Slum Upgrading - Architecture & Sustainability

Slum Upgrading

Mahgol Motalebi Kasra Hajihassandokht Dimitris Triantafyllou Dimitris Antoniou

Architecture and sustainability

Introduction Slum formation is occuring at unprecedented rates. A report by the United Nations shows that there are more than 1 billion slum dwellers worldwide, which is about 32 percent of the global urban Population ( United Nations 2003). 1 With the persistence of large slum areas and unsuccessful slum relocation programs, there is a realization that lots of slums could not be removed simply. So, the idea of ÂŤSlum UpgradingÂť have become more widespread.

So this research question is that : How could we upgrade slums? So, maybe one approach is lean into the answer of this question: How local becomes global?

The creation of small-scale and inexpensive infrastructures that turn Slum areas into self-sustained communities...

Small steps can be valuable to the development of something of global significance since small-scale sustainable ideas have the power to engender a sustainable chain reaction. This reaction is generated when an idea starts working positively on three distinct levels of sustainable growth: socioculturally, economically and predominately in an environmentally friendly manner. This is achieved when a new technology or mechanism is introduced to reverse the effects of a negative and resource-exhaustive system or to simply bring about positive development.

1 Lall

Assessing Benefits of Slum Upgrading Programs in Second-best Settings, Basab Dasgupta, Somik V.

1. Definition of Slum (Slum Typologies) 1.1 History of the Slums Slum is a term used since 19th century and is used to describe an area or a whole city living under poverty. Those areas are usually overpopulated full of poor families, or even criminals and prostitutes. Those areas are usually located next to megacities, or in overcrowded big cities.

Dwellings in slums are usually low-quality structures, usually built by the people who are living there. The main materials that are used are local and cheap materials such as metallic panels, plastic surfaces and fabric. Some urban characteristics of the slum areas are the small narrow mud streets in between housing that are needed of the circulation. Also, we see a variety of colors of materials, covering the houses because of the lack of materials and creating a colorful urban texture.

Levels of sanitation are really low. The surrounded environment is usually dirtyand full of trash. Due to lack of drainage every water source turned into dirty and polluted lakes and rivers. Also, huge trash mountains surround the area, creating a really unhealthy atmosphere.

In most of the slum areas around the world the average living span is around 45-40 years old. Due to the lack of sanitation, people usually suffering by great diseases caused by polluted water, low-quality food and unhealthy environment.

First time that the word “slum” was used, supposed to be mentioned by the famous novelist Charles Dickens, in 1840. In some of his novels such as “Oliver Twist” and “Sketches by Boz” he is describing slum characteristics and living conditions. More specific in the following lines written by Dickens we see how slums looked like in the 19th century: ... crazy wooden galleries common to the backs of half a dozen houses, with holes from which to look upon the slime beneath; windows, broken and patched, with poles thrust out, on which to dry the linen that is never there; rooms so small, so filthy, so confined, that the air would seem to be too tainted even for the dirt and squalor which they shelter; wooden chambers thrusting themselves out above the mud and threatening to fall into it—as some have done; dirt-besmeared walls and decaying foundations, every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage: all these ornament the banks of Jacob’s Island.

1.2 First slum created (Five Points, 1825, New York, USA)

Five points, New York, 1825

The first slum in the world, is suppused to be the slum called “Five Points” which was located in Manhattan, New York. It was named by the five points created by the intersection of Park, Worth, and Baxter street. It was located there around 1825 and it was habited by poor citizens, murderers, prostitutes and afro-american people.

This area, nowadays is the area of Little Italy and China Town. Main characteristics of “Five Points” were overpopulation, child mortality, criminality, prostitution and health problems. “Five Points” supposed to be one of the most criminal slams ever existed.

The area was infamous in that age, and a lot of people were organising “slumming trips” to visit it. Visitors included a Russian grand duke, Davy Crockett, Charles Dickens and Abraham Lincoln were excited by the unique character and visited the slum.

Charles Dickens wrote somethings describing Five Points: “This is the place: these narrow ways diverging to the right and left, and reeking every where with dirt and filth. Such lives as are led here, bear the same fruit here as elsewhere. The coarse and bloated faces at the doors have counterparts at home and all the wide world over. Debauchery has made the very houses prematurely old. See how the rotten beams are tumbling down, and how the patched and broken windows seem to scowl dimly, like eyes that have been hurt in drunken frays. Many of these pigs live here. Do they ever wonder why their masters walk upright in lieu of going on all-fours? and why they talk instead of grunting?”

Although that “Five Points” was an area which created a lot of civil problems, at the same time, it offered series of art incentives. Movies like “The Gangs of New York” were inspired and located there. Also, other artists, like writer Herbert Asbury and sketcher Luc Sante refer their work to that slum.

Also, despite that huge criminality and prostitution in “Five Points”, citizens who were living there, were hard workers, who were offering their best. They were saving huge amount of money for themselves and for their families who were living away from New York.

1.3 First slums in Europe (Paris, London, end of 19th century)

Clearance programme in London

After the slums that were located in USA, some slams installed in Europe as well. So, in the beginning of 20th century, slums were common areas in Europe. First slums were installed in the biggest european cities such as London or Paris in the end of 19th century.

As it concerns Paris, a lot of slums were installed around the city centre. After World War II, people wanted to move in the urban areas, so that made rents in the city to rise up and increase the willing of people to stay at the cheap slums. After 1950, french government built a lot of tax-free social housing for poor people. That made them move there and abandoned the dirty slums. That government’s action made slums to disapear from Paris and upgrade the city.

One the other hand, in Great Britain, slums were associated with Victorian Britain.

Engels described these British neighborhoods as “cattle-sheds for human beings”.

Those slums were still alive until 1940, when the government started cleaning away all the slums and creating new housing areas.

A lot of slums were located in London especially in the early 20th century when the population of London started increasing rapidly. Some of those slums named Devil’s Acre, Jacob’s Island, Liberty of the Mint, Old Nichol and Pottery Lane. Most of them were located in the east side of London, which was often called “darkest London”. The inhabitants were mostly people from Central or Eastern Europe. Around 1920 they started the clearance programme in order to tear down their slums. Althought, that costed several urban problems. Demolition of housing and streets caused circulation problems. The green areas which were surrounding the houses were destroyed as well. Also, new housing that was installed in the area was not that dense, so that caused densification problems in the whole city.

1.3 Slums Nowadays (Mostly in Latin America and in Asia, since 1920)

Slum in Latin America

Nowadays, most of the slums are located in poor countries. Today’s slums were founded in the 20th century. Most of them are located in Latin America or in Asia.

By the 1960s, over %33 of population of Rio lived in slums, %45 of Mexico City and Ankara, %65 of Algiers, %35 of Caracas, %25 of Lima and Santiago, %15 of Singapore.

By 1980, in various cities and towns of Latin America alone, there were about 25,000

slums.

Their characteristics are similar to those we mentioned before. People live in these areas which are usual next to upgraded mega-cities. Althought, their problems remain important. Lack of sanitation, clean water sources, good food quality are the most important threats for citizens of the slums. Secondly, the face some other problems, as well, like socializing, education, entertainment etc.

Slums Nowadays 1.1 Slums of Manila – Philippines

(slum next to polluted water areas)

Manila, Philippines

One type of slums nowadays are the slums which are located next to polluted rivers or polluted lakes. Usually cities are located next to water areas because of the profit you take. Although, slums polluted the water areas around them, which are now full of microbes and bacteriums. Those polluted water areas are now the main reason of the diseases by which inhabitants are suffering from.

One area with those characteristics area the slums of Manila, the capital of Philippines.

One tenth of slum dwellers live in the capital Manila, in neighbourhoods like the Tondo District in the north part of Manila. Tondo is one of the oldest areas of Manila, and dates back about 1,000 years. Smokey Mountain is one of Manila’s slums and the largest dumpsite where over 25,000 people pick up garbage for a living. The sad truth

is, Smokey Mountain is one of the most impoverished areas in the world.

1.2 Neza-Chalco-Itza, Mexico City – Mexico

(organized slums inside the urban net)

Mexico City, Mexico

Another main type of slum are the slums located next to a mega-city and they belong in the same urban planning. Those slums are in the borders of the big expensive cities and the limits are not that clear, although the living conditions are totally different than the conditions in the centre of the city. Those slums are located in big cities such as Cape Town, Beijing, Caracas etc. As a real part of the city, is not so clear to recognize at the first sight, although people live in those areas under big living problems.

The most characteristic area, are the neighbour cities Neza, Chalco and Itza, in Mexico City, in Mexico. Those cities are three different cities in the suburban area of the main city. The three areas combined consist the biggest existing slum nowadays with the enormous number of 4 million inhabitants. Those slums, supposed to have the highest crime rate in Mexico.

1.3 Favelas of Rio de Janeiro – Brazil

(slum built in a hill, next to a large city.)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The last category of slums, are the slums that are located next to big cities, although their structure and their urban planning is totally different than the surroundings.

Those slums are usually located in hills, or in big open spaces and have their own urban character.

The most characteristic slum are the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The first favelas appeared in the late 19th century and were built by soldiers who had nowhere to live.

Some of the first settlements were calledbairros africanos (African neighbourhoods).

This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Nowadays the population of Favelas is really high with 1.4 million people living there. Favelas has a touristic character and at present is one of the main sightseeings in Rio de Janeiro.

2. Slum Formation Slums are the products of failed policies, bad governance, inappropriate regulations, dysfunctional land markets, unresponsive financial systems and a fundamental lack of political will. Slums are often the only type of settlement that is affordable and accessible to the poor in cities, where competition for land and profit is intense. There are two main reasons why:

2.1 Population growth (rapid rural-to-urban migration) Population growth is one of the slum formation reasons, people migrate from rural to urban communities because of pushing and pulling reasons. These reasons divided to three main categories: Economical, Environmental, Cultural reasons.

These migration often happened fast because people become aware of what city may offer them. Most migrants make a deliberate choice to stay or leave in rural areas.

Links with earlier migrants have made rural populations much more aware of the advantages and disadvantages of urban life, especially regarding job opportunities and housing.

For demonstration, consider these facts:

• UN-HABITAT projects that by 2030, Africa will no longer be a rural continent, as more than %50 of its population will be in cities.

• Today, %75 of the population of Latin America lives in urban areas as the result of a significantly rapid rate of urbanization since the 1970’s • Asia, home to %80 of the world’s population, currently sustains %36 of their population in cities.

• Mumbai, Calcutta and Bangkok are home to over 10 million people; between one-third and one-half of them live in slums.1 Urban migration is often a survival strategy for rural households. Sometimes, rural households split into several groups located in different places like rural areas, small 1

Un habitat

towns, and big cities, in order to diversify their sources of income and be less vulnerable to economic declinations.

2.2 Governance Another reason slums develop is bad governance. Governments often could not understand the rights of the urban poor and incorporate them into urban planning.

In addition, many countries cannot respond to rapid migrations or urban formation quickly enough. People are coming to cities far faster than the planning process can incorporate them. Often, they find their own land and build before the government has a chance to learn of their existence.

Also, governments has different attitude towards fast urban formation which is an important fact. Some governments take a hostile approach to this. They believe that if they provide urban services to migrants who are mostly poor, it will attract them and cause the slums to grow. The problem with this view is that very few people come to the city for water or services, they come looking for jobs and money to gain.

In other cases, governments take more of a passive approach to the fact of migration.

They either do not have the planning tools to deal with the rapid urban formation that is happening, or the tools in place are not sufficiently responsive to the reality on the ground.

2.3 Insecure tenure Insecure tenure means tenants are not protected from unpredictable rent increases and deportation processes. Insecure tenure inhibits opportunities for residents to improve their homes. Without secure tenure, slum dwellers have few ways motivations to improve their surroundings.

Secure tenure is needed in advance for access to other economic and social opportunities, including credit and public services.

In slums where residents enjoy secure tenure to land and housing – whether it is formal or informal – community-led slum improvement are much more succeed.

2.4 Globalisation Globalization is also a cause of slum living. Global economic icreases and decreases lead to uneven wealth distribution.

Slum formation is closely linked to economic cycles, trends in national income distribution, and in more recent years, to national economic development policies in today’s developed world and it is likely globalization will do the same to the developing world.

The Report finds that the cyclical nature of capitalism, increased demand for skilled versus unskilled labour, and the negative effects of globalisation contribute to the enormous growth of slums.

“In short it can be said that slum formation depends on the rate of in-migration of migrants. It also depends on the existence of barrier to escalation as well as the distinction between income and “ability” classes.”2

3. What are slum’s problems?

There are different types of health issues that slum-dwellers encounter each day. The most important will illustrate how their way of living are. Water is one of the biggest issues that slum-dwellers encounter because water is scarce and contaminated.

Women and children walk miles for water that they use to perform all their daily necessities.

3.1 Health and sanitation The water which slum dwellers use is not the water we drink, clean and purified, it contains many diseases that are the cause for massive death rates, especially in children.

Since they don’t live in a very sanitary place, it is full of insects. The water they bring is water that has trash in it, human disposal and much more disgusting things which is against human beings right for standard living.

One of the diseases that water can bring is Malaria and this is caused when slumdwellers try to store water in their homes, because of lack clean storages for keeping these stuffs which is very harmful for the people’s health.

Sanitation is one of the most important issue that plays a huge role in Indian slum areas. According to the research, people that live in these slums are living in a 3/2 space with dirt surfaces and poor ventilation.

Some of the diseases that sanitation has brought to Indian slums are: Diarrhea, water diseases, parasitic worms/infestation and fecal orals diseases. In India it is extremely 2

Urban squatter housing in third world, Shok Ranjan Basu

dirty and it is famous to be the one of the worst sanitation country in the world, and of course children are the most affected ones in this situation because of these epidemics.

Sanitation has also effect children to get parasitic worms. In Indian slum zone, a child is known to be carrying almost near 1,000 parasitic worms within their bodies. This is due to the conditions they live in.

They also need the basics of water and electricity, these become a scarce commodity in towns for the permanent dwellers. Everything is in short supply as, the amount available is to be shared with these slum dwellers. This, in turn is because the cities and towns were originally not planned for the huge exodus into the original towns.

3.1.1 Diseases Diarrhea, parasitic infestation and fecal oral epidemics are due to poor sanitation and no access to basic and primary facilities such as restrooms or health cares. In India, 15 hundred thousand children die each day because of diarrhea and every 15 seconds a child dies because of water related diseases. According to Gethin Chamberlain, nearly 2 million Indian children die under five each day and that is the highest number all over the world. Ways that all of this could be prevented is by aiding them with clean water and providing them access to basic facilities.

3.1.2 Health care According to Gethin Chamberlain, Indian state healthcare was supposed to be opened to all and supply both rich and poor with the necessary healthcare, but unfortunately they have failed to reach that. They have not been responsible to reach the slum districts and get them the healthcare they deserve. Sometimes, people in the slum get sick and start to develop symptoms that later on turn out to be a mortal disease, but the two reasons why they do not go and seek help is because, first, It is considered luxury to them and second, the medical help is sometimes too far to their area and if they successful to get there the sick people don’t always stay alive (Shireen Miller).

Sometimes, the ones who are lucky enough to make it and get medical care are not treated properly. They are being vaccinated with used syringes that sometimes have been used more than 10 times on different people with different diseases. This leads them to get more illnesses and exposes them to death much faster. Children sometimes find these syringes when they are playing around and they pick them up

and go resell them for 10 cents each, or they use it to drink water. This is something that should not be happening but unfortunately it is, due to the healthcare being unattended and not treating them the right way. These slums in the nearby areas are a cause of a lot of pollution and thus result in health hazards. Since they have no place to bathe, go to the toilet, wash their clothes, all this daily work is done in the open causing inconvenience to the residents of the areas.

Besides this, the presence of slums near by the colony, make the colony look ugly and dirty, which is why they are an objectionable lot. Since this class is mainly of the menial class, their presence so near the affluent is enough cause of worry in regard to crime.

Chamberlain, Gethin. ÂŤTwo Million children die every year as India Booms.Âť 3.1.2 Getting water Sometimes when girls go alone to bring water, on their way back to home they end up getting raped. These girls get raped by men who spend all the day hanging around without doing any job and wasting their money on alcohol, or drugs. Not only they use this water for drinking, but also they used it as washing their cloths. (Muniamma) Indian slum population is increasing so fast that if they take an action about it soon, later on, death rates, diseases will also increase and the problem will get worse than it already is. Ways we could help is by joining the Water Aid which is a foundation that helps out these poor slum areas by providing the skills they need for their lives. This organization trains women and children, or teaches them how to do certain things, build capacity, and innovate technology options.

3.2 Social problems High unemployment domestic violence lured by the prospect of oblivion through alcohol or drug abuse they fall deeper into poverty and the cycle continues. Unemployed people will be able to put the society in difficult situation by making illegal works and turn the atmosphere to unsafe position that threaten the people by raping or rubbing or similar things and these types of people ready to do anything to survive because they don’t have anything to lose. Thus, slums destroy the scenario of towns and also add to the innumerable problems that already exist. The calm and quiet existence of the areas is lost to the dirty and noisy appearance of the slums.

3.2.1 Child labor Most of the children in the slums start working at a very early age with no prospect of getting any education rag picking, selling newspapers in traffic jams, peddling drugs (drug dealing) or begging. These children forced to work day and night without a chance of education, Risk of exploitation as well as all the health problems Incest and abuse can occur and child marriages are still encourage din some areas. As they get older at the age of 15 or 16 because of lack information they have early pregnancy, which continues to increase the slum dwellers population as time goes by.

3.2.2 Gender Inequality Male children are seen as a blessing and indulged in many zones of Indian society. Girls are seen as a drain on precious’s sources as they will one day get married and their contribution towards the family will end. With that kind of start in life, it›s difficult for women within the slums to find a voice. Every time male are the first choices and better opportunities will be for them and girls should obey from the rues which is totally against to them.

3.2.3 Internal and external corruption The sheer volume of people living in slums causes them to be obvious targets for politicians wanting to increase their percentage of the vote. Slum inhabitants are often promise dell kinds of support and improvements in return for political allegiance, but their trust is regularly abused.

In conclusion, life in the Indian slums is not a life anybody would like even to experience.

It is full of diseases and lack of facilities such as water, and sanitation. Their destiny at the end is death or if they are lucky enough they can escape and get an education; but that only happens to a certain amount of people. The majority of them live their lives in the slum zones until their last moments. They have to live in a place with bad quality of life and dirty water.

4. Approaches 4.1 Slum upgrading. (How local becomes global?)

Disasters can become the reason for the formation of a new slum. As non-governmental external agencies race to deliver aid and then disappear, the infrastructure or the dwellings that are usually provided are of very low quality. As a result, these infrastructural work quickly becomes outworn and turns the area in another slum, which can be dangerous to live in. As a matter of fact, a large amount of the houses that were built in Haiti after the disaster in 2010, would not survive another earthquake and fall short of safety standards.

4.1.1 Building infrastructure (The role of the government?)

Slum in Haiti

Small progressive steps are valuable to the evolution of slums and can gradually gain global significance, as, small-scale developmental infrastructure sometimes has the power to engender a sustainable chain reaction. This happens when the buildings, facilities, technologies and mechanisms introduced to reverse the effects of a negative and resource-exhaustive system generate positive but surprising outcomes. This reaction is typically generated when the infrastructure begins to work positively on one or more distinct levels of sustainable growth: socioculturally, economically and predominately in an environmentally friendly manner. The attempt in this chapter is to portray how different ‘small’-scale infrastructural work have contributed in upgrading slums around the world and have helped boost each of the three types of sustainable

growth in the communities that were accomplished.

Sociocultural Growth As poor communities lack basic infrastructure, central bodies and governments often put less or no emphasis on investing for social and cultural progress, making this type of interventions rarer since they are mainly dependant on external help. Nevertheless, this type of investment is that with the greater power to turn a slum into a viable and sustainable community and can have both long-run and short-run benefits for a slum.

One example justifying this belief is in the initiative of the interdisciplinary design practice Urban Think Tank to build a vertical sports centre in Caracas, Venezuela.

The “Gimnasio Vertical�, as it is called, is a multi-storey venue that includes a running track, a volleyball court, a basketball court, an indoor soccer field, weight training facilities and studios for martial arts, gymnastics and dance, all with ramp access for disabled athletes. Following the opening of the vertical gym, crime in the area dropped by 30 percent, a fact that portrays how small-scale infrastructural development can have a powerful sociocultural impact of global significance, even in a short period of time.

Gimnasio Vertical�, Caracas, Venezuela

Similar behaviours can be observed in other poor areas around the world, where, for instance, the opening of a school can be linked to the reduction of the criminality rate by a certain amount. This phenomenon can be justified in two ways: Firstly, one of the major issues in areas like the slum In Caracas is that it is difficult for young people to find activities that inspire them to work hard and have sensible ambitions for their future. As a consequence, their limited options often make them take part in illegal activities though which they release their energy. Thus, a new facility or school can act as a catalyst by changing their orientation and by stimulating them to cultivate other traits of their personalities. Secondly, as a lot of young people look for acceptance, forming groups or gangs that operate as independent families, provides them security and a sense of belonging to a group, which the state itself is powerless to do so.

Economic Growth Slums are usually self-sustained communities, which manage to develop their own independent micro-economies that bring profit to their inhabitants and allow them to sustain themselves and their families. It is not uncommon to see in a lot of these communities how much more sustainable their economic growth is in comparison with some large scale economies of other more developed cities. A major reason for this is the fact that what we would regard as rubbish, becomes valuable to the hands of these people, who usually turn it into things that can be purchased or be re-used.

A good example of an idea that was adopted by slums all over the world and which became the reason for thousands of small businesses to come into existence within the slums is the “Liter of Light�.

The Liter of Light is a global open source movement with the aim to provide an ecologically sustainable and free-of-cost source of interior light to rooms in simple dwellings with a thin roof. The device is simple: it is a transparent 2-1.5l plastic bottle, as typically used for carbonated drinks, filled with water plus a little bleach to inhibit algal growth, fitted through the roof of a house. During daytime

the water inside the bottle refracts sunlight, delivering about as much light as a -40 to -60watt incandescent bulb to the interior. A properly installed solar bottle can last up to 5 years.

The Liter of Light is a zero-carbon-emitting alternative to the daytime use of electric or hydrocarbon-burning (kerosene, gas) illumination. The materials used in the technology are readily available, the plastic bottles as scrap, needing no additional manufacturing resources. This inexpensive technology allows most slum households to install it with the assistance of entrepreneurs from their communities. Once installed, the bottle is estimated to last about five years before being replaced. The electrical power consumed, at significant cost in carbon dioxide emission and money, by an electric bulb producing comparable light (say 55W incandescent or 20W CFL) is substantial.

The use of plastic bottles in this way to provide indoor lighting from daylight was developed by Alfredo Moser and Suryaan Nadeen. Using the technology as a social enterprise was first launched in the Philippines by Illac Diaz under the My Shelter Foundation in April 2011. In order to help the idea to grow sustainably, Suryaan Nadeen implemented a “local entrepreneur� business model whereby bottle bulbs are assembled and installed by local people, who can earn a small income for their work.

Within months, one carpenter and one set of tools in one community in San Pedro, Laguna, expanded the organization to 15,000 solar bottle bulb installations in 20 cities and provinces around the Philippines, and began to inspire local initiatives around the world. MyShelter Foundation also established a training center that conducts workshops with youth, business companies, and other groups who are interested in volunteering their time to build lights in their communities, while making some profit.

Environmental Growth As part of any urban renewal strategy that concerns a slum, it is critical that a lot of attention is put in understanding the environmental impact of that specific intervention.

A worth mentioning attempt showing a sensitivity against this issue was made by the team of Urban Think Tank, and it is about the development of transportation infrastructure in an attempt to improve life in the favelas in Caracas without radical and invasive clearance.

This intervention took place in the hilly neighbourhood of San Agustin, where the residents of the area used to climb a lot of stairs to get home, but now through the help of an overhead cable car transport system, commuting in and out of the barrio, they can avoid this huge inconvenience. The Metro Cable is a network of five stations connecting the hilltops with the city centre and the metro system. But the network of cable cars, designed by Urban Think Tank, is far more than just a convenient mean of public transportation. The Metro Cable incorporates a sustainable design that uses renewable energy sources and smart urban planning. The carefully thought out system also preserves the pedestrian oriented nature of the community, and promotes safe and sustainable development for a better community in the long-run.

Construction of the cable car system was minimally invasive and required little demolition of existing homes and facilities; the pre-existing quality of the neighbourhood remained intact. Urban Think Tank was assisted with the design and construction of the network by Austrian ropeway manufacturer Doppelmayr, climate engineers Transolar, and the US civil/structural engineering firm Silman & Associates.

Aside from adding more public transportation and contributing to the walkability of the area, Metro Cable also helps address needs for power and public facilities in San AgustĂ­n, which is virtually off-grid from the rest of the city.

Each station is designed to support a photovoltaic system on its roof to provide power for the area and the transport network. Until the solar systems can be installed, wind turbines provide power to the stations, which make use of natural daylighting during the day and LED lights at night. There is no need for mechanical HVAC, as each station features a wind catcher to direct the prevailing breezes to the interior. In addition, dry toilets are installed for use as public restrooms to minimize the need for water, while rainwater is collected in cisterns.

Making the right type of infrastructural improvements is most of the times a decision that needs to be taken by the government in charge. Nevertheless, this doesn’t always happen, since often times the government doesn’t have the willingness to help with slum upgrading, and the support which arrives from other external agencies cannot be secured and guaranteed.

4.1.2 Involvement of citizens In most societies, women and men tend to have different roles, responsibilities, needs and perceptions. As a result, slum upgrading generally affects women and men differently. Experience has shown that making a conscious effort to incorporate the gender dimensions of slum upgrading results in a more successful initiative. Women play a vital role in slum upgrading. Increasingly, more and more slum households are headed by women. Many are women with children whose husbands have left them behind to look for work elsewhere. In other cases, women have fled to the slums to escape domestic violence, discrimination in rural areas, or difficult situations created by divorce or marital disputes. A key aspect of slum upgrading is community participation, and women are at the heart of the community—they are most frequently the ones who save money, look after the children, and care for the sick or elderly. The skills they have used to run households can be applied on a community-wide scale to run a savings scheme, for example, or manage a community construction project.

The broader issue of gender, and the resulting vulnerability, is also a factor. While both men and women living in slums face hardships, women—especially widows— are particularly vulnerable. They are more likely to be victims of violence or subject to cultural norms that do not give them the same legal rights or status as a man. In addition, women are more vulnerable to poverty because they often have limited access to land control and assets outside of marriage or within family ties. These issues must be taken into consideration when planning or implementing a slum upgrading programmer.

One important role the Cities Alliance plays is to help cities or countries share experiences with slum upgrading—what has worked, what hasn’t, and why—and give them access to a network of cities dealing with similar issues.

Such experience can be very valuable. There is no absolute model for how to upgrade a slum. Countries or cities that are engaging in slum upgrading initiatives have different resources and face different challenges.

With its broad, international membership, the Cities Alliance can draw best practice experiences from around the world and pass those messages on to governments that are attempting to deal with their own slum upgrading challenges. Additionally, the Cities Alliance has the ability to access governments and community organizations and help them understand the importance of managing urban development. The world is becoming increasingly urbanized, and managing urban development must involve identifying strategies to deal with the urban poor.

Favela Slum, Upgraded and is tourism attraction

4.1.3 The role of the architects in the upgrading of slums Architects role, sometimes is more than just designing. Their may have urban, social and human importance. An archicter should be aware of the clients he is designing for, their social status and their needs. Only in that way he could create a resilient project offered to those who really need it. In the following lines, we mention three examples of projects related to slum upgrading and how architects in each situation tried to introduce new designing lines in order to make the improve the conditions in the slums.

-Teddy Cruz (Manufactured Site in Tijuana) Teddy Cruz’s project of Manufactured Site in Tijuana is a project in Mexico, which is related to how to create a small dwelling in low cost and constructed by your own without a special knowledge in order to decrease the costs of the construction.

In his project in Tijuana, proposes a “modest, flexible, prefabricated structural system of metal uprights, platforms, and stairs of vibrant colors that would help the inhabitants themselves continue to expand and reinvent their informal patterns of urbanization.

That kind of structure would help people to live in a house totally according in their needs, with no waste spaces.

-Hassan Fathy (Project at New Gourna, Egypt)

Hassan Fathy’s project, is a spherical project concerning not just a single dwelling that a person live in that, but is a whole approach to a new city prototype. New Gourna is a small village in Egypt totally designed and built between 1946 and 1952 by Hassan Fathy. He saw the role of the architect as that of personal consultant yielding his or her training to the aspirations of the homeowner and to the demands of local construction methods and materials.

New Gourna is a village protected nowadays by Unesco as apart of World heritage.

Despite some fail designing approaches, New Gourna still remains a city with sustainable character and living-friendly environment.

-Charles Correa (Incremental Housing project in India)

Charles Correa special design in India has to do with the small scale and the big scale of a living environment at the same time. His proposal was not just a dwelling design, but it was strictly connected with the environment, the neighborhood and the whole group of surrounding housing. So,he created small groups of housings, creating their own inner and public space and upgrading the living conditions to its maximum.

His Incremental Housing project in India created a loose, unfinished neighborhood environment in which growth and upgrading was to be determined by the residents themselves. This kind of project takes into account the patterns, needs, and desires of the poor, rather than imposing a particular architectural expertise or logic that neglects its context.

4.2 The boundaries/Difficulties in adopting changes The primary challenges in slum upgrading are achieving some kind of coherence in the community and finding solutions to a wide range of needs.

Slums are not homogeneous, and there many diverse vested interests that exist in slums. In addition to the poor who are simply looking for a decent place to live, there can be criminal elements who take advantage of the informal space, or landlords who make small fortunes renting out shacks to people over time.

All of these interests must be properly understood and brought into the planning process. The best way to do this is through negotiated development, in which people participate in negotiating their rights and understand that all the different interests have rights that need to be brought into the equation.

In some cases, for example, slum upgrading projects have failed because there are people in the community who believe they won’t qualify for an upgrading programme because they are not citizens or residents of the country.

Conclusion With a 30 % of the urban population in the developing world living in slums, we realize that the ‘slum’ phenomenon is something that deeply concerns every government around the world. Its radically anti-authoritarian structure puts the Slum in a constant conflict with the government, making communication between the two very challenging. However, the slum condition is a statement in itself, proving that communities can be sustained by themselves in the absence of any set of fixed rules and principles and in the absence of a state. Understanding this, is key to understanding why governments will always fight the slum, by doing everything to prevent its formation, but don’t do enough to sustain it and help it develop. As a matter of fact, this research paper shows that the majority of the initiatives which helped in the upgrading of slums came from non-governmental bodies, organizations and individuals as well as from sources within the slums.

As we show life in a slum can oftentimes be difficult. With poor sanitation, sickness, diseases and infections spread quickly, threating the lives of the young and the weak. Children living in the slums have little or no education, having to rely on outside charities and organisations to help school them.

Dangerous gangs are constantly creating troubles making the people feel insecure about their lives, while promoting drug trafficking and prostitution. However, we show that sometimes only small interventions are needed to have dramatic results and improve the conditions of slum life.

So, would a world without Slums be a better world and would it be possible to prevent their formation?

By the time that governments continue to operate in favour of the corporations, they will keep on facilitating illegitimate private gain. As a consequence, the chances for formation of new slums are increased, since the capital is converged to a very small percentage of people and the middle class starts to disappear. Therefore, as the pressure for a clear separation of the world population into distinct social groups increases, the number of slums around the world will not decrease. Thus, a world without slums would only be possible if the structure of the governments around the world took a more humanistic orientation.

Bibliography Books 1.

Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement, by Andres Lepik 2.

The Invisible Houses: Rethinking and designing low-cost housing in developing countries, by Gonzalo Lizarralde 3.

Slam Escape, by Fransesca De Filippi 4.

Land and slum upgrading, by Szilard Fricska, Ruth B. McLeod, United Nations Human Settlements Programme 5.

Poor Little Rich Slum, by Rashmi Bansal 6.

A study of slum culture: backgrounds for La vida, by Oscar Lewis 7.

Slum Tourism: Poverty, Power and Ethics, edited by Fabian Frenzel, Ko Koens, Malte Steinbrink

Articles 1.

Power to the people: local energy initiatives as seedbeds of innovation?

Source: http://www.energsustainsoc.com/content/2/1/4 2.

Slum upgrading strategies involving physical environment and infrastructure interventions and their effects on health and socio-economic outcomes (Review)/ Turley R, Saith R, Bhan N, Rehfuess E 3.

Streets as tools for urban: transformation in slums: A Street-Led Approach to Citywide Slum Upgrading/ United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHABITAT)

Internet Sources 1. http://www.worldbank.org/ 2. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/operations/about_us/ 3. http://www.citiesalliance.org/ 4. http://unhabitat.org/initiatives-programmes/participatory-slum-upgrading/ 5. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/259382884_LAND_RELATED_ CHALLENGES_TO_SLUM_UPGRADING_IN_KENYA 6. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/242378/1810 7. http://www.academia.edu/633862/Alternative_approaches_to_slum_ upgrading_in_Kibera_Nairobi 8. http://www.iadb.org/en/news/news-releases/05-09-2012/slum-upgradinglessons-learned-in-brazil,10096.html 9. http://www.dw.de/new-haiti-houses-wouldnt-survive-another-quake/av17356924

10. http://inhabitat.com/caracas-metro-cable-transport-helps-neighborhoodgrow-sustainably/metro-cable-utt5-/ 11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liter_of_Light 12. http://aliteroflight.org/ 13. http://www.asfint.org/ASF-Publications/are-architects-and-plannersobstacles-slum-upgrading 14. http://whc.unesco.org/en/activities/637/ 15. http://www.nytimes.com/19/02/2008/arts/design/19hous.html 16. http://blog.ted.com/05/02/2014/architect-teddy-cruz-shares-5-projects/ 17. http://www.trip.me/blog/powerful-images-largest-slums-in-the-world/ 18. http://www.justonewayticket.com/11/05/2014/smokey-mountain-a-walkthrough-the-slums-of-manila-philippines/ 19. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/09/2014/slumsmexico201491511553784256-.html 20. http://tradescant.blogspot.be/06/2012/shame-of-londons-slum-clearance. html 21. http://www.iaacblog.com/maa-2012-2011theoryconcepts/files/01/2012/ ANNA-POPOVA-IAAC-MAA-12-11-THEORY-FINAL-PAPER.pdf 22. http://history1800s.about.com/od/urbanconditions/p/fivepointsnyc.htm 23. http://r2.gsa.gov/fivept/wifp.htm 24. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Asbury 25. http://listverse.com/-10/06/08/2014outrageous-slums-in-unexpected-places/ 26. http://www.nytimes.com/30/09/2001/books/the-first-slum-in-america.html 27. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Points,_Manhattan 28. http://www.nytimes.com/11/12/2005/world/europe/11iht-paris. html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 29. http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/rios-favela-populationlargest-in-brazil/# 30. http://www.scribd.com/doc/20369797/Slums-and-Their-Problem#scribd

INDIVIDUAL WORKS

Mahgol Motalebi r0479492 mahgol.motalebi@student.kuleuven.be Decent shelter is a basic human need and a basic human right. But as world population continue to grow at a rapid rate, providing safe sanitary, basic infrastructure and housing will become a serious challenge.

Current estimates about the number of slums suggest that, at present, there are nearly 1 billion people living in slums, and that this number is projected to increase to 1.5 billion by 2020 and to 2 billion by 2030.1 From a safe distance, it is tempting to romanticize, slum dwellers. On the negative and evil side, they are unclean, unwanted, unhealthy, attached to the body of organized society. On the romantic side, they are stranger, struggling within the system, surviving by their wisdoms and stubbornness. Each view is an extreme of the reality, and each serves the purposes of different interest groups occupying higher social colony. In conclusion, both views in effect accept the existence, and persistence, of slums.

The problems with slums seem beyond solution. The reason is that the cause of the problems are either not known, not well understood, are so contradictory, hopelessly twisted with one another that they cannot be identified easily. It seems that there is no straight solution for their problems which are global and also growing one, as population expansion in many countries forces a disproportionate number of people into indefensible living conditions.

Poverty is the cause of slums—people do not have money, and little prospect of getting any. also they don’t have good food, drinking water, medical care, education, or any way to escape their poverty. They are kind of trapped in poverty, more or less. But what is the cause of their poverty? The answer is brutally simple: an unequal distribution of wealth and the resources. Why is a country’s wealth unevenly distributed? Again simple: because the people who have the money and resources want to hang on to them, and even to get more. Their rationalization for doing this is that those who have the wealth and resources are best able to manage them well. because the poor have no experience at managing the money and resources, they will waste it. Another rationalization is about the hypothesis that if the owners of the wealth and resources 1

“Getting ahead of the game: A twin-track approach to improving existing slums and reducing the

need for future slums.” , Geoffrey Payne

are allowed to do their good job of managing, the poor will benefit, too. This is sometimes called the Trickle Down Effect.

“The trickle-down effect is a marketing phenomenon that affects many consumer goods. Initially a product may be so expensive that only the wealthy can afford it. Over time, however, the price will fall until it is inexpensive enough for the general public to purchase.”2 The problem with these justifications is that they are much too optimistic, especially for the communities and countries where the most terrible poverty is prevalent. The poor are in bad condition and cannot wait for bits of wealth to increase them to the upper socio-economic enclosure, even if that were to happen. The worst thing in this case is that the slums of such societies involve with corrupt managers of the wealth such as political leaders or private entrepreneurs.

Today the most important thing that we can learn from slums inorder to help preventing them or design a base strategy for them to upgrade is that they could not be accepted or tolerated in any form in societies. People with good jobs and incomes, who have enough money for their children to put them in schools, to the doctor or clinic; who can save some money, buy enough food and clothing to last a while; who can plan for the future; they do not think very much or fall back on their resourcefulness. But there is no coasting for the slums. Everything is now, today, and each day is a new struggle for survival.

So the poverty which is one of the most terrible features of slums should be decreased. The wealth and resources of any community which includes its human resources cannot controlled just for the benefit of an elite, under whatever idealogy it goes; that the survival of the global society depends on a major reformation of public and private institutions which managing society material and cultural wealth.

These reformation should come from the higher or highest leadership of the social and economic structure. By doing this we could wish a better life for all people over the world, specially poor ones: SLUMS. In conclution, as one human being or a small group of an organization somewhere in the world we could help the slums to upgrade and have better qualities. But what if it is not enough for these amount? We should think and also act globally to make a change for the whole world...

2

Georg Simmel. «Fashion.» International Quarterly, Vol. 1904( 10). pp. 150-130

Kasra hajihassandokht r0479489 kasra.hajihassandokht@student.kuleuven.be «Slums are the products of failed policies, bad governance, corruption, inappropriate regulations, dysfunctional land markets, unresponsive financial systems and a fundamental lack of political will.»

Most of the countries especially the third world countries have many slums which are created in urban spaces. By data release each year from the global statistics, it shows the slum dwellers population growths is unbelievable and it needs global help to prevent or upgrade them as soon as possible. Creation of these slums are different, but the aim of creation is nearly the same. It is because of the poor economic situation, lack of governments support and much more different problems in the society. Actually, the slum dwellers do not care about the politics of the governments or other things, they just need to survive. However, it is not very suitable life quality in slums, the lack of public facilities, clean water, electricity and a lot of primary needs of human beings is missed in slums. So, the question main question is should we prevent from slum creation or we have to provide better facilities and make them improve themselves?

At first, it is better to research about different possibilities and then have a conclusion about the subject. It is better for governments to have a wide points of view and perspective about the future and their politics about the society’s problems. In addition, it is better to create an atmosphere in the society which s prevent from slums, the Prevention is better than cure, so having active economic society and creating job opportunities for people is the primary solution for slum prevention, as we see in different case studies around the world most of the poor countries or weal governments politics have more problem than European countries. But if the country is poor and the government don’t have enough power and money to put in this topic then the society face the slum phenomenon. In this case, the society needs to be cured and emergency solution to prevent from other disease in the other areas.

Secondly, the other choice is to make slums save from adversity. Slum dwellers try to survive in difficult situation as an example, without clean water or medical healthcare and untidy living surfaces. People in this case have nothing to lose and this can cause social problems like murdering or assault in other class of society. For sure, governments should help slum upgrading as a best solution both for slum dwellers

and other people living in that society even it is better for the government.

As a case study there is a clothing brand which build their factory next to slum’s district and creates lots of job opportunities for the slum dwellers, it has many advantages, keeps the factory safe, because people who works there live around it and it is also important for them by earning money from factory, other advantage is that, makes active social life in slums, this idea is simple example of slum upgrading.

When slum dwellers earn money they also want to upgrade their life quality and help each other to create better urban space and it is progression in slum upgrading.

The other example is Rio slum which is became one of the touristic sites for visiting and thousands of people every year wants to see and it helps the slum dweller as economical way to sell their product to tourists and make better atmosphere for them and for tourist to motivate more people to visit their type of living and make a profit by that.

In conclusion, in this situation the best choice is to upgrade slums and have a target for creating better situation for them to have a chance of education, creating public facilities like public transport near slums and encourage them to use and rebuild their houses by providing the basic material for them, beside that a healthcare is really important for the society health for preventing from different viruses and disease.

Everyone have a right to live under standard circumstances and it would be possible by global passion to make it happen. We can all help make a change to this by joining organizations that’s mission is to help and improve countries like India and many other that might be going through similar stuff. Everybody deserves to live a happy and healthy life, not an unhealthy and miserable one especially the younger ones; the children.1

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Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/20369797/Slums-and-Their-Problem#scribd

Dimitrios Triantafyllou r0481523 dimitiros.triantafyllou@student.kuleuven.be Our group assignment is an approach and illustration to the slums around the world.

More than %10 of the global population nowadays living in slums. Around 863 million people living in poverty, without clean water and without good sanitary conditions.

There are some issues that we try to explain, concerning the history, the formation, the conditions and the solutions for the slums around the world.

How can we define a slum? How slums looked like before and how they are now? Which are the reasons of formation of slums? Which are the problems of the inhabitants and which are for the surrounding cities? What can we do to upgrade a slum?

First of all, in order to approach all those questions we should clearly undrstand what does “living in a slum� means. Slums are actually overpopulated areas, usually with criminality, prostitution and maleducation. Slums are unhealthy environments, full of dirt, mud and trash hills. The levels of sanitary are really low and diseases and infections is a usual phenomenon. The average living span is around 45 years old and this is mainly caused by the unsuitable living environment in which inhabitants are living.

The reason why we still have formation of slums even in the 21st century is not that simple. Multiple reasons create several of social problems which caused those bad conditions of living in that huge part of people around the world. The main reason are economical problems that the majority of people are facing. People with really low salaries are not able to afford the living in higher quality areas, so they are obliged to live in low-quality houses and in low-condition living. Moreover, the rapid population growth causes habitation problems, especially in underdeveloped countries. Also, some unexpected reasons such as physical disasters cause sometimes need for a quick and economical way of living.

So, the formation of those cities cause several urban and social problems. Criminality gows with astonishing rhythm and poverty reaches extremely high levels. Those areas are evolving into ghettos which causes problems in the surrounding big cities.

Production of big trash volumes pollutes the water and the ground, a fact that react on every neighbor area and downgrade the living quality.

Finally, what can we do to erase those borders between the mega-cities and the slums, the rich areas and the poor areas, the clean environment and the polluted environent?

How can we evolve the slums into sustainable and livable cities?

There are three basic factors that can help.

Firstly, the government should the first that has to do radical changes. Helping citizens living in a better quality environment, helps the city itself to evolve. Government should be aware of the right of every people to live in a healthy area. By building new social housing, installing new infrastructures suitable for poor people and try to clean up the slums, can make their lifes better.

Secondly, each one of us should be aware of that big problems that some people may face. Each citizen, with a small effort may offer its help and make the difference.

Citizens of the mega-cities should treat slum citizens with kindness are offer them the needed help, such as normal rent prices, job opportunities, facilities and services in order to make them part of their society.

The last category of people that should be aware of that kind of social problems are the architects. Architects should design according to people’s needs and economical status. They have to think clearly, analize the circumstances and act as a social designer.

Their way of thinking should be sustainable and resilient.

Although, it is not always as easy as it seems. The reintegration of citizens of slums into the urban plan of the surrounding cities is not always an easy procedure. Due to lack of awareness, poor people still remain to live in the mud streets, among the trash and the dirt. Also, there are people who take advantage under those circumstances and maintain that situation. Furthermore, racisism, causes problems in reintegration of those people, by not accepting them as normal citizens.

As we see, slums provoke huge social human and urban problems in slums themselves but as well as in the surrounding areas. People should be aware of those remarkable problems people under poverty have to face. Helping co-citizens is actually an action that may help in long term the quality of our own lifes. A local change may become global. A resilient neighborhood may influence the whole city to become resilient as well. And as a result a sustainable microcosm may create a sustainable planet.

Dimitrios Antoniou R0482668 dimitiros.antoniou@student.kuleuven.be Through this assignment, I was given the chance to thoroughly think and discuss about the ‘slum’ phenomenon. This phenomenon, which so much interests, architects, artists, designers, sociologists and people from other humanitarian disciplines around the world, appears to portray a set of both positive and negative aspects. The so called aesthetic of a decaying city, of a city with so many problems, but yet with such a charm, made up of chip and recyclable materials is what induces everyone’s attention, who only need to delve deeply underneath the corrugated steel dwellings to end up right into the hurt of the slum and begin to have an idea of what it is to live there.

What therefore, appears chaotically exotic to the eye of a stranger, most of the times is another side or the rotten side of our contemporary society, which very often turns its back to some of its most basic problems.

Slums are not random creations, but are creations of our civilization, which sacrifices the most elemental of human rights in favor of private profit. In fact, and as our research proved, small developmental infrastructure projects are everything that is needed, when trying to turn a slum into a more viable and friendly place. As a result, societies would not have to spend much to help upgrade slums, but they often prefer to turn their back. This attitude, of course, is justified, when we try to understand global economics. Through the concentration of capital in an elite group of people the world has quickly become a puppet in the hands of this group, who to a large extend are responsible for the situation in slums around the world and who deny to let this capital live their pockets for the sake of humanity.

Nevertheless, poor societies have been proven to be resistant to any type of social depreciation originating from the organized state. Slums are created, while new forms of social structures are generated within these communities, which allow them to operate independently of any central authority and any set of fixed rules.

The inhabitant of the slum might be poor and always face dangers that can threaten his/her life, but his/her survival depends on others in his/her community and so the social bonds between slum inhabitants are very strong. Local informal economies are created when the need for goods and services are high and often some truly sustainable ideas are formed out of need for re-using what everyone in the developed world would consider useless.

As the assignment was focused on the upgrading of slums, a few questions started to arise. For instance, would it be possible for slums to be upgraded to the extend where they become fully developed communities? And would this be possible without demolishing them first? Of course, to answer this we would have to be specific about

the quality of the dwellings and the possibility of improving their stability through low-cost interventions, but overall I believe that through the injection of buildings, facilities and other infrastructural work, over time life in a Slum can have all the positive characteristics of life in larger urban centers. Of course, this would mean that parts of it could be demolished and be reorganized if necessary to achieve a greater benefit.

Important to the development of slums can be the role of architects and designers, as well as the role of the inhabitants themselves, who by participating in the process of re-building and improving the infrastructure, they become key partners in the slum upgrading effort. In this way these people learn new expertise, while they really get attached to the development process, and so to the environment which they create.

On the other hand, architects should have an active role in guiding these efforts since with their help can make the work more professional and sustainable and therefore future proof and permanent. Finally, it is crucial to use the expertise of other fields of study like that of sociology and psychology, to understand how these drastic changes can have an impact on the lives of the inhabitants.

Even though slums generate problems and it would be beneficial to prevent their formation, most of the times this is unavoidable. However, there are solutions which can greatly improve the life in slums by reducing the power of gangs that terrorize people, and by providing solutions to basic needs for clean water and access to facilities; this can be achieved through investing in sociocultural, economic and environmental progress. These investments that should come from the government are usually not, but by having external organizations exerting pressure to the local authorities, this can be possible.