How can we Formalize Informal Settlements?

Slum Cities in Cities –

Recognizing the invisible Dwellers

Nabah Ali Saad

4057570

Architecture of Informality

Professor Kucina

Dessau Institute of Architecture

Winter Semester 2013-2014

How can we Formalize Informal Settlements?

It is estimated that a third of the world’s population will by living in slums in the next two decades. When one keeps these expected projections in mind, the implications are extremely alarming; presently, one in six people live in slums but that number is likely to double in the next twenty years. That means by 2034, the number of slum inhabitants will be approximately two billion people. (UN-Habitat , 2007)

As a citizen of a developing country, or the more politically incorrect “third world”, the above stated prediction does not surprise me so very much. The idea of informal settlements is a phenomenon which is not something out of the norm. In fact it is something of an accepted part of our society. Slums or settlements such as these are expected in a country like Pakistan, where the socio-economic divide is so large, that with over 5 million rural immigrants each year, (Haq, 2013), the population of Pakistani cities is exploding.

Squatter settlements now crop up in the middle of cities and are no longer relegated to the outskirts. One shanty structure leads to then and before you know it, a mushroom growth takes place and a community has developed before you know it. Due to the fact that these communal developments have been taking place illegally, there is no help from the government body which helps to develop any form of an infrastructure. Therefore there is no electricity grid, no gas pipelines and no sewage system to speak of. As a result, the kunda[1] system is adapted, gas cylinders (which can be dangerous) are used for cooking and open drains run rampant throughout the settlements, which then lead to poor hygiene and health conditions. These informal settlements are, inherently, a very large part of our urban fabric and do coexist within the periphery of the more formalized settlements. But they are always on the fringe of society at large. They are perpetually in a state of on the outside looking in.

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By and large, the existence of slums is pretty much ignored by the remaining inhabitants of the cities, as they do not wish to acknowledge the fact that places such as these are part of their urban fabric. So how can we bring recognition and a sense of inclusion to these people, and in a sense of the word, “formalize” the informal?

According to Rahul Mehrotra[2], grassroots initiatives are a necessary force needed to push forward the debate of the current practices of urban design. He says,

“Grassroots initiatives are a stark reminder for urban design as a practice, about its primary agenda of activism – of being the practice that creates the critical feedback loops between the site specificity of architectural interventions and the abstraction of planning policy” (Marcos, 2013, p. 50).

 In his interview, Mehrotra feels that the question of urban design has been “…narrowed in its perception to big architecture” (Marcos, 2013, p. 50), meaning that the practices of urbanism are getting lost in translation, when the focus of the debate actually shifts to the style or “ism” of architecture that is dictating the overall built environment. The emphasis now is primarily towards the “Starchitect”[3] and which big building is being designed by him…or her (sorry Zaha!). But how do these buildings affect the current status quo, especially when millions of dollars are being spent on buildings in countries which have some of the largest informal settlements in the world? And more importantly, are the “Starchitects” aware of the social implications of these projects? Apparently, not so much…

I had attended a talk at TU Delft in 2012, where Rem Koolhaas was being presented with an honorary degree in recognition for his works in architecture today. When the time came for him to make a presentation, we all were suitably impressed. After all it was Rem Koolhaas. But then he started speaking about the CCTV Tower in Beijing. Impressive in form and structure, it was only when photographs of the surrounding area came into perspective that one felt the need to pause and reassess the scenario. Said to be located in the middle of the Beijing Central Business District, the implications of the design are clearly reflective of China’s position as an emerging economic leader, as well as the progressive direction they are taking. Why then, from what I understood, was Rem taking pictures of the building from a worm’s eye perspective through two squatter settlements and saying that the building was inherently part of its surroundings and reflective of the needs of the people? It is in this case that I feel Mehrotra is justified in his statement that big architecture is the call of the day, and because of this, the people-centric focus of urban design practices are being placed on the back-shelf.

Yet at the same time, Mehrotra thinks that all is not lost. In the same interview, he has also applauded the initiatives taking place in Mumbai. He speaks here of the community toilet project, Triratna Prerna Mandal (TPM), which began in the Khotwadi informal settlement in Mumbai’s Santa Cruz district (Marcos, 2013, p. 38). In this particular slum, community toilets were developed as part of a World Bank funded Slum Sanitation Program, and was led by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. TPM was said to be categorized as a “community-body organization” and their role was to maintain the toilets constructed by the residents in its local shanty town. But it became so much more.

 Having set up an office on the premises of the toilets, the group started to cover a variety of activities, whereby they established a computer training school on the first floor of the toilet, where English language was also taught. They also set up a kitchen where women came to cook for school children as part of a government-related employment program. Thereafter, they “adopted a local abandoned building in the area, and established a gym, with yoga and dance classes, as well as expanded its women’s self help and skill groups. It has also installed solar panels on the roof of its community toilet building, thus generating its own electricity, and has also set aside space for rain-water harvesting. The group is also focused on issues of recycling and waste sorting, as well as developing community gardens (Marcos, 2013, p. 38).

Given all of this, it makes sense when Mehrotra says,

“…if we recognize the validity of new hybrid formulations in the built environment and of otherwise previously unimagined adjacencies in terms of land use and space occupation, these could have a significant impact on the way we formulate building bylaws, as well as our attitude to land use planning generally” (Marcos, 2013, p. 50).

In 2005 the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights decided to carry out a research on a number of Asian cites, so as to identify the process of socio-economic, physical and institutional change that had taken place since the ACHR was founded in 1987. The case study cities were Beijing (China), Pune (India), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Karachi (Pakistan), Muntinlupa (Philippines), Hanoi (Vietnam) and Surabaya (Indonesia) (Satterthwaite, 2005). In his forward in the report, Arif Hasan[4] has said that the most important finding of the report states that,

“urban development in Asia is largely driven by the concentration of local, national and increasingly, international profit-seeking enterprises in and around particular urban centres” and that, “cities may concentrate wealth both in terms of new investment and of high-income residents but there is no automatic process by which this contributes to the costs of needed infrastructure and services” (Satterthwaite, 2005, p. 4).

He has gone further to identify the primary negative aspects of the changes in the report as:

1.   Definitions of what is urban are determined by political considerations.

2.   Globalisation has led to direct foreign investment in Asian cities, along with the development of a more aggressive business sector at the national level.

3.   Due to relocation, transport costs and travel time to and from work have increased considerably.

4.   Due to an absence of alternatives for housing, old informal settlements have densified.

5.   An increase in the number of automobiles in Asian cities has created severe traffic problems.

6.   As a result of structural adjustment conditionalities and the culture of globalisation, there are proposals for the privatisation of public sector utilities and land assets.

7.   The culture of globalisation and structural adjustments has also meant the removal or curtailing of government subsidies for the social sectors.

8.   As a result of these changes, there has been an enormous increase in real estate development.

9.   There are multiple agencies that are involved in the development, management and  maintenance of Asian cities. (Satterthwaite, 2005, p. 5)

Yet the situation is not completely one of doom and gloom. The report also mentions a number of positive changes that have taken place and a number of trends that have emerged that have taken place, or are talking place, now:

1.   Over the last two decades, urban poor organisations have emerged in most Asian cities.

2.   Civil society organisations have successfully come together in a number of cites.

3.   There are now a number of government-NGO-community projects and programmes.

4.   In all the case study cities, there has been a process of decentralisation. (Satterthwaite, 2005, p. 6)

Let us now put all the above mentioned aspects into perspective. It is clearly understood that the large-sections of low-income population cannot afford the cost of legal housing, and thus have to think outside the box, as it were, and come up with their own solutions that do not fit the defined parameters of the formal sector. This inadvertently leads to the development of informal settlements. In cities such as Pune, Muntinlupa and Chiang Mai, approximately two-fifths of the population live in unauthorized settlements.

 In Karachi, which is the largest of the case study cities (presently at over 13 million inhabitants), has more than half of its population living in squatter settlements, or illegally developed informal settlements. It was discovered that this is primarily due to the fact that the formal sector was not able to meet the annual growth in housing needs (estimated at 80,000 units), the result was, therefore an increase in katchi abadis[5], and illegal subdivisions or densification in inner city areas (through the illegal construction of multi-storey dwellings. Yet due to the fact that this is such a long-established practice, dating back to the days of partition from India in 1947, that there are a lot of good quality houses which are developed in these informal settlements, and so, the local governmental bodies have earmarked some 70 percent of these settlements for regularization (Satterthwaite, 2005, p. 14). This means that there will be a provision of a 99-year lease and the development of infrastructure by the local government against a payment to the state.

Orangi Town is one such place in Karachi. The largest of the informal settlements in Karachi, Orangi, situated in the periphery of Karachi, is a cluster of 113 low income settlements[6] with a population of 1.5 million Orangi is home to one of the most successful community-based upgradation programs in Asia. Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) as an NGO began work in Orangi town in 1980. (Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI))On the success of its five basic programs of low cost sanitation, housing, health, education and credit for micro enterprise, in 1988 OPP was upgraded into three autonomous institutions.

1. OPP-Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI) manages the low cost sanitation, housing/secure housing support program, education program, the now evolving water supply and the women's savings programs as well as the related research and training programs. Earthquake and the flood rehabilitation works are also undertaken.
2. OPP-Orangi Charitable Trust (OPP-OCT) manages the micro enterprise credit program.
3. OPP-Karachi Health and Social Development Association (OPP-KHASDA) manages the health program.

Each institution has its separate board of directors and mobilizes its own funds. Development is self financed by the people. OPP institutions provide social and technical guidance and credit for micro enterprise. For replication OPP institutions strengthen the partner Non Government Organizations (NGOs)/ Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and Government agencies (instead of setting up their own offices). (Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI))

The reasons the works of the OPP institutions are seen as successful endeavours are:

1. The institutions research to understand what people are doing and how, and then work towards supporting them to do so.
2. Technical research into sanitation and housing issues and further developing them into low cost solutions, and extending them through CBOs (community based organisations) and informal sector entrepreneurs.
3. Understanding the needs of the informal sector in health and education and supporting them through credit, technical assistance, managerial advise and linking them with government programs and funds for social uplift and poverty alleviation.
4. Developing alternatives to top-heavy government projects for Orangi and promoting them with government agencies and international donors.
5. Developing skills with the communities to build infrastructure at the neighbourhood level and monitor government projects in Orangi. (Hasan, 2003, p. 26)

Having understood these precedents, it can be said that there are definite modes and methods that can be applied towards “formalizing” the informal, but perhaps here a better understanding of the phrase should be ascertained. From the above, we have deduced that the question is not so much about being recognized as legitimate settlement (although that is always a plus point), but it is more about allowing yourself to stop feeling like the bastard by-product of a world which is out of the control of the average urban settler. I feel that a community leader from Orangi has explained this situation in the best way possible. He says that there are two types of slums or informal settlements:

1.  One consisting of people who understand their problems, are able to define them and    react to them accordingly.
2.  The other consisting of people who are waiting for somebody such as the  government/state to help them. (Hasan, 2003, p. 15)

It can therefore be said that at the center of these precedents are changes in the ways that the more formal sector of the urban planning world can meet the informal sector, and that there are many existing models upon which one can build an initiative, so as to instigate a drive within the community and get them to act. The need for a change in the mindset should categorically be seen as urgent, as much of the world we live in is continuing to urbanize rapidly and most urban governments are failing to fulfill the needs of large sectors of their population. It has to be understood, then, that it is imperative for a new generation of architects and urban planners to develop a new, more flexible system within which to develop our urban environment, one which recognizes the legitimacy of the informal settlements as well as the almost fluid and elastic nature of these urban spaces. It must be accepted that no solutions for scenarios such as these are immediate, and must therefore one needs to set up long term planning goals, which must in turn be flexible and rely on a community based support system. This approach will thus allow more creative license towards defining and developing possible solutions for the very real problems within the settlements, as opposed to the pre-conceived scenarios which are visualized in the formal sector of the planning authorities.

To conclude, it appears the question is no longer about how to “formalize” the informal, but rather more along the lines of what lessons can be learned from within these informal settlements and applied to the formal sector so as to develop a more highly functioning  society? It would appear that we have much to learn…

Bibliography

UN-Habitat . (2007). Slum Dwellers to double by 2030: Millenium goals could fall short. Nairobi: UN-HABITAT.

Marcos, R. L. (2013). Handmade Urbanism - From community Initiatives to Participatory Models. Berlin: Jovis Verlag GmbH.

Satterthwaite, D. (2005). Understanding Asian Cities - A synthesis of the findings from eight case study cities.Bangkok: Asian Coalition for Housing Rights.

Hasan, A. a. (2003). Urban Slums Reports: The case of Karachi, Pakistan.

(n.d.). Retrieved from Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI): http://www.oppinstitutions.org/

Haq, R. (2013, April 16). http://www.siasat.pk/forum/showthread.php?176152-Urbanization-in-Pakistan-Highest-in-South-Asia-BY-Riaz-Haq. Retrieved January 6, 2014, from www.siasat.pk: 1761http://www.siasat.pk/forum/showthread.php?176152-Urbanization-in-Pakistan-Highest-in-South-Asia-BY-Riaz-Haq52

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[1] A process by which electricity is stolen from the main lines

[2] Rahul Mehrotra is the Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard University

[3] Defined in the Oxford Dictionary as a famous or high-profile architect

[4] Arif Hasan n urban planner and activist based in Karachi, Pakistan

[5] Informal settlements

[6]The settlements began as katchi abadis (informal settlements), but by between 1986 and 1992 most were notified, i.e. officially accepted by the government.

Is 'slum' a problem for a city's infrastructure? If yes then why doesn't it solve by simply giving apartment quarters and uplifting the face of a slums? Are we asking the right questions?

Muhammad Zeeshan Zaheer

Matrikel-Nr: 4057739

The way cities are expanding and consuming the resources we should pause and rethink the direction we choose to go forward. As Slums are a part of the urban fabric, they are in a high contrast economically socially. At numerous level it is seen as a failure of the city. In this article I want to discuss some underlying solutions that I believe can bring out these Slums (Katchi Abadi's) as we have known them to another level where they actively become members of a growing city. But first we have to understand the context of discussion where I am doing my study, also the city plays an important role as in how it thinks grows and responds. As I would like to call it “ Living cities”.

“Slums are the problem of failed policies, governance, corruption in appropriated regulations, dysfunctional land markets, unresponsive financial system and fundamental lack of political will.” Arif Hasan (An urban architect, activist social researcher and writer)

In this article I would be discussing few approaches that can be adapted to improve the conditions of slums while considering the expansion of cities in third world countries such as the one I grew up in known as “Lahore”; capital of Punjab province . It is a culturally rich city and cultural capital of Pakistan. By meeting the Pakistani people one can tell if they are from Lahore because of their carefree,witty and by their reckless nature towards abiding by road traffic laws. These people are obese and even after knowing their obesity problem, wouldn't care much about diet because as they proudly say ' One who hasn't seen Lahore, isn't born yet '. Ignoring the fact that there s limit to which Lahore can take, over population and pollution are badly affection the city as it was once know “ City of Gardens”

With a rich history dating back over a millennium, Lahore is a main cultural centre of Punjab and Pakistan. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains an economic, political, transportation, entertainment, and educational hub. It is referred to as the "Mughal City of Gardens" due to the historic presence of gardens in and around the city dating back to the Mughal period.

Lahore is referred to as the cultural heart of Pakistan as it hosts most of the arts, cuisine, festivals, film-making, music, gardening and intelligentsia of the country. Lahore has always been a centre for publications, where 80 percent of Pakistan's books are published and remains the foremost centre of literary, educational and cultural activity in Pakistan. It is also an important religious centre as it is home to hundreds of temples, mosques, and shrines like Data Durbar Complex. According to the 1998 census, Lahore's population was 6,310,000. A 2010 government estimate now puts the population at 10,000,000. It is ranked 25 in the most populated urban areas in the world and the 8th largest city within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Lahore has expanded almost double area-wise in the last 12 to 14 years. In 2010, Lahore was ranked as a Gamma+ world city. The Guardian has rated Lahore as the 2nd best tourist destination in Pakistan.

Due to exponential rural to urban migration and also international refuges, after Islamabad Lahore has been taking in settlers. Pakistan's Power crisis already hitting the boundaries. Lahore has being over populated where land value has been inflated out of the reach of most public. Electricity crisis causes electric cut for seven to ten hours. And in other areas up to 15 hours. Informal communities settle in Lahore where supply and demand already has a huge gap. Due to urban migration, there are scattered slums in the city. Government in 1985 litigation act legalized a lot of slums. But the problem of slum needs a more widespread solution. There are numerous non governmental organizations (NGO's) that have been working on slums (katchi abadi) education and trying to make them a productive part of city but the support from municipality has been missing whereas corruption has been to the max.

A lot of research and analysis has been done on the limits of growth by group of think tank including Dennis Meadows. The have projected cities and analyzed the chain of supply-demand and resources f the world.

We have seen that positive feedback loops operating without any constraints generate exponential growth. In the world system two positive feedback loops are dominant now, producing exponential growth of population and of industrial capital. In any finite system there must be constraints that can act to stop exponential growth. These constraints are negative feedback loops. The negative loops become stronger and stronger as growth approaches the ultimate limit, or carrying capacity, of the system's environment. Finally the negative loops balance or dominate the positive ones, and growth comes to an end. In the world system the negative feedback loops involve such processes as pollution of the environment, depletion of nonrenewable resources, and famine. The delays inherent in the action of these negative loops tend to allow population and capital to overshoot their ultimately sustainable levels. The period of overshoot is wasteful of resources. It generally decreases the carrying capacity of the environment as well, intensifying the eventual decline in population and capital. The growth-stopping pressures from negative feedback loops are already being felt in many parts of human society.

The major societal responses to these pressures have been directed at the negative feedback loops themselves. Technological solutions, have been devised to weaken the loops or to disguise the pressures they generate so that growth can continue. Such means may have some short- term effect in relieving pressures caused by growth, but in the long run they do nothing to prevent the overshoot and subsequent collapse of the system. Another response to the problems created by growth would be to weaken the position feedback loops that are generating the growth. Such a solution has almost never been acknowledged as legitimate by any modern society, and it has certainly never been effectively carried out. What kinds of policies would such a solution involve? What sort of world would result? There is almost no historical precedent for such an approach, and thus there is no alternative but to discuss it in terms of models-either mental models or formal, written models. How will the world model behave if we include in it some policy to control growth deliberately? Will such a policy change generate a "better" behavior mode?

At this point I would like to talk about a concept that is commonly known as “slum”. These Slums, or Shanty Towns or Katchi Abaadi's are mostly illegal settlements and have a very drastic compromise on basic health necessities(water, electricity, security, hygiene). The infrastructure problems more or less are the same in all slums. But the things that makes them different are social factors, economical factors and also level of corruption. After studying these case studies notions have to be understood as to how municipality deals with different slums and how slum inhabitants react to treatment.

“Slums themselves are the physical manifestation of several overlapping forces. On the one hand, they are the manifestation of deep poverty, unrealistic regulatory frameworks, ill-conceived policies, inadequate urban planning, weak institutional capacity, and larger macroeconomic factors. But on the other hand, slums are a manifestation of the ingenuity and resilience with which extremely disadvantaged populations have organized themselves in the face of these very challenges.” Approaches to Urban Slums.

On this point we should understand these urban colonies that gather and live together as a colony inside an urban fabric because of their special social, economic or religious interest. These Slums (Katchi Abadi as known locally) have their on hierarchical system that they follow inside it. Slums themselves are the physical manifestation of several overlapping forces. On the one hand, they are the manifestation of deep poverty, unrealistic regulatory frameworks, ill-conceived policies, inadequate urban planning, weak institutional capacity, and larger macroeconomic factors. But on the other hand, slums are a manifestation of the ingenuity and resilience with which extremely disadvantaged populations have organized themselves in the face of these very challenges.

Slum dwellers in the face of such adverse circumstances is remarkable. Evidence demonstrates that slum dwellers collectively make a substantial contribution to urban and national economies, and that many towns and cities would cease to function effectively without the people who live in slums. What slum dwellers really need is a chance to improve their own lives, and to make a positive contribution to the city. Plenty of evidence shows that resources spent on improving the lives of the poor are investments that will yield global economic and social returns. Affordable and successful adaptive measures for existing slums have, and can, increase the well-being of millions of slum dwellers. These measures also further unlock the productivity of the urban poor, creating a powerful upward spiral that strengthens both urban and national economies.

As cities in developing countries prepare to take on the range of challenges posed by slums, it is essential that key knowledge about these measures be organized and disseminated in a format that can be readily used to create the momentum necessary for policy changes, national level programs, regulatory reform and city level projects.

There are series of long and short term approaches that are needed to improve urban situations as a whole. Adaptive approaches are affordable and meaningful strategies that improve the situation of existing slum dwellers and further strengthen their integration into the social and economic fiber of the city. Broadly speaking, adaptive approaches involve upgrading the level of urban services in slums: physical, social, and economic. They also include pragmatic solutions for dealing with the tricky issue of land and tenure. Adaptive approaches have been proven to increase the well-being of millions of slum dwellers while simultaneously strengthening urban and national economies. In addition to physical services, adaptive approaches include a range of social services. Social services in upgrading initiatives can include education, health facilities, sporting facilities, day care, community facilities, and the creation or strengthening of institutions that help new migrants integrate themselves into the city. Social services should not be taken lightly; they often contribute to increased economic growth, reduced crime, and better education and awareness.

Projects may also include economic services to generate employment in the area and to raise incomes. Economic assistance can include training, job placement, credit and technical assistance to small businesses, establishment of new community-owned enterprises, micro finance opportunities, and loans for housing and for building materials. If implemented correctly, such services will unlock bottlenecks to development and make way for economic revitalization in the area.

Often the trickiest issues in improving slum conditions have to do with land and tenure. In order to propose meaningful solutions to tenure, planners and policy makers need accurate knowledge of land ownership patterns and precise criteria for the selection of beneficiaries. The equitable allocation of benefits between beneficiaries is extremely important.

Who owns the land? Is it owned by the local government, the parks department, a transportation authority? Is it in the freehold ownership of a few absentee landlords? Has it been leased to private landlords by a public agency, and is it now informally squatted upon by the slum dwellers? If informal land markets exist, how do they work? Is some of the land under customary or traditional administrative structures? Does all the land implicated in the project site fall under a single ownership pattern? If not, what are the different patterns? Appreciating and working through the complexity of these issues, while also understanding the social and economic complexities rooted in land ownership, will ultimately structure the approach to devising appropriate tenure arrangements for households.

Often, and with good reason, the appropriate tenure arrangements are more complex than simply handing out individual land titles. Innovative forms of collective tenure allow projects to accommodate the lowest-income households that cannot immediately afford outright ownership. Since payments are collective, such arrangements also accommodate the irregularities in individual income through community-based strategies such as revolving-credit schemes.

Collective tenure can also allow communities to negotiate from a position of much greater power and thereby secure themselves successive improvements to their neighborhood. A collective leasehold agreement can help to discourage premature resale and speculation. Such collective agreements decrease the likelihood of the beneficiary cashing in on a land title and moving to squat elsewhere in the city in the hope of repeating the process again. Tenure is often the most contentious issue in upgrading, and proposals need to be carefully crafted to suit the particular realities of a given situation.

Institutional arrangements in the implementation of adaptive approaches vary from case to case. It is crucial to underscore the central role of local governments and their leadership in the process. It is also important to identify the existing and potential roles of other key stakeholders-the poor themselves, national and provincial governments, civil society groups, the private sector, and other development partners.

Policy makers and local officials will need to pay particular attention to the financial dimension of programs and projects. This involves issues of cost allocation across various stakeholders, the careful targeting of subsidies when required, and protocols and mechanisms for cost recovery. Flexibility in the choice of possible services and service standards will accommodate a range of income brackets and address issues of affordability and equity.

To create pluralistic systems of supply, governments must consider specific policy options for increasing the supply of land, material, services, and credit in ways that can meet the needs of increasing, and largely poor, urban populations. Some options include sites and services, the acquisition of rights-of-way, land pooling and readjustment, requests for proposals, and companies limited by guarantee.

Recently, the focus is increasingly on efforts to encourage a wide range of innovative partnerships between the public and private sectors, together with third-sector groups such as NGOs and community-based organizations. These opportunities are changing the role of the public sector in influencing urban land and housing markets and the poor's access to these markets.

Which brings us to the point that solving the issue of slums is more complex as it has been thought so far. Public and Private sectors need to work together to come towards solving the problem for slums and shanty towns all around the world. Here I would end this report with Aristotle's quote:

Most persons think that a state in order to be happy ought to be large; but even if they are right, they have no idea of what is a large and what a small state. To the size of states there Is a limit, as there Is to other things, plants, animals, implements; for none of these retain their natural power when they are too large or too small, but they either wholly lose their nature, or are spoiled. Aristotle, 322 B.C.

Can Lessons learned from Informal Architecture, be applied to Formal Situations?

Can Lessons learned from Informal Architecture,

be applied to Formal Situations?

Timothy Samuel Barringer

4057442

Architecture of Informality

Dessau Institute of Architectures

When first discussing the issue of “Informal Architecture”, I have to admit, I was quite surprised. Not only that my initial impression of the topic was completely off, but just how much of a serious part of the world around us it is. As an American I am not faced with it so often, or at least so obviously. Quite frankly I thought the discussion would be the random meeting points between formal spaces, kiosks, food trucks, temporary structures and installations, or even the temporary settlements resulting from things such as music festivals. But briefly researching the topic and discussing it with peers from Eastern Europe, to Africa, to Southeast Asia, I was quite surprised. Not only of the realization of what the issue was really about, but just how varied, complicated, big and, quite honestly, impressive it really is. And that began to lead me to the question, can lessons learned from Informal Architecture, be applied to Formal situations? This will of course require looking at what are the lessons learned, or at least what do we know about informal architecture, and what is being done about it. What is it about Formal Architecture that needs to change, or at least warrants the discussion of whether or not Informal could provide answers. And Ultimately; are they, or their approach, really that different. Ultimately I believe that not only can use what is being learned from Informal to address the Formal, but in terms of planning, we should stop looking at both situations as holistically different and unrelated.

As stated, It will be very important to discuss what we are learning about Informal Architecture. As researchers and professionals are already filling books, essays, and lectures on the topic, this will only be skimming the surface of the subject. I do believe however, that even the broadest of pictures can begin to shed a lot of light on the topic, and be able to provide a good background of understand on what is going on. So what about it? In most cases Informal Settlements are the result of a need based solution to a serious problem. Usually that problem is lack of housing, due to the high influx of the worlds population moving to urban centers. By 2050 India will add almost 500 million inhabitants to its cities. In Nigeria the urban population is expected to grow by 200 million, up from the 65 million between 1970 and 2010. And a majority of Latin America is already urban with 85% of Brazilians living in cities (Chakravorti). People are moving to cities for a variety of reasons, but most commonly people are flocking to cities in search of work, or are displaced because of political turmoil. The inhabitants of Informal Settlements are usually below the poverty line and often migrant workers. Because of the rise in urban migration, many cities are incapable of keeping up with the influx of people, often causing the cost of housing to rise while incomes remain low. A prime example of this is in Brazil, where the minimum wage is R$675 (about 204 euro) a month, the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are the 10^th and 12^th most expensive cities in the world and there is up to 8 million fewer residential properties than it needs. So people have had to resort to solving the issues themselves, many with little or no money, resulting in the many Informal Settlements around the world. Though not all of these settlements are poverty based, they general have resulted in slums, favelas, and shantytowns. In Brazil alone there it is estimated that more than 50 million people live in inadequate housing, about 26 million without access to potable water, and 83 million are not connected to sewerage systems. (Bezgachina)

Although it is in fact a serious problem the world is facing, It is still a very impressive to think that many people are finding was to deal with the problem themselves, often with little to no help from the government, and are finding was to not only solve their housing problems, but some are even beginning to create new communities and economies as well. As Thorsten Deckler and Anne Graupner of the young South African firm 26'10 South Architects state;

The informal should really give city planners and architects strong clues about how people, within their limited field of choice, make the best decisions for themselves. People are incredibly resourceful in exploiting the lac of formal control, making ends meet with often minimal means. I think there’s quite a malaise that we as professionals suffer if we believe we know what we're doing after a certain period of study or work. I've not physically built my own house, whereas some people have already reconstructed their own home several times over in the informal economy. There's incredible potential for more of an exchange without so much prejudice between formal and informal modes of operating. (Wesseler)

Deckler continues to explain that the government often makes the Informal illegal because they feel it is backwards, but points out how incredible it is that people have constructed their own city and housed themselves at hardly any cost to the state. And if there is one lesson that should be learned from the informal; it is that people in extreme situations, can achieve impressive feats with little to no resources. So it should be no surprise that in addressing the Informal, many of the approaches that are working tend to be grassroots or bottom up approaches empowering the people and communities, and not top down from the government. As Deckler and Graupner explain in their interview with Sarah Wesseler, They were commissioned by the city of Johannesburg to fix a road going through a squatters settlement, but they realized the road was only a symptom, and that only fixing it was like putting a plaster (band-aide) on it. Which is a common occurrence when dealing with top down approaches. They realized that fixing the road meant addressing the question of housing, services, storm water, and really basic infrastructure. Ultimately, they were able to convince the city to not rush ahead with a politically expedient project, and in turn do a frame work for the entire Diepsloot area. Realizing that the seemingly chaotic fabric is actually highly organized and thus requires a different strategy. (Wesseler)

So how are we dealing with the Informal? As already mentioned many of the grassroots approaches that empower the people, seem to far more successful than top down. In Haiti, Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe launched a project to try to spruce up the slums, he's quoted saying “Our goal is to empower the youth and the vulnerable so that they may have the tools they need to develop their communities and live in a more dignified way.”(Haiti) The goal of the project is to repair homes, install solar street lights and setting up community centers restaurants, schools, and computer and internet cafes. Although this may be more of a “Top-Down” approach in that it is being initiated by the government, but the restaurants for example will not only help provide jobs, but also offer subsidized meals at a cost of US$0.25. And the Internet cafes will provide opportunities for people to do their own research, and help the community themselves.(Haiti) In Brazil, Demostenes Moreas and Katerina Bezgachina propose that “Evictions, or state actions to get rid of shantytowns, will not be effective.” and that their work “has shown that only by involving local communities can we achieve a long-term solution to this housing crisis. Communities need to become their own agents of change.” They believe that “when residents have security in their home ownership, they will be more willing to invest in renovating and upgrading existing housing.”(Bezgachina) And why wouldn't they? It would make sense that people are only willing to take care, and invest in something that the government may come in at any moment and strip away from them. Allow people to claim proper ownership of there homes, remove the fear of the temporary, and its quite possible, that like in solving the housing issue, they will then be more willing to address the quality of that housing. Deckler and Graupner pointed out that at first when they hit the streets to study the Diepsloot district outside of Johannesburg that at first people were apprehensive to talk to them, because many of the residents technically have an illegal status, but once they understood what 26'10 was doing, the people were “amazing, just incredibly open and generous.” While doing a competition for Johannesburg Water, as way to generate other approaches they observed a local “gray economy” putting into practice what was both launched in Haiti, and proposed in Brazil. That in some areas people who cleaned the public neighborhood toilets would also charge a small fee to people from other streets. This creates not only a economic opportunity, but also a sense of ownership. (Wesseler)

Another approach that is not only offering people a sense of ownership, but helping provide access to social welfare, health care, utilities, and other benefits, is providing address. The program, Addressing the Unaddressed is doing exactly that by translating geo-coordinates into unique Ids that residents can use ass addresses. In an article on rockefellerfoundtion.org about the program, It points out that governments often respond to informal settlements by clearing the slums, and relocating the residents which usually end up far from their jobs and social networks. (Addressing the Unaddressed) This is often another issue with Top-down interventions, that locally economies, such as the toilets, are unknown or unconsidered, and as a result often destroyed, leaving the residents in a much worse situation, and in often add to strain on the public transit to transport more people. Like Addressing the Unaddressed, options to to keep people near their work and communities, help provide access to more amenities, give people the sense of ownership (if not actual ownership). Like the work by 26'10 South Architects, solutions can not be skin deep. A better understanding of the issues is needed, and paying attention to what is already working, engaging the community as well as public institutions, and building from there.

If “Top-down” approaches are not working for the Informal, then surely they must be working for the Formal? Well many would argue, not. “We have reached a point at which any attempt to find a complete and self-contained urban system is doomed to failure from the outset” (Ungers p.13) In his book The Dialectic City, O.M. Ungers argues that traditional ways of looking at a uniform city have failed, that “The ideology of the modern, cleaned up, tidied, standardized city, has produced just the opposite, a chaotic, confused and totally degenerated urban sprawl that nobody cares for any more because it has become totally run-down and hopelessly decayed.” (Ungers p.14) Surprisingly, and unintentionally I'm sure, it seems like Ungers is saying that the Informal is ultimately a result of (failed) modern urban design. So when it comes to the question of what is it about the Formal that we need to change anyways; the answer seems obvious. If Informal is the result poor planning of our cities in the past leading to a failed or inadequate system, then how could that same approach imaginably work for the Informal, and why is it continually applied to the formal? At a formal level, Ungers argues that we can no longer look at the city as a uniform work of total art. He says that the “contemporary town is not one but many places. It is a complex, many-layered, multifarious structure, made up of complementary and interconnected ideas, concepts and systems.”(Ungers p.17) In addressing and revitalizing the formal cities, The “Top-down” master plan approach is still proving to fail. Like looking at and understanding the special situations of individual Informal communities, the same is required in the formal. Ungers proposes these two approaches: The strategy of complementary places. And the strategy of the city as layers. These recognize that the city is no longer one homogeneous structure, that it is a collection, and over lap of pieces with varying size, function, importance. Like it or not, the informal peripheral settlements and very much a part of the dialectical city.

Applying lessons from the Informal to the Formal. As stated, informal settlements are often the result of formal systems failing. And as the world population continues to shift toward urbanization, the problem will only grow unless we can be prepared for it if not even cities like Berlin, London, and New York (which already suffer from high housing demands, and homelessness) will be addressing rapidly growing informal peripheral settlements at the scale of Johannesburg, or even Lagos. With the world having an estimated one billion informal inhabitants, and an expected 2 billion by 2030. “Slums offer a an informal global network of living laboratories. Each offers a staggering variety of local solutions to universal urban problems that re rapidly catching up with all of us.”(Chakravorti) in the blog Tomorrow's City Living Ideas from Today's Slums on BOSTON + acumen, they list 4 points garnished from the slums:

1. Adapt construction and design to the context
2. Displace ad hoc practices with systematic innovation
3. Recycle for sustainable living
4. Facilitate bottom-up entrepreneurship

these points emphasize designs that are not only innovated structurally. But can affect the attitude of the inhabitants, and trying to reduce unhealthy behaviors. It also emphasizes bottom up ways of improving the their environments physically and economically.

All urban dwellers need to solve a universal set of needs: shelter, health, water, education, energy, and transportation. Slums are providing ideas to do so by showing us how to adapt to the context, use and reuse locally available resources, and scale up in order to have and impact on the largest number of people. (Chakravorti)

What we are seeing is the need and ability to adapt easier and quicker and the and to do more with less. A prime example of seeing this being applied into a formal setting, is in Detroit, Michigan. Looking at this as an example is quite interesting, because many points from the infromal can and are being applied to address a formal situation in dyer need of help. However it is suffering from a polar opposite issue than has already been discussed. The city of Detroit, instead of dealing with gross over population, is shrinking at a rapid rate, a city built for almost 1.7 million people, has shrank to nearly 600,000. like the informal, it has been though many, failed government revitalization programs. The government has been spending millions on construction projects, such as the $500 million Renaissance Center, which later sold for $76 million and is mostly empty. The underutilized People Mover transit loop around the downtown. And also new stadiums for the cities Major League Baseball t and National League Football teams. These projects however, did little to solve the high unemployment rate, and the rapid population loss. (Fletcher) But like in the slums, people when faced with extreme situations they get creative. Amanda Gregory says about Detroit “I have seen more innovation and creation than anywhere else; more everyday people doing extraordinary things than anywhere else.” (Gregory) Whats going on in Detroit is that people are figuring out how to deal with the the situation themselves, they are learning how to create new economy, raising money in creative manors, and dealing with the physical issues in intriguing ways. Using grassroots methods, Detroit is rebuilding itself. One of these methods is an organization called Detroit SOUP, which creates micro-grants for projects. It operates by hosting a dinner, everyone donates $5 for the dinner, for people will present a project, and during dinner, the diners will vote on a project, and the winner receives the money raised that evening. (SOUP) This is people empowering themselves to change their communities. Another example is the Detroit Food Justice Task Force which focuses on urban-farming and Detroit is the home to over 1000 small farms and community gardens. Which not only begins to address many of the vacant spaces in the city, but also the lack of easily accessible foods in some areas. (Abowd)

Detroit however, is not the only place we see this happening. In Atlanta, Georgia the Central Atlanta Progress is proposing a program that will help create a new micro economy, as well as boost a soon to open transit line. When the Atlanta streetcar begins, civic officials want temporary “pop-up” galleries and businesses to enliven currently vacant storefronts along its route. So the CAP will be accepting applications for $500 grants to set up temporary rent-free shops in vacant spaces. Allowing these small, informal-esque will not only bring activity to empty areas, provide more job and economic opportunities, and help to create permanent activity around a new proposed transit line which should bust the ridership, and income of the transit line. This is very much an informal approach being applied to a formal city, and funded by the government to help improve the city. (Ruch)

Another direct example is looking back at the interview by Sarah Wesseler of Thorsten Deckler and Anne Graupner of 26'10 South Architects. In dealing with the City and the infromal community, Deckler and Graupner also became involved with the cities formal housing settlements known as the Reconstruction and Development Programme or RPD, and in the interview they discuss some of the issues of the program, some of which includes the perpetuation of suburban settlements, removing people from communities and their work, and additional congestion and loads on transit. But when asked if they are making recommendations on the formal program, Deckler replies “Yes, ultimately what we'd like to have a public platform to raise public and professional debate... We'd just like to raise the level of debate with institutions that educate architects as well as the public and the government role-players. In the process we are also educating ourselves” (Wesseler) What this begins to do is get everyone involved at the same table. We have already discussed empowering the people, finding out what individual communities need, give the residence a sense of ownership or a say in the subject as well as the governments often putting band-aides on issues often with discovering or addressing the real problems. Creating a platfrom where everyone is involved can help achieve all of that. And a great example of this in action is Nashville, Tennessee through the work of the Nashville Civic Design Center. The NCDC began as a studio outreach program through funding and professors of the University of Tennessee, College of Architecture and Design. It began as a forum on design in the city, and lead to writing The Plan of Nashville which was a long and intensive process bringing together members of the public, designers, developers, city planners and officials, as well as many others. It has since become a very important and useful tool to the city of Nashville. It is exactly the platform of debate that brings together educators, professionals, role-player and the public.

In conclusion I believe that yes, lessons learned from Informal Architecture can and are being applied to formal situations. It is obvious that informal settlements are excellent opportunities to learn how to improve formal environments as well as plan for the future. Informal settlements are the results of poor planning in formal cities and in being so should not be treated as some irrelevant cancer, but another unique element or layer to a larger, more complex problem.

Bibliography

Abowd, Paul and Jenny Lee. “Detroit's Grassroots Economies” 17 Mar 2011. In These Times. Accessed  25 Jan 2014. <http://inthesetimes.com/article/7089/detroits_grassroots_economies>

Bezgachina, Katerina and Demostenes Moraes. “Brazil's slum housing needs local solutions and long- term renovation” 3 Jan 2013 The Guardian. Accessed 25 Jan 2014. <http://www.theguardian. com/ housing-network/2013/jan/03/brazil-slum-housing-local-solutions>

Chakravorti, Bhasker and Gaurav Tiwari. “Tomorrow's City Living Ideas from Today's Slums” 7 Apr 2013. Boston + Acumen. Accessed 25 Jan 2014. <http://boston.plusacumen.org/blog/tomorrows -city-living-ideas-from-todays-slums/>

Fletcher, Micheal A. “Grand plans by presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, fail in Detroit”

8 Aug 2013. The Washington Post. Accessed 25 Jan 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ business/economy/grand-plans-by-gop-democrat-presidents-fail-in-detroit/2013/08/08/7b3d b0dc-f887-11e2-b018-5b8251f0c56e_story_1.html>

Gregory, Amanda. “Because Eastern Market, That's Why” 16 Nov 2013. Huffpost Detroit. Accessed 25 Jan 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-gregory/because-eastern-market- th_b_4276083.html>

“Haiti launches initiative to spruce up slums, provide opportunities.”27 Aug 2013. Jamaica Observer Accessed 24 Jan 2014. <http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Haiti-launches-initiative-to- spruce-up-slums—provide-opportunities_14950931>

“Providing Addressed for Slum Dwellers: Address the Unaddressed” Rockerreller Foundation. Accessed 25 Jan 2014. <http://centennial.rockefellerfoundation.org/innovators/profile/ addressing-the-unaddressed>

Ruch, John. “Pop-up shop near Atlanta Streetcar stop?” 23 Jan 2014. Altanta Creative Loafing. Accessed 25 Jan 2014. <http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2014/01/23/pop-up-shop-near- atlanta-streetcar-stop>

SOUP: A Montly Dinner Funding Micro-Grants for Creative Projects in Detroit. Accessed 25 Jan 2014 <detroitsoup.com>

Ungers, O.M. “The Dialectic City” 1997. Skira editore, Milan, 13-19

Wesseler, Sarah. "Fixing a Road in Johannesburg: 26’10 South Architects on Informal Architecture" 23 Jun 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 25 Jan 2014. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=65373>