PREFACE

This handbook forms part of the independent learning course ‘Challenging Practice: Essentials for the Social Production of Habitat’, first launched by ASF-International in 2012.

Challenging Practice was developed because ASF-International strongly believes that the production of cities that are inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable—as defined by the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11—requires a broader approach from built environment professionals.

Today the majority of us are living in urban areas, and the UN estimates that “one in four city dwellers—more than 1 billion people—live in precarious conditions, without access to basic services or adequate housing and are excluded from health, education, and livelihood opportunities”1. People living in informal settlements are also the most vulnerable to climate change. The demand for suitably skilled professionals who can work alongside local communities to tackle together the social and environmental challenges they face is increasingly evident. At the same time, mainstream education and practice in architecture and urban planning tend to, above technical and aesthetic aspects, focus more on commercial profits. Social and environmental concerns and a broader understanding of professional responsibilities are too often overlooked. Research into technical, aesthetic and economic means of reducing the costs of construction for the majority remains important, but does not address the pressing need to promote inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities for all.

ASF-International created the course Challenging Practice and this handbook to challenge built environment professionals’ existing knowledge and perspectives, and to enable us all to gain an understanding of some of the complexities of this field, so that we can better engage in the pro- duction of habitat with and for the world’s most vulnerable people.

We hope that the course will build on existing skills and experience, and will contribute to shifting the focus that built environment students and professionals are often encouraged to accept during their studies and working lives, towards a much deeper engagement with questions of equity, inclusivity, participation and resilience.

Each urban context, from the global north to the global south, is unique and particular to its history and location. This course has therefore been developed to help built environment professionals explore and develop principles of engagement and analysis, rather than give answers to specific problems or concerns. The goal is to widen the scope of built environment practice so that it becomes more of a gathering of knowledge that allows one to make cities fair and sustainable for all, rather than a limited sector dedicated to planning, designing and building for the creditworthy. There is nothing fundamentally new in this approach, but an important shift in the way we position ourselves.

1. Castan Broto V., Osuteye E. and Westman, L. (2022). One billion of the world’s most climatevulnerable people live in informal settlements – here’s what they face. The Conversation [online]. Available at: https://theconversation. com/a-billion-of-the-worlds-most-climatevulnerable-people-live-in-informalsettlements-heres-what-they-face-178116

About this handbook

The handbook is meant to support learning both in preparation for and during the course. It presents an ensemble of short modules that provide an initial overview of the knowledge that might be required of built environment professionals who want to support more inclusive and collaborative forms of city making, particularly in informal, contested, or fragile urban environments. The modules are organised into five sections: Introduction, Challenges, Contexts, Principles and Tools. Apart from the introductory ones, the remaining modules are not intended to have any form of hierarchy in how they are approached.

All the modules aim to give an introduction to a range of topics and have been written by a wide range of experts in different fields from across the globe. To supplement the short texts, we suggest some key readings or films, which form an essential part of the module. All the core resources listed in the modules are freely accessible on the internet: if the links provided should be no longer active, learners are invited to look for them on the internet by means of typing their titles into any search engine.

ASF-International, 2022

Urban Context

Theoretical Frameworks

CHALLENGES

Social Exclusion

Conflicts

Disasters and Climate Change

Migration

CONTEXTS

Informal Settlements

Heritage

Inner City Areas

PRINCIPLES

Ethics in Built Environment

Practice

Participation

Community Resilience

TOOLS

Partnerships

Participatory Design Tools