Architecture of Informality: INTRIGUING ARCHITECTURE- Can Informal Architecture be Vibrant?

INTRIGUING ARCHITECTURE- Can Informal Architecture be Vibrant?

Architecture is Inhabited Sculpture- Constantin Brancusi

In the past three decades the mass migration has led to the most rapid urbanisation ever witnessed in the history of mankind. The result is an exorbitant and unimaginable increase in the number of informal settlement cropping up. The phenomenon is on an exponential rise in the ‘World Cities’ of Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Government authorities have often demolished them more as a knee-jerk reaction rather than a thoughtful implementation without long-term objectives. Urban designers and planners, who earlier used to see it as an eyesore and unapproachable part of the city have understood their importance, changed their stance and now accept it and work with the locals to include these areas in the main stream governance. People over the world have recognised their rational and intelligent innovations in fulfilling their needs and have been trying to incorporate this in planning of formal settlements too. Informal settlements are evaluated in relation to their surrounding landscape of poor sanitation, insecure housing, hazardous grounds, lack of roads and infrastructure. We tend to focus mainly on improving and providing these things and ignore the significant intangible knowledge that these settlements provide about visual stimulus, resilience, resource efficiency and community values.

The essay tries to investigate if these qualities exist within these informal settlements and can formal infrastructure be flexible enough for informal use by looking at different examples of Urbanised Cities from around the world.

When Janice Perlman, in The Myth of Marginality, questions us if we see a chaotic, poorly-built, overcrowded, disorderly slum or a neighbourhood in progress, emphasized by careful planning in the use of limited housing space and innovative construction techniques on hillsides considered too steep for building by urban developers, she not only sees favelas as a physical expression of people struggling to move upwards against obstacles but also as an inspiration symbolising true grit of human necessities.

The world we see is for us always both form and significance. Our aesthetic experience reflects both. Thus, there is a political aspect to aesthetics and an aesthetic aspect to political judgement and political struggle. - Lisa R. Peattie, Aesthetic Politics.

Society’s impressions play an important role in shaping policy where squatter developments accommodating most of the urban immigrants are seen as ‘urban villages’. It’s in these rural enclaves within the city the slow transition from peasant values and skills into the culture of the city takes place. This view suited researchers who had little or no direct contact with the inhabitants of the settlements and needed to confirm their presence without actually recognising them as fellow citizens. Even Bernard Rudofsky's influential Architecture without Architect dwells fondly on Mediterranean cliff villages and African tribal settlements but overlooks the Brazilian favelas and Venezuelan barrios. Probably because these informal settlements in spite of being true to the resource efficiency, material usage and least energy consumption somehow do not make it vernacular architecture.

1. Formal vs Informal (Chandigarh and Varanasi)

We as methodical and structured beings have a tendency to picture formal architecture as planned city with roads, pedestrians, boulevards, public buildings in downtown, high end markets with plazas, residential and office complexes, all of them nicely laid out in grids. For instance a Chandigarh or a New Delhi definitely has all the reasons to impress an inhabitant. Both grid plans have eased out traffic movement, services movement and efficient zoning. Planners and architects had been so over thoughtful, that these ordered layouts and planning have squeezed out all the excitement and intimacy that a city must share with its inhabitant. Rationally laid out roads with a green strip and nicely separated bicycle and pedestrian lanes might have made it safe for automobile users but have reduced ‘unintentional interaction’ amongst inhabitants. The buildings are so carefully placed and controlled that they are almost in isolation either having no dialogue or looking all the same. Zoning is so thoroughly monotonous that there is no room left to pleasantly awe a walker or a bicycle rider. A vibrant city is much more explored on foot than in cars. Comparing these formally laid out cities to Varanasi, the oldest city in India built along Ganges; one discovers that it has much more visual treats and intimacy to offer within its squalor alleys than any planned city in India. In many pre-modern villages before the intervention of planning, the ‘public’ path evolves out of the setback of building blocks rather than pre-determines the layout of the physical space. Some say that it’s the alleys of Varanasi, too narrow for traffic, that hold the charm of the old city. Don’t worry about getting lost because sooner or later you will end up in front of the river or on the main street. Virtually every life is carried out in public right in front of your eyes – prayers, sleeping, cooking, eating, bathing, even roadside dentistry. Streets that are not wide enough for even two bicycles have occasional surprise elements like temples and heritage buildings waiting to greet the visitor when it is least expected, as if these important structures have been engulfed by the city itself. Like Bruce Mau mentioned in Massive Change-“The highest order of success in design is to achieve ubiquity, to become banal.” Nothing is hidden, and all the truth is out on the streets. And it is all these elements -the taste, smell, people, and the hustle bustle that make these streets lifeline of the city. These unplanned meandering narrow pathways always have a story to tell with every turn and intrigue us more often than not. They surprise us, confuse us and on few occasions shock us too but never leave us with a dull moment.

2. Informal WITHIN Formal- Taiwan’s Informal Urbanism

Informal urbanism is usually a visual perception about the uncontrollable high-density living in the rapidly urbanized world which adjusts quickly to the collective need and wants without paying regard to dominant law and order. On one hand, the appearances of informal urbanism are crudely condemned as defiant invasion of public spaces; yet on the other hand, celebrated as an amazing collage of complex urbanism which expresses the true nature of city and denounces the rational self-righteousness of planning. It challenges architectural dictatorship, authorship, and control by expressing idiosyncratic individualities in a collective mode. It is also attractive in the sense of organic and piecemeal evolution instead of implementations of imposed plans. The visualization of informal urbanism is not to be achieved by a singular author; therefore, it is collaborative, symbiotic, unpredictable, and impacts the social fabric of the city. The following case study of the South Airport Apartment embodies Taipei’s version of informal urbanism and signifies the role of individual households’ living patterns in shaping the informal city.

The diagram below explains the process of a gradual transformation which is incremental and subtle as the addition of floor area is not always on solid ground. With understanding neighbours and disinterested local authorities every inhabitant achieves his own version of informalisation. A normal apartment owned by a single guy demands some changes when he gets married and starts a family. A big hall is partitioned to provide a bedroom for privacy. The balcony is encroached and covered from 3 sides to provide an extra bedroom with the arrival of the first child. As the second child adds into the family the public space of staircase well is added with the consent of the neighbours who do not object as it gives them prospects for later additions too. So a one room flat is transformed into a three bedroom flat over a period of time. And some inhabitants buy the flat next to it too to break the in-between wall and make the whole house bigger. That’s how a normal 26sq.m flat for one person is changed into 105sq.m flat accommodating five people comfortably.

However, the most commendable thing is that all these transformations are practical and economic. Interior rooms are partitioned with light panel walls and relinquish the use of wall closet for more interchangeability. Hooks and poles are deployed to hang items on the walls and under ceiling, which explains why many of these flats still look transitional after decades of living. The extended room on the street side is suspended by steel cables on metal sheet surface. Small contractors and material suppliers those are dexterous, versatile, resourceful, and community-based are Indispensible chains to Taiwan’s small-scale industry boom. Their network responds quickly to the domestic need yet distinguishes itself from the market dominated by corporate builders and developers.

Public space is usually operated under strict guidelines and regulations, yet the threshold of the public domain is not well respected in informal city. Territorialisation of these transitional spaces for private use by inhabitants is the most expressive desire of Informal city. Porch-corridors facing the central court at various levels are the most significant spatial feature. According to fire code they ought to be clean and open. Yet these porch-corridors are perfect settings for laundry and drying clothes in the compact living condition of the apartment; and by scattering benches and chairs them they fulfil the neighbourhood’s collective desire for an extended living room. The unwelcoming atmosphere of the original modernist landscape would suddenly be tinged with an aura of ‘human flavour’ and colours of individualities whenever the informal activities emerge.

Reclaiming Public space for Public use-

An initiative taken up by government in collaboration with citizen bodies, ‘Raahgiri day’, inspired by Cyclovia in Bogota, is one of the first steps towards making New Delhi suburbs a sustainable and environment friendly city. A portion of the busies roads are cordoned off every Sunday morning for four hours and many organisations offer to conduct health programs, theatre, music etc for the benefit of the community. Children and adults are invited to bike, skate, run and walk; to partake in community leisure activities such as street games, street dancing; to learn yoga, aerobics and zumba; and to come together as a community and celebrate life. The project has received such positive response that it is getting introduced in almost every major city of India. The basic aim behind the Raahgiri event is to promote social integration, protect the environment and facilitate sustainable transport.

3. Informal WITHIN Informal- Shivaji Nagar, Mumbai

Within the informal city, there are multiple social, economic, and urban relationships that can hardly be understood by the macroscopic tools used by planning authorities. Satellite images, top-down development plans do not register the rich spatial and programmatic connections that are revealed by simply taking a walk down the narrow alleys. The combination of mixed uses, and slow, minimal car traffic encourages residents to turn every residual space into a playground or a ‘public square’. One of the most ignored areas in slum rehabilitation schemes is spaces for children and community gatherings. So the inhabitants have to device their own indigenous solutions to deal with these issues. Big events like a festival or marriage take place within the streets and courtyards by simply demarcating space with a bamboo structure covered in sheets. The concept of public space goes beyond the restricted parks and gardens model bounded by iron gates. Instead, walkable, compact and dense mixed-use neighbourhoods offer richer moments for public interaction. Playgrounds liberate young minds and help children develop their abilities, teaching them personal responsibility, and to thrive as a member of a team or community. Open spaces attract mothers and families living in vulnerable areas to experience social services and other exchanges. So it is quite fundamental that the design of playgrounds and public spaces within informal settlements propagate social inclusion. Even in areas of low material resources, a rich cultural and social life of the community contributes to the well-being of the children. Some of the most positive physical qualities depend upon freedom from physical dangers, and freedom of movement supported by a diversity of activity settings and peer gathering areas. As mentioned before, the typology of informal settlements contributes to create such an environment better than planned developments flawed by sterile rigidity. Planners and architects should seek to learn from the walkability and playability of its informal settlements to devise new design solutions that weave interventions and infrastructures strategically into the socially rich fabric.

4. Formal WITHIN Informal- Caracas

Limited land and high crime rate in a dense informal settlement make it unsafe for children to play and participate in sports. In seeking to give informal settlement communities safe places of recreation, local architects at Urban Think- Tank in Caracas created the Gimnasio Vertical (Vertical Gymnasium) prototype, a prefabricated construction system that transformed a rundown soccer field into a four story Vertical Gym in the La Cruz barrio. The vertical structure of the gym provides recreational and cultural events facility without encroaching into surrounding properties. It has numerous sport activities in the same space in order to meet the necessities of both serious athletes and general public. Building system has been developed as a kit of the prototype parts, which allow flexible design and construction and can be reassembled and programmed for different locations as per local needs.

Working with the San Rafael-Barrio Unido community in La Vega, a team of architects, engineers, a road designer, and a geologist studied the settlement’s conditions to assess that vertical typography was the determining condition limiting accessibility, services, and public spaces. Based on community-established priorities, the team devised an Integral Urban Project to help solve the problem. The existing pedestrian walkways were a series of resident-built stairs, narrow in width, with variable step size, no handrails, high slopes, and no stairs higher up the hill. To connect neighbourhoods and improve daily commute, the team designed a network of stairs which incorporated basic services such as electricity, drainage, sewer, gas, and water. Every spare space was integrated into walkways, and public landings inserted at intervals acted as new spaces for social interaction. Most importantly families were able to remain in their homes, which was critical to maintaining social cohesion.

Conclusion

The residents of the informal city duel everyday - negotiating with the system as outsiders, improvising around the shortcomings of public-private institutions, and somehow managing to improve their lives. And in the process they create a socially active and vibrant environment around them that cannot be ignored. If designers, architects, and planners hope to be relevant in this context, then they must first improve the immediate well-being of the residents through small interventions and proposals. Such proposals have to be tactical, executed involving the local people and create solutions that maintain the core philosophy of informal settlement. The end-goal is to change policy by demonstrating real change which depends on self-reliance and ingenuity and not necessarily on political will. From an individual household to a porch-corridor to an apartment shrine to a street market, these growing spaces of different scales somehow strive to reach an equilibrium with the formal city. Beyond the informal façade- either as a spectacle or chaos, traces of everyday life continue to weave a rich fabric of urban narratives.