“The physical result is a high heterogeneity of use and function at the scale of the compound, homogeneous and porous space at the scale of the neighborhood” (1). This description of property in the city of Lagos explains the common misunderstanding that slums are disorganized and broken communities. At a naïve scale, slums appear unsanitary, inefficient and deprived, but when viewed at the proper vantage points, one has the ability to recognize networks overlapping and energizing a living city.
These “informal cities”, as described by Mike Davis in Planet of Slums, are only considered “informal” because they are not recognized by first and second world norms. In considering the laws and cultural understandings abided by citizens and businesses, slums are more “off-the-books” (2). These primitive communities formalize their own politics and economies and infrastructure. Alaba in Lagos is the largest electronics market in the world, and as the majority of income to Lagos, Alaba funds improvements to the city (3). From the market came money which was reinvested in making an “informal sector” more “formal”. There are more network connections in the market for global trading, better organized storefronts, and even forms of security. Although slums may appear unsuccessful, they are growing and adjusting to become more efficient and more successful.
It is understood that as the population grows and exceeds the city limits, crisis will emerge and destroy communities. Is this really a problem? We spend so much time looking at the issues at hand and debate over how to fix them. Why not just let the uproar emerge and harness it as a revolution? Any first-world country today started as a squatter settlement, and over time, there were many flaws that grew to hostile situations, yet these events throughout history shaped these countries and cultures into what we believe creates a proper city. Why not let slums destroy themselves in order to build themselves up better than before? People may think there is too much chaos in slums that a crisis would annihilate the entire city, but these communities are hard-working and incredibly flexible organisms that can adapt for the better.
Sources
- Lagos: Harvard Project on the City; Rem Koolhaas
- Planet of Slums; Mike Davis
- Lagos: Harvard Project on the City; Rem Koolhaas