Living the Dreams

8/14/2019 Living the Dreams

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byMalini Foobalan

November 26th, 2009

SLaM the SLuMsUnderstanding architecture through the poor


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BANGLADESH

more than 3.4 million

PHILIPINES

about 20 million

people

BRAZ

more than 12 millipeo

42.6 million

KENYA

10 million inhabitantsand is still rising..

NIGER

Two out three Lagos reside

EGYPT

more than half ofCairos population

LIVING in POVERTY


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Over one billion people live in slums acro

That is about one sixth of the worlds population and

the American population. According to the United Nations

could double by the year 2030 if the situation is not

attention.

According to Dr. Tibaijuka of United Nations Centre

Settlements (UNCHS), slum-dwellers not only live in mise

plight often goes unnoticed as the traditional focu

to be on the rural poor

The definition of slums differs distinctly from country to country,

however they all have one thing in common, which ispoverty.

Slums are considered to be a residential

settlement in an urban geographic area that is inhabited by

the extremely poor who have no tenured land of their own.

These people end up squatting on vacant land, which is either private

or public land.

The shanty homes in Dharavi slums, Mumbai

Kids playing in garbage which also counts as their backy


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These slum dwellers live in shanty homes, with n

water, no proper sewage and low quality ho

most of them having no access to education, the s

are the most one could expect out of them. It is

important for these slum dwellers to find a way to

their own competitive world before they fall beh

of the most demeaning social lifOne of the first problems that must be faced i

tion of proper physical infrastruct

little money, education, and few marketable skilloption available to many urban migrants is to ille

shelters on a vacant piece of land.

This leads to a bad system of urban plann

shaky housing structures, undroad systems, and poor amm

(water and electricity). These p

eventually causes designers and planners to be blam

bad planning and inadequate understanding of th

Kibera Slums in Nairobi

Poor infrastucture - Kibera Slums

Dilapidated wood shacks

Manilai slums, Philipines

Flood in Dharavi slum, India

Daily lives around the slums of Mumbai


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SLUMS

POVERTY

HELPLESS

SEWAGE

SMELL

CRIME

DISEAS

WATER

EDUCATION

AFFORDABLE

SHANTY

DIRTY


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According to Lebbeus Wood in a blog entry titled Slums: the problem, there

problems that seems impossible to solve. The writer claims that this is because the causes of the

either not known, or not well understood, that they cannot be effectively identified and res

problem of slums is one of these seemingly insoluble problems. They are a global problem and a grow

exponential population expansion in many countries forces a disproportionate number of p

increasingly untenable living conditions says Wood in his blog.

Based on this current situation, how would one signify involvement of todays designers in slum develoas an effective effort?According to a statement adapted from a seminar titled Are aplanners obstacles to enabling housing strategies in low-income countries? by ARC.PEACE, efforts to address the slum

yielded very limited results. One reason why efforts have been unsuccessful is that decision-makers continue to apply out

to address the growing slum problem. The speakers explained that conventional approaches to the slum problem often in

for space standards, procedures for land regulation and building permits that are impossible for the poor to meet.

architects and planners in many cases have exacerbated the problem instead of playing a creative role to meet the needs

However, this statement is not proven to be a hundred percent tr

architects have been continuously trying creative methods to solve the global slu

A


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HIMANSHUPARIKH

Having established the

connection between slums, the

best infrastructure paths of

the city and its environment

spine, the slums can

actually improve whole

cities rather than be

parasitic on the

parent infrastructure.

So people who live outside

the slums also benefit.

Instead of seeing squatters and their communities as anuisance the inevitablof malignant urban growth Parikh looks for and reinforces resources within th

He had observed that slums develop in neglected land areas along rivers and canal

natural drainage paths of a city. So his approach develops a topographically sens

that links several slums of a city to optimize shared infrastructure.

BEFORE AFTER

A

a

be

af

de

BEFOR


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SStrip away a

architectu

design theory

the hot maga

all w

provide shelte

do that, yo

yourself a

Over the past decade, Architecture for

Humanity has helped design and build mobile HIV/AIDS clinics in sub-

Saharan Africa and joined in earthquake recovery efforts in

Turkey and Iran, They design with us. They construct the buildings.

We pay them to construct the buildings. But in the process of doing

this, we were able to introduce rainwater catchment systems, natural

ventilation, solar, and almost 95 percent of our structures

internationally are off the grid, so the community can

maintain them in the long run. says Cameron Sinclair, founder of

Architecture for Humanity over a phone interview with a New Jersey news

room. Sinclair claims that by keeping the maintenance bills low, the

families could afford home insurance. He says thats

equity. With that, if there is another disaster, these dwellers dont

lose everything. Instead they would have the funding to rebuild.

AFTER

BEFOR

Ambedkar Naga

Tamil Nadu, Ind


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With slums continuing to grow and efforts being increasingly thrown in to provide better

conditionds for the poor, I believe every individual must take it as their right to propose a solut

resolve this issue. I also believe that as architects and designers we can make better contributions

the global slum pandemic.Even simple solutions as outlined below could potentially have a huge im

development of slums.

Materi95% of slum dwellers l

garbage. A lot

garbage is w

reusable materreconstructing homes for

This effort could poten

reduction in garbage ar

area as well as a good

design in community d

LaborDespite the lack of education, slum

dwellers successfully build their own

homes; hence, with some

proper guidelines in construction,

they should be able to assist

designers in the renewal of

their home. This would be a huge

contributor to the

reduction of labor cost in

urban development.

CommunicationIn order for a problem to be addressed,

designers and dwellers will need to

communicate. Nothing can progress if there is

refusal in communicating, as designers

would not be able to know what

the dwellers want neither would

dwellers be able to understand the designers

ideas and solutions.


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Humane architecture rests completely upon a

designers willingness to be involved .As much as we dream

of fancy designs for the rich who make us famous, I believe

we should also be looking at the poor who are

beginning to make up most of the global population

COMMUNICATIONLABOR MATE

Villagers signing off on the adjacencyplan for the new community center in

Ambedkar Nagar, Tamil Nadu, India.

Villagers helping to build theArchitecture for Humanitys primary

school in Kutamba

Walls constructed with lshredded, corrugated cardthe living/study complex o


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ANNATIBAIJUKA

With over one billion poor people

living without adequate shelter and

basic services in slums and squatter

settlements, the challenge of the urbanmillennium is to improve the living

environment of the poor we must

all dedicate ourselves to the task of

ensuring that, one day, we will live

in a world of cities without slums, -

Executive Director of UNCHS(United Nations Center for

Human Settlements Habitat).


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Living the Dreams

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