Current urban areas are plagued by economic hardships, social disconnect, and cultural deficiency that generate inadequate living conditions. These inadequacies can be explained through the analysis of interpersonal and collective networks present in these areas. The definition of networks in this case is the personal outreach of a specific individual as well as the relationships between them. Cultural, economic, and social networks are all present in these communities. The personal outreach if each individual is very limited and inefficient due to the lack of resources. Also, the overall collective unity in these areas is debilitated by social disconnect that inhibits the overall development of that unity. Though there is a lack of interpersonal relationships in these areas, there is an infrastructural framework existing. Established circulation, transportation, and intangible infrastructure such as education and health serve as facilitators and stabilizers for the underlying networks to function properly within the expansiveness of the urban scale. Infrastructural framework is considered a formal network that allows localized networks to connect to a broader public.
Flexible networks are also needed to ensure an overall efficiency in the function of the community. Analyzing the relationships in informal settlements in foreign countries, certain qualities can be extracted and used as precedents to begin the process of maximizing the efficiency of networks in deteriorated urban areas. Informal networks such as the makeshift circulatory paths of informal settlements are considered flexible because of their ability to change based on individual input. Although lacking in resources, these networks have developed, through their flexibility, into hyper-efficient conglomerates. The lack of resources of the individual is rectified by their association to a collective where there is an accumulation of resources. Once part of a collective, a variety of needs can be accommodated by the merging of flexible network fragments. Combining this flexibility with the formal systems found in local urban areas can create an interlaced network. This interlacing creates a community that has both the stability of formal framework and the flexibility of informal networks.
The development of these new networks can be directly linked to spatial conditions. Currently, there is an abundance of dead spaces created by the overarching formal networks that leads to stagnated and fragmented interpersonal networks. Yards of private homes, alleys, bridge underpasses, and any other space not currently in maximum use both in private or public lots are considered dead space. Small scale interventions can be produced in these spaces and serve as a node of interchange and have the ability to engage other networks and create an overall co-acting community. These spaces can have various manifestations such as shops, cafes, or any other typology that can account for the needs of the community. This ability, as part of the collective network, to tap into various interpersonal networks will allow for greater flexibility in network function which in turn will help improve the living conditions in an area.