informal settlements or slums.

UN Habitat predicts that by 2050, 66% of the world’s population will live in informal settlements.

Although cities are often depicted as attractive and vibrant destinations, they are often juxtaposed against slums that form in alleyways and abandoned structures. They are unsightly and a nuisance to the government. So what has the government tried to do? Some governments try to ignore these settlements by focusing on developments that are only built for monetary reasons and are targeted to the upper-class society in hopes that these informal settlements will dissipate over time. Some try to evict the inhabitants of these informal settlements, in hopes that they may never return while transforming the use of the land for something else that can generate more monetary value for them. 

Moving away from neglect and eviction, a very common approach is to relocate existing habitants temporarily to vacant land and shelter while they clear the slums away and replace them with formal structures which they believe would provide a better quality of life.

Is formalization the solution?

Several decades ago, Le Corbusier made his first attempt in urban design and planning in an Indian city called, Chandigarh. He had hoped that his design could be a monument for modernity and hope as Chandigarh was meant to be India’s administrative city. Unfortunately, the city has been neglected and today, it is largely occupied by slum dwellers. 

“In 2006, the city introduced a scheme to rehabilitate 18 slum areas by constructing more than 25,000 new apartments for poor families. The project was designed to provide low-cost housing to thousands of people who currently contend with faulty water lines and unreliable electricity in these informal settlements, with the added benefit of freeing up valuable land for development.”

– “The Indian City on a Quest to Clean Up Slums”. Thestar.com. June 20, 2014. https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/06/20/the_indian_city_on_a_quest_to_clean_up_slums.html

 

In hopes to revive one of Le Corbusier’s masterpiece, the government, in collaboration with local architects and urban planners, planned to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of the slums by providing them with formal structures.

Their plan was to relocate the inhabitants of the slums to temporary shelters while the slums are being demolished and rebuilt as formal structures. However, they faced many challenges ahead. Firstly, distance was an issue as the temporary shelters were far from their workplaces and their children’s school causing a major disruption in their lifestyle. Secondly, the procedure to obtain their new home was slow, complicated and costly.  Even though the project was meant to provide the slum dwellers with affordable housing, it still cost a lot more than they could afford. 

“In recent years, prevailing strategies for addressing non-formal settlements have shifted away from large-scale slum clearance and relocation, which have been demonstrated to cause massive social disruptions.”

– “Improving Informal Settlements: Ideas from Latin America”. Harvard Design Magazine. 2017. http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/28/improving-informal-settlements-ideas-from-latin-america

 

One of the main reasons of the failure of the relocation scheme is due to the lack of available land in the city centre. Governments find it hard to relocate slum dwellers in a suitable location. The only available land they have is usually too far away from their workplaces and schools.  

Even in situations where there is nearby available land, the newly built structures that have replaced the slums often fail in terms of their designs, layouts and construction as they are not suitable for the inhabitants. The slum dwellers have accustomed themselves to a certain way of life – something very different than what architects are used to designing or have been taught to design. Their unfamiliarity with the land use pattern and the loss of social cohesion within the community dissatisfies the inhabitants. More often than not, these formalized settlements will eventually turn into a 'slum' again, situated within a formal structure, as the inhabitants prefer their previous way of life and future maintenance throughout the rest of the building’s lifespan is always neglected. 

The success of a city or a country is valued by how organized and well governed it is. A well governing body has many laws and regulations that must be obeyed and for a field as major and serious as the construction industry, developed nations are sure to provide strict authorities to govern it. By looking at housing from a political or professional perspective, it is easy to assume that formalization should be the solution to the reduction and eventual extinction of informal settlements. 

In a situation where a country has good governance, like Singapore, it is possible to have the formalization of slums as a solution.

When Singapore became a self-attained government in 1959, they were facing a major housing issue with overcrowding and the lack of housing supply. Due to these conditions, a national housing authority known as the Housing and Development Board (HDB) was set up to provide public housing for the lower-income citizens of Singapore. This increased the living quality for Singaporean citizens with 50% of the population living in a HDB flat by 1976 and 80% by 2008.

The public housing in Singapore consists of high-density developments where they are always accompanied by communal amenities and recreational facilities such as supermarkets, canteens and child and senior care centres.

“An effective affordable housing program benefits both residents and the community at large.”

- “Public Housing Works: Lessons from Vienna and Singapore”. Shareable. June 9, 2014. http://www.shareable.net/blog/public-housing-works-lessons-from-vienna-and-singapore

 

Research has proven that the provision of good quality housing affects citizens in other aspects as well. On a community level, good housing improves the local construction industry and affordable housing supports the local economy which leaves residents with a higher disposable income. Having these houses near their businesses also results in citizens being more productive at work as less energy is spent on long and tiring commutes.

From a political and professional standpoint, Singapore has set a very good example of governance as well as urban planning. What Singapore has achieved over the past few decades is what other countries would like to achieve as well for themselves. The idea of formalization, clean cities, greater equality worldwide and all families having a secure place to live in sounds like a goal we should strive towards; but how different would our world be if that does happen? What does complete formalization on a worldwide scale entail?

It can already be seen in today’s architecture where you can find a building in Asia that looks like it can be placed anywhere else in the world. There are projects today that have no historical or spatial value and have no relation towards their location and environment. A good example of projects like these are houses in gated communities that pride themselves in being self-sufficient. These projects are often designed using foreign architectural styles with an attempt to recreate a nostalgic neighbourhood environment. 

“The new housing projects serve not only as identity representations and life-style shows, but also as investment strategies which are vital in supporting the manifested identities.”

- “The Impact of Globalization on Architecture – Environment Relations: Housing Projects and Design Approaches”. 2011. http://conference.osu.eu/globalization/publ2011/17-21_Ayna.pdf

 

So is this the kind of architecture that we want? Is this what we want our cities to look like? Will there be any point in traveling if all the buildings around us are the same and if they all start to lose their historical and cultural values?

Furthermore, previous projects, such as the attempt to revive Chandigarh as mentioned earlier, have shown that complete formalization of these settlements have been a failure. How then, should we deal with informal settlements?

Is there an unseen aspect to these informal settlements?

“In the event of a collision between formal and informal architecture, the process of informalization of the urban fabric can instead be approached as a form of re-appropriation of the city, a re-appropriation that emerges from the unique social dynamics integrated by the self-dwellers.” 

– “Collision of the Informal and Formal Architectures”. Issuu. May 6, 2014. https://issuu.com/aaschool/docs/ines_tazi_-_collision_of_the_inform_764af654bbe33d

 

Torre David is an office tower in Venezuela that has been left abandoned after the death of its developer and the collapse of the Venezuelan economy. It is now informally occupied by 70 families. Despite what at first glance may seem disorderly, a closer look at what each family has done with their own dwelling space has turned into something beautiful. Each resident has partitioned their dwelling spaces in clever ways and in ways that suits their needs and preferences. They have also opened little shops on every floor as a way to sustain themselves economically. As a whole, what can be found in Torre David today, is a unique social organization. The residents of Torre David have proven how a community can be self-sufficient in the face of weak governance. 

It is natural in this world to have two groups with very opposing views. A very common outlook on slums is that it is a nuisance, an invasion or a trespass. However, an upcoming view on slums is that they are a group of inhabitants that have tried to make the best out of what they can have and the spontaneity behind their creation is something some of us can admire and respect.

In order to prevent further globalization in architecture, it is important to acknowledge this beauty that we find in informality and retain it in a way so that it creates a special type of architecture – one that cannot be copied and rebuilt anywhere else in the world.

Although complete formalization of slums may not be the perfect solution, the encouragement of the slums shouldn’t be either. How do we find a solution that makes the most out of complete formalization while at the same time retaining the beauty of our human nature?

Has a successful solution been found?

 “For improving the quality of life there are three approaches of slum development and in-situ up-gradation approach is found to be the best one, while the relocation approach has proved to be a failure.”

- “Paradigm of Relocation of Urban Poor Habitats (slums): Case Study of Nagpur City.” Waset. N.D. http://waset.org/publications/4903/paradigm-of-relocation-of-urban-poor-habitats-slums-case-study-of-nagpur-city

After years of trying to find ways to improve slums, it has been concluded that the best approach is to upgrade informal settlements. Slum up-gradation is the improvement of the basic infrastructure of these informal settlements.

Some examples of slum up-gradation methods are:

• Installing or improving services in the settlements by providing proper sanitation, water supply and electrical connections.
• Introducing or reviving communal facilities for the area. This may include health services, community centres and educational facilities
• Providing social support programs that address the issues of security and violence.
•  Removing any substances that may be hazardous to the inhabitants and the environment.
•  Providing incentives for the management and maintenance of the community. 
•  Helping the community to enhance their skills through training programs so that they may find better ways to sustain themselves economically.

Although, slum up-gradation has proven to be a successful option, they have faced their share of setbacks. One of the major issues that slums face is maintenance. This is something that the government and the community often fail to do. The reason for this is due to the lacking sense of ownership of their own community.

As this was the main issue, it was clear that participation from the inhabitants was critical in order to make slum up-gradation a success. From this, newer projects engaged the inhabitants in the design and the construction of the slum up-gradation.

In order to make slum up-gradation more sustainable, the following can be carried out:

•  Costs must be made affordable to the community and the government.
•  Slum upgrading must always be thought of in relation to city and country level of policies and strategies.
• Getting the municipal authority involved so that larger organizations can get involved as well.

There is a scheme called the ‘enabling approach’ where the government has to provide for a legal, institutional and regulatory environment and ensure that there are sufficient funds to finance housing for all sectors of society.

It is important to understand that informal settlements are not only made up of physical entities but there are social economic and institutional aspects that must be considered. Communal facilities and cultural activities are vital in making a community work. Focusing on the up-gradation of all aspects will enhance the inhabitants’ quality of lives as all these aspects can mutually reinforce each other.

This way, the essence and spirit of the place can be retained with the addition of physical elements to help the entire area function on a formal level.

What can we learn from Medellin?

“This approach succeeded in crossing boundaries where political policy, social strategy, policing and corruption had previously failed. The city transformed itself by allowing the people to stitch it back together themselves,”

 – “Medellin escapes grip of drug lord to embrace radical urbanism.” The Guardian. May 13, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/13/story-cities-pablo-escobar-inclusive-urbanism-medellin-colombia

 

Medellin is a successful example of an upgraded slum. It is a city in Colombia, which was once known as the most dangerous city on earth with thousands killed every year. It was a community that consisted of gang lords and drug criminals and a ring leader, Pablo Escobar. Escobar took advantage of those living in the slums by radicalizing, politicizing and militarizing them so that they could go against the government and the formal city. This heightened the government’s concerns.

When Escobar passed on, Medellin stood at a pivotal point of utter crisis and hope.

In an act to change Medellin for the better, the government started to radically reorganize the social fabric of the community. They began by addressing the inequality and the violence that were present within the community. In approaching this, the government wanted to make sure that there was a level of commitment by the inhabitants of Medellin in making their home a better place to live in and one approach was to make the spaces that were once zones for warfare would be turned into public spaces where communities could gather.

Medellin turned out to be successful because the planning consisted of a lot of participation from the community who were frequently consulted during the planning and the design process of the new city. This demanded something unique – which was the urbanism of inclusion, where the dispossessed became partners in driving urban change. This of course, was not easy as the community consisted of people with different interests and attitudes towards the upgrading process. They were so divide that they had to find a way to bridge the community together so that they could make unanimous decisions and decide as a team.

This process, despite the difficulties, was what stitched the city together. Today, Medellin has elevated metros, cable cars, bridges and escalators to help the inhabitants mobilize around the area. Communal spaces such as libraries, community buildings and cultural centres were introduced into the city so that people could come together to interact and learn. The Mayor saw that it was necessary to invest in these communal spaces as much as the upgrading of the slums in physical terms.

From an architectural stand point, the city was able to balance having spaces and places as part of the city’s urban fabric and have buildings that were admired and photographed by foreign travelers. The way that Medellin was designed was a key approach to urbanism and could help promote the importance of social mobility and equity in order to make a city work. 

What can we learn from Bologna?

“… a vision of Bologna as an entire city powered by sharing and collaboration as part of a global network of other cities on the same path.”

– “Bologna Celebrates One Year of a Bold Experiment in Urban Commoning.” Shareable. June 8, 2015. http://www.shareable.net/blog/bologna-celebrates-one-year-of-a-bold-experiment-in-urban-commoning

 

This participatory scheme was also successful in Bologna, Italy.  It all started in 2011 when a group of women wanted to donate benches to their neighbourhood park as there was nowhere to sit. Something as simple as this, turned out to be a complicated matter as citizens were unable to contribute to improving the city. It was illegal.

In 2014, this law changed and allowed Bologna to be a collaborative city where their citizens are allowed to contribute to improve the city. 

One example of a collaborative scheme that the city has is by a non-profit painting crew called “Lawyers at Work”. One of the city’s historic centre had to be painted due to the graffiti. This was important as the historic centre was crucial for quality of life and tourism. The municipal waste management company “Hera” had dropped off the painting kit that consisted of paint that met the city’s historical code, brushes, smocks to protect clothing, cones to mark off the work area and more. The city hosted an online map that showed all the projects active that day and their location so that they could be tracked by citizens who could join these projects spontaneously.

This was a new way of place making where urban design experts do not plan everything out in advance, rather, it was a way for everyone to gather and a new way to live in a city in a more creative, spontaneous and social manner.

What can we learn from Aravena?

“Aravena has championed an approach he describes as ‘incremental’, in which governments fund construction of half a good house with residents completing the other portion as resources allow.”

- “Alejandro Aravena makes housing designs available to the public for free.” Dezeen. April 6, 2016. https://www.dezeen.com/2016/04/06/alejandro-aravena-elemental-social-housing-designs-architecture-open-source-pritzker/

 

Aside from looking at participation at an urban scale, Chilean architect, Alejandro Aravena, came up with a model for social housing which earned him 2016’s Pritzker Prize award. His company, Elemental, is a champion of ‘participatory design’ for coming up with the idea of “half a good house”. How this works is that developments are created based on limited government subsidies. Only half of a decent-sized family home will be built and the other half will be filled in by the future inhabitants according to their own needs and financial situation.

What should architects keep in mind?

“In 1998, it became constitutional law in Colombia that every municipality had to develop a masterplan, and that planning could not happen without social participation.”

– “Medellin escapes grip of drug lord to embrace radical urbanism.” The Guardian. May 13, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/13/story-cities-pablo-escobar-inclusive-urbanism-medellin-colombia

It is universally known that most government bodies are corrupt, so to achieve a successful local housing system like that of Singapore’s cannot be a global solution. Furthermore, it is important that each place has its own spirit and essence - something that outsiders can appreciate and admire. 

It is clear from resources such as UN Habitat on the topic of slum upgrading and successful projects such as Medellin, Bologna and Aravena’s social housing, that the participation from the inhabitants are key to a successful project. These inhabitants are the ones that know their area best and with their participation, there will be a greater sense of ownership of their city which will make them appreciate their city more and arouse in them a stronger will to look after and maintain the city. City maintenance should not only be a duty for the municipality or government but it should also be the citizens’ responsibility.

As architects, we may have been taught to design buildings and spaces in a formal and particular way that we often forget the more dynamic and complex aspects of designing spaces – which is to prioritize the needs of the community we are designing for. We may have been taught to design iconic buildings and to create an identity for ourselves as designers, but it is important that we start looking at the bigger picture and understanding how our skills and the architectural, urban planning and construction industry extends further to a much more serious issue that we can tackle. 

Architects are not only needed to create beautiful buildings, but the knowledge and experiences that we have, can be used to help solve the global issue of housing. So as architects, how do we balance our formal approach towards slums while at the same time, retaining the uniqueness of the place?

Let the users participate! After all, we are designing for them.