The Future Of Slums: On The Line Between Hope & Despair

Cities Alliance

"The future of slums can be projected in two entirely different variants: slums of hope, and slums of despair. Based on the prevalent trends, despite some successes which could be termed as ‘best practices’ in formulating slum policies, slums have continued growing in the urban regions of the developing world."

"The need of the hour is to focus on a more comprehensive approach that will integrate factors of emergence and growth of slums and at the same time cooperate with different stakeholders responsible for addressing slum problem. The most striking outcome of past and existing slum policies and strategies are their short sightedness with respect to housing needs in urban regions."

"Governments need a paradigm shift in attitude by looking at the poor settlements not as part of the problem but as part of the solution and look at the poor not as beneficiaries but primary actors of their own development, key tenets of slum upgrading and enabling approaches."

Read the entire article at Urban Times.

Lessons to be taken from slums

Favela Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro
(upload.wikimedia.org)

"I realised that the formal city couldn't survive without the informal city … in the slums I discovered a whole new social geography … I began rethinking my whole profession, unlearning what I had learned, and then re-focused on adaptation and reuse and using scarcity as a resource." (Brillembourg)

[...]

This notion is that the slum at its best – or at least at a conceptual level – is a Wiki city. There are no rules other than the resources available and the collective agreements among residents. "An interest that the profession has had for a few years, and it is shared by the public, is that cities don't need to be so planned," says Zaera-Polo. "That cities can be more varied … this raises interest in the idea of cities that are almost self-built: the Wiki house, and the crowd sourcing of design." [...]

"What is probably most fascinating about going to [slums] is that you see the public realm emerging from the bottom-up, you experience it literally," says Zaera-Polo. "As opposed to those of us who have been lucky and born into wealthy economies where it was already there. To see the favelas and slums in South America gives you an incredible insight into how the public realm emerges out of a group of individuals. I think this is something that advanced economies need to look at now."

Read the complete article at The Guardian.