Research and Study of Migration Connections for the proposed thesis: Rural to Urban: Studying Migration in Panama
by
Gabriela Valencia
For the Independent Study Course presented at Ball State University in fulfillment of the course requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture
Muncie, Indiana 2008
Profile Map Map by the author of this document.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
List of Profiles 1
Kalpana Sharma: Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia’s Largest Slum.
2
Mitchell Duneier: Sidewalk.
3
Brian Willingham: Soul of a Black Cop.
4
Tadashi Kawamata: Lodging London/Tokyo.
5
Ashenafi Gossaye: Addis Ababa: In Progress or Crisis?
6
Mary-Ann Ray: Gecekondu: Built in One Night Houses.
7
Nabeel Hamdi: Small Change: The Art of Practice and the Limits of Panning in Cities.
8
Hector LaSala: Small Contribution in Lafayette, LA.
9
Rufina Wu: Beijing Underground.
10
Gabriela Valencia: Rural to Urban: Studying Migration in Panama.
Abstract The place I live in has always been greatly influenced by developed countries. This makes it difficult to differentiate what is genuine to our cultures and what is imported. As an architect I try to find reasons why imported customs are more important than our own cultural backgrounds. For this reason, my big questions are related to the way societies behave and interact in this globalized, and constantly changing world. So I ask: Why do we easily embrace the culture of others? Who establishes these “structural processes� that we are obligated to follow and why should we adopt them? This independent study has helped me to research others who may have similar questions about my topic of inquiry. By reading previously selected writings of each one of these personalities, I created objective profiles of their work while providing personal insights on how their views might be influential in mine. Hopefully, this study will help me find connections, questions and some answers as I head to Panama for my research.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Kalpana Sharma : Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia’s Largest Slum.
Environment: Dharavi, Mumbai - India World View: She sees a reality and wants people to be aware of its’ existance. “I want to discard sentimental middle-class attitudes towards the the urban poor, instead, to see them as people like us who can think out and plan their own future.” Connection: Dharavi’s development as one of the largest slums has a very close connection with the migratory patterns found in the city of Mumbai. The study of migratory patterns and its’ importance in cities around the world will be relevant to my topic of inquiry.
Dharavi is Asia’s second largest slum, spreading over a 175 hectares while having a population of over 1 million people. For Kalpana Sharma, Dharavi could be better defined as a “seething, compacted spread of energy, enterprise, deprivation and desperation which epitomizes the crisis of all fast-growing Indian cities, not just Mumbai.” Her purpose in studying Dharavi may come as a means to draw attention to city planners, architects, government authorities, as well as the common citizen about a reality that many in Mumbai and around the world prefer to ignore: The emergence of the urban poor and the urgent need to find spaces and solutions for the growing number people settling in these informal communities.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Rediscovering Dharavi was written from several perspectives. Among them, that of Kalpana Sharma’s journalist point of view: one interested in the people of Dharavi. She wanted to tell the story through the people and their lives, as she states: “Their lives are Dharavi, and this is what I wanted to record.” On a more objective perspective, her desire was to draw attention to one of the primary reasons why settlements like Dharavi are flourishing and growing at an exponential rate. That is, of the major problems with the city’s urban planning and the government’s incapability to manage the existence of these slums, continuously ignoring them until the land becomes valuable enough that the city authorities require them for other purposes. Her approach was to see the people of Dharavi as one of us. She relies on at least one source, one person that would help her enter Dharavi and “understand the complicated relationships between people and groups of the community.” She also needed to be prudent and create trust with more than one person in the community. These sources would be the ones providing helpful information and feedback, while helping to doublecheck or to follow up acquired information.
Among her many findings are those of the urban conflicts that arise when illegal occupants are recognized in settled slum areas. After being recognized, these people are provided with some of the basic services: water, sanitation, and sometimes redevelopment. The problem lies on the fact that these slum-dwellers have no legal status on these lands, which gives them no right to protest against displacement and relocation, eventually to another “uninhabitable piece of land, another slum.” Even more conflicting, may be the illegal enterprises and industries that flourish in Dharavi. This informal commerce not only provides jobs
Research and Study of Migration Connections
for the established residents of Dharavi, but also to the numerous amount of immigrants moving daily from rural villages to urban centers, like Mumbai. Kalpana Sharma also clarifies that Dharavi should not be consider a slum in reference to the so-called informal settlements that arise within the cities. She emphasizes on this important disparity because Dharavi existed when Mumbai was still Bombay. As the city of Bombay grew many communities of illegals where send to what was an empty, unsuitable site because the land they had settled had become valuable and required by the government for other purposes. With the years the empty site became Dharavi.
Her conclusions are linked to a wider and more profound understanding of the people living in one of the largest slums of the world. She understands that a slum is “not a chaotic collection of structures; it is a dynamic collection of individuals who have figured out how to survive in the most adverse of circumstances.” She notes that the major problem that growing cities in developing countries face - is that of unequal development. That may also go hand-in-hand with unequal distribution of wealth and always wanting to “please the eyes of the elite.” The most successful schemes and urban redevelopment plans for places like Dharavi, have been the ones where the people living in these communities are made participants of the planning and the implementation of the projects. Kalpana Sharma also mentions that “there is an order in the apparent disorder.” Which means that we have to stop believing that our solutions fit all and start understanding these communities before proposing apparent solutions. “Without such an understanding, even the most well-intentioned efforts prove to be unworkable.”
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Personal Insight on Kalpana Sharma:
I find Kalpana Sharma’s purpose into studying Dharavi humble and trustworthy in the sense that she is not suggesting a change to Dharavi’s identity. On the contrary, she implies the change should come from the outsiders who view Dharavi as a dangerous place, but do not seem to really understand its’ roots or the people. She explains that change can only be possible through deep understanding of these communities. What I find somewhat challenging in her quest for understanding, is her actual background as a journalist and middle-class citizen in Mumbai. Does she really know what every person in Mumbai wants? We tend to believe that anyone who does not have a comfortable life like we do needs to be taking care of so they can achieve our apparent success. I am not implying that this is the way she thinks, but I have met people from informal settlements in Panama whose desire is to continue leaving as an ‘urban poor’. They have stated that it is easier not to worry about paying for the basic needs when the government will always provide and the middle-class will always maintain them money wise by paying for these services. There are many types of ‘urban poor’ in a settlement populated with one million people, which makes me wonder: Do they all wish for redevelopment in the same manner? How can we be sure that working together with these communities will mean 100% support from those who live there? Why is Kalpana Sharma studying Dharavi? To gain better understanding so we can achieve tolerance with the urban poor living in Dharavi slum? Or, to understand them so we, ‘the outsiders’, can bring solutions for what we assume is an informal way of living?
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Mitchell Duneier : Sidewalk.
Environment: Manhattan, New York - United States World View: He does not want to be just an observer of things that go on in life. He wants to be participant. He views the world through the eyes of the one that wants to be acknowledged. “I am committed to the idea that the voices of the people on Sixth Avenue need to be heard.” Connection: Entering, researching and putting himself in the position of those who stand permanently on the ‘sidewalk’ as a means to become familiar, and tell the story of that part of society that most of us are not observing: the poor on the sidewalk. “In the end I must leave it to the readers to test my observations against their own, and hope that the concepts I have developed to make sense of this neighborhood will prove useful in other venues.”
Mitchell Duneier based his research on the streets of Manhattan. He set out to find answers about the life of the people that are seen daily on the sidewalks but never really observed or recognized. He starts with a simple question: Who’s who on the Sidewalk? He establishes that those on the sidewalk, on the intersection of Eighth Street, Greenwich Avenue, and the Avenue of the Americas-aka Sixth Avenue, are predominantly Africa-American book vendors.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Consequently, he formulates another important question in his research: “How the sidewalk life works today? What he ended up finding is that most of these vendors are mainly poor black men that either worked, lived or did both on upper-middleclass neighborhoods of the city of Manhattan.
The initial purpose of his research was to write a book about one vendor he had become friends during his three-year research: Hakim. Nevertheless, Hakim made Mitchel Duneier realize that he was focusing too much on him and very little on other vendors that also occupied the sidewalk on Sixth Avenue. In order to help his friend and immerse himself on the sidewalk he decided to become a book vendor, this way gaining first hand experience of the daily life of the people on the sidewalk. Instead of asking the other vendors for interviews, he often asked questions while participating and observing. “One of the greatest strenghts of first hand observation is also its greatest weakness. Through carefull involvement in people’s lives, we can get a fix on how their world works and how they see it.”
By being immersed in the sidewalk, Mitchell Duneier was able to find answers about the life on this particular coner in Manhanttan. Some of the main questions where related to the way these vendors viewed themselves to others and our predetermined assumptions. For example, Hakim viewed himself as a ‘public character’, meaning that public characters always have eyes upon the streets. Most of the author’s questions where not ment for the vendors but in a sense for us, because we need to understand how our cultural, social, economic, and political
Research and Study of Migration Connections
influences are shaping these people and these communities on the sidewalk. For example he asks: How do the acts of these vendors intersect with the city’s mechanisms to regulate its’ public spaces? Do we eradicate them? And if we do; Where do they go? His intend was not to propose a solution for the street vendors or the government, neither did he take sides. Mitchell Duneier’s motive was that of gaining reliable information about the life on the street for people whose voices and stories have not been told.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Personal Insight on Mitchell Duneier:
“The presence of such people today means that pedestrians handle their social boundaries in situ, whereas, in the past, racial segregation and well-policed skid-row areas kept the marginal at bay.� It is of my understanding and experience as a non-street vendor that no one wants that life. Or do we? Mitchell Duneier creates a framework for understanding that these vendors on the sidewalk are as important to the city as any other citizen. In a hypocritical state we wish we could eradicate them from the streets, maybe because they are not like us, or maybe it is the fact that we think of them as thieves making money through informal commerce. The truth is that we can all be blammed for these vendors on the street. Like Mitchell Duneier mentions: economic, cultural, and political forces have brought these men and women to the streets but; How and under what circumstances? I think one of he strongest contributions, which helped him understand these circumstances,was his immersive, first-hand experience as a vendor. Then again it might also be the greatest weakness, just like he mentions. If I could, I would ask him: How involved should one get with the reliable source or sources to create trust, but also gain objective information about the real forces and circumstances that brought those men to the sidewalk? I believe this question is relevant for my research in Panama because I have repeatedly questioned if one month is enough to acquire important information without compromising trust and objectiveness? How do we measure that trust? For Mitchell Duneier it was three years of friendship with Hakim and a summer with Hakim’s friends, so: How do I make my short stay valuable enough for friendship, trust or just acknowledgement?
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Brian Willingham : Soul of a Black Cop.
Environment: Flint, Michigan - United States World View: He sees injustice happening around him that should not go without notice. He believes others should know his version of what really goes on in Flint. Connection: What happens to cities like Flint when the citizens and officials no longer have control over the government? What happens to its’ citizens? How do they retain their identity? This story provides some insights on those who may choose not to migrate for several reasons and their struggles as a minority in a distressed town of the United States.
Brian Willingham’s purpose is to tell the story of his town through his real life experiences as a local police officer in Flint. He describes the problems that are visible in Flint and his own experience in overcoming the obstacles of a city that is slowly deteriorating. “Is if like the city government in Flint had forgotten about certain places because of political, racial and economical dispareties.” According to the author, who suffered the most were Flint’s poorest black neighborhoods.
As he deals with his own lost by being layed-off from his cop position he tells his own version of what he observes going on as he patrolled the poorest neighborhoods of Flint. “I see discarded appliances, automobile parts and other
Research and Study of Migration Connections
debris that in some cases partially blocked the streets.” People living in these neighborhoods would tell police officers that everytime they called local representatives to help in the area, they were not attended. “I saw that race and politics paid a huge role in how people are served by the system.” He saw unjustice and discrimination on streets, neighborhoods and even jobs. As he came to recognize that even in his own field, black cop organizations were being questioned. Consequently, the city’s inhability to generate solutions for improvement affected him on a more personal level. Having to leave his position as a police officer due to the city’s decreasing economy, had become too much for him. He thought he no longer had personal identity or knew who he was. “I had become an outsider to the culture. In an instant, I was no longer who I thought I was.” As an architect it is very difficult to see beyond the surface and facade of buildings and cities, making stories like Brian Willingham’s insightful and relevant to the in depth understanding of change in cities like Flint.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Personal Insight on Brian Willingham:
I see Brian Willingham as a reliable source of information. The way he portrays the everyday reality of Flint makes you believe his work is trustworthy. He is not just narrating scattered events, but his own life experience and struggle in a city that is primarily in decay. I have to say, that I would feel comfortable asking him questions like: Do you believe people are being psychologically affected by living daily in a city that is dying? Would you ever consider migrating if you still had your job? I wonder how people go through their everyday lives knowing that their city is slowly deteriorating, without being able to do anything about it. This is one black police officer’s point of view towards life on a city and very much on the opposite side of the people that Mitchell Duneier is trying to figure out. Although he is a male black cop sometimes discriminated among his own colleagues, I believe he is still observing the city from the safe side. It makes wonder: How are the really poor people of Flint dealing with abandonment and negligence? Can we really understand how deterioration is affecting people in ‘poor black neighborhoods’ that are mainly being observed by someone who is obligated to enforce the law? Nonetheless, I believe he presents us a side of the story that would be difficult to imagine without his prevalence and effort to make others notice the consequences of deindustrialization and a city’s government overlook. “We have to look outside of the design professions to find that kind of insight and inspiration.” Wes Janz referring to Brian Willingham on one of his presentations.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Tadashi Kawamata : Lodging London/Tokyo.
Environment: London - UK/Tokyo - Japan World View: He views the world, and more specifically cities, as exploratory grounds for an alternative use of predetermined spaces. No matter how different societies might be from one another, he believes we tend to follow the same established structural process and wants to show us some alternatives. Connection: The main purpose in studying these immigrants is to determined the relation between them and their old/new environment. Tadashi Kawamata presents objective answers to the practice of ‘lodging’ in an informal way within different environments.
There are two main and very different environments mentioned in this article. The first one is Tadashi Kawamata’s current work in London, which he compares greatly with a previous work he had done in Tokyo. As an artist and professor he has taken on the challenge of informally ‘lodging’ two very different cities. I am assuming that his reasoning behind lodging in Tokyo is to draw attention to the daily acts of a very dense city. He states: “As the city has become more dense, space has become a precious commodity, and most young people generate private space by means of technology - email, internet, mobile phones.� He suggests that the urban environment in Tokyo is rapidly changing and so is the need for private spaces that people unconsciously reclaim daily. To make his assumption tangible, he decided to create three hidden spaces within the city and ask three individuals to inhabit them.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
He approched the London project somewhat differently. This time he asked architecture students to lodge and built in a place they had chosen themselves. His goal was to observe how students would create their living spaces according to the context and the materials found on the site. Among his observations were that of public place and the way different societies communicate in it. Japanese tend to ignore things that are unfamiliar to them, like the lodge created behind a billboard screen he created. While people in London seemed somewhat aware of the unfamiliar structures being installed in their public spaces. “What do you consider to be the difference between public space in London and Tokyo? The difference lies in the way that people communicate with each other and in the way they react to events that take places in public spaces.�
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Personal Insight on Tadashi Kawamata:
To me, the best contribution from Tadashi Kawamata’s work is that of trying to gain understanding of different environments through the invasion of public spaces. Like he states: “This is not a work of art that acts as a demonstration of how a place can be transformed by occupation; it is an attempt to encapsulate the adaptive potential of both body and site.” For him is art, an exploration of space but; What does ‘lodging’ mean for immigrants that move into dense, overpopulated sites? How do they create their private space and how can I fully understand what they did and how they did it if am not involved in the whole process? This article reminded me of the one-on-one scale model of the squatter detail that I had to decipher and built from one very small internet picture. I made many assumptions as I was constructing the model, but I also used mental images of travels I had made to rural areas in Panama. Now I know that most of the assumptions I made for the model, came from my memories of actually being there and participating with the community in the construction of a family’s adobe home. It makes wonder if it is really possible as a viewer to gain full understanding of a project without really being involved? Would I only act as a viewer when I go to these different environments in Panama? Tadashi Kawamata suggests that one should be involved to fully understand his work but then; What is the role of the observer? My goal is to find evidence in these people’s constructions that would confirm whether or not they still retain their cultural background when they move to the city. Nevertheless, I will search for opportunities to gain a wider understanding of these evidences, even if it means stomping and dancing on mud for an entire day.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Ashenafi Gossaye : Addis Ababa: In Progress or Crisis?
Environment: Addis Ababa - Ethiopia World View: He sees a dispparety in certain opinions and wishes to address them in an objective manner. Connection: There are several similarities in his review of Addis Ababa with the current situation of Panama City. I would ask the same question he does: Panama City: In Progress or Crisis?
Personal Insight on Ashenafi Gossaye:
“Each observer makes sense of a city and creates his own image, though the type of image one creates about a place varies depending on the depth and quality of the information one has.” There are usually many similarities among cities of the developing world, so in order to understand the roots of the growing informality we need to understand the facts, the history and how it became too much to bare. Cities like Addis Ababa or Panama, are trying very hard to keep up with more developed nations but the mechanisms that might make them slightly similar are just giant screens of ephemeral luxury covering a reality even their citizens want to ignore. Like Ashenafi Gossaye states: “I contend that the emergence of few high-rise buildings here and there and the opening of some roads do not reflect the claimed rapid development and the real image of the city.” Like Addis Ababa, Panama City
Research and Study of Migration Connections
is also suffering the same symptoms. It is a country that has predominantly made its’ history through a commerce of service, being the best example: The Panama Canal. It is because of this wonder of the modern world that we have managed to maintain a level of economy that is above most of our Central America neighbors. Nonetheless, because of poor distribution of funds and the lack of visionary politicians the city is now suffering the largest health, education and basic infrastructure service drawback in history. There is so much money and effort being invested in tourism and commerce for the foreign elite that no one seems to care about the consequences of not improving the basic services. A massive migration took place for the construction of the Panama Canal at the end of the 1800’s. These people not only came from rural areas of the country but also from other countries like, Jamaica and China. One can still find evidence of informal settlements created by these immigrants when the construction ended and the city could not manage to sustain them or send them back. Now Panama City is getting ready to built a third set of locks for the Panama Canal and there is a great need for human labor. Would the story repeat itself ? How is a city that is not investing on providing the basics for the well-being of its’ inhabitants going to be able to deal with the consequences of a new massive migration event? Where are these people going to settle before, during and after the expansion is over? In a conversation I had with Ashenafi Gossaye he mentions how in Ethiopia men move from their villages to the city to work and live in very poor, informal settlements until they have earned enough money to move out and bring back their families. I want to find out what are the migratory patterns of people that move into the city of Panama. Does the family move all together? Would my timing in Panama coincide with a change in these patterns now that the city needs workers for the enlargement of the Panama Canal?
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Mary-Ann Ray : Gecenkondu: Built in One Night House.
Environment: Ankara - Turkey World View: She is amazed to have discovered that some things she thought she knew about her profession could be challenged. Connection: The study and documentation of this ‘up-overnight homes’ in Turkey has similarities with the way I will document the architecture I find on similar settings in Panama.
Personal Inquest on Mary-Ann Ray:
“Building is a verb: The Gecekondu are in a continual state of construction, for the builder is the inhabitant and the inhabitant the builder.” I have never heard of a law in Panama that allows builders to keep the land and their recently built home if they were able to construct it in one night. Nonetheless, I believe these constructions are characteristic of the way informal communities built themselves. Whether it be one night, months or several years, in communities like this ‘building is a verb’. These communities are far from sedentary and in constant change. Mary-Ann Ray seems to be amazed at how challenging these builders are to the architecture profession. Even though, the gecekondu homes are an exceptional case of self-built survival, I have seen builders in Panama start their adobe home at 6:00 am and have it done late in the afternoon. So, what is it about our profession that we seem to be so caught up in calling something architecture just because it has been schemed over and over, and reconsidered over and over?
Research and Study of Migration Connections
“From within the thing we were used to calling architecture, in which we were usually told that we needed to toil over and consider and reconsider every move we made. A desire to work this other way was something we acquire in the open air of the gecekondu.� I think the best contribution of this research is the documentation and explanation of each image as if it were shown in an important architecture magazine. This type of work opens ground for many others to start looking at our profession differently. Not that conventionally taught architecture will now be dismissed by the work of non-architects, but we certainly can not ignore the self-builders of the world. Would I be equally amazed about what I find in Panama in terms of the way the architecture is built and land proclaimed by the urban poor? Would I find myself any ‘gecekondu’ homes even though there is no law that actually protects them in Panama? Or, is there? I think it would be a great tactic if I am able to figure out the way these people become ‘owners’ of these lands and whether or not they are supported by a larger political structure. It is something I am completely unaware of at the moment.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Nabeel Hamdi: Small Change: The Art of Practice and the Limits of Planning in Cities.
Environment: London - UK (Where the author resides). World View: His desire is to address some of the worlds’ problems through our mutual understanding. Connection: Studying the redevelopment of informal communities around the world while redifining some concepts in they way it is practiced.
Personal Inquest on Nabeel Hamdi:
“Acting in order to induce others to act’, of offering impulses rather than instructions, and cultivating an environment for change from within, starts on the ground and often with small beginnings which have ‘emergent’ potential.” This quote very much reminded me of Hector LaSala and his small project that became a catalyst for a succession of many more. To me, the redevelopment of an informal settlement, like the one I will be exploring, seems unreal and idealistic. But then again, what makes a community informal enough to be consider for redevelopment? The informal community I will be entering is somewhere in between a slum that started as individuals began occupying the land illegally, and a chaotic mix of self-built and gradually upgraded residences. It is not like development never reached the area, since it is mostly equipped with the basic infrastructure, although, barely efficient. So, how would these people feel about redevelopment and do they understand what it means?
Research and Study of Migration Connections
I like when Nabeel Hamdi mentions the existence of a course that is attracting participants from all over which includes “practical acquaintance with the dilemmas and responsabilities arising from temporary involvement in other people’s lives and hopes.” It got me thinking about how real my project is and my responsibility, not only to gain accurate facts, but also as a human being, as an architect, and as a Panamanian. How will my work influence the very few or many people involved during my stay and after? What is my responsibility with them and how would I respond? I think what Nabeel Hamdi mentions about ‘getting organized’ is very important. I have to try to be very organized in my ideas as I approach these communities, while having an open mind about finding the unexpected. I do not think that because these individuals reside in an informal community they are informal in their way of life. It is important to make them understand that I want to establish an inclusive relationship with them, and acknowledge that I am at the same level as they are and not completely interdependent in the work I will be doing. “Intelligent practice builds on the collective wisdom of people and organizations on the ground - those who think locally and act locally - which is then rationalized in ways that make a difference globally.” The difference I wish to make is that of acknowledgement from both parts. One, for the people who are migrating and residing in these communities to feel acknowledged. And secondly, for others to acknowledge them. If I want to make a difference with these people I need to understand how they think and view themselves among society - think locally. Consequently, I will be able to act locally by providing insightful information about them and maybe get more people interested in the topic - make a difference globally.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Hector LaSala : Small Contribution in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Environment: Lafayette, LA - United States. World View: He believes in small contributions. For him even the smallest attempt to make a positive change can be very satisfactory. Connection: His work relies on making a contribution to society through the practice of architecture. He chooses small projects to built as a pretext to built communities.
“Listen, observe; identify the need of the people.� Hector LaSala is the personality behind of the design-built program Design on the Societal Battlefront. Dictated at the University of Lousiana at Lafayette, the program required the involvement of architecture students for the master plan design of a homeless shelter and 17 more projects in the future. The project that launched this initiative came about when The Outreach Center, a non-profit organization which assists homeless and persons in need, requested the help of the School of Architecture and Design to develop an overall space utilization plan and storge unit. As Hector LaSala came to discover later, the merely act of desingning a small bench for the people to sit when they came to The Outreach Center, became the catalyst for a complete turnover of a community’s redevelopment. The careful and well-thought intervention of his first collaborative designs have improved the work environment immensely while addressing the urgent needs of the center.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Personal Insight on Hector LaSala:
“Small attempts can make a big difference.” To me, his biggest contribution is showing us, with real constructed projects, that small acts lead to larger ideas. He also gave me the impression of being a very positive person, which I think in many ways contributes to his success. He talks about starting ‘small’ and having that ‘one project’ become the catalyst for the next. As we visited The Outreach Center site, everything he had previously mentioned about the projects made sense. There was that small organic bench that brought people together when they came to the center. The colorful path improved by the workers of the center with the help of the community, and the small amphitheater that had become a ‘need’ due to the many gatherings taking place now outside the center. Nothing seemed misplaced, and even though he confesses some things were never really designed, all together it gave you a sense of community. He mentioned in several occasions that “people are willing to give, just as long as you give them the opportunity.” Hector LaSala had the support of the university as well as the center so I wonder; How can one get involved without these types of supports? Although I am not proposing to make a change or any type of physical contribution to the places I will research in Panama, I am quite sure I will see needs and things that could be improved. But if I wanted to help, could I? Would it take just one important source to help me get in? And, is it true what Hector LaSala says about people wanting to help and provide if you let them? Some things I would have liked to hear from him were more insights on his struggles with the community and how he managed to overcome all of that. Did he really have to deal with the community’s approval if he initially had a green light for the project?
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Research and Study of Migration Connections
The small project that started everything.
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All pictures by the author of this document with exception of picture #3 taken by Wes Janz.
Research and Study of Migration Connections
Rufina Wu : Beijing Underground.
Environment: Beijing - China World View: She sees the need to acknowledge those who are being ignored as part of a society that still requires them for its’ progress. Connection: Rufina Wu focuses on understanding one particular type of immigrant housing in the city of Beijing. Most of these immigrants are rural villagers whose work is required but whose rights as citizens is denied, what is refer to as: the floating population of China.
From the topic to the approach this thesis dissertation addresses a distinctive type of qualitative research, just by establishing the question; “where do immigrants live in the city?� Other questions flourish. The first and most important aspect of this research study was the first hand involvement of Rufina with the problematic she was trying to understand. She engaged in this by living and experimenting herself the current living conditions of an underground room in Beijing. In addition, this document provides important insights on the culture versus the design aspects and the creativity of these types of informal-vernacular spaces that are sometimes ignored by the common middle class or high class citizen. By going through the photographs, narratives and experiences that she constructs one can start to understand this hidden part of society and maybe acknowledge that
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informal building practices are sometimes better conceived and highly responsive to cultural, economical, ecological and local climates than the preconceived design of architects and designers. “The wisdom and creativity of vernacular practices are also promoted as untapped sources of inspiration to subsequent generations of architects.”
Personal Insight on Rufina Wu:
Rufina Wu’s intention is not to study rural-to-urban migration, but to present a thorough research of a real case study of a type of immigrant housing in Beijing. I believe her most valuable contribution is her first hand experience of the living conditions of these places, having lived in an underground hotel room herself. I think her work is a great example of the type of critical research studies that our professionals can be involved in while moving towards a more humane architecture. She mentions that Beijing’s sub-altern groups follow a rich tradition of informal practices by non-architects. But I wonder if those informal practices are applied at all when those immigrants arrive to Beijing. How do they maintain their rural sensibility in these underground hostels? I believe Rufina Wu’s perspective in studying the vernacular architecture of non-architects in Beijing is still very much the one of an architect. I want to research the immigrants in Panama by using what I know as an architect to help me understand and evidence their lives in these informal environments. I am going to Panama as an architect to be taught by the non-architects of the informal.
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Research and Study of Migration Connections
Gabriela Valencia : Rural to Urban: Studying Migration in Panama.
Environment: Panama City - Panama World View: My views are very much related to the way society interacts. I am curious about the functionality of society as we know it. But, do we really understand it? I am doubtful about architecture as a profession but not discouraged.
Personal Insight:
I practiced architecture in Panama for three years, and for some reason I never felt completely comfortable with the work. Not being able to financially acquire most of the architecture I was designing got me thinking about society and my role as a professional. I came to understand that as a student I was taught to design for an exclusive portion of the population. And although I have always been passionate about my career, I never felt a connection between the project, the users, and myself. At some point I decided that as an architect I wanted to be more involved, and after participating in the rehabilitation of an informal settlement in Panama, I decided that I wanted to work one-on-one with the communities. I believe it is very important for societies to start understanding the “informal� because these communities are real, they are part of today’s major urban centers, and they will never disappear.
The communities I am interested in studying are usually a mix of city-born settlers and immigrants from the rural regions. The thesis I am proposing will ask
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Research and Study of Migration Connections
basic questions of how immigrants from rural and very isolated regions of the country settle in the city of Panama. The focus or core of the thesis will be determining if and what evidence exists that these immigrants retain a rural sensibility in terms of who they are and where they came from. To summarize, the topic of inquiry is: What are the connections found in the urban informal settlements that relate to the residents’ recent past lives in rural settings?
Since there is not much information that relates to the topic, a very important part of my methodology was to do this independent study and extract valuable information from these authors that related to informal settlements, migration and their involvement with these people and their environments. I wanted to find connections with these individuals while determing my role as someone who will try to bring more understanding to an already complex topic. The field work consists of introducing myself into an informal community and searching for one or several immigrants, talking to them and compiling information about their current and past lives. The main purpose is to try to locate people who may still have some connections with their rural locations and acquire information on how they manage to stay connected. I will rely upon writings, sketches, pictures, conversations, and maps, while trying to analyze and research different circumstances and issues so I can get as many perspectives as possible.
The main goal or result would be to educate. I would like to be able to inform other design students, academics, and professionals about these communities and the inhabitants. I imagine this document being posted and read by professionals from different fields, but most of all I want to be able to create trust with at least one individual, and make sure that somehow he/she is recognized as part of our society.
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Vocabulary
Development:
Is whatever you want it to be depending on your politics and ideology: economic growth, rights, freedom, livelihoods, good governance, knowledge, power - all of which are often interpersed with words like ‘integration’, ‘sustainability’, ‘empowerment’, ‘partnerships’, ‘participation’, ‘community’, ‘democracy’, or ‘ethies’.
Emergence:
Scientists define it as the ability to organize and become sophisticated, to move from one kind of order to another higher level of order.
Gecekondu:
House built in one night in turkish language.
Imbrication:
Used by Architect David Adjaye as the overlaping between public spaces and buildings.
Intra-Community / Inter-Community: The way Kalpana Sharma referred in her book to the clashes between different communities of immigrants in Dharavi before the riots of 1992-1993. “The clashes among the communities were intra-community and not inter-community.” Inside Dharavi and not among the different cultural groups.
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Lodging:
An alternative definition of a ‘property’ introduced as something temporary and ephemeral. It could be seen as a form of urban investigation that will enable us to make direct responses to the immediate environment of the city.
Oda:
Is name given to every room in the Gecekondu home (built in one night). The spaces are not called living room, dinning room, bathroom or bedroom but do-it-all rooms, all at the same time.
Public Character: Is anyone who is in frequent contact with a wide circle of people and who is sufficiently interested to make himself a public character. A public character need have no special talents. Slumming:
Referrenced in Rediscrovering Dharavi as one of the origins of the word ‘slum’ denoting informal, unhygenic housing.
Social Controls: Is when government does assume responsibility in the lives of the people like this (informal vendors on the sidewalk), it attempts to eradicate them from the streets or to shape their behavior. Urban Poor:
Is the way Kalpana Sharma referred to people living in Dharavi. She referred to Dharavi as a predetermined ‘slum’, where government sent people when other lands of the city of Bombay were required for other purposes.
All the words and their definitions where taken from the references shown on the next page.
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References
Sharma, Kalpana. Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia’s Largest Slum. Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 2000.
Duneier, Mitchell. Sidewalk. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.
Willingham, Brian. Soul of a Black Cop. Willingham Enterprises, 2006.
Kawamata, Tadashi. 2000. “Lodging London/Tokyo”. AA files 43.
Gossaye, Ashenafi. 2008. Addis Ababa: In Progress or Crisis? Ethiopian Review, http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/2983.html.
Ray, Mary-Ann. 1998. “Gecekondu: Built in One Night Houses”. Architecture of the Everyday.
Hamdi, Nabeel. Small Change: The Art of Practice and the Limits of Planning in Cities. London: Earthscan Publications Ltd, 2004.
Wu, R. “Beijing Underground.” MARCH diss.,Waterloo University, Canada, 2007.
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