2024-04-27T10:53:23-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/149995116/urban-india-informal-housing-inadequate-property-rights Laura Amaya 2017-03-03T09:56:00-05:00 >2020-01-03T12:04:42-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/fk/fknlsbhn9x6gcur0.JPG?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>The rapid pace of urbanization in developing countries places increasing levels of stress on cities. As thousands of people move into urban areas each year, the availability of affordable housing emerges as a key challenge. In India, 412 million people live in urban areas. Depending on the source, anywhere between 33 and 47 percent of those (equivalent to 26-37 million households) live in informal housing, which often lacks access to basic services like roads, water, and sanitation. To make matters worse, most of those households do not have any formal property rights, thus jeopardizing their ability to live and invest in the land they currently occupy.</p><p>As architects, we often use &ldquo;informality&rdquo; to describe everything outside of the formal city. Informality is the gray area occupied by the slum, the favela, or the barrio. Our failure to segment informality into distinct categories results in design solutions that barely scratch the surface of urban complexity. Designing for informalit...</p>