This is an idea for my thesis, it should be a combo between a written essay and a real thesis project.
I am not quite sure on how to approach it and on where to go, but it will be something like an analysis of why informal sytems like the brazilian favelas but also others are or could be as highly appealing to the general public as well in their spatial configuration, as in their bustling economic, social and cultural activity. How can we use these informal organizations and implement them in the modern city, go away from the toroughly planned to the organically grown city, where every individual is part of the process and not just the mere spectator of an overwhelming urban developpment.
informal systems as you describe happen precisely because they are not implemented by a guiding hand -- rather they occur almost literally in an organic fashion, their forms and spaces driven by and derived from their own internal processes for growth and aspiration (in a metaphorical sense). but what about systems such as these is "appealing," attractive, etc? that would be a good thing to analyze.
One place to start—though maybe you've already looked there—is with Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau and the various American urbanists influenced by their writings. Check out the book "Everyday Urbbanism" ed by Crawford, Chase, andk Kaliski.
DeCerteau has a lot to say about bottom-up approaches to city making. He has an essay that I like a lot in "The Everyday Life Reader".
But unfortunately, the eternal problem with the "everday approach" is how does the architect intervene in this scenario? The processes and opportunities that de Certeau advocates are a grassroots sort of effort - they are not top-down.
what "informal systems" are already at work in the modern city that mimic those you want to analyze/import/implement from outside of the modern city? i would be just as interested in locating/defining those as i would be comparing that to the hyperorganization of the squatter sprawl in other places. is it more an interest in the 'network city' (however those networks are improvised) either purposefully or even as a backlash to more regional planning? Or are you interested in looking at these sytems as purely planning models? emergent planning models. i am totally interested in this too, but am really only now picking up the ball so i will be the first to admit i don't really know jack, but like previously said it might be more interesting to observe not from a goal of importing something but more so from what is already bubbling up similarly in our own midst, and try to build on that sense of community design.
i'd also look at research done within very current theoretical frameworks ... for example, here. 'examines' those informal systems in a larger global economic context (can't really understand informality without seeing why it happens). the great part about Roy's work (direct descendent of Castells) is she turns the 'examining' back onto the ones usually doing the examining, addressing things like american homelessness, forms of protest, spatial subversion in the first world -- as bryan suggested above.
the book "highlights key trends in informal housing in various world-regions. It takes serious account of the current moment of neoliberal globalization and investigates the relationships between neoliberalism and urban informality." and "examines the current policy and design fascination with urban poverty and informality, what Roy calls the 'aestheticization of poverty.'" (which sounds like what ochona is wary of ... !)
for a reading list, i suggest emaiing her. roy's website. she's brilliant and has a multitude of resources ... just ask to hook you up.
can you name any other prof's who are highly-addresssing of the squatter issue, urbanization of poverty, informal housing, third world settlements, etc.? i am curious about UCBerk prof's but i can find those on my own I suppose, so maybe you know of others just worth checking out, wherever they may be. trying to get a survey of all the teches i need to be aware of re: squatter urbanism
it's not exactly what you're asking for but, since you're also interested in borders, i'd suggest you try to find info/documentation of what michael barry's studio did at cornell last year. (he's at m.i.t. this year, but i don't know if he's on a similar theme.)
the cornell studio each chose their own sites, but these sites were places where borders were in conflict, i.e., the space between two overlapping/contested national boundaries, the varying locations of the israeli/palestine wall, etc. you might call the projects that occupy these spaces 'squatter', 'informal'.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that 'informal' processes and development don't take place under and within formal regimes. People and groups always find a way to carve out places, even among and inside top-down planning projects. Yes, it will be less (or at least different) than in favelas or other 'unplanned' environments, but this is still important and interesting.
Read the chapter on Brasilia in James Scott, _Seeing Like a State_.
thanks also Steven and Citizen for those suggestions, sweet, definitely will look into michael barry's studio, and Brasilia in James Scott, _Seeing Like a State_ too. excellent.
informal systems, happens at all levels to be sure, sometimes i think my life is guided by one massive messy informal system, yikes! but true....
ahh, this is such an interesting topic. i've done quite a bit of research in and around it. i would definitely suggest looking at hernando de soto's "the other path". it's an incredible study of peruvian black market housing, business, and transportation systems and definitely points toward ways that the power of these processes can be harnessed. the other aspect that is very important in many of these situations is governmental control or lack of control...and the way that economic opportunity interacts within the system - see the squattor village that occurred on the outskirts of Brasilia during its construction and the build-up of squattor villages in adjacency to maquiladoras along the US/Mexico border. also, for a totally out-there perspective on this stuff see all of Lebbeus Woods work as it (at least since the late 80s) is directly influenced by his experience of Brazilian favelas...and contemplations on ways to incorporate these emergent logics.
yes, de soto is important too. i am very interested in the modes of mobilzation of these communities, the self-assemblage mechanisms, the different landscapes at play that allow the micro-politics and 'community-design systems' of informality to power themselves, the unique cultural conditions of each "place" that arranges to help produce an informal-economy. i am looking at the day laborer issue here in the states, good article in NYC right now. But how to encourage governments/philantrhopists/NGO' to engage that process from the ground up, rather than the other way around. by establishing better tools for these informalities to evolve with on their own and the legal/political framework/protection that encourages the grass roots mobilzation process more. the approach should be to assist them in creating their own independent engines, as opposed to the top-down government relief aid approach, which can't possibly supply enough for the future, and that in the end prescribes and seeks to control the flows of informailty more than to help steer them.
I am trying to learn more about the range of policy solutions as well around the world and models of land rights for poor communities from the MST in Bras to the gecekondu in Turk, different models of self-empowerment, which gets into insurgencies and all forms of underground. in the very near future we will have a couple of billion people squatting refuging asylum-seeking fleeing incarceration, without citizenships, without national identities, tsunamis of nomads chased between fixed points of temporary-becoming-permenant encampment-cities, lost in socio-political limbomania. this is inevitable, so we may as well figure how to help these communities manage for themselves at the very least while our immigration policy continues to price them out of political security.
right on BF.
you're totally on the head with that one. the beauty of the situation is that although currently not always the best situations, the necessity drives incredible invention and variety...how can architects harness a DIY emergent model...incorporating sustainable measures and economic opportunity, etc. without creating a strangehold of the "masterplan" what is the smallest amount of information necessary to create a change within a system.
its a difficult balance perhaps for designers to manage, because the desire to create a masterplan is so intense and integral to the defintion of the profession, (Suisman sure loves his railway plan for Palestine) but in this case the masterplan has to come from the communities themsleves, they just need better tools for implementing it. and we need to help relieve them of their dependence on the system as much as find ways of incoporating them in the legal landscape. tricky folds. ultimately, their autonomy is better for them and a bankrupt or currupt system which can't possibly cure global poverty over night, which in fact only contributes to it, either aggressively like Mugabe or inadvertently, informally, whatever.
Really interesting, awesome ideas. Not to counter the emergent systems enthusiasm, but here's something of a caveat...(from the [http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/NewGeog/urban.html]Berkeley[/url] tip, again):
"an examination becomes even more imperative given the recent celebration of urban informality in a whole spectrum of policy positions. From the World Bank (1991; see also Baross, 1990) agenda of "enabling" informal urban development to new-found enthusiasm for self-help strategies of the urban poor (Douglass and Friedmann, 1998), there is a growing consensus on the benefits of harnessing the efficiencies of urban informality. It is important to keep in mind that these catchwords of "enablement" and "community" reinforce, rather than challenge, the austerity agenda of neo-liberalism (Roberts, 1994), euphemizing power and politics in the guise of "governance" and "state capacity." I think the idea is that bottom-up is essential, but it benefits when implemented in conjunction with some top-down policy.
a friend of mine from germany is doing a phd on squatter settlements and international policy while working in manila and china (working with leaders to implement community-based maintenance and infrastructure, with the aim to create a self-sustaining economy) ... very very exhausting work ... i'll ask her for some sources.
And, [url=http://wwics.si.edu/topics/pubs/urbanbrief01.pdf]Against the Feminization of Policy[url] is another Roy piece, which is good to have in mind when we get deeper into the problems of real life policies.
I can't offer any informality profs in depth (it wasn't my thesis), but off the top of my head, there are urban scholars (you might know them already) Neil Smith, Abdoumaliq Simone, Partha Chatterjee in NY, Ackbar Abbas in HK, and Nezar Alsayyed here in Berkeley. Again, if you email Prof Roy with your specific interest, she is totally open and generous with her time & references ... in fact, i think i'll be emailing her soon!
ckl, mauOne - thanks for those suggstions. last time i was in kowloon city stayed for two weeks deep inside the Chungking Mansion somewhere deep in a tower hole, what a great real-life intro to urban informality that was. boy do i miss the road.
mint -
thanks again, that list of scholars is another good batch for me to check out, as i must admit i am not that familiar. do you or did you or do you plan on going to Berkeley? Do yo live in the bay Area? I am thinking about applying for the masters in urban design. Roy seems great, i just emailed her. gonne see if i can't set up a time to meet her soon.
anyway, thanks for all this, and i suppose i should thank brown666 for starting this thread too. please keep these suggestions/dialogue rolling.
no prob, anytime. the great thing about this field is there is a truly global network of scholars and workers who are very passionate and grounded. i'll def get some more names for you, when i can find them ...
i'm living in sf right now, took several of Roy's classes during undergrad. they informed me about current theory, history of theory, economics, practice, and ideology in urban studies quite a bit. but, even beyond that, Roy was once a film student and she discusses film in her courses ... absolutely brilliant.
another thing -- the, let's say, heated dialogue between urban scholars is also very interesting & current. for example, the framing of globalization, urban/rural relationships, first world/third world relationships. i can list a lot of names who you should consult, and a lot of names who have arguments you can topple.
the documentary "On Borrowed Land". Captures interactions between NGOs, politicos, community leaders, kids, and real estate developers in an very large squatter settlement.
those of us into this subject should get together on archinect / in the bay area and discuss!
sweet info, and i super appreciate it, and pls do keep it all coming, names, profs, programs, the debate, films, yeah yeah yeah. this is great stuff and i am eating it up. not sure what the hell i will do with it exactly, but for now just trying to get my head on as much as possible.
so, i am out of town right now for another two weeks, but would love to hook up with you sometime in November to rap more about this. can we shoot for then?
Oct 12, 05 10:28 pm ·
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informal systems in the modern city
This is an idea for my thesis, it should be a combo between a written essay and a real thesis project.
I am not quite sure on how to approach it and on where to go, but it will be something like an analysis of why informal sytems like the brazilian favelas but also others are or could be as highly appealing to the general public as well in their spatial configuration, as in their bustling economic, social and cultural activity. How can we use these informal organizations and implement them in the modern city, go away from the toroughly planned to the organically grown city, where every individual is part of the process and not just the mere spectator of an overwhelming urban developpment.
Please any toughts, suggestions, ideas???
informal systems as you describe happen precisely because they are not implemented by a guiding hand -- rather they occur almost literally in an organic fashion, their forms and spaces driven by and derived from their own internal processes for growth and aspiration (in a metaphorical sense). but what about systems such as these is "appealing," attractive, etc? that would be a good thing to analyze.
One place to start—though maybe you've already looked there—is with Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau and the various American urbanists influenced by their writings. Check out the book "Everyday Urbbanism" ed by Crawford, Chase, andk Kaliski.
DeCerteau has a lot to say about bottom-up approaches to city making. He has an essay that I like a lot in "The Everyday Life Reader".
But unfortunately, the eternal problem with the "everday approach" is how does the architect intervene in this scenario? The processes and opportunities that de Certeau advocates are a grassroots sort of effort - they are not top-down.
what "informal systems" are already at work in the modern city that mimic those you want to analyze/import/implement from outside of the modern city? i would be just as interested in locating/defining those as i would be comparing that to the hyperorganization of the squatter sprawl in other places. is it more an interest in the 'network city' (however those networks are improvised) either purposefully or even as a backlash to more regional planning? Or are you interested in looking at these sytems as purely planning models? emergent planning models. i am totally interested in this too, but am really only now picking up the ball so i will be the first to admit i don't really know jack, but like previously said it might be more interesting to observe not from a goal of importing something but more so from what is already bubbling up similarly in our own midst, and try to build on that sense of community design.
check out Manuel Castells.
i'd also look at research done within very current theoretical frameworks ... for example, here. 'examines' those informal systems in a larger global economic context (can't really understand informality without seeing why it happens). the great part about Roy's work (direct descendent of Castells) is she turns the 'examining' back onto the ones usually doing the examining, addressing things like american homelessness, forms of protest, spatial subversion in the first world -- as bryan suggested above.
the book "highlights key trends in informal housing in various world-regions. It takes serious account of the current moment of neoliberal globalization and investigates the relationships between neoliberalism and urban informality." and "examines the current policy and design fascination with urban poverty and informality, what Roy calls the 'aestheticization of poverty.'" (which sounds like what ochona is wary of ... !)
for a reading list, i suggest emaiing her. roy's website. she's brilliant and has a multitude of resources ... just ask to hook you up.
yo mintcar (or ayone for that matter)
can you name any other prof's who are highly-addresssing of the squatter issue, urbanization of poverty, informal housing, third world settlements, etc.? i am curious about UCBerk prof's but i can find those on my own I suppose, so maybe you know of others just worth checking out, wherever they may be. trying to get a survey of all the teches i need to be aware of re: squatter urbanism
thanks for any help.
bryan-
it's not exactly what you're asking for but, since you're also interested in borders, i'd suggest you try to find info/documentation of what michael barry's studio did at cornell last year. (he's at m.i.t. this year, but i don't know if he's on a similar theme.)
the cornell studio each chose their own sites, but these sites were places where borders were in conflict, i.e., the space between two overlapping/contested national boundaries, the varying locations of the israeli/palestine wall, etc. you might call the projects that occupy these spaces 'squatter', 'informal'.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that 'informal' processes and development don't take place under and within formal regimes. People and groups always find a way to carve out places, even among and inside top-down planning projects. Yes, it will be less (or at least different) than in favelas or other 'unplanned' environments, but this is still important and interesting.
Read the chapter on Brasilia in James Scott, _Seeing Like a State_.
Bryan ... there is an urban planning professor at UCLA named Vinit Mukhija who wrote a book about squatters in Bombay. His work can be accessed here
smokety
thanks a lot, i will definitely check this out.
oh shit
thanks also Steven and Citizen for those suggestions, sweet, definitely will look into michael barry's studio, and Brasilia in James Scott, _Seeing Like a State_ too. excellent.
informal systems, happens at all levels to be sure, sometimes i think my life is guided by one massive messy informal system, yikes! but true....
ahh, this is such an interesting topic. i've done quite a bit of research in and around it. i would definitely suggest looking at hernando de soto's "the other path". it's an incredible study of peruvian black market housing, business, and transportation systems and definitely points toward ways that the power of these processes can be harnessed. the other aspect that is very important in many of these situations is governmental control or lack of control...and the way that economic opportunity interacts within the system - see the squattor village that occurred on the outskirts of Brasilia during its construction and the build-up of squattor villages in adjacency to maquiladoras along the US/Mexico border. also, for a totally out-there perspective on this stuff see all of Lebbeus Woods work as it (at least since the late 80s) is directly influenced by his experience of Brazilian favelas...and contemplations on ways to incorporate these emergent logics.
yes, de soto is important too. i am very interested in the modes of mobilzation of these communities, the self-assemblage mechanisms, the different landscapes at play that allow the micro-politics and 'community-design systems' of informality to power themselves, the unique cultural conditions of each "place" that arranges to help produce an informal-economy. i am looking at the day laborer issue here in the states, good article in NYC right now. But how to encourage governments/philantrhopists/NGO' to engage that process from the ground up, rather than the other way around. by establishing better tools for these informalities to evolve with on their own and the legal/political framework/protection that encourages the grass roots mobilzation process more. the approach should be to assist them in creating their own independent engines, as opposed to the top-down government relief aid approach, which can't possibly supply enough for the future, and that in the end prescribes and seeks to control the flows of informailty more than to help steer them.
I am trying to learn more about the range of policy solutions as well around the world and models of land rights for poor communities from the MST in Bras to the gecekondu in Turk, different models of self-empowerment, which gets into insurgencies and all forms of underground. in the very near future we will have a couple of billion people squatting refuging asylum-seeking fleeing incarceration, without citizenships, without national identities, tsunamis of nomads chased between fixed points of temporary-becoming-permenant encampment-cities, lost in socio-political limbomania. this is inevitable, so we may as well figure how to help these communities manage for themselves at the very least while our immigration policy continues to price them out of political security.
right on BF.
you're totally on the head with that one. the beauty of the situation is that although currently not always the best situations, the necessity drives incredible invention and variety...how can architects harness a DIY emergent model...incorporating sustainable measures and economic opportunity, etc. without creating a strangehold of the "masterplan" what is the smallest amount of information necessary to create a change within a system.
well said futureboy.
its a difficult balance perhaps for designers to manage, because the desire to create a masterplan is so intense and integral to the defintion of the profession, (Suisman sure loves his railway plan for Palestine) but in this case the masterplan has to come from the communities themsleves, they just need better tools for implementing it. and we need to help relieve them of their dependence on the system as much as find ways of incoporating them in the legal landscape. tricky folds. ultimately, their autonomy is better for them and a bankrupt or currupt system which can't possibly cure global poverty over night, which in fact only contributes to it, either aggressively like Mugabe or inadvertently, informally, whatever.
did you look at MVRDV's Farmax book?
it has an interesting study about Kowloon city
Really interesting, awesome ideas. Not to counter the emergent systems enthusiasm, but here's something of a caveat...(from the [http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/NewGeog/urban.html]Berkeley[/url] tip, again):
"an examination becomes even more imperative given the recent celebration of urban informality in a whole spectrum of policy positions. From the World Bank (1991; see also Baross, 1990) agenda of "enabling" informal urban development to new-found enthusiasm for self-help strategies of the urban poor (Douglass and Friedmann, 1998), there is a growing consensus on the benefits of harnessing the efficiencies of urban informality. It is important to keep in mind that these catchwords of "enablement" and "community" reinforce, rather than challenge, the austerity agenda of neo-liberalism (Roberts, 1994), euphemizing power and politics in the guise of "governance" and "state capacity." I think the idea is that bottom-up is essential, but it benefits when implemented in conjunction with some top-down policy.
a friend of mine from germany is doing a phd on squatter settlements and international policy while working in manila and china (working with leaders to implement community-based maintenance and infrastructure, with the aim to create a self-sustaining economy) ... very very exhausting work ... i'll ask her for some sources.
And, [url=http://wwics.si.edu/topics/pubs/urbanbrief01.pdf]Against the Feminization of Policy[url] is another Roy piece, which is good to have in mind when we get deeper into the problems of real life policies.
I can't offer any informality profs in depth (it wasn't my thesis), but off the top of my head, there are urban scholars (you might know them already) Neil Smith, Abdoumaliq Simone, Partha Chatterjee in NY, Ackbar Abbas in HK, and Nezar Alsayyed here in Berkeley. Again, if you email Prof Roy with your specific interest, she is totally open and generous with her time & references ... in fact, i think i'll be emailing her soon!
oops ... lots of messy links ... !
there´s an issue of archis mag "The people", #1 2003, that looks deep into this with examples from all over
ckl, mauOne - thanks for those suggstions. last time i was in kowloon city stayed for two weeks deep inside the Chungking Mansion somewhere deep in a tower hole, what a great real-life intro to urban informality that was. boy do i miss the road.
mint -
thanks again, that list of scholars is another good batch for me to check out, as i must admit i am not that familiar. do you or did you or do you plan on going to Berkeley? Do yo live in the bay Area? I am thinking about applying for the masters in urban design. Roy seems great, i just emailed her. gonne see if i can't set up a time to meet her soon.
anyway, thanks for all this, and i suppose i should thank brown666 for starting this thread too. please keep these suggestions/dialogue rolling.
no prob, anytime. the great thing about this field is there is a truly global network of scholars and workers who are very passionate and grounded. i'll def get some more names for you, when i can find them ...
i'm living in sf right now, took several of Roy's classes during undergrad. they informed me about current theory, history of theory, economics, practice, and ideology in urban studies quite a bit. but, even beyond that, Roy was once a film student and she discusses film in her courses ... absolutely brilliant.
another thing -- the, let's say, heated dialogue between urban scholars is also very interesting & current. for example, the framing of globalization, urban/rural relationships, first world/third world relationships. i can list a lot of names who you should consult, and a lot of names who have arguments you can topple.
more:
Janice Perlman, founder of the Mega-Cities Project
the documentary "On Borrowed Land". Captures interactions between NGOs, politicos, community leaders, kids, and real estate developers in an very large squatter settlement.
those of us into this subject should get together on archinect / in the bay area and discuss!
mint
sweet info, and i super appreciate it, and pls do keep it all coming, names, profs, programs, the debate, films, yeah yeah yeah. this is great stuff and i am eating it up. not sure what the hell i will do with it exactly, but for now just trying to get my head on as much as possible.
so, i am out of town right now for another two weeks, but would love to hook up with you sometime in November to rap more about this. can we shoot for then?
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