Informal place-making

The formal city is the product of traditional urbanism. It is made up of three processes that take place in a linear and descending manner (from the city to the house): planning, subdivision, and building. In this city development, citizens are users who inhabit the space defined by the formality resulting from this set of processes.

On the other hand, informal settlements are emergent or ascending systems (from the house to the city). They do not have a defined sequence, but rather all consolidation processes take place simultaneously. The subdivision, urbanization, and building happen in parallel. In this city development, the occupation and intervention of its inhabitants take place from the first phase. The inhabitants are an active part of the city-building process.

However, many studies have focused on the informal city's problems from an urban perspective and leave aside housing's importance within the informal city development. Considering that informal housing arises from the need for the shelter of its inhabitants, it is important to highlight it as an essential and primary part of the informal settlements' piecemeal development.

This chapter explains the informal housing consolidation process in Latin America as the seed of the informal city. And it seeks to highlight the potentialities and disadvantages of its processes that, unlike formal housing, are capable of adapting and mutating according to the needs of its inhabitants

Formal urban fabric development

TOP-DOWN PLANNING

Sequentially organised

Informal urban fabric development

Simultaneous process.