The Urban Paradox

The “Urban Paradox” A dialectic between two informal places, the favelas in Brazil and the Gypsies’ shantytowns in Greece, using the definition of ‘heterotopias’ by Foucault.

“Their world is meant to mirror our own and thus implies the curious relation of unreal counteraction.”

A synthesis based on the dialectic between Favelas and Gypsies’ shantytowns, reflecting on a heterotopic prism.

A dissertation submitted to the Manchester School of Architecture for the degree of Masters of Architecture (March)

Maria Tsouma

May 2012

Manchester School of Architecture University of Manchester Manchester Metropolitan University

DECLARATION No portion of the work referred to in the dissertation has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning.

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Acknowledgments Firstly, I would like to thank my family and my friends, for all their valuable support and advice during this time.

I want to express my gratitude to my dissertation advisor Mr George Epolito for his assistance and cooperation. His input has been greatly appreciated, the sharing of his knowledge, stories and experiences regarding ‘displacement’, have given a more realistic insight to my research.

Thanks also go to Mr Christos Karakepelis (director of the documentary "Raw Material") for his direct response, availability of relevant material and sharing of his experience with Roma people.

Also, I want to mention that my origins are rooted back to Pontos in Black Sea area, from where memories and stories of displacement and migration in new territories, have been a reason for discussing this theme. So, thanks to all those unknown refugees from the "lost homelands".

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Copyright Statement

(1) Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the Author and lodged in the John Rylands Library of Manchester. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author.

(2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the Manchester School of Architecture, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement.

(3) Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Head of Department of the School of Environment and Development.

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Abstract

Urban squatters have always been associated with a state of informality.

Nowadays, this

phenomenon has become a generalised mode of urbanisation. The focus of this research is to explore the subject through two different cases. Paradoxical urbanisation is taking place while excluding social vulnerable groups. Favelas in Brazil and Gypsies’ shantytowns in Greece are both examples of marginalised social groups, living without any planning provisions in informal communities. The research approach adopted allows for a better understanding in how the historic displacement of favelas’ residents or gypsies has led to informal patterns of habitation. The dissertation deals with this comparative presentation through a dialectic between the two cases, aiming to identify similarities and contrasts. Also, by applying the theory of Foucault on heterotopias, the intention was to define housing through ‘otherness’, which often highlights and reveals hidden aspects (social, spatial or anthropological) of the conventional residential urban field with more clarity.. The research discusses the ways poor citizens survive and how they achieve integration with the urban fabric through their labour. Taking into account their living conditions and their social exclusion, it is important to question the future of these informal areas and the potential architectural challenge for upgrading them.

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Contents

Title page - Declaration…………………………………………………….……………..1 Acknowledgments…………………………………………………….……………………2 Copyright Statement…………………………………………………….…………………3 Abstract …………………………………………………….……………………………….4 Contents …………………………………………………….……………………………...5 List of figures …………………………………………………….………………………….7 1.0 Introduction …………………………………………………….……………………11 1.1 Methodology.......................................................................................................... 12 1.2 Scope and context .................................................................................................. 12 1.3 Chapters Overview ................................................................................................. 13

2.0 Urban Transformations………………………………………………………………14 2.1 Urban Fragmentation ............................................................................................. 15 2.1.1 Spatial Fragmentation: the emergence of Slums ............................................ 17 2.1.2 Societal Fragmentation: Excluded citizens........................................................ 18 2.2 Between formal and informal ................................................................................ 19 2.2.1 Informality as a state of exchange .................................................................... 19 2.2.2 Informality as a mode of urbanisation.............................................................. 20 2.2.3 Informality as an incremental development ..................................................... 20 2.2.4 Informality as an upgrading urban challenge................................................... 21 2.3 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 21

3.0 The "Urban Paradox"…………………………………………………………...……22 3.1 The production of space and ‘the right to the city’ ............................................... 23 3.1.1 Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Gypsie’s shantytowns in Athens, Greece 25 3.1.2 Urbanising Background ..................................................................................... 28 3.1.3 The origins – Historical displacement ............................................................... 31

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3.1.3.1 National aspect ......................................................................................... 31 3.1.3.2 Local aspect ............................................................................................... 36 3.1.4 Materialist production ...................................................................................... 41 3.1.4.1 How they are built -Incremental type of housing ..................................... 41 3.1.4.2 Land ownership and Housing Rights ......................................................... 44 3.1.5 Discursive Production: the informal/illegal lifestyle ......................................... 48 3.2 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 54

4.0 Further discussion on Heterotopias………………………………………………..56 4.1 Defining Heterotopia.............................................................................................. 57 4.2 Heterotopias in other disciplines ........................................................................... 58 4.3 Heterotopia, Utopia and Everything Else ............................................................... 58 4.4 The six principles .................................................................................................... 59 4.5 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 63

5.0 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………...…64 Bibliography……………………..…………………………………………..………..…… 66

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List of figures

Cover . Authors own, (2012) A montage based on the mirror effect that Michel Foucalt discusses on the theory of Heterotopias Figure 1. Map by author Figure 2. Unknown (2012) Great Things To Do In Brazil – Favela Tour. [Online] Available: http://are-youready-for-brazil.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/great-things-to-do-in-brazil-favela.html [Assessed: 25 April 2012] Figure 3. Eskildsen Joakim (Unknown). The Roma journeys-Greece [Online] Available: http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/default.asp?Action=Menu&Item=101 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 4. Map was given by Daphnie Costi, UCL student (2011) Figure 5. Eskildsen Joakim (Unknown). The Roma journeys-Greece [Online] Available: http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/default.asp?Action=Menu&Item=101 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 6. Eskildsen Joakim (Unknown). The Roma journeys-Greece [Online] Available: http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/default.asp?Action=Menu&Item=101 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 7. Map Collection of the Foreign Ministry (unknown). History- Periods-Colony [Online] Available: http://www.brasil.gov.br/sobre/history/periods/colony-1/br_model1?set_language=en [Assessed: 05 April 2012] Figure 8. Unknown (1808). Slave Trade Abolished [Online] Available: http://csmh.pbworks.com/w/page/7309520/1808%20-%20Slave%20Trade%20Abolished [Assessed: 05 April 2012] Figure 9. Unknown (1912). On the origin of ‘favela’ [Online] Available: http://rioonwatch.org/?p=2920 [Assessed: 15 April 2012] Figure 10. Unknown (1940). On the origin of ‘favela’ [Online] Available: http://rioonwatch.org/?p=2920 [Assessed: 15 April 2012] Figure 11. Unknown (Medieval Period). Support, guidance and weblinks on Romany Gypsies [Online] Available: http://www.history.org.uk/resources/secondary_resource_4395,4415_59.html [Assessed: 26 April 2012] Figure 12. Unknown (unknown). A history of Roma [Online] Available: http://rollingfilm.org/wikka.php?wakka=aboutromaEN [Assessed: 26 April 2012] Figure 13. Map by author Page | 7

Figure 14. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1938). Nazi treatment of non-Jewish minorities [Online] Available: http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/non-jewishminorities/ [Assessed: 30 April 2012] Figure 15. Unknown (Unknown). The Holocaust [Online] Available: http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/holocaust.html [Assessed: 21 April 2012] Figure 16. Unknown (Unknown). Mario Vargas Llosa’s Carnival: Caricature in the war of the end of the world [Online] Available: http://quarterlyconversation.com/mario-vargas-llosas-carnival-caricature-inthe-war-of-the-end-of-the-world [Assessed: 21 April 2012] Figure 17. Unknown (1895). Canudos Village [Online] Available: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Canudos_village.jpg [Assessed: 21 April 2012] Figure 18. Image taken from "Favela Bairro" published by the Prefeitura of Rio and the IDB (Unknown).

Rio some story - Origins [Online] Available: http://favelaissues.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/histfavela.jpg [Assessed: 25 April 2012] Figure 19. Image taken from "Favela Bairro" published by the Prefeitura of Rio and the IDB (Unknown).

Rio some story - Origins [Online] Available: http://favelaissues.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/histo-favnew-migrants.jpg [Assessed: 25 April 2012] Figure 20-21.

Unknown (2010). Slum to neighborhood In:Lotus International magazine, 1:43 pp. 63.

Figure 22. Eskildsen Joakim (Unknown). The Roma journeys-Greece [Online] Available: http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/default.asp?Action=Menu&Item=101 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 23. Unknown (Unknown). The time of Gypsies in Byzantine Museum [Online] Available: http://www.athinorama.gr/daylife/newsroom/?edtId=13364 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 24. Unknown (2011). Local stadium tuned to a Roma Camp [Online] Available: http://saltseno.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/blog-post_8140.html [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 25. Unknown (2009). The conflict inside [Online] Available: http://www.airoots.org/wpcontent/uploads/2009/02/filipesskola.jpg [Assessed: 23 April 2012] Figure 26. Unknown (2009). The conflict inside [Online] Available: http://www.airoots.org/wpcontent/uploads/2009/02/filipesskola.jpg [Assessed: 23 April 2012] Figure 27. Unknown (Unknown). The border between the affluent neighborhood of Alta Gavea and the low income community of Rocinha [Online] Available: http://1mundoreal.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/03/Contrast-Rocinha-Gavea.jpg [Assessed: 05 April 2012] Figure 28. Protagonistes Series (2010). The persecution of the Gypsies, Youtube clip part 2 of 4 [Online] Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55xgaMpExOY [Assessed: 22 April 2012], (1:10 min)

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Figure 29. Eskildsen Joakim (Unknown). Zafiropoulos family, Glykia Area The Roma journeys-Greece [Online] Available: http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/default.asp?Action=Menu&Item=101 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 30. Eskildsen Joakim (Unknown). Nari- Agia Triada The Roma journeys-Greece [Online] Available: http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/default.asp?Action=Menu&Item=101 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 31. Authors own (2012). Agrinio- Roma camp in Voidolivado Area Figure 32. Tom Kavanagh (2011). The view of Latin America [Online] Available: http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/mudslide.jpg [Assessed: 27 April 2012] Figure 33. Unknown (Unknown). Favela da Rocinha [Online] Available: http://palassiter.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/aerialshot.jpg [Assessed: 02 April 2012] Figure 34. Eskildsen Joakim (Unknown). The Roma journeys-Greece [Online] Available: http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/default.asp?Action=Menu&Item=101 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 35. Maraki Maria (2010). The persecution of the Gypsies –Protagonistes Series [Online] Available: http://www.protagon.gr/?i=protagon.el.fwtografia&id=567 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 36. Alexandre Matthieu (2002). "Workless Hopeful Workers" [Online] Available: http://freephotocourse.com/featured-photographer-matthieu-alexandre.html [Assessed: 12 April 2012] Figure 37. Eskildsen Joakim (Unknown). The Roma journeys-Greece [Online] Available: http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/default.asp?Action=Menu&Item=101 [Assessed: 22 April 2012] Figure 38. Manolaki Semira, Laskaris Giannis (2009). Raw Material Documentary Photos, Digital copies , granted by the director.

Figure 39. Manolaki Semira, Laskaris Giannis (2009). Raw Material Documentary Photos, Digital copies , granted by the director.

Figure 40. Manolaki Semira, Laskaris Giannis (2009). Raw Material Documentary Photos, Digital copies , granted by the director.

Figure 41. Raw Material. 2012. [DVD] Directed by Christos Karakepelis. Greece: CL Productions. (15:40 min) Figure 42. Raw Material. 2012. [DVD] Directed by Christos Karakepelis. Greece: CL Productions. (59:56 min) Figure 43. Sakamaki G. (2007). Gaia Photos Members of ADA, Amigos Dos Amigos, meaning Friends ofFriends in English [Online] Available:http://www.gaiaphotos.com/wpcontent/uploads/2009/05/05sakamaki.jpg [Assessed: 03 April 2012]

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Figure 44. City of God. 2002. [DVD] Directed by Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund. Rio de Janeiro: O2 Filmes. (03:44 min) Figure 45. Favela Rising. 2005. [DVD] Directed by Matt Mochary & Jeff Zimbalist. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: THINKfilm HBO Documentary Films. (26:70 min) Figure 46. Unknown (Unknown). Emir Kusturica Orchestra [Online] Available: http://bearlyrambling.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/emir-kusturica.html [Assessed: 29 April 2012] Figure 47. Scene from the movie of Emir Kusturica”The time of Gypsies” [Online] Available: http://cinewise.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/this-is-yugoslavia-calling-time-of.html [Assessed: 29 April 2012] Figure 48. Elite Squad - Tropa de Elite. 2007. *DVD+ Directed by José Padilha. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.: Universal Pictures. (44:20 min) Figure 49. Souza de Sandra (2011). BOPE in favela Brasilia [Online] Available: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandra_de_souza/5907607569/ [Assessed: 12 April 2012] Figure 50. Unknown (2011). Police takes control of strategic Rio slums [Online] Available: http://www.theglobalecho.org/2011/11/police-take-control-of-strategic-rio.html [Assessed: 19 April 2012] Figure 51. Protagonistes Series (2010). The persecution of the Gypsies, Youtube clip part 1 of 4 [Online] Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHJqG71nu_8 [Assessed: 22 April 2012], (1:43 min)

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1 Introduction The purpose of this research is to understand the theoretical discourse around urbanisation of specific social groups in Brazil and Greece. In particular, the case of ‘favelas’ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and ‘Gypsies’ shantytowns’ in Athens, Greece both refer to the ‘urban paradox’.1 This paradox is an outcome of a process in which the improvements of urbanisation are planned and implemented in the regulated part of society, while the urbanisation increase rate in terms of residents takes place in the peripheries of the city. In both cases this has resulted in several dichotomies in their urban fabrics. Particular regard was given to the antecedent displacement of those citizens, their settling in other regions and the development of self-built integrated informal settlements.

While presenting these two cases in a comparative manner, the analysis focuses on living patterns and spatial arrangements. Also, the intention is to expound the catalytic role of those people in their countries’ economy through their labour, even if they are socially and spatially excluded; a fact that originates from racial and class discrimination. Another projection to be explored is how these people manage to survive without the standard facilities and services, and how they succeed in organising their autonomous communities, outside the norms of society.

The dialogue between the two cases, seeks to point out similarities and differences in terms of their spatial development and their social integration. The analysis elucidates the causes- particularly historic displacement and its consequence, -informal spatial organisation. Both examples are excellent showcases of varying approaches to informal settlements over time, ranging from indifference, brutal eradication, and failed attempts at relocation to more current efforts to upgrade and integrate them into the rest of society.

Finally through a theoretical perspective, a position in the discourse of this ‘paradoxical urban planning’, is explored by using the work of Michel Foucault and his definition on heterotopias. The concept of heterotopias stands between the ordinary and extra-ordinary. Thus, from the architectural perspective, it is essential to discuss whether these urban environments of displacement, can act as a stimulus for architects. And, whether potential interventions will improve peoples’ living conditions and provide them with opportunities outside the ‘heterotopic’ prism which relegates them in oblivion.

1

NOTE: “Urban Paradox”, as defined by the urban scholar Ananya Roy in the discourse of urban informality referring to the inexplicable or contradictory aspects of urban transformations that are occurring in the developing world.

Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.147.

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1.1

Methodology

The research is a comparative/contrasting analysis of two cases of different people living in a state of informality2. By setting up a dialectic (a conversational method of argument according to Socrates)3, the intention is to identify commonalities and potential opposites.4 Through the juxtaposition of facts set within a theoretical frame, the aim is to objectively view each case as a point of reference to each other.

The method of research applied is mainly the literature research, including analysis of the subject from different perspectives (sociological, urban, architectural and philosophical). Also, by using audiovisual sources (documentaries and films), the intention is to present the reality of both cases through testimonies and images.

1.2

Scope and context

In order to contextualise the research, an analysis on Urban Fragmentation and Urban Informality has been done, with a view to explain the urban discourse around the emergence of slums and the consolidation of squatters. By presenting the historical background of the two groups, (Favelas residents and Roma) and their displacement into new territories, the aim is to present the contrasting aspects of their development. The dialectic that is formed at this stage separates the urban development processes of both cases to two categories; the materialist (spatial arrangement) and the discursive (lifestyle). 5 Finally, the theory of Foucault on Heterotopias, gives an insight of the “otherness”, combined with the planning approach for informal settlements. Overall, the research report intends to show how socially excluded groups create their characteristic spatial habitation patterns without any architectural assistance, relying only on their own norms and strategies and exploring what architects can learn from them.

2

NOTE: In the dissertation the terms urban ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ that have been used; refer to the contrast between the planned parts of the city and the unplanned in an equation with urban poverty. In the urban discourse informality is perceived as a state of exception from the formal (official) order of urbanisation.

Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.147.

3 Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 2003. Dialectic. [Online] (HarperCollins Publishers ) Available at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dialectic [Accessed 1 May 2012] 4 NOTE: “Dialectic: A method of argument or exposition that systematically weighs contradictory facts or ideas with a view to the resolution of their real or apparent contradictions.”

The American Heritage- Dictionary of the English Language, 2009. Dialectic. [Online] (Houghton Mifflin Company) Available at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dialectic [Accessed 1 May 2012].

5 To be fully explained on Chapter 3. See page 22.

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1.3

Chapters Overview

Second Chapter: discusses the urban transformations that occur in societies and how they lead to the fragmentation (either spatial or social) of socially weak groups. Also, it explores the concept of urban informality; a non-conventional and official form of city planning referring to marginalised groups of people.

Third Chapter: introduces the main argument and explains the urban paradox by juxtaposing the cases of Favelas and the Gypsies’ shantytowns. It contextualises them in reference to their origins and their historical displacement. Then, it explores the urban manifestations of such displacements, regarding peoples’ spatial establishment and role in society.

Fourth Chapter: presents a theoretical perspective according to Michel Foucault’s theory on heterotopias, combined with the discourse of urban informality in the cases presented.

Conclusion: an overview of the preceded research. Also, it presents the potential of the architectural challenge, and establishes the author’s point of view.

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2 Urban Transformations

Urban poverty6 has very often been a great challenge for exploration by different scientific disciplines.

“Governments often fail to recognise the rights of the urban poor and incorporate them into urban planning, thereby contributing to the growth of slums”.7 Metropolitan cities do not follow the logic of normal and equitable growth that the urban plan imposes which as a result means that large unplanned parts of the city are formed independently. A consequence of these urban transformations is the appearance of the urban informality8, which has been “associated with poor squatter settlements and is now seen as a generalised mode of metropolitan urbanisation.”9 Due to the current dismal global reality, either economical or socio-political, these excluded lands are growing in size and power. The informality intensifies the dire state of these people and now constitutes one of the biggest urban challenges. In order to understand how these urban transformations occur along with their consequences, two projections will be discussed, initially, “fragmentation” and the perspectives of “informality”. The aim is to explain how slums emerged and how squatters have been consolidated within societies.

6

NOTE: The term ‘urban poverty’ refers to those people that their low incomes make them incapable of meeting their minimum basic needs and who live in slums, squatter and resettlement areas and other urban areas.

Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, n.d. Facts and Figures- The Urban Poor. [Online] Available at: http://www.pcup.gov.ph/html/factsfigures/TheUrbanPoor.html [Accessed 25 March 2012].

7 Cities Alliance Organisation, 2012. About Slum Upgrading. [Online] Available at: http://www.citiesalliance.org/About-slum-upgrading [Accessed 2 April 2012].

8 NOTE: Informality refers to settlements that are illegally, organised out of the state’s codes, without any governmental provisions.

9

Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.147.

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2.1

Urban Fragmentation

The impact of globalisation in rather developed cities has led to several urban transformations. The acceleration of urbanisation appears to be one of the “greatest socio-economic changes during the last five decades”.10 This, has caused “the burgeoning of new kinds of slums, the growth of squatters and informal housing, all around the developing world”.11 This has resulted in a disorder of the planned city and thus, a chaotic mosaic of structures between the city and the periphery.

“Spatial disparities between rich and poor are often clearly geographically delineated, and at extremes characterised by gated ‘communities’, ironically disconnected to the realities of genuine local communities.”12 This paradoxical schism between the different groups of citizens is considered a serious cause for many social and spatial variations of people living within the same context.

Several urban phenomena have emerged through these transformations in many cities worldwide. 13 Daniel Kozak14 invoking the studies of professor Welch Guerra, analyses and divides these phenomena into two types. Firstly, there is a strong increase in the dispersion of urbanisation, forming a new type of socio-spatial segregation due to the relative changes in the distribution of jobs and incomes and the adoption of new lifestyles. In addition to this, another aspect of these phenomena is the emergence of spatial relations within the cities and in what was previously considered the hinterland, a type of economic dependency as the population of poor groups is the labour class of the privileged.15 In terms of the urban fragmentation, the analysis shall focus on areas that are excluded spatially from the rest of society due to a combination of ethnic and financial conditions. Urban poverty is the common denominator on which these areas are allocated.

“In some cases such as Calcutta or Rio de Janeiro, it is overlaid on a century or more of both abysmal poverty and social exclusion; in others, as in the Netherlands, Sydney or Frankfurt it is a new appearance, a matter of growing concern but yet nowhere near the 10

UN-HABITAT, 2003. The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. [Online] United Nations Human Settlements Programme (Earthscan Publications) Available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=1156 [Accessed 5 January 2012].pp. xxxi.

11 Ibid., pp. xxxi.

12

Kozak, D.,Jenks, M., Takkanon, P., 2008. Introduction. In M. Jenks, D. Kozak & P. Takkanon, eds. World Cities and Urban Form - Fragmneted, polycentric, sustainable? London and New York: Routledge. pp.5.

13 Kozak, D., 2008. Assessing Urban Fragmentation: The emergence of new typologies in central Buenos Aires. In M. Jenks, D. Kozak & P. Takkanon, eds. World Cities and Urban Form - Fragmneted, polycentric, sustainable? London and New York: Routledge. pp.239.

14 NOTE: Daniel Kozak: Lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture in the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina 15

Guerra, W. 2005 as cited in Kozak, D., 2008. Assessing Urban Fragmentation: The emergence of new typologies in central Buenos Aires. In M. Jenks, D. Kozak & P. Takkanon, eds. World Cities and Urban Form - Fragmneted, polycentric, sustainable? London and New York: Routledge. pp.239-240.

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dimensions of the first group. In New York City, it is well documented; in Tokyo there is a denial of the existence of concentrated poverty. But the tendency to impoverishment and exclusion is detectable in all globalizing cities”.16 The urban realities of many of today’s cities experience an ongoing processes of fragmentation. In urban terms it describes the phenomenon of increasingly differentiated societal and spatial polarization within the cities.17 Urban fragmentation is classified into different types depending on how it appears or influences the society. It can be either a ‘process’, the action of breaking or separating into fragments, or a ‘state’, the state of being fragmented.18 In the urban discourse, fragmentation is used to describe the “disorderly process of development that leads to the splintering of urban space and makes the city a mosaic without distinguishable centrality”.19 Also, in a socio-political perspective, we can assume that it can be either a threat to social-cohesiveness and to the urban entirety.20 In a later stage, through the two cases that will be discussed, the aim is to answer whether and how ‘urban fragmentation’ is achieved, and to what level.21 More specifically in order to explain how this polarisation occurs in a society, societal fragmentation – (the will be described consolidation and the role of squatters) and the spatial fragmentation – (how slums have emerged).

16

Marcuse, P., 2008. Globalization and the Forms of Cities. In M. Jenks, D. Kozak & P. Takkanon, eds. World Cities and Urban Form Fragmneted, polycentric, sustainable? London and New York: Routledge. pp.31.

17 Deffner V., Hoerning, J., 2011. Fragmentation as a threat to soacial cohesion? A conceptual review and an empirical approach to Brazilian Cities.-International RC21 Conference 2011 ed. The struggle to belong. Dealing with diversity in 21st century urban settings. Amsterdam, July 2011. Research Comittee 21. [Online] Available at: http://www.rc21.org/conferences/amsterdam2011/edocs2/Session%2015/15-1-Deffner.pdf [Accessed 20 December 2011].pp.1.

18 Brown, L., 1993. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Revised edition ed. Oxford University Press.pp.1018.

19

Deffner V., Hoerning, J., 2011. Fragmentation as a threat to soacial cohesion? A conceptual review and an empirical approach to Brazilian Cities.-International RC21 Conference 2011 ed. The struggle to belong. Dealing with diversity in 21st century urban settings. Amsterdam, July 2011. Research Comittee 21. [Online] Available at: http://www.rc21.org/conferences/amsterdam2011/edocs2/Session%2015/15-1-Deffner.pdf [Accessed 20 December 2011].pp.5.

20 Ibid., pp.6-7.

21

Ibid., pp.1, NOTE: “Concerning urban societies, the “fragmented city” seems to replace terms like the “dual/divided city” or the “quartered city”, but it is unclear if this fragmentation is seen to be the new structural socio spatial form, or if it is a mere temporary and auxiliary term for a process which is threatening us by its new complexity due to the sizes of cities today.”

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2.1.1 Spatial Fragmentation: the emergence of Slums “It is almost certain that slum dwellers increased substantially during the 1990s. It is further projected that in the next 30 years, the global number of slum dwellers will increase to about 2 billion, if no firm and concrete action is taken”.22 Slums seem to be the result of non-successful of housing strategies, laws and urban planning tactics, rather than a sudden explosion of urban poor population. “With a literal “great wall” of high-tech border enforcement blocking large-scale, migration to the rich countries, only slums remains as a fully franchised solution to the problem of warehousing this century’s surplus humanity”.23 Mike Davis characterises slums as “an amalgam of dilapidated housing, overcrowding, disease, poverty and vice”. 24 According to the 2003 UN-HABITAT report, presents slums as “a multidimensional concept involving aspects of poor housing, overcrowding, lack of services and insecure tenure”.25 Today the vast majority of slums are found in the developing world. There are about “a billion squatters in the world today-one in every six humans on the planet and the density is on the rise”.26 The best guess is that “by 2030, there will be two billion squatters, one in four people on earth”.27 Slums are “a physical and spatial manifestation of urban poverty” and inner city’s inequality. 28 They are considered as a large scale affordable and accessible solution for accommodating low-income people. “Rural migrants, displaced persons, refugees and foreign workers, constitute the dwellers of those informal types of housing; all of them generally living in particularly precarious conditions”.29

22

UN-HABITAT, 2003. The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. [Online] United Nations Human Settlements Programme (Earthscan Publications) Available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=1156 [Accessed 5 January 2012].pp. xxv.

23 Davis, M., 2006. Planet of slums. London/ New York: Verso Publications.pp.200.

24 25 26 27

Ibid., pp.22.

UN-HABITAT, 2003. The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003.pp.12.

Neuwirth, R., 2004, 2005. Shadow cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. New York , London: Routledge.pp.9.

Ibid., pp.9.

28

UN-HABITAT, 2003. The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. [Online] United Nations Human Settlements Programme (Earthscan Publications) Available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=1156 [Accessed 5 January 2012]..pp.xxvi.

29 Ibid., pp.xxix.

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2.1.2 Societal Fragmentation: Excluded citizens In the general public’s perception there is a social distance between the bourgeoisie and the urban poor. For many, squatters or poor immigrants are stereotypes as they have been perceived as social groups which were pushed off the land and are unable to adapt to the modern urban life style. Squatting versions vary between different countries. It refers to the legality of land ownership and its users (squatters), who are people, occupying land or buildings without the permission of the owner. Thus, these people have no claim to the land they occupy that can be upheld in law. 30 Slums provide “low-cost housing and services for rapidly expanding low-income urban populations, mainly urban workers of all kinds”.31 Many poor slums dwellers work in the city, “ensuring that the needs of the rich and other higher-income groups are met; the informal economic activities of slums are closely intertwined with the city’s formal economy”.32 However squatters are not living at the expense of others.

These poor people are “the largest producers of shelter and builders of cities in the world”.33

30

UN-HABITAT, 2003. The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. [Online] United Nations Human Settlements Programme (Earthscan Publications) Available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=1156 [Accessed 5 January 2012].pp.105 31 UN-HABITAT, 2007. Twenty First Session of the Governing Council - Today's Slums: Myths versus Reality. [Online] United Nations Human Settlements Programme Available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/docs/4625_14723_GC%2021%20Slums%20Myths%20vs%20reality.pdf [Accessed 18 January 2012].pp.1.

32 UN-HABITAT, 2003. The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. pp. xxvii.

33

UN-HABITAT, 2007. Twenty First Session of the Governing Council - Today's Slums: Myths versus Reality. pp.3.

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2.2

Between formal and informal

In architectural terms the distance between the ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ not only implies “the physical aspects of the cities but also their entire socio-political fabric”.34 The ‘formal’ represents the structured city where buildings designed by architects and parts of the city that have been planned. On the contrary, the ‘informal’ describes the shapeless areas characterised by incoherence, as their economic and socio-political structures are unstable. It is about the rest of the formal city; buildings and parts that have developed without the participation of architects.35 Thus, the architectural challenge to “deal with informality, partly means confronting how the apparatus of planning produces the unplanned and unplannable”.36 In order to understand how informality occurs, different perspectives an informality will be analysed.

2.2.1 Informality as a state of exchange The development of urbanisation in many cities is marked by several dualities; “informality is a kind of state of exception from the formal order of urbanisation”.37 According to Ananya Roy this is a type of paradox as “much of the urban growth of the 21st century is taking place in the developing world, but many theories of how cities function remain rooted in the developed world.”38 Urban informality is about an urban phenomenon which refers to non-legitimate processes occurring in the urban environment. It can be related to several sectors of urban life such as housing, land marketing, labour and economy. The combination of all these has resulted in the emergence of informal spatial sites within the ‘formal’ society.

Generally, the term “informal” points out all those illegal activities acting as an instrument to break down legal constraints. In the working-class housing environments in most places on the planet, “the degree of informality seems to have a directly inverse relationship to per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product) or development indices: the poorer the population, the more informal the settlement.”39 The Russian Federation and countries in Africa, Latin America and Central Asia have the highest level of

34

Hernandez, F. & Kellet, P., 2008. Introduction: Reimagining the Informal in Latin America. In F. Hernadez, P. Kellet & L.K. Allen, eds. Rethinking the Informal City - Critical Perspectives from Latin America. New York - Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp.1-2.

35 Ibid., pp.1-2.

36 37 38

Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.155.

Ibid., pp.147.

Ibid., pp.147.

39

Luiz Lara, F., 2010. The Form of Informal- Investigating Brazilian Self-Built Housing Solutions. In F. Hernadez, P. Kellet & L.K. Allen, eds.

Rethinking the Informal City - Critical Perspectives from Latin America. New York - Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp.24.

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informality, often more than 50 percent of GDP. On the other hand, in central Europe the growth of informality is slowing in the wake of extensive microeconomic reforms.40

2.2.2 Informality as a mode of urbanisation The formation of slums and shantytowns, demonstrates the reordering process of the ‘informal’ part by the ‘formal’ city. Housing informality is related to poor people who cannot afford a legal type of accommodation and thus are usually located in the urban periphery without having basic infrastructure for living. From the other end of the spectrum, “the metropolitan fringes have been a key location for the informal practices of the elite”.41 Unlike squatters and migrants, privileged citizens settling illegally, while “enjoying premium infrastructure and guaranteed security of tenure”.42 This paradoxical aspect balances between legality and illegality and involves from one part the squatter settlements, (formed through trampling of land and self-help housing) and on the contrary, the upscale informal subdivisions, (formed through legal ownership and market transactions but in a violation of land use regulations).43

2.2.3 Informality as an incremental development For low-income, informal types of housing are considered as constructs of incremental development.

They are built with recycled materials and rough infrastructure elements, where settlements have been constructed constantly and are kept expanding according to occupants’ needs. The formation of those areas has been achieved through tactics and innovations which “urban poor and marginalised people invent”.44 It is about “their ability to absorb, recycle, provide services, establish networks, celebrate, play and essentially extend the margins of the urban system to new levels of robustness”.45 Their survival strategy is based on “the invention, within strong constraints with indigenous resources”, in order to reverse their struggle for survival into a sustainable strategy.46

40

Palmade, V. & Anayiotos, A., 2005. Rising Informality - Viewpoint Policy Journal. [Online] The World Bank Group, FIAS (Foreign Investment Advisory Service) Available at: https://www.wbginvestmentclimate.org/uploads/FIAS+-+Rising+Informality.pdf [Accessed 16 March 2012].pp.1.

41 Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.149.

42 43

Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.149.

Ibid., pp.149.

44

Mehrotra, R., 2008. Foreward. In M. Jenks, D. Kozak & P. Takkanon, eds. World Cities and Urban Form - Fragmneted, polycentric, sustainable?

London and New York: Routledge. pp.xiii.

45 Ibid., pp.xiii.

46

Ibid., pp.xiii.

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2.2.4 Informality as an upgrading urban challenge There have been considerable efforts to regenerate these areas by introducing different urban policies. Urban upgrading strategies applied either in Third World countries but also in the more developed ones, attempted to improve and integrate such spaces. “In the 1990’s the harsh rhetoric of austerity and privatisation gave way to a new generation of poverty alleviation programs that recycled the populist ideas of an earlier era: self-help housing, microenterprises, and community initiatives”.47 In the contemporary society these policies have been based on the idea of “Sustainable Human Development”, which suggests support to poor people to help themselves.48 Upgrading strategies seem a more sustainable and fair solution rather than former actions of solving the problem through eradications or relocations. However all these ambitious solutions have limitations, as “what is redeveloped is space, (the built environment and physical amenities), rather than people’s capacities or livelihoods”.49 According to the 2003 UN-HABITAT report, “national approaches to slums , and to informal settlements in particular, have generally shifted from negative policies such as forced eviction, benign neglect and involuntary resettlement, to more positive policies a such as self-help and in-situ upgrading , enabling and right-based policies”.50

2.3

Conclusion

One can assume that nowadays, the “fragmented cities” formed by several transformations on the urban fabric and have been a breeding ground for the development of an ‘informal’ plan of action. This has intensified the disparities and inequalities within the society. As a result socially vulnerable groups are spatially excluded, even though they are great supporters of economy through their labour. The question is even if this exclusionary urban model is imposed, through which ways will urban poor people succeed in surviving?

47 48 49

Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.150.

Ibid., pp.150.

Ibid., pp.150.

50

UN-HABITAT, 2003. The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. [Online] United Nations Human Settlements Programme (Earthscan Publications) Available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=1156 [Accessed 5 January 2012].pp.xxvi.

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3 The Urban Paradox

In the previous section there discussed several inequalities that occur in a society were discussed.

Urban transformations within a city have been traced on a divided landscape, in which different and contrary groups of citizens in diverse types of settlements co-exist. What is called ‘urban paradox’ is mainly regarded as an ambiguous outcome of a rapid urbanisation process in developing countries. In the two cases that have been chosen to be presented, the focus is to explain this paradox regarding spatially and socially excluded people, who play a major role in their countries’ economies.

Through the cases of favelas in Rio de Janeiro and the Gypsies’ shantytowns in Athens, the intention is to present the paradoxical improvement of urbanisation and how it results, by making a historical retrospection. The historical displacement either of favelas residents (colonised from Spain, Portugal and immigrants from Africa) or Roma (immigrants originally from India), may be a cause of the consequent informal spatial organisation, as racial discrimination has exacerbated the gap between them and the people already living there. Both examples cannot be solely explored as generic units.

Films and documentaries were used, along with empirical research material which reveal that each case appears to have its own attributes. Several factors, such as location and the size or the wealth of the community have a consequent impact on the living conditions of the citizens.

The contrast justifying the paradoxical development of both cases relies on how the urbanisation of these cities results on one hand in privileged central neighbourhoods, where public services and facilities were planned and applied, and on the other hand on marginalised, undeveloped areas in the periphery; where the majority of urban sprawl occurs. These two examples depict the exclusion and the displacement of these citizens to informal and unplanned landscapes, while they work in order to satisfy the needs of the mainstream city. But how do they achieve acting autonomously and “producing” their own spaces without any planning provisions?

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3.1

The production of space and ‘the right to the city’

The fact that slums are perceived as socially and spatially disconnected “fragments” from the official city, is in contrast with the fact that they are “economically highly interrelated” with the mainstream society.51 Scholars V. Deffner and J. Hoerning in their report “Fragmentation as a Threat to Social Cohesion?” examine the ambiguity around fragmented parts of the city. They distinguish slums social production in two types (according to the theory of Henri Lefebvre): the “materialist” and the “discursive” production.52 Through this dialectic relation (logical argumentation), the aim is to understand through which procedures, both cases, are formed and developed by pointing out their similarities and differences.

The formation either of favelas or Gypsies’ shantytowns has not only a spatial dimension, yet it is about a complex synthesis of interrelated spatial and social elements. Lefebvre, describes the production of social space as an outcome of several spatial relations. He argues that, “*…+ social space is not a thing among other things, nor a product among other products: rather, it subsumes things produced and encompasses their interrelationships in their coexistence and simultaneity- their (relative) order and/or (relative) disorder”.53 Lefebvre, explains that space can be an effect of a ‘materialistic’ production pattern, combining perceived and conceived elements. It is a kind of space that merges everyday practices, representations of images, perceptions which have been traced in an urban form and is fundamentally tied with people who produce it. “Thus space may be said to embrace a multitude of intersections each with its assigned location.”54 Spaces are consisted of “lived” experiences, “embodying complex symbolisms, sometimes coded, sometimes not, linked to the clandestine or underground social life”.55 The ‘discursive’ spatial patterns seem to imperil the cohesiveness of the formal city. Generally, these spaces act as a tool in order to comprehend how society works.

51

Deffner V., Hoerning, J., 2011. Fragmentation as a threat to soacial cohesion? A conceptual review and an empirical approach to Brazilian Cities.-International RC21 Conference 2011 ed. The struggle to belong. Dealing with diversity in 21st century urban settings. Amsterdam, July 2011. Research Comittee 21. [Online] Available at http://www.rc21.org/conferences/amsterdam2011/edocs2/Session%2015/15-1-Deffner.pdf [Accessed 20 December 2011] .pp.7.

52 Ibid., pp.7.

53

Lefebvre, H., 1974. La production de l' espace - The Production of space. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith, 1991.Oxford: Blackwell., pp.73.

54 Ibid., pp.33.

55

Ibid., pp.33.

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In terms of the production of the slum spatial patterns, they are perceived and as “other” spaces in contrast to the planned part of the city. Additionally, they are conceived as a gloomy version of “lived space”, which is dominated by danger, crime and violence.

Through the cases of squatters another concept of Lefebvre is related to the excluded citizens.

Among different people in a society “the rights to the city” is an issue at stake, as it is not clear how it is conceptualised and for whom it is a viable right.56 Even though it seems that marginalisation is blocking squatters from any “rights to the city”, they achieve to invert it. Rather than “*…+ seizing an abstract right, they are taking an actual place: a place to lay their heads.

This act- to challenge society’s denial of place by taking one of your own- is an assertion of being in a world that routinely denies people the dignity and the validity inherent in a home”.57 More specifically the dialectic relation (a form of logic) regarding the social production of Favelas and Gypsies’ shantytowns will be presented in a comparative way. The analysis includes the juxtaposition of different ways through which they produce their “urban realities”, referencing to their historical displacement and their urbanising background, leading to their establishment in new territories and their consolidation within the wider society.

56

Mitchell, D., 2003. The dialectic of public space. In The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. New York: Guilford Press. p.128.

57 Neuwirth, R., 2004, 2005. Shadow cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. New York , London: Routledge. pp.311.

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3.1.1 Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Gypsie’s shantytowns in Athens, Greece Brazil and Greece are two different continents, countries and cultures, but with some similarities.

Nowadays, Brazil is one of the four major emerging economies in the world. Even if it used to be a sleeping giant but taking advantage of her promising location it has become a key player in global trade talks.58 (fig 1) On the contrary, Greece has been the cradle of civilisation and now seems to have reached a financial quagmire as debts have become a loop with the risk of collapse. But both countries used to be reception areas of many migrants.

Figure 1. Countries’ and cities’ location

Favelas are a spatial manifestation of social inequalities within the Brazilian society. However, the majority of Roma communities do not have a specific capital as people have always been perceived as a nomadic minority rights group. Through the discussion presented, the aim is to understand how different versions of slums and excluded citizens form the ‘informal’ urban realities of their countries and their role within the society.

Firstly, in the wider context of Brazil, favelas are understood as a symbol of socio-spatial segregation.

They are “the visible proof of the ‘divided city’ representing the informal part of the urban society and economy”.59 Favelas are in fact the quarters of urban poor and usually the land they occupy has been

58

Colitt, R., 2008. Sleeping giant Brazil wakes, but could stumble. [Online] (Reuters, U.S. Edition) Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/05/13/brazil-economy-idUSNOA33289320080513 [Accessed 26 April 2012].

59 Deffner V., Hoerning, J., 2011. Fragmentation as a threat to soacial cohesion? A conceptual review and an empirical approach to Brazilian Cities.-International RC21 Conference 2011 ed. The struggle to belong. Dealing with diversity in 21st century urban settings. Amsterdam, July 2011. Research Comittee 21. [Online] Available at http://www.rc21.org/conferences/amsterdam2011/edocs2/Session%2015/15-1-Deffner.pdf [Accessed 20 December 2011] .pp.7.

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informally subdivided or sold. They are located mostly in areas “deemed unsafe or unfit for planned residential development”.60 (fig 2)

Figure 2. Favela located on a morro (hill)

“The favelas of Rio de Janeiro have appeared throughout the city since the 1950s. There are now about 700 and they house an estimated 1 million inhabitants”.61 They are the classic shanty towns of Brazil and are normally situated upon the rising topography of Rio de Janeiro’s surrounding hills. They are primarily located in the suburbs, where public utilities are rarely available and environmental conditions are poor, owing to few connections to basic infrastructure.62 Still, in the Greek terrain, Roma have a strong presence, as they have lived in compact groups creating their own communities for more than seven centuries, accounting for approximately 3% of the total population. Gypsies or Roma are traditionally nomadic people with a great and multifaceted culture. They live in groups close to the axis of Romani tradition. The difficult living conditions are the cause of delinquency in all levels, feeding the vicious cycle of social exclusion and growing the gap between the civil and excluded social groups.

60

UN-HABITAT, 2003. The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. [Online] United Nations Human Settlements Programme (Earthscan Publications) Available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=1156 [Accessed 5 January 2012].pp. 87.

61 Ibid., pp.87.

62

Ibid., pp. 87.

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Figure 3. Roma camp view, Veroia, Northern Greece

Their employment skills in trade and industry, makes them valuable supporters of a large part of the Greek economy. The particularity of their culture and the lack of resources to deal with the complicated housing conditions and bureaucracy in Greece, makes them incapable of benefiting from monetary funds. Thus, there is a myth around the cause of the poor living conditions, as the responsibility balances between citizens and authorities.

In a different way than that of favelas, Gypsies’ shanties’ settlements are subject to their nomadic way of living.(fig 3) Thus, they cannot fully comprehend that they divide the city in two segments but that they are one of the informal segments of the already socially divided Greek society. However, in both cases, it is evident that even if these people have an important role in their society, they are considered marginal spatially and socially.

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3.1.2 Urbanising Background In order to understand why these poor groups are often perceived as a threat for the urban cohesiveness, it is important to look in retrospect, specifically, how they have been affected by the urbanisation process and their efforts in order to integrate into the urban fabric.

Latin America’s urbanisation process is tightly linked with industrialisation. Due to the high rates of urbanisation in those regions, the internal migration63 proceeded at a greater level.64 The increased dynamism of urbanisation within Brazil was mentioned during the 19th century, when the territorial organisation of citizens was of great importance. The internal migration in Brazilian cities occurred due to mainly economic reasons which lead people to move to the urban centres where industrialisation investments were taking place.

Similarly, in the past decade in Greece, a decline and depopulation of rural countryside was noticed due to the industrial development in the city-centres, which resulted in domestic migration and increased urbanisation. Therefore, the already wronged Roma were placed in dead zones of the cities outside the city plan, in areas where land was fully devaluated from the housing market. Over time, these areas attracted more excluded citizens and formed enclaves of poverty, illegal and informal settlements.

Generally, urban transformations in both cases have not only economical but also social roots. In the Brazilian case, restricted labour opportunities and social services in rural areas and progressive conditions for favoured social groups in cities, played a major role in the development of country’s urban model.

“Brazil with a population of 170 million, of which 75 percent are urbanised, has 90 million poor people, 62 per cent of the total and 4000 favelas scattered across the country.”65 (fig 4)

63

Note: Internal migration refers to the relocation of people within the same country for settlement purposes.

64

Perlman, J., 1976. Chapter One: Cities and squatters. In The myth of marginality: urban poverty and politics in Rio de Janeiro. London: University of California Press. pp.4.

65 Segre, R., 2010. Formal-Informal Connections in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: The Favela-Bairro Programme. In F. Hernandez, P. Kellett & L.K. Allen, eds. Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp.164.

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Figure 4. Relationship between topography, greenery and favelas’ development throughout the landscape of Rio

This frames the dual character of most Brazilian cities; the hegemony of extreme poverty in anonymous suburbs not only prevails but also threatens the affluent society living model.66 The illusion of the city providing jobs and opportunities for all, gives false hope of a better life to rural poor who are motivated to migrate into the cities. In fact, they become migrants to the centre and resort to illegal means to find housing. It is like a move of “urbanising their poverty”, which means they become squatters.67 The Roma case differs slightly from the Brazilian one, as the living conditions of Roma in Greece differ considerably from the Brazilian model, “they depend on the extent of assimilation, the type of occupation, and, significantly, on the mercy of the local authorities”.68 Several architects of the

66

Segre, R., 2010. Formal-Informal Connections in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: The Favela-Bairro Programme. In F. Hernandez, P. Kellett & L.K. Allen, eds. Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp.164.

67 Roy, A., 2004. Transnational Trespassings: The Geopolitics of Urban Informality. In A. Roy & N. AlSayyad, eds. Urban informality: transnational perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books. pp.290.

68 Rinne, C., 2002. The Situation of the Roma in Greece. [Online] Available at: http://www.domresearchcenter.com/journal/16/greece6.html [Accessed 24 April 2012].

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University of Athens have researched the ways Roma use to integrate in the planned urban fabric. They state that the most privileged economically and socially Roma, in an effort to integrate with the rest of community, follow the spatial codes of the formal society, by conforming to the standard housing model (land transactions or renting houses).69 However in the new territories they create, they keep immutable their cultural, customs and traditions. (fig 5) They perceive the house as a cell and they act and live as they were living in a tent or a shack. Furniture is not considered necessary and their houses are one or two rooms.70 (fig 6)

Figure 5. Typical Roma interior living conditions

Figure 6. Living on the ground

69

Polizos, I. et al., 1998. Report: PHENOMENON OF SOCIAL MARGINALISATION: THE PARTICULARITY OF THE ROM COMMUNITY IN THE URBAN FABRIC OF ATHENS 1995-1998. [Online] School of Architecture n.t.u.a. Available at: http://courses.arch.ntua.gr/119584.html [Accessed April 27 2012].pp.12-13.Translated by the author.

70 Ibid., pp.13-14.

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3.1.3 The origins – Historical displacement 3.1.3.1

National aspect

The urbanisation process in the two cases has been influenced by several social, economical and political events and conditions. The rise and the development of illegal communities within many cities, has come through a series of past events.

In Latin America, the foundation of cities was part of Spanish and Portuguese colonising strategy.

“Cities served as a means for the colonisers to impose their own socio-political and economic structures and thereby establishing themselves in a position of authority”.71 Colonial Brazilian cities were relatively unplanned and grew organically, expanding geographically, in keeping with the hierarchical arrangements of their leading families.72 (fig 7) “This produced a landholding system where boundaries were not clear and where expectations about land use were agreed to informally.”73

Figure 7. Territories recorded during colonising period

Figure 8. Black slave’s trade

71

Hernandez, F. & Kellet, P., 2008. Introduction: Reimagining the Informal in Latin America.In Hernandez F., Kellett P. & Allen L.K., Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectived from Latin America. New York: Berghahn Books. pp.3.

72 McCann, B., 2008. Urban crisis. In The Throes of Democracy, Brazil since 1989. London: Zed Books. pp.52.

73

Ibid., pp.53.

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Apart from people already living there, Spanish and Portuguese colonisers and as well black African slaves participated in the formation and consolidation of colonial cities. 74 (fig 8) Slavery played a huge part in populating Rio, almost two thirds of population in fact. It was only natural that when slavery was brought to an end in Brazil in the late 19th century there was a huge and immediate demand for housing.

Former slaves set up refuge slave communities in the forested areas outside Rio.75 With the abolishment of slavery at the end of 19th century and the emergence of a precarious industrialisation in the 20th century, the most important developments that transformed many Brazilian regions from rural cities to urban cities, occurred.76 This caused the colonial centre to become obsolete, as it was no longer able to satisfy the demands of the modern city, whereas new urban models were applied to ‘modernise’ the city.77 “The declaration of the republic in 1889 created newly perceived needs for urban codification, at a time of when the urban population was growing rapidly due to the influx of freed slaves and the arrival of European immigrants”.78 This led to a growing perception of informality. Arrangements once deemed natural were beginning to be recognised as disorderly.79 (fig 9,10)

Figure 9. Morro do Pinto, favela settlements 1912

Figure 10. Santa Marta, favela settlements 1940

74

Hernandez, F. & Kellet, P., 2008. Introduction: Reimagining the Informal in Latin America. In Hernandez F., Kellett P. & Allen L.K., Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectived from Latin America. New York: Berghahn Books. pp.4.

75 Ibid., pp.4.

76

Petersen, L., 2008. Interventions: For the Socio-Urban Integration of the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Harvard Design Magazine, April. pp.50-51.

77

Hernandez, F. & Kellet, P., 2008. Introduction: Reimagining the Informal in Latin America. In Hernandez F., Kellett P. & Allen L.K., Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America. New York: Berghahn Books.pp.5.

78 McCann, B., 2008. Urban crisis. In The Throes of Democracy, Brazil since 1989. London: Zed Books. pp.53.

79

Ibid., pp.53.

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As well, Roma were found in Europe around 1100, when they came to the Byzantine Empire where they settled for short or longer period. However, their historical record has its roots back to India.

“North India formed the cradle of the Gypsy nation.”80 The first groups of Roma came in Europe from the East around the 14th and 15th century. (fig 11)

Figure 11. Gypsies’ arrival in Bern, medieval period

Figure 12. Roma travellers

In the context of various linguistic surveys that have been done, several theories and myths regarding their origins have emerged. Many believe that they had been expelled from Egypt, according to the English given- word, “Gypsy”.81 However, the linguistic evidence shows that their Romani language and the designation ‘Rom’ is Indic and seems to be related with the Hindi ‘Dom’, which used to describe nomads.82 They have been displaced in multiple waves from India, first in Persia and Middle East, and finally to the Western Europe after passing through Asia Minor.83 (fig 12) Their arrival in Western Europe during the Turkish expansion in the 15th century, signalled the Roma disperse in many countries across Europe.84 (fig 13) Even the dispersion of Roma in Europe was completed at the end of 16th century. Many large movements took place and still do, due to the fact that these people suffer from racist attitudes, hostility segregation and misery either from the authorities or

80 81 82 83

Kenrick, D. & Puxon, G., 1972. The Gypsies come to Europe. In The Destiny of Europe's Gypsies. London: Sussex University Press. pp.13.

Ibid., pp.15.

Ibid., pp.13.

Ibid., pp.14.

84

Rroma Foundation, 2011. History- Migrations in Europe. [Online] Available at: http://www.rroma.org/rroma-history/migrations-ineurope.html#previous-photo [Accessed 22 April 2012].

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people they co-exist.85 Contrarily to the gradual inclusion of migrants in Latin America, Roma in Europe have been always considered as a dispersed and rejected population.

th

th

Figure 13. Roma route from India to Europe during 14 -16 century

Similarly, to the slaves’ exploitation in Brazil, Roma experienced cruel tackling wherever they attempted to settle. During the Second World War, there were “dramatic attempts to solve the ‘Gypsy problem’, once for all”.86 Between 1941-1945 Nazi Germany, Croatia, Hungary and their allies tried systematically to exterminate all Gypsies of Europe. They faced physical and moral onslaught from the Nazi holocaust.87 (fig 14) Numbers range from 250,000 to 1,500,000- souls that have been exterminated, in an effort to eliminate their “degenerate” and “antisocial” life.88 (fig 15) During 1950, Roma were obliged to a permanent establishment, especially from the communist regime. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the emergence of various nationalisms, they faced violent discrimination and dislocation caused by the return to capitalism.89

85 86 87 88 89

Stewart, M., 1997. The Time of the Gypsies. Oxford: Westview Press.pp.4.

Ibid., pp.5.

Ibid., pp.xiii.

Ibid., pp.5.

Ibid., pp.xiii.

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Figure 14. Nazi holding Roma in camps, 1935

Figure 15. Awaiting instructions in the death camp

The Greek Exandas documentary series, in the 2011episode “No place to stand”, presents waves of these people settings in almost all countries of Europe through the years. After 70’s they all converge in the national name: Roma. In their language it means “human”, completely contradictory with the cruel persecution they experienced in the 20th century.90 “Gypsies” is another call name with a derogatory meaning synonymous with the nomad.91 In a similar way, favela residents after passing an era of rejection achieved gradual acceptance.

However, the history of Roma people, includes several /movements sometimes voluntary and some other unintentional. All under a common denominator, the journey, which characterises the nomadic life of Gypsies a characteristic used to base and organise their spatial and social life. Both groups constitute a workforce population whose history admits the unequal treatment and the exclusion from the rest of the social web, which lately for some seems to have improved but for others remains an open wound.

90

Yorgos Avgeropoulos-Exandas Documentaries of the World, 2011. No place to stand. [Online] Available at: http://www.smallplanet.gr/en/documentaries/chronologically/2010-2011/224-without-homeland [Accessed 30 March 2012]. Translated by the author.

91 Kenrick, D. & Puxon, G., 1972. The Gypsies come to Europe. In The Destiny of Europe's Gypsies. London: Sussex University Press. pp.15.

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3.1.3.2

Local aspect

‘Favelados’ and Roma have always tried to develop their communities under a state of informality.

At the turn of the century the urban informality perception in Rio, grew with the emergence of disordered spatial arrangements.

“In the late 1890s, a group of slaves in Rio de Janeiro were freed and immediately drafted into the Brazilian army”.92 Hundreds of decommissioned soldiers93 were settled in Rio de Janeiro as they were promised some land in exchange for victory.94 (fig 16) The government, however, reneged on its promises and they were left homeless. Desperate ex-soldiers began to occupy a nearby hillside which they later called home. (fig 17) “Many built shacks in Morro da Providência, Providence hill overlooking downtown”.95 This becomes the first recorded favela. Indeed the term ‘favela’, refers to spontaneous settlements and derives from the name of a rough and white leguminous skin-irritating plant, what is said the soldiers had discovered upon this particular hillside.96 Soon the exponential growth of favelas began to sprawl all across Rio, and its residents mostly consisted of ex-slaves and poor rural dwellers who came to the city seeking a better life.

Figure 16. Government Soldiers in the war of Canudos

Figure 17. Canudos village

The background growth in informal settlements around Rio, took on a different turn by the mid 20 th century. Rio de Janeiro was going through a stage of rapid urbanisation and indeed this became a huge problem for the government from the early 1940s. In order to deal with the need for better urban 92

Neuwirth, R., 2004, 2005. Shadow cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. New York , London: Routledge. pp.58.

93

Note: “Soldiers who had fought in the campaign to reduce the military settlement of Canudos movement. “ McCann, B., 2008. Urban crisis. In The Throes of Democracy, Brazil since 1989. London: Zed Books. pp.54.

94 McCann, B., 2008. Urban crisis. In The Throes of Democracy, Brazil since 1989. London: Zed Books. pp.54.

95

Ibid., pp.54.

96

Segre, R., 2010. Formal-Informal Connections in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: The Favela-Bairro Programme. In F. Hernandez, P. Kellett & L.K. Allen, eds. Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp.167.

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dwellings, programs like “Parque Proletario”, aimed to relocate the favelados (favela residents) into government “houses”. In fact, the makeshift barrack settlements counted as a model for resolving the question of housing for the lower classes.97 This programme inevitably failed because the development was slow and not nearly enough houses were built by the government, thus, they intended to relocate favelados back to the rural areas.98 This proved impossible and instead, led to displaced poor returning to Rio to start new favelas in the places where the government houses were located.

During the military dictatorship (1964-1985), the government tried to eradicate favelas, especially those situated in the centre and the south of the city, areas which were gradually taken over by the wealthy bourgeoisie of Rio.99 (fig 18) “The apex of the government’s disappropriation policy took place between 1968 and 1975 when 176,000 people were moved to 35,000 housing units”.100 The problem has been intensified as the homeless were simply displaced to other urban areas which lacked of building resources and infrastructure. (fig 19)

Figure 18. Favela’s residents removal

Figure 19. New migrants in Rio

Since all the previous attempts for clearing favelas failed, the next democratic governments applied different strategies. From 1980s and onwards, favelas were not perceived as a temporary problem that could be solved with relocating people to new types of buildings.101 Rio authorities developed

97

Lanz, S., n.d. City of COOP- How the Favela Triumphed, A short political story of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. [Online] Available at: http://metrozones.info/metrobuecher/coop/fav_01.html [Accessed 9 April 2012].

98 mindmapsareporter, 2011. Mind Map-SA: The Favelas. [Online] Available at: http://mindmapsa.com/2011/09/29/the-favelas/ [Accessed 10 April 2012].

99 Segre, R., 2010. Formal-Informal Connections in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: The Favela-Bairro Programme. In F. Hernandez, P. Kellett & L.K. Allen, eds. Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp.166.

100 Essay, n.d. Soul Brazileiro – The origins of favela. [Online] Available at: http://soulbrasileiro.com/category/main/rio-de-janeiro/history/ [Accessed 24 March 2012].

101 Abiko, A., 1998. FAVELAS [Brazil]. ABITARE Magazine, II(374), pp.139.

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programmes and policies attempting to maintain the families in their places of living by trying to reduce poverty, social exclusion and residential segregation.102 The city council adopted new strategies including participative planning and financing of self-build initiatives in favelas. They have been long ignored by the city and described as “impoverished country villages than inner city neighbourhoods”. 103 Currently, upgrading efforts gained significant momentum especially in 1993, “*...+when then-mayor Cesar Maia approved the famous and widely copied ‘Favela Bairro’ programme of Rio’s government, which took the novel approach of accepting favelas as a new urban form that should be converted into modest but liveable neighbourhoods”.104 (fig 20-21)

Figure 20-21. Piazza-square Vidigal Favela before and after ‘Favela Bairro’ interventions

In the Greek case, Roma people are one of the largest minorities in Greece, scattered across all the country. Their shantytowns are considered ghettos, made of very rough and derelict shacks, in isolated areas, where people live in wretched conditions. In fact they are completely socially excluded from the rest community begging, stealing and sometimes dealing with drugs to survive.

In the Balkan area Roma movements were limited after the wars in early 1900s. Nomadic Gypsies105 are recorded settling in Greece many centuries before, although some of them have been given Hellenic citizenship in 1970s.106 However, they still lack official documents due to the high illiteracy rate, so as to

102 103 104

Petersen, L., 2008. Interventions for the socio-urban integration of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Harvard Design Magazine, April. pp.52.

Neuwirth, R., 2004, 2005. Shadow cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. New York , London: Routledge. pp.63.

Werthmann, C., 2008. Making history: Rio de Janeiro - the Favela Bairro program and more. Harvard Design Magazine, April. pp.46.

105

NOTE: In Greek they are referred as Ατσίγγανοι (Atsinganoi) or Αθίγγανοι (Athiganoi), and sometimes pejoratively Γύφτοι (Yifti) from which the non-English words for Roma, such as the French Tsiganes, the Italian Zingari, the German Zigeuner and the Greek Tsinganoi are derived.

European Roma Right Centre, 2003. Cleaning Operations: Excluding Roma in Greece. [Online] Greek Helsinki Monitor, Country Report Series No.12 Available at: http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/media/00/09/m00000009.pdf [Accessed 25 April 2012].

106 Yorgos Avgeropoulos-Exandas Documentaries of the World, 2011. No place to stand. [Online] Available at: http://www.smallplanet.gr/en/documentaries/chronologically/2010-2011/224-without-homeland [Accessed 30 March 2012].Translated by the author.

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be fully accepted and equally treated by the rest society. Generally, in Greece, Roma living standards vary according to the level of assimilation with the rest of the formal city. In many cases, they have succeeded in establishing their own villages, in accordance with local authorities, as there they have settled in the same region for many generations. However they usually live below the verge of existence in tents, with few exceptions of rough brick settlements. “In Greece about 45,000 people mainly Gypsies, survive in tents, caravans, containers and other substitute dwellings”.107 (fig 22) For Gypsy housing programs, the Greek government has absorbed 28.7 million from 2000 to 2005 from EU, minimal sums compared with what could be obtained, that finally have not been reclaimed at maximum.108 Thus, the majority of Roma still live in the shadow of the rest of society.

Figure 22. Roma yard in Nea Zoi, Athens

Their professional activity is adapted to their travelling lifestyle, thus many Gypsies are engaged with trade. They have their own vehicles usually “elaborate trucks with stoves and windows in the back”, using them as a movable house, as they spend long time travelling across the country.109 (fig 23,24) The less favourable are Gypsies who live in tents, illegally occupying plots of land in the fringes of the city.

“According to the Minority Rights Group, it is more likely that the Roma in Greece number up to 350,000 people, about half of who are tent-dwelling Roma”.110 They lack of very basic infrastructure such as 107

Edgar, B., Doherty, J. & Meert, H., 2002. Coping with vulnerability. In Access to housing: Homelessness and vulnerability in Europe. Bristol: The Policy Press.pp.89.

108 Keza, L., 2009. In the time of the Gypsies. Newspaper To Vima, [Online] Available at: http://www.tovima.gr/opinions/article/?aid=255786.

[Accessed 24 March 2012].Translated by the author.

109 Rinne, C., 2002. The Situation of the Roma in Greece. [Online] Available at: http://www.domresearchcenter.com/journal/16/greece6.html [Accessed 24 April 2012].

110 Rinne, C., 2002. The Situation of the Roma in Greece. [Online] Available at: http://www.domresearchcenter.com/journal/16/greece6.html [Accessed 24 April 2012].

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water, sewage, electricity making their life a continuous struggling for survival.111 The public discourse on the gypsy settlements refers to their community traditions, their drifting way of life and their strong social networks.112 This is used extensively to justify the Greek’s authorities non-successful upgrading strategies, claiming that the peculiar Roma lifestyle prevents them having access to “better segments of housing market”.113

Figure 23. Transformed truck to accommodate people

Figure 24. Travelling vans - ‘houses’

In brief, favelas emergence and development have been associated with the political transformations taking place through the years. Due to the majority of people living in favelas, authorities have been trying to set up a policy framework in order to control their growth and power. Nevertheless, Roma communities were established in the absence of any legal framework and authorities rather than applying policies only tried to solve the issue by continuous relocations. Also, at a later stage, one can consider the distinctive ‘traveling’ Roma lifestyle has been catalytic for their evolution, whilst Favelas residents have succeeded to gain ground more easily, step outside the poor state’s implications and claim better opportunities.

111

Rinne, C., 2002. The Situation of the Roma in Greece. [Online] Available at: http://www.domresearchcenter.com/journal/16/greece6.html [Accessed 24 April 2012].

112 Edgar, B., Doherty, J. & Meert, H., 2002. Coping with vulnerability. In Access to housing: Homelessness and vulnerability in Europe. Bristol: The Policy Press.pp.89.

113 Ibid., pp.89.

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3.1.4 Materialist production An important aspect to be explored is the ways through which urban poor in both cases are “producing” their spaces as physical constructions. Assuming that either favelas or Gypsie’s shantytowns represent fragments of formal society, it is obvious that the way they attempt to be constructed and organised in coherent communities, has its own peculiarities. The lack of involvement of professional architects has created a mosaic of rough self-constructed settlements. On the other hand, the limited access to basic services and amenities has developed individual strategies of expansion and improvement of homes. The emergence of these communities is based on peoples need for shelter.

Even if it seems to be a temporary solution, they gradually turn to a habitable area using the scrap materials that were available to them.

3.1.4.1

How they are built -Incremental type of housing

The need for shelter forces squatters to invent new techniques and means in order to build their own homes. “The shanties that make up the favelas are initially built from fragments of heteroclite materials randomly found by the builder.”114 Favelas are first constructed merely by people who live in the area, without any official provision from the state and just a little evidence of private sector’s investment.115 “Self-management and own-home construction have therefore become the keys to housing policy for Brazil’s poorest population groups”.116 The process that poor people follow in order to construct their houses is opposite to the one that architecture implies. It is the so-called ‘incremental housing’ process which refers to houses “built by a slow step-by-step process whereby building components are added or altered by owner-builders as money, time, or materials become available”.117 In the beginning the first shelter seems to be insecure but “it already contains the foundation for a future evolution”.118 They build step by step so as to pass from a very basic structure to a sub-standard structure and constantly improve it, reinforcing it by adding extra provisions. The construction is based on very sketchy plans.

114

Bernstein Jacques, P., 2011. The Aesthetics of the Favela. [Online] Available at: http://www.buala.org/en/city/the-aesthetics-of-the-favela [Accessed 14 April 2012].

115 Derbyshire, B.C., 1991. Taking control in the favelas. Architect's Journal, 193(26), pp.15.

116

Abiko, A., 1998. FAVELAS [Brazil]. ABITARE Magazine, II(374), pp.137.

117

Getty, J.P.G., 2004. Incremental/Art & Architecture Thesaurus/The Getty Research Institute. [Online] Available at: http://www.getty.edu/vow/AATServlet?english=N&find=incremental&logic=AND&page=1&note= [Accessed 20 April 2012].

118 Bernstein Jacques, P., 2011. The Aesthetics of the Favela. [Online] Available at: http://www.buala.org/en/city/the-aesthetics-of-the-favela [Accessed 14 April 2012].

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For favela residents construction is an everyday reality and an issue of collective effort between neighbours. The housing types evolved with the passage from wooden shanties to brick houses.119 (fig 25) According to the research of Janice Perlman, since 2001 favela houses used to be built from scrap random materials (wallet and daub, gains or wood) – looking like a bricolage, which then turned to brick houses with access to basic urban services.120 Later efforts of upgrading favelas included policies which aim to promote the self-help building model, encouraging residents to design and conduct their own census.121

Figure 25. Transformed truck to accommodate people

Figure 26. School’s been built on the rooftop of a house

“Favelas locations vary, usually beginning in the lower slopes at the edge of the formal city and climbing to dizzying heights, often using the roof slab of a lower dwelling as their site”.122 (fig 26) For instance Favela Rocinha’s tough topography is too steep for cars to drive up, and the roads are turned into pathways consisting of endless concrete stairs. Residents have to climb up a long flight of narrow stairs (becos) to reach their houses; making the transfer of products and everyday stuff difficult.123 The peculiarity of topography reflects also, the hierarchy of wealth between residents’ houses. (fig 27) The less valuable houses lie further up the hill, and so is where the poorest people live, with the better ones down below.124 The very prominent location, (amongst Rio’s richest housing regions), explains Rocinha’s

119

Bernstein Jacques, P., 2011. The Aesthetics of the Favela. [Online] Available at: http://www.buala.org/en/city/the-aesthetics-of-the-favela [Accessed 14 April 2012].

120 Perlman, J., 2010. Mystery of mobility. In Favela: four decades of living on the edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp.228.

121 Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.151.

122

UN-HABITAT, 2003. The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. [Online] United Nations Human Settlements Programme (Earthscan Publications) Available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=1156 [Accessed 5 January 2012].pp. 79.

123 Neuwirth, R., 2004, 2005. Rio de Janeiro: City without titles. In Shadow cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. New York , London: Routledge. pp.34.

124 Ibid., pp.37.

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relative wealth making it an ideal area for real-estate development.125 That’s why it was remarkably developed, succeeding to create its own urban system.126 While favelas are turned to standard types of settlements, Roma settlements vary from very rough makeshifts to common houses. The main reason the housing issue of Roma in Greece is still a concern, is the particularity of their housing conditions along with their peculiar way of living. This results in a variety of types of settlements; conventional or rough constructions. Factors such as the quality of the construction, the degree of integration in the social fabric, the tenure and also the site location, impact Roma housing.

Figure 27. favela Rocinha properties’ contrast

Figure 28. Build with any available material, Aspropirgos

A survey of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in collaboration with the NGO “Oikokoinonia”, recorded the places of residence of Roma and their living conditions. The first type of living area is the pure camps on a regular or movable site composed of several barracks, huts or tents for permanent or temporary use. (fig 28) Several health issues arise as they lack very basic infrastructure due to the location of their settlements near riverbanks, open drainage channels, vulnerable to any weather phenomenon.127 Moreover, there are the mixed camps which include rough constructions such as movable prefabricated houses with more permanent use than the first ones, usually forming small neighbourhoods. (fig 29,30) The living conditions are crucial as well, as their locations are undeveloped

125

Gay, R., 1994. Popular Organization and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro: A Tale of Two Favelas. Philadelpheia: Temple University Press. pp.10.

126

Neuwirth, R., 2004, 2005. Rio de Janeiro: City without titles. In Shadow cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. New York , London: Routledge. pp.27.

127 Oikokoinonia, 2008-2009. Special Thematic: Housing. [Online] Oikokoinonia: Citizens' initiative for social housing and inclusion of Roma people Available at: http://www.oikokoinonia.gr/roma_special_thematic_housing.asp?submenu_id=1 [Accessed 20 April 2012].

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regions.128 (fig 31) Finally, the most privileged are organised in small communities living in conventional houses in impoverished areas within the urban fabric.129

Figure 29. Living in a tent

3.1.4.2

Figure 30. Rough built house

Figure 31. Brick house

Land ownership and Housing Rights

According to Lefebvre, the rights of squatters are not clear and are usually imperilled, due to discrimination and exploitation of property rights. Building under a state of informality implies settlements that have been made by their residents, they can be set aside by law anytime. But, do they really own these properties?

“Most of favelados have no legal entitlement to the land and the ground itself is often unstable, with landslips and collapses common”.130 (fig 32) Favelas tend to be built in areas characterised by the state as not worthy for developing even because of legal ownership controversies or reasons associated with the vulnerability of land on hilly areas.131 These mountainous areas have been uninhabited for centuries, “*...+ too steep and rocky and densely forested to be developed. Later, they came to be considered ecologically important, and building on them was prohibited”.132 However, “despite the difficulties, when the need became great enough, the hills were the place where squatters first congregated.”133 For

128

Oikokoinonia, 2008-2009. Special Thematic: Housing. [Online] Oikokoinonia: Citizens' initiative for social housing and inclusion of Roma people Available at: http://www.oikokoinonia.gr/roma_special_thematic_housing.asp?submenu_id=1 [Accessed 20 April 2012].

129 Oikokoinonia, 2008-2009. Special Thematic: Housing. [Online] Oikokoinonia: Citizens' initiative for social housing and inclusion of Roma people Available at: http://www.oikokoinonia.gr/roma_special_thematic_housing.asp?submenu_id=1 [Accessed 20 April 2012].

130 Derbyshire, B.C., 1991. Taking control in the favelas. Architect's Journal, 193(26), pp.15.

131

Luiz Lara, F., 2010. The Form of the Informal: Investigating Brazilian Self-Built Housing Solutions. In F. Hernandez, P. Kellett & L.K. Allen, eds.

Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America. New York: Berghahn Books. pp.27.

132 Neuwirth, R., 2004, 2005. Shadow cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. New York , London: Routledge. pp.31.

133

Ibid., pp.31.

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example, Favela Rocinha, sits on a harsh incline of the two Brother Mountains, and altogether there are at least 150,000 citizens living there.134 (fig 33)

Figure 32. Teresópolis, mountainous region in Rio

Figure 33. Aerial view of Favela Rocinha

The lack of proper land distribution policies, combined with “restricted access to property had the effect of forcing most Brazilians to reside illegally”, in areas where they had no permission to occupy. 135 In many cases, citizens within their small communities are organised and create an apparatus of land distribution and norms among them, by giving title documents, making them able to own, buy, sell, rent or inherit their homes.136 However the land ownership is still fluid in Rio, and “the real estate market where land transactions proceed “as if” both the dwelling and land were legally owned”, flourishes.137 Currently, as part of the wider effort of favelas upgrading, Rio municipality is running several programmes aiming to ensure basic needs and rights of favelados. “The new government program called Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My Home, My Life), intends to expand home ownership and boost growth in the construction industry”.138

134

Neuwirth, R., 2004, 2005. Rio de Janeiro: City without titles. In Shadow cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. New York , London: Routledge. pp.28.

135 Holston, J., 2008. Chapter 4: Restricting Access to Landed Property. In Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp.113.

136 Perlman, J., 2010. Reflections on Public Policy. In Favela: four decades of living on the edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp.296.

137 Ibid., pp.297.

138

Ibid., pp.293.

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On the other hand Roma landowning problems mainly come from their exclusion from the housing market. Many people testify that in their effort to find a house, they become victims of racist reactions.

This has augmented the accommodation issue, as thousands people still living in very deprived and poor conditions due to housing market’s stereotypes along with government’s inaction.139 According to surveys in the EU, Greek Roma experienced the greatest discrimination in housing, one in three Roma in the country (34% of the total).140

Figure 34. Scrap made neighborhood adjacent to factories

Figure 35.

Ruins after the eviction, Aspropirgos

This exclusion forces them settle in impoverished areas, forming their informal camps illegally by trampling plots. The evictions in Roma communities in order to expel people from there have become entrenched in recent years and authorities do not provide any alternative solution for their relocation.141 Aspropirgos (Western Athens) is an area where Roma people live next to a defunct rubbish tip and in the midst of warehouses.142 (fig 34) Many incidents of forced evictions have been recorded due to athletic or cultural events while the Roma community was awaiting the provision of water and electricity promised by authorities. Despite the assurances of local authorities evictions were reported, inciting acts of violence in recent years “in a context of ongoing harassment against Roma population”.143 (fig 35)

139

Sotirchou, I., 2009. Greek Roma: Homeless in the mercy of racism. Eleutherotypia Newspaper. [Online] Available at: http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=94118 [Accessed 27April 2012] Translated by the author.

140 Ibid., Translated by the author.

141

Hammarberg, T. & Kothari, M., 2007. Governments Should Take Positive Steps to Protect the Housing Rights of Roma in Europe. [Online] Council of Europe-Commissioner for Human Rights Available at: https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1199995 [Accessed 25 April 2012].

142 World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), 2003. Greece: threat of unlawful eviction of a Roma community. [Online] OMCT Available at: http://www.omct.org/escr/urgent-interventions/greece/2003/04/d1620/ [Accessed 22 March 2012].

143 Ibid.

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The problem also stems from Roma people’s ignorance of their rights to adequate housing mainly due to their substandard education level. In Greece, one in ten Roma (13%) knows that the law prohibits the discrimination in purchasing or renting an apartment or house.144 In the majority of these cases, “Greek authorities failed to provide adequate compensation, reparation and resettlement to the victims”, and thus they allow the housing problem intensifying.145 Therefore, it is evident that legal housing ownership is an issue at stake for authorities. Concerning favelas, it is important to note that even if informality as a state of housing prevails in Latin America, over the years governmental policies aim to balance the inequality and offer people with official evidence of land and housing ownership. On the other hand, Roma housing rights are still a blur and not officially guaranteed.

144

Sotirchou, I., 2009. Greek Roma: Homeless in the mercy of racism. Eleutherotypia Newspaper. [Online] Available at: http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=94118 [Accessed 27April 2012] Translated by the author.

145 United Nations Advisory Group on Forced Evictions, 2005. Reported Case 13 - Roma Communities, Greece. In Forced Evictions--towards Solutions?: First Report of the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions to the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT. Nairobi: Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (AGFE). pp.71.

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3.1.5 Discursive Production: the informal/illegal lifestyle The conception regarding both cases often has a negative sense, as poor urban neighbourhoods are perceived as “unconnected segments that follow an autonomous logic”146. The general public considers these areas as hazardous stigmatising its residents, combining them with many illegal and discursive attitudes. It is generally accepted that many delinquent practices are taking place within slums. Slum dwellers are working hard in order to survive and satisfy their needs. In order to fully understand how they are organised spatially, it is essential to look at their way of life, their role in society and how they are treated by authorities and the rest society.

The perception that favelas are a kind of ‘social problem’ is usually produced and related with the fact that people living in there are perceived as threatening to the social web.147 There are different perceptions regarding favelados. On the one hand, illegality and several criminal actions are part of their everyday life. Residents have been blamed for transferring poverty to slums, thereby being responsible for negative influences and also over-urbanisation.

“More than the stigma of favelas as ‘disordered’ fragments in the city, due to their formerly illegal character, the daily life of their inhabitants is afflicted with the reputation for being home to the drug scene and to ruthless and violent people”.148 On the other hand, these people are “playing a vital role of in the workings of the city – and were tightly integrated into that system, but in a perversely asymmetrical manner”.149(fig 36) There is a paradox between the different existing perceptions. Although favelas are treated as marginalised spaces, they “provided a cost-free solution to the lack of affordable housing and proximity to jobs and services”.150

146

Deffner V., Hoerning, J., 2011. Fragmentation as a threat to soacial cohesion? A conceptual review and an empirical approach to Brazilian Cities.-International RC21 Conference 2011 ed. The struggle to belong. Dealing with diversity in 21st century urban settings. Amsterdam, July 2011. Research Comittee 21. [Online] Available at http://www.rc21.org/conferences/amsterdam2011/edocs2/Session%2015/15-1-Deffner.pdf [Accessed 20 December 2011] .pp.9.

147 Perlman, J., 2010. Marginality from myth to reality. In Favela: four decades of living on the edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp.148.

148 Deffner V., Hoerning, J., 2011. Fragmentation as a threat to soacial cohesion? A conceptual review and an empirical approach to Brazilian Cities.-International RC21 Conference 2011 ed. The struggle to belong. Dealing with diversity in 21st century urban settings. Amsterdam, July 2011. Research Comittee 21. [Online] Available at http://www.rc21.org/conferences/amsterdam2011/edocs2/Session%2015/15-1-Deffner.pdf [Accessed 20 December 2011] .pp.11.

149 Perlman, J., 2010. Marginality from myth to reality. In Favela: four decades of living on the edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp.148.

150 Ibid., pp.150.

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Figure 36. Workers on the way to work in favelas

Figure 37. Roma collectors of scrap cables

In addition, traditionally Roma nomadic lifestyle was a way to practice their trade and skills. Although they experience spatial and social exclusion, they are an important component of the domestic economy, through their labour either as sellers or workers. (fig 37) The documentary “Raw material” released in 2012, presents Roma people linked to the steel industry. Additionally, the conditions and the particular way of living of in the area of Tavros in the centre of Athens illustrates another side of the city of Athens, where poverty and abandonment led these people to live in ruins, something completely in contrast with the rather scenic view of the Acropolis in the background.151 (fig 38) The residents are people who earn their living through the collection of scrap metal from rubbish and sell it for a few Euros to junkyards, destined for the steel industry. ‘Raw material’ can range from things including fridge, washing machine, cookers and any scrap material found in bins and street corners. They are the scrappers and junk dealers, who search for rubbish any trash material in three wheel vehicles. (fig 39) According to the director C.Karakepelis they obtain their stuff illegally, however, the metal they collect accounts for 60% of the Greek steel industry. It is a recycling process of metal, although for them it is not a choice of acting ecologically but a necessity in order to survive.

Figure 38. Living in ruins with view to Acropolis

151

Figure 39. Men collecting scrap material

Raw Material. 2012. [DVD] Directed by Christos Karakepelis. Greece: CL Productions.

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The Roma shantytown in Tavros is a tin village where illegal immigrants have settled. Mixed Greek and Albanian Roma live among rubbish in substandard settlements made of wood, plastic and wall coverings covered in advertising posters, being at the mercy of the weather. (fig 40) According to the dwellers they steal water from fountains and through patents and stolen generators they generate electricity. Ploumpi, a Roma scraper describes the life there: “*…+ when I collect metal the heat melts my body and drains my soul drop by drop. And when I go back to the shanty, underneath the plastic sheets…it’s like a furnace and my soul is drained once more. Where we live is nowhere...not even the devil lives here…” 152 (fig 41)

Figure 40. Roma Tauros’ shantytown

Figure 41. Ploumpi collecting metal in the streets of Athens

Roma, are people who live within boundaries due to the racist attitudes they withstand. “Some foreign observers have said that the Roma of Greece suffer from institutionalized racism, and compared the situation to a form of apartheid”.153 It is dangerous, risky and sometimes impossible to enter their neighbourhoods.

“Gypsies’ shantytowns are makeshift neighbourhoods, a kind of buried ‘utopias’ which can breathe as a pocket within the urban tissue; built like a nest of a hunted animals, which has a hole to enter and another less obvious to leave when you feel you are in danger”. 154 (fig 42)

152

Raw Material. 2012. [DVD] Directed by Christos Karakepelis. Greece: CL Productions.

153

Rinne, C., 2002. The Situation of the Roma in Greece. [Online] Available at: http://www.domresearchcenter.com/journal/16/greece6.html [Accessed 24 April 2012].

154 Christos Karakepelis (2012), extract from interview given to Maria Tsouma

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Figure 42. The maze of shacks from above

Figure 43. Young gangsters control favela’s traffic

In a same manner, it is not easy to approach favelas, as the threat of danger for foreigners still exists. (fig 43) Several films and documentaries illustrate a dual type of life within. Favelas are self-driven particularly, Rocinha which is becoming more and more independent from the ‘formal’ city. Films such as the City of God depict favelas as a space of gangs, drugs and violence.155 The gloomy reality of Rio is connected with the violence surrounding the acquisition and sale of these drugs. Generally young people are mostly involved with violence as the high level of unemployment does not leave them any way to escape from poverty and thus they resot to illegality by selling drugs to earn easy money.156 The film City of God, presents a major crisis of favelas, namely “drug trafficking”. Many young men join gangs between the ages of 16-18 and most do not live to their 20s. 157 (fig 44) Nevertheless, favelas are not only plagued with poverty, violence and drugs. Favelas are the womb of Brazilian culture and the reference point for the famous carnival. Samba and bossa nova music styles, athletic practices like capoeira, soccer and volleyball, all have their roots in there.158 The collective consciousness of favela residents in contrast with the drug market is reflected in the creation of nonprofit social movements like the Afro-Reggae.159 In the documentary Favela Rising, the role of this group is presented which is about “culture, social responsibility and creativity”. Anderson Sà, representative of this movement explains that their effort focuses on using “music and culture as an instrument of change”, in order to move young people away from drugs and violence.160 (fig 45)

155

Jones, G.A., 2011. Slumming about. City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 15(6), pp.697.

156

Perlman, J., 2010. Reflections on public policy. In Favela: four decades of living on the edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp.307.

157 City of God. 2002. [DVD] Directed by Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund. Rio de Janeiro: O2 Filmes.

158

Neuwirth, R., 2004, 2005. Rio de Janeiro: City without titles. In Shadow cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. New York , London: Routledge. pp.39.

159 Perlman, J., 2010. Reflections on public policy. In Favela: four decades of living on the edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp.307.

160 Favela Rising. 2005. [DVD] Directed by Matt Mochary & Jeff Zimbalist. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: THINKfilm HBO Documentary Films.

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Figure 44. Drug, gangs in favelas

Figure 45. Children been taught music

Gypsy culture as noted before is the method whereby Roma organise their lives, along with the tradition of wandering livelihood. (fig 46) For example gypsy music is recognisable all over the world, as its songs express things like roaming, exile and exclusion. A characteristic example is the movie of Emir Kusturica “Time of the Gypsies”, in which he presented the Romani life through travelling, music and songs. Kusturica points out the peculiarity of Gypsies’ culture which balances between a folk surrealism and a magical realism. (fig 47)

Figure 46.

Music travelers’ band .

Figure 47. Gypsies’ tradition and customs

However, despite the effectiveness of both cultures, people have always lived with the threat of displacement, even if authorities named it ‘upgrading’. Police are now aiming to get rid of the drug lords by bringing in special armed forces known as BOPE (a state of police special operations battalion) to capture criminals and maintain vigilance over these areas.161 The film Elite Squad, depicts a realistic account of the brutality used by BOPE squad, including inhumane methods of interrogation and even murder.162 (fig 48)

161

Perlman, J., 2010. Violence, fear and loss. In Favela: four decades of living on the edge in Rio de Janeiro. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp.167-168.

162 Elite Squad - Tropa de Elite. 2007. *DVD+ Directed by José Padilha. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.: Universal Pictures.

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Figure 48.

BOPE commandos .

Figure 49. Police operation in favela Brazilia

An illegal urbanisation is thriving around Rio, so is the complexity of layering within the urban system. There are the hard-working residents in favelas living their lives peacefully, but at the same time they are ruled either by drug trafficking gangs, or by the legal but also corrupt police force. (fig 49) It is commendable that the Brazilian government is finally starting to take hold of the favelas in preparation of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. However it seems they are not taking action for people’s lives but for the global image of the city.(fig 50) Violence brings more violence. José Padilha, director of the film Elite Squad argues that in order for Brazil to resolve its social crises, it needs to first sort out the police force; that can be done by increasing wages and give them proper education so that they can serve more humanely.163

Figure 50.

Armored trucks patrolling favela Rocinha .

Figure 51. Police eviction in Roma camp

There are quite similar scenes in Roma communities in Greece, where police enforce a violent fashion frequently by carrying out invasions in the Roma communities, “which is according to police a 163

Elite Squad - Tropa de Elite. 2007. *DVD+ Directed by José Padilha. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.: Universal Pictures.

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legitimate method to track people who sell drugs or have not paid their bills, but exclusively done in Roma settlements.”164 (fig 51) Several incidents are taking place between Roma and police. In the last few years the NGO Greek Helsinki Monitor, with representatives reporting cruel actions against Roma tends to ease the problem.165 The situation is still shaky and since no official action is being taken in order to ensure human rights and rights for security and adequate housing for Roma people’s evictions continue.

3.2

Conclusion

Through the dialectic applied on the cases of favelas and the Gypsies’ shantytowns, contradictory and similar aspects were illustrated. Under the state of informality, their historical and urbanising background, the factors affecting their establishment leading to the construction of their communities and the efforts to integrate them into society have been analyzed. Having the differences in housing as a reference point in the upcoming section, the dialectic will be reflected in a theoretical framework. The aim is to designate how the ‘paradoxical’ urbanising examples stand between the ordinary and the extra-ordinary, the ‘formal’ and the ‘informal’ according to the theory of heterotopias.

164

Rinne, C., 2002. The Situation of the Roma in Greece. [Online] Available at: http://www.domresearchcenter.com/journal/16/greece6.html [Accessed 24 April 2012].

165 World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), 2003. Greece: threat of unlawful eviction of a Roma community. [Online] OMCT Available at: http://www.omct.org/escr/urgent-interventions/greece/2003/04/d1620/ [Accessed 22 March 2012].

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4 Further discussion on Heterotopias

To obtain an understanding of the urban informality and the discourse of the urban planning paradox in the case of favelas in Rio and Gypsies shantytowns in Athens, the concept of heterotopias will be explored. It was presented by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in his text ‘Of other spaces’, written in 1967 and published, in 1984, after his death.166 Heterotopias literally means ‘other places’ and refer to those places that are outside the codes of society, which are “interrupting the apparent continuity and normality of ordinary everyday space”. 167 This notion, introduced by Foucault in the late sixties, has not been reviewed since and consequently some ideas remain abstract. However, there are several key-points making heterotopias introducing a new urgency and relevance to the formation of space in relation to the society nowadays.168 Through the examples of favelas and Gypsies shantytowns, in relation with Foucault’s concept on heterotopias (used to describe places of otherness), the analysis seeks to question whether the relevance, effectiveness and the potential of his concepts, can be applied today. Using the dialectic approach introduced earlier and drawing upon Foucault’s theory, both cases are described as parts of the social web, being either “material” constructions or “discursive” indications of the broader society.

Foucault describes utopias as “imaginary places”, while heterotopias as “concrete physical places”.169 He states that heterotopias are, “real and effective spaces that are outlined in the very institution of society, but which constitute a sort of counter-arrangement of effectively realized utopia, in which all the real arrangements, all the other real arrangements that can be found within society, are at one and the same time represented, challenged and overturned –a sort of place that lies outside all places and yet is actually localisable”.170

166

NOTE: The analysis of the text is based on the translated version published in 1986 in Lotus Magazine and will be presented according to the original text structure.

Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November.

167 De Cauter L., Dehaene M., 2008. Heterotopia an the City - Public Space in a postcivil society. New York: Routledge, pp. 3-4.

168

Hilde, H., 2004. The Rise of Heterotopia - EAAE Conference 2005. [Online] Architecture Department ASRO KULeuven Available at: http://www.uso.tue.nl/Temporarely/EAAE.pdf. [Accessed 29 March 2012].

169 Urbach, H., 1998. Writing architectural heterotopia. The Journal of Architecture, Winter. pp.348.

170

Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November. pp.11,12.

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Firstly, heterotopias are introduced as the antipode of utopia; “idealised conceptions of society, impossible to be located in reality”.171 At the same time, heterotopias are introduced as a ‘heterotopos’-, a common place.172 The scope of the text is more about understanding the codes and how authority tools and structures function within the social web and give initiatives to individuals there. Through this analysis, the intention is to show how these poor urban areas including the characteristics of heterotopias, are ‘elements’ that are operating independently of driving forces of the mainstream society.

The term heterotopia entered the architectural discourse during 1970’s through the texts of D. Porphyrios, M. Tafuri and G. Teyssot, among others, who stated that heterotopia served to identify formal characteristics that made building or space different in significant ways.173 Based on Foucault’s definition, heterotopias can be viewed as retrospective systems which change, develop, or challenge the society they represent. They are “bound up with, but also turned against, the institutional underpinnings of any socio-spatial regime”.174 In fact heterotopian elements are found within the representative spaces of each society. 175 In addition to the six principles that Foucault cites, there the position of squatter settlements either favelas or Gypsies’ shantytowns in relation to society according to these principles will be indicated.

Through the theory of heterotopias, which is “crucial and productive in probing our current urban condition” - as Hilde Heynen underlines176, the intention is to understand the bilateral relationship between “informal” settlements and the “formal” (regulated) society. Also, it is important to question what someone can learn from these cases and how they can act as an incentive for architectural intervention.

171

Young, S., 1998. Of Cyber Spaces: The Internet & Heterotopias. [Online] (M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture) Available at: http://journal.media-culture.org.au/9811/hetero.php [Accessed 5 March 2012].

172 De Cauter L., Dehaene M., 2008. Heterotopia an the City - Public Space in a postcivil society. New York: Routledge, pp. 25.

173 174 175 176

Urbach, H., 1998. Writing architectural heterotopia. The Journal of Architecture, Winter. pp.347.

Ibid., pp.348.

Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November. pp.11.

De Cauter L., Dehaene M., 2008. Heterotopia an the City - Public Space in a postcivil society. New York: Routledge, pp. 312.

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4.1

Defining Heterotopia

Foucault introduces heterotopia by mentioning time and space, factors through which he defines the site. He refers to the site177, as a condition which is not described by definition neither as a place nor as a physical location. Site is more about a moment in time, or a position within the realm of space. He refers to the nineteenth century as an epoch of historical evolution. Whether one assumes that site was defined as a moment in time; then this moment is about a position in the realm of time. By juxtaposing examples, attempts to explain that time exist beyond individual impacts while space is supposedly transformable.

In the twentieth century, there was a noticeable shift away from past prejudices as people used, ‘place’ as a reference point for their lives. It refers to people who settled their position through their physical place or location in the realm of space rather than time. This evolution is a result that has occurred from scientific developments and inventions. Foucault invokes Galileo and his theories in order to explain this shift, as Galileo had determined the position of earth in relation to the sun. 178 Foucault states that “from Galileo onward …localisation was replaced by extension”179. Thus, no longer could units of the years be explained merely through ‘time’ but through ‘space’. In order to define ‘space’, from where one can pass to ‘other spaces’, Foucault makes a reference to a set of relationships that, “define positions which cannot be equated or in any way superimposed”.180 Drawing upon that and projecting it further, it could be used as an argument to determine one’s position in society. One can be at the same time part of several spaces, family, work, or social network, all contributing to determine one’s place.

Foucault also describes how ‘place’ works under certain codes, imposed by the norms of society, and that space is not entirely disrespected.181 Through these explanations Foucault investigates the boundaries of society, and especially how these boundaries are surpassed when someone’s actions deviate from the norms of society and how automatically he is situated outside the social core, as these actions shape or stimulate the society.182 Overall, through his descriptions, Foucault, that point out heterotopias are revealed through practices rather than through their self-existence.

177 178 179 180 181 182

NOTE: “site” in the broad sense of position-situation Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November. pp.10.

Ibid., pp.10.

Ibid., pp.11.

Ibid., pp.11.

Ibid., pp.11.

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4.2

Heterotopias in other disciplines

The etymology of the word heterotopia consistes of two parts derived from the New Latin “heteros” (another or different) and the Greek “topos” (place).183 Foucault projected this notion and described heterotopias as “places of otherness”.

In a broader context, heterotopia has its origins in the medical and biological discipline. It refers to the displacement of an organ or other body part to an abnormal location.184 Generally, it describes rare incidents appearing in rather unexpected places. Foucault’s ideas have been related to these multidisciplinary notions under the broader sense of order, location and control. In order to find links between the medical meanings and the notion described by Foucault, the term heterotopia balances among the ideas of ‘otherness’, ‘displacement’ and ‘alternate order’.185

4.3

Heterotopia, Utopia and Everything Else

In ‘Other Spaces’, Foucault presents heterotopias not as “a kind of linguistic figure but as a category of space. There are, he claims three such categories: utopias, heterotopias and everything else”.186 In all cultures and societies one can easily identify qualities of heterotopias and utopias, presented in different forms. They are “endowed with the curious property of being in relation with all the others, but in such a way as to suspend, neutralize or invert the set of relationships designed, reflected or mirrored by them.”187 Foucault describes heterotopia as something existing between real space and utopia. Using the metaphor of mirroring, he tries to explain it, as a “mixed experience, which partakes of the qualities of both types of location”.188 He outlines heterotopias as spaces consisting of utopian qualities (unreal, imaginative substances), that regardless of being localised in ‘real space’, are presented both as virtual and materialist/tangible components. The mirror is at the same time a utopia, as it is a “place without place”. In the meantime, it is also a heterotopia as the mirror is an object that exists and “has a kind of come-back effect on the place that we occupy”.189 Heterotopias are sites that exist and have a location; 183

Collins English Dictionary, n.d. Heterotopia-Dictionary.com. [Online] (10th edition Harper Collins Publishers) Available at: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heterotopia [Accessed 05 March 2012] 184 The American Heritage- Medical Dictionary, 2007. Heterotopia- The free Dictionary. [Online] (Houghton Mifflin Company) Available at: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/heterotopia [Accessed 05 March 2012].

185 Hetherington, K., 1997. The Badlands of Modernity - Heterotopia & Social Ordering. 1st ed. London: Routledge, pp.40.

186 187 188 189

Urbach, H., 1998. Writing architectural heterotopia. The Journal of Architecture, Winter. pp.348 Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November. pp.11.

Ibid., pp.12.

Ibid., pp.12.

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they are about sites that are “a kind of both mythical and real contestation of the space which we live”.190 These ‘other places’ according to Foucault are not part of the prevailing society. They are places where things occur outside the norms and do not fit into the social realm that are placed. There are also specific activities that are opposed to the constitutional state and the norms of the society. It is essential to emphasize that heterotopias are not solely determined by the differences they have in comparison to their “counter-sites” (society) but in self-reference. “It is evident though, that heterotopias assume a wide variety of forms, to the extent that, a single absolutely universal form may not exist.”191 This idea can also be linked to urban informality. According to A.Roy and N. AlSayyad, heterotopias depict a system of norms that governs the process of urban transformation itself.192

4.4

The six principles

The six heterotopological principles illustrated by Foucault, are theories which have attached the main elements that describe and justify heterotopias existence.193 Foucault refers to six characteristics of heterotopias and through examples he demonstrates several spatial types and their relation to society.

First, Foucault states that all cultures are forming heterotopias. However they do not appear in one absolute universal version but they are categorized in two major types, the “heterotopias of crisis” and the “heterotopias of deviance”. These are about places where individuals are placed when they are ‘in a state of crisis’. Foucault outlines these places as locations “without geographical co-ordinates”, and that even if everyone knows about their existence, they are located in “nowhere”, like hidden points.194 Poor urban neighbourhoods were traditionally perceived as masses of unrelated spaces, being in a ‘state of crisis’ with the codes of society. Since people there are organised based on their own law and justice system, they have been marginalized from the rest of society. In both cases, one can assume that slum neighbourhoods are often victims of past prejudgments related to the legality status, racial discriminations and living conditions. Thus, a distinction appears between the two poles: the “informal”

190 191 192 193 194

Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November. pp.12.

Ibid., pp.13.

Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.148.

Urbach, H., 1998. Writing architectural heterotopia. The Journal of Architecture, Winter. pp.348.

Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November. pp.13.

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(illegal) and the “formal” (regulated). Recent upgrading strategies aim to bridge the gap between the two opposite sites and merge them in one.

Second, heterotopias are presented to be flexible within a single society, as they can “function in different ways”, determined by the society.195 Through the example of the “cemetery” Foucault intends to describe how a specific existing heterotopia within a society functions in different ways as time passes. These heterotopias are subject to current trends, while their condition may be constant. For instance “cemetery” was perceived until the eighteenth century as a home of the final state of human life, and it was centrally located, in order for people not to lose “contact” with their deceased relatives.

As long as peoples’ beliefs of “resurrection of the body and immortality of the soul” were of great importance, it used to be part of the city centre.196 In later years, however, the sites of the dead were relocated, as thoughts around “survival after death” became uncertain and religious views were rationalized. This occurred because these places were no longer solely perceived as sacred, as then they were associated with ‘sickness’. Cemeteries represent death which is a permanent state, while their state in relation to society had changed. For this reason they have been moved to the outskirts of the city.197 Similarly to heterotopias, slums exist in a state of transition. The trend of improving the appearance can be considered a subject of fashion as in the case of slums, which authorities were always trying to hide from the rest of the city. In both Rio and Athens poor neighbourhoods ‘function in different ways’.

While they accommodate the workforce of industries, they are stigmatised and pushed out of the city’s boundaries. In order to clean up a city’s unpleased image slumsare often relocated with the excuse of upgrading, promising residents extra infrastructure and services. In other words, the relocation of the urban poor and their placement in “blind spots” of the city, makes slums a “utopia” of the privilegedrich society, while a “heterotopia” for the poor as they live in their own defined legal-social-spatial realm.

Third, Foucault describes the ability of heterotopias to “juxtapose in a single real space, several spaces and locations that are in themselves incompatible”. Several ‘contradictory locations’ are combining and forming rather consistent heterotopias, Also, these kinds of heterotopias have a deeper

195 196 197

Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November. pp.13..

Ibid., pp.14.

Ibid., pp.14.

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meaning as they represent cultural values. The garden in ancient Persia is a traditional sacred space where elements like the basin/fountain or carpets comprise of symbolic references, of the universal cultural patterns.198 Yet, some of these heterotopic spaces formed by juxtaposed parts whether formally planned or randomly independent aspects are in conflict with the norms of society they belong to.

Even if slums are considered enclaves of poverty, they are multi-dimensional areas; culturally, socially and spatially. Both favelas and Gypsies’ shantytowns can be physical spaces of residencies, makeshift services systems but at the same time cultural hubs or even violence and crime terrains. This diversity occurs because in slums norms are suspended. Slum dwellers form a closed system either spatially or socially by defining their own policies, through which they succeed to become autonomous mainly financially from the mainstream city. This is the reason they are characterised as ghettos, as their economic disengagement, makes them a threat to the rest of society.

Fourth, the time sphere of heterotopias is disconnected with the “traditional time” of their ‘countersites’ and time symmetry of the society. ‘Heterochrony’ is the parallel time sphere in which ‘heterotopias’ exist. 199 ‘Heterochronic heterotopias’ represent spaces that are projected to the infinities like museums and libraries which reflect an effort to “accumulate everything in there as they enclose all times, all eras, forms and styles within a single space”.200 On the contrary, there are other forms of heterotopias which have a more temporal character like festival spaces and fairgrounds, transitory spaces hosting events for a specific period of time which then vanish. The cemetery is also a type of eternal “chronic heterotopia”, a symbolic dead zone for a human being who does not even exist anymore. He passes to the eternal sphere as “he does not cease to dissolve and be erased.”201 It is evident that although the state is temporary, the status is permanent.

The optimistic and idealistic perception that slums are about temporary structures tracing on the roughly made settlements and the historic record of continuous relocations, seems rather utopian. Over the years, governmental policies and upgrading strategies incorrectly aimed to eliminate the “problem” through forced evictions, illicit demolitions and obligatory relocations, rather than to find a progressive and targeted solution. Urban poor people and slums are gaining ground and their existence status is permanent.

198

199 200 201

Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November. pp.15.

Ibid., pp.15.

Ibid., pp.15.

Ibid., pp.15.

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Fifth, as stated before heterotopias occur outside the norms of the society as they set up their own codes. Foucault demonstrates heterotopias are not a kind of public space into which the access is meant to be easy and free.202 On the contrary the entry in those spaces is never unconditional, “heterotopias presuppose a system of opening and closing that isolates them and makes them penetrable”. 203 For instance, in the case of prisons the access is “compulsory” or in the case of religious spaces, like the (Muslim ‘hammam’), the entry involves certain “rites or purifications”. 204 Thus heterotopias imply their own system of codes and set up the conditions that allow entry.

As mentioned before, slums are closed systems, unapproachable and impervious to foreigners; only people who belong there can have access. Additionally, obeying only their own unwritten policy system, they step away from the public’s realm of codes, being self-governed and self-managed. There is a noticeable tendency to become isolated as public and private dividing lines are obscure because slums have been detached from the norms of the society and exist in a separate privately-governed realm.

Sixth, the principle describes the ‘illusionistic’ or the ‘compensational’ aspects of heterotopias, a result occurred by trying to escape from the reality. A brothel is an example of a space creating illusions, as people inside are trying ephemeral experiences in order to attain a feeling that they are escaping from the norms of society.205 Colonial cities are considered places where everything has an order and to where people escape in order to move away from the messy and disorganized territories, they were living in before. Foucault highlights the example of Puritan colonies in America founded by the English as “absolutely perfect places”, totally organized under enacted social rules, ensuring a better life than that they had back in their country.206 Unlike the Puritan colonies in America that Foucault refers to, in the cases of Favelas residents and Roma being relocated to other countries (in a sense colonised) as well, they faced a completely different situation than the fully organised and regulated one, in Foucault’s example. Squatters are looking for basic standard housing (shelter), thus in the beginning the effort is to find accommodation and in a later stage to be organised in a community. Since society does not provide them any standard infrastructure to build their communities, the need for survival sets them in the ‘informal’ realm against the ‘formal’ city. One can assume that slums generally emerged as a response to the unfavourable conditions of

202 203 204 205 206

Foucault, M., 1986. Other spaces:the principles of heterotopia/Spazi altri: I principi dell' eterotopia. Lotus International, November. pp.16.

Ibid., pp.16.

Ibid., pp.16.

Ibid., pp.17.

Ibid., pp.17.

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society. Rather than ‘compensate’ the rules of society, they replace them with their own. Both favelas and Gypsies’ shantytowns are about “examples of the interplay between a utopian desire for a better society that offered greater freedom and new forms of order and a heterotopia, a site of alternate social ordering”.207

4.5

Conclusion

Overall, analysing the Foucault’s theory on ‘Heterotopias’, one can consider that he describes diverse spaces; places where cohesion has been suspended by everyday practices which pass from normalcy to unfamiliar and discursive actions. Special consideration is given to the concept of ‘govern mentality’ and sovereignty as heterotopias are the places that function in an alternative civil law than the rest of society. Regarding slums and more specifically the cases of Favelas and Gypsies’ shantytowns and their distinction between the ‘materialist’ and the ‘discursive’ production, similarly Foucault separates heterotopias into the ‘physical’ and the ‘abstract’ space. Both cases embody heterotopian and utopian qualities in terms of authorisation. Thus, a kind of dialectic is formed again distinguishing urban slums from mainstream society using the principle of ‘formal/informal’. Rather than trying to categorise the situation, it is important to consider how the scenery can overcome the stigma and go towards amelioration through ‘non-utopian’ but feasible solutions. Can the ‘paradoxical’ development turn into an equal division of services and benefits? Also, how can the urban poor convert their ‘other’ (nonordinary) places to real ones?

207

Hetherington, K., 1997. The Badlands of Modernity - Heterotopia & Social Ordering. 1st ed. London: Routledge, pp.13.

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5 Conclusion

The issues encountered through the research of informal places and the paradoxical urbanisation processes are related to and pose a challenge for architects. This is difficult due to the fact that they lie outside a legal/controlled and planned framework. The architectural challenge is not only to fix the disorder in these excluded areas but also to set up techniques and policies in order to offer the urban poor opportunities to develop their living standards. As already mentioned, squatters use self-building techniques so to construct their homes. The self-governing and growth policies they adopt in order to form their communities can be a paradigm for architects. Both Favelas and Gypsies shantytowns can be regarded as examples of sustainable urbanization, where everything is recycled and residents have vibrant social-interaction and self determination. Thus, one can question whether the future lies in a hybridization of a combination of positives between the official-planned city and these informal places.208 According to Ananya Roy, “to deal with informality therefore partly means confronting how the apparatus of planning produces the unplanned and unplannable”, briefly explaining the challenge.209 By evoking Foucault and his approach regarding heterotopias as “other places”, one can assume that in the above mentioned cases the complexity of their relationship with the planned and regulated society, poses several questions. Through the identification of characteristics and qualities of the heterotopic condition that these poor neighbourhoods include, it is revealed that they exist in a state of no-man’s land in between belonging and not belonging. Their boundaries with the official city are blurred, which suggests that they are one society; as they are economically interdependent. Also, they do not belong because their law-regulating system and their social make-up are in contrast with the “formal” city, widening the gap between the two poles. The self-governed and autonomous developing model of informal places (even if they are lacking in basic infrastructure), is significantly opposed to the regulated and apparently developed model of “formal” city. They can live off the city and become a full part of it, but all too often the reneges of threatens city them with demolishment and relocation.

208

Hosey, L., 2009. Cities of Tomorrow.,[Online version], Architect : The magazine of American Institute of Architects 98(9), p.30 Available at: http://www.architectmagazine.com/urban-development/cities-of-tomorrow.aspx [Accessed 30 April 2012].

209 Roy, A., 2005. Urban Informality - Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of American Planning Association, Spring. pp.156.

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Overall, through the dialectic between Favelas and Gypsies’ shantytowns, the aim of the analysis was to examine the “closed value” systems with respect and not with compassion, to highlight these “invisible” microcosms and to place them within the complex social and economic status quo that is applicable to them. The intention was to delineate these poor urban citizens that the official political and value system does not take into account and considers “non-existent”. It is important to acquire an understanding of these extraordinary makeshift neighbourhoods, which continue to exist as enclaves within the urban fabric through human geography. The question arising is, whether we or they live in a heterotopia?

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Eu sou favela – I am Favela Yes, but the favela was never the refuge of the marginal, I said There are only humblr people, marginalized And this truth does not appear in the newspaper The favela is a social problem And what’s more, I am the favela My people are workers and never had social assistance But can live only there

Brazilian song, Noca Da Portela and Sergio Mosca, 1994

Photo from Lotus magazine

Μπαλαμός – The Gypsie’s song I have no place , I have no hope None homeland will ever miss me And with my hands and my heart I am setting up tents and camps in my dreams

Greek song, Dionisis Tsaknis, 1992

Photo of Joakim Esklidsen