Daily Archives: March 3, 2013

The Informal as Architecture without the Architect

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The informal urban is thought to be an ad-hoc eternally self-evolving and changing entity. The lack of consciously recognized order or method is what makes the informal informal. But to say that the informal is lacking in design is likely not doing the order that exists within the informal justice. Example after example has shown that the informal has a method to its madness, a controlled chaos in a sense. The informal city has a grain all to its own. That grain can be called the design of the informal. But that asks whether design can exist without the designer.

The designer creates and and invents. Designers vary in their methods and products. One type of designer or architect creates based on the inevitable set of contextual conditions that face the architect. The generic constraints are site boundaries, topography, environmental, programmatic  budget, political ect. All of these conditions must be righteously integrated into the design and the designer must be aware of all of the conditions. Thus the designer creates a comprehensive and effective design.

The informal city does not have the designer and the design rigor. But how then does the informal city creates it’s grain? How does it develop its “design”? The design is made naturally. The same way that the designer must think about the constraints the informal city must think about its constraints. When an informal city is built in the hillside and every structure sits along the hillside almost create topographical lines of the geography constraints that are being adhered to. The lack of a budget, this time meaning a lack of funds instead of a “money is not object attitude” causes the informal city to be the cheapest it can be. Thus the informal city creates its own typology and thus creates its own design. And this is done without the help of the designer.

But is it still designer even though the designer dose not exist? To answer this question the product of the design has to be thought about more. The final product is not where the design ends. the final product is really where the design begins. When the user of the design interact with the designed object and activates it it inherently changes. The designers’ control has been abdicated. Now the product is used as the user see fit.The object is not used as the designer intended. This is the point when the designed object is now the used object.

The informal city is a used object and thus is reconfigured ever evolving and ever changing. So once again one can claim that the informal city is the designed city even though there is no designer. Still begs though what the implication of this question is. It is to ask if the informal, the design liberated from the  designer,can be judged in the same way that the designer based design is. Really it is asking can something be learned form the informal and thus can this learning experience give the informal power?

Inclusive and Exclusive City

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There is no absolute division between formal and informal sectors within the city. Both Teresa Caldeira and Cynthia Smith believe that the informal settlement shouldn’t be homogenized and only represent poverty, violence, or slum. Instead, city itself is complex both socially and spatially. The heterogeneous informal sector has potential to contribute to city’s development when two sectors actually work together. It is the collaboration that brings life to the informal sector, which makes the informal sector become inclusive.

In the article “designing inclusive cities”, Smith provides several examples of collaboration across sectors to find solution to generate healthier and inclusive cities. Professionals, like architects and engineers, government and organizations all involve these successful projects of informal. The strategy of dealing with slums becomes benefitting for both sides instead of just clearing up the site and building formal sector on it. In solution “land sharing” in Bangkok, the architect makes private land shared with urban squatters, which creates commercial benefits for street front as well as legal tenure and housing for squatters. (Smith, 19) Similar practice that maximum the benefit for both sectors is “the Community Cooker” in Nairobi, Kenya. The whole process of the project solves the sanitation problems and saves money at the same time for the community. “Community members bring collected trash in exchange for use of the cooker, one hour or less to cook a meal, or twenty liters of hot water”. (Smith, 23) Dwellers’ life quality is improved with the effort of both community members and architects and other professionals.

The Community Cooker uses trash, collected by local youth for income, to power a neighborhood, cooking facility.

The income generating solution seems to be an efficient way to attract both sectors in practices of upgrading urban informal settlement. Smith mentioned merchants she met from the Kalarwe Market. They formed a micro-saving group that became like a market rather than a neighborhood. (Smith, 27) All segments of the city are brought together through these practices in order to form inclusive cities with the improvement of informal sector’s life.

On the other hand, Caldeira describes the exclusive situation of Sao Paulo in her article “Worlds set apart”. The high rate of violence becomes the inner force that makes the complex spatial separation of Sao Paulo. Physical dividers like fortified enclave and walls enlarge this gap between formal and informal sectors, with the addition of prejudice feeling formed within residents of the periphery themselves.

Smith, Cynthia E. Designing Inclusive Cities.
Caldeira, Teresa. Worlds Set Apart.

Helping the other “Half”

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Informal settlements around the world have begun to catch the attention of not only philanthropists but also of design driven professions such as architects, engineers, and artist of all types have found potential in the rejuvenation of these locations. Architecture firms such as Metropolis Projetos Urbanos have added into their design purpose the rejuvenation of spaces deemed lost to informality by the citizens of the city. Artist such as JR have also created projects utilizing the buildings in the favelas of Rio as a canvas to portray the stories held within the boundaries of the neighborhood.
In the past designers have exclusively focused on designing for a very small margin of the world population that can provide money for planned designs. As Cynthia Smith states, “ Professional designers have traditionally focused on the 10 % of the world’s population that can afford their goods and services”.[1] Currently, there seems to be a trend to incorporate newly commercialized forms of technology in order to incorporate sectors of society that in the past have been previously ignored. In part recent advances in technology such as Google earth, YouTube, and the internet in general have allowed individuals from developed countries to observe the way of life of individuals who are not as fortunate as they are. This has gathered the attention of designers who want to place power in their own hands and solve as Smith states, “solve the world’s most critical problems”. [1]
The individuality of each informal settlement as a result of the structural and formal adaptations it has undergone to adjust to the context of its site must be considered when designs are being created. Firms such as Proyecto Arqui5 identified the uniqueness of the La Vega community in Caracas. As a result, the stair design that incorporated water sewage systems throughout the settlement was designed with not only with the sites context in mind but also the needs of the people who inhabit the spaces as well. Other organizations like Surat City have utilized the internet to aid in the development among the poor over the effects of global warming in the community. Creating a solution is important but making sure the solution works with existing factors such as topography, climate, geography, displaced individuals, and famine is crucial because this can actually help the neighborhood evolve beyond its present situation.
Creating solutions for the neighborhood must go along with bridging the divide that exists in many cases with the formal city. Through projects of infrastructure, construction of social, security, medical, and health facilities one can create situations where the informal has been incorporated into the rest of the city and instigated a feeling of self-worth within the inhabitants of these localities. As Jorge Mario Jauregui writes in his article, “The aim is to articulate the divided city and society by providing greater accessibility, investments in infrastructure, new public social facilities, and environmental revitalization, connecting the formal and the informal parts of the city” [2].
To employ these policies a step by step process must be undertaken that truly involves the community in the actions that will take place in the community. Site visits have to be included in order for the architect, artist, designer, etc. to be able to have a better understanding of the surroundings she/he will be designing for. One thing is to assume the problems of the community but another is to actually talk with members or representatives who actually know the issue the community has to deal with on a daily basis. Researching the history of the community where each person comes from and why things are the way they are critical in creating a better future for the communities.
The advancements in technology have created a more connected world that gives the possibility to understand each other’s problems. As a result this has created interest in various fields in regards to helping those in less than ideal living situations. However, as help is brought to these people the different steps must be considered because they lead to solutions that can really go for the root problems not just the superficial ones and in effect have a longer lasting imprint in the lives of those we want to help.

1. Cynthia E. Smith, Designing Inclusive Cities, ( New York : Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2011)p. 13- 29
2. Jorge Mario Jauregui, “Articulating The Broken City and Society”, ( Architectural Design , 18 April 2011), p. 58-63

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