Inadequate housing is a global situation resulting from rapid urbanization and poverty. To say that underdeveloped countries are far behind to meet this basic standard is not an understatement. A study of 58 projects of various scales across the world reveals certain set of qualities such projects should achieve to be successful. Though each project solves certain issues pertinent to its unique context, the diversity provides insights into universal qualities such as community participation or use of affordable material/technology that are scalable and transferable. The following pointers could be utilized to 1. Ground survey: A comprehensive assessment of the potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWAT) analysis should be undertaken so as to understand the existing conditions. This includes demographic, socio-economic, socio-spatial profiles, urban configuration and environmental conditions. Mobile devices-smart phones along with advanced mapping software could be used to collect data. 2. Consultation: Communities and citizens must be an integral part from the initial stages -in the process of planning, data collection, defining problems and financing options. Consultation and participation with the clientele in terms of design and planning enables them to connect to the project and encourages them to invest in improving the property at a later stage. The greater the involvement, the more efficient and cost effective the response. This process builds community and encourages initiatives, helps revitalize social and environmental spheres of the place. The participatory approach to development projects is being practiced across the globe and in India too. Program de Vevenda Popular in Mexico, pasla paz post-earthquake reconstruction program, Egypt’s participatory slum up-gradation program and costford housing in Kerala, India are a few of them. Several incremental projects, like in Chile, Brazil and Mexico where funds are insufficient, people themselves are seen as the greatest asset. When a sufficient support through initial funding and training are provided, the dwezllers take in charge and improve on the settlements further. Training programs further increase the skill set and add to the employability of the slum dwellers. 3. Transition housing: traditionally transition housing was being provided to disaster effected areas where immediate shelter with basic amenities was necessary until a more permanent settlement solution is available. The bang muang project Thailand, is one such camp that houses three thousand people post tsunami where people got together. The project along with the formed committees and allocated tasks among themselves common crisis at hand together brought people working together in groups and self-assigned committees to perform tasks and make decisions. USA on the other hand has the Voucher system. Here, transition housing is not a temporary structure but are houses on rental basis in the surrounding neighborhoods, payable by vouchers that can be redeemed. 4. Conserving the work-home relationship: Work-home relationship the root cause of dense housing concentrated at certain areas, is always proximity to workplace or economic centers. To preserve this work- home relationship several initiatives have been made. If people in a neighborhood are to be relocated either new employment opportunities are to be created or means of affordable mass transport are to be shown. The rent to buy scheme in the UK is one such scheme that was initiated so as to conserve the work-home relationship. Affordable houses are constructed close to the workplace enabling people to live in the same neighborhood on rent for a few years during which part of the rent paid is saved up and utilized when they buy the house. 5. Design matters: A good design in terms of affordable housing reflects respect to man, nature and community. Space is to be optimized to meet most needs in terms of configuration, connections and construction. The responsibility of an architect extends further to design affordable disaster resistant homes when it comes to public housing.” Earthquakes don’t kill people, poorly built houses do “. El Salvado’s earthquakes, Indonesia’s Tsunami, Vietnam’s tycoons have found the right solutions through design. India’s own disaster resistant building technology in cost effective alternatives are worth mentioning. Addressing another global issue – sustainability- through design, several projects in Europe and Asia have been undertaken as an integral part.
6. Same world experience: isolation of public housing is seen even in the heart of the cities the reasons due to poor efforts to weave them into the urban fabric. Several programs across the world consider that social equity are necessary for healthier eco-systems. This includes proximity to the city and services, equal right to the city and an equal right to live in houses that blend into the urban fabric. The latter often gets realized in affordable housing projects. Slovenia’s public housing addresses these issues with its brightly colored environmentally responsive designs for housing. The affordability community spaces is questioned by Spain’s spacious open spaces at VIvazz MEirs HOUSING PROJECT. When this kind of a space is unavailable, the terrace turns into a community space at another social housing apartment block. Cities in Morocco, Tanzania and Vienna show that it is possible to eliminate slums on the whole through complicated urban strategies, which provide housing for all. A project in Rio de Janeiro where two Dutch artists painted a whole favela in bright colours as an urban art form, revitalize the whole area and more, the favela is visited by tourists and celebrities. 7. Transparent allocation: Transparent allocation inhabits lobbing and political interference thus increases trust worthiness in the program and government. An open lots system adopted in surat for selection of house, is one such method. 8. Affordable mobility: affordable housing must be expanded to include the full ecosystem of a community that is necessary to support new homes. Facilitating mass transport and accessibility to workplaces, major services like schools and public health services and major town-centers is the key. Curitiba facilitates its increased urban population with an increased number of public buses, mobilizing masses within the city. In a city like Caracas with its geographic constraints of steep terrain, an innovative solution had to be sort to and so came the metro cable system that connects its favelas to metro stations at both ends. The cable cart manages to transport 1,200 people an hour across a 2.1km long arc. 9. Joined- up governance: for any project to be successful tearing down the walls of silos of knowledge and talent, information and experience and building bridges across divides between sectors of professionals, between business and citizens, between governments and the private sector and various departments within the government, so that the power of their combined skills and knowledge unleashes untapped potential. 10. Innovation : Innovation in terms of alternate construction technology, material and services can provided to improve quality, simultaneously reduce not just the construction-cost but the life-cycle cost of the project by 30 -50%. Echale Tu casa in Mexico, Costford in India, Association la Voute Nubienne in Burkina Faso and other Sub- Saharan Africa have opted traditions construction technologies and developed them further to fit needs. Echale Tu casa, a non-profit organization utilizes ADOBLOCKS that are eco-friendly, machine-made, in-situ blocks which can be produced at a very low cost. The organization works closely with the community by training them to produce and utilize these blocks to construct their own homes. They also help the community with simple sustainable techniques like water conservation, rainwater harvesting, etc. Costford works on similar lines but with an outlook to generate employment opportunities and constant improvement and experimentation that further extends the utility of an adobe brick. 11. Services and amenities: as of 2008, one sixth of the world’s population lives in slums and shantytowns in deplorable conditions often without access to basic sanitation, drinking water and electricity. The operation and maintenance cost of these facilities and services are to be minimized at every level so as to reduce the burden on a common man. For this purpose, suitable methods are to be implemented right from the design development phase and innovative techniques, materials are to be utilized keeping in mind the long term costs. The LED technology clubbed with solar power generation has given rise to an awe-inspiring project called Litter of Light where a whole village is trained and provided with small solar panels that are then utilized to create transparent skylights made of recycles plastic in houses that allow daylight during the day and by the night, the solar panels store enough power to light the house with the embedded LEDs. This technology has been further extended to street lights in the village.
Centre for VENUS Vibrant Efficient Networked Urban Settlements