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Transcript of Slum Weekly
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Breaking News: New concepts in Slum Architecture
Slum Weekly2010 September 01 to 05
MA ISD PROPOSAL BY KAREN ISABEL S. SORIANO
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For over 20 years,
I resided in a quiet
neighbourhood
conned within
concrete walls,
in the bustling
metropolis that
THE PHILIPPINES AND
FLOODS
Introduction
is Manila. Shanties no bigger than my bedroom
were braced against this wall, rising vertically,
orming crude, little almost inhabitable
dwelling places. The stream that runs alongside
the wall used to be clear and owed reely
but now it is no more than a brown creek that
overows when it rains. What used to be only
a handul o people living in squalor became
a community o inormal settlers with more
moving in each day searching or opportunities
and a better lie in the city. These people, living
in such conned spaces, are examples o how
to survive in todays urban conditions in Metro
Manila.
Urban lie today holds a promise to its
inhabitants, both bitter and sweet. It is
no wonder that there is a prolieration
o immigrants rom the countryside in
underdeveloped and even developed countries
every year. It is in their cities, where many
diverse streams o people, commodities, ideas,
images, inormation, and cultures overlap
and intersect, producing in close proximity,
a multitude o oten conicting images o
urban reality and real city lives. Majority o
the settlers are poor migrants settling under
bridges, beside railroad tracks, streets or
on privately-owned lands putting them in
constant vulnerable eviction by authorities. In
turn, these cities expand to accommodate all
the people such that up to hal the population
o the largest cities o underdeveloped and
the developing world are in unplanned and
oten illegal squatter colonies.[ ] One o these
countries is the Philippines.
According to a recent report by the
Metro Manila Inter-Agency Committee
(MMIC) to the Philippine Supreme Court,
inormal settlers in Metro Manila account
or 21 percent o the 2.6 million population
o the metropolis. Majority o the inormal
settlers reside in dangerous areas, which
are not suitable or human habitation and
natural calamities. Manila is a natural ood
basin, bordered by three rivers and subject
to torrential rains, typhoons and oods. As
early as 1898, under the American regime,
eorts were made to address and solve
the perennial problem o ooding in thecity. Over the years, however, these eorts,
in the orm o inrastructure planning and
development, proved inadequate against
the upsurge o squatter colonies in the city. As
aptly observed by Mike Davis a noted author
on the subject: Improvements in the system
over recent years have been counteracted by
vast volumes o waste dumped into drains and
esteros (dredged tidal channels); subsidencedue to over extraction o ground water; the
deorestation o the Marikina and Montalban
watersheds; and, most o all, by the ceaseless
encroachment o shanty housing into
wetlands. The housing crisis, in other words has
transormed both the character and magnitude
o the ood problem, with the poorest th o
the population exposed to regular danger and
property loss. In November 1998, or example,
ooding damaged or destroyed the homes o
more than 300,000 people, and on anotheroccasion, the squatter colony o Tatalon was
drowned under more than 6 meters o water. In
July 2000, moreover, a typhoon deluge caused
the collapse o a notorious garbage mountain
in Quezon Citys Payatas slum, burying 500
shacks and killing at least 1000 people.
MAP 6 METRO MANILA FLOOD MAP (NATIONAL MAPPING AND RESOURCE INFORMATION AUTHORITY)
2 SLUM WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 1-5, 2010
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On September 26, 2009, Typhoon Ketsana (locally known as Ondoy)
hit the Philippines and dumped enormous amounts o rainall in
one day in Metro Manila causing massive
oods that destroyed more than 2 millionhouses and properties, not to mention
roads and bridges and other inrastructure
acilities, and resulted in the loss o 246 lives.
Ketsana dropped 17.9 inches o rain, which
is equivalent to about a months worth o
rain in the area surpassing the last recorded
average rainall brought by another
destructive typhoon 42 years ago at 13.2
inches.[ ] Two days later, another strong and
equally devastating typhoon named Parma
(locally known as Pepeng) made landall.
Rivers and lakes surrounding Metro Manila
overowed, orcing the authorities to open
the ood gates to two major dams and to
gradually release the water in order to avert
another major ooding in the city. One lake
in particular, the Laguna de Bay, rose to almost two meters deep
ooding the houses o more than 100,000 squatter amilies living
at the edge o the lake. Six weeks ater the typhoon, the squatter
community closest to the lake, the Lupang Arenda, was still knee-
deep in water.[ ] In times o calamity, people look around or someone
to blame, and the ngers were pointed at the slum
and lakeside dwellers like those living in LupangArenda who have the propensity to irresponsibly
dump their garbage and waste materials in lakes
and rivers.
Action has been taken to move these people out
o the lake to clear the waterways o garbage and
drain the oodwaters. But relocation would be
placing them in a location that is away rom their
livelihoods and accessible public service. Erhard
Berner writes: Metro Manila [is] one o the most
densely populated areas in the world. The price o
one square meter near the commercial centres ar
exceeds the annual income o any jeepney driver or
security guard. Yet, the very nature o the income-
generating possibilities requires one to stay close
to where the action is, because distance rom
place o work means prohibitive costs in time and
money...The logical result is wide-spread squatting. Virtually all the gaps
let open by city development are immediately lled with makeshit
settlements that beat every record in population density.
SLUMS IN PERILA
ter the destruction that Typhoon Ketsana let in the
Philippines, it is not enough that the urban poor have
lost everything, but they are also being evacuated to
out-city locations. Proximity to the city is important to the urban
poor; it is what drove them there in the rst place. And the plan to
re-locate all o them, including those rom the Lupang Arenda,
to of-city locations is too expensive or a country that is deeply
in debt. Indeed, at approximately 3.225 Billion Pesos (about 47
million pounds yearly or the next 10 years or 650,000 amilies),
the government is in no nancial position to absorb the cost. The
better alternative is in-city relocation, which is cheaper in terms
o providing housing, livelihood and related services; it is also
less time consuming. But to actually go through with this is not
as simple as it sounds. Social and political ideals will have to be
challenged. To design an urban city wherein social classes can
coexist in harmony is reminiscent o utopian ideals. Tim Rieniets
describes a city as such; I there were a city devoid o the ob-
stacles that are impeding the urban livelihood o so many, a city
that could provide all o its inhabitants access to the concentrated
multitude o opportunities they have at their disposal, it could be
called an Open City. Is it possible then to draw upon this theory
and create an open city or the urban poor?
SEPTEMBER 1-5, 2010 SLUM WEEKLY 3
In times o calamity, people look around or someoneto blame, and the fngers were pointed at the slum and
lakeside dwellers
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4 SLUM WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 1-5, 2010
present urban landscape. But what soci-ety ails to notice is that, while each indi-
vidual in the lower end o society earns
(or spends) too little an amount to bear
a signicant impact on the Philippine
economy, as a demographic proportion
o the nation, these people are ironically
considered the driving orce behind the
growth o the nation as a whole.
They constitute 63% o the Philippine
labour orce and they subsist throughmenial work or occasional paid labour;
they orm what is known as the inormal
sector. Those who are without, or, can-not nd work are resigned to begging,
salvaging rom garbage dumps, ped-
dling, and more oten than not, steal-
ing, drug-pushing and other criminal
activities.
Signicantly, there are 2 groups o
people who live in the slums: the urban
poor and the proessional squatters. The
ormer is identied as individuals or ami-
lies residing in urban and urbanizable ar-
eas whose income or combined household
income alls below the poverty threshold.
The latter are individuals or amilies with
sufcient unds or legitimate housing but
occupy land illegally. The term is also used
to reer to people or squatters awarded lotsor housing by the government, but have
either leased it to others or used it or other
purposes and then go back to where theywere beore or move to another place still
as illegal settlers.
POLITICAL OR PRIVATE : What are theactors that shape the slum community?
To what extent are government projects
contributing to the betterment o the slum
community? How do they aect society?
Most squatters are long-time residents
who ound a way o coping with their eco-
nomic problems. The eorts o the gov-ernment in the late 1980s to beautiy and
modernize Manila led to conict and orcedeviction o squatters and the demolition o
their shanties in order to give way to the
development o urban properties, public
or private. In deence o their rights, two
types o organizations have thrown their
support or the squatters: these are non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) and
private syndicates.
The NGOs are advocates o civil, hu-
man and political rights. Over the last t wo
decades, NGOs have increased their e-
ectiveness through networking and co-
alition building, campaigning or policy
reorms, adopting good practice standards
and advancing sustainable development.
Private syndicates on the other hand (alsoreerred to as Proessional squatting syn-
dicates), are inormal and illegal organiza-
tions that encourage the prolieration o
Slum Cities are complex as theirgrowth relies on human ingenuity
and availability o materials, there is
no planning involved, and their every
movemnet is challenged. To be able
to ully develop a design concept that
is eective, our designer came up with
our aspects that answers respective
questions related to Slum Design
SOCIAL: Who are the people living
in the slums? How is their importancerecognized by society?
Current social classication, on the
other hand, is divided into three (3)
groups, i.e., according to wealth, edu-
cation, proession or degree o social/
commercial/political power; hence, the
upper, middle and lower classes. Inthese three social classes, people liv-
ing in slums do not t in, and this is
reected in the shanties one sees in the
At the center o Metro Manila,
is Mandaluyong City, the Shop-
ping Mall Capital o the country.
It is bordered by Manila, the coun-
trys capital on the west, San Juan
City on the North, Pasig City and
Quezon City, the largest city, on
the east and Makati City, the ma-
jor centre or business and com-
merce, on the South. The land has
a granular clay and loam surace
lying on a oundation o compact
and massive adobe. Mandaluyong
City is best described as mostly
gentle rolling slopes, partially at
in the southwest and higher at the
northeast. The lowest point is lo-
cated inland and mostly afected
by fash foods. It has 2 major rivers
running through it: Pasig River and
San Juan River, and has six creeks
traversing inland. In terms o geo-
hazards, it has a very low risk ac-
tor or earthquakes, but is greatly
afected by ash oods caused by
heavy rains and typhoons.
A newconcept toInner City
SlumCommunityDevelopmentthat aimsto give theUrban poor
permanencein the city
Mandaluyong City, Philippines
SLUM CITY
There are 4 Aspects were considered in the formulation of this Design
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SEPTEMBER 1-5, 2010 SLUM WEEKLY 5
Mandaluyong is a bustling commercial
and business centre with headquarters or
the Asian Development Bank and other ma-
jor banks and corporations. It is home to
UniLab, a prominent pharmaceutical labo-
ratory. Major events in Philippine history
occurred here such as, the Edsa Revolu-
tion in 1986 which was staged along Epi-
anio Delos Santos Avenue, a major high-
way that stretches across the city. It has
27 barangays (the smallest government
administrative unit). Residents have access
to good hospitals, churches and reputable
schools. The Department or Social Welare
and Development (DSWD), along with the
National Centre or Mental Health and the
Womens Correctional Institute, are located
here. It is a city that has everything and
anything and it is in a location that is at-
tractive to a number o citizens.
One such particular set o people that
reside here are the legal slum residents
o Wellareville in Brgy. Addition Hills.
In 1980, the government established land
or use by the DSWD in Mandaluyong or their
various programs and projects. But in 1986,
shanties began to sprout all over the area. In
2008, the DSWD pushed or the sale o the
land with 20% o the prots to be allocated
or the illegal settlers, but this was vetoed by
the President o the Philippines. The area is
aptly called Welareville as it is where most
o the DSWDs programs are situated. The site
is approximately 100 hectares divided into 45
blocks and houses thousands o urban poor in
each block.
Given the inormation above, Welareville is
the perect site or my proposal as it is govern-
ment owned with practically no threat o evic-
tion, central to the city and the Metropolis and
has access to all the things that the urban poor
have came or. With this in mind, I narrowed the
Concept to allow for a better understanding of Slum Communitiessquatters by occupying and appropriat-ing vacant lands and holding them out to
the homeless or squatters or rent or sale
and/or engage in various orms o illegal
activities.
Eorts have been made by the govern-
ment to ensure national housing or the
people. In act, the Urban Development
and Housing Act o 1992 (UDHA) seeks to
provide social housing to the marginalized
sector by addressing their access to landand housing. The law also mandates local
government units to provide shelter toqualied beneciaries and to undertake
measures to curtail the activities o proes-
sional squatters and squatting syndicates.
All government projects are geared to-wards land tenure, minimal construction
assistance or housing especially or reset-
tlement projects, but with limits to water,electricity, livelihood and basic services.
In the private sector, there are a number
o organizations or clubs that perorm out-reach programs to slum communities, be
it values education or livelihood develop-
ment. To be sure, there is never a shortage
o people who want to help or sponsor a
community.
INFRASTRUCTURE: What are the strat-
egies adopted and resorted to by slum
dwellers when building their communitywithout any ormal interventions? When
and how do design and planning comeinto play?
Urban slum dwellers are a sign o a seri-
ous problem; they are an indication that a
city has grown in size aster than existing
acilities or inrastructure could provide.
They are orced to live under that situa-
tion because o economic actors, mainly
joblessness and poverty.
Selecting a dwelling is airly simple.
The frst step is the appropriation o a va-
cant land to settle on, sometimes done by a
slum lord and sold or rented to a slum com-munity. The sites are usually either private
or government-owned empty lots, or, un-
nished or abandoned buildings, etc. The
next step is to build their shanty or anything
that will protect them rom the elements. In
this regard, there are 3 kinds o slum hous-
ing: (1) temporary shelter made o salvaged
materials; (2) semi-temporary shelter; and(3) permanent shelter. For a small group
o amilies, housing starts with temporary
shelters made out o materials either picked
up or salvaged or stolen. Where no threat
o eviction exists, the structure is slowly
upgraded to a semi-temporary shelter andlater to a more permanent dwelling. This
triggers an expansion o the communitydepending on how much land and space
can be occupied.
The growth o a community may be throughan organic process or an induced process. An
organic process is when the community relies
on its own resources like building materials,labour, etc. or the expansion and develop-
ment o the community. An induced process is
when an organization outside a community in-
tereres and operates with projects, objectives
and goals or the development o the whole
settlement.[ ] Water supply and electricity are
tapped or bought, usually illegally. Water, i not
coming rom a deep well, would be pumpedout rom the ground by attaching lines rom
the water mains, or at times rom a hydrant.
Wires are connected to electric poles to tap
into electricity and even TV cable and phone
lines. This explains why, in the Philippines, mostutility companies have to raise their poles to
almost 10 meters o the ground.
The inside o a slum community is a myr-iad o alleyways, steps, houses and people.
Most o their public walkways, i not commis-
location o my site to one triangular block along F.
Martinez Avenue which is one o the busiest streets
running along Welareville. I chose a triangular
block because it best describes the kind o awk-
ward space that is normally occupied by illegal
settlers and it best displays their ability to grow
and adapt according to what is available to them.
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6 SLUM WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 1-5, 2010
sioned by the local Mayor, is
unpaved and muddy when
wet. Local businesses con-
centrated in their commu-
nity are usually located nearpublic streets or avenues
and occupy the ground ooro houses. The second oor
is usually reserved or pri-
vate use. For a small house,
a room would normally have
multiple unctions, either as
dining area, living area and
sleeping area. These spaces
are usually shared by a am-
ily o 5 or more, and at timesextend to relatives and close
personal riends who have
no place to stay and have justmoved in rom the province.
Some houses also have roo
decks that unction as laun-
dry area or unction area
or gatherings. I the privatespaces are insufcient, these
are converted into another
living space. This explains
why most expansions o thestructures are upwards. Most
materials used in building
are mainly recycled materials
rom demolitions, abandoned
structures, garbage dumps or
anything picked o the road.
The ability o inormal settlers
to put these together to orm
shelter is amazing as they rely
on basic hand tools such as a
hammer, saw and nails.
HAZARDS: The geographi-cal defnition or a slum settle-
ment is one that is haz ardous,
unattractive, health-threat-ening and protected against
rising land values. These sites
are the rst victims o oods,
typhoons, earthquakes, land-
slides etc. But what concerns
them the most is the ever-
present threat o re. The
regular use o cooking gas,
candle, exposed electrical
wirings, and sometimes even
leaky pipes, make their dwell-
ings virtual fretraps. A fre can
start rom a simple cooking
accident or rom intense heat
during summer where tem-
peratures can sometime soar
as high as 38 degrees Celsius,
or it could be intentional.
Slum res are also hard tocontrol because otentimes,
re trucks have no way to
manoeuvre inside the snak-
ing alleyways. The same canbe said or ambulances when
there are emergencies. People
have to be carried out o their
dwellings to where an ambu-
lance is parked usually more
4 Aspects
Continuation...
The best way to approach the growing slum issues in thecity is to guide the settlers and not to attack them. I theywere given oundations to build upon and be treated as
THE PROPOSAL
By introducing to them a system that improves their
way o lie, housing issues can be resolved. Looking
back at the 4 aspects that I have enumerated, the
one basic problem they have is the provision o basic
utilities. According to Maslows hierarchy o needs,
while humans have a wide range o needs, they must
rst meet very basic survival needs like ood, shelter
and water. Since housing is more expensive to
provide and would require a bigger budget rom the
government, and housing loans may not be viable
or the urban poor because o lack o paying capacity,
why not start o with providing them access to basic
utilities.
I would start by building them the oundations that
are necessary or them to have sae inrastructures
in their community. By rst placing a simple 1 sqm.
main structural post made o concrete and steel
with plugs or the water and electricity line that
can be shared by 4 households at the most, so that
they immediately have provisions or the necessary
utilities. The next step is to add 4 structural posts thatare imbedded in the ground or additional support.
In this way, the growth o the community would
be still within their own methods and processes.
By locating these posts in a manner that does not
control but guide the growth o the community,
the development can be organized, allowing wider
streets and better paths or the movement o people
and small vehicles especially emergency vehicles.
Also, I recommend the elevation o their residences
to at least a minimum o 1.00 meter o the ground
to protect them rom oods during the rainy season.
...by locating these
posts in a manner thatdoes not control butguide the growth othe community, thedevelopment can beorganized, allowing
wider streets and betterpaths or the movemento people and smallvehicles especially
emergency vehicles...
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SEPTEMBER 1-5, 2010 SLUM WEEKLY 7
LEGEND SITE PLAN
Main concrete structuralpost, weight bearing withprovision or electrical,
cable, Tel and water lines
Sub-structural postCut Bamboo (pre-treated)elevated rom the groundwith metal caps and livebamboo bound together with
a triangular block best de-
scribes the kind o awkward
space that is normally occu-
pied by illegal settlers
and it best displaystheir ability to grow
and adapt according
to what is available to
them
POSSIBLE OUTCOME OF HOUSING LAYOUT
What is good about squatter cities is that they improve the appearance otheir structures steadily and gradually by themselves.[ ] It is almost an organicprocess in a way as there are no drawings or plans drated beore they aredeveloped. And the ability o the settlers to recycle materials makes theirplace a green community. To contribute to the development o a greencommunity, I propose, the use o coconut bre boards and bamboo as primarybuilding materials. I there is also a way that live bamboo can unction asoundation sub-post, the ability o the community to expand upwards willnot be hindered since bamboo grows rapidly.
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8 SLUM WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 1-5, 2010
The proposal is a combination
o an organic and induced process
o orming the slum community.
In this process, both the residents
and the government share control
in the growth o the community.
Socially, the people will have
more security in terms that the
site is primarily in government
lands and they have permission
to inhabit the space. With thisin mind, they somehow regain
their political rights especially
rights to house and home, and
elevate their status rom inormal
to ormal settlers. Permanence
is the key or them to be able to
improve their stature in society
and in lie. I the government
abides by this, and end out-o-city
relocations and orced evictions it
may contribute to urban progress.
The government can spend less
in housing construction and
more on health and livelihood
or the urban poor. In terms o
Inrastructure, they will be better
equipped in surviving the usual
hazards that they ace. Though
there is not much intervention in
the appearance o their homes,
except or the recommendation
o economical materials, this is
due to the act that what they
have at present is enough and it is
what gives their community that
unique adaptive quality. Though
in terms o population, they willbe overcrowded but the density
o a community in a conned
area reduces cost in piped water,
sewers, drains, roads, electricity,
garbage collection, transport,
health care and schools. In this way,
they are slowly contributing to the
preservation o energy and natural
resources hopeully causing a chain
reaction o bringing the city into
a more sustainable environment.
And to think this is all due to the
slum communitys ingenuity and
practicality. Hopeully it could also
trigger a wave o design solutions
to other urban problems.
I believe that through this
process, the urban poor will no
longer be considered as social
outcasts, rather they will be
citizens that no longer have to live
in ear and hardship every single
day and is capable o earning a
decent living, maintain a stable lie
and live peaceully with the rest
o the people in the city as just a
community.
PROJECTEDCOMMUNITY GROWTH
PERSPECTIVE RENDERING OF THE
COMMUNITY AND THEIR RESPECTIVE
INTERIOR SPACES. With the proposal, livingconditions are less cramped and there is
a better ree owing access all around the
community. And comunalitive spaces are
created in between.