UIA 214 Proceedings Book (Durban)

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PROCEEDING
EDiTOr
Amira Osman
Gerhard Bruyns
Clinton Aigbavboa
COMPilATiOn
Kerry Firmani
DESiGn AnD lAyOuT

Garth Walker
Hein Jonker
PuBliSHEr
uiA 2014 Durban
© uiA 2014 Durban
iSBn 978-0-86970-783-8
CONGRESS
UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE
UIA 2014 DURBAN PROGRAMME PARTNERS AND GUEST EDITORS

The uiA 2014 Programme Partners have been instrumental in expanding the scope of the uiA 2014
Congress. These partnerships aim to use the event as a platform for furthering conversations around
the Congress themes and pertinent built environment issues. They have therefore been initiated
with a particular focus on enhancing and supporting the academic aspects of the Congress. These
between the event and the Programme Partners has been crucial to the development of the Congress
Programme and Content.
The Programme Partners have also acted as advisors to the General reporter and editors for the
various sections of the Abstract and Proceedings Books. The coordinators in these partnerships are
listed as follows:
Angus Donald Campbell, Senior lecturer in industrial Design, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture,
university of Johanesburg
Anna rubbo, research Scholar, Center for Sustainable urban Development, Columbia university
Ariane Janse van rensburg, Senior lecturer, School of Architecture and Planning, university of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Happy ratna Santosa, Professor in Architecture, Head of the laboratory of Housing and Human
Settlements, institut Teknologi Sepuluh nopember, indonesia
Jennifer Van Den Bussche, Project Manager, Global Studio and Director, Sticky Situations
Jia Beisi, Associate Professor of Architecture, university of Hong Kong
Martha Kohen, Professor, School of Architecture, university of Florida
nancy Clark, Associate Professor and Head of Graduate Programs, School of Architecture, university
of Florida
naudé Malan, Senior lecturer, Development Studies, university of Johanesburg

Peta de Jager, research Group leader, Architectural Engineering research Group, Built Environment
rodney Harber, Principal, rodney Harber and Associates
Shin Murakami, Professor, Department of Human Environment, Sugiyama Jogakuen university, Japan
Stephen Kendall, Emeritus Professor of Architecture, Ball State university
Tariq Toffa, Executive Manager, Social Housing Focus Trust (SHiFT) and lecturer, Faculty of Arts,
Design and Architecture, university of Johanesburg
Terence Fenn, lecturer, Multimedia, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, university of Johanesburg
yusuf Patel, Executive Director, Basil read and President, South African Planning institute (SAPi)
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4
UIA 2014 DURBAN SAIA-APPOINTED SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: CORE MEMBERS AND ADVISORS
Amira Osman, Associate Professor, Architecture, university of Johannesburg and uiA General reporter
is a national research Foundation (nrF) rated researcher and SACAP-registered Professional
team appointed by the South African institute of Architects (SAiA). This core team have acted as
advisors in the academic process:
Mokena Makeka, Director, Makeka Design lab, Founder of The Museum of Design innovation
leadership & Art, South Africa (MoDilA) and Adjunct Professor, GSAPP Columbia university new york
and resident Equity Scholar, School of Architecture and Planning, university of the Witwatersrand.
Hilton Judin, Architect and Curator, Cohen & Judin Architects and Adjunct Professor, School of
Architecture & Planning, university of the Witwatersrand, Curator, blank_architecture apartheid and
after.
Mphethi Morojele, Owner and Founder, MMA Design Studio, Johannesburg and lecturer, university
of Witwatersrand and Curator, South African exhibition, international Architecture Exhibition of the
Venice Biennale and at the riBA; past President of the Gauteng institute of Architects.
UIA 2014 DURBAN GENERAL REPORTER-APPOINTED SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: MEMBERS AND

EDITORS
Gerhard Bruyns is Assistant Professor of Environment and interior Design, School of Design, Hong
Kong Polytechnic university and Executive Team member of the international Forum on urbanism
Arquitectura, urbanismo, investigacion. He was previously at the Faculty of Architecture, Delft

university of Technology’s [Tu Delft].
Clinton Aigbavboa, Department of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying, university of

Johannesburg, holds a masters’ degree in Construction Management and a PhD degree in Engineering
Management. He is a well published researcher. He is currently the editor of the Journal of Construction
Project Management and innovation.
UIA 2014 DURBAN SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Ahmed Vawda, Andrew Makin, Bridget Horner, Eric noir, Geci Karuri-Sebina, George Kunihiro (uiA
region iV), Janina Masojada, Jean Bosco Todjinou (uiA region V), João, Belo rodeia, Jonathan Edkins,
Karel Bakker, linda Mampuru, luciano lazzari (uiA region i), Moleleki Frank ledimo, noeleen Murray,
Phil Mashabane, rodney Harber, roger Schluntz (uiA region iii), Zeynep Ahunbay (uiA region ii)
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UIA 2014 DURBAN ORGANISATION COMMITTEE

Hassan Asmal, Karen Eicker, Amira Osman, Peter du Trevou, Jan ras, Trish Emmett, nina Saunders,
Obert Chakarisa, Fanuel Motsepe, Dhaneshwar Basdew, Jean Jacques Kotto, Victor Miguel.
UIA 2014 DURBAN SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME SUPPORT

The uiA 2014 General reporter was supported by Gill Slaughter, Kerry Firmani (both from Turners
Conferences) and nomfundo nxumalo, nikita Andrews (both appointed assistants to the General
reporter). They were instrumental to the success of the process.
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UIA 2014 DURBAN CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

Publisher UIA 2014 DURBAN
© UIA 2014 DURBAN
ISBN 978-0-86970-783-8
UIA 2014 DURBAN CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS
a) All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the
written permission of the copyright holder.
b) Applications for the copyright holder’s written permission to reproduce any parts of this
publication should be addressed to the uiA 2014 Organisation Committee.
c) no responsibility is assumed by the publishers or the authors of individual papers for any
damage to property or persons as a result of operation or use of this publication and/or the
information enclosed herein.
d) The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers and editors,
neither do they endorse or guarantee any claims made by the authors of the uiA 2014 abstracts
and proceedings. The reader should therefore verify the applicability of the information or
particular situations and check the references prior to any reliance thereupon.
DISCLAIMER
While every effort is made to ensure accuracy in this publication, the publishers and editors make no
representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in these
proceedings and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability in whole or in part for any errors or
omissions that may be made.
DECLARATION
All the full papers published in this book were double-blind, peer-reviewed by the uiA 2014 Panel of
reviewers. This process entailed detailed reading of the abstracts, reporting of comments to authors,
Programme Partners. All full papers were copy edited. The authors of submitted abstracts (those
that were accepted by the reviewers) were further invited to submit full papers for consideration for
the uiA 2014 Durban Proceedings Book. it is only the full papers in the uiA 2014 Durban Congress
Proceedings that have successfully been accepted through the two-tiered, double-blind, peer-
reviewed process. it is important to read the section on Categories of Particpation at uiA 2014 Durban
to better understand this process.
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7
UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE TABLE OF CONTENTS
UIA 2014 DURBAN PROGRAMME PARTNERS AND GUEST EDITORS 4

UIA 2014 DURBAN SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: CORE MEMBERS AND ADVISORS 5
UIA 2014 DURBAN SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: MEMBERS AND EDITORS 5
UIA 2014 DURBAN SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE 5
UIA 2014 DURBAN ORGANISATION COMMITTEE 6
UIA 2014 DURBAN SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME SUPPORT 6
UIA 2014 CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS 7
A WORD FROM THE EDITORS 9
INTRODUCTION TO THE UIA 2014 DURBAN CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS 10
THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS 10
UIA 2014 CATEGORIES OF PARTICIPATION FOR AUTHORS AND PRESENTERS 11
UIA 2014 DURBAN PANEL OF REVIEWERS 11
PART 1 : RESILIENCE 24
PART 2 : ECOLOGY 251
PART 3 : VALUES 489
PART 4 : ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION FORUM 691
PART 5 : CIB W104 OPEN BUILDING IMPLEMENTATION 745
PART 6 : CIB W110 INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING 1077
PART 7 : DESIGN SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT (DSD) 1319
PART 8 : GLOBAL STUDIO 1475
PART 9 : SOUTH AFRICAN PLANNING INSTITUTE (SAPI) 1618
PART 10 : THE PUBLIC HEALTH GROUP (UIA – PHG) 1728
PART 11 : THE SOCIAL HOUSING FOCUS TRUST (SHIFT) 1883
PART 12 : URBAN WATERWAYS 2061
AUTHORS INDEX 2131
CONGRESS SPONSORS 2145
CONGRESS SUPPORTERS AND MEDIA PARTNERS 2146
8
A WORD FROM THE EDITORS

We received a total of 554 abstract submissions and, once we launched the call for full paper
submissions based on the outcome of the abstract review process, we received 270 draft full papers.
This means that we have completed a total of 1108 abstract reviews and 540 full paper reviews. This
mammoth task would simply not have been possible without the commitment, professionalism and
support of the uiA 2014 Panel of reviewers, 87 academics and professionals, who volunteered their
services to ensure the success of the process. We would like salute them!
We acknowledge the uiA 2014 Durban Programme Partners and the important role they have played
in making sure that what we deliver is relevant and of a good quality. And we also acknowledge the
(SACAP).
The process we followed has guaranteed the academic quality of what is delivered at the Congress
and what is published in the proceedings. All abstracts have been double blind, peer-reviewed.
Authors of accepted abstracts were invited to submit full papers, which were also being double, blind,
peer-reviewed. This is to comply with the requirements for subsidy and accreditation by the South
African Department of Higher Education of South Africa. This process demands a rigorous peer review
papers submitted.
in this book, we present you with the uiA 2014 DurBAn COnGrESS PrOCEEDinGS. All included
papers were double-blind, peer-reviewed. This process entailed detailed reading of the abstracts/
editing by the uiA 2014 Editors as well as the uiA 2014 Programme Partners. All full papers were
copy edited. it is only the full papers in the uiA 2014 Durban Proceedings Book (digitally available)
that have successfully been accepted through the complete two-tiered, double-blind, peer-reviewed
process.
The proceedings book sections are based on the uiA 2014 Durban sub-themes of rESiliEnCE,
ECOlOGy and VAluES as well as the themes of the 9 Programme Partners. The authors selected
the themes and Programme Partners as part of their submission process. The General reporter, and
her assistants, in consultation with the Editors and the Programme Partners may have made some
adjustments to accommodate topics in their appropriate slots. However, the categories were mostly
as the authors initially selected.
This book must be considered as a part of the whole set of uiA 2014 PuBliCATiOnS, printed and
digital.
uiA 2014 EDiTOrS

Amira Osman, Gerhard Bruyns, Clinton Aigbavboa
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9
INTRODUCTION THE UIA 2014 DURBAN CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS: HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This Proceedings Book needs to be read in conjunction with the uiA 2014 Durban Programme
Book, the uiA 2014 Durban Otherwhere Guide and the uiA 2014 Durban Exhibitor’s Guide as well
as the digital publications, the uiA 2014 Proceedings Book and the uiA 2014 international Student
Competition Book.
The academic paper sessions are presented in parallel sessions at the Congress Venue, the inkosi
Albert luthuli international Convention Centre (iCC) in Durban and the Congress activities will be
delivered in 38 venues. This Convention Centre complex includes the Durban Exhibition Centre (DEC)
and Walnut road that separates it from the iCC and which will be closed during the event. Walnut
road will be “occupied” by students and various other programmes. it will also have a Mussallah
(prayer space) for Muslim delegates, some traders from Warwick and other architectural and artist
interventions. The Programme Book offers basic and important information for delegates to navigate
their way through the programme and venues.
THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Because of the need to maintain and assure the quality of the conference proceedings, and to comply
with the requirements for subsidy of the South African Department of Higher Education, a rigorous
this context, each abstract received was twice blind reviewed in terms of:
· relevance to conference theme and objectives;
· Originality of material;
· Academic rigour;
· Contribution to knowledge, and
· research methodology
Authors whose abstracts were accepted after the stage one review process was completed were
provided with anonymous reviewers’ comments and requested to submit their full papers noting and
addressing these comments. Evidence was required relative to the action taken by authors regarding
the comments received. These resubmitted papers were twice blind reviewed again in terms of:
· relevance to conference theme and objectives;
· Originality of material;
· Academic rigour;
· Contribution to knowledge;
·
·
· Critical current literature review.
Authors whose papers were accepted after this second review were provided with additional anonymous
included in the conference presentation programme and the conference proceedings after evidence
was provided that all comments were appropriately responded to, having been double peer-reviewed
of the proceedings involved in the review process related to their own authored or co-authored papers.
documents. Of the 554 abstracts originally received, only 270 papers were accepted for inclusion in
the proceedings, representing a rejection rate of 51%. To be eligible for inclusion these papers were
what got included in the abstract and in the proceedings books.

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10
UIA 2014 CATEGORIES OF PARTICIPATION FOR AUTHORS AND PRESENTERS

as follows:
a)
of acceptance of their abstracts. The abstract is published in the BOOK OF ABSTrACTS
and a time slot is provided in the OFFiCiAl COnGrESS PrOGrAMME for presentation in
submit a full paper, but were the topic was considered relevant to the Congress theme, were
automatically considered for this option based on the outcome of the abstract review process.
Where a full paper was submitted, but not accepted for publication in the proceedings, the
abstract was also automatically considered for this option.
b) Full PAPEr PuBliCATiOn AnD PrESEnTATiOn. This group of participants submitted full
papers for review and the papers will have been deemed competent for inclusion in both the
BOOK OF ABSTrACTS as well as the COnGrESS PrOCEEDinGS (digital publication only). The
author, in this case, was also allocated a time slot in the OFFiCiAl COnGrESS PrOGrAMME.
c) SPECiAl PrESEnTATiOnS. There will be a number of special sessions within specialised

FOCuS ArEAS. in some cases the authors/presenters will be advised by the uiA 2014 General
reporter to present within these special sessions. The requirements and publication options
were discussed on a case-by-case basis. Some full papers were considered important and/
published in a special publication digitally available.
All submitted and published abstracts and papers had to adhere to a prescribed format provided
through a document titled: uiA 2014 inSTruCTiOnS FOr AuTHOrS.
UIA 2014 DURBAN PANEL OF REVIEWERS

Zeynep Ahunbay
Zeynep Ahunbay studied architecture at istanbul Technical university (1965-1970). She is a professor
at the Faculty of Architecture iTu since 1988; lecturing on conservation techniques for historic
buildings and sites, traditional building types, reuse of historic buildings, conservation of World
Heritage sites; conducts studios on conservation design. She has publications on the conservation of
cultural heritage, Cultural Heritage of Turkey, istanbul and Ottoman Architecture.
Karel Bakker
Prof Karel Bakker (PhD) is currently the head of Architecture at the university of Pretoria. He is involved
in the pedagogy of Design, History of historic African Environments, Heritage in many formats of
undergraduate and post graduate levels, as well as in the international arena. He has published widely
and performed at many international academic events.
John Bello
i graduated from Ahmadu Bello university in 1979 with an MSc (Architecture) and obtained my
practice license in 1982, with the registration nos F530. My practice is called Project Design Associate
(PDA), registered in 1992. i have concentrated my practice on design of buildings and infrastructural
facilities for higher education.
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE PANEL OF REVIEWERS
Jhono Bennett
Jhono Bennett obtained a Master’s Degree in Architecture with Design distinction from the university
of Pretoria, South Africa (2011). He completed his undergraduate education in Architecture at
the university of Kwa-Zulu natal with a supplemented semester abroad at the Carlton university,
Ottawa, Canada. Jhono currently works at the university of Johannesburg as a part-time lecturer and
independent researcher while managing the operations of 1:1 – Agency of Engagement
Roberto Bologna
Professor roberto is Director of the master’s degree in Architecture at the university of Florence. He
has reviewed countless papers for the “international Journal of resilience and the Built Environment
and Disaster’’.
Ruzica Bozovic Stamenovic

Associate professor ruzica Bozovic Stamenovic, Ph.D. is an award winning architect, researcher and
educator concurrently teaching at university of Belgrade and national university of Singapore (2000-
2012). She is also Faculty Fellow of Center for Health Systems and Design, Texas A&M university
and lecturing internationally on health driven design. The theory of Human Ecology, health-space and
their interconnectivity is at the core of her teaching and research interests.
Christina Breed
ida Breed is registered as a Professional landscape Architect (SAClAP, 2006). She has practiced in
many spheres of landscape architecture in the past decade. Her research includes urban ethnography
and urban ecology with focus on contextual environmental and cultural suitability in design
applications.
Gerhard Bruyns
Gerhard Bruyns is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Post Graduate design instructor at the
Faculty of Architecture, Tu Delft. He holds a both design related PhD and MSc degrees from the Delft
university of Technology. He has lectured at a number of Architecture Schools [Visiting Professor at
DiA] and has acted as a jury member at various universities in South Africa, Chile, Asia and the united
States.
Angus Donald Campbell
lecturing, research and freelance design experience. His research and design interests focus on design
and technology for sustainable development within the South African context and are evidenced
through multiple publications, conference papers and postgraduate student supervision. His Masters
in industrial Design (2003) was focused on African style in product design and foregrounded his
current trans disciplinary Doctorate in Development Studies exploring innovation and adaptation of
technology by small-scale urban farmers in Johannesburg.
Marianne de Klerk
Marianne de Klerk is an architect and urban designer who has worked for seventeen years on a wide
range of projects in South Africa, the united States, and Asia. She brings a multidisciplinary approach
to her practice with projects ranging from regional and urban revitalisation initiatives to individual
buildings and infrastructure orientated urban redevelopment strategies. Her designs endeavour to
and cultural landscapes.
Romanda Del Nord

Since 1991 he has been head of TESiS, an inter-university research center on systems and technologies
for healthcare architecture, that gathers the university of Florence and of ‘la Sapienza’ university in
models used in determining the building needs for schools and universities. He was head of research
for the project ‘Design criteria for the humanization of hospital facilities’, on behalf of the Department
of Health
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Chrisna Du Plessis
Chrisna du Plessis is Associate Professor at the Department of Construction Economics, university of
Pretoria where she is currently leading a research programme on resilient and regenerative cities and
lecturing on sustainable construction. She is also currently Theme Coordinator for the international
Council on research and innovation (CiB) Priority Theme Sustainable Construction. Her research
interests focus at both a theoretical and technological level on the principles and guiding frameworks
for the practices of sustainable construction and human settlement development as informed by
urban sustainability science.
Louis Du Plessis
louis studied both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Architecture at the university of Kwa-
Zulu natal, where amongst other achievements; he received top honors in the post-graduate course
of Ecological resource Management. Subsequent to graduating with an M. Arch in 2008, louis has
governmental projects. While working in private practice, he has been lecturing architecture part time
at his alma mater since 2009, focusing on the undergraduate design studio and History of Architecture.
Abbas Elmualim
Dr Elmualim is a senior lecturer and coordinates the work of the Sustainable Design and FM informatics
research Group within the School in addition to the FM research Group that he co-established six years
ago conducting research in various socio-technical aspects of digital technology and sustainability
within an FM context. Dr Elmualim research work has been widely published in various journals (30
papers) and has presented at various national and international conferences (more than 70 papers).
His current research focuses on the development of integrative approaches to design, construction and
facilities management with particular interest in sustainability and digital technologies viewed from a
broad socio-technical systems perspective and seek to combine engineering research methodologies
with those derived from the social sciences.
Fidelis Emuze
Fidelis is presently a Senior lecturer in the Department of Built Environment at the Central university
national Diploma in Civil Engineering, and an MSc in the Built Environment with specialisation in
Construction Management as well as a PhD in Construction Management. Fidelis has published
widely in Journals and presented papers at conferences in Africa, Europe, South America, Asia and
Australasia.
Tiziana Ferrante
Architect, PhD and Professor of Architectural Technology of the “Sapienza” university of rome,
conducts teaching and research activities for the “Planning, Design, Architectural Technology”
of planning and design of healthcare and social inclusion facilities, subject of numerous papers and
publications. Speaker at national and international conferences; consultant on institutional committees
for the evaluation of projects, collaborated in the development of guidelines and technical standards.
Martin Fiset
Martin Fiset is an architect with over forty years of experience in health care facilities planning and
design. He has worked as a consultant, design architect and project manager on numerous projects
across Canada, the united States and abroad. Mr. Fiset holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from
the université de Montréal and a Master of Architecture degree in Health Facilities Design from Texas
A&M university
Avi Friedman
Dr. Avi Friedman received his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Town Planning from the israel
institute of Technology, his Master’s Degree from McGill university, and his Doctorate from the
university of Montréal. Avi is known for his housing innovation and in particular for the Grow Home
and next Home designs. He is the author of 14 books and was a syndicated columnist for the CanWest
Chain of daily newspapers. in the year 2000 he was selected by Wallpaper magazine as 1 of 10 people
from around the world “most likely to change the way we live.”
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Tony Fry
university, Brisbane working in Australia and internationally. Tony is the author of ten books and
is currently completing a book on ‘The Future of Cities in the Age of a Changing Climate’. He is
also director of sustainability consultancy Team D/E/S, was the founding director of the EcoDesign
Foundation, Sydney (1991-2001) and as such worked for government and the private sector.
Rob Geraedts
Prof. rob Geraedts is co-founder and member of the international CiB Working Group W104 Open
Building implementation since 1996 and Associate Professor of Design & Construction Management
in the Faculty of Architecture at the Delft university of Technology, The netherlands. His research
process (design & construction), and the transformation of vacant buildings into new functions, to
meet the continuously changing user demands.
Suzette Grace
also taught architecture at uJ for 3 decades.
Rodney Harber
began teaching in the School of Architecture, Planning and Housing at the university of natal (now
university of Kwa Zulu natal). He taught in all three disciplines during his thirty six years before
retiring as Associate Professor. rodney is a registered urban and regional Planner and Heritage
Practitioner and heads a busy multi-disciplinary practice focusing on developmental work all along
the eastern seaboard of KZn. rodney runs a small bustling practice from home as an extension of his
commitment to teaching, with students from South Africa, Malawi, Mauritius, u.S.A., u.K., Germany,
norway, Sweden and Denmark passing through at times.
Pieter Herthogs
neighbourhoods and sustainable urban projects. He is developing assessment methods, tools and
design guidelines to complement his theoretical framework on urban scale adaptability. As a teaching
assistant at the BruFace English Master in Architectural Engineering (VuB), Pieter Herthogs lectures
on the design of transformable structures and parametric design, and advises master dissertation
students.
Bridgette Horner
Bridget Horner is an architect and Director of Space Syntax South Africa; she is also a lecturer in the
Architectural Post Graduate Programme at the university of Kwa-Zulu natal. Bridget's expertise lies
in evidence based analysis and strategic design advice empowering public and private agencies with
the tools to evaluate project proposals and participate in the development of the design process.
Antje Ilberg
Antje ilberg is an urban planner and architect with research, planning, and implementation experience
at national, municipal, and grassroots levels in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the near East. She has expert
knowledge of the legal and administrative dimensions of physical planning and land management, and
of informal urbanization in Africa. Since 2013, she has been with Ministry of infrastructure, rwanda.
urban Planning and Housing Development Expert and Adviser to Minister
Beisi Jia
He is the joint coordinator of W104-Open Building implementation in international Council for research
and innovation in Building and Construction (CiB). Besides design studio, he is teaching in courses
History of Chinese Architecture and Housing in urban development in his school. He is supervisor of
MPhil and Ph.D. students. His students have won more than 30 national and international student
design competition, including 1998/99 Dupont Benedictus Awards, and in exhibitions, such as uiA
XXii World Congress of Architecture 2005.
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Hilton Judin
Hilton Judin is an architect and curator working in Johannesburg. He developed the exhibition and
research projects
[setting apart] and blank____Architecture, apartheid and after. in practice as Cohen&Judin he worked
on the nelson Mandela Museum in Qunu and the living landscape in Clanwilliam.
Geci Karuri-Sebina
GECi KAruri-SEBinA joined the South African Cities network in 2011 as Executive Manager. Ms.
Sebina holds Masters degrees in urban Planning and in Architecture & urban Design, both from the
university of California los Angeles (uClA). She has worked with numerous organizations including
(HSrC), and the Advanced Policy institute of the then- uClA School of Public Policy and Social
research in los Angeles, California.
Tom Sanya
Tom Sanya is a Senior lecturer in sustainable design at the university of Cape Town’s School
of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics. His main research area is building sustainability and
contextuality. using a transdisciplinary approach, he teamworks with different academics, practioners,
government actors, civil society, small-and-medium scale enterprises and members of the general
and contextuality.
Emeritus Johan Silas

JOHAn SilAS, prof. (retired since 2006) born in Samarinda, in 1936. As one of the founder of the
School of Architecture in Surabaya indonesia (1965) and is still teaching for graduate and post
graduate students. Awarded with among others The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (1986),
Chevalier dansl’ordres des Arts et lettres (1989), Matsushita Prize (1991), Satyalencana (from the
government of indonesia 1993), The Habitat Scroll of Honour (2005), etc.
Melinda Silverman
Melinda Silverman is an architect, urban designer and urban strategist interested in settlement issues
in cities of "the global south". She has worked for city, provincial and national government in South
Africa on urban issues including sustainable human settlements, informality, low income housing, and
land management practices that impact on the absorption of the poor in urban areas. She currently
teaches urban design and urban policy studies at the university of Johannesburg.
Preeti Onkar Singh

Academic brief: Graduation in Bachelors of Architecture, Masters in urban Development and Planning
and PhD in Architecture and planning. Professional Background: Consultant for various Architectural
and Planning projects for last 16 years. research background: Sustainable Architecture, urban
renewal & redevelopment and Quality of life.
Gerald Steyn
Gerald Steyn is research Professor at the Department of Architecture of the Tshwane university of
Technology. He holds BArch and MArch degrees from the university of the Free State and a PhD from
the university of Pretoria.
Ken Stucke
Ken Stucke is a practicing architect registered with the South African Council for Architects. For
more than twenty years, he has focused his architectural work on green architecture and sustainable
development, and now practices full time in this idiom. Ken has been asked to be part of several
expert critique panels and workshops, asked to review design proposals or establish project briefs.
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Philippa Tumubweinee
Philippa Tumubweinee is a senior lecturer at the Department of Architecture at the university of the
Free State [uFS] South Africa, a co--Founder and Director of iZuBA inafrica and a Doctoral student
at the university of the Free State, South Africa. She has also serving on the Board of Directors
for: VEGA: School of Graphic Design and Adverting iMPAC: The Moving images Festival and the
40 000 Bubbles Club After completing her M.Arch. Prof Degree in 2006 with a notable distinction
in Construction, Philippa Tumubweinee was introduced to Academia while teaching at the dept. of
Architecture, university of Pretoria as an assistant Studio Master in the First year Studio from where
she progressed on to join the dept. of Architecture, university of Johannesburg [uJ] South Africa.
Andre van Graan

Andre holds a PhD in architecture from the university of Cape Town and currently heads the
architecture program at the Cape Peninsula university of Technology. He lectures in the History
and Theory of design at undergraduate level as well as lecturing at post-graduate level in research
methodologies and supervising masters and doctoral students. in addition to his academic work he
is also the immediate Past President of the Cape institute for Architecture was well as serving on the
national Board of the South African institute of Architecture. He is a member of the South African
branch of Docomomo, a past chairman of the Vernacular Architecture Society of South Africa and the
convener of the Cape institute for Architecture’s Heritage Committee.
Robert van Kats

robert van Kats (DASuDA /BKVV), chairman, architect, urban designerarchitect ing. robert van Kats
on the business, governmantal, nGO and private market both national and international with the a
planning and building related energy concepts. BKVV follow an integral approach that leads to low
energy and sustainable projects.
Christo Vosloo
degree from the university of Cape Town and MBA from nelson Mandela Metropolitan university. in
practice since 1983 and academia since 1984 ( whilst practicing part time till 2006)
Macharia Waruingi
i am physician and healthcare executive presently holding various positions in healthcare business,
academia and research. i am a research Faculty Fellow of the Center for Health Systems & Design
at the College of Architecture, Texas A&M university in College Station, Texas. i have extensive
experience in advanced academic instruction in medicine, health administration and global health. i
have expertise in design, development and implementation of world-class health delivery systems in
the united States and frontier markets in Africa and Middle East.
David Week
Dr David Week is Executive Director of Assai Consult an international aid consultancy specialising in
enterprise in Papua new Guinea which developed an architecture that was modern extensions of
traditional building knowledge. Since 2002, David has been an adviser to World Bank and AusAiD
funded large scale social infrastructure projects, including post disaster reconstruction projects in
Aceh and Timor leste.
Debbie Whelan
My architectural experience is focused on community development and heritage. i locally, i have
been active in trying to promote the heritage of Edendale by instituting community projects intended
to reserve earthen buildings constructed in the 1860`s. i have written a number of publications on
heritage related issues.
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Eric Charles Wright

Eric is a practicing architect and lecturer. He coordinates the 3rd year architecture program at the
university of Johannesburg and runs the 1st and 3rd year design studios. The philosophy and approach
employed in teaching investigates the changing nature of Johannesburg as a city, landscape and
people. in his practice, in partnership with Claudia Morgado, Boom Architects work explore these
urban-land-people focused concepts with a critical underpinning – the relevance of contemporary
architectural and urban paradigms
Carlos Zeballos
Peruvian architect, he got an MSc in Peru in urban environmental planning and another MSc in
Argentina in sustainability. Subsequently he got PhD at Kyoto university, Japan in urban and landscape
design. He worked for 5 years as a Post PhD Senior researcher at the research institute for Humanity
and nature in Japan. Since 2013 he has launched a laboratory of urban and landscape Design at the
Far Eastern Federal university in Vladivostok, russia
Peta de Jager
Peta de Jager is a registered professional architect with a masters’ degree in applied ethics. She
is currently research group leader in the building science and technology competence area for the
group undertakes research and development projects which are related to building performance,
architectural engineering in social infrastructure, primarily health-care and education buildings in the
Southern African region.
Jacques Laubscher
Jacques laubscher obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Master’s degree in urban &
regional Planning at the university of the Free State. Dr. laubscher is currently appointed as an
Associate Professor at the Tshwane university of Technology, where he coordinates and teaches the
5th year design and technology. Since 2001, he is practicing under the name Studio Jacques laubscher,
focusing mostly on the adaptive re-use of existing buildings.
Anna Rubbo
Anna rubbo, lFAiA, B.Arch (Melbourne), D. Arch (Michigan) joined CSuD at Columbia university in
2012. A member of the Millennium Project Task Force on improving the lives of Slum Dwellers (2002-
04) she went on to found the Global Studio, an action research project to help urban professionals
work more effectively with the urban poor. rubbo is project director for the traveling exhibition, People
Building Better Cities shown in eight countries and 11 cities in 2013.
Fani Vavili-Tsinika
Professor Fani Vavili-Tsinika graduated from the School of Architecture, Aristotle university of
Thessaloniki, with a Master of Arts in Health Facility Planning, Metropolitan university of london and
a Ph.D. from the School of Architecture, Faculty of Technology A.u.Th. She is practicing and teaching
architectural design. Her work includes health care facilities planning & design and has published
many articles, research results and other publications.
Sam Moshaver
Sam Moshaver is a registered architect in province of Ontario, and currently a PhD candidate in
Department of Environmental Design in university of Montreal. My research interests are in housing,
and open building, inclusionary zoning, and housing systems.
Roger Riewe
Born 22.07.1959 in Bielefeld, Germany, grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, studied architecture at
the rWTH Aachen, Germany, graduated 1986, founded riegler riewe Architects in Graz, Katowice
and Berlin (www.rieglerriewe.co.zt) with projects in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Croatia,
italy, Vietnam and Korea. The work has been published extensively. He has taught as guest as guest
professor in Houston, Barcelona, Prague, Calgary and Aachen and is since 2001 a full professor at
Tu Graz, being head of the institute of Architecture Technology iAT and of the research lab iAT|lab.
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17
Gavin McLachlan
uPE), M Sc (Town and regional Planning) (1979 uPta). is a registered architect and town planner.
Experienced a wide range of architectural and planning work and projects prior to joining the academic
staff of the then uPE (now the nMMu).
Alexander Opper
Opper completed a master’s degree in architecture at the university of the Arts in Berlin in 2001. in
2006 he moved to Johannesburg where he works as educator, writer, artist, architect and designer. He
is the director of the Architectural master’s programme at the university of Johannesburg’s Faculty of
Art, Design and Architecture, a context in which, since 2007, he has developed an immersive mode of
Julian Raxworthy
Dr Julian raxworthy is a lecturer in the Master of landscape Architecture program in the School
of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, at the university of Cape Town. He was the co-author
of Sunburnt: landscape architecture in Australia, and co-editor of The Mesh Book: landscape/
infrastructure. His PhD thesis with the university of Queensland was entitled novelty in the Entropic
landscape: landscape architecture, gardening and change.
Stephan Kendall
Dr. Stephen Kendall’s career in architectural practice, research and education spans more than 35
years. He is a registered architect w/a PhD from MiT. His research in open building encompasses new
design methods and logistics, and new technology needed to make buildings more adaptable, easier
to customize to meet changing preferences and thus more sustainable.
Taibat Lawanson
Taibat lawanson is a senior lecturer and coordinator of postgraduate programs at the Department
of urban and regional Planning, university of lagos, nigeria. She holds a PhD in urban and regional
Planning; and is a 2013 World Social Science Fellow. Her research over the years has focused around
poverty and informality, environmental health and governance dynamics in the lagos Metropolis; and
more currently Africa’s emerging urbanism, urban livability and urban inequalities.
Yashaen Luckan
yashaen luckan is an academic and practicing architect. He holds a Btech Degree (DuT), and a
Master of Architecture Degree from uKZn where he is presently a PhD Candidate. yashaen serves
on professional bodies such as the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP),
where he is a member of the Validation Panel and the Heads of Schools committee, and the Council
on Higher Education (CHE) where he serves as evaluator of applications for new academic programs.
Andrew Makin
Formed designworkshop: sa with Janina Masojada in 1997. regular writer on the City as an important
enabler of an optimized South African economy culture and society. Current projects are a village for
1000 orphans, many of HiV Aids; Community Centers and Sports facilities in two historically black
in Sandton, Johannesburg`s Corporate business district
Jako (Jakobus Immanuel) Olivier

After graduating in law at the university of the Free State, Jako successfully completed his degree
in Architecture at the same university. He is currently the program director for and lecturer at the
Department of Architecture, uFS. His research interests are architectural design, architectural theory
and higher education.
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18
Happy Ratna Santosa

Happy ratna Santosa is lecturer/professor in the department of Architecture, iTS, indonesia since
1976 and head laboratory for Housing and Human Settlements iTS. She is lecturer in Architectural
Design, Human Settlement and the Environment, Sustainable Development, Human Settlement
Project Design, thesis for Master and PhD student’s dissertation.
Luciano Lazzari
luciano lazzari was born in Trieste, italy and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, where he began his
currently serving as President of the Architects’ Council of Europe after his election for a two year
mandate. From 2005 till today, he has been a jury member for various national and international
Denise Morado Nascimento

Denise has a degree in Architecture and urbanism, MA in Architecture and Ph.D. in information
Science. She is a Professor at the School of Architecture at universidade Federal de Minas Gerais,
coordinator of the research group PrAXiS (Social practices in urban space) and researcher of CPnq.
Abimbola Olukemi Windapo

Dr Abimbola Olukemi Windapo is a Senior lecturer at the Dept. of Construction Economics and
Management, university of Cape Town. Abimbola's career spans 26 years after graduating from
the university of ife with a BSc (Hons.) degree in Building. She has both MSc and PhD degrees in
Construction Management and Building respectively. She has practiced in, written, lectured and
researched on housing and construction studies; building materials; and construction industry,
company and project performance. She is a member of the South African Council of Project and
Construction Management Professions.
Roger Schluntz
Schluntz received his Master of Architecture degree from the university of California, Berkeley. A Fellow
new Mexico and nebraska. in a consulting capacity with public agencies and universities nationwide,
Schluntz has served as the
Services Administration, he has been involved with the selection of architects and the design review
of major public buildings for over three decades.
Kevin Bingham
Kevin Bingham is a Professional Architect and a director at FGG Architects inc, based in Durban.
He holds a national Higher Diploma in Architecture, a Bachelor of Architecture degree, a Master
of Architecture Degree by research, is currently reading for a PhD in Architecture and is a Fogarty
research Fellow (uSA). Kevin is the current president of the KZn institute for Architecture (2012 – )
and is a member of the South African institute of Architects national Board. He serves on numerous
education advisory boards, trusts and sporting committees.
Fanuel Motsepe
Having lectured at the university of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg for 4 years, Fanuel practices as
an architect and urban designer. Fanuel established Motsepe Architects research unit and Practice
unit learning Apprenticeship (MAru a PulA) cc, which is equipped with a library, a computer lab,
an audio-visual room, and a model-making studio. MAru a PulA engages local and international
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19
Claudia Morgado
Claudia (M Arch prof WiTS 2007) is a practicing architect and part-time lecturer at the university of
Johannesburg, working in the 1st and 3rd year design studios. in 2009 Claudia formed BOOM Architects
in partnership with Eric Wright. Their work explores urban and people focused concepts with a critical
underpinning – the relevance of contemporary architectural urban approaches, and a focus on systems
founders of the (in)formalStudio, in collaboration with 26’10 south Architects, Thorsten Deckler and
Anne Graupner, and have implemented the Marlboro South course held in 2012. (in)formalStudio is
a multidisciplinary platform which pools resources and skills on in-situ teaching, research and actual
projects located in complex urban conditions.
Stephen Adams
Stephen Adams is a British Trained architect, with experience of developmental and disaster relief
work in lesotho, Swaziland, Kenya, Aceh indonesia and Haiti. recently, he has been teaching at
the Polytechnic of namibia as studio leader in the new school of Architecture and is the external
moderator/examiner for TuT Pretoria, university of Johannesburg and university of Pretoria. He has
also practiced in london and Oxford.
Magdalena Cloete
KwaZulu natal where she lectures History and Theory of Architecture as well as Architectural Design
and Technology in the 3rd year BAS programme. Magdalena’s research relates to the role of Theory in
the making of architecture and the relation between Architecture and People. She is a Professional
Architect and co-founder of an architectural Company XO consultancy.
Tsinikas Nikos
Architect A.u.T., M.Sc. Sound & Vibration i.S.V.r., Dr. Architect A.u.T., Professor School of Architecture
A.u.T. Member M.i.O.A., eCAADe, iASS. Vice-president Hel.in.A. Director 5th Department School of
Architecture, Vice-president School of Architecture. Participation in the general assembly for the
creation of a) School of Media & b) School of Film. Head of School of Film 2007-11. Teaching in School
of Architecture, of Environment, of Journalism and Media and of Film. research architectural design,
architectural acoustics. Publications on architecture, acoustics and music.
Joanne Lees
development manager, housing and urban development specialist, for (mainly local) government,
nGO’s, Social Housing Associations, and the private sector. She has been a principal of lees + Short
Associated Architects for 18 years. Her experience has underlined the importance of integration
across sectors, and of socio-economic concerns in the quest for sustainable cities and settlements.
Hannah le Roux
Hannah le roux teaches, practices, curates and writes about architecture. Her current research, lived
modernism, is being developed for a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Architecture and Art of Ku
leuven. This project is based on the observation of change in time of modernist spaces, grounded
in the 1950’s model township, KwaThema, the 1950‘s to 70‘s fabric of Johannesburg’s inner city and
tropical architecture in West Africa. Her writing appears in Domus, uncube, the Journal of Architecture,
Architectural record and others.
Krishna Kumar Dhote

Working as Professor in Department of Architecture and Planning, involved in research and consultancy
projects of urban renewal, social impact assessment and issues of housing for poor and presently
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20
Chris Adendorff
Professor Chris Adendorff is an entrepreneur and academic who since 1985 built a substantial family
business. He holds a double doctorate in commerce as well as future studies. He has a passion
for future studies and the management of family businesses. His particular interest is in planning,
governance and turnaround strategies. He lectures on future studies, entrepreneurship, construction
management and research methodology. Professor Adendorff has since written various books and
published extensively in international journals.
Nancy Clark
nancy Clark is founder and Director of Global lab research consortium, a cross-disciplinary research
initiative with the university of Florida focused on the study of emergent global trajectories in
architectural practice, building technology, and urban policy making. She is Co-Founding member
of the Consortium for Hydro-Generated urbanism (CHu) which proposes new paradigms for the
evolution of water-based settlements. Ms. Clark is currently the Assistant Director at the university of
Florida in charge of Graduate Programs at the university Of Florida School Of Architecture and serves
as the Coordinator of the G|SoA ivan Smith Endowment, a program dedicated to the advancement of
graduate education.
Nhlamulo Ngobeni
nhlamulo ngobeni graduated with a master’s degree in architecture from the university of
Johannesburg, under the supervision of Amira Osman. in his master`s dissertation, he looked at
Kliptown informal settlement in Soweto, Johannesburg. He unpacked the area in search for design
informants which were processed to feed his architectural proposal. He was recently invited by an
artist to study a neighborhood and give advice which will be used to establish where the artist could
install public art sculptures.
Clinton Aigbavboa
Clinton Aigbavboa holds a masters’ degree in Construction Management and a PhD degree in
Engineering Management respectively; with sustainable human(e) development being the theme
of his researches. He recently completed a short learning programme in good governance in Africa
from the Thabo Mbeki Africa leadership institute in the university of South Africa (uniSA). He is
permanently employed at the university of Johannesburg’s Department of Construction Management
and Quantity Surveying where he lectures at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He is
the programme coordinator for the 2nd year level and facilitates an academic excellent/development
programme to high schools in Krugersdorp- West rand, through an nGO based in Krugersdorp. His
research interest is in the economics of infrastructure development, sustainable human development,
building information modelling, climate change and adequate housing development, green job
creation, leadership in lowincome housing, building post occupancy evaluations, construction
industry development, informal housing and infrastructure development and national economics. He
He is currently the editor of the Journal of Construction Project Management and innovation.
Phil Astley
Phil Astley, uCl Bartlett School of Construction & Project Management, london, is involved in a
for medical respite care for the informally housed and single homeless with TB and HiV for london
Pathway. He is involved with African Prisons Project and uCl Population Health. in 2014 he is working
informal contexts.
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21
Budoor Bukhari
An architectural and urban designer and urban development planning researcher, Budoor is a graduate
of the Building & urban Design in Development (BuDD) program at the Development Planning unit,
The Bartlett, university College london. She is a lEED Accredited Professional and an Estidama Pearl
architectural and urban design, Budoor’s educational and professional journey thus far have stimulated
a keen interest in the role and potential of community-based and participatory approaches to urban
development planning and design.
Amanda Breytenbach
Amanda Breytenbach, has been involved in interior Design Education for over 18 years and have also
participated, over the past 12 years, in the development of the interior Design profession. Apart from
her participation in the interior Design profession and education, she has also actively participated in
including sustainable design issues within the education curriculum. She is currently Vice Dean at the
Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at the university of Johanneburg.
Gabriella Carolini
Gabriella y. Carolini is the Ford Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of urban
Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts institute of Technology (MiT). Gabriella has studied and
doctoral degree in urban planning from Columbia university, where she also held a national Science
Foundation iGErT fellowship in international development and globalization. She is also currently the
co-chair of the Global Planning Educators’ interest Group within the American Collegiate Schools of
Planning.
Nicola Darke
nicola Darke holds a Masters in Conservation of the Built Environment from the university of Cape
Town and currently heads the school of architecture at the nelson Mandela Metropolitan university. in
addition to her academic work she is also a Past President of the Eastern Cape institute of Architects
and a past member of the national Board of the South African institute of Architects. Furthermore, Ms
Darke is a member of the Provincial Heritage resources Authority BElCOM and the convener of the
Eastern Cape institute for Architects Heritage Committee.
Noëleen Murray-Cooke
noëleen Murray is an architect and academic. She is currently a Senior lecturer at the university
of the Western Cape (uWC) where she teaches courses in urban geographyand is convener of the
Masters and PhD Programmes. She is the lead researcher for the project Cities in Transition. She
serves as a member of the board of the lwandle Migrant labour Museum. Her research, writing and
creative work considers spaces as diverse as the migrant labour compound, the suburban shopping
centre, housing developments and most recently the shaping of the uWC campus.
Yusuf Patel
yusuf Patel studied Financial Economics at the university of london, Development Planning and
Quantity Surveying at WiTS. He is a professional planner and a development specialist. He has a wide
range of experience including integrated Development Planning, infrastructure investment, Affordable
Housing and Community Development. He is Executive Director at Basil read and President of SAPi.
Finzi Saidi
Finzi Saidi is an architect and landscape architect. He completed his PhD at the university of Pretoria
in 2004 on Architectural Education. He is currently the Head of the Architecture Department at the
Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, university of Johannesburg.
Tariq Toffa
Tariq Toffa, Executive Manager at SHiFT, lectures in the university of Johannesburg’s architecture
department, and writes for www.urb.im on social and urban topics. He completed his professional
architectural studies at uCT, an architectural research Masters at WiTS, and studied religious and
constitutional law at uKZn.
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22
Boban Varghese
Boban Varghese is an architect, industrial designer and an educator, with three decades of experience
as a design studio leader. He has embraced a ’locally grounded-globally conscious' ideology in
creating a contextually driven design in his teaching career. His studio based teaching is shaped by
the experiences and exposure gained from working and teaching in india, Japan and South Africa. His
academic and research pursuits are broadly categorized into sustainable architectural developments,
architectural education for a changing world, bamboo as a material for economic activation, housing
solutions in underdeveloped communities and media and branding in design engagements. He is
currently the head of the department of architecture at the nelson Mandela Metropolitan university,
Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Sibusiso Sithole
varied mix of experience gained from working with a number of acclaimed architects from locally
and abroad. With experience in design concept development, working drawings, presentation,
documentation, digital and physical model realization. He joined Architects collaborative in 2012
where he is involved on a wide range interesting and ground breaking projects and now is a full
time lecturer at the university of Kwazulu natal while reading for his Doctorate Degree whilst still
maintaining a strong working relationship with Architects Collaborative.
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23
PART 1 : RESILIENCE
EMErGEnCE, POVErTy AllEViATiOn, SPATiAl and GEO-POliTiCAl ECOnOMiES. resilience is
to poverty alleviation. Concepts of resilience also emphasise the important role of government and
within all forms of architecture and development practice globally.This sub-theme allows for inter-
disciplinary debates on the roles of all space and place makers in spatial transformation, with an
be SuSTAinABlE HuMAn(E) SETTlEMEnTS: social and technical considerations in the development

of new visions for practice in the built environment.
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE RESILIENCE
!
THE LYT GREEN SCHOOLS CONCEPT: A RAPID DEPLOYMENT SCHOOL FOR REMOTE AND RURAL AREAS
M Friedland, LYT Architecture, Matthew.F@lyt.co.za
Abstract
The Green Schools system was developed from 2011 to 2012 to address the huge backlog of schools in South
Africa, particularly in the rural areas, remote from normal infrastructure nodes. A team of seven architects
developed a workshopped solution for the rapid deployment of a school in South Africa. The system includes a
resilient overarching design, including urban design principles, architectural concept and a palette of
technologies that, taken together, is flexible and modular as well as easy and quick to build. Comparisons with
prefabricated systems are favourable in terms of both quality and cost. The schools are capable of being
completely "off-grid" and ecologically sustainable and are easily integrated into and supplement daily community
activities. The system integrates social, environmental and economic aspects of school design in an efficient way
while including local stakeholders in development and tailored design solutions.
Keywords: sustainable, rapid-deployment, rural, school, off-grid.
INTRODUCTION
In 2009, the Gauteng Department of Education was struggling with a serious lack of classroom space across
the province. Enrolments larger than carrying capacity had been made at many schools, in spite of the lack
of space. The department thus launched a rollout of rapid deployment classrooms. TPS.P (later LYT
Architecture) was employed to help with quality control and data logging on the programme. It was
discovered that bad management and poor planning had resulted in numerous partial or complete failures
of installation and delivery. In some cases complete lack of delivery was experienced. At the same time,
Claire Reed of Reel Gardening had been in discussions with the GDE, who expressed a need for a rapid
deployment school design to keep up with the demand for schools that was being experienced. In October
2011, Guy Steenekamp, Managing Director of TPS.P (later LYT Architecture) initiated the Green School
Concept project in light of the events outlined above. The initial designs were completed in early 2012 and
LYT began using the system in various school projects. This paper outlines the process, the design and the
potential of the system as a solution to rapid deployment of schools across the country and possibly
internationally as well.
THE CHALLENGE
The success of education in South Africa is closely, though not exclusively, linked to the state of school
infrastructure in the country. The Department of Basic Education has been finding it difficult to meet the
requirements of the educational infrastructure for a developing nation. Programmes such as the School
Infrastructure Backlogs Grant, commonly known as ASIDI (Accelerated School Infrastructure Development
Initiative) attest to this need. Poor planning, poor implementation and difficulty controlling the construction
process have been key elements in this failure. The demographic of South Africa is still essentially that of a
developing nation, but the educational system is not well matched to the need. Compared with a developed
nation the ratio of teachers to learners is much higher. In some cases the learners to teacher ratio is as high
as 50:1 (Child Count: Learner-to-educator ratio: 2012) and many schools have mixed grade teaching
environments (Reed 2012). In addition the number of classrooms is often inadequate, or is completely non-
existent, particularly in rural areas such as the Eastern Cape (National Education Infrastructure Management
System (DBE, 2011). Many schools and classrooms are insufficiently outfitted with basic requirements such
as power, water and sanitation (DBE 2011). The quality of education suffers tremendously from these factors.
The failure of an educational system has immense impacts on all parts of society. It is important for a
functioning democracy to have a solid foundation of good education. Apart from this there is the very real
problem of social unrest arising from educational failure. Lack of employment can contribute to poverty,
crime and other social and psychological ills (Deci et al. 2009). The quality of education a learner receives
also has an effect on his or her chances in life. If a learner receives good education the chances are better
that they will find a job with better remuneration. Adequate school infrastructure is one of the major
variables that contributes to a positive learning (and teaching) environment.
There are two avenues for approaching the problem, from an infrastructural point of view. One is to upgrade
the existing structures and the other is to build entirely new schools. There are a number of constraints on
both of these approaches and each avenue would be appropriate in differing circumstances.
25
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Financial constraints
There are financial constraints, both absolute (i.e. total available moneys) and the individual constraints (i.e.
the individual costs of each classroom / school). In the 2012/2013 financial year the Department of
Education spent R1.2 billion of a total budget of R2.3 billion indicating that there is money available for a
number of new schools or additions to existing schools (Education department underspends on its budget,
2013). This is therefore not a defining constraint. The cost per classroom (per square meter) is a real
constraint and has to be managed as in any architectural project. The average spend of the government
funded school infrastructure is between R9,000 / m2 and R11,000 / m2 (including professional fees and civil
works) in the Eastern cape (ASIDI 2013), making it the most expensive place to build schools in the country
(Exact figures are unavailable from the DBSA at this time but will be available by May 2014). Estimates per
square meter for a city like Johannesburg should be between R7,200 to R9,000/m2 (Brummer 2013). It is thus
clear that financial constraints are not the reason for lack of delivery of school infrastructure delivery. The
implication is therefore that it is both the planning and implementation that is the current roadblock in the
way of the department’s catching up with the infrastructural backlog.
Maintenance and upkeep
There is the associated cost of maintenance and upkeep of school buildings. While some schools
(particularly in metropolitan areas) have full servicing of buildings many schools are either too remote to
have such supplies, or have simply not received their services yet (as outlined in the 2011 DBE NEIMS report).
Some buildings are poorly designed and use more energy and water than they should. In a previous
management regime, the services costs were borne by the local municipal authorities but the current
regime has instituted an individual liability for every school with some governmental support (Paralegal
advice website ETU 2011). There are thus very real issues of service availability. Setting aside delivery failures
in the majority of cases, the lack of services are purely because of remote location and impracticalities of
provision.
Time constraints
Due to the high demand and backlog, there are time constraints. Conventional construction typically results
in construction times that are in excess of a year. Since the school enrolments increase on a yearly basis, it
becomes evident that if enrolment increases yearly, but construction times take more than a year, the
designs of new additions or full school will never keep up with demand. This is exacerbated by the fact that
government projects are often the target of unscrupulous, under-resourced and under-skilled contractors.
This can result of delays of up to a year or more. There are examples of some schools which have been under
construction for 3 years and are still not complete. The ASIDI programme for example, was implemented in
the 2011/2012 financial year and should have been completed in 2013/2014. However due to delays in
implementation, the completion dates was extended to the 2016/2017 financial year (Motshekga 2013). One
of the objectives of the ASIDI programme was to eradicate four hundred and ninety six unsafe mud
structures across the country, but has thus far only completed demolition of fifty four (ASIDI 2014). In
addition, conventional construction requires lengthy civil works which adds to the problem. The time
constraint thus becomes the largest constraint on providing new school infrastructure. Future schools
should be designed for rapid deployment.
Land constraints
In some cases the provision of new infrastructure is hampered by difficult sites. In the Eastern Cape some
school sites are so steep that civils costs go up dramatically on conventional construction. (ASIDI, 2014) In
addition there are sometimes problems of getting conventional materials to remote locations. Roads are
often inadequate and rainy seasons make some areas unreachable with heavy loads. There are thus serious
constraints on conventional construction for remote and difficult to access areas.
Summary
The challenges of designing infrastructure in this environment are thus considerable, however they are not
insurmountable. Design is one of the most renewable resources and represents the highest form of return
for sweat equity because it can leverage multiple modes of constructional savings and is relatively cheap. If
South Africa is to be made into a functioning democracy, construction industry professionals need to take
this challenge extremely seriously and face it head-on. To fail would be to fail the future of South Africa.
It is in this context that the Green Schools Concept is presented. It must be remembered that it was never
the intention of the project to solve non-infrastructural problems (such as the supply of well-trained
teachers). However the solution that was found is an extremely robust and flexible solution to the problem
of supply of rapid deployment, resource efficient, cost-effective and environmentally healthy schooling
infrastructure.
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INCEPTION
At the inception of the project a team was assembled including the following professionals. The initiation
and design critiques were from Guy Steenekamp, the managing director of LYT Architecture and Clive
Jearey, a senior director. The Design guidance and team management were the responsibility of Matthew
Friedland, the Green Design Specialist from LYT (the author) and Claire Reed, the CEO of Reel Gardening. The
primary team consisted of junior architects and technologists, including Duane Saldanha, Dewald
Badenhorst, Tarushin Pather, Michael Flanagan and Brandon Jardine.
LYT architecture (formerly TPS.P architecture) is a successful commercial architecture firm that does work
across almost all architectural spheres, including Commercial, Industrial, Mining Infrastructure, Residential,
Educational and Interior design. LYT is comprised of a two former practices which merged in 2008-2009,
namely TPC, which was established in 1980 and Portal Partnership which was established in 1927. Both have
substantial experience in school design, experience which has carried through to LYT. It was thus a natural fit
for the company to investigate the Green School System.
DESIGN PROCESS
Throughout the design process a divergent / convergent design process was used, using exploration
followed by consolidation. Each group or individual was briefed to come up with their own ideas which
would then be reviewed by the group and given a SWOT analysis. Similar ideas would be synthesised and
the relevant groups merged. This follows a thesis-synthesis model of design. The whole process took
approximately 3 months of part time, after-hours work done by the Primary team with design guidance from
the rest of the team. The project was unusual in that it was research and development work, done at risk
with no client commission.
Stage 1 – Brief exploration
At the initial briefing, the process for design and research was developed and became the framework for
future design. The first step was to come up with basic designs. No preconceived ideas were fed into the
design stream, so as to maximise variation in design options. Ideas explored at this stage were Space
Finding, Spatial association of classrooms and General Spatial Planning. Precedents were analysed, including
the Justicia school project initiated by Deborah Terhune; The Dibanisa schools (Dibanisa Foundation 2014)
and the Ugandan Rural Classroom Programme (Open Architecture Network 2011). Three teams of two were
set up and design was begun. It was established that to have a form of standardization, a modular system of
planning would be required. All teams approached this with varying ideas. Circulation, class proximity and
modularity were explored from different perspectives. A review process involving the full team and
feedback was set up to provide feedback to the different groups.
The summary brief after the initial meeting was as follows: The social brief was to deal with problems arising
from rural schools – security, socialisation, space allocation. The technical brief was to include elements of
modularity, appropriate technologies for rural areas, fast construction systems and materials and systems
that were environmentally friendly. In addition, the services had to deal with water provision, power,
security and off-grid functionality. The typical accommodation schedule initially included 5 grades per unit:
R-7 / 8-10 / 11-12, with 4 classrooms per age group and also included a Kitchen to provide 1 meal per day in
the multi-purpose room.
Materials exploration included appropriateness of materials for climate and geography, appropriate cost,
transport issues, minimising of wet trades and overall speed of production and erection. Space exploration
included the use of courtyards and the analysis of security. Expandability issues were also explored including
flexibility of design, proximity of grades and surveillance (for safety purposes) and urban typologies (i.e.
Urban design and modularity of pedestrian walkways). Green design elements that were included were
passive solar requirements; Wind protection; balanced Skin to volume ratios and Cross ventilation (natural
ventilation). Finally, social problems in rural areas were incorporated into the design.
Stage 2 – Master plan & theory
The Initial Concepts stage was to refine and synthesise these ideas into an optimal design and to include
supplementary spaces like halls and sports fields into the planning. The 3 teams were combined into one
and a grid system was finalised. Discussions about the nature of educational space and pedagogy started
happening and the notions of indoor/outdoor spaces became part of the design. Privacy gradients and the
hierarchy of space were explored as a means of controlling the environment. A second review was
performed and feedback provided.
Stage 3 – Technology and detailed design
The Technology and Detailed design stage involved the exploration of different technologies and
specifications for components and the resolution of technical/design details. The spatial planning and
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modular expansion system was finalised. Technologies to facilitate the system were researched and
incorporated in design by individuals. Design of elements, components and systems was begun.
Stage 4 – Major technical resolution & turning point
This stage was not a programmed stage but arose out of one of the major reviews by the full team. Up to
that time although the design was accepted and approved, no single powerful concept of modularity was
driving the programming or the design. Various designs had been mooted but a turning point in the design
came with the realisation of certain practical necessities on site. A lot of data had come back to the team
from various sources, including the work done by TPSP on the GDE rapid rollout of temporary classrooms.
The rapid rollout programme, in particular, had suffered from serious problems with quality control in terms
of construction (as well as delivery). The key realisation was that quality control in the system was critical in
any rapid delivery system. A decision was taken to concentrate on the roof as the key quality controlled
component of the buildings. The reason for this was that the roof was the element most likely to fail
catastrophically in terms of construction and waterproofing quality. That is, if the roof failed, the rest of the
building would be completely compromised. However if the roof could be safeguarded even major failures
in other components could be dealt with relatively easily. The roof could be prefabricated off-site and thus
quality would be dramatically improved. Also, by separating the roof out from the rest of the trade
sequence, walls no longer had to be structural and the wall component design could be much more flexible.
In addition, programme gains could be made with different trades working simultaneously. The roof design
now became the central driver of the modular design.
Stage 5 – Government standards
The team now looked in detail at the Guidelines relating to planning for public school infrastructure
(Department of Education 2008). This document is related to the Notice 1439 of 2008: National minimum
norms and standards for school infrastructure. Sizes and plans of classrooms were optimised. The two
classroom module was finalised and the major grid implications refined and worked out. The modules were
standardized to accommodate all eventualities delineated in the GDE Guidelines, both in classroom size and
in overall school size.
Stage 6 – Green technology and technical details
The team broke up into groups with assigned tasks and some continued with finalising technical details and
designs. The remaining members investigated explicitly green technologies, specifically power generation,
high efficiency lighting and water harvesting. The roof eaves became larger for purposes of circulation cover
and diffuse daylight harvesting. The “Inside-Outside” spaces were finalised. Phasing models and community
integration were also explored. Production of technical drawings was completed.
Stage 7 - Presentation
The final design was presented along with brochures and a 1:50 model to the team and directors of LYT as
well as the Basil Read Team, including Marius Heyns, CEO of Basil Read. The response was extremely positive.
It was expressed by many in Basil Read that there was an obvious need and the product filled that need.
THE SYSTEM IN DETAIL

The typical Green School Concept (GSC) unit (or module) consists of two classrooms back to back with a
ventilation chimney stack sandwiched between them. The stack doubles as storage with a lockable door. In
most South African conditions (Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal,
Mpumalanga, Limpopo) the walls, floors and roofs would be all made of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs).
SIPs are generally made of a foam core (either EPS or Poly Urethane/Poly-Isocyanurate) with a Magnesium
Oxide (MgO) board on either side. They are typically affixed to vertical timber or light steel studs and
sometimes use tracks on the ground for registration, similar to gypsum drywall installation.
Windows are ideally made from stiffened PVC, GRP, timber or other low thermal transmission profiles, with
two panes each. The upper pane would be cellular polycarbonate for diffuse lighting and better insulation,
and the lower panels would be clear, low-E safety glass for visibility and insulation. Doors would be similar,
with panels at eye height (standing and sitting) clear for safety purposes. Floor surfaces are typically vinyl
with solid recycled rubber underlay (for acoustic purposes).
The structure of the building is a series of portal frames which typically are manufactured from steel but
depending on availability, precast or insitu concrete technology can be used for columns. Light steel frame,
hot rolled sections or even timber can be used for the trussing. The roof panels are fixed to the structure,
with shingles laid over for waterproofing. If sheeting and bulk insulation are used instead, shingles are not
needed. Walls can be panels, masonry, sandbags, light steel frame/ETICS or any other material that is
appropriate for the environment. The structure works in such a way that should new modules be added,
there are no problems with joining old and new buildings since the roof of each module alternates between
a higher and a lower level. There is also flexibility for terrain built into this modulating roof level design. A fall
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of 1 in 12 can be easily dealt with. With a typical SIP installation, walls are given a flexible polymer render
coating which bridges all joints. SIP systems can be built with timber or steel studs. Another system in use for
the walling is a light steel frame with a polymer concrete facing cast on site, with gypsum to the interior. The
floor is a typically a Raft foundation with SIPs affixed to the surface but stabilised earth foundations have
been investigated. Other systems of foundations are being explored using the steel micropiles and gabion
systems. In general the amount of concrete is kept to a minimum and almost all components are partially or
fully recyclable.
Figure 1: Typical construction of the Green School System
The system has to deal with all the South African climatic and geographic conditions. The system is designed
so that whatever technologies are cheapest and easiest to deploy in a particular region, they can be easily
integrated into the design system. LYT have already designed various iterations on this theme in a number
of projects. In some cases design and supply contractors present an innovative cost-effective system that
LYT had not considered and in so doing add a lot of value to the project. The strength of the system in this
regard means that it could theoretically be adapted to any climate, location and budget in the world and
each school is able to be adjusted to new conditions. It is foreseen that the system could be applied to any
climatic or geographical region in the world. It is suspected that the challenges with international
deployment will not be design issues, but more along cultural and contractual lines. The system can be
applied in any cultural and contractual environment.
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Figure 2: Typical construction of the Green School System- exterior axonometric (image by author)
Figure 3: Typical construction of the Green School System- exploded axonometric (image by author).
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Figure 4: Typical classroom environment of the Green School System (image by author).
Figure 5: Typical courtyard environment of the Green School System (image by author).
The Green School Concept also has to be able to successfully deal with a number of social, environmental
and economic issues as well. Thus it is a fully integrated system of design. The following diagram explains
the way the system integrates the various issues.
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Figure 6: Social, Environmental and Economic aspects of the GSC (image by author).
COMMUNITY
The GSC school is designed to foster and enhance community by promoting ownership of the buildings by
the learners and the local community. One of the critical failures of top-down delivery of schools (or any
community buildings for that matter) is the failure of the community to accept the structures as their own
(Geldenhuys 2013). The spatial planning of the school can be determined by sitting down and having a
workshop with the community leaders thus including them from the beginning of the design process. The
flexibility of the system enables a high degree of customisation and a better fit, resulting in a better sense of
ownership. Due to its flexible and modular design, the only real constraint is the parcel of land that will be
built upon. It is possible to deploy the school in a double storey mode, in order to deal with land shortages.
The spatial planning principles are well thought through, including the placement of Grade-0 pupils, media
centres and so on for visibility and security. However, the system is flexible enough that should the local
community need to change it, they can. The buildings are also able to provide communal education in
Green design principles. Most of the technologies are demonstrative and visible so they become teaching
aids for the learners and the parents and teachers.
One of the key design principles of the GSC is that the roof is the only part of the building that needs to be
prefabricated and brought in, and even though the structure is prefabricated, local labourers can be easily
taught to construct it and install the roofing. The rest of the structure can be built with locally available
materials and/or labour, since the walls are not load bearing and the performance of the building is mostly
determined by the roof. This brings a sense of ownership to the local community and also work and skills
training. The primary palette of technologies ensures that the skills transferred will be current and ‘cutting
edge’ to ensure better employability of the workers so enabled. The school is also able to accommodate
after hours community functions, such as night classes and social occasions. Security of the school and its
equipment is achieved by a) community buy-in and b) possible remotely accessed security.
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Figure 7: Typical Spatial Planning for the GSC.
EFFICIENCY
The GSC aims to use the most cost effective and resource efficient systems so as to minimise initial and
running costs for any school. The critical efficiencies of the school are achieved by using the best possible
locally available systems that meet international codes of manufacture. Only the minimum systems are
installed as a baseline due to cost.
• Solar Water heaters are generally flat plate systems to deal with the extreme hail conditions.
Evacuated tube systems need only be used in areas where insulation is too low for flat plate systems
to work well, since they are more susceptible to hail damage and the level of insulation in South
Africa is generally so high that they are not necessary. Exact amounts of required heating will be
based on the nature of the school and the availability of water. Science labs and administrative
buildings would generally need hot water while ablutions would not. All water would be gravity fed
from low pressure tanks except in very specific cases.
• Photovoltaic panels for power generation are mounted at a low angle to simplify the installation
and offset from the roof surface to ensure proper ventilation and cooling. With insulation levels
being generally high in South Africa, performance is not badly compromised by a low angle of
installation. Inverters and regulators are high durability items. Batteries would be locally made and
of the lead-crystal type; they are the safest and most environmentally friendly available.
• Wind power is feasible in certain high wind areas like the coastal zones but it is likely that a larger
battery bank will be required due to greater variability of supply. The higher cost / kWh of wind
installations mean that this would generally not be used.
• Micro Hydro power has been considered for areas with rivers that can accommodate such use, i.e.
year round flow rivers.
• LED lights are used in general applications due to low energy, quality of light and ease of recycling.
They also provide a more pleasant and even light distribution. Lights are set in 3 major circuits with
light sensors. One circuit is for lighting the presentation area and the other two are parallel to the
windows. When ambient light is high from one or another side of the room, the circuit adjacent to
that window automatically dims to preserve power. Levels of natural, diffuse light should be high
due to the window design, so lights should only be required in overcast conditions or in the early
morning in winter. Orientation of individual units will have some effect on this.
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• Water is harvested from roofs and possibly from ground runoff, should extra water be required. In
all cases a low maintenance rain washer would be used and any water from the ground would be
non-potable. If the school is designed to provide potable water, it would shift responsibility for
potable water supply to the school and if this resulted in disease or illness in the learners, this would
result in a liability for the school. Thus, additional filtering would have to be very carefully
considered.
• No active air-conditioning is used as standard since the roof of the building is designed to have an
extremely high insulation value and the natural ventilation from windows and the stack ensure high
levels of fresh air and heat extraction.
• In extremely cold areas, solar air heaters can be used, but should not be needed with the fully
insulated shell option.
• Work is currently progressing with a major computing supplier on remotely administered, high
temperature server rooms to accommodate a ‘Thin Client’ data backbone for the schools. Thin
client systems concentrate the majority of the computing and cooling requirements into one
central server room and the user interface is kept in separate rooms with low cooling loads.
Together with special room envelope design, these server rooms should require little or no active
cooling, only solar powered fans. The interface areas will require no additional cooling.
BUILDING AND RUNNING COSTS

There are two major costs associated with buildings: the cost to build, or Capital Expenditure (CAPEX costs)
and the cost to maintain and run a building, or Maintenance costs. Preliminary costing by Ethiqs Quantity
Surveyors indicates that, depending on choices of wall materials, finishes and the exact nature of the
structural design (which is flexible), the cost of the GSC is capable of being highly competitive with current
industry standard prices. Costs can range from R4200/m2 (for basic finishes, excluding bulk earthworks) up to
R12000/m2 for higher end finishes (prices current as of Feb 2014). According to AECOM’s Africa property and
construction handbook (Brummer 2013), the base cost for schools should be approximately R5400/m2 to
R7100/m2 for a secondary school (excluding bulk earthworks and infrastructure). Including bulk earthworks
one could expect a rate of R6,500 to R8,200 In an IDT presentation of the 24/07/2013 to the portfolio
committee on public works, the documented savings realised by the use of Alternative Construction
Methods (ACMs) were between 13% and 55% on a sample of 12 schools. (Presentation to portfolio
committee on public works 2013). The average rate per square meter for conventional construction from
this sample comes to R7581/m2. The author does not know which systems were measured and since the
study indicated that the school lifespan for these kinds of schools was 30 years, it can be assumed that they
were poorer quality systems. A normal SIP system should last 50 years or more if treated well and can be
easily and quickly replaced. By comparing the above it is clear that the GSC is already proving itself to be
competitive across the full spectrum of delivery models. Considering the speed with which the GSC units
can be built, the system dramatically outperforms the conventional technology, even for more expensive
units. Data on running costs for conventional schools can be computer based on various metrics, elaborated
below.
Power
The primary power requirements for schools are lighting and multimedia. Because most new build schools
are using high efficiency fluorescent lighting, lighting power should be comparable so it would normally be
discounted (a typical classroom will use 5W / m2 according to the LYT design). However with the circuit
design and daylight sensors, an improvement of up to 15% can be expected. Air conditioning is also
discounted as in most conditions neither would likely have air-conditioning. However, energy efficiency
ratings are currently being researched for multiple orientations and climatic zones including the use of air-
conditioning for absolute performance benchmarks. This leaves appliances and computers which would
also be more or less equal in terms of draw. However, with a full photovoltaic deployment, all these items
would be run completely off-grid yielding an energy saving of 100% from the grid. The cost per Watt over
the lifespan of the panel vs cost per watt from a grid option can be favourable, especially when one factors
in the cost of cable to connect schools very distant from a grid point. In Cape Town, as of 2013 (referring to
IPP solar PV installations), “PV is now cheaper than power from the grid. A kilowatt hour produced by a
photovoltaic system will cost 0.81 rand while these consumers pay on average 0.94 rand per each kilowatt
hour from the grid. Users can save about 13 rand cents or 16% of the cost of each kilowatt / hour they
consume” (Jorn Carstenson of Conergy quoted in Energy News 2013).
In Johannesburg, a built up area with full grid connectivity, grid parity has already been reached for small
installations (20kw or more) including battery storage (Teubner 2012). So, even for schools in range of a grid
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tie, it may be cheaper to install the system than to connect to the grid, especially considering that Eskom
continues to raise prices. If a school is distant from the grid a solar installation will automatically be more
cost effective. In addition, solar power systems, although requiring occasional onsite maintenance,
depending on location, can offer a more reliable source of energy than the grid due to the unreliability of
Eskom’s grid supply at the current time.
Water
The primary water requirements for schools are for drinking, food preparation and sanitation. A secondary
requirement is for gardening and laboratory work. Maximised rainwater harvesting with filtering/washing is
integrated into the design. The schools thus can function relatively independently (dependant on rainfall) of
the mains water for at least mission critical functions, i.e. sanitation. Tanks are sized according to roof areas
and runoff areas. Where ground water runoff is used or where river water or other impure sources are used,
additional filters may be required. UV sterilization is the simplest system because maintenance is simply a
matter of changing a bulb. Chemical purification may also be used but maintenance is more complicated.
Certain grey water recycling systems can produce water that is cleaner than rainwater without the full
sterilization of UV or chemical based systems. Again, there is some maintenance required. Micro filtration is
not favoured due to the frequency of filter changes and associated costs. Natural purification systems can be
employed if sufficient space is available (reed bed type systems).
South African rainfall varies from 200mm a year to 1200mm per year, but this may change due to climate
change (Government of SA 2014). If full roof harvesting were implemented, based on a 200mm rainfall
(typical of the most arid regions), with a 98% efficiency for filtering, this equates to 31.4 cubic meters of
water per year per module (160m2 roof area). This equates to half a cube per learner per year (523 litres).
Based on a high pressure system with low flow tap fittings (9 second per use; 2,5 uses per day @ 6 litres per
minute) and cooking and drinking requirements the following water uses have been calculated for a 201-
day school year. Total usage rates should be similar or less, even if low pressure systems are in use (since taps
will just be run for a little longer).
Primary Use Litres/learner/school day Litres / learner / school year

Sanitary (basins) 1.1 221
Drinking 3.5 703
Cooking (1 meal) 4 804
TOTAL 8.6 1728
Secondary Use Litres/learner/school day Litres / learner / school year
Lab work 1 201
Gardening 12 2412 (variable mix: rain/stored)
TOTAL 13 2613
Figure 9: Water Use Table
Thus the total per learners is 1728 litres per learner per year. Thus only in in the highest rainfall areas of
660mm or more is there sufficient rainwater harvesting potential to cover all primary uses. In these areas
additional water must be supplied. This is in fact mandatory according to the minimums set by the DBE
Guidelines for schools (2008). However, even in low water areas, a minimum saving of 29% can be made. If
one adds in groundwater or local rivers/dams (with attendant costs of purification) this can be greater. In all
cases, the total rainfall and other available water sources would be incorporated into a bespoke design for
that school. The following table describes the hybrid water provision approaches that might be used. With
some seasonal variability accounted for, the 800mm rainfall determines when hybrid systems would be used
or not.
High Rainfall Area (Over 800mm) Low Rainfall Area (up to 800mm)
Water Source Urban Rural Urban Rural
Rain – Roof 100% harvesting 100% harvesting 100% harvesting 100% harvesting
+ small storage + large storage + small storage + small storage
Rain – Ground None None Gardening Gardening
Borehole None Backup None Backup
Mains Backup None Backup None
River None Backup None Backup
Figure 8: Water Source Table
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Food
Often school feeding programmes are the only place that children in disadvantaged communities can get
proper nutrition. Once water supply is in place it is relatively easy to grow food in a GSC gardens. Food
production is integrated into the GSC as part of both education and feeding programmes. Food Gardens are
designed to be able to provide at least one meal (150g) per learner per day per 2.2m2 of planted area (Reed
2014). This is based on a garden designed in conjunction with Reel Gardening. For a school of 500 learners
this equals 1650m2, which is an area (with pathways) of about 33m2 by 50m2. This is about 1/3 of a soccer
field in total area, split into sections if necessary. Smaller gardens can be easily integrated into the school
design, including leftover pieces of land. Apart from the savings made for the school in replacing purchased
goods, there is also potential to sell food because of these efficiencies, which can help pay for other services
that the school needs. The food gardens are also designed (as part of a Reel Gardening initiative) to be part
of the curriculum to explain sustainable agriculture.
Either new schools will be needed on a consistent basis, or existing schools will need to be upgraded.
DELIVERY AND EXPANSION

The GSC is designed to be able accommodate expansion of existing schools and the delivery of new-build
schools. For a new-build school of 500 children, having 10 modules, construction time works out to 150
working days or 7.5 months. If one includes site establishment, surveys, earthworks preparations, skills
transfer training and off site manufacturing, this comes to approximately 9 months. This represents a time
saving of 9 months (50%) as compared with 18 months for a conventional new-build construction program
for a school of this size. Even with normal expected site delays, especially in difficult to reach areas, this
would still be significantly faster and should make the delivery of a school in under a year easily possible. The
GSC is designed to be easily added to, with all the planning on a standard module. As mentioned before, the
roofs are designed to integrate when new modules are added. All services are modularised and need some
forward planning to ensure that correct space is left for future development.
The speed with which the GSC can be deployed allows the users to accommodate both the current
population growth and the rapid urbanisation being experienced by South Africa. Current urbanisation off a
base of 63% is 1.21% annual rate of change (CIA Fact book 2014) In some areas urbanisation is as high as
2.6% (SouthAfrica.info 2014) Based on current demographics for South Africa, according to UN predictions,
South Africa’s population growth is 2.5% and dropping (United Nations 2010/11). South Africa will only
achieve zero or negative population growth by the year 2035. Schools where the urban catchment areas is
still of low density could thus expect constant growth for the next 20 years consonant with population
growth and urbanisation. The demographic pyramid is shifting to a more developed model but at the
moment is very much a developing world pyramid thus the additional classes will be growing across the full
spectrum of school grades. If education improves, there will be fewer dropouts which would mean more
classes would be required for the upper grades. In any case the GSC can provide the necessary solution for
expansion of existing schools. The projected time to construct a GSC module of two classrooms (excluding
procurement) is 15 working days. For add-on classrooms this means a minimum of disruption to school
curricula and could be achieved during a vacation period.
Year Population +/- % change

2010 50,725,000 NA
2015 52,015,000 +2.5%
2020 52,971,000 +1.8%
2025 53,565,000 +1.1%
2030 53,809,000 +0.5%
2035 53,741,000 -0.1%
2040 53,288,000 -0.8%
Figure 10: U.N. Predicted population growth for RSA: 2010 to 2040 (UN 2010/11).
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PEDAGOGY
Modern schools are moving toward a digital environment. Many users are looking for paperless
environments, which are considered green. The GSC can easily be adapted to tablet / computer based
tuition. A number of educational programmes have been developed for computerised learning, including
the Vodacom programme (qv). The critical changes needed for these adaptations are conduits and
mounting points for interactive boards, computers and charging stations and server rooms to handle the
networking. The extent to which these systems are implemented is dependent on funds and security
concerns, but the core functionality is easily achieved in the GSC. Remote learning is also possible with
computerised learning programmes, and ease of oversight can also be maintained.
Due to the relatively mild South African climate indoor/outdoor spaces can be used as part of the learning
environments. These add a special quality to educational environments, and are both healthy and
enlivening. This has been specifically designed into the system in discrete areas. One wall will have sliding or
rollup doors to allow the class to open up to the exterior. Exclusively outdoor learning areas are included as
standard, namely the food gardens, breakout areas and outdoor theatres.
In recent models of pedagogy, different spatial use is being explored. In some of the schools, an approach
has been taken where the majority of the learners stay in one class to minimise circulation time, with
teachers moving instead. This also allows learners to gain stability from a sense of ownership of space which
in turn facilitates learning. Each classroom has a colour scheme applied to walls, vent chimneys and finishes
that emphasises this identity.
COMFORT & HEALTH

The comfort and health of the school is a combination of Thermal Comfort and Indoor Environmental
Quality (IEQ). The performance of both teachers and learners is improved by good IEQ and Thermal comfort
and attested to by numerous publications (CSU 2013). IEQ is made up of air quality, lighting and acoustics.
Passive climate design is the key to the schools thermal comfort. Although there are large windows and a
stack for ventilation, the environment is only affected in this way by ambient air temperatures and is easily
adjustable. The roof is designed to provide a thermal resistance of 6 to 8 (metric). It is typically a 200mm
thick SIP with Poly-Urethane, Poly-Isocyanurate or Expanded Polystyrene. The R values below are shown
with the SANS 10400XA minimum for the worst case climatic zone (SANS, 2011). In addition R values are
shown by way of comparison from the ASHRAE Advanced energy design guide - 30% for K-12 School
Buildings USA (Paul Torcellini 2008: pp. 34-40) – Climate zones 1, 2 & 3 (Florida/Arizona/California).
ROOFS (MgO boards and Air films included)

Material ACTUAL SANS 10400XA ASHRAE K-12
Minimum Minimum
200 mm PU/ Poly-Isocyanurate SIP 8.16 3.7 6.7
200 mm EPS SIP 5.42
Figure 11: Roof insulation R values (baselines from SANS10400XA, 2011 and ASHRAE Design guide for schools
2008).
Regarding the concerns of using foamed rigid insulation, namely global warming potential and Ozone
depletion Potential, as can be seen there is no specific foam that has to be used, and it is worth bearing in
mind that there is often no perfect choice of material. Extruded Polystyrene with Nitrogen or CO2 as a filler
could be used but the costs of Extruded foams are prohibitive. So the best and most cost effective choice
needs to be made. Foam technology keeps improving and no doubt there will be more environmentally
friendly foams available soon. Another option for the roofing is standard sheeting with a number of different
insulation options. This is being explored and may in fact be cheaper but will be slower and more difficult to
construct. There are a number of bonded sheeting options available as well. In this regard, it is important to
note that every GSC implementation is governed by a number of factors. Location, budget, climate,
resources, aesthetics and not least client preferences all affect materials choices. The GSC is designed
specifically to accommodate this.
The roofs also have dramatic and generous overhangs – up to 1.2 meters – to ensure that in summer,
autumn and spring sun does not reach the skin of the building for the majority of the day. Although in
winter this would be undesirable to some extent, the high insulation of the rest of the skin obviates this
need. In addition the roof provides generous cool shaded areas for outdoor seating in summer. These same
areas would be sunny in winter. The walls are designed to a high specification as well (in a typical
configuration).
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WALLS (MgO boards and Air films included)

Material ACTUAL SANS 10400XA ASHRAE K-12
Minimum Minimum
120 mm PU/ Poly-Isocyanurate SIP 5.12 2.2 2.3
120 mm EPS SIP 4.4
Figure 12: Wall insulation R values (baselines from SANS10400XA, 2011 and ASHRAE Design guide for schools
2008).
A major factor in indoor comfort and health is the fresh air available and total air changes. The windows can
be adjusted for cross ventilation in summer but the ventilation chimney is designed to be the primary driver
for air changes in all seasons. Acoustics play a role in this decision, because open windows allow noise to
travel to the rest of the school. The chimney can function on totally passive principles with a heated roof, via
a Venturi-effect device or with a solar powered fan-set using a standard variable speed fan or multiple micro-
fans. The system is still under design but the intention is to meet or exceed SANS 10400 Part O (SANS, 2011)
minimum required air changes of 2 per hour (7.5 liters/second/person). Because heat recovery is difficult in
this environment it may not be achievable depending on the specific climate, but it might be possible to use
Peltier type (thermo-electric) heat recovery.
Windows are two-pane units with PVC profiles. According to current comfort and energy modelling, the GSC
design should easily meet the minimum National building regulation standards for air infiltration and the
roof generally provides sufficient shading factor. In terms of ambient heat transfer, the PVC profile with a mix
of clear and polycarbonate glazing would yield a superior average U value to a double glazed unit. Bearing
in mind that in summer windows might well be open in many of the climatic zones this would only really
apply to winter conditions. In extreme climates, e.g. Sutherland or Upington, polycarbonate might be
needed on all panes.
Together with natural lighting, sensor controlled artificial Lighting is used to achieve consistent lighting
levels. T5 luminaires were compared to large square LED lighting panels and the LEDs proved equal or better
in all performance indicators (Watson 2013). They are almost equal in terms of energy efficiency with the
LEDs using 5.47 W/ square meter .03W less than the T5 units). They provide a more evenly distributed and
pleasant light and they cost less than equivalent fluorescent lighting. LEDs are also more friendly to the
environment and do not have dangerous chemicals that need special recycling. Daylight modelling is being
conducted at the time of this writing, but the intention is to achieve 300-500 lux at table surfaces as
standard, where, according to SANS 10114-1 the minimum standard is 300 lux (SANS 2005). Direct
illumination is controlled by the roof overhang to prevent unpleasant conditions for the learners. Glare is
minimized by the cellular polycarbonate panes. In some designs the upper panes, when open, can be used
as a light shelf to bounce light deeper into the room.
Figure 13: Diagram of light shelf (by author).
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Air quality is affected by the choice of materials for finishes and structure. The school is constructed out of
the least harmful materials that fit the design model. Magnesium Boards are painted with standard or
rubberized non-toxic coatings with low VOCs. Many of the materials used can be partially or fully recycled:
Material Fully recyclable Partially recyclable / Reusable
MgO board Re-usable as fill
EPS Yes
PolyUrethane/PolyIsocyanurate Yes
Timber studs Re-usable
Paint No No
Steel studs Yes
PVC windows Re-usable
Glass Yes
Polycarbonate Re-usable
Steel columns Yes
Shingles Yes
Metal Sheeting Yes
Polymer stabilized soil Re-usable as fill
Concrete bases/ surface beds Re-usable as fill
Vinyl Flooring Yes
Recycled rubber tire floor underlay Yes
Sundry Steel flashings/fixings Yes
Figure 14: Recyclability of Typical GSC Materials.
Basic functionality
The Department of Basic Education has mandated minimum functionalities for any school in South Africa
(DBE 2011) but the realities already discussed regarding costs and availability of water, power and
waterborne sewerage have been the major design drivers of the GSC. Although in some cases these services
may be available and affordable, the school has full off grid functionality with the exception of water in
some climates. One of the added benefits of this is the reduced cost of utility installation. Toilets are all
composting types with proper pans for safety. Where waterborne sewage is available it may be connected
up with minimum changes. Bio-digesters have not as yet been investigated for any projects due to social
acceptability issues, but are easily integrated into the design and would reduce energy use of the school. In
terms of power, only renewable energy systems are specified – either solar PV or wind at the moment, but
micro turbines may yet be investigated where acceptable rivers are available. One of the problems with high
tech power installations is servicing, but in general it is foreseen that a service agreement would be part of
the initial installation, which would include a training programme for the school.
Learning environment
The aesthetics of the school were designed to be safe, pleasant and fun. All the surfaces and coatings are
non-toxic. The usable areas are designed to be safe; with nothing that the users might encounter that could
cause serious injury. The school was designed to be aesthetically pleasing, no matter which of the
technologies are employed. Inspiring environments promote good learning as much as environmental
quality and comfort. Clean lines, large volumes and pleasant colours with well-designed spaces are part of
this intention. The outdoor spaces have carefully designed courtyards for breakout spaces. The response
from clients, visitors and other professionals has been extremely positive so far. The GSC appears to be an
aesthetically good solution and while recognising that each deployment will be different, only minimal
changes need to be made to fine tune individual buildings to the aesthetic leanings of the client. Research is
also being done into colour theory and how this will aid the learners and educators.
Similar examples
While LYT was working on the GSC, the team were unaware that another architectural company, Geldenhuys
& Jooste, had worked with a similar idea for the Meetse-a-Bophelo school in Mamelodi and the Mandela Park
School in Mthatha (2011). Geldenhuys & Jooste based their design on a steel portal frame system fitted with
the Arcelor-Mittal Arval panel system. The system had been developed in conjunction with Agrèment and
local production was about to begin. The major difference between this school and the GSC is that it was a
customised solution as opposed to a standardised solution even though the panels were a standardized
system. The Meetse-a-Bophelo school was a success and won an award, but subsequent to the completion
of the two schools, Arcelor Mittal cancelled the local production of the Arval panels (Hickers 2013). This was
due to a perception by Arcelor Mittal that there was insufficient demand. When the LYT team became aware
39
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of this, they adjusted their views on panelised systems. It was decided that it was imperative to find
sustainable sources of panels from local manufacturers. This has resulted in a narrower set of suppliers at this
time, but the hope is that once the demand is ramped up, it will attract more (perhaps international)
suppliers to the field. It is worth noting that during the Mandela Park School construction, 120 workers were
trained in alternative building methods (Arcelor-Mittal 2011).
Other fully panelised building systems on the market that offer off-the-shelf units are available from a
number of companies such as ASM, M projects, abacus, Kwikspace and Speedspace. All these suppliers use
the most basic units and have little control of the spatial planning of the modules. They are ultra-quick
deployment systems and will have relatively short lifespans (10-15 years) with exceptions. They generally
use thinner panels which would not comply with part 10400XA of SANS code, but are sometimes Agrèment
approved. The systems are typically designed for temporary installations, or for African countries north of
the border where SANS code would not apply. Systems like these have been deployed for the GDE school
rollout programme of 2011-2012 (LYT 2010-2012) which was active before SANS 10400XA came into effect.
They are inappropriate for school projects for a number of reasons:
1. Insufficient insulation, either to comply with SANS10400XA or with basic comfort requirements.
2. Relatively poor design in terms of shading, and other environmental considerations.
3. Low to average durability and poor quality of specifications.
4. Low quality of aesthetics.
Thus the GSC sits between the two extremes of the ultra-quick, short lifespan units and the custom designed
systems based on a very specific design susceptible to economic constraints. It is able to adapt to any
technology but at the same time ensures a high quality of build and a longer lifespan. Admittedly some of
these claims are yet to be fully tested in South Africa, but the data from other sources regarding these
technologies is well established and the results are not in much doubt. The process of prototyping and
testing is underway, e.g. at the Kwezana site in East London. There are various problems and challenges
being encountered but the majority of them are not due to the failure of the technologies themselves but
rather to the implementation of them. There is a relatively steep learning curve for contractors but even with
these problems the results are promising. Detailing is another area that needs more work, but this is
progressing.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
The implementation strategies used on current projects are fairly close to a traditional architectural
relationship because of the private funds that drive the project. Nonetheless a large amount of consultation
was done on both the current projects and other projects currently being initiated promise to be similar in
nature. School projects by their nature are very personal and can sometimes have political issues involved in
their implementation, so every effort is made to involve all relevant stakeholders. In some ways this is the
major delay in implementation, but it is not something that can be avoided even were the school of
conventional construction. The response to the speed of construction has been very good. Clients are
extremely happy to have the schools ready that much quicker. The role of LYT as architects is only slightly
different to a more conventional building. Because the classrooms and buildings have such a strong element
of modularisation and standardisation, a lot of work goes into explaining the technologies and planning
principles. Once that is done, most of the work is just spatial arrangements to fit a site and some small
bespoke interventions as required.
SWOT ANALYSIS
The GSC might sound too good to be true, but there are a number of limits to the system which are fully
acknowledged by LYT. To this end a short SWOT analysis is presented here to outline the various aspects,
both positive and negative of the Green School System.
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Green Schools Concept
Strengths 1. Relatively fast compared to Conventional
2. Relatively durable (50-75 years?)
3. Excellent Thermal Performance
4. High quality of aesthetics and environment
Weaknesses 1. Susceptibility to variability of technologies and skills availability
2. Possible resistance by certain clients to innovative technologies
3. Acoustic environment not fully tested yet
4. Detailing still being perfected
Opportunities 1. Massive pipeline for projects – clients that need a good compromise
between speed and quality to meet the huge demand for new schools and
additional units for existing schools.
2. Build up a supplier network for high quality systems.
3. Build up a skills base for local contractors.
Threats 1. The economics of RSA are extremely volatile at the moment and could
threaten certain local suppliers which would force international panel
shipments. This might compromise the cost effectiveness and carbon
footprint of the school.
Figure 15: SWOT analysis
ECOLOGY - RESILIENCE - VALUES

How does the GSC fit in to the UIA themes? In terms of ecology, the GSC aims to be as environmentally
sustainable as possible for a system of its type. It is resilient in terms of construction and design. In terms of
values, it is local, appropriate and valorises the social quality of education and relational cohesiveness. These
are all very clear overlaps – the literal themes so to speak, but there are also some less obvious matches. In
terms of resilience, the design itself is flexible and capable of deployment in multiple contexts. The design
application process is also resilient in that the GSC is capable of transformation without losing its key vision
and in that the technologies need to be adaptable to the design and not the other way around. In terms of
ecology, the school is completely off-grid and sustainable, while at the same time producing food for the
school and community (while educating staff and learners about urban agriculture). In terms of values, the
school is designed to meet the most pressing need of a young democracy - to ensure high levels of
education and in a way that does not compromise the environment or the users’ health. However, the
school also creates a venue and a place available to the whole community it serves. In so doing the
architecture and its' function are both valorised and the role of architecture in both the creation of values
and the preservation of human dignity is highlighted.
CONCLUSION
The LYT Green School is designed as one of the best possible products given the financial, time, and land
and maintenance constraints. It integrates social, environmental and economic aspects of school
construction and planning while still providing a rapid deployment solution to South Africa’s educational
infrastructure crisis. It can be deployed in any environment and can use a myriad of construction materials.
There are some compromises in the system design, but in all cases the these have favoured shortened
construction times and quality environments for learners. Because costs are comparable with conventional
building, LYT believes there is no reason why, given time, the Green School System could not become the
new template for South African School Construction.
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REFERENCES
Asidi, 2014. Basic education progress made; accelerated schools infrastructure delivery,
http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20120912-basic-education-progress-made-accelerated-schools-
infrastructure-deli).
Arcelor Mittal, 2011. http://www.arcelormittalsa.com/portals/0/meetse-a-bophelo-primary-school-
mamelodi.pdf.Children Count, 2012. http://www.childrencount.ci.org.za/indicator.php?id=6&indicator=44.
Section 1.01 Deci, EL & Ryan, RM., 200. ‘The "What" and "Why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the
self-determination of behaviour’, Psychological Inquiry: An International Journal for the Advancement of
Psychological Theory, Published online, vol. 11, no. 4.
Department of Education, 2008. G.D.E. Guidelines relating to planning for public school infrastructure,
Pretoria, DBE.
Dibanisa foundation, 2011, http://www.greenfutures.co.za/en/dibanisa/.
Geldenhuys & Jooste, 2011. http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/bldgframes.php?bldgid=9609.
Giroux, HA., 1989. Schooling for democracy: critical pedagogy in the modern age, Routledge, London, England.
Malcolm, C et al., 2008. ‘Democracy, human rights and social justice in education’, papers presented at a
conference of the Education Policy Consortium. Johannesburg, RSA, Centre for Education Policy
Development (CEPD).
Montessori, 2014. Academic performance,
http://www.hilltopmontessori.com/files/articles/Academic_Performance.pdf.
Popescu, E et al., 2012. ‘Advances in web-based learning’, 11th International Conference proceedings,
Romania.
Standish, P & Saito, N., (eds) 2012. Education and the Kyoto School of Philosophy: pedagogy for human
transformation, New York, USA, Dordrecht.
Teubner, H., 2012. Realistic guidelines to install a home solar system, Sinetech, Johannesburg.
Torcellini et al., 2008. ‘Advanced energy design guide - 30% for K-12 school buildings’, ASHRAE, Atlanta, USA.
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WHAT IF YOU DISCOVER A ROMAN THEATRE UNDERNEATH LATE OTTOMAN DWELLINGS?
Şeyda Güvenç Duran, Biz Architecture Office Ltd., Turkey, seydaduran@yahoo.com
Abstract
What if you discover a Roman theatre, during the excavation of foundations of a modern building, underneath
late Ottoman dwellings?
Antalya is a Mediterranean city in the south coast of Turkey. Kaleici is the urban site in the core of the city.
Beginning from the 3rd century BC, the city was inhabited and settlement was continuous after then.
Antalya became part of the Roman Republic in 133 BC, was a major city in the Byzantine Empire. The city and the
surrounding region were conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the early 13th century. The city was occupied by the
Italians from the end of the First World War until the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
Large scale development beginning in the 1970s transformed Antalya from a pastoral town into one of Turkey's
largest metropolitan areas. Much of this has been due to tourism.
A Conservation Plan of Kaleici, including archaeological and urban sites, was held firstly in 1974 and finally
registered in 1990. The main purpose of the plan was to conserve late Ottoman dwellings and monuments besides
Roman ruins above the ground.
During the excavation of foundations of a new building in 2011, some parts of the Roman Theatre have appeared.
Then the Antalya Council for the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Properties decided to expropriate the land.
The objection of the owner to the ministry stated that the building is possibly near the ruins in order to conserve
the theatre.
The main problem started here, because the Conservation Plan suggests building copies of late Ottoman
buildings in order to homogenize the land. But the architect insisted on designing a modern building to unhide
the Roman theatre.
The paper discusses consistency and harmony of the urban and historical site is possible even with diversity and
resilience of architectural design.
Keywords: resilience, Kaleiçi, conservation, urban archaeology, new construction, historical site, Roman
theatre.
WHAT IF YOU DISCOVER A ROMAN THEATRE UNDERNEATH LATE OTTOMAN DWELLINGS?
Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of south-western Turkey. It is Turkey’s biggest international sea
resort located on the Turkish Riviera. Kaleiçi is the old city in the centre of Antalya. In 2013, the city had a
population of 1 million. Beginning from 3rd century BC, the city was inhabited and settlement was
continuous after then.
Figure 1: General view of Kaleiçi.
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ANTALYA, KALEİÇİ WITH ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY
Founded by Attalos II of Pergamon in the 1st century BC, the city was named Attaleia after its founder. When
the Pergamon Kingdom was bequeathed to Rome, Attaleia became a Roman city. The city grew and
prospered during the Ancient Roman period (Çimrin 2012, p. 9).
Figure 2: General view of Kaleiçi with its monuments.
Only a portion of the magnificent two tiered walls surrounding the port and the city have survived. The
eastern part of the wall bears the traces of Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk periods. “Hadrianus Gate” in the
form of a three celled victor arch was built in the memory of famed Roman Emperor Hadrianus’s visit to
Antalya in 130 AD. Constructed in place of the main gate between two bastions, “Hadrianus Gate” reflects
the security afforded by “Pax Romana” in the city.
Figure 3: Hadrianus Gate.
Another work surviving from Roman Period in Kaleiçi is “Hıdırlık Tower” at the south-eastern corner of the
city walls near the coast. According to historians, it is the tomb of a Roman general. It is a round bodied
structure rising over a square base situated in a location overseeing the port.
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Figure 4: Hıdırlık Tower.
Kesik Minare in Kaleiçi is an important monument bearing traces from this period. A three naved basilica was
built in 5th Century AD over the Roman Temple here in the name of Virgin Mary in Byzantine Period. Later
on, it was converted into a mosque by Sultan Korkut during the Seljuk Period. The monument was used in
the Ottoman Period but was burnt and repaired in 1851. In this respect, Kesik Minare is one of the major
structures that has witnessed the cultural changes in Kaleiçi (Başgelen 2006).
Antalya was a major city in the Byzantine Empire. It was the capital of the Byzantine Theme of Carabisiani
which occupied the southern coasts of Anatolia and the Aegean Islands. At the time of the accession of John
II Comnenus in 1118, it was an isolated outpost surrounded by Turkish beyliks, accessible only by sea.
The city and the surrounding region were conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the early 13th century. The city
was very important for Seljuks who repaired and added new bastions to the walls. They made Antalya the
second major Seljuk settlement in the Mediterranean next to Alanya. The most important works
representing the Seljuk Period in Kaleiçi are the Yivli Minaret Complex and Karatay Madrasah (Yılmaz 2002).
The city, captured by Yıldırım Bayezid towards the end of 14th Century in 1390, was added to Ottoman
territories in 1427 after changing hands with Tekeoğulları from time to time. Pasha Mosque near the clock
tower in Kaleiçi is a work representing this period. Also, it is observed that a major part of other Ottoman
works were built outside the walls in the environment of peace and security brought by the Ottoman period
to the area, similar to Pax Romana (Sönmez 2009, p. 62).
Antalya became a province referred to by its own name as a result of the reorganization of Ottoman
administrative structure in 1864.
The city was occupied by the Italians from the end of the First World War until the founding of the Turkish
Republic in 1923.
Large scale development beginning in the 1970s transformed Antalya from a pastoral town into one of
Turkey's largest metropolitan areas. Much of this has been due to tourism which expanded in the 21st
century.
THE ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF KALEİÇİ

Although time has taken away and changed a lot of things, Kaleiçi has partly preserved the memories of the
old times together with its historical texture. It displays an impressive picture with its monuments witness to
its rich past, its winding narrow roads and masonry houses opening to wide gardens, its busy port and traces
of a lifestyle in harmony with nature.
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Figure 5: A traditional house in Kaleiçi.
The broad eaves of the houses on two sides of the narrow winding roads of Kaleiçi provide shade in the hot
summer sun and a shelter from the fierce rains of the winter.
The facades of houses lying side by side on the right and left of the roads harmonize with the road with
cumba projections, with their back facades looking out at broad gardens through the spaciousness of wide
hallways. Large doors with cut stone arches open to either a stone yard or inner yard. The floors of most of
the stone yards are laid with black and white geometrical or figurative patterned gravel mosaics. The stone
yard is a characteristic element of Kaleiçi houses with this type of flooring (Başgelen 2006, p. 124).
Figure 6: The inner yard of a traditional house.
Kaleiçi gardens were integral parts of daily home life. Many antique architectural pieces remaining from the
monuments of the past of the city are found here in a functional form. Roman, Byzantine Period marble
column heads bear the wooden columns of the houses. Decorated architectural pieces placed carefully on
the walls and corners of the houses or over doors come to attention. A stairway goes up to the ‘hayat’ from
the stone yard. A significant portion of daily life takes place here. There are projections over the road of the
harmonious lower facade of the house (Bektaş 2005).
Kaleiçi roads seem even livelier due to the shadows caused by projections. There are decorations in different
colours on facades. They are embellished with either plant or animal motifs. Overall, white is dominant on
the facades.
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Figure 7: Decorations on facades.
CONSERVATION REQUIREMENT AND CONSERVATION PLAN OF KALEİÇİ

Kaleiçi was declared as a protected area in 1973 by the High Council of Monuments and Property Antiquities.
The same council had approved the Conservation and Development Plan of Kaleiçi in 1979.
The tourism function was seen as a tool for this area to be kept alive. In this plan, as a result of no zoned
functional distribution, in the whole area tourism and tourist trade has led to spontaneous development.
The Revision Plan was approved in 1992 by Antalya Council for the Conservation of Cultural and Natural
Properties, with some changes. Within this Conservation Plan, 127 monumental buildings and 473 civil
architecture buildings were registered as cultural properties. The area was determined as both Urban Site
and Archaeological Site (Gül 2006).
Figure 8: Conservation Plan of Kaleiçi.
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To ensure the loss of residential character, provisions relating to new constructions are regulated as housing
function potentially provides less possibility for tourism. Cadastral roads are used and vehicle and pedestrian
paths are separated. Since the area is categorized as an Archaeological Site, every excavation and all types of
earthmoving are made under the supervision of regional museum professionals.
In line with the contemporary understanding of conservation; besides the protection of physical space, the
social fabric of the area must be protected and improved. Therefore, uncontrolled developing of functions
for night use should be regulated. The different functions in the field should be separated and repositioned.
It is seen that the Revision Plan has moved outside intended conservation process and it is realised that
uncontrolled trade and tourism pressure have reached an important junction. For these reasons, it is
inevitable to detect a new approach in the implementation of planning decisions.
CASE STUDY
Discovering of a Roman Theatre while excavating the foundation of a new building
The field lies nearly in the middle of the old city of Kaleiçi but a little far away from the known Roman
monuments. Consisting of three parcels of private property, it stands between two inner city walls and is
located on an inclined area. When the landowner decided to construct a boutique hotel on these parcels in
2011, he applied to the Regional Museum. In general, museum professionals who are archaeologists,
excavate the land till they find the bedrock. In this case, nearly two meters deep, they found the ruins of a
vaulted structure which had good quality masonry work. Then they decided to excavate the whole three
parcels. Excavations lasted for eight months, ending with finding the three rows of seats of a masonry
structure.
Figure 9: Vaulted structure which has good quality masonry work.

After then, both Antalya Museum and Antalya Regional Council for the Conservation of Cultural Properties
decided that the masonry structure is probably the theatre of a Roman city and they are the first remains of
monumental works, in the excavation works carried out so far in Kaleiçi. For this reason the Council, decided
to expropriate the land.
The objection of the landowner to the Ministry of Culture resulted in a decision that allowed the
construction near the ruins while balancing conservation and usage.
DESIGN CRITERIA FOR NEW BUILDINGS

The main problem started from here, because the Conservation Plan suggests building a copy of late
Ottoman building style in order to homogenize the land. But the architect insisted on designing a modern
building to unhide the Roman theatre.
The architect examined the case in three contexts:

Determination of archaeological potential
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For the determination of archaeological potential, museum reports and measurements made in the field
were supplied as contemporary sources. In May 2012, dimensions and elevations of excavated finds were
taken by Total Station and were associated by each other, with the help of a professor of archaeology.
Figure 10: The site plan.
The museum reports document that the vaulted structure does not go beyond the excavated parcels, but
goes through the land under the big modern structure of a building belonging to the National Education
Directorate. It is also written in the reports that three row of seats go through the private parcels in the east
and north.
Consequently the areas to be conserved are determined. The remains of the vaulted structure and three
rows of masonry seats should be conserved in-situ without building a structure on them.
Investigation of urban pattern
In order to examine the urban pattern, occupancy-gap analysis, floor height analysis, grouping structure
analysis and construction system analysis were conducted by the architect.
Figure 11: Floor height analysis.
As a result, in the area the buildings are found to be located on side of the roads and the gardens are found
on the rear sides. All the buildings around are 2-2.5 storey high. The building belonging to the National
Education Directorate is 4 storeys and mass area is contrary to environmental data.
In the neighbourhood, the number of modern structures and traditional buildings are seen to be almost
equal. A large majority of traditional buildings retain their original characteristics. But there are very few new
compatible structures.
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Determining the value of the area

In order to determine the value of the area, land use analysis and commercial function analysis were made.
Together with the building of the parcel is determined to be used for commercial purposes. There are very
few residential areas. There are a number of accommodation facilities like pensions and boutique hotels.
PROPOSAL
The main function is chosen as accommodation. Although it is a private property, it is aimed that the whole
area can be visited.
Around the field there are late Ottoman dwellings and newly built concrete buildings. But the archaeological
finds belong to the Roman period. Clearly, the building systems and structures of the two periods are very
different.
Proposed new structures should respect but should not copy those two periods. It should bear the traces of
the past, while doing so should benefit modern construction systems and leverage contemporary comfort.
While formatting the mass, lean and cubic forms are used. The retaining wall that will be built along the
whole parcel boundary is used as a component of the main building. And those cubic forms have mounted
to this wall in different planes. These cubes at the same time refer to the projection of the traditional houses.
A sequence was created on the facades. Stoas in Ancient Greek architecture are taken as an example and
column repeats in stoas are used with timber in the cubes, each of which is an accommodation unit.
Figure 12: Concept layout.
The lower storey of the buildings is emptied in order to observe the ruins clearly. One can enter the area
from the west, visiting the vaulted structure, and then come to the small square which is used for exhibition
and social purposes as if in the Roman Period, then under the road to visit theatre seats and up through the
staircase without entering the hotel.
CONCLUSION
This proposal was rejected by the Antalya Regional Council for the Conservation of Cultural Properties in
August 2012. The main reason for rejecting the proposal was that the design does not fit the provisions of
the Conservation Plan.
So in September 2012, the architect designed a new structure in the northern parcel, fitting all the provisions
of the Plan and it was approved.
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Figure 13: Front facade of the approved project.
For the other two parcels, the architect didn’t get consent for a structure in front of the Roman ruins. So she
decided to propose to join the two parcels so that the building is possible behind the ruins. This proposal
has not been approved yet and still awaits approval from the Ministry of Culture.
Aboveground and underground architectural heritage have a reciprocal influence on one another. In such a
case, a quandary is faced; which period to conserve whereas the presence of each is a chance for the other.
Archaeological assets are non-renewable resources. However, especially in the urban areas, they are
evaluated as untouchable properties. This causes them to be forgotten and isolated, ending with
complications in conservation.
Instead of conserving with restrictive preventions, living space should be preferred, so that urban
consciousness develops spontaneously and naturally.
When properties aboveground come to sight, it limits the plan decisions and forces professionals to make
special designs. Basic plan decisions must be supported with designs including location specific details and
technical data as well.
In this instance, urban archaeology is a value enriching the urban life of the inhabitants. Furthermore, the
remains of the past make an original corner for cultural tourism referring to a rich history.
Using old and new together in the urban space, it will be better understood that historical centres and
traditional settlements integrate with the modern city and its environment.
In this manner, it is agreed that to preserve the past properly means to create the future properly.
REFERENCES
Başgelen, N., 2006. ‘Antalya, Kaleiçi with its monuments and history’, Tarihi Kentler, no. 15, pp. 122-127.
Bektaş, C., 2005. Antalya, Anadolu Evleri Dizisi-2, İstanbul.
Çimrin, H., 2012. Antalya Kent Kronolojisi, ATSO, Antalya.
Gül, M., 2006. ‘Antalya Kent Merkezi Kültür ve Turizm Gelişim Bölgesinde Yer Alan Sit Alanları Ve Bu Alanlarda
Antalya Büyükşehir Belediyesince Başlatılan Çalışmalara İlişkin Genel Bir Değerlendirme’, Planlama no. 4, pp.
121-145.
Sönmez, CC., 2009. Antalya Kenti Kalesi’nin Tarihi, Mimarlar Odası Antalya Şubesi, Antalya.
Yılmaz, L., 2002. Antalya (16. Yüzyılın Sonuna Kadar), Türk Tarih Kurumu, Antalya.
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(OTHER)CHITECTURE; BODY AS NEW SPATIAL SCALE FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF RESILIENT-URBAN-
SPACE AGAINST NEOLIBERAL URBAN POLICIES
Murat CETIN, Kadir Has University, Dept. of Architecture & Env. Design, Istanbul, Turkey,
murat.cetin0001@gmail.com
Abstract
The paper addresses the question of resilience through an ‘other’ type of architecture (of ‘others’). Here, the
notion of resilience is defined as life strategies developed by communities as well as critical interventions
that oppose government investments towards a re-configuring of the spatial economy to the benefit of a
specific section of society instead of all urban actors. In a political context of socio-economic segregation
and polarization rather than poverty alleviation, attempts of suppressed urban actors to address highly
specific developmental problems, to establish new relationships with a living planet, humility and, most
importantly, to establish a sense of respect through diversity is analysed from a spatial perspective.
The study attempts to show that architecture and urbanism can be considered as spatial dimensions of an
ideological war of different interest groups in cities. This struggle manifests itself as the polarisation between
corporate sector and public. Specific governments that use planning as a means of capitalist control over
urban (public) space contribute to such polarisation.
Having discussed the major protests (in world history) and their body-spatial dimensions from the
perspective of strategic game theories, the paper will address the issue of the “resilience of cities” in the
framework of public reaction to neo-liberal urban policies of government through manipulation of public
space via various guerrilla war tactics of (other) architecture; micro-urbanism in urban-leftovers, third spaces,
queer-spaces, reclamation of landfills, and ephemeral architecture particularly at body scale. This study is an
endeavour to reveal the underlying nature of “others’ architecture” with specific reference to public protests
for resistance against the ‘Taksim Pedestrianization Project 2013’ which includes conversion of a public
green park into a private shopping mall by demolishing Gezi Park next to Taksim Square in Istanbul. The
paper attempts to re-assess professional values, develop methods and techniques for professional
engagement and interrogates the ethics associated with architectural and design practice.
Keywords: urban policy, spatial strategy, architecture, micro-urbanism, public realm.
INTRODUCTION
The paper intends to show that architecture and urbanism can be considered as spatial dimensions of an
ideological war of different interest groups in cities. This battle manifests itself as the polarisation either
between rich and poor, or between powerful and weak, or between corporate sector and public whereby
government planning acts as a means of capitalist control over urban (public) space. This study intends to
unveil the underlying nature of “others’ architecture” with specific reference to public protests for resistance
against the conversion of a public green park into a private shopping mall by demolishing Gezi Park next to
Taksim Square in Istanbul.
The study will briefly discuss the major protests in world history in regard to their body-spatial dimensions
from the perspective of strategic game theories. In this context, the paper will address the issue of the
“resilience of cities” in the framework of public reaction to neo-liberal urban policies of government through
manipulation of public space via various guerrilla war tactics of (other)architecture; micro-urbanism in
urban-leftovers, third spaces, queer-spaces, reclamation of landfills, and ephemeral architecture particularly
at body scale.
SPACE AS A STRATEGY FOR RESILIENCE

Game theory is a study of strategic decision making. It is "the study of mathematical models of conflict and
cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers"(Myerson 1992, p. 69). Modern game theory
began with the idea regarding the existence of mixed-strategy equilibria in two-person zero-sum games and
its proof by John von Neumann (1928, 1959, p. 42). Today, however, game theory applies to a wide range of
behavioural relations, and has turned into a generic term for the logical side of all decision making related
activities including social issues as well as science. It was originally developed in the field of economics to
analyze a large collection of economic behaviours, including behaviours of firms, markets, and consumers.
The use of game theory in the social sciences has widened, being applied to political, sociological, and
psychological behaviours where there are various actors. Therefore, city and its transformation can be
considered within the game theory. Here, game theory and game-ends will constitute key components in
the emergence of resistance at different scales of urban space that is essential for the argument of this
paper, since it builds the foundations for the tactics of public resistance against those in power and
unethical professionals.
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The use of game theory started with analysing and formulating how human populations behave. The
rationale behind these studies appears to be the scholars’ belief that by finding the equilibria of games, how
actual human populations behave when confronted with situations analogous to the game being studied,
could easily be predicted. However, this particular comprehension of game theory has been criticized
because the assumptions made by game theorists that players always act in a specific way to directly
maximize their wins (the Homo economicus model), is easily refuted mainly because, in practice, human
behaviour often deviates from this assumption due to various explanations such as; irrationality, new
models of deliberation, or sometimes different motives (like that of altruism). Although the assumptions of
some game theorists help to conceive their own theory as a reasonable scientific ideal akin to the models
used by physicists, it is observed that people regularly do not play equilibrium strategies (Colin 2003, p. 21).
Moreover, some scholars claim that Nash equilibria could not provide predictions for human populations.
Therefore, in order to resolve these issues, some game theorists have focused on evolutionary game theory
models of which it is presumed either no rationality or bounded rationality on the part of players. Contrary
to its name, evolutionary game theory includes both biological as well as cultural evolution and also models
of individual learning instead of presuming natural selection in the biological sense.
Evolutionary game theory studies games with an arbitrary number of players (Luce & Raiffa 1957, p. 12), that
is to say, involving a certain number of decision makers, where the frequency with which a particular
decision is made can change over time in relation to the decisions made by all individuals in the population.
For instance, in biology, this is intended to postulate (biological) evolution, where genetically programmed
organisms pass some of their strategy programming to their offspring. In economics, the same theory is
intended to formulate population changes because people play the game many times within their lifetime,
and deliberately keep changing their strategies (Webb 2007, p. 46). In urban studies too, urban models are
so complicated that all decisions are somehow influenced by the decisions of the others. Therefore,
modernist and orthodox planning have significantly failed to understand (let alone control and manage)
cities. Eventually, neo-liberal policies discovered the methods of exerting control over the organism of the
city by enlarging the proportions of selected (but limited) actors in the city. Thus, people who had the power
and sources to determine the decision making mechanisms of the city found the chance to control the city.
However, as an organism, the city seems to have immediately developed its counter strategies. The city and
its other (not-selected-but-large-in-number) actors have developed ways to respond to this manipulation.
It is then important to ask the question of how space becomes a means for a strategy of urban resilience. The
space is a major asset in all games regarding the city. This is valid not only in terms of real-estate value but
also in terms of symbolic representation. In this context, while the powerful actors concentrate on
accumulating the largest amount of urban space possible, the public as the main but less powerful actors
reclaims their city-rights by infiltrating into undefined spaces in-between, by altering (and somehow
deconstructing) the coherence of the spatial configuration devised by the powerful and its operation within
the unity of the city.
While neo-liberal policies have chosen ‘bigness’ as a strategy to direct the growth of the urban realm,
counter-strategies have devised a ‘micro-spatial scale’ as the medium of resilience and struggle within neo-
liberal instruments of urban domination.
Figure 1: Strategy, space and resilience (Source:

http://31.media.tumblr.com/517619ccfffebd3a44dc195a3509f1b2/tumblr_mqpp7nk9on1sv2nido1_500.jpg -
L.A.: 02.03.2014)
At this point, the question is whether it is possible to resist against sophisticated and pre-calculated game
strategies and tactics of powerful and organized actors at an urban scale by micro-spatial manoeuvres,
particularly at body scale. Here, the ultimate question and dilemma of pawn fighting against the king in a
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chess game comes into mind. As we all know, chess is a game based not only on space, geometry and
strategy, but also skill in probability calculations (Figure 1). There are many actors in this game; queen,
knight, bishop, rook and pawn with different movement types and rules, thus different strengths and
impacts. It is a game that whoever is able, not only to control the area of 64 squares from various directions
and different angles, but also to concentrate his/her own strategic actors in the centre of this area will
eventually win (Hooper and Whyld 1992, p. 32). Rules, gentlemanship, time, patience, wisdom, flexibility,
consistency and resistance can be named among the virtues in a game set on the foundations of space and
strategy.
Doubtlessly, the possibility of a pawn which has limited movement and manoeuvrable capacity to check the
King who has the ultimate power and to beat it is not among the wildest options, yet it is not totally
impossible (Nunn 1995, p. 13) and this is what makes this probability valuable and meaningful; its
emergence in the last minute where all hopes had almost ended.
This small possibility relies, to a large extent, on the end-of-game strategies (Müller & Lamprecht 2001, 12-
16). One (or sometimes two) pawn(s) can push the check-mate in various positions, the majority of which
have been defined by A. A. Troitzky (1937). When the examples in literature are examined, it is observed that
the pawns of the defending side, in the case where they are either along or behind what is called the
"Troitzky line", can push the check-mate (even winning could take up to 115 movements) (Wikipedia, two
knights endgame).
According to chess theorists, the main reason for the fact that the check-mate can be pushed is that the
defending side has to move its pawn at least once in every move (Dvoretsky 2006, p. 23). It is stated that first,
preventing the movement of pawn or the king by knight may shorten the path leading to check-mate and
then checking via the night that stops the pawn would complete the mate (Seirawan 2003, p. 36). In other
words, the positions of the weak pieces in reference both to the strong pieces and to the crucial point in the
spatial field of the chess game would bring victory at the end of the game.
Urban space, too, is a space over which complex games (at least as complex as the chess game) are played
by various actors in the city. What is important here is who plays the game on behalf of the public, who plays
the pieces, how and why, as much as who sets the rules.
Despite the fact that the (political and material) powers (in influencing or manipulating the distribution of
urban space) of these various actors as well as their legislative framework which defines their ability for
movement are the determining factors in this complex and difficult game performed in (public) space, it has
been recurrently seen that the spatio-politic strategies that are to be deployed are of vital significance in
resisting the enemy, and thus, winning the game. Neo-liberal urbanization policies, macro-plan decisions
(both as their means and products), choices of locations for infrastructural and social paraphernalia,
economic incentives, zoning and density decisions, and other similar technocratic and bureaucratic
instruments, have long spread from global to regional scales, from urban to architectural scales, and thus,
have not only started to oppress eventually at body scale but also to change the distribution of public space
in benefit of the powerful. Hence, the scale of resistance to the (local as well as global) power and to its
spatial policies, seems to have dropped down to body scale in order to be able to reclaim the natural rights
from the public space particularly in an era (as well as social and cultural geography) in which conventional
forms of opposition have already become ineffective.
Therefore, the only way to win this game for the urban actors (whose powerful chess pieces are taken away
and forced to play only with their pawns), which are put in the position of a constantly defeated chess player
against a super computer with extraordinary computing capacity for endless strategic probabilities, appear
to be a resistance at the scale of body (i.e., of a pawn).
SPATIAL FORMS OF RESILIENCE AND BODY SPATIAL SCALE

Foucault’s notion of spatiality (Tally 2011) and spatial analysis of power and knowledge in modern social
formations, which Tally refers as his cartographics (Tally 2013), plays an important role in understanding the
ways in which spatiality not only emerges but also continues to exert its subtle, yet pervasive, force in social
dynamics (Tally 2011a). Foucault defines Bentham’s panopticon prison model as a device of spatial control
that was set over the convicts by the authority (Foucault 1975). Koskela’s (2003, p. 292) term ‘urban
panopticon’ draws our attention to how urban planning helps the purposes of surveillance (thus control)
particularly with the assistance of technology. From a historical perspective, Napoleon III’s comprehensive
urban-spatial transformation realized via Hausmann’s intervention against strong public resistance at the
end of the 19th century with his political-military intentions epitomizes the spatial dimension (Dovey 2010)
of the resistance of the public against power within the relation between government and opposition.
Today, one of the best examples of architecture and urbanism clearly being used as a weapon against ethnic
minorities is Israel’s policy on public-works, housing and urbanization in Palestine. The incomprehensible
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dimensions and techniques of these strategies have been unveiled by Graham (2011) and Weizman (2007),
showing all its ugliness. Thus, it is clear that space holds a very essential position between the individual and
authority. Therefore, within this game, architecture can assume various roles ranging from advocate of
public to dirty roles extending from gentrification to ethnic cleansing. As mentioned above, the scale of
resistance to neo-liberal urban policies (Yirtici 2009) to which the disciplines of architecture and urban
planning have almost yielded has shifted from architectural and urban space to body-space.
These pressures and reactions (as can be seen in occupy movements all over the world) have been recurring
in many locations for a very long time within the last century. Concepts like queer spaces (Betsky 1997), third
space (Bhabha 1990), and phenomena such as micro-urbanism (Madanipour 1996) have already emerged as
counter-spatial tactics against such orthodox macro-planning approaches in the last few decades. The
ephemeral, light, sustainable, public character is not a coincidence; neither their spatial scale which is the
scale of body-space. Having considered the fact what is societal has been constructed and fictionalized over
the notion of ‘body’ especially along with Modernity (Judovitz 2001, p. 9), it should not be a surprise that its
criticism and rebellion is being performed over ‘body’.
We can see this shift of scale in the bodies of; the protester resisting to tanks in Tiananmen Square, the
protesters in Tahrir Square (particularly in sub-spaces formed by their bodies in tents or in front of military
vehicles), people resisting water cannons in Gezi Park protests in May and June 2013, as well as in the body
of the ‘standing man’ whose protest performance emerged as a new, silent, peaceful and a very scary form
of resistance against government forces after they violently pushed the protestors out of the Gezi Park
(Figure 2). On the first day of Gezi protests against ‘Taksim Pedestrianization Project 2013’, the use of their
legal ‘parliamentary immunity’ by a few members via physically putting their ‘bodies’ in front of government
forces, construction vehicles and police vehicles to stop the attacks, epitomizes the public reaction given at
a body scale to the authoritarian imposition through architecture at urban scale.
Figure 2: Urban-spatial macro strategies and body-spatial micro resistance

(Source: http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/china060412/t01_90605094.jpg -
http://900poundgorilla.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/egypt-protests-tahrir-square.jpg -
http://rt.com/files/news/1f/47/20/00/03.jpg -
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/images/news/201306/n_48999_4.jpg - L.A.: 02.03.2014)
THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC REALM AGAINST NEO-LIBERAL URBANIZATION POLICIES

Today, urban planning and architecture could and should be perceived as a medium of struggle to be given
in the physical space and at the body-scale. Architecture can evolve from a macro-scale, practical,
professional field which serves a city that can be planned by a single hand at a single time into a micro-scale
epistemological field which presents the spatial tools of an organic city that grows in a piecemeal manner. In
Turkey, the recent law regulating ‘urban transformation’ authorizes the Central Administration of Mass
Housing (TOKI), which is directly related to the office of Prime Minister, thus putting the government as the
only actor in the transformation of city by fully uniting the processes of land allocation, planning, financing,
and contracting in one hand. No matter how much the public have been inactivated by these central
mechanisms in determining its own position in urban space, the public’s request to reclaim their urban
rights starts to occur over space yet at a totally different scale, that is to say; body.
Thoreau (1849, 2013) asserts that the strategies of political regimes to create a military workforce and
citizens that can be controlled starts in the monasteries and schools and extends to boy scouts, sports
teams, factory, prison, military and eventually to public daily life (Bröckling 1997). Discipline as a practice of
establishing authority exerts constant and systematic pressure on ‘body’. Today, this pressure seems to have
reached to the level of controlling individuals (in addition to masses) in public urban spaces. The
discrepancy between powerful and weak causes an increase in disobedience, particularly in a field where the
powerful cannot infiltrate (Thoreau 1849, 2013, p. 22). The tactical dimension connects the strategic games
and the disobedience.
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Like Foucault, De Certeau (1984, p. 31) calls the operation of the sovereignty ground backed up by the
notions of property ownership and space, as strategy, while calling the totality of all the counter manoeuvres
within ‘authority’s field of vision’, as tactics. Therefore, he defends that the spacelessness embodied in the
disobedience may provide mobility. Considering that there is also an area outside the ‘authority’s field of
vision’, the virtual ramifications of Gezi Park, common consciousness of the public reminds us of the mind (as
an external medium outside the spatial field of the game) which moves the chess pieces along and beyond
the Troitzky line. De Certeau says that ‘tactics is the art of poor and the weak’. Gezi Park protests show that
spacelessness and tacticality were the essential weapons of the urban actors whose power and mechanisms
of participation in urban decisions had been removed against the architecture and planning which
unfortunately became the technical weapons for neo-liberal policies. It would not be wrong to suggest that
while the proposed renovation of barracks is a spatial manifestation of discipline and strategy, the
dynamism, fluidity and lightness in the ephemeral formations of Gezi Park resistance appears as a
representation of the spacelessness of civil disobedience and its tactical nature.
THE EMERGENT PHENOMENON OF RESIST SPACE IN GEZI PARK

Gezi Park protests against ‘Taksim Pedestrianization Project 2013’ can be considered as a ‘social resistance
struggle that is conducted over public space’. This process has proved that space is an instrument of resilience
through accommodating multiple identities in a single space on the one hand, and spreading the identity of
‘disobedience’ in multiple spaces on the other. During this process, how the complex rhizomatic structure of
the public space (particularly with the contribution of technology) was transformed onto a strategic
dimension from the simple scale of ‘body’ itself is clearly observed. It is understood, at the end of these
protests against the idea of building a mall instead of an urban park, that society which was formerly
assumed to have been wrapped up with virtual spaces, or with closed spaces (such as artificial-sterile
environments of shopping malls) has been saturated enough; and consequently, they decided to reclaim
the ‘urban rights’ not only for themselves but for all segments of the society by going back to the urban
space, to the urban park which is probably more needed by those who were previously marginalized. It can
easily be inferred that the relationship of the citizens who first, organized cultural events to keep their urban
spaces, and later, under pressure and police violence, managed to establish an alternative ideal of micro-
living and social order reminiscent of the Paris Commune, is very threatening for the existing corrupt system
in the form of the authoritarian government. Therefore, these citizens were violently attacked. This was
probably the first riot which started over a specific public space and architecture. Thus, the reaction to the
anomalous appropriation of a public space by private entities as a result of neo-liberal urban policies has
expressed its resilience again via spatial instruments. This phenomena can be called ‘resist-space’.
In this context, Gezi Park resistance has followed a path that can be described as ‘spatial’ at every stage
along the way. Reclamation and physical invasion of the park space as well as its physical transformation
(through tents and other lightweight structures) have later ended up with the invasion of police forces and
the re-transformation of the park with the gardening efforts of the municipality. Besides, the organization of
an alternative grand political meeting by the government in an alternative urban space during the time of
protests shows the degrre of spatiality of this resistance. The rhizomatic nature of the Gezi Park, due to the
movements of human body dynamics in this new and self-organizing space with ever-increasing tents on a
daily basis, has been the messenger of a new flexible and ephemeral urban-spatial phenomenon.
When considered from the perspective of power-space relationships, it can be projected that the dominance
of the authority over the park space via conventional means and methods cannot be permanent; and urban
space will be transformed into public realm again by means of contemporary devices and networks. All of
these are indicators of the fact that resist-space is an essential aspect of a strategy game (like the chess
game) and can be organized over ‘body’ without the need (like the pawns over the line of Troitzky) for
conventional aspects of architecture. When the relationships of bodies not only to the urban networks (i.e.
physical spatial configuration of the city and transportation networks) in which they take place, but also to
virtual networks (i.e. specifically social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter that played a major
role and caused government recently to introduce internet censorship) as well as to technologies (i.e.
smartphones that interact with the virtual networks), the urban public space reminds us of the chess board
while the urban actors (whose powers are taken away by force) reminds us of the pawns playing against the
King.
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CONCLUSION: OTHER-CHITECTURE AT BODY SCALE
Within the framework of the notion of spatiality and urban ethics in relation to power relationships within
urban space, resistance at different scales and the leaps among these scales play crucial roles in negotiating
city rights among different parties in the public realm. Games and spatial tactics deployed towards such
negotiations are a significant means to understand the processes of resistance in urban spaces.
As mentioned at the very beginning, a force that consists of one (or sometimes two) pawn(s) can push the
check-mate in various positions, and it depends on whether the pawns of the defending side are either
along or behind what is called "Troitzky line"; and the reason that the check-mate can be pushed is that the
defending side has to move its pawn at least once in every move. Moreover, preventing the movement of
pawn or the king by knight may shorten the path leading to check-mate and then checking via the knight
that stops the pawn would complete the mate. Consequently, the positions of the weak pieces in reference
both to the strong pieces and to the crucial point in the spatial field of the chess game would bring victory at
the end of the game. The sources on ‘end of chess games’ show that the success in these exceptional cases
largely depends not only on consistency and persistence, but also on the relationship of the pawn with
other pieces as well as the strategic (such as Troitzky line), geo-metric, and spatial constructs within the 64
square space.
Like the Gezi Protests in Istanbul against ‘Taksim Pedestrianization Project 2013’, in many examples of
resistance from history, as given above, it is observed that individuals (like pawns in chess) whose
movements are restricted usually locate themselves strategically, can threaten the government (the King in
chess) through a spatial resistance, by establishing relations with other individuals outside (like pawns along
Troitzky line), through technological means in a virtual environment (e.g. Twitter, Facebook etc.). These
games still continue all over the world; Turkey, Venezuela, Ukraine etc. This game was cleverly played by the
pawns in Gezi Park against fully armed and equipped police forces and secret intelligence networks. When
one of the last pawns was taken, another pawn, ‘standing man’, made another move, with his own body in
the middle of Taksim Square. His effort spreads all over the city and the country with protests in different
forms such as people playing their pots and pans from their windows. It seems that spatial resistance at
body scale continues with the pieces along the Troitzky line (Figure 3).
Figure 3: End games with weak pieces in chess and surprizing results
(http://stevejohnson.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v63/p1389369934-3.jpg -
http://www.frankswebspace.org.uk/chess/kingAndPawnvPawnMate_files/image001.jpg)
One can think of many strategic games based on space. When looking at neo-liberal urban policies and their
relevant spatial strategies, monopoly stands out as the most commonly played strategic game of an era. It is
a game based on monetary equivalent of spaces and purchase of more space to dominate the game. The
governors of our time seem to have been influenced by Monopoly. However, one should remember the fact
that the youth called ‘Y generation’ have mastered electronic strategy games much more than the
generation confident about their chess skills.
What is important here, as argued above, is who plays the spatial game on behalf of the public, how and
why pieces are moved on the game board. The Gezi Park protests, like many others simultaneously
occurring around the globe, shows that when public authorities make a mistake and exert their forces on
the public, they take over the game even if their valuable and influential pieces are taken away and continue
playing with their pawns against the king; and as a matter of fact, they play very well using contemporary
tools and networks.
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REFERENCES
Betsky, A., 1997. Queer space: Architecture and same-sex desire, William Morrow & Co., New York.
Bhabha, H., 1990. Identity: Community, culture, difference, Lawrence and Wishart, London.
Bröckling, U., 1997. Disziplin, sociologie und geschichte militarischer gehorsamsproduktion, Wilhem Fink,
Munich.
Colin F. C., 2003. Behavioral game theory: Experiments in strategic interaction, Russell Sage Foundation, NY,
pp. 1–25.
De Certeau, M., 1984. The practice of everyday life, trans. S. Rendall, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Dovey, K ., 2008. Framing places: Mediating power in built form, Routledge, London.
Dovey, K., 2010. Becoming places: Urbanism / Architecture / Identity / Power, Routledge, London.
Dvoretsky, M., 2006. Dvoretsky's endgame manual, Russell Enterprises, Milford.
Fine, R., 1941. Basic end games in chess, McKay, NY.
Foucault, M., 1975. Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison, Random House, New York.
Graham, S., 2011. Cities under siege, New Military Urbanism, Verso, NY.
Hooper, D & Whyld, K., 1992. Oxford companion for chess, Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Judovitz, D., 2001. The culture of the body: Geneologies of modernity, University of Michigan Press, Michigan.
Koskela, H., 2003. ‘‘Cam Era’ – the contemporary urban Panopticon’, Surveillance & Society, vol. 1, no. 3, pp.
292-313.
Luce, RD & Raiffa, H., 1957. Games and decisions: introduction and critical survey, Wiley, New York.
Madanipour, A., 1996. Design of urban space: An inquiry into a socio-spatial process, John Wiley & Son Ltd.,
London.
Müller, K & Lamprecht, F., 2001. Basic end games in chess, Gambit Publications, London.
Myerson, R., 1992. ‘On the Value of Game Theory in Social Science’, Rationality and Society 4, pp. 62-73.
Nunn, J., 1992. Secrets of rook endings, Gambit Publications, London.
Roger B. M., 1991. Game theory: Analysis of conflict, Harvard University Press, Camb. Mass., p.1.
Seirawan, Y., 2003. Winning chess endings, Everyman Chess, London.
Tally, RT., 2011. Geocritical explorations: Space, place, and mapping in literary and cultural studies, Palgrave
Macmillan, New York.
Tally, RT., 2011a, ‘This Space that Gnaws and Claws at Us. Foucault, Cartographics, and Geocriticism’,
Épistémocritique, Littérature et Savoirs 9.
Tally, RT., 2013. Spatiality; The new critical idiom, Routledge, Abingdon.
Thoreau, HD., 2013 (1849). Civil disobedience, Cricket House Books, Madison.
Troitzky, A., 2006 (1937). Collection of chess studies, Ishi Press, Tokyo.
Von Neumann, J., 1959 (1928). ‘On the Theory of Games of Strategy’, in AW Tucker and RD Luce
(eds), Contributions to the Theory of Games, vol. 4, Princeton University Press, NJ., p. 42.
Webb, JN., 2007. Game theory: decisions, interaction and evolution, Springer, New York.
Weizman, E., 2007. Hollow land: Israel's architecture of occupation, Verso, New York.
Yırtıcı, H., 2009. Çağdaş kapitalizmin mekansal Örgütlenmesi (Spatial organization of contemporary capitalizm),
Bilgi University Press, Istanbul.
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THE STOWAWAYS: DWELLING OTHERWHERE
Nicholas Coetzer, University of Cape Town,South Africa, nic.coetzer@uct.ac.za
Dave Southwood, Photographer,Cape Town, South Africa, hello@davesouthwood.com
Abstract
In 1935 the South African Railways and Harbours began to build the Duncan Docks pushing the ‘shoreline’ of
Cape Town nearly a kilometre back into Table Bay. The resulting ‘Foreshore’ accrued a palimpsest of urban
designs – each building on the previous – with traffic flow and the ambition for a monumental civic axis the
key recurring ideas. The result, ‘concluded’ in the 1970s, is the elevated and ‘lost’ highways effectively
cutting the city off from the very water’s edge and the idea of a maritime ‘gateway to Africa’ that had been a
key initiating trope in the early ambitions for the urban designs. The unintended consequences of the
engineered technocratic elevated highways can be termed ‘the shadow of design’.
Today, the Stowaways sit day-long marooned on an island between bridges dreaming of the ships that pass,
so close but separated by a river of traffic and an impassable barrier. From the safety of the river bank they
plan new routes and passages, new escapes to strange lands across the seas, or back to Tanzania to start the
trip again. Just beneath them, beneath the meniscus of made up earth, lies the surface of the sea that they
dream of, the smooth space of Deleuzian nomads. Theirs is a place of dwelling otherwhere.
Through a juxtaposition of text and Dave Southwood’s narratives and photographs, this paper seeks to test
the limits of Heidegger’s notion of ‘dwelling’ as evidenced through the inhabitation of the places in and
around the Foreshore bridges – the Stowaways, by dwelling otherwhere, are found to be exemplary subjects
of Heidegger’s Building Dwelling Thinking. Further interpretations of Heidegger’s ideas of bridge and
dwelling puts the Stowaways not only in the shadow of design but also as architecture’s other – a returning
ghost at the heart of the originating ambitions of the Foreshore design.
Keywords: Heidegger, dwelling, bridge, Cape Town Foreshore, Stowaways, shadow of design, haunting.
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NARRATIVE 1: THE PHOTOGRAPHER
One scorching Saturday I parked my car near the foreshore underpasses and picked my way across thigh-high,
inhumane barriers, dodging absent- minded weekend commuters to the looming underbelly of National Road
One.
During the months preceding the Saturday the figures living below the highways, and ambushed between the
palms in the triangles of no-mans’ land which chamfers the hard civil engineering, had accumulated in the
corners of my eye and I’d decided to meet them.
I clambered up an approach to a rim of the sump slung between the highways and unexpectedly reared up above
the place, which I had been observing from my speeding car at street level. The acrid smelling burnt plastic,
unremitting high sun, the guarantee of language misinterpreted and general trepidation at approaching a group
of hardened bridge-dwellers fused sharply to give the impression of a thousand cicadas screaming.
My anxious conception of this place, which I had been watching from a car for some weeks, now tightened
around a man washing himself with a crooked elbow beneath a tree some 20 metres below.
It takes a while for the eyes to adjust from the deep shadows cast by tons of concrete to intense white daylight. To
my surprise there are at least 25 men dotted about: wedged into apexes, gambling intently at the foot of
blackened plinths, collapsed under battling trees, waiting it out. Intimidated by my own aspect, I leave.
It becomes apparent to me that on weekdays this sump is denuded of people. They must have work. The following
Monday I pick my way across a more intent fusillade of sealed cars to this amphitheatre. This time my descent is
easier.
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The bridge swings over the stream “with ease and power.” It does not just connect banks that are already
there. The banks emerge as banks only as the bridge crosses the stream... The bridge gathers the earth as
landscape around the stream.
Martin Heidegger, Building Dwelling Thinking
Heidegger’s bridge hangs large over our architectural psyche. Indeed, his often-used Building Dwelling
Thinking helps bring focus to a locale in Cape Town’s Foreshore area, a place bounded by bridges and rivers
of traffic. We use the word place deliberately, as Heidegger does (Sharr 2007, p. 51), to signify not just the
clearing of space but the articulation of space, a palpable thickening of something – into something
intelligible. Heidegger (2011, p. 249) notes: ‘the bridge does not first come to a locale to stand in it; rather, a
locale comes into existence only by virtue of the bridge.’ The place we are interested in (Figure 1) is an
architectural accident, a leftover space as a consequence of other intentions. It is an island, the indivisible
remainder of the vectors of a traffic engineering scheme and its 80km/h curving embankments and
abandoned bridges. In the shadow of this design (Coetzer 2013), in the spaces left over in planning (Coetzer
2014), are signs of inhabitation.
Figure 1: Cape Town’s Castle, the Foreshore, the place of the Stowaways and Duncan Dock
And of dwelling.
For Heidegger, dwelling allows the fullness of what it means to be human to emerge. To dwell is not just to
be at peace with the world and to have shelter and comfort; it is to bring an intensifying mindfulness to
existence. It is through building that the earth can be made more earthy and the sky with the season’s
storms and weather it brings can be intensified – and, by extension, the sky then becomes the heavens
bringing meaning to what it means to be mortal. In more esoteric terms, Heidegger refers to this heightened
presence of earth, sky, the divine and mortals as ‘the fourfold’ (2011, p. 246-7). Buildings as strangely familiar
things – here as bridges in the windswept place of the Foreshore – have the potential to bring the place and
hence the fourfold into sharper focus. In Heidegger’s formula, the right kind of building (as verb and noun)
begets dwelling which begets thinking.
But how can this hostile place, between highways and broken bridges, be a place of dwelling?
If we follow Norberg-Schulz (1980, p. 189) who offers the clearest architectural interpretation of Heidegger, it
clearly falls short like other ‘place[s] of today.’ It has none of the essential ‘protective’ characteristics that
Norberg-Schulz (1980, p. 14) as a pre-modern nostalgist assigns to dwelling and to pre-modern cities. It is, in
essence, a terrain vague (De Sola Morales 1996). Indeed, the place between the highways and broken bridges
seems to fall outside architects’ ready-made ideas about what it is to live ‘correctly,’ to be ‘housed’ correctly,
to make a city ‘correctly.’ Surprising then, that this is a place of inhabitation for the ‘community’ known as the
Stowaways. Here it seems to carry all the signs of dwelling. It is a place of territory, of arranged repeated
events, of the world re-formed to the human being being. Here a seat and here a fireplace. There are signs of
dwelling, of inhabitants building the site to their everyday needs. But at the more mystical Heideggerian
level, the strangely powerful place between the embankments invites heavenly contemplation, of bringing
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the sky down to earth or lifting the earth up to the sky. And yet, this dwelling place of homeless people
seems to lack a key attribute of dwelling and that is to be at peace, to be at one with the world, as Heidegger
notes (2011, p. 246), to be ‘spared’ ‘from harm and danger’. How can such a place encourage the fullness of
what it means to be a human to emerge? How does this place shift from ‘mere’ inhabitation to dwelling?
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NARRATIVE 2: UNDER THE BRIDGE
A strange atmosphere lingers under the bridge. Technically I am in someone’s home, but the domestic interior is
ultra-public due to the roaring periphery of commuters, trucks and Kawasaki which streams incessantly and hems
this stage in.
At its most refined the earth under the bridges is as fine as silt, silky and inviting. At its coarse end the earth is
cannon ball sized and very impractical. A misty grey light, which I have not encountered before, wraps everything
gently under the highways. The thought strikes me that perhaps there is lead suspended in the air. The vast plinths
seem to suck in heat, or emit coolth. The blackened, grey swathes from countless fires which spring from the gap
between the earth and concrete suck in light. The scene is cast in a permanent saturnine evening.
Boot prints, bottle tops, a sabre-tooth shard of metal featuring a handle made from wound-up plastic, the
remains of an official travel document, the lower mandible of a cow, a half-submerged white packet flagging the
spot. So this is what it feels like to be a Mars probe.
I come across what must be a bed and begin to read the scrawled notes at its foot, which supports a highway.
All of a sudden I realise that a ghostly armada of ships adorns these columns. I can see inside the ships.
Stowaways!
God bless da sea
Rashidi mwanza to sea
neva afrika again
Professor ngaribo Mzala i like ship no like pussy Sea never dry
Opportunity never come twise
Escape from cape
Manigar swahili
don’t sleep too much
Sex man chateka, from vingweta
Hope to disappear
“To Cry isn’t solution. You can cry till jesus will come back
Bater to get ship.
Faster.
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PLANNING CAPE TOWN’S FORESHORE
This place, at Cape Town’s Foreshore under the bridges and embankments of the unfinished elevated
highways and home to the Stowaways, is more complicated than our rudimentary findings of dwelling
seems to suggest. Beyond the elementary signs of inhabitation and the Heideggerian architectural power of
the place the dwelling that exists here – dwelling as intensified human experience and contemplation –
does so by resurrecting the faded lines drawn by architects and planners and their unrealised plans for the
Foreshore begun some 80 years ago. The Stowaways dwell otherwhere, on the ocean, in history and in the
future, their presence at the site surfaces those lines – the ghosted palimpsest places – drawn into this
terrain through layer and layer of failed and mutated architectural masterplans. In our search for dwelling
otherwhere we must change tack and tone and recall the original plans made for this place and its sad,
accidental, history that found these Stowaways marooned on an island cut off from the ocean.
Today, it seems impossible to fathom how the city of Cape Town managed to so severely sever itself from
the Atlantic Ocean that crashes its way around the coast at the Cape of Storms. But the location of Cape
Town’s railway station and the railway lines leading on to the harbour had long disconnected the city centre
– and in particular the City Hall and the Grand Parade – from the shoreline since the mid 1800s. The building
of the Duncan Docks in 1935 pushed the ‘shoreline’ nearly a kilometre back into Table Bay. The resulting
tabula-rasa reclaimed land of the Foreshore prompted competing visionary plans as set by the City of Cape
Town and their French planner Eugène Beaudouin (1940) battling with the South African Railways and
Harbours team, made up of University of Cape Town’s Professor Leonard Thornton White and the town
planner Francis Longstreth Thompson (Botha 2013, p. 37). Both teams struggled to resolve key issues such as
the barrier of the railway lines, the increase in vehicular traffic and the desire for a ‘Monumental Approach’
that would connect the civic heart of the city to a new maritime ‘Gateway to South Africa’ (Figure 2) that the
Duncan Dock permitted (Botha 2013, p. 47). In Beaudouin’s scheme (Figure 3) the ‘Monumental Approach’
also set up a perpendicular axis of a grand east-west ‘Park Avenue’ cutting through the working class areas
of District Six and Woodstock. Ultimately, the Joint Technical Committee resolved the different directions of
the schemes into what became known as the 1947 Plan which established Cape Town’s current raised
station platform as the ‘solution’ to the intransigent railway lines and solidified the Eastern Boulevard
(recently renamed Nelson Mandela Boulevard) as an essential component of all future schemes (Botha 2013,
p. 65).
The Metropolis of Tomorrow report of 1951 shows the hand of the City Engineer Solomon Morris in
developing a ring road (Figure 4) that was imagined as a solution to the traffic congestion seen to hinder the
city’s development. This ring road exists as a loop around the city today. But more importantly, Morris’s
scheme shows the absence of the maritime Gateway as entrance into the city, indicating a shift in priorities
of the newly elected Nationalist government away from investment in Cape Town and maritime travel
(Botha 2013, p. 76). But if the Gateway began to disappear, the problematic railway lines insistently
remained. Two key industrial structures at the west end of the historical city, namely the Imperial Cold
Storage warehouse and the Power Station, demanded continued rail use (Botha 2013, p. 67).
In the late 1950s, the Provincial Administrator had directives from the Western Exit Technical Committee to
raise the ring road around the foreshore connecting to the Eastern Boulevard thereby avoiding level
crossings around the railway lines at the Power Station and Cold Storage (Botha 2013, p. 123) – a decision
made easier by ‘best practice’ examples in America (Botha 2013, p. 104) and the need to elevate the Eastern
Boulevard over the passenger and goods train lines. The extravagant costs for this project were to be
overcome through a three-phase construction period the incomplete nature of the last of these phases – the
cut off bridges – hanging tellingly and expectantly in space today as the ‘unfinished highways’.
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Figure 2: ‘The Gateway’, Annual Report of the City Engineer, 1941.
Figure 3: Eugène Beaudouin’s scheme for Cape Town, 1940.
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Figure 4: Solomon Morris, The Metropolis of tomorrow.

And so, by raising the ring road up over the Foreshore, the intransigence of a cold-storage warehouse and a
power station bring us conveniently back to Heidegger and his bridge. Heidegger (2011, p. 249) says: ‘The
bridge is a thing and only that. Only? As this thing it gathers the fourfold.’ The bridge not only makes a place
come into being but allows ‘being’ to gain intensity, to become articulate. It is easy to understand what
Heidegger is saying here (2011, p. 248) because he is talking about a ‘quaint’ bridge, probably the pedestrian
bridge at his university town of Freiburg.
Resting upright in the stream’s bed, the bridge-piers bear the swing of the arches that leave the
stream’s waters to run their course... Even where the bridge covers the stream, it holds its flow up to
the sky by taking it for a moment under the vaulted gateway and then setting it free once more. The
bridge lets the stream run its course and at the same time grants mortals their way, so that they may
come and go from shore to shore.
Heidegger’s bridge brings what it is to be human into clear focus for those who are willing to pause on their
walk across the bridge and to peer at the rush of water below and to see the sky and themselves reflected in
it; the earth and sky, mortal and divine are brought into being by that one thing. It seems strange to give
Cape Town’s elevated highways, springing as they do across the terrain vague of windswept parking lots and
‘inbetweeness’ the same power – the rush of traffic that they carry hardly offers quiet ruminative
contemplation. And yet...
The Foreshore bridges insist, with each plunging pylon, with each stiff line vaulting to the next, they insist on
the presence of the ocean underneath the surface, on the ghostly wash of waves across the once sandy
beaches of Table Bay before Duncan Dock pushed the water away. As they hit the surface with the bridge
belly hovering above, the pylons plunging into the landfill of the Foreshore pulls the ocean up from below, a
meniscus of expectation drawn to the surface of a dead land. With each plunge the pylons resurrect the
abandoned Gateway to South Africa, a place of embarkation and disembarkation, of a legitimate dwelling
otherwhere.
For those that are willing to look, there are signs of the ocean drawn across the embankments and bridges; a
folklore of the Stowaways written onto this dead land. Drawn sections of boats describe a life below decks,
hiding places for Stowaways. This is the real dwelling place for the Stowaways, of dwelling otherwhere – to
be at sea. As they sit literally in the shadow of design, marooned on an island dreaming of the ships that pass
so close but separated by a river of traffic and a seemingly impassable palisade barrier, the Stowaways wait
to steal aboard. From the safety of the river bank they plan new adventures and passages through the
loopholes in the global maritime and refugee systems, new escapes to strange lands across the high seas
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with a guaranteed return ticket (Msane 2014). It is not ironic then, that the land on which they wait is really
the smooth space (Deleuze and Guattari 2005) of the ocean called into being by the bridges under which
they find shelter. For the Stowaways are quintessential Deleuzian nomads, outside of the logic of capitalism
yet using its energy as a line of flight, surfing ships across global trade routes. Rather than being a dwelling
place, as hinted at in the signs of inhabitation that started this paper, the place of the Stowaways under and
between the bridge is a place of dwelling. The leftover places of the Foreshore bridges, by a faithful reading
of Heidegger’s Building Dwelling Thinking, allow dwelling not by comfort and palliative place-making
compelled through Norberg-Schulz, but by allowing the Stowaways a place for ruminative thinking about
the earth, the sky, the divine and mortality, about a longing for dwelling otherwhere and the authentic
condition of being it allows.
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NARRATIVE 3: THE SHIP IS MOVEN
A man has left his clothing out to dry on the grassy shoulder of the highway, at the termination of a path which
seems to peter out for no reason. It’s as if, like the path’s intention, he has evaporated in the heat. His apparel has
drifted to the ground.
‘Strange, innit?’ says the owner. I swivel very fast and meet a light-skinned gent with an oversized golden tooth. I
know him well.
‘Adam!’ I shout.
I haven’t seen Adam in months, thought he was dead.
‘Where you been?’ I say. ‘In Russia!’ He says.
‘Mutherfuckin’ Russia’ he says, ‘Two months in a dry dock!’
Adam aka Memory Card is my anchor in this 150-man strong group of Tanzanian Stowaways from Dar es Salaam
who call themselves Beach Boys and litter the beaches from Dar es Salaam to Cape Town.
‘If you come to the other wall you will see “MEMORY CARD” written there, that’s me name,’ he says supporting
himself with a tattooed arm on an horizontal litany of scrawled Stowaway graffiti which appears on a vast,
curved retaining wall only visible though the palisade fence which prevents the Beach Boys from entering the
harbour. It’s a stand-off.
His arm carries a container ship. As he leans on the wall the multiplied containers on his ship give on to the wall’s
ships’ containers. The ships are drawn in section to reveal their holds, or ‘tanals’ as they are called by the Beach
Boys.
‘They call me ‘MEMORY CARD’ because I always remind them what is good and what is bad, what you should do
to your brother and what you should not. I always remind them what goes around comes around, so if you do a
bad thing bad things will come back to you, and good things if you do good things. I don’t like people when I see
they fighting, hitting each other, I always tell them, that don’ t make no sense because we sleeping outside, and
you hate your bother, it don’t make no sense, we should love one another. Maybe one day we gonna make it,
gonna slip this life. I left my mummy in Tanzania when I was 16, stow a ship.’
This cyclical explanation comes as he limps down the length of the wall, swaying gently to and fro on a leg which
has been beaten by the police, repeatedly masticating a bolus in his mouth, his eyes crackling with stowaway
anticipation.
The next morning at 4 a.m. I received these texts:
‘Yoh I’m going last night I jup ship name blu sky please keep on touch with my family fhone rochel plse tell her
what is happen memory card sea power.’
And then:
‘Can feel the the ship is moven bra sound so nice alone this time but have no food only wotar still me gonna make
it.’
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CONCLUSION
We would like to offer three observations by way of conclusion. Firstly, it is our contention that the
Stowaways are exemplary subjects of Heidegger’s Building Dwelling Thinking. They fulfil all his ambitions for
an authentic condition of being through dwelling as described therein and they do this by dwelling
otherwhere as Deleuzian nomads. If the Stowaways are exemplary of Heidegger’s ideas about dwelling then
it is because their dwelling is about thinking, it is about dwelling otherwhere: when ‘the ship is moven’.
Despite the hostile conditions under and between the bridges, and without overly romanticising this rag-tag
group of opportunists, we would suggest that those dwelling otherwhere do not need our sympathy but
rather our admiration for being in ‘the fourfold.’ In this sense, the Stowaways are architecture’s other, an
unaccountable remainder outside of the palliative place-making in architectural theory that derives from so
much Norberg-Schulz via Heidegger and his bucolic hut in Todtnauberg.
But the Stowaways are architecture’s other again; for the authentic condition of being they describe comes
from occupying those spaces built by the shadow of design. This is the indivisible remainder that occurs
when architects and engineers set out their totalising masterplan vision for the city or to solve a specific
problem and inevitably carve the world up in a way that produces an unaccounted for shadow that others
find useful. This shadow of design is inevitable. All architectural acts produce a shadow, an unaccountable
other outside the instrumental drive of design.
Finally, architects and planners would do well to pay attention to those dwelling otherwhere because they
articulate the disconnections in the desires of the city – by occupying them. We must recognise what those
dwelling otherwhere say, not just about the flow of capital or social (in)justice, but about the architecture of
the city. They put demands on our imagination, opening the city up to unfamiliar readings, exposing its
repressed memories and anxieties. As such, this paper presents the Foreshore bridges and the Stowaways as
a return of Cape Town’s repressed self. The Stowaways’ daily presence and ambition to embark insists on the
return of the ocean to the city and the constitution of the abandoned maritime Gateway. They are the guilty
conscience of a city, haunting (Derrida 1994) it for giving up its architectural imagination for the technocratic
visions of engineers and efficiency planners. Their daily presence animates the ambitions of every line drawn
so starkly by the City’s architect imagining the Gateway to South Africa. Their dwelling otherwhere pulls that
grand staircase of embarkation back to life.
REFERENCES
Beaudouin, E., 1940. Outline of scheme (Foreshore) for Cape Town (South Africa), City of Cape Town, Cape
Town.
Botha, N., 2013. The gateway of tomorrow: Modernist Town Planning on Cape Town’s Foreshore, 1930-70, M.A.
dissertation, University of Cape Town.
City Engineer 1941. Annual Report of the City Engineer, City of Cape Town, Cape Town.
Coetzer, N., 2013. ‘Under the bridge: The shadows of design’, Architecture SA, 60 (March / April) p.51.
Coetzer, N., 2014. ‘The Amphitheatre Strikes Back’, Architecture SA, 65 (January / February) p.51.
De Sola Morales, I., 1996. ‘Terrain Vague’, in D Almy (ed.), CENTER, (14), On Landscape Urbanism.
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F., 2005. A thousand plateaus. Capitalism and schizophrenia, University of Minnesota
Press, London.
Derrida, J., 1994. Spectres of Marx, the state of the debt, the work of mourning & the new international,
Routledge, London.
Heidegger, M., 2011. ‘Building Dwelling Thinking’, in D Krell (ed.), Heidegger. Basic writings, Routledge,
London.
Morris, S., 1951. "Metropolis of tomorrow:” A development plan for the central city and foreshore areas, City of
Cape Town, Cape Town.
Msane, S., 2014. ‘Unwanted passengers a costly affair’, The Mercury, 29 April, viewed 31 May 2014,
http://www.iol.co.za.
Norberg-Schulz, C., 1980. Genius loci. Towards a phenomenology of Architecture, Academy Editions, London.
Sharr, A., 2007. Heidegger for Architects. Routledge, London.
72
RENEGADE ARCHITECTURE: THE PRACTICE OF FREEDOM
Epifania Akosua Amoo-Adare, Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany
eamooadare@gmail.com
Keywords: migration, mobility, urbanization, globalization, critical spatial literacy, Asante women
Abstract
This presentation makes a case for an urgent praxis of critical spatial literacy (CSL), especially for African women.
It does so by providing an analysis of fifteen Asante women's negotiation of the politics of urban space; hence,
demonstrating how they critically read the postmodern world in order to make a place within it. Basically, the
presentation discusses key findings that reveal contemporary Asante women's critical perceptions and responses
to the significant socio-spatial effects of akwantu, anibuei ne sikasem (travel, ‘civilization,’ and money matters).
The presentation also shows how the utilization of CSL as a theoretical framework for researching Asante
women’s lives means that we cannot take the women’s everyday practices for granted, as they assert ownership
over the contemporary spaces that change dynamic ‘traditional’ ways of living. Instead, a dialogue is necessary to
discuss the consequences and implications of the transformative power of contemporary space—such as Accra’s
urbanity—on African women’s subjectivities. In doing so, an analysis is made of how the continued dismantling
of traditional notions of spatiality affect conceptions of identity, and social practices, as women pit against the
racial, gender, and class-based terms of Western capitalist architectural designs and ideologies for contemporary
living.
The presentation also elaborates on how this study is the development of a feminist, ‘renegade’ architectural
project; in that, as feminist practice, it acknowledges and comprehends transnational cultural flows (linked to the
movement of capitalist social relations) so as to understand the material conditions that structure women’s lives
in different locations. This is in order to plan effective opposition to the capitalist economic and cultural
hegemonies that are taking new global forms, and revealing themselves in gendered spatial relations. This
presentation describes this important feminist pedagogical process of spatial literacy, which is further presented
in the book, Spatial Literacy: Contemporary Asante Women’s Place-making.
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RENEGADE ARCHITECTURE AS A FEMINIST PRAXIS
It is important to commence with a succinct account of my positionality (England 2010; Rose 1997) in order
to situate the knowledge that I share in this paper. This should also give the ensuing arguments deeper
meaning and urgency. I am an Asante woman who has lived in twelve cities across four continents. For these
and many other reasons, I suffer a contradictory crisis of being placeless and yet simultaneously filled with
the knowledge of different urban spatialities. It might be said that my life is subject to the increased mobility
associated with today’s world citizens (Urry 2007). This may well account for my obsession with deciphering
the politics of urban space and what my role—as an African woman—is in that place of quintessential social
struggle over geography and knowledge.
Having always lived in urban centers, I find that my understanding, negotiation, manipulation, and
ownership of space (real and imagined) is often predetermined and confined by the prescribed, colonized,
gendered, racialized, and/or class-based social relations of global capitalism. Within the politics of space, I
have been privy to a minority and female experience of discrimination by design of a predominantly
Western “man-made” built environment (Weisman 1994). Ironically, I experience this disadvantage despite
my access to a privileged professional and academic discourse through six years of architectural training.1
Albeit restrictive, each discriminatory circumstance has often been mediated by my very specific
combination of gender, ethnicity, class position, able-bodied heterosexuality, and architectural privilege,
thus, consequently varying in nuance and degree from situation to situation and location to location. It is
from these relational liminal spaces that I began developing my own critical spatial literacy; 2 specifically,
nurturing a critical understanding of the politics of space, for example, by determining what kinds of social
insights are encoded in the built environment, how the built form may reproduce and/or contest dominant
ideologies, and (in the latter case) how this contestation requires an ability to “critically read the world”
(Freire 1983/1991, 1970/1996).
Through these kinds of critical readings of spatiality, I have come to conclude that the power of spatial
configurations and conceptualizations in our everyday social practices and ideological constructions of
place and identity cannot be denied (Mohanram 1999; Rendell 1999). Also when it comes to issues of power
and socio-physical space, predominantly black women3 were—and still are—at the bottom of the barrel at
which level classism, racism, sexism, and/or nationalism most violently intersect (Basolo & Morgan 1993; UN-
Habitat 2008). This phenomenon is evident in various forms and degrees all over the world, especially within
the urban context; hence, you will find that black women are often in a majority at the bottom of the power
hierarchy, in Third World cities such as Accra as much as in Western cities like London. The low social
positioning of women also has grave implications for their power struggles for place in the social
construction of urban spatiality, their understanding of their resultant social practices, and most importantly
their identity construction. And yet as Black4 women, we are not necessarily literate in the politics of space
and how it affects our spatial configurations, social practices, and sense of place.
So it follows that as a womanist-feminist, a Black woman, a trained architect, and an urban dweller, I am
particularly interested in how black women’s social and economic lives have been constituted, situated, and
enacted in contemporary spatiality. I consider this to be a renegade architectural stance,5 where developing
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1!I!am!a!Royal!Institute!of!British!Architects!(RIBA)!part!II!qualified!architect.!
2!Critical(spatial(literacy!(or!critical!literacy!of!space)!is!defined!as!a!form!of!spatial!awareness!made!up!of!
the! ability! to! read! codes! embedded! in! the! built! environment! in! order! to! understand! how! they! affect!
people’s!social!life,!cultural!practices,!and!sense!of!place.!Additionally,!it!is!a!prerequisite!to!determining!
the!need!for!spatioCpolitical!action!that!is!transformative!(AmooCAdare!2006a,!2006b,!2011,!2013).!
3!The! expression! “black! women”! is! purposefully! utilized! as! a! form! of! “strategic! essentialism”! (Spivak!
1993;!Spivak!&!Grosz!1990)!and!not!to!construct!an!image!of!singular,!monolithic!black!female!subject,!
which! would! deny! the! multiplicity,! complexity! and! diversity! of! black! women’s! various! identities! and!
experiences.!The!same!approach!is!used!for!other!expressions!used!such!as!“women!of!African!descent”.!
4!The! word! Black! is! intentionally! used! with! a! capital! ‘B’! to! denote! the! political! term! Black! versus! the!
adjective!black.!
5!By!this!I!also!refer!to!my!transition!into!the!field!of!education!in!order!to!redefine!my!architectural!role!
in!the!politics!of!space.!I!am!specifically!interested!in!working!within!the!boundaries!or!edge!conditions!of!
architecture! (and! being! an! architect).! I! enact! this! spatial! imaginary! of! my! diasporic,! African,! female,!
architectural! permutation! mainly! within! the! praxis! of! critical! social! and! feminist! theory! as! informed! by!
74
a critical literacy on space becomes as important as its construction. From this particular standpoint stems
research work conducted on Asante women’s spatial experiences in urban Ghana; some of the results of
which are to be discussed in this paper. To this end, the paper provides a reduced account of fifteen6
migrant Asante women’s literacy of contemporary space in Ghana and abroad. More specifically, the results
of the study shared here highlight these women’s perspectives on their urban living conditions, their sense
of place in Ghana’s capital, Accra, and the world at large, plus how they make sense of these contemporary
spaces that are the result of transnational economic and cultural flows. In other words, demonstrating how
they critically read that spatial world.
CAPITALIST SPATIALITY AND UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT IN WEST AFRICA
In a postmodern geography, many of us become the social effects of dominant groups’ spatial constructs. The
planned built environments that we inhabit are embedded with other people’s meanings (ideologies) of what is
housing, leisure space, a business district, etc. The built form creates a predisposition in us to particular spatial
functions and practices; from which social identities are ascribed whether or not we choose to contest, subvert, or
reject them. Furthermore, current research on the use of space shows that Western urban spatiality confronts
certain cultural heritages with new models of space and household transactions. Basically, Western design and
modern construction technologies challenge household behaviors in many new urbanizing societies and
reconstitute what is imagined and constructed as family life (Asiama 1997; Howell and Tentokali 1989; Pellow
1992). This is certainly the case in modern-day West African countries, which are challenged with uneven
development, plus gendered spatial and social structures that are the result of at least three superimposed
cultural stratifications: the traditional and pre-industrial phase, the colonial experience, and the postcolonial
economical-political structure (Boserup 1970; Konadu-Agyemang 2001). Each of these realities varies from
country to country and everywhere the position of women and their families depends on the interplay of these
three elements (Boserup 1970).
Uneven development of space in West Africa is clearly expressed in Accra, which has been the capital of Ghana
since 1877. The city’s present state of housing and infrastructure underdevelopment has its roots in British
colonialism. The housing problems in Accra are not only a colonial legacy caused by urbanization policies that
were insensitive to the local cultural context, but are also a result of the failure of successive governments to derive
appropriate housing policies and their incorporation of Ghana into a global capitalist economy (Konadu-
Agyemang 2001). Accra is the largest of Ghana’s ten urban centers. In 2000, the population in Accra was 1,657,856
of which 57.1 percent (i.e., 843,516) were female (Government of Ghana 2000a).7 In the city of Accra, in 2008,
females headed 28.1 percent of households, even though there were nearly as many female migrants as male
(Government of Ghana 2008). Back then, Accra alone accounted for 30 percent of the urban population of Ghana
and 10 percent of the total population of Ghana. In fact, Accra has the highest rate of urbanization in Ghana and
one of the highest in West Africa (Konadu-Agyemang 2001).8
Uneven urban development in Accra has had an effect on residential units, lineage groupings, rules of descent,
and inheritance among the Ga population (Robertson 1984). These effects are also experienced in other parts of
Ghana, for example, the land tenure system in Asante society has undergone change. Land now has an economic
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
critical!pedagogy,!postmodern!geography,!postcolonial!theory,!and!womanism.!My!interest!is!to!facilitate!
arenas! for! developing! critical(spatial(literacy! within! pluridisciplinary! and! postCdisciplinary! arenas,! thus,!
outside!the!confines!of!institutionalized!architectural!praxis.!
6!In!2003,!inCdepth!interviews!were!conducted!with!thirtyCone!Akan!women,!but!the!results!described!in!
this! paper! focus! on! the! fifteen! Asante! women! within! that! sample.! During! that! time,! a! survey! was! also!
conducted!with!103!Ghanaian!women!and!men!who!lived!in!Accra.!Prior!to!this,!in!2001,!interviews!were!
conducted!with!six!Akan!women!who!served!as!initial!key!informants.!
7!The!source!of!this!data!is!the!National!Population!Census,!which!is!carried!out!every!ten!years.!The!2010!
census!has!taken!place;!however,!the!final!results!for!Accra!specifically!are!not!yet!out.!There!is,!however,!
data! on! the! Greater! Accra! Metropolitan! area! to! which! Accra! belongs.! It! now! has! a! total! population! of!
4,010,054!of!which!52!percent!are!female!(Government!of!Ghana!2012).!
8!KonaduCAgyemang! (1990)! also! states! that! within! the! African! continent,! West! African! cities! have! been!
experiencing!more!rapid!rates!of!urbanization!and!population!growth!as!compared!to!any!other!region.!
West! African! urban! centers! have! grown! at! rates! of! five! to! thirteen! percent! per! annum,! with! Nigeria’s!
capital,!Lagos,!being!an!exemplar.!
75
value, which was not the case in traditional Asante society. The strong links that existed between land ownership
and Asante social and political structures have weakened. Land ownership structures no longer support the
continuation of the kin group, and kinship ties are being weakened. In its place the conjugal family has begun to
assert itself against the extended uterine family (i.e., one’s matrikin). This means that Asante women’s relationship
with their kin group have altered, especially in terms of inheritance and their becoming more dependent on their
spouses versus their matrilineal families (Asiama 1997). Additionally, Asante women are often in-migrants to
Accra, thus, they have reduced hereditary links to land and property in Ghana’s capital than they would have in
the Asante region. As a result, Asante women living in urban Accra are subject to changing household
configurations, socio-cultural practices, and spatial self-perceptions due to the many forces of uneven
development that result from an urban manifestation of socio-spatial constructions of late capitalism.
TRAVEL, ENLIGHTENMENT AND MONEY MATTERS IN THE MAKING OF NEW ROADS
The ensuing discussion is based on the perceptions of fifteen Asante women, with ages ranging from
twenty-one to seventy years. They are a mix of uneducated and educated (up to tertiary level) women, with
various occupations; including in teaching, banking, nursing, and retail or wholesale trading. The youngest
was a student and the oldest, a retired building contractor but also a store owner. All the women considered
themselves to have an occupation (i.e., as traders), even when they described themselves primarily as
housewives. These women’s critical readings of contemporary space, is very much about capitalist
globalization in every sense of the word—before and particularly since colonial days—and the persistent
mobility of Asantes in the quest for money and eye-opening experiences that enlighten, ‘civilize,’ and re-
constitute the Asante self. In the women’s own words, life is about akwantu, anibuei ne sikasεm (i.e., travel,
‘civilization’ and money matters); it is the quintessential economic globalization story of political emergence
out of dynamic social systems that are subject to the forces of time-space compression and all interrelated
cultural change. The women’s narratives vividly illustrate the spatial fluidity and interconnectivity of their
lives, as they provide contemporary Asante knowledge on how to navigate cultural change, while
maintaining an Asante tradition of innovative progress for wealth accumulation.
In contemplating the significance of the intertwining themes of akwantu, anibuei ne sikasεm in their lives, the
fifteen Asante women in question, first and foremost, refer to themselves and others who are living away
from their hometowns as akwantufo (travelers). 9 The women’s travel experiences are simultaneously
temporary and permanent due to their mobility to and from dual or multiple homes; these homes being
“after effects” of the Asante tradition of duo local residence10 and of the numerous social networks that the
women have stretched across a variety of locations. Consequently, all the women consider more than one
place as their home, with the other home tending to be in their hometown; coming in various forms from
the abusuafie (matrilineal family house) to personal property, which they built for the occasions that they
visited their hometowns. On top of this, some of the women also individually or jointly own other property
in Accra or Kumase,11 which they rent out in order to make extra income.
Many of the women are also used to traveling back and forth between Accra and other locations for reasons
such as trade or because of work-related transfers. What is clear in each woman’s life story is the inordinate
amount of travel undertaken from childhood through to adulthood. For example, as children many of the
women had moved from place to place because of their father’s employment or because they had been
taken to live with a relative in order to attend school or obtain informal training. In their adolescence, these
women continued to travel and in many cases it was as a result of attending boarding schools so as to
further their education. For the women who did not attend school, travel was often instigated because of
trade or their parent’s farming activities and, later, in relation to husband’s activities. As young adults, some
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9
As does Clifford (1992) in his description of traveling cultures, here too the term “travel” is freed “from a
history of European, literary, male, bourgeois, scientific, heroic, recreational, meanings and practices” (p. 106);
that is, the “travel myth” that “[t]he traveler, by definition, is someone who has the security and privilege to
move about in relatively unconstrained ways” (p. 107). The word travel also suggests agency as demonstrated
by the women’s descriptions.
10!In! an! article! entitled,! The( Separateness( of( Spouses:( Conjugal( Resources( in( an( Ashanti( Town,! Katherine!
Abu!(1983)!provides!an!analysis!of!the!separateness!of!spouses’!resources,!activities!and!residence!in!an!
Asante!town!of!about!10,000!inhabitants!in!which!she!conducted!a!research!study.!
11!Kumase!is!the!capital!of!the!Asante!region.!
76
of the professional women were posted in jobs far from home and during these sojourns met and married
their husbands that then led to further travel also related to their spouses’ employment. However, the
women continued to sustain their own patterns of travel particularly with regard to returning to their
mother’s homes for support whenever they were pregnant. For the older generation,12 this latter travel
pattern has shifted slightly, as they became grandmothers, because now they tend to go to their daughter’s
homes to assist them in pregnancy and labor, rather than their daughters coming home to mother like in the
old days.
By these women’s estimations, travel is a necessary condition of progress in today’s world. It is considered to
be a typical venture for the average Asante woman (or man) of substance. In fact, the prevalence of travel
among Asantes has even commanded social commentary with Ɔbrafo’s (2002) hiplife track, Ɔkwantuni.13 In
this song, Ɔbrafo bemoans the loss of relatives to distant lands all in a sometimes vain search for sika
(money) and also at the cost of becoming alienated from extended, and even immediate, family. Ɔbrafo
speaks to the central place that travel has in today’s Asante society, as its women and men move from place
to place in search of material wealth. In doing so, they split families, while simultaneously creating social
networks all over the world. This results in what Brickell and Datta (2011) describe as translocal geographies;
i.e., their simultaneous situatedness across different locales, which also comes with its own ways of
understanding the overlapping place-times in their everyday lives. The very family members that benefit
from these prosperity enterprises are also those that must necessarily suffer the loss of proximity to their
pioneering loved ones. In some instances, these temporary absences in pursuit of sika (money) become
permanent separations that demand reprimand by those left behind—such as Ɔbrafo—in order to pull
wanderers back into the fold, lest they have forgotten where they come from and why they left in the first
place.
Sentiment aside, it is still through national and international travel14 that these Asante women, among many
others, try to resolve their economic difficulties and improve their living standards, along with those of their
immediate family and abusua (matrilineal family). It is also in these liminal spaces that the women negotiate
the tensions between the links that bind them to abusua back home and the transformatory requirements of
their new, often, conjugal homesteads. These fifteen women’s various economic migration has resulted in
travel to many different villages, towns, and cities in Ghana, on the African continent, and all over the world.
Within Ghana, Accra, was often cited as the place that offered the most in terms of access to work
opportunities, especially customers for aguadi (trading) and all other resources that were centralized there;
such as business enterprises, education, and the possibility to travel abroad to study or work.
All fifteen women use the word anibuei to describe the eye-opening experiences acquired during the
process of travel. These experiences are said to change character, enable personal growth, and re-constitute
Asante identity. From the women’s accounts, anibuei (enlightenment) can be simply defined as the
derivatives of exposure to, and encounters of, difference. From this basis, anibuei for these women is said to
be derived from instances when they traveled from place to place; when they were sent to stay with and be
raised or trained by enlightened individuals; when they learned how to comport themselves as ladies, e.g.,
by studying other enlightened role models; when they attended boarding schools that were mainly
Christian;15 when they encountered diverse others who had traveled to live in their hometown or the place
where they were living or attending school; and/or when they learned different languages that provided
access to alternative worlds or commercial enterprises (i.e., other Ghanaian languages or, in today’s global
world, English).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12!There! are! three! generations! of! women! as! follows:! 1)! seventy! to! fiftyCone! years,! 2)! fifty! to! thirtyCone!
years,!and!3)!thirty!to!twentyCone!years.!
13!The!translation!of!this!being,!“a!traveler.”!
14!In!a!report!on!science,!technology!and!human!development,!the!Ghana!Government!(2000a)!says!that!
remittances! from! abroad! are! of! growing! significance! to! a! sizable! number! of! households.! Remittances!
make! up! the! necessary! resources! for! productive! purposes;! however,! credit! markets! and! other! factors!
threaten!these!endeavors!because!they!provide!more!opportunity!for!consumption.!
15!In!1839,!the!WesleyanCMethodist!Mission!was!the!first!to!systematically!spread!Christianity!in!Kumase,!
the! capital! of! the! Asante! region.! After! the! AngloCAsante! treaty! of! 1831,! Asantes! viewed! the! Mission! as!
legitimate!facilitators!of!and!participants!in!trade!between!the!Europeans!and!Akans!in!southern!Ghana!
(McCaskie!1995).!
77
As the first generation of women describe it, for the generations above them, difference was encountered
through movement from place to place in order to access important trading posts, centers of industry,
and/or fertile land for cocoa farming. The first generation of women’s parents often obtained
enlightenment, i.e., anibuei, as an accidental by-product of akwantu (travel) that was instigated with the
explicit intention of resolving sikasεm (money matters) through farming and concomitant trading. In
contrast, their children and their descendants enter into akwantu with the intention of acquiring new forms
of anibuei through secondary schools and the like, 16 which then have the potential to also resolve sikasεm
through white-collar jobs, the civil service and other professional or business enterprises.
Even when the new, transformative, eye-opening experiences resulted in personal or communal conflict, the
women do not talk of them as a rupture from Asante culture. They rather describe these experiences as part
of a ‘natural’ and expected transformation of complex, complicated and dynamic systems such as Asante
identity and culture. Beyond this, they appear to also not see any conflict in maintaining Asante tradition
alongside significant socio-cultural change. A case in point is when the eldest in the group, age seventy,
insists: “Tradition should not be destroyed because God gives it to us, you understand. We should keep on
with the tradition” (Author Translation). Yet in this very statement lies a contradiction since, as becomes
clear during interview, she refers to the God of Christianity versus that of Asante traditional religious
practice. Seamless contradictions like these are embodied in many of the women’s accounts of anibuei that
results from their travel experiences because they conceptualize change and innovation as a normative part
of Asante tradition and culture. This then allows for paradoxical juxtapositions of difference to exist without
a concomitant sense of rupture or dislocation as they seek economic prosperity in the everyday hustle and
bustle of rapidly urbanizing Accra.
Although many of the women do not see Accra as the ideal location to live in, they are all agreed on why
they have migrated there: it is about sikasεm (money matters) and the economic opportunities that exist in
Ghana’s capital. These are benefits that they see as being uniquely tied to economic, social and political
factors, plus the country’s uneven resource centralization in its capital. The power of a place like Accra to
create room for the impossible to become possible was stressed upon by some of the women who spoke
about other women they knew who have been able to build houses and send their children to school with
the money that they make simply by selling ice-water in Accra. Essentially, it is the strong possibility of
making money in Accra from any kind of aguadi (trade) or business that drew the bulk of these Asante
women to Ghana’s capital, as well as the fact that all social, political and economic resources are centralized
in Accra. This emphasis on the market potential value in Accra speaks to the significance of aguadi in the
average Asante woman’s daily survival toolkit. It also highlights what these women describe as the Asante
desire for nkɔsoɔ (progress); that is, a desire to be “somebody”, which is used to steer one’s self out of a level
of subsistence into the realm of prosperity through wealth accumulation.
It is important to note that it is sika (money), or its lack thereof, that makes life difficult, particularly in the
urban locales where Asantes have moved to accumulate wealth. Consequently, the women also give
accounts of how desperate housing situations coupled with the high cost of living are part and parcel of
akwantu, especially in places like Accra. Lack of access to affordable housing in Accra is one of the reasons
the fifteen Asante women say that building houses, or the acquisition of property, is a necessity if one does
not want to suffer while living and working as a migrant. The housing problem in Accra is acute with
monthly rents costing more than a monthly salary for some. This has caused many people to be homeless
and sleeping rough; with some families even making their homes in kiosks. In every instance, problems with
accommodation are top of the list of complaints made by the women about life in Accra. Those who did not
have problems with housing because they had built their own houses or their husband’s employers had
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
16!Western!education!began!its!history!in!Ghana!in!the!early!sixteenth!century!in!the!shape!of!PortugueseC
operated!schools!at!Elmina.!For!the!next!200!years!after!that!various!schools!were!set!up!along!the!coast!
by! the! British,! the! Dutch! and! the! Danes.! From! the! nineteenth! century! onwards,! missionary! societies!
played!a!crucial!role!in!supplementing!these!earlier!schools!and!developing!formal!education!in!what!was!
then!the!southern!Gold!Coast.!By!the!1900S,!there!were!almost!12,000!students!enrolled!in!schools!that!
were! mainly! located! in! the! coastal! areas.! This! student! population! grew! to! 143,000! students! enrolled! in!
both! primary! and! secondary! schools! by! 1945;! however,! the! majority! of! students! were! still! from! the!
coastal!areas.!Of!the!18!percent!that!had!completed!primary!education,!at!that!time,!only!3.9!percent!were!
from! the! Asante! region.! It! is! only! after! 1950! that! enrollment! rates! started! increasing! steadily,! and!
occasionally!in!leaps!and!bounds,!across!the!country!and!also!in!the!Asante!region!(Foster!1971).!
78
provided them with housing, are also in agreement that housing should be one of the biggest factors,
alongside gainful employment, that influences a person’s decision to relocate to Accra from their
hometowns or even from abroad.
Consequently, the fifteen Asante women agree that the construction of houses or the acquisition of
property is a necessity for any migrant based in Accra. But even more importantly, they view the built
form—in the shape of houses—as significant symbols of an Asante person’s wealth and prosperity. A sixty-
three-year old woman takes this argument a step further by asserting that it is an Asante’s natural
disposition to want to build houses, or acquire property, wherever she or he is located. It is a given that
house construction is not a new phenomenon for the Asante. Schreckenbach and Abankwa (1981) state that
early European travelers, who came to Kumase and other important towns in the Asante region during the
late-eighteenth century, were impressed by “the beautiful, clean and comfortable houses, often two-storey,
of the ordinary people, quite apart from the large, extensively decorated houses of the more important
citizens and the palaces of the kings”17 (p. 51). This might explain why it seems as if wherever Asantes go
they make concerted efforts to build or own property in that location. At the very least, in Ghana, they buy
land in anticipation for a later period when they can afford to build on it.
Of crucial significance is the fact that travel plays an essential part in these Asante women’s attempts and
successes in the construction of real and imagined built space because of the income that they can
generate, especially through trading or working in a place like Accra or better still from working abroad in
locations with stronger and potentially more stable economies. In this way, travel changes how a woman
lives, but it also changes how she conceptualizes her home and household make-up in significant ways. For
example, when the women are asked to describe their ideal houses, they all talk about homes that are based
on a nuclear-family house configuration in direct opposition to a more ‘traditional’ compound house
designed for an extended family. This is because they all believe that it makes more sense, nowadays, for
families to be smaller and nuclear, especially when living in Accra.18
In conclusion, the economic search for a better life requires a woman to be tough, industrious, innovative,
and self-reliant; however, always realizing that Onyame (God) plays an authoring role in all successful
personal efforts towards nkɔsoɔ (progress). While undergoing critical transformations, Asante women re-
read any sudden dislocations—due to innovation and change caused by external factors—through one or
more Asante virtues that they describe as customary ways of ensuring nkɔsoɔ, which is a central tenet of
Asante social, economic, and political life.19 For these fifteen women, the inherent Asante virtues that serve
to mediate, thus, normalize innovation and change are ahokyerε (pride), mmɔ-den-bɔ (effort-making,
diligence), ani-εden (daring spirit, hardiness, self-will, boldness, forwardness), nyansa (wisdom, knowledge,
learning, skill, dexterity), gyidi (belief, faith), obu (respect), nokware (truthfulness, faithfulness, honesty),
ahobrεase (humility), and abotare (patience). As far as the women are concerned, these are all virtues
considered to be “in the blood” of Asantes;20 hence, acting as the internal logic that organizes the women’s
potentially chaotic off-course transformations back into a highly ordered and synchronized unitary pattern
of ‘acceptable’ Asante socio-spatial behavior. The very nature of nkɔsoɔ itself and this process of re-reading,
render change to be a natural component of Asante identity.
TOWARD A PEDAGOGY OF CRITICAL SPATIAL LITERACY
Today, more than ever, social struggle—especially within the urban context—is inscribed in spaces from
which people construct place out of their particular social relations. Place then can be viewed as particular
unique moments in networks of social relations, discourses and spatial understandings. It is especially in
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17 !As! another! example,! Elleh! (1996)! provides! a! retelling! of! the! Englishman,! T.! Edward! Bodich’s!
descriptions! of! the! Asantehene’s! Palace! in! Kumase! and! the! fact! that! the! “town! itself! was! well! laid! out,!
with!wide!streets!flanked!by!houses!and!trees”!(p.!293).!!
18!This!is!a!position!also!taken!by!the!sixteen!other!Akan!women,!as!well!as!by!the!103!Ghanaian!survey!
respondents!who!agreed!to!this!point!with!a!mean!of!4.21.!
19!It! could! be! argued,! then,! that! these! women! are! continuing! Asante! society’s! legacy! of! transformation,!
which! McLeod! (1981)! says! is! largely! constituted! by! a! history! of! change! and! incorporation;! in! that,! the!
Asante! nation! since! its! inception! has! been! continuously! and! rapidly! evolving! because! “innovation! was!
often!essential!for!survival”!(p.!14).!
20
Many of these virtues are also described in the Akan language of morals that Ackah (1988) provides a
descriptive analysis of in his book, Akan Ethics.
79
these places or moments that women experience the postmodern condition and, at times, the ravaging
effects of globalization differentially and unequally (Massey 1991, 1994). As a result, in everyday feminist
struggles for social and political justice, there is a growing awareness of the need for an explicit application
of informed strategic spatial practice derived from an analysis of spatial configurations, concepts, and
ideologies.
The findings discussed in this essay serve as examples of such an analysis of spatiality. In addition, the
research is an example of renegade architecture from a womanist-feminist standpoint in which I utilized the
essential pedagogical praxis of critical spatial literacy, among other theoretical lenses, to analyze and
comprehend Asante women’s conceptions of the profound spatial effects of a global economy and
transnational cultural flows on their daily lives. 21 Understanding how new Asante homesteads, social
practices and identities are being re-constructed leads to a greater awareness of how we then project these
changes onto our immediate environments and other places to which we are connected. This critical
awareness of what constitutes one’s local context has significant global implications, particularly in these
times where lived spaces are increasingly permeable due to social networks, communication, and the
constant movement of people, technology, capital, and information (Appadurai 1999).
Grewal & Kaplan (1994) argue that feminist practices must acknowledge and comprehend transnational
cultural flows, which are linked to the flows of capitalist social relations. This is so as to understand the
material conditions that structure our lives in various different locations and to plan effective opposition to
the capitalist economic and cultural hegemonies that are taking new global forms, and still revealing
themselves in gender relations. The above discussion of some of the research findings intend to contribute
to this important feminist, postmodern pedagogical praxis of critical spatial literacy. Furthermore, since
womanism is about the survival and wholeness of an entire people through critical consciousness,
investigating and scrutinizing the components of migrant Asante women’s spatiality and sense of space
contributes to a global understanding of how women of African descent experience, negotiate and
transform spatiality. This, in turn, informs transnational feminist practices that seek to transform the politics
of uneven development of space and knowledge.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
21!More!specifically,!I!developed!a!Critical(Spatial(Literacy!(CSL)!framework!to!analyze!the!data!from!the!
study! (AmooCAdare! 2006a,! 2013).! The! CSL! framework! layers! themes! from! critical! pedagogy,! feminist!
methodology!from!a!womanist!positionality,!critical!social!theory!as!informed!by!postmodern!geography,!
and!postcolonial!theory!to!construct!an!arch!of!social!dreaming!(McLaren!1991).!In!this!definition,!CSL!is!
derived! from! a! palimpsest! of! conscientização! (Freire! 1973,! 1970/1996),! feminist! consciousnessCraising!
(Weiler!1988;!Nadeau!1996;!Weedon!1996),!an!aesthetic!of!cognitive!mapping!(Jameson,!1991),!and!an!
understanding! of! colonialism! so! as! to! decolonize! the! mind! (Fanon! 1961/1990,! 1952/1993;! Nkrumah!
1970,!1980).!This!palimpsest!is!an!extraction!and!amalgamation!of!the!most!essential!overlapping!themes!
from!the!aforementioned!theoretical!practices.!!
80
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NEO-TERRORISM AND RESILIENCE OF URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE IN AFRICA: AN APPRAISAL OF

CURRENT RESPONSES TO SECURITY CHALLENGES IN VOLATILE NIGERIAN CITIES AND IMPLICATIONS
FOR ARCHITECTURAL PEDAGOGY
Prof. Bogda Prucnal-Ogunsote, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria, bogdaogunsote@gmail.com

Prof. Olu Ola Ogunsote, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, profogunsote@gmail.com
Detur Gwatau, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria, deturgwatau@yahoo.com
Abstract
Like in many African countries, ethnic, religious and political conflicts are common in Nigeria and they sometimes
lead to the destruction of lives and property. The parties to these conflicts are usually identifiable, the triggers are
known, the government acts as an arbiter to prevent or reduce these conflicts, and it attempts to assist victims
and to prevent recurrence using its institutions and agencies. Terrorism is however new to Nigeria, and the Boko
Haram neo-terrorist group targets government and its institutions, or the organised private sector, thereby
turning the government from an arbiter into a party to the conflict. With largely anonymous leaders and
amorphous membership, no clear geographical battle lines and devastating attacks against soft targets, the
response of the government and the organised private sector has been indiscriminately reactive.
The impact on the urban infrastructure has been devastating. Major roads adjacent security buildings have been
blocked, car parks are cordoned off; emergency exits are blocked, and access for fire trucks is obstructed by
barriers. Communities are now defined by ethnicity and religion, making nonsense of communal facilities and the
Central Business District (CBD) concept. Even routing and transportation is affected.
This challenge to modern urban design theory and architectural pedagogy makes it necessary to re-examine the
definition of the model Nigerian city and the model institutional building with a view to enhancing the security
parameters. This will reduce the need for their transformation to meet security challenges, thereby maintaining
their planned efficiency. This paper documents the transformation of urban infrastructure in selected Nigerian
cities including Abuja, Jos, Kaduna and Kano in response to recent security challenges. An attempt is made to
propose more proactive urban planning and architectural responses, and to suggest changes to urban and
architectural design models to enhance their resilience in the challenging security circumstances.
Keywords: architecture, neo-terrorism, Nigeria, pedagogy, resilience of urban infrastructure.
INTRODUCTION
There are three types of disasters: disasters caused by natural events, disasters caused by humans, and
disasters caused by interaction of humans with natural processes (Ogunsote & Prucnal-Ogunsote 2007).
Disasters in cities are usually associated with natural disasters (climate change related, climatic or tectonic),
fire, acts of God or diseases. Disaster preparedness encompasses the precautionary measures entrenched for
the amelioration or prevention of these devastating events by government.
Resilience is the capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to maintain or regain functionality and vitality
in the face of stress or disturbance (Resilient Design Institute 2014). It is the capacity to bounce back after a
disturbance or interruption of some sort. Resilient design is the intentional design of buildings, landscapes,
communities, and regions in response to vulnerabilities to disaster and disruption of normal life. Urban
infrastructure disaster resilience refers to the ability of the urban environment to be less susceptible to the
damaging impacts of a disaster, and the ability to “bounce back” or recover fast and comprehensively
(Federal Emergency Management Agency n.d.). Preparing cities for war or acts of war is within the purview
of the military, while anti-terrorism preparedness requires cooperation of a wide gamut of security,
administrative, emergency, health and community agencies and organizations.
Neo-terrorism can be defined as being “basically characterized by the absence of a direct confrontation
between two conflicting parties so that the adversary remains nobody and everybody and so that all
demarcation lines are too blurred to determine when and if the battle has come to an end and who has
emerged victorious” (Farid 2013). This type of terrorism makes every spot a battleground and renders
precautions a matter of formality. While terrorism remains the greatest challenge of the 21st century, neo-
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terrorism is an existential threat to the peaceful development of cities. Neo-terrorism resilience has become
an unwelcome, yet unavoidable addition to the vocabulary of urban designers, and architects are
confronted with the primacy of security over form and function. The pedagogical implications of this
paradigm shift have become obvious in the gap between design theory and urban reality, as evidenced by
widespread transformation of city infrastructure to meet security challenges.
This pedagogical re-envisioning requires development of theoretical models for resilient architecture and
resilient urban design within the context of ethnic, religious and cultural diversity and in an environment of
unpredictable local and global conflicts. A starting point would be to adapt current disaster resilient
architectural and urban design models to respond to ethnic and religious conflicts in such a manner that
minimizes the impact of such conflicts on communities. This paper leverages on the Nigerian engagement
with the neo-terrorist Boko Haram group to deliberate on such adaptations, and to propose elements of a
model for conflict resilient architecture and conflict resilient urban design.
NEO-TERRORISM IN NIGERIA
Communal clashes have a long and bloody history in Nigeria, and their occurrence is widespread and
devastating. The triggers of these clashes, according to Uji (2012) include:
1. Inordinate quest for political power and the means to control others
2. Struggle for control between indigent and non-indigent groups
3. Struggle over traditional chieftainship stools
4. Age-old animosities arising from stereotyping of certain ethnic groups
5. Religious conflicts
6. Ethnic conflicts
7. Struggle over ownership and use of land
8. Spontaneous eruptions due to collective frustration with leadership or bad governance
9. Superstitious beliefs
10. Mob action
Selected devastating communal clashes in recent Nigerian history are shown in tables 1 and 2.
Location Region Date Antagonists

Kano, Kano State North-west July 1999 Hausa reprisal
Shagamu, Ogun State South-west July 1999 Yoruba versus Hausa
Ajegunle, Lagos State South-west November 1999 Yoruba versus Ijaw
Ketu, Lagos South-west November 1999 Yoruba versus Hausa
Alba, Abia State South-East March 2000 Ibo reprisal
Lagos South-west August 2000 Hausa versus Yoruba
Lagos South-west October 2000 Yoruba versus Hausa
Zango Kataf, Kaduna North-west March 2001 Ikulu versus Baju
Bauchi, Bauchi State North-east June 2001 Hausa versus Sayawa
Azara North-central July 2001 Azara versus Tiv
Zaki Biam, Benue State North-central October 2001 Tiv versus Jukun
Mambila, Taraba North-east January 2002 Indigents versus Fulani
Idi-Araba, Lagos South-west February 2002 Yoruba versus Hausa
Lagos South-west February 2002 Hausa versus Yoruba
Barkin Ladi Shendam, Plateau North-central June-July 2002 Various indigenous tribes
State versus Hausa Fulani
Jos, Plateau State North-central November 2008 Hausa-Fulani versus
indigenous communities
Jos, Plateau State North-central January 2010 Hausa-Fulani versus
indigenous communities
Table 1. Selected ethnic conflicts in Nigeria (Source: Adapted from Uji 2013).
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Location Region Date Antagonists

Kaduna North-west February 2000 Muslims versus Christians
Bauchi, Bauchi State North-east June 2001 Hausa versus Sayawa
Jos, Plateau North-central September 2001 Muslims versus Christians
Kano North-west September 2001 Muslims versus Christians
Gwantu, Kaduna State North-west October 2001 Muslims versus Christians
Abeokuta, Ogun State South-west November 2001 Muslims versus Christians
Mambila, Taraba North-east January 2002 Indigents versus Fulani
Barkin Ladi Shendam, North-central June-July 2002 Various indigenous tribes versus.
Plateau State Hausa Fulani
Jos, Plateau State North-central November 2008 Hausa-Fulani versus indigenous
communities
Jos, Plateau State North-central January 2010 Hausa-Fulani) versus indigenous
communities
Table 2. Selected religious conflicts in Nigeria (Source: Adapted from Uji 2013).
Genesis and evolution of neo-terrorism in Nigeria

The Boko Haram group has become synonymous with terror in Nigeria. It introduced suicide bombing,
which was unknown in previous communal clashes. By being omnipresent, yet anonymous, it could not be
‘settled’ by finance or ‘silenced’ by force. The name of the group is commonly translated to mean “education
is sin” or “Western education is forbidden”. It was founded as an indigenous group, but metamorphosed into
a potent jihadist movement in 2009. The singular agenda is the imposition of an Islamic Sharia state in
Nigeria, with the primary objective of bringing down the government of Nigeria. The tactics include
destruction of all symbols of authority and alternative religion, termination of all forms of western education
and western lifestyles, terrorization of the civil population, and recruitment of supporters. This quest has left
over 8,000 people dead, and earned the group, and its offshoot Ansaru, a ‘terrorist organization’ label by the
United States. Despite this and the brutal assault by the Nigerian military, the group continues to grow, with
increasing support from al Qaeda-inspired movements, and arms and foot soldiers from neighbouring and
Arab-spring countries, such as Libya.
Socio-political aspects of neo-terrorism

Many people remain baffled that a small Islamic militant group, whose leader was captured and killed in
detention, could so effectively remake itself into the most potent security challenge the Nigerian nation has
ever faced. Sennott (2014) agrees with most other analysts that the favourable clime for the growth of Boko
Haram was provided not only by the Christian-Muslim divide, but also by economic despair, corrupt
government, ethnic tensions, incompetence or complicity of the military, and the so called ‘youth bulge’.
The youth bulge in the population pyramid, according to Abdulkadir (2011) is the disproportional increase
of youths in recent national census data, and since most of these youths lack regular, peaceful employment
opportunities, especially in Northern Nigeria, they become a reserve army for violence, ethno-religious riots,
burglary, looting and arson. The ruling elite often exploit religious tensions to mobilize these youths for
personal gain.
Pattern of attacks on symbols of political and religious authority

One of the avowed objectives of Boko Haram is the establishment of an Islamic Sharia state in Nigeria. This
would necessarily involve the removal of the existing government, and elimination of all other religions. The
group has therefore targeted institutions and persons that represent Nigeria’s political and religious
authority. Police stations, army barracks, prisons, airports, banks, schools, tertiary educational institutions,
communication infrastructure, and many other critical components of a modern state have come under
attack. Persons killed or kidnapped include priests, pastors, policemen, soldiers, prison warders, politicians,
traditional rulers, students, teachers and Professors. Women and children are not spared as they are either
targeted, or caught in the crossfire.
Pattern of attacks on physical facilities

The choice of physical facilities to be attacked is based on several factors.
Security facilities. These facilities that can mobilize opposition to the attacks and arms and ammunition can
be stolen from them.
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Financial institutions. These are institutions from which money can be stolen to fund attacks.
Detention facilities. ‘Comrades’ are freed from prisons and detention facilities to boost the fighting ranks.
Infrastructure. Critical communication and educational infrastructure that can cripple the government are
targeted.
Residences. Abodes of civilians not in active support of the group are attacked for the purpose of instilling
fear and forcing collaboration.
The location of these physical facilities is often remote and the attacks take place in the night, making it
difficult for the security apparatus to respond in time. When these attacks take place in cities and in broad
daylight, as was the case in Kano, there are simultaneous attacks in different crowded areas, and
coordination of response becomes difficult, especially with the ensuing stampede (Arisenigeria 2014).
IMPACT OF NEO-TERRORISM ON URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
These attacks have a devastating effect on urban infrastructure. A few of the cases are listed in Table 3.
Infrastructure
Date Location Nature of Attack Casualties Comments
affected
August 26, United Nations Suicide bombing. Jeep 18 dead Several floors First major
2011 Headquarters, rammed through destroyed international
Abuja gates and at reception target
January Kano Shootings and 185 dead Government Attack on the
20, 2012 bombings security buildings city, freeing
and churches prisoners from
police stations
August 5, Shagari Suicide bombing 8 dead Military Attack on the
2012 Quarters, checkpoint Joint Task Force
Damaturu, blown up (JTF) military
Yobe State post
October Kaduna, Malali Suicide car bombing 8 dead Many buildings Attack on a
28, 2012 area 100 injured damaged church (on
worshippers)
July 6, Mamudo, Yobe Gunmen attacked a 42 dead School Attack
2013 State secondary school, administrative targeting
gathered the victims building and one innocent
in a central location of the hostels children
and then began burnt
shooting and
throwing explosives,
burnt some students
alive
December Maiduguri, Assault on military 24 Destroyed Large-scale,
2, 2013 Borno State airbase destroying two insurgents military barracks coordinated
helicopters and killed and other attack on the
"incapacitating" three buildings city's air base
decommissioned 2 soldiers
military aircrafts wounded
February Konduga, Attack on a town 53 dead Destruction of Abducted 25
11, 2014 Borno State including the only 2,000 houses, teenage girls,
(town 40 km hospital in the town shops, mosque, and one
from the State with the use of and others medical doctor
capital, sophisticated
Maiduguri) weapons
Table 3. Selected cases of Boko Haram attacks on infrastructure (Source: Adapted from media reports).
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Destruction of security infrastructure

Attacks are generally started by disabling security infrastructure. Soldiers and policemen at security
checkpoints are attacked and often killed, and the security checkpoints disabled. Police stations are
attacked, bombed, burnt down, detainees released and arms carted away. Policemen are sometimes killed in
the process. This often occurs on the outskirts of cities or in remote towns, where response to calls for
reinforcement may not be immediate. Notable exceptions are the attacks on Kano in January 2012 which left
185 people dead and several attacks in Maiduguri. More brazen attacks are targeted at army barracks, where
the families of soldiers are killed and buildings destroyed.
Bombing and robbery of financial institutions

Although armed robbery of banks can be difficult to distinguish from terrorist attacks against these financial
institutions, these attacks can be classified as terrorist when they are closely followed by attacks on civilians
and destruction of public infrastructure within the same vicinity. It is believed that these attacks on banks,
often accompanied by bombing of ATMs and bank vaults, are meant to provide funding for terrorist
operations.
Bombing of news organizations

News organizations perceived to be sympathetic to the government, or particularly critical of terrorists, are
sometimes the target of suicide bombers and car bombs. The bombing of the This Day Newspapers offices
in Abuja and Kaduna in 2012 are examples (Eboh & Mohammed 2012).
Bombing of international organizations

The most spectacular attack on international organizations is the bombing of the United Nations
Headquarters in Abuja in 2011 (Associated Press in Abuja 2011). A suicide bomber rammed an SUV packed
with bombs through the gates and at the reception, destroying several floors of the building and killing 18
people, most of whom were United Nations personnel.
Bombing of religious buildings

Churches have suffered a disproportionate share of bombings and attacks. These attacks are carried out
during church services or night vigils, and are characterised by bombings and shooting of parishioners.
Priests and pastors are often identified and slaughtered if they refuse to renounce their faith. Mosques have
also suffered attacks, and clerics deemed to be unsympathetic to the cause have been kidnapped or
assassinated.
Attacks on boarding schools and educational institutions

Boarding schools, Unity schools, Colleges of Education and Colleges of Agriculture have been targets of
night-time attacks. Buildings are touched, and students escaping from the burning buildings are
slaughtered or shot. Teachers are not spared either. The apparent motive is to close down these educational
institutions and to discourage students from being educated. The recent kidnapping of hundreds of girls in
April 2014 from the Government Secondary School in Chibok, a town in Borno State in North-eastern
Nigeria, has drawn worldwide condemnation (CNN Library 2014; Faul 2014).
Attacks on transportation facilities and networks

A common tactic of terrorists is to waylay traders travelling by bus or truck from other parts of the country to
buy food items and commodities. These attacks often occur at night, and apart from dispossessing these
traders, they are usually slaughtered, which makes it difficult to classify such attacks as armed robbery. Bus
stations are sometimes bombed, with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) placed in nylon bags or cars close
to fully loaded buses about to depart to the southern part of the country. Particularly devastating was the
suicide car bombing of a bus in Kano in March 2013, which killed between 22 and 65 people, and injured
scores of others. The resulting fire also destroyed four other buses, some with passengers trapped inside.
Destruction of communication infrastructure

After a state of emergency was declared in three northern states (Adamawa, Borno and Yobe), there was a
significant increase in the deployment of troops to flash points and the tempo and scale of combat
operations by the army and air force increased significantly. One of the responses to curtail this trend was an
attack on communication infrastructure as an attempt to limit the communication capabilities of
government forces, since they rely heavily on public communication infrastructure. The common tactic was
to bomb telecommunication masts, burn down the generators that provide backup power, and issue threats
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to communication companies to vacate the area. The same tactic was employed in Kano State, especially in
semi-urban areas.
TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE IN RESPONSE TO NEO-TERRORISM
The reaction to neo-terrorism is manifested in the transformation of urban infrastructure. The response to
terror can be psychological or physical, short-term or long-term. It is manifested in the change of social
behaviours and physical in transformation of urban infrastructure (Marcuse 2007). Cities attempt to address
the flash points and interfaces that trigger violence. Transformation of urban infrastructure to reduce the
likelihood of terrorist attacks can be manifest in relocation and separation, and also in the erection of road
blocks and protective barriers obstructing movement but providing extra security in public buildings. There
exists a large international industry devoted to providing anti-terrorist security in cities (Security China
2014). The products include CCTV surveillance and protection systems, anti-explosion and contraband
detection systems, police communications and applications, and information safety and protection systems.
Common transformation of urban infrastructure

The most common transformations of urban infrastructure in response to neo-terrorism in Nigeria include
the following:
Physical segregation of communities along religious and ethnic lines. This often occurs after consistent
and devastating attacks. Residents gradually relocate to areas where their ethnic or religious groups are a
majority.
Relocation of markets, offices and religious buildings. Certain trades and vocations are dominated by
specific ethnic groups, and these people relocate to areas where they feel safer. Religious buildings are often
abandoned after repeated attacks, and new ones built where the congregation has migrated, or in areas less
prone to attacks on the basis of religion.
Transformation of transportation networks. Transportation networks are significantly affected by ethnic

and faith-based attacks in urban areas. Shorter and wider routes passing through “dangerous” areas are
abandoned in favour of longer ones that are perceived to be safer. Motor parks are also affected, and are
sometimes designated along ethnic and religious lines.
Appropriation of communal facilities by a particular religious or ethnic group. Communal facilities that
lie within areas dominated by a particular religious or ethnic group are not patronised by other groups,
leading to poor service delivery or construction of new communal facilities to cater to the needs of the other
groups.
Common transformation of building complexes

The transformation of building complexes follows a similar pattern in the study area. The responses are
defensive and restrictive, are essentially additions to current structures, and because of their omnibus
application, they betray a corral mentality rather than a carefully conceived solution to invisible threats
embedded in the very fabric of the building.
Fencing, sandbagging and cordoning of churches. Churches have practically become no-go areas,
especially on Sunday mornings, when most services are held. Apart from fencing and sandbagging,
churches are cordoned off, and vehicles are not allowed within 50 metres of the church, where the car parks
are usually located. Parishioners therefore park haphazardly along the road, restricting free flow of traffic.
Crash barriers at gates and entrances. Complexes with double gates operate only one, with the other
permanently locked to make control of movement easier. This coupled with the erection of concrete crash
barriers has made access into complexes with a large number of visitors a nightmare. Long queues form at
the gates to these complexes, spilling onto the main road, and obstructing the free flow of traffic.
Decommissioning of car parks close to buildings. Access to car parks located close to buildings have
been blocked, thus preventing the use of the car parks, to prevent car bombing. Since service roads are also
blocked, access to the building by fire fighters is significantly hampered.
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Sealing of fire exits. Many buildings now have only one entrance and exit to make security control easier.
All other exits, including fire exits, are sealed. This has serious safety implications.
Transformation of Abuja
The most obvious transformation of Abuja is in the transportation network. All traffic passing directly in front
of key security buildings and complexes have been permanently diverted, causing serious restriction of
traffic flow. Since there are no warning signs or diagrams of alternative routes, visitors often find themselves
in a quandary. The most traumatic however is when there are important functions at the National Square
(Eagle Square). All traffic leading to the square is diverted, leading to hours of gridlock.
Transformation of Jos
Jos has essentially been transformed into a city of two peoples. Christian and Muslim communities are
separated by thin, invisible, yet very real lines. Artisans, traders and transporters are wary of crossing these
lines, even in broad daylight. Markets and even individual shops are marked with transparent religious and
ethnic insignias. Longer and more expensive transportation routes are preferred to shorter and cheaper
ones that pass through ‘enemy territory’, such as Bauchi Road (Plate 1). Despite the large number of armed
soldiers patrolling the city, people stampede to withdraw behind these lines at the slightest rumour of
‘trouble in town’.
Plate 1. A military check point along the volatile Bauchi Road in Jos (Source: Photograph by the authors 2014).
Transformation of Kaduna
One of the most devastating crises witnessed in Kaduna was the violent ethno-religious conflict between
Christians and Muslims in the year 2000, following the introduction of Sharia law in Kaduna State, of which
Kaduna is the capital. Muslims in Kaduna State are predominantly from a few ethnic groups living mainly in
the northern part of the state while Christians are from other ethnic groups living mainly in the southern
part of the state. In the aftermath of the crisis, an attempt was made by religious and community leaders, the
government and the state legislature to reconcile the Muslim and Christian communities. This culminated in
the so-called “Kaduna Compromise”, a model copied by other states, whereby only partial elements of
Sharia code were implemented and additional protections for Christians were introduced. As a result, there
is a dual court system of both secular and Sharia courts in the state. The distrust between the two
communities persists, and there is distinct segregation between Muslims who live in the north of the city,
and the Christians who inhabit the southern part. The scale of the migration of Christians to the southern
part of the city was evident from the sea of new buildings with tin roofs shining brightly in the sun as seen
when driving along the express road into the city from the south (Fleishman, Gerard & O’Leary 2008; The
Forum for Cities in Transition 2014)
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Transformation of Kano
Ethnic and religious riots are not new to Kano. Its location relatively far from the operational territory of Boko
Haram in the north east, and the introduction of Sharia law over a decade ago made it an unlikely target for
terrorists. Repeated simultaneous bombings and shootings, and the discovery of numerous bomb factories,
have nevertheless seriously affected this commercial hub of northern Nigeria. While the state government
has been working hard to combat these threats and guarantee security of lives and property, non-indigent
businesses and professionals have been relocating in droves, leading to economic and developmental
stagnation. This has had a visible negative impact on development of infrastructure and real estate in the
city.
CHALLENGES TO MODERN URBAN DESIGN THEORY
Nigerian cities have evolved from towns, often rapidly after their designation as administrative centres (state
capitals), but more gradually in response to rural-urban migration, and the relocation of artisans, traders and
professionals from other parts of the country. Nigerian cities are therefore essentially multi-ethnic, multi-
religious, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and generally diverse conglomerations. As these cities grew, they
swallowed surrounding villages and towns, further enriching their diversity. The master plans of these cities
were initially developed by foreigners, and later by professionals trained abroad, and they have generally
emulated urban design concepts adopted in similar developing cities. Many of these concepts are however
proving insufficiently adaptable to support the peaceful development of cities facing terrorist challenges,
and in which there are serious ethnic and religious divisions.
The Central Business District (CBD) concept

Nigerians cities have a clearly defined and centrally located business district where the main federal and
financial institutions are sited. They are often adjacent to the main market, the seat of the state government,
and the palace of the traditional ruler. The shortest routes also pass through or near the district. When cities
become divided, the ability of the CBD to propel growth is constrained, especially when control of the CBD
falls under a particular ethnic or religious group.
Modern urban transportation models

Nigeria cities have road networks with arterial roads radiating from the centre, and concentric ‘ring roads’
that cater mainly to transit traffic. As these cities grow and envelope surrounding towns, where most middle
income groups reside, there is usually only one road, usually an arterial road, linking these new towns with
the city centre. Residents can easily be cut off from their homes by blocking this single road, and even when
there are ring roads, they can be rendered partially useless by blocking them at a single point. In times of
crisis, members of ethnic or religious groups have easily blocked these escape routes and screened out
‘enemies’ for slaughter.
CHALLENGES TO ARCHITECTURAL PEDAGOGY
Fire and Emergency Exits

When fire and emergency exits are carefully designed and constructed, and then sealed as soon as the
building is put to use, the rationale behind providing them in the first place begins to be questioned.
Functional layout of building complexes

The functional layout of buildings is determined by maximum efficiency, and not necessarily security. These
buildings are however transformed in use to improve security. Thus, entrance to a typical house in Nigeria is
through the kitchen, which is easier to control, and not through the main entrance which is often
permanently locked. The zoning of functions should normally be based on pedestrian traffic and noise
sources, and not necessarily on susceptibility to terrorist attacks, an approach that may not be sustainable in
terrorist areas.
Access for physically challenged persons

Access for physically challenged persons to public buildings is a requirement established in the building
codes. Yet access to these buildings, even for able bodied persons, has become an ordeal.
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PROACTIVE URBAN PLANNING RESPONSES
The development of proactive urban planning responses to neo-terrorism is the subject of ongoing
research, but there are aspects of existing theory that can be adapted as short-term solutions.
The Chinatown and Sabon Gari concepts

The deliberate design of cities with distinct areas for various ethnic and religious groups can significantly
reduce casualties in case of instantaneous crises. This model has been in place in many megacities, where
each nationality tends to carve out its own territory. This has been the case in Chinatowns carved out of
American cities like New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. Other nationalities also carved
out ethnic enclaves such as Little Italies in several American, Canadian and European cities. Even Nigerians
have dominated several neighbourhoods in major cities in the United States and the United Kingdom. These
enclaves are urban cocoons where language, culture and religious practices are protected and preserved.
The Sabon Gari (strangers’ quarters or new town) found in most Nigerian cities serves a similar purpose of
housing new settlers, or so called foreigners. Even the Government Reservation Areas (GRAs) found in all
colonised Nigerian cities are basically social and class segregation layers in the urban fabric. Weaving ethnic,
religious and class segregation layers into urban development master plans is against the spirit of current
anti-discriminatory laws, but such regulations may need to be reviewed in the face of current security
challenges. The objective should be to promote diversity and to protect cultural and religious identity while
still discouraging discrimination.
The Distributed Business District (DBD) concept

Megacities are a conglomeration of cities and towns whose boundaries became indistinct with population
growth. The cities making up these megacities still retain their business districts. A conscious effort to design
Nigerian cities as an agglomeration of independent districts that can accommodate individual ethnic and
religious groups appears attractive in the face of current security challenges.
The no-man’s land concept

Developing cities with distinct districts for various groups will still produce an urban continuum as these
districts grow, unless buffer zones, probably in the form of industrial or recreational areas, are established to
prevent these districts from merging.
Grid transportation networks

The best road network that can provide the maximum number of possible routes from any departure point
to any destination is the grid road network. Apart from eliminating expensive roundabouts (traffic circles),
such a road network can be a lifesaver in times of crisis.
Standalone multi-storey parking with enhanced security

Car bombing can be significantly reduced if instead of providing visitor parking adjacent to security
buildings, stand-alone multi-storey parking with enhanced security is provided to cater to several such
buildings within the same vicinity.
PROACTIVE ARCHITECTURAL RESPONSES
Many of the architectural responses that have already been adopted in developed countries could also be
adapted proactively in Nigeria. Some of the responses proposed are however relatively novel.
Secure and adaptive building skins

Many modern buildings have double skins that serve aesthetic or energy efficiency purposes. Adaptive
second skins can be developed for high-risk buildings, and these skins would be capable of absorbing
shocks while protecting the occupants.
Reusable building components

The use of bolted and assembled building components instead of welded components or in situ concrete
can significantly enhance the reusability of building components after terrorist attacks.
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Concussion resistant structural building systems

Earthquake resistance of buildings has been developed to a level that many buildings now survive large
earth tremors. Similar technology can be developed for structural building systems that absorb shocks, such
as from bombs or collisions, and return to their previous state. The key to developing such systems is the
instantaneous dissipation of energy from the shocks. Similar results can be achieved by using explosion
venting, which uses pressure relief vents that activate at very low pressures, and protect buildings from
explosions and excess internal pressure (CS Construction Specialties Inc. 2014).
Peripheral security and biometric access rights

Sealing of fire and emergency exits will become unnecessary with adequate peripheral security and
provision of biometric access rights to key areas of buildings.
Electronic surveillance
This can help identify threats, especially when linked to security databases and national security systems. It
can also assist in identifying perpetrators, and provide intelligence to track down and arrest their sponsors.
Security zoning
Security should now play a more prominent role in the zoning of functions within buildings and complexes.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The current responses to the security challenges posed by the activities of Boko Haram have recorded mixed
success, and appear to have mainly short-term applicability. More proactive, long-term and comprehensive
responses need to be developed and embedded in the very fabric of our buildings and cities.
Our cities have been designed to make multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and diverse communities flourish as part
of a single entity. We need to revisit our model city to enable these same diverse communities flourish as
part of a multi-component but complementary entity.
Architectural designs submitted by students have hitherto been assessed based on the three requirements
of utility, beauty and firmness. The time has come to make resilience a fundamental requirement in
architecture.
REFERENCES
Abdulkadir, A., 2011. ‘A diary of ethno-religious crises in Nigeria: Causes, effects and solutions’, Social Science
Research Network, viewed 12 March 2014,
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2040860_code1817170.pdf?abstractid=2040860&mirid=
3>.
Arisenigeria., 2014. ‘Boko Haram Kano attacks: 215 dead, still counting...’, viewed 12 March 2014,
<http://arisenigeria.org/peoples-news/307-boko-haram-kano-attacks-215-dead-still-counting>.
Associated Press in Abuja., 2011. ‘Deadly bombing at UN building in Nigeria's capital’, The Guardian, 26
August, viewed 12 March 2014, <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/26/explosion-nigeria-un-
building-bomb>.
CNN Library., 2014. ‘Boko Haram fast facts’, viewed 12 June 2014, <
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/09/world/boko-haram-fast-facts/>.
CS Construction Specialties Inc., 2014. ‘Explovent brochure’, viewed 12 June 2014, <
http://www.explovent.com/documents/explovent_catalog.pdf>.
Eboh, C & Mohammed, G., 2012. ‘Suicide car bomb hit Nigerian newspaper offices’, Reuters, 26 April, viewed
12 March 2014, <http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/26/uk-nigeria-bomb-idUKBRE83P0O120120426>.
93
Farid, S., 2013. ‘Middle East - Opinion: Egyptian neo-terrorism’, Al Arabia News, 17 July, viewed 12 March
2014, <http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2013/07/17/Egyptian-neo-terrorism.html>.
Faul, M., 2014. ‘How Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok’, Global News, viewed 12
June 2014, <http://globalnews.ca/news/1314505/how-boko-haram-kidnapped-hundreds-of-schoolgirls-
from-chibok/>.
Federal Emergency Management Agency., n.d. Holistic disaster recovery: Creating a more sustainable future,
training guide, viewed 12 March 2014,
<http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/downloads/hdr/EMIDRTextSession%20II%20Final%209.17.04.pdf>.
Federal Government of Nigeria., 2002. ‘Strategic conflict assessment Nigeria: Consolidated report’, Institute
for Peace and Conflict Resolution, viewed 12 March 2014, http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNACT887.pdf.
Fleishman R, Gerard C & O’Leary R., 2008. Recent developments in conflict resolution, Emerald Group
Publishing, Bingley.
Marcuse, P., 2007. ‘The threat of terrorism and existential insecurity: Urban policy responses’, viewed 12
March 2014, <http://www.publicspace.org/en/text-library/eng/b027-the-threat-ot-terrorism-and-existential-
insecurity-urban-policy-responses>.
Ogunsote, OO & Prucnal-Ogunsote, B., 2007. ‘Extreme weather and climate events: Implications for urban
planning, architecture and tourism infrastructure in Nigeria’, Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference
of the Nigerian Meteorological Society, FUT, Akure, pp. 87-107.
Resilient Design Institute., 2014. ‘What is resilience’, viewed 12 March 2014,

<http://www.resilientdesign.org/>.
Security China., 2014. ‘2014 Security China: The 12th China International Exhibition on public safety and security’,
Beijing, viewed 12 March 2014, <http://www.securitychina.com.cn/English/>.
Article II.
Article III. Sennott, CM., 2014. ‘Surge in Nigeria's communal violence punctuates peace conference’,
viewed 12 March 2014, <http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/groundtruth/surge-
nigerias-communal-violence-punctuates-peace-conference>.
The Forum for Cities in Transition., 2014. ‘Kaduna’, viewed 12 March 2014, <http://citiesintransition.net/fct-
cities/kaduna/>.
Uji, ZA., 2013. ‘Conflicts and crises among communities in Nigeria: Challenges of curricular development on
rebuilding devastated environments for sustainability’, paper presented at the 2013 Architects Colloquium,
ARCON, Abuja.
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FATHER OF THE COMMUNITY ‘BAREFOOT’ ARCHITECTURE PROJECT

Tia Kansara, University College London, Energy Institute, United Kingdom, tia.kansara.10@ucl.ac.uk
Abstract
Community ‘Barefoot’ architecture began with the early work of Rod Hackney (referred to as Rod henceforth), who
has spent his professional career improving slum communities with self-help methods. This paper traces the
process and the growth of the Community Architecture way of working, highlighting the role of the professional
architect as an enabler assisting the residents’ in up-grading run-down slum communities. To be successful, it is
important that the architect takes up residence and lives and works within housing slum areas. These slum-
upgrading methods were acknowledged by the Union of International Architects (UIA) in 1981. The Sir Robert
Mathew Prize citation stated that the, “work represents an extremely innovative approach to Community
Architecture. Here, as a member of the community, the architect assumes the role of organizer and teacher,
helping people to improve their own living environment. The technology transfer is part of a process in
community design and reconstruction.”
Peter Hall, professor at University College London, in his book entitled: Cities of Tomorrow: - An Intellectual History
of Urban Planning (1988), attributed community ‘Barefoot’ Architecture, pioneered by Rod with empowering slum
tenants in taking control of their community.
The community ‘Barefoot’ architecture project has spanned over almost half a century. This submission chronicles
Rod’s involvement in the project.
Keyword: community architecture, Rod Hackney, barefoot.
INTRODUCTION
Like many architects in the 1960’s, Rod was trained as a Modernist, at the School of Architecture, Manchester
University. As part of his professional practice he worked on squatter settlements in Tripoli, Libya. This was
before he departed for Arne Jacobsen’s office in Copenhagen, where he learnt about a more wholesome
approach to design. In 1971, he bought an 1815 slum terraced house (Black Road) with the aim of
completing his PhD.
At the time, the Black Road terraces were officially categorised as ‘unfit for human habitation’ and were
pending demolition. Upon hearing this, the Black Road slum residents challenged the British government. In
their fight to save their homes from mass demolition, they voted for Rod to be the chairperson of the Black
Road Committee (Hackney 2014). This led, in 1973, to the residents winning their ‘bottom-up, 24 month,
‘Battle of Black Road’ (Hackney 2014).22
The Black Road project became Europe’s first rehabilitation of self-helpers. Rod’s rehabilitation skills earned
him in 1975, the title, ‘Community Architect Mark 1’ (Charles Knevitt 1975). In 1996, Rod’s early British work
reached the finals in the United Nations World Habitat Awards. The citation read:“(Rod) organised local
groups and residents to fight slum clearance proposals and helped people improve their own housing. The
Community Architecture approach broke with traditional dogma and practice and the role of the architect
changed from that of authoritarian professional expert to that of an organiser of housing activity,
interpreting rather than acting as arbiter for the resident's wishes. A variety of schemes in all parts of the
country have been carried out on these principles, both new build and rehabilitation of older housing”.23
‘Barefoot’ as a process of solving some of the world’s urban housing problems, went viral. It is currently
recognised as an acceptable process to help overcome slum problems and encourage sustainably
renewable, human energy. Black Road is often used as the prototype for subsequent ‘Barefoot’ projects. The
slum dwellers were the catalyst, around which everything else revolved. The Architect’s Journal mentioned
how the process of rehabilitation, using “Hackney’s work,” improved houses efficiently and economically:
see Figure 1.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
22!http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781315770024
!
23 http://www.worldhabitatawards.org/winnersCandC
finalists/projectdetails.cfm?lang=00&theProjectID=75!
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Figure 1: (Source: Author & Architects’ Journal 5th Oct. 1977).
THE EARLY YEARS – 1967 TO 1988

Rod’s work was influenced by his experiences in Libya.
“His programme of work of finding rationalised solutions to the problem of rehousing and resettling the
squatters to be sufficiently advanced at his time of departure to ensure that his successor will find it easy to
carry on and implement the work initiated by Mr. Hackney” (Rod Hackney archives & Mohamad Wakwak,
Ministry of Housing and State Property, Libya, 17th October 1968 letter).
Whilst living in North Africa, Hassan Fathy and Charles Correa considerably influenced Rod. Both were
awarded the Union of International Architect’s gold medal (Hassan Fathy in 1985 and Charles Correa in 1990)
for innovative housing schemes: see Figure 2.
Figure 2: Excerpts from "Architecture for the poor" (Source: Author).
COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE PHILOSOPHY AND APPROACH

In 1971, it was unusual for architects to live in slum areas, but Rod’s residency was important in helping his
fellow residents organise alternative action to the standard demolition of pre-1919 terraced housing. This
became the basis of all community architectural schemes. The architect must live in the scheme.
In ‘The Good the Bad and the Ugly’ (Hackney 2014), Rod states the government decree, to destroy the Black
Road community, led the residents’ to campaign that it was more sustainable to save their homes by
improvement rather than destruction. This would lead to keeping the community together and to allow the
residents to retain their homes. This formed the approach of community architecture. The owners
themselves should carry out the improvement of homes. The architect(s) thereby put their own reputation
in stake.
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The ‘rebelliousness’ of the residents living at the Black Road ‘dilapidated old slums’ angered local officials,
who were not familiar with being challenged. The Black Road residents steadfastly resisted official policy.
Rod prepared a report from his home at 222 Black Road, which was endorsed by his neighbours and fellow
residents. Rod’s report showed that not only was rehabilitation a more socially acceptable way of relieving
the neighbourhood slum conditions, but also it was more economical, saving both time and money
(Hackney 2014).
Black Road, in 1971, like 1.5 million other old terraced houses in Britain had shared dilapidated outside
toilets, poor water supply fed by leaking lead pipes, inadequate and collapsed drains, gas lighting, failed
chimney flues discharging smoke into non-partitioned attics (Hackney 2014). Internally the houses had bad
arrangement with poor planning and low ceilings. The properties had damp walls, rising damp through dirt
floors and roofs that allowed rain penetration.
After a long protracted struggle, lasting 2 years, the negotiation skills on Rod’s part culminated in the local
Macclesfield Advertiser praising Rod and his fellow residents in January 1973 when they published: “The
man from the council is all too often seen as an ogre, someone to be regarded with suspicion. Now that the
Black Road campaign has all but succeeded, and everybody knows just how it’s succeeded, it can be readily
seen how public participation in such a scheme can have enormous beneficial effects. In future years there
will be many Black Roads springing up in Macclesfield as the town tries to improve itself. We hope the
lessons learned recently won’t be forgotten” (Hackney 2014: pp. 72-73).
These lessons provided political parties information about Barefoot and as such Community Architecture
fast become important in their political dogma: see Figure 3.
Figure 3: ‘Barefoot’ becomes political (Source: Louis Hellman archives).
Community Architecture changed the British architectural scene (Hackney 2014). In a recent RIBA journal
article (February 5th 2013) titled, ‘Gateway to the future’, it stated: “Often despised and overlooked, the
1970s, sandwiched between modernism and postmodernism, were in fact a moment of radical change in
architecture.” The author, Elain Harwood, argued that architects: “sought new forms, reinvestigated
traditional materials, discovered energy efficiency, mining a rich new seam of adaptation and re-use”.
Referring to the Black Road project the article went on: “renovation extended slowly into the domestic
market too, as shown by schemes like Rod Hackney’s for the terraces of Black Road, Macclesfield, in 1972-3.
Restoration, it seemed, could benefit a community more than rebuilding. The Housing Act of 1974 finally
made it relatively simple for ordinary households to secure grants towards a kitchen or bathroom.”24
Thus the final approach of a community architect is to challenge the status quo. Getting the trust of
community groups and keeping the momentum of projects whilst maintaining transparency and honesty
do this. This Rod suggests is the genuine commitment made to residents (Hackney 2014]).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
24!http://ribajournal.com/pages/feb13_rethink_202980.cfm
!
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COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE CHANGES THE SCENE
In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Prince Charles (HRH) visited some of Rod’s schemes, including Macclesfield, Burnley
and Stirling, and cited Rod’s work in his speeches. The relationship, which grew between the British heir to
the throne and Rod, began at the 150th anniversary of the RIBA at Hampton Court, when HRH mentioned
Rod in a speech for the first time. This came as a surprise to the audience. The principal guest, invited to
celebrate British architecture, chose instead to criticise some of the architectural stars of the modern
movement. In place, HRH said:
“For far too long, it seems to me, some planners and architects have consistently ignored the feelings and
wishes of the mass of ordinary people in this country. Perhaps, when you think about it, it is hardly surprising
as architects tend to have been trained to design buildings from scratch - to tear down and rebuild. …“To be
concerned about the way people live; about the environment they inhabit and the kind of community that is
created by that environment should surely be one of the prime requirements of a really good architect. It
has been most encouraging to see the development of Community Architecture as a natural reaction to the
policy of decamping people to new towns and overspill estates where the extended family patterns of
support were destroyed and the community life was lost.” He went on, “This sort of development, spear-
headed as it is by such individuals as… Rod Hackney offers something very promising in terms of inner city
renewal and urban housing.”25
As Rod was leaving Hampton Court, he was told that HRH wanted a private meeting about visiting Rod’s
home at Black Road. The Prince who visited Macclesfield on 8th February 1985, was “gob-smacked” by the
‘Barefoot’ movement, (Peter Neal, Rod Hackney archives) and was inspired to give another speech, this time
to the Institute of Directors, delivered in London on the 27th February 1985.
“The real answer, I would contend, lies in the enormous human potential waiting to be given the incentive
and encouragement to play a fuller part in continuing to the common good, waiting to be released from the
over-numerous shackles of bureaucracy and all-pervading atmosphere of ‘the professionals’ knowing what
is best for you…in the case of Macclesfield the residents of a crumbling terrace of houses, built in 1815,
resisted the scheduled demolition of their houses and with the inspiration of a pioneering architect, Rod
Hackney, they renovated their own buildings and entirely transformed their environment” (Prince Charles,
speech to Institute of Directors, Royal Albert Hall, 27th February 1985 – Rod Hackney archives).
Rod had established a number of ‘Barefoot’ offices in Birmingham, run on the same basis as Black Road,
where the Community Architecture process was replicated, but at a larger scale. The method was to invite
the community architect, who was employed by Rod, to live and work in the project. Other Rod Hackney and
Associates offices, located throughout the UK, (in Birmingham, Stirling, Newtown, Bolton, Manchester,
Clitheroe, Stoke-on-Trent, Belfast, Millom, Cleator Moor, Carlisle, and Burnley) repeated the same
Community Architecture methodology each had an architect on site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Community engagement and education is key in successful schemes, which uplift poor inner city conditions.
Poor living conditions contributed to the 1980’s riots in most U.K. cities - see Figure 4.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
25!http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/searchresults?search=rod+hackney
!
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Figure 4: HRH letter to Rod Hackney - (Source: Rod Hackney archive).
Rod and Lord Scarman later raised awareness of Community Architecture, in a conference at the Astoria
Theatre in London in 1986. Rod, as the conference president, saw the conference as an opportunity to
broadcast to politicians and the international media the Community Architecture process. He understood
that people in high places needed to hear what could be achieved using the bottom up approach, rather
than the top down approach. After the conference, Lord Scarman described Rod as: “An architect who in his
century had the qualities Christopher Wren and even Archimedes had in theirs” (Quote used on the back
cover, Hackney 2014).
There were a number of European visitors to the conference. Delegates from Germany and Sweden asked
Rod to advise them on the applicability of the ‘Barefoot’ project in Kreutzburg, Berlin and Tensta, Stockholm.
Rod visited both in the 1980’s. The project was transferred internationally in Kreutzburg when Rod advised
squatter groups on self-help methods. Although the knowledge transfer was initially successful, things
changed radically in Berlin when the wall came down. Kreutzburg was no longer on the border with East
Berlin, but became part of the centre of New Berlin with property prices rising dramatically. In 1989 in Tensta
he drew up a 10-point plan to assist the multi-ethnic groups to take responsibility for their community. His
last visit to Tensta was in March 2014 where he continued advising the local government in Stockholm of
their need to trust the local community to take on more self-management. There had been panic in the
Stockholm government after a spate of community riots in 2013. Sweden moved to the right politically and
Tensta was showing signs of becoming a ‘sink’ estate, with the proportion of immigrants increasing greatly
with ‘white flight’ from Tensta. Rod’s report is lodged with the School of Architecture at the Kungliga
Tekniska Hogskolan in Stockholm: see Figure 5.
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Figure 5: Conference on Community Architecture – (Source: Rod Hackney archive)
Community Architecture then spread to North America where Rod, an honorary member of the American
Institute of Architects (AIA), was involved in the Regional/Urban Design Assistant Team (RUDAT). This
allowed the local architects to advise community groups on urban improvement. Rod’s views on the riots
were reported throughout North America. The Chicago Tribune on the 25th October 1985, wrote: “Prince
Charles, who reportedly said he feared inheriting the throne of a Britain divided by racial rioting has been
accused of crossing the line dividing the royal family from the political arena. Architect Rod Hackney who
dined Monday with Charles, was quoted in interviews published Wednesday as saying the prince was
worried about the recent rioting in largely black neighbourhoods. He is very worried that when he becomes
king there will be ‘no-go’ areas in the inner cities and that the minorities will be alienated from the rest of the
country, Hackney, the prince’s architectural advisor, said” (Chicago Times 1985).
Following the interest in North America, Rod organised a Community Architecture international event in
Pittsburg, USA, in 1988 and asked HRH to accompany him. Rod ensured that the American Institute of
Architects and the RIBA were joint hosts of the event and a number of other participants from the 1986
Building Communities Conference were invited to cross the Atlantic: see Figure 6.
Figure 6: Remaking Cities Conference 1988, Pittsburg, USA – (Source: Author).
The Community Architecture project continues to receive HRH support, and along with Climate Change, are
the two main interests closest to the prince’s heart. Time Magazine, published in October 2013, in an article
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by Catherine Mayer, states: “His (HRH’s) concerns have been and primarily remain, in his own words,
everything from climate change to Community Architecture”: see Figure 7.
Figure 7: Time Magazine – (Source: Author & Time Magazine).
Peter Hall, professor at University College London, in his book entitled: Cities of Tomorrow: 'An Intellectual
History of Urban Planning' (1997) attributed Rod with two things. The first was new government legislation in
the form of the 1974 Housing Act, which switched funds to rehabilitation rather than demolition of slums
followed by mass redevelopment. This new Act of Parliament, influenced by Rod’s work, put slum dwellers in
control of their communities. This new Act of Parliament strengthened the 1969 Act on which the Black
Road residents had relied upon. The second, as a result of the birth of Community Architecture, Margaret
Thatcher, Britain’s prime minister at that time, sold a million housing units to government tenants. This
change in house ownership led to a boom in sustainable Community Architecture and a new role for
environmental professionals: see Figure 8.
Figure 8: Peter Hall: Cities of Tomorrow - Source: (Author & Professor Peter Hall).
Over two decades after the first spate of inner city riots, architects were no longer being blamed for the
breakdown of law and order within the inner city estates. The BD magazine went on to clarify: “…There was
a notable absence of anyone prepared to blame the evils of architecture. This was different to the last time
North London erupted – in the summer of 1985 – when the Broadwater farm estate in Tottenham went up in
flames…At that time architecture was in the firing line.” (Baillieu BD online, 16th August 2011): see Figure 9.
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Figure 9: Building Design Magazine – (Source: Author & bdonline.co.uk).
THE GLOBAL SPREAD OF COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE - 1988 to 2014
“From the birthplace of the Community Architecture movement: Black Road, Macclesfield, Rod Hackney’s
influence has spread throughout the globe” (Wates & Knevitt 2013).
“Inspired by the..example of British architect Rod Hackney, local communities in many countries around the
world have adopted the do-it-yourself approach to better housing” (Emirates Magazine 1999): see Figure 10.
Figure 10: ‘Barefoot’ World Map - (Source: Author).
The ‘Barefoot’ method is used to alleviate poverty. The aim is to reduce the increasing population living in
urban slums. Rod's Community Architecture methodology has benefited sustainable urban development
and influenced many countries around the world. In Dublin, in 2001, at a conference on architecture as a
poverty reduction tool, Paul Hyett (RIBA Past President) reported on Rod’s work as being a basic human right
for all, which required “intellect, passion, humanity and humility”: see Figure 11.
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Figure 11: UIA Conference 2001 – (Source: Author, Paul Hyett/Architects Journal).
‘The Challenge of Slums’ (UN-Habitat 2003) argues that without tackling the slum problem, rapid unplanned
urban expansion will become a human and environmental disaster. Rod spent time researching Neza-
Chalco-Itza, Mexico; Kibera, Nairobi; Dharavi, Mumbai and Orangi, Karachi to find in these four slums, unlit
streets are unpaved, rubbish strewn and potholed. Hundreds of people share a basic communal toilet and
sometimes a working water outlet.
Rod’s ‘Barefoot’ projects were welcomed by Latin American schools of architecture, as a new role for
architects. Local politicians saw it as a novel way of modernizing the favelas. Rod visited Peru in the
footsteps of John Turner to look at community self-help housing. John Turner liaised with Rod during Black
Road and formulated a modus operandi for large-scale replicability. Turner's book, ‘Freedom to Build’ states:
“When dwellers control the major decisions and are free to make their own contribution to the design,
construction and management - the environment produced stimulates individual and social-well-being”:
see Figure 12.
Figure 12. John Turner - (Source Author & Freedom to build, Collier Macmillan Ltd).
During the 1990’s, Rod, working with Jaime Lerner, advised South American administrators that favelas,
rather than blight, were sustainable/renewable resources deserving official backing through residents’
participatory budgeting. Today, favelas have been saved from mass demolition, and over 200 Latin
American cities have introduced favela participatory budgeting.
Specifically, in 1997, Rod prepared a paper for the South American Architects in Curitiba, Brazil. He was
reported in the local press as the man who said that, with the Community Architecture approach and
residents’ participation, the slums won’t be slums anymore: see Figure 13.
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Figure 13: Favelas - (Source: Author & Journal do Estado, Cidades, 7th Nov. 1997).
Two days later, reporters gathered in a favela where the media covered Rod’s meeting with the local
community. Rod exhibited his slides on the Black Road ‘Barefoot’ approach to Brazilian residents and praised
the neighbourhoods for avoiding demolition and redevelopment in the form of concrete built mass housing
estates (Folha 9th November 1997): see Figure 14.
Figure 14: Monstrous de Concreto (Source: Author & Folha Reportagem, 9th Nov. 1997).
Tagore Pereira, a Brazilian architect, prepared, in a press release to the Brazilian media regarding Rod’s
formulae for renovating Favelas, a report on the 15th Congress of Brazilian Architects, October 29th 1997. He
said,
“Besides the speech proffered by Oscar Niemeyer, Rod Hackney, who talked about his Community
Architecture work for the poor, was the one which caused the greatest commotion in the public. With his
keen British sense of humour, and because of the fascinating topic exposed, he completely captivated the
audience of 1,500 people, so much so it was difficult for him to leave the auditory, because of the great
number of fans asking for his autograph and for taking pictures” (Pereira 15th Congress Organisation
Committee – Rod Hackney archive).
In Asia, Rod, seeking to scale up the Community Architecture process, participated in the Sri Lankan 1
million-house programme. Rod made 3 teaching visits to study President Premadasa's innovative 1 million-
house building programme in Sri Lanka, see Figure 15. This allowed him to witness the scale of replication
needed to overcome the problem of slum conditions. He advised that ordinary people should be able to
complete their houses if the programme limited itself to a concrete slab and plumbing supply to the centre
of the slab. When the residents could afford it, they completed their homes: see Figure 15.
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Figure 15: Million-house programme (Source: BMICH, Sri-Lanka Society of Architects).
In India, Rod taught at a number of Schools of architecture and held conferences and accepted
appointments, which promoted decent housing for the poor. One such appointment was to help advise the
Centre for Human Settlements in Calcutta. Mother Teresa advised Rod to serve on the Human Settlements
committee when she received Rod on one of his nationwide tours of India in 1990: see Figure 16.
Figure 16: CHS Habitat (Source: Centre for Human Settlements, Kolkata).
Rod used his various presidencies (RIBA and UIA) to broadcast the ‘Barefoot’ process and persuade architects
throughout the world that they needed to play their professional role in serving urban slum dwellers, see
Figure 17.
Figure 17: RIBA Community Architecture & Sustainability (Source: Author & RIBA).
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In 2013, Rod and Professor Wu Liangyong celebrated working together for 30 years on ‘Barefoot’ projects. At
his home in Tsinghua University he reminded Rod, in the presence of the author of this submission, that Rod
was the first ‘Barefoot’ architect from the West.
Figure 18: Dr Wu Liangyong with Rod, 2013 (Source: Author).
“Our joint collaboration has continued from the 1980’s when I invited Rod to talk to my architectural
students in Tsinghua University – then through the 1990’s where Rod helped me prepare the Beijing Charter
which the International Union of Architects, at its Beijing Congress in 1999, accepted as the way forward in
the 21st Century for architects. This is an important document for architects directing them to a more
sympathetic approach to revitalising human settlements. For his efforts, Rod was made an honorary
member of the Architects Society China, one of only two foreigners to have been offered such an accolade,
since the ASC was founded in 1953.” Professor Wu Liangyong, December 2013 at Tsinghua University: see
Figure 18.
When Rod was first acknowledged, in the 1980’s, as a ‘Barefoot’ architect in China, the Beijing press reported
that: “Rod Hackney is a grass-roots Mr. ‘Barefoot’ architect. His inventive reconstruction activities in the city,
the organization of local residents in order to make the spirit of self-reliance to regenerate run-down of the
old city, to solve the problem of urban housing and urban renewal to find a new way, called ‘Hackney
phenomenon’…." (Zhang Baiping, Architectural Society of China 28th August 1988): see Figure 19.
Figure 19: UIA Congress 1999 (Source Author & Professor Wu, Tsinghua University).
CONCLUSION
In 1780, Thomas Jefferson said: “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing . . . It is a
medicine necessary for the sound health of government . . .”
Most architecture graduates stumble upon ‘Barefoot’, which was also the case for Rod, who is often asked
how to prepare oneself to be a ‘Barefoot’ architect. By taking on the government and the RIBA, he took a
blind chance, allowing destiny to dictate the journey. Blessed with equally driven neighbours who had lost
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faith in their local council, the slum dwellers guided Rod to help them overturn governmental and RIBA
policy. Inspired by the words of the founding father and principal author of the American declaration of
independence, Black Road, as a rebellious incident, was part of the 1960-1975 ‘Timeline’.26
All residents refused to sign any documentation that resulted in them being removed from Black Road,
preferring instead to sign a trust deed between themselves, which was eventually countersigned by the
council. The local government capitulated and agreed with the rebellion but they were not disappointed by
the outcome of their volte-face. There was no gentrification in Black Road. The RIBA Presidential portrait
prepared by Dominic Harris of Rod in 2013 shows a few of the surviving residents and their siblings from the
campaigning days.
Figure 20: ‘Barefoot’ continues to thrive, RIBA Presidential Photographs (Source Author, Woman Magazine, 1979
& Dominic Harris, 2013).
The 2013 photo is from the same viewpoint as the cover story photograph by of Woman Magazine in 1979 –
“the Pied Piper of Black Road”, pp31-34 and photograph pages. This scheme is Black Road No. 2. There are
two insets, the first of the houses as they were before improvement 1971 (in black and white) and the
second of the completion in 1976 (in colour). Joan Broadhead, of 2 Holland’s Place, Macclesfield is in charge
of the running of the Black Road project. Joan appears in two photographs, see Figure 20.
At Black Road, many of the residents were unemployed. The Community ‘Barefoot’ architecture project
helped job creation. Like, Black Road, many of the residents of Rod's earlier UK schemes went on to be
employed using new skills learnt converting their slums to sustainable homes. In Colquhoun Street, Stirling,
Scotland, he showed that unemployed people, particularly redundant coal miners, could create new jobs
through community ‘Barefoot’ architecture slum alleviation pursuits. In 1987, the Colquhoun Street Self
Build Cooperative was recognised in World Habitat Award jury for its mutual aid, self-management of
resources and self-help. Genevieve Jones was the community architect who worked for Rod Hackney and
Associates and who lived on-site 24 hours a day during the project. Colquhoun Street, like other schemes
after Macclesfield, replicated the principles established for running a community ‘Barefoot’ architecture
project first established in Black Road in 1971.
In some countries, over 50% of young people of working age, are unemployed. This is un-sustainable.
Renovating slums is a 21st Century job creating opportunity, similar in scale to the 19th Century job-creating
industrial revolution. Alleviating slum deprivation and job creation is not only producing safe places to live,
but also encouraging the residents, whilst they improve their homes, to learn work skills, which, when they
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
26!http://www.cjayarts.com/pages/ASSORTED/tline/tline.htm
!
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have completed their home improvements, can lead to the self-helpers being rewarded with paid jobs
within their locality.
Rod was invited to a Peace conference in Tokyo in 2008, where he met Bill Gates. Rod, with business partner,
congratulating Gates on his health initiatives in Africa, and asked him whether he would consider extending
his initiative to improving township homes and allow local residents gain confidence by being involved with
the community ‘Barefoot’ architecture project. The Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation now support the drive
to provide innovative affordable township homes in Africa, see Figure 21.
Figure 21: Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation townships in Africa (Source: Author & Malcolm Worby).
Rod argues that the in-situ resident professional can design the process but not the form of the building; this
is best left to the slum dwellers who are infinitely ‘richer’ in the ways they live and organise themselves. This
is positive, meaningful and healthy survival from the bottom-up. Despite the architectural critics who are
interested in ‘style’, the community ‘Barefoot’ architecture project raises the human spirit – it can create
peace and reasonable living environments. Rod argues that this is the basis of good architecture and is good
for the architectural profession. In 2013, Rod received The Guardian Award for “encouraging people to
become involved with their community.”27
Finally, the ‘Barefoot’ project is made up of small courageous simple solutions where slum dwellers take
control of their destiny. It is a mistake to think it can be organised as a top-down large-scale mega-project.
Who knows, if our economists and politicians grasp the opportunity, these small initiatives will become
firmly rooted and take hold in the large urban slums and grow into healthy trees. As E.F. Schumacher said in
1973, in his book, ‘Small is Beautiful, A study in economics ss if people mattered’: “Any intelligent fool can
make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to
move in the opposite direction.”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
27 !http://www.gwtltd.com/2013/02/19/constructionCindustryChonoursCtheCunsungC
heroesCinCaCbidCtoCinspireCmoreCpeopleCtoChelpCcharities/!
!
!
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Author wishes to thank Rod for use of his personal archives of material used in this paper, without
which, the paper would not have been possible.
REFERENCES
‘21 years of community architecture world habitat awards’, viewed 22 February 2014,
http://www.worldhabitatawards.org/winners-and-finalists/projectdetails.cfm?lang=00&theProjectID=75
Architect’s Journal, 1977. ‘Down your way current projects by Rod Hackney’ pp. 629-636.
Architect’s Journal, 1978. ‘Belfast support for Hackney’, Architect’s Journal, vol. 50, no. 168, p. 1117.
Baillieu, A., 1985. www.bdonline.co.uk/this-time-no-one’s-blaming.../5022987.blog

Baiping, Z., 1988. ‘Self-transformation urban architecture’, viewed 1 February 2014,
http://lib.cnki.net/search.php?q=rod%2520hackney.
Broadhead, J & Hart, D., 1977. ‘More new homes out of old – with hard work and wider vision’, Macclesfield
Express.
Broadhead, J., 2013. ‘The street that’s as safe as houses’, Macclesfield Express, p. 4.
Chicago Tribune, 1985. Prince Charles rioting politics, 25th October, viewed 2 February 2014,
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-10-25/news/8503130251_1_prince-charles-rioting-politics.
De Castro, M., 1997. ‘Hackney combate monstrous de concreto’, Folha Conference, 9th November, Curitiba.
Eigerland, T., 1999. Emirates Magazine, English issue 131, p. 9, 38-45, Motivate Publishing, Dubai.
Fathy, H., 2010. Architecture for the poor: an experiment in rural Egypt, University of Chicago press, Chicago.
Gateway to the future, Rethink, RIBA Journal, viewed 10 March 2014,
http://ribajournal.com/pages/feb13_rethink_202980.cfm
Hackney, R., 1975. ‘Perspectives in public health - The Black Road improvement area’,
The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol. 95, pp. 41-45, viewed 8 May 2014,
http://rsh.sagepub.com/content/95/1/41.extract.
Hackney, R., 1990. The good, the bad and the ugly: cities in crisis, 1st edition, Frederick Muller, London.
Hackney, R., 2014. The good, the bad and the ugly: cities in crisis, 2nd edition, Routledge, London, viewed 3 May
2014, http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781315770024/.
Hall, P., 1988. Cities of tomorrow, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
Higginbotham, M., 1974. ‘Community architecture’, Macclesfield Express, February 1999.
Hobson, M., 2013. ‘Guardian Award for “encouraging people to become involved with their community”’,
viewed 2 May 2014, http://www.gwtltd.com/2013/02/19/construction-industry-honours-the-unsung-
heroes-in-a-bid-to-inspire-more-people-to-help-charities/)
Hyett, P., 2001. ‘Architecture, a basic human right’, Architects Journal, 6-13 December, viewed 1 February
2014, http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/architecture-a-basic-human-right/185911.article.
Knevitt, C., 1975. Community Architect Mark 1, Interview of Rod Hackney: It’s only working class
conservation, London Times newspaper architectural correspondent and Building Design magazine, July 11th
1975, p. 8.
Marmot, M., 2009. Harnessing the power of business for sustainable health and wealth for all: From
corporate social responsibility to new Forms of socially responsible capitalism, viewed 8 May 2014,
http://www.mcgill.ca/files/mwp/OC26_MWP_TT_INAUGURAL_CIRC.pdf
Mayer, C., 2013. ‘Inside Prince Charles’ world as he quietly takes charge’, Time Magazine, 4 November, viewed
1 January 2014, http://time.com/579/inside-prince-charles-world-as-he-quietly-takes-charge/.
Milarski, D., 1977. Arquiteto Ingles mora favelas para desenvolver projectos. Journal do Estado, Cidades, p. 4.
Pereira, T., 1997. ‘Rod Hackney in Brazil’, 15th Congress Organisation Committee, Press release in English.
Schumacher, E. F., 1973. Small is beautiful, economics as if people mattered, Harper & Row, New York.
Simopoulos, A., 2001. ‘World review of nutrition and dietics’, Vol. 102, pp. 244-247.
UN-Habitat, 2003. ‘The challenge of slums — Global report on human settlements’, viewed 3 February 2014,
http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?typeid=19&catid=555&cid=5373>.
109
Wakwak, M., 1968. Ministry of Housing and State Property, Libya, 17th October 1968 in a general letter of
reference to ‘whom it may concern’, submitted to Arne Jacobsen in July 1969 as part of the job application.
Wates, N & Knevitt, C., 2013. Community architecture: how people are creating their own environment,
Routledge, London.
Woman Magazine, 1979. ‘The pied piper of Black Road’, Woman Magazine, pp. 31-34.
110
PLANNING FOR PERMANENT EMERGENCY

Arturo Velazquez-Ruiz, MSc, School of Architecture, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico,
arq.arturo.vr@gmail.com
Fernando N. Winfield-Reyes, PhD, School of Architecture, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico,
carpediem33mx@yahoo.com.mx
Gustavo Bureau-Roquet, PhD, School of Architecture, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico,
gbureaur@hotmail.com
Abstract
Due to its geographical situation, the State of Veracruz in Southern Mexico is highly susceptible to flooding and
other hazards. This paper will show how the planning system in Mexico has not yet been able to deliver safer
communities in post-emergency scenarios. It is necessary that local authorities should not have the liberty to
change the land uses among its territory indiscriminately. Private developers who breach these regulations should
be punished and the damage restored. A strong social participation system is also considered important in order
to build resilience and awareness among communities, and further prevent damages due to future climate-
related disasters.
Keywords: planning, resilience, emergency, Mexico.
INTRODUCTION: SOME RECENT CIRCUMSTANCES ON COASTAL RISK AREAS IN MEXICO

Mexico has more than 11,122 kilometers of coastline (INEGI 2013) divided in two regions; the Pacific Ocean
in the west and the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico in the east. It is also located in a major corridor of
tropical storms and hurricanes, which makes it highly susceptible to flooding and other hazards.
For example, since 2005 hurricanes in Veracruz such as ‘Stan’ and later ‘Matthew’ and ‘Karl’ in 2010,
presented systemic problems due to a lack of proper planning. In September of 2013, Acapulco, a city
located in a designated flood zone and one of the most famous resort cities on the Pacific Coast was severely
damaged by hurricane ‘Manuel’. This storm resulted in more than 50 deaths, 230,000 victims and important
damages to primary infrastructure among which were the International Airport and a major motorway, the
‘Autopista del Sol’, which connects the Pacific coast with Mexico’s capital city.
This event raised basic questions: Who authorized development in flood susceptible areas? Why did the
National System of Social Protection not work properly? And what led to these failures?
This work, through a case study, focuses on responses that national, regional and local government agencies
have implemented during climatic and social emergencies, and how communities have dealt with these
issues in post-emergency scenarios, especially for those authorities that have a lack of effective planning as a
result of recurrent disasters.
Although land use planning would be a practical tool to prevent these types of situations, local authorities
tend to give preference to private investment, driving people (especially low income families) to build their
homes in areas susceptible of flooding or landslides.
APPROXIMATIONS TO VULNERABILITY AND RISK IN THE MEXICAN CONTEXT

According to the UN, the term ‘vulnerability’ implies the conditions determined by physical, social, economic
and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of
hazards; whereas hazard is understood as a potentially damaging physical event, phenomenon and/or
human activity, which may cause the loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption
or environmental degradation (UN/ISDR 2004).
The term ‘risk’ encompasses the probability and the amount of harmful consequences or expected losses
resulting from interactions between natural or human induced hazards and vulnerable conditions (UN/ISDR
2002).
Mexican law and regulations regarding risk management are relatively new, most of which originated after
the 1985 earthquake which largely affected Mexico City. As a result, the Mexican government started to
create institutions and a legal framework to respond to these catastrophic events. Nonetheless, all responses
to date are focused on the response after the event, instead of planning to decrease social vulnerability.
Not until the 2005 World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, did Japanese authorities begin the
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process of pushing national, regional and local authorities to change their focus by setting clear objectives
and commitments for disaster risk reduction. The first step in this process was the formal approval of the
Hyogo Framework for Action (United Nations 2005).
So, the Hyogo Framework mentions as strategic goals:
• The integration of disaster risk reduction into sustainable development policies and planning.
• Development and strengthening of institutions, mechanisms and capacities to build resilience to
hazards.
• The systematic incorporation of risk reduction approaches into the implementation of emergency
preparedness, response and recovery programmes.
Now this framework highlights the importance of building resilience to hazard. Resilience can be
understood as the capability of a system to maintain its basic functions and structures in a time of shocks
and perturbations and how it can continue to deliver resources and ecosystem services that are essential for
human livelihoods (Adger et al. 2005; Allenby and Fink 2005).
In most cases, Mexican policies lacked integration between the planning system and the risk management
regulations. This was addressed by changes in 2012 when the new Federal Law of Social Protection came to
reconfigure the institutional framework and to change the paradigm from a responsive to a preventive
scheme.
Mexico is a large geographic area with varying conditions, with an area of 1,964,375 km2 and a population of
112,336,538 (INEGI 2013) split into 32 political entities, generally known as ‘States’ and one Federal District.
In late 2013, the State of Veracruz, like the other 31 states, had then to enact new federal laws focused on the
responsibility of the local authorities and developers when developing within potential risk areas (H.
Congreso del Estado de Veracruz 2013). As we can see in the following case study the results are still to
come.
RISK MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING IN THE STATE OF VERACRUZ
The State of Veracruz is located in the coast of the Gulf of Mexico with more than 745 kilometers of coastline.
It has a population of 7.6 million inhabitants, the third most populated Mexican State after the State of
Mexico and the Federal District.
Due to its geographical situation, the State of Veracruz in Southern Mexico is continuously hit by severe
weather conditions such as winter storms (locally known as ‘nortes’) and tropical storms, including
hurricanes, with an average of one strong hurricane per year arriving on its shores. These severe weather
conditions have caused flooding, landslides and the consequent loss of houses and crops, damages in
infrastructure, and even human deaths.
Map 1: Location of the State of Veracruz in the Mexican territory (Source:

http://wiki.ifmsa.org/scope/index.php?title=Image:Mapa_Veracruz.jpg).
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The Mexican and State planning systems, although complex, have many flaws; for example, many
municipalities have urban development plans made originally by urban planners, but these plans are barely
followed as intended. In most cases local authorities are under constant pressure by private developers and
other government agencies also moved by great social demands, and tend to avoid good practices that
might result in changes in the land use established by law.
When changing the plans to suit these interests, the local authorities have no incentive to consult with a
planner, so the plans are transformed indiscriminately and tend to be lacking in scientific rigor. This situation
has caused the development of new housing in flood risk areas, for example the neighborhood ‘Puente
Moreno’ near Veracruz City where low income housing was built despite being near a river in a zone
previously classified as a natural preservation area (Carvajal 2012).
In 2010, the State of Veracruz was under severe climate events (hurricanes ‘Matthew’ and ‘Karl’) which,
according to the government agencies, cost more than 8 billion dollars of public funds and resulted in about
150,000 people evacuated from their homes (EFE, 2010).
It is important to mention that when these events occurred (during the period 2000-2013), the main
mechanism of response to this emergency, the Natural Disasters Fund, mainly aimed to provide post-
disaster assistance rather than prevent damages.
The damages covered almost 60% of the State, but the most significant damages were located near the
central coastal zone and the river sides. One of the most damaged towns was El Cascajal in La Antigua
municipality, with more than 300 houses permanently damaged by flooding, as reported by Guevara-Ortiz
(2013).
Figure 1: Damages caused in El Cascajal by hurricanes ‘Mathew’ and ‘Karl’ in 2010 (Source: Carmona, 2010).
RESILIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF AN EMERGENCY RESPONSE

The response of the state authorities was to relocate the houses to a new settlement. The first problem was
to find suitable land to fit 364 houses. Several locations were proposed: the first site proposed was near
Chichicaxtle, another town of the same municipality, where authorities planned to create an extension of the
current town. This first site was considered to be a good alternative since the land was owned by the
government, the land use allowed housing and there were infrastructure nearby. Nonetheless, this proposal
was rejected by the families who considered this location to be far away from their farm land (about 20
kilometers).
Several other sites were proposed but also rejected by the community, as some social participation exercises
were conducted. Finally, a final site was proposed in a place called El Aserradero, located right next to a
highway, with no infrastructure nearby, with land use allowed for infrastructure but no housing, and near
flood areas.
Although the site was not the best one, the local authority changed the land use designation and the
regional government started the development of a new neighborhood. Finally, one year later, in August
2011, the first 134 houses were delivered to the residents (INVIVIENDA 2011).
Houses were built using prefabricated materials in an identically designed four house unit. This situation
brought the first problem, as people were not happy with their houses. Also the rapid construction lacked
adequate supervision and caused many of the houses to have weather infiltrations.
113
Map 2: Location of El Cascajal and the proposed sites (Source: Authors, based on
Wikimapiahttp://wikimapia.org/#lang=es&lat=19.346942&lon=-96.379795&z=13&m=h).
The roads have no pavement nor proper drainage so they flood when it rains. There is no school so the
children have to cross the highway (a proposed pedestrian bridge was never constructed) in order to catch a
bus to travel to nearby towns to study (García 2013).
This solution shows how the planning system was incapable of delivering safer communities. On the
contrary, the new settlement caused serious social conflicts and further risks in a time when occupants may
very well return to their original houses as many have done before. Unfortunately there was no resilience
built among the community.
Figure 2: The new housing at El Aserradero showing some flooding in 2012 (Source: Yañez 2013).
How can we then build resilience in this context? As we stated at the beginning of this paper, in 2012, the
new Federal Law of Social Protection came to reconfigure the institutional framework and to change the
paradigm from a responsive to a preventive scheme. In order to do this, a risk management approach has
been proposed since 2014.
This approach (H. Congreso del Estado de Veracruz 2013) looks to build resilience among the general
population by diverse actions like:
• Raising awareness among the population living in risk areas about possible damages so they can
improve their homes if necessary. The government has set up a fund to help build these
improvements.
• Alert general population about the consequences of settling in risk areas, looking to decrease
informal settlements in these spaces. It has also strong planning policies which look to use land
more effectively.
114
• Offer communities a more proactive approach to reconstruction. In the case of relocation for
example, owners would be responsible for reconstruction of their houses, the government will only
provide building materials and technical assistance.
• Build stronger land use planning. Although local authorities retain their authority to change the
land uses within its territory, they can be prosecuted if they allow development in risk areas. Also
private developers who build houses in risk areas would now be susceptible to fines or criminal
charges.
These actions are still yet to be put into practice and would be an interesting topic for further research.
CONCLUSION: KEY ISSUES IN POST-DISASTER AND RECONSTRUCTION

This paper showed how the planning system in Mexico has not yet been able to deliver safer communities.
As we can see, government planning responds more to social and economic demands than scientific studies
and data, which results in people moving into flood risk areas.
Although there have been changes in the laws, until the planning system in Mexico act according to the law
by enforcing it, there will continue to be settlements in risk areas which can lead to many people affected
and even deaths.
It is necessary that local authorities should not have the liberty to change the land uses among its territory
indiscriminately. Private developers who breach these regulations should be punished and the damage
restored.
A strong social participation system is also considered important in order to build resilience and awareness
among communities, and further prevent damages due to future climate-related disasters.
REFERENCES
Adger, WN, Hughes, TP, Folke, C, Carpenter, SR & Rockström, J., 2005. ‘Social-ecological resilience to coastal
disasters’, Science, no. 309, pp. 1036–1039.
Allenby, B & Fink, J., 2005. ‘Towards inherently secure and resilient societies’, Science, no. 309, pp. 1034–1036.
Carmona, MA., 2010. ‘Pobladores de la colonial El Cascajal sufren la pérdida de sus viviendas’, La Jornada, 23
September, viewed 15 February 2014, http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/09/23/estados/031n1est.
Carvajal, I., 2012. ‘Temen más inundaciones en Puente Moreno; vecinos prefieren mudarse’, La Jornada
Veracruz, viewed 15 February 2014,
http://www.jornadaveracruz.com.mx/Noticia.aspx?ID=121007_122449_304.
Efe., 2010. ‘Los huracanes 'Karl' y 'Matthew' provocan daños por 8.000 millones de dólares en Veracruz’, El
Mundo, viewed 15 February 2014. http://www.elmundo.es/america/2010/10/14/mexico/1287081278.html.
García, M., 2013. ‘Exige diputada segunda etapa de viviendas, para damnificados de La Antigua’, Imagen del
Golfo, viewed 15 February 2014, http://www.imagendelgolfo.com.mx/resumen.php?id=40972647.
Guevara-Ortiz, E., 2013. Las reacciones y consecuencias de políticas públicas para reducción de riesgo y la
prevención de desastres en México, CENAPRED, México, viewed 15 February 2014,
http://www.proteccioncivil.gob.mx/work/models/ProteccionCivil/Resource/575/1/images/4%20Enrique%20
Guevara%20Ortiz%20-%20Politicas%20Publicas%20de%20Prevencion%20de%20Desastres%20OCDE.pdf.
H. Congreso del Estado de Veracruz, 2013. Ley de protección civil y la reducción del riesgo de desastres para el
estado de Veracruz de ignacio de la llave, Editora de Goberno del Estado, Veracruz, viewed 15 February 2014,
web.segobver.gob.mx/juridico/pdf/78.pdf.
INEGI, 2013. Cuentame, viewed 15 February 2014,
http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/monografias/informacion/Ver/Poblacion/default.aspx?tema=ME&e=30.
INVIVIENDA, 2011. Programa de reubicación predio “El Aserradero” municipio de La Antigua, viewed 15
February 2014, http://www.invivienda.gob.mx/Portals/0/entrega%20de%20viviendas%20la%20antigua.pdf.
UN/ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2002. Living with risk: A global review of disaster
reduction initiatives, UN Publications, Geneva.
UN/ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2004. Living with risk: A global review of disaster
reduction initiatives, UN Publications, Geneva.
United Nations, 2005. Hyogo framework for action 2005–2015: Building the resilience of nations and
communities to disasters, viewed 15 February 2014, http://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/hfa.
115
Yanez, VH., 2013. ‘A tres años del paso del huracán Karl, las familias reubicadas en El Aserradero,
denunciaron que continúan sufriendo inundaciones en sus casas por las lluvias, registran encharcamientos
severos en las calles, y hasta falta de seguridad en la colonia’, Al Calor Político, 17 September 2013, viewed 15
February 2014. http://www.alcalorpolitico.com/informacion/familias-reubicadas-en-el-aserradero-
continuan-sufriendo-inundaciones-en-sus-casas-124582.html#.UyJYcj95PX8.
116
FOUR SUITABLE DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR ENCLOSED HOUSING IN CHINA – CASE OF SHANGHAI
Li Zhenyu, Dean of College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai China,
zhenyuli@msn.com
Lu Bin, Ph.D. candidate of College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai China,
lubinwig@163.com
Abstract
In the past 36 years, row-by-row housing (especially high rises) with high F.A.R. (Floor Area Ratio) has gradually
become the main type in the development of almost all Chinese cities. Nowadays, this kind of housing has
brought about such negative impacts as monotonous city image, closed or separated city space and etc.
Therefore, as one new-rising and useful type, enclosed housing has been coming up around China recently. This
paper will firstly discuss enclosed housing’s four inherent disadvantages such as: facing to different directions,
blocking sunlight, blocking ventilation, peeping at each other. Secondly, combined with some model analysis,
four suitable design strategies will be put forward which are: rotating the plan, breaking the plan, making the
housing higher or lower, mixing the function. Finally, the popularity and the acceptance of enclosed housing will
be improved through the above strategies.
Keywords: enclosed housing, row-by-row housing, suitable design strategy, Shanghai.
ROW-BY-ROW HOUSING AS A TODAY’S DOMINANT TYPE
Prototype
It can be possibly assumed that today’s row-by-row housing in China was inspired from Le Corbusier’s
‘Urbanisme’. In his book, the famous ideal city model was mainly composed of high rises arranged very
regularly and precisely in both vertical and horizontal lines. Although this kind of prototype had not been
realized in Paris, it found its big fortune in the Far East. Here in China, we have been planning our housing
row by row over several decades, and they all look like barracks. The following section will elaborate the
development process of row-by-row housing in China.
History
Shanghai is one of the most typical cities in China. Therefore, as for the development process of row-by-row
housing in China, we can take Shanghai as a good example. Roughly speaking, the whole process can be
divided into three periods; the slow-developing period (1949 - 1979), the early stage of rapid-developing
period (1979 - 2000) and the rapid-developing period (2000 – today).
In the first period (1949 – 1979), due to the national housing system, comparatively low construction
technology, strict controls on construction cost and some other factors, the government or some other
groups had built large quantities of 4 - 6 floor high housing. Probably in order to get the most efficiency and
fairness, the housing was arranged row by row. The height of the housing was from 12 meters to 18 meters
while the distance between them was nearly the same according to its height.
With the renowned ‘reform and opening’ policy put into practice in China, the concept of commodity
housing appeared. That is to say, in the second period (1979 – 2000), normal people could buy their houses.
So more and more people were waiting to move into more comfortable commodity housing. Meanwhile,
due to the establishment of Shanghai urban planning standards, higher green coverage and lower housing
coverage are both strictly demanded. Therefore, all these factors led to the beginning of the rapid
development of row-by-row housing. Then, row-by-row housing became higher and higher than ever
before. There were three typical heights of Shanghai row-by-row housing: 11 floors high (about 33 meters),
14 floors high (about 42 meters) and 18 floors high (about 54 meters).
Then it comes to the third period (2000 – today) when Shanghai’s row-by-row housing development comes
to its climax. Higher green coverage and much lower housing coverage, and these directly lead to higher
and higher housing. 24 floors high or even 32 floors high has become more and more common in the center
of Shanghai. The city image has been changed so much in this short period.
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Figure 1: These diagrams show the row-by-row housing’s development process in Shanghai.
Negative impacts
Although row-by-row housing is no doubt the dominant type of housing in Shanghai, it has brought about
mainly two negative impacts. Now, almost all housing here looks the same just because they are arranged in
the same row-by-row way, to the same south-facing direction. So the city image is made more and more
monotonous or even boring. On the other hand, due to the wall circling each housing area, the city space
has been separated. Housing is made totally private and away from the city public space.
ENCLOSED HOUSING AS A POTENTIAL SUPPLEMENTARY TYPE
Potential supplementary type

Faced with such a large population (now we have nearly 25 million resident population in Shanghai) and
such huge quantities of housing demand, do we have any other type of housing to choose except row-by-
row housing? Enclosed housing, which is pretty much the opposite to row-by-row housing, could become a
new and useful type. Compared with row-by-row housing, enclosed housing takes more advantage of the
land and its housing coverage is much bigger than row-by-row housing. Therefore, it is not surprising to find
that 8 floors high enclosed housing achieves as many resident units (512 cubes) as 32 floors high row-by-
row housing. Through accurate calculations, in one area which is 16900 square meters big, 8 floors high
enclosed housing’s F.A.R. is 3.03. This is the same with 32 floors high row-by-row housing. As far as the future
growing housing demand is concerned, there are good reasons to believe that enclosed housing should be
a potential supplementary type.
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Figure 2: These four diagrams show that 8 floors high-enclosed housing has the same F.A.R. with 32 floors high
row-by-row housing in a 16900-square-meter area.
New attempts
While row-by-row housing has been unstoppable in the past several decades, attempts at enclosed housing
are always at some minor architects’ persistence. Four famous practical projects in four different places are
briefly introduced in the following chapter. All of them are typologically innovative compared with current
major types, and their advantages could help to make enclosed housing more popular and acceptable.
a. Ju’er Hutong (Beijing 1988) is located in the old part of Beijing where there are lots of “hutong”. “Hutong”
is a very old type of housing of Beijing which is mainly combined with enclosed courtyard and rooms around
in four directions. Wu Liangyong, the architect, who is an academician of the Academy of Engineering of
China, aims at regenerating the old memorable space returning to the good old times.
b. Anting new town (Shanghai 2003) is located in Jiading District, which is one of the surburbs of Shanghai. It
belongs to the government’s plan called ‘one city and nine towns’. Anting new town is developed in
traditional German town’s style. Although enclosed housing is very common in European countries, it is
comparatively a new type in Shanghai. This is the first time that enclosed housing is developed in such a
large area.
c. Tulou commune (Guangzhou 2008) is a typical double-layers enclosed housing, with an enclosed circle
outside and an enclosed square inside. This housing is designed for the poor and it is located in Nanhai,
which belongs to Guangzhou. Urbanus, the architect, which is also one of the most famous architectural
design teams in China, is inspired by the “Tulou” which is an old type of housing in Fujian province. Like Ju’er
Hutong, this housing also aims at regaining some old feeling.
d. Yijiequ reconstruction (Dujiangyan 2010) is developed after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake to help the
refugees move into their new housing. Due to the special natural conditions (there is little sunshine all year
around in Sichuan Province), enclosed housing is completely acceptable there. In the whole Yijiequ
reconstruction, the authors’ architectural design team has completed 4 blocks’ design task. This whole
project was put into use in 2010, two years after the earthquake. Each block is composed with several 6-
floor-storey or 11-floor-storey enclosed housings. The F.A.R. of the 4 blocks range from 2.08 to 2.39.
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Figure 3: These four pictures show the four new attempts at enclosed housing in China.
Beijing (north), Shanghai (east), Guangzhou (south), Dujiangyan (west) are located in four parts of China.
However, the question is when enclosed housing is comparatively common and acceptable in the other
three cities, why is it so rare and unacceptable in Shanghai? In the following chapter, four main inherent
disadvantages of enclosed housing will tell the answer.
Inherent disadvantages
a. Facing in different directions
Shanghai is a place where people are used to living in a south-facing direction. While all row-by-row housing
units face to the south, only 50% units in the enclosed housing are south-facing and the other 50% units are
east-facing or west. Probably this difference makes the biggest problem for enclosed housing to survive in
Shanghai.
b. Blocking sunlight
When we do some sunshine analysis on these two types of housing, we can easily find the big difference
between them. On 22nd December, when the sun’s altitude is the lowest for Shanghai, all the 1st floor units
in row-by-row housing still get more than 4 hours of sunshine. As for enclosed housing, on the contrary, only
62.5% of all the 1st floor units get 3-4 hours sunshine and the other 37.5% only get 1 hour or 2 hours
sunshine.
c. Blocking ventilation
As far as ventilation is concerned, the problem seems very similar to that of sunlight. To some degree,
Shanghai is a very special place. For example, it is very cold in winter and really hot in summer. What makes
circumstances worse is that it is wet for the whole year. So ventilation is very important for housing. But as
the diagram shows, taking one summer night as example, when the wind always comes from the southeast,
nearly half of all the units in enclosed housing are affected to some extent in their ventilation.
d. Peeping at each other
The last problem but not the least is that when people live in enclosed housing, it is almost inevitable that
neighbours can peep at each other easily and sometimes carelessly. When we are paying more and more
attention to privacy, this kind of disadvantage of enclosed housing however should be conquered.
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Figure 4: These four diagrams show the four inherent disadvantages of enclosed housing compared with row-by-
row housing.
These above four main inherent disadvantages of enclosed housing perhaps have inhibited its development
in Shanghai. In the following chapter, four suitable design strategies will be discussed. These four strategies
together as a whole method may improve the disadvantages to some extent.
4 SUITABLE DESIGN STRATEGIES
Strategy 1: rotating the plan

Except for several national design standards, when the architects practice in Shanghai, they should also
strictly refer to a local design standard which is called ‘Design standard for residential buildings DGJ08-20-
2007 J10090-2007’. In this standard, there is one item 4.1.4 saying that “housing facing to the directions
ranged from southeast to southwest is permitted”. Before rotation, only half of the units are facing to the
permitted direction and the other half are not permitted according to this local design standard. After
rotation, it is easily found that all the units now are facing in the directions ranged in that permitted 90
degrees. Furthermore, when we put these two lay-outs together and do some sunshine analysis, we can
easily get the conclusion that the units which do not get any sunshine are ready to get about one-hour-long
or two-hour’s sunshine after the rotation.
Strategy 2: breaking the plan

After rotating, we can also try to do some breaking. When the plan is broken on any side, like the picture
below, the enclosed housing is no longer 100% closed so that both sunlight and ventilation are more easily
permitted inside. Futhermore, the problem of neighbours’ peeping at each other is somehow solved or
partly solved due to this breaking job. Anyway, when talking about breaking the plan, we mean to break a
small part of it, not the entire one side so that the enclosing feeling can be kept. In conclusion, breaking the
plan can at least deal with the three disadvantages mentioned above and partly solve the problems.
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Figure 5: These two diagrams show how strategy 1 and strategy 2 work.
Strategy 3: making the housing higher or lower

However, breaking also means losing some units, so we need to find the lost floor area. One effective way is
to make the housing higher, so that the enclosed housing does not look like the same height. In one
enclosed housing, there can be one 11-floor-high or even 18-floor-high housing, but the width of it should
be strictly controlled so that it will not make influence the lower housing nearby. Through making some
housing higher and others lower, three important results can be confirmed:
a. The total floor area is almost the same with the 8-floor-high and 100% closed model;
b. The condition of sunlight and ventilation gets better;
c. The image is much more vivid.
Strategy 4: mixing the function

After rotating, breaking the plan and making the housing higher or lower, everything seems to get better
than before. Besides improvement on plans and elevations, the last aspect for the architects to make a
change may be the function. There are two kinds of function mixture: horizontal mixture and vertical
mixture. The former probably means that in the enclosed housing we can define some minor non-residential
function for the 1st floor plan, such as the commercial function, the bicycle storage and etc. These non-
residential functions definitely contribute to creating a very comfortable street space. The latter means the
mixture of different types of housing: commodity housing and social housing. Comparatively speaking, rich
people spend large quantities of money on their commodity housing in the market while poor people spend
much less money on their social housing, which come from the government. So for the sake of social
fairness, we can mix them together in the enclosed housing in the way that commodity housing is arranged
in a comparatively better location and direction.
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Figure 6: These two diagrams show how strategy 3 and strategy 4 work.
!
CONCLUSION
Finally, there are mainly two conclusions for this paper:

(1) Enclosed housing is a new and useful type for today’s Chinese housing. It can be a supplementary type to
the dominant row-by row housing. Due to its participation, it is possibly expected that:
a. The city image can be diversified from monotonous and depressing high rises to various and human-scale
housing;
b. The traditional separated walls of row-by-row housing can be replaced by enclosed housing’s commercial
or other functions on the 1st floor, which means the return of street living;
c. The neighbourhood can be strengthened and security can be improved as well;
d. The living modes can be expanded due to the diversities of enclosed housing.
(2) Although enclosed housing has some inherent disadvantages, it will definitely become more acceptable
and popular through the four suitable design strategies as follows:
a. Rotating the plan;
b. Breaking the plan;
c. Making the housing higher or lower;
d. Mixing the function.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper is subsidized by the NSFC (Natural Science Foundation of China). The project name is “Research
on the typological identity of the contemporary Chinese housing”, of which the authorized number is
51278337.
REFERENCES
Le Corbusier., 2009. Urbanisme, trans. Li Hao, Architecture and Building Press, Beijing.
Shanghai Building Materials Industry Market Management Station, 2007. Design standard for residential
buildings DGJ08-20-2007 J10090-2007, Internal Material.
Shanghai Urban Planning Administration Bureau, 2003. Shanghai urban planning administration technical
requirements, Internal Material.
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BE(A)WARE: RESILIENCE IS ABOUT SO MUCH MORE THAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Ms. Edna Peres, University of Pretoria, South Africa, edna.m.peres@gmail.com

Prof. Chrisna du Plessis, University of Pretoria, South Africa, chrisna.duplessis@up.ac.za
Abstract
Within rapidly urbanising South Africa, ‘resilience’ risks are turning into another development ‘trend’ and losing
credibility. Its application and usefulness could be misunderstood and it stands at an equal risk of manipulation
as sustainability has been. Narrow resilience definitions that are limited to bounce back responses frequently
substitute the full and rich scope of resilience theory, resulting in doubtful suggestions that resilience is a life
strategy for poverty alleviation in communities or in the reconfiguration of government investment in the spatial
economy. Well-established resilience theory and the inherent potential that lies in its holistic translation into
complex city systems, appears to be undervalued.
This paper builds awareness of the developmental potential that resilience thinking can unlock within the built
environment; a means of proactively studying urban areas to engage policy and intervene in its design to foster
conditions for life to thrive. Here, resilience indicates the strength of a system and is an emergent property thereof,
not a normative principle. If used as a normative principle, then negative conditions like poverty (which can be
highly resilient), are strengthened rather than collapsed, in other words, ‘resilience as the goal’ could perpetuate
poverty. Once the drivers of resilience in a focal area are recognised then engaging with design, implementation
and management becomes enriched. This paper further argues that an urban resilience perspective provides an
integrative and contextual approach for enhancing the positive properties of different city systems to build their
overall general resilience; a framework to develop capacity for general resilience in the city is explored through
narrative examples. Potentially, resilience could inform the process to create sustainable human(e) settlements, if
founded on a holistic understanding of its theory as applied to processes in the city system.
Key words: sustainable, urban resilience, living city systems, South Africa.
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INTRODUCTION
Be(a)ware, the title of this paper stands as both a caution and a motivation. As a caution, be aware urges built
environment professionals to look beyond simplistic definitions of resilience. As a motivation, be aware
encourages professionals to use resilience as a lens through which to understand the ability of their cities to
prepare for and adapt to unpredictable changes confronting contemporary global society as a result of
climate change or the possible collapse of economic, cultural and political structures. This paper explores
resilience theory fundamentals, built environment professional’s engagement of it, and its potential to
inform a powerful approach to development. It comments on examples applying the use of resilience in
urbanism by referring back to core concepts. It also shows how resilience theory holds potential to transition
urban environments from managed spaces to thriving social-ecological systems where humans and nature
are equal partners. This highlights the additional responsibility required by ‘resilience professionals’ to
identify which aspects of life as we know it may need to collapse in order to provide room for new life to
take root in a site’s latent potentials (du Plessis 2013, p. 38) in a way that limits negative consequences, and
builds positive conditions for life. This paper provides a pathway toward a proactive resilience approach to
the built environment that contributes toward a reboot of the system.
A whole-systems approach to resilience

“The city is not a system of parts, but a whole system of the human species that has characteristics as a
whole that transcend but include communities, organizations, groups, families and individuals and the built
environment that we have created to contain us” (Hamilton 2008, p. 31).
In an age where most people live in the cities of the world, and given their dependence on finite natural
resources, urban areas cannot continue to develop on this current trajectory without significantly affecting
humanity. Were it that the demands that cities place on resources and living systems were limited to the
physical footprint of each city, then the collapse of a large city system would not necessarily be of concern.
However, the dissipative open systems that characterise cities have made vast global networks necessary to
sustain them, drawing life out of the environment to generate products and waste in return (Hamilton 2008,
p. 31). A collapse of one of the larger cities could cascade throughout the global network, fundamentally
testing human resilience and possibly, human survival.
Humans are profoundly affected by cities, whether they live in them or not. Unfortunately, these effects are
not always tangible or quantifiable, making an assessment of their impact very difficult without the aid of a
systems approach. Despite evidence that cities result from complex relationships within dynamic
interconnected hierarchies of systems and sub-systems, which Holling et al terms the panarchy (Holling et al.
2002), in practice the tendency is to make cities comprehensible by isolating their parts. As an example, civil
engineers, developers, architects, traffic planners, town planners, and environmentalists specialise and
operate in niche areas of concern and rarely have opportunities to engage in transdisciplinary collaboration
that interrogates development from a holistic (not predominantly economic) perspective. This division
through specialisation often results in weak design solutions that are the consequence of professional
compromise. Effectively, simplifying the city into its parts or sub-systems, and seeking individual efficiency
for its components, results in a decrease of the whole system’s general resilience (Salat 2011, p. 476), making
it more fragile in light of unpredictable change.
An example of oversimplifying a rich and complex subject into one that becomes easily understandable is
the discussion of resilience as, “a life strategy for poverty alleviation in communities or the reconfiguration of
government investment in the spatial economy” (UIA 2013). This interpretation strips resilience of its full
meaning and limits its potential for informing truly sustainable solutions to urban problems. It may
inadvertently misdirect the development and evolution of urban resilience practice by promoting resilience
as a ‘goal’ or ‘solution’ to development problems in ways that lack depth or definition. In order to avoid that
scenario, this paper suggests that the first step in a full embrace of all that resilience thinking can offer built
environment professionals, is to appreciate that cities (and the development therein) require a whole-
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systems approach as a foundation for viewing, studying, living and engaging with their social-ecological
networks.
BEWARE, RESILIENCE MIGHT GET YOU NOWHERE
Resilience theory traces back to the 1960s and 1970s when the rise in environmental consciousness led to
the reassessment of the role of human beings within the ecosystems of which they form a part. In 1973, C.S.
Holling published a seminal paper introducing resilience as a characteristic of a healthy ecological system. At
that time, he defined resilience as the ability and speed of a system to return to an equilibrium or steady
state after a disturbance (Davoudi 2012). Over the past forty years, the understanding of resilience as a
characteristic of a system has evolved and broadened considerably into more dynamic definitions that
transcend the equilibrist approaches of its origins (Davoudi 2012). However, as it gains popularity in
development circles, its full range of meaning becomes diluted and its lack of conceptual clarity cannot be
used to derive or inform design.
Theoretical misinterpretations
Resilience in South Africa’s built environment and development sciences has focussed primarily on the anti-
adaptive ‘bounce back’ attempts to manage or maintain current city conditions in the face of pulse
disturbances like natural disasters or protest action. For example, the influential State of South African Cities
Report (SoSACR) (Turok et al. 2011) reviews post-democratic development using a resilience perspective. In
its introduction, the report mentions the value for resilience to chart a different development pathway, but
for the most part it focuses mainly on the ability of cities to continue functioning within their status quo, and
‘bounce back’ from threats and disturbances. It inaccurately frames resilience as a positive systemic goal
through statements like, “…difficulties experienced by the metros indicate vulnerability and instability
rather than resilience” (Turok et al. 2011). This misinterpretation of resilience occurs repeatedly and calls for
reassessment; resilience itself is not the goal, it is a characteristic of a system’s functionality and it is therefore
value-neutral. In fact, long-term pressures like climate change, crime, corruption, rapid urbanisation and
pervasive urban poverty (that includes a lack of quality education, basic services and safety) reflect the
qualities of highly resilient yet perverse systems, which may require dismantling and entire reconfiguring.
The alternative framing of the SoSACR statement would rather be ‘to identify difficulties resulting from
highly resilient (albeit undesirable) system-states that perpetuate the existence of negative urban values’.
Therefore, the second step toward reaching a full resilience embrace is to see that resilience itself is neither
good nor bad, nor is it the solution or the goal; as a characteristic emerging from a system, it holds potential
to be the metaphorical lens through which to find the strengths and weaknesses of a city system (Walker &
Salt 2012, p. 20).
Is resilience just another ‘trend’?

With more reference made to resilience in research and practice, one of the main criticisms against its
application to the urban realm, is that it is simply a rebranding of the ‘green’ movement or sustainability
itself (TRUST 2012). To avoid resilience becoming another word for ‘development as usual’, and to
understand its possible application to architecture and planning, some issues associated with the
progression of resilience theory, need mentioning. Firstly, the range and depth of resilience theory can be
confusing, therefore in its translation to the broad spectrum of built environment professions it often
becomes a ‘new solution to our problems’ when it is actually a characteristic of the systems that produced
the problems in the first place. Secondly, when a concept like resilience encompasses too much and
becomes too wide, it loses its specific meaning and the intensions behind its application become unclear
(Brand & Jax 2007, p. 9).
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The 2014 International Union of Architects World Congress call for papers displays similar confusion. Under
the umbrella of ‘architecture otherwhere’, the task of “looking elsewhere for new ways of creating a better
future” presents itself, and “alternative strategies for the design and delivery of human settlements” are
called for. To explore this task, three departure points are suggested and include resilience. However,
defined as a “life strategy or critical intervention” the proposed exploration of resilience leans toward
psychological and economic resilience approaches that can be developed by a community in order to
overcome challenges like poverty. All the other definitions of resilience (many of which hold more affinity to
architecture) have been ignored, as have its full range of qualities such as the capacity for the city to evolve
and regenerate through diversity. The congress further infers that resilience is an end-state solution. It is put
forward as an answer for a reconfiguration of the spatial economy, rather than as the conceptual framework
that builds an understanding of the drivers within cities that are perpetuating a twisted spatial economy in
the first place. As resilience thinking gains popularity, it risks being superficially misinterpreted. Therefore,
the third step toward reaching a full resilience embrace is to refrain from engaging resilience in practice
without first exploring the scope of the theory and its foundational meanings.
BE AWARE, RESILIENCE CAN REGENERATE LIFE IN CITIES
Resilience research has largely been driven by the need to achieve sustainability (Davoudi 2012); to navigate
development in a way that sustains bio-physical life as we know it. However, what we mean by sustainability
is itself evolving: what was interpreted a few decades ago as a preservation of the consumer-driven status
quo is now a questioning of the over-all systems themselves. A new paradigm of sustainability therefore
emerges from an ecological worldview that is based on “the idea of an interdependent and interconnected
living world in which humans are an integral part of nature and part of the processes of co-creation and co-
evolution that shape the world” (du Plessis 2011).
The main definitions of resilience

Four clear definitions of resilience (encompassing both general and specific responses) that have been
summarised by Davoudi (2012):
- engineering resilience, the ability of a system to return to a ‘pre-disturbance state’ and the speed it
takes to do so, including its efficiency, predictability and constancy (this is used to try to manage,
mitigate and rebuild after a disaster);
- ecological resilience, the magnitude of disturbance that a system can absorb without severely
compromising its survival within a narrow range of permissible fluctuation (this is used to try to
improve the capacity of the system to survive a perturbation without collapse);
- bounce back or disaster management resilience, where the focus is on the capacity to rebound to the
status quo after destruction, and manifests in various fields like urban theory, psychology, economy,
environmental planning, governance and climate change adaptation;
- and evolutionary or social-ecological resilience, which acknowledges that complex social-ecological
systems change, adapt and very importantly, transform after a disturbance in ways that transcend
but include all the previous states, thereby changing the overall state, but not the core identity of a
system.
While there are other categorisations of resilience that delve into the use of resilience as a boundary object
or descriptive concept (Brand & Jax 2007), there is greater potential for urban resilience to form an
overarching concept capable of identifying opportunities for integrative architecture and life-enhancing
development. Refinements in resilience definitions also hold potential to inform how we can ‘build’ the
ecological worldview, by highlighting what to focus on (the lenses) and providing a path (map). Therefore,
the fourth step toward embracing the fullness of the resilience concept is to understand that there are
various definitions of resilience, which together represent “the life sustaining aspect of nature that yields to
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external forces and in that yielding keeps the system from failing or being destroyed” (du Plessis 2013, p. 35).
A combination of these definitions, are required in the holistic study of an ecologically sustainable urban
system that is inclusive of tangible and importantly, its intangible qualities.
A perspective for studying urban systems: the lenses

Urban resilience practice embodies an on-going study of city systems in order to create, maintain or unlock
the conditions required to adapt and evolve to changing circumstances without causing cities to lose their
functional identity as large-scale human habitats. It provides clues to arrive at a reassessment of the status
quo of a system, whose core-function is to create conditions where life can find nourishment even if it
means that some of its systems may need to collapse to achieve this. In terms of this congress, its potential
lies in being able to innovatively leap-frog the ‘poverty alleviation’ debate and outgrow the ‘sustainability’
checklists which are trapped in maladaptive system-states, and to do so by leveraging the city’s
regenerative qualities to envision and create different conditions and systems that hold the capacity within
which life can flourish and evolve (Hamilton 2008). Urban resilience is therefore the capacity of a city system
(comprising both social and ecological aspects) to maintain its core purpose and integrity in the face of
radically changed circumstances (Zolli & Healy 2012), or if so required, to transform in response to these
circumstances in order to maintain its integrity. The fifth step in a resilience understanding shows resilience
practice driven toward both maintaining healthy systems as well as transforming weak ones.
A pathway for resilient design: the map

Up to this point, this paper explored the engagement and level of understanding of resilience theory in the
South African built environment and realigned a few key aspects regarding its interpretation. It also
identified the first five concepts beneficial to building a resilience understanding. This section, describes the
next four themes beneficial to applying resilience thinking to the urban built environment, by way of a few
narrative examples.
Resilience is contextually rooted and generated. The unique context that describes a city system affects the
interconnected and interrelated systemic relationships influenced by pulse (fast) and press (slow)
disturbances across many scales that burden the functioning of the system. Every place has a story of how it
emerged and functions, and this story provides clues about the potential and direction that future
development can follow. An example of a project that has been generated from a keen appreciation of the
physical integrity, biography and essence of the site (Dey 2000, p. 134), is the mile-long High Line park
project in New York. Built in the 1930s to alleviate some of the dangers that freight transport was presenting
to daily activities in the streets, the raised railway line connected production houses to each other and
formed a conduit of trade and production through the city for almost 50 years (Anon n.d.). As the shift from
rail to road transit increased in the 1950s, the demands on the High Line decreased resulting in the
demolition of a portion of the structure in the 1960s. By the mid-1980s, property owners began lobbying for
the demolition of the remaining structure which given the thinking of the times, was seen as a redundant
feature detracting from property prices. In the early 2000s, concerted efforts were made by residents in the
neighbourhood to reclaim the highline through preservation and reuse. Through a long process of
investigation and lateral thinking about the generative properties of the structure, a solution emerged
where the High Line could become a conduit once more. This time, it focussed on flows of Life and not
merely on goods (Figure 2).
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Figure 2: The High Line railway system in New York City, now used as a conduit of life through the city (du Plessis
2012).
Apart from preserving the physical integrity of the structural heritage and studying its biography overtime,
its intangible meanings and qualities expressed through its essence, provided clues for its future appropriate
re-use. Christopher Dey describes the importance of aligning past and future properties of place: “All places
are formed in the past. All ideas for building projects are in the future. Unless we can marry past and future,
everything we do will always be, at least in part, ‘out-of-place’” (Dey cited in Fox 2000, p. 134). Aligning
development to the historical evolution of the site and its natural trajectories, its ‘story of place’, contributes
fundamentally to the long-term success of any intervention (Mang & Reed 2012). This is the sixth step in an
urban resilience approach.
While studying the story of place over a long time, patterns begin to emerge, signifying that history repeats
itself. All living systems undergo cycles of change (moving at different speeds) where the phases of each
cycle have their own manifestation. Some cycles take a long time, (e.g. centuries) to complete a sequence,
while others change rapidly over the course of a few hours. This cyclical pattern moves through four distinct
phases of adaptation and evolution that continuously flow into each other. This pattern is called the
adaptive cycle in ecological resilience studies (Walker & Salt 2006, p. 75), and the concept translates well into
the built ecology. As man-made extensions of the natural environment, cities also undergo these four
phases of adaptation across multiple scales in the city (du Plessis 2012). The four phases of the adaptive
cycle are usually illustrated through a figure of 8, with the fore loop signifying the first two development
phases and the remaining two phases of the back loop signifying a release of energy. Using a hypothetical
South African city as an example, the adaptive cycle can be illustrated; firstly, a steady period of Rapid
Growth with high levels of investment into the system through various types of development opportunities
that begin to flourish (Figure 3). A Conservation phase follows, where the city’s dominant system-state
streamlines and the existing built environment is managed and maintained often to the point of lock-in
(Figure 3). These relationships might continue to a point after which the locked-in system-state will cross a
tipping point and enter a chaotic period of Release, which is the next phase (Figure 3). Lastly, a
Reorganisation phase begins where completely new opportunities for development occur and are
harnessed in a reboot of the whole cycle (Figure 3). Being able to read these changes in the study area’s
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adaptive cycle (be it a building, neighbourhood or city) and understanding what possibilities and restrictions
are set in each phase is the seventh step in a resilience approach.
PHASE DESCRIPTION PHOTOGRAPHIC EXAMPLE ADAPTIVE CYCLE PHASE

Rapid Growth Phase:
For example, the migration of
people from rural areas to a
typical South African urban area
then increases the demand for
affordable housing close to jobs.
Where housing is not available,
informal settlements emerge as a
self-organised response to the
need for housing, close to
opportunities, at affordable rates.
Conservation Phase:
For example, the informal
settlement described above
might place enough pressure on
city council to establish a
settlement and to provide basic
services and formal RDP housing.
This could in turn attract more
people to the area: informal infill
structures, illegal connections to
services and higher demands on
limited resources, are the result.
Release Phase:
A collapse of service delivery in
the area or high levels of
corruption and deteriorated
building stock, might lead to the
destruction of existing municipal
infrastructure through violent
protest action, NGO involvement
might create improved amenities,
or high demand for the
redevelopment of large portions
of land into different typologies
might transform property
ownership.
Reorganisation Phase:
Conditions unlocked by the
previous phase may allow for a
reconfiguration of the housing
policy or lead to new building
typologies and tenure designed
by engaging the community,
which might also allow for
incremental self-organised
development in future. There
might also be projects for the
provision of a crèche, clinic, urban
greening or parks.
Figure 3: An example of an Adaptive Cycle focused on housing as it unfolds in a city system starting at the rapid
growth phase (Peres 2014 adapted from Holling 1986).
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A healthy and resilient system is one that has diversity built into its DNA (Hamilton 2008, p. 16), for it is
through diversity that a system can adapt to shocks and stresses in various ways according to the nature of
the crisis. A city system without diversity or built-in redundancy may be crippled by a single disaster that can
potentially collapse even the most efficient network. Achieving diversity is possible through improving both
functional diversity and response diversity. Since these concepts emerge from ecological resilience theory
(Walker & Salt 2006), they synergise once more with urban ecologies. Functional diversity in cities would
relate to richness provided by a mix of uses that are on offer at various scales in the city, like retail,
residential, and green space. Response diversity would represent the typological responses to each of those
functions. For example, residential responses would see a range of building typologies ranging from the
homeless appropriating public space, to structures like shacks, townhouses, apartment blocks and low-
density luxury houses (du Plessis 2012). In retail, it might range between a mobile street trader moving
between cars at an intersection (with fast response times; selling umbrellas on rainy days or cool drinks
during hot ones) to large big-box multi-national retail stores at the other end of the scale (with very slow
response times especially during times of recession) (Ferreira & du Plessis 2013). Destroying one functional
response will have much more manageable consequences than collapsing an entire function set, because
other functional responses can take over the role of a missing response, but a collapsed function set cannot
necessarily be substituted.
Figure 4: An example of a few functions and the potential diversity of responses for each, in a city system (Peres
2014).
Architecturally, the functional and response diversity is reflected in the robustness of the building typology,
its position on a stand and the design of its edge conditions, core structure, shape and technologies, which
critically define the potential evolution, usefulness and reuse of the building in future and overtime. This
then is the eighth step in a resilience approach, to encourage functional and response diversity throughout
the city so that the building stock can increase its capacity to absorb shocks or evolve and adapt to changing
conditions through a variety of responses.
The final step in this exploration of urban resilience practice is to create conditions in the city where life can
actively regenerate or transform failing systems. In this instance, projects become “engines of positive or
evolutionary change for the systems into which they are built” (Reed & Mang 2006). The latent potential
inherent in the story of place of a site or building is analysed in order to find ways in which different systems
can start feeding each other, sharing resources (such as cross-programming and industrial ecology), or re-
envisioning processes (such as re-establishing connections between local communities and nature in
industrial sites). Another important feature is to generate design from positive qualities, rather than trying to
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‘fix problems’; achieved by aligning new functions to the potential sets of the site and allowing uses to
evolve toward greater complexity and depth. Designing for regenerative conditions leaves room for the
unexpected to occur, by creatively unlocking ways for the latent potential of site to connect the tangible
environment with the intangible psychological and spiritual well-being that is integral to life in the city.
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CONCLUSION
Resilience theory provides a rich umbrella concept to bring together a number of built environment
professions and equip them with a common language with which to approach the tricky subject of
development in a world facing an uncertain future. When applied to urban systems, resilience highlights the
need to look beyond a study area toward the broader system in order to identify the invisible links that
influence the flows in the city web. An urban resilience approach incorporates a few key ideas, which are
summarised. To create change, understand the system’s resilience. This provides clues as to where and
when change can happen in the city’s adaptive cycle, through effective interventions. Different facets of the
city require different types of resilience lenses to align to appropriate interventions, so that a holistic
solution can build on the evolution of the story of place. To that end, resilience is neither good nor bad and
it is neither a dogma nor a goal. It is simply a way of thinking about and understanding cities in order to
make informed decisions about the impact of an intervention on the future trajectories of the city.
Figure 5: Framework for building an urban resilience approach (Peres 2014).
In its application to cities, resilience thinking provides valuable qualities with which to equip cities across
scales to deal with unpredictable disturbances (
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Figure 5). The general resilience of a city can be increased by growing its capacity to bounce back, absorb
change, adapt or transform, and this capacity can be promoted through diversity of functional and design
responses. Lastly, a regenerative system is also resilient, therefore being able to work with the positive
strengths of a site to harness flows of energy that can regenerate human and non-human life on site before
or after a disturbance, is an important aspect of survival. Above all, resilience is an overarching characteristic
that humans will have to build within themselves and their environment, in order to transition through the
drastic changes contemporary societies throughout the world must undertake. Building resilience requires
of us to move from a mind-set of fixing empirical problems toward embracing multidimensional change.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The financial assistance (Grant no. 78649) of the National Research Foundation (NRF) toward research is
hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and cannot
necessarily be attributed to the NRF.
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REIMAGINING AN ‘OTHER’ AUSTRALIA: AN ENQUIRY INTO THE FUTURE OF AUSTRALIAN URBANISM

Hannah Slater RAIA, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, hannah_slater@hotmail.com
Madeleine Swete Kelly RAIA, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, m.swetekelly@gmail.com
Abstract
Currently the world is experiencing the greatest surge of urbanisation in human history. Fifty per cent of the
world’s population currently live in cities and this is expected to increase to seventy-five per cent by 2050 (Bolleter
and Weller 2012). In Australia, it is estimated an additional 39 million people will need to be accommodated in
urban centres by 2101 (Bolleter and Weller 2012). This increased urbanisation, paired with changing climatic
conditions, has prompted wide discussion about the resilience of Australian cities. There is concern that current
city plans are inadequate to maintain the livability of Australian cities and there is a necessity to develop
strategies to manage the social, economic, political, climatic and geographical pressures that are threatening the
urban environment.
This paper considers two possible futures for Australian Urbanism. The first future, titled ‘Australia’s Identity Crisis’,
is based on current literature and paints a bleak future for Australian cities. This discussion suggests that we are
becoming aware of the dire consequences facing Australia’s urban condition; despite this awareness, current city
plans remain grossly inadequate. It highlights that if Australian cities are to meet the changing future, the urban
infrastructure will need to be reconceived, reconfigured and retrofitted.
The urgency for reimagining Australian cities has emerged as a common theme within the national, architectural
dialogue and has been debated on a number of platforms including; published work, competitions and
international exhibitions. This paper is an extension of this ongoing dialogue and urges investment in creative
design solutions that can be used to retrofit the urban fabric, ensuring the cities that are built embody this ‘other’
vision for Australia’s future. The second future titled ‘Reimagining an ‘Other’ Australia’ is an extension of this
discussion, drawing together the views of six eminent architects who suggest strategies for reshaping this
anticipated future.
Keywords: Australia, urbanisation, resilience, future cities.
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INTRODUCTION
‘… Australian cities are enjoying international attention as they consistently perform well in indices ranking
quality of life and livability, some of the best measures for overall city quality we have. This is not by chance’
(Gehl cited in Byrne, Chandler and Echberg 2013).
A combination of a stable economy, clean environment and democratic government paired with, low crime
rates, excellent education and health care systems all contribute to the high quality of life that Australians
enjoy. Add to this the mild climate and glorious landscapes which allow for an abundance of outdoor
activities and the energetic cities filled with diverse arts, cultures, and nightlife - all are evidence as to why
Australia consistently ranks well. However, this desirable lifestyle will be threatened if plans for Australian
cities do not accommodate rapid population growth and increased urbanisation.
This paper constructs two possible futures for Australian urbanism. The first future, titled ‘Australia’s Identity
Crisis’ is based on current literature and paints a bleak future for Australian cities if current planning
processes continue. The second future, titled ‘Reimagining an ‘Other’ Australia’ encapsulates the views of six
eminent architects who suggest strategies for reshaping this anticipated future.
AUSTRALIA’S IDENTITY CRISIS

Population growth, globalisation and increased urbanisation are threatening the desirable qualities that
shape and construct the current Australian condition. Some of the impacts are already being felt throughout
Australia and over time, a rapid decline in these qualities can be expected. The following literature review
details what is expected to happen to Australian cities if drastic strategies are not developed and
implemented to manage and mitigate the emerging issues related to rapid population growth. Research
presents future predictions and hypothesises the anticipated Australian reality based on current statistics
and foresights regarding population density, globalisation, climate change, resource availability and
pressures on suburbia. Australia is currently at a critical point where the dire predicted future will soon
become a reality if current approaches towards city planning and urbanisation are not radically rethought to
meet the changing needs of the expanding population.
Accommodating a ‘Big Australia’

Current literature predicts that 21st century Australia will be characterised by rapid and continual population
growth, estimating a figure of 62.2 million by 2101 (Bolleter and Weller 2012). This increase notes an
additional 39 million people to be accommodated in urban centres, placing immense pressure on city
frameworks. Current city planning only accommodates for 12% of this figure, leaving 34 million people
unaccounted for (Bolleter and Weller 2012). This population increase will undoubtedly exacerbate a number
of existing urban conditions that already threaten the livability of Australian cities.
Demographer Bernard Salt (2009) advocates for the notion of a ‘Big Australia,’ promoting the ability to cope
with increasing economic, skills and services demands. The CSIRO Future Dilemmas Report (Foran et al.
2002) also identifies that Australia will require a large population to provide the tax base to support the
increased health care demands associated with an ageing population. Population increase is inevitable and
critical in ensuring the development of Australia. However, it is also incredibly problematic, forcing the
consideration of where these people will live, how they will be accommodated, and what will be
compromised (Bolleter and Weller 2012).
The pressure on suburbia
Population increase will require suburbia to accommodate an additional 17 million dwellings. Current
planning policies identify two methods to cope with this growth while minimising urban sprawl across
Australian cities – through 60% urban infill housing and 40% greenfield site development (Forster 2006). If
this model is maintained, approximately 14,276 square kilometres of additional suburbia will be required
(Bolleter and Weller 2012), exacerbating urban sprawl and increasing the dependence on private motor
vehicles (Forster 2006). Bolleter and Weller (2012) argue that; ‘If the bulk of infill development continues to
occur as small scale, poorly designed piecemeal infill of existing suburban blocks, Australian cities will
merely be amplifying current homogeneity, in turn sacrificing the spaciousness that has traditionally made
their suburbs so successful.’
To mitigate suburban sprawl, a shift towards high-density living alternatives will be required. Former Prime
Minister, Paul Keating advocated the ‘Compact City’ arguing current Australian cities are ‘not working or
growing well’ (Keating 2011), making reference to the sprawling suburban condition. Despite prominent
leaders sharing this view, the vested power of land development and the deeply entrenched cultural norm
of the detached house has resulted in continued urban sprawl (Bolleter and Weller 2012). Community
attitudes towards high density living have been neither positive nor supportive as it fundamentally
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challenges the entrenched ‘Australian Dream’ where residents seek homes with backyards and the
associated lifestyle. To achieve a typology shift in Australia’s suburban environment, a policy driven shift
from traditional low-density suburbia to more dense urban centres will be required (Hill 2011).
The emergence of the Global Suburb

It is expected that migration will become the driving force of population increase in Australia, with an
expected 15 million migrants arriving over the next six decades (Bryan et al. 2006). In the 2012-2013
financial year, immigrants from 103 different countries (ADIBP 2013) accounted for 63% of the country’s
population growth, surpassing the countries internal population generation (Hugo 1995). The current trend
to accommodate migrants in suburbia has resulted in the development of a new suburban condition - the
Global Suburb (Forster 2006).
The emergence of the global suburb contributes to cultural diversity. However, it is also expected to
contribute to a great socioeconomic divide. Demographer Bob Birrell (2010) argues that the danger of the
Global Suburb lies in the tendency for cultural groups to agglomerate rather than integrate. He identifies
this increasing geographical concentration of immigrant groups in Australian cities as problematic arguing,
‘social divisions are becoming more obvious and geographically concentrated and certain areas are being
overlain by an ethnic identification’. Professor Graeme Hugo (1995) identifies the disadvantages associated
with ethnic concentration, which will result in increased language difficulties, social dislocation, reduced
opportunity for economic advancement and general deprivation. Without effective management, the
development of this condition will result in marginalised cultural communities, increased social issues and
will see Australia experiencing poverty, violence, crime as well as additional pressure on the performance of
key infrastructure.
Birrell (2010) raised further concerns regarding mass immigration, arguing that it is already ‘killing traditional
Australian culture and causing social divisions’. Hugo (1995) further argues that increased immigrant
populations will contribute to the breakdown of previous widely shared and binding social and national
values and it is anticipated that the tribulations of the margins will begin to erode the contentment of the
middle class (Hugo 1995). Arguably, the success of urban development in Australia can be attributed to the
homogenous cultural condition that has historically underpinned the cities. This increased social and
cultural diversity will jeopardise the success of Australian cities as there will be increased difficulty in
decision-making and change, consequently slowing development.
The resilient city
As climate change intensifies, it is expected that Australia will be increasingly affected by extreme weather
events; becoming ‘hotter and drier than ever, and wetter and wilder than ever’ (Hill 2011). As a result, cities
will need to become more adaptable and resilient to change. Current urban systems are unable to cope with
unexpected shock events, proving the requirement for fundamental rethinking (Bolleter and Weller 2012).
Andresen and Francis (2007) speculate on the survival of Australian cities, imagining the effects of climate
change and increased natural disasters on the urban environment, predicting; ‘storms which lash the city
with frequent tropical downpours causing intense overland flows, creating flooding and contributing to
disaster’. With the emergence of the ‘Flood City’ we can come to expect ‘engineering and planning policies
to cover the earth with flow path obstructions, concentrated building clusters, rail embankments, bridges,
tunnels and networks of pipes enclosing the remaining waterways of our cities’ (Andresen and Francis 2007).
This tendency towards adopting engineered solutions reflects the downfall of current government
structures that encourage ‘quick-fixes’ to complex problems due to the short-term placement of policy
makers and their inability to appropriately allocate responsibility.
In addition to extreme climatic conditions and more frequent natural disasters, Australia is experiencing an
unprecedented population shift to coastal regions, with 75% of Australia’s non-metropolitan population
currently living in coastal areas (Brown and Bellamy 2006). This influx, termed ‘the sea change phenomenon’
describes the rapid amenity migration associated with residents drawn to coastal regions by the attractive
quality of life offered (Murphy 2002). There are a number of implications associated with this population
shift as higher densities on the coastlines expose large populations to the effects of coastal erosion,
cyclones, and extreme weather conditions (Salt 2001). Likewise, urban and rural fringe regions are expected
to become increasingly vulnerable, with populations continuing to border fire prone bushland and push
into flood plains (Salt 2009).
The unique ecology
Australia’s unique and vast natural landscape, in combination with the mild weather, attracts many tourists
and migrants (Hill 2007). Australia is one of 17 countries to be classified as being ‘mega diverse’; this group
of countries has less than 10% of the global surface but supports more than 70% of the biological diversity
on earth (Australian Government, Department of Environment 2013). Despite this figure, Australians occupy
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more land per capita than any other country in the world. The natural landscape has undoubtedly been over
exploited and is being placed under increased threat as cites continue to grow (Bolleter and Weller 2012).
Relationships between the built environment, land and ecology require drastic reconsideration and
reworking to ensure a more sophisticated and symbiotic relationship with the ecosystems is established
(Bolleter and Weller 2012).
The future city

Current literature and research constructs a bleak future for Australian cities. Policies and plans do not
adequately take into account population growth; vulnerability due to anticipated climate change;
deterioration of the natural environment or predictions of increased ethnic and cultural marginalisation.
Andresen and Francis (2007) summarise the impacts on current cities, speculating a form comprised of
‘…tall buildings along suburban railway lines and riverbanks where they overshadow the river and adjacent
parkland. The city consolidates, in-fills, increases its building stock and expands its infrastructure. Taller
buildings and larger footprints block views, overshadow marginal ground and squeeze out large trees
further diminishing the remaining fragments of the city’s green space, further loss of trees, loss of
biodiversity, loss of citizen wellbeing and health, loss of capacity to respond to more extreme weather
events, loss of shade, loss of amenity…’
This anticipated urban condition will ultimately affect the current way of life, encouraging the reimagining
of an ‘other’ reality for Australia and questioning the role architects have to play in the development of
future cites. In the pursuit of reimagining this ‘other’ Australia, it becomes prudent to question how the
urban condition can be retrofitted to anticipate these unknowns, and indeed what sort of society do we
wish to create for one of the most urbanised nations. It is anticipated that both the agency of planning and
the creativity of design will need to be combined to solve the complexity of the problem.
REIMAGINING AN ‘OTHER’ AUSTRALIA

In the pursuit of reimagining this ‘other’ Australia, discussions were carried out with six eminent architects.
Discussions were structured around four key themes: Design Solutions, Resilience, Environment and
Compromise. These themes covered a broad range of issues surrounding the future of Australian urbanism
and raised a number of concerns about the future direction of urban development in Australia, speculating
on a number of potential strategies for the future.
Architects were selected based on their unique contribution to the national conversation regarding the
future of Australian cities. Participants contributed a broad range of ideas, from radical and pragmatic
thoughts and responses to both realised and imagined problems. Participants included:
! Andrew Makin – Director at Design Workshop, South Africa

! Caroline Stalker - Director at Architectus Brisbane, Adjunct Professor, School of Design, Creative
Industries, Queensland University of Technology, Member at Queensland Board for Urban Places
! Gerard Reinmuth – Director of Terroir, Practice Professor, School of Architecture, Associate Head of
School, School of Architecture, Core Member, Centre for Contemporary Design Practice, University
of Technology Sydney, Contributor to Now and When, 2010 Architecture Biennale in Venice -
Sydney 2050: Fraying Ground, Curator of Australian Pavilion, 2012 Architecture Biennale in Venice
! Richard Goodwin – Director of Richard Goodwin Architects, Professor, School of Art, School of
Design Studies, University of New South Wales, Finalist in Now and When, 2010 Architecture
Biennale in Venice - Sydney 2050: Fraying Ground
! Richard Leplastrier – Director at Richard Leplastrier Architects, Professor, School of Architecture and
Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia
! Roderick Simpson – Director of Simpson+Wilson Architects, Associate Professor and Director of
Urban Design, University of Sydney.
Interviewees unanimously agreed strategic plans that focus on creative design solutions required to address
population growth and ensure the current quality of life is maintained. This planning should not simply
address the physical aspects of providing housing and infrastructure, but should be an integrated response
that accommodates the environmental, economic and social facets of the city. Focus should be placed on
the cities’ relationship to ecology, increasing green space and biodiversity, improving the health and well
being of our citizens and becoming more resilient to natural disasters. However, there are limits to planning
and limits to which one can anticipate the future. Plans that are developed now will reflect a current point in
time; they will be constrained by current technologies and modes of thinking; ‘It is critical that the urban
fabric be approached from a strategic level. Architects and urban planners need to look at the existing bones
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of the city and then develop a number of retrofitting strategies that allow for multiple opportunities to occur
as technologies emerge in the future’ (Simpson).
In addition to the adoption of strategic thinking, the expected shift in Australia’s socio-economic
composition and the subsequent effect this will have on our cities was identified as a common concern. The
anticipated influx of immigrants will affect the cultural composition of Australia and potentially alter
national identity. Makin questioned, ‘What happens when the population in urban areas shifts from being a
high percentage of European descendants to when 40% of them are low socio-economic immigrants?’ This
poses the question of how to support the changing demographics and intensification of population
anticipated in Australian cities? Simpson believes the answer is through the development of cities that
support multiple, different patterns of living, allowing the overlay of culturally diverse and varied
occupancies within the built environment.
This proposition may be realised through the intensification of suburbia to facilitate and encourage different
living typologies. Simpson argues the success of this proposition relies on the need for big support
infrastructure and critical consideration regarding where it will go; ‘we need to consider policies and how
they hinder rather than facilitate what we are trying to achieve … we need to identify where there is the
need to be prescriptive, and where there is the opportunity to be hands off, allowing the city to emerge
organically’.
The city as a system

It was widely conceded that current urban planning policies in Australia, which accommodate population
increase through urban infill housing and greenfield site development are problematic and threaten the
livability of Australian cities and the natural environment. In alignment with findings from the literature
review, participants recognised poorly designed, piecemeal development as inadequate and unsustainable.
Rather, they advocate the concept of cities as systems, which require the development of support strategies
to facilitate opportunities for their growth and prosperity.
Reinmuth identified current trends that advocate large infrastructural cities, which have emerged from the
desire to optimise resources and distribution networks. He explained: ‘If we build our cities as a series of
connections between what is already there, then we increase the opportunity for things to happen…
Increasing the opportunity for things to happen is important as it allows for a number of possible futures…
our cities become systems that are open and positive rather than closed and static’. This idea stems from the
concept of agglomeration, which advocates the notion ‘the more people that get together, the stronger the
economy is as it increases the opportunity for things to happen’ (Goodwin).
Reflecting on the self-generating, self-consuming and self-perpetuating natural ecology, Andrew Makin
introduced the idea of the Systemic City. It describes an integrated system of physical and social
infrastructure to which the products of collective and individual initiative and ingenuity are organically
attached and by which they are enabled. As an approximation of nature, and echoed in the patterns,
mechanics and operations of almost all informal urban settlement across the globe, key physical and social
infrastructure is the fundamental potentialiser for economic, social and cultural evolution, transformation,
and growth, all of which are integral elements of sustainable urban intensification. The city is a totally
dynamic organism waiting for planners, politicians and speculating property developers to get their hands
off the wheel so that it can become all the versions of its autonomous self; part machine, part man.
The city as already finished

When considering the growth of Australian cities, it was widely acknowledged that the urban foundations
should be treated as permanent with all future development being an adaptation to the existing.
‘…anything we do needs to be viewed as an alteration to the world that is already complete, whether it is
alterations to the natural or built environment… we need to adopt a process centred on stubbornly
retaining as many existing buildings as possible’ (Reinmuth). Goodwin reinforced this idea explaining that
the most sustainable way to move forward is through retaining existing building envelopes; ‘it doesn’t make
sense to demolish existing infrastructure, rather we should repurpose existing buildings’. Leplastrier spoke
with direct reference to Sydney, arguing that future expansion should be blocked, and advocating the need
for future development to work within the existing urban framework.
In order to make meaningful connections within the existing urban fabric and regain better public space in
the general realm of the city, Reinmuth explained the need to approach the design of cities as a series of
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connections between spaces that already exist. Stalker extended the conversation, making reference to her
concept of ‘Urban Acupuncture’, which she describes as the need to make strategic insertions to mend those
elements of the city that aren’t working. This thought describes the need for architects to work across
multiple scales, constantly questioning the relationship between the urban and built environment;
‘architects must begin to think of the city first and then come back to the scale of the building … it is critical
to consider how buildings link up and connect at an urban scale’ (Goodwin).
Goodwin identifies the success of current cities as being linked to the dynamism, activity and associated
programme that defines the ground plane and streetscape. Goodwin believes ‘humans in cities love density.
We need to reinstate the street and fundamentally change the typology of high-rise living’. This imperative
is discussed through adopting the analogy of a termite’s nest ‘rather than having all the people swarming
around at one level, make it all swarm. Buildings should establish multiple ground floors… by establishing
multiple ground planes we dissolve the hierarchy and create more privilege’.
Goodwin advocates his concept of porosity as a method to deal with rapid population increase in urban
centres. He argues the success of the porosity theory hinges on the need for cities and buildings to develop
multiple ground planes that encourage and facilitate density. Porosity recognises the need to establish a
balance between public and private space, as a method to inform radical transformations of existing
structures to provide an additional dimension to public space systems in the city. Goodwin argues the
application of porosity theory can contribute to the ‘formation of new architecture through establishing
new linkages …establishing connections and extending public space is how we might arrive at new [built]
program’.
The resilient city

Participants discussed the view that the future successful development of Australian cities relies on
reintegration with the natural habitat and ecology; ‘we need to start to design architecture that caters for
the natural environment, an architecture that is transient and adaptable and has the ability to adjust and
change’ (Goodwin).
With currently two thirds of the population occupying cities, we find ourselves at a point where for the first
time our evolution and growth is being shaped by the built environment, rather than the natural
environment. Makin identifies this as a significant shift and prompts the consideration of the sort of habitat
we want to construct that will enable the continued evolution of our species. He explains: ‘Nature is the
most efficient and effective system there is. It converts the least energy into the greatest output without
waste. As our original habitat, it is the single most important enabler of our evolution. Now that most
humans live in cities, the urban environment is our new habitat. By comparison to the natural ecology, it is
super-inefficient and ineffective. One reason is because we do not build systems where each part equally
benefits itself. And every other part where everything is for the whole as much as it is for itself’. In order for
our two habitats to become more physically and experientially integrated, the natural habitat needs to be
incorporated in and on the built habitat, and the urban environment needs to become a climate mitigator
that improves the quality of life.
Participants discussed concerns regarding widespread ignorance of and negligence towards rapidly
escalating ecological issues, which has been fuelled by our dependence on highly air-conditioned
environments. The majority of participants raised concerns regarding the general reaction to climate change
being tacked on, temporal solutions that ultimately compromise the livability of our cities. Reinmuth
reinforced this stating that ‘the current sustainability industry needs to be challenged… what we’re doing is
making a very overtly technical response to try and solve this problem… but actually the problem must be
solved conceptually and with strategic moves. Any technical solutions should support these initiatives’.
Stalker reiterated this idea; identifying the ignorance of changing ecological issues is exacerbated by the
tendency to rely on engineered solutions, which ultimately compromise the quality of lifestyle people seek
in Australian cities. Stalker made reference to the example of big levy walls in canal estates, identifying the
downfall of these solutions which restrict people from gaining access to and enjoying the water, arguing
‘these aren’t just engineered solutions, these are urban life solutions … you need to do some thinking and
question how these systems can also provide really wonderful spaces for people to enjoy’. This discussion
aligns with Andresen’s observations detailed in the literature review regarding the effects of climate change
and increased natural disasters on urban environments. However, until councils adopt long-term planning
visions, it will remain difficult to obtain investment in creative design solutions for these problems.
In order for the two habitats to become more integrated, it is essential for design solutions to become more
informed by our natural habitat. Leplastrier highlighted the tendency for current urban planning to simplify
geography, topography and ecology, specifically discussing literature, which predicts the emergence of an
‘east coast mega region’. Leplastrier cautioned the danger of conceptualising and generalising the east
141
coast as one region, identifying the diversity and complexity of the coastline, characterised by national
parks, lagoon systems, river networks, headlands and water bodies, all of which limit the connectivity and
reduce the possibility of ‘mega cities’ to develop. Stalker supported this observation; ‘the land tells you so
much about what you should do. If you begin with a really strong structure that relates to the land, when
you build that scenario up it is not about an inclination, it is about understanding where our water resources
are, ecologies you want to keep in place, understanding in a new setting how a new piece of habitat can key
into an existing piece of ecology and how those two can sit together – that’s the key piece that you can do in
terms of making a resilient place’.
Planning for the future city

Australia’s current, hyper-regulated planning systems stifle architects and urban designers limiting
innovation and the opportunity to implement creative solutions. Simpson cautions that through planning
policy we lock in the inability to change, ‘…codification and invisible systems restrict us from adaptation,
diversity and variety’. Similarly, Reinmuth argues, ‘there is a need to challenge and move away from
prescriptive codes and regulations, which stifle, design outcomes. There is the idea that as we are more
prescriptive we have more control, rather than approaching architecture as propositional’. Simpson
suggests that we need to look externally to other countries, such as Morocco, that adopt minimal planning
policies structured around basic human needs, and recognise their ultimate success, ‘this looseness allows
innovation, variety and vitality … It doesn’t inhibit design responses, rather places more responsibility on
the designer and community’.
While it was widely understood that planning policy would need to shift, it was also highlighted that this will
be a slow and cumbersome process that can’t be achieved by architects alone. In order to stimulate change,
Reinmuth suggested that we approach architecture as propositional, ‘if you imagine a future world you can
legislate for it … legislate with a focus on future possibilities rather than trying to control change based on
existing norms. Architects will always have the capacity to change people’s views, to cause views to change.
But we need a much larger conversation. Larger questions about how society conducts itself need to
happen. How do we want to live?’
It is evident from these discussions that the future of urbanisation in Australia is not a problem facing
architects and built environment professionals alone. It is a multi-faceted problem to be considered by
Australia as a whole and requires support and traction from leaders external to the design profession;
‘ultimately, this discussion of the ‘other’ Australia relates more broadly to our cultural view’ (Stalker).
Reinmuth suggests ‘fundamental change will be achieved through the establishment of a much larger,
national conversation that sparks questions about how we want to live’. However, Simpson asks, ‘when we
question how we want to live, is the ultimate goal relative equality across our cities, meaning equal access to
education, employment, livability? And if so, what is it that is standing in our way of achieving this?’
CONCLUSION
In the pursuit of reimagining an ‘other’ reality for Australia ‘…we cannot simply do what we have done in
the past more efficiently. Rather we need to develop a new paradigm that will get more out of less’ (Byrne,
Chandler and Echberg 2013). Limitations brought about by the hyper regulated planning systems and the
subsequent lack of innovation restricting the evolution of the built environment need to be recognised.
These systems need to be challenged and greater emphasis placed on the implementation of creative
design solutions that benefit all. It is only though this process that the opportunity will arise to develop
strategic city plans that support Australia’s evolving urban identity; plans supported by the existing urban
fabric that facilitate multiple diverse patterns of living and encourage the city to thrive as a system. It is this
type of strategic thinking that will allow for the conception of an alternate future for Australia that will be
adaptable and resilient to the shifting social, economic and environmental conditions of the contemporary
city.
This paper contributes to the thought provoking discussions surrounding the future of Australian cities and
comes at an important moment in Australia’s urban development; ‘[Australia has the opportunity once again
to become a pioneer for] the new frontiers … [we can] strive to replenish and restore the society by uniting
the city and the country’ (Gough Whitlam, cited in Hill 2007). What becomes increasingly obvious is that the
success of our future city lies at the intersection of creative and innovative design thinking and the reality of
city making. If we are to achieve fundamental change, it is essential to develop a clear and common national
vision, derived from the consideration of how Australian’s want to live, to inform the strategic planning that
will guide the future development of cities. This is undoubtedly a complex and multi-faceted problem that
requires multi disciplinary attention; it isn’t a problem that architects can solve in isolation.
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Future research
The aim of this paper was to extend the existing conversation and thought surrounding the future of
Australia’s urban condition and speculate on how Australians might reshape their anticipated future. It is
recognised the limitations of the paper lie in the exclusive review of the Australian condition. It is
recommended further research would be valuable in projecting the discussion to a global scale, borrowing
key cues and strategies from cities that have dealt with similar urban dilemmas and their responses. The
study also remains limited through the number and selective nature of the participants. It is recommended
that further research extend the discussion to invite the thoughts and opinions of other ‘experts’ within the
built environment including urban designers, town planners, legislators and key stakeholders.
143
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Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection (ADIBP)., 2013. Settler arrival data: Selected
countries of birth by migration stream for the financial year 2012-2013, Australian Department of Immigration
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Andresen, B & Mara, F., 2007. ‘Survival: Implementing tomorrow’s city - sedimentary city’, paper presented at
the 2nd Annual International Urban Design Conference, Gold Coast, 2nd – 4th September 2009.
Australian Bureau of Statistics., 2013. Population clock, cat. no. 3101.0, ABS, Canberra.
Birrell, B., 2010. ‘Mass immigration kills Australian culture’, Herald Sun, 24 March.
Brown, AJ & Bellamy, J., 2006. Federalism and regionalism in Australia. New approaches, new institutions: The
challenge of coastal governance, ANU E-Press, Canberra.
Bryan, D, McGuirk, P, O’Neill, P & Stilwell, F., 2005. ‘City economy: Understanding Sydney as a global
city’, Proceedings of the State of Australian Cities Conference, Brisbane, 30 November – 2 December.
Byrne, J, Chandler, B & Echberg, B., 2013. Urban voices: Celebrating urban design in Australia, Urban Design
Forum Inc: Melbourne.
Department of the Environment., 2013. Australia’s 15 natural biodiversity hotspots, Australian Government,
<http://www.environment.gov.au/topics/biodiversity/biodiversity-conservation/biodiversity-
hotspots/national-biodiversity-hotspots>.
Foran, B, and Poldy, F., 2002. Future dilemmas: Options to 2050 for Australia’s population, technology, resources
and environment, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Canberra.
Forster, C., 2006. ‘The challenge of change: Australian cities and urban planning in the new
millennium’, Geographical Research, Vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 173-182.
Graeme, H., 1995. Understanding where immigrants live, Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population
Research, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
Hill, D., 2007. In every dream home a heartache: The great Australian dream and its architecture, City of Sound,
<http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2007/09/in-every-dreamh.html>.
Hill, D., 2011. Same old new world cities, or, the missing version for Australian cities; or, asking the right questions
in the first place, City of Sound, <http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2011/04/same-old-new-world-
cities.html>.
Murphy, P., 2002. ‘Sea-change: Re-inventing rural and regional Australia’, Transformations, No. 2.
Salt, B., 2001. The big shift: Welcome to the third Australian culture: The Bernard Salt report, 2nd edn, Hardie
Grant Publishing, Oxford.
Salt, B., 2009. ‘Where to put the extra millions at the end of the 21st century?’, The Australian, 10 September.
Weller, R & Bolleter, J., 2013. Made in Australia: The future of Australian cities, UWA Publishing, Perth.
144
MINI HOUSE——A RESILIENT STRATEGY IN RAPID URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Prof. Li Zhenyu, Dean of College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China,
zhenyuli@msn.com
Ms. Xu Mengya, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China, 741709066@qq.com
Abstract
Mini House is a new type of housing from 15 to 50 aimed at young people for temporary living. It is a resilient
strategy and has much value in solving the issues of rapid urban development. Firstly, it alleviates the problem
that large population and limited land conflict fiercely by making full advantage of urban land and space to
organize multi-functions. Secondly, the total price for a Mini House is much lower than a normal house, so buying
a Mini House is not a heavy burden for young generation. It can also be a form of investment by young people.
As Chinese society enters its transition period, architects and land agents in China have made great efforts to put
forward the Mini House. This paper will choose several cases of Mini House in China. These cases target young
people as transitional products. This paper will do a survey and analysis of their space characteristics, unique
design methods and feedback from proprietors. Moreover, this paper will summarize the flexible design strategies
of Mini House and discuss how it obtains maximum function in minimum space.
Through case studies, the paper reveals that Mini House, which utilizes integrated interior design, flexible
furniture, public facilities and property management to fulfill comfortable, fashionable and convenient feeling in
limited space, has value in relieving the contradiction between people and land in the rapid urban development.
This paper is subsidized by NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China No.51278337).
Keywords: Mini House, resilient, design strategies, minimum space, maximum function.
INTRODUCTION
The conception of Mini House originated from Japanese and Hong Kong city departments. Mini House in
Japan appeared at the end of World War II. At that time, Japan lacked supplies and goods, and therefore, a
group of Japanese architects initiated the design trend of Mini House. Tower House by Takamitsu Azuma in
1966 was a master work at that time.
As for China, under the situation of rapid urban development nowadays, the contradiction between large
population and limited land arises. Young people, who have just graduated from college and at the
beginning their career, cannot afford the high price of houses. They have to rent a small room and bear a life
of low quality. How to improve the living conditions of young people with limited resources has become a
hot social issue currently which concerns government, developers, scholars, media and even common
people. To solve this problem, Mini House, ranging from 15 to 50 has been applied in China. It acts as a
transitional house for young people and also a resilient strategy in rapid urban development. In order to
reach the purpose of a relatively low total price, Mini House is as small as possible. Nevertheless, small is not
the only key point, how to use architecture design strategies to integrate minimum space with maximum
function is more important. This question comes to the authors’ research orientation. The authors chose
cases of Mini House in China from 2005 to 2013. Space characteristics, unique design methods and feedback
from proprietors were focus studied. Deep research and analysis had been done in order to receive the
answers of how to meet basic living needs in such a narrow space, how to realize the possibility of change,
how to design a walking path with economy and rationality, how to tailor-make furniture and household
appliances to fulfill maximum combinations. After the study, three main design strategies of Mini House
were summarized: 1. compacting of interior space; 2. flexibility of furniture; 3. sharing of public space.
Case Information Summary
145
(Source: drawn by author)
COMPACTING OF INTERIOR SPACE
In order to minimize interior space, the arrangement should be compact and the function should have the
possibility to be changed to adapt to different needs. There are two methods to explore potential of space
and increase efficiency of space usage. 1. simplification and mixture of function; 2. vertical combination.
Simplification and mixture of function

Mini House aims at a special group——young people, for temporary living. Young people’s requirements for
living space differ from common people’s demand for a traditional house. For instance, young people prefer
to go to the canteen or restaurant nearby for dinner rather than cook the meal themselves at home since
they do not have enough time; they prefer to go to cafes or KTVs to meet friends rather than receive visitors
at home; they prefer to have their clothes washed and dried in a laundry rather than at home. Vanke, a
famous property developer in China has studied young people’s living style and habit since 2006 and drawn
an order according to the importance and frequency of use: sleeping, storage, sanitary, study, dining. In
consideration of young people’s unique life style, we can sacrifice and simplify some functions which are
rarely used but occupy much space. For example, close-kitchen can be changed to open-kitchen, the area of
balcony can be shrunk, living room and dining room can be merged. In this way, the amount of inner space
can be cut down. Moreover, space with neutral-function often offers mix-use in different time for the sake of
efficiency enhancement.
Case A—— Xi’an Vanke Town 18

Xi’an Vanke Town minimized the floor area to 18 under the requirement of Human Engineering. The
designers greatly diminished inner space through cancelling a balcony, turning living room “invisible”,
sharing the sink for washing food and for cleaning the face. In addition, they made the washroom
transparent in order to integrate the inner space as a whole room. Living room, bedroom, study room,
dining room and kitchen, which should be separated, are combined in one space. At different times, spatial
properties can be changed by the coordination of flexible furniture to create various scenarios.
Bedroom mode Living room mode Study mode Kitchen mode
Figure 1: Xi’an Vanke Town (Source: drawn by author).
Vertical combination
Vertical combination means taking advantage of interlayers to combine space with different functions in
vertical axis for purpose of vertical and compound use of effective area.
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Case B—— Hallway-house 14 21

The architect simplified the function of bedroom to sleeping only and put it in the interlayer space above
bathroom or storeroom. Dining room is elevated as a transitional space. Hallway-house met the functions of
bedrooms, living room, storage and bathroom in a mini house with 4.5m height and 14 or 21 floor area.
The designer utilized the vertical space to fulfill the exploration of how to combine mini floor area, large
effective space and multiple functions.
(Source: reference [6]).
Figure 2: Hallway-house
To summarize the design strategy of interior space in Mini House, young people’s unique living style and
habit should be taken into consideration to receive targeted arrangement and order of function importance.
Then we choose main functions and combine them horizontally and vertically. In this way, even minimum
inner space can play a role of maximum function supplier.
FLEXIBILITY OF FURNITURE
For Mini House, tailor-made changeable furniture can coordinate with compact arrangement to transform
limited interior space so that each inch of floor area can be utilized efficiently to get more practical use of
space. Flexibility of furniture can be divided to 1. mobility of furniture; 2. concealing of furniture.
Mobility of furniture
Users could change the arrangement and functions of living space at any time through the movement of
furniture. Although this method cannot create larger space, it can create diverse space forms to meet any
household function. Through moveable furniture, the space can both be merged to be holistic and be
segmented to be private.
CASE C—— Private house of Architect Gary Chang 32

Gary designed his own house and achieved 24 kinds of function conversions in a 32 mini house. Faced
with high rents and small spaces in Hong Kong, Gary designed an ingenious system of walls and sliding
partitions. All furniture has mobility and can be combined at any time, so that different functions can be
overlapped and compressed. Trapdoors can be found everywhere throughout the room. Behind the
bookcases and video wall hides the bathroom, laundry room, kitchen and study. Their properties can be
transformed by moving the walls. A projection screen appears when pulling down the curtain and the entire
space becomes a private cinema. Although living in this kind of house means shifting furniture at any time,
people can enjoy a variable life just like Gary said, “The house transforms and I’m always here, I don’t move.
The house moves for me.”
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Complete room Room divided by walls
Figure 3: Private house of Architect Gary Chang (Source: drawn by author &
http://www.soufun.com/news/2010-09-09/3772565.htm).
Concealing of furniture
To save interior space, concealing of furniture which is not used for the time being is now used in Mini
House design.
CASE D—— “Living on Top” by NEXT Architects 14-21

The designers ingeniously combined the folding and storage of furniture with the ledger walls. They made
two areas which can also be called “walls”. One is to conceal a toilet, storage and include air-conditioned
seats. The other is a flexible and multi-functional unit which can accommodate a single or double bed, a
bilateral desk and storage space. Through a set of special embedded furniture, the space which is difficult to
use can provide the most value. The concealed furniture does not affect the passage of the household,
making the interior space very efficiently organized.
closed wall open—desk and store open—desk, bed and store
Figure 4: “Living on Top” (Source: drawn by author)
By changing furniture layout, function, location, etc., we can take advantage of the integrity of the space
after the merger to satisfy any home features. Flexible furniture can coordinate with the compact layout of
interior design for the formation of simple, flexible, changeable and scalable indoor spaces.
SHARING OF PUBLIC SPACE
According to the regular pattern, the proportion of public space area accounted for total residential area will
be increased with the reduction of interior space. Because of interior space limitations of Mini House, the
functions, i.e., reception, activities, dining, etc., which are sacrificed in each house need to be compensated
in public space. Having these functional areas concentrated and shared can not only meet the basic needs of
individuals and achieve rational allocation of resources, but also create meeting places for contacts and
information exchange. The public space design strategy of Mini House tends towards the centralization of
public function and diversification of public space.
Centralization of public function

For Mini House, gym, reception, dining, laundry, drying and other functions become weakened gradually in
interior space. Instead, they are centralized outside each apartment as shared functions. The concentration
of public function greatly improves the utilization and economy, and at the same time reduces maintenance
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costs and space costs. Centralization makes it possible that it does not affect the quality of life under the
premise of reducing the area of Mini House.
CASE E—— “A Portrait of Single Young Professionals” by Node 14-21

The two or three small units are assembled in a big house to centralize basic service space and to add
outdoor shared space, including small restaurants or small living rooms. The service space and living space
are arranged on different floors to form mezzanine space, increasing the interest. The principle of
centralization improves space utilization and facilitates the occurrence of interaction activities. The
centralization of public functions also provides crisscross through different spatial turn and penetration, so
that each room can enjoy maximum views.
Figure 5: “A Portrait of Single Young Professionals” (Source: drawn by author &

reference).
Diversification of public space

Young people lives colorful and fast-paced life. They value the convenience and efficiency of daily life. For
instance, many young people hope they can easily get groceries as long as they go downstairs; they dream
of gyms in the community; they are ready to invite friends to see a movie and then enjoy a dinner nearby.
Catering to young people’s living habits, more and more architects add commerce, restaurants,
entertainment, theater, library, club, gym, activity rooms, and many other non-residential space to Mini
House, prompting it to develop in the direction of complex gradually. Although the interior space of Mini
house is limited, but the various needs of life are greatly satisfied and the quality of life is guaranteed.
CASE F—— “Housing Above A Theatre” by Standard Architecture 14 22

The aim is to embed a large semi-open air theater as public space to some basic small residential units. The
theater plays the role of public living room space in the whole building for all residents in the community.
The theater may show other different features according to the need for bars, restaurants, outdoor market,
etc. As long as a little change is made and light effects are added to cooperate, various atmospheres could
be built.
bar /restaurant theatre market show
Figure 6: “Housing above a Theatre”(Source: Standard Architecture)
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The centralization of public function and the diversification of public space not only compensate for the
shortage of limited interior space, but also provide the place for young people’s group activities and ideas
exchange. This will realize the transformation from housing to public buildings. This will create a unique
living space which could inspire residents’ passion from creating infinite possibilities of a house in limited
space.
CONCLUSION
On the one hand, Mini House as urban bunker reflects the shrinking of living space and the strengthening of
individual privacy. On the other hand, the construction of public space and encouragement of interaction is
the orientation to quality life in Mini House. Mini House integrates minimum space with maximum function
through three design strategies: 1. compacting of interior space; 2. flexibility of furniture; 3. sharing of public
space. It achieves a comfortable, stylish, convenient living experience. The development of Mini House
greatly improves the density of population and saves the land to a large extent, avoiding the phenomenon
of unrestrained expansion in rapid urban development. It has great benefits to the intensive, compact and
sustainable development of land. Mini House saves the excess of land resources and investment costs, more
in line with modern youth’s urban ecological concept of energy saving and environmental protection.
From the current market situation, Mini House has been greatly recognized by general consumers. It is a
resilient strategy in the rapid urban development of China and has great potential to be applied to other
countries with similar situation in the future.
REFERENCES
Li, Z & Xie L., 2013. ‘The research on the individualized design of small & medium-sized unit housing in China’,
The 10th China Urban Housing Conference, Beijing Architecture & Building Press, 6, pp. 326-331.
Li, Z & Zhou F., 2008. ‘The Research of compact residential building floor design- taking residential building
in Shanghai District as an example’, Urban Environment Design, 3, pp. 89-94.
Li, Z & Sun Y., 2008. ‘Countermeasure for economical design of rental housing- taking rental housing in
Shanghai as an example’, Urban Environment Design, 5, pp. 91-95.
NL Architects, 2012. ‘Maximize!’, Urban Environment Design, 3, p. 212.
NEXT Architects., 2012. ‘Living on top’, Urban Environment Design, 3, p. 213.
NODE., 2012. ‘A portrait of single young professionals’, Urban Environment Design, 3, p. 209.
Shanghai Vanke Real Estate Co., Ltd. & di Magazine (ed.), 2013. Mini House salute to possibilities, report on
future cosmo life, Vanke, China Building Industry Press, Beijing, pp. 231-235.
Standard Architecture. 2012. ‘Housing above a theatre’, Urban Environment Design, 3, p. 210.
Urbanus. 2012. ‘Happy ant farm’, Urban Environment Design, 3, p.207.
Vanke- NAi., 2013. The Possibilities of Ultra Efficient Spaces, Chinese and Dutch Workshop for Economic
Residence, Urban Environment Design, 3, pp. 203-205.
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ARCHITECTURE AND THE DESIGN OF SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
Ramatu Aliyu, Developing World Built and Natural Environment Research Unit, Leicester School of
Architecture, De Montfort University, Leicester, ramatualiyu@yahoo.com
Dr. OJ Ebohon, Associate Professor, Developing World Built and Natural Environment research Unit, Leicester
School of Architecture, De Montfort University, Leicester, ebohon@dmu.ac.uk
Dr. L. Gyoh, Centre for Sustainability, School of Architecture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria,
louisgyoh@yahoo.co.uk.
Abstract
The human habitat or the built environment is faced with numerous challenges - rapid and uncontrolled
developments, spatial congestion, growing inequalities of access and outcome of urban opportunities,
inadequate and failing infrastructures and services; all of these problems persist, albeit to varying degrees across
global cities, they are more pronounced in cities of the developing world. While numerous examples of the various
efforts and initiatives undertaken to mitigate these problems across global cities abound, a common limitation
exists, the little attention paid to the role of communities in creating and enhancing sustainability attributes and
prosperities of cities. In other words, a sense of ‘Communities’ is designed out of many cities, and which this is
increasingly being recognized as a critical stumbling block to sustainable growth and prosperities of cities, it
brings to the fore, the pivotal role of architecture in delivering 21st century cities of sustainable communities. It is
widely acknowledged that poor Architectural Designs impoverish the built environment, and has adverse impacts
on quality of life, denying residents a sense of place, perpetuating loss of identity, resulting in fragmented
communities that are inherently unsustainable. In contrast, designing to the ethos of sustainable communities
generates ‘good architectural design’ that enables social capital formation, creating not only the opportunities for
stakeholders to participate in urban decision making process, but also to take ownership of urban growth and
development initiatives - adding value to the built environment. This paper, through the use of critical literature
review and theoretical framework, argues that despite the glaring role and significance of architecture in
sustainable community development, few architects are taking up the challenges, which is detrimental to the
creation of 21st century sustainable cities – where growth is tailored to the carrying capacities of cities, and urban
inequalities bridged. This paper brings to the fore, the critical role of the architectural profession in sustainable
communities’ development, and highlights the need for the profession to champion this course, if it is to retain its
premier position at the helm of the procurement process.
Keywords: architecture, sustainable communities, development design, architecturalprofession
151
INTRODUCTION
Cities are a distinct human settlements, concentrating people, commerce, talents and resources, institutions,
culture and information, and where the synergies between various sectors and sections of the socio-political
economy are harmonised (Sassen 2006). Such agglomerations or concentration of specialised and
complimentary activities offer cities huge advantage, as places for innovation, knowledge incubation,
specialisation, and entrepreneurship, all critical to economic growth and prosperity of cities (UN-Habitat
2011). Indeed, cities generate more than 80 per cent of global GDP and the largest 600 cities with just only
20 per cent of global population accounting for 60 per cent of global GDP (UN-Habitat 2011).
As shown in Figure 1, economic growth has always stimulated urbanisation (UN-Habitat 2010), explaining
the rapid urbanisation of the global population over the last 40 years (UNFPA 2007), and in 2008 for the first
time in human history, more than half of humanity lived in urban areas. Urbanisation is an irreversible
process, and estimates show that by 2015, there will be 564 cities with over I million people, and 75 per cent
will be located in the developing countries (UNEP 2004). This is particularly the case for Africa and Asia
where urbanisation rate is expected to grow from the current 46 percent to more than 80 per cent by 2030
(UN 2010).
Figure 1: Urbanization and GDP

100
90
80
70
60
% urban
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000
GDP per capita
Source: UN (2010), percentage urban; World Bank (2010), GDP per capita
As cities emerge as catalysts for economic growths and development, so they have become major sources of
threats to the global natural environment (Eden 2000), and these threats derive mainly from their ecological
footprints. Cities consume huge amounts of environmental goods and services usually imported from
beyond their boundaries and at the same time emitting effluents such as carbon dioxide (C02) and other
greenhouse gases with trans-boundary implications (Boydel 2004). A study of Vancouver and the Lower
Frasier Basin residents by Rees and Wackernagel (1996) is seminal and instructive, recording instances of
ecological footprints overshoot factors of 178 and 13 respectively. Similar studies of other cities have also
recorded significant ecological footprints overshoots (IIED 1995, Folke et al. 1994). These studies have
confirmed that the ecological footprints of cities transcend their immediate boundaries by huge distances
(Rees 1992). For example, a typical European City of a million inhabitants will on a daily basis import: 11,500
tons of fossil fuel and 320,000 tons of drinking water. In return, it will export 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere, 300,000 tons of waste water, and 1,600 tons of solid waste, highlighting the vital
linkages between urban functions and lifestyles on the one hand, and on the other, the pressures cities exert
on natural environments beyond their boundaries.
However, the ability of the global natural environment to continue to support urban functions and lifestyles,
as defined by its carrying or regenerative capacity remains doubtful (UNEP 2012). This owes to the insatiable
demands for natural resources and attendant effluents and pollution running alongside rapid rates of
depletion of these resources on the one hand, and on the other, the pronounced dynamic manifestations of
global environmental deteriorations, occasioning global scarcity of natural resources. For example, a study
152
of the 24 identifiable ecosystems critical to human existence found that 63 percent have been seriously
degraded out all usefulness, forcing 1.3 billion global citizens, mostly in the developing world, to live in
fragile ecological environments (UNEP 2012). While technological innovation has the potential to mediate
scarcity of natural resource commodities, natural resource amenities have proved difficult, and are
dwindling rapidly (Krautkraemer 2005). Thus, global natural resource scarcity is manifesting in various form
and dimensions, posing huge constraints on the growth and prosperity of cities.
Some of the immediate challenges confronted by global cities include how to provide effective and efficient
infrastructures and services in the face rising urbanisation and dwindling natural resource commodities and
amenities. Given that more than 1 billion global citizens have no roofs over their heads, and similar number
living in overcrowded and inadequate accommodation, this problem is compounded by continuing growth
in urban population and urbanisation. Evidence abounds showing the rapid encroachment and
displacement of urban ecosystems, as the ecological footprints of the built environment expand, exposing
the poor who usually predominate in such locations of ecological hazards.
These threats and attendant manifestations in cities have led to calls for sustainable cities of the 21st century.
Sustainable cities of the 21st centuries are innovatively created and not “mere collection of commodities or
places for recreation but the very source of life and wellbeing” (Wackernagel and Rees 1996). In other words,
the 21st century cities must evolve and develop into ecological spaces of diversified ecosystems teeming
with life, and forming ecological inclines that link to suburban and rural areas. In this context, human
wellbeing, effective urban design, and the health of the ecosystem are intertwined and inseparable,
underpinning calls to develop and remodel global cities into sustainable cities capable of meeting the urban
challenges of the 21st century (UN-Habitat 2011).
Sustainable development and cities
The concept of sustainable development reflects the concerns that cities cannot sustain their huge
ecological footprints, and the realigned global growth and attendant demand for natural resources with the
carrying capacity or the regenerative capacity of the natural environment. The desire that irrespective of
how development is configured and implemented to meet current needs, it must not compromise the
ability of future generations to fulfill their own material needs from a healthy natural environment (WCED
1987, Batie 1981). Cities are an appropriate platform for solutions to global environmental degradation and
pollution since they concentrate most of the causes and solutions to global environmental degradation
(Eden 2000, Hardoy et al. 2006). As already indicated, cities consume huge amounts of environmental goods
and services usually imported far beyond their boundaries and at the same time generating waste and
pollution that are difficult to contain within national boundaries.
However, a huge philosophical debate greets the concept of sustainability, this is derived from whether the
course of sustainable city is worth pursuing or superfluous, resulting in two contrasting philosophical
positioning – the constraint growth view (Batie 1989, Rees 1992a, 1992b, Arrow et al. 2004), and the resource
maintenance view (Wackernagel and Gallil 2012, Naess 1995). At the heart of the difference between the
“constrained” and “maintenance” views on sustainable development is whether or not natural capitals can
be substituted by man-made capital – the “weak” and “strong” sustainability debates (Haughton and Hunter
1994, Daly and Cobb 1989, Neumayer 2003). If man-made and natural capitals are easily substitutable –
“weak sustainability”, the fear of global resource constraints is misplaced, as education and technological
progress will permit natural capital stock to grow much faster than it depletes to assure future generations a
higher quality of life (Neumayer 2007, Johnson 2007). This view is largely shared by most governments and
multilateral and unilateral institutions, who see growth as inevitable owing to massive global poverty and
inequality within and between nations, which can only significantly ameliorated through growth (WCED
1987, Korten 1992, Dresne, 2002, Purvis and Grainger 2004).
The ‘resource maintenance’ approach emphasises the inherent value of the natural environment and all life
forms, and as a result, the protection of the natural environment is considered an overriding priority over
and above the pursuit of economic growth (Wackernagel and GalliI 2012, Naess 1995). The functions of
natural capital underscores its significance to development, and transcends the provision of food and raw
materials but also performs other critical life support functions for which there are no substitution
153
possibilities (Dietz and Neumayer 2007). Thus, the only condition under which natural resources are to be
used is only to fulfil “vital needs” and “lethal desires” (Naess 1995, Daly and Cobb 1989). Noting that the
huge global environmental degradation witnessed in the last century had very little to do with the fulfilment
of basic needs, a change in attitude away from capital accumulation upon which desires rather than basic
needs are fulfilled, is advocated as the most effective way of sustaining and enhancing the regenerative or
carrying-capacity of the eco-system (Naess 1995).
However, finding common grounds between these two competing perspectives on sustainable
development, which Neumayer (2003) considered non-falsifiable, is fundamentally important to the concept
of sustainable development because it goes to the heart of whether or not on the one hand, actions should
be taken, and on the other, the nature of actions to be taken to achieve sustainability and development. It is
within this context that the theoretical framework for sustainable community design, as a holistic and
dynamic solution to global environmental problems is explored.
Sustainable community design

It is important to briefly explore the concept of sustainable community, and according to RIBA (2003), it is a
process that continuously provides most of the diverse needs and desires of the community without
compromising the needs of other communities, fulfilling the inter and intra generational equity imperatives
of sustainable development. This definition, by emphasising needs and desires draws a balance between
‘strong sustainability’ that sees basic needs as the only worthwhile development goals worth pursuing in the
interest of the environment; and ‘weak sustainability’ that argues for both needs and desires to be fulfilled
but albeit within the limits of the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. Nevertheless, sustainable communities
are places that build on their assets, value healthy ecosystems, use resources efficiently, and actively seek to
strengthen and enhance the local economy. Other emphasis include ecosystem protection; meaningful and
broad-based citizen participation; and economic self-reliance. Additionally, sustainable community seeks
improved public health and a better quality of life for all its residents by limiting waste, preventing pollution,
maximising conservation and promoting efficiency.
Furthermore, the significance of sustainable community development to sustainability can be seen in the
practical difficulties of attempting to achieve sustainability on a global or national scale (Roseland 2012). As
Yanarella and Levine (1992) rightly observed, pursuing sustainability at the global or national levels has
achieved relatively little success because of the enormous changes required to drive it, particularly the
degree of coordination and cooperation required across political divides within and between countries of
diverse socio-economic and environmental problems. The ineffectiveness of such a top-down approach to
sustainable development relative to the speed with which solutions to global environmental problems are
sought was aptly captured at the UNCED’s 1992 Rio Earth Summit, resulting in the UN’s Agenda 21
programme of action on sustainable development (UNCED 1992). Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 specifically calls
for each community to formulate its own Local Agenda 21:
"Each local authority should enter into a dialogue with its citizens,
local organizations, and private enterprises and adopt 'a local
Agenda 21.' Through consultation and consensus-building, local
authorities would learn from citizens and from local, civic,
community, business and industrial organizations and acquire the
information needed for formulating the best strategies" (UNCED
1997).
Indeed, the importance of sustainable community approach to sustainable development is underscored by

the fact that not only is it at the community levels that most people first encounter the environment, but
also the fact that sustainable development transcends the natural environment to incorporate other
essential elements that define sustainable development such as equity and governance (Chansomsak and
Vale 2009). Thus, by focusing on sustainability at the local level, changes that matter to people are brought
to the fore and tackled immediately, and this not only facilitates effective participation but encourages local
citizens who after all are equipped with better knowledge of their natural environment to take ownership of
local sustainability initiatives and policies (Baton 2000). Indeed, the observation of Yanarella and Levine
(1992) is instructive; they argued that communities constitute the level of social organization where the
impacts of environmental degradation are mostly felt and where interventions are most likely to be quicker,
154
successful, and more noticeable. This view is shared by many, leading Chansomsak and Vale (2009) to
describe sustainable community development as signifying necessary changes that drive a community
towards sustainability.
From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that communities as social organizations, afford not just effective
and enabling environment conducive for stable political commitment inherent in the concept of sustainable
development, but more importantly, renders sustainable community development as the ultimate vehicle
for delivering sustainable development on a larger scale (Yanarella and Levine 1992). The reason for this,
according to Yanarella and Levine (1992), is that sustainable community development becomes the process
replicable elsewhere through which the concept of sustainable development becomes widely accepted,
delivered and validated. This owes to the huge flexibility, both in terms of strategies and policies associated
with sustainable communities’ development that allow for tailor-made strategies and solutions to
environmental problems. As environmental problems can be locational-specific, the diversity of local
knowledge found within and between communities can be important in tackling environmental problems.
However, while the role and significance of sustainable communities’ development in the delivery of
sustainable development is not in doubt, serious concerns have been raised about the capacity of
communities to organise socially and cohesively, and remain active over time (Wilkinson 1991, Tilly 1973,
Luloff 1990). Observers have noted that while communities do act, they do so occasionally and mostly in
response to crisis (Tilly 1973, Luloff 1990, Wilkinson 1991). Indeed, Bridger (1992) elaborated further that
even in active communities, problems of competing objectives and coordination pose real threats to
sustainable community development. Despite these shortcomings, Sampson (1988) and Cuba et al. (1993)
argued that little evidence exists to suggest that the significance of community, as an interactional
phenomenon has diminished to an extent to question its usefulness as a leverage for sustainable
development. This is evident in the resurgent interests in local approaches to sustainable development
(UNEP 1990).
Architects and sustainable communities design

The calls for planners and architects to implement design principles that integrate the social, economic, and
ecological aspects of a region into a balanced and holistic entity to guide urban development puts architects
at the forefronts of delivering sustainable development. Indeed, sustainable community development has
been defined by urban planners as the ‘New Urbanism’, the main focus being the construction of physical
scaled communities of mixed land uses that encourage diversified mode of transportation between end
points, variety of housing typologies to meet the needs of diverse population, the preservation of
uncultivated land and open spaces, and where public spaces are a central feature of community life
(Calthorpe 1993, Duany and Plater-Zyberk 1994).
Thus, the role of built environment professionals, particularly the architects in enhancing community
development through design is gleaned from the arguments advanced by Calthorpe (1994) that:
"Understanding the qualities of nature in each place, expressing it
in the design of communities, integrating it within our towns and
respecting its balance are critical to making the human place
sustainable and spiritually nourishing" (Calthorpe 1994).
Indeed, the view that architecture can make or unmake a community is widely shared (Lennertz 1991, Duany
and Plater-Zyberk 1994). Lennertz (1991) argues that design affects behaviour while Duany and Plater-
Zyberk (1994) consider the structure and function of a community as interdependent, and noting that
design is a sophisticated tool that can structure functional relationships, they believe that designers’
decisions permeate the lives of residents not just visually but in the way residents conduct their lives. Thus,
architects have pivotal roles to play in creating the sustainable communities. This view finds root in the
belief that “environmental crisis is a design crisis” (Van Der Ryn 1996), indicating that design can influence
behaviours, and tackling and mainstreaming sustainability into urban design principles-presents huge
opportunities for minimizing the ecological footprints of urbanisation. Cities are products of architecture
and the built environment is the significant and physical element of the community, and the significance
and fortunes of which crucially depends on the quality of design (Scottish Executive 2005). According to the
Scottish Executives (2005):
155
“Poor design impoverishes the built environment, Adversely affecting

the quality of life for residents, Denying sense of place and precipitating
loss of identity and the fragmentation of communities. The long-term
consequences of poorly designed development are inherently
unsustainable. In contrast, good design represents an investment in
Scotland’s people and places, and adds value to built environment”.
Thus, designing to meet basic requirements, such as access to local amenities and open space; a pleasant
stimulating place to work; and opportunities for leisure, fresh air and a quiet, clean and safe environment
represents a sustainable built environment that is inclusive to guarantee equality of access and outcome of
urban opportunities.
Evidence abound, showing that architects are not only best placed to advance the local ethos that
underpins sustainable development but are known to have championed this course in the past. Community
Architecture is not a term unfamiliar in the architectural world, depicting engagement with local
communities to allow active participation in the planning, design and delivery of infrastructures and services
to local communities (Hamdi 1997). Various models have been used by architects to engage local
communities, including the assignment of certain decisive roles to end users and sharing decisions
responsibly with stakeholders (Habraken 1976) or where decision making responsibility rests chiefly with the
community (Habraken 1986, Wulz 1990). One of the many advantages of this level of community
engagement is in facilitating and tuning infrastructure and service provisions to the needs of local
communities who in turn take ownership, obviating the need for correction expenditures in the long term,
especially where infrastructure and service provisions turn out to be inappropriate.
As shown in figure 1.3, Chansomsak and Vale (2009) have designed a framework illustrating the pivotal roles
of architects in community development. Firstly, they assert that as professionals, architects have the
capacity and specialists skills to tailor specific strategies to meet specific requirements of deferent
communities. This is hardly in doubt given the skills at the disposal of architects to design to specific site
constraints, as no two sites are the same, and this conforms with the views that in the creation of sustainable
communities, it is imperative that architects design “with people and for places” (McLennan 2004, van der
Ryn and Cowan 1996, Chansomsak and Vale 2009).
156
Figure 1.3 Relationships of Architects Roles & five Principles for Architects Actions in
Sustainable Community Development
(Source: Chansomsak and Vale 2009)

Indeed, Egan (2004) noted that sustainable communities do not just happen, they come about through
conscious efforts channeled through planning and design that require relevant skills, tools, and policies. A
critical look at the characteristics of sustainable communities by Peck, et al. (2000) presented in Table 1, and
further grouped into seven components (Egan 2004, RIBA 2004) in Figure 2 show clearly, the centrality of
architects to sustainable community development, as these characteristics and attributes are the skills to
which architects are trained and qualified, defining the specialism of architecture.
157
Table 1
Features and Characteristics of Sustainable Communities
Peck and Tomalty (2002) Egan (2003) RIBA (2004)
• Ecological Protection • Flourishing local RIBA accepts all the

• Density and Urban Design economy to provide sustainable communities
• Urban Infill jobs and change; attributes enumerated by
• Village Centres • Strong leadership to Egan (2004) but added a
• Local Economy respond to change; further seven attributes:
• Sustainable Transport • Effective engagement
• Affordable Housing and participation by • Well designed, high
• Livable Community local people, groups quality and robust
• Sewage and Storm Water and businesses, buildings and
especially in the facilities that
• Water Conservation
planning, design and respond to local
• Energy Efficiency
long term stewardship requirement;
• Reduce, reuse and Recycle
of their community, • The need to use local
and an active resources and skills
voluntary and both in the delivery
community sector; and during the life of
• A safe and healthy the community,
local environment including food
with well-designed production and
local and green distribution;
spaces; • Integrated and
• Sufficient size, scale balanced vehicle
and density, and the management;
right layout to • Further
support basic environmental
amenities in the targets including,
neighbourhood and extensive use of de-
minimise use of centralised and
resources (including renewable energy
land); generation and an
• Good public transport increase in bio-
and other public diversity;
infrastructure both • Good and on-going
within community management and
and linking it to maintenance
urban, rural, and • Support for
regional centres; innovation and
• Buildings – both experiment
individually and
collectively – that can
meet different needs
over time, and that
minimise the use of
resources;
• A well-integrated mix
of decent homes of
different types and
tenures to support a
range of household
sizes, ages and
incomes;
• Good quality local
public services,
158
including education
and training
opportunities, health
care and community
facilities, especially for
leisure;
• A diverse, vibrant and
creative local culture,
encouraging pride in
the community and
cohesion within it;
• A sense of place;
• The right links with
the wider regional,
national and
international
community;
(Source: Compiled from Peck et al. 2002, Egan 2004, RIBA 2004).
However, it is stressed that despite the abilities of architects to lead the debates on sustainable
development, the architectural profession continues to resist the concept of sustainability, and has been
slow in its response. This explains the failure of the profession to lead the sustainability debate, which all
indications show it is well placed to assume. Recent changes implemented by the Royal Institution of British
Architects (RIBA) serve as a case in point where its sustainability commitments are now reduced to
checkpoints and rendered “optional add-on” in its new ‘Plan of Work’ (Mark 2013). Also, it is no coincidence
that the American Institution of Architects (AIA) has remove sustainable design from members’ annual
continuing educational requirements (Hosey 2013). AIA based its decision on its belief that sustainability has
taken roots, a point vigorously challenged by Hosey (2013) who pointed to the hostilities of America’s
renowned architects towards the concept of sustainability as the reason. For example, Frank Gehry considers
sustainability as not only “bogus” but dismisses as “political agenda” while Peter Eisenman opined that
sustainability “has nothing to do with architecture”. Such confounding views of sustainability by influential
architects diminishes the importance and significance of sustainability to the built environment. In
particular, Hosey (2013) argues that AIA’s position on sustainability is contradictory in that on the one hand,
it is emphasising carbon neutrality through its “Architecture 2030” initiative, while on the other, it is de-
emphasising sustainability education to its members. On the contrary, it requires the active participation of
all stakeholders – local communities and built environment practitioners, particularly the architects working
together to deliver sustainable community development (Brady 2011).
159
Figure 2 Components of Sustainable Community Development

1. Governance; Effective and inclusive
participation, representation and
leadership.
2. Transport and connectivity.
3. Good transport services and
communication linking people to
jobs, schools, health and other
services.
4. A full range of appropriate,
accessible, public, private, community
and voluntary services.
5. Environmental; Providing places to
live in an environmentally friendly
way.
6. A flourishing and diverse local
economy Housing and the built
environment; A quality built and
natural environment.
7. Social and cultural; Vibrant,
harmonious and inclusive
communities.
(Source: RIBA 2004)
Several reasons have been advanced for Architects’ lack of enthusiasm about sustainable development, and
hence sustainable community development (Stott 2013, Altomonte 2009, Hosey 2013, Hindle and Rwelamila
1998). Common to the various reasons tendered is the finding that architectural education least prepares
architects to value and mainstream sustainability into design. Penny Lewis, as reported by Stott (2013)
indicated that architects are now slowly realising the power at their disposal to effect change but for which
they have not been trained to exercise, and reflecting this as “modernism’s greatest mistakes”.
Consequently, according to Penny Lewis, this has forced architects to remain within their ‘shell’,
institutionalizing the timid and narrow confines from which architecture is being interpreted. The
implication is that it forecloses the possibilities of engaging other disciplines such as humanities with huge
capacity to benefit the architectural discipline. According to Stott (2013b), “architecture isn’t all structure
and management. Its aesthetics, poetics, symbolism, environmental psychology, social policy, and all other
things which make up the wide-ranging field of “design”.
There are widely held beliefs that architectural education has to be revamped to engage other disciplines
such as humanities to bring it closer to the people (Altomonte 2009), and confront Christine Outram’s
question – “Architects may love curve, but do they understand people?” and went on to accuse architects of
relying on “rules of thumb and pattern books but rarely do in-depth ethnographic research” (Outram 2013).
Thus, sitting “at building site for an hour and watch people use space” is not the same as “speaking to
people”. Indeed, Penny Lewis suggested that engaging with the community is one of the many ways
architects could regain self-confidence and reverse the current situation where “architects are doing little
more than shaping proposals that communities themselves are forming, and applying a layer of technical
knowledge to make these proposals- hence architecture’s fight to remain relevant” (Stott 2013). This is
further emphasized by RIBA (2011), arguing that while sustainable community development needs design
professionals such as architects, the quality of the communities created will be dependent on the ability of
design professionals to engage with local people and local issues from the beginning of the engagement
initiative, designing “with” rather than “for” communities. Thus, the professional role of the architect in
sustainable community development is envisaged as a process of “preserving, improving, and creating the
quality of built environment” tailored to the need of the community. Indeed, Wates and Knevitt (1987) argue
that this form of engagement means, rather than solving problems, architects become enablers.
160
CONCLUSION
Revealed in this analysis is the critical importance of architecture and architects in the pursuit of sustainable
development, given that more than 75 percent of all known factors responsible for global environmental
degradation are traceable, in one way or the other, to the built environment. It is further shown that
architects create the built environment, as a result, are better placed to address sustainability issues, given
that these issues are much better addressed at the design stage, avoiding huge future correctional
expenditure. However, the profession is shown to be slow to embrace sustainability, and several reasons
were advanced but common to these are findings that architectural education would need to change and
engage far more disciplines for enrichment.
Generally, architects have the skills to design the physical environment that encapsulates the enabling
milieu for Sustainable Communities development. Urban form plays a significant role in sustainable
community, and critical to achieving overarching goals of sustainable development. Architects are well
positioned to assist in changing opinions, attitudes, and behaviours towards sustainable community
development, and this can be done by using ‘sustainable architectural language’ that signifies a new
beginning in relation with the natural environment.
161
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164
WICKED PROBLEMS FRAMEWORK: ARCHITECTURAL LESSONS FROM RECENT URBAN DISASTERS
Alexandra Jayeun Lee, Research Scholar, University of California Berkeley, CA, U.S.A; The University of
Auckland, New Zealand; The New Zealand Institute of Architects, New Zealand, lee.jayeun@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper extends the design framework of Horst Rittel (1930-1990), who argued that complex societal problems
that cannot be addressed using linear systematic processes, namely, ‘tame’ problems, may need alternative
approaches, since they are ‘wicked’ in nature. Urban issues such as informal settlements, poverty, and
overcrowding, are merely the physical symptoms of deep systemic issues beyond the control of planners and
architects alone, and hence, are ‘wicked’. Rittel, a thought leader of design thinking, coined the expression
“Wicked Problems” in 1973 to describe the complex issues of society situated in the real world that cannot be
solved using rationality alone. In fact, such issues need transdisciplinary understanding and action to optimise
decision-making based on multiple viewpoints and methods of inquiry.
Many of the ‘wicked’ attributes of society are amplified in a state of chaos such as in urban disasters, and this
paper argues that the wicked problems framework can lead to alternative visions through democratic,
transdisciplinary design strategies. The Rittelian framework is still relevant in today’s complex societies,
particularly in community development projects. This paper presents some of the key findings from three post-
disaster case studies, tracing some of the successful design decisions that were made by local stakeholders with
and sometimes without architects.
Drawing from an empirical research of professional responses to three recent disasters: the 2010 Canterbury
earthquake, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, this study proposes a re-
conceptualisation of urban disaster reconstruction that prioritises community empowerment through democratic
design processes rather than through architectural symbolism, and a re-conceptualisation of architecture as a by-
product of community-driven activities rather than as an end-goal.
Keywords: Horst Rittel, wicked problems, disaster recovery, community development, democratic design.
INTRODUCTION
Resurgence of democratic design

Societal progress through scientific innovation and architectural design has long been a central endeavour
for the architectural profession, mandated through institutional code of practice, and rewarded through
peer recognition and professional awards. By and large, however, the architects’ service to society is
demonstrated through practice. For instance, the community architecture movement of the 1960s remains
an emphatic example of the design profession’s commitment to and a concern for social justice. Such
practices were motivated in part due to the rapid urbanisation of industrial cities and the proliferation of
government-funded mass housing developments (Jenkins and Forsyth 2010, p. 69), most notably in the UK
and the U.S. In the UK the self-build champions such as John Turner (1972) and John Habraken (1972)
mobilised a new generation of builders and steered the government authorities to make the state-led
developments more inclusive and democratic. In the U.S. a similar movement came to be known as the
Community Design Centres. In the last decade, the community design movement is experiencing a rapid
resurgence under familiar expressions such as, participatory design, community-led design, co-design,
human centred design and public interest design. The concept of community-centred, democratic design
methods has also become widespread in other disciplines, credit to Horst Rittel (1930-1990), a UC Berkeley
professor of architecture who coined the expression “wicked problems” in 1973.
BACKGROUND
Theories of Horst Rittel (1930-1990) and the wicked problems

Rittel’s concept of “wickedness” describes a class of problems that are ill-defined, complex, and for which
there are no straightforward solutions, in contrast to tame problems that can be rationalised, and relatively
simple to solve. Tame problems Rittel argued that most societal issues are wicked, because most real world
problems have multiple facets and considerations that cannot be solved using rationality alone. As such,
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wicked problems require transdisciplinary response. The concept of sustainability, for instance, cannot be
considered from a single perspective, but requires knowledge and experience of multi-scale, multi-
generational, multi-disciplinary methods of inquiry (Lee 2010). Wicked problems require industries to work
together, rather than in their siloes. Wicked problems form an integral part of the society that generated
them, thus their resolution requires change at societal level. Brown et al. (2010) argued that
“transdisciplinary imagination[s]” are essential in approaching wicked problems for “just and sustainable
decision-making” (Brown et al. 2010, pp. 4-5).
Wicked problems and disasters

Many of the wicked attributes of society are amplified in a state of chaos, and nowhere is this more evident
than in the early days of a natural disaster in cities. In the past decade, the community architecture
movement has extended to disaster recovery, with the emergence of non-profit organisations such as
Architecture for Humanity (US), Emergency Architects (FR), Article 25 (UK), and Architects without Frontiers
(AUS) specialising in disaster recovery architectural service and consultancy. By and large, however,
architectural contributions to disaster recovery are few and far between, existing as part of a humanitarian
agency sponsored technical manuals for emergency/transitional shelters, or brought in towards the end of
the critical recovery period to rebuild infrastructure and housing. Architects are generally considered in
public as the last responders to disasters (Cesal 2013, Lee 2012, Sanderson 2010, Boano and Hunter 2010).
Charlesworth (2006) noted that architects are seldom party to the critical political decisions that determine
the reconstruction vision of post-conflict cities, and suggested “architects should adopt an interventionist
stance by taking a professional stand against the violation of human rights… [using] their design expertise”
(p. 16). In finding that architects have little political influence in post-conflict cities, Charlesworth sets out a
challenge for architectural researchers: “How can architects engage in… the problem-sharing processes
needed in urban centres… broken by systemic urban conflict? Is it our role to provide the definitive solution,
or rather to provoke… collective action in rebuilding civil society after the disaster…?” (p. 132). While
Charlesworth does not situate her research in terms of wicked problems, the evidence of the wickedness is
ubiquitous in her characterisation of urban disaster problems as needing to be “[shared]”, and in the
inherent challenge of providing a “definitive solution” in a place of systemic conflict. This paper re-evaluates
these issues by employing the Rittelian strategy of design inquiry to evaluate the wicked aspects of urban
disaster recovery process.
This paper argues that reconstruction strategies in many post-disaster sites have failed largely because the
wicked issues of architectural design have been approached as tame problems. Wicked problems require an
open systems approach that embraces multiple methods of constructing knowledge, that is, from the
collective knowledge of both professionals and civil society, and from the “humble position of uncertainty
and provisionality” (Brown et al. 2010, p. 39) rather than that of linear, positivist rationality that have, thus far,
dominated post-disaster management. So how is the architectural notion of “wicked problems” relevant to
democratic design decisions in urban disasters?
Reflection on systems thinking

In the first instance, it is useful to look back on what prompted Rittel to distinguish the tame problems
versus the wicked problems, in which he classified the former as the first generation systems approach and
the latter as the second generation systems approach. According to Rittel (1972, 2010), the systems thinking
of the first generation pertains to “attacking problems of planning in a rational, straightforward, systemic
way” (1972, 2010, p. 390) which has enabled revolutionary progress in aeronautics and led to improvements
in health systems and the environment. However, Rittel observed that such early successes in the systems
thinking were short-lived, because “most research about creativity and problem-solving behaviour is about
‘tame’ problems… (yet) all essential planning problems are wicked” (p. 392). Where the problem is
insufficiently understood, and where the consequences of an action taken in response to such problems are
unknown, the classical systems approach can lead to catastrophic failures. Herbert Simon described such
problems as “ill-structured problems” (1969), and Donald Schön called them the “swampy lowlands” of
reality (1983). Urban issues such as informal settlements, poverty, and overcrowding, are the physical
symptoms of more complex, interdependent systemic issues beyond the control of planners and architects
alone, and hence, are ‘wicked’.
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METHODS
Ethnographic research
A critical study on architecture’s relationship to urban disasters seeks a broad understanding of the attitudes
and intentions of architectural professionals. The author has opted to undertake an ethnographic study of
such architects rather than electing to study the specific buildings designed by them. Yet because
architecture is a discipline grounded in practice, case studies are a common research method in architectural
research (Snyder 1984) and this research has undertaken to study three of the recent events in Haiti, the
United States, and New Zealand, and interviewed some 50 experts who have experience in at least one of
the three disasters at those locations in the last decade. In lieu of undertaking longitudinal research of how
professionals responded to disasters at different phases of recovery, the research took a snapshot of their
activities across three case studies at different phases of recovery. The most profound observation to
emerge out of undertaking research across the three countries was not only the extent to which the
research informants were previously acquainted with one another within each case site, but also the fact
that these relationships were found to be common across multiple disasters (Figure 1). The complex
interrelationship of experts within the field revealed the close-knit nature of the expert community at such
sites, as well as amplifying the importance of a sense of community in establishing an effective practice.
Figure 1: Social network diagram of interview participants.
Ontological rationale
In terms of the methodology employed, the author followed a mixed methods research that resonates
strongly with the ontological position of Rittel. This study combines an empirical approach of theory
elaboration as developed by Diane Vaughan (1992) and a constructivist grounded theory method as
developed by Kathy Charmaz (2000, 2006, 2011). Constructivist grounded theory methods combine the
reflexive nature (i.e. construction) of semi-structured interviews with the analytical methods of grounded
theory. Theory elaboration methods set out a robust criteria for validating a theory, whereby the theory to
be tested is triangulated from multiple perspectives, academic rigour, transparency, and at multiple scales
(or ‘units of analysis’). At the centre of both these methods is the recognition of self, and ways of relating to
others. This means that in order to undertake a research about democratic design, and in order to make a
fair representation of views about a particular architecture (whether whole or in part), the research must
draw on the experience of the insider (the designer) as well as the outsider (the intended occupant or user).
In other words, both grounded theory and the theory elaboration method can make explicit what has been
made implicit by the researcher.
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The Rittelian framework

How these methods are relevant in testing the Rittelian framework is straightforward. This paper argues that
the constructivist approach can help to untangle some of the design problems of wicked situations, based
on the following observations. First, the wicked problems framework shares the philosophical position of
theory elaboration in their acknowledgement of multiple realities and the value of transparency. Second, the
grounded theory research is recognised as one of the first ways in which humanities researchers were able
to quantitatively evaluate qualitative data (Denzin and Lincoln 2011). By employing a set of robust, tried-
and-tested analytical tools developed by sociologists and ethnographers since the 1960s, it is possible to
deduct useful insights from interviews, using analytic strategies such as ‘coding’, ‘theory generation’, and
‘constant comparison’. Third, the method enables a cross-sectional comparison between disparate units of
analysis and distillation of large quantity of data through the process of ‘abductive’ reasoning. The research
has yielded three key themes as follows.
TOP-DOWN STRATEGIES
Build back faster

Rittel’s characterised design as an activity, which is “intended to bring about a situation with specific desired
characteristics without creating unforeseen and undesired side and after effects” (Rittel cited in Protzen and
Harris 2010, p. 14). However, whether the aims of ‘build back better’ are fulfilled on the ground is debatable.
Since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, the humanitarian aid sector has progressively
increased its influence by partnering with first-responder government agents and other specialised NGOs in
response to humanitarian crises, whether natural or human-induced. Though considered natural, disasters,
cyclones and earthquakes are increasingly associated with human activities, as a product of how we design,
manage, and live in our cities, using the resources available around us. International aid agencies and
governments often rush in their policy decisions in an attempt to demonstrate resilience after a major
disaster.
Nevertheless, systemic approaches that fail to consider the long-term effects can backfire, sometimes
exacerbating the effects of the disaster itself. The agenda for building back better changes according to how
a given disaster agency interprets its physical manifestation. In Haiti, it became ‘Build Back Better
Communities’; in New Orleans, it became ‘Bring New Orleans Back’; and in Christchurch, ‘Restore
Christchurch Cathedral’. A case in point, Haiti’s international design competition, which was spearheaded by
the Haitian government, led to an alienation of its own citizens, castigating the survivors under a veil of
political ‘tokenism’ (Arnstein 1969) where one maybe seen (populations in crowded areas are assigned
limited housing aid) but not heard (their minimal housing needs are not met). Two major oversights
emerging from this event are: first, the misallocation of critical resources that could otherwise have been
used to address more urgent, systemic housing problems in Haiti; and second, the outsourcing of housing
design to foreign design professionals. What resulted was a cluster of militarised transitional housing
compounds fabricated overseas – symbolically reminiscent of Western ideologies. In the temptation to
tame the wicked nature of Haiti’s crisis, some experts have resorted to dismissing this earthquake as just
another Haitian tragedy (Schuller and Morales 2012).
Yearning for the past

A German philosopher, Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) popularised the notion that, “all we learn from history is
that we learn nothing from history”. Perpetuation of Hegel’s adage is still evident today not only in urban
planning decisions and policies but also in behaviours of disaster survivors that reinforce this phenomenon.
An urge to return home has been a defining behaviour of displaced survivors, irrespective of the expert
advice given (Campanella 2010, Potangaroa and Kipa 2011, Smith and Wenger 2005). There is a high
probability of a disaster becoming a recurrent event, even though the specific intervals of its recurrence are
not always predictable (particularly earthquakes). Yet rebuilding over the likely path of future disasters is
commonplace amongst the survivors of disasters. People’s sense of attachment to the land – whether
personal, social, commercial, historical – is only heightened by the stark absence of place that had forged
their identity pre-disaster (Brunsma et al. 2007). The devastation of the February 2011 earthquake – which
was essentially an aftershock of the September 2010 earthquake – muted the discourse on architecture and
heritage at large, but the Christchurch Cathedral remained a contentious topic for all. Some supported its
demolition, while others wanted to see it reinstated. Architecture became a battleground for earthquake-
battered Christchurch citizens who saw it as a symbolic opportunity to reassert their ‘right to the city’. The
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cathedral became a media poster-child for the earthquake, and also a symbol of Christchurch residents’
identity, and perhaps, the last vestige of resilience and hope amid the lack of certainty.
Unlearning from history

Lessons from the case studies suggest that how to build back better after a disaster depends on what the
appropriate definition of building back better is. While the restoration of key urban infrastructure after
collapse is vital to making a place accessible and habitable again, the research has found that building
communities is equally, if not more, important than the physical reconstruction of a place. Building back
entails an impossible task of replicating a pre-disaster city in a post-disaster context, as survivors displaced
by the event yearn to return and persist in doing so despite the number of setbacks. Most people are not
resistant to change; they fear change when what they might lose outweighs the benefits of change. The key
issue here, however, is for whom rebuilding can be considered ‘better’. Architectural interventions spurred
by top-down recovery strategies have limited success without strong engagement with the community
throughout the recovery process, from inception through to completion. Some of the rebuilding agents
accustomed to operating in an autocratic manner see the objectives of ‘building back better’ as simply an
invitation to ‘build back faster’ under the mantle of ‘progressive’ design and ‘avant-garde’ concepts, but the
social reality of post-disaster complexities suggests they can undermine the wicked problems of building
back better.
BOTTOM-UP TACTICS
Everybody as designer
In his essay, The Reasoning of Designers, Horst Rittel stated, “everybody designs sometimes; nobody designs
always. Design is not the monopoly of those who call themselves ‘designers’” (1987, p. 1). The recognition
that every person affected by a decision being made has power to influence lies at the core of democratic
decision-making. Participation of disaster victims in rebuilding projects remains a major challenge for
disaster recovery (Davidson et al. 2007, Kendra and Wachtendorf 2007) because community engagement is
a resource-intensive activity, monetarily and in terms of time – two resources that all post-disaster nations
lack and need most (Quarantelli 1978). The extent to which citizen participation leads to project success or
failure is often determined by whether the agents of power – who assume authority over the project by
holding the purse–strings – are working with people or exerting power over people (Dupuy 2010). While
there is a considerable difference between the outcomes of the two approaches, the engagement processes
on the surface are seldom distinct from one another and thus difficult to quantify. Nevertheless, the reality is
that equitable citizen participation requires leadership and responsibility from all sides – not just politicians,
policy makers, and technical experts – but also from the community whose constituents are diverse and
knowledgeable.
Power of social cohesion

One of the lessons from Hurricane Katrina was that the neighbourhoods who were well-connected and
knew their neighbours, survived. Conversely, the least connected bore the brunt of the disaster’s impact. Not
surprisingly, those without access to private vehicles were from lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods, in
low-lying lands of the Mississippi Delta and these suffered the most flood damage. In the U.S., emergency
response to natural disasters remains the responsibility of local government, wherein the mayoralty has
statutory authority and accountability over civil military activities within his or her jurisdiction (Col 2007).
By contrast, in New Zealand, civil defence remains the responsibility of central government (Britton 2007),
which is conducive to a top-down disaster response and reconstruction process. The political actions
employed by the local authorities since the earthquake were described by the community as ‘scapegoating’,
‘hiding’, ‘excluding’, and ’not communicating’, which reflects the way authorities have managed
uncertainties and the recurrent aftershocks. Such reactionary tactics, in turn, obstructed the community’s
ability to contribute to early design decisions. Often, societal inequities pre-disaster continue to persist post-
disaster.
Design as choice
Nevertheless, design equity is as much about making professional services available to communities in need
as much as it is about democratizing the process of rebuilding generally. Where equity is not sufficiently
present, however, the study found that the local community finds empowerment through tackling the
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wicked problems themselves. A Latin adage, nihil de nobis, sine nobis, (‘nothing about us, without us, [is for
us])’ which is often employed by post-disaster community organizations reinforces an understanding that
empowerment is obtained not by having problems solved by others on their behalf, but by being supported
to tackle many of the wicked problems themselves. The Christchurch earthquakes became a catalyst for
galvanizing communities, and the overall improvement in social resilience has been a valuable outcome of
the disaster. Suburban communities like the Port Hills, Sumner and Lyttelton, that were initially ‘forgotten’
by council authorities in the early days of the earthquake implemented innovative resilience strategies such
as ‘time banking’, which enabled local communities to share their resources through exchanges of time
credits, and established community-led urban design groups to positive effect. These communities
demonstrated a strong sense of local identity and solidarity, enabling them to bounce back more quickly
compared to those who waited for actions by the powers-that-be. Disaster scholars acknowledge that
communities with strong networks affect the ability of individuals to activate informal ties in disaster
(Hurlbert et al. 2000), as was demonstrated in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (Aldrich and Crook 2008),
where “higher levels of social capital facilitate recovery and help survivors coordinate for more effective
reconstruction” (Aldrich 2012, p. 2). Knowing one’s neighbours, Aldrich argued, exceeded the benefits of
governmental support and economic resources.
Disaster can serve as a catalyst for renewing community spirit and resilience against future disasters, and, in
many cases, creates an even stronger sense of community than before (Aguirre et al. 2005, Kreps and Drabek
1996, Stallings 2003). Solving problems according to the community’s values – irrespective of whether they
align with expert advice – is an ethical consideration for professionals engaged in disaster recovery projects,
and also an opportunity to challenge the existing mores of professional practice. Design is an equalizer that
has the potential to re-empower communities struggling to restore their sense of belonging and identity.
Overcoming disaster capitalism

At the other extreme, architects can become inadvertent instruments of what Klein (2007, p. 10) calls,
“disaster capitalism”. Splintered leadership within governmental agencies can turn professionals into
scapegoats for public scrutiny. There were some misunderstandings within the media which bred public
contempt for well-intending architects. When the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) appointed a
Christchurch-born architect, Ian Athfield, as an Architectural Ambassador to Christchurch, it was interpreted
as a political bid for reappointment of the city’s mayor (Conway and Greenhill 2010). In fact, architects were
much more successful outside of the media limelight. At the national level, the NZIA worked with the
government’s Department of Building and Housing to develop strategies for mass housing post-earthquake;
Athfield proceeded to give over 50 public talks in his first year of his formal appointment as the Architectural
Ambassador in an endeavour to improve the public’s understanding of architecture; and many local
architects worked diligently with insurance companies to assess the damage of heritage buildings.
Despite such efforts, state-owned asset sales as a default economic strategy by the National-led Government
following the earthquake reinforces familiar tactics of disaster capitalism as seen in New Orleans and Haiti.
Even though scholars argue that government-led asset sales is a valid route of recovery strategy from lost
economic productivity (Stevenson et al. 2011), Farrell argued that New Zealanders are opposed to free-
market capitalism (Farrell 2011). The free-market policy is intended to foster innovation, but the lack of
design controls or establishment of standards meant that overall quality is lowered rather than pushed up.
Disaster can equally pave the way for heroic grassroots movements and community leaders to flourish, but
in the absence of architectural anchors, such as the aforementioned Christchurch Cathedral, that defined the
community, neo-liberal forces and hegemonic political-interest-groups can equally hijack the opportunity to
advance radical changes at the expense of disaster victims. Political proponents argue that the expert-
centred reconstruction is less time-consuming and more straightforward in decision-making and policy
implementation, but short-term advantages gained by such methods are lost in the longer term compared
with the community-centred approach.
Inasmuch as the socio-aesthetic convergence of architecture as an end product and as a process can create
tensions around architectural identity and empowerment, the concept of community design warrants
further reflection in terms of what it means (and for whom) in the post-disaster context. While the
involvement of architects in times of disaster offers no singular panacea to the complex environment of
disasters, architects involved in disaster recovery have the moral obligation to consider the consequences of
the professional service rendered as the legacy of their work will outlive those of most other experts,
including the first responders to disasters.
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CONCLUSION: BEYOND THE WICKED PROBLEMS, AN ARGUMENT FOR THE DESIGN DEMOCRACY OF
THE THIRD GENERATION
Future of democratic design

The Rittelian framework, while not explicitly employed by humanitarian agencies and designers as a formal
strategy, is a concept implicitly used by them. Framing post-disaster decision-making processes in terms of
wicked problems can help design-enablers in each community to navigate the complex environment of
disasters. Design education, more specifically, training in democratic design process is invaluable to
fostering creative capacities and commitment in our communities to reduce societal vulnerabilities when
natural disaster is afoot. Since 2012, Christchurch has hosted dozens of innovative events and projects
including the Festival of Transitional Architects (FESTA), a weekend dedicated to exhibiting new
architectural ideas and celebration of Christchurch’s transition into a new city. FESTA illustrates that
architecture can reflect community’s resilience and solidarity.
Some critics of humanitarian designers argue that architects are the last responders to disaster (Nussbaum
2007, Sanderson 2010), but this paper demonstrates that architects should work alongside the first
responders, and particularly with affected communities, because the groundwork for last responders cannot
wait until after the decision-makers and key stakeholders of disaster have left the room. This research began
with the question of how the ‘wicked problems’ framework is relevant to urban disasters, and has found that
wicked problems are, in fact, everywhere. Design leadership in the context of urban disasters often implies
physical transformation of post-disaster environments, but this paper demonstrates while the symbolic
impact of architecture through its lifecycle of construction, destruction, and reconstruction, remains a
powerful force for those it serves; architecture is an equally powerful agent in giving communities voice in
the process of disaster recovery.
Tim Brown, the founder of design consultancy IDEO, defended that society needs T-shaped professionals –
people who not only have deep specialisation in his or her field, but also ability to empathise with others
(Brown 2005). In other words, we need more architects. Yet an ethical pathway for architects cannot be pre-
defined (Lee 2012, 2013), as the reality of the working environment tends to be swamped with wicked
problems that require a series of improvised decisions and choices rather than those based on proven
solutions from the last century. The experiences of disaster professionals interviewed reaffirm that creativity
is an essential skill to have on stand-by, because design, ultimately, is a renewable resource and a source of
community empowerment.
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THE ARCHITECTURE OF ENGAGEMENT: DESIGN AS A CATALYST FOR CULTURAL CHANGE

Jim Taggart, Dipl. Arch., M.A., FRAIC, BCIT, Canada, architext@telus.net
Albert Lam, Architectural Technologist AIBC, BCIT, Canada, albertlam604@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper challenges the largely site-specific and quantitative interpretation of sustainability that persists in
the Canadian design and construction industry, and proposes instead a broader set of parameters that we
believe can harness the potential of the built environment to promote and support essential cultural
change (CaGBC 2003; Buchanan 2011; Vallance, Perkins & Dixon 2011).
After more than two decades in which the quantitative approach has failed to deliver either international
consensus or any measurable mitigation of climate change, we believe that sustainable design must now go
beyond technological fixes, and embrace a fundamental rethinking of our relationship with the biosphere
and with one another. Thus we advocate that the design of the built environment must engage in more
holistic ways of thinking that have emerged in disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, economics and
social sciences, among others (Canada, Environment Canada 2012; Esbjörn--Hargens 2010; Louv 2008;
Jackson 2009; Wilkinson & Pickett 2010).
As a framework we have taken the philosophy of integral theory proposed by Ken Wilber, which advocates a
problem solving methodology that reflects both objective and subjective realities (Esbjörn-Hargens 2010). In
architecture this requires us to go beyond quantitative technical and material solutions and consider social,
cultural, psychological and other qualitative implications of design (Buchanan 2012).
Based on a review of completed projects from across Canada, we conclude that sustainability must embrace
the concept of an interrelated and interdependent ‘system of systems’ - a civic ecology that includes natural,
social, economic and technical synergies, and operates at a variety of scales, beyond the physical boundaries
of each project.
Keywords: civic ecology, integral theory, social sustainability, cultural change.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF ENGAGEMENT: DESIGN AS A CATALYST FOR CULTURAL CHANGE
While integral theory, with its blending of Modern and Post-Modern realities, and of Western and Eastern
philosophies, has gained traction in many disciplines over the last two decades, its influence in the fields of
architecture and urban design has been minimal.
In these fields, the intellectual legacy of the Modern Movement is a continuing faith in the ability of
objective, technically-based approaches to deliver enduring solutions to the ever more complex challenges
faced by society.
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Figure 1: Integral theory
Integral theorists use a simple diagram to represent a balanced approach to problem solving. A vertical cross
divides the psychic field into four quadrants. To the left of the vertical axis lies the subjective realm, divided
into individual (upper left) and collective (lower left) quadrants. To the right of the vertical line lies the
objective realm, again divided into individual (upper right) and collective (lower right) quadrants.
The right half of the diagram may be considered the preserve of the intellect, whereas the left side of the
diagram is associated with emotion. Similarly, the upper half of the diagram represents our individual
feelings, wants and needs, whereas the lower half represents social and cultural norms and collective
endeavors.
Although there are exceptions, generally the preoccupations of late Modernism lay mostly on the objective
(right) side of the integral theory diagram and included function, economy, efficiency and technology. Post
Modernism on the other hand, concentrated its attention on the subjective (left) half of the diagram,
focusing on form, decoration, metaphor and abstraction. For enduring solutions to the complex challenges
we now face, the four quadrants of the integral theory diagram must be engaged in a balanced fashion.
Inter-related and interdependent, these challenges embrace the social, cultural, environmental, economic
and technical realms. Almost without exception, they translate into implications for the design of the built
environment. It is useful perhaps to think in terms of a system of systems - a civic ecology that mirrors the
complexity, the multiplicity of scales and the resilience of natural ecological systems.
Among the more pressing challenges faced by architects and urban designers, expressed here in terms that
reflect the balanced approach of integral theory:
Creating a civic ecology

Recognize that the city is a social construct as much as it is a material one; that it requires both physical and
psychological continuity to function, and that it thrives on the diversity of its people and their activities.
Building trust
We must enhance the public realm, to create places where diverse members of the community can come
together on equal terms, and thus promote a sense of affiliation, mutual understanding and respect.
Fostering a culture of care

Recognize that inclusion, empathy and equality of opportunity are the cornerstones of a successful society.
We must acknowledge social and cultural diversity and at the same time engage and support the
marginalized, vulnerable and disadvantaged sectors of our communities.
Relating to nature
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Give the highest priority to nature; reaffirm that we are an integral part of it, rather than apart from it;
recognize its complexity and fragility, and acknowledge the beneficial effects of nature on human health
and wellbeing.
Revealing infrastructure
Localize our water, waste, energy and food production infrastructure, to reinforce the connection between
human actions and environmental consequences at a community level.
Shifting paradigms
Embrace the new paradigms of sustainability and strive for a built environment in harmony with nature, that
is restorative rather than destructive, recyclable rather than disposable and that mitigates rather than
contributes to climate change.
Recognizing the ‘implementation deficit’ that sometimes exists between the theory and practice of
architecture, our objective has been to identify completed projects that meet these criteria. To this end, we
have examined 300 projects completed in Canada between 2006 and 2013 that have self identified as
‘sustainable’ by their submission to the annual Sustainable Architecture and Building (SAB) Awards program.
We believe those we have selected constitute a portfolio of best practice that is both transferable and
potentially transformative.
PORTFOLIO
Based on this review, we chose to visit 30 projects. In each case, we conducted interviews with members of
the design team, owners and building users - a research methodology borrowed from the social sciences.
From those 30 projects, we chose 10 for inclusion in this paper, as representative of the holistic approach to
design that we consider essential to the future health of our cities and our society. Each of them addresses
several of the challenges listed above. Because our intention is to compile a national portfolio of best
practice, we have chosen projects from across the country and present them here from west to east.
THE ATRIUM, VICTORIA BC
Figure 2: The Atrium's public street front.
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Figure 3: The Atrium connects with the urban context.

This seven storey mixed use development in downtown Victoria received a national award for its attention
to energy efficiency and environmentally conscious operations. However, we consider its most valuable
attribute to be the positive contribution it makes to human and economic wellbeing. This was achieved
through detailed attention to the programming of the ground floor, the most critical interface between the
private and public realms.
By handpicking local independent retailers, the owner was able to distinguish the retail level from other
recent commercial developments. By providing the opportunity for energetic local entrepreneurs to expand
or create new businesses, a critical connection and character was created within the community.
The type of tenants that were desirable for the main floor of the new building, a predominantly corporate
and government office, were identified by the owners and design team using a number of criteria.
By addressing the needs of office workers as primary users, and of the daytime population of the
surrounding area as secondary users, the aim was to make the building more attractive as a workplace and
enhance its contribution to the community.
An appropriate tenant mix was achieved by incentives such as sub-market lease rates, made possible by
reducing or even excluding their full potential lease value from the financial pro forma, effectively
subsidizing main floor tenants with the enhanced, upper floor value they created.
With the building located on a busy main street, the design team chose to improve the pedestrian
experience by creating a planted separation between the sidewalk and the roadway. This was done by
negotiating a right of way exchange with the City of Victoria. The owner retained responsibility for the
maintenance of the planted strip, while pulling back the ground floor of the building to provide a wide
public sidewalk. This created an environment suitable for outdoor seating, enlivening the pedestrian
experience.
Combining private interest and public good has made this project a success, not simply for the developer
but the community as a whole.
Developer: Jawl Investment Corp.
Architect: D’Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism
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GASTOWN REHABILITATION, VANCOUVER BC
Figure 3: Rehabilitation of Terminal Hotel, Gastown.
Figure 4: New commercial uses with a preserved façade.
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This rehabilitation of five buildings in Vancouver’s Gastown historic district is an object lesson in
revitalization at the neighborhood scale.
Gastown began to decline in the 1930's and continued to struggle till the 2000’s. Collected around Gaoler’s
Mews and backing onto Blood Alley, the five buildings, ranging from modest hotels built after the fire of
1886, to a former 1970’s parking garage, define some of the most unique, intimate and historically
significant urban spaces in the city. Bringing the buildings together under common ownership provided the
critical mass necessary to begin the revitalization of Gastown.
The project combines rehabilitation with redevelopment that doubles the density, provides a blend of retail
and commercial spaces, and includes residential condominiums and live-work studios. Such a combination
adds not only to the population density of the neighborhood, but by balancing the level of street activity
throughout the day, promotes the economic and social synergies essential for a successful community
(Jacobs 1961).
Working with five contiguous properties allowed the architects the flexibility to optimize density on the site,
and also to negotiate compromises with the city. One example was being granted permission to demolish
all but the facade of the Grand Hotel. Here, interior load-bearing walls formed windowless rooms not easily
adaptable for habitable use. The loss of these historic elements of the building fabric was compensated for
in part by reclaiming the bricks and reusing them elsewhere, and by more meticulous restoration of other
areas where circumstances were more favorable.
Even with only the facade remaining, the rebuilding of the Grand required great ingenuity, and a client who
was open to non-standard solutions. With the proportions of a railroad car, existing window at one end, the
3 metre wide apartments had an open plan (including a linearly arranged bathroom down one side), and
bedrooms at the other end with supplemental recessed lighting.
The new portion also employs Modern materials and aesthetics in deliberate contrast to the historic
masonry structures, enriching the urban narrative, connecting past, present and future in a cultural
continuum.
Anticipating where Gastown may be going, the development places retail frontage on Blood Alley, a
cobblestoned mews that currently acts as a place of refuge for some of the neighborhood's most vulnerable
residents.
It is hoped this increase in private investment may accelerate the implementation of the city’s plan to
provide supportive housing for all those in the community who need it.
Owner/Developer: The Salient Group

Architect: Acton Ostry Architects Inc
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UNIVERCITY CHILDCARE CENTRE, BURNABY BC
Figure 5: UniverCity childcare centre.
Figure 6: UniverCity childcare centre, a place of inhabitation.
180
Economy and efficiency have been central to our search for sustainable architecture, and all too often this
has led to buildings that have a high degree of intellectual rigour, but are sadly lacking in spiritual richness.
A human-centred architecture stimulates multiple senses simultaneously: it can be functional without being
plain and austere; simple without sacrificing texture and nuance.
This approach to design resonates emphatically with the Reggio Emilia philosophy of early childhood
education embraced by the UniverCity Childcare Centre, located near Simon Fraser University within the
metropolitan area of Vancouver BC. Reggio Emilia promotes an experiential and collaborative approach to
learning in which the exploration of the social and physical environments of school and community are
fundamental to the development of the individual (Cadwell 1997).
The building occupies a sloping site, and its L-shaped plan allows for grade access to the main entry on the
low side, and from the playground to the upper floor on the high side. Internally, the central mezzanine,
which covers the core kitchen and washroom areas, acts as a kind of armature around which a variety of
single and double height spaces are arranged. The contrasting character of these spaces, accentuated by the
careful use of natural light, encourages a broad range of activities from individual study to group
performances, and gives the centre a dynamic almost playful quality.
The project is notable for its conceptual shift from the traditional departure points of form or function, to a
more organic and humanist approach by which inhabitation of the building and its surroundings mediates
between these often opposing forces. This approach connotes an understanding that buildings should
embrace the richness and diversity of the human experience.
The success of the program at the UniverCity Childcare Centre has resulted in it being adopted by the local
elementary school as it took in the Centre’s first graduating class. In our view, the tenets of the Reggio Emilia
approach constitute a foundation for the creation of cohesive communities that are socially integrated and
environmentally aware. These tenets need not (and indeed should not) be reserved solely for the education
of young children.
Owner/Developer: SFU Community Trust

Architect: Hughes Condon Marler Architects
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RALPH KLEIN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTRE, CALGARY AB
Figure 7: Environmental Education Centre, connection to the environment.
Figure 8: The Environmental Education Centre is the centrepiece of the Sheppard Wetlands.
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The Canadian prairies are one of the most significant wetland areas in North America and southern Alberta is
home to thousands of those wetlands. However it is estimated that 90% of the pre-settlement wetlands in
the Calgary area have been lost to development (Park Foundation Calgary 2003).
With the remaining wetland under threat, the city of Calgary has implemented a long-term strategy of
wetland preservation, restoration and construction. Designed to stabilize water flows in the southeastern
part of the city, the 156-hectare Sheppard Wetland is the largest constructed wetland in Canada. At its heart
is the 1950m2 Ralph Klein Environmental Education Centre whose mandate is to educate the public on the
importance of the city's wetland infrastructure.
Both building and landscape context were designed completely from scratch. In the absence of
conventional physical and contextual constraints, the design team could focus on how best to illustrate the
larger principles of building within an ecological framework.
The most important design consideration was to heighten the relationship between users of the building
and the surrounding wetland, integrating them into the water cycle itself. Thus the structure is designed as
an artificial island, connected by bridges to the shore. From the roof terrace visitors can see the snow capped
Rocky Mountains, source of southern Alberta’s vital and increasingly threatened water supply. Descending
through the building to floating platforms, they can then touch the water for the last time before it is
returned by infiltration to the Bow River.
With the water cycle directly engaged through sight and touch, it is easier for visitors to comprehend the
finite and fragile nature of our environment. The experience of the building itself reinforces the many
educational programs and interactive displays offered within it.
Owner: City of Calgary Parks

Architect: Simpson Roberts Architecture Interior Design Inc
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MANITOBA HYDRO PLACE, WINNIPEG MB
Figure 9: Manitoba Hydro Place.
Figure 10: Manitoba Hydro Place as a part of the city.
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This corporate headquarters in Downtown Winnipeg demonstrates that the influence of buildings on
occupant behavior and lifestyle choices is at least as important as the quantitative performance of the
building.
Manitoba Hydro Place incorporates passive design strategies that make it one of the most energy efficient
buildings of its type in North America (RAIC 2013). However, the impact on the building occupants and the
surrounding community is even more significant.
Strategically located only four blocks from the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street, the physical
heart of Winnipeg, Manitoba Hydro Place has deposited 2000 more people in the Downtown core, five days
a week. Transit access was one of the determining criteria in choosing the site. In its former suburban
location, 90% of Hydro employees drove to work. In the new location, 70% take transit and another 5%
cycle. The impact of this cultural change on the carbon footprint of the company has yet to be calculated,
but is clearly significant.
The new building is anchored by a three-storey, day-lit atrium that runs between Portage and Graham
Avenues, linking two main transit routes that together provide access to 95% of the city. This atrium is also
offered free of charge to community organizations wishing to host events for up to 1000 people. The
presence of the Manitoba Hydro employees has also contributed to increased commercial activity along
Portage Avenue.
While the passive systems have proven economical to operate and maintain, a survey now underway may
demonstrate that the greatest cost savings to be realized in this building could be from occupant behavior;
including decreased absenteeism and greater productivity.
Owner: Manitoba Hydro

Design Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg
Executive Architect: Smith Carter Architects and Engineers Inc.
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60 RICHMOND EAST, TORONTO ON

60 Richmond East is a housing co-operative in Downtown Toronto that strives to integrate the needs of its
residents with those of the surrounding community.
Figure 11: 60 Richmond East.
Figure 12: 60 Richmond East, 6th floor community garden.
186
These residents are primarily union workers in the hospitality industry, which led to the decision to include a
restaurant on the ground floor and related education and training facility on the second floor. Both are
owned and run by the Hospitality Workers Training Centre.
HWTC is an incorporated, independent non-profit organization established in 2004. Modeled after the highly
successful Culinary Training Academy of Las Vegas (CTA n.d.), the mandate of the HWTC is to develop and
provide training collaboratively with employers and workers to support employment, skill development and
advancement for employed and unemployed workers in Toronto’s hospitality industry.
This project provides a high quality living environment for a sector of the population who could not easily
afford other accommodation in Downtown Toronto, but commonly work late shifts that would restrict their
access to transit to and from less expensive suburban locations.
The suites are arranged in a single-loaded configuration around a central atrium that extends through the
entire building. The atrium admits light, facilitates natural ventilation and promotes casual social encounters
between residents.
An exterior terrace at the sixth floor includes a community garden, were the residents grow herbs and salad
greens for the restaurant, which in turn provides compost for the garden.
The carefully considered building program and the activities of HWTC combine to facilitate social and
community interactions that enrich the building's urban context rather than simply respond to it.
Client: Toronto Community Housing Corporation

Architect: Teeple Architects Inc.
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EVERGREEN BRICK WORKS, TORONTO ON
Figure 13: Evergreen Brick Works, Architectural evolution "in-place".
Figure 14: Evergreen Brick Works, integral with the landscape.
188
Located in Toronto’s Don Valley, Evergreen Brick Works is the revitalization of a 4.9-hectare, century-old
brick factory that closed its doors 20 years ago. The site has been transformed into Canada’s first large-scale
community environmental centre. The reclamation of such a site posed many challenges that require
detailed evaluation to determine solutions that would maximize environmental and social benefits within
reasonable economic parameters. The client for the project was Evergreen, a national charity dedicated to
the greening of cities and the strengthening of the relationship between people and nature (Louv 2008).
Throughout its life, the factory was retrofitted and expanded to accommodate evolving brick-making
technology, leaving behind a unique combination of building types.
For many years the abandoned site was used for ‘raves’, during which time it acquired a diverse collection of
graffiti. The design team strove to have this graffiti protected by a covenant written into the lease
agreement - a prescient move that later enabled Evergreen to successfully challenge a new anti-graffiti
bylaw introduced by the City of Toronto.
Architecturally, the redevelopment continues the site’s evolution with a series of discrete interventions,
including elevating new structures above old, attaching new spaces as appendages, inserting new linings
into old shells, and connecting the buildings with bridges that allow the landscape to penetrate the site.
The Centre for Green Cities is the site’s only new building, and is the spiritual and physical heart of the
redevelopment. Rising from the remnants of an old brick structure, the five storey building houses
Evergreen’s head office and connects to the old brick-pressing shed that now serves as the welcome centre.
The site borders the 16-hectare Weston Family Quarry Garden, a remnant of the original brick quarry, which
includes wetlands, wild flower meadows and four kilometres of trails. Maintaining and restoring the
surrounding ecology was a driving principle in the overall site design.
The adaptive-reuse of older buildings is inherently sustainable. Evergreen Brick Works’ carefully considered
site rehabilitation strategies offer an integrated and transferable model for urban evolution that preserves
and enhances valuable social, ecological and cultural resources.
Owner: Evergreen
Architect: Du Toit Architects Ltd and Diamond+ Schmitt Architects
Heritage Architect: ERA Architects
189
ALGONQUIN CENTRE FOR CONSTRUCTION EXCELLENCE, OTTAWA ON
Figure 15: ACCE collaboration spaces.
Figure 16: ACCE collaboration spaces.
190
This project, located in suburban Ottawa, represents the successful transformation of a new collaborative
model of education into built form - with the building itself an important part of the learning experience.
The 18,200m2 facility is designed to address Ontario’s looming skilled trade shortage, and to train the next
generation in sustainable building practices (McMullin, Cooke & Downie 2004). Previously, Algonquin
College’s various construction trade programs were dispersed across the campus with no formal interaction
between them. Recognizing the increasingly integrated nature of building design and construction, ACCE
brings all these students together under one roof. As a result, the new building is home to over 2,500 full-
time and 5,000 part-time students, and uses an integrated learning approach to deliver 24 programs of
study, including: architecture, design, engineering technology, building trades, building Science, and
construction industry research.
The rectangular plan is organized into two distinct programmatic elements; an Academic Tower arranged
around a five-storey sky-lit atrium to the south, and a two-storey Construction Wing with workshops either
side of a central corridor to the north. Between them at the second level, a linear east-west concourse serves
as the main ‘street’ of the building, connecting via a pedestrian bridge over Woodroffe Avenue to the rest of
the campus. Doors in the fully glazed north wall give access to terraced outdoor seating and the building’s
extensive green roof.
The Construction Wing contains a variety of workshop types, designed to accommodate interdisciplinary
projects. All have windows to the public corridors, enabling other building users to view the activities within.
As with the teaching spaces, the academic offices are also multidisciplinary, facilitating interaction between
instructors from the different trade and design related programs.
Dominating the atrium a five storey high living wall is one of many didactic elements in the building.
Elsewhere, other building systems are exposed as instructive vignettes, including a sample of the high
performance wall system and a portion of the foundation made visible through a glass panel in the floor.
Digital displays record various aspects of building performance for instructional purposes.
The majority of the public space in the ACCE is designed to promote informal collaboration. A cascade of
seating terraces connects the second level concourse and the ground level entry lobby. Floating overhead
like flying saucers, two suspended seating areas can accommodate informal gatherings of up to 40 students.
While the ACCE is not the only higher education facility to translate the new culture of collaboration into
built form, the fact that it accommodates a school of construction makes the example it sets particularly
poignant. The notion that achieving durable, high performance buildings should be a collective professional
and social responsibility is both a powerful and transformative one.
Owner: Algonquin College

Architect in Joint Venture: Diamond Schmitt Architects with Edward J. Cuhaci and Associates
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LUFA FARMS, MONTREAL QC
Figure 17: Lufa Farms, roof top urban farming.
Figure 18: Lufa Farms, roof top urban farming.
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With an area of 4000m2, this second project by Montreal-based Lufa Farms, is the largest commercial
rooftop greenhouse in the world. The company was established from the outset as a commercial enterprise
based on the community supported agriculture model, and has established 150 drop off points around the
city to deliver produce daily to 2500 customers.
As a localized source of fresh food, the farm addresses consumer concerns about quality, traceability, safety
and freshness. Indeed, the ‘just in time’ delivery system means that produce ordered by customers online
before midnight, will be picked, packaged and delivered the following morning. However freshness is not
the only benefit.
Our current system of industrialized, petrochemical-dependent agricultural production depletes the soil and
requires produce to endure the rigors of long term storage and long distance transportation before reaching
its ultimate point of sale. In the process much nutritional value is lost. When these requirements are
eliminated by local cultivation, the possibilities expand (Davis, Epp & Riordan 2004). Lufa Farms’ first
greenhouse, in operation since 2008, grows 25 varieties of vegetables and herbs. The second Lufa
greenhouse will be devoted to tomatoes and egg plants, the former being available to customers in 23
varieties!
Lufa Farms cultivation method includes employing rainwater harvesting and water saving strategies,
pressurizing the greenhouse (to limit insect infiltration), composting and employing beneficial insects and
bacteria to control pests and disease when needed. The farm also uses no petrochemical fertilizers,
pesticides, fungicides or herbicides.
As the first Lufa Farms project demonstrated, adding a greenhouse to the roof of an existing commercial
building can be problematic, so for this second greenhouse, Lufa Farms chose to get involved at the
inception of a new project, finding both a municipality and a developer who were sympathetic to the
proposal. Such cooperation is hard to find, as many municipalities have deliberately chosen to eliminate
agriculture as a permitted use within their boundaries.
Hydroponic agriculture is dependent on expensive technology and has its detractors, but the farming
method (if practiced responsibly) is not the most important issue. Rather it is the location of the farm and its
ability to yield produce in quantities that might actually improve the resilience and security of our food
system (Smit, Nasr & Ratta 2001). With a 10 month growing season, Lufa Farms is expecting to harvest over
120kg of produce per square metre per year, using what would otherwise be redundant rooftop real estate.
Owner: Lufa Farms

Collaborating Designers: Groupe Montoni Divison Construction (Building) with KUBO Sustainable
Greenhouse Projects (Greenhouse)
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SEAPORT FARMERS MARKET, HALIFAX NS
Figure 19: Seaport Farmers Market, community place.
Figure 20: Seaport Farmers Market, expanding local food and the economy.
194
This 5000 m2 project involved the rehabilitation and extension of an existing steel frame warehouse dating
from 1910, within the context of an ambitious environmental agenda that addresses a broad and holistic
interpretation of sustainability.
As in many other parts of the country, there is a growing interest among Nova Scotians to know more about
the origins and growing methods used to produce the food they consume. The move away from imported,
processed food, to local fresh food is particularly important here though, as Nova Scotia has one of the
highest per capita rates of diabetes and related chronic health conditions in Canada (Gotay, Katzmarzyk,
Janssen, Dawson, Aminoltejari & Bartley 2013).
The growth in farmers markets throughout the province (from 15 to almost 60 in the last 10 years) is
representative of this trend. The local organic food industry is expanding to meet this demand, as well as to
take advantage of emerging export opportunities (Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture 2013).
Environmentally, organic farming practices such as inter-cropping, mulching and composting contribute to
increased biodiversity and resilience in the local ecosystem, as well as to better long term soil health.
The new market facility has increased the sales of local produce by 300 - 500% when compared with its
predecessor. As such, the market has helped to reposition the production and consumption of locally grown
organic produce as central to the physical, social and economic health of our communities.
Client: City Market of Halifax Cooperative Ltd.

Architect: Lydon Lynch Architects
195
CONCLUSION
We believe that the projects featured in this paper reinforce our expanded definition of sustainability, and
reflect our concept of an interrelated and interdependent ‘system of systems’. Together they illuminate a
path toward a civic ecology that is inclusive of natural, social, economic and technical synergies, operating at
a variety of scales, mimicking the complexity and resilience of natural ecological systems.
These projects function on multiple levels and in a variety of ways. Some are examples of how the traditional
solitudes of market economy and social democracy can be brought together to the benefit of both. Others
are early examples of how the emerging social paradigms of cooperation and collaboration can be given
built form. Still others promote an understanding of the natural and technological systems that are essential
to our survival, and for which we must take ownership and responsibility at the individual and community
level.
The six challenges described in this paper are not intended to be a checklist or score card for achieving
sustainability. Rather, the balanced approach of integral theory, as it applies to architecture and urbanism,
requires us to consider these aspects of design, and so encourages a shift in our culture to one of inclusive,
enduring solutions, rather than exclusive, quantitative achievements (Buchanan 2013).
To achieve genuine progress in our quest for sustainability, we must constantly challenge our assumptions
and work beyond self-imposed limits. The narrow, quantitative successes that have characterized our work
to date are no longer sufficient. Indeed, they have the potential to undermine future efforts by encouraging
that most dangerous of attitudes - complacency.
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Louv, R., 2008. Last child in the woods, Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill.
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viewed 27 March 2014, <http://cprn.org/documents/31517_fr.pdf>.
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2014, <http://2030.raic.org/mhp/overview_e.htm>.
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2011, viewed 25 March 2014, Urban Agriculture Network Inc with permission from United Nations
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LIST OF PHOTO SOURCES
Figure 1: Author's own work

The Atrium, Victoria BC
Figure 2: Lotus Johnston
Figure 3: Photo © silentSama / www.silentsama.com
Gastown Rehabilitation, Vancouver BC
Figure 4 and 5: Acton Ostry
Univercity Childcare Centre, Burnaby BC
Figure 6 and 7: Martin Tessler
Ralph Klein Environmental Education Centre, Calgary AB
Figure 8 and 9: Charles Hope
Manitoba Hydro Place, Winnipeg MB
Figure 10 and 11: Eduard Hueber, ArchPhoto Inc.
60 Richmond East, Toronto ON
Figure 12 and 13: Shai Gil
Evergreen Brick Works, Toronto ON
Figure 14 and 15: Tom Arban
Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence, Ottawa ON
Figure 16 and 17: Tom Arban
Lufa Farms, Montreal QC
Figure 18 and 19: Wikimedia Commons
Seaport Farmers Market, Halifax NS
Figure 20 and 21: Lydon Lynch Architects/James Ingram
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CAN SHOPPING MALLS IMPROVE RESILIENCE OF CITY CENTRES? RELATIONS BETWEEN SHOPPING
MALLS AND URBAN SPACE
Tomasz Eugeniusz Malec, Istanbul Kemerburgaz University, Turkey, tomasz.malec1@gmail.com
Abstract
Shopping malls have a very high aesthetic, economic, and sociological impact on their surroundings. They
change habits of citizens, and the structure of trade and services may create dysfunction of cities. Appropriate
identification of evolving spatial relations between shopping malls and their environment allows for relevant
programming of the objects prior to their realization and subsequent functioning in the urban space. The main
aim of my research is to determine the conditions which must be met for proper functioning of shopping malls
without causing damage in complex urban structures. In the interdisciplinary research conducted on selected
shopping malls in the Silesia region, I used a complex methodology, including chosen research tools from several
disciplines. The expected results of the research will allow the location of shopping malls in urban areas without
causing any negative effects, enabling further functioning of a widely considered, more resilient urban space.
Keywords: shopping mall, spatial relations, resilience, urban space, city centre.
INTRODUCTION
New complex spatial units of commercial and service sectors, often complemented by entertainment
functions – modern multi-functional shopping malls- have been developed since the early 1950s in the
United States, and since 1993 in Poland. These facilities play an increasingly important role in changing the
urban and suburban landscape of relatively heavily urbanized areas of Europe, including Poland.
Multifunctional shopping malls have a very large impact on the surrounding space, often endowing it with a
new meaning. In Silesia, modern multifunctional shopping malls have been built since the mid-1990s, and
the range and power of their impact on spatial environment is increasing steadily. The research is focused
on the space of multifunctional shopping malls in Silesia and their relations with their neighbouring spaces.
This assessment makes it possible not only to establish the current status of that space and its relationship
with the environment, but also to indicate the desired directions of development of this type of facilities,
correlated with the necessity of simultaneous preservation of the resilience of the urban tissue.
PURPOSE, SCOPE, AND METHODS OF THE RESEARCH

The objective of the research is to evaluate the spatial relations between multifunctional shopping malls and
their environment, resulting in the indication of factors that affect them in considerations of model
solutions, identification of relations occurring between a shopping mall space and its environment, and the
degree of acceptance of urban characteristics by customers.
The following methods have been used in the research:
- literature review, conducted on the basis of Polish and foreign publications;
- direct observation; it applies to both preferences and needs of shopping centre users, and their
demands concerning the architecture and urbanism of the studied facilities;
- case studies – including the study of selected multifunctional shopping malls in Silesia: six shopping
malls (7 buildings), located in the province of Silesia were selected for the study: in Katowice (Dąbrówka
(Castorama and Carrefour), 3 Stawy , Auchan, Ikea) and in Bielsko-Biala (Sfera, Auchan). These centres were
selected based on the criteria of location, the nature of the shopping mall area development, as well as the
functional interior layout of the buildings;
- empirical studies; they are based on a survey conducted among customers of six of the seven
selected multifunctional shopping malls in Silesia.
A SHOPPING MALL SPACE MODEL

The identification of the types of existing multi-functional shopping mall spaces and their relations with the
environment makes it possible to construct a shopping mall space model. For research purposes, a new
definition of space has been introduced, assuming that such space has the following features: three
dimensions of cubic capacity, time and function. These features enable the identification of physical and
functional dependencies that exist between different spatial units. Thus, a cross-disciplinary approach
should be assumed for the studied issues, and methods which so far have been used in other fields of
science should be employed. Such definition of space has made it possible to develop the model of
shopping mall space and of the relations between particular spatial elements of the mall, as well as between
the mall and its environment.
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The development of a shopping mall space model is targeted at:

- creating premises for shopping mall planning, and, at the same time, maintaining the resilience of multi-
faceted urban tissue;
- identifying the main types of the shopping mall space to give grounds for the analysis of their spatial
relations, and their relations with the environment;
- determining prerequisites for research on preferences of shopping mall users.
Areas of different sizes and specific functions can be distinguished in any shopping mall which forms a
spatial unit. Their size and purpose are subject to changes at specified time intervals. These changes can be
caused by e.g. the need to improve the functioning of a given spatial element of the shopping mall
(storehouses, shops, etc.). The primary criterion of the assessment of the space of a shopping mall
understood as a functional spatial unit is its functionality in the context of the relations with the vicinity and
other spatial units.
The main retail space of a shopping mall is the space of an anchor store (Ka, most often a hypermarket or a
large supermarket; Figure 1) which attracts customers to the shopping centre. It is complemented by the
space of big and medium-size specialty shops and small retail points – boutiques (Kc). The primary function
of this space is to sell goods to those who visit the mall for this (or other) purpose by purchase and sale
transactions. The level of performance of this function depends on many architectural factors, and economic
factors (mainly the prices of goods and their variety). The retail space is supported by the storage space (Kb).
The largest storage space normally adjoins the anchor store. This storehouse is available from the outside to
suppliers who also have a separate delivery yard (Kn).
The performance of the commercial function is also closely related to vehicular traffic, representing the main
means of transportation for shopping mall customers; the more people visit a certain mall, the greater the
probability that they will use the commercial area of the centre. In addition, the commercial function is
directly related to other spatial elements of the mall, primarily the storage space.
In most shopping malls, the service space (Kd) complements the commercial function. The number of
service points in a shopping mall is usually relatively small. Customers visit the most common service points,
i.e. laundries, photo services, or hairdressers, on the occasion of making purchases or using the recreation
and entertainment space.
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Figure 1: Static model of the architectural space of a shopping mall.

The recreation and entertainment space includes, on the one hand, multiplexes (Kk), and on the other –
fitness clubs, bowling clubs, and discos (Kf). Thus, the function of this type of space covers entertainment
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and recreation in a broad sense, with a significant cultural or sporting touch. It must be stressed, however,
that the main function of this space is leisure and entertainment, which can meet the needs of a relatively
large group of people and therefore it is not necessary to use explicit spatial clarification.
An important element of a shopping mall is the internal pedestrian transportation space which constitutes
the traffic axis of the studied facilities (Kj). Pedestrian precincts, consisting of broad tracts of the main
walkways in shopping malls, resemble urban shopping streets. For this reason, the architecture of the
pedestrian precincts space is characterized by great attention to detail. The pedestrian space, especially in
areas such as crossings, is often associated with leisure. This type of space is closely related to the catering
space (Kg) and the boundary between them is sometimes even blurred.
The size of the parking lot for customers (Kl) may exceed the space of a shopping mall building. This applies
in particular to suburban shopping malls. In city centres or in underdeveloped areas with limited access,
malls have multilevel parking lots and underground garages. Due to the high frequency of customer visits to
shopping malls, petrol stations are sometimes placed in the parking area and their space (Km) is connected
to the parking lot by vehicular transportation routes.
The space of a shopping mall building has certain relations with its close and distant environments. They
consist of different types of spaces. For the purposes of this model it has been assumed that the following
spaces are present in the surrounding area: detached houses residential zones, multi-family buildings (KOa),
public utility buildings (KOb), pedestrian and vehicular traffic space (Koc), entertainment and leisure spaces
(Kod), and undeveloped zones.
Figure 2: Dynamic model of the architectural space of a shopping mall.
The dynamic model of a shopping mall space (Figure 2) shows the options for changes, including all types of
spaces presented in the static model (from Ka to Kn) that are located in the shopping mall building under
the influence of varying conditions relevant to different types of its environment (KOa, KOb, KOc, KOd, KOe).
These changes, occurring at a given time (t), influence decisions concerning the shopping mall space. This
can result in, for example, development of the retail space, elimination or extension of the service space, etc.,
and depending on the type of change in the shopping mall environment the facility space can be altered.
For example, an increase in the number of residential buildings surrounding the shopping mall resulting in
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growth of the purchasing power of the population will increase the number of potential customers of the
mall.
Both models – static and dynamic – of a large shopping mall should provide the basis for planning facilities
of this type. Proper recognition of spatial relations in shopping mall facilities and between the mall and its
surroundings facilitates proper planning of the facility before its development, as well as its subsequent
functioning. An insight into these relations provides prerequisites necessary to plan the modernization of
shopping malls.
The assessment of the space of shopping malls based on the presented models is possible after conducting
a survey among their users, indicating the degree of their functional performance as a certain spatial quality.
To make the space assessment on the grounds of the functional performance criterion it is necessary to find
and analyse the preferences of the facility users and the degree to which they are satisfied with the studied
shopping mall.
RELATIONS BETWEEN A SHOPPING MALL AND ITS ENVIRONMENT
A shopping mall is always associated with its close and distant environment, in consideration of the relations
of different types, different strengths, and different meanings. The close environment of the mall can be a
detached houses residential zone, an undeveloped area, or compact urban settlements. It is crucial to locate
and design a shopping mall in a manner that does not adversely affect the resilience of the adjacent space.
The asymmetric relations between the shopping mall space and detached houses residential zone are,
predominately, associated with:
- regarding the nearby detached houses residential zone as a source of potential customers;
- offering the possibility of making diversified purchases in a short time, and the use of services available in
the shopping mall, including entertainment;
- the influence of a shopping centre building on the neighbouring smaller buildings in terms of additional
natural lighting;
- the influence of an access road to the mall and a parking lot on the residential zone in terms of air pollution
and noise.
All these factors shape the quality of the spatial relations between the shopping mall and the surrounding
residential zone.
Due to the relatively low density of the population of detached houses residential zones, they do not
provide an attractive source of customers for shopping malls. It is assumed that efficient functioning of a
regional shopping centre with floor area of about 40 000 – 100 000 m², with 1 - 3 anchor stores, requires an
area of 20 - 25 km² and a population of about 15 ,000 - 300,000 (Farrell, 2003, p. 24). The purchasing power of
local households, much higher in the case of newly constructed detached houses, is also of great
importance. It should be noted, however, that the neighbourhood of such residential zones poses an open
opportunity for shopping malls for developing their space and use it in a rather arbitrary manner due to the
low power of persuasion among detached houses residents who are not usually able to create an organized
social unit to represent their interests in confrontation with the shopping mall. If such an organization or
association was established, the relationship with the shopping mall could be definitely improved for
mutual benefit: on the one hand, the shopping mall would have a partner to negotiate on all matters
concerning the neighbourly relations with the local community, and on the other hand the residents, thanks
to a stronger position, could be able to achieve e.g. funds for road infrastructure adjacent to the mall etc.
The spatial relations between the mall and its surrounding detached houses residential zones also involve
the impact of increased vehicular transport time in the nearest neighbourhood. This is associated with the
harmful effects of emissions from vehicular traffic and high intensity of noise. Shaping the correct relations
in such an area is relatively straightforward. A buffer zone, adequate to traffic intensity, forming a protective
barrier between the roads and the nearest residential zone should be kept to prevent this type of adverse
relations. This usually involves planting low and high greenery and installing sound screens.
Inner-city shopping malls are built in the neighbourhoods of residential multi-family buildings, offices,
administration buildings, other public utility buildings, and recreation and entertainment space. The
relations between a shopping mall space and multi-family housing space are formed in a manner similar to
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the relations with detached houses residential zones; yet, they are specific in the case of shopping malls in
urban areas. Similarly, modern shopping centres acquire many customers from the urban environment.
However, a significant difference may be noticed as far as spatial architectural relations occurring between
the shopping mall building and multi-family buildings are concerned. In contrast to the relations between
the shopping mall and detached houses residential zones, multi-family buildings have the potential to form
relatively equal relations with the shopping mall building and make it possible for the shopping mall to
become embedded in the urban tissue.
The relations between shopping centres and public buildings are shaped in a completely different way. To
be precise, modern shopping malls most often acquire the functions that have so far been fulfilled by public
facilities.
The relations between the inner-city and suburban retail space established and held by shopping malls are
of crucial importance. From the economic point of view, modern shopping malls are an important part of
urban commercial networks, taking over the function of downtown shops and department stores. Shopping
centres significantly affect the importance of various areas of the local market. A considerable outflow of
customers from small and medium-size downtown shops to shopping centres, especially shortly after the
opening of a new mall is particularly noticeable. A decline in the turnover of nearby small and medium size
convenience stores can reach even 40%, but after a while the situation gets back to normal and returns to
the previous state (Kłosiewicz-Górecka 2008).
Nevertheless, strong competition from shopping centres can also bring benefits. It should be emphasized
that one of the positive aspects of a neighbouring shopping centre for smaller retail spaces involves, from
the point of view of a customer, forcing their owners to modernize their retail space and diversify and
improve the offered goods. Moreover, this process is frequently accompanied by at least a small reduction in
prices. In addition, a shopping centre built in the city centre may take over the function of an anchor point,
attracting customers to nearby shops and points of services. This, however, requires a sufficiently large
purchasing power of the population inhabiting sites in the vicinity of the shopping centre. Likewise, another
positive aspect of the competition is a growing consolidation of manufacturers and suppliers who serve
modern shopping malls.
The relations between shopping malls and recreation and entertainment space - so far an exclusive domain
of urban city centres and their suburbs - often constitutes a functional reference to the recreation and
entertainment space in shopping malls. It should be stressed that multiplexes do not only complement a
network of city cinemas, but can also take over their functions, offering more opportunities in terms of
repertoire, frequent film shows, number of seats for spectators, and better catering facilities.
The relations between shopping malls and recreation and sports space in Poland are limited to absorbing
customers from nearby walking areas by the malls. Due to the insufficiency of sports facilities or a small
range thereof, shopping malls can complement the entertainment and sports function fulfilled by the
external environment only within a limited range.
The relations between Polish shopping malls and the surrounding social environment, particularly in terms
of cooperation in the field of organization of regular educational activities, are practically non-existent. Thus,
there is a huge disparity between the functioning of shopping centres and facilities in that external
economic area that should provide social functions.
The relations between shopping malls and transportation space, related to vehicular traffic in particular, are
very important. The largest shopping centres change the entire transportation system in their immediate
vicinity while forcing change in the organization of public transportation. The connections by local and
supra-local roads with the nearest population centres, located in a city, its suburbs, and surrounding villages
is extremely important for out-of-town shopping malls. For this purpose, some shopping malls create their
own free bus networks. A good transport connection with a city and its surroundings has an impact on the
frequency of visits paid to the malls by customers who are thus driven away from city centres. Special two-
level collision-free motorways and express road exits are often built by many out-of-town shopping malls,
providing safe access directly to parking lots. Inner-city shopping malls offer large parking lots or
underground garages, but it is much more difficult to access them due to the nature of city transportation
services. This is one of the reasons why these malls are visited by customers who come on foot. Another
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factor which makes parking difficult for customers of inner-city shopping centres is the fact that free parking
lots are occupied by people who work nearby.
The quality of the relations between the shopping centre space and transportation space can be thus
measured by the complexity and security of access, organization and easiness of traffic flow at the parking
lots, and ease of finding a car in the parking lot after leaving the shopping centre.
The relations between suburban shopping malls and undeveloped space have an uncomplicated structure
because in practice they are limited to the influence on the prices of the surrounding unused areas and
higher prices of undeveloped lots. This is due to the attractiveness of the shopping mall environment,
especially for service activities related to vehicular infrastructure. Undeveloped space located in the vicinity
of a shopping mall can also become an area for enlargement of the mall.
The space of a shopping mall, which is very diverse, develops relations with its close and distant
environment at different levels of complexity, of varying strength and scope. Establishing and maintaining
proper spatial relations is conducive to the proper functional performance of the mall inscribed in a
particular spatial layout. Both the shopping mall and its environment can benefit from the proper state of
this type of relationship regardless of whether the shopping mall is located within the city or in its suburbs.
CUSTOMERS’ REVIEWS ON FUNCTIONAL AND AESTHETIC SOLUTIONS APPLIED IN SELECTED

SHOPPING MALLS IN SILESIA
The main objective of this survey is to answer the question: to what extent urban solutions applied in
shopping malls influence the choice of a given mall as a place for shopping, leisure and recreation, and
affect customer satisfaction? The results will provide an insight into the manner in which the space of
shopping malls should be shaped, without jeopardizing their environment.
This kind of information should be treated as one of the most important elements that should be taken into
account in decision-making by sales network investors, local authorities, and developers. Due to the scope
of the survey the derived information may be used primarily by urban planners in decision-making
processes. The results correspond to the following specific objectives:
- disclosing the level of impact of the location and convenient access on the attractiveness of
shopping malls to potential customers;
- proving that the integration of a shopping mall building with its surroundings significantly affects
the perception of the building as attractive to customers;
- demonstrating the extent to which shopping malls constitute an important part of the sales
network in Silesia.
The customer survey on the functional and aesthetic spatial solutions applied in big shopping malls was
carried out on a sample selected by means of quota sampling. The sample was chosen from the study
population including customers of big shopping centres. Respondents were initially divided according to
four criteria – independent features: gender, age, profession, and the distance between the studied
shopping mall and the respondents’ place of residence. Due to the non-random sampling method applied, it
was not necessary to formally designate the sample size (Kaczmarczyk 2011, pp. 75-76). This method is
based on the assumption that a sample is representative of all elements of a study population; the structure
of the sample, because of its important features, is therefore the same as the structure of the study
population (Churchill 2002, pp. 501-502). It was assumed, therefore, that the sample size required for giving
correct results would amount to 200 people, which was the basis for further empirical research. In the course
of the survey, questionnaires were filled in by 200 respondents, in accordance with the aforementioned
assumption. As 12 questionnaires were invalid due to improper filling or lack of personal details, 188
questionnaires were taken into account in the analysis.
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THE IMPACT OF LOCATION AND CONVENIENT ACCESS ON THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF SHOPPING

MALLS TO POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS
According to all respondents, the location of shopping malls is one of the most important factors and also it
is seen as a very clear criterion for the assessment of the shopping mall space. The respondents agreed that
the most important location feature in the case of shopping malls, is their location right by a main road (87
responses) and outside of a city (85 responses; Figure 3).
Figure 3: The best shopping mall locations in the opinion of the respondents.
The juxtaposition of the two features means that the respondents point to good transportation connections
with a shopping centre and their place of residence (work), as well as a secure and convenient car parking as
the most important qualities. The condition for the proper functioning of a mall, in the opinion of the
respondents, is a convenient network of roads and streets in its vicinity combined with an express road (or
motorway) leading to the city and distributing vehicular traffic in the surrounding neighbourhoods or
towns. This poses a great advantage of the shopping mall over downtown retail units which are often hard
to access due to heavy traffic jams. In addition, customers of such shopping centres can leave their cars in a
secure car park or in a garage. Consequently, the customers can enter their cars in the garage at their own
premises and go directly to the mall, avoiding confrontation with the adverse effects of climatic factors. In
addition, in contrast to downtown shops, parking at the mall is free, and the number of parking spaces is
usually sufficient. It follows that these location features of shopping malls, directly affecting customer
comfort and convenience, are indicated as essential by the respondents.
Secondly, the respondents claimed that the best shopping mall locations are near their place of residence
and the city centre (up to 18% of the respondents agreed that a shopping mall located in the city centre is
the best possible). The permission to locate a mall close to home shows, on the one hand, the need for
constant and convenient access to it, and on the other hand – which is very important – the acceptance of
the existence of a large facility that exerts a strong influence on the closest environment, both in commercial
and social terms. Thus, in fact, the respondents stressed their desire to belong to an ‘advanced’ technical and
technological urban civilization while preserving, as far as possible, the benefits of a rural way of life.
The fact that the respondents emphasized the above mentioned factors, the complexity of customer needs
is of great importance to many aspects of space, including urban planning, architecture and society. This is
because they affect, in a significant manner, the aesthetics of the Polish landscape, and social relations.
Although it is difficult to access inner city shopping malls by car, they are highly appreciated, which indicates
that the respondents associate the malls with urban lifestyle; in terms of functionality and aesthetics, the
interiors of shopping centres quite literally reflect downtown shopping streets. To recapitulate, the results
show that the most attractive shopping centres are located by the main road, on the outskirts of cities, close
to home, and in city centres.
206
Figure 4: Close proximity as a factor having the greatest impact on respondents’ choice of a given shopping mall
The most important criteria influencing the choice of a given shopping mall include, undoubtedly, its
proximity to the place of residence of a potential customer. This is indicated by the responses which show
that for 41% of women and 26% of men this factor plays the most important role. It is interesting to point
out that 16% of the respondents (Figure 4) declared that the distance factor plays a minor role for them, or is
not important at all. This means that they are able to get to any shopping mall in a particular area,
disregarding the transport factor and the time factor. Those are the people who consciously treat shopping
malls as places for entertainment and leisure rather than as typical shopping places.
It should be emphasized that the proximity of a given shopping mall also means that it is located near the
workplace. In the case of inner city shopping centres, it can be assumed that people working nearby visit the
malls during breaks at work.
Figure 5: Convenient access as a factor having the greatest impact on the respondents’ choice of a given
shopping centre.
Easy access is a factor that is directly related to the distance between the visited shopping centre and the
place of residence, constituting a criterion which determines the selection of a mall. As many as 76% of the
respondents (Figure 5) stated that easy access is a crucial factor influencing their choice of shopping malls.
Due to the fact that almost all customers of shopping malls use cars as their means of transport, this factor is
associated, above all, with the quality of vehicular traffic. Convenient access does not only refer to
comfortable, safe transportation connections, but also to the possibility of easy parking of the car at a
parking lot or in a parking garage of the shopping mall. Accordingly, easy access is associated with the
comfort of parking space and with the roof to protect customers’ cars from adverse weather conditions.
The convenient access criterion, which is a qualitative factor, also related to the distance between the mall
and the place of residence, was assessed by most of the respondents as one of the three most important
factors they take into account when choosing a given shopping centre. In consequence, this factor
determines the number of customers who choose a particular shopping mall, which is a significant project
prerequisite for urban planners.
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The analysis of customer preferences has shown that shopping centres in the Silesia region are attractive
mainly because of their convenient location and easy access. Malls located by the main road, on the outskirts
of cities, close to home, and in city centres are the most attractive ones to customers. The high degree of
acceptance of inner-city shopping malls indicates that there is a demand for such type of businesses, as well
as for the improvement of the existing urban infrastructure, in order to turn it into a more interesting,
aesthetic, and functional alternative that meets the standards set by shopping malls.
SUMMARY
The space of a shopping mall has a significant impact on its wide vicinity. This results primarily from its
strong functional impact due to the accumulation of a substantial number of shops, services and
entertainment in a relatively small area, and above all – the availability of large retail space, created mostly
by hyper- or supermarkets. Due to its dominant role in a particular area, a shopping mall reduces the
importance of a number of smaller spatial units performing similar functions, which often leads to
permanent changes in the spatial structure of the surroundings. This research has determined the
relationship between the malls and their environment, providing information and thus substantive reasons
to take measures aimed at increasing the resilience of the urban tissue. The results can be used not only by
shopping mall planner and managers, but also by administrative authorities at various levels, including
municipal and local authorities. They may be particularly essential for making decisions concerning the
location of new facilities and analysing their impact on their close and distant environments. Finally, the
results may be of interest to customers of shopping centres who are still the main users thereof, and may
increase the level of their awareness.
REFERENCES
Churchill, G., 2002. Badania marketingowe, Podstawy metodologiczne, PWN, Warsaw.
Farrell, JJ., 2003. One nation under goods: Malls and the seductions of American shopping, Smithsonian Books,
Washington and London
Kaczmarczyk, S., 2011. Badania marketingowe. Metody i techniki, PWE, Warsaw.
Kłosiewicz-Górecka, U., 2008. Zagraniczne inwestycje w handlu na rynkach lokalnych, PWE, Warsaw.
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ASSESSING THE RESILIENCE OF WINDHOEK – ON THE ROAD TO RE-DEFINING SUSTAINABILITY

Phia van Greunen, Polytechnic of Namibia, Namibia, svangreunen@polytechnic.edu.na
Abstract
As architects we are constantly searching for new technologies and updated practises to create ‘Sustainable’
buildings. Despite continuous efforts to minimise our impact on the environment and to reverse the effects of
climate change, our fast-changing world requires an updated definition of ‘Sustainability’. The prospects of future
generations are no longer dependant only on our ability to successfully balance our ecosystems; social, natural &
economic; but how adaptable we are to inevitable change.
This “ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure and
ways of functioning, the capacity for self-organisation, and the capacity to adapt to stress and change” is referred
to as Resilience by Surjan et al (2011, p. 19). It has become increasingly important for societies to constantly
evaluate their impact on the environment. A truly sustainable society would learn from such evaluations, adapt
successfully and remain resilient for many generations to come.
The study investigates the capital of Namibia; one of the most arid countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the
youngest independent state on the continent. It considers all the main systems and their relationships and shows
how a dynamic ecosystem like a city might be assessed for resilience.
The study will show that resilience requires a shift in our perceptions and eventually depends largely on our ability
to learn from the current state of our cities. The study will also show how valuable resilience assessment can be in
re-defining our understanding of sustainability.
Keywords: sustainability, resilience, urban landscapes, systemic thinking, self-organisation.
INTRODUCTION
Society sure has evolved since Capra (1996, p. 4) identified the “great challenge of our time” as the creation
of “sustainable communities, i.e. social and cultural environments in which we can satisfy our needs and
aspirations without diminishing the chances of future generations”. In 2008, the percentage of urban
population to total world population reached 50% and has since continued to increase.
As architects we are constantly searching for new technologies and updated practises to create sustainable
buildings. Despite continuous efforts to minimise our impact on the environment and to reverse the effects
of climate change, our fast-changing world requires an updated definition of Sustainability. The prospects of
future generations are no longer dependant only on our ability to successfully balance our ecosystems;
social, natural & economic, but how adaptable we are to inevitable change.
RE-DEFINING SUSTAINABILITY
This “ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure
and ways of functioning, the capacity for Self-organisation, and the capacity to adapt to stress and change”
is referred to as Resilience by Surjan et al (2011, p. 19) who says that resilience was first talked about “in the
1970’s by ecologists who were trying to define ecosystems which gain stability even after disturbance”.
Since then the term has been widely researched, published and discussed by scientists, architects and
practitioners alike.
The Resilience Alliance, a leading research organisation established in 2009, cited in Surjan et al (2011, p. 19),
contemplates that “resilience has three defining characteristics: The amount of change a system can
undergo and still retain the same controls on function and structure; the degree the system is capable of
self-organisation; the ability to build and increase the capacity for learning and adaptation”
James Lovelock presented his first theories as early as 1969 of our living earth as a self-regulating system. Its
only more recently it seems that people are beginning to appreciate the significance of Daisyworld’s
“remarkably resilient” self-regulation under such “severe disturbances” (Capra 1996, p. 110). The term
sustainability is outdated and creating sustainable communities in the original sense of the phrase is no
longer relevant. Our fast-growing ever-changing ecosystems require a more holistic approach. It has
become increasingly important for societies to constantly evaluate their impact on the environment.
Resilience assessment is central in re-defining our understanding of sustainability.
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SYSTEMS THINKING FOR RESILIENCE
Resilience assessment also highlights unsustainable practices across social, natural & economic scales and
shows how interdependent the components of our systems are. “The more we study the major problems of
our time, the more we come to realize that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic
problems, which mean that they are interconnected and interdependent” (Capra 1996, p. 3). This type of
systems thinking is crucial in understanding sustainability and assessing resilience. Assessing or planning for
resilience can only commence after the dynamics of a system, in this case Windhoek, are fully understood. By
identifying variables at each level of a system’s operation, one could define possible thresholds and triggers;
in order to plan for expected change or to adapt successfully to unanticipated change.
Figure 1: Windhoek the capital of Namibia.
THE DYNAMIC URBAN ECOSYSTEM OF WINDHOEK
Namibia is a vast, arid country situated on the south-west coast of Africa and home to one of the oldest
deserts in the world. The 2011 Namibia Population and Housing Census shows that the overall Namibian
population has increased gradually since 1921; “rising from about one-quarter million persons in early 1921
through 1.8 million persons in early 2001 to 2.1 million in 2011”, distributed more or less equally between
genders. The first step in assessing for resilience lies in understanding the sociological,
environmental/ecological and economic systems of the focal system.
Figure 2: Gender distribution.
Social systems
The non-Western view of self can be described as interdependent, located within a wider social context.
Boundaries between individuals are less sharply drawn as individuals are “more dependent on group
characteristics” (Madanipour 2003, p. 20). Namibians have been resilient throughout their adverse history
due exactly to this co-dependence and systemic thinking.
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In 1884 Namibia, then South West Africa was proclaimed a German Protectorate; which preceded a period of
fatal rinderpest epidemics (cattle plague) and tribal wars. This was followed by further suppression under
the South African apartheid administration until Independence in 1990. After more than a century of foreign
occupation, Namibia is emerging as a young, fast developing country with a population density of a mere
2.5 people per km².
Windhoek was established as the capital of Namibia in 1890. It is situated in the cool highland savannah
nestled in a valley between three mountain ranges. At a mere 22 years since independence from South
Africa, Windhoek is developing at an alarming rate. According to the 2011 census 42% of Namibians live in
urban areas compared to a mere 28% in 1991, see Figure 3.
People flock to the capital for better employment and education opportunities. Today Windhoek and its
urban surrounds are called home by 16% of the country’s population while it comprises 4.5% of the
country’s overall surface area.
Figure 3: Comparing urban population of Namibia in 1991(top) with 2011(bottom).
Our urban areas are becoming overpopulated with policy makers and authorities struggling to keep up with
ever increasing social and infrastructure demands, while rural immigrants to the City of Windhoek feel like
transient residents rather than citizens, and as a consequence take no responsibility for their surroundings
(Niikondo 2010, p. 1).
These immigrants retain strong ties to their rural origins and send the majority of their income home to
invest in their farmlands and to support family members. Informal settlements continue to grow while
residents are reluctant to invest in urban areas, financially or otherwise.
Niikondo (2010, p. 3) indentifies 5 major reasons why immigrants to urban areas don’t occupy formal or
permanent houses:
• Having no entitlement rights;
• No purchasing power or capital available to make one time housing investments;
• The cultural and traditional tendency of accumulating funds to invest in their communal lands;
• The low cost associated with staying in temporary dwellings on un-serviced land vs. the cost of
living in formalized areas, and
• Lack of understanding of urban life and its cost.
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These reasons make it very difficult to assist or to administer the constant expansion of Windhoek’s informal
settlements.
Figure 4: The informal settlements to the north of Windhoek.

Besides the obvious social struggles like lack of access to basic services & education, HIV, unemployment,
malnutrition and poverty, the typical Namibian urban dweller faces an additional challenge: geographic and
social segregation.
Most South African cities still bear the mark of apartheid planning; with large sectors of society being
geographically isolated from job opportunities and amenities. Windhoek is one such city. The majority of
urban dwellers occupy “shacks” in informal settlements on the outskirts of town (Figure 4).
Katutura, meaning the place we do not want, was established through the forced removal of its inhabitants
from the old location. In December 1959, the first 400 families were moved to their new homes (Bravenboer
2004, p. 185). Figure 5 compares the average population density of Namibia, the average density of
Windhoek and the current population density in Central Katutura. It is clear that there are massive social &
geographical divides at play. These social and cultural systems have to be taken into consideration when
assessing for resilience.
Figure 5: Population densities for different suburbs in Windhoek.
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Figure 6: The City of Windhoek nestled between three mountain ranges. Note the fine grain of the informal
settlements to the north and the industrial area’s proximity to the Klein Windhoek River and the general Katutura
area. Also note the position of the old location in relation to the CBD.
Ecological/environmental systems
Systemic thinking requires consideration of all sub-systems when analysing our ecosystems for resilience.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005, p. iii) highlights the direct link between people, biodiversity
and natural ecosystems.
The assessment argues that “changing human conditions drive, both directly and indirectly, changes in
biodiversity, changes in ecosystems, and ultimately changes in the services ecosystems provide.” It is a
known fact that increases in population and settlement densities can be detrimental to biological; species
and habitat diversity if not properly managed.
A biodiversity inventory, commissioned by the City of Windhoek in 2009 regards the entire Windhoek Valley
as an area with a high conservation status under “tremendous pressure from development”. The study
summarises sensitive areas and practices which threaten Windhoek’s biological diversity:
• Lack of conservation status and encroaching developments on the Windhoek Riverine Thickets, a
habitat which according to the inventory “provides many ecosystem services” and functions as a
network of links between the various habitats around the Windhoek area.
• Over clearing of areas leading to habitat destruction and speeding up water run-off; thus
prohibiting infiltration as well as causing soil erosion.
• The urgent conservation of the extremely sensitive Windhoek underground aquifer, which can store
water over vast amounts of time while surface water evaporates much faster than it can be
replenished
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• Threats to our open water habitats (including birds and aquatic species) due to pollution resulting
from industrial and urban waste, alien aquatic species and agricultural management practices
• Alien plant species which place heavy burdens on the city’s water resources
• Proposed developments and heavy industry to the north of the City, around the alluvial plains of
the Klein Windhoek River, “pose a significant risk to the integrity of the Klein Windhoek River
Habitat”.
• The diversion and canalisation of riverbeds causing acceleration of water during rainy seasons
which increase the risk of flooding downstream.
• Lack of access to electricity and fuel-efficient cook stoves leading to deforestation in the areas
around informal settlements specifically the Acacia erioloba, Camel thorn, which are a relatively
slow growing protected species.
• Over-harvesting and selling the pods of the Camel thorn tree, to feed livestock
• Sand harvesting leading to “significant loss of Camel thorn trees, destruction of important riverine
habitat, making the area susceptible to alien invasive species taking over and reducing the river’s
function as a filter and underground water reservoir”.
• Lack of environmental research, lack of awareness under policy makers and insufficient monitoring
of the city’s natural resources and systems.
The study also identifies various plant and animal species at risk, under categories of endemic, protected
and highly threatened; due to habitat destruction in and around the city. Figure 7 shows exactly how
significant a role biodiversity plays in any ecosystem. These interactions can be translated from a local to a
regional and international scale.
The figure shows a direct co-dependent relationship between social systems on the one hand and economic
& political systems on the other. These economic and political systems are viewed as indirect drivers which
can lead to changes in drivers which directly influence biodiversity.
The figure shows that biodiversity not only has a direct influence on human well-being but also affects,
directly or indirectly, the larger natural system’s own ability to regulate its nested systems, which in turn
influence the collective resilience of the entire ecosystem.
Figure 7: the role of biodiversity in a ecosystem (adapted from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005, p. iii).
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Economic & political systems

It is important to remember that systems interaction can take place at more than one scale and can cross
scales. An international demand for beef for instance, may lead to regional price hikes which in turn could
lead to exploitation of communities and resources at local level. This in turn could have an adverse effect on
the ecosystem in terms of overgrazing, pest control and changes in land use which are viewed as direct
drivers of changes to biodiversity on a local, regional and possibly international scale.
Namibia relies on neighbouring South Africa for commodities. From building materials to fresh produce &
clothes, the cost of items in Namibia is determined by the South African market. Furthermore, the Namibian
Dollar is linked to the South African Rand and is subject to the same exchange rates. Consequently political
unrest or Labour strikes in South Africa have an adverse effect on our economic and social systems. The
Namibian economy is driven by the primary sectors of mining, wildlife and tourism, fishing and to a lesser
extent; agriculture.
Another large contributor to the country’s economy is its close historic ties with neighbouring Angola.
Contrary to South African policies, Angolans don’t need visas to enter Namibia for leisure or tourism. As a
result, Windhoek has more recently become a sought after destination for medical procedures or check-ups
and shopping sprees. This influx of US Dollars has also had an indirect effect on the property market.
New money introduced into the economy creates a high demand in the residential sector, in addition to the
dwindling supply of new serviced land it has caused prices to grow consistently throughout the economic
recession. The property prices continue to rise in Windhoek while the rest of the world is only starting to
recover from massive crashes in the market. For an architect this might seem like a positive growth, the
reality however is that housing shortages are worse than ever; resulting in ever-increasing property prices
and ever-widening social and geographical divides.
The reliance on neighbouring countries also means that the economic resilience of Namibia is largely
dependent on others and not exclusively on the interaction of its own systems.
Namibia’s unsustainable governance structure is also a key indicator of the system’s overall resilience.
Central Government is divided into a multitude of Ministries. The scope of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water
& Forestry for instance would include plant species but not animal species while the Ministry of Fisheries and
Marine Resources would be interested in fish but not necessarily the entire water system. The Ministry of
Environment and Tourism focuses solely on animal resources with no directive towards water, plants or land
use. The Ministry of Works and Transport may decide to plan a development in the centre of a nature reserve
or demolish a building with national heritage status to extend a clinic. The list of separate ministries goes on
and on.
MAPPING FOR RESILIENCE
Now that the focal system, Windhoek, has been described in terms of its ecological/environmental, social
and economic components one can move on to mapping (summarising) the system’s dynamics in order to
assess for Resilience.
Multiple space and time scales

The focal system is connected to various larger- and smaller scale systems. It has already been shown that
changes in external systems could have a direct influence on the resilience and functioning of the focal
system. In the same instance, the system might be vulnerable to changes from within.
Socio-ecological systems also undergo change at varying intervals over time indicating changes across
multiple space and time scales. Figure 8 summarizes the major systems operating at scales directly above
and below the focal system, it identifies critical slow- and fast changing variables which could either trigger
abrupt change or interact with other system variables causing other thresholds to be crossed.
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Figure 8: Windhoek as a socio-ecological system operating at multiple space and time scales.
General and specified resilience

The Resilience Alliance (2010, p. 34) distinguishes between Specified- and General Resilience. Whereas
Specified Resilience “relates to the controlling variables that are likely to have threshold effects, leading to
undesirable and perhaps irreversible changes of system state”, General Resilience applies to the system as a
whole and does not consider any particular kind of disturbance or any particular aspect of the system that
might be affected.
Studying the following general resilience attributes allows us to highlight vulnerable sections of the system:
Diversity – Low diversity or trends in diversity are important indicators of how an overall system might
respond to shock. The average urban Namibian for instance might lack the necessary skills to change jobs,
for whatever reason necessary, resulting in exaggerated dependence on a specific sector which may be at
risk, or in some cases, sticking out an unfavourable situation which could be detrimental to the individual’s
social and psychological wellbeing.
A cattle farmer’s management of carrying capacity, stocking rates and sustainable grazing systems on the
other hand, refer to positive trends in diversity. More flexible livestock herds and progressive destocking
would increase a farmer’s resilience to periods of fatal drought.
Reserves – Loss of reserves, both ecological and social, lead to a loss of resilience. Building up fodder reserves
of various diverse species for instance would see the aforementioned farmer and his nucleus herd through
difficult times.
Tightness of feedbacks and modularity – procedural requirements and insufficient interaction between
systems at various levels could result in a slower response to signals of change.
A tightly connected system on the other hand could transmit some shocks like disease or the results of bad
management practices more rapidly.
A loosely connected system with a high degree of interaction between components would be far more
capable of re-organisation in response to changes elsewhere in the system.
Specified Resilience questions resilience of what, to what? Identifying the city’s current main problems and
their social and environmental impacts (Figure 9) is an important step in mapping for resilience. It is
important to note how these main issues and their impacts also cascade into each other across multiple
space and time scales.
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Figure 9: Environmental and social impacts of the main issues identified.
Control systems
The final step in mapping for resilience is to investigate control systems. The Resilience Alliance (2010, p. 36)
refers to “dynamic entities that include a variety of institutions and stakeholders and involve multiple sectors
and scales. How these individuals, organisations, rules and traditions interact determines how people make
decisions, share power and exercise responsibility”.
More often than not formal governance and centralised decision-making is less effective at local levels
where people have a better understanding of smaller nested systems due to their proximity to and use of
resources.
“The structural characteristics of a given network can influence system dynamics and management
outcomes by for example, facilitating or impeding processes such as information sharing, access to
resources and collaboration opportunities” (The Resilience Alliance 2010, p. 40).
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Figure 10 shows a map of the social network in Windhoek. Various main actors and their relationships to
other actors and sub-systems are identified.
Figure 10: Mapping social networks among stakeholders.

Professionals like architects for instance, are well connected to the suburban middle class but not directly to
local government which usually makes important decisions affecting our profession directly. Figure 10 also
shows how central government is divided into separate ministries with no active relationships and isolated
groups like the urban poor and the suburban middle class are also not conducive to the resilience of the
overall system.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
After mapping the system it becomes clear which areas pose major threats to our Resilience and overall
Sustainability. Resilience assessment is a proposed start towards a more sustainable city. The major
challenge lies in making recommendations and coming up with strategies based on the findings of the
assessment.
It is important that all stakeholders identified in Figure 10 become involved in this process of turning
recommendations into workable strategies which can be implemented in the long term.
Under Specified Resilience for instance; strategies should be made to address the full extent of impacts
identified in Figure 9 and to introduce precautionary measures against the social and natural factors
identified in Figure 8.
In Windhoek’s case a few general recommendations for higher resilience, for example, would be to:
• foster biological, economic and cultural diversity;
• bridge the massive social & geographical divides;
• address the explicit lack of education and housing;
• kerb social problems like poverty, HIV, violence, racism and prejudice;
• reduce the economy’s reliance on external factors;
• promote a holistic approach to governance;
• promote social networks which would encourage collaborative objectives and outcomes;
• promote sustainable practices and environmental awareness.
Exact strategies and implementation however; goes beyond the scope of assessment. Much like an
ecosystem; assessing resilience is a complicated, dynamic an ongoing process. As architects we have to
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embrace these concepts of Resilience and systems thinking and add them to our definitions of
Sustainability.
In the end sustainability requires a shift in our perceptions and eventually depends largely on our ability to
learn from the current state of our cities and to adapt to inevitable change. Resilience assessment is
therefore invaluable in re-defining our understanding of sustainability.
Fifteen years later Capra’s sentiments are truer than ever: “There are solutions to the major problems of our
time; some of them even simple. But they require a radical shift in our perceptions, our thinking, our values”
(Capra 1996, p. 4).
REFERENCES
Bravenboer, B., 2004. Windhoek – Capital of Namibia, Gamsberg Macmillan Publishers (Pty) Ltd, Windhoek.
Capra, F., 1996. The eb of life – A new synthesis of mind and matter, Harper Collins Publishers, London.
City of Windhoek Biodiversity Inventory, 2009. Compiled by Enviro Dynamics (Pty) Ltd, Windhoek.
Madanipour, A., 2003. Public and private spaces of the city, Routledge, New York.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems and human well-being: Biodiversity synthesis, World
Resources Institute, Washington, DC.
National Planning Commission, 2011. Namibia 2011 Population and Housing Census Preliminary Results.
Niikondo, A., 2010. Migrants to cities and towns in Namibia: What their interests are? Polytechnic of Namibia,
viewed 10 October 2012,
http://ir.polytechnic.edu.na/bitstream/10628/249/1/Niikondo.%20Migrants%20to%20cities%20and%20tow
ns%20in%20Namibia.pdf
Resilience Alliance, 2010. Assessing resilience in social-ecological systems: Workbook for practitioners, Version
2.0.
Surjan, A, Sharma, A & Shaw, R., 2011. ‘Climate and disaster resilience in cities’, Environment and Disaster Risk
Management, vol. 6, pp. 17-45, Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.
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SPATIAL JUSTICE AS A TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE REFORM IN KHARTOUM METROPOLTAN AREA
Mariam Mohamed Abdalla Wagialla, Doctoral Candidate at Boku University Vienna, Ministry of Physical
planning & public utilities, Sudan, Marfa_1998@hotmail.com
Abstract
Khartoum, the national capital of Sudan, has undergone during the last three decades an unorganized rapid
urbanisation due to dramatic population growth, resulting spatially in unchecked sprawl. Indeed, spatial
practices in the last two decades led to a deepening of the problem by creating more unjust spaces and furthering
segregation. This study aims to shed light on the concept and dimensions of spatial justice, and its role in
achieving sustainable intensified urban form. The specific objectives are: to identify the factors which determined
how the spatial pattern is produced in Khartoum, and to invent solutions as well as equitable and sustainable
interventions.
Khartoum Structure Plan (KSP 2008-2033) proposed an Urban Development Framework based on halting
horizontal expansion of the capital, and accommodating future urban growth through an intensification process
within the consolidated urban area (MEFIT 2009). But (nevertheless) the process of transforming the sprawling city
into a compact one is very complicated and raises many questions, and the major question is, how can urban
intensification be controlled and managed in a way that supports sustainability and reduces spatial injustice? A
premise of this study is that achieving spatial justice by carrying out the intensification process in Khartoum
would be an effective tool to promote sustainable development and reduce spatial injustice. This study adopts a
multidisciplinary approach to analyzing and evaluating the existing situation, and formulating relevant solutions.
To encourage debate, and to spark interest in spatial justice and sustainability issues, the study presented a
proposal aimed at providing practical solutions to avoid uneven development patterns, which can exacerbate
spatial injustice, and to change or reconsider the spatial pattern to be fairer.
Keywords: spatial injustices, sprawl, intensification, urban form, sustainability.
INTRODUCTION
Urban reform is needed in order to change the miserable reality experienced by Metropolitan Khartoum.
Attributes of this situation seems obvious in: the city slum sprawling, deficiencies in infrastructure, traffic
congestion, environmental degradation, lack of job opportunities, in addition to spatial segregation of the
poor. While the affluent enjoy spaces within the urban area where services are available, the poor have been
settled in areas lacking the basic needs of urban life, and most of them are exposed to environmental risk
and disasters such as floods, thus increasing the cost of everyday life and increasing their vulnerability.
Although Khartoum Structure Plan (KSP 2008-2033) decided to absorb part of the future growth by
intensification and filling vacant areas within the existing urban boundaries, it neglected to address the
needs of the poor neighbourhoods and those vulnerable to environmental hazards. Therefore, there are
several risks to the sustainability of the urban fabric and success of the process of urban reform in the
context of weakness of executive planning bodies, lack of knowledge, corruption, and absence of public
participation. Nevertheless, reform of the current situation remains linked to reproduction of more equitable
spaces, since spatial justice is a platform to achieve the three pillars of sustainable development: social
equity, economic vitality, and environmental protection.
This study assumes that, to take full advantage of the proposal of KSP 2008-2033, urban densification, spatial
justice must be used as tools to measure the bias in this process to the benefit of the poor and most
vulnerable groups, who experience severe spatial injustices.
THEORETICAL BASES
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The idea of spatial justice

The idea of spatial justice joined together space and social justice. In other words, spatial justice links
geographic distribution to concepts of fairness. Henri Lefebvre (1991) emphasizes that people should have
to take in the process of space production and claim it as a right, through practices and experiences,
especially in public open spaces. “Space is becoming the principal stake of goal-directed actions and
struggles” (Lefebvre 1991, p. 410). Spatial rights include open and fair participation in urban processes,
accessing and taking advantage of the city, especially the centers, avoiding spatial segregation, and equal
access to public services, such as health education, and welfare (Soja 2010)
Spatial (in)justice can be seen as both outcome and process, as geographies or distributional patterns that
are in themselves just/unjust and as the processes that produce these outcomes. It is relatively easy to
discover examples of spatial injustice descriptively, but it is much more difficult to identify and understand
the underlying processes producing unjust geographies (Soja 2009, p. 3). So the understanding of
interactions between space and societies is essential to formulate planning policies that aim at reducing
social injustices.
The right to adequate housing

Adequate housing has been recognized as an important component of the right to an adequate standard of
living since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. UN Habitat (2009) defines
adequate housing as follows: “Adequate shelter means more than a roof over one’s head. It also means
adequate privacy; adequate space; physical accessibility; adequate security; security of tenure; structural
stability and durability; adequate lighting, heating and ventilation; adequate basic infrastructure, such as
water-supply, sanitation and waste-management facilities; suitable environmental quality and health-
related factors; and adequate and accessible location with regard to work and basic facilities: all of which
should be available at an affordable cost.
Urban form and sustainability

The relationship between urban form and sustainability is currently one of the most hotly debated issues on
the international environmental agenda (Jenks et al. 2004). The outcome of this debate, particularly in
Europe, the USA, and Australia was a strong advocacy of the ‘compact city’ model (Williams 2007). Urban
compaction achieved through a process of intensification, includes increasing densities of new urban
residential developments, recycling the land inside the cities, and filling of vacant spaces, which, therefore,
reduces sprawl and preserves land in the countryside. In order to earn sustainable outcomes of this process,
certain requirements must be available in the city. Williams (2007) summarized these requirements as
follows: Urban management has to be done well; High quality infrastructure needs to be provided; Public
transport needs to be well managed, affordable and reliable; Noise and air pollution have to be maintained
at acceptable standards; Basic services such as water, drainage and electricity need to be provided; and
levels of public facilities such as health care and education have to be appropriate for the high numbers of
city dwellers.
URBAN CONTEXT
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile, to
constitute the River Nile. Metropolitan Khartoum is a tripartite metropolis consisting of Khartoum,
Omdurman, and Khartoum North (Bahri). Metropolitan Khartoum has expanded significantly over the past
century: 250 times in area and 114 times in population. It is a sprawling city with a population density of 163
persons per km2 (UN Habitat 2009).
The population grew from just 250,000 on the eve of independence to an estimated 2,831,000 in 1993—a
year when the census estimated Sudan to be 25% urbanized. By 2005 Khartoum was estimated at 4.5 million
officially and more than 7 million unofficially, with 40% of the country urbanized, and fully half the urban
population in the capital (Assal 2008). Officially, according to the latest census in 2008, the Khartoum
population is 5,271,321, see Figure 1.
Figure 2 shows that urban area increased from 16.8 km2 in 1955 to 1650 km2 in 2008; the greatest growth
occurred during the last 3 decades (Figure 3). The population density in Khartoum has an inverse
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relationship with the horizontal expansion: 14,583 people/km2 in 1955, 22,667 people/km2 in1970. This fell
to 4,815 people/km2 in 1980, rising slightly to 6,013 people/km2 in 1998 (Eltayeb 2003), see Figure 4.
Figure1: Increase in population of Khartoum Figure 2: Spatial expansion of Khartoum

(Source: Population census, Ministry of Physical Planning & PU).
Figure 4: Population Density, Khartoum

Figure 3: Metropolitan Khartoum
(Source: KSP 2008-2033) (Source: 1993
Census in Eltayeb 2003).
The majority of Khartoum’s residents rely on their own resources in building their houses, due to the almost
complete absence of government support and real estate finance. Since the vast majority of the population
falls within the low-income group, it is not surprising to find poor housing that does not meet the
requirements of adequate housing as defined by the UN Habitat. Figure 5 shows that about 93% are simple
houses, 43% of which are shacks and mud rooms built with non-durable materials. Only 6.2% are flats and
0.3% villas and luxurious houses (Murillo et al. 2008).
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Figure5: Types of houses in Khartoum
Metropolitan Khartoum shows all the signs of urban problems faced by the prime city in developing
countries. The cycle of successive waves of population growth, service deficiencies, poverty, and
environmental degradation are all common (MEFIT 2009). This situation has produced unjust spaces that are
evident in spatially segregated communities, where poverty and hardships are concentrated in some areas
and wealth and well-being in others.
PRODUCTION OF URBAN SPACE IN KHARTOUM
This part of the study tries to answer the question of how spatial patterns are produced in metropolitan
Khartoum, and to assess whether these practices contributed to achieving fair urban space, or increasing
spatial injustice. The investigation of how urban space is designed in Khartoum should be done on two
levels: The national territory level and its impact on the territory of the capital; and then the policies adopted
at the metropolitan territory level.
National territory level

Sudan, since its independence in 1956, has scarcely experienced democratic rule. Totalitarian rule which
continued as a whole for about 50 years, accompanied by poor governance, lack of transparency, and
corruption have a direct impact on the livelihoods of people, forcing them to move from one place to
another, and resulting in a massive exodus from rural and remote areas to urban centers, especially
metropolitan Khartoum. Table 1 shows that the urban population of Sudan in 2008 was more than 13 times
its size in 1955, while the country’s total population in 2008 was only 3.4 times that of 1955. The number of
displaced people has been estimated by the Commission for Relief and Rehabilitation at 4,104,970 of whom
1.8 million are in metropolitan Khartoum (Eltayeb 2003).
Table 1: Sudan urban population (000s) 1955-2008

1955 1973 1983 1993 2008
Total population 10,300 14500 21950 24900 35005
Urban population 854 2606 4154 6275 11551
Urban % 8.8 18.5 20.5 25.2 33%
(Source: Population census)
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Table 2: Sudan population growth indicators

Indicator Sudan
Population 35,005,538
Annual Population Growth Rate 2.4 %
Internally Displaced Population 14 %
Urban and rural percentage (33 % 67 %)
(Source: Sudan Population Census)
This non-productive urbanization is only a movement of people from areas of less food and great physical
insecurity to urban centers, where access to food and physical security is more certain (Suliman 1999). It is a
process rooted in poverty rather than an industrialization-induced socio-economic transition as in other
major world urban regions (UN-HABITAT 2008). The national policies related to territory issues that lead to
displacement can be summarized in:
• Uneven development; which focuses on development and services in the capital and some cities
and ignored the countryside and remote areas.
• Mechanized farming projects in areas of rain-fed agriculture, which have been allocated to the
affluent that come from outside the region, and which have had a negative impact on the local
population: The loss of land on which they depend to make their living was a direct cause of
displacement.
• Unfair chopping of trees which coincided with mechanized farming projects, and was a basic
reason for the droughts and desertification later.
• Civil wars; which is an inevitable product of these policies to make matters worse.
Civil war has touched, in addition to south Sudan, all the Darfur states, as well as the Blue Nile and Southern
Kordofan states, which led to the separation of Sudan into two countries, and still the country is subject to
further division. Suleiman (1999) has explained that, denying or limiting access to natural and social
resources can be a more potent cause of violence than environmental degradation. It has been increasingly
understood that there is a direct relationship between the misuse of land and displacement of population.
Metropolitan territory level

The first urban development plan for Khartoum was created during the British colonial period at the
beginning of the twentieth century. Since its independence in 1956, Khartoum has been directed by four
master plans. The first one, drawn up in 1959 by an international agency, DOXIADOS; The second by the
Italian company MEFFIT in 1976; The third by DOXIADOS 1991; and the fourth, Master Plan (2000-2007). The
common denominator between all plans is that they were not representing the city's urban growth, since
that growth had imposed itself through slums in the outskirts of the city, as an inevitable outcome of
uncontrollable population growth. The latest Plan is Khartoum Structure Plan (KSP 2008-2033) MEFIT (2009),
which gives guidelines for the development strategy of Khartoum State. And this study touched one of its
outputs.
It should be noted here that the horizontal expansion of the city of Khartoum is mainly a residential
expansion at the expense of agricultural land and rural areas around the city, versus a small increase that is
almost negligible in industrial areas. So the study focuses on residential land policies and how, in this regard,
the authorities of the physical planning and land management followed different approaches to meet the
demand for housing and to address the squatters’ settlements, which are discussed and evaluated in the
following.
Housing schemes (Site & Services Schemes)

Site and Services is a housing policy inherited from colonial times. It is an idea based on the distribution of
residential plots to eligible residents which they themselves will develop according to their financial
capacity, while the State provides essential services. The residential area is divided into three classes,
according to income (Table 3). Eligibility is based on specific criteria such as birth certificate, certificate of
residence for a period of not less than 10 years, marriage certificate, and children’s place of birth. Those who
aren’t eligible, according to these criteria, are deprived of the right to housing.
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The total supply of Site and Services for 1959-2005 is 300,014 plots, but the failure of the state to provide
basic services resulted in a decline in the development of these sites; The evidence is that more than 51% of
these plots are not built (Murillo et al. 2008). Also, it should be noted that the latest housing schemes are
flood-prone, for instance Alwadi Al Akhdar, see Figures 6 and 7.
Table 3: Classification of residential areas in Khartoum.

Residential Classes Area of the plot Minimum standard of building materials Width of roads
Class 1 500 Permanent (bricks, cement, mortar) 10–40m
Class 2 400 Bricks, cement, mortar, gishra
Class3 300 Gishra, galoose (mud) 10-40
(Source: Adapted from Bannaga cited in 0sara et al. 2011).
Figure 6: Hai Albogaa Omdurman, 1992 Figure 7: Percentage of development (Source: Google
Earth). (Source: Google Earth).
• Re-planning of squatter settlement

The response to squatter settlements in colonial times and after independence was demolition, and
relocation of the residents to further areas. But since the beginning of the 1980s, the squatter settlements
fell out of the control of the planning authorities and proliferated like mushrooms around the major three
cities. By 1995, squatter settlements reached 50% of the total urban area (Murillo et al. 2008). This situation
forced the authorities to deal with it as a fait accompli, and these areas have been re-planned by opening
streets, allocating plots for public services, and designating a few open spaces. But the provision of basic
services was left to public effort.
It is noticeable that all the slums in featured sites or pockets within the consolidated urban area were
demolished and relocated in remote areas, like Ishash Fellata, Hai Mandela, Soba Alarahdi, and many other
sites. Relocation of communities and demolition of houses are usually followed by the sale of land plots by
the local authorities (Murillo et al. 2008). At the same time, other sites have been re-planned even though
they are vulnerable to natural disasters or environmental risk, see Figures 8 and 9. The product is poor
neighbourhoods that lack the most basic necessities of decent housing and urban services, and isolated
completely from the consolidated urban area, which increases their vulnerability and burden of everyday
life.
Table 4: Achievements of the official response to squatters & IDPs, 1990-2005

District Number of plots
Omdurman 210.203
Khartoum 35.806
Khartoum North 27,702
Total number 273,711
(Source: Adapted from Murillo et al. 2008)
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Figure 8: Floods –Khartoum North Figure 9: Environmental risk - Hai Tadamon

(Source: Sudan floods.org) (Source: Google Earth)
• Incorporation of villages
Provision of urban services to villages, such as electricity, water and transportation led to growing land
speculation which enticed the residents of these villages to sell their agricultural land, divided into small
parts of 1/8 or 1/4 acres, for housing, and quickly became hotbeds for urban expansion. This phenomenon
prevails in all villages in the three cities, Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North, in an iterative process
starting from the closest villages to the cities, then the furthest. The number of families who were
incorporated in the re-planning of the villages reached 160,903 (Murillo et al. 2008).
Table 5: Total Numbers of Families Incorporated

Area location No. of families incorporated
Jabal Awlya Locality 37,515
South Green Belt 21,233
North of Khartoum North 25,633
Eastern Nile Locality 33,590
North of Omdurman 10,962
Omdurman Locality 21,970
Total 160,903
(Source: Murillo et al. 2008)
• Investment & land exchange

The Comprehensive National Strategy 1992-2002 adopted the land as a source of national income. Since the
mid-1990s until now, all vacant spaces within urban consolidated areas were sold at auctions, by land
exchange, or through the offices of investment. These sites included, for instance, Hai Alnuzha, Algiraf West,
Elmogahdeen, and Gaza, in Khartoum; Alhatana, Alrawda, and Albustan, in Omdurman; and Kafouri, Al-geraf
East, and Alhalfaia, in Khartoum North. Sales also included some public facilities and open spaces inside the
neighbourhoods in the three cities, in addition to the Nile coasts that were sites for entertainment like the
animal zoo (Figures 10 and 11). The argument for these practices is to provide funding for infrastructure
projects, but the other side hides a bias towards the rich. It is a process of privatization of land which was the
property of the state, thus depriving the poor, who are the majority, from the right to their city, and
segregating them from these sites.
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Figure 10: The Corinthia Hotel Khartoum Figure 11 New Private luxury houses
Location of the Animal Zoo (Source: Alrakoba net).
• Popular housing
Popular housing was started after independence in the form of small experimental projects in the three
cities. The idea was to build a cluster of houses that consists of one bedroom, a kitchen, a toilet, and a fence,
in addition to provision of the infrastructure and social services. In the mid-1990s, the number of houses was
increased to reach a few thousand. By 2002, the Housing fund had been established. The fund built 11,952
popular housing units at an average rate of 2,390 units per year (Murillo et al. 2008), most of these in
locations vulnerable to floods, like Alwadi Alakhdar, Althworat, and Alamal (Figures 12 and 13). The Housing
Fund failed to provide innovative solutions to the problems of housing in Khartoum, and made matters
worse by continuing discrimination by constructing villas and apartments for the rich within the urban area,
and popular housing for the poor in inaccessible areas and areas under environmental threat.
Figure 12 Journalists location Figure 13: Journalists neighbourhood
EVALUATION
It has been clear that spatial injustice which has been recognized in Khartoum city is a product of the
policies adopted at the national and local levels for a long time, but exacerbated in the last three decades.
Diagnosis of the current situation in metropolitan Khartoum found the following:
Site and Service housing policy failed to solve the housing problems, and turned out to be a distraction to
people from claiming their rights to adequate housing, especially when the basic services are not available.
• The sale of vacant land and old evacuated government facilities in the city center to affluent and
influential pro-regime buyers deprives the vast majority of their right to such sites, deepening the
gap between rich and poor.
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• The urban poor in central areas have been pushed outwards, away from the center to the
peripheries, according to market mechanism, making it difficult to live everyday life and increasing
their vulnerability. This also furthers the spatial discrimination between the poor and rich.
• The land suitable for development is exhausted due to these policies, and new extensions have
been planned in the floodplains especially in Khartoum North and Omdurman, as was clearly
evident in the fall of 2013.
Despite the scarcity of land suitable for development, pro-regime governmental bodies, corrupt and
inexperienced, failed to provide new insights and alternatives to the pattern of production of space, and
reduce spatial injustice.
PROPOSAL: HOW CAN URBAN SPACES REPRODUCE FAIR CONDITIONS
The expected benefits of this proposal are: to encourage higher density in order to reduce sprawling,
without affecting the acquired rights of residents; to improve housing conditions; to promote the integrated
provision of environmental infrastructure: water, sanitation, drainage and solid-waste management; to
enhance the system of transport by providing opportunities to restructure some areas to address
problematic traffic congestion. In short, this is proposed as a step in the right direction toward a sustainable,
compact, and highly effective city.
The concept (puzzle solving)

The concept is like solving a puzzle. It is a process of repositioning or replacement of the parts in order to
reach the right shape. And the basic requirement is the existence of vacant space from which to start. The
city will be divided into spatial sectors starting from the center and moving outwards. The sector will be
divided into smaller segments to identify fixed segments; those segments are ‘need to be renewed’, and
‘free’ or ‘semi-free’ segments. The vacant spaces, or free segment, will be designed and constructed to
accommodate the occupants of the residences that need to be renewed, and when that segment become
free, it will be reconstructed to accommodate another one. At the end of the process, there will be a larger
free space than before, of which advantage can be taken in the process of renewing the next sector. By
repeating this process, it will be possible to achieve sustainable urban reform through a smooth and fair
process.
How to start application

To test the idea, the sector south of the railway station in Khartoum city has been selected as a case study,
see Figures 14 and Table 6. The main points that emerged after the analysis and evaluation of the current
situation in this sector can be summarized:
• Although the site as a whole is an attractive site because it is in close proximity to the city center,
and well-connected with all parts of the city, the small size of the plot in the upgraded 3rd class areas
makes it undesirable in the market (Figure 15). Therefore the possibility of automatic building
renewal in the area is very low because the residents are poor, and what usually happens is that
they sell their houses and move outwards.
• New planned areas (investment & services) constitute more than 22%, which has been planned and
sold to the affluent as single houses. If these locations were allocated to housing projects, that
could have accommodated thousands of low-income households.
• Brown fields which include the horse racecourse, tannery, and other old government buildings
constituted 6%. The study suggests allocating a part of these sites-- specifically government houses
north of the horse racecourse-- to start multi-storey popular housing projects, to serve as starting
point for the process of renovating the slums in central Khartoum without depriving the residents
of their right to live the same location.
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Table 6: The existing situation in Central Khartoum South railway station.
Ownership Area of the plot Building sanitation

material system
1st &2nd class lease hold 400- 1200 concrete Sewerage
Long term network
3rd class lease hold 300 - 400 Brick/Concrete P. Sewerage
short term
Upgraded 4th to renewed short term 200 or less Mud/ Brick Pit latrine
3rd class
Upgraded villages Free hold varies Brick & mud P. Sewerage
(Source: Ministry of physical planning and public utilities - site observation)
Figure 14: Land uses classification in study area

(Source: Ministry of physical planning and public utilities).
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Figure 15: Land Prices Map- Khartoum 2008

(Source: Murillo et al. 2008).
Acceptability and feasibility

The study conducted a survey in Alhilla Algadida, to confirm the site observation, to evaluate housing
adequacy as defined by UN-HABITAT, and to check the acceptability and feasibility of the proposal. Alhilla
Algadida was a fourth-class residential area that has been upgraded to third-class, located within 3 Km from
Khartoum’s Central Business District, with an area of 130 hectares. The number of houses is 2180 (Figures 16
and 17).
The study conducted a questionnaire of 50 families, randomly selected. The questions included aspects
related to housing adequacy and the future of the area. The existing situation according to the results of the
questionnaire were as follows:
• Security of tenure: the maximum duration ended, and has been renewed until 2027 but 60%
did not renew because of the high renewal fees.
• Physical safety and durability: the prevailing buildings material in the area is Jaloose (mud).
And most of the buildings are simple houses.
• Sanitation system: there is no sewerage network, and the solutions are varied, and each of
which has its negative effects on the environment..
• Sufficient living space: although the plot size is mostly less than 200 m2, 60% of the plots are
inhabited by more than one family, predominantly inheritors or extended families, and about
10% rent (Figures 18 and 19).
• Accessibility: the site is well connected to different part of the city. 80% of the residents use
public transport to go to work. There are adequate public facilities in the area but there is a
noticeable lack of public spaces and parks.
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Figure 16: Alhilla Algadida-Location Figure 17: Alhilla Algadida-Land use

(Source: Google Earth) (Source: Ministry of physical planning and
public utilities)
Figure 18: Sample for house plan Figure 19: No. of households
• Acceptability
To know to what extent the residents accept the proposal, the key question in the questionnaire is: Do you
agree to live in an apartment? The result is 65% agree and 35% disagree (Figure 20). Those who disagree
prefer sleeping in the inner courtyard (hosh), and some of them fear power outages. Those agreeing prefer
the same site or at least one of parallel specifications. This result indicates that big changes are taking place
in behavior and attitudes relating to concepts of house and residency. What confirms this is that the
demand for apartments has increased significantly in recent years, according to Akkor Real Estate Office in
Omdurman Abu Sied, who stressed that the supply of apartments is not enough, and that there is growing
demand, especially from employed women, small families or new couples.
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Figure 20: Acceptability of living in apartment/ Alhilla Algadida
• Feasibility
The proposal confirms the right of the residents to reside in the same location with the same neighbours,
while improving the quality of housing, and improving the overall environment by changing the sewage
system, and restoring the balance of land use and increase green areas and children's playgrounds.
Economically it is feasible, because the area is very attractive for investment due to it is location in the city
center, and the intensification process will provide a number of residential units more than three times the
existing, even if rebuilt in a mid-rise, not exceeding 4 floors (Table 7 and Figures 21, 22, 23, 24).
Table 7: Comparison of the numbers of housing unit before and after intensification
Existing Proposed
No. of houses 54 176
Net density 34 house /hector. 110 flat / hector.
Green area 0 2355m2
No. of Surface Parking 0 52
Area of living Built area 75m2 Area of flats 120-150-180m2
Figure 21: Existing housing cluster Figure 22: Proposed housing complex
• Reassurance and motivation

To guarantee that the residents not to be negatively affected in the construction period and to motivate
them to accept the intensification process, a residential complex should be built at an adjacent site for the
first group. This becomes possible if there are free spaces owned by the state within the urban area, like the
old governmental houses north of the Race Course.
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Figure 23 Alhilla Algadida existing houses Figure24:Proposed housing complex
CONCLUSION
The study revealed that the spatial injustice, as a result of the policies adopted at the national territory level,
is the strongest reason behind the exodus of the population in the country. Therefore, the tremendous
growth of the population of metropolitan Khartoum is one of the consequences of spatial injustice at the
national level. Also the study clarified that the planning policies adopted in metropolitan territory level led
to sprawl and exacerbated spatial injustice.
To address this dilemma, firstly: the deception practiced on the poor and low-income people should be
stopped; namely, depriving them of their right to adequate housing versus an empty plot in uninhabitable
areas. Secondly; the sale of vacant land and the old government facilities that have been evacuated in the
center of Khartoum, should be stopped for more flexibility during the process of urban renewal, so as not to
lose the opportunities to redevelop in a sustainable and equitable manner. Thirdly, several scientific studies
should be conducted to provide a multi-disciplinary practical solution and equitable and sustainable
interventions to reform the whole city in order to address spatial injustice. Fourthly, the government should
draft the necessary legislation to overcome obstacles.
To encourage debate and spark interest in spatial justice and sustainability issues, the study presented a
proposal aimed at providing practical solutions to avoid uneven development patterns, and to reproduce or
reconfigure the existing spatial pattern to be fairer.
233
REFERENCES
Assal, M., 2008. ‘Urbanization and the Future of Sudan’,

http://blogs.ssrc.org/sudan/2008/01/29/urbanization-and-the-future
DS4Si, Praxis Project (n.d.). Spatial justice: A frame for reclaiming our rights to be, thrive, express, and connect,
Design Studio for Social Intervention,
http://ds4si.org/storage/SpatialJustice_ds4si.pdf
Eltayeb, GE., 2003. Understanding slums: Case studies for the global report on human settlements,
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/pdfs/khartoum.pdf
Jenks, M & Burgess, R., 2004. Compact cities:!Sustainable urban!forms for developing!countries, Taylor & Francis
e-Library.
Lefebvre, H., 1991. The production of space, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
MEFIT, 2009, Khartoum Structure Plan 2008-2033, Khartoum State, Ministry of Planning and Physical
Development.
Murillo, F, Osman S, Eltahir, H, Osman, KH & Mustafa, A., 2008. ‘Diagnosis studies on urban sector’, Khartoum
State, UN-HABITAT with the MPPPU.
Sara, P et al., 2011. City limits: urbanisation and vulnerability in Sudan,
http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/6520.pdf
Soja, EW., 2009. The city and spatial justice, http://www.jssj.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/JSSJ1-1en4.pdf
Soja, EW., 2010. Seeking spatial justice (globalization and community), Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Suliman, M., 1999. Ecology, politics and violent conflict, Zed Books, London.
UN-HABITAT, 2009. The right to adequate housing, Fact Sheet No. 21/Rev.1,
ww.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FS21_rev_1_Housing_en.pdf
UN-HABITAT, 2008. The state of the African cities report, UN-HABITAT,
http://www.zaragoza.es/contenidos/medioambiente/onu/535-eng-ed2008.pdf
Williams, K., 2007. Can urban intensification contribute to sustainable cities? An international perspective,
http://www.urbanicity.org/ 2007
234
A PLACE UNDER THE SUN FOR EVERYONE: BASIS FOR PLANNING THROUGH THE ANALYSIS OF
FORMAL AND NON-FORMAL SPACE PRACTICES IN THE HOUSING AREA COSMO CITY
Marlene Wagner, buildCollective NPO for Architecture and Development, Austria,

mwagner@buildcollective.net
Abstract
In consequence of its political past, South Africa has a strong socio-cultural practice of heteronymous and self –
determined exclusion through behaviour settings and scripts, which, as of Martina Löw, inhibit the interaction
with other milieus (Löw 2006).
Integrative urban design and adequate architecture are therefore primarily a question of perception and shared
experience, which can further develop a common vocabulary.
With a systematic knowledge on gender-, culture- and class- specific institutionalized spaces and their constituted
form, strategies for a built environment of collectively created fields within the plural spheres, can be created
(Tessin 2004).
In the study, we learn to read spatial configurations and the behavioural patterns assigned to them in an
unfamiliar cultural context and milieu. The generated typologies and patterns serve as a basis of communication
and design for development in low-income areas of South Africa.
The showcase-housing project and field of research, Cosmo City, is aimed at satisfying the constitutional right to
adequate housing for all South Africans and simultaneously addressing the integration and interaction between
different income classes. The satellite-town offers remarkable potential – on the one hand to observe and
document top down planned strategies of the South African human settlements program. On the other hand, to
analyse the unplanned or rather non-formal spatial bottom up processes of its inhabitants.
The documentation of general development in the settlement, its layers, dynamics and potentials through a visual
nature of presentation serve as a tool for different stakeholders and the general understanding of human
settlements. The visual shared language enables the creation of semi-formal regulations and zoning plans as a
responsive strategy of design and planning for these self-made, continuously modifying systems.
Keywords: human settlements, mapping, space practices, visual research, semi-formal regulations.
INTRODUCTION
Definitions of global and local discourse on so called informal and formal housing conditions, income
strategies and service provision, form basic knowledge and entry-point.
The geographic core area Johannesburg references broader spatial configuration and behaviour patterns
through analysis of the urban built environment. Residential areas, places of work and recreation, as well as
transport between these sites, serve parallel different homogenized space and target groups.
The coexistence of the fragmented livelihoods never had a chance to be perceived as one and therefore do
not provide any synchronized space.
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Figure 1: Spatial configurations per income-class in Johannesburg.
The higher the income the less public life, space and use but a transit area, a non-place between points of
scripted theme parks of consumerism. These public spaces are left for ‘the others’ that have no other means
but to actively constitute it into their place.
Public spaces, as places for interaction, shared experiences and negotiation between different inhabitants,
can therefore hardly serve its potential as a social sphere.
The main challenge seems to be the general approach to and perception of the non-formal, low income, the
poor - its image and wish for eradication.
In reference of academics, experts and diverse organizations, the general understanding of the informal
(habitat, economy) must be shifted for what it is – just not formally recognized.
Non-formal is normal – or as of Cities Alliance, a “natural phenomena and functional necessity of rapid
urbanization process” (Cities Alliance 2003).
Non-formal is universal – never independent but in relations to other and formal systems, “reaching into the
most formal areas of industrialized countries” (Seabrook 2007).
Non-formal is here to stay – the “perpetual challenge” as Marie Huchzermeyer describes the relation of
demand and supply.
Non-formal is potential – it acts as service provision that cannot be fulfilled through existing administrative
capacities (Misselhorn 2008).
COSMO CITY – AN INTEGRATIVE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
The actual field of research is approached with an examination of process and implementation from the
initiating court order in 1995. The City of Johannesburg needed to provide housing for the residents of the
informal settlements of Zevenfontein and Riverbend.
236
Land acquisition, players, layout and design, sustainable strategies and challenges could be extracted from
interviews with and media from city officials, developers, planners, contractors and inhabitants.
The 12 300 ha sized housing development with estimated costs of 3.9 billion Rand (Cowden 2009) includes
12 300 housing units for approx. 70 000 inhabitants. 6 000 households thereof are direct beneficiaries from
the resettlement process.
Figure 2: Players and set up of the Cosmo City Development.
The public-private partnership aims to be a “mixed use, fully integrated sustainable housing development”
as stated on the Basil Read website. This should be achieved through mixed income groups, the provision of
equal social infrastructure and service, density, process design and quality top structures.
5000 RDP/give away units (fully subsidised) Ext. 2, 4, 6,

3000 credit linked units (partially subsidised) Ext. 0, 8, 10
1000 social/institutional housing units (partially subsidised) Ext. 0, 2, 4, 6, 8
3300 bonded/free market units Ext. 3, 5, 7, 9
250 ha conservation area
43 parks
32 business stands including 3 garages
18 industrial stands (40ha)
40 institutional stands
12 educational stands
Figure 3: Numbers of planned housing units and social infrastructure.
Figure 4: Top-structure per income class, the RDP house, the subsidised house and the free market house.
In 1999, a formerly private farmland (owned by nationalist Robert van Tonder) could be allocated for 24
Million Rand. Through a competition by the City of Johannesburg 13%, the general developer with Codevco
66% (Basil Read and Kopano/Cosatu) was identified.
237
In 2001 the agreement between City and the Province Gauteng 21%, for the subsidy of the Reconstruction
and Development Program (RDP) structures and to execute the Breaking New Ground (BNG) housing
program, was found.
The actual ground breaking got delayed until 2004 through a long-lasting Environmental Impact
Assessment and appeals of a neighbouring community association. Besides the timely setback caused by
the NIMBY (Not in my backyard) syndrome and a certain kind of frog, the first residents and beneficiaries
were moved to their new home end of 2005.
1995 Courtorder to provide affordable Housing

1997 Plans for a R 1,5 Billion Housingprojekt
1999 Land identification
2000 Assignment Codevco
2001 Land and Subsidy Agreement
2001 Appeal JCCAF NIMBY
2003 Enviromental Impact Agreement
2004 Dismissed Appeal JCCAF
2004 December Construction starts
2005 November first Beneficiaries move in
2006 December 1504 Houses and 3 Schools
2008 6500 Houses out of 12 500 (planned 9300) and 5 Schools, 1 temporary informal Market, 1 private
Clinic
2009 March ca. 8000 Houses, 8 Churches, 7 Parks, 2 Garage sites sold,
2 Business sites sold,
2014 high density plots still available
Figure 5: Development timeline of Cosmo City.
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Figure 6: Layout and zoning plans of Cosmo City.
COSMO CITY – A CASE STUDY
Process for an integrative development

The design and implementation process was guided through a Steering Committee made up by
representatives of the City of Johannesburg and the General Developer Codevco. An Interdepartmental
Coordination Committee should further support the collaboration with 5 Subcommittees (Urban
Management, Housing, Technical, Environment and Economic) of government officials, planner and
implementer.
The participation of the community in the design and resettlement were described in very differing
perspectives.
General Manager Brian Mulheron (Basil Read) outlined the Community and Environment Liaison Officers,
implemented in Zevenfontein by Codevco to organise community meetings, trainings and serve as
spokesperson for the resettlement process.
The NGO planact, working and supporting the residents of Zevenfontein for several years, was excluded
from the proceedings but a security company (Jambo) was commissioned to supervise the informal
settlement during its relocation process (Busang 2004).
Existing community organisations and representatives further only had access to the actual development
committee through the local ward counsellor, which did not represent their interests (Interview residents).
239
In 2009, 12 years after the promise of relocation and 4 years after the first beneficiaries were moved to
Cosmo City, approx. about 5000 people still resided in Zevenfotein. The uncertainty and lack of information
created tensions and conflicts between residents and with the security company.
Planners, government and developer described the general process structure as very time costly and
extensive. Codevco gave positive feedback for the public-private-partnership in concern of the EIA and court
cases with the objecting community organisation JCCAF.
Layout and zoning for an integrative development

The layout, for the well located, classified land, is based on flood line and ridge and supposed to provide
rather a link to the surrounding farmland and suburbs than an urban environment (Groenewald 2009).
Scaled for pedestrians and public taxi transport into areas of small neighbourhoods with varying building
line to avoid monotony, should give the settlement a village like character (Groenewald 2009).
The spinal road – South African Drive, serves as main internal access road with nodes of infrastructure, which
aim to collect and distribute movements in the satellite town. These nodes should facilitate the proposed
exchange through sharing of resources and service between income classes.
The urban planner Lynette Groenewald (Urban Dynamics) reported that initial plans anticipated more
density in the RDP sector, an urban centre and diverse tenure options. The Department of Development and
Planning as well as the project manager of the City of Johannesburg, Davina Piek, criticised the missing
mixed use in the zoning plan.
No activities of business or trade are allowed in the residential zoned areas and any temporary structure like
containers, shelters or ‘Wendy houses’ for economic use or housing is considered illegal. On the contrary, the
Department of Development and Planning counted 700 non-formal businesses throughout the settlement.
At the time of my research, being 5 years since the ground breaking, the only infrastructure implemented
were 5 schools, 7 parks, 8 churches, a private clinic and a temporary informal market serving as the only local
supply for about 8000 households.
The distributed nodes along South Africa Drive with stands entitled for business use are too small for
commercial supermarket chains and possible rental or lease agreements were put in place too late (DACEL -
Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land n.d.)
The remote location of the taxi-rank as main transport hub is criticised by involved planner, project
manager, residents and the taxi industry and until now (2014) not in appropriate use.
The integrative qualities of placed nodes could not be analysed in 2009 and the only implementation for the
proposed mixing of income classes through educational facilities can be seen as failed. Children of the
interviewed residents from the free market or subsidised areas attend schools outside of Cosmo City.
Only few described relations to a different income zone – to have a drink at the tavern or other service
because it is always open. The RDP sections seem to have a broader network in between but with the
income raises the isolation (Interview residents).
Strategies and challenges for an integrative development

Besides the general process design, a number of programs to foster sustainable development were
proposed in Codevco´s competition entry or were obliged by the Department of Agriculture, Conservation
and Land Affairs and the Human Settlements program.
The implementation of equal social infrastructure and service, as of agreement a responsibility of the City of
Johannesburg and the Province Gauteng, was not fulfilled through to lack of pooled financing even 5 years
after the ground breaking (Piek 2009).
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In 2009 the cost increase for the satellite town was estimated with 80 % caused by the delay through EIA,
resisting neighbours and general power cuts. Further contractors cancelled agreements while prices for the
free market area were rising (Mulheron 2009).
Project manager Davina Piek further mentioned the risk of private companies and organisations taking over
the implementation of social infrastructures and service and therefore unclear accessibility and maintenance
(private clinic, community centre).
The interviewed residents were mainly mentioning the lack of a shopping mall, a police station and a clinic.
The youth further complained about missing meeting points as the parks are for small kids. Community
spokesperson also demanded an own ward and councillor for the new settlement to ensure representation.
During my research in 2009, I experienced a number of demonstrations demanding jobs and houses for
those still left behind.
Ecological strategies as demanded by the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Land Affairs led to
the complete fencing off of the conservation area and costs of about 12 million Rand, half of the actual land
investment. In contradiction of the prohibited use of the green puffer zones, residents cut holes and
continued utilising existing pathways, praying spots and dumping sites.
According to the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment), all subsidised houses needed to feature insulation
if not orientated direction north and the installation of solar heaters through external funding. An
environmental control officer was provided and workshops and training on the topic of ecological building
were offered to contractors and sub-contractors (Mahlalela 2009). Through external financing, the solar
heaters were only slowly distributed and I never saw insulation.
The construction process was supposed to provide 8 500 residents of Cosmo City with Jobs, supervised by
the Community and Environment Liaison Officer.
Contractors blamed missing funds and skills to commit to the regulation and partly ignored it. The
appointment of non Cosmo Citizens and missing payments for the local workforce led again to distrust and
uprising. Further bad quality of top structures and technical infrastructure is attributed to the involvement of
unskilled residents and led as well to conflict.
Available trainings and workshops for residents mainly focused on environmental affairs like the use of
energy, waste and water, the trespassing of the conservation area in a small user guide to formal living. The
booklet includes the ban of non-formal business or illegal alterations and the advice of denunciation of
neighbours breaking any of these rules.
The security company ADT is monitoring Cosmo City area during the implementation process, mainly
around social facilities like schools. This is very much appreciated by residents but will in future not be
affordable to the low-income area.
The Community and Environment Liaison Officer Mohlathe pointed out a number of programs like
agriculture projects, tree planting or competitions on the most beautiful gardens partly funded through
external collaboration partners. Other initiatives like the Cosmo City Chronicle, a community newspaper in
place in 2009 had its HP last update in August 2012.
Most residents and formal or non-formal representatives describe the regular community meetings as
important but did not feel that they had any actual say.
Topics like missing infrastructure are repeatedly discussed but do not reach people in charge. The non-
formal businesses are controversial but at the end form a necessary infrastructure. Among non-formal
service providers, a certain confusion and fear about their income strategy became noticeable.
The general feedback from several departments of the City of Johannesburg, academics and partly the
planners Urban Dynamics, is the missed chance of a new, real showcase project as human settlements.
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Project manager Piek points out the unfortunate state of having a lot of regulations and prohibition of non-
formal business and alteration but no financial means to provide formal service or execute laws. The
unmanaged affair creates problematic neighbouring situations like a shebeen next to a crèche or oversupply
in certain clusters.
COSMO CITY – A SPATIAL RESEARCH
Initial questions were the implementation and performance of the proposed integration as well as the
occupation strategies of the development’s beneficiaries.
Considering the non-formal as normal, universal, here to stay and of potential, the study analyses the
residents forming their environment and compensating for missing formal structures.
Focus of the visual research as to the built environment and occupation strategies, was put on the RDP-
sector of the satellite-town and its shared public spaces through walks with inhabitants, derivé, taxi-rides,
interviews, mapping, photography and other tools.
To compare, define features and relevance, the credit-linked and free-market sectors were included in the
study. All in all, 5174 residential and 78 plots for service or social infrastructure could be recorded.
Figure 7: Overview of the spatial research.
References and principals

Significant reference for my field-study derives from sociology of space (Raumsoziologie) and social space
analysis or empirical city observations like the Burano method for quality of life assessment.
The interpretation of analysed space is based on Alexander´s pattern language and with the translation
between different cultures and milieus in Cross-cultural translation studies. “….every society which is alive
and whole, will have its own unique and distinct pattern language; and further that every individual in such
a society will have a unique language, shared in part, but which as a total is unique to the mind of the person
who has it” (Alexander 1977).
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Spatial patterns, as recurring spatial practice are understood as language. The translation of those is based
on my own cultural context and my own spatial and utilisation criteria. The reading, interpretation and
reproduction of these spatial patterns is therefore a translation.
“...we can only, pragmatically, try out certain instruments and see what they allow us to see and to what
extent they remain open to critical self-examination” (Hermans 2003).
The practice of arranging, feeling and acting in space are lived class, culture and gender specific (Löw 2006).
Therefore my perception and interpretation will never be accurately though Hermans suggests “We need to
translate in order to study translation”. Consequently I choose categories and form of presentation in the
field of my profession – the built environment and participation in it.
Christopher Alexander further underlines the active approach: “...people will gradually become conscious of
their own pattern languages and work to improve them”.
The use of satellite pictures or rather the placing and examination on a large scale is based on common slum
research and city morphology. Further sources are based on a trans-disciplinary approach – understanding
all my interview-partners as experts of their environment. The examination of everyday life finds inspiration
in the work of Denise Scott-Brown.
RESEARCH CATEGORIES
The acquisition of a basic vocabulary of the built environment as Levels of Alteration, Separation, Security
and Service in private and public space – enables the definition of recurring patterns.
Those can be categorized by correlating interpretations of size, form and function. The Typologies allow the
reading and interpretation of the human settlement. It can serve discussions and exchange to develop a
common language.
The following categories were established to analyse bottom-up and top-down interventions on the micro
level of one house/one plot and its surrounding public space. Considering the zoning regulations, some
Levels of Alteration as actual construction and all Levels of Service, situated in the residential area and public
space have to be understood as (illegal) non-formal.
LOA Level of alteration

The category measures process of occupancy as an intervention from bottom up on the private structure or
plot. The levels reach from first markings of facade or windows contributing a sense of identity up to built
structures bigger than the original RDP-house.
Being attached or detached to the existing building positioning and orientation on the plot, area of income,
as well as functions and material used, are taken into consideration.
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Figure 8: Level of alteration, example.
Figure 9: Level of alteration, city patterns.
LOSEP - Level of separation

The category measures separation or interaction between private and public space from small interventions
and decoration, the capture of boundaries to complete shutdown.
LOSEC - Level of security

In addition measures physical interventions like barb-wire or security cameras as well as contracts with a
security company.
244
Figure 10: Level of separation and security, example.
Figure 11: Level of separation and security, city patterns.
LOS - Level of service

LOS identifies typologies of social infrastructure and non-formal service as places of attraction. Most
recurring activities are categorised as communication, spaza shops, hairsalons, carwash, churches, taverns or
shebeens and other services (often spaces for repair or car mechanics).
245
Figure 12: Level of service, example.
Figure 13: Level of service, private and public city patterns.
Level of Service -public

Measures occupancy of public space through mobile services called Invading Attractors, like the Taxi
Industry or street trade.
Level of Separation and Security - public

To measure formal safety interventions and barriers in the shared space like the fenced conservation areas.
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Figure 14: Level of service, separation and security in public space, example LOS - public
Placing of categories
The translation of the spatial analysis into a graphical description and the placing of these filtered categories
of spatial intervention and generated typologies of attractors in Google Earth enables the analysis in
different scale and time duration.
The medium generates the layers of data into visible three-dimensional information on morphology,
relations and array of interventions – formal and non-formal. Furthermore, it serves the identification of
potential spaces of development, interaction, challenges and other spatial trends in the settlement.
Figure 15: Layers of lteration, service, eparation and security in Google Earth.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
The key-findings describe the potential and correlation of different non-formal service, its potential of self-
driven development and affects on the built-environment.
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The recombination of patterns and typologies generate a tool and language on potential and challenging
arrangements for future resettlement-process and housing developments. The findings are further not
absolute or final information but rather a tool of knowledge transfer as new insights are developed through
every interpreter.
Figure 16: Extracted spaces of development - busy corners.
Level of alteration
General experiences and examination shows that alterations for private use are more likely to be situated
inwards, facing the neighbourhood. Rental units are mainly situated on the edge of the plot to create
distance and buffer space. Space for business or service is consequently arranged to the more frequented
areas and main roads.
LOA 1 interventions fostering identity are placed easily viewable mainly around the front and entrance of
the structure. Noticeable is the use of ready-made structures and recurring basic materials like the carport
net or shipping container, which reflects resources available.
LOA 4 and 5, as actual built space starts with filling edges and corners of the original structure to expand the
own living space or an additional toilet to be used from outside.
LOA 5 – with the alteration bigger then the actual house is nearly exclusively found in the low-income areas.
LOA is clearly influenced by LOS and affects LOSEP of a whole area in clusters or alongside a street and
creates small centres, points of interest and density.
Level of separation and security

The level of separation focuses on the relation between private and public. A higher level is reached towards
busy main roads or certain level of service. Noticeable is that the separation starts on each site to the direct
neighbours. The front, facing the street is rather used for decoration and representation and is often the last
completing piece of wall or fence.
LOSEP as well as level of security, LOSEC clearly rise with income group, towards main circulation roads as
well as neighbouring some non-formal service (Tavern). No unit with LOSEC Level 2 – additional security
measurements through contracts with private security companies can be found in the low income RDP
section.
Level of service
Most common and extracted levels of service are food, tavern, church, crèche, carwash, hairsalon, tuckshop,
communication and other services like repair.
They appear in all income classes but differ in kind, visibility and space used.
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The shebeen or crèche are more inwards positioned while communication, spaza, food and (male) hairsalons
orientate to the road and reach only small LOA. Shebeens and spazashop show the highest LOA while
spazashops also offer the widest range of typologies. Taverns and crèche have the highest LOSEP.
LOS also appears in combination and has a strong influence on the built environment and public space of
the Cosmo City development. Remarking is the forming of clusters, busy corners and the mutual influence
on the neighbourhood for all levels.
Figure 17: Extracted spaces of development - busy corners future scenario.
These clusters and busy corners are additionally fed from LOS public like the taxi, mobile food stalls or small
street trade. Level of service is also found on empty unused plots as carwash or hairsalon, but not existing in
the subsidised and free market area. This enables the identification of developing areas as well as creates
lively well-used public space and exchange. The lack of LOS and LOA clusters in the higher income areas is
therefore affecting the social sphere.
The gathered information should enable a polylog and integration of non-formal infrastructure, income
strategies and spatial needs, as well as requirements from government, developers, NGOs and contractors,
on urban as well as architectonical layers.
Through the simulation of growth on extracted places of development in the settlement a possible future
scenario can be tested. By inserting the research findings of spatial patterns and typologies, alternative
zoning and building plans can be developed. The visual shared language enables the creation of semi-
formal regulations as a responsive strategy of design and planning for these self-made, continuously
modifying systems.
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Figure 18: Alternative zoning and building plans for semi-formal regulations.
REFERENCES
Alexander, C., 1977. A pattern language: towns, buildings, construction, Oxford University Press, p. 16, 32, UK
Basil Read, 2007. Development Information Paper, South Africa.

Burano Gruppe, 1972. ‘Burano Eine Stadtbeobachhtungsmethode zur Beurteilung der Lebensqualität’, in S
Riege, (ed.), Sozialraumanalyse: Grundlagen, Methoden, Praxis. Lehrbuch,Vs Verlag, Germany.
Busang, 2004. ‘Sustainable development and basic services – a practical experience of some informal
settlements in SA’, Planact, viewed May 2010, http://web.wits.ac.za/NR/rdonlyres/F64DF91E-5DF2-4EE8-
8809 60FDD3C21F9F/0/BackgroundReport6specialistpprs280804.pdf.
Cities Alliance, 2003. People and places: An overview of urban renewal, SA Cities Network, South Africa.
Cowden, 2009. Cosmo City Review, SHIFT, http://shift.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/cosmo-city-
review-006.pdf;052010
DACEL, n.d. ‘EIA for Cosmo City Township, Region C Institutional Report’, Department of Agriculture,
Conservation and Land Affairs, South Africa.
Groenewald, n.d. Cosmo City Project and Development Report, Urban Dynamics, South Arfica.
Hermans, T., 2003. ‘Cross-cultural translation studies as thick translation’, School of Oriental and African
Studies, viewed May 2010, http://www.soas.ac.uk/literatures/satranslations/Hermans.pdf.
Huchzermeyer, M., 2006. ‘The new instrument for upgrading informal settlement in South Africa:
Contributions ans constraints’, in Huchzermeyer & Karam, Informal Settlements – a perpetual Challenge?,
UCTpress, South Africa.
Löw, 2006. Städtische Räume, Raumsozilogie, Surhkamp, Germany.
Misselhorn, 2008. ‘Position paper on informal settlement upgrade, Part of a strategy for the 2nd economy’,
Urban LandMark, viewed April 2010, http://www.urbanlandmark.org/research/overview.php
Scott-Brown, D., 1970. Learning from Levittown, studio, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, US
Seabrook, J., 2007. Cities, Oxfam, UK.
Tessin, 2004. ‘Freiraum und Verhalten, Soziologische Aspekte der Nutzung und Planung St.dtischer Freir.ume’,
Vsverlag, Germany.
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PART 2 : ECOLOGY
ECOlOGy encompasses a number of focus areas, which include: TiME, EVOluTiOn, SySTEMS,
PrOCESSES and EnVirOnMEnTAl COnCErnS. This sub-theme acknowledges the role of the architect
in a bigger, interlinked, and systemic network – thus encouraging a long-term design perspective. The
consideration of the 4th – temporal – dimension of TiME as part and parcel of the design and decision-
making process is crucial to the future practice of architecture. Evolution is intrinsically linked to the
concept of time as it considers processes of architectural production which acknowledge people and
place – and aims to intervene in the built environment by understanding the built environment as
an ecosystem requiring sensitivity to help maintain existing systems in relative states of balance.
This sub-theme will allow for a focus on SuSTAinABiliTy, EnErGy-EFFiCiEnT DESiGn and GrEEn
BuilDinG. it also allows for a focus area on sustainable architecture under conditions of change and
concepts of Open Building.
GO TO CONTENTS PAGE
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE ECOLOGY
!
A POLITICAL ECOLOGY ANALYSIS OF RESILIENT URBAN SYSTEMS: THE CASE STUDY OF DONDO,
MOZAMBIQUE
Céline Veríssimo, Centre for African Studies, University of Porto, Portugal, celineverissimo@yahoo.com
Abstract
In the neighbourhoods of Dondo, Mozambique, the urban environment materialises by means of social spatial
production, i.e., the appropriation of the pre-existing natural environment by society in order to construct its
habitat and fulfill its needs in a lasting, balanced manner. This is so precisely because ‘human participation in
nature’s processes is the natural condition of human existence’ (Schmidt 1971, p. 79). Facing the effects of
marginalisation in the dualistic city, the external space that surrounds the house – the ‘Outdoor Domestic Space’ –
is strategically adapted to integrate both farming and businesses, shaping a green and ruralised pattern of
urbanisation. Nevertheless, its current development is constrained by poverty and social spatial segregation.
Assuming that there is an innate relationship between humanity in nature in the sense that its balance is a
precondition for survival, where communities decide their production of space, industrialisation marks the
beginning of a strong rupture with the traditions of both ‘democracy’ and ‘ecology’. Research findings suggest
that it is possible for societies to reassert collaborative practices and self-organisation by relearning from scratch
and merging it with modernized knowledge.
This paper examines the background underpinning the dialectical relationship between the human habitat and
nature, based on real practices from the case study. The historical analysis of Mozambique, extending from the
pre-colonial times to today’s post-colonial city, provides knowledge for understanding the way self-organisation
of space materialises the ecodevelopment paradigm at the margins of the dualistic city. Local notions of ‘house’,
‘urban’ and ‘rural’ and their adaptation over time under continued oppression is analysed under a political
ecology perspective. This is fundamental in determining how, faced with disruptive factors such as foreign
oppression, land alienation and spatial segregation, the spatial resilience and self-reliance of the Mozambican
population generated today’s decentralised pattern of space use, giving rise to a green form of urbanisation.
Keywords: political ecology, spontaneous urban systems, dualistic city, urban resilience, Mozambique
INTRODUCTION
In pre-colonial Mozambique, there were mainly two opposed societal systems: on the one hand, the
stateless Bantu communities, which developed an agro-social system based on kinship relations and
subsistence agriculture and lived in scattered domestic settlements, and on the other hand, the centralised
Monomotapa state which expanded agricultural production, developed a new metal technology and
expanded trade within a network of walled cities linked to the port city of Sofala. Later, Portuguese
colonialism introduced an imperialist economy through non-sustainable relations of intensive exploitation
of human and natural resources with forced labour and taxation. This resulted in the increased dispersion of
people in scattered settlements to escape oppression, and gave rise to a dualistic form of urbanisation in the
search for improved livelihoods - the ‘cement city’, which is the post-colonial central part of the city with
modern concrete buildings, is surrounded by another city, the Mozambicans ‘reed city’ of the past, where
most of the urban population now lives.
The pre-capitalist legacy of domestic urbanity and urban cultivation 1 merits consideration when
conceptualising the urbanisation of Mozambique as a self-organising system. Likewise, the case study of
Dondo2 is classified as evidence of an ‘Agrocity’ rather than an ‘urban village’3. The notion of ‘Agrocity’,
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1
Both collective and domestic ‘machambas’ were practiced in the settlements during the Monomotapa State
(AD 1425-1884).
2
Dondo is the capital city of the district with the same name in Sofala Province in the Central Region of
Mozambique, and is located on the East bank of the Pungwé River which flows to the Indian Ocean (District
Administration of Dondo, 2006).
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simultaneously as a positive and a normative hypothesis, challenges the mainstream separation of ‘rural’ and
‘urban’ inherited from the ‘cement’ and ‘reed’ dualistic city and is characterised by small size; low density
levels; spacious house plots; low input built environment characteristics; natural urban habitats and
ecosystems; permaculture; low dependence on the peri-urban natural resource-base; high dependence on
the urban natural resource-base; high levels of civil participation in the urban food supply; households’
autonomy regarding food from urban farming and income from domestic businesses; high input in the local
economy. This generates a spontaneous ruralised and green urbanisation that is self-maintained collectively
by the urban communities themselves.
Contemporary theories concerned with human society and ecology are, as is this case, beginning to
incorporate the processes of decentralisation and self-organisation (Fuchs 2000, 2003, Downton 2009).
Applying these principles to Mozambique’s dualistic urbanisation, this paper is concerned with the fact that
society is self-organised in a way which initially sprang from resistance to colonialism, but also as a form of
resistance to the state’s centralist definition of socialism. The paper advocates that there is an alternative
form of development which looks to decentralised and self-organised forces and shows how
‘ecodevelopment’ exists not just as a utopian idea, but as a real force based on a type of self-organisation of
the human habitat and its relationship with nature drawn from the case study empirical evidence.
Crucial to this argument are recent events in which these processes have evolved. With the fall of the Soviet
Bloc and the triumph of neoliberalism, pressured by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in
Structural Adjustment Programmes, Mozambique converted itself to globalisation. Likewise, the ‘cement
city’ is now the core of neoliberalism, as a node of the global economy, where foreign donors and an
international market economy control the national political economy, its people and resources,
exacerbating the premise of the negation of self-sufficiency that continues to evolve at its margins. The
adoption of a neoliberal model of development, which has arisen in the past 20 years, completely bypasses
the realities of Mozambican society. Therefore, the paper concludes that the strategy of self-organisation
regarding the household/outdoor domestic space unit, which existed previously as a resistance strategy,
first of all against colonialism and secondly, against the statist definition of socialism, has become a strategy
for survival in the face of a global economy which completely neglects both the people and the land.
Furthermore, because the capitalist model is now threatening to collapse (Brenner et al. 2009, Berberoglu
2012), this raises the possibility for what was previously seen as a marginal survival strategy, to become the
mainstream of a new pathway to development, whereby humanity can salvage itself from the ruins of the
current system.
INCREASED DISJUNCTION BETWEEN THE HUMAN HABITAT AND NATURE
When the city is produced under the basis of capital accumulation, it naturally creates a disjunction of two
different worlds: the part of society that evolves by exploiting people and nature against the other that lives
by working with each other and with nature, and is increasingly marginalised as the neoliberal part of the
city expands. Whether it is a district dealing with finance or commerce, under neoliberalism the core of every
city becomes part of the global economy and loses its links with its own self, people and place, namely its
local identity. Then, this growing extreme polarisation between ‘the formal’ and ‘the informal’, ‘the rich’ and
‘the poor’, ‘the country’ and ‘the city’ generated by globalisation, marks the difference between those few
that have the power to the detriment of the large majority that is ruled, and underlies the core-periphery
relationship where the periphery is always deeply marginalised.
According to Araújo (1998), this highly differentiated spatial production in Mozambique results from a
colonial ‘dominator-dominated’ relationship that increased with globalisation, given continued complex
relationships of complementarity and opposition. This kind of growth and development pattern will always
have a negative feedback in the adjacent areas to some extent that will continue causing sharpened
inequality among the people and degradation on the land.
This disjunction between human society itself and nature is materialised in Mozambique’s dualistic
urbanisation that demonstrates a core-periphery system, where the marginalised periphery is actually
building a future, which in this case is also rejoining humanity with nature. This is so, because as the core
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3
Frelimo’s socialist rural development agenda was based on John Friedmann ‘agropolitan approach’ (1975) by,
among other aspects, erecting urban villages in remote areas.
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becomes more detached from the periphery, then the periphery builds its own way of survival. Today, this
social and spatial disjunction is widespread, more evident and even heightened at a global level as the crisis
rises - whether these are (a) urban problems: rise of urban poverty, poor basic infrastructure and services,
pollution, etc; (b) ecological crisis: climate change, global warming, biodiversity extinction, etc; or (c) social
inequality: popular insurgency against repression from authoritarian and/or globalisation-based states (e.g.
the ‘Arab Spring’ and ‘Occupy Wall Street’) and (d) global transition movements (e.g. Transition Network).
Therefore, problems of climate change, peak oil, food crisis, political economy crisis, decreased social equity,
world poverty, biased democracies, oppressive regimes and so forth, highlight the current disjunction
between humanity and the earth that is increasingly aggravated. Transition towards a post-capitalist society
does not necessarily involve rupture with the current system in the form of a revolution, which would
probably generate tragic results. A silent revolution is not only possible, but has already taken place, as is the
case of Dondo. Therefore, ecosocialism is, on the one hand, a spontaneous reaction against the unnatural
way of capitalism, and on the other hand, a dialectical process between societal groups and between society
and nature that re-discovers human’s connection with nature (Schultz et al. 2004).
THE DUALISTIC URBANISATION OF MOZAMBIQUE
Historical analysis demonstrates that the origins of urbanisation in Mozambique is linked with the
requirements of a mercantile economy based on the exports of materials, resources and even people for
foreign countries (first the Arabs, Persians, Indians and Chinese, and later the Portuguese), which generated
social spatial segregation and dates back to the pre-colonial highly hierarchised societies4 descended from
the Great Zimbabwe Kingdom, the Monomotapa. Portuguese colonial rule, characterised by the use of
forced labour and taxation, led the population to disperse and return to scattered domestic settlements in
more remote areas. This dispersal and isolation of the Mozambican population occurred as a means of
escaping colonial oppression and finding security. Spatial segregation and isolation also occurred between
the villages and extensive cultivation farms in rural areas (Araújo, 1998), whether during colonial occupation
or today’s land concessions for foreign market agents. Meanwhile, Mozambican men, who represented the
main colonial work force, were settled in dormitories built around workplaces (Casal 1996; Araújo 2002).
Later, from the 1950s onwards, when the Modernist Portuguese cities grew as a result of a major influx of
Portuguese settlers in Mozambique to legitimise Salazar’s Portuguese Empire ‘Overseas Provinces’ to post-
war anti-colonial international criticism, Mozambican workers gradually began settling with their families in
scattered settlements around the cities. Since women were not allowed to work, they continued their rural
lifestyle, cultivating backyards and any open space found in and around the cities, to produce food and
supplement the low wages of the men, especially when a surplus allowed produce to be traded (Guedes
1976). Facing several food crises, as well as a permanent scarcity of food due to events of natural disaster
and political economy change, the rural tradition and knowledge of natural processes were creatively
adapted by households to meet urban challenges, giving rise to the phenomena of urban agriculture,
informal food markets and domestic businesses providing commerce and urban services in the cities of
Mozambique (Costa 2003).
LOURENÇO MARQUES 1904 1935 1961

(thousands)
10 47 184
MAPUTO 1985 1990 2000

(millions)
1,09 1,59 3,14
Figure 1: Lourenço Marques population during colonial period and Maputo during the Post-Independence period
(Source: Freund 2007 and UN-HABITAT 2008).
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4
The Monomotapa period (AD 200-1884).
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MOZAMBIQUE AFRICA DEVELOPED
Urban population as percentage of total 35 38 74

population 2005
Urban settlements percentage of land 0.3 0.7 3.8

area
Urban population average annual growth 4.8 3.4 0.6

rate 2000-2005 (%)
Urban density (per km2 of urban extent) 2609 1589 482

2005
Urban population living in slums 2005 80 51 -

(%)
Urban population with access to 53 62 98

improved sanitation 2004 (%)
Urban population with access to 72 84 100

improved water 2004 (%)
Energy use 2005 (kg of oil equivalent per 427 712 4937
capita)
Carbon dioxide emissions 2004 (metric 0.1 1.3 11.9

tons per capita)
Motor vehicles in use 2000-2005 (per 8 31 536

1,000 population)
Figure 2: Urban Population, Development and the Environment in Mozambique Compared to Africa and
Developed Regions (Source: UN-HABITAT 2008).
The very rapid growth of informal urban settlements that took place following independence in 1975 was
mainly due, firstly, to the nationalisation of property and land, which encouraged people to occupy the
recently vacant houses and apartment blocks in colonial neighbourhoods and occupy land in the
surrounding suburban areas, especially in the capital city of Lourenço Marques, today’s Maputo. Later, the
mass exodus of the rural population to the cities to escape the 1976-1992 war with the counter-
revolutionary Renamo (see Figure 1). In addition, the effects of a series of natural disaster and climate
change, combined with the collapse of the urban infrastructure and rapid urban sprawl, increased the social
spatial segregation, which was exacerbated by privatisation since 1991. The impact of these factors has led
to an increased rescaling of the inherited dualistic urbanisation that characterises the cityscape of
contemporary Mozambique (see Figure 3). Today, the former colonial city is the formal city centre, known
as ‘cidade de cimento’ – the cement city, because of the Modernist European high-rise and low-rise concrete
buildings and paved roads contrasting with the surrounding spontaneously settled, self-built and unserved
Mozambican neighbourhoods (see Fig. 4-6). In colonial times the latter were called ‘caniço’ or ‘bairros de
caniço’ – the reed or reed neighbourhoods, as this was the main material used to build houses (Guedes, 1976).
Despite the post-independence socio-economic transformations in the city – now the great majority of
residents in the cement city are Mozambican, the contrast between the urban (the cement) and the suburban
(the reed) has remained and even sharpened (Araújo 1999, p. 177). The former reed neighbourhoods are now
simply called ‘bairros’ – neighbourhoods – as any other neighbourhood whether formal or informal, to give
them the dignity they are entitled. Informal neighbourhoods are actually the most dynamic and vibrant part
of the Mozambican city and the place where the great majority of the population live (see Figure 2).
According to evidence from Dondo’s neighbourhoods, the creative area where the urban system
regenerates itself autonomously lies in the popular margins rather than the official core, which is becoming
to a considerable extent less dominant and increasingly obsolete. In Maputo, such as other African capital
cities, the formal core dominates, expanding over informal neighbourhoods, pushing people farther to give
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place to suburban areas over former peri-urban areas (Araújo 1998, 1999). The dualism of Mozambican cities
is the spatial embodiment of the struggle between capitalist-induced class relations and the prevalent social
systems based on kinship relations and proximity to the land (Mabogunje, cited in Stern 1984). The
mercantile genesis of Mozambique’s urbanisation which attempted to replicate the modernist European city
model of planning, architecture and way of life, especially during the last period of Portuguese colonisation,
in fact projected the social divisions and separations operated towards society, and urban practice has
become its basis of continuation (Baía 2011).
Figure 3. Dualistic urban structure of Mozambique’s urbanisation - schematic diagram (Source: Author 2009).
256
Figure 4. Av. Julius Nyerere towards Av. Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo (Source: Author 2008).
Figure
5. Road view of Bairro Aeroporto A, Maputo (Source: Author 2008).
257
Figure 6. Urban life in Bairro Aeroporto A, Maputo (Source: Author 2008).
LAND, ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
The main sources of environmental impacts on cities in the developing world are commonly assumed to be
related to urban and industrial development. These impacts primarily consist of deforestation, soil erosion
and pollution, which generate environmental problems such as disease and physical hazards affecting both
human welfare and natural ecosystems (see Figure 7). Faced with the gradual environmental degradation of
their resource base in rural areas, people are attracted by the idea of progress, jobs and the opportunity to
earn an income offered by cities. Once in the city, high unemployment and the shortage of waged work
compels people to adjust to urban challenges by making use of their rural knowledge and reinvent
traditional forms of production so that they can replicate the natural environmental conditions they know so
well and have always depended upon. Through simple but sophisticated strategies, people are not merely
adjusting their livelihoods to the challenging scenario found in the city but are actually reconstituting the
environment as part of their physical habitat and as a natural pre-condition of life.
ENVIRONMENTAL CAUSES OF EFFECTS ON PEOPLE EFFECTS ON NATURE

PROBLEMS PROBLEMS
Poor sanitation and Insufficient human HIV/AIDS, malaria, Deforestation;
waste management; and financial diarrhoea and
Desertification;
URBAN resources to comply dysentery;
Insufficient drinkable
with needed urban Loss of animal
water supply; Lack of fuel;
infrastructures and wildlife and
Water contamination; management; Shortage of biodiversity;
traditional
Poor house Environmentally Depletion of natural
construction materials
conditions due to unmanaged and resources;
sources;
infrequent uncontrolled waste
Air, water and soil
maintenance; from industry sector Seasonal flooding in
pollution;
inside residential newly flood prone
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SUB- Crime facilitated by areas; areas; Climate change;
URBAN lack of public lighting
Extended and Soil erosion (loss of Constrained Nature’s
and house security;
uncontrolled wood lives, houses, roads regenerative lifecycle
Seasonal flooding; industry and forestry and agricultural capacity.
business sectors; areas);
Urban soil erosion;
Continuing need of River and underwater
MANDRUZI VALLEY:
PERI- firewood and charcoal pollution;
URBAN Seasonal flooding as main domestic fuel;
Crop loss;
and droughts;
Traditional use of
Poverty and hunger;
Mangrove wood as main
degradation; structural material in Longer energy and
house construction; time consuming
THUNDANE:
distances in search of
Deficient
Frequent firewood, charcoal,
management and
indiscriminate cutting wood;
insufficient resources
down of trees;
of the natural Limited capacity and
Deficient access ways environment; potential for
(swamp soil); participating in the
Some inappropriate
economic
Frequent cultural habits
development.
uncontrolled fires; affecting the
management of
Practice of traditional
natural resources.
nomadic agriculture;
Furtive hunting of
wild animals using
traditional weapons.
Figure 7. Environmental problems in Dondo informal neighbourhoods (Source: Administração do Dondo 2006
and primary data collected during fieldwork 2009).
Despite the best efforts of the local authorities, due to their very limited capacity and overload of
responsibilities, infrastructures are still inadequate. However, the municipality of Dondo has implemented a
new system of participatory budgeting and planning5, which is gradually improving and extending the
distribution of basic infrastructure and services. Nevertheless, the unregulated industrial waste freely
released inside the neighbourhoods, the insufficient number of upgraded latrines, and the continuing use of
wells still facilitate the spread of air and waterborne diseases (District Administration of Dondo 2006). On the
one hand, this has increased the population’s vulnerability to political economy and environmental crises,
whilst, on the other hand, triggering more innovative and resilient livelihood and community organisation
strategies.
THE HOUSE, LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND THE EMERGING AGROCITY
Facing the degradation of their resource base, environmental problems and unemployment, households
have transformed their use of domestic space and reorganised production strategies for securing their
livelihoods. The outdoor space that traditionally encloses the house and has domestic and social functions,
which I have termed the Outdoor Domestic Space (ODS), becomes strategically green and productive in
terms of food, income, shade, cool and clean air, and social networking (see Figures 8-13), in order not
only to adapt to environmental problems, resource degradation, climate change and political economy
transformation, but in particular to replicate the natural conditions needed to secure livelihoods traditionally
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5
Dondo’s Municipal Participatory budgeting process was implemented in Mozambique in 1996 by Hemma
Tengler and Carlos Roque from the Austrian Cooperation.
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attached to nature – ‘livelihood subsistence strategies are organised and developed by households in a way
that allows them to face economic adversity without losing family cohesion and identity’ (Costa 2003, p.
267).
Figure 8. The Outdoor Domestic Space transformation and self-organised home-based livelihoods in the
neighbourhoods of Dondo (Source: Author 2009).
For decades, women of varying backgrounds and places have been cultivating urban farms, known locally as
machambas, either in the ODS or in any other available open spaces in the cities of Mozambique (Sheldon
1999). Despite that fact that most food production is produced from rural machambas – a national average
family cultivated land measures 1.66 hectares, evidence from the field demonstrates that urban households
in Dondo neighbourhoods depend on urban machambas in the Outdoor Domestic Space as an important
complementary source of food and fruits (see Figure 8). Urban machambas are commonly seen in open
spaces throughout the neighbourhoods of Dondo by households that have a small ODS (Veríssimo 2010). As
a response to scarcity and adversity, this has ensured that close knowledge of the ecological system
continues uninterrupted. The process of transforming Outdoor Domestic Space is based on the continuation
and reinvention of family-based subsistence lifestyles rather than an assumed rupture with their cultural
past, and evolves from the traditional Mozambican house typology and collective notion of ‘home’ - the
muti. In the muti, life takes place outside rather than inside houses and reveals a very strong domestic
urbanity which is the basis of today’s decentralised community organisation of the neighbourhoods
developed from the ODS. According to Costa, the multidimensional aspects of urban change can only be
understood considering the production of domestic space, which Costa calls ‘home space’, because it
shapes African cities through spatial and social practices (Costa 2011). Probably as a result of this, and given
the limited official delivery of services, the urban environmental maintenance is collectively managed, and
infrastructures and services improvised by the communities, in a spontaneous manner to help keep the
urban system in balance. Most urban households rely on informal activities improvised from their ODS (see
Figures 9 and 10): domestic food gardens for subsistence and income, when a surplus allows for this, with
improvised stalls and grocers selling basic goods and the typical services a city offers (carpenter, barbershop,
tailor, etc.) - ODS is shaping a new ruralised form of urban settlements in medium-sized cities, which I have
named the Agrocity.
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NEIGHBOURHOOD Exclusive (sole) Complementary Supplementary Only as a source of
source of .. (significant) source (back up) source of .. fruit and not a
of .. source of income
FOOD INCOME FOOD INCOME FOOD INCOME FOOD INCOME
NHAMAYABUÉ - 26 12 3 12 - 7 -
32 Households
MAFARINHA - 19 8 4 6 - 11 1
25 Households
THUNDANE 1 - 2 3 - - - -
3 Households
TOTAL 1 45 22 10 18 - 18 1
60 households
Figure 9. Households dependency level on Outdoor Domestic Space for livelihoods (case study neighbourhoods):
food security and income (Source: Author 2011).
OUTDOOR DOMESTIC SPACE

HOUSE SURFACE AREA
BUSINESS
PLOT SURFACE AREA
Nº RESIDENTS (res.)
SURFACE AREA (m2)

NEIGHBOURHOOD
SURFACE AREA
SURFACE AREA
SURFACE AREA
CULTIVATION
COMMERCE
TOTAL ODS
SERVICES
DENSITY
(m2/res.)
(m2)
(m2)
(m2)
(m2)
(m2)
NHAMAYABUÉ 531 6 53 9 478 122 21 14
MAFARINHA 402 5 38 8,60 363 128 7 4
THUNDANE 3967 7 42 6 3924 3085 0 1
TOTAL 1633 6 44 8 1588 1112 9 6

Figure 10. Average size of Outdoors Domestic Space multifunctional areas (Source: Author 2011).
261
CASE STUDY LOCATION HOUSEHOLDS INTERVIEWS PRODUCTION AT ODS

NEIGHBOURH ODS
OODS
Agriculture
Communal
Commerce
Quarters
Services
Women
Units
Men
B1- 9 28 32 26 24 16 25 32
NHAMAYABUÉ
(urban-
suburban)
B2-MAFARINHA 9 23 25 21 17 15 15 23
(urban-
suburban)
B3-THUNDANE 1 - 3 3 3 3 0 3
(peri-urban)
TOTAL 19 51 60 50 44 34 40 58
94
Figure 11. Summary of key respondents interviewed regarding production at their Outdoor Domestic Space
(Source: Author 2011).
Figure 12. Tailor workshop and domestic food garden at ODS in Bairro Nhamayabwe, Dondo (Source: Author
2010).
262
Figure 13. Pleasant urban environment collectively self-managed in Bairro Mafarinha, Dondo (Source: Author
2010).
Figure 14. Domestic urban farming in Bairro Nhamayabwe, Dondo (Source: Author 2010).
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PROBLEMS UNDERLYING THE ECOCENTRIC-ANTHROPOCENTRIC DIVIDE
The real causes of environmental degradation, scarce resources, climate change, poverty, world hunger and
terrorism are not about the planet having too many people concentrated in the South and the limited
capacities of the Earth, since the political and economic factors that produce the uneven distribution of
resources and limited access to democratic rights, amongst many other outcomes, are generated by the
capitalist economic model to which human civilisation is enslaved. It is definitely not a matter of population,
since if everyone were self-organised to work and create well-being in an environmentally friendly manner
living in decentralised Agrocities, maybe both the safe continuation of a more democratic civilisation and
the regeneration of natural life could be ensured. Society, nature and capitalism are therefore innately
incompatible6, and if capitalism endures, efforts to tackle the environmental and social crisis will continue to
have very limited impact, whilst the gap between nature and society increases.
HUMAN HABITAT AND NATURE
The city is both a spatial product of civilisation and a spatial product of nature in the sense that humanity is
part of nature’s processes. Moving away from the conventional argument that population growth and urban
sprawl are a source of multiple problems, the notion of ‘city’ in this paper emphasises a symbiotic social
connection with nature. This is seen as having the inherent and powerful potential to become a part of the
solution to world problems in the 21st century (Lovelock 1979) that has not been fully explored. The
decentralised nature of the case study provides evidence that the informal city can play a vital role in
ecological development by contributing towards local economic growth, ecological improvement,
enhanced social identity and individual self-esteem, mitigation of urban poverty, ecosystems and
conservation of resources, amongst other factors. The collective decentralised practices of the dominant
Mozambique cityscape prove that the city itself is central to creating opportunities both for human
development and natural regeneration, with benefits beyond municipal boundaries. As a result, a city that
expands by self-regenerating its own growing natural ecosystem not only improves the quality of the urban
environment but also reduces human pressure on natural resources in peri-urban areas.
THE AGROCITY METABOLISM
Outdoor Domestic Space is considered here as the individual building block or cell unit in the wider whole,
the Agrocity, whose definition is explored in terms of the details of the larger operative system, its dynamics
and overall implications (socio-cultural, economic, ecological and institutional). The cell is resilient and
incorporates modern and traditional knowledge, providing the basis for the resilience of the wider system –
the human habitat - to shocks. Historically, the human habitat, as a space for production and human
concentration, has been viewed as a source of conflict, reaching its peak during capitalism. In contrast, this
case demonstrates that other forms of human settlement and production are possible – the use of ODS, the
production process and the neighbourhood self-organisation are themselves expressions of the material-
energy exchange in the relationship between society and nature. The Agrocity dissipates social
differentiation and power relations, promoting inclusion through collaborative networking. I analyse the
Agrocity metabolism as a self-regulatory system (Girardet 1996) both separate and derived from
technocratic post-Modernist (colonial and neo-colonial) urban models connected to wider processes of
political and economic historical change (see Figure 15).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6
Capitalism produce money for commodities through labour, which exploits human resources creating social
entropy whilst using energy (negative entropy) and producing waste (high entropy) in constant feedback loops
(Biel, Module ES4, The Urban Metabolism 2010).
264
Figure 15. The Outdoor Domestic Spaces interactive dynamics with other components forming neighbourhoods
at local level, and emergent behaviours at global levels (Source: Author 2011).
CONCLUSION
The way in which Sustainable Development (SD) has evolved and has degenerated within multiple biased
interpretations, is directly associated with this research problem. This paper critiques SD in terms of its failed
attempt(s) to address humanity’s relationship with nature, arguing that this might have happened because
it tends to accommodate itself to the global capitalism development paradigm. The SD model may only
succeed if there is a paradigm shift in the world political economy that recognises the importance of natural
environmental conditions in restoring emergent grassroots’ systems7. This is so because their inherently
resilient nature has proved successful in enabling them to adapt in the face of adversity in the past,
demonstrating that they have a good chance of proving reliable in the future, given the challenges of the
current world crisis. There are already a lot of development strategies, such as devolution, subsidiarity and
participatory strategies, in which the institutional apparatus is gradually recognising and not subverting
emerging systems, although opposed to the capitalist mode of production, with the aim of getting rid of
dependency from aid programmes. This may partly be an advantage to emerging systems because
development aid does not only bring benefits, due to corruption and dissimulated external control over the
political economy of developing nations (Hanlon 2010). It is possible that collaborative development
programmes rather than development aid programmes could be less of a burden, since the aid flows would
be smaller and probably more efficient in the field.
Moreover, the paper questions the way in which urban growth and urban challenges in developing cities in
the world are addressed using imported planning methods as if there was a universal urbanism. These might
prove effective in their original context but are inadequate in providing equal access to urban infrastructure
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7
Recognition of emerging systems already exists within the capitalist system but functions in an exploitative
fashion. Facing crisis, neo-liberalism is moving towards self-organisation in order to become more self reliant
and less vulnerable to external factors such as state control and IT systems.
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and services for the urban population in the context of cities in the developing world. According to evidence
from the case study of Dondo, foreign models increase urban poverty and social spatial segregation, have an
impact on the environment and intensify dualistic urbanisation. Findings suggest that the emergent
urbanisation in Mozambique needs to be recognised in terms of its inherent cultural, economic, political and
ecological levels as the legitimate core, so that the obstacles created by neo-colonial misconceptions can be
overcome and social spatial inequality, spatial fragmentation, urban challenges and the degradation of peri-
urban resources can be addressed more effectively.
Findings highlight that the present day use of self-organised domestic space may have important
implications in contributing towards securing livelihoods, shaping a semi-rural and green urban form and
reducing human pressure on the natural environment. The fact that daily urban life and livelihood strategies
take place in the Outdoors Domestic Space rather than inside any built structure demonstrates that even in
cities people can recover the innate human connection with nature or, in the case of Dondo, the urban
setting is the new ground where they continue to develop this relationship with natural processes because
of the continued need to preserve the natural resource base in order to secure livelihoods.
The definition of the Agrocity proposed here simultaneously critiques both capitalist modernism in terms of
its predatory actions and obsolescence, and socialism, in terms of Frelimo’s post-independence democratic
centralism, dictated by both internal and external factors. Ecodevelopment involves an ecosocialist
transition that is considered here as already having taken place spontaneously. This is expected to raise
awareness among decision-makers and planners, and inspire others who believe, as I do, that cities are more
than places for the unequal distribution of wealth, production, poverty, accumulation and waste. Although
cities are commonly known as sources of environmental disruption, they also have the ability to function as
a driving force in balancing the relationship between human civilisation and nature.
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SUGARCANE(AIR)FIELDS: THE EFFECTS OF THE AEROTROPOLIS ON THE EVOLUTION OF PLACE
Mizan Rambhoros, Senior Lecturer, Department of Architectural Technology and Interior Design, Cape
Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa, rambhorosm@cput.ac.za
Abstract
Instant urbanism – a description applicable to the proposed new urban form of the 21st-century future city,
termed the ‘aerotropolis’. Encompassing strategic performance-based development that is established in
infrastructure planning, airport cities are commercially propagated to generate economic growth via the
catalytic development of surrounding regions. But to what effect?
Synonymous with homotopia, as implied by the sprouting of non-places across the globe, the aerotropolis is
associated with globalisation, supermodernity and mobility. Whilst the current age of mobility is
characterised by speed, networking and power; it also entails the interconnectedness of experiences in a
time-space continuum, and infers a range of cultural, social and historical aspects, rich with physical and
psychological configurations.
In order to probe the aforementioned implications, the investigation will be conducted in and around the
site of the Dube Tradeport – an aerotropolis located on a greenfield site on the north coast of KwaZulu-
Natal, South Africa. The north coast is characterised by an abundant topographical and cultural landscape,
manifest in material and symbolic geographies. The region is a vague space in a state of flux and tension, as
intensified by the introduction of the aerotropolis, which may exacerbate global networks of flow,
accelerated patterns of growth, and instant impact in the region’s development; and/or offer opportunities
for the creation of place that counteracts alienation, and encourages the pursuit of meaning via experience,
association and belonging; and/or present an inbetween condition – an encounter with otherness.
Drawing on post-structuralism and phenomenology, the framework of psychogeography will be engaged in

order to interrogate the ecological and psychological impacts of the aerotropolis on the evolution of the
region. The term ‘evolution’ will be interpreted in relation to the continuum of time and identity; thereby
focusing the study on aspects of perception, imagination and memory.
Keywords: aerotropolis, cultural landscape, memory, mobilities, psychogeography, situationist

international.
INTRODUCTION
This study is motivated by the author’s interest in the topic, which is based on a dissatisfaction with an
existing practice of the ‘visionary’ design of the aerotropolis that is driven primarily by economic
mechanisms. It also stems from the author’s personal experience regarding an emotional attachment to
place, which may be threatened or enhanced by the presence of the Dube Tradeport aerotropolis in the
region of eThekwini, South Africa.
The author adopts a position that accepts the occurrence of the aerotropolis as inevitable, hence does not
seek to interrogate it specifically, but proposes that ecological and psychological impacts of the aerotropolis
on the evolution of place be examined. The aim of the study is to raise awareness around the associated
effects of the aerotropolis through ‘other’ means of analyses that establish connections between psychology
and architectural discourse, by referring to psychogeography and the Situationist International, in order to
investigate those qualities that could ensure the continuum of time and identity of a specific context.
The paper is structured to begin briefly with the development of Durban and its subsequent regional
growth, followed by recognising evident parallels between modernity, the aerotropolis and its correlation
with mobilities within evolving contemporary society. Enquiry is undertaken into the relationships between
these environments and the human body and psyche via emotional geographies, associated with
perception, memory and imagination in the ecology of place (topographical and cultural landscapes). These
aspects contribute to understanding the dependency of people and place on movement, which is probed
via revolutionary ideas envisaged as attempts for urban evolution needed within modern society. Rather
than drawing exhaustive conclusions, concerns are identified to prompt the need for a change in attitude,
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further investigation into alternative approaches, and the generation of new interpretations in response to
the existing developmental frameworks of the aerotropolis.
(D)URBAN EVOLUTION
Places are about relationships, about the placings of materials and system[s]...located in relation to sets of
objects [and] through subjects and their uniquely human meanings and interactions.... Places also carry
traces of the memories of different social groups who have lived in or passed through that place (Urry 2005,
p. 80).
Durban began at the Bay of Natal. The historic, cultural, economic and spatial development of the region
may be associated with Tim Ingold’s taskscapes, which comprises “networks of paths [that] show the
sedimented activity of a community stretching over many generations” (ibid.). As a ‘migrant’ home to a
majority of Zulu, Indian and European settlers, who arrived at the Bay or hills of the coast either by trek or
ship; the movement of people, their patterns of settlement, and activities of trade contributed to the
development of Durban’s port and its surrounding regions, where the sugar industry marked an important
development in both the city and north coast (Weinberg, Robbins and Mhlope 2002, p. viii).
Not negating that the growth and trade of sugar entailed indentured labour, it contributed to the resultant
social and environmental landscapes of the region, which is evidence that – no matter how contentious –
“social and natural history combine in often unpredictable ways to engender emotional attachments” (Smith
2005, p. 221). However, whilst the evolution of eThekwini has embraced these qualitative characteristics
specific to place, by contrast the aerotropolis is one of homogenised economic spatial frameworks
developed quantitatively by business mechanisms, engineering and town planning methodologies,
established as a new urban order of instant existence.
So although the Dube Tradeport aerotropolis further emphasises the north coast as a place of movement (in
addition to its historic aspects of settlement migration and trade movements) by prompting circulation and
exchanges within a contemporary global context, it may restructure the region as one of “intense and
heightened consumption” (Urry 2005, p. 79). Thus, the established topographical and cultural landscapes of
the region are now ‘evolving’ into the Dube Tradeport aerotropolis, thereby raising concerns of not only its
effects on the physical context but also the “effect that one’s current ecology of place is having in emotional
terms, as well as the potential effects that changing this ecology might bring” (Conradson 2005, p. 108).
AEROTROPOLIS: THE (MODERNIST) CITY OF THE FUTURE
The goal of modernity was “to write the future ahead of time, to invent a future that could be planned,
universalised” (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p. 110) through the establishment of a dominant order
adopted and supported on a global scale – characteristics synonymous with the aerotropolis. The
aerotropolis is defined by economy-dominated time (ibid., p. 76) circumscribed to the heaviness of time and
a ‘drudgery of place’ (Urry 2005, p. 80) due to its development in a self-referential context of immediacy
focused on the ‘end’ in which “shared memory cease[s] to be the obligatory reference for creating” place
(Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p. 84).
Thus, as opposed to acknowledging the origins of place, it is grounded in a fixation with the globally shared
doctrine of functional, technological and economic mechanisms. The aerotropolis expresses the modernist
and industrialised ideology of separation, autonomy and repetition imposed on a chosen site by “arranging
objects, plugging in or assembling networks or components” (ibid., p. 72). And, just as the dominance of
modernity’s “predetermined closure to the alien otherness of nature” and its utilitarian paradigms
marginalised the significance of natural environments as modes that affect ways of ‘being-in-the-world’
(Smith 2005, p. 219); so too does the abstracted, disembodied and disengaged aerotropolis “assist in this
‘desubstantialisation’ of place” (Urry 2005, p. 81) via the removal of meaning and subsequent
‘decontextualisation’ (Leach 1999, p. 3).
However, although the aerotropolis may be decontextualised from its topographical and cultural
landscapes, it is ‘recontextualised’ within global discourse comprising distance, communication, travel and
linkages that could invest it with another meaning (progress), within which Massey identifies a framework
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that holds potential for the creation of a global sense of place (Massey 1994). She emphasises the
importance of globalisation and mobilities, positing that the character and progression of a local place “can
only be constructed by linking that place to places beyond” (Massey 1994). Whilst this may be characteristic
of the aerotropolis via associated mobility networks, the significance of the “specificity from [an]
accumulated history of a place” cannot be negated; for as opposed to either being in flux or stasis, the
distinct mixture of wider and more local social relations and multiple identities contributes to the perception
of place as process (Massey 1994).
THE SHOCK OF OBSCENITY
The aerotropolis may share similarities with Baudrillard’s hyperreality that depicts “a world that has lost
touch with its referents in the real world” – a weakness of “the cult of commodity under capitalism”, which
reduces society to mere representation rather than ontological experience (Leach 1999, p. 3). Expressed as a
condition of excess identifiable within the information society; the ecstasy of communication, the culture of
reification and the society of affluence – summarised by Jean Baudrillard as obscenity – are symptoms
illustrating globalised contemporary life, which are so dominant “that society itself has become a spectacle”
(Leach 1999).
The Society of the Spectacle, identified by Guy Debord and the Situationist International, refers to an
obsession with consumption, commodification and simulation, through which society’s “primary moral
deficiency remains indulgence, in all its forms” (Debord 1955, np), and where ethical interests are replaced
with superficial preoccupations, resulting in a reality that is distorted and “remote from the actual concerns
of everyday life” (Leach 1999, p. viii). James Burch refers to Kafka’s Little Fable to emphasise society’s own
“restrictive socio-economic self-definitions” that have formulated the “boundaries of self-entrapment that
perpetuates this misapprehended definition of human action” (Burch nd, p. 9). Similarly, in their sense of
social commitment, the Situationists placed significance on human responsiveness and emotional
attachment: class society and capitalist production had permeated all areas of social life, knowledge and
culture, with the consequence that people are removed and alienated...from their own experiences,
emotions, creativity, and desires. People are spectators of their own lives, and even the most personal
gestures are experienced at one remove (Plant, cited in Leach 1999, p. 56).
Thus, these emotional attachments are produced by interactions between people and environments in a
range of social and physical contexts that not only affect relationships with the past, present and future, but
entail the replication of the external world, which Walter Benjamin terms mimesis: the human psyche is in
essence an organic mechanism, which is constantly adapting to its physical surroundings. This adaptation
has to be seen as a defensive mechanism predicated on survival. The human being, in this sense, is like a
chameleon, governed by an instinctual urge to find similarities in the external environment, and, where
none exist, to adapt itself to that environment (Leach 1999, p. 40).
Explained in reflexes of human beings in reaction to the effects of external environments (identified by
Freud as protection against stimuli and reception of stimuli), mimesis may be related to his notion of
consciousness and Marcel Proust’s mémoire involuntaire respectively (ibid., p. 42): whereas the latter is
premised on the involuntary recall of stored ‘stimuli’ in the mind, the former prevents the stimuli from
“being retained within the memory, therefore act[ing] as a form of shock absorber, which limits the long-
term damage of the shock” (ibid., p. 43).
Hence, because “attributes to the body reflect deeper cultural conditions”, consciousness and mimesis are
essential in negotiating impulses and experiences of everyday contemporary life in which commodification,
technological and machine-like traits of environments such as the aerotropolis could be replicated in the
behaviour of human beings. “Just as for [Georg] Simmel the abstracted circulation of capital in a society
dominated by exchange value came to be reflected in the abstract circulation of individuals in the modernist
metropolis, so too for [Jean] Baudrillard has the mechanisation of the lifeworld in a society dominated by
technology been replicated in the dominant functionalist attitude to the body” (ibid., p. 74).
Although mimesis may be considered a response to shock, it also threatens the longevity of identities and
memories based on people’s attachments to place. As adaptive survival, the mimicry necessitated by the
imposition of the aerotropolis on the existing topographical and cultural landscape could endanger original
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emotional attachments that are “integral to how places are imagined and portrayed, with profound
implications for the embodied experiences” (Bondi, Davidson and Smith 2005, p. 6).
HYBRID ECOLOGIES
The artificial production of the aerotropolis in an established context may be likened to the modernist city,
which “generally refused to engage in dialogue...and appeare[d] to have come from elsewhere and claimed
that surroundings are a mistake; they don’t exist” (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p. 105). Just as Le
Corbusier was fascinated by the “gesture of wiping out the past...[and] replacing the world with another
world, a wholly different one”, the aerotropolis is in effect “the remaking of another world [that]
presuppose[s] the destruction of the old one[s]” (ibid., p. 96).
As “environments of memory” (Bondi, Davidson and Smith 2005, p. 9), the existence of society dissolves
when places are annihilated – referred to as topocide (Porteous, cited in Jones 2005, p. 215) – thereby
threatening relationships between landscape and the self. The acknowledgement of place is therefore
essential as it is “attentive to both the embodied and intersubjective dimensions of human feeling”
(Conradson 2005, p.105) and attachments that are crucial to the preservation and vitality of both
topographical and cultural landscapes “as vessels of daily life, economic activity, quality experiences, and
intangible values and meanings” (The IFLA Cultural Landscape Committee 2013): cultural Landscapes are
shaped at a focused moment, and are created over time or are associated with cultural beliefs and identity of
peoples. They contribute to society by providing inspiration, understanding and appreciation of past places
and cultures. They express...meanings, offering insights and providing a continuum of land use and history
across generations that roots people to the planet....Cultural Landscapes of all types, land and water, as well
as all scales, history and meaning and their contexts, are globally, nationally, regionally and locally significant
resources. Culture and nature co-exist with these landscapes...They comprise real places (ibid.).
Engagement between people, things, environments and their related emotional attachments forms an
ecology of place (Bondi, Davidson and Smith 2005, p. 1), which is emphasised in Hans-Georg Gadamer’s
concept of effective history as it “provides us with a particular cultural ‘home’” (Smith 2005, p. 222). Thus, the
self emerges by “calling upon one’s previous experiences so as to feel/know how the sense of what is
expressed is similar to and differs from what has gone before” (ibid. p. 227). It is shaped by wider relational
contexts and exchanges (the here and now or the there and then), which impact on affective and emotional
outcomes such as perceptions and interpretations, memory and imagination (Conradson 2005, p. 106):
When the self is understood as a complex relational entity, capable of making and sustaining connections
with other bodies across a range of times and places, then it becomes possible to appreciate how
context exercises some influence upon human feeling. Such an approach certainly aids our understanding of
the felt dimensions of self-landscape encounters, whilst also helping us to account for variation in individual
experience and interpretation of particular landscape elements. It also highlights the contemporary
significance of mobility and relocation for the reflexive management of one’s emotions (ibid. p. 114).
Thus, a hybrid ecology exists between the self, place, and time. The conscious and unconscious interact
constantly in both the construction and interpretation of the environment, thereby influencing spatial
practices and the shaping of identity. Spatialised moments, sequences, encounters, and terrains accumulate
as vast stores of past geographies that are inscribed into minds and bodies, which re-form with other places
and events when remembered. “Memory is not just a retrieval from the past or of the past, it is always a
fresh, new creation where memories are retrieved into the conscious realm and something new is created”
(Jones 2005, p. 208). Thus, memories inform identity through an ecology of the self, which is always in flux
and related to the “socio-spatial mediation and articulation” of emotion (Bondi, Davidson and Smith 2005, p.
3).
This spatialisation of memories is therefore significant in “the construction of our ongoing emotional and
imaginative geographies” (Jones 2005, p. 210). Whereas Proust’s mémoire involuntaire implies “sudden
sharp moments when the impression of some past place or event springs fully formed into one’s mind”,
Bachelard’s notion of reverie describes an episode of memory that allows the “consciousness to slip back
towards a more dreamlike state, where the imagination, freed from all the firm direction of focused thought
and action, can begin to ‘drift’ back into all the remembered spaces, events and feelings which are not in our
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minds” (ibid. p. 209). Hence, there can be no definitive distinction between memory and imagination:
imagination is employed in the act of recall, and “in imagining something, in exploring it imaginatively we
use memory” (Warnock, cited in Jones 2005, p. 210).
MOVEMENT(S) TOWARD URBAN (R)EVOLUTION
Primarily responses to “emotions of some past encounter rather than the [sequential] narrative of that
encounter” (Jones 2005, p. 210), description and narrative aid in articulating the spatialities of memories and
imagination; where the interactions of people with environments is shaped in the pursuit of meaning, based
on experience, association and belonging (Coates 2012). Thus, the reading of environments through an
understanding of place assists in developing the quality of experiences of the world through the social
construction of lived space.
Similarly, the Situationist International established an approach toward the Society of the Spectacle in order
to substantiate society’s existence and stimulate “creative re-readings...to be more fully alive” (Burch nd, p.
11). They achieved this via the play between the existing abstract context and alienation of the capitalist
society, and the practice of readjustment and experience. By reacting within an objective framework, they
responded with a “revolution of radical subjectivity” (ibid. p. 10). Hence, the built environment featured
prominently in the Situationists’ analysis of contemporary society due to the direct relationship of
architecture and urbanism in social concerns, through which psychogeography defined “the groping search
for a new way of life” (Debord 1955, np).
Debord defined psychogeography as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical
environment, whether consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals,..[and the]
influence on human feelings” (1955, np). By contrast Bondi, Davidson and Smith argue for “a non-
objectifying view of emotions as relational flows, fluxes or currents, in-between people and places, rather
than ‘things’ or ‘objects’ to be studied or measured” (2005, p. 3). Correspondingly, Harrison postulates that
“there is something about ‘emotional experiences’ that eludes our attempts at recollection, which resist
representation” (cited in Jones 2005, p. 205); but again, the Situationists differ in perspective. Rather,
ecological and psychogeographical maps are used to represent experiences in a renovated cartography that
is “the arrangement of the elements of the urban setting, in close relation with the sensations they provoke”
(Debord 1955, np) engaging enlivened frames of reference and situations.
Whereas a ‘situation’ constitutes a “form of active, spatio-temporal engagement” it differs from Lefebvre’s
notion of the ‘moment’, which “remained somewhat passive”; albeit both share the “fleeting, intensely
euphoric sensation that appeared as a point of rupture revealing the totality of possibilities of daily
existence” (Leach 1999, p. 60). Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis depicts this use of time and space to capture the
multiple rhythms of everyday life and the implications in urban nature (Goonewardena, Kipfer, Milgrom,
Schmid 2008, p. 15). Thus, places depend upon movement reflected in the “accumulated imprint of
countless journeys that have been made” as people go about their everyday lives (Urry 2005, p. 80).
However, the movements and psychological impacts of everyday life vary depending on the environments
of the individuals within them. This is apparent in Simmel’s comparison between metropolitan individuals
and those who live in the countryside, which reveals associations in systems of conscious human behaviour
in different environments (Leach 1999, p. 33). Whilst the life of the rural individual is distinguished by steady
and familiar patterns accommodated with little mental effort due to the “slower, more habitual, more
smoothly flowing rhythm”, thereby “appeal[ing] ‘at a more unconscious level’ to feelings and emotional
relationships”; the life of the metropolitan individual is characterised by the “registering of the fragmentary
and irregular impulses of the city, experienced as an “‘intensification of emotional life due to the swift and
continuous shift of external and internal stimuli’”, thereby resulting in “greater expenditure of mental
energy...grasped at a more “abstracted, intellectual level” (ibid.). They develop a “disinterested form of
movement that echoes the circulation of money...[and]...replicates the movement of the machine” (Leach
1999).
However, Simmel identifies an alternative defensive mechanism required to survive within the capitalist
conditions, mental impulses and overstimulation of the city: the blasé, which is an adaptive phenomenon
that renounces neurological responses to metropolitan life (ibid. p. 34). At the basis of it lies a ‘trancelike
state’ initially articulated by Charles Baudelaire who observed the metropolis as a “mesmerising site” (ibid. p.
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36). Although similar, the difference between Simmel and Baudelaire’s observations is that the blasé is “the
distracted engagement with the world” (ibid. p. 88) defined by physical circulation that involves mental
detachment from modern life or desensitisation from overstimulation; whereas the ‘trancelike state’ entails
‘roaming’ that is fueled by sensory “stimulation and intoxication” via the imaginative perceptions of the city
(ibid. p. 36). The latter is synonymous with the Surrealists who, like Benjamin (via his ‘meandering’ flaneur),
saw the “city as enchantment” (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p. 74). Therefore, unlike the blasé individual,
Benjamin’s flaneur is “the urban dawdler...not a creature of the crowd,...[but] ‘someone abandoned in the
crowd’” who surrenders to the intoxication of the commodity that surrounds him (Leach 1999, p. 39).
Thus, whilst a blasé attitude may be induced as a numbing effect to the shock of contemporary life, it is also
liberating for “reenchanting, seeing again, rereading things that are already ancient, as well as inventing
things that do not yet exist” (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p. 110). Herein lies the paradox: if enchantment
is an obscured reality that can be considered the ‘other’ to abstracted rationality, then the city is enslaved by
a “false consciousness...that has adopted new guises in the supposedly progressive, fashionable world of the
commodity” (Leach 1999, p. 38). Through his psychoanalytical account “that the mind is what is
anaestheticised by the continual shocks of contemporary existence” (ibid. p. 40), Benjamin proposes that it is
the “task of the responsible individual to see through this myth [of commodification] – to demythologise the
world” (ibid. p. 38).
The Situationists’ primary concept to combat the spectacle engaged the strategy of détournement: a
subversive means to reappropriate society by a reversal of perspective (ibid. p. 58). It involved the “rationally
constructed theory of the Spectacle and an insistence on the presence of some ‘other’, [where] the
boundaries of the Spectacle are subverted toward subjective ends” (Burch, nd, p. 11). Détournement
resulted in “the mutual interference of two worlds of feeling, or the bringing together of two independent
expressions, supersed[ing] the original elements and produc[ing] a synthetic organisation of greater
efficacy” (Guy Debord and Gil Wolman, cited in Burch n.d, p. 11). For emphasis, Debord refers to de Chirico’s
paintings, which exert a subjective effect on objective architectural origins thereby transforming them. The
Situationists “recognised that ‘emotions, desires and experiences’ differed ‘according to the architecture of a
space, and the arrangement of colours, sounds, textures and lighting with which it is created’” (Leach 1999,
p. 58). They therefore sought emancipation from the spectacle by using these insights to engage movement
and exploration in order to illuminate the ontological experience of the individual though the city.
Hence, they practiced the dérive (drift): “a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiences. Dérives
involve playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects” (Debord 1958, np). It
may be attributed to the “Surrealists’ experiments in automatism – the surrendering of the self to the
pleasures of the city” – however, through the dérive, the Situationists did not “simply abandon themselves
to unconscious desires” but employed strategies to “consciously challenge...[and] counter the dominant
perception of the city as grid of real estate, and to explore its potential as the site of lived experience” (Leach
1999, p. 59).
The art of drifting emphasised the freedom of movement to resist the control over the reified existence of
individuals and the constraints of the spectacle. Characteristic of “nomos: arraying oneself in an open space”
(Brian Massumi, cited in Burch nd, p. 15), it resulted in spatial availability (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p.
80) and heightened imagination through which situations of place could be spatialised through narratives of
experience and atmosphere. Thus, instead of imposed, separated and objectified spatial arrangements
(understood by Deleuze and Guattari’s striated or stratified space) closed to the continuity of time, the city
could be interpreted as a smooth space: one of subjective and haptic perception that is not distanced from
direct tactile experience but “offers opportunities for exploration without closure, for endless dérive” (Burch
nd, p. 14), emphasised by Deleuze and Guattari as an open-ended and heterogenous space of multiplicity
that can “be explored only through legwork” (ibid.).
The practice of détournement and dérive in smooth space may relate to Heidegger’s free space that is
“linked to Gelassenheit, which translates as ‘serenity’, ‘letting go’” (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p. 113).
Consisting of interventions that create new and open situations in places that acknowledge past, present
and future, it shares similarities with Lebbeus Woods’ interpretation of freespaces, which “offer a ‘dense
matrix of new conditions’” (cited Leach, 1999, p.31). However, Woods’ suggestions refer primarily to form,
which Foucault reacts against in that “architectural form in itself cannot be liberating, although it can
produce ‘positive effects’ when the ‘liberating intentions of the architect’ coincide with ‘the real practice of
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people in the exercise of their freedom’” (cited Leach, 1999, p.32). He posits that architecture in itself
“cannot determine any particular politics of use, [rather] all architecture can do is offer spaces that might – at
best – ‘invite’ certain spatial practices” (ibid.). Thus, as opposed to a planned city’s “linear conception of use
where objects are conceived for, and specified by, the work they perform” (Portzamparc and Sellers, 2003,
p.111) a future can be imagined in unimposed spatial interventions that are enlivened by offering
interpretations and opportunities for everyday experiences.
The Situationist theme of ‘unitary urbanism’ offered an alternative vision that reacted against the perfected
final solutions of the totalitarian cities, and instead “viewed the city holistically as a combination of artistic
potential and engineering resources” (ibid.). It therefore attempted to avoid static spatial limitations, abolish
separation and liberate human behaviour through the unification of multiplicity, linkages, modifiable,
imaginative and transient spaces open to perspective, and “rooted in the idea of a city that would have time
in its future, that would not be closed, that would keep going” (ibid. p. 112). The city became the key site /
situation for investigation and intervention in which the “world-view is disrupted, re-opened to fresh
perspectives...[to] inform a new understanding of space” (Burch nd, p. 9).
Thus, the contemporary socio-spatial context of the aerotropolis is similar to that which Debord and the
Situationists rejected in favour of subject-based environments experienced through existential adventure,
chance and unpredictability (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p. 80). Rather than simply defining a new urban
space in reaction to the capitalist city, the Situationist International sought to raise public awareness around
the conditions imposed on society as well as a means to change them by proposing approaches toward a
new urbanism and architecture via the translation of their revolutionary ideals, which played a significant
role in “determining the possibilities of lived experience” through an “architecture that fired the
imagination” (Leach 1999, p. 58) and was responsive to the continuum of time.
CONCLUSION
Given that urban systems exist both as independent and networked entities that are reliant on mobilities
and integrated transport infrastructure, the aerotropolis is constantly justified through propaganda and
“dictated by its own necessity so as to enable it to function” (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p. 105). Thus, the
concept of the aerotropolis as a future city brings with it both visions and obstacles in which four primary
concerns may be identified: superficial indulgence, artificial production, transitional ecologies, and self-
referential immediacy.
Superficial indulgence
The obsession of “the present-day slave [that] feels compelled to be absolutely modern” (ibid. p. 76) is
evident in the influences of the aerotropolis on a society that appears to be preoccupied with the
opportunistic economic affiliations thereof. The domination of the aerotropolis could superficially transform
the north coast as one of excess, consumption, commodification and simulation that is detached from the
realities and considerations of the everyday. These symptoms of a distorted reality may be the extent of
contemporary life in a future driven by the aerotropolis, which appears to lack in a human dimension and
negates its impact on people and environment.
Artificial production
The aerotropolis is marketed as “the new direction that has to be followed” (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p.
95) – seemingly through a language of reification, “where one stops belonging to a culture and can only tour
it” (Wordsworth, cited in Urry 2005, p. 82). Whilst the eThekwini metropolis evolved by growing from its
beginnings at the port of Durban, the Dube Tradeport aerotropolis is artificially produced within the north
coast and does not appear to acknowledge its regional surroundings. In addition, the Dube Tradeport
aerotropolis may further isolate Durban, exacerbating the city’s condition of abandonment and reinforcing
the modernist idea of separation by creating boundaries on various levels and inscribing a class distinction
and control over space. It could result in splintering the eThekwini metropolis into two cities (an old and a
new) “where two worlds, two cultures, coexist in a sort of absurdity....each with their different histories and
times” (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003).
Transitional ecologies
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The existing natural topography (as part of the eThekwini region’s cultural landscape) forms an ecology of
the emotional geographies of people and place, due to the essential affective relational encounters between
landscape and the self. However, the territorial conquests of the aerotropolis could disengage the existing
natural environment of the north coast and marginalise its significance to people’s ‘being’ in place. The
urban development of the aerotropolis thereby presents potentially alarming effects of a changing ecology,
where its impact may not only be evident in the urban form on its natural landscape, but also on the related
psychology of individuals who live within it and their place attachments. Thus, the ecologies of place seems
to be in transition, pending the effects of the aerotropolis, which may alter the complexities of the social and
environmental contexts of a region.
Self-referential immediacy
The aerotropolis is defined and confined by economic time that is focused on the end outcome of financial
‘progress’ interpreted as current investments for future returns that eliminates or forgets the past “because it
is no longer actual, and there is a present that is simply action oriented” (Portzamparc and Sellers 2003, p.
114) – thereby obliterating the need for references to the past, and the acknowledgment of the origins of
place. The aerotropolis may be deemed a fabrication of a self-absorbed opportunistic world that replaces
contextual environments via the destruction of the natural landscape that is interpreted as a blank slate and
the substitution of an existing city. Thus, the aerotropolis risks being “closed to time, closed to the future”
(ibid. p.112) – potentially threatening the existence of society and its cultural continuity via the eradication
of place and its affiliations with past and present.
Whilst the aerotropolis is an accepted phenomenon of the ‘future city’, it has impacts and effects that reach
beyond mere economic opportunities. This prompts the need to interrogate the effects of it on the
contextual evolution of place by considering environmental and human qualities that ensure the continuum
of time and identity; where the recognition and significance of “our nature and our culture holds within itself
that which we have the possibility to become” (Smith 2005, p. 228). This approach is necessary in order to
acknowledge and potentially enhance the quality of life and the urban experience of people who will be
engaging directly or indirectly with the aerotropolis, thereby improving its liveability by allowing it to
respond sensitively and meaningfully to the ecological and psychological qualities of people and place.
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REFERENCES
Bondi, L, Davidson, J & Smith, M., 2005. ‘Introduction: Geography’s emotional turn’, in J Davidson (ed),
Emotional geographies, Ashgate Publishing Limited, England.
Burch, J., n.d. ‘Situationist poise, space and architecture’, Transgressions, no. 1, pp. 9-28, viewed 23
November 2013,
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Coates, N., 2012. Narrative architecture, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, United Kingdom.
Conradson, D., 2005. ‘Freedom, space and perspective: Moving encounters with other ecologies’, in J
Davidson (ed), Emotional geographies, Ashgate Publishing Limited, England.
de Portzamparc, C & Sellers, P., 2003. Writing and seeing architecture, University of Minnesota Press,
Minneapolis.
Debord, G., 1955. Introduction to a critique of urban geography, trans. K Knabb, Les Lévres Nues, no. 6 n.p.,
viewed 23 November 2013, http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/ geography.html
Debord, G., 1958. Theory of the dérive, trans. K Knabb, Internationale Situationniste, no. 2, n.p., viewed 23
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Goonewardena, K, Kipfer, S, Milgrom, R & Schmid, C., (eds) 2008. Space, difference, everyday life: Reading Henri
Lefebvre, viewed 12 November 2013, http://www.mom.arq. ufmg.br/mom/babel/
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Jones, O., 2005. ‘An ecology of emotion, memory, self and landscape‘, in J Davidson (ed), Emotional
geographies, Ashgate Publishing Limited, England.
Leach, N., 1999. The anaesthetics of architecture, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Massey, D., 1994. A global sense of place, viewed 30 May 2013,

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Smith, M., 2005. ‘On ‘being’ moved by nature: Geography, emotion and environmental ethics’, in J Davidson
(ed), Emotional geographies, Ashgate Publishing Limited, England.
Urry, J., 2005. ‘The place of emotions within place’, in J Davidson (ed), Emotional geographies, Ashgate
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DESIGN WITH NATURE: THE PRACTICE AND THEORY OF TWO CHINESE ARCHITECTS FROM THE 8TH
CENTURY
Sun Shimeng, School of Architecture/Tsinghua University, China, ssm2@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
Abstract
Searching for a better way to create a living environment in nature has been one of the primary tasks for
architects and urban planners over the last few decades, especially as a result of rapid urban sprawl and the
ruthless destruction of nature. Architects and urban planners have reached the consensus that such efforts should
be made not only on a technical level, but also on a conceptual level. In ancient China, however, a tradition of
designing with nature had existed for thousands of years. With deep respect, understanding, and conformance to
nature, the ancient Chinese believed that they should arrange, repair and improve the natural environment in an
active but abstemious way, in order to achieve an ideal living environment. Following this concept, a complete
system of theory and methodology gradually developed. The intellectual architects, in particular, pioneered the
practical and theoretical developments in designing with nature in ancient China. Those in the Tang dynasty
played an especially important role, in terms of both the amount of practice and profundity of theoretical
thinking. Among them, Yuan Jie and Liu Zongyuan were particularly outstanding. As prefectural governors, they
were in charge of city planning, as well as discovering and designing local landscapes. As architects and artists,
they created their own habitation following the ideal of living environments. As theorists, they also explored
relevant theories and methods. In Yongzhou area, these intellectual architects attempted to search for a mode of
planning and design in specific areas with rich and beautiful landscape. This practice not only set up a paradigm
for later intellectual architects in that region, but also left behind a legacy in the history of planning and design in
ancient China. Their ideas and theories deserve further study and inheritance by Chinese architects, and will
inspire more architects worldwide facing the same man-nature issues.
Keywords: design with nature, intellectual architects, Liu Zongyuan, Yuan Jie, Yongzhou.
INTRODUCTION
Searching for a better way to create a living environment in nature has been one of the primary tasks for
architects and urban planners over the last few decades, especially as a result of rapid urban sprawl and the
ruthless destruction to nature. In the 1960s, McHarg’s DESIGN WITH NATURE brought an ecological view to
the traditional field of planning and design in the western world. He declared that we should design with
nature to express the potential harmony of man-nature, because nature is not antagonistic to the city or to
man but indispensable ingredients of a humane environment (McHarg 1969, p. 5). He noticed the empirical
ecological values embodied within the ancient history and culture of Japan. However, the tradition of
“Design With Nature” was indeed formed much earlier in ancient China.
With deep respect, understanding, and conformance to nature, the ancient Chinese believed that they
should arrange, repair and improve the natural environment in an active but abstemious way, so as to create
an ideal living environment. Practices were widely guided by the above concept and a complete system of
theory and methodology was gradually formed. This tradition of Design With Nature had already existed for
thousands of years. However, it was severely overlooked due to the subversive impact of Western culture
and technology in the last century. Only until recent years, due to the growing man-made damage to nature
and the increasing cultural confidence, the Chinese finally “rediscovered” the treasures found in ancient
tradition and wisdom.
Intellectual architects were, in actuality, pioneers in the practice and theoretical development of Design With
Nature in ancient China. Understanding this allows for us to reconsider the above tradition. In particular, the
intellectuals of the Tang dynasty (618-907) played an important role in terms of both the amount of practice
and profundity of theoretical thinking that they carried out. These intellectuals inherited an aesthetic
appreciation of nature from their predecessors in the Wei-Jin period, and their rich experience accumulated
in the process of large-scale development in southern China. The increasing population of this group and
the formation of their particular lifestyle and cultural aspiration all contributed to the practice of Design With
Nature of this period, both economically and culturally.
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Instead of discussing this in a macro view, I would rather give some concrete examples of intellectual
architects who were active between 8th-9th century, focusing on HOW and WHY they planned and designed
with nature. Liu Zongyuan , 773-819) and Yuan Jie , 719-772) are two such notable figures. Despite his fame
as the pioneer of the Guwen movement and a tragic politician relegated to a provincial position, Liu
Zongyuan was also a prolific architect and theorist. He widely participated in planning and design in his ten-
year exile in Yongzhou, where the rich landscape significantly contributed to and enhanced his practice.
Yuan Jie, 54years older than Liu, was remembered much as a passionate litterateur and a loyal official who
once participated in putting down the An-Shi Rebellion. He was the governor of Daozhou (道州) and led the
planning and design of this region with great creativity and an intense fondness for the landscape. His work
could have deeply affected Liu 40 years later, and they were both important representatives of Tang dynasty
intellectual architects who believed in and practiced Design With Nature. Most importantly, their planning
and design theories continue to have an impact on posterity as passed down through their literatures.
In this paper, the two architects’ practices in Yongzhou region will be introduced first. Next, their
representative works of the same scale will be examined in detail, in order to summarize their common
design principles and theories. The impact of their works made on later intellectual architects will then be
briefly discussed. Finally, this age-old tradition and its contemporary value will be summarized in conclusion.
YUAN JIE AND LIU ZONGYUAN’S PLANNING AND DESIGN IN YONGZHOU
Yongzhou in the 8th century: an Experimental Field for the intellectual architects
Before discussing Yuan and Liu’s planning and design practice, it is necessary to briefly introduce their
Experimental Field -- Yongzhou region. In this article it refers to the main part of Yongzhou and Daozhou in
the Tang dynasty, which later merged into the bigger Yongzhouprefecturein the Ming dynasty (Figure
1).This region is located in today’s southern Hunan province, touching upon Guangdong and Guangxi
provinces to the south. In the Tang dynasty, being distant and inaccessible from central China, this region
was sparsely populated and less developed. It was also a concentrated area to which the government would
assign relegated officials. There were surely evildoers among this relegated group, however a significant
portion were loyal and talented intellectuals who were simply unfortunately persecuted as political victims.
They brought advanced ideas and techniques from the capital to these remote regions, which greatly
improved the living environment there.
Despite being faraway and less-developed, Yongzhou was endowed with an excellent natural environment.
Three mountains, some of which belong to the Five Ridges, such as Mengzhu and Dupang Mountains, divide
Yongzhou into two basins, and the Xiao river (潇水) and Xiang river (湘水) run though most of the region.
Karst topography, springs and streams were particularly rich here. The diverse landscape and spatial scale,
completely different from those of central China, deeply fascinated the officials and visitors who came here,
some of whom were even determined to settle down forever. The landscape also inspired the intellectual
architects’ desire for creation, and provided perfect resource for their Design With Nature. Among these
architects, Yuan Jie and Liu Zongyuan were particularly outstanding.
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Figure 1: Yongzhou and Daozhou in the Tang dynasty
Yuan Jie’s practice as a Prefectural Cishi(刺史 )

Yuan Jie was appointed Daozhou cishi when he was 45-years-old in 763 AD. In his three-year tenure as the
governor, his planning and design practice included two main aspects: firstly, he focused on the
construction of public infrastructure. When he first arrived in Daozhou, the region had just experienced a
horrible invasion by the western barbarians. The city was destroyed and people lost their homes. Yuan
presided over the post-war reconstruction immediately, such as building houses and dividing the farmlands
(Ouyang 1975, p. 4686). After the reconstruction, he planned and built the Shun Temple as an important
place and facility for education and public moralization (Yuan 1960, p. 127). The ancient emperor Shun ( ),
who is considered to be a moral paragon, is believed to have died and buried at the Jiuyi Mountain in
Daozhou.
Secondly, as a litterateur with strong interest in landscapes, he also dedicated himself to discover and build
sceneries all over this area, such as Han Ting and Yanghua Rock in the Jianghua county, Wazun Rock,
YouStream, SevenSpring, ShiyuLake and WuruRock in Daozhou, Chaoyang Rock in Yongzhou, as well as
several other sceneries around Wu Stream in Qiyang county (Yuan 1960). On one hand, Yuan loved this
scenery so much that he couldn’t bear seeing their existence in the wilderness without being given a name.
On the other hand, the names were chosen for special moral meaning, well acknowledged as an important
approach for moral education. For example, he named five springs after five virtues, including benefit ( ),
loyalty ( ), filial piety ( ), honesty ( ), and uprightness ( ), so as to remind people of these virtues (Yuan 1960,
p. 147). After discovering these natural sceneries, he also made further designs to enhance the place. Taking
You Stream (右溪) for example, it used to be a beautiful but nameless stream against the west city wall. Yuan
dredged the channel, cleared the bank, built pavilions along the stream, and planted pine and vanilla, then
he gave the name You according to its location with regard to the city (Yuan 1960, p. 146). Thus a public river
park was created out of a wasteland. His design for his own house nearby the WuStream (浯溪) was much
more representative of his ideas and skills in terms of Design With Nature, which will be discussed later in
this paper.
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Liu Zongyuan’s practice as a Prefectural Sima (司马 )
Liu Zongyuan had earned fame in literature and politics when he was young. He participated in the
Yongzhen Reform as a LibuYuanwaiat age 32, but failed in the end. As a result Liu was relegated to the
position of Yongzhou Sima, where he served for ten years. Although he kept trying to return to the Capital,
he only received a slight promotion to Liuzhou Cishi, where he eventually died after four years of service. The
days in Yongzhou seemed endless and miserable, but he finally found peace and consolation from its
wonderful landscape, which brought him abundant experience with nature and the joy of planning and
design with it.
As a sinecure Sima, Liu wasn't responsible for city planning and infrastructure construction, but he was very
interested in these public affairs. He wrote many articles on projects carried out by his friends, such as the
government office designed by Wei Cishi, the WanShi garden by Cui Cishi, the Three-Pavilion park by Xue in
Yongzhou, and the public school and Confucius Temple by Xue Cishi in Daozhou (Figure 2). Their ideas
regarding planning and design were of particular concern in his articles.
Liu also designed his own habitation. He lodged in the west wing of Longxing Temple (龙兴寺) when he first
arrived in Yongzhou. The room lacked daylight but had an excellent view westwards. Therefore, Liu opened
up a window in the west wall, and built a pavilion just outside. With just a little change, he improved the
lighting situation and borrowed distant mountains and rivers as scenery (Liu 1979, p. 751). As such, he
started to enjoy the fun of design. Later he moved to Fahua Temple (法华寺) which occupied the highest
position in the city. Liu cleaned up the messy plants on the west hillside and created a broad vision (Liu 1979,
p. 749). After five years of struggling to return to Chang’an (长安) but failing ultimately, he accepted the
reality and decided to build his own house in Yongzhou. Just as Yuan Jie, Liu completed the site selection
and overall layout all by himself, according to his ideal living environment (Figure 2).
With sensitive insight and imagination, Liu Zongyuan also discovered new landscapes in Yongzhou. The
most notable ones would be the eight sceneries west of the Xiao River (Figure2). He recorded his discovery
and creations in a group of prose, the Eight Essays of Yongzhou. This collection has such an important
position in the history of ancient Chinese literature that the eight sceneries even became iconic symbols of
Yongzhou’s landscape.
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Figure 2: The locations of design projects from Liu Zongyuan and his friends as recorded in his articles
TWO REPRESENTATIVE WORKS OF “DESIGN WITH NATURE” BY YUAN JIE AND LIU ZONGYUAN
To further examine their ideas and methods of Design With Nature, we need two typical and comparable
examples. The best choice is their own residence gardens ( ) located in Yongzhou, which were considered
as representative works in terms of both designing practice and theoretical exploring.
Yuan Jie’s design: the Three-WU (三吾 ) residence garden

Yuan had a dream of seclusion after retirement, partly because of his deep fondness for landscape. He had
always been looking for an ideal place in Yongzhou area, and finally he found the WuSteam in Qiyang
county.
This was a little stream that flowed northwards into the Xiang River, not far away from Qiyang city. About 60
meters northeast of the stream stands a hill with steep cliffs along the river, about 200 meters in length and
30-40 meters in height, which Yuan called Guaishi ( ). It is very noticeable while sailing along the Xiang
River (Figure 3), which was the only path going northward from Daozhou at that time. More than once Yuan
must have visited the place and became deeply attracted by its natural landscape. As he highly praised it in a
poem, “located east of the Xiang River in northern Yongzhou, the Wu Stream has the most beautiful
landscape in all of Hunan Province” (Yuan 1960, p. 46). Around 766AD, Yuan finally made the decision to
settle down there.
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Figure 3: The Guaishi Hill as viewed from the Xiang River(Li 2013 p. 68).
Figure 4 The plan of Yuan Jie’s Three-WU residence garden.
His planning, designing and building of the residence garden lasted for 5 to 6 years. The process could be
logically divided into the following four basic steps:
STEP 1: select the three WU as the framework for the overall design
The name Three-WU refers to the Wu Stream, Wu Platform (峿台) and Wu Pavilion ( 庼), which were the
earliest discoveries and creations of Yuan, and became the natural framework for the following design. After
discovering the stream and naming it WU (浯), Yuan turned to the Guaishi hill. It is highest at its east end,
where it provides the best vantage point of the river and the distant landscape. Yuan therefore made a
platform and also named it WU( ). Between the stream and the hill, there was another little hill, much
smaller in size, but more vertical in form. With the stream to the left, the hill to the right, and the river in the
front, Yuan loved its unique position, and built a pavilion right on top, again naming it WU ( ). These three
different characters of WU were Yuan’s creation, by adding different radicals—mountain (山), water (水) and
roof ( )--to the original WU ( ), which means Mine in Chinese. Thus the three WUs embody the meaning of
My stream, My platform, and My Pavilion. It shows that Yuan loved these scenes so much that he proudly
declared his ownership over them. But from another aspect, the Three-WU also belongs to anyone who
reads about it or sees it, just like a gift from Yuan to each and every visitor.
STEP 2: plan buildings in the vicinity of the three WU.

Later, Yuan built his own house- the Middle House ( )- in front of Guaishi hill, facing south, which was
considered the barrier against the river. On a relatively flat ground halfway up the hill, he built another
house for the guests, facing east. As its location relative to the Middle House, it was named the Right House.
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STEP 3: discover scenery and design the garden.

Yuan continued to discover and name sceneries around the houses, such as the East Cliff, Rocky Screen,
Rocky Gate, Cold Spring and soon. However he still paid much attention to the Guaishi Hill, especially the flat
ground half way up, where he built the Right House. Climbing rocky stairs from the southwest edge of the
hill, he found this place. It was narrow and tortuous with rocks and plants scattered all over. He planted more
pine and bamboo, and built pavilions at proper spots to reinforce the sense of tortuousness. On the east end
of the hill where he built the Wu Platform, Yuan was pursuing a sense of broadness. The contrast of these
two extreme spatial sensations on the same hill marks the highlight of Yuan’s design.
STEP 4: inscribe in the natural landscape.

This is the final yet very important step. Yuan wrote articles for all of his designs to record his discovery and
creation, and to eulogize the moral spirits extracted from nature. He intentionally selected specific rocky
walls to inscribe these writings. All of them were hard enough and uniquely shaped to resist the weathering
(Figure 5). His best work was the Da Tang Zhong Xing Song (carved on the most visible cliff of the hill, facing
the river (Figure 7). This is a eulogy about the resurgence of Tang dynasty, written before his arrival in
Daozhou. The rocky surface perfect for this inscription may have been one of the reasons why Yuan decided
to settle down around the Wu Stream. The cliff inscription became an immortal masterpiece in history owing
to its excellent literature, calligraphy and the aesthetic nature of the rock, furthermore, for its perfect
integration of Humanity and the Natural environment.
Figure 5: The uniquely shaped rocks selected by Yuan Jie for his inscriptions of three-WU.
Liu Zongyuan’s design: the Eight-YU(八愚 ) residence garden

As stated above, Liu decided to build his own house after five years of lodging in temples. Same as Yuan, he
followed a stream to select an ideal site. It was a little stream that flowed eastward into the Xiao River,
directly facing the west gate of Yongzhou city. About 1 kilometer upstream from the estuary, Liu found the
perfectsite (Liu 1979, p. 642).
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Figure 6: The conceptual plan of Liu Zongyuan’s Eight-YU residence garden.
Liu planned eight essential elements to compose his ideal living environment: stream, hill, spring, ditch,
pond, hall, pavilion and island (Figure 6). He named all of them with YU, therefore the residence garden was
called the Eight-YU. The first four elements were all of natural existence, and were elaborately selected by Liu
as the fundamental condition of the design. Then he built a pond to reserve the spring water, around which
he built a hall to the east and a pavilion to the south. He even created a small island in the middle of the
pond. Adding a variety of plants, an interesting residence garden finally came to shape (Liu 1979, p. 642).
Furthermore, Liu discovered eight sceneries (recorded in the Eight Essays of Yongzhou) within walking
distance from his house. In his mind, the eight sceneries and eight YU composed an integral living
environment, and their relationship resembled that of the city and the scattering scenic spots in its outskirts.
As such, Liu Zongyuan took a further step beyond Yuan Jie’s work.
THE COMMON PRINCIPLES OF THEIR DESIGN
Comparing the above two examples, 40 years apart and about 50 kilometers away from each other, we may
find some common principles in their planning and design:
First of all, the sites were selected Along the Stream and Against the Hill. In both cases, the Stream and
Hill were regarded as the requirement for site-selection, and became the most important elements of the
whole design. At a functional level, the stream provides water for life, and implies convenient transport;
while the hill and surrounding high ground help to protect against flood, invasion and bad weather, serving
as a natural barrier for the living environment. At a symbolic level, the Stream and Hill are the embodiment of
Shan-Shui on a smaller scale. In the Chinese concept, Shan-Shui is not a wild and emotionless natural sense,
but a vivacious world made up of human’s life ideals in contrast with the Ritual Space. Shan (Mountain) and
Shui (Water) were also given specific human characters due to their physical properties: water for
incorruptness, nourishment and consolation, while mountain for firmness, transcendence and broad-
mindedness. Because of these symbolic meanings, mountain and water are well beloved by Chinese
intellectuals from ancient times to this day, and always emerge in their ideal living environments.
Yuan’s Three-WU residence garden Liu’s Eight-YU residence garden

Time About 766 A.D. About 810 A.D.
Location By theWu-stream in the south of By the Yu-stream in the west of
Qiyang city Yongzhou city
Elements Platform/Guaishi hill(Shan) Hill(Shan)
Stream(Shui) Stream, Spring, Ditch(Shui)
Pavilion(House) Hall(House)
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Pond, Island, Pavilion(Garden)
Structural
Model
Table 1: The comparison of Yuan Jie and Liu Zongyuan’s residence garden.
Secondly, they established the structural model for an ideal living environment as expressed in the
design
The Three-WU and Eight-YU were both abstract structures of living environment made by the architects. In
Yuan Jie’s Three-WU structure, the stream, platform, and pavilion symbolized water, mountain and house
respectively, and their relationship suggests the ideal of Living in the Landscape. Forty years later, more
elements and even more complicated relationships appeared in Liu Zongyuan’s Eight-YU structure. The
eight elements could be classified into four basic aspects of living environment: Shan (hill), Shui (stream,
spring, ditch), House (hall), and Garden (pond, island, pavilion). Shan and Shui symbolize our natural
environment, while House and Garden are the artificial environments, of which Liu paid much more
attention to. His structure also presents more space-levels. For instance the stream and hill indicate a large-
scale survival environment, the pond and island belong to a medium-scale activity environment, while the
hall and pavilion show a small-scale dwelling environment (Table 1, Figure 6).
Thirdly, the designs were based on and for enhancing features of the natural environment
Nature was respected as the basis and foundation for the whole design in both examples. Their creation was
aimed at promoting nature’s unique strength and for repairing certain defects through restrained man-
made efforts, but certainly without large-scale constructions.
Lastly, both sites implanted meaning into the natural environment through naming and inscribing
To the ancient Chinese intellectuals, planning and design living environments was considered as a practical
approach to express their ideas about life and art, same as writing, versing and painting. Through writing
and inscribing their thoughts into the landscape, a meaningful place was made out of the silent and ordinary
nature. For example, the cliff inscription of Da Tang Zhong Xing Song around the Wu stream is still visible
today (Figure 7). It constantly tells the story of Yuan, his time and his faith, through which the figure and
spirit permanently exists within a specific natural environment.
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Figure7: The inscription of Da Tang Zhong Xing Song.
Liu Zongyuan might have been affected by Yuan Jie’s work and idea from the latter’s writings 40 years later
(although there exists no clear evidence that Liu had ever visited Yuan’s garden). Similarly, the above
common principles might have been studied by later intellectual architects and employed in their designs
owing to the wide spread nature of their writings, which formed the design tradition among ancient
intellectual architects.
LIU ZONGYUAN’S THEORY OF DESIGN
Compared to Yuan Jie, Liu Zongyuan is more of a theorist, and much more prolific and articulate when
elaborating his practice and thinking. Based on his planning and design experience in Yongzhou from both
his friends and his own works, Liu made further studies into certain theoretical issues, which were recorded
in close to 40 pieces of writing (according to preliminary statistics).Although these articles mainly focused on
politics and morality, his insight and thoughts about planning and design could not be concealed. The
author of this paper has elaborated Liu’s design theory in an earlier article (Sun 2012), and will briefly state
his main ideas as follows.
Regarding his attitude toward artificial construction within nature, he believed that:
(a) Man should arrange and polish the natural environment to achieve a better living environment. In his
view, all the planning and design practice from his friends and his own followed the basic procedure:
discover- clean up - repair - embellish.
(b) The artificial construction should pursue the ecological harmony of man-nature. In his words, "to
followthe natural landform, preserve its unique feature, and minimize human labor" (Liu 1979, p. 732). He
advocated keeping the original beauty and richness of nature, that is, "flourishing the forests without
planting, and enriching the biodiversity without breeding" (Liu 1979, p. 737), which corresponded with the
modern ecological concepts.
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(c) Man could and should improve the natural environment at the spiritual and moral levels. He once
wrote that, "in the place where a gentleman built and lived, the mountain might seem higher, the water
broader, and the architecture more splendid without decoration” (Liu 1979, p. 723). It indicates that the
human spirit plays an important role in improving the natural environment. In turn, wonderful landscape
edifies man as well.
He also proposed specific principles and methods about planning and design, such as:
(a) A suitable natural environment is extremely important for human settlements. Firstly the site should be
close to water and established on high ground. Secondly there should be enough open space and attractive
features. Of course certain conditions should be avoided, for example, desolate places are unsuitable for
living.
(b) The high position in a living environment has great functional and aesthetic significance, so it deserves
more consideration and should be highlighted in the whole planning and design.
(c) The planners and architects should make full use of the natural features of the site to create a better
environment that is "following the landform to achieve scenery" (Liu 1979, p. 751). If there are beautiful
sceneries somewhere around the site, they should be artfully borrowed as a distant component of the whole
environment, just like his design at Longxing Temple.
(d) Liu summarized different spatial experiences into two opposite type, which he named KUANG ( ) and
AO . If one climbs up to the mountaintop and experiences the broad open space, he feels the joy of KUANG. If
he walks down to the valley or deep in a lush forest, he experiences the narrowness and tortuousness of
space, which is the joy of AO (Liu 1979, p. 738). Liu believed that different spatial experiences should be
strengthened through proper design, rather than to deny natural tastes.
(e) Liu believed that man’s communication with nature is multi-dimensioned, not only in visual but also
auditory, tactile, olfactory, emotional, and spiritual ways. The architect should employ a variety of methods
to enrich the experiences of environment. For example in Liu’s design at Gumu Pond, he simply elevated the
spring. As such he achieved an amplified brawl (audition), extended white water-flow (vision), splash (touch),
and cool breath (olfactory) at the same time. Then he raised the platform and lengthened it into the middle
of the lake, making the visitors further involved in the well-designed environment. Sound, color, image,
smell, as well as the weather and the visitor’s subjective imagination, overall composed a dramatic place full
of artistic conception. From here we could say that Liu is indeed a master of design with extraordinary
perception and great skills.
(f) He also believed that the unique insight of the architects, as well as their understanding, imagination
and skills, are all central to the design. He once said that, “nature couldn’t tell its beauty. It is the man who
discovers and enhances the nature, and makes it a wonderful place" (Liu 1979, p. 729). These concerns of the
architects are indeed quite advanced considering that they took place 1200 years ago.
THE INFLUENCE OF YUAN JIE AND LIUZONGYUAN IN PRACTICE AND THEORY
In essence, Yuan and Liu’s practices in Yongzhou attempted to search for a mode of planning and design in a
specific area with rich and beautiful landscape. Their designs were apparently considered as the paradigm
for the later architects in Yongzhou area (Liu 1992). Almost all of the following designs made by the
intellectuals there have specific connections with Yuan and Liu’s methods. For example, another notable
relegated official in the history of Yongzhou, Wang Zao, 1079-1154), built his own house on the west city
wall, directly facing the Yu stream across the Xiao River, showing great respect for Liu Zongyuan (Liu 1992, p.
538). Its location, On Top of the City Wall and Beside the River, was obviously a response to the site-selection
principle as proposed in the works of Yuan and Liu. Another example was Song Rong creation of the New
Three-WU around WuStream, as a continuation of Yuan’s work. Song was the governor of Qiyang county in
Qianlong period of Qing dynasty. His New-Three-WU (Wu Rock, Wu Pond and Wu House) (Gui 2004, p. 92)
obviously imitated Yuan’s original structure with some additional elements.
Even in the entire history of planning and design in ancient China, Yuan and Liu’s Design With Nature was
certainly a notable event. They might be the first to have extracted the basic structures of an ideal living
environment and produced preliminary theories of Design With Nature. Owing to their personal charisma
and literary attainments, their works and thoughts were so widespread that few intellectuals after Tang
dynasty were unaware of their designs in Yongzhou. Some scholars even pointed out that the Eight-
Sceneries, which has prevailed since the Southern Song dynasty, can be said to have originated from Liu
Zongyuan’s Eight Essays of Yongzhou, which more or less suggests the two’s influence. While some believe
that a mature theory of Landscape Architecture had not been developed until Ji Cheng’s Yuan Ye ( ) of the
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Ming dynasty, however, a majority of relevant theories obviously have already been produced by Yuan Jie
and Liu Zongyuan during their stay in Yongzhou.
CONCLUSION AND INSPIRATION
Looking back at the planning and design in 8th-9th century from today’s perspective, the techniques applied
are indeed outdated, but the concept of Design With Nature continues to be valuable and relevant,
deserving more consideration particularly in the contemporary society.
The philosophical basis of the above practice was the grand beliefs from Confucianism, that humans have
the ability and responsibility to help advance and humanize the wild nature, which essentially reflected the
Chinese belief of love and faith towards life. Therefore, these intellectuals treasured the natural landscape
from the bottom of heart, and dreamed of living in harmony with nature. They therefore devoted
themselves to the practice of planning and design with nature. In terms of the above introduction of Yuan
Jie and Liu Zongyuan, their practice and theory basically focused on the following aspects:
• Selecting those natural environments with rich resources, ideal landscape, and beautiful sceneries;
• Based on, and making the best use of the natural terrain, elevation, orientation, and scenery in
planning and design, aiming at utilizing and strengthening the unique features of the environment;
• Discovering and creating sceneries with deep affection and compassion that could not bear seeing
their existence in the wild nature without a name.
• Planting human idea and morality into the natural environment through inscription, making it a
meaningful place.
• Searching for the Basic Structure of an ideal living environment particularly in harmony with nature,
and representing the philosophy in their planning and design practice.
Today, it is a consensus that humans should change their relationship with nature, after tasting the
bitterness from nature for our own evil-doings. Change should not be made only at the technique level, but
also in concept and value. This belief is consistent with McHarg’s advocacy half century ago. The fact that
this conceptual transformation is already emerging in recent national policies in China is something we
should be happy about, such as the Ecological Civilization Strategy that was officially proposed in the
Government Work Report in 2007, and a much more concrete target was set in the Central Work Conference
on Urbanization in 2013, that “we should plan and build cities with great respect and conformance to
nature, protect its unique landscape structure and design closely with it, so that its inhabitant could see the
mountain and river, and remember the sense of home” (People’s Daily 2013). Fortunately, we have an old
tradition of Design With Nature for thousands of years, and precious wisdom accumulated from abundant
experiences, from philosophy to the specific principles and skills. The two examples discussed in this article
showed the ideal living environment of ancient intellectual architects and their efforts of realizing it. We
could see that these architects were not restricted in the narrow field of designing buildings; however, they
considered How To Create A Better Living Environment In And With the Nature as the mission. Therefore they
considered the entire process with a broad vision, from site-selection, overall layout, to detailed design, as
well as the structural analysis and expression. Their concerns about the man-nature relationship, and their
creation born out of wisdom and affection, were particularly worthy of great respect and further studies by
contemporary architects, as we all face the same man-nature issues.
(Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51378272) and the Postdoctoral Science
Foundation of China (No.2014M550737).
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EVOLUTION OF CHOICE OF OPTIMAL EXTERNAL FINISHES AND ROOFING FOR SCHOOL BUILDINGS: A
STUDY OF SELECTED NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES
Abstract
This study analysed the evolution of choice of optimal external finishes and roofing in Nigerian universities. The
study traced the evolution of Nigerian architecture through the historical style and traditional architecture, to the
colonial, modern and late modern styles; and the postmodern trend. The paper further documented the
characteristics of the architecture found in Nigerian universities, and the evolution of choice of external finishes
and roofing in these universities. It highlighted the challenges faced by architects over time, and the responses,
innovations and failures in the quest to optimise choice of finishes and roofing. The field studies covered
representative buildings, such as senate buildings, lecture theatres, auditoria and faculty buildings; and these
were analysed in several representative universities. A comparative analysis of these universities revealed certain
trends that gave a national perspective to the problem of sub-optimization of choice of external finishes and
roofing in the universities, irrespective of age, ownership structure or specialization. The study recommended
better adaptation to climate, the use of materials that age without decaying, use of organic and sustainable
materials, lifecycle approach to estimating cost of finishes, and increased use of high-energy materials for
cladding.
Keywords: architecture, external finishes, Nigeria, school buildings, university buildings.
INTRODUCTION
The first generation of Nigerian universities were established around independence in 1960, which
coincided with the flowering of the international style, and these were designed largely by British and
foreign architects. Nigerian architects returning from training abroad and indigenous architects contributed
more significantly to the architecture of later-generation, technology, agriculture, specialist, state-owned
and private universities. The architectural style also evolved from pure modern into the low-trop, high-trop,
nouveau-riche, late modern and postmodern trends.
Overlaying all these were the civil war, the oil boom, the indigenisation policy, the Structural Adjustment
Programme (SAP), political misadventures, the re-emergence of democratic rule, and the emergence of
nationalist indigenous architects. This technological and socio-economic roller coaster was reflected in the
architecture of university buildings. A particularly interesting aspect was the attempt by architects to design
buildings more compatible with the Nigerian climate, using mostly low building technology, local building
materials, and distributed ventilation, air-conditioning and plumbing systems. While some designs were
successful, many of these buildings were architectural disasters, and the university landscape became
dominated by poorly designed, badly constructed and infrequently maintained structures (Ogunsote &
Prucnal-Ogunsote 2006).
EVOLUTION OF NIGERIAN ARCHITECTURE
The evolution of Nigerian Architecture from pre-colonial to contemporary times was presented in the
classification of Nigerian architecture by Prucnal-Ogunsote (1994). It portrayed the historical style
(represented by the European, Brazilian and North African trends), traditional architecture, the modern style
(comprising the international and the New West African styles) and the postmodern trend (Figure 1).
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Figure 1. The evolution of Nigerian Architecture (Source: Prucnal-Ogunsote 2001).
The historical style and traditional architecture

The strongest influences on indigenous architecture were the introduction of Islam into northern Nigeria,
the return of ex-slaves from the Americas (especially Brazil), and colonization. The historical style consists of
the European trend followed by the colonial style. The Brazilian trend evolved into the Brazilian style while
the North African trend evolved into Sudanese architecture. The blend of traditional architecture and the
historical style formed vernacular architecture.
The historical style reveals how architects can draw inspiration from historical heritage as evidenced by the
regional trend in contemporary Nigerian architecture. There was a very weak link between the historical
style (including traditional architecture), and contemporary modern architecture of Nigeria.
The colonial style

The European influence on Nigerian architecture increased with the establishment of colonial rule.
Corrugated iron sheeting and cement have had perhaps the greatest impact. The colonial style was most
distinctly represented by public and administrative buildings from that era. These were reminiscent of the
classic revival in England with the classic orders carved out of walls to give impressive scale. Colonial houses
were usually either imported 18th century houses of the English countryside or prefabricated construction
with deep verandas and overhanging eaves. These were sometimes raised on stilts. They usually had a
continuous horizontal band of windows. Later designs were heavier since they were made of cement blocks
and the windows were smaller.
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The modern style
The modern style became popular by the late 1930s and in the 1960s modern design concepts were used as
a symbol of progress though these were not always compatible with the culture or climate of Nigeria. Much
sensitivity to the climate was however demonstrated in some university buildings including the Department
of Nursing, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, by Design Group Nigeria (Plate 1). The natural ventilation and sun
shading achieved remains exemplary.
Plate 1. Department of Nursing, University of Ibadan (1967) by Design Group Nigeria. (Source: Photograph by the
authors, October 2005).
The pure modern style

The pure modern style has an idealistic approach with elements trying to attain perfection and deeper
meaning. It is functionalism with all its characteristics but with a pure character (Plate 2).
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Plate 2. University Bookshop, University of Ibadan (1960s) by Design Group Nigeria. (Source: Photograph by the
authors, October 2005.
The late modern style

This style is reminiscent of the extreme of the international style but with better response to the culture,
climate and economy. This pragmatic and technocratic architecture was well represented in Nigerian
university architecture by the Faculties of Law and of Social Sciences buildings at the Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife (Plate 3) which provided extra shadow on the elevations by drastically projecting the roof
canopy.
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Plate 3. Faculty of Law (left) and Faculty of Social Sciences (right), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Source:
Photograph by the authors, circa 2004).
The postmodern trend

A popular example of the postmodern trend is the Oduduwa Hall at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
(Plate 4).
Plate 4. Oduduwa Hall by AMY, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Source: Photograph by the authors,
February 2007).
The low-trop style

Low-trop architecture represents architecture for the poor. Although it satisfied the basic functional needs, it
had low aesthetic value. It is architecture by draughtsmen with the buildings usually one or two storeys
high. Local materials and labour were used to minimize the construction cost.
CLASSIFICATION OF NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES
Nigerian universities can be classified by age, ownership and specialization.
Classification by age
Nigerian universities are generally grouped into four generations. The classification is based on the time
frame and economic situation as presented in Table 1. Most respected are first generation universities
including the famous Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and University of
Lagos, Lagos (Plates 5 - 7).
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Plate 5. Senate Building by Egbor and Associates, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (Source: Photograph by the
authors, September 2005).
Plate 6. Department of Architecture (1976) by Design Group Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Source:
Photograph by the authors, February 2007).
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Plate 7. Senate Building by James Cubitt and Partners, University of Lagos, Lagos (Source: Photograph by the
authors, circa 2008).
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Table 1. Classification of Nigerian universities by age.
Generation Time frame Number of Comments

Universities
First 1948-1970 5 Established following the recommendations of the

Ashby Commission set up by the British Colonial
Government to meet the manpower demands of the
country.
Second 1971-1980 12 Established in response to the growing needs for

scientific and technological development.
Third 1981-1990 13 They addressed special areas of technology and

agriculture.
Fourth 1991 to date 98 State universities, open universities and private

universities. The federal government also established
some new universities.
Total 128
(Source: Adapted from Ajayi and Ekundayo 2008; Nwagwu & Agarin 2008; United States Diplomatic Mission to
Nigeria 2014).
Classification by ownership
Nigerian universities are owned by federal and state governments, and by private organizations, religious
organizations and individuals (Table 2).
Federal universities
The universities are solely funded by the Federal Government. They continue to play a role in setting
national standards and in provision of manpower needed for development. The universities witnessed
unprecedented growth with a variety of architectural concepts especially during the economically buoyant
periods. The materials and the external finishes used for the construction of these buildings were largely
determined by funding.
State-owned universities
These were established by state governments to further spread educational opportunities and also to fulfil
the political agendas of politicians. The buoyancy of the economy of each state directly affected the
provision of infrastructure in these universities.
Private and mission universities

The Federal Government established a law in 1993 allowing the private sector to establish universities
(United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria 2014). These universities were often profit-making ventures, but
they were closely monitored by the National Universities Commission (NUC) for adherence to standards. The
best ones often exhibited flamboyant architecture to attract students (Plate 8). At the other end of the
spectrum, the worst ones accommodated students in little better than sheds.
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Plate 8. College of Science and Technology, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State (Source: Photograph by the
authors, August 2008).
Table 2. Classification of Nigerian universities by ownership.
Ownership Number of Universities
Federal government 40
State government 38
Private individuals and organizations 50
Total 128
(Source: Adapted from National Universities Commission 2014; United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria 2014).
Classification by specialization
Most Nigeria universities are non-specialized, and they run courses in the arts, social sciences, sciences,
engineering, medicine, et cetera. A few were established to advance technological education and
agricultural development, as well as to support the petroleum sector. Others cater to the special needs of
the armed forces, and these include colleges for the Nigerian Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Police.
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Table 3. Classification of Nigerian universities by specialization.
Category of university Number Comments
Non-specialized 102 Includes all first generation universities
Specialized (technological, 17 Includes Universities of Technology and Universities of

agricultural, professional) Science & Technology.
Universities of Technology (15)
Universities of Agriculture (2)
Military 9 Military colleges (7)

Police college (1)
Aviation colleges (1)
Total 128
(Source: Adapted from National Universities Commission 2014).
THE ARCHITECTURE OF NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES
The architecture of Nigerian universities and especially of the first generation universities tended to be
iconic and was seen as symbol of excellence and modernity by society. Many of the more unique buildings
were designed by the most renowned Nigerian architecture firms, although many of these had foreign
partners and staff.
Characteristics of the colonial style in Nigerian universities

This style has survived mainly in staff housing. The buildings tended to be surrounded by large gardens and
many of their features enhanced passive cooling. Their most distinctive characteristics were:
1. Steep roofs for proper drainage and to provide a cushion of air within the roof structure. This acted
as an insulator between the corrugated asbestos roofing sheets and the asbestos ceiling tiles.
2. High ceilings.
3. Large overhanging eaves casting extra shadow on the building envelope.
4. Relatively small windows that provided adequate illumination inside.
5. Thick walls that act as heat sinks.
6. White coloured facades for sun reflection.
7. Deep verandas allowing comfortable outdoor activities.
External finishes and roofing used in the colonial style in Nigerian universities
The most common roofing materials were corrugated asbestos and galvanised steel roofing sheets. Roofing
tiles were less common. A lot of timber was used, especially for structural roof members, doors, and
windows. Hollow sandcrete (Portland cement and sand) blocks in six and nine-inch widths were popularized.
This was plastered with a mixture of sand and cement, and usually finished with emulsion paint. Stone was
used extensively for external walls, and the plaster used to bind the stones often painted with black or white
emulsion paint in a characteristic pattern.
Characteristics of the pure modern style in Nigerian universities

A good example of the pure modern style is the University Bookshop at the University of Ibadan which was
designed by Design Group Nigeria (Plate 2). It had an elegant form, good detailing, and was a manifestation
of the principles of functionalism with clean forms and simplicity. The parapet wall and the almost flat roof
seemed to hover over a fragile glazed elevation which in turn ‘grew’ directly from the ground surface.
External finishes and roofing used in the pure modern style in Nigerian universities
Large areas of fixed (picture) windows were quite common, and central air conditioning and ventilation
plants were always provided. There was little or no provision for natural ventilation, and many spaces had
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only artificial lighting. Béton brut was common, as were textured external wall finishes and brick facing. The
use of emulsion paints necessitated annual repainting of many buildings.
This style was dominated by the use of flat concrete roofs with minimal slope and with felting used for
waterproofing. For smaller structures, these concrete slabs were replaced by timber beams with plywood
sheeting covered with felting, as in the staff club, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. These roofs were usually
hidden behind large parapet walls. When pitched roofs were used, they had small slopes, and were covered
with corrugated long-span aluminium sheets or corrugated cement and asbestos-based roofing sheets.
Characteristics of the late modern style in Nigerian universities

The Senate Building at the University of Lagos is a good example of the late modern style. James Cubitt and
Partners used waffle floors, wall tiles, and structural columns projected onto the front elevation in a
sophisticated way (Plate 7). They diversified the form by using different heights and by projecting a semi-
cylindrical form for the approach elevation. Similarly the Faculty of Science Complex at the University of
Lagos (1978) by Godwin Hopwood was a design with a very challenging site which was used to enhance the
ventilation within the complex. The sloping site was used in a way that allowed the penetration of the wind
into every building and good cross ventilation was provided.
External finishes and roofing used in the late modern style in Nigerian universities
A significant attempt was made to use local building materials and to use more durable finishes for external
walls. These materials included granite for walls, brick facing, textured weather-resistant acrylic paints, and
tyrolean (a cement-based textured exterior wall coating). The use of béton brut reduced significantly, and
the colours used were brighter and more contrasting, with patterns used as accents. Large glass areas were
replaced by smaller ones, and louvered windows which provided better ventilation gradually replaced
casement windows and fixed picture windows. Deji Oyenuga and Partners was especially adept at detailing
highly expressive and durable wall finishes, as in the use of smooth pebbles on external walls of the
Department of Biological Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (1973).
The use of flat concrete roofs diminished, with corrugated long span aluminium roofing sheets and
corrugated cement and asbestos based roofing sheets becoming more common. The use of parapet walls
also reduced significantly, and roofs were often brightly coloured and exposed. Even when concrete roofs
are used, they were more expressive and better drained, as in the Civil Engineering Department, Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Plate 9).
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Plate 9. Department of Civil Engineering by Niger Consultants, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Source:
Photograph by the authors, October 2005).
Characteristics of the low-trop style in Nigerian universities

The presence of the low-trop style in the landscape of Nigerian universities became most evident in the late
1980s when the economy started running down. The resources available were very limited and the
university authorities did not hesitate to use direct labour to provide essential buildings and infrastructure
for the ballooning student population. This was however at the expense of aesthetics, and often even of
functionality and durability. The architecture of this style was very pedestrian and uninspiring. It was simply
mediocre architecture.
External finishes and roofing used in the low-trop style in Nigerian universities
This style was dominated by the use of low-cost and less durable external finishes. The use of emulsion paint
was common, and this was easily washed away by the heavy rains. Fungal attack, especially in the more
humid regions, left extensive blemishes. There was far less maintenance, and architectural blight became
common.
Low-pitch timber roofs were used, and these were covered with corrugated galvanized roofing sheets, or
less commonly by low-gauge, painted (not anodized) long-span aluminium roofing sheets. These galvanized
roofing sheets often started rusting after a few years, and because of the thin gauge, leakage was common.
The low-quality aluminium sheets became discoloured after a few rainy seasons.
Retrogressive aspects of the low-trop style

The introduction of the low-trop style into the architecture of Nigerian universities was promoted by several
factors. There was a large increase in student admission, and pressure to provide more buildings. Meanwhile,
the funding decreased in real terms, and there was a period of several years when there was no budgetary
allocation (or no funds release), for capital projects. Many universities had to use internally generated
revenue or donations for construction work, and the preference was for ‘temporary’, poorly finished and
poorly equipped buildings. These buildings were usually designed as single-storey buildings, to avoid the
structural expertise required to design and construct floor slabs. They rarely had good landscaping. These
low-trop buildings were not iconic as expected of university buildings, and the low-cost building techniques
used reflected on the durability of their finishes (Plate 10). The local contractors engaged, primarily through
a political patronage system, also did not possess the expertise to construct durable buildings, and often
considered contracts as rewards, for which they were not willing to give much in return. The fact that these
emergency contractors did not have a name to protect did not help matters.
Plate 10. Multipurpose Hall donated to the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye. Note the shed-like
architecture and poor finishing (Source: Photograph by the authors, November 2005).
THE CLIMATIC DESIGN ZONES OF NIGERIA AND THE BUILDING ENVELOPE
Architectural climatic design zones are defined by the approximate boundaries where a change in the
climate and a change in thermal comfort requirements should be reflected in changed building form or
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changed building elements. These zones for Nigeria were defined by Ogunsote and Prucnal-Ogunsote
(2002) as the coastal, forest, transitional, savannah, highland and semi-desert zones. These zones were
developed along lines similar to those followed by Hosni (1978) and the method used the Sommerhof (1968)
definition of adaptation to establish the relation from the set of climates to the set of possible alternative
architectural responses such that given any element in the first set, one and only one element in the second
set results. The possible alternative architectural responses that might influence choice of external finishes
and roofing are size of openings, protection of openings, heat capacity of walls and floors, heat capacity of
roofs and rain protection. The possible alternative architectural responses for each design zone are shown in
table 4.
Table 4. Sketch design guidelines for adaptation of external finishes and roofing to climate in the architectural
climatic design zones of Nigeria.
Architectural climatic
design zone
Possible alternative architectural

Design criteria
responses
Transitional
Semi-desert
Savannah
Highland
Coastal
Forest
Large, 40-80% of wall area ●
Medium, 25-40% of wall area ● ●
Size of opening
Composite, 20-35% of wall area ● ●
Small, 15-25% of wall area ●
No special protection necessary
Protection of openings
Protect from rain and direct sunlight ● ● ● ● ● ●
Light, low heat capacity ● ●
Walls and Floors
Heavy, over 8 hours long time lag ● ● ● ●
Light, reflective surface and cavity ● ●
Roofs Light and well insulated ●
Heavy, over 8 hours’ time lag ● ● ●
No protection from rain needed
Rain protection Provide adequate rainwater drainage ●
Protection from heavy rain needed ● ● ● ● ●
(Source: Adapted from Ogunsote 1990).
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN WITH CLIMATE IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES
The application of climatic design principles in Nigerian universities has a varied history. There were several
factors that combined to determine the level of application.
Expertise of the architects and engineers

There were several foreigners and Nigerians who trained abroad that started practices in Nigeria in the 60s
and 70s. These architects tended to have a good understanding of the importance of climate in architecture,
and even developed a climate-sensitive variant of the modern style called the New West African style. Other
foreign architects who did not live in Nigeria or were trained in Nigeria in the 70s and 80s tended to have a
poor understanding of these concepts. The situation however gradually improved with greater emphasis on
building climatology and environmental sciences in the architecture curriculum.
Availability of localised design guides for architectural design with climate

Design guides for architectural design with climate were largely adaptations from studies carried out by the
British Research Establishment. While generally useful, it was not until significant research in Nigeria was
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conducted before architects had localised guides and more precise understanding of the interactions
between the Nigerian climate and buildings.
Sustainability of technology and funding

Many of the first buildings in Nigerian universities were in the pure modern style, complete with flat roofs,
central air-conditioning, fixed windows, and sometimes artificial lighting. As maintenance problems
developed, power supply became erratic and equipment broke down, adoption of a more sustainable
building model with well drained roofs, distributed air conditioning, natural ventilation, daylighting and
extensive use of local building materials and components became a necessity. This awakening was
promoted by poorer funding of the universities.
Impact of CAD and IT

The widespread usage of Computer Aided Design software and the Internet in the last decade gave
architects access to information and computing power that made the design of buildings compatible with
the Nigerian climate realistic within short delivery deadlines.
FACTORS (CHALLENGES) DETERMINING CHOICE OF EXTERNAL FINISHES AND ROOFING IN NIGERIAN

UNIVERSITIES
The factors that determined the choice of external finishes and roofing in Nigerian universities varied over
time and between university types, but an attempt has been made to generalize them.
Climate
Most universities experience heavy rainfall during some months of the year. Even in the savannah zone
where there are many months without rainfall, the monthly rainfall in the rainy season still exceeds 200 mm,
making the provision of proper roof drainage a necessity. Humidity is also a major climatic factor, especially
in the humid southern part of the country, where deterioration of building finishes by biological
mechanisms, a process enhanced by high humidity, is a serious concern. Other climatic factors such as high
solar radiation, wind, high temperatures and high diurnal temperature ranges could also create conditions
conducive to physical, chemical, and biological degradation of finishes.
Aesthetics
Apart from proving a more conducive learning environment, beautiful and well landscaped universities
attracted students and sponsors for purely aesthetic reasons. There was competition between universities to
have the most aesthetically pleasant buildings, and the external finishes contributed significantly to this.
Durability
Durability of building finishes and roofing refers to their resistance to deterioration by physical, chemical
and biological mechanisms (Aluko & Ogunsote 2013, p. 579). More durable materials tended to be more
expensive, and sometimes required greater expertise in construction or installation.
Cost
Funding was a major constraint in the specification of building finishes and roofing.
Availability
Most high-tech building finishes and roofing materials were imported, with the establishment of local
factories for finishing stone and timber to international standards a recent development. The general
tendency was to use what was readily available in the open market.
Constructability and skill level of craftsmen

The best building finishes often required skilled workmen and professional expertise for installation and
construction. Contractors tended to prefer using less skilled workmen who were more readily available and
cheaper. They also preferred simple structures that did not require the services of registered and
experienced engineers. Projects requiring professional project management and supervision by expert
professionals and consultants were avoided since they were more difficult to manipulate in terms of
specifications (Ogunsote, Prucnal-Ogunsote & Ude 2011).
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Professional awareness
Current knowledge of the type and properties, history of local application and even the true cost of building
finishes by professionals in the building industry is essential in taking the right decisions when specifying
materials and during construction.
Peer pressure
Introduction of modern materials for external finishes and roofing often gave buildings a modern mien, and
competitors often tended to copy such buildings.
Cultural factors
Urbanization is a recent development, and the majority of Nigerians still live in rural areas, where the quality
of building finishes and roofing tends to be low. When these people migrated to cities, they tended to
underestimate the importance of building finishes, and many considered painting buildings a waste of
money. For example, the majority of bungalows rented out to off-campus students as hostels are unpainted.
Some of these people were stakeholders in the universities, either as end users or staff directly involved in
building projects delivery, and they sometimes influenced the choice of finishes. The authors and many
architects involved in design and supervision of university buildings often needed to strongly resist lowering
of external finishes specifications during building construction, arguing that there were other ways to
resolve cost overruns.
INNOVATIONS IN THE CHOICE AND OPTIMIZATION OF EXTERNAL FINISHES AND ROOFING
There were several innovations introduced in universities that were acclaimed as appropriate solutions to
the problems of optimizing external finishes and roofing.
Conversion of flat concrete roofs to pitched roofs

Flat concrete roofs tended to leak after a few years due to poor maintenance culture, and non-replacement
of felting. Gutters tended to get blocked, and dust and seeds blown onto the roofs were trapped and
facilitated the growth of weeds, which destroyed the waterproofing (felting). A novel solution was to build
pitched roofs atop these flat concrete roofs (Plates 11-14).
Roofing of open-air structures

The outdoor auditorium of the Oduduwa hall was covered and used for academic programmes (Plate 4).
Use of brick facing for walls

The use of brick facing, instead of brick walls provided aesthetically pleasant buildings that required less
maintenance and less skill in construction (Plate 15).
Use of weather-resistant paints

The use of tyrolean and weather-resistant textured paints was a cheap alternative to tiling and stone
cladding.
Use of butterfly roofs

Butterfly roofs made rainwater harvesting easier, and the gutter area required was less. It was also possible
to eliminate parapet walls, or to simplify their design because they were not linked to roof gutters (Plate 16).
Use of fins and canopies to protect walls and openings from driving rain and sun
Skilful design of exterior walls was used to protect walls and openings from driving rain and sun, thus
reducing the area of the wall, requiring highly durable finishes (Plate 17).
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Plate 11. Umaru Shehu Lecture Theatre, aka Spider Lecture Theatre (Twin Lecture Theatre) by Niger Consultants,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The sloping roof slabs were covered with felt and drained into concrete gutters
(Source: Photograph by the authors, September 2005).
Plate 12. Umaru Shehu Lecture Theatre (Twin Lecture Theatre) by Niger Consultants, Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria. The same sloping roof slabs later covered with long span aluminium roofing sheets. Note the layout of the
spacer rods and purlins (Source: Photograph by the authors, July 2011).
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Plate 13. Lecture Theatre, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Note the flat roof being replaced
with pitched roof. Note also the spouts of the original roof gutter (Source: Photograph by the authors, July 2011).
Plate 14. Roof-top Studio, Department of Architecture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The pitched roof was
constructed on top of the space truss originally covered by plywood boards (Source: Photograph by the authors,
November 2005).
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Plate 15. School of Earth and Mineral Sciences by Soft Designs Environmental Consultants Ltd (2004), Federal
University of Technology, Akure. Note the use of brick facing and recessed openings and walls (Source:
Photograph by the authors, December 2006).
Plate 16. Faculty of Basic and Applied Sciences by Soft Designs Environmental Consultants Ltd (2008), Elizade
University, Ilara Mokin, Ondo State (Source: Photograph by the authors, January 2012).
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Plate 17. Floor plan of the Computer Resource Centre by Soft Designs Environmental Consultants Ltd (2003),
Federal University of Technology, Akure. Note the use of fins to protect walls from rain and sun (Source: Soft
Designs Environmental Consultants Ltd 2003).
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CHOICE OF EXTERNAL FINISHES AND ROOFING
A comparative analysis of the choice of external finishes and roofing in the case studies revealed some
common trends. These trends cut across all universities irrespective of age, ownership structure or
specialization.
Correlation between level of funding and quality of finishes

Private universities that charged very high fees tended to have higher quality of finishes than poorly funded
public universities. Public universities did not charge tuition fees for undergraduate studies, and they relied
mainly on Government subventions and partially on internally generated revenue from non-degree
programmes. Their admissions were commonly oversubscribed, sometimes at ratios of ten or more qualified
applicants per available space. Private universities on the other hand charged exorbitant fees, and their
admissions were usually undersubscribed. The private universities justified these high fees by claiming that
their facilities were of international standard, and they enhanced this image by showing off well-finished
buildings in advertisements.
During the oil boom period of the seventies and early eighties, big and frequent contracts were awarded for
university buildings, and these were often executed by firms with foreign partners using high quality
exterior finishes and roofing materials, most of which were imported. By 1986, the situation drastically
worsened with the introduction of the unpopular Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). The poor
economy of the country adversely affected the execution of building contracts with a drop in the quality of
exterior finishes and roofing which was very visible especially in the first generation universities.
Poor maintenance leading to roof leakage and staining of walls

All first generation universities faced serious problems of leakage of the concrete flat roofs designed in the
international style. Second and third generation universities suffered similar problems, but this was more
because of poor quality of workmanship and poor maintenance culture.
Construction of pitched roofs on existing flat roofs to solve leakage problems
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This was one of the innovative methods developed to deal with both faulty conceptualization of the original
design and poor maintenance culture.
Successful use of indigenous finishes

There was increased use of locally available external finishes including stone, stone facing, brick facing, wall
tiles, mosaics and sandstone. There was gradual adoption of the use of natural and durable external finishes
(Plate 18).
Slow adoption of modern construction materials

There was slow adoption of steel roof structure, steel cladding and insulated aluminium roofing sheets
which prevented overheating of the interior (Plate 19).
Plate 18. New University Chapel, University of Lagos, Lagos. Note the use of vitrified ceramic tiles for external
finishing. The old University Chapel with steel cladding and contrasting architecture can be seen in the
background (Source: Photograph by the authors, July 2008).
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Plate 19. University Chapel, University of Lagos, Lagos. Note the used of coated steel cladding (Source:
Photograph by the authors, July 2008).
CONCLUSION
This study has attempted to analyse how the choice of external finishes and roofing of university buildings in
Nigeria has evolved over the last half century in response to socio-economic, aesthetic and technological
stimuli. The following conclusions were reached.
Correlation between level of funding and quality of finishes

The quality of exterior finishes and roofing tended to be determined by the level of available funding and
the state of the national economy. When funding was low and the standard of living dropping, there was
tendency to cut corners and to use low quality finishes, often with a profit motive. There was a drastic
difference between the oil boom and the post Structural Adjustment Programme periods. There was also
difference between private universities that charged high fees and had low admissions compared to public
universities that did not charge tuition and had high admissions.
Propensity for regular award of petty maintenance and painting contracts

There was a patronage system built around most university administrations, and constant pressure to award
contracts for petty maintenance jobs like painting and repairs of leaking roofs. When high quality finishes
were used, there was significant reduction in the award of such contracts, which many administrators might
arguably not have preferred. Short-term economic interests dictated the use of non-durable and cheaper
materials, which in the long run also helped generate income from petty maintenance and painting
contracts.
Low skill level of craftsmen

The non-availability of large numbers of highly skilled and experienced craftsmen for installation or
construction of high-quality finishes discouraged the use of these finishes.
RECOMMENDATIONS
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Better adaptation to climate
Studies have shown that the intensity of rainfall in Nigeria does not justify the use of flat roofs in any part of
the country. The humidity, solar radiation, wind speeds, annual mean temperatures and temperature ranges
also do not rationalize the use of exterior finishes that are highly susceptible to deterioration by biological
and chemical mechanisms. This is more so in the southern parts of the country where pollution from gas
flaring, urbanization and industrial activities is more prominent. The impact of the climate on finishes and
roofing should be a major consideration during material specification, and the use of durable and weather
resistant finishes made from sustainable materials is recommended.
Materials that age without decaying

The use of natural and sustainable building finishes, such as stone and bricks can significantly reduce the
maintenance costs. These materials age gracefully, but there is urgent need to develop treatments that can
inhibit their deterioration by biological agents.
Life-cycle approach to estimating cost of finishes

Comparisons of various options for exterior finishes are often based on the initial cost of acquisition and
installation. The cost of maintenance over the lifespan of the building is often ignored. The aesthetic and
health-related advantages of the various materials are also often not taken into consideration. Thus
materials that are cheaper, but more expensive in the long run are often chosen. A lifecycle approach to cost
estimation can reduce such errors of judgement.
Organic and sustainable materials

Organic and natural materials are more sustainable and pose less health risks and their use is encouraged.
High-energy materials for cladding

The use of high-energy materials for cladding, such as anodized or coated steel and aluminium is gradually
gaining acceptance in high-profile and commercial buildings. Introduction of these materials into university
architecture promises to enhance the durability and aesthetics of exterior finishes of buildings.
REFERENCES
Ajayi, IA & Ekundayo, HT., 2008. ‘The deregulation of university education in Nigeria: Implications for quality
assurance’, Nebula, vol. 5, no. 4, Viewed 27 March 2014,
<http://nobleworld.biz/images/Ajayi_Ekundayo.pdf>.
Aluko, OO & Ogunsote, OO., 2013. ‘Assessment of external building finishes: a case study of selected
buildings in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria’, International Journal of Engineering and Technology, vol. 3, no. 5, pp.
578-587. Viewed 27 March 2014, <http://iet-
journals.org/archive/2013/may_vol_3_no_5/719671136396348.pdf>.
Hosni, SHB., 1978, Studies in Egyptian architecture, Volume one. Climate and architecture: A national evaluation,
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt.
National Universities Commission, 2014. Nigerian universities, viewed 26 March 2014,

<http://www.nuc.edu.ng/pages/universities.asp>.
Nwagwu, WE & Agarin, O., 2008, ‘Nigerian university websites: A webometric analysis’, Webology, vol. 5, no. 4,
Article 62, viewed 27 March 2014, <http://www.webology.org/2008/v5n4/a65.html>.
Ogunsote, OO & Prucnal-Ogunsote, B., 2002. ‘Defining climatic zones for architectural design in Nigeria: A
systematic delineation, Journal of Environmental Technology, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 1-14.
Ogunsote, OO & Prucnal-Ogunsote, B., 2006. Campus planning and architecture: Memoirs from seven American
universities, Department of Architecture, School of Environmental Technology, Federal University of
Technology, Akure.
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Ogunsote, OO., 1990. ‘Architectural design with Nigerian climatic conditions in view: A systems approach’,
Ph.D thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Ogunsote, OO, Prucnal-Ogunsote, B & Ude, OA., 2011. ‘Sustainable design of University buildings in tropical
climates: A case study of three Universities in Ondo State, Nigeria’, Proceedings of the International Union of
Architects (UIA) XXIV World Congress of Architecture, UIA, Tokyo, Japan.
Prucnal-Ogunsote, B., 1994. ‘A study of modern trends in some aspects of architecture in Nigeria’, Ph.D
thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Prucnal-Ogunsote, B., 2001. ‘Classification of Nigerian architecture’, Journal of the Association of Architectural
Educators in Nigeria (AARCHES-J), vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 48-56. AARCHES, Akure.
Sommerhof, G., 1968. ‘Purpose, adaptation and directive correlation’ in W Buckley (ed), Modern Systems
Research for the Behavioural Scientist, Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago.
United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria 2014, Resources: Nigeria – Educational profile, viewed 27 March
2014, <http://nigeria.usembassy.gov/nigeria_education_profile.html>.
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DESIGN METHODOLOGIES IN INFORMAL TERRITORIES
M. Arch. Daniela Getlinger, PhD. Carlos Leite, Mackenzie Presbiterian University, São Paulo – Brazil,
dgetlinger@hotmail.com
Abstract
Today megacities in developing countries feature the world’s highest rates of population growth, which causes
modernization islands to stand next to large-scale informal urban settlements. In these informal territories, a deep
concentration of poverty and social problems coexist with social and economic dynamics, creative initiatives and
a sense of urbanity. Taking into account that currently one-third of the world’s population live in slums and
distant outskirts, and that the poor constitute the world’s fastest growing group, it is vital that new intervention
strategies are investigated based on the understanding of the informal territory. Thus, this whole new universe
requires new research methods, new vocabularies, new concepts, and more dynamic design strategies to
intervene in those areas with more flexible approaches, considering multiple futures, diverse types of urban design
and different programs, rather than stable or permanent configurations. As our case study, we elected Heliopolis,
a prime-location area in Sao Paulo, Brazil, undergoing constant (trans) formation and where most of the territory
is still self-constructed. The intervention possibilities, which may trigger a chain reaction of improvements, range
from possible solutions to the urgent housing issue to meeting the needs of leisure and interaction of the
community. Most of all, they are supposed to involve joint work between professionals and the community as in a
combined and creative building blocks activity.
Keywords: megacities; informal territories; design methodologies.
INTRODUCTION: CONTEMPORARY MEGACITIES
Historically, urban centres have been a place of economic growth and development, attracting a continuous
migration influx from countryside to urban areas. Against all forecasts made at the end of the twentieth
century, cities have neither died nor declined. Quite the opposite: As stated by Glaeser: “The cities have
triumphed.[...] In the richest countries of the West, cities have survived the tumultuous end of the Industrial
Age and are now wealthier, healthier and more alluring than ever. In the world’s poorer places, cities are
expanding enormously, because urban density provides the clearest path from poverty to prosperity”
(Glaeser 2011, p.1).
Since 2007, the world has been going through a new radical reality: its population reached 3.3 billion people
and, as a result, for the first time in history there are now more people living in cities than in the countryside.
By 2050, this figure will have reached more than 75% of the world’s inhabitants, two-thirds of which living in
developing countries (Burdett & Sudjic 2011).
This migration process, as pointed out by Leite (2012), has dramatically transformed urban areas, giving rise
to the megacities of the twenty-first century: cities with over 10 million inhabitants, with a tremendous
impact both on people’s lives and on the environmental balance. More than ever, this scenario makes cities
and urban planning key-issues to be addressed in the contemporary world (Burdett & Sudjic 2011).
Megacities are much more than enlarged versions of the big cities of the past. Their huge scale creates new
complexities and simultaneous events and processes, making them a fertile ground for growth and
innovation but also for social and environmental problems. Twenty-seven out of the 33 megacities
estimated for the year 2015 will be located in less developed countries, 19 only in Asia (Koolhaas 2001).
Most of them already witness a high concentration of poverty, environmental and social issues - mainly
health, education and security. The UN estimates that two out of three inhabitants of the planet may be
living in precarious dwellings - slums, tenements, and illegal settlements, many of them located in risky areas
and far away from urban centres. By 2020, projections estimate that 100 million people will be living in slums
in big urban centres, and by 2030 there will be 2 billion slum inhabitants (Koolhaas 2001; Leite 2012, Davis
2006).
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In these regions, especially after the recent financial recession, it is very likely that informal urbanism will
expand and be dominant even faster than the forecasts. Therefore, megacities pose major challenges to the
planet and specific, objective and efficient interventions in these territories shall become a greater challenge
to be faced by government authorities, professionals and citizens (Werthmann 2009).
Urban design strategies have been studied and implemented since 1960 by pioneering researchers such as
Lynch (1996), who devoted much of his work to find out and analyse the qualities of a good urban
environment, and to propose which objectives a city project should comprise, based on the parameters of
the users’ perception. However, the traditional methods revealed themselves of little efficacy when applied
to territories undergoing continuous transformation. At present, we witness a remarkable lack of tools to
observe, read and represent the current social-spatial reality of the contemporary megacity, which leads to
the urgent creation of a new repertoire of concepts and understandings, new approaches and more
dynamic and flexible strategies.
For that reason, our main focus is to detect and put in action urban methodologies of design intervention in
informal territories of contemporary megacities. In São Paulo, our focus lies on Heliopolis, the largest
informal territory in the city that occupies a prime location district. Yet, we did not intend to develop a
master plan for the entire area or even tried to solve all its problems, rather we sought to investigate
specially located design possibilities capable of improving the quality of community life. We have explored
speculative issues that may potentially contribute to the development of intervention strategies that go far
beyond the orthodox methodologies normally presented in master plans.
INFORMAL TERRITORIES IN BRAZILIAN MEGACITIES
As in the rest of the world, Brazil has seen over the last decades a major increase in its urban population, a
result of the migration of families who fled the countryside searching for new opportunities in the city.
Between the 1940s and the 1990s, the Brazilian urban population rose from 35% to 80%. (França, Bayeux
2002)
Therefore, since the 1960s and unlike African or Asian populations, Brazil has been mostly urban, and as a
result, numerous factors started to compose a scenario of widespread urban poverty. A large number of
migrants did not have access to proper housing in the urban centres and were somehow forced to solve
their housing situation. According to Magalhães (2002), these were the people who, on their own and with
their own resources, designed the irregular city. “This gigantic process, able to produce thousands of new
dwellings every year, creating human networks and supporting the living in nearly inconceivable conditions,
has been the planner of Brazilian metropolises” (Magalhães 2002, p. 43).
As stated by Arantes, Vainer and Maricato (2000), invasion of land for building homes is part of the Brazilian
urbanization process. Both the difficulty faced for the poor to gain access to land and housing within the
structured city and the insufficient public offer of social housing can be held responsible for the
establishment of a predatory pattern of urban expansion in the country (Bonduki 1998). The absence of
instruments to control urban growth by State authorities, not only regarding the location of the settlements
but also the production of housing units, corroborated and somehow stimulated the construction of a
marginal and precarious territory.
In Brazilian big cities, an enormous peripheral urban fabric has been built and consolidated along the second
half of the twentieth century. In the city of São Paulo, for example, the population increased from 200,000
inhabitants, at the beginning of the century, to two million in the 1950s. Keeping track of this
unprecedented ever-increasing population, attracted by job opportunities, has demanded a high
operational capacity, which the country was not prepared to offer. Today, São Paulo shows a stark contrast
between the legal city and the precarious peripheries. The former, the central area, is home to the middle
and higher classes, who can pay the cost of legal land and enjoy the existing infrastructure and services. On
the other hand, the peripheries share low job offers, concentration of low income population in precarious
housing and lack of basic services, such as public health, education and sanitation, revealing a high level of
social and economic inequality (Meyer, Grostein and Biderman 2004).
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1. 2.
Figure 1: Illegal but real uncontrollable urbanization brings dramatic consequences in terms of environmental,
social, economic and urban unsustainability. Represa Billings, São Paulo (Source: Burdett and Sudjic, 2011).
Figure 2: Social Housing Blocks. Their location, in distant outskirts, and their scale contributed to the formation of
socially confined spaces, which posed serious urban and social problems to the population (Source: Meyer,
Grostein and Biderman, 2004).
Up to the 1980s, urban planning proposed the elimination of informal settlements in the city, whose families
were relocated to peripheral housing blocks, deprived of infrastructure or urban equipment. The major
purpose of these plans was not city building, but to respond to the shortage of housing and remove the
families from the settlements considered marginal and unhealthy, without any sort of social concern with
the people who lived there. Far-off and deprived of infrastructure, these housing blocks ended up becoming
problematic parts of the city. The 1960s saw the pinnacle of the de-slumming policy. Slums were entirely
removed, with the following relocation of the families in enormous housing blocks in the outskirts.
In spite of that, as stated by França (2012), in the 1970s, some other ways of coping with housing informality
had already started to take shape. These methods were opposed both to the eradication of self-built
dwellings and the construction of massive distant housing blocks. Their starting point was recognizing that
living in informal areas (in the peripheral and urban slums) had become the only option for those without
access to housing in the metropolis. Thus, the beginning of the 1980s gave rise to some isolated
experiences which aimed to urbanize slums, keeping families in their original dwelling places and
implementing sewage, drainage, road access, and other public services.
In the 1990s, according to França (2012), the conceptual change replaced the idea of solely resolving the
existing housing shortage, with the notion that overcoming the lack of urbanity should also be
accompanied by the ‘production of the city’. Pioneering experiments conducted in Rio de Janeiro led to new
ways of approaching the informal territory in Brazilian cities– an urban thinking aligned with local
characteristics and necessities, based on the acknowledgment of the existing city.
Pereira Leite (2012) identifies slums as the housing solution found by those inhabitants to deal with their
difficulties: low income, lack of public transportation, and of formal and technical education. Recognizing
the slum as a territory originated from the creativity of its dwellers, with their own codes, logic and growth
characteristics, which do not correspond to the model idealized by traditional urbanism, was the first step
towards the identification of several specific issues present in Brazilian society (Pereira Leite, apud França;
Costa 2012).
According to Jacques (2002), in order to intervene in these territories, where everything is different from the
traditional city, we need to better understand them. The author explains that in informal territories, there are
only snapshot cartographies, for the territory is being continually (trans)formed. She asserts that slums
follow a complex logic - they never stop growing (horizontally, through additions – the so-called annex –
and vertically, with the addition of new slabs) - and, most importantly, they are not as fixed as the traditional
city. The beginning of the construction process depends on access to building materials and leftovers,
gathered and regrouped in the new building. Everyday construction, made with pieces found here and
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there, is inevitably fragmentary in its formal aspect and the final shape is, therefore, the result of this building
process. The first objective of the builder – usually the own dweller, with the help of his/her neighbours and
family members - is to provide himself and his family with shelter. This first solution is almost always
precarious, but is already the starting point for a future development. The shelter will expand along time,
depending on the financial conditions and available time of the family, in a process that may go on for
generations. Thus, the dwelling is constantly evolving and even when it reaches the masonry phase,
alterations still continue, in the ‘annex/slab’ system.
Figure 3: The typical development of a slum dwelling (Source: Jacques 2002).
At the urban scale, and also in endless transformation, the free spaces created between the dwellings give
shape to alleys and dead-end streets. Therefore, the urban fabric is flexible and pliable. Its biggest specificity
lies on its maze-like urban environment, which cannot usually be entirely grasped from only one
perspective. Unlike the formal city, there is no urban design in the slum; what we see is a constant
succession of events. “The slum is a constantly moving space because its inhabitants are the true responsible
for its construction, as opposed to the traditional city dweller, who hardly ever feels involved in the
construction of the urban space and, in particular, the public spaces of their city. Community participation
usually takes place in a much more representative way in the slums and slummerized areas than in the
formal city” (Jacques 2002, p. 57).
DESIGN STRATEGIES IN INFORMAL TERRITORIES
According to Werthmann (2009), the consolidation of formerly temporary settlements, gave rise to the
emergence of permanence patterns, and with them to new social and economic implications. Over the last
decades, inhabitants of the informal cities have gained influence as they organize themselves collectively,
while governmental organs are currently in search of a more respectful approach towards the communities,
through new methods and action plans that may promote a more integrated coexistence between the
formal and the informal city. Today the vitality and complexity of the existing social fabric which originated
these creative and unique urban conditions are being increasingly valued. For the author, the next
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generation of architects shall be trained to use architecture to improve quality of life in precarious
settlements.
This thinking makes us reason if some day informal territories in the megacities could be seen as a place for
urban innovation. Will there be a new type of urbanism able to manage these new urban conditions? Which
alternatives are being developed to analyse the contemporary informal cities? What could bridge the gaps
between several groups and several interests?
Over the last few years and according to Brillembourg and Klumpner (2008), debates on the informal city
have increased in architecture schools around the globe. There is widespread consensus – at least among
students – that architecture and architects must solve the apparently unmanageable problems of the
contemporary city. They believe that within the interventions in pliable territories, there is no room for stable
configurations or definite forms. That is why, according to them, the design process in these built-up and
highly dense territories should:
• Motivate connection, circulation, and the overlapping of public and private interests, which can
only be achieved by the active involvement of the inhabitants.
• Encompass “bottom-up” strategies, developed together with the local community.
• Preserve pre-existences and act punctually. The interventions must be implemented respecting
the built-up environment. Research and collection of data are absolutely necessary to understand
the operating forces on the intervention area. The designs must pursue a regeneration aim, a kind
of urban acupuncture. We need to think globally but act locally, recovering and recycling spaces.
• Bridge the gaps between the stratified sectors of the city. Limits must be questioned, borders
expanded. The programs of re-use and adaptation must form a connection between the formal
and informal – physical networks that connect territories and reduce inequalities.
• Re-use, adapt and modify the existing infrastructure in order to intensify, diversify, re-distribute,
and create new realms that can reduce segregation.
• Replace the focus on form of contemporary architecture with designs with a positive impact on
the community. Instead of pursuing only an artistic expression, we should think of a feasible urban
architecture, with simpler solutions, able to support life in the developing cities, which are in
constant need of new solutions: more efficient buildings, produced locally with industrial
artefacts, made available in sets of parts, and creation of a toolbox of strategies to which the cities
can refer to in order to improve the informal settlements.
The largest slum in São Paulo, Heliopolis is only 9 km from the centre of the city and well served by public
transportation. Apart from its vast dimension (1 km2), large population (70,000 people) and advantaged
location, what really draws special attention to Heliopolis is its community organization, its dynamism,
vitality and the opportunities offered within its territory. Regardless of the absence of infrastructure and
the presence of unhealthy housing in some places, there is an incredible spontaneous sense of urbanity
and community, vital characteristics to every dynamic and lively city, in contrast to the opposite trend
taking place in the so-called “formal city”. In this informal territory, a broad range of intervention
possibilities is being considered, far beyond the urban investigations promoted by the Sao Paulo’s Housing
Department (SEHAB).
Neuwirth (2011) points out that even though a large number of people earn their living in the informal
market and live in informal territories around the world, little attention was given to these communities in
the past. When their inhabitants were evicted and had their houses torn down, they were treated as if they
did not exist. However, these illegal territories have provided their inhabitants with housing and work,
which the government and the private sector have failed to offer. With no public services and neglected by
the government, these places, out of sheer necessity, became hubs of inventiveness and businesses
developed by the community itself. In spite of enormous difficulties and deprivation (or mainly because of
that), such communities have established themselves as places of astonishing innovation. Inhabitants of
slums in Kibera, in Nairobi (Kenya), or Dharavi, Mumbai (India) are either the owners or the caretakers of
several small businesses. In many Brazilian slums, the migrants’ ambition to become self-employed, gave
rise to a diverse informal local commerce, where family labour adapts to life in the metropolis. There are
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stores, bars, hair salons, bakeries, LAN houses which, though not legalized, are socially and economically
active, impelling informal economy.
In Heliopolis, the urban density that fosters collaboration between people, the great diversity, the creative
businesses developed by the inhabitants, and the lively streets turn the area into a dynamic territory, with
a sense of community that is no longer seen in most parts of the formal city. The community’s strong sense
of neighbourliness, of belonging, exchange and mutual help makes the dwellers wish to remain there.
Many residents state that they only leave Heliopolis for specialized medical exams or leisure activities. A
real city within Sao Paulo megalopolis has been formed, with different job alternatives within its territory.
4. 5.
Figure 4: Two-story masonry houses dominate the landscape (Source: Daniela Getlinger).
Figure 5: In Heliopolis the greatest need is for public spaces, leisure, and green areas for community use. Urban life
takes place in the streets and alleys, because there are no parks, soccer fields, empty spaces where inhabitants can
get together (Source: Daniela Getlinger).
In spite of having been target of several interventions by the State over the years, most of Heliopolis
territory is self-constructed, composed of houses initially built with cardboard, which, in a process that
crosses generations, were gradually replaced by two-to-four-story masonry houses, laid out along tortuous
lanes, alleys and dead-end streets. In general, the more valuable houses are those facing the streets and
receiving the highest amount of lighting and ventilation. Also, they may house informal commerce on the
ground floor. On the other hand, dwellings placed in the very heart of the territory are, most of the time,
precarious and unhealthy and do not allow the use of the ground floor as a source of income.
As stated by França (2012), the real challenge of working with informal territories is to intervene in the built-
up reality respecting its pre-existences, to improve the community’s quality of life and not replace it, and to
take the inhabitants into consideration, instead of excluding them from the creation and decision-making
processes. As a result, urbanizing this pre-existing territory poses a difficult challenge: to bring civility to the
community while maintaining the connection networks of the inhabitants who, with few exceptions, wish to
continue living there, where they have already established their interdependence networks.
In Heliopolis, the research explores some features of a self-constructed area, such as lack of connectivity, lack
of public spaces and green areas, and precarious housing located in the core of the territory where the
proximity between the dwellings and the narrow alleys result in a very unhealthy environment. The
challenge is to draw an intervention system that would improve the quality of community life, allowing most
of the inhabitants to remain there. Former approaches combining eradication of slums and resettlement of
the inhabitants have proven inefficient and currently, urban interventions consist of the demolition of self-
constructed houses, no matter how unhealthy or defective they are, and the construction of residential
buildings at the same location, or nearby.
Our strategy aims to guarantee the investment in the construction of the dwellings and the permanence of
most of the residents. Hence, the proposed path is to identify the unhealthy and precarious dwellings, to
gather information about houses that block passages, to negotiate with the inhabitants, to remove strategic
houses and finally, to build new dwellings in the core of the territory. Which houses should be removed?
What shape and size should this central core take? How should this new space be used? How long will it take
to implement the project? There are never-ending possibilities and the results should always be achieved by
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teamwork along with the community. The outcome is an organic result, co-created with the inhabitants, in
which the territory significantly increases its potential through the creation of open spaces. Along the border
between the built-up surroundings and the created empty space, new dwellings shall be constructed to
house the population that had their houses removed.
Figure 6: Existing dwellings; construction of residential buildings (by SEHAB); possible outcome of the co-creation
process (Source: Daniela Getlinger).
Small open spaces of communal use not only provide benefits for infrastructure, but also reduce excessive
heat, increase air circulation and sunlight, improving the quality of life in the core of the territory, in addition
to promoting interaction among the inhabitants. We recommend promoting architecture as an event,
encouraging connection and movement. What was originally a high density environment – the core of the
territory –, now free and opened, may house new leisure programs.
Figure 7: Possible configurations of the demolition x construction of new dwellings (Source: Daniela Getlinger).
As we mentioned, the historical struggle to get better living conditions and remain in the area has lapidated
the community’s sense of organization. Today, in Heliopolis there are 34 active community associations.
Considering all this, we came to the conclusion that the best way to act in this built-up area and include the
inhabitants in the decision-making process is through a laboratory which allows a process of co-creation of
spatial solutions. This laboratory would make use of contemporary design and communication tools,
enabling the inhabitants to study, understand the area and generate many different scenarios of
intervention in their territory.
Like the video game SimCity by Electronic Arts (developed by Maxis), in which the player must design a city
respecting rules laid out by the game itself, we propose the development of tools to non-specialized players
(the inhabitants), so that they can understand the existing situation and investigate possible interventions.
The development of a constructive system would be assigned to architects, urban designers and other
professionals concerning the city building, in addition to the co-creation of the design. This system would
comprise a set of necessary parts so as to build more efficient constructions, which would be locally
produced with industrial artefacts - the development of design toolboxes. The possibilities are endless and
the final result depends on the work developed in cooperation with the inhabitants.
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Figure 8: SimCity – Heliópolis. The chart shows the phasing of housing removal, followed by creation of empty
space and construction of new dwellings, through a participatory process, in which endless scenarios can be
generated, shaping the character and quality of the place (Source: Daniela Getlinger).
CONCLUSION
The case study Heliopolis sought to explore a new process of urbanization in informal territories, going
beyond interventions that minimize existing problems. Therefore, in what we called SimCity-Heliopolis we
investigated a design system in which the community may be able to actively participate in the discussions
and transformation of their own territory. Through a design platform, research, and mapping of the area,
scenarios of the territorial reality can be performed making place for planning and possible interventions.
From the results obtained, it is possible to analyse the feasibility of bringing more urbanity to the area.
Last of all, the proposal of a platform design for informal territories does not focus on one comprehensive
plan for Heliopolis, but on the study of a number of interventions that could improve the local inhabitant’s
life conditions and also start a chain-reaction of improvements. It is worth emphasizing that the design
process incorporates circumstantial players – the inhabitants, who are in this case the true creative players –
and does not search for a definitive plan, but for a flexible strategy, able to absorb changes along the years
and to allow the supremacy of process over design. In other words, more process (continuous) and less
design (single-ended design solutions).
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EXPERIMENTS IN URBAN RE-USE, REGENERATION, CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE RAVENNA
DOCKLANDS. THE TSN - TIRO A SEGNO NAZIONALE
Elizabeth Francis, Atelier Francis, Italy, elizabeth.francis@atelierfrancis.it

Maria Cristina Garavelli, 1x1a, Italy, chrigaravelli@gmail.com
Elisa Greco, Italy, elisagreco85@gmail.com
Cristina Bellini, Italy, c_bellini@hotmail.it,
Lara Bissi, Italy, lara.bissi@gmail.com, MEME EXCHANGE Cultural Association, Italy
memexchange.info@gmail.com
Abstract
The National Shooting Range (TSN) was founded by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1812, one year after the unification of
Italy. The headquarters for the Ravenna branch was built in 1892. Unfortunately the construction of new buildings
for the TSN in the 1970s led to the abandonment of the historical site, causing it to fall into disrepair. The
architecture of the shooting range is unique in the post-industrial docklands landscape and its imposing concrete
structures form a fundamental part of Italy’s built heritage. ‘Experiments in Urban Re-Use’ is a project that shares
the TSN’s desire to revitalise the site.
The design process opens the space to discovery by the community, combining architecture, culture and
sustainability, utilising temporary events to achieve permanent improvements in the site's infrastructure. This
paper describes the methodology of temporary re-use, the experiments to-date, the sustainability concept and the
design of an off-grid, zero carbon prototype building that has the potential for duplication in other dis-used areas.
The project began in 2012 on the 150th anniversary of the TSN. Each 'Experiment' serves the dual purpose of
designing a fun event while taking a concrete step towards restoring the complex. The long-term aims are
threefold: firstly to renovate the buildings, then to build a sustainable prototype with a co-working space and
finally to establish a creative cultural quarter. The project is part of Ravenna's bid to be European City of Culture
2019 and the experiments harness the commitment and passion of volunteers from cultural organisations and
the wider community. The architects involved have founded a non-profit cultural association, Meme Exchange, to
promote sustainable urban regeneration and the recovery of disused spaces.
Keywords: temporary re-use, experimentation, sustainability, culture, off-grid.
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INTRODUCTION
The concept of temporary re-use serves to test ideas, to give visibility to and create awareness of the
potential for regeneration in abandoned spaces. It is undertaken in a series of progressive steps that address
the needs for restoration and services on site.
Initial analysis of the TSN studied the historical importance of the site within the city fabric and its
relationship with the city and the industrialised coast. The docklands area is located at the east of the city,
behind the train station and about two kilometres from Ravenna city centre. Over the last 40 years it has
gradually become neglected as the port industries moved further towards the sea. The future plans for the
docklands include over 300,000m2 of development including residential, commercial and tertiary buildings.
The TSN is the only site in the area that has both buildings of architectural importance and an unpolluted
green field site. This makes it an ideal location to test a renewal process with a cultural emphasis.
The project ‘Experiments in Urban Re-use’ is testing a model for temporary re-use of the abandoned urban
areas. A process of gradual recovery of the TSN has begun restoring it to a place that offers productive and
recreational opportunities to the people of Ravenna. The ideas have been presented as part Ravenna’s bid to
be European City of Culture 2019.
Re-use projects discover and revive the architectural and social potential of places, reclaiming them through
architectural interventions, cultural events and participatory and interdisciplinary contributions. The result is
the regeneration and transformation into a ‘container / incubator’ of temporary functions. The temporary
nature of the functions along with the collective and participatory nature of the events, allows a gradual
recovery of spaces. Using the historic area of the shooting range as a place for events improves the
docklands area. Inviting citizens to participate in this urban regeneration leads to transformation and
sustainable development, creating a city quarter that is truly special.
The project for the historical site of the shooting gallery has a European range, both through the creation of
international partnerships and the transnational mobility of people and art. By participating in programs and
projects across Europe, it addresses issues and challenges of sustainability that are relevant at a European
level. The proposed ‘Casa dei Creativi’ or ‘House for designers’ is central to this approach, culminating in the
design of a contemporary and innovative prototype building - off-grid with zero C02 emissions.
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ABANDONED SITE
Figure 1: The abandoned Tiro a Segno Nazionale site in 2012.
In 2012, the gates to the shooting range were locked and the structures were off-limits and in danger of
collapse. All that was visible from the quays was the domestic caretaker’s house, which was in a state of
disrepair, and a commanding concrete Roman eagle. Beyond the gates were the ruins of a second ‘twin’
house that was destroyed by a bomb during the Second World War and an open outdoor shooting range
with massive concrete structures that served as firing point cover. A series of enclosed and open bays lead
through to a 10m high timber-clad backstop wall that still has the bullet holes from years of firing practice.
Behind that lies an open green field that today is used for archery and sporting events.
It was clear that the structures needed immediate intervention to avoid further decay or even collapse. What
was also clear was that the TSN Sporting Association did not have the economic means with which to
undertake the necessary work. Discussions between the architects and the TSN led to the idea for temporary
re-use of the spaces, jointly designing and hosting events that would bring immediate benefit and would
lead to achieving the long term goal of renewal.
Figure 2: The ruins of the bombed out house and the firing range structures.
In the future, the TSN site will have the requirements for a sustainable city quarter in microcosm: home,
work, garden and leisure. The renovated guardian’s house becomes an artist’s residence, the off-grid
building reinstates the twin house that was destroyed in the war to house creative professionals, the garden
produces organic food for all and the restored shooting range structures host cultural events. This project is
an activator of transformation, a process to be repeated in other dis-used sites.
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TEMPORARY RE-USE
Figure 3: Section through the site showing existing house and the canal.
In the absence of economic resources, temporary re-use allows activities and facilitates the financing of the
gradual recovery of the place. It is inclusive and involves the community – volunteers, students, the elderly,
children, disabled persons, artists, entrepreneurs, professionals and anyone who has a desire to participate.
This approach nurtures engagement and the mix of skills and visions reveal opportunities for social and
cultural growth. The aim is to encourage debate, to encourage exchange and to raise awareness.
The steps are as follows:

- analysis of the context and feasibility
- placement of structures, temporary installations and furniture (indoor and outdoor) using recovered and
recycled materials (wooden pallets, boxes etc)
- installation of primary services (toilets, electricity, water, lighting etc.) and completion of furniture and
major equipment
- insertion of small temporary structures, such as containers, boxes, platforms, to allow the use of the spaces
for events, work, creative production, residence and meetings.
- involvement of young workers, cultural associations, professional and amateur sports people, artists and
students, harnessing their optimism, creativity and enthusiasm.
-progressive restoration and conservation of existing structures.
Experiments in Urban Re-Use contribute to the visibility and potential of a site and test feasibility of re-using
spaces in an innovative way.
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EXPERIMENT 0– March 2012 – HERITAGE -1,000 red paper boats – workshop with children
Figure 4: Architecture arises from the occupation of space. Commemorative workshop with 1,000 red paper boats
to create enclosure.
The intention of the first experiment was to have a cultural moment during the TSN’s day of
commemorations for the 150th anniversary of the National Shooting Range. The concept was ‘appropriation
of space’, to inhabit the place with an artistic intervention. The idea was to occupy the ruined house,
creating a domestic scene that simultaneously recalled the past use and signalled the beginning of renewal.
A workshop brought together friends, family and children to make furniture from found materials and waste
from industrial processes – pallets, wood, boards and boxes - and to make 1,000 red boats from re-cycled
paper. The boats symbolised the red shirts of TSN founder Garibaldi’s 1,000 strong army in the battle to
liberate southern Italy from Bourbon rule. The paper boats were strung between the ruined walls of the
bombed house creating a temporary roof and enclosure.
This event was the action that set in motion the process of gradual recovery of the space.
EXPERIMENT 1 – October 2012 - Open-air gallery – UTILITIES - brought light to the space
Figure 5: An open-air gallery brings LIGHT. The imposing structures are on show after 40 years neglect.
The next experiment brought utilities to the space. It was decided to hold an event during Ravenna’s Golden
Night Festival (Ravenna Notte d’Oro). On that night, many cultural events take place throughout the city.
Special permission was obtained to open the TSN to the public for one night only. The spaces were
transformed into an open-air gallery with exhibitions, art installations and artisanal crafts on display. The
architects designed the layout of a museum with a foyer, exhibition spaces, workshop and bookshop.
Special scenographic lighting was installed to show the public the beauty and significance of the industrial
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age architecture. The exhibition presented examples of national and international of reuse projects in urban
brownfields but the main art on show was the space and structure themselves.
This was a zero cost event. All the work was voluntary and a local engineering company, DZ Engineering,
designed the lighting that was installed using borrowed lights and equipment. The garden of the gallery
was named ‘art-store’ for the occasion and was filled with life and colour by a craft market, co-ordinated by
local creative group. Throughout the day were children’s art workshops leading up to the moment when the
lights were switched on and the beautiful space was revealed.
The event was widely covered in the local media and, in the immediate aftermath, the Ravenna authorities
requested a meeting with the design team to discuss the future development of the site. Following this
meeting they had experts visit the site to ascertain the actual state of safety of the structures. It was
determined that it was not safe for use and was cordoned off with scaffolding and barriers. It would only be
accessible after a formal survey and load testing by engineers. This of course limited the potential for public
events at the TSN. To highlight this predicament and to raise money for the survey, the next experiment was
designed around these constraints.
CULTURAL ASSOCIATION
The synergy between the TSN, the architects and the other creative groups involved in the process, along
with the need to formalise a structure to qualify for institutional funding, led to the foundation of the non-
profit cultural association MEME EXCHANGE. The scope of the association is sustainable urban regeneration
and the recuperation of disused spaces. The association now has an expanded membership and manages
events and planning in the docklands area. The association and project were selected to be part of
Ravenna’s bid to be European City of Culture 2019.
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EXPERIMENT 2 – June 2013 - MOBILITY – Meme by bike – location of the site in within the city
Figure 6: Meme by Bike; a day of cycling events and exhibition. Ecological transport puts TSN on the map.
This experiment addressed mobility and ecological modes of transport. The intention was to put the TSN on
the map in the consciousness of the people of Ravenna. The architects studied the distances and
connections to the city centre and designed an event with cycling as its theme. The target audience this
time was a young sporting public. A local bike store set up an exhibition of state-of-the-art bicycles using the
scaffolding barrier as a backdrop. The Ravenna fixed-gear club were creating bikes form spare parts and the
annual fixed-gear race through the docklands had its finish line through the TSN gates. Throughout the
evening sprint races were held along the quays and the TSN courtyard became a club with a DJ, dancing,
drinks and zero kilometre food.
The celebratory nature of the event attracted over 300 people and showed the potential of the space as a
location for alternative events. This exposure expanded the network and funding was found for the essential
structural survey. The survey was carried out, the structures were declared safe and the space was once
again fully available for use.
Figure 7: The fixed gear dockland race ends at the TSN.
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EXPERIMENT 3 – October 2013 – SAFETY - Lightness–Architecture and Culture
Figure 8: The structures are declared safe and celebrated by a paradox.
To celebrate the outcome of the structural survey, the next experiment was an event themed ‘Lightness’. An
artistic installation entitled ‘Paradox’ gave the impression that the massive structures were suspended from
a cloud of helium balloons. An official PechaKucha evening was organised to facilitate discussion and debate
of the renovation issues. Artists, photographers, engineers and designers were invited to speak on the
Lightness theme. The ensuing discussion with the public brought forth new ideas for the next steps.
Inclusion of the event in the PechaKucha network opened a window to a wider international audience. This
event was endorsed by the UIA World Architecture Day.
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EXPERIMENT 4 – September 2014 – OFF-GRID - Zero carbon building
Figure 9: Diagram of the vision for the future development of the site.
The long-term future of the site as a cultural venue depends on its ability to be self-sufficient and to provide
facilities for events. A prototype building has been designed that can be built in phases. The first phase is an
‘energy raft’ that provides minimum utilities and services to allow the continuation of the experiments of
temporary re-use. Following that, and depending on financing, the building will be completed to house a
co-working space for creative professionals. In the long term the co-working space will be what ensures the
viability of the place. From the beginning of the project a partnership with the highly successful Fumbally
Exchange in Ireland has informed and inspired the desire to achieve this. They have demonstrated how
bringing diverse design professionals together stimulates collaboration and creates employment. The
physical and continuous occupation of the space will send a strong signal to the community that renewal is
finally secured. It will act as a ‘positive virus’ to be replicated throughout the docklands.
BUILDING DESIGN
The building has an energy-efficient contemporary design that is built in phases depending on needs. It
stands as a symbol of renewal in the Docklands, inspired by the imagery of the industrial context. The timber
block appears to hover above the ruined walls embodying the strength and liberty of the Roman eagle that
watches from the concrete structures behind. The building is off-grid, its passive design responds to the
climate and renewable energy is provided by systems integrated into the fabric.
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Figure 10: Zero carbon off-Grid building. The building adapts to any site or budget. The ‘ENERGY RAFT’ provides
services for temporary events.
Figure 11: Functional layout with workspaces at the upper level.
Figure 12: Phased construction of the ‘Energy Raft’ supports stairs, wcs, kitchen and an open plan workspace
above.
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Figure 13: Active and passive energy strategy. OFF-GRID: efficient form, orientation, envelope with solar power.
At night, the building is a lantern creating balance and reflection in the renewed docklands setting.
The materials used are a three layers Xlam core structure, polycarbonate facades, composite recycled wood
cladding and flooring, recycled insulation panels, 30 m2 photovoltaics, heat pump and radiant cooling
panels.
SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPT
Experiments in urban re-use regenerate abandoned spaces through conservation, restoration and
innovation. New architectural interventions use passive and active systems to reduce loads and optimise
comfort. The Off-Grid building is self-sufficient with an ‘energy raft’ containing services and supporting the
structural core and envelope. Low-maintenance lightweight but robust materials are used and
environmental strategies include solar power, water collection, heat pumps, radiant cooling and
composting.
The new building stimulates a process of renewal. It is designed to be placed in dis-used spaces and can be
dismantled leaving no physical trace on the land. The fruit of the mainly voluntary work to-date is a detailed
project, a clear road map for progression and a proven record of delivering quality cultural events along with
permanent infrastructural improvements. Finance comes from private donations, the cultural association,
ticketed events, in-kind support and council and European funding.
The building is the contemporary twin of the existing guardian’s house. It complements the imposing
concrete structures with the timber and translucent façade expressing the ecological intent of the design. By
night it is a lantern, a symbol of renewal in the post-industrial landscape. It fills a void and heals the scar of
abandon in the docklands. Designed to facilitate temporary re-use, cultural experiences - art, music or poetry
– and to stimulate employment through co-working. The public’s perception of the place is changed.
EXPERIMENTATION: architecture, culture and sport. Each experiment sheds light on the path to the next
step. The events are an exercise in physical and virtual communication increasing awareness of the potential
of the area. Placing the experiments within a framework of city, regional and international events, such as
the Notte d’Oro festival, the UIA World Architecture Day, PechaKucha and Ravenna 2019, visibility is ensured.
The key to a viable and sustainable quarter is the mix of functions - home, work, garden and leisure. Artists
inhabit the house, creative professionals work in the prototype building, organic food is grown and cultural
events animate the place and provide an income. The vision emerged through dialogue with the TSN,
Ravenna City Council, the Ravenna 2019 team and the public, resulting in the foundation of a cultural
association.
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EDUCATION
The Cultural Association believes that the transfer of knowledge is essential in this project and it is actively
engaged in education. From the outset, children and students have been involved in workshops and events
and now the architects are teaching a course module on ‘the methodology of urban re-use’ at the Ravenna
faculty of architecture.
Figure 14: Workshops with children at the TSN.

CONCLUSION – ‘vietato l’ingresso…pericolo di crollo’
The Hangzhou Declaration ‘Placing Culture at the Heart of Sustainable Development Policies’ states that
“culture-led redevelopment of urban areas … should be promoted to preserve the social fabric, improve economic
returns and increase competitiveness, by giving impetus to a diversity of intangible cultural heritage practices as
well as contemporary creative expressions”. Experiments in Urban Re-Use seeks to fully address this ambition
at the Tiro a Segno Nazionale site.
A project that began with a stroll along a desolate docklands quay two years ago with curious architects
peering through locked gates, has mobilised the local community and now has a progressive methodology
of recuperation. Voluntary participation and association, the contribution of time, skills, materials, know-how
and above all ideas, has brought the project to a stage where the road map to complete renewal is clear.
This site can be a catalyst for renewal in the entire docklands area. The will and dedication are there and
what is needed now is serious financial commitment from public and private stakeholders in Ravenna.
In the meantime a European dissemination project is in the making – a partnership between Italy, Ireland
and Bulgaria – to pool and share the experiences of like-minded groups internationally.
Experiments in Urban Re-Use creates immediate benefit and leads to the realisation of a long term goal.
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Figure 15: The building as art.
VISION
Today is March 23rd 2019. I am standing in front of number 93 Via D’Allagio at the gate to the historical
headquarters of the TSN Ravenna. I am about to enter the Casa dei Creativi art and music festival now in its
5th edition. As I look around and see the thriving area around me I cannot help but reflect on all that has
been achieved since I first peered through the locked gates in 2012.
I see to my left a house that has been beautifully restored, unique in this once industrial context. On my right
is the experimental house that began as an idea for building a zero carbon prototype using recycled
materials and has now been replicated in 11 cities across Italy and in 7 countries throughout Europe.
Behind these the imposing concrete structures of the historical firing range have been returned to their
former glory and have become a cultural venue of international repute. I see the garden that produces
organic food for the residences that have sprung up around the TSN. What was once a collection of semi
derelict sites is now a thriving community centred around new student housing.
I get in line to show my ticket. Luckily I booked early as this event is the most important outdoor
contemporary art/dance show on the international calendar and as Ravenna is European City of Culture, this
year the tickets sold out on the first day of sale. I look up and see a young woman looking at an upstairs
window of the house. She is one of the 108 artists in residence who have passed through the Casa dei
Creativi since it was inaugurated five years ago. The artists produced work that is shown in galleries
worldwide.
Opposite in the prototype house there is still a nucleus of designers who maintain a presence at TSN
although the main Exchange is now housed in a 8,000m2 converted warehouse further up the Dockland
Quays. 60 creative practices are co-working there and hundreds of new jobs were generated by this venture.
The presence of the designers and the consequent regeneration of the area attracted investment at an
international commercial level to an extent where the Docklands is now the most sought after address in
Ravenna and boasts examples of architecture designed by prominent contemporary architects. I take my
seat and breathe in the atmosphere. The chattering voices around me converse in languages from all parts
of Europe. I see some familiar faces who have returned to Ravenna from afar again this year.
The lights dim and I hear the first notes of music. I close my eyes for a minute and give thanks to those who
believed in the force of an idea, who believed that innovative thinking with culture and connectivity would
create a new city quarter.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The support and dedication of the following are allowing a dream become a reality: Ivo Angelini and Daniele
Filipponi of the Tiro a Segno Nazionale, Ravenna Section, Alessandro Novelli of DZ Engineering, the Ravenna
2019 City of Culture team, George Boyle of Fumbally Exchange, the founding members of MEME EXCHANGE:
Maria Cristina Garavelli (President), Elizabeth Francis, Elisa Greco, Cristina Bellini, Lara Bissi, Paola Fantaconi,
Veronica Minghelli and Claudia Pagnani.
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THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT IN THE SYSTEMIC NETWORK OF THE METROPOLISES PERENNIAL
TRENDS
Elodie Nourrigat – Architect – Ph.D in Architecture, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Montpellier,
France, enourrigat@nbj-archi.com
Abstract
The challenge of the future lies in being able to work on a new definition of the local, embedded in globality. Local
attachment is a necessity in the teaching of architecture, and contributes greatly to education. It is essential to
establish territorial attachment with a strong capacity to form and designate a specific place, and indeed to build
a habitable and inhabited environment. The place then becomes a strategic developmental commitment. These
research and education measures based on locality enable us to explore other new, urban mechanisms, for we do
not refer to locality as an end in itself, but rather as a starting point to embed it in a larger, indeed, global
territorial framework. This then ties in with what Saskia Sassen identifies as the Global City, since the place’s
dynamics lead this territory and city not to withdraw into themselves, but rather to open up and connect with the
world. Architect training and education must thus be aimed at acquiring skills which enable comprehension and
an intelligent grasp of the territory. By researching a new definition of locality, we refute the construction of
simple, disembodied architectural objects with no influence over their environments. Unlike the classic city, this
new territorial mechanism is not embedded in one single place, but instead exists through a multitude of
interconnected locations.
Keywords: Locality, reliance, intersection of spheres, experimentation, global.
INTRODUCTION
Architectural education has always wavered between local influence and an openness to broader horizons,
distinguishing, and indeed contrasting, the local from the global – a concept building on from the notion of
globalisation. Simply put, global thus involves a smoothing out and standardisation of both architecture
itself and the tools for teaching it. Local, on the other hand, has more pejorative connotations, expressing
mere historic or geographic features, and basing itself on a sense of entitlement, identity and pure
aesthetics.
Nowadays, however, we can no longer operate on the simple premise of dividing and contrasting these two
territorial scales as part of architectural education. The challenge of the future lies in being able to work on a
new definition of the local, embedded in globality. Local attachment is a necessity in the teaching of
architecture, and contributes greatly to education. It is essential to establish territorial attachment with a
strong capacity to form and designate a specific place, and indeed to build a habitable and inhabited
environment. The place then becomes a strategic developmental commitment. These research and
education measures based on locality enable us explore other new, urban mechanisms, for we do not refer
to locality as an end in itself, but rather as a starting point to embed it in a larger, indeed, global territorial
framework. Paul Virilio explains this, “I like the local when it highlights the global, and I like the global when
it can be seen from the local. Neither should be lost.”
We must therefore be able to implement new ways of approaching and teaching architectural schemes to
ensure they can incorporate these new aspects of contemporary cities. This occurs over several stages.
Firstly, investigative research into new forms of locality, followed by implementation of an idea capable of
linking together the key project elements. A genuine ‘line of thought’. And finally, conducting experiments
to build and test new urban concepts, exploiting the synergies between the two territorial spheres. Three
main starting points and approaches will now be discussed further.
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FROM LOCALITY TO A NEW DEFINITION
The assumption that standards tend to be unique gives rise to a hypothesis affirming the need to think
about cities and metropolises by reintroducing and recognising specificity, territorial attachment, and its
capacity to interpret, condition and ultimately identify the metropolitan phenomenon within its locality. In
fact, the hypothesis used for researching a new definition of locality is that this locality favours specificity
regarding standards, and positions the locality as an enclave in the face of globalisation. By promoting
specific features, locality enhances the great diversity associated with living there, in light of the rules and
models imposed on everyone. As outlined above, locality does not seek to take on a pejorative sense, and
certainly not to spark stylistic connotations. The locality which matters to us is rather that of a dynamic
mechanism pooling together the specific features associated with a territory so as to transcend these and
achieve a new urban order, and create a city focusing on people and living.
It translates into the need to establish specific environments, in keeping with the definition of an
environment as described in the Great Universal Dictionary of the 19th Century (1870): “An environment is
thus a real system, as Hegel understood it, that is to say, the place of all mutual relations necessary for
expressing life here.” Environment is thus always attached to place. As each place is unique, we seek to
establish an urban and territorial strategy to promote specific environments within a particular place. To
better define this concept, we can use the definition proposed by Yves Lacoste: “The idea of a natural
environment in which geographers and the first ecologists demonstrated great interest thus combines three
fundamental elements: the living organisms, the climates, and the soils.” Creating environments thus
revolves around the need to re-establish the meaning and purpose of a place, of a locality as a revelation of
pre-existence, and of a specific feature. The place’s meaning and purpose involves addressing the question
of environment, no longer as a controllable, constructible quantity of energy to be preserved, but as a
regained and inhabited environment. “The term ‘environments’ refers to the natural, cultural and technical –
not just one domain; here we mean environments in the plural.”
The place becomes a strategic developmental commitment. “The strategy associated with places proves to
be decisive in that it involves reconfigurations linking the local to the global, while still retaining both. By
intertwining the spheres and environments, this may give rise to other, more responsible creative
relationships between nature and technology, physical, social and cultural contexts of accepting otherness
and stimulating sensory and poetic experiences.” This then ties in with what Saskia Sassen identifies as the
Global City, since the place’s dynamics lead this territory and city not to withdraw into themselves, but
rather to open up and connect with the world.
Unlike the classic city, this new territorial mechanism is not embedded in one single place, but instead exists
through a multitude of interconnected locations. We thus now speak about focal points, not central hubs.
“21st-century architects consequently need to reinvent new ways of living through eco-cities filled with
fruitful interactions, carefully managing diversity and cultural plurality. This requires an exchange between
the local and global. In light of Métropoles du Sud, I believe it is the balance between these two fields which
needs to be questioned in order to start considering the bases for creating eco-metropolises. Paul Virilio
admits he likes local when it makes him want to see the world, not when it sees the other as its enemy.”
IMPLEMENTING A LINE OF THOUGHT
In order to establish new urban concepts interlinking the local and the global, we first need to adopt a new
way of thinking. This is first and foremost embedded in a process of connecting elements to achieve a
globalising thought as capable of grasping a whole as it is the sum of all these parts. And therein lies the
challenge; it is a reversible process creating a constant link between identifying the global and controlling
each of the smaller entities forming it, the local and the locals. To do this, we use a conceptual tool enabling
a thought to be positioned. It is called Reliance.
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Reliance originates in the work of Edgar Morin (2004), who explores the organisation of knowledge to tackle
the world’s complexity. Morin believes that it is pointless to simply accumulate knowledge only to store it
away. A thought returns to comprehension mode when this knowledge is coupled with a capacity for
interrelation. In his book, La Méthode 6, Ethique proposes a “line of thought”, and offers a thought which
allows the complexity of reality to be tackled, thereby becoming the quasi-tool of “intelligence in action”. La
Méthode thus seeks to establish links which enable the construction of a complex thought in order to
understand the complexity of the world. In other words, it is through this method, known as self-
organisation that the links can appear. La Méthode opposes the notion of structuring through specialisation.
Morin writes, “I am not against specialisation; I myself have drawn on the work of specialists. I am against the
compartmentalisation which results from specialisation and the inability to establish a link, and we must
develop relationship-building skills.”
Reliance goes beyond simple links; it seems to transcend them by adding a key dimension, that of dynamics.
It is presented as a dynamic link expanding the mere idea of building relationships and connections, and
broadening out into fields other than those usually accepted as social relationships. Once established and
applied, this principle seeks to surpass a way of thinking, and instead start creating a distinct approach to
territory, where places linked up in a dynamic system are the channel for a new urban order. It maintains and
protects this necessary link, enabling simple locality to be transcended. In this way, what interests us about
Edgar Morin’s vision regarding the question of reliance, and what allows a connection to be established with
a certain project thinking, is the notion of complex thinking, a globalising thinking capable of creating a link
to improve our understanding of the world. But also the formation of specific knowledge, because it
provides an ethical relationship with the world, which is one of the foundations of architecture, in the spirit
of creating the conditions for co-existence and being part of the world.
EXPERIMENTATION WITH NEW URBAN CONCEPTS AT THE CROSSROADS OF TWO SPHERES.
Having the appropriate research tools is a key element of teaching. In this way, choosing the project through
experimentation appears the obvious step in order to enhance the territory’s potential and the local place’s
specificity. By creating new links, the project does not destroy an existing environment, but rather
regenerates it in a new dimension. The aim is not to invent, but to reveal, to reactivate a ‘pre-existence’, to
connect it with other spheres and other places. This will be the focus of the experiment.
Having adopted a decisively experimental approach, we must be able to mobilise all our knowledge, as well
as our imagination and anticipatory skills, to formulate scenarios for the cities of the future. As Buckminster
Fuller (1973) stated, “I decided on a rule that I would never speak before first translating my philosophy and
thoughts into actions and artefacts, and only express my ideas after conceiving something concrete – not a
social reform.” We thus choose to implement through experimentation, placing the project at the very
centre of this new form of exploration. Renzo Piano (1997) writes, “Devising a project is not a linear
experience during which you carry out what you have thought up. On the contrary, it is a circular process:
you start off by planning, then carry out tests, then rethink the idea, and then redesign it by consistently
revisiting the same point. This may seem very empirical, but it is actually a method common to many
disciplines, such as music, physics and astrophysics...Thus, in the field of scientific research, where there are
countless variables, you establish an equation based on an intuition originating in your own experience.” It is
this reversibility of experimentation which helps implement the essential project idea, and particularly works
against the initial notion that creation, that doing, is purely the product of genius. “In reality, creation is not
an expression of genius, or the echo of words whispered in your ear by the Muse, but rather the synthesis of
research and experimentation – this is precisely what Galileo meant by the phrase “try again and again”
(Piano 1997, p. 12). It is here we see the distinction between thinking and doing.
To carry out the experiments, we formulate the hypothesis that intertwining both urban and architectural
spheres creates the conditions for establishing the uniqueness and specificity of a local place. In doing so,
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we seek to reject the notion of an architectural object, conceived by and for itself, without any consideration
for or attachment to its environment. The ideal for creating meaning in a purely visual, indeed even
communication-based, field does not seem able to create the conditions essential for better cohabitation. As
a tool for thinking, Reliance provides access to new horizons. Through the intersection of spheres, a view
seeking to open up the conventional order also imposes a structural hierarchy, starting from the biggest to
the smallest, by applying the consequences of the choices purely according to this order. On the other hand,
the intersections offer the possibility of multiple comings and goings, enabling all spheres to interact and
affect one another, regardless of their size or embedding. It is a global thought capable of establishing links
which creates the environment. In this vein, the need to grasp the architectural, urban and landscaping plan
is clear. In a thought revolving around action, other forms of planning take over. Once identified,
orchestrated and enhanced, it no longer simply appears as an obvious fact, but is rather embedded in
strategic and territorial dynamics that go beyond the notion of pre-existence, and seek new territorial
growth.
CONCLUSION
Architect training and education must thus be aimed at acquiring skills which enable comprehension and an
intelligent grasp of the territory. By researching a new definition of locality, we refute the construction of
simple, disembodied architectural objects with no influence over their environments. Distinguishing
between the urban and architectural sphere is essential in order to regain the sense of a place. Bringing
these spheres together is one of the main challenges in creating this sought-after specificity and forming a
veritable inhabited physical environment. In doing so, we seek to identify the perpetual structural
tendencies, as well as the local innovation mechanisms likely to assist with defining, building and
maintaining these metropolises. Devising a vision for the city and the methods adopted for its virtuous
relationships with people and the environment appears to be a fundamental challenge which requires the
taking of a genuine stance. We need to produce, invent and innovate. This concept revolves around the idea
that, in order to act in a global environment, we must build specific environments respecting the localities in
which they lie, and work together to construct real inhabited environments. It is not associated with any
dogma or ready-made solution; it is constantly re-questioned. It is precisely through and from a specific
place, in its locality, that new living conditions can be created.
REFERENCES
Buckminster Fuller, R., 1973. Education / automation. Traduit de l’américain par Claude Yelnick, collection Idée
Doctrine, Edition Hachette Littérature, France/Paris.
Lacoste, Y., 2003, De la géographie aux paysages. Dictionnaire de la géographie, ArmandColin, France/ Paris.
Larousse, P., 1870. Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, volume VII, France/Paris.
Morin, E., 2004. La Méthode 6, Ethique, Éd. du Seuil, Paris.
Piano, R., 1997. Carnet de travail, Editions du Seuil, Italy/Calenzano.
Sassen, S., 1991. Global City, Princeton University Press, New York.
Virilio, P.,1996. Cybermonde politique du pire, Textuel, France/Paris,
Younes, C., 2011. Résilience et reliance, Symposium Métropoles du Sud, Ed. de l’Espérou, France/Montpellier.
Younes, C., 2007. Le tournant d’une stratégie urbaine des lieux et des milieux, dans NANO CITY- International
Workshop, Montpellier, Edition Champ Libre, France/Montpellier.
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THE SKIN OF BRAZILIAN MODERN ARCHITECTURE: ENVELOPE SOLUTIONS IN THE LIGHT OF
CONCEPTS OF BIOCLIMATIC ARCHITECTURE
Augusto Alvarenga, Professor/UFES, Espirito Santo Federal University, Brazil, augusto@arus.arq.br
Abstract
The period of Brazilian architecture between the 1930s and 60s has always been internationally
recognized as one of the most important in the architectural history of the country by the Brazilian
Academy. This period, known as modern architecture, has been evaluated in relation to the treatment of
environmental issues and solutions for passive conditioning developed by Brazilian architects of the
time. The influence of colonial architecture, which has been studied in the treatment of the envelope of
buildings, is presented as the greatest contribution from that historical period for the development of
modern architecture at a national and international level.
Keywords: modern Brazilian architecture, sustainable architecture, bioclimatic architecture.
INTRODUCTION
This paper is a summary of a doctoral thesis presented in the year 2013 at the UPC - Polytechnic
University of Catalonia. In that thesis, modern Brazilian architecture, the adaptation process of
international concepts in Brazilian climatic conditions and the influence of colonial architecture in
this process are investigated. Based on the selected examples, the bioclimatic concepts applied to
architecture are investigated and analyzed. It was also necessary to analyze the history of the
colonial architecture through examples as a way of checking that influence.
The literature review of the Brazilian architecture history has showed us the way: the only period in
the recent history of Brazilian architecture, where international and imported models from the first
world were learned, processed and applied to the real condition of the country in development and
with a predominantly tropical climate, was Brazilian modern architecture.
Modern Brazilian architects had every reason to simply import this vibrant international architecture
and apply it as the new ‘modus aedificandi’ in Brazil. The country was in the process of
industrialization. Every international or imported product had great status and was considered
better than domestic products. In addition, Brazil needed large-scale production because of the
attention given to the growing demands of the population that started to migrate to the cities
looking for industrial solutions to guarantee work and housing to that significant mass population.
The architects had to present their responses to these demands under the influence of the new
global architecture, which was made possible by new construction techniques that were becoming
popular in the country, especially with the rapid dominance of reinforced concrete constructions.
However, the mere adoption of modern precepts described by Le Corbusier, Mies Van de Rohe and
other Bauhaus masters, did not happen8. Instead, the solutions adopted by Brazilian masters
crossed the ocean and influenced generations of European architects because of the development
that architecture had in Brazil (Figure 1). That happened mainly because in the process of
nationalizing this new architecture, the Brazilian professionals considered a fundamental aspect: the
climate. The preoccupations of the rationalists with bioclimatism9, focused on passive strategies
such as use of natural light, ventilation, solar protection and roof systems, ensured an architecture
that is much closer to several concepts we now call sustainability. Bruand (2003) states that
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8!Le! Corbusier! had! great! influence! on! Brazilian! architects! in! the! 50s,! following! his! participation! in! the!
design!for!the!new!building!for!the!Ministry!of!Education!and!Health!in!Rio!de!Janeiro,!and!due!to!a!series!
of!lectures!that!took!place!in!two!visits!to!Brazil.!
'
9!The!current!definition!of!bioclimatic!architecture!is!the!design!of!buildings!taking!into!account!climatic!
conditions,! using! available! resources! (sun,! vegetation,! rain,! wind)! to! reduce! environmental! impacts,!
trying!to!reduce!energy!consumption.!
'
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strategies to beat heat and solar radiation excess are probably the most important, because, other
than being used more often, they contributed to ensure a proper nature to architecture in Brazil,
differentiating, in that way, from the architecture of other countries.
Figure 1 – Meat Board Building, de 1951, en Pretoria: The influence of Brazilian modern architecture in other countries
(Source: Jooste 2007).
In 1952, the French newspaper Architecture d'Aujourd 'hui, published a special edition called Brésil,
where Siegfried Giedion (1952) (Figure 2) defends that the fascinating subject of this architecture is
the design of the envelope, with the variety of technical details that define the project from the
aesthetic and formal point of view. That is to say, Giedion qualifies Brazilian architecture and
attributes the treatment of the envelope the key to the quality that has been achieved.
Figure 2 – Special Ediction: Brésil, Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, Giedion (1952).
This topic, the envelope, is the main concept addressed by this research: the face, not necessarily
opaque, not necessarily fixed representing facades, roofs, carpentry; the entire set of
interrelationships between the building and the environment that we are going to deem to be here
“the skin of Brazilian modern buildings”.
In no other period in the history of Brazilian architecture has that concept been so well applied as in
the golden period of modern architecture, between 1930 and 1960. Even though several of the
concepts used by Brazilians rationalists are a legacy of the colonial architecture period10, where
different bioclimatic solutions were adopted. Lúcio Costa11 (1995) was a Brazilian architect who
dedicated himself to presenting this influence and the rapid adoption of these concepts by modern
architects. Giedion (1952) considers the talents of Brazilian architects, the overlook to the colonial
past and the support of the State as the main reasons for the development of modern architecture
in Brazil.
The hypothesis of this study is that climate care and treatment of the envelope were very important
elements in the success and international recognition of Brazilian modern architecture, especially
that produced between 1930 and 1960. The main objective is to ensure that the solutions adopted
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10
'Period'covered'since'1500'to'the'country's'independence'in'1822.'
11!Lucio! Marcal! Ferreira! Ribeiro! Lima! Costa,! was! an! architect,! urban! planner! and! professor,! pioneer! of!
modern!Brazilian!architecture,!recognized!worldwide!for!designing!the!Pilot!Plan!of!Brasilia.!
'
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in modern Brazilian architecture follow the precepts of bioclimatic architecture, as part of the
strategies to achieve sustainability in architecture.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE UNDER THE

INFLUENCE OF BRAZILIAN CLIMATE
Brazil was under Portugal’s dominance for 322 years until its independence in 1822. Despite this
long period of dominance over the country, Brazil developed its own colonial architecture,
influenced by the climate, culture and the great race mix that occurred. This fact is illustrated by the
significant changes in the original architecture of Portugal during this period, such as the
appearance of the balconies, practically non-existent in Portuguese homes, and with the distancing
of the kitchen from the interior of the house, evidently the presence of a heat source inside the
house is not desirable in a tropical climate (Figures 3, 4 and 5).
Figure 3: Porche and false porche (Source: Colin 2010).
Figure 4: Bristol building – Parque Guinle – Lúcio Figure 5: Olivo Gomes house – Rino Levi, 1940. São José dos
Costa, 1948, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Source: Collection of Campos, SP
the author).
The construction techniques are also influenced by climate and geographical conditions in Brazil.
They are modifications of the Portugal original to adapt to the natural resources available in the
new country. It also indicated a clear influence of indigenous techniques, mainly observing the
strategies used to keep buildings from deteriorating due to tropical humidity, especially for
constructions that combine the earth with wood (Figure 6).
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Figure 6: Structure, hatching and fill in the mud and

wood wall (Source: Colin 2010).
It is precisely the tropicalisation of the native Portuguese techniques that made Brazilian colonial
architecture have a major influence on the development of modern architecture in Brazil. These 300
years and more, generated a repertoire of solutions that could not be despised by Brazilian
architects, even with the development of new construction technologies, the main one being of
reinforced concrete, and the spread of modern concepts that came from abroad.
It is important to point out that most of the changes made to the original architecture of Portugal
would generate a lighter construction which is characterized by a low thermal inertia. There you can
find the essence of the relationship between colonial architecture and modern architecture in
modern independent structural systems. Reducing the thermal inertia means, among other
strategies, reducing the thickness of the exterior walls. This need, in colonial architecture, leads to
the adoption of the technique of independent wooden structure and the use of handmade adobe
walls, which in modern architecture becomes independent reinforced concrete structure with
masonry (Figure 7).
Figure 7: Infographic representing the elements of the Brazilian colonial architecture and its importance in the
passive conditioning of buildings (Source: model produced by the author).
The modern cobogós12 were also present in many elements of Brazilian colonial architecture. Again,
the need for a low thermal inertia associated with the guideline of allowing the flow of air into and
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12 !From! the! initials! of! the! surnames! of! the! engineers! Amadeu! Oliveira! Coimbra,! Ernest! August!
Boeckmann!and!Antônio!de!Gois,!who!worked!in!Recife!and!Olinda!(in!the!province!of!Pernambuco)!in!the!
first!half!of!the!twentieth!century,!the!word!is!born!"!CoBoGó!",!which!was!patented!in!1929!by!them.!
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through the building transformed elements as muxarabis or lattices, in modern cobogós (Figures 8
and 9) of prefabricated concrete or ceramic. Again, we emphasize the difference to the mother
country, where low temperatures, determine that ventilation is not desired inside the building
during most months of the year.
Figure 8 - Panel of glazed ceramic cobogós, Institute Figure 9 - Lucio Costa drawing from a carpenter using
of Antibiotics, Recife (PE), 1953(Source: Freire 2010). lattices: the typical window in Brazilian colonial
architecture (Source: Costa, 1995).
From these examples, it is clear that the same climate that transforms the original architecture of
Portugal in what became known as Brazilian colonial architecture has transformed modern
architecture imported from Europe, which would be recognized worldwide as modern Brazilian
architecture.
Lucio Costa was responsible for the transposition of the repertoire developed during Brazilian
colonial architecture to modern architecture. This is done in two ways: the first is the creation of a
conceptual and theoretical repertoire to use elements of colonial architecture in modern
architecture. The second is the application of these principles in their own projects, with the
development of a repertoire of unparalleled construction elements, based on the elements of
colonial architecture.
The great merit of Lucio is not only the nationalization of modern concepts using as reference
colonial architecture, but especially its critical approach to modern precepts that were not suitable
or adaptable to our climate. This mainly happens when rejecting the adoption of glass facades, as in
projects for the Ministry of Education (Figure 10) and in the Park Guinle buildings (Figure 11). In
these examples the total or partial facade, is treated differently based on solar orientation and the
use of each sector.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
'
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Figure 10 - Ministry of Health, Education and Culture

building. On the left, inside the plant type. On the right, the
brises of the north facade (Source: Segre et al. 2009).
Figure 11 - Different solutions sunscreen. Guinle Park

buildings. Lucio Costa (Source: Collection of the author).
By isolating the main elements of modern Brazilian repertoire, he realizes that each design is based
on the attention to the environmental requirements of passive conditioning. This can be seen in the
development and adoption of the brises proposed by Le Corbusier and also in the development of
cobogós which made possible the completely wind permeable hollow walls. In the design of the
window frames, the concern with solar control is also notable, be it through examples with multiple
layers or opening systems that allow complete penetration of ventilation (Figures 11 and 12).
Figure 11: Architect Vilanova Artigas, Louveira building Figure 12: Different configurations of the
in São Paulo, 1946: Double skin windows with total windows in the colonial period. (Source: Colin
openness (Source: http://casaeimoveis.uol.com.br). 2010).
We have also frequently found large eaves and balconies in roofing systems (Figures 13 and 14) to
guarantee the protection of facades from direct sunlight and also the large amount of rain,
especially heavy summer storms.
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Figure 13: Lucio Costa, the residence of Baron Figure 14- The typical traditional house in rural Brazil,
Saavedra, Petropolis (RJ), 1942 (Source: Costa was the independent structure, in wood, already used in
1995). the colonial architecture (Source: collection of the
author).
When we highlight every component of modern architecture, the attention to climate issues is even
clearer. We also note that this repertoire of solutions, occurred in an unprecedented way to the
architecture that occurred around the world. But the Corbusier design of the brises soleil, used here
for the first time and the ‘sun break’ were just one of new elements. The cobogós or leaky walls
were not new in world architecture, not even an invention of modern architecture. However, this
has been included here for the first time as an industrial product and for the systematic use as a
sunscreen that enables air flow.
The repertory of this period of 30 years that we know in Brazil as the rise of modern architecture is a
heritage that must be recovered. Not only the standard repertoire of bioclimatic solutions, but also
in relation to the compositional form of the whole repertoire and performance, meeting all the
requirements necessary for the proper functioning of the envelope of buildings. We return to the
concept of skin and the complexity of devices to ensure ventilation, thermal protection with the use
of natural light, variably and efficiently throughout the day and seasons.
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Figure 15: Infographic representing the elements of the Brazilian modern architecture by the simplificativo of
Lucio Costa Bristol building (Source: model produced by the author).
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF THE ENVELOPE OF ARCHITECTURE

When analyzing the five points given by Corbusier, it is notable that some of these points are
derived from the architect's concern with the insertion of the building on site and climate
adaptation. The brises, horizontal windows, the garden terrace and the piles permit a more open
architecture, also transparent to sunlight and where air can enter freely.
However, as explained in this study, this apparent adaptation to climate does not respond equally
to all climates. Allowing a curtain wall facade has more to do with temperature gain through
radiation than with solar protection. Similarly, the garden terrace under the sun is not a nice place
to be in a tropical climate.
In this context, in the literature produced by the architects of Brazil on bioclimatic issue, the
production by the architect Armando de Holanda around bioclimatic studies applied to the
architecture of the intertropical zone may be retrieved. Modern architecture produced in Recife,
one of the largest cities in the Brazilian Northeast, was recognized as an example of environmental
acclimatization, in an even hotter climate than in the southeastern region. Holanda observed the
work, the discourse and practice of several generations of architects who worked in that city
between the 1930s and 70s. These architects sought to adapt the principles of modern architecture
to the warm and humid climate. Holanda met a number of empirical experiences in a book entitled
"Script to building in the Northeast: Architecture as a pleasant place in the sunny tropics," published
in 1976 by the publishing of the University of Pernambuco (Holanda 1976). The book became one of
the main references in the disciplines of architecture and environmental comfort in the courses of
Architecture and Urbanism in the northeast of Brazil (Carmo Filho 2005).
The recommendations of Armando de Holanda's manual
The direct application of the recommendations of Armando de Holanda for evaluating buildings
was used by Carmo Filho (2005) and Lima & Lederer (2011) and quoted in numerous literatures
related to the topic of evaluation bioclimatic construction. In this research, however, a systematic
process is sought, the application of the recommendations of Holanda to evaluate the building
envelope, taking into account in the analysis, joint attention based on the concept of skin defined
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above. In addition, we have developed an iconographic method, based on the original Holanda
drawings in order to facilitate the assimilation and dissemination of the evaluation process and the
concepts proposed by him.
Next, a description of the 9 points proposed by Holanda and a brief analysis of each blocks.
Create a shadow
Figure 16: Ventilated roof (Source: Holanda 1976).
Being under the shade of a tree may be the true feeling of comfort experienced by the Brazilians. In
the northern and northeastern regions is very common for people to sleep on porches. That is, the
architecture fits well as a glove and only closes for the protection and shelter of the most intense
rainfall.
Recessed walls
Figure 17 - The porch as space for transition and living of the people (Source:
Holanda 1976).
This is a recurring theme in Brazilian colonial architecture: the protection of walls from rain.
Examples of buildings surrounded by porches were found in Brazil 500 years ago. This second
recommendation, in fact, complements the first, since large areas of shade need closed areas to
shelter certain features of the building.
Protecting windows
Figure 18: Sunscreen (Source: Holanda 1976).

Holanda's recommendation is appropriate to the extent that direct solar radiation is undesirable in
most regions of Brazil and none in the summer. The windows of the buildings, therefore, should
always have some kind of barrier against heat stroke. The solutions to fulfill this function, as seen
here, are numerous.
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Living with nature
Figure 19: Long leaves (Source: Holanda 1976).
Undoubtedly one of the greatest contributions of modern architecture to contemporary life is the
breaking of spatial boundaries between interior and exterior. The definition of the inner spaces is no
longer tied to the structural design. The use of beam-column systems in orthogonal grids creates
the flexibility to define the best internal space. The rationalist architecture created an
unprecedented internal-external relationship between building and environment allowing contact
between the inhabitant and nature. This legacy of modern architecture made Holanda's
recommendation possible and well suited to the climate of Brazil.
Perforating walls
Figure 20: Perforated walls (Source: Holanda 1976).
Perforating walls, even with simple circular holes embedded in masonry or sophisticated display
systems, is one of the main strategies used to ensure the enclosure of space, at the same time
allowing airflow. Remember that the Cobogó has its origin attributed to the Northeast architects,
despite being present in different forms in architecture around the world.
Opening doors
Figure 21: Integration of external space with the interior space (Source: Holanda 1976).
Ventilation is very important to dissipate heat and reduce moisture with air movement in indoor
spaces. For this reason, buildings need large openings and their typical implementation is long and
narrow, independent and remote forms together, to not create barriers for the wind from some
buildings over to others. To achieve distributed airflow inside, openings for the wind are
recommended, protecting them from radiation and the views with shutters, etc.
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Continuing spaces
Figure 22: Spatial continuity (Source: Holanda 1976).
Holanda's recommendation is not directly related to the object of study of this study, it is not part of
the envelope of buildings. But when trying to ensure free airflow, the continuity of space is a highly
complementary recommendation.
Building with less
Figure 23: Modulation of structure (Source: Holanda 1976).
This suggestion is not directly related to the skin of the building, but refers to the need to
industrialize and standardize the components of the skin. The industrialization of construction and
the definition of clear rules for the construction processes are necessary for the economic viability
of the solutions of the envelope. Current possibilities of production on demand open numerous
opportunities for increasing the level of industrialization of our buildings without losing the
individual and aesthetic characteristics, taking into account also the specificities of each local
climate.
Building leafy
Figure 24: Adaptation to the environment (Source: Holanda 1976).
Armando de Holanda tries to rescue principles of vernacular architecture. Made in the tropics for
the tropics. Inspired by the native huts and houses of farms, it proposes not only an imitation, but a
recovery. He wanted architecture with shades, open and welcoming. An architecture that is
metaphorically compared to a tree that serves as a refuge from the tropical environment (Zaccara
2010).
Iconographic representation from items proposed by Holland

Based on the adopted recommendations, icons that make up the following table that associates
each of Holanda's points to an iconographic representation have been developed. This
representation functions as a visual element to evaluate buildings in accordance with these
principles that can become a contribution to the systematization of future analyzes.
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Table 1 - Iconographic representation of Holanda's recommendations.
Adapted from the sketches of Armando de Holanda for the representation of each of the strategies.
Recommended Strategies Recommended Strategies
Covers broad,
Few barriers Cobogós
Create a
Light and Boring Walls Screens
Shadow
independent Lattice
structure
Double
Eaves windows
Recessed Walls Porches Open Doors frames
Lodges Sliding Doors
Mobile Panels
Few interior
Slits walls
Protect Venetian Continuous
Continue Spaces
Windows Brises spaces
Cobogós Independent
structure
Industrialization
of the
Transparency
Living with Building with construction
Balcones
Nature Little system
External steps
Standardization
of construction.
Construction in
pavilions
Integrating
Build Bowery
external and
internal spaces
It is noted that the architecture that is being done in Brazil, including self-constructions found in
poor neighborhoods and in the outskirts of large cities. A lot has been forgotten about the climate
as the protagonist of the technical and construction strategies.
This set of qualitative and quantitative recommendations are needed to complement the studies
presented and examples found to systematize and promote these criteria serve as a model to be
adopted in the architecture of this country.
APPLICATION OF THE ABOVE CRITERIA DEFINED IN THE CASES ANALYSIS

Based on the criteria defined above, one can see different solutions and treatments in the envelope
of these buildings. This supports the hypothesis that primary care aiming to surround climate
adaptation has been one of the main characteristics of Brazilian rationalism. The building complex
has been shown to be sufficiently diverse in location and uses include those with certain
homogeneity in climates where they are located.
To facilitate the understanding of each of the works and to make the evaluation of solar orientation
and wind penetration possible, a virtual model (Figure 25) of each of the buildings chosen has been
created, as a contribution to the understanding and evaluation of the shell in relation to the climate
of each site. These models are based on the literature, projects and visits that were made to all sites.
The chosen sites (in chronological order) are:
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1. The Brazilian Press Association Headquarters Building - ABI, Roberto, 1936 brothers, Rio de
Janeiro, RJ.
2. The Ministry of Education and Health - MES, Carlos Leão, Oscar Niemeyer, Affonso Reidy,
Ernani Vasconcellos and Jorge Machado Moreira, 1936, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.
3. The Residence of Olivo Gomes, Rino Levi, 1940, São José dos Campos, SP.
4. The Residence of Baron de Saavedra, Lucio Costa, 1942, Correas, Petrópolis, RJ.
5. The Bristol Building - Park Guinle, Lucio Costa, 1948, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.
6. Ernestina Pessoa Daycare Center, Francisco Bolonha, 1952, Vitória, ES.
7. Espírito Santo State School, Élio Vianna de Almeida, 1954, Vitória, ES.
8. The Concordia Building, Rino Levi, 1955, São Paulo, SP.
a) b)
c)
d)
e) g)
f) h)
Figure 25: 3D Models of the eight buildings: a: ABI, b: MES, c: Residence Olivo Gomes, d: Residence of Baron de
Saavedra, e: Building Bristol, f: Nursery Ernestina Pessoa, g: State School. h:.Building Concordia (Source: Images
produced by the author).
In this summary we present only one of the objects of analysis, the Concordia building (Figures 26
and 27), from the Architect Rino Levy, as an example of the application of the proposed evaluation
process.
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Figure 26: View of the Concordia building and its Figure 27: View of the interior court (Source: Gerra
insertion in the city (Source: Gerra 2001). 2001).
The evaluation aims to test the effectiveness of solar control devices and permeability of the
building to the wind. The 3D model produced for assessments with computational tools is being
used. To check the effectiveness of the sun protection systems, Ecotect (AUTODESK 2002) is used
through the ‘shadow range’ tool, that is, the sum of the shadows at a certain time of day or year.
With the Vasari (AUTODESK 2002) software, solar radiation accumulated on a surface over a period
is evaluated. These assessments are made with and without sunscreen devices allowing verification
that these devices cause reduction of the radiation in the facades and solar incidence.
Figure 28: View of the front facade with overlapping shadows in the summer (Model produced with Ecotect).
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Figure 29: View of the front facade with overlapping shadows in the summer in the typical plant, with and without the brises (Model
produced with Ecotect).
Figure 30: View of the front facade with solar radiation accumulated in summer day period without (left) and with (right) and the
brises (Simulation produced with Vasari).
Figure 31: View of the front facade with solar radiation accumulated equinox day period without (left) and with (right) and the
brises (Simulation produced with Vasari).
To evaluate the permeability of the wind, the Vasari wind tunnel simulator (AUTODESK 2002) software is
used to check if the position and size of the openings allow natural ventilation to flow through the building
and between the city blocks.
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Figure 32: Angled view and top view of wind penetration in the Concordia Building (Model produced with Vasari).
Through the iconographic representation found below, with all the evaluations, the attention to the
proposed precepts given by Armando de Holanda were presented below.
1. On'the'west'facade'the'Brises'are'used'
forming'a'gallery'in'front'of'the'of'
carpentry'system,'creating'a'space'of'
transition.'
2. Sunscreen'was'not'necessary'on'the'
south'facade,'staying'entirely'in'the'
curtain'wall.'
3. The'Brises'prevent'direct'solar'
radiation.'
4. Part'of'the'parking'lot'and'facade'of'
the'mezzanine'is'closed'with'cobogós'
guaranteeing'the'air'flow.'
5. On'the'east'facade'there'is'a'patio'over'
the'parking'lot'floors,'where'a'
suspended'garden'it'was'placed.'The'
facade'is'protected'by'pergolas,'one'on'
each'floor.''
6. There'are'deposits'on'the'ground'floor'
closed'by'windowless'walls.'
Figure 33: The skin of the Concordia building (Model produced by the author).
CONCLUSION
A repertoire of passive bioclimatic solutions used during the golden period of Brazilian architecture
has been rescued for this work. More than this rescue, we have shown such a connection with the
past repertoire of architecture in the country. The architecture of the colonial period that has been
transformed year after year by the influence of climate and site resource availability to create this
repertoire. But we have to understand this heritage not as a set of solutions but as an attitude to be
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understood and reproduced. The attitude of looking to the past in confrontation with the avant-
garde, especially the seductive examples arriving from abroad to a country still under development.
The main perspective that is expected to continue a work like this is the creation of criteria
connected to the site, that support decision-making about how we construct our buildings. We
know how powerful the construction industry is, in the end, our job is to take parts of nature and
transform them into the materials and resources necessary to build our cities. So the architect’s
decision-making is the most effective way to reduce the immense impact we have on the natural
environment. So the strategies of passive conditioning of buildings are very important and deserve
the proposed emphasis in this study.
At the time of the Brazilian economic miracle in the 70s, when the country was experiencing a
development that had never before occurred, we found ourselves sufficiently international to break
modern tradition, giving up Lúcio Costa’s and other masters’ teachings, when a link between past
and present with an eye to the weather and the landscape was created. We have ignored regional
differences in climate and architectural practice. The main conclusion of this study is that we must
find a way back to close the broken link in the chain and continue the journey, as recommended by
Armando de Holanda: the development of a decidedly comfortable architecture in the Brazilian
tropics.
REFERENCES
Albernaz, MP & Lima, CM., 1998. Dicionário ilustrado de arquitetura, Vol. 1 e 2, Pro-Editores, São
Paulo.
Autodesk, 2012. Project Vasari Technology Preview 2.5 Vasari online help software manufacturer
Autodesk Inc., viewed June 2012, http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Vasari/enu/TP25/Help . .
Bruand, Y., 2003. Arquitetura contemporânea no Brasil, Perspectiva. São Paulo.
Carmo F & Jairson J do., 2005. ‘“Construir Frondoso” Uma Herança Esquecida? Avaliação Pós-
Ocupação em habitações unifamiliares projetadas de 1976 a 2004 na Região Metropolitana do
Recife, com base nas recomendações do “Roteiro para construir no Nordeste” de Armando de
Holanda’, Dissertacao de mestrado, PPGAU/UFRN, Natal
Colin, S., 2010. ‘Técnicas construtivas do período colonial’, Postado en 18 June,
www.coisasdaarquitetura.com.
Costa, L., 1995. Registro de uma vivencia, Empresa das Artes, Sao Paulo.
Freire, A., 2010. ‘As soluções da arquitetura tropical em Recife’, Revista aU - Arquitetura e Urbanismo:
Interseção, ed 195.
Gerra, A., 2001. Rino Levi, Arquitetura e Cidade, Ed. Romano Guerra, São Paulo.
Giedion, S., 1952. Architecture d’Ajourdu’hui, Edition especial Brésil, Francia.
Holanda, A de., 1976. Roteiro para construir no nordeste; arquitetura como lugar ameno nos trópicos
ensolarados, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Desenvolvimento Urbano da Faculdade de
Arquitetura, UFPE, Recife.Jooste, MC., 2007. ‘Can you see the music?’, viewed November 2011,
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11192007-123037/unrestricted/05chapter5.pdf.
Segre, R, Vilas Boas, N & Leitão, T., 2009. O Ministério da Educação e Saúde Pública (1935-1945): As
inovações climáticas e tecnológicas, Anais del 8º Seminário DOCOMOMO Brasil.
Zaccara, M de FPA 2010. ‘arte de construir no Nordeste: um resgate’, Revista Contemporanea, Ed.14,
vol.8, UERJ – Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro.
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STUDY ON LOW-TECH ENERGY SAVING STRATEGIES IN SHANGHAI’S RESIDENTIAL DESIGN
Qiu Lidan, Tongji University, China, jasmine790@gmail.com

Li Zhenyu, Tongji University, China, zhenyuli@msn.com
Abstract
The high energy consumption and resource usage of residences in the construction process and use phase poses a
huge challenge to the city’s resource capacity and living environment. At present, Shanghai is promoting the
construction of ecological residences, pushing forward an intensive residential design pattern which features
energy saving, high-efficiency and cyclic utilization. This paper concentrates on low-tech energy saving strategies
used in residential design. By analyzing several cases in Shanghai that apply ecological considerations to their
residential design process the paper summarizes existing practices of Shanghai in the field of energy saving
residential design. From three individual aspects of site layout, internal planning and building envelope, the paper
concludes the fundamental elements requiring consideration in the design process and addresses the importance
of affordability and appropriateness. On the basis of existing practice experiences, the paper seeks to summarize
several instructional strategies that are of low cost and easy to promote, thus making contributions to the
popularization of energy saving residence. This paper is subsidized by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No.51278337).
Keywords: residential design, energy saving, low-tech.
INTRODUCTION
With the fast pace of urban construction, the problem of high resource and energy consumption of
residential buildings during the construction process and their life cycle is being highlighted, which poses a
great challenge to the urban environmental capacity under the background of global energy shortages. In
June,2005, the Shanghai municipal government released the 50th specification —The Management
Measures of Energy Saving Buildings in Shanghai, aiming to promote the development of energy-saving
buildings, which caused concentrated attention on the energy saving problems of Shanghai’s residential
buildings. As more and more attempts have been made in this field and as a number of residential buildings
that applied energy-saving measures are being rapidly constructed and put into use, current practice also
exposed some shortcomings and misunderstandings: a) simply equal energy-saving design of residential
buildings to the thermal design of envelope structures and the use of renewable energy; b) the simple
overlay of different technologies leads to high costs of energy-saving measures, thus making it hard to
widely promote them.
In recent years, the sustainable concept of ‘people-oriented, buildings in harmony with nature’ has gradually
been popularized and developed in residential design. Architects have begun to consider energy-saving
measures from the perspective of a residential building’s whole life cycle and focus on studying measures
that are low cost and easy to promote. From the design aspect, this paper will discuss the site layout, internal
planning and building envelope in the energy-saving design of Shanghai’s residential buildings on the basis
of case study.
As background information, Shanghai is subjected to a subtropical, maritime monsoon climate and has four
distinctive seasons. The main climate characteristics are warm springs, hot summers, cool autumns and cold
winters. In summer, the dominant wind direction is southeast, and in winter is northwest.
SITE LAYOUT
Currently, most of the energy-saving designs of residential buildings simply take account of the envelope
structures and neglect the overall planning of residential areas. Reasonable overall layout of residential areas
can strengthen natural ventilation, improve building’s thermal environment and make the micro climate
more comfortable in the residential area. Therefore, how to determine the proper site layout pattern and
maximize energy-saving efficiency without losing economical benefits becomes the first question to answer
in the energy-saving design of residential buildings.
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Layout pattern
In the planning process of residential buildings, what comes first should be how natural and geographical
conditions can affect planning layout. The primary natural factors in need of consideration are lighting and
ventilation. In Shanghai, the best orientation is south by east 15°-30°. Through reasonable layout for wind
introduction in the summer and windproof in the winter, it is possible to create a pleasant wind
environment for residential areas.
Geographical conditions also have a major effect on layout pattern. As the main shaper of urban texture, the
layout of residential areas should first of all respond to and integrate into the urban environment, and make
land utilization as economical as possible. There are three main layout patterns of residential areas: row
housing pattern, block housing pattern and freestyle pattern. Row housing is the most common layout
pattern in Shanghai because of its simple and clear structure and the ability to save land and raise plot ratio.
It’s suitable for the urban environment which is in shortage of land. Block housing pattern is not so popular
in Shanghai’s residential areas, because residential buildings in Shanghai have high requirements for
orientation and daylight. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s no advantage to it. This kind of pattern
can make the best use of land resources and raise building density at the cost of height for reasonable living
qualities, which makes it proper for the suburban environment. A freestyle pattern can fit well in different
urban environments, and the flexible layout is beneficial for taking the most advantage of land on the
condition of meeting sunshine distance standards.
Figure 1: Three layout patterns: row housing pattern, block housing pattern and freestyle pattern (from left to
right) (Source: drawn by author).
Underground development
As a strategy to cope with urban land shortage, the development of underground space has become an
important measure to alleviate the crisis of land use and realize intensive utilization of urban land, which is
already applied in the planning of residential areas. Usually the underground space accommodates garage,
bicycle parking and auxiliary rooms, saving large amounts of ground space. However, the artificial lighting
and ventilation add to operation costs and energy consumption of buildings, which is not conducive for
energy saving. So in the further optimization design of underground space, several measures could be done
to introduce natural light and ventilation to the basement, such as installing skylight, raising the basement
elevation and setting up sunken courtyards.
Figure 2: A basement using skylight / a basement raised by half of a floor / a sunken courtyard (Source:
www.google.com).
Open space
Open space in a residential area refers to the green landscape and public communication space. Green
landscape is of great significance to beautify the environment, improving micro climate and alleviating the
urban heat island effect. In the summer, green vegetation can provide natural shelter and realize air
purification and cooling through the transpiration of vegetations, thus improving thermal comfort. And in
the winter, trees and plants can also prevent the northwestern wind from entering. In addition, open
landscape space is beneficial for the introduction and circulation of summer wind so as to form a pleasant
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wind environment. Public communication space is gradually becoming one of the main factors in evaluating
the quality of residential areas. Through the creation of public places, communication between people with
people and people with nature is promoted, which is correspondent with the concept of sustainable
development.
The following three cases will show respectively how the above points are applied in actual residential
projects.
Case A: Sanxiang haishang Town – row housing pattern

The project is located in a residence intensive area. It uses a neat row housing layout pattern and the
buildings are arranged south by east 15°, which is the best orientation in Shanghai. The residential area is a
combination of both multi-story and high-rise buildings and the north is higher than the south. Moreover,
the overall parking of vehicles is placed underground.
From the energy saving perspective, this layout pattern has the following advantages: first, the neat and
orderly layout pattern can reduce the shape coefficient of buildings, thus effectively cutting down energy
consumptions. Second, the height allocation of this pattern raises the efficiency of land utilization, which
helps to introduce southeast winds in summer and stop northwest winds in winter. Third, ground space is
saved and separation of pedestrians and vehicles is realized through the whole basement design, making it
possible to create continuous landscape on the ground. In addition, the sunken courtyard brings natural
light to the basement and vegetation in the courtyard to purify air and improve the environment, realizing
effective and comprehensive energy saving goals.
Figure 3: Bird view of Sanxiang haishang town (Source: www.google.com) Natural ventilation conditions of row
housing pattern (Source: drawn by author).
Case 2: Anting new town – Block housing pattern

Unlike the stereotypical rows of slabs in Shanghai’s residential area, Anting new town, located in suburban
Jiading district, adopted a block structure pattern. The residential area is divided by 40 meter and 28 meter
wide main streets and 15 meter pedestrian lanes into different blocks. The buildings are arranged around
the blocks, creating exterior streets and interior courtyards. These courtyards are both semi-open public
spaces and semi-private exclusive space. And the enclosure of different blocks forms central public squares
for sharing and social events.
The block structure of Anting new town not only makes it a unique residential type in Shanghai, but also
reveals its own advantages. Firstly, the block structure can form its own micro climate and reduce the overall
heat dissipation area of buildings. Secondly, the open block structure generates such different levels of
space as streets, squares and courtyards and forms a space sequence from public space to semi-open space
to private space. The concept of land and energy saving is practiced through high density of space
organization and sharing of open public spaces. Thirdly, buildings along the street are on average five
stories high and internal buildings in the courtyard are four stories, the scale of which is quite pleasant and
friendly. Moreover, the friendly human scale combined with centralized layout strengthens neighborhood
socialization and evokes the return of neighborhood relations. In this sense, the project also realized energy
saving purposes from the perspective of human caring.
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Figure 4: Bird view of Anting new town (Source: www.google.com) Natural ventilation conditions of block
housing pattern (Source: drawn by author).
Case 3: Lujiazui central apartment – freestyle pattern

Located near Shanghai’s CBD core area, Lujiazui Central apartment has a very distinctive urban background.
As an organic composition of this particular area, the major concern of this project is how to fit in the
surrounding environment, respect and take advantage of it. Based on this idea, the architects designed arc
slabs of buildings along the east-west direction and arranged a number of high-rise apartments along a
continuous s-shaped curve. In addition, distances between buildings are enlarged to incorporate urban
landscape into the site, making it an compositional part of its own landscape.
This freestyle pattern proves to be quite functional. First, the residential area was designed in respect of the
environment and integrated into the unban context. Second, the enlarged open space both beautifies the
environment and brings about summer ventilation.
Figure 5: Bird view of Lujiazui central apartment (Source: www.google.com) Natural ventilation conditions of
freestyle pattern (Source: drawn by author).
Through a summary of the above cases (Table 1), it is concluded that from the macro perspective,
reasonable general layout can create textures that fit well in the urban context. From the micro perspective,
for the residential area itself, appropriate layout can improve living environments efficiently and remarkably
through low-tech measures, making the environment quality more satisfying.
The following suggestions are put forward in regard of this aspect:
! Respect natural environment. Decide the proper layout pattern on the principle of saving land
resources. The advantages of a variety of layout patterns could be combined to generate a hybrid
layout strategy;
! Make reasonable development of underground space on the balance of both economic and
environmental effects. Promote open development of underground space, taking account of the
operation and maintenance costs in the overall energy consumption of buildings.
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INTERNAL PLANNING
The rapid design and production of residential buildings make architects too preoccupied to consider the
architectural design of residential buildings. And they tend to adopt standard architectural language to
shape the form, resulting in the monotonous form image and failure in improving building efficiency
through energy-saving measures. Under the background of urban land tensions, how to raise building
density and save land use, as well as improve the lighting and ventilation conditions of buildings themselves
through appropriate architectural design, are both challenges and opportunities for architects.
Project Name Location Layout Pattern Advantages in Energy-saving
! Reduce shape Coefficient of Building;

Residence ! Generate comfortable wind
Sanxiang Row
intensive environment;
Haishang Town housing
area ! Open underground space saves land
use.
! Improve microclimate and reduce
Anting New Suburban Block overall heat dissipation;
Town area structure ! Raise density and save land;
! Enhance human communication..
! Respect the site and fit in the
environment;
Lujiazui Central CBD core
Freestyle ! Help summer ventilation;
Apartment area
! Underground development saves
land.
Architectural form
The form of buildings can usually be evaluated by two parameters: shape coefficient of building and
window-wall ratio. Shape coefficient of building reflects the complexity of the form and heat dissipation area
of the envelope. Generally, larger-volume and simpler-form buildings and multi-storey and high-rise
buildings have smaller shape coefficient, which is better for energy saving. However it doesn’t mean that
shape coefficient of building is necessarily related to the thermal performance of buildings, it’s supposed to
be a comprehensive consideration of lighting, ventilation and form. Another parameter window-wall ratio
also relates to the thermal performance of buildings in that large areas of window would add to energy
consumption, while too small window-wall ratio would have negative effects to daylighting and ventilation.
Therefore, the value should be controlled based on both heat insulation and heat gain.
Plan optimization
Width and depth are two main controlling factors of housing layout design, which also affect the shape
coefficient of buildings. On the premise of certain areas, narrowing down the width and enlarging the depth
of plan could reduce peripheral area, thus reducing the shape coefficient value. However, the reduction in
width means decreasing daylight area and excessive depth would prevent the building from being naturally
ventilated. So there should be a balance between width-depth ratio and function and form. In the design of
plan layout, the principle of temperature zoning should be followed, meaning that core living rooms of
similar temperature requirements should be arranged together to be centrally heated or cooled. And
auxiliary rooms that have lower standards for temperature could be placed on the northwestern corner. A lot
of energy consumptions could be saved by this kind of reasonable layout. In addition, plan layout would also
affect interior natural ventilation. Generally, staggered layout of windows at large distance on the south and
north façade is advantageous to generate large area of interior wind circulation.
Figure 6: Unreasonable window layout / Window layout that is better for wind circulation
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(Source: drawn by author).
Public space
As people have higher demands for living qualities, the need for intimacy with nature led to the emergence
of hanging gardens used in residential design. As the extension of green landscape in vertical dimension,
hanging gardens have distinct advantages in energy saving. As mentioned earlier, green vegetation has
significant effects in improving daylight and ventilation conditions, purifying the air and increasing air
humidity. Moreover, as a public space on the vertical direction, it also plays a part in improving traditional
inflexible and boring interior space of residences. A lack of public space in high-rise residential buildings
partly led to the loss of communication between neighborhood and the indifference in human relationship.
Hanging gardens undertake social activities inside families and between neighborhoods in a green and
ecological way, which lives up to the people-oriented idea. The most representative example of residential
hanging garden would be the transformation by Yu Kongjian, China’s well-known landscape designer, to his
own house, turning the balcony into a productive garden.
Figure 7: Concept diagram of hanging gardens in residential buildings (Source: drawn by author) Pictures of the
garden Yu Kongjian transformed from a balcony (Source: www.google.com).
The following several cases would be presented to introduce the application of above points.
Case 4: Langshi Green Block

Langshi green block undoubtedly takes the most advantage of the shape coefficient of building. The project
adopts row housing layout, combining both multi-storey buildings and high-rise slabs. The architectural
form is as neat as possible, without unnecessary bump changes to realize energy saving optimization. And
the flat façade generates minimum shape coefficient of building. The slabs are good for north-south light
permeability and the organization of cross ventilation. Multi-storey and high rise buildings have respective
advantages in saving energy. High-rise buildings can reduce shape coefficient value and the large distance
between buildings makes it possible for rich landscape and outdoor activity places. But the operation and
maintenance costs of equipment such as elevators would be pretty high. Multi-storey buildings, on the
contrary, have less economical shape coefficient value because of their fewer floors. But they have closer
relations to the environment and sufficient natural lighting, as well as lower energy consumptions of
equipments. In addition, the architectural façade uses vertical strip windows in order to reduce window size,
thus controling window-wall ratio.
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Figure 9: Form and façade of Langshi green block (Source: www.google.com).

Case5: Shanghai Ecological Home
As a real case project for 2010 Shanghai EXPO, Shanghai ecological home is tailor-made for the unique
geographical conditions of Shanghai and provides future living experience. Although the project itself is
somewhat experimental and demonstrational, its diversified design techniques provide references for
contemporary residential design.
Shanghai Ecological Home adopted Shanghai’s traditional architecture form known as Shikumen. Catering
to predominant wind direction in summer, the building is in a strip layout facing south. The traditional
elements of gable, lilong and dormer are not only symbolic presentations of Shanghai’s traditional
architecture, but also have energy saving benefits. The building is equipped with multiple air passages to
strengthen natural ventilation and the best example is the elevated entrance space, which brings in cross
ventilation. Moreover, the dormers on the roof improve interior air flow through thermal pressure
ventilation. As mentioned earlier, shape coefficient is not supposed to be as small as possible. In fact the
reasonable way should be to increase heat gain area in the south, while the other facades should be as flat as
possible. In shanghai ecological home, there are recessed balconies on the south façade which add to
exterior envelope area, but the cross ventilation and self shading formed in this way are advantageous to the
overall thermal performance instead.
Figure 10: Elevated entrance space that brings about cross ventilation (Source: shot / drawn by author).
Figure 11: Dormers on the roof utilized chimney effect (Source: shot / drawn by author).
Considering architectural design from the perspective of energy saving has two major benefits. Firstly, the
purpose of improving living environments and increasing energy saving efficiencies could be realized by
reasonable form and plan layout more specifically. Secondly, the aspect of energy saving could also serve as
a breakthrough point for the renovation of residential form.
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• Think critically about shape coefficient of building and window-wall ratio and do not blindly pursue
minimum values for energy saving purposes. Simplify the form if possible and meet aesthetic
demands through details;
• Follow the principle of temperature zoning for plan layout and lay a good foundation for reducing
energy consumptions of residential buildings;
• Further develop hanging gardens in residential design and realize triple goals of beautifying the
environment, improving human relations and reducing energy consumptions.
BUILDING ENVELOPE
As mentioned at the very beginning, currently most energy saving residences are working on envelope
structures. Generally they tend to ‘unilaterally’ realize energy saving targets by improving thermal
performance of the envelope structure. Although this is not the focus of this paper, it somehow reflects the
importance of envelope structures in residential design. As a typical hot-summer and cold-winter area, how
to meet basic requirements of sun-shading in the summer and heat preservation in the winter is also what
architects are supposed to think about and study.
Sun-shading
During hot summers in Shanghai, strong solar radiation is one of the main causes leading to the
deterioration of interior thermal environment. Therefore, external sun-shading, as a low-cost, low-tech and
low-carbon technology, is undoubtedly one of the most simple and efficient energy saving measures. There
are such forms as overhangs, corridors and balconies for external shading, but the most flexible one would
be external visors. Generally there are two forms for external visors, horizontal visors and vertical visors.
According to the difference of solar altitude angles, normally horizontal visors are used on south façade
while vertical ones are for east and west facades. However, at present the application of external shading in
Shanghai’s residential design is not very common and most of the time internal shading methods are used
for their convenience. Partly it’s due to the popularization of air-conditioners in Shanghai’s residences.
Moreover it’s because external shading would have negative effects on ventilation and require additional
costs.
Figure 12: Three forms of external sun-shading: overhangs, balconies and external visors (Source: drawn by
author).
In recent years, green shading has become more and more popular in residential design. Green vegetations
covered on the surface of the envelope forms a climate buffering layer and transfers or consumes solar
radiation through photosynthesis and transpiration of plants. In addition, vegetation itself could block
sunshine out and provide shelter in summer. There are mainly two forms: vertical shading and roof shading.
Material
Building materials are one main source for air pollution. In the design of energy saving residences, there are
mainly two aspects of considerations for materials. Firstly, the performance of materials, meaning low
energy consumption materials that strengthen the heat preservation of external walls, which have been
applied in many existing projects; Secondly, the source of materials, mainly the utilization of local materials
and recycling of waste materials. Utilizing local materials could reduce transportation costs and pollution to
the environment. On the one hand, recycling waste materials from demolition of buildings for constructing
enclosures and temporary buildings could reduce pollution that waste materials could have done to the
environment. On the other hand, the full use of waste materials lowers construction costs and accords with
the idea of sustainable development.
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The following two cases will show the attempt and exploration that have been done in envelope design
from the perspective of energy saving.
Case 6: Zhongying Black Forest

The most noticeable thing about this project is the roof greening system. Roof greening has multiple
benefits. First is water storage function. Green roofs could decrease the pressure of drainage systems
through absorbing moisture by vegetations. Second is heat insulation function. Heat could be taken away by
transpiration of plants, so as to achieve the purpose of heat insulation and cooling. Third is heat preservation
function. In spite of the heat preservation effect of the vegetation itself, the project also set up a 5cm wide
air flow layer on the roof, which could achieve heat preservation goals by heat storage of the air space.
However, the roof greening technology this project adopted - the slope planting system imported from
Germany – is of high costs, which directly affected housing price. Therefore, this technology is not suitable
for widespread use unless domestic vertical roof greening technologies get matured.
Figure 13: Bird of Zhongying Black forest / Roof construction detail (Source: www.google.com).
Case 7: Shanghai Ecological Home

Here the case of Shanghai ecological home is used again for its success in envelope design. The south façade
combined components such as a ‘breathing window’ and photovoltaic veranda fence into a modular design
and formed recessed balconies with self-shading function. The meaning of ‘breathing window’ lies in that
it’s suitable for ventilating under a variety of climates. Through specific design and development, it can serve
as systematic shading windows in the summer and thermal storage cavity in the winter. The east and west
façade used recycled bricks from demolished buildings to form a ‘breathing wall’ system. In summer it could
block sun radiation out in the summer and take away heat through chimney effect formed by air convection
in the cavity between walls. In winter, heat could be stored by the air space between walls and reduce heat
consumptions. In addition, the west façade utilized vertical vegetation to alleviate the problem of western
exposure to summer radiation, known as ‘Xishai’.
Figure 14: Modular vegetation on south façade / The wall constructed by recycled bricks / Vertical vegetation on
west façade (Source: shot by author).
Architectural envelope is like the clothes of buildings, affecting both thermal performance and appearance.
Considering residential energy-saving designs from the aspect of envelope structure could directly control
overall consumptions of buildings and leave room for adjusting integral form.
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• Promote the application of external shading systems through specification and policy guidance;
• For massive production residential buildings, promote low-cost external shading system that is easy
to implement and use external and internal shading methods in combination to realize the balance
between economic and energy saving benefits;
• Integrate external shading system as an aesthetic element into the architectural design ;
• Develop affordable and appropriate green shading technologies.
CONCLUSION
By summarizing energy saving residences from the three aspects of general layout, architectural design and
architectural envelope, it is evident that they have distinct differences from normal residences and reveal the
exploration process of energy saving strategies in residential design by architects. Meanwhile, through the
summary and study of actual projects, it is shown that energy saving design doesn’t necessarily require new
technology, new technique and new material. The key is to find out adaptive strategies. The energy-saving
design of residential buildings should be rooted in the soil of city, economy and society in order to seek
affordable, appropriate and adaptive design strategies.
REFERENCES
Li Zhenyu, 2014. City housing city, Southeast University Press, Beijing.
Li Zhenyu & Deng Feng. 2011. ‘Form follows ecology – New realm of the true, the good and the beautiful
about architecture’, Beijing: Architectural Journal.
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ECOLOGICAL RENOVATION STRATEGIES OF WORKERS’ NEW VILLAGE HOUSING IN SHANGHAI
Li Zhenyu, Tongji University, China, zhenyuli@msn.com

Qiu Lidan, Tongji University, China, jasmine790@gmail.com
Abstract
From the 1950s to 1990s, approximately 324 new villages were built in Shanghai, a total of 45 million square
meters. After a long period of service, these old public houses presented quite a number of pressing problems,
which resulted in the desperate need for renovation. Shanghai started renovating new village housing in recent
years, during which process many difficulties and challenges were encountered, typically known as the source and
distribution of capital. However, problems in the social and environmental aspects are equally severe but easy to
be neglected. For example, the difficulty in coordinating residents and the conflict of interest among different
entities and the energy consumption problems of renewed housing.
This paper analyzes the current situation of new village housing and the practice experience of existing
renovation projects carried out in Shanghai from three aspects of optimization of architectural form, perfection of
housing function and improvement of envelope structures. In summary of existing renovation experience, several
ecological renovation strategies are concluded for reference to future renovation practice.
Keywords: ecological renovation, old public houses, new village housing.
INTRODUCTION
‘Workers’ new village’ is a typical form of welfare housing in Shanghai. They are also called ‘public housing’,
which also reveals the welfare nature of this type of housing. After 40 years of development from 1951 to
1992, once as the main part of Shanghai’s housing construction, approximately 325 new villages with the
nature of social security were built, a total construction area of about 45 million square meters. By 2008, new
village housing takes up about 10% of Shanghai’s total residential construction area.
Owing to the economic conditions, construction standards and the demands to quickly resolve the problem
of housing shortage, new village housing of general qualities and simple functions, after a long period of
service, presented a number of severe problems that can hardly be overlooked, mainly known as outdated
appearances, insufficient area standards, common illegal construction and poor heat preservation and heat
insulation performance of envelope structures, all of which leading to severe energy consumptions of
residential buildings. As ecological and energy saving concepts have gradually penetrated to all aspects of
contemporary life, the problems of housing quality and energy consumption are not in accordance with the
requirements of constructing ‘economical society’, which result in the bad need of reorganization.
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Statistical table of new village construction conditions Table 1
Number of Existing Problems

Construction Year Representative New VillagesFloor Area(10000 )
New Villages Physical Comfort
Sharing kitchens and
Inherent defects of brick-
Caoyang new village 97.91 bathrooms makes it
concrete structure,
hard to form a unit
aging of roof seepage and heat insufficient area
1950 - 1960 110 Rihui new village 29.78
insulation construction, standard
Yichuan new village 38.59 lack of sun-shading facilities, lack of public facilities
lack of adapability of
Pengpu new village 100.43 aging of architecture equipment
house layout
secondary structure caused by
Tianshan new village 29.27 addition and the problems of lack of parking space
equipments.
1961 - 1970 42 No.2 Sitang village 15.86
Taopu new village 12.59
Putuo new village 8.17
Quyang new village 54.7
Baogang new village 29.41
1971- 1980 83
Fengcheng new village 26.28
Kongjiang new village 25.38
Aging of heat preservation and Lack of barrier-free
Tianlin new village 52.62
heat insulation performance facilities
insufficient public
Weifang new village 50.56
1981 - 1990 90 infrastructure
Shangnan new village 47.94 lack of parking space
Shanggang new village 43.25
CURRENT SITUATION
After experiencing stages such as ‘collaborative housing’, ‘joint construction and public funding housing’,
commercialization of public housing, the welfare nature of existing new village housing has gradually faded,
making housing ownership more diversified and ambiguous. Since the 1990s, the concept of renovating old
areas kept appearing in all kinds of political documents of Shanghai municipal government. After two
rounds of large-scale renovation, a large number of old housing downtown were demolished. In general, the
structures of new village housing were relatively intact and new village housing has retained value for urban
planning structures, therefore comprehensive renovation was carried out to improve living qualities. In
addition, under the background of promoting the development of energy-saving buildings across the
country, the decision to embark on renovation rather than demolition and newbuild itself is an energy-
saving measure. And the ecological renovation of existing new village housing would set a good example
for the development of energy-saving buildings.
In general, the operation mechanism of renovation would be that the government issue mandatory
instructions to local governments and then to certain enterprises. The government would offer political and
financial support for enterprises to operate according to the government plan. This method centralizes both
advantages of the government and enterprises, which facilitates rapid and massive construction. However, it
has the distinctive feature of planned economy and is a result of the operation mechanism that has not yet
been marketized.
The renovation of existing new village housing in Shanghai has experienced stages from ‘flat-to-slope roof
conversion’ to ‘wearing new clothes and new hats, changing interior content and improving the
environment’, the renovation features are shown in Table 2. Generally, although existing renovation
experience has provided reference for future practice, undoutedly there still exists the problem of low
resource productivity and high energy consumption, there’s still room for renovation strategies to be
improved.
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Table of existing renovation features Table 2
Important features Renovation Principle
After experiencing stages such as ‘collaborative

housing’, ‘joint construction and public funding
housing’, commercialization of public housing,
Complex housing ownership Benefits to all parties
the welfare nature of existing new village
housing has gradually faded , making housing
ownership more diversified.
The three points principle in capital raising for ‘

flat-to-slope roof conversion’ also reflected the
Diversified capital sources Economical and universal
features of capital sources in existing housing
renovation.
After experiencing stages such as ‘flat-to-slope

roof conversion’ and ‘wearing new clothes,
wearing new hats, changing interior content,
improving environment’, the renovation project Adjust measures to local
Study on technological means
of 6.07 million old housing buildings in conditions
Shanghai provides useful reference for the
technological study of existing new village
renovation.
Value practicability and ignore appearance.

Focusing on aesthetics quality Applicable and beautiful
Same design methods and unitary details.
Large amount of housing renovation, short time

limit, differentiated qualities in construction
personnel, difficulty in controlling the safety of Difficult construction control Safe and efficient
construction technology and much interference
on middle-low income residents.
RENOVATION STRATEGIES
Talking about renovation of existing new village housing, Caoyang new village would be a good example to
reveal the typical development process of new village housing. As the first workers’ new village constructed
in Shanghai after liberation, Caoyang new village has a history of over sixty years’ development, growing
from the original single village to today’s nine villages (see Table 3 for the milestones of Caoyang new
village’s development). Caoyang new village also has a long history in the practice of renovation. Since the
1960s, several large-scale renovations have taken place in Caoyang new village, during which process even a
number of ecological measures were taken to achieve energy-saving purposes. They can be summarized
into three main aspects: optimization of architectural form, perfection of housing function and improvement
of envelope structures.
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Key milestones of Caoyang new village Table 3
Year Event
1951 NO.1 Caoyang village started construction

1952 NO.1 Caoyang village completed
1953 NO.2 -6 Caoyang village completed
1960s-1970s Adding stories
1970s-1980s Plan and facility renovation
1980s River regulation
1999 Flat-to slope roof conversion

2009 Comprehensive renovation
2010 The EXPO promoted environment construction
2011 Kitchen project and toilet project
Optimization of architectural form

Originally, most of new village buildings were in the form of flat roof. After certain years of service, they
presented problems of severe roof leakage and poor thermal performance of the envelope structure, which
caused high-energy consumptions of the buildings. And the outdated appearances caused negative effects
on the urban image. Flat-to-slope roof conversion was the responsive energy-saving renovation strategy
generated under this circumstance. For large amounts of existing new village housing in the urban
environment, substantial transformation requires massive investments of all kinds of resources, which is not
the first choice considering current situations. However, creating effective climate buffer zones on the basis
of existing building structures as a medium and platform to adjust interior micro-climate, is a simple but
highly efficient measure to realize the purpose of reducing energy consumptions, which in reality is more
reasonable.
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Figure 1: Bird view of Caoyang new village after flat-to-slope roof conversion (Source: www.google.com).
The flat-to-slope roof conversion project started in 1999 covered almost 9800 new village buildings, among
which there’s the case of Caoyang new village. The meaning of flat-to-slope roof conversion lies in that on
the permission of existing structures, converting the roofs of multi-story buildings from flat to slope and
making renovations to exterior facades, so as to meet dual goals of improving living qualities and
appearance image. From the ecological perspective, the renovation project has the following influences:
a) Resolve the problem of roof leakage
According to statistics, before renovation, the roof leakage rate was as high as 85% - 90%. Roof leakage not
only increases interior humidity, accelerating structural damage and aging, but also causes heavy loss of
energy consumptions. The flat-to-slope roof conversion project adopted gutters for water drainage, basically
eliminating original problem of roof leakage and greatly improving living qualities.
b) Improve thermal performance
New materials and new technologies used on the roof, such as PVC pipe, eco-friendly coating and
lightweight roof materials significantly improved the heat preservation and heat insulation performance of
the roof.
c) Strengthen interior natural ventilation
In addition, dormers – a typical element of Shanghai’s traditional housing- were set up on the slope roof.
Firstly dormers brought natural sunlight and ventilation to attic space and by utilizing chimney effect,
interior natural ventilation is strengthened, greatly improving interior thermal comfort. Secondly dormers
also serve as maintenance passages for the slope roof.
Normal!flat!roof!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!slope!roof!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!slope!roof!with!ventilation!
Figure 2: Diagram of heat insulation effects of different roofs. Source: Zhou Yili, Song Dexuan. Research on the
strategy of ecological restoration of urban residential areas – Take Caoyang new village as an example (Shanghai
2011).
In summary of the roof renovation experience, it sets a good example for the optimization of architectural
form in the sense of energy saving. The essential idea of setting up a climate buffer zone could also be
realized in the form of sunlit room or hanging house gardens. In spite of their distribution for the enrichment
of architectural form, they also have distinctive effects on improving interior micro climate.
Perfection of housing function
Insufficient area standard is another severe problem of new village housing. The ‘adding storey’ project in
1960s-1970s was carried out with the purpose of adding area to original housing. And the ‘plan
transformation’ in 1980s-1990s was targeted on improving housing functions. Take No. 1 Caoyang village for
example, the typical plan layout was a three-in-one form, meaning that residents had their own living space,
while three families share one kitchen and one bathroom in order to reduce per capita living space and to
meet massive living demands. But this sharing mode had its inherent disadvantages such as poor sanitation
conditions and tendency to cause interpersonal disputes. Therefore, the primary task to improve housing
function is to upgrade kitchen and bathroom facilities. There are mainly three methods: facility addition, unit
selection transformation and landing renovation.
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Figure 3: Typical plan layout of new village housing. Source: Wang Dingzeng. Planning and design of Caoyang
new village residential area in Shanghai, Beijing (Source: Architectural Journal 1956).
Facility addition means adding kitchens and bathrooms on the northern side of the building on the premise
that there’s room left for addition. This method is simple and operational, but because the range of addition
is limited, the scale of space added is usually too small to be fully functioned and much lower than standards.
However, for new village housing of high living density, the facility addition method is not that realistic
because dual-purpose of both adding area and extending function has to be realized in a single building.
Unit selection transformation is a responsive measure for high-density conditions. Some residents will be
resettled elsewhere, so that the vacant space could be transformed into kitchen and bathroom facilities for
the remaining residents. Take Pengpu new village for example. The unit on the north side was ‘selected’ to
be replaced and the area was shared by the other two households to build a kitchen and bathroom. In
addition, on the guarantee of legal planning and architecture quality, adding another floor on the original
four-storey building to settle the selected households. This method is a win-win solution, but because of the
problems such as difficulty in coordination and limitation in capital source, this method was not widely
promoted.
Plan!before!transformation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Plan!after!transformation!!!!!!
Figure 4: Comparison of plans before and after transformation. Source: Zheng Shiling. The urban renewal and
transformation of Shanghai (Source: Tongji University Press 2004).
Landing renovation is demolishing existing buildings and rebuilding with additional floors to improve
housing functions without changing original neighborhood structures and existing residents will be
resettled in the original place. Although this measure is small-scale and not cautious about demolishing old
buildings, it does less harm to urban spatial structures compared with current fast paced renovation
measures, which makes it a preferable way to renovate.
Another important aspect of perfecting housing function is to add elevators to new village housing because
of the aging of most residents. But this proposal is not as feasible as flat-to-roof conversion mostly because
of the high costs of purchasing and maintaining elevators and difficulty in coordinating existing residents,
especially the ones on the first two floors, who do not benefit as much as upper floor residents do. The first
successful case is NO.2 and NO.4 old public housing on Lufeng road, zhabei district. The capital was raised by
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the government, residents and street committee. As compensation for ground floor residents, another floor
was added to accommodate them (They moved from ground floor to seventh floor. In general, people in
China believe that higher is better) while the ground floor was used for offices, activity centers for the elderly
and other service facilities. In this way, contradictions between residents are well solved and additional
functions are provided for existing residents.
Figure 5: New village residential building with elevators (Source: www.google.com).
In summary of current experience in perfecting housing functions, the core is to gain capital source and
coordinate existing residents. Innovative and ecological measures as mentioned above could be proposed
to better tackle these trick problems.
Improvement of envelope structures

Poor thermal performance of envelope structures is a main source of energy loss. This problem is particularly
prominent in new village residential buildings with aged structures and facilities, resulting in negative
effects on interior thermal comfort and high energy consumption. Renovation on envelope structures is
mainly reflected in three aspects: the wall, the window and the roof (already mentioned earlier). For the wall,
composite energy-saving materials are mainly used to realize exterior thermal insulation. In a typical hot-
summer and cold-winter area like Shanghai, exterior thermal insulation is more advantageous than interior
thermal insulation. Firstly, it avoids the phenomenon of thermal bridge so as to reduce heat loss; secondly,
exterior thermal insulation is beneficial for heat insulation in the summer and heat preservation in the winter;
thirdly, it can protect interior wall structures through exterior insulating layer. For the window, double layer
hollow glass window is mainly used as a major component. The hollow space can effectively prevent heat
gain in the summer while preserving heat in the winter. Although double layer hollow glass window costs
more than normal single layer glass, it can significantly reduce energy consumption in everyday life in the
long run. Therefore, it is an economical method for residents and a highly effective one from the aspect of
energy saving.
In addition, vertical greening is also applied in some renovation cases. Vertical greening on exterior walls not
only enriches façade landscape of the architecture, but also effectively reduces the amount of heat gain
through photosynthesis and transpiration effects of vegetation. For example, in Caoyang new village a lot of
gables on the street side use plants such as creepers, which even reduce noise pollution apart from
improving the interior thermal environment.
Figure 6: Application of double layer hollow glass window and vertical greening. Source: Zhou Yili, Song Dexuan.
Research on the strategy of ecological restoration of urban residential areas – Take Caoyang new village as an
example (Source: Housing Science 2011).
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In summary of existing practice, there is still room for improvement. One such potential aspect is exterior
sun-shading. In Shanghai, the excessive pursuit of sunlight leads to insufficient considerations for sun-
shading. Too much exposure of sunlight in the summer causes high tempratures in the interior and
additional energy consumption. Current common way for sun-shading is the use of inner curtains, which is
not as efficient as exterior shading. Therefore, it is suggested to promote the application of external shading
systems in the renovation of existing new village residential buildings through specification and policy
guidance. Besides promoting low-cost external shading system that is easy to implement and use external
and internal shading methods in combination to realize the balance between economic and energy saving
benefits.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion of existing practices of renovating workers’ new village housing in Shanghai from the above
three aspects, it is evident that substantial work has been done to improve the living standards of new
village housing. The uniqueness of this type of renovation lies in the fact that coordination has to be made
between renovation work and existing residents. The significance of the ecological renovation of new village
housing rests on the positive effects of alleviating urban dwelling problems in a low-cost way under this
high consumption background. Furthermore, a comprehensive and well-qualified design is in essence the
balance of time, space and society.
REFERENCES
Ding, G., 2008. ‘The new estate for workers ‘happy life for ever’, Doctor’s thesis Tongji University.
Fan, G., 2007. ‘The study on integrated energy saving alteration in existing residential buildings of Shanghai’,
Masters thesis, Tongji University.
Hu, S., 2005. ‘Research on the development and characteristics of Shanghai urban welfare housing’, Masters
thesis, Tongji University.
Li, Z., 2014. City housing city, Southeast University Press, Beijing.
Lin, Y., 2006. The flat-to-slope roof conversion in Shanghai adds more glory to the city, Housing Industry, Beijing.
Shanghai Housing Editorial Board, 1993-7. Shanghai housing (1949-1990), Shanghai Popular Science Press,
Shanghai.
Yang, C & Xu, H., 2012. ‘Research framework of the energy-saving transformation of workers’ new village
residential buildings in Shanghai – Take Caoyang new village as an example’, Sichuan Architecture, Chengdu.
Yang, C., 2011. Social practice of socialists city – Workers’ new village in Shanghai 1949-1978 Human
Geography, Xi’an.
Yang, Y., 2012. Break the bottleneck of adding elevators to old public housing, Shanghai Real Estate,
Shanghai.
Zheng, S., 2004. The urban renewal and transformation of Shanghai, Tongji University Press, Shanghai.
Zhou, Y & Song, D., 2011. ‘Research on the strategy of ecological restoration of urban residential areas – Take
Caoyang new village as an example’, Housing Science, Shanghai.
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OPPORTUNISTIC LANDSCAPES: CASE ANALYSIS OF THE CITY OF HAZIRA, INDIA
Gunjan Rustagi, Architectural Association School of Architecture, India, grustagi24@gmail.com.
Abstract
In recent years, attention has been drawn to alternatives to top down approach of urban design and city planning
which is found to be irrelevant with respect to the complex and continuously evolving nature of cities. India is
going through a stage of rapid urbanisation wherein there is need for a context specific approach. Existing
approach influenced by the ideas from the west do not respond to the political, economic, cultural complexities of
Indian cities. There is a need for an opportunistic approach which adopts the indigenous strategies while also
taking into account the existing circumstances.
Keywords: opportunism, Jugaad, actor-network theory, landscape urbanism, India.
INTRODUCTION
Opportunistic strategies for landscape & urban design have found increasing relevance in contemporary
discourse, almost becoming a necessity, and taking into consideration the political, social and economic
complexities of cities and their continuously evolving nature. This essay analyses the rapid urbanisation
process triggered by the Delhi Mumbai Industrial corridor in the industrial town of Hazira in Gujarat. The
analysis is done using actor-network theory as a theoretical framework, approached through opportunistic
strategies. The essay is structured into six parts. The first part discusses in general the growth scenario in the
Global South. The second part examines the term opportunism in general and in an Indian context. The third
part introduces the site Hazira and analyses the present conditions through the lens of opportunism. The
fourth part introduces actor network theory and re- examines the site conditions obtained from previous
analyses. The fifth part explores the relevance of opportunism as a strategy at various scales for the design of
cities. The last part discusses, in general, the relevance of an opportunistic approach in landscape urbanism
and the use of actor-network theory as a tool for analysis of site conditions for urban or landscape design.
GLOBAL SOUTH SCENARIO
Developing Countries like China and India are going through rapid urbanisation processes as a result of
which many cities are undergoing transformation wherein the indigenous landscape is being converted into
SEZs and Industrial parks in most of the cities. In their haste to be on a par with their western counterparts,
these countries are blindly imitating the west without any critical consideration.
Figure 1: Surat, India
Within India itself, there is a constant competition between the cities to acquire titles such as “Slum free city
of India”, “City of flyovers and bridges”, “Shanghai of India”, to name a few. The brand name or the image of
the city is guiding the development process of many cities in India. Emerging cities like Surat are
undertaking the construction of large scale infrastructural projects such as ring roads and flyovers with the
aim of connecting upcoming industries, without critically understanding the implications on other actors in
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the city. In addition, there has been an increase in the construction of vast gated townships, which is being
adopted as the new housing typology in many Indian cities. The present development strategies are guided
by the opportunistic motives of large powerful organisations. They are futile attempts to imitate the west
and do not respond to the context of the city.
The rapid urbanisation process in India is exerting a lot of pressure on existing resources such as social,
natural or man-made. Construction of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) has triggered the growth
of hundreds of cities along the corridor which in turn has led to an increase in the demand for resources.
There is a pressing need to address these issues in the design development process. It is important to use
the resources efficiently and innovatively while taking into consideration the context.
India
Unlike China, where the development is the direct result of decisions taken by the decision making body, the
development process in India is non-linear. It can be described as a combination of top-down and bottom-
up processes. It is a result of a network of interactions between different actors.
OPPORTUNISM
Opportunism, as defined by the Oxford dictionary ‘is the taking of opportunities as and when they arise,
regardless of planning or principle’ (Oxford dictionary 2014). It can be explained as the deliberate practice of
taking advantage of circumstances, without any regard for principles and consequences for others. It is
guided by self-interest motives.
Opportunism in urbanism can be understood as either parasitic relationship or symbiotic relationship

between the elements. According to the first categorisation, it can be described as taking advantage of
circumstances for self-interest. It results in a parasitic relationship between the elements, wherein, one or a
group of elements takes advantage of others for its benefit without taking into consideration the interests of
others. Whereas opportunism can also be understood as taking advantage of a situation by turning the
constraints into opportunities thereby taking into consideration the interests of all associated elements.
Hence, the second type of opportunism is mutually beneficial, resulting in a symbiotic relationship between
all the elements. High line in New York can be described as an example of the second type of opportunism in
a landscape urbanism project. It is a 1.2 mile long green park built on an abandoned elevated freight rail line
that runs along the west side of lower Manhattan. The railway line was built in the 1930s and had not been
in use since 1980. During this period of twenty four years, a thin layer of soil was formed in some parts of the
railway line, followed by the growth of native self-seeded plant species. This can be considered as an
example of opportunism in natural environment. These self-seeded species that had grown on the rail line
inspired the landscape design of High Line (The High Line 2013). The abandoned railway line lined triggered
the idea of an aerial green way and self-seeded plants inspired the landscape of the High line.
Figure 2: High line, eblog
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Opportunism in the Indian context
In India, opportunism exists as a parasitic relationship as well as symbiotic relationship amongst elements, as
described above. Both the categories of opportunism can be described through examples of top and
bottom down approaches of urban design.
Figure 3: A jugaad canopy by Sundeep Bali©IAAC
Parasitic opportunism in top down practise can be demonstrated through the example of towns and cities
being proposed as a part of DMIC (Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor) project. In the name of industrial
development, townships and cities covering an area of 6000 and 14000 ha have been proposed on existing
villages and agricultural land in Haryana and Rajasthan respectively (Dash 2012), which will be beneficial to
real estate developers but will have an adverse impact on the existing villages, agricultural land and
surrounding natural environment (Mehta 2013). Industries and townships are being developed in these
areas to take advantage of existing natural resources, such as oil and gas reserves and other factors such as
proximity to the sea. But, this kind of development is usually parasitic and does not benefit in return, the
natural environment existing on the site. In a bottom up process, parasitic opportunism can exist in some
cases of slum development within cities. Usually, slums get developed next to a township or a developed
area to take advantage of the existing resources from these areas such as electricity and water. Growth of
slums can be regarded as parasitic in the initial stages as they rely on the infrastructure belonging to the
surrounding areas for their development. In most of the cases, the parasitic relationship of the slums with
the surrounding areas becomes symbiotic in the later stages of its development. As an example, the majority
of slum dwellers residing close to a residential area work as chauffeurs or house cleaners, thereby providing
services to the original residents of that area. This can be regarded as an example of symbiotic opportunism
in bottom up processes.
Figure 4: Examples of Jugaad in India
Symbiotic opportunism in bottom up processes in the Indian context can take the form of ‘jugaad’ in many
situations. Jugaad is a commonly used Hindi word that roughly translates as ‘make do’ (Rajagopal 2012). It
refers to the way of solving a problem or making things work in conditions when bare minimum resources
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are available and usually in a short period of time. This approach has had a major impact in shaping Indian
cities and can be exemplified by the evolution of the housing typology of Chawls (AIA New York 2011).
Chawls were originally built to provide accommodation for migrant industrial workers in Mumbai in the late
19th century. Constraints of shortage of area and finances were turned into opportunities by creation of a
housing typology which could accommodate large number of middle class workers. It provided rooms as
apartments arranged around a courtyard over a number of floors with common facilities shared by residents
of each floor. Another successful outcome of jugaad is the rain water harvesting methods in the dry states of
Gujarat and Rajasthan. The agricultural landscape of Gujarat and Rajasthan is dominated by the traditional
rain water harvesting techniques developed by the local farmers. The techniques were developed keeping in
mind the prolonged summer season, rapid rate of evaporation due to extremely high temperature, local
materials available, to name a few of the factors. They not only fulfil the water requirement but also respond
to other needs of locals associated with their daily lives.
The two types of opportunism existing within bottom up and top down development processes can be used
for analysis of Hazira, an industrial town in Gujarat.
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS IN HAZIRA
Figure 5: Hazira, Gujarat, ©Google Earth
Hazira is an industrial town which is being developed as an investment region under DMIC guidelines (Delhi-
Mumbai Industrial Corridor) in Gujarat, India. It falls under the Surat Municipal Region. Its location along the
west coast of India makes it a favourable setting for development of ports. In addition to ports, availability of
natural gas and oil reserves has attracted a number of industries to the region.
The site development is a result of interaction between the various actors in constant negotiation with each
other. These actors can be categorised as natural, social and man-made. The natural actors include
topography, water bodies, coast, flora, fauna, and soil. The social actors include villagers, industries’ owners,
migrant workers, private developers and government. Industries, villages, infrastructure (schools, roads and
railways, canals etc.) constitute the man-made actors. Opportunism plays an important role in the
development of this site. Interactions are guided by opportunistic behaviour of the various elements
wherein, one or more elements take advantage of a circumstance, which could be either motivated by self-
interest or mutually benefits.
The industrial and natural landscape of the site can be described as the result of process of such interactions
between these elements:
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Figure 6: Evolutionary process in Hazira
Out of the above conditions, which are consequences of opportunism-led interactions between various
elements, five conditions are described below:
Invasion by Prospis Juliflora

Industrial development in Hazira has caused degradation of natural vegetation existing in the area. Natural
vegetation including palm trees and mangrove were either removed or partially cut. In addition, a large area
of land is vacant. Taking advantage of the weakness of the degrading natural vegetation, plant species,
Prospis Juliflora appropriated the vacant lots and replaced the natural vegetation in other areas. This can be
regarded as an example of parasitic opportunism.
New water bodies and wetlands

Hazira has an undulating terrain consisting of depressions. The rain water appropriates the depressions
resulting in formation of small water bodies. Native vegetation grows around the water bodies forming
wetlands. These smaller ponds are also used for irrigation. It is an example of symbiotic opportunism
wherein rainwater takes advantage of the terrain, thereby creating small water bodies which in return are
used to recharge the water table and for irrigation.
Dairy farming, fish farming and salt production

Agricultural land in Hazira has been shrinking rapidly with rapid industrialisation. With the shrinking of
agricultural land and insufficient irrigation sources, agricultural yield has reduced significantly. In addition,
industries built along the coast have encroached upon the area which was earlier used by fishermen for
fishing, forcing the villagers to find alternative sources of livelihood. Taking advantage of the coastal
location, villagers started fish farming and salt farming. Dairy farming was also expanded and has become
one of the primary occupations.
Informal sector
Industrialisation led to the migration of large numbers of people from various other states to Hazira.
Industrial townships do not have provision for industrial workers belonging to lower income groups. Lack of
accommodation and other facilities for the LIG group of industrial workers has resulted in the growth of
informal sector in Hazira. Taking advantage of the unoccupied areas, some of them appropriated these areas
to build slums. Whereas, informal workshop owners occupied open areas along the streets and close to
industries and vacant areas. The informal sector meets the needs of the lower income group of industrial
workers and includes eating outlets, repair workshops, shops selling day to day goods etc.
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ACTOR- NETWORK THEORY
It is evident from the previous analysis of the site conditions of Hazira that its development is a result of a
network of interactions between various human, natural and man-made elements. These interactions are
driven by the opportunistic behaviour of the elements. Actor-Network Theory will provide an insight into the
complex relationships of these elements. It can be used as a framework for site analysis that will bring these
elements onto the same platform and treat them equally. It will provide different ways of understanding a
circumstance, analysed through the perspective of different actors on the site.
Actor-Network Theory, also called the sociology of translation or enrolment theory, was developed by
theorists Bruno Latour, Michael Callon and John Law in early 1980s (Crawford 2013). It is used as a method to
analyse socio-technical processes wherein social and technical are not considered as two distinct and
independent processes. These processes are a result of interaction between various factors such as humans,
natural entities, technology, and organisations. As an example, when a number of people go to a movie, the
process is made possible by different elements such as workers at the theatre, visitors, car/ tube (in case of
use of a vehicle), ticket machine, projector, screen and many such elements. ANT asserts that science is a
process of heterogeneous engineering in which the social, technical, conceptual, and textual are puzzled
together (or juxtaposed) and transformed (or translated) (Crawford 2013).
It is different from other theories as it does not differentiate between human and non-human actors. A
system or a process constitutes actors which are not just humans but also other elements such as
technology, organisation, concepts, money, power, text, etc.
First network-construction of industries

The process of the first network can be understood through the four phases of translation:
Problematisation
It is necessary to identify the primary actor in order to carry out the process of problematisation. In this case,
for the construction of industries, enterprises and corporations can be considered as the primary actors. The
problem can be identified through the analysis of the site from the viewpoint of the primary actors. Hazira
has vast natural gas and oil reserves. In addition, its location along the coast and connectivity with national
highway 6 makes it an ideal location for setting up of industries. Taking into account these factors, the site
has enormous potential for the development of oil and gas industries. Coastal location and connectivity with
the national highway can ensure easy distribution of raw materials and finished goods to/ from various
places within and outside the country. Taking advantage of the above aspects, the enterprises and
corporations must have realised the profits associated with construction of oil and gas industries in this area.
Other actors related to the project can be identified as villages, land and government. As a part of
problematisation, their roles and interests as identified by the primary actors can be described as:
Villages- Villages surrounded by vast stretches of agricultural fields occupied areas near the coast. Their
location was ideal for the construction of industries. Some of the locations identified for digging of oil and
gas wells were also within areas occupied by villages. Since agriculture was the primary source of livelihood
for the villagers, they were apprehensive about selling their land to the enterprises. The enterprises decided
to convince the villagers by offering them a higher price as compensation for the loss of their land and
livelihood.
Government- Government passed a liberalisation policy in 1991 that allowed the private sector to set up
industries which was very difficult prior to the policy. The policy was passed to improve the highly degraded
economic situation in the country. The government did not have opposing interests and hence, was not
considered as a hindrance.
Industries- The enterprises had foreseen the profits to industries set up in this area. The industries in Hazira
benefit from the availability of natural gas and oil resources, coastal location and connectivity to national
highway.
Interessement
Problematisation process did not ensure the incorporation of other actors in the actor- network. Hence, in
order to achieve their goal, which was not possible without the enrolment of other actors, the enterprises
tried to convince them to accept the roles and interests defined for them.
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Enrolment
In this stage, the industrial owners ensured formal acceptance of the interests and roles by the other actors.
Different methods of negotiations were used for different actors to confirm their acceptance:
Villages- Industries’ owners negotiated with the villages mainly through monetary transactions. They
managed to get their acceptance by offering them higher prices, employment and taxes for use of their
resources such as underground water.
Government- Government policy facilitated the development of industries in Hazira. In order to prevent any
kind of conflict, the enterprises raised government’s interests by involving it in public-private partnerships
for the development of industries.
Industries- The industries were enrolled without any resistance as Hazira offered a lot of advantages for the
industries.
Vegetation- Uncultivated plant species growing in the area were removed to prepare the land for the
construction of industries.
Coast- The industries used the force of technology to reclaim the land along the coast for construction of
ports. In addition, dredging techniques are being used to clear the way for the movement of ships.
Mobilisation
This is the final stage in which the primary actors ensured that the other actors have legitimate speakers to
represent them. Each village was represented by its gram panchayat, a local government elected by the
people of the village.
The above process explains the construction of industries in Hazira.
Second network: Increase in dairy farming and introduction of fish and salt farming
The first network, ‘Construction of industries’ can be considered as a black box in the analyses of this
condition, which is explained in four phases:
Problematisation
In the development of dairy, fish and salt farming, villagers can be regarded as the primary actors. While
analysing the situation, it was found that agricultural land has been shrinking in Hazira due to the
construction of industries. In addition, the canal originally built for irrigation has been diverted for industrial
use. The above aspects have had a negative impact on the agricultural yield which has reduced significantly
over the past few years, thereby affecting the farmers. Construction of the industries along the coast has also
affected the livelihood of fishermen. Rapid industrialisation of Hazira has affected the livelihood of villagers
who are majorly fishermen or farmers, forcing them to search for alternative sources of employment. As a
solution to the problem, the villagers have adopted dairy farming as a major source of livelihood. Taking an
opportunity of the coast, fish and salt farming are being developed as potential sources of livelihood. Other
associated actors and their roles and interests as defined by the villagers can be described as:
Fish- Marine fishes are common in this area. Mudskipper, locally called levta is an important marine fish
species. Bombay duck is common in mangrove areas. White prawn and ribbon fish are the commercially
important fish species (Niko Resources Limited 2009). Increasing industrial pollution of sea along the coast is
affecting fish and other aquatic species. Fish ponds will provide them shelter and enable them to proliferate.
Cattle- cows, buffaloes and goat are domesticated in some households for milk and dairy products. Dairy
farming on large scale will allow these animals to reproduce and grow in number.
Salt- Saline water can be found along the coast and brackish water is present in the estuary area. Salt pans
will enable the separation of salt and its subsequent utilisation.
Fish farms- They play an important role in breeding and raising fishes. They will benefit from the sale of the
fish in market.
Interessement
After identification of the problem and associated actors, villagers attempted to remove any kind of
hindrance in the successful implementation of the solution. It was done by experimentation at a small scale.
Enrolment
In order to ensure acceptance of the roles and interests by other actors, villagers negotiated with each one
of them and tried to eradicate any kind of hindrance:
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Fish- It is important to safeguard their interest by protecting them from any kind of infection or from
animals.
Cattle- Grass is being grown to meet the increasing requirement of fodder for domesticated animals.
Mobilisation
The villagers ensured that other associated groups were represented by appropriate actors.
Growth of dairy farming and introduction of fish and salt farming has been analysed using the process of
Punctualization between two networks where the first network ‘construction of industries’ was used as a
black box for the analysis of second network.
OPPORTUNISTIC STRATEGIES
As exemplified above, Actor–Network theory can be used as an important tool to analyse the development
process on a site by understanding the relationship between various actors on the site. These interactions
between various actors are directed by opportunism (parasitic or symbiotic). As designers, opportunism can
be used as a strategy in different ways to create opportunistic landscapes.
Prototypical landscapes
Rapid urbanisation in India over the past few decades has led to an increase in the demand for resources of
all kinds (natural, social, man-made). There has been a lot of pressure on the natural actors such as water,
flora, agriculture etc. as well as on the social actors such as the construction labourers, villagers,
economically poorer sections of the society and the man- made actors such as technology and
infrastructure. Vast areas of agricultural land are being transformed into built land to accommodate the
growth of new cities, instigated by the development of the DMIC. Further decrease in the agricultural land
will add to the existing food shortage problem. In addition, as a result of the increasing demand for fresh
water with the proliferation of industries and cities, there has been an overuse and depletion of
groundwater and surface water resources.
Taking inspiration from ‘jugaad’, a form of symbiotic opportunism practised at varying scales as a problem
solving approach all over India, a prototypical approach can be adopted in design of new cities. A
prototypical approach innovate prototypes that not only take into consideration the limited resources but
also respond to the other needs of other actors on the site, thereby turning the constraints into advantage.
As an example, in the flood stricken city of Hazira, a canal system can be proposed to manage the water. It
can be modified at different places to accommodate public areas, agriculture, flora and water harvesting
systems, thereby taking into consideration different actors on site.
Scenario based development

The development process in India is directed by multiple actors that are linked to each other through
different systems. The participation of different actors at various stages of development makes the process
even more complex and usually leads to an uncertain result. Taking opportunity of this complexity and
uncertainty, it is important to propose different systems or solutions to address different scenarios.
Opportunistic spaces
As designers, we should create spaces that provide an opportunity to the users to utilise based on their
requirements. Time has been an important factor, culturally and climatically, in determining the usage of
space in the Indian context for a very long time. Manek Chowk in Ahmedabad exemplifies the diurnal usage
of an urban square that changes from grazing site in the morning to a playground in the afternoon to an
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informal market in the evening to an eatery at night. Open public spaces can be designed to accommodate
the varying diurnal and seasonal needs of users. It also provides an opportunity to efficiently use limited
resources.
CONCLUSION
Indian Cities and towns are complex in nature with respect to spatial, social, political and economic
configurations.
They are formed as a result of a network of interactions between and amongst various social, natural,
political, economic elements and are continuously evolving due to continuously changing associations
between various elements. A rational top down approach is no longer appropriate taking into consideration
the unpredictable and dynamic nature of cities.
There is a need for an opportunistic approach which is context specific and responds to the specific
conditions existing in that place. Opportunistic approaches in spatial design and organisation already exist
in many Indian cities in the form of jugaad urbanism (Sebastian 2011). Jugaad, meaning ‘make do’ refers to
the practise of making something work with minimum resources available and in a short period of time.
‘Jugaad’ in an approach is opportunistic in nature as it turns the constraints of a situation into advantage
and can be applied at different scales ranging from design of a canopy to a housing typology. It is also
indigenous and involves participation of the local people.
ANT provides a broader outlook of looking at a situation, from the perspective of all the actors whether
humans or non-humans. It might bring forth the role played by some actors which were otherwise
considered dormant. These elements, whether social, technical, natural, human, exist in a network of linked
associations. The process of transformation can provide an excellent approach to critically analyse a
situation. Taking inspiration from it and ‘jugaad’ urbanism (a local approach to opportunistic urbanism), a
holistic approach is required which takes into consideration the interests of all actors. It has the potential to
be used in the development of landscape strategies for development of a city.
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REFERENCE
AIA New York, 2011. ‘Jugaad urbanism: resourceful strategy for Indian cities’,
<http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=upcoming&expid=136>.
Crawford, CS., 2013. Actor network theory, Sage Publications, viewed 5 December 2013,
<http://www.sagepub.com/upmdata/5222_Ritzer__Entries_beginning_with_A__%5B1%5D.pdf>.
Dash, DK., 2012. ‘Seven townships planned along Delhi-Jaipur Expressway’, The Times of India, viewed 1
March 2014, <http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-05/india/35619683_1_delhi-jaipur-
expressway-delhi-gurgaon-expressway-yamuna-expressway>.
Jordana, S., 2011. ‘Jugaad Urbanism: resourceful strategies for Indian cities’, viewed 1 March 2014,
<http://www.archdaily.com/109318/jugaad-urbanism-resourceful-strategies-for-indian-cities/>.
Mehta, Y., 2013. ‘Only realtors will gain from Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor’, The Times of India Surat,
viewed 1 March 2014, <http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-14/surat/37712278_1_dmic-
project-delhi-mumbai-industrial-corridor-gujarat-khedut-samaj>.
Niko Resources Limited, 2009. Environmental impact assessment of drilling and development of oil and gas
wells in Hazira field, Surat District, Gujarat.
Oxford Dictionary, 2014. Opportunism, viewed 1 March 2014,

<http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/opportunism?q=opportunism>.
Rajagopal, A., 2011. ‘Making do’, viewed 3 March 2014,

<http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20110315/making-do>.
The High Line Design, 2013. High Line, viewed 1 March 2014,
<http://www.thehighline.org/design/planting>.
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ANALYSIS OF SETTLEMENT PATTERN AND THE DYNAMICS OF HYDRO ENVIRONMENTAL IMBALANCE -
DELHI AS A CASE STUDY
Ar.Kulsum Fatima Assistant Professor, Faculty Of Architecture & Ekistics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi –
110025, India , E-mail:kulsumreema@gmail.com
Prf. Gauhar Mahmood .Professor, Department Civil Engineering, Faculty Of Engineering & Technology,
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India, E-mail:aquaexplorers@yahoo.com
Abstract
River Yamuna has been catering to human settlements & sprawl since ancient ages having major impact on
Delhi’s environment & local ecology by virtue of its hydrological characteristics. Over the time fluctuation in water
quality range within the channel as well as through their aquifer system within the premises of active plains has
been experienced owing to urbanization & population factor.
The aim is to understand the course of its active basin from tajewala till Allahabad covering the following areas
under its stretch.
Upper basin stretch have normal course with no major impacts of urbanization with good quality of
water
Delhi stretch have high industrial impact & urbanization factor leading to reduced water quality & water
pollution in river basin
Lower basin comprises of Yamuna stretch at itawa & Chambal having its own water sheds, it has a self
cleaning mechanism which reduces the industrial impact.
The idea of study is to understand the impact of urbanization & other activities on the ongoing/existing
settlements in Delhi, with respect to factors affecting the hydro environmental imbalance. Leading to several
issues including deteriorating water quality, water unavailability, depletion of ground water table, water
pollution, rise in temperature levels, urban heat island effect etc. With special emphasis on river stretch crossing
Delhi area owning to the maximum urbanization impact experienced here.
The analysis is carried out to assess the following factors from ecological point of view:
Environment - temperature, humidity, wind direction, wind velocity, vegetation cover, soil quality,
Yamuna discharge/supply etc
Settlements – population, water requirement, ground water quality, settlements pattern, etc.
Further water conservation & management strategies including root zone system, common effluent treatment
plant, etc are proposed to enhance the quality of built environment existing adjacent to river basin. And
geophysical technique for water management, land use & sustainable development within the study region are
also incorporated.
Keywords: Urbanization, Human Settlement, Geophysical Technique, Ground Water Quality, Water Pollution
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INTRODUCTION
The capital city of India Delhi is a fast growing Metropolitan city with a vast historical background for its
water resources on which the city has been thriving since ages. Being a political center due to its
geographical location it has been the home to various rulers in the ancient times and has been attracting a
huge number of populations.
Starting with the first urban settlement in Delhi from the old city of Qila Rai Pithora it was supported by
surajkund water overflow for public usages. Followed by the development of water systems. During
sultanate period (1206 to 1526) which was purely Rain Water Harvesting based systems were developed to
utilize Ground Water Source. The baoli’s (Step wells, also called kalyani or pushkarani are wells or ponds in
which the water may be reached by descending a set of steps) & dug wells were innovated & created as a
sustainable measure since surface water evaporates, whereas the water in these structures is retained.
Examples of Ground water structure creation during this period are Gandhak Ki Baoli, Razia Sulatn’s Baoli,
Hazrat Nizammuddin Baoli, etc and example of Surface water body creation is Hauze-Shamsi etc.
Figure 1 Typical Cross Section - Baoli (Step Well) (Kamiya, n.d.)

During this period the city with an increased population its water utilization & consumption changed
lifestyle & land use with surface water getting used extensively. Structures like baoli’s, etc were used. Since
the ground water was saline therefore rain water harvesting systems were used to generate fresh water.
With less air & dust pollution the water bodies were safe & free from contamination and so the water content
was good. But this period witnessed many failures in the region of Tughlakabad city which ahs Ridge
formations. Owing to the presence of rocks, the dug wells being shallow lead the city to get deprived of
water and getting abandoned at a later stage.
As a practical lesson learnt from the previous dynasty the next ruling dynasty, the Mughal Period (1526 to
1857) shifted the emphasis to Surface sources of Water instead of Ground water sources, making the
settlement patterns which governed their settlement patterns & water systems according to the river
Yamuna. They also introduced Persian wheels as the mechanical water lifting devices.
Yamuna water and its overflow was utilized for example nahre-bahisht, chandni chowk Red Fort harem
(Bathrooms) etc where filtering of water was done use dug wells and the Yamuna overflow water was
getting used directly. There were seven wells in Red Fort in old delhi area. These shallow wells were used as
the main source of water for entire mughal settlements area. Since water level was very shallow therefore
these wells were taking infiltrated water from Yamuna.
Followed by the settlements during British Period (1857 to 1947) which thrived on creation of Fresh Water
zone along valley of Delhi ridge and vertical turbinal pump was also introduced. During this period the
settlement established is known as Lutyens Delhi whose source was ground water plus water bodies which
were active at that time, example bhalaswa lake, vasant kunj lake, hauze-shamsi, hauz khas lake, qila rai
pithora plus 611 water bodies of delhi which made the entire area of India gate & its surroundings surviving
on these shallow wells till date.
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India gate known as rapid valley whereas the raisina hills were the high point owing to this geographical
attribute the water bodies are still sustaining at india gate. Rebverse rotoring drilling machine used for
drilling 250feet deep was used by Britishers at India gate area, Lutyens zone and the dry well concept got
discarded & shallow wells were used. While the submersible monoblock motors got introduced post
independence during late 70’s.
However as per the current scenario Lutyens Delhi which is ground water based with water bodies at the
verge of eradication its needs revitalization. Delhi is becoming un-sustainable in terms of water owing to the
the ever increasing population factor of 5lakh every year which is rapidly leading to urbanization & stress
over water resources. For example the bungalows are getting converted into multi-storey structures leading
to more extraction as compared to the extraction in case of a bungalow usage.
YAMUNA RIVER STRETCH
Yamuna being the major source of water for Delhi has been utilized in different ways over the period of time
and has significant impacts on the settlement patterns witnessed by the city. The paper tries to access the
link between the hydro environmental aspects in relation to settlement patterns along the course of the
river and the impacts of urbanization over the water resources in the city.
The river stretches for 22kms along the city of Delhi. Entering at wazirabad in north to okhla barrage in south
is a major source of water for drinking, irrigation & other uses. The water in upper river basin is clean being
originated from himalayan segment it’s a source of fresh water. But due to the combined effect of modified
flow regime and also due to the impact of water holding structures or barrages along with the withdrawal of
water & the infilling of discharged waste water into the river stream has degraded the rivers water quality
particularly in the region of Delhi and have severe impacts on biodiversity of ecosystem & public health.
The river being the major lifeline to the city has been severely impacted by the large-scale construction
along its sides. Delhi being the biggest consumer of Yamuna’s water resources has also become the biggest
polluter by contributing 80-90% of the total sewage discharge into Yamuna reducing its water quality & also
the possibility of the survival of bio-diversity. Therefore it is also referred as dead river i:e incapable of
supporting aquatic life.
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Figure 2 Extents Of River Yamuna (Board, 1996)
NATIONAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, DELHI

With a present population of 125lakhs, Delhi Occupies an area of 1483 sq. Km. Out of this about 145 sq. Km is
the ridge area comprising of weathered quartzite rock. The Yamuna river and Aravalli hill range are the two
main geographical features of the city. These hill ranges are covered with forest are known as ridges. The
normal annual rainfall of NCT Delhi is 611.8mm. The rainfall increases from the south-west to the north-west.
About 81% of the annual rainfall is received during the monsoon months july, august and september. The
rest of the annual rainfall is received in the form of winter rain. However rainfall in delhi is highly variable
with deviations from –25.5% to +90% from normal rainfall as per the central ground water board which in
turn affects the natural recharge to ground water from year to year. The ground water availability in the
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territory is controlled by the hrdrogeological conditions characterized by occurrence of different geological
formations namely delhi (quartzite) ridge, older & younger alluvium. The geographical area of nct delhi, is
broadly divided into seven drainage basins, ultimately discharging into the Yamuna – (i) the najafgarh drain
is about 39 km long, flows north-easterly and joins Yamuna river at wazirabad in north delhi. (ii)
supplementary drain, (iii) barapullah drain. (iv) wild life sanctuary area, (v) drainage of shahadra area, (vi)
bawana drain basin, (vii) other drains directly out falling into river Yamuna on right bank. Swamp areas are
common along the flood plains of Yamuna. (Board, 2012, p. 10)
Figure 3 Geological Units Of Delhi, (Enviroment, n.d.) Figure 4 Areas Suitable For Artificial Recharge In Delhi,
(Board, n.d.)
HRDROGEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK OF DELHI
Delhi has four distinct physiographic units:

o Delhi (quartzitic) ridge
o Older alluvium on both side of
ridge
o Younger alluvium – along
Yamuna flood plain
o Alluvium deposits of chattarpur
enclosed basin
The ridge centers the area from south eastern

part upto western bank of Yamuna near
wazirabad. A number of micro watersheds
originate from the quartzite ridge having a length
of about 35kms. With a gradient of 3.3m/km the
ridge surface on east slopes towards Yamuna &
on west side the ridge slopes towards najafgarh
jheel which is a natural depression located in
najafgarh tehsil of south-west district.
The alluvial plain in the area is almost flat and is

interrupted by cluster of sand dunes & quartzite
ridges. These dune areas are more or less fixed
with vegetation and are mostly longitudinal in
nature.
Younger alluvium deposits are confined along

the river Yamuna and are presently demarcated
as embankments on both sides of the river. Its an
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active flood plain of 97kmq area with shallow depth to water level.
the flood plains towards the north falls in narela and civil-lines tehsils (An administrative area in parts of
India) of north district, the central parts fall in north-east district and daryaganj tehsil of central district and
the southern most part falls in saidabad and kalkaji tehsil of south district.
In general, the alluvial flood plain slope is towards south. The average slope of the Yamuna river bed from
north to south is 0.4 m/km. Eastern and western Yamuna canal and agra canal are the three major canals
originating from the river with bawana, rajpur and lampur distributaries. A dense network of lined canals
system exists in the north-western part of the state. (Board, 2012, p. 26)
The alluvium basin of chattarpur in south delhi occupies an area of 78km2 and is enclosed by quartzite
ridges making it a close basin with a slope towards the center of the basin from all the surrounding ridges.
Figure 5 Ground Water Use Map, (Board, n.d.)
Figure 6 Physiographic Divisions &Ground Water Details Of Delhi (Board, n.d.)

HISTORY OF DELHI WATER SUPPLY DEVELOPMENT POST INDEPENDENCE
1940-1970 1970-2000 2000-present
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Populations:26.6lakhs (1961) Populations: 62.22lakhs (1981) Populations: 138.5lakhs (2001)
Source of raw water Source of raw water Source of raw water
Row of wells sunk along the river Row of wells sunk along the river Row of wells sunk along the river Yamuna,
Yamuna, Yamuna, bhakra storage/Yamuna, bhakra storage/Yamuna, upper ganga
upper ganga canal, canal, bhakra storage, ground water
Wtp Wtp Wtp

Chandrawal i and ii, wazirabad Chandrawal i and ii, wazirabad i,ii and Chandrawal i and ii, wazirabad i,ii and iii,
i,ii and iii, iii, haiderpur i and ii, bhagirathi, haiderpur i and ii, bhagirathi, nangloi, sonia
Total capacity: 35mgd Total capacity: 303mgd vihar, ranney wells & tube wells
Total capacity: 715mgd
Stp Stp
Stp Okhla phase i, delhi gate, timarpur, Okhla phase i, delhi gate, timarpur, rithala,
Okhla phase i, rithala, kondli, ghitorni, vasant kunj, kondli, ghitorni, vasant kunj, mehrauli,
Capacity: 18 mgd Capacity: 122 mgd papankala, narela, rohini
Capacity: 346 mgd
Water supplied by tankers 493(2001)
Private tube wells

200,000 (estimated 2001)
454 mgd of untreated sewage and another

72 or 74 mgd of partially treated sewage
goes to the river system through 19 outfall
drains (16 directly into the river & 3 into
agra canal)
Water barrages in delhi: b1 - wazirabad barrage, b2 - okhla barrage, b3 - bhakra barrage,

Water treatment plants (wtp) in delhi: w1 - wazirabad wtp, w2 - chandrawal wtp, w3 - bhagirathi
Wtp, w4 – haiderpur wtp , w5 - sonia vihar wtp
Sewage treatment plants (stp) in delhi : s1 - okhla stp, s2 - ghitorni stp, s3 - rithala stp
Table 1 Water Sources & Supply in Delhi, (enviroment, n.d.)
Capacity & Development Of Water Treatment Systems In Delhi
Development Capacity Year of Populatio

establish n
ment
1 Chadrawala sewage treatment plant was established in 1mgd/ 4.5mld 1890 1.93 lakhs
1890
2 Increase in water demand leading to water extraction 3.3mgd/15mld 1911 2.33 lakhs
directly from Yamuna necessitating the installation of
settling tanks & slow sand filters.
3 Raw water pumping station established at wazirabad 7mgd/ 32mld 1912 3.04 lakhs
4 Consequent developments 35mgd/ 169mld 1948
5 Western Yamuna canal was remodeled and lined to enable 303mgd 1981 62.22
Delhi to establish water treatment plants and thus become /1378.7mld lakhs
the second source of surface water in addition to Yamuna.
Table 2 Development of Sewage Treatment Plants in Delhi, (Jnnurm, 2006)
Estimation of Water Demand
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The water requirement of delhi is 1,104 gpcd against the production of 783 gpcd. The excess demand of
water is met through 2 lakh private tube wells drilled by owner in their premises. The total demand for 2021
is 1840 gpcd. Further due to various augmentation schemes of water supply delhi jal board will be equipped
to produce 919 mgd against a demand of 1140mgd for 190lakh population & 1380mgd for a population of
230lakhs which will be deficient for 221mgd & 461 mgd respectively. (Jnnurm, 2006, p. 200)
Table 3 Estimation Of Ground Water Demand As Per Delhi Development Authority & Delhi Jal Board Norms,
(Jnnurm, 2006)
URBANIZATION & ITS IMPACT ON WATER RESOURCES
The scale of urbanization over last few

decades has created extreme stress on natural
resources of delhi with induced
environmental degradation that includes loss
of green cover, drying of water bodies,
depleting water table, increased air & water
pollution. With continuously increasing
population the demand of ground water is
also increasing day by day. Leading to a state
of over exploitation of ground water resources
which in turn affects the ground water levels
which have been declining fast (refer table 1 –
water sources & supply in delhi, depicting the
depleting ground water level 1940 till present).
This clearly indicates the rate of extraction is
more than the rate of replenishment.
Urbanization Impact on Ground water

sources
Over a period of time ground water table has
depleted as shown in the images below: Figure 7 Extension of Urban Density in Delhi, ,
(Jnnurm, 2006)
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Table 4 Ground Water Levels Delhi 1960-2001, (Enviroment, n.d.)

Ground water exploration is carried out at a depth range of 50 to 150 m in the Delhi quartzite. The
quaternary deposits constitute the major repository of ground water. Total ground water resources in the
(National Capital Teritory) delhi are estimated around as 28156.32 ha m (central ground water board). The
annual extraction of ground water is estimated around 47945.18 ha m. Around 44% of the ground water is
recharged by the rainfall during monsoons, 31% from other sources during non monsoon, 19% from other
sources in monsoon and 6% from rainfall during non monsoon. (Development, October 2006, p. 70)
Urbanization Impact on Surface water sources
Surface water contributes to over 86% of Delhi’s total drinking water. Yamuna provides the major share of
this water. Other sources of drinking water supply to delhi include the himalayan rivers through different
interstate arrangements and sub-surface sources like ranney wells and tube wells. (Development, October
2006, p. 72)
Table 5 Quantity of Surface Water In Delhi, (Jnnurm, 2006)

Reportedly there use to be a total of 611 water bodies including lakes, ponds & reservoirs in delhi as
reported by the department of irrigation & flood control and directorate panchayats (a village council in
India) of delhi. Most of them have depleted over the time. Similarly as per the state forest report, in 2003
Delhi had 170.17 sq.kms as forest cover against 1483sqkm. Of land area which is 11.4% (census 2001) of lung
space in city. This is reduced to only 6.2% at present which is below the national average of 21%.
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Delhi’s urban & green areas after independence
Delhi vegetation upto medieval
times
Figure 8 Green
Cover, (Pandey,
2003)
Figure 9 Delhi forest cover 1912,

Figure 10 Depleting Green Area in
(Dhawale, 2010)
Delhi, (Charu Soni, 2006)
Delhi's built-up area between 1999 and 2012 has gone up from 48 to 57 per cent but the corresponding
green cover has gone down from 4.73 to 4.24 per cent in the same period and faces threat of further decline
in the next 10 years.
Urbanization impact on master plan
Master plan 1962 Master plan 2001 Master plan 2012

Initiation of modern Prepared with a perspective of 20years Extensive modifications with a
planning which aimed (upto1981) and was aimed to cater futuristic perspective to 20121
towards the integrated increasing population & changing with increasing population
development of the city. requirements of the city. This envisaged density and addition of 5 new
Envisage development of expanding the Urbanisable area of Delhi cities along with existing urban
Urbanisable area of 448 to 688sq.km. areas, about 978sq.km of total
sq.km. By 1981 area
Urban population of Accommodate 12.2 million urban It projected population growth of
4.6millions. populations by the year 2001 23million by the year 2021
Urbanization Table 6 Master Plan Comparison for Delhi, (DDA, n.d.) impact on Yamuna River & its
floodplains
Floodplain is an important groundwater reserve for any city and an integral part of the natural
replenishment system but in case of delhi it has been tampered initially by post independence settlements
in Yamuna floodplains during emergency (1975-1977) when delhi development Authority relocated
resettlement families in resettlement colonies which used to be a green belt before. By 1982, when delhi
hosted the asian games, trilokpuri, himmalputi, khichripur and kalyanpuri came up further to the east, while
the new indraprastha indoor stadium was built on the western bank. By 1990, the east delhi localities of
laxmi nagar, patparganj and mayur vihar, and the noida township had come up in the Yamuna floodplains.
(Charu Soni, 2006)
With growing impact of urbanization & accelerate demands of 2010 common wealth games the Yamuna’s
flood plains are consistently being deprived, despite of the fact that both the master plans of 1962 & 2001
states both the ridge & city water bodies to be conserved as they are considered as ecologically defining
features. Today most of the extended floodplains of east delhi known as trans-Yamuna area falls 3-4 meters
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below the 1978 flood level. This area is crucial of delhi’s water needs as it has the highest flooding &
groundwater recharge every monsoon. Further a lot of construction activity happened after 2012 is rajeev
nagar, sonia viharm jagatpur & jaitpur extension which are flood-prone areas falling under “zone-o”
Being surrounded by unplanned & haphazard growth of villages, jj clusters in north, thermal power plants,
aksardham temple complex, common wealth games village etc in central stretch and towards the southern
extent its julenagaon, taimur nagar, kalindi kunj etc. These high density areas along the river stretch are
responsible for generating large volumes of untreated sewage & solid waste which is being discharged into
the river without any effluent treatment as per the prescribed standards leading to the deterioration of the
water quality. Along with the imposed burden added due to the extraction of water used in these
settlements without adequate provisions for ground water recharging. (Development, October 2006, p. 14)
395
!
2
1
3 Yamuna&Stretch&3
4
5
! 6
8 9
Yamuna&Stretch&2
1
1
!
1
1
1
1
Yamuna&Stretch&1
!
1
1. Police'Training'Camp''
2. Sonia'Vihar'
3. Rajiv'Nagar'
4. Shree'Ram'Colony'
5. Timarpur'
6. Majnu'Ka'Tila''
7. Chandarwal''
8. Ladakh'Budh'Vihar''
9. Shastri'Park'
10. Silampur'
11. Geeta'Colony'
12. Rajghat'Power'Plant'
13. 'Delhi'Secretariat'
14. Commonwealth'Games'Village'
396 15. Akshardham'Temple'
!
Figure 11 Developments in Yamuna Floodplains (source: Author)
Figure 12 Encroachments on
Yamuna Flood Plain,
(Vashishtha, 2012)
Figure 13 Built Up Areas along Yamuna Stretch (source: Author)
Therefore, water is getting extracted at a higher rate because of high density & multi storey culture in city
reducing Yamuna’s’ water quantity as well as deteriorating its water quality as well. And also due to the
interstate water sharing treaty the upstream of the river remains polluted with agricultural pesticides &
suboptimal water extraction practices.
GROUND WATER RESOURCES & STATUS OF DEVELOPMENT/WATER STRESS IN DELHI
Considering 80 % runoff coefficient for roof area, 60% for paved area and 30 % for open, the runoff
availability for Delhi state is assessed as 175 MCM. The surplus monsoon runoff available from Yamuna is 282
MCM. Thus a total of 457MCM surplus runoff is available for recharge to ground water. As the areas
proposed for recharge are at higher elevations, the surplus water of Yamuna River cannot be diverted under
gravity to these areas. Hence only the available surface runoff from the recharge areas i.e. 175 MCM out of
which 52 MCM is estimated to be utilized by existing structures and balance 123 MCM is available for
recharge in feasible area. Out of this only 20% i.e. 24.39 MCM may be utilized for recharge to ground water
as most area is urban and entire rainwater cannot be harvested due to outflow into sewers and other losses.
(Resources, 2013, p. 46)
The ground water resources are assessed in unit’s i.e blocks/talukas/mandals/watersheds. These assessment
units are categorized for ground water development based on two criteria
A) Stage of ground water development, and
B) Long-term of pre and post monsoon water levels.
The long term ground water level trends are computed generally for the period of 10 years. The significant
rate of water level decline is taken from 10 to 20 cm per year depending upon the local hrdrogeological
conditions. (Authority, n.d., p. 2)
397
!
The details of criteria for categorization of assessment units are given in following table –
Significant Long Term
Stage of
SI Decline
Ground Water Categorization
No. Pre- Post-
Development
Monsoon Monsoon
1 <=70% No No Safe areas which have ground water
>70% and No No Safe potential for development
2
<=90% Yes/No No/Yes Semi-Critical areas where cautious groundwater
>90% and Yes/No No/Yes Semi-Critical development is recommended
3
<=100% Yes Yes Critical There should be intensive
Yes/No No/Yes Over-Exploited monitoring and evaluation and
future ground development be
4 >100%
Yes Yes Over-Exploited linked with water conservation
measures.
Table 7Stage of Ground Water Development, ( (Board, n.d.)

The net annual ground water availability in NCT Delhi is 27318 ham. The annual gross draft for all uses 39619
ham and the over-all stage of ground water development is 145%. Out of the 27 assessment units (tehsils), 2
(daryaganj and civil lines) are falling in the ‘safe’ category, 5 (gandhi nagar, connaught place, seelam pur,
narela and punjabi bagh) are in the ‘semi-critical category while rest 20 tehsils are over-exploited. (Board,
2011, p. 152)
Figure 14 Ground Water Level Depths in Different Blocks, (Enviroment, n.d.)

URBAN LAND MANAGEMENT
Delhi has been divided into 6 blocks based on geological configuration namely Alipur block, Kanjhawala
block, Najafgarh block, City block, Mehrauli block, shahadra block as depicted in the figure below:
398
Kanjhawala'
Block Alipur'Block
City%Block
Shahadra&&
Block
Mehrauli'Block
Najafgarh'Block
Figure 15 Geological Blocks Overlay with Delhi Master Plan 2021 Zones, (source: Author)
RAIN WATER HARVESTING POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT FOR DIFFERENT ZONES IN DELHI AS PER MASTER
PLAN 2021
As per the Master plan for the purpose of future expansion & development, the national capital territory of
delhi has been divided into 15zones enumerated as zone a to zone g and zone j to zone p. Eight of these
zones are in urban area, one is river bed and remaining six are rural areas. (2021, 2013)
Which have been assessed considering the isohyets map for Delhi & its surroundings. The average mean
rainfall calculated for all the zones as per master plan 2021 with reference to the isohyets map (figure 18)
while doing an extrapolation of 20mm in each range to obtain approximate value for average annual mean
rainfall while considering 28days of rain on an average in case of delhi. And also the rain water potential is
calculated separately for built-up/rooftop area, green soft area, road/hard area & soft open soil areas as 0.85,
0.7, 0.5 & 0.65 respective coefficients.
399
Figure 16 Isohyets Overlay Delhi Blocks & Delhi Zones (source: Author)
ZONE WISE ASSESSMENT OF RAIN WATER POTENTIAL
Soft
Green Road
Total Open
S.N MPD Rainfall Built Area Area Area
Blocks (I) MM Area Area
o. Zone Intensity Q=CxIxA Q=CxIx Q=CxIx
(Ha.) Q=CxIx
A A
A
Divided into Walled City Area (due to its special heritage character) with Sub Zones (A13-A27) & Area other
than Walled City with 12 Sub Zones (A1-A12)
Zone A
1
(Old City)
Above
City 13642.568 5106.84 2918.19
800-600 25.178571 1159
Block 3 38 643
400
!
Consists of 7 Sub Zones
Known as Karol Bagh & City Extension, located in Central West Delhi. Part of it has been designated as
“Special Area” under MPD 2021
2 Zone B
16136.94
City Above 39607.191 4349.02 4659.66
27.321429 2274 64
Block 800-700 96 5 964
Consists of 21 Sub Zones

Includes Delhi University, Northern Ridge, ISBT & Tis Hazari Court, Old Secretariat Complex and Civil Line
Bungalow area of Colonial Period.
Roshanara Bagh and Qudsia Bagh are the Historical Gardens.
Zone C Rehabilitation colonies & Pre 1962 residential Colonies
3 (Civil
Lines)
City
Block + Above 42521.073 16301.1 6468.72
21.785714 3959
Alipur 800-400 93 83 321
Block
Consist of 21 Sub Zones

Mainly Comprises of Lutyens Garden City & Extensions. Situated between River Yamuna & The Ridge. Have a
Zone D Tree Studded & Low Density development Character with a number of Historical monuments
4 (New
Delhi)
City Above 74915.357 8813.57
25.714286 6855 49356
Block 800-600 14 143
Surrounded on 3 sides by Uttar Pradesh & on Fourth side its Yamuna River.
Zone E
Under going development since Pre-Independence till date.
5 (Trans
Yamuna) Shahad 79915.246 21937.5 11938.7
600-400 16.964286 8797
ra Block 88 19 857
Identifiable with its Low Density Green Character. Includes Posh residential colonies & rehabilitation
colonies & government housing areas.
Zone F
6 (New City 134676.97 73242.7
Delhi) Block+ Above 1195 17937
25 5 5
Mehrau 800-600 8
li Block
Consist of 18 Sub Zones

Includes Najafgarh Drain, Ring Road, etc besides 2 Railway Lines bounding the zone. Along with 4 Industrial
Areas.
Further Future Expansion is also Proposed here.
Zone G
7 (West 106777.58 10767.4 7691.06
Delhi-I) City 44 88 25
Block+ Above 1186 8301.4642 10254.7 12208.0
21.607143
Mehrauli 800-400 5 86 5 357
Block 15253.940 16151.2 5127.37
63 31 5
401
!
Consist of Sub Zones (H1-H6) & (H7-H9)
Characterized by well planned residential colonies. Situated between 2 major railway lines,
Shalimar Bagh is the Protected Forest Area
Western Yamuna Canal
Zone H Rohini Phase I/II(Part) forms part of this zone.
(North
8
West City
Delhi-I) Block+
Alipur 32571.787 34487.7 30089.47
600-400 19.285714 5677 10948.5
Block+ 5 75 5
Kanjhawal
a Block
Having 40.8% (6200 Ha.) of Regional Park/Ridge Area with 30 Villages

Further Urban Expansion is Proposed
Zone J 94437.5 18186.4
9 (South 16 964
Delhi-II) Mehrauli Above 15,17 95561.772 34719.6
21.785714
Block 800-400 8 14 75
129157.
19
Divided into Sub Zone K1 & K2
Zone K Bisected by underground Mathura – Jalandhar Oil Pipe Line into Phase I & Phase II
(South Also Includes Dwarka Sub City Urban Extension Plans
10
West
Delhi) Najafgarh Below 400 1205 115724.68 12012.9
16.607143 28030.2
Block -500 6 29 429
Approximately 46 Villages Fall in this zone.

Najafgarh is the major Urban Agglomeration with other rural settlements
Zone L
11 (West
Delhi-III) Najafgarh 400 & 2297 98358.326 162001. 19285.9
16.785714
Block Below 9 79 95 464
Mainly Zone Covers Rohini Sub City

Zone M Bounded by Western Yamuna Canal, rohtak Railway & Existing H.T.Line
(North
12 Alipur
West
Block+ 400 & 26286.159 3212.74 16222.60
Delhi-II) 13.571429 5073 4608.45
Kanjhawal Below 9 8 71
a Block
Mainly Comprises of proposed Urban Extension/Green Belt & forms Part of Urbanisable Area under MPD
2021
Constitutes Rural settlements & industrial area of Bawana
Zone N Urbanized Area
(North Urbanisable Area
13
West Peripheral Green Belt
Delhi-III)
Kanjhawal 400 & 1397 79259.464 40359.3 6540.20

13.392857
a Block Below 5 29 75 089
402
!
Consist of River Yamuna/River Front
Has special characteristics & ecological significance
Area Covered with Water
14 Zone O Area under Dry Land
City Below 5742.0535 20491.2 1125.89 122223.2

23.214286 9700
Block 400-700 71 5 286 14
Bears special significance in terms of being Eco-Sensitive Area, Consisting Natural Feature with Large
Zone P Stretches of Land Between water Course & Existing Bunds on Sides of River Yamuna
15 (North
Delhi)
Alipur 85987.475 37848.4 18313.7
500-400 17.678571 9866
Block 36 43 625
1055103.1 167388. 184672.2
793609
2 9 4
Total Zone Wise Rain Water Harvesting potential 2200772.891
Table 8 Rain Water Harvesting Potential Calculation for Delhi Zones as Per Delhi Master Plan 2021 (Source
Author), Zone Characteristics ( (Certes Realty Ltd., 2013)
ANALYSIS
The total rain water harvesting potential calculated as 22, 00,772.891 ham – (with approximate estimation of
built-up area, green area & road area among different zones as per master plan 2021) states that the rain water
harvesting potential in delhi remains underutilized. Due to the assumed generalized values for average
annual rainfall instead of precise values.
Generally Delhi’s annual average rainfall is taken as 600mm with 22mm as daily average rainfall which ends
up into flooding & water scarcity in various blocks owing to the variation in character of rainfall existing in
reality.
The absence of systems & structures for utilizing rain water potential leads the water joining drain or Nallah
(Drain) streams and getting wasted. This on the other hand increases the burden on sewage treatment &
other water treatment systems. Therefore isohyets’ modeling is done to achieve exact potential of areas
under Delhi master plan 2021 with projected possibilities of water availability & accordingly possible water
utilization measures to be taken.
403
!
Natural
Slope West
Kanjhawala Block Alipur
to East
• Brackish & Saline Water at Block
• Medium Quality of Water'
all levels.' • Falls under Semi-Critical Category '
• Poor Quality & Quantity of • Needs cautious ground water
Water' development .'
• Acute Shortage of Water in • Planning strategies to reduce
Zone M & N under this unintended growthShahadra
are required.'
Block.' Block
• Lowest Rainfall Intensity • Water Table , Wa
offering limited Ground Quality & Quant
Water Recharging.' !
all are good.'
• Water Critical Zone & • Safe Zone with go
Najafgarh Blockdevelopments
needs future Water Potential f
to be linked with water Future Urb
harvesting & conservation Developments.'
techniques.' • Water Quantity is
access as compar
to settlements.'
• Low Rainfall • Haphazard
Intensity Settlements'
City
• Water surplus zone
offering limited
Ground Water Mehrauli • Pollution in riv
Recharging.' • Suburban Area' Water is a problem
• Future Urban • Water hygiene problem'
Extensions are • Water quality issues'
also proposed.' • Sewage problems due to Yamuna
• Due to high rise pollution'
building • Deepest/Lowest Water Table in
activities the city '
rate of • Offers less potential for
• Central Area has the best water quality
extraction is recharging due to the of presence
due to its Low Density Green
high.' Ridge Formations' Character.'
• Designated as • FAR is good'
over exploited • Green Area & built area proportion is
zone which good.'
needs intensive • Being a Bungalow zone the rate of
monitoring & Ground Water extraction is less.'
water • Also have the maximum rainfall
conservation intensity in the city offering better
measures.' ground water recharging.'
Figure 17 Hydrodynamics of Delhi, (Source: Author)
404
!
CONCLUSIONS
The Demographics of Settlements in Delhi does not support its hydro potential. The urbanization is leading
the areas getting over exploited & critical in terms of water resource sustenance. Due to the addition of an
average 5lakh population every year is adding stress over the water resources. The settlement patterns with
respect to hydrology potential have been insignificant except for the area of central Delhi. And due to the
Natural slope of the city all the water from the surface as well as the subsurface water has a tendency to flow
towards east making the west zones critical in terms of water sustainability.
It is thus concluded from the above discussion that due to the imbalance in ground water extraction & rate
of replenishment river Yamuna is also experiencing qualitative as well as quantitative exploitation. Along
with the shrinkage of wet bed area of Yamuna it also experience deteriorated quality of water. In view of the
stretch of Yamuna the upper stretch is underutilized through water logging at hathnikund dam leading to
the prevention of natural water entering the middle Yamuna stretch premises. Whereas the middle stretch is
getting dry day by day with a total of 1600hectare area under water & rest 8100hectare as dry land, it has
accommodated encroachment settlements throughout. Whereas these buffer zones need to be maintained
& retained for ecological environment upliftment. However Yamuna’s lower stretch owing to its self cleaning
mechanism offers better quality of water not only for human consumption but also supports aquatic life &
flora & fauna.
• It is also found that since there is much of storage created near hathnikund dam by virtue of
which the surface water is usually not found to be in running condition & maintain bad quality
due to irregular flushing & aeration. Therefore the restricted/stored water should be
discouraged and instead rain water harvesting with proper run-off should be properly
established in order to maintain & improve over the quality of surface water.
• Other than Yamuna all the surface water bodies of Delhi are at the verge of eradication & needs
revitalization. Not only because of depleting ground water level but also because of the
contamination on account of solid waste disposed in these water bodies. This waste is
generated on account of urbanization in the city. And therefore root zone system should be
proposed in areas next to Yamuna river bed.
• Further the water utilization pattern is based on the lifestyle of the occupants therefore the
future population needs to be toned down to meet water availability. Along with the criteria of
type of land uses which determines the water requirement & availability.
As in case of Delhi master plan future expansions are proposed under zone L & N which all have a low
rainwater potential range between 400-below 400. Leading towards higher ground water extraction rate as
compared to the rate of replenishment making a unsustainable situation. For example the case of Dwarka
situated in zone K with a range of 550-380mm rainfall because of which where the area has been suffering
with acute water shortages on account of unavailability of ground water. Therefore a more wiser &
appropriate approach is required for deciding land use and for limiting non-conforming land use in order to
sustain balance between water demand & water availability in order to minimize over exploitation of water
resources.
The master plan 2021 zones including Zone L, Zone K, Zone N and Zone M have water scarcity. Falling under
the range of below 400mm rainfall, these zones don’t have enough water for ground water recharge which
leads to depleted & low ground water table levels as in table 1, page no.7 in this paper. However zones like
A, B, C, D, F & G which comprises of Central Block as per the geological configurations, have good rainwater
harvesting potential leading to better levels of ground water table which in a way makes them more suitable
for settlement purpose. And with proper implementation of rain water harvesting these zones will be self-
sustaining their water resources.
405
REFERENCES
!
2021, D. M. P., 2013. Zonal Plans MPD-2021. [Online]
Available at: http://delhi-masterplan.com/zonal-plans-mpd-2021/
[Accessed March 2014].
Authority, C. G. W., n.d. Material for FAQs on Ground Water resources. [Online]
Available at: http://wrmin.nic.in/writereaddata/faq/FAQ_CGWB.pdf
Authority, D. d., n.d. Planning Practices Delhi Development Authority, s.l.: s.n.
Board, C. G. W., 2011. Ground Water Senario in Major Cities of India, Page No.152. [Online]
Available at: http://cgwb.gov.in/documents/GW-Senarioin%20cities-May2011.pdf
Board, C. G. W., 2012. Ground Water Year Book, Page No.10. [Online]
Available at:
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/groundwater%20year%20book%20delhi.pdf
Board, C. G. W., n.d. [Online]
Available at: http://cgwb.gov.in/documents/MasterPlan-2013.pdf
Board, C. G. W., n.d. [Online]
Available at: http://wrmin.nic.in/writereaddata/faq/FAQ_CGWB.pdf
Board, C. P. C., 1996. Report on Water Quality Monitoring of Yamuna, CPCB, New Delhi, mimieo. [Online]
Available at: http://jnnurm.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/CDP_Delhi.pdf
Certes Realty Ltd., 2013. Delhi Master Plan 2021. [Online]
Available at: http://delhi-masterplan.com/zonal-plans-mpd-2021/
Charu Soni, T., 2006. Killin Delhi's Lifeline. [Online]
Available at: http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main18.asp?filename=Cr081906Killing_Delhi.asp
DDA, n.d. [Online]
Available at: https://dda.org.in/planning/mpd-1962.htm#
Development, D. o. U., October 2006. Chapter 4, City Enviroment Profile,. [Online]
Dhawale, M., 2010. Narratives of the Enviroment of Delhi. New Delhi: INTACH.
Enviroment, C. f. S. &., n.d. Geology Details. [Online]
Available at: http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/index_files/geology.htm
Enviroment, C. f. S. &., n.d. Ground Water. [Online]
Available at: http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/index_files/water_level_fluct.htm
enviroment, c. f. s. &., n.d. rainwaterharvesting.org. [Online]
Available at: http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/delhi_waterv4.htm
Enviroment, C. f. S. &., n.d. Sub Surface Geology. [Online]
Available at: http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/index_files/img/ground_water_quality.jpg
Indus, n.d. [Online]
Available at: http://indpaedia.com/ind/index.php/National_Capital_Region_(India):_Water
Jnnurm, 2006. CIty Development Plan, Delhi, Chapter 8, Page No.200. [Online]
Kamiya, T., n.d. Indo Islamic Architecture. [Online]
Available at: http://www.kamit.jp/25_dictionary/dictio_eng.htm
Pandey, M., 2003. India Today. [Online]
Available at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/
Resources, M. o. W., 2013. Master Plan for Artificial Recharge to Ground Water in India, page no. 46. [Online]
Available at: http://cgwb.gov.in/documents/MasterPlan-2013.pdf
Resources, M. o. W., n.d. Master Plan for Artificial Recharge to Ground Water in India, page no. 46, s.l.: s.n.
Vashishtha, A., 2012. India Today. [Online]
Available at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/farmhouses-illegally-occupy-yamuna-
floodplains/1/173288.html
406
List of figures
Figure 1 Typical Cross Section - Baoli (Step Well) (Kamiya, n.d.) ..................................................................................... 386
Figure 2 Extents Of River Yamuna (Board, 1996) ................................................................................................................... 388
Figure 3 Geological Units Of Delhi, (Enviroment, n.d.) ........................................................................................................ 389
Figure 4 Areas Suitable For Artificial Recharge In Delhi, (Board, n.d.) ............................................................................ 389
Figure 6 Physiographic Divisions &Ground Water Details Of Delhi (Board, n.d.) ....................................................... 390
Figure 5 Ground Water Use Map, (Board, n.d.) ....................................................................................................................... 390
Figure 7 Extension of Urban Density in Delhi, , (Jnnurm, 2006) ....................................................................................... 392
Figure 8 Delhi forest cover 1912, (Dhawale, 2010) ............................................................................................................... 394
Figure 10 Green Cover, (Pandey, 2003) ..................................................................................................................................... 394
Figure 9 Depleting Green Area in Delhi, (Charu Soni, 2006) ............................................................................................. 394
Figure 11 Developments in Yamuna Floodplains (source: Author) ................................................................................ 397
Figure 13 Built Up Areas along Yamuna Stretch (source: Author) .................................................................................. 397
Figure 12 Encroachments on Yamuna Flood Plain, (Vashishtha, 2012) ........................................................................ 397
Figure 14 Ground Water Level Depths in Different Blocks, (Enviroment, n.d.) ........................................................... 398
Figure 15 Geological Blocks Overlay with Delhi Master Plan 2021 Zones, (source: Author) ................................. 399
Figure 16 Isohyets Overlay Delhi Blocks & Delhi Zones (source: Author) ..................................................................... 400
Figure 17 Hydrodynamics of Delhi, (Source: Author) .......................................................................................................... 404
List of tables
Table 1 Water Sources & Supply in Delhi, (enviroment, n.d.) ............................................................................................ 391
Table 2 Development of Sewage Treatment Plants in Delhi, (Jnnurm, 2006) ............................................................ 391
Table 3 Estimation Of Ground Water Demand As Per Delhi Development Authority & Delhi Jal Board Norms,
(Jnnurm, 2006) ................................................................................................................................................................................... 392
Table 4 Ground Water Levels Delhi 1960-2001, (Enviroment, n.d.) ................................................................................ 393
Table 5 Quantity of Surface Water In Delhi, (Jnnurm, 2006).............................................................................................. 393
Table 6 Master Plan Comparison for Delhi, (DDA, n.d.) ....................................................................................................... 394
Table 7Stage of Ground Water Development, ( (Board, n.d.) ............................................................................................ 398
Table 8 Rain Water Harvesting Potential Calculation for Delhi Zones as Per Delhi Master Plan 2021 (Source
Author), Zone Characteristics (Certes Realty Ltd., 2013) .................................................................................................... 403
Technical Abbreviations Used

NCT – National Capital Territory
WTP – Water Treatment Plant
STP – Sewage Treatment Plant
GPCD – Gallons per Capita per day
MGD – Millions of Gallons per day
MLD – Million Liters per day
MCM – Million Cubic Meters
Ham – Hectare Meters (1MCM=100ham)
DDA – Delhi development Authority
DJB – Delhi Jal Board
Lakh – (1 million = 10 Lakhs) Unite used in India & Pakistan
Tehsil – An administrative area in parts of India
407
!
INFLUENCE OF DESIGN ON THE THERMAL ENVIRONMENT OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT TRANSIT FACILITIES
Philip Otieno Koteng, Dept. of Architecture, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and
Technology. Kenya, philkoteng@gmail.com
Evans Juma Oino, Dept. of Architecture, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and
Technology, Kenya, ejumaoino@hotmail.com
Abstract
Rural urban migration is a phenomenon which is experienced in many developing countries; the result is an
increase in populations across urban centers, which further translates into overpopulation. In Mombasa, Kenya,
there is a growing concern over comfort in particular thermal comfort due to the lack of response to hot and
humid climatic conditions in the design of transit facilities. The objective was to investigate thermal environment
conditions in transit facilities. Field surveys were carried out to investigate the thermal environment conditions of
ferry transit facilities. The study was conducted for two days at two terminals, mainly the Island and the Mainland
terminal at the Likoni area of Mombasa in the month of July 2012. The study consisted of two methods, namely,
thermal environment measurement and thermal comfort questionnaire. Wind and thermal inertia measurements
were taken and a total of 100 questionnaires were administered, 50 per terminal. The study found that there was
approximately 70 % dissatisfaction rate in thermal comfort at the mainland transit facility and a 20%
dissatisfaction rate in the island transit facility. Poor ventilation levels were also observed in the mainland transit
facility. It was recommended that solar passive cooling techniques be used to cool the thermal environment.
Keywords: Urban centers, public transport, thermal environment, congestion, passive cooling.
INTRODUCTION
Rural urban migration is a phenomenon which is experienced in many developing countries. The reason
being, inhabitants of rural areas seek better opportunities in urban centers. The result is an increase in
populations across urban centers which further translates into congestion in these areas. The city therefore
is likely not to be able to sustain the burden of overpopulation and therefore deterioration of cities occurs.
One such area of a city which is likely to deteriorate is public transport.
Public transport plays a key role in the functioning of a city; this is because as our urban centers continue to
grow, public transport is increasingly becoming a necessity due to the need for movement. People need to
make the switch from one mode of transport to another due to the complexity of the transport system in our
urban centers. Transit facilities are therefore important to make the switch easier and seamless. In Kenya, the
need for transit facilities is on the rise as populations in urban centers increase and urban centers develop. It
is estimated that over 650 thousand people use public transport daily in Nairobi alone, the capital city of
Kenya.
408
Figure 1. Maps of Africa, Kenya and Mombasa.
Island terminal
Mainland terminal
Figure 2. Island and mainland terminal.
At the Likoni ferry terminal in the hot and humid coastal town of Mombasa, The Kenya Ferry Services Ltd
which operates ferries on a single route with two terminals, namely the mainland and island terminals,
carries over 250 thousand passengers a day. The terminals are linked to bus stations. Therefore people
transit from one mode to another.
The problem is that: the design of ferry transit facilities in Mombasa do not respond to the thermal comfort
requirements for the hot and humid climate of the region. The pragmatic objective of the designs of the
ferry transit facilities was probably to realize mass passenger flow with less attention being paid to the
quality of the environment. Evidence of thermal discomfort can be seen when the transit facility is
congested. Some cases of people fainting have been reported inside the transit facility likely due to
congestion and the poor thermal environment. The objective was to investigate the thermal environment
conditions in ferry transit facilities.
METHODS
To investigate thermal environment conditions in transit facilities, field surveys were carried out in the
month of July 2012 for two days on two ferry terminals namely island terminal and mainland terminal.
Figure 3 Island transit facility Figure 4. Mainland transit facility
409
!
The aim was to:
• To establish the temperature distribution across the terminals.
• To take measurements of the indoor and outdoor air temperature as well as surface temperatures of
the transit facilities.
• To establish the indoor and outdoor humidity of the transit facilities.
• To measure wind speeds and observe wind direction across the terminals.
N N
Figure'5. Numbers#indicating# Figure'6 Numbers#indicating#
the#positions#where# the#positions#where#
measurements#were#taken#to# measurements#were#taken#to#
find#the#temperature#distribution# find#the#temperature#
within#the#Island#transit#facility# distribution#within#the#
site.
To establish the temperature distribution across the site (Figures 3 and 4): Air temperature was recorded
every 20 minutes for 2 hours in 15 different locations. The study was carried out between 1pm and 3pm at
the island terminal and mainland terminal for two days. To determine the differences between the indoor
and outdoor air and surface temperatures: Temperatures were recorded between 1-3pm because this is the
highest recorded temperature for the region. The air and surface temperatures of the indoor and outdoor
walls were taken three times in intervals of one hour for two days between the hours of 1pm and 3pm. To
establish the indoor and outdoor humidity: Relative humidity was recorded every 20 minutes for 2 hours in
15 different locations. The study was carried out between 1pm and 3pm at the island terminal on the first
day and mainland terminal on the second day. To measure wind speeds and observe wind direction: Wind
speeds were measured for 5 minutes after every 30 minutes in selected areas around the transit facility. Two
flags on both sides of the ferry terminals were strategically placed to monitor wind direction. The data
recorded was further checked against physiological responses of the users so as to establish the thermal
satisfaction rate. Users were asked to answer a number of questions about their comfort levels by use of
questionnaires. This method involved a survey of a small percentage of the user population of these transit
facilities to acquire the general thinking of the majority.
Results
Very hot
Figure 7. Island transit facility temperature recordings Figure 8. Mainland transit facility temperature
recordings
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Temperature analysis
The Mainland transit facility recorded high indoor temperatures compared to the island transit facility. This
may have been attributed to the shade of the indoor environment and lack of a solid wall in the island transit
facility. This allowed wind movement through the facility and significantly cooled the indoor environment.
Transit A!
Transit B!
Poor! air! Road to the Ferry! between!

movement!
transit! A! and! B! resulted! in! less!
ventilation!and!therefore!increase!
in!temperature.!
Figure 9 Surface temperature readings
mainland transit facility
!
Figure 10. Mainland transit plan.
Humidity analysis
The study showed a relatively higher humidity in the outdoor environment than the indoor environment in
both the mainland and island terminals.
Figure 14. Humidity island transit facility Figure 15. Humidity island transit facility
Wind analysis
The air velocity inside the mainland transit facility recorded low speeds of less than 5m/s. This was an
indication of poor ventilation levels. The openings at the waiting area were not sufficient to allow sufficient
air to cool the interior through natural ventilation. Discomfort arose when the mainland transit facility was
fully occupied and wind speeds were less than 5m/s.
Figure 16. Air velocity island transit facility Figure 17. Air velocity Mainland transit facility
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N N
Figure 18. Prevailing winds island transit Figure 19. Prevailing winds Mainland transit
Questionnaire analysis
(Humphreys 1998, pp. 991-1004) investigated the thermal neutrality of the human body. It was defined as
the temperature at which the person feels thermally neutral "comfortable". From the questionnaire analysis,
the neutral temperature accepted by users was between 27 - 31°C.
There was approximately 70 % dissatisfaction rate in the thermal comfort of the mainland transit facility and
a 20% dissatisfaction rate in the island transit facility.
This was attributed to warmer temperatures indoors in the mainland transit facility. The Island transit facility
did not have any solid walls and therefore the shades provided air ventilation adequate to cool the indoor
environment.
Discussion
Neighborhood
Transit facility
412
Mini bus
terminus
Commercial
buildings
Neighborhood and configuration
Figure'21.#Neighborhood#and#a#sun#path#
diagram#in#the#mainland#terminal.####################################################
Sun path and Orientation

Both buildings are oriented north east. The orientation could have been the result of designing the building
by following the configuration of the plots and not the sun path forces. This can be seen in fig 21 where the
transit facility is designed in line with the road’s configuration.
Wind movement
Land and sea breezes were the major source of air velocity into the facility. The mainland terminal however
had its prevailing winds not sufficiently reaching the waiting area. The walls acting as boundaries at the
staircases blocked the sea breeze during the day.
Planning 7m
Wall Facing
Sea breeze direction
Ocean y
exit
Staircases
8m
8m
y
x
7m
70m
entry
x NB m=meters
Figure'22.##Plan#of#mainland#terminal.####################################################
Figure'23.#Plan#of#island#terminal.####################################################
6m
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Shape
Both plans are rectilinear, with the island’s terminal rectilinear shapes forming a slight curve. The mainland
terminal is enclosed with walls while the island terminal is more of an open plan with steel bars acting as
boundaries in place of a wall.
The mainland terminal consists of a long narrow waiting area and path shown in Figure 22. Although wind
movements are faster in narrow cross sectional areas according to the Venturi effect, infer (Blocken et al.
2008), it was noted that when the facility was filled with users, the congestion resulted into reduced wind
velocity.
Volumetric aspects and

boundary layers.
Fig 24 section y-y: island transit facility.
A
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mini bus terminal
Passage to the
ferry
B
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Figure'25.#Section#xPx:#mainland#transit#
facility.####################################################!
It was noted in the mainland terminal (Figure 25) that wind movement from space ‘B’ to space ‘A’ resulted in
thermal discomfort in space ‘A’. As the warmer air rises, it enters into space ‘B’ as this is the boundary layer
for air exchange between the two spaces. The area below the dotted line in space ‘A’ (Figure 25) received
less airflow than the upper area above the dotted line. Therefore the airflow was not enough to cool space
‘A’.
In the island transit facility, the airflow was at comfortable rates according to 80% of the users. This was
attributed to the open nature of the design in terms of open vertical planes rather than a solid wall.
The roof material was IT 4 galvanized iron sheets with a blue colour surface finish. Although the dark colour
may contribute to more heat gain internally, it was observed that high level openings facilitated efficient
airflow at higher levels.
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Figure'26.#Roof#colour#of#the#mainland#transit#facility.####################################################
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Thermal sensations differed among individuals, even in the same environment, however all respondents
preferred shades. From the results of the thermal comfort survey, the average comfort temperature range
was 27-31 °C. Levels above or below were deemed to cause discomfort.
Vehicles boarding the ferry increased the temperature level of the region. The asphalt surfaces of the road
were also the major cause of high temperatures around the transit facilities.
More openings should be designed on the north-south facades rather than east-west facades as observed in
the mainland transit facility. This is to enable land and sea breezes to enter the facility without any
obstructions.
The two facilities lacked high and low pressure points. Courtyards can act as high pressure points so that air
moves to the warmer surfaces from the courtyards.
Areas which received less airflow such as space ‘B’ in fig.25 can be raised because wind velocity increases
with increase in height.
Air plenums can be created to avail airflow to areas which had limited wind movements.
It was recommended that solar passive cooling techniques be used to cool the thermal environment if
prevailing winds are above 5m/s.
The study sought to establish the thermal environment of the two ferry terminal transit facilities at Likoni
ferry, Mombasa, Kenya. The study established the following design implications are significant when
designing facilities of this nature at the location.
1. The ferry terminal buildings should be oriented to optimize the advantages of both wind flow and
solar path.
2. Openings on opposite sides of the wind flow direction are essential for effective cross ventilation
REFERENCES
Humphreys, MA & Nicol, JF., 1998. ‘Understanding the adaptive approach to thermal comfort’, ASHRAE
Transactions , Vol. 104, no.1, pp. 991-1004.
Blocken B, Moonen P, Stathopoulos T & Carmeliet J., 2008. ‘A numerical study on the existence of the
Venturi-effect in passages between perpendicular buildings’, Journal of Engineering Mechanics – ASCE, vol.
314, no. 12.
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ADAPTING THE NIGERIAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT TO CLIMATE CHANGE.
Opaluwa Ejiga, University of Lagos, Nigeria, opalsejigs@gmail.com

Adejumo T. Olatunji, University of Lagos, Nigeria, tadejumo@unilag.edu.ng
Morakinyo O. Kolawole, Federal Polytechnic Ede, Nigeria, kwlemorakinyo@yahoo.com
Abstract
Recent flooding of two-thirds of the states in Nigeria is a pointer to the impacts of climate change. The
country will need to cope with rising temperatures and increased precipitation (rainfall). Over a period of
time, the unpredictable changes in weather patterns is expected to stress infrastructures, endanger flora and
fauna of both rural and urban settings, render unfit and/or destroy habitations, increase illness and deaths
among vulnerable populations. In spite of the mounting challenges and its associated risks, the Nigerian
built environment and indeed Africa’s are yet to integrate climate adaptation into their developmental
program. Today’s infrastructural investment within the country is not taking into consideration the effects of
climate change nor are they targeted to meet the requirements of a long lifespan, this is further
compounded by the inadequacies of the urban and rural management systems that in most cases are ill
informed of the changing risks situations/scenarios. Within this discourse, of significance is the necessity to
link current official adaptation plans to an enhanced and expanded natural risk assessment, management
and mitigation program with a capacity to adequately respond to such anticipated challenges. This paper
addresses some of the challenges confronting the vulnerable populations and adaptation of the built
environment. The paper also discusses implementable strategies that will enhance adaptation activities
within the Nigerian urban environment, by describing a probably potential climate change adaptation
structure that is all encompassing.
Keywords: adaptation, built environment, climate change, community management.
INTRODUCTION
Recent studies classify Nigeria as one of the flood prone nations on the Gulf of Guinea (FME 2009). It is
anticipated that the global climatic phenomenon would multiply the occurrence severity of present risks
with devastating social, economic and spatial impacts (Onyenechere 2010, Revi 2008). A worrisome scenario
is the inability of urban poor in various slums to cope. This category of people, account for almost half of the
population in the built environment (Revi 2008). The central point of this paper is on adaptation led
planning to cut down climate change threats and improve the built environment’s capacity in tune with the
nation’s priorities and challenges. The paper will try to exchange the reactive centred responses by
suggesting an adaptive flood management path for a more sustainable future. The adaptation process is
viewed from two stand points namely a frightening population projection of about 800 million people by
2050 (FME 2009) and massive migration from rural to urban centres.
In the last decade of twentieth century, urban Nigeria began to outdo its rural counterpart in per capita
income and GDP by as much as three times (Aworemi 2011). Its agricultural sector contributed less than 15
percent to the GDP (Iguisi 2011). Protecting the stability betwixt the rural and the urban environment
becomes essential as the socioeconomic and natural resource variance of rural-urban and interurban places
intensify (Adger 2003). Shuaeeb (2011) identified the oil boom of the 1970s; poor livelihood quality; critical
moments in the creation of new urban formal-sector living and working conditions in an age of
globalisation; and inferior rural educational development policies as factors that influenced resettlement in
Nigeria. A new addition is climate change. Iguisi (2011) and NASPA-CCN (2011) submitted that the dwindling
fortunes of the nation’s agriculture sector could be compounded by climate change causing further
migrations. Currently, about sixty percent (60%) of Nigeria’s population live in urban centres (Shuaeeb 2011,
Daramola et al. 2010). It is anticipated that over the next few decades, the urban population would rise to
about 87% generating three mega cities namely Lagos/Ogun, Abuja/Nasarawa and Onitsha/Owerri/Abba
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(Abbass 1998, Aworemi 2011). This will significantly increase pluvial flooding and demands a pragmatic
adaptation mechanism.
Climate change adaptation in Nigeria’s urban landscape is a policy concern on basis short term because of
its close links with infrastructures, livelihood, power, security and ecosystem (Boko et al. 2007). Nigeria, like
most emerging economies; China and India, is intensifying her efforts on a large scale provision of
infrastructures in housing, energy, water, telecommunication, health care and transportation sectors, to
favourably help her development. These facilities have an average lifespan or service life of 35 to 50 years.
The bone of contention for Nigeria is to study if its current path of growth, expansion and development
framework may be more suitable than a commitment to adaptation and eco-friendly structure and
construction. A climate strategy that is compatible with Nigeria’s peculiar state, strengths and capacities may
be beneficial to both her and the world’s goal better than an unoriginal policy or framework from a
somewhat different setting.
CURRENT CLIMATE CHANGE PALLIATIVE MEASURES, DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND URBAN

REHABILITATION IN NIGERIA
Despite scholarly works, early environmental crusades on these issues, Nigeria’s involvement with the issue
of climate change is of a slow start (Opaluwa et al. 2012). Nigeria has been deeply absorbed with the
demanding situations of poverty, political, social development and economic challenges (Ozor et al. 2010).
Since 1999, the Nigerian government has initiated and implemented nationwide technical appraisals of the
dangers of climate change, its impact, adaptive and mitigating alternative choices (FME 2003; 2009, NASPA-
CCN 2011). These appraisals, being mostly externally driven and funded, were coordinated by the Federal
Ministry of Environment - FME (FME 2003; 2009; NASPA-CCN 2011), which is far from being a political
powerful ministry. This governmental arm is mainly focused on the science domain of climate change,
closely related to the International Panel on Climate Change – IPCC – order of business and style of analysis
(NEEDS 2010, Ogbo et al. 2013). This approach is wanting in its involvement with the complicated character
and high level vulnerability in Nigeria, which is likely the most vital component in risk mitigation
(Adebamowo et al. 2012). The nation’s stance on climate change is noticeably opined to an instilled
obligation of rectifying historical emissions by the Annex I countries (Odeku et al. 2004, Salami 2012). Hence,
it is centered largely on the greenhouse gas-energy nexus (Hascic et al. 2012). As a result of Nigeria’s low
scientific research culture and her passive status in IPCC, the discussions and strategies on adaptation is
lacking effectiveness (Salami 2012).
The nation is currently losing a good chance to create and bridge an official climate change adaptation
agenda with the natural risk assessment, management and mitigation capacity being developed after the
flood which occurred in 2011 & 2012. A number of averagely productive post disaster reformation and
mitigation programmes; subsequently after the major flooding of Bayelsa, Kogi, Lagos, Rivers, Niger states
between August & October of 2012, has unusually changed the awareness, the organizational attention and
effort at susceptibility decrease and hazard mitigation. Nigeria has a centralized command system to combat
disaster in terms of management – NEMA. There is the need to review present guidelines for the built
environment to provide the basic foundation for a more evidence-based set of climate mitigation and
adaptation standards for the Nigerian urban built environment, which could act as drivers for regular growth
(Ogbo 2013, Dimuna et al. 2010).
The government and its Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs) are targeting sectors with direct impact
on infrastructural development, urban governance and poverty. A big gap is noticeable in the authority’s
campaign on the built environments development plan and vulnerability reduction for vulnerable persons
in the urban area. The urgency to provide even-opportunity to land, housing and access to sufficient public
services to most of city residents is still in controversy. Deepening the vulnerability of many urban residents
is the rate of demolitions most times without relocation in major cities like Lagos and Abuja between 2003
till now. Ending this deadlock will cause a change from providing basic services, access to livelihood and
housing, to guarantying their continuous supply, use and funding. Nevertheless NEMA or its related
agencies are not dealing with urban vulnerability or risk mitigation, which demands active support and
networking by the climate change community to sustaining the built environment & advancement
(Adebamowo et al. 2012). If not, urban adaptation and mitigation could be confined to subscribing
operationally empty proposals and agreed to documents between Nigeria and Annex I countries, with little
influence on the most vulnerable (Opaluwa et al. 2012).
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DOWNFALL AND TEMPERATURE CHANGES
The rise in changing environmental conditions as an important risk throughout this century remains a fact
but, there is yet substantial instability regarding exact mechanisms and influences, particularly related to
precipitation. Despite the uncertainty, there is a wide unanimity on the range of first-order climate change
impacts in sub-Saharan Africa:
" An overall rise in both average minimum and maximum temperatures by 1-4°c, contingent on
actual atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations (FME 2003), with a strong effect on evapo-
transpiration levels and consequently human activities, agriculture, and forestry, particularly in dry
and rocky regions.
" This could contribute to an average surface temperature increase of 2-4°c, which would entail
variations in the operations of some communities and in the location and practice of building all
over the nation, with an accelerated use of passive solar and energy efficient design (FME 2003).
" This zonal temperature increase, accompanied by changes in the international climatic system, may
result to a mean increase of 5-15% in yearly water downfall, with resultant effects on
agriculture/food security, housing and health.
Figure 1: Surface Air Temperature Changes over time Figure 2: Flooding of Lokoja, Kogi State in 2012
(Source: Salami 2010). ( Source: Google Images).
EXTREME WATER DOWNFALL CASES; RIVER AND INLAND FLOODING
The next significant climate change risk is the rise in watercourse and midland deluge, especially in the
south-south, north & south-west and north-central zones of Nigeria. Hundreds of thousands were affected
by the September 8, 2012 flooding, thousands more are presently affected by the deluge caused by the six
to nine months of increased rains in Nigeria (NASPA-CCN 2011). This is predominately due to the soaring
people concentration across these zones, combined with very high vulnerability as a result of a combination
of poorly planned and implemented flood management systems and high degree of impoverishment, which
through recent years have extremely reduced the surviving ability of thousands of residents of Nigeria
(NEMA 2011). Changes in climate are envisaged to escalate the severity of flooding in many Nigerian states
and West African sub-region.
Lagos, Rivers, Kogi along with other states in the south-south and North-central, which are key to Nigeria’s
economic life line, have encountered terrible flooding for three successive years since 2010, leading to huge
economic losses, loss of lives and break down of infrastructural services (Adebamowo et al. 2012). The
damaging floods of 2012 were caused by a combination of factors; dam release, extreme weather etc
(Momodu et al. 2012, Emodi 2012).
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Figure 3: Fluctuations in annual rainfall in Nigeria Figure 4: Actual and projected annual heat wave day
(Source: Salami 2010). (Source: NASPA-CCN).
ADAPTATION – WHAT WAS, WHAT IS AND WILL BE – IN NIGERIA
In view of the possible hazards in connection with climate change, a significant amount of work on
differentiating and comprehending adaption is therefore in progress. Earlier parallels of adaptation where
accompanied with strategies and social science study on the existing acclimating ability of governments,
civil groups and markets to manage climatic disturbances. The financial implications of imminent
adaptations are evolving by considering the divergence between the fiscal shortfalls associated with
possible situations of technology comprehension and dissemination. First, it is essential to characterise
adaptation by who is responsible for it and the concern of all interested parties participating in it. It is
obvious that every person and every civilisation have been adapting and will adapt to climate change
throughout the time of man’s existence. Adaption by individuals in some cases is carried out in reaction to
the climate risks faced (Hascic et al. 2012). More adaptations are carried out by the government for the
general public in expectations of changes; then again, it is always in reaction to singular severe events. But
this process of policy management is not isolated; they are entrenched in societal procedures that mirror the
connection between individuals, their people system, abilities and communal resources, and the state
(Adger 2007). At times, differences are derived between intended adaptation, expected to be undertaken by
governments for the public and independent adaptation by persons.
Present researches, are fixated on recognising universal elements of recovery. These elements comprise the
human and economic resources, the adaptability and creativity in government establishment and the
private sector to comprehend chances related to climate change, and the basically hidden health conditions
and comfort of person(s) confronted with the effects of climate change (Adger 2001). The solution is to
choose the distinctive features of the institutional and technological situations that stimulate specific but
justifiable adaptation. Combined approach is vital in accelerating adaptation gaining impetus from political,
environmental interactions, and other academic perceptions. Studies on combined approach have shown
(Agrawal 2001, Klein et al. 2007) that the magnitude of the people pledged to the collective action, the limits
of the assets in danger, the ability of the people concerned being in one accord, the spreading of accrued
value of management and more influences are wholly crucial in defining the eventual success of
joint/combined supervision. Investigative study is requisite to how combined approach is pivotal to the
extent of adaptation at different levels of decision-making. Currently, the understanding around reactions to
climate change as a combined approach are basically used to appraise the degree of nationwide
collaborative fight in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions within the UNFCCC instead of on the means and
ways by which adaptation develops (Roberts 2008, Dimuna et al. 2010). Earlier climate variation conflicts
with possible situations stemming from climatic environmental sample try-outs in pursuit of a clearer
perception on adaptation.
Migration, for example, is a coping mechanism used throughout history by societies as part of their resource
utilization strategies and as a means of coping with climate variability (Adger 2003). In Nigeria, urban
migration remains a significant factor in livelihood resilience even as of today. If the anticipated migration is
not accessible to those on the receiving end, it may eventually intensify the need of forced migration,
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normally embarked on as a last resort when other possible survival tactics have been tried. Owing to
international differences, migration may be a restricting option in many parts of the world; therefore other
means of reinforcing adaptive capacity and improving resilience are necessary. These may be built on
current coping strategies or may seek to initiate new ideas in relations to technology or organisational
and/or societal advancement.
BUILDING AN ADAPTATION FRAMEWORK FOR THE URBAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Evolving a climate change adaptation framework for Nigeria’s built environment will involve initiating
discussions on environmental development and growth, vulnerability, identifying individual risk factors,
changing focus of on-going investments and programmes and the development of new relationships amid
a wide variety of stakeholders. A reasonable way ahead is to develop the current drive of risk management
and mitigation efforts. This is most efficiently done by conventionalising them into urban regeneration
initiatives and mobilization from the grassroots through non-governmental organisations – NGOs,
community-based organisations – CBOs and diplomatic means in particular cities. Having in mind that a
number of these actors have little or no knowledge of climate change issues, the building of a structure
connecting dialogue, engagement and action would be valuable move.
This structure would need to provide a connection between federal, state and local
government/community-level policy, governmental institutional arrangements and interventions at city and
community levels. It would likewise function as a stage for discussions between government
representatives, political heads, NGOs and CBOs who are keen in trying to direct communal and individual
momentum towards positive ends and individuals who could supply the motivation for executing adaptive
measures. Possible urban climate change adaptation frameworks are put forward hereafter.
AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL
Nigeria has not developed a national programme on adaptation to tackle climate change risk reduction
relatively due to institutional splits & divisions within the governance system of the nation and its economic
state. The onus majorly lies with the Ministry of Environment, which has poor cooperation and working
relationship with other key ministries. To incorporate a comprehensive sequential climate change plan into
the total preparatory and investment procedure of Nigeria’s government would suggest a restructuring and
strengthening of this role, with strong backing from the Ministry of Finance acting as the principal figure in
outlining fiscal and monetary policies to induce both mitigation and adaptation, founded on a national
programme for adaptation. This may require some amendments on certain sections of the constitution and
the creation of a climate change secretariat to tackle inter-sectorial matters and harmonise policies and
programmes.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) as a government parastatal, is the leading disaster
management agency, with much of the task and actions centrally controlled and coordinate. SEMA (only one
in each six geopolitical zone) has been reduced to Rescue Coordinating Centres – RCC or Disaster Reaction
Units – DRU (NEMA 2013), which are poorly funded at this level and is non-existent at community level. The
proposed climate change agenda could reconstruct current NEMA functions deficient of adaptation with
medium and long term climate adaption. Government agencies and departments associated with urban
development and poverty reduction should be the pivot of the built environment climate change risk
palliation at the federal level and the principal outfit for climate strategy and guideline formation once
suitable community and state capacities are put in place.
More so, the government of Nigeria may include the formation of a national crisis and susceptibility charts
that comprises climate change, its associated risks and effects on economic activities. This will facilitate the
detection of important communities and sectors for intervention and thus allowing access to windows of
opportunities inside NEMA. More succession of public building and supporting infrastructure, crisis
preventive standards will be required. A number of insurance covers for medium and short term risks to
public services and systems and motivations (cash rewards and rebates) for public – private – community
collaboration similar to the drive in the power and agricultural sector need to be set up. High level
organisations that pool private and public sector components, pressure groups and the academia
(environmental, sciences, technology & social sciences) will need to be put in place at the federal level to
come up with detailed studies and solution driven networks in and relating to their areas of expertise.
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Teaching, learning, training and capacity building at tertiary institutions particularly universities for public
administrators, environmental managers and the media will require being kick started.
Figure 5: Role of the Federal Government in CC Figure 6: Role of the States Government in CC
Adaptation. Adaptation
(Source: NASPA-CCN).
AT THE STATE LEVEL
Disaster management at state levels needs to go beyond the six geopolitical zones to having one in each
state. This may include beefing up and enlarging the capacity of all RCC/DRU. This can be structured along
existing flood, land pollution, desert encroachment, and land erosion hazards reduction endeavours.
Substantial levels of capacity building will be needed to organise and make ready these agencies to assume
these added duties and come up with implementable adaptation programmes. The boards of the ministries
of environment and finance will have to incorporate climate change adaptation into their regular
forecasting and recurring costs framework and allow cooperation among overlapping sectorial mitigation
and adaptation investments. Alterations are essential in the appropriate housing, urban development and
town planning in its three dimensions – policy planning, physical planning and urban management – public
services and systems legal coding, to incorporate disaster and climate adaptation matters into architecture,
planning and development. Training and capacity building of officials and administrators on climate change
assessment and adaptation is a vital investment in human resource development. The necessary actions for
incentivising private endeavours regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation is best directed by
government in some states e.g. Lagos, whereas in some others a private sector driven initiative is most ideal.
AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL
Every community must establish a system of climate change associated community based disaster
management and mitigating ideas and plans, particularly for informal settlements and shanty towns in
dangerous and susceptible locations. This would make available a starting point for a state-wide discourse
on applicable mitigation and adaptation strategies comprising all stakeholders. This is important to building
doable city adaptation schemes.
Present laws, regulatory and governing frameworks and the established culture of most cities in Nigeria are
insufficient or none existent to tackle the challenge of climate change adaptation and mitigation. A
city/community governance, planning and services distributing structures along with institutional
arrangements will be needed to tie urban renewal and development with interim and regular risk reduction
and eventually to climate change adaptation. The foundation to this is the building of people rights and
service distribution to the underprivileged and most susceptible to make sure that present irregularities and
systemic vulnerabilities are confronted. This may include further strengthening and interventions in real
estate and housing provision, people amenity delivery, policies and an organised atmosphere at the state
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level. It is most likely to be successful when put into action through the establishment and continuous
reassessment of community development programmes. The right urban policy to facilitate multiple
interested parties’ participation with pre-planned risk sharing and adaptation will assist in generating the
right monetarily profitable inducements for adaptation associated with community driven activities,
particularly in slums.
Figure 7: Role of the Local Government/Community Figure 8: Role of the Civil Society Organisations
in CC Adaptation. in CC Adaptation.
Inside the limits of this enlarged structure, a community – and state – scale hazard management scheme
requires combining climate change and disaster prevention concerns amidst the existing land use and
zoning instruments, into urban system and advancement strategy, into regional territorial strategy and
applicable domestication of building codes to regulations and infrastructure development standards. An
essential action backing this would be the setting up of a user friendly; if possible a polyglot (local
languages) Geographic Information System (GIS) on both urban centres and regional territory disaster
management plans on the information superhighway. It should be connected to a general data bank (also to
be established) that keeps details of housing and land ownership information, building permissions and
government assets in public services and systems. This would become the structured basis within which
community and urban regeneration and development are synchronised with adaptation and mitigation. A
home owner – business sector – government collaboration to fund, construct and retrofit houses and public
infrastructures to disaster resilient standards at community stage and a PPP strategy to tackle flooding,
erosion, desertification and all other challenges at city level will need to be looked at for every city.
THE BUSINESS SECTOR LEVEL
Assuming the accessibility to a generally open hazard adaptation framework, the private sector should be
stimulated to create the right risk assessment, adaptation and mitigation strategy for all and sundry
(individuals, firms, etc.) in susceptible areas. This would allow for a sense of balance between demand and
supply initiatives, for example; devolution and dissipation of amenity franchises.
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS LEVEL
These groups ought to be spearheads in giving support and organising awareness on adaptation schemes
focusing on the delivery and augmentation of infrastructures and general privileges, steer the community
model projects to assess different ways of community-based adaptation, purposely for Nigerian favela and
informal settlements and susceptible persons and groups. CSOs can give independent response and
reactions, checks and balances on the effective operation of private and public component set-ups
overseeing disaster and climate change risk adaptation and mitigation.
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CONCLUSION
The degree of coming in contact with hazard in Nigeria is unpredictably certain; vulnerability in most cases
causes more risk in her communities. Decreasing this susceptibility will mean a change in public policy,
mobilization and innovativeness from palliation for adaptation. This requires to be established in the actual
institutions, politics and culture of Nigeria and needs to concentrate on the impoverished and vulnerable
persons via a combination of strategy, monitoring, financial systems, official and supporting channels. This is
most likely highly executable by integrating climate change, risk assessment, mitigation and adaptation
activities into current programmes, and developing a series of substantial relations with community
redevelopment interventions being advocated and started in some Nigerian communities.
Achieving this needs operating several levels of adaptation framework, which functions at federal, state and
community (local government/city) levels and connects civil society organisations, the state and private
sector. Testing by implementing a rich and all-encompassing adaptation programme in a number of model
communities will allow for further investigations into adaptation.
REFERENCES
Abbass IM., 1998. ‘The emerging trends in rural-urban migration in Nigeria’, paper presented at Habitat-Afrique
2000: International Conference And Exposition, organized by the Dept. of Architecture, Ahmadu
University, Zaria, Nigeria, in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Architects held at Arewa
House, Kaduna 28 June - 4 July, 1998.
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ARCHITECTURE AS THE ART OF CARE: A HEIDEGGARIAN AUGMENTATION OF CHRISTIAN NORBERG-
SCHULZ’S ART OF PLACE
Hendrik A. Auret, University of the Free Sate, South Africa, hendrikauret@gmail.com
Abstract
The theoretical contribution of the Norwegian architect, Christian Norberg-Schulz (1926-2000), is often presented
as the most comprehensive architectural interpretation of the work of German philosopher, Martin Heidegger
(1889-1976). Inspired by Heidegger’s understanding of existence as ‘being-in-the-world’, Norberg-Schulz
formulated an approach to architecture which can be summarized as the ‘art of place’. His ultimate aim,
expressed in the closing pages of Architecture: Presence, Language, Place (2000), was to explain how the ‘art of
place’ (designated by the Norwegian term, stedskunst) could become the ‘art of living’ (livskunst).This paper will
argue that there is a fundamental difference between Heidegger’s philosophy and Norberg-Schulz’s
interpretation. The most general assumption underpinning Norberg-Schulz’s approach is that life takes place
between earth and sky. But, in Being and Time (1927), Heidegger discussed a more fundamental fact which
characterizes Dasein’s ‘betweenness’: being between birth and death. It is the temporal nature of existence which
mediates Dasein’s interaction within the Heideggarian ‘fourfold’. Dasein can only make things as a ‘mortal’.
Heidegger understood the ‘ecstatic’ nature of this temporal reality by referring to the way Dasein ‘is’ being-in-the-
world: as care (Sorge). Care makes Dasein’s temporal existence meaningful. In contrast, Norberg-Schulz, following
his mentor Sigfried Giedion (1888-1968), understood time as ‘continuity and change’. He therefore neglected the
ecstatic nature of Dasein’s care. While Norberg-Schulz admirably interpreted the place-bound nature of our
spatiality, he effectively overlooked the basis of Heideggarian temporality. This paper will present the ‘art of care’
as the missing (temporal) link between stedskunst and livskunst. Care is the poetic measure-taking which draws
place and life into contiguity. Furthermore, in terms of the ‘ethical’ implications of care (which Heidegger later
developed in terms of ‘safeguarding’), this paper will propose that the art of care opens the way towards authentic
(true to life) sustainable architecture.
Keywords: care, change, Christian Norberg-Schulz, continuity, Martin Heidegger.
INTRODUCTION
The work of the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), had a profound and multi-faceted
influence on the Norwegian architectural theorist, Christian Norberg-Schulz (1926-2000). Heidegger
formulated mankind’s existence as concerned participation in a concrete world of life. He called this intimate
entanglement ‘being-in-the-world’. Us, the entangled ones, he called Dasein: the ones who are there. Before
engaging with Heidegger’s work, Norberg-Schulz tried to explain how the ‘intentionality’ of perception
could reveal a work of architecture as an “intermediary object” (1963, p. 179): an intention-driven
‘interpretation’ dictated by choices between “intentional possibilities”, rather than the ‘scientific
observation’ of “pure objects” (1963, pp. 33-34). But his study of perception “did not yield the hoped-for
results” (Norberg-Schulz 2000, p. 15), because it still operated within the Cartesian division between
‘perceiving subjects’ and ‘perceived objects’.
Norberg-Schulz first encountered Heidegger’s philosophy in the book ‘Mensch und Raum’ (1963) by another
German philosopher, Otto Friedrich Bollnow (1903-1991) (Norberg-Schulz 2000, p. 15). In response to
Heidegger’s inclusive concept of being-in-the-world (which discarded the subject-object dichotomy in
favour of an interactive totality), Norberg-Schulz effectively dismissed “visual” perception as a “gross
simplification ... of the nature of human existence” (2000, pp. 9-10) and committed the rest of his life to
elucidating architecture as the “concretization of man’s existential space” (1971, p. 12). This led to his
ground-breaking formulation of architecture as mankind’s “creative participation” (1980a, p. 185) in the way
of being of the place, or ‘genius loci’.
During the last phase of his career, Norberg-Schulz attempted a more comprehensive interpretation of
Heidegger’s philosophy by describing the totality of (Dasein’s) life and place in terms of the interaction
between the participants in Heidegger’s “fourfold”: mortals, earth, sky, and the divine (Heidegger 1951a, pp.
147-149). Norberg-Schulz (2000, p. 27) called this interaction “presence”; his translation of Heidegger’s
concept of Raumlichkeit. Presence described the taking place of life, the genius loci served as the shared way
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of being of the place (which rendered neighbouring interpretations common and understandable), and
architecture (understood as the ‘art of place’) aimed at the interpretive concretization of presence.
Despite the difference in approach between his earliest and later writings, Norberg-Schulz’s work is
characterized by the enduring belief that architecture should appropriately understand and interpret the
“way of life” or “life-situation” of the place (1963, p. 51; 1980a, p. 5; 1985, p. 71; 2000, p. 20). It was Norberg-
Schulz’s belief in the interaction of life and place as a “totality” (2000, p. 221) that inspired the enigmatic
possibility mentioned in the concluding paragraph of his last book: if architecture is to set-into-work the
unity of life and place as a lived spatiality, then the ultimate goal of the “art of place [is to] become the art of
the experience of living”i (2000, p. 356). To use Norberg-Schulz’s more succinct Norwegian terms; stedskunst
must become livskunst.
Norberg-Schulz contributed the most sustained and far-reaching architectural interpretation of Heidegger’s
philosophy, but there is an all-embracing difference between their conceptions of Dasein’s being-in-the-
world. The most basic assumption underpinning Norberg-Schulz’s stedskunst is that the “most stable factor”
(2000, p. 85) in Dasein’s existence is the interaction of earth and sky. Heidegger proposed a more
fundamental ‘betweenness’: being between birth and death. If stedskunst is to become livskunst, then
Dasein’s temporal being between birth and death needs to be acknowledged. How did Norberg-Schulz
engage with Dasein’s temporal existence?
Apart from Heidegger’s philosophy, the most significant influence on Norberg-Schulz’s work can be
attributed to the formative years he spent studying under the Swiss historian and architecture critic, Sigfried
Giedion, at the ETH in Zurich (1945-1949). Giedion understood the temporal unfolding of life as a “tension
between constancy and change” (1962, p. 8). In his own work, Norberg-Schulz perpetuated Giedion’s
understanding of “time [as] the dimension of constancy and change” (Norberg-Schulz 1980a, p. 32). Already
in ‘Intentions in Architecture’ he proposed that any “change” had to “conserve” if it wanted to be
meaningful, and that “conservation” had to “allow for changes” if it wanted to remain alive (1963, p. 160). In
‘Existence, Space and Architecture’ (1971, p. 99) Norberg-Schulz proposed that “life is both ‘constancy and
change’” and in ‘Genius Loci’ (1980a, p. 182) continuity and change described the preservation of the genius
loci as the oscillation between “ever new” interpretations and the enduring “identity” of the place. During his
‘postmodern years’ Norberg-Schulz relied on continuity and change to describe the architectural ‘figure’ as a
temporal interpretation of a remaining “archetype” (1985, p. 129): a timeless (general) “theme” subject to
epoch-bound “variation” (1980a, p. 184).
Norberg-Schulz’s interpretation of time as continuity and change is fundamentally at odds with Heidegger’s
approach. In the same way that ‘lived spatiality’ is something more than ‘mathematical space’ arranged
around an x, y and z axis, ‘lived time’ imply something more than ‘continuity and change’. In order to arrive
at a Heideggarian understanding of time – one that will enable stedskunst to become livskunst – it is
necessary to push beyond intentionality and study Dasein as the being of care.
DASEIN AS CARE
In his 1925ii lecture course, History of the Concept of Time: Prolegomena, Heidegger proposed a shift from
intentionality to the interpretation of Dasein as care: “what phenomenology took to be intentionality and
how it took it is fragmentary” (1925, pp. 419-420/303) due to the “neglect of the question of the being of the
intentional” (1925, pp. 178-180/129). The fact that this ‘intentional being’ is ‘in’ the world has spatial
implications, but to reduce ‘being-in’ to spatiality would miss Dasein’s deeper reality: “Dasein is a being that
does not simply occur among other beings. Rather it is ontically distinguished by the fact that in its being
this being is concerned about its very being” (Heidegger 1927, p. 12). Heidegger believed that ‘concern’
saturates the being of Dasein and proposed “care” (Sorge) as the “existential meaning” of the being of Dasein
(1927, p. 41). Dasein is in the world as care.
Heidegger used Sorge to designate both the fact that Dasein is fundamentally ‘concerned about’ things, and
that Dasein is the one who ‘takes care’ of things. Intentionality made mankind into “an eternal out-towards”
(a subject directed towards an object) (Heidegger, 1925, pp. 180-181/130), while the formulation of Dasein as
care indicates “concerned being-in-the-world” (1925, pp. 213-215/159). Care describes the ‘being of the
intentional’. The significance of Heidegger’s move is amplified in this context by the fact that Norberg-Schulz
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turned from ‘intentions’ (1963) to ‘existential space’ (1971), while Heidegger chose to explore the lived
significance of intentionality as care.
In ‘Being and Time’ (1927), Heidegger developed the temporal implications of care. He defined care as
“being-ahead-of-oneself-already-in (the world) as being-together-with (innerworldly beings encountered)”
(1927, p. 192): a convoluted term appropriate to Dasein’s entangled existence. This definition sprouts from
Heidegger’s formulation of the “structural moments” (1927, p. 335) of care: understanding (Verstehen),
attunement (Befindlicheit), falling prey (Verfallen), and discourse (Rede).
Attunement describes the way Dasein is “always already” (1927, p. 137) “thrown” into the world in a certain
way: the “mood” (1927, p. 135) Dasein is already in. Attunement is therefore grounded in ‘already-being-in’,
i.e. Dasein’s past. Understanding entails “projecting toward a potentiality-of-being” (1927, p. 336) and
therefore denotes ‘being-ahead-of-oneself’ (Dasein’s future). Falling prey to the prevailing ‘moods’ and
‘understandings’ of the ones sharing Dasein’s being-in-the-world describes Dasein’s usual “absorbed” (1927,
p. 175) forgetfulness of being. This is not, however, a ‘negative’ (in moralistic terms) aspect of Dasein’s being.
In fact, falling prey confirms Dasein’s concerned involvement in its ‘there’. Amid the things of the world
Dasein is “being-together-with” and falling prey therefore “has its existential meaning in the present” (1927,
p. 346). The interaction of understanding, attunement and falling prey make up “the complete disclosedness
of the there” and is “articulated by discourse” (1927, p. 349). This does not mean that these ‘moments’ exist
separately or follow each other chronologically. Instead, Heidegger argued that Dasein, in everyday being-
in-the-world, experience these aspects as a unified structure of care which he called the “ecstatic unity of
temporality” (1927, p. 350): “Every understanding has its mood. Every attunement understands. Attuned
understanding has the characteristic of entanglement. Entangled, attuned understanding articulates itself
with regard to its intelligibility in discourse” (1927, p. 335).
In contrast to this ecstatic interpretation of lived time as care, continuity and change is a product of the
“vulgar understanding” of time as a “pure succession of nows” (Heidegger 1927, p. 329). Ecstatic temporality
allows for the fact that Dasein can understand the situation as a particular “Moment” that reaches ecstatically
into the future and the past in order to reveal the significance of the ‘there’. The “ecstatic unity of
temporality” (1927, p. 350) discloses the “there” (1927, p. 364) as a meaningful situation to a concerned
being-in-the-world. This is the gift of understanding ‘time’ as ‘lived time’. Lived time, for Dasein as care, is not
primarily the interaction of ‘timeless’ continuities and ‘temporal’ change. Time is the “horizon of the
understanding of being” (1927, p. 17) and Dasein lives ecstatically within time as care: attuned to histories
and memories, projecting certain designs into the future, and revealing particular instances as wonder-
saturated moments.
During the 1930’s Heidegger tried to understand what care means in terms of the ‘happening’ of being. To
express this happening Heidegger used the term Ereignis: a word referring to the interrelatedness of the
‘event of being’ and the appropriation of this happening by Dasein. For Dasein, as concerned participant in
the happening of being, ‘to be care’, means “to become the one who grounds and preserves the truth of
beyngiii”. ‘Care’ does not merely refer to certain actions (e.g. ‘good deeds’). ‘Heidegger’s care’ is that care
which is “for the sake of beyng”. Care describes a way of being amid the happening of being and identifies
Dasein as “seeker, preserver, steward” (Heidegger 1938, pp. 15-16/15-18). Dasein dwells in the world as care.
Norberg-Schulz used the term ‘dwelling’ extensively in his writings to designate the “meaningful
relationship between man and a given environment” (1985, p. 13). But what is dwelling like? In ‘Building
Dwelling Thinking’ (1951a) (BDT) Heidegger stated that “the fundamental character of dwelling is […]
sparing and preserving” (1951a, p. 147) and that sparing “means ... to take [the fourfold] under our care”
(1951a, p. 149). Dasein ‘spares’ the world as a “mortal” (1951a, p. 148); not as continuity and change, but as
ecstatic care always already between birth and death.
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CARE AND NORBERG-SCHULZ
The intention of this article is not to propose that Norberg-Schulz was unaware of the importance of care. In
fact, he expressed the significance of care on various occasions: he stated that “authentic architecture is an
architecture of care” (1980b, p. 196), described the genius loci as a “guardian spirit” (1980a, p. 18), and
believed that “care for the unity of place is the job of architects” (2000, p. 354). In his notes for a lecture
entitled “Education for What is Real”, he even claimed that “dwelling is care’s institution”iv. But rather than
engaging with Dasein’s ecstatic existence as care, Norberg-Schulz explained care as “creative adaptation”
(1980b, p. 196), i.e. continuity and change.
It must also be pointed out that Norberg-Schulz’s architectural interpretation of Heideggarian spatiality
(Dasein’s life between earth and sky) is significant and illuminating. It has been pointed out that Norberg-
Schulz’s approach stemmed from the work of Otto Friedrich Bollnowv. In his book, Human Space, Bollnow
reacted against (what he perceived as) philosophy’s neglect of human spatiality. Bollnow argued that the
philosophers of his time favoured human temporality (as formulated by Heidegger), because it “concerns
the innermost centre of humanity”, while spatiality appears to “belong only to the outer environment”.
Bollnow aimed to address this imbalance by formulating a “coherent systematic interpretation [of] the
concrete space experienced and lived by humans” (Bollnow 1963, pp. 15-17). Norberg-Schulz, deeply
indebted to Bollnow, proposed that works of architecture should be understood as the setting-into-work of
Dasein’s presence in spatialityvi.
Dasein’s place can, however, not be understood as either space or time. Already in ‘Being and Time’,
Heidegger mentioned that space and time are ‘coupled’ in “something like a region” (1927, p. 368). Later he
defined this “open-region” as an “abiding expanse” (“verweilende Weite”). Any place has both a ‘width’ and a
‘while’ (1945, pp. xiv & 74). The crucial differentiation between Heideggarian spatiality, and the approach
propagated by Norberg-Schulz, is that Heidegger believed that “the specific spatiality of Dasein must be
grounded in [ecstatic] temporality”. Indeed, “Dasein can be spatial only as care” (1927, p. 367-369).
There is, however, another possibility that needs to be considered. Norberg-Schulz claimed that his
‘language of architecture’ – the ‘means’ to set-into-work lived spatiality – was based on Dasein’s concerned
way of being. It is, in fact, true that his language was founded on the spatial implications of Heidegger’s
‘structural moments of care’: “orientation” involves ‘understanding’ the “topology”, “identification” involves
being ‘attuned’ to the character of the “morphology”, and the shared memories of “being-with” indicate
Dasein’s absorption in the expectations of society in terms of “typology” (Norberg-Schulz 1979, pp. 42-43).
Despite appropriating these ‘structural moments’, Norberg-Schulz presented the interaction between a
particular spatiality and the language of architecture as the discourse between a “local and temporal” reality
and a “general”, “timeless” and even “placeless” (1985, p. 29) “structure of implementation” (2000, p. 125): a
“timeless ground on which [temporal] revelation occurs” (1985, p. 111). Norberg-Schulz’s language of
architecture therefore remained firmly entrenched within the interaction of ‘continuity and change’.
Norberg-Schulz’s commitment to continuity and change kept him from developing the temporal
implications of Dasein’s concerned being-in-the-world. There is some evidence to suggest that he was aware
of this short-coming and tried to address it. Toward the end of the 1980s Norberg-Schulz started work on a
new book. Originally, he intended to call it, ‘The Language of Architecture’vii, but, indicative of his return to
place, the wide-spread condemnation of the postmodern movement, and his renewed engagement with
the work of Heidegger, he changed the title to ‘Arkitektur som STEDSKUNST’ [Architecture as ART OF
PLACE] viii. He also included a chapter entitled “Tid [Time]” with a subheading “Arkitektur som omsorg
[Architecture as care]”ix. This chapter was, however, never written. Instead, Norberg-Schulz attempted to, in
Heidegger’s words, “bridge the gap [between the ‘temporal’ and the ‘timeless’]” (1927, p. 18).
In his notes for a lecture presented at the University of Oulu entitled, The Interior as Imago Mundi
(25/11/1989), Norberg-Schulz argued that architecture had to be re-grounded on “a foundation which
[unites] order and change [by substituting the] archetype with the concept of ‘mode of being-in-the-world
(Seinsweise)”x. In an article published two years later, he even proposed that Giedion’s ‘New Tradition’ “lost its
momentum because the contradiction between continuity and change was never solved” (1991, p. 94).
Norberg-Schulz understood Seinsweise (a concept he attributed to Heidegger) as a “dynamic” unification of
“the contradiction between continuity and change” (1991, p. 95) which is “always the same without being
identical”. These ways of being are not ‘perceived’, but are ‘recognized’ through “precognition” (Norberg-
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Schulz 2000, p. 75). Precognition describes Dasein’s innate ability to recognize the essential (changing yet
enduring) ‘content’ of a thing. Norberg-Schulz envisioned Dasein’s precognitive abilities as a way to bridge
the gap between continuity and change and fill the ‘being of the intentional’: Dasein’s way of being that
enables meaningful interaction with the world. As such, the ‘precognition of ways of being’ constituted the
“phenomenological understanding” (Norberg-Schulz 2000, p. 356) that would allow stedskunst to become
livskunst.
Norberg-Schulz based his understanding of precognition on Heidegger’s concept of Vörverstandnisxi, but

Heidegger believed that any ‘understanding’ (including precognition) depended on care. For Dasein,
“understanding is ... a primary way of being toward something” and therefore “understanding and more so
the way of enacting understanding, interpretation, are determined by [the] being of Dasein, by care”
(Heidegger 1925, p. 413-415/299).
The fact that understanding and interpretation are grounded in care is significant, because Norberg-Schulz
explained Dasein’s participation in presence in three fundamental ways: comprehension (or understanding),
implementation (the enacting of understanding through interpretation) and use. Can ‘use’ take the place of
care? According to Norberg-Schulz, ‘use’ through ‘comprehension’ and ‘comprehending implementation’ is
enacted as “respectful use” (2000, p. 51). But Dasein does not participate in Heidegger’s fourfold primarily as
a user. Dasein participates as the one who is between birth and death: a “mortal” (1951a, p. 148). Use (even
‘respectful use’) fails to grasp the ‘sparing’ ‘mortality’, which defines the concerned dwelling of Heidegger’s
Dasein. Dasein therefore understands as care, implements care-fullyxii, and participates as concerned mortal.
If stedskunst is to become livskunst, architects will have to acknowledge the temporal being of the
intentional.
ARCHITECTURE AS THE ART OF CARE
It has been argued that, while Norberg-Schulz admirably interpreted the place-bound nature of lived
spatiality, he effectively overlooked the Heideggarian basis of lived temporality: the ecstatic nature of Dasein
as care. The ‘art of care’, presented here as the missing (temporal) link between stedskunst and livskunst, aims
to address this omission. As an ‘art’, care describes Dasein’s poetic measure-taking which draws place and life
into contiguity through the concerned poiesis (setting-into-work) of Dasein’s Sorge. The art of care provides
an alternative to the ‘precognitive unification of continuity and change as ways of being’: an approach which
is more appropriate to Dasein’s way of being-in-the-world, because it acknowledges the sparing mortality
that characterizes Dasein’s dwelling as poetic ‘measure-taking’.
Heidegger believed that “the taking of measure is what is poetic in dwelling” (1951b, p. 219). ‘Measuring’ is
the building that precedes building and reveals the true nature of listening. This is the meaning behind the
seemingly impossible architectural challenge Heidegger posed in Building Dwelling Thinking: “only if we are
capable of dwelling, only then can we build” (1951a, p. 157). Measuring, understood as concerned listening,
is the prerequisite for “authentic building”, because “man is capable of such building only if he already builds
in the sense of the poetic taking of measure” (Heidegger 1951b, pp. 225-226). It is Dasein’s ecstatic
measuring of the place as a region of concern, standing out of the ‘now’ through the concerned envisioning
of a transformed future, that “gauges the between [and] brings the two, heaven and earth, to one another”
(1951b, p. 219). That is why “Dasein can be spatial only as care” (1927, p. 367).
In contrast to ‘respectful use’ the art of care engages with Dasein as concerned being-in-the-world. In
contrast to ‘precognitive understanding’ the art of care acknowledges thinking (Heideggarian Andenken) as
the grateful “gathering of ... all that we care for” (Heidegger 1951-1952, p. 144). Only in the marriage of the
art of care and the art of place can architecture implement being-in-the-world as livskunst, because
authentic (true to life) implementation rests on the concerned poiesis of measure-taking as care. The art of
care abides in sparing, draws the world into contiguity through grateful thought, and makes care-fully.
Norberg-Schulz often presented “dwelling poetically” as the goal of architecture (1980a, p. 23; 1985, p. 30),
but in the original sense of poiesis dwelling poetically refers to the act of making architecture. The art of care
alludes to a different goal. Since the place and its things are given, and since Dasein’s concerned way of
being is given, any interpretation (setting-into-work) of that which is given should, primarily, also be
understood ‘as given’. The only appropriate response to what has always already been given is gratitudexiii.
Dasein, as ‘preserver of the truth’, must wait, listen and respond gratefully to that which is given. The art of
care reveals poetic dwelling not as the goal of architecture, but as means towards dwelling gratefully.
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CARE, EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Norberg-Schulz (2000, p. 88) believed that “the ecological crisis ... can only be solved with an authentic
phenomenological understanding of place [which] takes its inspiration from the taking place of life”. It has
been argued that the art of care is the most appropriate foundation for this kind of understanding. It makes
any understanding authentic by being grounded in the concerned existence of Dasein.
Heidegger contrasted Dasein’s concerned being-in-the-world, which is able (as poetic measure-taking) to
“[let] the earth be as earth”, with the “frantic measuring and calculating” (1951b, pp. 224-226) characterizing
the “Ge-stell” of “modern technology”: a condition that seeks to manipulate beings as “stockpile” and Dasein
as “human resource”. Modern technology is unable to let beings be. However, Heidegger was not critical of
technology per se. Technology, when understood in its original Greek sense of technē, is a vital “way of
revealing” by means of poiesis. That this conception of technology, as something poetic, strikes modern
beings as strange, illustrates what is “disturbing” in modern technology. Modern technology is still a
revealing, but no longer as poiesis. Poiesis has been replaced by a demand for “maximum yield at minimum
expense”: a “challenging-forth” in search not of ‘truth’, but ‘efficiency’ (Heidegger 1953, pp. 318-324).
Is it possible to state the failings of contemporary consumer culture in a more succinct or prescient manner?
Caring for the world is not a matter of efficiency. But rather than engaging with the possibility of Dasein as
care, it is precisely this quest for efficiency that has become the foundation of architecture’s response to the
demand for sustainability. Even The Living Building Challenge 2.0. (LBC), a contemporary set of guidelines
attempting to “[define] the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment”, is structured
around “performance areas” (McLennan & Brukman 2010, p. 7). Is a ‘living building’ the ‘setting-into-work’
envisioned by livskunst? Can any ‘guidelines’ address architectural indifference, if Dasein refuses to act as
caretaker of the truth of Being? Or are guidelines merely the culmination of the efficiency-driven mindset,
now masquerading as the solution to the legitimate concerns of ecological design?
The world will not be ‘spared’ through efficiency. Heidegger wrote BDT (1951a) and ...Poetically Man Dwells...
(1951b) in response to Germany’s post-war “housing shortage”. In this “climate of shortage” he did not turn
to measures of ‘efficiency’, but to “building” as “poetic creation” (Heidegger 1951b, pp. 211-213). The
dependence of ‘sustainable architecture’ on ‘efficiency’ is not inevitable. Rather, it is fundamentally
inauthentic, indifferent to the plight of Dasein, and removed from the concerns of life.
Norberg-Schulz was a thoughtful interpreter of Heidegger’s philosophy, but continuity and change, even
when united in precognitive ways of being, does not explain the intimate entanglement of lived time.
Continuity and change may be true of works of architecture, or things, or particular landscapes, but does not
address the being of the intentional: the one who ecstatically reaches into the future, is attuned by the past,
and care-fully engaged in the moment. Dasein is involved with the continuity and change of things as care.
Life ‘takes place’ as care. It is care that persuades Dasein to await and anticipate the ‘speaking’ of the place.
Therefore only the art of care can reveal the art of place as meaningful. The art of care draws Dasein’s lived
situation into contiguity with its ‘there’ (its place) not, primarily, as an ‘existential spatiality’, but as a spatio-
temporal region of concern; located between earth and sky, taking place between birth and death.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank the staff at the archive of the Norwegian National Museum of Art,
Architecture and Design (The National Museum - Architecture) for their patient assistance.
1
Also see the conclusion of Stedskunst (Norberg-Schulz 1995, pp. 182-183).
1
In various instances a considerable amount of time elapsed between Heidegger’s completion
of a manuscript (or a lecture course) and its publication date. In order to clarify the
development of Heidegger’s thought, the ‘dates’ used as reference in this article refer to the
year in which Heidegger completed these works or delivered the lecture course. In the list of
references the specific volume (or translation) which was used is indicated. This particular
lecture was delivered in 1925, first published in German in 1979 and in English in 1985.
1
The translators of Contributions to Philosophy (of the event) used the term ‘beyng’ to
differentiate Seyn from Sein (translated as ‘being’). Seyn is an “archaic form” (Note by the
translators: Heidegger 1938, p. 6) of Sein which Heidegger used to indicate that he was
thinking of being in a fundamentally new way.
1
Norberg-Schulz, C., 02/03/1979. Education for what is Real: lecture notes. In possession of
the Archive of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Oslo). Box: “NAM
2003: 05 - Boks 6; Notater 1989-1992”, p.11.
1
Mensch und Raum (1963) was only published in English in 2011 (Human Space) and has
received very little attention as one of Norberg-Schulz’s main sources of inspiration.
1
Despite the fact that Heidegger’s focus on spatiality in Being and Time was relatively
limited (only pages 102-113 & 367-369 dealt explicitly with spatiality) recent work by the
Australian philosopher, Jeff Malpas, in books like Heidegger’s Topology: Being, Place,
World (2007), confirms the importance of the concept of place in Heidegger’s thought.
1
Norberg-Schulz, C., 01/11/1988. Handwritten outline. In possession of the archive of the
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Oslo). Box: “NAM 2003: 05 - Diverse
Notater”.
1
Norberg-Schulz, C., 10/02/1992. Handwritten outline. ibid. Box: “NAM 2003: 05 - Boks 5;
Notater 1992-1998”.
1
Norberg-Schulz, C., 17/02/1992. Handwritten outline. ibid.
1
Norberg-Schulz, C., 25/11/1989. The Interior as Imago Mundi: lecture notes. ibid. Box:
“NAM 2002:15 - Arkivstykke 9; Gc: Foredragmanuskripter, Gd: Bokanmelderser, Ge:
Manuskripter relatert til AHO”, pp. 8-11.
1
Norberg-Schulz, C., 25/11/1989. The Interior as Imago Mundi: lecture notes. ibid, pp. 9-10.
1
The spelling ‘care-full’ (or ‘care-fully’) indicates an attempt to capture the implications of
the Afrikaans word sorgvuldig: a word which denotes both that something is made in a way
that is ‘attentive’ (Afrikaans: sorgsaam) and with (painstaking) precision.
1
In Afrikaans there is an illuminating link between the words used to describe the
environment (omgewing), that which is given (gegee), and Dasein’s care for something
(omgee). Dasein must omgee for its omgewing which has been gegee.
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REFERENCES
Bollnow, O.F., 1963. Human space, trans. C. Shuttleworth, 2011, Hyphen Press, London.
Giedion, S., 1962. The eternal present: the beginnings of art: a contribution on constancy and change, Bollingen
foundation/ Pantheon Books, New York.
Heidegger, M., 1925. History of the concept of time: Prolegomena, trans. T. Kisiel, 1992, Indiana University Press,
Bloomington.
Heidegger, M., 1927. Being and time, trans. J. Stambaugh, 2010, State University of New York Press, Albany.
Heidegger, M., 1938. Contributions to philosophy (of the event), trans. R. Rojcewicz & D. Vallega-Neu, 2012,
Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Heidegger, M., 1945. Country path conversations, trans. BW Davis, 2010 Indiana University Press,
Bloomington.
Heidegger, M., 1951a. ‘Building dwelling thinking’, trans. A. Hofstadter, in A. Hofstadter (ed.), 2001, Poetry,
language, thought, Harper Perennial, New York. pp. 143-159.
Heidegger, M., 1951b. ‘… Poetically man dwells …’, trans. A. Hofstadter, in A. Hofstadter (ed.), 2001, Poetry,
language, thought, Harper Perennial, New York, pp. 211-227.
Heidegger, M., 1951-1952. What is called thinking? trans. JG Gray, 2004, Harper Perennial, New York.
Heidegger, M., 1953. ‘The question concerning technology’, trans. W. Lovitt, in DF Krell (ed.), 2008. Martin
Heidegger: basic writings from being and time (1927) to the task of thinking (1967), Harper Perennial, New York,
pp. 311-341.
McLennan JF. & Brukman, E., 2010. The living building Challenge 2.0: a visionary path to a restorative future,
Viewed 27 January 2013, <https://ilbi.org/lbc/LBC%20Documents/LBC2-0.pdf>
Norberg-Schulz, C., 1963. Intentions in architecture, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Norberg-Schulz, C., 1971. Existence, space and architecture, Praeger, New York.
Norberg-Schulz, C., 1979. ‘Kahn, Heidegger and the language of architecture’, Oppositions, no. 18, pp. 28-47.
Norberg-Schulz, C., 1980a. Genius loci: towards a phenomenology of architecture, Rizzoli, New York.
Norberg-Schulz, C., 1980b. ‘Towards an authentic architecture’, in C. Norberg-Schulz, (ed.), 1988, Architecture:
meaning and place, Electra/Rizzoli, New York, pp. 181-200.
Norberg-Schulz, C., 1985. The concept of dwelling: on the way to figurative architecture, Rizzoli, New York.
Norberg-Schulz, C., 1991. ‘The new tradition’, Architectural Design, no. 1/2, pp. 92-96.
Norberg-Schulz, C., 1995. Stedskunst, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo.
Norberg-Schulz, C., 2000. Architecture: presence, language, place, trans. A. Shugaar, Skira, Milan.
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DETERMINING THE CURRENT CO2 EMISSION STATUS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Jacques Laubscher, Department of Architecture, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa,

laubscherj@tut.ac.za
Abstract
This paper presents a desk review of the current CO2 emission status of the South African built environment.
Using available data that depict the extent of buildings in the human habitat in square metres, a weighting
factor is applied to arrive at a minimum and maximum emission status for different sectors contributing to
the South African built environment for the period 2000 – 2011. The data contained in this article represents
the first baseline for the respective categories of the South African built environment. It could serve as the
basis for future studies investigating the actual resource consumption of the human habitat that impact on
future emission targets and the regulation of the CO2 emission of buildings in South Africa.
Keywords: South African built environment, CO2 emissions, Emission factor per square metre, embodied
and operational energy, resource efficiency.
INTRODUCTION
Although certain control measures have been introduced following the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and
19th century, the development of human habitat has continued unabated. Consequently, the resulting
relationship between the man-made and natural environment is predominantly one of master and servant.
Glazewski states that “…virtually all environmental problems stem from the way we decide how to use and
manage land” (2000, p. 11). He elaborates on this statement by claiming that “…the form of tenure on
specific land invariably has environmental consequences…” (Glazewski, 2000, p. 11).
South Africa is considered a significant emitter of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), measured either per capita or
by GHG intensity (emissions per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)). Although various different gases are
included under the definition of GHGs, CO2 is the major contributor. The South African economy could be
described as energy intensive. This is largely due to the significance of mining and minerals processing in the
economy and a coal-intensive energy system. The Human Development Index highlights the differences in
the emissions profile of South Africa and other developing countries at a similar developmental stage.
In 2000, the average energy use emissions for developing countries constituted 49% of total emissions.
South Africa’s energy use emissions then constituted just less than 80% of total emissions. The energy use
emissions of fast-developing countries that rely similarly on coal for energy are also notably lower than
those of South Africa. In terms of South Africa’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHGI), using 2000 as the
base year, the majority of South Africa’s energy emissions arose from electricity generation, which
constituted around half of the country’s energy emissions and just fewer than 40% of total emissions.
According to GHGI, the total emissions by South Africa were 436,257 Gg CO2e for the year 2000, with the
residential sector contributing 5928.40 Gg CO2e and the commercial or institutional sector contributing a
further 1911.30 Gg CO2e (Mwakasondo 2009, pp. 20-31).
According to the 2009 Sustainable Cities Report (De Lilly 2009, p. 26) “[t]here is a direct link between buildings
and climate change due to the high rate of carbon emissions from the construction and ongoing use of
buildings. Building resources take up to 40 per cent of energy use and 17 per cent of fresh water use.
Twenty-five per cent of wood harvested and 40 per cent of material produced are attributed to the built
environment.”
The current status quo of the South African built environment

Although various publications highlight the risk of climate change, few authors deal specifically with human
habitat, and even fewer provide specific figures for the built environment. For the purpose of this article, the
term human habitat is defined as “an urban or rural milieu, structured or produced by built form, that is part
of the surroundings relating to buildings, structures and civil engineering works” (Davies & Jokiniemi 2008, p.
53).
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According to the 2010 report entitled Climate change: Risks and opportunities for the South African economy:
An assessment of mitigation response measures, the construction sector contributed 4% of the GDP in South
Africa in 2008 (Camco & TIPS 2010). This includes the construction of residential buildings, non- residential
buildings and civil works. “Residential and non-residential buildings accounted for 59% of all construction
activity and civil works contributed 41%...” (Camco & TIPS 2010, p. 18).
Research method and measurement standard

The available information on carbon emissions in the South African human habitat is limited and virtually no
comparative figures exist. However, it is argued that square metres (as a standard unit of measurement)
would offer a uniform basis for comparing consumption in the built environment.
The South African built environment could be divided as follows:

" The informal built economy (with mainly dwellings being erected)
" The formal built economy, comprising
o the private sector, and
o the government sector (so-called Department of Public Works).
Using the above classification, the available data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) was computed to
reflect the completed floor areas for the defined building typologies. Table 1 presents a summary of the
available data for the period 2000 – 2011. Following the completion of outlining the extent of the different
built environment components, a CO2 emission factor/m2 was researched and used to calculate what are
arguably the first CO2 emission rates for the different sectors of the South African built environment.
The following reports by Stats SA were used as basis for the calculations: Report No. 50-11-01 (2001); Report
No. 50-11-01 (2004); Report No. 50-11-01 (2005); Report No. 50-11-01 (2008); Report No. 50-11-01 (2010); and
Report No. 50-11-01 (2011). Although the last report presents the building statistics for 2011, it was
published in 2013.
Figure
18: A graphic summary depicting the different sectoral contributions to the South African built environment.
The informal building economy

To determine the extent of the informal built economy, the report Stats in Brief published in 2012 by
Statistics South Africa is used. The number of households by type of dwelling (information based on
Statistical Release P9101) refers among others to:
" Traditional dwelling/hut/structure made of traditional materials
" Informal dwelling in backyard
" Informal dwelling not in backyard
An informal dwelling is defined as a structure made predominantly from wood and iron, which does not
meet basic standards of safety in building (City of Cape Town 2005). A survey conducted in Kayamandi
during 1995 indicated that the average size of an informal dwelling was 25 m² (Darkwa 2006, p. 3). A study
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conducted by UNISA on 1162 houses in Broadlands Park (70 km east of Cape Town) provides an average
area of 20 m² (UNISA 2012). Steyn estimates the average size of an informal unit at 30 m² (Personal
communication 21 January 2014). For the purposes of this document, an average of 25 m² is used, although
it is suggested that this number needs further investigation in a future study.
Figure 19: Area (m2) of informal sector, with specific reference to dwelling type.
The formal built economy

The formal built economy consists of two main role players, namely the private and the government sector.
The formal segment of the South African building economy is largely regulated by the National
Building Regulations (NBR). Section 4(1) of The National Building Regulations, Act 103 of 1977, prohibits
anyone from erecting a building without prior approval from the Local Authority (LA).
Section 4(2) of Act 103 of 1977 requires an application for approval to be made in writing on the form
provided by the particular LA (Laubscher 2011, p. 45, South Africa 2011, p. 16). As part of the building plan
approval application, the construction-specific building category and area need to be provided by the
applicant. This information is forwarded to Stats SA on a monthly basis, who regularly publishes a report that
lists the plans submitted for the approval of buildings and those recorded as completed.
Although the above requirements of the NBR are applicable to all areas of jurisdiction of any LA, the
Minister may exempt an area through a notice in the Government Gazette. Sections 2(3) and 2(4) explicitly
state that the Government is not obliged to submit plans for approval, but must only make a submission for
information purposes before the commencement of building (South Africa 2011, p. 14-15).
Private sector
The monthly and yearly Stats SA publications titled Selected building statistics of the private sector as
reported by local government institutions (P5041.1) and Building statistics (Report No. 50-11-01)
respectively, were used to determine the extent of private sector building. As mentioned earlier, these
statistical releases contain information derived from the final inspection of buildings completed for the
private sector.
According to Stats SA (2009b, p. 185), no direct comparison should be made between building plans passed
and buildings completed, and the following reasons are cited in this regard:
" “an unknown number of building plans are passed and afterwards not executed;
" if building operations have not commenced within the first year after approval, building plans are
resubmitted;
" the time-lag between the date of passing of a building plan and the date of completion of the
building varies considerably; and
" according to municipalities, final inspections of completed buildings are not always executed and
therefore not recorded as completed.”
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Despite the above statement by Stats SA, it is accepted that the information contained in the published
reports are accurate. Additionally, it is emphasised that this study only concentrates on buildings completed
(for which an occupancy certificate is issued in terms of the statutory NBR requirements) and not
applications submitted for the approval of building plans.
Figure 20: Area (m2) of buildings formally completed in all South African municipalities.
Public sector
The actual capital expenditure on new construction works by the public sector and the actual capital
expenditure by the national and provincial governments on reconstruction and development programmes
are used to determine the extent to which the Government sector constitutes part of the formal built
economy. The construction of stadia for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is excluded.
Figure 21: Area (m2) of public buildings completed in the listed calendar year.
Building emission per square metre

As stated earlier, limited literature is available on carbon emissions for the South African built environment.
This gap in the current body of knowledge required the researcher to consult sources that were available
internationally. It is however suggested that future detailed studies be conducted to determine the
minimum and maximum building energy consumption per square metre for the different South African
building typologies (These studies should focus on embodied and operational energy).
A literature review identifying the parameters for embodied energy in Australian buildings was published by
Dixit, Fernāndes-Solís, Lavy and Culp (2010, pp. 1238-1247) in the 42nd issue of Energy and Buildings. Figures 5
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and 6 provide the estimates (by the respective authors) for non-residential and residential buildings
respectively:
Figure 22: Estimated embodied energy for residential buildings in Australia.
Figure 23: Estimated embodied energy for non-residential buildings in Australia.
The absence of accurate figures listing the CO2 emissions of the formal and informal sectors of the South
African built environment necessitates a degree of standardisation and assumption. Furthermore, for the
purposes of this paper, no distinction will be made between residential and non-residential buildings. In
accordance with Smith (2010: 3), the following minimum and maximum building energy consumption per
square metre will be used in all calculations:
" New building embodied CO2 = 300 to 1000 kgCO2/m2
" New building operational CO2 = 30 to 100 kgCO2/m2/year
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Embodied and operational energy
The embodied energy of a typical building is derived from the energy associated with its lifecycle stages,
from the initial extraction of materials, its processing and manufacturing, to transportation and construction.
In some cases its eventual disposal and reuse/recycle is also included. The complete cycle is often termed
‘cradle-to-grave’.
The operational (or life-cycle) energy of a typical building could be defined as the energy consumed during
the lifespan (or operational phase) of a building. For the purposes of this paper it is presented on a yearly
basis.
When measuring the operational energy of a building, it should be taken into account that the typical
lifespan of buildings varies greatly because of various factors. According to Cohen (2010: 1) “[i]t should be
taken into account that a change in a building’s occupier and/or the occupier’s activities and/or the way the
building is used is likely to change a measured energy indicator.”
Informal sector
Figure 7 summarises the respective calculations of CO2/m2 operational energy and CO2/m2 embodied energy
for the informal sector over the period 2000 – 2011. The classification titled ‘Traditional
dwelling/hut/structure made of traditional materials’ was excluded from the Statistics South Africa
publication entitled Stats in Brief (2013, pp. 162-166).
Figure 24: Total tonne CO2/m2 embodied energy for informal residential units per calendar year.
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Figure 25: Minimum tonne CO2/m2 operational energy for households by dwelling type in the listed
calendar year.
Private sector
The following tables summarise the respective calculations of CO2/m2 operational energy and CO2/m2
embodied energy for the private sector over the period 2000 – 2011.
Figure 26: Total tonne CO2/m2 embodied energy for formally completed buildings in all South African
municipalities.
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Figure 27: Total tonne CO2/m2 operational energy for formally completed buildings in all South African
municipalities.
Public sector
The following tables summarise the respective calculations of CO2/m2 operational energy and CO2/m2
embodied energy for the public sector over the period 2000 - 2011. Although this could be described as an
academic exercise at best, it represents the first baseline data for the respective categories of the South
African built environment.
Figure 28: Total tonne CO2/m2 embodied energy for public sector buildings listed in the calendar year.
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Figure 29: Total tonne CO2/m2 operational energy for public sector buildings listed in the calendar year.
Current policies and implementation programmes

The authors of the publication The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate, argue
that present knowledge and available evidence of the risks of climate change demand strong action, despite
the fact that various uncertainties remain (Dessler & Parson 2006, p. 154). They reviewed six possible causes13
of climate change, and concluded that human activities are responsible for the recent global warming
(Dessler & Parson 2006, pp. 66-67). They also criticise the reliance on voluntary programmes of existing
climate change policy as “…woefully inadequate in view of the challenge…”, suggesting that “[o]nly
binding, authoritative policies that carry real incentives can provide the structure, clarity, planning
environment, stability, incentives and leadership” that are necessary (Dessler & Parson 2006, p. 159). Despite
requesting a formalised climate change policy for every country, these authors propose that national
policies should allow for flexibility in implementation, suggesting that environmental goals and regulations
could be phased in over time, thereby limiting costs and allowing for planning stability (Dessler & Parson
2006, p. 160).
At present, different initiatives attempt to transform this built environment to become more resource
efficient. Of the various policies related to energy and climate change, the 2007 Long-Term Mitigation
Scenarios (LTMS): Technical Report provides an energy forecast for South Africa until the year 2050. The study
calculates the costs of the intended mitigation options based on international best practice.
The LTMS describes a scenario that conforms to IPCC (2007) estimates of mitigation actions required to limit
global temperature rise to below 2˚C. It requires South Africa to reduce its GHG emissions by 30 to 40% from
2003 levels by 2050. The National Energy Efficiency Strategy set a target for improving energy efficiency by
12% by 2015.
The current governmental role-players are the following:

" Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA)
" Department of Energy
" Designated National Authority (DNA) for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in South Africa
" Ministry of Human Settlements
" Other departments focusing on energy and climate change
Existing voluntary instruments

At present there are different other initiatives attempting to transform this sub-sector to become more
resource efficient. Among others, the available options include the following:
" Using the voluntary South African standard for energy efficiency in buildings (SANS 204)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13
Apart from human activities, the natural processes that have been proposed as responsible for twentieth
century warming are orbital variations, tectonic activity, volcanoes, solar variability and internal variability.'
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" Implementing ‘green’ building guidelines authored by local authorities (LAs)
" Applying for voluntary Green Star SA rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa
(GBCSA)
According to the GBCSA (2014), “…the built environment is responsible for one third of all carbon emissions
and with global warming a very real concern”. Generally speaking, the GBCSA Energy Rating tool consists of
30 category points accounting for the total credits available. The credits in the energy category are divided
into the following five sub-sections:
" Greenhouse Gas Emissions (20 category points)
This section encourages the reduction of energy consumption through sustainable active and
passive design practices.
" Energy Sub-metering (2 category points)
This section ensures the continuous management of energy consumption.
" Lighting Power Density (4 category points)
This section encourages the use of energy efficient lighting strategies.
" Lighting Zoning (2 category points)
This section recognises lighting design that offers flexibility for light switching and control.
" Peak Energy Demand Reduction (2 category points)
This section encourages design that reduces the peak demand on energy supply infrastructure.
The emphasis on Green Houses Gas Emissions (of which CO2 is the most significant contributor) is evident
from the above criteria. It is argued that this factor is significant in its absence from the existing statutory
regulations of the South African human habitat.
Existing statutory instrument

The formal segment of the South African built environment is largely regulated by SANS 10400:1990 South
African Standard Code of Practice for the application of the National Building Regulations [National Amendment
1990-08-01, National Amendment 1996-05-22] (SABS 2008c). Supported by a host of other regulations, SABS
2008c, Wegelin 2010, pp. 23.1-23.73), the National Building Regulations (NBR) represent the minimum
obligation on the owner of a building to comply with the relevant legislation. Deemed-to-satisfy rules are
used to assist with its implementation.
Of the 26 parts of the NBR, only one section (Part XA) deals specifically with energy efficiency. The Draft
South African Standard (DSS) on environmental sustainability was circulated on 15 June 2010, the final
publication and implementation took place in August 2011, and the DSS was officially launched on 13
October 2011. Part XA originates from SANS 204 (published on 30 May 2008), but is considered by many to
be only a watered-down version of SANS 204, thus representing the lowest common denominator
(Opperman 2014).
SANS 10400-XA: 2010 provides the Deemed-to-Satisfy requirements for compliance with part XA (Energy
Usage in Buildings) of the NBR (SABS 2010b). Under the heading ‘Requirements’, the following aspects are
discussed:
" General
" Energy usage and building envelope
" Design assumptions
" Envelope requirements for buildings.
When the extent of the local built environment is considered together with the emission status of South
Africa, it becomes evident that the NBR (representing the statutory implementation instrument) is
inadequate. Currently, the recommended minimum performance requirements are not being tested against
the possible CO2 benefit or offset.
Future potential of statutory instruments

On 26 May 2010, the General Secretariat of the Conseil International du Bâtiment (CIB) announced the
introduction of a new CIB Task Group, focusing on Building Regulations and Control in the Face of Climate
Change (CIB 2011). According to Chan and Visscher (the joint coordinators of Task Group 79), “[t]he last
twenty years have seen dramatic changes in the approach taken to building regulation and control... [and
there is an] …increasing role that building regulation and control must perform in achieving significant
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reductions of CO2 emissions from buildings” (CIB 2011). Among others, the objectives of TG79 are to
“…provide an overview of the state of building regulations and building control and the related policies to
address climate change…” (CIB 2011).
Currently the South African built environment is regulated by a set of building regulations representing
minimum performance requirements that were authored mainly in the early 1980s. The National Building
Regulations should take cognisance of expected climatic changes in South Africa, address future
environmental conditions purposely and not simply rely on historic conditions and construction methods.
Future studies
All future studies should take the unique composition of the human habitat into consideration. As stated
earlier, further study is recommended to obtain the required information for scientific assessment of the
sub-sector and the following suggestions are made in this regard:
" Resource consumption within the built environment should be modelled for the identified building
typologies using available programmes.
" The on-site resource consumption should be measured for the respective building categories.
" The modelled and measured data should be compared to define a mean average for the different
typologies in South Africa.
" Using the above average, the actual emission factor per square metre of the South African built
environment could be calculated to arrive at the actual resource consumption.
" An implementation strategy should be defined, specifically in respect of a future data collection
mechanism and verification methods.
Summary
After reviewing pertinent publications and defining the extent of the South African built environment, a
measurement standard based on CO2 emission per square metre is proposed. Following the description of
the formal and informal building economy of South Africa, the study was devoted to an archival analysis
using the available data for the period 2000 to 2011. The assigned CO2 emission factor was applied to the
South African built environment, resulting in the first quantification of embodied and operational energy for
the South African built environment. The inadequacy of the existing statutory regulation instrument was
highlighted and the paper concluded with recommendations for future studies.
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Darkwa, I., 2006. ‘Post-occupancy evaluation of state-subsidised housing units in Kayamandi, Stellenbosch’,
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Davies, N & Jokiniemi, E., 2008. Dictionary of architecture and building construction, 1st edn, Architectural
Press, Oxford.
De Lilly, A., (ed) 2009. Sustainable cities report 2009, South African Cities Network (SACN), Braamfontein.
Dessler, A & Parson, E., 2006. The science and politics of global climate change, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Dixit, MK, Fernandes-Solis, JL, Lavy, S & Culp, CH., 2010. ‘Identification of parameters for embodied energy
measurement: A literature review’, Energy and Buildings, 42 pp. 1238-1247.
443
Glazewski, J., 2000. Environmental law in South Africa, 1st edn, Butterworths, Durban.
Government Gazette, NO. 33265, 11 June 2010. National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act,
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Green Building Council of South Africa, 2014. Homepage of the GBCSA, viewed 10 March 2014,
http://www.gbcsa.org.za/greenstar/ratingtools.php.
Laubscher, J., 2011. ‘An investigation of the National Building Regulations to promote uniformity and
sustainability in the South African built environment’, Published PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria.
Mwakasondo, S., 2009. Green House Gas (GHG) Inventory, DEAT, Pretoria.
SABS, 2008a. SANS 204-1:2008 South African National Standard: Energy efficiency in buildings Part 1: General
requirements, 1st edn, SABS, Pretoria.
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application of the energy efficiency requirements for buildings with natural environmental control, 1st edn,
SABS, Pretoria.
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SABS, 2010a. SANS 0400-1990: Code of Practice for the application of the National Building Regulations:
SANS 10400, 2nd edn, SABS, Pretoria.
SABS, 2010b. DSS: SANS 10400-XA: 2010. The application of the National Building Regulations Part X:
Environmental sustainability Section A: Energy usage in buildings, SABS, Pretoria.
SAIA, 2007. SA Institute of Architects: Practice manual, 1st edn, SAIA, Johannesburg.
Smith, S., 2010. Embodied energy & CO2 in construction (Background, datasets & case study), Smith and
Wallwork Engineers, Cambridge.
South Africa, 2011. National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act, No. 103 of 1977. 209th issue,
Butterworths, Pietermaritzburg.
Stats SA, 2001. Building statistics. Report No. 50-11-01 (2001), Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
Stats SA, 2005. Building statistics. Report No. 50-11-01 (2005),Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
Stats SA, 2008a. Building statistics. Report No. 50-11-01 (2008), Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
Stats SA, 2008b. Building statistics. Report No. P5041.3 (2008), Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
Stats SA, 2009a. Building statistics, 2007. Report No. 50-11-01 (2007), Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
Stats SA, 2009b. Selected building statistics of the private sector as reported by local government
institutions, 2008. Statistical release P5041.3, Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
Stats SA, 2010a. Selected building statistics of the private sector as reported by local government
institutions, 2009. Statistical release P5041.3. Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
Stats SA, 2010b. Selected building statistics of the private sector as reported by local government
institutions: July 2010 (Preliminary). Statistical release P5041.1, Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
444
Stats SA, 2011. Selected building statistics of the private sector as reported by local government institutions:
February 2011 (Preliminary). Statistical release P5041.1, Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
Stats SA, 2013. Building statistics, 2011. Report No. 50-11-01 (2011), Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
UNISA, 2012 – last update. Profiles: Participating South African and African communities, viewed 10 March
2014, http://www.unisa.ac.za/Default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent &ContentID=25627.
Wegelin, H., 2010. Construction specifications & standards 6.0 for Southern Africa, Author, Pretoria.
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A KNOWLEDGE MODEL TO IMPLEMENT HOME WORKING IN MULT-TENANT HOUSING
Sam Moshaver, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada, Sam.moshaver@umontreal.ca
Dr. Hasim Altan, Associate Professor, British University in Dubai, Dubai, UAE, Hasim.altan@buid.ac.ae
Abstract
Many people work from home nowadays; in fact, more than 15% of Canada’s workforce works from home. More
than 40% of Canada’s workforce reported to work occasionally from home, although not necessarily on paid basis.
These people need to have a dwelling that can accommodate both living and working conditions in it, and
therefore the floor plan layout must differ from the traditional floor plan layout. This problem does not exist in
single detached homes as detached housing typically has a large floor area and a basement. Basements offer
additional space that can accommodate emerging activities with a different entity than traditional spaces such as
working from home. In this paper a knowledge model is proposed to implement a space for working from home.
This knowledge model occurs by two parties; the designer (architect) and the occupant (user). Firstly, the study
reveals some related theories that deal with the issue of change in housing, such as scenario-buffered designing
and theory of levels. These theories enabled to theoretically create a base to implement a space for working from
home conditions. Secondly, the study uses systems approach as the main method where systems approach is
deductively extrapolating the criteria and solutions, for both the designer and the user; by also enabling both of
them to contemplate working from home. The focus of this study is to propose provisions for designers to include
a space for ‘working from home’ living. The outcomes are design and construction guidelines for both parties,
which has been discussed in this paper.
Keywords: multi-tenant housing, knowledge model, systems approach theory, working from home.
INTRODUCTION
Society’s socio-demographic patterns are changing more quickly than ever before, along with the need to
offer opportunities for people to interface with their dwelling spaces. The onset of different lifestyles, an
increase in the number of women working outside the home, greater social and physical mobility,
decreasing privacy, increasing standards of living, and a shorter work week have moved Western society into
an era in which our needs continually change (Davis 1997, Jansen et al. 2011). These changes have altered
the structure of the family, whereas the dwelling unit has not changed. The environment where many of
these socio-economic changes take place, and where we use and store an increasing number of consumer
goods has not experienced the same rapid evolution. Rather, the home has remained a static frame that has
tried to contain the dynamic processes occurring within, while the user remains an almost external observer
with different expectations from his or her living space (Turner 1979).
Ideally, the living space in a household should respond to these new types of spatial demands and changes.
The traditional residential layout plan—bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a dining room—
does not accommodate the new spatial necessities of households that have emerged such as working from
home.
Lifestyle change is another variable affecting the people living in a household. For example, the
phenomenon of professionals working from home can emerge in a person’s life as the population of home
workers increases in an effort to minimise traffic and mobility (Moos et al. 2006). According to a study by
Ernst & Young among people working in information and communications technology (ICT), four out of ten
people work from home for an average of 15 hours per week, and this amount is expected to increase,
especially within large companies (Leupen et al. 2005). Nearly 20 million U.S. citizens operate a home
business, according to the National Association of Home Based Businesses (Bureau 2009), and the number of
Canadians who work partially from home increased by 2% from 2000 to 2008 (Statistics 2010). More than 15%
of Canada’s workforce works from home (Khan 2010, Statistics 2010) and more than 40% of Canada’s
workforce reported to work occasionally from home, although not necessarily on paid basis (Lister and
Harnish 2011). These people need to have a dwelling that can accommodate both living and working
conditions as a matter of necessity; therefore, the floor plan layout must differ from the traditional floor plan
layout. Which part of the house or space could be utilized for the workspace? How should the workspace be
arranged or located to ensure that it does not intrude upon the privacy of the rest of the family? In this
situation, people do not want to move from their homes or ask their clients to walk through the shared living
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space within their home to attend a work-related meeting.
It is easier to accommodate emerging needs (or activities) in detached single-family housing than in multi-
tenant housing, as detached housing typically has a large floor area and a basement. Basements offer
additional space that can accommodate emerging activities with a different entity than traditional spaces.
Whereas in multi-tenant housing, space is limited and the morphology of the floor plan is closed in a way
that does not easily accommodate the introduction of new activities with different characteristics. Therefore,
this study focuses on enhancing and optimizing floor planning opportunities within multi-tenant housing,
rather than detached single-family housing. The new wave of housing should respond to the changing
modes with provisions for an undefined space that varies over time. As Leupen states in his book, Time
Based Architecture, “the building is not something which you finish, a building is something you start”
(Leupen et al. 2005, p. 52).
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The study first seeks through literature to extract suitable theories responding to the issue of change in
household. Below, this has been discussed in more detail through different components.
Theory of levels & layers

The hierarchical principle explored by John N. Habraken and Christopher Alexander created a base for the
theory of levels that divides the design process into five levels (Figure 1). First is the land-use level, where the
decisions are made by urban planners, councils, and municipalities. Second is the fabric level, where
decisions are also made by urban planners, councils, and municipalities. Third is the urban tissue level, where
decisions are made by urban designers and architects. Fourth is the base building, or support; this is a
collective process, by architects and interior designers, of providing alternatives to the user. Fifth is the fit-
out level, or infill, where individual decisions are made by interior designers and users (Cuperus 2001,
Kendall 2001).
Figure 1: Decision-making levels (Kendall and Teicher 2010).
A similar approach is taken based on the frequency of change by Stuart Brand. In his book How Buildings
Learn, Brand categorized the building into six layers, or “six S’s” (1994), based on the lifespan of each
component, from the shortest (stuff) to the longest (site) (Figure 2) (Brand 1995, Mallory-Hill 2004):
• stuff (furniture and appliances)
• space-plan (floor plan)
• services (wiring, HVAC, acoustics)
• skin (envelope)
• structure (building frame)
• site (urban location)
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Figure 2: Shearing layers of change (Brand 1995).
Hence, the aim is to disconnect the different components from each other to maximize the degree of
decision making within each component. Although these components frequently interconnect; in this study,
the focus is mainly on designing the last two levels—support and infill.
Support and infill

John N. Habraken, a Dutch architect, educator and theorist (1976), employed the principle of the hierarchical
principle of sub-systems as one of its basic concepts. The essence of Habraken’s theory is that, in housing,
the role of community and the role of the individual are distinct. Habraken believed in re-establishing the
dweller as an active participant in the total process of housing, and he developed a methodology for linking
the processes of products and decisions to their technical implementation (Dluhosch 1974, Habraken et al.
1976).
The division of infill and support was initially explored by Habraken, wherein he explained support as the
permanent part of a building provided to the occupant by the builder or the architect, while infill includes
the interior partitions, a kitchen, and bathrooms as defined by the occupant. The systems and parts
associated with the infill level tend to change in cycles of 10 to 20 years (Habraken et al. 1976). These
transformations may be occasioned by the occupants’ changing requirements or preferences, by the cyclical
need for technical upgrades, or by changes in the base building (support).
Scenario-buffered design to deal with working from home

In his book, Brand also indicates that in order to deal with uncertainty in buildings, the designer must make
predictions for the future. A good strategy for accommodating an uncertain future is to make some
predictions and potential paths regarding how the future might be (Brand 1995).
Programming is an accepted method of projecting the needs of the future; it is the first step in proposing a
design solution for spatial needs. In their book, Environmental Diversity and Architecture, Steane and
Steemers (2013) stated that the programming response to capture the correct future of building over time is
the process of Scenario-Buffered Design (Figure 3). They further stated:“Scenario-shift is the type of
fundamental change that renders entire buildings obsolete or without reasonable reuse potential. The idea
of scenario-shift closely reflects the elements of spatial change. Brand has described a planning and design
process that takes into account a likelihood of future shifts in scenario as ‘scenario-buffered design’. He
considers scenario-buffered design a superior method of hedging the future and producing a more flexible,
responsive and ultimately responsible building” (Steane and Steemers 2013).
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Figure 3: Scenario-buffered planning (Brand 1995).
SUPPLEMENTARY SPACE
The study discusses an additional space, in this case a “supplementary space”, that can be flexible by design
for the changing needs of the household.
Entity & definition

Scenario-buffered design theory can be used to deal with the issue of working from home in multi-tenant
buildings. In this scope, the issue of working from home is a new design scenario, in that the floor planning
of this new scenario (homework) differs from conventional floor planning.
The study proposes an additional flexible space that can change its function based on the changing needs of
the household. This new flexible space accommodates as-yet-undetermined spatial needs, addressing
activities other than those typically occurring in a typical traditional dwelling (eating, sleeping, entertaining),
such as working from home (the new scenario). Because these new activities are fundamentally different
from the traditional activities of the household, a new entity must be defined to deal with this issue. For
purposes of this study, this new entity is called “supplementary space” (Moshaver 2012).
Supplementary space is an area in the unit that the occupants can use dynamically, based on their emerging
requirements. For example, this space can be converted into an office, a young adult’s room, or an aged
parent’s domain. Supplementary space is an additional space for serving different emerging purposes; it
needs to be distinct from the rest of the dwelling. Depending on the size of the dwelling and the activities
occurring in the supplementary space, it could have its own services, such as a kitchen and a bathroom, and
even a separate entrance (Figures 4 & 5). It is better to be located close to the main circulation level of the
building (e.g. mostly along the corridor in multi-family housing). It is an additional area for new activities
within the rest of the dwelling (Moshaver 2012). Surveys have shown that more than 57% of people who
work from home would like to have a separate room toward the perimeter of the home (Senbel 1995).
Therefore, the study focuses on the characteristics of supplementary space, which must be designed by a
designer (architect). It is pertinent to note that supplementary space already exists in some projects,
although the designers have not explicitly identified this supplementary space as one of their theoretical
housing strategies.
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Figure 4: Floor plan of Shinonome canal court with foyer (Leupen et al. 2005, Moshaver 2012).
Figure 5: Typical floor plan of Azimieh residential project (drawn by author and Samim Mehdizadeh) (Moshaver
2012).
Delivering supplementary space as workspace

The delivery of supplementary space occurs in two stages:
I) The initial stage is the designer’s (architect) consideration of supplementary space in the initial design
process of floor planning.
II) The second stage is the development of the technical solutions to supplementary space, such as
choosing finishes and lighting systems, which can be defined based on the user’s needs and can be also
customized by the user according to his or her needs.
The focus of the study is on the first stage—delivering the supplementary space at the early stages of the
design process through floor planning.
Achieving supplementary space

Since supplementary space works as workplace, the focus is to determine the characteristics of
supplementary space in terms of meeting the criteria for working from home scenario. The question is what
are the characteristics of workspace? The study incorporates the concept of systematic design in housing,
presenting systems approaches and decision-making processes to elaborate on supplementary spaces in
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multi-dwelling housing.
Systems approach
The systems approach is a deductive, problem-solving methodology that allows the designer to provide a
suitable design during the early stages of design. The systems approach is a step-by-step procedure that
allows the designer to identify goals, needs, criteria, and the optimal solutions to a given problem.
Many architectural problems are involved with various multi-disciplinary issues and must be tackled from
different aspects; thus, the traditional intuitive approach cannot solve these problems (Levy et al. 2008). The
systems approach is used by large organizations, as was the case with NASA in identifying the optimal
process for going to the moon and back (Richard 2007).
In the intuitive approach, the designer calls for the “great idea” that can suddenly appear but might not be
the optimal solution. The empirical approach is more conservative: the designer looks for the optimal
solution among different precedents. The outcome of this approach is perhaps more feasible, but not
necessarily the optimal solution either (Richard 2007).
The deductive approach calls for a rational methodology, wherein the objectives and the criteria are
investigated by the designer to identify the optimal solution (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Strategic difference between the intuitive/empirical and deductive approaches (Richard 2007).
Applying systems approach to generate design guidelines

The design process with respect to systems approach consists of five steps, as follows (Figure 7) (Andresen,
2000, Richard, 2007):
Figure 7: The design problem solving process (Andresen 2000).
The first phase is to identify the objective, the nature of the problem, and the goals that must be achieved at
the end. The second phase is to collect all the information and data, formulate the data into criteria, and to
divide the criteria into sub-criteria (implications), similar to a ‘shopping list’. With a shopping list, the shopper
does not forget what to buy and does not buy something irrelevant. The third phase, synthesis, is the
formulation of options to meet the criteria and the selection of the compatible and better performing ones.
The fourth phase is about decision making and simulating (testing) the optimal solution. The last phase is to
evaluate the optimal solution already tested in the simulation phase, to measure whether the solutions met
the criteria, and to collect some feedback (Andresen 2000, Richard 2007).
The objective of the study is to accommodate spatial demands for the issue of working from home.
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Therefore, a set of criteria used is the characteristics of workspace in home. These criteria must be served
systematically by a supplementary space. The design implications of supplementary space are the solutions
to criteria (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Criteria-solution approach.
Well-being
The Canadian Housing Mortgage Corporation (CMHC) identifies a number of issues considered to be
important indicators of housing livability: economic vitality, well-being, and environmental integrity (CMHC,
2009). For purposes of targeting the most significant part of the objective of this study, only well-being as
one of the key indicators has been focused on for incorporating workspace within living space.
The framework of well-being in a built environment is divided into various groups according to reports by
the CMHC and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the UK (Maxwell et al.
2011, CMHC 2009):
• Health and comfort
• Quality of environment
• Safety and security of built environment
• Personal activities
• Social connections and relationships.
As far as this study is concerned, the emphasis is on the first issue, health and comfort, which can be divided
into further sub-categories.
Criteria of well-being in workspace

Because the supplementary space is part of the dwelling, it must meet the criteria of all units, but also be
specific, as it is a workspace and must meet the characteristics of any workplace (similar to those of an office).
The criteria of well-being in an office are as follows (Mallory-Hill 2004):
• Building integrity
• Spatial requirement
• Spatial comfort
• Acoustic comfort (soundproofing)
• Visual comfort
• Thermal comfort
• Air quality.
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Criteria of supplementary space
Some of the above mentioned criteria, such as thermal comfort and building integrity, are delivered by the
building. Others, such as finishes and lighting, can be customized by the user after occupancy. Therefore, the
study mainly focuses on those criteria must be accommodated during the early design process by an
architect or an interior designer:
• Spatial requirements
• Air quality
• Visual comfort
• Spatial comfort
These criteria and their sub-categories for supplementary space with respect to work from home are as
follows:
Figure 9: The criteria and supplementary space sub-categories (Mallory-Hill 2004).
BASIC KNOWLEDGE CONCEPT

Performance and functional criteria
The criteria are further divided into two categories: functional and performance criteria. The performance
criteria are those that can be measured quantitatively, whereas the functional criteria must be qualitatively
assessed based on the existing literature and expert judgments (Glinz 2008, Bjelland and Borg 2012,
Steskens and Loomans 2010).
The Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) developed a method for measuring the criteria in living
environment titled ‘’Performance indicators of health and safety’, which is represented in Figure 10. The sets
of functional and performance criteria are presented based on their approaches, and the optimal solution is
selected based on the characteristics of the solution (quantitative or qualitative).
Figure 10: Functional and performance criteria and solutions (Steskens and Loomans 2010).
In the scheme of this study, space requirements, and air quality, are performance criteria, as they can be
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qualitatively measured. Spatial and visual comforts are functional criteria and should be qualitatively
assessed based on expert judgments.
Criteria–solution path as a method

Systems approach theory is an appropriate method to deal with the building criteria and buildings elements
involved in the domain of building change (Mallory-Hill 2004, De Groot et al. 1999).
In her PhD thesis, Supporting Strategic Workplace Environment Design, Mallory Hill uses hierarchical
relational diagram to show the relationship between building criteria and building element, what she calls
the operational path between the demand and supply. This study has adopted the same approach to create
a system, criteria–solution path that links the criteria to building elements (solution) by measuring each
proposed element (Figure 11).
Figure 11: Criteria--solution path.
Accordingly, the criteria–solution path for supplementary space with respect to working from home is
depicted in Figure 12.
Figure 12: Criteria–solution path for supplementary space.
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CONCLUSION
The issue of working from home becomes more important nowadays in many of our lifestyles and living. We
have to improve the design of our houses in a way which could accommodate that need. Although the
literature acknowledged this need, not much has been proposed for the design or implementation of this
space into our housing. In this study, authors have first stated some previous theoretical background which
dealt with the issue of change in housing. Based on those theories, they proposed a knowledge model
which systematically takes into account the issue of working from home for the designer (architect) at the
early stages of design. The knowledge model proposed can be taken into practise by many designers.
In addition, the knowledge model created for supplementary space (workspace) can be simulated into
different housing types. This knowledge model can be tested with different methods, such as computer
simulations or surveys, to check its validity. Furthermore, the knowledge model for the user can be created
where the user can systematically finish their space depending on their needs after the building completed
by the builder.
REFERENCES
Andresen, I., 2000. 'A multi-criteria design-making method for solar building design', Ph.D., Norwegian
University of Science and Technology.
Bjelland, H & Borg, A., 2012. 'On the use of scenario analysis in combination with prescriptive fire safety
design requirements', Environment Systems & Decisions, 1-10.
Brand, S., 1995. How buildings learn: what happens after they're built, Penguin.com.
Bureau, C., 2009. Statistical abstract of the United States 2010: The national data book, Government Printing
Office.
CMHC, 2009. Research theme framework, Canada.
Cuperus, Y., 2001. 'An introduction to open building', Proceedings of the 9th Annual Conference of the
International Group for Lean Construction, Citeseer.
Davis, S., 1997. The architecture of affordable housing, University of California Press, California.
De Groot, E, Mallory-Hill, S, van Zutphen, R & de Vries, B., 1999. 'A decision support system for preliminary
design', Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and
Components.
Dluhosch, E., 1974. 'Flexibility/variability and programming', Industrialization Forum, pp. 39-46.
Glinz, M., 2008. 'A risk-based, value-oriented approach to quality requirements', Software, IEEE, no. 25, pp. 34-
41.
Habraken, NJ, Boekholt, JT, Dinjens, PJM & Thijssen, AP., 1976. Variations: the systematic design of supports,
Cambridge, Mass., Laboratory of Architecture and Planning at MIT.
Jansen, SJ, Coolen, H & Goetgeluk, RW., 2011. The measurement and analysis of housing preference and choice,
Springer Dordrecht.
Kendall, S., 2001. 'Conformity and individuality in the built form', a report on graduate workshop on thematic
design Muncie, IN: Ball State University.
Kendall, S & Teicher, J., 2010. Residential open buildings, E&FN Spon, London.
Khan, A.M., 2010. 'Telecommuting as a strategy for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas
emissions in multi-nucleated urban regions', World Conference on Transport Research, Lisbon, Portugal.
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Leupen, B, Heijne, R & Zwol, JV., 2005. Time-based architecture, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam.
Levy, D, Murphy, L & Lee, CK., 2008. 'Influences and emotions: exploring family decision-making processes
when buying a house', Housing Studies, no. 23, pp. 271-289.
Lister, K & Harnish, T., 2011. 'WORKshift Canada: The bottom line on telework', Telework Research Network,
Apr.
Mallory-Hill, SM., 2004. 'Supporting strategic design of workplace environment with case-based reasoning',
Ph.D., Eindhoven University of Technology.
Maxwell, S, Henderson, D, Mccoly, R & Harper, G., 2011. 'Social impacts and wellbeing: multi-criteria analysis
techniques for integrating non-monetary evidence in valuation and appraisal', Department of Environment,
London, UK
Moos, M, Andrey, J & Johnson, L., 2006. 'The sustainability of telework: an ecological-footprinting approach',
Sustainability: Science Practice and Policy, no. 2, pp. 3-14.
Moshaver, S., 2012. 'Implementing suppletive space as a design strategy into multi-dwelling adaptable
housing', Open Building Implementation, CIB W104, Beijing, China.
Richard, RB., 2007. 'A systems approach to generate integrated design solutions', Proceedings of the CIB
World Congress, pp. 2584-95.
Senbel, M., 1995. 'Working at home and sustainable living: Architecture and planning implications', Master's
thesis, McGill University, Montreal.
Statistics, C., 2010. Study: Working at home. Ottawa, Canada: Authority of the Minister responsible for
Statistics Canada.
Steane, MA & Steemers, K., 2013. Environmental diversityin architecture, Routledge, London.
Steskens, P & Loomans, M., 2010. 'T1.3 Performance Indicators for Health and Comfort', in Casotie (ed.),
Perfection, performance indicators for health, Eindhoven, Netherlands: Eindhoven University of Technology.
Turner, J., 1979. 'Mass housing and user participation', Built Environment, no. 5, pp. 91-98.
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HUMAN LABOUR, GREEN RETURN
Dr Julian Raxworthy, University of Cape Town, South Africa, Julian.raxworthy@uct.ac.za,
www.julianraxworthy.org
Abstract
Increasingly, ecological based gardening and land management methods are being used around the world, such
as permaculture. One such method, the focus of this essay, is called the “Ecocathedral Process”, and comprises
stacking recycled masonry to create microclimates that are conducive to the growth of spontaneous vegetation.
While this method was developed in the Netherlands, like other gardening methodologies such as permaculture
which comes from Australia, it is generally assumed that such techniques should be universally applicable, since
they are based on universal ecological principles that can flex according to local situations and milieus. This paper
examines the Ecocathedral method in the context of South Africa, and Cape Town in particular, to determine how
it would and ultimately would not work, in terms of four key areas of the method: ecology, labour, materials and
land. In so doing it discusses issues and opportunities that apply to other community based ecological methods
that seek to operate in South Africa. From this discussion it then proposes a modification of the method to suit this
different context.
Keywords: building, community project, ecology, ecological urbanism, Ecocathedral.
INTRODUCTION
Increasingly, ecological based gardening and land management methods are being used around the world,
such as permaculture. One such method, the focus of this essay, is called the “Ecocathedral Process”, and
comprises stacking recycled masonry to create microclimates that are conducive to the growth of
spontaneous vegetation. While I have researched and written about the Ecocathedral extensively in the
Netherlands, and sought to consider what it might offer to other contexts, notably the discipline of
landscape architecture, I have not done so in relation to South Africa. While this method was developed in
the Netherlands, like other gardening methodologies such as permaculture (which comes from Australia), it
is generally assumed that such techniques should be universally applicable, since they are based on
universal ecological principles that can flex according to local situations and milieus.
While this was the assumption I had on commencing the preparation of this paper, on reviewing the
method, local labour dynamics, ecological and climate conditions, and “material flows”, I discovered that it
must be substantially rethought in order to be used in South Africa. However such a rethink is nonetheless
valuable because it refocuses on what the core of the method is, particularly on the political thinking that
underpins it, perhaps even leading one to consider whether it is even more applicable in South Africa,
considering Louis Le Roy’s (the originator) anti-capitalist politics. Correspondingly, this paper does not
present findings but questions and hypotheses. Apart from the potential modification of the method I am
proposing that arises at the end of the essay, – from using masonry to make a folly, to using logs to help
develop agroforestry - I would argue that in considering the relationship between the technique and the
African context, pertinent issues are raised about such similar ecological techniques that are being proposed
and implemented in diverse communities in South Africa. These issues include participation, public space,
labour market economics, appropriateness of social programmes and material availability
WHAT IS THE ECOCATHEDRAL?
I will introduce the Ecocathedral first as a method by reference to the original Ecocathedral in the
Netherlands before I extrapolate it to the South African, specifically Cape Town context.
The Ecocathedral at Mildam is a series of piles of recycled bricks, which have been piled by the creator, Louis
Le Roy, without tools or mechanization since approximately 1980 (Boukema and McIntyre 2002). This activity
has two components: human labour and a module. The significance of the activity lies in its ecological
effects which arise from the activity but are not directly due to it. Because these bricks are laid without
mortar, they are loose and can move, “leaving”, as Le Roy notes “gaps for nature”. These physical gaps allow
for the movement of silt and soil, create microclimates with different temperature and moisture conditions
and become locations for spontaneous plant growth, or weeds. Le Roy refers to this as the “return” for his
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limited labour: growth. This dynamic relationship between the human action, the inert material of the brick
and the organic result of growth is the literal and metaphorical root of the Ecocathedral process.
The philosophy of the Ecocathedral relates both to its material and also to its labour aspects. Since the
Ecocathedral used recycled bricks, delivered for free by the local municipality, removed from renovated
pavements, by reusing them and ‘reactivating’ them to foster growth, these bricks effectively had a second
life, through redeployment. The resuse of bricks that were abandoned by capitalism, Le Roys discussion of
labour emphasized a revaluing of human activity. The Ecocathedral is an argument that humans have lost
touch with their bodies due both to the division of labour and the distortion of money, which was simply a
representation, no longer tied to the real capacity of activity. At the Ecocathedral, without tools, one knows
what one can really do in an hour with ones body and despite it seeming limited, the profuse growth that
arises from simply reorganizing bricks shows how much energy is released from that activity.
Considered in an architectural context, the Ecocathedral method occupies a strange space between
architecture and landscape architecture, between building and gardening. It is architectural in so far as it is
made up of masonry elements from urban projects and is fundamentally about building, arguably the root
of architecture. Further, of particular relevance to architecture is that the Ecocathedral demonstrates the
effects of buildings on their adjacent microclimates, a neglected but important effect often assumed to be
negative.
AN ECOCATHEDRAL IN SOUTH AFRICA
I will now consider the value of the effects of the Ecocathedral for the Cape Town context. At first glance, the
Ecocathedral method seems immediately applicable to the South African context, specifically Cape Town, in
terms of both its ecological and microclimatic effects and its labour dimension. However, on review, some of
those aspects that are most positive for it are problematic in the local context and some key parts of it seem
ludicrous in the very different social and economic milieu of South Africa.
Ecology
The Ecocathedral structures have both direct and indirect positive effects on local microclimates. The direct
effects include increasing soil water, reducing evaporation and erosion and drying out of soils. Another
direct effect of the structures is an increase in habitat types for plants, animals and insects, leading to local
increases in biodiversity. The indirect effects of the structures arise from these direct effects and relate to the
growth of vegetation that is fostered by these soil effects. These effects include increases in organic matter
with corresponding improvements in soil structure, leading to a reduction of erosion, acting as a soil
conservation measure.
Like most cities in the southern hemisphere at similar latitudes, the heat island effect affects Cape Town,
notably in informal communities, and is expected to increase due to climate change (Tadross and Johnston
2012, p. 26). All these direct and indirect effects would contribute to a reduction in the heat island effect
through shading, increased ground cover of by vegetation and temperature effects of increased perennial or
stable soil moisture. Cape Town has dry summers and wet winters, where there is a lack of water when it is
hottest and too much when it is coolest and not needed, causing waterlogging of the soils in the Cape Flats
(Town 2011, p. 10). The Ecocathedral process might act to buffer these issues by stabilising soil moisture
levels, which, combined with the drainage and aeration effects of the masonry in the artificial soil horizon,
might mitigate this seasonal variation. The climate buffering and soil fertility effects of the Ecocathedral
method might aid the growth of vegetation and allow for an increase in species diversity. While the
Ecocathedral might buffer changes in soil moisture, it conversely might offer greater microclimatic
differentiation. From this ecological and microclimatic perspective, a potential research project arises that
studies tests this hypothesis that the Ecocathedral can buffer soil moisture fluctuations in Cape Town.
Labour
While the Ecocathedral has ecological effects, these are a byproduct of the basic act of building that makes
the Ecocathedral a method not an object. Consequently labour is its key ingredient, both practically in terms
of it being built by hand, but also metaphorically because for Le Roy the basis of it was energy exchange
between people and the environment. In the Netherlands, unemployed people worked on the Ecocathedral,
so considering it as an activity for the unemployed seems appropriate in the African context since South
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Africa has high unemployment, 24% in the Western Cape (Unit 2013, p. 33), compared for example to the
Netherlands where the Ecocathedral originates, where in the same period it sat at 6.5% (Commission 2013,
p. 22). From a superficial assessment this would suggest that there is a labour base from which ecological
improvement programs could be implemented.
Since the success of the “New Deal” utilized during the 1930’s Depression in the United States, mobilizing
the unemployed for civic works like environmental programs has been proposed to varying degrees of
success in developed economies, including Australia. As part of its “Direct Action” climate change policy the
recently elected Liberal Party government is planning to continue an earlier program called the “Green
Army”, which will ultimately comprise 15,000 people who will work with existing community groups on
environmental conservation projects, thereby “boost(ing) workforce training and productivity” (Party 2013,
p. 2). Coming from a conservative government, this program aims to use unemployed people who are
already being paid unemployment benefits and put them to work, apparently at little cost additional cost.
With a low unemployment rate and an existing welfare system, the local perspective on the issue concerns
the demonization of unemployed people who may have very valid reasons for being unemployed. That they
can be mobilized in Australia arises from the fact that they are already being paid regardless of productivity
and thus allocating them to non-essential work catalyses this seemingly wasted labour.
Le Roy’s critique of the loss of human understanding of their own active potential sits well with this
Australian perspective, coming as it does from an inferred Protestant work ethic. For Le Roy this potential
can be reclaimed through labour in the Ecocathedral by pursuing uselessness, an approach which has been
subsequently seized on by others who now work in the Ecocathedral using Le Roy’s methods in their spare
time. These people are “white collar workers, or office workers, working like blue-collar workers”, where the
former are treating the work of the latter as recreation or personal improvement (Raxworthy 2013, p. 163).
The South African government also has a labour scheme like those discussed called the “Expanded Public
Works Programme”, which employs workers on government projects and is “a deliberate attempt by the
public sector bodies to use expenditure on goods and services to create work opportunities for the
unemployed” (Works).
While the Ecocathedral method creates important ecological improvements, these effects are indirect,
compared with other programs that use labour for direct gain by the workers. An example of one such
program that teaches workers to use masonry techniques, similar to the Ecocathedral, was used to build
social housing in Cape Town from excavated rock material from the site (Settlements). Instead such an
engagement would be new employment with wages where specific skills would need to be developed and
outputs expected. This requires rethinking the Ecocathedral as a skilled building activity.
Materials
While the Ecocathedral is a process based on labour, it has a material dimension that is crucial to it, because
the labour is directed to reorganizing a module to create structures that have ecological effects. In the
original situation in the Netherlands it used recycled masonry wrecked from pavements in the nearby city,
donated by the municipality. Together with the labour, this reuse dimension added to the thermodynamic
rationale of the project, since value was being retrieved from that which had been previously abandoned.
While the term “closed loop” comes from industrial ecology and refers to a situation where “used material
and by products would substitute for virgin materials during a process”, this model nonetheless describes
the recycled material flow used in the Ecocathedral, since the materials used substitute new from old (Lyons
et al. 2009, p. 287). Implicit within such “Closed Loop Supply Chains (CLSC)” is the desire to “maximize value
creation over the entire life cycle of a product” (Guide Jr. and Van Wassenhove 2009, p. 10).
In a situation, such as the Ecocathedral in the Netherlands, where such materials were otherwise directed
toward landfill, the resuse in the Ecocathedral represents such a value maximization. However the situation
is quite different in Cape Town and South Africa in general where building materials that are unsuitable for
formal recycling but still work are more likely to scavenged for use in informal housing, where often home
ownership refers not to land tenure but to ownership of the materials of which the house is made (Agency
2012, p. 25). While these options still maximize value of the material, the importance of these materials to
the provision of housing makes their use for Ecocathedral construction seem an indulgence. In short,
nothing is excess after construction or demolition.
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Removing building materials from the Ecosystem equation, because they are too valuable, requires a
reconsideration of the role of the material in the overall method. The masonry unit in the Ecocathedral in the
Netherlands has three primary characteristics: it is a byproduct of another process (it is recycled); it is
modular and has construction properties and; constructions with it cause desirable microclimatic effects.
Another source of material becomes visible driving along De Waal Drive in Cape Town, where exotic pine
trees have been cut down in the national park and are sitting in piles of logs. Careful rearrangement, which
allowed for gaps and wind movement through, could use such materials in lieu of brick, though obviously
they would decay and therefore have different, perhaps even arguably better effects than masonry, in terms
of growth.
Land
The Ecocathedral in the Netherlands is located on private land, which the owner (Le Roy) chose to convert
from productive agricultural land to being effectively a “folly”. As such the Ecocathedral did not use surplus
public land, but made private land publicly available. This kind of dynamic is very different in Cape Town
where land is at a premium.
From the outside, viewing the landscape of Cape Town, there seems to be a profusion of available space in
the landscape, since the city seems dominated by natural features and topography. Parkland is distributed
through the city bowl and at the base of Table Mountain. However after spending some time in Cape Town
it becomes apparent that this land is not free but is kept empty. The physical condition of the landscape is
due both to visible landscape maintenance but first to invisible policing and access control.
Public space is distinguished by a sense of openness, temporary and ephemeral use, but also by a sense of
care that is manifest in how it is maintained. Presumably this aesthetic of maintenance also has an influence
on its availability for seizure for informal use, since the maintenance demonstrates how it is “viewed”. In
practical terms, by being maintained, a public space seems to be monitored by the sites public owners or
agencies. Metaphorically maintenance shows that the site is viewed as valuable.
Since South African cities have both employment and housing shortages, available land presumably has a
latent but constant pressure of immanent seizure for homeless occupation or informal housing. On the one
hand, keeping public space empty of informal occupation seems a demonstration of its public-ness, since
attempts to make it privately occupied have been rebuffed. However, such prohibition acts to censor who
can use the space on the basis of their perceived intention to seize the land, which potentially verges on
racial profiling. Additionally, if public space represents a democratic and participatory ideal, it could be
argued that keeping public space ornamental or functionless in the face of its potential for survival use by
members of the public undermines the ideologies that brought it into being and that are used as a rationale
for its ongoing emptiness and maintained condition.
The Ecocathedral in the Netherlands is often referred to as a ruin, since it is made of loosely stacked bricks
and is overgrown with vegetation. It’s ruinous aesthetic is the result of the growth conditions that arise from
the ecological effects of the structures, and further that condition is not an aesthetic but a result. Considered
in relation to notions of public space as an aesthetic of care, the very processes that are desirable in terms of
ecological function, appear, in the context of orderly public space, to make it seem unkempt. In the context
of the Netherlands, which is an orderly society and with highly organised planning and urban design, it was
this ruinous nature that was interesting to many of the visitors to the project as well as the people that
worked on, and indeed Le Roy saw the space as deliberately separate to planning, even a foil against it.
However in the context of this empty but inherently contested public space one finds in public parks in Cape
Town, this ruinous aesthetic could facilitate occupation by those excluded by policing and maintenance.
Additionally, in public space terms, the small spaces, nooks and shadows that result from the Ecocathedral
are precisely the kind of spaces that public safety initiatives seek to avoid, and which have resulted in the
removal of planted understoreys in plantings in public space.
In terms of using public land for the Ecocathedral in Cape Town, this aesthetic condition makes the
Ecocathedral difficult for a range of reasons. The first is that, as I have argued, the land is not in fact empty
but is full, because its maintained condition is not passive but is active as a sign for its public-ness versus the
potential to use it for private interests. Spaces like public parks, left over infrastructure spaces, etc, are
pushing outwards. The second reason is that the Ecocathedral gives spaces exactly the kind of conditions
that seem unmaintained and therefore invite informal occupation. Nonetheless these infrastructure spaces
offer a place for semi-public uses like the Ecocathedral, but since they are so visible, would not be able to be
informally settled.
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TRE-ECOCATHERAL: AN ECOCATHEDRAL PROPOSAL FOR CAPE TOWN
In the preceding discussion of the four areas of the method I have focused on – ecology, labour, material and
land – I have addressed issues and opportunities in each of these areas separately. Returning to the starting
hypothesis, it is worth finally considering what project arises from the rethinking of these aspects. In
concluding then, I want to propose a new start to an emerging project, tested on a small scale.
In the context of the unemployment situation in South Africa, the Ecocathedral cannot be simply directed at
environmental effects for their own sake. Instead the environmental effects should be directed at
productive, income generating outcomes that still use these emergent effects, such as the creation of
improved soil conditions for natural regeneration. Obvious applications are agroforestry, where trees grow
which can be used for building materials. Questions here arise about cultural preference and the
appropriateness of allowing weed species to grow, which is the outcome of the Ecocathedral. I would argue
that the whole value of the technique is such spontaneous growth, so to edit it to select certain species
(effectively weeding) would be a waste of the valuable energy in the system. Hard wood weed species
would be most useful, since hard woods are currently imported.
Since building materials are unavailable (because they are valuable), it seems logical to simply substitute a
different material, however because the effects arise from the fact that materials are modular and stackable,
certain materials are more usable than others. Continuing with the agroforestry idea, potentially a certain
amount of material from the tree could be recycled and stacked to produce soil effects, perhaps limbs that
have unusable forms or defects that make them unsuitable for building. Further, if the tree selected was able
to reproduce vegetatively, such as by pollarding as Eucalyptus species do, then pruned material could
produce new trees, as well as improving soil.
If the stacks are made of tree limbs, that are taken from the existing tree then the labour base of the
Ecocathedral method is changed as the material is changed since the material is harvested from the same
material that is used from growth. The model for this kind of labour is the gardener, or more precisely the
arborist. As well as stacking, pruning is required, expanding the skill base of the gardener. In this way, as
well as being productive of habitat and building material, skills would be acquired that could be used
outside the project. This would change the dynamic of the project from being exploitative, where people are
treated as a resource to be used, to both financially rewarding as well as enabling for skills to be used in the
developing arboricultural industry in Cape Town.
The assumption of this paper has been that public land is the most appropriate place to use the
Ecocathedral technique, however as I have demonstrated land is in such demand that even public land is
treated as private. Correspondingly an area that is public but also controlled, so that it doesn’t become
invaded by housing, but that is still left over is most logical. Infrastructure corridors seem a logical site for
such agroforestry, since their amenity could be improved through landscape interventions, and the
agroforestry could buffer visual impacts on adjacent residential and commercial properties. Such corridors
are also informally used for pedestrian circulation so are already effectively accessible.
CONCLUSION
When I initially submitted my abstract for this essay I put forward a hypothesis based on the Ecocathedral
model as a generic means of catalyzing people with ecological processes using recycled materials, assuming
that it would be universally applicable, regardless of context, since its rules were based on thermodynamics.
However, even after cursory examination in the Cape Town context it became clear that it would be
impossible to transpose the method from its Netherlands context to Africa. I decided to persevere with the
paper regardless because in the process of juxtaposing the two contexts against each other, even while the
transposition was impossible, it brought both issues and opportunities to the fore. These issues apply to
community environmental projects more generally and allow for an opening up of questions about how
designers engage with communities, neglecting the broader intersection of their projects with other social,
but particularly economic aspects, notably to do with land tenure and material flows. In the process I have
been able to arrive at a starting model for an Ecocathedral in South Africa, appropriate to the local context,
that adapts its characteristics but ultimately sticks to its premises. In concluding, at a meta-level, this essay
also demonstrates a model assumed in science, that a negative result of a test is useful, in an architectural
context.
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REFERENCES
Agency, HD., 2012. Western Cape: Informal settlements status, Johannesburg.
Boukema, E & Mcintyre, PV., (eds) 2002. Louis G. Le Roy: Nature culture fusion, NAi Uitgevers, Rotterdam.
Commission, E., 2013. Labour market development in Europe 2013, European Economy, European Union,
Belgium.
Guide, JR, VDR & Van Wassenhove, L., 2009. 'The evolution of closed-loop supply chain research', Operations
Research, no. 57, pp. 10-18.
Lyons, D, Rice, M & Wachal, R., 2009. 'Circuits of scrap: closed loop industrial ecosystems and the geography
of US international recyclable material flows 1995–2005', The Geographical Journal, no. 175, pp. 286-300.
Party, LAN., 2013. 'The coalition's policy for a green army', Real Solutions, Barton, ACT.
Raxworthy, J., 2013. 'Novelty in the entropic landscape: Landscape architecture, gardening and change', PhD,
University of Queensland.
Settlements, Innovative Ocean View housing project uses local stone, City of Cape Town, viewed 3 July 2014,
http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Pages/InnovOceanViewhousingprojectocalstone.aspx
Tadross, M & Johnston, P., 2012. 'Climate change projections for Cape Town: Adding value through
downscaling', Sub-Saharan African Cities: A five city network to pioneer climate adaptation through participatory
research & local action, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, Cape Town.
Town, 2011. 'Table Bay district plan: Volume 1: Baseline information and analysis report', Final Draft for
Comment ed. City of Cape Town.
Unit, EIAR., 2013. State of the Cape Town economy - Quarter 2 (April-June) 2013. City of Cape Town.
Works, DO. The expanded public works programme (EPWP), Republic of South Africa, viewed 3 July 2014,
http://www.epwp.gov.za/
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THE HISTORICAL ITALIAN CITY CAN BE CONSIDERED “OTHERWHERE”
Alberto Zanon, Department of Architecture, Order of Architects of Treviso, ITALY
Abstract
Shaped in centuries of history, the Italian city has today a great architectural and social value due to the harmony
of its urban spaces and the intense well-being derived from the intermingling of residence, culture and facilities.
A perfect integration, shaped and perfected on a human scale around the needs of man.
A system that has always been able to respond to the aggression caused by the misuse of technology and
sociality, benefiting from the careful use of that same technology but in a well-balanced way.
A humanity that is guaranteed in the careful reasoning of its development and the maintaining of equilibrium
gradually renewed in modernity.
An urban expansion guided by the values of its origins; in the renewal of the suburbs, which for their very nature
start off in decay, with new green areas and sports facilities, squares and roads, cultural, social, welfare and
residential areas.
The result is the expulsion of distortion and the introduction of equilibrium dictated by a civil awareness that this
system generates over time.
This quality guarantees maximum integration among all social components, reducing tensions that may take
root, producing an adaptable, sustainable and long-lasting ecosystem.
Time in this process gains dimension and shapes wisdom and humanity, because it encloses the fullest values and
motivations of human beings.
The model stimulates interests, indulges the course of life and integration without frenzy, controlling
contradictions and satisfying the rhythms imposed by the speed of evolution and exchange. It is a happy and
natural incubator for the first age (0-18 year-olds), an acknowledged and privileged system for the third age (the
over 60s).
Keywords: historical Italian city, model, individual equilibrium, well-being.
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THE HISTORICAL ITALIAN TOWN
Shaped by centuries of history, the historical Italian town represents a great example of urban complexity.
Generally feudal-medieval, its origins are characterised by an axial framework, originated by the Romans. It
has the characteristics of a “closed” town, both in its own nature and its development.
Figure 1. A typical Medieval walled town Figure2. Bird’s-eye view of historical town centre
In fact, it is enclosed by surrounding walls, crossed by rivers or perched on hilltops and tends to be self-
sufficient. The historical need for total control of the territory determined its perimeter, its urban
compactness, and thus its density.
The system of streets was created in order to facilitate connections, as well as functions and the distribution
of services. Distances are on a human scale and characterized by typical structural elements such as arcades.
The public space, with man among the buildings in the town, is a crucial factor: the squares are spaces of
consolidated aggregation while the streets are spaces for meeting and communication. Man’s presence
makes them spaces of identity.
Figure 3. Vittorio Veneto, Piazza Flaminio Figure 4. Vittorio Veneto, bird’s-eye view of
Serravalle
Its plan and development are shaped by two representative powers, the church and the “Palazzo delle
Signorie”, around which the squares, spaces of collective life, extend. From here, the buildings branch off,
following a complex logic, functional to the urban nucleus, in an alternation of empty and full spaces which
become its key element. Historical events have modified the elements over time without altering this
communion between building and space which has instead always been maintained with reference to the
individual and to his perceptions.
A succession of historical facts has modified and ingrained aggregative areas but has maintained an
unaltered vision of some original basic principles. The slow transformation of the town meant its citizens
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developed a common sense of belonging or “identity”. All urban systems, even though they have the same
origins, develop some combinations of features which make them unique.
It is a legible town, thus recognisable, and its capability of formation is its strength. Its dynamism is its soul
and its impression is immaterial: it is not merely made up of squares, streets, walls, roads, buildings,
workshops and churches, but it is defined through the complexity of human relationships. So it becomes full
of stimuli, encouragement, memories and renewals. Not a sterile set of recurring buildings, but an organism
with a soul made for living in.
Exemplary nature of the model

The urbanisation process, in every age and historical period, just like the simple construction of a building,
represents a determining moment both in the existence of an individual and of a community, and spaces are
organized in order to find the best perceived living conditions in relation to social status and environmental
context.
Starting therefore from spontaneous processes, from the formation of an original historical nucleus to
socially shared planning and projecting, leading in turn to the city with foundations, to the various urban
models, with layer upon layer of generational passages and arriving at that aggregation we see today.
Historical settlements therefore move in function to aggregative principles conditioned by temporal
features which can be at the extremes, from the ideal city to the fortified city. In this way, the structure is
inevitably conditioned by the social vision that determines it, remaining always and anyway, in the case of
the Historical Italian City, attentive to the search for quality and the well-being of the individual, the true
final beneficiary.
Figure 5. Photo map of Bologna today Figure 6. Historical map of Bologna 1640
The organization and systematic nature of the historical inhabited aggregation have thus generated the
Italian model city that has been exported, particularly during the second millennium, in the whole of Europe,
giving rise to a more and more consolidated system with a widespread visible and enviable quality.
The urban morphology of the Historical Italian City is therefore the product of the transformations in this
long process of adaptation that have brought about a contextual regeneration of spaces and structures with
a reuse of manufactures. Equilibrium has been guaranteed thanks to the importance assigned to the
individual, despite changing historical needs.
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Figure 7. Photo map of historical centre, Treviso Figure 8. Historical map of Treviso centre
Services and standards are not enough to recreate a life where the street is a place for exchanges and
meeting, not only a means for moving from place to place. There are men in the buildings in the city and this
is what our model of historical city, stratified over time, conveys. For these reasons, historical cities are places
with a great evocative capacity, places that prevent discomfort, places of integration, to meet, to smile.
Models of the city which, because of the strong identity they were structured on, and on which the
centuries-long historical stratification has evolved, have achieved an international role. Places where all
constructions inter-twine, both in the physical constitution of the city and in the collective behaviour with a
harmonious development of life characterised by the seasons and by time.
The historical Italian city is a complex organism which offers the individual the opportunity to grow and live
collectively. It is a complex theatre which interweaves and adapts to the mutations of time. It is made up of
elements that are both physical (houses, public and private buildings, squares, streets, parks etc.) and
emotive, like well-being, beauty, tranquillity, satisfaction and reward. When can we call a city ideal? When
the physical elements that characterise it generate and create those emotive needs and desires.
Figure 9. Photo map of Milan today Figure 10. Historical map of Milan 1573
The historical Italian city is for children, young people, adults, the elderly, it is the city for all seasons, it is
yesterday’s city, today’s, tomorrow’s. The historical Italian city is for diversity, it understands the collective
needs and provides stimuli, encouragement, creativity, training to develop the personality of individuals,
relationships, human exchanges and common emotions and well-being.
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PRINCIPLES OF URBANISATION
Reference is made to the connection between individual use and the organization of space, in the central
vision of living while the organization of road links develops to unite integrating facilities, giving breathing
space to collective needs.
Three main concepts emerge from this process of assimilation: Shape, Structure and Function.
A banal cataloguing of methodical and standardised urbanisation concerning “function” alone does not
therefore exist. There is instead an urban plan where the close relationship between the origins of needs,
systems of protection, historical adaptation, contingent needs with man as the central actor are considered
in different historical periods. There is not a deterioration of historical centres caused by the functions and
shaping of the ancient urban fabric, but a temporary historical deterioration due to the physical process of
building renovation. A system of re-organization therefore, that renews function by recreating shape.
Figure 11. Photo map of Rome today Figure 12. Bird’s-eye view of Verona today
The model of the historical Italian city is not a repeatable archetype but rather a model to analyse, study,
disassemble. A product of awareness and spontaneous intellect which has some rules concerning quantity
and quality. The city is a space on a human scale, the dimension of spaces is always in proportion to the
individual: the street is a meeting place, the square is a place for civil or religious institutions, for the market.
The aggregative system of the urban fabric has particular connotations: public spaces are delimited by
architecture or even by simple buildings that have their own value for the way they are aggregated. Green
areas enter the city and compete to characterise spaces giving them features of identity. Components of a
whole created by man for man. Not a sterile set of buildings and empty spaces but an organism with a soul
made for living in that satisfies every need or situation.
The historical stratification, no longer feasible, gives added value to the Italian urban reality as it allows the
citizen to enter in harmony with the city, identifying with it and feeling a sense of belonging.
20th Century transformations

During the 20th century, even the historical Italian city underwent a process of decadence determined by the
needs of industrial development, by the widespread use of the motor car as the main means of
communication. This resulted in the birth and development of the suburbs which, following the rules
imposed by fast growth, led to an indiscriminate use of the extra-urban territory.
The historical Italian city, developed in the course of centuries, is in contrast to the rapid urbanisation of the
suburbs which provide residential areas but which are without soul or identity. Anonymous and anomalous
places where the quality of life is poor, where space dilates, where the rhythm of life is determined by the
speed of actions and by time, which becomes the controlling force of the system.
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The introduction of the car has in fact increased both the distances which can be covered and the space
needed. Against an urban growth outside the surrounding walls, we witness an impoverishment of the
urban fabric, which in this way loses its complexity and becomes a mono-functional place, where activities
of representation and service are developed and concentrated. The squares, from spaces of aggregation
become parking lots; the streets, from places of meeting become ways for communication. Environmental
pollution and vehicular traffic increase, so the town becomes unbearable.
Man is no longer in the centre of the space, the car is the new centre. The aggregation that developed over
centuries of slow and consolidated transformations is upset.
Figure 13. Congestion in the historical town centre

The business world, based on productivity, is still using enlarged realities, where the speed of
communication and the logics of production find their justification and their adaptation in these rapid
changes.
Figure 14. Industrial areas in the outskirts Figure 15. Busy ring roads
Industrialization has generated built up spaces which are notably vast but without great architectural or
residential value and which have become rapidly obsolete. These have become, in the 21st century, areas of
urban decay which need significant redevelopment.
Today in Italy and in other European countries, these areas are being redeveloped in order to connect them
to the historical centres and respond to recent residential demands.
The re-use of abandoned industrial areas is part of general URBAN RENEWAL.
The process of urban renewal, from a sustainable viewpoint, creates a systematic network, able to integrate
spatial, environmental, historical, social and anthropological relationships through the implementation of
the following actions:
• replacement of the car,
• reduction of the spaces and compacting of the urban functions through a growth in density but
without congestion,
• functional mixing with a relocation of the public functions following a rational distribution,
• creation of new housing typologies such as co-residences, also depending on the distances
covered,
• conversion of disused urban areas in order to create new functions.
This Renewal requires a general reconfiguration of the urban mobility system, in fact compacting means also
having daily access to services, business and activities. Thus, it is important to privilege walking, the use of
ecological vehicles, even shared, the expansion of accessibility to buildings and locations, the
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implementation of synergies among different systems of transport, by creating a widespread network,

equally distributed.
Figure 16. Evolution of environmentally-friendly technology

Renewal is aimed at obtaining great quality in street furniture, in order to characterise the public spaces and
thus to encourage sociality, grant security and facilitate pedestrian use, be flexible, easily decipherable, a
source of knowledge and culture.
The research of architecture is aimed at identifying methods which enable the recovery of the existing
buildings in the historical town, their re-functionalisation through the creation of protected housing, but
also through the study of new typologies of living such as co-housing, where the living space of the person
is combined with the provision of collective services.
This new complexity should be integrated with the most advanced technologies in the urban setting, in the
organization of services and in housing, with the evolution of optical fibres and broadband systems.
Automation is at the heart of this renewal, applied both to the house and to the town for the benefit of
security, autonomy and the quality of life.
Figure 17. Automation enters the home

The responsibility of the citizens towards the environment and sustainability has to increase through a
constant monitoring of the energy consumption on a local and supra-municipal level, of the production of
waste, of the air and water quality, in order to obtain total self-sufficiency.
Designing a slow city means designing a city with the young and elderly in mind
“Living in a place, is not simply staying, nor is it leaning, occupying space and time. Living is knowing,
joining, taking care, transforming, building, wanting to live in that place and in that space. To be tuned in.
Living is changing. Living is relationship. Symbol and meaning. For these reasons living is happiness and joy
but at the same time effort and sacrifice. It is, however it may be, sharing a place with the others and with
nothing.”
In the settlement system of the slow city, people can lead a life which underlines the importance of time
itself, without the negative rhythms of business, and so without being too hectic or fast. Move out, go for a
walk, meet people, cultivate relationships, go shopping, have access to services, these are all aspects that are
useful in order to enjoy life and to qualify time. Lifestyles that contribute to stimulating the cognitive
efficiency also of elderly people.
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The town must be prepared to promote this development by facilitating movement, by considering the
rhythms and any physical obstacle to its population, by recalibrating the system of services, the distribution
of spaces and the localisation of functions.
The historical Italian city, thanks to its character and dimension, is perfect for this transformation which
implies a recovery of ancient values and their integration with the new social challenges, combined with the
best of the new technologies, understood as improvements to the quality of life. In this respect, it can be
seen that there is no deterioration in the Historical Italian city caused by the exhaustion of the functions and
the shape of its original urban fabric, but only a deterioration or rather a momentary adaptation due to the
physical process of rebuilding.
In this context, urban renewal is the process which both inverts the economic, social and physical decay of
the town and becomes the ideal setting for the life of the elderly and for the young generations. Each
historical period creates its own reasons for its urban system and relationships. Today is the moment of
rethinking, with new perspectives, the reasons which will determine the framework of relationships of the
new century.
In this way, the loss of identity of the historical Italian city is overcome and a new equilibrium of urban
complexity is re-established, the town turns into the space where people live a life of quality, a slow city
where the young and the “elderly”, who are not yet or no longer in contact with the world of work, can live.
Thus, the historical Italian city, emptied by a centrifugal tendency, due to the delocalisation of services and
activities, comes to life again.
Figure 18. Perugia and Vigevano, squares in the historical centres

Renewal has to be carried out with environmental awareness, a recovery of the building fabric, a
commitment to the common good and a more balanced distribution of social well-being. The historical
Italian city goes back to being the place par excellence of a healthy lifestyle in the broadest sense of the
term: healthy, without traffic pollution, suitable to man’s rhythms (walking), slow and sustainable through
the local administration of the resources. Healthy also because it is suitable as a gym for the mind,
stimulating, rich in culture, information, education and social relationships.
Welfare today
The growth and expansion of widespread well-being and quality of life have given rise to a general and
worldwide ageing population.
In 2009, the ISTAT data assessed the phenomenon of the prolongation of life expectancy and the average
age in Western countries, particularly in Italy. Out of 60 million Italians, about 20% is over 65 years; the
“oldest” (over 80 years old) represent about 5.6% of the inhabitants. In 2050 probably the 65-year-olds will
be 30% of the Italian population and the 80-year-olds about 12%. Generally in the world this total will reach
2 billion.
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year 2000 year 2050

Figure 19. Social evolution of the population
These data require a reflection on the socio- demographical changes in our society, on the evolution of the
ageing population and its cultural and economic implications.
Some processes have led to sudden and random changes, such as the growth in just two decades of the
“caregivers”, self-proclaimed social workers who have overtaken, in terms of numerical values, the
metalworkers, which is the largest category of workers created over almost a century of industrialisation in
our country.
The increasing number of elderly people, a phenomenon characteristic of developed continents and in
particular Europe, together with the needs of the young population make the demand for a city on a human
scale more evident, on the one hand for the need of a human dimension, slow and pleasant, wise and
reflective, recognisable and comforting, on the other hand as a symbol of equilibrium and culture, novelty
and curiosity, discoveries and pleasure: both for the strength that the whole represents.
Figure 20. Urban system, Padua Figure 21. Plan for an intermediate filter in the historical centre, Padua
Nowadays, 30% of the over 65s suffer from depression, which is mainly the cause of the lack of self-
sufficiency of the individual, but which can be overcome by fitness and mental training and by the re-
appropriation of a social role.
Thus, the proper answer cannot just be strictly medical, but the focus must shift to policies of inclusion and
to the individuation of a suitable settlement model. It must be a fight against neglect, a collective challenge
where nobody needs to be alone.
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Figure 22. Carers, social workers “by yourself”

From here a new concept, that is the welfare of opportunities and responsibilities, addressed to the whole
person; a welfare which intervenes in advance, offering a personalised and differentiated answer, respecting
the formation of need and which is able to encourage responsible behaviour and lifestyles, useful to oneself
and to everybody.
Being no longer employed means having more free time than anyone else. And the quality of the leisure
makes the difference. Because it can be used for socially useful activities, culture, self education and the
formation of the future generations: to entertain, deal with, accompany, correct, teach, learn, inform,
protect, provide company, transmit, help and assist.
To encourage the activity and the autonomy of these people means that from “assisted” they become free
to choose how to spend their time, because free time is the key element and should be valorised in the post-
employment age. From passive subjects who need care and attention, they become active subjects able to
“give”, and this makes them able to realise their own physical and mental health.
Figure 23. From social commitment… Figure 24. … to leisure

The third age is becoming “an age without an age” both for the prolongation of its duration and for the
augmentation of opportunities for people. Biological age is constantly defeating the anagraphical one: 70-
year-olds today lead a life comparable to that of a 50-year-old in the 60’s. The third age has huge
potentialities, in fact just 30% of the over 65s have some difficulties in movement and this percentage
continues to decrease.
People should lead a stimulating and healthy life; because they are nearing the third age, they should live in
a slow city. Speed and time have no reason to be, they are only factors in the system of production. The slow
city is the historical town which grants culture and beauty, healthy behaviour and widens relationships. The
slow city can create relationships, produce sociality, give joy and harmony, become the space for more
widespread tourism.
Figure 25. Cultural activities in the square Figure 26. Cultural activities
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In this context, elderly people become the central element on which to plan the town renewal: both the
percentage of its population and life expectancy are increasing, elements which will make the third age the
main beneficiary of this reconfiguration.
The new young generations have an important role. Even though novelty and technology constantly feed
their curiosity, living in an environment that represents equilibrium on a human scale is equally essential for
a healthy upbringing. Urban dynamics, despite being secondary to their immediate interests, can represent
a consolidated structure that gives identity and security. The possible reduction, control or even better, the
elimination of ghettoes and abandoned neighbourhoods can only generate harmony and integration.
Growth and well-being are also communicated by a broad and calm, almost natural distribution of services.
Young people are fundamental protagonists of urban society. They live the city by going to school, a place
for education and life experience. The school regenerates over time but remains however one of the public
spaces competing in the building of urban space and enters the network of relations among citizens who
are the main actors on the urban scene.
The location of the school building is also important. Unlike other models (for example, the English campus),
the school has historically been one of the fundamental elements of the urban nucleus, in close relation to
the civil, religious and commercial heart of the city, despite being an exclusive place for pupils and students
from diverse age groups.
Today the school building has become a sort of civic centre, inserted in the heart of the historical Italian city,
where the spaces created for the students have become important resources for the city and for the
population involved in life-long learning.
Even more than for elderly people, public mobility, easy access to cultural environments, both institutional
and commercial is put at the service of the young generations.
The redeveloped historical Italian city can today be considered a reference model for both these ages that
have expectations which cannot be satisfied by current policies and by actions aimed at them. They need
instead a new qualitative as well as quantitative model for living
Projecting the urban renewal of a historical town means projecting the intellectual growth procedure of
teenagers and the ageing process of the elderly.
The system represents a model even for the “active” members of the population, because they are more
easily subject to using efficient residential models tested on the weaker parts of the population, the young
and the elderly, namely children and parents.
The renewal of the historical Italian city, from this viewpoint, besides reaching the objective of improvement
of quality of life, encourages urban re-qualification and the reduction of social costs.
Figure 27. Reducing pollution and energy autonomy
Figure 28. Means of environmentally-friendly transport and conscious waste disposal
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TOWARDS A SMART CITY
This transformation of a city into an intelligent city involves a process which does not disrupt or modify the
contents of the historical Italian city but rather acts as a model in progress, laying a new layer on a fabric that
is already structured, so becoming and further qualifying our model of reference.
The modification of the urban structure is inevitable in the various historical periods. In fact it should be
encouraged and carried out to manage the modernization processes. It is not only by preserving the ancient
shapes through restoration that modernization takes place, but rather by interpreting new demands,
adapting to these needs while maintaining wherever possible the relation between existing buildings,
building continuity and open spaces. This is the real and main context that must be preserved. It is not the
single building that should be preserved but the aggregative whole as a complex of physical and social
functions. This is the great strength of the stratifications over the years in the historical Italian city.
What then is the meaning of an intelligent city? It is a work in progress and the contents of the
transformation, for many theoretical aspects, will become more and more integrated. A really intelligent city
is one that knows “how to dialogue” in the widest sense of the term: a dialogue with the technology that is
in continual evolution, a dialogue between citizens and facilities, a dialogue between the organizations that
run the territory and the needs of the territory itself that have to be satisfied, a dialogue between the huge
cultural heritage that our society has generated and the wider system, a dialogue between institutions and
their adaptation to the changes that are asked of them and to the interoperability among the various
functions. An intelligent city is a complex of global synergies.
Figure 29. Sustainable systems of mobility in evolution
It is important that such a process takes example from the historical Italian city, activating the transformation
with equilibrium, always putting the individual at the centre and not the frenetic use of technology and
infrastructure, not losing sight of human intelligence. This is in fact what makes even the most complex
concepts easy for a person, who can adapt and transform problems into real solutions, that allows the
implementation of information and the easy access to needs and services, a single help desk with many
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competences and little organizational complexity. Everything must contribute to conveying to the citizens
that sense of belonging to the city, a common good of cohesion and socialization.
A city that should be seen as a social network, where the way of doing and thinking of people allows them to
exchange opinions continually, collaboration and sharing are spontaneous and easy, becoming engines of
change and technological innovation.
This process must not involve a change in culture because the nature of the individual is not modified, but
rather a leap in “simply” intelligent quality in order to favour well-being and the global quality of life.
The historical Italian city is intended as a reference point not to be slavishly reproduced but to be imitated in
its whole, in its development, because if understood it lives through its intelligent transformations and local
adaptations.
A model that is flexible and generous, not to be copied as a precise imitation, repetitive or anonymous, but
rather an element that is used as a rule and, reproducing itself, generates multiple aggregative types,
capable of creating harmony and equilibrium in basic structures with leeway for thousands of variations. We
can find this in the uniqueness of the Italian model, repeated umpteen times in all its dimensions, but able to
maintain the great value that underlies it all: centrality, satisfaction, well-being and quality of life with the
individual at the centre.
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AUTONOMY AND DEPENDENCY: THE DESIGN OF COHOUSING AS A MEANINGFUL APPROACH TO

SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Fangqing Lu, Beijing Jiaotong University, China, fqlv@bjtu.edu.cn
Haishan Xia, Beijing Jiaotong University, China, hshxia@bjtu.edu.cn
Abstract
Sustainable living may be defined as a lifestyle that could, hypothetically, be sustained without exhausting any
natural resources, and the concept can be applied to individuals or societies. Sustainable living is a sub-division of
sustainability where the prerequisites of a modern, industrialised society are left unexercised by choice for a
variety of reasons. There is some overlap between the movements concerning the practices and motives involved.
We now live in a world with highly developed technology and undoubtedly, society derives great benefits from
this development. However, despite its value, warnings abound about the dangers of the overuse of such
technologies. Therefore, in order to address the bad consequences brought by the overuse of technology,
emphasis on sustainable living becomes the main issue that we should consider today.
This essay explains sustainable living in terms of autonomy and dependency by analysing two case studies of
cohousing projects in the UK: the Hockerton Housing Project and the Springhill Cohousing Community. Through a
comparison between a series of sustainable design features of the two cases, we can see by using nearly the same
core technology, how autonomy and dependency are achieved in sustainable living and how they help in leading
us to a sustainable future.
Keywords: autonomy, dependency, sustainable living, cohousing.
INTRODUCTION
Architecture is the practice of ‘framing’ the habitat of everyday life, both literally and discursively (Dover
1999). In the literal sense, everyday life takes place within the clusters of the rooms, buildings, streets and
cities that we inhabit. Action is structured and shaped by walls, doors and window; and framed by the
decisions of designers. As a form of discourse, architecture constructs the representational frameworks, the
narratives of ‘place’, in which we live our lives (Bourdieu 1995, p. 291).
Written by Helen and Scott Nearing in 1954, the publication of Living the Good Life marked the beginning of
the modern-day sustainable living movement (Nearing 1953). Sustainable living is a lifestyle that attempts to
reduce an individual’s or collective use of the Earth’s natural and personal resources, which is fundamentally
the application of sustainability to the choices and decisions of human beings’ lifestyles (Ainoa 2009).
In order to accommodate various sustainable lifestyles, sustainable principles and practices are usually
incorporated into the planning and design of individual houses and communities. Amongst the range of
community movements, cohousing can be regarded as one of the most significant examples of the evidence
of dialectic relationships between autonomy and dependency.
Originally developed in Denmark during the 1970s, cohousing offers a new approach to housing that
combines the autonomy of private dwellings with the advantages of community living. It is distinctive in
that each household has a private residence, but also shares extensive common facilities with the larger
group (McCamant & Durrett 1994, p.12). Just as important as the use of sustainable materials and employing
high-tech means, what distinguishes cohousing from other sustainable communities are the social aspects
of cohousing: the placement of cohousing communities within existing neighbourhoods, the sharing of
resources, and the positive group education around sustainability (McCamant 1994). The concept offers a
contemporary model for re-creating the sense of place and neighbourhood which encourages mutual
interactions to share resources and behaviour reinforcement among individuals who otherwise might
achieve little on their own, while responding to today’s needs for a less constraining environment
(McCamant & Durrett 1994).
In the context of cohousing, the autonomy of dwelling and community interdependency could thus be
understood and revealed by the key idea of the design of cohousing – sharing. From this, the key research
question is derived: What is the content of sharing?
Constructed using non- or low-toxic green materials, the dwellings in such a community could be regarded
as the physical embodiment of the daily lives of the individual cohousing members. In addition to an
independent living area, shared common areas such as kitchen and living room and outdoor green space
are the key design features to demonstrate physical environment dependency. The formation of the
physical environment requires cohousing members to use natural energy and resources as well as growing
their own food. Last but no less importantly, cohousing offers various opportunities to establish social
relationships. By enabling individuals and households to maintain a high degree of independence,
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residences can either choose how much interaction with the wider group they want or maintain some
essential group agreements at a minimum level. By means of car pooling, shared shopping, sustainable
energy systems, childcare, food purchasing and production, a cohousing group can live more ecologically
than a single household. Therefore, residents could have more social contacts and some work opportunities
where they live as well as have less dependence on car use. Moreover, the design of cohousing creates many
of the qualities of a traditional neighbourhood such as eating together to share food, as well as creating a
safe and supportive setting which is particularly helpful for the elders and the young families.
Based on the above discussion, the content of sharing can be categorised into physical environment,
energy, food, and social relationship. Hence, two basic research questions can be proposed: what are the
applications of autonomy and dependency of each factor? What is the relationship between the four factors
in the context of cohousing? In the following texts, the conceptual interrelationship between autonomy of
dwelling and community interdependency is discussed through the above categories by applying them to
two case studies.
HOCKERTON HOUSING PROJECT
Background
Three years after the construction of the Autonomous House in Southwell UK, Nick Martin, the builder of this
project initiated another sustainable housing project. Located at Hockerton, Nottingham UK, the Hockerton
Housing Project (HHP) was inspired by the Southwell Autonomous House and was designed by the owner of
the House - architects Brenda and Robert Vale.
!
Figure'1:#This#is#an#aerial#view#of#the#HHP.!
!
Completed in September 1998, the HHP won the Eurostar Award in 2000. It was one of the first group of zero
energy residential systems to be built in Britain at that time and known as the UK’s first earth-sheltered, self-
sufficient ecological housing development, which reduced life cycle energy to a minimum level, and which
was among the most energy efficient, purpose built dwellings in Europe.
Even though the original plan for this self-sufficient community took a number of years to become reality, it
can be regarded as a fine example of what can be achieved by ordinary people for those who share an ideal
to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
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Physical environment
The whole project site covers 10 hectares (ha) with a slight slope to the southwest. The previous use of the
land was essentially agricultural. The architecture of the project consisted of a terrace of five earth-sheltered
single-storey houses set into a slight south slope with the north side buried in the ground. In addition to the
dwellings, the project also contains an office for Hockerton’s own trading company, rainwater harvesting
systems for all its water needs, reed bed system for waste treatment, an organic fruit and vegetable farm,
lakes and ponds for all existing flora and fauna, and two on-site wind turbines and a photovoltaic array for
renewable energy generation.
!
Figure'2:!This#is#the#exterior#of#an#earthPsheltered#room#from#one#side.!
!
Figure'3:!This#is#the#exterior#view#of#the#five#houses.!
!
Each dwelling, in the form of a long thin rectangle, consists of three bedrooms, two kitchen areas, one
dining room, one living room, one bathroom, one utility room, and one conservatory (Figure 4). The south
façade of the dwelling thus is a 19-metre south-facing conservatory running the full width of each dwelling.
Designed with a three-metre-high French window for each family, the conservatory was six metres deep,
designed for direct exposure to the sun. With the north side buried underground, most internal rooms were
not very much dependent on natural light. Each typical house had a floor area of 122 square metres, plus a
conservatory of 47 square metres.
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!
Figure'4:!This#is#a#plan#diagram#to#show#the#interior#of#one#single#house.#!
!
!
!
Figure'5:#This#is#the#interior#of#the#conservatory.!
!
The design of earth-sheltering highly reduces the visual impact from the main road. Regardless of the local
labour and materials for construction or high thermal performance materials for reducing space heating, the
selection of materials for the project shows a high level of environmental-friendly awareness among the
occupants.
The building envelope is constructed by clay brick for exposed exterior walls, using bricks fired from waste
methane gas. All of the internal walls are wet plastered. The main doors and windows opening into the
conservatory are of triple low-E glazing with argon filling, whilst the glass for the French window of the
conservatory is of double low-E glass. The concrete structure is surrounded by a welded membrane of pure
polyethylene, and insulated with 300 mm thick expanded polystyrene (cfc free), which also extends under
the whole floor slab. The roof slab has a 300-mm thick load-bearing concrete slab, while the buried
construction reduced weathering effects on the insulation and water-proofing membranes.
In order to ease the construction, a repeated modular bay system of three metres in width is used. The
external walls are 500 mm thick, using concrete block-work as a framework to contain mass concrete. In
order to simplify the construction of the superstructure as there are no movement joints, a single sub-slab
200mm in thickness is adopted. According to the solar altitude during the winter solstice, the roof is covered
with 400 mm thick topsoil at a ten- degree slope. Therefore, the north side and terrace ends are buried
underground.
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!
Figure'6:!This!is!the!isometric#perspective#of#the#construction.#!
!
Energy
!
Figure'7:!These#are#the#solar#panels#over#the#roof.#!
!
Coupled with the gains from the conservatory and the buffering effect of the earth-sheltered roof, the
insulation and the thermal mass provides comfortable interior conditions. With no central heating, space
heating relies totally on heat gained from roof solar panels and incidental gains resulting from occupation.
In order to enhance the ventilation rate, energy-efficient fans of 12 Volt DC are adopted which allowed
airflow through each house. Earth covering, high-efficiency glazing and heat recovery ventilation system all
contributes to the reduction of heat loss. In summer, excess heat from the conservatories is vented passively
through large opening windows in the roof, combined with opening windows in the glazed walls.
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With no connection to the water mains, rainwater is collected from the conservatories, then stored
underground, filtered by micron string, carbon, and UV, and then mineralised. This has a capacity for 250
days’ supply for the occupants.
The hot water is heated by an air-to-water heat pump located in the conservatory which is connected to a
storage cylinder. One-fifth of the cylinder is heated by an immersion heater and the remainder by the heat
pump. Although a small amount of mains electricity is used by kitchen appliances, lighting and domestic hot
water, the measured energy consumption of the housing is 75 percent lower than that for a conventional
house.
In the middle of winter 2008, temperature measurements in the first occupied house show a minimum of 16
centigrade, with the average indoor temperature rising steadily as the winter ended. At the time of the
researchers’ visit, on 18 February 2008, at 12.45, the temperature of the kitchen was approximately 22
centigrade, which was a comfortable temperature level for indoor living.
Sewage treatment is undertaken by a floating reed bed which managed waste water, while attracting
wildlife in a recreational lake. A soil-pipe took waste water to the sewer and then it is retained in the two
septic tanks for ten days. The effluent liquid is then released into the floating reed bed and it is a further
three months before water from the reed bed is allowed into the lake.
Food
!!!!! !
Figure'8:!The#organic#farm#on#the#site.##!!!!!Figure'9:!This#is#the#sand#filter.#!
!
During the visit to the HHP project, according to the occupant Nick White, although at that time half of the
food was bought from the supermarket, food-growing still continues successfully on the site’s organic farm
through the adoption of perma-culture principles and consideration of food miles involved.
Social relationship
According to interviews with occupant Nick White, in order to save energy, some commitments were made
by the residents:
# All families chose to use a larder fridge rather than a fridge-freezer;
# Cold-water detergent is used in washing
# Quick showers rather than long baths are taken.
With only families living on the site, communal activities are limited to monthly events, for there are very few
chances for residents to gather together and share their living experience.
Conclusion
Since the HHP opened, more than 10,000 people have toured the site and countless people had been
inspired to seek a more sustainable lifestyle themselves. This ecologically sound community is envisioned as
a way to change the world, or as a blueprint for an alternative way of living. Their green life-style extends
into commercial ventures: guided tours, consultancy, talks, publications and organic goods. Aiming to re-
invest in the community and provide local employment, this non-for-profit trading company generates
challenges for autonomous living schemes in the future, which should be designed to find sufficient paid
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works on site or nearby for its members. Moreover, it should also aspire to achieve a balance between
individual private needs and communal requirements.
SPRINGHILL COHOUSING COMMUNITY
Background
Located near the centre of Stroud in Gloucestershire, Springhill Cohousing Community is the first new-build
cohousing community in the UK and was once regarded as a model for future sustainable communities.
Normally referred to as the greenest town in the West, Stroud was a former wool town, which had a thriving
farmers’ market, the largest LETS (Local Trade Company) alternative currency scheme in the country, organic
and whole-food cafés, natural health practices and a growing network of talented artists and musicians.
The project was the brainchild of the property developer David Michael, who bought the site in Stroud on 4
September 2000, as well as forming the Cohousing Company Ltd. The Community was a cooperative
approach that promoted a very strong sense of belonging and encouraged friendly, co-operative and
helpful behaviour, including self-policy and self-management.
Following the completion of the land purchasing in April 2001, the site acquired detailed planning
permission for 34 houses and flats on 12 June 2001. The construction started on 5 August 2002, and the first
residents moved in during the summer and autumn of 2003.
Designed by the Architype, the original design was based on and informed by two books – ‘Cohousing’
written by McCamant and Durrett and ‘The Pattern Language’ by Christopher Alexander. Recognised by The
Deputy Prime Minister’s Award for making an ‘outstanding contribution’ to Sustainable Communities,
Springhill also received the 2006 Eurosolar UK Award for inspiring many other renewable energy projects
which demonstrated the important link between renewable energy and sustainable living.
The cost and timescale of the project escalated over time because of poor advice and contract management.
In the end, the building was completed 72 per cent over budget. The fact that the builders and the
cohousing community approached the project from different angles contributed to the delays. The
community offered the occupants flexible contracts, what the people buy was a 999 year lease. When
somebody wanted to move, the freehold company - made up of all the households - had 28 days to find
someone on the waiting list to make an offer, which did not necessarily have to be accepted by the seller.
!
Figure'10:#The#red#circle#shows#the#range#of#the#Springhill#Project.#
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!
Figure'11:#The#design#of#the#plan#layout#of#the#Springhill#Project.#
#
Figure'12:#The#interior#view#of#the#common#room#in#the#centre#of#the#site.#
Physical environment
Consisting of 34 houses and flats, this cohousing community ranges from studios of one- bedroom studio
flats to five-bedroom houses. With the purpose of encouraging social interaction between residents, all flats
and houses are designed around the hub of a three-storey common house where residents can cook and eat
together more than once a week. This substantial additional space makes it easy for people to have smaller
private dwellings with a safe pedestrian street through the middle of the site (Figure 12).
In order to prevent the car dominating the outdoor living space, the car-park area is kept to the periphery of
the site from the initial phase of the design. Many members belong to the local car-club and Springhill is
five-minute walk from the train station.
In addition to the design of the common space, pedestrian layout is central to the design which links the
houses and makes for a safe, quiet environment. There are many more intimate communal features, such as
the outdoor decks and front porches overlooking the main pedestrian street, which have fostered informal
contact between the residents.
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!
Figure'13:#The#view#of#the#parking#area.!
! ! !
Figures'14,'15,'16:#The#design#of#the#pedestrian#layout#of#the#Project.#
Energy
The structure and materials of houses were mainly timber-framed, which were designed to a high standard
of energy efficiency with triple-glazed windows and extra insulation, and were specified with green
materials where possible.
The community also had the largest photovoltaic generator on top of private homes in the country. The
roofs of the houses are constructed of a solar thermal system, PV panels and normal roof materials. The
actual roof tiles themselves were PV generators, thereby saving the need for one layer of roof tiles.
!!! !
Figure'17:#The#design#of#exterior#pedestrian#layout#of#the#Project.#
Figure'18:'This#is#a#closePup#view#of#the#roof.#
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The main structure of the exterior landscape consists of timber retaining walls and gabions using locally
sourced stone. The selected environmental-friendly materials contribute to reducing the negative impact of
non-green resources on the environment.
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Figure'19:#The#timber#retaining#walls.#
Figure'20:'Gabions#using#locally#sourced#stone.#
Besides, a sustainable urban drainage system is installed to deal with rainwater, which is conducted through
a series of swales, ponds and rills planted with aquatic plants that run beside the walkways. During days of
heavy rain, excess flows can thus be directed into a nearby stream, and rain water temporarily filled a grassy
soak-away area which doubled the concept of ‘green’. Originally, Springhill wanted to install grey water
recycling and rainwater harvesting; however the outlay was too costly.
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Figure'21,'22:#Detail#of#the#exterior#stream#along#the#pedestrian#street.#
Food
There is little space for growing food on-site but a number of the community members have external
allotments as the site is close to the city centre, for the residents to buy their daily food from the
supermarkets.
Social relationship
As mentioned in the discussion on the physical environment, the design of the central common room offers
various opportunities for 34 individual households to cook and share communal meals regularly. Such social
activities have not only saved considerable energy in cooking activities but also produced opportunities for
residents to meet and communicate.
By 2008, there were about 70 people living in Springhill. Among these, over 20 of them have become
familiar with each other and cook and eat together three or four times a week. One of the members told the
researcher that they rarely worry about food for the frequent and regular communal activities. Springhill
creates a fantastic neighbourhood atmosphere and offers various opportunities for residents ranging from
different ages to communicate with each other and understand life from different perspectives.
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Conclusion
During the visit to the Springhill cohousing site, it is easy to sense a happy environment from the lively
community that formed. In regard to the perspective of the residents, the establishment of the project is no
longer a choice of selecting a new house for them to live in, but a new community which lead them to a
more fulfilling and sustainable life.
COMPARISON OF THE TWO COHOUSING PROJECTS
Even though the HHP project is not a defined cohousing project, comparisons can still be made in terms of
autonomy and dependency between the HHP project and the Springhill cohousing project as follows:
With only five households living on the huge site, the HHP achieves a high level of physical environment
autonomy. Limited numbers of dwellings, however, detract from an atmosphere of community. A lack of
common rooms makes it more difficult for the residents to gather together for communication and share
common activities. Not only from an architectural design but also from the real condition of the members, it
is very hard to imagine that there would be much livelihood among the families. In Springhill however, the
whole project is divided into three main parts; and each part consists of about one third of the families.
Therefore, the landscape within each part naturally forms an informal open space for people living in each
part to meet and talk. After visiting the HHP, the researcher always recalls about Nick’s daughter who was
born there and who spent her childhood there. One cannot imagine how tedious her childhood may
become if she spent all her time there, for it is impossible for her to meet friends who are the same age as
her after classes. Moreover, once opening the door of her house, all that extends beyond is farmland.
According to Nick, residents of the HHP hold meetings every week to discuss issues related to their lives, and
the Project. However according to the on-site interview, it was unsurprising to learn that adults do not
actively attend the meeting. Moreover, communal activities like eating together or others rarely take place.
Hence, the physical environment directly affects the social relationships amongst the community members.
Both projects achieved energy autonomy by following a low-energy strategy in particular to make full use of
natural resources such as solar energy and water. Caring about the low environmental impact on nature as
well as emphasising using the power of nature, the houses achieve high level of thermal performances.
Meanwhile, residents of both projects had received great benefits from the environment. Particularly in the
HHP project, the application of alternative technology exerts great influences on its residents’ daily lives.
With regard to food autonomy, the HHP project is more autonomous than the Springhill project. Located in
the suburban area and with only five families sharing a broad area of farmland, residents in the HHP are
provided with sufficient land to meet their food-growing need. They were able to feed animals that they
wanted and plant green vegetables. With regard to Springhill cohousing, however, it is located against a
hillside site and consists of 34 families, which makes it more difficult to require additional land. Nick White,
the chief builder of the HHP, told the researcher that even if they were able to provide themselves with a
good supply of food, as for basic and daily needs, such as milk, butter and etc, they still need to go to the
supermarket to buy it. In Springhill, because the community is very close to the town centre, residents
therefore find it more convenient to buy any food or other supplies that they need.
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CONCLUSION
Through the comparison undertaken above, it cannot be affirmed whether one project is superior to the
other, or which facilities are inferior to others. The HHP was built four years earlier than the Springhill Project.
From the researcher’s point of view, the reason that the Springhill Project stands out is that it successfully
involves local people and businesses in regenerating areas into well-designed safe environments with
excellent public spaces and access to facilities. All these elaborate features contribute to bringing people
altogether as well as creating thriving sustainable communities.
Housing is the essential and crucial type of design in the field of architecture. The design of cohousing
reveals human beings interactions with three layers of the environment – natural environment, physical
environment, and social environment. By selecting green materials and constructing a physical
environment, humans achieve individual space autonomy as well as common room dependency. Once the
physical environment forms, community members can carry out their interactions with the natural
environment which are mainly revealed by food and energy. By growing food on their own or buying and
sharing food together in common rooms, autonomy and dependency of food are achieved regularly during
daily life. By saving natural energy such as solar energy, water and wind as well as designing these resources
into renewable systems, autonomy and dependency of energy could probably be regarded as the most
obvious factor to be understood in order to purse sustainable living. Only when the physical environment
forms can the social relationship thus be built through various kinds of common activities which are not only
taking place within the community but also with the outside world.
The design of cohousing communities contributes to cultivating ‘cohousing’ not merely as a communal
lifestyle, but also as a living together, but also as a cultural investment in mutuality. Culturally speaking,
cohousing, fertilised as a combination of the autonomy of private dwellings with the advantages of
community living (McCamant 1994, p.12), offers a new approach to housing design which both fits in with
the needs of contemporary society and can be handed down to the future generations.
‘Poetically Man Dwells’, from the poem by Holderlin.
‘It might be living like this’.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Supported by the Fundamental Funds of Humanities and Social Sciences of Beijing Jiaotong University,
China KAJB13007536.
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REFERENCES
Ainoa, J, Kaskela, A, Lahti, L, Saarikoski, N, Sivunen, A, Storgårds, J, & Zhang, H., 2009. ‘Future of living’, in Y
Neuvo & S Ylönen (eds), Bit bang - rays to the future, Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), MIDE, Helsinki
University Print, Helsinki, Finland, pp. 174-204.
Bunker, S, Coats, C & How, J., 2007. Diggers and dreamers 2006/07: The guide to communal living, Brimstone,
NY.
Charles, D., 2005. Senior cohousing handbook: A community approach to independent living, 2nd edn, New
Society, Canada.
E-cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities, the e-cohousing development company limited, viewed 15
January 2008, <http://www.e-cohousing.co.uk/e-cohousing/>.
Eco-communalism, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., viewed 10 December 2007,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-communalism>.
Hanson C., 2005. The cohousing handbook: Building a place for community, Hartley & Marks, Vancouver.
Holtzman, G., 2012. ‘Sustainable neighbourhoods: the cohousing model’, ecosmagazine, 23 April, viewed 15
April 2014, <http://www.ecosmagazine.com/?paper=EC12262>.
Jean, H & Rooksby, E., (eds) 1995. Habitus: A sense of place, Ashgate, England.
Martin F., 2005. Thinking about cohousing: The creation of intentional neighbourhoods, Diggers and Dreamers,
UK.
McCamant, K & Durrett, C., 1994. Cohousing: A contemporary approach to housing ourselves, 2 edn, Ten Speed
Press, California.
McCamant, K & Durrett, C., 1998. Creating cohousing: Building sustainable communities, New Society, Canada.
Scott, N & Nearing, H., 1954. Living the good life, The Social Science Institute, Harborside, Maine.
Smith, PF., 2005 Architecture in a climate of change: A guide to sustainable design, 2 edn, Architectural Press,
Burlington.
Sbm News, Hockerton Housing Sustainable Building Development, viewed 20 Feb 2014, <
www.sbmsearch.com/uploads/articles/pdf/107.pdf!>.
Springhill Cohousing, UK Cohousing Limited, United Kingdom, viewed 10 January 2008, <
http://www.cohousing.org.uk/springhill-cohousing>.
Wann, D., (ed) 2005. Reinventing community: Stories from the walkways of cohousing, Fulcrum, Colorado.
Winter, M., 2007. Sustainable living: For home, neighbourhood and community, Westsong, California.
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PART 3 : VALUES
of ArCHiTECTurAl PrACTiCE and EDuCATiOn. uiA 2014 will explore African practices, related to
relation to novel values, establish new relationships to a living planet, and, most importantly, establish
a sense of respect through diversity and humility.
These debates are meant to re-assess professional values, develop methods and techniques for
professional engagement, and interrogate the ethics associated with architectural and design
practice. There will also be a particular focus on engaging with informality and urban poverty through
design education and practice.
GO TO CONTENTS PAGE
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE VALUES
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STUDY ON THE COMPOSITION OF LAYOUT PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL COGNITION IN THE
COLLECTIVE HOUSING AT MAKUHARI BAYTOWN
Hirotomo Ohuchi, Professor, Dr. Eng, Dept. of Architecture College of Industrial Technology, Nihon
University, Japan
Keisei Watanabe, Graduate Student, Graduate School of Industrial Technology, Nihon University, Japan
Setsuko Kanai, Graduate Student, European University of Madrid, Spain, setsukoouchi@gmail.com
Koji Ohdaira, Graduate Student, Graduate School of Industrial Technology, Nihon University, Japan,
Abstract
This study adopts one of the modern city theories followed in the design of a housing complex on an urban scale,
with the aim of alleviating the shortage of houses. A plan was created to make the centre of a complex at
Makuhari Baytown multi-storeyed and standardised.
Experts argue that an efficient urban and architectural planning method for the new living environment, namely,
collective housing, has not been created. However, the supply of high-rise residential settlements has been
generalized, despite the known negative effects associated with urban verticalization.
In the planning of collective housing, an effective technique must consider secular changes, including the
relevance of the surroundings and living environment. To construct productive planning methods for the increase
of high-rise housing, in-depth research is needed. This research was conducted at Makuhari Baytown, a model of
super high-rise urban housing. The research employed a questionnaire survey, as well as aggregative analysis
theory to determine the aggregate curve. A multivariate analysis was performed based on the various data from
environmental recognition. Local residents' individual cognitive characteristics were grasped by classification.
From the above research, the attributions of environmental cognition and life territory were determined,
particularly those regarding the floors of residents of super high-rise towers. These findings enabled the
appropriate attribution of data for the living-together-in-a-concentrated-community project.
Keywords: environmental recognition, cognitive area, collective housing, Makuhari Baytown, living
environment.
INTRODUCTION
The plan for the multi-storey centre included standardisation, following a modern city theory for the design
of an urban housing complex aimed at alleviating the housing shortage. According to the investigation of
Real Estate Economic Institute Co., LTD, greater verticalisation of collective housing is projected for the next
3 years; specifically, about 100,000 collective housing units are planned in the capital region of Japan.
Additionally, a robust trend towards permanent dwellings in high-rise residential settlements has been
noted.
However, an efficient urban and architectural planning method for the new living environment—collective
housing—has not been developed, although the supply of high-rise residential settlements has been
generalised. It is common knowledge that high-rise urban verticalisation has various negative effects.
Current plans for collective housing do not reflect valid modifications to the initial plans with their
predictable problems. The inadequacy of research on collective housing is exemplified in the history of
immature planning methods. An effective planning technique must reflect considerations for secular
change and the relevance of the environment surrounding a residential living space. More efficient planning
methods for improving productivity in the construction of high-rise housing is needed to meet the
increased demand for such space.
In previous studies, mid-rise and roadside courtyard-type residences have been analysed and classified in
terms of the consciousness of neighbourhood inhabitants and the degree of openness reflected in a
courtyard’s design. These studies identify design characteristics of courtyard-type residences; further, they
address cognitive domain.
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In addition, research was conducted previously in Ohkawabata River City 21, a pioneering model for super
high-rise urban housing. The research analysed the factors and changes associated with the cognitive
domain, which reflects a vertical direction. The concept of layer variation was extracted from the study, and
it provides a planning method for collective housing that is based on cognition and vertical direction.
An effective planning method for collective housing with respect to different heights has not been identified
yet. In this paper, characteristics recognised by residents, layout plans, and cognitive domains of residents in
mid-rise and high-rise dwellings and the residential skyscraper in the courtyard-type residential settlement
in Makuhari Baytown are examined.
INVESTIGATION AND OUTLINE OF ANALYSIS
Region included in research investigation

The investigation covered Makuhari Baytown, which is a visionary model for collective housing in Japan. In
this region, urban planning is based on a Western style of regional planning (i.e. roadside courtyard-type
residential buildings). It is an exceptional reflection of Japan’s culture. In addition, the network of city blocks
has been designed using a grid pattern as a skeletal structure. Parks, green spaces, and open spaces are
arranged according to an axis scale of the landscape, which includes Mount Fuji, the sea, and so on. The
district’s design process emphasises flexibility for consultations; thus, a living body has been planned that
includes an area measuring 84 ha, a planned population of 26,000 people, and 9,600 housing units.
Makuhari Baytown was intended to be an international business city that would be formed step-by-step
over 20 years. As a result, the characteristic cityscape has been formed; it includes public facilities, land for
commercial use, green space, and water in and outside of the region (Figure 1).
Methods of investigation and analysis

In this study, an initial survey questionnaire was administered to investigate the cognitive domains of
residents. Survey results were analysed using a multivariate analysis with quantitative indicators.
Multivariate analysis was conducted according to Quantification III , and common factors were extracted;
additionally, characteristics of the cognition were discussed and a pattern classification analysis using factors
axis was conducted. From this sequence of analyses, characteristics of the residents’ cognitive domains and
composition of arrangement planning were studied.
Outline of the investigation

The first survey was conducted during August and September in 2010. The second survey was conducted
during July and August in 2012. The survey, designed to clarify residents’ cognitive domains, was distributed
to residents over the age of 13 in 43 buildings throughout Makuhari Baytown. It was conducted on site using
the sphere graphic method, and residents surveyed were located in a variety of locations to eliminate bias.
The survey was conducted according to the overview above, and we obtained 335 valid responses. Survey
content is shown in Table 1.
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Figure 1: Investigation area
Table 1: Survey content
CONSIDERATION OF RESIDENTS’ ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION
The cognitive area maps for low, mid-level, and high (upper) residence floors were derived from an
aggregate analysis of the results of the survey questionnaire using the sphere graphic method. The
residents’ cognitive domain areas were based on ‘perceived range of the neighbourhood’, ‘range of
activities’, ‘my town’, ‘familiar waterside’, ‘familiar green space’, ‘bustle’, and ‘landmark’. Furthermore,
calculations of perceived area and a comparison analysis based on storey level were performed.
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CONSIDERATION OF COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTS USING MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS
In this section, the structure and attribution of residents’ cognitive perceptions were analysed using
multivariate data obtained from the survey described in the previous section. Using Quantification III and a
cluster analysis, the multivariate data were analysed. Personal data obtained from the completed
questionnaires were classified into 30 items and 134 categories, as shown in Table 2; subsequently,
Quantification III was executed. The factors that are notable in terms of cognitive characteristics were
extracted based on three axes, as described below.
Correlation coefficient for the first axis: 0.359284

In the first and second axis item category plot chart (Figure 2), the area of perceived range and degree of
overlapping range show the consecutive distribution, which can form the axis. The area and overlap is so
major and overlapping as to the positive direction, whereas is small and dissevering as to the negative
direction. Therefore, a factor analysis for the first axis was based on the area of the perceived range and the
degree of overlap, considered as ‘a composite of the range by the mutual relationship’..
Correlation coefficient for the second axis: 0.33572

In the category plot chart for the second/third axis and first/second axis, ‘vertical consciousness’, ‘range of
vertical consciousness’, ‘factor of vertical consciousness’, ‘age’, ‘residential floor level’, and ‘attributes of
components’ reveal the consecutive distribution forming an axis (Figure 2). Vertical consciousness, range of
vertical consciousness, and factor of vertical consciousness do not reflect a negative direction. Residential
floor level, applicable to the high-rise buildings and skyscraper, reflects a positive direction, whereas the
low-rise and mid-rise residences indicate a negative direction. Points for the consciousness of
neighbourhood residents are understood in the positive direction, whereas time is understood in the
negative direction. Thus, the factor analysis of the second axis was conducted for vertical consciousness,
residential floor level, and consciousness of neighbourhood residents. The axis shows the ‘expanse of the
consciousness of the neighbourhood residents to the vertical and horizontal direction that is subjected to
the residential floor level’.
Correlation coefficient for the third axis: 0.304834

The category plot charts for the first/second axis and second/third axis show consecutive distribution mainly
in respect to visibility, residence year, and attributes of the components, which form the causal axis
component (Figure 2). Visibility indicates a positive direction, and invisibility a negative direction. Residence
year as ‘more than 11 years’ reflects a positive direction, and ‘7 to 8 years’ reflects a negative direction.
Attributes of components (range of activities) reflect a positive direction for time and a negative direction for
points. Therefore, factors of the third axis are visibility, residence year, and component attributes, expressed
as ‘change of visual and cognitive structure due to the time change’.
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Table 2: Item category plot
CONSIDERATION OF STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE RESIDENT FACTOR ANALYSIS AND TYPOLOGY
This study reveals the features of each type of pattern recognition by the characteristics of each type
obtained from a sample score of Quantification III and cluster analysis (Ward’s method). In this study, a tree
diagram from the cluster analysis was used to identify two classification types when the Euclidian distance
was greater than 400 and five types when the Euclidean distance was greater than 100 (Figure 3).
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Figure2: Item category plot 1-2 axis (left) and 2-3 axis (right)
Figure3: Sample plot based on cluster analysis 1 -2 axis (left), 2-3 axis (right)
Type I-A (73 samples)

Type I-A is a group of residents who live on low and middle floors of buildings within an entire city block.
They are conscious of the neighbourhood in the vertical direction (i.e. upper and lower floors in residential
buildings). However, range of activities, waterfront, and green space are not included in the visible area. Yet,
the cognitive area covers a relatively wide range. The cognitive area for the range of activities encloses green
space and a range of the neighbourhood. Furthermore, the neighbourhood range, waterfront, and green
space are separated from each other.
Type I-B (57 samples)

Type I-B is a group of residents who live on the upper floors of high-rise buildings within a city block. They
are conscious of the neighbourhood in the vertical direction (i.e. upper and lower floors in residential
buildings). The range of activities, waterfront, and green space are included in the visible area. Further, the
cognitive area covers a wide range. The cognitive area for the range of activities encloses green space and
the range of the neighbourhood. In fact, cognitive domains of green space and the neighbourhood are
duplicated.
Type I-C (105 samples)

Type I-C is a group of residents who live below the ninth floor in high-rise buildings within a city block. They
are conscious of the neighbourhood in the vertical direction. The range of activities, waterfront, and green
space are not included in the visible area. Further, the area of the cognitive domain is small and regional
compared to other types. Additionally, the range of the neighbourhood and range of activities are
duplicated in the cognitive domains. Finally, the neighbourhood range, waterfront, and green space are
separated.
Type II-A (58 samples)

Type II-A is a group of residents who live on lower and middle floors of residential buildings within an entire
city block. They are not conscious of the neighbourhood in the vertical direction. Further, a range of
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activities and green space are not included in the visible area. The area of the cognitive domain is small and
regional compared to other types. Further, cognitive domains are separated.
Type II-B (42 samples)

Type II-B is a group of residents who live on lower and middle floors of high-rise residential buildings within
a city block. They are not conscious of the neighbourhood in the vertical direction. The range of activities,
water, and green space are included in the visible area. Furthermore, the cognitive domain of the range of
activities and the neighbourhood is wide compared to other types. There is an overlap in the green space
with the neighbouring range, and cognitive domains are duplicated. The range of the neighbourhood with
green space, and the range of activities for the waterfront are duplicated in the cognitive domains. In
addition, cognitive domains of green space enclose the cognitive domains of the range of activities.
Table 3: Characteristics of each type
CONCLUSION
The results of this study are summarized as follows. Figure 9 presents the summary of the overlapping range
of the cognitive domain according to each type, illustrated with respect to the height of the building, the
expansion of the cognitive area in the vertical direction of the upper and lower floor, the range of
neighborhood awareness, the range of the activities of the residents, and the cognitive ranges of the familiar
water side and green area.
Residents who live in the lower and middle floors are categorized as type I-A and II-A respectively. Type I-A
has a wider range of neighborhood consciousness in the vertical direction of the upper and lower floors of
the building interior, whereas II-A, which is the more narrow range of the spread of the neighborhood
consciousness indicates a narrow range of the cognitive region.
Types I-B and I-C refer to residents who live in the high-rise block. The cognitive domain of the residents of
the upper floor shows a wider range than those who live in the lower and middle levels. Furthermore, the
cognitive domains of the residents of the upper level overlap in terms of ‘range of neighbourhood
consciousness’ and ‘familiar green area’, and for them, the ‘familiar green space’ is enclosed within the
‘range of activities’.
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Type I-C indicates the residents who live on the middle and upper floors of the high-rise building. They
indicate a narrow range of ‘range of neighbourhood consciousness’, ‘range of activity’, and ‘familiar
waterside and green space’, and a separation of mutual domain units.
Type II-B is the category of residents who live on the middle and upper floors of the super high-rise and
high-rise buildings. They indicate a wider distribution in ‘range of neighbourhood consciousness’, ‘range of
activity’, and ‘familiar waterside and green space,’ and an overlap among the domain units.
The residents of the lower and middle levels indicate the spread of the neighborhood consciousness in the
vertical direction and a narrow range in the cognitive region. When the neighborhood consciousness is
narrow in the vertical direction, the environmental recognition tends to fall within a wider range.
Figure 4: Cognitive region map for range of activity and familiar green area [Type I-A] (left)
Figure 5: Cognitive region map for range of activity and familiar green area [Type I-B] (right).
Figure 6: Cognitive region map for range of activity and familiar green area [Type I-C] (left)
Figure 7: Cognitive region map for range of activity and familiar green area [Type II-A] (right)
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Figure 8: Cognitive region map for range of activity and familiar green area [Type II-B].
NOTES
1.Quantification III
The purpose of this analysis is to classify samples according to the relationship between categories
(characteristic items) and samples. Results are shown as scatter diagrams. In the analytical procedure, the
relationship between categories was examined initially. Second, latent common factors revealed from the
results are shown as axes of scatter diagrams (category plots). Finally, samples on the scatter diagrams were
used for classification, and characteristics were identified.
2. Sphere graphic method
This method is effective when focused on a subject with adequate recognition of the area. It is suitable for
studying relatively limited spaces in small areas, such as the area surrounding a personal dwelling. The
subject’s cognitive area is obtained by indirectly exploring the structure through a spread, a spatial break,
etc.
3. Components
Components of each cognitive domain were classified into point elements, line elements, plane elements,
and elements with temporal variables.
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Figure 9: Conceptual diagram of characteristics of each type.
REFERENCES
Chiba, K, Takano, Y & Ohuchi, H., 2012. ‘Formation of the environmental recognition in the historical
downtown city - the composition of the environmental recognition in Tsukishima block abd its change-
Part1’, Annual Meeting Proceedings, AIJ, pp. 535-536, Nagoya.
Chiba, K, Takano, Y & Ohuchi, H., 2011. ‘Formulation of habitat and environmental recognition relationships
of historical downtown of city -about the physical environmental change in the Tsukishima blocks’, Annual
academic lecture meeting Proceedings, College of Industrial Technology, Nihon University, pp. 695-698,
Chiba.
Ohuchi, H, Ouchi, S, Chiba, K & Takano, Y., 2012. ‘Study on the composition of the residential environment
and environmental cognition in collective housing’, Proceedings of the the fourth international conference
on advanced geographic information systems, applications, and services, pp. 127-133, Valencia.
Ohuchi, H, Tagami, C, Ouchi, S, Ito, A & Chiba, K., 2011. ‘Study on urban space composition as an actual space
and image structure of children’, Paper presented at the 24th world congress of architectureUIA2011
TOKYO Academic Program Research Papers and Design Works, UIA, Tokyo.
Yamada, S & Ohuchi, H., 2008. ‘Research on environmental awareness of residents living in the body housing
a collection of skyscrapers’, Proceedings of the planning system, AIJ, no.18 pp. 1749-1757, Tokyo.
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SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF INNOVATION AND COLLABORATION IN INTEGRATED DESIGN (ID) FOR
ARCHITECTURE
Ricardo Ferreira Leoto, IF Research Group, École d’architecture, Université de Montréal, Canada,
ricardo.ferreira.leoto@umontreal.com
Gonzalo Lizarralde, IF Research Group, Professor at the School of Architecture, Université de Montréal,
Canada, gonzalo.lizarralde@umontreal.ca
Benjamin Herazo-Cueto, IF Research Group, Faculté de l’aménagement, Université de Montréal, Canada,

bj.herazo.cueto@umontreal.ca
Abstract
Design professionals in the built environment have been criticised for their lack of innovation, notably when
compared with other major industry sectors such as aerospace, technology and automobile. The fragmented
nature of design is identified as a significant barrier to innovation and collaboration. Increasing attention toward
sustainability, however, has led architects and other professionals to implement alternative design methods, such
as Integrated Design (ID), aimed at integrating otherwise fragmented outputs and processes. ID is a participatory
process that brings together interdisciplinary experts and key stakeholders during intensive work sessions in order
to enhance both collaboration and innovation. Yet, while the need for ID has been sufficiently established in the
literature, its limitations have been insufficiently explored.
The case study of a Canadian project (certified LEED-Platinum), which attempted to be an innovative example of
sustainable development, helps us examine the contingency factors that constrain innovation and collaboration.
The empirical data, which includes an extensive documentation of the ID process and nine interviews with key
project stakeholders, illustrates the effects of: (a) stakeholders’ perceptions of the risks associated with innovation;
(b) stakeholders’ collective engagement with common values; and (c) waste in the design process, defined as
activities unnecessary for task completion and value generation. From a theoretical point of view, these results
highlight the nuanced merits of ID and the importance of adopting a stakeholder definition of value. From a
practical point of view, they bring into light the way in which practitioners can improve stakeholder interaction.
Keywords: Integrated design, innovation, collaboration, waste in design process, architecture projects.
INTRODUCTION
It is often argued that the construction sector is lagging behind other sectors in terms of productivity and
efficiency (Lichtig 2006). Specialists often point to its lack of innovation (Kulatunga et al. 2011) and
collaboration (Huovila, Koskela & Lautanala 1997). When compared to other sectors, the construction sector
is usually classified as a conservative, low-technology sector with insufficient investment in research and
development (Reichstein, Salter & Gann 2005). Whereas several authors believe that the fragmented nature
of the construction industry is the most significant barrier to innovation and collaboration (Lichtig 2006;
Pries & Janszen 1995; Koskela & Huovila 2000), different types of fragmentation are often used
interchangeably. Owing to the fact that this article explores the design process, we will focus our attention
particularly on design project fragmentation.
Buildings are designed by temporary coalitions of stakeholders, known as temporary multi-organisations

(TMOs) (Cherns & Bryant 1984). The design deliverables of each specialty are prepared separately by several
professionals or firms assembled at an advanced stage of the process. In this context, meetings occur almost
exclusively for coordinating purposes (Cole et al. 2008). The isolation of design disciplines leaves little room
for optimisation and typically leads to costly changes, unnecessary rework in design, as well as poor
performance (Magent 2005). This often creates a gap between the expected and the actual project quality
(Jayasena & Senevirathna 2012).
However, increasing attention towards sustainability points to alternative measures of process performance
(Bonham 2013). Not only designers, but all participants in the industry, are being increasingly challenged to
successfully innovate in order to satisfy the aspirations and needs of society and clients, and to improve
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competitiveness (Latham 1994). These expectations have led architects and other professionals to adopt
alternative design methods such as Integrated Design (ID) aimed at integrating otherwise fragmented
outputs and processes (Rekola, Mäkeläinen & Häkkinen 2012; Zerjav, Hartmann & Boes 2011). ID is a
participatory process that brings together interdisciplinary experts and key stakeholders through intensive
work sessions (dubbed design “charrettes”) during the whole project design phase, enhancing both
collaboration and innovation (Ghassemi & Becerik-Gerber 2011). Yet, while the need for ID has been
sufficiently established in the literature, its scope and limitations have been insufficiently explored.
The objective of this article is to examine, both theoretically and empirically, the several contingency factors
that limit Interactive Design's capacity to achieve innovation and collaboration goals. It identifies the main
difficulties encountered in ID as well as important opportunities for improvement. A review of the literature
on innovation, collaboration, and ID is presented in the first section, which ultimately proposes an analytical
framework that includes three categories of analysis (constructs) that are validated in the empirical study. In
the second section, the case study is presented, highlighting the qualitative results obtained from the
analysis of documents and interviews. Finally, the discussion section presents the practical and theoretical
implications of the findings, their transferability and their limits.
INTRODUCTION TO KEY CONCEPTS
Innovation and collaboration
It is well known that neither innovation nor collaboration happen naturally in most organisations (Lizarralde
et al. 2012) and that the key for successful innovation is collaboration, within and across organisations (Von
Stamm 2004). Even though several definitions of innovation exist in the literature, it is generally accepted
that innovation is the generation, development, and implementation of ideas that are new to an
organisation and that produce benefits (Dulaimi, Nepal & Park 2005). Toole, Hallowell and Chinowsky (2013,
p. 33) explain that innovation is “the act of introducing a significant improvement in a process, product, or
system that is novel to the organisation, may cause individuals to view things differently, and results in
competitive advantage, increased value for the client or benefit to stockholders”. These improvements are
often seen in terms of the value they create for stakeholders (Magent 2005). Nonetheless, by adopting a
stakeholder approach to innovation, Lizarralde et al. (2014) argue that an approach to innovation in the built
environment must consider who perceives the changes being developed during innovation processes as
valuable. This argument links innovation to the subjective perception of value among heterogeneous
stakeholders (within a certain context and moment), rejecting the notion that innovation is an objective
attribute of a product or process.
Collaboration is often seen as a mechanism to facilitate the sharing of information, resources and knowledge
to enhance the emergence of innovative solutions (Von Stamm 2004; Crossan & Apaydin 2010). Wood and
Gray (1991) contend that collaboration occurs “when a group of autonomous stakeholders of a problem
domain engage in an interactive process, using shared rules, norms and structures, to act of decide on issues
related to that domain”. Although collaboration and coordination are often used as interchangeable terms,
Lizarralde, Herazo and de Blois (2011) highlight some differences between them. They note that cooperation
is often characterized by informal relationships (that exist without a commonly defined mission, structure, or
effort), while collaboration often refers to higher levels of integration that frequently connote a durable
relationship between “stakeholders that share similar responsibility and authority (notably among
professionals or between professionals and contractors)” (Viel et al. 2012, p. 3). We shall now explore the
most common barriers to stakeholder integration.
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Design project fragmentation
Collaboration is often hindered by three forms of fragmentation (see Table 1).
Table 1. Forms of fragmentation in the construction sector.
We will focus our attention on the subject of this article: design project fragmentation; and we will
emphasise how sustainability influences the process of collaboration and innovation.
Sustainability and Integrated Design (ID)
Sustainability has gained popularity as there is an increased awareness of the links between environmental
degradation, socio-economic issues pertaining to poverty and inequality, and concerns about a healthy
future for humanity (Hopwood, Mellor & O'Brien 2005). Whereas traditional procurement favours a culture of
competition with a constant focus on cost, schedule and quality, sustainable design considers additional
performance objectives such as low energy consumption, users’ health, waste reduction, environmental
protection (Bonham 2013), reduced pollution and social justice, etc. (Vanegas, DuBose & Pearce 1995).
In Integrated Design, designers are required to innovate and collaborate in order to fulfil new expectations
and the needs of a broader group of stakeholders (Latham 1994). ID aims to reduce fragmentation in the
design process and enhance project and industry efficiency to delivery sustainable projects (Zerjav,
Hartmann & Boes 2011).
Table 2. Definition of integrated design as cited by Forgues and Koskela (2009, p. 3).
Architects and other professionals are increasingly called to consider for example the whole life cycle of the
facility, not just the initial capital investment (Rekola, Mäkeläinen & Häkkinen 2012). The core principle of ID
is to bring together interdisciplinary experts and key stakeholders through intensive charrettes in the same
time and space (Forgues & Lejeune 2011). Team members are expected to both share and develop new
knowledge, generating added value in the process and product (Ghassemi & Becerik-Gerber 2011; Jayasena
& Senevirathna 2012).
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Table 3. A comparison between design methods after Jayasena and Senevirathna (2012).
Reed and Gordon (2000) explain that ID emphasizes the three “E’s”: Early participation by Everybody involved
in the project design to discuss Everything having to do with the design. The involvement of all team
members in the decision-making process is thus mandatory in ID (Kratzenbach & Smith 2003). ID implies a
holistic approach that sees the project as a whole, bringing together as many disciplines as possible as well
as special interest groups and external stakeholders in the early stages of the design process (Forgues &
Koskela 2008). Table 2 presents a definition of ID and Table 3 explains the main differences between
Traditional and Integrated Design.
ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
The previous sections of this paper developed the concepts of innovation, collaboration, and fragmentation
in the design process and also the principles of sustainable construction and Integrated Design. In this
section, we will present the analytical framework that we produced through an iterative back-and-forth
between the literature review and an empirical analysis. We present the framework here before the
empirical results; however, in reality, we constructed it in parallel with the empirical study.
The Relationship between Risk Acceptance and Innovation
Innovation requires initiative and involves some degree of risk of failure and uncertainty (Jalonen &
Lehtonen 2011; Ivory 2005). Companies considering innovation need a “systematic approach to identify the
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activities that can reduce avoidable uncertainty and risk” (Slaughter 2000, p. 2). Nam and Tatum (1997)
suggest that the willingness of clients to share risks, and their commitment to innovation and leadership in
project planning and execution, are critical for the success of the innovation process.
Early research has also identified the importance of clients in promoting innovation. Slaughter and Cate
(2009) find that clients play a determining role in establishing the incidence and rate of innovation in
construction projects. They also suggest that it is fundamental for the client (in order to develop and
successfully implement innovative approaches) to establish and communicate the superordinate goals that
bind the project team members early on in the process. Early active involvement of stakeholders also
produces other benefits that increase the generation of cost-effective ideas and mitigate risk (Bidault,
Despres & Butler 1998).
Determining innovative goals for all team members early on in the process can similarly “bridge the gap
between the client, designers, and builder in the recognition of those goals despite (sometimes) misaligned
agendas” (Slaughter & Cate 2009, p. 153) Despite the risk, both clients and professionals benefit from
innovation: the client benefits from an innovative solution to a specific project need, and the builders
benefit from innovation through potential application in subsequent projects (Slaughter & Cate 2009).
Design professionals can arguably improve innovation strategies by explicitly announcing the type of
innovation which is being considered (Slaughter 2000). Defenders of this approach note that innovations
can be categorised as: product vs process; radical vs incremental, and technical vs administrative
(Gopalakrishnan & Damanpour 1997). Different levels of risk are typically perceived in these multiple forms
of innovation (see Table 4). Let’s now move to the second variable of our analytical framework.
Table 4. Descriptive framework to categorise types of innovation after Gopalakrishnan and Damanpour (1997).
Stakeholders’ collective engagement with common values
Recent studies have demonstrated that developing a sense of common objectives in the early stages of the
project can increase the willingness of stakeholders to collaborate, especially when they perceive value in
this interaction (Ramcharan 1997; Teece 1986; Slaughter 2000). Kaatz et al. (2006) highlight that the strong
collaboration of professionals and external stakeholders, combined with their efforts in a spirit of teamwork
guided by a common project vision, is essential in designing a sustainable building. Teamwork is defined by
Chiocchio et al. (2011) as a “team-level construct corresponding to how team members work to combine
their thoughts, actions, and feelings to coordinate and adapt, and to reach a common goal”. According to
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D'Amour et al. (2005, p. 116), collaboration implies sharing and collective action “oriented toward a common
goal in a spirit of harmony and trust”. Trust is realised through fulfilling commitments (Ashcraft 2008) and
must be a common thread running through the entire program, providing the foundation for effective
collaboration (Jalonen & Lehtonen 2011).
Kulatunga et al. (2011) found that the proactive involvement and commitment of the client is important for
encouraging integration among project participants. Additional research highlights that the success of this
target lies on top management leadership and commitment in developing and implementing an effective
plan and adequately providing the required resources and support to manage changes arising from the
implementation (Bashir et al. 2010).
A literature review of champions in innovation demonstrates the importance of leadership in supporting

innovation and promoting a shared vision despite strong opposition (Dean 1987). The decision to innovate
often relies, according to Slaughter (2000), upon the actions of a particular leader who is willing to shepherd
the innovation all along. The champions show extraordinary confidence in their mission, inspiring and
enthusing others (Maidique 1980). This is made explicit in five dissimilar roles (see Table 5). We shall now
explore the third, and last, variable of our analytical framework.
Table 5. Champions’ roles in innovation and collaboration (Nam & Tatum 1997; Roberts & Fusfeld 1982).
Waste in the design process
Waste in the design process is defined as activities unnecessary for task completion and value generation
(Magent et al. 2009). The traditional project processes are often loaded with unnecessary rework, delays,
changes, and overproduction (Horman et al. 2004). Therefore, improvements in the delivery process can
reduce costs and increase efficiency. This implies, however, identifying the most prevalent forms and causes
of waste. The conceptual representation of the design process developed by Magent (2005) can open the
way to this objective. Magent identified three categories of waste in the design process (see Table 6).
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Table 6. Categories of waste in the design process (Magent 2005).
Keeping in mind this framework, let’s now explore the methods that simultaneously created and became an
output of the three constructs discussed above.
RESEARCH METHODS
This study included a comprehensive literature review on innovation, collaboration and Integrated Design
(ID). This review allowed for creating an improved conceptual framework and identifying three categories of
analysis (or constructs) that validated or complemented the empirical study. In the second phase, we
adopted a qualitative research approach; more specifically, a case study approach “that investigates a
contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context” as suggested by Yin (2009, p. 13). The case study of
the Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD) was chosen because it fulfils the requirements previously
identified: a) adoption of a green building certification (LEED®), b) a project that seeks to integrate
collaboration and innovation in processes and outputs as much as possible, c) a project that adopted ID, and
d) full access to data, reports, and stakeholders.
We collected and analysed primary data, including 13 integrated design reports, 23 emails, two contractual
documents, construction schedules, photos, the web page of the CSD, two conference videos, and six press
releases. The second step included more than ten visits to the project site during its construction as well as
nine semi-structured interviews with professionals, clients and stakeholders involved in all project phases of
ID (see Table 7).
Table 7. List of professionals interviewed.

The representatives who participated in the Integrated Design charrettes can be considered the most
reliable sources in terms of experience, responsibilities, and awareness of the importance of collaboration
and innovation. The interview questions were designed to gather information from the 14 Integrated Design
sessions and discover how challenges were overcome. The questions were categorised according to the
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elements identified in our analytical framework, but also allowed for identifying new variables or categories.
All the interviews lasted between 90 and 120 minutes and were recorded. In this way, we were able to
validate the pertinence of the analytical framework and use the qualitative information to answer the
following research question: What are the scope and limitations of Integrated Design in achieving innovation
and collaboration goals in architecture projects?
REARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In 2007, Equiterre and seven other environmental organisations formed an alliance to create the Centre for
Sustainable Development (CSD), a non-profit organisation whose mandate was to innovate by delivering an
ecological and exemplary building in downtown Montreal, with features that would inspire action on the
part of the general public and decision-makers in real estate and construction (Équiterre 2009). The 60,000
square feet, 5-storey building opened its doors in September 2011 as a place for reflection, innovation,
education, and the meeting of minds on sustainable development (see Table 8).
Table 8. Professionals and stakeholders involved in the CSD project.
The CSD is the first commercial building in the downtown core of a major Canadian city, and the first in
Québec to receive the LEED® Platinum certification in the category of a new construction (with 59 out of 70
points - LEED® NC 1.0 version). The building has many innovative eco-energy strategies that allow a
reduction of 60% of the electricity used compared to a standard ASHRAE 90.1 model building being one of
the most energy-efficient office buildings in Québec. In addition to a geothermal heating and cooling
system, the building is equipped with a high-performance thermal envelope, triple-pane windows, and an
approximately 800 m2 green roof. The designers surpassed the LEED® requirements by adding, for example,
an approximately 38 m2 living wall, by using a social insertion company to build the kitchen cabinets and
some furniture, and by using wood reclaimed from riverbeds (Leoto 2010).
Integrated Design was identified as an essential condition for the development of the building. The project
was also the first in Canada to use a Laboratory of Computer Aided Collaboration in Design, equipped with
cutting-edge technology in telecommunications and research software. The conceptual framework
developed in this study was validated and used to analyse this case study. Let’s now examine some of the
results according to each of the three constructs.
Risk Perception
The client clearly announced its expectations: "We want to innovate in order to deliver an ecological and
demonstrative building to inspire the general public and decision-makers in real estate and construction” (client
representative). Not having a clear message would cause risks (and possibly, costs) distributed among
stakeholders (Slaughter 2000). Respondents were, however, concerned with professional liability: "The line
between professionals and client responsibility in possible failure in projects related to innovative technologies or
solutions was not very clear" (client representative). Uncertainty in project liability generated conservative
responses by the professionals. One architect argued: "We could use wood instead of concrete for [the
structure], but researchers told us that this wasn’t possible”. Professional codes of practice were in fact
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perceived as barriers for innovation. One respondent explained: "Getting into an unknown field is risky, and we
know that not all professionals were willing to [do this]”.
There were three initial charrettes focusing on the search for innovations in the building field. Respondents
found, however, that the type of innovation that the client was seeking was not fully clear. Arguably, clients
and professionals did not have the same willingness to assume risk. The client believed that innovation
could be incremental, finding better materials or technical solutions (Ettlie, Bridges & O'keefe 1984) or using
equipment already available in the market focusing instead on a better integration with others systems. The
architects, instead, perceived that innovation implied fundamental changes and a clear departure from
existing practices (Tushman & Anderson 1986). Respondents also noted that professionals had very short
delays to develop new solutions. According to one architect: "Our office is neither a university’s laboratory nor
a R&D industry’s department. We have rare chances where we have enough time to make research in order to
provide innovation for our projects”.
Whereas the client was willing to incorporate incremental changes, design professionals preferred to see
innovation in terms of creating a distinctive and efficient architectural space. Both clients and professionals
were ultimately satisfied with the final result, but they recognised that the process could have taken them
much further. Professionals saw that innovation was hindered by a limited budget and a very small plot
compared to the expressed needs and expectations of the client. The clients rather saw professional liability
as a hindering factor; they notably perceived that professionals were not willing to innovate in order to
reduce risks associated with their professional liability. Consequently, the project team eventually resorted
to some conventional solutions. For instance, the concrete could have been “more ecological” by replacing
the cement with glass powder (this innovation was rejected because it was still an experimental solution).
Moreover, a wastewater treatment system could have been introduced.
Stakeholders’ collective engagement with common values
It is expected that all stakeholders in Integrated Design charrettes will build a shared vision of the project
and will collectively establish the best way to achieve it. It is also expected that their intense interaction will
lead to new discoveries (Forgues & Koskela 2009). The client was satisfied with the experience of conducting
and participating in the 14 charrettes (only 7 were planned in the initial schedule). The level of participation
of consultants whose presence was required exceeded 80%. In the charrettes, different roles were required
(see Table 6). The client notes, however, that “the mere participation of stakeholders in all meetings does not
necessarily imply that there is a true collaboration and sharing of information among professionals”. One
architect contends that “the meetings were too long, and without a break between them in order to give us time
to work on the data”. The client reveals a possible reason for this problem: “[even though] the level of
participation was significant, the preparation and organization of meetings and work during the session’s ID
could be pushed a little further”.
The construction industry needs a “champion” to coordinate efforts in order to successfully explore
innovation potentials (Nam & Tatum 1997). In this project, the green champion was one of the client
representatives. He mobilised stakeholders (professionals and partners) to achieve ambitious objectives in
terms of reducing energy consumption. Even though the role of a facilitator is essential in order to achieve
successful collaboration and encourage teamwork (Lee 2014), this project did not benefit from a legitimate,
neutral, facilitator. A sustainability adviser was appointed by the client to act as a facilitator, being
responsible for organising the design charrettes. His legitimacy, however, was not recognised by the other
stakeholders because he acted simultaneously as an external consultant in sustainability and a facilitator
(two roles that were in fact conflicting). Given this tension, the client eventually decided to withdraw the role
of facilitator. Documents show that the client later recognised the need for a facilitator to “promote
collaboration and to overcome the feeling of waste of time in professionals” (Équiterre 2007). Several studies
have in fact demonstrated that a facilitator is important to “ensure that people are heard, to build trust, to
speed up brainstorming, to ensure that people feel heard and understood” (Roundtable 2007).
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Table 9. Role of stakeholders in the CSD Integrated Design.
After the 6th charrette, the meetings became rather conventional. According to a client representative, the
participants “merely improvised the agenda without real cooperation, acting more like friends who gather to
discuss a project”. Apparently, the limited budget and different understandings about the main objective of
the project negatively affected the relationships between stakeholders and the search for innovative
solutions.
Because of this, the team started to work in a dysfunctional manner. A client representative explained: “The
Integrated Design was a great tool, but at the end, the project team worked as usual. It’s difficult for us to compare
because that project was our first and only experience of ID. Construction is not our core business.” Very often, the
client disagreed with the project team on issues such as the need to increase energy efficiency. It was also
perceived that the budget was very limited to have the LEED Platinum certification, and that the client did
not have the support of the professionals due to liability problems. Over and above working as a team with a
common objective, stakeholders ended up negotiating the integration of specific ideas and solutions.
Waste in the design process
The sustainable consultants guided the client to adopt Integrated Design (ID). In 2006, when this ID process
was introduced, no consensus existed on how to operationalise the methodology. According to an ID report,
the client knew that “we need to have as many stakeholders as possible as early as possible, but we still didn’t
know how to coordinate their specific contributions, how to foster innovative ideas and how to overcome the
feelings of some people that they were wasting their time” (Équiterre 2007). One of the professionals had a
more positive view of the process: “We had the input from experts in many different areas, including energy
experts, building managers, the entrepreneur and they also had access to studies […] Experts came to challenge
us. It was profitable”.
The improvisation and the excess of novelty and research introduced in the team a feeling of “waste of time”
(Équiterre 2009). We could identify specific moments when the team was rather discouraged with the
process. According to a designer: “charrettes must be only for professionals. In the case of this project, there were
a lot of people who were not professionals; all the time, we had to explain each detail. It really took a long time.
When non-experts were included in the design process, it was not a design any more: it was a communication
plan to engage the public”.
Another professional argued; “ID is unique, this is the only way to ensure that we can have synergy. We
integrated experts in the early process, what normally would not happen, and their collaboration in the project
was very precious.” More conservative professionals showed a more sceptical view: “ID in this project goes to
the extreme, there were so many incoming constraints that we were really lost; that hindered innovation”.
Table 10 shows the dates, the time allocated, the number of participants and organisations involved in each
meeting. Integrated Design (ID) is intended to be a collaborative and innovative process. But the documents
show, and the interviews confirm, that waste in the design process can hinder both innovation and
collaboration. In our case, ID was a new method for all stakeholders and was in itself a significant challenge.
In the interviews, everyone agreed that all participants had the best intentions of collaborating and
achieving innovation goals. But they also agreed that the quantity of meetings (double of those initially
planned) and the duration (some lasted more than 8 hours) reduced their commitment.
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Table 10. Participation in Integrated Design charrettes (Équiterre 2007).
Despite the problems identified above, all interviewees were unanimous in saying that the participation of
all professionals, the presence of the client and, especially the participation of experts, who otherwise would
never have intervened in the initial phase of the project, contributed for the successful completion of the
project.
While this study identified the three most relevant factors that affected the scope and the limitations of
innovation and collaboration in ID, we recognise that other factors can also contribute to hinder
collaboration and innovation and deserve to be thoroughly studied. More empirical research is also needed
to better understand the dynamic roles of the integrated team and the facilitator.
CONCLUSION
In order to study the efficiency of a participatory process in achieving the goals of innovation and
collaboration, this research prepared a comprehensive literature review on innovation, collaboration and
Integrated Design (ID). A literature review revealed the existence of several contingency factors and led us to
create an analytical framework to respond to the following research question: What are the scope and
limitations of ID in achieving innovation and collaboration goals in architecture projects?
A detailed case study emphasised and confirmed the importance of three factors (or constructs): risk
perception, stakeholder commitment, and waste in the design process. The limits of the study include the
fact that it did not permit identifying and creating an exhaustive list of all issues that influence collaboration
and innovation. But the contingency factors were found to have an important empirical effect. More
specifically, we found that (a) clients can positively influence all the team members by establishing their
willingness early and clearly to take risks in order to innovate, but the opposite is also true; (b) the early
development of a sense of common goal can increase the willingness of the parties to collaborate for
effective innovation; (c) the improvement of the delivery process can reduce waste in the design process.
This implies appropriate preparation of project meetings and charrettes, clear definition of roles and the
duration of each meeting, and the importance of having a facilitator responsible to set the stage for
“effective communication throughout the design process by instilling effective communication skills within
the group and fostering an atmosphere of lasting respect and trust” (Roundtable 2007).
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The study highlights the nuances in the scope and limitation of innovation and collaboration in Integrated
Design (ID). The results provide some clarity to complex design practices that respond to new paradigms
such as sustainability. Clients, designers, and stakeholders must understand the complexity of ID in order to
successfully foster collaboration and innovation. Moreover, while ID aims at integrating otherwise
fragmented outputs and processes, there are still fundamental problems that remain unanswered regarding
design professionals' ability to perform in this new context. Future investigations can explore how new tools
can create a better context for efficient teamwork, for example buildings energy simulations, BIM and
communications software.
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ARE YOU MY TYPE? NEW EFFORTS IN THE ACCESSIBILITY OF ARCHITECTURE AT EARLY AGES
Juan Del Barrio, OOperai, Panamá, jdelbarrio@ooperai.com

Jorge Castillo, OOperai, Panamá, jcastillo@ooperai.com
Abstract
Creative engagements at early ages, particularly the ones related to the access of architecture for children and
young people, are becoming very popular in the modern debate. Countries like Finland, Germany and the UK have
been pioneers in these engagements and have become sine qua non models for quality practices and excellence.
However, giving a future to similar practices in the developing context is not a straightforward task. It demands
that architects and educators become creative and explore new routes for regaining attraction in subjectivity.
Contesting such specific scenarios, this paper argues that the future of establishing built environment awareness
at an early age is based on the potential of architecture to assess value beyond any collective aesthetic or
technological reductionism. With this in mind, what are the effects and responses of introducing architecture in
this context? Are these significant enough to assess built environment awareness?
Since 2011, OOperai has supported the production and exchange of lived-images1 with the scope of introducing
value and heightening awareness of children's built environments with a methodology called ‘Type’. ‘Type’ roots
its architectural and methodological structure in subjectivities that make evident the fact that the assessment of
built environment awareness at early ages is a collaborative process.
Three specific projects from the OOperai Foundation – each involving children from different countries, local
leaders and architects – are woven together with the ‘Type’ methodology, stating new significant challenges and
concepts for promoting space/place awareness at early ages.
OOperai challenges the current dominant discourses in built environment awareness at an early age and
provokes a revaluation of the social role of the architect in his or her immediate society. However, how significant
are these new routes and possibilities? Are these the product of new methodologies, or do they come from the
context in which society embeds them?
Keywords: OOperai, children, built environment awareness, Panamá, type.
DEFINING ‘TYPE’
One of the fundamental problems in architecture is the mythical definition of type. OOperai traces on type a
creative concept for evaluative awareness of the built environment on a global basis. This concept has
involved more than ten countries, and is currently producing results in India and Panamá. OOperai’s non-
hierarchical and non-self-referenced practices are the vehicle for new territories and assemblages between
learned typologies and lived typologies through a constant exchange.
‘Type’ stands for think, play, paint and explain, and is a methodology tested in different contexts for the
assessment of space/place awareness at early ages. ‘Type’ is rooted in integrative themes that use memory
and imagination as natural ways to embody knowledge. Under ‘Type’, the production, exchange and
evaluation of creative results has become a hub for the main settlement located in Panamá.
In architecture, type has been a fertile idea for giving meaning to desire through form. However, far from any
reductionism of form and character, type is coincident with its users, society, values and techniques (i.e., it is
a holistic representation of the society that embeds it).
Nowadays, the idea of type is not very far from the conscious act of acknowledgement. Several authors have
found value in it and have taken it as a way to produce architecture knowledge. For instance, Carlos Martí
Arís stated that, in type, the relationship between form and meaning is evident. However, it has already been
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stated that type should not be taken as a univocal relation. In other words, “type does not attempt to
diminish or limit the creative capacity of the artist”.
On the other hand, Rossi has noted that type is abstract and synthetic. It is a contemporary operational tool
to experience a city. Notating types and its mutations in a timeline results in the possibility for reading a
society and the signs of its times. Somehow, type is capable of simplifying the experience of a city without
hiding the structural skeletons of social and physical phenomena.
Finally, Grassi stated that type is capable of providing a rational and logical organisation to architectural
knowledge. Reusing it, as a tool, ensures immediate investigation skills in the valuation of students’
architectural knowledge. “Type has a cognitive purpose”.
In Panamá and India, the de-territorialisation of the concept of type, primarily used as an academic tool for
understanding cities, has found a new definition as a tool for built environment awareness at early ages. This
has produced new challenges in the teaching/learning process, as the notion of becoming-evaluative is
providing a social effect. Therefore, ‘Type’ is a new territory with an embodied sense of ethics. In other
words, architecture whose primal concern was to fulfil a dwelling need now fulfils an ethical need and
accomplishes a social goal. One example is the production of more than 100 metres of painted canvas with
new typologies and spaces. These new assemblages are the result of becoming-evaluative in the city of
Colón, where children have re-assembled a common degraded dwelling typology, the ‘Multi’, into ‘The New
Multi’, with reassembled values and embodied experiences.
Figure 1: Colón at continuous canvas project.

Figure 2: Explaining the new Multi.
The following case is taken as an example to illustrate Type’s methodological steps. It shows that an
awareness of the built environment should be approached as holistically as possible, avoiding any fixed
positions. Through ‘Type’, children are able to shape their learning process.
Case: Are you my Type? Rome, Italy (2013). A workshop with in situ exchange between children from the UK,
Italy and The Netherlands and a deferred exchange with Panamá and India.
1. Formulation and identification of the phenomena (The city of Rome, where memory is materialised by the
monuments).
2. Description of the encountered phenomena (Asking children: What is the form of Rome’s blocks?).
3. Arriving at the essences (Rethinking the structure of the city: blocks, streets and monuments. Do the blocks
take the shape of some monuments?).
4. Provocation and interpretation (Achieved by placing their houses (real and imaginary) in the city of Rome.
How does the encounter give a new meaning to the house?)
Alessandro and Emmanuele stated: “My house will be over the river, it is a bridge-house on the Tevere!”
5. Exchanging the results and cross-country evaluations (e.g., in Penonomé, the same project is done using
questions based in local typologies: the church, the market and the dwellings
along the main street).
•The use of ‘Type’ as an operative tool for the assessment of basic levels of
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embodiment in the built environment awareness process.
•Giving voice to children’s passions and concerns about specific phenomena of
the built environment.
•Encourages the use of imagination and memory to assess two dimensions in
the creative process with a continuous examination of two different
constructions: the house of your dreams and the house where you live.
•Being critical through an exchange. Children from different countries are able
to share results and introduce value and identity through subjectivities.
•They produced typologies that became a cognitive vehicle for emotions and
meaning.
Table 1: Defining ‘Type’. Patterns encountered in the use of ‘Type’ as a tool for implementations in Panamá, Italy,
Finland and India.
In the end, the juxtaposition of the results offers an opportunity to learn from lived knowledge (i.e.,
subjectivities). Under ‘Type’, the learning, teaching and communication skills are a collaborative process
(e.g., in May 2014, Emmanuel, a boy from Panamá, spoke to Finnish students from Arkki (Arkkitehtuurikoulu,
Helsinki) about Panamanian typologies. In the same project, some Finnish students took Panamanian blocks,
and, curiously, the Finns started to use courtyards because of the benefits having one might bring them. This
is a strong statement about becoming aware of type phenomena.
DISSOLVING PARADOXES IN THE CREATIVE PRACTICE
Curiously, the statement “We are all part of the built environment” has an enormous attraction among
architects and teachers of the built environment.
Indeed, it is one of the first motivations for promoting programs of built environment awareness. Possibly,
the reason for this appreciation is rooted in the education and training architects received during their
studies.
However, for other users of the built environment, the way architecture is perceived and lived in takes on
dimensions other than the purely theoretical, technical and measurable (Havik 2012).
In this case, the ambiguity of the phrase makes evident the potential of architecture to introduce value
beyond any reductive aesthetics and techniques. In other words, it is due to its ambiguous character that
architecture is given room to be something more than the act of dwelling.
Juhani Pallasmaa has also written about this ambiguous element of architecture,
“Architecture is simultaneously a practical and metaphysical act: a utilitarian and poetic, technological and
artistic, economic and existential, collective and individual, manifestation of our being”.
This poetic idea, in which architecture goes beyond any aesthetics and technical reductionism, has been the
starting point for OOperai’s educational programmes. Therefore, very far from producing a generation of
architects, it is proving to be a fertile effort for developing skills and competencies for the future. In 2011, the
OOperai Foundation was created in Panamá with the aim of giving free accessibility for children to a creative
and evaluative training programme on the built environment. For almost three years, OOperai has focused
on children from 6 to 12 years old who live in low-income and conflict-ridden rural and urban settlements.
Due to these areas’ rapidly growing populations, residents often encounter a lack of value in their lived-
spaces and a diffuse sense of quality in their immediate built environment.
OOperai’s users in Panamá are from Las Ferias in Colón, Tolé in Chiriquí and Penonomé in Coclé. This last
location involves children who have minor motor limitations, yet all also take part in OOperai’s creative
engagements. In 2013, OOperai began a project in India with children from Chennai and Mumbai. Currently,
the organisation is implementing more creative engagements and exchanging their issues regularly in both
of these sites.
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As part of this vision, OOperai has been responsible for implementing international exchanges of built
environment experiences between children in more than ten countries, with the aim of facilitating the
exchange of learned and experienced typologies.
We have encountered two paradoxes during these three years of practice:
1. Why care about something that is not visible? Does it make sense to promote architecture in a context in
which there is an evident lack of consensus or comprehension of it?
In the case of Finland, it was clear that the consensus was formalised in 1993 when the Finnish National
Board of Education established a national core curriculum that viewed training in architecture as one of the
arts. The curriculum introduced the use of architecture programmes on a wide and open basis, giving rise to
the possibility for experimenting and constructing knowledge. Moreover, it also accorded special
importance to how people relate to their immediate space, expanding the dimensions of architecture as a
part of everyday life. According to Jaana Räsänen, a representative from the Architecture Information Centre
in Finland, the purpose of architecture education is to help pupils to analyse and understand the
surrounding environment and the world, to support their general education and to promote their abilities to
face the challenges of modern society, such as participating in discussions and making choices. In Finland,
there are three schools and one museum that approach architecture as a tool for teaching the built
environment: Arkki School of Architecture for Children and Youth; Lastu School of Architecture, Environment
and Culture; Jyväskylä Art School for Children; and the Alvar Aalto Museum.
Along with the first school (Arkki), OOperai has made an international project with Panamanian children.
What happens when similar practices are brought to Panamá and India? Although the paradox is easy to
dissolve when the approach is one of giving sense to the immediate environment and becoming-active in it;
on the other hand, it is still invulnerable when the users manifest a constant attraction to the production of
the built environment without architects. Moreover, the diminished sense of belonging in a space/place
experience does not make the task an easy one.
During collaboration with Arkki (Helsinki), the effect of receiving architecture training at an early age was
evident; some of the children had been there for more than five years. For instance, on a project for the
future OOperai school in Panamá, Finnish children from Arkki started to question the naturally fixed school’s
typologies and suggest better ways to achieve quality spaces in them. Viljami, when looking at the
suggested arrangement, said: “this building is too tall and close to the other ones, the shadow that will be
cast will create very dark spaces…”
Working with Panamanian and Indian children on the same project brought interesting challenges. First we
had to construct value, which was not straightforward. However, the idea to exchange thoughts between
children from more than ten countries brought more confidence to the Panamanian and Indian children
alike, and they worked creatively to overcome the task. It was evident that children work in networks, and if
they are not sure about something, they will ask to their immediate fellow. In this case, the motivation to
learn from different contexts inspired the Panamanian and Indian children as a way to introduce interaction
and to accomplish the attraction.
OOperai understands that there is still a lot to do to match the consensus encounters experienced in
Finland. However, one of the most important achievements is to look at the benefits OOperai has brought to
its users. These are expressed by parents during every workshop. Parents are aware that creative programs
in architecture will turn into future skills and competencies for their children.
Maria, a girl from Penonomé, has now found the confidence to stand up and explain this market project,
saying: “This is a good place to sell bananas and peppers”.
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Figure 3: Explaining the results at Tolé, Panamá.
As stated before, a conscious act of acknowledgement should be present. In other words, this is giving a new
presence to architecture that embraces a new territory and need: the ethical one.
The ‘Type’ project questions Dewey’s pragmatic engagement through learning by doing with a new
assemblage: learning by doing and becoming by exchanging, in which this new territory of architecture
transcends any original dwelling intention.
2. Why does it seem we are decreasing the attention paid to creativity, even though it was encouraged at the
beginning of the project?
Imagine developing a creative and innovative project. You took your time to engage in creative research,
and even questioned the fundamental issues of the process of producing and possible scenarios for future
users. Nevertheless, the final results were not satisfactory, and, due to some conditions, it is not possible to
conduct more experiments. The conclusion is: the final grade is not based on your creative project, but it is
based on the results. This would definitely diminish your belief in creativity and, next time, you will be more
thoughtful about the effectiveness of the creative process.
The fact that the product is often what gets judged, instead of the process, definitely makes the paradox
mentioned above stronger. Instead, OOperai promotes the notion of becoming-creative, which enhances
children’s potential by helping them to learn from differences and subjectivities.
On a project called ‘international talks with children’, Gabriel, a boy from Venezuela, took a sketch made by
Kimora, a girl from Uganda, and explained to Panamanian children his model of a shopping mall made from
recycled materials. Becoming is a process, and it embraces the notion of the future, not as a time yet to
come, but as a constant, changing present based on visible and invisible subjectivities. Children from
different countries are able to create meaning and find value in their own built environment through their
differences. OOperai knows that, in order to build a more meaningful education, we need to start with the
idea that knowledge is a collaborative process in which the notion of becoming is fundamental to
questioning and can overcome any fixed representation of reality.
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CREATIVE ENGAGEMENTS
Cases 1 and 2: Type in Penonomé, Panamá and Mumbai, India

Since 2011, OOperai has been involved in a constant practice in Penonomé, Panamá. This engagement
began with a studio of children’s drawings and their immediate context, called Learning from Children
Drawings. Johana Tejeira and Fundación Carmen Conte Lombardo have hosted the implementations of
‘Type’ since then, and more than 100 children have participated, some of them constantly committed to the
engagements.
On the other hand, OOperai’s Indian efforts formally began in 2013, in the cities of Mumbai and Chennai.
Nevertheless, the first contact was made in 2012 with two children, Riya Tiwari from Mumbai and Aman
Goenka from Kolkata. They participated in OOperai’s 2012 International Call for Drawings, which was
organised to share architectural images with more than ten countries.
Figure 4: Penonomé group
Panamá India
The Fancy type. Draw the house of The Fancy type. Draw the house of
your dreams. your dreams.
The Real type. Draw the house where The Real type. Draw the house where
you live. you live.
The City type. Draw urban forms and The City type. Draw urban blocks and
locate architectural typologies in the suggest typologies for the city.
city.
Rossi’s theatre. Draw a theatre for the
city.
Suggesting types. What is missing in
the city?
Table 2: Typologies promoted in Panamá and India.
Particularly in the case of Penonomé, one of the three groups of OOperai users in Panamá, the efforts are
focused to give accessibility to architecture and to bring arts programmes to children with some motor
limitations. Also, due to these children’s economic situations, many will not have access to similar learning
engagements. In these workshops, the concept involves raising awareness of the space/place through a
clear lecture on the built environment, that is, the value of the context and their primal typologies (market,
church and dwellings). These themes are approached through drawings, models and conversations.
Accessibility to the results from other contexts is part of the engagement, in order to prompt children to
question their immediate contexts.
Learning outcomes, Panamá

The theoretical framework emphasises the role of architecture from the humanistic and quality oriented
perspectives. At the end of the implementation, the children have demonstrated the ability to become
aware of the features of the built and natural environments by expressing concepts. These concepts are
materialised in the form of drawings and three-dimensional models. Moreover, in the last section, all
participants share their results; this part is crucial for establishing value, attraction and confidence for the
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next engagements. The children are guided from the conceptualisation of ideas and thoughts into drawings
or sketches. Sketching is a fundamental part of the process and helps them to understand the value of a
clear idea. For example, in the Continuous Canvas workshops, the painting starts when the idea is clear
enough in the sketch.
Even though India is more than 15,000 km from Panamá, the similarities found between the two countries
are astonishing. Both countries somehow learned to become radically modern, and both are willing to
improve the quality of life for their children. Moreover, the users in both countries know very well the value
of community cooperation and activism - they know that acting as a community is more effective than
waiting for the government to act. In that sense, OOperai has found a fertile ground to grow, thanks to the
help of innumerable volunteers and community leaders.
Figure 5: On the left, an interior space in Mumbai. On the right, the same kind of space but in Panamá.
The Indian efforts still are related with the understanding of the city in terms of its forms. However, user
profiles might differ from those of Panamá or Italy.
In the case of Mumbai, the children are from a local orphanage, and in the case of Chennai, they attend the
University Hospital, which provides treatment for blood cancer and/or chronic diseases.
Figure 6: Mumbai group
Around 75 children currently participate in the Indian project.
Learning outcomes in India

Every workshop starts with a playful discussion where awareness of the social, cultural and environmental
aspects of daily life are discussed with the scope to improve the quality of the built environment through
creative drawings or models.
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At the end, the knowledge is communicated. Children teach other children and everyone shares the
knowledge acquired and tests another child.
COMMON PROBLEM… DIFFERENT PLACES
Juhani Pallasmaa once wrote, “We have an innate capacity for remembering and imagining places.
Perception, memory and imagination are in constant interaction; the domain of presence fuses into images
of memory and fantasy. We keep constructing an immense city of evocation and remembrance, and all the
cities we have visited are precincts in this metropolis of the mind”.
Placed side by side, the Panamá and India engagements share a widely similar responsibility with their
immediate users. They now understand the potential of architecture to change the quality of their spaces.
Even so, there is still a lot to do to improve the engagements. After three years of practice, for instance,
Panamanian children in the first engagements were very timid about presenting their projects, or had no
clear notion of what they were doing. Now, they are able to stand up and question other children’s works.
They even suggest better ways to run the workshops.
Case 3: ‘Type’ in Rome, Italy
Figure 7: At the core of Rome’s workshop
In 2012, Italian children, along with children from the UK and Holland, were able to experience place/space
awareness of the city of Rome. Based on that short informative presentation, they were encouraged to draw
and create two typologies related to memory and imagination. The possibility of inspiring children from
Panamá and, later, from India was one of the main aims of the workshop. In fact, the Italians were very
creative, particularly in the selection of the plot inside the city of Rome and regarding the details on the
facades.
“I want my house next to the Colosseum” was one of the most commonly heard statements.
Italy Panamá India

The Fancy type. Draw the In a model-making The same typologies were
house of your dreams. workshop in the city of placed between the
The Real type. Draw the Penonomé, the same temples and the street on a
house where you live. typologies were big, axonometric drawing
**The types were located questioned, but using of Mumbai’s Colaba area.
architectural typologies in the market, church
the city of Rome and the street.
Table 3: Typologies tested in Italy and the effects on Panamá and India.
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CONCLUSION
Type’s creative engagements provide us with an opportunity for rethinking the process of teaching and
learning architecture with children in Panamá and India. Moreover, it supports architectural learning with
structure related to the notion of becoming in the built environment.
The children have demonstrated that issues of space are not just in the physical, Euclidean dimension; their
drawings include both dimensions: practical and metaphysical. This takes part in the manifestation of
creativity. There is no Cartesian dualism in children’s drawings.
OOperai’s users belong to cities that have radically assimilated modernity, this is why OOperai’s aim is to
question their learned habits, such as Why do we still encounter drawings with chimneys in tropical
contexts? ‘Type’ is not about producing architecture, or even realistic drawings of buildings. On the other
hand, ‘Type’ is a platform for routes, assemblages and new territories. In other words, it is becoming a
machine that constantly reassembles its parts in order to embrace a model towards knowledge and for
society. Moreover, the drawings become critical statements stating once again that education about built
environment awareness is not about access to fixed information, but rather about shaping the information
through collaborative knowledge.
As a tool, ‘Type’ questions the notion of being in the future (i.e., the becoming as a step for creating the
future). On the other hand, it provides opportunities for facilitating encounters and creating new territories
for built environment education at early ages.
NOTES
REFERENCES
Bachelard, G., 1969. The poetics of space, Beacon Press, Boston.
Bollnow, OF., 1961. ‘Lived space’, Philosophy Today, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 31-39.
Grassi, G., 1967. La costruzione logica dell’architettura, Allemandi & Co., Torino.
Havik, K., 2012. Urban literacy: a scriptive approach to the experience, use, and imagination of place, TU Delft
Press, Delft, The Netherlands.
Laaksonen, E & Räsänen, J., (eds) 2006. Place. Architecture education for children and young people, Alvar Aalto
Academy, Helsinki.
Martí Arís, C., 1993. Las variaciones de la identidad: ensayo sobre el tipo en arquitectura, Demarcación de
Barcelona del Colegio de Arquitectos de Cataluña, Barcelona.
Pallasmaa, J., 2002. Primary architectural images, Washington University in St. Louis Press, St. Louis, MO.
Pallasmaa, J., 2005a. Encounters, architectural essays by Juhani Pallasmaa, Rakennustieto Oy, Helsinki.
Pallasmaa, J., 2005b. The eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses, John Wiley & Sons, London.
Rossi, A., 1966. L´architettura della città, Marsilio, Padua, Italy.
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THE STRATEGY ADJUSTMENT AND OPTIMIZATION FOR THE EXISTING PROBLEMS OF INDUSTRIAL
HERITAGE RENOVATION – A CASE STUDY OF CHANGSHA BINJIANG NEW CITY
Huang Lei, Ph.D. student/ Hunan University Architecture School, China, E-mail: mevin@126.com
Wei Chunyu, Professor, Doctoral supervisor / Hunan University Architecture School, China
Abstract
Taking Binjiang New Town, Changsha as an example, this paper reviewed the course of Changsha Chengxi
Industrial Zone and the background of urban renewal development. Through the analysis of the reuse practice of
industrial buildings, it pointed out many problems in the practice at the present stage: the lack of element
association has caused insufficient local vitality, waste of space resources, inadequate social security; the
ecological and cultural environment urgently needs to be improved; then it further brought forward the overall
strategy of multi-element association renewal from three layers: synthesized goal construction, multi-level
planning combination, architectural design under composite resource value, and it explicated the view of seeking
organic renewal of industrial heritage and the harmonious development of new town construction.
Keywords: new town construction, reuse of industrial heritage, multi-element association renewal,
Changsha Binjiang New Town.
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
Development and evolution of Changsha Chengxi industrial zone

Changsha modern industry began in the late 19th century (1895) Hu’nan Provincial Governor Chen Baozhen
implemented the New Deal; the reformists of the Qing Government, such as Tan Sitong and Xiong Xiling,
advocated the industry and the concept of ‘industrialization is a shortcut to prosperity’ and began to
organize modern industry. During the 21st year of the reign of Qing Emperor Guangxu to the 3rd year of the
reign of Qing Emperor Xuantong (1895-1911), they founded a dozen enterprises in Changsha, covering the
fields of machinery, metallurgy, electric power, matches, glass and printing (Changsha Annals office).
However, Changsha Chengxi Industrial Zone started fairly late. The development process can be divided into
three stages.
The first stage (1912~1950s): The first stage was the beginning of the development. There had been only a
few scaled factories during nearly 40 years. In 1912, the first factory in Chengxi, Jinghua Mill, was founded in
Yinpenling (Yuxiang Mill) as the first textile factory in Changsha. In 1932, Hunan Zinc-smelting Factory was
founded in Sanchaji (Changsha Zinc Factory) and thus the chemical industry in Chengxi along the river
began to take shape. In 1938 when Japanese invasion force attacked Hu’nan, all the factories were
evacuated to the rear area. Changsha industry restored gradually and the evacuated factories were moved
back to Changsha and returned to operation after the victory of the War of Resistance in 1945. The factories
had been taken over by the People's Government one after the other since the peaceful liberation of Hunan
in 1949.
The second stage (1950s~1990s): The second stage was the stage of rapid recovery and development of
Chengxi Industrial Zone. With the national economic recovery, and the first and second five-year plans after
the founding of new China, a lot of factories were built in Changsha. Changsha ship factory, Changsha
brewery, Changsha woolen mill, Changsha second woolen mill, Changsha glass factory, Changsha
automobile instrument factory, Changsha paper mill, Yuelu chemical factory and other factories had been
built in the west of the city during 1950 to 1960, and they formed an industrial zone with the textile industry,
light industry, machinery industry and chemical industry in the center; a number of factories gradually
moved in and new factories were built during 1960 to 1980. Changsha Chengxi Industrial Zone with
Xianjiahu in its center and expanding to Guanshaling and the northern section of the Xiangjiang River had
been basically formed.
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The third stage (1990s~so far): The third stage is the stage of decline and renewal of Chengxi Industrial Zone.
With the opening of the market economy since 1990, the state-owned factories under the planned
economic system have been declining. About the year 2000, a large number of factories in the old Chengxi
Industrial Zone were restructured or closed down. Under the influence of many factors, the bankrupt
factories were sold, removed or used for high-density commercial development or as the land for an urban
road. Some enterprises with good economic results were moved outside the city as a result of the policy of
suppressing the second industry and developing the third industry.
Opportunities for renovation of industrial heritage in the zone

In December 2007, Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Urban Agglomeration was approved by the State Council
to be an integrated reform experimental zone for national resource-saving and environment-friendly society
construction and the Dahexi pilot zone was established in Changsha. On January 19, 2010, Binjiang New
Town regional planning within the old industrial zone of the northwest of Changsha was officially
sanctioned by Changsha Municipal Government. This zone was positioned as a new complex metropolitan
center with the modern financial business functions at the core, driven by the culture, leisure and tourism
business circle and relying on the urban residence. The development of the new zone has brought with it a
large number of construction projects. There were 274 major construction projects in Changsha Dahexi pilot
zone in 2012 alone, including 141 continuing projects, 122 new projects and 11 preparatory projects. The
construction investment was up to 242.253 billion Yuan (Changsha Evening News, 13 December). The
massive financial inputs and the construction of a large number of projects have a huge impact on the
original pattern of the old West Industrial Zone.
Figure 1: Location of Binjiang New Town
REFLECTIONS ON REUSE OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE IN BINJIANG NEW TOWN
Redevelopment of industrial heritage in Binjiang New Town

Although the old industrial enterprises in Binjiang New Town are large in amount, few of them have won the
attention of the Government, gained the favor of the policy-makers or been protected or reused. Yuxiang
Mill is an enterprise that had played an important role in the development of Changsha’s modern industry.
As shown in Figures 2,3,4, except for the office building and the main door that have been restored and
protected, the plant buildings and living areas with industrial heritage values have been bulldozed, resulting
in the loss of the unity of the heritage value of the mill; Hexi Suyuan Pump House, which was listed in
Changsha immovable heritages in 2010, has been replaced by a gas station regardless of the appeal of a
number of experts for protection. The heritage is isolated and marginalized, and the state of preservation is
precarious.
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Figure 2: Comparative maps of Yuxiang Mill in 2002 and 2012
Figure 3: The plant buildings which have been Figure 4: Protected door building and office
bulldozed buildings
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Out of Changsha immovable heritages list, Changsha Zinc Factory has the highest historical value and
building reuse value and relatively intact; Tianlun Paper Mill, Changsha Xiangyue Chemical Factory and
Changsha Second Textile Printing & Dyeing Mill have high reuse value in virtue of their locations, fairly large
space and scale and unique architectural styles. Unfortunately, these monuments have not been given due
attention or recognition and they have not yet been listed in the relic protection entities; furthermore,
because the buildings are seriously damaged and the factory environment is languished, these industrial
monuments are exposed to danger of demolition with the advance of the urban construction. For example,
Changsha Shipping Factory, which was advertised to be built as a 798 art factory, was ultimately bulldozed
as a whole after many years of planning, and it was replaced by a commercial project Fisherman's Wharf in
order to seek a new sense of history in the complicated Art-Deco style details.
Gains and losses in the reuse practices

The industrial monuments in west of Changsha are trapped in large-scale demolition in terms of the
protection and reuse of the industrial heritages and the reconstruction of the abandoned mining lands. The
demolition of a large number of valuable industrial buildings economically and culturally results in
enormous waste. Certainly, the author does not mean that all the industrial monuments should be retained
and become the ‘antique bottles’, precluding the urban intensive development, because there are many
possibilities between the large-scale demolition and wholesale protection (City Planning Review 2010).
However, when we globally review and compare the successful renovation projects of waterfront industrial
area, such as Bercy redevelopment in Paris, Duisburg inland harbor renovation in Germany, Bo 01 and Bo 02
old industrial terminals in Stockholm and Lyon Confluence Industrial zone renovation project, it would not
be too difficult to discover a number of problems in Changsha west industrial heritage renovation: as a result
of the rigid understanding of the policy of suppressing the second industry and developing the tertiary
industry, a large number of industrial enterprises that have difficulties in relocation have been closed, and
their existing resources failed to be activated; massive new commercial and residential development
projects have not provided the enterprises or employees with new ways out after demolition of vast areas of
plants; motivated by the land economy, the overall renovation of this district is overly dependent upon
commercial project construction, and the cultural facility construction and cultural activity development
have lagged behind noticeably; the development of waterfront natural landscape resources and historical
resources are less attractive. In addition, the industrial heritage renovation projects led by the Government
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or developed by market lack adequate understanding of the heritage value, putting the ugly content in a
beautiful old bottle. This has led to a series of problems, such as confused regional functions, disorderly
streamlines, idle space and insufficient regional vitality; and at the same time, a number of industrial
heritage renovation projects and other new projects in the region are not well coordinated. However, with
the deepening of the concept of protection and reuse of industrial heritages, how to adjust and optimize the
policy for the existing problems in the existing overall framework of the new town construction has become
a focus.
MULTI-LEVEL ASSOCIATION RENEWAL STRATEGY
Relevance adjustment of integrated objectives

The renovation of Changsha West Industrial Zone has relied on the regional resource advantages, such as
quick withdrawal of the industrial enterprises, convenient location and riverside landscape, in the very
beginning since it has been named Binjiang New Town and taken as a complex zone of financial business,
culture and leisure and urban residence. It has promoted the entrance of a group of flagship projects.
Meanwhile, the massive inputs in the recovery of the riverside landscape, Fisherman's Wharf and other
projects have revealed the Government's vigorous inputs in the cultural and ecological fields. However,
since the cultural products that cost huge efforts were divorced from the original social structure of the land
and lost their ties with this region, they have not only caused many new social contradictions but also led to
the invasion of foreign cultural elements and the vanishing of Hunan local culture. The imitation of Art-Deco
style in a series of projects, such as Fisherman's Wharf and Poly West Coast, reveals a tip of the iceberg of this
situation.
In the development of Binjiang New Town, the adjustment for the contradictions between the historical
culture protection and economic development means making a reasonable configuration between the
protection of regional historical resources and the pursuit of economic interests. And this kind of culture is
not a simple copy of foreign culture or rushing fake antiquity. During the development of new zones, it is
necessary to absorb nutrition from the intrinsic value of the existing industrial heritage, develop the closely
associated projects, carry out associated cultural activities and seek the cultural driving forces behind the
economic development - because only such kind of cultural driving forces are rooted in the regional
development and represent the deep social structural relationship. For example, various museums, concert
halls and other urban public facilities were built in Chengdu, Shenyang, Tangshan and other cities by using
the old industrial buildings rather than removing the old industrial buildings and blindly advocating the
construction of commercial flagship projects (Ying 2012). Another example is that the infrastructure
construction in the old industrial zones was indirectly promoted and results were achieved in quickly
converting the image of the old industrial zones in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen through biennial
exhibitions, music festivals and other cultural activities, and thus various social forces were effectively
attracted to participate in the protection and development of industrial heritages (Feng 2008).
Meanwhile, we need to make more adjustment for the contradictions between the protection of natural
ecological environment and the development of natural resources, that is, to make reasonable configuration
between the realization of sustainable development of ecological environment and the pursuit of rapid
economic development. The ecological destruction and environmental pollution in various degrees and
other negative impacts are the characteristics of traditional industries. The previous development mode of
industrial enterprises featuring quick withdrawal, quick demolition and rushing new projects should be
adjusted. We should cautiously handle the land pollution control of the industrial enterprises, make greater
efforts in publicity on pollution control and give society a better understanding of industrial pollution to
truly realize the sustainable development of the regional ecological environment.
Relevance and integration of planning factors

Most of the previous renovation practices for the industrial heritages in the old areas of the city were the
adjustments and planning according to the features of the surrounding areas after the relocation of the old
industrial enterprises. This mode is designed to arrange the land-use functions as the extension of a certain
function of the city or complement the city functions to perfect and repair the city (Wang Jing 2012).
However, in the Binjiang New Town where ‘planning first’ is advocated, the industrial heritages are generally
integrated into the new planning framework as the supplementary conditions to cope with the factors that
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have been neglected at the beginning of the planning and make them the useful complement of the first
planning by using the reuse planning of the industrial heritage plots.
(1) Relevance of regional functions

The ultimate goal of relevance of planning functions is to enable the functions of the renewal of industrial
buildings to better meet the development demands of the city and region. As for Binjiang New Town, the
planning adjustments of the industrial plots should conform to the overall positioning of the financial and
commercial district, and we should carefully sort out the development vacancies of the local regions to
make targeted renovation. Through the comparative analysis of the planning functions and construction
status of Binjiang New Town, Meixihu International New Town, Yanghuyuan District, Pingtang District and
Yuelinshan Scenic Area, I found that all the functions, including housing, commerce, office, education and
scientific research, can meet the demands. Viewing the planning of the riverside new town region from a
microcosmic perspective, we find that it has a serious lack of the cultural function, in particular the lack of
the small and medium-sized comprehensive cultural facilities that integrate the functions of exhibition,
leisure and education; secondly, it lacks the sports facilities, which cannot meet the demands of the local
residents in the residential development projects for the gathering playground; thirdly, because all the
buildings in the fusiform region enclosed by Xiaoxiang Road and the riverside landscape road are high-
density commercial development with a plot ratio of over 4.0, it is difficult to radiate the landscape resources
of Xiangjiang River scenery towards the west into the inner region to achieve the goal of integrating scenery
with spaces.
For example, with respect to the paper mill of Chazishan in this region as show in Figures 5,6,7, lots of high-
density commercial lands around the old factory have been completed and a large number of commodity
houses have been occupied. However, apart from the new Fisherman's Wharf commercial street project,
there is a serious lack of cultural and sports facilities in the surrounding regions. In the planning adjustments,
seeing this as a juncture, we can position the business development in the first planning along one side of
the road of the site periphery as a commercial complex integrating hotel, loft apartments and SOHO office
and adjust the large space plant in the central site as a commercial area integrating various sports halls,
gyms, sporting goods sales and creative office. In this way, we can, on one hand, reuse the old industrial
monuments and accommodate a variety of urban spaces, diversified economic activities and humanized
facilities, and on the other hand, quickly gather popular enthusiasm with low-input renovation to meet the
demands of the local residents of the surrounding commodity houses for the cultural life and enhance the
cohesion between the plots through such activities.
Figure 5: Chazishan Paper Mill Area
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Figure 6: The High-Density Residence Around Figure 7: Longspan Space Suit for Reuse
(2) Relevance of regional patterns

Drawing lessons from the experience in the domestic industrial heritage reuse, we know that the poor
coordination of height, density, appearance, color and other factors in urban design will easily lead to the
phenomenon of "urban bonsai" in the region. The space pattern control of the cases like Binjiang New Town
should be subdivided: for the renovation of the industrial heritage region, rather than pursue the results of
repairing the old as it was before, we should make it conform with the overall positioning of the financial
and commercial district, while preserving the traditional industrial style; for the new projects surrounding
the industrial heritage regions, instead of blindly seeking originality and exceptionality, we should, on one
hand, make response to the low-density regions in number, and on the other hand, establish links to the
industrial heritages in terms of style, color, elements, etc.
(3) Relevancee of historical heritage

In the last dozen years of the urbanization process in Changsha, decision-makers habitually made the
industrial buildings the opposite of the protection of historical and cultural city. However, the regions
historically distributed outside the old Changsha city, such as Binjiang New Town and Pingtang District, lack
enough supports in the cultural development and are in serious shortage of historical monuments, and the
protection and reuse of the industrial heritages have acted as a new carrier for the cultural development of
the new regions.
As for the basis of relevance of the historical heritages, we should sort out the overall industrial heritages,
consider the historical and cultural city protection planning as a whole, combine the layers based on the
independent analysis of each layer, and find the associated features after combining them to protect the
contexts of the urban development. As for Dahexi pilot zone, the Binjiang New Town, Meixihu International
New Town and Yanghuyuan District are distributed in a triangle form along the second ring road at the
periphery of the core historical region. Various industrial heritage buildings are separated by the second ring
road from the core historical region without forming any connection. However, viewing these regions from
the perspective of the Xiangjiang River scenery, we can linearly connect various historical heritages in
Binjiang New Town, Yuelushan historical cultural attractions, Yanghuyuan District and Pingtang District from
north to south. In this way, the urban pattern of "Landscape Island City" will form the highest affecting
weight in these regions, then due consideration should be given to the internal affecting factors in every
sub-region and their weight; we should connect the historical buildings and cultural heritage sites with a
variety of cultural lines, make targeted sub-regional implementation strategies and make mutual
accommodation to achieve a win-win situation.
During regional implementation, it is necessary to carefully classify heritage grades and regional
development features and make cultural heritage protection and reuse policy and the relevance of the
regional heritages by grades. In Binjiang New Town, Changsha Zinc Factory at the limit of the north of the
region has extraordinarily high industrial technological heritage values in urgent need of protection; Yuelu
Chemical Factory has typical reuse value, and the two plots are close to the formed triangle land as show in
Fig.8.9.10, facing the Xiangjiang River on the east and the high-density commercial development region on
the south and adjacent to the region of Beijing City Ruins Park. Taking into account either the relevance of
historical heritages or the economic-type and sustainability of the regional development, we can start with
this triangle land and reject the single thought of high-density commercial development in the previous
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planning. We will make it a humanistic historical link space to create a new growth point by strengthening
the association among the historical monuments, riverside scenery and high-density commercial region.
Figure 8: The Triangle Area
Figure 9: Facing the Xiangjiang River Figure 10: The Interior Space in Changsha Zinc
Factory
on the east and historical site on the west
Relevance of multiple factors under the control of architectural design

(1) Relevance of short/long term and temporary use
The reuse of the industrial buildings is of great flexibility in terms of the building capacity control. The
relevance of short/long term should be fully taken into account in design while maintaining an overall
regional balance to provide a stage and a variety of possibilities for the renovation of the land in the future.
By encouraging the modest and gradual form of renovation, the strategy of the combination of the
commercial, semi-commercial and public space are constantly adjusted and the dynamic design is made to
adapt to the operation strategies in different development periods.
In addition, the temporary use is recommended in the new regions with less sophisticated supporting
facilities (Yiping 2012). On one hand, due to the low costs of the short-term development, there is no worry
about the investment risks for developers and they can revitalize their existing resources; on the other hand,
by introducing the temporary functions that can promote regional vitality, such as education, leisure and
culture, developers can meet the demands of the surrounding public while finding the overall positioning of
the follow-up development of their projects; moreover, the temporary practices usually correspond to the
principle of reversibility and identifiability in the heritage protection; in addition, the temporary use will
gradually facilitate their understanding of the values of various aspects and making the final assessment
over time.
(2) Relevance of mixed function

Mixed use development refers to the process of making the planned and purposive renovation of space and
materials in order to achieve the mixed state of compatible land and space usage (Yi 2008). Its core lies in the
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mixed function relevance, and its goal is to break the previous rigid self-contained mode of single nature in
land use and the departmental and regional barriers, form moderate functional cross and stimulate the
internal vitality. Meanwhile, it will inspire more vitality and creativity in working to exchange and meet the
deep-level demands in the new innovative industries to deal with the trend of flattening modern
management, multi-hierarchy relevance and interaction.
In reference to this point, Changsha should draw nourishment from the successful cases in Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou and other first-tier cities. For instance, Red Town in Shanghai, with the mixture of the functions
of open green space, various public museums, private cultural institutions, catering, commodity sales and
creative office, creates an urban open space that takes account of the economic benefitg in an organized
way, as show in Figures 10 And 11; Shanghai DOBE Sports LOFT Creative Base is an integrated zone
integrating various gyms, sporting goods sales, sports clubs and creative office, where various sports
activities are integrated with the creative office, forming an environment of healthy office and ecological
office while providing the surrounding mature residential communities with sports facilities and mitigating
the shortage of sports facilities for the regional government, as shown in Figures 12 And 13.
Figure 10: Red Town Figure 11: Red Town
Figure 12: Shanghai DOBE Sports LOFT Figure 13: Shanghai DOBE Sports LOFT
(3) Relevance of new and old elements

During the process of industrial heritage reuse, there are many modes of relevance of old and new elements:
linear-superposition contrastive relevance and apposition relevance, as well as blur-relevance implicit
relevance and integrated relevance (Wei 2009). During the renovation, it is necessary to conduct renovation
by exploring the characteristics of the existing buildings and allocate new patterns and functions based on
the scale, lightness and atmosphere of the existing space in order to activate the beauty of the special
industrial atmosphere of the old buildings. In this regard, reviewing the industrial heritage renovation in the
pilot zone, we can find that there are many practices that deserve reflection: in the case of Yuxiang Mill, in
addition to the protective restoration of the old office buildings and bell tower, an outdoor platform and a
veranda outside of the basement have been built on the side facing the river of the old office buildings and
the warehouse for the purpose of taking advantage of the existing beautiful landscape at the east side and
creating a more beautiful and relaxing leisure viewing area. Unfortunately, on the one hand, the parody of
the original architectural details in the new platform in the element processing has destroyed the originality
of the riverside scenery of the original buildings; on the other hand, there is no functional interaction
between the outside veranda and the internal functions as well as the surrounding landscape areas. As a
result, the new space was abandoned and became a negative space element as soon as it was built.
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CONCLUSION
Industrial heritage is increasingly fragmented and scattered, and can even be erased directly in the rapidly
modernized metro construction. For the metro construction based on old industrial zones, it is an urgent
task to carry out space consolidation protection and extend geographical cultural values. From the
perspective of the protection and reuse of industrial heritage and subject to the defects of the existing
urban plan and construction, the optimization and adjustment strategies stated above aim to achieve the
geographical features of the old industrial zones in the optimization of integrated objectives, planning
design and architectural design, and provide referential theoretical and technical guidance to enhance
geopolitical identity, highlight geographical cultures, upgrade city quality and shape new urban zones with
geographical diversity. However, many problems, such as what the roles of non-material industrial heritage
elements in spaces are, how to effectively link between different optimization levels, how to carry out
evaluation of effectiveness after optimization, are beyond the scope of this paper and await further study to
make this theory system more reasonable and more widely and further apply it to design practices.
REFERENCES
Changsha Annals Office, Annals of Changsha, (1840-1987), Vol. VII, Light industry- (Section 2) Modern industry.
Changsha Municipal People's Government, 2012. ‘The primary impetus to the scientific development and
leading development - results and enlightenments of the promotion of advancing industrialization in
Changsha’, Changsha Evening News, 13 December .
City Planning Review, 2010. ‘Great attention should be attached to protection and use of urban industrial
heritage in city planning’, Excerpts of the Speech in the Symposium on Protection and Use of Urban
Industrial Heritage, City Planning Review, no. 6, pp. 66-68.
Guochuan, F., 2008. ‘Force of event, art exhibition promoting cities’, Time Architecture, no. 4, pp. 30 -33.
Wang Jing, 2012. ‘Protection and regeneration of industrial heritage - A significant way to develop creative
cities’, International Urban Planning, no. 3, pp. 60-64.
Wei, Z., 2009. Reuse and protection of historical buildings, China Architecture & Building Press, Beijing.
Yi, H., 2008. ‘Research on challenges and opportunities faced by Shanghai in urban mixed function
development’, Urban Problems, no. 3, pp. 35-37.
Ying, Y., 2012. ‘Design of Chengdu Eastern Music Park’, Architectural Journal, no. 1, pp. 66-67.
Yiping, D., 2012. ‘Temporary-use model in industrial heritage conservation and regeneration：A case study
on Sulzer-Areal in Winterthur, Switzerland’, Urbanism and Architecture, no. 3, pp. 19-23.
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THE VALUES OF LOW-BUILDING-COVERAGE CONTROL IN THE URBAN DEVELOPMENT OF SHANGHAI
Ms. Dong Yijia, Tongji University, China, dyj217@gmail.com

Prof. Li Zhenyu, Tongji University, China, zhenyuli@tongji.edu.cn
Abstract
In the 80s, the city of Shanghai started new control policies for low-coverage residential development to deal with
the high demands of housing and the rise of sanitary issues. At the same time the concept of an accessory green
ratio was introduced for all new constructions in order to increase green areas in the city. These two regulations
led to a boom of high-rise housing construction during the 1990s and 2000s. Thus the high-rise and park-size
gardens in residential blocks became increasingly important components of the Shanghai urban landscape
during the last thirty years. This paper examines the transformation of these low-coverage development oriented
policies and the related evolutions of housing design from the 80s to the 2000s in Shanghai. This work tries to
reveal the logic and value of these regulations and their influence on the urban form. The conclusion points out
the problems related to low-coverage practice in the perspective of sustainable development for the future of
Shanghai.
Keywords: value, low-coverage, high-rise housing, accessory green, Shanghai.
INTRODUCTION
In the last twenty years, Shanghai has achieved a huge rise in the new construction of housing. However, at
the same time it experienced a decrease in building footprint coverage in the new construction of housing.
Compared to the dense and low-rise urban landscape in the 80s in Shanghai, the new housing compounds
in the 2000s were built at around one-thirds of the coverage and six times the height of the former.
High-rise housing and large residential green areas, which are two of the main characteristics of the urban
form for today’s Shanghai, are heavily influenced by the control in low-coverage development started in
1989. Indicators on the footprint coverage of buildings and the green coverage ratio in residential
development were accurately made to increase the open space and green areas in the city. At the same
time, these regulations encouraged construction of high-rise housing to provide efficient and standard
living spaces for the growing population.
This research takes a look into the distinct twenty years in the urban development history of Shanghai,
investigating the transformation of urban planning regulations and the change in the housing design from
the 90s to the first decade of 21st century to reveal the relationship between political motivation and the
evolvement of urban form.
THE VALUE OF COVERAGE CONTROL IN HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
The sanitary issues of housing development in the 80s

In the beginning of 1980s, dense row housing at two to three floors was the main residential type in
Shanghai. As it was recorded, over 80% of the city population was living in these row housings, named as
‘Linong’ (Figure 1). These high-density constructions were often constructed in a lane-structured at a
building coverage of 60%. A major part of Linong housing was constructed in the 30s, when each unit was
designed for single family living. However, because the urban development slowed down during the
Second World War and the decade after the war, the living density in Linong increased five to six times from
40s to 80s.
During the 80s, the over-crowded living conditions in the city center had always been one of the biggest
barriers for the development of Shanghai. The highest living density in 1980 was found in a Linong area in
Huangpu district, which had over 5000 people living together in one hectare (Sang 1991). The per capita
living area of Shanghai in the early 80s was below 4 square meters, when 53.3% of families in Shanghai were
living in the old constructions with single room and shared kitchen and toilet (Sang 1991).
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In the urban plan of Shanghai in 1985, the municipal government claimed to improve the sanitary
conditions of living by introducing low-coverage development to the city.
Figure1: High density ‘Linong’ house in the city center of Shanghai (Source: Photograph by author 2009).
The development of low-coverage control

The early practice of low-coverage development in Shanghai took reference from the urban planning
framework in the Soviet Union, which followed the principles of Modernism. Slabs of housing at six floors
facing in the same direction were typical constructions of housing in Shanghai during the 80s. Most of this
housing was social housing built by the city or the state-owned companies. Standard floor plan and average
building distance were made to ensure an average condition of light and ventilation to every apartment.
The average coverage of these projects was between 30% and 40%.
In the late 80s, the estate market was introduced back in China as an important supplier of urban housing. At
the same time, the city started to build up an urban planning control frame to face the rising amounts of
construction. In 1989, the first version of urban planning codes started the control on housing footprint
coverage in Shanghai. With reference to the existing practice, this regulation asked for housing at six to
eight floors to be built at coverage of less than 36%, and high-rise housing to be built at coverage of less
than 30%.
From 2001 to 2003, the annual amount of new construction in housing rose rapidly, and the average F.A.R
(floor area ratio) for a residential development exceeded 2.0. More than half of the housing projects were
constructed in the form of high-rise. An updated document in the coverage control was made in 2003,
which required all residential construction to keep their building footprint coverage lower than 30%.
Furthermore, on considering making more open space for the city center, the housing projects in downtown
were asked to keep the building coverage less than 25%.
The increase in development intensity and high-rise housing

In the 80s, high-rise housing was first introduced to the renewal projects in the city center. Its capability in
providing housing area was favored by the government in re-habiting the population in a high-density area.
The towers of 14 to 16 floors with over 8 apartments at each floor were a typical reconstruction form for the
urban renewal projects in the city center.
From the middle of 90s to the beginning of 21st century, the real estate market in Shanghai developed faster
than had been expected. The government started to encourage the real estate developer to participate in
urban renewal projects, which aimed to relocate most of the original living population in the city center to
the new developed area and reconstruct the city center in low-coverage high-rises. Many profitable policies
were given to real estate renewal projects from 2000 to 2002 in Shanghai, which stimulated numbers of high
density developments in the city center. Under the control of building coverage, most of them were realized
in high-rise towers.
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Figure2: Comparison of the areas of new built high-rise housing and the demolished old residential buildings in
Hongkou district, the construction in high-rise contributed to the rise of per capita living area in Shanghai (Source:
Author’s calculation based on Shanghai Statistical Year Book).
At the same time, construction in housing also increased in the new developed area. The annual amount of
new construction in housing exceeded 50 million square meters in 1995. In the fast and massive
development, with the context of low-coverage control, high-rise housing has been favored by the market
for its efficiency in reproduction. The increase of high-rise housing construction after 1995 in Shanghai was
astonishing.
By providing more construction area and open space to the city, the development of low-coverage high-rise
housing was regarded as a contribution to the improvement of living conditions in Shanghai. In the survey
of housing development in Hongkou district in Shanghai, between 2001 and 2005, the new construction
area of high-rise housing is 10 times more than the demolished residence (Figure 2). Thousands of families
benefited from this change, moving from old houses in poor sanitary conditions to new apartments with
light and views of the city. From 1995 to 2005, the per capita living area in Shanghai doubled from 7.5
square meters to 15.5 square meters.
THE VALUE OF RESIDENTIAL GREEN RATIO IN THE GROWTH OF URBAN GREEN COVERAGE
The issue of urban green coverage

At the beginning of the 80s, the urban fabric in downtown Shanghai was dense. Given the urban structure
during the colony era, most of the early development in Shanghai was speculative estate, which had little
consideration on the general open space structure (Firley & Stahl 2009). In the beginning of 1950s, the
coverage of green in Shanghai was only 1.6% and the average public green area by person was merely 0.13
square meters (SPLRAB 2012).
To find more space for green was an important issue of the new city government during the 80s. In the
National Regulation of Green Space Planning (1982), 30% green area was asked for every new urban
development plan and the requirement for urban renewal development was 25%. However, the
requirements could hardly be fulfilled in the 80s. The government found that the budget for development
was far from enough to cover the cost of public green. Until the end of the 80s, the coverage of green in
Shanghai still stayed under 5% (SPLRAB 2012).
The ratio of accessory green in residential area

In 1987, the central government of China decided to set up a real estate system and introduce private
investment in urban development. This change became an opportunity for the city to find more investment
in making a green system. The municipal government of Shanghai released a new regulation for all new
construction: more than 30% of the site area must be planted with green. This semi-public green area is
named accessory green, which is counted in the calculation of the urban green coverage.
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Considering the need for open space in residential areas, the Regulation on Afforestation in Shanghai (1987)
required 10% of the site area to be made into an integral green space in every housing compound. Since
then, a landscape garden has become a necessary component for the neighborhoods in Shanghai.
The accessory green area contributed to the rapid increase of green coverage with the expanding urbanism
in Shanghai. Furthermore, positive feedbacks were received both from the residents and the local
governments. In 1994, the concept of accessory green was introduced to the National Regulation of
Neighborhood Planning (1994).
To enhance the importance of green space in the urbanization movement, the central government
proposed a vision for city development in the Report of Human Settlements in China (1996), which sets the
target of urban green coverage for Chinese cities at 27% by 2000 and 35% by 2010. As a response to this
vision, the municipal government of Shanghai modified the requirements for accessory green in residential
projects: more than 35% of green area is asked for new housing projects ever since.
When more and more accessory green appeared in the city, the government was convinced that higher
coverage of green leads to better living conditions. As a consequence, the coverage of the housing footprint
is believed to be the less the better. In the explanation part of the National Regulation of Neighborhood
Planning (1994), it is written that raising the building footprint coverage would decrease the size of open
space and have a negative influence on the quality of green areas and living environment. “Thus, the
housing footprint coverage as well as the green coverage ratio are essential indicators in living environment
quality control”, as noted in the National Construction Bureau regulation.
The increase of urban green coverage

The green coverage of Shanghai reached 22.2% in 2000, which shows that the city achieved its goal in the
Report of Human Settlements. In the survey on the green area development in Shanghai, it is found that the
accessory green took an important role in the calculation of urban green area from 1990 to 2000. More than
half of the urban green area was in the form of accessory green (Figure 3). In those ten years, the city of
Shanghai developed fast both in economic and public space. In 2004, the area of public green finally caught
up with the amount of accessory green. The development of green area in both forms contributed to the
achievement of the urban green coverage at 38.2% in 2010.
Figure3: The growth of accessory green and public green area in Shanghai and the change of the urban green
coverage (Source: Author’s calculation based on Shanghai Statistical Year Book).
THE VALUE OF PARK-SIZE RESIDENTIAL GARDEN IN HIGH-RISE LIVING
The development of residential green areas

In the twenty years of low-coverage oriented development in Shanghai, the concept of accessory green has
been more than a piece of regulation. The planting and landscape design in the residential area gradually
transformed into an important open space for city life. When the city lacked public green space during the
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80s and the 90s, the government encouraged accessory green to be built into active out-door space for
communities. In the middle of the 90s, financial support was given by the local government to install
outdoor fitness instruments in the green area of every residential block.
In the late 90s, with the rise of construction in intensity and heights, to have a big garden in the community
became an attractive idea in the housing market. It was investigated that more investment in the landscape
design for a housing project could bring back better profit when selling (Huang 1994). In the case of high-
rise residential compounds built in 2000, the garden occupied almost half of the site area (Figure 4). In the
explanation of the design purpose, the project architect argued that the biggest value of the design was to
introduce a park for high-density living (Fu, 2008).
From the beginning of 2000s, more and more park-size gardens occurred in residential developments. The
green coverage for projects exceeded the requirements of the regulation. In the survey of high-rise housing
compounds built between 2000 and 2010, the average of green coverage is 42% from 250 cases, 20% higher
than the regulation. A common size of a residential block garden is between 5,000 to 10,000 square meters.
Figure4: The master plan of a high-rise residential block with park-size garden (Source: The portfolio of KFS –50
cases in ten years, p. 165).
The match of high-rise and high ratio of residential green

The trend on enlarging the size of residential green leaded to the shrink in the footprint of building and
more vertical developments. To give integral space for the park-size garden in the middle of the compound,
the distance between the buildings were maximized and the numbers of buildings are minimized. This leads
to a decrease in building coverage and increase in building height. In the survey of 250 cases of high-rise
compounds built after 2000, the average building coverage is only 17%. A typical image of residential
development in a new urban area in Shanghai has only separated objects standing in emptiness (Figure 5).
537
Figure5: Bird view of the high-rise residential compounds in Shanghai (Source: Photograph by author 2013).
CONCLUSION
The main achievements of Shanghai 1980s to 2010s regulations policies in its specific context of
massive urban development
From 1980 to 2010 Shanghai viewed its per capita living area raised from 4.3 to 17.5 square meters while its
population doubled from 11.8 million to 23 million. The city built in these twenty years seven times more
living area than what it could supply before this period. Throughout this massive period of urban
development, the regulations of low-coverage control played a major role in the following ways:
Given the limited land capacity in the renewal district with high living density, the regulations of low-
coverage control encouraged large operations of high-rise housing to provide standard living condition
following the industrial duplication logics.
Given the limited budget in urban space development, the implementation of accessory green area ratio
stimulated the interest of private investment in making green spaces.
Given the insufficient public green spaces, the encouragement of the development of residential green has
seen new semi-public spaces in the gardens of high-rise compounds, which contribute to the support of
community life in high-density living.
The challenges low-coverage high-rise Shanghai urban policies won’t succeed to face without critical
adjustments
In the late 2000s, Shanghai has solved a consistent amount of its sanitary issues and reached standard levels
of living area per capita and public green area ratio. Nevertheless the city still has major challenges to face in
its near future and this will certainly demand a revision of its urban policies.
One of the challenges comes from the still growing construction intensity; the developable land in Shanghai
has indeed reached its limits of ecological capacity since 2009, while the new plan of the city is still
expecting 65 millions square meters of new housing to be built in the next five years to sustain the needs of
its growing population. This conflict between the limited land and high density development makes the
over 80% of vacant space in residential lands a luxury cost for the city.
Another challenge comes from the difficult compromise between low-coverage regulations producing
monotonous urban form while giving little consideration to public spaces, while the actual need of high-
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density development is calling for more mixed land use and diversified urban form, a need often linked with
more medium-coverage urban development logics.
With regards to the environment, the isolated semi-public accessory green consumes a lot of empty space
but contribute little to the ecological system. When the pollution becomes a new issue for the development
of Shanghai, the city needs more integral public green to work for the self-purification of the urban
environment (Deng 2005).
When high-density development and ecological environment turns the new issues of urban development,
low-coverage control is no longer a sustainable strategy for the urban development in Shanghai. A proposal
for more compact land use and coherent urban space structure is expected to lead to the future
construction of housing in Shanghai.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper is part of the research on ‘Typological Identity of the Contemporary Chinese housing’, supported
by the National Natural Science Fund of China. (Reference Number: 51278337)
REFERENCES
Deng, X., 2005. ‘The principles of land-sorts and planning on urban ecological lands’, Journal of Applicable
Ecology, no. 10.
Firley E & Stahl C., 2009. The Urban Housing Handbook, Wiley, London.
Fu, G., 2008. Ten cases of KFS architecture, Shanghai Literature and Art Press, Shanghai
Huang, X., 1994. Residential environment design, China Architecture and Building Press. Beijing.
Sang, R., 1991. Every family one apartment: Target for living in Shanghai in 2000, Tongji University Press,
Shanghai.
Shanghai Bureau of Statistics, 2012. Shanghai Statistical Year Book, China Statistics Press. Beijing.
Shanghai Planning and Land Resource Administration Bureau, Shanghai Urban Planning and Design
Research Institute, 2012. Shanghai in Transformation: Urban Planning Strategy, Tongji University Press,
Shanghai.
Shanghai Municipal Government, 2012. The plan of housing development in Shanghai (2011-2015), Shanghai.
! !
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DIVERSITY AND MULTICULTURALISM – RESEARCH AND DESIGN FOR BAFATÁ UPON THE 90TH
ANNIVERSARY OF AMÍLCAR CABRAL’S BIRTH
Paulo Tormenta Pinto, Department of Architecture and Urbanism of ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon,
Lisbon, paulo.tormenta@iscte.pt
José Luís Saldanha, Department of Architecture and Urbanism of ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon, Lisbon,
jlpsa@iscte.pt
Abstract
This paper aims to present the results of research made by a group of students in the city of Bafatá, in Guinea-
Bissau. This work was launched for the commemorations of the African independence leader Amílcar Cabral’s
birth (1924-1973) in that city on the Geba riverbank, ninety years ago. The research was carried out by students
finalizing their Integrated Masters in Architecture at ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute, with the main goal being
the recognition of urban changes in Bafatá and the design of an ephemeral structure with the purpose of
preserving and showing Cabral’s life and thoughts.
Bafatá’s centre is strongly marked by the Portuguese colonial presence, visible in the
urban design, and in the several layers of architecture of the city. It is around the boulevard axis, in a
Northeast/Southwest direction, the main entrance into town with the river Geba, that the block layout was
organized (the hospital, the school, the governor’s house, the church, the post-office, the neo-Arab municipal
market, and a badly damaged small pool complex from the 60s, are the most remarkable buildings). The house,
where supposedly Amílcar Cabral was born, is integrated in this nucleus.
Nowadays, the atmosphere of the formal city contrasts with a huge and informal periphery surrounding this
nuclear settlement. The difference between these two realities is very sharp, as the city centre of Bafatá remains
sparsely populated and depressed, while the housing and main commercial activities unfold in the periphery.
The discourse of multiculturalism and ethnic unity enunciated by Amílcar Cabral since the early 50s - particularly
meaningful in this period of political instability in Guinea-Bissau - was taken as a fundamental argument for the
territorial development of Bafatá in the students’ designs.
Keywords: Bafatá, Amílcar Cabral, diversity, multiculturalism.
INTRODUCTION
Oh nhá povo
Bem ouvi um historia Ma bo nome: Amilcar!
Oh nhá povo Ma se nome: Cabral!
Bem ouvi um musica
Eh Amilcar!
Um fidjo de Caboverde Eh Cabral!
Kes midjor fidjo de nos terra
Se nome
É mas grande herança
Nah historia de nos terra
Oh vento! Oh chuva!
Oh mar nha companheira
Bem ajudame conserval
Amilcar
Midjor fidjo de nos terra
Oh Nhe Amilcar!
É bo povo ta txomab!
540
LIMA DE BARROS, Baltasar Januário Midjor Fidjo.1

This paper aims to present the results of research carried out by a group of students in the city of Bafatá, in
Guinea-Bissau. This work, included in a wide post-colonial study about the former Portuguese territories in
Africa, was launched due to the commemorations of the African independence leader Amílcar Cabral’s birth
(1924-1973) in that city on the Geba riverbank, ninety years ago, on the 12th September 1924.
The research was conducted by students finalizing their Integrated Masters in Architecture of ISCTE-
University Institute of Lisbon and had as its main goal the recognition of urban changes in Bafatá and the
design of an ephemeral structure with the purpose of preserving and showing Cabral’s life and thoughts, for
the use of the city’s population. Cabral’s mythical status remains a lingering presence both in Guinea-Bissau
as in Cape-Verde, the birthplace of his father. Poetry and songs about him, such as the Cape-Verdean creole
tune lyrics opening this section by “Nhô Balta” (Mr. Balta), have multiplied through the years.
Figure 1. Images of Bafatá (Hospital, school, boulevard and church, market, square with bust of Cabral and
swimming pool complex).
Bafatá’s city centre is strongly marked by the Portuguese colonial presence, visible in the urban design, and
in the architecture of the city. It is around the boulevard running in the Northeast/Southwest direction,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1
Oh my people!; Come hear a tale!; Oh my people!; Come hear a tune!; / Cabo Verde’s son; You are the best
son of our land; His name is the greatest inheritance of our land; / Oh my people!; Come hear a tale!; Oh my
people!; Come hear a tune!; / Oh winds! Oh rain!; Oh mother my companion!; Come hear me save his memory;
/ Amilcar, best son of our land; Oh Mr. Amilcar,;It’s your people that call for you!; / Your name: Amilcar; His
name: Cabral; Hey Amilcar!; Hey Cabral!; [Transcription by Marly Fonseca and Marlon de Auxiliador].
541
which connects the main entrance in town through the river Geba, that the blocks layout was organized.
This major axis also connects the most remarkable public buildings of the city. The hospital, designed in
1946 by João Simões, is sited close to the urban settlement entrance. Characterized by a single-storey
symmetric composition, this building recalls, with its pronounced tile roof, the vernacular constructions of
Southern Portugal. Slightly below lies the administrative area of Bafatá -a core that includes the governor’s
house, with fine nineteenth century characteristics, and the school, built in an eclectic style. Buildings
designed in the pattern of public architecture of Salazar’s dictatorship period, such as the church, by Eurico
Pinto Lopes in 1950, and the 1943 post office by Francisco de Matos, complement this urban sector. At the
bottom of the main city axis, close to the River Geba is a square where Amílcar Cabral’s bust was raised. The
municipal market, designed in Arabian fashion, and a small pool complex from the 60’s that today is badly
damaged, are also sited on this spot.
Buildings of one or two floors, designed with ceramic grids and porch-areas for shade and ventilation are
predominant in this area, characterizing these city blocks. The house where Amílcar Cabral was supposedly
born is integrated in this nucleus.
Nowadays, the atmosphere of the formal city contrasts with a huge and informal periphery surrounding this
nuclear settlement. The difference between these two realities is very sharp, as the city centre of Bafatá
remains sparsely populated and depressed, while housing and the main commercial activities unfolds in the
periphery. The growth along the national road was elected by the population, as the city seems to have
turned its back to the River Geba, displacing its centre to the outskirts of its original limits.
The discourse of multiculturalism and ethnic unity, enunciated by Amílcar Cabral since the early 50’s -
particularly meaningful in this period of a new political cycle after the recent instability in Guinea-Bissau -
was taken as a fundamental argument for the territorial development of Bafatá in the students’ designs.
Redesigning the existing territory is also a sustainable priority to protect the planets’ resources. This issue
should not be placed only in regard to shortage of materials and energy, but also as a chance to focus on the
importance of different social realities.
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GUINEA-BISSAU – AN ETHNO-GEOGRAPHICAL PORTRAIT
Figure 2. “Babel Negra” (Simões, 1935, p. 25).
Guinea-Bissau, in general, and Bafatá in particular, represent both a good opportunity to reflect about our
common future. Ethnic diversity is one of the most relevant issues in Guinea. The country has almost thirty
different ethnic cultures co-inhabiting the same territory, sharing Animistic religions, with Islamism and
Christianity.
Bafatá, with almost twenty two thousand inhabitants, is the capital of the region with the same name. In this
city, the diversity is also visible in the landscape, the different ways in which the territory is occupied, fusing
the culture of each group, not only with the physical characteristics of the colonial urban design, but also
with contemporary demands.
Guinea-Bissau, located in Western Africa, has a population of just under one-and-a-half million. Although it is
one of the smallest countries in Africa, it is still bigger than Belgium or Taiwan, with an area of 36 544 km²
and a roughly triangular shape with a northern border with the Republic of Senegal that runs parallel to the
equator along most of its length. The southeastern frontier borders Guinea-Conakry, while the Atlantic
Ocean lies to the southwest. The word “Guinea” applies to the land of black people, as opposed to land of
moors, or Mauretania, used since the Roman Empire (the Romans did not use Guinea however, but rather
the word Aethiopia when referring to sub-saharan lands and people) (Euzzenat 2000, p. 457-466). Thus, it is
to be found again further South in the continent, in Equatorial Guinea and the Gulf of Guinea, just above the
Equator. The name figures in Angelino Dulcert’s 1339 chart, to depict the lands south of Senegal, and
historiographical documents sometimes use the forms “Ganuya” or “Guynea”, all of which derive from the
village of Gená, Genua, Djenné, Jenné, Jani or Geni, founded around 1040 AD on the Inner Niger Delta, in
Mali (Dinis 1938).
As Dulcert’s 1339 chart shows, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and southern Senegal form a transition area from the
land of the moors. The country is also the northernmost patch of tropical rain forest in Western Africa.
543
Religion is ethnically based around local deities and myths amongst 45% of Guineans, with Christianity
reaching an adherence of just over 10%. Given the countries’ closeness to the Sahara, Islam is practiced by
more than 40% of the population.
Weather in Guinea-Bissau is warm all year round, with little temperature fluctuation. Climate is tropical
wet/dry, the rainy season with southwesterly winds between June and September/October. The dry season
runs from December through May, when northeasterly winds blow from the Sahara Desert, and the country
experiences drought (Teixeira 1969, pp. 1348-1352).
The country has a coast line dotted with islands that form the Bijagós Archipelago, one of which, the Isle of
Bolama, was the site for the country’s capital under Portuguese power from 1879 to 1941, when it was
moved to the city of Bissau.
Guinea-Bissau is drained by a few rivers of short length, the major being the Corubal, that has an estuary on
which the present capital, Bissau, lies just under the 12°N parallel, halfway between the Equator and the
Tropic of Cancer. The main tributary of the Corubal is the river Geba, which runs past Bafatá. Since Guinea-
Bissau is essentially flat (its’ highest point lying only 300 metres above sea-level), the river systems, and
particularly the Corubal/Geba, have meandering courses.
Bissau holds more than half of the urban population in the country, which has Bafatá as the second major
town. Guinea-Bissau is administratively divided into 8 regions and is the autonomous urban sector of the
countries’ capital. The regions being: Cacheu on the northwest and along the coast; Biombo west of the
Bissau’s sector; Oio, to the north and east of the latter; Bolama, which encompasses the Bijagós archipelago;
Tombali, south of the river Corubal; Gabú, which covers the furthermost territories of Guinea-Bissau – and
Bafatá. Given the small size of the country and its flatness, which makes mobility relatively easy, one of its
most remarkable characteristics is the fact that the Guinean population is formed by a wide number of
ethnic groups with different languages, social structures and habits. Although Guinea-Bissau has been a site
for several ethnographical studies, we have chosen to approach this ground resorting to the wonderful
“Babel Negra” (Black Babel), a book that Fernando Landerset Simões published in 1935 (Simões 1935).
Guinea-Bissau has tripled its population since, but the study remains highly valid in engaging the ethnic
blend in the country, which was at that time relatively untouched by globalization. It is a deep approach into
ethnic groups in Guinea-Bissau, exquisitely illustrated by the author, and with many fine black-and-white
photographs by this ethnographer and Manuel J. Pires and Amândio Lopes. The book title already points
towards diversity and multiculturalism. It provides a lexicon of major words in each dialect, from which we
picked the various forms for the word ‘man’:
Anineu among the Felupe, which inhabit the coast line in the north of the country; Eline in the Baiote family,
along the northwestern border with Senegal; Ninte in the Manjaco language, mostly spoken west of the Isle
of Bissau; Anino among the Papel, which live on the Isle of Bissau proper; Quéô among the Mandinga group,
that inhabit the extreme northeast of Guinea-Bissau, but also the region of Oio; Lantê in the language of the
Balanta, that live in the southern part of the Oio region; Mintchele or Baitchele among the Nalú, a small ethnic
group that lives in the southernmost part of continental Guinea-Bissau; and Górcò or H’uórebe among the
Fula - the main ethnic group that inhabit the Gabú and the Bafatá administrative regions.
In this view, it is easy to understand why the official language of the country is Portuguese, used as a
vehicular tongue between all Guineans. Forms of Portuguese origin creole are also spoken. Many of these
are not contained in the nation’s borders, occupying regions of neighbouring Senegal and Guinea-Conakry.
All native languages spoken in Guinea are of the Niger-Congo subfamily – namely, from the Mande (or
Mandinka) and West Atlantic branches, the latter having the Fula as a wide-speaking language that reaches
into Guinea-Conakry, Nigeria and Cameroon. Ethnic languages along the Guinean coast are usually spoken
amongst small groups of people, in a pattern, which ranges along the African coast, from Senegal to Liberia.
In the broader African context, these peoples derive from two major groups:
• The Sudanese, mostly inhabiting the coast, are represented by the Felupe, Manjaco, Mancanha, Bijagó,
Papel (dominant in the country’s capital), Balanta and Biafada. The Futa-Fula are also of Sudanese stock;
• The Guinea Coast group, extending eastward into Nigeria, reaches the outskirts of the Sahara and only
spreads into the southern parts of Senegal. These are represented in Guinea-Bissau by the Mandinga, the
Nalú and the numerous Fulas, which prevail in the Bafatá region.
544
AMÍLCAR CABRAL’S ETHICAL LEGACY
Figure3. Amílcar Cabral (1924-1973).
In 1466, the Portuguese Crown ceded the rights to the coast of “Cape Verde’s Guinea” to the inhabitants of
Cape Verde, the Atlantic archipelago that the Portuguese had discovered uninhabited in 1460 and which
they proceeded to colonize soon after. This started a long history of commitment between both of these
countries, and a second-level of multiculturalism.
By regal decree of March the 15th 1692, the captaincy-major of Bissau was established and the construction
of a fortress on the River Geba begun. Until then, the area of Bissau had been settled with a hut ensemble
where people from the Isle of Santiago (Cape Verde) would come to collect slaves. A new fortress was built
between 1753 and 1766, replacing the previous one, and the site renamed “Praça de São José de Bissau”.
The Portuguese established trading posts along the coast of Eastern Africa, which present-day toponyms still
come to testify – as in Sierra Leone/“Serra Leoa” the lioness mountain chain, named by Pedro de Sintra
(Garcia 1994, p. 994); the city of Porto Novo (meaning New Port), in Benim; the city of Lagos, in Nigeria
(meaning lakes in Portuguese); or the nation of Cameroon (Cameroun in French and Kameroun in German),
which takes its name from the Portuguese word camarões (shrimps) given by Fernando do Pó at the end of
the 15th Century (AAVV 1966, p. 598) to the river (presently called Wouri) that drains into the ocean at
Douala. Most of these were used in the slave and gold trade.
545
Figure 4. Route of the slave trade to Santiago and América (Source: Carreira, Cabo Verde. Formação e Extinção de
uma Sociedade Escravocrata (1460-1878).
Ship routes would usually lead the slave trade from these posts to the Island of Santiago (as illustrated in
adjoining figure), from which they were shipped to the Antilles, Cartagena, Honduras, Caracas or Pará and
Maranhão (the latter both in Brazil). Therefore, commercial and racial bonds accompanied the geographical
proximity of Guinéa-Bissau and Cape Verde. Santiago, in the leeward group of the Cape-Verdean Islands, still
has a higher rate of darker-skinned inhabitants than the rest of this Republic.
The Cape-Verde Archipelago was uninhabited when the Portuguese crown claimed ownership of these Isles.
Its’ population is therefore an original blend of people from various sources. Cape-Verdeans would be widely
used by the Portuguese to fill middle-ranking positions in the colonial bureaucracy in Guinea-Bissau until
1879, when both territories under Portuguese control were administratively separated (Banha de Andrade
1969, pp. 1364-1368), and the Cape-Verdean mulatto community living in Guinea-Bissau would play a
decisive role in the fight for independence of the country from Portugal in the following century.
Amílcar Cabral positioned himself at the limits of issues in his time and also in his territory. He was born in
Bafatá, son of a Cape Verdean father and a Guinean mother (Juvenal Lopes Cabral and Iva Pinhel Évora),
which allowed him to see himself as a result of a multicultural and global process. His intercourse with
Portugal can be traced through his parents’ family names: Évora is a town in Portugal, while Cabral was the
surname of the Portuguese navigator who first landed on Brazilian shores.
Cabral observed Africa and Guinea from the exterior, conceptualizing an ideological process of refunding
the African territory. The union of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau was the ambition of the PAIGC (African
Party for the Guinea and Cape Verde Independency), the clandestine party formed in 1959 by Cabral - along
with his brother Luís Cabral and Aristides Pereira, Fernando Fortes, Julio de Almeida and Elisée Turpin.
546
The ideology of the PAIGC party, in a way, resumed the ancient foundation of both countries, redefining
their history, not rejecting however their shared colonial past and the importance of the Portuguese
language as main argument for a new multicultural democratic approach.
Amílcar Cabral was one of the most relevant independent movement leaders in the period after the Second
World War. Cabral obtained higher training in Lisbon, getting his degree in Agronomic Engineering in 1950.
During the last years of the 40’s, which he spent in Lisbon studying and sharing lodgings in the House of the
Empire Students with other individuals from several places in Africa and in Asia, he reinforced his
understanding about the value of cultural diversity. Cabral's thoughts matured, not only through contact in
Lisbon with personalities who later would have political responsibilities in the independence period of
African countries, such as José Eduardo dos Santos e Agostinho Neto (founders of the Popular Movement for
Liberation of Angola -MPLA) or Marcelino dos Santos (Mozambique Liberation Front -FRELIMO), but also
through the acquaintanceship with people from the field of literature, poets and writers, such as Francisco
José Tenreiro (1921-1963), Mário Coelho Pinto de Andrade (1928-1990), Alda Espírio Santo (1926-2010) or
Noémia de Sousa (1926-2002).
Cabral set out a new multicultural order in world ethnic diversity. African people, not rejecting certain values
of the colonial period, should be able to assume their specificity on the international scene. Although he did
not reject the need of a preventive war, Cabral challenged Marxism, as he formulated that “the colonized is
fated to destroy the colonizer, emancipating himself while emancipating him at the same time” (Lopes
2004). According to him, Marxism was an instrument to understand history, thus refusing to go along with
common theories in the 60’s about auto-determination in Africa.
Just like an architect, Amílcar Cabral could understand the possibility of recognizing the territory of Guinea
and Cape Verde as a palimpsest, as André Corboz wrote (Corboz 2001). Cabral’s intention was to reconstruct
the history of both countries, inscribing in the same wrinkles of old territorial parchment, the possibility of a
new map.
The idea of introducing the study of a personality as Amílcar Cabral in the field of architecture aspires to
emphasize the importance of ethical training in the university nowadays. The creation of space and shape in
architecture should be seen as an ideological act and a civic position. As Cabral, architects also observe the
reality from the outside, taking part in it, while at the same time reinventing opportunities for change.
547
SYNTHESIS OF 10 PROJECTS BY STUDENTS FOR THE AMÍLCAR CABRAL INTERPRETATIVE CENTRE
Figure 6. Synthesis of the student’s projects to the Amílcar Cabral Interpretative Centre.
Connecting the personality of Amílcar Cabral with an architectonic exercise to debate the distant territory of
Bafatá, at the heart of Guinea-Bissau, was very important in generating students’ conscience in reading the
sediments of that territory.
These were guided to perceive how the human marks had transformed through time the patterns of urban
geography. The challenge of contemporary architecture is mainly placed in this kind of articulation between
different layers in time. Architectonic opportunities are now more than ever, connected with the process of
establishing meaning among the legacy of urban fragments.
Students were asked to design an Interpretative Centre planned as an ephemeral structure to be built in
Bafatá, with the aim of divulging the personality of Amílcar Cabral, his work, and thought. The structure
should be constructed during the commemorations of the ninetieth anniversary of Cabral’s birth, in 2014.
This workshop held in November 2013 lasted three weeks. Students were free to reinterpret the exercise,
finding the best place for the structure and looking for adequate materials and technical means to deploy.
Ten groups of five students were organized to respond to the challenge.
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The subject of the workshop connected the internal debate with contemporary issues. Students found that
the city of Bafatá is a worthy subject in understanding, in a faraway geography, a number of issues that
frame todays’ urban dynamics. The shrinking of the former city core, the periphery enlargement, and the
sharing of urban territory between different social groups raises questions about society and territory that
are fundamental in architectural issues in Africa today. This is why the relationship of this workshop with
Cabral’s thinking was useful in connecting ideology and architecture, both in the debates about students’
proposals, and also their understanding of the city’s mutations.
Only the teachers coordinating the workshop had been in Bafatá, while the students did not have the
chance to do so. Therefore, an external reading of the city was considered when preparing the exercise.
Maps, plans, photos and videos were the tools used in the students’ research about Bafatá.
Outputs generated by students can be organized in three areas: (i.) Territorial proposals, (ii.) Local proposals,
and (iii.) Prototype proposals:
Territorial proposals
Three groups of students tested territorial proposals through the design of pedestrian infrastructures,
creating in this way new urban flows that should connect Bafatá’s city core with its environment.
Two projects planned the reconstruction of a former bridge that connected the city centre of Bafatá with the
west side of Cambossa river (a tributary of the Geba). In one of these, a sequence of flat structures should
integrate the programme of the Interpretative Centre, expanding the city centre beyond the river, through
the bridge. On the west side of the riverbank, a high-rising wood construction was also planned, creating a
reference in the landscape. The structure should provide a special panoramic view of the city of Bafatá and
its’ surroundings. The other project, reconnecting both riverbanks of the Cambossa, explored building with
bamboo. Guinea Bissau, due to its geography, has much bamboo, but its’ industry, still locally unavailable,
might take part in the advancement of the building sector in the country. This architectural proposal
consists of a bridge built in a truss bamboo structure that should further include a small open auditorium. A
set of units placed in front of the riverside, were also proposed, reviving at the same time the stretch of the
former Governor João de Oliveira Muzanty Garden.
Another group proposed the recycling of wood pallets to construct a ‘living bridge’ set on a floodplain. This
structure would contain in its interior structure the Interpretive Centre programme. This linear element was
planned to connect the city centre to its periphery, providing a passage over a water line in a floodable land.
Local proposals
Projects more directly related with urban moments in Bafatá were developed by three groups of students.
Two of these worked around the former garden close to the river Geba, where the statue of Governor João
de Oliveira Muzanty stood in the past, together with a playground. Nowadays this place is quite desolate,
since the statue was removed and natural vegetation took over the site. One of the projects for the place
consisted of a set of autonomous boxes, each embodying parts of the programme. This group of boxes was
planned to be set on a platform, articulating other single elements. The ensemble should be covered with
traditional fabrics, creating shade and controlling sun rays. The other intervention for the former garden
proposed a new configuration of the site through a topographical change providing a flat site opening onto
the river. The Interpretative Centre would be located just below this new plot, making use of a light wood
structure.
The third project included in the group of local proposals was planned in dialogue with the hospital of
Bafatá, designed in the early 40s by João Simões, one of the most respected Portuguese architects of the
period. The hospital illustrates the colonial architectural policy developed by the government for
Portuguese overseas territories, re-interpreting the characteristics of the flat constructions that can be found
in the South of Portugal. Bafatá’s hospital was never fully completed according to plan - nevertheless it is still
a very important health centre in the region, and a reference at the entrance of the city. The students
proposed an Interpretative Centre anchored on the hospital building. A ring structure in wooden beams
axially placed should receive the programme, framing existing paths leading to the hospital.
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Prototype proposals
Four projects were planned as prototypes. The relationship between these and the city of Bafatá was
achieved through the choice of the place for its implantation.
One of the proposals dealt with the expression of the periphery, by working in an informal urban sector. The
Interpretative Centre is partitioned into small units of wood and zinc, seeking to establish architectural
analogy and dialogue with its’ surrounding informal constructions. The positioning of the units on site
should allow for the distribution of the programme, creating an enclosure dedicated to Cabral.
Another proposal reflects vernacular constructions, working on the tabanca tipology (Guinean creole for
village). A band of simple units receive the programme for the Interpretative Centre. These units, to be done
in light materials and introducing ventilation devices, were planned to be set on platforms, creating patios in
between them. This proposal should be located close to the Geba and the house where Cabral was born.
Another proposal, deployed close to the city centre, builds on a relation between the ephemeral and the
permanent. A set of concrete bases should define the ensemble. During the period when the Interpretative
Centre is active, these concrete bases receive wooden structures allowing for the implementation of its
programme areas. After Amílcar Cabral's birth commemoration, these wood shells should be disassembled,
with the concrete bases remaining as a memory of the moment.
An Interpretative Centre relying on a number of wooden units raised from the soil, linked by a suspended
path, also integrates this series. The enclosure created by this project, located on a terrain close to the
Bafatá’s hospital, should be covered for shade and ventilation, correlating its existence with the local trees.
CONCLUSION
The aim of the exercise was largely achieved. Students acknowledged the architectural identity of the
Guinean territory of Bafatá, its multicultural characteristics and the personality of Amílcar Cabral. The
transformations of the territory, its physical and human geography changes, were also tackled in the
students’ work.
Diversity and multiculturalism are natural to Guinea-Bissau, and are manifest on different levels. On a
narrower scale, we have noted the remarkable number of ethnic groups which inhabit the country,
particularly with regard to the reduced size of Guinea-Bissau and its present population of only 1.5 million
people. Country and people are a threshold between the western coast and the inner depths of Africa, but
also a gateway between sub-Saharan lands of the continent and the barren territories of Earths’ greatest
desert.
On a second level, we find diversity and multiculturalism in the deep relations between Guinea and Cape
Verde. This archipelago nation is split between the southward group, and the leeward group, which lies
closer to Guinea-Bissau. Together, the Republic of Cape Verde is composed of 10 isles, each of which speaks
its’ own Portuguese originated creole. Leeward and southward groups have particular difficulty in
understanding each other. Thus, the nation’s official and vehicular language is Portuguese, as it gives the
possibility for communication between the two nations which, as we have seen, share a historical common
background. This complicity led the two countries in the colonial war with Portugal, and through the PAIGC
to dream of the utopia of thriving independence.
On a third level, these two countries are not only set into the wider world of Portuguese speaking nations
around the world, but also shared the same colonizer. Both of them, along with Portugal and other
sovereign nations, make part of the Portuguese Official Language Countries’ organization.
In Amílcar Cabral, we find a freedom fighter who represented all these levels of diversity and
multiculturalism. Son of a Cape Verdean and a Guinean, he studied in Portugal and worked for the
Portuguese State before embarking on active military activities, which eventually would lead Guinea-Bissau
to independence.
Through this experience, it was possible to deal with three fundamental subjects in architectural training:
idealism, historiography and territory (Pinto 2011). The personality of Cabral seduced the students through
his thoughts and his dreams; historiography related to the Guinea-Bissau was seen as an instrument for
redefining the possibility of a new geography; the territory as palimpsest was seen as a deposit of sediments
connected through time-layers, demanding new meaning and order.
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REFERENCES
AA.VV. 1966. Enciclopédia Luso-Brasileira de Cultura, Volume IV. Verbo, Lisbon.
Banha de Andrade., 1969. Enciclopédia Luso-Brasileira de Cultura, Volume IX, Verbo, Lisbon.
Corboz, A., 2011. ‘Território como palimpsesto’, in AA.VV, Teoria Crítica de Arquitectura do Século XX
Caleidoscópio, Casal de Cambra, pp. 741-852 (texto original A Corboz, ‘La territoire comme palimpseste’, Lês
Editions de L’imprimeur, Paris.
Dinis, A Dias., 1938. ‘Origem da Palavra Guiné’, in AA.VV, O Mundo Português, Verbo, Lisbon.
Euzennat, M., (ed) 2000. Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, Volume I, Map-by-Map Directory,
Map 28 (Mauritania Tingitensis), Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford.
Garcia, JM., 1994. In L de Albuquerque & L Domingues & F Contente (eds) Dicionário de História dos
Descobrimentos Portugueses, Volume II, Círculo de Leitores.
Lagarto, M., 1994. In L de Albuquerque & L Domingues & F Contente (eds) Dicionário de História dos
Descobrimentos Portugueses, Volume I, Círculo de Leitores.
Lopes, C., 2004. ‘O Legado de Amílcar Cabral Face aos Desafios da Ética Contemporânea”, in BA Junior,
Margens da Cultura, São Paulo, Boitempo, Speech in Brasilia, in September 2004 for the occasion of the 80º
anniversary of Amílcar Cabral birth.
Pinto, PT., 2011. ‘Temáticas e Reflexões sobre o Ensino de Projecto no Último Ano de Formação – O caso do
Mestrado Integrado em Arquitectura do ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa’, em V Projetar – Processos
de Projeto, Teorias e Práticas, 25-28 October, Belo Horizonte.
Simões, FL., 1935. Babel Negra. Etnografia, Arte e Escultura dos indígenas da Guiné, O Comércio do Porto. Title
translation: Babel Negra. Etnografia, Arte e Escultura dos indígenas da Guiné – Black Babel, Ethnography, Art
and Sculpture of the Guinea's Indigenous.
Teixeira, C., 1969. Enciclopédia Luso-Brasileira de Cultura, Volume IX, Verbo, Lisbon.
! !
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RE-DISCOVERING THE AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY OF THE ARCHITECTURE THROUGH THE

OTHER/OTHER’S LENS: EUROPEAN-BASED CONSIDERATIONS
Małgorzata Kądziela, Silesian University, Institute of Cultural and Interdisciplinary Studies, Katowice,
Poland, malgorzata.kadziela@wp.pl
Anna Rynkowska-Sachse, Sopot University of Applied Sciences, Sopot, Poland, aniasachse@wp.pl
Abstract
The Western definitions of the ‘smart cities’ are concentrated around three main elements. The first
approach describes the smart city as the organized body, using the new technologies in the manner to
increase the efficiency of the infrastructure and communication interconnectivity (Azkuna 2012).
Another approach emphasizes the role of the sensors, mobile devices, to create digital dimension of
the city (Schaffers 2012). Yet another approach presents the city as the area consisting of populations
implementing activities and effectively acting institutions in terms of knowledge creation, developed
broadband infrastructure and on-line tools for knowledge management and solving problems that
arise for the first time, as the key to the assessment of the intelligence (Komninos 2008). The main
thesis of the paper is that the process of incorporation of the Western-based smart cities concepts into
developing African cities can be dangerous for their identities, if not preceded by an epistemological
reflection upon African cultures. From the perspective of a European philosopher and architect, the
African cultural memory, emphasizing the interconnectivity of beings and environments, is the crucial
element of African systems of perception. It is applied and visible in the contemporary architecture in
the landscape, but its lack describes the architecture of the cities. The adaptation of the OTHER
(technologically grounded) concept into the African context demands primarily exploring HERE the
original philosophy of architecture (theoretical, practical). This philosophy would act as a medium
connecting the contemporaneity with cultural resources and the new technologies with existing urban
and architectural tissues. The thesis and some re-discovered through the OTHER/OTHER'S lens
propositions for African architectural philosophy will be illustrated by examples of the architecture of
Namibia, Burkina Faso and South Africa.
Keywords: architectural philosophy, design theory, design philosophy, Ubuntu theory, technology,
African architecture, African legacy, sensorial anthropology.
Historical legacy
While studying scientific papers and documents concerning Africa one gradually becomes surprised
that, despite quite long lasting relations between African and Western cultures (dating from the
Renaissance period), an African continent still appears to Europeans as a mysterious land (Sieber and
Walker 1987). On the one hand it fascinates, on the other it terrifies. A closer look at the reasons for
such an ambiguous attitude reveals that in spite of a great amount of anthropological research, the
cultural background of the continent is still unrecognized for Europeans (because of that, Europeans
locate their ‘African considerations’ in a colonial, romanticized discourse, or in the apartheid one).
Explaining the background of the contemporary situation of already independent Africa the
researchers point at the reasons for this situation. The first and most crucial one arose during the period
of colonialism, when the main source of understanding of African reality, an orality (linked to race, sex,
religion and phobias) was assigned the negative value and became opposed to the positively
evaluating Western literacy. Enforced by the positive law and the concept of primitiveness treating the
Blackness as a disability, members of the Western civilization smashed the native African religions and
destroyed indigenous artistic expression connected to orality (Cartwright 1851, Cesaire 1957, Cook and
Lindau 2000, Eze 1997, Mapaure 2011, Mucina 2013, Sieber and Walker 1987). Among the ‘colonial
legacy’ of the technological nature (intended as a replacement of indigenous heritage) one can find the
implementation of Western concepts of progress and the development based on engineering,
prescribing the colonial design and spatial ordering as mechanisms of control over African family life,
working conditions and the cultural memory (Demissie 2004, Kamete 2013, Müller-Friedmann 2008).
Spatial planning was realized through the introduction of statistics based concepts of standards of
living, treating it as a method of civilizing Natives, also through the reconstruction of the local space in
the form of European architecture and aesthetics, as far as incorporating suburban-style architecture
from the British planning tradition, and implanting colonial culture and institutions (Asomani-Boateng
2011, Demissie 2004, Morange et al. 2012, Mucina 2013, Müller-Friedmann 2006, 2008, Peters 2004,
Steinmetz and Hell 2006).
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The culminating moment of the development of the colonial period in architecture is identified with
the beginning of modern movement in South Africa. Theoretical assumptions of the modern
movement became the main ideology of the authorities, and in a form of the spatial solutions underlay
the process of the restructuring and civilizing black and coloured members of the society (Kamete
2013, Popke and Ballard 2004). Orderly pleasing cities, amenable to intervention through design,
management and engineering was the main goal of it (Bauman 1993). From the point of view of
abovementioned dialectics of the formal order and beauty, “disorder” and spatial “unruliness”
connected to the informal settlements, although treated as inevitable in the restructuring process, was
assigned for eradication. Through the law and administrative regulations during the apartheid period
informality was equated with illegality and opposed to formality – both: spatial and legal (Abdoul 2005,
ILO 1972; Tokman 2001; Castells and Portes 1989). That allowed the authorities to develop certain
modes of dealing with urban informality, described as “de-informalization” relocation/delocation,
eradication and “repressive tolerance” (Marcuse 1969, Butcher 1986, Robins 2002, Rupiya 2005,
Maponga 2006, Kamete 2002a, 2002b, 2013, Mooya and Cloete 2007, Simposya 2010, Tipple 2000). It
revealed that city landscapes were still based on the racial distinctions: a modernist part assigned for
the white residents, the townships - for the black and coloured urbanites. A glorification of the colonial
past and leftovers of the romanticized Africanness still took place in architectural education (Marschall
2001).
During the apartheid period and after, two further ideological concepts of so called “African philosophy
of the architecture” arose. According to the first of them called ‘Africanness’, the original design is
supposed to be “the more or less superficial coding of a building with highly visibly and recognizable
elements that signify to the users or viewers a sense of Africa, or that constitute an ‘African character’
in the eyes of predominantly non-African viewers” (Marschall 2001, p. 140).
It was also suggested that “Africanness must be contrasted with Afrocentrism, which can be defined as
an attempt to replace Europe (or the West) with Africa as the general reference point for the
(re)production of all knowledge (Olaniyan 1995, p. 93). Afrocentrism is related to movements such as
Pan Africanism, Negritude and Black Consciousness, all of which are different, complex and historically
conditioned concepts in their own right, but their common denominator is the intention to reform the
consciousness of black Africans in relation to whites, the cultural and ideological struggle against
colonization, and the emphasis on self-determination and self-construction. Afrocentrism is a profound
and all encompassing (i.e. social, political, cultural) movement (Olanyian 1995, p. 97), which is first and
foremost meaningful to black Africans (although theoretically addressed at anyone). Africanness …is
predominantly addressed to whites; it does not aim at a profound reshaping of consciousness, or of
architectural design for that matter, but refers to the (often exoticised) ‘African’ coding of buildings that
are designed by white architects for a predominantly white audience” (Marschall 2001, p. 140).
Describing the situation of the contemporary designing at the continent, Sabine Marschall stresses
that: “The majority of architects in South Africa reject any encoding of a building with culturally specific
references and follow architectural ‘styles’ that are clearly linked to broader international trends, such
as neo-modernism. A few, however, are trying by all means to ‘Africanise’ their architectural designs.
This trend enjoys the greatest popularity in the commercial field and establishments addressed at a
tourist audience, but is also found in private residential architecture and even in civic architecture with
considerable public and symbolic status” (Marschall 2001, p. 140). Marschall remains also that: “The
Eurocentric bias of architecture in South Africa—its educational foundations, its underlying theories
and practices—have become a matter of debate and (sometimes) criticism” (Marschall 2001).
Towards the original philosophy of design of the architecture

One of the hypothesis of this paper is that Africa needs its own philosophy of architecture rooted in the
indigenous knowledge which, in fact, has the cultural origin. Thus, the most appropriate scientific
discipline which may serve as the source of the methodology for the further grounds for the
architectural design seems to be a sensorial anthropology. Since the methodology of Western
sciences/philosophies are based on distinguishing and individuating the senses according to a
proximal stimulus, representation, phenomenal character and a sense organ - a chosen principle for the
individuation of the senses results in stressing the different ranges of the environmental properties
(Macpherson 2011, Nudds 2004 p. 45). But while European sciences/philosophies consider those
properties in connection to distinguished and individuating senses, in African reality this methodology
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seems to be improper. The proof for such an assumption one can find already at the language level –
some African languages do not even have the terms and notions describing five separate,
physically/biologically individuated senses (Geurts 2003).
The beginning of every kind of Western philosophy/epistemology is located in everyday sensory

experiences. The cultural research made so far by the sensory anthropologists have proved that human
sensory experience is an effect of the somatic work of human beings upon the cultural and existential
contents, in other words - the linguistic as well as alinguistic experiences of individuals, which stay in
the various relations (creative, maintaining, interrupting, communicative) with interpersonal or cultural
notions of moral, aesthetic, or logical desirability (Hewy and Classen 1991, Classen1998, 2005, Howes
1991, 2003, 2005, Stoller 1989, Seremetakis 1994, Macpherson 2011, Van Ende 2009, Vanini, Waskull,
Gotschalk 2012). Those relations reveal that somatic rules which organize senorial impressions are
underlaid by numerous circumstances of symbolic, corporeal, cultural, physical, ritualized and
improvised nature (Huxley 1942, Vanini, Waskull, Gotschalk 2012). The recognition of the particular sets
(modes) of the relations among those circumstances, exposed in the observed shape, informs us what
sense is important for practical purposes and which one is important for the culturally sensory coding
(Vanini, Waskull, Gotschalk 2012, Howes 2003, Roadway 1994, Rivelin and Gravell 1984).
The relevance of the given sensory expression (code) of the sensory experience can be determined by
relating it to the total sensory dynamics of the culture. Since the senses mediate between the mind and
body, they mediate between meaning and materiality, and further – between meaning, object and
action - all changing through passing time. The sensory experiences in African reality are produced,
enacted and perceived as intertwined with emotion, meaning and memory. What emerges between
the sensory modes and the cultural codes is the actual sensory perception. It becomes the main
element of African philosophies/epistemologies, among them - especially present in the Ubuntu
theory.
Ubuntu philosophy as the grounds for the philosophy of the architectural designing
From the perspective of the European philosopher and architect, it is claimed that contemporary
philosophy of African architecture which could constitute the theoretical grounds for the further/future
design, should be rooted in Ubuntu theory. For that purpose, the most important from the design point
of view is the Ubuntu epistemology. According to Devi D. Mucina, the beginning point of it is located in
the concept of the African phenomenological position: I am because you are, which means the self-
reflective descriptions of the constituting activities of the consciousness of Africana people (Henry
2006, p. 1, Mucina 2013, p. 30). Mucina explains that the self-reflection and its active meaning making
occur in a multidimensional, relational world: the social meaning of our world is made through the
older meaning of it, created before by the self-reflection and meaning making of our ancestors.
Starting from self-reflection and old meanings created by ancestors, the construction of new categories
and rules for architectural philosophy of design demands saving meanings of the spatial and
architectural categories and elements of the existing environment. The next step is to recognize the
Ubuntu position (understood as an 'inward-looking process' of understanding one’s actual relations
inside multi-dimensional reality) in the sensory experiences. The change created in comparison to the
passing phenomena (presence of which is accessible through the form of sensory codes) has to be
understood in relationship to space, giving in this way the rise to the concept of its occupation.
As doing creates changes, architectural designing actions should be constantly preceded by the
contested interpretation of the new social and spatial concepts being constituted during the changing
phenomena. To achieve this, the main theoretical task for new architectural philosophy is to interpret
relational bounds revealing how the change, according to the Ubuntu epistemology, the constant fact,
impacts everything (Mucina 2013). To understand the interweaving binds of time, space and action, it is
necessary to investigate the relation of the past and the present meanings, coding the newly emerging
concept into the experience; experience is conceived of as the embodiment meaning of rules
concerning how to design, occupy and manage the space.
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Ubuntu philosophy and contemporary design: Case studies
From the point of view of the architectural and urban development of African cities, it is important to
recognize whether recently realized (after the restoration of the independence/sovereignty) that
particular buildings are created in accordance with the cultural dynamics of sensory perception
(essential for the Ubuntu epistemology). After having analyzed different contemporary buildings
realized in Southern Africa, we present below three examples which reveal some elements of emergent
architectural discourse in terms of the Ubuntu philosophy.
Diébégo Francis Kéré, Primary School, Gando, Burkina Faso
Figure 1: Primary School, Gando, Burkina Faso (Kéré 2004).
The main intention of Diébégo Francis Kéré was to build a permanent building that will serve the
people from Gando village (which Kéré comes from) for many years. The architect decided to realize a
school, perceiving the construction of it as increasing opportunities for education for his countrymen. It
was also expected that the building of the school would stop the migration of people from the
countryside to the city, as well as give the local community (involved in the building process) an
opportunity to gain the knowledge of technologies and apply them to improve traditional building
techniques, as well as to reinforce local building materials. Kéré envisaged that the skills learned by the
members of the community in this way would be applied to further initiatives in the village for its own
purposes, as well as using these competencies to get a job outside the village. He introduced the
technologies reinforcing local techniques and materials in terms of their durability. Kéré taught how to
effectively strengthen the dried blocks of clay, melted and eroded under the influence of rainfalls and
strong winds, and how to produce more permanent compressed earth blocks. The solution was to
stabilize these blocks with 8% cement. For that purpose, he imported a machine from Belgium. Because
of the costly protection of local wood against termites, the wood was replaced with steel. Additionally,
the villagers learned how to weld the steel structure of the roof. The other building solutions were
being developed on site: a double open-work roof structure resembling a tree, a brick ceiling with a slit
allowing ventilation and top-lighting, extended eaves (roof) to protect the walls against the sun, the
building orientation reducing the direct sunlight exposure (the shortest side exposed to the sun).
Peter Rich, Alexandra Interpretation Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Figure 2: Alexandra Interpretation Centre,

Johannesburg, South Africa (Hall 2011).
The building of the Alexandra Interpretation Centre was assigned as an envisaged and secure place for
common meetings of the Black and coloured citizens of the Alexandria borough in Johannesburg – the
place where divided so far communities of the township could gather, unite and experience different
events together. The rules according to which the design was conceptualized were the effect of Rich’s
reinterpretation of the architecture of Southern Ndebela (Mapogga) and Bantwane. Among the main
elements, Van Wyk specifies the open-ended formal layout, often asymmetrically corrected; expressing
the social order (changing over the time) the planning of the structure, with accordance to the
demands of the occupants; enclosures formed by buildings loosing fitting outdoor rooms and
courtyards; the internal and external spaces acting as one; the transition from public to private space
clearly defined; entrance thresholds extended in many ways; the structure of the building revealing the
way of building and the materials (Van Wyk 2002, p. 221) .
Peter Rich’s architectural design process was preceded by a series of design sketches and social surveys
(Hall 2011). Not being Black and not living in the district of Alexandra, Rich - unlike Kéré - studied the
life styles and family life organisation of people in the place. He visited homes, analysed the features,
materials and other elements in terms of spatial organization, size and scale (Stanescu 2010). The
intention of such research was to get to the source of the value system of the users and recognize what
precisely united them. As a result, he proposed a design whose construction and structure are open for
future happenings and changes. It proved to be solution which was valid even after a three year break
in the construction building process. The open-ended design referred to its informal surroundings,
gave the building credibility and authenticity, reinforced by the introduction of the vivid, coloured
polycarbonate window panels. At the same time, he assumed to apply technologies which were easy
and friendly to use. The fact that the building was erected over the road was also important as it helped
to legitimise the existing, informal meeting place as the official area, accepted by the communities as
their own.
Carin Smuts (CS Studio Architects), Guga S'thebe Arts & Cultural Centre, Cape Town, South Africa
Figure 3: Guga S'Thebe Arts & Cultural Centre,

Cape Town, South Africa (Phaidon Ed. 2005).
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In the case of Guga S’Thebe Arts & Cultural Centre in Langa Township, the principle of a village spatial
organization was implemented into the post-apartheid reality. The design carrying the shadow over the
common areas, creates also the support for the glass roof that opens the space up to the sky. The spatial
organization opened inwards makes people working there feeling that they belong to the community
similar to the examples of indigenous Africa urban forms and architecture (Asomani-Boateng 2011). In
this case, the important element was the realization of the traditional sensory cultural coding in the
shape of the artistic tile mosaic. The brightly coloured building is dedicated to the empowerment of the
people of Langa and improvement of the communication and cooperation between ethnic groups, also
in the area of economics (Phaidon Ed. 2005). The building is approachable from different sides. Thus, the
post-apartheid grid of streets is broken.
Case studies interpretation

Francis D. Kéré took advantage of the traditional knowledge generated by the cultural practices to
introduce the innovative techniques which were adapted to local conditions and accepted by the local
community. That led to the maintainenance of its identity and integrity. It would not have been
possible without the acceptance and previous interpretation/adaptation of the sensory experience of
the members of the community revealing the cultural memory. Mutual communication mediated by it
(meaning making activity) played an important role during the construction process (Kéré 2004). That
did not only allow for the cultivation of material and cognitive heritage but also produced new
circumstances for the change, revealing the dynamics of the culture.
The Alexandra Interpretation Centre is an example of the interpretation and adaptation of the
dynamics of the life experience, opened for the change of external and internal spaces, redefining the
formal layout in accordance with the circumstances of the urban landscape but leaving aside the social
order. That helped in creating spaces for maintaining the value system shared by the citizens. It means
the presence of both: the Ubuntu foundations in the forms of cultural dynamics of the sensory
perception and phenomenological position, in that way preparing the ground for the further
realization of the ethics of reconciliation.
Similarly to the previous examples, Guga S’Thebe Arts & Cultural Centre in the Langa Township is
opened to the informal structures taking place inside. Here the model of community rooted in
indigenous African cultures serves as the tool for bringing people together, allowing for cooperation
and sharing the histories, evoking that way interwoven in the Ubuntu Philosophy the multidimensional
African reality. Thus, designs that are supposed to realize sensory perception in accordance with the
sensory dynamics of the culture and connection to the Ubuntu epistemology should be opened for
interconnectivity of all kinds of organization of the spaces defined through the interweaving of the
structural elements of the building. Design should allow for maintaining the relationships between
particular elements of the structure within the wholeness of particular multidimensional environments,
which – in fact – usually defines the design (Guga S'Thebe Arts & Cultural Centre, Alexandra
Interpretation Centre, both in South Africa, Single Quarters Market (Fig.4) in Namibia, Primary School
Gando in Burkina Faso). Thanks to that the colonial and postcolonial realizations are being included
into the contemporary thinking of designing the cities, as it forms the heritage of the city tissue.
Allowance for a long time access, enabling the organization of events and creating conditions for the
community to be together, are, in practice, achieved by the structures with many entrances – external
(to the street) and internal (connecting intertwined internal spaces).
Figure 4: Single Quarters Market, Marais, Pretorious&Wenhold Architects, Windhoek, Namibia (Rynkowska-
Sachse and Sachse 2013).
557
The abovementioned requirements are not met in the majority of commercial buildings completed in
African cities, created in order to satisfy the needs of tourists and the rich members of African societies
- both white and black (Umenne, Rynkowska-Sachse 2013). Considering the relations between the
elements of a larger environment, some of those commercial buildings are open both to the landscape
and people (The Village incorporates the landscape of the hill, is open to the rich, Ernst & Young Head
office constitutes the landscape as the part of the building, both in Windhoek, Namibia).
Figure 5: The Village, Barnard Mutua Architects, Windhoek, Namibia (Rynkowska-Sachse 2013).
Figure 6: Ernst&Young Headoffice, Wasserfall Muntig Architects Windhoek, Namibia (Sachse 2013).
Unfortunately, recently completed buildings outside the city (Mowani Mountain Camp (Figure 7), like
Kipve Camp and Little Kulala in Namibia, although open to the surrounding, still fulfill the romanticized
requirements of the visitors as to, among others, the inspiration of the shapes of nature and applied
functions according to the bygone and static imaginations of the African cultural past. Similiarly
Visitors' Interpretative Rock Art Centre in Twyfelfontein (Figure 8) by Nina Maritz Architect and Denis
McDonald Architect and Fish River Canyon Visitors' Centre by Nina Maritz Architect, although being
perceived as interesting and well blended into the landscape according to international trends, they
remain vibrant as long as tourists are staying there.
Figure 7: Mowani Mountain Camp, Klaus Brandt Associated Architects, Namibia (Sachse 2013).
558
Figure 8: Visitors' Interpretative Rock Art Centre (left), Nina Maritz Architect and Denis McDonald Architect,
Twyfelfontein (right), Namibia (Sachse 2013, McDonald 2005).
Through the Other’s Lens: Conclusions

A European who visits the countries of South Africa and lives in a town having a modern architecture
origin, and who knows African cultures and events from the apartheid period only from the sources
written by European researchers, intuitively senses/perceives both the multidimensional African reality
as well as the Ubuntu philosophy. Nonetheless, both elements (multidimensional African reality and
the Ubuntu philosophy) are difficult to conceptualize intellectually and precisely/accurately in
adequate vocabulary terms by Europeans. For that, European languages have no appropriate syntactic
and semantic structures, which means that Europeans – even if familiar with scientific discourse - are
not cognitively/mentally prepared for understanding African reality and philosophy. One of the reasons
for that is that scientific Western metalanguages, abstract terms and concepts have been deprived of a
direct reference to the material content, still saved in African indigenous languages, and because of
that are also not able to describe and explain the multidimensional reality and interconnectivity of all
beings in it (Holland and Quinn 1987). Thus, to the European abovementioned African
multidimensionality results in the perceiving in any traditional behavior of African citizens (traditionally
representing the respect to every existence) romanticizing, uplifting and emotional affection towards
nature (thus, according to the western dualist doctrine which juxtaposes the world of nature to the
world of culture and civilization) and vernacularism. Mowani Mountain Camp (Figure 8) built for
tourists inspired by Berg Damara’s village (Malan 1995), constitutes an example of architectural
realization that comprises this approach. Those facts are the arguments suggesting why European
ideological as well as abstract discourses should be disqualified as the theoretical grounds for the
original African philosophy of designing architecture. Instead of it, the Ubuntu philosophy concerned
in sustaining and maintaining multidimensional reality alive, prevents the preference for the only one
chosen perspective or ideology. It prevents also the architecture from the lack of the possibility for the
universalization of such perspectives and perception of it as the only possible and correct. That, in turn,
allows for the Ubuntu discourse to become the grounds for reconciliation between black, white and
coloured members of the societies.
African cultures seem to belong to those which have lived and prospered believing that an inherent
harmony or beneficence in nature would provide for their needs through a technological sense, defined
as a skill dependent on cultural and environmental circumstances (Ingold 2000), working in the African
context like the medium letting for maintaining the relations between spaces, times, objects and
beings of the multi-dimensional world. Western development of the communication technologies
changed the understanding of the notion the medium which – when accommodated by African citizens
- consequently erases the technological sense. It has become one of the reasons for withdrawal of
members of the societies from cultural heritage. The erased technological sense connecting people
with multidimensional reality has been replaced by engineering. From the analytical point of view, the
main goal of the engineering technology is to produce the artefact serving as the base for the services.
From this perspective, the architectural design can be understood as the structured series of
translations of properties of tools/services (as to the physical parameters, components) into/onto
functional demands. The engineering allows for the modification of the tool properties through the
constant modification of the (instrumentalized) parameters of almost all kinds. This attributes to the
engineering a modernization dynamism, universality and pervasiveness, treated by Western science as
irreversible and inevitable (Ellul 1964, Winner 1978). Nonetheless among African cultures they become
the main sources of the lack of respect for traditional heritage and ethics. In the face of the fact that the
559
western concepts of development disregard traditional culture and identity, it is necessary to

undertake the interdisciplinary (architectural, philosophical, cosmological, anthropological analysis
even going back to the archeology of the African towns) with the participation of indigenous
inhabitants, for re-discovering African roots of architecture for the further design, considering again a
technological sense via the concept of the African systems of perception.
Engineering development constantly outpaces the capacity of individuals and social systems to adapt to it.
The increasing speed of introducing innovations makes it difficult to carry out the informal structures,
planning, design, and the functional coordination (even on the European continent). To decide whether the
Western concepts of development based on engineering, like the smart city, can be implemented into
African cities, it is necessary to recognize whether the technologies, especially those based on the new digital
medias, can play a positive role in maintaining cultural ties between different groups of members of society,
on which further city development depends. Too fast assimilation of new technologies, in comparison to the
low speed of changes in the area of education, mentality and development of cultural awareness and
identity, does not fit to creative adaptation of them to social development, threatening further erasure of the
natives from the indigenous culture. Instead of the high technologies, the acceptance of Ubuntu
epistemology as the basis for shaping the architecture of the city allows for respect of informal structures,
acting as the first step towards the redefinition of the modern planning tool as the town planning tool.
Open-ended town planning seems to be more appropriate as it allows for maintaining life-sustaining
relations between people and the development/adaptation of the necessary technologies within real needs,
without destroying the technological sense, the lack of which deprived Africans of the contact with
multidimensional nature after migration from the country to towns. Thus, Ubuntu–based design should
allow also for the reconciliation between men, nature and the spaces through so-called passive
technologies. That can help citizens in further approaching and implementing activities in terms of
knowledge creation and development of the high engineering infrastructure, suitable for the natural
environment and Ubuntu heritage. Finally, the Ubuntu-based philosophy of design would act as a medium
letting for development of the technologies which would connect the designing of various scales (from
buildings to towns), cultural resources and the new technologies with existing urban and architectural
tissues in one reconciled whole.
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HISTORIC SECRETS OF SZCZECIN'S MYSTERIOUS ISLANDS

Anna Tertel, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, anna.tertel@gmail.com
Abstract
The aim is to bring attention to the problem of lack of planning or planning cursory waters, depicting elements of
cultural values in cities and urbanisms to draw attention to the aquatic environment. The studies were performed
using such methods as qualitative research, literature studies, observation of the study area, the preparation and
analysis of historical and contemporary maps and comparative studies.
Paying attention to the risk of destroying unique monuments located in closed port areas, the lack of inventory
and registry entries monuments and the lack of documented cultural heritage in maritime coastal cities.
Szczecin’s delta contains: century 5,5km long, 10m deep Mieleński Canal built and functioned as docks for U-
Boats, the oldest floating dock (1880), the Gryfia Island with German Oderwerke (1903) located in Oder river delta
and functioned as a shipyard for ships and U-Boats with some docks below water level, the wreck of a concrete
tanker (1941).
Only sketchy information on the internet informed about the existence of a particular tradition of the island
territory. There is a lack of information boards, directions and maps describing the heritage area of the islands
and waters of Szczecin. There are limited publications on the subject without special attention to cultural values
(shipwrecks, bridges, floating docks, historic ships, historic shipyards or factories). Some of these monuments can
be demolished at any time and are outside the protection of conservation.
In conclusion, water areas should be carefully analyzed and designed in terms of planning, valuable objects
should be included in the registers of monuments and protected by law, education should take account of and
promote respect for the traditions and culture associated with the waters, and the authorities should consciously
safeguard the rich culture of the city water.
Keywords: heritage, urban waters, protection, port, island, natural environment, historic.
INTRODUCTION
The aim is to raise the problem of the lack of management and sustainable development of the water and
islands, as seen in Szczecin, Poland. Many historical structures, buildings, and water port developed together
with the development of the city and are worth preserving and promoting for future generations. More than
60% of the city is covered by a green - blue infrastructure. Parts of waters and islands remain untouched as a
natural protected habitat for plants and animals, and the remaining is absorbed by industry and the city
port. Hydrological and harbor structures, that are part of flood management are unique in cultural value and
are essential for the efficient operation of ports. Skipping this knowledge leads to the loss of skills and can
lead to errors that hinder the process of water management and, consequently, the enormous cost of repair
in damaged or flooded areas. Often the destruction of unique objects is irreversible. Many elements
depicting cultural values is omitted, so be sure to pay attention to the architecture of the aquatic
environment and the island, at the risk of destroying the unique monuments of port and industrial areas
which are located on closed islands, the lack of possibility for restoring historical buildings due to the lack of
inventory and the entries in the register of monuments, on the disappearance of social life due to liquidation
of beaches and bathing, and consequently to reduce the economic value of these areas. Management of
river deltas applies to both the spatial aspect, cultural, conservation, political, economic and social
development, and each of these factors should be fulfilled in order to achieve the sustainable development
of these areas.
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Hypsometric Map of Szczecin with the city borders
RESEARCH METHODS
The idea of these topic classes developed slowly during many years of sailing. When the hours spent in the
center of town life were moving to marinas and yachts, which regularly sailed the waters of Szczecin,
mooring and camping in the usual places in wild islands. The weekend spent on the race of the whole lake
to the port of Lubczyna and the wreck "Betonowiec". From time to time, participating in canoeing trips
between the Oder PTTK the polders or on rivers and canals of the Oder. The share of concerts organized by
the water in the harbor (AZS), on the beach or in the Dąbie "Betonowiec" allowed us to enjoy the acoustics
of water, and the occasional visit to the renovated sailing ship (STS Fryderyk Chopin) allowing entry into the
most hidden and inaccessible parts of the port, the discovery and photography of many amazing buildings
too. Bike tours around the canals and islands allowed us to watch areas which are considered beautiful and
extremely valuable because of their unique nature. After so many trips curiosity guided us to the city
archives and libraries in search of maps, plans and analyses. Further interest in this subject has stimulated a
desire to compare it with similar native places abroad. In these studies there was no inventory to multiple
objects and there was a lack of any information about their existence. Furthermore the objects that were in
565
good condition after several years are beginning to deteriorate into ruins, and we heard the information
containing disturbing news about plans for the demolition of buildings in a unique shipyard (Gryfia). This
information prompted us to write an article that would be an attempt to document these monuments and
create a desire to draw attention to the great heritage hidden in the inaccessible islands.
The world oldest dock built in 1880 moored to Ostrów Grabowski Island (photo made by author 2014).
PRESENTATION OF THE INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
Tradition and the oldest cultures are stored in the legends of Griffin. The coat of arms is a symbol of
Szczecin’s Griffin's head, the flying dragon combining the features of a lion and an eagle, who was the ruler
of Pomerania. When people began to grab forests, Griffin's food became scarce and increasingly hunted in
the area of human habitats arousing terror. Once a knight accidentally found a nest of a Griffin on the oak,
and showed them the prince who was so moved that he chose the dragon silhouette for the family crest and
the entire region. Griffin moved to the island in the middle of the Oder and to feed the young Griffins
arranged an ambush on people. He put the treasures along the island’s edge, and when a greedy man came
to the island, he would become a victim of Griffin. The first was a young man obeying his greedy father, who
was cursed and had to bring people to the island. Years passed, and only a cook survived, who promised to
prepare a pike cooked from the head, in the roasted in the middle, and at the tail fried. Staying on the island
allowed him to get to know many secrets like the fact that Griffin’s feathers can protect him from his powers.
While he has on the island, at the behest of his greedy father, he found a girl who was sailing there, he fell in
love with her and saved her and himself by lulling Griffin by adding poppy seed to the fish, snatching a
feather and escaping from the island on a boat full of treasures. On the way, he helped a greedy carpenter
by revealing the secret of the curse by passing on the paddle to break the spell. When they reached land, the
greedy girl's father ordered the girl to sail again after treasures, then the carpenter asked the father to hold
the paddle, freeing them both from the spell.
HISTORY OF THE ODER RIVER DELTA ISLANDS
Dąbie Lake is situated in the valley of the Oder River delta, whose shores are Odrzańska and Dąbie Lake they
were probably caused by the application of sludge in the region of the mouth of the Oder River delta by the
river Ina. In time, an island appeared in the river that split the river into two troughs. After adjusting the
regulation of a cross-border, the river island (about 30 km and a width of 1.5 to 3.0 miles) was dried and was
built on the structure of the polders. Jaz in Widuchowa was built at the entrance to the western trough to
direct the current of the river in the direction of the trench to the eastern trough and raise the water level in
the river. All polders are separated from the river system economic and shipping locks and flood
embankments assumption is made up of more than 33 km of canals, embankments 177 km, 129 hydraulic
structures (4 mucus shipping, 2 dams, 3 large bridges with a length of more than 100m, 6 medium bridges
between 20 - 100m in length, 10 bridges with a length of up to 20m, and shafting 21 economic locks, 30
culverts, 35 flood gates, 10 ferries , two siphons and pumping stations). Międzyodrze became part of the
International Park, the Lower Oder area of over 117 hectares. Many unique species in Europe and the world's
species of animals, plants and fish are protected (white-tailed eagle, water lily, otter). Polders team was
going into the Oder River delta structure of the city which turns into a team of ports and islands between the
Oder, Regalica and Lake Dąbie.
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How to determine the archaeological finds from the Mesolithic period (c. 5000 BC) when Międzyodrze was
populated by Slavic tribes. During the deepening of the fairway, archaeological findings were excavated
such as the harpoon in Regalica or hoe with deer antlers at the mouth of the Lake Dąbie and Regalica.
Sometime during the twelfth century, the port marina was built by German colonists in the area of the
current Long bridge (Most Długi) - called Havening, that time combined with port Kessin for Slavic
settlement (latter the castle) formed on the castle hill and the borough.
Figure 1: The Old City of Szczecin in with 1237 Havening (22, 3 and 4) and Kessin (5, 6, 7, 8).
At the time the principalities in Griffins were called Duńczyca by the Danish fleet in the twelfth century who
swam the channel from Szczecin Dąbie. After receiving civic rights from Duke Barnim I on April 3, 1243,
Szczecin received privileges associated with the law of shipping and fishing business on the Odra River and
Lake Dąbie Regalica just one mile from the castle. During this time, the Slavs merged with the German port
Kessin with Havening. In 1278 the city joined the Hanseatic League to gain economic and military support,
and eventually became a monopoly in the trade of goods. In 1283, after years of having the port area near
the Dragør and Falsterboo towns, they received the right to free trade in Skåne (the present territory of
Denmark and Sweden). Which was widely considered to be the capital of trade in fish, as it has incorporated
the adage Hanseatic ("Stettin is Fischhaus, Luebeck ist ein Kaufhaus, Koeln ist ein Weinhaus, Danzig ist ein
Kornhaus"). In 1307 Prince Otto I gave the town the water areas of the Oder with the drains in total, which in
practice meant the water from the river from the Ustowo to Holy canal (Święta) and all channels and islands
to the Lake Dąbie (current surface water is slightly higher than the north). Municipal law resulted in the rapid
development of the port on the other side of the river on the Łasztownia island (1945 Lastadie) and the
construction of the bridge in 1299 and the Long Stone's Causeway (Gross Stein Damm) around the delta of
the river to the town of Dąbie.
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Figure 2: Szczecin dated 1590 (source Bruin de Hogenberg “Geschichte der Stadt Stettin” by Martin Wehrmann)
Łasztownia, whose name comes from the weight of the load, warehouses of goods, granaries, and woker
housing were quickly built and rebuilt a church after some time. St. Gertrude Church was rebuild too, with
the hospital for the poor. The church was rebuilt in 1450 in the construction of the lock, and then on the
foundations of this church in 1894-1896 in neo-Gothic style brick (indoor on a cruciform plan with a soaring
tower orthogonal) Catholic church was built. Trinity designed by Wilhelm Meyer - Schwartau. Church of the
garden, rectory and churchyard have been entered in the register of monuments.
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Figure 3: Gertrude Church at the present (photo made by author 2014)

The island was also the place of falling timber for the construction of ships (1311), cattle and horses, growing
crops, yard workshops (1500), storage of salt and herring, municipal slaughterhouse at the pedestrian Bridge
Kłodny conduit vessels (1553) or port crane Long at the bridge. In 1731 Bridge Kłodny expanded to allow the
passage of vehicles, and in 1909 was turned into a wider bridge with tram tracks, which was blown up in
1945 by the German Army.
After the capture of the city by the Swedes 1630 - 1639, Szczecin created the first modern fortifications on
the basis of the earlier walls of the castle. They brought stones, rubble piled embankments and built a
wooden palisade between Gate Goat (Old Town Quay) and Parnicka Gate (Port Fire Brigade). Location
embankments are now virtually invisible. Prussian fortress Szczecin (Stettin Festung) has been built in 1724-
1740 under the supervision of the Dutch engineer Cornelius Gerhard van Wallrawe. Earthworks were dug on
Łasztownia present along the Boulevard of Gdansk and St. Władysław IV, and Grodzka Island in the area of
the current separating it from the trench Bielawa. In 1727 at the Long Bridge building excise duties and taxes
Packhof. Under the rule of the Prussian city and port enriched, were imported colonial goods. In 1727 at the
Long Bridge building excise duties and taxes Packhof was erected. Under the rule of the Prussian city and
port enriched, colonial goods were imported. In 1797 alongside the pre-existing grain storage and tracking,
a new warehouse on herring (Sellhaus) was built, Packhof Crane was enlarged, an inn for sailors called "Three
Poles" was built, and navigable route to the sea was improved and bridges and Stone Causeway which are
destroyed by floods are rebuilt annually.
569
Figure 4: Plan of Szczecin in 1735 (source “Geschichte der Stadt Stettin” by Martin Wehrmann)
After the Franco - Prussian war in 1873, it was decided to liquidate the fortress, which enabled the expansion
of the city, and embankments have been replaced on Łasztownia street Wałowa (Wallstrasse) and Parnicka
(Parnitzstrasse). At the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the south-east of the Oder arm
connecting Ostrów Mieleński with the rest of Łasztownia was filled up, along with the northern arm in the
second half of the seventeenth century. The islands of the seventeenth century functioned as a public
school spinning, orphanage, seminary teacher, the court, fire brigade. At the end of the nineteenth century
Art Nouveau buildings were built, including new rental housing, factory buildings and production and
service (sugar factory Pommersche Provinzial - Zuckersiederei currently PPC "Gryf" was entered in the
register of monuments, shipping company traded wine Dramburg et Hertwig, free port Freihafen was
entered in the register of monuments, House Hanseatic, the Church of Christ the King in place of the Port
Police Commissariat, house taxes, and then Customs), storage and stables (because of the general horse
transport). "The building of the Customs Chamber" was entered in the register of monuments along the
contour of the outer walls (No. A-1190 register no decision Kl.3-5340/31/88 dated. 20.12.1988 onwards).
In 1894, construction was started of a free zone with an area of 60ha (37.5 acres land, 22.5 ha of water),
consisting of the Egyptian waterfront, pool length of 980m and width of 100 m of quay (wharf now Russian,
Cuban, Turkish and Bulgarian) and a turntable with a diameter of 200m. For each pool was fed flushing
channel "Spuell -Kanal" (height 1.6 and width 1.2 m) from Parnica standing water to prevent fermentation.
All components of the substrate were built on stilts, and the waterfront further walled brick. The whole area
has a well- preserved architecture, and the whole area is entered in the register of monuments as the "Land
of the former duty free port on Łasztownia" (register no A -904 No decision PSOZ/Sz-n/5300/68/91 dated.
29/04/1991). The whole area is surrounded by a fence, in which there were eight gates (3 for railways, 1 to
factories and 4 for passenger traffic) guarded by customs officials. The main gate was to be open around the
clock with independent entrance and exit, in the middle of the hall to the guardhouse and revision.
570
Figure 5: The main gate to the duty free area - historical view (1910).
Figure 6: The main gate to the duty free area (photo made by author 2014).
The main building of the Port was built on the street leading to the main gates between the pools port. It
was designed on a simple plan, three tracts placed in the middle of the hall, where the ground floor was the
office and finish of the Board, Customs, railways and post office on the second floor of the room service and
flat of port director and above housing for employees and officials. Nearby, a second similar building was
used as a department store with cantors. Near the engine building, tower pressures were built on both sides,
from which water has been distributed under pressure to start the drive and lift cranes. The resulting power
port supplied electricity to the entire area. Another object is a granary used for long-term storage of goods,
divided into 6 segments length of 30.33 m, separated by a wall. In each of the segments a common corridor
and lift pressure (1.5 t) was found, from the front and from the back porch. In case of a fire, the port Fire
571
Brigade buildings were also built.
Figure 7: Port Main Building ground floor plan.
Figure 8: Port building presently (photo made by author 2014).
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Figure 9: Technological section through Pier of Romania.
Figure 10: The Fire Brigade building (photography by author).

In the years 1942 to 1944 allied air raids destroyed most of the buildings of the island, which were
successfully revived. Rebuilding in the 60s street of Gdańsk and the United entailed widening and
construction of the roadway with two independent raceways and Harbour Bridge on Parnica (formerly
Żmogus Bridge) commuting without collision. At the same time the Gertrude Church, Sanitary-
Epidemiological Station and the headquarters of maritime businesses were rebuilt. In the seventies, the
Castle Route was built at the site of Kłodny Bridge, connecting the western part of the city of Łasztownia to
Prawobrzeże through river islands in Szczecin. On the opposite embankment Wały Chrobrego (1945 Haken
Terrassen), Grodzka Island (1945 Schlächterwiese) between the Oder and Western Duńczyca are situated.
573
The island was created in the second half of the nineteenth century, after digging a Grodzki Channel
separating the southern part of the island Fette Ort. On the western edge of the Bielawa dug pile mooring as
marina parking (840 m). In the southern part of the island, rowing clubs such as AZS Szczecin were located,
while in the northern part of the allotment gardens a passenger ferry commute to the city. At the south end
there were elements of the fortifications and the mid-seventeenth century, seen as a ditch between the Isle
of Grodzka and Bielawa. This appears on the city image by Matthäus Merian, published posthumously in
1652. In 1784 the anchors and fittings of the Prussian naval fleet were launched.
Figure 11: Bielawa Island with smithy on the right at the beginning of XIX century.
Figure 12: Bielawa Island today (photo made by author 2014).

River island Ostrów Grabowski of the area 175 h combined with Łasztownia (1945 German Grabower Werder
and 1949 Green Island) in 1950 and is surrounded by artificial channels and Duńczyca (1945 Dunzig, after
1945 Starówka). Alongside the island is the world's oldest dock repair of length 58m, built in 1880. Before
1945 the Duńczyca operated as a watering place named Waldowshof (owned by Clare Goetzke) and a sports
club for swimming named Waspo Stettin. In the vicinity of the Parnica were watering places, at such a
distance from each other, in order to maintain privacy.
Railways in Szczecin developed quite rapidly, however, the greatest difficulty caused to the construction of
railway traction by the Oder River delta was the need to build bridges and large differences in terrain. A
station was established as the first line in Berlin in August 15, 1843, then in 1845 it was decided to connect
the port and the city from the eastern shore. The train to cross to the right bank had to shiff the tunnel
length of about 100m and after moving the switches led to Kępa Parnicka and Swallow Island bridge over
Parnica, the Isle of Puck, the bridge over the railway Regalica in Dąbie.
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Figure 13: Szczecin’s train station plan in 1857.
Figure 14: Szczecin Main Station and Central Port Station in 1868.
The iron bridge leading to the island of Swallow is still in operation despite its very damaged appearance,
but still industrial buildings are forming in Szczecin Venice (missing entry in the register of monuments of
the bridge as an independent structure, although it is likely to be included as part of the complex of tram
depot ob.SCP no. registry 1137 No decision Kl.3-5340/117/90 20/07/1990). To this day the deluded railway
575
crossing over the span Regalica operates, weighing 163 tons and capable of lifting up to let the larger ships
through. It is a German design based on the U.S. patent (raised span of the railway bridge on the river
Regalica constituting a movable bridge element register no decision no. 545 dated 07.12.2009 DZ-
4140/47/O/K/2008/2009).
Figure 15: The bridge over Regalica with movable element (photo by author 2010).
In 1868 a large freight train station was opened on the Isle of Puck (this is the function to today as the Port
Central) allowing transshipments between ships and rail (items entered in the records). In 1877 the port
railway station on the left bank Parnica and farther to the east quay on Duńczyca were both put into
operation.
576
Figure 16: Port Szczecin with water way to the Baltic Sea in 1915.
The most interesting and the most mysterious place in Szczecin is the Middleoder island Gryfia, north of the
city center. The island is a place where the January 28, 1903, the German shipyard Oderwerke was founded.
Within this island a Tirpitz islet function until the expansion of shipyards, which have their headquarters
Sand Yachting Pomeranian Club, Rowing Club and Allemania Junior Sea Club. In 1938, the shipyard and the
car factory Gryfia Stoever became objects working for the Army. Dig Brodowski extended the upper part
that separates the Isle of ships (neck position) from the Lower Ship Islands, he also strengthened and
deepened waterfront water to form an internal Repair Pool. Objects made of red bricks come from this
period and were provided with shelters and bunkers to enable continuous production, and towers equipped
with anti-aircraft guns to shoot at the Allied bombers. In Gryfia built and repaired lightweight folding
wooden ships and submarines that have moored to the shores and in the underwater dock (about 290
units), and the Vulcan Shipyards and Oderwerke build larger ships. The hall for the chief engineer Ostrów
Grabowski was equipped with a tower periscope, which were inserted using a davit and scaled submarine
periscopes. As for batteries, charged batteries were used for electric motors, which the boat uses underwater
during the dive (during ascent internal combustion engines are used). The buildings were secured by steel
doors and shutters painted in blue to make them even more masked at night. The buildings were equipped
with shelters, gas masks, and air vents in the event of a gas attack. This is unofficial information from
enthusiasts, who discovered an additional unknown underground harbor, the entrance to which is located
2m below the water level. Nearby were the barracks with steel bunks for the crew or builders. In 1944
577
American planes bombed the island with the ship acting as academics (Usambra), and the other left the
shipyard with the crew surviving (Oceana).
Figure 17: Historic buildings at Gryfia shipyard in 2000.

After the war, the island, together with Ostrów Brodowski and Quay, took over the Gryfia Repair Yard (over
41 acres). Szczecin won the construction of the factory foundations for offshore wind farms (about 50 per
year in the amount of from 65 to 76 mi from 700 to 900 tons). In the northern part of the island old shipyard
halls were demolished and they were being piled into new buildings. A floating bridge connects the island
to the mainland now, which will become a solid steel structure of the bridge. Current dock No. 5 (being the
most profitable) is going to remain in place. Mentions of new investments ignore the existence of
monuments and the need for their inventory and restoration. In recent months, in the register of historic,
"building with a clock" & "building periscopes" were entered as the only objects in the yard but with still
missing inventory, which would allow for the reconstruction in case of illegal demolition. The conservator
has a negligible impact on the protection of historic heritage. Some of the beautiful brick halls lost windows
and part of the walls, some halls, shelters and bunkers were demolished and if the destruction will be
progressed at this rate in a few years, the history of this island will disappear.
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Figure 18: Present condition of historic “building periscopes” (photo made by author 2014).
Another testament to the battles on the water is “Betonowiec", which is an artificial island in Lake Dąbie
resulting from the shipwreck. At the end of the war the Germans - because of the lack of steel ships - began
to build reinforced concrete with a metal mesh. The tanker "Ulrich Finsterwalder" was built in 1941. The hull
of the vessel was kept us shipyard slipway Warszów - Kazimierzowo (Klotzwert). In 1949 they sealed it and
tried to launch, but due to the lack of knowledge, the constructed vessel capsized and began to take in
water. The ship was towed to Lake Dąbie, and there was deposited on the bottom of the Lake. For many
years it’s been frequented by birds and sailors, the first plants began to grow there, and recently they played
a concert with Chopin’s music, which gives life to this place.
Figure 19: Summer concert on the deck of “Betonowiec” (photo made by autor 2010)
Most uninhabited islands are characterized by a unique European scale and are covered by the area of
habitat protection and conservation of birds. The team of islands north of Gryfia (Radolin, Dębina and
Czarnołęka) and part of Puck Islands south of Port Central Station are protected as a Special Area of
Conservation Nature 2000 (Dolna Odra PLH320037). Lack of continuity of the ecological corridor impedes
the movement of animals and plants from one area to another and in the future connectors of both natural
areas such as bridges or tunnels should be made. And the island was holding a bird sanctuary, and the
beach with Mieleńska watering place, which could be reached through regular ship conveyance.
579
FINDINGS
The neighborhood of a large lake strongly affects the local climate, which makes the winters milder and
rainy, while summer cooler and wetter. Differentiation of road regulations on water and land causes a
different approach to communication and often causes gaps in the legislation. Breakdown and inland
waterways within the city makes changes to the labeling navigation. The neighborhoods of the islands and
waters are very attractive for tourism and maintaining good health, so the protection and promotion of sites
can make them even more valuable and worth recommending for tourists, which definitely will improve the
economic situation in the region.
Only sketchy information on the internet informed us about the existence of a particular tradition of the
island territory. There is a lack of information boards, direction and maps describing the heritage area of the
islands and waters of Szczecin. There is very little limited publications on the subject and limited to the port
area without special attention to the cultural values (shipwrecks, bridges, floating docks, historic ships,
historic shipyards or factories). Some of these monuments are in the areas of investment and can be
demolished at any time, as they are outside the protection of conservation.
CONCLUSION
Water areas should be carefully analyzed and designed in terms of planning, valuable objects should be
included in the registers of monuments and protected by law, education should take account of and
promote respect for the traditions and culture associated with the waters, and the authorities should
consciously safeguard the rich culture of the city water.
Future actions and transformation of Oder delta implementation for consideration:

Protection of the biodiversity, morphological richness and complexity (Nature 2000)
Reduction of pollution from power plants, factories, shipyards and improvement of water quality in Oder
river (wastewater treatment plants)
Protection and prevention from risk of high water including extreme events
Protection of hydrological, industrial and military heritage of Oder delta (registers, surveys)
Promotion of historical transborder waterway from Berlin through Szczecin to the Baltic Sea.
Figure 20: Gryfia Island with military shipyard historic buildings (photo made by author 2014)
RECOMMENDATIONS
Transformation would be continued by:
Control and management including: studies, surveys, monitoring, data banks
Renovation and maintenance of hydrological structures, harbor infrastructures, military factories and railway
stations with historical bridges. As a result in the future all information for Oder river hydrological system
would be collected in data banks. This system would support monitoring and control of high water hazard in
Central Europe. Consideration by regional authorities by submitting a proposal to UNESCO to include
Middleoder delta with historic and nature islands in the World Heritage List, putting Szczecin on the world
map. This would increase inhabitants identification with the city and improve civic pride.
The challenge is to preserve maritime tradition of that area, respect culture and history of previous centuries.
Historical structures should be renovated and preserved as a qualitative aspect of landscape and technical
heritage. The education about such achievements would increase people’s aspirations, values and concerns
to water, ecology and climate related topics.
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REFERENCES
Kotla, R., 2007, Tu gdzie wyrośnie las masztów... in Magazyn Portowy no. 8.Kotla, R., 2008, ‘Rozwój techniczny
i przestrzenny zespołu portowego Szczecin-Świnoujście na tle stosunków handlowych’ – Monografia,
Wydawictwo Kreos, Szczecin.
Kotla, R., 2010, Wczoraj i dziś portów w Szczecinie i Świnoujściu, Soft Vision sp. z o.o., Szczecin.
Meyer H., 1887, Stettin alter und neuer Zeit, F. Hessenland, Stettin.
Pierzchała, E., 2001 (oprac.) Plany i widoki Szczecina na przestrzeni wieków: katalog wystawy, Książnica
Pomorska, Szczecin, ISBN 83-87879-27-4
Wehrmann M., 1911, Geschichteder Stadt Stettin, Stettin.
Charter of Monuments in: Wojewódzki Konserwator Zabytków.
The list of historical monuments in: Gminna Ewidencja Zabytków
581
AN OPPORTUNITY TO DESIGN A SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE LANDSCAPE FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES: THE

NDUMO CASE STUDY
Ezio Gori, whatabuz@iafrica.com.

Roz Harber, roz@archurbanplan.co.za.
Cobus van Dyk, cobusvd@uwp.co.za.
Abstract
This particular settlement in Northern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is a Pilot Project for a KZN Regeneration Programme
that will see substantial development of infrastructure and social facilities. The project vision is to create a
sustainable rural town that will serve the needs of its community through job creation, housing and social
services. A key objective of this regeneration project is to ensure that public sector investment is built to last and
will also co-opt private sector investment that will stimulate much needed local socio-economic development. A
key challenge is to integrate the existing settlement within a new Master Plan with all the new infrastructure and
facilities in such a way that embeds sustainability and resilience in all facets.
In this context, sustainability and resilience can be achieved by applying Permaculture design principles which
embrace Yeomans Keyline Scale of Permanence. The broader Permaculture design principles delineate land use
zones and site-specific design strategies, whilst the Keyline system prioritizes the design sequence, namely,
rainwater harvesting, road access, forest belts, development boundaries and soil fertility. This design will support
a sustainable agrarian base economy as the backbone for a resilient local economy. The design outcome is a
sustainable framework for a design continuum that seamlessly integrates landscape design to urban design to
architectural design. This sustainable framework will harness the Natural Capital of the landscape to best fit the
form and function of the Built Capital which, in turn, facilitates the development of Human Capital and Social
Capital.
This paper proposes the application of Permaculture design principles to initially design the ideal and holistic
Permaculture Layout, which is then superimposed upon the current Master Plan to identify areas for redesign /
retrofit, and to test the merits of any proposed development against sustainability and resilience criteria, thereby
adding value to the design process.
Keywords: permaculture design, Yeomans Keyline scale of permanence, rainwater harvesting, socially
responsible landscapes, food security, job creation, the Four Capitals.
582
INTRODUCTION
This rural settlement in Northern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is a pilot project for a KZN Regeneration Programme
that will see substantial development of infrastructure and facilities. This provincial government multi-
departmental development includes a new Model High School, library, community centre, commercial
facilities, housing and related infrastructure for roads, water, sanitation and electricity, for an estimated 2 000
households catering for 12 000 people. Presently, there is no bulk water supply and no sewage treatment
facilities. However, this is being addressed in the conventional manner. A key objective of this regeneration
project is to ensure that public sector investment is built to last and will also co-opt private sector
investment that will stimulate much needed local socio-economic development. A key challenge of this pilot
project is to integrate the existing settlement within an emerging new Master Plan, with all the new
infrastructure and facilities to embed sustainability in all facets. A Master Plan has been prepared, which, for
the purposes of this paper, is henceforth referred to as the Current Layout.
Although the Current Layout has been prepared with the best design intentions, there is limited
methodology for determining how sustainable this layout is, especially with regard to water supply,
sanitation, road access, stormwater management, zoning, housing, agriculture and environmental
conservation. Nonetheless, the Current Layout has thus far accommodated socio-political decisions,
compartmentalised thinking by government entities, redefined briefs, big business influences and
professional differences of opinion, which collectively, have not been in the best interests of the overall
development. The Current Layout can therefore be questioned with respect to overall Sustainability.
There are some methodologies for best practice sustainability assessments, such as, the ASPIRE routine
(published by ARUP and Engineers Against Poverty) to optimize sustainability taking cognisance of various
contributors to ‘true’ sustainability. However, many of these methods focus on the sustainability outcomes
rather than the sustainability design process. This paper shows a unique approach in how the Current
Layout is assessed for sustainability by initially preparing an ideal theoretical layout using Permaculture
design principles, which is then compared with the Current Layout. This comparison is able to identify
opportunities for redesign or retrofit towards more sustainable design options, thus influencing the current
planning process for this settlement. The thrust of this paper lies in the methodology for designing an ideal
theoretical layout, since this will test not only the Current Layout, but also the merits of ongoing
development proposals.
The rationale for selecting Permaculture design principles, which evolved towards the end of the 1970s, as
the preferred approach to designing a sustainable layout, is because of its long standing holistic approach,
which embraces most of sustainable design approaches that have since emerged. Permaculture design is
founded on a set of ethics which are deeply rooted in Man’s psyche, namely, Earth Care: care of the natural
environment and all living entities; “People Care”: care of peoples’ needs and the greater community needs;
and, “Fair Share”: living within ones means and the equitable usage of renewable resources ( Mollison 1988,
Holmgren 2002). The purpose of this paper is not to compare the merits of Permaculture design with other
sustainable-type designs, but rather to show what a sustainable design approach like Permaculture can
achieve towards developing a more sustainable town plan layout than what is currently produced.
This introduction is followed by an explanation of the Redesign / Retrofit Methodology, and then the design
methodology and preparation of a sustainable Permaculture Layout, which is then tested for viability
through a preliminary Hydrological Desktop Assessment. This is followed by an analysis of the Current
Layout to the Permaculture Layout; which in turn, gives rise to the Redesign / Retrofit interventions; which
then produce a Sustainability Enhanced Current Layout; and finally, a summary and conclusions.
REDESIGN / RETROFIT METHODOLOGY
The redesign / retrofit methodology towards a more sustainable layout is illustrated in Figure 1. This
commences with the preparation of a theoretical sustainable layout, referred to as the Permaculture Layout,
which assumes no underlying development, save for two major roads traversing the area along the ridges
and around the floodplain.
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Figure 1: Redesign / Retrofit methodology The brief was to design a settlement for some 2000
households with all the necessary facilities, just like for
towards a more sustainable layout the Current Layout. In other words, one starts off with a
virtual Greenfield site, wherein the Permaculture Layout
Sustainability is prepared without the influence of the Current Layout
Enhanced Current by harnessing the Natural Capital inherent in the unique
Layout landscape features of the settlement. This is achieved
principally by applying Permaculture design principles
which embrace Yeomans Keyline Scale of Permanence
Redesign / Retrofit (Yeomans 1971, 1973). The broader Permaculture
Design Interventions design principles delineate land use zones, aspect and
site-specific design strategies, whilst the Keyline system
prioritizes the design sequence for the major elements
in a layout. A preliminary Hydrological Desktop
Comparative Layout Assessment is included in the Permaculture Layout in
Analysis order to provide a first order magnitude for the viability
of the proposed water supply plan.
A comparative analysis is then undertaken of the

Current Layout Current Layout with the Permaculture Layout in order to
assess the broader opportunities for redesign / retrofit
that will make the layout more sustainable. These
opportunities are then scoped in more detail with
Permaculture Layout specific redesign / retrofit interventions. This will finally
contribute towards a Sustainability Enhanced Layout,
which will formally be used to motivate for the
necessary changes to the Current Layout.
DESIGN METHODOLOGY AND PREPARATION OF A SUSTAINABLE PERMACULTURE LAYOUT
The preparation of the Permaculture Layout uses the Keyline System based on Yeomans’ Scale of
Permanence to drive the design process. This is followed by Permaculture design principles to delineate
planning zones. These produce a concept plan, with a framework design for other more detailed design to
follow. The design sequence to prepare the initial Permaculture Layout is as follows;-
i. Rainwater harvesting design as the dominant landscape feature.
ii. Integration of rainwater harvesting plan with road access.
iii. Delineate forest belts along rainwater harvesting / road networks.
iv. Delineate development or land use zones, for eventual definition of property boundaries.
v. Delineate areas requiring specific soil enhancement improvements for agriculture.
The basic theory of the Keyline system (MacDonald Holmes 1960) is shown in Figures 2 and 3, which show
how the inflection of the landscape in valley lines, from convex to concave, determines the Keypoint. This, in
turn, is used to determine the Keyline contour swale. For soil improvements, the Yeomans plough is used to
improve soil fertility. The Yeomans plough is used parallel to Keyline swales, thus drawing water away from
the concentrated valley lines and slightly downhill across the contours of the ridges where it is scarcer. This
slows down the flow of water and spreads it along the ridges for irrigation. For more complex Keyline
applications, the Keypoint is also used to determine positions for small catchment dams, whilst the Keyline
swales can be adjusted to slight 1:300 to 1:400 falls. This channels the rainwater to interconnected
catchment dams with the overspill from higher catchment dams directed to lower ones by connecting
swales across the ridges. The benefits of the Keyline system are to;-
i. mitigate soil erosion in valley lines;
ii. build humus soils at deeper levels;
iii. sequestrate more CO2 through the deeper humus soils;
iv. retain soil moisture for longer periods;
v. recharge the aquifers;
vi. promote perennial stream flows; and,
vii. promote greater biodiversity in riverine systems.
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Figure 2: This diagram illustrates the typical Keyline landscape

(extract from: “The Geographic Basis of Keyline”,
MacDonald Holmes 1960).
585
Figures 3a and 3b: Keyline cultivation across ridges

(extract from: “The Geographic Basis of Keyline”, MacDonald Holmes 1960).
The application of the Keyline theory for the preparation of the Rainwater Harvesting Plan for the project is
shown in Figure 4. The key features in Figure 4 are two saddle dams, two dams alongside a main road, and a
major Keyline swale, slightly off contour and with several small interconnected catchment dams, which later
demarcates the housing and conservation zones.
Figure 4: Rainwater Harvesting Plan
To summarise, the Rainwater Harvesting Plan is designed to slow, spread and sink rainwater, which can then
change the character of entire landscapes as rainwater is retained and allowed to feed an increasing
biomass of food forests, woodlots and sustainable agriculture, and also, to create resilient local water supply
systems, ecological sanitation systems and functional road networks. The Rainwater Harvesting Plan
develops opportunities for the planning and integration of the Road Network Plan and the ensuing Forest
Belt Plan, which is shown in Figure 5. The Road Network Plan, which shows only the major roads at this
stage, comprises of two access roads on each side of the main ridge where the centre of the town is
envisaged. These two roads will allow access into the centre of the town and then continue to another
village in the north and provide access to the rest of the town in an easterly direction. These roads also form
part of the earthworks for the dams in the centre of the town and alongside the easterly road. The Road
Network Plan must also be engineered to collect stormwater in accordance with the Rainwater Harvesting
586
Plan so that the rainwater seeps into the forest belts and also flows into saddle dams and other adjacent
dams.
Figure 5: Road Network Plan and Forest Belt Plan
The planning work thus far, comprising the Rainwater

Table 1: Legend - Permaculture Layout Harvesting Plan, the Road Network Plan and the Forest Belt
Plan, provides the basic framework for the delineation of
Permaculture Planning
Zones Permaculture Zones, which is consolidated into a
Zones Permaculture Layout, as shown in Figure 6, with the
corresponding legend in Table 1.
Zone 00 The People
The Permaculture Layout shows the centre of the
Village Centre and Urban development located around the lower saddle dam with an
Zone 0 adjacent urban park in Zone 0. The public, community, and
Park
commercial facilities are located on the ridge on both sides
Commercial and Public of this park and within the two major access roads. The
Zone 1
Facilities larger homesteads, of about 500 to 1000m2, with the lowest
service levels of standpipes and pit latrines or compost
Zone 2 Homesteads with Gardens toilets, are contained on the intermediate slopes between
the easterly access road and the almost parallel upper major
keyline swale. The more compact housing, with higher
Zone 3 Agricultural Allotments value servicing standards (waterborne sanitation), is sited
closer to the town centre. It is envisaged that food security
Orchards and Passive Open gardens can be contained within the homesteads in Zone 2,
Zone 4 whilst commercial agriculture can be deployed on the
Space
agricultural allotments in Zone 3. The steeper slopes in Zone
Zone 5 Natural Environment 4, such as above the homesteads, is reserved for orchards
and passive open space, and also opportunities for
managed grazing. The natural environment in Zone 5 is the
land that should be left untouched, such as the hilltops alongside the top saddle dam and the wetland in the
south. Zone 00 is “the People” residing in this development, who are empowered to understand the
functionality of the land use zones enshrined in the Permaculture Layout.
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Figure 6: Permaculture Layout
The Permaculture Layout contains the framework for more detailed planning and design to follow, in
particular, the design continuum linking landscape design to urban design to architectural design. The
design continuum of the Permaculture Layout is planned to provide every opportunity for optimum land
usage that will make for a resilient settlement which can sustain;-
i. the greening of the town with forest belts that make for pleasant roadways, windbreaks,
biodiversity, pollinators for agriculture and a sense of place;
ii. a functional town centre with the required public, community and commercial facilities located in a
compact but pleasant environment;
iii. the delivery of basic water and sanitation services with minimal impact on the environment;
iv. major rainwater harvesting for agricultural initiatives and for the supply of water to households and
all the facilities;
v. a sacrosanct area containing the natural environment and passive open spaces;
vi. an ageless agrarian base economy to satisfy food security and surplus production for sale to local
markets and shops in the town;
vii. a robust local economy built on the backbone of the local agrarian economy; and,
viii. a land value system that enshrines the composite intrinsic value of the Four Capitals, namely,
Natural Capital, Built Capital, Social Capital and Human Capital.
PRELIMINARY HYDROLOGICAL DESKTOP ANALYSIS
At this point, it is necessary to test the viability of the Rainwater Harvesting Plan embedded in the
Permaculture Layout. To this end, a preliminary hydrological desktop analysis has been undertaken, taking
cognizance of: the development needs; population to be served; topography with 5m contours; surface
water resource data; rainfall data; and, first order geological and soil types. Only limited data on percolation
is obtainable and no geotechnical or geo-hydrological data is available for the region, save for information
obtained from the Water Research Commission Surface Water Resources of South Africa [WR 2005].
The main assumptions made allow for: primary water requirements for potable water fit for human
consumption in accordance with Department of Water Affairs RDP level-of-service and secondary water
requirements for limited livestock watering and irrigation of small homestead gardens. The larger
agricultural areas will rely mainly on rain runoff harvested through swales. No direct water treatment
processes have been assumed although it is expected that erodibility of the catchment will deliver high
sediment loadings to storage dams that will necessitate water clarification and disinfection. Other
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assumptions allow for the 100% clay sealing of dams and favourable hydro-geological conditions for RDP
service level pit latrines.
Given the above requirements and assumptions, the assessment of surface water resources from the WR
2005 data, indicates that the precipitation patterns and high evaporation rates of the project locality are
typical of a water-stressed region with a significant dry-month spell. The bridging of this dry-month spell
will be one of the main challenges of water supply planning. The area only receives an average rainfall of
620mm per annum, which occurs mainly from November to March, and hence storage volumes and/or
groundwater supply are required for the period in-between. Evaporation occurs mainly from September to
March, amounting to an average loss over these months of 1041mm (a total Mean Annual Evaporation of
1 500mm applies). The precipitation-evaporation depth differential is thus important for the determination
of storage dam depth. The soil type is generally moderate to deep clayey loam, whilst the expected soil
permeability coefficient for clayey loam (± 1-25·10-7 m/s) is characterised as semi-permeable. The project
region has a high intensity rainfall characteristic which, together with the semi-permeable nature of the
clayey-loam soils in the region, implies that the runoff-infiltration ratio will be high. Therefore, the volume of
water infiltrating will not be significant, which allows dams to fill up relatively quickly.
The daily water demand for the 2 000 households, excluding water for livestock, is estimated at
approximately 503kl. At this stage, the water supply potential of the project area is extrapolated from a
detailed analysis of one of the smaller catchment dams. This extrapolation, using the elevation-area curve
method, determines a first-order approximation of the volume of water that may be stored in the dams
whilst allowing for evaporation losses and drawdown from nearby households. This extrapolation allows us
to estimate that a dam with a 5m high wall can supply some 200 households with sufficient potable water,
save for the 4 month dry spell which will require at least one 5kl rainwater tank per household as a
supplementary water source. However, the implementation of a 10m high dam wall may provide sufficient
water all year round.
From the above analysis, one may conclude that the Rainwater Harvesting Plan may be sufficient to support
the full needs of the households in the project area, although this ought to be augmented with rainwater
tanks at each household. However, one still has to refine the Rainwater Harvesting Plan by modelling the
sensitivity of water supply and demand against various dam wall heights to the point that there is water
supply all year round. There is also potential for additional catchment dams if required to make up any water
supply shortfalls. It is also noted that water clarification and disinfection will be required.
ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT LAYOUT WITH THE PERMACULTURE LAYOUT
The Permaculture Layout, duly planned to promote sustainability, will make for a resilient town, using the
ideal sustainable plan to analyse and critique the Master Plan (Current Layout) shown in Figure 7. As
background, the Current Layout has been prepared to contain the existing development, with the envisaged
new facilities and infrastructure compromised around these existing fixes. This does not necessarily make
for an efficient layout, but rather a “best fit” layout. By superimposing the Current Layout over the
Permaculture Layout, one can compare the two layouts and identify areas for redesign / retrofit, where
appropriate, that will enhance the sustainability of this Current Layout.
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Figure 7: The Master Plan, referred to as the Current Layout
At first glance, it is obvious that public / community / commercial facilities have not all been contained
within the ideal town centre, which does pose challenges for the urban design integration of facilities and
efficient use of infrastructure. The lack of rainwater harvesting is also noted, as well as the clear delineation
of housing and agriculture zones. Nonetheless, the areas identified for redesign / retrofit entail;-
i. Village centre and urban park:- The centre of the town can be enhanced with some redesign and
realignment of major roads which still need to be approved in order to contain some element of a
unique centre of town landscape feature.
ii. Realignment of Roads:- The proposed bypass access road, as well as several smaller roads, can be
realigned with the Road Network Plan.
iii. Establishment of the Rainwater Harvesting Plan:- Almost all the proposed catchment dams and
associated swales proposed in the Permaculture Layout can be accommodated, albeit with some
adjustments.
iv. Adding Value to Agriculture:- These areas can be more clearly defined to take advantage of infield
rainwater harvesting, gravity-fed irrigation, and maximising the productive edge around the
wetland.
v. Adding Value to Homesteads:- Existing houses can be retrofitted with grey water systems, rainwater
tanks and homestead gardens, whilst new house designs can also include these innovations.
vi. Establishing the Forest Belt Plan:- This is the easiest modification to establish in accordance with the
revised Rainwater Harvesting Plan and Road Network Plan.
REDESIGN / RETROFIT INTERVENTIONS
The redesign / retrofit interventions outlined above are now described in more detail. The redesign of the
above town centre within the Permaculture Layout, shown in Figure 8, makes use of the low point in the
town centre to gravity feed the envisaged waterborne sanitation for the town facilities to an ecological
sanitation system (Todd & Todd 1984) which is integrated within the urban park and central dam. This
ecological sanitation system comprises a large biodigestor unit wherein the sludge settles for periodic
emptying for further composting, whilst the black water flows out of the biodigestor into a Wetland
Ecological Treatment system which cleanses the black water to polished grey water before dissipating into
the central dam. However, given the existing infrastructure and facilities, as well as approved plans, the ideal
option in Figure 8 may not be achieved if the planning authorities are inflexible. Nonetheless, two other
options are shown in Figures 9 and 10 for how the ecological sanitation system can still be accommodated
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for various road alignments within a smaller urban park and central dam. The importance of the ecological
sanitation system lies in its ability to provide a relatively low cost sanitation solution which follows a closed
loop system by cleansing and recycling waste water. The alternative is a sewage treatment facility on the
lower slopes north-west of the town centre, which does not recycle waste water.
Figure 8: Ecological Figure 9: Option 1 Ecological Figure 10: Option 2 Ecological

sanitation system within sanitation system within sanitation system within the Current
the Permaculture Layout the Current Layout Layout
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Plates 1, 2 & 3: These images show a typical Wetland Ecological Treatment system and how it is integrated within
a larger wetland, lagoon or dam.
The redesign interventions to add value to agriculture is shown in Figure 11. This redesign shows that the
two dams (indicated as 1 & 2) can still be accommodated with some slight adjustments in order to align with
the existing main road, which will require some redesign of the stormwater drainage to ensure that
stormwater is channelled into these two dams for use in homesteads and for the envisaged agricultural
allotments below the main road. The agricultural allotments are envisaged for primarily cash crops but also
some food security crops.
Another agricultural value-adding design intervention is the establishment of chinampas (indicated as 3),
shown in Plates 4 & 5, along the edge of the wetland and agricultural area, in order to maximise the
opportunities at the edge of water and land. Chinampas are basically short drainage channels at right angles
to the edge of the wetland that will encourage the ingress of water into the new raised mounds where
typically bananas, pawpaw and other fruit trees can flourish. Chinampas effectively create a barrier for other
crops and livestock from invading the pristine wetland, thus preserving the functioning of the wetland and
respecting the 1:100 year floodline which coincides with the edge of the wetland.
Figure 11: Adding value to Agriculture
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Plates 4 & 5: An image and illustration of chinampas

Banana grove
Chinampas
The redesign / retrofit interventions to add value to the food security component of the peri-urban type
homesteads is shown in Figures 12 and 13. Figure 12 highlights how the Housing Zone is aligned with the
Rainwater Harvesting Plan and the Road Network Plan. This Housing Zone should be located below the
higher major keyline swale that interconnects several small catchment dams and above the lower keyline
swale that is integrated with the main road and two dams. Housing is not suitable on the steeper slopes
above the higher keyline swale, and also not suitable below the main road, since this will encroach onto on
the agricultural land and possibly the wetland and floodline areas. The layout of the house property
boundaries should follow the contours of the smaller swales which are integrated with minor roads or
footpaths.
Figure 12: Delineation of the Housing Zone Figure 13: Homestead site redesign / retrofit
(extract from the Oakford Housing Project)
Urine Diversion
toilet or Low Flush
Waterborne system
Grey water
sumpbox filter
Detention pond
Swale (0,5m wide)
Rainwater tank
Spillway
Gravity irrigation
Detention drain
Swale (1.0m wide)
Acacia albida tree
Bananas
Fruit & nut trees
The site specific redesign / retrofit for homesteads is shown in Figure 13, wherein the emphasis is on placing
the new house on the highest part of the site in order to free-up the remaining portion of the site for food
security gardens. The house options should also promote traditional values, vernacular styles, passive
designs, natural building materials and low “emergy” (i.e. embedded energy) materials. Other retrofit
elements include compost toilets or low flush systems in lieu of conventional pit latrines; grey water
recycling for gravity fed irrigation; rainwater tanks; small swales planted with Vetiver grass; small detention
ponds at the ends, and/or at the centre, of swales for establishment of banana circles; planting of fruit trees
on the downside of swales; planting of acacia albida trees, or similar, on the upside of swales to act as a
major nitrogen fixers and accumulators of minerals and water for percolation downslope through the
swales; and, planting of food security crops within the rows of swales. Other improvements such as, chicken
tractors, worm towers, “fedges” (i.e. food hedges), pergolas, seed nurseries, etc. will follow as homesteaders
are empowered with more Permaculture-type skills training.
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Figure 14: Cross-section of swales and forest belts

A cross cutting redesign / retrofit element is the
establishment of the Forest Belt Plan which is
integrated within the revised Rainwater Harvesting
Plan and Road Network Plan. The forest belts,
which may comprise of food forests and woodlots,
are generally located along the major keyline
swales which also coincide with the major roads.
The symbiotic arrangement of trees, shrubs and
crops are shown in the typical cross section in
Figures 14 and 15. Herein, the nitrogen-fixing trees
and accumulator plants are located on the upside
of the swale in order to ensure that the uptake of
minerals and water is released downslope to fruit
trees, woodlots and crops. The larger swales are
generally 1m to 1,5m wide and designed to flow
into catchment dams, whilst the smaller 0,5m wide
swales are situated in between the larger swales
and also in homestead gardens. The agricultural
land in between the swales should be keyline
ploughed or made into raised beds, both parallel to
the swales in order to gain additional rainwater
harvesting.
Figure 15: Use of swales on slopes to create forest belts and croplands
AN EMERGING SUSTAINABILITY ENHANCED CURRENT LAYOUT
The proposed redesign / retrofit interventions are now compiled into an emerging Sustainability Enhanced
Current Layout, shown in Figure 16. The interventions requiring redesign / retrofit have been compiled in a
holistic manner in order to engage the planning authorities and to facilitate planning approvals. Whilst this
Sustainability Enhanced Current Layout is not the ideal layout, it does present opportunities to illustrate the
rationale for how to make settlements more sustainable and resilient. It also introduces a novel approach for
the sustainable design of all rural settlements.
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Figure 16: An Emerging Sustainability Enhanced Current Layout
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
This paper shows how one can apply Permaculture design and the Yeomans Keyline System to initially plan
for an ideal holistic and sustainable rural Master Plan, referred to as the Permaculture Layout, whilst
assuming no underlying development. This ideal Permaculture Layout is then superimposed upon the
current rural reality to redesign and retrofit areas that makes the current Master Plan more sustainable, and
also to test the merits of any proposed development against sustainability and resilience criteria, thereby
adding value to the design process.
The framework contained in the Permaculture Layout facilitates a holistic design continuum from landscape
design to urban design to architectural design. In turn, this holistic design continuum facilitates the
development of the Four Capitals to support a resilient local economy.
Finally, this paper demonstrates a new methodology for the holistic design of sustainable and socially
responsible landscapes for rural settlements, which can be applied to Greenfield and Regeneration-type
developments.
REFERENCES
Alexander, C et al., 1977. A pattern language.

Collingwood, L., 2011. Deforestation: why You need to stop it Now.
Holzer, S. 2004. Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture: A practical guide for farmers, smallholders & gardeners.
Macdonald Holmes, J., 1960. The geographic basis of Keyline.
Todd, NJ & J., 1984. Ocean Arks, city farming: Ecology as the basis of design.
Yeomans, PA., 1973. Water for every farm: Yeomans Keyline.
Yeomans, PA., 1971. The city forest: The Keyline plan for the human environment revolution.
595
ARCHITECTURE REFLECTS THE CULTURAL SPIRIT——ON THE APPLICATION OF LINKAGE THEORY TO

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN IN HISTORICAL DISTRICT
Jialong Lai, Southeast University, China, jialong-lai@foxmail.com

Tao Zhou, Nanchang University, China, zhoutaosnk@163.com
Abstract
The “Linkage theory” is an important concept to urban design in terms of establishing the relationship among
important places, building up the order of the urban space, and integrating city context. By taking into
consideration Chinese traditions of “Image Preference”, as well as working on the “Linkage theory”, this article
proposes its application in a particular architecture design – Culture and Recreation Center of Jingsheng, Lingshi
County, Shanxi Province, in the hope of providing a new way to design buildings in historical districts.
Keywords: historic districts, linkage theory, images with artistic conception, Jingsheng town, culture and
recreation center.
INTRODUCTION
By regulations, a historical district is a place of a certain scale possessing an abundant legacy and fully
reflecting the traditional lifestyle, ethnic and local characteristics, with many cultural relics scattered, as well
as historical sites and buildings of modern times. A historical district is always the top project of urban
protection as the dense area of cultural legacy and display area of traditional lifestyle, and a difficult project
of city construction as its location in the downtown of an ancient city. The architecture design in historical
district is facing dual pressures of protection and development, under which we need to figure out how to
coordinate new and old buildings, how to match substantial space and urban context, and how to enable
residents to touch the local culture.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION: “LINKAGE THEORY”
Research emphasis has long been laid on the relationship between urban substantial space and cultural
connotations. With the rise of modern urban design, rapid progress has been made particularly in research
with regard to organizing urban space, extending urban context and creating urban characteristics. Roger
Trancik, professor of Cornell University, put forward “Linkage Theory” while he was researching urban
cultural connotations. That is, to set parameters connecting architecture and space in linear ways. In urban
space design, line and space exemplifies design, whereas parameters can be boarders of site, traffic lines,
organized axis or the outlines of buildings, whose combination makes a linked system, a factor to be
considered whenever the spatial environment changes. Wang jianguo, professor of Southeast University in
China, produced a similar theory in his book Modern Urban Design Theory and Method. He holds that the
dominant line of site connects architecture and space by making itself the spatial basis of design. Such a
basis can be a stripe site, a moving flow direction, an organized axis, or the outline of a building. In effect, the
concept of Linkage could be traced back to ancient Greece when Plato proposed that some visual gestalt of
architecture and urban can be composed by Square, Isosceles triangle, Right Triangle with one 60° angle,
Tetrahedron, Octahedron, Dodecahedron and Cosmic elements composed of Circle and Sphere. In “De Re
Aedificatoria”, Leon Battista Alberti proposed the “Lineamenta”, i.e. line system of architecture which is not
substantial but attached to substance.
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By quoting the words of some philosophers, the “City is like a big house, and vice versa”, he emphasized that
architecture design should go with specific requirements and a larger scale of context, and focus on the
relationship of angles and lines between the site and the surroundings. “Linkage Theory” has been well
applied in many cases of famous cities abroad. Take Rome in the Baroque Period, its buildings, churches,
gates and plaza were linked by roads, which presented the city an abstract geometric order, combining
people’s activities and urban context. Eugene Haussman reconstructed modern Paris into one of the most
beautiful and spectacular cities in the world by taking advantage of its vertical or crossed “Les Grandes
Boulevards” to link important buildings, plazas, gardens and sculptures, thus greatly enhancing the
significance of its being a symbol, commemoration, and celebration (Figure 1). Washington City, designed
by Le Enfant, was built with a complete integration of forms and meaning. Lines of oblique green streets
were planned, dividing the Memorial public buildings which were linked by secondary roads. Such open
space could been seen all over the city (Figure 2). When formulating the “urban design structural guidelines”
in Philadelphia, Bacon presented the method of “Linkage” to resume the coherence of city and guide the
exploitation of new districts of cities. In ancient China, a complete set of design and plan methods related to
the “Linkage Theory” was fully employed in the
construction of cities, villages, palaces, temples and
gardens. (1) From this point of view, the visual
composition of natural environment in Chinese
traditional architecture and urban design closely
corresponds with “Linkage Theory”.
Up till now, “Linkage Theory” has played a pivotal role in

architecture design for historical districts. It has been an
important method of space organization and context
extension which is widely used in urban plan and design.
!
Figure'1:!Center!of!Paris!
DESIGN PROJECT: JINSHENG CULTURE AND RECREATION

CENTER
A culture recreation center not only presents the level of

society, economy, and culture, but also symbolizes the
city image. Designing a cultural and recreation center in
historical districts must go with its specific site and
location. It should be endowed with the characteristics of
trend without forgetting the history; break new ground
for the future without disconnecting the continuity of !
history; and revitalize residents’ recognition of the city Figure'2:!Washington!Planning!by!
without reducing the charm of historical districts. Le!Enfant!
About the site

Jingsheng Town is 12 kilometers away to the northeast of Lingshi, Shanxi, with the Mian Mountain to the
east, and Fen River to the west. Known as the "first town" in middle Jin district, Jingsheng Town has a long
history, with a rich traditional cultural heritage. The famous Wang Courtyard is located in the high slopes of
the north of the town. Being opposite to the Wenchang Pavilion across the street, the site creates a close
visual contact of Wenbi Tower in southwest. With a total area of 4,098.4 square meters, Jingsheng Cultural
Recreation Center is right in the southeast of the entrance plaza of Wang Courtyard, south of the East Street,
and east of the Wenchang Street.
Research conducted on the literature and maps of Jingsheng Town show that the important places around
the site could be categorized into the following four types: 1. places of a certain culture theme, such as
Temple of Literature, Wenbi Tower, Wenchang Palace, which have long been respected by Jingsheng
people. They serve as cultural spaces where people seek prosperity. 2. living places, e.g. Wuli Street, Jiugou,
Babao. As public space, they are important parts of Jingsheng people's daily life. 3. places of the natural
597
landscape like Mian Mountain. As the macro-background of Jingsheng Town, they are essential for us in the
process of plan and design. 4. the traditional places, take Wang Courtyard for example. It is a typical living
place for merchants in Jin Dynasty, occupying a large proportion of traditional space in Jingsheng Town.
Based on these categories, we analyzed the relationship between the site and its key areas nearby. We found
that the site of Jingsheng cultural and recreation center locates in the axis of the triangle made up of three
locations - Kuixing building, Wenchang Palace, and Wenbi Tower. And this axis is right in position opposite
to the peak of the Mian mountain which is in the south of the site (Figure 3).
Plan
origin
ates
from
“Imag
e
Prefer
ence”
Differ
ent
from
Weste
rners,
the
Chine
se lay
more
emph
asis
on
imagi
! nary
Figure'3:!Linkage!Theory!figure!of!historical!cultural!space.! thinki
ng
rather
than
logic
thinking. Such imbalance contributes to Chinese artists' creativity of pursuing “similarity in spirit and
detachment”. They are against sticking to the prototype. If design can be understood as a program or plan
by which people can achieve certain purpose, and based on which a variety of practical appliance can be
created, then, without doubt, the initial creation of human activities can be seen as design. “ZhouYi” states
that the ancients, out of respect, made tools by following the objects in the nature as examples. The concept
of “Image Preference” sprang from “similarity”. By combining image and emotion, it inspired people to
analyze, synthesize, abstract and generalize a great amount of objects to know their traits; plus fertile
imagination, ancestors made tools from objects in nature, which created the most captivating art image.
For thousands of years, the Chinese have managed lives by means of “Image Preference”. Chinese characters
could be composed of “pictographs”; Chinese diagnosed disease via the principle of “face observation and
tongue examination of color”; astronomical calendar is made and identified by “observing astronomical
phenomena”; people also observed “Sky” to predict climate change in daily life; aesthetics regarded “all
images” as a universal aesthetic standard. “Image Preference” has also greatly affected Chinese architecture,
urban construction as well as human settlements.
On account of the above facts, as well as the connotations of this culture and recreation center itself, we
named the center “the ink-slab of the town” in terms of landmark, space configuration, and culture allegory
to correspond both to the Wenbi tower in the southwest and Jingsheng people's future. The center is
expected to act as an “ink-slab” – to coordinate, converge and reconcile. With respect to cultural image, the
center coordinates the Temple in the town, Wenbi Tower, and Wenchang Palace: opposite to the old Kuixing
Building across the street, the center is in the south of east street. Naming it “the ink-slab of the town” could
be regarded as a continuation of traditional culture of Jingsheng Town; In regard to urban space, this center
converges popularity: The functions of display, exhibition and unique business are integrated into a public
598
open space to provide people with comfortable recreational environment; For landscape composition,
environment is included into the site to reconcile the relationship of various landscape elements, and to
show a new image of the ancient town. So as it is, as the “ink-slab” of the town, the cultural recreation center
will play a vital role in improving Jingsheng's environment, distributing culture, and increasing the cohesion
of Jingsheng Town.
Planning structure
Based on the concept of “the ink-slab of the town”, we
designed two axes constructed in the site.
One axis from the Center to the Wenchang Palace is not only
the main axis, but also the axis of landscape. The nature and
culture are united by a “contact line” between the center and
Mian mountain, which allows people to enjoy the natural
beauty of Jingsheng Town.
Another axis from the Temple to the Center to the

Wenchang Palace is a hidden cultural axis of this town. We
highlighted this axis with markers, environmental sketches, and
spatial atmosphere to show its central position as a cultural
center of Jingsheng Town in the future (Figure 4).
!
Shape design Figure'4:!Planning!of!
We tried to make the architecture image of this center a Cultural!Recreational!
reflection of “the ink-slab of the town”, and the shape an
Center!
application of the “Linkage Theory” coordinating the
historic environment. The architecture style of this
center is defined as “the tradition of Jingsheng with
modern style”, namely, instead of copying
ancient buildings mechanically, we respect the
history and culture of its surroundings to
promote the national culture in attempt to
design modern architecture with traditional
Chinese style. The “tradition of Jingsheng”
requires us to seek the characteristics of
traditional architecture in Jingsheng Town and to
extend its traditional style in terms of the size, the
scale, the material, the texture, the color, and the
gradient of slope roofs, etc. By “modern style”, we
! refer
to the form of shape and space. We've tried to
Figure'5:!Aerial!view!of!Cultural!
employ the method of creating geometric Recreation!Center!of!Jingsheng!Town!
abstract space, which had been utilized in
modern architecture, to bring about an effect of
picturesque disorder. Therefore, a culture site is
created in Jingsheng exhibiting its traditional culture and times. This allows people to enjoy both the history
and culture of Jingsheng whenever they walk through (Figure 5).
Plan
While revealing Jingsheng's traditional culture, this Culture and Recreation Center also functions as a place
where Jingsheng people lead daily life and a site where visitors come to visit, learn and exchange ideas. A
courtyard layout helps to coordinate each function, the size and the location of which is defined by the scale
and display needs of the surrounded buildings. In consideration of form, spatial levels and other issues, we
set each function comparatively independent from the architecture in order to fully meet its functional
599
requirements of different space. We change the elevation, interior and exterior space, and the design of light
environment to effectively extend visitors' visiting time without their feeling bored.
CONCLUSION: DESIGN METHOD BASED ON “LINKAGE THEORY”
In conclusion, the design method based on “Linkage Theory” in historical district is: First, the urban context
should be researched, which means that natural conditions of site, historical context, and geographical
features should be researched and analyzed on a large scale, the characteristics should be found out, and
special attention should be given to the relationship of the axis position and its angle in important places, to
build a space network among city key areas and people activity sites. Then based on this, a site can be
designed by the “contact line”, markers, environmental sketches, and spatial atmosphere to reach the
purpose of the integrity of urban spatial morphology and continuity of the cultural significance. In the
meantime, a combination with the tradition of “Image Preference” enables images to reflect the historical
culture environment of the sites; an emphasis on the continuity of the visual space, psychological,
environmental of building in urban space helps to represent the city's historical tradition and modern style,
and to link historical and cultural environment and modern living environment. By responding to local
cultural background, lifestyle, local traditions, and the characteristics of the site, we hope that people can
arouse their memories of life in the old town and the city.
SUMMARY
Kevin Lynch once said, “Reflecting the characteristics is more important than reflecting the spirit of times,
because the era we live in must be reflected in all aspects.” Architecture design of historical districts is not
only an exhibition of the architectural characteristics of times, geography, and culture, but also a symbol of
city image and a clue of the historical context. We help people to better understand and touch cities via the
“Linkage Theory” applied in new architecture and city key sites, and the relation between the exterior image
of the building and interior space organization. The application of “Linkage Theory” to the architectural
design of Jingsheng Culture and Recreation Center is a tentative exploration, more needs to be conducted
in future in the design of historical districts.
Annotate
(1) It has been discussed in Collected Works of Fu Xinian on Architecture History(1998) written by Mr Fu
Xinian; Quantitative Analysis of Urban Design Methods in Royal Gardens of Qing Dynasty: Take Yuanming
San Yuan AND Qingyi Yuan For Example(2001,) Human Scale in The Planning and Design of Ancient
Beijing(2002), Quantitative Analysis of The Morphologies of Traditional Chinese Villages(2010) written by
Professor Zhang jie; Planning Techniques of Chang’An City in Sui and Tang Dynasty(2008) written by
Professor Wang shusheng; On Plan for Capital City of Daxing in Sui Dynasty Led by Yu wenkai in The View of
Xingshi Theory(2009), On the Plan for Capital City Jiankang in Six Dynasties(2011) written by Professor Wu
tinghai and other thesis.
REFERENCES
Li Songtao, 2010. Analysis of differences in thinking and translation between China and west Writer, No. 2, p.
171.
Lynch, K., 1981. Site planning, MIT Press, Boston.
Trancik, R., 2008. Finding lost space-theories of urban design, China Architecture & Building Press, Beijing, pp.
106-112..
Wang Jianguo, 2007. Modern urban design theory and method, Southeast University Press, Nanjing, p. 91.
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RETURNING TO THE RATIONAL ORIGINAL POINT: THE ANALYSIS OF CHINESE AUTHENTIC

CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Qi Yi, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, archi_qy@foxmail.com

Zhang Shanshan, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, zhangshanshan@hit.edu.cn
Abstract
With the progress of urbanization, the issues related to Chinese contemporary architectural design were being
valued in academic circles. This paper concentrated on critical thinking about the essential reason of irrational
phenomena and aimed to define the authenticity of the original points for Chinese architecture. First, the paper
described internationalization, revitalization and symbolization as the three types of irrational architectural
phenomena in China. Second, five imbalance contradictions—globalization vs indigenization, tradition vs
innovation, unification vs diversification, visualization vs implication and architecture vs environment—were
described as the causes of irrationality in Chinese contemporary architectural design and practice. Third, the
paper addressed culture, history and environmental issues as the starting points in rational design and innovation,
with sustainability as the authentic goal of building design. A dynamic model, including a continuing and
changing process, was set up to outline a methodology for rational design in China. Then, the author provided an
overview of the critical thoughts for rational Chinese architecture and presented a number of avant-garde
architects’ works to extend the conception of authenticity. The findings generally showed that the authenticity of
architecture was not limited in utility, strength, aesthetic effect or economy. The place, time and technology were
also the constituent elements for authenticity. Finally, the conclusion was drawn that architects should return to
the original point: authenticity to evoke history and culture. The paper also demonstrated that innovation and
sustainability based on tradition could be the driving force for the development of Chinese contemporary
architecture. Lastly, the author noted that the findings about the Chinese phenomena can be a reference for other
countries in the process of urbanization.
Keywords: rational, contemporary architecture, authenticity, identity.
INTRODUCTION
The cities in China are undergoing a tremendous urbanization process. Architectural design in China has
experienced an unprecedented high-tide period over the last ten years. Perhaps this situation will last longer
due to the continued demand for new-type urbanization. As the world’s largest experimental architectural
laboratory, the issues of Chinese contemporary architectural development attract many international
architects, including top-level designers, to interpret their ideas on this piece of ‘blank paper’. Meanwhile,
the majority of domestic design companies do their utmost to service urbanization.
It is undeniable that the building boom has led to significant progress in China’s architectural design.
Nevertheless, it has produced a number of problems in the process of rapid development, including a lack of
identity, lack of diversity, environmental destruction and demolition of historical and cultural heritage.
Architecture — as the certain carrier material for society, culture and economy — plays an important role in
the process of urbanization, especially in the development of Chinese cities. It is necessary to analyse these
problems to find out the reasons and methods for problem-solving.
THE CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL PHENOMENON
Internationalization
This paper defined internationalization as the first phenomenon of Chinese contemporary architecture. This
tendency, including modernism and certain avant-garde architectural ideas, was imported from western
architectural thought. The implication of internationalization in China was extended from the simple
international style to a certain term showing the advanced level related to the economic and technological
issues in architectural design.
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Internationalization is not a description of a certain architectural style but a dynamic process. Modern
architecture was the starting point of this process. Since modernism was introduced into China (Zou 2010),
modern architecture was not impacted by many other architectural trends of thought from the West, such
as post-modernism and deconstructionism. Modernism has been the mainstream in Chinese architectural
history because modern architecture focused on function and economy, which met the demand of
development of Chinese cities (Figures 1, 2, 3).
Figure 1: An office building in a Northern city of China (Photograph by the author)

Figure 2: An office building in a Northern city of China (Photograph by the author)
Figure 3: A commercial building in a Northern city of China (Photograph by the author).
With economic development, buildings in China shifted from functionalism to focusing on form. Especially
since 2008 (the year of the Beijing Olympics), China has introduced a vast number of new architectural ideas
and technologies from Western countries. The Beijing National Stadium designed by Herzog & de Meuron
and the Guangzhou Opera House designed by Zaha Hadid Architects are typical cases that illustrate this
situation (Figures 4, 5, 6).
Figure 4: Beijing National Stadium (Photograph by Dong Shiwei)

Figure 5: Interior of the Guangzhou Opera House (Photograph by Zhang Wenlong)
Figure 6: Interior of the Guangzhou Opera House (Photograph by Zhang Wenlong).
These architectural ideas presented aesthetics, form and style in an international way, which was different
from the traditional Chinese architectural philosophy. Internationalization was a label of contemporary cities’
images and a special term representing high-speed economic development.
Revitalization
Revitalization is another Chinese contemporary architectural phenomenon. It addresses classical
architectural issues, both Chinese and Western. The two completely different ideas share common ground,
specifically reproducing the past images through reconstruction, scale magnifying, or even copying. This
type of revitalization, of course, led to the same result – the absence of authenticity.
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A number of examples of Chinese traditional architecture were demolished in the process of urbanization.
Modern architecture is more related to the Western aesthetic and is not rooted in local culture. In some
people’s perspective, Chinese classical architectural style was the paradigm for linking traditional culture
and contemporary life. This phenomenon appeared in religious buildings, commercial buildings and so on
(Figures 7, 8). The problem was that the traditional structural system was replaced by steel and concrete. The
brackets, which were typical structure elements, became completely decoration, without any mechanical
logic. Even the form and layout of this revitalization differed from the traditional ones, due to the lack of
understanding of classical technology and ethics.
Figure 7: A temple in the mining area of a Northern city (Photograph by the author)
Figure 8: Accessory occupancy of a temple; rendering hung on the construction site (Photograph by the author).
Alternatively, Western classical architectural revitalization expanded to large scales in Chinese cities, such as
Qingdao and Harbin. In this phenomenon, market needs became the driving force for the design process.
The client’s interests toward the West dominated architectural design. New construction or renovation in
this way destroyed authenticity because there are depositions in culture, history, lifestyle and other areas
(Figures 9, 10).
Symbolization
The third phenomenon of Chinese contemporary architecture is symbolization. Some people asserted that
this phenomenon is part of Chinese post-modern architecture (Zhu 2008). As a matter of fact, the
symbolization in China differs from the original post-modernism derived
Figure 9: European-style villas in a Southern city of China (Photograph by the author)

Figure10: High-rise residential building in a Northern city of China (Photograph by the author).
from America. Architect R. Venturi argued that post-modernism was critical thinking against modernism.
American art historian Irving Lavin noted the differences between the figuration in post-modernism and the
abstraction of modernism (Lavin 2004a). Post-modern architecture was not only an expression of form and
style but also a metaphorical realm of an authentic thing. For example, Frank Gehry not only transformed
the massive drapery forms of Claus Sluter’s sculpture into the Deutsche Genossenschafts-Bank but also
delivered a feeling of mystery and inner life (Figures 11, 12) (Lavin 2004b).
However, symbolization in China was a type of explicit expression completely different from Chinese
traditional philosophy. Some symbolic architecture in China resulted from seeing specific physical things in a
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concrete manner. Small-scale elements were interpreted in an exaggerated large scale. The expression was
straightforward, not metaphorical. It is difficult to find the connection between the form of Fang Yuan
Mansion in Shenyang and the philosophy of the square and circle (Figures 13, 14). However, it is easier to see
the relationship with ancient Chinese coins, which are specific things instead of spiritual things. The
expression of symbolization was presentational, not the essence of Chinese traditional culture. To say the
least, the connection between this symbolization and Chinese traditional culture was fragile.
Figure 11: Head of a Mourning Monk, Claus Sluter, at the Tomb of Philip the Bold (© Irving Lavin, after Lavin 2004,
Fig. 36c)
Figure 12: The courtyard of Deutsche Genossenschafts-Bank in Berlin by Frank Gehry (©Irving Lavin, after Lavin
2004, Fig. 29)
Figure 13: Fang Yuan Mansion in Shenyang (Photograph by Dong Shiwei)
Figure 14: Kai Yuan Tong Bao, which is the ancient Chinese coin (Photograph by the author).
In short, the author thought that the architectural phenomenon defined above was irrational. Architecture
met the development needs of urbanization but did not present the Chinese identity, culture, history, or
even values. It was necessary to find the cause of the irrational phenomenon and to shape a rational design
mode for the contemporary with the Chinese gene.
IMBALANCE BETWEEN FIVE CONTRADICTIONS
The author thought that the problem of Chinese contemporary architecture was rooted in the imbalance of
five contradictions as follows.
Globalization versus indigenization

The imbalance between globalization and indigenization was the first reason that caused the Chinese
architectural phenomenon. Architect and philosopher Juhani Pallasmaa stated that universal architectural
fashion led to the loss of the sense of historicity and identity (Pallasmaa 2012). Globalization’s impact on
culture, economy and society caught the game with indigenization. There was not a struggle but rather a
relationship of balance between them. Without a doubt, globalization was an inevitable trend in China and
some other quickly developing countries. It is a question of how to translate globalization without
demolishing unique domestic buildings. We should realize that it is dangerous to have a one-sided
emphasis on globalization without attaching importance to indigenization.
Tradition versus innovation

The second imbalance lies in tradition and innovation. Some architects completely separated them into two
parts, without paying attention to the influence on one another. By doing so, tradition was distorted into the
phenomenon of revitalization and innovation was shaped as invention without regard to history and
culture. The process of dynamic interaction became the static state of division.
Unification versus diversification

Section 3 defined ‘unification versus diversification’ as the third imbalance. The rapid commercialization
required that the architectural design be translated into a way of batch production type. Of course, the
mode of a production line benefited the urbanization of cities. The unification of architecture became the
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result of this high-speed development. If we go on to think about this issue, we could find that ignorance
about diversity of form, space, the hidden culture and complexity of society brought out the unification.
Visualization versus implication

The contradiction of expressional methods was defined as the fourth reason for the irrational phenomenon.
Metaphor was one way to express a feeling using figurative things. In architecture, metaphor is expressed
with variations of scale of space, colour, materials and visualized things, amongst others. This is a concrete to
abstract process, but it does not involve the direct presence of transforming the scale of things. Obviously,
the phenomenon of symbolization mentioned above failed to address the relationship between
visualization and implication.
Architecture versus environment

Finally, the author described the contradiction of architecture and environment as one of the most
important reasons for the Chinese architectural irrational phenomenon. The ‘Unity of Man and Nature’,
derived from Taoism, used to be the core thought for valuing the relationship between man and nature in
China. McHarg stated that the Eastern world was a naturalistic art treasure house, whereas the Western
world was a human-centred art museum (McHarg 2011). In fact, in this contemporary era, architecture in
China has deviated from the traditional Chinese philosophy. The pursuit of harmony with nature was
replaced by the rapid development of construction. The newly built construction went far from
environmental sustainability.
RETURNING TO THE RATIONAL ORIGINAL POINT
What is the rational original point?

This part of the paper outlines architecture’s authenticity as the original point of rational design for Chinese
contemporary buildings. Architecture bears both material and spiritual things. It combines art and science,
aesthetics and technologies. Culture, society and economy influence design. Architects usually define the
principle of architecture as Vitruvius claimed in his book ‘De Architectura’: utilitas (utility), firmitas (strength)
and Venustas (aesthetic effect). With economics, these four elements exerted an effect on the development
of Chinese architectural design in the urbanization process.
We found that the cultural context and the sense of place were hidden behind those physical elements,
especially when architecture was shaped as a tool for formal expression. Swiss Architect Mario Botta claimed
that architectural design should be placed in the category of nature and culture (Botta 2014). Many world-
famous architects also revealed these high values in their works to evoke the memory of place and the
importance of nature, including Alvaro Siza, Taodo Ando, Peter Zumthor and Wang Shu.
In a civilized country with a history of five thousand years, only by respecting the culture and environment
and bridging the gap between the contemporary and history, we as architects, can develop the authenticity
of Chinese architectural design.
Establishing a dynamic model for authenticity

This section provides an open and dynamic model by analysing architects’ critical thoughts and their
contemporary works discussed above (Figure 15). The dynamic model was divided into two parts: the
continuing process and the changing process. As a set of codes, the model presented the original elements
of authentic Chinese architectural design and a roadmap for creation.
The first part was seen as the investigation of tradition and environment. Before conception- making, a
detailed and comprehensive survey about local culture (e.g., forms of art, folk features) and original history
stories must be collected. Then, the traditional techniques may need to be retrieved for the follow-up
invention. Wang Shu’s Chinese vernacular sustainable construction (Wang 2010) showed the potential of
research on traditional techniques. Another example applied in this paper was Hua Li’s invention of
Handcraft Paper in the Gaoligong Museum.
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Figure 15: Dynamic model for Authentic Chinese Architectural design (Diagram by the author).
After the collection, analysis and selection, all of the investigated materials were organized and integrated
with environmental elements and economic points. By doing this, more perfect preliminary analysed
materials became the powerful support for the next phase of design: the changing process. This process was
a significant step for the architects who wanted to develop authentic architecture. Now in China, some
architects are too ‘busy’ to investigate the site, much less to collect those materials. This situation has led to
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the misunderstanding or even ignorance of the spirit of place. The architects themselves cut off the
connections with nature and tradition.
The next part discussed the process of changing, which focused on transforming the primitive conceptions
to feasible construction. When developing architectural ideas, both aesthetics and technology should be
taken into account; of course, this should include functional issues. One thing is most important: the solution
of presenting a sense of place and the environmental impact needing enough attention.
‘Authentic artists are usually more concerned with a general feeling for time and history rather than any
factual history or its products’, said Juhani Pallasmaa (Pallasmaa 1998, p. 132). This statement reminded us
that we cannot simply focus on separate fragments of history and try to develop it into modernity; we must
treat history as abstract but ideal feelings. Actually, it was the same rule within this dynamic model for
authenticity, which gave architects a number of authentic elements for Chinese contemporary design. We
architects could choose one of them or all of them, or even develop an opposite direction. Most important is
the continuing and changing process. The authenticity of Chinese architecture must be interpreted in an
innovative but sustainable way. These were the original points of rational design.
CHINESE AUTHENTIC CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
After analysing the irrational architectural phenomenon and its essence, we provide in this section some
case studies by several Chinese architects who explored the authenticity of Chinese contemporary
architecture. All of them responded to architecture and nature from their own perspective. They had one
thought in common, namely that the buildings in China were developing in a high-speed but irrational way.
For architects, it was time to speak out to the public and address Chinese architectural design on a more
authentic level.
These architects included Yung Ho Chang (Atelier FCJZ), 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate Wang Shu
(Amateur Architecture Studio), Liu Jiakun (Jiakun Architects), Zhang Lei of Nanjing University, Zhang Ke
(Standard Architecture), Hua Li (TAO- Trace Architecture Office), Zhu Jingxiang of the Chinese University of
Hong Kong, Li Hu (OPEN Architecture), and Dong Gong (Vector Architects). In addition, some foreign
architects, such as Kengo Kuma, designed cases that respected the Chinese local context or presented the
traditional Chinese philosophy.
Some of these architects, such as Wang Shu, Yung Ho Chang, and Liu Jiakun, brought local cultural elements
and historical fragments into their works to present the memory of place. Wang Shu used the discarded
materials from the other demolished houses to show a living history (Figures 16 and 17) (Basulto 2012).
Yung Ho Chang tried to interpret the traditional materials such as wood, bricks and tiles in a modern way in
King’s Joy of Beijing. Liu Jiakun seemed to show a dynamic history through the variation in brick colours,
while some architects, such as Zhang Lei, respected history through the unity of opposites and showed
another possibility for the relationship with history.
Figure 16: Reorganization of a historical fragments; Southern Song Dynasty Imperial Street in Hangzhou
(Photograph by the author)
Figure 17: Detail with discarded material; New Academy of Art in Hangzhou (Photograph by the author).
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All of the architects attached great importance to the environmental issue. For example, in the Riverside
Clubhouse and Office in the woods, Hua Li dispelled the boundary of the buildings and maximised people’s
perception of nature. Li Hu strived to solve the environmental problem in his 2nd Ring 2049.
In addition, they treated tectonics as a significant issue in design process. Wang Shu, Zhang Ke, and Hua Li
absorbed knowledge from Chinese traditional craftsmanship and transferred it into an unconventional
tectonic method (Figures 18, 19, 20). Alternatively, Zhu Jingxiang and Dong Gong tended to apply or even
invent new construction methods in their building.
Figures 18, 19, 20: New Academy of Art in Hangzhou (Photographs by the author).
As opposed to a large architectural design company, most of the architects above hosted relatively small
offices. It was difficult to control certain overly large projects or a number of projects at the same time
because of the scale of the team. Nevertheless, it was beneficial that they could dedicate their efforts to one
case and master the whole process, including design, construction and even furniture design. Their
buildings, to some extent, were a form of research for solving Chinese contemporary architecture.
By now, all of these architects were subconsciously forming a group to shape the future path of buildings in
China. Their faith became much stronger after Wang Shu was awarded the Pritzker Prize. These architects, as
avant-garde experimenters, were influencing young architects to join the party. When the power of this
influence is strong enough, there will be a ground-breaking moment for Chinese architecture.
We found diversity in their projects and a vast number of possibilities for providing building authenticity.
Even in their own works, they did not stick to one certain style or form but made variations according to the
differences of place, time and culture. These architects integrated general critical attitudes within their
works, not only to buildings and constructions in the hyper-urbanized context, but also to themselves. They
believed that there was no way to simply import Western architectural design ideas into China or to build
the traditional ‘big roof’ and even bring some Chinese iconic elements into architecture. They tended to be
more active and dedicated to the combination of tradition and modernity in an innovative way.
Furthermore, they deliver the ideas of sustainability through the images of culture, environment, economy
and technologies, although they had different concerns. From these architects, we could draw a conclusion
about what the original points for architecture are and how we address them in the authenticity of Chinese
architecture.
CONCLUSION
This paper addresses authenticity as the original point of rational design for Chinese contemporary
architecture design. The author establishes a dynamic model for authenticity, which identifies an
architectural value more than a specific method, a philosophical view of nature and history more than a
single solution for an irrational phenomenon. The author in this model emphasizes the importance of
culture, environment and history in design practice. The continuing and changing process must be
developed in an innovative and sustainable way.
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Wang Shu’s Pritzker Prize award in 2012 shows the possibilities of evoking the memory of history and culture
and the feasibility of a perfect combination of tradition and modernity. Today, Shigeru Ban’s Pritzker Prize
award presents the significance of the harmonious relationship between man and the environment and the
potential for transformation between traditional construction technology and modern technology. There is
a sense that architects in China and in many other countries are trying their best to find the essence of
identity, culture and philosophy from their own traditions and bring them into their contemporary works.
They play a role not only as a house builder but also as a cultural disseminator and not a realist but
sometimes an idealist. They make a contribution to urbanization, but they sometimes resist the overly rapid
development that may destroy the history, culture and spirit of place.
Returning to the original points is an activity for architects and other people. Tracing the essence of
contemporary architecture’s authenticity is a significant issue for China and other developing countries.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is very grateful to Zhang Wenlong and Dong Shiwei for providing the pictures in this paper.
REFERENCES
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Botta, M., 2014. ‘Report: Architecture and place. Current situation and future of Chinese contemporary
architectural design: Summary of international top-level forum on Chinese contemporary architectural
design and engineering science and technology development’, Architecture & Culture, Beijing, no. 2, p. 215.
Lavin, L., 2004. ‘Going for Baroque: Observations on the post-modern fold’, in S Schütze (ed.), Estetica
barocca, Atti del convegno internationale tenutosi a Roma dal 6 al 9 marzo 2002, Rome, pp. 423-52, viewed 1
April 2014, <http://publications.ias.edu/il>.
McHarg, IL., 2011. Design with nature, 4th edn, Tianjin University Press, Tianjin.
Pallasmaa, J., 2012. ‘Newness, tradition and identity: Existential content and meaning in architecture’,
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Pallasmaa, J., 1998. ‘Tradition and modernity: The feasibility of regional architecture in post-modern society’,
in VB Canizano (eds), Architectural regionalism: Collected writings on place, identity, modernity and tradition,
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Zhu, B., 2008. Development of Post-modern Architecture from 1980s to1990s in China, Hua Zhong Architecture,
Wuhan, no. 2, pp. 39-42.
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Press, Beijing, pp. 9-11.
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DESIGNING LIKE YOU GIVE A DAMN - ABOUT WHAT EXACTLY? EXPLORING THE ETHICS OF
'HUMANITARIAN' ARCHITECTURE
Nikki Linsell, University of Nottingham, UK, nikki.linsell@nottingham.ac.uk
Abstract
A leitmotiv that architects have an essential role within solving world problems has become common rhetoric.
However, recent discourse surrounding the ethics of designing on behalf of the disenfranchised has begun to
highlight the egalitarian criticism that 'humanitarian' architecture might in fact be holding back the 'developing'
that 'developing' countries need to do.
In 2010, Bruce Nussbaum wrote an article entitled 'Is humanitarian design the new imperialism: Does our desire to
help do more harm than good?', setting off a critical on-line debate questioning the role and ethical
responsibilities of western designers within international development. This contention bought to the forefront
important polemic questions around the controversies of 'humanitarian' architecture and disclosed weaknesses in
the (lack of) understanding of the long-term impacts of 'architectural-aid'. Regardless, the debate was seemingly
(dis)missed by important players within the architectural and humanitarian development fields. As a result,
critical questions have been left unanswered, unintended consequences of good intentions continue to go
unchecked, and the true emancipatory potential of architecture as a transformative agent in poverty reduction
and development remains undefined and itself susceptible to become party to new imperial subversions.
Driven by the introduction of a Third way - Emancipatory Architecting - proposed as a potential solution to the
'moral dilemma' found in current international expanded practice, and, as an analytical tool for probing the
socio-political workings inscribed in glocal (global-local) do-good design. This paper begins to explore the
ideological and ethical dimensions of the architectural 'humanitarian' movement. Providing a background to the
sectors, the subsequent problems facing current 'architecture-as-aid', and the potentials of an altered, or
alternative egalitarian praxis.
Keywords: humanitarian architecture, architecture as aid, post-development theory, subaltern studies,

architectural ethics, post-humanitarian geographies, new architectural colonialism, emancipatory
architectures.
INTRODUCTION
Hell is other people

There is a guilt that remains. Of knowing our Western lives, our journeys, our existence is fueled, maintained,
enforced by the past - and current - sufferings and inequalities of others.
We, the West, are silently relieved that we churned up our land, filled our skies with smog. Glad we
conquered other lands, borrowed their skins and their souls. All during the time when nobody knew better.
It was innocent destruction. Out the other side. Relieved.
Relieved if it wasn't for the latest revolution. The one where Apple took over. And the Rest jumped the
ladder and caught up. And thanks to this 'i-revolution', we know about it. Well, some of it. Being Societies of
the Spectacle (Debord 1967) an edible, and most importantly, visual package is served to us. One that re-
describes our now geographically fluid neighbours as vulnerable and helpless. Fed with pictures of
'inadequate housing and malnourished children, we experience a momentary moral heartbeat. The so-called
White Man’s Burden (Easterly 2006).
It is this visual guilt that led us to judge our opponents lesser. And we called it poverty. We then created an
industry for how we, the (supposedly perfect) guilty party could 'save the Rest' (presuming we had the cure).
We bastardised the verb 'humanitarianism' and added it into our Gantt chart of long term careers overseeing
'saving the foreign poor people' programmes.
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But let’s not be forgetting, only fools would help fuel their rivals. The rarely discussed problem with our
'humanitarianism' is that once it actually works, and the Rest become just as (un)perfect like us, we would
have created 'healthy' competitors, ready to play on our territory and on equal terms. “It is not the failures of
development which has to be feared, but its success” (Sachs 1992, p. 3).
No, it’s much better to keep with the somewhat naive belief that we have an ethical right to 'helping'
another. To keep ignoring their strengths, their possibilities, and only highlighting their visual
incompetencies. Continue to claim that the cure requires our 'expertise', our brilliance and that there is no
'easy fix' to become like us, capitalism made flesh. Packaging a product of supposed goodness, a
(un)humanitarian Trojan horse that continues to oppress from within.
Hell is other architects

A distinction needs to be made, before I dig myself a big(ger) hole. This critique is not about the Aid Industry
per say, or its programmes and formulations for delivery. There already exists a wealth of authors, theories
and acknowledged need for institutional change in response to the - now well established - discourse on
development interventions and its (in)effectiveness (Simmons 1995, Maren 1997, Easterly 2006, Klein 2008,
Polmon 2010, Moyo 2009, 2011). It is also not my intention to denigrate the development industry, its
workers, or explain failures.
This is not a critique about the act of building. Of producing built form as a means of supporting
developments. Nor is it a critique on engineering and technical shelter support required during or post-
emergencies or conflicts. It is worth acknowledging that the Shelter Sector is just as much about logistics
management and technical operational expertise than it is about buildings. And even less about an
architect’s design skills as “most [mainstream] architects are taught the exact opposite of what is needed”
(Sanderson 2010), focusing on a fanciful product of built capital and not on the pragmatics of structural
safety and its efficient and effective delivery.
This is also not a critique on local community pro-bono design work. Far from it.
This criticism is targeted specifically around us little old Western architects and our self- proclaimed
international design humanitarianisms. This is directed towards any architect (or student of) who believes
that their heavily culturally potent and political design skills has a justifiable place, let alone positive impact
on a targeted 'vulnerable' community far-removed physically and socio-politically than themselves.
Especially when this praxis is ambivalent and poorly educated about its new context, and in turn, ignoring its
own failings closer to home.
Well intentioned architects and their architectural 'design' skills can and should have an influential, wholly
positive impact on our fast moving, scarcely resourced global community. But I am confused by how
designing in unfamiliar precarious places, and engaging, 'participatory' or not, with vulnerable clients can be
unquestionably presumed and proclaimed as 'doing good' - regardless of proof.
But surely it is better to do something than do nothing? “Unless you build it, it doesn't matter” (Architecture
for Humanity 2012), a vigilante superhero better than no superhero?
BECOMING A SUPERHERO ARCHITECT
The notion that design, and more specifically architects can have a role to play in improving their
environment and society is by no means new. However, thanks to the development of the aid industry, there
has been a subtle but pivotal change - from having a role in their own environment, to the creation of a role
of architects in others.
The modern aid industry

The end of the Second World War is widely believed to be the official birth of the aid industry. In its
embryonic state, it came in the form of economic assistance for post-war rebuilding (caveats included). The
Marshall Plan of 1948 was honestly blatant about its political mission. The US providing over 15 billion
dollars in aid to support the rebuilding of European nations, quite consciously to stop them 'going
communist'. Following this, and in light of the first wave of independent post-colonial rule, The Colombo
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Plan (1950) was formed for the benefit of South and South-Eastern Asian countries, to support the economic
and social development of the region via foreign aid assistance.
In the 1960s, the second wave of independence, and the troubled financial state of some already
independent countries (notably India) prompted the emergence of greater amounts of bilateral
programmes. By the 1970s, the prioritisation of industrial and economic growth in decolonized countries
(often referred to as 'developing', 'less economically development' (LEDC) or 'third world') shifted. Prior
colonisers of these countries were now focused on providing aid not to support development per say, but to
reduce 'poverty', with the solution believed to be found through a greater degree of integration into a
capitalist market system. Accompanied by the new science of Development Economics and studies,
Structural Adjustment was introduced, reorienting production towards exports and replacing the state as a
provider with an emphasis on the market as a driver for progress.
In response to the African droughts and famine, followed by the publicised HIV epidemic and celebratory
endorsed fundraisers such as Live Aid, the 80's and 90's continued to see the independent aid industry
develop. It had begun to evolve, bypassing the top-down economy-wide transformations, instead creating
to a large extent its own self-regulating sector via the development of International Non-Governmental
Organisations (INGOs). With their expansive fundraising departments, INGO's began to define and deliver
their own poverty reducing goals. The borders opened. Individuals can start a charity, raise some funds, and
go and 'help' whoever and however they see fit, with minimal justifications required.
International development and the Modern Aid industry is now big business. Aid flows from North to South
at a rate of around $150 billion a year (de Haan, 2009). And it continues to be big business, evolving from
post-war, post-colonial reconstruction to that of the Charitable Sector. It now has many names. And the
terminology has changed, from top-down, we have bottom, or middle-up-down approaches, livelihood
generation, climate change adaption, resilience and knowledge building programmes. The list and the
terminology is relenting, becoming not just an industry in itself, but one with its own mystifying language of
acronyms and self-referential redefined 'innovations' (Betts & Bloom 2013), in part thanks to its weaving of
the perpetual criticism.
The birth of architecture-as-aid

This belief that architecture, and by implication architects, have a mission to serve, or maybe 'save', society
emerged most notably during the era of Modernism. This design movement during the 20th Century
possessed a clear sense of political engagement and came to a climax in the age of social engineering. It
held the belief that architecture and architects had the ability, the right, the role to question 'how are we to
live', and the post-war reconstruction period in Europe allowed for a tabula rasa. A brilliant canvas to explore
these fundamental ideals of architecture’s agency in envisioning broad societal change.
One suggestion is that the movement originated from London (Ray 2005) with the employment of full-time,
in house architects within the London Local Councils (LLC's). From the 1890s until the mid-1970s, the LCC
employed architects were given the opportunity to nurture and define their social ideas in their designs. It
was a unique opportunity to experiment, with no direct client to answer to, or specific brief to follow. And
the end user, well they were deemed lucky, gifted a house. A machine for living.
Then came the Reagan-Thatcherite years and the rapid reformulation into public-private contracts and
commercialisation of our architectural service provision (Glendinning 2010). And with the precipitous
collapse of the idea of architecture as social engineering, the Hi-Tech International Styles took over.
Neoliberalism and the opening of market borders, echoed by the Structural Adjustment Keynesian
economics of the time, all helped lead to the major transformations of the architectural profession into a
global industry. And a commodity.
With this commercialisation, many architects have become disengaged with mainstream practices and once
again are attempting to redefine their ethical role within a now global complex society and make the
profession relevant again to the ever increasing masses. With a new emphasis on global poverty reducing
acts, engagement of architecture within the development sector is perhaps an attempt to find a new home
for a modern LCC model outside of local borders.
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This 'humanitarian architecture' and global design activist movement gained momentum as official 'players'
in the development sector at the beginning of the millennium, most notably in the founding of the INGO,
Architecture For Humanity. Other charitable architecture organisations followed, particularly after the Indian
Ocean Tsunami in 2004, and alongside field active INGO volunteer design practices, the 21st Century has
also welcomed new courses and university Live Project teaching. Monopolising on the popularisation and
excitement of designing for the disenfranchised, the wealth of recent publications evident of its promotion
(Bell 2003, 2008. Architecture for Humanity 2006, 2012, Fuad-Luke 2009, Aquilino 2011, Feireiss 2012, Sinha
2012).
What could be seen as just a protracted form of ('gap-year') international architectural volunteerism,
packaged in the delivery mechanism of an INGO, architecture-as-aid has established itself as the place to go
if you want to 'do good' with your design skills. If you want to go and 'help' (re)design the Rest.
WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY
This architectural-aid movement is reliant on its proclamation that it is inherently good, implying wholly
positive change but often without necessarily specifying the frameworks in which this change wishes to be
judged, and by whom. Charitable architectural objectives and mission statements are particularly vague and
loose, and as such their flaws and failures are intrinsically hard to establish. Sinclair and cofounder Stohr
have openly admitted that the measure of Architecture for Humanity’s performance is not in how much
architecture they’ve built for humanity, but by 'more elusive standards' (Capps 2011).
(Building a better future through) the power of design

Regardless of whether or not architecture can indeed save the world, holding this belief simultaneously
means acknowledgement that architecture can also do harm. Power is not inherently good. You can't have
one without the other. We might intend to build a better future, but ironically instead be building a worse
future - through the power of design.
Thus it becomes pivotal when contemplating the responsibilities that come with being a 'humanitarian
architect', that architects recognise and acknowledge their power within the process, especially those
actively publicising their engagement with a larger socio-political agenda beyond their own. Despite this,
the possibilities of disastrous failures are usually ignored, dismissed, or over-simplified to the classic 'surely it
is better to try?'
The resulting changes in another’s physical and human world has consequences. And there is a fine line
between being the protagonist and the antagonist, superhero or accidental villain.
Architectural consequentialism
Ethics in architecture is all too often just associated with aesthetics and commercial liability concerns, and
not “the less controllable realm of social dynamics” (Awan, Schneider & Till 2011, p. 51). Professional ethical
codes do not offer a conversation around wider ethical issues of “not only the intentions behind a given
action but also its implications and results” (Manzini 2006). We are left to weigh up certain immediate
consequences against less certain future ones of our architectural practices. And we have to give a value, a
hierarchy of importance to them. The universal ethical dilemma - how and who decides what is important.
Deontologically we would save a life today, even if it meant that greater lives would be lost in the future,
because we deem it the right thing to do (or letting someone die would be the wrong thing to do). In
humanitarian architectural terms this is much harder to define, perhaps comparable to the belief that
designing a school is ethically right compared to just letting it be built (or not built). That saying no to an
architect designing a school as morally wrong, regardless of the later implications.
Consequentialism suggests that we take a broader more informed longer term view on things. The sacrifice
of one life now, to save hundreds in the future (Baggini 2012). Or, perhaps rejecting an offer of an architect
to design one school, because by not having an architect involved now will lead to better designed schools
in the future. And not just one, but many. With the longer term impact considerations with a
consequentialist approach, it also gives us an opportunity to employ the sustainability paradigm to our
morality.
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Luckily these undefined missions of architectural development charities do have one distinct aspect despite
their fluffiness - that they are long term goals, not short term acts. They admit to 'leaving behind more than
just a building', acknowledging a consequentialist approach to their evaluation. Actively encouraging the
assessment of the wider longer term effects they have on the social and economic impacts of their actions.
THE KRYPTONITE
This power (good or bad) that 'humanitarian architects' claim to have appear to be based on two key factors
- that they are the ones with the appropriate knowledge and expertise, and that they know where to go to
have the most impact with these skills (and that these skills are also wanted).
Subaltern expertise building

The term the 'third world' originated from the Third Estate of the French Revolution. With two major political
systems, capitalism (the first), and socialism (the second), the third world was made up of any 'non-aligned'
nation - the newly independent colonially free countries, that at the time were yet to decide, pick, develop
their own political system. The Bandung Conference of 1955 saw the gathering of many of these newly
independent African and Asian countries. Seeing themselves as an independent power bloc, believing that
politically there was a third way, with a new 'third world' perspective on political, economic and cultural
global priorities.
This modernity of the seemingly failed non-aligned countries, fuelled by the Aid Industry, has arguably
produced a form of “capitalism that accommodates the hierarchies and cultures of the ancient
regime...interlocking within itself strands of different types of relationship that [do] not make up a logical
whole” (Chibber 2013, p. 15). Its’ being has developed in different ways, according to different temporalities,
different places and different levels of involvement from the West. Although the comparisons may be
recognisable, the Rest are relative and distinct from a Western developed consciousness. The logical
conclusion would then be that imported theories, knowledge and 'experts' cannot be appropriated to these
settings.
A UK architectural charity claims to 'provide the skills and knowledge needed' and to 'pass on essential
knowledge and skills'. But an assessment is rarely made on what actually makes a foreign 'experts' skills and
knowledge worth transferring, or even valuable or relevant in a distinctly different context. There is also the
value-laden nature of attributions of expertise, afforded based on who has the knowledge not because of
the nature of what is known (Crewe & Harrison 1998). A more subaltern perspective of how to ascertain what
constitutes relevant knowledge in the 'third world' would be to allow locals to make this distinction, rather
than from the points of view of the foreign 'colonisers'.
But instead to deal with this complex non universal reality, simplification and manipulation occurs until a
convenient narrative can be found and argued to suit the foreign 'experts'. By excluding or pervading these
truths, institutions like the architectural elite try to bend dilemmas towards their convenience, “rather than
extending their visions to encompass a full diversity of reality” (Axelby & Crewe 2013, p. 13). The Rest are
misconstrued as objects of elite benevolence and non-profit largesse, rather than possessing a different
history, possessing their own unique world-views, interests, passions and knowledge.
Post-humanitarian geographies
We base our definition of vulnerable communities (and their subsequent needs) on a relatively out-of-date
view of the paradigm of geography. These geographical presumptions are echoed when deciding what
makes a piece of architecture 'humanitarian' comparative to just 'pro-bono'. A cynic may suggest that by
utilising the term 'humanitarian' it gives it, by name at least, automatic links with international development
and emergency practice, and by association the right to roam the globe freely looking for clients. 'Pro bono'
work holding much stronger associations with localism, the idea of giving your professional time for free
within your own community.
Once humanitarian is selected, the geographies of practice are seemingly drawn and selected based on the
economic premise that we (the global West) are developed. And the Rest, the place of humanitarian praxis,
is in the poor, developing, third world. Easily and conveniently defined by the geo-political boundaries
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found on a world map. By designing a school in rural Africa, it by geographical right, makes it a humanitarian
piece of architecture.
The thing is we no longer have a world map to define our human, or humanitarian, geography. Over the last
decade, developmental economics indicate that much of what was considered at being at the bottom of the
development ladder, as 'hanging in' have in fact jumped, or perhaps, more accurately the rungs of the
ladder have moved and been redefined, in part thanks to the hyper-technological revolution, and of course
globalisation. “Things have become a lot more fluid” (Bauman 2000). The postmodern geographies
paradigm and its New Geography contingent proposing a “multi-layered geography of socially created and
differentiated nodal regions nesting at many different scales around the mobile personal spaces of the
human body” (Soja 1989, p. 8).
Poverty no longer has easily defined physical borders. Humanitarian or un-humanitarian architecture can
now be found using a different kind of map.
WITH NO POWER COMES NO RESPONSIBILITY, EXCEPT THAT WASN'T TRUE
“Lesson 5: design is an economic tool... The number one request we get from clients is a job, often before
housing. No one is looking for a handout” (Architecture for Humanity [2], p. 39).
New architectural colonialism

Post Development theory (Escobar 1995, Sachs 2005) came out of the direct response to the Aid Industry.
Reflecting similar structures that of colonialism, western dominance via international aid is reproduced by
softer, subtler forms of control. It is a relatively minor move, this shift to indirect rule, to a position not so
much of independence as being 'in-dependence'. The INGO's becoming more a public friendly means of
implementing colonial policy via the promotion of the white 'expert'.
There are specific worries surrounding the territorially reductive, western designed building-as-product aid
approach. All too often undermining, or ignoring the adaptive capacity of local construction economies and
devaluing the potentially burgeoning local built environment profession - nurturing an architectural form of
dependency syndrome. Big Potatoes design manifesto points directly to this egalitarian criticism that
humanitarian architecture “affects to be both humble and concerning about equality; but in practice holds
back the 'developing' that developing countries urgently need to do” (Big Potatoes 2012).
If communities are forced, enticed to conform to the first world laissez-faire market system. If we are putting
our faith in self-regulation telling us what has value and what doesn't. Any act that distorts this system
results in an un-free, un-fair, un-equal fight. Even if the distortion was done with good intentions.
By going to a geographically less familiar location to select your (voiceless) client, and declaring the
importance of your architect knowledge. And then after all of that, offering your 'skills' for free, completely
against your capitalist rules, and then leaving (swiftly) back on that jet plane. Unintentional perhaps, but
surely a new form of colonial none the less?
The yes problem

The notion of Orientalism (Said 1978) involves the representation of another culture without a true
representation of the original, to stereotype. The coloniser, the foreign architect creates an image of what it
expects or thinks they will find based on their western knowledge - and - what they interpret from their
selected beneficiaries. This creates the issues of “the lying native”, who playing the aid industry game,
translates themselves into the dominant culture (Young 2003, p. 141). The western culture.
The yes problem. Not many people, in any culture, would say no to the offer of receiving something for free.
Regardless of whether they actually want or need it. These 'yes' responses, too often poorly structured need
assessment studies, or token participatory design workshops, come out of the fear that if something is
rejected, if you say no, you might not get anything at all. 'Yes' quickly being presumed to mean 'yes we want
to be just like you'.
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An example of this can be found by reviewing development anthropologist Emma Crewe experiences when
she visited a housing project in East Africa. Seeing the new brick houses designed by foreigners had been
left uninhabited, she didn't ask why, she asked which one they preferred. Their reply “We may be Maasai but
we are modern Maasai. Of course we want modern rectangular houses” (Axelby & Crewe 2013, p. 143).
As Pfaffenberger (1992) concludes, it is culture not nature that defines necessity.
THE ANTI-SUPERHERO
There have been acknowledged failures within the architecture-as-aid movement, but they rarely question
the notion of the project itself. Assessment and monitoring toolkits such as Arups ASPIRE software offer an
evaluation of the impact of projects as product, but seem to make no mention of evaluating the impact of
the the people delivering the project.
Emancipatory architectures
Cameron Sinclair (co-founder of Architecture for Humanity) argues that by collaborating and partnering with
local designers one can overcome the threats of the 'western intervention model'. However, a western
directed 'participatory' project continues to take advantage of pre-existing symbolic power inequalities,
whether it realises or acknowledges this fact or not
So, what does an architect and the global profession at large, do to 'do good'?
Nussbaum calls for design localism, for architects to “stay at home” (Nussbaum 2010), where you will
understand the complexities of the context and your client - echoing Ivan Illich's 'To Hell with Good
Intentions' speech: "If you have any sense of responsibility at all, stay with your riots here at home....you will
know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how to communicate with those to whom you speak.
And you will know when you fail. If you insist on working with the poor, if this is your vocation, then at least
work among the poor who can tell you to go to hell" (Illich 1968).
This has also been raised, pleasingly in an interview with the newly appointed CEO of Architecture for
Humanity, Eric Cesal, stating that an architect from Oklahoma doesn't need to go to India to do some good
necessarily. But is this local model the only way to meaningfully engage architects in social agency. How can
we bridge the gap between foreign construction industry dependency, and increasing social-design
interests, skills, knowledge and markets in-country?
Perhaps the problem is one more of commitment. Few organisations, projects, and funding remain in one
place long enough to inspire and nurture their local replacements, continuing western market
monopolisation rather than encouraging new local architectural opportunities. An absence of mechanisms
to steer the Rest’s architectural education away from an Orientalist approach, towards innovative locally
driven advancements. A third way.
George Ofori's research promotes 'taking the time to develop the construction industries of the poorer
nations' (Ofori 2004). By creating dialogical spaces for contestation and liberation away from hierarchical
system of transfer, a more equal form of architectural development and activism may take root -
emancipating from the restrictions of new colonial paternalism and stimulating fresh expressions (and
perspectives) of our built (and socio-political) world.
CONCLUSION
Hell is others ignorance

If architects want to engage in other societies humanitarian issues, “one needs to understand the forces of
conflict that act upon that environment....if one wants to participate in any given force field, it is crucial to
identify the conflicting forces at play” (Miessen 2007). All be it reluctantly, humanitarian architecture is a
power play and “the ability of experts operating in ignorance of context to screw a system of place up
beyond recognition should never be underestimated” (Steffen 2010).
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Western Architects are not perfect, but by the luck of the draw they have been fortunate to be privileged. To
have freedom to think. And opportunities to do. But I am yet to be convinced that this equates to a birth-
right to do what we want and design where and for whom we want. With complex isomorphic structures
with conflicting values and norms forming our built globalising world, nothing can no longer be presumed.
And we certainly have no place criticising others failings, especially if we systematically misunderstand how
we and our world now work.
This is not meant to denigrate the work of socially driven architects (or humanitarian workers), but to
explore the controversies in order to ask the essential questions: Did they even ask us to give a dam? Should
we be not designing because we give a dam?
“I am my choices, I am my freedom”, Descartes rewrites cogito. We need to move away from the idea that
western architects have the ethical backing, or ability, to design-out world problems. We need to educate
ourselves on the impacts of our own actions. And move towards a more honest approach, one of enabling a
third way of developing a new globally fluid social architecture movement.
We need to break free from the shackles of financial domination, institutionalism and knowledge
domination led and defined from the First. We need to emancipate the architectural profession. From global
commercialisation, and western 'do-good' neocolonialism.
We need a third way.
REFERENCES
Architecture for Humanity (Ed), 2006. Design like you give a damn: Architectural responses to humanitarian
crisis, Thames & Hudson, London.
Architecture for Humanity (Ed), 2012. Design like you give a damn [2]: Building change from the group up,
Abrams, New York.
Aquilino, M., (Ed), 2011. Beyond shelter: Architecture for crisis, Thames & Hudson, London.
Awan, N, Schneider, T & Till, J., 2011. Spatial Agency: Other ways of doing architecture, Routledge, UK.
Axelby, R & Crewe, E., 2013. Anthropology and development: Culture, morality and politics in a globalised world,
Cambridge University Press, UK.
Baggini, J., 2012. The big questions: Ethics, Quercus Editions Ltd, London.
Bauman, Z., 2000. Liquid modernity, Polity Publishing, UK.
Bell, B., (Ed) 2003. Good deeds, good design: Community service through architecture, Princeton Architectural
Press, USA.
Bell, B & Wakeford, K., (Ed) 2008. Expanding architecture: Design as activism, Metropolis Books, London.
Betts, A & Bloom, L., 2013. ‘The two worlds of humanitarian innovation’, RSC Working Paper Series N. 94,
University of Oxford.
Big Potatoes, 2012. ‘Manifesto for design, Upholding human talents and innovation’, Draft set of principles
for Big Potatoes Design Manifesto, London.
Capps, C., 2011. ‘Can architecture save humanity?’ Architect Magazine,

http://www.architectmagazine.com/architects/can-architecture-save-humanity.aspx
Chibber, V., 2013. Postcolonial theory and the spector of capital, Verso, London.
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Crewe, E & Harrison, E., 1998. Whose development? An ethnography of aid, Zed Books, London.
Debord, G., 1967. Society of the spectacle, Rebel Press, London.
de Haan, A., 2009. How the aid industry works: An introduction to international development, Kamarian Press,
Sterling, USA.
Easterly, W., 2006. The white man's burden: Why the west's efforts to aid the Rest have done so much ill and so
little good, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Escobar, A., 1995. Encountering development: The making and unmaking of the third world, Princeton
University Press, USA.
Feireiss, L., (Ed) 2012. TESTIFY, The consequences of architecture, NAI Publishers, Netherlands.
Findley, L., 2005. Building change: Architecture, politics and cultural agency, Routledge, London.
Fuad-Luke, A., 2009. Design activism: Beautiful strangeness for a sustainable world, Earthscan, London.
Glendinning, M., 2010. Architecture's evil Empire?: The triumph and tragedy of global modernism, Reaktion
Books, London.
Miessen, M., 2007. The violence of participation, Sternberg Press, Berlin.
Illich, I., 1968. ‘To hell with good intentions’, Address to the Conference on Inter-American Student Projects
(CIASP) in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Johnson, C., 2011. ‘The urban precariat, neoliberalization, and the soft power of humanitarian design, Journal
of Developing Societies, no. 27, p. 445.
Klein, N., 2008. The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism, Penguin Books, London.
Manzini, E., 2006. ‘Design, ethics & sustainability’, Cumulus Nantes Conference on Design, Ethics & Urbanism,
Work Papers.
Maren, M., 1997. The road to hell: The ravaging effects of foreign aid and international charity, Free Press.
Moyo, M., 2009. Dead aid: Why aid makes things worse and how there is another way for Africa, Penguin Books,
London.
Moyo, M., 2011. How the west was lost: Fifty years of economic folly - and the stark choices ahead, Penguin
Books, London.
Nussbaum, B., 2010. ‘Is humanitarian design the new Imperialism?: Does our desire to help do more harm
than good?’, Fast Company, www.fastcodesign.com/1661859/is-humanitarian-design-the-new-imperialism.
Ofori, G., 2004. ‘Construction industry development for disaster prevention and response’, Presented at 2nd
International Conference on Post-Disaster Reconstruction: Planning for Reconstruction, Coventry.
Pfaffenberger, B., 1992. ‘Social anthropology of technology’, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 21, pp. 491-
516.
Polman, L., 2010. The crisis caravan: What’s wrong with humanitarian aid?, Metropolitan Books, New York.
Ray, N., 2005. Architecture and its ethical dilemmas, Taylor and Francis, London.
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Sanderson, D., March 2010. ‘Architects are often the last people needed in disaster reconstruction: Most of
them focus on buildings rather than people, and will be of little use in Haiti or Chile’, cited in The Guardian’s
Global Development blog.
Sachs, W., 1992. The development dictionary, Zed Books, London.
Said, E., 1978. Orientalism, Penguin Books, London.
Salim, F., 2011. The impact of globalization on architecture and architectural ethics, Common Ground
Publishing LLC, Illinois.
Soja, E., 1989. Postmodern geographies: The reassertion of space in critical social theory, Verso, London.
Simmons, P., 1995. Words into action: Basic rights and the campaign against world poverty, Oxfam, UK.
Sinha, S., 2012. Architecture for rapid change and scarce resources, Routledge, London.
Steffen, A., 2010. ‘The problem with design: Imperialism or thinking too small?’, WorldChanging,
www.worldchanging.com/archives/011386.html.
Young, R., 2003. Postcolonialism, a very short introduction, Oxford University Press, UK.
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MOBILE LOITERING: A RESPONSE TO PUBLIC SPACE NEEDS IN NIGER’S HIGHLY GENDERED URBAN
CONTEXT
Mariam Kamara, united4design, United States, mariam@united4design.com
Abstract
By their very nature, city streets provide an opportunity to create a life ‘in-between’ the more strongly defined
entities of home, school, office, and markets. In this space, one can easily appear to be on the way to somewhere,
but never actually be on the way to anywhere. The act of ‘mobile loitering’ is a tactic that is commonly employed
by young girls in Niger’s capital of Niamey, in order to socialize with one another. In the context of a Muslim city
situated in a predominantly Muslim (albeit secular) country, women’s presence in the public realm–for purposes
other than running errands, conducting business or going to school–is easily questioned by society. In their free
time, young girls often pay social calls to each other, using their itinerary as a journey through which they can see
and be seen, interact with acquaintances, while enjoying relative privacy through movement.
This paper proposes a new type of public space that is uniquely adapted to the cultural norms of the city of
Niamey, Niger’s capital. It outlines a proposal for an activity circuit that links major public spaces currently used by
the youth of the city, while adding program components along a defined route to augment them. The design
proposal shapes neighborhood streets to give girls destinations and justifications for being outside, offering them
a right to a city that is becoming increasingly less accessible, within a society that is growing increasingly more
conservative.
Keywords: public space, gender, city streets, Niger, Niamey, subversive actions, subversive urban design,
islam and women, informality, right to the city.
INTRODUCTION
Though we might not always be conscious of it, equal access to public space is almost never a given.
Whether in the Developed World or the Developing one, open or conservative societies, there are codes of
behavior and inequalities that make these spaces more or less accessible. Women seldom feel safe walking
in a deserted street or park, be they in Seattle or in Paris, which is akin to saying they are out of place in those
spaces at that particular time. A homeless person is not wanted on the sidewalk or park bench, prompting
city officials to design ways to make those places undesirable for them. In Niamey, these ‘designed ways’ are
embedded in the city’s conservative culture. A person’s reputation and honor is paramount in the eyes of
the society, and said society decides what guaranties one’s reputation and honor. In this context, women
often have a tenuous relationship with the world outside their home, even when they are not confined to
them. Consequently, unless they are going to school, to work or running errands, there are no opportunities
for them to experience the city. This project provides them with such an opportunity while offering them
activities that keep them from being judged for being out in the open. Because there are very few public
spaces and public amenities in the city, the streets are the main theater of public life and the public realm
par excellence, at once belonging to everyone and to no one. They are therefore a resource up for grabs in
economic survival tactics and struggles to maintain a communal social life while navigating societal
constraints. The project takes advantage of this, proposing a designed public space that is culturally and
contextually adapted to the realities of Niamey by using its streets as main conduit.
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A SEGREGATED AND CO-OPTED PUBLIC SPACE
Limitations to public space access

The republic of Niger is a previous French colony with 85% of its population being of Muslim confession. As
such, public behavior and usage of the streets is codified by gender, age, class and education level even
though exceptions can be observed when it comes to economic activities and communal events. With a
country-wide literacy rate of 25%, the majority of the Niger’s population does not fluently speak, let alone
read or write, French. This educational gap produces a class gap in the way people use public spaces. For
instance, public amenities such as pools and libraries tend to be the territory of the educated high income
class.
Age is another determinant of who can go where. Children have unlimited freedom, come and go as they
please, play in the streets, hopping from house to house and going on neighborhood adventures together.
Teenagers and young adults are also fairly visible, as this is the age where their lives are much more layered:
they go to school on foot for the majority, they are sent on multiple errands throughout the day, they visit
each other and they meet for study groups. For married adults, being out and about is limited to weddings
or naming ceremonies as well as running household errands. The elderly have a very special place in African
communities. They can come and go as they please and lounge in front of their houses with friends if they
like. As elders, they command a tremendous amount of respect and there is an understanding that they can
do no wrong.
But in Sub-saharan Muslim societies, gender is probably the strongest determinant of who gets to go where
and what they get to do there. Although Nigerien women are rarely subjected to confinement or Purda
typical of some Muslim cultures, their presence outside their homes for purposes other than running
errands, conducting business or going to school is easily questioned. For instance, one would be hard-
pressed to find young women sitting leisurely at a café or sitting in front of their compound, chatting with
friends.
This layered codification of the public realm is made more complex by an aggressive co-opting of streets
and public amenities by a population facing strong economic and social imperatives, causing the city to
perhaps be used differently than intended by its initial designers.
Co-opting the streets for economic projects and social interaction

African city dwellers have had to be creative to survive in the face of often severe economic hardship. Thus it
is that “across Africa, a new urban infrastructure is being built with the very bodies and life stories of city
residents” as AbdouMaliq Simone states in his essay Remaking Urban Life in Africa. These occurrences,
actions and those who partake in them create a network where people, events, situations intersect with one
another in subtle ways. Simone asserts that people and their “bodies”, in the way they move, cross and
create networks, eventually define the actual fabric and culture of the city (Simone, 2003). This human
infrastructure inscribes itself in the movement of people through the city lanes to accomplish economic
projects, but also as ways to get around the lack of spaces that can accommodate their social needs. The
streets therefore provide a ready infrastructure for these human networks, becoming a mega-public space
and a source of infinite loopholes exploited by its inhabitants in imaginative ways. For instance, social
projects are often fulfilled by the streets when weddings or baptisms spill over to them, often causing joyous
street-shutdowns. But they also provide unusual lodging opportunities. It is not uncommon to find entire
families squatting in makeshift tents and huts at leftover street corners.
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Streets are also the main infrastructure in the lives of the city’s youth. As children reach puberty, a
fundamental difference surfaces in the way young men and young women use the streets to socialize. The
most prevalent activity for teenage boys and young men involves sitting in front of their house, playing
cards and drinking strong mint tea (called Shayi or Attaya) while swapping stories and people watching.
These assemblies (called Faada) can go on until very late at night and represent an important part of their
lives. Faadas have become such established social institutions that the larger ones have names, membership
rules, and compete against each other in poker, foosball, ping-pong and other contests. Though satellite
televisions and video games have eroded their numbers in the city, Faadas remain the main way most young
men socialize and relate to the city.
Young women will rarely be found in a Faada, except for a few brave ones. In Niamey’s Muslim society,
hanging about is considered a sign of loose behavior and borderline moral depravation in a woman. That is
not to say that women are banned from the streets altogether however. They participate in the street’s
informal economy by conducting commerce, they can sit alongside everyone else in front of homes during
communal events, and go about their day running errands. Being idle in the street is what causes trouble
and attracts judgment. So while girls are seldom subjected to home confinement, this puts them in the
paradoxical situation of being able to come and go as they please but having few places that will tolerate
their idle presence. Young girls occupy much of their free time paying social calls to each other, using their
itineraries as a journey through the streets of their neighborhood. This allows them to see and be seen, to
interact briefly with acquaintances, to take the pulse of their neighborhood while enjoying complete privacy
in their interaction with each other. But even this behavior has experienced a decline in the recent years as
some neighborhoods have grown more conservative.
UNCOVERING POSSIBILITIES
From the bottom up: A conversation with female youth in Niamey

Part of this project involved meeting with and talking to a groups of teenage girls from a local middle school
in Niamey. The school is located at the crossroads of five mixed to low-income neighborhoods characterized
by a rich level of activity, ethnic and cultural mix, making them a good sample of the city. The goal was to
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find out how they viewed themselves in the public realm, how and if they use public spaces and what their
concerns are considering the Muslim context they live in. There was a lively debate where some felt that
always being out and about was not good for a girl and that they should stay home and help their mothers
instead. A larger portion of the girls, however, expressed a strong desire to venture out with their friends,
putting an accent on the importance of partaking in activities that increase their knowledge of the world. In
the same vain, they expressed the desire for spaces where they could study with their friends outside of
school or home confines.
The young women also spoke of longing for quiet, safe, gawker-free, well shaded surroundings to loiter and
conduct activities in. Perhaps this is why Niamey’s National Museum was mentioned many times as a
destination of choice by the girls. It is an open-air domain of 60 acres marked by a series of pavilions for the
museum collection and a zoo section. The museum is well shaded and lends itself to quiet strolls with the
spectacle of zoo animals, various exhibits and artisans making and selling their best work. It also figured on
the list of public spaces the girls felt they could go to without parental objection, as it has long been a
popular family destination teaming with children. Finally, the city’s main stadium was another top choice the
girls mentioned as a safe place their parents approve of, with its offerings of tennis, basketball, martial arts
and even Zumba classes. The conversation around the topic of walks as a form of loitering offered glimpses
of opportunity for creating spaces that provide gently subversive possibilities which in time might allow for
changes in behavior and norms to occur. In stead of the usual public/private dichotomy, a different typology
of space might hold the key to navigating strong societal mores by having a “both-and” relationship rather
than an “either-or” one.
Finding new spatial possibilities

As shown earlier, streets are uniquely appropriate in providing the opportunity of creating a life “in-
between” the more strongly defined entities of home, school, office, market. People claim the street as their
own, sometimes abusing it, but always taking full advantage of its possibilities. This behavior provides
glimpses of a spatial typology whose elements are not all tangible and visible, but a mixture of real or
imaginary boundaries, virtual connections and the physical spaces that make these possible. Formalizing
such behavior in designing public space could produce one where the barriers of age, education and most
importantly gender lose their potency. Rather than conceiving a public building that would safely house
activities for young women, the idea is then to create a space that takes its cue from the mobile loitering
many girls already partake in.
Walking circuitously in neighborhood streets in Niamey is the ultimate escape and represents a loophole in
behavioral rules for girls. In a city where the overall poverty, in the capitalistic sense, often means little state
or private initiatives towards providing public spaces of leisure or education, the walks provide an endless
source of entertainment and sometimes even education. For the streets are where tailors display their latest
and most desirable creations, it is where one might witness a weaver in front of his compound tirelessly
repeating age old gestures that produce beauty and function. Perhaps more powerfully however, walking
with friends provides the valuable space for young girls to exchange and share each other’s thoughts,
dreams and aspirations without fear of judgment. The project thus proposes a designed route that offers
girls a series of destinations throughout the city while providing a justification they can use to step outside
the family compound. Because there are already activities they enjoy that are accepted by their parents and
society at the National Museum and the National Stadium, “spin-offs” of these activities can be sprinkled
along the created route, enriching it and creating greater influx of women along the way.
A DESIGNED MOBILITY AND LOITERING
Project program
Programing the route is critical in insuring girls are not questioned by a society that looks on as they loiter
along it. The interview with the young women revealed their enjoyment of sports, watching concert
rehearsals, studying, dancing, and strolling on the grounds of the National museum the most. Most of these
activities are currently housed within the National Stadium and the National Museum. Consequently, spin-
off activities are proposed to populate the route, taking the form of a series of interventions along the way
that provide benefits for the girls and for the community at large. The program is organized in 3 main
categories:
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• Mixed-gender activities: these are the majority of the activities. They consist of:
• Study carrels that provide spaces for studying in groups in quiet neighborhood streets.
• Multipurpose amphitheaters that accommodate fitness classes, concert rehearsals and plays.
• Girl-centered activities: these are useful in currently deserted areas that require a big influx of women in
order to feel safer. In this proposal, they take the form of a women-oriented market
Figure 5: Early route concept studies

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• Girls only activities: these are particularly desirable in areas that have higher traffic concentration and are
more densely populated. They refer to structured community or organization led programs geared
towards outreach, health education and mentoring of young girls. The spaces that house these activities
need a higher level of privacy and lower visibility from the public.
The project site

The city of Niamey has been interested in developing the Gounti Yenna valley - a stretch of green space that
splits the city North to South - as a public amenity for the population as part of an ambitious restructuring
plan called Niamey Nyala or “Niamey the Beautiful.” The valley was historically a natural barrier between the
French and the Indigenous quarters. Fifty years after independence, these historic divisions have morphed
into socio-economic divisions, with the upper income class located in the historically French part of town
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(Figure 7.) This division follows religious lines as well, as poorer neighborhoods show stronger levels of
religious conservatism than better off neighborhoods (Figure 8). This provided a starting point for
identifying site boundaries that encompass the two current public spaces mentioned by the girls while
capturing a significant portion of the valley, an area that provides opportunities for relief from the city’s
hustle and bustle.
Figure 6: Niamey aerial view and site location

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Figure 7: Site economic divisions Figure 8: Site religious divisions

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Route design
Many considerations were taken into account to determine the streets to use as part of the route (Figure 9).
The result is a four-mile long itinerary linking the main public spaces and most of the schools on the site,
providing a good base on which to add program to give the girls additional reasons to use it. The route is
designed in a recognizable way with a consistent material palette and design in order to create the
impression of an alternate world as one strolls through the city, queuing people in to its presence and
special nature as they approach it.
PROJECT DESIGN: A FRAMEWORK FOR CO-OPTING PUBLIC SPACE
Using local materials and craft

Materials were the earliest components determined in this design process and defined the look and feel of
the route and its interventions. The majority can be sourced from the Katako market, which is located on the
Figure 9: Route design logic

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project site. This market is an intensely active place where one can find virtually anything from used parts,
plywood, bricks, water bottles, water jugs, to household items. Other materials such as compressed earth
blocks and thin, fired brick pavings for the route are sourced from the city’s river banks. Using materials
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sourced from within the route also represents a relative degree of community participation and involvement
in the project.
Figure 10: Materials procurement

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Loitering in the shade

A roof helps define space, but also and most importantly, provides crucial thermal protection in a city where
temperatures can reach 45 degrees Celsius in the shade. Along the route, levels of thermal comfort were
assessed to see where shading would be most needed (Figure 11). This laid the ground logic for the types of
shading strategies that would be proposed depending on the street condition. Barren streets are fully
shaded and transformed into community amenity that can be used for celebrations. On partially shaded
streets, only the route pathway is shaded when needed, bringing focus to the route. In landscape portions of
the route (the Gounti Yenna valley) more substantial, low maintenance and durable shading structures,
made with halved water jugs, are used. Inside the city street, the route is made comfortable with shading
from woven mats, 4 feet by 6 feet in dimension that are assembled together as shown in Figure 12 . The
mats are linked together with simple metal connections and suspended from metal trusses. Because the
structure that holds them is hidden above, they appear to be floating over one’s head (Figure 13).
Furthermore, this roof on the city route is woven intimately into the existing fabric of the city by making use
of its walls as partial structural infrastructure. Figure 13 shows compressed earth block columns fused to the
existing compound walls, providing support for the trusses.
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The market showcases the second type of roof as described previously, which is intended for the
environment of the valley. The market is a quarter mile long flexible space with a shading structure that
Figure 14: Inside the market

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Figure 15: Market site plan

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provides both thermal comfort throughout the day an infrastructure for dividing the space up into stalls by
suspending partitions from its truss members. Just like with the woven mats shading the streets, the shading
being suspending from the structure obscures the latter while floating the former over one’s head as Figure
14 shows.
Co-opting streets and walls

Niamey, like many Muslim cities, is a place of walls. The traditional architecture is one of compounds where
walls define the streets rather that sidewalks and motor roads. These walls are key to the aforementioned co-
opting behaviors in the city as they provide a support against which people set up small businesses or
meeting spaces with friends and a few chairs. In the same spirit, this project uses the walls along or near the
route as an infrastructure for place-making and housing programed activities. The project manipulates the
wall’s boundary and thickness to create spatial separations, usable convivial space or protected passages.
This use of the wall complements the wall buttressing approach described for the route’s roof, which
solidifies existing compound walls and uses them as structural support for the shading structures. A more
overt manipulation allows the creation of seating space and niches seemingly carved in the wall that can
serve a variety of purposes as the following example of the study carrels program shows.
In Niger, one can often notice students assembled on weekends or even at night under a street lamppost,
going over their lessons. This is particularly true in low income neighborhoods where homes routinely aren’t
equipped with electricity. To accommodate studying, the wall is thickened and manipulated using
compressed earth blocks, creating stepped seating of varied height and sizes. The proposed arrangement
Figure 16: Study carrels in quiet street

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Figure 17: Street section through route and study carrels

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allows up to three groups of students to study side by side as shown with the perspective in Figure 16. Sited
in quiet side streets that see little car traffic, they take over what would have been sidewalk space,
unapologetically biting off a piece of public space the same way food sellers or tailors’ shacks do throughout
the city.
Creating privacy in the open

Program elements such as rehearsal, fitness and otherwise multipurpose spaces call for a certain amount of
privacy. Manipulating the ground allows for a greater degree of separation between program spaces and
their surroundings while maintaining the activities in the open.
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The multipurpose amphitheaters are sited in the Gounti Yenna valley for its greater level of privacy and
cooler temperatures, providing a better environment for physical activities. Here, the ground is manipulated
to provide sitting and viewing space for concerts or simply watching rehearsals as one passes by. The space
is stepped in an irregular manner, creating platforms that can be used for individual fitness classes or small
gatherings.
To provide a greater amount of separation and privacy, an enclosure designed to be both public and private
is proposed, housing spaces for youth outreach programs. A gradation of spatial privacy is produced from
the street to a covered corridor that straddles a partially walled open space. The result is a space that blurs
the line between inside and outside, but protects the “inside” portion by sinking it lightly into the ground to
reinforce the spatial separation, a useful device when outreach programs are in session (Figure 19.)
CRITICAL EVALUATION
In many Muslim cities the Medina lanes provides a readily available public space for women to socialize
freely as they run their errands. Another amenity is the public bath, which is an important part of women’s
lives in countries from Morocco to Iran. But, these places are not inherent in either the culture or the urban
Figure 18: Multipurpose amphitheater Figure 19: Outreach program space

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Figure 20: Outreach program site plan
Figure 21: Multipurpose amphitheater site plan

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design of Niger. And while such sanctuaries provide women with a measure of sociability and city
experience, they also keep them confined to specific zones. The same can be said of the spaces mentioned
and currently used by the young girls interviewed in Niamey. They are valuable public amenities in of
themselves, but access to the rest of the city remains elusive. This project complements them and proposes
a way that young women can experience urban life in all its complexities instead of being walled off in
alternative female-friendly public spaces that maintain them out of view.
While designing the proposal, a concern around the idea was that while it tries to provide space through the
city of Niamey that frees young women to be engaged with its streets and daily life, it might not be forceful
enough in taking a more subversive approach as a solution. Perhaps it does not go far enough as a feminist
tool to level the plane field among genders in terms of spatial use. On the other hand, perhaps some
revolutions need to be quieter in order to have an effective long term impact. This paper’s position is that
while it is revolting that young women aren’t as free to do something as simple as sitting in front of their
house with their friends, reversing such a cultural norm requires a societal change, not a strong-armed
approach that would make the larger society balk and resist. The project offers an activity program that
serves as a camouflage, allowing girls to be part of a city in a more acceptable way for their society. Not only
do they reap the benefits of having a fuller right to the city, but they do so without fear, without feeling
uncomfortable, which might be more effective in the long run and in insuring a maximum number of girls
use the spaces. Their presence in greater number in a sustained manner in the city, both as they stroll along
the route or loiter in one of the intervention spaces makes their visibility in the public realm more of a norm
in the long run. What was yesterday suspicious or intolerable can thus become normal and unquestioned
overtime.
Another concern is that the framework for co-opting the streets presents some inherent drawbacks. Because
it is a tactic that is widely practiced for other uses, the intervention spaces are vulnerable to being taken over
as well. Programed spaces such as the study carrels are uniquely exposed to being co-opted by street
hawkers and other types of vendors. Their location in quiet streets that might not provide much in way of
customers provide a certain level of protection from this, but not entirely. Only if the spaces are intensely
used, will they be further protected from take-over by other actors in the city. Ensuring such use would
require a more careful look at the proposed program and, more importantly, involving female youth, their
parents and other community members in a dialog that could ultimately yield an even stronger program.
Ideally, a strong community involvement in a project such as this would be crucial both for making sure the
girls are never criticized or uncomfortable, but also that their parents are not suspicious of their activities
there. Of course, this would also go a long way toward insuring that intervention spaces are not taken over
as they would be viewed as community assets everyone would have a vested interest in safeguarding.
CONCLUSION
This design proposal takes the approach of co-opting public space in the city in the same way it is already
being hacked for social, communal and economic imperatives today, using available spaces and resources
such as leftover zones, walls, vegetated areas, as well as readily available materials to guide an architectural
response. Programed interventions are thus produced, sometimes even designed to be used only by women
in order to reinforce the route’s identity as a women friendly space. They are visible and accessible to the
public and easily identifiable in their look and feel in order to give them a sense of being part of a whole, a
four-mile long space spread through a city. These types of take-over actions are often fought by city officials
who routinely demolish informal stands and shacks that mushroom along main thoroughfares in an attempt
to force what is viewed as a more ‘civilized’ (read ‘closer to western standards’) city where streets and
sidewalks have distinct uses and inherent order. This project embraces these survival approaches and argues
that they might hold the key to new and more culturally adapted typologies for what cities can be and how
they can function to fulfill social, economic and cultural needs. The project thus formalizes mobile loitering
as a subversive action by girls in the city, using a framework that is itself deviant. This results in two forms of
active subversions: one brought on by the women being able to loiter freely, the other brought on by the
provocative use of public space by co-opting it in a way that might be considered anarchist in traditional city
planning.
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Figure 22: Route approach

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CONSTRUCTING THE COMMON IN DEHEISHE CAMP, PALESTINE
Patrícia Capanema Álvares Fernandes, teacher at Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte UNIBH, Brazil,
patcapanema@gmail.com
Abstract
The research speculates the notion of ‘the common’ in contraposition to the dominant categories of ‘public’ and
‘private’ in Palestine, where the idea of the public is particularly toxic due to existing political conflicts. The
fundamental question here is whether it is possible to think and practice a political collective beyond the frame of
state and consequently from a spatial perspective. In the investigations, we start exploring the ‘common’ from the
conditions that exist today.
In a refugee camp, for example, the common is the absence of private property, but also the shared history of
displacement and imagined future of a return.
The project investigates the role of architecture in a context of conflict, a context mainly approached from a
political point of view that nevertheless in reality has very concrete spatial implications.
Under the patronage of UNRWA Camp Improvement Program, the research studio contributed to the design and
realization of the Deheishe Center, in the Deheishe Refugee Camp in the West Bank.
In the present conditions, this Center is the attempt to re-establish a political dimension and, most importantly, it
aims at being formally different from all the other more than 20 highly international NGOs that are present within
the borders of the camp, not only in terms of the program but essentially in its’ architectural form.
The building in this case gains extreme importance for being the very physical representation of a political act.
Which would be the architectural form that could truly represent the refugees? The tradition of public spaces as a
place of performance makes one think that it should be a plaza. But paradoxically for the refugees whatever is
completely open is not public. Therefore in order to be public it has to be closed and it has to be protected.
Keywords: refugee camp, Palestine, architecture, construction, common.
Foreword
The research from which this paper results was done under the framework of a research and design Studio
at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and took place between September 2011 and June 2012. It started
from an interest in the relationship between space and politics. For the research project, the participants
were eager to investigate the ways that politics translates into architectural form and the role of architects in
this process of translation. Inspired and motivated by the work of an international group involved in
research, architecture and art – who were invited to set the framework and run the studio – this studio was
initiated by our group of six participants with the support of a series of philosophical lectures. The studio set
up was named DAAR@BERLAGE as being a junction between the Berlage Institute young researchers and
the group of Decolonizing Architecture Art and Residency. Members were Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti and
Eyal Weisman, from DAAR, and Sanne van den Breemer, Gabriel Cuéllar, Patrícia Fernandes, Zhongqi Ren,
Rizki Supratman and Lieven De Cauter from the Berlage Institute.
The studio’s site of investigation and the field of action was the conflictual geography of Israel/Palestine. The
studio focused on a theme that is central to the conflict, the Right of Return – the right of the Palestinians to
return to their properties from which they were forced to leave as a result of the 1948 Palestinian war,
assured by UN Resolution 194.
We believed that proposals for interventions in such a site must be informed by a specific understanding of
the context and were fortunate to spend a month and a half working there. Furthermore, it was crucial that
research and application together forms an integrated, not sequential, mode of projection.
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INTRODUCTION
Defining the common, imagining the return
The research studio speculates on the notion of the common in contraposition to the dominant categories
of public and private.
When it comes to land property issues, the concepts of private and public materialize a relation between
people and things that is regulated by the state. The state guarantees private property and maintains the
public one. In Palestine, the idea of the public is particularly toxic. Although prior to Israel’s colonization,
there existed a wide multiplicity of collective lands and collective uses of land – agricultural, religious,
nomadic, etc. – upon occupying the land and excluding it’s people, the state flattened them all into one
category ‘state land’, and seized control over it as the sovereign. In this way, it transformed what was
common into public, which in this specific context of colonial occupation, meant for the use of Jewish
Israelis only. The contours of public land became the blueprint for colonization and Palestinian rights were
reduced to individual rights on private land. However, in many cases, Israel also took this land and exiled its
inhabitants. The consequences of this expropriation has not only affected property rights but also forms of
collective life that were practiced on collective land, relegating the Palestinians to either isolated private
parcels or exile, suppressed from any idea of a public or collective domain.
The fundamental question of the studio is whether it is possible to think and practice a political
collectivity beyond the frame of state and consequently, from a spatial perspective, in which way this
collective might be concretely built in a different way. The idea of the common in our context is a set of
relations between people and things – organized by the principle of equality – that is not mediated by the
state. In our investigations, we start exploring the common from the conditions that exist today in the
extra-territorial spaces of Palestinian refugee camps and its mirror image in the destroyed Palestinian
villages of 1948. On the one hand, the camps are UN-administered areas carved out from State
sovereignty. On the other hand, the villages demolished in 1948 are suspended spaces, absentee
properties managed temporarily by the State. After 60 years, the memory of a single house from the
village is now equally shared by hundreds of families. In the camp, the common is the absence of private
property, but also the shared history of displacement and imagined future of a return.
The notion of ‘return’ has defined the life in the camp, but also the diasporic and extraterritorial nature of
Palestinian politics and cultural life as a whole. While often trapped in political negotiations and long-
term abstraction, return also has a present dimension. A future ideal can be grounded in today’s practices
and material reality. These present practices of return might include elements of daily life in refugee
camps and the interaction of the idea of return with the built reality of the camp – often a form of
architecture that seeks to communicate temporariness – practices through which the camps become
spheres of action.
Thinking the return from the conditions that exist in both the villages of origin and places of refuge, it
cannot only be considered in its private dimension. In this respect, thinking the revolution that return
would be is fundamentally thinking a revolution in relation to property. From these premises, the research
explores the Palestinian Territories: the refugee camps, but also the larger area of the West Bank. It also
looks into the former Palestinian territory: the villages and neighborhoods that where lost after the Nakba.
As heart of the Palestinian urbanity, Jaffa here plays an important role. The findings on site form the
starting point for a discussion on the return in its common dimension, both in its current practices and in
a visionary future.
The research investigates the role of architecture in a context of conflict, a context mainly approached
from a political point of view that nevertheless in reality, has very concrete spatial implications.
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On the collective process

The work was produced in dialogue and interaction with various actors. Structurally the work is based on
the studio tutor’s methodology of investigation and action, approaching architecture not only as built
form, but also as narration and collective learning. Within the specific yet paradigmatic context of
extreme dualization, which exists in Palestine but as well as in many other areas in the world, the project
of decolonizing architecture opens new ways of thinking, designing and acting against the logic of
colonialism: decolonization of architecture, practices of return and reinventing of the commons.
For an initial theoretical exploration of the concept of the common, but also for critical reflection
throughout the entire studio, philosophical lectures and discussions played an important part.
An essential and fundamental part of this studio was represented by fieldwork. A close understanding of
such a complex and extreme situation was crucial for preparing any idea of intervention. In November
2011, during the first visit, the participants had the opportunity to explore potential project sites,
participate in meetings, engage in informal conversations and combine theory with first-hand experience.
For this occasion, the tutors extended an invitation to the studio made by two local non-governmental
organizations: Badil, a Palestinian NGO based in Bethlehem and Zochrot, an Israeli NGO based in Tel Aviv,
to contribute architectural scenarios for the return of Palestinian refugees to the Jaffa-Tel Aviv
metropolitan area. Initial materials produced by the studio have been presented to representatives of the
two groups, opening up for further collaborations and beyond the academic dimension, using
architecture to shape a new discourse around the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
A second fieldwork, which took place in March 2012, initiated new collaborations. Organized in
conjunction with Al Quds Bard University in Jerusalem and supported by the GIZ Social and Cultural Fund
for Palestinian Refugees and Gaza Population, allowed the participants to engage in the Campus in
Camps project, an experimental educational program for refugees from various camps in the West Bank.
Moreover, working within the context of two refugee camps, Deheishe and Al Arrub, the participants had
the opportunity to apply their previous abstract research to real architectural interventions on site. In
collaboration with the Local Committee of Arrub and the director of Al Feneiq, the studio worked on a
landscape intervention that provides the basic infrastructure for the refugees to expand their activities in
nearby green areas. Under the patronage of UNRWA Camp Improvement Program, the studio contributed
to the design and realization of the Deheishe Center, a community center in the Deheishe Refugee Camp.
This architectural project is the culmination of a year-long work that combined research, education,
activism and theoretical speculation as forms of tactical intervention in a political process.
The three phases of the work: theoretical work, research on site and architectural projects developed
together with the refugees, has resulted in the following five projects. These projects originated in
collaboration and together represent a collective project.
Five projects
The studio researched on different sites and themes, producing the following chapters:
- Ruins Under Construction – a media archeological investigation over the building of the Etzel
Museum at the beach of Tel Aviv, supposedly constructed over the ruins of three Palestinian
homes. This research is culminated by a proposal of exposing those ruins as a way to make up for
the ongoing presence of life in destroyed Palestinian towns.
- Fact No. 23: Within the Border Zone: A collection of ‘Absentee Properties’ present in a region that
was once a border zone between the city of Jaffa and Tel Aviv, which was established by the
British Mandate in the 1930s, ending with a proposal of excavating the ruins of one of these
properties, creating therefore a common forum in the city of Tel Aviv.
- Reactivating the Network: researches on the Ottoman Empire network of railways and the ways in
which it used to connect a territory spreading from the Palestinian lands all the way to Damascus,
Medina and Mecca. It looks into the remnants of the train stations and the context in which they
are today inserted, proposing finally the opening up of the structures of ruins today inserted at
the Jenin Refugee Camp.
- Reclaiming the Landscape: After recognizing the pine forests as artificially built landscapes, the
project proposes the ‘decolonization’ of those with the construction of paths and platforms as a
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strategy to regain use of the landscape, as oppose to the hostile presence of pine trees.
- Constructing a Common Space: The final chapter studies the networks of relations in the
Deheishe refugee camp, analyzing an imminent form of government that is established by the
presence of UNRWA and 20 other NGOs. It proposes the construction of a common space in the
camp that is free from institutionalization and can finally embody refugee-hood. This paper will
focus on this final theme.
THE REFUGEE CAMPS AND THE RETURN
When thinking about the ‘Right of Return’ one must think not only about the place to return to, hence the
villages of origin, but from where to return: the refugee camps. While the demolished villages are
extraterritorial and defined as ‘absentee property’, the camps, defined as ‘United Nations run area’, are
extraterritorial for being distinctively cut out legally and spatially from its surroundings, where there are no
national civil rights, but only humanitarian life. In theory, political life and bare life are separated (Agamben
1998).
The borders of the camp, although no longer physically existent, are very much present in the collective
memory of the camp’s inhabitants as they represent the “rights to have rights as refugees”(Agamben 1994).
This extra-territoriality of the camp is what provides the emergence of new forms of production of
subjectivity, and new ways in which to re-think the return. It is extraterritorial for being, not where the law is
suspended, but a place protected by international law (Agamben 2005). Paradoxically, camps are spaces of
intense urbanity, where life and politics are combined in a very complex way.
The Deheishe case

In the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba in Palestine, the new reality lead to the establishment of refugee camps
all around the Middle East along with the creation of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees in 1950. When the institution was established, its only concern was to provide
humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees. Humanitarian aid in this case can be defined as ‘politics of life’ as
the politics of providing life and avoiding death (Agamben 1994).
In the beginning of the 50’s, together with the establishment of Deheishe camp, the Youth Program Center
was created for the relief of young refugees. Over the following two decades, the population of Deheishe
managed to completely politicize the Youth Center. For that reason, under the pressure of Israeli
government, UNRWA, which obligations were purely humanitarian, had to close it.
After 60 years of exile, the situation of the refugees has been deeply aggravated and a condition that was
supposed to be temporary became more and more permanent. Not only the spatial conditions of the camp
have been drastically transformed, but also the shape of humanitarianism. Especially in the case of
Palestinians, due to the extended period of displacement and the unresolved situation, humanitarianism has
shifted from a crisis response to a condition of life. Efforts are no more only in disaster relief but something
that is more like a social service works and development projects; from the ‘politics of life’ to the ‘politics of
living.’ Today UNRWA provides not only food rations but a wide range of education and health services and
activities, physical infrastructure and development and micro-finance programs.
The Deheishans are today highly engaged in the issues of the camp, where life revolves around the political
claim or the right of return. As such, in the camp where the past is frozen, the present can be little more than
the anticipation of the idealized but uncertain future. Moreover, the strong presence of both UNRWA, as
administrative body, and the Palestinian Authority reinforces this engagement. It is fundamental to
understand how the sixty years of exile have shaped the refugee’s identity and influenced their political life.
When we speak about being political it does not mean only to fight for their rights or to fight against a
common evil enemy. Being politically engaged means forming assemblies and making decisions in the
name of the community.
Non-Governmental Organizations
One of the most striking aspects of the Deheishe camp is the presence of more than twenty NGOs of all
different fields simultaneously operating inside the one kilometer-squared space of the camp.
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Through direct collaboration and/or financial support, these NGOs are connected with other governments
and institutions around the world. In the following map (Figure 1), we see that the camp is actually highly
connected internationally. The notion of the camp as an isolated space confined in its own borders is
challenged.
In the camp, this multiplicity of organizations creates a sort of “non-governmental-government” - an
immanent system that runs in correspondence to the reality on the ground (Foucault 1977-8).
When we look into the spatial distribution of the NGOs in the camp, we notice that most of them are
concentrated in one area, the UNRWA compound. Often occupying different rooms in the same building,
the NGOs, community organizations and UNRWA facilities are creating an interwoven web of government.
Looking closer at this complex of UN, we see that the common architecture of NGOs in Deheishe camp is a
rather banal one. They are all enclosed and stacked in the same type of box-building regardless of their
function. The boxes are then subdivided and filled with various programs: health clinic, offices, kindergarten,
guest-houses, cinema, theater, etc.
Figure 1: International presence in the camp
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Figure 2: One of the NGOs in Deheishe Camp
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Figure 3: NGOs buildings
THE DEHEISHE CENTER
After the Oslo Agreement in 1992, the population of Deheishe felt free to reconstruct the Youth Program
Center. In the presence of more than 20 NGOs in the camp, operating in all fields and fulfilling the needs of
the population, the now called Deheishe Center aims to be the political center of the community. Since then
the building has been constructed twice and thereafter demolished in the struggle to find the appropriate
spatial form that would represent its essence and be fully committed to its ambition towards the camps and
its community.
In the end of summer of 2011, a very important political moment took place in Deheishe: the elections for
the board of the Deheishe Center; in the camp, this event was considered of much more importance than
national elections. It was promised by the winning party to start the re-construction of the building for the
center immediately after the elections. And so it followed.
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The building - along with its construction - is extremely important because it is the physical manifestation of
a political act. It needs to represent the entire community of the camp, and to belong to all. This is why in
this case, another box-shaped building is constructed almost automatically. On the course of the
construction is the moment to think of the program, size and shape, or basically, how to subdivide a box.
Figure 4: The Deheishe Center in November, 2011
Negotiations over construction and destruction

The process that emerged after this is a process that challenges any conventional linear timeline of design
and construction as well as any bilateral relation of architect and client. In a process of multiple actors and
constant negotiations, design follows construction, which follows design, which also follows destruction.
The refugee’s construction undertaking was frozen by the intervention of UNRWA architects after a series of
discussions on ambitions of the Deheishe Center into being open for all, therefore a plaza, but
simultaneously the political center of the camp, therefore it had to be a building.
As opposed to the box that it would become, the intervening architects of UNRWA proposed what would be
the ‘opening of the box.’ The carved space of the box becomes the ‘stage’ facing the adjacent plaza,
transformed into the ‘audience’ seating area. The solidity that would remain, contains the offices, library and
other rooms. The design responds to the desires of the Youth Program Center to be both open to the
community and the stage for political discourse, thought in the traditional way to conceive a political space
that is constructed around a stage in which politics is performed.
But contrary to NGOs with limited public accountability, the Center belongs to all refugees of Deheishe and
its initiative is a collective attempt to re-establish the political dimension of the camp. Learning from the
patterns of politics in such conditions, more to the side of an imminent system of multiplicities than to one
centralized power, instead of this bipolar relation between stage and audience, the space should embody
the multiplicity of actors and relations of the camp.
A B C
Figure 5: Design timeline: (A) Design by the refugees (B) UNRWA proposal (C) Current proposal by Berlage
Institute.
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The new proposal is not genuinely new but is in fact a consequence of a transformation process which was
initiated by the refugees, challenged by UNRWA and has most lately been articulated in conjunction with all
the actors here previously mentioned, and others.
The concept of having multiple stages came at first for the current design proposal. Seats and platforms
should be distributed throughout the space, starting from the open area and permeating in a sequence of
stages and steps around a central area.
The decision of enclosing the entire space comes from the contradictory relation between public and
private. The ‘publicness’ of the program of the Youth Center demands an open area which is accessible,
usable and visible by all. Yet, such openness contradicts the fact that for Deheishans, the public refers to
leftover spaces. Moreover, surrounding walls, a roof and a gate are necessary elements to create a sense of
enclosure and protection of the common. In the camp, spaces that are open are not necessarily ‘public.’ In
order to be common, it has to be protected.
Both physically and programmatically, the building is composed by three basic elements: the protecting
shell, the closed rooms, placed along the existing structure of the current building, and finally the central
void emerges at the intersection of those.
The envelope is the component that frames the protected common space in the camp. The shell, at the
same time that is thin, it has the hardness or a rock. Here, this metaphor is used to constitute a building that
is unique and whose volume transmits the strength and resistance, which characterizes life in the camp.
Figure 6: Evolution of the building’s form.
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Figure 7: The Deheishe Center and its insertion.
Interior landscape
This internal space could be interpreted as an enveloped landscape that is open for the gathering of people,
while it performs as a realm for multiple and creative interactions, complying with the need and the desire
for a space that performs like a theater and accommodates the audience in an arena configuration.
This sloped landscape is thereafter organized in the shape of platforms in different heights, sizes and shapes
where diverse activities could take shape. The larger and lowest platform performs as a main stage, while the
other smaller ones offer the possibilities of engaging people either as spectators, like in an arena or as
performers, on secondary stages. This environment evokes constant transformations and activation of the
space engaging the audience in its collective dimension.
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Figure 8: Interior landscape
Envelope
The protecting shell is the element that materializes the separation between inside and outside demarcating
what is the common, in opposition to the public domain of the camp. It represents the edge, the enclosure,
the border.
While crossing this border, the entrance gains extreme importance as being the threshold through which to
be transported from the density and roughness of the camp outside. From the exterior, the volume of the
building gives the impression of being a closed box. On the contrary, after crossing the threshold, the space
surprises by being open.
At the main entrances, the double walls and double door give thickness to the barrier while radicalizing the
experience of crossing, while the small enclave created between the doors and the walls on the entrance
compresses the visitor before leading to the freedom of the open space.
The wall, which is virtually a line, has to be understood in its three-dimensionality: it is the element that
creates the protected open space carrying two different characters on its opposite faces: the external which
is the public face and the internal, the domestic one.
Figure 9: Section Figure 10: Section Figure 11: Section
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Figure 12: Three elements: shell, rooms and interior landscape
Description of the spaces

The greater part of the space remains undivided, with exception of service areas, in an attempt to challenge
the politics of closed doors and offices present in the camp. The entrances are located in different levels, one
in the main street and other in the side alley, both on different heights, configuring two different platforms,
articulated with the stairs and access to the first floor.
The rooms which needed to be closed and climate isolated, such as offices, library and meeting rooms are
located in a ‘L’ shape building around the arena, opening themselves to the centre through large windows
in order to furnish transparence and visibility.
The organization of this multiple types of spaces provides various possibilities of creating spheres for
encounter, gathering and discussion. In the closed rooms, program is defined according to different ways in
which meetings might happen; small formal or informal conversations in the director’s office, the meeting
room - where medium size public could meet and project images, movies, etc, and the multi-purpose room,
which is a place for learning, using computers and socializing in a more informal environment. Both the
meeting room and the multi-purpose room have two or three possibilities of access through the long
balcony connected to one of the entry platforms or through the staircase.
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Figure 13: Plan of the upper floor of the Deheishe Center
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Figure 14: Plan of the ground floor of the Deheishe Center
Materials
When the envelope becomes a façade, it is the representational device through which it communicates to
the public (Zaera-Polo 2008). Contrary to what is typical in the architecture of public spaces, the outside face
of the Youth Center denies itself any form of monumentality and presents itself to the public of the camp
with a rough concrete surface. Using materials and elements that are so common in the camp, the building
presents itself externally as common space. The building lacks luxury in terms of its materiality but has its
spillover when it comes to shape. The stone-looking volume is highlighted from the urban fabric or the
camp. The roughness of the concrete on the external wall also relates to the camp mind-set that refuses to
be improved and denies any attempt of life normalization as a way in which to claim for The Return.
In the extreme condition of the camp, architecture is kept to its essential elements. The very primitive
elements from the built environment such as enclosure, flatness and shelter form a grammar that,
combined, provide an adequate architecture for the supporting ‘refugeeness’. The simple shifting of those
values shapes a common protected space, neither private nor public, cut out from the density of the camp in
the attempt of ‘domesticating’ the public domain and embodying the refugee’s identity and the culture of
exile.
In the context where there are twenty other NGOs operating in all different fields, fulfilling all the needs of
the refugee, the building becomes the center for encounter and political practice, action or re-action. In this
space, that has no definite program, the program becomes architecture in itself. The body created by the
envelope and the landscape is the environment that invites admiration and interaction. It is the common
space of the camp that provides the infrastructure around which everything else is organized.
Figure 15: Interior view of Central Space
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Figure 16: Street view of the Deheishe Center
POST-SCRIPT: A COMMON TO PROTECT
For more than sixty years, the camp has been looked at only as site of marginalization and humanitarian
interventions. During the last few years, new social and spatial practices are emerging from the camp,
challenging these ideas. For decades, the effects of the political discourse around the right of return, such as
the rise of a resolute position to stagnate living circumstances in refugee camps in order to reaffirm the
temporariness of the camps, forced many refugees to live in terrible conditions. What emerges today is a
reconsideration of this position where refugees are re-inventing social and political practices that improve
their everyday life without normalizing the political exceptional condition of the camp itself. After sixty years
of exile, the camps are now viewed as the village of origin: a cultural and social product to preserve and
remember. The project of the Deheishe Center aims at creating an architectural intervention that produces a
common space, which is neither public nor not private.
In the camps, there is no public, as there are no public institutions. Nor is there private property, as the
refugees do not own their houses. The common – a means to support refugeehood – emerges from an
architecture that embodies this condition.
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REFERENCES
Agamben, G., 1994. ‘Giorgio Agamben on Hannah Arendt's "We Refugees"’.
Agamben, G., 1998. Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life, Stanford University press, California.
Agamben, G., 2005. State of exception, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Bachelard, G., 1994. The poetics of space, Beacon Press Books, Massachusetts.
Fassin, D., 2007. ‘Humanitarianism as a politics of life’, Public Culture, Vol. 19.
Foucault, M., 1977-8. Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-8, Palgrave Macmillan,
Hampshire.
Foucault, M., 1997. Of other spaces: Utopias and heterotopias. Rethinking architecture: A reader in cultural theory, N.
Leach, Routledge, NYC.
Foucault, M., 2008. The birth of biopolitics: lectures at the Collège de France 1978-9, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire.
Lefebvre, H., 1991. The production of space, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Monterescu, D., 2009. ‘The Bridled Bride of Palestine: Orientalism, Zionism and the troubled urban imagination’,
Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power,Vol. 16.
Negri, A & Hardt, M.,1960. Common wealth, Harvard Press, USA.
Petti, A., 2007. Archipelagos and enclaves, Bruno Mondadori, Milan.
Weizman, E., 2006. ‘Walking through walls: Soldiers as architects in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’, In Radical
Philosophy (136).
Weizman, E., 2007. Hollow land: Israel's architecture of occupation, Verso, London.
Zaera-Polo, A., 2008. ‘The politics of the envelope: A political critique of materialism’, Volume Magazine #17.
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PROMOTING TECHNO-DIVERSITY FOR SELF RELIANT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A

GANDHIAN THOUGHT
Ar. Kamla Kant Asthana, FIIA, U.P.Technical University, Lucknow, India, kkasthana@hotmail.com
Abstract
The basic unit of community developed over the ages is fast disappearing owing to mass urbanization, migration,
globalization, and modern caste/creed less society. Their indigenous techniques along with network of local
artisans, craftsmen and technicians, are also fast diminishing, owing to rapid industrialization and advent of new
‘imperialists’ called MNCs [Multi-National Companies]. In this day and age of ‘global warming’ and ‘climate
change’, and the final lap of the ‘modern age’ of human history, it is of enormous relevance to retrospect and
introspect, as to where the world at large has gone wrong in this quest for economic pursuit and technological
development and progress.
Gandhi advocated the creation of self-contained, self-reliant and self-sustained smaller communities, instead of
urban ghettos. The developing nations and especially India would need to look deeply inwards and draw
meaning from the foresight and words of wisdom from Mahatma [or the Great Soul] Gandhi and his views of
‘Swaraj’ [or complete freedom and self-reliance] and its total relevance for ‘sustainability’.
‘Techno diversity’ is the terminology used for a flexible, and broad approach to selectively adapt, integrate and
blend the old and the new technologies that are suitably appropriate and relevant for laying the strong
foundation for growth and development of the next era; the ‘sustainable age’ in the history of mankind.
Every ethnic group has developed its own unique ways of survival against hardships of nature, many times known
only to them. Indigenous techniques are like folk music and dance. The art is transferred from one generation to
the other without any effort and formal training.
This paper investigates and advocates the preservation and promotion of such indigenous technologies as a tool
of self-reliance for developing communities. The paper may be viewed as a tribute to Gandhian thoughts and
ideas.
Keywords: self-reliance, technological imperialism, indigenous, sustainability, industrialization.
INTRODUCTION
Russia has opted to purchase a slew of old-school typewriters in order to protect state secrets, reports Pro-
Kremlin newspaper “Izvestia” (11 July 2013).
Although notable in the wake of Wikileaks and Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA and cyber
spying, this news item last year in July stimulated/ provoked a thought on the subject of ‘techno-diversity’. It
raised a question about discarding an existing time proven system for something new. Modernization and
upgrading old technologies is a basic need for civilizations to develop and that cannot be denied. But at the
same time, this incident makes one think about the undoubted power and attraction of modern technology.
Further study into various aspects of life revealed many such systems which have been discarded for new;
but the question prevailed; whether the new system was definitely better than the old? Discarding the
Ayurvedic system (the traditional Indian system of medicine developed during Vedic period, around 2000
BC) for modern allopathic medicine, organic manure for chemical manure, traditional food for fast food,
indigenous crop for genetically modified crop etc. to name a few.
As overall development (economic, social, cultural and technological advancement etc.) is still at different
stages across the world, there cannot be one universal system / technology that works for everyone. To each
his own, that is, there has to be more than one solution/ system for individual countries and regions
depending on and taking into consideration their overall development dependent on the factors explained
above.
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In the Indian context, development is still at various stages across the country. Same is the case with most
developing countries. Therefore, in one country itself, any one technology/ system cannot be applicable all
over. Globalized MNCs, proclaiming their methods as the best, are gradually taking over the system leading
to near extinction of local industry and indigenous technology, which is a matter of concern. Both must be
promoted depending on the applicable factors, which in any case, does not imply that any one system is
better or best. Both must co-exist to create an appropriate balance.
Just as each member in the bio-diversity cycle is equally important, in the same way in techno diversity too,
each technique/ system has its own importance.
This paper attempts to draw attention to how the use of traditional knowledge along with modern
technology may be useful for self-reliance of various countries and sustainable development, as advocated
by Gandhi almost a century ago.
GANDHIAN PHILOSOPHY OF DEVELOPMENT AND MECHANIZATION
Mahatma Gandhi had a vision for an ideal society. A free India for Gandhi meant the flourishing of thousands
of self-sufficient small communities who rule themselves without hindering others. Gandhi focused on the
need for self-sufficiency at the village level. His policy of ‘Gram Swarajya’ enables village folk to decide
priorities of development at village level itself and ‘Sarvodaya’ helps in ending poverty through improved
agriculture and small-scale cottage industries in every village. Gandhi denounced the rapid industrialization
as de-humanizing and contrary to the needs of the villages where the majority of people lived. Gandhi
advocated the creation of self-contained, self-reliant and self-sustained smaller communities, instead of
urban ghettos in his book ‘Hind Swarajya’ (Indian Home Rule), which was published in 1909 and banned in
India in 1910 by the British Government.
Nehru, the first prime minister of free India was the favourite protégé of Gandhi, and yet he drifted away
from those very ideals and gave an altogether different direction after Gandhi was killed, as perhaps he was
so enamoured by his own westernized upbringing and influence. He propagated his own version of the
democratic, socialist republic of India.
It was the beginning of the Industrial revolution and like many of his contemporaries, Gandhi initially
believed that machines shall ruin mankind. According to his initial belief machine represented sin (Gandhi
1909). By the mid-1920s, Gandhi had developed a rational liking for machines, “I had no quarrel with rail,
roads, steamers and many machines as such, but that I protested against the abuse that was at present
being made of them, either for exploiting many nations of earth or for destroying them” (Gandhi 1925a).
Gandhi had sensed around a century ago, that indiscriminate industrialization and mechanization shall
result in various social and economic problems, displacement of labour and unemployment being the most
significant of them. “Machinery has its place, it has come to stay. But it must not be allowed to displace the
necessary human labour….. I would welcome every improvement in the cottage machine, but I know that it
is criminal to displace the hand labour by the introduction of power driven spindles unless one is, at the
same time, ready to give millions of farmers some other occupation in their homes” (Gandhi 1925b).
He did not even hesitate to advocate the import of technology when it was necessary and useful for
development. “As long as we cannot make the machine required for utilizing the hide of dead cattle, worth
Rupees nine crores, available in our country, I would be ready to import them from any part of the world”
(Gandhi 1927).
He further clarifies his view point on the issue of mechanization and use of technology, “Mechanization is
good when hands are too few for the work intended to be accomplished…..It is an evil when there are more
hands than required for the work, as is the case in India” (Gandhi 1934).
Though the phenomena of multinational companies occupying the world market had not started in its
present form, but he could visualize the upcoming problem of ‘Technological Imperialism’ by these giants.
He feared gradual and planned elimination of local industry. “I do visualize electricity, ship building, iron
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work, machine making and the like existing side by side with village handicrafts. But the order of
dependence will be reserved. Hitherto industrialization has been so planned as to destroy the villages and
the village crafts. In future it will subserve the villagers and their crafts” (Gandhi 1940).
CONCEPT OF TECHNO-DIVERSITY
Looking back, we find that the very basis of formation of a society still remains the same. A society is still
based on the common instinct of survival along with a common value system, common beliefs, common
living patterns, common food habits, common aesthetic sense, common aspirations and even common fears
and phobias. Sense of belonging and inter dependence over each other have been the binding forces
between its members. This phenomenon is responsible for continuation of old communities and creation of
various ethnic groups in fast growing cast and creedless megalopolis of the modern world.
Unfortunately the basic unit of community, developed over the ages seems to be fast disappearing owing to
mass urbanization and migration as well as globalization in the modern caste and creedless society. Their
indigenous techniques along with the network of artisans, craftsmen and technicians are also fast
disappearing. This phenomenon is compounded with the present day fast communication systems.
Each individual society across the world had devised a system of community support and a set of indigenous
technology based on its ability, wisdom and experience gained over centuries. Architecture and human
settlement, being one of the major areas of action, reflected the overall stage of evolution, excellence and
development of society. For example a different system evolved in every society for solving the problem of a
roof over the head. These techniques developed by various civilizations are as unique as their respective
cultures. Rather their cultures were shaped by their technical know-how. Construction of rooves over large
spans is a good example of techno-diversity. Dome, Vault, Cross-vault, Conical roof and trabeated structures
are few solutions developed by various civilizations through the ages. Having different techniques of solving
a particular problem may be termed as techno diversity.
Having a long history of experiments, failures and success attached with it, the solutions arrived at, in the
majority of cases, were most suitable for the particular place according to availability of building materials
and knowledge of construction technology. Variety in style of architecture may be attributed to this very
techno diversity. There may be some more modern solutions to the problem, but to maintain/retain the time
tested solution as one of the alternatives is the essence of Techno Diversity.
Techno Diversity is essentially the means to achieve the self-reliance by various countries as Gandhi had
dreamt of for villages in India. The concept of preserving and promoting techno diversity may be termed as
movement for ‘technological emancipation’ of developing countries.
PRESENT SCENARIO AND RELEVANCE OF GANDHIAN THOUGHT
During his tours he observed that the village industries were gradually slipping out of the hands of the
villager, who had become merely a producer of raw material for the flourishing large scale industries. The
villager gave a lot and got very little in return. The artisan too had little work and was losing his creativity.
Gandhi’s concept of village industry is for reinstatement of the villager. He does not recommend ancient
technology for the sake of preserving it or his love for revivalism. “I do like everything that is ancient and
noble, but I utterly dislike parody of it. And I must respectfully refuse to believe that ancient books are the
last word on the matters treated in them. As a wise heir to the ancient, I am desirous of adding to and
enriching the legacy inherited by us” (Gandhi 1925c).
Gandhi wrote to Sir Danial Hamilton on 15.02.1922 that India does not need to be industrialized in the
modern sense of the term. The modern way is not the only way to industrialize a nation, Gandhi insisted. As
he argued, that he was not romantic or a mystic out to “romanticize or spiritualize machinery” but to
introduce a human or humane spirit among the men behind the machinery.
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The example of Ayurveda (Ancient Indian System of Medicine developed during Vedic Period, around 2000
BC) may be taken to understand and analyze Gandhi’s stand on traditional knowledge versus modern
technology and to illustrate the importance of techno diversity.
Ayurveda may not be as precise as modern allopathic systems, but it has been curing people for hundreds of
years. The medicinal value of various herbs, leaves, roots, fruits and plants is part of household knowledge.
Gandhi was an ardent admirer of this system of medicine, but at the same time was critical about prevalent
practice of Vaidyas [the practitioners of Ayurveda]. At the same time he was full of praise for modern doctors
for their scientific approach. He asserted that the ancient text is not the last word and further research
should be carried out to update the Ayurveda, creating new text books in a contemporary context. The
system of Ayurveda may be made more effective with the help of advancement and continuing researches
in allopathy. But both have their importance and should co-exist.
Gandhian thoughts get further endorsed by many post-modern economists and technological thinkers.
Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, a British economist’s views on modern technology are similar to that of Gandhi.
He proposed indigenous small scale production based on local environment and necessity. He terms this
‘appropriate technology’ as an alternative for centralized large scale production.
Masanobu Fukuoka’s concept of natural farming without use of chemical fertilizers, as described in his book
One Straw Revolution is very close to Gandhian thought. Building industry is one of the important areas
directly affecting human life. A careful study shows that similar concepts are relevant for architecture and
the built environment also.
A few examples from architecture and traditional practices in other fields prevalent in society may be
discussed to elaborate the point.
Use of desert coolers
In northern India the climate is arid, viz. it gets very warm but dry. Use of desert coolers in the buildings is
being fast replaced by air-conditioners. The option of dessert coolers as it is much cheaper, environment
friendly and gives good relief from the heat for almost 4 months, except the monsoon season, is in any case
preferable, but for quite unknown and strange reasons; air-conditioners are in great demand. This could be
due to the growing economy of the country, higher purchasing capacity and the rat race of multinationals to
woo the upcoming markets that have made prices affordable. However, these prices are bound to shoot
upwards once people become habitual of them and the local cottage industry of desert coolers gets
dismantled.
Techno Diversity is the only solution to combat the gimmicks of these profit hungry multinationals.
Indigenous refrigeration system
This can easily be related to the typical earthen pot used for storing water during summers where water gets
cooled by evaporation from the porous surface of the pot. That is so eco-friendly and practical and can be
used in rural areas having no electricity for several days altogether. The sight of an electric refrigerator,
aerated soft drink, and mineral water bottle is not very uncommon these days in rural India owing to the
marketing strategy and publicity by MNCs.
It would only be possible to conserve such wisdom, if proper attention is paid towards preservation of this
technical know-how from the rich heritage of techno diversity.
Case of spinning wheel and use of bamboo
Similarly the use of local materials can be related to Gandhi’s trademark spinning wheel, with which he used
to spin cotton for his own clothes. Making cotton clothes was a flourishing cottage industry of that time
which was strategically destroyed by multinationals of that period. Cotton which is locally available in most
parts of India was used for making clothes at village level. Besides being eco-friendly it is the most
comfortable textile to be worn in the tropical climate. A parallel in built form is the use of bamboo in north
eastern part of India. Extensively available local material is eco-friendly, long lasting and suitable for local
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climate. In coastal areas where humidity is high, light weight bamboo structures are ideally suited. Much of
the traditional craftsmen and knowledge have already been lost to reinforced concrete. Here also techno-
diversity must be preserved.
Deep water holes [wells] technology for deserts
Before the tube wells became popular and piped water from remote sources used to be brought, people of
Rajasthan, a drought hit desert state of north western India, had a very specialized technology of digging
narrow and deep water holes.
With the passage of time, this technology which had attained the status of an art is fast disappearing. This
technique does not require any specialized tools. It needs skill and expertise only, which is transferred from
one generation to the next. This technique may be preserved and promoted in the areas where no other
source of water or other technology to procure water may reach.
Traditional rain water harvesting system
Similarly every village, fort and palace in Rajasthan used to have an arrangement for collecting rain water
which was quite scarce in that area. With the advent of new technology, these simple and time tested
measures were grossly neglected. Now with growing awareness for energy conservation, sustainability and
judicious use of resources, the old techniques of making check dams is being revived. Many villages of
drought hit Rajasthan have again started getting water throughout the year with each and every drop of
water collected during the rainy season according to old traditions and techniques. Having respect for time
tested old techniques is the need of our time.
Rural houses in Northern India
Most of the vernacular technologies used to be eco-friendly because of their spontaneity. Some of them
were even integrated as part of a chain of eco-friendly activities.
Housing in rural Northern India is a good example of a wonderful cycle. Houses in this part of the country
used to be built with sun dried bricks or mud. The walls were plastered with a thin layer of mud and were
beautifully decorated sometimes with frescos, others with folk paintings. These houses needed annual
repair. Mud plaster was replaced or repaired before the rains. Mud for plaster was taken from the village
pond. Sun dried bricks were also made with silt deposited in the pond. In this process the pond was de silted
without any extra expenditure and was ready for filling with rain water to be used throughout the year.
Annual repair of the houses was done either by co-operative method or richer people hired labours.
Agricultural labour got partial employment during the lean period.
Due to thick walls, these mud houses had good thermal insulation and were quite comfortable during the
scorching heat of summer days and chilling cold of winter nights. In the changed scenario, pucca houses
with burnt brick and cement mortar are being built. 9” thick wall and 4” thick RCC roof without any
treatment above is unable to perform its basic function of protecting the inhabitants from 46-47 degree
centigrade temperature during summers and 5-6 degree during winters.
Most of the burnt brick houses in villages do not have plaster on the walls. The lively Indian village famous
for its folk art has a deserted look with the ugly un-plastered walls. The village ponds have become shallow
with silt deposit, as there is no budget or any supervising authority to look after the de silting of the ponds.
Its storage capacity is reducing day by day. Shortage of water starts 3-4 months in advance, before the rainy
season. The landless labour who used to get part time employment during this annual repair, is forced to go
to the neighboring town or city for work.
The impact of this change is even more far reaching and detrimental to the environment. With the growing
demand of burnt bricks, a local entrepreneur comes into the picture. He buys nearby agricultural land and
starts making bricks. He does not use the silt of the pond, because digging silt from ponds is a costly affair
and his margin of profit would go down. The fertile layer of earth crust is destroyed forever. The burning of
brick kiln emits CO2 that pollutes the environment. The life cycle of many insects and micro-organisms
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depends on the annual phenomena of filling and drying of ponds. The disturbance in this age-old cycle
disturbs them. The food chain of many insects might have been affected by this.
The only advantage of this change was a more stable structure that needed lesser periodic maintenance.
Had the age old technology been a little improved by initiative from appropriate corner, the whole system
would have not derailed. The only thing required was a little sensitivity and respect for the age old system of
house building in rural areas.
Migration and poor quality of life
The story of a person, who migrated to Mumbai for greener pastures, is very enlightening. He hailed from a
village near Lucknow; which is a state capital. In the village, he owned a humble hut, had a small piece of
agricultural land and lived with a small family of five people including his wife, old mother and two children.
His mud house was not so hot during summer. His children were reasonably healthy, and mother happy
with the village folks where she lived all her life. He possessed a goat which gave him milk, his land was not
sufficient to feed the whole family round the year.
After migration to Mumbai, his experience was painful to say the least. He lived in an urban slum, had no
access to clean water, so one or the other family member was always sick with some stomach ailment.
Corrugated galvanized iron sheets and polythene sheets were unbearably hot during summers, so they
spent most time outdoors, where mosquitos were a menace, unlike in the village where cow dung rendered
floor and walls acted as disinfectant. Burning ‘Neem’ (Azadirachta Indica) tree leaf kept the insects away,
which was not available in the metropolitan environment. Pollution of the city took its toll on the old mother
who suffered severe bouts of coughing during the nights. He had migrated to the big city to improve his
quality of life. Now he is confused, whether he has really solved his problems or has increased them. He does
not know what to do. Should he stay here or go back to the village?
SOME INSIGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
This is not a unique problem of India that is being discussed. This is definitely a global phenomenon of all
developing countries.
This question of techno diversity also brings in to focus the issue of sustainability. There is much hue and cry
about global warming - carbon footprint. India’s per capita emission of carbon is amongst the lowest in the
world - about 15 times lower than the developed countries. Each of the positive things, described above
about techno-diversity is definitely helping in reducing the carbon footprint. If that is true, then the use of
locally available materials and techniques should be encouraged. If one understands correctly, the world
could come to an end, if something is not done to stop global warming immediately. This is a burning issue.
When alternative technologies are considered in the developing world, this is expected to be received free
of cost from the developed countries because of the onus of historical responsibility. Developing countries
are depending on someone to come and provide the growth model. In fact, the best alternative
technologies and sustainable growth model are already with them. Indigenous technologies need to be
promoted as demonstrated by various examples earlier, to reduce the carbon footprint without waiting for
resolutions on Kyoto protocol or the Durban conference or Doha initiative or the unresolved Copenhagen
summit.
The developing world with its’ unique problems must find its own unique answers. Migration to cities must
be a choice rather than a necessity. Models for growth, which discourage migration or better still, encourage
reverse migration to villages maybe developed. Health, education, transportation and jobs are the basic
issues to be addressed. By amendment in policies, these facilities may be provided locally, near villages. The
problem at times is that many experts in the position of power, who have the ability to influence the
decisions, are either educated in western countries or have studied the books in the syllabus written by
foreigners; hence unable to comprehend the local context at times.
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This is not always true, because many good indigenous solutions have come from such people. Mahatma
Gandhi himself is the examples of that. While explaining ‘Swarajya’, Gandhi insisted on village development
and the use of local products over imported ones. He was fighting against the British Empire with the
courage of his conviction. The old empires have been replaced by the new Multi-National Corporations of
today. These neo imperialists have to spread their empires. We have to keep a watch, whether there is a
hidden campaign against the use of indigenous materials and technologies due to the vested interests of a
few individuals, or groups. One is not passing a judgment yet; just raising a question!!! The question is: Is
techno diversity likely to harm anyone’s interest? If the answer is NO, then why not encourage, support and
propagate it? If the answer is YES, then the matter should be investigated in depth.
That Gandhi’s doubts and questions were not meaningless is evident from the above analysis. Gandhi
reached, where sooner or later, the world would have. His solutions might not be completely palatable, but
he had the vision to look into the future and the ravages of modern technical know-how. Over the latter half
of the 20th century, modern technology, dismissing Gandhi’s views as orthodox has drained most of our
ground water, forest land and other resources.
If we look at the world today, it has literally become a global village and concerns of a country have come
down to a village level. In this day and age of ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change’, and the final lap of the
‘modern age’ of human history, it is of enormous relevance to retrospect and introspect, as to where the
world at large has gone wrong in this quest for economic pursuit and technological development and
progress. In the end it may be summed up that techno diversity is as important as bio diversity. So let us
preserve what needs to be preserved but definitely not at the cost of sustainable development, but for it.
That is exactly what the great thinker and philosopher of modern times, Mr. MK Gandhi, whom Indians
acknowledge as the Father of the Nation had envisaged and fought for.
REFERENCES
Gandhi, MK., 1909. Hind Swaraj or the Indian home rule, Navjivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad.
Gandhi, MKK., 1924. Navjivan 10-8-1924, Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 28 p. 548.
Gandhi, MK., 1925a. Young India 18-8-1925, Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 28, p. 63.
Gandhi, MK., 1925b. Young India 5-11-1925, Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 28, p. 428.
Gandhi, MK., 1925c. Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 32 p. 101.
Gandhi, MK., 1927. Navjivan 19-6-1927, Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi, MK., 1934. Harijan 16-11-1934, Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi, MK., 1940. Harijan 27-1-1940, Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi.
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INVESTIGATION ON WOMEN’S SPACE IN MASJID ARCHITECTURE: CASE STUDY OF SELECTED MASJIDS

IN MALAYSIA
Norwina Mohd Nawawi, Zaiton Abdul Rahim, Noor Hanita Abdul Majid, Puteri Shireen Jahn Kassim
International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia,
norwina19@gmail.com, zaitonarahim@gmail.com, hanita@gmail.com, shireenkassim@gmail.com
Abstract
Muslim women’s participation in masjid, a place where the community congregates interacts and a place for
education, is allowed but non-compulsory in Islam. In Malaysia, women as part of the community frequented the
masjid for different activities on a daily basis. Therefore, their presence and needs should form an integral part of
the masjid space planning and design provisions. However, from observations and personal experience, the
design of masjids is frequently gender insensitive as there is no definite guideline on space provision for women.
This paper examines the issues on space planning of masjid in relation to the requirements for women. The
objectives of this paper are; (i) to investigate how spaces and requirements for women in the masjid are derived
from the original sources of Islam (Quran and Hadith); and (ii) how its essence has been applied in masjid in
Malaysia. Qualitative methods, namely analytical analysis of layout and observation were adopted for this
research due to its exploratory nature. Data collected are analysed through comparative method to derive trends
on planning and design on selected traditional and contemporary masjid in Malaysia. Findings indicate that in
general the design of the masjid is gender insensitive towards women such as obscured access; temporal nature of
prayer space; location of ablution area away from the prayer area; and inaccessibility for the disabled and elderly
women.
Keywords: masjid, women, space, architecture.
INTRODUCTION
The masjid or mosque is a not just a religious centre for congregational prayers but a community centre in
all its essence. Although a ‘masjid’ per se is only the space for congregation anywhere on earth, it has
physically been expressed through the original design of the prophet’s masjid in Madina, Saudi Arabia. The
‘masjid’ is a space characterised by its spatial provision that can accommodate congregation with a specific
direction to the qibla (the direction that Muslims face when engaged in ritual prayer ) in Makkah (Mecca)
including provisions for ablution, call for prayers, sermons, meetings, discussions, learning and governance.
Congregational daily prayers are performed at specific times, five times a day. Congregational prayers are
performed every Friday and at specific times of the year. Men are encouraged to perform their prayers
together in the masjid. On the other hand, women are not required or asked to perform the five daily prayers
in the masjid. Unlike men, it is better for women to pray in the privacy of her house as indicated by the
following hadith: “A woman’s prayer in her house is better than in her courtyard, and her prayer in her own
room is better than her prayer in the rest of the house” (Narrated by Abu Dawud).
The hadith indicated that the congregational prayer in the masjid is not obligatory for women as it is only
obligatory for men. However, if the women do undertake to pray in the masjid they will be rewarded in
equal measure as men provided that there should not be a risk of attraction. In this case, women must avoid
mixing with men in the masjid, avoid wearing perfume, and wear their hijab (coverings) properly to avoid
fitnah (being framed unjustly). Women’s participation at masjid is non-compulsory in Islam as home is still
better for women, as narrated in the hadith. However, they are permitted to attend the masjid as reflected in
many hadiths, among others are as follows; “Do not prevent your women from (going to) the mosques,
though their houses are best for them” (Narrated by Abu Dawud). “If your women ask permission to go to
the mosque at night, allow them” (Narrated by Al- Bukhari). “When the wife of one of you asks about going
to the mosque, do not stop her” (Narrated by Al- Bukhari). “If any among your women asks permission to go
to the mosque, don't stop her from going” (Narrated by Al-Bukhari).
The permissibility that has no boundary for women is strengthened when Allah says in the Holy Qur'an: “The
Believers, men and women, are protectors one of another: they enjoin what is just, and forbid what is evil:
they observe regular prayers, practice regular charity, and obey Allah and His apostle. On them will Allah
pour His mercy: for Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise” (at-Taubah 9:71).
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The hadiths and verse above clearly indicates that women are permissible to go to the masjid upon meeting
certain conditions as believing women should and therefore it is imperative that the masjid is more women
friendly with proper spaces and access. There are already criteria stated in the traditions of the Prophets or
hadiths that account for a women friendly masjid. At the time of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), women
occupied the back rows behind men. They could be seen and heard by the rest of the congregation. At that
time, the Prophet’s masjid is quite small and had an open plan. The Prophet (pbuh) said: “The best of the
rows for the men are the front rows and the worst of them are the last ones, and the best of the rows for the
women are the last ones and the worst of them are the first ones” (Narrated by Muslim).
The Prophet used to encourage women to witness Eid Prayer (the prayer at annual celebrations such as at
the end of Ramadan). The hadith was repetitively mentioned in the collections of Ibn Abbas as follows: “The
Prophet would take his wives and daughters to the two Eid Prayers” (Narrated by Ibn Majah and Al-Baihaqi).
Women did not only perform prayers in the masjid but other activities as even during the Prophet
Muhammad’s time, he not only allowed women to go for prayers but encouraged them to go to public
religious teaching circles. Some women requested the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to fix a day for them, as
men were taking up all his time. On that, he promised them a day for religious lessons and commandments.
The discussion and the hadiths so far have indicated that women have always been users of masjid.
Therefore, as part of its users, the design of masjid should take into consideration the needs of women, such
as segregation and privacy to allow women the comfort and convenience of using it.
Masjid has been the centre for traditional Malay villages in Malaysia and modern neighbourhood in the
cities, used actively on a daily basis by both men and women. The design and construction of the masjids in
Malaysia traditionally involved the craftsman from the community as a community project and were simple
in nature. However, external influences during colonization and the coming of Muslim traders from other
parts of the world resulted in more complex masjid designs. Some were designed by non-Muslims. Masjid in
Malaysia had evolved from traditional architecture with the familiar pyramidal tiered roof to the typical
masjid with domes and arches. Each masjid has its own style and hierarchy in terms of size and congregation
with spaces for men and women. Present masjids have evolved from the simple and modest structure to
lofty outlooks depending on the availability of funds and the aesthetic expression of the time and place.
Malay women who had made their mark alongside men in the quest for knowledge and thus attending
masjid from youth become a second nature. As children, they grew up going to the masjid together with
their male counterpart, familiar with their community masjid. The use of masjid by women increases with
higher education and for economic reasons as more women goes into the workforce. Thus women travelling
and attending events outside home is common. The realization of the need to improve one’s knowledge on
Islam has also resulted in the role of masjid becoming more important. It is common for women to join
religious classes and talks in masjid. Hence, there is a need for prayer areas for women to perform their daily
prayers whether at the masjid, place of work, leisure or on a journey. The masjid is also a place where the
community congregates and interacts and a place for education. Women and children, as part of the
community are important users of the masjid and should form an integral part of the masjid space planning
and design provisions.
The presence of women in masjid requires the design consideration of masjid to provide comfort,
convenience and privacy for women. The provision of access for women, prayer area, ablution area, toilet
and circulation which connects the spaces should be carefully considered during the design process. The
clarity of women’s circulation and the upkeep of hijab (modesty) from ablution to prayer space are needed
to maintain privacy for women. However, visits to masjids and observation indicate that there is no specific
provision and design of spaces for women in the masjid. Provision of spaces for women, access for women,
prayer areas and ablution differ between masjid and are frequently gender insensitive.
OBJECTIVES
Based on the discussion presented, the objectives of this paper are:
1. To investigate the space requirements in relation to women needs in the masjid based on the Holy
Quran and Hadith
2. To examine space provision for women in masjids in Malaysia with regards to:
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a. Clarity of access to masjid site;

b. Clarity of access to women’s entrance of the masjid;
c. Clarity of women’s space and location for prayer;
d. Clarity of women’s circulation and the upkeep of hijab (modesty) from ablution to prayer space
METHODOLOGY
Qualitative method was employed given the exploratory nature of the study. Content analyses of the Holy
Quran; the Hadiths; and relevant literatures as secondary data were used to identify the space requirements
in relation to women’s needs in the masjid. Site visits, observation and analytical review of masjid layouts
were carried out to examine space provision for women in masjids. Analytical review of the masjid layout
involves more than 20 masjids and four masjids ranging from traditional to modern masjid were visited as
case studies, whereby the researchers took part in the congregation to experience and observe. The
research recognises the importance of anthropometry and ergonomics of woman in the design of women
friendly spaces. However, it will only focus on adequate space and facilities to convenient women towards
their prostration to the Creator in any masjid. The four masjids were selected based on their location within a
community with different site configurations, within the same period of construction with exception of the
heritage masjid for comparison on approach. Each masjid was analysed on the clarity of: a) access to masjid
site, b) women’s entrance of the masjid; c) women’s space and location for prayer; and d) women’s
circulation and the upkeep of hijab (modesty) from ablution to prayer space
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The following discussions are divided into two parts according to the objectives of the paper:
Space requirement in relation to women’s need in masjid

Al-Sindi’s commentary on hadith by Sunan al-Nasa’I (p. 798) in Muzammil H. Siddiqi (n.d) indicated at the
time of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) he did not make or ask his companions to have a curtain or wall
between the lines of men and women. Based on this, it is not required to have a partition, neither of
temporary nor of permanent nature, between men and women in the masjid. However, it is very important
to understand and note that Muslim women who come to public gatherings must be in proper Islamic
dress2. According to Muzammil H. Siddiqi (n.d) in and Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen (n.d)
partitions were introduced inside the masjid later in Islamic history to keep the sanctity of the masjid. The
needs to have the partition evolve due to the culture where women, due to non-continuity of traditions of
covering oneself, especially in the current century, began coming to the masjid without covering themselves
in proper dress and thus have to be ‘hidden’ to prevent distraction for the man. The provision of the
partition is further strengthened as an innovation when Hatem Al Haj ( 2011) provide justification that the
barrier provides privacy and comfort to the women who want to relax; lay down for some time; breast feed
their babies; or take off their niqab or even hijab (outside of prayer) on a hot day. However, all three agreed
in cases when women need to convey to the congregation, or attend lessons in which their personal
attendance in the main hall is required, or for whatever reason, they are allowed to be in the main hall with
the men while observing propriety and full hijab. From this discussion, based on needs and situations,
masjids thus can be designed with and without walls, or with temporary walls for the women as the need
arises. However in all designs, the location of women is behind the imam, behind the men or alongside the
men with distinct separation either physically or by placement in space within audible distance of the Imam,
but visually connected.
A review of the literature indicates that there are many women’s needs in relation to the masjid which
influence the design in relation to space provision, adjacencies and proximity, flexibility of space usage, size,
orientation and circulation and accessibility. Among the needs:
a. Spiritual and societal obligations
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2
"Islamic dress refers to a dress that covers loosely the ‘Awra’, i.e. except for the face and the hands.
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i. A place for respite for women traveling or working away from home and unable to get back
home in time for prayers
ii. Teaching or attending beneficial activities such as classes on Quran reading, compulsory
practices of the Muslim daily lives, counselling, parenting, charitable events and the cleansing
of the deceased
iii. Congregational prayers for daily and specific events of the Muslim festivities
iv. Marriage events
v. Companionship and support in time of need.
b. Physical and architectural obligations
i. Physiological difference to Man in terms of anthropometry and ergonomics

ii. Preserving the modesty of women in the masjid from external entrance, through ablution to
prayer hall and back
iii. Preserving modesty of women in all the process of receiving the deceased, cleanse and in
preparation for deceased prayers
iv. Security and safety requirement of their self, their children and belongings
v. Aids to physical disabilities and aging.
The act of prayer involved many processes even before the prayer itself. One should be physically clean
before taking the ‘wudhu’ or ablution, an act of cleansing before a prayer. In some instances, especially
entering the great Masjidil haram of Makkah, Mukarramah, the foremost holiest place for Muslims, most
women are already in their ablution as well as in their full hijab when they enter the masjid area. In this
circumstances, there is no need for them to use the toilet and therefore will by-pass the toilet and ablution
spaces to go directly to the prayer area. Some women may not be in ablution and therefore will need to go
to the ablution area before proceeding to the prayer hall/areas or as intended. Architecturally, the spaces to
be provided for all these basic activities for prayer must be assured.
Masjid Nabawi or the Prophet’s Masjid is the best example for typical masjid around the world. The masjid
provides a clear area for men and women prayer space as well as location for ablution or wudu. The masjid
has outgrown its original size due to the large number of pilgrims. In tune with the hadith, where the
Prophet (pbuh) stated that the women should pray behind the men, the masjid thus provide women’s
spaces behind the men (Figure 1 and Figure 2) on the left and right side of the prayer hall. Due to the need
to organize large crowds, movable partitions or Quran racks are located at the back row of the main prayer
hall. Periodical access were made available for women to enter the men’s prayer hall before entering the
Prophet’s original masjid known as the ‘raudah’ or garden in paradise for a non-obligatory prayer. Most
women attending prayer at Masjid Nabawi are already in their ablution. Larger ablution area likewise
Masjidil Haram, are provided at the lower ground of the masjid plaza.
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Figure 1: Women’s section of Masjid Nabawi with Figure 2: Layout Plan of Masjid Nabawi showing location
the rack and timber partition to divide of women’s prayer sections and route to
the prayer hall. original masjid.
(Source: http://www.hajjsolutions.com/hajj-and-
umrah-tips/)
The process of circulation for other activities such as attending classes or lectures, exclude the ritual of
ablution unless one intended to perform prayers. The women will not enter the prayer hall proper but will
enter classes within the general circulation of the masjid or stay just outside the prayer hall. As a Muslim, the
best is to be in the state of ablution all the time, hence the need to have the ablution facilities near-by.
Figure 3 indicates the main spaces and routes a woman may take to join the classes conducted in the masjid.
If the classes are conducted within the prayer hall, the customary but not mandatory prayer, salah
tahyatulmasjid, as respect to the masjid as house of God, is performed individually usually within the
women’s space or within the main prayer hall in a discreet area before joining the class session. Classes in
the prayer hall are normally conducted sitting on the floor with or without low tables. Women enter masjid
for many reasons apart from the ritual prayer, that includes bathing the female deceased whenever it occurs;
preparation of feast, attend weddings, as teaching staff for schools within the masjid grounds and other.
This paper concerns itself only on accessibility of women to women spaces for the holy ritual of prayer.
Figure 3: Process of women entrance to Masjid for educational purposes
Space provision for women in masjids in Malaysia

Masjid designs in Malaysia have always integrated ‘informally’, spaces for women since the early days. Based
on the needs for segregation during prayer, masjid designs have evolved from simple division of spaces into
modern solutions, whereby segregation and division in spaces are transformed into a separated network for
access, circulation and ablution. The guidelines on the planning of Islamic religious places published by
Department of Urban and Rural Planning Peninsula Malaysia and Ministry of Local Government in 1997 had
been revised in 2011 under the title ‘Planning guidelines of Masjid and Surau’. In the 1997 version, all
masjids, big or small, provide women spaces as a segregated space within the main space, as a
complimentary component of a comprehensive masjid. The 2011 draft version of the guidelines did not
mention explicitly requirements for women users but take for granted their existence and hence leave the
decision to the designers to include them as expected needs. Both diagrams in the guidebook indicate
women spaces in the masjid as located at the bottom or left side of the prayer hall. Sizes of women space is
not mentioned in either of the guidelines. Hence the final outcomes are subjected to various interpretations.
The findings from analytical review of masjid layouts and site visits are as follows:
a. Clarity of access to site of masjid
Findings indicate that all the sites to the masjid are easily approachable by vehicles and on foot from the
main road (Figure 4). However, the entrance for women may or may not be easily visible as one approaches
the masjid.
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Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4

Figure 4: Easy access to the site of masjids
b. Clarity of access to women’s entrance of the masjid
Accessibility to women’s area is generally obscured from the main entrance as the qiblat influence the access
through site configuration. Some masjids have a clear separation between access to women’s and men’s
spaces. In some cases the main entrance is shared but women are directed towards the left or right to the
women’s spaces. This is normal when women spaces are located at the first floor. Partitions may be used to
define a small part of the main prayer hall for older or disabled women users. Some masjids have more than
one entrance whereby the main entrance is used by men and a secondary entrance, located near the
women’s prayer area and ablution are used mainly by women. Separate entrance for women is normally
provided when women’s areas are located behind the men’s prayer area. The main prayer hall is normally
surrounded by open corridor at both sides and rear to accommodate excess of users during congregational
prayer. Figure 5 shows the entrances in the case studies.
Case 1: Main Case 2: Main entrance for Case 3: Main entrance for Case 4: Main
entrance for both women only during prayer time both men and women entrance for both
men and women. but open to men at other times. men and women
Access is not Access is disabled friendly.
disable friendly
Figure 5: Entrance to masjid
c. Clarity of women’s space and location for prayer
Women prayer spaces are provided inclusively in all masjid. The prayer spaces for women in temporal or
permanent form on either the left or right bottom side of the prayer hall alongside the men’s prayer row, or
behind the men’s row, or permanently elevated to another space above with separate access. The location is
distinctively determined by the design brief that may include the number of qariah3 projected to use the
facility at peak times such at Eid and tarawih4 prayers. Spaces provided for women prayer space are both
within the main prayer hall and partitioned by either curtain, or screen (Figure 6); and in some a permanent
space above the main hall especially for Jumaat or Friday prayers. Within this area, a small area may be
partitioned to provide space for women to change before prayer. The use of partition allows flexibility of
prayer areas during congregational prayers. Figure 7 shows the location of the women’s area within the
main prayer hall.
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3
Qariah- community that is expected to enjoin the prayer.
4
Tarawih- is a special non obligatory prayer done every night during the fasting month of Ramadhan.
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Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4

Figure 6: Partitioned area for women within the prayer hall
Case 1: Main prayer hall Case 2: Main prayer hall Case 3: Main prayer hall Case 4: Main prayer hall
looking from men’s looking from men’s (from men’s entrance). looking from the main
entrance. The women entrance. The women The women space is entrance towards the
space is across the hall space is across the hall across the hall on the qiblat. Women’s space is
on the right side of the on the left side right bottom on the right side
building
Figure 7: Women’s prayer area within the main prayer hall
d. Clarity of women’s circulation and the upkeep of hijab (modesty) from ablution to prayer
space.
Women are provided with their own ablution area but mostly away from prayer area or even outside the
main building. In general, the ablution area is located away from the women’s prayer area; and accessibility
for the elderly women, although a priority, not many masjids provide the necessary access ramps or ease of
taking ablution. Findings indicate that the location of the ablution and women’s area may not provide the
privacy for the upkeep of hijab of women in some of the masjid where the ablution area is open to the
outside with no visual privacy provided as in Case 1 and 4 (Figure 8). In most masjids, the ablution area is
visually protected but not connected directly to the women’s area, thus did not provide visual protection as
they move from ablution area to the prayer area. In a few cases, the ablution area for women is located in a
room in an annex building. In one of the masjids, this area is discreetly located and curtained from view in
the basement. An ablution cubicle is installed at prayer hall level for the disabled.
Case 1: open to outside Case 2: Women’s Case 3: : Women’s Case 4: Open ablution
with no privacy ablution area is ablution area is in a area with not privacy
discreetly located and room in an annex
curtained from view building
Figure 8: Women’s ablution area
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CONCLUSION
The findings indicated that apart from an exceptional few layout plans that address women’s spaces
and circulations in separate but consolidate entity, the design of most masjid needs improvements to
provide convenience, comfort and privacy for women users. A clear understanding of women’s needs in
relation to their activities in masjid and the requirement for privacy in public space are required and
translated into masjid design.
Although Malaysian masjid guidelines provide for women, insensitivity towards women’s needs is still
prevalent in the physical interpretation of masjid. Findings indicate a number of physical
representations about women’s needs in a masjid were taken for granted; from anthropometry of the
ablution to modesty of the circulation route to prayer hall; from the youthful needs to old age. The
guidelines had not spelt out in detail what the women’s need in a masjid and merely list or illustrate
them to the designer’s interpretation. Findings also disclosed that most of the masjids were designed
by men. Hence, while the authority is still receptive and open to suggestions, it is about time the needs
of women in the community be taken into consideration in fulfilling the masjid as women friendly.
REFERENCES
Abdul Halim, N., 1995. Seni Bina Masjid di Dunia Melayu Nusantara, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala
Lumpur.
Al Haj, H., 2014. ‘Partition in the masjid between men and women’, viewed 28 March 2014,
http://www.drhatemalhaj.com/qa/index.php/2011/03/30/removing-the-partition-in-the-masjid-between-
men-and-women/
Altaf, H., 1976. ‘Mosque planning’, Journal of the Urban Planning and Development Division, vol.
102, no. 1, pp. 171-176.
Department of Urban and Regional Planning Malaysia, Ministry of Housing, 2011. Garis Panduan Perancangan
Masjid dan Surau, viewed 20 March 2014, http://issuu.com/anwar_townplan/docs/gpp_masjid___surau/20
Frisk, S., 2009. Submitting to God: Women and Islam in Urban Malaysia, NIAS Press, Copenhagen.
Index Mundi Malaysia Demographics Profile, 2013. Viewed 28 March 2014,
http://www.indexmundi.com/malaysia/demographics_profile.html
Mohd nawawi, N, Jahn kassis, PS, Soomro, A, Mustapha, A, Md Nordin, N & Ishak, H., 2010. ‘Understanding
the underlying principles of Masjid architecture through study of built form in place, time, people and
culture in demystifying Islamic architecture’, IIUM , Malaysia.
Monahan, J., 2003. ‘Places of worship: a mosque’, The Guardian, 23 September 2003, viewed 20 November
2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/sep/23/primaryschoolteacher
Muzammil HS., 2009. ‘Partitions between men & women in the mosque’, IslamOnline.net, viewed 19
November 2009, http://islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline.
Muzammil HS., 2005. ‘Partition for women inside the Masjid’, Pakistan Link, viewed 20 March 2014
http://www.pakistanlink.org/Religion/2005/08262005.htm
Na’eem, J., 2009. ‘Space, no space, small space, damp space: women in our mosques’, viewed 20th November
2009, http://naeemjeenah.shams.za.org/space.htm
Najiya, O., 2009. ‘Space for women in Masjid, that is, room for women in Muslim community’, viewed 19
November 2009,
http://www.twocircles.net/2009jul16/space_women_masjid_room_women_muslim_community.html.
Nik Amirul Faiz Nik Md Yusof, 2009. ‘Designing with the community: Proposed a Community Mosque in
USJ/8, Subang Jaya, Selangor’, BA thesis, International Islamic University Malaysia (Unpublished)
Shaykh Muhammad al-Hassan, A., Is a woman’s prayer at home better’, trans. SuhaibWebb.com, viewed 26
March 2014,http://www.suhaibwebb.com/islam-studies/is-a-woman%E2%80%99s-prayer-at-home-
better-answered-by-shaykh-al-dido/
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Shaykh Muhammad, AK., 2009. ‘The Fiqh of covering one's nakedness (Awra): A detailed explanation’,
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=2039
Spahic, O., 2010. ‘Some lessons from Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in architecture: The Prophet’s Mosque in
Madinah’, Intellectual Discourse, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 115-140.
Tutin, A., 2006. ‘The center vs. the central-Javanese mosque architecture’, Dimensi Teknik Arsitektur, vol. 34,
no. 2, pp. 73 – 80.
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THE FORMS AND SPIRITUAL MEANINGS OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE IN XUZHOU CHINA – A CASE
STUDY OF THE TRADITIONAL DWELLINGS IN HUBU MOUNTAIN
Hua Zhang, Southeast University, Institute of Sustainable Architecture and City Optimization Suzhou &
Chinese Academy of Science, China, huayan.zhang@foxmail.com
Bing Chen, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University,Institute of Sustainable Architecture and City Optimization
Suzhou & Chinese Academy of Science, China
Weiju Yang, Southeast University, China
Tongtong Wang, Gensler Architecture Consulting (Shanghai) Company LTD, China
Minghui Xiong, 9town-studio, China
Jiang Chang, China University of Mining Technology, China
Abstract
This paper aims to explore the forms and spiritual meanings (a.k.a. ‘soul’) of vernacular architecture in Xuzhou
China based on a case study of the traditional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain district. Located in the north of
Jinagsu Province, the city of Xuzhou has a history of more than 4,000 years. The Hubu Mountain district is one of
the districts in Suzhou and its development mirrors the changes of Xuzhou from a longitudinal perspective. Due to
the prosperous commercial environments in this area, a lot of residential buildings were built up around the
Ximatai (which is a heritage with a history back to 206 B.C.) in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It formed a special
urban context called ‘a high platform (i.e. Ximatai) surrounded by thousands of dwellings’. By the early years of
the People’s Republic of China, there were over 100 well preserved courtyard houses left in the Hubu Mountain
district, served as a museum of vernacular architecture (especially dwellings) in Xuzhou. Unfortunately, however,
many courtyard houses have recently been damaged or demolished during the process of urban renewal.
Currently there is a conflict of interests between the preservation of vernacular architecture and the further
development of the city.
This paper looks at the development process of traditional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain district. Based on site
surveys and relevant archive studies, it provides an insight into the physical forms and spiritual meanings of
traditional dwellings. Special characteristics of vernacular architecture in this region, such as building typology,
structure, construction methods and decoration details and so on, have been explored in order to provide
guidance for future city regeneration and integrated urban-rural development in China.
Keywords: Hubu Mountain, vernacular architecture, dwellings, courtyard, culture.
INTRODUCTION
This paper explores the the forms and spiritual meanings of vernacular architecture in Xuzhou China based
on a case study of the traditional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain district. It aims to provide an insight into
the special characteristics of vernacular architecture in this region and thereby use the lessons learned from
this case study to inform future city regeneration and the onging integrated urban-rural development in
China.
With a long history and rich culture, Xuzhou played an important role in the history of China. Hubu
Mountain District is located to the south of the South Gate of Xuzhou old town. It is a well-known historical
and cultural heritage with a lot of traditional dwellings. The cluster of dwellings in the Hubu Mountain
District was initially formed to cope with flooding issues. In the city’s history, Xuzhou has suffered a lot from
the ancient Yellow River. From Ming Dynasty to National Republic of China, many local rich people (e.g.
people from medium to upper class including merchants) would like to settle down in the Hubu Mountain
District as the altitute of this district is relatively high and it is close to the city (Zhang 2008). By the end of
National Republic of China, Hubu Mountain was covered with dense courtyard houses (Figure 1). These
traditional dwellings have been designed to appreciate the hilly context and, as a result, have formed a
unique architectural style in the North of Jiangsu Province.
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Figure 1: Courtyard Houses in Hubu Mountain District.
THE CURRENT SITUATION OF TRADITIONAL DWELLINGS IN THE HUBU MOUNTAIN DISTRICT
Many traditional dwellings in Xuzhou have been largely damaged and replaced by modern buildings due to
the lack of awareness of heritage conservation (which can be traced back to 1950s) and the fast urbanization
(which can be traced back to 1980s). Although the courtyard houses in Hubu Mountain District did not suffer
much from city transformation due to their locations, they have not been well conserved. In fact, most
traditional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain District were in a poor quality. To make the best use of the
budget to preserve these heritages, Xuzhou city government decided to give priority to the conservation of
some famous courtyard houses – which were often named after their householders’ family names – Wei’s
House, Yu’s House, Cui’s House, Zhai’s House, Zheng’s House, etc. Based on the heritage conservation rule
‘repair the old as old’, these courtyard houses have been repaired according to their appearance in the late
Qing dynasty. Nowdays these courtyard houses after refurbishment serve as a museum of vernacular
architecture (especially traditional dwellings in Xuzhou) and provide a positive impact on the latter
conservation work, including the Scholar’s House and the Salt Shop etc.
Compared to the residential cluster located in the flat terrain, the cluster of dwellings in the Hubu Mountain
District has been designed with different features in order to cope with the hilly construction site. The
overall layout is like circles with different altitudes (Figure 2) (Ge and Chang 2009). Based on the site survey,
it was found that rich families (e.g. government officers or merchants, etc.) often had their courtyard houses
located to the best orientation of the Hubu Mountain District. For instance, Yu’s House, the Scholar’s House,
the Salt Shop and Cui’s House and other richest families were all located to the south slope of the Hubu
Mountain (including the southeast and southwest slopes). Then the families with relatively less wealth (e.g.
merchants, etc.) had their courtyard houses located to the east slope of the Hubu Mountain. These west-east
oriented dwellings included Zhai’s House, Zheng’s House, etc. General public had their houses located to the
west or north slopes of the Hubu Mountain (Zhang 2013).
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Figure 2: Layout of the courtyard houses in the Hubu Mountain.
Detailed surveys were conducted onsite to provide an insight into the special characteristics of traditional
dwellings in the Hubu Mountain District, including courtyard morphology, building typology, cultural
meanings, etc. In order to truly reflect the special characteristics of vernacular architecture in this region, a
range of cases have been selected for further studies, including Wei’s House, Liu’s House, Zheng’s House,
Zhai’s House, Cui’s House, Yu’s House, etc.
COURTYARD MORPHOLOGY
An integrated layout with courtyard features from both North and South
The courtyard houses in the Hubu Mountain District were designed with integrative features from the north
of China (i.e. Beijing Courtyard, a.k.a. quadrangle dwellings of Beijing) and the south of China (i.e. patios)
(Figure 3). Specifically, the overall layout of traditional dwellings in this region was based on the courtyard
style in the north – all spaces were arranged symmetrically along the axis, with living rooms (or the
courtyard space serving relevant functions) located close to the entrance and bedrooms (or the courtyard
space serving relevant functions) next to the back door. High walls were used to differentiate big families as
their dwellings might often contain several courtyards in order to accommodate their family members (i.e. a
large cohort of people sharing the same ancestor and surname). Patios were used to enrich the inside space
and to adapt courtyards to the terrain.
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Figure 3: Plan of traditional dwellings with courtyards in the Hubu Mountain.
Make good use of the terrain

In the design process of these courtyard houses, architects considered the local environments carefully. The
courtyard layout was rather adaptable in order to make good use of the terrain. For instance, in the Yu’s
House located in the southeast slope of Hubu Mountain, all inner couryards were built along the east-west
axis, with the East Courtyard on the bottom and the West Courtyard on the top. And even inside the Central
Courtyard which is located in the middle between East and West Courtyeards and serves as an axis for the
entire Yu’s House, there was a hight difference between the south side and the north side (Figure 4). Such
form – the gradual increase from South to North – reflects a spiritual meaning of feudal hierarchy (Zhang
2009 & 2011).
Figure 4: Section of the Central Courtyard in Yu’s House.
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
As mentioned earlier, Xuzhou is located in the junction of North and South of China. As a result, vernacular
architecture in Xuzhou has been impacted by the building styles from both North and South. Traditional
dwellings in Xuzhou normally have simple appearance, tall and think walls, and have often been designed to
adapt to mountains, reflecting the regional architectural features of the North of Jiangsu Province.
An integrated architectural style

To respond to the local climate, the dwellings in the North are often designed with relatively thick walls and
air-tight windows. While the dwellings in the South are often designed with open spaces (e.g. lounges)
surrounded by light wooden walls. In return, the dwellings in the North often have better privacy while
those in the South of have better connections between the internal and external spaces. The traditional
dwellings in the Hubu Mountain District has successfully merged both styles, which leads to its own
architectural form. The lounge is usually designed to be open with timber as the main materials for its
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southern wall. While the remaining parts of the lounge are designed to be more like the nothern style with
relatively thick walls and air-tight windows (Figure 5).
Figure 5: The Lounge in the Yu’s House.
Local materials
Unlike traditional dwellings in other regions of China which use timber as the main building materials,
traditional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain District use locally sourced bricks and stones. The stones are
mainly coming from the Hubu Mountain – those stones being explored during the construction process will
be used as the raw materials for bases and walls. Using stones as the materials for the buiding bases can
effectively prevent the traditional dwellings from the flood. Meanwhile, taking into account the phsycial
features of stones (i.e. good capability of bearing pressure yet weak capacity for elastic force), the
construction technics for the external walls are to put stones on the bottom and then to have bricks above
them (Figures 6-7).
Figure 6-7: Local bricks and stones as the main materials.
Building layout (morphology) based on local geography

Fengshui is considered as an important design principle in the vernacular architecture of China. This design
concept, to some extent, mirrors the idea of ‘climate sensitive environmental design’ from the western
countries. In the Hubu Mountain District, particular attention has been paid to the local geography (i.e. hilly
terrain), taking into account of the land values. Vertical design methods have been applied to many
traditional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain. For instance, the Mandarin Duck House (i.e. one unit in the Cui’s
House) was built on a slope site with the north part higher than the south part. To make the best use of the
terrain, the two-story building has been desigend to be a back-to-back layout – specifically, the house has
two entrances, one facing south and the other facing north, without any vertical connection inside. In other
words, this single house is designed to be part of both the south courtyard and the north courtyard.
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Figure 8-9: South and North elevations of the Mandarin Duck House.
Special construction method of the external walls

The construction method of the external walls of traidtional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain District was
called ‘unprocessed materials inside and processed materials outside’ (Figure 10). The external walls are
generally made to be 500-600mm wide, using the construction method ‘QiShunYiDing’ (in Pinyin). It means
that, from the bottom to the top, the bricks are arranged based on the principle ‘every 7 layers of horizontal
(i.e. “Shun” in Pinyin) bricks with another 1 layer of vertical (i.e. “Ding” in Pinyin) bricks. The spaces between
every two layers of vertical bricks are filled with adobe or small bricks, served as an insulation layer for the
external walls (Zhang 2008). Considering the load-bearing function of the external walls, additional columns
have been added under the beams to share the overall load from the top.
Figure 10: Construction method of the external walls (e.g. with unprocessed materials inside and processed
materials outside).
Inverted V-shape brace beam structure

The common construction methods of beam structure for the ancient architecture of China include ‘post
and lintel construction method’, ‘column and tie construction method’ and ‘log cabin construction method’.
While in the Hubu Mountain District, only a few dwellings were built using the post and lintel construction
method. Most of the traditional dwellings were built based on a speical structure – the inverted V-shaped
brace beam structure. As shown in Figure 11, the inverted V-shaped brace beam structure is a simplified
beam structure, with two beams in the shape of an iverted ‘V’. With this strucutre, the load from the roof can
be passed to the beams, then to the columns. As a result, timber used for this structure can be minimised.
Comprared to the beam strcutures in other traditional dwellings in China, this inverted V-shpaed beam
structure is rather different from the ‘post and lintel construction method’ or the ‘column and tie
construction method’ in terms of load-carrying ways and tectonic details.
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Figure 11: Inverted V-shaped brace beam structure.
CULTURAL MEANING OF TRADITIONAL DWELLINGS
Feudal rituals
Chinese feudal soceity is a centralised power system based on ‘social rituals’. This has been reflected in the
design of traditional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain District. To mirror the family etiquette based on
kinship, the courtyard houses belonging to a big family have been arragned hierarchically along a axis. The
most important courtyard houses (e.g. those belonging to the householders) have been lcoated along the
axis – normally the backyard is used as householder’s bedrooms and the frontyard as living rooms for family
events or reception. The courtyards are allocated to different families according to their positions in the
family hierarchy. And within each courtyard, the allocation of different rooms to the family members is also
made based on their relative importance.
The concept of Fengshui

The concept of Fengshui has normally been taken into account to decide the layout of the courtyard houses,
the location of the main entrance and the use of different rooms. The drainage system was designed to
make use of the terrain, with water pipes being located in the ‘lucky’ positions and toilets being located in
the ‘unlucky’ positions according to Fengshui. There are also ways in Fengshui to compromise with rooms
being located in the ‘unlucky’ positions (Liu and Zhai 2001).
Confucianism and Taoism are complementary

Both Confucianism and Taoism have impacts on the development of Xuzhou as it is located to the south of
Shandong Province (i.e. being famous for Confucianism) and to the east of Henan Province (i.e. being
famous for Taoism). As a result, both concepts have been used to inform the design of traditional dwellings
in the Hubu Mountain District. Confucianism declares that ‘self-cultivating, family-regulating, state-ordering,
and then the world will be well governed’ (i.e. from a micro- to a macro- scale). While on the other hand,
Taoism declares that it is important to address quietism. As a result, the overall layout of the courtyard
houses has been designed with a hierarchy, mirroring the principal concept of Confucianism. While garden
of the traditional dwellings has been designed to be part of the natural environment, reflecting the key
concept of Taoism. In summary, Confucianism and Taoism are complementary in the design of traditional
dwellings in the Hubu Mountain District.
Cultural exchange between South and North

Xuzhou is located next to Jiangsu Province, Shandong Province, Henan Province and Anhui Province. It is
also in this city that the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou and ancient Yellow River meet. As a result,
Xuzhou was regarded as a very important hub for both military and business purposes in the history of
China. In return, a wide range of culture was introduced to Xuzhou due to the wars or trades. The integrated
rich culture has been reflected in the design of vernacular architecture. The traditional dwellings inherited
architectural styles from both South and North. Specifically, the symmetric layout reflects the building style
from the North while the garden design reflects the building style from the South. As a result, traditional
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dwellings in Xuzhou provide a good opportunity to explore the transition of traditional dwellings from the
South to the North.
CONCLUSION
Due to its special location and culture, traditional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain District have some
specific design features – compatible with building styles from both north and south, flexible layout, isolated
to the outside but open to the inside, etc. It forms a specific regional architectural style in the North of
Jiangsu Province. To summarize, traditional dwellings in the Hubu Mountain District serve an important case
to study the city development of Xuzhou and the evolvement of architecture through Ming Dynasty, Qing
Dynasty and National Republic of China Period.
REFERENCES
Ge, T & Chang, J., 2009. ‘Interpretation of Xuzhou Hubu Mountain ancient dwellings’, Chinese & Overseas
Architecture, no. 7, pp. 37-39.
Liu, Y & Zhai, X., 2001. ‘A research on Hubu Mountain traditional dwellings’, Development of Small Cities &
Towns, no. 9, pp. 46-50.
Zhang C., 2008. ‘Ancient dwellings on Hubu Mountain’, Urban Construction Archives, vol. 10, no. 21, pp. 32-37.
Zhang, H., 2013. ‘Hubu Mountain traditional courtyard spatial analysis’, 2013 China Urban Planning
Conference Proceeding, Qingdao.
Zhang, H., 2011. ‘Explore the Hubu Mountain Cui courtyard’, 2011 China Urban Planning Conference
Proceeding, Nanjing, pp. 8473-8478.
Zhang, H., 2009. ‘Explore the Hubu Mountain Yu courtyard’, The 11th International Symposium on
Architecture and Culture Conference Proceeding, Changsha, pp. 201-205.
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SPATIAL ECONOMICS – THE WEALTH OF THE URBAN POOR
Phia van Greunen, Polytechnic of Namibia, Namibia, svangreunen@polytechnic.edu.na
Abstract
General Resilience is largely dependent on our ability to adapt, our capacity to reorganise and to learn from the
current state of our cities. This discourse outlines the ‘wealth’ of urban dwellers which are usually associated with
expressions like marginalised and poor. In a unique look at one of the informal settlements around Namibia’s
capital, the research maps typical urban form in these townships and compares it to the planned areas of the city.
Throughout the research, capitalist monetary terms are substituted with spatial and social terms to show how
distorted our ideas of wealth are. This paper by no means suggests that living in an informal settlement is
glamorous or ideal but rather desires to highlight the necessity of re-assessing our current Westernised trends in
planning and place-making.
Windhoek, like many South African cities, is popularly defined by massive social & geographical divides as a result
of Apartheid planning. Land, like most other basic resources in Namibia, is not distributed equally. Spatial
segregation is a global concern, especially within the context of rapid urbanisation and population growth. The
Informal Sector in Windhoek has succeeded in many tasks which the nation-state has failed to perform within
their nationalist ideals of modernity.
Urban form in Windhoek’s informal settlements is adaptable: it encourages community interaction; it results in
unexpected outcomes and allows ritual to determine and regulate space. In taking care of their own housing and
commercial needs they have generated a uniquely resilient and sustainable model for urban living. While
suburban minorities travel in private cars and live in isolation behind high fences, the urban poor thrive on many
levels within a network of a larger social identity.
The research hinges around the idea that architecture has the “potential to influence thinking and policy”, as the
conference theme suggests, and aims to instil Capra’s sentiments that “there are solutions to the major problems
of our time, some of them even simple. But they require a radical shift in our perceptions, our thinking, our values”
(Capra 1996, p. 4).
Keywords: informal sector, responsive environments, spatial segregation, resilience.
INTRODUCTION
It has been said that a great deal about political and economic systems is revealed in the way our cities are
planned, even more so in times of rapid urbanization and population growth. Within this context we are
faced with major challenges associated with climate change, resource scarcities and environmental
degradation.
As a global society we are constantly searching for new technologies and updated practices to turn our cities
into truly resilient ecosystems. According to the Resilience Alliance, a leading research organisation
established in 2009, cited in Surjan et al (2011, p. 19), resilience has at its core “three defining characteristics:
The amount of change a system can undergo and still retain the same controls on function and structure;
the degree the system is capable of self-organisation; the ability to build and increase the capacity for
learning and adaptation”. Resilience requires a shift in our perceptions and eventually depends largely on
our ability to learn from the current state of our cities.
Across the world people have begun to realise the value in systems which develop informally. These systems
remain adaptable and maintain a high degree of self-organisation. As a society there is a lot to learn from
sectors commonly referred to as marginalised, informal, and illegal especially in terms of resilience.
Resilience calls for a holistic approach to problem-solving. It spans the disciplines of economic, natural,
political and social fields and teaches us that as a society we are no longer dependent only on our ability to
successfully balance our ecosystems but on how adaptable we are to inevitable change. Bookchin (1971, p.
41) argues that: “The imbalances man has produced in the natural world are caused by the imbalances he
has produced in the social world.”
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WINDHOEK - THE CAPITAL OF NAMIBIA

Namibia is a vast, arid country situated on the south-west coast of Africa and home to one of the oldest
deserts in the world (Figure 1). The 2011 Namibia Population and Housing Census shows that the overall
Namibian population has increased gradually since 1921; “rising from about one-quarter million persons in
early 1921 through 1.8 million persons in early 2001 to 2.1 million in 2011”(National Planning Commission
2011, p. ix).
Figure 1: Windhoek the Capital of Namibia.
Since gaining independence from South Africa in 1990 the Namibian population continues to grow
consistently. Our cities, like many South African cities, are popularly defined by massive social &
geographical divides as a result of Apartheid planning. This deliberate segregation could be understood as
an extension of the strategies of segregation of the German colonial times. A certain form of setting apart
continues to manifest itself till this day.
Social imbalance
Spatial segregation is a global concern and high on the agenda of policy makers, planners and designers
alike. This continuation of apartheid planning in Namibia can be compared to what people in most major
cities around the world refer to as the white flight.
Wigglesworth (2013) explains that “most cities in the US and global south – such as Rio, Cairo and Mumbai –
show extreme forms of economically driven spatial segregation and the UK is moving in the same direction”.
She argues that “in societies with a marked divide between rich and poor, the rich respond by building
gated residences protected by security systems”. This is repeated on a larger scale with entire cities being
divided along economic and social boundaries.
The 2011 population census estimates the population density in the informal settlements around Windhoek
to be around 5 333 people per square kilometre. When compared to the country’s average of 2.5 people and
to the City’s average of 450 people per square kilometre it is clear that land, like most other basic resources
in Namibia, is not distributed equally.
As in most countries around the world people flock to the capital of Namibia for better education and
economic opportunities. The census estimates that 42% of Namibians live in urban areas compared to a
mere 28% twenty years ago.
While Windhoek is developing at an alarming rate government is struggling to keep up with demands on
housing and basic services. The result is that the majority of urban dwellers in Windhoek live in informal
settlements on the northern outskirts of town.
The first of these informal settlements was established in 1959 through the forced relocation of its
inhabitants from the old location. Since then settlements in this area continue to expand. Although
seemingly informal, inhabitants in many of these areas pay rent to the local municipality for occupation of
the land. Additional infill and illegal shacking takes up any possible left-over space within the settlements
and their surrounds. Tweetheni, an Oshiwambo word meaning leave us alone, is one such settlement (Figure
2). This area generally has lower densities than a typical Southern African informal settlement. There are on
average two households to each 240m² demarcation ranging between six and twelve people per household.
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Figure 2: Tweetheni informal settlement located to the north of the city.

Tweetheni is not a great place to live. Like most other settlements in the area the occupants do not own the
land they occupy. Niikondo (2010, p. 1) argues that rural immigrants to the City of Windhoek “feel like
transient residents rather than citizens, and as a consequence take no responsibility for their surroundings”.
He lists 5 major reasons why immigrants to urban areas don’t occupy formal or permanent houses:
• Having no entitlement rights;
• No purchasing power or capital available to make one time housing investments;
• The cultural and traditional tendency of accumulating funds to invest in their communal lands;
• The low cost associated with staying in temporary dwellings on un-serviced land vs. the cost of
living in formalized areas, and
• Lack of understanding of urban life and its cost (Niikondo 2010, p. 3).
Besides the obvious social struggles like lack of access to basic services and education, inappropriate shelter,
unemployment, malnutrition and poverty there is a lot to be said for the way in which these communities
have succeeded in many tasks which the nation-state has failed to perform. In taking care of their own
housing and commercial needs, the community of Tweetheni to a large extent have generated a uniquely
resilient and sustainable model for urban living.
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Democratic spaces Bentley et al.

(1985, p. 9) refer to places as being “responsive”. They outline seven key issues in making places responsive:
legibility, permeability, variety, robustness, visual appropriateness, richness and personalization. Although
published in the mid-eighties on the other side of the world, this publication illustrates practical guidelines
for designers which could be adapted universally.
They argue that “the built environment should provide its users with an essentially democratic setting,
enriching their opportunities by maximizing the degree of choice available to them”. It is against this
background that the following chapters will argue that the inhabitants of Tweetheni have – with minimal
input from government, private consultants or academics – created a uniquely responsive and therefore
democratic environment.
RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENTS
Permeability and legibility
Tweetheni comprises a series of small city blocks linked with dirt roads. The area is well-connected to major
arterial routes by tarred roads. On a micro level, smaller pedestrian paths between private areas create
multiple troughfares with maximum choice of movement. According to Bentley et al. (1985, p. 12) “Smaller
blocks… give more physical permeability for a given investment in public space”.
Public spaces are well-connected with a variety of routes available to users. In comparing block sizes and
plot dimensions of a typical informal settlement to that of the city’s planned suburbs (Figure 3), it becomes
obvious why appropriately scaled city blocks are crucial for permeability and consequent user choice and
overall accessibility.
Figure 3: Comparative scale of city blocks - Tweetheni (left) and planned suburbs (right).
Individual demarcations in informal settlements also aren’t fenced off entirely. Instead, improvised
thresholds separating private areas from public routes comprise varying levels of permeability which in turn
contribute to public space. From open verandas and planted fences to cornered off internal courtyards; the
results are always varied (Figure 4).
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Figure 4: Tweetheni - varied thresholds between public and private space.

“Ecology has shown that balance in nature is achieved by organic variation and complexity, not by
homogeneity and simplification” (Bookchin 1971, p. 41). The same can be said for urban form at varying
scales.
Lühl (2012, p. 26) describes Windhoek’s planned suburban neighbourhoods as “clear, self-contained,
identifiable units, with few connections to other neighbourhoods”. Even on a smaller scale he argues that
“the dominant housing typology is that of an individual plot with a detached house in the middle. In
conjunction with modernist zoning, this results in an urban fabric of low density and mono-functional
residential areas”. Increased scales of development and visually impermeable boundaries contribute to
limited choice and overall segregation.
Variety and robustness Not only do
smaller blocks allow more entries and choice but accommodate the densities required to support a variety
of functions. Increased variety leads to increased choice.
A typical informal settlement in Windhoek houses at least the following facilities within comfortable walking
distance of any residential unit: access to public transport; smaller businesses like barber shops and tailors;
kindergarten; tavern; food vendors or eateries; and market stalls selling fresh produce and basic neccessities.
These facilities are mostly grouped around main roadways and treets carrying slow-moving traffic.
Urban form in Tweetheni is adaptable and allows ritual to determine and regulate space. This encourages
community interaction and results in unexpected outcomes while planned areas of the city largely remain
inflexible often separating residential areas from commercial areas. A typical residential neighbourhood
houses almost none of the abovementioned facilities within 500m.
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250m 250m
500m
Figure 5: Comfortable walking distances - Tweetheni (left) and planned suburbs (right).
Bentley et al. (1985, p. 10) stresses that “places which can be used for many different purposes offer their
users more choice than places whose design limits them to a single fixed use”. Planned neighbourhoods
become specialised zones of single use while informal settlements maintain mixed-use zones with mulitple
small-scale economic opportunities.
Richness and personalisation Richness
implies sensory choice. Pallasmaa (2012, p. 73) argues that “the experience of place in an industrial culture,
and the affinity between man and environment, are disappearing at the level of both local identity and
man’s sense of place on a human scale. Local forms of building culture are being eradicated by the entropic
force of standardization exerted by industrial culture”. He points out specific characteristics that “work
towards a weakening of this sense of place on the human scale: over-scaled building complexes, excessive
repetition, standardization dictated by production techniques, a lack of spatial organization due to need or
flexibility, a flattening of shapes and surfaces called for by functional and economic considerations and an
overall erosion of form. Finally, an overall monotony of lighting, a lack of texture, and the eradication of
individual detail complete the loss of sense of place” (Pallasmaa, 2012, p. 74).
Figure 6: Unique richness and personalization.

Informal settlements in Windhoek have, to a large extent, been successful in maintaining a unique richness
and sense of place (Figure 6). It is through this unique sense of place that the inhabitants thrive within a
network of a larger social identity.
The non-western view of self is located within a wider social context. It can be described as interdependent.
Boundaries between individuals are less prominent as individuals are “more dependent on group
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characteristics” (Madanipour 2003, p. 20). In Namibia’s informal settlements, the private space of the home
extends into the realm of the community.
A typical floor plan layout (Figure 7) shows how individual units are intuitively clustered in such a way as to
provide a juxtaposition of private and communal spaces.
Figure 7: A typical floor plan layout.

Natural features like existing trees are incorporated into the design. Where required, a colonnade of trees
screens the ensemble from the adjacent public thoroughfare. Solid boundaries are only employed to
demarcate the most intimate private spaces of the home. Most of the household tasks would extend to
outdoor rooms and shared spaces. Materials for construction comprise a collage of readily available
materials and recycled components.

The conference theme Architecture Otherwhere suggests a shift from a mechanized world view to that of
systems thinking. Systems thinking urges us to stop viewing components in isolation and to re-evaluate our
understanding of richness. Our current town planning schemes and municipal by-laws are fixed within
archaic nationalist ideals of modernity. “The mark of modernity is increased volume and range of mobility
and so, inevitably, the weakening of the hold of locality and the local networks of interaction” (Bauman 1999,
p. xxx).
Spatial segregation is not just a consequence of social and economic challenges but a result of an
automobile dependent society. Instead of investigating models for higher density living, the current trends
in planning continue to encourage suburban sprawl.
Buildings in these solely residential neighbourhoods are generally concealed from the street by boundary
walls. This turns the suburban street into a dead zone. Roads in informal settlements become corridors of
interaction and opportunity while roads in the planned areas act as dividing elements. This, combined with
the dependence on motorised transport leaves little room for human interaction.
“Rising crime rates, real or perceived, further escalate the securitisation of homes and neighbourhoods”
(Lühl 2012, p. 27). If only people would realise the security value in higher visibility and the social value in
strengthened public-private thresholds.
The current town planning scheme even goes as far as prescribing a minimum lot size for single family
homes. This in turn results in larger block sizes, longer travel distances; limited choice and ultimately non-
democratic, non-resilient urban forms. The unnecessary inclusion of cul-de-sacs compound this (Figure 8).
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Figure 9: Planned neighbourhoods – unsustainable models for urban living.

Architecture indeed has the potential to influence thinking and policy as the conference theme suggests.
Tweetheni in this case teaches us invaluable lessons in planning for resilience:
• No formal zoning of uses and subsequent segregation
• Informal transport nodes are always within easy walking distance
• The settlement is walkable and private cars are seldom used
• Compact urban blocks improve choice and legibility
• Ring roads with cul-de-sacs are avoided
• Corridors between major nodes contain a variety of mixed-use functions
• Critical Densities are present to justify a variety of economic opportunities
• Integrated communities and public interaction
• Movement between various neighbourhoods is encouraged
• Public open space and green spaces are present
• Individual houses are assembled from readily available materials and recycled components
• Areas in-between living units are not fenced off which allows shared space for planting crops,
administering chores and recreation
• Eyes on the street make the street safer for a variety of recreational uses which in turn lead to slower
vehicular traffic
• Urban form remains adaptable and maintains a high degree of self-organisation.
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Figure 9: Tweetheni – a sustainable model for urban living.

This paper by no means suggests that living in an informal settlement is glamorous or ideal but rather
desires to highlight the necessity of re-assessing our current Westernised trends in planning and place-
making. Resilience is largely dependent on our ability to adapt, our capacity to reorganise and to learn from
the current state of our cities. In order for society to become truly resilient, we have to evolve from systems
of stringent planning and out-dated control mechanisms.
Our fast-growing, ever-changing ecosystems require a more holistic approach to urban planning.
Addressing social imbalances are instrumental in addressing the imbalances we have produced in the
natural world.
Pallasmaa (2012, p. 73) promotes what he calls traditional building, which “grows unconsciously out of
interaction of landscape, soil, climate, materials, and type of culture”, above an industrial culture. It is
through this unconscious interaction (tradition) that “the overall interaction between physical conditions, a
way of life, and psychological needs are developed towards a balance…In the end there is complete affinity
between the individual and the community, between thinking and place.”
REFERENCES
Bauman, Z. 1999. Culture as praxis, The Cromwell Press Ltd, Wiltshire.
Bently, I, Alcock, A, Murrain, P, McGlynn, S & Smith, G., 1985. Responsive environments – A manual for designers,
Routledge, New York.
Bookchin, M., 1971. Post-scarcity anarchism, Ramparts Press, San Francisco.
Capra, F., 1996. The web of life – A new synthesis of mind and matter, HarperCollins Publishers, London.
Lühl, P., 2012. ‘The production of inequality: From colonial planning to neoliberal urbanisation in Windhoek’,
Digest of Namibian Architecture, pp. 26-31.
Madanipour, A., 2003. Public and private spaces of the city, Routledge, New York.
National Planning Commission, 2011. Namibia 2011 Population and Housing Census Preliminary Results.
Niikondo, A., 2010. ‘Migrants to cities and towns in Namibia: What their interests are?’, Polytechnic of Namibia,
viewed 10 October 2012,
http://ir.polytechnic.edu.na/bitstream/10628/249/1/Niikondo.%20Migrants%20to%20cities%20and%20towns%
20in%20Namibia.pdf.
Pallasmaa, J., 2012. Encounters 1 – architectural essays, Rakennustieto Publishing, Finland.
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Surjan, A, Sharma, A & Shaw, R., 2011. ‘Climate and disaster resilience in cities’, Community, Environment and
Disaster Risk Management, vol. 6, pp. 17-45.
Wigglesworth, S., 2013. ‘Reshaping the spatial economy’, RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts),
viewed 16 March 2014, http://www.thersa.org/fellowship/journal/archive/spring-2013/features/reshaping-the-
spatial-economy.
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THE ROLE OF ORAL HISTORY IN ARCHITECTURAL PEDAGOGY IN BANGLADESH
Ishraq Z Khan, Lecturer, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, ikhan@archsociety.com
Abstract
Oral traditions are an essential source of information for architectural history in South Asia, particularly in
countries such as Bangladesh where the dearth of archival material and critical publications on the subject leave
it as one of the only viable sources of knowledge to be referred to. Survivors of the first generations of trained
architects in the country still exist in practice as do sources on local brands of sustainability passed down through
word of mouth, but academic curricula are yet to refer to either. All architecture schools in Bangladesh still use
linear, survey type history theory courses borrowed from older Western models with no room for oral history or
any other local creative inputs.
Another interesting thing to note is that only two private university curricula have so far introduced courses on
rural architecture, even though 71.9 percent of the population of the country still live in rural areas according to a
survey conducted by the World Bank in 2010. This might be owed to these courses requiring an out of the box,
informal pedagogical approach not based primarily on typical textbooks or other printed materials but rather on
first hand experiences and narratives.
This paper would attempt to assess the relevance of oral history in the teaching of locally designed courses in
schools in Bangladesh. It would analyse the significance of oral history in architectural narratives through
discussing a number of important recent projects relying on this such as Rem Koolhaas' Project Japan:
Metabolism Talks and the Art Institute of Chicago's Chicago Architects Oral History Project and also look at the
syllabi and pedagogies of the first courses on rural or informal architecture in Bangladesh. It would discuss how as
informality is recognized as a productive force in architecture, oral history becomes an integral contributor to its
development.
Keywords: oral, pedagogy, interdisciplinary, bottom up.
INTRODUCTION
Oral history has always been integral to the study and practice of architecture in the Indian subcontinent.
However, it has remained in the peripheries of academia and has yet to be officially recognized as a
significant resource for pedagogy and research.
The absence of written records and hence any official validation of certain unique building techniques and
styles particular to region and climate have kept processes integral to sub-continental architecture out of
the official, approved curricula of institutions. This causes the products of these schools to suffer a
disconnection with the ground realities upon graduation. In Bangladesh for instance, given the turnout from
architecture schools each year, there should be an architect for almost every 640,000 people and yet after
subtracting the 71.9% that live in rural areas, the 47 million that live in poverty and cannot afford architects
and a large number who simply don’t hire them, the ratio comes down considerably. In order to access the
rest of the population the curricula in schools and the discipline in general would have to reevaluate
themselves and include important sources that have so far been neglected.
For a country like Bangladesh, already rich in orally transmitted music, poetry and even building techniques
and one in which institutionalized architectural education was established as late at 1968, oral history
becomes an interesting and even more valuable alternative to traditional pedagogical resources in the
discipline.
Particularly in reaction to globalized homogeneity, the unrecorded and unrepresented becomes an
important counter movement in support of the local, questioning the validity of including particulars in the
increasingly popular arena of the general. Is it possible to encompass the particular, in terms of ideas like
critical regionalism, within the confines of the global? Would doing that strengthen or diminish its essence?
This paper intends to examine the existing possibilities for using oral history as a reliable resource in
architectural education and in the process examine the nature of oral traditions, their use in pedagogy in
general as well as in recording architectural history.
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THE NATURE AND METHODS OF ORAL HISTORY

Oral history is the collection and study of information about something, in this case architecture, using
transcriptions of planned interviews. Compared to other methods of recording and interpreting history, this
comes usually from the horse’s mouth and thus contains unique information presented from a unique
perspective, making the data qualitative in nature.
Following the raised interest in memory and its recording after the World War II and the post 1970s hype of
the subjective, there has been an increasing significance of personal testimony and interpretation in
interdisciplinary legal and political practices (Thomson 2007, p. 30). It has also been suggested that oral
history adds to innovations in archival practices (Swain 2003). As history recorded from the bottom up, it is
no longer believed to be restricted to “common folk, minorities and the illiterate” (Baum 2007, p. 14) but it is
still sidelined as resource as reliable as written history.
There are two effective methods that may be employed in bringing oral history into architectural pedagogy,
one where already collected data is taught to a class like teaching from textbooks, and another where the
class itself is engaged in the collecting, evaluating and interpreting data through oral methods. In the few
courses that have unofficially begun to venture into informal resources, the second method has proved
effective as a lot of the orally transmitted building processes have yet to be recorded and the process of
recording provides the close encounters as fertile learning environments for students.
ORAL TRADITIONS IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

Although not in the discipline of architecture, oral histories of developing countries in general have been
very useful in narrating and interpreting the socio-politics of the third world, at times directly linked to the
idea of democratization because of its acceptance of interdisciplinary and non-hegemonic voices. In Latin
American countries for instance, the oral history recorded requires a unique set of solutions and approaches
guided by their own commitments to their unique social and cultural environments. In fact, the post-
colonial experience is broken down into complex and highly intellectual discourse through integrating an
understanding of history by pairing colonialist texts with more democratically recorded oral histories. Thus,
alongside preservation and restoration, oral history can in such cases become grounds for challenging or
questioning certain versions of national history.
The oral history of Brazil, for example, began to be recorded through independent initiatives like the
Memorias do Exilio: Muitos Caminhos, the narratives of banished political prisoners outside the country, to
be followed by many such small initiatives (Meihy & Bom 1999). As the antithesis of traditional
historiography, it became the voice of the general and national and when introduced into the intellectual
arena, it gained importance as a documented source comparable to written histories, forcing the universities
or institutions handling it, to assume an active role in filtering and interpreting the data to obtain a ‘pure’
form of objective oral history.
This is a particularly interesting example, as the history of architecture in the subcontinent or what little is
recorded of it comes largely from colonial texts and drawings produced by the British Raj or historians
trained and influenced by colonial education, so a large portion of the informal, local character of processes
is lost in translation.
The Archivo Sonoro in Mexico later transformed into the more organized Programme de Historia Oral/PHO
under the jurisdiction of the National Institute of Anthropology and History is also a useful example to cite.
What began as a humble effort to convince both academics and the general public of the significance of oral
history as a form of primary material for future research and not a waste of time, became one of the most
comprehensive projects of its kind. Covering a wide range of topics including rural education, political
history and the history of cinema as a medium that records social changes, the project advocated how oral
history fills a unique need in a country that has undergone significant changes in the present century (Fry et
al. 1972).
Certain important ideas for possible oral history projects in Bangladesh surface from a discussion of the
examples cited. Recording oral histories of architecture can almost never be an isolated project but will
inevitably include information about the socio-political and cultural milieu that is its backdrop, which might
make it more palatable for official institutions or funding bodies. This would also mean that architecture
schools might collaborate with other development agencies and bodies to record and interpret oral history
from multiple perspectives, to reveal an array of topics internal to a single narrative. Also, oral histories are
usually considered a part of the humanities and social sciences and thus would be difficult to integrate into
the teaching of architecture, which is still largely considered a technical subject in countries like Bangladesh.
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IN THE CLASSROOM AND ON THE INTERNET

Using oral history as a teaching tool or resource is not a new concept. Some programs, particularly in high
schools in the United States have introduced recording oral history by a class as part of their curriculum. In
these cases it has been proved to aid students develop a more thorough understanding of the recent past
and give them a lesson in historical interpretation through asking the right questions in an interview
(Schweitzer 1993).
The oral history association of the USA conducted early surveys that show that the stated objectives for
introducing it in pedagogy were to convince the students that history exists even outside textbooks,
develop interpersonal skills through interviews and introduce alternative research methods through
gathering and evaluating new knowledge (Neuenschwander et al. 1975). They identified the process to be a
“worthwhile and effective adjunct” to be used in combination with written history but not a substitute for it.
They also often concluded that for various reasons oral historical methods appear to have a better place in
research than in pedagogy.
Later surveys however, confirmed its role in teaching, also stating that although the surveys were conducted
at high school level, “oral history is effective in promoting cognitive and effective achievement in most
educational levels” (Lanman 1989, p. 215): Post 1987, oral history appears to have been increasingly used in
courses outside history classes and employed improved technology and publications to aid its use in
pedagogy. The surveys included detailed recommendations for improving its use such as the development
of publications and workshops that discuss how to maximize its use, publication of curricular suggestions
and lesson plans specifically designed for each level of education, production of oral or video based
instructions on how to record oral history, develop qualitative and quantitative research on the educational
use of oral history, guidelines for its use, promoting its use through educational journals and other media.
In the case of architectural education at undergraduate level, the same techniques of building awareness of
oral traditions and their significance to a place/region specific architecture can be employed.
Oral history has also become increasingly popular on the web with sites providing audio downloads of
interviews as well as transcriptions for free as part of archive and library projects. On the one hand, the cost
free aspect of it adds to its popularity but on the other, it risks diminishing its weight in serious academia.
Architecture and landscape architecture oral history projects are few but very effective in creating a
groundwork for further experiments in the field. The Pioneers of American Landscape Design initiative
provides oral testimonies and interviews that reveal and help protect typically less known and threatened
works of landscape architecture in the United States.5 The American Institute of Architects Oral History
Project sponsored by the Dallas branch of the AIA puts online biographical interviews of Dallas’s recognized
architects. Their work is revealed through the interviews and through them the history of architecture of the
region.6 The Chicago Architects Oral History Project documents the contributions of architects to the urban
landscape of Chicago in the 20th Century, narratives that reveal the city’s development from the 1900s to the
present day through comprehensive as well as short interviews strewn with information as well as personal
reflections. In some instances though, the information goes beyond the city and into the lives of the
architects themselves playing out in other geographical locations. For example, an interview with architect
Stanley Tigerman reveals details of his many visits to Dhaka, Bangladesh on invitation from his friend,
architect Muzharul Islam to work on a number of polytechnic colleges in small towns. The information
contained in the interview has never been recorded anywhere else and gives a detailed idea not just about
the projects themselves but also about the socio-political background that made them possible.
ORALITY IN BANGLADESH
Dakshin duari gharer raja/ Pub duari tahar praja
Pashchim duarir mukhe chhai/ Uttar duarir khajna nai
(The house open on the south is the king of houses
The house open on the East is its subject
The house open on the West will burn to ashes
The house open on the North won’t get any rent).
The lines above were translated from a collection of proverbs popularly known as Khanar Bachan. Through a
simple rhyme they outline the basics of building orientation in what tropical architecture would label a ‘hot-
humid’ region where through ventilation would be possible through openings in the south and the worst
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5
1. https://tclf.org/pioneer/oral-history-project
6
2. http://dallaslibrary2.org/texas/oralHistory/projects/aia.html
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heat endured by the Western facades of a building. Legend has it that an ancient female sage, Khana had
orally philosophized to her followers over 600 verses about practical life in the deltaic region. Of these a
considerable number is focused on the building of houses, sustainability and building orientation. Although
popularly cited in academia for its treasure trove of agricultural knowledge, it has never been used in
architectural education in a significant way. This is the oldest form of orally transferred architectural
knowledge in the region. But a closer study reveals that the true character of the building arts in the country
are all still embedded in a culture of orality, being passed down from generation to generation through the
guru-shishya method of education, a form of apprenticeship described by Charles Correa in Learning from
Eklavya (1997).
Architecture, treated as a craft practice has its unique set of principles, technologies and materials for each
geographical region within the country depending on microclimate, material availability and spatial
requirements of each unique lifestyle. For instance, there is a very particular method to ram earth for
construction in North Bengal that is unique to the region. The walls are kept thick to maintain thermal
comfort through thermal mass. Rammed earth is used to construct blocks, which are laid in layers. These
techniques have been passed down by word of mouth until recorded by a few independent academics very
recently. However, they are yet to be taught in architecture schools with as much rigor as Koenigsburger’s
typologies for the tropics.
Recording their oral histories as part of a class and creating publications to be taught at undergraduate level
would not only record their achievements but also create grounds for patenting their uniqueness,
distinguishing them from similar practices in neighboring regions. Legal protection of construction
techniques can be achieved through a combination of the Geographical Indicators and the Traditional
Knowledge acts, both of which would also be an official acknowledgement or record of the existence of
these types. Legal processes can thus be used to give importance and recognition to oral traditions in order
to make them distinguishable to governing bodies.
EXPERIMENTS IN OPERATION
A comparative study of the courses taught in the schools of architecture reveal that a large number of
curricula are slightly modified versions of the first one made effective at the Bangladesh University of
Engineering and Technology, BUET in 1968 and have little scope to include oral history in any of their
existing courses. Some schools have begun to include a few courses on rural architecture as electives but
currently the only significant exceptions are the courses taught at BRAC University, a school with a
development orientation and backed by BRAC, an NGO.
School Course Reliance on Oral History
BRAC University ARC 431 Rural Architecture High

(Private University) (2 Credits) Rural settlements, their typologies and variations,
socio-cultural, economic and technical influences
on them. Taught organically through on site
demonstrations and interactions with rural
builders. Few textbooks, relies almost entirely on
non-traditional sources.
ARC 432 Housing & Development Medium
(2 Credits) The role and importance of housing in
development, particularly focused on developing
countries. Issues of affordability, sustainability.
Relies partly on reports produced by
development institutions, which are in turn
based on ground surveys.
ARC 391 Rural Housing High
(2 Credits) Governmental and non- governmental rural
housing schemes in terms of sanitation, land
tenure, technology, etc. Relies largely on
unofficially recorded data alongside reports and
other non-traditional sources.
ARC 393 Building for Disasters Medium
(2 Credits) Building design to withstand different natural
disasters like earthquakes and floods. Relies on
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manuals produced by NGOs and other bodies for

training locals to prepare for and prevent
property damage caused by disasters.
North South ARC 456 Rural Studies Medium
University (Elective, 3 Credits) Nature and scope of rural development, material
(Private University) and construction systems taught from the
perspective of development institutions.
Collaborations with NGOs etc.
BUET ARC 531 Rural Planning Low
(Public University) (2 Credit) Planning and policy-making theories, rural
development projects in terms of concepts,
principles and techniques.
Figure 1: Levels of use of oral history in 3 schools of architecture.
BRAC’s mission statement makes clear the school’s objective to produce responsible and creative designers
who would advocate the local, and become the future designers of the developing world.7 Their courses
thus had a certain commitment towards the yet unrecorded and informal knowledge bases, albeit in the
shadows of the list of texts approved by the University Grants Commission, UGC.
The ARC 431 Rural Architecture course relies largely on unrecorded or informally recorded data outside the
UGC approved list. For example, a usual exercise in the class sends each student to record the history of
building construction in each of their native villages. As most families in Bangladeshi cities are usually 2-3
generations out of the rural areas, it is easy for each student to pick a rural settlement to study. At the end of
the project the student discusses the patterns of settlements, their spatial requirements, material use and
construction techniques in light of the socio-cultural backdrop of the region.
This is a typical exercise for recording oral history and since each student is tracing his/her own roots in a
manner of speaking, they are curious and intuitive and can produce interesting results within a short period
of time which are then presented to and discussed with the rest of the class and in the context of the
geographical region to which the village belongs. The products of these courses take a genuine interest in
informal settlements and their planning upon graduation and show distinguishable sensibilities and skills in
working contexts as part of larger groups.
For example, a recent project conducted by the teachers and graduates who previously took these courses,
in the design of informal slum settlements in Comilla shows how despite the courses’ focus being on the
rural, the principles and skills acquired may be employed in the context of any informal settlements. The
project is funded by the World Bank and conducted by BRAC University in collaboration with a number of
development projects and architecture firms including UPPR (Urban Partnership of Poverty Reduction) and
Manchester University. It attempts a bottom up organic approach to redesigning informal settlements in
chosen areas starting with a brief and then going in-depth into material and spatial needs and uses through
ground surveys. Through interactions with group members from other schools and systems not exposed to
bottom up research and oral historical traditions, it is evident how well the courses prepare their products
for interview based surveys.
The ARC 393 is another interesting course that relies to a large extent on reports on issues of flood shelters,
cyclone shelters and other disaster reduction manuals prepared by national and international development
agencies which are often based on orally collected information or data relying on ground surveys instead of
textbook scenarios. For example, they use reports prepared by DIPECHO8 on flood shelters in Bangladesh
and other reports published by UNDP, the World Bank9 and the United Nations International Strategy for
Disaster Reduction and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center. These introduce a second format for local
data outside the published textbook format, the format of manuals that consist of instructions, images and
visuals and are prepared with a development orientation.
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7
“An education to prepare tomorrow's architects for the challenges of a technologically developing world and the challenges
that face our nation. To seek solutions that respect the social, cultural and aesthetic needs of the people they serve and work
towards the development of an ecologically balanced and sustainable built environment. To learn and to creatively apply
modern skills to a modernizing society.”
8
A Comparative analysis of Flood Shelters in Bangladesh, a published report by the DIPECHO partners in Bangladesh
based on research carried out jointly with the Postgraduate Programs in Disaster Management (PPDM) of BRAC University
and the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) of BUET.
9
The Multipurpose Cyclone Shelter Programme (MCSP) report, a UNDP-World Bank commissioned study conducted by
BUET and the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
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The ARC 456 Rural Studies Course at North South University also approaches learning through development
agencies but through a hands on approach. In collaboration with NGOs such as UN Habitat, the course
makes students construct practical additions like bathrooms to rural settlements and through choosing and
employing different techniques and materials, learning to negotiate climate, geography and social tastes.
Most of the courses cited refer to rural or semi-rural contexts but it may be important to understand that oral
history need not be limited to such contexts or entirely bottom up approaches. Although bottom up in
nature as it relies on interviewing and on public participation in historical processes, the other aspect of it
that makes it unique is the aspect of opinion, of perspective, of subjectivity that can come even from a
narrative of a top down designer explaining his motives. No courses in current curricula acknowledge the
need to narrate the urban and the formally planned, which have their own perspectives to bring to the table,
and which, even as they participate in the modernization and globalization processes, are nonetheless
important unrecorded parts of the history of Bangladeshi architecture.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RECENT PAST

The 60s Modernist architecture which coincided with the institutionalization of the discipline in East
Pakistan remains unrecorded. Almost all models following this period has a post histoire attitude, mimicking
or improving the achievements of the generation in question, invested on both by a manipulative regime
and American development agencies. Oral history could be the only effective way to record and interpret
this period, because as mentioned earlier, it is best suited to recording the recent past.
Surviving members of the generation in question could be systematically interviewed and through their
narratives the larger story could be objectively pieced together. The Chicago Architecture Oral History
project is an ideal model to learn from in this case. It frames the life histories of important architects of
Chicago, not necessarily asking the same questions every time but questions enquiring into a larger
framework of information that may be held in common.
Rem Koolhas and Hans Ulrich Obrist’s most recent venture, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks is also a good
exemplar in this regard. Through interviews of surviving members of the avant-garde Metabolist generation
in Japan, the project becomes a vivid collection of visions that shaped Japanese post-war architecture and
the profound impact it had on all that followed. One of the reasons why this is relevant is due to the
similarities that can be drawn between the two developing nations and the architectural movement that
emerged almost as a response to an ideological void left either by colonialism, oppression or war. There is
also the idea of nation building through creating a framework for architecture collectively and consciously
and the need to project this other side of oral history that contributes to but also breaks down the idea of a
meta-narrative that is the signature historical prototype of Modernism.
A FUTURE CULTURE
Much has already been suggested for improving how oral histories are received and interpreted in academia
such as exhibitions, public discussion panels, drama, publications, circulation of good examples through
public library systems and curriculum aids to acquaint students and instructors to its benefits and processes
(Baum 2007).
In Bangladeshi architecture, a rich oral historical tradition already exists and is being unofficially referred to
in educational institutions. However, the level of use is still low and restricted to certain types of courses
focused on the local or rural. In order for it to be accepted and respected as a standard resource in
pedagogy, in terms of recording as well as interpreting, allowing it into regular history and urban studies
courses is an imperative. It is important to develop an academic culture in which the methodologies and
techniques of oral history usage may be experimented with and recorded in the form of publications. One
way to develop such a culture would be to do a number of initial recordings on not just architectural history
exclusively but a socio-cultural one in which the built environment is a part. The recordings could then be
made available for free online to generate a level of interest in the subject and the processes.
As realized through the course of the paper, using oral history in an undergraduate classroom requires a
certain kind of freedom at two levels. One would be at the level of governing bodies such as the UGC, which
could allow the universities or programs in question the freedom to experiment with alternative sources and
knowledge bases outside textbooks. In fact, to encourage and promote new processes in this direction the
bodies could potentially fund or create grants to support such projects and courses. The second freedom is
that allowed the teachers of courses that would dedicate themselves to recording, interpreting or simply
sharing oral historical or informally collected knowledge in the studio/class. In courses with alternative
pedagogies, the teacher is the curriculum and must be allowed the freedom to have a personal goal or
vision for the kind of outputs he/she expects from the course.
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As an academic pursuit, the narrative quality of history in the subcontinent and its personalized telling may
be an interesting way to rethink the monolithic interpretations of post-colonial thought, constantly
suspected of siding with either extreme- an inherently safe, colonial approach or a desperately, at times
clueless subaltern rebellion. Oral history may become in time a liberating experience that instead of
reconciling the contradictions in the deltaic architecture of Bangladesh would critically examine its
components piece by piece, through counter histories.
REFERENCES
Ahmed, KIA., 1994. Up to the waist in mud: Earth-based architecture in rural Bangladesh, University Press
Limited, Dhaka.
Armstrong, A., 2008. ‘Digitizing and preserving oral histories of architects’, Art Documentation: Journal of the
Art Libraries Society of North America, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 15-21.
Baum, W., 2007. ‘The other uses of oral history’, The Oral History Review, vol. 34, no.1, pp. 13-24.
Correa, C., 1997. Learning from ekavya, the education of the architect: Historiography, urbanism, and growth of
architectural knowledge, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Fry, A, Meyer, R, de Bonfil, E & Olivera, A., 1972. ‘Oral history: Oral history in Mexico’, The Journal of Library
History, vol. 7, no.4, pp. 360-365
Hamilton, C., 2008. ‘On being a good interviewer: Empathy, ethics and the politics of oral history’, Oral
History, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 35-43.
Kirby, RK., 2008. ‘Phenomenology and the problems of oral history’, The Oral History Review, vol.35, no. 1, pp.
22-38.
Lanman, BA., 1989. ‘The use of oral history in the classroom: A comparative analysis of the 1974 and 1987
oral history association surveys’, The Oral History Review, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 215-226.
McAdoo, H., 1980. ‘Oral history as a primary resource in educational research’, The Journal of Negro Education,
vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 414-422.
Meihy, JCSB., 1999. ‘Oral history in Brazil: Development and challenges’, The Oral History Review, vol. 26, no. 2,
pp. 127-136.
Morrissey, CT., 1992. ‘Beyond oral evidence: Speaking (con)strictly about oral history’, Archival Issues, vol. 17,
no. 2, pp. 89-94.
Neuenschwander, John, Mathews, Johnye, Charlton, T., 1975. ‘The use of oral history in teaching: A report on
the 1974 survey’, The Oral History Review, vol. 3, pp. 59-67.
Perks, R., 1999. ‘Oral history websites’, Oral History, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 87-89.
Schweitzer, MM., 1993. ‘Oral history in the classroom’, Pennsylvania History, vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 496-499.
Swain, ED., 2003. ‘Oral history in the archives: Its documentary role in the Twenty-First century’, The American
Archivist, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 139-158.
Thomson, A., 2007. ‘Four paradigm transformations in oral history’, The Oral History Review, vol. 34, no. 1, pp.
29-70.
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PART 4 : ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION FORUM

The Architectural Education Forum for Southern Africa will be hosting a critical discussion by
educators around transformation and education, looking at educating architects in ways that are
relevant and responsive to diverse and dynamic new contexts. Session one will be discussions around
poster presentations on current strategies and session two aims to map a way forward in educational
research.
Educational models from Europe and America have to be transformed to harness the potential of the
multi-layered and multi-cultural contexts of Africa. A global conversation between educators can
uniquely interrogate the gaps between theory, practice and society.
Ariane Janse van rensburg is a Senior lecturer in design and teaching and learning convenor in
the School of Architecture and Planning, university of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She has
is currently busy with her PhD research on enabling transformation in architectural education.
Ariane is also involved in various university teaching and learning bodies and serves SACAP and CAA
accreditation panels. She started the Architectural Education Forum after a successful symposium
hosted at Wits this year (2014).
GO TO CONTENTS PAGE
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION
A CASE FOR INCLUSION OF APPROPRIATE BUILDING TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE BUILDING

DESIGN IN UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Prof. Vasanth K. Bhat, Dean, Acharya School of Architecture, Bangalore, mailvkbhat@yahoo.com,

deanasa@acharya.ac.in
Abstract
It is observed that the curriculum for undergraduate architectural education in most developing countries is
oriented towards western concepts of building. By the time students come out of Architecture schools, they have
western oriented pattern of education, less suited to the needs of their own society. Thus they end up practicing in
cities and towns turning out buildings in cement and steel, which are energy consuming, inefficient,
climatologically inappropriate and unaffordable for the large majority.
The purpose of this paper is to make a case for inclusion of the principles, methods and materials of appropriate
building technology (ABT) building in a cost-effective manner, designing in consonance with local ecological
factors, etc. in the curriculum of architectural education in developing countries.
Keywords: curriculum, appropriate technology, sustainable building design, undergraduate.
DESIGN AND METHODS
To fulfil the objective of inculcating a basic aptitude for designing buildings using cost-effective technology,
methods and materials of construction appropriate to the region, and to build in a sustainable way, the
curriculum needs to be redesigned in such a way that each subject offered at various levels in the course of
study consists of components of the above mentioned factors. The students are made aware of traditional
building technology of a particular country/region, right from undergraduate level.
INTRODUCTION
It is observed that the curriculum for undergraduate architectural education in most developing countries is
oriented towards western concepts of building. The students are taught to think in terms of designing in
steel and concrete. Even courses like theory of architecture consist of study of western architects from
Vitruvius and Palladio to Le Corbusier. Consequently, by the time students come out of architecture schools,
they have a set pattern of thinking which is more western oriented and less suited to the needs of their own
society. Thus they end up practicing in cities and towns turning out buildings in cement and steel, which are
highly energy consuming, inefficient, climatologically inappropriate and unaffordable for a large majority.
The inclusion of Appropriate Building Technology in the curriculum of the undergraduate course in
architecture is an important paradigmatic shift for contemporary architecture education, in view of growing
concerns for inclusive growth for the deprived sections of the society and the role of Architects towards
promoting the use of locally available skills and materials in shaping the built environment. Precisely for this
reason, schools of architecture across the world, especially in developing countries should strive to
incorporate ABT in the curriculum. In this context, it could also be argued that the inclusion of ABT in the
curriculum should be made a precondition for architecture schools seeking recognition and validation for
their courses at the national / international level and also as a precondition for affiliation of B.Arch
programmes to the University.
A core challenge facing architectural education in developing countries, specifically in India, is how to
develop and support the implementation of a project-based, technology-rich curriculum that is consistent
with the needs of sustainability and addressing the problem of shelter for the masses. In this article, we
discuss the challenges of integrating university-developed, project-based curricula, providing a
contextualizing framework for including studies relating to appropriate technology in designing for the built
environment.
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ABT programmes need to engage students with basic courses related to locally available materials, and
technology, skill sets, climate, comfort and building/material performance. How this translates into
architecture as ABT solutions needs to be further explored... Courses are what could be described as
‘Support’ or ‘Lecture’ based courses independent of the ‘Design Studio’. There can also be an attempt at
following an “… integrated teaching approach, that integrates design with the techniques and practices of
construction, structures, materials and building services, all within a theoretical and historical context,
keeping in mind human needs (social, physiological and cultural)” (Uganda Martyrs University 2012).This can
be translated into integrated studio based courses that explore ABT both in terms of theoretical issues
coupled with design exploration.
While there is an awareness of the need for ABT in architecture education indicated by the existence of
courses that reference the same, perceptions of faculty and students to ABT in general and as it relates to
architecture education needs to be investigated.
The lack of interest to assimilate ABT into architecture education may also be linked to the current discourse
within architecture practice, with the fit-for-practice debate dominating architecture education dialogue in
the region. With architecture education perceived to be the preparation of graduates to participate in the
production of architecture – as it exists today – moves towards new paradigms in architecture education.
Need for the propagation of ABT in developing countries

As the need for land, food and housing increases rapidly in developing countries all over the world, we are
faced with the pressure of supply. The concept of development then needs to be re-examined to be able to
meet the demand. We need to create and promote new approaches for a more accountable and sustainable
future, where solutions grow from place. Where there is ‘ecological accounting’ and ‘equity in resource
accessibility’.
The architectural fraternity should be made aware of the fact that as a fall-out of the life styles and
development strategies of the last 100 odd years, in most developing countries, in terms of inequity,
growing pollution and depletion of natural resources, the basic needs of the growing population especially
in terms of shelter for the deprived masses will not be met through conventional developmental methods,
materials and technologies.
In this context, it is imperative to encourage and propagate the extensive use of “Appropriate Building
Technology”. In most developing countries, it is absolutely essential to be able to achieve the goal of shelter
for all by the turn of this century without damaging the environment by indiscriminate use of concrete and
steel.
To be able to achieve this goal, it is extremely important to inculcate among architects a basic aptitude for
designing buildings using cost-effective technology, methods and materials of construction appropriate to
the region. It is observed that the curriculum for undergraduate architectural education in most developing
countries is oriented towards western concepts of building. The students are taught to think in terms of
designing in steel and concrete. Even courses like theory of architecture consist of study of western
architects from Vitruvius and Palladio to Le-Corbusier. Consequently, by the time students come out of
architecture schools, they have a set pattern of thinking which is more western oriented and less suited to
the needs of their own society. Thus they end up practicing in cities and towns turning out buildings in
cement and steel, which are highly energy consuming, inefficient, climatologically inappropriate and
unaffordable for a large majority.
An objective of architectural education is to educate professionals capable of creating meaningful

environments (Salama 2002). What we regard as meaningful designed environments has been subject to
various interpretations over the years. However, recent developments suggest that there is a shift towards a
more holistic view, related to inclusive growth for the deprived sections of the society. Some long held
beliefs and assumptions about human interaction with the natural environment were no longer appropriate.
For Cortese (2003), these were: “Humans are the dominant species and separate from the rest of nature;
Resources are free and inexhaustible; Earth’s ecosystems can assimilate all human impacts; Technology will
solve most of society’s problems; All human needs and wants can be met through material means, and;
Individual success is independent of the health and well-being of communities, cultures and the life support
system” (p. 17). It is evident that architects should take a pro-active role in the custodianship of the
environment, through the use of appropriate technology, resulting in fair deployment of locally available
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natural resources, local skill sets, etc. in shaping the built environment. This is especially true in the case of
developing countries where state intervention is absolutely necessary in the provision of much needed
housing stock and social infrastructure like schools and hospitals. Architectural education should take a
leading role in bringing about this transformation (Boyer and Mitgang 1996, Groat and Ahrentzen 1997).
Besides, it is observed that in most developing countries, for example, in India, though ABT is well
researched and pilot projects executed by a few Institutions like Development Alternatives in N. Delhi, IISC in
Bangalore, , to name a few, the results of this R&D has remained by and large limited to a few pilot projects.
There are only a handful of architects, mainly in metropolitan cities like Bangalore, Trivandrum, etc. who
have taken up the application of these ABT in their projects more as a passion. This lack of implementation
of ABT in buildings can be attributed to the following factors:
a) Lack of awareness among the masses and practitioners regarding appropriate technology options
for sustainable habitat development.
b) Lack of an effective delivery system to transfer technologies from R&D institutions to the ultimate
users.
c) A construction culture which makes excessive use of energy intensive and high cost building
materials like steel, cement, etc.
d) Lack of trained manpower to propagate sustainable technology options to the grass roots.
e) No inputs of Cost Effective Building technology options and lack of awareness of the principles of
appropriate building technology in academic programmes of architectural institutions.
It could hence be argued that among the above issues, the last issue, namely, lack of awareness of the
principles of appropriate technology in academic programmes of architectural institutions is solely
responsible for the non-percolation of the benefits of ABT in the society. Hence, if this issue is addressed, all
the earlier four issues will be taken care of by default. Under such circumstances, it is imperative to include
appropriate building technology (ABT) in the curriculum of architectural education in developing countries.
ABT as an extension of traditional architecture
Integrating concepts of traditional architecture with the modern is another important aspect enabling the
success and sustainability of ABT. This could be an effective model for inclusion as a co-curricular activity
that can be effectively sustained. It is my strong contention that for all proponents of appropriate
technology in the building sector, especially students of architecture, the study of traditional or vernacular
architecture is of great importance due to the following reasons:
1. Traditional architecture bears witness to the continuity of history and hence is of great educational value
to the passing generation. 2. Architectural education should contribute to the revival of traditional
architecture. 3. Educational Institutions should make efforts at blending the traditional with modern trends
in architecture.
There is a need for a concerted effort to align curricula in architecture programmes with ABT and
sustainability principles, with Wright (2003) identifying three methods schools have taken in this quest:
• Sustainability is a fundamental component of architecture and therefore should be integral to the
curriculum. As such, there is no need to address it outside the normal theory and practice;
• Environmental Design and Sustainability are part of existing environmental control courses, with faculty
taking these courses incorporating them into these courses;
• Introducing ABT design into architecture programmes through a complete review and revision to the
curriculum to incorporate sustainability into all aspects of the curriculum.
There are a number of challenges associated with these approaches, particularly related to the latter two.
Wright (2003) suggests that the incorporation of ABT as part of existing environmental courses, does not
guarantee that it will be integrated into the design studio. Besides, having a complete review of a curriculum
would require the entire faculty to be on-board in order to ensure that ABT is properly integrated into the
curriculum and the design studio. For this to happen there needs to be a strong desire for change from
faculty, as well as a strong leadership to drive that change.
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The role of architecture education in this context is twofold: first, to educate individuals in a particular
discipline – as a vocation; and second, to help students identify with the issues that they will be faced with in
their chosen careers –the education of professionals who can engage in critical discourse related to the
future of the profession in which they will be working (Olweny and Olweny 2010).
Whether in Africa, Asia or Latin America, it is our responsibility as educators to fine tune our existing
architecture curricula to include the principles of ABT from theoretical subjects like study of building
materials to application of ABT in design studios.
Initially it is sought to establish the courses that referenced ABT at a broad level related to the titles of the
programmes, and then more specifically related to the course content, looking at the curriculum. Finally,
discussions with faculty and students should be undertaken to assess the level of engagement and
exploration of sustainability issues within the courses and programmes.
Methodology for inclusion of ABT in architectural curriculum
Having made a case for inclusion of ABT in architectural curriculum, the issue now would be to discuss ways
and means to include ABT in the curriculum. The inclusion of ABT can happen both at the undergraduate
level and postgraduate level.
At the undergraduate level, the objective would be to increase the awareness of the students towards the
theoretical and practical aspects of ABT and its application in the design assignments of various types of
buildings that the students are likely to take up in their entire course of study. Since the course of
architecture in most developing countries is of 5 years (10 semesters) duration, ABT can be introduced to the
students in a systematic way in each semester. The mode of introducing ABT in successive semesters is
discussed in detail later in this paper.
ABT AT POSTGRADUATE LEVEL
At the postgraduate level, the curriculum of ABT could be more research oriented. Those students who have
developed an extra affinity towards ABT in their undergraduate studies could take up further studies in ABT
at postgraduate level. The PG course would focus more on research and development in ABT, in terms of
newer techniques of ABT, waste recycling, developing better cost-effective and environment friendly
materials of construction, etc. Studies relating to the impact of ABT on the various sections of the society,
relationship of ABT with traditional skills and materials of construction, climatologically implications of the
use of ABT in various types of buildings could all form interesting areas where research and development
activities could be encouraged.
INCLUSION OF ABT AT UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL
In my opinion, the inclusion of ABT in the undergraduate curriculum can happen at 3 different stages during
the course of a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture.
1. At the theoretical level:
The students get to learn the various theories associated with ABT. They also get familiar with literature
reading and analyzing the book “Small is beautiful” by E.W. Schumacher to be made compulsory for
students of I semester, so that they get an insight into the realm of ABT as a tool for human development.
Subsequently, in higher semesters there could be at least one subject in each semester dealing with the
theoretical aspects of ABT. For e.g. in the subject of Contemporary Architecture, the students could be
introduced to the works of contemporary architects of international repute, who have made substantial
contribution to the realm of ABT, by using the principles of ABT in their designs. Hassan Fathy of Egypt,
Laurie Baker and Charles Corea from India, Geoffrey bawa and C.Anjaleendran from Sri Lanka and many such
internationally acclaimed architects from developing countries.
2. At the design level:
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Students are to be encouraged to use ABT in their design assignments right from their first semester to their
final year project work, in various stages of their development. For e.g.: In the B.Arch syllabus of VTU,
Karnataka, the students are expected to attempt simple design assignments like Design of a Gateway to a
Campus, Designing a Bus shelter, etc. In such design, the students are encouraged to use ABT as a design
parameter, wherein the design brief could specify the use of locally available building materials, locally
available skills, and use of traditional technologies to be integrated in the design assignment. When
students go over to higher semesters, they take on design assignments with increasing complexity, the
design parameters, the emphasis of using ABT in design could also include more complex parameters like
socio-cultural appropriateness, climatologically appropriate solutions like the use of wind-catchers, adobe
walls, etc. in their designs.
3. At the execution level:
The curriculum could be designed such that the students are trained to use ABT in terms of building
prototypes of structures using ABT in terms of using local materials with locally available building skills, so
that they can experience their theoretical knowledge put into practical use. The students could be
encouraged to design and erect structures using ABT as part of their design projects in various semesters.
Semester wise break-up of the process of introducing ABT in the curriculum
Having spoken about the need for introducing ABT in the syllabus of architectural education, an attempt is
made to evolve general guidelines to implement the same in the syllabus of the various semesters of
architectural study. In India for example, as per the Council of Architecture guidelines, the course of
architecture is formed of eight semesters of 16 weeks each extending to four years and practical training for
two semesters, so as to qualify the students for the award of a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture. Within this
framework, curriculum of ABT can be introduced to students in the manner set forth below:
I YEAR: (semesters 1&2):
In the first two semesters of architectural education, the students should be familiarized with the various
terminologies of Appropriate Technology and the guidelines for the generation of appropriate technology
in general. This could be as follows:
Terminology
Analyzing the two words 'appropriate' and 'technology' could define appropriate technology.
Appropriate: - 'suitable' and/or 'right' solution which is in context or is applicable to a particular situation.
Technology: - 'systematic application of knowledge put to some practical use'.
Appropriate technology is a term that can thus have multiple interpretations depending on the context, the
end user and the generator.
The students could learn about the guidelines for the generation of appropriate technologies as follows:
1. Satisfaction of basic needs:

The technology should contribute, directly or indirectly, immediately or in future, to the satisfaction of 'basic
needs', such as food, clothing, shelter, health, education, etc. It should produce goods and/or services
accessible particularly to those "whose basic needs have been least satisfied".
2. Resource development:
It should make optimum use of local factors (manpower, capital, natural resources, etc.) by:
* Sustaining/generating employment with low capital/labor ratio
* Saving/generating capital (low capital/output ratio)
* Saving/generating raw materials, including energy.
* Developing skills plus R&D and engineering capabilities
* It should increase the capacity to produce on a 'sustained and cumulative basis'.
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3. Social development:
It should reduce debilitating dependence and promote 'self-reliance' based on mass participation at the
local/national/regional levels, enabling the society to follow its own path of development.
It should reduce inequalities between occupational, ethnic, sex and age groups, between rural and urban
communities and between groups of countries.
4. Cultural development:
It should make use of, or build on, indigenous technical traditions.
It should blend and enhance valuable elements and patterns in the local/national/regional culture.
5. Human development:
It should create mass involvement by being accessible, comprehensible and flexible.
It should liberate human beings from boring, degrading, excessively heavy, dangerous or unsanitary work.
6. Environmental development:
It should minimize depletion and pollution by using renewable resources, through built-in waste
minimization, recycling, and/or re-use and blending with existing eco-cycles.
It should improve the natural and man-made environment by providing for a higher level of complexity and
diversity of the eco-systems, thereby reducing their vulnerability.
II Year (3rd & 4th. Semesters)

In the II year of architectural education, i.e. in the third and fourth semesters, as part of theory inputs, the students
would be familiarized with the criteria for identification of the most appropriate building materials and
technology as follows;
• Building material : availability and accessibility
• Technology: processing and assembly
• Human resources: skill and equity
• Climate and comfort
• Environmental impact
• Cost effectiveness
In essence, the students should be made aware that ABT in buildings should follow the following basic
principles:
1. Needs to have low economic input, eliminating materials and technologies which need heavy machinery
or infrastructure.
2. Needs to be accessible for use, which means people had to be able to learn and apply with minimum of
training.
3. Needs to have minimum maintenance cost over the life of the building.
III YEAR (5th & 6th Semesters):

In the third year, emphasis in the curriculum should be given to inputs in terms of study of environmental
impact assessment, cost effectiveness, etc. of the various technologies available for design using
Appropriate Building Technology. The students should be encouraged to use ABT in their major design
assignments. The headings under which the curriculum can be designed are as mentioned below;
1. Environmental impact assessment:

More accountable and sustainable practices of development are called for in view of the crisis of high
population growth and natural resource crunch in almost all developing countries. The curriculum could be
based on the below mentioned aspects:
• Solutions must grow from the place itself, which requires information on the local conditions and
people
• Ecological accounting
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• Renewable energy usage

• Recycling of waste
• Integrated site developmental approach.
2. Cost effectiveness:
Economics are dependent on very diverse factors, some of which are not within local control. But certain
factors can be controlled by the local area for the enhancement of the local economy.
• Less outflow of money and other resources by the adoption of certain technologies and materials
• Creation of employment by up-gradation of local skills
• Innovative use of the available building materials
• Direct market and supply connection - elimination of the middleman
• Labor intensive approaches
3. Technologies:
In order to encourage the students to use ABT in their designs, they should be introduced to the various
cost-effective technologies already researched and made available to the society. Some of the materials and
technologies that could be included for study in the syllabus are as follows:
• For walls: soil stabilised blocks, rubble filler blocks, compressed earth blocks etc.
• For roofs: tiles, funicular shells, precast plate floors, L panels, hurdis etc.
• Other items: ferrocement rafters, ridges, joists, concrete door and window frames,
ferrocement water tanks, sanitary wares etc
• Wattle and daub technique
• Solar chimneys.
4. Advantages of ABT vis-à-vis conventional building technology:

The students of architecture should be made aware of the advantages of ABT vis-à-vis conventional
technology by elaborating on the below mentioned aspects;
• Less outflow of money and other resources by the adoption of certain technologies and materials
• Creation of employment by up-gradation of local skills
• Innovative use of the available building materials
• Direct market and supply connection - elimination of the middleman
• Labour intensive approaches
5. Solar passive architecture:

Providing comfortable buildings, while reducing the use of conventional fuels and electricity, can be
obtained through solar passive architecture. The students should be made aware of the benefit of solar
energy, utilized through designing energy efficient buildings, using ABT.
6. Climatically responsive, energy efficient architecture:

Natural lighting and proper ventilation, shading of the walls and good insulation of the roof are important
features for creating comfort zones within buildings. In general the curriculum could include theoretical sessions,
practical demonstrations and site visits.
The curriculum should cover topics such as the environmental crisis, concepts of sustainability, water
harvesting, wastewater treatment, solar energy, earth construction, organic farming, community-building
and wellness.
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In this regard, site visits to see practical applications of sustainable principles are a must. Students could be
taken on site visits to see for themselves the various aspects of appropriate technology, besides building
technology. The following are recommended aspects for the students to study in terms of ABT:
• Wind generators
• Decentralized waste water system
• Rainwater harvesting with underground cistern
• Roof integrated solar water heater
• Window mounted retractable solar cooker
• Multi-feed biogas plant, usable as septic tank, if required
• Different types of experimental roofs (Hollow concrete tiles, Prefab brick jack arches, etc.)
• Design for Ventura ventilation via inner courtyard
• Wattle & daub technique
• Solar passive architecture.
7. Application of the study of ABT towards Housing sector:
The curriculum of architectural education should address the issue of application of ABT in the mass housing
sector. This could be in the form of a major assignment in higher semesters, wherein students use all the
knowledge gained over the last seven semesters in applying this knowledge in a mass housing assignment.
To facilitate this, students should be given an assignment to use ABT in mass housing
Shelter for the masses is a thrust area in India as in most developing countries. Housing and development
are mutually supportive. Housing provides a base for achieving crucial goals in other sectors of the economy
and upgrades the quality of life. Designing the Built form can be made effective using the following
measures:
- use of locally available and innovative materials.
- cutting down consumption of energy intensive materials (cement, steel) using appropriate technology.
- ensuring local participation in construction activities.
- blending new styles with traditional ones.
8. Training and awareness programmes as an extra-curricular activity:
As an extra-curricular activity, the students are required to undertake extensive awareness campaigns and
demonstrations which would result in public acceptance of these alternate technology options. In this
regard, the students should go into villages in the vicinity of their educational Institutions and spread
awareness. Public acceptance of Appropriate Building technology can come from a conviction that it is the
right option to achieve the goal of shelter for all by the turn of the century. To propagate the message,
seminars, workshops, conferences and demonstrations are to be organized.
The faculty and students in architecture colleges could conduct: ‘Skill up gradation programmes’ related to
AT to train lower level personnel in masonry, carpentry, plumbing, landscaping and such other skills related
to housing and habitat.
9. In-campus guidance centres: Besides including ABT as part of the curriculum in Schools of Architecture,
the Schools of Architecture can also function as Guidance Centres for the common man who seeks guidance
and information pertaining to ABT. This could vastly contribute to enhance the awareness of ABT among the
masses and induce them to use ABT in building their homes, public buildings, etc. The faculty who are
experts in ABT could provide services by way of consultancy, design, estimation and execution for projects
especially housing and community related projects like public toilets, community halls, etc.
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10.Networking of educational institutions providing ABT:
Architectural Institutions providing ABT courses in their curriculum could network amongst themselves and
also with premier R&D institutions for transfer of technology from lab to lab. Various academic institutions
could network between themselves for expertise in evolving higher level training programmes and field
level experiences. Such extensive and holistic networking could pave the way for frequent, meaningful and
effective interaction among the various sections of society.
CONCLUSION
The challenge of integrating ABT into the architecture curriculum is quite complex. To be able to implement
change in the curriculum would require a change in mind-set, as teaching ABT requires a new approach, one
that acknowledges the wide scope of architecture, beyond just that of building design.
Key to any strategy to incorporate ABT into curricula is to first find out the limitations that hinder any
implementation. The main impediment is as follows:
1. Many faculties do not have the required experience and expertise to engage with ABT as part of
architectural design, let alone be able to integrate it as part of an architecture curriculum.
2. The lack of contextual information and good local examples are a significant short coming in the
implementation of ABT.
3. On the side of the students (and some faculty), is the perception that a single correct solution exists,
something promoted at lower levels of formal education. The one size fits all approach negates a
key concern for architects, who can act as “… moral citizens … engaging in an open process of
negotiation, criticism and debate …” (Guy and Farmer 2001, p. 147). Lack of participation of faculty
from support courses within the design studio does have a significant bearing on the nature of
engagement with ABT issues. , and falls in an area described by Stevens (1998) as “Curricular
Prestige”. The emphasis, placed on studio components of architecture programmes
correspondingly suggest the courses students place most emphasis on. This suggests a
fundamental change in the way architecture education is presented is necessary. Rather than
changing curricula to include additional courses in ABT, there may be the need to rethink the
format of the programmes to better reflect the new reality of what constitutes architecture (Olweny
2006).
The term ‘Design Integration’ may be more appropriate to ensure the intentions are not misinterpreted and
in order to ensure architecture is appreciated as a holistic undertaking and that it is only, “... when the
building of architecture is approached as an organization system that encompasses aesthetics, formal, and
practical application, there is the possibility of transcending the common understanding of building
technologies and materials acquired by rote mechanics of lecture and evaluated regurgitation” (Kucker
1997, p. 117). This is important in light of the broader mandate of architecture education that goes beyond
current practice, and current approaches to practice (Rügemer 2009).
Incorporating ABT in the architecture curricula is to be regarded as a necessity if we are to transform our
environments for a sustainable future. This will impart a holistic and contextual approach to architectural
education. As we contemplate the future of architectural education, we can remind ourselves of what
Milliner (2000), refers to as shifting boundaries in architectural education.
Summing up the arguments in favour of including ABT in the curriculum of architectural education, the
following conclusions have been made:
1. Introduction of ABT in educational curriculum will go a long way in creating awareness among the
Architectural fraternity about the advantages of using ABT in their projects, and also ways and
means of using ABT in their projects. Thus when these youngsters graduate from Architectural
Schools, and start their practice they would be in a position to use ABT in their projects. This in turn
would ensure that the results of R&D in research Institutions would not just be confined to a few
pilot projects, but also would be applied widely by Architects with proper training in ABT.
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2. The curriculum should be designed to act as an effective mechanism of transferring appropriate

technology from R&D institutions in the country to the ultimate user. An effective delivery system
from lab to land could be strengthened through the medium of architectural curriculum to
strengthen these linkages and enable the society to implement the fruits of research in appropriate
technology in the realm of the built environment and thus reach the goal of sustainability.
3. The curriculum should be developed to hone the skills of the student’s ability to perceive and plan
for enhancement and a judicious use of available natural and human resources.
4. Besides creating awareness of ABT, the educational institutions can integrate in their academic and
research programmes, ways and means to develop strategies such as delinking developmental
tasks from government rigidities; networking with like-minded organisations in the country;
building awareness camps and demonstrations for bringing about attitudinal changes;
establishment of guidance centres, etc.
5. The inclusion of principles and methods of appropriate building technology, and sustainable
building design in the curriculum of undergraduate architectural education would ensure that
students become firmly rooted in the tradition and ethos of the land in which they are expected to
contribute in the course of their professional career.
6. This will also encourage more students to take up Graduate studies and research in these fields
which are very essential to preserve the cultural identity of the region in which the particular
architecture school is located.
It could thus be concluded that by introducing Appropriate Building Technology in the curriculum of
architectural education in developing countries, there could be a revolutionary change in the mindset of
young architects towards creating a built environment using ecologically and climatologically appropriate
architecture by the use of locally available materials, locally available and affordable technologies. The wide
spread permeation of appropriate technology, by introducing it at the basic levels of education of architects
in developing countries would act as a counter magnet against domination of engineered, mechanised
solutions in the building industry, thus paving the way for a people-centric architecture. This would vastly
benefit the deprived section of the population in developing as well as developed countries and thus
profess inclusive architecture for the masses, in the process recognising that what we build is not only
utilitarian but is, in fact, a humanitarian act; an investment in the environment and people through
architecture – reflecting people’s aspirations, values and concerns.
REFERENCES
Guy, S & Farmer, G., 2001. ‘Reinterpreting sustainable architecture: The place of technology’, Journal of
Architectural Education, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 140-148.
Olweny, M., 2006. ‘Technology and architecture education in Uganda’, in S Shannon, V Soebarto & T
Williamson, (eds.), 40th Annual Conference of the Architectural Science Association.
Olweny, MRO & Olweny, CLM., 2010. ‘Ethical positions in built environment’, in K Bakker (ed.), The African city
centre: [Re]sourced, Proceedings of the International Conference, University of Pretoria, 25-28 September
2009, pp. 173-177.
Rügemer, J., 2009. ‘Teaching sustainable strategies in architecture: Learning from the global perspective’, in
CMH Demers & A Potvin (eds.), Architecture energy and the occupant's perspective, 26th Passive and Low
Energy Architecture (PLEA) Conference, Quebec City, 22-24 June.
Schumacher, EF., 1973. Small is beautiful: Economics as if people mattered, Harper and Row, New York.
Salama, AMA., 2002. ‘Environmental knowledge and paradigm shifts: Sustainability and architectural
pedagogy in Africa and the Middle East’, in AMA Salama, W O'Reilly & K Noschis (eds.), Architectural education
today: Cross-cultural perspectives, Comportements, Lausanne, pp. 51-59.
Stevens, G., 1998. The favored circle: Social foundations of architectural distinction, The MIT Press, Cambridge,
Mass.
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION TOWARDS RESPONSIVE, RELVANT AND

ETHICAL SOCIAL PRACTICE: A MODEL FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION AND SOCIAL
PARTICIPATION
Yashaen Luckan, Durban University of Technology, South Africa, luckany@dut.ac.za
Abstract
The role of architectural education and ethical social practice within the context of the developing world has
drawn much interest in recent times. The developing world is characterised by the complex coexistence of multiple
layers of diverse existential contexts. Multiculturalism, different scales of economic activity and ecological
diversity present many challenges, as well as unique opportunities for the built environment professions, which in
turn requires a critical review of professional education and practice. This however challenges the colonially
inherited historical modes of practice in the developing world, which have had to transform in order to respond to
contextual realities. In this regard, contemporary architectural practice, and education, in the developing world
has much to offer the developed world. Historical practice, curricula and pedagogic approaches, however, inhibit
responsive architectural practice and relevance within this context. The paper argues that, in order for
architectural practice to become responsive, relevant and ethical social practice, the inherited historic curricula
and pedagogic approaches defining architectural education have to be fundamentally transformed. Architectural
education and practice has to step out of their disciplinary silos and start to engage with the broader context; this
in turn requires a fundamental shift in epistemological balance. In this regard, the studio, as the principle learning
space in architectural education, would be critically reviewed in order to transform into an interdisciplinary
collaborative and inclusive environment. The paper will conclude by developing a conceptual model for an
interdisciplinary, collaborative studio in order to bridge the gaps between education, practice and society in order
to develop relevant and responsive solutions to complex built environment problems. The key theoretical
concepts of Epistemological Balance, Hybridity, Interdisciplinary Engagement and Collaborative Learning Spaces
define the theoretical framework for this paper.
Keywords: architectural education, transformation, epistemological balance, collaboration,

interdisciplinarity.
INTRODUCTION
The value of architecture in contemporary society has been the concern of the profession for some time and
this concern is becoming increasingly critical. Architecture, as an intrinsically progressive discipline is
ironically over-reliant on historic curricula, historic pedagogies and historic practices that are becoming
increasingly questioned as to their relevance in a rapidly changing global environment. Global climate
change, the rapid change in global economies, and social change has implicitly questioned the relevance
and value of architectural creation and product. The multi-faceted complexities of the developing world
require architectural engagement with many issues that were historically foreign to the architectural
curriculum, pedagogies and practice. As a result, an increasing gap between architectural education,
practice and society has developed and this has undermined ethical social practice. Architecture seems to
have lost its place in society.
The historical position of architectural practice in society

Architecture during the pre-17th century period, had high cultural and utilitarian value as it was strongly
connected to craft and building, in the existential context. So how did architecture lose this position of value
as a cultural and utilitarian asset? The answer to this question requires an analysis of the historical
transformation of architectural practice and education dating pre-17th century to the present day. Up until
the early 17 century, architecture was closely related to the act of making and craftsmanship, hence the
utilitarian and cultural value of such architecture. The ecological environment strongly determined form,
technology and materials while social /cultural values reflected in the architectural programmatic
composition and the architectural expression of building and open space. During this period, architecture
was in the custody of the guilds of master craftsmen and master builders and therefore strongly involved
with the act of making and the art of craftsmanship. Figure 1 illustrates the position of architecture, which
had been located in an existential /social paradigm.
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Figure 1: The status of architecture during the pre-17thcentury (Author 2014).

Within this paradigm, architecture emerged or ‘became’ as a result of responsive engagement with the
existential context; this context being defined by the broad layers of ecology, economy and society /culture.
As a result, architecture enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the existential context, and naturally became
a cultural manifestation through the act of making within the socio /cultural constructs of particular
existential contexts. The paradigm site for learning was the existential context and site or place became the
principal architectural learning space.
During the early 17th century, however, architecture shifted from this existential / social paradigm, to an
artistic paradigm defined by the intuitive and cognitive faculties of the individual architect. Figure 2
illustrates the position of architecture, during the early 17th century, which moved to the domains of
academia and the profession. Cret (1941) attributes this epistemological shift to the Renaissance, where the
ideals of the courts and the aristocracy sought to professionalise architecture. Architecture henceforth
separated from the guilds and moved into the domain of the academies and the profession. The resultant
epistemic shift located architecture within the artistic paradigm and the self-indulgent intentions of the
professional architect, henceforth, defined architectural creation.
Figure 2: The status of architecture during the early 17thcentury (Author 2014).
This self-indulgent, introverted process was detached from the realities of context and little or no concern
was given to ecology, economy and society /culture. Architecture no longer concerned itself with the act of
making within the socio /cultural constructs of particular existential contexts, and was rather abstract and
object focused. During this period the paradigm site for learning became the design studio, an isolated,
intuitive, creative space.
Although architectural training / education continued to develop during the early 18th century in the form of
the articled pupillage system in Britain it was the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, which was established in France
during the mid18th century, that entrenched the studio (atelier) pedagogy in architectural education
(Howarth 1959). The epistemology of this pedagogic system, however, focussed heavily on the intuitive /
introvert processes of creation, within an artistic paradigm that detached itself from the acts of building and
craft, and the making of architecture in existential place largely became less relevant than the creation of
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beautiful and luring objects in space. This approach fostered self-indulgence and self-expression of the
architect, which is evident in the preferential trends of architectural student projects especially in the mid to
late 1990s.
Rybcznski (cited in Stamps III 1994, p. 105) outlines the trends in architectural education from the early 1960s
to the mid-1990s. During the early 1960s, student projects engaged with social issues as evident in the large-
scale housing projects; the late sixties focussed on low-income housing, community centres and residential
infill projects, which reflected a keen interest in social reformation. The 1970s saw the return to architectural
history, as evident in large formal buildings and renderings. Rybcznski confirms that in the1990s, however,
projects tended towards unusual buildings with little functional requirement and maximum emotive
potential, in which designers were focused on self-expression and individuality.This approach to
architectural design was rather overwhelmingly object focussed and the lure of the product outweighed any
concern of the process of contextually responsive architectural design. Although architectural design was
viewed as product during the 1990s, a product-based approach in the architectural design process emerged
much earlier, during the 1960s design methodology movement.
Salama (2005) refers to the product-based approach of the 1960s design methodology movement, also
known as the analysis-synthesis paradigm. The sequential nature of this approach undermined the potential
of architectural design as an integrated process. Within this system, students found it difficult to translate
/synthesise their early analytical processes into their design solutions. They generally assumed that a
creative leap would translate the programme into an optimal design which would then signify the end of
the process. The assumption of architectural genius hence became implicitly embedded in the method of
design of architectural students especially around the 1990s.The relevance of such genius has become
increasingly criticised as architecture has become less relevant and meaningful beyond its obvious objective
visual lure and contextual responsiveness is almost entirely negated.
Epistemological balance towards responsive architectural practice

The need for responsive architecture, especially in the complex contexts of the developing world, has
become urgent in order to engage with the social, economic and environmental realities of such contexts.
Consequently, artistic inspiration, individual artistic genius and the coincidental creative spark that
manifests as architectural product can no longer be sustained. Tom Wiscombe affirms this in his statement:
“The idea that innovation, whether scientific, technological, or architectural, is a by-product of artistic
chance or a result of singular genius can no longer be sustained in the 21st century...” (Wiscombe 2009, p. 59).
The dynamic and rapid changes in ecology, economies and social structures raise critical questions about
the role of architecture with particular reference to people, place and time.
Amos Rapoport 1994 (cited in Salama 2008, p. 103) states that architecture needs to develop a quantifiable
body of knowledge based on science and research, which implies a dramatic departure from the artistic
paradigm. This requires a fundamental shift in epistemology from a predominantly intuitive / introverted
artistic paradigm to an epistemological balance defined by due regard for the rational / extrovert
epistemology that is contextually responsive. This raises the fundamental question of ethical social
(architectural) practice: How can architectural creation reconnect with context, defined by people, place and
time?
This paper argues that the pedagogic approach of architectural education has to fundamentally transform in
order to inculcate ethical social practice in graduate architectural practitioners. In this regard it is posited
that epistemological balance needs to be established in architectural education and the nature of its
principal learning space, the design studio, needs to transform.
Jung (1976) in Psychological Types explained the four fundamental psychic functions of consciousness,
namely, intuition, sensation, feeling and thinking. These four psychic functions are reinterpreted in order to
determine the constituents of epistemological balance which is posited as vital for the ethical social practice
of architecture. Stamps III (1994) refers to Jung in order to explain the relevance of psychological types to
architectural education. He takes a critical position of the predominant mode of architectural education
which, he states, emphasises feelings and imagination and, as such, socialises students within an artistic
paradigm. Stamps strongly advocates that current societal conditions demand skills other than those that
exist within the artistic paradigm, particularly thinking, sensing and extroversion. Stamps posits that
epistemological balance is vital to architectural education, as the development of a range of diverse other
skills need to be developed, beside the artistic, in order to respond to the pressing demand for contextually
responsive and relevant architecture. Epistemological balance is achieved by a continual interaction
between the right brain (intuitive) and the left brain (intellectual), and the introvert (intuitive/creative)
relative to the extrovert (contextually rooted), in order to achieve the balance necessary for responsive and
relevant architecture (Stamps III 1994). Furthermore, and vitally important, is that according to the Jungian
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system, people can function within the psychological types both as individuals and in groups. Stamps posits
that designers need to engage each of the Jungian psychological factors in or to function effectively in the
information-rich, multicultural world.
Salama (2008, p. 100) postulates that architecture is created in a space of tension between reason, emotion
and intuition, and that building is an act that has to be rooted in the humane tradition. This seems to be,
implicitly, referring to the nature of architecture during the pre-17th century. However the inference here is
towards a pedagogical approach to architecture that requires the application of multiple intelligences in a
form of epistemological balance. He further affirms that architecture has historically been viewed as art and
emphasis was on the acquisition of skills at the expense of knowledge. Salama argues that knowledge
should be integrated in order to foster the development of responsive knowledge that can be meaningfully
applied to the built environment. In order to achieve this, the architectural mind cannot merely rely on the
intuitive right brain, and therefore the rational and analytical left brain functions become vital to responsive
architecture. Salama posits that architectural education requires the full activation of both sides of the brain,
which he explains in his “Split Brain Theory” (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Diagrammatic representation of Split-Brain theory (Salama 2008, p. 122).

Figure 3 illustrates the cognitive functioning of the left and the right sides of the brain. The left side
functions within the scientific paradigm, characterised by a sequential and logical / rational method of
processing information, where a series of parts are sequentially interpreted in order to create understanding.
Knowledge production within this paradigm is based on inferential logic through the processes of thinking,
perception and extroversion. The right side of the brain, on the other hand, functions within the artistic
paradigm, characterised by an intuitive / imaginative way of processing information, where images and
patterns are simultaneously interpreted in a cyclic and holistic way in order to create understanding.
Knowledge production is based on intuitive understanding through feeling, intuition and introversion.
According to Salama (2008) architecture is created in the field between the intuitive and the rational and
therefore there has to be a balance between the left and right brain functions in the process of architectural
design.
Architectural design problems and contextual responsiveness

Traditionally, design studio projects were defined by abstract problems situated in abstract contexts,
focussing heavily on the development of intuitive abilities in students. Problem based learning (PBL) has
been a feature of architecture since the formalisation of architectural education. Indeed, PBL was a method
promulgated by Beaux-Arts education however, problems were theoretical and abstract / hypothetical in
nature and generally situated within the intuitive / artistic paradigm. Such problems were generally a-
contextual.
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Salama states that many instructors regard architecture as an art of making rather than an act of making,
hence creativity is limited to intuition and talent. Much emphasis is placed on the design problem rather
than conceptual solutions and the design product is valued much more than the exploration of responsive
methods and processes of design. This dominant right brain approach to architectural projects is rather
inappropriate in dealing with the complexities and challenges of real life contexts. Hence, the nature of the
architectural studio design problem becomes crucial to the success of the design studio. Salama (2008)
comments on the real versus the hypothetical design problem and recommends that design problems be
situated in real life contexts in order to engage with many contextual variables such as the relationship
between culture and the built environment. In Howarth (1966) at the UIA Conference in 1965 the plight of
the developing world was highlighted. It was emphasised that the ‘exhibitionist’ nature of Western
architecture had no place in the developing world, which had to deal with the socio-economic and
environmental complexities of such context. The inadequacy of historic trends that were colonially inherited
by the developing world became evident.
The architectural profession in the developing world, however, has evolved over time from its colonial
heritage and the concerns for regional identity and response to multi-layered and multi-cultured contexts
has started to manifest. In this regard, the architectural profession, in the developing world today, has much
to offer the developed world. Architectural practice, especially in the public sector, requires engagement
with complex multi-layered and multi-cultural contexts. This requires that the architect engages with many
issues, other than the art of architecture, such as socio-economic and socio-political realities, and
environmental challenges that plague and define the developing world. The indeterminate and dynamic
nature of contexts in the developing world places further challenges on the expertise of the architect. The
resultant process of constant engagement with existential realities fosters resourcefulness and resilience in
built environment professionals, as the architect is challenged to constantly critically rethink and redefine
his /her processes and methods of design. In this context, there is no place for the “starchitect”. Much of the
developing world consists of emerging economies that are struggling to redefine their post-colonial
identities. This is certainly the case in South Africa as a relatively new democracy, which brings into question
the value of architectural heritage which, in the urban context, is almost entirely based on colonial
inheritance. Architects are constantly challenged to create new architecture albeit against the backdrop of a
colonial architectural heritage, which requires complex skills that historical models of architectural
education do not provide. Architectural education, in the developing world, is however still largely based on
colonial inheritance and both the theoretical content of curricula and the pedagogic approaches of the
design studio do not adequately prepare young practitioners for the complexities of the real world context.
In order to inculcate a culture of responsive architecture, design problems have to engage with contextual
realities fairly early in the curriculum and design pedagogy requires a critical departure from the historically
inherited Beaux-Arts atelier model. The complexities of multi-layered contexts requires expertise beyond
that of the individual architect and the adoption of multiple intelligences that are outside the general scope
and training of the architect, becomes vital to design. The incorporation of multiple disciplines in the design
studio, working in collaboration, is vital to the development of responsive architectural solutions.
Interdisciplinary collaboration
Hmelo-Silver (2004) suggests that design problems be resolved in collaborative groups. These collaborative
groups however cannot merely consist of students of architecture as the complexities of real problems
requires the engagement of multiple intelligences, as mentioned above. Wiscombe further states: “In order
to move into this space of innovation, architects will have to accept the value of multiplicity and dynamic
feedback over the retrograde nature of authority. They will have to accept that architecture might not be
about essences and theoretical positions, but rather about exchanges of techniques, expertise and
materialities in multiple industries. They will have to accept that architecture is no longer a heroic centre, but
one micro-intelligence among many. They will have to let go and begin to love the swarm” (Wiscombe 2009,
p. 59).
This approach requires that the student of architecture becomes socially engaged both with the research
context as well as with the relevant allied disciplines and societal stakeholders. Salama (2008, p. 110) states
that “We are living in a complex world, a world in which no one discipline will have the upper hand in
solving environmental and societal problems as they relate to architecture and the creation of liveable
environments”. The complexities referred to here by Salama, implies that the architect cannot take a position
of a heroic genius, but rather a humble position which is rooted in the concerns and aspirations of people in
place at a particular time. In this way, design solutions emerge through the rigorous negotiation between
multiple intelligences, defined by multiple disciplines, as responsive to the complexities of real life contexts.
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Transdisciplinary knowledge hence results, through collaborative inter-subjective engagement between

different disciplines (Salama 2008, p. 112).
The above discussion brings into question the nature of the design studio, as the principal learning space for
architectural design education, which cannot continue to reserve exclusive access to the architectural
discipline. The traditional Beaux-Arts atelier model, which is still today, the predominant mode of the design
studio, encourages an introverted, intuitive approach to architectural design based on abstract problems
that are disconnected from the realities of the complexities of the multiple layers of context. The ultimate
outcome of the Beaux-Arts atelier is architectural practice that is disconnected from society. Reference is
made to the earlier discussion on the disconnection between architecture and the act of building as evident
since the early to mid-17th century. The withdrawal of architecture from the act of making and building,
during the pre-17th century, into the academic paradigm focussed on the art of making has to be critically
analysed in order to reposition architecture as a social and cultural asset. The resultant gap between theory
and practice, due to an epistemic shift towards an intuitive /introverted approach to architecture, severely
compromises contextually responsive architecture (Figure 4).
Figure 4: The gap between theory and practice (Author 2014).

This gap between theory and practice ultimately results in a disconnection from the social paradigm as
architectural theory develops in a disciplinary silo, largely focussing on the work of individual architects, and
their theoretical and philosophical positions. The contextual realities facing contemporary societies in both
the developed and developing worlds, however requires that architecture disembark from its position as an
elite luxury and start to establish itself as a valuable social asset. Hence the critical question of ethical social
practice re-emerges. Architectural practice is challenged to respond to contextual realities and cannot
continue to disregard people, place and time. How then can architectural pedagogy bridge the gap
between theory, practice and society in order to better respond to people, place and time?
This paper posits that the studio transforms in order to engage multiple disciplines towards providing
relevant architectural solutions that respond to the needs and aspirations of people, with due regard to
place and time, and thereby inculcate a culture of ethical social practice. It may be contested that
architectural education has always been multi-disciplinary. However, while the consideration of modules
from multiple disciplines has been a defining feature of the modern architectural curriculum for some time,
this paper argues that the studio be transformed into an interdisciplinary learning space in order to draw on
multiple intelligences and experiences towards producing contextually responsive architectural solutions. In
this regard, the studio, as the principal learning space in architectural education, would be critically
reviewed in order to transform into an interdisciplinary collaborative and inclusive environment.
It is firstly necessary to outline the nature of architectural education and learning. Figure 5 illustrates the
current relationship between theory, practice and society. In this model, there is a linear transmission
between theory / academia, practice and society which illustrates a non- integrated approach to
architectural learning that has been most prevalent since the early 17th century.
Figure 5: The linear transmission model between theory, practice and society (Author 2014).
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It is clearly evident that there is a gap between theory and practice, but also between practice and society.
The linear transmission model that conveniently separates these domains in a mechanistic sequence is
largely devoid of any synergy and is defined by disconnection. Society happens to bear the consequences of
architectural creation that results from disconnected silos; disconnected from the existential context in
which society exists.
The pre-17th century paradigm (Figure 1) however illustrated a holistic model based on systemic synergies
between the act of architectural creation and the existential context which is diagrammatically represented
in Figure 6.
Figure 6: The cyclic / systemic model of theory, practice and society (Author 2014).
Figure 6 illustrates that theory and practice are intrinsically situated in context (place), which defines, and is
defined by society (people) in an adaptable and dynamic state of continuous redefinition, hence the
relevance to time. This inter-relationship is not mechanistic or linear but rather cyclic, systemic and
synergistic. In this model architectural theory and practice is rooted / situated in the existential context and
while theory forms the conceptual framework for practice, both theory and practice in turn are defined and
developed by the existential context. A dynamic and continuous dialogue therefore exists between theory,
practice and society situated within the existential context.
Context or place is further defined by a multitude of layers, broadly outlined as three inter-dependent layers
namely, the social, the economic and the ecological (Figure 7). Each of these domains may further be
subdivided into sub-domains, for example culture is a sub-layer of the social layer.
Figure 7: The place of architecture, between theory, practice and society (Author 2014).
While Figure 7 broadly represents a conceptual diagram of the place of architecture in context, it starts to
reveal a multitude of possible inter-relationships and multiple disciplines. The space in-between the
domains illustrated within this model reveals the complex nature of architectural practice, which is driven by
multiple informants in a dynamic state of flux, requiring multiple intelligences. With reference to the
concept of epistemological balance, it is clearly evident that the architectural practitioner requires much
more than artistic talent in order to respond to the real challenges of these multi-layered contexts. This
requires a fundamentally rational approach, however with the added layer of creativity, in a cyclical or
reflective way, in order to develop innovative solutions to the built environment problems. The multitude of
influences and conditions that define the broad context within which the built environment exists, requires
the application of multiple intelligences that are beyond the traditional scope and training of the architect.
It is further argued that the introduction of interdisciplinary modules to the architectural curriculum is
insufficient in addressing the requirement for multiple intelligences. Furthermore, the architectural
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curriculum cannot be redefined by cross disciplinary modules to such an extent that the core focus of
architectural design education gets compromised; architectural curricula are generally multi-disciplinary in
any case. The fundamental problem is that interdisciplinary curriculum does not necessarily translate into
interdisciplinary practice. The inculcation of ethical social practice, as the term implies, requires that
knowledge be applied in interdisciplinary practice towards the good of society. So how, then, would
interdisciplinary practice be fostered in architectural education?
This paper posits that interdisciplinarity is a spatial concept and therefore the learning environment /
learning space becomes the paradigm site for interdisciplinary practice. Within this paradigm, the
knowledge and skill of the architect becomes one amongst many intelligences engaged in the development
of responsive built environment solutions through collaboration. The current general Beaux-Arts form of the
design studio, therefore, requires reconceptualization in order to become an interdisciplinary space for the
collaborative engagement of the various multiple intelligences, across many disciplines. What then
constitutes an interdisciplinary studio? Figure 8 illustrates a conceptual model for an interdisciplinary
learning environment.
Figure 8: Interdisciplinary learning environment, between theory, practice and society (Author 2014).
At the centre of this model is the hatched area circled by a dotted line; this is where the interdisciplinary
studio space exists, as an in-between space. It is this interdisciplinary studio, as a learning space that bridges
the gaps between theory and practice. This space, however, exists within the broader societal context
defined by the social, ecological and economic layers of context. The implication of this position is that the
studio design problem and the pedagogic approach be situated in the real life context. The studio becomes
the paradigm site for problem-based learning.
A conceptual model for an interdisciplinary studio

Figure 9 illustrates a conceptual model for an interdisciplinary studio which draws in representatives of
society in addition to the other informants of the design solution. Central and vital to the interdisciplinary
studio is a design problem that is situated in the real life context.
Figure 9: Conceptual model of the interdisciplinary studio (Author 2014).
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Jean Piaget (cited in Savery & Duffy 1995) refers to the term “puzzlement” which he deems necessary to
stimulate learning, and which is derived from the individual’s interaction with the social environment; this is
fundamental to Problem Based Learning (PBL). Dewey (cited in Savery & Duffy 1995) refers to this inherent
stimulus to learn, as the “problematic”. Within this paradigm, the teacher assumes the role of facilitator or
mentor and challenges students’ thinking in order to arrive at responsive and relevant solutions. The
learning process is based on experiential interaction with the existential context and is cyclical or systemic
rather than sequential. This cyclical process requires the synthesis of theory and analysis of context through
abstract mapping but more importantly, experiential perception. Reference to the existential context in the
design development process is an ongoing part of the process, which is also cyclical. Hence, design solutions
are tested against contextual realities through reflection and reflective practice. Here, the role of the teacher
is to stimulate reflective thinking and learners reflect on strategies and processes of learning in addition to
learning content, necessary for the resolution of design problems (Schon et al cited in Savery &Duffy, 1995).
PBL, within an interdisciplinary paradigm, requires that various intelligences and proposals are synthesised
in order to create meaning. This fosters symbiotic interaction and the result is that design solutions are
derived through collaborative synthesis where meaning is drawn out of hybrid conditions defined by
functional and cultural layering. Hybridity is a key concept of post-colonial theory, which is regarded as a
cultural phenomenon that, according to Homi Bhabha (cited in Menin 2003) opens up a space for translation
– a place of hybridity. Hulme et al (2009) refer to Bhabha’s third space theory and hybridity as a theoretical
basis in order to explain how professional cultural knowledge can be explored and incorporated in
responsive solutions. This, according to Bhabha is vital in developing trans-professional knowledge in an
attempt to make connections between dislocated experiences and practices, within the interdisciplinary
learning space. This approach is intrinsically participatory and underlines the core nature of
interdisciplinarity. The nature of complex problems that emerge from real life context inevitably require
understanding of regional culture. In the context of the developing world, there are few built forms that
express regional cultural heritage; the translation and transmission of cultural heritage is mostly facilitated
through oral history. How then does an interdisciplinary team of educated disciplinary experts, who have
traditionally relied on written and built forms for cultural interpretation, engage with the intrinsic regional
culture of place?
It is postulated that the cultural value of architecture has to be a narrative that is understood by the greater
community of users of architecture rather than just the architect or the architectural fraternity hence
everybody, as users of the built environment, should be able to interpret the general cultural narrative of
architecture. This brings to the fore the question of cultural literacy. It is argued here that cultural literacy is
dialogical. While architects expect their creations to be of meaning to society on one hand, on the other
hand, architects have to engage with the culture of place which their designs should respond to. Only then
would the built form express the cultural narrative of place while incorporating the advances of the
technologies and means of production of the time. The collaboration of various disciplines naturally aids
cultural interpretation as it draws on the various life experiences, however, it is strongly argued that cultural
significance and meaning requires a grounded, bottom up approach. This requires the abandonment of
expert cultures and the adoption of a humble approach to architectural design. “To place architecture
beyond expert culture into the practice of place-making is an attempt to make the profession and discipline
a more relevant, responsible, complex and contradictory practice...between modern and postmodern
theories and knowledge and social / cultural practices...” (Schneekloth & Shibley 2000, p. 130) This complex
mode of place-making requires that, apart from the professional team engaging on the ground with
regional societies, representatives of society become key participants in the process of architectural design
as early as the conceptual design stage. In this way, not only does the resultant architecture reflect the
aspirations of society, but society in turn finds its own expression of identity in the architecture. In this way,
architecture repositions and roots itself in place, and thereby starts to become meaningful and legible to
regional cultures.
CONCLUSION
The above discussion leads to the conclusion that ethical social (architectural) practice may only be achieved
by the transformation of architectural pedagogy and practice in order to become contextually responsive
and hence, reflect the needs and aspirations of society. This requires an epistemologically balanced mode of
engagement with contextual realities, and collaborative engagement in a bottom-up approach which
includes representatives of society in addition to an interdisciplinary design / project team. The architectural
studio as the paradigm site for this engagement became the focus of the area of transformation in
architectural education. The suggested model of an interdisciplinary design studio is inclusive of all
stakeholders of the built environment; it is an adaptable space, dynamically responding to the aspirations of
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people and the changes in time, thereby becoming intrinsically rooted in the existential context. The studio
hence becomes the key space for the inculcation of ethical social practice in architecture.
REFERENCES
Cret, PP., 1941. ‘The Ecole des Beaux-Arts and architectural education’, The Journal of the American Society of
Architectural Historians, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 3-15.
Jung, CG., 1976. Psychological types, Bollingen, Princeton, New Jersey.
Hmelo-Silver, CE., 2004. ‘Problem-based learning: What and how do students learn’, Educational Psychology
Review, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 235-266.
Howarth, T., 1959. ‘Background to architectural education’, Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 14, no. 2,
pp. 25-30.
Howarth, T., 1966. ‘Architectural education: UIA in Paris’, Journal of Architectural Education (1947-1974), vol.
20, nos. 3/4, pp. 42-44.
Hulme, R, Cracknell, D & Owens, A., 2009. ‘Learning in third spaces: developing trans-professional
understanding through practitioner enquiry’, Educational Action Research, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 537-550.
Menin, S., 2003. Constructing place: Mind and matter, Routledge, London.
Salama, AM., 2005. ‘A process oriented design pedagogy: KFUPM sophomore studio’, CEBE Transactions, vol.
2, no. 2, pp. 16-31.
Salama, AM., 2008. ‘A theory for integrating knowledge in architectural design education’, International
Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 100-128.
Savery, JR & Duffy, TM., 1995. ‘Problem based learning: An instructional model and its constructivist
framework’, Educational Technology, no. 35, pp. 31-38.
Schneekloth, LH & Shibley, RG., 2000. ‘Implacing architecture into the practice of placemaking’, Journal of
Stamps III, AE., 1994. ‘Jungian epistemological balance: A framework for conceptualising architectural
education’, Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 105-112.
Wiscombe, T., 2009. ‘Emergent models of architectural practice’, Yale Perspecta, #38, pp. 59-68.
711
IMPACTS OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING: A CASE STUDY OF

AFRICAN OVERSEAS STUDENTS
Xu Jin, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China, jin-xu11@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
Abstract
More and more African students choose to go abroad, due to a lack of professional education of architecture and
planning in their own countries. For an individual, this long period of time abroad provides a chance to gain
knowledge and skills, and establish connections with students from other countries. As this group of overseas
students will play a pivotal role in areas of architecture and planning in Africa, the impact on national
development is potentially significant in the long term. This paper will research the question of how the students
have gained from ‘otherwhere’ and how they bring the enriched knowledge and professional techniques ‘here’ to
integrate with the spirits in the local community in order to alleviate poverty and achieve equality. The study
adopts a method of snowball sampling, starting with one African student in Cambridge, UK and another in
Beijing, China. On the other hand, cases of how urbanisation in China is influenced by Chinese overseas
architecture students in the 1920s are analysed and a three-stage system of overseas education is put forward as
an inspiration for Africa. Theoretically, there are suspicions about whether overseas education meets the
requirement of local practice. However, from the viewpoint of African overseas students, it is concluded that
overseas education adds individual competitiveness, enables the improvement of skills and techniques, and raises
awareness on winning the discourse around the right to empower and protect the full potential of Africa.
Keywords: overseas education, architecture and planning, otherwhere, localised.
INTRODUCTION
African students are becoming the driving force of the internationalisation of education. The statistics from
Global Education Digest 2012 (UIS 2012) show that 380,376 African students studied overseas in 2010, taking
up about 10% of all international students worldwide and
6% of African students, while only 0.4 percent of North American students studied abroad. Especially among
architecture and planning students, the mobile phenomenon is also very common. Though there are no
specific statistics to prove it, various international exchange and education programmes are listed on the
website of most schools of architecture of African universities. Furthermore, based on a 2010 report by the
International Organisation of Migration, 70% of African students choose to return home to work after
finishing their education abroad, because it is more and more difficult to find a job in a foreign country, and
also the opportunities in their home countries are increasingly attractive.
For an individual, the long period of time abroad provides a chance to establish connections with diverse
groups of students, which will be significantly important in the long term. As this group of overseas students
will probably play a pivotal role in areas of architecture and planning in Africa, the impact on national
development is potentially significant. This paper is mainly interested in the impacts of overseas education
on African students and the impact of the returning architecture and planning students on national
development. Specifically, there are two objectives of this study. The first is from an outer view, about what
the architecture and planning students have gained from ‘otherwhere’, mostly well-known universities in
foreign countries. The other is from inside, to what extent have these students played their roles in national
development, how they bring enriched knowledge and professional techniques ‘here’ to their home
countries to integrate with the spirits in the local community in order to alleviate poverty and achieve
equality in the world.
BACKGROUND
According to existing research, two major reasons for African students studying architecture and planning
overseas were discussed. Typically, due to a lack of education resources in their own countries, they decided
to gain knowledge and skills in more developed countries. Most African countries are now facing relatively
fast development, both economically and physically. In the urbanisation process, land is to be developed
and buildings are to be constructed, so that there is an urgent need for professionals in architecture and
planning. However, African universities had insufficient resources or some even did not offer the required
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education to meet the emerging needs in practice (Wang, Zhang and Wen 2010). Therefore, both
governments and individuals in most African countries would like to support international training
programmes in architecture and planning for their students. Secondly, considering the unique professional
characteristics of architecture and planning, it was necessary to study in a foreign context, in order to
experience the authentic design and to understand the underlying reasons for the disposition of social and
natural resources (Murphy 1999). In order to be a well-trained architect or planner, it requires an
accumulation of layers of historical and prevailing cultural, technical and ecological dimensions of
knowledge and practical experience. Thus, it was of more significance for architecture and planning
students to study overseas to widen their cultural and intellectual horizon.
Some other theoretic studies focused on the importance of learning overseas and what can be learned. It
was summarised by Leung (1999) that in order to achieve national growth, developing countries need the
support of funds, techniques from developed countries as a driving force, and also culture and values as
motivations for development. However, from a practitioners’ perspective, though it was undeniable that
education was essential, major concerns were whether the techniques and knowledge gained from
education was adaptive to practice. Dr Jones believed in “educational adaptations” (African education
commission et al. 1922), which means connecting education to the actual needs of people. Some even
suspect that training programmes need differentiating or they would not meet the changing expectations
of private practice and civil service (Murphy1999). Additionally, suspicion expanded about whether it was
adaptive to learn skills in a school abroad before working as an architect or planner in the home country
(Zhuo 2005).
For example, the form of urban development of various African cities was influenced by various foreign
countries. There were typically four types of urban development (see Figure 1). First was the European
classic style with axis, blocks and large squares such as Rabat, Morocco. Second was the style of American
new-urbanism such as Mogadishu, Somalia. Third was the modern style of building new towns, representing
by Cairo, Egypt. The last one was the development without planning or implementing the plan, thus built-
up land expands out of control, such as Luanda, Angola. Rather than understanding the unique and complex
local problems, setting developed countries as models and directly replicating them, made current
development in Africa troubling and in disorder.
Figure 1: Analysis of the fabric of African typical cities (Source: Author).
Furthermore, many Chinese construction companies and design institutes also had practices in some African
cities. By examining the projects done, the inability of relating modern techniques to local African identity
led to the seemingly wonderful and exciting blueprints of the future, however it was awkward in the local
environment when they were built (Zehlia et al. 2013; see Figure 2).
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Figure 2: Chinese practice of new town development in Angola (Wang et al. 2010).
By examining the previous studies and reports, the reasons for the prevailing phenomena of mobile African
students were illustrated and two major conflicts could be concluded. One is whether education in schools
adapted to the changing practice, and the other is whether the experience in developed countries met the
requirements in developing countries or developed countries donated blindly to the receiver countries. This
study aims at observing these two conflicts from the viewpoint of African students who have experienced
the education ‘otherwhere’ and are working locally and the participating students belonging to or are
related to the architecture and planning area.
METHODS
The study was conducted with a mixed approach of questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Results
were obtained from students who have the citizenship of an African country and have an experience of
studying out of Africa for at least one year, but have not become permanent residents. The study mainly
adopts a method of snowball sampling to recruit participants, starting with one African planning student in
the University of Cambridge, UK and another Architecture student at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Then connections are established through their classmates and friends. Moreover, the international
programmes offered by the School of Architecture (SA) and the School of Public Policy and Management
(SPPM), Tsinghua University, China help to provide information and to establish connections with African
students, which covers 39 African countries, approximately 70% of the countries in Africa. The design of the
questions in the interview and questionnaire explores the research question from two aspects (see
Appendix). One is from the ‘otherwhere’ part, Nos.1,2,3,4,8 questions are about what is most impressing,
how the knowledge is conveyed, whether the education is satisfying and so on. The other part is about back
‘here’ in Africa (Nos.5,6,7,9,10), such as whether overseas education meets the requirements in local practice,
whether the degree from an international top university becomes a competitive factor in the home country,
etc.
On the other hand, cases of how urban development in China is influenced by Chinese overseas architecture
students in the 1920s is analysed as a comparison, because Chinese students together with African students
are the driving force of the internationalization of higher education (UIS 2012), and the primary countries are
also similar, such as the United States, the Unite Kingdom and other European countries. Thirdly, the
students who studied overseas in the 1920s went back and made contributions to architecture and city
planning in China. Compared to the results from similar investigations conducted in China, experiences and
lessons can be learned to inspire development and architectural education in African countries.
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RESULTS
According to the statistics presented from the interviews and on-line questionnaires, the findings are shown
as the following three parts, African students in UK, African students in China and Chinese students
educated overseas as a comparison.
African students in Cambridge, UK

One part of the participants in this research is the group of African students who studied Architecture and
Planning at the University of Cambridge, UK. Most of them finished a Masters or PhD degree and then
returned home, holding a high position in large design institutes locally, international, well-known real
estate companies based in Africa or national planning consultants, or as lecturers or researchers at local
universities. According to the responses to in the interviews and questionnaires, answers mostly
concentrated on one or two options, which to some extent indicates that these students may share similar
values due to similar background and experiences. As the questions have two major focuses (explained in
‘Methods’), answers are illustrated in the following two sections.
1) The questions are about education in foreign countries. First, African students’ objectives of being
educated overseas are mainly to know more and gain advanced skills, to experience life and culture
abroad, and to find solutions to problems in their home countries. Some students think about the
aims of achieving a degree or adding individual competitiveness. Fewer students consider
establishing connections with people abroad in the area. Second, with regard to the satisfaction of
being educated, it reached incredibly high levels, almost 100%. Only one problem is raised, which is
feeling uncomfortable with the situation back in Africa. Third, what the majority students consider
the most impressive part of being overseas is the training of critical thinking and innovation. Some
others express that they also benefit largely from the values and understandings towards the
profession in education. In terms of the comparison between on-line education and on-site
education overseas, more than half of the students are in favour of the latter one from their local
and overseas experiences.
2) With regard to the relationship between overseas education and practice in Africa, students believe
that their overseas experience make themselves significantly more competitive in the local job
market. They also regard themselves as professionals who play a major role in bringing the enriched
knowledge and professional techniques back to the home country. Surprisingly though, many
theories doubt whether overseas education remain relevant to contemporary needs. Most students
feel what they have learned useful to a large extent and many techniques can be applied in
contemporary construction and planning in Africa. Considering the means of learning from
developed countries, students support overseas education rather than commissioning or
employing foreign companies directly, and some add that the impacts of overseas education
should be properly monitored to ensure the goal is achieved.
African students in Beijing, China

Another part of the participants in this research is the group of African students who have studied
Architecture and Planning in China. Similar to students in the UK, most finished postgraduate study overseas
and went back home to work as professionals. The research they did during the study in China was mostly
comparative analysis which is closely relevant to situation in their home countries, such as Alhadji’s (2008)
PhD research on the growth and management of large cities in Africa in the process of urbanisation.
Answers are also illustrated in the following two sections.
1) With regard to education in foreign countries, most answers are similar to students in the UK.
The first difference is about the objective of being educated, rather than to experience life and
culture abroad, students are more likely to go abroad in order to achieve a degree and to add
individual competitiveness. The satisfactory rate is lower (75%). Moreover, apart from gaining
rich knowledge and the ability to think critically and innovatively, students in China also point
out that overseas education helps them to understand more clearly about their mother country
from a comparative viewpoint.
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2) In terms of the impacts on local practice, students argue that overseas education helps to add
individual competitiveness to some extent. For instance, some participants worked in
governments in Botswana, Ethiopia, etc. and would probably be promoted to a higher position
after graduation. Other than feeling uncomfortable back in Africa, students in China illustrate
that there is no bad influence of overseas education. Besides the role of bringing enriched
knowledge and professional techniques back to the home country; students also maintain that
they have a responsibility to raise awareness, to protect identity, and to speak for African
countries. Finally, comparing on-line education with overseas education, some students’ argue
that the key factor lies in the level of education. At the bachelor’s and Master’s levels, internet-
based long-distance education cannot replace overseas training, whilst at the PhD level, on-line
communication with supervisors can be applied because it’s largely independent work.
Chinese cases in the 1920s

As it is prevailing to learn from the western developed countries in China, there are increasing numbers of
Chinese architecture and planning students going overseas for study from the 1920s. As one of the students
who become a famous consultant for the Chinese government now says, he would like to go abroad to see
how the techniques transmitted to China grow in their original place, so that it would be possible for
independent innovation in China (Leung 1999). Students who studied overseas in the 1920s returned and
made contributions to the architecture and city planning in China during a rapid development phase, such
as Sicheng Liang, Tingbao Yang, Zhi Chen, Yanzhi Lv, etc.
Taking Mr Jun Tong as a typical example, he graduated as a Master of Architecture from the University of
Pennsylvania in 1928 and worked for two years in the design institutes in Philadelphia and New York
respectively, winning first prize and second prize in two design competitions of American students. Before
he returned to China, he also visited several world, well-known architecture works in European countries to
broaden his minds (Chen 1991). At this first stage, Mr Jun Tong is just a sponge to learn as much as he could
from different dimensions: school education, work experience and tour learning (see Figure 3).
When he returned to China, he became the professor and then the dean of the School of Architecture in
Northeast University. He wrote a Chinese book on the history of western classic architecture. Meanwhile, he
also researched Chinese traditional gardens and published four papers in English. He argued that in the
globalised context, western and eastern experiences should share values and learn from each other. He also
set up his own design institute and performed actively in architectural practice, creating several buildings
with distinctive localised characteristics (He et al. 2007). The role of Mr Tong at this stage is like a selective
filter between home and abroad (see Figure 3). As a person who was familiar with both the east and the west,
he had the professional ability to select what was adaptive and discard what was inappropriate.
Mr Jun Tong and other architects who had experiences of overseas education made a foundation for
Chinese modern architecture, and set examples for the following generations of architecture students. Even
now, many Chinese architecture students will endeavour to gain access to foreign universities, tour around
the country and then win over a short-time working experience in a prominent foreign design institute.
DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
The major finding is that a large majority of African students are currently benefiting from their experiences
of overseas education in many aspects and the techniques and skills of design and construction learned
from developed countries largely meets the contemporary requirements in African practice. The issue about
the occurrence of conflicts with the traditional norms of African societies is still an exception influenced by a
few external forces. Though from a students’ viewpoint, the negative impacts of foreign forces are not
significant and widespread, they still find it vital to raise awareness, protect their identity, and speak for
African countries, in order to get rid of their weak position and gain the discourse right to let the African
voice be heard in the world, which would probably be the next stage of education internationalisation. It
could probably be more equal and interactive among different countries, no matter developed or
developing countries.
Compared with similar investigations conducted in China, experiences and lessons can be shared to
potentially give inspirations to the development and architecture education in African countries (Li and
716
Deng 2008). Generally, the process of overseas education in architecture and planning can be separated into
three stages. The first stage, which is called the sponge stage (see Figure 3), refers to the time spent overseas
when students are being educated. As the work done by an architect or a planner is a combination of
techniques, culture, ideas, political factors, rather than a rigid physical production, it is necessary for students
to learn as much as they can in order to fully understand the foreign context. At this stage, multiple
approaches of education can be applied, such as tours and work experience, as architecture and planning is
a practical subject.
Figure 3: A three-stage system generated from Chinese experiences (Source: Author).
The second stage is when students finish their education and return to the home country to work. No matter
what positions they will have, it is essential for overseas students to play as a filter to integrate the enriched
knowledge professional techniques with the local spirits in order to achieve sustainable and healthy
development in the world. The best means to serve a nation’s pathway to indigenous development should
appreciate the unique and complex local problems (Li and Deng 2008). If local students who have overseas
experiences serve as a filter which does not allow an unhealthy intrusion into the territory rather than a
projector which reflects directly what have gained from overseas, it then makes them more competitive
than foreign experts. The final stage is named the transmitter stage, which requires African countries to
explore new theories and practical methods independently. Therefore, Africa will perform as a transmitter to
empower and protect the full potential of itself and meanwhile to show examples of self-innovation for
other countries.
In summary, this study discovers that though there are suspicious about whether education meets the
requirements in practice, and whether overseas experiences are relevant to African local context, African
architecture and planning students are satisfied and optimistic about the impacts of overseas education
currently. Meanwhile, they also believe that they have the responsibility to bring knowledge and techniques
back to integrate with the local spirits, and also to speak for their countries to win the discourse of Africans in
the world. By comparative analysis with Chinese cases, a three-stage system of overseas education is put
forward for future development of overseas education in African countries. However, the major limitation of
this research is because the evidence is obtained from the experiences and opinion of the limited number of
representative samples. It is recommended that more samples could be selected in order to allow a broad
generalisation of findings in future research.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks to the School of Architecture (SA) and the School of Public Policy and Management (SPPM),
Tsinghua University, China. They provide information and help to establish connections with the African
students and alumni in their department, which makes it possible for me to conduct the interviews and
questionnaires smoothly in this study. I also appreciate the detailed responses from the African students
very much, for example, Kwame Hackman from the Center for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University.
Moreover, I would like to greatly thank my classmates from Africa at the University of Cambridge, UK,
Kenneth A. Donkor-Hyiaman and Felix Agyemang. Their answers to the interview and questionnaire are
essential and helpful, which contribute much to the findings.
717
REFERENCES
African Education Commission, 1922. Education in Africa, Phelps-Stokes fund, New York.
Alhadji, C., 2008. ‘The urbanization challenge in Africa: Growth and management of its large cities’, PhD
dissertation, East China Normal University.
Chen, M., 1991. ‘Science and technology is the main driver of Architecture development: Inspirations from
Tong Jun’s architectural academic thinking’, Architectural Journal, no. 4, pp. 28-33.
He C, Xu, W & Ou, X., 2007. ‘Tong Jun’s education background of Western classical and modern architecture’,
Chinese and Overseas Architecture, no. 10, pp. 1-4.
Leung, H., 1999. ‘My Ithaca’, City Planning Review, vol. 23, no. 12, pp. 52-54.
Li Z & Deng F., 2008. ‘Three major tasks of planning ‘shaping the future’: The Enlightenment of Planning
Africa’, Urban Planning Forum, vol. 178, no. 6, pp.46-50.
Murphy, M., 1999. ‘Investigation of a process for developing a culturally and geographically relevant
curriculum for landscape architecture education in South Africa’, PhD dissertation, University of Pretoria
(South Africa).
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), 2012. Global education digest 2012, UNESCO, Paris.
Wang, J, Zhang, Z & Wen, X., 2010. ‘Chinese urban planning practice in Africa’, Urban Planning Forum, vol. 189,
no. 4, pp. 91-98.
Zehlia B, Macleans A & Lou, S., 2013. ‘China’s aid to Africa: Competitor or alternative to the OECD aid
architecture?’ International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 40, no. 8, pp. 729-743.
Zhuo, J., 2004. ‘The crises of identity and recognition on urban planning: The current controversy on urban
planning education and profession in France’, City Planning Review, vol. 156, no. 2, pp. 25-30.
APPENDIX--QUESTIONNAIRE TO OVERSEAS STUDENTS FROM AFRICA
Basic information:
I go for study in (which country) from to (Time period).
I have got/ am doing (Degree, eg. Bachelor/ Master/ PhD…) in (Subject you are doing, eg. Architecture/
Planning/public administration…).
I am working/ will work as (Profession, academic, civil servant) in (which country).
1. What makes you decide to go abroad to study? (if multiple choices, rank them in order of importance
please)
A. To achieve a degree
B. To add individual competitiveness
C. To know more and gain advanced skills
D. To broaden the mind
E. To experience life and culture abroad
F. To find solutions to problems in the home country
G. To establish connections with people abroad
H. Others(please specify)
2. To what percentage have you felt satisfied with the education abroad you have experienced?
718
A. 100%
B. Above 75%, less than 100%
C. Above 50%, less than 75%
D. Above 25%, less than 25%
E. less than 25%
3. Compared with the education in your own country, what do you think is most impressive when you study
abroad? (You can choose two answers)
A. The culture and environment
B. The rich knowledge in schools
C. The training of critical thinking and innovation
D. The values and understandings towards the profession (planning, architecture, economics, etc)
E. The broad connections made among teachers, students, enterprises, etc.
F. Help to understand the mother country from a comparative viewpoint
G. Others (please specify)
4. What is the bad influence of studying abroad?
A. No, there isn’t any.
B. Cannot feel comfortable with the situation back in Africa
C. Cannot catch on the trend of development in Africa
D. No gain is the worst influence.
E. Others (please specify)
5. Does the experience of overseas education make you more competitive in finding jobs in your country?
A. Yes, absolutely.
B. Yes, to some extent.
C. Yes, a little.
D. No, not at all.
E. Others (please specify)
6. Africa is developing fast. Can overseas education remain relevant to contemporary demands in Africa?
Can it meet the evolving requirements in practice?
A. Yes, it is quite useful to a large extent and many techniques can be applied.
B. In some cases, it can; while in other cases, it cannot.
C. No, it can hardly meet the demands in Africa’s practice.
D. Others (please specify)
7. To what extent have you played a role in national development? (if multiple choices, rank them in order
of importance please)
A. Bring enriched knowledge and professional techniques back to home country
B. Alleviate poverty and empower the country through a professional approach
C. Widely connect people from African countries and foreign countries
D. Combine the overseas knowledge with the local spirits
E. Raise awareness of our own and protect identity, as going abroad helps to understand more clearly
about the home country
F. Speak for African countries, in order to get rid of their weak position and gain the right to let the
African voice be heard in the world
G. Others (please specify)
8. To what extent do you think internet long-distance education can take the place of overseas education?
A. It cannot take the place of overseas education
B. It depends.
C. It can totally take the place of overseas education.
And why? (please specify)
9. Open question: Compared with the commission of foreign companies or organisations, the way of
sponsoring native students overseas to receive education, then they will come back and contribute to the
national development would be more acceptable and beneficial for African countries. What do you think?
10. Open question: Is there anything born in Africa that you think the world can learn from Africa?
Thank you very much, sincerely.

! !
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METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION IN BRAZIL: EXPERIMENTAL

TEACHING VERSUS TRADITIONAL TEACHING.
Prof. M. Sc. Mauro Santoro Campello, Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil,
mauro.campello@ufjf.edu.br.
Student Douglimar Meireles de Oliveira, Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil,
douglimarm@yahoo.com
Student Gabriel Micherif Filgueiras e Oliveira, Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil,
gabriel_micherif@hotmail.com
Student Raiane Rosi Duque, Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil, rainerosi@gmail.com
Abstract
The information age has changed our way of thinking about society and it is not far from the urban context and
reality. The contemporary city presents a wide range of problems and to solve them or try to soften them, it is
necessary to generate new solutions through new technologies and ways of thinking. The traditional approach to
architectural education has not proven itself as a possibility to help solve increasingly complex urban problems.
The ancient methods of teaching like the pre-set hierarchy of disciplines or the conventional classroom
environment is no longer enough to supply the needs of our present day. For that, it is believed that the
experimental teaching would respond more effectively and quickly to the contemporary urban questions. Their
methodological fundament presents a multidisciplinary approach that requires a flexible and permeable learning
environment which responds to the new technological demands of society. In Brazil, despite the evolution of
architectural education in the last 30 years, the teaching methods remain in the traditional way, with rare
exceptions, in a universe of nearly 300 schools. This article aims to propose a discussion between the two
methodological approaches of education making a counter point between traditional and experimental which
will make us face a virtual reality in Brazilian architectural culture.
Keywords: teaching, experimental, traditional, architecture.
INTRODUCTION
This article is the fruit of observations that occurred when one of the authors participated as Coordinator of
the Education Committee of the Institute of Architects of Brazil and as Vice President of Region III of the
Architectural Education Commission and UNESCO-UIA Validation Council for Architectural Education of the
International Union of Architects, besides the practice as teacher in the Architecture and Urbanism Course in
the Federal University of Juiz de Fora.
From these observations, the authors identified two teaching approaches, one that can be called traditional
and another that can be called experimental. Thus, the main objective of this research is to draw a view of
the traditional teaching of architecture and urbanism in Brazil, since its beginnings until today and confront
it with the experimental teaching that can be found in some countries, notoriously England, the United
States and Holland, where four schools stand out, respectively: the Architectural Association, Cooper Union
and Southern California Institute of Architecture, and Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment. So, for
this article, a general view of the teaching of architecture and urbanism in Brazil will be presented and the
teaching method of two international schools, the Architectural Association and the Southern California
Institute of Architecture will be highlighted.
Besides, there is no doubt that the 21st Century brought challenges to humanity of varied dimensions and
needs. Architecture and urbanism are two subjects that participate in these challenges, considering that
both have as their objective the construction of cities and buildings for the human needs. And these
challenges cannot be faced the same way they were faced 50 years ago. So, will architects and urbanists
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have to equip with languages and tools different from the ones used nowadays to respond to these
challenges? It is believed so, because a new age has been lived: the age of technology.
The field of architecture and urbanism had the 20th century as a fertile ground for experimentations of varied
approaches. This period starts with the idea that the modern man needed internal and external
environments that showed the break from the world of the 19th century. This break had to be reflected both
on the practice and on the learning.
The teaching methods shouldn’t follow the cannons of the Ècole de Beaux Arts, but this break didn’t happen
at first. Up until the 1950s, the teaching in Brazil continued linked to the academic fundaments, despite the
hegemony of Corbusier’s functionalism and Bauhaus influence, which helped create a new architectural
thinking and doing. In spite of the maintenance of a certain hegemony of the teaching based on academia,
heritage from the Fine Arts, and on the technocracy, heritage from the Polytechnics, schools, courses and
colleges that were created during this period, more precisely between the years of 1947 and 1960,
incorporated to their pedagogic projects and curricula the fundaments of modernism as it is referred to
modernist aesthetics (ARTIGAS 1977). This structure, with changes occurred in 1962 and 1969, is maintained
until 1994, when the Curricular Policies for the Teaching of Architecture and Urbanism are implemented,
which, in spite of two reformulations, one in 2006 and one in 2010, are practically the same as the ones from
1996. The basic difference between the minimum curriculum and the curricular policies is that these allow a
greater freedom in structuring the courses of architecture and urbanism, concerning the possibilities of
incorporating regionalisms in a country of continental dimensions and vast culture, besides allowing a great
freedom for the experimentation of new teaching methods (CONFEA/INEP 2010).
This article is based on recent research from its authors and, because of that, has as its main objective to
understand the situation of the teaching of architecture and urbanism in Brazil. To reach it, the origins and
characteristics of teaching have been studied, highlighting the two approaches, the traditional teaching and
the experimental teaching, as well as the current situation.
TRADITIONAL TEACHING
For a history or a sequence of facts on architecture teaching to be drawn, one has to start with one of the
first scientific analysis ever made on this area of knowledge by one of the first architects to worry not only
with the architect formation, but also with the action of architecture itself: Marco Vitruvius Pollione (1998),
who left to future generations the treaty De Architectura, written between the years 27 to 16 B.C and
composed of ten books. In book 1, chapter 1 he talks about the formation of the architect, which should be
composed by a plurality of subjects and varied areas of knowledge, which means, to him, that architecture is
born from practice and theory, besides needing a group of knowledge on art itself.
He defines architecture by the trinomial: “firmitas, utilitas e venustas.” Such definition lasts until nowadays,
both for practice and for teaching. In chapter 4 of book 1 he establishes the principles of how a city should
be built (Vitruvio 1998). At that time, education in architecture happened during the practice itself, with the
knowledge being passed from master to disciple in the working site (CONFEA/INEP 2010).
The teaching scenery only changed with the advent of the academy and the profession of architect during
the renaissance. With the professional who designs differing from the one who actually builds, the
knowledge passed on through practice was lost, giving place to an elitist teaching, based on the
fundamentals of classic art and the science of the time, a teaching based only on aesthetic and formal
composition factors. It wouldn’t take long for the Industrial Revolution to present to the world a new
profession that would outshine the tradition of the architect: the engineer. From 1747 on, there was a big
growth in engineering schools, due to an environment that enabled civil construction, because together
with the industrial revolution, new materials and new building techniques arrived, and with that, new
demands on housing, urban renovations, sanitation, among others.
It is in this context that there is the separation between projecting architecture and building architecture, in
other words, the construction. The architects started to dedicate themselves exclusively to the projects and
the engineers to the construction. However, in spite of the evolution brought by the industrial revolution,
the architecture teaching method was supported by the Ècole des Beaux-Arts, which monopolized the
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teaching employing formulas that were old and strict, dictating historicist styles to be followed and making
the student always more hampered and inoperative in the market. It only contributed to push architecture
further away from the construction site. This scenery only started to change in 1919, when Walter Gropius
creates, in Germany, the Bauhaus (CONFEA/INEP 2010). The teaching method idealized by Gropius allowed
the architecture students to get familiar with the construction process, with the new materials and its infinite
possibilities of domain (Gropius 2004).
During the 20th century, even if the Beaux-Arts method was somehow hegemonic, some experiences in the
teaching of architecture and urbanism started to be implemented. The example considered to be the most
significative was the implementation, at the end of the 19th century, of the teaching of architecture by the
Architectural Association (AA) located in London and it is until today one of the world references in
experimental teaching. In the second half of the 20th century, the architecture course of the Cooper Union in
New York is created, also having experimentation in its approach to teaching (Leite 2011).
In Brazil, the roots of architecture and urbanism teaching are fixated in the Portuguese matrix. According to
Pedreirinho (1994), the formation process of the architect and urbanist in Portugal has undergone three
stages: conventional teaching, related to the ecclesiastic orders; office teaching, related to the offices and
corporations; and public teaching, coming from Portuguese professionals. The first two stages have been
combined to create teaching in the colonies, that is to say, in Brazil. Since the Portuguese weren’t interested
in populating the newfound territory, no institution to teach architecture was established for the settlers.
However, with the constant invasions on the Brazilian coasts from other nations, the Portuguese couldn’t
think of something other than officially instituting, in 1699, military architecture teaching in Brazil. The
architecture education scenery remained majorly unchanged until the moment the Portuguese court was
forced to transfer the government from the country to the colony, in 1808. With the arrival of the royal family
and all the population who accompanied them, a functional and adequate education system became
necessary. Thus, the National School of Science, Arts and Offices was created, in 1816, which suffered great
influence from the French mission, that brought the tradition of teaching based on the Beaux-Arts. In 1826,
the school is reorganized and reopened with the name of Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, completely
inspired by the standards of the Ècole de Beaux-Arts from Paris.
After the Proclamation of the Republic, in 1889, the new government started discussing the teaching system
and a commission of teachers was constituted to reform the institution one more time. A new curriculum
reform proposal arrives to modify the teaching and a new seat was built, and the institution became known
as National School of Fine Arts (ENBA). New subjects were created and new teaching environments were
built. The fact that the country was constantly changing politically, as well as important urban constructions
happening in the major Brazilian cities, influenced the thought both in teaching and in the professional
acting of the architects and urbanists. A symptom of change in the conditions of the job market was the
creation of many architecture courses in new Schools of Engineering or Fine Arts, in the major cities of the
country, starting in the 20th century (ABEA 2010).
In 1930 the architect and urbanist Lúcio Costa was named director of the National School of Fine Arts
(ENBA), being discharged nine months later. In charge of the school, Lúcio Costa sought to restructure the
teaching, from the point of view not only of its organization, but also of its orientation. Lúcio Costa intended
to provide his students with an option between academic studies, taught by titular professors who would be
kept in their duties, and the studies taught by younger professors, more identified with the modern spirit
(Bruand 1981). For that, he suppressed contents, such as natural history, adopting a modernist orientation
over the academic one and creating new subjects. In spite of the reform promoted by Lúcio Costa being
short lived, it represented, to the future of Brazilian architecture and urbanism teaching, great relevance,
because the professional acting and nomenclature were revised and renewed.
The major change that occurs in the teaching happened from the end of the 1940s until the year 1962, when
the curriculum structure of the architecture courses were no longer based on academia, even though it was
still present, and on the technocratic approach coming from the polytechnic schools. It was during that
period, after many discussions in seminars around the country, promoted by the entities of architects and
urbanists and by the professional council, that the modernist aesthetic started to be part of the teaching
(Artigas 1977).
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It was made possible because, in the meantime, the courses of architecture and urbanism became schools or
colleges, with the National Architecture College, currently Architecture and Urbanism College of the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro, being the most important and influential in the determination of teaching
methodology, which was a reference to all the courses of architecture and urbanism. The proposal of a
minimum curriculum was to allow an egalitarian teaching for all the courses of architecture and urbanism,
but it allowed these courses to add subjects or approaches that represented cultural diversity, in view of the
continental dimensions of the country (CONFEA/INEP 2010).
With the implementation of the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1964, the vast majority of teachers and
students who participated on the discussions about the teaching of architecture and urbanism were
expelled from school or had their political rights revoked. Thus, the reform implemented in 1962 was
substituted by a new minimum curriculum in 1969, due to the university reform that happened in 1967. This
new minimum curriculum homogenized the teaching of architecture in the country and didn’t take into
consideration the cultural diversity and was divided into two levels: the basic and the professionalizing,
without worrying about regional and cultural issues (CONFEA/INEP 2010).
The teaching reform of 1969 would last until 1994, when, with a democratically elected government since
1989, the class entities and the professional council propose to the central government a radical change in
the curriculum for the courses of architecture and urbanism.
The reformulation of 1994, updated in 2006 and 2010, were not based on academic or modernist ideas for
teaching. This reform, named Curriculum Directives for the Teaching of Architecture and Urbanism, allowed
the many courses that had pedagogical programs and curriculums to respect the regionalism and cultural
diversities of the country and even allowed them to advance when it came to environment, new digital
technologies, a new look over the cities and instituted the Final Graduation Paper, in which the student
presents a synthesis of all his learning reflected in a project proposal.
Currently, the class entities and the new professional council exclusive to architects and urbanists proposed
to the central government a new reform for the Curriculum Directives so the new ruling is adequate to the
profession of architect and urbanist and the UNESCO/UIA Charter for Architectural Education, reviewed in
2011.
EXPERIMENTAL TEACHING
The evolution of the teaching of architecture and urbanism, in Brazil as well as in the rest of the world, is
directly related to the social and technological conquest, amongst others, that modern society undertook,
mainly after World War II.
A new generation of architects arrived and some of them, namely the Archigram group and Team X, started
to question the capacity of rationalist architecture and functional urbanism to solve urban and architectural
problems. This generation of new architecture and urbanism protagonists started proposals that would
come to influence the way of thinking and doing architecture and urbanism, as well as teaching.
Since the purpose of this article is to talk about teaching, it wasn’t protracted on this so fertile period to
architecture and urbanism, comparable to the early discussions about the new architecture. However, the
following text may seem like a paradox, but, even with thoughts and postures different from this new
generation, instructed on the modernist ideals of teaching architecture and urbanism, it is important to
highlight the pedagogical importance of the architecture teaching praised by Walter Gropius, when he
instituted the Bauhaus school because “Our efforts aim to find a new approach that allows the development
of a creative consciousness and thus, finally, a new attitude toward life. As far as I know, the Bauhaus was the
first institution in the world that risked introducing this principle into a concrete pedagogic program” (2001,
p. 33). In a society that had just been through so many changes such as the Industrial Revolution and World
War I, a new method of teaching became urgent, aiming to supply the new social demands.
Afterwards, when modernism is in crisis, especially after the new generation of architects starts attending
the Modern Architecture Congresses, CIAM, in 1947, the proposals that were made by this new generation
(Mayumi n.d.) took a small group of architects, led by Peter Cook, to consider the architecture not from the
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‘conventions’ existing at the time, but from the proposal of a new posture to project and this new posture
ended up influencing the way of teaching architecture in some schools.
But what kind of architecture teaching was it? If it is considered that the Bauhaus idea had a portion of
experimentation, so it can be conjectured that Peter Cook, when founding the Archigram group, retakes the
experimentation in projects of architecture and urbanism. Cook uses experimentalist traces and radical
proposals to the cities, as in his exhibition of ‘Living Cities’. However in 1970, with the publication of his book
Experimental Architecture his experimental method became a new way of teaching.
His book gave conscience to the idea and fed the research of many architects on the subject, such as
Lebbeus Woods. In 1976, Woods gave up his career as an architect to develop research on experimental
architecture theories and methods. This activity led him to be one of the cofounders of the Research
Institute for Experimental Architecture (RIEA), in 1988, located in Bern, Switzerland. It is a non-profit
organization dedicated to the advance of the concept and practice of experimental architecture. In 1988,
Woods promoted the first conference on the subject of experimentalism in architecture and its realization is
promoted by the RIEA. During his research he defined experimentation or experimental method for
teaching architecture or experimental architecture, as a group of subjects attributed to the development of
concepts that challenge the consolidated and conventional practices (Woods 1990).
This methodology of teaching and research has been influencing some world renowned schools of
architecture such as the Southern California Institute of Architecture - SCI-ARC, located in the city of Los
Angeles, the Cooper Union, located in the city of New York, the Architectural Association - AA, located in the
city of London, amongst other schools. In Brazil there aren’t any architecture and urbanism schools with a
clearly experimental method, investigative for the teaching of architecture and urbanism, except for the
Architecture and Urbanism College in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – FAU-UFRJ, the Architecture
and Urbanism College of the Mackenzie University – FAU/UM and the Architecture and Urbanism College in
the University of São Paulo – FAU/USP, the first located in the city of Rio de Janeiro and the others in the city
of São Paulo.
It isn’t the intention, yet, due to the initial stages of research, to do an in-depth analysis of the experimental
teaching method. A few possibilities will be presented from some of the schools previously mentioned, both
the foreign and the Brazilian ones, on the teaching methodology in which the experimental is either the
emphasis that leads the teaching or it is an integral part of a hybrid teaching methodology, that is,
traditional and experimental and not traditional vs. experimental.
The chosen foreign schools mentioned were the Southern California Institute of Architecture - SCI-ARC and
the Architectural Association – AA, and amongst the Brazilian ones that will be highlighted are the
Architecture and Urbanism College in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – FAU-UFRJ and the
Architecture and Urbanism College of the Mackenzie University – FAU/UM.
Southern California Institute of Architecture - SCI-ARC

It is one of the few independent architecture schools in the country. It was founded in Santa Monica, Los
Angeles, in 1972, in response to the dissatisfaction of students and teachers with the dominant teaching
methods of architecture and urbanism. This posture was according to the desire of having a greater freedom
of integration between teachers and students. With a tradition in experimental architecture, the institution
emerged as part of the cultural axis of the city of Los Angeles. Its curriculum is structured in an integrated
sequence of project studios, breaking from the traditional classroom, visual studies, history and theory, not
to mention the courses of technology and media, associated to interdisciplinary seminars on arts, science
and human studies. After the sequence of the curriculum, superior courses are offered on professional
practice and related subjects. The students who look for a bachelors degree in architecture must, after
fulfilling the curriculum, be up-to-date on a series of general requisites on education.
Architectural Association - AA
Founded in 1847 in the city of London by a group of students who disagreed with the teaching methods of
the time. The objective of the AA is not to graduate students like most schools used to, that is, the objective
of the AA is to make the students face the possibility of reflection on architecture, society, the city, in short,
reflection on the world.
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The architecture course offered is presented in the following way: new students are introduced to the
architectural project, the critical thinking and the experimental ways of working. The students work both
individually and in group, following an open studio format, guided by five professors experienced in
projects. Besides the studios, classes on history, theory, media and technology are given. During the course,
the student familiarizes with innovative techniques and thoughts, based on the experimentation and
exploring of technologies aimed at new project solutions. At the end of the course, the obtained result is a
professional able to think openly and originally about new solutions to society’s demands.
What draws attention to this method employed by AA is the fluidity and flexibility of the curriculum.
Although there is a minimum of compulsory and optional courses per year, the offered range is extensive
and allows students to combine subjects according to their interests in order to build their own identity
within the field of architecture and urban design. This methodological feature allows and encourages the
exploration and artistic expression, critical and analytical goes together with the intention of creating
Architectural Association of producers of thinking and not just architects. As SCI-Arc, the AA develops its
curriculum so that it can meet the intent submitted by the school on the kind of professional it intends to
form.
In Brazil, there isn’t any teaching institution that has as its characteristics the emphasis on the experimental
approach in its methodology. However, the highest scoring architecture courses in the country present
some aspects that get close to experimentation. The Architecture and Urbanism College in the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro – FAU-UFRJ, the Architecture and Urbanism College of the Mackenzie
Presbyterian University – FAU/UM are some of the best in the country and deserve closer analysis.
Architecture and Urbanism College – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Originated from the National School of Fine Arts, the first institution to teach architecture in the country, the
course is structured in four main axes, to which the subjects are distributed accordingly: discussion,
conception, representation and construction. These axes cross during the school period, promoting
interdisciplinary integration. The course is divided into three stages: Fundament, Deepening and Synthesis,
in which the student is introduced in the first and graduates in the last. The diversity of subjects taught
breaks from the traditional sequence of Brazilian universities, but there isn’t an investigative spirit in the
teaching program. The emphasis on researching new technologies and methods that break from the usual is
not something seen in this institution. However the FAU/UFRJ is different in the teaching because its
methodology provides in the end of the second year, or fourth semester, a project subject called Integrated
Atelier. The same happens at the end of the fourth year, or eighth semester. This project subject is the
integration of all the other subjects given in the two semesters and congregates the fields of technique,
history and theory. It gives the student greater project integration with the fields that are pertinent to
architectural practice.
Architecture and Urbanism College – Mackenzie Presbyterian University

The Architecture College of the Mackenzie Institute was created in 1947 and, after the institution became
the Mackenzie University, the course included the field of Urbanism, becoming the Architecture and
Urbanism College in 1979, broadening its students’ professional field. The curriculum of the course, in spite
of its traditional fundaments, underwent some changes, which highlighted it from others in the country. The
course seeks the integration between varied disciplinary fields, along with non-conventional exercises like
speeches, expositions, practical classes, the modelling of structures in reduced and natural scales,
experimental activities, the use of modelling software and rapid prototyping, besides other tools which help
the students in their learning. To complement these approaches, there is also the experimental site, a
vertical studio and the guided internship. The college still has an experimental projects office, with emphasis
on infrastructure projects and pilot and experimental projects, always something of public interest, aiming
at the interaction between University and the society.
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CONCLUSION
The evolution of the teaching of architecture and urbanism in Brazil and in the world to a certain degree was
progressive, but the challenge becomes more complex, because, according to data provided by the Ministry
of Education of Brazil, in February of 2013 there were more than 300 schools of architecture and urbanism in
the country. When the territorial dimension of the country is taken into consideration, it can be agreed that
it is not a number far from reality. Also considering that Brazil still has many social problems to be tackled
and solved and that the vast majority of its cities have no kind of planning and the ones who do don’t
correspond, in their majority, to the needs of the new age that has been experienced, this number isn’t so
expressive. But are these schools preparing the future architects and urbanists to face the challenges ahead
of them? There is no doubt that the field of architecture and urbanism has a lot to contribute to the solution,
better, to soothe the problems of our cities and society.
As mentioned before, this article is the fruit of research on Architecture and Urbanism teaching in Brazil.
However, it is clear that, despite the high profile of the schools of architecture using the experimental
method of teaching, it is important to be aware of the possible risks caused by some experimental
approaches that seek innovation through new assumptions and means of creation and that may end in a
way that leads to nowhere. In addition, it is necessary to know how to identify which reality is lived and how
to approach it in schools. Social problems identified in European and North American countries are from an
intrinsic nature and character, quite different from those in Brazil, for example. It is noticeable that some
social issues are not addressed by the experimental method - or are approached with a sometimes utopian
view; adopting this method without proper criticism can generate alienation within schools of architecture
and the consequent formation of architects and planners. Until this moment, the research has revealed that
the current methodology of traditional teaching of architecture and urbanism in Brazil is not the same as the
one from the first half of the 20th century and it cannot yet be stated that the current teaching status tends
to a possible change to experimental teaching or not. However there is no doubt about the advance
reached from 1994 with the institution of the Curriculum Directives for the Teaching of Architecture and
Urbanism that allows each school to define which methodology or approach will be used in the teaching.
To do so, the research will continue looking to answer a question. Is traditional teaching capable of
preparing the professional for future challenges, or is the answer in the break from this way of teaching and
the experimental approach that will allow the possibility of facing future challenges? It would be premature
to try to establish a comparison between these two teaching approaches.
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REFERENCES
Artigas, V., 1977. Contribuição para o relatório sobre o ensino de arquitetura e urbanismo. In Associação
Brasileira de Escolas de Arquitetura, 2010. Sobre a história do ensino de arquitetura no Brasil, São Paulo.
Bruand, Y., 1981. Arquitetura Contemporânea no Brasil, Editora Perspectiva, São Paulo.
Conselho Federal de Engenharia de Arquitetura e Agronomia/Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa Educacional

Anísio Teixeira, 2010, v. X. Trajetória e estado da arte da formação em engenharia, arquitetura e agronomia,
Brasília.
Cotta, FA., 2007, ‘Estados-nacionais e exércitos na Europa moderna: Um olhar sobre o caso português’,
Revista de História e Estudos Culturais, Belo Horizonte ano 5, vol. 4, no. 3.
Giedion, S., n.d. Arquitectura e comunidade, Livros do Brasil, Lisboa. Tradução do original, 1956. Architektur
und Gemeinschaft. Hamburgo.
Gropius, W., 2004. Bauhaus: novarquitetura, Editora Perspectiva, São Paulo.
Leite, C., 2011, ‘Ensino de arquitetura: o Brasil perdeu o rumo?’ AU – Revista de Arquitetura e Urbanismo,
Editora PINI, São Paulo.
Mayumi, L., n.d. ‘A Cidade Antiga nos CIAM, 1950-59 São Paulo’, viewed 21 March 2014,
http://www.docomomo.org.br/seminario%206%20pdfs/Lia%20Mayumi.pdf.
Pedreirinho, JM., 1994. Dicionário dos arquitectos activos em Portugal do século I à actualidade, Editora
Afrontamento, Porto.
Squeff, L., 2004. O Brasil nas letras de um pintor, Editora da Unicamp, Campinas.
Woods, L., 1990. ‘What does it mean?’, in P Cook, RIEA: The first conference, Princeton Architectural
Press/AEDES, New York/Berlin.
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POPULATION AND POVERTY. URBAN TRANSFORMATION, COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITY. CASE

STUDY ‘SAN JOSE EL ALTO’
María Teresa Trejo Guzmán, Instituto Tecnológico de Querétaro - Colegio de Arquitectos del Estado de
Querétaro, México, arq.teretrejo@gmail.com
Abstract
Global influences have an effect on the behavior of society. In Mexico, poverty and overcrowding often compel
public politics to make unplanned decisions. The urban transformation phenomenon occurs day to day in
communities, this study-work sets the community of San Jose el Alto, Queretaro as an example, whereby,
collaboration shall be the trigger to integral development.
The main goal of this study-work is to show that, with solidarity and realism, and with true participation of
citizens, as well as that of social organizations, government, architecture students and professionals, it’s possible
to affect global issues within a local scope.
In this study, data about poverty and population in Mexico are identified; furthermore, the main characteristics of
urban strategic planning are looked through a summary. With planning bases and considering global trends as
an opportunity, data about architecture students and professionals in Mexico are indicated, aiming to
acknowledge the impact they may have in the make-up of a city. Finally, the case study is carried out, the
development of an urban housing project for 161 homes for the socially organized group ‘Antorcha Campesina’,
in collaboration with architecture students and professionals of the State of Queretaro, Mexico.
This study-work aims to become a role model of collaborative urban management; this first draft is expected to be
copied by other projects in similar circumstances, although not necessarily ideal, intending the urban
transformation phenomenon in communities to consider, in a balanced manner, improvement in dimensions of
housing equity, environmental sustainability, social equity, infrastructure, quality of life, governance, gender
equity, productivity, and competition.
Keywords: opportunity, architecture, collaboration, urban transformation.
POPULATION AND POVERTY
The world, nowadays, faces a general crisis that, at the same time, brings about more poverty. Poverty is a
social and economical situation characterized by the lack of basic necessities. It’s all about the needy, the
ones who don’t have the basic necessities to survive. In 2010, estimates on poverty by the World Bank met
the first goal of Objective 1 of the Millennium Goals (to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger); it had been
reached five years prior to its deadline, set by 2015, however, progress has not been even.
CEPAL (Comisión Económica para América Latina – Latin America Economic Commission), on its report of
the Social Scene 2013, stated that the number of poor people in Mexico increased from 36.3 % in 2011 to
37.1 % in 2012. In Mexico, same as in the rest of the world, crisis and poverty generate alarming numbers,
according to estimates on poverty 2012 by CONEVAL (Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de
Desarrollo Social – National Committee for the Political Evaluation of Social Development), carried out from
August to November 2012, and recently issued on July, 17, 2013, showed that there were, officially, 53.3
million poor people in Mexico (See Chart 1). Poverty measuring must be multidimensional, ranging from
unsatisfied basic needs, such as not having any access to drinking water, to the consideration of different
dimensions of welfare, like space, time, and interaction.
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Chart 1: Poverty measuring, Mexico 2012, CONEVAL.
Generally, extreme poverty worldwide occurs in areas where health is poor, the environment is deteriorated,
where there is corruption, conflicts and bad governance, all of which discourage private investors,
consequently, economic growth slows down causing the loss of jobs, and minimizing the number of
opportunities, especially for the young.
The speed of growth in this planet, apparently smaller every day, brings about consequences in most
aspects of the lives of human beings, such as health, aging, lack of food, migration, urbanization,
infrastructure, and housing. According to the census 2010, realized in Mexico by INEGI (Instituto Nacional de
Estadística y Geografía – National Institute of Statistics and Geography), there were 112 million 336 thousand
538 hundred inhabitants. Data of the first semester 2013, showed that there were 118 million 395 thousand
54 inhabitants.
The slowing down of international economic growth means a continuous loss of jobs. Worldwide economic
growth lowered even more over 2012, which utterly weakened the ability of national economies to generate
employment; the most affected are inevitably the young. It is essential in Mexico to improve education
provided to the young and children today, who will eventually cope with the productive burden in order for
the country to face the global advent.
Regarding that issue, the Mexican government has made important decisions that, if painful, shall
strengthen the quality of life of its people. Through different reforms, the Mexican government in its urban
politics shows that the advent of its cities has been planned ahead; urban planning should be the way to
accomplish full development in the country, however, the gradual change is slow.
GLOBAL TRENDS AS OPPORTUNITIES
Nowadays, countries and their cities in search of prosperity must consider and work on international
dimensions to be achieved; of course it is the intention to reach access to economic resources which control
development. Competition, quality of life, good governance, bankability, equity, education, infrastructure,
social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and productivity are just a few of the dimensions to be
considered. Indeed, Mexico has decided the change. Nevertheless, the series of reforms newly proposed by
the government will not be able to achieve unilateral change because this would imply harmony in the
performance of these dimensions as well as excellence in the conduction of public politics. In search of
harmony and solidarity, it is necessary to co-responsibly work amid government, entrepreneurs, institutions,
citizens, universities, and professional architects; we shall turn weaknesses into strengths, minimize threats,
and take advantage of opportunities offered by a globalized world.
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Urban planning
To cope with the different challenges confronted by a country or city on the way to development, planning
is the best resource. Today, most countries intend to generate development by means of planning.
In urban planning, the model to be considered shall be normative, innovative, political, negotiable, and it
shall promote participation as well, in other words, a broad perspective in which actions obey strategic
solutions to real issues to people, cities, countries, or nations; an ideal model that shall also consider
sustainable human development but not only as a solution to current problems but also as a philosophy of
life.
Planning is the only way to keep up with city changing pace, strategic planning, in this case of an urban
nature, is the method to consider continuous changes that are happening now and will continue to happen
in the global village. Strategic planning, besides causing competition, is also the will to combine efforts by
coordinating different initiatives of agents that perform within the territory, but always towards common
goals, and it’s also based in agreement and participation; it is solidified as an action plan, “the strategic
planning of cities leads to a real moving of society towards goals shared by us all” (Fernández 2006, p. 58);
the key lies in solidarity.
Amongst city strategic planning methods, there is one suggested by José Miguel Fernández Güell. He
suggested a method integrated by seven momentums: Start of planning (defines leadership),
Characterization of developmental models (these are the city’s actual economic and social patterns),
External analysis (analyzes the surroundings), Internal analysis (analyzes urban supply), Strategic vision
formulation (visualizes the future desired for the city), Strategy development (to encourage competition and
inhabitability of the city), and Implantation (plan deployment, its implanting and revision, in other words,
urban marketing). The method shall be systematic, creative, and participative, a continuous decision making
system that shall involve local agents throughout the whole process.
In Mexico, there are good examples of city strategic planning, such as Merida, Durango, y Puebla (the most
complete), and other proposals, such as Aguascalientes, Cd. Juarez, Tijuana, or Monterrey. In Queretaro (my
hometown), I believe the intention of the City Strategic Plan, neglects some of the previously mentioned
momentums, it overdoes the plan implantation by delegating actions mostly in the ‘material city’, running
urban marketing and mainly benefiting private investors, therefore neglecting the needs of most people; it
shall not be forgotten that we are many millions of inhabitants in Mexico, and that more than half of us
happen to be poor. Further in the study case, the concept of planning is considered, trying to take
advantage of global trend opportunities (in spite of the contradictions stated by the case).
URBAN TRANSFORMATION
The urban transformation phenomenon occurs day to day in communities, this study-work sets the
community of San Jose el Alto, Queretaro as an example, whereby, collaboration shall be the trigger to
integral development.
Case study: San Jose el Alto, Querétaro

Thanks to the tripartite management, Institutions CAEQ (Colegio de Arquitectos del Estado de Querétaro –
College of Architects of Queretaro State) and other professional associations Enseñanza Universitaria –
University Teaching (Instituto Tecnológico de Querétaro), Sociedad Organizada – Social Organization
(Antorcha Campesina) and the City Hall, in the late 2013, the development of an urban housing project for
161 homes was initiated (Figures 1 and 2).
It is located in Queretaro City, in the State of Queretaro, Mexico, in the community called San Jose el Alto, on
the city outskirts, in lands that were home to community crops in 2012, and today, have unfortunately
become a legally authorized zone of urban growth. As urban project leader and as a member of CAEQ, the
author of this study-work is also counselor to Architecture student interns in Instituto Tecnologico de
Queretaro, and also directly works with and counsels the social organization Antorcha Campesina, and along
with the CAEQ committee arranges discussions with the local government.
730
The organization Antorcha Campesina (begun in 1974), is present everywhere in the country, is made up of
members, sympathizers, and other people close to the organization. It counts more than 1 million 200
thousand people. Its organization system implies a specialized economic model in charge of economic
projects and to watch its lawfulness (people who have been helped by them have achieved important
results in affairs like education, health, communication, housing, and nurturing, they have had access to
drinking water, electricity, and drainage). Certainly, Antorcha Campesina represents an institution of social
endeavor to Mexican people, and even though it has posed an occasional feeling of awkwardness in the
citizens, is highly respected even by the government.
Antorcha Campesina’s operating methods, at least in this case, are way far from the planning concept, to
possibly consider some of their projections have been quite a challenge. The development of an urban
housing project, in its first stages, and before approaching CAEQ, considered no norms. It simply looked for
the division of land into the biggest number of possible lots. The future project dwellers are people with
scarce economic resources, their vision of housing limits to the mere actual home construction, and
sometimes, even done by themselves. It was a real challenge indeed, to present the project intentions to
these people and to actually have them understand.
The project general intentions have to do with integral and highly social urbanism, where urban space and
housing are projected to generate the best possible and least energetically expensive urban-environmental
comfort; where the future dwellers shall be able to actually improve their quality of life (access to high
quality urban habitable space in Mexico is very costly), because it should be a basic human right, why not
also to the poor?
The project will be registered as Unidad Antorchista Melchor Ocampo, it’s integrated by 97 family homes
and four multi-family quadruplex that will shelter 64 families. It will also have green and recreational areas,
businesses, a hall (for social events and self maintenance resource events), bicycle lanes, an urban orchard,
and parking facilities. Since it is a new creation on housing projects, it’ll be convenient to integrate a
retention element in urban structure, of value, of morphologic identification, hence, a public library will also
be promoted, one that plays that valuable role. The project will be carried out in stages, the first stage may
be approved any time now, the last one will surely be the library as a retention element (See Figures 1 and
2).
Finally, it is the project’s intention to outline a habitat that fulfills the needs and future expectations of its
inhabitants. To be able to achieve harmony amongst the different proposed elements, it implies an
enterprise in essence, of complex architecture and urbanism. “If good architecture is such and remains as
such, it will also be capable to assume being for others” (Emery 2007, p. 8), it obviously has to be looked at as
a serious work project, critical and aware of the fact that it’s necessary to know how to inhabit in order to
build, and to know where to inhabit essentially implies to do it with care (conscientiousness), and as much as
possible, by planning. To do so, the project will not be over when formally proposed, it will also include an
integral document whereby the housing project intentions are unveiled, focused on education, therefore, to
keep always in mind that the future inhabitants are poor and uneducated.
Up to the present day, May 15, the approval of the housing Project is close to 80%. To its full approval, there
will be other groups to partake, such as those of Civil Engineers and Electromechanical Engineers.
731
Figure 1: Proposal A. Urban housing Project, San José el Alto.
Figure 2: Proposal B. Urban housing Project, San José el Alto.
Reflecting on this study, the concepts of poverty, population, education, and professionalism, are not to be
excluded, global trends lead people to search for a better future for themselves and their families. With small
ideas like the one proposed here, understanding space as a common value, is maybe one of the easiest ways
to achieve better quality of life for people. The managing of public politics is certainly no easy thing due to
the human tendency in constant pursuit of invisible cities, sold to us by the strong waves of urban
marketing. To re-consider dimensions such as infrastructure, social inclusion, quality of life, environmental
sustainability, gender equity, productivity and competition, is therefore everyone’s task.
We are many architects and architecture students in Mexico, in whose hands lies the advent of Mexican
cities. We have to manage knowledge with certainty in order to make our task less complicated, the case of
San Jose el Alto, although originally unplanned, is at least a good example to take advantage of ‘everyone’s
strengths’, with tolerance, inclusion, equity, and the desire to actually accomplish general welfare. If this first
draft on collaborative urban management were copied, with its obvious particular circumstances, the urban
transformation phenomenon would take place in better equilibrium with the communities, and so, little by
little, Mexico would finally reach a better level of integral and inclusive development.
732
REFERENCES
Amadei, G et al., 2002. Cittá costruita qualitá del vivere. Desideri Valori Regole, Casa Editrice Marietti S.p.A.,
Genova-Milano.
Borja, J et al., 2000. Local y global: la gestión de las ciudades en la era de la información, 5th Edn, Taurus,
Madrid.
Borja, J & Burgess, R., 2002. La cittá inclusiva. Argomenti per la cittá dei PVS (paesi in via di sviluppo), Franco
Angeli, Milano.
Calvino, I., 2012. Le città invisibili, Oscar Mondadori, 32th ristampe, Italia.
Casais, E., 2009. ‘Políticas Económicas y Pobreza: México 1982-2007’, PhD thesis, Universidad Complutense
de Madrid, Madrid.
Emery, N., 2007. L'architettura difficile. Filosofía del costruire, Christian Martinotti Edizioni s.r.l., Milano.
Landry, C., 2009. City making. L’arte di fare la città, Codice edizioni, Torino.
Mattongo, C et al., 2008. Ventuno parole per l'urbanistica, Crocci editore, Roma.
Osmot, A et al., 2002. La cittá inclusiva. Argomenti per la cittá dei PVS (paesi in via di sviluppo), Franco Angeli,
Milano.
Rogers, R., 2000. Ciudades para un pequeño planeta, Gustavo Gili, España.
Trejo, MT., 2008. ‘Interazione delle scelte di intervento tra la progettazione urbana e la valutazione
economica, nell ottica della Qualità del Vivere in termini del Spazio Esistenziale dell’Uomo’, masters’ thesis,
Politecnico di Milano..
Trejo, MT., 2011. ‘Presentación ponencia "Pensar Global, Actual Local. Por una mejor calidad de vida en
nuestras ciudades"’, Querétaro, México.
Trejo, T., 2008. ‘Presentación ponencia “La pobreza, un reto inclusivo y sustentable”’, Noche sin Techo,
Querétaro, México.
! !
733
SEEDS FROM THE SOUTH: AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FOR ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM IN THE
21ST CENTURY
Andréia Moassab, UNILA- Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (State University for Latin
America Integration), Brazil, andreia.moassab@unila.edu.br
Abstract
A myriad of challenges arises as the curriculum for a new public school as particular as UNILA - Universidade
Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (State University for Latin America Integration) is defined. The totally
new university was created by the Brazilian government with the chief mission of contributing and collaborating
with/towards Latin American integration. From the perspective of post-colonial theories in dialogue with a
decolonial approach, some fundamental questions arises: will it be able to bring new perspectives into the
educational programs in a usually very conservative field, still grounded on Eurocentric modern bases? How can
education contribute towards local empowerment and cause significant change in the quality of Brazilian and
Latin American built environment? Can education spread insurgent practices of architecture and urban planning?
Future urban and design professionals will be deeply engaged in the challenges of working in low resource
contexts, where creativity and skill are essential to achieve impacting results. For this, one needs an educational
foundation based on the recognition of the importance of engagement with local communities and respectful of
the diversity of architectural cultures in the world. It presupposes bringing into the pedagogic level marginal
architecture production and procedures mostly outside the literature and the hegemonic meaning production
systems in the field. It also requires that additional skills are added to the usual training of future professionals
such as methodology in participative projects, collective mediation, pedagogical approaches and management
of public policies. Nevertheless, the hegemony of Eurocentric rationality within the field evokes enormous
reluctance regarding the necessary switch to such a curriculum. This paper presents some hypothesis which
emerged from the on-going debate over the implementation of UNILA's School of Architecture and Urban
Planning. It is based on postcolonial theory in dialogue with a decolonial approach, interweaving authors such as
Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Paulo Freire, Achille Mbembe and Walter Mignolo.
Keywords: educational program, south-south, empowerment, architectural diversity.
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RESEARCH PROFILE AND CONTEXT OF UNILA'S CREATION

This article seeks to debate the preliminary issues around the recently implemented architecture and
urbanism course CAU - at State University for Latin America Integration (CAU UNILA, from now on). The
course's pedagogical project starting point was the carrying out research with the involvement of professors
and students as support for further action. The main aims of such research were (1) to understand the chief
demands directly related to the professional architect and urbanist in view of the bettering of the quality of
built and inhabited space, in Brazil and in Latin America; (2) survey the state of the art of architecture in
Brazil. At the same time all of the architecture schools in the insertion area of UNILA have been mapped.
That means schools from Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and from the brazilian states of Paraná, Santa
Catarina, Rio Grande de Sul e Mato Grosso do Sul (Figure 1).
In general, one sought to identify how higher education in Brazil has collaborated in the training of
professionals geared towards both
the market and the new challenges in
the area. Recent data from the
Architecture and Urbanism Council of
Brazil – CAUBR (2013) – shows that
there is a lack of professionals trained
to respond to demands of a
significant part of the architecture, in
particular that linked to the public and
community sectors. Since UNILA is a
public institution, it was understood
that its course should train
professionals apt to meet public and
community demands. In other words,
the first challenge is to introduce, as
pedagogical policy, training geared
towards a professional profile usually
little valued and distant from the
glamour of architecture magazines,
despite its growing possibilities in
Brazil and in Latin America.
With regards to the method, in

! dialogue with the critical perspective
illustration!by!nico!pereyra.! founding the University, this text is
Figure'1:'Architecture)Schools)in)the)Insertion)Area)of) grounded on decolonial and post-
UNIL)2013.)' colonial thought, as we deem them
! adequate to the Latin American
context, geared towards the
consolidation of its own epistemological perspective, and in view of the autonomy and emancipation of
subaltern peoples. Both bodies of critical theory have been in a process of consolidation since the 1970's,
seeking to render evident the epistemic colonisation of the South by the global North, that is, the
subalternisation of knowledge. Equally challenged is the European project of modernity. The recognition of
ethnic and gender differences features strongly in this debate, as well as the development of an episteme of
the South, or a decolonial episteme, far from the references of that modernity project. In Brazil, the fields of
architecture and urbanism have featured poorly in this debate, which constitutes an important theoretical
referential for the understanding of the meaning production systems and hegemonic values that have
historically excluded or rendered invisible a significant part of subaltern architectural production.
The traditional architecture schools in the country promote little or no debate around the continent's
architectural production, be it as historical reference (such as Chan-Chan in Peru, one of the major examples
of earth architecture and urban organisation of the 10th to the 15th Centuries), be it as architectural
production, like the indigenous Amerindian building technologies, excluded from national curriculum. Not
to mention, even further marginalised, the architecture of the African continent, such as the Lalibela
churches of Ethiopia or the social-spatial organisation among the Dogon in Mali. A survey of the books
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published in Brazil about architecture or cities of Latin America and Africa suffices to render evident the
invisibility of the subject both in teaching and in the scientific production in the area.
Conversely, in all national curricula, Greek and Roman architecture, medieval cities and their big cathedrals
or other European references are extensively debated. There is almost a naturalisation of the European
imaginary and architectural references, as if they were the obvious and only possible genealogy for the
Brazilian and/or Latin American city and architecture. Isn't it necessary to rethink the history of architecture
and the cities from other points of view? Isn't teaching, directly linked to research, the site in which the
naturalisation of a Northcentric perspective is (re)produced constantly? What are the consequences of such
training that distances the future architects from architectural practices that will either never be part of their
repertoire or else will be deliberately undervalued?
It is worth highlighting that UNILA results from a federal government project for regional integration,
yielding from a recognition of “the urgency to promote, by means of knowledge and culture, the
cooperation and solidary exchange with the other countries of Latin America” (UNILA n.d. a). Therefore, in
2010 UNILA opened its first courses at its headquarters at Iguaçu/Paraná, the border region between Brazil,
Paraguay and Argentina, with the aim of becoming a reference institution able to induce the opening up of
paths leading to mutual respect, deepening of democracy and the culture of peace in the subcontinent
(ibid.). Grounded in UNILA's mission as a university geared towards regional integration, the Architecture
and Urbanism course, created in 2012, is intended as a course encompassing the Latin American regional
context grounded on architecture and urbanism as political action. Therefore, the professional trained at
UNILA should be guided by a deep understanding of the social function of an architect and urbanist.
Grounded in Architecture as a social subject (UNILA n.d. b), the course’s project plays a strategic role in the
consolidation of the University and of regional cooperation, for “to design human space, from house to
cities” (UNILA n.d. b) demands a deep understanding of time-space. Thence, the Architecture and Urbanism
course at UNILA must develop “the architect as a ‘generalist’ ” (UIA/UNESCO 2011 p. 1), in accordance with
national and international precepts for the area. However, in view of the national and Latin American
specific demands, it is important to provide the student, with no loss to the generalist training, CAU UNILA's
vocational emphases, i.e. deep knowledge about Latin American housing, architectures and cities. It is on
such bias that CAU UNILA is structured: for the training of professionals prepared for the production of built
space and of housing in response to regional demands and grounded in their own rationales. In other
words, the course must assert decolonial and post-colonial points of view, encompassing integration as
emancipation and autonomy of people by means of architecture.
The site of the university, placed at the triple frontier separating Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina in the city of
Foz do Iguaçu (State of Paraná), is imbued with issues of geopolitical nature, and is a challenge and
opportunity to put into practice the proposal designed for the course. The region offers fertile terrain for
research and further education regarding CAU UNILA’s central themes. At the same time as the frontier zone
yields contradictions of the Brazilian and Latin American urban constitutions, with marked spatial
segregation, the medium scale of the region’s cities is favourable to a greater approximation between
university, community and public administration. In synthesis, the course’s pedagogical project should
guide the consolidation of a graduation in architecture and urbanism geared towards the specificities of the
triple frontier, in consonance with the national context and institutional vocation of Latin American
integration.
In the countries bordering UNILA (Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina), despite the relatively high number of
schools of architect and urbanism (40), there are strong asymmetries in their geographic distribution, with a
concentration of 75% of the courses in Argentina (Figure 1). Besides, half of such schools are private, built to
respond to the demands of the real estate and building markets. Together with a valuing system that
measures professional success by the authorial production “aimed invariably at high income social strata”
(Whitaker 2011), this scenario of schools toeing the market line ends up defining, to a great extent, a
graduate little prepared to respond to social demands.
Regarding UNILA's national region of insertion (Southern States plus Mato Grosso do Sul), the qualitative
scenario is similar with regards to the vocation of the courses, though with inverse numbers (Figure1). There
are 77 architecture and urbanism courses in these four states, being 12 public and 65 private, that is, less
than 20% are free (ABEA 2013). In the municipality of Foz de Iguaçu there has been a private institution of
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architecture and urbanism for a few years now (UDC). In Brazil, one decade ago, 70% of the courses were
private (Ronconi, 2002). Today this proportion reaches 83% (ABEA 2013). That is, of the 294 courses of
architecture and urbanism open in the country, only 49 are free. In ten years, notwithstanding the efforts by
federal government to open new public universities, the growth speed of private institutions has been
overwhelming. In a few states such as Acre, Amapá and Rondônia, not a single public institution features a
course. São Paulo, Santa Catarina and the Federal District, present the greatest imbalances in terms of the
private/public ratio (there are 6%, 8% and 9% respectively in public institutions) (ibid.).
It is worth clarifying that unlike other international contexts, public universities in Brazil are responsible for
investing in research and in reflection for the different areas of knowledge. It should further be noticed that
private schools, with a few exceptions, are characterised by meeting the demands of the building market,
geared almost exclusively towards concrete and glass panes, to the loss of a critical professional prepared for
public action or for community-based work. In addition, the distribution of schools in the territory does not
obey strategic criteria regarding national development or the meeting of local demands of the professional
architect and urbanist. On the contrary, the creation of schools has been guided by the possibility of the
“commercialisation” of the course, that is, they are placed preferably in the states with higher income
populations (Ronconi, 2002). Such data also points to UNILA's important and strategic insertion: it is the only
architecture and urbanism course in a public and free institution within a 300 km radius around Foz do
Iguaçu (figure 1).
In the national context, UNILA is part of a drive for the internalisation of higher education in the country. In
2003, 14 public universities and 163 new campuses were created in regions with few or no university-level
courses (Brasil, 2013). Understanding that the founding core of the profession is shelter, its architecture and
urbanism course should, therefore, contribute to supply and overcome the usual lack of professionals
interested in housing in the region of insertion and, evidently, in the wider context of the country and Latin
America.
Presently, for instance, there are public funds aiming to secure free technical assistance to low income
families with regards to the design and building of houses, but few are the municipalities of the country
currently accessing such resources. Only 20% of the total amount at the responsible government body
(Fundo Nacional de Habitação de Interesse Social) has been used at all. One of the main factors barring
access to the money is the lack of information by the professionals involved, as illustrated by a manual
elaborated by the Architect's Institute of Brazil, a special issue on the theme (IAB 2010).
Another relevant aspect is the absence of architects in 47% of the municipalities of Paraná, state where
UNILA is located, “be it as a public servant, be it as a dweller in the city. This is a very worrying piece of
information. How do city halls manage their territory, is the civil engineer doing it or nobody at all?” (Navolar
2013) Thus wrote the present day president of the Paraná State Architecture and Urbanism Council, Jeferson
Navolar. It is not by chance that one of the main demands of the council at a federal level is to “take
architecture to those who do not have it” (ibid.), understanding that cities currently go without architecture
or urbanism or without the right to architecture, a picture that deserves reversion with maximum brevity. In
Brazil, the scenario is no more encouraging: only 33% of Brazilian municipalities feature architects (Pinheiro
2012).
In other words, there is great demand in municipal administrations, in communities and in cities for a
professional geared towards urban issues, housing and urban equipment, materials and low cost building
techniques adequate to the local context, conservation of historical heritage in consonance with the
demands of the dwellers in the zone of preservation, participative urban management, participative
projects, mediation of conflicts, respect for the environment and the landscape, development of public
housing policies, urbanisation of precarious settlements, land regulation, basic sanitation, urban transport
and mobility. In this sense, although there are Architecture and Urbanism courses in reasonable numbers in
UNILA’s region of insertion, the implementation of CAU UNILA finds justification in the fact that it is a free of
charge course geared towards the preparation of the future professional as he or she meets a plural market,
that is, composed not only by the private sector, but increasingly by significant demands of the public and
community sectors.
As one speaks of saturation of the market, another emergent issue in the large centres, one has to
distinguish the type of market: that of the self-employed projectist architect who only meets the demands of
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the elite, typical of the 20th Century, opposed to the professional ready to contribute to the solution of
spatial problems of the urban agglomerations in the different scales and characteristics. It is on such
meeting of wider demands that schools, and also the recently implemented Architecture and Urbanism
Council, should focus attention (Maragno 2012, p. 3).
In Brazil, the wide debate around free technical assistance is evidence of this growing professional field. Also,
the strong presence of mutual help housing cooperatives in several Latin American countries, especially
Uruguay, demonstrate that there is a diversification of demands for professionals to meet, not always taken
into consideration in their training. Work on such fronts implies the development of abilities usually little
contemplated in the courses of architecture and urbanism, such as techniques and methodologies for
popular participation; development of specific pedagogical material or of simplified technical language
material for a wide understanding in community debates; creativity in the choice of materials and building
techniques that meet the local economic possibilities and knowledge; greater dialogue in and
reorganisation of the building site, which is not always composed by experienced or specialised labour;
capacity to manage and propose public policies for municipalities with enormous administrative fragilities
or with difficulties in the elaboration of (non-architectural) projects to access public money or national and
international funding; capacity for the managing of conflicts, common in project involving a wide range of
social actors, from communities to federal ministries, and so on. Therefore, a myriad of new necessities of
professional instrumentalisation geared towards an audience who deserves to be contemplated with the
right to architecture as much as the traditional real estate and building markets. It is in light of these new
demands that CAU UNILA’s pedagogical project is being elaborated.
A BRIEF HISTORICAL EXCURSUS/DIGRESSION

CAU UNILA has been developed from premises that take into consideration the history of UNILA’s creation,
its relevant role in regional integration and the specificities required for the course itself, under the light of
the complexities and challenges involved in the training of the architect and the urbanist in consonance
with the 21st Century in the Latin American context.
Some critical debate has emerged in the last few years around the current system of valuation of
architectural production understood as large scale authorial projects, or monument-projects, which inspire
and seduce future professionals in the direction opposed to wide-ranging infrastructural, spatial and social
needs of the country (Arantes 2010; Ronconi 2002; Whitaker 2011). The current bases for the teaching of
architecture and urbanism in the whole world have been consolidated in the course of the previous century
under the aegis of modernism and its strong vocation for the industrial production inspired in the Bauhaus
model. At the turn of the century, other variables and complexities are added in the production of built and
inhabited space. However, the changes in teaching follow the reconfigurations of the scenario morosely and
marginally.
In the 1920’s, the Bauhaus, founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar Germany, took initial steps towards the
formation of the indiscernible link between architecture and industrial society. Not only 20th Century
architecture's main pillars were consolidated by Bauhaus, but also industrial design and graphic design were
born in that school (Benevolo 1989; Droste, 2006; Gropius, 2001). The importance of Bauhaus and its
teachers and directors in the 1920’s and 1930’s is indisputable. Much of what exists today in architectural
production and in cities has germinated in that singular experiment immersed and indistinguishable from
the architectural debate of its time, which has much contributed to the reversion of the precariousness of
the urban settlements in the turn of the previous century, to which Academia's teaching was clearly
insufficiently answering. The pre-fabricated, the housing estates, the rational city, the urban space separated
by functions, the valuing of machines and means of transportation were the central basis of the modernism
supported by Le Corbusier, Gropius and Mies Van der Rohe.
Notwithstanding, all the engagement and political and social commitment of the architectural production of
the initial decades was substantially changed after the Second World War, when the Modern became a
‘style’ (Kopp 1990). This turn in the movement’s core concerns emerged when central Europe's political
context swerved towards totalitarian regimes and a clear position was taken by the architects who had been
coming together in the Modern Architecture International Congresses – MAIC (ibid.). On that occasion Mies
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van der Rohe asked: “is urbanism a political question? The second question is (…) can the congress be
concerned with it?” (Kopp 1990, p. 153, suppression in the original). There was a refusal in the open
politicisation of the debate, added to the absence of some of the more radical members, so the 4th MAIC
“heralded the end of an era” (ibid. p. 159), in which the “'modern' architects' 'cause' suddenly is left without a
motherland” (ibid. quotation marks in the original).
In the following decades, the tense political environment and the imminence of war generated a strong
migratory movement of architects, especially to the Soviet Union and the USA. Contrary to the European
milieu, where a modernism strongly linked to the social political debate thrived, in the USA such modernism
became a practically marginal architecture. In addition, the clear post-War international geopolitical
demarcations submerged the country in an intense anti-communist persecution. In this environment,
immigrant Bauhaus architects absorbed as teachers in important schools of architecture “presented the
Weimar and Dressau institution in the United States only in its formal and technical aspects” (ibid. p. 232).
Besides, in the new environment the large scale commission of projects did not originate in the State but in
the entrepreneurial world. The economic, political and cultural influence of the United States over most
Western countries in the context of the Cold War, including Latin America, set the agenda for much of the
debate and architectural practice of the following decades, whose perspective is synthesised in the
important post-modern manifesto Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown,
published in 1972.
TEACHING CHALLENGES IN A SINGULAR SCHOOL

At the end of this brief historical digression, another feature of the post-War heritage becomes clear, that is,
the formal concern, plus a centralisation in architectural practice of the project in detriment of constructive
experimentation (the building site) (Ronconi 2002) and of critical reflection. This practice is naturalised in the
architecture and urbanism courses at the end of the last century, which results in a “mirage for professional
exercise” (ibid. p. 38), in which the student, from the heights of his or her vantage point,“(…) only sights the
big work: big museums, big parks, big projects (…) a museum is isolated here, a park there, but a vast
extension of the territory in the cities remains abandoned, such a priority demand, but one that is not able to
spark the interest of architects (ibid.)”.
Far from the building site, the architect’s training lacks the social practice inherent to architecture (ibid.). The
student has a theoretical contact with social problems, but he or she does not experience it fully: “lacking is
the contact with constructive cultures, with the economic possibilities and with social life” (ibid. p. 39). In the
same direction, the excessive valuing of the architectural project collaborates in driving away the architect
and urbanist from critical thinking, from his or her capacity to reflect about what is being done and, more,
understand architecture and urbanism as political action. Ultimately this excessively formal production,
severed from the social and building process, results in architects isolated from the world's problems,
believing, with Zaha Hadid, for example, that architects “have nothing to do with the workers who died in
construction sites in Qatar”, referring to FIFA's 2022 World Cup preparations in the Gulf state (The Guardian
2014). It is our interest to debate the measure of responsibility of the schools of architecture and urbanism in
training professionals aligned with such perspective.
Since the end of the 20th Century, complexities distinct from those one-century-old have emerged, and the
modernist programme has sought answers - but now they are insufficient. Since the 1970’s, the post-
modern proposal has demonstrated that it is partial and little adequate to the Latin American context.
Therefore, after almost one hundred years of the first modern architecture school, the questions are similar,
albeit distinct: on the other side of the Atlantic, which should be the pedagogical bases for architecture and
urbanism in the 21rst Century? How does UNILA find a place in this regional and temporal panorama? What
would be the needs of a professional training geared towards meeting the demands of regional problems?
How have architecture and urbanism courses responded to this?
In a country where 70% of the municipalities do not feature an architect, in which a large part of the
population builds without professional guidance, without access to quality housing, an architecture school
geared towards regional integration must necessarily contribute to change this picture by means of a
political architecture and an architectural policy frankly geared towards Latin American issues of
qualification of its built space, widening access of populations to the right to architecture. This means to
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steer its pedagogical project towards training architects and urbanists who are prepared to respond to the
local specificities from local rationalities, valuing easy access techniques and materials, and including the
importance of participative processes in the architectural and urbanistic processes.
CAU ANILA’s complex and difficult task is to develop the critical capacity of the student of architecture and
urbanism, taught by equally multidisciplinary and critical teachers. Thus the course finds guidance in the
writings of Paulo Freire (2006), Enrique Dussel (2005, 2011), Anibal Quijano (2005) and Milton Santos (1982,
2001, 2004), translating them into the multiple contexts of teaching, of research and of extra-mural activities
in architecture and urbanism. From Freire, the course seeks to absorb the theoretical and methodological
subsidies of his educational proposal geared towards the liberation of poor countries and in sight of
empowering and emancipating populations in a situation of poverty or subordination. From Dussel and
Quijano, CAU UNILA aims to incorporate the profitable debate regarding the historical reconstruction of
Modernity, as well as discussing the overcoming of Eurocentrism in the sciences, preparing a graduate to
identify the assymetries of power among the peoples and places, engaging in the construction of an
epistemic centrality around Latin America. From Milton Santos, the critical spatialisation around the concept
of territory is appropriated, in order to understand architectural objects, projectual practices and the built
environment resulting from the spatialisation both of cultures and the relations between society and nature,
particularly those imbricated with power disputes and with conflicts around the access to land.
CAU UNILA’s pedagogical and political stance is clearly evident in the work by architects like Hassan Fathy
(1982), critical of the industrialisation of building and contributor of an inclusive view of architecture
regarding the rural world and natural materials available in the diverse regional and geo-bio-physical
contexts; Lina Bo Bardi (Rubino and Grinover 2009), for her dialogue between Modern and popular and her
valuing of the daily use of spaces as inherent to projectual practice. Sérgio Ferro (1979), who sought to
understand the architectural object as part of a production of surplus-values on the territory and has
demanded from architecture poetic daring and revolutionary practice; and Eladio Dieste (Gutierrez 1998)
and Solano Benitez (Freitas and Hereñu 2012), whose work combine in different ways the choice of
materials, structural systems and other projectual decisions with the desire for buildings of easy technical
execution and low final costs.
With regards to reflection about the cities, it is pertinent to add to urban theory issues related to symbolic
constructions of/about the urban space that daily (re)produce the structures of power (Foucault 1979; 2000;
Bourdieu 1999; Moassab 2012). This approach relativises the very production of data and the supposed
technical neutrality of maps, charts and statistics (Moassab 2012). To a certain measure, the reading of the
urban grounded in social representations and on the construction of meanings is close to the urban cultural
history that has emerged in Latin America as new investigation since the 1970's (Almandoz 2002). Architects
and urbanists critical to the neopositivistic bias of reducing to the phenomenon of the city to technical
apparatus have incorporated literary genres, painting and cinema into the collection of traditional primary
sources (ibid.).
Thus, curricular organisation was developed to train professionals apt for critical propositions, collaborative
practices and technological experimentation – above all geared towards low cost technologies and low
socio-environmental impact, respecting communities and multiple local knowledge. In other words, what is
at play is providing the students tools to capacitate them to de-construct hegemonic rationalities, which are
currently translated into, for instance, the univocal culture of reinforced concrete, marginalising other
techniques and building technologies; or, further, translated into overvaluing authorial work in the
modernist mould, geared above all towards big commissions from high income sectors of society.
To point at another kind of training is no easy task, since Academia itself and specialised literature are
focussed on studying, debating and analysing authorial architecture. This encompasses, at first, an
embracing of the challenge by the teachers of CAU UNILA so that, the first researches resulting from this
effort can better ground the teaching geared towards “also illuminating the other face of architecture and of
urbanism, less showy, less evident and less celebrated, but whose importance is fundamental to extricate
the profession from this complex deadlock in which it finds itself” (Whitaker 2011). Such deadlock regards an
authorially-biased architecture, celebrated nationally and internationally, incapable of responding to “40%
of the urban population who lives precariously, without architecture or urbanism” (ibid.).
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The questions begging an answer are more of the order of the collective, of team work, of rights, of the
participative processes, of low cost materials, of the use of local materials, of technological development
guided by social premises, of the improvement of the quality of life of poor populations and of the design of
public policies geared towards such end. This is translated into a social commitment geared towards
autonomy and social emancipation with a focus on housing and the right to the city, which in themselves
presuppose the meeting of a string of historical demands related to architecture and to urbanism: mobility,
social equipment, urban equipment, basic sanitation etc. Architecture and urbanism are understood,
therefore, as a field of knowledge that deals with space and territory in its social dimension, that is,
architecture as social subject, a political architecture.
TOWARDS AN INSURGENT EDUCATION: SOME ASPECTS OF ITS MATRIX

The curricular matrix is guided by the interdisciplinary dialogue and aims at the production of
interdisciplinary knowledge and teaching, in line with the university itself. It is true that the curricular
structure in many other architecture and urbanism schools are guided by a multiplicity of knowledge and
approaches, characteristic of the area, but not all avoiding the mere encounter of thematic monologues, in
which each discipline keeps its method or theory. Interdisciplinarity, on the contrary, presupposes the effort
to develop common theoretical-methodological perspectives. In its turn, transdisciplinarity inaugurates
another way of thinking the world (Mignolo 2003; Santos 2003; Morin 2011), at UNILA informed by
decolonial thinking. This means that at CAU UNILA transdisciplinarity is inherent to the epistemic approach
of its pedagogical project, whose medium and long term perspective aims the formation of professionals
prepared to deal with the complexities of the contemporary world. CAU UNILA is, therefore, guided by a
pedagogical practice geared towards the respect for the knowledge that composes society, with special
attention to those separated from the teaching of architecture and urbanism.
For instance, indigenous Amerindian constructive practices have been added to several of the disciplines, of
critical or technical instrumentations. Further, two optional disciplines were thought out so as to prioritise
the discussion of themes constantly ignored in the area, ranging from the theorisation of African cities and
architecture to the experimentation of new techniques and art languages. Equally, local and non-scientific
knowledge are valued in the course. The insertion and valuing of popular participation methods in several
disciplines (specifically Participative Practices in Architecture and Urbanism) is highlighted, and also the
definitive insertion of the Experimental Building Site into the curricular structure, where students and
teachers have the opportunity of “learning to build, building”, including alternative and low cost materials,
relying on the collaboration or the instruction of men and women who build without formal knowledge but
that is grounded on other techniques and rationalities.
Besides, gender and ethnic issues cut across several disciplines of the course, being also one specific theme
for debate in an optional discipline (Architecture, Cities, Ethnic and Gender Relations). In short, CAU UNILA
values transdisciplinarity as it demands from its students activities beyond architecture and urbanism
usually geared towards the explanation of and intervention in great cities, resulting from the industrial
paradigm and submissive to the hegemony of concrete.
The Integrated Studio is the interdisciplinary core of the course, given its nature of spatial synthesis coherent
with the professional activity of architecture and urbanism. Each semester-long Studio programme is
developed from a problem connected to reality, previously recognised as a local demand and debated
among the course's teachers. The level of spatial complexity of the problems increases each semester. For
the development of the student’s end-of-semester work, he or she must include in his or her proposal the
several previously learned contents, including those learned in the course of the current semester. Aspects
regarding each of the scales that compose the project studios (building, city and landscape/region) will be
evaluated in a single work by a panel composed by teachers of each discipline composing the Studio. In
terms of content, the Studios integrate theory, practice and experimentation, even when tutored by distinct
teachers. The articulating teachers must secure that the content is pertinent and transversal to the studio.
At CAU UNILA, differently from other Brazilian schools, projects of architecture, urbanism and landscaping,
besides planning and territorial management, are treated in an integrated way, by the analysis of a single
object, theme or problem. Besides, curricular activities linked to urban and buildings infrastructure, to
structural systems, topography and others are harmonised with what is going on at the studios each
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semester. It is worth mentioning, further, how indistinguishable is the relationship between the disciplines
Experimental Building Site and Integrated Studio.
In parallel to the project studios, the students attend during the course of the semester, disciplines
organised along four instrumentation guidelines: (1) Latin American Studies (2) Critique; (3) Technique; (4)
Reading and Representation. UNILA’s disciplines of the common cycle are included in the Latin American
Studies instrumentation guideline: Fundamentals of Latin America, Introduction to Scientific Thought, Ethics
and Science, Additional Foreign Language (Portuguese or Spanish). During the first three semesters at
UNILA, students are exposed to a multicultural common milieu, living together with fellow students and
teachers of the University’s several institutes. This guideline defines a critical and multidisciplinary
perspective about the diverse themes of interest in the subcontinent for the training of an architect and
urbanist geared towards activity in Latin America.
In its turn, the guideline of critical instrumentation brings together the disciplines of critical-reflexive
grounding directly related to architecture and urbanism, which seek to tool up the student for an
understanding of architecture as a social and political subject. For instance, the discipline Critique and
History of Architecture and of the City is taught for four semesters. It sets out to be a political historical and
socio-cultural comprehension of architectural production and of the built space of each period and place of
several peoples, seeking to avoid an aesthetising reading of architecture. Special attention is given to the
inclusion of several building knowledges, as is the case with pre-Columbian, African, indigenous Brazilian
and Latin American or quilombola architecture. Additionally, attention is given to an analysis of the gender
and ethnic cleavages of architecture historiography, which excludes from publication certain production
and professionals in favour of the overvaluing of, white male architectural production carried out in the
global North (or under its directives).
The technical instrumentation guideline embraces and organises the disciplines that build technical and
professional skills, geared towards the learning of instruments and techniques and their application to
architecture and urbanism. The fourth and last instrumentation guideline is dedicated to the practices of
reading and representation. Grounded in an understanding of architecture and cities as critical text, this
guideline seeks to prepare the future professional to understand that the design and projectual
representations are found in historical political and cultural contexts, posing architecture as a significant
professional practice in the identitarian delimitation of the peoples. The representation systems in
architecture and urbanism are sign systems fundamental both to the reading of realities and for a
conscientious intervention, expected from the CAU UNILA graduate.
The separation of the guidelines follows an organisational rather than a disciplinary criterion. The teaching
of theory and practice is a reality in the four pedagogical guidelines. Each one operates this articulation from
its specificities and set of themes.
In addition to the intersection of the guidelines and disciplines, the Public Office of Architecture and
Urbanism was conceived in the very first years of CAU UNILA, a joint venture by teachers, students and
institution, constitutive of the pedagogical model informed by learning-action-experimentation. Equally
fundamental for the course is the Experimental Building Site, which will articulate projective theory and
practice with constructive practice, involving several disciplines (compulsory disciplines, exclusively related
to the Experimental Building Site are also contemplated, as explained above).
CONCLUSION: THE CHALLENGES HAVE BEEN CAST

As shown throughout the paper, the pedagogical project of CAU UNILA was conceived with the firm
objective of responding to these fundamental questions: will it be able to bring new perspectives into the
educational programs in the very conservative field, still settled in Eurocentric modern bases? How can
education contribute towards local empowerment and the significant change in the quality of Brazilian and
Latin-American built environment? Can education spread insurgent practices of architecture and urban
planning?
Grounded in UNILA’s mission as a university geared towards regional integration, Architecture and
Urbanism is set out to be a course that encompasses the Latin American regional context with an approach
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to architecture and urbanism as political action. As a consequence, it intends that the graduate leaving
UNILA be guided by a deep understanding of the social function of the architect and the urbanist. The
course is part of a Brazilian university intent on continental integration, and is structured around this very
bias: for the training of generalist professionals able to respond to a quality production of housing in
contexts of economic and/or lack of material resources. Urban reform, dignified housing and the social
function of the architect and the urbanist must be understood in the light of new practices, seeking to
prepare the professional to meet the housing demands of most of the world's population.
Once the Eurocentric foundations which usually guide the professional education and career of architects
and planners were recognized, we believe we have been successful in proposing an alternative curriculum
based on, and in dialogue with, an adequate epistemological perspective for Latin America. Nevertheless,
the challenge is to attract and prepare professors able to deconstruct the Eurocentric framework practically
entrenched in most of our backgrounds. Only a faculty committed and engaged in this conceptual shift will
be fully capable of implementing this proposed pedagogical project.
Furthermore, the proposed curriculum presents updates in terms of frameworks and content. Above all, it
proposes new courses in line with current skills required for a professional practice embedded in its
space/time such as the inclusion of training in participatory practices and the subsequent preparation of
professionals to engage with collective and diverse publics. This training is based on pedagogical
knowledge aligned with technical knowledge of the field. The focus of the course on the potential of local
materials, in alternative construction techniques, in social housing and in the social role of the architect and
urban planner may certainly contribute towards the empowerment and significant change in the quality of
the Brazilian and Latin American built environments.
CAU UNILA’s graduate will enjoy competences for exercising his or her profession in consonance with the
specificities and problems of the distinct Latin American context. The development of such competence is
grounded on the premise of a learning permeated by reflection on the professional practices experienced
empirically along the duration of the course, where the project of housing and city as political action is
treated as indissociable from its social, cultural, historical, economical, spatial and environmental
dimensions.
CAU UNILA’s teachers and students are engaged, by means of its pedagogical project, in consolidating,
deepening and formulating “a new paradigm for the education and training of young Latin American
architects and urbanists able to understand and review an architectural tradition and culture that has
attributed little value to the autochthonous experiences in the areas of architecture and landscaping (Chiesa
2012, p. 4, underlined in the original). This is a very audacious goal. It is a fact that a lot will depend on its
teaching body, still under structuring. Such propositions have, therefore, the fundamental mission of
attracting teachers of a profile open to experimentation, to innovation, the valuing of the many ways of
dwelling and of subaltern building techniques, to the debate about/from/with Latin America. With these
foundations, the course proposal believes that education can spread insurgent practices in architecture and
planning. Nevertheless, only time will tell if CAU UNILA will be able to sustain this unique project.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank the students of the Group for the Development of the Pedagogical Project of the
Course, whom under supervision of professors Renata Machado and Andréia Moassab, have made a large
research about the schools of architectures and urban planning in UNILA’s region of insertion. The data
collected and organized by this research where of extremely importance for the analysis presented in this
paper.
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IAB, 2010. Manual para implantação da assistência técnica pública e gratuita a famílias de Baixa renda para
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Mignolo, W., 2003. Histórias locais/projetos globais: colonialidade, saberes subalternos e pensamento liminar,
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Moassab, A., 2012. Brasil periferia(s): A comunicação insurgente do Hip-Hop, Educ/Fapesp, São Paulo.
Morin, E., 2011. Os sete saberes necessários para a educação do futuro, Cortez, São Paulo.
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PART 5 : CIB W104 OPEN BUILDING IMPLEMENTATION

international Council for research and innovation in Building and Construction CiB (http://www.
cibworld.nl) was established in 1953 with a mission to facilitate international cooperation in building
and construction research and innovation. CiB is a network of over 5000 experts from 500 member
organisations across 70 countries and includes most of the major laboratories and leading universities
in building and construction.
Wim Bakens is the Secretary General of CiB (since 1994) and is a visiting professor at the university of
Westminster in london, uK. He graduated in 1975, and obtained a PhD on “The Future of Construction”
from the university of Technology, Eindhoven, The netherlands.
CiB W 104 OPEn BuilDinG iMPlEMEnTATiOn. Open Building encompasses ideas about the making
and incessant transformation of the built environment by acknowledging the existence of distinct
levels of intervention, the principle that users must be enabled to make design decisions and the
technical principle that the interface between systems allows change/replacement with minimum
Stephen Kendall, Emeritus Professor of Architecture, Ball State university, is a registered architect
and educator. He received his PhD in Design Theory and Methods from Massachusetts institute of
Technology under the direction of Prof. John Habraken. He is currently conducting research for the
Jia Beisi, Associate Professor of Architecture, university of Hong Kong, studied at Southeast university
in nanjing, China, and obtained a PhD from the ETH Zurich. He is Director and Partner of Baumschlager
Eberle Hong Kong. ltd. He lectures internationally on his studies of adaptable housing design. (http://
Shin Murakami, Professor, Department of Human Environment, Sugiyama Jogakuen university, Japan,
received his PhD from the university of Tokyo. He is also a photographer and a hyper-space creator.
He lectures internationally and serves as an advisor to the urban renaissance Agency Chubu. His
focus recently is on activation of the existing housing stock. http://shin-murakami.com
GO TO CONTENTS PAGE
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE CIB W104 OPEN BUILDING IMPLEMENTATION
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IMPROVING URBAN RESILIENCE IN AFRICAN CITIES BY MAINSTREAMING TRADITIONAL PUBLIC OPEN
SPACES: A STUDY OF IMO STATE, NIGERIA.
Agoha Basil Onyekozuru,
Department of Architecture, Anambra State University, Uli, Nigeria. baseconsultants@yahoo.com
Abstract
Across the world today, the trend in urbanization tends to lend credence to the fact that by 2050 over 80% of
world population will live in urban areas and the trend seems most evident in Africa. This no doubt is bound to
pose great challenges for emerging cities in African settlements which are witnessing an increase in
environmental, social and security challenges, resulting from distortions in the physical and social environments,
thereby reducing their capacity to regenerate, maintain and sustain themselves. This is quite different from the
situation in traditional societies where the environment naturally accommodates and regulates all changes with
minimal distortion and or disequilibrium, thereby making the traditional environment quite resilient. Such
resilience is attained when the traditional public open spaces are able to adjust to, and accommodate changes in
their environment. Imo state, with 534 community government centres, 27 local government headquarters, at
least 7 new towns, 7 urban centres and the state capital Owerri, coming to about 545 development and potential
urban centres, is set for not only democratizing and spreading urban centres but creating resilient cities, the
majority of which will definitely evolve around traditional communities hence the public open spaces. With its
high population density, this situation will make Imo State one of the fastest growing resilient urban states not
only in Nigeria but in Africa. This study used questionnaires, photographs, visits and interviews to explore this
potential at the level of socio-economic and environmental values of traditional public open spaces. The data
collected and analyzed using z-test statistic showed that these emerging urban environments could function
better, be more resilient and sustainable if urban design is not only democratized but if conscious efforts are made
to accommodate, integrate and evolve them around traditional public open spaces, by systematically
mainstreaming this environmental heritage into urban design.
Keywords: African cities, improving, mainstreaming, open spaces, traditional
INTRODUCTION
Imo State is one of the 36 states of the Federal republic of Nigeria and has one of the highest population
densities in the West African sub region. It is one of the Igbo speaking ethnic groups of Nigeria referred to as
the Eastern Heartland, because of its location in the heart of Igbo land. Its location is within the hot humid
rainfall forest zone of the world and thus has a relatively high temperature most part of the year. This state is
blessed with good rainfall and humidity which supports a variety of flora and fauna species. Thus, naturally
encouraged by the rich vegetation and the climate, many activities become outdoor in nature, making the
interplay and integrated use of external and internal spaces in their environment very valuable. Thus, over
the years, from generation to generation, the creative use and value of open spaces increased. Open spaces
therefore became not only an integral part of outdoor morphology, but also interpreted and defined the
very life and lifestyle of the people. This is why, in a typical traditional Igbo environment, public open spaces
can assist in defining and determining activities like family life, education, public and family gatherings,
movement and communication, settlement, markets, festivals, public opinion, judicial settlement of
disputes, security and indeed the major scope of life of the people is thus seen to be tied to the perception
and understanding of the use of public open spaces of the environment.
However, urbanization is fast eroding this beautiful tradition, such that in most urban areas open spaces,
where existent are inadequate, and do not have the integrative milieu traditionally associated with the
people, let alone being enough to provide established roles. This has led to poor perception and value of
open spaces among urban dwellers, resulting in some resistant attitude towards open spaces. Perhaps the
incessant conflicts among the people, resistance to authority, fighting, violence, street trading, wrong
parking, insecurity, moral decadence and accidents could be attributable to a lack of creative integration of
open spaces into urbanization based on what people have been used to. With the prediction that by 2050,
more than 80% of the world population will live in urban areas and the majority of this being in the
developing countries, including sub-Saharan Africa, the problem facing us in the future can better be
imagined if sufficient resilience is not built into urban designing by creatively integrating traditional public
open spaces into it. This therefore calls for looking not only at the ‘other-where’ but also the ‘into-where’ of
traditional public open spaces in our urban design.
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AIM
The aim of the paper is to draw the attention of urban designers and planners to the need to integrate and
mainstream traditional public open spaces into emerging cities for sustainable and resilient urban
development.
OBJECTIVES
1. To establish the importance of survival of traditional public open spaces in urban areas in Imo State,
Nigeria.
2. To evaluate the extent of the contribution of traditional public open spaces in the socio-cultural life
of the people.
3. To identify the role of traditional public open spaces in solving environmental problems of the
urban city.
METHODOLOGY
The research involved the use of 300 questionnaires distributed through the three zonal headquarters of
Okigwe, Orlu and Owerri; thus 50 each to the two urban Local Government Area (LGA) secretariats of
Okigwe and Orlu, and the three urban LGA secretariats of Owerri West, Owerri North and Owerri Municipal,
also the Federal secretariat was given 50, while the state secretariat was given 100 questionnaires giving a
total of 300 distributed questionnaires. Of this number, 229 were returned, collated and analyzed for this
research. Physical visits to selected traditional public open spaces were also made and pictures taken. A list
of variables was factored in under environmental control and socio-cultural values; the survey was collated
and analyzed using the ‘z’ test statistic. The result shows the influence of traditional public open spaces in
the socio-cultural and environmental control life of people; and the need to mainstream traditional public
open spaces into urban design for sustainability and resilience in the emerging urban centres; not only in
Imo State, but also in Nigeria, and indeed in other parts of the world.
HYPOTHESES
H01: Traditional public open spaces do not have socio-cultural values on the life of the people.
HA1: Traditional public open spaces have socio-cultural values on the life of the people.
H02: Traditional public open spaces do not have environmental control values in Imo State.
HA2: Traditional public open spaces have environmental control values in Imo State.
THE CONCEPT OF TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SPACE

Stating various forms of space, Mustafa (2008) identified abstract mathematical space, astronomical physical
space, surrounding earthly space, psychologically territorial and personal spaces which are behavioral
notions, and then architectural space described as the three dimensional extension of the world around man
which he can enter and use. According to him, architectural space serves as habitation, shelter, circulation,
cultural, social, scenic, economic, communication, recreation, symbolic or other intentionally appropriated
functions. From this definition, not only well defined spaces such as halls and rooms are spaces, also the
arrangement of furniture, structures, pathways, roads, water bodies, community, town squares are
architectural spaces. It also includes perceived natural arrangements such as tree places or shades, water
bodies, and pathways, which serve man in the physical environment.
THE CONCEPT OF TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SPACE IN IGBO LAND

In Igbo land, community squares, as architectural spaces, are mostly physical or psychological and centrally
located public open spaces in communities, villages or neighbourhoods, used for meetings, ceremonies,
traditional competitions such as wrestling, music and dances, carnivals, rallies, markets, landmarks, paths
and goals, vistas, passive and active recreations, tree canopies or places and other socio-cultural, economic
or religious activities over time. They contain fauna and flora that help to stabilize, regenerate and purify the
environment. They also not only form the basis and basic unit of environmental design but also form the
organizing element in rural and urban planning and design. When located in the villages they are called
village squares, or neighbourhood squares when associated with neighbourhoods. They become town
squares when the communities have been transformed into towns, cities or urban areas. Other names for
town squares are civic centres, city squares, urban squares, market squares, public squares, piazzas, plazas
and town greens. Most town squares not only accommodate functions and are centrally located, but are also
surrounded by small shops, cottage industries such as bakeries, meat markets, public buildings and stores.
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They could have things like monuments, water fountains, wells or statues; and could be named after these
features or as memorials to important people, revolutions or events. Such transformations have led to some
town squares accommodating royal courts, government buildings, city halls, theatres, restaurants,
museums, parade-grounds, public motor parks, and places for preservation of cultural value artifacts such
that some have now become national squares or memorials and a wonderful heritage to the people. Since
some of these community squares are always visited by people who stay under the shades which the trees
provide, the squares play great roles in community policing and security in providing observation and
surveillance points, where strangers to the community can be easily noticed or identified and actions
immediately taken.
VALUES OF TRADITIONAL PUBLIC OPEN SPACES IN IGBO LAND

Traditional public spaces form environmental patterns of great value (Christopher, 1977). Some of these are
factored in and listed under;
a). Economic: This includes agricultural land, Rivers, regional transport, regional boundary, identifiable
neighbourhood, neighbourhood boundary, T-junction, Y-junction, market squares, markets, shops, bulk
storage spaces, yam barns which not only generate revenue for the people, but also increase the living
standards of the people.
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Plate 1: Umunaokwu Lagwa village square Aboh Mbaise, Imo State, Nigeria, used for gatherings,
festivals, morning markets, local roads.
Source: Author’s field work (2014)
Plate 2: Community square transformed into market square. Omuma, Oru East Local Government area,
Imo State, Nigeria, used for direction, advertisement, market square, shops.
b). Socio-cultural: This includes, nuclear settlement, carnival routes, grave/burial area, cooking layout,
public space to wait, community square, animal/fauna area, public reception, community hall, positive
outdoor space, market squares, T-junction, Y-junction, which provide communal and cultural opportunities,
recreation, settlement of disputes which enhance the quality of lives of the people and improve social and
emotional resilience.
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Plate 3: Tree place of Okpuruobu Tree Awaka Kingdom, Owerri North, Imo State, Nigeria used for
relaxation, gatherings, festivals, local roads.
Plate 4: Community square, Umutanze, Orlu Local Government area, Imo State, Nigeria, used as shrine,
religious activities, settlement of disputes.
c). Environmental control: This exists as crossroad, paths and goals, water bodies, natural flood routes,
water bodies, dump sites, pond/shallow, well site, house cluster, row of houses, roundabout, family bathing,
still pond water, hierarchy of open spaces, tree canopy, main gateway, main entrance, green area, indoor
sunlight, water basin receptacle, street window, water basin receptacle, irregular path shapes, intimacy
gradient and are important in environmental control, quality and resilience.
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Plate 5: Umuoke Umuelele village square Owerri West, Imo State. Nigeria with its tree places for
relaxation, local routes, refuse dump, and flood water (arrowed) now a problem due to building on the
flood route and receptacle basin built up leading to water logging of the square.
SURVIVAL OF TRADITIONAL OPEN SPACES: THE LIFE CYCLE MODEL

Traditional public open spaces survive due to the fact that not only do people use them but they are highly
cherished. On the survival and use of spaces to transmit culture, Rapoport (1980), defines culture as a way of
life typical of a people, a system of symbols, meanings and cognitive schemata transmitted through
symbolic codes and as a set of adaptive strategies for survival related to ecology and resources. This creates
the basis for the transformation of traditional community squares, to form landmarks, produce images, and
strong and collective memories in their users, no matter how distant they may be from the spaces (Lynch,
1986). Open spaces may be relatively natural or substantially man-made such as community squares or
gardens. They may be recreational amenities and conservation grounds. They could also be land with
historic and scenic landscapes or places of natural beauty such as water bodies, valleys, hills, mountains,
lakes, oceans and bays, and economic such as market squares (Byrom, 1974). Open spaces that are
considered public, when they are made accessible to the public, unrestricted. Rapoport (1979), in his
contribution, states that concepts and theories of urban design based on western and ethnocentric
traditions which neglect folk or popular traditions of Africa and other less developed areas, have failed to
meet the needs of modern cities, because they concentrate on the role of planners, neglecting the
environments and people that created them, with much vacuum between modernity and history. A city
seen from the spirit of popular tradition, as public open spaces he argues, not only accommodates the
concept of Western and ethnocentric traditions, but also becomes an element with cosmic organizing
power for the people and function of larger human settlements. Although people’s beliefs, traditions and
culture at times seem abstract, they are expressed as symbols such as dances, crafts, arts, and also in
architectural spaces such as village or community squares, roads and tracks, shrines, and in the historical
development of the people, all of which inter-play or find expression in public squares. These therefore, as
components, find expression in open spaces as the main organizing element which may have international,
national, regional, neighbourhood, community and domestic influences. Open spaces, whether terrestrial,
psychological, physical or architectural, express directly the activities, attitudes, feelings and emotions of
those who use them over time and space and thus transit from generation to generation as patterns and
virtues, as language (Christopher, 1977). This implies that open spaces such as community squares are the
embodiment of people’s beliefs and symbols of expression with understandable meanings, patterns,
language and communications of the activities of the people who use them and therefore much more than
the physical eyes can see or ears can hear (Lynch, 1986). These spaces range from courtyards and activity
spaces in homes or cluster of residences to unrestricted spaces that accommodate pathways, roads, natural
features such as streams, rivers, oceans, mountains and valleys among others. Open spaces may be fully
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public or semi public or private but whichever is the case, they reflect the active emotions, feelings and
entire life of the people in physical forms.
Public spaces seen in the urban built environment are therefore the evolutionary transformation and
changes through history of people’s activities into physical spatial forms with psychological and emotional
meanings to the people and those associated with them (Lynch, 1986). It is therefore certain that the study
of surviving public spaces identified, recognized and incorporated in urban design leads to a sustainable
environment as it relives the people and becomes traditional. Tradition is not ancient, but what takes its root
in the ancient, while accommodating the dynamic trend of the modern society in a continuum. Oguejiofor
(2005) sees tradition as an activity or object in which the past and present are fused. Louis (2007), in his
contribution, feels that tradition as continuum is not static but a means of transmitting values and
institutions. Furthermore, he posits that so long as there is no attention to origin, there can be no
understanding of tradition and therefore no understanding of contemporary world with the future in
jeopardy. Traditional public open spaces in cities are therefore open spaces that have their roots in the past
but have dynamically fused with current trends over time, by being still useful even in transformed states,
and will determine the direction of cities to serve future generations. Hence, the images and patterns
perceived in city spaces are a combination of immediate and past experiences (Lynch, 1996) and therefore
determine the future. In an attempt to explain the dynamics of survival of architectural space, the cyclic
lifecycle model is very relevant. Mustafa (2008) proposes five stage cyclic lifecycle, namely; problem
formulation, problem solution, implementation and use. He believes that as a given space gets to the end of
its useful life, the cycle is repeated by way of renovation, remodelling, re-adaptation of use or the generation
of new space and or improved usage by those who use or need them. By this approach therefore, no space
can be obsolete but will always find relevance in the socio-cultural, traditional, environmental and economic
setting of the people it serves through transformation. This explains why spaces, although they may change
in form and function, survive many generations and therefore sustainable.
STUDY AREA: IMO STATE

Imo state comprises twenty seven (27) Local Government Areas and lies within latitudes 4°45'N and 7°15'N,
and longitude 6°50'E and 7°25'E, with an area of about 5,100 sq km. It is bordered by Abia State to the East,
the River Niger and Delta State to the West, Anambra State to the North and Rivers State to the South, and
hence referred to as the Eastern Heartland. Owerri, the state capital, has roads radiating and linking the
major South Eastern cities. The rainy season begins in April and lasts till October with annual rainfall varying
from 1,500mm to 2,200mm (60 to 80 inches) and leads to flooding at times, creating problems in the use of
open spaces. An average annual temperature above 20°C (68.0°F) creates an annual relative humidity of
75%, with humidity reaching 90% in the rainy season. The dry season experiences two months of harmattan
from late December to late February. The hottest months are normally between January and March every
year. The rainy season begins in April and lasts till October with annual rainfall varying from 1,500mm to
2,200mm (60 to 80 inches) and leads to flooding at times creating problems in the use of open spaces, which
serve as receptacles. An average annual temperature above 20°C (68.0°F) creates an annual relative humidity
of 75%, with humidity reaching 90% in the rainy season. The dry season experiences two months of
harmattan from late December to late February. The hottest months are normally between January and
March every year and make outdoor activities invaluable.
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DATA COLLECTION, COLLATION AND ANALYSIS
Secondary data are not readily available. The data collection therefore involved the use of questionnaires,
physical measurement, photographs and interviews. The results are as given below:
s/n Cluster centre Number sent Number No not % collection

out collected collected
1 Okigwe 50 45 5 90
2 Orlu 50 36 14 72
3 State secretariat 100 61 39 61
4 Owerri Municipal 50 43 7 86
5 Owerri west 50 44 6 88
Total 300 229 71 76.3
Table 1: Questionnaire Collection / Source: Author’s field work (2014)
FACTORING, LISTING AND SPECIFICATION OF VARIABLES FOR THE RESEARCH

All the identified variables are nominal (Kothari, 2013) as listed below:
s/n Description of Code of Range of Scale of Positive values Negative values
Variable Variable values measurement
1. Agric land AGL 1-6 Nominal US;58,SS;30, UNS;69,SNA;4,
RA;55=143 RNA;5=78
2. Rivers RIV 1-6 Nominal US;52,SS;17, UNS;13,SNA;17,
RA;30=99 RNA;17=47
3. Regional transport RET 1-6 Nominal US;109,SS;37, UNS;19,SNS;13,
RA;41=187 RNA;13=45
4. Regional boundary REB 1-6 Nominal US;80,SS;28, UNS;23,SNS;13,
RA;35=143 RNA;14=50
5. Identifiable IDN 1-6 Nominal US;109,SS;33, UNS;17,SNS;7,
neighbourhood RA;49=191 RNA;9=33
6. Neighbourhood NBB 1-6 Nominal US;109,SS;33, UNS;20,SNS;5,
boundary RA;66=208 RNA;3=28
7. T-Junction TJU 1-6 Nominal US;110,SS;35, UNS=13,SNA;7,
RA;47=192 RNA;9=29
8. Y-Junction YJU 1-6 Nominal US;112,SS;26, UNS;11,SNS;17,
RA;48=186 RNS;9=37
9. Vegetable garden VEG 1-6 Nominal US;67,SS;28, UNS;56,SNS;17,
RA;45=140 RNS ;10=83
10 Fruit tree orchard FFTO 1-6 Nominal US;40,SS;23, UNS;69,SNS;25,
RA;35=98 RNS;21=115
11. Bulk storage ban BSB 1-6 Nominal US;49,SS;24, UNS;75,SNS;23,
RS;44=117 RNS;3=101
12. Community Cf 1-6 Nominal US;53,SS;28, UNS;66,SNS;15,
farmland RS;52=133 RNS;8=89
13. Cottage industrial CIA 1-6 Nominal US;94,SS;18,RS;33 UNS;25,SNS;24,
area =145 RNS;16=65
14. Community project CPS 1-6 Nominal US;72,SS;29, UNS;53,SNS;10,
site RS;51=152 RNS;6=69
15. Animal/fauna ANF 1-6 Nominal US;59,SS;20,RS;36 UNS;55,SNS;15,
=115 RNS;15=85
Table 2: Economic value of traditional public squares / Source: Author’s field work (2014)
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s/n Description of Code Range Scale of Positive values Negative values
Variable of of measureme
Variabl values nt
e
16. Crossroad CRR 1-6 Nominal US;113,SS;28,RS;56= UNS;11,SNS;11;RNS;5=27
197
17. Paths and goals PAG 1-6 Nominal US;99,SS;23,RS;33=1 UNS;20,SNS;20,RNS;19=59
55
18. Natural flood NFR 1-6 Nominal US;100,SS;27,RS;29= UNS;24,SNS;11,RNS;26=61
routes 156
19. Water bodies WAB 1-6 Nominal US;107,SS;13,RS;32= UNS;27,SNS;30,RNS;18=75
152
20. Dump sites DUS 1-6 Nominal US;98,SS;19,RS;35=1 UNS;23,SNS;23,RNS;25=71
52
21. Pond/shallow PSW 1-6 Nominal US;34,SS;23,RS;44=1 UNS;83,SNS;22,RNS;20=125
well site 01
22. House cluster HCL 1-6 Nominal US;95,SS;29,RS;43=1 UNS;16,SNS;16,RNS;14=46
67
23. Row of houses ROH 1-6 Nominal US;99,SS;17,RS;22=1 UNS;18,SNS;28,RNS;25=71
38
24. Roundabout RDA 1-6 Nominal US;111,SS;27,RS;49= UNS;12,SNS;13,RNS;13=38
187
25. Family bathing FAB 1-6 Nominal US;54,SS;28;RS;44=1 UNS;66;SNS;12,RNS;16=94
26
26. Network of NOP 1-6 Nominal US;101,SS;26,RS;34= UNS;17,SNS;17,RNS;15=49
paths 161
27. Still pond water SPW Nominal US;38,SS;18;RS;35=9 UNS;77,SNS;22,RNS;32=131
1
28. Hierarchy of HPS 1-6 Nominal US;62,SS;22,RS;32=1 UNS;59,SNS;28,RNS;16=103
open spaces 16
29. Tree canopy TRC 1-6 Nominal US;96,SS;23,RS;42=1 UNS;29,SNS;20,RNS;12=61
61
30. Main gate MGW 1-6 Nominal US;88,SS;28,RS;49=1 UNS;25,SNS;14,RNS;10=49
way/entrance 65
31. Inbuilt INC 1-6 Nominal US;86,SS;23,RS;40=1 UNS;38,SNS;15;RNS;11=64
courtyard 49
32. Green area GRA 1-6 Nominal US;79,SS;16,RS;31=1 UNS;25,SNS;25,RNS;23=73
26
33. Indoor sunlight INS 1-6 Nominal US;64,SS;21,RS;43=1 UNS;49,SNS;18,RNS;29=96
28
34. Water basin/ WBR 1-6 Nominal US;86,SS;14,RS;27=1 UNS;32,SNS;31,RNS;26=89
receptacle 27
35. Street window STW 1-6 Nominal US;49,SS;10,RS;17=7 UNS;66;SNS;35,RNS;37=138
6
36. Irregular path IPS 1-6 Nominal US;79,SS;32,RS;40=1 UNS;41,SNS;12,RNS;11=64
shapes 51
37. Intimacy ITG 1-6 Nominal US;79,SS;16,RS;26=1 UNS;39,SNS;24,RNS;14=77
gradient 21
38. Pedestrian PPW 1-6 Nominal US;98,SS;26,RS;41=1 UNS;18,SNS;15,RNS;16=49
path/walkway 65
39. Space SCB 1-6 Nominal US;88,SS;28,RS;39=1 UNS;34,SNS;21,RNS;11=66
connected 55
buildings
40. Inbuilt IBC 1-6 Nominal US;86,SS;23,RS;40=1 UNS;38,SNS;38,RNS;11=87
courtyard 49
Table 3: Environmental control values of traditional public squares / Source: Author’s field work (2014)
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Key:
US = Urban Surviving public open spaces

SS = Suburban Surviving public open spaces
RS = Rural Surviving public open spaces
UNS = Urban not Surviving public open spaces
SNS = Suburban not Surviving public open spaces
RNS= Rural not Surviving public open spaces
ANALYSIS OF DATA AND TESTING OF HYPOTHESIS
‘Z’ test statistic: Z = PQ/√NPQ

Where;
P = Proportion of positive responses
Q = Proportion of negative responses
N = sample size
B = level of significance = 0.05
C= critical value at 0.05 level of significance, the ‘Z’ score taking value between -1.96 to 1.96.
D = Decision rule: if the computed ‘Z’ value is between -1.96 to 1.96 of our critical value, we reject the null
hypothesis
E = Computed ‘z’ value
s/n Options Code Frequency % Total

1. Urban public open US 1173 36.91
spaces Surviving
2. Suburban public open SS 409 12.87
spaces surviving
3. Rural public open RS 667 20.99 2249 (71%)
spaces surviving
4. Urban public open UNS 584 18.38
spaces NOT Surviving
5. Suburban public open SNS 187 5.88
spaces NOT surviving
6. Rural public open RNS 158 4.97 929 (29%)
Total 3178 100
Table 4: Traditional public squares do not have environmental control value
Z =0.71x0.29/√3178x0.71x0.29 = 0.2059/34.92 = 0.0064
Decision: Since the computed ‘Z’ value 0f 0.0081 is between -1.96 and 1.96 of our critical value, we reject the
null hypothesis. We therefore accept the alternative hypothesis that open spaces have economic values in
Imo State, Nigeria.
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s/n Options Code Frequency % Total
1. Urban public open US 2089 38.44
spaces Surviving
2. Suburban public open SS 560 10.30
spaces surviving
3. Rural public open spaces RS 923 16.98 3572 (66%)
surviving
4. Urban public open UNS 887 16.32
spaces NOT Surviving
5. Suburban public open SNS 521 9.59
6. Rural public open spaces RNS 445 8.19 1853 (34%)
NOT surviving
Total 5435
Table 5: Traditional public squares do not have economic values
Z = .66x0.34/√5435x0.66x0.34 = 0.2244/34.92 = 0.0064
Decision: Since the computed ‘Z’ value 0f 0.0064 is between -1.96 and 1.96 of our critical value, we reject the
null hypothesis. We therefore accept the alternative hypothesis that open spaces have environmental
control values in Imo State, Nigeria.
OBSERVATIONS
The following observations were made:
1. Traditional public open spaces including community squares abound in urban, suburban and rural areas
all over Imo State. The difference between them and the general space are hardly differentiated as
everywhere is traditional open space.
2. While the traditional public open spaces are almost intact in rural communities, they are surviving but
progressively changed, transformed into other uses in the suburban areas and in cities, leading to resistant
behaviors by the people who still want to use the spaces as of old, as socio-cultural, economic and
environmental control places and this leads to conflicts and disobediences to planning uses of the spaces.
3. Where the environmental uses have been abused and converted to other uses, flooding, erosion, refuse
heaps and other abuses have been the result.
4. Traditional public squares still play a great role in the life of people in the rural, suburban, semi-urban and
urban areas.
CONCLUSION
The Community Government of Imo state has great potential in democratizing urban design and
development and preserving the traditional public open spaces through integrative modernization. Every
community government council has its headquarters which translates into development urban centres. The
concept of private layout in each centre headquarters will provide all the physical infrastructure needed
within the area with identified traditional public open spaces well integrated as the organizing units of
urban design and planning. The integration of traditional public open spaces in the emerging urban design
proposals from the outset will lead to more of the traditional public open spaces not only surviving, but also
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cities developing into a resilient, sustainable, peaceful and orderly urban development. This will not only
democratize planning and public participation but will open up more urban centres, thereby discouraging
rural- urban migration with its attendant social and economic problems. This will also improve the life of the
people and the economic, socio-cultural, environmental and resilient values of the environment. It will also
strengthen grassroots governance, which is the hallmark of community government and thereby preserve
the environmental heritage of the people.
REFERENCES
Byrom, J., 1974. 'Leisure and the Landscape Architect', in I. Appelton (ed.), Leisure, Research and Policy.
Scottish Academy Press, Jedburgh.
Christopher, A., 1997. Pattern Language. Oxford University Press, London.
Kothari, C., 2013. Research Methodology, Methods and Techniques. New Age International Publishers, New
Delhi.
Lynch, K., 1986. The Image of the City. MIT Press, London.
Munoz, LJ., 2007. The Past in the Present: Towards a Rehabilitation of Tradition. Spectrum Books Limited, Abuja.
Mustafa, P., 1998. 'A Structured Approach to Cultural Studies of Architectural Space', In SM Ünügür, O.
Hacıhasanoğlu & H. Turgut (eds.), Culture and Space in the Home Environment: Critical Evaluations and
New Paradigms, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, pp.27-32.
Oguejiofor, JO & Onah, GI., 2005. 'African Philosophy and the Hermeneutics of Culture; Essays in honour of
Theophilous Okere', in JO Oguejifor & GI Onah, African Philosophy and Hermeneutics of Culture;
Essays in Honour of Theophilous Okere, Lit Verlag Munster, Rome.
Orji, E., 1999. Owerri in the Twentieth Century. Casers Limited, Owerri.
Rapoport, A., 1979. 'On the Cultural Origins of Settlements', in AJ Snyder, Introduction to Urban Planning,
Mcgraw-Hills Book Company, New York, pp. 31-61.
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RECICLAGEM DO GRANDE HOTEL: AN OPEN BUILDING DESIGN INTERVENTION FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC
EMPOWERMENT IN MOZAMBIQUE!
Ir. Robert Cruiming, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, robert@cruiming.com

Ir. Ype Cuperus, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, y.j.cuperus@tudelft.nl
Dr. André Mulder, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, a.mulder@tudelft.nl
Abstract
Poor economies find themselves in an almost no-win situation: They would benefit from improving the economic
situation of the very poor by making them self-supporting and economically productive. However, the very poor
are occupied by daily survival and thus cannot afford to improve themselves. This paper describes the status quo
of a dilapidated hotel in Beira, a so-called vertical slum that is squatted by one thousand inhabitants trapped in
self-sustaining poverty. It builds on the assumption that if a technical intervention creates conditions with clear
lines of control, defensible space and basic conditions for trade and productivity, the downward spiral can be
reversed towards improvement. The concept of Open Building gives guidelines for a built environment that works
based on a clear division of control. Then a proposal to improve the hotel is presented, based on Open Building
levels of intervention: the urban fabric reconfiguring the base building and adding modular units that can house
small businesses around collecting, recycling and selling materials. In the final analysis, a scenario is painted as
proof that interventions that create controllable space could be the first step towards improvement and could
work as a template for similar cases.
Keywords: vertical slum, colonial heritage, recycling, Open Building, self-empowerment
INTRODUCTION
Many African countries have outgrown their colonial past and are now rapidly improving their economies by
supplying other countries with resources. This creates instability both between and within countries. It is
likely to widen the gap between the numerous very poor and the few very rich, thus possibly creating social
friction, unrest and an unsafe environment to live in. If the very poor could improve their living conditions by
themselves it could benefit the country and economy as a whole. This paper describes how some basic
improvements to a dilapidated hotel in Beira could plant the seeds for a bottom-up improvement of local
living conditions. First the scene is set, by describing the Grande Hotel building in Beira, Mozambique. Then
the concept of Open Building is explained as a strategy to analyse the status quo and to plan basic
interventions needed to create conditions for a gradually self-sustaining and self-improving neighbourhood.
A proposal to make it work is presented and in the final analysis generic conclusions are drawn from this
case study in order to be applicable elsewhere.
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THE SCENE: BEIRA AND THE GRANDE HOTEL
The Grande Hotel is a dilapidated building occupied by the very poor of Beira. It is a place of anarchy and
survival. In order to get a clear understanding of the interventions to be proposed, it helps to understand the
historical and functional context of the building.
A short history of Beira
Mozambique is a sub-Saharan country located at the east coast of Africa, with a coastal line of over 2500
kilometres. From the European perspective, it was discovered by Vasco da Gama in 1492 and later claimed
by the Portuguese as a colony until 1975. At the southern tip of Mozambique, the harbour town and capital
Maputo was established, now with a population of over 1 million people. In the centre Beira, 400,000
inhabitants developed into the second largest city and main port serving Africa to ship its natural resources
overseas. After the Portuguese withdrew from the city, native Mozambicans who hoped to improve their
living standards settled in the city. Today, multinational commerce has started to settle in the city. The
friction between these two worlds is visible in how the poor live. That, in short, is the scene of the Grande
Hotel in Beira.
Figure 1: Current situation of the Grande Hotel, exterior (Source: Stoops 2011) and interior
(Source: Prieto 2011).
The Grande Hotel da Beira: Then
In 1953 Arthur Brandão, a good friend of the Portuguese regime of Salazar and director of the Companhia de
Moçambique that once colonised the interior of Beira, commissioned architect Fransico de Castro to build
the Grande Hotel (Figure 1). It was intended to become the main showpiece of success of the ‘Estado-Novo’
in that time. It was meant to provide 5-star accommodation for business partners, influential persons and
wealthy tourists from Rhodesia, South Africa and the Portuguese colonial empire. The hotel consisted of the
finest, most luxurious and modern materials of the time. The total construction costs over-ran the budget by
300% but it was money well spent, according to the ideals of the client. The hotel was only in full operation
for a period of eight years. With 116 rooms and a floor surface of 21,000 m2, it was never profitable even by
the most optimistic estimates. Until the independence of Mozambique, the swimming pool was open for the
inhabitants of the neighbourhood and the building was used for conferences only twice. Some argue that
the reason for its failure was that it could not obtain a casino license (Rolletta 2006; Lança 2010; Anno 2011)
but the regime believed that is was immoral to have places for gambling in their colonies (Newitt 2004).
Nevertheless, it has served many purposes.
After the Portuguese Carnation Revolution of 1974, Mozambique became an independent state with
common growing pains. The communist FRELIMO party (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) came to
power and used the Grande Hotel as a base to establish the communist state in the region. In the
Mozambican Civil War (1977 – 1992), the hotel became a military base. In 1981, the city became part of a
neutral zone that was controlled by the Zimbabwean Defence Force to secure Zimbabwean exports in the
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Beira Corridor. The safety and aid supply attracted refugees from the interior (Newitt 2004). The Grande
Hotel was transformed into a refugee camp and the soldiers were relocated to the battlefield. Since 1992,
Mozambique has experienced stability and peace. Today, the harbour of Beira is rehabilitated and is
experiencing a booming economy due to the transit of minerals to Asia.
The Grande Hotel da Beira: Now
Today the Grande Hotel accommodates approximately 1,000 inhabitants (Ivo 2008) and acts as an informal
neighbourhood on its own with some street vendor stalls and internal squares. Large families of up to nine
persons populate the hotel rooms and in-built shelters. They pay no rent and they cannot claim right of
ownership. The space and architecture of the building does not at all cater for the spatial needs of the
current population, it does not offer conditions to support a communal feel for the self-protecting and
mistrusting inhabitants. There is no structure of control. Although the local municipal secretary of the
neighbourhood – who also lives in the Grande Hotel – is seen as the unofficial supervisor, he does not have
the power of other municipal secretaries in more affluent communities in Mozambique. The only common
rule of the Grande Hotel is to respect each other; then the Grande Hotel is open to those who are in need of
shelter.
Neither building nor public spaces are maintained. Garbage is dumped all over the place and it never gets
cleaned-up. The rooves leak and the window frames have no glass. The elevator-less elevator shafts are now
openly accessible holes that are dangerous after dark for the young and old. The garden gives room to the
first Olympic size swimming pool of Mozambique. Today it contains highly polluted water and is used for
fishing for consumption, washing and as a public lavatory like so many other places such as the former hotel
restaurant, the beach and the park in front of the Grande Hotel. According to the local Red Cross, there is a
high risk of cholera, diarrhoea, malaria, and scabies (Vasco 2012, interview, 12 March). The HIV/AIDS
epidemic is making the situation worse.
Most of the Grande Hotel inhabitants work in the informal economic sector. The nickname of ‘whato muno’
(not from here) (Stoops 2011) excludes them from participation in the social and economic community of
Beira. The formal economy is growing as a result of the booming transit at the harbour and puts the informal
economy under pressure. It makes it even harder for the Grande Hotel inhabitants to make ends meet for a
basic living. The building was gradually stripped from all materials that could be sold for some food, such as
plumbing, cabling and parquet flooring. Thus poverty made the Grande Hotel even harder to live in. ‘Whato
muno’ also underlines the bad reputation of the Grande Hotel inhabitants in Beira. The Grande Hotel is a
place where crime thrives and where the police do not have any authority.
This is a grim picture. Nevertheless, the Grande Hotel is a fascinating building as a provider of shelter for a
dynamic society one cannot escape from and that has already delivered its third generation of inhabitants.
The architecture and their users over time reflect the struggling history of Mozambique.
The local municipality would like to intervene, but they are not the legal owners nor are they responsible for
the Grande Hotel. The Grande Hotel is one of the few properties in Mozambique that is not state-owned.
Officially it still belongs to the Portugal-based Gruppo Entroposto S.A., which is the continuation of the
Companhia de Moçambique. It was written-off as war damage. There are no local funds to refurbish the
building and poor collaboration of the local parties with the national government blocks the way to national
funds (Makgetla 2010). No private investor is willing to participate in this risky project. In this light, it is
understandable that the municipality would like to relocate the current inhabitants to slums on the outskirts
of the city and demolish the Grande Hotel to clear the plot for redevelopment as a place for commercial and
tourism activities. This however rather moves than solves the problem of the negative impact of the very
poor in a developing economy.
Would it not be better to develop a low budget intervention that creates conditions for a self- sustaining
society that builds rather than consumes, that has an interest in defending and maintaining rather than in
cannibalizing its shelter? The concept of Open Building indicates a direction.
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THE CONCEPT OF OPEN BUILDING
The origins of the concept of Open Building are best captured by one of John Habraken's finest quotes: 'We
should not try to forecast what will happen, but try to make provisions for the unforeseen' (Habraken 1961).
In order to accommodate unknown future change, he suggested introducing different levels of decision
making in the building process: tissue, support and infill, respectively referring to the urban fabric,
containing base buildings with their fit-outs.
The raison d’être of Open Building can also be expressed in terms of care, responsibility and technology.
People who care about the environment they live in will make it a better and safer place. Therefore, the built
environment must encourage people to take responsibility for their own territory. An environment that
clearly distinguishes those spaces and parts of a building, for which occupants should take responsibility,
will address the users’ needs to feel responsible. Therefore, a building should be designed and built in such a
way that both spaces and parts of the building can be clearly allocated to those parties and individuals that
should take responsibility for them. Buildings, which are designed and built with separate systems, can
create conditions for responsibility and care. The subdivision of the building process needs to reflect the
lines of decision-making and the definition of responsibilities between the parties. This subdivision can then
be translated into specifications for connections between building parts. This in turn creates buildings that
can be modified and taken apart again (Cuperus 1996). It offers the basis for a well-structured building
process with well-defined interfaces. It allows us to at least partially transfer the construction process from
building to manufacturing. It is the key to reducing waste by coordinating dimensions and positions instead
of improvising on site by cutting to size. Applying information instead of energy. This is an important
condition to re-use building parts, thus extending the lifetime of building parts, without the waste of
dumping and recycling, coinciding with degradation and the use of energy. Open Building is a multi-faceted
concept, with technical, organizational and financial solutions for a built environment that can adapt to
changing needs. It supports user participation, industrialization and restructuring of the building process.
If change is the problem, a layered organization of the building process can provide at least part of the
solution. Positional and dimensional co-ordination of building parts and their interfaces are a tool and a
condition for industrialization and probably a leaner construction process (Cuperus 2001).
A PROPOSAL: A SELF SUSTAINING RECYCLING MARKET
In order to keep the Grande Hotel, it needs to be adapted to a set of functions with an economically sound
basis and minimum viability that is likely to sustain itself. Control is the core of the Open Building concept. In
this paragraph, a recycling market is proposed as a self-sustaining economic activity, the concept of Open
Building is used to identify different, independent yet coordinated levels of control and construction.
Recycling market in a recycled building
The Beira Municipality attempts to demolish the Grande Hotel and relocate the inhabitants. This will force
the current users to other places, thus replacing the problem. In addition, there is no guarantee that there
will be a return on the investment to redevelop the site. That is why a low level intervention is suggested
that will generate sufficient income to pay for itself. Planning a recycling market in and around the Grande
Hotel is a double edged sword: by accommodating an economy based on recycling goods, the Grande Hotel
itself is subject to recycling. The romantic Art Deco architecture, once a sign of colonization will remain, but
is now taken over by the current inhabitants, giving the building and its style a second chance.
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Figure 2: Concept of a civil amenity site, each container will be a workshop in the recycling market (by author).
Repair and reuse comes naturally in poor societies. In the western world, it has recently been reinvented as
Cradle to Cradle (McDonough et al. 2002). Separate collection of waste is common in modern cities and is
well organized in civic amenity sites (Figure 2). This idea is adapted and adopted in this proposal.
On the recycling market, the Beirans can sell waste products at a wide range of different workshops. Each
workshop is specialised in the transformation or repair of specific types of materials or goods. The workshop
holders gain a profit by selling the end products.
A recycling market in and around the Grande Hotel anticipates local economic, social and environmental
benefits. The current informal economy in the Grande Hotel building serves its own basic survival without
any perspective. If conditions are made for a recycling market, the economy should develop into an
economy for basic growth. It will attract new business activities that profit from their collaboration. In the
Grande Hotel case, which is now an island the city seeks to avoid, this could result in the greater Grande
Hotel area becoming embedded in the urban fabric. On the Beira scale, it will take environmental pressure
off the existing municipal garbage dump.
Master plan: Urban fabric, site and building
In order to make the recycling market happen, a master plan with a strict separation of different levels of
intervention is proposed that allows for a phased time planning (Figure 3).
Currently, the garden behind the building contains a polluted swimming pool, a church and a mosque. The
site itself is big enough to house a recycling market. The first step towards improvement is to clean and
reorganize the site and its routing. By cutting a gate into the west wing, block B, of the Grande Hotel on the
Avenue Alonse de Paiva the new public entrance will be made north to south towards the garden. The
dwellings that will get lost by cutting the gate need to be compensated with dwellings adjacent to the new
workshops. In front of the new entrance, a bus stop will be located. Rear alleys will be created to supply the
recycling workshops behind the building, thus reconnecting the site to the urban and social fabric of Beira.
This intervention sets the conditions for future options, such as a general groceries market, clearance of the
swimming pool, public latrines and places of worship for the larger community. Newly built units, to be
described in the next paragraph, will accommodate the recycling market. Once the market has become a
self-sustaining economic network, the hotel rooms used for dwelling can be upgraded per floor or one unit
at the time.
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Workshop units
The second step towards improvement is the construction of workshop units, consisting of a load bearing
structure of precast concrete columns and beams, on site connected with in-situ poured concrete. This is a
locally known, cyclone proof structure. This is a structure with a long life span and can be completed with
different configurations of materials for roofing and partitioning with a shorter life span. The combination of
fitting out the base buildings that in turn are positioned in line with the master plan creates conditions for a
clear distinction of control, life spans and different future functions. Its dimensions are based on a 3.50 metre
grid that coincides with the design grid of the Grande Hotel. The materials and building parts to fit out the
new workshop units will also fit in the base building of the Grande Hotel.
A typical workshop unit consist of a ground floor with a structure of concrete beams and columns. The
facades can be filled in with different materials, such as bascule type overhead doors with timber louvres
that double as canapés while open, and closed sections made of plastered hollow building blocks, filled with
non-biodegradable garbage material as a by product of the recycling market. A 5,000 litres water tank,
collecting free rainwater from the roof is located on the ground floor in the shady south of the unit.
Additions differ per workshop unit: a furnace for forging steel or workbenches and tables for other trades
such as bicycles or telephone recycle and repair.
On top of this concrete structure, a structure of timber columns and beams can be built to house the
workshop owner and its family as they now live in the Grande Hotel. The first floor consists of a living space
around a concrete fireplace that generates smoke to keep mosquitos at bay. The second floor
accommodates sleeping arrangements. The building is topped with a double-layered roof of corrugated
iron that creates shade, waterproofing and cross ventilation against accumulating heat (Figure 4).
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Figure 4: Exploded view of a workshop built by the open construction module (by author).
Generic use of the proposed base building structure and its fit-outs
The generic structure of precast columns and beams on a 3.50 metres module can also be used to build
larger structures such as a church and mosque (Figure 6).
Since the design and dimensioning of the infill elements, such as the timber structures and partitions are
based on the Grande Hotel's design module, they can be used to fit out the old hotel as well (Figure 5).
Special attention needs to be given to keep the openings for cross ventilation intact.
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Organizational aspects: stakeholders
The above-pictured plans are of spatial and material matter and cannot be accomplished without the
approval of the stakeholders involved.
The municipality should release the plot for development and should change the illegal status of its current
inhabitants. This of course is a delicate process in order not to create unwanted precedents for other sites in
the city. Although our sympathy may go towards a high degree of self-governance by the inhabitants, this
needs to be carefully coordinated with possible supporting stakeholders such as NGOs and profiting
stakeholders such as the local water supplier, who may not like to lose control over the closed circuit water
supply of the compound. The ruling FRELIMO party (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) as well as the
opposing MDM (Movimento Democrático de Moçambique) have their own interests, either electorate or
corruption driven. All stakeholders should see the benefit of a self-sustaining community with its own
organizational structure. Call it the Grande Hotel Board. If not, this could well be a major hurdle to overcome.
CONCLUSION
The Grande Hotel de Beira is a derelict reminder of colonial times. At the same time, it can be seen as an icon
of the architectural and cultural past of Beira. Restoration may be an affront to the very poor citizens who
feel little sympathy for the past. Adopting the building and handing it over to the community may take away
this sensitivity. At the same time, it will become a catalyst for new life.
This paper addressed the problem of dilapidated buildings that are taken over by the very poor.
Redeveloping such projects is expensive, politically sensitive, outcome-unsure, and in addition, replacing
the people creates new housing problems elsewhere. A different strategy was suggested that makes the
inhabitants responsible for their own environment. The concept of Open Building was used as inspiration to
allocate control by (groups of) dwellers to layers of the built environment: a collective interest to defend and
maintain the site and base building, making individual households and tradesmen stakeholders, through
offering the possibility for economic growth by planning a recycling market. At the higher level of interest,
the municipality gains by turning an unsafe no-go area into a clean place for trade and urban activity. The
suggested workshop unit demonstrates another way to apply Open Building principles: the dimension
module was derived from the Grande Hotel building, which in turn makes the infill elements fit to upgrade
parts of the building as well.
The refurbishment of the Grande Hotel de Beira is an academic proposal that is not executed and can
therefore not be evaluated and we can thus only speculate on its successes. Precedents may give us
indications. The concept of Open Building suggests a subdivision of the built environment based on control
rather than on construction. For that reason, it may not be easy to introduce in political environments that
are top-down controlled as it can be seen as an unwanted power shift that empowers the dwellers. As such,
“Open Building and Politics” is worth an in-depth study.
Although developed for a specific site, this project has the potential to become a precedent for similar cases
in totally different circumstances. Indeed, what they share is the desire to gradually improve housing and
living conditions that will benefit both citizens and society.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A word of gratitude with regard to Dr. Gerhardes Bruyns for his inspired teaching, the hospitality of the
Faculdade de Arquitectura e Planeamento Físico of the University of Eduardo Mondane as well as the
inhabitants of the Grande Hotel de Beira who shared theirs secrets on how to survive harsh circumstances
while keeping a positive attitude towards life.
More information and drawings on the Reciclagem do Grande Hotel are available in the MSc thesis and the
website (Cruiming 2013).
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REFERENCES
Anonymous., 2011. ‘A Beira e o Grande Hotel da Beira’, The Delagoa Bay Blog, viewed 21 March 2013,
<http://delagoabayword.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/a-beira-e-o-grande-hotel-da-beira>.
Cruiming, RR., 2013. ‘Grande Hotel – Beira, Mozambique’, MSc thesis, TU Delft. Summary also available at:
<http://www.robertcruiming.nl/grandehotel>.
Cuperus, Y.J., 1996. ‘Housing for the millions: The challenge ahead’, Conference Paper,
International Housing Conference, Hong-Kong.
Cuperus, Y.J., 2001. ‘An introduction to Open Building’, Conference Paper, The Ninth Conference of the
International Group for Lean Construction, Singapore, National University of Singapore.
Habraken, N.J., 1961. De dragers en de mensen: Het einde van de massawoningbouw, Scheltema & Holkema,
Amsterdam.
Habraken, N.J., 1972. Supports: An alternative to mass housing, The Architectural Press, London.
Ivo, F., 2008. Estudo preliminar para a desocupação e demolição do Grande Hotel na Beira, Franciso M. Ivo
Arquitecto, Beira.
Lança, M., 2010. We, the ones from the Grande Hotel da Beira, viewed 21 March 2013,
<http://www.buala.org/en/city/we-the-ones-from-the-grande-hotel-da-beira>.
Newitt, M., 1994. A History of Mozambique, Hurst & Co. Publishers LTD, London.
Makgetla, I., 2010. Building Beira: a municipal turnaround in Mozambique 2003-2010, viewed 21 March 2013,
<http://www.princeton.edu/successfulsocieties/content/superfocusareas/traps/CL/policynotes/view.xml?id
=175>.
McDonough, W & Braungart, M., 2002. Cradle to cradle, North Point Press, New York.
Rolletta, P., 2006. ‘O delírio de um Grande Hotel’, Savana, September 2006.
Stoops, L., 2011. Grande Hotel, documentary, Serendipity Films, St. Antelinks.
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REPURPOSING ARCHITECTURAL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION TO COMBAT
CATASTROPHIC STRUCTURAL FAILURE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A NIGERIAN CASE STUDY!
Prof. Joseph Olasehinde Afolayan, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria,
olafolayan56@gmail.com
Dr. Chinwuba Arum, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, arumcnwchrist@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract
Regular and calamitous collapse of buildings is a major concern in Nigeria. To combat this menace, stakeholders
have tried to identify its causes and make recommendations for its amelioration. This paper discusses the major
building collapses in history and gives examples of collapses in Nigeria that have claimed lives, and it also
identifies their causes. The profit motive and professional incompetence or negligence epitomise major facilitators
of substandard structures that lead to structural failure, with immeasurable human costs. In Nigeria, these two
facilitators are manifest in several processes and activities in the design and construction of buildings. The paper
maintains that it is possible to strike a balance between quality and quantity in building structures, and
recommends re-envisioning of the training of architects, engineers and other professional in the construction
industry. The deficiencies in the training, practical exposure and ethical orientation of student architects,
engineers and quantity surveyors are highlighted. These shortcomings can be ameliorated by requisite
adjustments to the curriculum, more rigorous field training of students, emphasis on project management skills,
and greater integration of the disciplines responsible for the built environment. This integration should include
colocation of the disciplines in the same or adjacent faculties, course sharing, teaching of architectural design and
structural analysis courses by subject experts, emphasis on multidisciplinary design software such as Revit, and
encouragement of teamwork by encouraging the use of some form of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for
the design, analysis and costing of structures. The establishment of multi-disciplinary consulting firms should be
encouraged by removing legal bottlenecks to registration, and by giving them preference in the Public
Procurement Act.
Keywords: architecture, education, engineering, Nigeria, structural failure.
INTRODUCTION
Incidents of catastrophic building collapse in Nigeria have increased with urbanization, while publicity of
these calamitous events has become widespread and practically instantaneous, especially with the
proliferation of social media. The response of the emergency services is now timelier; the politicians make
more noise and threaten stiffer sanctions against erring parties. This is sometimes followed by the
demolition of adjacent buildings that were suddenly discovered to be structurally unsound. After a few days
or weeks of media frenzy attention shifts to other breaking news. However, for the orphaned and widowed,
bereaved and deprived, amputees and disfigured, destitute and broken hearted, the harrowing descent into
depression would have just commenced. The culprits most often than not walk away as free men, and suffer
only material losses. Their collaborators sometimes suffer no losses at all.
This social menace is a cause for great concern, and architects are usually next in line after engineers on the
roll call of suspects, even when the contractor or owner is obviously at fault. Many studies have identified
the immediate and remote causes of these structural failures, and also suggested means of limiting their
occurrence. While some of these studies include better training as one of the remedies, this paper analyses
the structural design components in the curriculum of representative Nigerian universities, and compares
these with those in leading universities, including those that offer courses that combine architectural with
structural engineering training. The paper argues the thesis that repurposing and better integration of
architectural and structural engineering training can reduce incidences of catastrophic building collapse.
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MAJOR BUILDING COLLAPSES IN HISTORY
History is replete with the collapse of structures. The most definitive of these still remains the Tower of Babel
as documented in the biblical Book of Genesis (Plate 1). This brick tower was designed so that the “top may
reach unto heaven” (Genesis 11:4), but its building was discontinued after God confounded their speech and
scattered them upon the face of the Earth (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2014). The Third Apocalypse of Baruch
describes how they “sought to pierce the heavens, saying, Let us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay,
or of brass, or of iron” (Greek Apocalypse of Baruch 3:5-8). The assumption from the text of Genesis is that
the tower collapsed with age, but the Book of Jubilees documents how God overturned the tower with a
great wind, and also gave the height as 2,484 metres, which is about three times the height of the Burj
Khalifa (Jubilees 10:18-27; Charles 1913). The Burj Khalifa (Plate 2), being much shorter than the Tower of
Babel has a more modest goal of reaching the sky.
Plate 1: Artist’s impression of the Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563) (Source: Open History Society
2014).
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Plate 2: The Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Standing at 830 metres, this remains the tallest building and the tallest man-
made structure in the world. Much like the Tower of Babel, the Burj Khalifa aims to reach from the earth to the sky
(Source: Photograph by the authors 2011).
Other examples of building collapse in the Bible are less nebular, but probably more dramatic. In the Book of
Judges, Samson toppled the two main pillars upon which the house stood, and killed himself and all the
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Philistines within (Judges 16: 28-30). The Book of Joshua describes how the walls of the City of Jericho
collapsed after the Israelites marched around it seven times, blew their horns and shouted (Joshua 6: 1-27).
While theologians and archaeologists debate with historians and scientists about the veracity of these
biblical building collapses, written history has sufficient cases of catastrophic building collapses dating from
the Roman Empire to the present time. Many of these structures were bridges and masts, but amphitheatres,
residential buildings, office towers and many other high-rise buildings have been known to collapse (Table
1). The most dramatic of these is the collapse of the 110-storey twin towers at the World Trade Centre in New
York after the September 11 terror attack of 2001 (Plates 3 and 4). More recently, the 2013 collapse of the
Rana Plaza garment factory in Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh which killed more than 1,100 workers and injured
2,500 others shocked the world (Plate 5).
Table 1: Major building collapses in history.
Year Structural collapse Location Casualties

27 Fidenae amphitheatre collapse Fidenae, Italia, Roman More than 20,000.
Empire
140 Upper tier collapse of the Circus Rome, Italia, Roman About 13,000.
Maximus Empire
1973 Skyline Plaza, a 24-storey Virginia, USA 14 killed, 34 injured.
apartment building
1986 6-storey Hotel New World Singapore 33 killed, 17 injured.
1993 6-storey Royal Plaza Hotel Nakhon Ratchasima, 137 killed, 227 injured.
Thailand
1995 Sampoong Department Store Seoul, South Korea 502 killed, 937 injured.
2001 110-storey Twin Towers, World New York, USA 2,606 killed in the towers and
Trade Centre on the ground.
2010 Tenement building New Delhi, India 67 killed, 150 injured.
2012 20-storey high-rise office building, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil At least 17 killed.
10-storey and 4-storey buildings
2013 Building under construction Thane, Mumbai 45 killed, 50 injured.
2013 Rana Plaza Garment Factory Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh More than 1100 killed, more
than 2500 injured.
(Source: Internet search).
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Plate 3: Dramatic collapse of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Centre in New York after the September 11
terror attack of 2001 (Source: Google Images).
Plate 4: Ground Zero: Gaping hole left after the collapse of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Centre in New
York after the September 11 terror attack of 2001 (Source: Authors’ photograph, 2005).
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Plate 5: Collapse of Rana Plaza Garment Factory in Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh (Source: Tamal 2014).
EXAMPLES OF BUILDING COLLAPSE IN NIGERIA
Building collapse in Nigeria is very common and well documented. A recent national technical workshop
organised by the Nigerian Building and Roads Research Institute examined the history, causes, cost and
consequences of building failures in Nigeria (Akindoyeni 2012; Aliyu 2012; Alufohai 2012; Atume 2012; Ejeh
2012; Ike 2012; Jambol 2012 and Matawal 2012). Several authors have published research findings about the
same subject, and made various recommendations (Adedeji 2013; Akinwale 2010; Ayodeji 2011; Dimuna
2010; Ede 2010; Fakere, Fadairo & Fakere 2012; Ibrahim 2013; Nigerian Building & Road Research Institute
2011; Olanitori 2011; Oloyede, Omoogun & Akinjare 2010; Olusola, Ojambati & Lawal, 2011; and Taiwo &
Afolami 2011). These building collapses often claim scores of victims, and are most common in urban areas
(Table 2).
Table 2. Examples of major building collapse in Nigeria.
Date Structural collapse Location Casualties

October 1974 Multi-storey building under Mokola, lbadan 27 killed.
construction
June 1977 School building Kaduna 16 killed, many injured.
August 1977 Housing Estate Barnawa, Kaduna 28 killed
September Residence Idusagbe Lane, 17 killed.
1987 ldumota, Lagos
June 1990 Sague Comprehensive Primary and Port Harcourt 50 killed.
Secondary School
June 1997 Three-storey building under Enugu 20 killed.
construction
June 2005 4-storey building Aba 25 killed, many injured.
July 2005 3-storey building Lagos 30 dead, many injured
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Date Structural collapse Location Casualties
July 2005 5-storey office building Port-Harcourt 30 killed, many injured
July 2006 4-storey block of flats Lagos 25 killed.
July 2006 Block of 36 flats, penthouse and shops Ebute Metta, Lagos 57 killed, 50 injured.
August 2006 4-storey building Lagos 50 killed, many injured
July 2008 Four-Storey Shopping Centre under Utako District, Abuja 70 killed, 30 injured.
construction
June 2009 2-storey building Iddo, Lagos 7 killed, 30 injured.
August 2010 4-storey building 2 Ikole Street, Garki 21 killed.
2, Abuja
July 2011 3-storey building 6 Mogaji close, 18 killed.
Idumota, Lagos
(Sources: Adedeji 2013; Dimuna 2010; Fakere, Fadairo & Fakere 2012; Ike 2012).
The most notorious cities for building collapse are Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Enugu (Plates 6, 7 and 8).
The higher incidence of collapse of buildings in highly populated areas has been ascribed to the high
demand for housing and services, leading to shylock landlords engaging in sharp practices in order to
increase their profit.
Plate 6: The two-storey building in Jakande Estate, Isolo, Lagos that collapsed in November 2012. Two sisters died
in the incident (Source: Google images).
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Plate 7: Remains of a 6-Storey building that collapsed at Maryland, Lagos in November 2011 (Source: Matawal
2012).
Plate 8: Collapse of a two-storey building owned by the Nigerian Navy in Gwarimpa, Abuja. (Source: Ike 2012).
STRUCTURAL FAILURE IN BUILDINGS
Failure is an unacceptable difference between expected and observed performance. A failure can be
considered as occurring in a component when that component can no longer be relied upon to fulfil its
principal functions (Roddis 1993). Structural failure occurs when ultimate limit states are surpassed resulting
in collapse, overturning or buckling. On the other hand, structural failure due to serviceability limit states
being exceeded leads to deformation, cracking, vibration, etc. (British Standards Institute 2001, 2002).
Building collapse is therefore necessarily characterised by structural failure due to ultimate limit states being
exceeded.
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Limit State Design (LSD)
A limit state is a set of performance criteria such as vibration levels, deflection, strength, stability, buckling,
twisting, or collapse that must be met when a structure is subject to loads. Limit states design of structures is
based on the limit states beyond which structures become unfit for their intended use. The reliability of a
structure is determined using two limit states: the Serviceability Limit States (SLS) and the Ultimate Limit
States (ULS). Limit state design is known as Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) in the United States.
The serviceability limit states are the limits beyond which specified service criteria are no longer met.
Structures that exceed serviceability limits may cause occupant discomfort in everyday use, when they are
subject to routine loads, even though they may not collapse. For example, when the vibration of a floor can
be felt by users, or a bridge can be seen to sway, or a truss can be seen to sag, then the structures might
have exceeded their serviceability limit states, and users may feel unsafe in such structures.
Ultimate limit states concern the safety of the whole or part of the structure, and are evidenced by failure of
structural members when exceeded. The ultimate limit states specify the conditions under which a structure
may collapse when subjected to peak loads. Examples are general yielding, rupture, buckling, overturning
and fractures. Limit state design covers the variability of material strength, loading and structural
performance. Ultimate limit states are determined by limit states for strength, stability, fatigue, brittle
fracture and structural integrity.
CAUSES OF BUILDING COLLAPSE
The University of the West of England, Bristol (2009) classified the causes of building collapse under the
following general headings:
● Bad design.
● Faulty construction.
● Foundation failure.
● Extraordinary loads.
● Unexpected failure modes.
● Quality of materials.
● Quality of workmanship.
● Cost cutting measures.
● Acts of God and environmental disasters.
● Soil failure.
● Combination of causes.
Dimuna (2010) listed the following as the causes of building failure or collapse in Nigeria:
● Deficient structural drawings.
● Absence of proper supervision.
● Alteration of approved drawings.
● Building without approved drawings.
● Approval of technically deficient drawings.
● Illegal alterations to existing buildings.
● Absence of town planning inspection or monitoring of sites.
● Clients’ penchant to cut corners.
● Use of substandard materials.
● Inefficient workmanship (labour).
● Use of acidic and salty water.
● The activities of quacks.
● Clients’ over reliance on contractors for decision making on site.
The Nigerian factor

A rather interesting proposition about the causes of building failure by Ede (2010) is that there are some
causes that are unique to, or at least more prominent in Nigeria, and he dubbed these the Nigerian factor.
According to him, the Nigerian factor in the building industry rears up its ugly head in different forms such
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as corruption, lawlessness and presumptions that any engineer or professional in the built environment can
assume all forms responsibility in a building process without the basic skills required for it. Atume (2012)
further expanded this argument by listing the forms in which the Nigerian factor appears in the building
industry and they include the following:
● Corruption.
● Lack of supervision.
● Bad governance.
● Misuse and abuse of authority by those in authority especially some of the professionals.
● Insufficient quality control and standards.
● Lack of sanctions against erring professionals and landlords.
● Illegal conversion of buildings which often lead to structural deficiencies.
● Non adherence to approval regulations.
● Lack of soil investigation and improper interpretation of site conditions.
● Negligence.
● Unethical dealings between project promoters and the relevant planning authorities.
● Non-involvement of registered professionals in one or more stages of the project.
● Poor and bad construction practices.
● Incompetent and low quality workmanship.
● Greed.
● Corner cutting by the client or the contractor.
● Hasty construction.
● Use of poor quality materials or poor or inadequate formwork.
● Construction by all-comers due to the perception of engineering as an easy access window to make
quick money.
Tempting as this proposition about the uniqueness of Nigeria in matters concerning structural failure of
buildings may be, reports from numerous developing nations, and even poor regions of developed
countries suggest that the causes of building collapse are more universal than national.
Pecuniary facilitators of building collapse

One factor that underlies most of the causes of building collapse is greed. There is a tendency by most
stakeholders in the building industry to maximise profit, often at the expense of safety or moral standards.
This greed is most obvious from the activities of clients, owners and contractors, but even professionals and
consultants sometimes delivering substandard or incomplete services. Many professionals are more
interested in the fees they will collect than in the quality of their services, and therefore engage in various
unprofessional practices such as fee undercutting, supplanting, bribery, collusion with contractors and
negligence. This greed is most noticeable in the following practices.
● Cost savings by not using qualified and certified consultants and workers.
● Use of cheaper but structurally inferior materials.
● Use of insufficient quantities of, or omission of key structural elements.
● Building on cheaper but unstable soil without necessary reinforcement.
● Cost savings by neglecting essential tests.
● Cost savings through elimination or reduction of structural redundancy, and considering such as
unnecessary luxury.
● Cost savings through reduction or elimination of regular maintenance of critical structural
elements.
● Ignoring signs and warnings of imminent structural failure because of the cost implications of
repairs.
The dichotomy of quantum and quality in building structures

A recurring theme in the cases of collapsed buildings is the poor structural quality of buildings being a
trade-off for making higher profits. This zero-sum postulation is however false, since it is possible to design
and build safe buildings at reasonable cost, and with reasonable profit. This is a challenge to professionals,
researchers and academicians, who must find better and smarter ways of building stronger, safer and
cheaper buildings. The use of novel materials in rebuilding devastated communities after disasters is gaining
ground, although the issue of the often significantly higher reconstruction costs need to be addressed.
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THE NEED FOR REPURPOSING ARCHITECTURAL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION
This paper has identified several deficiencies in the training, practical exposure and ethical orientation of
building professionals. These deficits may be reduced by re-envisioning architectural and structural
engineering education.
Deficiencies in the curriculum

The challenges of building collapse and the increasing demands on the construction industry necessitate
regular review of the curriculum of architecture and structural engineering programmes. Yet, many
universities operate outdated curricula, and graduates often do not possess the skills anticipated by
employers, or those required to operate professional consultancy services successfully.
Inadequate field training of students

Exposing students to more rigorous field training through frequent field trips and well supervised Students’
Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is necessary to enhance the practical experience acquired by
students in school. The choice of SIWES workplaces by students is sometimes not based on the quality of
practical experience they would acquire, but more on the remuneration and working conditions. Employers
sometimes consider these students as cheap labour and not as trainees, and therefore do not expose them
to necessary challenges and supervision.
Lack of emphasis on project management skills

While some form of project management or professional practice procedures is taught in architecture and
engineering schools, they are rarely taught by professionals who are fully engaged in professional practice,
and the mode of teaching rarely emphasizes real life case studies. Yet the complexity of large projects
requires refined project conceptualization, financing and management skills. This skill deficit is worsened by
the non-recognition or poor remuneration of project managers, and the architect or engineer is often made
to perform the required duties without additional compensation. This often leads to disconnect between
the various professionals and the ensuing mistakes and inefficiencies can increase the risk of structural
failure.
Non-integration of the disciplines responsible for the built environment

The empire syndrome and the regulation of architecture and structural engineering programmes by
different professional bodies make integration of these programmes challenging. This also applies to related
disciplines such as building and quantity surveying. These professionals need to work as a team on
practically all large construction sites, yet their training is largely compartmentalized.
Poor professional ethics

Some consultants emphasize the business aspect of their practices over the social responsibility
expectations, and over the ethical guides of their professions. They perform as little of their duties as
possible, and demand maximum compensation. They are also easily compromised, and they enter into
shady deals with contractors, and even with other consultants. They employ unqualified assistants, who they
underpay. The best place to inculcate good professional ethics is in school and during tutelage, thus the
curriculum and practical exposure must emphasize this.
EXAMPLES OF INTEGRATION OF ARCHITECTURE AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING PROGRAMMES
All schools of architecture offer structural analysis and design in one form or the other. The number of credit
hours offered varies, but most schools offer at least four courses on at least two levels. Departments of civil
engineering sometimes offer one or two courses directly related to architectural design. The building
structures courses in architecture schools are usually taught by architects, and since there is no continuing
education programmes for lecturers, the tendency is for the currency and standard of the building structures
curriculum to decline over time. This has led to a situation whereby architecture graduates can rarely
independently complete structural analysis and design of even small structures. The architectural design
courses in departments of engineering are also taught by engineers who rarely possess the currency in
professional architectural practice to make much impact on the students.
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Attempts have been made by some universities to offer degrees that combine architectural design with
structural engineering. Others have located architecture departments in faculties of engineering, and many
courses in such architecture programmes are taught by engineers.
Princeton University, Princeton, USA: Architecture and Engineering programme

This unique programme is offered jointly by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the
School of Architecture, and it combines the curricula of the two schools. The programme has two options:
the structures focus and the architecture focus. The architecture option has a strong emphasis on
architecture theory, history, and practice, and is designed for students planning to do graduate work in
architecture or to practice engineering in consultation with architects and planners. It includes 6
engineering science and 2 engineering design courses (Table 3). The structures option has a strong
emphasis on civil and environmental engineering, and is designed for students who intend to become
practicing engineers and may go to graduate school in architecture or engineering. It includes 3 compulsory
architecture courses (Table 4).
Table 3: Engineering courses offered in the architecture option of the Architecture and Engineering programme,
Princeton University, Princeton, USA.
Course type Subject code Course title Level /

comments
Engineering science CEE 205 Mechanics of Solids 200

requirements
CEE 262A Structures and the Urban Environment 200
CEE 312 Statics of Structures 300 (or CEE

361)
CEE 361 Matrix Structural Analysis and Introduction to 300 (or CEE
Finite-Element Methods 312)
CEE 364 Materials in Civil Engineering 300
ARC 311 Building Science and Technology: Building 300

Systems
ARC 374 Computational Design 300
Engineering design CEE 366 Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures 300

requirements
CEE 461 Design of Large Scale Structures: Buildings 400 (or CEE
462)
CEE 462 Design of Large Scale Structures: Bridges 400 (or CEE
461)
(Source: Princeton University, Princeton 2014).
Table 4: Architecture courses offered in the structures option of the Architecture and Engineering programme,
Princeton University, Princeton, USA.
Course type Subject Course title Level
code
Engineering science ARC 374 Computational Design 300

requirement
Track specific requirements ARC 203 Introduction to Architectural Thinking 200
778
Course type Subject Course title Level

code
ARC 204 Introduction to Architectural Design 200
ARC Junior Independent Work 300

Source: Princeton University, Princeton 2014.
Howard University, Washington, USA: School of Architecture and Design

The School of Architecture and Design is in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences.
There are several structures courses offered in the 5-year programme (Table 5).
Table 5: Engineering courses offered in the School of Architecture and Design in the College of Engineering,
Architecture and Computer Sciences, Howard University, Washington, USA.
Course code Course title Credit Level Semester
units
ARCH-501 Structures I (Statics) 3 300 Fall
ARCH-502 Structures II (Strength) 3 300 Spring
ARCH-503 Structures III (Structural Innovations) 3 400 Fall
ARCH-504 Structural Innovations (Elective) 3 400 Spring
Total 12
Source: Howard University, Washington, USA 2014.
Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland: Master of Science in Architecture programme

The Faculty of Architecture offers a 5-year programme, which is divided into a 7-semester first degree
programme and a 3-semester second degree programme. Structural engineering courses are taught by
structural engineers but the courses are specifically tailored to architecture students (Table 6).
Table 6: Engineering courses offered by the Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology, Cracow,
Poland.
Subject code Course title ECTS Level Semesters
credits
I-B-3 Building Mechanics 3 100 First
I-B-3 Building Mechanics 3 100 Second
I-C-14 Building Structures 3 200 First
I-C-14 Building Structures 2 200 Second
II-C-4 Building Structures 2 400 Second
II-C-4 Building Structures 3 500 First
Total 18
Source: Politechnika Krakowska, Wydzial Architektury 2014.
University of Jos (UniJos): Bachelor of Science in Architecture programme

The University of Jos offers a 4-year Bachelor of Science in Architecture programme. Structural analysis and
design courses are offered at the 200, 300 and 400 levels (Table 7).
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Table 7: Structural engineering design courses in the curriculum of the Department of Architecture, University of
Jos, Jos.
Course Course title Number of credit Level Semester
code units
ARC 245 Building Structure and Architectural Forms I 2 200 First
ARC 246 Building Structures and Architectural Forms II 2 200 Second
ARC 345 Building Structures and Architectural Forms 2 300 First

III
ARC 443 Building Structures and Architectural Forms V 2 400 First
ARC 444 Building Structures and Architectural Forms 2 400 Second

VI
Total 10
(Source: University of Jos, Jos 2014).
Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA): Bachelor of Technology in Architecture programme

This 5-year programme includes four compulsory courses offered at the second, third and fourth levels
(Table 8). The courses cover basic theory of structures and reinforced concrete, steel and timber design.
Students gain practical experience during the one-semester Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme
(SIWES) programme which all students must participate in during the second semester of the fourth year of
training. The architectural training inculcates in them basic engineering skills, such that while taking
responsibility for the aesthetics of the building, the basic structure would have been proposed along with
the form. The use of CAD is not standardised in the department, and there is no standard software used
either for architectural or structural design. Many students however use older versions of AutoCAD,
ArchiCAD and Revit Architecture for architectural design.
Table 8. Structural engineering design courses in the curriculum of the Department of Architecture, Federal
University of Technology, Akure.
Course code Course title Number of Level Semester
credit units
ARC 211 Theory of Structures I 2 200 First
ARC 212 Theory of Structures II 2 200 Second
ARC 304 Building Structures (Reinforced Concrete 3 300 Second

Design)
ARC 411 Building Structures (Steel/Timber Design) 3 400 First
Total 10
(Source: The Federal University of Technology 2012).
Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA): Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering)

Programme
Students are given architectural perspective by being acquainted with dimensional awareness, graphic
communication in relation to the environment and free-hand drawing of forms in terms of shades, light and
shadow. They learn about isometric and perspective projections along with structural detailing. They gain
environmental, visual and detailing skills which basically fuse the skills of an architect with those of an
engineer (Table 9).
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Table 9: Architectural design courses in the curriculum of the Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University
of Technology, Akure.
Course Course title Number of Level Semester
code credit units
CVE 409 Elements of structural detailing & architecture 3 400 First
Total 3
(Source: Federal University of Technology 2012).
University of Lagos, Lagos (UNILAG): Bachelor of Science in Architecture programme

This 4-year programme includes four compulsory courses offered at the second, third and fourth levels
(Table 10).
Table 10: Structural engineering design courses in the curriculum of the Department of Architecture, University of
Lagos, Lagos.
Course code Course title Number of credit units Level Semester
ARC 231 Structures I 2 200 First
ARC 232 Structures II 2 200 Second
ARC 331 Structures III 2 300 First
ARC 431 Structures IV 2 400 First
Total 8
Source: University of Lagos, Lagos 2014.
Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria: Bachelor of Science in Architecture programme

This 4-year degree programme offers building structures at 200, 300 and 400 levels. The courses are taught
by architects, but sometimes by structural engineers (Table 11).
Table 11: Architectural design courses in the curriculum of the Department of Architecture, Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria.
Course code Course title Number of credit units Level Semester
ARCH 205 Building Structures I 2 200 First
ARCH 206 Building Structures II 2 200 Second
ARCH 305 Building Structures III 2 300 First
ARCH 306 Building Structures IV 2 300 Second
ARCH 405 Building Structures V 2 400 First
ARCH 406 Building Structures VI 2 400 Second
Total 12
(Source: Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria 2014).
PROPOSED INTEGRATION OF ARCHITECTURE AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING COURSES
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The enhancement of the integration of architecture and structural engineering programmes in Nigerian
universities can be achieved in several ways.
Colocation of the disciplines in the same or adjacent schools or faculties

Schools and Faculties of Environmental Technology or Environmental Sciences in Nigeria are commonly
made up of the Departments of Architecture, Building, Estate Management, Quantity Surveying, Surveying
and Geo-informatics, and Urban and Regional Planning. Sometimes the Departments of Fine and Applied
Arts, Industrial Design, and Geography are included. Civil Engineering Departments are found in Schools or
Faculties of Engineering Technology or Engineering. Although Civil Engineering Departments offer many
options, of which structural engineering is only one, the tight relationship between structural engineering
and other building construction disciplines is a compelling justification of their colocation in the same or
adjacent schools or faculties.
Course sharing
The three types of courses offered in Nigerian universities are the core or compulsory courses, the cognate
courses which must be passed before graduation, and the electives. All universities operate some form of
course sharing, with students taking courses mounted in other departments within the same school or
faculty, and even taking courses mounted in other schools or faculties, for example the university wide
courses which are taken by all students. Architecture Departments are however sited in Schools or Faculties
other than that in which Civil Engineering Departments reside, and course sharing between these two
departments is very rare. Introducing course sharing between the two departments will enhance their
integration.
Teaching of architectural design and structural analysis and design courses by subject experts
Structural analysis and design courses offered by Schools of Architecture should be largely taught by
registered structural engineers who should be permanent faculty members in the Architecture Department.
This will require creation of career paths for them, so that they can be specially assessed for promotion
purposes, and be able to become Professors of either architecture or structural engineering, depending on
the focus of their research. Likewise, architects should form part of the faculty of Structural Engineering
Departments, and conducive environment be created for their academic and professional development.
Emphasis on multidisciplinary design software

Software for architectural design and for structural analysis and design has traditionally been in separate
packages, although many of these packages allow some form of model transfer, especially through
intermediate file formats. Current versions of Revit however combine the software for architectural design,
structural analysis and design; and mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering design. Promoting the
use of such software across departments will reduce the learning curve when sharing courses, and will
simplify teamwork and model sharing.
Encouragement of the use of BIM software for the design, analysis and costing of building structures
Building Information Modelling (BIM) enhances collaboration between all stakeholders in the
conceptualization, design, construction, maintenance and even utilization of building projects by using an
intelligent 3D model to inform and communicate project decisions. Although several challenges remain in
the universal adoption of BIM, it is especially beneficial in the synergy between architectural design and
structural analysis and design.
Encouragement of multi-disciplinary consulting firms

The integration of architectural design with structural analysis and design needs to be carried forward from
the classroom to professional practice. Most consulting firms are uni-professional and sole-proprietorships,
and the principals rarely gained enough experience while they were interns, and before they set up their
own practices. Teamwork and collaboration is better achieved in multi-disciplinary consultancies with an
inclusive ownership structure, such as limited liability companies. The major impediment is the requirement
by various regulatory bodies that their regulatees own majority shares in registered consultancy firms. The
Public Procurement Act should also give preference to multi-disciplinary consulting firms.
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CONCLUSION
Calamitous structural failure of buildings is caused by many factors, most of which are technological and
social. Although professional training and curriculum development are less significant factors, these
building collapses can be reduced by repurposing architectural and engineering education. This re-
envisioning would necessarily address the identified deficiencies of outdated or poor curricula, insufficient
acquisition of practical experience in school, lack of emphasis on project management skills, inadequate
integration of the disciplines responsible for the built environment and poor professional ethics. There
would also be need to revisit the knowledge sets that building professionals must acquire, with clear
delineations of areas of overlap of professional responsibility, which will form the basis for curriculum
review. This repurposing and integration would however be difficult since it must change the status quo
significantly, and it can only be partial at best if the specialization required of the various disciplines is to be
retained and enhanced. Inculcating social responsibility and professional ethics through curriculum review
can also be challenging and reinforcement of these ideals during internships and through continuing
professional development programmes can be crucial.
RECOMMENDATIONS
While the benefits and disadvantages of tighter integration of architectural and structural engineering
programmes require further study, it promises to reduce the incidences of calamitous structural failure of
buildings. This integration may be achieved by colocation of these disciplines in the same or adjacent
schools or faculties, course sharing between the programmes, teaching of architectural design and
structural analysis and design courses by subject experts, emphasis on multidisciplinary design software and
encouragement of the use of BIM software for the design, analysis and costing of building structures; and
the encouragement of multi-disciplinary consulting firms.
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SI SYSTEM AS USER-ORIENTED HOUSING APPROACH FOR EMERGING MARKETS: A COMPARATIVE
STUDY ON ADAPTED DWELLINGS IN INDONESIA, SOUTH KOREA AND BRAZIL
Marianne Costa, Chiba University, Japan, nanicosta@chiba-u.jp

Hideki Kobayashi, Chiba University, Japan, kobayashi.hideki@faculty.chiba-u.jp
Jiyoung Jung, Chiba University, Japan, jyjung@faculty.chiba-u.jp
Abstract
Building adaptation is about responding to changes in demand for property and thus, it is more prevalent in
industrialized countries. In the developing world, redevelopment is encouraged rather adaptation because of the
shortage or poor quality of the existing stock. The conceptual framework is based on the SI System principle,
which separates decision-making in a residential environment, according to a subsystems approach that
distinguishes parts that should adapt according to the user’s needs (Infill) and parts that should endure for a
century or more (Support). This principle has reorganized the design and construction of residential buildings into
user-oriented systems in Japan. We believe this principle can be reinterpreted and updated to harness benefits of
developing industries and technologies, improved logistics, and new social values on emerging markets.
In order to investigate the features for implementing the SI System principle on emerging nations, research was
developed in Indonesia, South Korea and Brazil. A fieldwork study was conducted to survey about 110 multi-storey
dwelling units located in metropolitan areas of Jakarta, Seoul and Sao Paulo in order to identify the conflicts
between the agents involved with the management of dwelling adaptations. The methodology consisted of
dwelling observation and interviews about home adaptation, contract and management methods, and work
troubles and complications. Three major differences were identified, characterized and analysed in comparison to
the SI System adopted in Japan. 1) Another level or sublevel of decision-making is required between the support
and infill levels, especially in low income apartments in Indonesia; 2) Unlike the SI System adopted in Japan, the
support should respond to facade interventions such as balcony enclosures in the three nations; 3) Construction
codes in Indonesia and Brazil should be reviewed as done recently in South Korea, because they are incompatible
with the actual decision-making structure.
Keywords: multi-storey housing, residential open building, and dwelling adaptation
INTRODUCTION
The concept of Open Building, proposed by N. J. Habraken in 1970, has attracted global attention as a
rational approach for enhancing the adaptability of buildings, and therefore, their lifespan. In Japan, for
instance, Next21 (1994) is the most prominent Open Building project to date and includes important
experiments in sustainability, such as energy conservation, recycling and urban green zones (Kendall &
Teicher, 2000). Moreover, open building applications in developed countries have promoted advances in the
industrialisation of residential furniture and equipment.
In turn, in emerging economies, residential Open Building background is still very narrow because their
policies and marketing goals are more related, multiplying housing stock rather than improving its quality
(Douglas, 2006). Furthermore, multi-storey dwellings have long been dismissed in housing studies as
incapable of providing good dwelling conditions, mainly for people on low incomes (Malard, 1992).
Hereafter, as urbanization progresses in emerging countries, housing programs to supply large demands
should consider an Open Building approach in order to build sustainable residential environments.
In the past two decades, market pressures, state role changes, and shifts in the global economy and society
in general, have repositioned residential developments towards the consumer rather than the product. With
a meaningful number of unsheltered families, some emerging countries already build custom apartments
for higher income families. Residential Open Building can respond to the demands of mass customization,
promoting consumer choice, disentangled property management, systemised housing production, and
longer life spans of residential buildings.
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However, there should be different rules for decoupling and coordinating these parts in the emerging world,
for 3 reasons: 1) the adaptation purposes and domestic demands are different; 2) the informal sector is a
vital part of these markets; 3) the house building industry does not develop at the same speed as the
economy. A survey was conducted in order to investigate these issues and other specific housing features, in
Indonesia, South Korea and Brazil, by visiting 110 dwelling units in the metropolitan areas (Figure 1).
Jakarta, Indonesia, 2010 Seoul, South Korea, 2011 Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2012
60 dwelling units; 34 dwelling units; 16 dwelling units;
6 public developments 21 private developments 10 private developments
Figure 1: Multi-storey dwelling samples location
SURVEY OUTLINE
This research was carried out in three stages, each one corresponding to a different country. Team member
natives of these countries guided the fieldwork activities, which were divided into three parts. The first part
aimed to clarify dwelling adaptation purposes and methods, and consisted of multi-storey dwelling
observation, with evidence registered by photos and videos, complemented by dwellers interviews, and
before and after sketches. The second part aimed to clarify the adaptation services and management
methods and issues in the housing market of each country and consisted of interviews with construction
companies, furniture makers, and condominium managers. The third part aimed to investigate the local
aspects and consisted of small adjustments to the interview content, designed and interpreted by the native
team member (Figure 2). This paper focuses on the first part of the study.
Team Indonesia Team South Korea Team Brazil
Figure 2: Research teams in fieldwork activities
The information was classified, assembled into a database, and analysed in order to identify the adaptation
market demands and Open Building prospects in each country. Table 1 shows the apartment buildings main
features and the amount of dwelling unit samples observed.
Jakarta, Indonesia, 2010

Code Constr. Location Blocks Households Storeys Unit Area Plan Samples
ID01 1980 Tanah Abang 60 960 P+3 34.50m2 2LDK 10
ID02 1992 Tanah Abang 57 2844 5 18.50m2 2R 10
ID03 1995 Kemayoran 6 910 10 24.00m2 1K 10
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ID04 2001 Tanah Abang 6 600 6 22.20m2 1LDK 10
ID05 2005 Cempaka Putih 1 80 6 37.80m2 2LDK 10
ID06 2006 Cempaka Putih 1 100 6 27.60m2 2LDK 10
Seoul, South Korea, 2011
KR01 2005 Songdo 18 1048 25 108.90m2 3LDK 3
KR02 2009 Songdo 6 1596 64 141.90m2 4LDK 3
KR03 2007 Songpa 46 3696 32 108.90m2 3LDK 1
KR04 1979 Gangnam 7 560 14 148.50m2 4LDK 3
KR05 1983 Gangnam 7 644 14 120.05m2 4LDK 1
KR06 1999 Gangnam 1 19 5 254.10m2 5LDK 2
KR07 1983 Seocho 6 481 13 181.50m2 4LDK 2
KR08 1998 Yongsan 9 1001 22 141.90m2 4LDK 1
KR09 2008 Songpa 72 5678 34 148.50m2 3-4LDK 2
KR10 2006 Gangnam 34 30002 23 141.90m2 4LDK 4
KR11 1992 Nowon 16 180 15 59.40m2 1-3LDK 2
KR12 1988 Yang-Cheong 33 2276 15 89.10m2 3LDK 1
KR13 2003 Dongjak 7 613 24 108.90m2 3LDK 1
KR14 1972 Seongbuk 7 357 7 49.50m2 2DK 1
KR15 2006 Nowon 4 225 15 105.60m2 3LDK 1
KR16 1998 Nowon 25 690 23 79.20m2 3LDK 1
KR17 2000 Nowon 11 436 10 105.60m2 3LDK 1
KR18 2005 Seongbuk 15 782 20 79.20m2 3LDK 1
KR19 1970 Yongsan 9 228 6 49.50m2 2DK 1
KR20 2001 Nowon 14 1601 20 75.90m2 3LDK 1
KR21 2001 Nowon 25 3003 28 148.50m2 4LDK 1
Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2012

BR01 1970 Pinheiros 1 20 B+P+10 120.60m2 3LDK 5
BR02 1973 Moema 2 80 B+P+20 102.64m2 3LDK 1
BR03 1975 Alto de Pinheiros 6 480 2B+P+20 143.03m2 3LDK 3
BR04 1976 Pinheiros 1 28 B+P+14 188.70m2 4LDK 1
BR05 1983 Vila Olimpia 1 32 B+P+8+A 62.54m2 2LDK 1
BR06 1986 Vila Madalena 2 24 2B+P+12 129.36m2 4LDK 1
BR07 1987 Vila Madalena 1 14 2B+P+14 123.42m2 3LDK 1
BR08 1987 Moema 1 32 2P+B+16+A 125.33m2 3LDK 1
BR09 1991 Itaim Bibi 1 32 2B+P+8+A 61.49m2 1LDK 1
BR10 1991 Santana 1 68 B+P+17+A 83.32m2 3LDK 1
*B=Basement; P=Pilotis; A=Attic for penthouse apartments
Table 1: Multi-storey dwelling characteristics
MULTI-STOREY DWELLING OBSERVATION
Original Design
Floor Plan Features
In Brazil, residential building samples are shorter in height, number of blocks and households, but the units
are larger, especially compared to Indonesia (1LDK apartments in Sao Paulo occupy almost three times the
area of 1LDK apartments in Jakarta), and can be justified by the lower level of urban densification and
households with higher income. The samples floor plan design is mainly represented by 2LDK in Indonesia,
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3LDK in Brazil and 4LDK in South Korea. A distinct pattern was found at ID02, which consists of two rooms
and develops the communal space concept for living room, kitchen and toilet (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Original floor plan classification
Adaptable Features
It was found that in Indonesia, most of the samples were deprived of interior and exterior cladding, and
fitting kitchen sink in their original design. In South Korea, a few samples were built with the balcony already
enclosed, and some had floor plan and finishing options during the construction period. And in Brazil, the
presence of bedroom suites (master bedroom including private bathroom) and reversible rooms, or maid’s
rooms (including a service bathroom) are very common. All these characteristics cause a different impact on
dwellers choice and the appropriation of the dwelling environment, and this will reflect on the dwelling
adaptations that will be examined in the next chapter (Figure 4).
Bare Finishing at ID04 Design Options at KR02 Reversible Room at BR08
Figure 4: Adaptable features
Households Profile
Regarding the household income level, the selected samples of Indonesia showed lower income than those
of South Korea and Brazil. However, in Indonesia, the dwellings were supplied by the government, while in
South Korea and Brazil, they were supplied by the private sector. The tenure can be classified in ownership
and rental in Indonesia and Brazil, and ownership and leasehold in South Korea. Figures 5 and 6 show the
household income, and tenure rates of each country.
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*Note: Monthly wages in the original currencies (Indonesian Rupiah, Korean Won and Brazilian Real) were
converted in US dollars exchange value in each country at the moment of each survey and classified according
to World Bank Atlas income division of 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Figure 5: Household income classification
Figure 6: Household tenure classification
SUPPORT AND INFILL ADAPTATION ANALYSIS
In order to assess the informality on dwelling adaptations, the input of individual decisions within the
building levels was investigated. Hence, by analysis of fieldwork data, several adaptation types were
distinguished and sorted according to the SI System division (Table 2).
SI System Subsystems Decision-Making Components Adaptability

Support Base Building None Columns, beams, foundations Fixed
Common Collective decision Waterproofing, exterior walls and Adaptable
Level (HOA agreements) cladding, elevators
Infill Boundary Individual decision Window frames, entrance hall, Adaptable
Level according with rules entrance doors, balconies
Interior Level Individual decision Partitions, cladding, fixtures, home Adaptable
furniture and equipment
Table 2: Adaptability according to SI system division (Japan, 2003)
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Brazilian samples had the largest amount of adaptations at the interior level, with special highlight to
demolished partitions. Reversible rooms were often demolished to expand adjacent rooms or converted
into home-offices, home theatres or extra bedrooms. Indonesian bare finished units called for cladding and
fitting improvements from interior to exterior level. Korean dwellings had the largest number of balcony
enclosures. Although, according to SI System division, at boundary level, the individual decisions should
follow rules, and at common level, decisions should be made collectively, dwelling observation shows that
these decisions have been made individually in both countries (Figure 7).
Informal Formal
Grey Zone
Figure 7: Individual decisions by building level
In Korea, balcony enclosure has become legal since January 2006. Moreover, in developments released after
this date, every individual dwelling contract is provided by a column where balcony enclosure can be
chosen. According to Korean building legislation, balcony enclosure however may include one or more of
the following actions: (1) installation of exterior glass sash; (2) removal of interior glass sash; (3) placement of
floor cladding with same material and height as the dwelling interior. In the case of (1) only, individual
decisions could be taken according with rules, and balcony enclosure would be classified as a formal
adaptation. However, the sum of (1) with (2), and / or (3), that would imply dwelling expansion with
modification of common level components, and thus, could be assumed as informal adaptation.
Therefore, it could be assumed there is a decision-making controversy between SI division and local
legislation, which was named the grey zone. The same applies to Brazil and Indonesia, where even though
adaptations involving changes in the dwelling area are considered illegal, 13% to 31% of the dwelling
samples were expanded through balcony enclosure or addition of common parts, regardless of the dwelling
size or dwellers' income.
In Indonesia, there were dwelling expansions through the addition of the front yard, common hall, attic, and
roof and, in some cases, wing walls coming out of the façade, depending on which floor the unit was
allocated. The exterior of each unit seems to be treated individually. In Brazil, although the dwellings are
larger, there were also cases of dwelling expansion through balcony enclosure, addition of terrace space and
void addition. Finally, window frames are chosen individually, regardless of a common rule in both countries.
Figure 8 shows some examples of boundary and common level adaptations.
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ID01: Ground storey expansion ID03: Upper storeys expansion ID03: Random exterior cladding
and window frames
BR01: Balcony expansion, with BR09: Penthouse expansion BR10: EV void expansion, service
complete demolition lines (extra bath)
KR07: Balcony enclosure with sash KR08: Balcony enclosure with KR09: Balcony enclosure without
removal random window frames sash removal
Figure 8: Examples of boundary and common level adaptation
CONCLUSIONS
In the case of Japan, balconies are regarded as part of a collective concern, because they are used as an
escape route, and thus, cannot be adapted. However, balcony expansion cannot be denied in countries like
Brazil and Indonesia, because it simply does not match the users’ lifestyle. Therefore, following the Korean
example, Brazilian and Indonesian building policies should acknowledge balconies as elements to enable
and control dwelling expansion, especially for public housing, because of the narrower areas.
In Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, the decision-making rules over adaptation of support and infill
components are unclear. Without proper legislation and design rules, some apartment buildings are just
deteriorating faster with insulation and waterproofing problems, but others may present risk of collapse due
to informal adaptations, such as accidental removal of bearing walls or addition of wing walls overloading
the structure. Moreover, the informal activity, although usually related to low cost construction, have great
participation in high cost construction. Improving adaptability of multi-storey dwellings in these countries
requires decoupling the building parts and instituting proper decision-making rules.
This study revealed a grey, unclear zone of decisions among dwellers and neighbourhood. Considering an
intermediate scale of management could enhance the sense of neighbourhood identity, inhibiting informal
adaptation, a decision-making level between infill and support levels is suggested, i.e., a sector of the
building managed by a smaller group of homeowners. That should differ according to building policies,
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condominium declarations and bylaws, and dwellers’ sense of territoriality. For instance, in the cases
observed in Indonesia, with over 900 households, decision-making rules could establish cladding patterns
by block and entrance design by storey or façade orientation. Similarly, the block rule could be applied in
Korean cases, and the façade rule in smaller condos observed in Brazil (Table 3).
SI System Support Infill

Base Interior
SI Subsystems Common Elements Boundary Elements
Building Elements
System
Use Common Individual
Life Span Long Short
Decision-making Neighbourhood Dweller
JP
Rules Neighbourhood Dweller
Decision-making Neighbourhood Dwellers
Rules (status) Unclear
ID Sub-group of
Group of dwellers
Rules (proposed) Neighbourhood dwellers Dwellers
(e.g. by block)
(e.g. by storey)
Rules (status) Neighbourhood Unclear Dwellers
KR
Group of dwellers
Rules (proposed) Neighbourhood Dwellers
(e.g. by block)
Rules (status) Community Unclear Dwellers
BR
Group of dwellers
Rules (proposed) Neighbourhood Dwellers
(e.g. by façade)
Table 3: SI system decoupled in selected countries
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was fully supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT Grant), Grant number: 22360247.
REFERENCES
Cuperus, Y., 2001. ‘An Introduction to Open Building’, Proceedings of the 9th Annual Conference of the
International Group for Lean Construction, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Douglas, J., 2006. Building Adaptation, 2nd edn, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Kendall, S & Teicher, J., 2000. Residential Open Building, E & FN Spon, London and New York.
Malard, ML., 1992. ‘Brazilian Low Cost Housing - Interactions and conflicts between residents and dwellings’,
Doctoral thesis, University of Sheffield, Sheffield.
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism, 2003. Skeleton Infill Housing, Bulletin of Skeleton Infill.
Sakai, K., 2013. ‘A Study on Open Building Systems through Multi-Story Dwelling Customisation in South
Korea’, Master’s thesis, Chiba University, Japan.
Warouw, F., 2011. ‘A Study on Open Building System for Multi-Story Housing in Indonesia – Contemporary
Customisation Practices and Future Opportunities’, Doctoral thesis, Chiba University, Japan.
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A SURVEY STUDY OF APARTMENT REMODELING PLAN FOR THE ELDERLY IN KOREA!
Jae-Hoon, Lee, Dankook University, South Korea, jaehoon@dankook.ac.kr

Woo-Jung, Lee, Dankook University, South Korea, thewoojung@gmail.com
Abstract
In South Korea, an expanding elderly population has been accompanied by rising rates of poverty and suicide
within this age group, indicating that many of the country’s senior citizens are suffering economic and social
isolation.
The type of housing in which Korean seniors reside can be divided into three categories: owner-occupied, rental
and elderly welfare facilities. Buildings can be largely classified into two types: detached and multi-unit houses.
Compared to owner-occupied and rental houses, elderly welfare facilities are limited in number and are designed
to provide care for seniors with physical disabilities, not for those at risk of isolation. It is necessary to provide an
appropriate type of housing that can contribute to the social and mental health of seniors at large.
In this context, this study proposes co-housing for the elderly as a means to contribute to the mitigation of elderly
isolation through the remodeling of permanent rental apartments in which more than half of the current
residents are aged, and goes on to explore the possibility of adopting this senior co-housing remodeling plan
based on the results of interviews about the co-housing plan aimed at the senior residents of permanent rental
apartments.
Keywords: senior housing, co-housing for the elderly, remodeling of permanent rental apartments,
interview analysis.
INTRODUCTION
As of September 2013, South Korea’s total population had reached 51,908,531, among whom 6,234,021
(12.2%) were aged 65 and over. The overall proportion of this age group stood at 3.1% in 1970, but the ratio
has continued to rise and is projected to reach 24.3% in 2030 and 37.4% in 2050 (Statistics Korea 2013). 67
provincial regions (27% of the 248 cities, counties and districts around the country) have already entered the
category of super-aged societies, in which the proportion of the elderly exceeds 20% of the total population.
The progressive growth of this elderly population poses numerous problems associated with economic and
psychological isolation among seniors, including rising rates of elderly suicide and poverty, consequently
contributing to a high social cost and burden (Lee 2013).
In an effort to alleviate economic and psychological isolation among senior citizens, the first proposed step
is to strengthen governmental support programs. To this end, additional budgetary and human resources
are required, but there will clearly be limits upon the available resources over time as the proportion of the
elderly population swells.
When the government is unable to provide sufficient support, the next best strategy is to encourage the
elderly to overcome isolation for themselves. However, it is unreasonable to expect them to cope with this
independently in their current living conditions amid the growing social issues associated with isolation
among seniors. Efforts should be made to promote favorable living conditions that allow seniors to counter
isolation on their own.
The 2010 data shows that the majority of Korean seniors live in detached houses (52.85%) or apartment
units (36.44%) (Table 1). While more than half of the elderly population resides in detached houses, their
widespread and fragmented distribution makes it difficult for the government to provide care to seniors in
need. In the case of apartment complexes, where more than a third of this age group is currently found,
there are dedicated spaces for elderly residents within some complexes such as senior citizen community
centers, but substantial expense is required to live in these apartment complexes.
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Table 1: South Korea's housing status and number of senior housing units
*Unit: household
Classification Detached Multi-family Townhouse Apartment Non- Total
house house residential
building
Number of 4,089,491 1,314,452 536,070 8,576,013 161,393 14,677,419
housing units (27.86) (8.96) (3.65) (58.43) (1.10) (100.00)
(%)
Number of 2,843,928 335,089 171,012 1,961,045 69,849 5,380,923
senior housing (52.85) (6.23) (3.18) (36.44) (1.30) (100.00)
units
(%)
(Source: 2010 Housing Census)
On the other hand, the number of elderly welfare facilities has increased in recent years due to the
expansion of government efforts at providing senior housing. However, this increase has taken place only in
the supply of medical welfare facilities for seniors suffering physical and mental disabilities (long-term care
facilities and hospitals), with no substantial increase of the number of residential welfare facilities for the
healthy elderly (Figure 1). As of 2012, elderly welfare facilities numbered 4,768, with an accommodating
capacity of 151,808 persons (Table 2), which accounts for a mere 2.4% of the 2013 elderly population
(6,234,021).
Figure 1: Trends in number of elderly welfare facilities (Source: Kwon 2012).
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Table 2: Elderly welfare facilities by type
Classification Number of facilities Capacity Notes
Unit % Person %
Elderly residential Care facilities 285 5.98 13,164 8.67
welfare facilities Group homes 108 2.27 887 0.58
Elderly medical Welfare housing 23 0.48 4,128 2.72
welfare facilities Long-term care facilities 2,610 54.74 118,631 78.15
Long-term care group 1,742 36.54 14,998 9.88
homes
Total 4,768 100.00 151,808 100.00
(Source: 2012 Report on the Elderly and Employees at Welfare Facilities).
New types of housing are required to allow seniors to overcome isolation through their own efforts. A
variety of housing options should be provided that enable seniors to make choices based on their financial
and health conditions and individual preferences. The provision of new types of housing accompanied by
governmental support would doubtlessly contribute to impacting the social problems associated with the
expanding elderly population.
PROPOSAL OF CO-HOUSING FOR THE ELDERLY
This study proposes establishing co-housing for the elderly through the remodeling of existing residential
properties as a way to provide new types of housing able to meet the physical and psychological needs of
the elderly and allow them to independently overcome isolation. The properties selected for remodeling are
permanent rental apartments, a category in which more than half of the current residents are aged 65 and
over (Table 3).
Table 3: Supply status of rental housing and percentage of seniors living in rental housing.
Classification Public rental housing Private
Permanent 50-year National 5-/10- year Deposit Total rental
rental rental rental rental housing
Number of 190,694 101,52 455,107 41.169 19,947 808,437 449,286
housing (unit) 0
Percentage of 56.3 44.7 29.2 16.5 14.5 34.7 20.8
senior residents
(%)
(Source: 2012 The Results of Housing Survey on Rental Houses 2011).
The supply of permanent rental apartments began in 1989. By 1994 a total of 190,000 units had been
provided, with floor areas ranging from 23.1 m2 to 29.6 m2. With the passage of more than two decades since
their construction, these buildings are in a dilapidated condition and are unable to respond to the changes
in characteristics of residents, requiring immediate remodeling to provide improved living conditions (Yoon
et al. 2013).
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(Source: 1991 Collected Housing Designs)
Figure 4: Permanent rental apartments selected for remodeling.
To devise a plan for senior co-housing, this study selected 31 m2 apartment units built in the 1990s by the
Korea National Housing Corporation. The physical features of such units are illustrated in Figure 4.
The typical floor plan illustrated in Figure 4 shows that 16 households are aligned along a 1.5 m wide single-
side corridor, eight on each side of the central staircase. Each features a front balcony, a master
bedroom, a kitchen-cum-dining room, a washroom, a second bedroom and an entryway.
Each unit is separated by load-bearing walls, which makes it difficult to create a larger space than the
existing one without attempting to integrate households through structural alterations. However, it is
possible to alter the unit plan by removing non-load bearing walls that separate rooms within a household.
Prerequisites for plan design

Prior to proposing a plan, a decision was made to determine the scale and nature of the program.
First, considering that the housing space should be senior-friendly, the study focused on the accessibility
from street level. The vertical limit of the plan was set to the third floor from the ground level, and the
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horizontal limit was set to the immediate left or right of the central staircase in order to prevent
convergence of the lines of flow and readjust the division of space.
Second, considering the structural limitations of the original space and the general economic characteristics
of the South Korean elderly, shared areas such as a common living room, common dining room, common
kitchen and common laundry room were selectively included to better meet the needs of residents.
Third, the space for each household was designed in such a way as to enhance privacy and improve the
accessibility of common areas. In order to allow seniors a choice based on their financial status, the housing
was designed to include two types: one for seniors living alone and another for senior couples.
The diagrams in Figure 5 illustrate the spatial layout before and after remodeling, reflecting the physical
features of the abovementioned permanent rental apartments targeted for remodeling and prerequisites for
plan design. Figure 6 shows proposed floor plans for senior co-housing.
Figure 5: Diagrams of spatial layout before and after remodeling.
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A: Common Entryway, B: Hall, C: Living room, D: Laundry room, E: Kitchen, F: Dining room, G: Balcony
Figure 6: Plans for senior co-housing through the remodeling of permanent rental apartments.
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The floor plans shown in Figure 6 illustrate the distinct features of each floor: The first floor contains shared
areas (common entryway, living room, dining room, kitchen, and laundry room) and four residential spaces
for senior couples; the second floor provides residential spaces for eight senior couples; and the third floor
includes shared living rooms and residential spaces for single seniors. The line of flow for each floor was
ensured by removing non-load bearing walls.
The entryway of each household was removed and the shoe closets for each household were instead placed
at the common entryway in order to encourage residents to remove their shoes in the indoor spaces (shared
and private spaces). This was intended to promote a sense of community by providing individual rooms
within a large house.
The existing structural limitations made it difficult to provide an expansive common living room for
residents, so small-scale common living rooms were instead distributed on each floor to provide multi-
purpose spaces. Spaces for individual households were designed to primarily serve as bedrooms, thereby
encouraging the residents to socialize with others in shared areas outside of when they sleep.
EVALUATION OF CO-HOUSING FOR THE ELDERLY
Summary of evaluation
A survey was conducted in order to examine the validity of the senior co-housing plan suggested in this
study. The survey (interviews) for plan evaluation was carried out over ten days beginning November 26,
2013 and targeted senior citizens residing in the 7th Building Unit of the Hansol Jugong Apartment Complex
located in Jeongja-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea (Approximately 1,400
households reside in the 7th Building Unit of the Hansol Jugong Apartment Complex, more than 80% of
which are composed of elderly living alone or elderly couples).
Along with a well-structured questionnaire, a model house in 1:50 scale was utilized as a means to improve
understanding and spark interest among senior residents, and thus improve participation (Figure 7).While
conducting the model-assisted survey, interviewers contacted interviewees on a face-to-face basis to obtain
their response to the questionnaire.
Figure 7: 1:50 Scale model house
Elements of evaluation
The evaluation survey questionnaire consisted of three parts.
The first related to the general characteristics of the senior residents, such as gender, age, physical
characteristics, whether they have a spouse (if so, questions regarding the spouse’s characteristics were
offered; if not, they proceeded to the question of how long they have lived alone), period of occupancy at
the Hansol Jugong Apartment Complex and whether they are provided with social assistance.
The second part investigated the lifestyles and habits of the senior citizens queried. The questions included
in this part addressed which household chores that they find bothersome and tiring as they age.
The third area dealt with questions related to the comprehensive evaluation of a co-housing plan for the
elderly.
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Table 3: Contents of the evaluation survey questionnaire
Part A. Part B. Part C.
General Characteristics Lifestyle and Habits Evaluation of Co-housing Plan
a. Gender a. Frequency of meals per a. Necessity of the plan
b. Age day b. Willingness to move
c. Physical characteristics b. Preparation of meals following the initiation of
d. Having a spouse or not c. Frequency of doing the plan
d-1. Spousal characteristics laundry c. Willingness to
d-2. Duration of living alone d. By whom and how share communal meals
e. Occupancy period laundry is done d. Evaluation of size of
f. Social assistance e. Activities other than spaces in the plan
g. Level of education sleeping e. Necessity of an individual
h. Occupation before space in which to do
retirement laundry
f. Necessity of manager
General characteristics of the elderly surveyed

20 senior citizens aged 60 and over participated in the survey. The proportion of female participants was
higher; four men and 16 women were surveyed. In terms of the age range of the participants, one fell into
the 60 to 64 year-old age group, five were aged 65 to 69, four were aged 70 to 74, three were aged 75 to 79
and seven were aged 80 and above. Although half of the participants were aged 75 and over, these
participants responded that their physical conditions were generally fine—15 answered they were healthy
and five said they were somewhat frail.
Among the subjects, ten (one man, nine women) were living alone, with an average period of living alone of
ten years and over. Another ten respondents (three men, seven women) had cohabitants; six (two men, four
women) answered that their cohabitants were healthy, while four (one man, three women) replied that
theirs suffered physical or mental disorders.
Lifestyles and habits of the elderly surveyed

Among all the respondents, 14 (three men, 11 women) answered that they did not skip any meals, including
breakfast, lunch and dinner. Although two women among them responded that they should not skip any
meals due to diabetes, all 14 respondents said they did not encounter any difficulty in preparing meals.
Six (one man, five women) responded as having two or fewer meals per day. Among them, three female
respondents reported being on a strict diet as a means to maintain a moderate weight, while three (one
man, two women) replied they had two or fewer meals per day because they found preparing meals
bothersome and laborious.
In the surveyed 7th Building Unit of the Hansol Jugong Apartment Complex, a restaurant serving the elderly
offers free meals with a unique daily menu, which can help ease the burden of preparing meals. However,
few of the senior residents queried (six out of 20) routinely visited the restaurant. While two respondents
with diabetes did not use the restaurant due to health issues, most respondents who did not visit the
restaurant indicated that they did not have a good impression of the facility. This demonstrates that
although the restaurant offers convenience and free meals, the right to have a comfortable meal at will is
regarded as important among some elderly people.
As for the frequency of doing laundry, 17 (four men, 13 women) replied they did laundry every day on a
regular basis, whereas the three remaining (female) respondents said they did laundry when a full load had
been collected, since doing laundry was a laborious task. When it comes to washing laundry, it is much more
convenient to use a washing machine, but this includes the disadvantage of using a large amount of water
and electricity; on the other hand, hand-washing can save water and electricity, but it is cumbersome and
arduous work for the elderly. Among all the respondents, ten reported they usually performed hand-
washing, while nine said that they used a washing machine. Half of the respondents chose personal labor in
order to save on utility fees, while the other half chose to pay higher fees rather than suffer fatigue from
performing labor.
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Figure 8: Activities other than sleeping by the elderly surveyed.
Out of all the respondents, six (two men, four women) answered that they usually exercised during the
daytime, and eight (one man, seven women) said they enjoyed socializing by visiting a senior citizen
community center, senior education or welfare center. Two participants (one man, one woman) replied they
nursed a care recipient and four (all women) said they spent the daytime hours alone in the home rather
than going outside.
Results of plan evaluation

As to whether or not co-housing for the elderly as suggested in this study was needed, 14 (two men, 12
women) replied “yes” while five (one man, four women) indicated “no.”
When it came to reasons for answering “yes,” respondents replied, “It would be good to have someone who
take care of me when I am sick” (72-year-old woman, healthy, living alone for ten years or over), and “For
now, I am not that lonely, since I am living with my family, but co-housing might be needed by elderly
people who live alone” (67-year-old woman, healthy, living with family members). The eight participants
who indicated that they enjoyed socializing were included among the 14 respondents who said “yes.”
In contrast, the five respondents who responded in the negative indicated various reasons including, “It is
hard enough for two people to live together; it would be much harder to live with many people” (81-year-
old woman, healthy, living with a physically-challenged son) and “When the elderly live together, there can’t
help but be conflict” (83-year-old woman, healthy, living alone for ten years or over).The respondents who
answered “no” included one participant who ate only two meals per day because of difficulty with preparing
meals, three female respondents living alone for ten years or over and a respondent who did not enjoy
socializing and did not visit a senior citizen community center.
The positive respondents were asked if they would participate in communal meals. Twelve respondents
replied “yes” and one (female) replied “no.” The 11 positive respondents expressed their willingness to
participate actively, saying, “Isn’t it necessary to have a communal meal at this kind of housing?” (73-year-old
woman, healthy, living with her husband) while one negative respondent expressed outright rejection,
stating “It would be difficult to have a communal meal because each resident would have different tastes”
(80-year-old woman, healthy, living alone for ten years or over).
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Figure 9: Necessity of co-housing for the elderly.
Figure 10: Participation in communal meals.
This co-housing plan suggests two different household units: units for the elderly living alone and units for
elderly couples. The majority of the respondents perceived the household units for the elderly living alone
to be small, even for someone living alone, whereas the household units for elderly couples were considered
a reasonable size for living.
However, one opinion was offered about interior space division. A female respondent (67-year-old woman,
healthy, living alone for six years) said, “Although the size is appropriate, a partitioned room would be better
than one big studio because a storage place is important.” Therefore, spaces constructed with partitions
rather than a studio apartment as planned should be taken into account.
This co-housing plan suggests shared facilities such as a communal entryway, living room, dining room,
kitchen and laundry room; the communal living rooms, dining room and kitchen were evaluated as
appropriate for shared use, while reactions to a communal entryway were divided, with six saying it was
“appropriate” and seven responding “not appropriate.”
As Korea has a custom of removing shoes while indoors, an entryway serves the important role of
distinguishing private indoor space from public outdoor space. One respondent said, “An entryway should
be placed in the private space” (83-year-old man, healthy, living with his wife), indicating that senior citizens
do not maintain a positive impression of a communal entryway. As for the other shared facilities outside a
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communal entryway, it can be seen that the elderly have a right to decide whether or not to use them, but
for the communal entryway it can be interpreted that senior residents feel uncomfortable in using it.
CONCLUSION
This study proposed a form of senior co-housing created by remodeling permanent rental apartments as a
new type of housing for South Korean senior citizens and examined the validity of the proposed plan by
conducting interviews with such citizens residing in existing permanent rental apartments. The results of the
study are as follows.
First, the seniors who responded that senior co-housing needed to be built (14 respondents) outnumbered
those who answered that it was not necessary (five respondents), indicating a need for senior co-housing.
The participants who answered “yes” regarding the necessity of co-housing for the elderly tended to enjoy
socializing, while those who indicated “no” were in general less sociable.
Second, senior co-housing is a type of housing which helps ease the burden of performing household
chores that the elderly may find troublesome with age. Still, this study found that a strong correlation does
not exist between the characteristics of elderly people in terms of doing household chores and preferences
regarding senior co-housing. This result was confirmed by respondents’ remarks: One respondent aged in
the early 60s experienced no difficulty completing household tasks but responded that senior co-housing
was needed, while another respondent over eighty found it difficult to manage household chores but
considered co-housing to be not necessary.
Third, the respondents who answered “yes” regarding the need for senior co-housing were generally
satisfied with the proposed plan. However, their reactions to interior design features were divided; some
seniors preferred an individual entryway over a shared entryway, and others preferred a unit with spatial
partitions to the studio-type unit suggested in the plan. Therefore, there is a need to conduct additional
study based on a modified plan reflecting their input.
Lastly, the model-based interview survey for seniors proved to be effective. The use of a model house caught
their interest and encouraged participation in the survey, allowing interviewers to obtain a wide variety of
responses to the questionnaire.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by a Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the
South Korean government (No. 2011-0028471).
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Kwon, S., 2012. Status and issues of welfare facilities for senior citizens and policy proposals, A forum for
expanding welfare facilities to realize an advanced welfare state, Health and Welfare Committee.
Lee, H., 2013. The elderly suicide rate in Korea, four times the OECD average The Kyunghyang Shinmun 1
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Lee, J., 2010. ‘A study on conversion of permanent rental housing into cohousing’, Unpublished Dissertation,
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Lee, J, Lee, W & Kim, C., 2013. 'A remodeling plan of permanently-leased apartment for senior cohousing',
Proceeding of Spring Annual Conference of KHA 25, no. 1, pp. 107-110.
Lee, W., 2011. ‘A study on the cohousing for small site planning direction’, Unpublished Dissertation,
Dankook University, Yongin-si, South Korea.
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of the elderly’, Unpublished Dissertation, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.
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Yang, S, Oh, C & Kim, S., 2006. 'A study of appropriateness of space in multi-family housing', Journal of the
Korean Housing Association, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 93-100.
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http://Http://huri.jugong.co.kr/update/focus/focus_view_data.asp?b_id=27.
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RHIZOMATIC HEALTHSCAPES
Alan Mee, School of Architecture and Landscape, University College Dublin, Ireland, alan@mee.ie
Eric Wright, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and BOOM
architects, ericw@uj.ac.za
Philip Astley, The Bartlett School of Construction & Project Management, University College London,
England, p.astley@ucl.ac.uk
Abstract
In many parts of the world, the political, social and environmental effects of the rampant production of space lead
to reactionary movements such as insurgent urbanism (Davis 2013) which seek, under pressures of insufficient
governance and minimal civic capacity, to address emerging manifestations of spatial chaos.
However, what appears to be chaos at one level has the potential to emerge as a different form of complexity or
order in a dynamical system of another scale. In this paper, it is argued that individuals, communities, even whole
living cities together can self-organise, increase resilience, evade decay, and even flourish with the right supports.
Following a literature review and desktop research, two rapidly globalising locations are examined for the
potential of new systems to emerge: an informal settlement in one of the most unequal cities in the world,
Johannesburg (South Africa), and an unplanned settlement in Dublin, in one of the fastest globalising countries in
the world (Ireland). A theoretical investigation of related critical urban and spatial theory is followed by a focus on
healthcare provision, and a definition of ‘Rhizomatic Healthscapes’ is proposed. One site in each city is examined
in relation to the possible provision of appropriate rhizomatic healthscapes, defined as non-fixed health provision
which minimises obduracy, following Habraken’s open building theory, and extending it to design scales around
and above architecture. Then systems are proposed which could be less fixed and obdurate than existing
provision, more open and flexible, and ultimately more successful in resistance to forces of unequal spatial
production which prevent appropriate healthcare in a rapidly globalising, increasingly connected world.
A framework is proposed for stimulating official responses to issues of health, spatial justice and quality in
unplanned and informal settlements with reference to innovative policy, and suggestions are made for new
design processes, products and responses to informal, unplanned and spatially chaotic scenarios.
Keywords: spatial chaos, scenario planning, open building, rhizomatic healthscapes.
INTRODUCTION
This paper deals with organisation for spatially chaotic, informal or unplanned city settlements where there
is low access to public health services and little public investment in the workforce, technologies and space
that enable service transformations through which they are delivered. This situation requires a new
approach to planning and design processes. Reflections on the needs and relationships of the individuals
living in these settlements will require new planning and design techniques that can facilitate dialogues
within highly uncertain strategic and spatial environments. The term and the use of ‘rhizomatic
healthscapes’ extends the philosophical approaches of Deleuze and Guattari, in that it describes this
research problem as one that allows for multiple connections between ‘emiotic chains, organsiations of
power (…) relative to arts, sciences and social struggles’ (Deleuze 1980) where the informal or unplanned
settlement is an ‘inter-being’ of culture requiring a continual mapping of growth and change. The concept
of ‘healthscaping’ involves developing the role of theory and strengthening the evidence base in healthcare
research, building on an emerging ‘ecological theory’(Becker, Bonaiuto et al. 2011) and on project dialogues
in the minds of practitioners as regards the complexity of health systems. There is a requirement to enable
more varied ways to collect and communicate evidence for decisions on the needs and requirements of
individuals in these settlements.
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The principal aim of this paper is to investigate through a literature review and two divergent north-south
sites how these ideas inform and frame the role of emerging theory that could facilitate decisions for health
space within informal and unplanned settlements’ multiple, diverse and divergent scenarios. At a general
level, this paper addresses knowledge on responses of the spatial sciences to rapid social change, the
relevance of emerging scenario planning and systems separation theory, and transformations in service
delivery and response for informal and unplanned settlements. At a specific site level, a project approach for
healthscapes is proposed, and ‘Framework for Dialogue’ utilizing scenario planning and systems separation
techniques for health services and systems are suggested.
THEORETICAL FRAMING
In many parts of the world, the political, social and environmental effects of the rampant production of space
lead to reactionary movements such as insurgent urbanism (Davis 2013) which seek, under pressures of
insufficient governance and minimal civic capacity, to address emerging manifestations of spatial chaos.
Currently, terms such as collaborative urbanism and crowdsourced urban renewal (Harper 2013), figure
strongly in city design discourses, but appear often to involve an introverted discussion, running in parallel to,
or even ignoring, increasing volumes of real development, carried out under conditions of an out-of-control
and increasingly profitable capitalism, which exploits or produces space at an ever quickening pace.
In architecture and urban design, the ‘mutant’ typologies, the environmental destruction, the spatial chaos ‘at
a worldwide scale’ hardly figure in a literature on image obsessed buildings and urban enclosures of the
creative classes, which mainly fail to reproduce or extend the traditionally understood public realm, of street,
square, or public park. Given these conditions, it is suggested here that a new focus on healthcare can become
equally spatial and public, leading to a rhizomatic renewal of community identity as well as of the spatial,
public and health landscape.
While allowing for the local economies of design, considering appropriate responses to rapid spatial change
can include those from the broader creative spatial sciences (urban design, spatial planning), with arguably
deeper consideration of assemblages and critical urbanism, as well as a broader geographical set of scales. In
this respect, the north-south divide has featured in the literature and is challenged (McFarlane 2011), by
references to complex relationships observed between social movements cutting across social and historical
boundaries, with a focus on ‘urban learning assemblages’.
This paper does not address the large or local political histories of the sites examined, even though these
aspects have had fundamental impact on these places, as the focus here is on the spatial manifestations of
social and public life.
DEFINITION OF ‘RHIZOMATIC HEALTHSCAPES’
Recent discourse suggests that spatial planning could benefit from increasing attention to the work of
Deleuze and Guattari, and in particular “their normative political vision, which is a revolutionary agenda that
aims at a condition of radical freedom for humans beyond the state and capitalism” (Purcell 2013). In this
sense, Purcell describes their definition of a rhizome as ‘a form for the act of mutual augmentation through
connection’, and further as “an acentered, non-hierarchical network of entities in which each member has
the potential to communicate horizontally with any other” (Deleuze & Guattari 1987, p. 17). Purcell et al also
separately consider radical democracy and the possible rhizomatic connections of solidarity as new forms of
social organization beyond the state and beyond capitalism, in this case related to the globalised food
system (Purcell 2013).
The idea that health inequalities exist across many spatial scales, from different neighbourhoods within the
same city up to the global is gaining ground, and the importance of mapping in addressing this is argued
(Townsend 2013). However, much of the focus on evidence-based design has been on the physical design
of healthcare facilities, in particular the link between design and healthcare to improve patient safety and
quality of care. Becker et al are critical of the gap between published theory focused research and practice
based research (Becker, Bonaiuto et al. 2011), and they propose that the concept of integrated healthscape
strategies should focus not only on research, evidence and the methods used to collect and analyze it, but
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also on the different purposes research serves, the role of theory, and the use of evidence based design
research in practice. For Becker et al, and others, insights were gained from understanding the people of the
neighborhood and attempts were made to promote the healthcare environment as a ‘community hub’, to
provide a ‘welcoming environment. Essentially, a larger role for health in the community is proposed, rather
than just for those whose health had declined.
Becker (et al) argues that in any system comprising a dense web of interdependent factors “one can break
into the system and intervene at any point in an attempt to shift its direction, disrupt its current trajectory
and improve its performance.” Healthscape for Becker is therefore an interaction of different microsystems
in the urban environment (or informal or unplanned settlement) to improve quality and safety in the
redesign of healthcare settings. He proposes an ‘ecological framework’:
• the clinical micro system (the space where the care, intervention, treatment takes place)
• the meso-system (a system of systems eg between the specialist hospital and the
neighbourhood)
• the exo-system (the link to the professional schools, the workforce), and
• the macro system (values/politics) ie. the whole healthscape.
Identifying and collecting data for each system level (care providers, individuals, the group) and elements
(technologies, physical) will elicit a new ‘mindset’ that can support success (or otherwise) in collaborative
relationships. Multi-disciplinary teams will influence the research process and provide the evidence,
interpret that evidence, for new interventions (and space) in the system at an operational, site level, whilst
elucidating for new policy at the strategic level.
Kaluzny sought to promote system resilience across and between microsystems in the face of informal,
unpredictable changes in providers and individuals (Kaluzny 1985). This would be based on collaborative
relationships as a more effective approach to achieve a goal than multiple individual efforts. But how do we
harness the separate but connected individual? It is suggested that to improve the resilience of the
microsystem it must survive autonomously, whilst the physical infrastructure and space of the microsystem
be improved thus respecting the ecology of the setting.
SCENARIO PLANNING AND SYSTEMS SEPARATION
The application of scenario planning as an ‘open design approach’, that identifies possibilities through
dialogue to help inform planning across the healthscape was identified by Astley et al.(Astley 2011) This
approach would untie care activities (service delivery) from the building fabric and enable operational
change in the system. Clinical space-use is also supported by virtual communications that allow acute
specialists with the support of primary agencies to reach out to individuals in their homespace (the 'virtual
ward'). Scenario planning undertaken with multi-disciplinary teams at a strategic and operational level
would set out design systems enabled by infrastructural and physical possibility.
Currently the application of scenario planning to facilitate new concepts of health space is supported by
little evidence in thinking and practice, and if undertaken, it has been at a high, strategic level in the meso
and exo systems (Astley 2011). Complementary concepts for project facilitation such as ‘sensemaking’ for
the consideration of project participant inputs (Alderman 2005) and from Polaine (Polaine 2013) of ‘play’
shaping a mental model of (our, your) world are analogous to forming a picture of the flow of a service
subject to constant change. Polaine describes the micro system as “nested mental models” and how service
elements are designed as “touchpoints (…) sequences, interactions and interfaces, experiences and
(product) design”. This ‘nesting’ is helpful to broaden the idea of engagement by the individual in the
informal environment such as relying on cellular (smart) phone, occasionally logging onto the social
infrastructures, as well as the micro-place for person to person interaction or treatment – whatever is
needed/possible.
A project can therefore be ‘nested’ within the meta-service, with individuals driving the service – not driven
by a major investment in a capital facility or a very expensive installation of technology, but by some aspect
of service provision (Alderman 2010). The implication of this thinking is that project transactions could be
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less concerned with the physical resources and (fixed?) technologies but enable temporary project
organizing, or deal making, as described by Pieterse in his extremely cogent exposition of enabling theory
and practice relevant to individuals living in largely unplanned economies (Pieterse 2013).
Further, Alderman and Ivory (2005), citing Linde and Lindroth, propose that new project management
techniques such as scenario planning, are therefore both the process of network building and stabilization.
Micro systems will be divergent, intermediaries may well be misunderstood, ignored. They argue a ‘clear
project vision’ is required to enroll individuals into the immediate need of the project and this requires new
forms of project management and design techniques to consider the wider network of activities whilst
facilitating the ‘nested’ service design.
The link to the systems separation concept of open building is that this approach enables ‘the vision’ not to
be an entire idea of ‘a vision’ but one that is a constant spatial possibility to change indefinitely, and in the
language of practitioners. So for example, consideration of how miniaturization of equipment might occur,
also mobile diagnostics, treatment, imaging and on-site biomedical analysis, and all of these are considered
as temporary, virtual, unfixed.
These new scenario planning techniques encourage the design of processes and the dialogue of
engagement (that also might have some urgency); starting with individual as well as group-driven
processes, self-reflexive, self-critical; towards development of adaptive infrastructural and spatial
possibilities, beneficial services, ongoing relationships and partnerships.
But as we shall see with the following studies, even the highest density, unplanned or informal settlements
have a self and communal regulatory framework but the meaning of space for health and the role of the
community in running that space is very limited.
TWO HEALTHSCAPE SITES
Johannesburg and Dublin are the largest cities in their respective countries. Johannesburg has one of the
strongest regional economies in Africa, and Dublin is considered to be the primate city for the rest of Ireland,
dominating the economic life of the country. Johannesburg has been described earlier as one of the most
unequal cities in the world (UN-HABITAT 2011), while Dublin has been associated with rising inequalities in
housing and provision of public services more generally (Moore 2012).
One ‘microsite’ in each city is now examined in relation to the possible provision of appropriate rhizomatic
healthscapes, defined as non-fixed health provision which minimises obduracy, following Habraken’s open
building theory, which involves technical, organisational and financial proposals to allow buildings and
urban fabric to remain open to changing needs. He defines open building as follows : “Open
building...results from a principled distinction between the physical levels but also the agents involved....the
achievement of architectural coherence between (..) levels, under the control of different agents, has been
negotiated successfully between urban design and architecture and between architecture and
interior design (the infill level)” (Habraken 1998). The systems proposed could be less fixed and obdurate
than existing provision, more open and flexible, and ultimately more successful in resistance to forces of
unequal spatial production which prevent appropriate healthcare in a rapidly globalising, increasingly
connected world.
It is not intended that the two locations chosen here, Marlboro South, Johannesburg, South Africa, (an
informal settlement) and Sandyford, Dublin, Ireland (an unplanned settlement) are seen as comparable sites
in relation to historical, cultural, or other location specific aspects, but more as two separate places, subject
to some similar forces, especially related to rapid urbanization, globalization, but also potential for self-
organisation. The sites could be subject of further study at a later date, subject to refinement of objectives
and findings.
Sandyford in south Dublin, which for the purposes of this paper is defined as the (joined) two areas
commonly known as the ‘Stillorgan Business Estate’, and the ‘former Sandyford Industrial Estate’, represents
the entry by Dublin City Corporation in the 1970’s into the field of development and sale of industrial sites,
which then evolved in the 1980’s towards a more mixed use site including retail, and lastly emerging after
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2000 as an unplanned, sharply contrasting (in density terms) unfinished commercial and residential
development, effectively stalled since the end of the economic boom in 2008. In June 2014, there were 145
properties to let or for sale in the immediate area, one of the largest clusters of availability in Dublin. The
2013 Unfinished Housing Survey statistics for the area indicate that, on two adjoining sites, over 1,000
apartments for the area were ‘not started’ (192), ‘stalled’ (640) or vacant (262).
There was a 44% approx. increase in population in the electoral district of Dundrum-Balally (which includes
Sandyford) between the Census of 2006 and that of 2011, by 2,141 to 7,035 persons. Sandyford has a
population of 2,600 approx., over one square kilometre, so a quite low overall density, but actually just very
unevenly spread over the site with just a few high density apartment blocks, alongside unfinished
(abandoned?) developments. Some relevant features of these apartment developments include low owner
occupation (only one in five is owner occupied), small numbers of families and children, and a high
proportion of young singles or couples, who are renting short term in the area, one third of whom are non-
Irish. Subject to further research, it is possible that this neighbourhood’s recent physical emergence and
unusual social character could be factors in the lack of appropriate local public health provision.
Sandyford also has very high levels of self-reported health according to Census 2011. However, it is a new
neighbourhood with almost no public health provision, real public amenities, or walkable areas for example.
It also houses one of the few private hospitals/clinics in the country, which attracts patients from all over the
island, but is not an option for local low-income residents. Some health geography research in Ireland
related to spatial justice (Foley 2013) has revealed that although micro geographical data is hard to uncover,
health is often an indicator of spatial entrapment at the local scales. Specifically in relation to the area which
includes Sandyford, at local authority scale (Dun Laoghaire Rathdown), it is located on the KFIW Index
(Kavanagh Foley Index of Wellbeing) as the lowest score (best) local authority area in the country. However,
the researchers do point out that although over half of healthiest small areas (smallest geographical unit of
Census 2011) in Ireland are in Dublin, these are often ‘cheek by jowl’ with very unhealthy small areas. This is
the case in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown area, where there is a markedly mixed set of indices across different
small areas, from the highest to lowest levels of wellbeing.
Given that Sandyford relies on a privately run hospital to serve the area, with the support of the Local
Authority (which designates the planning objectives for site as ‘to improve, encourage and facilitate
provision and expansion of medical and hospital uses and services’) that there is a lack of public primary care
centre (PCC) facilities in the neighbourhood, and that Sandyford is not included in the list of 35 upcoming
PCCs for Ireland (announced in July 2013), it can be concluded that there is an uneven provision of public
health facilities in general for the area. The situation is compounded by the fact that public realm provision,
including parks, public open space and playgrounds are all low or missing, and there is a roads dominated
spatial character in general. The presence of a private hospital as the dominating health provision in the area
is an indicator of fixed and obdurate health provision.
Marlboro South in Johannesburg, South Africa, in extreme contrast, acts as a temporary accommodation
zone for the displaced residents of the Alexandra Township to the north of the city centre. With a population
of approximately 4,000 persons, the Marlboro South comprises a 1.9km long informal settlement of low-rise
buildings, without public services in the main. It could be described as a collection of ‘micro-communities’
within a post-industrial built fabric occupying a former buffer strip. The site functions as a separation
between Alexandra (one of Johannesburg’s largest and oldest townships) and a wealthier suburb, Marlboro
Gardens to the North.
The Marlboro South (MS) district houses a diverse mix of residents originating from all parts of South Africa.
These residents have moved to this particular part of Johannesburg with aspirations to create better lives
and secure better futures for their children. An enumeration of the area undertaken by SDI (Slum Dwellers
International South African Alliance) revealed that many residents are on very low incomes. Many sites in MS
(of total 329) were never occupied and many of the warehouses that were built, were either vacated or
abandoned in the 1980’s. The increased number of new residents over time (related to rural migration) to
Alexandra resulted in residents inhabiting this northern buffer strip due to overcrowding in Alexandra.
A relevant statement by Informal Studio related to the site of Marlboro South in 2012 reads:
‘Only 21% (69 sites) still function as fully productive/commercial warehouses. Many of the remaining
structures are standing empty. Some areas, consisting of open land between structures, are used as (illegal)
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dumping sites or parking lots. Some buildings are used as crèche’s, clinics or churches. Most importantly, in
terms of the focus of this project, 18.8% of the area is used as formal (0.02%) or informal (18.78%) housing.’
DISCUSSION
Leaving aside for a moment the very real spatially unjust political histories of recent South Africa, these sites
could both be seen as local manifestations of Soja’s ‘Postmetropolis’, related in his terms to a ‘regional
urbanization process’, described as follows:“Linked to the resurgence of regionalism at many different scales,
mass regional urbanization, with its combination of both decentralization (the migration of jobs and people
from the old inner city) and recentralization ( in the new “suburban cities” as well as some old downtowns),
has been replacing the mass suburbanization process that dominated postwar urban development in most
of the world’s cities” (Soja 2009).
The map comparison application of the Urban Observatory (Wurman 2014) website allows for instant
appraisal of data for the two locations alongside other world cities, pointing to an ever increasing relevance
of a comparative evidence base, and an increasingly live connectedness between these types of location, as
they similarly react to the same forces of rapid spatial change.
Although very different in the many respects already mentioned, the two sites do share some characteristics:
• edge city, unplanned and unequal developments, each could be seen as 'bounded' physically,
socially, spatially.
• poor or non-existent public realm provision, poor public health provision, and 'unusual' land
ownership scenarios, eg. totally privatised, no/few owner occupiers, etc.
• seen as 'spatial products', that is, 'emerging manifestations of spatial chaos' displaying results of
neo-liberal agendas (or worse) for the designed environment.
It could also be argued that value systems in both areas sometimes bear resemblances: the need (and
desire) to drive a new car, for example, or have satellite tv, can override the need for basic infrastructure like
water supply (Marlboro South) or public footpaths (Sandyford). The differences between an ‘unplanned’ and
‘informal’ settlement can be related to specific definitions in the different jurisdictions: in Dublin, the lack of
a Spatial Planning, urban design or other Master Plan (until 2011) for the emerging residential uses leads to
the definition of Sandyford as ‘unplanned’, while in South Africa there is a clear definition of the term
‘informal settlement’ from Statistics South Africa, related to the Census: “An unplanned settlement on land
which has not been surveyed or proclaimed as residential, consisting mainly of informal dwellings
(shacks)”(Statistics 2001).
The general edge city morphologies contain some surprisingly similar patterns in both places: big box sheds,
motorways, informal/ mixed density settlements. While the city centre urban morphologies are quite distinct
in the two cases, once the focus moves from the 'traditional' centre, the patterns of settlement start to
appear more similar to each other, as well as to other edge cities globally, regardless of continent, wealth,
geography, or topography.
PROPOSED TOOLS AND SYSTEMS
The following ‘Framework for Dialogue’ (Astley 2013) is a third dimension from practice, in addition to the
two locations studies, as a contribution in this paper, to stimulate official responses to issues of health,
spatial justice and quality in unplanned urban environments. Reference is made to the Processes of
Engagement Map as a record of Informal Studio: Marlboro South, a course on in-situ upgrading developed
at the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Architecture in 2012. The basis of the studio was to
provide a defined service (in the time available) an overarching supporting process of development driven
by residents themselves, and aided by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community based
originations (CBOs). Within this meta-programme, a ‘nested’ healthscape design process is suggested,
including products and responses to informal and spatially chaotic scenarios. The following ‘tools’ and
‘systems’ are proposed: A ‘Framework for Dialogue’, effecting open building (system separation)
intelligences, overturning ‘unmappings’, systems beyond state, and seeking rhizomatic or assemblage
groupings.
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The ‘Framework for Dialogue’
We now propose scenario planning as a tool to facilitate multi-disciplinary dialogues. One of the co-authors
(Astley 2013) has worked with a multi-disciplinary clinical team on a research-led health intervention, the
London Pathway project whereby TB clinical service disrupters planned successful outreach mobile city-
wide networks, for the diagnosis and provision of TB services for the treatment and management of the
informally housed and individual homeless. The aim of the project was to articulate and prepare for the
development of health space for respite care. Space would be supported by an innovative mobile
imagining, 'Find and Treat', interventions as well as the use of oral medicine management internet
treatment by TB specialists with both client and health provider ‘at large’ in the meso and exo system.
The spatial aspect of this work is the growing recognition that successful interventions need to be about
more than dealing with illness, but to provide social and well-being support linked to housing and
employment initiatives. Thus the benefit of articulating respite space as a concept to an intermediary care
setting that might provide benefits of ‘care closer to home’ for those who don’t have a home or are
informally housed (and if in prolonged hospitals stays may lose their assigned hostel space in the interim).
The aim is to provide improved care for physical ill health problems, while also working to address mental
health and substance misuse issues. The main organisational aspects of this integrated approach are:
1. Workstreams - to challenge the existing assumptions on the organization of care and

identify gaps in the workforce
2. Scenario planning - as the technique to facilitate both professional and the individual
citizen dialogue
3. Systems separation - as an organizing and project management concept for space. It is a
fit-out space with low-tech environmental performance requirements (eg. ventilation)
4. Viability - of the proposed micro-system and use of space (within whole-systems thinking)
The team aimed to look to challenge existing assumptions on the organisation of care and to understand
the impact of this whole systems thinking. Evidence and data was identified that supports the new care
intervention, ‘the operational vision’. Site(s) suitability, financial viability and routes to funding were
addressed. New and relevant partners were introduced to the scheme with the purpose of developing an
integrated service model with innovative new thinking on design of human resources service and space
delivery. The first workshop set out the basis for both the quantitative and qualitative measures for the
scheme, flows and activity and identified any potential gaps in knowledge and further streams of work to
support the bid with scenarios for the service development leading to a very outline, but formalized,
business development case.
The outcome of the front-end four scenario planning sessions was to articulate the integrated service model,
supported by data and evidence agreed by the multi-disciplinary group. At this stage no layouts were
produced, or locations identified, but relationships established as a prospectus to engage policy maker,
health board members and funder partners in the disruptive service.
In summary the key element of this ‘Framework for Dialogue’ approach was to utilize the level of
professional expertise already involved and that included the client leaders (identified) working forward
together through workstreams. This in turn allowed for detailed work in smaller groups, but within the
overall framework of: Clinical & Social Care, Partnership and Community Engagement, scoping for Health
Respite space, exploring Funding models, and exploring property related issues.
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Figure 1: A Framework for Dialogue.
Supporting effecting intelligences in the dialogue (See local site examples, Figure 1.)
Pan-scalar open building

Effecting open building intelligences that utilize systems separation techniques involves a ‘pan-scalar’
opportunity, that is, within buildings, but also beyond, outside, or at a scale which includes broader
communities, both digital and actual, and for temporary as well as permanent uses.
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Overturning unmappings
Research has shown that levels of health in an area can be related to compositional as well as contextual
factors, so that poverty for example, or levels of deprivation and unemployment can correlate with poor
health in an area. The importance of mapping overlapping social indicators and health inequalities is
acknowledged, and the cross scalar nature of this has already been described above (Townsend 2013). In
this respect, lack in provision of amenities, rights, and space are often hidden in the absence of clear
understandings of land ownership, zoning and other power dynamics. Revealing these aspects of the built
environment to local residents through graphical and other mappings (or ‘unmappings’ of inappropriately
accepted readings of these places) can be a way to open dialogue on possibilities for healthscapes to
emerge from the current manifestations of the place.
Systems beyond state

In political geography, certain state centered African (and other) development has been described as a
“monstrous hybrid” (Taylor 2006) borrowing a term from Jacobs, in an argument which favours cities ‘and
their (sometimes transnational) city-regions’ over states in attempts to eradicate poverty. In this sense
systems beyond state, and even beyond city, could become effective.
Rhizomatic or assemblage groupings

In a rhizomatic healthscape, the health provision network would organize itself. An assemblage urbanism
(Blok 2013), working again from writings of Deleuze and Guattari, would allow for self-organisation of
systems of provision and care, as assemblage groupings.
CONCLUSION
This paper has analysed the critical spatial, health, systems and open building theory and literature, before
outlining a definition of ‘Rhizomatic Healthscapes’. The scenario planning and systems separation aspects of
one non-fixed health provision project in London were then described, and then the contemporary
conditions for health were outlined in two specific locations, Marlboro South, Johannesburg, South Africa,
(an informal settlement) and Sandyford, Dublin, Ireland (an unplanned settlement). The two specific
locations were then discussed in the context of regional urbanization processes and morphologies.
A‘Framework for Dialogue’ was then proposed which could contribute to the establishment of Rhizomatic
Healthscapes, effecting open building intelligences, overturning ‘unmappings’, systems beyond state, and
finally seeking rhizomatic or assemblage groupings.
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ANTIFRAGILITY IN ARCHITECTURE: IMPROVING ARCHITECTURE WITH APPROPRIATE REACTION TO
POSITIVE STRESSORS!
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Schwehr, Director Competence Centre Typology & Planning in Architecture (CCTP),
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Engineering & Architecture, Switzerland,
peter.schwehr@hslu.ch
Natalie Plagaro Cowee, Arch. SIA, Competence Centre Typology & Planning in Architecture (CCTP), Lucerne
University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Engineering & Architecture, Switzerland, natalie.plagaro@hslu.ch
Abstract
Unpredictable building and neighbourhood stressors provoke a constant request for adaptability, threatening
fragile systems with collapse if they are incapable of reacting. Inspired by evolutionary epigenetic mechanisms,
strategies are proposed that increase the adaptability of the built environment. In applying consciously
developed, partially controllable positive stressors to existing neighbourhoods and buildings, reactive processes
occur that redirect fragile systems towards robustness, resilience or onto antifragility.
An assessment model is developed for the implementation of positive stressors in neighbourhoods, buildings and
processes increasing the adaptability of the built environment and generating collective benefit.
Keywords: evolution, epigenetic, antifragility, cooperation, resilience, open architecture, adaptability.
INTRODUCTION
Our buildings and cities are under constant pressure to adapt and this makes our buildings fragile. This
pressure is applied by stressors that lead to change in areas such as economy, society, ecology etc. and
cannot be immediately neutralised by architectural concepts. Solutions that are being put forward today
must therefore also be considered with a view to their expiry date. Sustainable architecture must be able to
react to change by deploying different strategies. During the conception phase, the challenges of dealing
with uncertainties and acknowledging the unknown are fundamental (Habraken 2000, p. 31) for planning
strategies.
It is important to bear in mind that depending on the buildings' adaptability (resistance characteristics), it
will be able to resist at different degrees and that stressors have different effects. Stressors can endanger the
built system. For example, they can destroy fragile buildings and cities but they can also strengthen the
system by inducing it to transform to a higher system state. This condition is referred to as an antifragile
state, the opposite of a fragile state. Antifragile systems benefit (to some degree) from uncertainty, disorder
and the unknown, and the fragile is penalised by them (Taleb 2012, p. 26). Understood in this sense, stressors
are transmitters of information that can have a positive or negative activating function within the complex
system of the built environment and its interacting sub-systems.
Applying stressors in the conception of antifragile strategies necessitates a systemic view of the built
environment. The entire built environment consists not only of constructional and technical systems, but
also includes living space with complex spatial, social and economic interaction and its comprehension calls
for a systemic approach. A systemic view includes “an understanding of the environment that assumes
interacting systems with dynamic relationships to everyday reality” (Fezer 1980, p. 16). That is why an
antifragile architecture tends to have a specific form characterised by high demands, which is a basic
requirement for the aspired high human-environment interaction. It calls for action and creates a range of
possibilities (in the sense of Robert Musil 1930) to simulate everyday lives, which contribute to the
strengthening of the entire system.
“Activating natural relations” (Habraken 2000, p. 29) and acknowledging “the unknown as a basis” (Habraken
2000, p. 31) for planning strategies are basic requirements for antifragile architecture. This therefore raises
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the question: How can we use the potential of stressors for a sustainable, durable architecture with a high
level of human-environment interaction, or how can we make architecture more antifragile, meaning
stronger than today?
ANTIFRAGILITY IN ARCHITECTURE
Analogue to evolutionary processes in nature, it is not the built structure alone that decides on success or
failure of architecture, but the combination of the potential of the built structure and its activation through
stressors.
In nature, evolution, rapid change and adaption processes take place following the principle of epigenetic
imprinting. Epigenetics is a special field in biology. It explores which factors determine (long-term) gene
activity and cell development and whether certain determinants are inherited by subsequent generations. If
the change in gene activity is short-term and easily reversible, it is known as gene regulation. It is based on
changes to the chromosomes when entire or sections of chromosomes are influenced in their activity. It is
also known as epigenetic modification or epigenetic imprinting. This does not, however, cause changes in
the DNA sequence.
Two levels of information are involved in epigenetic processes: The first information level is the genome
(DNA) itself, whilst the second decides on activating or deactivating specific DNA sequences, that is to say
“when and which contents from the genetic hand book of an organism are to be used” (Trageser 2013, p. 3).
Epigenetic tags “are chemical mechanisms that can express (activate or suppress) genes to different
degrees. They do not change DNA” (Miller 2012, p. 58).
Figure 1: Epigenetics Tags can activate or deactivate some DNA sequences (Source: in the sense of Szyf 2013).
The interplay between potential and activation generates changes and adaption to new requirements
without modifying the genotype in long-term processes. “To some extent, the human genotype resembles
the hardware of a computer. It determines which resources are at the organism's disposal. But how these
resources are to be utilised is first decided by the epigenetic programme because they determine when
which genes are to be activated. As such, it resembles computer software“ (Kegel 2013, p. 13). As is the case
with a computer, there is hardware in evolution that is not able to function on its own. Its potential is
activated and it becomes meaningful only in combination with software.
Architecture follows similar principles: The first information level is the form itself. The clearly defined
building that can be represented in reality. “Reality corresponds to tangible space which can be
documented with mathematical precision. Only actual facts are gathered and recorded. This involves the
designability of the space, the material's properties (…). Sometimes designers disregard the experiencing of
space. Subjective perception, value, moods etc. are not taken into consideration at this stage. As a result, it is
an artificial, abstracted representation that is, however, of importance for planning and theoretical work”
(Schwehr 2002, p. 30). It is an artificial product because it disregards the second level of information and has
first to be activated by this. The second level of information is the programme of human-environment
interaction. It enlivens the building and lets it function. Without it, architecture would be like a computer
without software – reducing it to a mere sculpture without a function.
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It is the interaction between these two information levels, that is, the hardware in combination with various
software programmes of human-environment interaction which makes architecture a complex, planning
task with no clear-cut solution. This also explains why, similar to identical twins, identical buildings acquire
different biographies depending on the ongoing human-environment interaction by developing structural-
spatial potential in different ways. The buildings themselves are not active – but their potential is activated
by the programme, which in turn leads to other results, in other words to adaption processes.
Figure 2: Twins with same genes but different characteristics because of influence of epigenetic mechanisms
(Source: Miller 2012).
“Identical twins are born with the same DNA, but can become surprisingly different as they grow older. A
booming field called epigenetics is revealing how factors like stress and nutrition can cause this divergence
by changing how individual genes behave” (Miller 2012, p. 58).
For family accommodation, different configurations will be activated or deactivated than for single
accommodation. Some spatial areas or spatial configurations are activated, in other words, adopted in a
similar manner, whilst others are adopted differently or not at all. In addition, a programme for family
accommodation is, for example, laid out according to the family as well as between the individual members
of the family.
Figure 3: Variation, selection and reproduction in the design process (Source: Schwehr 2010).
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Although there are certain inter-subjective similarities, the programmes of human-environment interaction,
as opposed to bought computer software, are always self rewritten with humans in mind, are highly flexible
and adapt constantly to new requirements. Buildings that are to be sustainable over the longest possible
time period must therefore draw their strengths from factors such as the uncertainty of an exact adoption,
the unknown or possibly even from disorder.
“The extended disorder family (or cluster): 1. uncertainty; 2. variability; 3. imperfect, incomplete knowledge;
4. chance; 5. chaos; 6. instability, volatility; 7. disorder; 8. entropy; 9. time; 10. the unknown; 11. randomness;
12. turmoil; 13. stressor; 14. error; 15. dispersion of outcomes; 16. ignorance” (Taleb 2012, p. 26).
Reflecting on Taleb's disorder family, we have to ask ourselves whether we can even plan sustainable
architecture if the aspired high level of human-environment interaction is encompassed by issues such as
uncertainty, randomness, probability, disorder, and what to do in a world (and that we also should plan it –
comment by schwehr, plagaro) which we do not understand, a world with unseen elements and properties,
the random and the complex; that is, decision making under opacity, in other words, inscrutable (Taleb
2012, p. 26).
Bruno Latour argues in a similar way when he demands: “What we need is to turn this process around: ...the
problem with buildings is that they look desperately static. It seems almost impossible to grasp them as
movement, as flight, as a series of transformations. Everybody knows... and especially architects know ... that
a building is not a static object but a moving project: It also ages after completion, is altered by its users,
changes because of everything that happens on the inside and on the outside and is often renovated,
falsified or converted beyond recognition” (Latour 2008, p. 81).
So what could strategies look like that take on a dynamic overall view and even benefit and extract added
value from this unknown, uncertainty and disorder, in the sense of John Habraken's the Unknown as a Basis
(Habraken 2000, p. 31)? How can we succeed in having programmes at our disposal that activate available
structural-spatial potential and have a positive influence on our built environment?
POSITIVE STRESSORS INFLUENCE ARCHITECTURE AND ACTIVATE INTERACTIONS
Activating human-environment interaction is an information-carrying process that occurs on different levels.

“Like genetic systems in evolution, buildings can also, only fulfil their function in close cooperation with their
environment” according to Bauer (Bauer 2008) and because of this, are significantly influenced by
environmental factors. Changes in environmental factors trigger stressors that constantly pressurise our
buildings to adapt. We distinguish between stressors at neighbourhood level (e.g. location – a new road in
the neighbourhood), at the process level (e.g. use – the desire for more space), and at a construction level
(e.g. building element – normal wear and tear – windows not sealed). The stressors are often combined and
overlap (Schwehr & Plagaro Cowee 2011).
Figure 4: Stressors on processes, buildings and neighbourhoods, requiring reaction and strategies for improving
their acceptance (Source: Schwehr & Plagaro Cowee 2011).
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Requirements on the built structure are formulated on all of these levels. If these requirements change, the
entire system of the built environment, i.e. our buildings or suburbs, becomes stressed since certain
components can no longer fulfil their function or meet the new requirements. If the pressure to adapt is
greater than the building's resistance, the building becomes stressed and its entire system is endangered.
The pressure to adapt, in other words, information on the necessity to adapt, is transferred by stressors.
Stressors can either endanger, maintain or strengthen the system and are therefore indicators for the
adaptability of the building. To measure the effect of stressors and its consequences, the following definition
on the adaptability of buildings and suburbs applies:
Adaptability in architecture refers to “the ability of a building to react within a short time to new
circumstances with minimal effort and at justifiable cost. Adaptability is therefore an indicator of flexibility
and of long-term value retention” (Plagaro Cowee & Schwehr 2012, p. 14).
1.) Stressors destroying the system

The pressure to adapt is greater than the building's potential to adapt and endangers the entire system.
For example, demolition / loss of value – the effort required to renovate the building exceeds the renovation
potential.
2.) Stressors maintaining the system

The pressure to adapt triggers faults that can be appropriately remedied and the entire system functions
again.
For example, complete renovation and value retention – a complete renovation strategy has adapted the
building to the new requirements.
3.) Stressors strengthening or transforming the system

The pressure to adapt has transformed the entire system into a higher-value functioning system.
For example by using synergies, densifying or increasing the value in the course of a complete renovation,
additional living space has been created for a greater number of occupants.
Figure 5: Positive or negative effects of stressors in systems (Source: Schwehr & Plagaro Cowee 2014).
Understood in this sense, stressors are transmitters of information between the complex system of the built
environment and its interacting sub systems. They can have a positive or negative effect on the system and
are responsible for the form and intensity of human-environment interaction.
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ANTIFRAGILITY MAKES ARCHITECTURE MORE SUSTAINABLE
The different effects of stressors are reflected in the 'degree of resistance' assessment model. This model
represents different system states of the built environment on a scale related to its adaptability. The
assessment scale aims at answering the following questions: What would happen to the built system if it
were subjected to a specific pressure to adapt? Where, how and which stressors have an effect on the
system? As such, the assessment scale is not unlike a stress test that is to be applied when evaluating
planning measures.
In line with the effect of the system stressors introduced previously destroying–maintaining–strengthening
and in taking Taleb's triad antifragile–robust–fragile into consideration (Taleb 2012, p. 34), processes,
buildings or neighbourhoods are grouped into four categories. These categories are not entirely separable
and overlap in certain areas.
Figure 6: Degree of resistance to adaptability. Improving architecture with appropriate reaction to positive
stressors (Source: Schwehr & Plagaro Cowee 2014).
The assessment scale ranges from fragile to antifragile states. The criteria between these two poles on the x-
axis are robust and resilient. The y-axis shows the functionality and system state in view of the adaptability
potential.
Fragile
The disturbance causes the built system to break down. It is unable to react to the necessary adaptions with
a reasonable amount of effort, and to adapt its system state to the new requirements. It may come as a
surprise that buildings or parts of building are classified as being fragile, although they usually appear to be
robust, unlike glass that has to be placed in a cupboard for protection or wrapped in cotton wool during
transport. But solidity has little to do with fitness and we ask ourselves how many building with a reasonable
amount of effort can be made 'fit' again?
“(...) that fragility – a term that had been lacking a technical definition – could be expressed as what does not
like volatility, and that what does not like volatility does not like randomness, uncertainty, disorder, errors,
stressors, etc. Think of anything fragile, say, objects in your living room such as the glass frame, the television
set, or, even better, the china in the cupboards. If you label them "fragile", then you necessarily want them to
be left alone in peace, quiet, order, and predictability. A fragile object would not possibly benefit from an
earthquake or the visit of your hyperactive nephew. Further, everything that does not like volatility does not
like stressors, harm, chaos, events, disorder, "unforeseen" consequences, uncertainty, and, critically, time”
(Taleb 2012, p. 25).
Robust
The stressors do not lead to recognisable adaption pressure of the built system and do not affect its
functionality. However, unlike resilient or antifragile systems, a robust system cannot react to changes. It
behaves like the proverbial thick skin of an elephant. Disturbances rebound. Until the point where the
disturbance becomes so strong ('the threshold' – (Walker et al. 2004)) that the system crashes. The robust is
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“(…) neither harmed nor helped by volatility and disorder” (Taleb 2012, p. 31). “The "robust" here in the
middle column is not equivalent to Aristotle’s "golden middle" in the way that, say, generosity is the middle
between profligacy and stinginess—it can be, but it is not necessarily so. And (…) it is hard to consider
robustness as always desirable—to quote Nietzsche, one can die from being immortal” (Taleb 2012, p. 35).
Resilient
A resilient system absorbs disturbance and reorganises itself so that its function is retained and it can
continue without restriction.
“Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as
to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedback” (Walker et al. 2004).
Adaptability is defined as “the capacity of actors in a system to influence resilience” (Walker et al. 2004).
Assigned in this way, neither fragile nor robust systems can react with reasonable effort to change and
adaption processes. There are three aspects of resilience which can apply to a whole system or the
subsystem that make it up (Walker et al. 2004):
1.) Latitude: the maxim amount a system can be changed before losing its ability to recover (before crossing
a threshold, which, if breached, makes recovery difficult or impossible).
2.) Resistance: the ease or difficulty of changing the system; how 'resistant' it is to being changed.
3.) Precariousness: how close the current state of the system is to a limit or 'threshold'.
The characteristics listed above guide the criteria in evaluating various influencing factors of stressors that
will be explained in detail in the following chapter.
Antifragile
Following the principle of hormesis where disturbances strengthen the system, the antifragile system is
made stronger and takes the system to a higher level. This condition is referred to as an antifragile
state, the opposite of a fragile state. Antifragile systems benefit (to some degree) from uncertainty,
disorder and the unknown, and the fragile is penalised by them (Taleb 2012, p. 26). “Antifragility likes
volatility et al. It also likes time (Taleb 2012, p 25). The antifragile loves randomness and uncertainty,
which also means –crucially – a love of errors, a certain class of errors. Antifragility has a singular
property of allowing us to deal with the unknown, to do things without understanding them – and do
them well” (Taleb 2012, p. 17).
The possibility of a system to transform is defined by Walker et al. as “the capacity to create a fundamentally
new system when ecological, economic, or social (including political) conditions make the existing system
untenable”. This process of improvement (Taleb 2012, p.34) is an emergent process and leads to
development of the old system into a new one.
Weak points exist in all system states. Even the antifragile cannot indefinitely resist the pressure to adapt as
it continuously transforms into new systems. There are also fragile, robust, resilient or antifragile elements
within a built structure. When working with the assessment model, it is therefore important to bear in mind
that a structure per se is neither fragile nor antifragile. It may well be that “some parts on the inside of a
system may be required to be fragile in order to make the system antifragile as a result (Taleb 2012, p. 81) or:
Could it be that the issue of fragility or antifragility is one of several characters of a structure?” (Taleb 2012, p.
81). Crucial factors are the points targeted by the disturbances, the intensity of the stressors and their effect
on the built system.
A MODEL FOR SYSTEMS TO GAIN ROBUSTNESS, RESILIENCE AND ANTIFRAGILITY
These considerations lead to the conviction that processes, buildings or neighbourhoods can be improved
by strategies that make them robust, resilient or antifragile. Such strategies can be implemented during or
after the planning process.
The model identifies the kind of stressors acting at different levels of process, building and neighbourhood.
It diagnoses the problems and the characteristics (P1, P2, P3, Pn) of fragile systems brought about by such
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stressors. The model offers the appropriate strategies (S1, S2, S3, Sn) that can contribute to making systems
robust, resilient or antifragile. The resulting projects can be described, evaluated and subordinated to their
new properties related to robustness, resilience or antifragility.
Figure 7: Improving fragile systems by reacting to problems caused by stressors, applying strategies and gaining
in robustness, resilience or antifragility (Source: Schwehr & Plagaro Cowee 2014).
Application of the assessment model
Problems or characteristics which make systems fragile

Application of the assessment model is explained below using specifically chosen exemplary problems in
architecture. The identified fragile mechanisms are of a general nature and can be viewed at different levels
of the process, the building or the neighbourhood. They are not clearly separable and may occur
simultaneously.
Our aim is to be able to diagnose systems that tend toward the precarious fields of fragility by recognizing a
number of characteristics that are known to cause such tendencies. Identifying such problems or
characteristics will help to take appropriate measures to redirect the tendency. Below, we list some
examples of actual tendencies with specific, current architectural challenges.
Problem: Renovation
- Focussing on a certain aspect (e.g. energy) ǀ The system border is often limited to the building and
not further ǀ Other relevant aspects (e.g. overall appearance of the locality, rental price index) are
faded out. Renovation becomes a purely technical matter. And in doing so, every building should
be able to fulfil all (sometimes incompatible) requirements. This leads to an inappropriate use of
technology ǀ It results in closed technical systems that do not use synergies with other buildings
and only react to further developments with great difficulty. ǀ
Problem: Urban Sprawl

- Increase in land use due to single-family homes (SFHs) ǀ It leads to urban sprawl, waste of valuable
land resources, and an increase in commuter traffic ǀ Although at the same time, the majority of
building plots have unused potential suitable for higher-density quality development ǀ The desire
for one's own home is dictated by financial aspects and is often realised with architecturally
questionable and poor quality (small rooms, cheap materials, unskilled craftsmen etc.) ǀ Such SFHs
are often isolated buildings which do not contribute to a sustainable town development ǀ
Problem: Office Planning
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- Cost pressure on individual workplaces leads to open space structures ǀ Individual workplaces are
under pressure. 'My workplace has to be able to do everything' (a place to concentrate; for virtual
communication; for meetings; storage space etc.) ǀ Employees often have no opportunity to control
social interaction and interpersonal distance, which leads to a significant loss of comfort ǀ
Seemingly plausible economic reasons for desk sharing can also lead employees to a loss of
identification with their company. At the same time, open space structures do not have the
necessary spatial variety to meet the demands of the new working environment (developing team
innovation; more collaboration instead of pure administration; meetings held more often etc.) ǀ
In summary, it is possible to identify the following problems or characteristics that make systems fragile. The
list provides indications of a fragile tendency in architecture and is based on our own experiences as
construction and research architects as well as many analyses of buildings and discussions with experts. It is
a collection of typical phenomena, by which we have consciously not abstained from the local level of
consideration and is therefore not to be understood as being complete.
P1 Top-down oriented
Urban planning or building construction continues to have the tendency of being top-down oriented
with decisions being made by a few selected members, without including all the actors who will be
involved in the overall scheme. The more a design scheme refrains from involving all actors and the
narrower the circle of decision makers, the more vulnerable the system will be to bottom-up
dysfunctions, complaints.
P2 High repetition without variation
High repetition without variation fails to cover the diverse necessities of a complex society. Modular
and repetitive post-war reallocation schemes were efficient solutions at a precise moment of history,
derived from an urgency to provide quick and cheap accommodation to a large homeless population.
In the same way as repetitive speculation housing schemes, such developments fail to adapt to the
necessities (stressors) of a merging society with additional requirements. No scenario planning was
used to anticipate failure.
P3 'Perfectly' planned system with trouble-free environment
System creators have the tendency of longing for perfection, disregarding the fate of constant
stressors, change and its consequences. Those considered as a trouble-free environment have more
difficulty to react to sudden change. The trouble-free period (and therefore the period in which the
system seems to be 'perfect') is in fact a slow process towards fragility. It can be said that the perfection
of a system can only be provisional; provisional until change comes and alters the conditions of
stability. There is no way of learning and improving for future in a flawless system.
P4 Specialisation, Optimisation
We understand specialisation and optimisation as the end phase of a development process which
includes the risk of not being able to confront the unpredictable or being unable to react to change.
Specialisation and optimisation often lead to rigidity and are the result of prioritising some aspects at
the cost of others whilst loosing the holistic approach.
P5 Artificiality
Artificiality can be understood as a stressor that provokes even more artificiality as a reaction in the
system it is acting on. The further our models are from mother nature, the higher the complexity and
artificiality of the problem solving. High-tech buildings with complex control systems can be fragile
when unexpected failure occurs.
P6 Lack of fault tolerance
Considering that the only constant is change (Heraclitus of Ephesus, 535–475 BC), to design a system
for constancy is inducing failure in advance. A system that has no margin for absorbing failure, risks
collapse because of its ineptitude for adaptability.
P7 Lack of holistic approach
In many cases, systems are isolated within their narrow borders without being part of other systems or
interacting with them. Many other important system-relevant aspects are faded out when finding
solutions and therefore not taken into consideration.
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Strategies and mechanisms that contribute to redirect a system towards robustness, resilience or
antifragility
Having identified problems and characteristics that make a system fragile, what could be the source of
antifragility in the built environment? Which mechanisms should be promoted in normal practice that could
enhance robustness, resilience or antifragility? In reaction to the mentioned problems inherent to fragile
systems, we list a number of strategies below that have the ultimate objective of increasing human-
environment interaction. We understand it to be an open list that may be completed.
P1 Top-down oriented
S Bottom-up ǀ Participation ǀ Cooperation ǀ Resonance ǀ User evaluated ǀ Interdisciplinarity

In reaction to top-down oriented systems, bottom-up oriented systems consider constant
cooperation and resonance from the outside in, and the inside out. Examples of this are the
interrelation of sub-systems within the building, interaction between the building and its users or its
location, collaboration in interdisciplinary planning teams etc. This approach leads to a systematic
understanding of a building in which various tangible and intangible sub-systems are in constant
interaction with each other (Schwehr & Plagaro Cowee 2011).
P2 High repetition without variation
S Variation ǀ Scenarios
Working with scenarios is rarely used in everyday planning practice. Scenarios are often based on
mathematical models that are difficult to place and too abstract for planning sustainable buildings
and suburbs. Only a few companies such as Ove Arup, the leading global interdisciplinary consulting
engineers, work with scenarios, systematically record the consequences for users, buildings and
suburbs, (drivers of change) and enable specific planning statements. 'Design thinking' offers a
methodological approach on how to face the future (Schwehr 2011).
P3 'Perfectly' planned system with trouble-free environment
S Occasional fragility ǀ Translating adversity into an advantage ǀ Allowing reserve for the
unpredictable
For specific cases in cities like Hamburg, Lucerne and Olten, the Living Shell project (Sturm & Schwehr,
2013) translates the demand of densification (adversity) into the opportunity of improving the quality
of neighbourhoods through the refurbishment of façades and activation of lofts (advantage). Value
retention, densification as well as improved living standards are achieved. Urban sprawl is avoided.
P4 Specialisation, Optimisation
S Allowing reserve for the unpredictable ǀ Avoidance of unsustainable optimisation ǀ Avoidance

of unilateral specialisation ǀ Adaptability
Excess optimisation and specialisation are end phases of a refinement process in which properties
such as variety, adaptability, reserves, multi-functionality and redundancy have often been
suppressed. Such properties are actually those which can make a system more resistant to change and
therefore more antifragile.
P5 Artificiality
S Life-cycle awareness ǀ Working with nature ǀ Passive architecture

The more buildings or neighbourhoods work with nature in a passive way, the less the need for
artificial support and means. Energy efficient neighbourhoods, for example, use the potential of
buildings which produce more energy than they consume (Power Station House) as well as other
ecological oriented strategies (Minergie-P, interaction with urban network, mechanical engineering,
social aspects, etc.) (Schwehr, 2009).
P6 Lack of Fault tolerance
S System oriented ǀ Occasional fragility ǀ Life-cycle awareness ǀ Epigenetic manoeuvres ǀ

Adaptability
Strategies can be applied in order to upgrade existing structures and profit from new uses. The Indoor
Units project (Schwehr & Bürgin 2012, p. 43-45) researches how to profit from the unused potential
(occasional fragility) of existing industrial buildings. A modular indoor-unit is developed which allows
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permanent or provisional operation. A life-cycle awareness of the building is considered. Epigenetic
manoeuvres allow us to activate new uses. The new dynamic revitalises the area and improves its
image. Additional occupation of ground is avoided thus contributing to ecology. A participative policy
for the new uses is promoted. Neighbourhoods are adapted to new requirements.
P7 Lack of holistic approach
S Using synergies ǀ Seeking cooperation ǀ Promoting collective over individual benefit

Using synergies and cooperation can substantially increase the quality of a system. For example, the
project Wohnen im Alter in ländlichen Gemeinden im Kanton Zürich with the problematic of elderly
people’s housing quality in the countryside. The Canton of Zürich supports small municipalities in
increasing the offer and quality of housing for elderly. The following strategies amplifying the
intervention radius are implemented: Synergies with nearby facilities, cooperation with institutions,
promoting multi-generational apartments, choosing strategic locations, including social aspects
(services, networks) (Mayer et al. 2012).
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CASE STUDIES
Case studies at the three different levels (process, building and neighbourhood) are presented to illustrate
how fragile systems can gain in robustness, resilience or antifragility through the application of precise
strategies.
Case study 1 - Process level

Project/Subject:
Office in Motion - Workplace of the future. Need of transforming/adapting office space to new
requirements or uses
(Amstutz & Schwehr 2012)
Problem or characteristic of a fragile system:

The way of working has changed. A homogeneous offer of office space does not respond to the manifold
need of the market; costs pressure optimises and standardises space; difficulty to combine common space
and privacy; challenge of dealing with distance/closeness of workplaces.
Diagnosis:
Fragile system that leads to empty unused spaces. Employees don't identify with their workplace.
Strategies:
The Office in Motion project (Amstutz & Schwehr 2012) implements a number of strategies to increase the
quality of the office environment: increase of user’s identification with the workplace, providing a controlled
freedom; from workplace to taskplace, offering a variety of spaces (to meet, create, concentrate,
communicate, socialise, for isolation and celebration); user-friendly technology is used in new office space to
communicate and enlarge the concept of office space; promotion of reserve for unpredictable use; high
adaptability of spaces for use-flexibility; user-evaluated spaces.
Improvement/Achievement:
Resilient spaces capable of being rearranged when confronted with new stressors. High user acceptance.
Figure 8: Scheme integrating the complexity of office space requirements (Source: Amstutz & Schwehr 2012).
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Case study 2 - Building level
Project/Subject:
SAN-STRAT Refurbishment Strategies
(Schwehr & Ehrbar 2012)
Problem or characteristic of a fragile system:

In Switzerland, one in four apartments (i.e. 890,0000 apartments) are in an apartment block built between
the 40s and 70s. Although the majority are not (currently) listed buildings, there is growing interest in their
preservation. Clash of public interest between reducing energy consumption and conserving architectural
culture often leads to undesirable results so that renovation of these residential buildings and estates are
either severely delayed or not carried out at all.
Diagnosis:
Case A: The residential estate is not renovated. The apartment vacancy rate increases. Buildings are not
renovated and fall into disrepair. Case B: Renovation is carried out solely from an energy conservation point
of view. Architectural heritage is lost in the process.
Strategies:
Systemic evaluation. Workshops with everyone involved. Residential buildings and estates are viewed
holistically and their entire life cycle is taken into consideration, additive and reversible measures with minor
levels of intervention are deployed, and everyone (owners, energy and conservation planners) is involved in
developing carefully considered and mutually agreed renovation strategies.
Heating energy requirements of residential buildings and estates built between the 40s and 70s can be
reduced by around 50% without compromising on architectural culture. Holistic renovation strategies are
relatively easy to implement and are to a large extent able to meet heating demands with renewable
energy.
Figure 9: The planning tools, coordination matrix and cloud graphic developed in this project can be used in the
strategic planning phase in order to solve complex issues in refurbishment schemes (Source: Schwehr & Ehrbar
2012).
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Case study 3 – Neighbourhood level
Project/Subject:
Transferring the qualities of single-family homes (SFH) to multi-family housing (MFH) (Meier & Sturm &
Schwehr 2012)
Problem or characteristic:
Undesired urban sprawl through single-family houses; homogeneity of urban outskirts; top-down originated
developments; high repetition of housing without variation; system limitation to 'house'; high optimisation
of means; artificiality; closed planned system; 'perfectly planned future'.
Diagnosis:
Fragile and unsustainable system
Strategies:
Transfer of SFH qualities to MFH; introduction of variety (e.g. multi-generational apartments); controlled
freedom to allow identity (definition of spaces of own design and decision); promotion of collective rather
than individual benefit (developments are concentrated in high density areas in order to prevent urban
sprawl); increase of adaptability in order to be able to react to changing stressors (new requirements of
occupants, changing laws); epigenetic manoeuvres (e.g. addition or suppression of rooms to adapt to new
family structure).
MFH neighbourhoods appear attractive and gain acceptance. MFH schemes can be multiplied and
successfully host a higher number of population yielding collective benefit. MFHs are not only good, but
have even more advantages than SFHs. The system is antifragile. The more MFHs, the better the overall
system.
Figure 10: Example of a multifamily house with single-family house qualities (Source: Mayer, Sturm & Schwehr
2012).
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Case study 4 – Integral case
Project/Subject:
Housing cooperative Kalkbreite, Zürich, www.anleitung.kalkbreite.net.
Architects: Müller Sigrist
Problem and challenges:

To avoid speculation and achieve collective values, a great effort is made by housing cooperatives in
Switzerland to encourage common objectives such as solidarity, democracy, transparency, cooperation,
subsidiarity, being locally rooted, as well as ecological and energy awareness. The Kalkbreite Housing
Cooperative is offered as the third alternative between ownership and rental. It was founded in Zürich in
order to establish a social and ecological pioneering urban development.
Diagnosis:
The project, which was situated on a challenging site which had to cover the tram parking halls, has been
accomplished in 2014. Cooperation between communities, neighbourhoods and the town council was
backed by the following strategies.
Strategies:
Process level – Establishing low interest rates for land procurement, involving all actors in the early planning
and decision making stages, providing childcare during community meetings, solidarity financial trust,
opening the system to the neighbourhoods and friends, sustainability monitoring, establishing degrees and
strategies of conflict management, down-top decision making, strong communication platform, etc.
Building level - Innovative and experimental apartment types to cover lifelong changes (living with children,
large family, cluster apartments (for young and elderly)), living & working apartments, studio rental (as
“granny apartment” or for guests), rental of meeting rooms, collective offices, hobby workshop and music
rehearsal room, rental, event kitchen and dining room, community freezer, laundry facilities, indoor and
outdoor shared community spaces and services (front desk assistant, library, sauna, etc.).
Neighbourhood level – The following services are offered for indoor and outdoor users: cinema, “Bed
without Breakfast” hostel, medical practice, café, take away, shops, roof gardens and courtyard. Neighbours
and friends are also welcome to community meetings.
Holistic approach combining living, work and culture; high acceptance and community life; this is a scheme
which considered all possible scenarios except, maybe, the unpredictable.
Figure 11: An experimental and innovative housing “city part” (Source: Schweizerische Eidgenosenschaft
http://www.bafu.admin.ch/dokumentation/umwelt/12360/12369/12404/index.html?lang=de)..
CONCLUSION
The core element of this document is the thesis that analogue to epigenetic processes in evolution,
architecture has to be activated before it can become effective. Two levels of information play a key role in
this process: The first level of information is the building as a static object ('hardware', e.g. materials, spatial
concepts etc.). It includes the structural-spatial potential. The second is a higher level of information which
functions as the 'software' (immaterial aspects, acceptance etc.). Their programmes activate the structural-
spatial potential of the object and are responsible for the human-environment interaction.
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'In the same way, a building has to start in the immeasurable aura and go through the measurable to be
accomplished. It is the only way you can build, the only way you can get it into being is through the
measurable. You must follow the laws but in the end when the building becomes part of living it evokes
immeasurable qualities. The design involving quantities of brick, method of construction, engineering is
over and the spirit of its existence takes over. (…) This interplay is the constant excitement of architecture'
(Kahn, 1960).
When planning architecture, if one succeeds in consciously taking the interplay between these information
levels into consideration, fragile (object oriented) states can be transformed into antifragile states (human-
environment interaction oriented). Since the aspired level of high human-environment interaction assumes
specific consideration of use, building and context and already considers the Unknown as a Basis as a
principle in design (Habraken, 1961, p.31). As soon as the building is seen as an isolated (material) object
without taking its (immaterial) human-environment interaction into account, the process leads to an undue
reduction of complex interrelations and unsatisfactory evaluations of the architectural effect increasing the
risk of fragility. This method can be used to classify system states in architecture according to their fragility,
and develop strategies for sustainable architecture in relation to antifragility.
One of the main challenges for applying such strategies is the lack of influence in private developments that
prioritises individual benefit above the collective. Current highly optimised processes in which time and
cost, of construction and planning, are reduced to insensible extremes, do not allow the implementation of
additional strategies which could redirect systems towards antifragility.
One of the most recent successfully completed schemes is the Kalkbreite housing cooperative
(http://www.kalkbreite.net/): an exemplary process of high participatory cooperation between members of
two former cooperatives and the city of Zürich; an innovative and creative scheme designed by architects
Müller Sigrist. It is as a complex mechanism of shared spaces, dwellings and services which can adapt to
needs of actual and future users, with a strong interaction with the neighbourhood.
Working with possible development scenarios and model variants in view of the aspired human-
environment interaction is of great importance. “Activating natural relations” is only made possible through
interaction (Habraken, 1961, p.29). It is fundamental for developing sustainable architecture.
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OPEN BUILDING IN BRAZIL: IS IT POSSIBLE?
Rosamônica da Fonseca Lamounier, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil, rosamonicafl@gmail.com

Denise Morado Nascimento, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil, dmorado@gmail.com
Abstract
The provision of social housing in Brazil has been in progress since 2009 carried out by the Program Minha Casa,
Minha Vida. The program, sponsored by the Federal Government, has seen little progress in relation to prior
housing policies, also in regard to the quality of the dwelling spaces. Its production is quite opposed to the
conceptual principles of Open Building, not addressing features such as flexibility, connectivity and efficiency, and
offering ready-built, finished, standardised, non-adaptable, obsolete and under-utilised spaces.
The context of such formal housing mass production, based on productive capitalist principles, involves [1] agents
and institutions of the private and public sectors, their properties and relationships, [2] the condition and the
conduct of architects within the scope of their education and cultural heritage [3] and current Brazilian society
considering the social, economic and political transformations of recent decades.
The logic of practice in this field, as carried out by the private market and legitimised by the State, hinders the
participation of dwellers in the decision-making process related to the space where they will live. This contrasts
with the prevailing practice of self-construction, and addresses the question, not as an architectural or
technological issue, but mainly, as a political, economic and social issue.
In other words, the circumstances involve the market, the government, the professional, academia and the
population, a context where capital prevails, ruled by consumerism, which in principle or historically, is not
interested in developing evolutional spaces that are unlikely to be demolished for the construction of newer
dwellings.
The text ultimately proposes to challenge and investigate to what extent it would be possible to apply the Open
Building methodology to the Brazilian housing production initiatives, in view of the flaws indicated in the logic of
this practice, and the effective association of the movement’s principles to contemporary Brazilian housing policy.
The present paper is part of a larger Ph.D. study that is in progress, which further investigates this theme.
Keywords: Open Building, social housing, public policies, autonomy.
INTRODUCTION: THE HOUSING DEFICIT IN BRAZIL
The Program Minha Casa, Minha Vida (MCMV), introduced by a 2009 Federal Act, is the current public
instrument for the production and acquisition of new dwelling units. By the end of 2010, the program had
built approximately 1 million dwelling units. During its second phase (2011-2014), it undertook the
construction of over 2 million units. On 9th December, 2013, in the radio program “Café com a Presidenta”
(breakfast with the president), President Dilma Rousseff disclosed a figure of 3.75 million units planned,
exceeding the goal promised for the two first phases. In addition, she announced the third phase of the
program, which is an attempt to eradicate the quantitative housing deficit, which is the main purpose of the
MCMV.
The concept and the methodology used to appraise and calculate the quantitative housing deficit, adopted
by the Ministry of the Cities (MC) in Brazil and by the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada – IPEA
(Applied Economy Research Institute) of the Federal Government, was developed by the state research
institute, the João Pinheiro Foundation – FJP. It comprises four components: [1] precarious dwelling; [2]
family-shared dwelling; [3] excessive lease burden and [4] excessive dwelling density in leased properties.
The total deficit is the sum of the quantitative and qualitative deficits (existing inadequate dwellings). The
MCMV does not address the qualitative deficit.
In urban areas, the program is divided into three family income brackets for assistance purposes:
up to BRL 1,600.00 (Range 1) – approximately USD 718.00
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up to BRL 3,100.00 (Range 2) – approximately USD 1.392,00
up to BRL 5,000.00 (Range 3) – approximately USD 2.246,00
The registration, selection and recommendation, by means of drawing, of families that apply to participate
in the program, and whose income lies within one of these brackets and matches both federal and
municipal criteria, are carried out free of charge by the city halls, supported by a financial institution (CAIXA)
which executes the process.
According to FJP (2011, 2012, 2013), the total Brazilian housing deficit (urban and rural) totalled 5.546.310
domiciles in 2008, 5.998.909 in 2009, and 6.940.691 in 2010. The same study (FJP 2013, pp. 39-41) suggests
that in 2010, the largest deficit indicators in Brazil were mainly concentrated in the lower income class, with
62.7% in Range 1, added to 3.9% in the ‘no-income’ bracket, however ranging from 60% to almost 90%
depending on the region of Brazil. IPEA (2013, p. 5) also shows that “the largest portion of the deficit still
remains on the domiciles that belong to the lower income bracket”. Nevertheless, the MCMV has not been
effective in addressing the deficit it was designed to deal with, mainly regarding the lower class, which has
an income of up to BRL 1.600.00, approximately 0 to 3 minimum wages in force in Brazil.
In addition, the program does not cover two important aspects: [1] a significant part of the qualitative
deficit, considering that the solution could also involve the adequacy of existing dwellings, i.e., the program
simply regards the solution as a number to be surpassed with the production of new houses; [2] parallel
research on property vacancy in the country, showing the number of vacant properties that could
potentially be mobilised to resolve the quantitative social housing deficit. The FJP (2013, p. 73) published the
number of vacant properties in Brazil in 2010: 6.052.161 units, taking into consideration those properties
which were vacant and closed, as well as those used sporadically.
Relative increases were observed when assessing the deficit per component, among them, the increase in
the surplus lease burden from 1.75 million homes to 2.293 million in 2013, an approximate increase of 30%
in five years stands out (IPEA 2013, p. 12). This is precisely the component responsible for the highest deficit
percentage. This means that families covered by the MCMV leave leased properties behind (which also
occurs with properties that fit into the deficit category due to other factors), and these properties are
occupied by new homeless families, causing an endless deficit renewal process, and suggesting the
existence of invisible costs of social nature that are not being considered in the program. Ribeiro, Boulos and
Szemeta (2014) also suggest that the housing deficit has grown due to a large increase in lease prices,
including areas in urban outskirts. That component of the surplus burden is accounted for in the deficit of
families whose monthly income is compromised by dwelling lease expenses by 30% or more.
In addition to the above-mentioned sources, part of the data analysed here is from ongoing research (2013-
2014) of the PRAXIS group of the School of Architecture of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG),
involving the characterisation and assessment of the MCMV in the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte
(BHMA), which is part of national network research carried out jointly with other Brazilian universities. This
research includes more localised data, reflecting the Brazilian scenario, as the program is carried out all over
the country. The study has been investigating 11 occupied areas, in six municipalities of the BHMA, by
means of field visits, photographic surveys, interviews with local dwellers, building managers, construction
companies and companies that evaluate post-dwelling aspects, including document and report analysis.
Due to the flaws in the MCMV, abandonment or unlawful sale of program-sponsored properties is already
taking place (reselling or transferring such properties is forbidden during the first 10 years of use) (PRAXIS-
UFMG 2013-2014). This occurs either due to payment default or dissatisfaction with the house. In some
cases, the beneficiaries return to their former homes.
Housing deficit, the primary purpose of the program, has not met all housing needs of the families. On the
contrary, it has created new problems and also a growth in the housing deficit. This results in an imbalance,
within a social inequality feedback process, which contrasts with the official discourse (in ‘breakfast with the
President’ program on 9th December, 2013) of achieving goals and political gains, of generating new jobs,
ultimately of boosting the economy and increasing the GNP (gross national product), favouring economic
growth and development. By the end of 2014, the government will have invested approximately BRL 234
billion (USD 99.91 billion) in the productive chain of this industry (IPEA, 2013).
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Maricato (2013, pp. 38-39) asserts that the MCMV was “[...] designed by developers and real estate
entrepreneurs in partnership with the Federal Government. The real estate boom thus began, with a huge
impact on big cities. While in 2009, the Brazilian GNP and the civil construction showed negative balances, as
opposed to the earlier trend, in 2010 the GNP grew by 7.5% and civil construction grew by 11.6%.” Ribeiro,
Boulos and Szemeta (2014) concludes that the program “was developed on-demand to save the real estate
industry during the 2008 crisis, and its rules are therefore focused on private interests”.
In other words, the housing issue in Brazil is complex and would require studies in several areas. The present
article focuses on the issue of architectural typology adopted without being restricted to architectural
design, yet considering production as a priority, with all of its economic, political, legal, professional and
social influences and implications. In order to achieve this, the concept of field, in Bourdieu (2004), helps to
highlight the obstacles that impair other practices, which are co-related here, so that, in the end,
considerations that raise more questions than solutions may be proposed.
FIELD: AGENTS AND INSTITUTIONS INVOLVED IN HOUSING PRODUCTION
The universe of house building in Brazil comprises agents and institutions that produce, reproduce and
reveal the program, by means of instruments (laws, directives, manuals) and mechanisms of its own
(capitalist production), with a high degree of autonomy, which Bourdieu (2004) calls field. Therefore, the
MCMV is a program developed by the Federal Government (MC), executed by private enterprises
(construction companies), in partnership with state or municipal governments and/or other entities, and
operated by a bank, Caixa Econômica Federal (CAIXA), a financial institution that functions as a public
company of the Federal Government, with its own equity and administrative autonomy.
Construction companies of the state of Minas Gerais engaged with the MCMV, income Range 1, declared
that they have outsourced their architectural designs (PRAXIS-UFMG 2014). The design guidelines assigned
to the architects always include the same, unique standard typology, both in terms of dwelling units and of
building layouts (buildings of up to 5 floors). In this process, the architect is only responsible for developing
several building sites, calculating the number of units, suggesting a façade pattern, and taking care of
bureaucratic approval proceedings for the projects before the competent authorities. Bernis (2008)
conducted a study regarding the role assigned to the architect, as developer, façade designer and
forwarding agent. This type of practice consolidates a professional pseudo-autonomy at the expense of the
heteronomy of the dweller, who will occupy a predefined, standardised space, treated as merchandising. A
field (economic and political) of forces and struggles for positions between the dominant (government and
market institutions) and the dominated (agents, namely architects, other professionals and particularly the
population) is established.
Profiting from the boom of the real estate market, with the potential of the MCMV, large Brazilian
construction companies went public, offering their shares in the stock market.
Since this process is the result of an alliance between the government, the market and the financial
institution, which excludes society, leaving it in the passive condition of mere consumer, a structure of
relationships is established: [1] the market is the institution that dominates the housing production; [2] the
legitimacy of that production granted by the State; [3] the subordination of the architect to both; and [4] the
consumption, subordination and misinformation however, with a potential of change by the society
(dwellers).
A few questions can be raised regarding these relations. The first refers to the role of the State as an
intervening authority in favour of the society. Maricato (2013) states that Brazil has “laws, plans, technical
knowledge, experience, tried and tested proposals in the areas of transportation, sanitation, drainage, solid
residue, housing”, sufficient to change the current practice. Further on, however, “the first required action
regarding the current urban policy is a political reform, especially in relation to political campaign funding.”
In Brazil, political campaign funding is regulated by law and the use of both public and private resources are
allowed, the latter characterised as private donations. Although there are drafts of laws that would define an
exclusive public fund for political campaigns, donations made by lucrative companies still prevail. The
political campaigns are still funded by large construction companies, among other companies of the private
sector, rendering the introduction of an effective regulating policy a difficult task (Rabat 2011).
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The second question brings about the possibility of equating the production of social housing to the actual
benefit to the population and not the construction companies. Currently, the construction companies
comply with the minimum parameters required by the program, such as the size of the units, technical
specifications, etc., when allocation prices are fixed. Even if the construction company offers a larger
apartment, with different and better features, the allocation price is still unchanged reducing, therefore, its
profits. This means the legislation in effect stimulates low-quality popular housing, as it favours productivity
(Ribeiro, Boulos & Szemeta 2014). This suggests a degree of partnership between State and Capital that
ought to be questioned.
The third question proposes that architects redefine their own profession and field (Stevens 2003),
undertaking the role of collaborators in the process. For Stevens (2003), architects in general are not
concerned with social aspects. They design for other architects, considering the user practically as an
obstacle to the designing process.
The final, and perhaps most important question, considers the fact that Brazilian society nowadays, as it
directly suffers the consequences of the program, holds such mobilisation power that it could occupy a
different position in this field, in this global social space, which Bourdieu (2009) calls habitus.
REGARDING THE ARCHITECTURAL TYPOLOGY ISSUE
Many issues related to the MCMV have been highlighted. Rolnik and Nakano (2009, p. 4) asserted that there
is a conflict regarding what a “housing policy with a job creation policy in the construction industry” really is.
Arantes and Fix (2009) warn that “the housing package and its huge marketing operation reclaim the
“homeowner ideology”, which was strategically promoted in Brazil during the military regime [...].” Maricato
(2010) states that the MCMV does not refer to “the urban question, and is not satisfactory in terms of social
housing issues (if we consider all advancements conceptually achieved on the theme in Brazil).” Such issues
and their serious social implications are incorporated in the specific theme of that study: the issue involving
an adopted and widely reproduced architectural typology.
Production in MCMV has been the same all over the country. The properties are either apartments organised
in H-shaped buildings on plateaus, with up to 5 floors each (Figure 1), or houses (detached, two-story or
semi-detached) (Figure 2). Both types are submitted to the same rigid and standardised architectural design,
comprising the minimum (required) features, which become the maximum (accomplished) features. The
organisation of space within the dwelling unit only changes as the positions of the rooms change; other
than that, all properties comprise a combined living and dining room, a kitchen, a micro laundry usually
adjacent to the kitchen, two bedrooms and one bathroom, and all these contained within an area of 39 to 44
m2, at most. In other words, there is a starting point of a pre-determined design that merely complies with
the functions of a “modern design” with spaces for living, eating, sleeping, washing and cooking, as if no
demands could be adapted to different layouts, even by the dwellers themselves.
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The program’s directives are also legitimised by municipal building codes that determine the same rules
regarding types, number and dimensions of the premises, as well as the respective furniture.
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The premises cannot be modified, as the walls are self-supporting. The elements are repetitive and
standardised, with the purpose of achieving a ‘constructive rationalization’ (industrialised components are
employed in a manufactured production). Due to their low income, dwellers are not able to do costly
refurbishing work in a recently built and finished space, given the pre-conceived inadaptability of the
design. This brings about a hidden crisis, as the dweller cannot adapt the house to meet the immediate
family need. With time, the dweller will suffer directly with a problem whose origins they hardly understand,
that is, the individual being excluded from a social control process.
In addition to the MCMV directives’ predefined criteria, the government, jointly with CAIXA, launched a
complementary program ‘Minha Casa Melhor’ for the program’s beneficiaries to improve their homes. It
consists of a credit facility of up to BRL 5.000,00 (USD 2.246,00) to purchase furniture and household
appliances, restricted to a list that, once again, contributes to a standardised type of occupation, in addition
to subjecting the dwellers to a kind of assisted indebtedness. The list of items was certainly based on
minimal dimensions as well as on the predetermined layout of a standard typology adopted and illustrated
in a previous blueprint. This is evidence of the generalised concept of dwelling needs defined in the
program. In a country with continental dimensions and large social and cultural differences, family demands
are not identical within the same income bracket or within the same region.
In Brazil, architects do not design the vast majority of the buildings, neither are they regulated by the
competent authorities, as they are usually built by the dwellers themselves. According to the MC (Brazil
2009), about 70% of households are self-productions. On that issue, Morado Nascimento and Tostes (2011)
remind us that “all it takes is to think about spaces that are not planned by architects, where the existing
space layouts are commonly more complex, without similar space-activity, and above all activity-industry
correspondence, in layouts that are more adequate to the daily practices of the dwellers: the kitchen is,
many time, a socialising space, and not only a “service” area for domestic workers, such as the medium-class
kitchens. Furthermore, people commonly sleep in spaces that are not specifically bedrooms, since the
intended use of each space is not always the reality.” Even in the standardised configuration of the MCMV
projects, it is possible to observe appropriations of the spaces different from those defined in the projects
(Figure 3).
In other words, the legislation does more than simply stimulate and induce: it forces a concept of space
grounded in the modernistic ideals of minimum partition of the social-service-private areas of the house. It
includes single-purpose spaces based on a single family structure for a couple with children, which is quite
diversified, as if all people lived under identical standards. The minimum requirement that becomes the
maximum accomplishment in these social-interest dwellings is stricter than the design solutions for higher-
income classes. This typology does not vary in size or number of bedrooms, resulting in an almost automatic
modus operandi in Brazil, involving the replication of the projects. “The dwelling process, which should
assume choices, participation in the decision-making process in several levels and timeframes, is
impoverished and reduced to a mere shopping list like any other, emptying and deteriorating its political
dimension” (Morado Nascimento & Tostes 2011).
The space appropriation and subversion, both in the dwelling units and in the common use areas, in
projects visited in the BHMA, provide clues for assessment, clearly showing: [1] lack of space for certain tasks
such as drying clothes in the apartments, forcing the dwellers to simply invent different solutions (Figure 4);
[2] overlapping function of spaces originally intended for single functions (sleeping in the living room,
working in the bedroom or living room), and sometimes conflicting functions (drying clothes in the kitchen)
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(Figure 3); [3] mixed uses of spaces originally only planned for dwelling (Figure 5); [4] lack of flexibility of the
premises and in the opening or closing of spaces, leading to even more improvisation (Figure 6). In addition,
the rapid deterioration or depredation of construction elements, lack of safety, the use and traffic of drugs,
etc. increase social conflicts.
The absolute majority of the dwellers originally lived in houses, even if leased or in precarious conditions,
and not in apartments. Therefore, they wish to have privacy and individual space, the possibility of
expanding their houses, or external private areas, in order to live as they used to in their former homes. The
typology adopted by the MCMV does not offer such options to the dwellers. This assessment could be
extended to the common use areas, which present similar issues (Figure 7).
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OTHER EXPERIENCES, OTHER SCENARIOS
While this conventional design method, thoroughly mastered by capitalism, consolidated itself by practice
and learning in the architectural field, other experiences have emerged since the beginning of the twentieth
century.
Some of the experiences derive from the Dutch tradition, from Rietveld, late Hertzberger, Habraken,
Koolhaas, Nox, among others, leading to more contemporary experiences, such as the Open Building
movement. Other initiatives, from other contexts, include the proposals of Lucien Kroll, Ralph Erskine,
Christopher Alexander, Giancarlo di Carlo, Yona Friedman, Cedric Price, John Turner, Walter Segal, members
of the Archigram, Jeremy Till, Manuel Gausa, Elemental, etc. Such proposals involve flexible, hybrid,
connectable, expandable, easily modifiable or adaptable spaces, which are more efficient and offer the
greater possibility of complying with more satisfactory and multiple demands, and generate more
autonomy and emancipation for the users.
A preliminary comparative analysis between space appropriations and subversions carried out by dwellers
of the MCMV projects and their experiences may provide evidence to suggest a new design trend. First, even
if the space has been designed and produced without considering certain attributes, the appropriations
reveal adaptability, mixed use and individualisation features, among others. That is, even if space usage is
difficult, people make arrangements to adapt to their dwelling culture. Second, other characteristics intrinsic
to these experiences, such as varying dwelling units and the possibility of definitely expanding premises, are
not a reality in the spaces built by the MCMV, but ought to be considered. In other words, the need for
dwelling density does not justify the solutions offered by apartments, since it is possible to meet the needs
of a dense occupation with different space solutions, other than the plain stacking and repetition of units
and typical stories (Morado Nascimento & Tostes 2011).
J. N. Habraken’s Supports’ Theory, as well as the principles of Open Building (OB) derived from there are
worth highlighting in this study as a possible, but at the same time questionable, alternative to apply to the
Brazilian context.
Habraken’s theory is essentially based on re-introducing the dweller into the decision-making, professional
and political processes related to the design, construction and use of dwelling space. There are two
moments in that decision-making process: the collective, equivalent to the support, with collective decisions
and, in a certain way, fixed and general; and the individual, which corresponds to infill, the house itself, a
decision of each dweller. The theory may apply to several levels of intervention, from furniture and objects
to city structuring and planning, including dwelling units, buildings, neighbourhoods, and other uses as
well. Furthermore, the theory defends the interface between technical systems allowing for the replacement
of one system with another having the same function, with the least disturbance. It also defends that the
constructed environment is in constant transformation and the need for change should be acknowledged
and studied. Examples may be found in the publications of J. N. Habraken, Stephen Kendall and Jonathan
Teicher, as well as on the movement’s website.
It is important to highlight that the [re]inclusion of the user into the decision-making process raises the issue
of a divorce between common culture and scientific knowledge (Bourdieu 2010). In the past, job site
knowledge was replaced by architectural knowledge, commodified knowledge in the form of coded
drawings, which placed the architect as a controller of the process, causing symbolic violence. Habraken
wishes to rescue the understanding between the specialist and the layman.
Such ‘other experiences’ in ‘other scenarios’ could be challenged by both the State and private enterprises in
Brazil, for reasons related to costs, which would demand a detailed verification survey. Even if the argument
is true, it should be challenged as to the priority of social interests to the detriment of more profits to the
private market, as well as against the social issues arising from the standard typology adopted. The conflicts
in neighbourhoods are also a consequence of: [1] private demarcations in common-use areas, as the projects
do not provide for individualization and privacy; [2] public demarcations in private areas, for example, the
implementation of mixed use in an area intended to be exclusively residential; [3] the poor acoustic
insulation between the apartments; [4] unlawful abandon or sale of units by those who could not adapt to
the typology; among other reasons.
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The difficulty of our profession, as stated by Habraken (2012) is that we never consider these constraints and
relations as part of the design work. We hold onto the ideals of unrestricted freedom in design-related
decisions, an ideology that makes us believe that freedom is a primary condition for good architecture,
whereas, of course, challenging restrictions drives actual creativity. The author affirms that it is not a
technical or architectural issue, but of changing the control among the actors that participate in the process
and are aware of the local context. The architect is not supposed to be a genius and an author, nor a
forwarding agent. Furthermore, it is not the dwellers participation, in the sense of a referendum, yet in the
sense of agreement, consensus, negotiation, autonomy, understanding and sharing involving several actors
and agents, as opposed to control, dominance or dependence.
It is worth mentioning examples, due to their political-economic nature rather than the architectural issues,
such as an Open Building (OB) action in Japan: the Long Life Quality Housing Act. This is an Act approved by
the Japanese parliament in 2009, which rewards open architecture designs that emphasise durability and
adaptability. The law offers financial and tax incentives, aiming at a high percentage of dwelling stock
produced during the past decades with low durability, short useful life, low resistance to earthquakes and
low energy efficiency (35% after 1981). These incentives may be a direct subsidy such as income tax rebates,
lower individual property taxes or lower real estate market taxes, or favourable conditions for loans used in
the purchase of properties with better quality and emphasis in environmental sustainability. This act ensures
incentive to properties that present nine features: [1] durable (100 years or more), [2] structurally safety, [3]
large enough, [4] adaptable, [5] barrier-free, [6] energy efficient, [7] connection to its surroundings, [8] easy
to maintain and [9] regularly maintained (Tomohiro 2012). The government expects 20% of the new
properties in 2020 to obtain the Long-lasting housing Certificate. In 2011, more than 235,000 properties
were certified. The program is valid for the construction of new properties as well as for retrofits. That is an
experience inspired in the prevailing records of open and flexible urban buildings and structures, built in
Japan during the past decades (OB). Habraken (2012) admits that he had never thought of the idea of such a
law, and that whilst the durability requirement is the mandate of the law, it inevitably allows the
personalization of properties to the user’s preferences.
The MCMV is producing a significant stock of low-durability and low energy-efficiency dwelling units, a
forecast of even worse problems in the near future.
OPEN BUILDING IN BRAZIL: IS IT POSSIBLE?
The main purpose of this article is to discuss the current scenario of social housing in Brazil, to highlight
issues and to consider new possibilities. While other countries progress in the exchange among research,
theory and practice, involving processes that share information to develop architectural, political, economic
and marketing solutions, Brazil still considers housing merely as merchandise. What are then the actual
possibilities for the Brazilian problem to be transformed with regards to this scenario? How could the
architects contribute to this, as they are part of the field? Would a solution by means of legislation be more
suitable for the Brazilian context? Or would the best solution be via Brazilian society, with its mobilisation
and transformation power, its social and economic organisation, creating new [re] production alternatives,
as opposed to the prevailing capitalistic methods? How could the traditional knowledge regarding people’s
dwelling culture be articulated with the design and production of new houses?
We have indeed progressed in terms of urban legislation with the Federal Constitution of 1986, the Statute
of the City in 2001, as well as with all the instruments derived therefrom. Regarding construction, there were
two recent accomplishments that converge with the topic discussed here: the Brazilian Modular
Coordination Standard for Buildings (NBR 15783:2010), one of the hallmarks to actually industrialize
construction, bearing in mind that modular coordination is a repetition of measures and not elements; and
the Brazilian Building Performance Standard (NBR 15575:2013). Public policies, legal instruments and their
effective application must be further advanced.
Would a deeper study, considering the OB concepts on the one hand, and the appropriations and
subversions of both MCMV projects and self-built spaces and irregular occupations on the other, be a
guideline for the provision of housing in Brazil?
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful for the institutional and financial support provided by NPGAU/UFMG, CNPq and
Fapemig.
REFERENCES
Arantes, PF & Fix, M., 2009. ‘Como o governo Lula pretende resolver o problema da habitação’, viewed 3
March 2014, http://carosamigos.terra.com.br.
Bernis, F., 2008. ‘O arquiteto despachante: a participação do arquiteto na produção habitacional de massa’,
Master’s thesis in Architecture and Urbanism, EAUFMG, Belo Horizonte, viewed 8 March 2014,
http://www.bibliotecadigital.ufmg.br/dspace/handle/1843/RAAO-7RUHEG.
Bourdieu, P., 2009. ‘Estruturas, habitus, práticas and O capital simbólico’, in P Bourdieu, O senso prático, trans.
M.Ferreira, Ed. Vozes, Petrópolis, pp. 86-107.
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Brasil, Ministério das Cidades, 2009. ‘Curso a distância: Planos locais de habitação de interesse social,
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Fundação João Pinheiro, 2011. ‘Déficit habitacional no Brasil 2008’, Ministério das Cidades/ Secretaria
Nacional da Habitação, Brasília, viewed 3 March 2014, www.fjp.mg.gov.br.
Gausa, M., 2010. Total housing: Alternatives to urban sprawl, Actar, Barcelona.
Habraken, NJ., 2012. ‘N. J. Habraken explains the potential of the Open Building approach in architectural
practice’, Interview D. Morado Nascimento, viewed 3 March 2014,
http://www.vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/entrevista/13.052/4542.
Habraken, NJ., 2011. Supports: An alternate to mass housing, reprint, The Urban International Press, UK.
IPEA, 2013. ‘Brasil econômico (SP): Minha casa, minha vida será ampliado em 2014’, Instituto de Pesquisa
Econômica Aplicada, Brasilia, viewed 3 March 2014, www.ipea.gov.br.
IPEA, 2013. Estimativas do déficit habitacional Brasileiro (PNAD 2007-2012), Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica
Aplicada, Brasilia, viewed 3 March 2014, www.ipea.gov.br.
Kendall, S & Teicher, J., 2000. Residential open building, E & FN Spon, London.
Maricato, E., 2013. ‘É a questão urbana, estúpido!’, in D Harvey, E Maricato, S Zizek, M Davis et al., Cidades
rebeldes: passe livre e as manifestações que tomaram as ruas do Brasil, viewed 8 March 2014,
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passelivreeasmanifestac3a7c3b5esquetomaramasruasdobrasil.pdf.
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Maricato, E., 2010. ‘O ‘Minha Casa’ é um avanço, mas segregação urbana fica intocada’, Carta Maior, 27th
May 2009, viewed 8 March 2014, http://www.cartamaior.com.br.
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Rabat, MN., 2011. ‘O financiamento de campanhas eleitores no Brasil e a proposta de financiamento público
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Ribeiro, AP, Boulos, G & Szermeta, N., 2014. ‘Como não fazer política urbana. Após anos do Minha Casa Minha
Vida, déficit habitacional aumentou em quase 1,5 milhão de moradias’, Carta Capital, 30th January 2014,
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OPEN EMERGENCY AND URGENT CARE SYSTEMS: EMERGENT PROJECT DESIGN DECISIONS UTILISING
SCENARIO PLANNING WITH SYSTEMS SEPARATION !
Philip Astley, The Bartlett School of Construction & Project Management, University College London,
England, p.astley@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Grant R. Mills, The Bartlett School of Construction & Project Management, University College London,
England, g.mills@ucl.ac.uk
Richard Hind, The Bartlett School of Construction & Project Management, University College London,
England, r.hind@ucl.ac.uk
Professor Andrew D.F. Price, School of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough
University, England, a.d.f.price@lboro.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
An inter-disciplinary project team has a challenging job to design healthcare architecture that is resilient and
adaptive to change, whilst ensuring that the system, services and assets fit with a region’s uniqueness. Emergency
and urgent care is a microcosm of the wider regional picture and so provides an ideal case study environment to
test scenario planning and system separation. What is more this setting is increasingly under pressure and so
there is a need for a new approach. For example there is an increase in demand for emergency care services, in UK
by some 4% annually (in England a 2014 report by the National Institute for Health Research suggests 11%
increase of unplanned attendances between 2008 and 2013), and a need for efficiency savings of £20bn in the
healthcare system.
This paper identifies the importance of establishing a project design approach that discusses levels of strategic
and operational importance with the various stakeholders. In this sense it proposes an approach that goes
beyond a traditional view of static space and building definition. It presents state-of the-art hospital design
concepts such as operational flow, system separation (from open building), operational whole life, acuity
adaptability and scenario planning from a literature review. Finally the application of these concepts from live
case studies within the UK National Health Service (NHS) is explored. It was found that a combination of these
advanced concepts is a valuable means of considering resilience through adaptable design in emergency care
systems. What is more they can support inter-disciplinary team discourse and open principles over an assets
whole life.
Keywords: open, emergency, acuity, adaptive, design, scenario, system, resilience.
INTRODUCTION
Project design strategies for healthcare architecture must acknowledge a wider whole healthcare system
and service and must encourage a long-term view of asset use. Scenario planning with systems separation,
as it is applied to the design of emergency and urgent care facilities, is presented as a means to emphasise
the impact of time, an inevitable change on design and decision-making.
The increase in demand for services in emergency care has forced the need to establish new forms of project
planning in work flow and practice (Carson et al. 2010, Rechel et al. 2010).
Pressures on delivery of the client’s service can push the project team for early fixity in a programme of work
by firming up information for validation of the ‘business case’. The early aim will be to articulate quantities of
project development (how many rooms, room areas). However, following the scenario studies described, we
propose that forms of scenario planning, used as project discussions by inter-disciplinary teams, and when
combined with systems separation concepts, allow projects to be organised at decision levels- the strategic
(orientation of the whole system) and the operational (fit-out space in the facility) and these allow the
facilitation of new concepts of healthcare planning, such as adaptable design, in emergency care
departments (ED).
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Within the context of emergency with urgent care departments, many people are treated with different and
in some cases multiple-morbidity conditions, with different cultural backgrounds and expectations for
health and social care. The behaviour (and sometimes mis-behaviour) of users can vary widely and be
extreme when brought together in one environment. For example, breast-feeding mothers, drug and
alcohol dependents, prisoners with communicable disease, those suffering traumatic physical or psychotic
episodes, or the frail elderly and those who may have dementia, or those in mourning, are treated in the
same ED environment, but move variously around it. This requires an environment that is carefully designed
to cater for a variety of relationships that enables clear processes and flows to cope with the varying flux in
demand and the increase in use of mobile equipment, particularly from advances in mobile imaging. Today
we are facing innovative interventions and new technologies and sensors, such as regenerative medicine,
‘virtual wards’, public health and exercise medicine, rapid response teams and paramedics, and others. For
Dooris (2004) health can be delivered across settings from health promoting hospitals to healthy cities,
neighbourhoods, schools, workplaces, prisons and universities) and unconstrained by walls and boundaries.
Health is therefore achieved through the utilisation of static physical settings to support dynamic social and
technological systems that encourage individual health-related behaviour. Adaptability in system, service
and asset design is paramount.
This paper contributes knowledge to the field of adaptable building design and open building, although is
focused on the specific complexities of the healthcare system, service and asset. For Brand (1995) the totality
and interdependence between building levels and mechanical and electrical system layers are critical in
creating a clear purpose in operational use as buildings are complex and frequently change. Kendall (2002)
states that there are a number of situations that contribute to a buildings complexity, these include for
example multi-tenant, design process responsibility change, operating and tenant change, real estate sale,
and differing fit-out performance expectations. For Ellingham and Fawcett (2006) complexity is increased by
whole life development, expansion, switch of use, reconfiguration, refurbishment and new technology
options. Healthcare buildings may be one of the most complex building sectors and so requires great
attention. Kendall (2002) uses a hospital example to describe the importance of thinking about
organisations and systems in buildings over time. Using the Inselspital Hospital, Bern, Switzerland Kendall
(2002) noticed that the principle of optimising the constructed whole, at once as a “large lumpy and static
object”, and from the beginning around dependencies, lists of technical parts and performance was
unachievable, generalising that the “whole” of such complex hospital buildings is organised and comes into
existence over time and that artifacts are organised according to the “...distribution of control”. Facing this
“evolving rather than static” (p. 5) paradigm, the hospitals administration in 2010 at Bern led by a senior
inter-disciplinary team, the Management Office for Public Buildings (OBP) responsible for health, housing
and other social infrastructures in partnership with the hospital clinical and education directorate, changed
its strategy to a systems separation management and design programme for the Inselspital Hospital, Bern.
Many approaches to adaptability such as Fawcett (2011) focus on the quantification and optimisation of
space and whole life value. This paper places attention not on the physical spaces, but the design of
healthcare assets that respond to changing systems and services. Within the context of emergency and
urgent care the whole system view is illustrated by a network of processes (termed ’The Big Front Door’, by
the authors published elsewhere (Astley et al. 2011) and subsequently into generic but highly detailed
design flow diagrams of the emergency pathway as directed and reviewed by emergency clinicians (DH,
2013) for consideration by the project teams into distinct flows i) Resuscitation, ii) High dependency (HD) to
ambulant iii) Low dependency (LU) including new iv) Chair Centric concepts, with support by the ED ward:
the Clinical Decision Unit (CDU).
The challenge for health planners and designers is how these flows respond to treating a range of patients
with varying acuity needs (within an effective staffing ratio). Evidence-based clinical practice suggests acuity
adaptive space(s) are needed which meet the needs of patients from high to low dependency, requiring
identical and similarly fitted treatment rooms/spaces – giving a definition of acuity adaptable space. The
presence of these spaces potentially removes the need to move patients (which has been linked to patient
risk) as their acuity changes and provides an opportunity to reappraise strategic whole-hospital process,
such as the implication equipping on briefing clinical support services from the increase in use of mobile
diagnostics across a suite of acuity adaptable rooms as well as the cost implications of equipping such
rooms (refer to Figure 1).
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DESIGNING A SYSTEM SEPARATED ASSET
State-of-the-art debates in the field of open and adaptable building are focused on strategies for response
to changing task, space, performance, function, size and location (Schmidt et al., 2009). Other definitions
primarily centre around Brand (1995) and the exploration of physical and spatial layers and separated
systems as in Maachi (2010, 2011), Kendall (2002, 2007) and Astley et al., (2011). They propose the need to
understand project management and building performance at open building levels (against a view of
“territorial control” and “time”) for project team procurements. They propose that project management tasks
be recast in pre-project exploration that will allow an open, strategic, spatial approach to enable operational
change at a building design level as the project begins to be articulated. The close interdependency
between open building and ED service and system operation decisions has been made previously by the
authors.
The design of infrastructure systems to deliver adaptive use of technical systems that operate between
building levels is moving to infill systems e.g. demountable partitions, raised floors (enclosing cabling),
ceiling systems (made up of acoustic tiles and light fixtures etc.). The move beyond this is to digital wireless
and sensor communications and mobile technologies which can move between all health and lifestyle
settings and follow the patient in real time. Within the context of ED design, radiology equipment can now
be easily replaced and can follow the patient throughout the department and between spaces, although
many still require docking points to electricity, water and drainage.
Within the field of open building, the importance of systems-separation has received attention as a means to
structure the emerging management with design process, rather than the narrow procedure of design fixity
(Kendall 2007). The management of tasks against the physical design of the elements alone is not sufficiently
‘open’ in pre-project exploration of the activity scenarios and requirements to enable operational change as
the project begins to be articulated.
The use of scenario techniques with systems theory is addressed by Gil and Tether (2010). Strategising
through alternative scenarios with concepts of flexing changing needs at the front-end of projects over time
might affect the project scope and tasks. System infrastructure design could be broken down into an array of
components (and as we have seen in ED, the acuity flows) ‘build-in’ flexibility that are able to break systems
down into an array of ‘functional components’, a sense of ‘decoupling and standardisation’ to create ‘buffers
between interfaces of components’ (Gil 2009). The more rigid the system (or product) the ability to respond
to change is reduced (or conversely accommodating possible future changes which may not be of value to
funder or the end-user). Gil found that briefs for projects were written on the ‘today and tomorrow’ of
current practice, rather than anticipating future change (even when predicted by expert project team
stakeholders).
SCENARIO PLANNING AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN EMERGENT DESIGN DECISIONS
Clinicians are likely to be deeply embedded in current working practice and systems-use. Self awareness of
the day-to-day task controls a minutia of detail between tasks, resource, patient safety, equipment use and
staff/patient interactions. This is not necessarily conducive to being able to address the changed and
changing working environment. Past experiences may not contribute to fresh thinking about future practice
or awareness that the briefing process will be changeable through time, that the individual and corporation
are open to change, and that to identify adaptability in working practice and space-use will be one of the
core principles of the business change.
Scenario techniques for healthcare infrastructure have been undertaken at a strategic, whole-systems level
to ensure that physical elements are adaptive (Gil 2009, Neufville et al. 2008, Kendall et al. 2012, Astley et al.
2011). Others in the US understand the forces at work in changing the nature of radiology networks, and the
uncertain impacts this would have on radiology as a technology, its use in practice in hospitals and impact of
change on its professional workforce (Enzmann et al. 2011). The use of the scenario planning process
according to Bradfield (2005) is also driven by practitioner’s priorities at a strategic level. Scenario planning
has been described as ‘methodological chaos’ (Bradfield et al. (2005) in their review of 30 years of evolving
techniques and note a profligacy of ‘scenario development tools’. Originally driven by need to model future
environments (in military simulation) the use of scenario planning is a methodological tool for “…decision
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making in complex and uncertain environments”. For Soetanto et al. (2007) it is used “to extend people’s
views of the future through thinking…to navigate and choose an appropriate direction and to support a
manager’s decision making capabilities” (Chermack 2004, van der Heijden 1996). Korte and Chermack (2007)
have created multiple scenarios based on rigorous analysis, sometimes described as making “mental
models” (from Eden and Ackermann 1998), a process which ‘facilitates organisational learning’ with the
benefit from undertaking the process not on the outcome of the scenarios themselves but on ‘process
experienced by the participants’. The potential of the scenario plan is to create an “agile, adaptive
organisation that is responsive to new thinking” (Chermack 2004)”.
ACUITY ADAPTABILITY AS THE ORGANISING PRINCIPLE OF SYSTEMS, SERVICES AND ASSETS
A property and real estate approach to layering hospital developments was published by the Netherlands
Board for Healthcare Institutions (2007). This approach sees ’acuity’ being the most central value concept in
organising assets. Different building types are measured by their specificity, cost, flexibility and
marketability. Acuity, a measure of the level of health or possible harm (clinical risk), defines the severity of
the condition and prioritises the patients’ treatment (what team, what space and what urgency). As such, it
is a critical overarching organising principle. Acuity has no bounds, it is organised around patients wherever
they are. This layered approach divides the hospital into four building types, referred to as: the hot floor,
hotel, office and industry. If acuity can be modelled and understood against open levels, changes in patient
acuity must determine spatial adjacency, flow and movement through the system. Technologies are a
means of managing acuity and for every change in technology and disruption must be understood. Whether
blood clotting drugs that stop stroke, organisation around helicopter access, ambulance based diagnostic
technologies or remote tele-care systems; open planning and building must accommodate these changes if
it is to deliver value. With organising around the concept of ‘acuity’ and ‘changes in acuity’, health
infrastructure will be more open and adaptable to change/refurbishment and so will deliver higher, long-
term value.
The main emergency service response is located in the buildings of the acute hospital, although increasingly
new outreach models of paramedic intervention at the scene of the incident, imaging in primary care (and
sometimes co-located to the emergency department) are redefining the ‘front-of-house’ at hospital site level
in relation to whole-system network thinking and is beginning to be characterised as a continuous flow
process rather than a speciality department. However, the increase in demand for the services in emergency
care, whilst introducing new rapid testing and diagnosis techniques, may lack integration with the primary
system that deflects minor injuries towards the emergency department. This has forced the need to
establish new forms of thinking in work flow and practice (Carson et al. 2010, Rechel et al. 2010).
The concept of acuity, where the characteristics of a patient are defined by the severity of their condition, is
presented as an organising principle of care impacting on how an organisation defines its assets and
operations. The definition of acuity adaptability in the management of clinical operations is described by
Brannan et al. (2009) as “the ability to deliver resources (staffing and equipment) quickly and efficiently to
care givers, with the ability to multi-skill patient care”. Acuity adaptable design response is a range of
rooms/spaces, their numbers related to forecasting acuity demand to support acuity expandability,
equipment availability, inter-unit circulation and communication. ED activity is therefore an ‘ebb and flow’ of
processes, people and equipment through a demand timeline requiring different capacity responses in the
built infrastructure. Patients flow between spaces, between direct urgent access points, referral, discharge
etc and these flows inform the use of major diagnostic and imaging facilities as well as the availability of
speciality beds behind in the system to which patients may be referred. Whilst ebb and flow is more a
reflection of business as usual demands, further design strategies must address how the facility will be
resilient to sometimes extreme behaviour (drugs, alcohol, firearms use) and disaster events (biological,
environmental, terrorism).
The concept of acuity adaptable planning is that the patient remains in their acuity space, (chair, couch,
bed, etc) and the care adapts to their need until discharge or referral. Engagement with the patient begins at
the front door with assessment (and paramedic communications prior to their arrival) as well as
management and monitoring of virtual and community care (if no specialist referral) after discharge. The
reorganisation of operations management of patient, staff, equipment etc. in relation to new forms of single
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clinical support space is potentially huge benefit is savings in more effective asset design and use (Berry et
al. 2004 and Sadler et al. 2011).
A NEW SCENARIO PLANNING METHOD
This study applied scenario planning techniques alongside systems separation as an emergent project
design and decision management approach never applied to ED before. The scenario planning workshops
promoted interdisciplinary teams to consider their organisations' responsiveness to future emerging trends
in emergency care. Principles of system separation were introduced to allow the teams to consider activities
and networks 'untied' from their existing ED infrastructure and to explore an (acuity) adaptable principle of
planning.
The emergent scenario approach was an iterative process developed over 6 interdisciplinary workshops. The
workshop process evolved from adaptation of existing techniques of Soetanto et al. (2007) and Chermack
(2011), the development of which will not be discussed here, to an approach used in 4 of the sessions: a
facilitated scenario process to accommodate multiple values and expert opinions at strategic and
operational levels. The techniques were subsequently tested in two multi-interdisciplinary sessions
internationally (in the USA and South Africa).
The aim was to discover if this planning technique would support project teams to precipitate thinking
about services and facilities across the network of the emergency care system and to begin to challenge
spatial effectiveness of their (proposed) ED schemes. The scenario workshops developed facilitated sessions
as project discussions in moving towards decisions about service transformations with the stated aim to re-
think the emergency care network beyond a physical response: to include virtual and community
supporting networks of (future) care delivery (see Figure 2). Working with teams in 2 part sessions ranged
from a rapid 1-hour to 3-hours, dependent on consultant availability. These studies were limited to
immediate feedback and discussion on the usefulness of the workshop sessions. Stakeholders were only a
small part of the team, focused at the design & clinical end - no patients, patient groups, cleaning staff or
maintenance staff, etc., were included. Researchers used pre-determined prompt questions to channel small
group teams to consider events and changes which might impact on future emergency care environments.
They were then asked to organize these events into 3 distinct scenario themes for ED. This enabled the
groups to consider what were the most important forces for change in their ED. In one case example:
Scenario 1: Changing (operational) routines, Scenario 2 Personalised medicine (and information seeking),
Scenario 3 Reduced resources (financial, staff recruitment etc). These were then organised into 3 scales of
change over defined time periods. And lastly we asked the groups to think about the levels of planning and
what the implications of such strategic change may have an at an operational activity level in an ED
department. At the end of the session we revisited the purpose with feedback.
FINDINGS FROM SCENARIO PLANNING FOR ACUITY ADAPTABLE DESIGN
Scenario planning and systems separation (from open building) are now discussed using knowledge gained
from case studies in the UK, USA and South Africa. Interdisciplinary workshops were held in 6 English
hospital organisations, and two interdisciplinary conference sessions in the USA and South Africa, between
2010 -2012. A new rapid scenario approach was devised and applied. Emergency clinicians rarely have more
than one to three hours for workshop activities, and ideally, these need to be located in or near the ED.
Preparation of generic data of emergency activity was useful to demonstrate evidence-based measures
nationally (and internationally). A targeted literature review of current thinking in strategic space planning,
using scenario and systems-separation techniques, was also disseminated prior to the workshops by the
facilitators to enable rapid and focussed discussion of key issues around ED service network (re-
)configuration. Lastly, conceptualisation of the emergency care system by the facilitators at a strategic and
operational level, enabled teams to visualise the generic whole –systems approach as well as acuity adaptive
concepts within an ED.
The scenario workshops enabled the research team to witness, first-hand, a multi-institution and multi-
stream approach (within the emergency care unit context) to the inception of a future asset and network
planning process. It was quickly apparent that the usefulness of the approach was initially to facilitate a
852
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design discussion on future trends of the service and priorities of a project response where none had taken
place previously in an inter-disciplinary forum. Through the workshop process the research design team
(with expertise in architecture and project management) created diagrams to visualise initial evidence from
data and literature into a conceptualisation of the emergency care system both at a strategic and
operational level, published elsewhere (Astley 2011, DH 2013). This iterative conceptualisation, enabled
teams to visualise the generic whole-systems approach as well as acuity adaptable concepts of ‘ebb and
flow’ within an ED. This proved particularly popular with the clinical team who appreciated the opportunity
to appraise an overview of the whole system.
Teams focussed on operational change occurring in the 1-5 year period and considered elements that could
be useful in an emergent project design process:
- Scenario building operational systems through use of statistical data to predict variations
(sometimes rapid) increase in demand (volume) and flow between acuities i.e. flexing between
HDU/LDU in peak hours and implications for cross-team working.
- Rethinking ED front of house organisation flexibility: to enable pre-assessment and information, use
of mobile screening, proximity and access to isolation rooms by both ambulance and ambulant
patients, location of secure rooms.
- Productive use of equipment within acuity multi-functional rooms; rapid assessment and screening,
relationship across HDU/LDU acuity spaces. and access to radiology elsewhere in the hospital.
- Communication technologies that might enable acuity adaptive use of space. Groups found it
difficult to conceptualise implications of e.g. mobile technology on change of operational, space
and staff resource. Acuity adaptive working is not a mainstream concept and the benefits to
patients and staff and operational risks have rarely been discussed in an inter-disciplinary forum, if
at all.
!
!
!
!! !
HDU !
98%-blue-light-traffic-
pre5alerted
Paramedic-
! ! ! Pre5
!
&- Assessment-
Ambulance Mobile
! !
team X5ray
-team !
! ! ! 24-hour-
LDU !
screening
Ambulant by-front- !
door
Figure 1: Source, adapted, Health Building Note 15-01: Accident and emergency departments, planning and
design guidance, Ebb and flow: Conceptualisation of flexing operational acuity in ED space between HDU and
LDU. Front of house ED pre-assessment and screening for both ambulance and ambulant patients. Mobile
diagnostics, x-ray are brought to the patient space and used across acuity, University College London 2014.
853
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Developing longer-term 5-20 year timeframe enabled the groups to consider implications of the acute
emergency system plan in relation to the impact on the community resource.
- Although groups found it difficult to translate strategic forces for change to operational level we
found the technique precipitated inter-disciplinary consideration of strategic acute and community
asset decisions, such as the operational flow of diagnostics/screening across the system.
- We found the impact of ED design on community strategy had rarely been discussed previously and
was difficult to conceptualise for the acute teams. The technique did allow translation of locally
relevant forces of change and their impact on front of house planning e.g. presentation of multiple-
morbidity in the South African context.
!
!
ED
H
! !
o
! ! !
m ! !
e
! !!
&
c Discreet
o!
Advice
Primary- pathways-–-
lines
m etc. team ECG-etc E.g.-Elderly
m pathway-team
u
n Health Building Note 15-01: Accident and emergency departments, planning and
Figure 2: Source, adapted,
design guidance, Flexing the ED through the whole system, suggesting outreaching teams delivering assessment
i
and acute (diagnostic) with ED primary services within community, University College London 2014
t
y
Limitation in the competencies of the project management and design team for acuity adaptable planning
were apparent. In three of the cases, consultant project managers had tasked architectural layouts for
operational solutions, but the strategic implications of system redesign had not been considered.
Systems separation, when combined with scenario planning was seen as a useful tool to increasing
awareness of inevitable and unpredictable future change, as well as establishing a potential means to
accommodate these changes. At these sessions it was difficult to facilitate a scenario session (even though a
prepared planned session) as it was perceived that the process would interrupt the business case
progression and validation, however systems separation could benefit design to better manage change. For
example, project management methods that fix operational scheduling of accommodation (formed out of
existing standard room data and norms early in the briefing process) are not likely to facilitate appraisal of
the benefits of acuity adaptable operational in managing the flux of demand between high and low
dependency room usage.
854
CONCLUSION
The aspiration for this paper was that an organisation, specifically within an emergency and urgent care
system, can use techniques of scenario planning with system separation to enable interactions between
stakeholders for the design of an emergent project.
An open interaction between stakeholders is necessary during the emergent process of a project design that
is managed according to open (strategic) planning and building (operational fit-out) levels with robust
process controls. Constraints of business case delivering too much fixed detail at early stage in design
process (and prior to understanding of operational requirements) mean existing systems and standards can
quickly become outdated and obsolete against changing environments (such as the impact of ED design on
community strategy that was difficult to conceptualise for the acute teams) and customer needs and
expectations.
Designers are able to communicate new concepts such as acuity adaptable processes at strategic and
operational levels to enable the clinical teams through visualisation of the system and sub-system network
to recognise the need for adaptability for future change. This is a useful way to reinforce emerging project
development, describing systems and processes, as opposed to room layout.
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857
THE IDEA OF NATURE: SELF-DEFENSE SENSITIVE PATCH!

Ms. Sebnem Cakalogulları, Gebze Institute of Technology, Turkey, cakalogullarisebnem@gmail.com
Abstract
Every day the environment changes, and every day we change as well. The way some genes are expressed is
determined by how the environment interacts and helps the genes become noticeable. External factors such as
light, chemicals, or temperature are the factors that affect us in the simplest ways. This project is mainly based on
an adaption to the environmental parameter by getting inspiration from nature. When we look into wildlife with
this question, the solution or way of being alive in wild circumstances is clearly seen. This is what Himalayan
Rabbits do. The unique characteristic of these rabbits is to protect themselves against dramatically changing
weather conditions on their skins. The adaption is directly related to the sun. The system is ordered giving reaction,
also a means of creating self-defense, against the two certain factors which are cold and hot. This project seeks to
translate this logic into sustainability and it is used for new energy of life. The idea is using commonly found
materials and providing a connection between the known working principals on the creation of a sun-sensitive
system in the easily agglutinate and pluggable patch. In this article, according to the weather conditions, four
scenarios are specified. Throughout, the scenarios are observed and for each circumstance, the adaption of the
patch is explained. The designed patches directly aim to reduce heat escaping from the transparent surface by
benefiting from the advantages of optical transmittance, to support the interior thermal comfort by creating an
isolation layer on the transparent substance of the face and to find a solution for the problematic side of using
transparent surface on the building facades.
Keywords: absorption, adaption, color energy, isolation, pluggable.
INTRODUCTION
From the creation of the World between man and nature, there is a strong connection. The experience and
developing of skills, people were required to imitate and use the potentiality of nature. According to
Vitruvius, the discovery of architecture is important as the discovery of fire. It is the first indication that
gathered mankind into community life. As a result of living in a community, sheltering became a necessity
for keeping thermal comfort and privacy. In pre-historic times using the source that only comes from the
nature made mankind to take examples from their environment consciously, unconsciously or instinctively.
In the history of architecture at some decisive moment man stopped benefiting from their habitat. At the
beginning of the 17th century man began to look for new ways to put distance between the outside world
and the activities which are taken indoors. With the incontestable help of technology that is the only notion
keeps renewing itself in every phase, same act as in architecture, the dominance of the mechanized world
creates a barely seen separation between man and its origin. It means that man lives in the newly designed
indoor habitat which is totally made independently of outdoor potentiality. While the control was in the
hands of nature before, today the control of nature is in the hands of machines.
At the beginning of industrialization engines or machines were counted as the symbol of productivity,
progress, strength and lately the new man-made power has brought the comparison between artificial and
living things. This very analytical approach has resulted in many plus on the machine side in terms of making
life easier and stable. And man started to live in the strong division of living and artificial things. The
systemized machine, which does its work properly and orderly, was put as the center image of unlimited
power unlike humans and other livings in the earth. In that way the machine has gone one step further from
nature. It has started to condition man’s life. It has given the direction to life by reducing the possibilities of
spontaneously occurring conditions. Order and clear system, which are set by the machines over the fact of
nature for reducing randomness in every field, make an idealization and stabilization in experimented
environmental parameters. This is because there is a link between nature and accidentalness. The separation
between nature and fully equipped technological surroundings may be seen as a tight race between
civilization and primitivity.
Searching orderliness for living in ideal circumstances reminds of the modern discourse. The ideal solution
for the construction and building archetypes resulted in degradation of environmental inputs and
psychological states.
As saying of Henry Adams from The Education of Henry Adams book, “Chaos was the law of nature; Order
was the dream of man.”1
!
1
Adams H., 2009.The Education of Henry Adams, Wildside Press.!
858
Nature is a chaotic system that is readily modified by small changes so the prediction about it is currently
limited to only a few days like weather broadcasting. The small differences in this chaotic system yield
widely diverging outcomes for such dynamical systems and the rendering long term prediction is impossible
in general. Today the chaotic attitude of our origins is vanished through the direction of “the dream of man”.
This unavoidable alteration removing us from understanding what local culture and climate offers.
As the manifestation from Le Corbusier, “House was machine for living in” is explained clearly the condition
that we live in. As a result, the uniqueness of place began to gradually disappear. With the absent of local
properties, the necessities of men and priorities are given direction in the one ideal circumstance. The
quotation of Marshall McLuhan, “we shape our tools and therefore our tools shape us” articulates how the
interaction between man and man-made things dissolves each other.
In this century according to different perception, the city that we live in is understood as a chaos, machine,
community and the creation of the human over nature. Behind these approaches city itself describes the
system 2 . Whether it can be called eco-system or not but the pluses and minuses on this perceived
environment identify the area consists of organism that make the system livable. This system has inputs of
energy, materials and habitants. The main issue is related to increased demand for the inputs and as a result
uncontrolled outputs. This flow is just going in one direction and there is no way that supports each other.
So the existence of this system has slowly lost its strength and gravely poisoned its habitants.
Nowadays many ways are searched with the emergency need for the energy to sustain life on earth. One of
the reasons increased the consumption is the acclimatization of dwellings, which aims to create ideal
circumstances for habitants who live on, taking any reference to natural potentials. In that way, the dwelling
dense and the population have direct relation. At the same time the dwellings in the city system create the
conditioned spaces. The conditioned spaces and natural climate results in the rough separation that brings
the over consumption of energy from the point of acclimatization. The interaction between construction
and its environment has the inversely correlated relation with energy consumption. The more beneficial acts
are done without giving harm to the nature, the less energy is used more efficiently. In that moment the
nature itself contains many answers for this crisis. So the solution may be inspiring from “what nature do”.
For why, since time immemorial nature has been struggling with many of the same problems and somehow
succeed in its methods. We now face the structure, coloring, heating and cooling problem and the energy,
new materials, and efficient design solutions are needed to be developed in order to survive whether we are
designing or specifying building materials or building systems and processes. Then the continuity of the
living together with artificial and natural elements in one way is achieved by taking inspiration from the
nature. The issue that sustains itself is the key point. The term sustain means strengthen or support
physically or mentally and sustainability is the ability that provides support mentally and physically. In the
city system the supporters are human, nature resources, technology, economy, and any other parameters
that create effects on the condition that we live. Then it is impossible to evaluate all supporters separately.
That is why beside the preservation of nature and managing our environment, managing ourselves is an
important issue for taking part in sustainability (Sherman 1990).
In this point, bio mimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not only
what we can extract from the natural world, but also what we can learn from it (Benyus 1997). The term bio
mimicry was first embodied in the book called “Bio mimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature” by Janine
Benyus, and refers to the bio mimicry as “a conscious emulation of nature’s genius” (Benyus 1997).
The meaning of bio mimicry from the Oxford Dictionary is, “From the Greek bios, life, and mimesis,
imitation]. Nature as a model. Bio mimicry is a new science that studies nature’s models and then imitates or
takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems, e.g., a solar cell”.
In bio mimicry as the area of research the organisms are not used. The blue print or the recipes from
organism is the inspiration and taking interest for developments3.Actually a framework for the application of
bio mimicry is divided into mainly three levels by Pedersen Zari. These are organism level, behavior level and
ecosystem level and each level contains five possibilities that are seen in the mimicry. The physical
appearance referring to the form, materiality referring to the substance, the way of making referring to the
construction, the way of working referring to the function and process (Zari 2007).
Bio-mimetic technologies often do more than one job at a time. As the saying of Iganasi Perez about the
effects of globalization, less transforming and interaction in the architecture brings the question that “Why
does a buildings product have only one function?” The answer is hidden in the material itself. According to
!
2
Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Council report / Council on Tall Buildings and Urban
Habitat, Taylor& Francis e-library, Lynn Beadle CRC Press, 2002.
3
http://www.biomimicryguild.com/guild_biomimicry.html
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him material must be efficient and it involves the process that creates multi functionality. The material may
be associated with genes. At this point materiality comes into prominence in the story of surviving in nature,
any system or in a city because it gives the idea about identity, process and the working system of whole like
genes of the organism. Material or materiality should be in direct relation with the environment. Therefore
the sun, source of the earth, has the dominant impact on parameters.
How the materials should be thought:
Figure 1: The concept of material.

The temperature issue is the greatest effect on the ecosystem. It has infinite and unpredicted combinations
and all the livings know instinctively how to benefit from it and give something to it. In this point taking care
of the environment or taking decisions according to the environment set up a relation by adaption and
modification, as an inference. The adaptation ability to the environment is related to the phenotypic
plasticity4, which is ability of changing its phenotype5 according to environmental factors. Actually this term
describes the positive effect that is not only permanent but also temporary features throughout creatures’
life spans, on morphological properties. This phenomenon comprises of the interactions of genes and
circumstances around the habitants. The features are revealed on the physical appearance of the living
being. The modification brings the urgent adaptation to the condition. Modifications are dependent on the
plenty of the substrate and environmental factors, light, warmth etc.., causes a change in the physical
appearance of an organism (phenotype). Modifications are not hereditary as they do not affect the genes
but are controlled by genes. Actually this phenomenon, phenotypic plasticity, has a vital part for the
organism. Very basically, the organisms can be divided into two sections such as an immobile (plants) and
mobile (have the ability of moving, animal) organism. The phenotypic plasticity is more important for
immobile ones6. Being mobile and portable brings about moving away from inconvenient surroundings to
convenient ones. That is why, animals clearly show less plasticity. Nevertheless the extreme and rapid
developmental stage of the heat, nourishments and other parameters that affect the organism are resulted
with modification. It supports to the survival of the living being via creating its temporary ‘self-defense’. The
modification can be assumed as reactions against the actions. So these actions are ever-changing
environmental circumstances. Reaction formation is occurred by the genes to benefit the condition in a
higher rate. So as in the previous explanation materiality of the non-living things and the genes of the
organism should have similarities in terms of the identification of the whole. The important point is
materialized changing on the physical appearance and adopting the momentary conditions via
modification.
THE MODIFICATION EXAMPLE: “HIMALAYAN RABBIT CASE”

!
4
Phenotypic plasticity: In response to the environmental changing, it is the ability of
changing of organism observable appearance (Price, Qvarnström, Irwin 2003).
5
Phenotype: A phenotype (from Greek phainein, 'to show' + typos, 'type') is the composite of
an organism's observable characteristics or traits, such as itsmorphology, development,
biochemical or physiological properties etc.
6
The Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity in Plants Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics
1986, vol. 17, pp. 667-693.
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Biological explanation of the gene expression

One of the much known modification example according to ambient temperature is Himalayans Rabbits
case. Under dramatically changing outside heat, this process can be counted as the management of the
crisis via using potential of the energy absorption of the color.
“Reaction against the action”
Temperature and light are external environmental factors that may influence gene expression in certain
organisms. Himalayan Rabbits carry “temperature sensitive tyrosine genes” which control fur pigmentation.
This gene is required for the development of pigments in the fur, skin, and eyes, and its expression is
regulated by temperature (Sturtevant 1913). Specifically, the temperature regulation of gene expression is
characteristic of these rabbits that produces distinctive coat coloring. In the warm conditions, the gene in
which stays at the central parts of the rabbit's body, is inactive and color pigments are not produced.
Therefore its fur color is white (Figure 2). Meanwhile, in opposite conditions, that the temperature is much
lower than the body warmth, this gene is activated because of that their fur color is turn black (Figure 3)
(Stockard 1907). The observed physical changing of the fur color, from white to black and black to white,
sets a direct relation with color energy. The explanation of this phenomenon is explained via color energy
theory. Black fur absorbs the light and solar heat to keep that part of the rabbit warmer in the cold weather.
Due to less blood flow the extremities are usually coldest; therefore the heat-sensitive gene is activated for
these areas, producing a darker fur. This would have helped keeping their bodies and extremities warmer
(Bradley, Lawler 2011).
Figure.2, Figure.3: The changing of the physical appearance of Himalayan rabbit.
Thinking the concept of modification with structures

The modification is the process that an organism becomes better able to live in its habitat (Dobzhansky
1956). Although we are not living in wild nature, the city is a symbol of system that consists of living and
non-living elements and it is assumed that it has an order unlike the accidentalness of nature. But the
distinction between nature and the city we live in is set so decisively by man-made constructions. The man
who experienced the physical characteristic of each building and their spatial features loses the diversity of
its experimentations. Then this material centric environment gradually turns to concrete surrounding.
On the other hand at least we live in changing weather conditions. Every day conditions change and we
change as well. The translation of the idea of modification aims to support the thermal comfort by
benefiting from the temperature changing and beside the comfort issue, the much known critics of 20th
century, standardization, globalization and mechanization of the living environment, are heeded by
associating with the identity in buildings. In conjunction with adaptation to the factors, the new locality
concept is predicted over today’s constructions by the variety of modifications.
In this point this heat modification example is put as an interpretation about how to develop this kind of
skin reaction on the fixed facade over today’s constructions with the frame of bio mimicry. The
transformability of the substance over stabile construction is linked with the idea of mobility and pluggable
abilities. This behavioral concept of material that has a strong relation with its environment brings the idea
which has the necessity of creating a new pluggable skin for the transparent surface area of construction by
thinking as a supporter of cooling and heating facilities. The needed tools for these new patches are external
factors which are light, chemicals, or temperature.
This project does not make or deal with organic live cells. It is recreated by using the easily found materials
and different working principles which are well known from the physic rules. While bringing forward
proposals about adaptable features of new facades, the properties of being mobile, pluggable, flexible,
addable and removable is an important point of adaptability. Although this new proposal takes interest in
the environmental parameters, there is a strong relation with the human as a control mechanism in terms of
specifying amount and applied places. For that matter, the dimension should be decided with reference to
the human scale in order to implement momentary conditions. Then this is the modification of new skin and
the human motions.
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How the dimension and the shape is formed (Figure 4)
Figure 4:Organizing the patch for better handling and applying.

What makes the pluggable skin adaptable to exterior conditions?
What makes the pluggable skin supportive for interior conditions? (Figure 5)
The physics rules that are combined for recreation of pluggable skin:
- The thermo chromic pigment
- The elasticity of material
- The state of matter/ gaseous state/ its behavior under the heat.
Figure 5:The design proposal for the pluggable self defense patch.
Besides the thermal comfort issue, it suggests a new locality pattern over today’s constructions according to
thermal changing. It means that this pluggable heat sensitive patch creates the new locality icons by setting
an interaction between interior of the buildings and the outside climate (Figure 6). In addition to texture that
appears on the facade, it also effects the interior ambient as a shade. The new pattern that is occurred by the
shade of bubbles in the pluggable patches, vary according to heat factor. Each bubbles volume depends on
the thermal variations.
Some predicted example over the transparent substance face of the buildings.
Figure 6: Predicted surface pattern that is formed by the patches over constructions.
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CONCLUSION
The idea of taking inspiration from nature has a very strong impact and whatever is taken, there has been
the potentiality of manifesting its surroundings same as the natural changing that affects the living via
creating links between several parameters. In that point, the great effects of thermal variation has strong
impacts for manifesting our mental and physical behaviors. One idea results in several effects. At the same
time they are not an end effect. They recreate itself under the control of an ever changing environment.
The monotonous is broken via usage of environmental potentials. That is why while searching for solutions,
observing nature makes the possibilities more resistant, variable and flexible, not standard. As a result,
today’s global world far from climate and culture, constructions began to look similar and they took the
feature of mass production and buildings that are placed in different parts of the world share the same
indoor climate control. While creating conditioned places, we have started to separate roughly outside,
environment, and the inside ambient of the buildings, therefore the potentiality of environments gradually
moves away from the human. In that point, one of the significant intentions of this paper is breaking the
sharp comfort differentiation between building and its surroundings, weather and energy crisis. In addition
to that matters looking for the reason and combine the idea with architecture under the modification topic
in terms of color, materiality and mobility.
With the idea of being adapted to changes causes modification examples in the organisms. In that
perspective, bio mimesis, using nature’s design principles as inspiration, gives hope for the sustainable
future and more creative, innovative products. Examples may include changing of skin color or patterns to
allow for efficient thermoregulation, or a change in body appearance.
With interpreting the idea of modification in the bio mimesis perspective, the conformity of dwellings and
uniqueness of the physical appearance of facades is aimed via the pluggable patches. This proposed tool
that turns the regular façade into a changeable façade is just one option for the recreation of modification
over the transparent substance. With the idea of these pluggable patches which create a flexible and
movable skin over the transparent surface of the available buildings, it turns self-defense sensitive patch and
while defending against negative effects of the outside climate interior, they bring different surface patterns.
All in all, instead of being globalized by the standard machine that works for acclimatization of the interior,
the buildings are localized by the modification with respect to the environmental parameters via the tool
that is designed by thinking the organism in wild nature for managing this thermo crisis in the building as a
skin project which is changing according to heat potential of each space.
As the quotation of Benyus: "The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to
endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone" (Benyus 1997).
Nature is used to create hybrid physical environment.
Nature puts its locality logics
Nature should give the idea for the new design proposals.
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REFERENCES
Adams, H., 2009. The education of Henry Adams, Wildside Press, New York.
Arslan, S & Sorguc, AG., 2004. Similarities between “structures in nature” and “man-made structures”: Biomimesis
in architecture, design and nature II, MW Collins & CA Brebbia (ed), WIT Press, Southampton, UK, pp. 45-54.
Beadle, L., 2002. Tall buildings and urban habitat, CRC Press.
Benyus, J., 1997. Biomimicry - innovation inspired by nature, Harper Collins Publishers, New York.Bradley, BJ &
Lawler, RR., 2011. ‘Linking genotypes, phenotypes, and fitness in wild primate populations’, Evolutionary
Anthropology, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 104–119.
Brundtland, GH., 1987. The world commission on environment and development, Oxford University Press,
England.
Dobzhansky, T., 1956. ‘Genetics of naturalpopulations XXV. Geneticchanges in populations
of Drosophilapseudoobscura and Drosphilapersimilis in some locations in California’, Evolution, vol. 10, no.
1, pp. 82–92.
Dobzhansky, T., 1968. On some fundamental concepts of evolutionary biology, vol. 2, 1st Edn, pp. 1–34,
Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York.
Pedersen, ZM., 2007. ‘Biomimetic approaches to architecture’, Toronto Sustainable Building Conference,
Toronto/Canada.
Price, TD, Qvarnström, A & Irwin, DE., 2003. ‘The role of phenotypic plasticity in driving genetic evolution’,
Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Science, 270, pp. 1433-40.
Schlichting, DC., 1986. ‘Evolution of phenotypic plasticity in plants’, Review of Ecology and Systematics, vol.
17, pp. 667-693.
Sherman, R., 1990. The meaning and ethics of sustainability, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 1-8.Stockard, CR., 1907. ‘The
influence of external factors, chemical and physical, on the development of Fundulusheteroclitus’, Journal of
Experimental Zoology, no. 4, pp. 165–201.
Sturtevant, H., 1913. ‘The Himalayan rabbit case, with some considerations on multiple allelomorphs’,
American Naturalist, no. 47, pp. 234–238.
864
THREE-DIMENSIONAL ‘SITES’ – AN INVESTIGATION INTO SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF EMPTY

BUILDINGS IN CITY CENTRES!
Philip du Toit, Mathews & Associates Architects, South Africa, philip.d.t@gmail.com
Abstract
What can we do with empty buildings? It appears that in most cases, only the surface is redesigned – new walls,
new floor plan layouts, new ceilings – for offices or apartments or whatever suits the project. However, is it
perhaps time to redesign deeper? Is it time to look into the existing elements and use everything – structure,
volume, services – as tools that can be re-shaped, cut away or added and re-used? Is it perhaps time to question
what ‘site’ really is?
This paper will discuss a possible way of re-using existing, empty buildings. Similar concepts and ideas will be
discussed and examples of existing empty buildings in Pretoria’s CBD will be shown (like the controversial Kruger
Park and Schubart Park). The author’s own thesis will also be touched on as an illustration of a solution and as
starting point for the theoretical discussion. The concept of three-dimensional ‘sites’ will be explored, together
with theories and examples of international projects where this principle can be seen.
Along the lines of the conference themes, ideas and concepts will be investigated that will include: resilience – a
new system or way of thinking about re-using existing structures; ecology – open-building and designing for
change; values – questioning traditional concepts of ‘site’. Advantages like speed and cost saving, amongst
others, will also be discussed, together with the disadvantages and possible foreseeable problems. Even for new
buildings these principles will be applicable and also examined (designing for change).
South African cities are diverse and full of potential, not just within the streets, the users or the cultures, but even
within existing structures. This paper will ask: what if ‘site’ was not restricted to physical ground, but was rather
something three-dimensional, higher up, creating new possibilities?
Keywords: re-use, site, open-building, adaptability, change.
INTRODUCTION
Throughout past decades (and perhaps even centuries), empty buildings have always been part of any
urban area. This is still the case, with the on-going prevalence of empty buildings in various numbers,
depending on the city and the country. Mostly these buildings are old, but even new structures are
sometimes left empty after completion, as can be seen in the rapid explosion of (what one can call)
complete new cities in China (Tarantola 2013, Figure 2).
Many an architect has been involved in the re-fitting of an office block, where the surface is re-done,
‘touched-up’ and in some cases additions and alterations are executed. This paper, however, asks whether
we should not be designing deeper, looking at more than just the paint colour or façade detail.
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Figure 1: Empty floor in Die Meent building (Source: du Toit 2009).
Figure 2: Empty street in new city in China (Tarantola, 2014).
Pretoria CBD
Currently, there are a number of empty buildings in the Pretoria CBD (Gauteng, South Africa). Some of the
most controversial ones include Schubart Park (SAPA 2012) and Kruger Park (Figure 3). People were illegally
living in them just before they were evicted – this is also an indication of the current housing shortage,
especially in cities. Lesser known examples of empty buildings include old residential towers on UNISA’s
Sunnyside Campus. Some empty and many times dilapidated buildings are even of high heritage value, like
the Old Government Museum (Boomstreet, next to the zoo, Figure 4) and the well-known Old Synagogue
(Paul Kruger Street, Figure 5), both being Provincial Heritage sites (see SAHRA’s website). There are many
866
reasons for buildings being abandoned, ranging from restrictive design and unsuccessful management (du
Toit 2009, p. 1), to larger social issues.
Figure 3: Kruger Park (Source: du Toit 2014).
Figure 4: Old Government Museum, Boom Street, Pretoria

(Source: http://able.wiki.up.ac.za/images/2/22/Staatsmuseum_FACADE.jpg).
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Figure 5: Old Synagogue, Paul Kruger Street, Pretoria (Purnell 2014).
The thesis ‘Abandoned spaces, abandoned design’ (du Toit 2009), investigates empty spaces in the Pretoria
CBD and then proposes a new way of seeing these buildings. The example used is the City Centre Building,
with empty spaces in the neighbouring Die Meent Building also included. A new system is developed
whereby each individual floor is subdivided into ‘sites’ (or ‘stands’) which can be sold to individual owners,
who in turn can then construct their ‘buildings’ thereon. All the usual principles of ‘stands’ could apply, e.g.
zoning, ownership, services and perhaps even building lines (depending on the specific design). Each new
‘site’ is then sold off, with new owners being able to build anything thereon (according to the zoning and
regulations), including shops, housing units, offices and any other type of function or space. The concept is
shown clearly in Figure 6, a simple slab-column structure that is divided into more ‘sites’.
Figure 6: Concept of ‘sites’ on floors (Source: du Toit 2009, p. 5).
This system also proposes certain codes according to which the city and these specific spaces should be
managed and designed (du Toit 2009, p. 60). Many of these rules and regulations should still be investigated
extensively, especially with regards to each urban and social context (e.g. practical implications and legal
matters). These regulations, specific to the Pretoria CBD, are as follows:
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Name Description
1 Legislation Legislation and regulations must be changed where necessary. This
will include acts affecting sectional title ownership (e.g. how services
are distributed and paid for), regulations regarding municipal space
above streets (e.g. in the case of proposed pedestrian bridges) and
building regulations (e.g. building permission).
2 Street edge Any new stands on the first, second, third and/or fourth floor may not
protrude more than 700 mm from the ground floor site boundary
between the neighbouring street and the site under question. Any of
these protrusions (beyond the ground floor site boundary) may not be
enclosed spaces, i.e. these spaces are restricted to balconies and other
similar elements. Stands on higher levels should not protrude beyond
the existing structure. It is not allowed to build beyond the other
ground floor site boundaries on any storey.
3 Costs Levies must be paid on a monthly basis. This will be used to maintain
all shared space, i.e. open space (with finances divided according to
the same structure as above), ablutions, vertical circulation areas and
other services.
4 Open space In the event of one person/company owning two or more stands with
between a demarcated open space between two or more of them, the owner
sites may construct any structure over this space up to a maximum of 25%
of the area on plan, as long as any public pedestrian movement is not
Principles restricted in any way (in the case of a thoroughfare). Structures can
include walkways (e.g. in double volume open spaces), overhead
beams/bulkheads, extensions of interior spaces, etc. Any of these
proposals are to be approved by the development’s body-corporate.
5 Horizontal New structures may not exceed the given horizontal boundaries (with
boundaries regard to neighbouring stands below and above); each sites’
boundaries with regard to height are restricted to the bottom plane of
the structure below and above.
6 Vertical New vertical circulation spaces must be provided in such a way that
circulation free movement is possible for all users. Where it is possible these
spaces should be on the façade of the building, providing direct access
at street level. If this is not feasible, existing or new spaces further
within the structure should be designed in such a way as to celebrate
the connection with the ground plane (e.g. a large open area) and so
that these spaces have an open atmosphere (so as not to restrict the
movement of users, both physically and psychologically).
Table 1: Principles to use in developing empty spaces in the Pretoria CBD (Source: duToit, 2009, p. 62).
THEORY
Questioning ‘site’
We live in a three-dimensional world. When thinking of the term ‘site’, one usually thinks of the ground
plane on which the project will be built. Even though this plane is not really flat (or two-dimensional), with
aspects like contours and relevant contextual parameters (including, amongst many others, social, economic
and ecological factors), it is mostly still seen as a two-dimensional starting point.
Du Toit (2009, pp. 27-34) uses deconstruction as the base theory for developing the new system of seeing
‘sites’. He defines deconstruction as “the theory by which norms and ideas are questioned and restructured
from within to form new ways of thinking and new products” (2009, pp. 30-31). Relating to this theory, new
‘sites’ are created within existing structures, though they have always been there, but only now “released”
(ibid, p. 31). The Cartesian x-y-z axes are thus questioned, leading to a new positioning of ‘site’, where
buildings can “intersect with each other in all three directions” (ibid.).
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As discussed above, ‘site’ can also mean something with the aspect of height added to it. This leads to the
principle that a ‘site’ can now be higher up, on top of or even within a building. Besides the normal sectional
title units (e.g. flats), one can go further, designing and setting out three-dimensional sites on higher levels
than just the ground plane. These new ‘sites’ can then be sold, consolidated and even subdivided in certain
instances, all based on the new system (Figure 7). Walkways and arcades can also become three-
dimensional, with the public being allowed to move through the three-dimensional ‘sites’ along ‘streets’
that are vertical and high above the ground plane; this can even include public open spaces on higher levels
(squares, gardens, amphitheatres, etc.).
Figure 7: Buildings on various levels (Source: du Toit 2009, p. 30).
Advantages
The main advantage of this system is the large amount of adaptability that these ‘sites’ will have. With only
the circulation spaces, services and main structural components being unchangeable, the possibilities of
what could happen in between these parameters are endless (depending on zoning and other similar
restrictions).
Time- and cost-savings are also notable: in existing buildings that are re-used, they can be prepared
(unnecessary elements removed, services adapted, circulation altered and/or added, double volumes
created, etc.) relatively quickly and without actually ‘completing’ the building. This means the actual
conversion uses a lot less time and materials for the developer, also meaning that the new ‘sites’ can be sold
off quicker.
The new owners will also save time and money, due to the fact that in most instances, they won’t have to
construct the foundations or even the roof for their ‘buildings’, with the bottom and top slabs already
providing that. For complete new buildings, the advantages also include time and money, both for the
developer and the people that the new ‘sites’ are sold to.
On a social and spatial level, advantages include denser cities, though, if designed and implemented
correctly, these denser cities will not create unhealthy spaces, but rather, for example, each person will still
have the option to own a ‘garden’. Denser cities have many advantages, including more open public space,
less travelling for the users and less horizontal expansion of services.
Re-using existing structures obviously has the big advantage of being a sustainable solution, seeing that a
greenfield site is not being used. A new structure is also not necessary, saving materials and all other
ecological expenses that would have been spent in creating a completely new building. Again, time comes
into play: less construction means less time on site and less damaging actions to the environment. New
employment might even be created with new ways of building being developed. This list can easily be
expanded.
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Disadvantages and possible issues

Not having the right amount of control over the system might lead to chaotic-looking ‘buildings’ (Figure 8).
However, with the right mix of functions, users and aesthetics, these systems might especially showcase the
cultural diversity of a city.
Figure 8: Slum-like façade, Kowloon, Hong Kong (Source: unknown,

<http://www.linkiesta.it/sites/default/files/uploads/blogs/u758/120915_biennale_02.jpg>).
As can be seen in some of the examples discussed below, many of these highly adaptable situations can lead
to slum-like spaces, thus not necessarily increasing the lifestyle(s) of the users (as one would think should be
one of the ideals). Together with this, conflicting functions and users might be juxtaposed, in more confined
spaces than the usual next-door-neighbour setting, which might lead to its own set of social conditions and
problems.
The legal implications might also be a problem. Though the ownership, zoning, use, etc. of each ‘site’ can be
based on the current sectional title act (Act no. 95 of 1986), there are marked differences, seeing that new
‘sites’ can actually be full title ‘stands’. Much investigation should be done by legal property experts and
attorneys, together with town and regional planners, urban designers and architects, to develop the detail
of this system.
EXAMPLES
Though it is believed that the system itself has not been implemented somewhere, many similar (even
though just yet superficial) examples exist that indicate what these new ‘sites’ might look like. Wine’s
drawing of the Residence Antilia (showing what looks to be a vertical suburb, Figure 9) might be the closest
concept of the principle behind the system, even though the actual programme and final product of this
design came to something completely different (Figure 10).
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Figure 9: Sketch of the Residence Antilia

(Source: <http://urbanlabglobalcities.blogspot.com/2012/09/drawing-drawing-drawing-and-
architecture.html>).
Figure 10: Residence Antilia, by Perkins + Will (Source: Namrata Nesarikar

<http://richglare.com/antilia-expensive-house-world/>).
Visual examples
Ryue Nishizawa designed a house in Tokyo, Japan (Figure 11) which consists mainly of floor slabs, with
wholes cut out, and numerous plants growing in pots (Grieco 2011). Spaces are divided by means of curtains
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(ibid.), exposing the simple structure. Though only consisting of a single house, this project shows the
principle of vertical living.
Figure 11: Street elevation of house & garden, by Ryue Nishizawa (Source: Iwan Baan,
<http://www.designboom.com/architecture/ryue-nishizawa-house-garden/>).
The Tower Apartment (Figure 12) in Paris, France, by Agence SML, is a 25m² apartment that is spread over
four storeys. The strange layout is a result of the owner buying different sections of the building over a few
years, creating this vertical living unit (ArchDaily). It shows how left-over spaces in (or even between)
existing buildings can be re-appropriated to create alternative forms of living, working or any other activity.
Figure 12: Three-dimensional sections of the Tower Apartment, by Agence SML (Source:
<http://www.archdaily.com/478835/tower-apartment-agence-sml/>).
Though the principle of three-dimensional ‘sites’ includes many different uses and types of spaces, there are
numerous other examples where especially gardens were used vertically. These included concept
submissions for the new World Trade Centre competition (e.g. SOM’s submission which included sky
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gardens, Figure 13; Czarnecki 2003, p. 35), LYCS architecture’s ‘Writhing Tower’ (Furuto 2012, Figure 14) and
‘Supernature’ by Carl Turner Architects (2013, Figure 15).
Figure 13: Sky Garden proposal for the World Trade Centre, by SOM
(Source: <http://www.renewnyc.com/images_WMS/signature/SOM-sky-garden-view-2.jpg>).
Figure 14: Writhing Tower, by LYCS Architecture (Source: <http://www.archdaily.com/

244168/writhing-tower-lycs-architecture/e%c2%9b%c2%b6a%c2%b9a%c2%9f%
c2%8ea%c2%b8%c2%82-lycs-architecture-press-release/>).
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Figure 15: Supernature, by Carl Turner Architects (Source: <http://www.ct-architects.co.uk/

supernature-wins-ribas-housing-competition/>).
Theoretical examples
In Le Corbusier’s ‘Towards a New Architecture’ (1931, pp. 59-61), he suggests that cities should be made up
of large planes, with the services running below, and residential towers above with social spaces and bridges
on top (Figure 16). This design has many similarities with some of the original sketches of the Rockefeller
Centre in New York City (Figure 17).
Figure 16: Section of city on columns, by Le Corbusier (from ‘Towards a New

Architecture’ 1931).
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Figure 17: Roof garden concept for the Rockefeller Centre, New York, by J. Wenrich
(from ‘Rockefeller Centre’ 1978).
The Open Building concept proposes designing for change and accepting that not everything is planned
before the construction of a building (Kendall). It goes on to suggest that users should make decisions as
well, not just the professional team (ibid.), leading to buildings that can be adapted throughout their
existence to meet as many needs as possible.
Du Toit (2009), after describing the new system of re-use (as set out above), illustrates how the system can
work by designing a gallery for art, architecture and design (Figure 18). This is a hypothetical project
whereby the client (MINI Space) buys a number of ‘sites’ on the third, fourth and fifth storeys and then
consolidates them. This gallery building thus cuts through existing buildings on a higher level, with its own
enclosed and open spaces, illustrating a three-dimensional use of ‘site’.
Figure 18: MINI Space gallery and new ‘sites’ collage with context (also showing vertical
circulation on the street façade) (du Toit 2009, pp. 162-163).
Social example
Iwan Baan (2013) describes a few examples of cultures creating imaginative homes when forced by their
circumstances. He mentions Torre David in Venezuela (Figure 19), where people have re-appropriated an
unfinished structure, creating their own small-scale vertical city, with commercial functions mixed with
residential spaces and even farming activities. This is perhaps the closest real-world example to the
proposed system of three-dimensional ‘sites’.
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Figure 19: Torre David, Caracas, Venezuela (Source: Iwan Baan, <http://static.dezeen.com/
uploads/2012/08/dezeen_Torre-David_Gran-Horizonte_1.jpg>).
CONCLUSION
There is no single solution to empty, abandoned buildings in cities. This global issue certainly has an impact
on the experience and perception of each affected city. This paper suggests a solution where the principle of
‘site’ is re-imagined three-dimensionally. It shows resilience - a new way of thinking about building re-use;
ecology - designing with future adaptation in mind, creating sustainable architecture and cities; and values -
questioning what we as architects believe about ‘site’. Maybe it is time to ‘stack’ different functions,
typologies and buildings vertically. Maybe it is time to exhibit the diverse cultures that make up the ‘global
city’ truly three-dimensionally.
REFERENCES
Baan, I., 2013. Ingenious homes in unexpected places, online video, viewed 3 March 2014,
<http://www.viavili.com/video/architecture_video/9.html#.Uycv4ZIaySM>.
Czarnecki, JE., 2003. ‘Rebuilding lower Manhattan: Architects at the forefront as they show Ground Zero
aspirations’, Architectural Record, vol. 191, no. 2, pp. 31-45.
du Toit, P., 2009. ‘Abandoned spaces, abandoned design’, Masters Dissertation, University of Pretoria.
Furuto, A., 2012. ‘Writhing Tower / LYCS Architecture’, ArchDaily, 17 June 2012, viewed 17 March 2014,
Grieco, L., 2011. ‘Ryue nishizawa: House & garden’, Designboom, viewed 17 March 2014,
<http://www.designboom.com/architecture/ryue-nishizawa-house-garden/>.
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Kendall, S., ‘Open Building Concepts’, CIB W104 Open Building Implementation, viewed 17 March 2014,
<http://open-building.org/ob/concepts.html>.
Krinsky, CH., 1978. Rockefeller Centre, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Le Corbusier., 1923. Towards a new architecture, 1931 edition, trans. F. Etchells, Dover, New York.
SAPA, 2012. ‘ConCourt victory for Schubart Park’, iol News, viewed 30 October 2013,
<http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/concourt-victory-for-schubart-park-1.1399555#.UnFrNcAaJaQ>.
Tarantola, A., 2013. ‘China’s building cities so fast, people don’t have time to move in’, Gizmodo, viewed 16
March 2014, <http://gizmodo.com/chinas-building-cities-so-fast-people-dont-have-time-1446570856>.
‘Tower Apartment / Agence SML’, 2014. ArchDaily, viewed 11 June 2014,

Turner Architects., 2013. ‘Supernature wins RIBA’s housing competition’, viewed 6 December 2013,
< http://www.ct-architects.co.uk/supernature-wins-ribas-housing-competition/>.
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STRATEGIES FOR ALLOGRAPHIC URBANISM !
Marecella del Signore,Tulane University, School of Architecture, New Orleans, LA, USA,mdelsign@tulane.edu
Mona el Khafif, University of Waterloo, School of Architecture, Cambridge - Ontario, Canada,
mona.elkhafif@uwaterloo.ca
Abstract
In a time in which city-wide planning strategies are failing due to a lack of city governance and the widespread
bankruptcy of communities, bottom-up models present themselves as an alternative approach to balancing
public-private partnerships governed by corporate bodies. Even European cities with relatively functional
administrations are moving away from top-down planning models, and therefore it would seem that the counter
posed bottom-up strategy is taking its place. Characterized as deploying ad-hoc maneuvers stretching from
guerrilla urbanism to DIY, these strategies are not an adequate response to the widespread need for city-wide
design strategies. However, bottom-up approaches do possess a potentiality for rapid change, and this
potentiality can be actualized if adequate notations and design frameworks are set in place that can capitalize on
open source participation while simultaneously regulating the large-scale outcome.
This paper examines strategies that take advantage of small-scale networked design implementations as a
method of addressing issues of large-scale transformation. These projects navigate top-down and bottom-up
strategies, combining the best of both and abandoning scenarios that are rigid, generic, or ad hoc. These projects
utilize interim design as a testing ground for user participation, while mediating the simultaneously
embeddedness of dynamic urban notations that address larger urban issues of long-term integration. The notion
of multiplicity, replication and directed participation becomes a critical part of these game changing strategies.
Keywords: allographic urbanism, do-it-yourself, guerilla, pop-up, tactical urbanism, bottom-up and top-
down urban strategies.
DO IT YOURSELF URBANISM AND THE DESPERATE NEED FOR MORE IMPACT
DIY, Pop-Up, Guerrilla, and Tactical Urbanism are terms describing an urbanism that is nurtured through a
spirit of “I can change the world”. This hacker mentality allows citizens to take back their city and to shape
their environment through direct involvement, very often without the help of an expert or designer (Quirk
20120). The power of this variety of thinking about urbanism lies in its massive mobilization of citizens (a
potentially beneficial situation), but it also establishes an anti-architect attitude that unfortunately
undermines any widespread change addressing citywide needs. While technology seems to be an excellent
tool for getting people involved and encouraged, there is still a lack of application with regard to citywide
effects.
As Alexandra Lange (Lange 2012) recently stated, technology is not a “magic wand,” and crowdsourcing
initiatives simply fall short in the large-scale, long-term urban project. These mechanisms can be observed in
the uprising of Facebook, utilizing political movements within the political arena. The emerging rapid
distribution and accessibility of the Internet as a new virtual space to exchange ideas and to create
communities had an unprecedented effect on the generation that produced the Arab Spring. Facebook and
Twitter mobilized masses and connected people (Kneuer & Demmelhuber 2012). However, these techniques
do not write political ideologies or replace administrative infrastructures necessary for a new society. Both
DIY and user-generated urbanism need to be understood as tools to support and direct participation. Yet,
they should not replace design and still cannot facilitate more impactful action on a larger scale.
While cities are struggling with the disappearance of their governing powers, bottom-up strategies that are
invested into urban frameworks and small-scale design development carry the potential to effect change by
facilitating distributed participation in their large-scale application. This approach capitalizes on open source
access and the development of design frameworks that secure the quality of the final output.
THE SITUATIONIST CITY AND CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES FOR ACTIVATION
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The urban utopia that serves as the most historically referenced model for emerging urban actionism is most
likely the Situationist City, today reread as a contemporary Temporary City. The concept of the Temporary
City, as recently published by Peter Bishop and Lesley Williams (Bishop & Williams 2012) unfolds out of an
understanding that the city, as our social, economic, and ecological environment, is rooted in a four-
dimensional, highly dynamic scenography: a space that changes on a daily or hourly basis even when it also
consists of more permanent elements. Bishop and Williams state that the Temporary City today has its own
legitimation. They write: “In an era of increasing pressure on scarce resources, we cannot wait for long-term
solutions for vacancy or dereliction. Instead, we need to view temporary uses as increasingly legitimate and
important in their own right. They can be a powerful tool through which we can drip-feed initiatives for
incremental change — as and when we have the resources — while being guided by a loose-fit vision”
(Bishop & Williams 2012).
As such, urban space, viewed as a cultural artefact seems to be the materialization of its events, which often
stand in contrast to static master plans and technocratic top-down strategies that are still the traditional
professional practice of urban planning and urban design. It is a space permanently in the making and
therefore it cannot be disconnected from its interim character or transformation over time.
The new model of the Temporary City needs to be a space for strategic thinkers devising temporal,
ecological and interim uses in the socio-spatial fabric. While the Situationist City of the 1960s might be
understood as a utopian and even revolutionary approach to counter the technocratic top-down
understanding of society, contemporary design approaches are becoming more and more founded on
participation as well as cooperation models and an understanding of an infrastructural space that captures
temporal change and socio-spatial interaction as a dominant condition. Archigram’s work from the Living
City exhibition of 1963, for example, focused on the definition of space through interaction rather than
demarcation and boundaries. In this manifesto, Archigram declared the city to be a “sum of its atmospheres”
(Shepard 2011). Beginning in the 1960s, architectural, urban, and artistic interventions conceptualized
temporary architecture as a means of moving away from objectification, and generated claims about a
notion of space-environment. In this context, Archigram’s Instant City can be read as a transient event in
which the type of material space created was not relevant. Its dynamic relations with people, and the
functioning of the whole being comprised of many sub-parts were a real non-spatial condition that
prioritized action above form.
Contemporary approaches, however, dispatch hybridized and overlapping patterns of resource

consumption and tend to foster a diverse and resilient social ecology. Designers, artists and more recently,
city planners are exploring temporary tactics to fulfill a variety of social, political and spatial objectives. These
design strategies and tactics are often deployed into/onto vacant resources in order to use “Waiting Lands”
during its transitional phase (Christiansen 2006). Another strategy applies within existing cities’ fabrics and
public spaces urban activation techniques that attempt to transform underutilized local urban space.
“Waiting Lands”, as coined by Kees Christiansen, is the utilization of underused spatial resources that
demand of the designer that they shift their thinking from explicit knowledge that feeds into form to
complex interactive and responsive processing that identifies the role of the designer as a curator,
negotiator and collaborator. In contrast to the Situationist City, this new understanding encourages a
nascent practice within the design profession to understand the Temporary City as an ongoing part of the
Permanent City, and this demands design strategies that allow the integration of multiple actors and the
negotiation of top-down and bottom-up processes.
In Drosscape: Wasting Land Urban America, Alan Berger (Berger 2006) points out how relevant the resources
trapped in urban wastelands are. He identifies categories of wasteland among those lands of transition:
empty real estate properties and urban infrastructures that should be understood as territories of
opportunity rather than wasted land. Strategies for a temporary urbanism that moves beyond DIY allow for
the testing of urban scenarios in the form of a living urban laboratory. While addressing the large-scale
problems of contemporary urban landscapes, they capitalize on the resources of abandoned and vacant
urban territories.
A main challenge of the contemporary Temporary City, however, is the difficulty of designing using social
interaction and participation: terminologies born in the discipline of spatial sociology describing activities of
undirected activities by a diverse set of unforeseeable users. As a response to those challenges, temporary
strategies need to be designed for spatial flexibility, indeterminacy, and multiplicity.
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Stan Allen (Allen, 2011) describes this phenomenon as “directed indeterminacy”: a condition that requests
clearly articulated design implementations that are not open-ended but are specific precisely because they
need to support the undirected participation of a wide range of users. While the theories and approaches of
the Situationist City were made possible by the political condition of the 1960’s, articulating urban utopias
based on non-design as a reaction to executed top-down bureaucracy, today’s strategies need to move
beyond the paradigm of the solely tactical. Design in this new context works toward the development of
small scape design, directed notations and tool-kits that capitalize on the potential impact of bottom-up
user participation but simultaneously addresses a need for large-scale design strategies.
ALLOGRAPHIC URBANISM AND THE POTENTIAL OF OPEN SOURCE
In Mapping the Unmappable, Stan Allen (Allen 2000) describes the difference between an ‘autobiographic’
practice that depends on the author’s original production (for example, a painter) and an “allographic”
practice. In the latter, Allen refers to notations and scripts as a form of representation to allow others to
follow the design instructions. A symphony written by Schubert, was never meant to be solely directed by
Schubert but by other conductors who would use his original instructions as a guide. Manipulations and
mutations might be possible in this process, but the originality of the outcome is embedded in the script
written by Schubert himself. According to Allen, the contemporary city must be understood as a complex
dynamic condition that desperately needs notational representation. While Allen highlights the significance
of anticipation; time-based thinking; and the potential of the allographic notation to map the invisible forces
of the city; he also stresses that this practice allows for a collective. A score is not a private language but it
works instrumentally to coordinate the actions of multiple participants: “The use of notations marks a shift
from the production of space to the performance of space”.
While Allen specifically refers to the notation as a form of representation that describes urban events and
programs, the technique of allographic practice carries an even more powerful potentiality when combined
with the rapid evolution and implementation of open-source practice. An allographic notation that is based
on small-scale design while addressing large-scale urban issues and inviting the general public to act upon
the script has an incredible power to be a significant means of change. Even the development of the original
design instructions put out into the world through open source enables a rapid evolution of the product.
The rationale for open-source in this context is that a larger group of users and agents - if directed
strategically - will produce a more useful and faster result than a single designer.
URBAN PROTOTYPING
In fall 2012, the Gray Area Foundation in San Francisco initiated an Urban Prototyping event that precisely
tried to benefit from the development of open-source accessible design that addresses the undiscovered
potentials of cities. The event can be understood as one of the many initiatives centered around creative
projects for the public realm. While the event still honored the mindset of tactical urbanism, it also
addressed the need for long-term conversations and changes. To direct this need, the initiators developed
an approach that consisted of 3 steps: prototyping, replication and adoption.
The Process of prototyping: Long-term solutions, so the competition brief, can often be jump-started by
building and refining quick working models. Due to their public and temporal nature, prototypes are meant
to test out new ideas while the format of the event generates visibility and dialog. Within this context,
prototypes can be developed and displayed to solicit feedback from residents, city officials and
stakeholders. This type of approach reflected tactical urbanism but included a critical review of prototypes.
Simultaneously, every prototype needed to utilize digital tools and Internet platforms.
The requirement to replicate: One discovered requirement for prototype development was the potential for
nuanced replication in a variety of environments capable of ensuring that these designs are adaptable and
applicable to many different contexts. By opening up the designs, source code, materials, instructions, and
other resources necessary to recreate each project, UP aimed to catalyze a new global community for
sharing urban design and technology work. All prototypes that had been selected during an open call
needed to address the potential for replication, and, after the event were submitted to an online open-
source archive for direct access for others.
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Cities adopting ideas: The event also tried to create a real and lasting path for projects to develop and be
implemented. The core team of UP San Francisco is comprised of nonprofits dedicated to design,
technology, urbanism, and the arts. In attendance were private firms that are on the forefront of design
thinking as well as municipal agencies that are open to participation models, and who have the ambition to
formally integrate projects into the city’s landscape. The San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation and
the San Francisco Planning Department have been looking closely at opportunities to implement selected
UP projects across the city (UPSF 2012).
While events featuring pop-up urban projects are commonly known, UP San Francisco tried to operate as a
catalyst event to structure and organize the potential power of temporary design that needed to address
urban conditions not unique to San Francisco or the festival neighborhood. In addition, the production of
prototypes was meant to feed into long-term transformations that were set up in cooperation with the
official city administrations. The requirement for open-source access for all selected prototypes was an
unusual scenario for designers: while the design of the prototype was credited, the future application and
implementation was donated to the public.
In what follows, we present a series of projects that combined the development of small-scale design
objects, all of which address large-scale layers of underutilized infrastructures, networked systems and/or
land resources.
URBANecology//THE 10 MILE GARDEN
Urban context: In 2009, the San Francisco Planning Department started to initiate tactics to create a new set
of public spaces under the ‘Pavement to Parks Program’. Utilizing underused portions of the public right of
way - about 25% of San Francisco's land area - each P2P project operated as a public laboratory where the
city can work with various communities to test strategies to reclaim selected locations as permanent public
open space. A new site category identified as a potential new site was suggested for the UP event and
consisted of a proposal regarding the network of fire hydrants, which spreads throughout American cities at
an average maximum spacing of 500 feet. Per vehicle code Section 22514, parking in front of fire hydrants is
forbidden in order to protect them and to maintain street access in emergencies. However, there is no policy
in San Francisco or any other American city that requires this access area on the street or on the sidewalk be
paved. At the scale of the City of San Francisco, the network of more than 9000 fire hydrants has the
potential to create an additional ecological green footprint of 10 miles: programmed and implemented in
small plots at the community and neighborhood level, without violating fire department regulations. Every
square foot of this territory could be a bio-swale, a public pocket space, or a low planting bed. On a citywide
level, this could initiate a new Flower-Power movement in which resistance is understood as a productive re-
interpretation of existing [unnecessary] codes in support of the urban ecology.
Prototype notation: THE 10 MILE GARDEN, proposed for the Urban Prototyping event in October 2012, was
understood as a catalyst project in which the fire hydrant sites of the neighborhood were activated on a
temporary basis. The project consisted of three components:
a) Physical intervention in order to identify the sites and to create a new mental map;
b) A grasshopper-driven design toolkit that defined planting patterns and allowed user participation
through the defined design instructions; and,
c) A digital interface and QR code strategy that organized the adoption of fire hydrant sites through citizens
and neighborhood organizations.
The power of the notation lies in its potential to engage multiple citizens simultaneously while that
participation is highly directed through a framework that keeps the large-scale effects in mind. Citizen
participation fosters the development of responsibility and identity and the design script (here defined as a
grasshopper script), ensures a spatial quality, and constrains of the existing code defined as an overarching
design strategy.
Large-scale relevance and global replication: Every American city consists of infrastructural layers, among
which a network of fire hydrants that in total articulate an impressive footprint in those cities. Though the
footprint (which, depending on city code, is limited to 6x6 or 8x8 feet) is of small-scale, its repetition and
networked character carries the potential for a new ecologically-active layer.
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Potential infrastructural application: While budgetary reasons may limit the retrofit mode of reproduction for
this innovation, appropriation of this site category might be adopted by a new zoning code of the fire
hydrant sites integrated early into the design process. This would foster a new green infrastructure.
The biggest potential for THE 10 MILE GARDEN is its implementation in new master plans. Fire hydrant sites
could operate as a network of connected bio-swales or mini gardens that not only add green spaces to the
city but also create a new water system in support of the urban ecology.
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Figure 1: The 10 Mile Garden (Site Strategy, SF Fire Hydrant Footprint, Notational Toolkit, Prototype).
URBANplay// The INSTANT[play]GROUND
Urban Context: INSTANT[play]GROUND is a portable instant game that can fit in a suitcase and travel to
different sites to activate forgotten, unused or misused parts of the city. The game takes no longer than an
hour to install and users can start playing and after several games, IpG is placed back into the suitcase and
can travel to another site. The area is instantly transformed into a play-zone. Within the context of the Urban
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Prototyping event in San Francisco in October 2012, a series of sites were identified (corridor areas, alleys
and residual spaces between buildings); the traveling project was tested as an instant activator to engage
the players and the public audience. The project has a great potential to be used by a wide range of user
groups, be mass-produced therefore globally replicated, and to be a portable urban catalyst to instigate and
support civic engagement and participation.
Prototype notation: The INSTANT[play]GROUND as developed for the UP event was a portable tool and
catalytic agent in which a series of sites could be activated by the instant deployment of the urban game.
The project was developed through three main components:
a) The instant game had to be capable of fitting in a suitcase and to travel from one site to another.
b) A tool-kit composed by the playground (constructed and existing urban floor), a game board (inscribed
actions), and micro-canopy (interim and instant) with a Rule Set able to choreograph the user’s interaction
with the game.
c) A Digital interface acting as a permanent repository of the temporary (play)scapes produces game travel
to different sites enabling contact with different players and audiences.
The strategies embedded in the notation, identified in the tool-kit and rule set, open up to the strong
potential of allowing users to build their own playground within the given framework of instructions. Due to
the games portability and its instant deployment, every time the game is activated a new scenario is
produced (different site and/or different users). The strong potential of the notation process of the project
lies in the capacity of engaging all kinds of user groups and urban sites waiting to be temporarily re-written.
Large-scale relevance and global replication: The IpG project has the potential of transforming many urban
sites in different and diverse cities without any preparatory infrastructure. The game can be adopted by any
type of user (from the individual to the collective organizations to the city officials) inherently setting up the
potential for its replication and open source participation. When IpG occurs the site fostering the game is
immediately generating a transitory public node and aggregation.
Potential infrastructural application: The project could become a permanent activator for already existing or
new urban playgrounds or in general for sites that have been neglected, unused or misused. Also city
officials might adopt the IpG as an instant tool to generate a public node; it can also potentially layer over
any type of existing urban-play site to open up possibilities of long-term master plan implementations.
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Figure 2: The Instant[play]Ground (Site Strategy, Notational Toolkit, Prototype).
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URBANappropriation// Networked Parklets iLOUNGE
Urban context: Within the San Francisco's Pavement to Parks Program, the Parklet Program provides a
platform to repurpose and transform a part of the streetscape, usually comprised by few existing parking
spaces, into a space for the people. One of the key components in the program’s policy is that the space
must remain open and accessible to the public. The iLOUNGE project is developed within this framework
and capitalizes on the parklet program to create a physical network throughout the city that also connects
with the digital space.
Prototype notation: iLOUNGE as proposed for the Urban Prototyping event is understood as a new parklet
typology. Using a modular system, the project can break down into multiple units and be disseminated
throughout the city creating a distributed physical and digital network. The project is consisted of three
components:
a) A physical modular infrastructure acting as an anchor platform.
b) A set of instructions given by material systems that trigger a specific type of programmatic and human
occupation.
c) A set of multimedia devices hacking into the existing wi-fi system of the city in order to generate forms of
distributed network communication.
The power of instructions embedded in the modular system lies in the continuous exchange between the
analog strategies (material systems and narratives) and the digital-hacking strategy. Each module-parklet,
although being physically dislocated, is able to communicate and feed with the others, creating a
responsive-aware network. The project harvests from the existing underused infrastructures of the city,
nesting within the urban fabric and feeding into digital relational systems. The project emphasizes the
concept of networked technologies and their ability to connect people thus creating cyber-hacked
communities.
Large-scale relevance and global replication: The potential of global replication lies in the capacity of the
modular system that supports dislocation throughout the city. Different forms of aggregations can serve
different site typologies while the space articulates a new form of public space. Equipped with wi-fi sensors
that hack into open networks and media screens with which users of this public space can not only interact
with their direct neighbors but with online communities.
Potential infrastructural application: Its potential infrastructural application lies in the potential of
transforming identified territories of parking zones into an interactive network of digital and physical spaces.
The mobility and flexibility of the project allows for the search of ‘fertile’ urban ground where these units can
be anchored to hack existing systems and foster new communities. iLOUNGE is a highly equipped
aggregation public furniture that can be rented by anyone, connecting users on multiple levels.
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Figure 3: The networked iLOUNGE (Site Strategy, Sections, Notational Diagram, Prototype).
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CONCLUSION
The Urban Prototyping event offered an approach that is unique in the administrative realities of our cities.
Defined through the 3 step model - prototyping, replicating and adopting - we were able foster direct
bottom-up participation while the design strategies addressed replicable large scale and long-term
implementation. Though these projects dealt with the recycling of underused territories for social
appropriation the largest potential of Allographic Urbanism lies in the strategic choreography of bottom-up
participation through the design of networked systems, big data collection and widely distributed small-
scale designs that manipulate and improve the intelligence of our cities. This approach capitalizes on the
notational practice as a direct and powerful agent of change that is able to embody open source strategies
as an instrument of collective empowerment. A series of projects have been developed within this
framework - harvesting a fertile ground for future change representing solutions and possibilities for
defining operational parameters. Local Code (Nicholas de Monchaux) is developed as a software tool that
scripts multiple vacant sites as a network within the city according to their environmental capacities. Smart
phone applications like Local Data (Alicia Rouault, Matt Hampel. Prashant Singh) are digital toolkits that
allow communities to collect and manage place-based data production. Urban Sensing FutureSF (German
Aparicio) on the other hand invests into the development of a sensor kit that is available through open
source and that can be built and mounted on house facades by every citizen. The collected data feed into a
database that tracks microclimates and allows designers to understand the complexity of our environment.
This knowledge can be used to design building envelopes that harvest sun and wind energy. What these
approaches all have in common is the utilization of bottom-up power, to take advantage of open-source and
to employ digital technology in order to act faster than top-down administration. A common denominator is
the development of a strategic framework that directs participation and finally serves the large-scale, long-
term urban project.
REFERENCES
Allen, S., 2011. Landform building, discussion Stan Allen, Kenneth Frampton, Hashim Sarkins, Lars Müller
Publishers, Princeton. p. 257.
Allen, S., 2000. Mapping the unmappable, Practice: Architecture, technique and representation, G+B Arts
International, The Netherlands.
Berger, A., 2006. Drosscape. Wasting land in urban America, Princeton Architectural Press, New York.
Bishop, P & Williams, L., 2012. The temporary city, Routledge, London.
Christiaansen, K, van den Born, H, Gietema, R & van Oort, I., 2006. Situation, KCAP, waiting land, Birkhaeuser,
Rotterdam.
Del Signore M & El Khafif, M., 2012. ‘Appropriation of the city. Architecture as a tool for the re-appropriation
of the contemporary city’, TAW Conference.
Kneuer, M & Demmelhuber, T., 2012. ‘The role of new media for democratization processes’, Information for
Political Education, no. 35, Innsbruck, Wien.
Lange, A., 2012. Against kickstarter urbanism, Design Observer,

http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/against-kickstarter-urbanism/34008/
Lefebvre, H., 1970. La revolution urbaine, Gallimand, Collection Idées, Paris.
Quirk, V., 2012. ‘Can you crowdsource a city?’, Arch Daily, 2012
http://www.archdaily.com/tag/diy-urbanism/
Rafkin, J., 2006. ‘Preface’, in S Lahman, Absolutely public, Images Publishing Group Mulgrave.
Shepard M., 2011. Toward the sentient city, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
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HEALTHCARE FACILITIES DESIGNED FOR FLEXIBILITY: THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURE CHANGE IN A

LARGE US PUBLIC AGENCY
Stephen Kendall, Emeritus Professor of Architecture, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana.
Thom Kurmel, TDK Consulting, LLC, Lorton, Virginia.
Karel Dekker, KD Consulting, Voorburg, the Netherlands.
John Becker, Director of Facilities, Defense Health Agency, Washington DC.
Abstract
The US Department of Defense Health Agency (DHA) has an international network of healthcare facilities to serve
personnel serving in the armed forces. The DHA has a budget approximating $3 billion per year for the acquisition
of new facilities and the maintenance and upgrading of existing facilities. Recently, the DHA – driven by a US
government-wide mandate - has made a commitment to a policy of sustainable facilities. DHA leadership
recognized that a key element of a sustainable asset portfolio is that the facilities must be flexible – planned for
the likelihood of expansion, contraction, alteration or change of function or a combination of these – and thus
capable of meeting the challenges of changing missions, patient demographics, medical practices, and medical
technology.
This paper discusses the work being done to introduce flexibility as a high level principle in the DHA policies,
practices and criteria. The paper discusses the recommendations being made to implement flexibility by the
insertion of flexibility requirements in the key guidance documents used by architects and engineers in designing
new and renovating existing DHA facilities. Because many of these are recommended to be mandatory (not
simply incentives), their adoption is expected to require a change in the culture of DHA and in the entire decision-
making chain for the acquisition and management of DHA healthcare facilities.
This paper reports on the recommended flexibility requirements and the culture change required for their full
implementation.
Keywords: Healthcare facilities, flexibility, whole-life performance, sustainability, open building.
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INTRODUCTION
This paper reports on the second of two research contracts with the National Institute of Building Sciences
one of whose clients - the United States Department of Defense Health Agency (DHA) – asked for a.)
Recommendations on introducing flexibility as a high level principle in their policy documents; b.)
Assistance in writing flexibility requirements in acquiring healthcare facilities; and c.) Recommendations for
tracking how their facilities transform over time for the purpose of assessing the merits of mandated
flexibility requirements. DHA’s goal is to assure the long-term value of their facilities portfolio and to assure
the wise investment of approximately $3 billion per year expended in acquiring new and maintaining and
renovating existing facilities worldwide.
The recommendations recognize that the DHA has already adopted measures that lead positively toward a
more flexible portfolio. The effort reported on here has therefore been aimed at several things:
a. Defining the term flexibility as having both technical and decision-making dimensions;
b. Clarification of current developments within the DHA and in the building industry at large
toward flexibility, with particular reference to newly adopted patterns of decision-making;
c. Formulating and describing these developments in a larger conceptual framework (Open
Building), and
d. Making recommendations of mandatory flexibility requirements in the acquisition and
management of the DHA facilities portfolio with the goal of high performance under conditions
of change in medical practices, demographics and building technology.
The recommendations in this (and the first report) are based on four fundamental premises:
• DHA facility design for flexibility in the short, middle and long term (both new construction and
upgrading existing facilities) is best accomplished by the systematic decoupling of decisions according to
life-cycle principles, and by implementation of serial decision-making in acquisition, facilities upgrading
and management processes;
• Acquisition teams should explicitly document capacity for change in submittal documents for each
decision level (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary) supported by scenario planning and cost modeling tools;
• DHA is responsible for monitoring and holding acquisition teams accountable for compliance with
flexibility requirements and to monitor and assess the return-on-investment of implemented flexibility
requirements;
• Implementation of these principles requires a paradigm shift in the DHA towards a life-cycle
management culture, the outcome of which should be improved facility performance and improved
healthcare outcomes.
The Phase II research - undertaken between August 2013 and April 2014 - drew upon insights and data
gained from:
1. The Phase I FLEX report included a literature survey of 70+ books, reports and technical papers
covering more than 30 years; an extensive questionnaire of DHA, Department of Veterans Affairs
and private sector healthcare facilities subject-matter-experts. That report proposed a definition of
flexibility and a recommendation for introduction of a classification and implementation scheme for
implementing flexibility in DHA decision-making.
(http://facilities.health.mil/repository/getFile/10796)
2. A systematic audit of key DHA requirements documents and the World Class Facilities Check List to
identify and critique existing flexibility criteria;
3. Examination of literature on performance requirements in the building industry;
4. Examination of relevant literature on flexibility requirements;
5. Meetings with key DHA leadership and personnel;
6. Developing new and augmenting existing flexibility requirements in the Uniform Facilities Criteria
for Medical Facilities and in the World Class Check List
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FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE FOR ACHIEVING FLEXIBILITY
Acquisition of assets expected to have a long use-value can only come out of decision-making processes
based on a recognition that the built environment is never finished, and that continuous transformation
must be recognized and planned for. Use-value itself is not only a technical term when associated with
health care facilities: the concepts of use and value exist in a social body that understands that the value of
the physical environment is not a static phenomenon but is evolving on the time axis.
Flexibility – like sustainability - is fundamental to a facilities life-cycle (whole-building life) agenda. Even
though flexibility is not an industry standard, it should be a DHA requirement, like LEED and building codes,
and should appear in all design guidance documents, cutting across lines of authority and decision-making.
BACKGROUND
Too often, the term flexibility is used to describe only technical performance or physical characteristics, such
as added floor-to-floor height; or standardization of spaces to enable multiple uses of the same space; and
so on. While technical solutions can be helpful to assure long-lasting (flexible and sustainable) assets, our
studies demonstrate that technical matters alone are insufficient to achieving a flexible building stock, and
sometimes actually thwart long-term utility of facilities if poorly employed. If clients retain decision-making
patterns that result in physical facilities that lack the capacity to adapt, improved technical solutions offered
by product manufacturers, architects and engineers will prove to be insufficient remedies.
Even before commissioning is complete, healthcare facilities are being adjusted and continue to be
transformed in small and large ways, over many years, because of changing priorities, practices and policies.
The concept of “continuum of care” therefore applies not only to people whose health these facilities are
designed to recover and enhance, but to facilities themselves. This suggests that the current focus on near-
term planning, budgeting, funding, design, construction, commissioning and outfitting of facilities must be
supplanted by a longer view of continuous transformation. This long view must be supported by scenario
planning and cost modeling (as outlined in the Phase I Flexibility Report – pgs. 153-174 -
http://facilities.health.mil/repository/getFile/10796) and by data collection necessary for evaluating the
return on investment of flexibility strategies. “Facilities maintenance” may not be an adequate concept or
term of reference for the realities facing MHS assets. More “open ended” and “continuous improvement”
attitudes and methods of accounting and management are needed, if the DHA expects its facilities to be
sustainable and to provide continuous world-class operational and physical performance.
To support the flexibility principle outlined above, the Phase I Flexibility report recommended adoption of a
serial decision-making model for managing uncertainty and change. Adoption of this model will enable
greater transparency and more effective and rapid corrective policy and acquisition measures. This model is
based on the principle of decoupling parts of a facility having long term utility from the parts having shorter-
term utility (System Separation). This model is partly in use in the DHA with the Initial Outfitting and
Transition contract (IO&T) as a separate acquisition activity, and with the use of “incremental funding
waivers” in fast-track projects, allowing, for example, funding for an early “foundation package” before
design of the rest of the building in detail is completed.
The model is conventional in the commercial real estate markets in the United States and internationally.
This may seem unusual because commercial real estate decision-makers are considered to have very short-
term interests: quick profits and turn-around and aversion to risk. Perhaps because of these tendencies
investors have learned to be very “agile” (another word for flexible). The principle of decoupling is also
evident in large infrastructure planning and operations, such as highways (highways are decoupled from the
vehicles using them) and utility systems (electrical power transmission lines are designed with the capacity
to accommodate a range of (changing) downstream user demands controlled by independent agents). The
serial model has three “system levels:”
• PRIMARY SYSTEM (Base Building - an “open building:” structure, skin and primary mechanical, electrical
and plumbing systems)
• SECONDARY SYSTEM (Fit-out – all components and spaces directly supporting functionality, including the
parts of the overall mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems specific to a given program of functions)
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• TERTIARY SYSTEM (Furnishings, fixtures and equipment – short-term investments such as equipment,
furnishings, consumables)
Figure 1: (source: Office of Properties and Buildings, Canton Bern, Switzerland).

Translating the principle in Figure 1 into an acquisition-sequencing model, the recommended sequence
(bottom sequence Figure 2 below) is actually an evolution from the recently implemented separation of
IO&T (Initial Outfitting and Transition) contracts (as shown in the middle diagram in Figure 2 below).
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Figure 2: Evolution from a parallel to a serial decision-making process. The “old” procurement model may be
suitable for simple projects. But the greater the project size and complexity, the longer the critical path to
realization is, and the greater the chance that the investment will undergo significant transformation later, the
more important decoupling and sequencing of decisions becomes.
The principle understanding embodied in this decision-making sequence (for new construction and for
comprehensive reactivation of existing facilities) is that all facts and requirements cannot be known at once -
at the beginning of a many-decades-long process from decision-to-build/renovate, through appropriations,
commissioning, move-in and later adaptation to new requirements. Decisions are inescapably made
sequentially during initial acquisition and then continuously over the life of the facility. How could it be
otherwise?
Design decision-making for facilities should be decoupled based on the expected lifecycle (use-value) of the
system “level” concerned. That is, the tertiary system can change without excessive disruption of the
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secondary system; and the secondary system (representing evolving DHA mission, functional and space
requirements) can change with minimal disruption of the primary system, an investment designed to be
useful over a long period of time.
ANALYZING DHA DOCUMENTS IN PREPARATION FOR WRITING NEW FLEXIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Two DHA documents were analyzed in preparation for making recommendations for flexibility
requirements. First was the UFC 4-510-01 (Uniform Facilities Criteria for Medical Facilities). Hundreds of
pages long, it is periodically updated and has been the principle vehicle by which facility design
requirements are promulgated. The second was the World Class Facilities Check-list, a public access website
which undergoes continuous updating. UFC 4-510-01 requirements were analyzed and an assessment made
as to how pertinent existing requirements are to flexibility. An Excel chart was used to:
1) Indicate relevance of existing requirements to flexibility by assigning them numbers 1, 2 and 3: 1
means no relevance; 2 means moderate relevance and 3 means high relevance;
2) Introduce the distinction between Primary, Secondary and Tertiary systems, and with an "X"
depict the relevance of the UFC paragraph to one or more of these levels.
This analysis led to recommendations to augment the text of current UFC Flexibility Requirements.
ANALYZING THE UFC DESIGN SUBMITTALS
The Design Submittals contained in the UFC 4-510-01 are instrumental because they instruct architects and
engineers in the preparation of drawings and specifications at each mandated design submission:
Conceptual, Schematic, Design Development and so on. Because implementing flexibility necessities that
architects and engineers explicitly demonstrate how they are complying with the requirements, and the
client must monitor compliance, the Design Submittal requirements are – and will be – an essential
instrument in implementing flexibility.
Because a direct relationship exists between the thirteen recommended UFC flexibility requirements
(discussed later) and the UFC Appendix C Design Submittals requirements, it is important to make an explicit
link between these as well.
If flexibility is to be implemented successfully across the DHA portfolio, the Design Submittals required of
architects and engineers must be periodically assessed and revised. The client (DHA) must develop the
methods, skills and culture to update these requirements as experience is gained and maintain vigilance of
compliance over time.
The work of adjusting the Design Submittals was not part of the research contract and is therefore not
reported on in this paper but is recommended for further study. However, the full analysis on the basis of
which such development can be done was included in the final report.
THIRTEEN RECOMMENDED AMENDMENTS AND ADDITIONS TO THE FLEXIBILITY REQUIREMENTS IN

THE WORLD CLASS CHECK LIST
A comprehensive examination of the World Class Facilities checklist revealed several flexibility requirements,
indicated in BOLD/ITALICS in the full list of recommendations below.
- Site Capacity
- BUILDING EXPANSION FLEXIBILITY
- GEOMETRY OF THE STRUCTURAL SYSTEM
- NATURAL LIGHT
- Floor-to-Floor Height Requirement
- Loading Capacity of Floors
- Minimal Internal Structural Walls
- Flexible Facades
- Separate Systems
- Layout and MEP flexibility for the Secondary System
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- Opportunity for Vertical Mechanical Equipment in the Future

- MULTIFUNCTIONAL USE OF ROOMS
- Capacity for Variable Inpatient Bedroom Sizes
Based on extensive review of best practices in the industry worldwide, and following the principles
enunciated in the official report, the existing requirements (BOLD) were augmented and additional
requirements were added, as listed above. All of these were provided in the final report, following the World
Class Facilities Check-List format.
Because of the importance placed on System Separation in implementing sequential decision-making, one
of the World Class Flexibility Requirements focuses on and offers examples for architects and engineers in
adhering to the principle of System Separation. This is given below.
SYSTEM SEPARATION
Strategy information
Technical separation of systems (Primary, Secondary,
Tertiary) is a question for the design team and the client.
In general, decisions about Tertiary system elements (i.e.
IO&T) should be de-coupled from decisions about the
Secondary system, and decisions about functional layout
and departmental adjacencies (Secondary system)
should be decoupled from decisions about the Primary
system to the greatest extent possible. Among other
capabilities, this must result in a building enabling work
on one floor (reconfiguration, change of spatial layout,
change of equipment and fixtures) to be accomplished
rapidly with no or minimal disturbance to activities on
other floors.
MHS GUIDING PRINCIPLES CORE DIMENSIONS

4 Improve Operational Effectiveness 16 Adaptability, Flexibility and Future Planning
6 Provide high value and be good stewards of taxpayer 17 Building System Performance and
money Maintainability
8 Design for maximum flexibility, standardization and
growth 20 Cost effectiveness and reduction
RESEARCH SUMMARY [+]
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This flexibility strategy calls for adoption of a basic management and decision-making principle
corresponding to the reality that healthcare facilities, once built and commissioned, inevitably face physical
transformation over time to allow them to maintain value.
The key to the acquisition of assets with long-term value is decoupling decisions based on three "systems:"
Primary System (75 year asset value); Secondary System (20 year asset value) and Tertiary System (3-10 year
asset value).
To assure that the Primary system is not dependent on the Secondary system, and the Secondary system is
not dependent on the Tertiary system (i.e. IO&T), the implementation of a serial decision-making process is
recommended, replacing the “decide everything-at-once” decision-making process that is fast being
replaced by smart clients around the world who value a long-term, life-cycle ROI.
This is a fundamental principle of any built environment that lasts; that continues to transform over time. The
key is well-organized decision deferment, to enable timely decisions about and acquisition of the most
current functional layout, medical technology and design knowledge – but not before it is needed.
For budget authorization, whole building budgets can be established based on accurate estimates of the
Primary System, while cost estimates for the Secondary and Tertiary systems – to be specified and acquired
in later stages - are based on benchmarked estimates.
Flexibility must be an established criterion as part of decision-making in all phases of the life cycle and
specifically in planning, programming, design, acquisition, construction quality control and in operation.
Approaching project planning this way enables control over smaller and more executable scopes of work,
resulting in more flexibility (and accountability) in programming and budgeting.
The same principle should guide the partial or total renovation of older facilities to "reset them" for a long
and useful ROI.
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DESIGN IMPLICATIONS [+]

Primary System: Known as the "base building" or "core and shell" in the commercial market, this decision level consists of ph
elements with the longest utility value (75+ years) for the project at hand. Generally, this includes building access; the b
(possibly planned for vertical and/or horizontal expansion); the building facade; primary vertical MEP shafts and sleeves a
future MEP shafts, and primary vertical egress stairs and elevator shafts (or shafts for their eventual installation). The decisio
the total MEP systems are in the Primary System is decided for each project, but in general, facility flexibility necessitates that
elements are in the Secondary System, while space is assured for them in the Primary System design. This decision, like othe
decisions, is finalized after completing the capacity analysis (called "test fits" in the commercial market) and cost modelin
exercises. In general, flexibility requires that MEP systems serving a given space be accessible to and from that space, to r
other primary functions when changes are made. The most difficult is drainage piping which is usually positioned in the ceilin
space below the space served. Not only does this add complexity to the plenum space but it is a violation of the basic princ
Therefore, every effort should be made to avoid floor penetrations for drainage piping except at locations planned-in to the
The principle goal is to assure that the Primary System can accommodate a variety of floor plan and equipment layouts ove
function (e.g. cluster or linear surgical suite layouts, not just one or the other), as well as changes of function (surgery to labo
Primary System (like a highway) is not dependent on the secondary system (like the design of the highway is not dependen
vehicle), but offers space for variable and changing secondary systems.
Secondary System: Known as "tenant work" or "fit-out" in the commercial market (with their associated depreciation schedu
level consists of physical and spatial elements tied directly to functional requirements. Detailed programming for the sec
undertaken after the Primary System is under construction, within the constraints of the Primary System (understood as the
first or subsequently installed secondary systems, on one or severall floors). Generally, this decision level includes partitioni
layer, and all MEP components supporting the secondary system being installed. (see design implications) Special attention
the provision of secondary system components that can be rapidly removed, repositioned or replaced with minimal disruptio
processes in adjacent areas (beside, or above or below). It is also critical that the secondary system design demonstrate that w
made to the tertiary system (e.g. medical equipment), the replacement or upgrading of the equipment can be done
disturbance to the Secondary System.
Tertiary System: Known as FF&E (fixtures, furnishings and equipment) in the commercial market or, generally, the IO&T (Init
Transition) in DHA contracts, this decision level consists of "movable" components that have no permanent connection
primary or secondary systems or their utilities. NOTE: the boundary between Secondary and Tertiary Systems is evolving. S
combine Secondary and Tertiary system components in one proprietary "product line;" others deliver "open" systems that are
components from a variety of manufacturers. Therefore, decisions regarding the separation of Secondary and Tertiary Syste
extent project specific, and depend on cost, service provider value and long-term return-on-investment. This issue is projec
the most significant in reducing cost of healthcare facilities, in reducing "down-time," and in improving healthcare facility o
future.
IMAGES [+]
898
Primary
Primary
for variable Secondary System layouts (e.g. Surgery, Labs, Intensive Care
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The MATRIX TILE is a solid material (e.g. medium density polystyrene) applied on top of the leveled base building floor. Th
approximately 4” (four inches). Grooves of various sizes and located in several horizontal “zones” allow the secure pla
interference, of lines or conduits for various services, such as hot and cold water lines, gray-water drain lines (0-slope), hydro
to radiators, floor heating, flat ventilation ducts, gas pipes and so on. This “tile” is covered by a 1” (one inch thick) fireproof
lines and conduits are installed. Metal stud partitions are erected on this floor covering and any finish floor covering can be in
Just-in-Time planning
SERIAL DECISION MAKING: Transitioning from a process that produces rigid buildings to a process that sets up a facility for
inevitable change.
900
Primary/se
systems
901
A given floor of the Primary System has the capacity for many secondary system layouts
METRICS [+]
1: ROI Evaluation (Potential costs, Cost savings, & ROI) Few published studies exist on the ROI of system
Canton Bern Office of Properties and Buildings
public agency) has implemented more th
separation" projects. In the UK, a healthcar
University of Bath hospital using system sepa
(under construction April-Sept 2014) is projecte
15% and construction time by 30%.
2. Design Review Considerations:
Design review considerations for system

significant. Design submittals by the A/E servic
include drawings up to (if not beyond) 1
demonstrating that the Primary System can
variety of Secondary System solutions - includin
showing capacity/alternatives. These must be
driven scenario planning. Similar demonstrati
necessary also for the Secondary System (sho
accommodate changing equipment over time
disturbance to the primary activities of the facili
902
3. Potential Mockup/Prototype/Simulations: Simulations can be useful, as long as it is und

point is not to choose ONE alternative but to
system level for a variety of changing configura
lower level. Leading companies already provi
prototype capability, particularly for secondar
solutions.
POE studies have not yet incorporated mediu

4. Post Occupancy Information Collections: studies of how buildings change, but perhaps th
DHA should have a research unit or sh
continuing research into the long-term effi
flexibility strategies, and to draw lessons from
5. Focused Research Options: sectors and other countries.
REFERENCES [+]
Year, Authors,Title Summary
1993, Iselin, D, et al. The Fourth Dimension in Building: Sgtrategies for
Minimizing Obsolescence. Washington DC. National Academy Press.
2008, Astley, P and Robinson, H. Future Adaptation of NHS Buildings and
Procurement Reform: System Separation Concepts. London: HaCIRIC,
Imperial College London.
2008, Kendall, Stephen. Open Building: Healthcare Architecture on the
Time Axis: A New Approach. In Guenther, R. and Vittori, G. (eds).
Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, New York, Wiley.
1990, Prins, M., Bax, Carp,Templemans Plat. A Decision Support System for
Building Flexibility and Costs. Design and Decision Support Systems in
Architecture. Kluwer Academic Publishers, the Netherlands.
1990, Templemans Plat, H. Towards a Flexibile Stock of Buildings: The
Provlem of Cost Calculations for buildings in the Long Run. Proceedings,
CIB World Congress, New Zealand.
2012, Kendall, Kurmel, Dekker, HEALTHCARE FACILITIES DESIGN FOR The MHS has made a commitment to cond
FLEXIBILITY: http://facilities.health.mil/repository/getFile/10796 healthcare facilities design for flexibility, w
identifying methods to improve the proce
healthcare facilities to assure that they produce
and continue to serve the evolving MHS core m
2002, Kendall, Stephen. "Performance on Levels." in Measurement and
Management of Architectural Value in Performance Based Building.
Proceedings of the CIB W60/W96 Joint Conference on Performance
Concept in Building and Architectural Management. Hong Kong. CIB
Publication 283.
RECOMMENDED AMENDMENT TO CURRENT TEXT IN THE UFC 1-200-01 – HIGH PERFORMANCE AND
SUSTAINABILITY REQUIREMENTS
The DHA asked for recommendations in linking flexibility to the existing principle mandated across all
Federal Government agencies of achieving High Performance and Sustainable infrastructure and facilities.
Our report recommended the following language:
903
“Achieving high performance and sustainable – i.e. long lasting – installations and facilities necessitates their
continued optimum functionality over time – that is, they must be flexible. This extends UFC 1-200-01’s
mandate to include the economic benefits and human satisfaction needed for long-lasting facilities. The
tenet of flexibility in the UFC 4-510-01 and the flexibility requirements recommended for inclusion in the
World Class Facilities Check List must be met for all DHA installations and facilities, newly constructed or
acquired, or already in service. Installations and facilities constructed prior to the introduction of current and
recommended high performance, sustainable and flexibility criteria must undergo strategic, systemic
upgrades, preparing them for long-term value under conditions of change.”
It should be noted that the LEED v4 for Building Design and Construction (Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design) includes a section pertaining to “design for flexibility”
applied to healthcare facilities with the following intent: “Conserve resources associated
with the construction and management of buildings by designing for flexibility and ease
of future adaptation and for the service life of components and assemblies.” 7V4 also
includes LEED BD+C: Core and Shell, which is equivalent generally speaking to Primary
System.
LINKING FLEXIBILITY TO PRINCIPLES OF RESILIENCY AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
We were also asked to link flexibility to the principles of resiliency. Discussions with leading experts and by
reviewing recent literature lead to the following assessment. Both resiliency – the ability to withstand and
recover from extreme natural and human-caused events – and capacity to adapt to climate change relate
strongly to flexibility. While the causes of facility change differ (evolving functional and satisfaction factors
over time drive the need for flexibility) the required facility performance common to all has to do with
reducing the ripple effects of change in one part of a facility to all parts of that facility or installation.
In decision-making for flexibility, an economic and political (social/organizational/behavioral) assessment is

required to evaluate the efficacy and return on investment of implementing a given flexibility strategy from
a portfolio of candidate strategies. The same assessment is needed in preparing a facility for resiliency and
capacity to adapt to climate change.
That is, if flexibility is achieved, resilience and capacity to adapt to climate change are easier to achieve. That
said, some of the recommended flexibility strategies are demonstrably more relevant in achieving resiliency
and climate change adaptability than others. A thorough analysis of and elaboration of these points of
convergence is needed.
As an example, Cambridge University and Loughborough University in the UK are engaged in developing
strategies for upgrading existing healthcare facilities to accommodate climate change (e.g. rising ambient
temperature), focusing on energy systems upgrades that will not increase energy budgets. A flexible
building implementing several of the strategies we recommend would go a long way to supporting such
upgrading.
LINKING FLEXIBILITY AND SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS – MOVING BEYOND TECHNIQUE
Up to now, the discourse on high performance and sustainable buildings - in published technical reports,
academic and industry conferences, in client organizations and among service providers - has been largely
devoid of a fundamental rethinking of decision-making patterns. The discourse has focused on technique,
not control (who decides what, when). Discussion about technique is preferred because of its presumed
objectivity and purported grounding in technical rationality.
!
7
(http://www.usgbc.org/sites/default/files/LEED%20v4%20ballot%20version%20(BDC)%20-
%2013%2011%2013.pdf).
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Discussions about control, on the other hand, inevitably encounter questions of the distribution of control
(no single person can control everything), for which there are no “right” answers that can be justified by
technical rationality. The literature also calls this “task partitioning.” Organizations steeped in the culture of
technical rationality, but who also must inescapably operate in complex patterns of distributed control, do
not have good theory on which to establish policy and practices linking technique and control: thus the
avoidance of systematic restructuring of decision-making. This difficulty is particularly evident in a large
governmental organization such as the DHA which have grown larger over time and which accumulate
patterns of decision making with few opportunities for a thorough overhaul.
Based on the above observation, a high-level tenet is important to include in the introduction section of the
newly published UFC 1-200-01 (Uniform Facilities Criteria High Performance and Sustainable Building
Requirements). In the interim, these principles can be implemented in the medical facilities infrastructure by
including them in the UFC 4-510-01and in the World Class Checklist.
CONCLUSIONS: ADJUSTMENTS IN THE CLIENT ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
To successfully implant a flexible (and high performance and sustainable) facility methodology as a normal
way of doing business, DHA must develop the needed expertise and tools, as well as clear requirements to
monitor and enforce a key principle: facility changes should have minimal consequences for the primary
processes of the facility in adjacent areas, or above or below the affected floor area of the facility. This
principle is relevant for new construction and for the reactivation or renovation of existing buildings.
Therefore, building elements and spaces with an expected long life should be strictly and explicitly
decoupled from building elements and spaces with shorter expected use lives. This decoupling must be
implemented in all phases including the planning, budgeting, design and construction (and renovation)
processes.
The reason for decoupling is to assure that the change of a building element with a short life (e.g. an
element serving a specific function) does not require disruption or change (or only minimal change quickly
accomplished) of an element with an expected long life (i.e. an element or configuration that supports many
building functions). For example, changing a wall with an expected short life should not require demolishing
the structure; changing an electrical outlet should not require demolishing the wall it follows.
Within each of the three “systems levels” (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary), it is possible to find “fixed” and
“variable” parts. For instance, the façade is assigned to the primary system. But within the “façade” category,
some parts may need to be replaced or upgraded more frequently than other parts (e.g. windows may need
to be replaced before the entire building cladding comes due for replacement; in that case, the building
envelope as such is “fixed” and the windows are “variable”).
There is no precise or scientific basis for decoupling or for deciding what should have a long asset life and
what should have a short (or shorter) useful life. Part of the reasoning is certainly technical. But an equally if
not more important set of criteria has to do with what could be called “interests.” Decentralized interests
may not be as easily discernable in a top-down organization such as DHA or other large, centralized
organizations, as compared to large private healthcare systems with many geographically disbursed, semi-
autonomous facilities such as, for example, Sutter, St. Joseph or Ascension Health Care Systems.
What is common across these cases is that a hierarchy of interests exists. At the highest level are interests in
the long-term survival and maintenance of the asset base. In the case of the DHA, it is the US Congress. They
are in the game for the very long haul. On the other end of the hierarchy of interests are the doctors and
other caregivers. They are the direct service providers and are ethically and professionally committed to
offering the best care with the best medicine, technology and personnel. A model may explain, in which
system levels are paired with “interests”:
PRIMARY SYSTEM Central Organization (Agency, Governing Board)
SECONDARY SYSTEM Local Healthcare Facility Management Group
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TERTIARY SYSTEM Doctors and Nurses
Needless to say, this practice of linking physical systems with “interests” has become conventional best
practice in the bulk of commercial property development in much of the world and is increasingly found in
other use types such as laboratories, institutional and multi-family residential properties. This model, when
adopted for use in DHA facilities, will enable not only a positive return on investment, but also a more
effective and fluid transfer of knowledge, experience and innovation between the private sector and the
DHA, despite inevitable and important differences.
IT IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE TO GET THE PRIMARY SYSTEM RIGHT
This imperative is not unlike the necessary importance placed on getting the urban transportation and
public space structure “right,” because it sets the stage for 100+ years of evolution of the urban fabric. In that
case, the street corridors and public parks together constitute a “fixed” configuration, while the public
utilities that circulate in or under these public spaces, and the various and changing uses of these spaces, are
“variable.”
For similar reasons, the greatest emphasis must be placed on primary system longevity (and energy
efficiency) in the face of inevitable functional and operational evolution in healthcare. The primary system
should be built to offer long-term utility value to society, the client and the character of the urban fabric it is
part of. This means that the primary system planning cannot be allowed to be dependent only on current
knowledge, preferences and data.
This is the first and most important decoupling and is the most difficult to implement in an organizational
culture used to operating with a model of unified top-down control in which all parts are equally dependent
on all other parts. Therefore, most of the recommended flexibility requirements focus on getting the primary
system “right,” and getting it decoupled from the secondary system.
FLUIDITY OF THE SECONDARY AND TERTIARY SYSTEMS
International research shows that the state-of-the-art in secondary systems (mirroring evolving functional
requirements, medical practices, etc.) and tertiary systems (constituting the movable equipment now
undergoing the most rapid evolution and miniaturization) for medical facilities is already well on its way to
the needed flexibility (decoupling). For example, comprehensive healthcare “systems” offered by large
vendors such as Herman Miller and Steelcase (to name just two) illustrate the extent to which the boundary
between secondary and tertiary systems is being blurred: walls, equipment and some MEP systems
components are being bundled, with interfaces resolved within the “product” of one provider – often patent
protected. These interfaces are not as well understood, when different companies deliver and install
elements of attempted “integrated” solutions.
In the “open market,” the interfaces between secondary and tertiary systems that must be solved on-site are
very much in flux, as evidenced by a careful reading of IO&T contracts (Initial Outfitting and Transition –
equivalent in large measure to the Tertiary System). In these contracts, interdependencies between these
two levels are repeatedly indicated and are repeatedly the source of problems: quality control, re-work, and
litigation over the locus of responsibility.
Further work is needed to develop smart flexibility requirements for the secondary and tertiary systems. This
will also require further consideration of interfaces “on” and “between” system levels in products and
components offered in the “open” market (now international).
An example of an interface “on” a level is the interface between electrical cable distribution and walls “on”
the secondary system level is quite problematic and needs work. New solutions are available but their
introduction can be disruptive to conventional arrangements between stakeholders who do not want to
change their habits or supply chain relationships.
An example of an interface “between” levels is the electrical cabling at the primary system level and the
secondary system, and between secondary system (walls) and tertiary system (equipment).
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The development of performance-based flexibility requirements for such interfaces (and there are many)
requires a separate research effort.
A SHIFT OF PERSPECTIVE IS REQUIRED
FROM TO
•Assets understood as static •Assets understood as subject to

transformation
•Decision making focused on the •Decision making over time (assets initial acquisition
of an asset will be transformed over time)
•Flexibility focused on technology •Flexibility focused on sequenced decision-
making over the life of the facility
•Flexibility separated from sustainability •Flexibility ENABLING sustainability
•Flexibility as an option •Flexibility as a requirement
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER ACTIONS
The recommendations made in the final report subject to review by the client organization along with a
number of recommendations for further action, outlined here.
1. AUDIT and REVISE EXISTING CRITERIA: (to de-conflict and improve the workability of existing
and improved criteria)
1.1 REVIEW EXISTING DOCUMENTS: Complete a thorough review of all existing criteria documents
(UFC’s, WCC, MDI, SEPS, 1691, etc.), to identify and if needed delete, synchronize and/or augment existing
flexibility requirements in those documents.
1.2 UPDATE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Review and revise the Design Submission requirements in
Appendix C of the UFC 5-410-01 to align with new flexibility requirements, and develop a compliance check
list.
1.3 DEVELOP METHODS TO PRICE AND ACQUIRE SECONDARY AND TERTIARY SYSTEMS.
Implementation of serial decision-making as recommended in this report necessitates development of
pricing (e.g. benchmarking) and acquisition methods for the Secondary and Tertiary systems, separated
from the Primary System. This is necessary to establish total budget requests for appropriation purposes.
2. FLEXIBILITY OF EXISTING FACILITIES (Demonstrating efficacy of implemented flexibility

strategies and developing criteria for improving the performance of existing buildings)
2.1 AUDIT EXISTING ASSETS: Conduct an analysis of several existing DHA facilities in which flexibility
strategies were implemented, and to which additions and/or adjustments have been made, to assess the
extent to which the additions and/or adjustments diverged from implemented flexibility strategies. For
example, we recommend an analysis of several DOD Integrated Building System or other so-called flexible
projects and their additions and/or adjustments.
2.2 DEVELOP AUDIT METHODS AND CRITERIA FOR UPGRADING EXISTING FACILITIES FOR LIFE-
CYCLE PERFORMANCE: Flexibility requirements for EXISTING FACILITIES should be developed and inserted
into the UFC and WC Check-list. This is critical to the DHA asset portfolio in the coming decades as more
resources are applied to upgrading the existing building stock to meet changing requirements. Such criteria
should include measures such as “selective surgery” and installation of “strategic implants” to set up existing
facilities for future flexible performance. This could be called “Activation of Existing Assets” and may be part
of DODI 6015.17.
2.3 DEVELOP A PERFORMANCE-BASED METRIC FOR CHANGE OF FUNCTIONS OVER TIME: This
system should set performance criteria for implemented flexibility STRATEGIES, defining the time allowed
for several kinds of facility adjustments/upgrades. This includes a matrix of hospital functions and defines
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three classes of transformation – e.g. change of function (more to less complexity), setting out performance
requirements based on the time needed to implement them.
3. METHODS FOR TRACKING FACILITY TRANSFORMATION
3.1 DEVELOP A SCENARIO PLANNING TEMPLATE BASED ON USE: Such a TEMPLATE should be part
of all DHA facilities processes, to be used by architect/engineering teams, working with clients in planning
facility upgrades, additions or alterations. The goals are: 1) to assure that facility planning avoids use of only
one “program of requirements” as the basis for its design; and 2) to assure appropriate uniformity of
assumptions and criteria across the portfolio.
3.2 CREATE AN INFORMATION COLLECTION AND TRACKING TOOL: Given current efforts on DMLSS,
“BUILDER” (i.e. Medical BUILDER), should be augmented or a new procedure developed to track the
facility upgrades, additions or alterations and the impact of the already implemented flexibility measures in
that buildings.
4. INITIATE A PERIODIC SHARED LEARNING FORUM: Establish an industry forum to engage the
private sector in improving acquisition (design and construction) and long-term asset management
(adaptation and facility renewal) methods and tools. An example is the Strategic Roadmap Webinar Series
conducted in 2012-2013).
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DEFINING FORMS OF COLLABORATIVE LIVING IN MODERN CHINA
Yiwei LIU, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, liuyiyi@hku.hk
Beisi JIA, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, bjiaa@hku.hk
Abstract
The increase in social and environmental problems caused by rapid industrialization and urbanization has
prompted the Chinese government to seek sustainable and affordable approaches to social housing.
Collaborative housing has been regarded as a spontaneous form of social housing since the early 20th century.
This study identifies the forms and characteristics of collaborative living in urban China since around 1949 and
considers the role of social housing construction. The study analyzes various scenarios of collaborative living in
different periods in modern urban China and points out that collaborative housing used to be the chief housing
provision for residents who were unable to access the housing market. These scenarios of collaborative living are
examined in terms of motivation and original intention, community plan and design, physical form and scale, the
residents’ role and structure, and financing and ownership to determine the reasons that motivate short-lived
experiments of collaborative housing in China. Collaborative housing in Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
the United States, and Australia are also investigated to determine how collaborative housing can be applied in
different contexts and how collaborative housing is capable of spatially balancing privacy and community.
Suggestions for future collaborative housing are generated from this comparison. The findings of the study
emphasize that collaborative housing is capable of providing an alternative approach to high-quality and low-
price social housing in China.
Keywords: forms of collaborative living, collaborative housing, social housing, cohousing model,
sustainable low-price community.
INTRODUCTION
Chinese modern urban housing emerged in the late 19th century after the Opium War (Lv et al. 2001). The
rise of capitalism accelerated the growth and highly centralized population in open port cities and colonial
settlements, and the large and urgent urban housing requirement gave rise to an early form of real estate in
China. Thereafter, urban housing construction was gradually transformed from traditional family
constructed housing to modern commercial construction. The People’s Republic of China was founded in
1949, and since then, the socialist ideology stipulated the transference of almost all forms of urban housing
into state ownership. A welfare housing system and the household registration system Hukou were
established in urban areas under a planned economy. As in the urban housing crises in Europe in the 18th
century, the rapid urbanization and industrialization of China in the past three decades have led to an
increase in serious environmental and social problems. The issue of urban housing is the most severe
problem that which must be solved imminently.
China’s economic reforms, which were begun in 1979, solved the serious urban housing shortage in the
1970s. The majority of ordinary Chinese citizens experienced significant improvements in housing
conditions and living standards after the marketization and privatization of urban housing (Zhang 1998).
China’s real estate market became a key integral component of the institutional transition from a planned
economy to a socialist market-oriented economy in the late 1980s, and it boomed and evolved in the 1990s.
Scholars note that the marketization of housing in China successfully brought about huge economic and
social benefits (Zhang 2000, Lee & Zhu 2006, Man 2011, Shaw 1997, Wang & Murie 1996). However, this
marketization has rapidly accelerated in terms of both transaction volume and housing price since 1995. As
a result, the capacity of residents for adequate payment has become a crucial issue and has aroused wide
public concern. The unpredictable high housing costs and housing inequality are attributable to the over-
emphasis of the housing market on profit-making, which exacerbates the inability of the majority of the
urban population, particularly the urban poor, to access housing. In the late 1990s, affordable social housing
(Baozhang fang) emerged in China as a form of social security for urban low-income families and as a
solution to the crisis of urban housing inequality. However, the benefits that were supposed to be reaped
from affordable housing are still not obvious until today. Instead, the tightly fit functional housing design
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has resulted in unsuitable housing plans for present living conditions and serious housing obsolescence (Jia
1998), which in turn results in huge resource waste and environment pollution.
The increase in social and environmental requirements of urban housing has prompted the Chinese
government to seek housing approaches that are more sustainable and affordable than previous
approaches. A series of policies was issued in 2005 to regulate the real estate and control the rise in housing
price. Non-profit housing activities were also encouraged to further diversify the forms of housing provision.
Collaborative housing is a form of non-profit housing that has provided housing to urban low-income
residents since the early 20th century. However, this type of housing is rarely mentioned in discussions of
the present social housing context of China. In the late 2000s, a wave of grassroots-funded housing in some
Chinese cities aroused much public attention. Almost all such attempts failed, but they called attention to
the expectation and demand of the public for collaborative housing. Many researchers and scholars have
identified the following social, environmental, and economic benefits of collaborative form of housings,
which make them attractive to the public and the government (Williams 2005b, Vestbro 2012, Scanzoni
1999, Brenton 2013, Bamford 2005, Garciano 2009, Pretty & Ward 2001, Torres-Antonini 2001, Meltzer 2000,
Marcus & Dovey 1991, Williams 2005a):
! The empowerment of residents improves the social networks and cohesion in communities and causes
various social benefits of cohousing. Such benefits include the following: overcoming the exclusion of
women and single parents from the workforce, improving the quality of leisure time of families and
children, providing a solution to the alienation of modern neighborhoods and suburban communities,
providing affordable accommodation, and offering an additional option for the informal care of elderly
or disabled people. For young people or low-income residents, the resident-led nature of collaborative
housing provides opportunities to acquire life skills and to practice working in groups.
! Collaborative neighborhoods are environment-friendly and reduce consumption because of the mixed
use of space and the sharing of various resources, such as communal facilities or services.
! The potential of collaborative housing to deliver local services or facilities contributes to a reduction in
local funds for public facilities and services.
Unlike traditional forms of accommodation in communal spaces and facilities, collaborative housing is
distinctive for its provision of independent private living within a cohesive community through non-
hierarchical social structures, residential self-management, and separate income. The balance between
private homes and communal spaces, between work outside the community and activities inside the
community, between individual finance and community management enables residents to balance their
private living requirements and social needs.
This study investigates previous forms of collaborative housing in modern urban China. Various scenarios of
shared living in different periods are illustrated and evaluated to establish the line evolution that the
collaborative housing practices in the country have taken. These forms of collaborative housing are then
analyzed and compared in terms of motivation and original intention, community plan and design, physical
form and scale, residents’ role and structure, and financing and ownership to determine the factors behind
the country’s failure to develop a mature form of collaborative housing. The study then focuses on the
successful and unique forms of collaborative housing in Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United
States, and Australia to raise suggestions for reactivating collaborative housing as an effective part of social
housing in China. By identifying the forms of collaborative living in modern urban China and by comparing
them with other collaborative housing experiences in the world, this paper determines the role of
collaborative living in the housing provision for urban low-income Chinese families in the past and future.
FORMS OF COLLABORATIVE LIVING IN MODERN URBAN CHINA
As an indispensable part of Chinese residential culture, collaborative and shared living based on kinship and
geographical relationship used to be the common living style of the agrarian age. The Opium War broke the
self-contained nature of Chinese society and gave birth to an extensive industrialization, which accelerated
the rapid growth of Chinese cities and gave rise to various urban housing problems for the first time (Zhang
1998). The evolution of modern urban housing in China can be divided into three parts (Lv et al. 2001): the
early period before 1949, the socialist-planned housing from 1949 to 1978, and the marketization of the
housing market beginning in 1979.
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The early period before 1949

In the early 20th century, Chinese cities suffered from poor housing conditions because of the continuing
wars and rapid increase of the urban population. Serious shortages of land and housing also reduced the
size of urban families (Qiao 1992). Since the 1920s, a large number of shared courtyard houses emerged in
some northern boomtowns as housing provision for immigrant workers and low-income families. The
courtyard house was the fundamental vernacular housing type in northern China. Under this arrangement,
the original one-family courtyard house was occupied by several families, sometimes even by a dozen or
several dozens of families (Lv et al. 2001). This type of shared courtyard house was therefore named the
‘compound house’ (Da Zayuan or Juzhu Dayuan). It usually consisted of two or three floors with open
corridors and was located around the original central courtyard (Figure 1). The courtyard was a multi-
functional space for the residents’ communal lives. The shared toilet, water pipe, sewers, and staircases were
located inside the courtyard. Although the thermal comfort, sanitary conditions, and physical conditions
were bad, this type of housing remained popular in that period because of the quick construction and low
price it afforded to a huge number of workers.
Figure 1: Layout and daily life in a typical compound house

(Source: http://chinaneast.xinhuanet.com).
Aside from the shared courtyard house, collaborative living among unrelated individual families in rural
areas also led to the rise of Tulou, an important vernacular form of housing in southern China. Built after
1949, Tulou settlements embodied the concept of joint-equity ownership and the habitants’ participation in
modern collaborative housing in urban China (Zheng 2011).
The socialist-planned housing from 1949 to 1978

The socialist and communist ideology has remodeled Chinese thought, including the form of housing since
1949. Rampant speculative and profiteering activities in the housing and land markets led to unreasonably
high rents and worsened the living conditions of the working class. To solve this housing issue and
guarantee the general interest of the whole society, the housing market was removed, and the ownership of
a large proportion of private rental housing was gradually transferred to the state from 1956 to 1966
(Mathey 1990, Zhang 1998). Under a planned economy, governmental departments, companies, and
factories had the authority to build social housing for staff and workers. The lives of employees were
organized by the state-owned or collectively owned work units, and their houses were also financed, built,
owned, and managed by the work units (Danwei). In a general sense, Chinese people in urban areas began
to enjoy a comprehensive social housing system in terms of state ownership, housing affordability, and
equality, whereas collaborative housing became the main form of housing. Despite the poor housing
conditions, people were relatively satisfied with collective work and living style in the work units (Zhang
1998).
The huge floating population from the countryside was excluded from the welfare housing system because
of their hukou status, but the low labor costs enabled a huge number of rural migrants work and live in
urban areas. Shared living was the only form of housing for the floating population, because they had to
share houses with local residents or live together in dormitories. Other forms of collaborative housing or
shared living emerged during this period, including residential areas in urban people’s communes (Renmin
Gongshe), new villages in the work units, and tube-shaped apartments for temporary workers (Tongzi Lou).
The large canteen in the people’s communes, the isolated bedrooms and shared kitchens and toilets in the
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work units, and mixed use of inner corridors in the tube-shaped apartments constituted the architectonics of
collaborative living. Figure 2 shows the plan of residential areas in rural (left) and urban (right) people’s
communes. The black-colored blocks represent the shared spaces and facilities in the community. In this
village plan, housing clusters are identified by separate community canteens and storehouses, and the main
common house is located at the center of the entire residential area. In urban people’s communes, Hong
Shunli, the multi-story housing is filled with all types of common spaces and shared facilities, such as
canteens, guest rooms, shared toilets, nursery rooms, rooms for the elderly, shops, banks, and even lactation
rooms.
Figure 2: Plan of the residential area in the people’s communes: a new village in rural Shanghai (Wang 1958) (left) and the ground floor plan
of the urban people’s commune of Hong Shunli in Tianjing (Xu 1958) (right).
Figure 3: Floor plan of a workers’ dormitory (left) and tube-shaped apartments (right) (Source: drawn by the author and adapted from the
author’s study on her own housing experience (Ye, 2009).
Figure 4: Collaborative life inside the corridor

(Source: http://www.langya.cn).
Figure 3 illustrates the layout of a workers’ dormitory in Beijing and a typical tube-shaped apartment. Each
family occupied one or two isolated bedrooms and shared a very small toilet with three or four other families.
Given the severe housing shortage, some obsolete office building or student dormitory was reoccupied as
workers’ housing. The building did not have a kitchen, and the inner corridor served as the public and
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cooking space, although the residents did not share meals. The corridor was usually filled with utensils and
sundry objects (Figure 4), and the usable space for each family was therefore defined by the cookers and the
distance to the door. They were called tube-shaped apartments because the inner corridor was the most
important space for living and socializing, and daylight from the two windows at both ends of the corridor
made it look like a tube.
The period of housing reform begun in 1979

The open reform begun in 1979 saw new changes, such as the loosening of state control over the work units,
privatization of housing allocation (Wu & Treiman 2004), and the liberalization of housing prices in the 1990s.
The majority of the migrant and low-income population began to live in urban villages in a collaborative
way. To find a good approach to reduce the pressure of state-led social housing construction and to attract
investment from various individuals, Chinese housing cooperatives emerged in 1980 and then experienced
a rapid growth in the 1990s. Until 2000, more than 5,000 housing cooperatives operated in China and
offered 1,500,000 units for low-income workers (Bao 2005). These cooperatives took the form of three types:
government-organized, civil society-organized, and work unit-based cooperatives (Zhang 1998). The price of
the units in these housing cooperatives was low because individual members were required to pay only for
the partial cost of a housing unit and not for the cost of common facilities. The government also provided
support through tax exemption and provision of low-price land and building materials. These housing
cooperatives contributed to the non-profit housing movement in the country and effectively encouraged
collaborative living and self-built houses. However, the majority of the urban poor encountered difficulties
in participating in these cooperatives, particularly in the work unit-based and government-organized
cooperatives. The real beneficiaries of such housing cooperatives consisted of civil servants and workers
employed in large companies, instead of the low-income people who were in dire need of housing. The
conflict worsened after the marketization of housing. As a result, the development of housing cooperatives
gradually declined, and only a few civil society-organized cooperatives continued operating after 1998.
The attempts at urban collaborative living in China did not stop. Since around 2000, fund-raising self-built
housing movements emerged in some major cities, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, and Shenzhen.
Unfortunately, almost all these experiments failed in their early stages (Zhu & Xiao 2012). For example, the
Shenzhen group obtained properties through auction, but still failed because of management problems
(Liang 2007). Property developers also focused on the collaborative housing market. Wanke attempted to
improve neighborhood cohesion by building a community canteen and began an experiment called Wanhui
building to provide housing for low-income people in collaborative housing communities (Yang 2011).
Although the results of the project were not positive and the project itself has been incurring losses since
2007, it remains an example of great efforts toward affordable collaborative housing in China.
THE SHORT-LIVED EXPERIMENTS OF CHINESE COLLABORATIVE LIVING
The review above allows us to identify the peculiarity of Chinese collaborative housing from two
perspectives. On the one hand, collaborative housing has always existed as part of the social housing for
low-income families. On the other hand, almost all these cases are temporary housing solutions that work
only over a short period of time in coping with special housing requirements and then disappear or are
replaced by other forms. Comparing the previous forms of collaborative living in China in terms of
motivation, community plan, building design and residents’ role, which distinguishes collaborative housing
from ordinary living forms, will allow us to determine the reasons behind the short-lived experiments of
Chinese collaborative housing (Figure 5).
Before!1949! From!1949!to!1978! After!1979!
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To!make!the!task!of! Work!unit!is!the! To!reduce!the!

Residents!gathered!
leadership!easy,!it! basic!social!element! pressure!of!the!
because!of!poverty,!
combines!industry,! under!a!planned! construction!of!stateJ
and!the!house!was!
agriculture,! economy;!workers’! owned!social!housing!
quickly!built!at!a!low!
commerce,! living!space!is!built! and!attract!
cost!
education,!and! and!assigned!in! investment!from!
military!affairs! limited!conditions! individuals!
Unintentional! StateJcontrolled! Independent! Large!intentional!

neighborhoods;!the! intentional! buildings!or! neighborhoods;!
main!space!and! community;!residents! intentional! includes!public!
facilities!in!the!inner! live!in!residential! neighborhoods;! buildings,!such!as!
courtyard!were! areas!and!work!in! shared!large!canteens! hospitals,!nursing!
shared!by!a!dozen!or! centralized!farmlands! and!entertainment! homes,!and!schools;!the!
several!dozens!of! and!factories! space;!the!size! private!unit!is!
families!together.! together! depends!on!the! integrated!and!
factory’s!scale! independent!
Two!or!three!floors! Low!or!multiJstory;! Mostly!slabJtype!and! MultiJstory!or!highJ
with!open!corridors;! isolated!community! multiJstory! rise!residential!
located!around!an! in!urban!area;! apartment;!usually! building;!medium!or!
original!courtyard;! canteen,!washroom,! small!private! high!density;!
poor!physical! shop,!and!other! bedrooms!and! common!house!is!
environment! shared!rooms!are! shared!kitchens!and! built!independently!
incorporated!in!the! toilets! and!gradually!!
building!
Heterogeneous! Homogenous! Workers!barely! Homogenous!

community;!lowJ community;!residents! participate!and!share! community!in!
income!and!migrant! participated!in!design;! activities!in!the! governmentJorganized!
families;!residents!take! Hierarchical!structure! dormitory;!household! and!work!unitJbased!
care!of!their!own!unit! of!responsibility!and! type!is!diverse!but! communities;!residents!
construction;!no! management;!shared! homogenous!in!race,! selfJmanage!the!
formal!residents’! economy!and!meals! tenure,!and!income! community!based!on!
organization!! ! cooperatives!
Residents!build!their! Housing!built!and! Residents!pay!lowJ Residents!pay!partial!

own!units;!private! managed!by!peoples’! rent!or!free;!collective! cost!of!a!housing!unit;!
ownership! communes!or!work!units;! ownership! collective!or!partial!
collective!ownership!
ownership!
Figure 5: Comparison of Chinese forms of collaborative living in terms of motivation, community plan, building design, residents’ role, and
financing.
In the shared courtyard house, residents gathered and shared a public living space because of limited
economic conditions and had no sense of organization and management. Habitants cared only about their
own private lives and lacked effective means of communicating and negotiating public issues. The serious
problem was the poor physical environment and public facilities, which affected the residential quality and
also isolated the settlements from surrounding neighborhoods. Therefore, for the government, this type of
collaborative housing was a problematic living area as notorious as slums and was remedied immediately.
However, to a general extent, this form of collaborative living style with the consensus of low-income and
migrant people changed constantly but never disappeared in urban China. Improving this form of
collaborative housing may then be more profitable than eliminating it.
914
The government has had a decisive role in the forms of collaborative living under the period of the planned
economy. The advantages of residential area in people’s communes and workers’ dormitories in work units
are obvious. The collective housing ownership provides each family equal access to a unit, and a high quality
of social interaction is fostered by the adequate public space and shared facilities. Residents are familiar with
one another, so that the children and elderly live in a safe and supportive environment. However, the
demand of an ample private life is neglected, which in turn causes serious problems and conflicts in daily life.
The barely improved living quality makes people realize that a harmonious collaborative life can be achieved
only on the basis of a complete and independent personal life, which means the collective canteens and
bathhouses cannot replace the role of private kitchens and washrooms in a physical sense.
The emergence of housing cooperatives paved the way for low-priced and high-quality social housing in
China, although such housing lasted for only about 20 years. Collaborative housing consensually built by
non-profit associations was what really alleviated the problem for urban low-income families in the 1990s.
Many researchers have pointed out that the main reason that led to the discontinuation of housing
cooperatives in China is the inadequacy of policies and institutions (Wang & Jin 2011, Zhang et al. 2007, Zhu
& Xiao 2012). The type of cooperative is too limited, so that only the civil society-organized cooperatives
were effective. Most of the cooperatives were built by government and work units, which soon evolved into
a type of mandatory housing and thereby gradually lost its basic function. Moreover, cooperative housing in
China focused only on the institutional features of ownership and management. Cooperative housing
neglected the characteristics of physical space, such as the appropriate size of the community, the building
layout, the position and proportion of the public space, and the relationship with surrounding
neighborhoods, all of which not only influence the quality of private and community live but also assist in
implementing policies and institutions.
Unlike the development of effective collaborative urban housing in Europe and the United States,
collaborative living experiences in China have not led to a mature collaborative housing type. To reactivate
collaborative housing as an effective social form of housing in China, the successful model of cohousing in
Europe, the United States, and other regions can provide us with a perspective and inspire feasible
suggestions.
DISCUSSION ON COLLABORATIVE LIVING FORMS IN THE HOUSING LITERATURE
Shared and cooperative housing emerged with the purpose of promoting the physical, social, and
emotional wellbeing of neighborhoods. The concept of collaborative housing has its roots in the notion of a
utopian community, feminist agenda, and commune movements in the 19th century (Meltzer 2001,
Sargisson 2012, Williams 2005b), but strong differences marked collaborative housing and other intentional
communities. Residents wished to live within the existing society rather than build a new society and new
forms of family, with the privacy and autonomy of the household secure (Fromm 1991). Meltzer (2005)
pointed out the two features that distinguish collaborative housing from many other intentional
communities: the balance between privacy and community life through individual dwellings and a well-
used common house and the close relationship of cohousing residents to the society at large.
The common characteristics of collaborative housing in Europe and American

Collaborative living in Europe took the form of a typical collaborative housing, particularly in Denmark,
Sweden, and the Netherlands. This form had a significant role in providing affordable housing and
maintaining the sustainability of the community. Collaborative housing in Denmark was first established in
1972 as a reaction to the isolation and expensiveness of unintentional communities. Danish families joined
together and designed new neighborhoods with shared courtyards, gardens, play spaces, community
dining rooms, and kitchens. These intentional communities were named bofallesskaber, which means living
communities (Meadows 1997). In Sweden, housing is for non-selected categories of people who eat or cook
together in communal rooms. These communal rooms are connected to private apartments through indoor
access called Kollektivhus or collective housing unit in English (Vestbro 1992). In the Netherlands, a similar
living style was called the centraal Wonen (Fromm 1991, Meltzer 2005).
Although no single English term exists for the distinctive collaborative housing in different regions, the term
cohousing was adopted by Charles Durrett and Kathryn McCamant in 1988 to introduce this desirable living
style in the United States and inspired the foundation of cohousing waves in other countries (McCamant &
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Durrett 1988). Cohousing is therefore defined as a form of collaborative housing in which residents
participate in the process of developing, designing, and managing their own neighborhoods (The
Cohousing Association of the United States 2013). Cohousing emphasizes the sharing of physical space and
responsibility in communities. The Encyclopedia of Housing (Carswell 2012) defines the term as part of a
community-based housing together with other shared housing, such as cooperative, company, and
nonprofit. In this sense, cohousing is an intentional, planned community designed by local residents to
encourage a collaborative neighborhood setting.
Cohousing developments vary in terms of community size, plan and design, financing options, and mode of
ownership. However, previous studies have found that cohousing can still be identified by virtue of some
common characteristics (McCamant et al. 1994, Scotthanson & Scotthanson 2005, Fromm 1991, Meltzer
2005, Garciano 2009). In terms of community plan and architecture design, cohousing is an intentional
pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, whose aim is to achieve a physical design that encourages a high level
of social interaction without sacrificing private individual space (Williams 2005a). The private homes are
smaller in size but contain all functional rooms and are independent. Each home has access to all shared
spaces and facilities, such as the communal kitchen and dining room, laundry, gym, guestrooms, garden,
storage, and entertainment room. As the social center of a cohousing community, the common house is
usually equipped with a community kitchen and dining room, children’s play room, and other necessary
facilities (McCamant et al. 1994). Cohousing residents design, finance, and manage their own communities
in different ways. Some professionals may be hired by cohousing communities, but all the residents
participate in the community development and take complete and equal responsibility in making decisions,
solving problems, and organizing cooperatively to address changing needs. Members and households do
not pool their capital or financial resources, and no shared community economy is formed. In their daily life,
the cohousing groups usually choose to share several evening meals together each week in their common
house, which effectively brings residents together for a convenient and pleasurable time of sharing and
meeting (Scotthanson & Scotthanson 2005).
Collaborative housing in different social contexts

Collaborative housing in the Western world has experienced about a half century of development. Williams
(2005b) identified several phases in the evolution of collaborative housing: the assimilation phase in Europe,
the growth phase in the United States, and the pioneering phase in the Pacific Rim. Collaborative housing
projects differ in their responses to their specific cultural and economic environments (Davis 2001, Meltzer
2001, Williams 2005b, Fromm 1991). Figure 6 illustrates the similarities and differences among collaborative
forms of housing in different periods and regions in terms of their original intention, community and
architecture, and socio-economic characteristics, which reveal various approaches to collaborative housing
and provide a model for Chinese housing.
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Denmark!! Sweden! The!Netherlands!! The!USA! Pacific!Rim!

Since&1960s& Since&1980s& Since&2000s&
Motivation(and(original(intention(
Create!a! Reduce!the! Build!better!social! Create!a!socially! Demonstrate!
strong!social! burdensome! relationship!and!a! supportive! sustainable!!
network!for! housework!of! deeper!sense!of! community! human!
the!nuclear! working!women! community! settlements!
family!
! Physical(form(and(scale((
LowJrise,! HighJrise! LowJrise,!larger,! LowJrise,! Green!
mediumJ apartments,! denser!and!more! attached! architecture,!
density,!neoJ common!houses! urban,!physically! dwellings!with! ecoJdesign!
vernacular! incorporated! divides! centralized! principles!!
houses! into!the!building! households!into! common!houses!
clusters! !
!! !
!
!
! Residents’(structure!
!
Heterogeneou More!single! About!93%!of!the! More!diverse!in! Encourages!
s!community,! parents,!elderly,! dwellings!are! household!type,! mixed!
wellJeducated! and!lowJincome! rentals,!a!wide! tenure,!income,! income,!
middleJclass! families! range!of! age,!and! household!
families!! households! religion,!but! types,!and!
! homogenous!in! ethnicity!
race!
Figure 6: Comparison of collaborative housing projects in different geopolitical contexts
(Source: Davis 2001, Williams 2005, Meltzer 2001, Fromm 1991).
Unlike in Chinese forms of collaborative living, the original intention of collaborative housing in the west is
more focused on social and environmental requirements, which are determined bottom-up. In both China
and Europe, the original way of collaborative living in the urban area is self-built collaborative housing,
whereas in China, the top-down strength of the government has a significant effect on state-built
collaborative living. In both China and the West, the development of the physical form of the housing, from
reconstruction based on vernacular houses to high-rise and dense modern residential buildings, is the same.
However, the scale of collaborative communities is much larger in China than in the Western cases, which
may be attributed to the high efficiency of political management but impeded communication among
family members. Residents collaborate because of the will of the state or because they are driven by self-
interest; therefore, a majority of collaborative communities are homogenous, resulting in isolated and
exclusive neighborhoods. In terms of housing ownership, collaborative housing in China is usually
collectively owned, whereas in the Western world, various modes of ownership are current, including private,
common-interest, and non-profit ownerships, partnerships, and other mixed tenures. The level of
participation in collaborative housing takes diverse forms, such as homeowners’ association, government,
housing cooperative, nonprofit corporation, and tenants’ association (Fromm 1991).
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Figure 7: Diversified site and floor plan in collaborative housing

(Source: Meltzer 2005, Fromm 1991).
The residents’ participation in collaborative housing gives rise to a flexible housing design and diversified
planning according to the residents’ particular requirements, in contrast to the fixed functional design in
ordinary urban housing (Figure 7). Personalized indoor space, such as the area, layout, and room orientation,
is determined by the residents; public areas and facilities can also be adjusted through efficient
communication among all collaborative housing members. The life span of the building and community is
relatively long, which contributes to savings in resources and protection of the urban environment to a great
extent.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the housing experience of China, Europe, and the United States, collaborative living proves
to be an ideal form of living for urban low-income families. In the face of the imperative requirements of the
Chinese social housing and complex housing problems, collaborative living has the potential to provide an
effective alternative.
Today, the construction of cooperative housing in China has reached an impasse. Chinese employees no
longer rely on their factories or companies to deal with housing requirements, but some of them are
incapable of obtaining a decent house in the housing market. The aspiration of living collaboratively has
recently been intensified. Collaborative housing is still necessary given the skyrocketing urban housing
prices. However, the previous collaborative form of housing has been unable to meet the needs of the
present Chinese society. The existing policy on collaborative housing construction in China was issued in
1992, but more detailed and comprehensive policies are necessary to guide and offer institutional, financial,
and social support. The European experience of cohousing provides a mature example of collaborative
living, which shows various development processes and diversified financing methods in the construction of
collaborative housing as part of social housing.
The aim of architecture design in collaborative housing is to balance the private and collective life, control
the cost, and provide decent living conditions to low-income families. In China, the physical design, which
merely serves to facilitate social interaction and community sustainability, has always been neglected. Based
on previous lessons and past experiences, two aspects should be considered seriously in the design process:
appropriate community size and residents’ participation in planning a flexible architecture design. To ensure
effective communication among the families, the size of each basic cluster must not be too small or too
large, and the organization of space must be suited to different community factors, such as location and
density. The architecture design should meet the personalized needs of each family and seriously consider
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changes in living requirements. With the purpose of balancing private and collective spaces and adapting
the living space to the changing requirements of residents, the ‘open building’ proposed by Habraken
provides an alternative to community design and architectural plan. In the context of China, comprehensive
research is needed to develop an applicable methodology of promoting collaborative housing development.
In summary, collaborative living has had a significant role in the urbanization of China and will continue to
do so in the future. The social housing issues must not be viewed as a challenge facing only the government
but a complex task for the entire society that requires the willpower and collaboration of each individual.
Collaborative housing may provide an approach to high-quality and low-price housing in urban China.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Graduate School of University of Hong Kong for
providing a comprehensive research platform and various literature materials. The idea of the paper was
partially generated from the research project “Architectural Identity in Asian Cities: A Comparative Study on
Housing Morphology” funded by the Conference and Research Grant Committee of the University of Hong
Kong 2010.
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UR FREESTYLE HOUSE (PART 1): REACTIVATION PROJECT BY DIY RENOVATION FOR EXISTING RENTAL
DWELLING UNITS IN KOZOJI NEWTOWN JAPAN
Mr. Nobuyuki Nomura, Division of Business Administration, The NUCB Graduate School, Japan,
nomura@nucba.ac.jp
Mr. Masanao Hattori, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya Univ., Japan,
haaat_masa@yahoo.co.jp
Mr. Eisuke Tabata, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Univ., Japan, tabata@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Mr. Kazuhisa Tsunekawa, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Univ., Japan, tsunekawa@cc.nagoya-
u.ac.jp
Ms. Norie Kawano, Sc. of Life Studies, Sugiyama Jogakuen Univ., Japan, norie@sugiyama-u.ac.jp
Mr. Shin Murakami, Sc. of Life Studies, Sugiyama Jogakuen Univ., Japan, shin@sugiyama-u.ac.jp
Abstract
Kozoji Newtown Study Group with participants from universities in Aichi Prefecture and Nonprofit Organizations
(NPOs) has studied future urban development for Kozoji Newtown where residents are rapidly aging. Meanwhile,
the Urban Renaissance (UR) Agency, having many rental dwelling units in the Newtown, faces the problem that
young people have moved out of the Newtown. For this reason, the Study Group in collaboration with the UR
Agency planned a project ‘UR Free Style House’ to encourage young people to move to the Newtown. One of the
characteristics of the project is that the obligation to restore a room to their original state, which is usually
imposed on a resident, was removed from contracts so that the resident could change the room according to his
preference. Also the following three steps were taken to suppress the expense for both the owner UR Agency and
the resident.
Step 1
As a primary construction, the owner, i.e. the UR Agency, renovates the dwelling unit that has a dining room,
kitchen and two other rooms, to a single-room dwelling unit so that a resident would be able to renovate the
room more freely.
Step 2
The UR Agency sets up open room days so that visitors can actually see the rooms, and the Study Group sets up
panel exhibition in the rooms to show DIY renovation examples and raise visitor interest.
Step 3
After receiving an application, the UR Agency and resident make a lease agreement where the resident is allowed
to do ‘Do it yourself’ (DIY) renovation and will not be charged for the first three months stay.
Keywords: DIY, rental dwelling unit, infill or fill-out, renovation.
INTRODUCTION
Project background
Due to the aging of the rental dwelling units and buildings in Kozoji Newtown (hereafter referred to as NT),
which was developed in the 1960s and 1970s, NT cannot meet the current housing requirements. The rapid
aging of residents and the decreasing number of young people living in NT is also a problem. It is therefore
necessary not only to take measures for comfortable living of the old residents but also to provide young
people with attractive living spaces and encourage them to move to NT. However, due to a lack of budget
for public rental dwelling units, the owner company, the UR Agency (hereafter referred to as UR) that has
owned about 770 thousand public rental dwelling units in Japan, can conduct restoration work only for
repairs and cannot facilitate a modern lifestyle for young people. It is also difficult for UR to obtain a
renovation budget by raising the rent since old or low-income people live in the old dwelling units. One
possible dwelling units renovation on a larger scale than simple repair work is DIY renovation. DIY
renovation means that a resident prepares some tools and materials and then renovates his rental dwelling
unit by himself. Under the current rental dwelling units rules, residents have to restore their rooms to the
original state when they move out. However if the residents or NPOs were allowed to renovate the rooms at
their cost in a more active manner, the dwelling units could be restored at a relatively moderate cost to a
form that meets their own living needs
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Position and aim of project

In previous studies on DIY, Ohno conducted a questionnaire survey and clarified the experience, motivation,
labor hours, and cost (Ohno 2002). Yamazaki also conducted a questionnaire survey to identify what could
be done, how DIY skills were learned, and where tools and materials were bought (Yamazaki 2001). These
studies were based on the questionnaire surveys, while this study focused on actual construction to identify
and analyze the conditions (cost and labor hours) and problems of the construction and to collect opinions
about the construction results from actual residents.
A renovation experiment was conducted in FY2010 for terrace houses of UR Nakamiya Daiichi Apartment
Complex in Hirakata City, Osaka Prefecture (Otsubo 2007.). Students from 8 departments of 7 universities in
Kansai area led the renovation experiment project of the existing dwelling units. The demolition of the
apartment complex was already decided before the renovation experiment, and actually conducted about
one month after the renovation experiment. Unlike the project in 2010, this project target is a rental
apartment complex where people are still living. This project is also characteristic in that it aims to attract
people’s attention to DIY renovation of the existing rental dwelling units by inviting them, as well as the
residents, to the open rooms and that this project is followed by a residential experiment.
Based on the analysis on the above previous studies, this study conducted a UR Free Style House (US-FSH)
project in collaboration with UR to achieve the following goals:
(1) A rental contract method that this project can be implemented is developed and a questionnaire survey
about this project is conducted to collect opinions and evaluation data from the residents in surrounding
areas and young people.
(2) DIY renovation is conducted and the number of labor days, renovation cost, and renovation method are
recorded.
(3) After the renovation work, the rental dwelling units are opened to the public to collect opinions from the
residents in the surrounding areas and the young people. Then a residential experiment is conducted.
(4) From the above (1), (2) and (3) and through the process from the planning, designing, and renovation to
the actual residential experiment, comprehensive knowledge about hardware and software problems and
the feasibility of the project is acquired.
Project method
In this paper, the feasibility and problems of this project will be analyzed and evaluated in the following four
stages.
(1) UR Free Style House 1: Development of project plan
-One rental dwelling unit in NT is selected after consultation with UR. Students make DIY renovation
proposals suitable for the rental dwelling units for young people.
-The rental dwelling units are opened to the public to collect new residents. Also, student proposals are
exhibited on panels in the dwelling units to advertise the advantages of DIY to visitors.
(2) UR Free Style House 2: Evaluation of the project plan
-In order to identify any problems and determine the feasibility of the project, a questionnaire survey is
conducted on visitors to the open rooms and to young people to collect information about their interest in
UR-FSH and their evaluation.
(3) UR Free Style House 3: Analysis of design and construction results
-Based on the analysis of the above questionnaire survey results, we design the renovation of the dwelling
units provided by UR for the experiments.
-Under the advice and guidance of local builders, the students actually renovate the dwelling units. Details
of the number of labor days, renovation cost, and construction method are recorded and problems are
identified.
(4) UR Free Style House 4: Evaluation of project results and residential experiment
-The renovated dwelling units are opened to the public and the number of labor days, renovation cost, and
renovation method are presented. A questionnaire survey and interview were conducted on young people
and people living in surrounding areas to collect their opinions.
-A residential experiment is conducted to collect opinions about the residential environment of the
renovated dwelling units.
Figure 1 shows the organizations and groups involved in this project research. Kozoji Newtown
Regeneration Committee was established in April 2011 by university researches in Aichi Prefecture and
surrounding areas who were Association of Urban Housing Sciences members of Chubu Branch, Association
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of Urban Housing Sciences. The Committee has held workshop meetings periodically (once in two weeks)
with UR, Kasugai City government, youth group of Kasugai Chamber of Commerce, and NPOs. These study
groups shared the research based on frequent discussions on the problems and future prospects of Kozoji
NT.
Figure 1: Diagram about the organizations and associations related to this project.
SYSTEM OF UR-FSH
Location: Kozoji NT
This project focuses on Kozoji NT located on a hill in Kasugai City, northeastern Nagoya City, the third most
populated government-ordinance-designated city in Japan. Through the urbanization and rapid population
inflow to cities in the postwar high economic growth in Japan, the population in Nagoya City area increased
by 54% in 1950s and 1960s. In 1960, Japan Housing Corporation (currently UR Agency) planned Kozoji NT
development to accept the population inflow and started a large-scale public town development. There is
Kozoji Station of JR Chuo Honsen Line in the southern end of NT and National Route 19 on the northern side.
The most characteristic part of the master plan is One Center System that consists of the city functions
concentrated in a central area and the major streets along valleys. The number of dwelling units and houses
in NT as of March 2010 was 21,838. Single-family houses occupied 42% and UR-owned rental dwelling units
occupied 36%.
Overview of UR-FSH
UR-FSH is a project where students, the members of Kozoji NT Study Group, propose and realize living
environments for young people by applying DIY to rental dwelling units provided by UR. DIY stands for Do it
yourself. Namely, DIY encourages residents to make things or renovate rooms by themselves to change the
residential environment in accordance with their own taste. Therefore, DIY renovation can meet the various
needs of residents. In Japan, rental agreements for dwelling units usually contain an obligation to restore
the dwelling unit to their original state. If this system is employed, residents in DIY renovated dwelling units
will need to restore the rooms to their original state. So we eliminated this obligation from the rental
agreements so that the residents could renovate their dwelling units by themselves in accordance with their
taste.
This project started by surveying the needs of young people and extracting keywords. Proposals made by
the students based on the extracted keywords were carefully discussed with UR and finally seven proposals
were chosen. At the same time, target dwelling units were looked for. In the early stage of the project, two
residential buildings, one in Takakuradai and the other in Chuodai, were considered. Since the questionnaire
survey made by Noumura et al., (Nomura 2013) showed that the youth placed greater importance on
924
convenience in shopping and transportation, the residential building in Chuodai in the center where a
shopping mall and elementary school were located was chosen as the target (Figure 2, Photo 1).
Figure 2: Position of residential building with the dwelling unit

Photo 1: Appearance of the residential building.
UR-FSH PROCESS
This project took the following three steps to lower the expense for both the owner UR and the residents
(Figure 3).
Figure 3: Flow of the project.
STEP1: Primary construction for renovation from a dwelling unit with small rooms to a single-room
dwelling unit
UR conducts primary construction where the old dwelling unit with a dining room, kitchen and two other
rooms were renovated to single-room dwelling units (Figures 4 and 5, and Photos 2 and 3). In this primary-
stage construction, the following renovation and repair works were performed.
-Renovation of floors
-Repair of bathrooms and restrooms
-Transfer of intercoms and power outlet in the restrooms
-Installation of hot water pipes in sink cabinet and rest rooms and use of water-stop caps
925
-Wall, ceiling, sink cabinet, and room walls were not renovated but just cleaned. The concrete walls where
there used to be a closet were left untouched.
Figure 4: Plan of the unit before renovation . Figure 5: Plan of the unit after renovation.
Photo 2: Interior photo before renovation . Photo 3: Interior photo after renovation.
STEP2: Open room and collection of DIY renovation room residents

The renovated dwelling unit was opened to the public to collect a new resident. The seven DIY renovation
plans proposed by the students were presented on panels in the open dwelling units to show the advantage
of UR-FSH to visitors (Figure 6, Photo 4). The seven plans proposed various lifestyles for unique residents.
Each exhibition panel explained about commercially-available products, the cost of materials and
construction, and construction method in an easy-to-understand manner for ordinary people (Figure 7).
Proposal-1
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Target: Painter
Lifestyle: A wall is covered with wood panels so that the resident can paint on the wall canvas.
Proposal-2
Target: Snooker
Lifestyle: It is permissible to walk around with shoes on in half of the room space and the resident can use
freely without any care about cleaning this area.
Proposal-3
Target: Dress designer
Lifestyle: A wall is covered with storage racks for the resident to show and store his/her clothes.
Proposal-4
Target: Comic writer
Lifestyle: Share room style where private rooms in the east and west side and a shared space in the center
where they can work in collaboration.
Proposal-5
Target: Scholar
Lifestyle: A large blackboard is attached on a wall so that the resident can write his/her ideas and equations
on it at any time when you come up with them.
Proposal-6
Target: Musician
Lifestyle: A soundproof room is installed so that the resident can play instruments without disturbing
anyone.
Proposal-7
Target: Cooking specialist
Lifestyle: A large kitchen is installed to create a kitchen-oriented dwelling unit.
Figure 6-3: Proposal-1. Figure 6-4: Proposal-2.
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Figure 6-7: Proposal-7. Phot.4 State of the open room.
Figure 7: Part of the display panel of the proposal-1.
STEP3: Formal application >>> Contract of DIY renovation
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A person who applies for rental agreement concludes a DIY rental agreement with UR. Since he/she needs to
perform the DIY renovation at his/her own cost, the first three-month rent (51,200yen/month) is not charged
to reduce his/her cost burden. If no application is received, unrenovated areas such as sink cabinets and
interior walls are renovated according to the UR specifications and the dwelling units are sold as regular UR
rental dwelling units on a first-come-first sold basis.
Figure 8 shows the difference in financial contract between UR-FSH and the others. For private rental
dwelling units, the party to the contract shall pay for initial expenses such as deposit, key money, and
brokerage fee, and for monthly rent, common service expense, and renewal fee. For UR rental dwelling units,
the party to the contract does not have to pay for key money, brokerage fee, or renewal fee as well as UR-
FSH.
Figure 8: Comparison of financial contract among other rental dwelling units and UR-FSH.
RESULTS OF QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY
A questionnaire survey on the above proposals was conducted on 67 visitors (male: 41, female: 26) to the
dwelling units on the open room days (Figure 9). The most popular proposal was Proposal-2, which
proposed a shoes-on space for about half of the room. In particular, Proposal-2 was popular to visitors in
their 10s and 30s. The visitors in their 20s also chose Proposal-3 for dress designers and Proposal-6 for
musicians. Visitors in their 30s also chose Proposal-5 for scholars. Visitors in their 60s or higher chose
Proposal-7 for those who love cooking and tended not to choose Proposal-2, which indicates that they had
resistance to the shoes-on space.
Figure 9: Relationship with each age and the proposal that you want to live multiple answers – up to 3).
SUMMARY
929
UR rental dwelling units in Kozoji NT, which occupied about 40% of the dwelling units and houses there,
faced problems such as the aging of buildings and residents and outflow of the young population. It was
hence required to create an inflow of young people at a moderate cost. We made a proposal beneficial to
both the UR Agency and the residents, where the owner UR Agency performed a semi-renovation of the
multiple-room dwelling units to single-room ones at a moderate cost and the residents could stay in the
dwelling units for free for the first three months. Another characteristic of the project was that the rooms
could be renovated freely and did not have to be returned to their original states. This policy was to attract
young people who have a variety of values. As a result, visitors who came to the open dwelling units praised
the concept of the dwelling units and a few actually inquired about application for the DIY rental agreement.
A request to make a DIY rental agreement in order to use the dwelling unit for work was rejected since the
use of dwelling units for work did not meet the UR rule that allowed residential use only. In the next phase of
the project, we will identify problems and find solutions by collecting opinions and evaluations about UR-
FSH through questionnaire surveys conducted on visitors to the open dwelling units and on young people.
REFERENCES
Nomura. N., 2014. ‘Consideration of regenerative method viewed from relationship between housing stock
and distribution of facilities’,
J. Archit. Plann., AIJ, Vol. 79 No. 697, pp. 677-684.
Ohno, T., 2002. ‘A study on housing improvement and repair work for aging by elderly persons. A study on
housing improvement and repair work by residents’, Part 3, J. Archit. Plann., AIJ, No. 555, pp.185-190.
Otsubo, A., 2007. http://www.mukogawa-u.ac.jp/~a_otsubo/pdf/katsudou3.pdf
Yamazaki, K., 2001. ‘The functions of home centers on promoting diy in housing maintenance: Study on the
social aids for housing management’ (Part 2) , J. Archit. Plann., AIJ, no. 540, pp. 251-258.
930
UR FREESTYLE HOUSE (PART 2) - POSSIBILITIES OF RENTAL UNITS BY MEANS OF DIY RENOVATION IN

JAPAN
Mr. Shin Murakami, Sc. of Life Studies, Sugiyama Jogakuen Univ., Japan, shin@sugiyama-u.ac.jp
Ms. Norie Kawano, Sc. of Life Studies, Sugiyama Jogakuen Univ., Japan, norie@sugiyama-u.ac.jp
Mr. Masanao Hattori, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya Univ., Japan,
haaat_masa@yahoo.co.jp
Mr. Nobuyuki Nomura, Division of Business Administration, The NUCB Graduate School, Japan,
nomura@nucba.ac.jp
Mr. Eisuke Tabata, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Univ., Japan,
tabata@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Mr. Kazuhisa Tsunekawa, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Univ., Japan,
tsunekawa@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Abstract
This study is a continuation of the ‘UR Freestyle House Part 1’, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) revitalization project of existing
rental unit in Kozoji Newtown. This paper surveys evaluations received from those with the potential to live there
for the ‘UR Freestyle House’ (hereafter UR-FSH) Project framework and surveys their awareness of DIY. We also
reveal the potential and issues of developing rental units that can have DIY in Japan based on the results of the
survey.
The survey method is a questionnaire for visitors who came to see the project unit and young people. The results
of this survey are revealed as shown below.
Those in their 20s have the most interest with more than 70% of respondents stating they wanted to live there.
UR-FSH may promote young people to move into them as per the goals of the project.
About 25% of the total had DIY experience. Over 80% of respondents felt uneasy about DIY constructions.
Support after moving in is required to perform DIY construction.
Keywords: DIY, rental units, renovation, evaluation.
INTRODUCTION
There is a need to improve old floor plans and update equipment today because of changes in lifestyle and
needs. We focused on the potential for DIY in rental units and conducted the UR-FSH Project as a method of
utilizing these residential stocks.
The following are three features of this project:

(1) The UR Agency as dwelling owners launches the primary construction of rental unit for modification to 1-
room type.
(2) Those with rental leases will have DIY renovation performed thereafter at their own expense. This will
result in no rent being charged for three months to reduce the burden of renovation costs.
(3) There is no need to restore them to their original conditions when the occupants move out.
Rented houses in Japan generally have a lease whereby DIY cannot be performed. Rental units have to be
returned to their original condition when occupants move out in the event they have had renovation work
done. DIY, however, is an effective means for owners to save renovation costs. We tested the DIY Project for
rental unit as UR-FSH in Kozoji Newtown as shown in Part 1.
Purpose 1 in this paper (Part 2) is to survey evaluations of the UR-FSH Project that has the features described
in (1) to (3) above using a questionnaire. Purpose 2 is to survey the awareness of DIY using a questionnaire.
We reveal the potential and issues in the development of rental dwellings that can have DIY in Japan as a
result.
931
METHOD OF STUDY
Survey overview
We conducted a questionnaire to achieve the purposes of this study. Project open house visitors and
university students who may be future occupants were the subjects of the survey (Table 1).
Visitors responded to the questionnaire after observing the open room. University students were first shown
project photo slides. Then they responded to the questionnaire in the same way as the visitors.
Table 1: Overview of questionnaire survey
Open room visitors University students
Period Conducted 2012.11.10 - 2012.11.18 2012.12.20 - 2013.1.14
No. of Participants 67 (male 41, female 26) 242 (male 138, female 104)
Age From 10s to 70s From 18 to 24
Questionnaire survey items

The main questions concerned details on evaluating the UR-FSH Project, as well as desire and interest in DIY
(Table 2).
Table 2: Survey items

・
Experienced with DIY?
・
Reasons for performing DIY
Interest in DIY
・
Area of DIY experience
・
Desire to live in a DIY dwelling currently
・
Interest and reasons for interest
・
Some renovations you would like
UR Freestyle House ・
Specifics on renovations you would like
・
Worries?
・
Desired support
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Students 68 174
Open room visiters 7 8 12 16 13 11
10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s-
Figure 1: Age of respondents.
932
RESULTS OF QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY
Evaluation of UR-FSH
62% of visitors and 68% of students responded they “would like to live in UR-FSH” (Figure 2). The most cited
reason to want to live there was “I can renovate the room to my liking though it’s a rental”. The next was “the
fact that I am not required to restore it to its original condition is appealing” (Figure 3). The reason why
students did not want to live there was “I don’t want to live in a 1-room apartment” (Figure 4). Some of the
visitors and students, however, responded “the 1-room is appealing”. Student responses mostly revealed “I
would only live there a short time” or “I am not that interested in DIY itself”.
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Students 163 77
Open room visiters 38 23
Yes No
Figure 2: Would you want to live in UR-FSH?
0 20 40 60 80 100
%
Three months of free rent is N=7

appealing 52
The fact that I am not required

19
to restore the apartment to its
original condition is appealing 63
I’m interested in DIY 12

53
I can renovate the rooms as I 25

like though it’s a rental 127
8 Open room visiters

I like 1-room apartments
25
Students
Figure 3: Reasons for wanting to live there (Multiple answers possible).
933
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
%
Open room visiters
3 months of free rent is not enough
10
Students
I’m not that impressed that I’m not required
3
to restore the apartment to its original
3
condition
1
I’m not that interested in DIY 22
I would only live there a short time

21
A traditional rental apartment is fine 1

9
*I don’t want to live in one room N=23
Figure 4: Reasons for not wanting to live there (Multiple answers possible, *Students only).
Percent of those with DIY experience & awareness of UR-FSH (visitor questionnaire)
About 25% (74/309) of the total had DIY experience. Most of the experience with DIY was with Storage
Furniture, Lighting Fixtures and Beds, Sofas and other Furniture in that order (Figure 5). There were only a
few with experience in renovating their apartment in general. 53% of respondents also said “Yes” to the
question if they would like to try DIY in the place they currently live. We learned that more than half of them
had interest in DIY.
Additionally, 70% of those in their 20s stated they wanted to live in a UR-FSH. The desire to live in one,
however, dropped the older the person (Figure 6). Those in the 10 to 30s age bracket had little DIY
experience, but they wanted to live in UR-FSH.
80%
70 Open room visiters
60
Students
50
40
30
20
10
0
N=1 3 4 7 3 2 15 28 2 1 4 0 9 3 6 10 1 3 3 1 2 3
Bed, Sofa and Other
Kitchen
Lighting Fixtures
Ceiling
Bath area
Door
Sink area
Wall
Storage Furniture
Floor
Toilet area
Furniture
Figure 5: Area of DIY experiences.
934
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
%
4
60s- 5
50s 9
4
8
40s
8
30s 8
2
20s 128
47
10s 44
N=8
want to live in UR-FSH
DIY experience
Figure 6: Those that want to live in UR-FSH & percent of experience.
Locations to renovate
Majority of visitors and students wanted to renovate the “Walls” area (Figure 7). Most specific renovation
(questionnaire expressions) was “add wallpaper” or “paint”. Higher percentage of visitors also responded
“Furniture”. Most students said “lighting”. We learned that they have interest in renovation focusing on
creating a certain atmosphere in the space with lighting rails and spotlights.
60%
Open room visiters
50
40 Students
30
20
10
0
N=12 65 24 121 6 40 5 41 10 59 7 90 25 72 8 27 5 34 6 40
Kitchen
Ceiling
Furniture
Bath area
Door
Sink area
Lighting Fixtures
Wall
Floor
Toilet area
Figure 7: Areas to renovate.
Worries and desire for support (student questionnaire).

82% of students said they were worried about moving in there (Figure 8). 61% responded “Yes” to the
question “Would you ask a contractor to do the work?” The main reason for the worries based on this was
the DIY construction skills, with 56% of students shown to lack confidence in the skills (Figure 9). This may be
associated with the very low percentage of those with DIY experience. 45% students who responded that
they did not want to live in a DIY also stated they would “Change” their mind in response to the question
“Would your desire to move into DIY change if there was sufficient support?” Thus, we learned that ample
support is critical.
935
3%
15%
Yes N=198
No(37)
82% No response(7)
Figure 8: Do you have any worries about DIY? (student questionnaire).
60 %
N=137
50
98
40
30
56
20
10
13
0
DIY construction Making time to do Place to do the work Other
skills the work
Figure 9: Specific worries (Students: Multiple answers possible).
SUMMARY
We evaluated the UR-FSH Project through a questionnaire survey for visitors and students.
･Those in their 20s had the most interest in the project, with more than 70% of respondents stating they
would want to live there. The fact that they could renovate the rental units as they liked was felt to be the
most appealing aspect. The highest percentage of respondents felt that they were “not required to restore
the apartment to its original condition” was the most appealing among the features of the project. UR-FSH
may promote young people to move into DIY rental dwellings as per the goals of the project.
･25% of all respondents had DIY experience. Over 80% of respondents stated they had worries about DIY.
The younger generations who wanted to try living in UR-FSH had less DIY experience.
936
DIY constructions are not as popular in Japan as overseas. Young people, however, have interest in DIY. We
need to create a support system such as construction guidance after moving in order to utilize this stock of
rental dwelling that is aging in Japan by allowing the occupants themselves to make improvements through
DIY renovations.
REFERENCES
Nomura. N., 2014. ‘Consideration of regenerative method viewed from relationship between housing stock
and distribution of facilities’,
J. Archit. Plann., AIJ, Vol. 79 No. 697, pp. 677-684.
Ohno, T., 2002. ‘A study on housing improvement and repair work for aging by elderly persons. A study on
housing improvement and repair work by residents’, Part 3, J. Archit. Plann., AIJ, No. 555, pp.185-190.
Otsubo, A., 2007. http://www.mukogawa-u.ac.jp/~a_otsubo/pdf/katsudou3.pdf
Yamazaki, K., 2001. ‘The functions of home centers on promoting diy in housing maintenance: Study on the
social aids for housing management’ (Part 2) , J. Archit. Plann., AIJ, no. 540, pp. 251-258.
937
ENERGY SAVING STRATEGIES FOR THE XUANCHENG OLYMPIC SPORTS CENTER DESIGN IN ANHUI
PROVINCE, CHINA
Lingling Li, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, lisa6000@sina.com
Mauro Caini, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering University of Padua,
Padua, Italy, mauro.caini@unipd.it
Giovanni Brugnaro, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering University of
Padua, Padua, Italy, giovanni.brugnaro@unipd.it
Naihua Yue, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, ynh86@163.com
Abstract
From 2020, the Guidelines of the China Government require construction of new buildings with 65% energy
saving compared to existing ones. This paper investigates how it is possible to reach that objective using the
combination of two fundamental factors: the use of a specific planning methodology and the appropriate use of
technologies containing integrated and innovative plant systems. The two key factors are developed by the
authors in the design of the Xuancheng Olympic Sports Center located in the cold winter and hot summer region
of China. The adopted planning methodology develops the principles of the bioclimatic planning which are
verified through the analysis of the annual energy consumption of buildings designed. The aim is to maximize the
winter sun radiation and, at the same time, to minimize the excessive summer solar radiation using innovative
automated shading systems which are specifically developed for this project. Shading systems are considered as
an integral part of enclosure system design, in order to reduce primary energy demand according to different
plant solutions, to balance day-lighting requirements and to optimize visual and thermal comfort. To achieve the
goal of nearly ZEB buildings, different innovative solutions of plant systems using renewable energy sources are
adopted in different buildings such as 1) integrated photovoltaic panels connected to a heat pump with
geothermal probes for heating and cooling; 2) Integrated solar panels for hot water production; 3) Integrated
solar panels to provide energy to the absorption machine for the solar cooling and heating system. The design
process control was carried out through the aid of dynamic energy simulation software such as DesignBuilder.
The results show that design strategies adopted allow increase the level of interior comfort and the energy
efficiency of buildings by the best use of climatic resources of the site.
Keywords: Energy efficiency, solar screens, shading systems, lighting control, integrated simulation.
INTRODUCTION
Sustainability in architecture is an important chapter of environmental sustainability. Environmental

sustainability is increasingly important considering the environmental conditions that are becoming more
critical. The urgency of the economic problem related to the supply of energy to meet a model
unsustainable is considered by experts as a structural limit of the system of development of world
economies. The awareness of the importance that these issues have now and will have ever more in the
future is already acquired. Regarding climate change, among the many causes is heavy air pollution. Future
economic development and environmental protection can only be reached using the available energy in a
different way, looking for new sources of energy, developing sustainable technologies and improving
energy efficiency. Thus, even in building industry the energy issue assumes a leading position in the
international economy and global sustainable development. The European Union for example, from 2020,
with the 2010/31/CE Directive (EPDB 2010) requires member countries to construct new buildings to near-
zero energy consumption (Nearly Zero Energy Building). The target of the Chinese government is the
reduction of energy consumption of 65% for new buildings than existing buildings from 2020.
Within this context, the experience of the proposed project aims to develop eco-friendly design criteria for
the best use of renewable energy resources. The goal can be achieved by using different design strategies
and different technologies, according to the different climate contexts, to take advantage in the best
possible way of renewable energy resources.
For instance, the research experiences carried out in northern Europe in recent years have been developed
as the ‘passive house’ concept which provides a high-performance building envelope in order to create a
complete isolation between interior and exterior. On the other hand, results of previous studies conducted
938
by the authors show how design strategies that start from the interaction between the outdoor
environment and the indoor comfort are preferable to use in the temperate zones of the boreal hemisphere
(such as the Mediterranean area or Xuancheng area in China) and in the temperate zones of southern
hemisphere (Caini, Paparella 2012). In these climates with alternating warm and cold seasons the optimum is
to use the maximum of solar radiation in winter time through the windowed walls to reduce heat energy
consumption, conversely in summer time to use shading in front of windowed walls to reduce cooling
energy consumption (Brugnaro, Caini & Paparella 2013). This fact puts the façade at the centre of the energy
reduction issue. In this perspective shading systems should be considered as an integral part of fenestration
system design for buildings, in order to balance day-lighting requirements, to optimize visual and thermal
comfort and to reduce primary energy demand (Nielsen 2011). The methodological design approach of the
Olympic Park, located in Xuancheng in Anhui province in China, is the general objective. The exploitation of
solar radiation adopting intelligent building envelope in the special climatic context of the case study to
reduce heating and cooling energy consumption and to optimize daylight comfort is the specific target.
THE CASE STUDY
Plan of the Olympic Park

Xuancheng is located in southeastern of Anhui Province, China, and known as the famous Garden City. To
echo the geographical features and maintaining the original ecology of the natural environment, we chose
to minimize the alteration of original landform in the design, retaining the hill and the river (Figures 1, 2).
The whole center could be divided into five regions (Figure 3):
1) Waterfront Park area: The waterfront park is located at the eastern side of the base, originally is the paddy
field which is relatively flat, so we designed it as the Waterfront Park area combined with fitness plaza
services for National Fitness.
2) Natural river area: There is a seasonal river inside the base which runs through the north and south, we
widened it and put some waterfront landscape along the river. The river could take good ventilation effect
during the summer, and could also play a vital role for adjusting the micro-climate of the base.
3) Venues area: With hills behind and the river in front the four main venues are the most important
components of the park, the four venues arranged into a strip along the river, just like a Chinese dragon.
4) Sports School Area: The northwest side of the base is flat, and it is also near to the sports training sites, so
we use it as the sports school.
5) Mountain Park area: The terrain of southwest side is the mountain area, and we retain the original
mountain and design it as the outdoor event spaces and fitness paths.
The overall design of the program is based on the perspective of park, emphasizes harmony of the buildings
and environment (Figure 4), it’s not the symmetry static relationships of traditional sports center, and we
increased the natural elements like mountain, river, lake and so on in it, both of them show the charm of
speed, uninhibited freedom, strength and coordination of sport, just like a Chinese traditional ink painting.
Now the Olympic Park has become the symbol of Xuancheng City.
Figure 1: The position of Olympic Park in Xuancheng Figure 2: plan of the project of the Olympic Park
939
Figure 3: Site function zoning of the Olympic Park Figure 4: Aerial view of the Olympic Park.
Sports school area

Xuancheng belongs to the region of hot summer and cold winter in China, and the design strategy is to
exploit the resources of climate of the place in order to reduce energy consumption leaving the plants a
subsidiary role to provide the energy needed for comfort in winter and summer. Given the size of the
project, in the following paragraphs we will show in detail the results of the strategies adopted just for the
school building of the Sports School Area in the northwest side of the base, even if these results can be
considered valid and obtained for the other buildings of the Olympic Park.
The sports school area includes three main buildings: 1) in the south the school building for education, 2) in
the east the building for student accommodation, 3) in the west cafeteria for students with spaces for
physical activity for indoor training. Different innovative solutions of plant systems using renewable energy
sources are adopted in these different buildings such as 1) integrated photovoltaic panels connected to a
heat pump with geothermal probes for heating and cooling; 2) integrated solar panels for hot water
production; 3) integrated solar panels to provide energy to the absorption machine for the solar cooling and
heating system.
The design development of the school building consists of four following cases:
1) Base case: it has been hypothesized the use of an envelope used in similar existing Chinese buildings. The
energy for heating is supplied by coal boiler, for cooling is used fan coil. The lighting demand is supplied by
electricity. The envelope is without solar shielding system and without lighting control;
2) First case: it has been hypothesized the use of an envelope with good performance of insulation such as
exterior insulation and finishing system (EIFS) and low-emissivity double glazed. The energy for heating is
supplied by a gas condensing boiler, for cooling is used fan coil. The lighting demand is supplied by
electricity. Without solar shielding system and without lighting control;
3) Second case: it has been hypothesized the use of building management system with an envelope with
good performance of insulation (EIFS) and low-emissivity double glazed, with dynamic solar shading system
and with lighting control. The energy for heating is supplied by gas condensing boiler, for cooling is used
fan coil;
4) Third case: it has been hypothesized the use of building management system with an envelope with good
performance of insulation (EIFS) and low-emissivity double glazed, with dynamic solar shading system and
with lighting control. The energy for heating and cooling is supplied by geothermal heat pump. The lighting
demand is supplied by electricity.
5) Fourth case: it has been hypothesized the use of building management system with an envelope with
good performance of insulation (EIFS) and low-emissivity double glazed, with dynamic solar shading system
and with lighting control. The energy for heating and cooling is supplied by geothermal heat pump with
integrated photovoltaic panels positioned on the roof.
Therefore, to improve the energy performance of the building base case is necessary in the first phase to
improve the energy performance of the building envelope. Because the building's south façade is principally
transparent, it is necessary to adopt solar shading systems. With the support of technological advances of
architectural components, design alternatives have shifted to utilizing dynamic fenestration and shading
system to optimize the indoor comfort. Then it is designed a dynamic solar shading system in order to
940
reduce primary energy demand according to the solution of the plant system of the building, to balance
day-lighting requirements and to optimize visual and thermal comfort (Figure 5).
To obtain an automatic system, there is a highly efficient control software that can handle all the different
technical components of the building. The system of building automation system controls and regulates the
heating, cooling, lighting, air exchange system and solar screens. Thanks to this building management
system it is possible to obtain high performance buildings and to create attractive solutions not only from
the point of view of energy and of thermal and visual comfort but also interesting architectural solutions
(Figure 6).
Figure 7: Dynamic solar shading system applied in the south facade in the open position and in the closed
position.
941
Figure 8: Different architectural expressions of the south facade by using a system of dynamic solar shading
system.
SIMULATION MODEL OF THE SCHOOL BUILDING
Integrated simulation
In this project, analysis were carried out using Design Builder that integrates the software Energy Plus, that is
a state-of-the-art software tool for checking building energy developed in the U.S. Department of Energy
and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Design Builder calculates heating loads necessary to maintain
thermal control set-points and energy consumption of primary plant equipment (LBNL 2009). The cooling
loads were not taken into account because they are not significant in the climate context of the case study.
The day-lighting simulation is obtained using the Radiance daylight simulation engine developed by the
Lighting Systems Research group at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. The daylight luminance level in a zone
depends on many factors, including sky condition, sun position, photocell sensor positions, location, size,
glass transmittance of windows, window shades and reflectance of interior surfaces (Tzempelikos &
Athienitis 2007). The reduction of electric lighting depends on daylight luminance level, luminance set-
point, fraction of zone controlled and the type of lighting control (Lee & Selkowitz 1995). In this work, the
software DIALux is adopted to define the specific power to install and to simulate the artificial lighting
system determining the best energy light solution required in accordance with the respective national and
international regulations. These programs are exploited to implement the integrated simulation of energy
and daylight in an office building. The integrated simulation was conducted for the entire building.
Energy consumption
The total school building area is approximately 7040 m2 and the net conditioned building area is around
6400 m2. Table 1 contains input data on construction and plant system configuration for the simulation
models of the different cases. In all cases analysed there are the following boundary conditions:
• Heating set-point is 20 °C and the heating operation also has one preheat hour;
• Safety factor used for sizing the heating system is 1.2
• Cooling set-point is 24 °C and the heating operation also has one preheat hour;
• Safety factor used for sizing the heating system is 1.15
• Maximum natural ventilation rate through open windows is defined using minimum fresh air
requirements per person.
Setpoints for heating/cooling and air flow rates for mechanical ventilation correspond with requirements for
class II in the European standard EN 15251:2007. Both heating and cooling systems are simulated as active
during occupancy the entire year, therefore the system set-up would result in temperatures and air quality
that always correspond to class II. These values are typical and are adopted to convert thermal loads to a
source energy use.
Case Third
Construction First Case Second Case Fourth Case
Base Case
Heat transfer coefficient of
2.071 0.316
exterior wall system (U- 0.316 W/m2K 0.316 W/m2K 0.316 W/m2K
W/m2K W/m2K
value)
Heat transfer coefficient of 1.540 0.155
0.155 W/m2K 0.155 W/m2K 0.155 W/m2K
roof (U-value) W/m2K W/m2K
942
Heat transfer coefficient of

0.704 0.151
horizontal inferior enclose 0.151 W/m2K 0.151 W/m2K 0.151 W/m2K
W/m2K W/m2K
(U-value)
Heat transfer coefficient of 5.788 2.552
2.552 W/m2K 2.552 W/m2K 2.552 W/m2K
glazing (U-value) W/m2K W/m2K
Visual transmittance of
88% 72% 72% 72% 72%
glazing (TL)
Solar transmittance 82% 64% 64% 64% 64%
Solar shading system and
No No Yes Yes Yes
lighting control
Plant System
Coal Condensing Condensing boiler HVAC

Heating system HVAC
boiler boiler gas gas + BMS +Renewable
CoP for heating 0.7 0.95 0.95 4.0 4.0

CoP for cooling 2.7 2.7 2.7 4.5 4.5
Table 1: Input values defining simulation models of the different cases
Sizing method artificial lighting

The study of artificial illumination is gone through with Dialux software. This software gives a detailed
evaluation of the correct electric power demand to install in according to the DIN 18599-4 legislation. This
legislation admits a detail engineering planning (that exploit a specific software Dialux) and other two
simplified methods too. So, there are altogether three methods allowed by the DIN 18599-4 legislation:
• Tabular method
• Simplified utilization method
• Detailed engineering planning
The possibility of using a detailed method allows us to define more accurately the electric power demand
which has to be installed through a 15% of power reduction compared to the other two methods
mentioned above. The value of electrical power is dimensioned for each zone according to the intended use
and in accordance with the regulations. According to the indications of the UNI EN 12646-1 legislation, in a
classroom, for example, an average lightning has to be guaranteed a 300 lux on the horizontal work plane
(0.8 m above floor) and a 500 lux in the vertical plane of the blackboard. The glare index should not exceed
19. Always in order to minimize the electric power requirements, and consequently to reduce consumptions,
a direct illumination system has been adopted. This one is endowed with led lamps. The result achieved
provides a power density of 6.25 W/m2 of the lightning system for one classroom. Approximate values of
return air fraction, radiant fraction and visible fraction for overhead fluorescent lighting for recessed ceiling
configuration are express in table 2.
Input values Recessed ceiling

Radiant fraction 0.37
Visible fraction 0.18
Converted fraction 0.45
a
Source: Lighting Handbook: Reference & Application, 8th Edition, Illuminating Engineering Society of North
America, New York, 1993, p. 355.
Table 2: Input values defining surface mount.
With these data obtained from the individual simulations it is possible to estimate, during the dynamic
simulation, the energy demand spent to the artificial lighting for the different cases.
From the second case, the lighting system is equipped with a system of continuous dimming. The artificial
lighting is switched on when the lighting level is less than the minimum level required. The artificial light
controller will fill up the gap increasing this own power when the natural light is decreasing. The lights
switch off completely when the minimum dimming point is reached. Daylight luminance is calculated for
different locales during the simulation.
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RESULTS
Every single design decision was evaluated by performing an integrated analysis of the entire building. Any
changes made to the physical and technical characteristics of the enclosure and the plant system was
verified through the analysis of the energy demand, primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the
atmosphere. As already described, the different input values for the different cases are used in the analysis of
the energy demand of the school. The values of the annual energy demand of the net conditioned building
area are expressed (Figure 7) in kWhe/m2 (electricity demand), kWhf/m2 (cooling demand), kWht/m2 (heating
demand).
Figure 7: Comparison of the energy demands of the different cases.
The energy demand of the building varies in the first three cases because it has gone from using a low-
performance enclosure with high heat loss (base case) to an enclosure with better performance (first case) to
finally arrive to improve the energy performance of the transparent components using automated solar
shading systems included in a building automation system (second case). In the last two cases, the energy
demand is equal to the energy demand of the second case because the design changes affect only the plant
typology. Then the request of energy to achieve the comfort level does not change. However, using ever
more efficient plant solutions will increase the performance of the building in terms of reducing CO2
emissions expressed in kg/m2 (Figure 8). Finally, the analysis of the primary energy consumption was carried
out to determine the primary energy savings obtained (Figure 9).
Figure 8: Comparison of CO2 emissions of the different cases.
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Figure 9: Primary energy consumption.
In Table 3 are expressed, finally, the global consumption of primary energy expressed in kWh/m2year and
the associated reduction in energy consumption compared to the base case.
CASE kWh/m2y Percentage of reduction achieved

Case Base 278
First Case 253 9%
Second case 169 39.3%
Third case 139 49.9%
Fourth case 53 81.0%
Table 3: Total energy consumption for the respective cases and primary energy savings achieved.
CONCLUSION
This work shows how to achieve the results expected starting from a concept of bioclimatic design and,
through the stages of technological development of the project, to make the best possible advantage from
renewable energy resources to improve the energy efficiency of buildings reducing energy consumption
and, therefore, significantly reducing the emission of CO2.
A great improvement is achieved in passing from the first to the second case by introducing in design the
building management system, with the use of dynamic solar shading system and with lighting control. In
fact, as shown in Table 3, the percentage of reduction of energy consumption is increased from 9 % to 39,3
%. This implies the need to develop the solar shading system at the level of the final design, including design
of the home automation control software. This is a stage of the design, particularly significant from the
architectural point of view, (see fig. 6) in which the south facade takes different forms depending on the
movement of the sun shield, which in turn it is designed to move in an automatic way to decrease the
energy consumption. At this stage of design the technological design is at the service of architecture and
sustainability. But a further result is obtained by passing from the second to the third case, with a further
reduction of approximately 10% of the primary energy consumption. In this case it uses a more
sophisticated system of plant consisting of geothermal heat pump. Finally, the objective of greater
reduction of 65% compared to the base case is obtained by installing photovoltaic panels on the roof for the
production of electricity with a reduction in both energy consumption and emissions of CO2 equal to 81%.
945
REFERENCES
Brugnaro, G, Caini, M & Paparella, R., 2013. ‘The contribution of the intelligent solar screen to the energy
efficiency’, Conference Proceedings of CIB W115 Green Design Conference, Sarajevo, pp. 35-39.
Caini, M & Paparella, R., 2102. ‘Design methodologies to construct sustainable buildings, in the
Mediterranean area, based on the use of renewable resources integrated with the use of intelligent systems’,
4th SASBE 2012 International Conference on Smart Sustainable Built Environment, S. Paulo (Brazil), pp. 125-
135.
EPDB, 2010. ‘Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Energy
Performance of Buildings (recast)’, Strasbourg.
LBNL, 2009. Energy plus manual, version 3.1, U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory. California.
Lee, E & Selkowitz, SE., 1995. ‘The design and evaluation of integrated envelope and lighting control
strategies for commercial buildings’, ASHRAE Transactions, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 326–342.
Nielsen, MV., 2011. ‘Quantifying the potential of automated dynamic solar shading in office buildings
throught integrated simulations of energy and daylight’, Solar energy, no. 85, pp. 757-768.
Tzempelikos, A & Athienitis, AK., 2007. ‘The impact of shading design and control on building cooling and
lighting demand’, Solar energy, no. 81, pp. 369-382.
946
AN APPROACH TO REDESIGN FOR CHANGE: RESEARCH-BY-DESIGN
Waldo Galle, ir. arch., Doctoral Fellowship of the Research Foundation Flanders – FWO, Vrije Universiteit
Brussel, Belgium, waldo.galle@vub.ac.be
Mieke Vandenbroucke, ir. arch., Doctoral Fellowship of the Agency for Innovation by Science and
Technology – IWT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, mieke.vandenbroucke@vub.ac.be
Anne Paduart, dr. ir. arch., Post-doctoral researcher at the Transform research team, part of æ-lab,
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, anne.paduart@vub.ac.be
Niels De Temmerman, prof. dr. ir. arch., chairman of the Transform research team, part of æ-lab,
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, niels.de.temmerman@vub.ac.be
Abstract
The high environmental impact of construction is currently challenging conventional architectural practice. In
reaction, the strategy ‘design-for-change’ has been put forward. Through the adoption of ‘interchangeable’
building components and ‘reversible’ connections, this alternative design strategy fosters both reuse and
recycling. Consequently, it reduces the generation of construction waste and minimises the need for new
resources.
To date, it has been unclear how ‘design-for-change’ fits architectural practice; interviewees from the construction
sector indicated multiple design-related impediments to its wider implementation. In order to find out if those
impediments are well founded and how they can be overcome, we observed a conventional redesign process of
an ongoing renovation. From our findings, we initiated the development of a practical approach to ‘redesign-for-
change’.
Based on our observations we could conclude that the redesign process does not differ substantially when
adopting a ‘redesign-for-change’ approach. In contrast, ‘redesign-for-change’ holds the opportunity to
coordinate multiple design levels and can guarantee long term quality for the user as well as commercial viability
for the owner. From the development of the practical redesign approach we learned that ’design-for-change’ can
bring more design options than those initially considered.
Nevertheless, the evaluation of multiple design options remains a bottleneck. Life cycle analyses can be
performed, but more user friendly evaluation tools are necessary. Furthermore, since ‘design-for-change’ is not
common yet, the technical development was indicated as the most difficult part in our research-by-design.
Keywords: research-by-design, design-for-change, adaptable building, design process.
INTRODUCTION
Sustainability and conventional architectural practice

Conventional architectural practice is confronted more and more often by high environmental impact. Not
only the facts and figures but also the policy that is currently pursued raises designers’ awareness and forces
them towards new design approaches: approaches that tackle the environmental, social and financial
burdens of construction (Servaes et al. 2013). In the EU-27 Member States, Croatia, Iceland, Norway and
Turkey, the construction industry was responsible for 32 per cent of the 2.6 billion tonnes of waste
generated in 2008. Although more than half of all construction and demolition waste is recycled (estimated
53 percent of 971 million tonnes generated in 18 EU Member States in 2006), observations in practice
suggest that recycling is not evident yet and that the preservation of a materials’ quality is difficult to
achieve (European Environment Agency 2012) For example, plasterboard waste can in theory be entirely
recycled during the production of new boards. However, producers hardly collect plasterboard from existing
buildings since generally boards are polluted with non-removable finishing layers or are demolished
together with their supporting structure. (Billiet et al. 2012) The same has been observed for mineral wool
(Billiet and Ghyoot 2012). Recycling is thus determined by the disassembly potential of building components
as well as by their material’s properties.
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Design-for-change
In order to facilitate the reuse and recycling of materials, buildings should not be designed as an end stage,
but from a long term perspective (Brand 1994). When the design facilitates alterations, the building can be
easily adopted during its service life; it can easily anticipate changing functional, technical and social needs
and last much longer. Additionally, building components can be easily recovered and recycled or reused
after a repair or upgrade (such as in Slaughter 2001 and Durmisevic 2006).
To facilitate alterations, design strategies are required at multiple levels, including at building, component
and material level (Debacker 2009; Dorsthorst and Kowalczyk 2002). First, buildings should be easy to adapt,
for example by separating frame and infill. In this way, a variety of user preferences can be fulfilled by simply
changing the infill whereas the frame remains. Second, it should be easy to disassemble building
components in order to reuse them in the same or in another configuration. Therefore, reversible
connections and compatible dimensions are essential. Third, building materials should be easy to separate
according to their waste treatment. Technical materials should be recycled and biological materials should
be biodegraded.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES
Since the 1960’s, different design strategies and approaches have been developed to facilitate change (such
as by Habraken 1961). Nevertheless, ‘design-for-change’ is still restricted to small-scale and specific
applications, like temporary office buildings (Post 2012). To identify the impediments to a wider
implementation, a qualitative survey of Belgian designers, contractors and producers was recently held
(Vandenbroucke et al. 2013). Several of the problems that the interviewees stated can be linked to the
design process.
First, practical examples are missing and designers state they have insufficient conceptual and technical
knowledge of ‘design-for-change’; it is an unknown practice. Additionally, several interviewees have the
perception that it would restrict architectural freedom and result in inferior quality; some thought that
conceptual and technical options are limited due to so-called ‘standardisation’.
Second, designers note that a tool to quantify the ‘adaptability’ of a design and its financial and
environmental burdens is not available. Moreover, ‘design-for-change’ seems an unrealistic goal to some of
them: after all, requirements and regulation can evolve into the most unthinkable. On the other hand,
designers expect that a hypothetic way of thinking about future needs will increase the complexity of the
design and construction process.
Third, there exists a large building stock with limited ‘adaptability’, initially not conceived for change.
Considering such buildings, designers state that there are no convenient approaches to redesign-for-
change. Additionally, designers state that there are not enough construction products available to realise an
adaptable building.
However, are these problems well founded and can they be resolved? In literature adaptable buildings are
mostly examined in terms of their ‘adaptability’ (such as in Leupen et al. 2005). Literature on the design
process of an adaptable building has not been found. In order to find answers, we had to analyse the design
process of an ongoing renovation case. While the case was tackled in a conventional way by an architectural
office, we developed an adaptable alternative and kept track of our own design process.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CASE
Context and original design

The case we considered in our research is located in the Belgian municipality Zelzate, situated between the
Ghent harbour and the Dutch border. The nine stories high apartment building was originally designed by
Georges Bontinck (1903-1999). In 1961, Bontinck had been commissioned to design a social housing
apartment block for 192 people. Up till today, all dwelling units are let, mostly to elderly people. (Meganck
2003)
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Building services, storage rooms and entrances are located at the basement and ground floor. The other
eight floors contain 64 dwelling units. Each of both vertical circulation cores with separate entrances gives
access to four units at each floor. Most dwellings units have two bedrooms; eight have one bedroom and
another eight have three bedrooms.
Figure 1: The plan view of the first till eighth floor shows the existing organisation of the different dwelling units
(Left). The plan view at the right zooms in at a two-room unit.
At this moment the architectural office KPW Architecten is commissioned by the building’s owner, the
Flemish Society for Social Housing (VMSW), to design a fundamental upgrade of the building. Ambitiously
they stated in their initial design proposal: “This project is committed to develop a sustainable technical
envelope and infill that serve a resilient building in interaction with its residents and neighbourhood.”
Requirements
The necessary updates to reach the current standards of VMSW (2008) on both building and component
design level are defined in regard to:
• Optimal energy performance and comfort,

• Wheelchair accessibility, and
• Functional and comfortable spaces, including balconies.
Preconditions
Some technical preconditions make this redesign a real challenge:
• Important thermal bridges at the existing balconies,

• Floor height of 2m45, and 2m10 under the beams, and
• Need for additional fire-resistant layers.
Additionally, practical issues set limits on the construction process’s organisation:
• Only eight apartments can be renovated at the time since residents are reluctant to move and there
is limited capacity to relocate them during the refurbishments, and
• Due to local planning directives, which cannot be changed within the first few years, it is impossible
to expand the building volume with new balconies.
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Figure 2: The existing façade as designed in the 1960’s is characterised by continuous thermal bridges at each
floor and window frames and infill panels of an inadequate insulation level © Birgit Vandevelde, OVAM 2014.
A CONVENTIONAL DESIGN APPROACH VERSUS ‘DESIGN-FOR-CHANGE’
Our research started with the observation of the design process of the case in Zelzate, from problem
statement in November 2013 till the first ideas on the technical development in March 2014. During three
meetings and intermediate correspondence, we observed the different steps KPW Architecten undertook.
Subsequently, we confronted each step with the relevant key aspects of ‘design-for-change’. The differences
and difficulties we encountered gave us new insights into several problems that Vandenbroucke et al. (2013)
had detected.
First, the architects analysed objectively the building’s context and formulated renovation requirements in
dialogue with their client and technical advisors. The way those objectives were weighted and tackled
seemed however dependent on the architect’s individual approach. As a general example, let us consider
the upgrade of the buildings’ energy performance: although it would be possible to upgrade the building to
a nearly-zero-energy standard, the selection of the energy performance took into account all design aspects
and tried to achieve an overall optimum. We can thus imagine that a ‘design-for-change’ introducing new
aspects such as reversible connections would lead to other design choices.
Second, a concept has been formulated that responds to the formulated requirements. KPW Architecten
presented an ambitious plan with their initial design proposal, tackling both building and component level.
In their proposal, the designers adopted the reconversion strategy of the architectural office Lacaton & Vasal
as implemented in Tour Bois-le-Prêtre in Paris: a radical breakout of the dwelling units through the façade,
expanding the rooms on continuous balconies, pre-assembled and mounted on an independent structure.
At this point, adaptability could have been one of the ideas that constitute the design concept: no conflicts
would occur at this level. Quite the opposite, ‘design-for-change’ fostering the reuse of materials,
components and the building, could have highlighted the designers’ ambition to build sustainably.
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Figure 3: The plan view of the first till eighth floor shows the conventional design proposal with added external
balconies (Left). The plan view at the right zooms in at a two-room unit.
Last, the architectural concept was elaborated. During that elaboration, the stringent organisational and
technical preconditions discussed in section ‘Description of the case’ became clear one after the other, e.g.
the local planning directives making it impossible to expand the building with balconies during next few
years. Consequently, from the architects’ perspective, it was no longer possible to adopt the overall strategy
of Lacaton & Vasal.
This led to the rephrasing of the initial ambitions:
• Reorganise the dwelling units and improve the building accessibility,

• Refit the building skin, the apartment fit-out and all building services.
With the general concept, the integration of architectural and technical aspects was lost. From that moment,
spatial and technical aspects were tackled as separate design questions, with individual requirements. On
the one hand, the reorganisation aims at accessible, open and light spaces and focuses on the dwelling
units’ lay-out. On the other hand, the refit has to achieve comfort and a minimal ecological impact and
therefore focuses on construction components and materials. This fragmented design approach certainly
has its merits: it offers a clear work flow and guaranties a feasible and predictable construction process.
However, does this approach take into account possible conflicts between the two separate perspectives?
And how are the different design levels, including building, components and materials coordinated?
As stated in the introduction, buildings that are designed for change consider multiple design levels in order
to enable an efficient reuse of the building, its components and its materials. By these means, we believe
‘design-for-change’ has the potential to integrate sustainable strategies at different design levels in a
consistent way.
Additionally, we could notice that the conventional design approach prevents some desirable adaptations in
the future: even when local planning directives would change and allow an expansion of the building, the
desired balconies would probably not be added since the costly new façade cannot easily be dismantled.
In conclusion, a change oriented design approach is not substantially different than the observed design
process. However, it could lead to alternative choices than a conventional approach would. Moreover,
‘design-for-change’ holds the opportunity to coordinate multiple design levels and guarantee short as well
as long term quality.
AN APPROACH TO REDESIGN-FOR-CHANGE
Research-by-design
The next step in our research was the evaluation of a design process that adopts the ‘design-for-change’
strategy. Therefore, a research-by-design has been undertaken: while developing an alternative for the case
in Zelzate, we kept track of our own design process.
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The ‘design-for-change’ strategy brought us to a building with an adaptable and multi-use layout. However,
we saw ourselves confronted with questions that were hard to answer. Nevertheless, we were able to detect
generic strategies and develop a clear workflow that could be adopted by designers in other redesign cases.
Our design process had this stepwise structure (Figure 4):
• First, analyse the existing situation,

• Second, define future needs in addition to requirements and preconditions, and
• Third, design for future change.
Step 1: Analyse the existing situation

A profound understanding of the existing situation is essential for a successful redesign. A holistic technical,
social, historical, economic and environmental analysis indicates to what extent the building and its
components can and should be preserved and reused. This reuse is in advantage of smaller waste streams
and a decreased demand for new materials. Additionally, the findings of this analysis form the basis of the
definition of requirements, preconditions and future needs in the next step.
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Figure 4: This scheme of the adopted design approach can be used by designers when adopting ‘design-for-
change’ as a sustainable design strategy.
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At the level of the building, the analysis is made for five different building layers according to Duffy
(1990), Brand (1994) and Leupen (2006) as in Paduart (2012).
• The type of organisation of the access to the individual dwelling units

e.g. corridor, core or gallery access
• The type and extend of compartmentalisation of the load bearing structure

e.g. bearing façade, parallel shear walls, frame structure or portal frame structure
• The structural function and construction technique of the building skin

e.g. light weight prefabricated curtain wall or in-situ built load bearing cavity wall
• The type of organisation of circulation and building services

e.g. dispersed or grouped in central cores or along the building’s skin
• The type and construction technique of the dwelling unit’s space plan
e.g. light weight infill wall or load bearing partitioning wall
Figure 5: Clear analyses, concerning the existing building, can be easily done by highlighting the individual
building layers, e.g. load bearing structure, access and services.
At the level of the building components, the evaluation criteria are the compatibility and durability of the
individual components, the reversibility of their connections and the pace layering of their composition
(Durmisevic 2006; Nordby 2009).
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Due to the irreversible way components are connected in Zelzate, it is not easy to disassemble and reuse
them in the same or another configuration: concrete slabs and walls that are cast in situ, glued laminated
flooring, window frames covered with plasterwork and sills that are fixed by cement mortar cannot be
disassembled without damage.
Step 2: Define future needs in addition to requirements and preconditions

Requirements and today’s needs explain why the redesign is undertaken now. They can be both spatial and
technical and serve multiple stakeholders, e.g. a better comfort and accessibility for the user, better energy
performance for the owner and an improved relation with the street considering neighbours and the wider
society. Additionally, preconditions give other relevant and important issues. They can be both technical
and organisational. Traditionally, the definition of the requirements and preconditions is part of every
design approach. For the case in Zelzate, they are explained in the section ‘Description of the case’.
‘Design-for-change’ does not mean that every imaginable alteration should be possible. Detecting likely and
unlikely future needs can guide designers in making relevant decisions. This is known as scenario planning
from business management and discussed by Brand (1994) and Ogilvy (2002). Future needs are set by
experts, such as architects or urban planners, in discussion with the involved stakeholders (investor, owner,
user…). These experts are invited to analyse the social, economic, technologic, politic and cultural context of
the building and formulate in which way current challenges might evolve.
If likely future needs are not taken into account during design, they can cause social, economic and
environmental problems in the near future. Anticipating those changes can have an important positive
impact and are therefore examined in depth during design. In our case, the likely future needs determined
by the authors, the designer and the representatives of the Flemish Society for Social Housing are:
Concerning function, capacity and user type:
• If elderly residents require care, an extra bedroom for a resident carer or local medicine facilities are
desirable,
• If larger families want to move in, refit and extensions of the existing dwelling units are required,
and
• If local planning directives change and an extension of building volume will be allowed, balconies,
as proposed in de original design proposal, should be built.
Concerning energy and technical performance, comfort and trends:
• When new technologies prove to offer financial benefits such as solar shading or solar panels, their
integration should be easy, fast and cheap,
• At regular times, maintenance and refit of appliances and their distribution systems are needed, this
should be as easy as possible,
• In addition, alteration of the interior finishing, space plan and furniture might be required.
Unlikely future needs could have an important impact as well, however because their likeliness is far smaller,
the risk they represent is estimated lower according to the proportional risk-assessment technique
(Marhavilas et al. 2011). Therefore, they should not be considered with the same priority as likely needs. An
example of an unlikely future need could be to hand over the complete responsibility on the energy
performance to the user, including his energy consumption as well as insulation levels and the economy of
appliances. Expressing new challenges, such unlikely needs help us to choose between equivalent design
alternatives. When for example, two alternatives fulfil all likely future needs, but only one fulfils the unlikely
future needs, it is preferable to select the latter.
Step 3: Redesign-for-change
After analysing the existing situation and defining future needs in addition to requirements and
preconditions, the redesign for change can start. Our redesign approach has three subparts.
Step 3a: Design building frame and infill
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The selection of the frame (Leupen 2006) (i.e. the permanent part of the existing building that remains
unaltered and in which change can take place) can be based on the following questions: which parts of the
building layers can fulfil the defined requirements preconditions, and the likely and unlikely future needs?
Can access, load bearing structure, building skin, building services and space plan be preserved and entirely
reused, or should they be altered or demolished? Two rules are formulated in this paper:
• Reduce the amount of generated waste and thus minimise initial financial, environmental and
social burdens, and
• Pursue polyvalence and thus minimise future financial, environmental and social burdens.
These two rules can however be contradictory: to what extend should polyvalence be pursued without
generating more waste and costs than necessary? As an example we developed three options in figure 6.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) might guide this decision (Debacker 2009, Paduart
2012). However, designer-oriented and user friendly tools to evaluate these different options are currently
lacking. Moreover, the software tools that are generally used for LCA and LCC are not suitable for the
dynamic nature of adaptable buildings. Though, considering the future needs we defined, the conservative
option was found to be a good balance between generated amount of waste and possible plan changes at
first glance. The conservative option generates the smallest amount of waste of all three and the frame
doesn’t hinder the accessibility and room size changes.
Step 3b: Design the grid and adjust the frame

The different building levels should be adjusted to each other to foster reuse. The coordination of building
and components can be achieved by selecting a design grid. This grid should not introduce standardised
and restricting building elements, but generic components such as profiles, plates and blocks that can be
easily combined to different configurations (Debacker et al. 2008).
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Figure 6: Sketching three different options during the design of the permanent frame allowed getting a clear
overview of the advantages and drawbacks of each option.
Figure 7: After a few iterations, it was possible to set a grid that fits the selected frame. That grid coordinates the
different design levels and consequently fosters future reuse.
Possible grids are multi-modular grids, fractal grids or a combination of both. A multi-modular grid defines
different modules for different levels and layers, e.g. 5 cm for components, 60 cm for the space plan and
240 cm for the load bearing structure. A fractal grid starts from one module and halves or doubles that
module as much as needed. Other sizes, for instance 30 cm, can be composed out of two sequential ones: 10
and 20 cm.
The grid has to fit the selected frame as much as possible. It can be useful to test multiple grid sizes and
types before you find a suitable one. Once the grid is set, the frame can be adjusted if needed and
technically possible, e.g. wall openings can be widened and space dividing walls can be shortened to fit the
grid and the components that will be designed or selected.
In our case a multi-modular grid was selected: 5cm, 15 cm, 45 cm, 90 cm and 270 cm. Similar as in the
previous step, it was hard to decide to what extend alterations should be made in favour of a generic frame
that is as compatible as possible with most building components.
Step 3c: Design or select the adaptable construction components

In this third subpart, the technical detailing op the building components is developed. Compatible
components for space plan and finishing, windows, façade cladding, furniture and technical services should
be designed based on the selected frame and grid. Several criteria that have been set out in previous
research guide this step (Paduart et al. 2013), including:
• Reversible connections for recovering components and easy alterations,

• Durability of components and connections fostering reuse,
• Compatibility of generic components fostering reuse, and
• Manoeuvrability of components and connections fostering alterations.
Figure 8: As an example, an adaptable inner space plan wall has been developed that fits the selected grid. It is
built from generic, not standardised components.
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We have noticed that products with reversible connections for residential buildings are currently lacking or
difficult to implement in the case. For example, in the Netherlands much research was done in the field of
dry floor systems including wiring and ducts (such as by Harsta 2005), but those products cannot be
implemented in this case due to the limited floor height. Additionally, other products are not adjusted to the
chosen grid or are not compatible with other products. At this moment, there are not many reference details
of adaptable walls, floors, etc. and there are no overall catalogues with compatible components for the
residential building sector. This makes the technical development of the design the most difficult part in this
research-by-design. Therefore, we suggest to start with conventional products and to adapt them to
interchangeable components connected in a reversible way.
CONCLUSION
The goal of this paper was to find out if the impediments to a wider implementation of the design strategy
‘design-for-change’, indicated by interviewees from the construction sector, are well founded and how they
could be solved. Therefore, we analysed the design process of a redesign case and proposed an alternative
approach. In conclusion, we connect our findings to the stated problems.
One of the stated issues was the lack of practical examples and knowledge. However, several references of
this paper present completed newly built adaptable cases. Existing buildings that are redesigned for change
could not be found. Furthermore, it is a general perception that adaptable building would restrict
architectural freedom. However, our case shows that ‘design-for-change’ opens up even more design
alternatives than those that were initially considered. Actively informing designers and clients on this
sustainable strategy and illustrate its potential could overcome this problem.
The surveyed people also mentioned that evaluation tools for ‘design-for-change’ and its effects are
unavailable. Indeed, it is difficult to measure a building’s ‘adaptability’. However, several series of criteria
guided us in detecting our case’s ‘adaptability’ at multiple design levels. Additionally, life cycle analyses can
be performed to evaluate the long term impact of design decisions. Nevertheless, further development of
user friendly evaluation tools is necessary.
Another indicated problem was the perception that ‘design-for-change’ is an unrealistic goal: conditions
might evolve into the most unthinkable. In addition, a hypothetic way of thinking is expected to increase the
complexity of the design. Fortunately, scenario thinking has proved to be an easy and valuable tool during
our redesign process.
Several interviewees mentioned that there are not enough interchangeable products on the market.
Besides, the perception exists of reduced constructional and physical properties. As the technical detailing
for ‘design-for-change’ is not common yet, the technical development was indeed indicated as the most
difficult part in our research-by-design. Consequently, we propose that like designers and clients also
product developers should be involved in this discussion.
Finally, according to the polled people, there are no common adaptable solutions for existing static
buildings. However, with the framework that has been developed, we hope to guide designers and show
them that they do not need standard solutions. In other words, the adopted design approach can be used as
a design tool.
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research has been done in the context of the research project ‘Design-for-change: developing a
framework for policymaking and assessing' commissioned by the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM)
and was made possible by the support of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), the Agency for
Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) and the Brussels Institute for Research and Innovation
(Innoviris).
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960
ACTION TO LONG-LIFE QUALITY HOUSING IN JAPAN –DURABILITY OF THE METAL JOINTS OF

WOODEN HOUSES
Hiroki Ishiyama, Chubu University, Japan, ishiyama@isc.chubu.ac.jp
Abstract
Recently in Japan, there is a lot of R&D about long-life quality housing. In this paper, I focus on the action to long-
life quality housing (LLQH), especially to durability of the metal joint of wooden houses.
In Japan, the Act on the Promotion of Popularization of Long-life Quality Housing came into effect in June 2009.
Based on this act, over 300,000 units were certified as LLQH by July 2009. The standards of LLQH are –
Construction durability, Earthquake resistance, Adaptability, Maintenance, and Fit for the elderly. The
technological background of these is based on General Technology Development Project of Ministry of
Construction in 1980s, with cases collected and organized by durability subcommittee of the comprehensive
verification project of Wooden Long-Life Quality Housing, which was a subsidized project of MLIT from 2006.
There are 7 themes in this project - Study of Degradation external force, study of durability of preservative
chemicals in wood, study of inspection data of new and old housing, evaluation of strength of the joints when
wood decays, evaluation of durability by the simulation of dew condensation, study of the durability of the metal
joint, and study of maintenance.
In order to establish appropriate durability criteria, we need the information of degradation rates and structural
performance when the parts are degraded. The information was obtained through exposure tests of metal plates
on the preservative woods and structural tests of nails with rust in the woods. With the information, we concluded
that the nail with the rust on the surface is stronger than the nail without the rust, and when the rust grows, failure
mode changes and strength is reduced.
Keywords: wooden structures, long-life, metal joint, durability, degradation.
INTRODUCTION
In Japan, since the 200-year housing vision policy was recommended in 2007, a lot of research and
development about maintenance and durability of building materials has been made. Since 2009, the Act on
the Promotion of Popularization of Long-life Quality Housing (LLQH) came into effect, more than 30 million
units were LLQH certified by July 2012 due to incentives such as mortgage benefits and tax breaks.
According to this law, LLQH are houses with equipment and structures qualified as long-term-use structures.
And long-term-use structures consists of the following 5 factors:
1. Construction durabilty (Countermeasure for deterioration of structural frame)

Houses which have important structural elements and rainwater barriers applied with countermeasures for
corrosion, decay, and wearing.
2. Earthquake resistance
Houses which have important structural elements applied with countermeasures for earthquakes in order to
ensure good condition in the long-term.
3. Adaptability
Houses which have structures and equipment changeable in order to have their phyical functions
accomodate aging of their residents and changes in the way the residents use the building.
4. Maintenance and updating

Houses which were properly maintained and updated.
5. Elderly measures
Houses which were built with the convinience and security of the elderly in mind.
961
This long-term-use structure is based on the Japan Housing Performance Indication Standards in the
Housing Quality Assurance Act which came into effect in 1999. And the Japan Housing Performance
Indication Standards is mainly based on the Development of technology for improving durability of the
building, which was conducted by the Ministry of Construction since 1980. In other words, the technical
background of these long-term use structures is subject to the construction method, knowledge, and
external factors of more than 30 years ago. Many criteria need to be revisited, especially the criteria
concerning durability of the metal joints, which was not well defined due to the fact that metal joints were
considered as non-structural elements at that time. But in 2000, the Building Standards Law was revised, and
the metal joints were reclassified as structural elements.
COMPREHENSIVE VERIFICATION PROJECT OF WOODEN LONG-LIFE QUALITY HOUSING
Therefore, we decided to collect the technical information about countermeasures for degradation and to
make necessary arrangements as a technical basis for LLQH about the following matters.
1. To investigate external forces that cause degradation.

a) To create a termite distribution map: to examine in detail the reality of the northern living limits of termite,
and to reveal the distribution of various termites.
b) To create a decay risk map: to collect the damaged timber from various parts of the wooden house in
order to identify the perpetrator fungus to wooden housing by genetic analysis.
2. To investigate durability of preservations.

a) To derive methods of accelerated tests: in order to evaluate the durability of the preservation chemicals.
b) To evaluate durability: to measure the residual concentration of active ingredients in the preservation
chemicals after the accelerated test, and to get the basic data of the lifetime assessment of the preservation
chemicals.
3. To survey the conditions of the houses of both existing and new constructions.
a) Case collection: to collect cases of accident of new construction methods.
b) To revise standards for new construction methods based on a).
4. To evaluate the deterioration of strength by the joint model test.

a) Deterioration test of the joint model: to accelerate degradation of the metal joint model by fungus and
termite, and to reveal the strength by the strength test.
b) Repair criteria: to determine the relationship between the deterioration index by non-destructive tests
and structural performance tests, and to determine the repair criteria in the maintenance of existing houses.
5. Durability evaluation of various construction methods by the simulation of condensation.

a) Verification of allowable humidity: to determine the relationships between the fixing time of fungus and
humidity, and frequency of wet and dirt by the model test.
b) Condensation simulation: to obtain quantitative measures of acceptable moisture amounts for the
structure by condensation simulation.
c) Installation of attic ventilation: to determine the relationships between the way of installing the attic
ventilation and the condensation hazard.
6. Durability of the metal joint and metal connector.

a) To organize existing knowledge: to investigate the standards of anti-corrosion in Europe and the United
States.
b) Exposure test: to conduct the outdoor exposure test, wet exposure test, and the high humidity exposure
test to various surface-treated metal plates on various preservative treated woods.
c) To organize the information for the new standards of the metal joint.
7. Maintenance of LLQH.
a) Ways of maintenance: to evaluate inspection period, inspection points, and inspection method
theoretically and empirically
962
EXPOSURE TEST TO THE SURFACE-TEATED METAL PLATE ON THE PRESERVATIVE TREATED WOOD
Figure 1 shows the necessary examination content for the durability of the metal joint and metal connector
(Service class in Figure 1 is in accordance with Eurocode 5. Table 1 shows one of the surface-treatment for
the metal connectors in Eurocode 5). In other words, in order to discuss the durability of the metal joint or
connector, it required both the information about the corrosion rate under some environment and the
information about the structural performance of the metal joint or connector with some rust.
Corrosion!rate! Structural!performance!when!
the!metal!joint!rust!
Outdoor!exposure!test!
(Service!class!3)! Performance!of!screw!
High!humidity!exposure! Performance!of!nail!
test!
(Service!class!2)!
Performance!of!plate!
Dry!exposure!test!
(Service!class!1)!
Durability!of!the!metal!joint!
Figure 1: Durability of the metal joint
Table 1: Surface-treatment for the metal connectors in Eurocode 5
Ser vi ce Cl ass
Fast ener
1 2 3
Fe/ Zn12c Fe/Zn25c
Nai l s and Screws wi t h d 4mm None
Z275 Z350
Bol t s, dowel s, nai l s and Fe/Zn25c

None None
scr ews wi t h d＞4mm Z350
Fe/ Zn12c
St apl es Fe/ Zn12c St ai nl ess st eel
Z275
Punched met al pl at e f ast eners
Fe/ Zn12c
and st eel pl at es up t o 3mm Fe/ Zn12c St ai nl ess st eel
Z275
t hi ckness
St eel pl at es f rom 3mm up t o Fe/ Zn12c Fe/Zn25c
None
5mm i n t hi ckness Z275 Z350
St eel pl at es over 5mm Fe/Zn25c

None None
t hi ckness Z350
Ser vi ce cl ass 1 i s charact eri sed by a moi st ur e cont ent i n t he mat er i al s

cor r espondi ng t o a t emper at ur e of 20 ℃ and t he rel at i ve humi di t y of t he
sur r oundi ng ai r onl y exceedi ng 65 % f or a f ew weeks per year .
Ser vi ce cl ass 2 i s charact eri sed by a moi st ur e cont ent i n t he mat er i al s
cor r espondi ng t o a t emper at ur e of 20 C and t he r el at i ve humi di t y of t he
sur r oundi ng ai r onl y exceedi ng 85 % f or a f ew weeks per year .
Ser vi ce cl ass 3 i s charact eri sed by cl i mat i c condi t i ons l eadi ng t o hi gher moi st ur e
cont ent s t han i n ser vi ce cl ass 2.
963
Therefore, in this project, we determine the corrosion performance of the surface-treated metals on the
preservative treated wood in the environment as service class 2 or 3 in Eurocode 5. Figures 2,3 and 4 show
the exposure test. In outdoor exposure test (Figure 2) and wet exposure test (Figure 3), the surface-treated
metal plates on the preservative treated wood by the screws are used. In high humidity exposure test
(Figure 4), the surface-treated metal plates between the preservative treated woods are used. Figure 5
shows the result of 1 year later. The scores are based on the 5-point scale (1: No change, 2: Discoloration,
white rust, 3: Small amount of red rust, 4: Red rust less than 30%, 5: Red rust more than 30%). As a result, the
following was provided.
1) The metal plates corroded remarkably on the preservative treated wood which contained copper.
2) The metal plates corroded less on the surface-preservative treated wood.
3) Rust resistance ability of the composite-surface-treated metal was high level.
4) The metal plates were easier to rust in high humidity exposure test than wet exposure test, and were
easier to rust in wet exposure test than outdoor exposure test.
Figure 2: Outdoor exposure test
Figure 3: Wet exposure test
Figure 4: High humidity exposure test
964
0- G（
コントロール） 2.0
2 Zn+Al焼 Zn+Al焼 Zn+Sn合 Zn+Mg合 Zn+Mg合電気亜鉛電気亜鉛電気亜鉛 Z27+カチ

Zn5Cr6 Zn8Cr6 Zn5Cr3 Zn8Cr3 Z27 HDZ- A HDZ23 Z60 HDZ35 2 金めっき金めっきめっき+ めっき+ めっき+ オン電着
A B: Weight remaining ratio 98%!
付塗装1 付塗装2 金めっき 1 2 皮膜1 皮膜2 皮膜3 塗装
AAC A: No Rust
2.3 2.0 3.7 2.3 2.0 2.0 2.0 R1.7 2.0 1.5 3.3 2.0 1.7 2.0 1.7 3.0 1.5 1.0
1.5 1.5
SAAC 2.7 2.0 3.0 2.3 2.0 2.0 2.3 1.5 2.3 1.5 2.5 2.3 1.5 2.0 1.0 2.3 1.5 1.0
! 2.0
Load（kN）
Load（kN）
BAAC 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 2.0 1.5 1.7 2.0 1.8 2.0 1.3 2.3 1.5 1.0
1 1
ACQ 5.0 3.3 5.0 3.3 3.3 3.0 2.7 2.7 2.7 3.0 4.0 2.8 2.0 3.0 1.2 5.0 1.5 1.0
CUAZ- 2 4.3 3.7 5.0 4.3 3.3 2.0 3.7 2.0 3.7 3.3 5.0 3.7 3.0 3.3 1.5 5.0 1.5 1.0
0.5 0.5
CUAZ- 3 5.0 4.7 5.0 5.0 4.7 4.3 3.3 2.3 4.3 3.3 4.7 4.7 4.3 4.7 1.5 5.0 1.5 1.0
0
AZN 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 2.3 0 1.5 1.5 2.0 1.5 1.5 1.0 2.3 1.5 1.0
ナフテン酸銅
0 5 1.8
101.3 15
1.5
20 2.0 252.0
1.7
30
2.0
35 1.8
1.5 0.5
1 1.85 1.8 101.5 15
1.7 1.020 2.0 251.0 30
1.0 35
Displacement（mm） Displacement（mm）
チアメトキサムほか 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 2.0 1.0 1.5 1.8 1.5 1.5 1.0 2.0 1.5 1.0
2 2
ジノテフランほか C: 1.7
Weight 1.8 2.0
remaining 1.8
ratio 1.8
74% ! 2.7 2.0 1.5 2.0 1.0D: Weight
1.5 2.3 1.5 1.5
remaining 1.0
ratio 2.0
61% ! 1.0 1.0
ビフェントリンほか 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.8 1.5 2.0 1.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 1.5 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.0
1.5 1.5
エトフェンプロックス
乳剤 1.8 1.7 1.8 1.8 1.8 2.0 2.0 1.5 1.8 1.0 1.5 2.0 1.5 1.5 1.2 2.0 1.0 1.0
Figure 5: The result of the exposure test (1 year later)
Load（kN）
Load（kN）
エトフェンプロックス
1
油剤 2.3 2.0 1.8 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 2.0 1 1.0 1.5 2.0 1.5 1.5 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.0
ホウ酸 1.0 1.0 1.5 1.5 1.5 2.0 2.0 1.5 2.0 1.2 1.5 1.8 1.5 1.5 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.0
未処理材（
ベイマ
0.5
ツ） 3.3 2.0 3.3 2.0 2.0 2.3 2.0 1.5 2.0 0.5 1.5 2.8 2.0 1.5 1.5 1.2 2.3 2.0 1.0
未処理材（
ベイツ
ガ） 2.3 2.0 3.3 2.0 2.0 2.3 2.0 1.5 2.0 1.2 1.5 2.0 1.5 1.5 1.3 2.3 1.5 1.0
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Displacement（mm） Displacement（mm）
STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE OF THE NAIL WITH THE RUST
Nailed joints supposed to be used in the shear walls of wooden houses were exposed in high temperature
and humidity in order to accelerate rust development on the nails. And the shear tests were conducted on
the deteriorated specimens in order to confirm the structural performance of the nail with the rust (Figure 6).
Load-displacement curves obtained from the shear tests are shown in Figure 7. Group A (no rust) indicated
approximately constant readings, from about 5mm to about 25mm with stick-slip. Group B (weight
remaining ratio 98%) indicated that the load increased until about 20mm, and the maximum load was
higher than that of group A. The load of Group C (weight remaining ratio 74%) and D (weight remaining
ratio 61%) didn’t increase so much.
Figure 6: Shear test on the deteriorated specimen
965
J apanes e cedar
105 105 475
Pl ywood ( t 9）
475
Nai l s （ N50 4）
425
Scr ew L65 4
J apanes e cedar
105 105
Specimen! Accelerate&to&rust! Shear&test!

Figure 7: Load-displacement curves of the shear test
CONCLUSION
Efforts concerning the development of the technical background of LLQH, especially the recent efforts on
the durability of the metal joint in wooden housing, was introduced. Knowledge about the durability of the
metal joint in wooden housing is still little, but I hope that in the future, more studies can be made.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Parts of this study was performed as one part of ‘metal joint research task group, durability subcommittee,
comprehensive verification project of Wooden Long-Life Quality Housing’, the subsidized project by MLIT. I
would like to thank the people involved.
966
THE OLD BUILDINGS REUSE DESIGN BASED ON THE REPRODUCTION OF PLACE SPIRIT
Zhang Shanshan, Dong Xu, Zhang Xinyu, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, 541184762@qq.com
Abstract
The paper takes old building renovation as the research target, sets foot in the rebuilding of the place spirit,
analyzes and researches the profound connotation and functions of old building renovation from such three
aspects as territoriality, historical context and social emotions etc., expounds the molding methods and
expression methods of the place spirit from the perspectives of restructuring and division of spatial space of
buildings, optimization of detailed form and quality of the spatial landscape and solves the contradictions of
design between human beings and buildings, environmental history and reality and inheritance and innovation
to realize rejuvenation of old buildings in the place spirit of restructuring of territoriality and the sense of
belonging.
Keywords: place spirit, old buildings, design renewal.
INTRODUCTION
Urban construction in the 21st century will transfer from the age of “building” to the age of “maintenance
and management” (Hao 2006, p. 10). The increasingly converging city blocks and space will be reshaped
through old building reuse. With accelerated urbanization and drastic increase of urban construction scale
and space scale of China, more and more old buildings begin to face the current status of destruction,
abandonment and removal (Yi 2003, p. 12). Social, economic and cultural changes of cities inevitably give
rise to the replacement of new and old stuff in the area. Urban development is changing the past urban
texture and street pattern (Di 2004, p.11). Historical blocks are progressing towards decline because of lack
of protection and meanwhile the space of cultural traits bearing the history of the cities in the area is
gradually withering away. The original culture and biological pattern of the cities are facing grim test, the
shallow urban culture is being replaced by the fixed form of reinforced concrete and the urban
characteristics are becoming ambiguous and converging. Developing engineering construction focusing on
old building updating and reuse constitutes an important road to sustainable development of the city.
Schurz, the writer of Existence, Space and Architecture, held the view that, only when people experience the
significance of place and the environment will they know the concept of “living” which indicates the space,
namely the place of living. However the objective of the existence of architecture is to turn the abstract,
characterless, identical and homogeneous ‘site’ to the true and specific ‘place’. People pursue their memory,
experience the materials, shapes, mechanisms and space of the old buildings and incur the cultural
association to form the uniqueness of each building (Figure 1). The more and more people from the
architectural circles in the 21st century have begun to call the true meaning of architecture, which is just the
importance attached to the place spirit which is as pivotal for the old building reuse as the soul (Qing 2009).
Exploration and research of the shaping methods and expression methods of the place spirit can solve the
conflicts between human beings and architecture, environmental history and reality as well as inheritance
and innovation so as to realize rejuvenation of old buildings in the place spirit of restructuring of territoriality
and the sense of belonging.
967
a. Louvre b. British Museum

Figure 1: Old and new building areas in concert.
CONNOTATION AND APPLICATION MODE IN OLD BUILDING REUSE
Source and connotations of the theory of place spirit

The Theory of Place Spirit sourced from the research of architecture phenomenology, which was brought
forth by Norwegian architecture theorist Cristian Norbert Schurz in his book The Genius Loci in the late
1970s. The book researches the relationship between human beings and the environment and between
architecture and place and integrates architecture and environment into a concept of place, holding that
what people need is not merely architecture itself but the space and actions happening in the architecture.
Therefore, different behaviors and architectures form different atmospheres which we call the “Place Spirit”
(Genius Loci). He also mentioned that, “The place spirit we call today is nothing but the different features of
different places recognized by the people living in ancient times. The features are so strong that they decide
the basic property of people’s intention for the environment, which makes people believe they belong to
this place” (Christian 1971, p. 54). People’s experience of the surrounding environment is primarily displayed
in perception, cognition and identification which are shifted into architectural experience in architecture
and establish close contact with the environment through the elements of architecture such as the space
and the color, the formal beauty, the ray of light and the material texture etc. (Rasmussen 1964, p. 134).
People develop the comprehensive cognition of architecture through the comprehensive perception of
architecture and the environment, associated judgment, logic comparison, conclusion and integration so as
to establish the sense of belonging and the sense of security for the place. In the macroscopic term, the birth
of the sense of belonging is the basic need of the people for the existence and the product of people’s
psychological and mental requirements and desires. In microscopic terms, the sense of belonging is also the
reaction of the psychological and emotional reaction of people after the perception of the people. When
people establish close contact with the surrounding environment, a sense of belonging is naturally
generated. Consequently exploration into the place spirit of architecture shall link people, architecture and
the environment together, stress the unity of the people and the environment and elaborate on the
connotation of place spirit from the angles of historic culture, territorial space and social significance so as to
carry forward and create the place spirit of sense of belonging.
The pattern and significance of the place spirit in old building reuse
Old building reuse is restricted by numerous factors, such as the shape, function and structure of
the original architecture etc. So after understanding the basic concept of the place spirit, it is
necessary to grasp the fundamental information of the architecture in its entirety and take the place
spirit as the scale plate and measurement to evaluate the effects of old building reuse (Figure 2).
968
The analysis of the

structures of place
manifests that the place
will change with the
change of the
environment etc. but
the place spirit may not
be necessarily changed
or lost. During historic
changes, carrying
forward the place spirit
that can demonstrate
the traits of the place Figure 2: Chart of the application mode of the Theory of Place
and express the
symbols of the
architectural history to
realize innovative
protection is the crucial
point of old building
reuse. The Theory of
Place manifests that as
long as the place spirit
can be identified, the
architecture and the
place can be kept and
inherited. In
consequence, taking
the place spirit as the
scale plate and
selecting suitable mode Figure 3: Chart of continuous relationship between historic vicissitudes
of old building reuse and the place spirit of old buildings.
compose the key and
foundation of design
(Figure 3).
Since the Roman Period,
architecture has been regarded as the head of all the arts. However, Corbusier’s Theory of Machine
borders the spiritual symbols of architecture on the interpretation of using functions. So the spirits
and functions stand as the core content that the architecture can be handed down and old building
reuse is the fulfillment of the functions of place and the continuation of the place spirit. Therefore in
function excavation, attention shall also be paid to the reservation and shaping of the original place
spirit. The joint points of the place spirit in the renovation of the old buildings can be carried out in
the natural, cultural and social aspects, which can be summarized in the following three points after
analysis: 1) the birth of territoriality and the sense of belonging; 2) the historic culture of the place;
3) the sociality of the place (Figure 4).
969
Firstly, it is the birth of

territoriality and the
sense of belonging.
Architecture is the
product of an area
setting foot in some
environment and
restricted and affected by
the geological
conditions, natural
environment and urban
culture, for instance, the
horse’s head represents
Huizhou folk dwellings
and the bracket system Figure 4: Double objectives of old building renovation
and double eaves
become the typical
characteristics of wooden
b
a The horse’ wall of Hui style architecture
Bracket system and double eaves of wooden architecture
Figure 5: Typical symbolic expressions of architecture.
architecture etc. (Figure 5). The people in the architecture develop psychological identification
through the space form, color texture and shaping of doors and windows. Psychologically speaking,
the typical characteristics help people establish a sense of belonging. The second is the historic
culture of the place. Architecture is the product of historic development and will develop as history
develops. So architecture will bear the historical fragment in a certain period. The fragments,
through integration with architecture, similarly arouse people’s memory and resonance through
the space, texture and details and demonstrate and maintain the particular time and incidents. The
third is the sociality of the place. Basra said “A house and a place have the place spirit when they
boast the contents of happiness, celebration, sorrows, confidentiality and public activities” (Kening
2008, p. 48). Public participation can establish contact and interaction between architecture and
people, ensure the reasonability and pragmatism of the reuse of buildings and show the vigor and
vitality of the place through organizing open activities.
DESIGN OF OLD BUILDING REUSE RECURRENT IN THE PLACE SPIRIT
The paper combines the information of the practical construction to explore the reshaping and
expression methods of the place spirits in the aspects of territoriality, historic culture and social
emotions in terms of spatial restructuring and division of architectural functions, optimization of
detailed form and quality of spatial landscape.
Analysis of the basic status of the program

Location of the base: Jinshantun is located in the middle of the southern side of Lesser Khingan Mountains,
in the middle reaches of the Tangwang River, to the east of Yichun and 62km away from Yichun, covering an
area of 1849 km2, with a population of 477000. It is abundant in natural resources, especially famous for
forestry and ore resources. Presently it has developed into a noted tourism scenic spot in Northeast of China.
970
The design project is to reuse and renovate the old workshops whose base is situated in the empty land at
the foot of the mountain with both sides near the arterial streets of convenient transportation (Figure 6).
The current
characteristic of
it is that its
former
workshop was a
stone cutting
plant of up to
40 years that
developed
Figure 6:Location status quo map together with
1-The site; 2-Hegang-Nenjiang Highway; 3-Xing’an Street the growth of
the ore
resources of
Jinshantun. The
plant witnessed
the history of
Jinshantun’s
development.
At present
there are
altogether 4
buildings of
diverse sizes in
the renovated
plant. The
architecture
adopts the
frame structure,
the ceiling
applies
rectangular
Figure 7: Architecture status map skylight, the
entire roof truss selects triangular wooden structure and the exterior wall is paved with red bricks
and painted in white. Now the architecture is seriously dilapidated with the doors, windows, eaves
and roofs severely damaged and the construction site is also in a muddle due to long disuse (Figure
6). The design here is to redesign the functions of the plant, the landscape and the space of Building
A.
Positioning of the architectural functions and spatial restructuring based on social attributes
Priorities shall be attached to the transformation of the social functions of public participation: After
survey through questionnaire, current status analysis and negotiation and coordination with the
local government and in view of the integral structural system and flexible spatial scale of the
current architecture, we transform the functions of the architecture to a small sized exhibition
building of urban planning, change the other three buildings to the affiliated exhibition building,
the arts gallery and the beer exhibition square to expand and complete the exhibition halls in urban
planning, integrate the plant area and construct the architecture in the entire plant area to be a
complete park through integrated square design (Figure 8).
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Plan design of strong interaction:

Endow the architecture with new
functions, activate and reproduce the
architecture. The functions in the
exhibition halls include: the reception
hall, the VIP reception room, the
urban planning exhibition area, the
corporate culture display area, the
small video room, the catering and
leisure area, the souvenir sales area
and the office area for the personnel
(Figure 8).
The space of the middle part of the

architecture is up to 8.7m high, which
can be partially divided into two
storeys. So in the program we will
divide the space into two storeys,
enrich the view streamline through
the corridor between the two storeys,
boost the utility rate of the space and
adopt flexible and varying methods in
the limited space to provide the
visitors with rich and diverse spatial
experiences and visual experiences.
As for the design of the streamline,
the entire visiting process applies the
annular series system and combines
staggered spatial layout to generate
abundant feelings and concurrently
ensure simple and explicit routes.
The streamline of visit: the reception

hall—the overview of the city—the
city model display area—the overall
city and table display area—(second
storey) the overlooking city model
(combining the words on the wall)—
the recreation area—the corporate
Figure 8: Function plan ichnography culture display area—the small video
room—the souvenir sales area (Figure
9).
The space frame of landscape sight based on history: The entire design pays attention to the
experience of the visitors and takes the sight of the visiting streamline as a pivotal basis of design.
The new partition walls are established featuring “partition without discontinuity” and combining
the far and near sight. The space sight also changes with the changed positions of the visitors,
which adds the interest of the space and infinitely extends the limited space. We adopt the method
of opposite scenery usually applied to build parks in China to design the local space of the corridor
of the two storeys into the lingering area and make use of the digital projection and the lettering
technique on the walls of opposite scenery to respectively display the three time nodes of the
development of Jinshantun, that is, 1662, 1964 and 1992. Time is not an abstract concept. It is
varying and sensible, just like a book engraved in the dotted wall. The planning model set in the
space drawn by the opposite scenery makes the visitors experience the distance between reality
and the history. Time and space is tightly linked with architecture itself here.
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Figure 9:Theatrical streamline

Figure 10: Sight of landscape
Optimized design of detailed architectural forms based on historical authenticity and readability
As required by historical authenticity and readability, the building elevation repair, reorganization and
expansion design shall give sufficient consideration to the status and characteristics of old buildings, select
the appropriate exterior materials which comply with the keynote of the original area and pay attention to
the manner of segmentation at the micro level for the sake of visual consistency with the old buildings and
the buildings nearby (Wei 2009, p.25) and try to apply modern materials so as to reflect the modern
aesthetic features and develop the sound comparative and uniform relationship with the old buildings
Figure 11: Architectural elevation and details
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Figure 12: Subject design details

themselves whose specific legibility is also stressed repeatedly in Venice Charter.
Wall: Enrich the building elevation, change the original singular form and color of the elevation, match the
materials with black bricks and black metal frames on the basis of the original tinge and enhance the
comparison of construction details and elements with diverse masonry methods, local white architraves,
staggered floors and wall grooves. Color: Combine the original elements of the plant area with regional
features and epoch characteristics, repair the damaged architecture, reserve the architectural feature of
zigzag form skylight of the workshop and unitize the keynote of brick red with dark grey texture (Figure 10).
Skylight: The design of the window also pursues comparison in unity and the window frame adopts two
modeling forms with subtle changes reflecting the exquisiteness of the architecture. Entrance: The handling
of the entrance also fully combines the elements of China’s traditional culture, designs the form of the door
to be a round hole and applies modern glass, steel and concrete to construct a traditional slope roof and
establish transition space of modernity. The comparison of materials also increasingly strengthens the
modernity and cultural value of the architecture (Figure 11).
Surrounding design of special theme: In the architectural design updating, we fully consider the peculiarity
of the project and add a series of theme designs in the links matching the architecture, including the Logo,
table, chair, window, door, illumination floor lamp, sculpture landscape and feature wall design etc. (Figure
12).
Landscape quality in the architectural space based on rationality and sense of belonging
With unceasing development of architectural design, modernist architecture has scored remarkable
achievements. However, during the pursuit of utility efficiency, the psychological feelings and demands of
the users are often neglected. The design of old buildings stressed utility, conciseness and consistency
because of the special times. For this reason, unitary pattern, similar spatial forms repeatedly appeared and
neglected the demands of the users for spatial landscape. One link in the updating is to design the spatial
landscape of the old buildings. As the direct media of the perception of the users for the architecture, the
architectural landscape will provide more space for communication and rest for the users.
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Figure 13: Local perspective
A quiet environment is provided for the visitors in the rest area through the arrangement of the static water
surface, which is favorable for thinking. Local partition walls and the sculpture on the water surface look like
the flowing space in the German Pavilion in the design of Smith, where the space seems uncertain and the
train of thought turns easy, leisurely and comfortable. Two partition walls become flexible and random
through the two-storey corridor with rare tree samples native to Yichun at one end. In combination with the
holes and crevices intentionally set on the wall, the walls provide indefinite possibilities for changes of sight.
When you go through the corridor or stop to appreciate, it will become part of the space configuration
(Figure 13).
The same design method of the outdoor landscape and the entrance landscape combines the design of the
water surface and the intermittent walls, which offers a unique feeling of privacy. What’s worth the attention
is the design with four pillars as the main body dismantled from the original structure of the building. We
believe the pillars are also part of the architecture and design ground glass at the back of the pillars writing
the history and stories of the plant area. The vagueness of the ground glass and the clearness of the writing
form visual contrast implying the dialogue between history and present (Figure 12).
CONCLUSION
The updating and renovation of old buildings under the guidance of the place spirit provides new basis of
design and motif of expression from the dimensions of the territoriality, history and sociality of the spirit.
Based on the function of building space division, detailed morphological optimization design and
landscape quality three aspects design. Through the positioning of the architectural functions and spatial
restructuring construction of social participation can increase. The optimized design of detailed architectural
forms can show the unique architectural historical authenticity and readability, through the improvement of
landscape quality in the architectural space can strengthen the territoriality and the sense of belonging. The
introduction to the place spirit demonstrates both the sustainable significance of the architecture during the
updating and the particular vital signs of the architecture. Taking the place spirit as the starting point of new
design can comprehensively boost the applicability and value of old building reuse.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The project is supported by the Program for Science and Technology Development of Heilongjiang Province
(Grant No. GZ10A508).
REFERENCES
Chang, Q., 2009. History of environmental regeneration of historical consciousness and design, China
Architecture Industry Press, Beijing.
Chen, Y., 2003. The theory of sustainable development in city construction, Tongji University Press, Shanghai.
Kening, S., 2008. Phenomenology of architecture, Chinese Building Industry Press, Beijing.
Lu, D., 2004. Life and death of architecture -- historical buildings reuse theory, Southeast University Press,
Nanjing.
Norberg-Schulz, C., 1971. Existence space and architecture, Praeger, New York
Rasmussen, SE., 1964. Experiencing architecture, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Wang, H., 2006. ‘Study on the correlation between architectural update’, Masters’ thesis, Tianjin University,
Tianjin
Zhou, W., 2009. Study of the history of the building of new and old theories and models of spatial association of
protection and reuse, Chinese Building Industry Press, Beijing.
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FRAMEWORK FOR AN OPEN SPACE ECOLOGY IN ARCHITECTURE
Akshay Goyal, M.Des Candidate Harvard GSD; M.Arch, Architectural Association London; B.Arch; AIIA, AIIID,
IGBC AP Cofounder AG+DR, Architron Group, India, akshaygo@architrongroup.com
Abstract
The paper discusses the changing modes of conception, production and consumption of architecture within
the larger open source discourse. Analogies are drawn from the field of computer science to conceptually
understand the relevance of ideas like hackitivism, crowd sourcing, open source, social media and user
centric approaches with regards to architecture in the 21st century. These ideas are discussed in relationship
with a long lineage of research carried out within the architectural community regarding user participation
in design. Contemporary interpretation of similar ideas is discussed with relation to how they could be
systematically classified based on the nature of the ‘open’ and the ‘source’ as an approach towards design
and architecture. Hybridising these approaches leads to what can be termed as ‘Hackitecture’, a systemic
appropriation of the hacker culture and the open source movement as an architectural agency. The paper
then argues for an open source framework for architecture where obvious differences between the user and
designer are dissolved and wherein the conception to production and eventual conception of the
architectural ‘object’ exists as a continuum. Such a framework is discussed with respect to the technological
shift emerging within the discipline. The paper concludes with the possibility of situating such processes
within the larger post capitalist socio political turmoil seen today while discussing the problems of such an
approach.
Keywords: open source architecture, crowd sourced design, participatory design processes, user interaction,
post capitalist architecture, social media.
INTRODUCTION
User participation in the design processes has been a long-standing challenge for the architectural
community. ‘Democratizing’ architectural processes has seen a revival of interest as a result of the ‘open
source’ culture imbibed from the computer science discipline. Some of this work can be seen as an
extension of the research on ‘user participation’ done in the 1960-70’s by people like Yona Friedman,
Nicholas Negroponte, Cedric Price and Gordon Pask. The paper discusses the relevance of these approaches
in the contemporary architectural discourse and looks at emerging technological approaches that are
resulting in the shift. The focus of the paper is to look at open source culture in the field of computer science
and related concepts like hackitivism, crowd sourcing, and social media, and create a framework wherein the
field of architecture can appropriate some of the concepts directly or as analogical frameworks. This
approach becomes increasingly relevant in the ‘post capitalist’ climate of today, where both the social and
economic relevance of architects is being increasingly questioned. In addition, democratic post capitalist
protest movements, like the occupy movement and Tahrir square protests, in this context become
important both for demonstrating the power of ‘virtual networks’ and for highlighting the need for the field
of architecture to react to such emerging sociopolitical phenomena.
The paper is structured in three parts. The first part looks at open source culture and related concepts within
the field of computer sciences. The next part historically traces ideas in architecture that situate within such
an ‘open source’ framework and discusses the relevance of such approaches to the contemporary
architectural discourse. User participatory models of the 1960’s are used to compare and categorize
contemporary architectural works that claim to be influenced by the open source ideology highlighting the
evolution of ‘open source’ thought within the architectural domain. The third part then looks at
technological developments that can potentially change the trajectory of this approach in architecture. A
framework for open source ecology for the designer-object-user continuum is proposed. The paper
concludes with relating such processes with the post capitalist societies while discussing the problematics of
such ‘open source’ ecology, in and for architecture.
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COUNTERCULTURE TO OPEN SOURCE CULTURE
With its origins in the ‘free software’ movement ‘open source’ refers to free access to either the source code
behind a software product or the product itself. The term found popularity in the hacker and software
development circles during the late 1990’s. The philosophy imbibes the idea of involving the end user in the
product development process through online collaboration as a metaphor for creative individualism
(Vardouli 2012). The focus on the user in the ‘open source culture’ has been linked to the ideological utopias
envisioned by the counterculture movements of the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Of particular significance was the
influence of alternate DIY culture centered around techno cultural artifacts like the ‘Whole Earth Catalogue’.
Fred Turner has provocatively traced the utopian visions of ‘cyber culture’ to the ideals of the ‘beats’ and the
‘hippies’. Turner establishes these linkages through examples of a continuing intellectual relationship
between people like Stewart Brand and Kevin Kelly (Turner 2006).
Open source movement has inspired a range of ideological siblings like crowd sourcing and social media.
Crowd sourcing demonstrated best by websites like Wikipedia, solicits contributions from a large group of
people, underlining the ‘wisdom’ of the ‘crowds’. The services, ideas or content produced usually also
involves the end user who may or may not be an expert contributor with respect to the content being
produced. Social media, on the other hand, offers an online platform to socially engage and freely share
knowledge, via a virtual societal setup. Both these approaches embody the increasing online engagement of
individuals to form virtual societal structures and relationships that create and share information and
knowledge.
What is interesting to note here is the fact that one of the seminal texts propagating the open source
philosophy used architectural metaphors to exemplify the approach. Eric Raymond in the 1997 essay ‘The
Cathedral & the Bazaar’ compared process of closed and open software development as being parallel to the
organizational network of the cathedral and that of the bazaar. The Cathedral is a top down organizational
system for software like ones developed by Microsoft that is protected by stringent copyrights. This model
has distinct hierarchical structures that result in lowered efficiencies and creative potential. On the other
hand the Bazaar demonstrates a ‘bottom up’ phenomena - ‘a seemingly disconnected but functioning web
of relationships on which the open-source movement is modeled’ (Kaspori 2003). Raymond highlights that
this great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches’ appears to work and ‘at a speed barely
imaginable to cathedral-builders’ (Raymond1999).
OPEN SOURCE ARCHITECTURE
The last decade has seen a considerable amount of attention towards the incorporation of the open source
metaphor in the field of architecture. The aspect of the end user being part of the different set of processes
that constitute architecture is not new. This approach has been compared to pre renaissance methodology
of producing a building and also to the ‘user participation’ approaches of the 1960’s. Paul Davidoff’s
‘advocacy and pluralism’ in planning is attributed as the pioneer of user participation in contemporary
architectural discourse (Negroponte 1975). People like Victor Papanek and Christopher Alexander worked
extensively on looking at indigenous modes of architectural production to make systemic frameworks for
large-scale use. The ‘paper architects’ of the 1960’s too found this aspect of user involvement as intriguing.
The primacy of the user in design was of specific appeal to them and the discourse included shifting the
‘control’ of design from the hands of the architect, considered as an external agency to that of the non-
expert end user (Negroponte 1975). People like Yona Friedman and Nicholas Negroponte/ Architecture
Machine Group at MIT, created conceptual models for such an approach usually for the purpose of housing
(Friedman 1971, 1975; Negroponte 1975). For them the architect as an intermediary ‘designer’ was to be
replaced by an autonomous ‘architecture machine’ that could learn and understand the users needs. The
1971 ‘Participatory Design Conference’ at Manchester, where people like Reyner Banham, Nigel Cross,
Negroponte & Friedman participated, marked the high point of this approach (Cross 1971).
On a related but slightly divergent trajectory, Cedric Price and Gordon Pask, in the UK, looked at the architect
as a ‘system designer’, who as an ‘enabling mechanism’ designs an architectonic system for the user to
design and modify the architecture around him/her in a continuous feedback process (Fraser 2001). These
self-organizing design processes within the larger systemic framework could be scaled up for almost all
public function buildings. But due to the lack of sophisticated technologies to materialize the systemic
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components, these projects could not be realized and the interest of the larger architectural community
gradually drifted towards other pursuits.
During the last two decades there has been a revival of interest in this pursuit and there are a number of
modes via which architectural practices are appropriating the open source metaphor. Whereas most of the
architectural discourse over the last two decades has emphasized more the idea of ‘collective intelligence’
and open source as being a collaborative process between designers with various specializations, the user
almost always has been ignored. Groups like Servo and Ocean and academic programmes like the AADRL
have illustrated how contemporary computational design processes enables the shift from linear, hierarchal,
closed systems to open, flexible models (Perry & Hight 2006, Steele 2006). Yet the engagement with actual
users – ‘the missing audience’ – of the architectural orchestra still remains. Young practices like Mass Design
Group demonstrate the evolution of such approaches to engage end users yet the pursuit of control
residing with the user as speculated by the likes of Friedman, Price and Price is still elusive.
Of interest in this respect is the ‘Spatial Agency’ project, a database of the network and connections
between the various actors involved in such processes ever since the 1960’s, where most of the
contemporary practices can be ideologically traced back to the seminal work of the 60’s and the 70’s (Nishat
et al. 2011). John Fraser terms this era as an era of ‘computing without computers’ a process of “mental
rehearsal of what architecture and built environment would be like at the beginning of the 21st century”
(Fraser 1995). The technological shift (primarily computational advancements) over the last two decades has
allowed for actual manifestation of some of these ‘thought experiments’. These contemporary architectural
and urban processes that engage the user can be reduced to three larger categories discussed as the
‘grassroots approach’; the ‘information driven approach’ and the ‘machinic agency’ that are discussed
below.
Grassroots Approach - The first approach focuses on participatory urban-rural design and planning systems
as an evolution of indigenous architectural processes. This approach popularized by the likes of Christopher
Alexander looks at existing indigenous processes for systemic opportunities for user participation. The focus
is usually on ‘appropriate technologies’ which enable the user or community to design for themselves via a
design–build process which systematically categories the steps and makes the seemingly vague attributes
of indigenous processes, explicitly clear and accessible by non-experts. Here the analogy of source code can
be understood to be the indigenous systems of habitat design that are existent in every community. These
systems can constitute a set of explicit blueprints or as larger open guidelines. The architect then can be
envisioned as a facilitator for the user or the community, and engages in an iterative mapping of habitat
related systems via which the process of facilitation is enabled. Nicholas Salingaros led P2P (Peer to Peer)
urbanism project is developing such an approach as an extension of ‘pattern systems’ framework developed
by Alexander (Salingaros 2010). On the other hand organizations like ‘Architecture for Humanity’ through
the ‘Open Architecture Network’ illustrate the open ‘blueprint’ approach. Initiatives like Open-Source
Architecture (O.S.A) emphasize on dissolving the need of a ‘professional’ designer via a systemic open
source framework that addresses the whole lifecycle from funding, design, standards and construction
processes (Ratti et al. 2011). Significant progress has been achieved in ‘open construction process’, by
research on modular kit of construction parts approach as demonstrated by the Wikihouse project,
Bluhomes and Openstructure project. This emphasis on the ‘open architectural hardware’, usually lowtech,
can be argued to be grounded in notions of materiality parallel to the bottomup indigenous architectural
processes.
It is interesting to note in this respect that the computational design paradigm in terms of a distributed
agency of conception a production has also been compared to the indigenous architectural processes. In
particular Mario Carpo compares how the ‘digital turn’ is increasingly pushing us towards the condition of
open and collaborative architectures (Carpo 2013). He compares this with the architectural processes that
existed during the medieval age of gothic churches, where immensely complicated designs were conceived
and produced without a sole authoring architect, with incremental evolution of designs by the collaboration
within the community, artisans and clients.
Information Driven Approach - The second approach emphasizes a data based model for architecture
(Negroponte 1975). Here the source code analogy is for increasing the qualitative and quantitative aspects
of data, fed in by the user, which is used then to design in a conventional or generative way. The
participatory aspect is grounded in the information that the users in this case generate or provide. This data
allows for enhanced decision making both for the user and the designer. Here the source code is analogous
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to data required for design. Usually looking at behavioral data and programmatic, environmental or
economic information the approach involves the user in the production or mapping of the information.
User–Designer distinctions usually do not dissolve in such a model, and the designer typically acts as the
‘processor’ of raw data by creating rule sets for data utilization for design decisions. There is also an
increasing amount of work being done on how social media becomes the interface via which such
information can be generated and utilized. Open - crowd sourced data also provides novel ways of
perceiving urban spatial conditions. Some of the works of Hackitectura, ETH’s Landscape Visualization Lab
and initiatives like pachube can be seen in this respect.
Machinic Agency - The third approach aims to achieve user participation through a technological paradigm.
Based in emerging high tech systems it seeks to develop ‘bottom up’ enabling frameworks that are systemic
in nature and are designed for user feedback and interaction with the virtual or physical architectural
product. This approach diverges either into the territory of anti-profession as propagated by Friedman &
Negroponte or focuses on a changing role of the profession to incorporate more user feedback into the
design system as envisioned by Price et al. People like John Fraser and later Usman Haque have worked on
this approach at a micro scale, whereas ideas of swarm urbanism demonstrated by Leach, Kokkugia or R&Sie
demonstrate the approach at an urban scale. Machine as an intermediary or as embedded entities, plays a
critical role in the feedback system. The machine either assumed to be a ‘design amplifier’ that understands
the user’s needs and sensibilities and designs in an iterative way. Alternatively the machine becomes a
‘smart’ link in the chain between the cyclical information flow between the designer and end user, enabling
the user to have overlapping roles with the designer. The source code analogy in either of the cases is the
technological process that constitutes the design system. These technological processes are oriented in the
terms of design conception systems (R&Sie, Fraser), spatial experience (Usman Haque, Hackitectura) or
constructability (robotic kit of parts, smart responsive materiality) (Goyal 2013).
At this juncture it is also critical to notice that each of the approach still continue the distinction of the three
normative stages of conception, production and consumption of the architectural process (Ayres 2012). This
is different when compared to an ‘open source’ software development process, which being virtual allows
for the end user to almost in a real time way influence the design and production process. The architect of
the ‘end product’ has defined yet varying roles within these stages. When the architect designs an open
source design ‘conception’ system the emphasis is on user based information and interactive design
systems that allow user feedback directly or through an agent based modeling system. Here the designer is
supposed to create an information structure within which the user can modify the physical or virtual
manifestation of this information. A more advanced version of the same will imply that expert users can
contribute to the structure itself. On the other hand when the emphasis is on the open source ‘production’
system then the usual approach involves the designer ‘designing’ a ‘kit of parts’ or ‘Lego blocks’, which the
user then can play around and customize. In this way the designer opens up his/her domain and allows for
non-designers as hobbyists or end users to contribute towards the generation of design - knowledge.
Also for such an analogy is becomes important to analyze what aspects in architecture constitute the
hardware and what is the software. For Usman Haque the tangible physical attributes are the hardware and
the intangible experiential attributes are analogous to software (Haque 2002). It can be argued that the
material processes that govern how the information system flows is what actually constitutes ‘hardware’. As
in the computational world, this hardware or material processes govern the way that the user interacts with
the software. The architectural ‘hardware’ then is based on physics based natural rule sets. In such a
construct the software analogy can be further split into three different hierarchical parts: programming
languages, operating system and applications. The scripting or the programming language via which it
interacts with the hardware or material process can be compared with the canonical notions of form,
function and meaning in architecture. The ‘operating system’ can be compared to contextual operating
frameworks via which architectural process operate within the rules that the script provided. The idea of an
‘application’ can be compared to the individual spatial experience shaped by programmatic rules via which
the user engages with the system.
It should be highlighted here that both hardware and software for architecture are interrelated in nature.
The ‘hardware’ aspects govern the way that the software interacts with the system and results in production
and experience of architecture with physical manifestation.
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HACKITECTURE: OPEN SOURCE ECOLOGY FOR ARCHITECTURE
The ‘mash up’ or hybridization of the three approaches discussed earlier lead to the idea of ‘Hackitecture’, an
opportunistic hacker like approach to design and architecture by involving the non-expert user. Authors like
Eric Von Hippel have illustrated that end users can act as sophisticated developer-designer by the example
of his research on adventure sport equipment design, specifically the history of development of the designs
for surf boards that was primarily user led (Hippel 2005). Involving the user leads to highly specialized
niches, which can contribute towards the advancement of the overall architectural discourse. It is interesting
to note here that the ‘architect’s’ experience as the ‘user’ of design software products has triggered the
computational paradigm that has resulted in development of some of the most advanced software tools for
architects today. Ghery Technologies is a suitable example of the ‘architect as the user’ developing and
designing a customized and highly sophisticated product (Digital Project/CATIA). This trend can now be
observed in most major practices, as a need to have a specialized ‘computational research’ team that
functions independently, developing in-house scripts and designing computational routines for the larger
office, especially with a focus on design and fabrication.
One of the key concerns of open source architecture is to have overlapping roles of the user and the
designer. Another aspect that emerges from the preceding discussion is the speculative possibility of the
three stages of conception, production and consumption merging into each other. Such a system then is
similar to a biological process, where continuous feedback results in a conception-production-consumption
continuum. In such open source ecology, nonlinear processes allow for real time material effects, where user
requirements and interaction lead to continuous adaptation of the physical manifestation of designed
object. The architectural system then much like a social media platform is not confined within its physical
boundary and is in constant negotiation with the user needs for differentiation, performance, resources and
spatial experience.
The technological paradigm for such a shift is visibly on the horizon. Evolutionary design tools, genetic
algorithms and multi agent modeling is already leading to increasing possibilities of bottoms up systemic
design tools as compared to top down ones which are the norm today. Such tools allow for rule based
generative designs where generation of forms and its iterative optimization and evaluation are built into the
system. Holographic and volumetric displays offer a possibility of a virtual real scale human interaction with
such a system that can lead to increasing non-professional user involvement. At the same time extension of
BIM’s into this domain will allow for increased production information to be embedded into such a system.
On the other hand developments in rapid prototyping and physical computing allow for intelligent
‘hardware’ to be produced by the user without specific expert knowledge. Also emerging trends of geo-
specific social networking, augmented reality and projected - interactive environments could be embedded
into such architectural systems. These technologies combined with the social trends of ‘maker spaces’ and
DIY communes in the city offer collaborative and shared platforms for production of such a system. A wide
access of these technologies is critical to their adoption in the system.
The incorporation of such an ‘open source ecology’ could lead to a paradigm change in the architectural
discipline, but it is not without its own set of problems. For instance questions can be asked as to how
efficiently can the non-expert users lead to as sophisticated designs as that of an expert, while addressing all
the complexities of the design process? Also issues of authorship and ownership are always critical. Of
concern is that unlike virtual systems, physical manifestation of architecture requires engineering liabilities.
These are critical issues that need to be addressed by any such system, before it can truly claim to be ‘open’.
Also one can look at the various modes of how various interpretations of ‘open source’ in computer science
address the issue of authorship for probable analogical situations in architecture. For instance there could be
the idea of ‘creative commons licensing’ in architecture that allows for the designer to retain claim of the
knowledge produced. Yet on the other hand, one could argue that it is highly improbable to have a
copyright design model in architecture; with almost all of architectural progress based in the idea of
inspiration from preexisting architectural models. Similarly ‘liability’ in relation to the usage of the
architectural product is another grey area. Is the user liable for designing and building a house using an
open source architectural system that eventually collapses? Or is it the liability of the system designer or the
intermediary architect? These questions remain and a detailed discussion of these aspects is beyond the
present scope of this paper.
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The architectural community also needs to proactively respond to and appropriate emerging trends of
geospecific social networking, augmented reality and the internet of things that would soon be mainstream.
Corporations like Google, Microsoft, Facebook/Foursquare are already developing such systems that will
significantly influence the physical habitat around us. It is critical that contemporary architectural processes
critically address the need of the user to be an active participant in shaping the environment around
him/her, and for whom these technologies could become a convenient but superficial vehicle for achieving
a customizable and adaptable built habitat. A constructive dialogue would allow for a seamless integration
of intelligent technology in the built habitat without either one dominating the other, while resulting in
unexpected outcomes. Also the recent global phenomena of democratic post capitalist protest movements,
highlight the role of ‘virtual networks’ and necessitate a critical interrogation of the contemporary
architectural processes and the nature of its engagement with the larger sociopolitical context.
CONCLUSION
The paper argues for an open source ecology using accessible technological platform in a systemic way. The
system is constructed based on analogies drawn from the field of computer science; from ideas like
hackitivism, crowd sourcing, open source, social media and user centric approaches with regards to
architecture in the 21st century. The role of the architect in such a system moves away from the need to
produce ‘objects’ for consumption, to architects becoming the lead generators of knowledge systems for
interacting with the habitat. In this process the architect then also enables the non-expert user to perform
most of the present tasks of architecture without the requirement of an architect. This involves a ‘hacker’
approach towards opportunistically appropriating emerging computational technologies to design ‘meta
design systems’ that enable the user to design for himself/herself, an approach termed as Hackitecture. In an
era of ‘wikipedia’ and ‘facebook’ where DIY ideas of the ‘Whole Earth Catalogue’ are not a counter culture
phenomena anymore, such approaches offer the field of architecture to maintain its continued relevance
through a constant process of negotiation with the socio-economic flux of our contemporary society.
Nonetheless such a construct has its own set of problems that need to be examined and debated
conclusively. Yet, such a system possibly offers ways to situate the idea of architecture into the post
capitalist scenario, as a ‘detournement’ of what it is today.
END NOTES
(1)It is also interesting to note that the seminal text by Douglas Engelbart (Augmenting human Intellect: A
conceptual framework, 1962) also uses the architect as the actor for describing the usage of the computer as
a ‘clerk’ system.
(2)See also Mark Burry’s discussion on the open design framework created by Antonio Gaudi; Burry, Mark,
‘The persistence of faith in the intangible model’ in Persistent Modelling: Extending the Role of Architectural
Representation. Ed Ayres, Philip, Taylor & Francis, 2012.
(3)See discussion on ‘Multitude’ in Hardt, M & Negri, A., 2005. Multitude: War and democracy in the age of
empire, Penguin Group USA.
(4) See works of GE Debord and the architectural history of the idea in Sadler, S., 1999. The Situationist city,
MIT press.
982
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Awan, N, Tatjana S & Till J., 2011. Spatial agency: other ways of doing architecture, Routledge, Abingdon.
Ayres, P., 2012. Persistent modelling: Extending the role of architectural representation, Taylor & Francis.
Cross, N., 1972. ‘Here comes everyman’, In N Cross (ed), Design participation, Academy Editions, London, pp.
11-14.
Cross, N., 2001. ‘Can a machine design?’ Design Issues, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 44–50.
Carpo, M., 2011. The alphabet and the algorithm. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Carpo, M., (ed) 2013. The digital turn in architecture 1992-2010: A Reader, Wiley, London.
Fraser, J., 2001. ‘The cybernetics of Architecture: A tribute to the contribution of Gordon Pask‘, Kybernetes,
vol. 20 nos. 5/6, pp. 641-651.
Frazer, J., 2005. ‘Computing without computers’, Architectural Design, vol. 75, no. 2, pp. 34-43.
Friedman, Y., 1972. ‘Information processes for participatory architecture’, in N Cross (ed), Design
participation, Academy Editions, London, pp. 45-50.
Friedman, Y., 1975. Toward a scientific architecture [Pour Une Architecture Scientifique], trans. C Lang, MIT
Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Goyal, A., 2012. ‘Field condition and robotic urban landscapes’, Conference Proceedings, Future traditions -
1st eCAADe Regional International Workshop.
Haque, U., 2002. ‘Hardspace, softspace and the possibilities of open source architecture’, Archis
Hippel, VE., 2005. Democratizing innovation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Hight, C & Perry, C., (eds) 2006. ‘Collective intelligence in design’, Architectural Design, vol. 76, no. 5, pp. 5-10.
Kaspori, D., 2003. ‘A communism of ideas: Towards an architectural open source practice’, Archis, no. 3, pp.
13-7.
Nicholas, N., 1975. Soft architecture machines, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Nikos, S., 2010. P2P Urbanism, Umbau-Verlag; Peer to Peer Foundation, Solingen,
http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/P2PURBANISM.pdf.
Ratti, C et al., 2011. ‘Open source architecture’ (OSArc), Domus, no. 948.
Raymond, ES., 1999. The cathedral & the bazaar, O'Reilly.

Steele, B., 2006. ‘The AADRL: Design, collaboration and convergence’, Architectural Design, vol. 76, no. 5, pp.
58-63.
Turner, F., 2006. From counterculture to cyberculture : Stewart brand, the Whole Earth network, and the rise
of digital utopianism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Vardouli, T., 2012. ‘Design-for-empowerment-for-design: computational structures for design

democratization’, Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
983
TIME BASED DESIGN APPROACHES FOR INFORMAL SETTLEMENT UPGRADING IN SOUTH AFRICA
Amira Osman, University of Johannesburg, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (FADA), Johannesburg,
South Africa,amirao@uj.ac.za
Abstract
It is no longer sustainable for the state to deliver full and fixed housing units to the poor. Moreover, while all
people act on, and influence their immediate environment, this is especially evident in situations where people
have difficulty to access the formal housing market. These initiatives create an energy that needs to be celebrated
and managed in efficient ways through innovative delivery, finance and technical systems. Given these realities,
in South Africa, Informal Settlement Upgrading (ISU) practices need to adopt design approaches that focus on
flexibility and multi-actor participation. Using Open Building (OB) concepts, this paper argues that improved
housing delivery can be achieved by focusing state investment on the development of complete housing eco-
systems and allowing for diverse interpretations in terms of typologies, densities and mix of functions, tenure and
income groups. The concept of Base Buildings becomes a framework for managing participation processes and
allowing for shared and distributed decision-making in a system that is inherently participative. Base Buildings
ensure a method and tool to manage, the sometimes conflicting, requirements of various actors in the built
environment.
Keywords: time-based design, open building, informal settlement upgrading (ISU), incrementality, South
Africa.
A CRITIQUE ON CURRENT INFORMAL SETTLEMENT UPGRADE PRACTICE
Huchzermeyer (as described in Abbott 2002, pp. 311–312) critiques what is referred to as a “more
technocratic approach to upgrading that can be described as community driven development.” Some flaws
are identified, one being the issue that the community takes all the decisions. Abbott elaborates: “There is an
arena where communities should take the decisions themselves and there is an arena where decisions have
to involve a wider number of stakeholders. A settlement cannot be isolated from the city of which it is a
part… The failing of this approach is that it follows a strongly mechanistic approach to upgrading, whereby
individual elements of upgrading are seen as being analysed and pursued independently to other elements.
This is not to say that the other elements are not recognised, nor their importance ignored. It is simply that
the underlying conceptual model is one that sees the whole (the wider settlement upgrading process) as
being the sum of the parts (individual sector-based improvements)” (Abbott 2002, pp. 311–312).
There is a focus in South Africa on re-blocking which has some of the above-mentioned flaws. Re-blocking is
when a shack settlement is rearranged in an intensive consultative process – this re-arrangement allows the
opening up of critical routes and the improvement of the general environment with regards to natural
ventilation and light.
WPI/CT partnership/CORC explain how re-blocking aims to achieve the effective use of space, structural
integrity of units, community safety, land security and clustered shacks achieving defensible space. The
benefits are articulated in terms of keeping the community together, empowering communities to look for
their own solutions while acknowledging the role of other stakeholders. The whole process is one that
demands efficient communication and strong partnerships between various agents/agencies in the process
(Worchester Polytechnic Institute WPI and Community Organization Resource Centre CORC n.d.).
984
Several issues come to mind when considering re-blocking as an approach that is currently being
encouraged:
• While commendable benefits to achieving access for emergency vehicles and natural light and air
are achieved, the spatial, physical and functional improvements to the settlements are the bare
minimum.
• It could of course be argued that these re-blocking exercises are essential as a first stage when
minimal resources are available. Who then is charged with developing the larger visions for the area
and overseeing that real progress to the lives of people in the settlement is achieved? And should
the end vision of a beautiful, sustainable and desirable neighbourhood, fully integrated in the city in
functions, routes/linkages/networks, image and spatial/physical quality not inform the spatial
decision-making at the re-blocking phase?
• The consultations and communication processes achieved may be perceived as temporary in

nature depending on current dynamics, personal relationships, and relying on specific individuals
or agencies – these are therefore not a part of a sustainable system. The resources invested at this
stage as well as the systems set up should ideally have a level of permanence and be able to persist
through changing socio-political dynamics and evolving individual and community circumstances.
• The settlements remain isolated from the broader context and the city at large – in spatial character
and quality. The settlements therefore continue to be perceived as a threat. Could informal
settlements be re-imagined as places where people will elect to bring up their children, where
young professionals will want to live, where innovative/emergent businesses will want to open
shop?
• Current technical and spatial solutions for ISU exacerbate ‘otherness’. This perpetual duality in
expected standards neglects that fact that people’s need for beautiful and well-functioning
neighbourhoods is a universal need.
• Professional roles are unclear: the term ‘community architects’ was used rather loosely in some
cases and this has now been changed to “community planners” with no real engagement with the
issue. Community-based healthcare is discussed in the National Development Plan (National
Planning Commission 2011) – it is about time that Community-based architecture is acknowledged
and that the professional institutes start setting up guidelines for practice in contexts of informality.
• Re-blocking places strong emphasis on the community as the decision-maker. However, there are
always "real" architects working behind the scenes. Who takes professional responsibility for these
interventions? Who is held accountable? What are the professional guidelines for this type of
intervention? Which professional institute manages this process and ensures that clients (informal
dwellers and proximate communities) are given a good service?
For the above reasons, the current focus on re-blocking is believed to be inadequate to take the debate on
ISU forward. It is a very viable emergency measure – not a tool for neighbourhood development.
THINKING SYSTEMS: HOUSING, HOUSES AND INFORMALITY
While it has been maintained numerous times that “housing is not about houses”, the HOUSE continues to
be the object most delivered through government mechanisms as it is still the easiest solution to
conceptualise and implement. Designing a cost-effective HOUSE has been done many times. It is
emphasized that the most innovative and beautiful house cannot solve the housing problem.
Delivering a HOUSE is easier as a concept than delivering a VIABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD with all of the qualities
that enhance the daily experience of life. It is accepted that the support of incremental housing is crucial,
however, design/planning, delivery and funding systems continue to support the provision of detached
houses on individual plots. The reason for this is clear: multi-family, semi-detached, multi-storey and mixed-
use developments are more complex in terms of design, servicing, implementing and management thus
985
demanding more sophistication in process. It is important here to note that ‘sophistication’ does not mean
complex and advanced technologies that might be inappropriate for the South African context, but rather
implies a sophistication in systems which allow for the low-tech and the informal. A shack-dweller who
simply says “I will take my house with me” when asked about being asked to vacate the land she occupies,
gives an excellent clue as to the benefits inherent in informal systems such as mobility, alternative tenure
systems, demountable and modular systems. This is the sophistication that needs to be provided through
formal systems that are currently one-dimensional and inaccessible.
Informal housing delivery is cheaper and faster than formal delivery (Cross 2010). Further to this
conversation: “The advantage of informal housing construction is the pace and self-sufficiency in which
housing units are constructed, and the simplicity of the final product meets the financial constraints of the
multitude of low-income and impoverished urban residents… “Incremental Housing” is a strategy to
achieve these goals by combining the tools, services and expertise to build safe and vibrant urban
communities with the resourcefulness and motivation of the informal sector” (Beattie et al. 2010).
Incremental development in informal settlement upgrading may be supported by devising systems rather
than fixed products – offering numerous routes of growth and change of a residential unit within a building,
street/block and neighbourhood framework that is more stable and permanent. Thus learning from
informality to devise more hybrid systems of delivery.
A time-based understanding of the built environment and decision making levels

The need to adopt time-based design approaches is important in all contexts (Osman et al.
2013), but even more so in informal settlements, where structures are temporal by nature
and where the delivery of fixed products is unrealistic and of limited benefit. Time-based
approaches are intended to address future needs and change – thus designing buildings
and neighbourhoods with an inherent capacity for change over time. It is in direct contrast
to approaches of ‘programmatic-fit’ and allows for building use to dynamically adapt.
Figure 1 presents this diagrammatically based on various writings and diagrams of
Stephen Kendall (Kendall and Reddington 2002, Kendall 2006, 2005, 1999, Teicher and
Kendall 2007).
Open Building (OB) considers individual projects within the wider planning context and the need to
understand the levels of the environment and which groups/individuals are tasked with making decisions at
each level. In his book, HOMEWORKS, he explains how the built environment became more and more
entangled as technologies changed and servicing networks and construction methods became more
complex and interlinked. This has led to difficulties to achieve efficient flexibility as long-life components of
the built environment have to be destroyed to affect change in short-life components (such as knocking
down a wall to access piping or electric cables). This inherently inflexibility also has implications in terms of
managing relationships between the various stakeholders in the built environment who might share
space/structures and whose diverse needs and decisions might disrupt the needs and decisions taken by
others.
Thus Astley states: “... upfront thinking should be done to understand the whole system, before delivering
smaller phased sub systems changes” (Astley nd).
986
Figure 1: A time-based understanding of the built environment and decision-making levels based on Stephen
Kendall’s writings and diagrams.
Figure 2: This time-based understanding of the built environment and decision-making levels may be applied to
the South African situation, its various programmes and policies – this is work in progress (diagram by Jhono
Bennett).
Time-based design is not a new concept

Architects have always suggested design systems that allow for incrementality. Christopher Alexander refers
to ‘generative codes’ defined as “…codes which are capable of driving, or guiding, the organic unfolding of
a neighborhood (new or existing or partly existing, green field, or brown field), in such a way that the
neighborhood and the people who do and will live in it and work there, have a good chance of flourishing,
personally, economically, and ecologically. Like the example of biological generative code, such a code is,
necessarily, highly complex (in its effects) though simple (in its own structure). It is necessarily dynamic. It
specifies processes, happening under a variety of types of control, which will contribute to the proper
unfolding of the whole, and delineates the interaction of the people concerned in such a way that what
results may, with good fortune, become a living neighborhood” (Alexander et al. 2005, p. 2). Alexander
further explains how these codes assist in the gradual “unfolding” of a neighbourhood towards becoming
“whole” (Alexander et al. 2005, p. 3).
987
Kendall explains that the historic preference for the “autonomous dwelling”, due to the level of
“independence and freedom of action” that it offers. This led to an emphasis on the “autonomy of the
individual unit in multi-family buildings” leading to a great focus on technology as the solution to housing,
leading to many failed projects and attempts at solving the housing “problem”. Kendall further explains that:
“a) housing is not only about bricks and mortar. Second, housing is not only about professionals - non-
professionals are a vital part of the housing process; b) housing must fit into its local fabric, and c) housing is
about processes that extend over time. An overemphasis on “technical fixes” seems shortsighted in light of
these lessons” (Kendall nd, pp. 2–3).
Kendall refers to the “Shell” as follows: “...necessarily part of the local setting in all its
physical, cultural, regulatory and environmental dimensions. The Shell helps make the
urban scene.” He further explains: “The Infill is not so constrained by the local scene. It is –
and should increasingly be – approved by national certification agencies and distributed
in the global marketplace of consumer-oriented products, "kits" and services. It responds
more directly to the pulse of change, whereas the Shell is meant to age in place and
become part of the social memory of an urban landscape” (Kendall 2006).
Kitchley and Srivathsan (2005) describe an approach to design, intending to capture the essence of how
traditional habitats evolved organically over time to embody complex relationships “between land
characteristics, functional activities and social aspirations”. This entails that: “The distinct and deliberate
pattern of hierarchy of spaces wherein a gradual transition from private space at the household level to
semi-private spaces around the house to public spaces... is the feature that enriches an organic settlement.
This design knowledge is abstracted into a Shape Grammar and acts as a source for the derivation of
designs, controls and guides the design process and allows the designer and computer to evaluate the
results of designing (Kitchley and Srivathsan 2005).
There have been many attempts over time to replicate the natural processes of evolution, to build in an
inherent capacity for change, to develop systems and processes that have multiple spatial and formal
manifestations rather than fixed form. There is an intention to identify the elements that, when put into
place, through applying considered ‘rules’, lead to evolution over time: a generative process and embraces
the ‘unexpected’.
TIME-BASED DESIGN APPROACHES FOR INFORMAL SETTLEMENT UPGRADING IN SOUTH AFRICA
While incremental development in informal settlements implies that residents are guided towards
incrementally developing their own residential units in ownership options – this could also mean the
provision of core houses or a framework that may be phased and that may evolve into alternative layouts
and forms and possibly the incremental provision of various forms of tenure as well incremental provision of
infrastructure. At the urban and neighbourhood scale, incremental development could be applied in terms
of providing the ‘skeleton’ or cohesive base structure for an informal settlement (Osman et al. 2013). The
author refers to this as Base Building infrastructure. (It is important to note that this is based on the concept
of Supports are introduced by Habraken in 1961 and 1972 respectively (Dutch and English editions)
(Habraken 1999). Therefore sometimes the terms Supports and Base Buildings are used interchangeably – as
are the terms infill/fit-out) (“Open Building” nd).
Community expectations are shifting: from a demand for housing to demands for basic services and tenure
security, which aligns with the government’s current agenda on incremental upgrading (GGLN 2012, 2012 p.
57). Open Building may be an approach to the delivery of residential Base Buildings through government
subsidies applied at neighbourhood level. These Base Buildings would therefore be considered a part of
neighbourhood infrastructure – in the same way that roads and service lines are considered a part of the
neighbourhood infrastructure and are accessible and used by all, irrespective of income level or social status
(Stephan Kendall is acknowledged). This would result in the subsidised Base Buildings being accessed by
different income groups and individuals for the provision of mixed residential developments – that is,
developments with a variety of types, functions and income levels – therefore achieving more integrated
neighbourhoods.
988
So while reference to infrastructure is generally taken to include public buildings and

amenities, transport structures and roads, service lines for water, sanitation and electricity
– the intention is to broaden that definition to include Base Buildings delivered through
government subsidies via the various housing programmes, or by the introduction of a
new subsidy programme geared towards the provision of base buildings.
Base Building design principles
First Base Building design pointers must be identified. Sometimes a settlement has a clear urban structure +
routes + urban blocks + and/or buildings that need to be retained as a part of the Base Building/Support
structure (Figure 3). Some have little structure evident and a ‘skeleton’ must be added as a part of the base
level intervention (Figure 4). Design thinking needs to be harnessed to be able to develop an urban
framework beyond emergency-access routes and reduced fire hazards. While this may also follow a
consultative process, it does need more professional decision-making. The settlement density and mix of
use needs to be strategically addressed – possibly maintaining the existing character as some informal
settlements are lower-density, sub-urban in character while others are very compact and urban (refer again
to Figures 3 and 4).
Figure 3: Kliptown, Johannesburg (Diagram by Nhlamolo Ngobeni)(Ngobeni, 2014)
Figure 4: Ruimsig (Goethe Institut et al. 2012).
989
Base Building finance and management systems

Kendall motivates for: “A new kind of business entity with a new customer value
proposition is needed to meet the demand of variable fit-out in open building projects.
Base buildings do not cost more. This was established by sound economic analysis
decades ago for the residential sector, most clearly by work done in the Netherlands”
(Kendall nd).
Open Building and the development of subsidised Base Buildings offers opportunities and
benefits, such as alternative tenure, which are difficult to achieve through conventional
delivery and procurement processes.
It is argued in this paper that the primary level of the environment needs to be included as a component of
government-financed infrastructure delivery – therefore allowing for incrementality to occur at the
secondary level of the environment. However, it is also important to note that Base Buildings may be sold off
or leased, with their related services, to various agents including subsidised rental housing institutions – the
system must make economic sense and offer good return on investment for the government for it to be
sustainable. In some cases, for the extremely poor, government might subsidize the secondary levels or infill.
However, it is believed that with Base Buildings in place, the purchase of the secondary level becomes much
easier for individuals to achieve in ownership options or to rent. As an example, the right to inhabit a section
of the Base Buildings may be leased from the agency that owns it allowing for the tenant to own the infill,
which may be let, sold, dismantled and reassembled elsewhere and reconfigured as needs change.
This allows the poor to, more easily, get onto the first rung of the hypothetical housing ladder of formal
housing, but even more importantly it envisions solutions for low cost housing and informal settlement
upgrading within strategies that address the development of complete housing eco-systems rather than
isolating housing for the poor. It also allows for the development of housing models that make business
sense by allowing for the involvement of small-scale construction industries in the delivery of the lower level
of the built environment (the infill or fit out levels) while the large and more experienced companies deliver
the Base Buildings (Tshweu et al. 2010).
Government provided housing and public buildings would usually have a diverse set of funds allocated to
them including government subsidies, grants from other sources, loans from private sources as well as
personal savings and contributions that the beneficiaries would use in subsequent adaptations or
extensions.
Conventional practice means that these funds all go into “one pot” and produce highly “entangled”
buildings with no level or system separation (Phil Astley explains the concept of systems separation or open
planning in several documents, refer to (Astley nd). These investments are also injected across various
physical locations and the reach, extent and impact is therefore limited (Refer to Figure 5).
GOVERNMENT
SUBSIDIES
$ ‘ONE POT’
CONVENTENTIONAL
PROCUREMENT SYSTEM
CONVENTENTIONAL BUILDING
‘ENTANGLED &
MONO-DIMENSSIONAL
OTHER
GRANTS $ $
$
PERSONAL
$
FUNDS
LOANS
Figure 5: Conventional practice produces highly “entangled” buildings (Diagram by Jhono Bennett)
990
Strict system separation implies that different fund sources would be assigned to different aspects of the
building/development allowing for innovative management, ownership and rental scenarios. This paper
argues that government-subsidies for housing must only be spent on Base Building infrastructure –
stopping all investment on individual units except in cases of destitution.
RESIDENTIAL UNIT SUB-DIVISION TISSUE & SUPPORT LEVELS

& INFILL LEVELS
10-30 yrs 100 - 300 yrs

at the BUILDING UNIT LEVEL at the NEIGHBORHOOD BLOCK LEVEL
$ $ $ $
PERSONAL LOANS OTHER GOVERNMENT
FUNDS GRANTS SUBSIDIES
Figure 6: Strict system separation implies that different fund sources would be assigned to different aspects of the
building/development (Diagram by Jhono Bennett).
By providing Base Buildings, it is possible to address the disparity in infrastructure in

different parts of the country and within cities. Base buildings achieve equity by injecting
government funding in structures, which are shared by everyone, irrespective of income
level. This means that everyone would use and benefit from the base buildings in the
same manner that government investment goes towards a street or railway line that
everyone uses. This would surely reduce the discrimination that arises from the distinctly
located, designed and built housing for the poor?
Structuring elements / design decision-making
Structuring elements that are identified in a given context need to be used in determining design decision-
making strategies. It is important to think beyond public/private by exploring intermediate zones semi-
public/semi-private and clearly demarcating to communities where interventions are not permitted by using
OB zones/buffer zones – this needs community buy-in. Routes and open space may be used as urban
structuring elements – taking clues from existing spatial patterns and space use – which may be easily
detected from initial mapping.
Through mapping at neighbourhood level, existing structures, heritage buildings, pedestrian paths,
vehicular routes, public space, existing space defining elements, service lines (piping, networks, cables)
green corridors and building envelopes might be considered a part of the permanent base/support level.
At block and building level, the supports/base buildings would be more finer-grained and nuanced and
would include structural elements, horizontal and vertical service lines as well as service ducts at building
level, vertical and horizontal circulation – again building envelop might be considered as part of the
base/support level.
991
Therefore the support/base level of the environment allows for diverse interpretations and supports are as
diverse as the needs/characteristics of the various environments being considered.
Process of design and implementation in an informal settlement

Learning from current experience in re-blocking, mapping must be carried out in partnership with the
residents and decisions made, in consultation, with regards to what needs to be removed/demolished as
well as with regards to the Base Buildings that need to be inserted. These allow for shared/communal
ownership and provide spatial structuring elements.
Coordination between the diverse agents/stakeholders may be achieved through strict system separation
and clear decision-making strategies which make it easier to manage the complexity of the process, to
manage expectations and clearly assign roles.
It is also important to differentiate about aspects of the built environment where decision-making may be
made by individuals or communities. Sometimes the decisions that are delegated to communities have no
structural/functional/spatial value and may simply “cosmetic” in nature (Osman and Davey 2011) – not an
ideal scenario. This needs to be considered and addressed. Base Buildings should be used as a spatial and
physical intervention to facilitate real and on-going participation.
In addition to the above issues, asking people “what they want” is an inadequate understanding of
participation as people’s “expectations are experientially determined” (Dewar and Uytenbogaardt 1991). The
role of the professional is to introduce communities to new solutions that they would not be able to
envision – bearing in mind their day-to-day experience of using space and their own understanding of
priorities and needs.
Needs however are also dynamic, meaning that the results of a consultative process today may not be valid
tomorrow. Once-off participation is therefore not very effective. Real and effective participation is on-going
and representative. Real participation would have an impact on the way projects are conceptualized, funded
and realized. On-going participation ensures long-term partnerships with communities but also puts in
place an infrastructure which facilitates this constant engagement in decision-making and in the careful
management of relationships between various stakeholders.
Alternative tenure options

Individual ownership, in more cases than most, translates into individual plots and individual units.
Occupation agreements may be an alternative to ownership. Using an Open Building understanding, a
secondary level in the built environment may be considered where non-structural and partitioning may be
separately owned and easily movable – replicating the sophistication of the shack system which, despite
being low-tech and rudimentary, offers excellent clues to manage the different levels of the built
environment and allows easier access to the lowest rung of the formal housing market. This secondary level
of the environment may be owned independently of the base level, it may be re-configured, sold off or let.
This proposed approach is in line with the call for an incremental tenure approach which offers alternatives
to the current focus on individual ownership. The process: “… relies on simple administrative and legal
mechanisms… [and] emphasises an incremental approach to tenure in terms of which initial tenure is
simple and affordable but may be upgraded later (Garau et al. 2005, Cousins et al. 2005). The Incremental
Tenure Approach also highlights the importance of, and makes provision for, alternate forms of legal tenure
such as short-term leases, rental and servitudes of use” (Napier and Ntombela 2006). Urban Landmark also
suggests the following steps in the process (author’s notes in italics):
• Step 1 involves making a decision about the long-term future of the settlement. This relates to the
development of a long-term vision before any interventions are made.
• Step 2 involves the blanket legal recognition of the settlement. This allows the community, with
municipalities and professional teams may embark on the conceptualizing and design of the Base
Buildings as well as sourcing funding for this with confidence that the development is legally recognized
and there is no risk of the effort being aborted.
992
• Step 3 involves the ongoing developmental regulation and improvement of the settlement. By
offering various forms of tenure rights and giving people an address it is possible to create a sense of
permanence and ownership. Base Buildings ensure a collective sense of ownership and diverse tenure
opportunities within the structures.
• Step 4 involves township establishment, if not already begun, for the settlement and the award of
individual ownership to beneficiaries on the opening of township registers. Once the Base Buildings
are in place, it is still possible to have individual ownership for some sections of the development, if so
desired. Thus OB diversifies tenure opportunities, ensures access for those members of the community
who cannot afford or do not desire ownership. It also solves the issues that arise with the “non-qualifiers”
(this refers to illegal immigrants or people not entitled to government housing support through the
existing subsidy systems) and allows the settlement to “self-regulate” within set systems and process
that are disentangled and do not conflict.
(Based on Smit and Abrahams 2010)
The buildings would be structured differently with strict "systems separation". This allows for the building
infill to be disassembled (design for disassembly DfD) and by designing building components for
compatibility (design for compatibility DfC) (Osman et al. 2011). This also allows for differentiated ownership
systems where someone or agency may rent the right to use the space within the support system/base
building but own the infill level.
Integration with surrounding urban context

In most cases, informal settlements need to be integrated with the surrounding urban context through
some major infrastructure interventions – a bridge across the railway line + a vehicle route across the
river/park area. This would be a more beneficial use of resources leaving the lower-level/residential unit
decisions for community/individuals using individual resources. In some cases a meaningful interface with
the surroundings may be achieved through a higher density, mixed-use zone, perhaps with social rental
housing as a function that may attract new tenants as well as commercial activities that invite people from
the surroundings into the settlement, thus reducing its isolation.
HYBRID MECHANISMS OF HOUSING DELIVERY AND NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT: A PROPOSED

ALTERNATIVE PROCESS FOR ISU
WPI/CT partnership/CORC define re-blocking projects in some detail in terms of

stakeholders and roles (Worchester Polytechnic Institute WPI and Community
Organization Resource Centre CORC nd). This process offers a great framework. The author
has made some alternative suggestions based on this re-blocking process:
1. Community or Municipality initiates the project. Municipality has a system in place which is well-
communicated so that the processes may be replicated at scale but which also manages to
acknowledge the unique circumstances and dynamics of individuals and communities.
2. A professional team is appointed by the Municipality, which must include architects as a condition.
An agreement is achieved with the Community, to be treated as the clients, which defines the
extent of the project, the timeframes and articulates the various roles.
3. The professional team documents the settlement as it is currently in partnership with the
community in a similar process and manner as implemented at Ruimsig, Mtishini Wam.
4. The professional team in partnership with the Community develop visions for the settlement, which
are divided into IMMEDIATE/SHORT-TERM solutions and LONG-TERM VISIONS towards the
achievement of an INTEGRATED, BEAUTIFUL, SUSTAINABLE, DESIRABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD. The two
processes must run concurrently and through a rapid assessment and decision-making process.
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5. The IMMEDIATE/SHORT-TERM solutions must aim to address issues that are considered to be
hazardous and pose immediate danger to the residents such as fire risks and access for emergency
vehicles.
6. The visions for an INTEGRATED, BEAUTIFUL, SUSTAINABLE, DESIRABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD must

emphasise concepts of creating linkages with the proximate context as well as visions for how the
settlement may evolve in a phased process through DIVERSE ROUTES OF GROWTH with an end
project that contains both PERMANENT COMPONENTS and CHANGEABLE components. It is
important to note that the PERMANENT COMPONENTS must be determined before any changes are
made to the existing settlement pattern in the form of IMMEDIATE/SHORT-TERM interventions. An
exception is situations where lack of immediate action will result in hazardous repercussions.
7. A plan is developed in collaboration with the community to implement the PERMANENT

COMPONENTS – these are financed by the Municipality or through a special subsidy. High-level
technical input is critical at this stage. These components must also be carefully negotiated as they
imply shared walls with neighbours and street edge definition using buildings.
8. As the base buildings are being conceptualised, designed and delivered through government
support and funding, skills audits may be carried out and small business teams developed for the
delivery of the INFILL/FIT OUT level of the settlements. These multi-skilled teams are appointed and
move in to deliver the infill level for individuals, families, social housing institutions, business who
own or rent sections of the base structures.
CONCLUSION
The paper has presented a case for phased and adaptable developments aligning with two proposed levels
of the construction process. A process to monitor and evaluate design and tendering processes supporting
an Open Building approach needs to be established. The link between housing, economy and progress in
general is acknowledged as is the link between cohesive form, space, image, architectural language and
inclusive, cohesive communities. Any new vision aiming towards equal access to the city, and equitable
distribution of resources, should focus on shared space. If this vision is to become a reality, wide-scale buy-in
must be aimed for among civil society and professionals. Adoption as a national strategy would provide the
government with a more efficient mechanism for delivery in the built environment.
In conclusion, in addressing the specific needs of various settlements, it needs to be considered that there
are assumptions about alternative design/delivery processes which are not always accurate and it is
therefore important to state the following two points:
a) An Open Building project is NOT an incomplete project. There is much negativity (shared by the
author) towards projects that delivery a wet core, roof and asks that the owners complete the unit
themselves. However, Open Building allows for a diverse group to contribute in the process of
design and building – in a manner that is carefully coordinated and managed. This implies the
careful coordination of different construction teams at different phases of construction.
b) An Open Building project does NOT have to look different. However, the design and
construction/procurement process is very different from conventional practice. The buildings
would be structured differently
We therefore need to address this negativity and re-think the way that informal settlement upgrading is
practiced, by applying a time-based approach to the built environment, and by better aligning thinking on
the process of upgrading with the context of the city and the understanding that need and desire for
beautiful and functioning neighbourhoods is a universal principle.
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AN ON-GOING INVESTIGATION
This paper presents the concepts of time-based design, open building, distributed decision-making and
disentanglement and their relevance and application in informal settlement upgrading in South Africa. This
process still needs to be studied in terms of viable economic models and technical systems in future
research.
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STUDYING THE EFFECT OF ADAPTABLE MATERIALISATION ON LONG TERM URBAN DEVELOPMENT

GOALS: A METHODOLOGY
Pieter Herthogs, Vrije Universiteit Brussel & VITO, Belgium, pieter.herthogs@vub.ac.be

Niels De Temmerman, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, niels.de.temmerman@vub.ac.be
Yves De Weerdt, VITO, Belgium, yves.deweerdt@vito.be
Wim Debacker, VITO, Belgium, wim.debacker@vito.be
Abstract
Sustainable urban development is increasingly studied within the framework of dynamic theories such as
resilience, adaptation or transition – concepts based on the acknowledgement of an uncertain and changing
future. However, the use of dynamic concepts in the development discourse is not reflected in the approaches
used to materialise our urban environments – conventional approaches mostly lead to the creation of buildings,
infrastructure and public spaces that are unable to accommodate changes over time.
In order to study the effect of a more adaptable built environment on long term urban development goals, there is
a need for methodologies linking dynamic theories on the urban level to concepts of adaptable materialisation.
Using complexity theory as a theoretical framework, we have developed such a methodology: the Lab for Urban
Fragment Futures. This paper discusses the aim to balance theory and practice, illustrates the methodology based
on an urban regeneration project for a social housing estate in Mechelen (Belgium), and discusses its potential use
and merits.
In essence, the methodology is a design charrette. The goal is to ‘refurbish’ an existing urban development project
and adaptable variants of that same project, based on a hypothetical future scenario. Afterwards, the
refurbishments of the existing project and its variants are evaluated in terms of their long term sustainable
development goals. The development of the methodological framework and resulting theories is an iterative
process, evolving case by case (similar to a grounded theory approach).
On a theoretical research level, the Lab could be useful to explore the benefits and drawbacks of adaptability on
the neighbourhood level, to formulate theory, to create preliminary tools and guidelines, and to explore if there
are planning principles to optimise the distribution of adaptable capacity in an urban fragment.
At the same time, it could function as a decision support platform for policy makers, designers and other
stakeholders of urban projects by demonstrating the importance of adaptable materialisation in supporting long-
term sustainability goals.
The next stage in the development of the Lab for Urban Fragment Futures is testing the methodology in practice,
which will be done in an ongoing redevelopment project in the city of Turnhout, Belgium. The results and
experiences of the test case will then be used to explore and assess the methodology’s strength in terms of
verifying hypothesis about urban fragment adaptability.
Keywords: adaptability, complexity, urban fragment, design charrette, design scenario.
INTRODUCTION
Sustainable urban development is increasingly studied within the framework of dynamic theories such as
resilience, adaptation or transition – concepts based on the acknowledgement of an uncertain and changing
future. For example, transition based approaches are gaining momentum in research and governance,
particularly in the Netherlands and the UK (Shove and Walker 2007), and in the Belgian region of Flanders,
the concept of transition has become embedded in sustainable urban development policy (Block and
Paredis 2012).
This shift in theory could be understood as part of a larger evolution towards the acknowledgement of the
world as a complex, dynamic system (du Plessis and Cole 2011). Mitchell (2009, p. 13) defines a complex
system as ‘a system in which large networks of components with no central control and simple rules of
operation give rise to complex collective behaviour, sophisticated information processing, and adaptation
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via learning or evolution’. This adaptation leads to a complex system’s most vital characteristic: the fact that
it can maintain ‘coherence under change’ (Holland 1995, p. 4).
City systems are inherently complex and dynamic: they bring together a vast amount people with diverse
and interdependent needs, desires and skills. As a result, they are too complex to be controlled or planned
centrally; instead, they should be developed from the ground up (Batty 2005). Neighbourhoods are
generally perceived as being the most basic units of urban development (ibid.), which makes it important to
understand how they function. Because ‘neighbourhood’ is a contested term, with different meanings in
different fields of study, we have introduced the term ‘urban fragment’. Urban fragments are combinations
of physical and social systems that together form the most basic organised systems of cities and urban
development; they represent the mesoscale of the city, and are the link between individual elements of the
physical built environment and the city system in its entirety.
Seeing cities as dynamic, complex systems has resulted in new theories for urban development that
explicitly focus on change and uncertainty. However, approaches to apply such dynamic theories to the
materialisation of our environments appear to be less common. This is the case from spatial planning to
building design. Roggema (2012, p. 29) describes how important international conferences and publications
on climate adaptation and resilience hardly mention spatial planning and design. In our built environment,
conventional buildings are often unable to accommodate changes over time (Slaughter 2001). When
building requirements change, they are abandoned by its users, partially demolished and renovated, or
destroyed and replaced. It is not economic or resource efficient to design and build facilities that become
obsolete before their expected lifespan is reached (Slaughter 2001). These are not efficient forms of
adaptation – this is not ‘coherence under change’.
On the scale of the building, research often focuses on the benefits of individual adaptable buildings, such
as decreased demolition waste production, lower maintenance costs or increased user control. But would
these adaptable buildings also introduce benefits on the urban scale, at the system level? Can they support
an urban fragment’s capacity to maintain sustainable under change?
In order to study the effect of a more adaptable built environment on long term urban development goals,
there is a need for methodologies linking dynamic theories on the urban level to concepts of adaptable
materialisation. We have developed such a methodology, the ‘Lab for Urban Fragment Futures’, and
illustrate it in this paper using an urban regeneration project. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the
methodological process and discuss the underlying ideas of the concept, not to showcase actual results.
The first section discusses how the methodology aims to address concerns on both a theoretical and a
practical level. The second session is a brief overview of the methodology, its components and structure,
before going over to the third section illustrating the Lab for Urban Fragment Futures, based on the
Mahatma Gandhi neighbourhood redevelopment in Mechelen, Belgium. Finally, the discussion shows how
the methodology addresses the requirements and concerns raised at the beginning of the paper and
describes future work.
A METHODOLOGY BALANCING THEORY AND PRACTICE
This section discusses why a methodology to study adaptable materialisation at the urban fragment scale
should be grounded in both theory and practice.
On the one hand, the topic itself is inherently theoretical. The topic’s subject - buildings and infrastructure
that have been purposefully designed for change – is not commonly applied in real life. Although such
buildings are no longer considered unusual (Kendall 2011), they are not yet conventional, especially when
considering the scale of a neighbourhood.
The theoretical framework is complexity theory. Because complexity is a relatively recent field of study, there
are many uncertainties about theories and methods, and because of the non-reductionist and non-linear
characteristics of complex systems, it is difficult to do quantitative studies (Herthogs et al. 2012).
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Because both the subject and the framework are emerging fields of research, the methodology should be
able to contribute to the postulation and verification of theoretical hypothesis regarding adaptable
materialisation and urban change.
On the other hand, there is an increasing demand to put theory into practice. In Flanders, the idea that
buildings can and should be designed for future change is gaining ground and is starting to feature in vision
and policy documents of governments, government institutions and cities. For example, the Public Waste
Agency of Flanders (OVAM) has put the need for ‘dynamic and flexible construction and renovation’ centre-
stage in its recently proposed policy programme (Materiaalbewust bouwen in kringlopen 2013), and a study
for the Agency for Domestic Governance on the policy challenges and threats cities could face when
implementing adaptable and multi-purpose buildings and infrastructure (IDEA consult 2012) show that
cities are ready to explore the concept. It is likely that this increased interest in adaptability on the building
level will result in an increased need to effectively implement adaptability on the urban level. These reports
and policy documents also show that the first concern of policy makers is guidelines and evaluation tools,
and a preference for predictable planning actions and quantification.
The next section gives an overview of the Lab for Urban Fragment Futures, the methodology we developed
to study the effect of adaptable materialisation at the urban level. Its aim is to compare different theoretical
hypotheses regarding the distribution of adaptable capacity in an urban fragment within the framework of a
participatory design exercise exploring urban change in an existing urban development project.
AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE ‘LAB FOR URBAN FRAGMENT FUTURES’
The ‘Lab for Urban Fragment Futures’ (LUFF, or the ‘Lab’) is a guided participatory design exercise. The goal
is to ‘refurbish’ an existing urban development project and adaptable variants of that same project, based on
a hypothetical future scenario. Afterwards, the refurbishments of the existing project and its variants are
evaluated in terms of their long term sustainable development goals - in essence a resilience test. An
overview of the methodology, its components and structure is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Structure of the 6 steps in the Lab for Urban Fragment Futures methodology.
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The basic concept of the methodology will now be illustrated based on an urban regeneration project for
the Mahatma Gandhi neighbourhood in Mechelen, Belgium.
The case selected for this illustration is the regeneration project of the Mahatma Gandhi neighbourhood in
the city of Mechelen. It is a typical post-war social housing estate for about 3000 inhabitants (Paduart et al.
2013), mostly consisting of terraced housing units and medium rise housing blocks (see Figure 2). The
buildings and public space will be refurbished over a period of several years. The highlights of the master
plan shown in Figure 3 are new housing blocks on the south edge, the resizing of roads and parking, and the
improvement of green space (Omgeving cvba 2010). This illustration focuses on the first phase of Gandhi
neighbourhood redevelopment, situated to the north.
The aim of this paper is to explain the methodological process, not to generate correct or representative
data and results – the examples used to describe each step are deliberately straightforward. This illustration
has been developed to explain the methodology to potential partners in participative cases and researchers.
Therefore, it is not based on such a participative process. This illustration in no way aims to reflect any
particular visions of those involved in the actual project.
Unless otherwise indicated, the only source used for this illustration is the final report of the town planning
study done by design firm ‘Omgeving’ for the social housing cooperation ‘Woonpunt Mechelen’ (Omgeving
cvba 2010). In case of missing data (like amounts and sizes of apartment types), estimates and assumptions
were used.
Figure 2: The current Mahatma Gandhi neighbourhood is a typical post-war social housing estate (Source:
Omgeving cvba 2010).
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Figure 3: The highlights of the master plan are new housing blocks on the south edge, the resizing of roads and
parking, and the improvement of green space (Source: Omgeving cvba 2010).
Analysing an urban development project using the Lab for Urban Fragment Futures is a multi-stepped
process, with workshops and preparatory research work. A flowchart of the methodology is shown in figure
4 below. These six steps structure the description of the methodology below. In this description, the
researchers are experts in urban adaptability (i.e. the authors of this paper) and the project participants are a
selection of key stakeholders in the urban development process (e.g. city officials, developer, designers,
experts, neighbourhood representatives, inhabitants …).
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Figure 4: The flowchart of the Lab for Urban Fragments methodology shows how each of its six steps is
interrelated, and which steps are participative.
Step 1: determining long term development goals

In the first meeting, researchers and project participants discuss the project’s long term development vision
and goals, and the participants select what they consider to be the key goals. As the Lab is used to study the
effects of adaptable materialisation, the goals need to be related to the built environment.
In case of the Gandhi master plan, two long term goals fit this requirement: maintaining an increased social
cohesion and avoiding future parking space problems.
According to the master plan, increasing and maintaining social cohesion will be achieved by increasing the
amount of different housing and apartment types, both now and in the future.
In other words, the master plan directly substitutes an immaterial goal (social cohesion) for a building
specification (housing type diversity). Verifying whether there is a causal link between housing diversity and
cohesion is beyond the scope of the Lab; housing type diversity is the first long term goal that will be
studied.
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One of the basic concepts of the master plan is to stimulate multi-modal mobility. The plan significantly
reduces the amount of car-based infrastructure, especially the amount of on-site roadside parking space, in
order to improve the public space for pedestrians and cyclists, and to reduce the fragmentation of green
spaces (Omgeving cvba 2010, p. 51). Nevertheless, drastic changes in mobility could result in parking
problems. For, example, the introduction of commercial functions could increase the need for (car) parking,
or the stimulation of cycling could result in an increased need for bicycle parking. Studying if and how such
evolutions could be supported increases our understanding of the resilience of parking solutions. Suitable
parking infrastructure is the second long term goal that will be studied.
Figure 5: Plan and partial rendering of first phase of the master plan. Type 1 buildings are family apartments with
garage boxes (yellow), type 2 are single bedroom flats, type 3 are one family terraced houses with an adjacent
garage (green): all these types will be or have been refurbished. The type 4 buildings are multi-storey apartment
blocks to be constructed at either end of the type 3 streets. (Adapted from Omgeving cvba 2010)..
Step 2: developing adaptable variants of the project

The Lab for Urban Fragment Futures compares how well a business-as-usual urban project and more
adaptable variants of the same projects respond to changes. These adaptable variants of the existing urban
development project are developed by the researchers.
The idea is to change the ‘adaptable capacity’ (AC) of buildings and infrastructure. Adaptable capacity is a
measure of the adaptability of the materialisation – in case of buildings, for example, it covers a range of
concepts such as multi-purpose buildings, support and infill, moveable or demountable walls, etcetera. Only
the AC of buildings, infrastructure or other materialised components is changed; no changes are made to
the overall design scheme of the master plan, intended functions or spatial layout.
Each variant is based on a different hypothesis or theoretical principle to distribute AC throughout the site.
The first variant of the Gandhi project distributes a low AC evenly on the site. The terraced houses (Figure 5,
type 3, in green) are refurbished in such a way as to make it easier to turn the adjacent garage into a
functional space for people. This could be done by improving insulation, providing options to swap the
garage door with wall and window panels, and installing more multi-purpose water and electricity ducts.
Each of the 126 housing units of this type can now increase its number of living spaces by one, but only at
the expense of a covered space for parking.
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The second variant introduces high AC at the street corners. The new multi-storey buildings at the ends of
the terraced housing rows (Figure 5, type 4) will now be designed using a support and infill approach. They
allow a wide range of possible changes, some of which include introducing covered parking spaces, but
there are only 21 units.
Figure 6: In variant 1 (left), the garages of the terraced houses would be more adaptable, while in variant 2 (right),
the new multi-storey buildings use a support and infill approach.
Adaptable variants correspond to a hypothesis of AC distribution. The Lab for Urban Fragment Futures can
be used to compare different adaptable variants, based on the performance of the hypothesis under change
(step 4 and 6 of the methodology). The factor of comparison is efficiency: what kind of AC levels are required
at which locations on the site in order to maximally support the long term goals determined in step 1?
Although the examples described here are (deliberately) simplistic, other distribution principles could use
more complicated or complex parameters, such as levels of control (Habraken and Teicher 1998) or network
complexity measures (e.g. Hao and Xin 2010, as described in Roggema 2012, p. 137).
Step 3: developing a sub-model and generating a changed design programme

During a participative workshop, project participants and researchers work together to develop a sub-model
for change scenario’s and use it to generate a new design programme for the urban development project. In
the next step, this hypothetical ‘future programme’ or scenario will be used to refurbish the existing master
plan.
The aim of the methodology is to study the effect of adaptable materialisation on change. In the Lab, this
change acts on a partial programme of requirements for the Gandhi project. We developed the concept of a
‘sub-model’ as a framework to generate a changed programme of requirements in a controlled and
parametric way.
The sub-model links different parameters and requirements related to the long term goals of the Gandhi
redevelopment project (determined in step 1). Researchers and participants develop the sub-model
together, starting from a demo model created by the researchers. The sub-model displayed in figure 7 links
different parameters related to housing diversity and car and bicycle parking infrastructure. The first
parameter is the number of households that can live in the neighbourhood, the next determines household
requirements for bedrooms and living rooms, finally resulting in a demand for certain housing types (in the
model, housing types are considered equal to the amount of spaces for sleeping and living). Two more
parameters, the number of adults and children per bedroom, determine the amount of inhabitants.
Multiplying this by the car and bicycle ownership rate gives us a total required amount of car and bicycle
parking.
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Figure 7: The sub-model for the Gandhi neighbourhood links parameters related to housing diversity and
parking. The green boxes indicate which type of change is applied to each parameter. The resulting shift in
parameter values is listed under each parameter.
The sub-model is then used to generate a new programme of requirements for the Gandhi neighbourhood.
During the workshop, the change is determined by the project participants per parameter or cluster of
parameters. The researchers guide the process by demonstrating how each parameter relates to the projects
long term goals, and show relevant references (e.g. expected demographic evolutions). Participants decide
on values for the programme of requirements: first, they decide desired or expected values for the project as
if it were to exist today; second, they decide or generate new values for that project in a future time.
Most parameters in the sub-model are distributions: for example, in the Gandhi neighbourhood, 19% of
households need 1 bedroom, 66% needs 2, 11% needs 3, etcetera. These distributions can change, new
options can emerge, or existing options can go extinct. We have defined three types of change: normative
change is predetermined or chosen based on goals, forecasts or other methods (e.g. the number of
households in a neighbourhood must stay the same); normative-random change is a random shift in a
distribution, but within a normative minimum-maximum range (e.g. maximum 10% distribution change),
making it possible to define slow or fast changing distributions, or distributions that are more or less likely to
change; finally, random change shifts the distribution without any limitations.
In Figure 7, the type of change selected for each parameter is listed in a green box, and the resulting value or
distribution shift is listed underneath.
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Figure 8: The generated shift in the programme of requirements shows the combined effect of changing
individual parameters.
The shift in the programme of requirements, shown in Figure 8, is generated by inserting the values for
individual parameters into the sub-model. Cumulative or concurrent changes can lead to compounded
requirement shifts: for example, the 15% increase in bike ownership together with an increase in household
size actually results in a 46% increase of the bicycle parking need.
It is possible to cater the sub-model to the needs and requirements of the project participants. For example,
an urban development project that aspires to transition towards a certain sustainability vision could
normatively favour solutions that support this vision and will maximise the emergence of new solutions. A
project focussing on climate adaptation could select the changes that result in a worst case scenario.
Step 4: refurbishing the project in a ‘redesign charrette’

Step 4 is the crucial step of the Lab for Urban Fragment Futures. The participants are asked to ‘refurbish’ the
Gandhi neighbourhood, adapting the built environment as envisaged by the master plan to a changed
programme of requirements generated in step 3.
In essence, this step is a design charrette: ‘a time-limited, multiparty design event organised to generate a
collaborative produced plan for a sustainable community’ (Condon cited in Roggema 2014, p. 16). The fact
that participants are adapting an existing design to a set of determined requirements instead of co-creating
a new vision and plan for a sustainable urban project is stressed by referring to this step as a ‘redesign
charrette’ instead.
The goal of the redesign charrette is to implement the changed programme of requirements. In case of the
Gandhi example this implies adapting or adding housing units and bicycle parking infrastructure.
Participants keep track of the amount and scale of the interventions needed to adapt the project. Both the
existing project and its adaptable variants are ‘refurbished’ in this way, either starting by redesigning the
existing and trying to apply the same solution to the adaptable, or vice versa.
Step 5: assessing the adaptable capacity in the existing project and its variants
The last two steps in the Lab for Urban Fragment Futures methodology evaluate the results of the redesign
charrette. In step 6, the researchers evaluate the effectiveness of the existing project and its adaptable
variants in terms of supporting their long term development goals. In order to do this, the adaptable
capacity of buildings and infrastructure used in the existing project, its variants and the different redesigns
needs to be determined.
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The type of adaptability assessment to be used depends on the type of project and the types of
materialisation that needs to be assessed. For a participatory exercise, the adaptability assessment methods
need to be straightforward. Some examples we have (co-)developed are a set of multi-criteria analysis tools
for the material, building and urban infrastructure level (Paduart et al. 2013), a tool to evaluate the generality
and adaptability of a building plan’s spatial configuration (Herthogs et al. 2013), and a verification diagram
to assess the entanglement of building components with different life-spans (Osman et al. 2011).
Step 6: evaluating the ‘resilience’ of the existing project and its variants
The final step evaluates how well the existing project and its adaptable variants can stay ‘coherent under
change’, expressed in terms of the effort needed to adapt them to fit the new programme of requirements.
Depending on the type of project, the available data and the interest of the project partners, the evaluation
can be qualitative, quantitative, or a combination. In case of the Gandhi illustration, the two important
benchmarks are how well the neighbourhood can be adapted to a spike in bicycle popularity, and to what
extent it can support the diversification of housing (or household) types.
The results of this evaluation should be interpreted as cases that explore particular hypotheses and
minimum requirements for adaptable capacity in urban fragments. How much of the projects needed to be
refurbished to meet the new requirements? How extensive was this refurbishment? Was it easier to redesign
a particular adaptable variant? How much of the new requirements could not be met, and need to be solved
in adjacent or larger scale systems?
DISCUSSION
The Lab for Urban Fragment Futures is a methodology which aims to allow the formulation and evaluation
of theory while it is being used in practice. It is similar to a grounded theory approach, in the sense that the
methodology itself, the hypotheses it explores (the adaptable variants), its assessment methods and
evaluation tools can evolve with every iteration. The Lab can iterate in three different ways: it can be used to
analyse different urban development projects; it can be used to generate different sub-models and
programmes of requirements; and it can be used to test different adaptable variants.
It is important to stress that the Lab is a framework to study adaptation, not change. The methodology can’t
be used to predict future change – in fact, it is completely independent of the kind of change an urban
fragment needs to adapt to. The final results will never be useful as predictions or estimates, but they can
increase our understanding of urban level adaptability, and could serve as illustrations and verifications of
hypothesis and principles.
On a theoretical research level, the Lab could be useful to explore the benefits and drawbacks of adaptability
on the neighbourhood level, to formulate theory, to create preliminary tools and guidelines, and to explore
if there are planning principles to optimise the distribution of adaptable capacity in an urban fragment.
At the same time, it could serve as a decision support exercise for people in practice, such as policy makers,
designers and other stakeholders of urban projects. The exercise could explain the impact of change on
sustainable urban projects, demonstrate the importance of adaptable materialisation in reaching long-term
sustainability goals, and identify opportunities for more deterministic analysis of particular problems that
were encountered.
Du Plessis and Cole (2011) describe how a flexible and reflexive participative approach, where researchers
are not experts, but co-learners, is particularly suited to study in a holistic, uncertain paradigm or world view.
We think our methodology fits that description.
Nevertheless, part of finding a balance between theory and practice is the ability to bring both closer
together. An inherently uncertain worldview might be acceptable for fundamental theory, but it is a concept
many – including the future participants in our charrettes – will find hard to grasp. It seems to contradict the
basic human tendency to continuously predict the future; a tendency which can’t be excluded artificially
(Sela 2013).
A completely ‘prediction free’ urban planning approach might just be incompatible with practice. The Lab’s
use of sub-models could serve as a hybrid. A sub-model with unexpected accumulation effects in the end
might be a good way to demonstrate to the participants how a complex urban system works, and how
1007
different aspects are interconnected, while still allowing them to apply determinism and prediction to
individual parameters. In practice, the act of making or deciding on predictions and designing for change
might prove to be an important stepping stone to actually building adaptable buildings.
FUTURE WORK
The next stage in the development of the Lab for Urban Fragment Futures is testing the methodology in
practice. We will do this together with the project partners (city and developer) of an ongoing urban
redevelopment project in the city of Turnhout, Belgium, where a part of the old industrial area next to the
railroad station is being turned into an urban fragment focussing on sustainable housing and innovative
healthcare solutions. The LUFF test-case will take place within the framework of a consultancy study aimed
at setting up transition experiments to act as catalysts for innovation.
The results and experiences of the test case will then be used to explore and assess the methodology’s
strength in terms of verifying hypothesis about urban fragment adaptability.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research is funded by VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research.
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1009
HANDLING MULTIPLE ECOLOGIES IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Peter Andreas Sattrup, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark, pans@byg.dtu.dk

Katrine Lotz, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture Design and Conservation, Denmark,
klotz@kadk.dk
Abstract
In light of the many challenges of resource scarcity, climate change, rapid urbanization and changing social
patterns facing societies today, main stream architecture remains remarkably 'resilient' to conceptual innovation
regarding its nature and role in society. If the idea of open architecture, able to accommodate change over time is
a necessary development in architectural conceptualization, what are the barriers and problems inherent in the
present design culture, and how may these be overcome?
In an educational experiment, architecture and architectural engineering students were asked to imagine that
their recent housing projects had been built and occupied for 25+ years. The students were given the task to
transform each other's projects according to new social programs, increased urban density and strict energy and
resources use paradigms, using a design methodological framework in which they were to address liveability,
environment, recyclability and energy across several architectural scales.
Drawing on Actor Network Theory (ANT) vocabularies to describe the process, the authors identify challenges and
potentials: A need for further cross disciplinary integration remains if architects are to address the increasing
demands for resource optimization and environmental performance with great precision, but the experiment also
showed promises in resolving design problems with multifaceted solutions addressing social and environmental
issues simultaneously. The methodological framework in which the traditional scales of relative size were
combined with new scales of time, intensities and durations proved instrumental towards creating a design
culture of multiple ecologies.
Keywords: multiple ecologies, integrated design methods, transforming the built environment,
sustainability.
INTRODUCTION
“The problem with buildings is that they look desperately static. It seems almost impossible to grasp them as
movement, as flight, as a series of transformations. Everybody knows—and especially architects, of course—
that a building is not a static object but a moving project, and that even once it is has been built, it ages, it is
transformed by its users, modified by all of what happens inside and outside, and that it will pass or be
renovated, adulterated and transformed beyond recognition” (Latour and Yaneva 2008, p. 80).
As Latour and Yaneva point out, it seems as if the static means of architectural representations in photos,
perspectives and renders in the media has a tendency towards suppressing the degree to which architecture
is both subject to and instrumental in addressing change. Discussing the pressures from the actors in the
network of the design process, - clients, users, officials, consultants, contractors, material suppliers, building
codes, regulations, requirements etc. and the changes building goes through in its daily life and over its
lifecycle, Latour and Yaneva point out the inadequacy of architectural representations, which may in fact be
misleading as they tend to hide the complexity of architectural agency. Are architects taken hostage by
their representations, mired in a swamp of images of architecture as object? The question is increasingly
relevant as the role and agency of architecture as societal endeavor and as cultural expression are under
scrutiny in light of the pressures on material and environmental resources.
So how can architecture and architectural engineering students maintain their conceptualization and
representations of buildings and the built environment in a fluid state of openness to change? How can we
de-stabilize and keep open the tendency to crystalize and finalize design decisions as seemingly permanent,
while still making design-decisions? Our assumption was that working within a methodological framework
1010
of ‘multiple ecologies’, students would be able to navigate a territory of temporal and spatial complexity in
which their project would not be conceived as stable and finalized statements, but rather as a continued
movement in the actor-network of the buildings’ be-coming.
The concept of ecology has found applications in many disciplines of thought. Some applications are rather
direct while others take the shape of useful metaphors explaining parallel phenomena in other fields of
study. Ecology is directly applicable in architecture as the study of interactions between organisms and their
environment, specifically as the way human species create, maintain and control their environment through
material, energy, behavioural and cognitive processes and strategies. The term is however branching off in
each of these dimensions and we can now speak of ‘industrial ecology’ (Allenby 2006, Gallopoulos 2006) as
material flows managed in industrial processes to facilitate recycling loops and minimize waste, as a
supplement to the ecology of human interaction with the natural environment. Guattari’s concepts of
Mental, Social and Environmental Ecologies, point out that in order to create a balance between human
activities and the capacity of the natural environment, a change in social behavioural and mental cognitive
processes are needed, internalizing and socializing ecology as a pattern of thought as a critique of the
present orders of societal organization, at individual and collective levels (Guattari 1989). The fields of Media
Ecology and Knowledge Ecology are being developed, studying how human thinking, emotion and
behaviour processes are influenced and structured by media (Postman 1970, McLuhan and Lapham 1994)
and how practicing ecology may require a transdisciplinary approach combining natural science, cultural
theory and philosophy, since humans are continuously interacting with and changing their environment
(Robbert 2011).
The aim here is not to add to the theoretical development of these specific theories, but to creatively explore
how the idea of designers having to navigate ‘multiple ecologies’ in the design process, may describe and
inform agendas, phenomena and interactions occurring in design process collaborations among architect
and architectural engineering students in a teaching experiment:
- How does the design interact with the natural environment?
- How does it structure human social activity and how does human behaviour interact with it over
time?
- How are material and energy processes structured by the design, and how do these change in time?
- How does the design come into being, as a process of knowledge exchange and creation, argued
and debated through cross disciplinary collaboration?
- How do design methods and tools influence the design process and the resulting project?
In the experiment, a group of 4th year international exchange students of architecture at the Royal Danish
Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture Design and Conservation (KADK) and a group of 2nd year
architectural engineering students from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) collaborated directly on
design projects. The course was set up in a two stage process over a full semester.
At the first stage, students worked at their separate institutions, developing a new housing scheme at all
scale levels from urban planning and urban design to building design and apartment units. Apart from a few
social events the students did not interact, and the projects were fully developed in accordance with the
design criteria of each disciplinary institution. Key focus areas were biodiversity and tectonics to the
architects, while to the architectural engineers they were climate, energy and daylight, building
complementary competences in dealing with environmental and industrial ecologies through design
decisions.
Both groups of students had been introduced to Duffy and Brands’ observation that buildings change as
they are adapted to changing functional requirements over time as summarized in Brands shearing layers
(Brand 1994). A building’s Site evolves very slowly and can in many instances be considered permanent. The
Structure of a building sees very little change over the course of a building’s lifetime, while the building’s
Skin is subject to maintenance and modifications at long intervals. Building Services need updating and
replacement regularly, while the Spaceplan – the disposition of functional programs in the building is
1011
subject to rapid change, as user patterns and needs change often. Stuff – the surfaces and furniture in the
building have the highest rate of change. Buildings literally have metabolism, and different metabolic rates
for each shearing layer. As a consequence the material resource flows going into building maintenance,
renovations and transformation are correlated with the spatiotemporal scales of the shearing layers.
Designers should, according to Brand, organize the design of buildings according to the hierarchy of
shearing layers, in order to facilitate buildings’ change with a minimum of resistance.
Taking this logic further, the articulation of assemblies becomes a pivotal point in industrial ecology, as it is
the degree to which the elements can be disassembled that decides whether components and materials
may be recycled, and their embodied energy or carbon thus retained for another lifecycle. Tectonics are, in
addition to being the architectural expression of structure, a basic instrument in industrial ecology, serving
or resisting architecture’s role as a discipline of material resource management.
Figure 1 – Shearing Layers (Brand, 1994) and an example of its application in the cradle to cradle design
philosophy (McDonough + partners, 2009) applying design for disassembly principles (Crowther 1999, Nordby
2009).
While the architecture students’ first stage introduced the shearing layers in a tectonics assignment and
developed architectural design strategies for each correlated scale from urban to design detail, the
engineering students’ first stage was organized in a sequential progression according to the spatial and
temporal scales of the shearing layers, examining large scale and long term design issues first, before
progressing to more rapidly changing minor scales, according to a design methodology developed by
Sattrup building on previous work by Eberle and Simmendinger and Foster and partners (Eberle and
Simmendinger, 2007, Hagan 2008, Sattrup 2012, 2009):
Environmental design issues can also be organized sequentially according to a progression in scale, due to
the impacts of design solutions on climatic conditions from landscape and urban scales to the building
interior. The different layers of scale act as filters regulating climatic potentials, transforming solar radiation
to daylight, heat and air movement, slowing winds down or speeding them up, affecting urban comfort and
building energy use. The energy exchanges of the human habitat, from natural climate conditions, urban
macro and micro climates to climate controlled interiors, can be interpreted in terms of a hierarchy of scale
dependencies parallel to that of the shearing layers (Sattrup and Strømann-Andersen 2013, 2011). As with
the shearing layers and industrial ecology, it is possible to derive design principles from the environmental
ecology hierarchy of scales, which can be grafted into a design methodology proper using the shearing
layers as conceptual structure: Environmental performance optimization requires consideration of the
cumulative effects of urban, building and component design (Sattrup 2012). A designer wishing to minimize
building energy use by say passive solar heating or optimizing daylight would do well to work at the urban
scale before deciding on detailed design solutions, as the urban scale is the first layer modifying the climatic
potential for lesser scale solutions.
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Figure 2: Brand’s shearing layers used to structure a design methodology for environmental and industrial
ecologies of scales (Sattrup and Schipull Kauschen 2013).
Thus, the general congruence between design concerns focusing on natural and industrial ecologies, allows
these to be fused into a unifying methodology: Design decisions taken at the urban scale tend to have long
term low to medium intensity impacts while decisions addressing smaller scales are short term and tend to
have higher environmental impacts. Understanding this general tendency may allow designers to navigate
the buildup of information in the design process with greater clarity.
The architecture students would seek to fuse social and environmental concerns in the urban scale
cultivating biodiversity in swales acting as a recreational space of species’ co-habitation. The engineering
students were instructed in the use of digital simulation tools to analyze the urban climate potentials of sun,
wind and daylight first, before calculating energy use at the building and room scales.
Figure 3: Architecture: Bio swale, wind, transformation of Ben’s project by Milda, Jason, Stefan, Alexander,
Christoffer & Jesper (Naujalyte et al. 2013).
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Figure 4: Engineering: Superimposed daylight and solar radiation study, wind study (Naujalyte et al. 2013).
Viewed in terms of managing design decisions during the design process, the interplay between the
designer, his or her tools and their representations as media, and the design itself, architecture as medium
which influences and is influenced, - we may interpret the build-up of information in the project as a media
ecology in which scale plays a structuring role. The relations between scale and the progress of the design
process are neither linear nor unidirectional, but generally assymetrical yet reciprocal and dependent on the
types of media employed. In the design process, designers may very well lock design decisions at a minor
scale early, for example deciding for a specific window size and system type before having studied the urban
scale influence on daylight, but the design would then risk unintentionally missing out important
information that could affect desired performance deeply. Scale dependencies can also work the other way
around, as when the size of glazed areas in the building skin affect daylight distribution in the urban space.
The term scale has until now been used mostly synonymously with the notion of architectural scale as the
relative size of architectural elements proportional to the human body. Once the physics of climate and
energy made visible by digital simulations are introduced and made tangible through visualizations, new
scales are opened up for creative speculation and critique by designers. As Collinge noted, scales are
conceived on the basis of the technological media used to give measure to the phenomena that are being
sought controlled, and are thus very dependent on technological inventions and their modes of
representation (Collinge 1999).
Yaneva and Lotz have depicted how scaling up and down, jumping scale, navigating the influences of
discrete design choices on the overall design quality is a method employed creatively by architects,
negotiating which decisions to take in the process of making a design (Lotz 2008, Yaneva 2005). Knowing
that decisions taken early in the design process influence the subsequent decisions deeply and thus tend to
account for most of the final result’s performance, and that late design changes are cumbersome and
expensive to perform due to the entanglement of information built up during the duration of the design
process, - it is now possible to analyse the relative impact of design decisions on different design quality
performance parameters using digital modeling tools. Geometric scales and scales of performance
indicators, - be these social, environmental or economic, - may now be assessed early or late in the design
process, but with changing precision, as data quality tend to increase and uncertainty decreases with the
resolution of the project’s levels of information. Being able to navigate this rather complex ecology of media,
in which quality is not only empirically experience dependent but tool and medium dependent, requires
new skills of creative interpretation and critique of solutions by reflective practice, - in this case by the
architecture and engineering students.
Three weeks before the end of the academic year, as the semester’s projects had been drawn up as precisely
and finitely as they possibly could, having been handed in and subjected to ‘final’ critiques, the collaboration
began. Students were first asked to create groups of 2 architecture and 3 engineering students and choose a
project which should be thoroughly renovated and transformed according to a changed program. They
could not choose a project which anyone on the team had worked on:
“Imagine that your projects have been built according to today’s standards, just as you designed them.
Some 25+ years have passed, the inhabitants have changed, and so have patterns of life along with changes
in demographics and culture. Along with a requirement to meet new functional demands, buildings are in
need of repairs and upgrades, since wear and tear have begun to show.
1014
The projects were to accommodate a new program for a group of people ‘Urbania’ who wishes to live in a
closely knit community, sharing amenities and spaces to a much wider extent than has been usual. In
addition the original layout of buildings should be densified by up to 20%.
“How would you transform your previous projects to build such a creative future, mixing old and new,
recycling and upgrading structures, components and materials, reinventing identities and properties?”
Figur
e 5: Schematic representation of the stages of the design assignment.
The students were asked to address four sets of design criteria reflecting interstitial dimensions of
environmental, social and industrial ecologies, creating design concepts for each of these at four different
scales. The design criteria were: Shared Space, Environment, Energy and Materials. The scales were: Urban
space, Building, Apartment unit and Building Component. Combined, the criteria and scales could be seen
as a matrix of overlapping concerns explicitly guiding the students’ attention towards several scales and
multiple ecologies, both as a coherent whole and as an assemblage of particular, dynamically interacting
concepts.
Figure 6: Matrix – Scales are conceived as both spatial and temporal dimensions not unlike Brand’s shearing
layers.
Introducing the matrix of ‘multiple ecologies’ challenges students to re-consider features of the design at
point, where the projects are not just sketches, but actually ‘more-known’ in terms of Yaneva (Yaneva 2005).
The projects have already once been assembled as a coherent whole through a design-process. Teachers
and fellow students have followed the development of the project, and contributed to its development –
and also to its stabilization as an architectural statement - through a critical engagement with it. Students
have performed quite extensive analysis of the site, and of the program of modern, urban dwelling. We
might say that the projects regarded as networks have already been fairly tight connected or stabilized, and
it is present in its materializations: the scale-models and the posters, heavy with visuals, diagrams and text
that unfolds the projects.
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Figure 7: Students discussing problems and potentials while deciding which project to transform.
The students could choose among the 21 architecture and 10 architectural engineering design projects. The
selection turned out to be critical for the subsequent work.
“Well, there was numerical evidence behind all the engineering projects, making them difficult to change
with good reason,” Kasper noted, “so we went with the architects’ projects only, as they seemed much more
open to modifications.”
The more finite quality of the architects’ projects did not deter the engineering students, - having a well
determined project made the first step of analyzing the chosen project easier. Some of the engineers
experienced that the sometimes sketchy resolution of technical issues would be demanding to tackle,
finding it difficult to interpret the design, when technical concepts were not explicitly addressed.
To the architecture students, there seemed to be a certain reluctance at first to ‘re-open’ projects that had
been so recently finished at great effort, but also an ambition to ‘improve’ upon the original projects could
be detected. In fact, reopening the projects could easily be rather risky, as projects would be judged equally
on their integration and resolution of both architectural and engineering design issues. If architectural
qualities were lost in the process of addressing a full palette of engineering concerns and issues, architecture
students might easily appear as poor custodians of the virtual ‘cultural heritage’ left by their fellow students.
As the design process of transformations evolved, it turned out that some projects were very difficult to
modify without compromising the original design ideas, while others were easier to adapt in empathy with
the original design intentions. Projects could be considered on an imaginary scale ranging from robust to
fragile in this respect, noting a tendency towards projects using relatively generic shapes and organizations
being more robust or able to accommodate change than projects with a more complex configuration. In
addition, projects with particular aesthetic qualities were challenging to modify as well. Aesthetics turned
out to have a functional quality in resource management: The higher the initial quality of the project, the
less need for drastic interventions was deemed required, preserving the resources already invested in the
buildings.
The process of analysis had difficulties as well, as some aspects of the designs were left unresolved. Since
projects had to be analyzed in both architectural and engineering terms, students would have to make
assumptions of how unresolved aspects of the projects could be specified. This particular aspect of the
assignment turned out to be pedagogically very fruitful due to its challenging of the projects: Cross-
disciplinary scrutiny would make any weaknesses of the original designs evident. Some would have
performance problems in terms of excess energy use or discomfort. These flaws were perhaps to be
expected, since the projects had not hitherto been elaborated with these performance parameters in mind,
and some international students were unfamiliar with these aspects of environmental design in a northern
European setting.
“Excellent projects will demonstrate how architecture and engineering may create a fertile common ground.
Architecture may use engineering issues to create principles of formal and material architectural expression,
1016
while it is also very possible that architectural ideas may push engineering towards creative solutions.
Creativity in tackling and resolving design issues in both architectural and engineering terms will be
rewarded.”
Once projects were selected and analyzed and students began to imagine strategies and interventions of
transformation of the projects. The matrix of multiple ecologies could be said to oblige students to analyze
and re-evaluate the given project on 16 different combinations of parameters. In that sense, it forces the
‘room for design’ to open again, and the already stabilized projects are in a sense back in the more liquid
state of the design-process, where all of the parameters meet in yet another round of iterative design-work.
Figure 8: Using the matrix to conceptualize interventions addressing multiple ecologies. (Naujalyte et al. 2013).
Ben had based his first proposal for the urban settlement on a metaphor of the building as a body with two
distinct different features: ‘spine’ and ‘organs’, also expressing a closely knit mix of public and private
purposes; of dwellings and of workplaces. The ‘spine’ was long buildings with large, general spaces for
office-purposes. They were designed with close relations to the adjacent bio-swales. The swales were the
main organizing features in the master-plan that the students had carried out in common in the beginning
of the semester.
On top of the spines where then placed dwellings in the form of the boxes, that Ben named ‘organs’, since
they had all their supplies from the spine below. The boxes differed in size, and the composition of them on
the top of the spine provided for very intimate spaces between them, providing intimate and small-scale
shared, common spaces alongside with a strong sense of privacy.
When the new team re-opened the project, they quickly identified which of the project’s features were
relevant in which parts of the matrix, and made small diagrams to analyze the goals and strategies for the
work. As they started to breed ideas for the renovation on the basis of this initial analysis, they also
considered the life-span of the new features they introduced, by holding them against the notion of
‘Shearing Layers’. Thus, after the renovation, the building comes up with a kind of conscious approach to
how to administrate and live with its own ‘multiple ecologies’.
Though both scales and ecologies were simplified by addressing programmatic requests such as urban
densification, shared space allocation and specific environmental performance indicators, and the scales
were less fine grained and specific than the shearing layers, the resulting matrix was not a two-dimensional
1017
reductive ontology of sustainable design or a sustainability certification system, version ultralight.

Reminding the students of the shearing layers’ possible double functionality regulating spatial scales, scales
as different metabolic rates of material resource flows and scales as durations and intensities of social
patterns, environmental and energy exchanges, the matrix could be used to create depth in both space and
time.
Figure 9: Urban solar studies studying seasonal changes in radiation leading to modification of window shape
and shading (Naujalyte et al. 2013).
Asking the students to make explicit their disciplinary design concerns, explaining why they thought a
specific design issue was important, and demonstrate what means and methods they thought could aid in
creatively resolving it, the students were practically instructed in knowledge creation through transferring
tacit knowledge in one discipline to explicit knowledge in the other and vice versa, bridging the gaps of
specialized disciplinary knowledge through social interaction and collaboration (Nonaka 1994).
In the sense that the matrix of multiple ecologies together with the instruction to transfer tacit and explicit
knowledge between the architecture and engineering students was instrumental in guiding students’
discussions and development of creative design concepts, it can be said to serve an ecology of knowledge
as well. Design knowledge is building on research and practical experience from many fields, and the
successful integration between disciplines is an art, a cultivation of ideas, a management of knowledge
resources and perhaps a discipline of knowledge by itself. It is one of the finest aspirations of architects to
master this, though it becomes increasingly difficult due to the continued specialization of knowledge. It
requires collective intelligence, co-thinking, co-creation. And perhaps a redefinition of the modern day
division of labour in architecture and engineering as separate identities.
CONCLUSION
Based on the discussions of the jury giving feedback and assessing the projects in the end, projects could
loosely be identified as projects with either generic formal expressions or with more formally expressive
architecture. It was found that formally expressive architecture was generally more difficult to transform
than more generically shaped projects, due to a certain fragility observed, when the original concept was
analysed and transformed by a subsequent generation of designers reinterpreting it with new design
intentions. On the technical side, not all projects would exhibit a full cross disciplinary integration of design
issues. Establishing low-energy performance turned out to be very difficult in some projects, and future zero
energy or carbon standards well-nigh impossible, pointing to the need of further cultivating cross
disciplinary design culture. Complexity will continue to increase, as the focus is likely to change from energy
efficiency to environmental impacts over the life cycles of the built environment.
The idea of letting students imagine the passage of time, thinking of how changing needs, continued
urbanization and densification, environmental changes and resource scarcity might affect the projects they
had designed themselves, turned out to be a valuable learning experience, opening up new insights into the
undeclared assumptions and some blind spots of contemporary design culture and education. It is of course
difficult to generalize from a single experiment, involving students from design traditions from around the
world, but cross-disciplinary design bridging the gap between architecture and engineering is a real
challenge.
The best projects were authored by groups of students who had taken great care in sharing knowledge,
making design decisions transparent and justifying their solutions using both qualitative arguments and
quantitative analytical methods, handling multiple ecologies in the design process with great precision. The
winning entries had, although working on projects with different challenges, worked consistently with the
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methodological matrix to ensure consistent relations between architectural spatio-temporal scales in

multiple ecologies, making a case for further exploits, experiments and research in the field of design
methodologies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors want to thank the students from KADK and DTU, Toke Rammer Nielsen, Lotte Bjerregaard
Jensen and Michael de Cederfeldt Simonsen, Mette Lorentzen, Anne Romme and Søren Nielsen for their
contributions to the assignment.
REFERENCES
Allenby, B., 2006. 'The ontologies of industrial ecology?' Prog. Ind. Ecol. Int. Journal, vol. 3, no.
28.doi:10.1504/PIE.2006.010039.
Brand, S., 1994. How buildings learn: What happens after they’re built, Penguin Books, London.
Collinge, C., 1999. 'Self-organisation of society by scale: a spatial reworking of regulation theory', Environ.
Plan. Soc. Space, no. 17, pp. 557 – 574. doi:10.1068/d170557
Eberle, D & Simmendinger, P., 2007. From the city to the house: Eine Entwurfslehre / A design theory, Gta verlag,
Zurich.
Gallopoulos, NE., 2006. 'Industrial ecology: an overview', Prog. Ind. Ecol. Int. Journal, vol. 3, no. 10.
doi:10.1504/PIE.2006.010038
Guattari, F., 1989. 'The three ecologies', New Form, pp. 131–147.
Hagan, S., 2008. Digitalia: Architecture and the digital, the environmental and the avant-garde, 1st edn.
Routledge, London.
Latour, B & Yaneva, A., 2008. 'Give me a gun and I will make all buildings move: An ANT’s view of
architecture', in R Geiser (ed.), Explorations in architecture: Teaching, design, research, Birkhäuser, Basel,
Boston, pp. 80–89.
Lotz, K., 2008. Architectors - specific architectural competencies, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of
Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark.
McDonough + partners, 2009. 'Metabolism: Cradle to cradle', in K Kjeldsen, MJ Holm, & PE Tøjner, (eds.),
Green architecture for the future, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, pp. 102–107.
McLuhan, M & Lapham, LH., 1994. Understanding media: the extensions of man, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Naujalyte, M, Treherne, J, Bojesen-Kofoed, S, Da Costa Carneiro, A, Koza, C & Larsen, J., 2013. URBANIA |
Responsible living in adaptable buildings - transformation of Ben Allnatt’s project.
Nonaka, I., 1994. 'A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation', Organ. Sci. no. 5, pp. 14–37.
Postman, N., 1970. 'The reformed english curriculum', in AC Eurich, High School 1980: The Shape of the Future
in American Secondary Education, Pitman Pub. Corp, New York.
Robbert, A., 2011. Nature, media, and knowledge: A transdisciplinary study of the nature and impact of
ecological research in science, culture, and philosophy, California Institute of Integral Studies.
Sattrup, PA., 2009. 'Foster + partners. Interview with Stefan Behling and Gerard Evenden', in K Kjeldsen, MJ
Holm & PE Tøjner (eds.), Green architecture for the future, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, pp. 49–55.
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Sattrup, PA., 2012. Sustainability - energy optimization -daylight and solar gains, Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts School of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Copenhagen.
Sattrup, PA & Schipull Kauschen, J., 2013. Nordic built challenge - environmental design methodology.
Sattrup, PA & Strømann-Andersen, J., 2011. 'A methodological study of environmental simulation in
architecture and engineering. Integrating daylight and thermal performance across the urban and building
scales', Proceedings of the Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design, Presented at the
SimAUD 2011, Boston.
Sattrup, PA & Strømann-Andersen, J., 2013. 'Building typologies in Northern European cities: Daylight, solar
access, and building energy use', J. Archit. Plan. Res. no. 30, pp. 56–76.
Yaneva, A., 2005. 'Scaling up and down extraction trials in architectural design', Soc. Stud. Sci. no. 35, pp. 867–
894. doi:10.1177/0306312705053053.
1020
THE HELSINKI SEASIDE QUARTER OF SUSTAINABLE BUILDING TYPES

em.Prof. Esko Kahri, ArkOpen, Finland, esko.kahri@arkopen.fi
Cooperating Architects: Talli /Pia Ilonen, ArkOpen / Juha Kämäräinen, Petri Viita
Developer, Owner: SATO Corporation /Jouko Kuusela, Hannu Korhonen, Maarit Tuomainen
Building Contractor: SRV Company /Project managers Juha Leivonen, Janne Sihvonen
Abstract
Medium density housing has in Finland been lately estimated as the best solution both in terms of quality and
energy use. But new urban areas lack social interaction, don’t meet up with residents’ values and are rigid for
changes. Improvement requires new building types with adaptability to create a versatile urban quarter. Studies
of this theme started in 2007 and a good location was found in the former Helsinki harbour area. The City
application was approved and the research and design projects started. Building work was finished by the end of
2013. The Housing types were 1. The social Gallery House with 77 small combinable flats for rent around a 5-6
floors high inside court with a glazed roof, 2. The Family Block, 6 floors and 45 owner-occupied reasonably priced
family apartments, which are open for different uses without structural changes, 3. Town Houses in two three-
floor buildings, 11 apartments with courtyard, roof terraces and many user selections. The whole quarter´s
technical systems, services and parking are under the common courtyard. Outcomes of the project are
encouraging. Versatility and customer fitted housing types improved apartments, common spaces and social
environment. Previous research work gave solutions for family housing, especially for small apartments. The
building process was based on prefabricated structural elements and the cost level was normal. The demand for
flats was lively; almost all apartments except the town houses are occupied. Residents moved in Jan 2014. A
feedback survey of both housing blocks has been implemented: the resident satisfaction was high.
Fig 1: View from north: Gallery Block in front, Family Block in back, Town Houses between.
Keywords: social versatility, adaptability, sustainability, urban building types.
INTRODUCTION
Medium density building has been some years back found to be the best premise for housing in Finland. The
research project ‘Urban Happiness’ studied among other things resident satisfaction in reference to building
density (Broberg-Kyttä 2010). The misconception that low building density would result in a high quality
living environment was refuted in a convincing way:
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Fig 2: Inhabitant´s quality experience of environment as a function of density.
The building density in the Helsinki Kalasatama area is slightly above 100 apartments/hectare and is
consequently in the ideal density area. Below and above this density all perceived quality experiences fall
rather quickly. Another important line of research is the use of energy. In this field, important results
(Wahlgren 2010) were lately published. They show massive long term energy benefits for dense, urban
housing:
Fig 3: Long term energy consumption in different housing area types.

Results have been combined for the housing project use by the authors (Kahri 2011).
The town planning

The project is in a new Helsinki housing area ‘Kalasatama’ (The Fish Harbour), where a large shoreline area
was made available when the harbour moved away. The City of Helsinki gives the following description:
“One of the largest urban development projects in Helsinki is in the process of expanding to link up with the
central city area. Seaside locations that used to be industrial and harbour areas will gradually transform into
a city district where homes, services, jobs and culture are all close by. The area’s shoreline will be open to
1022
everyone. For the city, the multiple decades of construction will require careful coordination and new
operating practices.
The construction has begun south of the Eastern Fairway and will proceed radially towards north and south.
Planning and construction will be steered throughout the lengthy construction period, so that Kalasatama
can continue functioning as a place to live and work in and travel through… Construction and site
arrangements will be managed so that construction traffic, lot and street construction, storage and parking
cause as little disturbance as possible. Another important task is to ensure effective communication for the
residents and for project partners… Use has been made of environmental artwork and temporary
environments to create more pleasant surroundings during construction work. The first of these temporary
arrangements appeared in spring 2010 with the opening of seaside promenades lined with a range of
activities during the summer months.
Residential construction began in 2011. The area will consist of apartments for around 2,700 residents, as
well as a school, two day care centres, a hotel and an office building. A number of connected townhouses
will be constructed in addition to the high-rise blocks” (Text and pictures from Helsinki web sites March
2014).
Fig 4: East view 2013, quarter most right - North view in 10 years after finishing the center.
The design coordination

The initiative for this project was made by the author of this paper through the developer. The author was
also responsible for the design coordination. The key idea was to create new adaptable housing types for
varied urban customer groups and to combine them into a versatile urban quarter. This aspiration was
based on the increased criticism, stating that the common building and apartment types compromise living
qualities for both families and small households and are too rigid for future changes.
Helsinki City planners were conferred with about the proposed housing types. After discussions the town
plan for the quarter was tailored alongside with the building designs. The City supported the project by
allowing extra floor area, which made the project more economical. At this stage the design coordination
was handled by the ArkOpen team. The buildings have three different architects, but the technical design
for all buildings was done by same engineers. The quarter consists of the Gallery House for mainly small
apartments, the Family Block for adapting apartments and Town Houses in between. In the middle is a
common courtyard, and under it the parking garage. The final housing floor area is 10 200 sqm, 145
apartments and parking places for 97 cars under the common courtyard.
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Fig 5: The Quarter: South facades / Section / Garage and basement floor.
The previous research
The main goal was to improve building types for the main customer groups to create a versatile urban
quarter. The plots except town houses are City owned and rented for 50 years. The base for the gallery idea
is the urgent need for small flats in Helsinki: ¾ of the current demand comes from single or two people´s
households. The Town Houses inside the urban quarter was the town planner´s goal; the apartments are
intended for demanding customers. The Family Blocks have a regulated price based on plot renting
conditions. The research background was an earlier publication (Talli 2006) about flexible family apartments
and based on a traditional urban housing model with large, universally usable rooms.
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Fig 6: Main development themes and features in the three building types of the quarter.
The Gallery House research started in the ‘Space’ R&D program in 2008 (ArkOpen / Kahri 2010). The
triangular form is to improve the natural lighting of flats and decrease the building volume. The main issues
were installation flexibility, combinable flats, reasonable cost level and fire safety caused by the gallery
solution. The non-bearing walls between one and two room flats makes it possibile to combine them. Wet
zones are located near the entrances with vertical ducts outside the flats to facilitate renovation and also
give sound insulation between flats. Fire safety is ensured with two exit directions, sprinklers and smoke
ventilators. The energy consumption of this building is lower than usual. The sqm-cost for building is on a
normal level compared to the tradional apartment block.
The Town Houses in the area are based on town plan goals presenting in Finland, a rarely used building
type. The apartments are on three floors and have their own courtyard, roof terraces and access from street
and parking level. The solutions have been developed in previous Open Building projects by the architect.
Originally the goal was to build these apartments on a raw space basis, where each buyer manages the
inside finishing individually. But the developer wanted the apartments fully finished, however with a range
of choices for the customer. Each home has an individual facade and alternative floor plan lay-outs and three
interior design style alternatives with high standard materials and equipment.
The Family Block is based on a research requisitioned by the City Planning Department (Talli 2006). One of
main themes in this pioneering study was a traditional Helsinki housing type with large adaptable rooms. In
this kind of apartments flexibility is accomplished through space solutions: the rooms open onto each other
but can also be separated to different zones (Fig5/low right). The apartment lay-out is formed by nine
squares: the private rooms are situated in the corners, between them are the family rooms, which are
connected to all rooms. The arrangement opens up possibilities for different kinds of uses and inhabitant
groups. The principle can be applied to different apartment sizes as shown in the picture.
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Fig 7: The quarter view in building stage south-west from the sea.
The Gallery House

Architect: Sketch stage the ArkOpen team, implementation stage Petri Viita
In this 5-6 floor block 77 small flats are grouped around an inside court with a glazed roof. The building type
is for adaptable small flats. The shape of the building is ideal for the Nordic climate, because it increases
natural light both in common spaces and flats. According to light calculations the triangle form adds sun
hours in the summer by 20% and in the winter by 40% compared to buildings with parallel sides. The form
also diminishes the volume and outer surface of the block and thus lowers heating and building costs. On
the ground floor is the gallery meeting court, laundry and bicycle storage, in the basement on parking level
are storages and technical spaces such as for the automatic waste collection system. On the roof floor there
are common saunas, a club room and roof terraces with sea views. The rental flats are offered in three
interior design styles.
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Fig 8: Gallery House floor plans: left the entrance hall, right five normal floors.
Fig 9: Gallery court views show the brightness and social athmosphere inside the house compared to the usual
block of flats with staircases.
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Fig 10: The view to east shows Town House couryard facades, Gallery House in the back.
The Town Houses

Architect: Juha Kämäräinen / ArkOpen
Two smaller scale buildings with 11 apartments form the north and south side of the quarter courtyard. The
use of this housing type in this urban area is based on the town plan. Town houses present in Finland a
rarely used building type developed in previous projects by the architect. They increase the versatility and
sun light on the courtyards and bring important medium urban scale to the area. The apartments are on
three floors and have their own courtyard, roof terraces and access from street and parking level. Each
apartment has an individual façade and alternative floor plan lay outs. The Town Houses are for sale for
demanding customers and include their own plot and two garage parking places. The apartments have high
standard materials and equipment, which are selectable from three interior design styles.
Fig 11: Section across the quarter showing garage and town house situation.
The original goal was to build the town houses on a raw space basis, where each buyer takes care of the
inside building and finishing. Unfortunately the developer did not go along with this idea because it was
said to complicate the building contract for the whole quarter.
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Fig 12: Town House: the view from living room to kitchen.
Fig 13: The Town House typical floor plans: Entrance / Bedroom / Roof terrace floor.
The family Block

Architect : Pia Ilonen / Architecture & Design Talli
This waterfront building of the quarter consists of 6 floors with 45 owner-occupied apartments with
regulated price, where the developer only gets a fee on top of the contractor price. This building has
influences from the urban traditional Helsinki housing with large adaptable rooms as described before. The
floor plan allows many ways to live for different family types without any structural changes. In this
application of the principle large flexible apartments are located in the middle of the building and smaller
flats are in the north and south wings. On the roof floor there are common saunas, a club room and roof
terraces with sea views. The basement with storage and technical facilities connects directly to the
underground garage below the common courtyard.
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Fig 14: The south street façade from right: Family Block - Town Houses – Gallery Block. The next buildings in the
back are by other developers and architects.
Fig 15: Family Block floorplans: left the couryard level with studio apartments, right the normal floor with large
apartments in middle.
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Fig 16: The courtyard view to the west, toward the Family Block.
Fig 17: Interior view of a large flexible family apartment.

Closer information about projects of the block has been published by authors (Kahri… 2011)
The apartments and residents

In the whole project the distribution of apartement sizes was given by the developer. The three housing
types serve mainly a special inhabitant group, but part of flats are available also for other groups. This gives
social diversity in every building, but makes possible the specialization of housing types. The principle gives
significant functional, technical and economical benefits. This is a different starting point from the usual
housing block, which includes all flat types. It is hard to meet with the wishes and the living ways of varied
residents with one building solution.
The Gallery House apartments are mainly small and for rent on the free market. These flats were occupied
quickly, in which the gallery attraction had some part. The Family Block is owner occupied and the price
level was regulated. The demand in this area was so lively, that residents were chosen by lottery. The Town
Houses are for sale with own plot for demanding customers; their selling seems to be a challenging business
in Finland. The next figure with apartment size statistics shows the rational task of the different building
types for housing.
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Fig 18. Distribution of the quarter´s 133 apartments according size in different buildings.
Fig 19. Basic resident information about both blocks of flats March 2014.
1032
Resident’s feedback survey

The inhabitants have moved in January 2014 and resident surveys for both buildings were carried out a few
months later. The main results are given below with diagrams and a selection of residents’ comments The
average age in the 22 answers from the Family Block was 47 years, the age groups were quite evenly
distributed and the average household size was 2,4 persons. The Gallery Block´s 113 inhabitants’ average
household size was 1,8 persons and average age 29 years, but all age groups were represented. An
encouraging thing to find out was the active use of the gallery court especially by older people and young
children as shown in figure 9, even though their number in the block is small.
The resident feedback was carried out by SATO Company with their survey method, which has been used for
thousands of apartments over ten years. The main results of resident answers are shown below with a
diagram, which concentrates only on the features of the apartments and the common spaces. There was a
special problem in the Family Block answers, because some factors caused answer distortion. This fault was
eliminated by comparing answers to questions about the same object; thereby the distortion rate was
clearly noticeable. For comparison there was not enough time to study current reference housing projects,
but an older whole year’s statistics was available with same apartment questions. Those ratings are
presented as indicative comparison in the same diagram below.
Fig 20. Resident’s evaluation of overall satisfaction is high and almost the same in both new housing types, but
apartment´s shared ratings differ (SATO Resident Surveys). Factors like renting / owning and economical
considerations affect the answers.
Resident’s comments
Interesting feedback information is the free comments, which are below as a resumé.
The Gallery Block
Very positive (7): The design of the house is excellent, the open gallery is really good and special / The gallery is
special and the roof window a fine idea / A stylish housing project, the gallery entrance gives a good quality
feeling, which continues to the apartment and other spaces / The apartment is good design within the limited
space / For once a small flat, which is easy to furnish….The use of colors is refined / 2 MORE
Positive (10): Well functioning small flat… / Sensible solution / A nice Housing project / Succeeded well / My
apartment is nice / 5 MORE
Positive and critic (6): The floorplan is nice, some furnishing problems / Good floorplan, more cupboards, better
materials / Relatively good design,…a bigger elevator would be useful when moving in / The whole is good, better
finishing materials wished for / 2 MORE
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Negative (7): Poor material quality / Storage, electric socket placement / The courtyard is rugged / Soundproofing
lacks / Kitchen design / 2 MORE
The Family Block

Very positive (7): A really wonderful floorplan. Looked good on paper, but after moving in one understands how
good it is for us / The housing project has been designed and built very well, I am very satisfied / The wholeness
and the apartment has a really functional feeling / The floorplan is suitably spacious / 3 MORE
Positive (6): The design has been done with sense, furnishing advice hoped for … / Apartment floor area is well
utilized, more cupboards / OK except for some details…general picture clean / 3MORE
Positive and negative (6): Floorplan is different in a nice way, common spaces on the roof a fine solution, storage
design is unsuccesful / Apartments closets are puny, lots of daylight is positive / Courtyard is good, storage
solutions bad / 3 MORE
Negative (4): Shortage of storage, windows too large, information and detail complaints (2) poor soundproofing
(1)
OUTCOMES AND CONCLUSIONS
The main goals and results of this paper can be defined as follows:
The versatile urban quarter to improve housing was rather successful. Medium density housing has been
found the best premise in Finland to create ‘urban happiness’ and long term energy efficiency. Because most
housing quarters in the whole future harbour area are roughly the same size and shape, the results of this
project will be comparable.
Specialization of different housing types for most important customer groups is one of key pinciples. It gives
healthy starting points both for small and family apartments and brings significant technical and cost
benefits to building solutions. However, different customer groups should be more clearly defined before
general and specified conclusions can be drawn.
The design coordination was rather successful: one architect was responsible of developer and research
contacts and common ideas; other architects are main designers of each different building. This principle
keeps the main goals clear and brings natural diversity and identity to the block. Technical design should be
done by the same group of engineers to keep good coordination to the contractors.
Inhabitant influence based on former researchs, which gave tools to the design and convinced officials
about new solutions. Developer´s goals were changing during the design period and there was no
inhabitant contact during the design process, but much information from former resident influenced
projects. Later the residents’ feedback by SATO survey gave good satisfaction results, but profound
comparisons with common building types are still needed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
More information about this housing project, resident survey and photographs will be after the conference
available web sites: www.arkopen.fi/kalasatama
REFERENCES
Broberg, A & Kyttä, M., ‘SoftGIS in planning for the socially sustainable environment
SB10 Finland – Sustainable Community’, BuildingSMART Conference 2010,
Finnish Association of Civil Engineers RIL, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
Kahri, E, Enkovaara, E, Anttonen, S, Viita, P, Ilonen, P & Kämäräinen, J., 2011. Asukasnäkökulma
kaupunkiasumiseen (The Resident View to Urban Living), Rakennustieto Oy (Building Information Ltd) Finland.
Talli, O, Ilonen, P, Lukander, M& Niska, A., 2006. Helsinkiläinen KerrostaloAtlas 2006 (The Helsinki Housing
Atlas),Helsinki City / City Planning Office 2006
Wahlgren, I., Sustainable built environment – assessment of eco-efficiency in urban planningSB10 Finland –
Sustainable Community, BuildingSMART Conference 2010,
Finnish Association of Civil Engineers RIL, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
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LIFESTYLE ADAPTATIONS IN MULTICULTURAL STUDENT HOUSING – CASE STUDIES IN JAPAN AND IN

USA
Dr. Arno Suzuki, Kyoto University, Japan, arnosuzuki@gmail.com
Abstract
Accelerated mobility necessitates mixed culture living environments in nations where the majority of citizens are
of a single-ethnic group and speak the same language. These countries, including Japan, are under great pressure
to provide living environments that accommodate diverse culture. Originally multi-ethnic nations such as USA
also have remaining issues in true equality of different ethnic groups and religions.
In Japan, traditional housing had a lot of shared spaces, but the trend after the WWII was toward a higher level of
privacy. Recently, however, shared space or community space has become revalued for educational purposes and
sustainability. And international students from other cultures prefer to adapt traditional Japanese ways of living
or community spaces to make the best of the limited size and equipments of their rooms. Even the lack of privacy
may become a tool for encouraging communication. Coexistence of different cultures in a shared space
sometimes helps the effective use of limited resources.
In the international student housing survey in USA, cultural lifestyles and the Anglo-Saxon oriented planning
theory were conflicting. We observed that minority lifestyles were still being ignored after years of multi-cultural
living, although they may give us good suggestions for community building and sustainable living. In comparable
cases, simpler room plans seemed to allow more freedom for residents to use their apartment to maintain their
cultural lifestyle. We also observed, however, that cultural lifestyles have been rapidly disappearing in
globalization in the last decade or two.
These are only a limited number of case studies, and there may be different types of cultural conflicts and
situations in other places. These cases, however, have suggested that cultural lifestyles are worth revaluing.
Therefore, this article opens discussions on how other people have been accommodating diversity and how we
should plan the multi-cultural living environment in the future.
Keywords: diversity, lifestyle, tradition, community, planning.
INTRODUCTION
“ERASMUS” and “ERASMUS MUNDUS” started in Europe in 1987 and 2003 respectively. “100,000 Foreign
Students Action Plan” and “300,000 International Student Action Plan” started in Japan in 1983 and 2004
respectively. Other student mobility programs followed suit all over the world, and today we see many
international students at campuses. In these newly diversified countries, administrators at higher education
institutions are struggling to minimize cultural conflicts especially in the living environment where different
lifestyle matters. On the other hand, countries like USA, Canada, Australia and UK have more experience in
accepting international students as well as having a long history of accepting immigrants. Although the
legal and social systems in these preceding countries are more established to accommodate cultural
diversity, but there are still some misunderstandings, conflicts and virtual discrimination with deep roots.
TERMINOLOGY
Types of nations
We use two categories for discussion purpose although we are aware that things are not that simple. The
first category is ‘homogeneous nations’, which originally were almost-homogeneous countries but have
started accepting diversity in the last couple of decades. The second category is ‘multiethnic nations’, which
have a longer history of having a multi-ethnic population both on campus and in the entire country. In this
paper, we case studied Japan to make a representative for ‘homogeneous nation’, and USA for ‘multiethnic
nation’.
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Types of international student housing

‘International student housing’ refers to both collective housing specifically designed for international
students and regular student dormitories which coincidentally have a big ratio of international students. In
this paper, we call the former ‘international houses’ as they are typically called in USA, and the latter
‘international dormitories’.
Types of students
‘International students’ in this paper refers to those who recently came from other country to study.
‘Domestic students’ refers to not just a citizen of that country but also refers to foreigners who grew up
there; e.g. permanent residents, immigrants and their descendents. ‘Resident advisors’ a.k.a. ‘resident
assistants’ refers to students who are assigned to help residents at international student housings, paid or
non-paid, international or domestic.
CASE STUDY IN JAPAN
Background
According to many visitors, cities in Japan are clean and comfortable, and most Japanese people are
amicable and hospitable. According to long-term residents including international students, however, life in
Japan is not that easy because the living environment there is not ready to accommodate diverse lifestyles.
More than 95 percent of native citizens are of the same biological origin, having similar customs in each
region, and most people only speak Japanese. Local apartments are designed by Japanese standards for
Japanese lifestyles even though many of them appear to be westernised on the surface. Some landlords
discriminate foreigners partially because of their fear for the different lifestyle and partially because of
financial concerns. The Japanese custom of requiring a local guarantor and advanced payment of ‘key
money’ in rental contracts has been a big obstacle for foreigners, although the situation is improving for
students since schools began to provide ‘institutional guarantee’. The national and regional governments
are trying to accommodate foreigners in their society (Cabinet Secretariat 2012), yet they do not know how
to do this because of the different culture and lifestyle. Unfortunately, some locals discriminate certain
groups of ‘foreigners’ or tend to be judgemental (Ministry of Justice 2012).
Methods
The author’s research team visited 40 international student dormitories, interviewed 38 staff members and
158 residents, and conducted a written survey with 200 international students during 2010-2012 (Suzuki et
al. 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010).
Observations in multi-cultural living

Language is not really a big issue when it comes to students because they quickly adopt the local language
(Suzuki 2010). Almost all housing managers complained, however, that many international students did not
observe the local rules of daily life such as garbage disposal. Some international students are also said to
make common spaces untidy or dirty, but it depends more on the individuals. The two biggest complaints
from international students are about the small size of their room and the lack of privacy (Suzuki 2010).
Sound insulation between private rooms is typically weak in dormitory layouts with shared kitchen, bath and
living room. Noise from neighbouring rooms is the most typical complaints in student housing (Suzuki
2010). It seems that the allowance of noise is different from culture to culture, thus it is difficult to set a rule
that satisfies everyone. Some people also have different time schedules than other cultures. For example,
the time of dinner for European is much later than that of Americans and Asians. Some people take shower
in the morning and others do in the evening. Such time differences may become a cause of conflict when
noise and other disturbance are an issue. In some cases with shared baths or shared kitchens, however, the
cultural time difference effectively dispersed users and helped to ease congestions within their small
facilities.
Adapting to the small room size

In Japan, studio apartments called ‘one room mansion’ are typical for student housing in both private
apartments and college dormitories. It usually comes with a room of 10-20 square meters including a bed
and a kitchen in the same space, and a separate all-in-one bathroom called ‘unit bath’ of 1-2 square meters
(Figure 1). Studying, relaxing, dining, and sleeping all in the same room used to be normal in traditional
Japanese houses until the idea of ‘dining kitchen’ appeared in the 1950’s after the theory of 'separation of
1036
eating and sleeping quarters in small houses' (Nishiyama 1942). The mixed-use or flexible use of rooms was
an effective way of making the most of the limited space in Japan. Semi-hard ‘tatami’ straw mats and the
foldable ‘futon’ mattress enabled such a use of rooms. These items have also been disappearing since the
western influence in Japan. Now we have a fixed western style bed in the same small bedroom of 10-13
square meters, which leaves no room for other activities than sleeping. Therefore, some international
students remove the furnished bed from their dorm rooms and sleep on the floor, and others choose a
traditional Japanese room with tatami mats to begin with. In this case, the supposed demerits sublime to
merits as well: The limited space in outdated buildings consequently helps young foreign students to
understand the merits of traditional wisdom. Some American students of convenient appliances noted that
they learned to live with limited resource while in Japan (Suzuki 2004).
Figure 1: Typical ‘one room mansion’ or a single room in Japanese dormitories; sleep and study area (left), private
kitchenette area (middle), and private ‘unit-bath’ (right).
Kitchen issues in Japan

In the all-in-one room of the ‘one room mansion’, there is only a small kitchenette that is usually not
functional. Designers of such student apartments do not suppose the resident will seriously cook at home
probably because many Japanese students living by themselves used to eat out. Recently, however, more
and more students cook and eat alone at home probably because of their tight budget of living expenses
(Seikyo 2013). In our survey, more than 75% of international students either always or mostly cook at home,
which is especially the case for Chinese students. But the kitchenette in the Japanese studio apartment is too
small for Chinese cooking. They also prefer to have a separate kitchen, even though many Japanese people
today prefer ‘open kitchen’ style (Figure 2). Chinese students living in bigger apartments elaborate by using
furniture, such as cupboards, to make a wall to separate the kitchen. Students in dormitories may cook in
their shared kitchen, which is usually is large and fully equipped. Many students pointed out that their
shared kitchen is a good community space for getting to know other residents in the dormitory. In this case,
the supposed demerits sublime to merits as well: Shared facilities and insufficient private equipments may
have been forced by the limited space or budget, but they help to foster a community as a result.
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Figure 2: ‘Open kitchen’ style popular in Japan -living, studying, sleeping in one room (left);
Chinese students by all means separate their cooking space from living area (right, 4 images).
Privacy
From 1980’s to the end of the last century, university administrators have been trying to provide
international students with more privacy by providing all-equipped-in-one rooms for international student
housing (Tada & Asano 2005). However, problems such as isolation, mental illness and illegal residency seem
to happen more often in self-contained apartments with more privacy. Therefore, the recent trend is more
towards providing safety and good human relations. Some universities even provide old-fashioned double
rooms shared by pairs of international and domestic students for educational purposes. A shared unit with a
couple of private single rooms, a shared bathroom and a shared dining-kitchen is somewhat typical. ‘Soft
privacy’ provided by connected rooms, with a curtain or a sliding door between each resident, may have
derived from the paper partitions of traditional Japanese houses. Students living in such shared rooms or
connecting rooms testify that living with someone else is difficult, but when they get to discuss how to share
the room, they understand each other better (APU 2007). Opening and closing the boundary, in the case of
connecting rooms, could produce some kind of complex feeling, requiring them to ask things like ‘May I
open?’ or ‘May I close?’ in order to avoid misunderstandings. Such a moment creates verbal communication
and helps to break the ice between the roommates, according to some interviewed residents. In this case as
well, the idea of shared space and facilities, which originally resulted from the limitation of resources,
consequently works educationally and helps inter-cultural understanding.
Localization for internationalization

In the field survey of international student housings in Japan, we observed that students are quick to adapt
to new living environments such as small space, shared facilities and various definitions of 'privacy'. We also
observed that such limitations and cultural differences might help the residents to accept the limited
resource, encourage communication and foster a better multi-cultural community (Figure 3). Learning from
these examples, it may be better to positively utilize the local particularity, or traditional style, in future
planning of multi-cultural living environment, instead of blindly imposing the uniformity everywhere.
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Figure 3: Students gathering in a community space in a dormitory (left); ‘kotatsu’, or Japanese heated low table
on the floor, preferred by international students over sofas (right).
CASE STUDY IN USA
Background
USA started as an immigrants’ nation, which went through many inter-ethnicity conflicts. After the efforts to
solve these problems for years through civil rights movements, they established a legally ‘equal society’ in
1960’s. Now the law strictly prohibits discriminating against anyone because of his or her property or
background such as language, ethnicity, gender, religion or physical conditions. Laws such as the American
Disability Act, or ADA, strictly protect the human rights of physically challenged people within their society,
especially in public spaces. There are, however, still some people who discriminate others consciously or
subconsciously, as often reported in the news or seen on an everyday basis. In architectural planning, the
influence of Anglo-Saxon culture is still dominant, even though citizens of different ethnic groups have
different lifestyles (Suzuki 1997).
Methods
Student housing of two internationally renowned public universities in California were surveyed. Those
housing complexes were not specifically planned international students, but almost half of the residents
were international with as many as forty different nationalities. One of them went through a complete
redevelopment with drastic change during 1998-2008 (Suzuki, 2012). We conducted a survey in 1996-1997
and in 2008, before and after the redevelopment respectively.
Conflicts observed in multi-cultural living

As is the case in Japan, noise was the biggest complaint in the student housings which we surveyed. Though
newer housings have improved their insulation, and the managements hear less complaints about the noise,
there seemed to be another factor in those complaints which was not often observed in Japan’s case; racial
discrimination by physical appearance. Even though the law guarantees the equality of all people, the law
cannot control being judgemental. For example, courtyard apartments are supposed to create the best
sense of community according to the Anglo-Saxon theory of house planning, but if one is not blended in the
community, the situation may become worse. Such cases were often observed such as an African American
family feeling uncomfortable in a Caucasian dominant community, or vice versa.
Kitchen issues in USA

For undergraduates, dormitories with ‘room and board’ are still dominant in USA, and cooking habits do not
become an issue very often. For graduate and family students, however, a different custom of kitchen use
sometimes produces a cultural conflicts; for example Chinese cooking requires more oil, heat and
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ventilation. Some Chinese residents have to change their cooking style, while others continue to cook in
their own style and get complaints from their neighbours or receive warnings from their management
concerning fires. Japanese residents are said to use, or waste, more water in their kitchen. They also receive
complaints from their roommates for leaving dishes and kitchen equipments wet. Smell from kitchen may
also become an issue; for example, Indians may receive complaints for their spices, and Koreans for their
kimchee. For different customs, compromising to some extent may be necessary. Some residents, however,
learn to cook foreign food from their neighbours and become interested in foreign culture from there.
Laundry issues
Many Asians and some Europeans have a custom of hanging laundry outside in public for drying purposes,
but it may not be acceptable for most Americans. Westerners care more about how their neighbourhood
appears, whereas Asians tend to be more practical (Figure 4). Rental apartments for students do not usually
come with space for washing and drying machines, and it is typical for residents to go to coin operated
laundry rooms. In student housing, however, many people wish to have a washing machine at their home
because of the time and budget constraints. In older days, everyone had washing machine wherever they
liked. In 1960’s, washer and dryer space had been provided in apartments. It was eliminated in the new
development, and then we found many international students installed a portable washing machine in their
bathroom against the housing contract (Figure 5). Using a dryer is customary in USA nowadays, and many
Americans think that hanging laundry is visually disturbing. However, sun drying was a common practice
there in previous generations, according to some Americans. Energy saving is a global goal, and utilizing the
free and sustainable solar energy seems to be a matter of course for some people.
Figure 4: Chinese quarter with laundry hung outside before redevelopment (1996, left), planned aesthetic
landscaping after redevelopment (2008, right).
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Figure 5: washing machine outside apartment in 1940’s apartments (left)

washer and dryer space provided in kitchen in 1960’s apartments (middle)illegally installed portable washer in
new 2000’s apartments (right).
Enclosure
Enclosure seems to give many people a sense of security, and it was recommended in some popular house
planning theories (Marcus & Sarkissian 1988). In multi-cultural housing as we surveyed, however, less
interaction outside the enclosure was observed. In cases where each apartment has a private yard, the
common courtyard was less actively used. According to a preceding quantitative survey on one of the
surveyed housing (Amam 2007) and to many other management staff and residents interviewed, interaction
among the entire community became less active after the redevelopment (Figure 6).
Figure 6: a courtyard after (left) and before redevelopment (right).
Shoes inside apartments

Traditionally speaking, Japanese, Korean and some Scandinavian people take off their shoes inside their
house, or use separate ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ shoes. On the contrary, American, Chinese and central or
southern European people keep their shoes on until they go to bed. The decision seems to derive from the
materials of the floor; you would feel comfortable being bear food when you are on the soft and warm wood
floorings, but need to have shoes on if the floor is made of cold stone. In California, however, most
residential buildings are wooden, and residents are regularly exposed to Asian culture, and more people
started to take off their shoes when entering their house. Students with small toddlers and young children
especially do so because they wish to keep the floor clean. In China nowadays, about 90% of educated urban
residents take of their shoes and use slippers or room-shoes inside. Even though this trend is so clear,
designers of the surveyed housing did not prepare any space to change or store shoes. As a result, shoes
were randomly left behind outside the room in many apartments simply because there is no room for ‘shoes
leaving’ (Figure 7).
Room layouts and patterns of habitation

Before the redevelopment of one of surveyed housings, there were cultural patterns of habitation clearly
observed. 12 years later after the redevelopment, however, such patterns were disappeared completely. The
reason why it happened, even though national and ethnical diversity of population remained the same, is
unknown. It may simply be the different time and level of globalization of the society. The difference in
planning, however, may also have influenced: Before the redevelopment, however, there was only one type
of simple room layout for 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom apartments respectively. Each bedroom
had an almost equal area and character, and they gave users freedom on how they assign and use rooms.
After the redevelopment, there are as many as eleven different types of apartments, with each plan clearly
indicating how spaces in the apartment should be used (Figure 8).
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Figure 7: shoes left inside apartments (left, right), and resident relaxed in slipper (middle).
Figure 8: an example of simpler old plan with equal bedrooms before redevelopment (left),
an example of new plan clearly indicating expected room assignment and use (right).
Cultural patterns of habitation before the redevelopment

In the residents survey in 1996, we observed that 2-bedroom apartments with the exact same room layout
were used in various different ways. At that time, the tendency seemed to be cultural: Chinese families
assigned one room for the husband and the other for the rest of the family because for the husband
succeeding in his studies and thus getting a degree was more important for the family than anything else.
Korean families always keep their living room open with little furniture so that they can invite a large group
of friends, sometimes as many as 30 people at once, and have gatherings. Japanese families were noticeable
for their flexible use of rooms and for not showing any common rules. European families always separated a
child’s room and a parents’ room (Figures 9 & 10). In the survey in 2008 after the redevelopment, there were
much less cultural differences observed (Suzuki 2013).
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Figure 9: Room usages by Chinese and Korean families, surveyed in 1996.
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Figure 10: Room usages by Japanese and European families, surveyed in 1996.
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CONCLUSION
From these surveys, we learned two things: First, limitation of resources can be sublimed to become an
effective tool for community building and sustainable planning. For example, sharing spaces because of the
area limitation encourages communication among residents and even helps inter-cultural understanding.
Second, cultural differences in lifestyle have become smaller and almost invisible in the last couple of
decades, and we can expect international students to adapt to new lifestyles easily. Combining these two
findings, we propose to utilize the architectural resource that we already have in each country, especially the
ones with cultural characteristics. It will not just save some valuable resources but also create a better
international community.
FURTHER DISCUSSIONS
The simple plan seen in the American student housings before the redevelopment somewhat resembles
Japanese ‘kaidan-shitsu-gata’ room plan typically seen in ‘danchi’ or public sector’s apartment complex built
during 1950-1970’s. In such plans, two apartments on each floor share a staircase with entrance doors facing
each other. With this type of plan, each apartment has windows on both sides, which allows good
ventilation as well as giving all bedrooms equality, and therefore making them capable of being assigned
and used in any ways. There are many ‘danchi’ resources in Japan which have come to a crossroads between
demolition and conversion. Some of these apartments have been converted to international student
housing for recycling purpose and we have already seen some successful cases. We may want to consider
utilizing not just these old ‘danchi’ apartments but also some traditional Japanese houses with flexible room
use to accommodate cultural diversity.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Following colleagues collaborated in the research and co-authored prior publications regarding student
housing in Japan;
Dr. Katsuhiko Suzuki, professor, Kyoto Institute of Technology
Dr. Junko Kawai, associate professor, Kyoto University
Dr. Misako Tanaka, associate professor, Osaka Sangyo University
Following classmates collaborated in the research of student housing in USA:

Ms. Kimberly Chen, Mr. Steven Schneemann, Ms. Sarah Shih under supervision of Professor Renee Chow at
University of California, Berkeley
Following administrators at University of Claifornia, Berkeley, contributed to gather information and data
about University Village Albany:
Ms. Tavie Tipton, associate manager, and Mr. Cephas John, housing coordinator
Following people contributed tremendously in data processing;

Mr. Iat Hong Chang, graduate student in architecture, Kyoto University
Dr. Yasushi Suzuki, director, Saraya, Co., Ltd.
Many people whose names cannot be listed in the limited space but contributed a lot to the research by
taking interviews, showing their rooms and so forth.
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REFERENCES
Amam, WL et al., 2007. ‘UC village: Designing courtyards for active use in family housing, CED graduate
school report.
APU, 2007. ‘New APU house extensions fostering multicultural understanding’, Special program, vol.16,
viewed 2 June 2014,
http://www.apu.ac.jp/apuinformation/english/vol16/special/index2.htm.
Cabinet Secretariat, 2012. ‘Gaikokujin tono kyosei shakai jitsugen kentou kaigi’, viewed 2 June 2014,
http://www.cas.go.jp/jp/seisaku/kyousei/index.html.
Marcus, CC & Sarkissian, W., 1988. Housing as if people mattered; Site design guidelines for medium density
family housing, Reprint, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Ministry of Justice, 2012. ‘Gaikokujin no jinken wo soncho shimasho’, viewed 2 June 2014,
http://www.moj.go.jp/JINKEN/jinken04_00101.html.
Nishiyama, U., 1942. ‘Jukyo kukan no youto kousei ni okeru syokushin bunri ron (Separation of Eating and
Sleeping Quarters in Small Houses)’, Journal of Architectural Institute of Japan, vol. 25, pp. 49-55.
Seikyo, 2014. ‘Campus life data 2013 by National Federation of University Co-operative Associations’, viewed
2 June 2014, http://www.univcoop.or.jp/press/life/report.html.
Suzuki, A et al., 2013. ‘Ryugakusei no jutakushikou to sono haikei ni kansuru kenkyu: Chugoku-jin ryugaku-
sei no doukou ni tyakumoku shite’, Journal of Architectural Planning Research, vol. 78, no. 686, pp. 745-754.
Suzuki, A., 2012. ‘Open social housing to accommodate diversity: A case study of the university village
Albany, California, USA, before the redevelopment’, The 18th Open Building International Conference
Proceedings, pp. 608-617.
Suzuki, A et al., 2011. ‘Ryugakusei no jutakushikou to sono haikei ni kansuru kenkyu; Shitsumon-shi chosa
kara’, Reports of Housing Research, vol.6, pp. 247-254.
Suzuki, A & Kawai J., 2012. ‘Kansaiken kokuritu daigaku ryugakusei no jukankyou jittai Chousa’, COISAN
Journal vol. 14, pp. 87-98.
Suzuki, A., 2010. ‘Kokuritsu daigaku ni okeru ryugakusei shukusha seibi no kadai’, COISAN journal, vol. 12, pp.
133-142.
Tada, Y & Asano, H., 2005. ‘Ryugakusei shukusha ni okeru shisetu kuukan no seibi katei’, Architectural Institute
of Japan conference proceedings (Kinki), Planning II, pp. 133-134.
Wikipedia, 2014. ‘Housing in Japan’, viewed 2 June 2014,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_Japan.
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THE CIRCLE MANAGEMENT FOR URBAN BLOCKS
Yang Liu, Dalian University of Technology, China, jiayuan4@sina.com
Abstract
The frequent renovation of urban blocks not only produces a great deal of solid waste, but also cuts off the long-
term development of community culture. Economic, population, consumption capacity and the quantity of
reserve land for future development are all important factors for the phenomenon except building lifetime. For the
lack of prediction of the future space requirements, the developed urban blocks will come to renovation under the
pressure of population and profit. On the other hand, the crowded core area and environmental erosion on the
urban boundary highlight the limits of urban space and aggravate the renovation pressures of the developed
blocks. The temporary space requirements coming from unplanned renovation are also the fact that promotes the
blocks` renovation.
In this article, we try to construct an urban space management which is based on blocks circle, it can be mainly
divided into following steps:
1. Calculate the future space requirement by the growth of population and unit residents space requirement;
2. Set up the classified regulation for urban land base on ecological value and probability of construction, which
can be used to predict the storage of urban space that can be used to develop.
3. Make the circle schedule of blocks renovation based on the lifetime of building and the quantity of developed
blocks, coordinate the action time for constructing, using and demolishing in different blocks.
4. Calculate the volume rates of blocks in different stages, and use the storage space to reduce the peak value in
order to keep suitable space density.
Keywords: building life, space requirements, land grading, land update periodic schedule, livable density.
BACKGROUND
The shortage of urban land supply

The desert area of China has reached 2.64x , which accounts for about 27.4% of total land area. There
are another 3.1x land which has a tendency to desertification, and 99.6% of this land is distributed in
western and northern China (CUI Xiang-hui & LU Qi 2012). But in eastern China, urbanization swallowed
quality farmland every year, which accounts for 1.5% of the total arable land (Luo Qi 2013). At the
same time, Government made rigid policy for holding fast the red line of 180 million mu farmer land from
2006. According to the estimates of MLR, the land out of arable land red line will be depleted until
2020(JIANG Jie, JIA Sha-sha, YU Yong-chuang 2009). The fast urbanization course of China will continued
until about 2040(and the growth of population will continue until 2035. Then all the increase space needs
will be accommodated by renovation of built-up area.(Figure1)
City Construction land 10000ha Arable land 10000ha

2005 2010 2020 2005 2010 2020
Beijing 32.3 34.8 38.17 23.34 22.6 21.47
Tianjin 34.63 37.47 40.34 44.55 44.2 43.73
Shang Hai 24.01 25.9 29.81 27.31 25.8 24.93
Chong Qing 46.78 49.81 54.68 226.27 221.67 217.07
Guang Zhou 12.15 13.08 14.04 13.59 12.83 12.8
Wu Han 13.97 15.66 18.5 34.51 33.83 33.8
Nan Jing 15.73 16.56 17.9 24.56 24.22 23.6
Figure1.The control indicators of land use in some cities of China
Edited according to National Land Use Planning of China (2006-2020)
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The intertwine of urbanization and urban renewal

In the future 10 years, there will be 100 million farmers migrate to the cities (CHEN Ming xing 2010), which
make Chinese cities keeping rapid rate of population. Under the enormous population pressure, the
urbanization was forced to be carried out in two directions----the renovation of built-up area and the
development of new suburban land. Under the condition of limited land supply, the two strategies
constitute a contradiction of the shift, which gives two choices: abiding the city boundary or protecting the
existing residences.
Figure 2: The change of floating population proportion of Beijing core area

(LU Xiang, WANG Mao-jun 2013).
The initial appearance of counter-urbanization

Until 2012, the urbanization rate of China has reached to 50%, which has exceeded the index line for
Counter-urbanization (WANG Xiao-wei 2006). Urban agglomeration promoted the density raise of center
blocks, traffic congestion and air quality degradation has forced part of middle class moves to the suburbs,
and the rental rates of center blocks have been rising. Such relocation willingness and the influx of floating
population formed a convection, which is leading to the change of demographic composition of the core
area (LU Xiang, WANG Mao-jun 2013/ Figure 2). Facing the two requirements, real estate companies provide
high density and low density settlements in core area and suburbs. Under the lack of unified planning
scheduling, the former often lack humanity and the latter ignore the efficiency of land use. By the expansion
of the city and the requirement of the settlements quality, the two kinds of settlements will face the fate of
being demolished.
PURPOSE
Achieve intensive use of urban land resources

Under limited land supply, neither high nor low density residential developments have proved to be a waste
of resources. The plan of urban land use should be constructed by the accurate prediction of space needs in
the future. The construction and non-construction areas should be managed uniformly. The non-
construction area should be classified in order to assess the quantity of developable land. The calculation of
residential density should combine the economical valuation and living quality, finding the balance point by
the needs of residents. It will make the delineation of the city border more human and operational.
Realize the whole life cycle of the new settlements

In the future, the increased requirement of space will be borne by renovation of existing residences.
Demolition of existing blocks will become a frequent and repeated phenomenon. The contradiction
between the adjustment of city capacity and the maintenance of the whole life of existing residential are
more and more irreconcilable. The two contradictions should be connected by a kind of linkage mechanism.
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We should schedule the renovation by the predict cycle life of residential. By dividing and coding blocks to
uniform the time of each stage, which helps to regulate the two contradictions.
Keeping appropriate residential densities to ensure the vitality of the city center
Facing the loss of the middle class, the city center should control the development density, and extra space
requirements should be converted to suburbs. In order to keep the efficiency of land use, we should balance
the density of center and suburbs. For this, we should arrange the development timing. In fact, this strategy
has be implemented in some city.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In 70-80s of 20th century, Smart growth theory began to spread around America, try to use the renovation of
existing settlements substituted the suburban sprawl (Gillham 2002). At the same time, the study of long life
residential was activated in Japan by the background of the oil crisis (SEIKE Tsuyoshi, AKIMOTO Takayuki
2003). From 80s to 2000, the two theories were introduced into China to help solve the problem of urban
sprawl and short-lived building which was caused by rapid urbanization, but there were few studies to
construct the connection between the two theories.
KAI Yan, who is the vice chairman of China Real Estate Research Habitat and Environment Committee
consider that extensive development model is the main reason for building short-lived (KAI Yan 2011). Based
on the analysis of 35 ephemeral buildings in Beijing, Doctor SHEN Zhen Jin point out that the urban
development should abide the principles of Pleasant, Simple and Integrated, and united the recent and long
term development of suburbs and the center area of city (SHEN Zhen Jin 2008).
RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
Figure 3: Research framework
Large cities of China are at a crossroads of development: Either left the core area keeps crazy development
by the market-oriented, and then experience the recession of central areas, which led to the untimely death
of large areas of residential housing due to the inappropriate density, or control the residential density from
now on. We need to calculate the appropriate density to balance the efficiency of land use and living
comfort. It needs not only the forecasting of future space needs, but also the potential of urban land supply.
We also need to give the criterion of land grading ecological value, which can help us make accurate
judgments between the quantity of land use and the ecological changes of city lead by it.
For the strict regulation of household registration for large cities which has promulgated in The Twelfth Five-
Year Guideline, the population of large cities will enter a stable growth pattern. And the limited urban land
needs to construct a set of renovation mechanism to accommodate the stable growth population. Such as
other recycled materials, urban blocks can also be reused by a certain cycle, and the cycle is closely related
to residential life. We can divide the urban land into blocks according to the number of residential life. Then
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code each block, and establish the schedule of renovation which would unite the time points of demolish,
start and finish of construction and reduce flowing and storage costs of renewal materials and market
volatility come from relocated residents (Figure 3).
TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
Urban population and the density of construction

The density of renovation land will determined the possible of demolition in the future. So the formulation
of it should have further vision. There would not only have lower limits, but also the upper limit. The reason
is that the high density is not humanity and will lead to high vacancy rates in the future for the decline of
population.
As the future of China's population will experience a roller coaster-style trends (MEI Bai qing 2012), and
because of differences in fertility regime between urban and rural area, this trend will be even more evident
in the city (HUANG Kun 2009). In the new town planning of Chinese government, the migrants of the
metropolitan will be restricted, meaning that the impact of a large floating population in urban population
growth will be weakened. It also makes predictions about the future population more simple and accurate.
Before reaching the peak of population, the density of renovation land will be calculated by the peak of
population and land inventory (based on the statistical classification of urban land come, the standard will
be described later), and after reaching the peak, the construction density of land will be reduce basis on the
stabilize population, improving the living environment.
Urban land grading standards

The prediction of urban land stores will be the determining factors for the calculation of the volume rate of
land. It will also determine the future urban border. For this, we need to formulate the evaluation criteria for
the total urban land, which is mainly determined by two factors: The first is ecological value to the city; and
the other is the cost of construction.
The ecological value of the land is mainly constituted by its ecological function and time and ecological
costs of growth. Their ecological functions include conservation of water, providing oxygen, carbon
sequestration, temperature regulation, keeping air moisture, biodiversity, etc. Each of these items can be
quantitatively graded to form different levels of eco-functional criteria. Land ecological function of time can
be speculated by the forest ecosystem components, complexity and the age of plants, and the resource
costs can be represented by water that was used during the growing period (Figure 4).
Figure 4: The standard of urban lands` ecological value.
The site factors that affect the costs of land development include slope, face, geological conditions and
flatness. Slope and face and flatness will affect the building density, and increase the difficulty of site
preparation and the road pavement. Geological conditions will affect the difficulty and depth of the
foundation excavation, thereby affecting the choice of building height (Figure 5).
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Grade A B C D E
Score 1 2 3 4 5
Face Due south South Due east Due west Due north
slope
Slope(degree) 5 5 10 10 15 15 25 25
Maximum elevation(m) 3 3 10 10 15 15 20 20
Planeness
Planeness percentage (%) 15 15 25 25 40 40 60 60
Depth of supporting course(m) 5 5 10 10 15 15 20 20
Figure 5: The standards of developing costs
Suitable residential density

For a specific city, the most suitable residential density is mainly determined by the number of available
lands for construction. In order to ensure the appropriate residential density, the city will devote all available
land reserves before reaching its population peak, in order to reduce residential density. How to determine
the suitable residential density will become the primary problem.
Under the preconditions of certain living standard, the improvement of residential density will lead to the
increases of the residences layers and the reduction of per capita public spaces, which will directly lead to
the reduction of living comfort. On the contrary, increase the above two indicators will lead to the increases
of land investments, thereby force to reduce the ecological standards of the urban borders. Apparently, we
should seek a balance between the living comfort and ecological standards of borders. It needs to find a
quantitative indicator, which suits both sides (Figure 6).
The object of satisfying suitable residential density is reducing the space abandon which is caused by
relocation. Either ecological environment or residential space can affect the willingness of relocation. The
willingness can be quantified by survey and indicated by percentage. We can use a certain percentage value
to balance the former pair of contradictions—residential density and land quantity. According to the former
ecological value standards, we can construct the relation between the quantity reduction of lands and the
change of environmental indicators for the whole city. We can also construct the relation between the
quantity of input lands and the layer depth and per capita public space. So we can stimulate the suitable
residential density and the quantity of input lands by certain data of some city.
Figure 6: The game between residential density and urban environment on land resources.
The schedule of land renovation

Urban regeneration cycle
Urban regeneration cycle is determined by two factors: The first one is the process of urban development;
the Second is the city's dependence on the construction industry. From the experience of western countries,
the city should experience gathered evacuation and aggregation and then come into stable situation. In
other words, the city will keep the renovation process until reaching this stage. We can make sure of the
developing stage of certain city by some indicators such as salary, industrial structure and the proportion of
urban population. According to the rate of change of these indicators, we can calculate the time for the city
to experience these intermediate stages, which is the regeneration cycle of the city. Urban renovation
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provides not only more space but also the employment, consumption and government taxation. These
factors affect the popularity and inter power for city development. So we should calculate and keep a certain
scale of renovation projectors every year by considering of above requirements. Then we can calculate the
renovation cycle of total land of the city by the renovation scale and quantity of land.
The coordination of three states of land

Urban land always keeps three types of state: Demolishing, Constructing and Being used. There will have
different requirements of resource supply and waste excretion for each state. In traditional manage mode,
the demolish components and materials will be transported to recycling plants and converted into recycled
materials. But they cannot find a stable market for the uncertain plan of projects, so they have to pay more
money for maintaining and storing these recycled products. In the constructing state, designers and builders
cannot find a reliable supplier of recycle materials, but the plants cannot keep supping for the lack of raw
recycled materials. In demolished land, the relocated residents will increase the requirements of residences
in the residential market which will push the new land development and raise the housing price and enforce
the boundary expansion of the city indirectly. If we can coordinate these states by some points of date such
as the beginning of demolishing, constructing and the completion date, the recycled plants will find a
market, the projects will get the continue supply of recycled products, and relocated residents will move
into new residential right away. The continued renovation cycle will keep the relation of resources recycling
stably.
The schedule of urban land renovation

We divided the urban land into many blocks with same size by the urban renovation cycle time and identify
the number for each block. For the construction period can be shortened by prefabricated technology, we
can approximately consider that demolition and construction can have the equal long time. Every three
blocks can be combined into one group in certain point of time, and they demolish, construct and put into
use at the same time. All the blocks` renovation will continue by this rolling mode (Figures 7/8).
Block Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 …
Demolish date A B C D E F G H I J K L …
start date of construction B C D E F G H I J K L M …
complete date of project C D E F G H I J K L M N …
Figure 7: The schedule of blocks` renovation
Figure 8: Schematic diagram for the movement of residents and recycled materials
The use of land stock

The construction quantity for each renovation blocks every year consists of two parts: The one is the area of
demolishing residences, and the other is the new living space requirements which come from the increased
population in this year. In the increasing stage of population, the building density of blocks will increase
rapidly. In order to control the density`s growth not far from suitable range, we should put in some new land
by calculation. We can also adjust the functional proportion of land. In the decrease stage of population, we
will keep the suitable building density and return the peripheral land to eco-system.
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SUMMARY
Facing the rapid process of urbanization, how to use the exiting land effectively and reduce repeated
renovation will determine the using efficiency of nature resource. In this article, we predicted population
peak to guard the construction density of renovation blocks. The classified of urban land provide the
quantitative basis for the ecological loss and development costs of new land. With these data, we can draw
the limited line for urban sprawl and keep the suitable building density during the renovation process. Basis
on the urban renovation cycle time, we establish the schedule of blocks renovation, and coordinate the date
of demolish construct and complete of projects, which make the relocated residents and recycled materials
can circulate smoothly between blocks and make the recycled industry can be operate continuously,
reduce the costs of intermediate process.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The study supported by the New Century Talents Foundation in 2011, Fund number is NCET-11-0049
REFERENCES
Chen, M., 2011. 'Accelerating urbanization should not become the National Strategic choice during “the 12th
Five Year Plan” Period: A discussion with Professor CHEN Yu-he', China Soft Science, vol. 3, pp. 2.
Cui, X & Lu, Q., 2012. 'Development status and prospect of standardized desertification combating in China',
Arid Zone Research, vol. 29, no. 5, Sep, pp. 913.
Gillham, O., 2002. The limitless city: a primer on the urban sprawl debate, Island Press, Washington DC.
Huang, K., 2009. 'Deepening the reform of the household registration system and rural migrant workers
obtaining citizenship', Urban Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, p. 97.
Jiang, J, Jia, S & Yu Y., 2009, 'On management of urban renewal', Urban Studies, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 57.
Kai, Y., 2011. 'The view of master', The construction of china, vol. 11, p. 32.
Lu, X & Wang, M., 2013. 'An analysis on the space structure of non-native permanent Population of Beijing
Metropolitan Area in 2000-2010', Urban Development Studies, vol. 20, no. 10.
Luo Q., 2013. 'Issues on cultivated land protection in the process of urbanization', Master's thesis of
Huazhong Normal University.
Mei, BQ., 2012. 'ZHUO Xue jin: Demographic transition is an opportunity for inflection', Chengdu Daily, 2012,
Version 017.
Shen, ZJ., 2008. 'The solve of short-lived building can`t been limited in the area of building', Urban studies,
vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 119.
Wang, X., 2006, 'Contrastive analysis of counter-urbanization between China and developed countries',
Resource Development & Market, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 353.
1053
ADAPTIVE CAPACITY OF BUILDINGS: A DETERMINATION METHOD TO PROMOTE FLEXIBLE AND

SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION
Rob Geraedts, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, r.p.geraedts@tudelft.nl

Hilde Remøy, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, h.t.remoy@tudelft.nl
Marleen Hermans, Brink Groep, The Netherlands, m.hermans@brinkgroep.nl
Evi van Rijn, Brink Groep, The Netherlands, E.van.Rijn@brinkgroep.nl
Abstract
The subject adaptive construction has been on the agenda of the construction sector for decades. The adaptive
capacity of a building includes all properties and qualities that enable the building to keep its (economic feasible)
functionality during the technical life cycle, under altered conditions and needs.
Meanwhile, the interest in flexible building has increased significantly from a broader perspective than before.
This increased interest is caused by the high structural vacancy of buildings, the economic crises and the increased
awareness of and interest in sustainability issues and the circular economy.
The relationship between flexibility and sustainability is explicitly laid. Market developments demonstrate an
increased demand for flexibility and sustainability as well as a growing awareness of the necessity of a circular
economy in construction. This explicit sustainability constraint ensures a conscious look at the sustainable
efficiency of flexibility measures. These measures are sustainable only if they are actually used during the life cycle
of buildings.
The Dutch Government, a number of companies and branches of the construction industry started a public-
private initiative in 2012 to promote and accelerate sustainable building in the Netherlands with the project
called: a method to determine the Adaptive Capacity of Buildings. The cause of the present research is the lack of a
widely accepted method with assessment criteria for measuring the potential for adaptation into other possible
functions during the life cycle of a building. In this research paper, a full report is given of the development of this
method to determine the Adaptive Capacity of Buildings (the AC Method), the research methods used and the
preliminary results.
Keywords: adaptable, sustainable, flexible, vacancy, assessment method.
INTRODUCTION
Adaptive building and sustainability

In recent decades the interest in flexible building, also called adaptive building, has grown substantially. In
the Netherlands this interest is mainly caused by the structural vacancy of real estate, in particular office
buildings, the economic crisis, the congestion of the housing market and the increased awareness of and
interest in sustainability. A direct connection can be made between adaptive building and sustainability
(Wilkinson, James et al. 2009, Wilkinson and Remøy 2011). Market developments show increased demands
for flexibility and sustainability by users and owners as well as a growing understanding of the importance of
a circular economy (Eichholtz, Kok et al. 2008). This explicit motive for sustainability by clients results in
sharper requirements for sustainable profitability of measures that can be taken for adaptive building.
Assessment criteria for adaptability were described in previous research (Geraedts and Van der Voordt 2007,
Remøy and Van der Voordt 2007, Wilkinson, James et al. 2009, DGBC 2013). However, a comprehensive
method for assessing the adaptive capacity of buildings is lacking. Most assessment tools that were
previously developed focus on specific aspects of adaptability, like technical or functional aspects, or the
adaptability of a specific kind of building. The aim of this research is to develop a method for assessing the
adaptive capacity of buildings including technical, functional, economic and societal aspects.
Definition of Adaptive Capacity

The adaptive capacity of a building includes all characteristics that enable it to keep its functionality during
the technical life cycle in a sustainable and economically profitable way withstanding changing
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requirements and circumstances. The adaptive capacity is considered a crucial component when
scrutinizing the sustainability of the real estate stock (Hermans 2013, p. 3).
Sustainability depending on the long-term utility value of buildings

A building that can accommodate different types of users during its whole life cycle has a long-term utility
value. The long-term utility value is a crucial precondition for sustainability. The adaptive capacity of a
building represents this utility value, the future attractiveness of the building. The adaptive capacity is not
the goal itself, but the means to ensure the future use of the building.
Societal perspective
To consider the adaptive capacity of a building, the main focus is its future value. From this perspective, not
only the present user or owner of the building is important, but also to a large extent the attractive force of
the building for the next generation of users. The societal benefit of the future use of buildings forms the
goal of this research project. To secure future use, the current users and owners need to be involved.
Accountability and research methods

This research aims at developing a determination method for the adaptive capacity of buildings (AC
method), and is as such the first step in the development of instruments to assess specific projects. The AC
method gives a clear insight and an overview of aspects that need to be concerned when assessing the
adaptive capacity of buildings. The method combines existing knowledge (Berg 1981, Houtsma 1982,
Geraedts 1989, REN 1992, Geraedts 1998, 2001, 2007, 2009, Schneider 2007, Beadle 2008, Wilkinson 2009,
DGBC 2013) on flexibility and sustainability into one overview of important aspects to determine the
adaptive capacity.
The AC method has been developed after an extended survey of international literature about
characteristics, definitions and assessment instruments of adaptive building, on the boundaries of adaptive
capacity, sustainability and financial business cases for real estate. The literature survey has resulted in a
number of basis schemes presenting relevant aspects and mutual relations of adaptability characteristics
and instruments. The most important schemes are presented in this paper. Next to the literature survey, a
substantial number of experts have been interviewed. The basic schemes shaped the input for discussions in
two different expert panels: one with representatives of the clients (demand side) and one panel with
representatives of construction companies and suppliers (supply side) in the construction process. The
results from several discussions with both expert panels produced inputs for the AC method (Hermans 2013,
p. 4) .
Target groups
The AC method for measuring the adaptive capacity of buildings offers possibilities for owners or investors
in real estate to formulate wishes or demands about the adaptive capacity of buildings on the one hand, and
assess the adaptive capacity of new or existing buildings on the other. Owners or investors usually are the
actors involved in expressing the ambitions of the projects and they are responsible for choices made during
the construction and utilization phase of the buildings. Depending on the nature and stage of the project,
they can take more or less fundamental decisions about the adaptive capacity of the project. This method
can be used for three different investment decisions: purchasing an existing building, constructing a new
building, or renovating and transforming an existing building.
Aim of the method

The AC method offers building clients and investors a step-by-step procedure for:
• Formulating the demand for the adaptive capacity of a building,
• The assessment of the supplied adaptive capacity of offered solutions (in design or in a building),
• The evaluation of the financial and sustainability impact of these solutions,
• The determination of the most sustainable and efficient business case when dealing with
adaptability.
The AC method therefore consists of three different modules:

1. The determination of the adaptive capacity; formulating the demand for or assessing the supply of
flexibility.
2. The determination of the financial-economic profitability.
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3. The determination of the sustainability impact of the several measures.
In this paper, only the first module will be described: the adaptive capacity of buildings. This method does
not yet lead to absolute statements about the adaptive capacity, but a definite judgement if a specific
offered design or building fits a given demand for flexibility.
The method to determine the adaptive capacity will be equal for each project, while the assessment criteria
could be project or client specific. In this manner, new techniques and understandings can be easily
processed in the near future.
Figure 1: the accommodation cycle of real estate and the demand for change.
ADAPTIVE CAPACITY METHOD
When a building no longer meets changing demand

Real estate is a product with a high economic value and can be characterized by a very long technical life
cycle with a large spatial-physical impact. That is why it is of great societal importance to use real estate as
efficient as possible. To enable a high-quality use and a high occupancy rate, a building must be able to
move along with qualitative and quantitative changes in demands for the specific accommodation. There
are three basic ways to act when a building no longer meets the users’ needs (see Figure 1).
1. Adapt the location, building and/or unit (transformation/conversion);

2. Design and construct a new building;
3. Move to another and more suitable existing building.
Perspectives of the demand for change

The need for change has three different actor perspectives: the society, the owners and the users of the
building (see Figure 2).
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Figure 2: The need for change from three different perspectives.
From a societal perspective, the preservation of the use value of a building is of utmost importance. A
building must be attractive for different generations of users as a guarantee for a long life cycle. The owner
of the building would like to have a long-term profitability and for the users, it is important that their core
business will continuously fit the building offered.
Figure 3: Several appearances of adaptive capacity and the focus of the AC determination method.
Appearances of adaptive capacity

The adaptive capacity can be split into three different appearances (see Figure 3):
1. Organizational flexibility
The capacity of an organization or user to respond adequately to changing demands of the built
environment;
2. Process flexibility
The capacity to react to changing circumstances, wishes or demands during the initiative, the design and
the construction phase;
3. Product flexibility
The capacity of a building (the product) to respond to changing circumstances, wishes or demands during
the use phase of the building.
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The demand: use dynamics and transformation dynamics

The focus of the AC determination method is exclusively the product flexibility during the use phase of
buildings. The target here is the translation of demand into transformation and use dynamics on three
different levels: location, building and unit (see Figure 4).
Use dynamics
The demands for a building can be formulated by the demands of the users. The building must be able to
move along in time with these (changing) demands. This may lead for instance to the demand that the
building must be parcelled into smaller or bigger units or that specific facilities can be added to the units or
building. This is called use dynamics.
Transformation dynamics
This concerns the demands for a building that should be able to accommodate totally different user groups
or different functions in the near future. This may lead to specific demands for rearranging the building for
different user groups. This is called transformation dynamics.
Figure 4: Framework AC method for the demand (for use and transformation dynamics), and the supply (of
rearrange, extension and rejection flexibility) on three different levels (location, building and unit).
The supply: rearrange, extension and rejection flexibility

Within the method, the flexibility of the supply is translated into three spatial/functional and
construction/technical characteristics. They determine if a building can meet the requirements: rearrange
flexibility, extension flexibility and rejection flexibility (see Figure 4).
• Rearrange flexibility
To which degree the location, the building or the unit can be rearranged or redesigned.
• Extension flexibility
To which degree the location, the building or the unit can be extended.
• Rejection flexibility
To which degree (part of) the location, the building or the unit can be rejected.
Supplied by spatial/functional and construction/technical characteristics

Two types of characteristics influence the three possible flexibilities of a building as described:
spatial/functional and construction/technical characteristics. Furthermore, three different levels of scale will
be taken into account: the whole building as the collection of all user units, the units within the building and
the location of the building as far as it influences the use and the adaptability of the building. Figure 4 shows
the framework of the assessment method for the adaptive capacity. On top, the demand for change is
shown and at the bottom the supply with the characteristics of the building, which determine if the building
can meet the flexibility demands.
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Demand and supply: two target groups

The demand for adaptive capacity by the owner or by the users of the building and the flexibility supply that
meets these demands is shown in Figure 5. The previously mentioned third target group - the society - will
not be taken into consideration any further. The other two target groups will also cover the societal demand
for the adaptive capacity of buildings.
Figure 5: Demand for and supply of adaptive capacity translated to two target groups.
SEVEN INDICATORS FOR TRANSFORMATION DYNAMICS - OWNER
The AC method uses seven Transformation Dynamics Indicators from the perspective of the owner of a
building (E) to formulate his wishes and demands for the adaptive capability of the building and the user
units (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: The 7 Transformation Dynamics Indicators from the perspective of the owner of a building (E1-E7),
joined together in Rearrange Flexibility, Extension Flexibility and Rejection Flexibility
E1. Reallocate / redesign

This factor comprises wishes/demands concerning the change in size or division of user units within a
building (join, split up or rearrange); wishes/demands concerning the possibilities of changing the design,
the arrangement on building level and/or the possibilities of changing the functions on building level.
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E2. Grain size

This factor concerns the wishes/demands about the possibility to change the number of user units in a
building (increasing or decreasing).
E3. Facilities
This factor concerns the wishes/demands for the change of the facilities in the building and/or outside the
building at location level.
E4. Quality
This factor concerns the wishes/demands for the change of the layout and finishing per user unit or per
building (upgrading).
E5. Expansion
This factor concerns to which extent the use surface of a building can be increased in the future (horizontal
and/or vertical).
E6. Rejection
This factor concerns to which extent the use surface of a building can be decreased in the future (horizontal
and/or vertical).
E7. Transfer
This factor considers whether or not the building can be transferred to another location.
SEVEN INDICATORS FOR USE DYNAMICS - USER
The AC method uses seven Transformation Use Dynamics Indicators from the perspective of the users of a
building (G) to formulate their wishes and demands of the adaptive capability of the units and the building
(see Figure 7).
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Figure 7: The 7 Use Dynamics Indicators from the perspective of the users of a building (G1-G7), joined together in
Rearrange Flexibility, Extension Flexibility and Rejection Flexibility.
G1. Redesign
This factor concerns the wishes/demands for changing the layout of the user units in a building and/or the
functions of the user units in the building.
G2. Reallocate Internal

This factor concerns the wishes/demands for the changing the location of the user units in a building.
G3. Relation internal

This factor concerns the wishes/demands for changing the internal relation with other users/stakeholders in
the building.
G4. Quality
This factor concerns the wishes/demands for changing the layout and finishing (look and feel) of the user
unit in a building.
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G5. Facilities
This factor concerns the wishes/demands for changing the facilities in the user units, in the building and/or
at location level.
G6. Expansion
This factor considers to which extent the use surface of a user unit in a building should be extendable in the
future (horizontal and/or vertical).
G7. Rejection
This factor considers to which extent the use surface of a user unit should be contractible in the future
(horizontal and/or vertical).
ASSESSMENT VALUES
In the AC method, a value is given for each assessment aspect of the spatial/functional flexibility
characteristics and the constructional/technical flexibility characteristics when formulating the demand for
flexibility or assessing the supply of flexibility. There are four possible values: 1=Bad, 2=Business As Usual
(BAU), 3=Better, 4=Good (see figure 8).
Figure 8: The 4 possible assessment values of the spatial/functional flexibility characteristics and the
constructional/technical flexibility characteristics.
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Example assessment of spatial/functional flexibility - owner (A)

Figure 9 shows an example of some of the assessment values of the spatial/functional flexibility
characteristics. For the owner of a building in total 36 different indicators (A) have been formulated with
associated values for assessing this type of adaptive capacity.
Figure 9: An example of some of the (36) assessment values of the spatial/functional flexibility characteristics
for the owner of a building (A-indicators).
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Example assessment of construction/technical flexibility - owner (B)

Figure 10 shows an example of some of the assessment values of the construction/technical flexibility
characteristics. For the owner of a building, in total 49 different indicators (B) have been formulated with
Figure 10: An example of some of the (49) assessment values of the construction/technical flexibility
characteristics for the owner of a building (B-indicators).
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Example assessment of spatial/functional flexibility - user (C)

Figure 11 shows an example of some of the assessment values of the spatial/functional flexibility
characteristics. For the user of a building, in total 29 different indicators (C) have been formulated with
Figure 11: An example of some of the (29) assessment values of the spatial/functional flexibility characteristics
for the users of a building (C-indicators).
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Example assessment of construction/technical flexibility - user (D)

Figure 12 shows an example of some of the assessment values of the construction/technical flexibility
characteristics. For the users of a building in total 33 different indicators (D) have been formulated with
Figure 12: An example of some of the (33) assessment values of the construction/technical flexibility
characteristics for the users of a building (D-indicators).
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ADAPTIVE CAPACITY: DEMAND AND SUPPLY PROFILES
It is obvious that the described AC method enables the users to make so-called demand or supply profiles. A
demand profile can be made for a specific programme of a new adaptive building or a programme for an
existing building that needs to be transformed into a new, alternative function. A supply profile can be made
to map the adaptive capacity of an existing building. The profiles can be compared to each other to see if a
match between the flexibility profiles is possible (see Figure 13).
Figure 12: An example of a demand and supply profile to see if there could be a match between the wishes for
future adaptability and the building supplied.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE NEXT STEPS
As shown in the previous examples, the Adaptive Capacity method is a first important step in the
development of instruments to formulate adaptive demands and to assess adaptive supplies. In the next
steps, this method will be transferred to easy to use and implementable instruments.
Communication, verification, validation

The next step is discussing and evaluating the AC method with the owners and users of buildings and with
the construction companies involved. The steering group behind this research project and the two already
engaged expert panels - one with representatives of the clients (demand side) and one panel with
representatives of construction companies and suppliers (supply side) - could play an important role in this
next step.
Instruments for small and large projects

Further developments will also look into the implementation of the AC method for small and rather simple
projects and large complex projects as well. For smaller projects, it will be sufficient to define an assessment
only on a limited number of crucial aspects, while large complex projects ask for a more detailed analysis of
the capacity to change.
Instruments for different sectors of building types

The AC method can be specified for different sectors within construction. Different building types like
hospitals, schools, office buildings or residential housing may lead to the use of a selected and specific
group of assessment aspects.
To stretch the method to the urban context

The urban context is essential for the use value of buildings. The current method is limited to a small number
of assessment aspects of the location of buildings. It would be very interesting to look into the urban
context in more detail. The need and demand of changing buildings in a condensed urban context to
changing circumstances is far higher than for buildings located in a suburban area.
Develop a standard for the adaptive capacity
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Finally it is not unlikely that professional owners and clients in construction feel the urge for a standard
describing the adaptive capacity of buildings. Such a default standard could be developed to change over
time if developments concerning the flexibility of products are evaluated further. Also non-professional
owners and clients are potential users of such a standard with default values to use in practice. These
standards could be developed per sector in construction.
REFERENCES
Beadle, K, Fuster, A, Madden, P, Gibb, A & Austin, S., 2008. ‘Critical parameters for adaptable buildings; from
small houses to big buildings - Workshop Report’, Department of Civil and Building Engineering,
Loughborough University, Loughborough.
Berg, HC v d, Noorman, ThM., 1981. Een aanpasbaar gebouw ontwerpen. SBR 82. Stichting Bouwresearch,
Deventer, 95.
DGBC, 2013. Concept flexibility assessment module, Dutch Green Building Council, Rotterdam.
Eichholtz, P, Kok, J, Quigley, M & Berkeley, CA., 2008. ‘Doing well by doing good? Green office buildings,
Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Berkeley, W08.
Geraedts, R., 1989. Verkavelbare Dragers en Kosten, Stichting Bouwresearch, Rotterdam.
Geraedts, R., 1998. Flexis; communicatie over en beoordeling van flexibiliteit tussen gebouwen en installaties,
Stichting Bouwresearch, Rotterdam, 68.
Geraedts, R., 2001. ‘Upgrading the flexibility of buildings’, CIB World Building Congress. Wellington.
Geraedts, R., 2009. ‘Future value of buildings’, 3rd CIB International Conference on Smart and Sustainable
Built Environment, A. v. d. Dobbelsteen. Delft University of Technology Delft, The Netherlands.
Geraedts, RP& Van der Voordt, DJM., 2007. A tool to measure opportunities and risks of converting empty offices
into dwellings, Sustainable Urban Areas, Rotterdam.
Geraedts, RP & Van der Voordt, DJM., 2007. Transformatiepotentiemeter, Transformatie van kantoorgebouwen,
Rotterdam, 010.
Hermans, M, Geraedts, R, Van Rijn, E & Remoy, H., 2013. Bepalingsmethode adaptief vermogen van gebouwen
ter bevordering van flexibel bouwen, Brink Groep, Leidschendam.
Houtsma, EO., 1982. ‘Flexibiliteit in gebouwen; C22-1’, Stichting Bouwresearch, Rotterdam, C22-1, p. 154.
Remøy, H& Van der Voordt, T., 2007. ‘A new life - conversion of vacant office buildings into housing’,
Facilities, vol. 25, nos. 3/4, pp. 88-103.
REN, 1992. Real estate norm, Stichting Real Estate Norm, Nieuwegein.
Schneider, T & Hill, J., 2007. Flexible housing, Architectural Press Elsevier, Oxford.
Wilkinson, SJ, James, K & Reed, R., 2009. ‘Using building adaptation to deliver sustainability in Australia’,
Structural Survey, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 46-61.
Wilkinson, SJ & Remøy, H., 2011. Sustainability within use office building adaptations: A comparison of Dutch
and Australian practices, Pacific Rim Real Estate Society, Gold Coast, Bond University.
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RESEARCH ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE REGENERATION OF HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE—A

CASE STUDY OF HUANGTIAN VILLAGE, ANHUI
Xiaomeng Xing, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, China, xiong8936502@126.com
Abstract
With the passage of time as well as the development of the economy, more and more new buildings have been
erected around us. Meanwhile ones that bear the context of history are demolished on a large scale. Now historic
buildings are existing in a dilapidated way because of the age, or saved in museum mode manners. However, by
and large these efforts treat the symptoms, rather than addressing the root cause, the historic buildings are
declining further, so we have to find a better cultural form to save them. Historic buildings are different from other
works of art; they have lots of utility function closely relating people’s life. The reason why the buildings that have
long history are declining is their internal function cannot satisfy the needs of modern life very well. For the
regeneration of historic buildings, the public need to be involved, so that the vitality of historical buildings can be
played better. Through the case study led by Professor Ou Yang Wen on Huangtian Village of Anhui- a study of a
typical village regeneration in Huizhou culture characteristics, the article analyses that public participation is
important for the regeneration of historic buildings by means of theoretical research, field research and
comparative research methods, combining the protection of historical buildings and the residents living needs, to
seek pioneering ways for the regeneration of historic buildings.
Keywords: historic building, rehabilitation, public participation.
INTRODUCTION
The related concept involved in the study

1. Historic building
Historical architecture refers to the fact that the building has a certain historical, scientific and artistic value,
reflecting the city history and culture and local characteristics. Historic building, the witness of the history of
city development, continued the context of city, and they are closely related to people's lives in a certain
historical period, a certain region.
2. Regeneration of historical architecture
Regeneration of historical architecture is going to endow new functions to historical buildings, so that they
can adapt to requirements of the new era. At the same time, it is a new attempt at building image and
environmental art design.
3. Public participation
The public participation of this study is based on the policy support of historical building protection
planning and public participation in the way of practice.
Research background
With the development of the time, more and more historic buildings have been destroyed by large-scale
economic construction. There are also many large building projects in the name of saving old historic
buildings. And the protection of local history has been ignored in many places. Some historical buildings,
which have been identified to protect, are only kept in the preservation model of a museum without activity.
And the old form is not suitable for the needs of modern people, repair to protect is not understood by the
public. Neither of those ways can bring new vitality to historic buildings, nor protect these buildings in the
best way. The needs of people have been ignored for a long time. In China, historical buildings have been
protected by the top-down approach, which relies on experts to put forward conservation advocacy,
government provided funding, professional personnel to provide technical support. The lack of a correct
understanding leads public to misunderstand the protection of historic buildings. Which also causes many
difficulties when implementing the protection work? In order to strengthen the mass base of historic
buildings regeneration, the demands of the public need to be considered. What’s more, the public should
be introduced into the process of historic buildings regeneration.
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RESEARCH METHOD
1. Theoretical research method
To collect data and research relevant laws of historical building protection and regeneration. And to analyse
experience from other domestic regions, which are in terms of public participation in historical building
protection. At the same time, to have a thorough understanding of historic buildings evolution in Huangtian
village of Anhui province.
2. Field research (On-the-spot investigation) method
Through the study of Huangtian village in Anhui province, in the form of visiting and investigation, to grasp
the existing saving state of Hui style architectures in Huangtian village. Hui style architecture has existed for
a long time, built in Anhui province and named after this province. We entered the local residents’ home to
issue questionnaires and ask for information. Analyzing of field measurement is also important. We collected
opinions of participation in the historic buildings regeneration from residents and non-governmental
organizations, to learn about the public cognition of the method of historic buildings protection and the
development status of existing historical buildings.
3. Practice analysis method
Through field investigation of Hui style architecture of Huangtian village, to summarize the way of public
participation in historical building renewal. Refer to other cases of public participation in historic buildings
regeneration in domestic regions. By using the method of comparison, research the subject pluralism and
method diversity in public participation. So we illustrate the important role of public participation in
historical building regeneration.
Research purpose and meaning

Through the study of public participation in the Hui style architectures protection on Huangtian village of
Anhui province, we look for the possible method of treating historical building protection. Which can
effectively protect the historic buildings and make it adapt to people modern life better? The ultimate goal is
to mobilize public power to protect historical buildings and to form more effective living conditions. It is
important to provide effective ways and methods to for public participation in historical building renewal.
Ⅱ.CASE STUDY ON HUANGTIAN VILLAGE OF ANHUI PROVINCE
Evolution of historical architecture of Huangtian village

Huangtian village, which is located in the southeast of Jingxian in Anhui province, is a typical characteristic
of Hui style villages in the southern Anhui province. Huangtian ancient building group was announced as
the sixth batch of national key cultural relic’s protection units by the state council in 2006. Huangtian village
has four hundred years of history since the Ming dynasty when the person who named Zhu. It has an ancient
bridge, temple, ancient revetment, and as many as 100 buildings of ancient dwellings. There are 56 ancient
buildings in Huangtian village which were declared in the sixth batch of national key cultural relic’s
protection units list. The 56 ancient buildings were built in the Qing dynasty.
Problems impeding historic buildings

1. The damage of nature
Ancient buildings over a long period always lack maintenance and bear the destruction of the natural wind
and rain. So a lot of buildings walls crack and beams and pillars have to bear different degrees of cracking.
What’s more, roof breakage is very common. Termites and powder insect also bring serious damage to
historic buildings.
2. The lack of maintenance
Due to most buildings belonging to private owners in this village, buildings have been uninhabited since
many people move to the city to live. With the wind and rain erosion, damage is very serious. Due to a lack of
maintenance, some houses were partially damaged and a small amount of buildings collapsed. And the
buildings continued to be in use are in constant expansion, the continuity of the ancient building group is
facing some problems.
3. The lack of management
Public buildings collapsed a lot due to a lack of management and monitoring, and the amount of
maintenance funds required.
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4. Space transformation
Residents want to increase the living area. They also hope to improve the living conditions, such as lighting
and ventilation. Residents installed modern living facilities independently, and activities of tinkering with
construction happened quite often, which need to be guided .
The situation of public participation in historic buildings regeneration

1. The public's awareness of active participation in historic buildings regeneration
Among the architectures which were identified as historic buildings in Huangtian village, some of the
properties were still unchanged, and belonged to private property. But under state funding and
government policy support, the residents talked about daily maintenance of historic buildings, which makes
the historical architecture irradiate new vitality. As a traditional village with Hui style buildings group, most
of the buildings belonged to private property and the historic buildings were still residential. By household
survey we learned that, because the local roof is Chinese style tile piled on the roof, which was easily
damaged, and easy to cause leakage of rain in the house, so every year, local residents replaced grey tile
autonomously. Although factories now produce glazed tile, as local residential building was regarded as
historic buildings, residents still used the traditional Chinese style tile when replacing the roof material, the
residents take on the responsibility of the protection of buildings. They maintain houses regularly which has
protected the traditional architectural forms effectively. This is the result of resident’s consciousness for
historical building protection, and the enthusiasm involved in their lives increased actively.
Interest groups participate in the protection of historical buildings

There are buildings belonging to public property among the identified history buildings in Huangtian
village, such as the Fifing family temple. The main body of public participation in this kind of building is
replaced by the travel company. Huangtian village has intensified the efforts on tourism development in
recent years, in the hope of using the method of historical building to attract tourists to increase local
Picture 1: The Chinese style tile Picture 2: The Chinese style tile
income. In this way, it also wishes to use the funds to improve the overall environment of historic buildings
better. Ancient villages have developed as tourism sites. The tourism company named Hauling was
established in 2010 in Huangtian, a private enterprise. The company is responsible for ancient village
tourism affairs. As the Qifeng family temple is contracted by the travel company, the daily responsibility of
maintenance and rehabilitation repair has be borne by the travel company. All of this protection should be
under the constraint by the protection of laws and norms. In order to avoid causing damage to historic
buildings and villages and to keep the original character with overall context and continuity conditions,
historical building protection and regeneration utilization shall be burned by the different main body.
Public participation in function regeneration of historic buildings

With the development of time, if only to maintain the original state, the vitality of
historic buildings will not continue. This way of protection is just to maintain a
natural pleasure without adapting to changing times and public needs. It is
necessary to give new connotation to historic buildings. So that it keeps pace with
the times. Huangtian village has four hundred years of history since the Ming
dynasty when the person who named Zhu. It has kept an ancient bridge, temple,
ancient revetment, and as many as 100 buildings of ancient dwellings. Historical
Picture 3: added toilet
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houses have been in their old form intact, at the same time, we also need to consider the development of
the buildings application of the public. Residents living in Huangtian village created application on their
own way, combined with their needs, in the process of actual using of historic buildings. What has brought
new vitality to historic buildings? Because of the limitation of conditions, such as lack of indoor toilets,
residents rebuild original buildings by increasing the indoor toilet, which have improved the quality of life.
By this way, they made the historical architecture more suitable for their life. Ancient architectures of
Huangtian village have been relatively closed. The walls all around were enclosed and almost little window
on the outside wall. They used to be built by using fire seal hard mountain, and centering on the patio, only
with narrow patio today lighting and ventilated. The kitchen has been generally placed on either side of the
outdoors. Both sides of the exterior wall tiles have been decorated with extremely rich local characteristics.
In order to maintain the traditional forms of local building, the kitchen is unfavorable to open a window on
the wall. It is great that local residents found their own solution in the process of actual using. They opened a
small hole in the roof of the kitchen, and then use the glass instead of the clay to cover on the hole, but still
in the same form of Chinese style tile. By this way, they solved the problem of the day lighting of the kitchen
cleverly.
Public participation in the image regeneration of historic buildings

The ancient settlement of Huangtian village was the family named Zhu. The ancient village has a complete
preservation of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Ancient buildings group covers an area of 20000 square
meters. Buildings of Huangtian village combined into yard by multi-channel. Buildings were relatively closed
with internal patio, rainwater flow into the patio from four directions along the roof. Buildings were built by
timber frame. The most representative characteristics are the local unique water tiling covering on the wall
of the outdoor. With the unceasing change of environment, the buildings have also suffering from the
destruction of the human and the natural such as wind and rain. Because of the change of family structure
and the new requirements of residential building, historic buildings have not completely adapted to the life
of people. With the quality of life have improved, people need more space and the division of functions. In
Huangtian village, space is relatively small and auxiliary space, such as toilet is lacking. Some villagers built
the same style rooms which were next to the original building, including indoor toilet, shower and so on.
Historical buildings have been very good to keep the original form, and the size of the building group has
continued to expand.
Public participation in environmental regeneration of historic buildings

Buildings of Huangtian village still adopt the form of
herringbone layout. Ancient architecture built along
the river. Roadways connected with each other. The
construction of the ancient building group has fully
respected nature. After a hundred years, with the
renovation of the two adjacent villages by residents,
the village has taken shape with a beautiful water
system landscape. It also reflected the thinking mode Picture 6: added bedroom
of sustainable development since ancestors
constructed the village. Huangtian village is famous of
Picture 8: village "Chongxi Huoqing" tea. There are large areas of tea
gardens.
Picture 7: added bedroom

The traditional way of tea has been kept by
residents. Residents of Huangtian village
have continued creating a rural landscape,
with paddy fields and tea plantations as the
greening basement. So Huangtian village has
ket a good natural environment. The public
has protected ancient architectural
complexes and space forms of Huangtian
village, and at the same time, residents also
have protected the local family activities, folk habits and lifestyle. What has ensured the developing
Picture 4: glass tile Picture 5: kitchen

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protection of the village and the vitality of human environment?

The problems in the process of public participation in regeneration of the historical buildings
1. The shortage of the government in promoting the public participation

Local governments were not paying enough emphasis to the importance of public participation. The office
often instead the public thoughts of their own ideas or just permit the public to participate in go through
the motions. It is wrong to ignore the important point that the public is the predominant body in historic
buildings protection.
2. The lack of consciousness of public participation
Many people have a relatively low level of understanding of historical building protection. Sometimes it is
difficult to get the public into an agreement with government management institutions when individuals
and personal interests are conflicted in the historical buildings. It seriously affects participation.
Conservation and utilization of historic building needs government policy intervention and financial
support. It also needs to mobilize residents to maintain and utilize historic building consciously, so the
public awareness of the protection of historical buildings shall be strengthened.
3. The lack of public participation in the display of historic buildings
In order to regenerate historic buildings of Huangtian village, the role of public participation needs to be
played better in cultural inheritance. The charm of Hui style architecture should be fully displayed to attract
visitors to the village. As Huangtian village lack organized management, residents need to be organized to
participate in tourism. It is also important to increase interactive activities among tourists and residents, and
arouse the enthusiasm of residents to the protection of cultural relics.
CONCLUSION
Conclusion regarding public participation in historical building regeneration
Through the analysis of the Huangtian village in Anhui, the public plays a considerable role in historical
architecture regeneration in our country. Public participation in the regeneration of historic buildings is the
guarantee of better adaptation to historical building renovation. From today until the future, coordinated
with public demand and new vitality, historical building is not only simply retaining the old form, but
continues to develop. There are many historic buildings in our country, which are rich in historical value and
cultural value. Because the number and type and the situation is complex, some timely repair and protection
of historic buildings are obstructed if we lean on government comprehensive regulation alone. What’s more,
a lot of historic buildings are still residential or private property, so it is better to encourage the public to
preserve and repair historic buildings on their own initiative. This way is the new idea in historic building
renewable.
The outlook in public participation in regeneration of historic buildings

At present, more and more people pay close attention to the living environment and the future of historic
buildings. Under the encouragement from the government, the public is also more and more conscious in
involving in the work of historic buildings regeneration in the form of personal or family. So we are likely to
put each person's strength into the regeneration of historical architecture. This is the best way to protect
these buildings which record the history. It also protects and inherits good history and civilization around us.
(The pictures used in this thesis were taken by the author during the research in Hungtian village).
REFERENCES
He, Chen-jia., 2010. Beijing traditional courtyard buildings to protect and re-utilization Beijing Forestry
University, Beijing.
Li, Hong-yan., 2008. ‘Conservation and regeneration of historic buildings in China’, Huazhong Architecture,
pp. 30-33.
Liu, Jing., 2007. ‘Public participation in the history cultural heritage protection’, Chongqing University,
Chongqing.
Xu, You-wen & Sun, Ji-wei., 2000. Reincarnation of old architecture—a progressive concept in conservation
of historical’, Time Architecture, March, pp. 23-25.
Yang, Mian., 2010. Research on rehabilitation of historic building in urban renewal
-A case study on Wuhan Tiandi’, Wuhan Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ORIGINAL RESIDENTS IN THE PROTECTION AND RENOVATION OF

HISTORICAL DISTRICTS
Jiawen Li, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, China, liaijnew@163.com
Abstract
Nowadays, with the development of society and people's growing recognition of traditional culture, people pay
more attention to the cultural value of historical districts. The government has started to implement the
protection and renovation of historical districts. It has long gone that the historical districts are demolished and
new buildings are constructed quickly. But tourism development and commercial revitalization have become a
new orientation of the historical districts by the government due to economic interests and the people's surface
recognitions. As a result, the original residents tend to be away from their land under this situation. To some
extent, their life quality is improved and the historical districts are well protected and renovated. This greatly
changed the characters of the historical districts. The vitality of the historical districts disappears as well as the
original significance of historical districts themselves. The original value of them is neglected.
What is most important in the protection and renovation of historical districts is paying attention to the inherent
significance of their existence. Attention should be paid to humanity. The original residents are the carriers of local
cultural heritage. This thesis expounds that we should not only pay attention to the spatial style and the building
appearance, but also attach importance to the original value and the inheritance of their culture. It analyses the
important role of original residents in regaining the original vitality of historical districts. This article lists and
analyzes typical cases in order to find a way to settle original residents. As a result, we can recall government and
people's concerns about the original residents during the protection and renovation of historical districts.
Furthermore, this would push the original value and culture of historical districts.
Keywords: historical districts, original residents, authenticity.
INTRODUCTION
Historical districts are city areas which preserved a certain number and size of the historical remains. They
have typical and relatively complete historical features as well as certain city function and the lifestyle of the
city.
Under globalization, economic construction and tourism development has become the main theme of
historical district development. This caused a fundamental change in structure and the environment. With
the rapid development of economy, the nature of historical districts has changed greatly, which both has
advantages and disadvantages.
To a certain extent, economic development can be a great opportunity to stimulate private capital. But
heritage faces a great threat due to the excessive pursuit of tourism efficiency and the ignorance of historical
value. The protection of the original residents and their traditional way of life is most important.
1. The lack of concern around original residents is the main problem of the protection and renovation
of historical districts
Historical district protection is a relatively new subject in China. Because many city planning and
construction departments are not very familiar with this subject, some misunderstanding and practices
occur. These errors often cause irreparable damage to the historical districts.
Most historical districts in China have lots of historic buildings and the original residents have lived there for
centuries. But today’s main point of historical districts is building protection, which ignores the protection of
original residents.
Nowadays the demolition and rebuilding of historical districts has disappeared. But most governments are
moving the original residents from their home and transforming the historical districts into tourism and
entertainment facilities. This practice is completely wrong. Historical districts lost their traditional way of life
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and customs. This means they lost the authenticity of life. It is another kind of false behavior that we
transform the original lifestyle into histrionic and imitative activities. The original historical charm of
historical districts would be lost. We should make the long-term planning of the development of historical
districts and protect the original residents as well as their buildings. So that we can reach the goal of
protecting traditional style and promoting the development of cultural, economic and social harmony.
The way to solve the problem

Intellectuals have put forward the value standard for protection and renovation of historical districts
recently. They have changed their mind from ‘one-sided protection’ to ‘total consideration’. They changed
their focus from the protection of local buildings and natural landscape to folk culture and folk authenticity
transmission. They pay attention to not only the material cultural heritage and natural culture heritage but
also the intangible cultural heritage. Studies on the value identification of historical districts have come to a
scientific, comprehensive, diversified academic height.
Experts said historical districts should have three characteristics: Integrity style, the authenticity of history
and the authenticity of life. The concept of ‘authenticity’ in the field of architectural heritage can be dated
back to the ‘Venice charter’ in the 1960s. After that the principle of ‘authenticity’ has been recognized by all
countries in the world. It has become an important principle of inspection of world cultural heritage.
Historical districts are not only the living and dwelling places of the past but also the natural and organic
part of social life. The historical district is still and will continue to play its function. The authenticity of life has
two evaluation standards. The first one is the proportion of the original residents which can be quantified.
The other is the proportion of the traditional lifestyle.
We should pay attention to the revivification of historical districts. I think we ought to work mainly on
population control to solve this problem. Historical districts must have a reasonable population size and
population structure. In my view, it is necessary for the regional government to study the zone location of
historical districts. And then define what kind of people are allowed to move out. So that they can adjust the
population structure and protect historical culture.
It is also of vital importance to pay attention to the combination of public participation and local tourism.
We should improve the material and cultural level of the original residents. Only this can improve the ability
of national culture protection and local civilization. The protection of historical districts should fully mobilize
the enthusiasm of the original residents and emphasize the principle of public participation. It is the original
residents that reflect the spirit of historical districts. To achieve the purpose of coordination development
we must get the support and participation of original residents during the protection and renovation of
historical districts.
Finally, we should make it clear that the ultimate goal of protecting and renovating the historical districts is
to make the original residents live better.
The Lijiang model

Lijiang is attracting the world's attention because it is not only a historical city of China but also a world
cultural heritage site. Lijiang experienced an earthquake and it has been reconstructed. Today Lijiang has
become a ‘three heritages’ titled city.
The style of Lijiang is the most basic performance of authenticity. The Naxi culture is the source of Lijiang’s
vitality. The status of Naxi culture in Lijiang society, economy and life is ineffable. The development of
tourism industry makes the city population structure change. 80% of Lijiang’s people are the Naxi and they
have their own language, language, religion, folk characteristics etc. The Naxi people believe in Dongba
religion which is the old city residents’ soul and spiritual ballast. This is a very important factor for the
continuation of traditional culture and folk customs. The Naxi people inherit their traditional culture and folk
custom age after age. They are the real carriers of traditional culture.
Nowadays some of Lijiang’s original residents have begun to move out due to the interests or works. They
get into new cities for life. Meanwhile, they rent their house to people from other places. One of the tour
guides said the number of hotels in Dayan (one area in Lijiang) increased rapidly from dozens in 1997 to
more than one thousand in 2006. It is clear that some invisible carriers have got out of the city quietly.
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More attention should be paid to traditional culture rather than materials in Lijiang’s protection. So we
should care much about the carriers of the protection of traditional culture.
Thoughts and suggestions on the protection of Lijiang

The ancient city is not an antique or ‘old model’. We need to find the ‘alive’ factors. The regional architecture
is a carrier of local culture and culture is the soul of the living area, while the original residents are important
carriers of the local culture. The disappearance of the original residents would cause the dislocation of local
culture. We should study the humanistic factors hidden behind the buildings as well as visible space and
buildings.
Culture does not exist independently in a vital place of cultural heritage. Every culture has its carriers. The
development of commerce and replacement of population structure would cause the absence of cultural
authenticity. We should find a path to readjust the population during historical districts heritage protection.
The suggestions for the protection of original residents of Lijiang:

Let original residents realize the value of their traditional culture. So that the great pride and consciousness
of their culture could be inspired, which would make the original residents willing to stay in the historical
districts.
To make the Naxi people participate in the development and protection of ecology and culture of the
historical districts as soon as possible.
Let people participate in the historical districts protection and development is not only the development
planning and decision-making in tourism. What is important is letting original residents share the benefits of
tourism development.
Make the original residents develop industry which can connect modern tourism or cultural industry on
their own. And a specified and suitable management mode should be established.
Help to improve the housing conditions of original residents, which includes the improvement of
infrastructure construction and housing area. Promote the original residents’ recognition of history, culture,
heritage buildings. And create a new cultural environment.
Strengthen the limitation of historical districts’ shops. Commercial land should be limited strictly in and
around the historical districts, especially tourism business land. Land should be in accordance with the
planning control. Every effort should be made to improve the tourism service quality. We should build
services facilities according to high standards of the world cultural heritage rather than expanding the
construction of land blindly.
Only through protecting the original residents, can the authenticity of historical districts be really kept.
Lijiang's overall protection and planning do benefit not only itself but also other city historical districts. It
means a lot to the curbing of historical districts’ reduction or even disappearance.
CONCLUSION
The historical districts and their way of life and traditional custom is an important performance of historical
districts’ authenticity and the carrier of historical culture. The original residents’ philosophy, moral values,
ecological values and aesthetic values is the core worth of the historical districts. The traditional culture
which is carried by the original residents attracts both Chinese and foreign tourists. Our concern about the
fate of the original residents decides the future development of historical districts. I expect that we could
arouse more people to care about the original residents and find the significance they give to historical
districts.
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PART 6 : CIB W110 INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING

The second Programme Partner linked to the international Council for research and innovation in
Building and Construction (CiB) is:
CiB W 110 informal Settlements and Affordable Housing. This international research group engages
with issues of sustainable livelihoods and community participation in informal settlements as
well as how the exchange of technology may be achieved towards the development of the physical,
social and economic conditions of human settlements. The commission also explores topics on the
provision of affordable housing across the whole housing market.
Happy ratna Santosa, Professor in Architecture, is Head of the laboratory of Housing and Human
Settlements at the institut Teknologi Sepuluh nopember, indonesia (2008-present). She has
(2003-2007) and Head of the Population and Environmental research Centre (1988-1997).
Amira Osman, Associate Professor at the university of Johannesburg, is the uiA 2014 Durban General
reporter. She studied at the university of Khartoum, obtained a diploma from the institute for Housing
Studies (iHS), rotterdam and a PhD from the university of Pretoria. She is a registered architect and
rated nrF researcher.
GO TO CONTENTS PAGE
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE CIB W110 INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS & AFFORDABLE HOUSING
!
ECOLOGICAL CATHARSIS THROUGH URBAN ACUPUNCTURE
Ali Arsalan Pasha Siddiqui, NesPak Ltd., Pakistan/Middle East Technical University, Turkey,
alipasha737@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Buildings as living machines entails the implication that context is merely a consequence of the geo-political
dynamic between built forms, rather than a discernible progression of spatial motivations. Considering a
broader perspective of terming cities as ecosystems that engage through a variety of interaction points, it is
evident that the synergy of natural processes maintains its own progression independent of architectural
intervention. The nature of public space and the genetic grains of urban fabric are similar, terming context as the
precursor to architectural intervention rather than its sequential result. The traditional interactive relationships
between natural ecosystems and built environment influenced by local culture and identity are gradually
deteriorating; causing cities to lose their distinctive cultural identity and urban landscapes. If we consider the city
as a living being in and of itself, growing exclusive of the built environment as an emergent entity similar to the
cyclic evolution of a neural network, we can associate that both have an interconnected network structure and
sustain the capacity to adapt and self-organize by manipulating morphogenetic information. Successful
examples of such cities evolve in a very specific manner, retaining older patterns while responding to change by
adding novel adaptations. As a result, a thorough initiative to engage the communities in active participation of
urban renewal needs to be conducted, where individuals learn how to produce small-scale socially catalytic
interventions through urban acupuncture, leading to the transformation of a larger urban context. The objective
of this research is to establish the need to understand the paradigm of urban ecosystems and how the built
environment is shaped through it, while investigating the phenomena of cultural landscape and ecology as part
of city image. Cities with engaged communities are more resilient and adaptive, gearing their activities towards
poverty alleviation and the achievement of sustainable ecological communities.
KEYWORDS: Urban Acupuncture, Neural Network, Sustainable Neighbourhoods
INTRODUCTION
The city represents a multi-layered progression, similar to the transmission of multiple ripples; which
conflict with each other and struggle to reach an equilibrium. Most architects have thoroughly emphasised
the importance of understanding buildings as living entities, which grow and evolve with time. One could
inquire why the built form is attributed a temporal and corporeal identity, while the urban fabric that
houses the structure is simply considered as a consequence of geo-political dynamics between built forms.
Context, which is observed as a mode of reference for architectural intervention, should be rightfully
defined as an evident progression of spatial motivations, terming the city as a living ecosystem which
maintains its own growth independent of architectural interference. The aim of this paper is to highlight
the importance of observing the city as a living ecosystem, in lieu of which, lead to an observation of the
processes and urban practices that give shape to public space. Since city infrastructure and built
environment always need to undergo comprehensive revitalization, it would bode well to consider public
space, as Lefebvre said, as a ‘the space thus produced also serves as a tool of thought and of action’, hence
encouraging analysis on the processes of spatial production rather than merely the space itself. In this
essence, it would be beneficial to consider the individual and communal motivations that give shape to the
public space and are the core foundations of the city as an ecosystem. Far from a mechanical attribute,
such an ecosystem is a living entity which consistently evolves and undergoes catharsis, as a means of
purification and growth.
ECOLOGICAL ECUMENOPOLIS
In order to understand the dynamics associated with the evolution of cities as living entities, it is crucial to
understand why cities exist; where to understand why cities exist we may begin by postulating a world
without cities. Although they are characterised has highly complex spatial phenomenon, cities can be
categorically defined by assessing a settlement with regards to productivity. The distinction of cities from
large settlements took place, when not all inhabitants of a certain locale were engaged in agrarian
activities, giving rise to specialised occupations, such as trade and food storage. For a world without cities
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!
to exist, each individual must engage in equal productivity, making them responsible for their own
sustenance, preventing specialised occupations from occurring and negating the existence of cities. Since,
the aforementioned is a highly idealistic and somewhat counterproductive situation, cities came into place
as central hubs of trade, exchange of ideas and sharing of natural resources. A notable characteristic in the
distinction between a small city and a large town, is the existence of organized government. Where a town
accomplishes common solutions through informal agreements between neighbours and community
dwellers, the city has professional administrations and regulations to handle policy making, in addition to a
method of taxation. It is thus apparent that cities and urban space came into being; not due to
architectural or infrastructure advances, rather due to developments in social arrangements and
occupational habits, leading us to question when urbanization and city building became a purely corporal
endeavour.
The expansion of transport networks stretching farther than anticipated, has led to the emergence of
‘metropolis’ and ‘megalopolis’ where the primary concern with regards to governance, is urban sprawl. This
comprises of the diaspora towards a suburban milieu, infrastructure development replacing rural land and
high segregation between residential and commercial uses, causing negative consequences to public and
private health, environmental degradation and socio-cultural disparity due to fragmentation. Such
dispersion causes a large increase in cost for services, where provision of water, sewerage, electricity and
security becomes substantially expensive per household. In addition, the environmental side-effects are
even more problematic, where the quality of air in modern suburbs is more contaminated compared to
smaller settlements, since the average suburban resident generates more carbon emission per capita due
to increased transport. Cars and trucks account for approximately 30% of emissions of oxides of nitrogen
and 30% of hydrocarbon emissions. An additional driving related emission is CO2, an end product of the
burning of gasoline, which is the major greenhouse gas accounting for approximately 80% of emissions
with global warming potential. As a result of this, automobile traffic is a major contributor to global climate
change, which is a by-product of urban sprawl.
Farmlands and wildlife habitats are constantly displaced in favour of infrastructure development, throwing
the ecosystem out of balance, replacing forestry with impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt,
which are less effective in absorption of rainfall into the ground. Negative side effects of urban sprawl,
eventually lead to urban decay, where parts of the city, or in some cases the complete urban fabric,
becomes debilitated, resulting in deindustrialization, economic starvation, rampant unemployment and an
unreceptive cityscape. Even though there is no single cause of urban decay, it is mostly an outcome of
inappropriate planning decisions and distribution of facilities; as a result of which, it is important to
consider the design and planning decisions that have led to such degradation of the metropolitan tissue.
Form-focused theories of urban design do not deal with society at large, rather the formal quality of urban
space aiming to establish specific aesthetic prototypes of urban design. In this essence, urban design is
seen as a means to repair the urban fabric, restoring the quality of urban space to a non-deteriorated
previous state.
CITY AS A NEURAL NETWORK
The modern city can be observed to contain hybridized relations between the individual, ecology and
urban space; where the structure of the city tends towards a synthesis between the physiological needs of
the human body and the physical infrastructure of the city. If we consider the city as a living being in and of
itself, growing exclusive of the built environment as an emergent entity similar to the cyclic evolution of a
neural network, we can associate that both have an interconnected network structure and sustain the
capacity to adapt and self-organize by manipulating morphogenetic information. In theory, a metropolis
could constitute a form of organization of the city, analogous to a biological network that functions as the
structural organization of the brain. Akin to the neural network, the city is continuous but not
homogenous, articulated on different layers with varying connections and subdivided in thousands of
different branches, defining the city essentially as an organic structure that is various and changeable,
capable to incorporate mutations and self-organise.
Studying the city as a neural network means considering the whole system as field of interactions, making
it plausible to segregate a parameter and test the reaction of the system according to the chosen values for
it. This reveals an enormous potential to directly manipulate the genetic code of the city itself, following
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the rules of its natural behaviour, where development is not considered a designed superimposition on the
city, rather the result of a manipulation of its intrinsic structure. Starting from this structure, the city can
simulate grow different configurations, permutations and iterations, refining and redefining the city vision
which has emerged through the uncovering of its individual neural network. In addition to isolating a
particular parameter for stress-testing of the city system, it is most beneficial to isolate particular areas of
the urban layout and conducting analyses on the particular points as means of inculcating agents for
revitalization of the urban fabric. These particular points may be referred to as urban pressure points, which
may be the locus operandi regarding various activities, ranging from religious centres to post offices and in
many cases parks and public squares. The isolation of such pressure points, ensures that urban intervention
with a guided purpose will be conducted in a controlled environment and if successful, may be permitted
to propagate into the milieu.
URBAN PRESSURE POINTS
In essence, a localised response to community needs, rather than a large-scale urban renewal, would
respond to localized needs with a greater comprehension of how city-wide systems converge at that very
node and how working on that particular pressure point could cause a ripple-effect of renewal to spread
outwards. This method of urban revitalization is termed as urban acupuncture, which is most aptly defined
by Marco Casagrande as a ‘manipulation of the collective sensuous intellect of a city’. This strategy views
the city as a multi-dimensional, living, breathing organism and locates areas that are in need of repair,
similar to the energy-flows observed in the Chinese practice of Acupuncture. Projects pertaining to
sustainable design and efficient spatial usage, may be linked to the puncture needles that revitalize the
organism or system by working intensively on the parts. By understanding the city as a living entity, the
process promotes a community-centric method, highlighting localised nuclei which are analogous to
nodes and vital organs of the human body. Although sites are selected through analysis of social, economic
and ecological factors, the small-scale catalytic interventions are not necessarily geared at influencing such
literal aspects of the locale, rather in many situations may focus on miniscule changes in the fabric, such as
plantation of trees, introduction of street furniture and even introducing new shades and colours in the
ambiance. Since large-scale revitalization projects are not only less effective in achieving the required
result, not to mention less economically feasible; targeted small-scale changes as an approach to gradual
heal the larger urban setting is the practical motivation.
Perceiving the city as a thoroughly interlaced living, breathing entity, the urban acupuncture perspective
promotes communitarian machinery and sets localized nuclei – analogous to the meridians of the human
body. Urban acupuncture exploits the temporal nature of urbanization through punctual manipulation of
urban energy flows in order to create ecologically sustainable urban developments. Compared to
traditional methods of large scale urban renewal, these interventions have resulted to be more sensitive
and adaptable to community needs, since they respond to local necessities with the knowledge of how
overlapping urban layers converge at a particular node. Interventions at such strategic nodes prove to be
the antithesis to the corrosive outcomes of mass-industrialization, by engaging the ecological undercurrent
of the milieu and allowing environmental emergence to take place.
THE ARCHITECTURE NEEDLE
With regards to the urban organism such small-scale interventions trigger cathartic processes, establishing
a relationship between the urban collective consciousness and the vital systems of nature. Interventions of
such a nature are exemplified in feats of Architecture such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Frank
Gehry, The Sydney Opera House by Jorn Utzon, the Pompidou Centre in Paris by Sir Richard Rogers and
Renzo Piano, pointed interventions which led to real revolutions of the city fabric. The pioneer of the
practice, Brazilian architect and politician Jaime Lerner’s approach in Curitiba, Brazil is an exemplar of urban
acupuncture, with the proposition of affordable public transport, incentives for waste collective and the
construction of small parks scattered throughout the city. Lerner asserts the simplicity of the process by
expressing, ‘the city is hit, but of it, it benefits all the country. Sting the park with a needle, and of it, benefits
the whole metropolis.’
In the Netherlands, urban renewal and regeneration have been a key concern for the past 50 years, since
after World War II and the bombardment of Rotterdam, the key issue was the restructuring of the city
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because of the housing shortage. From the end of the war and the late 60s, there was a period of urban
restructuring considered an improvement of the urban structure, with the aim of ensuring adequate
functioning of city centres in respect to expanding settlements. However, in the 90s, more differentiated
housing was seen as a solution to discourage spatial segregation, with projects like Borneo & Sporenburg
revitalization taking shape in the Docklands. 2500 low-rise dwelling units focused on water-related
activities were designed, as a new interpretation of the traditional Dutch canal house. However today, since
the economic crisis it has become more inconvenient to create large scale transformations for whole
neighbourhoods, so the demand for small scale interventions is increasing. Urban acupuncture, in this
instance can be considered a 21st century strategy of urban regeneration, since it implements the small
scale interventions in such a way that it takes into account the long term goals and the requirements of the
area. For successful transformation of the physical environment and its social attributes, it is essential to
maintain and strengthen positive characteristics of the spatial identity, so as to not inculcate a
reprogramming of the genetic code, rather merely restructuring and repairing the damaged topographies.
An additional example, can be observed in Beirut, Lebanon, where Vladimir Djurovic’s proposition for the
‘Samir Kassir Public Garden’, acts as a gateway to the Central District of Beirut. The core concept revolves
around the framing and emphasising of two ancient trees that have stood in the locale for a long time. An
ecologically focused approach, the architect proposed a raised pool, lined with pebbles to create a sense of
solitude and respite on a miniscule site located in an urban district. On a larger scale, the ecological
restoration of industrial cities, can observe urban acupuncture as spontaneous emergence of urban farms
and community gardens punctuating the more mechanical city and tuning it towards a more sustainable
co-existence with the natural environment. Ecological interventions in large-scale revitalization projects
generally fail to achieve the purpose of balancing out the urban hardscape, primarily because the
ecological milieu gives shape to its own self-contained microcosm, which counterproductively fails to
engage with the hard cityscape and instead distinguishes itself as ‘the park’ or ‘the green belt’. Hence, it is
apparent that large scale ecological interventions are impractical and as a result destructive to the city
fabric, since an active dialogue between built and natural needs to take-place on a much smaller scale, one
that is achievable through urban acupuncture geared towards ecological intervention, in essence, an
ecological catharsis of the milieu.
Small-scale ecologically motivated interventions are also a positive motivation, since they endeavour to
bring together community dwellers, in attempts to be part of an environmentally-friendly development of
their locale. It is evident that architects and planners participating in such urban acupuncture initiatives can
utilize such opportunities to educate communities on the importance of small-scale socially catalytic
interventions. A thorough initiative to engage the communities in active participation of urban renewal
needs to be conducted, where individuals learn different methods of contributing positively to their
neighbourhood, such as planting trees, cleaning streets and even repairing walkways, leading to the
transformation of a larger urban context. The objective of the initiative is to establish the need to
thoroughly understand the paradigm of urban ecosystems and how the built environment is shaped
through it, while investigating the phenomena of cultural landscape and ecology as part of city image.
CONCLUSION
Cities with engaged communities are more resilient and adaptive, gearing their activities towards poverty
alleviation and the achievement of sustainable ecological communities. The goal is to not only inculcate a
manner of rational and clear thought, but also to find methods which alleviate the difficulties associated
with different environments and inhabitants. Lacking a thorough understanding of grass root settlements
in most cases, architectural intervention as a means of social revitalization fails to establish a symbiotic
relationship with the community and eventually succumbs to impassive lethargy. A successfully geared
urban acupuncture initiative can eventually lead towards poverty alleviation and self-sufficient settlements,
creating cities with adaptive and resilient communities, gearing their activities towards communal progress
and generating a vibrant urban context and to achieve sustainable ecological communities.
LIST OF REFERENCES
• Alexander, C (1965) ‘A city is not a tree’, Architectural Forum, Vol. No. 122
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• Cullen, G (1961) Townscape, London: Architectural Press
• Gandy, M (2006) ‘Zones of Indistinction: Bio-political Contestation in the Urban Arena’, Cultural Geographies,
Vol. No. 13:497-516
• Heylighen, F (1989) ‘Self-Organization, Emergence and the Architecture of Complexity’, Proceedings of the
1st European Conference on System Science, (AFCET, Paris). p. 23-32
• Koolhaas, R (1978) Delirious New York: a retroactive manifesto for Manhattan, London: Thames & Hudson
• Lefebvre, H (1991) The Production of Space, Oxford: Basil Blackwell: France
• Lerner, J (2003) Acupuntura Urbana, Rio de Janeiro: Record
• Lynch, K (1960) The Image of the City, Cambridge, London: M.I.T. Press
• Maurizio M & Nicoletta A (2004) ‘Urban Acupuncture: A Proposal for the renewal of Milan’s Urban Ring
Road, Milan, Italy’, 40th International Society of City and Regional Planners Congress: Italy
• Silva Mora, N (2013), ‘Urban Acupuncture Projects as a Slum Upgrading Process: How to tackle poverty
effectively in a multi-dimensional way: The case of Ciudad Bolivar in Bogota’, MSc Thesis, University College
London. Retrieved from:
http://www.banrepcultural.org/sites/default/files/colf_silvamora_natalia_tesis.pdf
• Sternberg, E (2002) ‘What Makes Buildings Catalytic: How Cultural Facilities Can Be Designed to Spur
Surrounding Development’, Journal of Architecture and Planning Research: Chicago
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FROM CHAOS TO ORDER: A CONTEXT-SPECIFIC DESIGN RESPONSE FOR KHUTSONG SECTION
INFORMAL SETTLEMENT, IVORY PARK, MIDRAND, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Emmanuel Nkambule, University of Pretoria, Department of Architecture, emmanuel.nkambule@up.ac.za
Abstract
Informal settlements are a common feature in developing countries like South Africa. Due to the rising interest for
in situ upgrading in the Department of Human Settlements in South Africa, an exploratory design research was
carried out by the author for Khutsong Section informal settlement located in Ivory Park within the City of
Johannesburg area. The Breaking New Ground policy upon which upgrading initiatives are founded, promotes
context-specific approaches to upgrading projects. Through a context-informed design a sustainable upgrading
vision for enabling urban environments may be developed to be used for participatory and incremental in situ
upgrading for Khutsong Section. Building on lessons learned from an in situ upgrading project in Swaziland and
Katamay’s (2004) research on Khutsong Section, a context-specific design response was developed using a
qualitative visual method. The visual research involved mapping and analyses of the urban spatial structure of
this highly dense urban settlement (more than 60 persons per hectare). The analysis showed that Khutsong
possess some characteristics of a pedestrian-oriented city like complexity, linkage, human scale, imageability
and enclosure , but lacks legibility, coherence, transparency, and tidiness. These findings were then used to do a
visual iterative process using sketches resulting in site-specific design solutions for the in situ upgrading of the
settlement.
Keywords: Khutsong Section informal settlement, pedestrian-oriented urban structure, context-specific

design.
INTRODUCTION
Khutsong Section (see Figure 3 below) is one of many informal settlements that mushroomed in the City of
Johannesburg area created by relocated residents from townships and immigrants from rural areas of South
Africa and other countries. It is located in Midrand, Ivory Park township, on municipal land zoned for
community currently occupied by close to 300 households on 24 hectares piece of land. Informal
settlements are usually established without a town planning scheme on land which does not legally belong
to those who are occupants (Augustijn-Beckers, Flacke, & Retsios 2011, p. 94). Informal housing closes the
gap of shortage of social housing and financing solutions for people with low-income levels (Zhang 2011, p.
481). Although some informal settlements have road reservations and allocated boundary lines because of
prior planning before construction of dwellings, most of them, like Khutsong, spontaneously grow so fast
such that the resulting urban spatial structure becomes organic, lacking orthogonal order and hierarchy,
adequate transportation, services, and social infrastructure. The advantage of high density urban informal
settlements with a fine grain urban spatial structure is that proximity to desired spatial destinations
increases. This is the same advantage of cities. In cities, social and spatial proximity facilitates human
interactions, urban social capital, and flow of knowledge (Agrawal, Kapur, & McHale 2008, p. 268, Helsley, &
Zenou 2014, p. 427). Being far away from cities can contribute towards inequality and worsened socio-
economic poor conditions (Zenou 2013, p. 113).
The main feature of an urban spatial structure is a transportation network infrastructure (López 2012, p. 186).
Transportation networks may be a result of a car-oriented, pedestrian-oriented, and a combination of car-
and pedestrian-oriented urban spatial structure (Anas, Arnot, & Small 2003, p. 5-6). Compared to car-
dominated spatial structures, pedestrian-oriented urban fabric in high density informal settlements can
increase levels of face-to-face social interaction and can benefit micro scale economic activities (Farber & Li
2013, p. 276). However, if there is inadequate amenities, enabling open urban spaces and water, electricity,
and sewer services, high density pedestrian-oriented urban structures can become overcrowded resulting to
poor living standards. In situ upgrading of informal settlements in urban areas may involve the creating an
urban spatial structure with a variety of economic and activity nodes, high mix-use density, adequate
accessibility for pedestrians and vehicles, and increased access to services and opportunities (Cheng,
Bertolini, le Clercq, Kapoen 2012, p. 175).
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Participatory and incremental in situ upgrading approaches are different from formalisation projects
whereby informal settlement residents are often involuntarily relocated to newly constructed houses in
South Africa (Jordhus-Lier 2014, p. 1, Wekesa, Steyn,& Otieno 2011, 242). The National Upgrading Support
Program (NUSP) of the Department of Human Settlements and its Upgrading of Informal Settlement
Program (UISP) has been recently introduced to look for socio-technical solutions that are sensitive to
existing informal settlement conditions through a participatory and incremental approach (South Africa
National Department of Human Settlements 2013, p. 1). The Breaking New Ground (BNG) policy is used to
drive in situ upgrading indicating a shift to case-based and context-specific upgrading as opposed to a mass
provision of new houses irrespective of the context (South Africa. National Department of Housing (NDoH)
2004). Context-specific design in this paper refers to sustainable interventions in the physical urban
environment that are informed by the existing physical urban features and socio-economic understanding.
Incorporating existing elements and adding a degree of formality into an organic urban structure may
enhance spatial order and hierarchy which can facilitate incremental, flexible, and collective upgrading
activities in informal settlements (Jordhus-Lier 2013, p. 7). Once in situ upgrading projects are implemented
local municipalities fail to put in place a sustainable maintenance strategy (Marias & Ntema 2013, p. 93).
Through a context-specific design response, incremental upgrading can result to holistic, enabling and self-
sustaining informal settlement urban environments (Hamdi 2010). An enabling urban spatial structure
provides environments, resources, facilities, services, and infrastructure to the community for self-help
towards improving households’ socio-economic conditions (Wekesa et al. 2011, p. 238). Through this
approach new interventions can be added to existing informal urban spatial structure in a subtle and yet
effective manner sparking off self-help upgrading projects, enabling good governance and socio-economic
activities while reducing the need for relocations. Urban open space improvements can contribute positively
the community and support physical activities which lead to better living conditions in informal settlements
(Saelens, Sallis & Frank 2003, p. 89, Naceur 2013, p. 408). Community-based planning and urban design can
play an important role in addressing socio-economic needs in informal settlements (Murungi & van Dijk
2014, p. 75).
As is the case in many developing countries, neighborhood scale mapping of informal settlements is still
lacking (Owen & Wong 2013, p. 116). In order to create urban forms and infrastructure that encapsulate the
spirit of place, ambience, and self-sustenance a design solution should emerge from the context (Widodo
2012, p. 10).A context-specific design approach may be used to understand existing physical environment
and non-physical aspects and then respond by introducing user-appropriate urban elements in movement
routes and open spaces of Khutsong informal settlement to improve spatial order and provide an enabling
urban spatial structure.
Method
Beyond building on case study the context-specific open urban space design solution for Khutsong was
achieved using a visual research methodology. This qualitative approach began with the mapping of the
existing informal settlement urban spatial structure through site visits, unstructured interviews, site
photographs, notes and sketches to record observed physical and non-physical features (Purciel, & Marrone
2006, pp. 2-5). Using both traditional and digital representation techniques in the process is recommended
especially if the designers have acquired advanced skills in the design discipline (Salman, Laing, Conniff
2014, p. 433). The designer can avoid random design decisions if each visual representation is improved by
interacting with it on the surface level taking into account the site-specific constructive and functional
considerations (Belmonte, Millán, Ruiz-Montiel, Badillo & Boned 2014, p. 409).
Analysis of the urban spatial structure using collected data was done through diagrams, massing models,
and sketches to understand existing physical spaces in relation to non-physical aspects (Nguyen & Zeng
2014, p. 3). The final stage of the visual research involved iterative and exploratory design process drawings
towards developing a site-specific and consolidated design response. A more intensive and repetitive
concept selection method was used during the design process measured using a set of design criteria
(Nikander, Liikkanen & Laakso 2014, p. 493).
The intention is not to impose the design proposal to the community, but rather to use it as means to
initiate a dialogue towards establishing a sustainable and collective upgrading vision for the settlement.
Research is an intrinsic aspect of design and an essential part of the activity of problem solving (Noble &
Bestley 2005, p. 18): When using ‘to design’ as a verb, ... meanings include to connect something, to
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simulate, to draft, to sketch, to fashion, to have designs on something (Noble & Bestley 2005, p. 48). Zeisel
(2006, p. 22) states that design ... interconnects three constituent activities: imaging, presenting, and testing.
Information is used as a heuristic catalyst for imaging and as a body of knowledge for testing.
Case study 1: The In situ upgrading of informal settlements in Mbabane, Swaziland.

In the early 1990’s the Government of Swaziland established the Ministry of Housing and Development
which formulated in situ upgrading policies with implementation strategies and procedures (Banes 2000,
pp. 1-2). Through the Swaziland Urban Development Project (SUDP) trunk infrastructure, services, and titles
for allocated plots were provided to the informal settlements of Mbabane (Msuduza, Mahwalala,
eMvakwelitje, emaNgwaneni, eSitibeni, Makholokholo, Zone 6, Hilltop, and eNkwalini). This was achieved
through series of community participation activities led by slum committees and leaders in partnership with
the Mbabane City Council. In the late 1990’s plots were allocated to residents, major roads were improved,
new landfill sites, water and sewage treatment facilities were provided (see Figures 1 & 2 below).
Although the project stretched to nearly 10 years to complete due to processes of mapping, plot allocation,
relocations, community participation, and construction, there were positive outcomes from the SUDP
(Tebbal, & Merrick 2007). Existing major roads were improved used to circulate water and electricity services
and provide storm water drainage. The results of the provision of infrastructure and services along with
provision of titles sparked many upgrading activities of houses and shops in all the informal settlements.
Relocation of existing houses and shops was kept to the minimum and plot allocations were site-specific,
site boundaries were drawn around existing structures. Plot sizes range between 300 m2 to 900 m2. The
market value of the average plot size (500 m2) was estimated to E40, 000 (US$ 3, 768.71) in 2010 and
currently going for E70,000 (US$ 6595.25). One of the negative aspects of the project is that urban designers
were not invited to provide context-specific urban open space improvements for the informal settlements.
The resulting urban spatial structure is car-oriented and lacks the qualities of a pedestrian- oriented urban
fabric.
Figure 1 Informal settlement before the construction of trunk infrastructure, services, and improvement of major
roads (Cities Alliance 2014).
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Figure 2 Informal settlement in Mbabane after the construction of trunk infrastructure, services, and houses for
those who were relocated due to road construction and improvement of major roads has sparked self-help
housing (Cities Alliance 2014).
Case study 2: Kampung Improvement Programme (KIP) Kampung Kebalen, Surabaya, Indonesia
In 2011, the author spent a month doing field work in different informal settlements in Surabaya, Indonesia.
In these settlements people are continuously building and improving their homes, greening their streets,
and recycling their waste with great enthusiasm (see Figure 3 to 4 below). These settlements are called
kampungs. They contain 50 % of the city population in Surabaya (Silas 1987). Most of the inhabitants are
from lower to middle-income groups.
In 1969 the local municipality introduced a Kampung Improvement Programme (KIP) (Litas & Langkah 1994,
Silas 1987). This programme focuses on installing drainage and paving on existing pathways. The urban
fabric of the kampung is very fine-grained with transportation networks at different scales. There is a
hierarchy in the way small pedestrian and motorbike routes connect to wider vehicle roadways (see Figure 5
below). The closely-packed unity of the housing ensures high densities and a good environment for small-
scale economic activities. The elements of KIP consist mainly of the improvement of circulation by
constructing footpaths, vehicular roads, and drains alongside the paths and roads (The Local Government of
Kotamadya 1991, p. 9).
The local municipality respects existing social network structures and administers development in each
section through them. Kampungs are organised in RT sections made up of about thirty families, and these
RTs form bigger sections called RWs consisting of about seventy families (Silas 1987). Street widths range
from three to four metres, with five-hundred milimetre drainage trenches on both sides. Indonesian culture
has a very connected family structure. A father would prefer that his children live close by and this
arrangement includes the extended family.
As part of the KIP, the local municipality holds annual competitions, giving an award to the greenest
kampung street so that the funds may be used to further its development (The Local Government of
Kotamadya 1991, p. 7). This initiative has sparked excitement and energy for establishing plastics recycling
programs, and increasing plantings along streets by reusing grey water. Empowering people has proved to
be sustainable as far as the settlement’s development is concerned. Locals were also trained in building skills
so as to be involved in the building of houses. Instead of being just a provider to the residents, the local
authority empowered them and trusted them. This also included supporting the informal housing and
economic system initiated by residents. The 3 metre wide streets play a vital role in the way the community
operates.
Some of the streets are lined with flowers, herbs, plants, small tuck shops, seating areas, a place for
weddings, storage, parking for bicycles and motorbikes, etc. The kampung is a system of relationships, and
for any development project to be a success, the social structure must be respected and inhabitants must be
invloved. The street has become a platform on which these families and communities organise and project
themselves.
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Figure 3 Green streets in Surabaya resulted from self-help initiatives that are administered through a strong
social network in each street or RT, as it is called. The use of recycled grey water to water the plants, and the spirit
of ownership keep these streets green. A strong vision, by a local municipality that supports self-help initiatives,
and community teamwork, made this project a success.
Figure 4 Streets in Surabaya kampung showing integration of economic and social activities in spaces of flows
(Municipal Government of Surabaya 1992, p. 7).
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Figure 5: A block in Surabaya with a mixed-use street edge indicates that the space of places of economic
activities serves well as a threshold that separates the public spatial domain from the semi-private spatial
domain.
Context: Open spaces in Khutsong Section

There was a mapping done by Katamaya (2004) in Khutsong settlement which documented existing
buildings and spatial uses in the settlement (see Figure 8 below). This study built on the work of Katamaya
(2004) and expanded the analysis to understand how and where relationship-building activities occur in the
settlement. Figure 7 below indicates the socio-spatial setting of the settlement. The lack of a semi-public
spatial domain between the semi-private and the public interrupts semi-private social activities. The variety
of form and space created by the informal layout and shack typologies provides a rich spatial experience in
the settlement (see Figures 6 to 8 below). Existing pathways and open spaces lack urban elements and
enabling infrastructure that can support various social and micro economic activities.
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Figure 6 Location plan of Khutsong Section Informal Settlement in Ivory Park (Google Maps 2012).
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Figure 7: Residents use the spaces in front of their houses for domestic activities which are intertwined with social
activities.
Figure 8 Computer mass model of Khutsong laid over the layout done by Katamaya (2004) showing existing
houses, shops, routes, vegetation, fences, toilets, and other physical features.
The observed relationship-building activities in open spaces in Khustong Section are influenced by other
activities and the characteristics of spaces. This means that relationship-building activities could be
encouraged by introducing other activities like micro economic activities and by altering the spaces to
attract more social activities. Existing relationship-building activities could expand if the visual research and
spatial strategy provide the necessary urban spatial elements and activities in Khutsong Section. The
following spatial analysis of the existing spaces will help highlight advantages and disadvantages that relate
to socio-spatial interdependency in the settlement. The aim of the analysis is to identify specific aspects of
the spatial structure that need to be addressed to ensure that existing relationship-building activities are
protected while new ones can be forged and grown.
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Analysis of Khutsong Section open spaces
The urban fabric of Khutsong Section possesses some of the characteristics of a compact city. The fractal
nature of pathways and organic layout of buildings is suitable for pedestrian but limiting to vehicle users.
Through the visual research process the potential of the existing informal settlement spatial structure was
explored in order to create enabling urban spaces and infrastructure. Since vehicle routes are within a
walking distances from the settlement, the fractal pathways may be used for the flow of pedestrians, goods,
and services.
The spatial analysis in Figures 6 to 8 shows that in some instances there are insufficient spatial thresholds to
separate one spatial domain from the other. They show social interactions in spaces of places and spaces of
flows. These diagrams were based on the understanding of African settlements and the observation of socio-
spatial aspects of Khutsong Section. Spatial thresholds play an important role to demarcate private, semi-
private, semi-public, and public spatial zones.
It is also clear that the lack of clean and quality urban open spaces in Khutsong Section limits the potential
for more relationship-building activities to occur. Strategic addition of urban elements, services and
infrastructure can strengthen the spatial structure of Khutsong Section to ensure an urban fabric that
encourage and support more relationship-building activities. The following discussion will delve into
proposed systems, spatial elements, and activities that can place Khutsong Section in a strategic position to
be a settlement that have growing relationship-building activities which are integrated to economic and
environmental sustainable development. The urban qualities shown in table 1 were used to do the spatial
analysis and create a design criterion for the context-specific design response that can lead to a functioning
pedestrian-oriented spatial structure for Khutsong.
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Table 1 Urban Design Qualities (Ewing, Handy, Brownson, Clemente & Winston 2006, p. 226).
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Figure 9: This drawing shows existing fractal pathways (indicated in orange) that connect to surrounding roads.
The fractal pathway system is a result of the fine grain informal settlement fabric which is negotiated by moving
pedestrians in order to access other places. Although this spatial structure possesses some of the urban qualities
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like imageability, enclosure, human scale, complexity and linkage, it lacks legibility, tidiness, coherence, and
transparency.
Figure 10: An analysis of the Moagi Street and adjacent open spaces in Khutsong. These street sections indicate
that there is inadequate building and urban form articulations, services, and infrastructure to create legibility,
coherence, linkages, tidiness, and transparency.
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Figure 11: An analysis of open spaces in relation to enclosed spaces of Khutsong Section. These sections indicate
that there is a degree of enclosure, complexity, human scale, linkage, and imageability in the informal settlement’s
spatial structure.
Design exploration: towards a context-specific design solution
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This design investigation was aimed at finding simplified solutions of urban elements and infrastructure that
can enable a variety of social and micro scale economic activities, the flow of goods, services, knowledge
and people. This was done in way that promotes collaboration and human interactions in the production
and distribution of goods, services and information in spaces of places and spaces of flows and by
integrating water quality, green infrastructure and storm water management with social and economic
activities. Different spatial configurations and arrangements were explored towards the most effective
solutions that grow out of the existing spatial structure, require minimum relocation of residents and
simplified construction methods (see Figures 12 to 15 below). Concept selection, evaluation development
was based on the following design criterion:
o Create a fine-grained informal settlement fabric.

o Activate strong local links and weak distant links, providing good links and connections within the
settlement and the rest of the world.
o Decentralise and fragment services.
o Build on existing patterns of movement.
o Plan for the human as well as the pace-of-life micro-scale, approaching an infinitesimally-grained
urban fabric.
o Make each journey enriching.
o Reduce the need to travel long distances by car by mixing uses and achieving densities high
enough to ensure viable, quality public transport.
o Encourage variety and diversity of social, economic, educational and ecological activities.
o Increase adjacency, proximity and the efficiency of circulation networks.
o Promote collaboration in the production and distribution of goods, services and information in
spaces of places and spaces of flows.
o Integrate water quality, green infrastructure and storm water management with social and
economic activities.
o Minimise relocation of residents and houses.
In the book entitled, South African Cities: A manifestor for change, Dewar & Uytenbogaardt (1991, pp. 18-21)
list urban qualities which can support small-scale activities in urban areas. The urban form and urban
structure of the informal settlement should: accommodate, support and enable the urban activities and
events; cultivate the potential and talents of many people in the development of the settlement; allow and
increase easy access to the opportunities residents generate; promote specialisation, intensity, diversity and
necessary complexity to generate urban opportunities through high levels of human interaction and
population density; characterised by quality integration between different urban, architectural, and
landscape elements of the informal settlement; and provide a sense of identity and belonging by the
provision of well-connected and demarcated private, semi-private, semi-public, and public spaces. Drawing
from these urban qualities and case studies, the work of Dewar (1982), and Whyte (2000) the following table
(Table 2 below shows guidelines used to achieve a context-specific design response for Khutsong:
GUIDELINE FOR: DESCRIPTION

Existing pathways All existing pathways shall be mapped to record the traffic flow of pedestrians and
vehicles at different times within the informal settlement. Pathways of a minimum
width of 1 metre on busy routes shall be identified for paving. In these paved
pathways a drainage channel shall be installed, flowing towards the lowest point of a
junction between zoned clusters of dwellings. The size of these drainage channels
shall be determined by calculating the storm water flow per zoned cluster of
dwellings.
A recycling station At least one water recycling station shall be provided for every two clusters at street
and community hall junctions where storm water and grey water storage tanks are positioned. All
to serve each cluster dumping sites shall be identified and allocated for solid waste recycling stations,
except if such a dumping site is not accessible from a paved pathway. Each solid
waste station shall be equipped with solar panels and a rainwater collection tank, and
may be used by local residents to store, sort, package and sell such waste as a means
of income generation. A building footprint of a maximum of 18 square metres shall
be permitted for each station. Each station shall be equipped with solar panels, play
pumps and rainwater collection tanks with a minimum storage capacity of 5 000
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litres, unless rainwater and storm water calculations require otherwise. There should
be a minimum of 1 000 litres available in storage tanks at any time of the day for fire-
fighting purposes.
The solid waste and water recycling stations shall be used as landmarks by
articulating their height, form and finishes to help pedestrians orientate themselves
within the settlement. These recycling stations shall also be used for committee and
other community meetings to drive development projects and to run training
programmes for each zoned cluster within the informal settlement.
Existing houses Clusters of a minimum of 5 houses and a maximum of 70 houses shall be identified
and zoned following the existing fractal pathway structure around them. Paved
pathways shall be used as a means of supplying services and to access each zoned
cluster.
Spatial thresholds Existing fences and invisible boundaries separating activities at each dwelling shall be
and domains identified. Spaces where domestic activities like laundry, cooking and other semi-
private social activities take place shall be zoned as semi-private spatial domains.
Spaces used for micro-scale economic activities like tuck shops shall be zoned as
semi-public spatial domains. Linear spaces used by pedestrians, playing children,
vehicles and for community gatherings shall be zoned as public spatial domains.
Existing fences and dwelling activity thresholds between semi-private spatial
domains and public spatial domains shall be identified and marked for installation of
the spatial threshold techniques discussed below.
Seating Seating and low walls of a minimum height of 300mm and maximum height of
900mm shall be installed as thresholds between any semi-private spatial domain and
any relatively less busy pedestrian pathway. All such seating and low walls shall have
a minimum depth of 400mm. A minimum of 0.3 linear metres of seating shall be
provided for each 3 square metres of urban plaza areas like community gathering
spaces, in front of shops, and on pathways. Seating with a minimum width of 760mm
shall be accessible from both sides. In order to make provision for handicapped
persons, a minimum of 5 per cent of the required seating shall have backs at least
300mm high and a minimum seating depth of 355mm.
Linear spatial Where existing pathways of a maximum width of 3m separate two existing block
thresholds edges of a zoned cluster, a wall with a minimum height of 3m shall be installed with
openings aligning with the sizes of doors, windows and gates of the nearest houses,
shops and block edges. To indicate gateways and thresholds between one zoned
cluster block and the next, such walls shall be articulated by using height,
decorations, openings and finishes reflecting social motifs of the relevant cluster
blocks. Such walls may be used for signage and graffiti only for the purpose of
promoting legal products and services offered within the settlement. Such walls shall
be arranged in such a way that they prevent the spread of fire and limit existing
zoned cluster blocks from encroaching onto paved pathways.
Shop frontages Where existing shops face an existing pathway adjacent to an existing fence or
invisible activity boundary located a minimum of 2m away from a house located in a
zoned cluster, a strip of shops a minimum of 2m wide shall be installed on both sides.
These shops shall be installed in such a manner that a continuous block edge of a
zoned cluster is achieved. All such uses shall be directly accessible from the adjacent
public space or adjoining arcade. The arrangement of such shops should maximise
northern exposure wherever possible.
Except for that portion of a pathway that widens along a narrow street, a minimum of
50 per cent of the total frontage of new building walls fronting onto an open public
space, exclusive of such frontage occupied by existing houses and recycling stations,
shall be allocated for occupancy by retail, service establishments, libraries, museums
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and art galleries.
Trees A minimum of one tree of 100mm diameter or more shall be planted for each 6m of
the entire street frontage bordering two cluster blocks. Such trees shall be positioned
in such a way that a continuous block edge is formed while shade is provided to
seating located in public open spaces. These trees shall be planted in at least 5 cubic
metres of soil per tree. Existing trees should be preserved wherever possible unless
they are invasive species or obstructing the quality of open urban space.
Existing urban Existing urban agriculture and farming activities shall be preserved and conserved.
agriculture Such activities shall be supported by continuous training programmes in order to
ensure their continuity and sustainability
Existing water All existing water collection points shall be paved and equipped with seating and
collection points trees complying with the requirements mentioned above. Drainage channels from
taps shall be linked to channels leading water to water recycling stations.
Maintenance Building owners in each zoned cluster shall be responsible for the maintenance of the
urban open space, including, but not limited to, the confinement of permitted
obstructions and litter, and the control, care and replacement of vegetation within
the zoning lot and in the street nearest to their cluster block.
Table 2: Design guidelines used in the iterative design process.
The design guidelines were used through an iterative design process resulting to the following design
solutions:
Figure 12: The insertion of a double-storey building and lightweight structures for micro-scale economic activities
provides shaded spaces. Seating can be inserted to support social activities at ground level. Butterfly roof forms
can be used to help harvest solar energy and rainwater for the use of local residents (Author 2013).
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Figure 13: This option aims to insert double-storey buildings as fragments in different open spaces and along
busy streets, while also inserting gathering spaces and service systems in between existing structures (Author
2013).
Figure 14: This solution aims to strengthen only the busiest streets with educational, economic and social
activities, while inserting recycling stations at existing dumping sites (Author 2013).
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Figure 15: This option responds to the unique physical condition of each street and open space integrating the
existing urban form with new enabling urban elements and infrastructure (Author 2013).
Elements that were proportional to existing building forms were inserted in a manner similar to the existing
urban layout to achieve a subtle new development. Forms were juxtaposed by imitating the way residents
add new houses within the informal settlement. A variety of thresholds are inserted to separate semi-private
activities from public activities.
Design results
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The last option (see Figure 15 above) achieves maximum design impact by using less visually intrusive forms.
Through this design investigation, vertical spatial planes were used to provide transitions from semi-private
to public spatial domains. These transitions provide seating, trees, shops, gates, shaded spaces and limited
visual connections between semi-private and public spatial domains (see Figures 16 to 20 below).
ND
22 OCTOBER DRIVE
FREEDOM DRIVE
KEY NORTH
Existing urban agriculture zone
Existing fragments of space of places and fractal space of flows

Proposed leisure community facilities
Proposed Water storage tanks, waste collection, satellite community halls

Existing main transport routes
Existing community gathering space
Central node for relationship-building activities

!
Proposed micro scale economic integrated with social activities
Figure 16: Strategic spatial positions and interventions for Khutsong Section in situ upgrading.
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ND
22 OCTOBER DRIVE
Figure 17: Khutsong Section context-specific design response: Site plan drawing.
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Figure 18: Khutsong Section context-specific design response: Sections and elevation drawings.
The final design solution (see Figures 16 to 21 above and below) shows the use of small shops, vertical
spatial planes, recycling stations, seating, trees and low walls to create a connection between semi-private
spatial domains and public spatial domains. In Figure 16 below shops are coloured yellow and the spaces
used for recycling and community gatherings are coloured red. These lines of shops serve as semi-public
spatial domains separating semi-private spaces from public spaces. This responsive design approach
strengthen the existing fractal pathway structure by integrating trees, seating, paved areas, water collection
systems, food gardens, existing houses and shops, waste collection points, urban elements, community and
educational facilities into a holistic design intervention. The aim was to express the identity of place and
community values of Khutsong Section by creating an aesthetic appeal, utility and functionality, while
increasing opportunities for relationship-building activities which are integrated with educational and
economic activities,
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Figure 19: Khutsong Section context-specific design solution: Layout drawings.
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Figure 20: Khutsong Section context-specific design solution: Three dimensional drawing. Recycling stations for
water and solid waste were articulated to function as landmarks and gateways in order to provide legibility within
the settlement. Linear thresholds, lines of small shops, trees, seating and low walls are used to connect semi-
private spatial domains to public spatial domains.
An integrative design approach was used to develop a responsive, harmonious, holistic, and recognisable
design solution. The solution attempts to reflect the culture of place and community values by providing site
specific solutions. The resulting aesthetic appeal, utility and functionality of the design response proposal
can help uplift the civic image of the settlement and cultivate its cultural identity and social networks. The
design also integrates relationship-building activities with economic and environmental to ensure
sustainability through innovative design resolutions. These issues will be used in the spatial strategy to form
part of the policy framework for the in situ upgrading of Khutsong Section.
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Figure 21: Khutsong Section context-specific design solution: Model. Existing houses and shops are shown in grey
and all new enabling urban forms and infrastructure is shown in white.
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CONCLUSION
The following conclusions were drawn from the visual research process:
1. The mixed-use, very fine-grained, pedestrian-orientated, fractal and fragmental nature of the urban fabric
of an African informal settlement tends to increase opportunities for social relationship-building activities.
2. These social activities are integrated with economic, cultural, domestic, political and educational activities.
3. This interconnected nature of the urban fabric of informal settlements is ideal for enhancing social
connections.
4. A significant visual and spatial impact can be achieved by subtly introducing edge and threshold defining
forms in Khutsong Section. These forms:
(i) Strengthen hierarchy in the spatial structure of the settlement to encourage relationship-building
activities to occur in private, semi-private, semi-public, and public spatial domains.
(ii) Enhance legibility within the urban fabric of the settlement.
(iii) Can accommodate services and systems which are necessary for the development of the settlement.
(iv) Can serve as a skeleton for in situ upgrading of the informal settlement.
A context-specific design approach may be used to understand existing physical environment and non-
physical aspects and then respond by introducing user-appropriate urban elements in movement routes
and open spaces of Khutsong informal settlement to improve spatial order and provide an enabling urban
spatial structure. Consequently, self- help upgrading activities by individual households may begin to occur
as was the case in the upgrading of informal settlements in Mbabane. Upgrading interventions that reflect
the identity of place can emerge through an understanding of the physical context of the Khutsong. A visual
research method becomes a valuable tool in transforming space to become an enabling environment
equipped with urban elements and systems that can support socio-economic initiatives in Khutsong. The
resulting design drawings and models can be used to communicate the in situ upgrading vision with the
community in public participation processes. Depending on the responses and feedback received from the
community and relevant stakeholders, the design solution can be developed and altered for further
discussion until consensus between the community and designers is reached.
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HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN NIGERIA
ODUNJO OLURONKE OMOLOLAOKANLAWON SIMON AYORINDE,BABA ABIOLA OLAYEMI,DEPARTMENT OF

ARCHITECTURE,
LADOKE AKINTOLA UNIVERSITYOF TECHNOLOGY, OGBOMOSO, NIGERIA,stevomary2012@gmail.com
sayokanlawon@yahoo.com
abiolaobaba@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract
Housing poverty is on the increase in Nigeria. Public housing provision has not yielded much. The country has not
complied with the 1976 United Nations recommendation of providing an annual construction rate of between 8
and 10 dwelling units per a thousand populations. The present level of annual Housing provision in Nigeria is so
low that it is estimated at between 2 and 3 dwelling units per a thousand population as at 1985 which is as a
result of high cost of provision due to utilization of conventional building materials. However, it is believed that if
the importation of these expensive construction materials could be substantially reduced using locally available
alternatives such as Laterite as is being used in other parts of Africa, the Middle East, Brazil and nearly the whole
of Latin America,, such a measure can reduce cost of construction, increase housing stock and also increase
foreign reserves of the economy of the country.
This paper therefore, makes a case for the incorporation of Laterite into Housing policies in Nigeria in order to
reduce housing poverty. Data used are majorly secondary data which was done through Historical survey
approach method and complemented with personal observation .The analysis of past government efforts of the
National Development Plan and the National Housing Policy of 1991 were done and the paper found out that the
program did not yield much due to high cost of provision of housing units which leads to unaffordability by
people, disregard for alternative avenues of housing provision etc.
The paper concludes based on the findings above that in order to achieve sustainable housing provision in
Nigeria, the material should be incorporated into housing policies and programs which should not be at the
exclusive preserve of Federal Government and at the exclusion of State and Local governments.
Keywords: public housing provision, high cost, conventional building materials, Laterite
incorporation, housing policies.
INTRODUCTION
A lot of human activity revolves around housing that it contributes 3 to 8 percent of the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) in many African countries and usually above 8 percent in many industrialized countries (Aina
1990). More significantly, housing is the dominant component of the construction industry.
However, in the developing countries of the world, as important as housing is, the problem of Housing
caused by urbanization has become an everyday discussion in all quarters of the public and private services
(Aribigbola 2000). It has become increasingly glaring that most of the urban population lives in
dehumanizing housing environments, while those who have access to average housing do so at abnormal
cost (Dosumu 2002).
In Nigeria, for example, the housing problem is essentially an urban problem (Onibokun 1985, Agbola and
Olatubara 1992 and Agbola 2001). Most authors have analyzed this from various perspectives, with most of
them giving it a quantitative pre-eminence. Also, they have, at different times, revealed the problems
associated with production among which is construction cost.
In Nigeria, for example, in the past, technological advancement made it possible to acquire building
materials from the developed countries. However, the economic crisis befalling the country one after the
other made Government realize that importing building materials for the industries is beyond their means
(Okunola 1998, Agbola 2001, Dosumu 2002).
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In order to solve the problem however, several measures were put in place such as the Structural
Adjustment Program (SAP) of 1986 which was meant to reduce housing problems (Odunjo 2006, Arayela
2005). The policy was not able to make a remarkable impact on the growth and development of the housing
sector. This led to the subsequent establishment of some relevant programs and institutions like the site and
service program as well as the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute meant to undertake research in
the areas of housing. Unfortunately, nothing was heard after the first set of brick house was produced by the
Institute.
Regrettably, housing problems which result from urbanization are still unsolved up till today due to the fact
that, the focus has always been on the use of conventional building materials. According to Dosumu (2002),
the focus on this sector alone will always lead to high cost of building materials and consequently make
housing unaffordable to the generality of the people. In fact, Onibokun and Ogbuozobe (1985) supported
this when they opined as follows: “The higher the cost of building materials, the higher the cost of housing
construction; the fewer the number of people who can afford the desired houses, the slower the rate of
housing supply. The fewer the supply, the more competitive the housing market becomes and the greater
the problems of housing especially to the lower income sector of the population”.
According to Onibokun (1985), the factors that affect the cost of housing include the cost of land,
construction cost and housing finance and administrative and management costs. In order to reduce the
cost of housing, efforts should be made to reduce cost in all these areas. Construction cost can be reduced
through the use of Laterite, an indigenous building material (Dosumu 2002, Arayela 2005, Odunjo 2006 and
Wahab 1992).
This paper therefore examines the salient issues in housing provision in Nigeria. It identifies the
achievements made and the failures recorded. At the end, the paper makes a case for the incorporation of
laterite into Housing policies in Nigeria for sustainable housing construction.
HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
Three periods or stages could be clearly identified in the housing finance development horizon in Nigeria.
These are roughly: 1960 – 1975, 1976 – 1985 and 1986 to 1991 (Agbola 2001).
1960 – 1975: Prior to 1975, that is, within the first two national development plans (1962 – 68) and (1970 –
75), housing was regarded as a social sector, a consumption – oriented, less preferred, non – income
generating sector. Paltry sums of money were accordingly allocated. With this type of wrong signal from the
public sector, the private housing sector which provides over 80 percent of residential units was not
encouraged to invest in housing. Investors were misled into believing that they could not recoup their
investment in housing (especially for the low – income people) as fast as in other sectors and with any
appreciable margin of profit. Accordingly, the (financial) loans to prospective house builders were few,
poorly organized and ineffective.
1976 – 1985: By 1975 however, the housing problems of the country as manifested in the increasing housing
shortage, rising house rents, increased overcrowding resulting in slum and unhygienic conditions, etc. can
no longer continue unnoticed. The government felt compelled to act. Luckily, the period marked the onset
of the preparation and launching of the Third National Development Plan. Consequently, the plan contained
the first explicit statements, programs and targets specifically aimed at alleviating housing problems.
Amongst these were significant and commendable steps taken to make housing loans available to an
increasing number of Nigerians through the manipulation of monetary instruments and the reconstitution
of the Nigerian Building Society into the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to serve as the apex lending
institution for home loans in Nigeria.
In addition, a number of administrative steps were taken to increase the source generally. Some of these
were the encouragement of the state and local governments and also private employers in the provision of
houses or the granting of house loans to their employees. It was within this framework that the Employees
Housing Schemes (Special Provision) Decree Number 54 of 1979 came into being. The decree made it
obligatory on any employer having a specified number of employees (fifty) to establish, execute and
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maintain a housing scheme for these employees. The various governments were to help in the provision of
land and other materials. The federal government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria, directed that
commercial banks, especially, should devote about 5 – 6 percent of their total deposit (and the insurance
companies up to 25 percent of their life deposits) in real estates.
1986 –1991: Despite all the aforementioned steps taken by the federal and most state governments, it was
discovered that the housing situation in Nigeria was getting worse. There was the need to face the housing
problem as the government was inundated with requests to do something about this problem.
The National Housing Policy of 1991

According to Aribigbola (2000), the National Housing Policy launched in 1991 on its own has as the
ultimate goal of ensuring that all Nigerians own or have access to decent housing accommodation at
affordable cost by the year 2000 AD. The objectives of the policy are stated as follow:
• To encourage and promote active participation in housing delivery by all tiers of government.
• To strengthen institutions within the system to render their operations more
responsible to demand.
• To emphasize housing investments which satisfy basic needs.
• To encourage greater participation by the private sector in housing development.
In order to ensure the success of the policy, all the three tiers of government (that is, federal, state and local
governments) were assigned specific roles and functions to perform in housing delivery and the policy
provided for a mandatory home savings schemes under the auspices of the National Housing Fund (NHF).
The fund was established with the following objectives:
• To facilitate the mobilization of the fund for the provision of houses for Nigerians at
affordable prices
• To ensure the constant supply of loans to Nigerians for the purpose of building,
purchasing and improvement of residential houses
• To provide incentives for the capital market to invest in property development
• To encourage the development of specific programs that would ensure effective
financing of housing development in particular, low cost housing for low income workers
• To provide proper policy control over the allocation economy
• To provide long- term loans to mortgage institution for on- lending to contributions to
the fund.
However, it is saddening to note that the National Housing Policy (and its financial component NHF)
has been in operation for over eight years now. A review of its implementation and performance did not
show any remarkable influence on housing delivery in the country despite the fact that housing needs were
estimated (Tables 1 and 2).
Table 1: Estimated Housing needs Nigeria (1991 – 2001)

Urban areas Rural areas Total
Housing stock 1991 (‘000 units) 3,373 11,848 15,221
Estimate no of households 2001 7,289 15,295 22,584
Required output 1991 – 2001 (‘000) 3,916 3,447 7,363
Required annual output, 1991 – 2000 1391.6 344.7 736.3
Source: UN – HABITAT, 2002.
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Table 2: Estimated Housing Stock, by dwelling types in Nigeria (1991).
Urban Urban Rural Rural Total Total
% Units % Units % Units
Maisonnette 2 67 0 12 1 79
Duplex 3 101 0 - 1 101
Detached Bungalow 10 337 20 2289 17 2,627
Semi – detached 12 67 1 60 1 127
Flat 15 506 0 - 3 506
Room 65 2,194 77 9,200 74 11,393
Others 3 101 2 287 3 388
Total 100 3,375 100 11,848 100 15,221
Source: UN – HABITAT, 2002.
The high hopes, noble pledges, huge sums of money and goodwill which welcomed the program were not
sufficient to prevent their failure. In fact, so colossal was the failure of each successive public housing
programs in the country that experts spared no pains at advancing reasons for their poor performance
which include: the excessive and unnecessary delays in the planning, execution and construction of
housing project which invariably add to housing costs, speculation and subsequently limit the number of
units that can be built with the same capital; there is also the disregard for alternative avenues of housing
provision other than direct construction. Site and services, core housing and the like were part of the
explicitly stated housing policy objectives of the third and the fourth National Development Plans, only a
handful of states experimented with them. Even where those houses were built, evidences abound to show
that many remain inhabitable and thus unoccupied. The target population, taste and preferences were not
articulated in the first instance before the standard; almost stereotype designs that have no relation to the
immediate cultural environment were adopted. These amongst other reasons account for the colossal
failure of public housing in Nigeria (Agbola,2001).
It is not surprising, therefore, that the contribution of the public sector to the total stock of housing is only
about the quarter. The implication of this is that Nigeria cannot rely on the conventional methods (direct
housing construction) to supply the low income people of this country with decent housing. Since such
people cannot cause the private housing market to produce dwelling units for their use without substantial
direct subsidy, it is therefore, advisable to explore the non–conventional methods and material such as
compacted/ stabilized laterite brick for solving the housing problems of Nigeria. This is because the material
is cheap and easily available. Also, there is ease of availability of labor that has the knowledge of
construction with the material using the correct technology.
LATERITE AS A BUILDING MATERIAL
The advantages of laterite as a building material are quite many. In spite of the fact that it had been used in
the construction of numerous buildings throughout the world since pre–historic times. Today, this material
needs some re–evaluation in Nigeria especially now, that economic consideration has begun to dictate the
choice of building materials.
Approximately, half of the world’s population of over 6 billion people still inhabits dwellings made with soils
harvested from the earth’s crust. Laterite houses are appropriate for a variety of climates and are ideally
suited for passive solar heating and cooling. The interior of such buildings stay warm in cold seasons and
cool in the hot seasons with little, if any, need for auxiliary energy. Built largely from soil excavated on site,
laterite houses require substantially less fossil fuel – derived energy to build than the conventional concrete
buildings commonly found in many urban centers in Nigeria (Arayela, 2005). Materials used for laterite
building construction are collected locally and the construction of houses is user – friendly while most
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laterite building techniques require very little skill and are ideally suited to owner – building projects. One
can learn what one needs to know in a week – long workshop. Laterite building material continues to
predominate in the other parts of Africa, the Middle East, Brazil and nearly the whole of Latin America.
Amongst industrialized countries today, there are two aspects to the current revival of interest in laterite
buildings. The first, which emerged in the south–western states of the United States of America (USA), is a
response to the desire for a more “humane” environment, an alternative to the cold and soulless technology
which has come to be symbolized by concrete, plastic and glass, those synonyms of modern progress.
In the south western part of USA, particularly in New Mexico, Arizona and southern California, adobe (sun –
dried brick) construction is currently witnessing an ever – increasing popularity. As at the year 2000, there
were more than forty (40) adobe brick manufacturers in the region, as well as many small – scale
professional. Laterite construction technology is today sufficiently confident to compete against
conventional materials and it is time, Nigerians re–appropriate the technical skills needed for their own
development.
.
CONCLUSION
This paper has shown that housing problems being experienced by people in Nigeria could be reduced
drastically with the use of local building materials such as laterite. This is because the material has high
quality, readily available, durable, culturally accepted and is cost effective; therefore, it could be used to
achieve sustainable housing for all in terms of quality and quantity.
In order to increase housing stock in Nigeria, create a more conductive living environment as well as
develop an appropriate housing construction technology, there is the need to incorporate the material
into the formulation and implementation of housing policies and programs. This should be done at all levels
of government that is, Federal, State and Local governments. Thus, there is a need now, for the Federal
government to reach out and effectively involve the people and governments at grassroots levels in the
formulation of housing policies.
LIST OF REFERENCES
Agbola, Tunde and Olatubara, C.O (1992): Housing Subsidy Mortgage Difficulties and Housing Realiability in
Nigeria: A Case Study of the Public Housing Delivery System. Urban Quarterly, Volume 4, Nos. 1 and 2. Pp. 90-96.
Agbola, Tunde (2001): Housing Strategies. In: Agbola, Tunde (ed.) Readings in Urban and Regional Planning.
Macmillan Nigeria Publishers Limited. Pp. 188-192.
Aina, T.A (1990): The Politics of Sustainable World Urban Development. In: The Living City, Towards a
Sustainable Future Cadman D. and G. Payne, eds. Routledge, London and New York.
Aribigbola, A. (2000): Conceptual Issues in housing and Housing Provision in Nigeria.In: Akinbamijo,
OlumuyiwaBayo, Fawehinmi, Abayomi Steven, Ogunsemi, Deji Rufus and Olotuah, Abiodun (eds). Effective
Housing in the 21st Century, Nigeria. AKT Ventures Limited. P.1.
Arayela, Olatunde (2005): Developing Appropriate Housing Construction Technology for Medium and Low
Income Earners in Africa: Focus on Nigeria. Africa Union of Architects Conference Proceedings. Talos Press.
Pp.10-11.
Dosumu. N.A (2002): Non-Conventional Building Materials and Housing Affordability in Nigeria.. Master of
Urban and Regional Planning Thesis, Center for Urban and Regional Planning, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.
Pp.1-3.
Odunjo, O. Omolola (2006): Utilization of Indigenous Building Materials As A Means of Improving Housing
Affordability in Nigeria. A Case Study of Ogbomoso. M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Urban and Regional
Planning, University of Ibadan, Ibadan. Pp.2-3.
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Okunola, M.T (1998): An Appraisal of the Problems Associated with the Use of Local Building Materials in the
Construction Industry. A Project Report for Higher National Diploma in Quantity Surveying, The Polytechnic,
Ibadan. Pp.1-2.
Onibokun, A.G. (1985): Housing in Nigeria. A Book of Readings, NISER, Ibadan.
Onibokun, A.G. and Ogbuozobe, J.E (1985): Trends in the Prices of Building Materials in Nigerian Urban
Centers. In: Omange, G.N (ed.) Proceedings of the Seminar on the Use of Clay Bricks and Blocks for cheaper and
durable Housing., Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), Lagos.
Wahab, K.A (1992): Prototype Designs for Low Cost Housing: An Experimental Study. In: Costa, R. and Wahab,
K.A (eds.) Environment Design in West Africa. Proceedings of the 1st Cooperative Housing for Nigeria
Conference, ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile-Ife.
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SMALL SCALE REAL ESTATES DEVELOPMENT AND SPATIAL PLANNING ‘ADJUSTMENT’ IN SURABAYA,
INDONESIA
Ispurwono Soemarno, Architecture Department/Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), Surabaya,

Indonesia, isp4251@yahoo.com
Erwin Sudarma, Architecture Department/Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), Surabaya, Indonesia,
airwind@arch.its.ac.id
Abstract
Spatial planning in Indonesia has developed since the mid-1980s. Standards on minimum supporting facilities for
settlements have also been enacted by The Public Works Department since 1976. The urbanization process,
however, converted many land farms into small-scale real estate development on the periphery of Indonesian
town and cities. The sizes of these real estates are so small, in many cases only up to 20 plots. However, in some
cases, three to five such small real estates are adjacent to one another. Hence, they couldn’t provide areas for
public spaces and other supporting facilities like shops, kindergartens let alone graveyards. Problems are arisen,
as the inhabitant needs those facilities. To accommodate this issue, the established spatial planning needs to be
adjusted to solve the problems. Evaluation is required for the implications of such modification.
The methods used in this study are field observations and interviews to related parties including the official
governments. The results are then compared to the available spatial planning. The observations include the
indication of possible adjustments on the spatial planning. A preliminary result is then discussed in a group
meeting, to reach an agreement in preventing such developments in the future.
This study is carried out at the periphery of Surabaya and this paper is a preliminary result of the overall study.
From the study it can be figured out that there is a need to set criteria in minimum size of a real estate developer.
All the results are expected to be the subject of further studies in order to gain the anticipation of possible negative
impacts on city planning.
Keywords: small scale real estate developers, adjustment, spatial planning.
INTRODUCTION
Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945. This is an archipelagic country, consisting of almost 17.500
islands and 1.990.250 km2 land area (id.wikipedia.org). It has 237.6 million inhabitants according to 2010
Indonesian Statistical Office Centre. Java is the most populous island with 136.6 million inhabitants (57.5%)
although its total area is only 126.700 km2 or 6.7% of total Indonesia (indonesiadata.co.id).
Many regulations regarding housing development have been enacted after independence, including local
government regulations. Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Province and the second largest city in the
country after Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Geographically, Surabaya is located at 07°09’00” – 07°21’00”
South latitude and 112°36’ – 112°54’ East longitude. Surabaya city is comprised from 330.48 km2
land area and a 190.39 km2 sea area. The city consists of 31 districts and 160 villages, with
administrative boundary areas as follows:
- North and East: the straits of Madura
- South: Sidoarjo Regency,
- West: Gresik Regency.
As seen in Figure 1, Surabaya is located in East Java, nearly in the middle of Indonesian archipelago. This
situation makes Surabaya an important hub for the rest of Eastern part of Indonesia.
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Figure 1: Indonesian map and the location of Surabaya.
reached 3,022,461 inhabitants, while the population

In 2011, the population of Surabaya had
growth rate between 2010-2011 is 0.09%. This population growth is increasing and at the same time
the need for housing in Surabaya is also rising.
SPATIAL PLANNING AND HOUSING CONSTRUCTION
As the capital of the province of East Java, Surabaya is also a good place for investment. As
such, the city is also providing employment opportunities for the surrounding community.
As happened in some major cities, these conditions lead to urbanization process and the
increasing need for housing and other development. Consequently, land price in urban
areas will also be more expensive than in suburban areas. To control physical
development, the Government of Surabaya has prepared a master plan since the 1970s.
The Master plan has experienced several evaluation/revision due to developments in the
field. Figure 2 is the latest Master plan drawn up in 2007.
Housing developers try to keep their housing prices within the range of consumer
purchasing power. Various strategies are used by housing developers to maintain their
business, including reducing the house/plot size or building their housing at the periphery
areas where land prices are cheaper compared to the city centre. Hence, major housing
developers try to take possession of land areas in the periphery from landowners. In Indonesia, land parcels
owned by farmers in urban areas are small in size, usually between 0.5 to 1.5 hectares only. Large housing
developers have to acquit several of these small lands to be assembled for housing projects.
Some regulations associated with residential development have been established by the
government. These include the need to build public facilities and social amenities within
the housing projects built. Table 1 is one example of the rules related to housing
construction. With these rules, it is generally only about 65% -70% of the land area of the
project that can be built for residential land and can be sold to the public.
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B"
C"
A"
Figure 2: Master plan of Surabaya 2007; (A, B, C are case studies).
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Table 1: Minimum area for neighbourhood facilities.
Inhabitant /number of
1000 / 6000 / 10000 / 30000 / 6000 120000 /
houses (R) 250 / 50R 1600 / 320R 2500 / 500R
200R 1200R 2000 R R 24000R
Type of Facilities
Playground 250 m2
Shop (1.00)
100 m2
(0.40)
Kindergarten 800 m2
(0.80)
Elementary school 2400 m2
(1.50)
Open space 1250 m2
Small religious building (0.50)
Stores 300 m2
Public parking & Public toilet (0.12) 1200
Public hall & Security m2 (0.48)
guardhouse 100 m2
(0.04)
300 m2
(0.12)
Primary high school 1800
Secondary high school m2(0.300)
Physician 1800
Supporting health centres m2(0.300)
150
m2(0.025)
500
m2(0.083)
Maternity clinic 1600
Pharmacy m2(0.160)
350
m2(0.035)
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Maternity hospital 9000
Mosque/Religious Bldg m2(0.300)
Neighbourhood Shopping 1750
Center m2(0.059)
Village office 13500
Branch Police Office m2(0.450)
Supporting Post Office 500
Branch Fire office m2(0.015)
Multi purpose Bldg 100
Public parking/Special m2(0.003)
Health Centers 100
m2(0.003)
200
m2(0.006)
1000
m2(0.030)
1000
m2(0.030)
650
m2(0.021)
Sport Field 24000
Mosque m2(0.2000)
Other religious buildings 3600 m2(0.0300)
Shopping malls 1000 m2(0.0083)
Sub-district office 36000
Police Office m2(0.3000)
Post Office branch 1000 m2(0.0083)
Fire Head office 300 m2(0.0025)
Youth-centres 500 m2(0.0041)
Parking and Public Toilets 300 m2(0.0025)
Telephone/Communication 3000 m2(0.0250)
office 4000 m2(0.0320)
Electrical poles 300 m2(0.0025)
150 m2(0.0012)
Source: Housing Standard, Indonesian Public Works DepartmentLABORATORIUM PERUMAHAN DAN PERMUKIMAN
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Aside from the above area needed in Table 1, in Surabaya housing developers have to allocate about 2% of
the land for cemetery purposes. These regulations were published, as many housing developers do not
allocate this case. In some cases, instead of allocating 2% of land for cemetery purposes, they
prefer to pay 2% share out of the price of the land to Surabaya Municipality as
participation for the government to build a municipality cemetery.
THE PROBLEMS
There has been a master plan; however, the awareness of Surabaya inhabitants to obtain
building permits before construction is not fully adhered to. Currently, only about 70% of the
buildings in Surabaya hold building permits. This condition is caused, among other things, by
the uncertainty of the process, time needed in processing the permit as well as the cost of the
permit application fee.
In the last ten years, many farmers no longer cultivate their farmland due to many reasons
including the low price of agricultural products. Instead of selling the land to developers of
large-scale housing, they divide the farm into plots for building housing. However, they do
not prepare public facilities and social amenities because of the activities that are
considered as a small-scale activity. A large number of houses built in this way generally
do not reach 50 units. Therefore, they argue they should not be required to provide such
facilities mentioned in Table 1 above. Problems arise when there are some farmers who do
the same and their location is adjacent to one another. In the long term this kind of
development, will trigger irregularities in land use. The inhabitants would require shops to
meet their daily needs. Similarly, the will also need kindergarten, health facilities,
pharmacies and so on. This situation shows the reality of modest housing area in several
cities in Indonesia, which are mixed with a variety of commercial activities. This study
attempts to investigate the above situation and look for possible solutions to overcome the
problems.
This study includes desk study and observations, followed by field surveys and interviews to
various related parties. Furthermore, the results of structured interviews are drawn based on a
variety of issues that arise. Meanwhile, the land use on survey sites are compared with the
existing master plan. The entire field findings are then discussed with various stakeholders
including local government officials. Conclusions and proposals for solving the problems
are enlisted to obtain further solution.
Initially, the list of small developers who were enrolled in small-scale residential developers
association was examined and selected. Survey was then conducted in the border area of
the Surabaya Municipality and Gresik Regency, where the above selected developers operated.
Furthermore, the locations of the housing project in question were visited. However, this
effort did not match as the small-scale developers because the developers enrolled in this
association are generally those who build houses more than 50 units in one location. Thus
they are engaged in building public facilities and social facilities as listed inTable1. Based
on this result, the survey strategy was changed. Surveys were then conducted directly by
visiting the defined study area. Wherever small-scale residential development is found, the
developer is interviewed directly.
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THE SURVEY
The survey was conducted with three small housing projects (namely A, B and C) of 3 different
locations. A, one housing project is located in Wiyung, West Surabaya. The developer of
this project could not be contacted for an interview. In this project, plot area is sold in varied
measures, namely 70-100 square meters, with 4 meters width of road. From those three
projects, two housing developers (A and C) only sell plots of land, while housing project B
provides ready-made homes.
Figure 3: Housing Project ‘A’
Figure 4: Housing Project ‘B’

Housing project B and C are located in Sambikerep, Northwest of Surabaya. In the housing project B, 40
houses are still in progress. The house type is a 36 m2 house on 72 m2 land. The price offered (in
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December 2013) is Rp. 250 million (ca. US$ 21,830) and can be paid in instalments over 5, 10 or 15
years.
Figure 5: Housing Project ‘C’.
In housing project C, 48 plots have already been sold. Two plot sizes offered here: 6X12 m2 and 6X15 m2.
The width of the road in this project is 4 meters. In housing project ‘C’ one can see that the
site originally was rice field. Small poles which were painted red indicate boundaries
between parcels.
From the observations, surveys and interviews, the problems arising from the above three
small-scale residential construction activities are as follows:
- Reduction of agricultural land into residential activity, so that green space is also
reduced.
- No public facilities or social amenities provided on the above three housing
projects.
- Damage to public roads built by the government because the roads are used for
the transportation of building materials activities, with no attempt from the
developers’ side to renovate it.
- Mixing of various activities (residential, commercial, education and others) at the
same block/area. This situation would obviously disrupt land use in that area.
- No land for cemetery purposes due to land allocations for these activities that are
not considered profitable by housing developers.
- No drainage channels built along the up front road in all these housing projects. As
a consequence, the area has potential for flood problems.
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THE ‘RESILIENCE’ SOLUTION
The findings of the above issues are then discussed along with various related parties in a
forum. The outcomes of the discussions resulted in an agreement as follows:
- The Municipality has to facilitate the building permit application process through
transparency in costs and the processing time. In addition, the applicant can check
its license through an online application process.
- Issuance of Mayor's decision or local regulation related to the minimum area of land for
residential development so that the availability of social facilities and public
facilities can be guaranteed.
- To be able to build housing project, the landowner must join with other
surrounding landowners so that the minimum area of land for housing activities
can be achieved.
- Periodically the government will evaluate the existing master plan associated with
things happening in the field and not yet mentioned in the preparation of the
master plan. However, other forms of violation of the master plan will get action in
accordance with the regulations.
It should be understood that the above decision is subject to change, therefore the
solution need to be reviewed as soon as it is first launched to the public. Awareness to
obey the law and the enforcement from all parties involved will better ensure the
implementation of the above agreement.
REFERENCES
Doebele, WA., 1980. ‘Some unexamined aspects of urban land markets: Proposals for research’, in ‘World
congress on land policy’, Lexington Books, Lexington, Massachusetts.
Doebele, WA., 1983. ‘The provision of land for the urban poor: Concepts, instruments and prospects’ in S
Angel, RW Archer, S Tanphiphat & EA Wegelin (eds), ‘Land for housing the poor’, Select Books, Singapore, pp.
348-374.
Payne, G., 1997. Urban land tenure and property rights in developing countries: A review, Intermediate
Technology Publications, London.
Soemarno, I., 2011. Urban land policy and housing development in Indonesia: Surabaya as a case study, LAP
LAMBERT Academic Publishing, Saarbrucken.
Struyk, RJ, Hoffmann, ML et al., 1990. The market for shelter in Indonesian cities, The Urban Institute Press,
Washington DC.
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HOUSING CONSOLIDATION: INNOVATIVE ATTEMPTS OF HOUSEHOLDS IN CONSOLIDATION OF LOW COST
HOUSING IN SOUTH AFRICA
Judith T Ojo-Aromokudu, School of Built Environment and Development Studies, University of Kwazulu
Natal, ojoaromokudu@ukzn.ac.za
Abstract
South Africa’s low cost housing provided by the state is described as a starter house. It is intended that as a result
of accessing housing, socio economic status of households will improve and households will be able to extend
their dwellings to suit their needs (Napier 1998). It has however been documented that households have had
challenges in consolidating i.e. improving and extending their dwelling, basically due to financial and site
constraints. Despite this, with a self-help approach, many households have attempted to consolidate their
dwellings within their means, relying on their limited finances, and technical know-how.
The paper reports on the innovative ways households in the post-apartheid Reconstruction and Development
Programme (RDP) settlements have attempted to consolidate their homes. It seeks to answer the question – how
can consolidation be enhanced in state funded settlements?
To answer this question, field work research is undertaken and documents innovative consolidation attempts,
constraints and impacts of such attempts both on the household and the environment. Focus is placed on visible
efforts by purposefully selected households. It is hypothesized that households are resilient in their approach to
address housing needs and lessons can be learnt from them.
Findings show that inherent know-how of the household is expressed in the construction methods employed, and
where expertise is lacking in the household, assistance is sort from social network groups and broader pull of
skilled expertise of the urban area.
Keywords: RDP settlements, housing consolidation, indigenous knowledge systems, site layout, building design.
INTRODUCTION
Internationally, the purpose of housing policy is to allow the largest number of families or ideally every
household the opportunity to access suitable housing in terms of location, quality, size and price (Iommi
2009). Based on the premise of making housing accessible to all, the housing subsidy targets the poorest of
the poor and employs a socialist approach in delivering housing. The product delivered is a basic shell
structure, inherited from the past government. Each unit is constructed on a leveled platform site of 15m by
45m with street access allowed.
The brick and mortar structure has one entrance and is basically four rooms with an internal toilet and
shower. The four rooms can be interpreted as a dining and kitchenette, two bedrooms, one living room. The
shell is of brick and mortar concrete floor and a corrugated iron sheet roof covering, and floor to ceiling
height is 2.3m, with a lintel in place over door and window openings. Walls are bag-wash finished, and in
some instances with colored plaster. Metered electricity is supplied to each unit inclusive of light and plug
point. In some instances, metered water is also supplied. This shell has been referred to in the policy as the
starter house.
The one man one plot prototype is employed after findings revealed this to be preferred over the row or
semidetached housing units (Frescura 1986). Frescura further records that the design of the housing units
then known as the NE51/9 (Non-European 1951), was informed by then ministers of native affairs statement
that it was a “….. wrong notion that the Native who has barely left his primitive conditions should be
provided with a house which to him resembled a palace and with conveniences which he cannot appreciate
and will not require for many years to come.” As such the size of the dwelling unit and fittings were kept very
basic and layout of the structure on the site was such that it intentionally disadvantaged building extensions
(Frescura 1986). The resulting design by Calderwood in the 1950s has remained the prototype for the RDP
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state housing to date. Even though the design considerations shifted from just providing a shell to providing
a starter house the design of the initial structure has remained the same. It is noted that the government has
always been mindful of the inadequacy of the 30sqm house afforded by the state housing subsidy; but this
product has remained on the premise that the inadequacy will be short term and that household swill
improve and extend the starter house incrementally (Adebayo 2011).
Beneficiaries of the RDP housing have remained predominantly the black African population somewhat by
default as the poorest of the poor due to apartheid history. In many RDP settlements, households are first
generation migrants to the city or from squatter settlements in or around the city where work opportunities
exist; many coming into the RDP settlements with past experience of self-build dwelling initiatives, either
from direct involvement or by observing older family members construct the dwelling, in rural or urban
settings.
THE NOTION OF CONSOLIDATION (LITERATURE REVIEW)
The notion of self-help incremental housing has been used in South Africa as far back as pre-colonial times,
Adebayo (2011) records that it was the preferred mode of housing delivery for the Africans. Over a period of
ten years, she reports that the efforts have yielded mixed results attributed to “…certain local factors such as
technical knowhow of small builders available and support from local authorities”. Other factors identified
include the finance for housing improvements (Rust 2004), design issues not suited for consolidation.
Consolidation in general terms refers to ‘the bringing together of different parts, to solidify, to strengthen, to
discard unused items and organize the remaining, to compact into one body’ (dictionary). It therefore
assumes there are various parts to be consolidated into one, and would require a stock take to appreciate
what these various parts are. In the life of a building the uses change over time thus the need for
renovations, extensions. Slaughter (2001) groups the causes of changes, irrespective of building type into
three broad categories; change in function, capacity and flow. Two sources of changes are either as a result
of the building such as building deterioration and environmental conditions; and changes as a result of
owner’s objectives and or the expected facility usage (Slaughter 2001). Buildings are often thus inadequate
where they are not flexible and adaptable to accommodate changes over time.
Maury (1999) identified four areas of change to buildings, changes to the building structure, services,
enclosure, or the interior finish. The decision taken to effect change will happened based on the owner’s
objectives, or the expectation of usage as described by Slaughter above. So if the owner’s objective is to
accommodate more children in the home there will be the drive to provide an additional room, unlike if the
need is to express affluence the change could be more in the interior finishes, exterior landscape. These
modes of expression are however predetermined by past experiences which are now discussed.
Experiences from rural settings

The RDP settlements are predominantly of migrants from surrounding rural areas, seeking job opportunities
in the urban areas. At the onset of democracy in South Africa and the dropping of segregation laws, many
African people took the opportunity and moved closer to urban areas, coming in with what can be
described as traditional self-help methods of building construction. The typical rural worker is described by
Cornell and Inder (2004) as “…a utility- maximizing individual who has a choice to produce the agricultural
good or migrate to the urban sector in search of waged employment.” This migration is an individual
endeavour often leaving behind the household. It must be understood that households in the rural setting
are composed of more than the immediate nuclear family (a man, wife and children) but more of a family
clan that look out for each other.
Traditional housing construction methods are a joint household effort, using indigenous knowledge and
readily available materials to build a form most suited to the natural environment. Frescura (1982) reports
that “vernacular buildings of the South African region belong to an architecture which is endowed with a
great deal of character, of charm and of personality”. Construction method is rudimentary and the know-
how of the construction techniques and processes is held with the older members of the clan and
permeates down to the younger members, with specific tasks traditionally assigned to each person
irrespective of gender. His research showed that construction process was community effort “…often with
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the whole neighborhood combining together to erect a man’s house in the knowledge and expectation that
he will assist when called upon by another to do so.” He further emphasizes that it is “an architecture high
responsive to the inhabitants’ culture, economy, and physical environment. It is therefore with a rich variety
of dwelling forms, material texture and inventiveness” (Frescura 1982).
House typology varies but keeps the circular floor plan and thatched roof. In the case of extending the home
stead, an additional unit (rondavel) is constructed with reference to the existing buildings. With modern
roofing materials, Frescura records that the rural dweller can extend by adding on a lean-to roof round the
exiting unit. The layout consequently grows organically with an understood hierarchy between the
buildings (Frescura 1982, Mhalba unpublished).
Experiences from urban involvements

Modern construction practice in Africa has been on the increase ever since the colonial years. It is seen as an
expression of progress, moving from traditional construction practices of self-help to more sophisticated
construction methods practiced in the urban areas (Folkers 2011). Unlike traditional practices, the urban
construction process is an individual effort, requiring financial capacity to pull the process through
successfully. Folkers notes that traditional building systems have adopted European elements such as
standardized family units, use of materials foreign to the environment such as cement, processed timber,
and galvanized iron sheets. Construction methods are thus relearnt in the urban areas. It is recorded that
many countries under the British Empire were obliged to learn construction practices to meet the
requirements of colonial construction methods (Root and Wachira 2009). This method of construction
entails factory manufactured building parts and precision equipment in order to achieve the desired
finished product. Migrants into the urban areas may find themselves in squatter settlements and the
resilient nature aided by the self-help practices are able to create shelter, sometimes these experiences
move with them to the formal housing settlements provided by the state.
METHODOLOGY
The approach taken was to observe attempts made by households and report on such efforts. The study site
is within the uMhlathuzi municipal area at the uMhlathuzi village. A purposeful survey is employed, and
households with visible alterations to their dwellings are approached so as to inspect the construction
attempts. At this stage focused is placed on the visible efforts seen within the premises of the household.
Intentions of the effort is not questioned but interpreted in the following broad categories – changes in
terms of function, capacity, and flow. The methods of construction employed are examined in terms of the
inclination towards traditional or modern construction practice and the resulting product.
CONSOLIDATION ATTEMPTS (RESEARCH FINDINGS)
Changes in capacity
Where the units are owner occupied there are more attempts to make substantial upgrade to the building
structure. This is an expression of improved social and economic capacity of the dwelling. For example
households may opt to demolish the entire structure and built a more structurally sound building adorned
with modern architectural expressions (see Figure 1). The findings reveal that not all units are occupied by
the original owners.
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Figure 1: New structures replacing RDP house.
In other cases where the financial capacity is a challenge, due to stages in life cycle, households have
employed the traditional circular building floor plan to increase the number of rooms. This is an external
room built of a single skin brick wall and with a traditional type roof and one window (Figures 2 & 3). On
close examination, it is observed that the underside of the roof is neatly fitted with isolating material to aid
the cooling of the interior of the room. There are no lintels over openings. The room is furnished with a bed
and bed side table, no plug points are noted or any ablution facilities. The occupant explained that the toilet
and shower is in the main (RDP) house. This household had not only increased the number of rooms but also
built a chicken shed where agricultural chickens are breed. The shed is of timber and other recycled
materials and fitted with a door. Ventilation is through wire mesh openings in the timer walls and covered
with plastic sheets as a sun shading device. The owner confirmed there was help in building the structure
from sources known to them in the community.
Figure 2 Figure 3
Other efforts to increase capacity were the adding on of a temporary shack utilizing one of the building walls
as a support. These endeavours create pockets of behind and in between spaces that are of little or no use to
the household (Figures 4, 5, 6).
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Figure 4 Figure 5
Figure 6
Some uncompleted attempts are noticed also, on engaging with a home owner who is a single mother of
two teenage boys, and who works two days as a domestic worker, she explained she had engaged a friend
who was a builder to build her an external room.
Unfortunately she was unable to buy the required materials and so had to abandon the project. On further
probing she indicted she will need an amount of R10,000 to complete the room. The uncompleted structure
is a single skin circular floor plan structure built out of blocks. There is no evidence of foundation trench
preparations or establishing of floor levels for adequate flooring. No provision is made for ablution facilities.
Figure 7 Figure 8
Change in function
The change in function sees the structure taking on more than just shelter, but becoming home. This is done
by landscape features around the house, and adjustments to the wall and floor finishes. In one of the houses
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visited, the occupant confirmed that he was renting and had a huge home in the rural areas of Kwamsane
KZN (Figure 9). He presents a picture of the huge house which is basically a collection of small dwelling units
sited in the mountainous planes of rural KZN. On a close examination of the picture, the main dwelling can
be seen as the old mud hut with a thatched roof surrounded by building of brick and mortar with a painted
wall finish.
Figure 9
Figure 10
Another household within the settlement has upgraded window frames floor finishes and added on
elements of beautification to make the house a home (Figure 11). It is occupied by a young family of three
with substantial modifications carried out on the interior layout of the building. On the exterior a purpose
built braai stand can be seen on the grounds (Figure 12).
Figure 11 Figure 12
CONCLUSION
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It was found that the consolidation attempts in the RDP settlements are of a self-help initiative with no
assistance or monitoring from the state. As a result, consolidation steps are left to the decision of the
household who have proven to be technically unskilled to handle building construction even at the
rudimentary level. This may be attributed to the disruption of traditional knowledge systems of the rural
households due to rural urban migration. Knowledge and support systems are left behind and households
seek support from social networks within or pay for services of skilled labour.
Consolidation as a process entails pulling together pieces to make a useful whole. The attempts of
households are more of incremental development whereby additional rooms are added within the site
boundary, a practice common in the rural settings. The exercise of consolidation is a misnomer when
referring to individual housing units but will be more applicable when considering a group of dwelling units
at settlement level, a collective attempt with a group of households coming together to reduce lost space
between buildings and gain on group effort to employ technical skills.
Households have avoided extending existing structures, which could easily be attributed to a knowledge
system that supports the construction of smaller units separate to each other. Financial challenges still
remain a problem. After sixty three years since the design of the NE51 housing typology, it would be time to
propose a revised typology that takes all the above into consideration.
REFERENCES
Adebayo, PW., 2011. ‘Post-Apartheid housing policy and a somewhat altered state role; Does incremental
housing still have a place in South Africa’, The Built and Human Environment Review vol.4, Special Edition 2.
Cornwell, K & Inder B., 2004. Migration and unemployment in South Africa: When motivation surpasses the
theory, The Department of Economic and Business Studies, Australia.
Folkers A., 2011. Modern architecture in Africa- critical reflections on architectural practice in Burkina Faso,
Tanzania and Ethiopia 1984- 2009, Utrecht
Frescura, F., 1982. Self-help housing: Some rural examples and prototypes, Department of Architecture
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Frescura, F & Riordan R., 1986. ‘Motherwell housing survey report’, Unpublished.
Gann, D & Barlows J., 1995. ‘Flexibility in building use: The technical feasibility of converting redundant
offices into flats’, Construction Management, vol. 14, pp. 55-56.
Mhlaba, D & Awuor- Hayangah, R., ‘Urbanization of traditional settlements: Impacts of rural urban
transformation’, Unpublished.
Napier, M., 1998. ‘Core housing and residents’ impacts- Personal experiences of incremental housing in two
South African settlements’, TWPR, vol. 20, no. 4.
Root, D & Wachira, N., 2009. ‘A legacy of empire: The imposition, evolution, and failure of construction skills
training systems in Kenya and South Africa’, in A Danity (d), Proceedings 25th Annual ARCOM Conference 7-
9 September, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, pp. 665-74.
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A SPACE EXPANSION MODEL FOR PRODUCTIVE HOUSING IN FISH PROCESSING KAMPUNG
Adinda Sih P.R. Utami, Happy R. Santosa, I G. N. Antaryama, Department of Architecture, Institut Teknologi
Sepuluh Nopember, Indonesia, dindarch.sih@gmail.com
Abstract
Productive housing is an alternative which is implemented for increasing a family’s economy. The existence of
productive housing also leads to some conflict; one of them is space conflict. Space conflict is as a result of the
overlapping between domestic needs and production needs.
This happens in the research area, Kampung Sukolilo, which is famous for fish processed products. In kampung,
most inhabitants choose to process fish products as family support. Space conflicts that occurred in this study
area don’t only occur in the house, but also in the surroundings. Space conflicts occur occurs outside the
productive space because of the need for production space that is always increasing while the houses are not able
to accommodate the production. In addition, conflicts also occur during the drying process. This is particularly
noticeable in the study area where most of the drying process occurs in the road as well as housing alleys for the
drying area.
This survey was conducted by interviews and field observations with participant’s observation as the primary
method. The data collected was analyzed and interpreted in order to understand the basic qualitative approaches
that can be used for material synthesis models.
The study found that most inhabitants expanded their house space to accommodate their space needs. Several
types of space expansion were done by the inhabitants. The space extension model could be horizontal expansion
and vertical expansion. Culture and norms help the inhabitants in expanding the space of their production houses
in Kampung Sukolilo.
Key words: conflict, domestic, housing, productive, space, expansion.
INTRODUCTION
The house is the place where the family is developed physically and non-physically (Setijanti & Silas 2000).
The increase in Home Based Enterprises (HBEs) growth rate marks its role as a survival function. HBEs is
researched and learnt because of its significant impact on issues, such as health security, land security, waste
management, resilience, and so on.
This paper is focused on the issue of space which is as a result of the existence of Home Based Enterprises
(hereafter referred to as HBEs). The focus of the spatial issue that is researched is “space expansion as an
impact and solution of space conflict”. Space conflicts occur due to the productive space that could not be
accommodated by dwelling space (domestic). Space expansion is an effort done by HBEs operators to
synergize their space. Synergy is the adaptation of the activity that occurs and made by the occupants
(Wijaya 2003, p. 199).
Research was conducted using some methodologies, such as mapping study, interviews, and participant
observation. With these methodologies, the researcher found that most HBE operators expanding their
space will encroach on other space or public space.
KAMPUNG SUKOLILO, SURABAYA, INDONESIA
The case study took place in Surabaya coastal kampung named Kampung Sukolilo, which is well known as a
Prominent Kampung in Fish Processed products (Kampung Unggulan Olahan Hasil Laut). Kampung Sukolilo
is located in coastal town of Kenjeran beach, Surabaya, which consists of 8 alleys. Most inhabitants of this
kampung are fishermen (mostly men) and fish processors (mostly women). Kampung Sukolilo is known as a
prominent kampung in Fish Processing (Kampung Unggulan Olahan Hasil Laut). Kampung has become a
center of Home Based Enterprises (HBEs) in processing seafood into crackers and dried food. Not only to
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meet local market needs, but also they supply several products in the market outside the city, outside the
island, and to foreign countries. Figure 1 below shows the research site.
Figure 1. Research site Kampung Sukolilo (Source: maps.google.com).
MAPPING, INTERVIEW, PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
The researcher tried to compile several methods to obtain data. In order to get closer and understand the
problem in the kampung, the researcher did a preliminary survey several times. After that, the researcher
tried to analyze and get the brief overview of fish processed in producing houses.
From the overview, the researcher chose 3 methods: mapping, field observation and interview and
participant observation. The researcher did a mapping case study for four days. Mapping was done in the
interest of searching the variants (heterogeneity) of Home Based Enterprises existing in Kampung Sukolilo.
This method was also done with the aim of recognizing the HBEs phenomenon in the area.
The interview was conducted for two research samples. The first interview was conducted for the common
inhabitants of Kampung Sukolilo. The interview was about the common phenomenon of HBEs (domestic
and production activities) and how they deal with the issue. The second interview was a deep interview,
conducted for 5 participants (from 5 variants).
Many HBEs activities could be seen in a visible way and were documented by the researcher, but several
spaces and territories could not be seen and this was discovered by having a closer relationship with the
participants. Participant observation was achieved by taking part in their daily activities. By taking part in
their daily activities, the researcher could see the spaces used and the effect of home based enterprises
especially for space expansion.
SPACE AND HBEs ACTIVITIES
For the mapping study, it was known that Home Based Enterprises (HBEs) truly sustains the living situations
of the inhabitants. The production activities are done every day by the inhabitants. In HBEs, sometimes we
cannot ascertain whether it is a domestic area or a production area because there is no visible territory or
sign. We can see and understand the area if we know the activities. For HBE operators, they have domestic
activities and production activities which should be done in their houses and surroundings. They do not
have a particular area for a particular activity. HBE activities in this paper are concerned with fish processed
products.
Space availability in the house

In the research site, houses are very small, sticking together with other houses at the back and sides. One or
two storey houses with simple construction and an area of about 12 square meters, occupied by 3-5 persons.
Some of them separate it into a living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and storage. But this is not a
common condition. Every inhabitant in the research site has similar domestic activities. They do the same
activities like eating, sleeping, bathing, cooking, cleaning, etc. The lack of space does not become a
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hindrance for them to do HBEs. Bearing in mind, the small area of the house, every house has its own
consideration to be dealt with. Figure 2 shows several houses in the research site.
Figure 2: Small houses in the research site.
Common HBE activities

HBEs have different production activities that depend on the kind of fish products they have. The different
fishery product will affect the particular space they use. In common, they have similar activities and space
required as well various production activities. These similar production activities are: (a) receiving raw
materials (b) washing (c) arranging the material (d) drying (e) stock fish product in storage (f) saving and
maintaining the utensils for production. As said before, certain production activities affect the space
required. Most production activities have a correlation with water and fish smell; consequently, the HBEs
operators do the activities in an open space, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Common production

activities.
Particular production activities

As said earlier, they have different production activities that depend on the kind of fish product they have.
The simple production activities were conducted for the production of small dried shrimp. The HBEs
operator only does common production activities (receiving raw material, washing, arranging the material,
drying, stock fish products in storage, saving and maintaining the utensils for production). Different from
the sea cucumber cracker, the HBEs operators should do more complex production activities. The operator
should dredge the sea cucumber’s egg inside and fry it (sea cucumber and the egg), as shown in Figure 4.
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Figure 4. Operator dredges the sea cucumber egg; operator frys the sea cucumber and the egg.
Unlike sea cucumber crackers, a more complex production activity is needed to produce jellyfish crackers. To
produce them, HBEs operator wash the raw jellyfish several times by stomping it. Then, they have to dredge
the intestine and wash it again. The other particular activities are to fry the dried jellyfish with sand and
again with oil as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Operator stomp the raw jellyfish, dredge the intestine, and fry the dried jellyfish.
Common Production Activities Particular Production Activities

Receiving raw material Dredge sea cucumber egg
Washing Stomp the raw jellyfish
Arranging the material Dredge jellyfish intestine
Drying Fry with sand
Stock up fish products in storage Fry with oil
Saving and maintaining the production utensils
Table 1. Common production activities and particular production activities.
SPATIAL USAGE FOR HBES
It can be seen from Table 1 that most of the production activities need a large open space to be
accommodated. Most production activities are done in open space. The magnitude of the need for open
space has encouraged people to occupy wherever the open space is. It can mean pathways, side-roads,
other people’s open space, their personal open space, or free space above. Figure 6 shows a wide open
space that is occupied by HBEs operators for conducting their production activities.
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Figure 6. Production spaces at community open space, pathways, and free space above.
Production activity that requires the largest open space is drying activity. They have some innovation for
drying their fishery production. Different characteristics of their housing lead to different drying systems. For
HBEs operators who live houses that are closer to the road, the characteristics of their housing area include:
small houses and houses that stick with other houses at the back and sides. They make the production
process in front of their houses or on pathways. Sometimes they dry the fish with racks down the side road,
pathways (ground level drying) or hang it up above the pathways so people will still be able to access the
pathways below (raised rack drying). For HBEs operators that live in housing nearer to the beach, they have a
larger open space. They do the production in front of their houses, but still in their land. Sometimes, they do
some production processes on the pathways. For drying system, they also have an innovation, raised rack
drying system. With that system, they can still do production below the drying racks. Figure 7 shows some
innovation made by HBEs operators.
Figure 7. Drying system made by HBEs Operators.
For the HBEs processors with limited space and without a specific area for raising rack drying will usually
make the process on the street in front of their houses. Such processing and drying of products have
occurred down through the generations and a problem never occurs among residents. However, drying in a
public area like this interferes with the pedestrians and vehicles passing through it. Also, hygiene is not
guaranteed.
MULTIFUNCTIONAL SPACE AND SPACE EXPANSION
Many activities, space, function, and space limitation lead to space conflict. Inhabitants (or in this case HBE
operators) search for solutions to resolve the space conflict by using its resources or anything they are able
to afford independently. Two storey buildings provide increased flexibility as there is an opportunity for
vertical distinction between HBE and domestic activity (Kellet & Tipple, 2000, p. 9). Some participants, as
mentioned by Kellet & Tipple, use the second floor for domestic space and the first floor for production
space. In most cases, participants don’t have storey buildings.
The lack of space and the need for having HBEs inside forces HBE operators to share their space to
accommodate domestic activities and production activities as well, this is called multifunctional space.
Space can be classified based on time dimension and area dimension. Space division based on the time
dimension is the change of activities (domestic and production) in the same area of space. For example, a
kitchen that is used for meal cooking in the morning (domestic activities) will be used for frying seafood
crackers (production activities) at noon. Two different activities are accommodated in the same kitchen, but
at different times. Whereas space division based on space area is marked by the existence of a boundary
between one space function and another space function. The boundary and space function will always be
that way without being affected by the time. For example, in a house with a kitchen for domestic use and
another kitchen for production use, they have two kitchens for different uses. It should be that no other
function occupies the space. Figure 8 shows two different of multifunctional space.
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Figure 8. Multifunctional space based on time dimension (left); multifunctional space based on area dimension
(right).
As said earlier, lack of space is not a reason for not having HBEs. Because of the lack of space, more function
needs to be accommodated; HBE operators must add space, whether with their own resources or not. In
Indonesia, the use of space around the house with the purpose of expanding their workspace or production
space is very common (Laboratory for Housing and Human Settlement 2002, pp. 4-38). The pedestrian way
in alleys is an important element for sustainability of HBEs (Laboratory for Housing and Human Settlement
2002, pp. 4-12). In Figure 7 above, it can be seen that the operators sometimes expand their space into other
spaces that are not theirs (other people’s space or even public space).
Space expansion is the further result of multifunction space which can no longer be accommodated by the
space owned by HBEs operators. Figure 9 shows the diagram of the change process from multifunction
space into space expansion.
Figure 9. The change process of multifunction space into space expansion.
SPACE EXPANSION IN FISH PROCESSED HOME BASED ENTERPRISES
The existence of Home Based Enterprises leads to some need for production space. It can encourage HBE
operators to improve their houses. The researcher found two reasons why HBE operators need to improve
their houses. The reasons are lack of space and fish smell from the raw fisheries. In common, improving the
house by expanding the land or adding some rooms is the best option. In this case study, Kampung Sukolilo
inhabitants do not have enough land for production activities, so they have no option other than to expand
the space they occupy and wherever there are empty lands.
There are two main types of expansion found in Kampung Sukolilo. The first one is inner space expansion
and the second one is open space expansion. For the inner space expansion (owned by the HBEs operator) ,
it is conducted only for dry production process, for example stocking the fish product, maintaining the
production tools and frying the dried fish product. Figure 10 shows the inner space expansion.
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Figure 10. Inner space expansion
From Figure 9, we see two types of inner space expansion, vertical inner space expansion and horizontal
space expansion. Vertical space expansion is usually done for the purpose of storage. The HBE operators
provide a vertical rack made from wood to store some production tools and dried fish products. This vertical
expansion is done by an operator with small house space. This is the easiest way for expansion if the HBE
operators want to have extra space without interfering with other or public space. For wealthier HBE
operators, sometimes they do vertical inner space expansion by building the second floor for domestic
space and the first floor for production space.
Horizontal space expansion is done by HBE operators who have bigger houses. They expand their
production space with terrace. Most HBE operators in kampung do the horizontal inner space expansion.
It is fine for everyone to do their production space on the terrace because they will not interfere with other
people’s space or public space. They do not have to ask for permission for space expansion because it is
officially their space. The model of inner space expansion is shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11. Model of inner space expansion (section).
The second type of space expansion is the open space expansion; it is conducted in wet production
processes and sometimes for expanding domestic functions as well. For this type of expansion, actors are
less concerned with the ownership of open space. So, the expansion could be done for; open space owned
by the HBEs operator, open space owned by others and open space owned by the community or public
space (pathways and side road). Figure 12 shows the open space expansion that is done by HBE operators in
Kampung Sukolilo.
Figure 12. Open space expansion (left-right: expand to their own open space; rent an open space; use community
open space; use public space).
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There are four types of open space expansion based on the ownership of the land (open space): expanding
their own open space, other people’s open space, community open space and public space. Some HBE
operators expand their open space. This type of expansion is only done by the operator who has a bigger
area of land to accommodate their domestic used and production uses as well. The HBE operators who do
this kind of expansion are able to manage their land. Some operators use their land and some others rent
their land to HBEs operators who do not have open space to conduct their production. For large scale HBEs
operators, they have a big open space and use it mainly for production. Not only for washing, wet
processing, and drying process, but they also build a production kitchen. With this kind of expansion, they
will probably not interfere with other people’s space, as shown in Figure 13.
Figure 13. Model of open space expansion to their own open space (section).
For operators who have limited land area and they need extra space for production, they will use other
people’s space, community space or public space. For using other people’s space, HBE operators should ask
for permission. They rent the land from operators who have bigger open space. They can rent it by paying
with cash or with raw materials. Sometimes, this expansion results in conflict. Some operators just expand
their production space without asking for permission. Actually, it does not matter whether they use other
people’s open space without paying anything. The most important thing is the manner with which they ask
for permission. Figure 14 below shows the model for open space expansion to other people’s open space.
Figure 14. Model of open space expansion to other people’s space (section).
From Figure 14 above, we can see that the expansion is totally separated from the house or inner space. The
expansion has gotten into other territories and can be very sensitive to both.
Unlike earlier, there is an open space expansion of community space. Kampung Sukolilo has a large open
space which can be used by everyone to conduct their production process for free. Since everyone is able to
access this open space, we can find some HBE operators who use this space at the same time. This condition
has more potential to lead to a space conflict between them. In addition, the operators sometimes leave
their production tools in the open space so that other operators will be able to use them without asking for
permission. Moreover, there is no specific rule in this community space, so they can adjust to the production
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territory depending on their need. This kind of expansion has been more sensitive because more people are
involved within their territory. Besides, this community open space is the frontier of the kampung, so not all
HBEs operators are able to access this open space because of distance. The model of this space expansion is
shown in Figure 15.
Figure 15. Model of open space expansion to community open space (section).
Open space expansion in the public space is mostly seen at the research site. Most HBEs operators in
Kampung Sukolilo expand their production space to the public space, though they don’t realize it. Figure 16
shows an open space expansion to the public space in Kampung Sukolilo.
Figure 16. Open space expansion to the public space.
HBE operators use public space for conducting their production process because of the lack of production
space, especially spaces for drying. Some people realize that this expansion could interfere with others but
they still do it because they are left with no choice. This kind of expansion is sensitive because it involves not
only HBE operators, but also people who visit this site. Besides, they have an innovation for expanding the
production space vertically. When they expand vertically, they can have extra space without interfering with
public space as much as expanding it horizontally, as shown in Figure 17.
Figure 17. Vertical open space expansion for drying space.
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We can see from Figure 17, whether they expand their production open space to the public space, they are
still able to use the public space (pathways). Figure 18 below shows the model for open space expansion to
the public space.
Figure 18. Model of open space expansion to the public space (section).
CONCLUSION
Doing some production processes in an open space is one of the requirements of production houses. The
odor is the most influential factor of open space usage in production. Considering the lack of space and the
small space of houses in Kampung Sukolilo, some improvement and space expansion is done by HBE
operators.
Space expansion was done when the space could not accommodate the activities anymore, even though
they have been changing the space into a multifunctional space. Space expansion is done for inner space
and open space both vertically and horizontally.
Every HBEs operator has a desire to expand their space for domestic and production purposes. The most
probable is expanding vertically (2nd floor or above man height). They realize that expansion horizontally
will interfere with their neighbors. The main requirement for some improvement is house ownership.
HBE operators who want to permanently expand their space should have their own land or house
(ownership is clear and not rent) and also the long term HBE promises to always be there and be done.
REFERENCES
Kellet, P & Tipple, G., 2000. ‘The home as workplace: A study of income generating activities within the
domestic setting’, Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 12, no.1, pp. 1-11.
Kellet, P & Tipple, G., 2003. ‘Researching domestic space and income generation in developing cities’,
Methodologies in Housing Research, IAPS, The Urban International Press, pp. 206-223.
Laboratory for Housing and Human Settlement, 2002. International research on Home- Based Enterprises,
Indonesia, India, South Africa, Bolivia. Architecture ITS, Surabaya.
Pallen, D., 2000. Community and city level approaches to the environmental problems of HBEs and SMEs,
Proceedings of the CARDO International Conference on Housing, Work and Development: The Role of Home-
Based Enterprises, Henderson Hall, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, pp. 302-311.
Setijanti, P & Silas, J., 2000. ‘Considering the concept of productive housing in Indonesia’,, Henderson Hall,
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, pp. 328-331.
Silas, J., 2000, ‘Rumah Produktif Pendekatan Tradisi dan Masyarakat’, in J Silas, AS Wibowo & S Setiawan (eds),
Rumah Produktif, Laboratorium Perumahan dan Permukiman, Surabaya, pp. 1-36.
Wijaya, I Nyoman Suluh., 2003. Pengaruh Usaha Ekonomi oleh Perempuan Sasak di Rumah terhadap Spasial
Rumah: Di Dasan Sade dan Dasan Rembitan, Rembitan, Lombok Tengah’, Thesis Architecture Department,
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya, Indonesia.
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ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AFFECTING UTILITY IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS AT EREKESAN URBAN-CORE
AKURE, SOUTH-WESTERN NIGERIA.
FashuyiOlugbenga Stephen, Eastern Mediterranean University, FamaustaVia Mersin 10, Turkey,

arcfashuyi@yahoo.com
Abstract
Utility in residential building is a measure of the appropriateness of the building to the user. Moreover, the utility
of a building depends on user’s attitude to spaces within the building and the users’ space requirement. However
the factors that influence utility in buildings often go beyond the functional arrangement of building spaces. In
fact, this research indicated that the household size is a major factor affecting derived utility within buildings in
the Erekesan area of Akure urban core. Moreover, the study also revealed that housing need in the urban core is
affected by the utility derived from building and that the utility of a building within the urban core determines to a
large extent, the rent. Thus, this research examines the utility of residential buildings in the urban-core through
four specific variables, measured in interval scale and these are: (i) rent paid per annum (ii) household size (iii) the
number of rooms per household and (iv) distance between homes to workstation. These variables being the
independent variables was regressed against building utility-the dependent variable, and a model of this
relationship for the Erekesan urban-core area of Akure was consequently generated.
Keywords: Erekesan, building utility, urban core, mixed use.
INTRODUCTION
Utility in the residential buildings in the Erekesan area of Akure urban core is reflected in the usefulness of
the building to the inmates. At the Erekesan urban core the primary utility consideration in buildings is
income generation. This is because the inmates of most urban core buildings in Nigeria are generally poor
and live significantly below the minimum of One US Dollar per person per day specified by the United
Nations and have been described as the ‘urban poor’ (Lewin 2000). Thus buildings among residents of the
urban core have generally become responsive to the inclement economic climate rather than architectural
considerations. In fact, these buildings have become tools for income generation and a profit making
apparatus. Thus, buildings that are able to serve well in this regard are considered very appropriate by its
users in the urban core irrespective of functional or spatial inadequacies.
In the bid to make the urban core buildings economically responsive, building owners or landlords convert
some portion of their buildings to shops, or lettable spaces for rents or other commercial outfits to generate
income. This stock of mixed use buildings involving a combination of residential and commercial outfits is
very attractive to the urban core dweller for many reasons. Firstly, the majority of urban core dwellers are not
literate office workers, but traders who either engage in small retail activity or are skilled laborers such as
auto-mobile repairers, tailors and welders and as such need lettable spaces for their activities. Therefore they
find it convenient to live in the same building with their shops or very close to it so as to avoid
transportation cost. Evidently, buildings of this nature which possess mixed use characters are amenable to
the urban core situations and therefore ranked as utility buildings in the urban core. Secondly, the
population of the urban cores is quite high. As of the year 2011, national population is estimated at about
140 million with the urban population constituting about 45% (FGN 2006). Olotuah (2000) went further to
point out that the urban core dwellers constitute between 33 and 67 percent of the urban population in less
developed countries such as Nigeria. Therefore, bearing in mind the ‘small’ relative land mass of the urban
area (particularly when compared with the overall land mass), the relative population of the urban core is
quite high. This phenomenon has affected housing needs and demand at the level of the urban core making
these factors become competitive and therefore influencing rent and the utility derived in buildings of the
urban core. Moreover the induced competitiveness on housing demand and needs within the urban core
has consequent influences on household density within the urban core. In effect, household sizes of the core
dwellers tend to become a significant determinant of building utility in the urban core.
In view of the foregoing, this study is premised on issues relating to housing utility in Akure urban core,
Ondo State, Nigeria. The study identifies some of the factors responsible for housing utility in Akure urban-
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core and aim to explain the relationship among these factors in an attempt to determine its implications on
housing utility in the urban core.
STUDY AREA
The study area is Erekesan in Akure urban core, and part of Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo
State. Akure, however, is 370 meters above sea level (Ministry of Lands and Housing 2011) with a population
of 283, 300 and occupies a land mass of 80 square kilometers (Federal Government of Nigeria 1999). Akure is
divided into twelve political wards and historical zones with the four innermost zones forming the core
(Figure 1). These four zones are namely Erekesan, Idiagba-Ijemikin, Obanla and Okegan. The population of
the entire urban core is 71,569 (Akinbamijo 2004). Erekesan area of the urban core, however, has a
population of 25,164 (INEC Office, Akure South Local Government 2011) and falls into zone one (1) according
to historical division but is politically delineated as ward two (Figure 2). It is bounded by Gbogi, Erekefa,
Idiagba and Obanla along Oba-Adesida road in the urban core. Moreover, Erekesan comprises of five major
sub-regions, namely: Erekesan-Ijala, Eruoba, Iworokogbasa, Afunbiowo-Alakunre, and Alakunre-Ijofi and a
total land area of 7.1 square kilometers (Ministry of Lands and Housing Akure op. cit;).
Figure. 1: Akure showing major zones (2008) Figure. 2: Akure showing historical zones
Source: Ministry of Lands and Housing Akurewith Erekesan highlighted
BUILDING UTILITY AND FACTORS INVOLVED IN THE URBAN CORE

Rent
Rents in the urban cores are generally low because of the deficiency of necessary urban infrastructures. The
link between rent and urban infrastructure has already been established in housing literature. In fact, Olujimi
et.al. (2009) observed that the annual rent of residential property in Akure, has significant relationships with
eight urban infrastructure and home-facilitates variable which are: water, burglary proof, refuse disposal
facility, toilet, drainage, wall fence, daywatch-security services and night watch security service. In the
Erekesan area of Akure urban core, buildings are predominantly of old structures predating the colonial
erain Nigeria (i.e., pre-1914) most of which are generally poorly ventilated, dilapidated, squalid and deficient
in infrastructural facilities like portable pipe-borne water, drainage, electricity, sewage and refuse disposal
system, thus explaining the low rents obtainable in the cores (Olujimi ibid). In fact, Olanrewaju (2004)
observed that migrants from rural areas and often tend to live in the urban cores at their first stay in the
urban center because of reduced rents in the urban core which invariably inflates the urban core population.
Distances from home-base to work station
Informal planning, distances from home-base to defined places such as schools, hospitals, churches, bus-
stations, etc. are often integrated in the design process ab-initio to forecast walking patterns. This sort of
planning involves a complex set of researches realized by quantifying the pedestrian experiences
consistently. In the urban cores of Nigeria, planning of this nature is deficient and thus walking
infrastructures generally do not exist. Walking distance in the core is usually by unplanned footpaths (apart
from recent government interventions in the form of tarred vehicular roads) that evolve indiscriminately
through time depending on their behavioral settings (plates 1). The footpaths developed from the
cumulative experiences of the inhabitants of the urban core.
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Figure 3: Section of urban core showing recent intervention (road tarred)

and derelict condition.
Number of rooms
Urban cores of most Nigerian cities were founded in the pre-colonial periods and began as trade junctions or
market centers (Abianba et al. 2008) which also emanated as the result of interlinking government and
political infrastructures. As these communities develop, owing to several factors ranging from state creation,
establishment of a railway station, postal and telecommunication systems, location of regional electric
power stations amongst others (Proceedings of Annual Conference 2004), many of these agrarian
communities began to transform their hitherto traditional compound houses to conform with their current
‘modern’ statues. In fact, Olanrewaju (2004) observed that this transformation has triggered high housing
need in the poorer Lagos urban core where residential properties were fast disappearing as they are being
transformed into other uses such as commercial or more economic uses. These new varieties of buildings,
(mostly triggered by commercial incentives) are called ‘face to face’ rental houses and have been described
by Ogunsote (1995) as Low-trop architecture. This variety of buildings are usually characterized by
umpteenth number of rooms (usually for letting in order to make profits) hence have also called ‘roomy’
houses. In most cases, tenants rent two rooms and use one as a bedroom and the other as the living which
they call ‘parlor’. A total of about six tenants in the average, occupy a building, thus making the average
number of rooms about twelve (12) in most cases.
Household size
Housing literature has pointed out that the average household size in the urban cores of south-western
Nigeria is between 6-8 (Akinbamijo et al. 2005, Akinbamijo 2004, Jiboye ibid.). This has resulted in high
crowding index and room density in the urban cores and most of the urban core houses. Moreover, because
of the fact that the south-western Nigeria is the most urbanized part of Nigeria with over 40 percent of the
nation’s 329 urban cores in this region (Adegbehingbe 2012) it can be inferred that household sizes in the
urban cores have been significantly influenced by urbanization. This is because urbanization enhances high
crowd index, therefore increase housing demand. This invariably conditions more people to live in the
buildings, thereby likely, to increase household sizes. However, in a bid to cope with these, the urban cores
naturally decentralize into smaller fragments which explain the reason for the high percentage of the urban
cores in the south-western part of Nigeria.
METHODOLOGY
The study was carried out at the Erekesan urban core area of Akure. A survey was carried out on the five sub-
regions of the Erekesan urban core using a restricted- response questionnaire. The survey sought to examine
the resident’s perception of building's utility with four variables identified as the factors affecting utility of
the building in the urban core. The variables are household size, rent, distance of urban core dwellers from
residential buildings to work-outfits and number of rooms per household. Data obtained from the field
survey were analyzed and regressed to investigate and describe the relationship between these variables.
The census population of the study area is 25,104 (Akure South Local Government 2010). Thus, a sample size
of 2,192 was calculated taking the acceptable error ‘e’ to be 0.05, and ‘z’ (value of the standard variate at a
giving confidence level) as 1.96 from table under normal curve distribution at 95% confidence level. Thus
2,192 questionnaires were administered to the residents of the core out of which 1,198 was retrieved.
Data analysis and discussion
The result of this research was based on data collected from the studied area through the specified variables
in the structured questionnaire. Table (1) below shows the frequency distribution of the variables and total
number of respondents.
Table 1: Frequency distribution of stated variables and number of respondents
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y:Utility
Derived Frequency Distance to Rent per annum Household Size Number of rooms
Work-Station
Distance Freq. Amount Freq. Persons Frequency. Number Frequency.

(Km) (N)
Very 20 0.0-0.5 5 1,000- 24 1-2 32 1-2 16
Good 15,000
Good 100 0.5-1.0 2 16,000- 40 3-4 32 3-4 16
30,000
Fair 46 1.0-1.5 10 31,000- 52 5-6 52 5-6 12
45,000
Poor 20 1.5-2.0 17 46,000- 16 7-8 16 7-8 16
60,000
Very 8 >2.0 56 >61,000 08 >8 08 >8 80
Poor
Total 144 Total 90 Total 140 Total 100 Total 140
Misisng 10 4 Misisng 04 Missing 4
Total 144 100 144 144 144
Source: Author’s field survey 2012.
The relationship between housing utility (y) and the stated variables was examined using regression
analysis. Housing utility is the response variable while distance to work station, (variable v1), rent per annum
(variable v2) household size (variable v3) and number of rooms per household (variable v4) predictor variables
used in the analysis. The model of housing utility in the urban core area derives by regressing the response
variable (y) on variable v1, v2, v3 and v4 is:
y =a+b1x1+b2x2+b3x3 + b4x4 +e.
Where:
y = utility derived,
a = constants (y-intercept),
b = constant (slope of the line y = a+b1 x1 +b2 x2 +b3 x3)
e = error term,
x = Point values of variables (v) for a particular value of (y).
The equations to determine the regression model can be written as follows:
Σy = na +b1Σx1+ b2Σx2+b3Σx3 + b4Σx4
Σy1x1 = a Σx1 +b1Σx12 + b2Σx1.x2 + b3Σx1 .x3 +b4Σx1.x4 equation……….. i
Σy1x2 = aΣx2 + b1Σx1.x2 +b3Σx22 +b3Σx2.x3 +b4Σx2.x equation………...ii
Σy1x3 = aΣx3 +b1x.x3+b3Σx2.x3 +b3Σx32 +b4Σx4.x3 equation………...iii
Σy1x4 = aΣx4 + b1Σx1.x4 +b2Σx2.x4 + b3Σyx3.x4 +b4Σx42 equation………….iv
Solving the simultaneous equations, the result of the analysis shown in model is y = -21.5 + 0.22v1 + 0.96v2
+1.09v3 – 0.36v4. From the model, the variables are ordered in such a way that household size (variable v3) is
the most important. This is followed by rent per annum (variable v2), and followed by distance or nearness
to place of work (variable v1) and lastly, number of rooms (variable v4).
Explanation of the regression model
Household size and the utility derived in buildings
From the model, it is observed that household size is the most important factor determining utility derived
in housing. Household size determines the number of residents per room. This value (room density) has
been known to significantly indicate the level of satisfaction or derived utility in a building (Akinbamijo
2003). Moreover, from Table 2, the commonest form of house type in the urban core is the Face-to-face
rental house. This house type is usually characterized by large numbers of rooms which explains why the
house type with a minimum of seven to eight rooms constitutes 40% of housing stocks in the urban core. In
most cases, residents of the urban core are only able to afford a room and parlor (Table 2) making room
density in the urban core significantly 4-5 persons per room. Other flats or lettable apartments (between 2-3
or 3-4 bedrooms) are relatively more expensive for the urban poor. Despite this, room density in the
Erekesan area of Akure urban core is still relatively low when compared with the entire urban core.
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Akinbamijo (ibid.) observed that the entire urban core (comprising of Erekesan, Obanla, Okegan, Idiagba-
Ijemikin) has a room density of > 6 which indicates a minimum of six persons per room.
Table 2: Showing the frequency distribution and cumulative percentage of stated variable
s/ Building Freq. Cum. House- Freq Cum. Rent Freq. Cum. No of Freq
n Type % hold % Freq. rooms
Size
1 Simple 28 19.5 1 person 32 32 Low 28 28 1-2 16
bungalow
2 Semi- 08 25.1 2-3 32 64 Fair 28 56 2-3 16
detached persons
3 Face to face 40 52.9 4-6 52 116 High 20 76 3-4 12
persons
4 compound- 12 61.2 6-8 16 132 High 04 80 4-5 16
houses persons
5 Brazilian 32 83.4 >8 08 140 Total 140 5-6 04
style persons
6 Others 24 100 Total 140 Others 76
7 144 Missing 04
8 Total 144
9 Mean 2.54 Total 144
Mode 4-6 Mean
Mode
Source: Author’s field work.
Rent per annum

The next significant factor to household size according to the model is the rent paid per annum. In this
research, it was observed that rent is relativity lowest in the urban core. From Table 2, a cumulative of 82.9
percent of urban core dwellers lives in low rented houses. These low rent houses are usually characterized
by poor ventilation and usually lack toilets and bath facilities. In most cases, the environment is littered with
human waste (both solids and liquids) and housing condition is generally very poor. This condition
dovetailed into poor spatial character and a state of planlessness and unsightly environment lacking all
features that induce environmental pleasure. In fact, these reasons account for the low rents. Other
buildings such as simple-bungalows and semi-detached houses which accounts for 28 and 8 percent of
housing stocks respectively, (Table 2) are usually beyond the reach of the urban poor because of the high
rents. Thus, rents influence the extent of utility derived in housing at the level of the urban core.
Distance from work-station

From the regression model, the distance of the core dwellers from homes to their places of work is next in
importance to rent. Although Olotuah (op. cit:) observed that in most cases, urban core dwellers prefer live
close to their work-stations in order to reduce mobility cost, as most of the core dwellers are traders or
artisans (Table 2). Nevertheless, the regression model showed that this work-station to home relationship is
not as important as rent and household size in determining housing satisfaction or derivable utility among
dwellers the urban core. This observation is an indication that the number of commercial outfits in the urban
core is most probably over bloated and the observed result shows a diminishing return. Thus, utility in the
core has become (of recent) more easily perceived in terms of environmental comfort than pecuniary
benefits.
Number of rooms per house/building

From table 2, 61.2% of buildings in the Erekesan urban core area are compound- houses, face-to-face rental
buildings and the Brazilian styles. These buildings are often characterized by large number of rooms (often
more than eight bedrooms) as shown also in Table 2. Moreover, due to the preponderance and the nature
of these house types in the urban core, most of the rooms are available as one bedroom or ‘room and parlor
arrangements’. This condition is responsible for high room density, hence poor environmental character and
low rents at the urban core. However, the model indicated that the number of rooms per building is
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inversely related to derivable utility. Moreover, in the urban core buildings with umpteenth number of
rooms such as the Brazilian style, and Compound-houses are usually old buildings (more than 50 years) and
lacking conventional facilities and infrastructure (Olujimi et al. 2005). In most cases, such buildings are
constructed in adobe blocks, with poor fenestration (often with very small windows) and without proper
waste or refuse disposal system. As a result, buildings of this variety (with high number of rooms) reflected
negative value in the regression model, indicating that the more these stocks of building exist in the urban
core, the lesser the quality of the environment and utility enjoyed by the users.
CONCLUSION
From analysis in this section, the following are the summary of findings.
1. Rent influences the utility derived among residents of the Erekesan area of Akure urban core. This is
because most of the residents do not have the pecuniary means decent home.
2. Rent is relatively low throughout the Erekesan area of Akure urban core owing to the preponderance of
poor housing which is affordable at low rents.
3. Despite the preponderance of umpteenth numbers of face to face rental housing and Brazilian style
usually characterized by large numbers of room at Erekesan area of Akure urban core, housing density is still
high (between 4-6). This is because, most of the core dwellers have a household size of 4-6 and live in ‘one
room and parlor’ apartments (Table 2). In fact, in a similar study, housing density in Akure urban core
(comprising of Erekesan, Obanla, Okegan, and Idiagba-Ijemikin) is observed to be > 6 (Akinbamijo 2003).
4. Housing need in the urban core is still high. This is explained by the regression model which showed
household size as the most important factor determining derived utility in the urban core housing. This is an
indication that majority of the households do not find satisfaction in housing. Moreover, since the
household is defined by household number, it follows that the room density is high, thus the utility derived
is modicum (Akinbamijo 2004). Therefore, it can be inferred that housing need in the core is high since most
of the residents find dissatisfaction in their dwellings, but have nevertheless stayed in the same building for
more than 5 years in most of the cases (Olujimi op. cit:).
5. At the Erekesan area of Akure urban core, the number of commercial outfits (placed in moderate distance
from their home base) is not considered to be as important as the influence of household size and rent.
Although authors have attested to the importance of distance of homesteads to workplaces in the urban
core, yet this research showed that this factor is not as important to the core dwellers as housing condition
and housing satisfaction which is dependent on rent and household size respectively. Moreover, this is also a
pointer to the fact that shops|commercial outfits at walking distance from home-base is sufficiently available
at the urban core. In fact, the effect of these commercial facilities (shops and other commercial outfits) is
now following a downward toll resulting from diminishing returns, especially now when the extant
Government of Ondo State is beginning to build shops and other lettable markets at moderate distances
from home-base. Moreover, the spontaneous development of these outfits (often as a result of unauthorized
building transformation) amounts to urban densification, urban blight and squalor thus resulting to poor
housing environment.
6. Housing condition is generally poor in the urban core.
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REFERENCES
Abianba, JE, Dimuna, KO & Okogun, GRA., 2008. ‘Built environment decay, and urban health in Nigeria’,
Journal of Human Ecology, vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 259-265.
Adegbehingbe, VO., 2011. ‘Analysis of physical transformation of residential buildings in selected
Government estate in south-western Nigeria’, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, department of Architecture, Federal
university of Technology, Akure.
Akinbamijo, OB., 2003. ‘Environmental health and intra-urban disparities- A focus on Akure’, Unpublished
Ph.D thesis, Department of urban and regional planning, Federal University of Technology, Akure.
Akinbamijo, OB, Fashuyi, SO & Fashuyi, SA., 2004. ‘Aspects of environmental health disparities and gastro-
intestinal parasitic Infections in Akure metropolis, south-western Nigeria’, Journal of research in science and
management, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 15-19.
Lewin, AC., 1981. Housing co-operatives in developing countries, International

Technology Ltd.
Ogunsote, PB., 2005. ‘Classification of Nigerian Architecture’, Journal of association of Architectural educators
(AARCHES), vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 48-56.
Olanrewaju, DO., 2004. ‘Town planning- A veritable tool for poverty reduction’, Inaugural lecture Series 38,
26 October, Federal university of technology Akure.
Olotuah, AO., 2000. ‘Housing low-Income civil servants in an emergent state capital: The case study of Ado-
Ekiti’, Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Department of Architecture, Federal University of Technology Akure Nigeria.
pp. 4-35.
Olujimi, JAB & Fashuyi, SO., 2004. ‘Anatomy of illegal structures in Akure metropolis, Ondo state’, Journal of
the Nigerian institute of town planners, vol. 1, no. xiii, pp. 79-86.
Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Environment and Behavior Association of Nigeria, 2003.
‘Environmental sustainability in a democratic government (No.11)’, Federal University of Technology, Akure,
Nigeria: Environment and Behavior association of Nigeria.
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UNDERSTANDING URBAN FORM AND SPACE PRODUCTION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS: THE TOI
MARKET IN NAIROBI, KENYA
Georgia Cardosi, Ph.D. student, IF research group (grif), Université de Montréal, Canada,
georgia.cardosi@umontreal.ca
Gonzalo Lizarralde, Professor, IF research group (grif), Université de Montréal, Canada,
gonzalo.lizarralde@umontreal.ca
Abstract
Several authors argue that a better understanding of urban informality is required to create inclusive urban
policies and projects. Whereas studies about slums are copious and date back to the sixties, informal urbanism is
receiving a new emphasis and has become an unavoidable subject in urban and development debates. This three-
part paper develops an analytical framework of urban informality with a focus on the production of space in
informal settlements. First, a literature review on the domains of informal urbanism and planning provides a
preliminary theoretical framework. Second, a case study is analyzed and compared with findings from the
literature review. The case-study explores processes of space production in one of Nairobi’s informal markets,
through direct observation, structured and semi-structured interviews and mapping. Third, an analytical tool is
created to highlight the main approaches, limits and gaps in the existing literature.
Considering the production of space in terms of processes and outcomes, the literature review identifies three
theoretical approaches: the functional approach, which focuses on space organisation and form and the concept
of order; the anthropological approach, which investigates everyday practices; and the process-oriented
approach, which considers informal settlement formation and evolution processes. The case study illustrates how
the poor give significant attention to the production of space and site organisation; which directly affect, and are
affected by, economic, socio-political and cultural circumstances, providing opportunities for significantly
improving living conditions. Although the case study findings cannot necessarily be generalized, the complex and
specific experiences that emerge from it suggest that most common definitions cannot efficiently and fully
describe informal realities. A bottom-up approach and willingness to learn are fundamental to identifying
practical lessons from the slum dwellers’ perceptions and use of space; these must simultaneously challenge and
complement top-down planning approaches.
Keywords: informal urbanism, informal settlements, space production, Nairobi.
INTRODUCTION
Slums and other forms of informal settlements in the global south have been growing continuously since
the 1960s (UN-Habitat 2012). Yet, urban studies still lack adequate tools for fully understanding informality
and enhancing sustainable urban development. This knowledge gap today represents one of the main
causes of poor urban policies (Elsheshtawy 2011, Samper 2010) that over the past decades have failed to
reduce the proliferation of informal settlements, while often encouraging their forced eviction and
demolition (Dovey and King 2011). Unsurprisingly, being ‘secure from eviction’ is an important indicator of
Millennium Development Goals (UN 2000).
According to the Lefebvrian concept of social space, “every society produces its space [...] (and) the city had
its spatial practice; [...] Hence, the new need for a study of this space that understands it the way it is, into its
genesis and form [...]. Programmatically every society having its own space offers it to an analysis” (Lefebvre
1991, p. 40). According to this perspective, understanding urban informality in order to improve the slum
dwellers’ living conditions requires a systematic investigation of how the poor perceive and experience
space, and make decisions in the process of space organisation.
Research about informal urbanism dates back to the 1960s; yet, it has recently gained new emphasis
(Elsheshtawy 2011) and remains a critical topic in urban and development studies. The dichotomy of formal
versus informal, however, still prevails, despite it being widely accepted that a binary distinction
oversimplifies the complex reality of contemporary cities and economies (Doherty and Silva 2011, Simone
2008).
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This paper proposes an innovative theoretical framework of urban informality with a focus on the
production of space in informal settlements. It is divided in three sections. First, a literature review considers
qualitative research in the domain of urban studies and proposes an analytical background. Second, a case
study exploring processes of space production in one of Nairobi’s informal markets is analyzed and
compared against this conceptual background. Finally, an analytical table is created to resume and compare
different theoretical approaches and the limitations and gaps in the existing literature. However, before
considering the results, let’s explore in detail the methods used in the study.
METHODS
The paper is based on a literature review and a case study that simultaneously challenges and enriches
conceptual interpretations of the main bodies of knowledge. An analytical table becomes both a tool and
our main research outcome. The literature review explored a large number of studies on contemporary
informal urbanism and planning. This includes journals and books produced between 1990 and 2014;
however, seminal work dating back to earlier studies of informality provided key conceptual insights.
Publications were found through keyword searches in scientific databases (Google Scholar, Science Direct
and publishers such as Taylor & Francis). Keywords included: informal planning; informal urbanism; slums;
and space production in informal settlements. The definition of spatial organisation, drawn from geography
and urban studies, considers the process of perception and production of space (Lefebvre 2000), and the
configuration that result in a more or less established form. Literature was later organised according to three
main approaches: the functional, anthropological and process-oriented approaches.
The case study was conducted during five visits in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2011. It aimed at
understanding the market history and formation, its physical structure, the members’ participation in
projects involving site organisation, and the role of ‘informal design’. The approach was qualitative:
information was collected through twenty structured and semi-structured interviews with vendors, five
conversations with market leaders, six site visits, and several mapping techniques. Informal conversations
played a critical role in facilitating the dialogue. Semi-structured interviews with community leaders
provided information about the market formation and the challenges and projects undertaken over
decades. Pre-established forms were used to interview marketers and map their stalls, through photos and
notes describing economic, social and physical conditions. In total, 31 activities were mapped, located in
different areas of the market. This allowed for gaining insights about different vendors, activities, and roles
inside the market. Interviews targeted an equal number of men and women, representatives of different
groups, new and established activities. Semi-structured interviews investigated existing projects, the traders’
perception of design activities and the community’s expectations for the Toi market. Results were also
drawn from more than twenty drawings of the market and its stalls. A comparison of the market’s maps
before and after the reconstruction occurred in 2008 helped in understanding its evolution. The old market
(from 1989) was fully documented through graphics and photos.
FIRST RESULT: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
Informal settlements are typically studied in informal urbanism and planning from two perspectives: a
significant number of studies emphasize their potential to provide affordable housing solutions for millions
of poor people (Turner 1972, de Soto, 1989), while others highlight the extreme conditions of constraints
and deprivations (UN 2003). Whether informality is considered an alternative to neoliberal economic
systems or its natural result, overall, the formal/informal dichotomy has dominated since the anthropologist
K. Hart (Hart 1973) introduced it five decades ago. Recently, several authors (Dovey and King 2011, Doherty
and Silva 2011, Mehrotra 2010, Donovan 2008) have recommended moving beyond this binary opposition
that oversimplifies urban phenomena. Yet, informality is still defined and considered as the negative
counterpart of formality. In fact, the UN-Habitat definition of slums (UN-Habitat 2003) measures a
household’s degree of poverty partially by a list of household deprivations.
In establishing a theoretical background to informal urbanism, Elshestawy (2011) identifies three

perspectives by which urban informality is explored in cutting edge research: underlying order in
informality, socio-economic factors, and strategies of survival. Duminy (2011) also distinguishes three
themes in planning literature: informal planning (as modes not officially regulated and including quasi-legal
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ways of land transfer and negotiations); informality as income-generation, typically services and practices
significantly unregulated and uncontrolled by formal institutions (responding to socio-spatial
marginalization and survival conditions); and informality in relationships, city governance processes and
urban social formation. This article focuses on spatial production, clustering research contributions into
three major theoretical approaches: a) the functional approach, studying space organisation and form,
planning processes and legal frameworks; b) the anthropological approach, investigating everyday
practices; and c) the process-oriented approach, considering informal settlements formation and evolution
processes (Figure 1). Let’s consider now each of these approaches in detail.
Figure 1: Theoretical approaches identified in informal urbanism.
The functional approach

This approach includes studies about spatial arrangements, form, and the concept of order. It claims that,
although informal settlements may look chaotic and unstructured, their physical structure responds to
specific rules and logics; hence, it is necessary to identify tools for effectively reading and recognising
informal fabrics and structures. Turner (1972), for instance, first promoted the importance of understanding
informal housing standards as a prerequisite for implementing affordable housing programs (Turner 1972).
Similarly, the interest in informal housing performance led Rybczynski to map patterns of use of public
spaces based on rooted cultural practices in Indian unplanned settlements (Rybczynski et al. 1984).
More recently, common analyses have focused on physical patterns and order, aiming at understanding
informality in relation to territorial spaces and distribution. In describing ‘subaltern urbanism’ as a mode of
space production defined by the territorial logic of deregulation, Roy (2005) identifies urban informality as
one of four categories of subaltern spaces: peripheries, zones of exception, gray spaces, and urban
informality. They are produced as state of exception to the formal order, where the ownership, use, and
purpose of land cannot follow an established set of regulations.
Dovey (2011) regrets that there is very little research on the morphologies of urban informality and identifies
eight territorial typo-morphologies within which informal settlements and slums develop in South-East Asia:
districts, waterfronts, escarpments, easements, sidewalks, adherences, backstages and enclosures (Dovey
and King 2011). Arefi (2011) draws from Marshall’s (2009) distinction between ‘systematic’ (visible), and
‘characteristic’ (implicit) order; and from Mandelbrot’s (1983) concept of ‘scaling’, which refers to the
different levels of informality that may exist in a given context. Exploring Istanbul’s informal settlements, he
describes five distinctive types of order: social organisation, conflict resolution, local politics, and planning
and land use. These studies have somehow informed the public mind-set, yet, they have largely failed to
acknowledge the presence of order in informal settlements (Arefi 2011).
The literature about processes of enumeration and mapping is also critical for understanding informal
settlements (Karanja 2010, Pamoja Trust 2008, Weru 2004). It offers significant insight about slums’ socio-
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economic and physical structures. Enumeration activities can reveal existing or missing infrastructure and
services, settlement boundaries, houses and typologies of business structures in informal settlements. In
Kenya, for example, these physical features are described in terms of how people live and use them (Karanja
2010, p. 233). The enumeration process, aimed at creating awareness among slum dwellers about the socio-
spatial characteristics of their communities, has enormous practical implications, such as allowing for local
planning and upgrading implementation, but also suggesting reliable methods to gain and build specific,
contextual knowledge about informal urbanism.
The anthropological approach

This approach investigates everyday practices of land occupation and the concept of marginalization. It
emphasizes the character of transition and impermanence of informal settlements, but also the various
opportunities provided by them. Informal urbanism is considered here as “everyday practices of ordinary
citizens, forcing a reconfigured relationship between those in power and the inhabitants of the city”
(Elshshstawy 2011).
Adopting this approach in her analysis of Brazilian favelas, Perlman (2010) describes, for instance, the
atmosphere of diversity tolerance in informal settlements, presented as a way of life. Perlman criticises the
theory of marginalization that depicts favelas as places of loneliness, disorganisation, criminality and anti-
social behaviour. Rather, she describes their symbolic and physical attributes, providing extensive data
about inhabitants and their trajectories from informality towards better living conditions. This is expressed
in a number of ways through the concept of transition, depicting informal settlements as impermanent
realms in which people can benefit from a dense social infrastructure (Simone 2008).
The characteristics of temporality in relation to the configuration and use of urban space also emerge in the
narratives of rural-urban migration occurring in developing countries. Here, the poor are in constant search
for ways to better integrate into cities, using informal settlements as ‘arrival cities’ (Saunders 2010). This
transitional character of informality favours the flow and exchange of goods, cultures and ideas, particularly
in informal marketplaces (Mortenbock et al. 2008). Defenders of this approach typically reject the notion that
slums are poverty traps that limit household development (Marx 2012); although, recent economic studies
reveal that risk of economic and social traps exists for slum dwellers (Duflo 2011, Sachs 2005).
Informal settlements and marketplaces represent the places where meanings transform in the modern
urban life, as the concept of black urbanism explains. Black urbanism accounts for the “more invisible
modalities of socialities that circumvent normative mechanisms of social exchange’’ (Simone 2008, p. 88).
Informality is not placed in the background, rather brought into the very center of spaces that concretize the
contemporary urban life. Simone stresses the particular condition of double affiliation with the formal and
the informal, exclusion and inclusion, precariousness and opportunity. The physical space becomes the
arena for such invisible practices and as such, conditions the day-to day negotiation of ‘doubleness’. Thus,
according to Simone (2008), conventional discourses of urban development fail, while architects should
“extend their skills to do something more provisional rather than wanting to solve the problem once and for
all” (Simone 2008, p. 91).
Referring to cities in Latin America, Africa and Asia, Mehrotra (2010) elaborates on ways to represent
informality, thus developing the concept of ‘Kinetic city’: the informal city characterized by an “ever
transforming streetscape made of processions, festivals, street vendors and dwellers”. It is also a three
dimensional entity perceived through patterns of space occupation rather than through architecture.
Contrasting it to the static city (the formal, two-dimensional entity made of permanent materials), Mehrotra
proposes a new binary distinction.
The process-oriented approach

The process-oriented approach considers the informal settlements’ historical formation and evolution,
including aspects related to planning processes and legal developments. Relationships between informal
development and global pressures such as colonialism, post-colonialism, liberalisation and international
economic policy are often brought into light. This approach also focuses on the relationship between
informal urban processes and work and production. While underscoring that informal urbanisation “has
become the most pervasive element in the production of cities in developing countries” (Anyamba 2011), it
focuses on the origins of informal urbanisation. De Soto, for example, provides an analysis of the political-
historical evolution of informal housing in Peru. He identifies ten successive historical stages showing how
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the formal structure has developed the basis for the growth of informal housing. Similarly, Anyamba refers
to Nairobi’s informal processes as moments in which Africans built villages on the periphery of the town in
three waves that embodied a search for modernisation and a departure from local indigenous practices
(Anyamba 2011).
Kellet (2010) attempts, through the analysis of Latin American cities, to redefine the terms ‘formality’ and
‘informality’. He highlights bottom-up processes of city transformation, processes of collective appropriation
of spaces and formation of informal settlements, stressing that new and more dynamic methods of analysis
and intervention need to be developed in order to deal with the conditions of informality in contemporary
cities. Similarly, Abbott and Douglas (2010) in a longitudinal study of informal settlements in Cape Town
over a five-year period, show how informal settlements in the city grow faster than new housing can be
provided, thus calling attention to the need for a radical shift in current housing policies. The possibility to
determine distinct trends in the growth pattern of informal settlements can enable such settlements to be
integrated into the city development planning process. Finally, Samper, a defender of this approach,
complains that the discipline of urban design lacks a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of
informality and therefore, effective intervention tools (Samper 2011).
SECOND RESULT: THE CASE STUDY OF TOI MARKET IN NAIROBI, KENYA
Location and context

With a total of three million inhabitants, Nairobi is home to about two hundred informal settlements and
slums and one and a half million slum dwellers (Pamoja Trust 2008). Furthermore, its population is expected
to reach 8 million by 2025 (UN 2001), and the informal sector is believed to represent about 70% of urban
economy. The poor’s needs are, if anything, satisfied by informal practices, commerce and marketplaces.
Kenyan slum dwellers have thus organised in a national federation (Muungano Wa Wanavijiji), whose
members come from various communities. The federation works in several communities to mobilise and
create awareness, leverage social networks to favour socio-economic assistance, advocate for political and
human rights, negotiate with local authorities, and improve local conditions through upgrading and
sanitation projects. Nevertheless, slum dwellers in Nairobi still live in conditions of mass poverty, contagious
diseases, conflicts, and many social, economic and environmental hazards (Mutisya 2011).
There are about six important informal markets in Nairobi. Toi market is one, located four kilometers south-
west the Central Business District, at the northern border of Kibera (Figure 2) - one of the largest African
slums (Umande Trust 2010). Kibera covers 250 hectares and has a population estimated at 700,000, of which
about 49% lives below the poverty line (Umande Trust 2007).
Figure 2: Toi market location in Kibera.
As an urban entrance for agriculture products and a food supply center for Kibera and surroundings, Toi
market offers employment and livelihoods to over 2,400 traders, largely affecting the living conditions of
thousands of households. It provides a huge variety of wholesale and retail goods and services. Fruit and
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vegetables, cereals, meat and fish, spices, textiles, second hand and new clothes, charcoal and firewood,
household and handcrafts can all be found at the market. Services vary from food kiosks and water vending,
to tailoring and ironing, laundry, vehicle repair, chemists and herbal clinics, hairdressers, furniture and pool
tables. Some vendors specialise in bone recycling, rabbit and chicken rearing, and maize growing. Some
services extend beyond the market’s area such as catering for weddings and funerals, tree planting, and
transportation. Briefly, Toi market provides almost everything, though groceries and second hand clothes
predominate.
Toi market was completely destroyed in 2008 during the political conflict that followed the presidential
election, but was quickly rebuilt. The market has been affected by this major physical transformation, and we
will thus refer to the ‘old’ and ‘new’ market, to distinguish between the conditions before and after the
disaster. The market will be now described through the lenses of the three approaches found in the
analytical framework.

Our study provided insights about the physical layout of the market in terms of accesses and paths,
landmarks, public spaces and community services, and a typology of the stalls. Toi market extends over
about 3.5 hectares of government land. According to the Ministry of Land’s records, improvements of the
area have been planned several times, but have never actually been translated into specific projects on
ground.
The area is not directly accessible from the main road system. The main access is at the South-East, off Kibera
Drive. Another five access points open to small pedestrian alleys on the East, North, West, and South sides.
The layout presents four legible spatial categories: 1) accesses and paths system; 2) public spaces; 3)
community services; and 4) stalls. The stall represents the module defining the entire configuration. In the
old market, stalls were irregular and generated a heterogeneous layout. The new market is based on a
rectangular, standardised module (Figures 3, 4).
Figure 3: Distribution of sections and paths’ system in the new market.
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Figure 4: The new market layout.
Stalls are made up of temporary, wooden structures, polythene or cardboard partition walls, metal sheet
roofs and are not paved. Structures often burn or collapse under strong winds. There are three sizes of stalls:
2x2 meters (Figure 5), 3x2 meters (Figure 6), and 10x12 meters, the large ones usually being used for
community services. Their combination allows for additional configurations. In the new market, roads have
been well planned to accommodate people and handcarts. The major roads are 5 meters wide (Figure 7),
while inner roads have a width of 2 meters (Figure 6, 8). All dimensions were established in order to
accommodate all traders. The use of modules varies depending on the kind of activity and the economic
potential of the traders. In some cases, merchants occupy more than one stall; in other cases, they have
created roof extensions (Figures 5, 6, 7) or occupied public passageways with goods, sittings and tables
(Figure7).
Figure 5: Small module. Roof extension.
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Figure 8: Stall’s distribution along minor passageways.

The Toi market community lives in extremely difficult socio-economic and environmental conditions. Since
the beginning, in 1989, both structure owners and tenants have been faced with insecurity of land tenure,
lack of trading licenses, low income, lack of access to credit and banking, besides constant threats of eviction
and demolition. Moreover, the market area presents poor infrastructure, insufficient water and sanitation
provision and temporary, fragile structures. The situation has worsened over the years with the increase in
population, though the community has steadily tried to improve its conditions. Despite this precariousness,
Toi market has always been a magnet for a new and tremendously diverse population looking for
opportunities for integration in Nairobi.
In this context of high constraints and uncertainty, there is almost always only room for short term planning.
Nevertheless, the community has undertaken different levels of planning and design over the years.
Appropriation and distribution of space are critical issues requiring long decision making processes, political
negotiation with local authorities, and inner conflicts resolution - mainly related to land issues. Yet in such a
climate of day-to-day subsistence, some merchants have become efficient planners. Since the
reconstruction of the market in 2008, merchants have learned to accommodate businesses to include all
groups, design stalls, toilets and other structures, and to locate services, wholesale and garbage. Solutions
have had to respond to a very complex set of long-term and immediate needs.
In subsistence marketplaces, people have physical needs, but also aspirations related to their visions of the
future and expectations to overcome poverty (Viswanathan 2009). Despite its precarious conditions, Toi
market has existed for over thirty years. Traders now count on it for their children’s future and have
developed a sense of belonging to this site. All interviewees, in fact, identified themselves as Toi market
traders rather than by tribe. Some vendors are willing to invest in improving their stalls and some plan to
extend their business adding more modules, but these objectives are often affected by misfortunes and
hindered by insecurity of tenure. The vendors considered activities of planning and design positive in
different ways. They considered the reconstruction as a positive opportunity to improve accessibility to all
the sections of the market. The new market, they say, is working better than the old one: spaces are well
defined and recognisable, security and accessibility have improved. Nevertheless, according to some traders,
there is less flexibility in the use of space and increased control on businesses by leading groups.
All traders agree that the process of formalisation and an appropriate design for a modern market would
increase investments and economic stability. A good design of the stalls with higher quality materials,
partition walls and locked doors would reduce the need for a security system (now provided by the Masai
people) and increase investments in stocks, improving businesses and economic growth. Over the years, the
merchants have imagined solutions for the use of the land, such as the densification of the area by building
houses over the stalls and developing new income generating activities, such as renting rooms for tourism
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to increase the flow of people and business. There is thus a clear need for multi-functional structures capable
of concentrating opportunities in strategic places.

Toi market began in the 1980s in a bush area, with a small group of women selling green vegetables along
Kibera Drive. It developed naturally along paths connecting different residential areas; these paths became
characteristic of the market structure (Figure 9). Evictions started soon afterwards, to allow for the
construction of two formal markets nearby: the Makina market and the Hawkers market. Initially conceived
to accommodate the Toi market traders, the two markets ended up being occupied by external
entrepreneurs. The original market traders, who were forced to leave, returned to the area, despite constant
risk of eviction. In 1996, several informal settlements and markets in Nairobi were demolished. A formal
protest against such forced measures turned into a political issue for the provincial administration. The
traders lost the case in court because the land was officially owned by the government and the allocation
could not be revoked. The number of traders in the area increased, and by 1999, the market was full. The
same year, the department of Public Health took traders to court due to lack of adequate sanitation in the
market. The Public Health officials gave the Toi market committee one month to build permanent toilets and
pour cement on the floor of the food kiosks, but the deadline passed without effective results due to lack of
funds. Three representatives of the Toi market committee were taken to court, and then released with a fine.
They subsequently began mobilising the community to start a sanitation project. In 2005, a private
developer forced the eviction of eleven traders, so the officials of the Toi market came together to support
their members and the case was continuously deferred in courts.
Before 2008, the market was organised in sections, but stalls had irregular shapes and sizes. It appeared as a
chaotic and dense labyrinth of cardboard, polyethylene, and iron sheet structures (Figure 10). Roof
extensions created narrow, dark and poorly ventilated passages, difficult to recognise by pedestrians. Feeble
landmarks existed in empty spaces, including the main road, a dump, wholesale area, garages, the church,
and the formal buildings surrounding the market. The path system in the old market was comprised of four
major passages (3 meters wide) and a series of very narrow paths (50 centimeters wide). Stalls were not
easily recognisable by shoppers or accessible for the delivery of goods. Walking in the market was difficult
due to overcrowding, lack of roads, pavement and drainage, and sewer flows from nearby formal estates.
Environmental conditions worsened during the rainy seasons.
In 2008, the Toi market was destroyed by a fire. Its reconstruction was an opportunity to change its internal
structure and spatial configuration. A planning team was established in the community for this purpose,
focusing on stalls’ accessibility and visibility.
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Figure 9: Old Toi market’s path system.
Figure 10: Old Toi market.
The old path system had become overcrowded and inefficient; therefore, despite the huge losses, the
community saw the destruction as an opportunity to build a ‘modern’ market.
The new market looks like a conventional, formal one (Figures 12, 13). It is still organised in sections, but
these are accommodated in rows of stalls (Figure 11). The local association Jami Bora provided technical
assistance to design the layout and the construction materials that were bought thanks to American funds.
Decisions were made through a committee established for the reconstruction, in tandem with Jami Bora and
the market committee.
Sections and stalls are now identified with letters and numbers. Activities are registered on the map
produced by Jami Bora. Every activity is accessible, customers can recognise traders and goods, and
collecting for saving schemes is much easier. On the other hand, the market committee has greater power
and control over all activities. The market has maintained six points of access. The northern and eastern
points have become linear extensions, adding new activities along the way. The new market has kept the
most important inner passageways, while strengthening the north-south and the east-west axes as major
ways (approximately 5 and 3 meters wide) of distribution. The northern area, where the Toi market office
and the church are located, is used as public space. Indeed, some spaces have changed function: the church
in the southern area has been transformed into a mosque, and Muslims maintain rigid control over the
structure and the surrounding garden; the old, one-storey, Toi market office was rebuilt, by some members
of the Toi market committee with their savings, into a two storey structure that has become a new landmark
in the market. Food kiosks once located only along the external roads are now also inside the market.
However, merchants still lack land tenure security and basic infrastructure. Public lighting is now provided
by the Nairobi City Council (NCC) through five new poles located along the major roads, but most stalls
remain without power, while others steal it. Garbage is disposed of in the wholesale area but collection from
the NCC is rare, thus a dangerous dump has formed that attracts children and the very poor who scavenge
for food.
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Figure 11: The new Toi market layout; identification of the community services.
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Figure 12; 13: Comparison between the old and the new Toi market.
ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK: FINAL TABLE
The three identified approaches are summarized in Table 1. For each approach, different perspectives from
the literature are emphasized. The table allows for identifying some of the emerging concepts and gaps
concerning the recent literature on informal urbanism, sparking further reflection and research on the
production and organisation of space in informal settlements.
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Table 1: Analytical framework about informal urbanism according to the three approaches.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The Toi market case-study provides important insights about the production and organisation of space in
informal settlements. It allows for validating the three categories of analysis: the functional, anthropological
and process-oriented approaches.
Generally, the case-study shows that the poor pay significant attention to spatial organisation. It is a long
and complex process affected by socio-economic constraints, lack of resources, political and cultural issues.
On the other hand, organisation of space largely affects social relationships and conflict resolution,
occupation, business and income, environmental and health conditions, ambitions of growth and vision of
the future. The case-study also confirms that issues of functionality, human and power relations, and
development processes influence the way stakeholders perceive informality and its relationship with urban
space creation.
The functional approach recognises informality as a contextually-based urban form, emerging through
different morphologies. According to Dovey (2011), Toi market may be considered a district: ‘large mixed
use districts incorporating major retail and industrial functions’. However, his classification concerns large
settlements and does not mention marketplaces. Morphologies are critical to read the relationship between
informal settlements and cities; yet they are in their early stages and further research in this area is needed.
Seemingly, logics and patterns of informal settlements also exist, as the case-study widely describes, but
they remain, for the most part, unidentified. Finally, the functional approach seems to neglect significant
aspects of decision making concerning space organisation. Generally, there is a lack of bottom-up
approaches capable of linking informal decision-making mechanisms to the informal planning and design of
space. Recent approaches to the economy of poverty and development (Duflo 2011, Yunus 2006) advocate
an empirically based analysis of poverty that explains how the poor cope and adapt to challenges and how
they envision the future and make decisions. They can be considered a source of knowledge, as well as
experts in overcoming challenges and crises. A top-down approach to planning and design for slums must
be combined with a bottom-up understanding of locally adopted solutions for spatial organisation.
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The case study confirms that anthropological approaches serve to highlight gaps in the debate about
informality and in the ways of representing it. Though informality is seen as provisional and a temporary
state of peoples and cities in their path towards development, it can become a permanent status. The Toi
market vendors have been striving for thirty years to survive in subsistence conditions. Informality cannot, in
any case, be idealized as a poetic alternative to the formal city. Slum dwellers, in our case marketers, aim at
being recognised and integrated, and at having modern and efficient facilities. However, Simone’s concept
of ’doubleness’ is critical to reading the dynamics of space production in informal settlements. As in Toi
market, slum dwellers mainly invest in short-term solutions (for instance, temporary structures), but they
have hopes and aspirations for future permanent ones, which often reflect a ‘modern’ view of infrastructure,
services, legalisation and secure tenure. This contradicts the vision of impermanence and temporality that
often pervades the narratives about slums. Space organisation is intertwined with the concept of inclusion
at political, economic, and social levels. It allows community members to create connections with the formal
realm in multiple sectors. Confirming Simone’s notion of condition of ‘doubleness’ lived by black residents,
the case-study tell us that space organisation plays an important role in such condition. And the relationship
with modernity is a critical factor to be explored in the production of new urban spaces such as informal
settlements.
The process-oriented approach provides an insightful reading of the historical causes of informal
settlements formation, with emphasis on the influence of legal and economic frameworks. The role of
official planning in the informal city ‘making’ and ‘solving’ is questioned, as well as the relationships
between informality and globalisation. This approach explains that informal urbanism is formed through
temporal waves of adaptation to processes of modernisation, and that responses and relationships with
governments vary enormously. Toi market formed nearby Kibera, a slum that emerged in the first wave of
‘informalisation’, and mostly serves its own population. Its spatial evolution reflects the significant political
and socio-economic events that occurred over the years. As in other informal settlements, the market
physical features are extremely vulnerable to political events and changes: elections, conflicts, political
occurrences, and transformation in the leadership. The analysis of its historical evolution shows patterns and
logics of physical development and growth. More importantly, it shows that planning logics and principles
can survive in moments of crisis and be applied to better environmental and economic conditions, as in the
case of the market reconstruction.
Generally, determining trends in informal settlements growth is a prerequisite for enabling settlements to
be better integrated in the development planning process. According to this perspective, the discipline of
urban design lacks an adequate comprehension of the urban informality phenomenon and its evolution
processes. New and more dynamic methods of analysis and intervention are required in order to deal with
the conditions of informality.
Finally, the existing literature on space production conceptualises informal urbanism in a way that rarely
challenges the informal/formal dichotomy, through contextually based analyses. This dichotomy can and
should be eliminated/ overturned / invalidated. Rather, what should be explored more deeply are the
complex combinations of ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ as a new reality and the most pervasive way of producing
urban spaces and cities in the coming future. Space organisation and ‘informal design’ must be seen as a
process, the same way Turner considered Housing as ‘a verb’ rather than a product. And the outcome, the
more or less established form, the design, must be seen as the temporary result of this process, through
which we can gather important insight about the poor’s immediate needs, long term objectives and
aspirations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our appreciation to the members of the Toi market community for their support
during the fieldwork. Particularly, we thank the community leaders who greatly eased the communication
and relationship with the community and mapping operations. We also offer thanks to our volunteer co-
investigator, Patrizia Piras, member of AOC onlus, for her inestimable work on the ground.
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THE FORECAST OF THE DEVELOPMENT TREND ABOUT EFFECTIVE ARCHITECTURE
He Junhua, Department of Architecture/Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College, China, heyi71@126.com
Abstract
Along with economic development and population growth in the world, great changes have taken place in our
living space. A lot of buildings have been built, and now energy saving ideas has been transformed into
architectural drawings. But a lot of architecture has exposed the problem, mainly reflected in three aspects of
waste: technical measure, architectural material, and architectural space. With the globalized steps of world
cities, waste is not only architectural funds; more important are the world's available resources. I hope to draw the
correct conclusions through this research, and this article can present effective architectural development to
provide effective instruction direction.
Keywords: Technology, form, validity, user.
INTRODUCTION
The development of world architecture has been beyond the imagination of the modernism masters, and I
want to put forward the topic today: let buildings become effective. What is effective architecture? Energy-
saving architecture is effective? Green building is effective building? Organic architecture is effective in
building? The answer is very difficult from this level.
From a different angle, what does the effectiveness of the proposed architecture embody? The effectiveness
of the building mainly reflects these three aspects: the space of building, building materials, architectural
technical measures. Building the eyes of scholars, the effectiveness of the space is in the first place. That's
what I was looking at before. But the area of new buildings grows to double in every year.
Waste more and more in architectural space, architectural material, and technical measures for architecture
of the three aspects. The wastes are not only architectural funds, more important are the world's available
resources, and if we had not realized that in the future we will waste more than these prices.
THE CAUSES OF ARCHITECTURAL WASTE PHENOMENON
Along with economic development and population growth in the world, great changes have taken place in
our living space. A lot of buildings have been built, and now energy saving ideas have been transformed into
architectural drawings. But at present, a lot of architecture has exposed the problem, mainly reflected in
three aspects: Technical measures, building materials, the space of building.
The waste of technical measure
Technical measure has become the decoration on the blueprint; in fact, it has not played the role. The New
York Times noted that, commonly used in expansion design of glass curtain wall components, exterior walls
away from most of the available space, forcing more reliance on artificial lighting and ventilation systems (3
July 2014). Statistics have indicated in China, in the newly built, nearly 2,000,000,000 construction, high
energy consumption architecture has surpassed 95% every year. But in 21,500,000,000 public buildings
which we already have in our country, the energy conservation success rate still was insufficient 10%.
Energy efficiency is on the software of calculus

Many of the energy-saving building software are dazzling. Basic data is inaccurate, or is not there. Many of
the projects and not the budget, or excessive dependence on computers, and on-the-spot survey also shows
data for the budget.
Energy saving is an expression in drawings

Prior to its cancellation, Anara Tower was planned as one of the tallest buildings in Dubai, one of the icons
and sustainability-in spite of its west-facing glass, and high amount of energymaterials, and worth noting is
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huge non-functional (decorative) wind turbines. Real obvious expense of building sustainability sustainable
development provided an "image" of consumer goods packaging.
Figure 1: Anara Tower (Picture by Atkins Design Studio).
In the analysis of energy saving measures for map, we often see a lot of arrows floated. Dr. Xiao Song’s
survey found that of the approximately 43 billion square meters of existing buildings, only 4% of the
buildings use advanced energy efficiency improvement measures.
Energy saving measures energy support is needed to operate

Or so-called energy saving measures is not really in the sense of energy conservation. For example, the
addition of active energy more effective systems tends to reduce the amount of energy use, and therefore
reduces the overall cost. But, in turn, lower costs often make households less careful in their energy use -
"Jay Vince paradox" the phenomenon is known to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and improve and
enhance the rate of consumption demand, and destroy the original savings. The lesson is, we can't have
energy consumption in the process isolation. In the Financial District of central London, St Mary Axe Street, a
building like a cucumber Touch the Sky, this is known as the "cucumber" Swiss Reinsurance Company
headquarters building (Foster & Partners office 2003), in which buildings and open floor of ventilation
system, security awareness of tenants create glass separations. The Windows, the specifications have been
reduced due to natural ventilation features in fact from the start building, which had to be permanently
closed. More complex natural ventilation systems of the grand objective contradictions lead to poor
ventilation.
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Figure 2: The Swiss Re building by the Forster firm, also known as "the gherkin" (Picture
Wikimedia Commons Aurelien Gishall’s politeness).
The waste of construction materials

There is no need for specific architectural material waste, because the aim of the analysis is to find the cause
of waste building materials. This section has mainly three reasons to expand: non-qualified materials
processing methods, strategies for using building materials are reversed, which are closely related
construction and building structure.
Non-qualified materials processing methods

Global air pollution, green reduced soil erosion have accelerated in today's world In addition to natural
disasters, destruction of architectural activity is greatest. Especially in the production of construction
materials, we have gone astray. Solid brick production requires a lot of fuel and dirt; this is what we all know.
In order to protect the environment, to switch to liquefied petroleum gas concrete and fly ash hollow brick.
However,these practices had not improved the natural environment, but more serious pollution problems.
Not pausing to produce building materials all over the world, because everywhere is a construction site.
In order to protect wood from insects, plants using formaldehyde, which is a fact obvious to, formaldehyde,
is harmful chemicals. There are many things we don't see practice: stone of radioactive elements, life of the
PVC pipes, seawater on the corrosion of concrete and steel, and so on. Those not qualified in the factory or in
the production of building materials in construction site examples, from the outset, kills the life of the
building.
Strategies for using building materials are reversed

Have the order reversed timber strategy. Outdoor engineering, landscape engineering, municipal
engineering, are a large number of materials used in wood, bamboo and otherorganic architecture. And
curb was made of solid stone. Floor type multi-purpose precast paving materials.
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Figure 3: landscape engineering.
A durable material service life is reduced, while the lighter and more fragile material service life is prolonged.
Is this a joke? If only in order to reduce the architectural cost, the main structure of part of the building is no
longer used stone also can barely be understood, those who use precast concrete decorative parts, why the
luxury into stone? From the cost is not hard to see why, stone is twice that of precast concrete products. The
same function can obtain different profits. The material is more expensive, labor cost is also higher. The
building is a commodity; this positioning allows the production of building materials to be wrong.
Architecture is the commodity demand for architectural materials, more expensive, will stimulate more
output of the factory, so they get more profit. In the global economic level are reflected in the figures, but
also has the use method many people focus on building materials?
Which are closely related construction and building structure?

Think of all those years architectural materials where concrete was used, which is a one-time construction
materials. Snack -style building, since the birth of modern architecture, go hand in hand with the architect
.What is the purpose of the disposable tableware? This container is convenient, cheap, filled with food to
feed our stomach. Cannot use second time, this is the characteristics. And they are very thin. For instance,
the civil construction use jurisdiction may amount to 70 years. In the process of civil building, wall, beam,
column, wall was reinforced concrete into a whole, like a snack box as complete. Blank room decoration has
damage to the hidden engineering and equipment pipeline, and this damage is hard to repair.
But in the decoration engineering and redecoration process, the workers labor will tear such as fast food box
like structure, and the spatial updating dream never ceased, comfortable, convenient, and even reached
grade environment, is the transformation of the non-stop. Transformation mentioned here does not include
the history of heritage buildings.
Compared with the method of cast-in-place architecture, assembly type RC structure is beneficial to green
architecture, because the assembly type construction can meet the green construction land, energy saving,
material saving, water saving and environmental protection requirements, reduce the negative impact on
the environment, follow the principle of sustainable development. Moreover, the assembly structure can be
continuously in order to complete the works of many or all processes, thereby reducing the approach of
engineering machinery types and quantities, eliminate process connection worker’s time, realize stereo
cross operation, reduce the architectural personnel, which can improve efficiency, reduce material
consumption, reduce environmental pollution, to provide protection for green construction. In addition, the
assembly type structure building rubbish is reduced to a large extent (about 30% - 40% of the total city
garbage), such as scrap steel, scrap iron, scrap wood and bamboo, waste concrete etc.
But now it needs a new architecture of cast-in-situ architecture far more than the assembly type structure
needs. Although as everyone knows, the assembly type structure or structure is easier to maintain, and even
buildings built after the demolition, the operation will be very simple. Removed components can also be
used in other parts. But why, now the site using cast-in-place architecture has become the mainstream? The
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production component production to meet new projects needs? But judging from the cost of production,
the assembly type structure is more expensive. Each component must have the exwork certificate. The
prefabricated component output is unable to meet the new architectural project needs quantity.
The waste of architectural space

Waste of building space referred to in this section are from the following three aspects: Useful space is rarely
used, useless space exists only for modeling, architecture is real, is storage space.
Useful space is rarely used

A lot of building activity around the area of growing each year, for more and more building space to survive.
But the problems caused by architectural space are becoming increasingly visible. With the improvement of
people's living standards, a lot of people have their own house or villa. But with heavy work or work place
too far and other reasons, usually they are not living at home and travel during the holidays. During the
Chinese New Year, more and more people prefer to live in a hotel, book in a restaurant on New Year’s Eve.
Demand for building space now, actually, standards have changed considerably in the past. Demand for
public space is greater than the demand for private space, this is the actual trend. Although many people
have a lot of pride in architectural space, but if the space is not being used or seldom used, waste
substantially. The excessive diverse architectural form, and causes the building costs to dramatically rise.
Useless space exists only for modeling

More and more non-linear architectural forms have emerged in all corners of the world, as a landmark of the
city stand out. Unused space is not uncommon, devoted to the art of building space, maybe when designers
start thinking about space, there can be no thought of a use for it.
While the useless space for rules, but people cannot forgive. Original purpose is to gain more space. For
example, some office buildings, nuclear, placed in the middle of traffic, all at common areas of the smallest
and most extreme. Such traffic in nuclear architecture in high-rise buildings application was more extensive,
and also won the super high-rise building's favor. Entire floors are designed to be very depressing, so that
space could have been used to relax becomes so that you just want to flee.
Architecture is real, is storage space

Historically, building is a treasure, is the immovable property. Because of this, a lot of people spend a lifetime
to have their own home. Also because more emphasis is on the value of money, makes people feel inferior.
As all the people engaged in design work, must feel its currency's value is not so important. It is important to
the space, the building, carry how many designers work and dream. This can't be measured by money.
However, this kind of work eventually exchanges is the currency, this is our very helpless things. We
continue to finish building the dream.
Immovable property of architecture is destined to its shortcomings, but not death. As early relocation of
building technologies, there is a variety of RV. Relocation technology needed is laborious and time
consuming, and RV needs correspond to the trailer base and a full fuel tank.
Storage function of architecture is why people miss home. Storage of things is not just objects, as well as
memory and emotion. Now the high-rise buildings, high-rise buildings weakened the storage. In living space,
for example, the same or similar plane constraint storage functions of the architecture. Unified property
management mode to weaken the personality of residents, nurtured a lazy, greedy way of life. Most city
people don't work in the plow a tiller of the ground, physical labor gradually transformed into the form of
mental work mode.
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THE FORECAST OF THE DEVELOPMENT TREND ABOUT EFFECTIVE ARCHITECTURE
In the future, if the architectural methods, materials, space utilization, etc., or cannot be effectively improved,
so more and more buildings will become the world's largest waste.
Figure 4: In the beginning of construction of a building site in Shenzhen.
With the globalized step of world city, we discuss the question that how to design the effective building has
become extremely urgent. This text will launch predicting five respects from the technology, the form, the
area, the fabrication cost, the user. I hope to drawthe correct conclusion through this research, this article
can present the green architectural development to provide the effective instruction direction.
Embark from user's angle

Architectural waste, I analyzed from three aspects: technologies, materials and space. We cannot avoid many
problems that currently exist, but we can learn experience and lessons. We can't correct the errors of the
past, but from now on, we can hold the valid construction development. From a consumer perspective, we
are as a guide for the effective use of architecture workers.
Recommended the drafting of an effective construction specification

It's my great honor to speak my suggestion at the World Congress of architecture, discussing and drafting
effective building instructions for user. The outline of mere personal power is not perfect. I have tried to
write this program, the current results, only completed a form (See table). I am very ashamed. I hope to get
your help, with the hope that the experts and scholars cooperation put together the complete specification.
I desire to the world each building can have a book of effective construction specification. Building is easy,
designing is difficult, and more difficult is how to use it effectively.
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Table: an outline on the effective architecture of the statement
Way Effective Effective Effective energy
architectura architectura technical saving measures

Process
l l measure
Effective Rational Prefabricate Assembled The
space materials
architectura design of public d component expression reductio
l design space Composite wood constructs n consumes
Rational Recycle Removable energy
design of private d materials construction the space
space Avoid technology Reduces the
Effectively disposable Transfer, quadrangle

adjust the materials remova Using
architectural Avoid concrete l technique natura
Effective Schedule Scheduled Regular Regular
modeling Disaster- l climate
architectura d maintenance maintenance maintenance
resistant Circulation use
l maintenance system Oversight system system
techniques energy
managemen system responsibility that Responsible for Responsible for
Studies the
t Oversight corresponds to supervision of the supervision
energy of the
responsibility that the person corresponding corresponding

construction
corresponds to Corresponding The The
the person rewards and correspondin correspondin
Corresponding funding g incentive g incentive
rewards and funds funds
funding To reduce or To reduce or

effective How to How to How to To guide the
prevent the prevent
guidance for effectively guide effectively guide effectively guide the designer and the
construction waste energy
using the designers and the designer to use designer to use user how to
Recycling and waste
users use the building materials technical measure effectively use
reuse of Recovery and
building energy
The effective architecture is not merely construction itself, moreover it is a sustainable
construction reuse social system
of energy
space
wasteto the building itself.
Effective architecture is a collection of social behavior, not only refers
In considering the architectural effectiveness point of view, building more suitable for the sustainable way,
control of building energy and assembly technology more. Processing and building materials, the
establishment of an effective architecture supervision and management organizations, to promote the
development of effective architecture of public ownership, this is the inevitability of its beginning, but also
guide the benign development of
the channel architecture.
The new building is to promote the necessary public policy assembly building. Prefabricated architecture of
privately owned the maintenance of the social supervision; and have great difficulty for the recovery and
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assembling, it will re utilization, it should take into account the economic capacity of individual.
For an established fact of the old building and architecture, we are unable to discuss how their building
materials. But we can use the new architecture technology to transform them, so that they become more
useful space. The effective architectural manual will be necessary to use for them. In addition to effective
maintenance and use them, I can't find a better way.
I have a bold imagination come to mind: architecture can successfully resist natural disasters In the future,
can safely migrate, more can let the average person in the outer space of life!
The value of the building is of secondary importance, how to let building be effective is an imminent event!
REFERENCES
Mehaffy, M & Salingaros, N., ‘Why green architecture hardly ever deserves the name’, Arch Daily, 3 July 2013,
viewed 22 April 2014, <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=396263>
Xie Q & Ye, X., ‘Only 4% construction uses advanced energy-saving measures in our country”, 22 Nov2013,
http://epaper.nfdaily.cn/html/2013-11/22/content_7247884.htm
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URBAN POVERTY AND HOUSING INADEQUACIES IN NIGERIA: NEED FOR INTERVENTION IN THE CORE
AREAS OF CITIES
ODUNJO, OLURONKE OMOLOLA ̽; OKANLAWON, SIMON AYORINDE

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, LADOKE AKINTOLA UNIVERSITY
OF TECHNOLOGY, OGBOMOSO, NIGERIA
stevomary2012@gmail.com ̽; sayokanlawon@yahoo.com
Abstract
Against the background of increasing poverty and housing inadequacies in Nigeria, this paper appraises the
housing situation in the core areas of cities with a view to upgrade the standard of living in order to meet the
present day requirements and estimated future needs of the residents. It uses Ibadan, a city in the southwestern
part of the country as a case study and a simple random sampling technique was used in selecting 252 houses in
the area while questionnaire and direct field observation form the instrument for data collection. The paper found
out that accommodation density in the area is as high as 31 – 40 persons per house while the household size is
above 20 which are good indicators of poverty. Also, 11.79% of the buildings in the area are in good condition
while 27.64% buildings are fair and poor and fallen buildings constitute 36.56% and 23.98% respectively.
Recommendations were therefore proffered based on the findings above, in order to achieve housing
sustainability in the area.
Keywords: Poverty, housing inadequacies, housing situation, core areas, upgrade.
INTRODUCTION
There is no commonly acceptable definition for poverty. The definition is difficult, cloudy and cannot be
pinned down (Fadamiro et al., 2005). In recent times however, it has become conventional to examine
poverty in broad terms. For instance, Tobi and Prado (1992) observe that poverty is a multi – dimensional
phenomenon with few commonly agreed definitions across the characteristics of the urban poor. These
include excessive labour flow, undifferentiated/unskilled persons who cannot readily be integrated into the
production system; a subculture of personalized ethnical codes in contrast to the norm of kindred or
community behavior, scarcity of essential commodities (food, housing and clothing), growth of slums,
unemployment, under-employment and crimes or deviant behaviors. It also diagnosed poverty as having
limited and insufficient food and clothing; people living in crowded, cold and dirty shelters, and people
living painful and comparatively brief lives.
Similarly, Olowu and Akinola (1992) point out that poverty is characterised by the lack of, or inadequate
access to infrastructures among others, while the urban poor can easily be identified from the type of food
they eat and the environment in which they live. In the same vein, Onibokun (1995) perceived urban poverty
as living in sub–standard and sub–human environments plagued by slums, squalor and grossly inadequate
social amenities like health facilities, schools and recreational opportunities. The most common attributes of
poverty include, but are not limited to the following: low income resulting from unemployment and under–
employment, poor state of health and living conditions, low levels of literacy, political apathy, sub–standard
dwellings, absence of, or inadequate buildings and social infrastructural facilities, high levels of crime and
juvenile delinquency and subsistence living.
Poverty leads to urban decay which is a global phenomenon and is experienced in cities of developed and
developing countries. It is found in different degrees in the central and inner parts as well as the suburbs of
the world. The history of urban decay dates back to the early period of human existence in many cities.
However, the problem featured prominently in the 1970s and 1980s in developed countries as a result of
change in global economies and development of transportation which promoted suburban living. Today,
urban decay is a major problem that threatens the sustainability of urban basic services and hampers the
efficient functioning of 21st century cities.
The urban landscape in most developed countries is characterized by precarious housing conditions,
poverty, overcrowding, crime, deplorable sanitation, inadequate water supply and substandard health
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facilities (Lloyd, 1979). In Nigeria, urban decay is a major feature of the cities’ centres and squatter
settlements in the suburbs. Abumere (1987) observed that 51.8 per cent of slums are found within a 0.5
kilometre radius of city centres, while as high as 68 per cent are found within a 1 kilometre radius of city
centres in Nigeria.
Thus, the built environment in many developing countries, particularly Nigeria is fast decaying. The factors
responsible for this can be attributed to rapid urbanisation, rural-urban migration and decades of steady
economic downturn, decay of urban infrastructure and negligent urban housekeeping (World Bank, 1996).
There is no doubt that Nigerian cities are facing a crisis of urban decay. Documented facts are visible
evidence and abound in all settlements. In the analysis of urban decay in forty settlements in Nigeria,
Abumere (1987) found that urban decay is a feature of both small and big cities and is irrespective of size.
The seriousness of the problem is vividly expressed in the writing of Paulson (2001) who observed that,
flying into Lagos, Nigeria – the biggest city in Africa’s most populous country: “The first indications that, all is
not well are visible signs of chaos and urban decay that fly at visitor like paper swaps in a windstorm”.
However, the core areas of cities are the worst. These areas no longer encourage people to live in them,
because of the deteriorating condition of buildings, environmental pollution, unsanitary environment, lack
and poor supply of facilities and amenities, and poor disposition of buildings with poor ventilation and day
lighting. In Yoruba, the core of cities are in most cases dominated by old buildings, some of which are either
dilapidated, unmaintained or abandoned.
These areas are mostly inhabited by low income earners and the unemployed who are otherwise known as
the urban poor who cannot afford to pay rent for better housing when they are available. The core of cities
also suffer from high rates of out-migration of the productive youth.
The deteriorating condition of these areas is however, not the fault of the inhabitant alone, simply because
of poverty, ignorance and lack of willingness to maintain or invest in them; but partly due to government
neglect, of the provision of infrastructure, the formulation of appropriate development control measures for
buildings, as well as failure to formulate a National Urbanisation Policy within the framework of the National
Development Plan to alleviate poverty and social isolation of the majority groups in the core and old areas of
cities. Consequently, there is an urgent need to relieve the old, core areas of cities of these problems,
particularly if housing problems are to be ameliorated in the urban areas as well as blending them with
other parts of the city. For instance, it is important to retain and protect the architectural values, cultural
heritage of the people and their original values as the centre of life, including trading activities in the cities.
The aim of this paper therefore, is to appraise the present situation of the core areas of cities in Nigeria using
the Itamaya area of Ibadan as a case study, with a view to upgrade the standard of living of the area to meet
the present day requirements and estimated future needs of the residents.
THE STUDY AREA
Itamaya area is located at the core of Ibadan, the largest city in south-western Nigeria. It is bounded in the
north by Agbeni, in the south by Oke Foko, in the west by Oke Bola and in the east by Mapo. The area is
chosen because it is characterised by the problems described above. Coupled with this is the fact that
residents do not want to leave their roots and if these conditions are allowed to continue unchecked, the
core of the city may, one day, show a total functional and physical collapse. Hence, there is a need for
upgrading. The objectives of the study are to:
• Assess the socio-economic characteristics of the people
• Assess the conditions of buildings in the area
• Determine the potentialities of the infrastructural facilities in the area for meeting future roles
and responsibilities.
RESEARCH METHOD
Questionnaire and direct field observation form the basis of the research. The questionnaire was divided into
two parts: socio-economic characteristics and an environmental survey.
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• Socio-economic characteristics: Questions were asked on the socio-economic characteristics of
the residents of the area. Such information includes age of respondents, marital status, income
level, demographic characteristics and size of household.
• Environmental survey: This covered the physical characteristics of buildings in the area.
Information was collected on facilities provided within, the percentage of derelict and near derelict
buildings taking into account such indicators as condition of the walls, floor, roof, age of buildings
and general outlook of the building as well as the extent of deterioration. Assessment of all these
variables was made by visual observation.
Thus, a simple random sampling technique was used in selecting 252 houses in the area and the household
head was investigated using the questionnaire. In a situation where there was more than one household
head in a building, a household head was randomly selected. However, 246 household heads responded
effectively giving 97.61%, sufficient for a valid assessment of the situation under study. The statistical
analyses used include descriptive statistics such as percentage and frequency counts.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Socio-economic characteristics of the area

• Age of the Respondents
15 (6.1%) of the respondents are between 18 – 29 years, 41 (16.7%) fall between 30 and 40 years of age,
while 79 (32.1%) are between 41 and 50 years of age. 51 to 60 years is 101 (41.1%), while 10 (4.1%)
respondents are between 61 years and above as shown in Fig 1. The implication of this is that the modal age
is 51 to 60 years; therefore, the majority of respondents are adults, mature and are mentally aware of the
basic necessities of life and the effects such could have on their standard of living. However, they are unable
to attain this, because farming, petty trading and artisanship are the major occupations; thus, a lot of them
depend on the little amount of money that comes their way, while some are unemployed and rely on other
people like their children to give them money occasionally and hence cannot afford decent living.
50!
Percentage)(%))
40!
30!
20!
10!
0!
18)29! 30)40! 41)50! 51)60! 61!years!
years! years! years! years! and!
above!
Age)
Figure 1: Age of respondents in Itamaya area of Ibadan
Marital status of the Respondents
The results of analysis show that the bulk of the respondents are married (168 or 68.3%), followed by
widows/ widowers 19 (7.7%); single or not married constitute 13 (5.3%) and divorced are 29 (11.8%), with the
separated respondents being 17 (6.9%) as shown in Figure 2. This result confirms one major characteristic of
cities, in which most residents have been shown to be mainly married (Barbara and Christine, 1969). It also
confirms the submission of Statistics South Africa (2011), that the bulk of a set of population is married.
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separated!
divorced! 6.9%!
11.8%!
single/not!
married!
5.3%!
widows/
married!
widowers!
68.3%!
7.7%!
Figure 2: Marital status of the respondents of Itamaya area of Ibadan
Income level of the respondents
183 (74.4%) of the respondents get below N20,000 (US$167) annually, while 63 (25.6%) get N21,000 to
N40,000. The implication is that the majority of residents of the area are poor and low income workers by
Nigerian standards and this is due to the fact that they had no formal education. This therefore supports the
submission of the National Population Policy (2001) that 70% of Nigerians are living below the poverty line
with an income of less than one dollar per day. It is also confirmation of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in the Human Development Index (2000), in which Nigeria was ranked as one of the
twenty five poorest countries in the world, representing 151 out of 174 countries.
Demographic characteristics
31-40 persons per house has the highest frequency which is 120 (48.8%) as shown in Table 1. This was
followed by 21-30 persons, while 1-10 persons per house has no frequency. The implication of this finding is
that houses are highly congested and overcrowded, which is a visible feature of housing in Nigeria. This is
symptomatic of housing poverty that often leads to irritation, unproductiveness and fatigue. Studies have
shown that overcrowding could be a determining factor for deleterious social behaviours such as
prostitution, juvenile delinquency and certainly is a hazard to health (Bernstein, 1968 and Stockols et al.,
1973). Thus, the fact that the houses are congested points to the rapid deterioration of the housing units.
Persons per house Frequency Percentage

1 – 10 0 0
11 – 20 30 12.2
21 – 30 95 38.6
31 – 40 120 48.8
> 40 1 0.4
Total 246 100.0%
Table 1: Accommodation density in Itamaya area of Ibadan
Household size
The household size of respondents is shown in Table 2. The highest household size is 6–10 persons with 20-
25 persons as the lowest. Thus, the respondents generally have a large family size which may compound
their ability to afford decent accommodation and not wanting to leave their roots.
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Household size Frequency Percentage
1–5 92 37.4
6 – 10 105 42.7
11 – 15 32 13.0
16 – 20 15 6.1
21 -25 2 0.8
Total 246 100.0
Table 2: House size of the residents of Itamaya area of Ibadan
Conditions of buildings in the area
The quality of each house in the area was assessed based on the assessment of variables such as availability
of water, toilet, accessibility to house etc. Each variable was scored and later summed up. Then, a different
range was arrived at, for the classification of the houses into fallen, poor, fair and good. Table 3 shows the
criteria for classification of buildings in the area, while Table 4 shows the range of classification of housing
conditions, with Table 5 showing the housing conditions.
S/No Item Building Conditions

i Structural condition Good Fair Poor Fallen
ii Accessibility to building Tarred road Un tarred Footpath Undefined air
space
iii Wall condition Uncracked Cracked Dilapidated Part fallen
iv Roof condition No defect Rusty Leaking Part missing
v Ceiling condition No defect Rusty or Sagging Falling off
leaking
vi Kitchen facility Kitchen within Kitchen Temporary Passage and
building detached structure in the open
vii Toilet facility Water closet Pit latrine Pit latrine shared Public or not
shared available
viii Parking facility Built-in garage On – street Not available Not available
parking
ix Drainage facility Open Not available Not available Not available
Table 3: Criteria for classification of buildings in Itamaya area of Ibadan
Range Classification
Above 45 Good
35 – 45 Fair
25 – 35 Poor
< 25 Fallen
Table 4: Range of classification of housing conditions in Itamaya area of Ibadan
Classification Number of buildings Percentage

Good 29 11 .89
Fair 68 27 .6
Poor 90 36 .6
Fallen 59 24 .0
Total 246 100.0
Table 5: Housing conditions in Itamaya area of Ibadan
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As shown in Table 5, 36.6% of the buildings are in poor condition. The quality of the houses is generally very
poor, often manifested as a general dearth of internal facilities and conveniences. Urban services such as
water supply and electricity are inadequate. Thus, the inadequacy of the houses stems from the poor
physical state of the buildings. The buildings are often unsafe and insecure (from fire and collapse) and do
not provide adequate shelter from the elements. The environment in which the buildings are located is
squalid in most cases. This generally leads to slum conditions through combined effects of natural ageing of
the buildings and increasing deterioration of the natural landscape (Olotuah, 2005).
However, 27.6% buildings are in fair condition which is low when compared with others. The majority of the
fair buildings are structurally sound as revealed by the wall perimeters, ceilings and roof. These buildings
only lack facilities attached to houses such as toilet, kitchen and bathrooms and in a situation where these
are provided, they are substandard. This lowered their scores and made them fall within the range of fair
buildings. These buildings need either minor or major repairs to upgrade their standard and this will involve
mostly the provision of adequate facilities, while the fallen ones are beyond repair and require demolition to
pave way for new buildings.
POTENTIALITIES OF INFRASTRUCTURAL FACILITIES IN THE AREA FOR MEETING FUTURE ROLES AND
RESPONSIBILITIES
There are utilities and services very close to the area, which can serve as a base to build upon. For instance,
there is a public tap which could be extended to individual houses or there should be construction of
boreholes and a deep well in order to serve the houses without water.
There should also be provision of electricity and street lights as well as the provision of public toilet and
bathrooms at strategic locations by government in order to improve the standard of living of the residents.
This will go a long way in alleviating the suffering of the people and stop them from bathing in open spaces
or defecating, which poses a danger to their health. For the dumping of refuse, each house should have a
dustbin and a space should be provided as a collection point by the Town Council. Moreover, there are some
aspects of the area that could be considered as opportunities. One of these is the topography e.g., the
western part has a gentle slope towards the north and thus should be incorporated to promote natural
drainage.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Generally, the problems in the core areas of cities in Nigeria call for the need to formulate a National
Urbanisation Policy. This should be provided within the framework of the National Development Plan to
attack poverty and social isolation of people in the core and old areas of cities. This is because the majority of
residents of the area are old people who are in the low income group, while young residents are
unemployed and hence cannot afford decent living.
In order to upgrade the status of fair and poor buildings in the area, there should be provision of facilities
like toilets, kitchens, bathrooms and wells at a convenient location by the landlords or owners, while
renovation work should be carried out on rooves and the changing of small windows and doors. In order to
do this, government should help with housing finance, by giving financial assistance to the people through
loans from financial institutions for house repairs and renovations as well as encourage private agencies and
non-governmental organization in the renovation or conversion/ alteration of existing buildings.
However, in the area, there is a concentration of dilapidated buildings at the centre. It is recommended that
this be taken over by new roads, new buildings or open spaces and in order to ensure road safety and
convenience in the area, general road rehabilitation is recommended. Any new development should
conform to the existing satisfactory provisions for achieving effective development control and regulation of
buildings. Also, there should be a good network of roads or footpaths to link the buildings in the interior of
the area.
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CONCLUSION
Most people in the core areas of cities in Nigeria live in substandard houses and subhuman environments
plagued by slums, squalor and a dearth of facilities necessary in houses like potable water, toilets and
bathrooms. This is because the majority have no formal education and fall into the low income group; thus,
this is an obstacle to sustainable development and leads to poor environmental quality. There is a need to
upgrade the area to meet present day requirements. This should be done through the collective efforts of
the individual house owners, public agencies, private agencies and non-governmental organizations.
REFERENCES
Bernstein, B., 1968. ‘Some Sociological Determinants of Perception: An Inquiry into the Sub-cultural
Differences’, in JA Fishman (ed.), Readings in the Sociology of Languages, Mouton, The Hague, pp. 223-225.
Fadamiro, JA., Bobadoye, SA., & Adelowo, W., 2005. Urban Poverty and Environmental Quality in Akure City: The
Challenges for Architectural Profession in Nigeria. A paper presented at Africa Union of Architects and the
Nigerian Institutes of Architects Conference, Abuja, Nigeria. Talos Press, Lagos, p. 107.
Lloyd, P., 1979. Slums of Hope: Shanty Towns of the Third World. University of Manchester Press, Manchester.
National Policy on Population. 2001. Nigeria National Policy on Population for Sustainable Development
Draft.
Olowu, D. & Akinola, SR., 1995. ‘Urban Governance and Urban Poverty in Nigeria’, in AG Onibokun & A.
Faniran (eds.), Governance and Urban Poverty in Anglophone West Africa. CASSAD Monograph Series 4.
Onibokun, AG., 1985. Housing in Nigeria. A Book of Readings, NISER, Ibadan.
Settles, B.H. & Hillman, C.H., 1969. Younger Families in the Rural Fringe. Journal of Cooperative Extension,
Spring.
Statistics South Africa. 2011. Gender Statistics in South Africa. p. 5.
Stockols, D. Rall, M. & Schopler, J., (eds.) 1973. Physical, Social and Personal Determinants of the Perception of
Crowding. Environment and Behavior, pp. 87-88.
Tobi, D. & Prado, R., 1994. Notes on Poverty Focus in Country Programming. A paper presented at the UNICEF
Workshop on Urban Poor and CEDC, IITA, Ibadan.
United Nations Development Programme. 2000. World Development Indicators: The Economist Pocket Guide to
World Figures. United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, Nairobi.
World Bank. 1996. Nigeria Poverty in the Midst of Plenty: The Challenge of Growth. World Bank Assessment, May
1996, Report No. 14733.
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FESITVAL CITY AS A TOOL FOR URBAN CITIES DEVELOPMENT – EL MULID CASE STUDY IN EGYPT
Dalia Moaty Rasmy, October University for Sciences and Arts (MSA University), Egypt,
arch.dalia.moatee@outlook.com
Rasha Sayed Mahmoud, American University in Cairo, Egypt, rashasayed664@hotmail.com
Sarah M. Abdallah El Chafei, October University for Sciences and Arts (MSA University), Egypt,
sarah.m.abdallah@gmail.com
Abstract
Mulid as an event means exaltation and praise of one of the household of the prophet (peace be upon him), or
one of the crown or sheikh. The real old event was about praising his or her life and how they spend their lives for
the sake of delivering the message of Islam, by time, this event turned to be more folkloric and cultural than
showing its religious value.
There are different means of celebration whether by music, food manufacturing and even by performing specific
shows, some of which are Sufi praising GOD and Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him). The ultimate
uniqueness of this event could be its touristic economic historical value, in which the urban space changes to be a
dynamic urban space all day long during the period of the Mulid. This paper will focus mainly on the household of
the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) mosques and mausoleums in old Islamic cairo, which could be
presented as a green path way telling a story of one of those ionic Islamic pioneers. The richness of actions and
values of these places is not about the story of the behavior only, its also about its historic value that confirms and
represents the present time and future urban planning aspects for such types of places.
Mulid event gather people from different sectors and countries, the beauty of this event lies in making all people
united in one single street or zone for a complete week or even more, during this period, they live together, eat
together and share all street functions together. Also, it creates seasonal functions. The urban fabric during this
time becomes more complicated, this part of the city becomes the focus of festivals during the date of celebration.
Mulid could be the top folkloric event taking place, if some of its functions become more organized, we could
consequently add some other functions to adapt with the new challenges, meanings and values.
Keywords: celebratory urban events, cultural festival, green path way, future urban planning, city festival.
INTRODUCTION
Festivals are an important sub field of study, and of particular interest to scholars in many disciplines
because of the universality of festivity and social festival experiences. Within event studies, festival studies is
also emerging as a distinct sub field, in large part because festivals occupy a special place in almost all
cultures and have therefore been well researched and theorized by scholars in the disciplines of
anthropology and sociology.
There is also a special appeal in festival studies associated with scope for inspiring creativity, attracting large
crowds, and generating emotional responses. In this way festivals are part of the entertainment business
and often featured in place marketing and tourism and have become permanent elements in both popular
and high culture.
Festivals have been defined by Falassi (1987), in the classical cultural anthropological perspective as “a
sacred time of celebration.” Festivals celebrate community values, ideologies, identity and continuity.
The reflection of the modern approach to naming events as festivals, Getz (2005), defined them as “themed,
public celebrations”. Pieper (1965) believed only religious rituals and celebrations could be called festivals.
Numerous forms and themes of festival are possible.
Festivals have occupied an important place in the event literature, but have not previously been assessed
separately. Prior to 1993, when the research journal Festival Management and Event Tourism was established,
there were only sporadic research based papers dealing with event tourism and festival. As confirmed by
Formica (1998) there were few articles related to event management published in the 1970s. Formica
quantified the topics explored by festival and special event research articles from 1970 through 1996,
descending order of frequency economic and financial impacts, marketing, profiles of festival events,
sponsorship, management, trends and forecasts.
The first set of journal papers to deal with festival and event management and tourism was published in a
special issue of the Canadian Journal of Applied Recreation Researchin 1991. Cousineau (1991) wrote the
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editorial entitled “Festivals and events: A fertile ground for leisure research”, and the papers covered a
geography of festivals in Ontario (Butler and Smale, 1991), a history of festivals in Quebec (Leduc 1991), a
critical analysis of ethnic and multicultural festivals (Dawson 1989), a methodological review of event
assessment (Getz 1991). Robinson and Noel (1991) discussed research needs for festivals, taking a
management perspective.
More recent reviews of event management and event tourism have ben compiled by Getz (2000; 2008),
Harris, Jago, Allen, Huyskens (2001), Hede, Jago, and Deery (2002, 2003), and Sherwood (2007). Getz (2000)
reviewed articles published in the journal Event Management from 1993 up to 2000, concluding that the
most frequent topics were economic development and impacts of events, followed by sponsorship and
event marketing from the corporate perspective. In 2000, the Events Beyond 2000 conference in Sydney,
Harris reviewed Australian events related research. They determined that the most frequently examined
topics were economic development impacts of events, other management topics, and community impacts.
However, most of the research literature on impacts was related to sport events, not festivals.
Hede, Jago and Deery (2002) reviewed thirteen tourism, hospitality and leisure journals and conference
proceedings in identifying more than 150 publications focused on special events during the period 1990-
2001. Both community/cultural and sporting events more commonly provided the context, while very little
academic research was published on commercial, political or religious events. Impact evaluation was
dominant, and event operations and management was revealed to be a small component in the studies
they found. Particular research gaps included: planning, human resource management, risk management,
quality perceptions and management, social, cultural and environmental evaluation, value profiling, choice
modeling, recommending behavior, repeat visitation, and attitudes.
METHODOLOGY
The paper will provide a detailed description on how the Mulid can act as a celebrity urban space. Besides,
how the place hosting these events is converted from a static ordinary place into a dynamic one reflecting
the identity and culture of Egypt which consequently develop the urban spaces.
FESTIVAL PHENOMENON
• Festival actions and types.

Etymologically the term festival derives ultimately from the Latin festum. A religious festival is a time of
special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on
recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar. Hundreds of very different religious festivals are held
around the world each year, types of festivals could be categorized according to activities practiced within
to: artistic festivals, touristic festivals, marketing and shopping festivals, religious and cultural festivals.
• Festival urban spaces:
An open urban space where the action is taking place, a new terminology has raised to mark a festival space
by a third place.
URBAN SOCIAL INTERACTIVE DEVELOPMENT

FESTIVAL SPACES AS THIRD PLACES
Third places is any place other than work or home where we spend time, a place that has become a non
negotiable part of the workplace experience. They play a critical role in attracting and keeping the creative
an innovative workforce that community needs to compete in the very near future.
Developing the third places in community is not a matter of accident or serendipity, but a matter of
intended social researchers designed to place communities in a position to attract exactly the workforce that
is required.
This is a multi faceted process, designed to enhance the lifestyle experience throughout the community,
from dining, nightlife, music and performance to exercise opportunities, environmental commune and far
more. Responsibility for the development of these third places is also a diverse process. Municipal and
regional authorities will be tasked to create the environment and infrastructure, private enterprise will, in
many cases, provide the actual grass roots efforts.
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THE THIRD PLACE AND ITS IMPORTANCE
In a way, we’ve always had third places. Third places are simply places where we spend time when we are
not at home and not working. Today, however, third places take on a much larger role in our lives and,
subsequently, in defining our places. They have become an incorporated part of our overall lifestyle.
Third places are also somewhat unique in the concept of place development because they cross the
generations a great deal more than other place characteristics. Communities can be significantly impacted
as population centers as much by senior centers and activities as they can be trails to entertainment
facilities.
But what has really made third places significant in today’s world is the extent to which they have
incorporated themselves into the everyday lifestyle. A generation ago, an skier, for example, would relish a
job opportunity which put them an hour away from the slopes. Today, an skier doesn’t relish such an
opportunity, they demand it. An opportunity without access to a ski resort nearby is no longer considered to
be an opportunity. To that skier, their access to that third place directly impacts their ability to have a totally
fulfilling life.
Once we begin to understand these aspects of third places, that they have become significant aspects of
living a fulfilled life, we begin to understand how important they have become in the establishment of the
concept of place. A community that does not recognize this does so at their own peril, because they are
limiting the influx of talent that will drive their own future.
FESTIVAL SPACES AS HOSTS FOR CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
The first thought that comes to mind when considering third places is entertainment opportunities, and for
good reasons. Entertainment options define so many characteristics of place, from the authenticity of the
community to diversity to the ideal of acceptance.
Characteristics of festival spaces:

Place development involves designing a place that draws the kind of creative and innovative workforce that
fills the community’s needs in becoming an economically prosperous community. To be able to set festival
spaces characteristics many specifications need to be identified:
Third Places represent a personal experience
People have a variety of third place needs that must be fulfilled. More is better, and variety acts as a
multiplier that enhances the community’s image as a desirable place.
Third places are personal, but not necessarily on an individual basis. It’s the third place experience that is
personalized, and that requires a variety of options.
Figure 1: Third places as personal experience
Third Places fulfill an individual need

Sometimes that need is social interaction. Sometimes that need is creative. At other times, it may revolve
around personal well being. It may be a need to perform or just a need to unwind. More often than not, it
fulfills a variety of the above, plus others.
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Figure 2: Third places as creative solutions
Third Places take us away from home and work:

They are as important as either of those for defining who we are and what we do.More than any other
characteristic, this describes the difference of the importance of third places today as compared to a
generation ago. We allow our third places to define us today.
Figure 3: Third places as break out areas from home and work
Third Places are personally functional to us.

What does that mean? We need what our third place experiences give to us. If we enjoy the freedom of
bicycling and hiking, it is likely that the fitness benefits we enjoy as a result are very important to us. If we
enjoy playing in a blues band, the creative performance outlet is something we personally need. The role of
third places in defining the desirability of place has become nonnegotiable and This is why.
Figure 4: Third spaces as necessary spaces
Third Places are there when we need them

A simple statement with huge implications. As schedules become less important “on demand” third place
experiences become proportionally more important.
When we look at these five characteristics of festival spaces as third places in the light of the current
community needs, it becomes apparent that the active design of third places is an important aspect of
society when it comes to planning the community we want to develop. In many as we plan third places
development, we are choosing the “bait” we will cast to “catch” the talented and creative workforce.
RELIGIOUS ACTIONS AND CULTURAL BELIEVES
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A religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals
are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar. Hundreds of very different
religious festivals are held around the world each year.
Is ‘El Mulid’ celebration a cultural or religious believe?
Shia as well as some Sunni scholars mostly approved celebration of Mawlid, while the Wahhabi movement
oppose the celebration.("Mawlid", Encyclopedia Britannica)
In the Muslim world, the most of Islamic scholars are in favor of Mawlid. They consider observing Mawlid
permissible in Islam, and see it as a praiseworthy event (Kaptein, Schussman (1998)), whilst the Wahabis say
it is an improper innovation and forbid its celebration. One leader of Ahl al-Hadith, IbnTaymiyya forbade
Mawlid celebration as it is not in any of the Haditn nor the quraan itself. (Mawlid According to the Salafi
“Ulama”,2013). Mufti Ali Gomaa, Chief Mufti of the world's oldest and largest Islamic university, Al Azhar in
Egypt subscribe to Sunni Islam, has given his approval for the observance of Mawlid. For the first in English
Shaykhul Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has published a book Mawlid al Nabi Celebration and
Permissibility defending the legality of Mawlid on more than 700 pages. ("Mawlid al Nabi: Celebration and
Permissibility”, Minhajul Quran Publications).
From all of the above, its correct to say that El mulid is a cultural festival under a religious umbrella or cause
and to be able to understand the cultural/religious side of el mulid celebration a layer analysis for the
practiced activities & actions must be mentioned:
Some of the Religious/cultural actions:
• Al “Zekr”: its held in evening till sun rise accompanied with religious music and songs.
Figure 5:Al Zekr & Al Maddeh ation.
• Al “Madeeh”: singing and repeating the good features and description for prophet Mohammed.
• Al “massera” el “mohamadiya”: A March after el “zekr” in old cairo from its main mosques to the
gathering grand piazza in el Hussein & el Azhar locations.
Figure 6:Al massera (march) el mohamadiya
• Children’s playing ground and celebration: multiple spots are equipped and established for
welcoming children to celebrate the occasion by many games and sweets.
• El “mulid” sweets: special type of sweets that is baked only in el mulid day, its distinguished by
colours and shapes, especialy the horse shape for boys & “el Arossa” for girls.
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Figure 7:El mulid sweets, El Arossa for females.
• El “mulid” custumes for el “monshid”: special costumes are knit and worn with multiple bright
colors and designs.
• El “Tanora” Dance: special cultural dance that represent the centricity of Islamic rituals and
directing it toward the sky as a symbol for God and after life.
Figure 8:El Tanora Dance with its colordul costumes.
• El “baraka”: to read el ‘Fattiha’ from Qur'an and wishing the best in life and after then touching a
holly place, feature or kissing ‘Sheikh’ hand as a symbol of respect and ‘baraka’.
Figure 9:El baraka (blessing) from ul el beit.
“EL MULID” AS A RELIGIOUS CELEBRATION EVENT
Mawlid (Arabic: ‫ َﻣﻮﻟِﺪ 'ﻟﻨﱠﺒِﻲ‬, “Birth of the Prophet”, sometimes simply called mawlid, el mulid, el mulud
among other vernacular pronunciations; sometimes milad ) is the observance of the birthday of the
Islamic prophet Muhammad which occurs in Rabi' al-awwal, the third month in the Islamic calendar.
Mawlid is derived from the Arabic root word (Arabic: ‫ﻟﺪ‬# , meaning to give birth) according to Arabic
English Dictionary, In contemporary usage, Mawlid refers to the observance of the birthday of
Muhammad. (Arabic: ‫ ﻗﺎﻣﻮ' &ﻟﻤﻨﺠﺪ‬Moungued Dictionary).
Other terms, synonyms, used for this event include:
• BarahWafat: The Prophet was born on the twelfth day of Rabi ulAwwal, the third month of
the Muslim year. His death anniversary also falls on the same day.
• elMūled (en Nabawi)/Mūled en Nabi: The birth of the prophet. (Egyptian Arabic).
• Mawlūd e Sharif: The Blessed Birth (Urdu)
• Yawm an Nabi:The Day of the Prophet (Arabic)
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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The oldest Mawlid text is from the 12th century and likely is of Persian origin. However The first
mention ever made of the Mawlid celebrations in any historical work comes in the writings of Jamal
al Din Ibn al Ma'mun, who died587 AH/1192 CE. His father was the Grand Vizier for the Fatimid
Caliph al Amir (ruled from 494 to 524 AH/ from 1101 to 1130 CE).
The earliest observation of the Prophet's birth as a holy day was arranged somewhere in the late
twelfth century. The difference from before was that there was an increased number of participants
to the Mawlid house that was opened specifically for this celebration. This particular event took
place on Monday, 12 Rabi'i, which is the third month of the Islamic calendar that is associated with
the beginning of Spring. This celebration was introduced into the city Sabta by Abu Abbas al Azafi
as a way of counteracting Christian festivals and to strengthen Muslim identity.
Al Maqrizi writes in his Khiṭaṭ, manual script:
The Fatimid Caliphs had, throughout the year, a number of festivals and celebrations. These were:
New Year's Eve, Beginning of the year celebrations, The Day of “Ashura”, The birthday of the
Prophet sallaAllahualayhiwasallam, The birthday of Ali, The birthday of al Ḥasan, The birthday of
al Husayn, The birthday of Faṭima al Zahra', The birthday of the current Caliph, The first day of Rajab,
The fifteenth day of Rajab, The first day of Sha'ban, The fifteenth day of Sha'ban, The festival of
Ramaḍan, the first day of Ramaḍan, The middle of Ramaḍan, The end of Ramaḍan, The Night of the
Khatm, The Day of Eid al Fitr, The Day of 'Īd of Sacrifice, The Day of Eidd al Ghadir, The 'Cloth of
Winter', The 'Cloth of Summer', The Day of the 'Conquest of the Peninsula', The Day of Nawruz, The
Day of Veneration, Christmas and Lent. (Khiṭaṭ, vol. 1, p. 490 & "Mawlid", Encyclopedia Britannica).
The early celebrations included elements of Sufic influence, with animal sacrifices and torchlight
processions along with feast and public sermons. The celebrations occurred in contrast to modern
day observances, with the ruler playing a key role in the ceremonies.Emphasis was given to the Ahl
al Bayt with presentation of sermons and recitations of the Qur'an. The event also featured the
award of gifts to officials in order to bolster support for the ruling caliph. In early Cairo, this holy day
was celebrated by the court and the ruling class, not the common people.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CELEBRATION AND OBSERVATIONS
Mawlid is celebrated in most Islamic countries, and in other countries that have a significant Muslim
population. Most Arabian countries the Mawlid is not an official public holiday. Participation in the
ritual celebration of popular Islamic holidays is seen as an expression of the Islamic revivalism. There
is no one clear motive for people celebrating Mawlid, for the celebration itself appears to have
sacred elements.
Mawlid is celebrated in a festival manner, large street processions are held and homes or mosques
are decorated. Charity and food is distributed and stories about the life of Muhammad are narrated
with recitation of poetry by children. Scholars and poets celebrate by reciting Qaṣida al Burda Sharif,
the famous poem by 13th century Arabic Sufi Busiri. A general Mawlid appears as "a chaotic where
numerous events happen simultaneously, all held together only by the common festive time and
space". (Schielke, Samuli, 2012). These celebrations are often considered an expression of love for
the Prophet.
Along with being referred to as the celebration of the birth of Muhammad, the term Mawlid also
refers to the 'text especially composed for and recited at Muhammad's nativity celebration‘. These
texts contain stories of the life of Muhammad briefly summarized below, (Knappert, J, "The Mawlid"
):
• Abu Talib's nephew's first caravan trip
• Arrangement of Marriage between Muhammad and Khadija
• Al Isra'
• Al Mi'radj, or the Ascension to heaven
• Al Hira, first revelation
• The first converts to Islam
• The Hidjra
• The Muhammad's death
• The Ancestors of Muhammad
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• The Conception of Muhammad
• The Birth of Muhammad
• Introduction of Halima
• Life of Young Muhammad in Bedouins
• Muhammad's orphan hood
• These text are only part of the ceremonies. There are many different ways that people celebrate
Mawlid, depending on where they are from. There appears to be a cultural influence upon what
kind of festivities are a part of the Mawlid celebration
• Celebrations:
• Mawlid cavalcade as celebrated by the Malaysian Muslims in Putrajaya, Malaysia, The jubilee is
known locally as MaulidurRasul.
• During Pakistan's Mawlid, known in Urdu as EidMilad un Nabi celebrations and processions, the
national flag is hoisted on all public buildings, and a 31 gun salute in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan,
and a 21gun salute at the provincial capitals are fired at dawn. The public and private building are
illuminated with Fairy lights. The cinemas shows religious rather than secular films on 11th and 12th
Rabi ulAwwal. This is the worlds biggest gathering for Mawlid celebrations.
• Among non Muslim countries, India is noted for its Mawlid festivities. The relics of Muhammad are
displayed after the morning prayers in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir at the Hazratbal
Shrine. Night long prayers held at the Hazratbal Shrine are attended by thousands.
• Other non Muslim countries noted for their Mawlid festivities are Kenya and Tanzania, where it is
known as "Maulidi". In Kenya, the most famous place is the coastal island of Lamu and Malindi. In
Tanzania the largest celebrations are on the island of Zanzibar.]
• In Qayrawan, Tunisia, Muslims sing and chant hymns of praise to Muhammad, welcoming him in
honor of his birth.
Figure 10: shows the site of the Mulid prophet Mohamed path through old Cairo urban fabric which
include most of the Islamic monuments all around the world
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Figure 11: shows the path direction from Sultan Hassan mosque all along to Sayeda Zeinab Mosque
down to Mosque of Sayeda Nfisa
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Map of the Prophet Mohamed family Moulid trail in old Cairo. All these streets have different
pattern, sometimes it act like parking and overlapping pedestrian and vehicles path. Another time it
act like public market and most of time it acts like daily activities hub which include commercial,
religion, social network for residents and daily visitors. This trail has 17 main historical mosques and
schools Islamic monuments other than old historical houses and remaining fringes in the middle of
this complicated urban fabric. During Mulid time all these streets closed from vehicles and turn to
be like a motel which has the activities like accommodation, cooking, dancing, singing, zekr circles,
and trading. This tinny path turns to be like tool for expressing in different means of people from
different places and sometimes countries, all the streets turn to have shading device from cloth
fabric to allow the accommodation of people and protect them from sun and sometimes heat.
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Figure 12: shows Sultan Hassan square, the start of the trail which include Mosque of sultan Hassan
and Elrefaay Mosque too, with urban fabric around.
Figure 13: shows some of the activities that happen in the trail, like marketing for some materials
that express about the Moulid and games like small simulation for gun shooting, and eating.
Figure 14: shows second part of the path arrived to Sayeda Zeinab Mosque
Figure 15: shows third part of the trail passing through Tolon Mosque down to Nfisa Mosque
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Figure 16: shows 4th part of the trail passing

through Sayeda Sakina Mosque
Figure 17: shows 5th part of the trail reaching

down the Mosque of Sayeda Nafisa
The Photos below show the streets and their width and
the density of users everyday and after them, photos of
the same streets while hosting the Mulid describing the
events and activities held on that special occasion.
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CONCLUSION
After offering a comparison between the urban space with and without hosting a Mulid, and describing how
it is converted into a dynamic festive place with its activities and events, we can conclude that these Mulids
are considered from our cultural heritage that has been moved from generation to generation throughout
hundreds of years.
These events must be preserved and repeated on regular basis in order to preserve the cultural events – our
heritage – as they reflect our identity and character that make us special amongst other cultures.
The streets during the Mulid are full of life and colors and thus become active rather than passive and dead,
therefore streets during these events could be considered as a tool for urban development and reforming of
urban cultural image towards new era that consider this city at that moment as festival city.
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intelligence. Unpublished senior honors thesis, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH.
BB. Cousineau, P.A., 1991. Tectonic setting and Melange formation in the Quebec Appalachians: The journal of
Geology, v.99, p.81-96, doi: 10.1086/629475.
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Schielke. P.cm. – ( contemporary issues in the Middle East). ISBN 978-0-8156-3300-6.
EE. Kaptein, Prophet’s Birthday, p.45, n. 1.
FF. Aviva Schussman, “ The legitimacy and nature of mawlid al –nabi (analysis of a fatwa), “ Islamic Law and
Society 5, 1998, p. 223.
GG. Zeegers Huyskens, A103, 7118 (2001),
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STUDY ON THE INNOVATIVE APPLICATION OF BAMBOO-CABLE COMPOSITE STRUCTURES
Yuguang Fu, Tongji University, China, yuguangworld@126.com

Liyao Hu, Tongji University, China, 259209090@qq.com
Yuqing Hu, Tongji University, China, yqhvictoria@gmail.com
Xian He, Tongji University, China, hexian604@sina.com
Abstract
In 2010 Shanghai Expo, people were deeply impressed by the Sun Valley. However, due to large energy and labor
consumption, the Valley is not consistent with the Expo slogan of sustainability. What if the steel is replaced with
bamboo? Possessing excellent mechanical properties, bamboo has been nowadays recognized as one of the most
sustainable potential structural materials. However, the irregularity in cross sections and the inefficient joint
configuration could be bottlenecks in developing future large span bamboo structures. A novel spatial composite
structure is proposed with the methodology of bamboo-cable structural systems which consist of bamboo, steel
elements and adhesive construction materials. Meanwhile, key technical difficulties involved with this application
are carefully investigated and analyzed, which we target to address in the near future. Additionally, several
tentative structural styles are presented in order to explore the application of this bamboo composite structure.
Hopefully, fabrication of bamboo can be standardized and large-span bamboo structures can be realized.
Keywords: bamboo-cable member, bamboo joint, composite structure, sustainability.
INTRODUCTION
2010 Shanghai Expo was teeming with large-span structures characterized with ecological and sustainable
ideas. However, some typical buildings, such as the Sun Valley, left much to be desired for its large energy
consumption and much pollution during fabrication and complicated construction (Figure 1). What if the
steel component of the Valley is replaced by bamboo tubes?
(a) (b)
Figure 1: Construction of the Sun Valley.
On a global scale, due to over consumption of natural resources and relevant severe pollution from
traditional constructions, concerns have been raised about green building materials which are sustainable
for future life. And bamboo, which is once merely popular in Southeast Asia and in Latin America, is
nowadays recognized as one of the most sustainable potential structural materials in the world. It has the
following characteristics: light weight, high strength, excellent seismic performance, environmentally
friendliness and so forth (Sudhakar et al. 2010). Moreover, it has a maturity cycle of 3-4 years, and it takes
little energy consumption and produces little pollution in the process of both material fabrication and
building construction (Austin and Ueda 1972).
Recently, several key technologies of bamboo have been developed. Glue laminated bamboo (glubam) has
been studied thoroughly and it appears to be more homogeneous than traditional bamboo members,
making it possible to realize standardized fabrication (Sun and He 2012). Traditional bamboo joints have
been updated with cement, bolts, or gypsum to improve mechanical performance (Chen and Zhao 2009,
Velez 2000). However, bamboo is still applied traditionally as columns or beams. Few researches have
focused on excellent bending property of bamboo materials. Actually, due to crucial drawbacks such as non-
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uniformity of mechanical property and inefficient connections, the application of bamboo structures is not
quite wide. Though design of modern bamboo structures develops rapidly, bamboo materials are still used
as either small houses or temporary constructions, such as some pavilions in 2010 Shanghai Expo.
In this paper, a novel structural system named as bamboo-cable composite structure is introduced and fully
analyzed. This system consists of bamboo, steel elements and adhesive construction materials. And it can
help to realize bamboo large-span structures which are based on bamboo-cable structural members. Key
technical difficulties involved with this application are carefully investigated and analyzed. Some potential
approaches to address the challenges are evaluated, including discussion on configurations of special
bamboo connections. Finally, five structural forms have been illustrated with several examples of
application. In the near future, our research team will try to realize this novel idea in a pilot bamboo
structure.
ORIGINAL IDEA OF BAMBOO CABLE COMPOSITE (BCC) STRUCTURES
Figure 2 shows Sun Valley and the model of a special kind of bamboo-cable composite (BCC) structure. The
idea of BCC structures origins from transformation of the Sun Valley. With the same functions and
configuration, the BCC version of Sun Valley is made of bamboo, cable and membrane materials. Specifically,
its framework is mainly composed of several bamboo-cable members (Figure 3). As the figure illustrates, it is
a member in which bamboo is bent like an arch, supported by a cable at both ends. Figure 4 shows the
loading mode of a bamboo-cable member. Under tensile force from cables, bamboo is pre-stressed to
possess stiffness, and its bearing capacity can be fully utilized. Accordingly, it can be quite possible to design
large span bamboo structures with these novel structural members.
(a) (b)
Figure 2: Comparison of the structures: (a) the Sun Valley in Shanghai Expo,
(b) the model of bamboo-cable composite structure.
BCC
Connection
3 member
Connection
4
Figure 3: Schematic view of bamboo-cable composite member.
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Figure 4 Loading mode of bamboo.
Based on previous illustration, BCC structures can be defined as a special structural system in which
bamboo-cable composite members build the framework. Combined with membrane and auxiliary
members, several bamboo-cable composite members can become large-span structures. And Sun Valley
(Figure 3) is a typical style of BCC structures.
By comparing Sun Valley and the BCC version, one can find that BCC structures are more sustainable on the
basis of the following reasons. First of all, BCC structures are mainly made of green materials, while Sun
Valley is made of steel which requires a lot of energy and produces much pollution. Secondly, BCC structures
are simple and reliable, because BCC members can be prefabricated in the factory. However, Sun Valley has
more than 3000 steel joints and should be constructed by on-site welding. Thirdly, BCC members can be
reused and reassembled to build another structure, which meets the requirements of sustainable
development.
KEY CHALLENGE AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS FOR BCC STRUCTURES
To build BCC structures, the key challenge is to realize the bamboo-cable composite members and to
connect them together to fabricate structural skeletons. Specifically, non-uniformity of bamboo dimensions
and traditional inefficient connections are two major technical difficulties. In order to address the problems,
potential solutions are analyzed as follows.
A. Realize bamboo-cable members

As is well known, dimensions of bamboo material are irregular even among the same species and part of
one intact bamboo tube can be used as building material. Meanwhile, long bamboo tubes are required to
build bamboo-cable members, so as to realize large-span structures. Consequently, it is suggested that
people should take the suitable part of bamboo tubes and connect the qualified tubes with special
connections to extend the length of structural members.
Figure 5: An example of multi-bamboo tubes structural member.
Figure 5 shows an example in which three bamboo parts are combined with connection 1. Similarly, four
and more bamboos can be connected and the span of structural members can reach over fifty meters. And
another requirement should be satisfied, that is, the reliability of special bamboo connections. Therefore, our
team has conducted research on novel bamboo joints first and two types of bamboo joints are proposed for
their excellent mechanical properties (Fu et al. 2012 , 2013), as shown in Figure 6.
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(a)
(b)
Figure 6: Connections between different bamboo parts:
(a) sleeve-bolt-cement (b) sleeve-modified-gypsum.
Though bending moments exist, these connections are mainly under compression load. The mechanical
properties of these connections are proven to be excellent in literature for their bearing capacity. Type a,
named as sleeve-bolt-cement, is a joint where a steel sleeve is embedded into the bamboo ports, being
fixed to the bamboo using two bolts, which are put through the predrilled holes in the sleeve and in the
bamboo panel and then cement mortar is filled into the cavity to fix the steel sleeve and reduce stress
concentration. Type b, named as sleeve-modified-gypsum, is a joint in which the prefabrication steel
connections are embedded in the bamboo tube where the bamboo’s inner wall is notched and roughened.
Then modified gypsum is filled into the cavity, with two steel rings strapped outside the wall. The difference
between these two types is that the bearing capacity of the first one is governed by shearing resistance and
the other is not. And the second one is preferred since it behaves much more ductile than the first one.
Another connection, as highlighted as connection 2 in Figure 5 is that it should be carefully designed. And
Figure 7 provides two choices to combine bamboo and cable. The first one is a joint where the end of
bamboo is embedded to a prefabricated steel sleeve, fixed with two bolts. And the cable, under a suitable
tensile load, passes through the predrilled holes in the sleeve, fixed with special pre-stress anchorage
devices at both ends. Cement mortar is filled into the cavity. The second one is a similar joint where modified
gypsum is filled in the cavity and the sleeve has two rings of protrusion inside to enhance the anchorage
force between the gypsum and the sleeve. Meanwhile, the outside surface of bamboo is roughened. The
comparison of these two joints will be conducted in the near future.
(a)
(b)
Figure 7: Connections to combine bamboo and the cable:
(a) sleeve-bolt-cement (b) sleeve-modified-gypsum.
B. Connect different bamboo-cable members

As is marked in Figure 3, it is also crucial to design special connections, such as connection 3 and connection
4, to combine different bamboo-cable members. Similar to the connection 1 and connection 2 in Figure 5,
two types of bamboo joints are proposed, that is, the sleeve-bolt-cement and the sleeve-modified-gypsum.
Figure 8 (a) illustrates the second type of novel bamboo joints for connection 3. Specifically, the green parts
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are the bamboo tubes of nearby members, and the pink part which is made of steel, is specially fabricated to
connect the bamboo-cable members. Figure 8 (b) shows the configuration of steel components of the joints.
In a similar way, connection 4 can be realized by modifying the pink steel part to combine 4 relevant
bamboo structural members.
(a) (b)
Figure 8: Connections to combine bamboo-cable members: (a) overall joints, (b) steel components.
STYLES AND APPLICATIONS OF BCC STRUCTURES
Some special styles of BCC structures are explored from Figure 5 to Figure 9. Each type can be designed for
different spans and scales, as well as different applications and functions. In order to illustrate these styles,
one example is described for each style respectively.
A. BCC tube structure

In Figure 3, the skeleton of a BCC tube structure is presented. In this structure, several up-standing bamboo-
cable composite structural members are arranged around a center, circumferentially connected by bamboo.
It is similar to the Sun Valley in 2010 Shanghai Expo. Tall and straight, the tube-cable structure has a
beautiful appearance and occupies little floor space, which is suitable for interior and outdoor independent
or auxiliary structures. Figure 9 shows two examples of application which includes rest pavilion and atrium
of a big shopping plaza, which are covered by glass or transparent membrane for natural lighting.
(a) (b)
Figure 9: BCC tube structure: (a) rest pavilions on the square, (b) underground Sun Valley.
B. BCC arch structure

As Figure 10 (a) shows, a BCC arch structure consists of several bamboo-cable composite structural members
that are longitudinally arranged in a line. This structure has not only high space utilization but also good
flexibility because its width and length can be adjusted by controlling the member’s span and number, for
various buildings of different functions. Figure 10 (b) shows the example of application which includes
public buildings like auditoriums or assembly halls. The Arched space and bared bamboo member display a
unique structural beauty.
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(a) (b)
Figure 10: BCC arch structure: (a) architectural skeleton, (b) assembly hall.
C. BCC dome structure

Figure 11 (a) shows a BCC dome structure in which several bamboo-cable composite structural members
join together by a cable at both ends of all the members to form a semi-globe frame. This structure can
actually present new types of exhibition halls. Figure 11 (b) shows the example of application which includes
theater with half-sphere frame. Specifically, it can be used as a shell roof of gymnasiums or theaters.
Meanwhile, the special roof can also be designed to either open or close by mechanical equipments.
(a) (b)
Figure11: BCC dome structure: (a) architectural skeleton, (b) amphitheater.
D. BCC radial structure
As Figure 12 (a) shows, a BCC radial structure is made up of many bamboo-cable composite structural
members arranged around a center. With the load being well-distributed and the whole structure being
quite stable, a radial structure is good for circle-planed or ellipse-planed buildings. Figure 12 (b) shows the
example of an application which includes art galleries or museums. The courtyard-centric annular flowing
space fully presents the dualistic-unified logicality between structure and space as well as the unique
structural beauty.
(a) (b)
Figure12: BCC radial structure: (a) architectural skeleton, (b) art gallery.
E. BCC cantilever structure
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As Figure 13 (a) shows, a BCC cantilever structure is a group of up-standing bamboo-cable composite
structural members which are arranged in a line. Load is transmitted along the member to the ground
vertically. Because of easy construction and simple form, a covered cantilever structure can be a good
shelter and widely used in daily life. Figure 13 (b) shows the example of application for rest pavilions and bus
shelters.
(a) (b)
Figure 13: BCC cantilever structure: (a) architectural skeleton, (b) bus shelter.
CONCLUSION
A novel bamboo-cable composite (BCC) structural system has been presented and analyzed in detail. Special
connections are designed for the bamboo-cable members which are made of bamboo, steel and adhesive
materials. These members are reliable and flexible, utilizing strong resilience and excellent properties of
bamboo materials. Based on such structural elements, large-span bamboo structures are highly possible to
be realized, and different bamboo structures can be explored. Typically, five bamboo-cable composite
structural styles are designed and illustrated with several examples of applications. Since these structures
are mainly made of bamboo materials, which can replace traditional steel structures in some situations, one
can conclude that this structure has less energy-consumption and little pollution. In brief, it is sustainable,
low-carbon, and potentially applicable in the future. Our team plan to study further detail of BCC structures
and try to realize a pilot structure to verify this novel idea.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study is sponsored by Shanghai National Innovation Experimental Program for Students and supported
by College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University.
REFERENCES
Austin, R & Ueda, K., 1972. Bamboo, Weather Hill Publishing, New York.
Chen, XY & Zhao, J., 2009. ‘A research on form and technique of bamboo structure’, New Architecture, vol. 6,
pp. 111-115 (in Chinese).
Fu, YG, Wang, MY, Li, L & Ge, HB., 2012. ‘Experimental study of mechanical properties of bamboo’s joints
under tension and compression load’, Advanced Materials Research, vol. 450-451, pp. 749-755.
Fu, YG, Shao, BS & Fu, SC., 2013. ‘Comparative study of mechanical performance of bamboo joints’,
Proceedings of 2013 Word Congress on Advances in Structural Engineering and Mechanics, Jeju, Korea.
Sudhakar, P, Gupta, S, Bhalla, S, Kordke, C & Satya, S., 2010. ‘Conceptual development of bamboo concrete
composite structure in a typical Tribal Belt, India’, Proceedings of the First International Conference, Taylor &
Francis.
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CONTRADICTIONS OF DESIGNING “GREEN” CITIES: INTEGRATION OF THE TERM “GREEN” TO
UNLIMITED GROWTH IN ISTANBUL
Ece Demir, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, ecedemir@itu.edu.tr
Abstract
It is essential to reinterpret the built environment in the context of environmental conscience to deal with global
climate change and environmental destruction. However, in this sustainable environment design process, the
attempt of different disciplines to apply the ideal and theoretical concept -social, economic and ecological
sustainability- to practice leads to conflicts between these concepts under competitive market conditions. On the
one hand, green cities seek to create more habitable environments with environmental concerns, on the other
hand, as a result of methods to obtain this goal; it requires integration of innovative technologies directly related
to capital investment. Unless governments fund these settlements with support policies and legislative
regulations, these green settlements shall inevitably become sites with lack of social equity and therefore be areas
of focus of capital projects using the term ‘green’ as a brand. The aim of this paper is to describe the contradictions
of the concept of ‘green city’ within market relations, through the case of Istanbul and discuss the term green
within its commodified meaning, which has more popular in the urban transformation of Istanbul. In this context,
the contradictions of green settlements in terms of social, economic and environmental perspectives are defined
primarily. Then these contradictions are exemplified by green cities (unlimited growth in a megacity) planned for
construction in Istanbul and also through projects underway that pretend to be green, on the European side of
Istanbul. Following a discussion on the way this term relates to the built environment and on its contradictions,
suggestions are finally made to understand the city as an organism with the requirement of balance in every
subsystem.
Keywords: sustainable urbanism, green city contradictions, green city.
INTRODUCTION
For nearly thirty years, sustainable development concept has been discussed in detail through its most
frequently cited definition mentioned in the Brundtland Report (United Nations 1987). To comprehend the
contradictions of sustainable development nowadays, the discourse of “the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” needs to be reconsidered. It is
essential to be able to solve the gap of sustainability in real practice by drawing attention to the distribution
of resources and by criticizing the percentage of today’s generation having access to the facilities that the
economic, environmental and economic sustainability offer.
The primary task of architecture is to define and design using solutions stemming from site, utilizing passive
design criteria for the environmentally sustainable built environment. However, especially in developing
countries where neoliberal politics rule capital flow, occupant needs are not taken into consideration while
standardized spaces are constructed as mass production in order to answer needs of the market as quickly
as possible.
In particular, the terms green, ecological, sustainable, energy efficient have been promoted in the way that
they all correspond to the same meaning in social perception and such terms have been turned into a
marketing factor by green investors. Ecological factors have not been taken into account in settlements
called green in the promotions using these terms and technological integrations that maintain continuity of
capital flow have been prioritized. Problematic issues arise from lack of consideration of the ecological
relations between local and regional issues in designing the built environment for sustainability.
This article seeks to put forth the contradictions of designing for sustainability by prioritizing neoliberal
policy approaches under competitive market conditions in developing countries through the case of
projects in Istanbul that use the terms green, energy efficient, sustainable and ecological for promotion. In
this context, the study consists of three sections; first the paradigm shift of the term ecology within
approaches for built environment are described and the contradictions of designing green are defined; in
the second section, social, environmental and economic contradictions of design approaches called green
are exemplified through projects in Istanbul and in the conclusion, inferences and suggestions are made for
creating a balanced built environment from the ecological point of view.
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PARADIGM SHIFT OF ECOLOGY IN ARCHITECTURE
Since German biologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel introduced the term ecology in 1866, the meaning of
“relationships and interactions between living organisms and their environments” has been forming
relations in our built environment, thereby causing new paradigm shifts.
As of mid-20th century, environmental consciousness has been rising with a consideration for depletion of
nonrenewable resources. Therefore, approaches to design our built environment in the context of its
ecological system have been evolving. The term ecology in built environment context has broadened its
meaning by reaching significance in different scales and receiving new paradigm shifts. The ecology
paradigm could be analyzed with three shifts within the development process of our built environment.
These shifts could be defined as follows, respectively;
• shift to the environmental movement,

• shift to the sustainability revolution,
• based on sustainability revolution, shift to commodity based sustainability in the context of the
neoliberal city.
During the environmental movement of the late 1960s and 70s, the term ecological was accepted to refer to
anything related to the environment. Also, in the 1970s, some studies examined sun, wind etc. as passive
solar design principles that could be defined as ecological design today. This was the first substantial
paradigm shift that has gained a new perspective for ecology in the built environment.
The environmental movement had shifted with solutions to the sustainability revolution in the 1980s. Thus,
sustainable design was defined as a paradigm shift, where solutions were plugged into natural resources,
renewable energies, and site-based knowledge (Williams 2007).
The last paradigm shift related to the sustainability revolution, which basically took its source from the term
ecology, could be defined as commodity based, as sustainability rises from the urban environment from
which the construction sector benefits, especially in developing countries. According to this paradigm shift,
designing for the sustainable built environment in a neoliberal city involves several social, economic and
environmental contradictions.
METHODOLOGY
The main aim in this study is to investigate the contradictions of designing cities called green, through
projects that pretend to be green, sustainable, energy efficient or ecologic, by causing a terminological
ambiguity in Istanbul. In this context several projects, some of which are in the process of construction and
others are in the conceptualization phase, on the European side of Istanbul, have been chosen for the
review. These projects are classified according to temporal, spatial, qualitative characteristics, besides the
main stakeholders in the construction process, as indicated in the following table.
Project main The name of the Functional Characteristics Construction status

stakeholder Settlement
Kayabaşı (Kayaşehir) Residential Bidding process
Health, Commerce,
Bio İstanbul Innovation, Technology, Bidding process
Research Centers and
The Ministry of
Residential
Environment and
Conference and Culture
Urban Planning
Sağlık City Center, Health Facilities Bidding process
Trade Units
Magnet City Residential, Bidding process
office,education
Maslak 1453 Mixed-use In construction process
Investor Construction since 2012
Firm 42 Maslak Offices Office In construction process
since 2010
Table 1: Criticized projects in terms of sustainability manipulation.
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The criticized projects have been chosen from among those promoted with the terms green, energy
efficient, sustainable or ecological as a manipulation. The criticisms are empirical, based on data about the
projects and also social indicators. The study seeks to present the current situation of ecology and built
environment relations in Istanbul by drawing attention to neoliberal policies in decision making
mechanisms and to emphasize the influence of these mechanisms on the built environment.
Especially in Istanbul, real estate investments have dominated the flow of capital through neoliberal
economic approaches in urban areas. According to the Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe 2013 report,
Istanbul is the fourth city that has become prominent with real estate investments in the market, among 27
European cities (ULI 2013). The growing construction market seeks new promotions, with huge projects
comprising green innovative technologies that lack basic principles in designing for sustainability. The
projects proposed by the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning and by various investor construction
firms have all remarkable social, environmental and economic contradictions in terms of ecology and built
environment interactions.
CONTRADICTIONS OF DESIGNING “GREEN” CITIES: THE CASE OF ISTANBUL
There has been a radical shift in the governance of urban land and housing markets in Turkey, from a
‘populist’ to a ‘neo-liberal’ mode since 2001, through large urban transformation projects which are the main
mechanisms through which a neo-liberal system has been instituted in incomplete commodified urban
areas (Kuyucu & Ünsal 2010). Once again, on a larger scale, urban transformation had been launched in
October 2012 in several cities of Turkey particularly in Istanbul. Parallel to this large scale urban
transformation, in February 2012, The High Planning Council of Turkey intended to determine a roadmap for
energy efficiency in Turkey with the Energy Efficiency Strategy Document for 2012-2023, prioritizing housing
production thereby reducing CO2 emissions as well as integrating renewable energy technologies to
buildings (The High Planning Council 2012). It is obvious that in this context, the enterprise for designing
sustainable built environment is not well-intentioned.
As mentioned above, the commodity based sustainability paradigm shift has been leading capital flow in
focus areas of the construction market in developing countries as it has in Istanbul. However, this paradigm
shift causes urban conflicts to arise from social, environmental and economic contradictions of the term. A
lack of perspective among numerous stakeholders for the integration of sustainability and community,
prompted the struggle for city rights. For instance, the Gezi Park protests of June 2013 drew the attention of
the world to a very urban conflict in Turkey's most populous city that arose from the government’s
commodity based decision mechanism for urban land.
Integration of sustainability and community encompasses ecology, economy and equity that require a long
term systemic approach by addressing sustainability issues at all levels (Edwards 2010). If a well-designed
project at a regional scale lacks planning decisions at an urban scale, then problems arise.
In order to comprehend market-driven redevelopment of the construction sector, it is essential to criticize

the chosen projects that have tendency to use innovative technologies and popular trends to boost the
market, under three sustainability indicators such as social, economic and environmental, by comprising
contradictions.
Definition of the sample projects

Before the launch of urban transformation in 2012, the flow of capital through urban land was processed
through several projects in Istanbul. Mega projects such as Canal Istanbul, the 3rd Bridge, the 3rd Airport, the
Northern City with a million population, have been proposed by the government one after the other,
ignoring scientific studies and academic discourses.
One of the other mega-projects proposed by the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning in 2011 has
been two new cities on each side of Istanbul. One of these cities was named Kayabaşı (Kayaşehir), with the
proposed center of the new city Basakşehir located on the European side of Istanbul. The aim of this project
is to design a satellite town with over 1.5 million inhabitants. The first stage of settlements were completed
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and offered for sale in 2008 by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ 2014). Since then,
the number of housings has been 20,000 with approximately 60,000 inhabitants.
Bio Istanbul, Sağlık City, Magnet City projects have also been integrated into the new city called Kayaşehir,
offering several facilities. Bio Istanbul project has been promoted as an ‘intelligent city and center of
ecological life’ where a children’s hospital, innovation campus, research foundation and residential zones are
included. Sağlık City, meaning ‘Health City’ has an integrated health center, cancer research foundation,
conference and culture centers and residential zones. Magnet City has been proposed for construction over
a total area of one million square meters, with accommodation, education and working facilities. All these
proposals pretend to be green and to have sustainable, energy efficient or ecological approaches.
Figure 1: New city project area (Official Journal 2012), mega-projects and criticized sample projects, 1-3rd Airport,
2-3rd Bridge, 3-Canal Istanbul, 4-North highway route, 5-Magnet City, 6-Bio-Istanbul, 7-Sağlık City (Health City), 8-
Kayabaşı (Kayaşehir), 9-Maslak1453, 10-42 Maslak.
Other sample projects still under construction have been projected by investor construction firms. The
Maslak 1453 project is on the European side of Istanbul, in Maslak/Sarıyer. It has a total area of 320,000
square meters, with shopping centers, residential and office areas and pretends to inhabit sustainable
resources and environment-friendly green building systems thereby being a LEED Gold certificate candidate.
The 42 Maslak project with a total area of 220.000 square meters, is also located in Maslak/Sarıyer where
high-rise office buildings with high investment values take place. This project has office areas which have
LEED Platinum Certificate, residential towers, shopping areas, as well as a hotel.
Social contradictions
Three pillars of sustainability based on human needs are not only to provide an ecologically stable and
healthy built environment, but the equally legitimate social and cultural needs also ought to be taken care
of.
Based on sociological considerations, a set of three core indicators to assess the social dimensions of
sustainability have been suggested as dealing with the fulfillment of basic needs and quality of life, which
should relate to individual income, poverty, income distribution, unemployment, education and further
training, housing conditions, health, security, as well as subjective satisfaction with work, health, housing,
income and the environment; which are the claims of social justice within the sustainability discourse as well
as social coherence (Littig & Grießler 2005).
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Understanding social processes that dominate urban centers is a key factor and a prerequisite to guide
urban development and sustain community dynamics. Therefore, politics and policy making mechanisms
are directly related to provide social sustainability. Environmental sustainability superposes social
sustainability, so it is not possible to rely on environmental sustainability without social concerns. The main
question is also whether or not projects designed with consideration of environmental approaches deal with
any social issues. Otherwise it is just a naive implementation that provides profits to green investors, as seen
in the criticized projects in Istanbul.
The intention to provide green, energy efficient, sustainable and ecological settlements is questionable in
such a populous city as Istanbul, due to the penetrating policy making mechanism on urban planning
decisions. The contradictions of green enterprises in such projects could obviously be seen, if the interlinked
relation between ecology and built environment is taken into consideration in a longer term or decision
making is perceived as crucial by policy making. It is essential to analyze sociological considerations that the
criticized projects involve in order to comprehend the social contradictions of these green, sustainable,
ecologic promoted projects.
Sociological issues
The name of the
Settlement
The claim of
The quality of
distribution
Satisfaction
with work,
Unemploy
life in terms
of facility
Income
justice
equity
health
Poverty
social
ment Social coherence
outcomes
Kayabaşı - ! - ! - - Urban disintegration,

outer city replacement
of low-income, satellite
town
Bio İstanbul ! - ! - ! ! Gated community of
high income, Urban
disintegration, satellite
town
Sağlık City ! - ! - ! ! Gated community of
high income, Urban
town
Magnet City ! - ! - ! ! Gated community of
high income, Urban
town
Maslak 1453 ! - ! - ! ! Gated community of
high income, Urban
town
42 Maslak ! - ! - ! ! Gated community of
Offices high income, Urban
town
Table 2: Social contradictions of ecologically-friendly manipulated projects.
As indicated in the Table 2, sociological issues integrate to settlements independently from the conditions of
the society. This approach results in urban disintegration or it forms a gated community for high-income,
starting from the very beginning of the design process.
After 2008, TOKİ and Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) Built Environment and Design Implementation
& Research Center (Matpum) collaborated to design energy efficient buildings by integrating renewable
energy technologies for Kayabaşı (Kayaşehir) settlement. Accordingly, in October 2010, a study titled “An
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evaluation for urban environmental standards in mass housing areas” was presented (Pamir & Pınarcıoğlu
2010). This study consists of nine sections that mention ecological settlements in natural environments,
ecological settlements in terms of society, design principles for safe environments, accessible housing
settlements, energy efficient housing, built environments with E-communication, economic and sustainable
housing, planning mass housing settlements for ethical governance, mass housing as aesthetics living
environments. The construction stage integrated with energy efficient technologies, such as water recycling
systems and solar collectors, though it is obvious that implementations alone could not provide a
sociologically sustainable environment in an urban disintegrated area.
For the proposed projects Bio-Istanbul, Magnet City, Sağlık City, as it is distinctly mentioned in the project
presentations, these three projects in the new city are to be regional destinations for defined facilities.
Therefore, the labor force is to travel through several places to this region every day. This traffic is to support
the living environment and also highways, as there is no directly available public transportation axis to this
region. The sustainable, ecologically friendly life, energy efficient buildings discourses are not eligible from
the point of view of built environment and ecology relation/integration. Accordingly, these projects lack
social sustainability issues.
The Maslak 1453 and the 42 Maslak projects offer facilities such as residential areas, working and living
places and both projects also provide accommodation for high-income groups. Despite the fact that the 42
Maslak project’s office spaces have already acquired the LEED Platinum Certificate, a space with an identity
in a plaza investment settlement area and intended only for working space requirements should be
criticized in terms of quality of life of workers and the social justice they offer, compared to the people who
are accommodated in the project area. It is obvious that LEED certificate does not change social injustice
among building occupants. Besides, the promotion slogan of the Maslak 1453 is a ‘new age to happiness’,
offering sustainable and green built environment for people.
All of these criticized projects are related as a part of the ongoing urban transformation in Istanbul. The
perpetual need to find profitable fields for capital-surplus generation is the way of neoliberal politics,
through urban transformation and this creative destruction process always has a dimension of class struggle
(Harvey 2012). Thus, in a populous city such as Istanbul, designing green cities by integrating renewable
technologies and using the referenced terms related to ecology and the built environment could only be a
promotion or just a brand to market such buildings, unless the term sustainability is accepted in a holistic
approach and supported by legislative regulations of the government.
Environmental contradictions
Environmental sustainability is a multidimensional phenomenon, the measurement of which is challenging
and requires a comprehensive set of indicators that show developments in their various dimensions
(Eurostat 2011). The term means maintaining and improving the quality of natural ecosystems so they can
provide essential goods and services for human life, such as clean water and food, as well as conserving
biodiversity and regulating the climate and it is an assessment that shows how far the built environment is
pushing the biological and physical limits of the natural environment (Moldan, Janouskova & Hak 2012).
Green as the buzzword of the 1980s is nowadays the buzzword of the construction sector of developing
countries. These projects show environmental concerns with an identified specific color but unfortunately
not more than a ready-made symbolism and a showing-off of the construction sector, without genuine
ecological concerns. The criticized projects are pushing the biological and physical limits of the ecosystem in
Istanbul.
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Environmental/ecological considerations
The name of the Settlement
conserving biodiversity
improving the quality
reducing deforestation
Environmental
clean water and food
Regulating the climate

of natural ecosystems
Integrated renewable
Outcomes / predicted
technologies
results
Kayabaşı - - - - - ! High amount of soil

excavation-caused
stream bed flow
Bio İstanbul - - - - - ! High amount of soil
excavation
Sağlık City - - - - - ! High amount of soil
excavation
Magnet City - - - - - ! High amount of soil
excavation
Maslak 1453 - - - - - ! Extreme deforestation*
42 Maslak - - - - - ! High density settlement

Offices
Table 3: The contradictions of ecologically-friendly manipulated projects in terms of environmental

sustainability.
Constructed settlements in Kayabaşı (Kayaşehir) are already a scientific disaster, with a lack of social and
environmental concerns. In any case, integrating green technological systems in a new stage on a new site
does not change the wrong planning decisions of the settlement that is not integrated with the whole urban
system. The project stakeholder TOKİ pretended to design sustainable built environments in the other
provinces in Turkey in many projects. As a result of the constructed projects, it was analyzed within the
evaluation of physical environment that climatic factors, topographical issues, design solutions of the site
and consideration of the urban context have not been taken into account as a basis of a sustainable and
energy efficient built environment (Karaca & Varol 2012).
Figure 2: Kayabaşı (Kayaşehir) housing settlement (Source: Azem 2011).
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The Bio Istanbul, Magnet City and Sağlık City projects intend to offer green, ecological and sustainable living
environments with discourses of the center of life, perfect life, green life as subsidiary settlements of the new
city, with Kayaşehir as the center of the city. However, using these terminological words requires
consciousness, as putting ecology in the foreground of design is a critical condition. And the question would
be whether or not Istanbul needs to have more construction sites and huge projects.
The biggest contradiction about the Maslak 1453 project is that a large amount of deforestation has already
carried out, but this project pretends to be green and is promoted as ecologically friendly architecture.
Besides, the 42 Maslak project, which holds LEED Platinum, also lacks environmental sustainability
indicators.
Figure 3: Deforestation proof of “green” and “ecologically friendly”called Maslak 1453 project (Source: TMMM
2012).
Economic contradictions
In developing countries, Adam Smith’s invisible hand metaphor corresponds to the individuals’ hand
making effort to sustain their income against governments’ economic policy implementations. Social
considerations mentioned in Table 2 are also related to economic considerations, which should be taken
into account in designing a sustainable built environment. Income distribution, unemployment rate and the
claim of social justice are related to capital distribution in society.
The criticized projects are based on neoliberal economic investments and it is obvious that the new city and
other huge investments are for redistribution of capital flow through the valuable land of Istanbul. Main
aspects of accumulation through dispossession in the modern neoliberal economy are privatization,
commodification, financialization, state redistributions through urban environment (Harvey 2005). As long
as ecology and built environment relations are not based on a sustainable socio-economic system network,
ecological enterprises are obliged to fail. In the neoliberal system, there is a sustainability gap due to
contradictions of green investments. In order to solve the sustainability gap, it is suggested to combine
market-rate and socially or environmentally responsible capital by replacing unsupportable levels of
financial return with supportable blended financial, social, and environmental returns (Ryn & Cowan 2007, p.
29). As it is understood, integrating the phrase green to the built environment is a whole system which is not
considered in the criticized projects.
CONCLUSIONS
Economic approaches based on neoliberal ideology that define the dynamic of daily life as well as the built
environment, ensuring sustainability in all sub-systems -environmental, economic and social components- is
too assertive to be implemented in real life practice. The buzzwords green, energy efficient, ecologic,
sustainable are used to take advantage, as profit-oriented by the investors of the construction sector. Even if
some of these investments pretend to offer better living environments in terms of lesser impacts on the
natural environment in some ways, in comparison with investments that do not have ecological approaches;
the contradictions of designing cities or settlements called green increase in developing countries.
As green, ecologically friendly or energy efficient pretended projects in Istanbul are overviewed from the
point of social, environmental and economic concerns; it is obvious that these enterprises are to benefit
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from urban land for surplus capital. These projects do not provide social equity under several subheadings
of sustainability issues, they even do not improve the quality of natural ecosystems or conserve biodiversity.
The most significant criticism about these green enterprises is that the architecture they offer is not for
humans. On the one hand, projects invested by several construction firms, such as Maslak 1453 and 42
Maslak, propose privileged living environment for high-income groups, while on the other hand the
proposed new city project on the European and also the Anatolian side of Istanbul accumulate population
density as a result of urban transformation, thereby causing urban disintegration.
In social sciences, many academics do not have adequate scientific knowledge about the other fields of
science and this lack of knowledge causes a gap in evaluating science as a whole (Wallerstein 2013). The
criticized projects show that in the field of architecture, there is a gap in integrating social considerations
into the built environment in different scales of planning in practice. In Istanbul, building green new cities
ironically in a city with a population of approximately fourteen million, is just a manipulation based on urban
transformation in central places of the city, where sites have high investment values. It is a result of seeking
new spaces for the resettlement process of displaced occupants. It is observed that the broadened idea of
sustainability that includes social wellbeing, resilience adapted to ecology, economics, politics and culture,
does not reflect into the real practice of architecture.
The basic perspective of social ecology was defined nearly twenty years ago, but not yet taken into account
by policy making in developing countries. According to this definition, political ecologists fail to recognize
that the roots of the problems they care about are not overpopulation or pollution, but the unequal
distribution of resources and privilege, so that the few may consume to excess while the many suffer, their
basic needs never met in the first place (McDonough & Partners 1995, p. 48). In this case, in Istanbul,
innovative renewable energy technology integration is not only to provide energy efficient or green
environments, but also equal distribution of resources and social justice for accessibility to healthy
environments should be guaranteed in order to be able to refer to a relationship between ecology and the
built environment.
REFERENCES
Azem, İ., 2011. Ekümenopolis: City without limits [Motion Picture].
Edwards, A., 2010. The sustainability revolution: portrait of a paradigm shift, New Society Publishers, Canada.
Eurostat, 2011. Measuring environmental sustainability: Draft report of the Eurostat. viewed 15 February 2014,
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/ceea/meetings/UNCEEA-6-13-1.pdf
Harvey, D., 2005. A brief history of neoliberalism, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Harvey, D., 2012. Rebel cities: From the right to the city to the urban revolution, Verso, London.
Karaca, M & Varol, Ç., 2012. Konut Alanlarında Enerji Etkinliği: Toplu Konut İdaresi Başkanlığı (TOKI) Toplu
Konut Projeleri Üzerine Eleştirel Bir Değerlendirme, METU Journal of The Faculty of Architecture, vol. 2, no. 29,
pp. 127-141.
Kuyucu, T & Ünsal, Ö., 2010. ‘Urban transformation as state-led property transfer: An analysis of two cases of
urban renewal in Istanbul', Urban Studies, vol. 47, no. 7, pp. 1479-1499.
Littig, B & Grießler, E., 2005. 'Social sustainability: a catchword between political pragmatism and social
theory', Journal of Sustainable Development, vol. 8, nos. 1/2, pp. 65-79.
McDonough, W & Partners., 1995. The Hannover principles: Design for sustainability, viewed 3 January 2014,
http://www.mcdonough.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Hannover-Principles-1992.pdf
Moldan, B, Janouskova, S & Hak, T., 2012. 'How to understand and measure environmental sustainability:
Indicators and targets, Ecological Indicators, vol. 17, pp. 4-13.
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Pamir , H & Pınarcıoğlu , M., 2010. Toplu Konut Alanlarında Kentsel Çevresel Standartlar İçin Bir Çevre
Değerlendirmesi, TOKİ, Ankara.
Ryn, SV & Cowan, S., 2007. Ecological design 10th Anniversary Edition, Island Press, London.
TMMM, 2012. While deforestation leads...Does Ağaoglu come Taksim? viewed 12 March 2013,
http://goo.gl/w9KPQA.
Uli, P., 2013. 'Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe 2013', London: PwC and the Urban Land Institute,
Official Journal, viewed 12 January 2014, from Istanbul City European Side Project Areas,
http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2012/09/20120908-18-1.pdf
United Nations, 1987. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, viewed 2 January
2014, http://www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf
Wallerstein, I., 2013. Unthinking social science: The limits of Nineteenth-Century paradigms, Temple University
Press, Philadelphia.
Williams, DE., 2007. Sustainable design: Ecology, architecture and planning, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken/New
Jersey.
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THE RURAL AREA AS AN URBAN DEVELOPMENT MODEL THAT DIFFERS FROM THAT OF THE MEGA
URBAN AFRICAN TOWNS OF THE FUTURE: MATERI, BENIN
Patrizia Montini Zimolo, Università IUAV di Venezia, Italy, montini@uav.it

Flavia Vaccher, Università IUAV di Venezia, Italy, vaccher@uav.it
Gildas K. Sambieni, Church of Natitingou, Paroisse Matéri, Benin, samgikus@yahoo.fr
Sandro Toffoli, Associazione Famiglie Rurali, Italy, altoff@libero.it
Romano Volpato, Associazione Famiglie Rurali, Italy, romanovolpato@gmail.com
Carlo Piccoli, Accademia Arte Casearia, Italy, accademia.artecasearia@gmail.com
Giuditta Rado, Premio Architettura Città di Oderzo, Italy, giuditta.rado@mac.com
Italo Rebuli, OAPPC di Treviso, Italy, i.rebuli@archiworld.it
Abstract
The plan for the development of the township of Matéri (Benin) was taken as the starting point for an
experimental project by the Workshop for environmental sustainability of the University IUAV of Venice, the
purpose of which is to find a solution to the growing problems caused by the demographic explosion in the
country.
The objective is to propose an urban-rural model for the development of the contemporary African township that
could be extended to other areas of Benin. This shifts the emphasis from the mega urban towns to rural areas, so
as to propose a way of life linked to the community and its agricultural production, starting from the traditional
way the land is used and occupied in Africa.
This is a way to deal with the lack of development in rural areas: creating a self - sufficient economy, reducing
immigration from the countryside to the large towns and the consequent uncontrolled urbanization. But it is also
a proposal of a development model that differs from that of western economies.
Central to this idea is the encouragement of sustainable agriculture by means of a distribution structure made up
of small producers, food processers and wholesalers able to be self-sufficient, thanks also to the training carried
out by European institutes and universities.
The sustainability of the strategy and the feasibility of the proposals developed by the Workshop will be verified in
practice in April-May with a training program involving both Italian and Benesi teachers and students, the
community and the city authorities of Materi. The objective is to produce a proposal which is both appropriate
and agreed upon by those directly concerned, for the development of the contemporary African city.
Keywords: identity of the contemporary African town, new rural-urban model, sustainable agriculture,
training.
INTRODUCTION
This attention towards the African continent arises from the years-long tradition of urban studies
characterizing the University IUAV of Venice, which has always strived to perceive the transformations of
cities in their development processes and in the translation of these changes into opportunities of reflection,
research, education. Although nowadays Africa is still the least densely populated continent on earth, it is
also one of the areas where the demographic pressure is stronger and growing steadily; however, the
development schemes are generally not sustainable and are multipliers of negative factors.
While one of the characteristics of Africa has always been occupancy of the land that is more oriented
towards dispersion than concentration, nowadays the push toward the cities is huge, and as a consequence
the African megalopolis is expanding uncontrollably, engulfing the fertile soil that should guarantee their
subsistence. The most noticeable expression of poverty at an urban level are the slums and the informal
districts, which are so typical of the landscape of the African cities; their dimensions are such that one can
only assume they are actually a consequence of urbanization, and the only way to build a city, the forma
urbis of twenty-first century Africa. The general trend is migration toward the cities, but it is a slow evolution;
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this does not mean that the urban population is decreasing; on the contrary, it is in continuous development
but the same thing is happening in the rural zones.
In this scenario, the sustainable development of these urban agglomerates that are located in a dimension
between city and countryside (brousse) is of considerable importance; on the one hand, it makes it possible
to reduce migration towards the big cities and the consequent un-controlled urbanization; on the other
hand, it is a means to keep spontaneous - unplanned - urbanization under control in the rural areas that
could lead to problems of territory management (soil erosion during the rainy season, lack of water
regulation, absence of sewerage infrastructure).
Sustainable development in which the subjects pertinent to housing and the required infrastructures are
strictly interconnected with the management of the natural resources, the role played by family agriculture
and the reciprocal relationship between the city and brousse.
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL AREAS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Planning in countries in Africa requires the skill to assess practices and strategic intervention to redefine the
actual word ‘sustainability’ in a land that is growing and developing on a very different scale from the West.
In fact, dealing with these territories means one must resort to the tools of different disciplines, from
geography to anthropology, from architecture to climatology, assuming a complexity that overcomes the
simple architectural artefact, and determining multiple connections both at a local and at global level.
Designing requires first and foremost knowledge of the customs and the ways in which the land has been
occupied, with the typical characters of the traditional African dispersion that reflects the way of living
within the community. In Benin, and in general in Sub-Saharan African countries, where the informal self-
made settlement represents the standard, the strategies of forced control typical of western planning are
losing their effectiveness.
On the contrary, this freedom of aggregation must be assumed as a component in the shape of the new
housing agglomerates in order to propose an idea of ‘modulated densification’ that can be applied to the
African rural context.
The result is the development of independent districts that are formed like buds from the central core and
existing agglomerates that will go on to multiply in time in both dimension and identity.
The interest shifts from the megalopolis to the rural agglomeration, in order to suggest a way of living that is
linked more closely to the community, and to the controlled exploitation of available resources, in contrast
to the disastrous growth model of the big metropolis with shantytowns and suburbs that are full of social
degradation and misery.
This is a way to tackle the issues related to the lack of development in the rural context, starting a self-
sufficient economy, and curbing the migration process in progress from the countryside with the
consequent phenomena of overpopulation and uncontrolled development of the big conurbations, but it is
also a proposal for an alternative planning model, compared to the one imported from other worlds.
Caused by the attraction of the urban settlements and by the rural exodus, and sharpened by the recent
desertification phenomena, the rapid change of the traditional society results in the appearance of new life
and habitation models. As a result, the transformation of territory does not often take consolidated
traditions into consideration; they do not respect the sacred places of familiar and collective customs; they
do not take into account the cosmogonies that were translated into the physical shape of the traditional
village.
Therefore, all too frequently new buildings keep reaping western dominant paradigms, proposing brutally
technological solutions or relying on shoddy folklore taken from the local traditions. These phenomena not
only target the structure of the traditional habitat but even more so the concept of private housing, which is
more sensitive to changes and new needs.
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Architecture should give voice to a different way of living, achieved with just few means, controlling the
resources that, on the one hand guarantee the preservation of a unique environmental heritage and, on the
other, the employment of natural resources, generating a variety of solutions that combine the rich original
culture, which is still closely connected to nature, symbols, and myths, with the technological opportunities
of nowadays, without renouncing the richness and complexity of new materials and technologies that can
be adapted to a climatic, geographical and cultural situation that is totally different from that in the West.
However in this transition, many things happen, new shapes are added to the existing ones, redrawing the
geography of the African territory. An African architecture, clearly definable as such, does not exist; this part
of Africa is looking for its own identity both socially and architecturally. Different and remote cultures, such
as African ones, must not be viewed as something from which one can only expect to take a few keywords,
but rather they must be seen as equal protagonists in a common educational process that teaches how to
deal with new codes, concepts, categories and cultural references. Being foreign in a world that is
increasingly characterized by cultural pluralism means encouraging diversity, educating to use more
languages without renouncing the richness of native languages in our work, being able to use aspects of a
different culture, maintaining relations with it, whilst also avoiding being presumptuous enough to claim
one has completely understood it.
Exploration is a research that allows us to move the attention from the project to the process, to the
interpretation of the non-stop changing relationship between subjects and places, between society and
contexts. Particular attention is paid to these transformation places, where the change and the mutation in
other ways of cohabitation, which are more balanced and sustainable thanks to the experimentation of new
methods of knowledge and design, can come true.
Interest in the research of new models of urban development in a rural context has been, in addition to the
exploration of the research topics with strong spatial implications, the verification of ways in which such
interventions could become the engines of a sustainable transformation of the territory, generators of new
centralities and of the quality of living.
The research is supported by broader paradigms within which the relationship between urban-rural,
density-dispersion and tradition-innovation are located.
THE CASE STUDY: MATERI
The city of Matéri was chosen as the pilot project. Matéri is located in the northwest of Benin, in the Atakora
department - 600 km north from the capital Cotonou. The city is divided into 6 districts, composed of 55
villages. The population is now around 100,000 habitants, and it is expected to grow to an estimated
200,000 inhabitants by 2030.
This area is characterized by agricultural functions and activities based on a rural type of social, economic
and cultural background.
From the satellite picture of Matéri (Figure 1) the following elements are recognizable: the urban
agglomerate where the institutional buildings and the market are located; the agricultural areas (savane à
emprise agricole) spreading in the small villages into the central part of the territory; the wild-pastoral areas
concentrated in the west; the naturalistic emergences of the Park of Pendjari in the north. The territory,
covered by a savannah of shrubbery and trees, is crossed by many water courses, most of them seasonal.
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Figure 1: Satellite view of Matéri (reworked version from Google Maps - ©2014 Google).
The main street that crosses the urban centre in the west-east direction converges into the axis connecting
Matéri with the South and the Central part of Benin and - in the North - with Burkina Faso.
The main points of the Development Plan (Plan de Developpement de la Commune) adopted in 2010 by the
local government are basically as follows (Figure 2):
• development and concentration of new settlements - in a strip of expansion around the present nucleus
of houses - following a controlled plan of soil occupancy and providing them with the basic services:
(drinking water, electricity, sanitation facilities);
• strengthening the urban settlement along the main itinerary with the addition of: aggregation places
(urban youth centre, centres devoted to sport and young people associations) and new facilities (schools,
sport places, agricultural warehouses, markets, laboratories for the production/transformation of
agricultural products, laboratories and centres for professional education and startups);
• concentrating the administrative buildings in the area located in the north of the existing residential
nucleus;
• developing a commercial area in the south part of the settlement in order to grant continuity with the
existing market;
• contributing to an improvement in the life style in the existing districts with their inclusion in a holistic
project of sustainable development of the territory;
• development of new touristic structures respecting the presence of the natural Park of Pendjari - a
UNESCO heritage site - and following the criteria of sustainable management in order to control the
development of this precious part of the territory and of its natural resources.
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Figure 2: Matéri: development scheme 2030 (Source: SDAC 2010, p. 132).
FROM PLANS TO PROJECTS: EXPLORATIONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Starting with the general guidelines contained in the development plan of Matéri – in the form of a case
study - the Atelier experimented new settlement models (Figure 3) able to assimilate the culture of the place
in their configuration and to recover and consolidate the local know-how, enriched by technological
innovations and the exploitation of the natural renewable resources (biodiesel, biogas, photovoltaic panels).
This required the adoption of processes that were suitable to the context and could be repeated by local
communities.
The main objective of this approach was to contribute to the translation of the contents of the Matéri
Development Plan whilst also giving an image of the places that were the object of this transformation in
order to start a debate with the local community on the issue.
The internship/trip to Matéri that is foreseen in the second phase will be an opportunity to work together
with the local community and technicians. There are two main goals: first to discuss the selected proposals
in advance and last but not least, but to verify the possible benefits with the participation of the population
and the degree of acceptance of the proposals. The opportunity of this ‘participated atelier’ opens new
scenarios for the education of the local technicians who, in their professional role, will have to face the
problems connected with the realization and reproducibility of the projects, personalizing them each time
according to their own particular context. Seen as urban explorations for the development of Matéri, the
resulting projects offer an answer to the general topics hitherto evoked, proposing expansion strategies
through the construction of autonomous residential districts from the existing central nucleus. These
districts will increase in dimension and identity in the near future, whilst taking into account the context,
and without setting aside the collective memory and immaterial dimension of the local myths and sacred
spirits which still are integrative elements of African architecture.
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Figure 3: Experimental urban/rural settlements: a selection of the planning projects developed by the students.
The images submitted do not exhaust the illustration of the individual proposals but show the planning strategies
adopted. All the projects reflect on the context with particular reference to the spatial relationships.
The starting point for the creation of new districts is the minimum entity of the room/accommodation that
composes the housing units. However, the consolidated concepts of western tradition must be overcome. In
fact, in African culture, the house is never seen as a static concept; on the contrary, it is a dynamic process of
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mono-functional rooms, which reflect the development and transformation of the people living there
(Figure 4).
Figure 4: Multi-purpose house: plans and further expansion and modification in use (project by P. Guidolin, F.
Parolin, C. Sottana).
Bearing in mind that most of the people that will live in the expansions come from the surrounding rural
areas, particular attention was paid to maintaining some characteristics of the typical African house in the
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aggregation spaces, such as the courtyard - an essential component for the environmental control and for
the socio-cultural exchanges (Figure 5).
Figure 5: House type: view of the inner courtyard and longitudinal section (project by M. Becevello, A.
Calandriello, F. Zanibellato).
In the strategies of urban expansion adopted, the public facilities and the collective buildings assume a very
important role, each time giving a well defined character to the residential area: they are in fact the
generating elements that create new recognizable places.
It is possible to speak of a settlement character of the new facilities which result in a design and hierarchy of
the open spaces, introducing new centralities such as the urban centre, the market areas connected to the
production, processing and sale of the agricultural products with the relative classrooms and laboratories for
professional training (agricultural centres), accommodation facilities in order to stimulate the development
of tourism thanks to the presence of the Pendjari Park.
The typology of the buildings is often the result of the hybridization of living places and collective spaces,
since there is not much difference between domestic architecture and big complexes dedicated to sacred or
civil uses in African culture.
At the end of the Atelier, of the 25 projects presented to the representatives of the local government, two
projects were selected for the urban centre, two for the agricultural centre, and two for the hotel and
accommodation.
Both the proposed solutions for the urban centre (Figure 6, 7), seen as a place for meetings and education,
provide a complex of buildings, housing rooms for teaching, a library open to the city, educational
workshops linked to the presence of vegetable gardens, places for the sale of products, and a canteen.
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Figure 6: Urban centre: ground floor plan with functional scheme: accommodation for visitors, rooms for
teaching, canteen, library and office (project by G. Bolzanella, M. Polato).
The most important aspect is the relation between the various parts of the buildings, since the shape of the
complex, as suggested by the study of the traditional houses of Tatasomba, is secondary.
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Figure 7: Urban centre: general site plan with concept of Tatasomba house (project by G. Marchetto, G. Morrone).
The presence in the work group of the Perenzin Company, adding an important element of training in the
dairy field, also in developing countries, is linked to the projects for the agricultural cooperation centres
(Figure 8).
The scale of these projects has to be urban: if the housing unit is the module of the settlement system, with
its dimensions the field regulates the planning of the ground on a territorial scale; if the courtyard in the
urban nucleus is the fulcrum for family life, in the public space of the agricultural centre, it becomes the
meeting place where study spaces (training laboratories, classroom), and work spaces (greenhouses,
craftsmen workshops, small craftsmen workshops for the transformation of products such as milk, sales
points).
The space dedicated to the production, the processing and the storage of raw materials will be placed in an
area near the field directly in contact with the market for the selling of agricultural products.
Both the projects have the objective of creating an agricultural plan that corresponds to African resources
and requirements.
The common element underlying the accommodation projects is the attention paid to the ecosystem, to the
different topics of the landscape and the territory and their interrelationship from small to large scale.
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Figure 8: Farm centre: general site plan and silos view. The complex presents itself as a production,
training/human resource development and service centre (project by L. Dilorenzo, S. Tonetto).
A functional and aesthetic architectural ‘system’ that consists in a network of paths organises the layout,
integrating the accessory and service buildings as well (Figure 9).
The main strategy behind all these projects is the stimulation of an eco-sustainable agriculture and
preservation of the rural characteristics - still very frequent in Matéri - integrating them with the emerging
urban character.
The purpose of the integration of different forms of social-economics and spatial organization has two goals:
on the one hand, to support the modernization of the urban structure, and on the other hand, through the
creation of local micro-chains and the education of the new generations, to trigger a mechanism able to
generate profit and guarantee the subsistence of the population.
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Figure 9: Accommodation facilities: general site plan. The main building with reception area, shops, a café open
to the public, the residences and the private bungalows (project by M. Becevello, A. Calandriello, F. Zanibellato).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This text contains the results of the environmental sustainability project carried out by the Workshop of the
University IUAV of Venice in the academic year 2013-2014 (coordinated by Professor Patrizia Montini, tutor
Architect Flavia Vaccher). The program was structured with a first phase in the Workshop, followed by a
period of study and training with the authorities of Matéri, of meetings with the community, and local
associations, from 23 April to 9 May 2014, with a final phase in Italy, to redefine the project and organize
audio-visual material.
The results of the Workshop were presented at the end of the course at IUAV University, in the presence of
the mayor of Matéri Adolphe Sambieni, the Honorable Gilbert Bangana, the President of the National
Association of Local Authorities of Benin Soule Alagabe and the honorary consul in Italy Vitaliano Gobbo.
Thanks are due to the NGO "Association Rural Families", the "International Academy of Dairy Products," the
Prize for Architecture of the city of Oderzo, and to the Order of Architects, Planners and Conservationists of
the Country Side of the province of Treviso.
Special thanks also go to the parish of Matéri for its hospitality and to the town of Matéri for supplying
cartographic material and plans.
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REFERENCES
Aime, M., 2002. La casa di nessuno. Mercati in Africa occidentale, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
Arecchi, A., 1998. Abitare in Africa: architetture, villaggi e città nell'Africa subsahariana dal passato al presente,
Mimesis Liutprand, Milano.
Arecchi, A., 1991. La casa africana, CLESAV Citta Studi, Milano.
Fassassi, MA., 1978. L’architecture en Afrique noire. Cosmoarchitecture, L’Harmattan, Paris.
Fry, M & Drew, J., 1947. Village housing in the Tropics: with special reference to West Africa, Humphries, London.
Luciani, D, Boschiero P & Aime M., 2011. Taneka Beri, Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche con Antiga Edizioni,
Treviso.
Preston Blier, S., 1987. The anatomy of architecture. Ontology and metaphor in Batammaliba architectural
expression, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
Republique du Bénin, Department du l’Atacora, Commune de Matéri, 2010. Plan de developpement de la

Commune de Matéri, PDC, Matéri.
Republique du Bénin, Department du l’Atacora, Commune de Matéri, 2010. Schema directeur

d’amenagement de la Commune de Matéri, SDAC, Commune de Matéri.
Sinou, A, Poinsot, J & Sternadel, J., 1989. Les villes d'Afrique noire: politiques et operations d'urbanisme et
d'habitat entre 1650 et 1960, Orstom/ACA, Paris.
Soulillou, J., 1993. Rives coloniales: architectures, de Saint-Louis à Douala, Parenthèses-ORSTOM, Marseille.
Spini, T & Spini S., 2003. Togu na. La casa della parola, Ed. Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
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UPGRADING HISTORICAL AREAS SURROUNDED BY INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
Rawia Hammouda and Tarek Sobhy, Professor of Architecture & Urban Design, Associate Professor of
Architecture, Department of Architecture, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt, rawiahamouda@yahoo.com
Abstract
In Egypt there are around 25 million people inhabiting informal settlements under extremely low standards of
living.
The situation further induce other problem, due to the fact, that – unfortunately - several of these informal
settlements surround and intermingle Cairo’s numerous archaeological and historical areas where the poverty
stricken population have settled in high density. As a result, significant architectural buildings of great historical
heritage are now standing amidst drastically deformed environs as visual pollution ruins their original
magnificent quality.
This paper proposes a twofold approach of heritage preservation and community development. It represents the
outputs of a practical research and planning/design exercise which has been undergone by the author in
collaboration with a team of ten post graduate students in the area of the very famous Al Sayeda Zeinab Mosque
in the center of Cairo. This exercise, including physical, architectural and social surveys…etc. accumulated in
generating a master-plan for upgrading/rehabilitation of the study area.
Keywords: informal settlements, community development, heritage preservation, visual pollution,

upgrading historical square.
INTRODUCTION
In Egypt there are around 25 million people inhabiting informal settlements with very low standards of
living.
The bigger problem is that unfortunately several of these informal settlements surround most of Cairo’s
numerous archaeological and historical areas where people under poverty line have settled in high
population density. As a result, significant architectural buildings of great historical heritage are standing
amidst drastically deformed environs where visual pollution ruins their original magnificent quality.
This research is trying to develop a twofold approach of heritage preservation and community development
for the very famous square of Al Sayeda Zeinab Mosque in the center of Cairo.
THE AIM OF THE WORK
The main objective of this research is to develop a methodology for upgrading similar areas, especially in
Egypt, in order to achieve two parallel goals as follows:
First: To develop and to upgrade living conditions of people living in informal settlements since these
settlements negatively affect the whole society by being a source of crime and pollution.
Second: To create livable urban spaces surrounding historical buildings in order to preserve and maintain
them as well as visually attractive for urban validity and Tourism.
THE LOCATION BACKGROUND: AL SAYEDA ZEINAB SQUARE
Al Sayeda Zeinab Square is considered one of the most popular ancient districts in Cairo. It is a congested
area with high population density, and consists of many old buildings. In the center of the square, the great
famous Mosque of Al Sayeda Zeinab is located. The square is full of local cafes and restaurants that represent
the very pattern of special popular malls, where people are used to go to celebrate the month of Ramadan
and the feasts (Wikipedia).
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THE GREAT MOSQUEHISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Al Sayeda Zeinab Mosque is one of the most famous ancient mosques in Cairo, it stands in
the heart of the square named after Al Sayeda Zeinab, the granddaughter of Prophet Mohamed, May Prayers
and Peace be upon him. Al Sayeda Zeinab is also the youngest daughter of both Al Sayeda Fatima, the
Prophet's daughter and his cousin Ali Ibn Abu Taleb, and the sister of the two Imams Al Hassan and Al
Hussein. Her mosque was set up shortly after her arrival to Egypt. According to her will she was buried in the
same place where she had lived for about eleven months. Her mausoleum was built close to the northern
flank of Maslama Residence, overlooking the River Nile Bay near Al Sayeda Zeinab Square. The mausoleum
was orated by domes, niches, and inscriptions of Arabic calligraphy. The first actual innovations of the
mosque took place during the reign of Sultan Ahmed Ibn Tulun.
In the sixth century after the Hijra, Sultan Al Adel Ibn Ayoub repaired the mosque and built a smaller mosque
adjacent to it. The Mameluke Prince Abdul Rahman Katakhda reconstructed the mosque and furnished it
with a toilet for ablutions. In 1201 A.H. the mausoleum was repaired and glided with a layer of yellow copper
and the mosque area was expanded to cover three thousand square meters. In 1315 A.H. during the reign of
Khedive Tawfik, the then ruler of Egypt, the present mosque was re-built adjacent to the mausoleum. In
1946 A.D King Farouk, the last monarch in Mohamed Ali's dynasty, ordered that both the mosque and the
mausoleum be repaired. After the 23rd July revolution and during the era of President Gamal Abdul Nasser
the mosque was expanded to cover an area of 4000 meters. The mosque was again expanded during
President Hosni Mubarak terms of office to cover 18000meter with a capacity of 15000 worshippers, this
expansion and the repairs subsequent to it were executed in line with the architectural styles and designs,
implemented during Khedive Tawfik's era.
The main facade of the present Mosque looks over Al Sayeda Square with three gateways leading directly to
the mosque. The minaret stands high to the left of this section. The inside ceiling covering the whole area of
the mosque is erected on columns made of white marble.
A light shaft stands over the section located in front of the old niche. As for the mausoleum it lies to the west
of the mosque surrounded by a compartment glided with yellow golden copper and topped with a dome
(Memphistours). In spite of the highly crowded traffic in the square, the Mosque dominates its whole scene
and represents its visual focal point.
THE INFORMAL SETTLEMENT SURROUNDING THE SQUARE

HISTORICAL REVIEW
By the end of 60s, Cairo metropolitan area, the national capital and the epitome of centralized power and
intensive public investment, was witnessing an accelerated population growth due to rural urban migration
for job opportunities, real and marginal, and better living conditions. Demand for housing much exceeded
the public and private supply. This situation was further exacerbated following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, up
to 1973 war, due to the influx of Suez Canal Governorates population who fled the war zone to the already
congested capital and other areas. For assimilation of this mass immigration the Government resorted to
emergency actions through establishing a kind of "make-shift" housing arrangements, mostly light wooden
structures, in some selected areas in Cairo. One of these areas was "Zainhom", a vacant stretch at the eastern
fringe of Cairo. Following the 1973 liberation war and immigrants were backing home, the area was
squatted by the very poor and marginalized population groups. Further settlement and expansions took
place with the same pattern of tin houses and scrambled building materials and methods. Eventually the
area turned to be one of the large spontaneous settlements in Cairo, with an area of about 50 Egyptian
feddan (20 hectares), and substantial high density.
The Negative effects of the “informal settlements’ phenomenon”:
The spread of informal settlements in most of Egypt’s provinces reveal the scale of the problem and its
negative impact which affects the whole society. It represents not only an urban problem, but is also a
reflection of the society’s economic and social circumstances as since such areas suffer from:
1- A rapid increase in population.
2- Poverty; for its dwellers suffer from Low income, unemployment, and deteriorated housing conditions.
3- High rate of illiteracy and the number of school dropouts.
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4- Social disintegration.
5- Shortage of infrastructure.
6- Lack of health, educational, entertainment and security services.
7- Pollution due to the presence of industries and burning of garbage within the living area.
8- Poor life standards in general.
It’s worth noting that all the above mentioned factors give rise to crime and vice.
(Rawia Hammouda 2011).
The current basic features of the area and population could be summarized as follows:
- Urban features:
• Improvised construction of unauthorized buildings and streets that don’t meet formal grid.
• The spreading of unorganized urban fabric characterized by narrow, winding streets.
• The presence of all forms of commercial and industrial activities side by side with residential buildings.
• The absence of green areas and open spaces.
• Variation in the heights of apartment buildings that mostly have unpainted facades.
• Variation in the types of dwellings: multi-floor buildings, shanties and huts.
- Demographic characteristics:
- Overall Area: 7.04 km2, Inhabited Area: 0.83 km2, Density of Inhabited Area: 192000/km2 (1920
person/hectare), Tenure System: Not identified, Public land illegally squatted and sub-standard building
with no permits (Cairo.gov).
• High population density: Population: 159058.
• High rate of residential crowdedness (4-6 persons/room).
• Big average family size (6 or more).
• 77 % of the inhabitants are within the category of “low income” (a monthly income ranging from 100 to
500 Egyptian pounds.
- Social features:
• Poor education, widespread ignorance and bad habits. 53% of its dwellers are illiterate.
• Rise in unemployment, crime, social and moral deviation.
• Increase in the number of squatters and outlaws.
METHODOLOGY:
Planning for upgrading and rehabilitation of the area has proceeded into sequential phases and steps
that could be summarized as follows:
First Phase: Surveying and analysis:

This phase embodied the following actions and activities:
- Field visits, recording of observations recording, photographing and frequent encounters with
residents, to allow for a comprehensive configuration of the realities and specific issues of the local situation.
- Conducting land and building survey. This included identification of land use, building types, (building
materials, construction, state quality and safety assessment, date of building…etc.). Surveying activities
extended also to other features; such as the state of roads, traffic, and their marginal occupation and
uses…etc. Standard formats for data collection and coding were designed and applied.
- Conducting a social and socio-economic survey of a sample of 40 persons in households. A standard
questionnaire was designed and applied.
Second Phase: Defining the problems:
- Analysis of above-mentioned layers of data and information, individually, and through
Multi-layer analysis – including projecting the historical/chronological sequence of land
occupation and uses – conduced a comprehensive and clear identification assessment of the area’s
characteristics and problems (physical, environmental, social, traffic, urban/visual etc.).
This also extended to identifying the potentials and positive aspects that could be handled for practical
rehabilitation of the area and community.
- Conducting a literature review of the different rehabilitation experiences in similar
spontaneous settlements, and drawing learned lessons.
Third Phase: Developing a new Master Plan:
In this part a new master plan for upgrading/rehabilitation of the whole area was generated, taking into
consideration all the social aspects that showed up through surveying process and further analysis.
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THE PROPOSED METHODOLOGY CONTAINS SIX MAIN PARTS:

PART I: THE PLANNING SURVEY
Spaces Buildings Main%Roads% Minor%Roads%

Figure'1:%The%urban%fabric.% Figure'2:%The%Roads.%
!
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Ground%% Ground%+2% Ground%+3% Bad Worse

Figure'3:%Buildings%Heights.% Figure'4:!Buildings%Quality.!
Residential Commercial Residential Religious

Figure'5:%Ground%floor%uses.% Figure'6:%Typical%floor%uses.%
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Figure'7:%Building%Density.%
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ARKWRIGHT TOWN AND THE ELDONIANS: EVALUATION OF SOCIO- ECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASPECTS OF TWO DISPLACED COMMUNITIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Tessa Brunette, IDBE Mst programme, University of Cambridge, Arup Consulting, Cape Town, South Africa,
Tessa.brunette@arup.com,
Dr. Gerda Speller, University of Surrey, England, gerdaspellercons@btconnect.com
Martin Watson, IDBE Mst programme, University of Cambridge, Brock Carmichael Architects LLP, Liverpool,
England and Hong Kong, watson.@brockcarmichael.co.uk.
Abstract
Located in Derbyshire England, Arkwright Town was a small coal mining community in decline during the late
1980’s. In 1989 methane gas leaked from abandoned mine workings, resulting in the partial evacuation of the
town and a plan to relocate the whole town and its community to an adjacent site. Throughout the design and
relocation process, an independent longitudinal research project was undertaken by environmental psychologist
Dr. Gerda Speller of Surrey University. This study highlighted the effects that the relocation had on the people of
Arkwright and sought to define place attachment with individual and collective identity.
This paper highlights the background to and methods used by the Arkwright Town architects to engage the
community in the design and relocation of their new village. The paper compares the goals and objectives of the
architects' community consultation process with the findings of this longitudinal study to determine the success of
the community engagement process and the resultant design and long-term social conditions that evolved from
the relocation. In addition, the paper describes an alternative community project, the Liverpool Eldonian
Community. This entrepreneurial community was established in the early 1980s and received a United Nations
World Habitat award in 2004. Finally, this paper contrasts and evaluates the outcomes of both community
models.
Keywords: displaced community, capable community, entrepreneurial community,

environmental psychology, identity, place attachment, sustainable community.
INTRODUCTION
Community consultation sets out to encourage and empower people to be involved in shaping their own
environments. The process can be liberating and is considered virtuous and of value. However does
community involvement in design provide an effective and meaningful legacy that adds value to the
outputs and longer-term outcomes? This paper focuses on a community consultation process undertaken
20 years ago for the relocation of Arkwright Town, Derbyshire, England. It will highlight the outputs of the
design consultation process and relocation against the backdrop of a longitudinal socio-psychological study
undertaken during the design, implementation and post occupancy stages. Finally, it will compare and
contrast the New Arkwright Town outcomes with the displaced Eldonian community established in
Liverpool, England in 1980 and recipients of a United Nations World Habitat award in 2004. The objective of
this paper is to identify distinct socio-economic values and psychological aspects present and how they can
influence the sustainability of displaced communities.
ARKWRIGHT TOWN: A COMMUNITY UNDER THREAT
Arkwright Town was built in the late 19thCentury. In 1989, it comprised 174 houses of mixed tenure with a
population of over 400 people. Local services included a school, post office shop, miners’ welfare club and
pub. In the late 1980s, the community was slipping into a steady decline due to pit closures and divisions
caused by the miners’ strike of 1985. In November 1989, the demise of Arkwright seemed inevitable when
methane gas seeped into homes from the disused mine resulting in partial evacuation. British Coal offered
to rebuild the town nearby if they received planning permission for an open cast mine within the vicinity
and offered all residents a new semi-detached 3-bedroom house or 2-bedroom bungalow built from the
mining profits. There was very little opportunity for residents’ private objections to be heard, as the British
Coal offer was perceived by many as an opportunity to substantially increase personal equity. The offer
received overwhelming support by a public show of hands.
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Preparing for change

The Arkwright majority had chosen something that would offer a very different living experience to the
simple straight terraces of the old town. Preparing for that change was an intrinsic part of the consultation
process that began in 1991 with the appointment of Brock Carmichael Architects, the election of street
representatives and the establishment of a permanently manned project office. A 2-year community
consultation programme was designed to reach all residents. This involved 12 major public presentations,
individual surgeries as well as home visits. All sessions were recorded and feedback data collected from
questionnaires. The architects considered social continuity and cohesion to be crucial to the success of the
relocation and developed a design consultation process using simple sketches and images of historic
examples to convey the following key criteria.
Table 1 Community Consultation Process; Understanding Key Design Criteria
- The Old Town, - The New Site,

- Terraced houses, - Site enclosure,
- The rear yards, - The open cast mine,
- Elevated aspect, - Footpath networks,
- Permeability, - Rail embankment,
- Hypothetical scenarios. - Ecology,
- Site topography.
Figure 1: Old town Figure 2: The site
- The New Town - The New Centre,
- Townscape character, - The new school,
- Semi-detached - Miners welfare centre,
houses, - The new hall,
- Location of the centre, - The community
- Neighbourhood school,
clusters, - Amenities.
- Location of elderly.
Figure 3: New town Figure 4: New centre
- House options - Allocations,
- External appearance - Neighbour choice,
- Internal plan options - House compatibility,
- Fixtures and fittings - Residents priorities,
- Special needs - Social relationships.
Figure 5: House types Figure 6: Neighbours
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The design aims and objectives
The architects aimed to place community involvement and understanding at the centre of the design
process. The objective was to transfer existing social structures and to deliver a cohesive community to
occupy the new town. Residents were offered choices from a set menu of options including the 3 key
aspects of location, house type options and who they wanted to live next to. The allocation of plots and
neighbours was the most sensitive and difficult issue. There were no precedents that could be applied. A
way forward was found in emerging patterns of social groups within the confidential data that prioritised
and replicated existing neighbour relationships. Key individuals with across neighbour connections
provided the link between neighbour clusters that influenced the form of the new town. This emerged
through a three-month iterative process and delivered a solution that offered social continuity and
reassurance. The allocation process was further facilitated by the architects using the key aspects of house
choice and neighbour preference as a means of negotiation and compensation to counter disappointment
over allocated plot.
The architects were able to offer most residents their first choice for at least 2 key aspects. Very few residents
succeeded in obtaining their first choice on all 3 aspects. Following the release of allocated plots, the
architects were able to report 95% residents' satisfaction with their allocated plot (Watson 2012, p. 9).
Shortly after the successful resolution of plot allocations, neighbour selections, and having obtained
planning approval, British Coal decided to terminate the architects' appointment in order to reduce costs
and limit community involvement. The new project managers established a cost cutting regime to the new
building and relocation process.
Place identity and outcomes

Environmental psychologist Dr Gerda Speller carried out an independent study on Arkwright looking at the
relationship between place and identity (Speller 2000). Speller interviewed a cross section of the community
at 5 key time phases over a 6-year period that overarched the relocation. She tested theoretical concepts
against acquired data to gain an understanding of how the relocation impacted on an individual’s
perception of their own identity in relation to their old and new environment. Speller’s findings were
revealing: “The Arkwright relocation provided an abrupt and clear incident of socio-spatial change affecting
individual and collective levels of functioning. As part of the study of the relocation process it was
discovered that there are five aspects of place attachment which when present play an important role in
facilitating an emotional bond to place and when absent inhibit the creation of such a bond” (Speller 2000,
p. 270).
The 5 identified aspects of place attachment are:
1. Security is defined as the perceived freedom from risk or danger on a physical and/or psychological
level within the home and the community. It includes freedom from doubt, anxiety or fear and a sense
of familiarity of place, belonging and feeling of permanence (Speller 2000, p. 183).
2. Autonomy is defined as self-determination and independence including a sense of ownership and the
ability to control and initiate change (Ibid, p. 189).
3. Appropriation is the desire and ability to make something part of yourself often through the process of
‘doing’ (Ibid, p. 208).
4. Stimulation, an optimal level of internal and external stimulation is defined as an event to elicit or
accelerate a physiological or psychological activity, or a change of environment that may motivate a
person to reach for challenging goals (Ibid, p. 182).
5. Place congruence is the psychological belief that a place reflects your identity (Ibid, p. 183).
Speller also examined the 4 principles of Breakwell’s Identity Process Theory (Breakwell 1986) and placed
them in context with her findings. They are:
Distinctiveness
This is defined as the need to be unique as an individual or collective/group. Speller found that residents
valued the collective identity as positive (we are all the same) which transformed into individual identity as a
negative in the new town.
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Self Esteem
This is a feeling of self-worth and social value. Residents experienced collective self-esteem in the old town
with a change in emphasis to individual self-esteem during and after the relocation.
Self-efficacy
This is to feel competent and in control of life. This was not automatically transferable. Some people
struggled with the many different demands of their new homes with a concomitant decline in identity.
Continuity of the self

This is the desire to preserve the past and present and the potential loss of social groups became the focus
of concern for residents during the relocation process.
Speller describes the significance of these values and principles and their effect on the people of Arkwright
during and after the move. She links the value of place attachment with the identity and concludes that:
“Place is an integral part of identity, that it plays an important part in maintaining and/or enhancing the four
principles of identity, and that attachment to place provides an important link between place and identity
since it organises past experiences of individuals and/or groups over time and their subjective
interpretations” (Speller 2000, p. 270).
Arkwright in 2012
In her writing, Speller refers to the beginnings of a change of emphasis from the collective distinctiveness of
a close-knit community to the individual distinctiveness that did not exist in old Arkwright but which is now
typical of British society (Speller 2000, p. 257). This view is supported by a resident during a focus group
discussion in 2012, when she stated that ‘the community spirit quickly vanished soon after the move’. The
British Coal consultation strategy only delivered short-term goals and the relocation process left many of the
social and cultural aspects behind. Indeed, Speller found that many elderly people felt isolated and
disorientated due to the labyrinthine nature of the plan and the increase in physical separation between
houses compared to simple straight terraces, a concern conveyed to the community during early
consultations.
The relocation process had no mandate to enhance individual capabilities and nurture collective
responsibilities depressed by the decline of the mining industry. Opportunities to raise collective self-esteem
and self-efficacy and to reconcile divisions within the community caused by the miners’ strike were missed.
The new town was simply handed over for occupation and the old town demolished. Speller also recognised
that the early removal of the community architects from the project and the adoption of a less transparent
process (in order to implement extensive cost reductions) caused major anxiety during the move that was
detrimental to individual appropriation of the houses (Speller 2000, p. 223).
A number of original residents left soon after the move. Arkwright is now poorly represented in local
governance and lacks a cohesive voice; there is a declining interest in community issues; and restrictions are
imposed on the use of buildings that can serve the community. In July 2012, a reduction in local council
subsidies will put the future of the Arkwright Community Centre in doubt. The demise of the Arkwright
Centre will sever a strand between the community of the past and the future.
In contrast, the following case study of the Liverpool Eldonians illustrates how an existing community did
succeed in revitalising themselves and their environment through self-endeavour and commercial social
enterprise.
THE ELDONIAN COMMUNITY, LIVERPOOL ENGLAND
In 1978, the Eldon Street community was being forced to move to make way for new development. In
response, a group of ordinary people came together to save their community. Through strong leadership
and governance they initiated a programme to deliver affordable rented homes and improve the physical
and economic prospects of the area. Over 30 years later, 400 rented houses have been provided, 250
permanent jobs generated, £30 million of assets created, and £155 million of inward investment attracted. A
wide range of community facilities have been provided, all owned and managed by the community. Derelict
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and polluted land has been restored to form an attractive and secure living environment. The community
now provides support and advice to other communities wishing to improve their housing conditions and to
have a greater say in their future.
The Building and Social Housing Foundation awarded the Eldonians a United Nations World Habitat award
in 2004. The UN citation described an entrepreneurial community taking responsibility for the
redevelopment and management of their own environment with personal development of local people as a
fundamental economic objective. How was this achieved?
A community vision
The existing community was known for its Irish immigrants and this collective identity and distinctiveness
reinforced community cohesion and attachment to their place. In 1981, the site of the redundant Tate and
Lyle sugar refinery provided an opportunity for the community to realise their collective vision to build a
new life together. The site was reclaimed and the new community developed through a charitable trust
established by the community for the community. It comprises of 600 residents each with a £1 share. Phase
1 of the development was initially financed by a total of £12.1million housing grant and a £1.5million loan
from the Co-operative bank to the 600 trustees (McBane 2008). There were 3 key aims of the group, i.e. ‘to
keep the community together’, ‘to provide good affordable homes’ and ‘to have a say in how and where
they were to live’.
Entrepreneurial community
The community appropriated their homes through this 10% stake and developed skills in housing
management and maintenance resulting in Phase 2 being realised through 50/50 shared public/private
equity (Santangeli, L 2013, interview, 10 April). This entrepreneurial spirit manifested itself in the
establishment of the Eldonian Group Ltd (EGL), a consultancy to facilitate self-regeneration and job creation,
bringing new skills and security for local people. The EGL governance structure constitutes community
directors and local business leaders and has delivered a new hall, sports centre, children’s nursery and three
elderly persons sheltered housing schemes. These facilities are commercial ventures that employ local
people. They are self-financing and profits are re-cycled back into the community to assist the funding of
new education and training initiatives. The group’s success and momentum has meant that it has had to
look further afield to realise its own potential and bring new skills and income back into the community. ELG
is currently developing collaborative ventures in training and employment and have planned a business
enterprise unit. Les Bellmon of the Eldonian Group points out that “the EGL have to feed themselves on
commercial contracts” and that they “continue to develop collaborative working models creating unique
social and private business partnerships” (Bellmon, L 2012, interview 8 May).
A sustainable and capable community

Amartya Sen (2000) believes development projects should be measured against the increased concrete
capabilities of people. He advocates positive freedom or liberty that allows an individual, “to be or to do
something” and “as an ends and means to development” (Sen 2000, p. 5). Sen argues that it is meaningless
to provide an opportunity for choice if an individual does not have the functional capability to benefit from
individual choice. This is a bottom up approach, a root and branch alternative to macro, trickle down
development economics that puts personal freedoms to live the life of choice at the centre. It is a social
development concept that can be applied to community building and is very different to the paternalistic
approach adopted at Arkwright that comes from the top as an altruistic trait rooted in the industrial age.
The Eldonian model sets out to replicate Sen’s proposition and has the potential to become a sustainable
social enterprise by increasing individual capability and providing the platform for the key aspects of place
attachment and identity referred to by Speller. The Eldonian model is established as an ‘upstream’ activity
with a long term strategy to put local people at the centre. Peter Roberts (2007) suggests that community
building overarches generations and needs time to evolve and take root. He explains:
"The Eldonian Village has taken some twenty years to mature, and this is four times as long as the average
lifespan of a community or neighbourhood project. What this suggests is that far more attention than is
currently the case needs to be devoted to providing continuity, and to ensure that “effective progression and
succession arrangements are put in place at the start of the process of community building” (Roberts 2007,
p. 132).
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Economic recycling
The retention of wealth through economic recycling or ‘local multiplier effect’ as described by JM Keynes
(1936) is an important aspect of the Eldonian success (Bellmon, L 2012, interview, 8 May). It is the cumulative
effect of purchasing goods and services from local businesses as an ‘upstream’ investment until money
leaves the locality further ‘downstream’ through the purchase of an import. The New Economics Foundation
(NEF) has also studied the effects of ‘upstream’ investment in local business (NEF 2012). NEF worked closely
with the EGL in seeking a means to measure the gains of the local multiplier effect. In some instances every
£1.00 invested resulted in a gain of £1.75 for the local economy (Bellmon, L 2012, interview, 8 May). The
economics of self-reliance being founded on a viable business strategy is embedded within the governance
of the community and provides autonomy and mitigates risk associated with operational expenditure and
the need for subsidies as experienced by the Arkwright Centre. More recently, EGL have established a JV
with electricity suppliers Eon and Peel Holdings to establish a local energy centre (Santangeli, L 2013,
interview, 10 April). This collaborative arrangement will provide a de-centralised CHP supply for the local
community and local commercial districts as the first phase of the 30 year £5.5billion Liverpool Waters
development plan proposed by Peel.
Community Land Trusts

The Eldonian Charitable Trust is the foundation of the community and similar to social housing co-
operatives, Co-housing groups and Community Land Trusts (CLTs) established in the UK in recent times (CLT
Network 2011). CLTs are elected non-profit based organisations run by volunteers for long term community
benefit as a voluntary associative organisation. A CLT is a legal entity usually limited by guarantee, and may
or may not have charitable status. CLT’s are legally defined in the UK Housing and Regeneration Act 2008,
Section 79. They can be established to meet local needs in housing, employment, energy, and food
production. The strength of a CLT is that it separates the value of the buildings from the land that is held in
trust to provide a community asset for future generations. There is a commercial and legal process required
to establish a CLT and many CLTs have partnered with like-minded organisations such as Registered State
Landlords (RSLs).
CLTs establish ancestral platforms, providing long-term security and equity for communal beneficiaries.
They root people to a place for wider associative action such as human development and well-being or
ecological and environmental action with which locals can identify and contribute. Entrepreneurial CLTs
such as the Eldonians have the potential to provide the sense of purpose previously embodied in traditional,
industrial or rural communities. They initiate a sense of security, autonomy, appropriation, stimulation, place
congruence, identity, self-esteem, self-efficacy and continuity. These are the important aspects that
constitute the link between place attachment and collective identity that Speller describes.
The future of the Eldonians
The Eldonian village was built at a time of political turmoil and uncertainty where the fear of crime and the
forced breakup of the community by external political powers were ever present. The community’s desire to
be autonomous and secure also brought about a defensive and inward looking perspective. The village is
effectively a gated community bounded by main roads on the periphery of Liverpool City centre within,
what was an industrial area of relatively low residential density. Like Arkwright, its layout and configuration
is influenced by the community’s perception of the suburb and its low density semi-detached housing with
private gardens as being more desirable than the dense urban models of terrace and tenement they left
behind.
There are future risks and challenges for the Eldonians socio-economic model of community building that
are exacerbated by the inflexibility of the suburban model. If a community cannot expand or adapt to retain
its young people or envelop adjacent groups into the values of its social and economic model then it may be
vulnerable and unsustainable beyond the working life of the founding generations. The fundamental
question is, can an aging community limited in its population and by the physical constraints of a defined
site continue to re-energise its self socially and economically? This risk is clearly recognised by Lawrence
Santangeli and Les Bellmon of the EGL who have sought to forge new ‘social and private business
partnerships’ beyond the Eldonian village.
To date the success of the Eldonian model can be attributed to strong leadership and ethical governance
that values the social capital of its people and their increased capability as the means and ends to
development. In 2014 there was an unexpected change at board level and the future direction of the EGL
remains uncertain under this new regime. As Peter Roberts suggested, continuity, effective progression and
succession arrangements are vital to community building and to the values of the original Eldonian model.
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CONCLUSION
The Arkwright community had been undermined before its relocation by the decline of the mining industry.
Unlike the Eldonians there was no opportunity beyond the design consultation stage for the collective
identity to self-regenerate through housing appropriation and social enterprise. The Arkwright approach
was a top down or ‘downstream’ activity that reached its course once residents had moved in. The Arkwright
and Eldonian studies show a marked difference in the means of delivery and governance. Arkwright was
comprised of small separately owned plots that propagated a move towards individualism following the
relocation. The Eldonian community provides social housing at affordable rents and is founded on land that
is held in trust for the benefit of the whole community.
The three pillars of sustainability are recognised as Social, Economic and Environmental. Capable
communities such as the Eldonians are sustainable as they address the social and economic aspects. The
Eldonians’ story shows us that community capability is evolutionary and acquired through active
participation and struggle. The Eldonian scheme is more than the sole provision of social housing in that it
links economic development to human development, ‘as an ends and means to development’. In contrast,
the Arkwright case describes a thorough consultation process that engaged the whole community. However
it was a passive process reliant on multiple choices, carefully managed with finite and limited experience for
participants. Community architecture failed to revitalise Arkwright’s collective identity tenuously held
together by memories of the coal mining past with its inherent culture that functioned well whilst anchored
in the old town. The relocation exposed the vulnerability of the community and the importance of human
capabilities to be the bedrock for building sustainable communities.
The Eldonian model can provide the vehicle for improving human capability by establishing long-term
legacies through personal development and collective land ownership. Land that has a specific purpose for
human development is the oasis for encouraging sustainable development. However, if such models are to
thrive and sustain themselves beyond the founding generation, the model must be sufficiently flexible to
foster adaptive reuse, changing demographics, expansion and social mobility.
It is through such initiatives based around affordable socially focused housing that entrepreneurial
communities such as the Eldonians will begin to emerge. They can provide the social structures and values
familiar to traditional communities. They nurture personal and collective identity, facilitating human
capabilities and allowing substantive opportunities for distinctiveness; self-esteem; self-efficacy and the
continuity of the self to flourish. These attributes together with a sense of security; a sense of autonomy; the
ability to engage in appropriation; an optimal level of stimulation; and place congruence facilitate the
emotional bond to a place.
REFERENCES
Breakwell, GM., 1986. Coping with threatened identities, Methuen, London.
Community Land Trust Network., 2011. Community Land Trusts in a nutshell, CLT Network.
Keynes, JM., 1936. The general theory of employment, interest and money, Palgrave Macmillan/Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge.
McBane, J., 2008. The rebirth of Liverpool; The Eldonian way, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool.
New Economics Foundation., 2012. The wisdom of prevention; long-term planning, upstream investment and
early action to prevent harm, New Economics Foundation.
Roberts, P., 2007. ‘Social innovations, spatial transformation and sustainable communities: Liverpool and the
Eldonians’, in P. Drewe, E. Hulsbergen & J. Klein (eds), The challenge of social innovation in urban revitalisation,
Techne Press, The Netherlands.
Speller, GM., 2000. ‘A community in transition: a longitudinal study of place attachment and identity
processes in the context of an enforced relocation’, PhD Thesis, Electronic Publication, Department of
Psychology, School of Human Sciences, University of Surrey, epubs.surrey.ac.uk/593/1/fulltext.pdf
United Nations World Habitat Award citation 2004, viewed 8 June 2014,
<http://www.worldhabitatawards.org/winners-and-finalists/project-details.cfm?lang=00&theProjectID=158>.
Watson, M., 2012. ‘Capable communities: The source of ethical development’, IDBE Programme, University of
Cambridge, England.
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GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN INFORMAL URBAN SETTLEMENTS
Olumuyiwa Bayode Adegun, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, muyiwaadegun@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract
Urban areas are usually home to important bio-physical assets, which based on their functions, values and
potentials to provide basic structures that supports society’s functioning, are construed as green infrastructure.
Informal settlements as a notable mode of habitation by the poor in cities of developing countries are usually
connected to these bio-physical assets. This paper identifies ecosystem services and disservices emanating from
informal settlement residents’ interactions with these bio-physical assets.
Keywords: informal settlements, green infrastructure, ecosystem services, ecosystem disservices.
INTRODUCTION
The challenges for the provision of appropriate, affordable and adequate shelter in cities of developing
countries are linked to broader environmental sustainability issues. It has been argued over the past two
decades that environmental sustainability in informal settlements and the low-income housing contexts
ensuing from informal settlement interventions has not been much of a concern to actors in states of the
global south and some non-governmental actors as well (Dalgliesh et al. 1997, Irurah and Boshoff 2003,
Groebel 2007, French and Lalande 2013). There was an explicit assumption among some urbanists that the
consideration of bio-physical conditions is something of a luxury in informal settlements, and therefore not
important (Quilan and McCarthy 1995). Within discourses on urbanism, Taylor (2011, p. 54) points out that
‘issues of informal dwellings and sustainability have diverged so drastically’ in the past few decades. Focus
on the role of housing development within the agenda of sustainable development and climate change has
therefore largely targeted formal, middle- and upper-income residential neigbourhoods (Sullivan and Ward
2012).
This kind of incognizance is problematic, as low-income, informal settlements constitute a notable (and at
times growing) proportion of population and space of cities in developing countries. For example, UN-
HABITAT’s estimate, from around a decade ago, shows that about one billion people, representing over 40%
of the urban population, were living in areas categorized as informal settlements in cities of developing
countries (UN-HABITAT 2003). These areas are usually peopled by the socially, economically and
environmentally disadvantaged, who in addition to being ‘victims’ of urban inequalities, are more
vulnerable to the potential impacts of global climate change (Agbor 2013). Informal settlements also
intersect in important ways with the bio-physical environment.
Green Infrastructure us generally defined as “interconnected network of green space” (Benedict and
Mcmahon 2002, p. 12) or as those “natural, semi-natural and artificial networks of multi-functional ecological
systems within, around and between urban areas, at all spatial scales” (Tzoulas et al. 2007, p. 169). Based on
these understandings, green infrastructure approach to urban sustainability is of strong relevance in
informal settlements. However, as Grove (2009) argues, the significance of interactions among dynamics of
human responses to variation in ecosystem services from green infrastructure in cities is poorly understood,
especially in the informal. The paucity of knowledge on bio-physical assets and processes in the context of
informal urban housing/settlements therefore precludes appropriate contribution of the necessary
understanding to intervention approaches and coherent urban development (Quilan and McCarthy 1995).
Studies in Dhaka and Johannesburg informal settlements by Jabeen et al (2010) and Adegun (2013)
respectively show that opportunities for sustainability and resilience exist in and around urban informal
settlements, through green infrastructure, which deserves exploration.
This paper explores green infrastructure in the context of low-income informal urban settlements. It
describes how informal settlements are connected with green infrastructure in cities of developing
countries. Ecosystem services, operationalized as services and disservices, emanating from the relationship
between bio-physical systems and spaces, as green infrastructure, and informal urban areas were listed and
categorised. Tensions in these realms were also identified.
Informal urban settlements and green infrastructure
Informality is a significant phenomenon and a mode of urbanization in cities of developing countries. It is
generally defined and understood through its opposite – formality (what is not formal), as well as linkages
and continuities between the two (Huchzermeyer 2011, p. 70). Urban informality is usually manifest in socio-
economic spheres such as trade, housing and services. For example, in housing and as already mentioned,
UN-HABITAT’s estimate show that about one billion people presently live in areas categorized as ‘slums’
(essentially informal settlements) – an increase from the 712 million population estimated in 1993 (UN-
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HABITAT 2003, p. 13). This figure might have excluded townships and other low-income areas which
emerged through informal settlement intervention but are still largely characterized and shaped by various
forms of informal developments.
Informality in the urban socio-economic and spatial sector is undoubtedly linked with the environment.
Helen Briassoulis’ essay on the relationship between environmental sustainability and socio-spatial
informality acknowledges that informal activities, though running simultaneously and parallel to formal
ones, result in both environmentally benign and detrimental impacts (Briassoulis 1999). To her then, and still
largely true now, “most sustainable development policies are directed towards the formal sector”,
neglecting the pervasiveness and influence informality have on socio-economic and spatial developments
in both developed and developing countries (Briassoulis 1999, p. 213). Introducing informality into the
environmental sustainability (and green infrastructure) discourse is therefore relevant since “urban
informality is the only means to habitation and livelihood for a large percentage of urban population” in
Africa and developing countries (Huchzermeyer 2011, p. 69).
Regarding informality in housing, Alsayyad (1993) observes that informal settlements often take advantage
of publicly or privately owned but vacant land. Such lands are usually unsuitable for residential
development, and are located near streams, on river banks (see Figure 1), wetlands, hillsides and mountains
(see Figure 2), servitudes, interstitial spaces and so on (Armitage 2011, Huchzermeyer 2011). For instance,
due to the presence of informal settlements, “population density appears to increase by roughly 10% within
1 km of waterways” in low-income Asian countries (Vollmer and Gret-Regamey 2013, p. 1544). These
locations usually hold critical natural assets that are of ecological significance and bio-physical wealth. Apart
from being located on lands that may hold critical bio-physical assets, informal settlements in cities of
developing countries are usually peopled by residents who undertake various forms of agricultural
cultivation (Rogerson 1993, Redwood 2009). The agricultural activities taking place within or around these
settlements also convey ecological and bio-physical essence. They constitute another form of informal
settlements’ connection to green infrastructure.
Figure 1: Kibera informal settlement is located on a low-lying part of the Nairobi river bank (Source: Author’s
Photograph, September 2012).
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Figure 2: Langrung informal settlement, in Stellenbosch, South Africa is connected to a mountain ecosystem
(Source: Author’s Photograph, October 2013).
Upgrading intervention in informal settlements also shows linkages with green. A central message
emanating from the linkage between ecological assets and informal settlement intervention is the
possibility of meeting some of the infrastructural needs in informal settlements through bio-physical
systems and spaces, as socio-ecologic infrastructure. This approach is possible at dwelling scale or as
acupunctural interventions that can stimulate settlement-wide improvements from strategic points of socio-
ecological insertions. Projects like Kounkeuy Design Initiative’s (KDI) productive public space in Kibera,
Nairobi’s informal settlement (KDI 2013), Cape Town’s MtshiniWam settlement re-blocking for in situ
upgrading (Henning et al. 2012, p. 5), Christian Werthmann’s tactical interventions in Latin America slums
(Werthmann 2011) are examples. Others such as Cato Manor township green upgrade ahead of the United
Nations COP-17 summit in Durban (GBCSA 2012, p. 19), Urban Agriculture intervention in Ouled Ahmed,
Casablanca’s informal settlement (Rau et al. 2011, p. 69) are also noteworthy among the growing examples.
Mention must be made that this socio-ecologic infrastructural approach for informal settlement intervention
offers prospects for climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities (Gill et al. 2007). They provide multi-
functional, at times, soft engineering alternatives to expensive grey infrastructure in low-income urban areas
in the light of resource decline accompanying climate change (Kithiia and Lyth 2011). This socio-ecologic
approach also aids improvements in quality of life and socioeconomic opportunities in vulnerable low-
income urban communities through ‘community ecosystem-based adaptation’ (Roberts et al. 2012, p. 167).
Ecosystem derivates from green infrastructure in informal urban areas
Connection between informal settlements and green infrastructure in cities results in noteworthy corollaries.
When such is positive and beneficial to human-being, it is referred to as ‘ecosystem services’, which can be
defined as direct and indirect benefits, actively or passively utilised contributions towards human well-being
and sustenance of ecosystems themselves (Bolund and Hunhammar 1999, Fischer et al. 2009). Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment (2005) popularised the concept of ecosystem services through its four-point
categorization of services into supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural services. These services
include a host of quality of life benefits with the possibility of deriving the corresponding values therein.
Green Infrastructure also involves ‘functions of ecosystems that are perceived as negative for human beings’,
regarded as ‘ecosystem disservices’ (Lyytimaki and Sipila 2009, p. 311). These are nuisances associated with
normal functioning of undisturbed ecosystems or the negative results from ecosystem degradation through
direct or indirect human activities. That is, disservices can emanate from natural or man-made occurrences.
Ecosystem disservices cannot be taken literarily as the antonym of ecosystem services. They are both
anthropogenic constructs (ibid), and a differentiation between perceived and actual disservices is therefore
necessary (Dunn 2010). Both services and disservices are considered in the following sections.
3.1 Ecosystem services in informal urban areas
Table 1 summarises ecosystem services particular to informal urban settlements, as largely identifiable from
literature. The services are classified based on three of the four categories by the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment (2005). The omitted category – supporting services, are process-based and underpins all other
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services. It is intertwined with the other categories of services and therefore impossible to separate it in the
context of informal urban settlements.
Provisioning services
This category of service relates to goods and products (materials and energy outputs) derived from bio-
physical assets and ecosystem. For example, agricultural cultivation in informal settlements provides food
for household consumption and sale (income generation). Figure 3 and 4 shows agricultural cultivation in
informal settlements. These provide food and plant products used for culinary and medicinal purposes.
Averberke (2007) found that over half of households in five Pretoria informal settlements participated in
farming. As a female dominated livelihood, farming took place in home gardens, open spaces and group
gardens within the settlements. Group farming in open spaces supplied households about 25% of annual
staple food requirements, while home gardeners harvested an average of 1.7 kilogramme of fresh food
produce monthly (ibid). They generated income through the gardens, although it only accounted for 0.4%
of monthly household income. In Davoren’s (2009) study of Ganyesa settlement, North-West Province of
South Africa, he found meaningful correlation between socio-economic status of homeowners and plant
diversity in their home gardens. In the same vein, Singh et al. (2013) identified vegetable and fruit
production by slum dwellers in Delhi’s wetlands. Coelho and Raman (2013) point to fish harvesting by
Pallikaranai slum dwellers located along the Adyar river in Chennai, India.
Water provision is another example of provisioning service in informal settlements. Since there is usually
inadequate pipe-borne water supply, informal settlement dwellers depend on surface freshwater sources
such as streams and wetlands or groundwater sources from shallow wells (Vollmer and Gret-Regamey 2013,
Phukan 2014). These sources supply water of unhealthy and questionable quality, which informal settlement
residents at times drink and use for household purposes such as cooking, bathing, laundry. These sources
also provide water to irrigate home gardens and group farming activities within informal settlements.
Another common product from ecosystems is timber from tress or forests around informal settlements. This
provides fuel for cooking and heating. It is used in building dwellings and for household furniture.
Figure 3: A home garden in Slovo Park Settlement, Johannesburg.

(Source: Photograph by Marie Huchzermeyer, June 2013).
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Figure 4. Home gardening in a dwelling’s courtyard in Kibera informal settlement, Nairobi.

(Source: Author’s Photograph, September 2012).
Regulatory services
Green infrastructure in informal settlements includes processes that regulate the natural environment
within and beyond informal areas in cities. Water (greywater, wastewater or stormwater) management
through bio-physical systems and spaces is an example of regulatory service in informal settlements. Button
et al’s (2010) project in Monwabisi Park settlement, Cape Town is telling in this regard. This project included
a Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) that consist of artificial swales, soakaways, infiltration trenches
and wetlands. Vegetation covering the swales redirects the flow of water away from unwanted areas.
Soakaways, incorporating a layer of bio-filters (plants), absorb excess nutrients and minerals while
redirecting excess water to the wetland. A notable attempt to manage greywater through vegetation was
observed in Makause Settlement, Ekurhuleni municipality of South Africa (see Figure 5). In this case,
greywater flows into a soakpit/soakway covered by a layer of plants. These examples show that bio-physical
systems offer services whereby water is treated, the timing and flow of runoff are regulated, and flooding is
prevented or mitigated.
Air temperature and quality control are also examples of regulatory service. This is obvious in Bangalore
(India) where almost all dwellings in informal settlements have potted plants (Gopal 2011, Gopal and
Nagendra 2014). Small plants are grown in a variety of containers, due to space constraints, in addition to
trees in the neighbourhood. These foster decrease in ambient air temperature by 3 to 5OC in summer in the
Bangalore urban area, and also aid air quality control through the removal of pollutants such as SO2 and
suspended particulate matter (Sudhira and Negrada 2013). Micro-climatic regulation offered by the trees
allows domestic, livelihood and recreational activities in spaces under trees with ample canopy (Gopal 2011,
Negrada 2013). Cavan et al’s (2014) investigation of residential urban morphological types in Addis Ababa
shows that informal settlements can enjoy better regulation services, compared to formal, middle and high-
income areas. They observed that “informal settlements and traditional housing areas have higher
proportions and better composition of green structures than other residential areas, and are thus associated
with the lowest modelled land surface temperatures” (ibid. p. 54).
Socio-cultural services
Non-material benefits - culturally, psychologically, socially valued services from bio-physical systems and
spaces are also obtainable in informal settlements. Public or private open spaces with or without
vegetation/greenery in informal settlements provide aesthetically pleasing environment, and space(s) for
recreational activities, social interaction, spiritual and inspirational enrichment, ethical and cultural
expression and so on. Mizamoyethu (now known as Mandela Park) settlement residents in the Western Cape
enjoyed such services from their connection to green infrastructure. Some of the residents remarked –
“Mizamoyethu has a nice view…”, “the beaches are nice, the mountains are beautiful and the trees…”, “the
mountain area, the environmental [green] side of it must stay”, “when they do their ritual, the mountain
becomes the ideal spot” (Ballantyne and Oelofse 1999, p. 209). Also in South Africa’s Western Cape Province,
the Macassar informal settlement community has an historical connection and cultural ties with the
Macassar dune. Recreational practices such as horse riding and fishing take place by the dune (Graham and
Ernstson 2012). Deliberate efforts in landscaping provide aesthetic value to residents as shown in Figure 6.
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Green spaces in informal settlements also offer opportunity for educational and cognitive development.
Keying into a participatory upgrading plan, the ‘Rosario HABITAT’ programme included green open space
development in La Lagunita settlement – an educationally productive space for children’s cognitive
development through a demonstration garden and an educational path (Dubbeling et al. 2009). Regarding
spiritual benefits, wetlands, lakes and some other water-bodies connected to informal settlements at times
form the object of worship and location for religious/cultural ceremonies by slum residents (Negrada et al.
2013).
Figure 5: Greywater Management through vegetated soakpitin Makause Settlement, Ekurhuleni

(Author’s Photograph, June 2013).
Figure 6: Manicured vegetation (privet hedge) for aesthetics in a Stellenbosch (South Africa) Informal settlement.
(Source: Author’s Photograph, October 2013).
Available literature shows that informal settlements residents have little direct use or dependence on local
ecosystem services. The three studies accessed, which emanate from South Africa, Uganda and India shows
that poorer, and usually, informal urban communities, when they use ecosystem services, put higher
demand on provisioning services (Cilliers et al. 2012, Waters 2013, Gopal and Nagendra 2014). The studies
indicate less demand on cultural services and less contribution to regulating services in informal
settlements. The higher demand for provisioning services can be linked to the fact that “the poor depend
directly on natural resource environment for their livelihood” (NadKarni 2000, p. 1184). They are unlike the
rich and middle-class, who are accommodated in formal areas that are well-serviced by amenities and
infrastructure that cater for their basic needs. There is even an emergent realisation that ecosystem services
are the wealth of the poor, the so-called ‘GDP of the poor’ - whether they are domiciled in urban informal
settlements or far-flung rural villages (TEEB 2010).
Higher demand on provisioning services, less demand on cultural services and less contribution to
regulating services would in reality differ with settlements and urban contexts, since informal settlements
are not homogenous. The level of cultural and regulatory services enjoyed in an informal settlement would
depend on a variety of tangible and intangible factors within and beyond it.
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Table 1. Ecosystem services in informal urban areas
Classification Service Type Example/Description Key References/Sources
Provisioning Food and vegetable production in wetlands, open spaces, home gardens and (GCBSA, 2011; Hennings et al, 2012; Honning,
Food production other private open spaces. 2009; Singh et al, 2013; Averberke, 2007).
Fish production and harvesting (Coelho and Raman, 2013)

Groundwater for drinking and other household use through wells; (Vollmer and Gret-Regamey, 2013;
Water Supply Surface freshwater from streams/rivers; Phukan, 2014)
Water for Irrigation.
Harvesting timber from plants/trees for household energy (for cooking, (Negrada et al, 2013; Gopal, 2011; Ballantyne
Other products heating etc) and dwelling construction; and Oelofse, 1999)
Supply of therapeutic and medicinal/herbal products;
Other plant products e.g brooms, incense sticks.
Regulatory Water Stormwater/Runoff control management and flood mitigation; (Adegun, 2013; Button et al, 2010)
Management Water treatment.
Moderating Tree-shading (decreasing ambient air temperature by 3-5OC in summer in (Sudhira and Negrada, 2013; Cavan et al, 2014)
Micro-climate Bangalore urban area/slums)
Air Quality Cleaning the air through removal of pollutants such as SO2 and suspended (Sudhira and Negrada, 2013)
Regulation particulate matter.
Socio-cultural Aesthetic Pleasant views of bio-physical assets e.g. nearby beaches, bays and (Ballantyne and Oelofse, 1999)
mountains.
Recreation Mountain climbing, Tree climbing, Horse riding, fishing, green open spaces (Ballantyne and Oelofse, 1999; Graham and
used for other games/sports Ernstston, 2012)
Spiritual Thickly vegetated mountainous or lowland areas for traditional rites and (Ballantyne and Oelofse, 1999; Gopal, 2011;
Enrichment/Cultu rituals; ecological spaces for hibernation during long fast; Negrada et al, 2013)
ral fulfilment Wetlands, lakes and other water-bodies as object of worship and location for
religious/cultural ceremonies.
Educational Green Spaces for demonstrative teaching and Cognitive development, (Dubbeling et al, 2009)
especially for children.
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Ecosystem disservices in informal urban areas
It is important to consider ecosystem disservices to fully understand the impact of ecosystems on human
well-being. This is especially important in the context of informal settlements where human attitudes, needs
and general socio-cultural content can be subjective and diverse as pointed out in Rolfes (2010) and Muyeba
and Seekings (2011). Table 2 gives a list of disservices in informal settlements, identifiable from literature,
and categorisation as real/actual or perception-based.
Ecosystem disservices related to perceptions in informal settlements include phobia for dense riverine
vegetation, because it is thought to conceal criminals and criminal activities, fear of being attacked by
animals such as snake, scorpions (Donaldson-Selby et al. 2007). Some informal settlement residents also
exhibit fear of being hurt by tree’s branch-fall during windstorm. In South African settlements, senses of
scare from chameleons (due to its attribute of color change) are also reported (Marie Huchzermeyer, 2013,
personal communication October). Another disservice peculiar to South Africa relates to people’s perception
of spatially delineating green spaces. During South Africa’s apartheid era, ‘racial’ groups, through legislations
and forced removals, were spatially segregated by buffers strips/zones from green belts of cultivated and
park land in the cities. In the post-apartheid era, interventions in informal settlements that include bordering
green belts/corridor are seen negatively by some residents as a perpetuation of pre-1994 urban boundaries
(Donaldson-Selby et al. 2007).
Actual ecosystem disservices in informal settlements mostly manifest through health threats and problems.
While studying Dakar’s settlements, Grubner et al. (2011) and (2012) showed that disservices can result from
green infrastructure. In their study area, a river was within 1 kilometre walking distance for more than 75% of
the households while the area within 100 metres distance from the dwellings of about 60% of the residents
contained over 10% of vegetation. Their study found a negative association between mental health
determining factors and the natural environment. Also mental well-being was positively associated with
flood non-affectedness.
Informal settlements connected to wetlands and swamps often experience invasion of mosquitos and other
insects because these water-logged areas are their breeding places (Rashid et al. 2007, Campion 2012).
Furthermore, in what may be linked to their connection with thickly vegetated green spaces, Butchart et al.
(2000) found high incidence of snake and spider bite in informal settlements in Johannesburg. Snake
infestation and attempted snack attack on residents from dense nearby vegetation and water-logged area
has been reported for a Mumbai (Singh 1986) and some Nepal informal settlements (Shrestha 2010).
Another possibility of disservices comes from crops’ contamination by pathogenic organisms through
irrigation with water from poorly serviced households, neighbourhoods or polluted water channels and
streams (Dubbeling et al. 2009, Gallaher et al. 2013).
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Table 2. Ecosystem disservices in informal urban areas
Classification Disservice Type Example/Description Key References
Real Habitat Competition Hazard/Attack from snakes, insects inhabiting vegetated spaces. (Butchart et al 2000, Singh 1986, Shrestha
with animals 2010, Coelho and Raman 2013)
Negative resultants of water inundation (Coelho and Raman 2013,
Grubner et al. 2011 and 2012)
Animals connection to Health problems resulting from disease vectors. For example, (Rashid et al. 2007, Reis et al. 2008, Maciel et al.
humans mosquitoes breeding in wetlands, animals with a reservoir of 2008, Campion 2012).
pathogens dangerous to human being
Bacteria growth in humid and vegetated environment (Reis et al. 2008)
Perceived Phobia for dense vegetation- concealing criminals and criminal (Donaldson-Selby et al. 2007)
activities
Fear Phobia for wild animals (e.g. snakes), fear of tree-branch’s fall during (Ballantyne and Oelofse 1999)
windstorm
Sense of scare from chameleons’ colour change (personal communication; Marie Huchzemeyer
October 2013)
Perception Perception of green belts as a perpetuation of pre-1994 South (Donaldson-Selby et al 2007)
African apartheid urban boundaries
1248!
Tension within the field ecosystem services and disservices

Ecosystem services and disservices from green infrastructure, as two separate strands combine into a
tension. There is also further tension between actual and perceived disservices, as well as between what may
be categorised as actual and perceived services. Heterogeneity in perceptions also constitutes tensions. This
section shows some examples of these tensions.
Survey by Donaldson-Selby et al (2007) on greening for low-income housing in eThekwini Municipality,
KwaZulu-Natal is relevant with respect to tension between services and disservices. The residents support
greening such as football/sports field, trees and grass within the settlement, but oppose dense vegetation
along the river. They perceive dense riverine vegetation as a threat to safety. On the other hand, the city
planners advocate dense riverine vegetation as part of the strategy for biodiversity preservation, stream
stabilisation and improvement in the river’s water quality. Another example is the fact that informal
settlement residents take to agricultural cultivation for household consumption and settlement-based
livelihood (Davoren 2009, Averberke 2007), but some built-environment professionals see it as a “non-urban
landuse”, “of lesser beauty” and of low (if any) real estate returns (Viljeon and Bohn 2009, p. 60). Differences
between needs and perceptions of the poor and rich also constitute a tension. For example, trees and plants
in wealthy residential areas of the city of Bangalore are seen as an extension of people’s lifestyles, but
greenery in slums is very much regarded as fundamental to the poors’ livelihoods (Gopal 2011).
These scenarios complement existing conceptualization of tension in the field of urban informality and
urban ecology, adding up as an additional dimension. Huchzermeyer (2011, p. 74) raises awareness on the
field of tension within which informal settlements exist, between the opposing poles. She identifies the
state’s desire for ultimate disappearance and repression of visible forms of informality on the one hand, and
the poor’s desire for and often need for urban existence which is met through informality on the other. Sitas
et al. (2014) point to conflicting views and seemingly irreconcilable aims between the ‘greenies’ (those who
place environmental and green infrastructural issues as a priority) and ‘pro-developers’ (those who relegate
environmental and green infrastructural considerations) camps among urban stakeholders.
These tensions place a particular burden on decision-making around interventions in informal settlements
that are connected with bio-physical systems and spaces serving as green infrastructure. Decision-making
should not be based only on one side of the tensions but on a balanced understanding of contextual
dynamics. Fragility and vulnerability to external and internal socio-ecological disturbances in informal urban
areas elevate concerns on these tensions in the context of informality (Little and Laura 2010), thus making
the tensions need attention.
CONCLUSION
This paper makes a case for adequate attention to the environment in informal settlements since they are
usually connected to bio-physical systems and spaces, serving a green infrastructure in cities of developing
countries. It shows that informal settlements’ connection to these systems and spaces yields ecosystem
services and disservices. In order to maximally benefit from ecosystem services and minimise ecosystem
disservices in informal settlements, adequate consideration based on examples identified in this paper and
beyond is necessary. Managing to provide sufficient ecosystem services and fewer dis-services will no doubt
require multidisciplinary, collaborative, policy-relevant and context-sensitive research. Knowledge from such
research would be useful towards intervention in informal settlements across the heterogeneous urban
contexts in developing countries. Addressing the tension inherent within the conception on ecosystem
services and disservices is important. It would require detailed and informed analyses, and as well as trade-
offs.
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UNDERSTANDING URBAN FORM AND SPACE PRODUCTION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS: THE TOI
MARKET IN NAIROBI, KENYA
Georgia Cardosi, Ph.D. student, IF research group (grif), Université de Montréal, Canada,
georgia.cardosi@umontreal.ca
Gonzalo Lizarralde, Professor, IF research group (grif), Université de Montréal, Canada,
gonzalo.lizarralde@umontreal.ca
Abstract
Several authors argue that a better understanding of urban informality is required to create inclusive urban
policies and projects. Whereas studies about slums are copious and date back to the sixties, informal
urbanism is receiving a new emphasis and has become an unavoidable subject in urban and development
debates. This three-part paper develops an analytical framework of urban informality with a focus on the
production of space in informal settlements. First, a literature review on the domains of informal urbanism
and planning provides a preliminary theoretical framework. Second, a case study is analyzed and compared
with findings from the literature review. The case-study explores processes of space production in one of
Nairobi’s informal markets, through direct observation, structured and semi-structured interviews and
mapping. Third, an analytical tool is created to highlight the main approaches, limits and gaps in the existing
literature.
Considering the production of space in terms of processes and outcomes, the literature review identifies
three theoretical approaches: the functional approach, which focuses on space organisation and form and
the concept of order; the anthropological approach, which investigates everyday practices; and the process-
oriented approach, which considers informal settlement formation and evolution processes. The case study
illustrates how the poor give significant attention to the production of space and site organisation; which
directly affect, and are affected by, economic, socio-political and cultural circumstances, providing
opportunities for significantly improving living conditions. Although the case study findings cannot
necessarily be generalized, the complex and specific experiences that emerge from it suggest that most
common definitions cannot efficiently and fully describe informal realities. A bottom-up approach and
willingness to learn are fundamental to identifying practical lessons from the slum dwellers’ perceptions and
use of space; these must simultaneously challenge and complement top-down planning approaches.
Keywords: informal urbanism, informal settlements, space production, Nairobi.
INTRODUCTION
Slums and other forms of informal settlements in the global south have been growing continuously since
the 1960s (UN-Habitat 2012). Yet, urban studies still lack adequate tools for fully understanding informality
and enhancing sustainable urban development. This knowledge gap today represents one of the main
causes of poor urban policies (Elsheshtawy 2011, Samper 2010) that over the past decades have failed to
reduce the proliferation of informal settlements, while often encouraging their forced eviction and
demolition (Dovey and King 2011). Unsurprisingly, being ‘secure from eviction’ is an important indicator of
Millennium Development Goals (UN 2000).
According to the Lefebvrian concept of social space, “every society produces its space [...] (and) the city had
its spatial practice; [...] Hence, the new need for a study of this space that understands it the way it is, into its
genesis and form [...]. Programmatically every society having its own space offers it to an analysis” (Lefebvre
1991, p. 40). According to this perspective, understanding urban informality in order to improve the slum
dwellers’ living conditions requires a systematic investigation of how the poor perceive and experience
space, and make decisions in the process of space organisation.
Research about informal urbanism dates back to the 1960s; yet, it has recently gained new emphasis
(Elsheshtawy 2011) and remains a critical topic in urban and development studies. The dichotomy of formal
versus informal, however, still prevails, despite it being widely accepted that a binary distinction
oversimplifies the complex reality of contemporary cities and economies (Doherty and Silva 2011, Simone
2008).
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This paper proposes an innovative theoretical framework of urban informality with a focus on the
production of space in informal settlements. It is divided in three sections. First, a literature review considers
qualitative research in the domain of urban studies and proposes an analytical background. Second, a case
study exploring processes of space production in one of Nairobi’s informal markets is analyzed and
compared against this conceptual background. Finally, an analytical table is created to resume and compare
different theoretical approaches and the limitations and gaps in the existing literature. However, before
considering the results, let’s explore in detail the methods used in the study.
METHODS
The paper is based on a literature review and a case study that simultaneously challenges and enriches
conceptual interpretations of the main bodies of knowledge. An analytical table becomes both a tool and
our main research outcome. The literature review explored a large number of studies on contemporary
informal urbanism and planning. This includes journals and books produced between 1990 and 2014;
however, seminal work dating back to earlier studies of informality provided key conceptual insights.
Publications were found through keyword searches in scientific databases (Google Scholar, Science Direct
and publishers such as Taylor & Francis). Keywords included: informal planning; informal urbanism; slums;
and space production in informal settlements. The definition of spatial organisation, drawn from geography
and urban studies, considers the process of perception and production of space (Lefebvre 2000), and the
configuration that result in a more or less established form. Literature was later organised according to three
main approaches: the functional, anthropological and process-oriented approaches.
The case study was conducted during five visits in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2011. It aimed at
understanding the market history and formation, its physical structure, the members’ participation in
projects involving site organisation, and the role of ‘informal design’. The approach was qualitative:
information was collected through twenty structured and semi-structured interviews with vendors, five
conversations with market leaders, six site visits, and several mapping techniques. Informal conversations
played a critical role in facilitating the dialogue. Semi-structured interviews with community leaders
provided information about the market formation and the challenges and projects undertaken over
decades. Pre-established forms were used to interview marketers and map their stalls, through photos and
notes describing economic, social and physical conditions. In total, 31 activities were mapped, located in
different areas of the market. This allowed for gaining insights about different vendors, activities, and roles
inside the market. Interviews targeted an equal number of men and women, representatives of different
groups, new and established activities. Semi-structured interviews investigated existing projects, the traders’
perception of design activities and the community’s expectations for the Toi market. Results were also
drawn from more than twenty drawings of the market and its stalls. A comparison of the market’s maps
before and after the reconstruction occurred in 2008 helped in understanding its evolution. The old market
(from 1989) was fully documented through graphics and photos.
FIRST RESULT: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
Informal settlements are typically studied in informal urbanism and planning from two perspectives: a
significant number of studies emphasize their potential to provide affordable housing solutions for millions
of poor people (Turner 1972, de Soto, 1989), while others highlight the extreme conditions of constraints
and deprivations (UN 2003). Whether informality is considered an alternative to neoliberal economic
systems or its natural result, overall, the formal/informal dichotomy has dominated since the anthropologist
K. Hart (Hart 1973) introduced it five decades ago. Recently, several authors (Dovey and King 2011, Doherty
and Silva 2011, Mehrotra 2010, Donovan 2008) have recommended moving beyond this binary opposition
that oversimplifies urban phenomena. Yet, informality is still defined and considered as the negative
counterpart of formality. In fact, the UN-Habitat definition of slums (UN-Habitat 2003) measures a
household’s degree of poverty partially by a list of household deprivations.
In establishing a theoretical background to informal urbanism, Elshestawy (2011) identifies three

perspectives by which urban informality is explored in cutting edge research: underlying order in
informality, socio-economic factors, and strategies of survival. Duminy (2011) also distinguishes three
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themes in planning literature: informal planning (as modes not officially regulated and including quasi-legal
ways of land transfer and negotiations); informality as income-generation, typically services and practices
significantly unregulated and uncontrolled by formal institutions (responding to socio-spatial
marginalization and survival conditions); and informality in relationships, city governance processes and
urban social formation. This article focuses on spatial production, clustering research contributions into
three major theoretical approaches: a) the functional approach, studying space organisation and form,
planning processes and legal frameworks; b) the anthropological approach, investigating everyday
practices; and c) the process-oriented approach, considering informal settlements formation and evolution
processes (Figure 1). Let’s consider now each of these approaches in detail.
Figure 1: Theoretical approaches identified in informal urbanism.

This approach includes studies about spatial arrangements, form, and the concept of order. It claims that,
although informal settlements may look chaotic and unstructured, their physical structure responds to
specific rules and logics; hence, it is necessary to identify tools for effectively reading and recognising
informal fabrics and structures. Turner (1972), for instance, first promoted the importance of understanding
informal housing standards as a prerequisite for implementing affordable housing programs (Turner 1972).
Similarly, the interest in informal housing performance led Rybczynski to map patterns of use of public
spaces based on rooted cultural practices in Indian unplanned settlements (Rybczynski et al. 1984).
More recently, common analyses have focused on physical patterns and order, aiming at understanding
informality in relation to territorial spaces and distribution. In describing ‘subaltern urbanism’ as a mode of
space production defined by the territorial logic of deregulation, Roy (2005) identifies urban informality as
one of four categories of subaltern spaces: peripheries, zones of exception, gray spaces, and urban
informality. They are produced as state of exception to the formal order, where the ownership, use, and
purpose of land cannot follow an established set of regulations.
Dovey (2011) regrets that there is very little research on the morphologies of urban informality and identifies
eight territorial typo-morphologies within which informal settlements and slums develop in South-East Asia:
districts, waterfronts, escarpments, easements, sidewalks, adherences, backstages and enclosures (Dovey
and King 2011). Arefi (2011) draws from Marshall’s (2009) distinction between ‘systematic’ (visible), and
‘characteristic’ (implicit) order; and from Mandelbrot’s (1983) concept of ‘scaling’, which refers to the
different levels of informality that may exist in a given context. Exploring Istanbul’s informal settlements, he
describes five distinctive types of order: social organisation, conflict resolution, local politics, and planning
and land use. These studies have somehow informed the public mind-set, yet, they have largely failed to
acknowledge the presence of order in informal settlements (Arefi 2011).
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The literature about processes of enumeration and mapping is also critical for understanding informal
settlements (Karanja 2010, Pamoja Trust 2008, Weru 2004). It offers significant insight about slums’ socio-
economic and physical structures. Enumeration activities can reveal existing or missing infrastructure and
services, settlement boundaries, houses and typologies of business structures in informal settlements. In
Kenya, for example, these physical features are described in terms of how people live and use them (Karanja
2010, p. 233). The enumeration process, aimed at creating awareness among slum dwellers about the socio-
spatial characteristics of their communities, has enormous practical implications, such as allowing for local
planning and upgrading implementation, but also suggesting reliable methods to gain and build specific,
contextual knowledge about informal urbanism.

This approach investigates everyday practices of land occupation and the concept of marginalization. It
emphasizes the character of transition and impermanence of informal settlements, but also the various
opportunities provided by them. Informal urbanism is considered here as “everyday practices of ordinary
citizens, forcing a reconfigured relationship between those in power and the inhabitants of the city”
(Elshshstawy 2011).
Adopting this approach in her analysis of Brazilian favelas, Perlman (2010) describes, for instance, the
atmosphere of diversity tolerance in informal settlements, presented as a way of life. Perlman criticises the
theory of marginalization that depicts favelas as places of loneliness, disorganisation, criminality and anti-
social behaviour. Rather, she describes their symbolic and physical attributes, providing extensive data
about inhabitants and their trajectories from informality towards better living conditions. This is expressed
in a number of ways through the concept of transition, depicting informal settlements as impermanent
realms in which people can benefit from a dense social infrastructure (Simone 2008).
The characteristics of temporality in relation to the configuration and use of urban space also emerge in the
narratives of rural-urban migration occurring in developing countries. Here, the poor are in constant search
for ways to better integrate into cities, using informal settlements as ‘arrival cities’ (Saunders 2010). This
transitional character of informality favours the flow and exchange of goods, cultures and ideas, particularly
in informal marketplaces (Mortenbock et al. 2008). Defenders of this approach typically reject the notion that
slums are poverty traps that limit household development (Marx 2012); although, recent economic studies
reveal that risk of economic and social traps exists for slum dwellers (Duflo 2011, Sachs 2005).
Informal settlements and marketplaces represent the places where meanings transform in the modern
urban life, as the concept of black urbanism explains. Black urbanism accounts for the “more invisible
modalities of socialities that circumvent normative mechanisms of social exchange’’ (Simone 2008, p. 88).
Informality is not placed in the background, rather brought into the very center of spaces that concretize the
contemporary urban life. Simone stresses the particular condition of double affiliation with the formal and
the informal, exclusion and inclusion, precariousness and opportunity. The physical space becomes the
arena for such invisible practices and as such, conditions the day-to day negotiation of ‘doubleness’. Thus,
according to Simone (2008), conventional discourses of urban development fail, while architects should
“extend their skills to do something more provisional rather than wanting to solve the problem once and for
all” (Simone 2008, p. 91).
Referring to cities in Latin America, Africa and Asia, Mehrotra (2010) elaborates on ways to represent
informality, thus developing the concept of ‘Kinetic city’: the informal city characterized by an “ever
transforming streetscape made of processions, festivals, street vendors and dwellers”. It is also a three
dimensional entity perceived through patterns of space occupation rather than through architecture.
Contrasting it to the static city (the formal, two-dimensional entity made of permanent materials), Mehrotra
proposes a new binary distinction.

The process-oriented approach considers the informal settlements’ historical formation and evolution,
including aspects related to planning processes and legal developments. Relationships between informal
development and global pressures such as colonialism, post-colonialism, liberalisation and international
economic policy are often brought into light. This approach also focuses on the relationship between
informal urban processes and work and production. While underscoring that informal urbanisation “has
become the most pervasive element in the production of cities in developing countries” (Anyamba 2011), it
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focuses on the origins of informal urbanisation. De Soto, for example, provides an analysis of the political-
historical evolution of informal housing in Peru. He identifies ten successive historical stages showing how
the formal structure has developed the basis for the growth of informal housing. Similarly, Anyamba refers
to Nairobi’s informal processes as moments in which Africans built villages on the periphery of the town in
three waves that embodied a search for modernisation and a departure from local indigenous practices
(Anyamba 2011).
Kellet (2010) attempts, through the analysis of Latin American cities, to redefine the terms ‘formality’ and
‘informality’. He highlights bottom-up processes of city transformation, processes of collective appropriation
of spaces and formation of informal settlements, stressing that new and more dynamic methods of analysis
and intervention need to be developed in order to deal with the conditions of informality in contemporary
cities. Similarly, Abbott and Douglas (2010) in a longitudinal study of informal settlements in Cape Town
over a five-year period, show how informal settlements in the city grow faster than new housing can be
provided, thus calling attention to the need for a radical shift in current housing policies. The possibility to
determine distinct trends in the growth pattern of informal settlements can enable such settlements to be
integrated into the city development planning process. Finally, Samper, a defender of this approach,
complains that the discipline of urban design lacks a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of
informality and therefore, effective intervention tools (Samper 2011).
SECOND RESULT: THE CASE STUDY OF TOI MARKET IN NAIROBI, KENYA
Location and context

With a total of three million inhabitants, Nairobi is home to about two hundred informal settlements and
slums and one and a half million slum dwellers (Pamoja Trust 2008). Furthermore, its population is expected
to reach 8 million by 2025 (UN 2001), and the informal sector is believed to represent about 70% of urban
economy. The poor’s needs are, if anything, satisfied by informal practices, commerce and marketplaces.
Kenyan slum dwellers have thus organised in a national federation (Muungano Wa Wanavijiji), whose
members come from various communities. The federation works in several communities to mobilise and
create awareness, leverage social networks to favour socio-economic assistance, advocate for political and
human rights, negotiate with local authorities, and improve local conditions through upgrading and
sanitation projects. Nevertheless, slum dwellers in Nairobi still live in conditions of mass poverty, contagious
diseases, conflicts, and many social, economic and environmental hazards (Mutisya 2011).
There are about six important informal markets in Nairobi. Toi market is one, located four kilometers south-
west the Central Business District, at the northern border of Kibera (Figure 2) - one of the largest African
slums (Umande Trust 2010). Kibera covers 250 hectares and has a population estimated at 700,000, of which
about 49% lives below the poverty line (Umande Trust 2007).
Figure 2: Toi market location in Kibera.
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As an urban entrance for agriculture products and a food supply center for Kibera and surroundings, Toi
market offers employment and livelihoods to over 2,400 traders, largely affecting the living conditions of
thousands of households. It provides a huge variety of wholesale and retail goods and services. Fruit and
vegetables, cereals, meat and fish, spices, textiles, second hand and new clothes, charcoal and firewood,
household and handcrafts can all be found at the market. Services vary from food kiosks and water vending,
to tailoring and ironing, laundry, vehicle repair, chemists and herbal clinics, hairdressers, furniture and pool
tables. Some vendors specialise in bone recycling, rabbit and chicken rearing, and maize growing. Some
services extend beyond the market’s area such as catering for weddings and funerals, tree planting, and
transportation. Briefly, Toi market provides almost everything, though groceries and second hand clothes
predominate.
Toi market was completely destroyed in 2008 during the political conflict that followed the presidential
election, but was quickly rebuilt. The market has been affected by this major physical transformation, and we
will thus refer to the ‘old’ and ‘new’ market, to distinguish between the conditions before and after the
disaster. The market will be now described through the lenses of the three approaches found in the
analytical framework.

Our study provided insights about the physical layout of the market in terms of accesses and paths,
landmarks, public spaces and community services, and a typology of the stalls. Toi market extends over
about 3.5 hectares of government land. According to the Ministry of Land’s records, improvements of the
area have been planned several times, but have never actually been translated into specific projects on
ground.
The area is not directly accessible from the main road system. The main access is at the South-East, off Kibera
Drive. Another five access points open to small pedestrian alleys on the East, North, West, and South sides.
The layout presents four legible spatial categories: 1) accesses and paths system; 2) public spaces; 3)
community services; and 4) stalls. The stall represents the module defining the entire configuration. In the
old market, stalls were irregular and generated a heterogeneous layout. The new market is based on a
rectangular, standardised module (Figures 3, 4).
Figure 3: Distribution of sections and paths’ system in the new market.
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Figure 4: The new market layout.
Stalls are made up of temporary, wooden structures, polythene or cardboard partition walls, metal sheet
roofs and are not paved. Structures often burn or collapse under strong winds. There are three sizes of stalls:
2x2 meters (Figure 5), 3x2 meters (Figure 6), and 10x12 meters, the large ones usually being used for
community services. Their combination allows for additional configurations. In the new market, roads have
been well planned to accommodate people and handcarts. The major roads are 5 meters wide (Figure 7),
while inner roads have a width of 2 meters (Figure 6, 8). All dimensions were established in order to
accommodate all traders. The use of modules varies depending on the kind of activity and the economic
potential of the traders. In some cases, merchants occupy more than one stall; in other cases, they have
created roof extensions (Figures 5, 6, 7) or occupied public passageways with goods, sittings and tables
(Figure7).
Figure 5: Small module. Roof extension.
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Figure 6: Large module: section through a secondary passage.
Figure 7: Section through the main passageway; use of public space.
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Figure 8: Stall’s distribution along minor passageways.

The Toi market community lives in extremely difficult socio-economic and environmental conditions. Since
the beginning, in 1989, both structure owners and tenants have been faced with insecurity of land tenure,
lack of trading licenses, low income, lack of access to credit and banking, besides constant threats of eviction
and demolition. Moreover, the market area presents poor infrastructure, insufficient water and sanitation
provision and temporary, fragile structures. The situation has worsened over the years with the increase in
population, though the community has steadily tried to improve its conditions. Despite this precariousness,
Toi market has always been a magnet for a new and tremendously diverse population looking for
opportunities for integration in Nairobi.
In this context of high constraints and uncertainty, there is almost always only room for short term planning.
Nevertheless, the community has undertaken different levels of planning and design over the years.
Appropriation and distribution of space are critical issues requiring long decision making processes, political
negotiation with local authorities, and inner conflicts resolution - mainly related to land issues. Yet in such a
climate of day-to-day subsistence, some merchants have become efficient planners. Since the
reconstruction of the market in 2008, merchants have learned to accommodate businesses to include all
groups, design stalls, toilets and other structures, and to locate services, wholesale and garbage. Solutions
have had to respond to a very complex set of long-term and immediate needs.
In subsistence marketplaces, people have physical needs, but also aspirations related to their visions of the
future and expectations to overcome poverty (Viswanathan 2009). Despite its precarious conditions, Toi
market has existed for over thirty years. Traders now count on it for their children’s future and have
developed a sense of belonging to this site. All interviewees, in fact, identified themselves as Toi market
traders rather than by tribe. Some vendors are willing to invest in improving their stalls and some plan to
extend their business adding more modules, but these objectives are often affected by misfortunes and
hindered by insecurity of tenure. The vendors considered activities of planning and design positive in
different ways. They considered the reconstruction as a positive opportunity to improve accessibility to all
the sections of the market. The new market, they say, is working better than the old one: spaces are well
defined and recognisable, security and accessibility have improved. Nevertheless, according to some traders,
there is less flexibility in the use of space and increased control on businesses by leading groups.
All traders agree that the process of formalisation and an appropriate design for a modern market would
increase investments and economic stability. A good design of the stalls with higher quality materials,
partition walls and locked doors would reduce the need for a security system (now provided by the Masai
people) and increase investments in stocks, improving businesses and economic growth. Over the years, the
merchants have imagined solutions for the use of the land, such as the densification of the area by building
houses over the stalls and developing new income generating activities, such as renting rooms for tourism
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to increase the flow of people and business. There is thus a clear need for multi-functional structures capable
of concentrating opportunities in strategic places.

Toi market began in the 1980s in a bush area, with a small group of women selling green vegetables along
Kibera Drive. It developed naturally along paths connecting different residential areas; these paths became
characteristic of the market structure (Figure 9). Evictions started soon afterwards, to allow for the
construction of two formal markets nearby: the Makina market and the Hawkers market. Initially conceived
to accommodate the Toi market traders, the two markets ended up being occupied by external
entrepreneurs. The original market traders, who were forced to leave, returned to the area, despite constant
risk of eviction. In 1996, several informal settlements and markets in Nairobi were demolished. A formal
protest against such forced measures turned into a political issue for the provincial administration. The
traders lost the case in court because the land was officially owned by the government and the allocation
could not be revoked. The number of traders in the area increased, and by 1999, the market was full. The
same year, the department of Public Health took traders to court due to lack of adequate sanitation in the
market. The Public Health officials gave the Toi market committee one month to build permanent toilets and
pour cement on the floor of the food kiosks, but the deadline passed without effective results due to lack of
funds. Three representatives of the Toi market committee were taken to court, and then released with a fine.
They subsequently began mobilising the community to start a sanitation project. In 2005, a private
developer forced the eviction of eleven traders, so the officials of the Toi market came together to support
their members and the case was continuously deferred in courts.
Before 2008, the market was organised in sections, but stalls had irregular shapes and sizes. It appeared as a
chaotic and dense labyrinth of cardboard, polyethylene, and iron sheet structures (Figure 10). Roof
extensions created narrow, dark and poorly ventilated passages, difficult to recognise by pedestrians. Feeble
landmarks existed in empty spaces, including the main road, a dump, wholesale area, garages, the church,
and the formal buildings surrounding the market. The path system in the old market was comprised of four
major passages (3 meters wide) and a series of very narrow paths (50 centimeters wide). Stalls were not
easily recognisable by shoppers or accessible for the delivery of goods. Walking in the market was difficult
due to overcrowding, lack of roads, pavement and drainage, and sewer flows from nearby formal estates.
Environmental conditions worsened during the rainy seasons.
In 2008, the Toi market was destroyed by a fire. Its reconstruction was an opportunity to change its internal
structure and spatial configuration. A planning team was established in the community for this purpose,
focusing on stalls’ accessibility and visibility.
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Figure 9: Old Toi market’s path system.
Figure 10: Old Toi market.
The old path system had become overcrowded and inefficient; therefore, despite the huge losses, the
community saw the destruction as an opportunity to build a ‘modern’ market.
The new market looks like a conventional, formal one (Figures 12, 13). It is still organised in sections, but
these are accommodated in rows of stalls (Figure 11). The local association Jami Bora provided technical
assistance to design the layout and the construction materials that were bought thanks to American funds.
Decisions were made through a committee established for the reconstruction, in tandem with Jami Bora and
the market committee.
Sections and stalls are now identified with letters and numbers. Activities are registered on the map
produced by Jami Bora. Every activity is accessible, customers can recognise traders and goods, and
collecting for saving schemes is much easier. On the other hand, the market committee has greater power
and control over all activities. The market has maintained six points of access. The northern and eastern
points have become linear extensions, adding new activities along the way. The new market has kept the
most important inner passageways, while strengthening the north-south and the east-west axes as major
ways (approximately 5 and 3 meters wide) of distribution. The northern area, where the Toi market office
and the church are located, is used as public space. Indeed, some spaces have changed function: the church
in the southern area has been transformed into a mosque, and Muslims maintain rigid control over the
structure and the surrounding garden; the old, one-storey, Toi market office was rebuilt, by some members
of the Toi market committee with their savings, into a two storey structure that has become a new landmark
in the market. Food kiosks once located only along the external roads are now also inside the market.
However, merchants still lack land tenure security and basic infrastructure. Public lighting is now provided
by the Nairobi City Council (NCC) through five new poles located along the major roads, but most stalls
remain without power, while others steal it. Garbage is disposed of in the wholesale area but collection from
the NCC is rare, thus a dangerous dump has formed that attracts children and the very poor who scavenge
for food.
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Figure 11: The new Toi market layout; identification of the community services.
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Figure 12; 13: Comparison between the old and the new Toi market.
ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK: FINAL TABLE
The three identified approaches are summarized in Table 1. For each approach, different perspectives from
the literature are emphasized. The table allows for identifying some of the emerging concepts and gaps
concerning the recent literature on informal urbanism, sparking further reflection and research on the
production and organisation of space in informal settlements.
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Table 1: Analytical framework about informal urbanism according to the three approaches.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The Toi market case-study provides important insights about the production and organisation of space in
informal settlements. It allows for validating the three categories of analysis: the functional, anthropological
and process-oriented approaches.
Generally, the case-study shows that the poor pay significant attention to spatial organisation. It is a long
and complex process affected by socio-economic constraints, lack of resources, political and cultural issues.
On the other hand, organisation of space largely affects social relationships and conflict resolution,
occupation, business and income, environmental and health conditions, ambitions of growth and vision of
the future. The case-study also confirms that issues of functionality, human and power relations, and
development processes influence the way stakeholders perceive informality and its relationship with urban
space creation.
The functional approach recognises informality as a contextually-based urban form, emerging through
different morphologies. According to Dovey (2011), Toi market may be considered a district: ‘large mixed
use districts incorporating major retail and industrial functions’. However, his classification concerns large
settlements and does not mention marketplaces. Morphologies are critical to read the relationship between
informal settlements and cities; yet they are in their early stages and further research in this area is needed.
Seemingly, logics and patterns of informal settlements also exist, as the case-study widely describes, but
they remain, for the most part, unidentified. Finally, the functional approach seems to neglect significant
aspects of decision making concerning space organisation. Generally, there is a lack of bottom-up
approaches capable of linking informal decision-making mechanisms to the informal planning and design of
space. Recent approaches to the economy of poverty and development (Duflo 2011, Yunus 2006) advocate
an empirically based analysis of poverty that explains how the poor cope and adapt to challenges and how
they envision the future and make decisions. They can be considered a source of knowledge, as well as
experts in overcoming challenges and crises. A top-down approach to planning and design for slums must
be combined with a bottom-up understanding of locally adopted solutions for spatial organisation.
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The case study confirms that anthropological approaches serve to highlight gaps in the debate about
informality and in the ways of representing it. Though informality is seen as provisional and a temporary
state of peoples and cities in their path towards development, it can become a permanent status. The Toi
market vendors have been striving for thirty years to survive in subsistence conditions. Informality cannot, in
any case, be idealized as a poetic alternative to the formal city. Slum dwellers, in our case marketers, aim at
being recognised and integrated, and at having modern and efficient facilities. However, Simone’s concept
of ’doubleness’ is critical to reading the dynamics of space production in informal settlements. As in Toi
market, slum dwellers mainly invest in short-term solutions (for instance, temporary structures), but they
have hopes and aspirations for future permanent ones, which often reflect a ‘modern’ view of infrastructure,
services, legalisation and secure tenure. This contradicts the vision of impermanence and temporality that
often pervades the narratives about slums. Space organisation is intertwined with the concept of inclusion
at political, economic, and social levels. It allows community members to create connections with the formal
realm in multiple sectors. Confirming Simone’s notion of condition of ‘doubleness’ lived by black residents,
the case-study tell us that space organisation plays an important role in such condition. And the relationship
with modernity is a critical factor to be explored in the production of new urban spaces such as informal
settlements.
The process-oriented approach provides an insightful reading of the historical causes of informal
settlements formation, with emphasis on the influence of legal and economic frameworks. The role of
official planning in the informal city ‘making’ and ‘solving’ is questioned, as well as the relationships
between informality and globalisation. This approach explains that informal urbanism is formed through
temporal waves of adaptation to processes of modernisation, and that responses and relationships with
governments vary enormously. Toi market formed nearby Kibera, a slum that emerged in the first wave of
‘informalisation’, and mostly serves its own population. Its spatial evolution reflects the significant political
and socio-economic events that occurred over the years. As in other informal settlements, the market
physical features are extremely vulnerable to political events and changes: elections, conflicts, political
occurrences, and transformation in the leadership. The analysis of its historical evolution shows patterns and
logics of physical development and growth. More importantly, it shows that planning logics and principles
can survive in moments of crisis and be applied to better environmental and economic conditions, as in the
case of the market reconstruction.
Generally, determining trends in informal settlements growth is a prerequisite for enabling settlements to
be better integrated in the development planning process. According to this perspective, the discipline of
urban design lacks an adequate comprehension of the urban informality phenomenon and its evolution
processes. New and more dynamic methods of analysis and intervention are required in order to deal with
the conditions of informality.
Finally, the existing literature on space production conceptualises informal urbanism in a way that rarely
challenges the informal/formal dichotomy, through contextually based analyses. This dichotomy can and
should be eliminated/ overturned / invalidated. Rather, what should be explored more deeply are the
complex combinations of ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ as a new reality and the most pervasive way of producing
urban spaces and cities in the coming future. Space organisation and ‘informal design’ must be seen as a
process, the same way Turner considered Housing as ‘a verb’ rather than a product. And the outcome, the
more or less established form, the design, must be seen as the temporary result of this process, through
which we can gather important insight about the poor’s immediate needs, long term objectives and
aspirations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our appreciation to the members of the Toi market community for their support
during the fieldwork. Particularly, we thank the community leaders who greatly eased the communication
and relationship with the community and mapping operations. We also offer thanks to our volunteer co-
investigator, Patrizia Piras, member of AOC onlus, for her inestimable work on the ground.
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RESEARCH ON CONSTRUCTION OF INDEMNIFICATORY COMMUNITIES IN NANJING AND OPTIMIZING

STRATEGIES BASED ON MIXED HOUSING MODE
Wang Hui, Southeast University,China,wanghuiseu@126.com

Wu Xiao, Southeast University,China,seuwxiao9999@163.com, Corresponding Author
Qiang Huan-huan, Southeast University, China, qhh19890714qhh@163.com
Liu Xi-hui, Southeast University, China, liuxihui1086@163.com
Abstract
Against the background of city renewal and implementation of government-subsidized housing systems, a
large number of indemnificatory communities are emerging across China. However, these constructions of
indemnificatory communities were carried out basically under the premise of differential effects of urban
land and housing filtering implemented, which undoubtedly increased residential differentiation among
various levels. Low-income people are relatively concentrated, have gradually been marginalized and
become a hidden danger of social and urban development. Firstly, through analyzing the spatial distribution
of indemnificatory communities in Nanjing from 2002-2012, this article summarizes the main characteristics
of current indemnificatory communities constructions. Secondly, the relationship between indemnificatory
communities and urban residential differentiation is discussed. Thirdly, it researches major problems caused
by indemnificatory housing, such as long distance from employment, inconvenient traffic and poor public
facilities, and urban residential spatial differentiation. Finally, based on the mixed housing theory, from the
perspective of urban planning, it proposes three strategies on constructions of indemnificatory
communities, including dispersion strategy, mixing strategy and construction strategy, so as to provide
references for the future of indemnificatory communities construction and accelerate harmonious social
development.
Keywords: Nanjing indemnificatory communities, residential differentiation, mixed housing mode,

optimizing strategies.
INTRODUCTION
During the period of planned economy from 1949 to 1979, China implemented the ‘Welfare-oriented
Housing System’ in urban areas. Housing under such a system was characterized by its low rent charge and
relatively poor but standardized living conditions. After 1979, China gradually changed from the planned
economy to the market economy. Since the 1990s, the urban housing market reform has begun to
encourage residents to obtain houses in commodity housing market. Housing under such a system was
diversified in housing conditions and housing prices as well. As a corresponding concept of commodity
housing, indemnificatory housing is designed by the government for the low and medium-low income
households as a method of social security with specific construction standards, selling prices or renting
standards, including affordable housing and low-rent housing. According to the planning of the Ministry of
Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), China plans to construct 36 million indemnificatory
houses during the 12th Five Year Plan (2011 to 2015) to improve the coverage of urban indemnificatory
housing of China to above 20%, basically solving the housing difficulties of low-income.
Nanjing, as the capital of Jiangsu Province, plays a critical role in the process of social and economic
development in China. Meanwhile, Nanjing is also one of the cities whose housing prices raised fast, which
lead low and medium-low income households into serious housing problems. Nanjing started the
construction of indemnificatory housing from 2002. Until 2012, there have been 66 indemnificatory housing
projects under construction or completed. The scale of indemnificatory housing was small. In 2010, Nanjing
started to construct large-scale indemnificatory communities, with a total planning area of 5.6 km2,
construction area of 9500,000 m2, and about 82,000 indemnificatory housing units will be built.
What are the characteristics of indemnificatory communities in Nanjing? Will it exacerbate residential
differentiation? How to solve the problems encountered during the construction of
indemnificatory communities? To explore these issues, this paper, firstly, through analyzing the spatial
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characteristics of indemnificatory housing distribution in Nanjing from 2002-2012, summarizes the

characteristics of current indemnificatory communities constructions. Secondly, it discusses the relationship
between indemnificatory communities and residential differentiation. Thirdly, major problems are found in
the construction of indemnificatory communities. Finally, based on the mixed housing theory, from the
perspective of urban planning, it proposes certain strategies on the construction of indemnificatory
communities.
CHARACTERISTICS OF INDEMNIFICATORY COMMUNITIES IN NANJING
Up to 2012, there have been 66 indemnificatory housing projects and 292,726 indemnificatory housing units
in Nanjing. The spatial distribution of each project is shown in Figure 1. The characteristics of
indemnificatory housing are as follows:
Figure 1: Spatial distribution of indemnificatory housing projects.
Imbalanced distribution
Overall, the distribution of indemnificatory communities in 8 Districts in the South of Yangtze River (all
districts except Jiangning District, Pukou District and Luhe District in Nanjing) is imbalanced . The central
tendency is evident in Qixia District and Yuhuatai District (Table 1). Yuhua District and Qixia District are the
main sources of construction land of indemnificatory housing. The amount of indemnificatory
housing projects in these two districts accounts for more than 2/3 of the total in Nanjing. While
indemnificatory housing projects are less in three main districts in the main city (Gulou District, Xuanwu
District and Baixia District),the construction area of which accounts for around 14% of the total in Nanjing.
There is only one indemnificatory community (Jiangdong Village) in Gulou District, which
has a construction area of 140,000 m2.
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Table 1: Spatial distribution of indemnificatory communities in Nanjing

No. Administrative Number of Projects Land area (Ha) Construction Area
Districts thousand m2
1 Qixia District 21 641.93 9462
2 Yuhuatai District 12 562.90 7824
3 Jiangning District 3 218.12 3223
4 Baixia District 4 106.60 1910
5 Xuanwu District 7 130.78 1720
6 Jianye District 3 49.51 1710
7 Xiaguan District 12 94.40 1460
8 Qinhuai District 3 63.18 1190
9 Gulou District 1 7.37 140
Remote location
The location of indemnificatory communities are relatively remote, almost all of them are in the suburbs.
Most of them are about 15-20km distant from the city center. Hengsheng Home (the nearest one) is 10km
distant from Xinjiekou (city center), while Jing'an Project (the farthest one) is 45km distant from Xinjiekou. All
of them are far from cheap public transport facilities, which means the commuting time is more than one
hour by public transport. Meanwhile, indemnificatory communities are in the urban fringe areas and have
poor locations in general, such as on the hillside, marsh land or by the railway, lacking transport facilities,
commercial facilities, and educational facilities, which make living extremely inconvenient. In
addition, high transportation costs not only increase the cost of living of low-income groups, but
also reduces their employment opportunities.
Groups cluster and large scale

The distribution of indemnificatory communities also shows a characteristic of groups cluster, forming
several indemnificatory community groups such as Chunjiang New Tonw, Xianhe Gate, Yaohua Gate.
Each indemnificatory community group has three to four or more indemnificatory housing projects.
Meanwhile, Nanjing started to construct large-scale indemnificatory communities in Qixia District,Yuhuatai
District and Jiangning District since 2010. The construction area of each community is more than 1400,000
m2, and the construction area of the largest one ( Daishan City) is up to 3400,000 m2, seems to be a
small town. The centralized distribution of low income groups in space may lead to the phenomenon of
residential differentiation, which is a hidden danger caused by the construction of large-
scale indemnificatory communities.
THE RELATIONSHIP WITH URBAN RESIDENTIAL DIFFERENTIATION
The complementary relationship between indemnificatory housing construction and large-scale

demolition in the main urban area
The large-scale construction of indemnificatory housing is carried out at the same time with large-scale
demolition in the main city; the distribution, methods and demolition purposes also show significant spatial
differences. Among them, the streets of the city have been the main demolition area of Nanjing. The total
demolition area of the main streets in Gulou District, Xiaguan District and Xuanwu District every year is more
than 17,000 m2; the public land after the demolition is mainly used for municipal road widening and
environmental comprehensive renovation project in the ecological district, in order to respond to
requirements of the central area for improving supporting facilities and improving the living environment. In
stark contrast with the central urban area, the periphery areas of the city, especially the municipal public
land in the suburbs is mainly used for construction of indemnificatory housing.
Since the vast majority of housing demolition points in Nanjing are concentrated in the main urban areas,
especially in the central urban areas and indemnificatory housing is scattered in the main city’s periphery,
the distribution of large-scale demolition points and indemnificatory housing basically forms a
complementary trend in space. As for the reasons, first, the city’s relocated residents are mostly low-income
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wage earners with limited financial capacity; furthermore, indemnificatory housing to place the relocated
residents is largely located in the outskirts of the city; while sale price of real estate in the main city of
Nanjing is far higher than the relocation compensation standards, and the area of new commercial housing
tends to be larger than the demolished housing area per household once owned; due to limitations of the
affordability, there’s little possibility to move back for the relocated residents, who often have to move to
indemnificatory housing to live on the periphery of the main urban areas.
Further marginalization of the residential space of low-income populations

Traditionally, the low-income residents in the main city of Nanjing are mainly concentrated in the south of
the city, the south of the central city and Xiaguan Pier in the north of the city. For the spatial scale of the
entire city, the spatial distribution rule of the low-income people as a class is that it’s focused on the city’s
outskirts, overall showing certain marginal trends. With the acceleration of the urbanization process in
China, the majority of cities, including Nanjing, there remains a huge amount of land demolition through old
town transformation, infrastructure construction, environmental remediation and other forms. These lands
after demolition undoubtedly provide valuable space resources for the city's functional replacement and
upgrade. For the main city of Nanjing, on the one hand, original residents living in the central area move out
gradually and high-income groups move in; on the other hand, the rise of the main urban housing price
pushes indemnificatory housing outside the city. Driven by the large-scale demolition and high-intensity
space function replacement, the differentiation pattern of residential space in the main city of Nanjing is
clear. These two areas also have become the main features of different residential space of the main city of
Nanjing in recent years and it’s integrated with the original pattern of urban residential space, forming new
residential spatial differentiation feature and patterns (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Analysis of population migration of high, middle and low income groups.
Thus, the gathering trend to the urban fringe of low-income residents, formerly in the central city, on behalf
of indemnificatory housing, is further growing under the multiple roles of the market economy and
government decision-making. As mentioned earlier, the north city, the west of Qixia District and the old
south city are the most densely populated areas of indemnificatory housing, and low-income groups in
Nanjing, caused by the demolition also tend to be distributed mainly in the south city, north city and east of
the Qixia District, so residential space of the low-income people is further marginalized.
MAJOR PROBLEMS CAUSED BY INDEMNIFICATORY HOUSING CONSTRUCTION
Long distance from employment

Indemnificatory housing’s protected population is mostly the low-income group, which is characterized by
general low educational levels, lack of job training and less employment opportunities that can be selected.
Their employment needs are labor-intensive industries; the employment type is single, mostly in
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manufacturing and service industries. Nanjing’s indemnificatory housing sites are mostly in the suburbs,
which is geographically isolated and around which there’s no available employment industries, especially
related to industries where they can be employed after simple training. Job opportunities are scarce in the
surroundings and residents seldom work in the nearest or close places. Under the status that
indemnificatory housing extends to the urban periphery, separation of employment and residential space
forces low-income people away from the urban labor market, which not only reduces their jobs, but also
may increase the risk of unemployment, due to an inability to meet the needs of the units (such as the timely
arrival, evening class, etc.), thus further reducing the possibility of upward mobility in low-income
populations.
Inadequate public facilities

Imperfection of public facilities is reflected in two aspects: first, the lack of surrounding facilities in
settlements; from a point of view of macro location, indemnificatory housing in Nanjing is more located
outside the main city, forming an annular arrangement around the main city. The project is relatively
isolated and has no support in residential area or surrounding facilities have not yet fully developed;
coupled with the short development and construction of settlements, it does not effectively drive economic
development, which results in the overall status of imperfect matching of the indemnificatory housing area
in Nanjing. Secondly, the supporting region is imperfect and poorly managed, because the surrounding
areas are mostly undeveloped or large settlements of indemnificatory housing with limited consumer
groups and the spending power, resulting in vacant commercial facilities. And because of the size and
limited spending power of settlements, it cannot reach the minimum threshold for setting up appropriate
facilities by the respective post offices, banks and other institutions, or the set facility size is too small and
too simple, so that it cannot meet the needs of residents. The problem concentrated outbreaks in large-scale
settlements in indemnificatory housing in the suburbs, resulting in the connection of residents with urban
areas is becoming increasingly weak, so that various related issues ensue.
Urban residential spatial differentiation triggered by groups cluster

The method of focusing on the construction of indemnificatory housing will exacerbate the phenomenon of
the spatial aggregation of low-income groups and strengthen the division of different social classes in space.
Near the ring roads of Nanjing, a large group of gathered indemnificatory housing has become one of the
regions the major low-income groups live in; as the poor is concentrated in the suburbs, it’s more likely to
cause lag in the information they obtain and sharply less social communicating opportunities. Low-income
settlements continue to concentrate in the suburbs and the upscale residential constantly focus on
downtown, so development of residential space is even more unbalanced. City indemnificatory housing
developing towards the direction of centralization and marginalization will lead to centralized and
marginalized spatial differentiation behavior, which may lead to social differentiation of centralized
marginalization. The long-term spatial isolation of indemnificatory housing’s residents will result in social
isolation and may also cause psychological isolation.
OPTIMIZATION STRATEGY OF INDEMNIFICATORY HOUSING CONSTRUCTION FROM AN URBAN

PLANNING POINT OF VIEW
The above analysis shows that the construction of indemnificatory communities is an important incentive of
increasingly serious phenomenon of residential differentiation in Nanjing. The problems triggered by
indemnificatory communities also have a certain relationship with residential differentiation. Based on
sociological research, the mixed housing mode is considered to be an effective way to address the isolating
problem of different social classes and to promote exchanges between different segments of the
population. Many scholars also advocate using the mixed housing mode to ease residential differentiation.
How to effectively combine the mixed housing mode with the indemnificatory housing construction
strategy?
In this paper, to achieve the mixed housing mode in communities, the author puts forward that it should be
divided into three steps. First, disperse the middle and low-income groups by dispersing indemnificatory
communities to avoid heavily concentration in one area. Second, achieve mixing of different types of
housing through planning and relevant policies to promote mixed living in space. Third, by means of the
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construction of settlements, promote the mixing of different segments of the population to achieve
residential integration (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Mixing steps of indemnificatory housing.
Dispersion strategy
From a macro perspective, indemnificatory communities should be more evenly distributed in various areas
of the city to some extent, to avoid excessive concentration of large-scale indemnificatory housing in an area
of the city. By dispersing indemnificatory housing, avoid over-concentration of the poor. In the current social
context, the trend of suburbanization siting of indemnificatory communities is difficult to reverse, but the
indemnificatory communities in the suburbs should give full consideration to scattered arrangement and
should not be concentrated in one area. In this way, the poor can be distributed and the nearest
contradiction of people needing housing support, which will enable them to maintain access to existing
social networks and will alleviate the contradiction of separate residence and working place of some of the
residents.
Mixing strategy
To implement the policy of mixed living, the most important thing is to mix together different sectors of the
population to live within a fixed range. However, there are also a series of problems about mixed housing
mode; therefore, it needs to find an appropriate mixed way to avoid conflicts arising from frequent contact
of different income groups (Figure 4). Therefore, the concept of large mixed residential and small
communities should be applied to the indemnificatory communities, that is, the internal settlements are
homogenous, but the mixed living is realized within the services radius of public service facilities.
Figure 4: “large mixed residential and small communities" mode.
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Building strategy
Strategy of external construction

First, we must strengthen the construction of supporting public transport facilities. For the indemnificatory
communities, improved public transport facilities are an important safeguard for residents to move. For the
suburban indemnificatory communities, it should give full consideration to supporting public transport
facilities; especially, siting of public transport facilities represented by the subway station with a large
capacity and fast speed should give priority to combining with the site of indemnificatory communities.
In addition, strengthen the construction of other urban functional areas around indemnificatory
communities to avoid isolated settlements development. The construction of other urban functional areas
should meet the basic needs of the residents living in the area and provide some employment opportunities
for them; meanwhile, residents of settlements will become an important driving force of the development of
these functional areas. With mutual action, both sides together promote the role of indemnificatory
communities in the overall development of the area and form a virtuous cycle.
Strategy of internal construction

First, try to appropriately apply open communities into indemnificatory communities, making it more
convenient for low-income groups to contact society outside, promote self-competence and obtain more
information through contact and exchange, and making it easier for external information to reach inside
communities
Second, pay attention to reasonable scale of residential district. Both oversize scale and undersize scale of
communities are bad for development of indemnificatory communities. If indemnificatory communities
with oversize scale do not have good development, it will result in unthinkable social isolation; while in the
communities with undersize scale, it is hard to establish public facilities. Hence, rational scale of
communities plays a critical role in construction of indemnificatory communities. It is suggested to carry on
construction based on scale of housing cluster in communities classification in accordance with Code for
Urban Residential District Planning & Design, namely, residential population remains about 7,000-15,000
persons.
Next, pay attention to the diversified functions of communities. Apart from living function, indemnificatory
communities also provides service functions such as basic business, leisure and recreation. As far as middle
and low income residents are concerned, it not only can provide with a certain amount of employment
opportunities, but also can promote vitality of the community and strengthen convenience for the lives of
residence.
CONCLUSION
The conclusions of this paper are as follows
1. Three main characteristics of current indemnificatory communities constructions are formed in Nanjing:
imbalanced distribution, remote location, groups cluster and large scale.
2. The construction of indemnificatory communities is an important incentive of increasingly serious

phenomenon of residential differentiation in Nanjing. There is a complementary relationship
existing between indemnificatory housing construction and the large-scale demolition in the main urban
area, and indemnificatory housing constructions lead to further marginalization of the residential space of
low-income populations.
3. Several major problems are triggered by indemnificatory communities, such as long distance from
employment, inconvenient traffic and poor public facilities, urban residential spatial differentiation.
4. Three strategies are put forward to achieve the mixed housing mode in communities: dispersion strategy,
mixing strategy and construction strategy.
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At the present stage, China has realized the importance of construction of indemnificatory housing and
strengthened construction work through a series of policies. However, a series of problems resulting from
the phenomenon of residential differentiation are common in existing indemnificatory housing
communities. If we keep turning a blind eye to such phenomena, it will surely aggravate existing social
problems of indemnificatory housing communities in the current status. Hence, the paper proposes the
concept of combining mixed housing models with construction of indemnificatory housing communities,
hoping to relieve the phenomenon of residential differentiation resulting from construction of
indemnificatory housing communities so as to better promote development of indemnificatory housing
communities.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research has been funded in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China grants
51178097and 333 Talents Project of Jiangsu Province.
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THE INHERITANCE AND APPLICATION OF ECOLOGICAL THEORY OF TRADITIONAL HOUSES: TAKING

HUIZHOU HOUSES AS AN EXAMPLE
Meng Xiaodong, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, China, 540106521@qq.com
Abstract
Chinese traditional houses are engineered with the integration of nature, the society and human beings, and
are also built on the basis of the ecological theory of the harmony of man and nature. This paper takes
Huizhou traditional houses as an example, and lists the ecological ideas inside it from four aspects; villages
planning, house courtyard and space layout, house structure and materials, house decoration. Then it
summarizes that Huizhou houses have several ecological characteristics, inspiring today's residential
construction to some extent.
Today, however, due to the change of social and ecological conditions, the traditional houses' ecological
way of conforming to nature is no longer able to be fully applicative. So the formulaic way of imitating must
be abandoned. Instead, we should face the inheritance of ecological theory in traditional houses using a
systematic thought. Only by combining with the reality of society and life can the world of human and
nature be in sustained harmony.
Keywords: Huizhou traditional houses, ecology, inheritance.
INTRODUCTION
Chinese traditional houses came from the agricultural society when technology and productivity level was
backward. And they were the systemic engineering with the integration of nature, the society and human
beings, and were also built on the basis of the ecological theory of harmony of man and nature. The concept
of ‘harmony’ was the fundamental law of traditional housing construction.
Huizhou is located in the subtropical humid monsoon climate zone. There are mountains and rivers lying in
it, and its natural environment was relatively independent. On the basis of the unique natural and social
conditions, Huizhou ancestors created a special series of ecological adaption methods, where the concept of
harmony can be best explained.
THE ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADITIONAL HUIZHOU HOUSES
Consciousness of auspicious site

The theory of geomancy in Chinese traditional culture pursues the perfectly harmonious relationship
between heaven, earth and people, which represented the original ecology view. The choosing of a site for
the Huizhou villages was mostly based on natural landscape patterns. And most of the time, the flat areas
surrounded by mountains and rivers were best choices. This conformed to the idea of ‘point’ in traditional
geomancy .This kind of enclosed landscape pattern provided a natural barrier to meet people’s mental
needs of being protected and wealth gathering, so that life could be peaceful and prosperous. Thus the site
was auspicious.
Except for the geomancy and auspiciousness idea, Huizhou village site choosing also contained a simple
ecological thought. The enclosed landscape pattern is conducive to the formation of a cozy local climate.
What’s more, the Huizhou villages were always built at the foot of the mountain, overlooking the land and
backed by the forest. This is because Huizhou ancestors lived on agriculture production, and built on the
slope, therefore, the flood could be effectively avoided. At the same time, the forest behind the villages
could provide sufficient materials for house construction. Plants were good for conserving soil and moisture
and microclimate regulation, economic forest could also bring about economic benefits and fuel.
Soil conservation philosophy

Huizhou lies in a mountainous area and its built land is limited. As a result, the village site choosing, houses
layout and construction were based on the principle of soil conservation. The cultivated land was not
allowed to be occupied, and the built land was in full and reasonable use. Besides land conservation,
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building houses on mountain slope could help gain plenty of sunshine. Therefore, Huizhou villages were
always built close to the mountain and the house layout was intensive.
Villages planning and water

Traditional villages all took water as the lifeline. For one thing, agriculture needed irrigation, and in the dry
season, water must be timely supplied. For another, village daily life could not survive without water.
Huizhou ancestors had a long history of using water. This is not only reflected in the site choosing by river as
the premise, but also after settlement, in order to build the ideal living environment, there was water
systems transformation for living convenience. The artificial and natural water system was combined. Village
entrances were arranged with the main water, and streets were along the streams or man-made ditches.
These commonly formed a structure of ‘living water through the village’. The water has the use of irrigation,
drinking, sewage and fire protection. Especially, it could be used as a natural air conditioning system, so that
the houses’ micro climate could be improved.
Villages planning and woods

The traditional Huizhou area was rich in forest resources. To keep the climate cozy and stable, there was
always a kind of forest called Feng Shui Woodland in the settlement area, which combined with the water at
the village entrance or the creek around hills. To protect the forests according to the local rules and
regulations became an inherited custom. In addition, in the village environment, there is a good tradition for
planting trees. Often the edge of the field, the pond or the courtyard was used for fruit trees planting.
Good vegetation could conserve water, soil and regulate microclimate, and benefited the villagers by
providing energy and materials all the year round.
HOUSE COURTYARD AND SPACE LAYOUT
Intensive combination and space vertical expansion

To fit the Huizhou custom of several generations living together, the house courtyard unit could combine
intensively in both parallel and serial direction; the houses expanded vertically, so most had two or three
floors. The intensive combination of courtyard units and space vertical expansion helped save land use and
building materials. Also it met the need of avoiding the hot and humid climate. The tall buildings formed
narrow street spaces and small patios, which provided plenty of shadows to keep cool and comfortable in
summer.
Regular shape and introverted pattern

Because of land shortages, the layout of Huizhou houses was compact, mostly rectangular. While
considering security and privacy, there were often tall walls surrounding the courtyard, called Ma Tau walls.
High walls enclosed extremely introverted courtyard, creating a private, quiet, safe living environment, and
was conducive to shading and ventilation, so that a relatively comfortable and stable environment could be
formed.
Small patios and open house spaces

Huizhou houses’ spatial distribution followed the basic shape of a quadrangle. But affected by the special
climate and terrain conditions, the court’s depth was smaller, seemed like a narrow strip, usually called a
patio. The small patio was an important feature in Huizhou traditional houses. It adapted well to the hot,
rainy and humid weather in summer, and assumed the lighting, ventilation, drainage, the family activities
and communication with the outside world. In addition, the patios were paved with block stones, also there
were drainage pools in them. What’s more, the wall side was decorated by bonsai or plants. As a result, the
cooling effect was obvious.
Further, in order to effectively organize ventilation to improve the indoor humidity environment, Huizhou
traditional house had the layout of combining the tall open hall and small patio. The climate characteristic of
no extreme cold in winter made the open house space an ideal choice. This pattern reduced the ventilation
resistance, so that the heat and moisture could easily dissipate.
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HOUSE STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS
Structural system
The Huizhou area was rich in wood and the traffic was occlusive, so wood became the preferred material.
The hollow masonry wall of Huizhou houses was just envelope, and the construction loads were fully borne
by wooden columns. The wood structure was combined with two different types. The column and tie
construction predominated, and the post and lintel construction was used in several large-span rooms. As a
kind of flexible structure, wood could exist for a long time and adapt to a variety of adverse forces of nature,
such as earthquakes and wind; wood structure houses could also adapt to complex terrain, and the deep
eaves helped produce shadows, keeping the rain off and ventilate.
The wall
The external wall of Huizhou houses is a hollow masonry wall, typically 30cm thick and with white pulp on
the outer surface; besides, other walls in the houses are relatively thin, most are partitions made of wood.
The hollow masonry wall is conducive to heat insulation, and the white pulp can reflect the strong sunlight
in summer. The Ma Tau walls, one of the Huizhou traditional characteristics, were mainly used for fire and
theft prevention. The tall wall in a certain extent affected the houses’ lighting and ventilation, so most
houses had small windows at second floor height.
The roof
Similar to the structure principle of hollow masonry wall, Huizhou houses used the method of hollow layer in
the roof construction, namely, added a layer of brick or sheathing under the roof tiles to form a 6~8cm air
insulation, so that the thermal insulation effect would be obvious; in some auxiliary space such as the
kitchen, often no brick or sheathing layer was set to reduce the structural level, which reached the purpose
of saving natural resources.
The ground
To adapt to the climate conditions and different daily requirements, Huizhou houses took different ground
laying methods in the outdoor space, the hall and the bedroom. The outdoor ground was most vulnerable
to weather damage and the person flow was large, so the ground was made of hard-wearing stones such as
slab or gravel; the stones formed many cracks filled with natural soil, which could help cool down in
summer. The ground of the hall was slightly affected by the weather, and as the main part of the house, the
hall was a semi-public space used for guest reception and other activities, so the ground was made of
ground tile or concrete; one practice was firstly to put a layer of lime and then a layer of fine sand, finally
ground tiles, so that the wear and moisture resistance would be good. The bedroom is a private space, it
bore little damage from outside weather and the wear was not serious, so the raised wooden floor was
30~40cm higher than the hall ground, and vents were set at the foot of the wall towards the hall for
moisture resistance and ventilation.
House decoration
The most representative interior decoration in Huizhou houses are the Huizhou carvings, such as brick, stone
and wood carving. The carvings have exquisite technique and rich implication, many are about landscape,
plants and animals, which reflect people’ aesthetic taste on nature. Some decoration was also combined
with the residential component, for example, the vents and column bases were carved with delicate
patterns.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR TODAY’S CONSTRUCTION
The Huizhou traditional houses not only have rich materials and heritage of the ancestors, but are also
valuable remains of ecological wisdom, which originate from nature, go into nature. The experience of
conforming to and managing the natural environment has certain enlightenment significance to current
residential construction. The following are four ecological characteristics of Huizhou traditional houses.
The integral way of thinking

First of all, it is reflected in the traditional residential construction concepts of advocating the world and
harmony of man and nature, namely, focusing on the integrity and coordination of the natural environment
and artificial environment, making the landscape become visible; the second is the systematic planning and
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design, such as the system design of drainage and sun shading. In today's residential construction, this
integral way of thinking helps to form a good cycle of residential ecological environment and also helps to
form healthy and comfortable living conditions.
The ubiquitous conservation awareness

The Huizhou traditional houses' location adapts to the terrain, built near the gentle slope, farmland and
forest, saving land resources and making full use of natural conditions; the residential layout is compact,
with narrow streets and alleys, quadrant courtyard, careful in reckoning of a square building, and built
mostly with raw material locally, with the timber structure. In a manner of speaking, conservation awareness
went throughout the entire village, and not only leads to the appearance of simple and elegant structures,
but also creates the unique Huizhou houses space and form. In today's residential construction, this kind of
conservation of energy and resources is not out-of-date, instead, it conforms to the trend of sustainable
development.
The management of natural resources

Huizhou traditional houses respected nature and complied with nature, for another, the mode and
experience of manage natural resources is very worthy of our reference. This is reflected in the use and
modification of natural factors, and the insulation of bad factors to achieve self-protection. The former was
such as planting trees, water management, ventilation and patio lighting, and the latter was insulation of
heat and moisture.
The aesthetic interest of simple and elegant

The color and elements of Huizhou houses are quietly elegant, and the decoration is simple and delicate.
This was due to the ‘moderation’ concept and traditional social reason, and was in accord with Huizhou
houses’ ecological characteristics, advocating and living harmoniously with nature.
CONCLUSION
Inheritance and use of traditional residential ecological thought

As a kind of historical relic, the traditional houses were gradually created and improved on the basis of
functional needs and the technological conditions widely used at that time. Nowadays, great changes have
happened to nature, society and people’s life, and many traditional ecological experiences cannot fully
apply. When inheriting these ecological thoughts, firstly we should attach importance to the inheritance of
philosophy, and combine it with the act of ecological and social development, rather than copying the
traditional experience; secondly, to consider the overall instead of referencing single experience; thirdly, we
should pay more attention to the management of nature in a scientific way, to replace the traditional way of
conforming.
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POSSIBILITIES OF DIALOGUE: THE CASE OF THE TRANS-LOCAL URBAN ARTISTIC RESEARCH PROJECT
NINE URBAN BIOTOPES.
Christian von Wissel, Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR), Goldsmiths, University of London,
wissel@citambulos.net
Alison Rooke, Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR), Goldsmiths, University of London,
a.rooke@gold.ac.uk
Abstract
This paper addresses the question of trans-local dialogue in the case of the EU-funded socially engaged
urban art project Nine Urban Biotopes – Negotiating the future of urban living (9UB), running throughout
2014 in cities in South Africa and the European Union.
9UB is an urban research, cultural exchange and artist-in-residency project among partners on all levels of
urban engagement (grass-roots, cooperative, private sector, university, cultural institution, NGO and
government) addressing issues of urban social sustainability. It aims to build working relationships that
allow mutual learning across cultural, geographical and institutional divides. Local solutions are being
interrogated and communicated globally by means of artistic interventions and purposely designed time-,
site- and media-specific dialogue structures. The particular issues addressed in each of 9UB’s sites of
operation are without doubt of major concern and widely shared interest (public space, safety, mobility,
identity, economic survival, among others). Yet the possibility of dialogue in the first place needs careful
interrogation. In this paper we ask; What conversations are afforded by 9UB’s artistic interventions and what
are the implications of these interventions more broadly when considered within the context of
transnational cultural policy? Finding answers to these questions is crucial for all endeavours concerned with
‘learning from’. How are the ‘otherwheres’ of the project addressed and made productive without holding
them in a position of otherness? How can we produce and share knowledge among equal partners if these
partners do not speak the same language – literally and symbolically – in regard to issues, aims, tools and
frameworks?
Keywords: Dialogue, dialogical art, relational object, people as infrastructure, expedience of culture.
INTRODUCTION
This paper addresses the possibilities of trans-local dialogue. It takes as its case study the artistic urban
research and cultural exchange project Nine Urban Biotopes – Negotiating the future of urban living (9UB). 9UB
is a socially engaged art and knowledge exchange project running throughout 2014 in cities in South Africa
and the European Union (Berlin, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, London, Paris, Turin). Centre-stage to
the project are nine three-month-long art-residencies that aim to produce site-specific urban research and
development encounters between visiting artists and local communities and host settings (referred to as
“urban biotopes”). To facilitate and sustain these local encounters, 9UB brings together partner
organisations from seven cities in five countries working in different fields, with distinct institutional
standings and at a variety of levels of urban engagement. These include grass-roots organisations,
cooperatives, private sector partners, universities, cultural institutions, NGO’s and local and national
government bodies. The project is funded both by the partners and by the European Union.1
According to the project’s self-description, 9UB aims to establish a “trans-local dialogue” on “social urban
sustainability” (Horn, 2013). The issues on the agenda of this dialogue range from migration, public health
!
1
Nine Urban Biotopes is match funded to 50% by the European Union under the Culture Programme 2007-
2013, Scheme 1.3.5. Cultural Co-operation with Third World countries. It receives additional funding from
Goethe-Institut e.V., Munich, Sub-Sahara Johannesburg Branch; University of Fine Art HfbK Hamburg; and
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GIZ, Pretoria, within their Inclusive Violence and Crime
Prevention for Safe Public Spaces Programme (VCP).
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(HIV/AIDS), mobility, safety and economic survival to questions of identity, public space, the improvement of
living conditions and the specific needs of different gender and age groups. By introducing socially engaged
art interventions into existing communities and social contexts, 9UB’s objective is to direct attention
towards distinct local practices in building sustainable cities while, at the same time, translating them and
disseminating them beyond the local. Hence, 9UB is a two-layered project: it aims at intervening in the
negotiation of urban futures at ’street level’ while also building working relationships that allow learning
from each other across cultural, geographical and institutional divides.
In order to accomplish this intended research and learning, 9UB proposes an “arena of exchange” through
the architecture of five interlinked methods. These are: (a) nine artist-in-residency programmes placing
African artists within European, and European artists within South African social urban contexts. The artists
engage with particular local issues (issues that either effect life in the biotopes or that are specifically
addressed by local actors); (b) nine residency-specific “integrated reporters” (or groups of reporters) working
alongside the artists and providing visual documentation of each art-intervention in order to communicate
local experiences trans-locally (these reporters are mostly art and communication students that are either
locally recruited or brought on site by the visiting artist); (c) the partition of the project into three trialogues,
that is, into three operational blocks of three parallel art residencies that allow direct and live trans-local
exchange during the implementation of local art projects; (d) a comprehensive web-based communication
platform featuring the visual documentation of the integrated reporters as well as backstage conversations
among partners in a time-related format (available at www.urban-biotopes.net); and (e) an exhibition and
outreach strategy that builds on decentralised yet parallel-run showcases in each biotope. In addition to
these interlinked methods, 9UB has built into its structure a series of ‘backstage’ mechanisms that foster
conversations among participants. These backstage methods are crucial to the project’s delivery. They
include an integrated and collaborative academic- led project evaluation, (carried out by the authors of this
paper) allowing for reflexive feedback loops, and a Berlin and Johannesburg coordination team that
manages the project ‘behind-the-scenes’.
9UB’S DIALOGICAL AESTHETICS
The language of cultural project proposals is always necessarily ambitious and thus has to be read critically
in conjunction with what is actually being achieved. At the time of writing, 9UB is closing on its first trialogue
of three socially engaged art projects. These address migrant identities in Berlin, township upgrading in
Soweto, Johannesburg, and intercultural learning in Cape Town. In this paper we will draw on the Soweto
and Cape Town experiences of this first phase of delivery in order to focus on the dialogue afforded by its
interventions, and interrogate the implications of these interventions more broadly when considered within
the context of transnational cultural policy. We are interested in what is offered and exchanged through the
aesthetic and communicative possibilities of the art residencies within 9UB’s network structure and
architecture for dialogue.
The cultural theorist Grant Kester, in his interrogation of community and participative art, argues that by
freeing ourselves from our conventional perceptions, frameworks and obligations, dialogical art – which has
the communicative act as its benchmark – allows us to find new and unexpected possibilities for knowing,
being and acting (Kester 2004). The liberation that participative art affords is intrinsic to Kester’s notion of
the ‘aesthetic’. Kester provides a theoretical basis for framing artistic practice both as social research and as
urban activism. 9UB aims to make the possibilities of dialogical aesthetics productive. By building on art
residencies that are inscribed into particular urban settings, the project fosters conversations which grow
out of the encounter between artist-outsiders and resident-locals, interventions and contexts, art practice
and the issues that bring all these aspects together. Kester suggests the artwork in dialogical art precisely to
be such conversations. He draws on the Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, calling these conversations
a “locus of differing meanings, interpretations, and points of view” (Kester 2004, p. 10).2 Dialogical art thus
challenges the modernist notions both of the artist as individual genius or visionary and of the art piece as a
fixed result that stands at the end of an art making process. On the one side, the dialogical artist does not
aim at articulating a vision formed prior to the encounter with the participants of the process. Instead he or
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2
Bakhtin himself was elaborating on the ‘dialogism’ inherent to the literary genre of the novel during the 1920s
and 1930s (Hirschkop 1999, p. 54 ff.).
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she poses questions or derives insights through the interaction with others and with otherness. The art piece
thus emerges as a collaborative work. On the other side, this very posing of questions and deriving of
insights through interaction is the actual work of art that is being produced; conflict and conflict resolution
are essential to its processual nature as much as listening is its foremost virtue (ibid. p. 118).
FEELING STUPID, LEARNING FROM
Antje Schiffer’s practice exemplifies the working of dialogical art. Central to Antje’s art learning and trading,
exchanging artistic services and products (video, texts, drawings or conversations) for experiences, stories,
knowledge and hospitality. In a previous manifestation of her barter-trade-art she successfully applied for
the non-existing position of ‘company artist’ in a German rubber tyre manufacturer, offering to carry out all
services the staff thought appropriate for a company artist to do. For 9UB, Antje envisioned becoming an
apprentice of Cape Town. For the piece What Cape Town Taught Me she teamed up with spoken word artist
Ziphozakhe (Zipho) Hlobo. Yet instead of reproducing the well-worn hierarchy between international artist
and local assistant (Zipho was contracted as integrated reporter communicating the project into 9UB’s trans-
local network) they explored what the city could teach them collaboratively. So while Zipho took Antje into
her world (Hlobo 2014), opening doors and translating contexts (as well as, surely, keeping other gates shut),
Antje confessed that confronted with South Africa’s parallel worlds at first she “felt stupid” (Schiffer 2014).
From there, they drifted together through Cape Town, meeting radio hosts and journalists, anti-apartheid
activists and feminists, sportsmen, gardeners, builders and poets. They met the rich and the poor, black and
white, and while these dichotomies clearly cut through Cape Town’s society, for Antje and Zipho all partners
in these conversations were united, above all, in one shared quality: they all were inhabitants of the same
city who could teach them about life in Cape Town. At the heart of their intervention, thus, was the practice
of what the sociologist Les Back describes as the art of listening, the modest and cautious recording of “life
passed in living” (Back, 2007): “Good listening, side by side” in Antje’s words (Schiffer 2014) which Zipho
recalls as an act of generosity (Hlobo 2014):
Zipho: Antje thinks she can learn something from anyone. She knew she was out of context and even
though she can teach Cape Town things she did not come with that approach. Because, what does
she know about Cape Town? She has to go to different people and ask them. Being the leader of a
certain project and then allowing people to come into your space and teach you – instead of
dictating them what is going to happen – is the most that I admire of her. A lot of projects I have
known, international projects, don’t actually do that. They don’t listen. [...] because I think it should be
equal. You should learn from someone as much as they learn from you.
Antje’s practice illustrates the dialogical artist’s “ability to catalyze understanding, to mediate exchange, and
to sustain an on-going process of empathic identification and critical analysis” (Kester 2004, p. 118). It also
shows the political potentials that lie within dialogical aesthetics when employing art “as a mediating
discourse between subject and object, between the somatic and the rational, and between the individual
and the social” (Kester 1998, p. 8). Art, here, has the capacity to deconstruct preconceived notions and
identities, allowing us to see ourselves and the world in different light: an ‘illumination’ that belongs to the
essence of the aesthetic experience (Kester 2004).3
Set within 9UB’s overarching research interest on urban social sustainability, Antje and Zipho’s dialogue and
conversation with the people they met included coming to know about both the tangible and intangible
aspects of life in the city. They learned how to cook, build a good shack and farm the dry soil of Khayelitsha.
They also learned about dealing with inequality and violence, about sustaining hope under conditions of
oppression and about sharing (Schiffer 2014a, 2014b). Their dialogical learning was at all times social,
cultural and contextual; most importantly, however, it was built on personal relationships characterised by
trust and respect. Antje would receive in form of conversations and give back by dignifying the people and
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3 We are aware of the critiques of Kester’s concept of dialogical aesthetics in relation to the social, aesthetic and
political dimensions of socially engaged art practice (Lippard 1973; Lacy 1995). In particular, Claire Bishop
(2006) is raising concerns about the political imperative and ethical claims of 'justice' that overshadow both art's
principle of autonomy and the aesthetical judgment of art. Bishop argues that in order to escape the
predictability of the social imperative, art should contest the social by making visible the ideological operations
of place and social organisation.
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places she met through creating elaborate hand drawings (which were then combined in the final video).
Practicing the art of listening not only with the ears during the intervention but also with pen and paper in
her drawings and video, Schiffer’s What Cape Town Taught Me now allows speaks back to her conversation
partners and out to the trans-local audience of 9UB.
RITUALS OF TRANSITION
It is important to note that many of these dialogical encounters do not produce anything that looks like
what can be conventionally understood as art. Collaborations may result in a meal, a market stall, a garden,
or any other kind of build or social structure. This is the case with Marjetica Potrč’s art – which she herself
refers to as “Design for the Living World”.4 Potrč’s interventions aim at human development through
participatory design, particularly addressing problems experienced by marginalised or informal settlements
(Lepik and Potrč 2012). In the past she has worked with inhabitants of Caracas building dry toilets and with
the Stedelijk Museum initiating an intercultural garden in Amsterdam.
In the context of 9UB, Marjetica Potrč and the students from her class at HfbK Hamburg – in collaboration
with the architectural development agency more-than-shelters – initiated three interrelated, participatory
projects in the adjoining localities of Noordgesig and Orlando East in Soweto, Johannesburg. Together with
residents and local institutions they recovered an abandoned public site as community park (which was
collectively named Ubuntu Park), put in operation an educational food garden at a local primary school and
held a street festival that brought together inhabitants from the two socially and physically divided
neighbourhoods. Prior to their intervention, the space outside Donkey Church in Orlando East was used for
dumping, posing severe risks in health and hygiene to the immediate neighbours. With the help of more
than 50 people the site was cleaned up and transformed into a recreational and safe space that is, at the
time of writing, being looked after by a newly constituted neighbourhood committee. The ‘simple’ cleaning
of the space has recovered diagonal crossings and long buried trees for everyone to enjoy. In addition a new
stage and benches invite passers- by to gather and stay.
Even more importantly, this collective action of cleaning and the on-going practice of foreseeing and
negotiating the park’s future in regular meetings (held on-site, on the benches) foster the positive
experience of local development by and for the people. Likewise, the food gardening project in Noordgesig
develops its potential not just in the actual food being produced, but also in the opportunity it provides for
teachers, school children and parents to experience working with the land in order to change it. Finally, in
what was coined ‘Soweto’s First Street Festival’ the essence of Marjetica Potrč and her team’s art becomes
most apparent. All three interventions have at their core the desire to bring people together in collective
action. So, while the three projects do improve the socio-physical conditions of the sites of intervention and,
in addition, resonate both with official policies and with third sector driven developmental strategies like
those envisioned by 9UB’s Soweto host organisation Plan Act5, their strongest achievement, we argue, lies in
the enabling an experience of social engagement shared in time and space. This collective and hands-on,
social as much as physical, actual changing of the conditions of people’s lives and lifeworlds has been
described by Marjetica as the “ritual of transition” that her art is all about (Potrč 2014).
PARLIAMENTS OF THINGS
Underpinning all these projects is a shared belief that community space only works if the people who will
use it take initiative, feel responsible and maintain it (Potrč 2014). Hence, all three interventions were
developed through dialogue and have on-going dialogue at their very heart. They are spatial yet even more
so social interventions, bringing people, issues and sites together. Here, Bruno Latour’s understanding of the
exhibition as assembly of things that gather people and issues is of particular help in order to expand on
Kester’s notion of socially-engaged art works as “conversation pieces” (Latour 2005, p. 13, 21ff.; Kester 2004).
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4
Design for the Living World is also the name of the 'applied art' class Marjetica Potrč is teaching at HfbK
Hamburg.
5
PlanAct is a well-established South African NGO fostering urban improvement through participatory
community engagement, operating in Soweto since 2009. Their vision for Orlando East comprises a tourist
route as well as to improve neighbourhood relations between coloured and black (Makwela 2014).
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This is, however, transferring Latour’s insights regarding the presentation of constellations of artworks in the
gallery to the process of participatory interventions in the urban sphere. Latour expounds that conversations
emerge around matters that stir responses; matters that are at the same time intangible issues and material
things (Latour 2005, p. 9). Such ‘things’ are the park, garden and parade, the benches, vegetables and music
of 9UB’s Soweto project. Marjetica Potrč conceptualises them as “relational objects” (Lepik and Potrč 2012;
Potrč 2014). They are the reason that brings people together, the drivers of dialogue yet not dialogue itself,
and thus not the focal point of her art as we have argued above. However, these objects do play an essential
role by constituting what we can call, in light of Latour’s argument, a parliament of things. An essential part
of the Soweto project are the ongoing meetings that Marjetica and her team held with neighbours and local
decision makers during the residency. These meetings set the foundations for future action and mapped out
networks of influence. A maintenance and safety team, an art and culture coordination group and a general
steering committee have been formed and continue to meet on site month after the formal end of the
project (Skosana 2014, pers. email, 31 May). There is a local commitment to continue these once the artists
are gone It is important to note here is that these meetings do not exclude the possibility also to produce
disagreements. The thing, Latour assures, is “the issue that brings people together because it divides them”
(Latour 2005, p. 13, original emphasis). Continuity beyond such disruptions, he elaborates further, lies in “a
hidden coherence in what we are attached to” (ibid., p.5). When activating this shared attachment with what
matters (issue and material), socially engaged art, dialogical and relational, provides the opportunity for
critical reflection and political action.
This shared attachment becomes apparent in the evaluation interviews with members of the Ubuntu Park
neighbourhood committee in which participants described their feelings and memories attached to the site,
their collective action and the encounter with the artists. The discussion addressed the mutual learning that
took place, the role of the visiting artists and the challenge of sustaining the park once the artists leave.
Digging into the history of Orlando East in the research process revealed a shift in perception of public space
that was ‘freed’ through the artistic intervention. In the following we reproduce part of the conversation
(von Wissel et. al. 2014):
Sophia: I am very excited that we have come this far. [...] I am 41 years old now and ever since
growing up they keep telling us that there is going to be a park around here, but when I saw
Masachava [the Zulu name given to Majetica meaning “mother of the nation, mother of the people]
and the whole crew I was so excited that finally it is going to happen: that our kids will grow up in a
nice environment. It is quite exciting, we are moving forward as Sowetans. [...]
Christian: Why did you not organise yourselves and recover this site as a park before?
Sophia: Motivation. Because people are focusing on other things...
Bongani: Because of the lack of knowledge and the lack of community communication. And because
of the ignorance of the people... if one or two of us would stand up and say: help us as a community,
the other people would say I must go to church, I must go and do what ever. So with the use of this
site now, we have learned a lot. [...] And the neighbours, too. They can see now... I think our
neighbours should come and give us that courage. You know, we have some sections [the different
committees that have been formed] and there we talk and discuss about everything. If we would not,
we would depend on somebody else. But it is us who should stand up and have that power.
Sophia: The park is adding something to our families. That is why I am coming her everyday. When I
come from work I have to come her and I feel so free and I regret having to go home. It’s going to be
educational. [...] We want to tell our stories in a positive way. You see, we have a very painful history
but I want us to tell it in a positive way. In a way that would make my child understand that, yes, it
happened, but now we are building our nation. [During apartheid] people were allowed only to care
about their families, but this park is going to bring us together. This is how I see it: I am free now. We
want to hold workshops, music... This is an amazing space for us, [...] right here, under the sun. I don’t
even think about my painful past. This place has opened up a lot. [...] The artists have opened our
eyes.
Christian: ...and it has surely also opened the eyes of the artists. What do you think did the artists
learn from you?
Bongani: Ubuntu! Ubuntu means caring and tolerating one another in a sense that you tolerate each
other’s differences yet you are able to build something as a unit. […] Ubuntu is also the spirit of
forgiving, a new concept of democracy. [A way to move forward from the demoralisations caused by
apartheid and by the war among different ethnicities during the transition period].
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Caroline: So why did this culture of Ubuntu not help you organise yourselves before?
Gloria: Others say this is not going to succeed. But what do they know? Because they never helped
before. So the artists came... It is almost like we needed someone else, someone with the strength to
carry us, to push us forward, someone to hold our hands. And then we saw that we can do it together,
so we did it and we will continue.
Themba: The professor and her crew came with the seed and the seed must gain and we need to
grow this seed through the Ubuntu concept. [...] This park has created a mind shift.
Pulele: This was a park before but the neighbours destroyed it. This must have been in the early 90s.
There were fights with Inkatha [IFP]. The ANC would meet here. It was a serious thing. There were
tensions in those times. Even at school. We were afraid. They were killing people.
Sophia: Yes, I remember now, people burned the playground and the police would come and fire
rubber bullets. It was chaotic.
Caroline: So the whole concept of public space, parks being used as spaces where communities
could enjoy themselves, where kids could play, that was destroyed?
Gloria: Yes. There were many open spaces then, but they were taken away from the community and
people decided to make them dumping places. Because there was no way of using them.
PEOPLE AS INFRASTRUCTURE
Within the working of the parliament of things, gathering people around issues that is Ubuntu Park, two
more ingredients of Marjetica and her crew’s intervention come to the fore that need further attention:
firstly, the importance of communication and of access to communication that reaches beyond the
conversations with immediate participants and neighbours and, secondly, the working of communication
through social connections that have to be made, developed and sustained. These two aspects are crucial
for understanding both the possibilities of dialogue ‘on the ground’ within 9UB’s biotopes (or any other
given urban situation) and ‘and across the air’ of its trans-local network (or any network). Gloria and Sophia
point to the fact that the artists came from outside opened the residents’ eyes; and Bongani mentions a lack
of knowledge and communication as two of the reasons why the group did not work together before. These
insights, drawn from the becoming of Ubuntu Park, highlight the fact that communication in itself is a
serious hurdle that has to be overcome as part of any social endeavour. It is the art intervention that allowed
the formulation of local desires which were then placed on new, or previously unknown tracks. In this way,
too, the residents and artists alike learnt about the social skills of communicative interaction. It is worth
noting that the artists had privileged access to local decision makers, coming came from outside, working
within social relationships that had been brokered in advance. Thus they were able to explore and
experiment with given hierarchies in ways that most locals are not. PlanAct introduced them to contacts at
the top of local governance chains, allowing them to meet the councillors of the relevant two wards at the
outset of the project. In addition, they were helped in understanding the cultural politics of knowing how,
and when, to “follow the protocol” (Makwela 2014) and how, and when, to “jump the line” (ward inspector
Johanna in a meeting with Marjetica Potrč on March 19th, 2014). Although much of the workings of Soweto’s
political structures might well remain hidden to the artists, residents and the authors of this text, the
exceptional position, access routes and practice of the artists’ team when communicating with local
governance institutions were crucial ingredients in the successful delivery of the project. At the same time, it
is precisely through the artists’ experimental and playful engagement with the site’s “social architecture”
(Potrč 2014) that neighbours could participate, and thus learn from the experience of change.
The second aspect to consider is the social connections that have to be made in order to generate and
develop communication. In a neighbourhood where “everybody has a phone number yet not enough
money to make a call” (ibid.), it becomes apparent that technology and communication infrastructure alone
do not guarantee successful interaction and dialogue. It is worth noting that this is an issue that the overall
network of 9UB also has to deal with as feeding regular updates into the network is one thing, yet finding
the time and generating interest to follow the residencies otherwhere another. Here 9UB’s integrated
evaluation and pared coordination structure enacted their messenger function between one site and the
other. This, together with the development of the projects additional conference calls between hosts and
artists it became apparent that the project architecture too could learn from its own operation.
Back on the ground of Orlando East’s new Ubuntu Park and Noordgesig’s Primary school vegetable garden
learning has followed a similar process of realisation: On the bottom line, dialogue does not need much
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more infrastructure then the people who are committed to make it come alive by gathering around a
relational object of shared attachment. Here, Abdou Maliq Simone’s notion of ‘people as infrastructure’ is
helpful in order to make sense of the “flexible, mobile, and provisional intersections [… that] become a
platform providing for and reproducing life in the city” (Simone 2004, pp. 407-8). The concept of ‘people as
infrastructure’ offers a way of seeing how people sustain their lives – and dialogue as well as learning we
argue – by tying connections that expand their radius of action (ibid.). Simone’s notion rests on
understanding people themselves as the infrastructure they put to work in order to access business
opportunities, local knowledge or relevant skills that allow them to continuously develop their own urban
futures. As a conceptual tool it scales down planning and urban development to the level of each “ordinary
practitioner of the city” (de Certeau 1988, p. 93) and places the focus on the city as practice and on the
“tactical ways of operating” of urban everyday (ibid., p. xix, 37). Just like dialogue and dialogical art, the city is
in a constant state of becoming, a process and social being rather than an accomplished piece of work (cf.
Harvey 1996). And thus like the future of the city as process lies in the social sustainability of its connections
– all sustainabilities must be negotiated and agreed upon in a social, participatory process (cf. Hilgers 2013)
– the creation of shared civil space (be it in the context of an art project or not) must be sustained through
dialogue. This renders sustainability as an ultimately local practice.
BEYOND ‘AFFIRMATIVE CULTURE’
As discussed above, these urban interventions may not be easily recognised as art and indeed they expand
the notion of art into activism and research. 9UB’s aim is to discover, initiate and strengthen local sustainable
behaviour and to generate and sustain trans‐local dialogue on these matters. The Cape Town and Soweto
projects show how dialogical aesthetics and relational objects are put to work in order to make connections
and build relationships of trust that allow shared learning rather than merely bringing voices together that
continue talking on their own. Drawing all biotopes together, 9UB is creating a valuable pool of comparative
case studies in which the politics, possibilities and potentials of dialogue can jointly be investigated.
However, one cannot make sense of the kind of trans-local cultural interventions exemplified by 9UB
without critically considering the wider relations of governmentality that surround the project as well as the
complex institutional landscape in which it sits. The core funding for 9UB comes from the European
Commission Culture Programme (ECCP: Strand 1.3.5). As a policy instrument, this programme seeks to bring
European Heritage to the fore through policies and financial aid, supporting and promoting common
cultural values. The ECCP was established to enhance the cultural area shared by Europeans, based on a
common cultural heritage, through the development of cooperation activities among cultural operators
from member states and third countries, and with a view to encourage the emergence of European
citizenship (EACEA 2013). It is worth noting that the European Union is the biggest source of development
aid in the world, proving more than half of the global budget for development (Kühner 2011). The ECCP is
one of a large number of European policy instruments which seek to employ a multidimensional concept of
culture as a means of development, including economic growth, and of intercultural co-operation as a
means of conflict prevention, individual and community identity building, citizenship and governance,
encouraging political participation. Within the ECCP, every year one or more Third Countries are selected for
co-operation. South Africa was selected as the third country partners of this programme for 2012.
Attention to the cultural politics of interventions such as 9UB, on a translocal global scale, demands a critical
orientation to discourses that provide logic for such projects. A number of critics are concerned with the
global use of culture, in this case of art practice, as an instrument of governmentality. Georg Yúdice (2003)
argues that culture has become a valuable resource that is being invested in, contested and used in an array
of socio-political and economic interests by all kinds of commercial, state, non-governmental and activist
actors. For Yúdice, culture operates as an expedient resource, an aide to neoliberalism, which has the
potential to obfuscate political differences, identity politics, class difference and the inequalities generated
by the global market. The negative effects of free-market capitalism such as environmental destruction,
privatisation of public resources and social inequality are seemingly addressed through cultural means.
Culture becomes an instrument through which populations are managed and democracy is rehearsed.
Significantly, the critical potential of art is emptied out of its potential, as it becomes yet another commodity
(Mouffe 2007).
Much of socially engaged and participatory art practices have their routes in the political left, in the critical
pedagogy of Paulo Freire (2006) and in the practice and aesthetics of Situationism. As Kelly (1984) argues,
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community arts were born in the late 1960s from three strands: the search for experimental art forms,
epitomized by UK’s Art Laboratories movement; the move from the gallery into the streets in order to find
what was perceived as the ‘original’ public; and the emergence of a new type of political activism that
incorporated artistic creativity within their campaigns. Although community artists worked using different
approaches and media they all shared the view that their art was not a particular type of art but a specific
attitude to art (Braden 1978). Artists worked to achieve ‘cultural democracy’, that is, to celebrate all types of
culture, eliminating the distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, with the firm belief that achieving
cultural democracy was a sine qua non condition for political democracy. Today, the conditions of art’s
production have dramatically changed. Art practice described as participatory, community or socially
engaged is increasingly employed by a variety of agents in the context of urban renewal and change. Critics
of this tendency argue that these kinds of projects merely adorn commercial interests and fill in the gaps left
by a shrinking welfare state (Leger 2013; De Bruyne and Gielen 2011) as critical artistic gestures are quickly
recuperated and neutralised (Mouffe 2013; Boltanski and Chiapello 2005), whilst formerly radical traditions
risk being emptied out of their critical political potential.
Therefore, when considering 9UB and the dialogue it brings about, it is important to think carefully about
the deployment of the concept of ‘sustainability’ and its pairing with socially engaged art interventions
delivered on a trans-local basis. 9UB partners are aware of the global cultural politics surrounding their
interventions. As has been exemplified above, the project’s trans-local yet, at the same time, locally
grounded approach offers a fresh perspective on some of the grand narratives of sustainability, also a once
radical discourse which has been thoroughly appropriated by neoliberalism (Evans and Reid 2014). Today
discourses of urban sustainability opportunistically and systematically deploy the notion of ‘ecological
reason’ but, in a discursive twist, nevertheless advocate the continuation of the very global economic order
that has produced the unsustainable conditions of contemporary urban form. Here, similarities become
apparent with another current urban policy discourse, that of resilience. This discourse shares its concern
with securing (here: cultural) diversity and expression and, likewise, finds itself being subjected to discursive
distortions (ibid).
CONCLUSION
To conclude, transnational cultural commissions can easily fall into reinforcing a cultural dynamic of ’the
rest’ learning from ‘the west’ in a re-enactment of well-worn routes of cultural imperialism. With its multi-
level local and trans-local assembly of things and issues, its dialogical aesthetics, rituals of transition,
relational objects and people as infrastructure, 9UB enables shared learning experiences and builds
relationships of trust that allow accessing both the European and African urban contexts from the
productive perspective of ‘otherwheres’ that are not held in positions of otherness. At the same time, 9UB
brings people together in order to raise awareness of their different social and political positions,
perspectives and fields and forms of action. It therefore allows asking the questions of what is being learned
and who is learning from whom? On site, 9UB’s modes of artistic production, its social architectures, ways of
operating and conditions of exchange can potentially overcome “the persistent alignment of a
‘theory’/’development’ dualism with the ‘West’/’third world’ division in urban studies” (Robinson 2002, p.
531). Seen from this perspective, 9UB contributes to trans-local learning not only among project partners
but also within the study of cultural policies and urban futures more generally.
In regard to what can be learned by whom, it is also relevant to look at the partner structure on all levels of
the overall project (residents and neighbours, artists, integrated reporters, hosts and coordinators, funders
and government, non-governmental and academic institutions). 9UB’s ethos of reciprocal learning aims to
strengthen the positions of all these partners within their concrete fields of action (as well as to broaden the
awareness of contemporary urban concerns among the general public). Yet in addition to different regional
contexts that play out on the issues being discussed, imbalances also exist between partners in terms of
their constitutions, positions, aims and ways of working. Project partners invest different interests in 9UB
that are negotiated within the overall project’s changing structure and on-going development (see Horn
2014). Within the overall picture of 9UB’s dialogue network, such imbalances among partners and interests
represent both challenges and opportunities. They can lead to antagonisms and potentially different
outputs, and yet they provide the ground for fruitful dialogue through which know-how can be shared
between ‘otherwheres’ and ‘otherways’. Making these imbalances visible, and making them part of the
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enquiry of 9UB, provides the very framework in which the possibilities and politics of (translocal, cultural,
urban) dialogue can be discussed.
REFERENCES
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Cambridge.
Boltanski, L & Chiapello, E., 2005. The new spirit of capitalism, Verso, London.
Braden, S., 1978. Artists and people, Routledge and K. Paul, London; Boston.
De Bruyne, P & Gielen, P., 2011. Community art. The politics of trespassing, Valiz Antenae, Amsterdam.
De Certeau, M., 1988. The practice of everyday life, University of California Press, Berkeley.
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Pretoria.
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Evaluation Feedback by CUCR, September 2013, 9UB and Goldsmiths, CUCR, Berlin; London, viewed 4 June
2014, <designforthelivingworld.com/ 2013/04/15/soweto-the-soweto-project>.
Hirschkop, K., 1999. Mikhail Bakhtin: An Aesthetic for Democracy. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Horn, S., 2013. Nine urban biotopes project synopsis (English version), June, Berlin.
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Press, Berkeley.
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Durham.
Kelly, O., 1984. Community, art and the state: Storming the citadels, Comedia Publishing, London; New York.
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Kühner M., 2011. The role of culture in EU cooperation with ACP countries. Concepts, actors, and challenges in a
promising field of action, ifa, Stuttgart.
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Making things public: Atmospheres of democracy, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 4-31.
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Moderne Kunst; Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, pp. 155–63.
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Press, Berkeley.
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Yúdice, G., 2003. The expediency of culture: Uses of culture in the global era, Duke University Press, Durham.
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CHANGES AND UPDATES IN THE TEACHING OF ARCHITECTURE. LEARNING FROM INFORMAL CITIES
Maria F. Canteiro Neto, CEAU/School of Architecture University of Porto, Portugal, mneto@arq.up.pt

Jorge H. Canastra Marum, CITAD/Civil Engineering and Architecture Department University of Beira
Interior, Portugal, jmarum@ubi.pt
Abstract
The studies developed by the United Nations within the scope of the perspectives on the world's population
growth for the next 30 years estimate a strong imbalance between the growth and distribution of urban and
rural populations, increasingly accentuating the distances between the world's richest and poorest regions.
The growth projections for the next 30 years predict that, by 2030, about 60% of the world's population will
be living in urban centres, this growth being fundamentally absorbed by the globe's poorest urban regions.
Thus, the critical analysis of this issue in contemporary reflections about the city's problem areas has become
necessary in the study of large urban centres, with special relevance in underdeveloped and densely
populated contexts. From the reality of the numbers and the evidence of the pictures and technical reports,
the paradigms of informal cities, recognize a potential case of reflection and intervention, where the
acceleration of the unsustainable concentration and growth of the population and of the precarious
housing conditions show the need for concrete and effective solutions on the part of the great thinker of the
city: the architect. Crossing information between Architecture schools and their location, it is remarkable to
see that most of them are concentrated in the northern hemisphere. We raise the following questions: Is this
teaching, predominantly in academic moulds, ready to intervene in the southern hemisphere? Is the
education provided in the southern hemisphere schools aware of and faced with these familiar problems?
This is where it enters the conflict of an‘architecture of necessity’ with the traditional boundaries of
architecture as an autonomous subject, too academic and detached from reality.
The non-adaptation of the curriculum plan to the emerging needs today prevents architects, unlike all other
professions, from exercising and being aware of his social duty.
Keywords: human settlements, urban growth, urgency, architectural practice, teaching.
INTRODUCTION
This article aims to demystify the stigma associated with the traditional boundaries of the discipline of
architecture, more specifically of social architecture, applied to the problems of informality, where the area
of intervention is as vast as imagined, complex and culturally diverse.
Assuming that approximately 70% of architecture is carried outside the West but 70% of architects study
and are trained in the West (Sinclair 2012), we understand that what is taught should be directed to what is
needed.
Changing what is regularly meant by architectural practice, an activity of studio and of construction project
traditionally separated from research, from the practice contrary to a theory, from a project for the people
and not with the people (Turner 1972), here is established the need for a new thinking practice in the service
of society.
Reality in numbers. Demography, urbanisation and poverty

The studies developed by the United Nations within the scope of the perspectives on the world's population
growth for the next 30 years estimate a strong imbalance between the growth and distribution of urban and
rural population, increasingly accentuating the distances between the world's richest and poorest regions
(UN-HABITAT 2003).
In fact, if at the beginning of the twentieth century, about 10% of the world's population was living in cities.
In 2000 this value reached 47%, that is, about 2.86 billion inhabitants, in other words about 47%. The growth
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projections for the next 30 years predict that, by 2030, about 60% of the world's population will be living in
urban centres, this growth being fundamentally absorbed by the globe's poorest urban regions.
Figure 1: World population growth, UNFPA/UN.
On the contrary, the rural population will have a slower growth rate of 0.2% per year between 2000 and
2030. Thus, for the more developed regions, the variation of urban population from 2000 to 2030 will be
about 0.9 billion to 1 billion and of 0.29 billion to 0.21 billion in what concerns rural population. In contrast,
in less developed regions the growth of urban population between 2000 and 2030 will be around 1.96
billion to 3.98 billion and 2.9 billion to 3.08 billion for the rural population.
A closer look and according to the 2010 annual report of the Foundation CEAR-Habitat, the world
population has tripled in the last 60 years and, in the case of the paradigmatic African continent, until 1950,
had an increase of only 6% and it is expected to grow about 33% till 2030, only surpassed by Asia with a
growth of 54%. Ironically, European growth, precisely the most significant one between 1750 and 1950, is
expected to decrease in terms of the world population by 2%, giving origin to a clear discrepancy in terms of
the inhabitants of the northern and southern hemisphere countries.
The trend will be towards an increasing urban concentration over rural. If this raises several issues related to
urban planning, the issues regarding the political/governmental effectiveness in framework and control of
these areas are extremely relevant. Thus, the critical analysis of this issue in contemporary reflections about
the city's problem areas has become necessary in the study of large urban centres, with special relevance in
underdeveloped and densely populated contexts.
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Figure 2: Urban and rural populations by development group between 1950 and 2050.
Looking at the reality of the numbers and the evidence of the pictures and technical reports, the paradigms
of informal cities, called slums, preconize a potential case of reflection and intervention, where the
acceleration of the unsustainable concentration and growth of the population and of the precarious
housing conditions show the need for concrete and effective solutions on the part of the great thinker of the
city: the architect.
The urgency of thinking informality

Population growth, when not combined with economic growth, generates poverty (Sachs 2005). In turn,
poverty associated with urban population growth causes an increase of informal constructions. Today we
know that one of the most corrosive aspects that the imposition of the neo-liberal capitalist model brought
to the creation of a more fair society was precisely the promotion of speculation as the only way to develop
the urban space. “‘Overurbanization’, in other words, is driven by the reproduction of poverty, not by the
supply of jobs. This is one of unexpected tracks down which a neoliberal world order is shutting the future”
(Davis 2006, p. 16).
According to the 2007 UN-Habitat report, it is estimated that 7 in every 10 homes which are built in the
world are self-built at margin of the market's formal sector, for every 10 temporary houses, around the world,
there are approximately 18% of non-permanent habitations with highly fragile structures, 4 of them are
located in places of extreme vulnerability, more than 100 million people live in lodgings harmful to health, in
urban environments, in slums.
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Figure 3: Distribution of world urban population by major area, 1950, 2011, 2015.
“And governments know least about their peri-urban borders, those strange limbos where ruralised cities
transition into urbanised countrysides” (Davis 2006, p. 45).
Urban growth is directly related to vulnerability. It is not a coincidence that this informal growth is
concentrated in countries with a lower level of development.
According to the UN-Habitat ‘Slum 2003’ report, the precariousness level of these informal areas, known as
informal human settlements, is measured considering 5 parameters: drinking water, basic sanitation,
sufficient living area, permanent housing and security.
All these issues make us think about the problems of housing and livability. We established that housing is
an urban problem, while habitability is a general problem of society (Forjaz 2011). If we analyse in general
the issue of informality in rural and urban areas, we can easily understand that while in urban areas, families
depend on administrative mechanisms and on the technical capacity of local policies to find a place for their
home and to build it, in contrast, in rural areas those problems are more easily overcome. But in both cases,
the deficiencies in infrastructure and essential services are the same: the lack of drinking water and sources
of energy and also the lack of sanitation and drainage systems, solid waste collection and accessibility of
public services, commerce and socialisation spaces. Forjaz also advocates that, growth of a middle class –
with new needs and demands, is less qualified for manual and technical tasks and with no ability to
community mobilisation – which brings a new dimension to the problem and aggravates the growing
problem between what their needs are and the ability to find solutions. The issue of informality appears to
be even greater when the asymmetric access to basic livability reflects an unbalanced society. This thought
brings the need to (re)consider integrated and sustainable development, where economic growth is only
one of the variables in the equation and not the equation itself.
Necessarily the territory is turning to be helpless, no longer being the place where the action unfolds to
become a place of dispute, as a result of anti-economic, anti-social and environmentally destructive
expansion.
The informal neighbourhoods are shown as an important case of reflection. The acceleration of
concentration and population growth in unqualified terms of sustainability and urban habitability imprint
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the need for concrete and effective solutions on the processes of human development on a territorial and
global scale (Smith 2007).
The investigation of this extended problem of growth and urban densification suggests the reflection
through a particular context: habitability as a basis for solving the problem of adequate housing (Salas
1992).
These new residential areas harbour extreme poverty, with a formal diversity and very complex social aspect,
where their understanding is impossible to cover in one analysis and discourse. However, we are aware of
the need of a theory for a thinking practice. We therefore suggest a critical approach which promotes
practical solutions able to foster new emerging urbanities, where it is considered necessary to systematise
the needs of regional organisations, local administrations and international cooperation agencies for an
optimised management of architectural projects and urban development in partnership with universities
and advanced research centres.
The Institute of Cooperation and Basic Livability (ICHAB) of the ETSAM, led by Julián Salas, reveals an
interesting intervention methodology based on the challenge of basic livability for all, as a solution to the
problem of informality. This methodology is based on 4 steps and simultaneously calls for local political
involvement, for the use of local resources, to empower people and communities participation. This institute
is one of the examples pointed out as an important seed of updates on the curriculums of architecture
schools. An update of practices.
Informality by its scale and impact, requires rethinking starting at the housing scale and ending at the city
scale. From architecture to urban planning.
To intervene on these urban crusts presupposes several challenges, from which we highlight the following:
high costs, difficulties in providing them with basic infrastructures, difficulty in planning and (re)planning
and the inevitable consequence of this entire spontaneous process of urbanisation and the constraint of
urban development due to the massive soil occupation inadequate for housing purposes, preventing the
same space to be used for other purposes and activities. Failure to follow these processes of territorial
occupation by local technicians is perverse. On the one hand, the presence of formal elements connected to
local power legitimises the process and formalises spontaneous urbanisation, raising problems associated
with social equity; on the other hand, the reality of land occupation is growing exponentially and its non-
follow up raises serious governance issues which are reflected on the territory unbalanced development.
There is also the problem of politicised planning too dependent on politics, which requires further political
training and experience in order for planning lines and matrices to become operational. We have recovered
the need to incorporate new contributions within the planning theory through collaborative planning, as
already formulated in the 90’s decade (Healey 1992), which is exactly based on the theory of communicative
action.
It is, of course, within this broad challenge of urban, housing, social and economic qualification that
technicians are called to suggest a sustainable and relational methodology that combines the way of life, the
cost reduction and the socio-political-economic dynamism, changing the roles traditionally assigned to
planners and turning them into process facilitators.
Mapping practices. The discussion around human settlements

Making a brief bibliographic review of the twentieth century history around the discussion of human
settlements, we found several key references on this field. From the several history moments, we highlight
some of them, as they resume and make possible the creation of a reasoned discourse on the need of
(re)thinking human settlements from the architect and architecture point of view as a place and territory
where life develops, reaffirming the importance of their attentive involvement, together with other local
experts and actors essential for a sustainable human development process and in the long term.
We distinguish the creation of the United Nations which gave rise to the League of Nations after World War
II, aiming to maintain international peace and to promote international cooperation in order to solve
economic, social and humanitarian problems. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights officially
declares, in Article 25, the Right to Housing: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the
health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and
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necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability,
widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
Figure 4: International background XXth century
In 1949 starts the era of development through Point IV of the Inaugural Address of President Harry Truman
before the National Congress, promoting the implementation of a bold program to place the benefits and
scientific and technological advances in cooperation with other nations, so that the benefits of scientific
advances and industrial progress are made available to the improvement and growth of underdeveloped
areas.
“We must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial
progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas” (Stokke 2009, p. 49).
Contrarily to what was expected, external support has contributed to a bigger dependence of developing
regions, which are still based on an external financing system that continued generating poverty and
dependence, forgetting that a sustainable development must start from local to global, from the micro to
the macro scale. Human settlements continued developing with almost complete absence of control politics
and previous active planning. In 1965, it is created the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)
aiming to promote the development and to eradicate poverty in the world, investigating on sustainable
human development and the living conditions of the populations.
Between Vancouver and Istanbul, the Habitat I and Habitat II meetings have established the Declaration on
Human Settlements. On the first conference of the United Nations on Human Settlements (Vancouver 1976),
the declaration is divided into three parts: 1. Opportunities and solutions; 2. General principles; 3. Guidelines
for action. The Vancouver action plan includes 64 recommendations for National Action adopted in Habitat.
Relatively to the theme of improving informal settlements we find Recommendation 6, which refers to the
allocation of resources; Recommendation 15, which refers to the improvement of human settlements; and
Recommendation 33, which refers to the support of self-help.
In 1972 J. F. Turner writes the book Freedom to Build along with the text “Re-education of a professional”
and in 1976 he edits Housing by People: Towards Autonomy in Building Environments, launching important
clues for the need to demystify the architect’s training. At the second conference, Habitat II (Istanbul 1996), it
was set the universal general aim of “(...) adequate housing for all and sustainable human settlements in the
world in the process of urbanisation”.
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In 2000, the United Nations launched the Millennium Development Goals for 2015 from the UNDP, outlining
targets and goals on a global scale.
From the eight goals launched we highlight point 7. Where we are called to intervene, with the aim of
improving the lives of thousands of people living in informal settlements, with the support of environmental
policies and programs, allowing secure ownership of their lands and homes, providing the achievement of
cleaner and healthier conditions.
More recently, the declaration of 2010 from UN-HABITAT about “the state of African Cities” reinforced the
idea that “Urban master planning for the rapidly expanding cities mostly failed, because these plans did not
capture the speed of growth in peri-urban areas while they were also not backed up with infrastructural
investments commensurate to this growth” (UN-HABITAT 2010, p. 7).
Even today the definition of human settlement, as a universal concept, is not easy to define due to the great
diversity and complexity of the several inhabited places. It goes from the current territory cities to the
smallest dispersed lodging. A human settlement presupposes, within itself, a complex physical structure,
from housing, equipment and networks of public areas to the great system of territorial connection of large
exterior connection infrastructures.
But it is undeniable that the notion of city and urban space is changing and these informal spaces cannot be
categorised as part of the city. Rem Koolhaas, on his three texts about the city, ironically states: “Housing is
not a problem. Or have been fully resolved and were left completely at random: the first is legal, the second
is "illegal", in the first case or towers are usually buildings (with the maximum depth of 15 meters) and the
second (in perfect complementarily) a crust of makeshift tents. A solution that consumes the pavement and
is a patchwork”.
The paradox between the architect’s traditional training and the need to intervene
The rapid growth of informal cities reminds us that more than 97% of the world is building without
architects, showing that most architect formation is directed to 3% of construction (Aquelino 2011).
It seems very important to raise awareness of the delineation of an operative awareness about this territory.
The scale of the informal city, the substandard housing that extends indefinitely beyond the city limits
planned, materialising a wide spot of informality.
Paradoxically, the need for intervention of the architect in these countries have witnessed a widespread
form of teaching architecture centred on the design methodology based on the building and place in urban
areas, a reality too limited, where concepts such as basic habitability for example, assumptions as set
acquired and not as targets.
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Figure 5: Mapping the schools of architecture. North versus South hemispheres.
Crossing information between schools of architecture and its location, it is striking that most architecture
schools are concentrated in the northern hemisphere of planet earth. We wonder about the readiness of
teaching predominantly in academic moulds to intervene in the southern hemisphere.
Is the education provided in schools in the southern hemisphere sensitised and facing these issues which
are so familiar to it? Will this general crisis, both economic and of values, be an opportunity for the architect
to modernise himself and to occupy a place of mediation for development?
This is where the conflict of this architecture of necessity, with the traditional boundaries of architecture is a
separate subject too academic and detached from reality.
John Habraken, in his most recent book Palladio’s Children (2005), mentions that the architect descended
from Palladio keeps his values, identity and education rooted in the Renaissance legacy of ‘masterpiece’,
which prevents and is contrary to the needs of today and to the attitude expected from today’s architect.
The failure to adapt the curriculum to the emerging needs, prevents, the architect, unlike all other
professions, from exercising and being aware of these issues.
“While it may be debatable whether or not are considered 'architectures' the achievements of cooperation
for the development in Basic Livability which are built, and what it is done to try to solve housing poverty,
there is no doubt that architects are needed for this job” (Pelli 2001).
Perhaps this absence operative generalised by architectural schools is also related to the social role of the
architect and an important mediator in the development process have been repeatedly relegated to an
inferior position to the role of media architecture.
Today, it is urgent that this role will reverse and be formed to intervene in not only elite areas, but also in the
scale of the southern hemisphere, building, creating and collaborating on sustainable growth and dignifying
thousands of families.
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Point to the question of authorship as a major obstacle in the acceptance of this discussion in schools of
architecture, rooted in a notion too traditional and classical of the architect.
The teaching of architecture is, in most cases, facing a broad discussion about authorial identity in this sense,
the school exerts a lot of pressure for a methodology and design copyright individualisation that enhances
the architecture student.
In most cases, the approach of the architectural Project as an academic subject is referred only to the
conceptual operations defined as necessary for the identity and singularity of each project as a response
which gives priority to the artistic and poetic authorial subjectivity instead of the operational ability,
favouring the product and not the process. Closing the student to himself and his work, he is trained to
design for the people and not with the people.
From Boullé and Ledoux, Aldo Rossi and Peter Eisenman, threw themselves constitutive principles of
architecture recognition as a theoretical, thus affirming the disciplinary autonomy of architecture.
Quoting Bernard Rudofsky “(...) architectural History, as written and taught in the Western World, has never
been concerned with more than a few select cultures. In terms of space, it comprises but a small part of the
globe (…) chroniclers present us with a full-dress pageant of ‘formal’ architecture” (Rudofsky 1965, pp. 8-
11).
Rudofsky struggles by extending the study of architecture outside the sphere of 'official' and commercial
architecture. If the presence of authorship is intrinsic to the development of a civilisation, it is also true that
“(...) there is much to learn from architecture before it has become an art expert (...) as a result of a rare
common sense in solving practical problems”.
In this scenario we recover Turner (p. 132). The architecture that commonly bothers to work for people has a
duty to work with people.
In fact behind the crust of informality exists a network of closeness, support and familiarity. This network is
most of the times strategically constructed close to infra-structures and job sources. Invisible elements that
feed and organise those spaces. This is something that we need to learn from informality: understand how
to intervene and how to construct respecting these pre-existing networks.
Intervene and be a facilitator of development, it is most important that the process model is more important
than the author's will and common satisfaction in real places linked to territoriality and emerging needs.
CONCLUSION
Broadening the understanding of the geopolitical issue and of the social, political, economic and ecological
problems, one has analysed the problem of informal habitation as a global problem and as an opportunity
for learning and updating of professional and academic practices. On the majority of global territory, there is
still a prevalence of spontaneous urbanism occupying unsuitable land for urbanisation and vulnerable soils.
The lack of proper instalment, the absence of necessary planning and discipline, without a previously
established network of public spaces, being only limited to precariously build the so-called housing
solutions with scarce resources and techniques.
The problems associated with informality (re)remind us that housing is an issue essential for the architect’s
activity and that the quality of architecture must not depend on a certain material contingency, on a certain
economic and infra-structural scarcity, but rather to claim a critical positioning, involved in its social,
economic and cultural contexts, exercising modalities of political action which critically operate through the
practice of design and construction.
We argue that the sharing of organisational enthusiasm, the informality in the strategies of adopted
construction and organisation and the commitment with community participation in the construction
procedures asserts a set of collaborative, collective and altered modes of space production, which allow to
dissipate more hegemonic notions of architectural work/project and give origin to altered modes of the
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traditional notions of architecture and space, that is worth exploring. In other words, starting from the major
theme which is the problem and urgency of reflecting on informal settlements, this paper suggests an
integrated theoretical study between local institutions and political and academic mechanisms (from
students to professors), promoting an approach of the problems and solutions starting from the study of
specific cases. The methodology is, therefore, an integrated approach of several scales, from the habitability
to the housing unit, a general and abstract approach with local interaction – a thinking practice in the
service of society. We understand that not all architects will be orientated towards this path, but their
knowledge seems inevitable for us. That detachment is critical but difficult to unlearn.
Turner states that: “We architects were deaf and even blind to the now obvious differences between our
own language and that of our clients” (Turner 1972, p. 134).
Thus we conclude that the broad debate on urban contexts with macro informal settlement requires a
multidisciplinary reflection which gathers professors and students in order to implement a new line of
thought and practical research, directly involving the production of knowledge from universities in the
service of society.
The exchange of experiences, knowledge and practices from north to south is a key-note for a richer and
more appropriate teaching to the local needs of each intervention. We challenge schools of architecture
around the world to learn from informality, promoting a new debate on the practice of the architect and his
role in society not as an author, but rather as a mediator for development; not as a simple technician
unaware of local reality and exporting typological and abstract principles, but rather as a professional able to
have an open vision and an integrated strategy with no preconceptions.
So we assume a starting point for discussion of this contemporary informality growth of urban growth and
densification in schools of architecture, through a critical approach capable of promoting practical solutions
that integrate these new emerging urbanities.
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HABITAT, London.
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EVALUATING THE FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE OF SMALL-SCALE PUBLIC DEMOUNTABLE BUILDINGS
Junjie Xi, School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Leverhulme Building, Abercromby Square,
Liverpool, xijunjie2010@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper investigates the design, operation and use of contemporary demountable buildings, and
explores how functional performance can be assessed in small-scale example for public use together with
their relations to other design elements. The research focuses on three case studies that do not require a
high-technology building environment or complex construction skills. Demountable buildings are defined
as those that are transported in a number of parts for assembly on site. Contemporary demountable
buildings respond to ecological issues, social impacts, technological innovation and economic demands.
They can be used to measure a society’s development in environmental sustainability, innovation and
economic growth through various forms. Small-scale demountable buildings fulfil many temporary
habitation needs in diverse roles, such as non-emergency transitional housing, ephemeral exhibition
buildings and seasonal entertainment facilities.
The purpose of examining functional performance is to assess if, and how, the requirements of the design
have been achieved. This enables project operators to address functional performance from a public
perspective by reflecting on the scope and ambition of their projects. The research was conducted by
combining both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including field research, case studies,
interviews, questionnaires and group discussions. Fragmented narratives were transformed into structured
evidence, identifying models of best performance in demountable buildings and developing a new method
– the Evaluation Conceptual Model – for the effective evaluation and evidencing of the value of
demountable buildings in the 21st century. Recommendations for adapting a suitable model to evaluate
other design elements in demountable buildings and other types of moveable buildings in further research
are suggested and the findings have been used to lay the foundations for a practical evaluation tool for the
future.
Keywords: demountable, evaluation, function, public, small-scale.
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
The term demountable building encompasses a wide range of constructions that have a shared attribute:
the ability to be deployed and transported from site to site for re-use or recycling. Many other terms, such as
moveable, mobile, portable, foldable, deployable, transformable, relocatable, adaptable, kinetic and
adaptive, are often used to describe similar designs. Although these terms share a similar meaning, they can
be interpreted differently depending on the specific circumstances.
Robert Kronenburg defines demountable buildings as: “Those that are transported in a number of parts for
assembly on site. They are much more flexible in size and layout and can usually be transported in a
relatively compact space. They have some of the limitations that site operations bring to a conventional
building and, depending on the size, complexity, and ingenuity of the system, are not as instantly available”
(Kronenburg 2002, p. 10).
The use of demountable buildings began in ancient times, evidence for which can be seen around the
world. Prefabricated housing and portable buildings have, in the past, often been considered low quality
and cheap construction choices. From the end of the 20th century up to the present day, a renaissance in
demountable buildings has been seen, particularly for exhibitions and public event use, combining new
technology with building design. Evidence can be seen from many world famous architects, designers and
artists, for example, Shigeru Ban’s Nomadic Museum and paper structure pavilions. Iraq-born British
architect Zaha Hadid has designed three demountable and mobile buildings to date: The Burnham Pavilion,
temporarily erected in Chicago’s Millennium Park as part of the Burnham Plan celebrations in 2009; The
Egypt Pavilion, an elegant and temporary structure exhibited during the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China,
where the architectural part is related to a single, enveloping fabric ribbon that continues from the façade
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into the building and exhibition; and the Chanel Mobile Pavilion, which travelled from Hong Kong to Tokyo
and New York, before setting in Paris.
Shigeru Ban and Zaha Hadid are professionally trained architects but, as well as architects, designers and
artists have also designed extraordinary demountable buildings and structures, with British designer and
artist Thomas Heatherwick, recently designing the Olympic Cauldron for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Similar examples can also be found from small innovative research groups, such as the ICD (Institute for
Computational Design)/ ITKE (Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design) Research Pavilion, built
between 24 June and 23 July 2010. This was a temporary pavilion constructed from plywood strips which
was manufactured in the University of Stuttgart. More projects can be seen in the Serpentine Gallery
commission – a programme of temporary structures by celebrated architects, designers and artists.
The dynamic form of contemporary demountable buildings introduces many questions, including what role
demountable buildings have today. The key features of contemporary demountable buildings and
structures include: diverse forms of building, reflecting the developments in new technology, materials and
construction skills; the blurring of the boundaries between architecture, functional structures, objects such
as furniture, sculptures and installations, because many of them share similar meanings and forms; and more
cross-disciplinary collaborations between architects, engineers, designers, artists, computer programmers
and scientists, working together towards a shared aim with related interests. The concept of demountable
buildings has developed gradually, incorporating evolving new configurations that take into account
ecological considerations, contemporary social context, technology capacity and economic demands.
Ecological considerations
Contemporary conversations about sustainability and ecological considerations with respect to
architecturally related areas are based on the idea of sustainable development, outlined by the Brundtland
Commission in 1987: that the needs of the present society should be met without compromising the ability
of future generations to fulfil their own needs.
In response to ecological considerations, all demountable buildings contain reusable and recyclable
components. They are generally derived from permanent building construction techniques and can take
many diverse forms. Demountable buildings of this type use familiar, bolt-together components in order to
produce a building that can also be disassembled for relocation (Kronenburg 2002, p. 78). More directly,
many demountable buildings can be constructed with recyclable materials such as paper tubes and
cardboard, and renewable materials such as wood, timber, bamboo and even large snow blocks. In
particular, small-scale projects require relatively fewer construction materials and energy costs, thus having
less impact on the environment. It can be argued that the design and use of small-scale public demountable
buildings can greatly encourage the eco-efficiency of the architectural industry by reducing the energy
intensity of goods and services, enhancing the recyclability of materials and maximising sustainable use of
renewable resources.
Social context
In response to societal impact, demountable buildings are often used for temporary emergency needs. They
can represent a better choice for engaging the public and traditional demountable structures, such as tents,
remain useful for responding to disaster mitigation projects. For example, UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) supported a theatrical project with Haitian street theatre
company Zhovie to give displaced people in Port-au-Prince a moment of joy and solace and help to relieve
their fears after the earthquake of 12 January 2010. Zhovie gave their first performance on 11 April 2011 in a
camp at the Haitian capital to an audience of several thousand (United Nationas Educational 2010).
As well as being used in emergency situations, demountable buildings and structures also respond to new
social issues such as urbanisation. UN-Habitat (The United Nations Human Settlements Programme) reports
that the world is moving into the urban age (UN-Habitat 2012), and United Nations Executive Director, Joan
Clos, states that a new type of city is advocated that is a “good”, people-centred city, capable of integrating
the tangible and more intangible aspects of prosperity and, in the process, shedding the inefficient,
unsustainable forms and functionalities of the city of the previous century (UN-Habitat 2012). By doing so,
businesses, academics, civil society, non-governmental and grassroots organisations, trade unions and
professional associations, and political parties need to respond to the situation and bring their contributions
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to cities. One of the solutions proposed by UN-Habitat is to encourage social diversity and mixed land-use.
Land planning can bring about clusters of land uses in appropriate locations, with the flexibility needed to
adapt to the changing requirements of the population. Urban planning must facilitate the deployment of
common spaces that allow encounters, interaction and dialogue between different social and ethnic groups.
The report gives the example of the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics Games in Stratford, London, which
was constructed on brownfield sites that had previously become rundown. Following the conclusions of the
Olympic Games, the site is to be used to accommodate low-cost housing as well as leisure activities. This
emphasises the fact that demountable structures and buildings can inhabit land in a sustainable manner by
occupying sites for a relatively short time.
Therefore, it can be argued that contemporary demountable buildings continue to respond to disaster
mitigations by offering emergency shelter solutions quickly. At the same time, demountable buildings and
structures have great potential to encourage mixed land-use, because their construction requires no, or light
foundations, and they can be erected in many different locations.
Technology capacity
Nick Dunn states that with the development of CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and many other software
packages, concluding Rhino 3D, DesignBuilder and Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis, the variety of design
processes available to architects may influence the fabrication of architecture and its components (Dunn
2012). Such technology has recently been successfully utilised for demountable buildings and structures, for
example, Zaha Hadid’s Mobile Art Pavilion for Chanel which took advantage of digital imaging and
construction processes to create a design with fluid geometries and dynamic spaces (Dunn 2012). Another
temporary installation design by Hadid – the Burnham Pavilion, Chicago – also represents the use of digital
fabrication technology in a demountable structure. The pavilion comprises bent aluminium structural
sections, each shaped and welded to create its unique curvilinear form. Outer and inner fabric skins wrap
tightly around the metal frame to create a fluid shape, and these skins also serve as the screen for video
installations. The project aimed to maximise the recycling and reuse of materials after its role in Millennium
Park and, it can be installed for future use at another site.
The Fabricate Conference, hosted by UCL (University College London) Bartlett School of Architecture,
London in April 2011, presented Gramazio & Kohler’s installation Stratifications, which was a cutting-edge,
assembling method first revealed in the UK. The installation presents a research project of using CNC robotic
arms to construct a brick installation. A similar research project – Flying Machine Enabled Construction at
ETH (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich) Campus in Zürich – pushes the construction of
demountable buildings to a new era. The focus of this project is the assembly and construction of structures
using flying vehicles, the system is built on the Flying Machine Arena platform, with specific components
developed to manage and perform construction. The first use of the Flying Machine Enabled Construction
paradigm is the installation titled Flight Assembled Architecture at the FRAC Centre Orleans. This installation
was developed jointly with architects Gramazio & Kohler, the 6m-high installation addresses radical new
ways of thinking and materialising architecture as a physical process of dynamic formation.
Using flying machines and robots for construction enables building alternative possibilities to be achieved.
The ability of being quickly assembled and deployed is becoming an important requirement, not only for
traditional demountable buildings, but also for new conventional buildings. It can be argued that the use of
demountable structures and buildings encourages designers to rethink design and construction processes
to require an easy dismantling process. According to Matthias Kohler, an effective way to work on the
contemporary reality of architectural design and construction is neither low-tech nor high-tech, but involves
working with generic technologies, such as industrial robots or computers, as they can easily be customised
for a variety of processes and are inexpensive (Sheil & Glynn 2011).
The various choices of construction methods provide dynamic aesthetic forms for demountable structures
and buildings. In this digital age, the technological capacity of a project is strongly linked with the
collaboration between multidisciplinary teams, including designers, structural engineers and contractor
teams. Although the advantages and disadvantages of digital fabrications are yet to be explored further,
evolutionary design methods have a strong potential to allow designers to work on more sophisticated
digital fabrication projects in comparison to traditional architecture and industrially built architecture.
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Economic demands
The design and use of contemporary public demountable buildings are largely related to the creative
industry. For example, the Spanish Pavilion of Shanghai Expo 2012 was clad with wicker panels, which were
made in a rural village in China. The local authority claims that the project brought $11,700,000 of benefits
to the village, because their skills in making wicker panels were recognised through events of the Expo.
According to the NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) Policy and Research
Unit, the economic contribution of the creative industries is widely recognised, and plays an important role
in the UK. In fact, the UK has the largest creative sector in the European Union, arguable the largest in the
world relative to GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The most recent statistics for the creative industries,
published in December 2011, show that they contributed 2.9% of the UK’s Gross Value Added in 2009, and
that 1.5 million people are employed in the creative industries or in creative roles in other industries, making
up 5.1% of the UK’s employment. In addition to this, the IDBR (Inter-Departmental Business Register)
showed an estimated 106, 700 businesses in the creative industries in 2011 (Department for Culture Media
and Sport 2011).
In summary, contemporary demountable buildings currently need to respond to ecological issues, social
impacts, technology innovation and economic demands. Social issues, particularly in urban areas, relate to
sustainable land use, reusable building components and temporary employment. Technology innovation
relates specifically to the design method, construction process and the use of selected materials. The
economic demands have particularly strong impacts on the creative industry and small groups of
entrepreneurs and therefore, it can be argued that contemporary demountable buildings can be used to
measure a society’s development in environmental sustainability, technology innovation and economic
growth through various forms.
KEY FACTORS IN THE DESIGN AND OPERATION OF PUBLIC DEMOUNTABLE BUILDINGS
Stephen Brown states, in his book Communication in the Design Process (2001) that the four subdivisions of
architecture briefing are function, finance, timescale and aesthetics (Brown 2001). This basic frame has been
adapted here to small-scale public demountable buildings in order to analyse their design and operation.
Function
Friedman writes: “The style of a building consists in its users. An unused building is nothing else than a ruin”
(Friedman 2000, p. 105). He states in his essay ‘Function Follows Form’; “function, for architects, is a
mechanistic concept; how should a building be used? The function of each architectural space is
determined, first of all by the equipment specific for that space: furniture and fixture” (Friedman 2000, p.
105).
Steen Eiler Rasmussen writes: “The building should be experienced in function” (Rasmussen 1962, p. 158).
The author concludes that, in this paper, functional performance means the satisfaction levels of operating
the events, planning the project, monitoring the construction and dismantling process, communicating with
the local authorities, visiting the buildings and participating in the activities. The functional performance of
small-scale public demountable buildings can be evaluated based on suitability, reliability and flexibility.
Suitability measures the degree to which a demountable building serves the users’ (clients and visitors)
needs, reliability measures the continued quality of a building throughout its lifespan, and flexibility focuses
on the design and measures whether it serves multi-functional purposes and can be adapted to other
projects. Only by assessing the functional performance will clients discover the operational efficiency,
designers discover the planning efficiency, developers discover the construction efficiency, planning
consultants discover the acceptability by the users and appropriateness at the building site, and the users
discover the functional efficiency.
Finance
Generally, the scale of a demountable building is a key aspect in controlling its finance. For example, a
smaller scale building will require less material and should therefore, cost less. Further ways to help reduce
costs include re-using the building elements, and a key characteristic of a demountable building is that most
of its components can be dismantled and re-constructed in whole or in part. If they have been well
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maintained the elements that make up the components can be re-used many times rather than being
abandoned or recycled.
An efficient method of cost reduction is the use of local materials to reduce material transportation costs.
Shigeru Ban’s Nomadic Museum, which was constructed from steel shipping containers and paper tubes
travelled from New York to Santa Monica and then to Tokyo, but each building site, the majority of the
containers used were from the local area. Only small numbers of containers were retained for the
transportation of other construction materials such as paper tubes. The containers used for transportation
were then reused as construction elements (Ban & Gould 2009). A further possible method of cost reduction
is to apply multiple functions to limited space, for example, circulation space can also be used as exhibition
areas or reception.
Whole-life costing is a useful tool for estimating the best cost option for the life of a building and, according
to William Fawcett, is used as an essential foundation for sustainable design. It means that when comparing
alternative strategies for constructing a project, the cheapest appearing alternative may not be the most
economical in the long term. Whole-life costing can often show that a durable and efficient building, despite
higher construction costs, is better value and more sustainable in the long-term than a more cheaply built
design with high running costs (Fawcett 2012).
Reducing building costs alone does not necessarily make a building economically sustainable. If a
demountable building has been built for commercial purposes, it may offer faster payback and commercial
benefits for the project owners by comparison with static buildings. If there is insufficient payback or
commercial benefits, the building can be considered to be unsuccessful. It is argued here that ‘finance
management’ not only refers to reduction (materials costs, transporting and construction time), but also to
growth. Growth includes improving the quality of the buildings’ functions and usability, and improving
quality of life, for example by engaging with the local community. Growth can also mean creating increased
opportunities for commercial benefits for future projects.
Timescale
Timescale is the duration of the project, and in this paper, it includes: design, construction, use (by events
operators and visitors), deployment and transportation. Some demountable buildings will be completely
reconstructed following redeployment, and others will be partly re-used and some will be entirely recycled.
Through the study of existing projects, this paper analyses the entire life cycle of a demountable building
within the three scenarios:
(i) All building elements will be re-used - following use, and according to specific needs, some
demountable buildings are immediately redeployed and some will be transported for temporary
storage before being used or exhibited again. The difference is that the buildings which require
storage incur additional transportation time and costs compared to those which are directly
transported to the next building site.
(ii) A quantity of building elements will be re-used - in some circumstances, it is not necessary to re-use
the entire building, for example, where clients expect new designs, or if it is more cost-effective for
stakeholders to recycle some building parts. It is also possible that some building elements cannot
be re-used due to damage or because they are made from low-quality materials which will not
withstand a further use. In these cases, some elements are abandoned by the project directors at
the end of the deployment.
(iii) All building elements will be recycled - sometimes, it is most efficient to recycle the entire building,
particularly when the first design is not considered successful or where the project owner does not
need to keep the design. Budgetary reasons or transportation limitations can also affect this
decision.
A timescale and clear objectives are normally established and agreed during the architectural briefing
process. Herein the project overview needs to be broken down into manageable tasks. This helps to classify
the tasks required and identify the relationships between each work package before establishing what will
be required to complete each task. Risk and uncertainty may also be revealed during this process. Gantt
Chart, Microsoft Excel and Network Analysis Software such as Mind Genius can be used to aid architects and
project managers to schedule realistic tasks in order to achieve the design objectives.
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Aesthetics
Aesthetics is defined by Michael Kelly as “critical reflection on art, culture and nature” (Kelly 1998, p. ix). In
architecture, aesthetics generally means appearance and sense, referring to matters of visual quality of the
building. Kevin Lynch considers the term “aesthetics” too vague, and describes as the “unanalysed
residuum,” or what is left after the objective analysis of built form (Lynch, Banerjee, & Southworth 1990, p.
259). The aesthetics of demountable buildings can be understood as: visual appearance, acceptability by the
users and appropriateness at the building sites.
The visual appearance of objects is communicated by the way in which they reflect and transmit light.
According to Harold T. Nefs, this transmission of light is determined by the shape, material, colour and
illumination of the object at different levels (Schifferstein & Hekkert 2008). The author summarises that the
visual appearance of demountable buildings is determined by the combination of scale, construction
system, material, colour and illumination at different percentages.
The assessment of ‘building friendliness’ is decided by its acceptability to the users, which means how well
the design of the building is accepted by people psychologically. Generally, architects have tools (simulation
software, monitoring equipment) to measure the physical performance of buildings. However, there are no
‘tools’ to measure ‘building friendliness’. This ‘friendliness’ can instead be measured through psychological
experiments.
Most demountable buildings are temporarily constructed within a permanent site. Generally, they are built
in open spaces with easy access, such as parks, squares, car parks, harbours and, sometimes, inside a large
building. Apart from open spaces, there are also small, relatively restricted, informal spaces in urban areas
which can be used to construct small-scale demountable buildings. In Tokyo, for example, architect
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto found that there are small buildings, between streets, along widened roads, and in the
spaces between tracks and streets. Most of these buildings are built at a low cost, are not spectacular in
design, and have not required cutting-edge technology. Tsukamoto called these buildings “pet
architecture”, and much of it is built as small retail, hairdressing and property agencies. Some ‘pet
architecture’ is entirely demountable and its temporary existence became a tool for Tsukamoto to use to
explore how towns and cities have been developed through time.
Apart from open space and informal space, another key fact regarding the sites of demountable buildings is
that heavy foundations are often not required due to the light weight nature of many demountable
buildings. Furthermore, demountable buildings can be surrounded by the natural environment, built
environment or both. The existing environment provides standards for designing new buildings and sites in
the vicinity. Contextual issues concern material choices, as well as the size and proportion of buildings. A
well-chosen open space can strengthen a demountable building’s identity and provide additional value, by
being a pleasant environment conducive to more active activities. The arrangement and positioning of a
demountable building not only depends on the availability of the construction space, but also on the
position of the surrounding existing buildings. The key relationship between a demountable building and its
static background is that the users are aware of the temporality of the demountable building and the
motionless of its background. As such, the users create the criteria of how well the demountable building is
perceived, and this indicates the importance of users’ opinions to this research.
A conceptual model for evaluation

At the time of writing, there are few documented or practical evaluation/analysis methods specifically
designed for demountable buildings. During this research process designers of demountable buildings,
started a tendency to evaluate projects through empirical experience gained from other demountable or
static building projects. In the past, a variety of standards, principles, software and multi-dimensional
methods, originally designed for other purposes, have been used, in part, for demountable buildings, such
as, ISO (International Organization for Standardization) Standards, including ISO 14000, written initially for
environmental protection systems. Guiding principles for shelters after disasters, such as Habitat (United
Nations Centre for Human Settlements Guidelines for the Evaluation of Post Disaster Programmes), have been
taken as a framework for evaluating rehabilitation interventions in human settlements. Assessment systems
such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), BREEAM (Building Research Establishment
Environmental Assessment Method) and CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment
Efficiency) have been used for providing practical and measurable green building frameworks. Software
such as ASPIRE (A Sustainability Poverty and Infrastructure Routine for Evaluation), IES (Integrated
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Environmental Solutions) and DesignBuilder have also been implemented as evaluation tools. In addition,
more specific methods and guidelines, such as CASBEE for Temporary Construction Criteria, Temporary
Structures in Historic Places (Guidance for Local Planning Authorities, Site Owners and Event Organisers) by
English Heritage and Temporary Building Design Guide by Aberdeen City Council, have been modified for use
in demountable building designs. These evaluation methods belong to various different technical fields and
scientific disciplines, such as economics, different branches of engineering, structural technology,
architecture and town planning.
Having identified the key factors of demountable buildings and studied the existing evaluation methods,
the results of the review suggest that a conceptual toolkit can be proposed to develop a conceptual model
for the effective evaluation and evidencing the value of demountable buildings. In order to achieve this, two
main criteria must be met:
• This method will be developed for building users and visitors, and practitioners engaged in
the commissioning, design, planning, production and management of the demountable
building.
• This method will focus specifically on assessing and measuring the functional value of the
completed demountable building, and will provide a unique tool for everyone involved in
the production and use of buildings to gain a deeper understanding of their design.
Through a review of the relevant literature, the Design Quality Indicator (DQI) method, which “seeks to
complement methods for measuring performance in construction by providing feedback and capturing
perceptions of design quality embodied in buildings” (Gann, Salter & Whyte 2003, p. 318), was identified.
The key features of the DQI include:
• It is a pioneering process for evaluating the design quality of buildings. The DQI is based on a
research project aiming to provide a toolkit for improving the design of buildings. It seeks to
complement methods for measuring performance in construction by providing feedback
and capturing percentages of design quality embodied in buildings. Development of the DQI
has been led by the CIC (Construction Industry Council), with sponsorship from the DTI
(Department of Trade and Industry), CABE (Commission for Architecture and Built
Environment), Constructing Excellence and Strategic Forum for Construction, and with
support from the OGC (Office of Government Commerce). The DQI can be developed into an
easy-to-use online tool, with access for everyone involved in the procurement and use of
buildings.
• David M. Gann, Ammon J. Salter and Jennifer K. Whyte argue that the benefit of the DQI is its
role as a “tool for thinking”, rather than being an absolute measure. As such, it has the
potential to capture lessons from current building designs for strategic future use, as well as
initiate, represent and inform discussion involving designers, clients, producers and end-
users and their perceptions of the tangible and intangible aspects of the possibilities within
live design projects (Gann, Salter & Whyte 2003, p. 318). The benefits of the DQI make it
suitable for developing a conceptual evaluation model for demountable buildings because,
as outlined in Chapter 2, the evaluation methods can be varied and optional, and the key is
to select methods that reflect the architects’ design intentions.
The key features of the DQI satisfy the required criteria for developing a conceptual model, therefore
suggesting that the DQI is suitable for being adapted for the design of a new tool that can be used for the
post-occupancy evaluation of small-scale, public, demountable buildings.
In order to clarify the scope of the evaluation model, the term conceptual model has the following
meanings:
• It is not intended for a direct application in the building assessment industry or market.
Although this paper concludes that there are possibilities for developing the conceptual
model further into a direct practical toolkit.
• It intends to convey a common conceptualisation through which it is possible to develop an
understandable evaluation model. The model is adaptable for its broadest users, including
architects, designers, clients, building users and all other stakeholders.
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• As a conceptual model, it does not cover a wide range of evaluation factors. Instead, it
concentrates on solving the specific problem of how to evaluate the functional performance
of small-scale, public, demountable buildings.
Twenty-seven indicators are identified through the previous research: thermal comfort quality, acoustic
quality, spatial comfort quality, design for disabled users, circulation space, furniture arrangement, storage
consideration, usability, maintainability (material), maintainability (structure), construction preparation,
physical plant, administrative service cost, cost of allocation, dismantling cost, cost for transportation and
storage, usage time, deployment time, transportation time, scale, structure, material, colour, illumination
(daylight), illumination (artificial lighting), acceptability to the users and appropriateness at the building site.
They were selected following these instructions:
• Evaluation indicators are reasonable and appropriate, which means that they present the key
features of demountable buildings, and they are concerned with the building’s functional
performance but no other performance, including energy costs and temperature
measurement. They are also related to post-occupancy evaluation.
• The evaluation questions regarding the indicators are measurable and answerable. They
should be able to identify clear and observable dimensions of functional performance that
are relevant to the evaluation goal and represent domains in which the evaluation can
realistically be expected to make accomplishments. The evaluator can select a single answer
from five options: strongly disagree; disagree; neither agree nor disagree; agree and strongly
agree.
The FFTA tool

The FFTA (function-finance-timescale-aesthetics) tool assists a demountable building’s management team in
defining and checking the evolution of functional performance quality at the post-occupancy evaluation
stage. There are two main parts to the FFTA tool: the FFTA questionnaire and the FFTA visualisation. The
FFTA questionnaire is a coherent, straightforward, non-technical set of statements that collect the opinions
from all stakeholders by looking at the function, finance, timescale and aesthetics of small-scale, public
demountable buildings. Function concerns a demountable building being used effectively for what it is
intended. This is split into use, access, space and usability. Finance focuses on reviewing the final costs of the
building and the consideration of dismantling costs, waste management, transportation and storage, where
applicable. Timescale relates to examining the use-time of a building, and the time for building deployment
and transportation after dismantling. Aesthetics is assessed from the visual appearance of the building, as
well as acceptability to users and appropriateness at the building sites.
The FFTA questionnaire includes two sheets: the evaluation indicator list, and the details of the
questionnaire. The purpose of the indicator list is to clarify the exact meaning of each indicator and provide
a common understanding for the evaluator before they fill in the questionnaire. The questionnaire is
presented on a single sheet, with clear instructions that allows the evaluators to treat uncertainty explicitly,
thus, when the evaluator is asked about their opinion on the colour of the building, they are able to select a
response from five alternatives in hierarchy order from low to high: strongly disagree, disagree, neither
agree nor disagree, agree and strongly agree
The weighting system of FFTA can be applied and indicates the evaluator’s opinion: strongly disagree,
disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree and strongly agree. The results can be distorted depending on
how the respondents judge the success of various aspects of the building.
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First Round Evaluation SecondThermal

Round Evaluation Third Round Evaluation
Appropriateness Acoustic
Acceptability Spatial
Illumination (artificial lighting) Disabled
Illumination (daylight) Circulation
Colour Furniture
Material Storage
Structure Usability
Scale Mantainability
Transportation time Construction preparation
Dismantling time Physical plant
Deployment time Administrative serivce cost
Operation tme Waste management

Transportation and storage cost Dismantling cost
Figure 1: The FFTA weighting diagram – a possibility.
FFTA can be graphically presented in various ways and can highlight comparisons between groups of
respondents, comparing the views of the building’s eventual users with those of the delivery team. For
example, each stakeholder can rank the indicators separately, and the results can be generated together for
further comparison. It can also be used to compare a number of stages of the evaluation and present how
these are being achieved by the modifications in design. For example, after a demountable building is
evaluated and dismantled for further use, design changes are sometimes made because of common factors
such as the clients’ needs, site requirements or a part of the building components needs to be replaced.
When the building is used for the second or third time, the evaluation results can be different. At this stage,
the results can be presented for comparison and reviewing over time.
The FFTA conceptual tool has been developed for the post-occupancy evaluation of small-scale, public use,
demountable buildings. It can be used by architects, designers, project owners, other stakeholders or
external evaluators who are interested in examining the functional performance of the projects.
It can be used flexibly according to the evaluator’s requirements. For example, based on the same criteria,
the architect can first rank each indicator, and later use the results of questionnaires and interviews with
users to rank the indicators for a second time from the users’ perspective. Therefore, two results can be
presented together for comparison and, by doing this, the differences can be easily identified for further
investigation.
Having proposed an evaluation conceptual model, the next step is to identify a series of case studies and
test the usability and practicability of this model through projects that have been successfully constructed
and used to serve their functions.
CASE STUDIES
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Figure 2-4: Chengdu Hualin Elementary School; Exxopolis (2012); Kreod in the evening.
Three case studies were selected for consideration in this research: Chengdu Hualin Elementary School in
Chengdu, China, designed by Shigeru Ban Architects from Japan, 2008; Exxopolis, designed and exhibited in
2012 by Architects of Air, a company based in Nottingham, UK, with twenty years of experience in designing
and constructing inflatable structures; and Kreod, a multi-functional structure delivered by designer
Chunqing Li, exhibited from 18 September 2012 – April 2013 between the O2 Arena and Emirates Air-Line in
the Greenwich Peninsula, London, with plants for further display in the UK after dismantling. The table
below provides a summary of each case study.
Table 1: Case study comparison
Hualin School Exxopolis Kreod

Research methods Interviews, Interviews, Interviews,
questionnaires for users, questionnaires for both questionnaire for the
volunteers and designer the users and designer main designer
Designers Shigeru Ban Architects Architects of Air (Alan Pavilion Architecture
(Yasunori Harano) Parkinson) (Chunqing Li), Ramboll
(Harri Lewis, Jogn
Harding, Stephen
Melville), Evolute (Florin
Isvoranu, Michael
Elgensatz, Alexander
Schiftner)
Client Chengdu Hualin Various (Lakeside Arts Various
Elementary School Centre, June 2012)
Owner Chengdu Bureau of Architects of Air Li Investment
Education
Date of implementation August 2008 Various (started from Various (started from
2012) September 2012)
Software used Auto CAD Rhino 3D Auto CAD, Evolute
Architectural model A 1:100 model was made No model, but A 1:100 model was
before the construction cardboard was used to made two years before
test the design concept the construction, and
the actual structure was
modified to ensure
construction safety
Main function Specific function – Multi-functional Multi-functional
school building (non- (commercial) (commercial)
commercial)
Location Chengdu City, Sichuan Various (the location Various (currently
Province, China that has been included limited to the UK, and
in this research was in the exhibition that has
Nottingham, UK) been included in this
research is located in
London, UK)
Scale and capacity 9.7×6×4.68m each 50×20×10m (estimated), 3×2m2, up to 66 visitors
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classroom, up to 280 up to 70–80 visitors at at the same time.

students and 6–8 the same time
teachers
Type of architecture Building Inflatable structure Flat-pack structure
Material Paper tubes, plywood PVC plastic Wood, steel
Construction team Volunteer students Temporary labourers Volunteer students
Contributions • Provides a pleasant • Provides a bright and • A success in applying a
studying environment friendly environment for parametric design
for 250 pupils and their visitors method to
teachers • Provides a friendly demountable structures
• Increases the environment for • Shows sophistication
awareness of using disabled visitors in using cutting edge
sustainable construction • Engages the local modelling software
materials in China community and • Encourages
• Supports architectural encourages architectural education
education by providing communication and • A good example of
wide voluntary skills learning setting up a small
opportunities • Encourages people’s business in the
• Entirely demountable; understanding of culture architecture industry in
the paper tubes and nationally and the UK
plywood can be internationally
recycled, the PVC • Valuable in the
windows and doors can research relating to
be reused pneumatic structures
• The project creates
very little construction
waste
Limitations • Lack of funding • Lack of sophistication • Lack of consideration
management in using computer in selecting
• Building lifespan software construction materials
unclear • Lack of creativity in • Not convincing in
• Lack of communication design claiming the project is
between the designer sustainable
and the school
Recommendations To encourage more solid To encourage more To consider good
communication design types reasons for choosing
materials
This research has benefited from the selected case studies in various respects:
• The three case studies provide a series of evidence to prove that small-scale, public use,
demountable buildings can identify a specific need which it sets out to meet satisfactorily
and efficiently. They are lightweight, flexible in function, require a small construction team
and building site, and can be deployed and dismantled in a short time.
• The case studies show that demountable buildings can provide the same functional
performance as transitional buildings. They can be made from much more sustainable
construction material, such as paper, cardboard, wood, recyclable plastics and metals. A
major benefit of using a demountable building is that it can be constructed and deployed
rapidly without leaving heavy foundations.
• Both Exxopolis and Kreod prove that small-scale public demountable buildings can offer the
satisfaction of producing something that is all one’s own, and each project can be unique.
Importantly, they can be used for the designers and project owners to promote their
business in the creative industry.
• Case studies are used to examine the evaluation indicators, which are concluded from
analysis and synthesis of an in-depth review of the design, use and operation of
contemporary demountable buildings.
• They can be used to test the conceptual model designed by the author, to demonstrate how
a small-scale public demountable building project can be evaluated holistically. In order to
1314
achieve a relatively objective evaluation result, evaluation questionnaire sheets were sent to
each designer to rank the evaluation indicators. These evaluation indicators were ranked
objectively for each case study, based on the data collected through site visits,
questionnaires and interviews. The final stage concentrates on comparing the evaluation
results between the designers and the author and the gaps are identified with further
questions and recommendations.
The following diagrams provide the results of the post-occupancy evaluation of each case study.
Ranked by the users
Thermal
Ranked by the designer
Artifical lighting Disabled
Daylight Circulation
Colour Furniture
Material Usability
Structure Maintainability
Scale Construction
Transportation (t) Physical plant
Dismantling (t) Waste
Deployment Dismantling
Operation Transportation
Figure 5: Post-occupancy evaluation of Chengdu Hualin elementary school.
At present, no decision has yet been made regarding the final destination of the paper school. There is clear
evidence that the school intends to use the paper building for as long as it remains. The school leader
should consult Shigeru Ban Architects for information on how to maintain the building in the future and
how to dismantle the building if applicable.
The information gathered from this case study suggests that encouraging more communication between
the designers and the school leaders is important during the post-occupancy evaluation (POE). The purpose
of POE is to engage the building users and the designer to provide more appropriate designs in future
projects and make changes where necessary.
Shigeru Ban Architects evaluates their disaster relief projects through questionnaires and revisits, including
the Container Temporary Housing in Japan and the Transitional Cathedral project for Christchurch, New
Zealand. The main reason for the company not evaluating the Hualin project until the end of 2012 could be
due to difficulties in communication. Reiji Watabe states that he and Harano are the only two staff in Ban’s
office who were involved in the Hualin project, and it is unlikely that any volunteer from Japan would visit
the school in the near future. They only evaluated the project with regards to the materials used, time spent
and other descriptive information, and not from a self-critiquing perspective to analyse the project
management.
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An interview was arranged on 4 December 2012 with Watabe regarding the completion of the evaluation
questionnaire for the Hualin School. The only performance indicator for which Watabe selected disagree was
the use-time of the building. Apart from this, he selected strongly agree for all other indicators. Based on the
outcomes of the user questionnaires and field research, the author ranked the indicators from the users’
perspective and compared the results with the designer’s opinions.
The author will continue to liaise with all key stakeholders in the Hualin School and further observe the
school’s final decision on the building. Information and feedback will be passed directly to the architect,
Harano, for further discussion and critique.
Thermal
Appropriateness Acoustic Ranked by the users
Ranked by the designer
Colour Furniture
Material Storage
Structure Usability
Scale Maintailability
Transportation(t) Construction
Dismantling(t) Physical plant
Deployment Administration
Operation Waste
Transportation Dismantling
Figure 6: Post-occupancy evaluation of Exxopolis.
From observations on site, it was noted that a baseball was put on top of each metal peg to protect the PVC
plastic from any potential scratch damage. One of the members of staff, whose main task was during the
construction process, said that she once injured her knee on a metal peg that she could not see clearly in the
dark when checking the structure after it was deflated. Fluorescent tape could be used to cover the baseball
so that they could be seen clearly in the dark. Furthermore, when the structure was deflated, the pegs would
stay in the same location so that, with the help of the illuminated tape, the general shape of the structure
could still be seen in the dark when people walked or drove past. This could encourage the curiosity of
potential visitors and promote the design even when it is closed in the evenings.
The author noted that during some exhibitions, signs are put outside the structure to remind visitors that
the luminarium is not a bouncy castle and that children are not allowed to jump on the structure. This limits
the enjoyment of the design as young visitors may find it a more exciting experience if they could interact
with it through jumping and running. Parkinson explains that his objectives for the design are to create a
relaxing atmosphere for all visitors, instead of aiming it only at a particular group of people. Although the
designs of Architects of Air have been developed significantly over the last 20 years, especially in the
techniques of manufacturing much larger inflatable structures, the purpose of the designs have not been
developed towards alternative creative approaches.
1316
Parkinson completed the designer questionnaire on 27 November 2012. He selected disagree on two
performance indicators, namely thermal comfort quality is appropriate for its use and artificial lighting levels
in the structure are satisfactory. Apart from these, he agreed or strongly agreed with the majority of the
indicators. Based on the outcomes of the user questionnaires and field research, the author ranked the
indicators from the users’ perspective and compared the results with the designer’s opinions. The results are
similar; however, the visitors showed more positive opinions towards the artificial lighting and
considerations of circulation space.
Thermal
Ranked by the users
Acceptability Spatial Ranked by the designer
Colour Furniture
Material Storage
Structure Usability
Scale Mantainability
Transportation(t) Construction
Dismantling(t) Physical plant
Deployment Administration
Operation Waste
Transportation Dismantling
Figure 7: Post-occupancy evaluation of Kreod.
The Kreod project raises an important question over whether natural materials are a good option for
parametrically designed buildings and functional structures. The designer needs to consider good reasons
for selecting construction materials and to do this, the designer needs inventive spatial and constructional
concepts. During the manufacturing process, a large number of wooden components could not be used and
were burnt as an energy resource for hot water. Li was not aware of the problems of timber prefabrication
until he visited the studio in May 2012, and prior to that, he had received images from the Liverpool Scenic
Workshop through email that suggested the prefabrication was going well. It was not until then that Li
realised the project was going to be delayed for at least two months. It could be argued that, when Li was
concentrating on seeking partnerships and sponsors, he ignored the importance of monitoring the project
process and because the project was delayed until September, it missed the opportunity of attracting
visitors who came to the site for the London 2012 Olympics Games. The designers of small-scale
demountable buildings, who are often also the project managers, need to pay particular attention to the
project monitoring because it is critical to ensure that a demountable building/structure project can meet its
deadline. During a conversation with the author on 6 December 2012, Li revealed that his initial intention of
constructing the pavilion was to create a working methodology in architecture to prove the importance of
practice in education. Moreover, he intends to succeed in his first step of entrepreneurship in the UK
through this pavilion, and further monitoring of Kreod is proposed in the future.
Li completed the designer questionnaire on 17 December 2012. He selected agree and strongly agree for
the majority of the performance indicators. Regarding thermal comfort, storage, use-time, time for
1317
deployment and artificial lighting, he selected neither agree nor disagree. The main reason for this was that
the structure is going to be in use until August 2013, and the artificial lighting was not installed. Kreod was
used as the press and visitor centre for Ecobuild exhibitions in London from 5 – 7 March 2013. A large scale
project - Kreod Trading Pavilion Rio 2016 is being planned and the designer hosted the press launch in
London on 12 September 2013.
CONSLUSION
The Evaluation Conceptual Model – FFTA (function-finance-timescale-aesthetics) – is currently the only

existing comprehensive method that is dedicated to evaluating the functional performance of demountable
buildings. The model is based upon a comprehensive range of literature and carefully selected case studies,
which were framed as an “explore-proposition-test” research approach. The model was tested on live
projects and this paper demonstrates that it is practical and adaptable for wider disciplines, including
exploring new architectural design methods, identifying cultural changes in urban studies, and increasing
the economic benefits for different sectors, such as local city councils and small enterprises. Although
limited in some aspects, including the need to further explore the usability of this model to develop a more
sophisticated evaluation tool, the research results have established a valuable foundation for future
investigations, which benefits academia, architecture and design practice.
REFERENCES
Ban, S, Miyake, R, Luna, I & Gould, LA., 2009. Shigeru Ban: Paper in Architecture, Rizzoli, New York.
Brown, SA., 2001. Communication in the design process, Spon Press, London; New York.
Gann, DM, Salter, AJ Whyte, JK., 2003. ‘Design quality indicator as a tool for thinking’, Building Research & Info
rmation, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 318-333.
Dunn, N., 2012. Digital fabrication in architecture, Laurence King, London.
Fawcett, W., Whole-life costing, http://www.carltd.com/wholelife.htm.
Hughes, J & Sadler, S., 2000. Non-plan: Essays on freedom participation and change in modern architecture and
urbanism, Architectural Press, Oxford; Boston.
Kelly, M., 1998. Encyclopedia of aesthetics, Oxford University Press, New York.
Kronenburg, R., 2002. Houses in motion, Academy Editions, London.
Lynch, K, Banerjee, T, Southworth, M., 1990. City sense and city design: Writings and projects of Kevin Lynch, MI
T Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Rasmussen, SE., 1962. Experiencing architecture, MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
, Mass.
Schifferstein, H & Hekkert, P., 2008. Product experience, Elsevier, San Diego.
Sheil, B & Glynn, R., 2011. Fabricate: Making digital architecture, Riverside Architectural Press, Toronto.
Sport, DFCMA, 2011. Creative Industries economic estimates: Full statistical release, viewed 16 January 2013,
http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/research/Creative-Industries-Economic-Estimates-Report-2011-
update.pdf.
UN-HABITAT, 2012. State of the world’s cities report 2012/2013: Prosperity of cities, viewed 15 January 2013,
http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=3387.
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PART 7 : DESIGN SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT (DSD)

DSD (www.designsocietydevelopment.org) is a Community of Practice (CoP) based in the Faculty
of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA), university of Johannesburg (uJ). its members represent the
disciplines of Design, Development Studies and Economics. in the face of staggering inequality in
South Africa, DSD interrogates research and projects that focus on the intersection of design, society
and development.
designer with over a decade of experience. His interest is in design and technology for sustainable
development and his current transdisciplinary Doctorate in Development Studies explores innovation
and adaptation of technology by small-scale urban farmers in Johannesburg.
Terence Fenn, lecturer in Multimedia, uJ, is interested in interactive design and is currently enrolled
Master of Art and Design Education at the university of new South Wales. His primary areas of interest
include design for social development, design thinking and interactive technologies.
naudé Malan, PhD and Senior lecturer, Development Studies, uJ, has previously studied participation
in Agricultural Development and his Doctorate investigated the role of Civil Society in the realization
of the right to have access to social security. He is a Visiting research Fellow at the Centre for African
Studies at Cambridge university and has taught at various faculties within uJ.
GO TO CONTENTS PAGE
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE DESIGN SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT
!
TRANSIT ORIENTATED DEVELOPMENT AND ITS APPLICATION IN A SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT
Tom Steer, AECOM SA (Pty) ltd, South Africa, thomas.steer@aecom.com
Abstract
South Africa is experiencing a rapid rate of urbanisation, and as a result is struggling to expand infrastructure,
build housing, provide health care and educate its population. Transit Orientated Development (TOD) is well
known worldwide urban phenomenon linking transport infrastructure to property development in a sustainable
way. It is possible that TOD principles, developed carefully within a South African context could help urbanise
South Africa in a structured, rapid and sustainable way.
Keywords: transit orientated development, TOD, sustainable development, development, transit,

transportation, South Africa, Africa, urbanization.
INTRODUCTION
"A good land use plan is a good transportation plan" Brent Toderian, President of the Canadian Council for
Urbanism.
South Africa is experiencing a rapid rate of urbanisation, and as a result is struggling to expand
infrastructure, build housing, provide health care and educate its population. Transit Orientated
Development (TOD) is well known worldwide urban phenomenon linking transport infrastructure to
property development in a sustainable way. It is possible that TOD principles, developed carefully within a
South African context could help urbanise South Africa in a rapid, sustainable way.
Major centres in South Africa are experiencing rapid urbanisation, this is compounded by a burgeoning
immigrant population from the SADC1 region. Johannesburg, Specifically the Gauteng city region is set to
grow into a “megacity” of 30million people in the next 40 years or so (Wood et al. 2012).
GAPP has carefully outlined a scenario of urban densification under the GSDF2 that aims to densify the
extensive urban sprawl that exists in post Apartheid South African cities. It is carefully based on identifying
sustainable city building solutions by identifying pockets of redundant land around existing and potential
transport interchanges for development3. This study also identifies expanded rail/transport systems as a
logical extension of existing networks by consultation with transport planners.
SO HOW TO ACCOMMODATE ALL THESE PEOPLE IN A SUSTAINABLE WAY?
It is no secret that sustainable cities (or those that are close to being so) are cities which have a great urban
transit network, linked to an advanced land use policy which seeks to lessen the use of the private motor car.
!
1
South African Development Community comprising South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mocambique.
2
Gauteng Spatial Development Framework 2011.
3
"Erky Wood: http://www.gapp.net/images/pdf/Some%20thoughts%20on%20the%20sustainable%20future.pdf
1320
!
SO HOW DO YOU LINK LAND USE AND URBAN TRANSIT?
Again, there is no secret here, urban transit stations (rail, BRT, etc) are well known to be great attractors of
activity, especially if there are interchanges between different modes of public transport (i.e. a modal
interchange). These places become great meeting points, retail outlets, service outlets and desirable places
to live, if you can't afford a car. These hubs exist all over South Africa in a natural response to a creation of a
modal interchange at any given location.
Unfortunately, these nodes have been allowed to grow without any form of guidance. Transport planners
don't speak to town planners, so what results is an urban ‘free-for-all’ that does not address land use in and
around these nodes, especially with walking distance (500-800m radius) of the hub. People are crammed
onto pavements, have to cross busy streets and bus ranks, do not feel safe and have to walk vast distances to
their homes. Retailers are either street traders, traders in poorly planned and built markets, or mainstream
retail outlets crammed into a traditional mall some way from the node with high security. Notwithstanding
this, they are hidden gems. If master-planned properly, these nodes can become great places which thrive
with activity. To really let these places take off you have to link them to each other via the transit network so
that each node becomes a destination in its own right. If these destinations can offer people ‘work, live, play’,
i.e. allow people to live work and socialise without having to jump in their car. These nodes then become a
"necklace of pearls" (Cervero et al. 2004) (Figure 1), where the "pearls" are high density nodes of mixed-use
activity linked together along transit routes, be they BRT, rail or other transit network , "the necklace".
Fig 1: Necklace of "pearls" (Cervero et al. 2004).
This type of concept is further enhanced by creating a "bi-directional flow". Because each of the nodes is a
destination in its own right, there is no need for the working population of a large city to surge into the CBD
in the morning and then rush out in the evening, creating a wasteland after hours and letting the transit
network sit and do nothing in between. Instead people ideally move in both directions, working in one
node, living in another. Visiting friends and relatives, shopping, etc. This then evens out the flow in the
network, allowing all day usage and therefore increasing the viability of the transit network.
This is nothing new, Scandinavian cities have done this for a long time. Copenhagen's five-finger-plan
(Figure 2) is long acknowledged as one of the prime examples of land use appropriation in relation to transit
networks.
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Fig 2: Copenhagen: From Finger Plan to Five-Axis Radial Investment, to corridors of satellite, Rail-served New
Towns (Cervero et al. 2004).
The Scandinavians soon realised that high tidal flows of traffic into medieval city CBDs were causing extreme
congestion. Satellite rail-served towns were conceptualised to attract people out of the main CBD's and
serve as development and investment corridors to boost growth. A spin off of this is a transit focussed city
plan that has a high sustainability factor and reduces the number of car trips people need to take
(Kenworthy & Laube 1999). This is not only for rail based systems. In Brazil, Curitiba's BRT system is noted as
one of the finest examples of BRT related corridor investment and development.4
HOW DO YOU MAKE A PEARL?
In South Africa, development adjacent transit hubs are exactly that, Transit Adjacent Development (or TAD).
Property owners/developers experience some benefit from being near the transit hub because of footfall.
Outside of the walkability radius (500-800m), retail outlets have to concentrate on pedestrian routes for
exposure.
Transit Orientated Development (or TOD) is recognised worldwide as means of promoting sustainable
quality development and reducing dependence on car use (Calthrope 1993, Cerver et al. 2004, Dunphy et al.
2004). TODs promote mixed use, walkable and compact cities. TODs are integrated developments where a
vast amount of thought is given to quality of the urban space. TODs feature key urban design components
that discern them, namely the 3 D's:
1. Design (physical features, site layouts, aesthetics, and amenities that encourage walking, biking,
and transit riding as well as social engagement)
2. Density (having enough residents, workers, and shoppers within a reasonable walking distance of
transit stations to generate high ridership)
3. Diversity (mixture of land uses, housing types, building vernaculars, and ways of circulating within
neighbourhoods)
Truly integrated TODs where property achieves maximum value is based around the 5D's (Cervero and
Kockelman 1997), the three above including:
4. Distance (to transit) - (ridership among residents and workers often tapers exponentially with
distance from a railway station)
5. Destination accessibility (how well a TOD is connected to retail shops, activity centres, and other
popular destinations).
To do this, careful master-planning of the TOD is important to get the mix of residential, retail, transit and
commercial right for the area it is applied to. TOD theory has been proven internationally and as a result is
included in our National Development Plan 2030:
!
4
http://www.publictransit.us/ptlibrary/specialreports/sr1.curitibaBRT.pdf downloaded 2012/11/27
1322
!
Transport 2015-2020
"Guided by plans for the urban form, the focus will be on achieving the mutually reinforcing effect
of transit-led growth" (Chapter 4, p. 189).
Urban futures
"New urban development and infrastructure investments should be focused around corridors of
mass transit and around existing and emergent economic nodes, applying internationally accepted
principles of transit-oriented development" (Chapter 8, p. 285).
South African Government: National Planning Commission 2012
However, this comes with a stern warning, "pearls" need a "necklace". TOD developments need to be
connected together to create the 5th "D" - "Destination accessibility", TODs cannot be “islands in a sea of
auto‐oriented development” (Cervero et al., 2004).
TODs: International best practice?

Hong Kong's MTR Corporation (MTRC) rail authority is acknowledged as the leader in TOD developments
worldwide through their Rail and Property (R+P for short) strategy over the last 30 years. MTRC is a parastal
with a 23% listed public component, so profits are a big driver for the company. Cleverly, the MTRC invests
heavily in development around its transit stations, using ‘value-capture’ techniques to create compact,
sustainable and pedestrian orientated urban environments. The MTRC also helps fund other developers,
buys in, sells development packages and manages these developments. MTRC reinvests profits into world-
class transit systems which increases ridership at their stations and on their network (Cervero et al. 2008). As
an additional bonus, MTRC assists the Hong Kong government to build, manage and maintain infrastructure
(schools, clinics, libraries, etc) within these developments. As a result of this, the MTRC is one of the most
profitable rail authorities in the world (Figures 4 and 5). They are more a property development company
than a rail authority.
Fig 4: MTR Corporation - financial results 2005 (Source: www.mtr.com.hk).
1323
Fig 5: MTR Retail rental income vs value of investment 2012
What is most significant about the figures above is that it shows transit supported property development is
recession resistant, leads to high quality sustainable urban environments and supports the economic and
social goals of the Hong Kong government. This is what experts call the ‘Virtuous Circle’ (Figure 6)
GOVERNMENT Financial'
benefits
!
Finance'
SYNERGY'of''
construction)&)
PROPE RAILW
RTY
RAIL%&% AY
PROPERTY'
Improve(
accessibility*&*
Sustainabl SOCIETY(&(ECONOMY
e"urban"
Fig 6: The "Virtuous Circle" -Rail and Property (Source: courtesy TFP-Farrells HK, Cervero et al).
1324
!
A prime example is MTRC's flagship Hong Kong station. Hong Kong station (also known as the Kowloon
station) comprises
19 towers, including an 118-storey Landmark Tower accommodating 231,778 m² offices, a deluxe hotel and
an observation deck.
A world-class shopping centre of 82,750 m², about 6,400 apartments and 5,600 parking spaces (less parking
than residences, most Hong Kong residents do not own cars).
Transport interchange for public buses, cross boundary coaches, minibuses, taxis, hotel shuttle and tour
buses.
40,000 people live, work and play in this TOD development, so extensive public and private open space and
recreational facilities are provided.
One can dismiss this phenomenon as a once off, but there are 25 R+P projects at prominent Hong Kong
stations in a variety of different forms. These developments are acknowledged as some of the most valuable
real estate in the world.
1325
Fig 7: MTRC Hong Kong station - vertical and horizontal integration (Source: courtesy TFP-Farrells HK).
1326
!
SO WHAT ABOUT RETURN ON INVESTMENT?
TOD developments use the value of the proximity to transit, quality of environment and the generated
footfall to make these environments highly desirable. Typically, a significant increase in real estate value is
realised.
Based on standard property values around a typical development, one can find the following trends:
up to 8% value uplift with 800m walking radius of the transit facility (TAD)
up to 15% value uplift within 400m walking radius of the transit facility (TOD)
up to 30% value uplift where the facilities are tightly integrated within the transit facility (TOD R+P)
(Cervero et al. 2008).
This value uplift is recession resistant and well proven.
SO ARE THERE ANY TODS IN SOUTH AFRICA?
A recent pioneering example is Bridge City as a PPP partnership between Tongaat-Hulett and the eThekwini
Municipality (City of Durban). The concept is a new town center built along traditional urban design lines,
however a potential "pearl" in crown is the Bridge City Shopping Mall, which is built tightly integrated into
the PRASA5 Metrorail commuter rail station and a mini-bus taxi rank adjacent (Figure 8).
Although the development is thriving currently with just the taxi rank and the retail component, completion
of the rail spur will further energise the TOD aspect of this development. The residential second phase,
unfortunately, has stagnated. Current housing prices and construction costs make private residential
development unattractive to commercial developers. This where government and NGO funding needs to fill
the gap with social housing grants and low interest investment, even ownership. Only when all the
components of live, work and play are engaged can the development be truly sustainable and the value rise
above expectation.
!
5
PRASA: Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa.
1327
!
Taxi / Bus Rank ! Station !
Retail
Resi
!
dent
ial
Fig 8: Bridge City TOD (Source: Courtesy Moreland & Crowie Projects).
Bridge city could benefit from other TOD principles. A tightly integrated public space for meeting and social
interaction. This is provided some way off in the new town centre, but does not contribute to the TOD
environment directly as it is not integrated. Bridge city, being a pioneer TOD, suffers from a lack of
accessibility to other TODs/TADs through a reliable safe integrated commuter network. However, over the
next 15 years this will hopefully change with the South African government's infrastructure recapitalisation
plan6.
Another recent example under construction is the City of Johannesburg's Sandton Gautrain Rapid Rail Link
station (Figure 9). Again, the project has stagnated for a variety of political and financial reasons. In its
current form, further work is needed to integrate the various components of the development. Walkability
into the other commercial blocks around the station with grade separation is also an issue (Figure 10). These
issues will have to be addressed for Sandton station to truly become a great TOD R+P development.
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http://www.transport.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=wp3JSA6ESdU%3d&tabid=644&mid
=1568 (downloaded 28/11/12)
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Fig 9: Gautrain Sandton TOD (Source: Courtesy StudioMAS & JDA).
Fig 10: Sandton potential TOD links.
SO WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD TOD?
Quality master-planning, urban design and implementation are crucial to a successful TOD and the capture
of value. Walkability is a key aspect to the perceived value uplift of a development. To achieve walkability,
the pedestrianised environment has to be carefully considered using the the 5 "Ds" of TOD urban design.
Qualities such as aesthetics, amenities, legibility, connectivity, comfort and natural surveillance have to be
included. Examples of this in Hong Kong are given in figure 11 below.
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Key considerations are:
1. Horizontal connectivity and integration (fully integrated station with direct, well lit,
spacious pedestrian accesses and foot bridges)
2. Vertical connectivity and integration (motorised transport is kept at ground floor and
pedestrians are grade separated)
3. Blending retail and pedestrian corridors (Pedestrians walk through retail areas and open
parks with good signage)
4. Amenities and openness (street furniture, public art and pocket parks)
5. Legibility and focus (station is easy to "read", movement is intuitive and logical with
signage and well planned urban environments)
Fig 11: Key urban qualities of tightly integrated TOD (Source: Image courtesy of Cervero et al).
TOD FUTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA?
Given our extensive rail network, government planning policy 7 and infrastructure development plan,
housing and education backlogs, high levels of unemployment, etc. Our parastatals, private developers,
NGOs and government departments are a perfect position to engage these challenges and shift our vision to
a transit based society. The truly sustainable model of TOD development offers socio-economic benefits that
no government can ignore. It also offers financial benefits that can take the load off the tax base and provide
the shortfall of infrastructure funding required to expedite development. Private developers can then also
share in the uplift and assist the government in providing crucial public services with facility management,
procurement and capital funding. TODs require public and private entities unified around common goals.
Land use around transit stations, housing grants, government and private investment vehicles need to be
looked at to see where synergies and common ground can be found. Our Government needs to have the
vision of the future for our urban environment, not only looking at engineered riderships, catchment areas,
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http://www.info.gov.za/issues/national-development-plan/index.html (downloaded
28/11/12)
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land use zonings, but boldly striking out in the right direction one project at a time, and not necessarily
based on rational catchment area analytics. "What the public sector needs to do is "prime the pump".....once
that happens, developers notice the smell of money....profits are good, so they want to do more
projects...cities realise that it will expand the tax base....etc, You eventually create the kind of momentum
that sustains on its own energy" (Prof. Robert Cervero, director, University of California Transportation
centre).8
REFERENCES
Calthorpe, P., 1993. The next American metropolis: Ecology, community, and the American dream, Princeton
Architectural Press, Princeton.
Cervero, R & Murakami, J., 2008. Rail + Property Development: A model of sustainable transit finance and
urbanism, UC Berkeley Center for Future Urban Transport: A Volvo Center of Excellence,
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6jx3k35x
Cervero, R, Dunphy R et al., 2004. Transit-orientated development in the United States: Experiences, Challenges
and Prospects, Transit Cooperative Research Program: TCRP report No. 102, Transportation Research Board,
Washington D.C., http://www.scribd.com/doc/64040490/Cervero-TOD-in-the-US-2004
Cervero, R & Kockelman, K., 1997. ‘Travel Demand and the 3Ds: Density, diversity and design’, Transportation
Research Part D: Transport and Environment, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 199-219.
Demery, LW Jr., 2004. Bus Rapid Transit in Curitiba, Brazil – An information summary, www.publictransit.us –
Special Report No. 1.
Dunphy, R., 2004. ‘Who, what, where, why’, in R Dunphy et al. (eds), Developing around transit: Strategies and
solutions that work, Urban Land Institute, Washington DC, Chapter 1.
Gauteng online, 2011. ‘Gauteng spatial development framework 2011’,

http://www.gautengonline.gov.za/Publications/Gauteng%20Spatial%20Development%20Framework%20-
%202011.pdf
Kenworthy, JR & Laube, FB., 1999. ‘Patterns of automobile dependence in cities: an international overview of
key physical and economic dimensions with some implications for urban policy’, Transportation Research
Part A: Policy and Practice, vol. 33, no. 7 pp. 691-723.
Martins DB., 2012. Speech – Launch of the 2012 October transport month, Soweto, 01 October 2012,
Government of South Africa, Ministry of Transport,
http://www.transport.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=wp3JSA6ESdU%3d&tabid=644&mid=1568
MTR Corporation, 2007, 2012. MTR Corporation financial results 2007, 2012, http://www.mtr.com.hk
National Planning Commission, 2012. National Development Plan 2030: Our future – make it work, South Africa
Government Online, http://www.gov.za/issues/national-development-plan/
Wood C. (2012). Some thoughts on the sustainable future city in the Gauteng context. GAPP Architects & Urban
Designers. Retrieved from:
http://www.gapp.net/images/pdf/Some%20thoughts%20on%20the%20sustainable%20future.pdf.
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8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKEuvNcD9hw (downloaded 24/11/2011)
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IN-CONTEXT AND ECOLOGY IMMERSION FOR RESILIENCE: AN EXPLORATION OF THE DESIGN OF A
HOUSEHOLD FARMING KIT
Mr. Kyle Graham Brand, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa, brandkg@tut.ac.za
Mr. Angus Donald Campbell, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, acampbell@uj.ac.za
Abstract
Human-Centred Design proposes the method of In-context Immersion or meeting people where they live, work
and socialise as a method to gain new insights and opportunities for the designer (IDEO, 2013). This method as per
the majority of empirical research tends to simplify complex situations in order to provide a set of criteria that can
then guide a design intervention to such problems. This paper explores how it is important to not only understand
the contextual situation of a problem, but also a much broader range of contexts and influences which constitute
the ecology of the problem. Ecology Immersion can be defined over and above the designers’ immersion into a
specific context by the further discovery and exploration of other connected contexts. The designer is able to map
a broader system by immersing her/himself in these interconnected contexts and hence foreseeing how a
proposed intervention could interact in the greater ecology of the problem. An example could be the effect the
seemingly independent biological system and economic system could have on a small-scale agricultural project.
This improved understanding then allows for the design intervention to have a better foundation in terms of the
systems it relies on, which potentially aids the final intervention’s resilience. This paper explores and criticises the
design process of a household farming kit as an example of such a method. This critique will offer potential insight
into future applications of this method in the field of Industrial Design and its potential application in other design
disciplines to encourage greater resilience.
Keywords: In-context immersion, ecology immersion, industrial design, small-scale agriculture, food
security, design for social development, social impact design, Johannesburg.
INTRODUCTION
Social impact design, or design for public good that is socially, environmentally, and economically
sustainable, is clearly gaining traction in design education, research and practice (Smithsonian Institution
2013). As this mode of design expands, design methods focused on such endeavours need to be tested and
refined. This paper firstly explores the method of In-context Immersion as utilised by various design
practitioners under a variety of guises as an attempt by designer/s to better understand the people they are
designing for or with, especially when designing for marginalised communities (IDEO 2011, pp. 46-47; Polak
2009, pp. 15-17 and Martin & Hanington 2012, p.60). This method, as adopted by many practitioners, is
criticised by the authors as taking too narrow and reductionist a view in relation to the complex economic,
social, cultural and political realities experienced by the majority of people from communities where such
design is taking place. The paper then explores the systemic nature of problems in terms of their broader
ecology and the proposed method of In-context and Ecology Immersion is then explained. The combination
of In-context and Ecology Immersion is explored in relation to a research project, the Design and
Development of a Household Farming kit (Brand 2014) (Figure 1). The paper then concludes that such a
method provides the opportunity for greater resilience for both the design intervention and those who will
rely on it.
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Figure 1: Anna holding the hoe-tool at her home (Photo: Kyle Brand).
IN-CONTEXT IMMERSION
In the Human-Centred Design Toolkit developed by the design and innovation consulting firm IDEO, the
method of In-context Immersion is advocated as a method which design practitioners can adopt in order to
“...understand the people they are designing for not just on an intellectual level, but also on an experiential
level” (2011, p. 46). This understanding at a level of personal experience is intended to allow unexpected
opportunities or new insights to be revealed. This is in contrast to the preconceptions brought into any
context where a designer is designing for someone else. In-context Immersion can be defined as immersing
oneself in the context in which the design intervention should operate. This often means that the designer
would seek to experience the typical conditions that the final user of the intended design intervention
would experience. In Figure 2 one of the authors is seen conducting a focus group with Jeffery Hughes and
Willem van Zyl at their farms in Noordgesig, Soweto. Conducting this interview on their farm allowed for a
two-way immersion, that of the author in the farms environment and the farmers’ immersion into the
conceptual world of the designer. During such a focus group, the farmers could physically identify issues in
their environment and demonstrate their points of view without feeling alienated by an unfamiliar context.
These focus groups drew attention to aspects the author did not notice during previous immersive
experiences.
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Figure 2: Jeffery Hughes explaining a concern he had with the farming tunnel design, photograph by Myles Day
(used with permission).
The process of In-context Immersion has become a fundamental building block in most participatory design
practice. The design practitioner often assumes a visit to the location of the participants as non-negotiable,
especially in socially orientated design projects where the designer and participant come from vastly
different socioeconomic contexts. Relating to the authors’ project, since the design intervention was for
farmers, the designer needed to visit their farms. This is in line with what Paul Polak suggests when he
describes two of the steps in his guide to practical problem solving: “2. Talk to the people who have the
problem, and listen to what they say” (2009, p. 15-17) and “3. Learn everything you can about the problem’s
specific context” (2009, p.17).
In-context Immersion is similarly termed Design Ethnography by Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington in their
book, Universal Methods of Design (2012, p. 60). They describe this method as an approximation of the
immersive methods of traditional ethnography, which encourages the designer “...to, deeply experience and
understand the user’s world for design empathy and insight” (ibid.). Design Ethnography differs from ‘true’
Anthropological Ethnography in that the designer is seeking time-sampled observations and behaviours.
These experiences can be sought through “the experience sampling method, diary and photo studies,
cultural probes, contextual inquiry, and various forms of observation, including modified versions of
participant observation” (ibid.).
This pervasive adoption of In-context Immersion might be attributed to the development and wider
acceptance of user-centred design methods amongst design practitioners (Smithsonian Institution, 2013).
The extent to which designers actually immerse themselves and their intentions behind such projects have
led to some criticism by the targeted population of what could be considered a new imperialism through
design (Nussbaum 2010) or ulterior economic motives hidden under the banner of charity (Arad 2012). This
debate will likely continue as ‘Social Innovation’ continues to become more mainstream. Indian industrial
designer and academic Singanapalli Balaram highlights how it is not only the people one is designing for
that the designer needs to take cognisance of, but also the economic, social, cultural and political realities of
a country (Balaram 1998, p. 3). He states that, “the design activity of any country cannot be well understood
without knowledge of the context in which it operates.” This extends the notion of a possibly too narrow in-
context immersion to a broader immersion into the ecology of the context.
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THE ECOLOGY OF PROBLEMS
A greater capacity to access and acquire knowledge as a result of rapid increases in communication
technologies in recent years has led to a far more nuanced understanding of problems. Seldom, if not ever,
can a problem be considered finite and isolated. “I have yet to see any problem, however complicated,
which, when looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated” (Anderson cited in Meadows
2008, p. 11). Problems, like the people they affect, are always interconnected and highly complex. Richard
Buchanan in his discussion on Rittle’s description of wicked problems explains that, “Design problems are
"indeterminate" and "wicked" because design has no special subject matter of its own apart from what a
designer conceives it to be. The subject matter of design is potentially universal in scope, because design
thinking may be applied to any area of human experience. But in the process of application, the designer
must discover or invent a particular subject out of the problems and issues of specific circumstances” (1992,
p. 16). This highlights the need of the designer to define a problem’s boundaries, but in too narrowly
defining a problem a designer can easily miss important considerations for the long term resilience of a
design intervention.
Problems are systemic in nature, leading to not only a difficulty in understanding them, but also in solving
them. Donella Meadows, in her book Thinking in Systems (2008) explains, “A system isn’t just any collection of
things. A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves
something” (p. 11). This systemic nature of problems refers to their interconnection with additional sets of
elements, these elements could include other problems or other contexts that are connected and therefore
also affected by the problem at hand. Often if carefully investigated, any problem presents a very deep and
complex array of not only elements that are interconnected, but also additional interconnected systems.
This array of systems with interconnected elements is seldom static, but rather dynamic and continually
changing, hence the indeterminacy of wicked problems (Buchanan 1992, pp. 15-16).
The word ecology has been chosen by the authors to capture the dynamism of the systemic nature of
problems. This word, ecology, is typically associated with the description of natural systems, especially
highly complex systems. As an example of a highly complex system, Meadows describes human beings, “We
are complex systems - our own bodies are magnificent examples of integrated, interconnected, self-
maintaining complexity. Every person we encounter, every organization, every animal, garden, tree, and
forest is a complex system. We have built up intuitively, without analysis, often without words, a practical
understanding of how these systems work, and how to work with them” (Meadows 2008, p. 3). Although
Meadows describes the human body as a complex system, systems of a similar nature are termed as
ecologies in this paper in an attempt to encapsulate their dynamic nature.
Understanding the ecology of any problem in order to bring about considered change, as in any good
design intervention, is crucial. This is important in order that the design intervention is well considered and
the resulting change is a beneficial disruption to the current system. When addressing problems with
designed solutions one needs to be cognisant of the systems on which the designed solution would rely.
This has implications in terms of resilience (unpacked in the following heading) on both the design
intervention and those relying on it (Campbell & Brand 2012, p. 281). Without cognisance of the ecology that
accompanies a presented problem, the problem itself is not defined, making it impossible to solve
effectively without pure luck, which should not be encouraged.
The ecology of a problem is very vast and complex, this makes it difficult to understand and take account of.
However a designer attempts to explore the current ecology of a system, the greater their understanding
and the more poignant and effective any designed disruption can be. Even doctors specialising in a specific
field of medicine are required to study and understand human anatomy as a whole. So even though one
could not legitimately claim to comprehend the full ecology of a problem, one could have a relative
comprehension, and the broader the better. To develop this, one needs to understand the elements
connected within the ecology, since the ecology itself is intangible without its parts. This would require an
in-context immersion into the different elements within the ecology. Typically user-centred design
practitioners would inherently visit the immediate, obvious, context to which the design intervention is
linked. However, there are many other elements which also play an important role in the design
intervention’s existence and these interconnections require consideration. In other words, the exploration of
additional in-context immersion experiences in order to understand “not only at an intellectual level, but
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also at an experiential level” (IDEO 2011, p. 46) each of these different elements. This is what is defined in this
paper as Ecology Immersion.
The danger in only immersing oneself in the immediate, obvious context is that this results in a potentially
finite understanding of a problem from the viewpoint of the end-users. Often to solve a problem in the
longer term, one needs to have a broader understanding of the ecology in order to change the broader
system/s that the designed intervention relies on. It may be these system/s that need to be changed since
this is what could have led to the original problem in the first place. Solving only the problem and not
altering the system/s could result in the problem being solved for a finite period, but then the same or a
similar problem being replicated by the system/s that incurred the original problem. Robert Pirsig explains
that “...if a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will
simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic
patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat
themselves in the succeeding government. There’s so much talk about the system. And so little
understanding” (Pirsig 1974, p. 94). It is this broader understanding that the method of Ecology Immersion
aims to seek out. This enables broader systems to be altered, to solve problems not only in the finite manner
but also in the long term and hence become more resilient.
RESILIENCE
“Resilience is the capacity of a system to experience shocks while retaining essentially the same function,
structure, feedbacks, and therefore identity” (Walker et al. 2006, p. 2). Resilience can refer to a number of
different entities, from people and communities to biological systems, economies and governments.
Resilience in this paper refers to both a design intervention as a physical product, as well as the resilience of
the people relying on the product. The resilience of a product can have a major influence on the resilience of
people or communities because of their reliance on it (Campbell & Brand 2013, p. 281). The ecology of
problems as explored above is related to what can be termed the ecology of a design intervention. When a
design is ‘inserted’ into the ecology of the problem in order to bring about change, it becomes an element in
the newly readjusted ecology. If this design intervention is not resilient itself, it becomes a point of
vulnerability for not only the entire ecology but also creates a point of vulnerability for the people using it,
thereby possibly compromising the resilience of both the people and the ecology/system (Campbell &
Brand 2013, p. 281).
“A diverse system with multiple pathways and redundancies is more stable and less vulnerable to external
shock than a uniform system with little diversity” (Meadows 2008, pp. 3-4). In the same way, this can be
applied to products. For example, a product’s ecology includes its manufacture, distribution network,
functions, market and so on. If these are diverse and multifaceted the products ecology is more resilient,
resulting in a more resilient product, and hence a more resilient broader ecology, ultimately resulting in a
more resilient end-user. Resilience is critical for marginalised people and communities, since any disruption
that is not recovered from quickly can lead to more disruptions, which could put the community in a
position that compromises not only their current, but future wellbeing as well (Pasteur 2011, p. 15).
In order to understand the practical application of In-Context and Ecology Immersion to enhance resilience
in design interventions, the rest of the paper unpacks the design process of a household farming kit
undertaken by the authors over three years (2011-2014).
IN-CONTEXT AND ECOLOGY IMMERSION IN PRACTICE - A HOUSEHOLD FARMING KIT
Small-scale farming falls under the broader context of food security. Food insecurity is a global, national and
community problem, which is highly complex and multifaceted (FAO 2008). When approached from the
level of practical impact, Ian Smillie outlines various systemic issues that unfolded during the development
and commercial sale of product to impact on food security in Tanzania: “When the project was conceived,
most oil was imported; prices where high and availability was a problem. By 1986, however, after the
equipment had been developed and the cost of the technology was more or less fixed, import restrictions
were lifted, and the prices of oil fell. Fortunately this did not seriously affect the profitability of the press, but
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it signalled a problem frequently ignored in the development of appropriate technology” (Smillie 2008, p.
133).
In the example above, the systemic nature of the problem, the design of an oil press, is clearly more than just
the oil press itself, but extends to the Tanzanian government’s import policy and how that impacts on the oil
press’s commercial viability. Meadows provides insight into problem solving on a range of scales, she
explains that many serious problems, such as food insecurity, have attempted to be solved by “focusing on
external agents” (2008, p. 4) and have led to the creating of further problems. “Hunger, poverty…, for
example, persist in spite of the analytical ability and technical brilliance that have been directed toward
eradicating them. No one deliberately creates those problems, no one wants them to persist, but they persist
nonetheless” (ibid.). The issue is that these sorts of problems are “intrinsically systems problems” and can
only be solved by acknowledging “the system as the source of its own problems, and find[ing] the courage
and wisdom to restructure it” (ibid.).
In order to understand the systemic problem of food insecurity in Johannesburg, the methods of In-context
and Ecology Immersion were utilised in a Masters project undertaken at the Department of Industrial Design
in University of Johannesburg titled Design and Development of a Household Farming kit (HFK) (Brand 2014).
The project built upon a previous mini-dissertation project which also explored the development of small-
scale agricultural equipment. The Masters project aimed to develop a farming kit consisting of a set of basic
equipment for a small-scale farming. The problem identified with existing kits was that they were not
designed as a considered whole but were rather a collection of tools purchased from suppliers. On occasion
these tools overlapped in function and/or were not considered in accordance with the desires and needs of
the farmers who they were given to. The farmers often simply accepted the tools without question since
they received them for free and as the common English saying goes, “no one looks a gift horse in the
mouth”. The HFK aimed to not only provide the farmers with better, more appropriate equipment but also
provide lower-cost better targeted equipment that functioned as a holistic kit. This more considered kit
could then be provided by NGOs and governmental organisations to more farmers (i.e more kits) for the
same price that the existing kits were being purchased for. The initial concept of the kit consisted of: a
greenhouse which provided farmers with the advantage of crop protection from hail and insects, and an
extended growing season; a multifunctional hoe-tool, which would assimilate a hoe and spade into a single
hand tool; seeds for planting; and an instruction booklet to provide the farmers with sufficient knowledge to
use the kit. This paper focuses specifically on the method of In-context and Ecology Immersion as it
proceeded during the design development of the HFK.
When the project began the study wasn’t well defined, so potential partnerships were sought to better
identify and establish its direction. This led to networking opportunities and contact with many
organisations and groups who were also undertaking work in small-scale agriculture. This developed into
the first context in which the researcher was immersed, that of similar stakeholders. This networking enabled
the researcher to become better known within the local community of those working within the realm of
small-scale farming and food security. A number of workshops were attended which helped develop further
opportunities for immersion. Local food markets as well as a range of small-scale farmers were visited as the
project began to take shape. For example, a visit was made to Mr dos Santos (Figure 3) a home food
gardener who grew vegetables since he was not able to purchase the varieties he preferred from retailers.
He had developed an extensive garden growing a wide variety of vegetables in a small area and much
knowledge was garnered from his expertise.
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Figure 3: Mr dos Santos in his home food garden (Photo: Kyle Brand).
As the project began to take shape, an additional multi-stakeholder partnership was established between
the authors, the local Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Balimi Food
Security Company (BFSC). This relationship was instigated by the authors after visits to the FAO seeking a
potential partnership and it was the FAO that connected the BFSC and the authors. The BFSC then invited
the authors’ to a site tour as part of a stakeholder meeting they were hosting. The BFSC asked for assistance
with presenting and communicating their own project and this together with the authors’ project was
presented to a number of interested parties including officials from the local government office. This
became the first of many partnered presentations to high level government officials such as the Department
of Rural Development and Agriculture, as well as commercial entities such as the Senwes agricultural
company (http://www.senwes.co.za/). These repeated presentations allowed for the researchers’ greater
understanding of the context of NGOs and governmental organisations.
It soon also became evident that it would be helpful to also start personal experiments with vegetable
growing in order to be able to speak from experience with the farmers working on the project. Using limited
space, a series of box gardens allowing for a range of vegetables to be grown were started at the
researcher’s home (Figure 4). This not only gave the researcher an empathetic connection to participants,
who were engaged during in-context immersion when visiting the participants in their own contexts, but
also allowed for the immersion into the context of home vegetable growing. This in turn led to other
opportunities linked to home gardening projects.
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Figure 4: Carrot grown during personal gardening experiments (Photo: Kyle Brand).
The next context for immersion was with the farmers themselves who would be the users of the farming kit.
A series of prototypes were developed and tested by the farmers themselves. The greenhouse for example,
needed to be set up on the farms by the farmers and was not simply delivered pre-assembled. This resulted
in the researchers working with the farmers in its setup; on occasion this meant first assisting the farmers
with current tasks they were busy with before beginning. During this time, informal conversations with the
farmers encouraged an extended empathetic understanding of their context.
In addition to the immersion with the farmers and the immersions into other interrelated contexts explored
above, the researchers were also following current literature on small-scale agriculture in both
Johannesburg and abroad. This once again expanded the broader understanding of the ecology of the
problem of food insecurity.
All these different contexts into which the authors were able to immerse themselves to different degrees,
with differing stakeholders and in different environments led to a greater understanding of the broader
context and system of food insecurity and small-scale farming in Johannesburg. Initially this method began
merely as partnership seeking, but after a number of immersive experiences the value of such a method
became apparent. This led to a more focused and applied application of what has been described in this
paper as In-context and Ecology Immersion. In a sense, this method developed organically as the project
progressed, but its value became evident from the greater understanding of the ecology of the greater
problem and it was therefore pursued with a greater sense of focus and intention.
The opportunities for immersion were initially sparse, but as the project progressed they became ever more
available. Initially any opportunity to be immersed in a context which was interconnected within the ecology
of food security was seized. However, as many more became available the researchers had to be more
selective and also focus more directly on the context where the final design intervention of the household
farming kit would operate. In Figure 5, the green squares represent different contexts into which the authors
were immersed. In the initial stages, a number of contexts are examined through immersion, but as the
project progressed, exploration could only be sought in selected contexts in order to arrive at a conclusion.
There is also a bulge later (moving from left to right) in the diagram which aims to describe a period when
further contexts were sought and examined in relation to a more defined design intervention. In this case,
this was the examining of different manufacturing methods and the testing of various options for the
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prototypes manufacturing. The largest extended green block (running the length of the diagram) represents
the end-users, in this case the farmers, and their context for the design intervention. This is shown as a
continuous line, although it is made up of a large number of shorter immersions, since the in-context
immersion is an experience that extends into the psychological and intellectual realm of the designer and
end-users even though physical contact may not be maintained during the entire period. After a number of
in-context immersions, the ecology of the problem was better understood, which led to more considered
design decisions in terms of the greater system relating to the implementation of the household farming kit.
These decisions included the choice of materials and manufacturing methods used to develop the tools in
the kit; the decision to promote natural farming methods; the adoption of a subsurface irrigation system in
order that the farmers did not till the soil repeatedly, thus encouraging low-tillage farming.
Figure 5: Multi-context outline in terms of time.
“Conway and Barber define [agricultural sustainability] as 'the ability to maintain productivity, whether of a
field or farm or nation, in the face of stress or shock'. The stress might be small or large, temporary or
permanent. It could be the result of local factors, such as drought, flood or grasshoppers or it could come
from external forces such as an increase in the price of fertilizer or the withdrawal of technical support.
“Sustainability thus determines the persistence or durability of a system's productivity under known or
possible circumstances” (Smillie 2008, p. 118). In order that the household farming kit promote agricultural
sustainability it was considered in terms of its local ecology and the greater ecology of food security. This
was undertaken by reducing the price when compared to existing offerings (the kit cost approximately half
that of existing kits); designing the elements so that they can easily be replicated and repaired using local
artisanal skills (observed and investigated during various in-context immersions); and designing the
equipment to fit the specific needs of the farmers together with them, thereby reducing its potential for
redundancy.
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Figure 6: The greenhouse design being set up in Kanana (Photo: Kyle Brand).
Phillip Oosthuizen, an industrial design academic, proposes the following factors that all good designs
should consider (Interview 20 March 2014):
● Use - How the design functions. Is it usable, does it consider the person who would operate it?
● Manufacture - How the design is made. What materials to choose, are they repairable, what skills or
machinery are required for the making of the product?
● Business - How does the design make business sense? Is it cost effective and efficient?
● Environment - What impact does the design have on the environment? Is it environmentally
sustainable?
● Society - What impact does the design have on society? Is it a socially considered solution?
Different design projects and design interventions would inherently have a different balance of
consideration for each. These factors of design can act as a good guide for the types of contexts that needs
to be considered in order to develop an understanding of the greater ecology of a design problem. In the
example of the Design and Development of a Household Farming Kit each of these were explored in-context
through immersive experiences: the use of the kit in relation to the farm, the farmers, their households and
small-scale farming; the manufacture by developing a series of prototypes and by experimenting with
different manufacturing techniques for different elements of the kit; the business by interaction with NGOs
and governmental organisations; the environment through various workshops, as well as seeing and
studying a variety of different farming practices; and lastly society through a multi-stakeholder approach to
the entire project.
Adopting a method of In-context and Ecology Immersion helped develop a richer understanding of the
different interconnected contexts related to small-scale farming. This gave the designer a great advantage in
terms of both opportunities for the design, but also in considering potential vulnerabilities in terms of the
greater ecology in which the design would function.
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CONCLUSION
This paper has discussed In-context Immersion as a method of gaining empathy for a problem context, but
also unpacks the benefit of understanding the systemic nature of problems and hence the further
methodological development of Ecology Immersion. “To have to grapple with divergent problems tends to
be exhausting, worrying, and wearisome” (Schumacher 2011, p. 78) but by immersing oneself into many
interconnected contexts one develops a tacit understanding of the ecology thereby putting oneself in a
better position to design a well-considered, resilient product.
Systems thinking and multi-context approaches to design are not original. However, the increased
popularity of social impact design has led to many practitioners diving into an immersive experience with
the end-users of a product/system potentially at the expense of considering the other interconnected
contexts, and thereby the ecology of the greater system. In this lies the potential that the design only
effectively addresses the problem in terms of the current context of the end-users at the expense of a
changing broader ecology, hence limiting the solutions resilience. By defining and proposing In-context and
Ecology Immersion the authors aim to remind designers to consider the greater ecology associated with
problems they are trying to solve. This in turn should result in more resilient and sustainable products that
limit the points of vulnerability for their users.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is based on the research supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa for
the Thuthuka grant held by Angus D. Campbell titled Designing Development: An Exploration of Technology
Innovation by Small-scale Urban Farmers in Johannesburg. Any opinion, finding and conclusion or
recommendation expressed in this material is that of the authors and the NRF does not accept any liability in
this regard.
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Exhibition on Agricultural Industries – Mediterranean/Food/Design. pp. 278-286, Izmir University of
Economics Press, Turkey
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develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions, Rockport Publishers, Beverly.
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resilience, Practical Action Publishing, Rugby.
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Smillie, I., 2008. Mastering the machine revisited: Poverty, aid and technology, reprint, Practical Action
Publishing, Rugby.
Smithsonian Institution, 2013. Design and social impact: A cross-sectoral agenda for design education, research
and practice, The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in conjunction with the National
Endowment for the Arts and The Lemelson Foundation, New York.
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some propositions for understanding resilience in social-ecological systems’, Ecology and Society, vol. 11, no.
1, p. 13, viewed 4 April 2014, http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art13/.
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ACCESSIBILITY AND HERITAGE IN ITALY
Mrs. Isabella Tiziana Steffan, Ordine degli Architetti PPC di Milano, Italy, info@studiosteffan.it
Abstract
Italy, like most European cities, has a great number of Heritage sites: not only buildings, but entire ancient cities
and archaeological sites of great significance. Individuals should be enabled to fully enjoy these sites, despite the
fact that their morphological and architectural features often cannot easily afford it. However, the presence of
architectural barriers characterises all architecture and landscapes representing the world’s historical and cultural
Heritage. Accessibility and usability must be faced taking into account each unique context: the specific features
and qualities of the historical, cultural and natural landscape; the legislation; and the several technical and
structural constraints peculiar to the project. Several examples of successful interventions “for All” in Italy are
presented in this paper with a special focus on touristic sites and interpretative museums aimed at improving the
use and enjoyment of historical Heritage sites by everyone, including people with disabilities and children. This
paper also questions some of the assumptions surrounding the aesthetics of accessible and Heritage architecture
and searches for a possible middle ground: the possibility to design solutions which meet expectations for both
accessibility and high quality “architecture” and “design”. We will also illustrate the commitment of the city of
Venice: it is a particularly interesting case study, in a true open-air museum. The paper’s outcomes demonstrate
that the accessibility project does not stop inside a single building but embraces a broader vision, thus offering an
integrated Heritage experience for the widest possible range of people.
Key words: sustainability, accessibility, Design for All, Heritage
INTRODUCTION
Italy, like most European cities, has a great number of Heritage sites: not only buildings, but entire ancient
cities and archaeological sites of great significance. All individuals, even people with reduced mobility or
perception, should be enabled to fully enjoy these sites, although this could be difficult due to the
morphological and architectural features of the urban settlements and of the built or natural environment.
This approach stems from the principles of social sustainability and social inclusion and non-discrimination,
as the effort towards a good quality of life for everyone: every architect should base his activity on this
approach.
However, full accessibility often appears a difficult, or even impossible, achievement: frequently, entire
towns appear virtually inaccessible due to geological or topographical conditions. A more realistic goal, in
many cases, is to ensure everyone enjoys a concrete urban visitability. Our main aim must be to design in a
way that makes the experience of enjoying the landscape/architecture interesting, attractive and
meaningful for all. According to the definition adopted by the European Commission (DG Employment and
Social Affairs, European Day for People with Disabilities 3rd December 2001), “Design for All means
designing, developing and marketing mainstream products, services, systems and environments to be
accessible by as broad a range of users as possible.”
This approach has also been developed in the US since 1997, when a group of designers and researchers
from NCSU (North Carolina State University), coordinated by Ron Mace, created the US Centre for Universal
Design and developed the Principles of Universal Design to guide the design of places, products and
communication systems.
Lack of accessibility in many Heritage Sites

The presence of architectural barriers characterises all architecture and landscapes representing the world’s
historical and cultural Heritage. In this respect, a great debate has spread worldwide, that focuses on the
possibility to achieve accessibility without compromising the aesthetic peculiarities of Heritage sites.
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The following examples show how difficult the achievement of “complete accessibility” in and around the
sites can be. Let us think about Ischia Island, Gulf of Naples, Southern Italy. It is a volcanic island (46 square
kilometres), almost entirely mountainous, whose highest peak is Mount Epomeo (788 meters). Its irregular
coastline and inland and its deep slopes make the usability of services and attractions seriously difficult.
Another example is represented by the ancient town of Matera, Basilicata, Southern Italy, known as Sassi di
Matera: it is one of the most ancient settlements in the world, and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Its buildings have been dug from calcarenite and it lies next to a small canyon that has been eroded by the
small stream Gravina, which separates the area in two and culminates in the rocky spur of the Civita (the
ancient town). Due to morphological reasons, many Italian villages are not easy to visit on foot by people
with motor disabilities. Artena, near Rome, is a Roman village within the Lepini Mounts, perched on a
calcareous rock; it has a rugged morphology with more than 40% slopes and recurring Karst phenomena
that create numerous dolines and pools.
Figure 1: Piazza di Spagna and Trinità dei Monti. Rome (Source: Studio Steffan).
Piazza di Spagna and Trinità dei Monti in Rome is one of the most famous Italian landmarks whose main
element is the majestic staircase – obviously not usable by all visitors – inaugurated during the 1725 Jubilee,
and culminating in the Trinità dei Monti church. Although the church can be reached in different ways, and
also by car, only the route going from Bernini’s baroque fountain, through the staircase (which is often full of
flowers) up to the gothic church, allows the visitor to fully enjoy its beauty: the visual experience can be
connected in this way with the acoustic (the fountain and its water) and olfactory (the flowers) experience
and with the movement (Figure 1).
At the Museum of Castello Sforzesco in Milan, after a long tour pathway, from the top of a wide staircase
visitors can spot a niche that hides the sculpture Pietà Rondanini by Michelangelo.
People with motor impairments can ask for a guide and follow an alternative path, by lift; in this way
however an important part of the visit, the emotion of the discovery, is lost.
Stairs seem to be the worst enemy of accessibility and in the perception of many architects it seems that
ramps have been introduced in architecture only to help people with motor impairments, according to the
technical legislation for the elimination of architectural barriers. Actually, in great examples of architecture,
mobility is a determinant factor to understand them: think about the Promenade Architecturale in Villa Savoye
by Le Corbusier (1929) and the church by Michelucci (1963) on “Autostrada del Sole” (the main Italian
motorway) in Florence, in which the pathway is both an architectural and spiritual experience.
Nevertheless, it is reductive to think that accessibility can be connected only with mobility even if in
conditions of autonomy and safety, and not to the whole emotional enjoyment and fruition of the
environment. The pleasantness, the emotion that generates a place or an environment is a determining
factor of good architecture.
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To guarantee accessibility of the built environment does not only mean the possibility to overcome a gap or
a passage (a step or a narrow door); it means connecting architecture to movement, giving also to people
with motor impairments the possibility to enjoy the architectural artefact, be it an ancient or modern site, a
restored or new building. Accessibility can therefore be an aesthetical–architectural value, as well as a
socially undeniable value.
Accessible Heritage sites: the first sustainable step towards the right to culture
In order to work for the improvement of accessibility, particularly in Heritage sites, the main references are
represented by the principles stated by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED, Rio de Janeiro, 1992), where the idea of sustainable development had been shared, based on the
“three pillars” of sustainability – environmental, economic, social; and by the principles of social inclusion
and non-discrimination, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, UN, Paris 1948) and
in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, UN, New York 2006), as
well as the European Landscape Convention (Council of Europe, Florence, 2000, ratified by Italy with law n.
14/06).
Nowadays society is strongly directing its efforts towards energy conservation, which is an unavoidable
objective for designers. The concept of sustainability should go beyond energy conservation and lead
towards a sort of “widened sustainability”: environmental, economic, social. Sustainability and social
inclusion should guide the actions of professionals in the field of architectural design, products and services.
European architects are used to adopting dimensional standards for the design of life and work spaces.
Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man as well as Le Corbusier’s Modulor are usually and all along considered the main
reference points for designing, even though they constitute ideal models, that cannot represent the
diversity of humankind.
As a matter of fact every person is different from another and, furthermore, everybody is different from
himself, during his own life, due to physiological, personal and pathological causes. A paradigm change is
therefore needed, since an ipothetic standard man or at least some specific human categories cannot be the
reference for the design of public environments.
A good project, if sustainable, should take into account the widest spectrum possible of potential real users
and aim to create accessible and usable solutions for the greatest number of people possible. Starting from
sharing this approach, the Universal Design/Design for All philosophy is increasingly spreading both at
international level and in Italy. It represents a User-Centred Design approach whose main aim is social
inclusion: it is based on the acknowledgement of human diversity as a value and it is the design for real
persons, with differentiated solutions that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
UCD refers to the definition by J. Rubin (1994) according to whom “User-Centred Design not only represents
the techniques, processes, methods and procedures necessary for verifying and designing the usability of
the products and systems, but also and above all, an intervention philosophy that places the user in the
centre of the design and creation process of the products”.
Referring to the architectonic and landscape cultural Heritage hosted in our cities, often composed not only
by individual monuments or artefacts but by entire cities and archaeological sites, we need to take into
account that the right to access this Heritage and to enjoy the experience of cultural education should be
guaranteed to everyone.
In the aforementioned European Landscape Convention (Council of Europe, Florence, 2000), the term
landscape is defined as an area or a territory, as perceived by its inhabitants or visitors, whose aspect and
features stem from the action of natural and/or cultural (i.e. anthropic) factors and their interrelations. This
definition considers the idea that landscapes (the whole territory) evolve in the course of time, due to the
effect of natural forces and human actions. It underlines the idea that landscape gives shape to a whole,
whose natural and cultural elements are simultaneously considered.
Urban spaces and their Heritage elements are in the first place one of the main vehicles of national identity
construction by citizens, representing the concrete evidence of a cultural identity and an element of
personal and social growth.
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Subsequently, many Heritage sites constitute a strong tourism attraction to the extent that every city can
spread its own imagine that can be perceived as unique, unrepeatable, as well as accessible for potential
tourists.
The Colosseo in Rome can be mentioned as an example. The Colosseo has been declared among the Seven
World Wonders, it is the world biggest amphitheatre, representing par excellence the icon of Italy and of
Roman vestiges, besides being Italy’s main tourism attraction with more than five million visitors every year.
In support of this idea, several European nations have recently introduced general and technical legislations
for accessibility in Heritage sites. In Italy, the principles expressed in Codice dei Beni Culturali e del paesaggio –
Code of Cultural and Landscape Heritage (D.L. n.42/2004) have been specified in: Manifesto della Cultura
Accessibile a Tutti – Document for Accessible Culture for All (in implementation of art. 30 CRPD, UN, New York
2006, ratified by Italy with Law n.18/2009) and Linee Guida per il superamento delle barriere architettoniche nei
luoghi di interesse culturale – Guidelines for overcoming architectural barriers in heritage sites (MIBACT –
Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, 2008).
The Italian Code of Cultural and Landscape Heritage includes the concept of cultural Heritage, which is
defined in art. 6: “Valorisation means to exercise the functions and to discipline those activities that are
aimed at the promotion of the knowledge of the cultural Heritage and to ensure the best possible ways of
using the Heritage itself by the general public, also by people with disabilities, in order to promote the
development of our culture”.
The concept of public use of cultural Heritage, which is wide in the Code (“even people with disabilities”),
expresses the need to make it usable by the widest possible audience. The recent Guidelines for overcoming
architectural barriers in heritage sites by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism also
stresses this need.
The design for the requalification of cultural buildings and spaces should therefore always take these
fundamental principles into consideration.
Accessible design/requalification: some good practices

The keystone of ergonomic and accessible design is the user-centred approach and the design compatible
with different needs. Design solutions should therefore allow individuals to have access to culture or – better
– to enjoy the landscape, architectural and historical beauty.
Due to the morphological and structural features of Italian and European urban contexts however, the
requalification for accessibility cannot always and necessarily aim to the achievement of full accessibility for
All. The main dilemma is represented by the contrast between the necessity to protect the whole Heritage
and its aesthetic, and the requests to improve accessibility.
Let us consider towers, for instance the leaning tower of Pisa. It is the bell tower of Santa Maria Assunta
Cathedral (56 meters), whose tilt had been caused by the ground subsidence in the early construction
phases. The visit requires a great physical effort, due to the narrow helicoidal internal staircase, with its 300
steps. Designing solutions for the accessibility of people in wheelchairs is a difficult challenge: due to the
tower’s morphological and structural constraints, any modification could alter its nature and peculiarity.
The issue deals with design and implementation of solutions which can satisfy accessibility needs, where
possible, at the same time preserving a high quality architecture and design. Is it possible to design and
realise solutions which meet expectations for both accessibility and high quality “architecture” and “design”?
In the search for mediation between the original intervention and the new one, a further issue appears: the
relation between the two interventions and the choice to intervene with a homogeneity or contrast project,
evaluating the possibility to mark a clear formal distinction between the existing architecture and the
modern intervention.
Should we always design adopting minimal interventions, or can we also propose solutions that stray away
from the historical formal and aesthetic context? Must we always make a clear distinction between the
original and the new?
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Italy is nowadays still at the beginning of a long process: the follow explanatory examples illustrate some
recurring issues.
Figures 2-3: Colosseo, Rome (Source: courtesy of Maria Agostiano).
In Rome, the possibility to visit Colosseo is available also for people in wheelchairs or with motor
impairments. Hundreds of tourists use two lifts that connect the ground floor to the first floor, and that are
invisible from the outside (Figures 2-3). Due to the Heritage context, a transparent, modern, solution has
been chosen: they are made of steel and glass.
Figures 3-4: Mercati di Traiano, Rome (Source: Studio Steffan).
At Mercati di Traiano, practicability and accessibility of the site have been improved through the use of
walkways, ramps, parapets, an oil-pressure lift, two lifting platforms (Figures 4-5). The external lift is
brickwork, looking similar to the old roman walls. It is easy to recognise the modern intervention also
because the new bricks differ in size from the old ones. Problems with the ancient irregular roman floor still
remain.
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Figures 5-6-7: Portico di Ottavia, Rome (Source: Studio Steffan).
At Portico di Ottavia the restoration intervention of the site has been done so as to overcome the difference
in levels, by creating an archaeological path that goes under the Teatro di Marcello, and to the opposite site
by adding an accessible rope bridge (Figures 5-6-7). The ramp going down to the excavation area features a
guide line for the orientation of blind people, realised using the local material – basalt – in different ways.
Figures 8-9: Ostia Antica, Rome (Source: courtesy of Maria Agostiano)
In the archaeological site of Ostia Antica, itineraries are integrated with 3D tactile maps: a necessary solution
for blind visitors and a tactile experience for All (Figures 8-9).
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Figures 10-11: Museum of Santa Giulia, Brescia.

(Source: courtesy of Giovanni Tortelli and Roberto Frassoni).
At the Museum of Santa Giulia in Brescia, Northern Italy, the restoration of Domus Ortaglia for accessibility
purposes has consisted in the realisation of a pathway through an elevated walkway: the flat path runs along
the archaeological area, protecting its integrity and ensuring an easy fruition for All (Figures 10-11).
Furthermore, this metallic footbridge clanks at the passage of visitors, allowing them to perceive the
difference with other floors in a multi-sensorial way. In order to ensure usability “for All” of Heritage sites, it
would be appropriate to re-design spaces considering not only the elimination of architectural barriers, but
also expanding the perspective toward solutions for the improvement of orientation and information for All,
starting from the needs of people with sensorial disabilities (Moore, 2013).
The strategic spatial organisation aimed at the orientation but also at the realisation of sensorial routes and
inclusive contents are the main elements for both the creation of urban tactile orientation routes, like in
Florence and Rome, and the realisation of structures like the Omero Tactile Museum, now hosted in the Mole
Vanvitelliana in Ancona.
In Florence, printed and on-line tourist guide books called “Vivere Firenze” have been created
(www.comune.fi.it/viverefirenze/itinerari.html), both in Italian and English: they list urban itineraries that are
accessible for tourists with motor disabilities and other supplementary information about the tactile and
sound elements needed for the orientation of people with sensorial disabilities. For instance, fountains and
sculptures located on the edges of the streets are indicated as useful elements for orientation.
It is worth to notice that architects can adopt six different codes to give useful information about the
surfaces of urban routes: not only the difference in height but also sign, color, size, assembly, manufacture
and material. Some routes in Rome, especially the path between Fontana di Trevi and Pantheon are equipped
with tactile guides at foot level and information boards, as well as some ischiatic support benches; a path
starting from S. Paolo Fuori le Mura underground station and its homonymous basilica has been equipped
with foot-tactile guides and tactile and Braille information boards. Accessibility is also the possibility to
explore the environment and at the same time enjoying the experience. In Italian museums guided tours,
audio guides, the possibility to touch the archaeological finds, bi-three dimensional maps of the building, of
the rooms, of the works are often used. Sometimes, it is also possible to manipulate and reproduce a work in
special educational workshops.
In Italy, the Omero Tactile Museum makes tactile experience the focus of its activities and research: touching
faces, bodies, gestures, expressions, discovering volumes and perspective through the hands.
The Omero Tactile Museum, located in Ancona (central Italy), has been created to fill this gap in the range of
cultural services for blind people and also to offer an innovative space where artistic perception passes
through multi-sensory, rather than just visual, stimuli.
The original location was an old school: the route was provided with special educational aids, information in
Braille and black and a Walk Assistance technology. The signal was transmitted by a copper wire (the low
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tension conductor), located under a yellow sticky stripe along the route: this emits a very low sound, a
vibration that can be felt by the handle of a special cane. An accessible museum for blinds must use auditory
perception for orientation. The new site of the Museum is in one side of the pentagonal Mole Vanvitelliana, a
strong cultural landmark for citizens. The guidelines of the scientific project for the new Museum inside the
Mole were drawn up by an international scientific committee, which was established in July 2009. This first
document generated the preliminary project, which was designed by Arch. Alessandra Panzini and approved
in March 2012. At present, some in-depth technical and scientific procedures necessary for the completion of
the new exhibition areas are being drafted. Innovative technological solutions will be widely used to
increase interaction between the public and the collection. Installations and multimedia contributions will,
on the one hand, provide a multidimensional interpretation of the work or the context that is being explored
and on the other hand, will engage the different senses in order to create a more complex and effective
narration. Audio and audio-visual equipment, and possibly olfactory stimulation, will be used in order to
increase the sensory impact. There will also be introductory models, information panels and captions in
Braille and in black print, images, tactile maps, mobile platform ladders for tactile exploration.
An agreement with Università Politecnica delle Marche has led to the development of a research project
aimed at studying and developing a tracking system capable of guiding blind visitors around the exhibition,
independently and without any help from support staff. So far, some examples of interventions done on
single Heritage sites, or areas, have been presented. A wider and more complex project is represented by the
city of Venice, which is a particularly interesting case study, since it is a true open-air museum: Venice is one
of the most important tourist destinations in the world for its celebrated art and architecture. The city is
visited by an average of 50,000 people each day. It is regarded as one of the world's most beautiful cities. The
city in its entirety is listed as a World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon. Composed by several little islands,
built on pile-dwellings and connected by a dense network of bridges, the city does not offer the ideal
conditions for an intervention to increase accessibility.
Nevertheless, with the catch-phrase “Venice City for All”, the municipality has bravely begun the realisation
of the Plan for the Elimination of Architectural Barriers – PEBA (whose implementation is regulated by Italian
legislation, Art. 32, law 41/86 and art.24, law 104/92). The project of urban integrated accessibility has taken
into consideration two main aspects: the accessibility of public transports and the accessibility of bridges
connecting the different parts of the city. Accessibility has been improved through the realisation of
facilitated “friendly steps” and provisional ramps (Figure 12).
Figure 12: Venice. Example of ramps with facilitated “friendly step”

(Source: courtesy of Franco Gazzarri).
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The commitment of the municipality of Venice towards urban accessibility has also concerned the drafting
of specific maps aimed at identifying the urban areas with the greatest tourism impact. This first work was
crucial for the intervention on the accessibility of water public transport: it led to the identification of
accessible urban insulae and the realisation of twelve accessible itineraries starting from the steamboats
docks.
Venice has also been able to integrate the project with the adoption of creative solutions, not necessarily
related with the architectural context, but connected to the communication of accessibility: an example is
the experience started in 2005 called A Venezia le barriere si superano di corsa – A run to overcome barriers:
during the Venice Marathon, thirteen temporary ramps have been arranged. They have been available for all
users for a period of five months: although they were originally provided for athletes, they represented the
occasion to make Venice accessible with a consecutive three kilometers path. Thanks to the benefit they
gave to all users, many citizens, not only people with disabilities, but also parents with children on prams,
elderly people, people with various difficulties, expressed the need to keep the ramps forever.
This shows that the accessibility project in Venice was also based on the involvement of citizens and an
understanding of their needs, a crucial element for the Design for All approach, as User-Centred Design.
Another interesting initiative undertaken during recent restoration works concerns the accessibility of some
sites located in the historical centre for people with motor disabilities, obtained using lifts or temporary
ground footways. In this way Venice can show its welcoming and inclusive spirit through an original
communication based on the catch-phrase “Aperto per lavori” – “Open for works”.
Considering the high presence of bridges, connecting the majority of pedestrian paths, and the steamboats
as the only means of transport towards Venice, the public administration focused on this latter crucial aspect
for accessibility.
It created, where necessary, several access ramps, providing an easy rise and descent for passengers.
Steamboats also provide safe spaces for passengers in wheelchairs or children in prams and comfortable
seats for elderly people and pregnant women (Figures 13-14).
Figures 13-14: Venice. Accessible public transport. Source: Studio Steffan
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CONCLUSION
A good and fully sustainable project, even in the social perspective, should allow accessibility of places for
the highest possible number of people, and give users the idea that they are not passive consumers, but that
they participate in the place and are able to perceive and enjoy its meanings, sensations and value.
Architects and designers should think about the interaction between users and spaces. They should also
work in order to make Heritage sites, be them in urban contexts or within a broader territory, able to
effectively provide meanings to their users.
The accessibility project does not stop inside a single building but embraces a broader vision, thus offering
an integrated Heritage experience.
From urban planning, to the organisation of pedestrian spaces, to the architectural interventions, to the
information system, to the choice of details: the architectural language should be consciously used and it
should not be based on mere aesthetical choices.
The issue concerns the ability to handle, not only the tools for urban planning and the compositional
elements of architecture, but also the most useful elements for a wider, deeper and clearer communication.
All projects or interventions on existing artefacts, especially in case of works of art for the general public like
historical-cultural Heritage sites, should develop with the aim of broadening the audience, in the perspective
of a broader usability.
A sustainable project – involving product and architectural, urban or territorial issues – also needs to be
affordable. And it is more affordable if its affordability is guaranteed from the very beginning of the project,
instead of adapting it at the end of the process, or – much worse – once it has already been realised.
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DESIGN OF A WHOLESALE KITCHEN MARKET IN DHAKA CITY
Samina Mazumder Tuli,Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and

Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh, samina@arch.buet.ac.bd, samina123@gmail.com
Nazmul Islam, Architect and M. Arch. Student, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada,
nazmul.islam@mail.mcgill.ca, ar.nazmul.islam@gmail.com
Abstract
Food supply is one of the most vital functions for a city where this purpose is generally done by a large marketing
system and this is called a Wholesale Kitchen Market. Mostly a city is not capable to produce all its required food
supply for her dwellers; as a result, she needs to collect most of her food from different part of the country as well
as from abroad. It is a very important function for any city because of its large scale contribution for ensuring a
very primary and basic human need. The concept of Wholesale Kitchen Market is an essential component of any
agricultural marketing system, especially for a horticultural crop producing country like Bangladesh. This Market
generally deals with some very primary agricultural products like cereals, vegetables, roots and tuber, fruits, fish
and meats etc; which come in and go out with different kinds of vehicles and where a large number of people of
various professions are involved with these activities.
In Dhaka city, wholesale kitchen markets are growing unplanned, unhygienic and without having any particular
system. The overall scenario of these market places is highly crucial and hostile. Inappropriate site selection,
unplanned zone development and shortage of functional spaces are making wrong use of valuable land resource.
Large number of incoming and outgoing traffic for loading/unloading systems also create severe traffic
congestion in the middle of the city. There is always a lack integrity is observed in different types of working group
who works in the wholesale kitchen markets. The raw products of the market, especially the perishable items
create garbage, odor and an unhygienic environment. Even with the lack of a proper trading system, it takes some
lengthy and unnecessary steps for products to reach the consumer.
Considering the great demand of functional development of Wholesale Kitchen Markets, this paper will try to
identify the problems of the existing experiences as well as the opportunities for designing an efficient market
system in six major aspects; these are space requirements for the kitchen market, internal zoning, internal
transport system and loading unloading, unit or shop detail, human resource management and waste
management. The focus of this research paper is to propose a sustainable design decision method for the future
development of a Wholesale Kitchen Market in Dhaka city. This paper is based on field survey data, observational
study and analysis of current five wholesale markets in Dhaka city and a B.Arch. Thesis, “Design approach of
wholesale Kacha Bazar (Kitchen Market) in Dhaka city”.
Keywords: space requirements, kitchen market, zoning, internal transport system, human resource
management, waste management.
INTRODUCTION
A wholesale kitchen market is a very vital function for a city like Dhaka as it serves the city dwellers with the
essential basic needs of everyday life and that is food. In Dhaka city, wholesale kitchen markets are growing
unplanned and do not have any particular planning guideline or operational systems. So it is essential to
incorporate appropriate planning guidelines for designing or establishing a wholesale kitchen market.
A wholesale kitchen market deals with some organic products which come in and go out with different
vehicles and where a large number of different people are involved with these activities. The wholesale
kitchen markets of Dhaka City engage with some problems and these are:
• Unplanned and unhygienic development of the market creates an unhealthy and chaotic situation.
• Location within the city and space needed to serve the city population are never considered.
• A large number of traffic for loading/unloading creates traffic congestion.
• A product has to cross a long distance and unnecessary steps to reach the consumer.
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• There is no integrity in different types of working group.
• A large number of generated waste creates an unhealthy environment.
This paper is going to discuss the problems and opportunities in six major aspects, space requirements for
the kitchen market, internal zoning, internal transport system and loading unloading, unit or shop detail,
human resource management and waste management, based on field survey data, observational study and
analysis.
Background
The wholesale kitchen markets of Dhaka city have been growing scattered and unplanned. Karwan Bazar is
one of the largest kitchen markets in Dhaka, situated almost in the center of the city and always creating
severe traffic congestion and chaos in the city centre which is a major commercial hub. Another large
wholesale kitchen market is Jatrabari Bazar, located on the south east side of the city. In the south west part,
beside the river Buriganga, there are three more markets and these are Sham Bazar, Babu Bazar and
Shuarighat, which specifically deals with vegetable, fruit and fish respectively. These markets are growing
without any particular planning guidelines, policy or operational systems, which results in a completely
unintended, unorganized and unhygienic market system. Again, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) decided to
shift the largest wholesale kitchen market from the city center Karwan Bazar to the four different edges
(Figure 1) of the city. These are Aminbazar (in the north-west periphery of the city), Mohakhali (northern
center of the city), Jatrabari (in existing part and southern periphery) and Lalbagh (in the western part beside
the river). These wholesale kitchen markets need proper policy guidelines to develop and maintain a healthy
sustainable environment and to ensure a proper operational system. This study will help to identify the
problems and opportunities to retrofit the existing markets in some points and develop the new ones with
proper guidelines according to the World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the observational
study with field survey.
Figure 1: Map of Dhaka city with location of proposed four sites (blue circle) for wholesale kitchen markets. Red
points are the existing wholesale facilities. Red arrow sign denotes the entry of the Dhaka city from the different
parts of the country.
Objective of study
The objectives of this study are:
! To identify the problems and to propose guidelines from different primary standards for designing
wholesale kitchen markets, addressing six major aspects; these are space requirements for the
kitchen market, internal zoning, internal transport system and loading/unloading, unit or shop
detail, human resource management and waste management.
! To determine the efficient operational system and design guidelines for designing Wholesale
Kitchen Markets in Dhaka city.
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Limitations
The research work is limited by a number of constraints like time, resources and some practical problems
that appeared during the field survey. Limitation of the research period, limitation of manpower for survey
and collection of data, limitation of resources from private and public sectors and limitation of proper data
collection due to midnight operations and chaotic management systems can be considered as major
constraints. There are few published or unpublished materials available related to this study. There are no
concrete policies and proposals for developing or designing a wholesale kitchen market except a wholesale
planning manual published by FAO. The study is therefore developed based on field investigation.
Methodology
Wholesale kitchen markets deal with different products. After the field survey and typology assessment, five
types of products are considered for the study. They are cereals, roots and tuber, vegetable (leafy vegetable
and fruit vegetable), fruit and fish. The methodology can be stated in four steps.
! Field survey
! Literature review
! Data processing
! Observational study and analysis.
Field survey: A field survey has been done in four steps with a detailed photographic survey, observational
study and interviews.
! A photographic survey with observational study has been done to determine the existing system,
and traffic movement of the existing situation.
! An observational study with field survey has done to determine the approximate area/ space which
is occupied by the wholesale markets in Dhaka city currently. Again a detailed observational
investigation has been done to find out the spaces or area occupied by different types of products,
for example, vegetable, fruits, fish etc.
! An observational survey, questionnaire survey and photographic documentation of existing
individual units / shops (almost 100 numbers) of some of the existing wholesale markets have been
done randomly. For studying vegetable, fruit, roots and tuber; ‘Karwan Bazar’, ‘Sham Bazar’,
‘Jatrabari Bazar’ and ‘Babu Bazar’ have been investigated, for fish; ‘Suareeghat’ and ‘Jatrabari Bazar’
have been investigated, for cereal; ‘Mohammadpur Krishi Market’ and ‘Jatrabari Bazar’ have been
investigated.
! A field investigation has been done to find out the flow of goods, from producer to consumer. So
some retail kitchen markets and village assembly markets have been surveyed. For studying retail
market, ‘New Market’, ‘Hatirpul Kitchen Market’, ‘Uttara Kushol Centre’ and ‘Karwan Bazar’ have
been surveyed and for village assembly market; Nimshar Bazar (located at Comilla) has been
surveyed.
Literature review: A literature study has been done from the regulatory standards of the world food and
agriculture organization. Different reports, papers, thesis and books are also studied for the literature review.
Some of the foreign wholesale kitchen markets are studied as case studies.
Data processing: The data found from the survey has been plotted on paper or charts for comparative
analysis.
Observational study and analysis: After data processing, field survey and literature review have been
comparative analyzed, an observational study has been done to determine the design outcomes from data
sheet, charts, photographs and comparative analysis.
DEFINITION OF A WHOLESALE KITCHEN MARKET
‘Wholesale’ means the business of selling goods to retailers in larger quantities than they are sold to final
consumers but in smaller quantities than they are purchased from manufacturers (Reverso Dictionary 2000).
Wholesaling facilitates the economic function of buying and selling by allowing the forces of supply and
demand to converge to establish a single price for a commodity (White 1991). A wholesale kitchen market is
a transitional function between producer and consumer which deals with bulk amount of products coming
from village assembly market and stores them or sells them to retailers or to city local markets.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF EXISTING WHOLESALE KACHA BAZAR
The existing wholesale kitchen market of Dhaka city consists of unplanned organization system and zoning,
an unhygienic and unhealthy environment and chaotic traffic movement. Products need to travel a long
system and distance to reach the consumer in the existing system of a wholesale kitchen market. Again,
there is huge volume of organic waste generated from perishable products which causes garbage,
intolerable odors and an unbearable unhygienic environment in the market place.
Figure 02: Unhygienic corridors of Karwan Bazar Figure 03: Chaotic situation of Sham Bazar
wholesale kitchen market. wholesale kitchen market.
Figure 04: Unhygienic wet corridors of Jatrabari Figure 05: Water transportation and loading
wholesale fish market. unloading system in Sham Bazar wholesale kitchen
market.
From the photographic survey, questionnaire survey and observational study of existing wholesale markets,
existing problems and characteristics can be easily determined. Here, the existing characteristics have been
studied in six identical aspects and these are space requirements for the kitchen market, internal zoning,
internal transport movement and loading/unloading, unit or shop detail, human resource and waste
management.
Site estimation and space requirement is a very important issue for designing and establishing a wholesale
kitchen market. But, existing wholesale markets are not built with proper calculations or specific estimation,
rather the regulatory authority allocates the location and size of the site from their asumption for this
particular function. As a result, insufficient space for wholesale facilities creates a chaotic situation and
congestion. Currently, there is no appropriate zoning system in the wholesale kitchen markets of Dhaka city
(Tuli and Islam 2014). Lack of planning and proper zoning creates problems in the trading system of the
existing wholesale kitchen market. Chaotic traffic movement, different types of motorized and non-
motorized vehicle movement in the same road, poor and inadequate parking facilities and unorganized
space for loading/unloading facilities make intolerable traffic congestion and a hazardous situation in the
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market place. The shops or the units are not well organized as per trading activities. There is even no proper
storage space, display and stack areas. Insufficient corridors between the units are always creating problems.
Even natural lighting and ventilation is not considered in the market area. The stakeholders related to this
function like ‘Bapary’ (local term for the trader who buys goods from producers in village assembly market
and takes those goods to city wholesale markets by suitable transport), ‘Arotdar’ (local term for the trader
who stores goods in the wholesale market), labour, waste collector, truck driver, retail seller, retail buyer,
office staff, consumer etc can be considered as human resource (Tuli and Islam 2014). There are very few
facilities provided for this group in these market places. According to the field observation and
questionnaire survey to DCC waste collectors, Karwan Bazar generates 300-400 tons of waste each day (Tuli
and Islam 2014). As a result, it is very difficult to remove it in a short space of time and this creates an
unhygienic, unhealthy and degraded environment in wholesale markets.
PROPOSALS, GUIDELINES AND DESIGN OUTCOME
Site selection or the location of the site

As per Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a new site for a wholesale market will need to be reviewed
at two levels: its general location within the urban area and its siting within its immediate neighborhood
(White 1991).
Ideally, the wholesale market should be adjacent to a main road (White 1991). The ideal site is one visible
from the main highway but which has its own segregated point of access not mixed up with local traffic
(White 1991). The location of the market within the urban area should be considered by the requirements of
the producer and the retailer’s transportation facilities. A common criterion is adopted, a maximum travel
time of around 30 minutes for retailers to reach the wholesale market (White 1991).
Choosing the right site must consider three issues and these are:
! Transport of produce to market
! Physical context
! Facilities.
Site estimation and space requirement

According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there are two approaches to estimate consumption:
a demand approach or a supply approach.
Demand approach: The concept is represented by a formula, relating population to income (White 1991):
Qn = Qo (1 + p) (1 +ey) n ……………… (Eq 01)
where: ‘Qn’ projected consumption at year n, ‘Qo’ consumption in the base year, ‘p’ annual rate of population
growth, ‘y’ projected growth of per capita disposable income, ‘e’ projected income elasticity, ‘n’ number of
years from base date. This approach is very difficult to solve because of the shortage of data.
Supply approach: These are derived from estimates of present supply, making adjustments for imports,
exports and food processing (White 1991). According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
Annual consumption of foods in the year = catchment area or total population x kgs. per caput (maximum)
availability (from supply method)
Annual consumption of foods in the year (tons)

Estimated sales area (m2) = ------------------------------------------------------------------… (Eq 02)
Annual turnover tons/m2 (10 – 25 metric ton)
An optimum overall annual turnover per square metre of sales area, which should usually range from 10 - 25
metric tons, including an allowance for main circulation areas (display/buyers' walk and loading platforms)
(White 1991).
Space requirement: Any of the following can be taken for calculating the space requirement,
! Site estimation “4 - 5 tons of turnover per m² of overall site area” (FAO, White 1991).
! Site estimation from populations that the site can serve.
From the field survey data, the space requirements can be calculated by the supply approach.
In supply approach, the availability of major food items are:
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Table 1: Changes in the availability (gms/person/day) of major food items, 1970-2001 (Source: Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO 2004).
From the table per caput availability is found and it can apply in the equation 02. From field survey, the
yearly turnover of wholesale kitchen markets in Dhaka city was found to be 20-30 tons/m2 except for cereal.
Here, turnover of 25 tons/m2 can be assumed for roots and tuber, vegetable, fruit and fish, turnover of 100
tons/m2 can be assumed for cereals (approximate data from field survey).
Catchment area population can be calculated by
- Ease of communication
- A radius of 30 min distance from retails (FAO)
- The number of people it has to serve.
Here among the four sites as example, Amin Bazar (Figure 1) site meets the site selection criteria as it is in the
northwest part of the city and connects with the entry road to Dhaka city from the northwest part of the
country. Here the catchment areas can be Pallabi, Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur, Mirpur and Adabar; where
the population is almost 2 million. Here, future projections for population should be considered for
feasibility.
Future projection: Future projection should be considered for design of a wholesale kitchen market. From
previous growth rate and migration trends, future projections of population can be calculated. Population
growth rate of Bangladesh: 1.26% (SPB 2008) and Migration in Dhaka per day almost ±2100 person. So it is
found that,
05 year population projection for the Amin Bazar site: 3 million
Items Food Space Required (sqm) 5 years 10 years 20 years

Consumption (Annual consumption (Population 3 (Population (Population
(ton/person/year) /Annual turnover million) 4 million) 6 million)
(Table 01) (sqm) (sqm) (sqm)
(Population 2 mil)
Cereal 328000 3280.0 4920 6560 9840
Roots and 42000 1680.0 2520 3360 5040
Tuber
Vegetable 35040 1401.6 2100 2800 4200
Fruit 21160 846.4 1260 2080 2520
Fish 32120 1284.8 1920 2560 3840
Table 2: Estimation of space requirement (applying equation 02).
Again, According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a rough rule-of-thumb for the portion of the
site covered by buildings should be around 20 - 30 percent, road space and parking between 50 - 60 percent
and other uses, including drain reserves 10 - 20 percent of the total area (White 1991). From the existing
market survey, it is found that 25-48 percent for buildings, 40-50 percent for road space and parking. So for
site estimation, it can be assumed that, Road and parking 50%, Build space 30%, others 20%. From Table 2,
the build space has been calculated, from where it is easy to estimate the required site area.
Internal zoning
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Zoning can be considered by the type of selling products of the wholesale kitchen market (Tuli and Islam
2014). Zoning should be done by the types of products, types of service needed, types of space needed,
circulation etc. Primarily the zoning can be done by perishable and non-perishable items. The items needing
water should be located in the wet zone. Wet zone, dry zone and semi wet zones should be designed
separately for ease of services and maintenance. As cereal and roots and tuber are non-perishable items, so
these can be located in the dry zone. Fruit, vegetable and fish are perishable items, and should be grouped
together for ease of water supply and drainage. Vegetables and fruit should be located in the semi wet zone
whereas fish should be located with a distance from other segments due to its odor and ease of service.
Figure 6: Estimation of space requirement and internal zoning.
Internal transport system and loading unloading

Every day, a large number of different vehicles approach the wholesale market. Both heavy and light
vehicles like trucks, pickups, covered vans (heavy vehicle) and auto rickshaw, rickshaw van, rickshaw (a local
non-motorized vehicle) etc (light vehicle) approach here and create an inconvenient and conflict situation.
Inadequate parking facilities allow road side parking and road side loading/unloading activity which creates
severe traffic congestion. Internal transport system and loading unloading can be discussed in three
subtitles; these are parking facilities, transportation and loading/unloading system.
According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), wholesale kitchen markets should adopt a one way
circulation system, a central zoning of markets and a ring road where minor loop roads penetrate within the
blocks. It is always better to avoid crossroads. For parking requirements, minimum 2-3 spaces per 100sqm of
sales area and 4-6 spaces per 100sqm of sales area (for peak hours) proposed by Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO). There should be an arrangement of remote reserved parking area. Loading & unloading
should be adjacent to the market.
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Table 3: Comparison between the internal transport movement and loading/unloading system of existing
wholesale markets, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and proposal for design. Here the red arrows are
incoming traffic which serves the unloading bay and green arrows are outgoing traffic which serves loading bay.
The proposed system is stated below. A one way traffic system with no crossroad and dedicated
loading/unloading bay has been proposed here.
Figure 7: Peripheral loading bay with outgoing Figure 8: One side of a platform for loading bay
traffic (green arrow)and one sided unloading bay with outgoing traffic (green arrow)and other side for
with incoming traffic (red arrow) system. unloading bay with incoming traffic (red arrow).
Unit or shop detail

For unit detail, it is essential to estimate the planning grid. The planning grid might be the most favorable
size of sales areas and wholesalers' stalls because if they are over-sized this is likely to lead to a low turnover
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(less than 15 tons m²) and an underuse of resources (White 1991). Otherwise the rents will be high which
should not exceed 2 - 3 percent of the value of sales (White 1991). In the wholesale markets of Dhaka city,
the planning grids are based on structural members or equal dividing of the total span of the structure. The
ideal method is to use the minimum of fixed walls so that premises can be defined by moveable partitions,
usually constructed of steel mesh (White 1991). It is found from the field survey that there are very few
partition walls in the units of the wholesale kitchen market of Dhaka city.
From surveying more than 100 units with location, size, grid pattern, corridor width, display type, storage
type etc; an ideal unit design is proposed here for design.
(A) (B) (C) (D)

Figure 9: Proposed unit with removal partition wall and accommodation space in the upper floor. (A) One grid
divided into two units with removable perforated partitions. (B) One grid divided into four units. (C) & (D)
Accommodation space in the upper floor.
The units for vegetable, fruit, cereal, roots and tuber and fish are stated below.
Vegetables: Trading (buy and sell) of bulk amount of products in this unit do not require a large long term
storage space. Minimum size of corridor found 2m. This type of unit needs proper lighting and natural
ventilation. (Figure 10)
Fruit: Fruits need some long term storage facilities and large display facilities. This type of unit needs proper
lighting and natural ventilation (Figure 11).
Vegetable!
!
Grid!6m!x!6m!
Unit!size!3m!x!3m!
All!corner!shop!
Removable!partition!!
Figure 10: Proposed unit for vegetable (Plan and Section) Green parts are short term storage and grey parts are
counter.
Fruit!
!
Grid!6m!x!6m!
Unit!size!3m!x!3m!
Space!for!storage!
Small!counter!!
Figure 11: Proposed unit for fruit (Plan and Section) Yellow parts are short term storage and grey parts are
counter.
Cereal: This type of unit is larger than other types due to its long term storage facility and needs a wider
corridor for movement. This type of unit needs large store facilities (Figure 12).
Roots and Tuber: This type of unit need short term large storage facility, and a wider corridor for movement
(Figure 13).
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!
Cereal!
!
Grid!6m!x!6m!
Unit!size!6m!x!3m!
Large!space!for!
storage!
Small!counter!
Figure 12: Proposed unit for cereal. (Plan and Section) Red parts are long term storage and grey parts are counter.
Roots!and!Tuber!
!
Grid!6m!x!6m!
Unit!size!3m!x!3m!
Can!follow!both!
vegetable!and!cereal!
module.!
Figure 13: Proposed unit for roots and tuber (Plan and Section) Orange parts are short term storage and grey
parts are counter.
Fish: Fish market trades (buy and sell) a bulk amount in a very short time. The fish market uses ice and water
which needs to drain out from the unit. The fish market needs a refrigeration system for short term storage.
This type of unit needs proper lighting and natural ventilation (Figure 14).
Space!for!
display!
Space!for!
packing!
Space!for!
Drainage! ice!
crushing!
Space!for!ice! Space!for! Space!for!
Crushing! packing! display!
Figure 14: Proposed unit for fish (Section and Plan).
Human resource management

Different stakeholders related to this function need different facilities like accommodation, catering facilities,
recreational facilities, toilet and bathing facilities etc. From the field observation it is found that, people used
to live in a drop slab (mezzanine floor) in the shop and labourers slept on the floor or on their Tukri (bamboo
basket in which the labourer carries goods on head). There are a few places for catering facilities, toilet and
bathing facilities in the wholesale markets of Dhaka city. The shop owners or sellers use to live in the shop
due to 24 hours operation and security reason. Figures 15 and 16 are the proposed facilities for
accommodation, catering, recreation, toilet and bathing for the working people in a market place. It is again
important to ensure proper lighting and ventilation in accommodation areas. All facilities can be designed in
separate mass or can be split in different spaces as per the convenience of master plan.
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Figure 15: Proposed accommodation facilities in Figure 16: Proposed recreational facilities for the
upper floor to meet requirement for 24 hours market in another mass beside sales area.
operation and security.
Waste management
Waste management is one of the vital issues for wholesale kitchen markets. Dhaka city produces large
volumes of food waste and almost 67% of the total city waste (Enayetullah 2008) and each day almost 300-
400 tons of waste is generated from Karwan Bazar wholesale kitchen market (Field survey). All parts of the
wholesale market do not produce the same amount of waste. So if the waste can be removed from its source
of generation, it will be easy to manage. For this reason, the highest waste generated zone should be
identified. There should be a rapid system to remove waste which is currently unavailable in our market.
Figure 17 & 18: Existing situation of Karwan Bazar Figure 19: Zoning of waste generation.
wholesale market.
Waste should not be treated as waste. It is better to reuse or recycle it. It can be used as energy producing
raw material. Here 3 design proposals are stated.
A. Proposal 1: Waste collection system should be maintained 24 hours in wholesale kitchen market
and there should be authorized workers for waste collection.
Figure 20: Waste collection point: waste collected in a defined place and a pick up should continuously collect the
waste and carry to the nearby waste disposal plant.
B. Proposal 2: As the unloading bay generates maximum waste and unloading parking generates 2nd
highest waste, so the waste collection point can be placed between the unloading bay and
unloading parking.
Figure 21: Waste collection point: between the unloading bay and road level parking.
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C. Proposal 3: As the unloading bay generates maximum waste, so this unloading bay can be designed
as a waste collection point.
Figure 22: Waste collection point: in the unloading bay.
Pollution
Pollution is another important issue which always has been overlooked by the designers or decision makers.
The exhaust smoke and the dust from vehicles can affect the hygiene of food. A green barrier or buffer can
easily solve this problem.
Figure 23: Exhaust smoke from trucks affects the

market area.
Figure 24: A green barrier is created to stop exhaust
smoke from truck to enter the market area.
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CONCLUSION
Wholesale markets are a vital component of any agricultural marketing system, especially for horticultural
crops (Seidler 2001). The purpose of designing a wholesale kitchen market is basically the idea of an efficient
market maintaining system with health and hygiene for ensuring the proper product supply system.
Designing a kitchen market with proper policies and guidelines can ensure appropriate use of space, ease of
transportation, hygiene of food, precise economic value of food which can benefit both the producer and
consumer. A sustainable design may also help to avoid unwanted steps and lengthy procedure of flow of
products from producer to consumer.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are eternally grateful to Prof. Dr. Shahidul Ameen, Prof. Dr. Khandaker Shabbir Ahmed, Dr. Mohammed
Zakiul Islam, Md. Ruhul Amin, Patrick D’ Rozario and Md. Mohotaz Hossain for their cordial support and
cooperation. We also would like to thank Eng. Abdus Salam, Project Director, DCC, who helped to form the
project proposal. Thanks are due to junior students of Architecture Department, BUET; Jisan, Shamim, Uzzal,
Fahim, Samiha and Trisha; for their sincere effort and time during the field work.
REFERENCES
Enayetullah, I., 2008. ‘Presentation on Design, Implementation and Monitoring of Waste Sector CDM
Projects: Experience of Waste Concern in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam’
presented at the first capacity building workshop on clean development mechanism (cdm) under cd4cdm
initiative, 8-9 April, LGED Bhaban, Dhaka.
Seidler, E., 2001. ‘Wholesale market development – FAO’s experience’, 22nd Congress of the World Union of
Wholesale Markets, Durban, South Africa.
Tuli, SM & Islam N., 2014. ‘Analysis on design approach of Wholesale Kitchen Market in Dhaka City’, European
Scientific Journal, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 307-332.
White, JDT., 1991. Wholesale market: Planning and design manual, Food and Agriculture Organization,
Rome.
White, JDT., 2003. Planning and designing rural Markets, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, Rome.
White, JDT., 1999. Market infrastructure planning. A guide for decision maker, Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
! !
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BUILDING INTEGRATED COCONUT ENVELOPE SYSTEMS – RETHINKING THE ROLE OF ‘LOW-TECH’

MATERIALS FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE IN THE HOT-HUMID REGION
Mae-ling Jovenes Lokko, Prof. Anna Dyson, Prof. Jason Vollen, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Center for
Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE), USA, lokkom@rpi.edu, dysona@gmail.com
Abstract
Across different cultural and climatic contexts, the decreasing role played by local systems and
materials in the production, maintenance and upgrading of the urban built environment has
led to the widespread adoption of standardized technologies alongside a concurrent
homogenization of architectural identity. Studies have demonstrated the glaring economic
and environmental costs of this shift, resulting in higher costs of construction, maintenance,
rising energy loads and deteriorating levels of indoor human comfort. Recent developments in
the field of material science and industrial biopolymer research have provided opportunities,
through the use of renewable agricultural by-products, to alleviate the costly mechanical
modulation of environmental flows through the use of high-performance materials.
This research proposes a design framework for the development of local knowledge economies that activate the
potential for post-agricultural waste to propel local industrial development of low-carbon products and become
global models for driving performance metrics of building life cycles. Through the collaboration of Ecofibers-
Achitech Ltd (Ghana), a small-scale agro-industrial company, and the Center for Architecture, Science and
Ecology (CASE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA), the development of coconut agricultural by-products is
designed in response to social, economic, environmental and technical criteria using life-cycle methodologies,
material testing, energy simulation and user evaluation feedback loops. The proposed design methodology
integrates the use of culturally-situated design tools to reshape social perceptions of low-tech material systems,
by situating the design development of coconut material systems in response to the environmental, social and
semiotic historical functions of Ghanaian adinkra façade systems prevalent within the local context.
This design framework expands the extent socio-economic contexts play in the design and
evaluation of building systems, as opposed to merely being impacted by such technology. The
choice of coconut by-products is a reactionary, rather than prescriptive, design proposition to
environmental and economic burdens within a hot-humid context. The architectural
implications resulting from the effective thickening and aeration of the building facade
proposes a conceptual and physical shift from two dimensional, materially inert and
stationary surfaces, towards the construction of a responsive, dynamic boundary for
inhabitation, storage and exchange.
Keywords: coconut agricultural by-products, academic-industrial alliance, built ecology, participatory

design, culturally-situated design tools.
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BUILT ECOLOGY PERSPECTIVE OF THE BUILDING BOUNDARY IN THE HOT-HUMID URBAN CONTEXT
Globally, the building sector accounts for 40% of current primary energy consumption (IEA 2013),
contributes to one third of total greenhouse gas emissions (UNEP 2009) and represents a massive repository
for embodied energy. The largest growth within the building sector, over 260% within the last three
decades, has taken place and is projected to continue in developing and newly industrialized countries
within the hot-humid urban region (Lime Agency 2007). In response to patterns of population increase and
rapid urban growth, economic and social imperatives have often advocated for urban densification as a
means of supporting larger populations more efficiently (Mindali 2004). However, the current role of high-
embodied energy building systems in urban densification models, has demonstrated adverse impacts on
access to natural resources and the quality of these resources. In dense hot-humid cities, the prevalence of
such high-embodied energy materials and systems from imported markets have necessitated energy
intensive resources to maintain comfort standards, leading to rising energy costs and larger ecological
footprints (Chen 2001, Hui 2001, Newman 1999). If hot-humid urban contexts continue to adopt comfort
standards, development models and material systems established in Western contexts, its global impact on
energy consumption is projected to increase dramatically with near-term doubling of greenhouse gas
emissions within the next two decades (UNEP 2009). The imperative is for emerging economies to shift from
imported high-energy intensive material systems to low-carbon local and regional resource streams. In
response to the described 21st century challenges, this research proposes a design framework for the
development of local knowledge economies that activate the potential for post-agricultural waste to propel
local industrial development of low-carbon products and become global models for driving performance
metrics of building life cycles.
Figure 1. Proposed shift within the hot-humid region from energy-intensive open material streams
imported from developed contexts (left) towards a building ecology model stimulated by local and regional
renewable agricultural-by product resources (right).
The subject of this paper, the production, use and maintenance of the building boundary in the hot-humid
region, cannot be discussed without a reference to conceptual, economic and technological changes that
have influenced its resultant relationship with natural resources and with human environments. The
emergence of ecology in the mid-19th century, primarily concerned with the relationship of organisms to
their environment (Haeckel 1866), has evolved to encompass a synthetic and integrated study of organisms
and their role within a larger ecosystem. The impact of urban development pressures on the quality and
boundaries of ‘natural’ environments has necessitated the study of the urban setting as a critical part of this
ecosystem. The implications of this annexation was in one sense, physical, but more importantly, it re-
formed the idea of buildings as embodied and active energetic constructions, susceptible to exchange and
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participation with other elements and organisms within the wider ecosystem. Whereas the ‘built
environment’ view defined the relationship between humans and their human-built surroundings, a ‘built
ecology perspective’ reframes to the view of the building as part of an ecological cycle, formed and
maintained by both the flows of energy and material resources as well as the social and political
mechanisms that have developed for the allocation of such resources.
Historically as seen in the earlier development of vernacular architecture of hot-humid climates, the
construction and maintenance of the building boundary was largely sourced from resources within the local
context, and maintained in accordance with climatic cycles and social processes. Human migration and
interaction with local contexts began to produce new vernacular traditions that were increasingly based in
material economies sourced further from sites of construction. The import of 20th century modern ideas of
mechanization from the West, introduced a fundamental conceptual shift in the function of the building
boundary as a mere material barrier, ‘independent’ of the technological conditioning of a habitable interior
protected from a climatic and social exterior. Therefore, man could live comfortably and build
independently of traditional energy and material constraints; primarily in response to opportunities
provided by technology. For hot-humid contexts today, where such modern building technologies are
increasingly commonplace, the implications of this framework descendent from this modern paradigm are
not only economically and environmentally costly, but incapacitate such hot-humid economies to produce
for themselves or develop valuable exchange capacities.
This research proposes a model of architectural education based on an integrated, cross-cultural and
cooperative relationship between the academy and industry. The academic network is composed of key
transdisciplinary collaborations between the schools of engineering, science, humanities and architecture,
brought together within the field of Built Ecology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA (Figure 2). The
industrial partner is an agro-industrial company, Ecofibers-Achitech Ltd, in the developing context of Accra,
Ghana that produces local coconut husk waste materials as sustainable alternatives primarily for agriculture.
As described by the methodological framework (Figure 3), the research uses disciplinary-specific
methodologies for data collection and analysis, but employs a mixed method feedback loop for
collaborative design and evaluation of performance. This iterative and reflexive approach is significant to
overcome the domination of any disciplinary methodology or criteria on other streams of research, whilst
providing critical opportunities for adaptation and modification within the research process or conceptual
framework (Klein 2008). By safeguarding best practice methods and standards for data collection and
analysis within each discipline, the ecological framework leverages integration through a pluralistic
understanding of performance.
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Figure 2. Emerging nodal role for architecture professionals within framework for interdisciplinary
academic-industrial collaboration at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA.
LEVERAGING INTEGRATIVE METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR REDEFINING PERFORMANCE

WITHIN A BUILT ECOLOGY
The motivation for integrating different forms of knowledge within this research is to address the largely
ignored role of qualitative metrics within and across different scales. A scale-based approach frames the
design problem within the inherently multidisciplinary tradition of architectural development, where
experimentation cannot be explored through isolation of any single scale. The interrelationship and rhythm
of scaling, characterized by processes of reduction, scaling-up, redefining scope, disguising, iterative
simulation and reevaluation occur, form a pragmatic methodology for projection and translation of
performance values (Yaneva 2005). Within the scale of the material (<10-3m), module (10-3-100m) and system
(>100m), the impact of qualitative metrics have significant implications for performance beyond insular
quantitative assessments of system efficiency, technical coefficients of performance and cost reduction. An
integrated model challenges the self-sufficiency of technocratic criteria for deployment, by engaging critical
social, cultural and environmental criteria in driving and improving economic and technological
performance.
Emergent metrics of qualitative performance are defined within three scales of design—material, module
and system. At the material scale, employing a ‘social life cycle analysis’ of coconut material production
within the agro-industrial context of Ecofibers-Achitech Ghana ensures that optimizations in technical or
economic performance does not occur at the expense of deteriorating processing and use-phase conditions.
Design at the scale of the module provides a critical opportunity to examine the role of ‘culturally-situated
design tools’ in the empowerment of users to identify and sustain development mechanisms through the
use of context-specific architectural technologies. In opposition to the modern, mechanistic paradigm that
privileges ‘material anesthesia’ and pure geometries, contextual cultural iconography and patterns offer
culturally valuable knowledge systems that concurrently maximize interfacial exchange, integration of
facade elements for multiple functions and mediate natural resources in a diffused fashion. System scale
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experimentation evaluates data from digital energy simulations, against user-feedback and evaluation from
full-scale digital and physical prototypes of the envelope system. Whereas optimization within digital
simulation environments has primarily relied on climatic multivariable parameters around solar and airflow
to reduce cooling loads, fieldwork expands criteria of performance to respond to the relevant user’s
adaptive strategies as well as phenomenological and cognitive factors in determining indoor comfort.
Figure 3. Methodological diagram showing feedback loops within and between material, module and
façade scales (Feedback loops between all three scales highlights the importance of interscalar design
strategies, which are not bottom-up or top-down, but are considered in relation to other scales).
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REACTIVE MATERIAL-SCALE PROPOSITION: LIFE CYCLE IMPACTS OF AGRICULTURAL BY-PRODUCTS

FOR BUILDING APPLICATIONS
Reports by the United Nations estimate that the global population is projected to increase exponentially to 9
billion by the year 2050 (UN 2008); placing extreme pressures on agricultural markets to produce food and
energy as well as resources for new construction. More critically, these processes of agricultural production
are faced with concurrent environmental challenges of climate change caused by human activity, which are
affecting agricultural production in both direct and indirect ways that impact crop growth and yield (Mestre-
Sanchís et al. 2009). With growing awareness of the global limited resources and interconnections of the
earth’s ecosystems, future agricultural production must be understood within a closed-loop paradigm,
which evaluates and chooses processes of production based on their role and impacts on the larger
ecological cycle.
In response to these challenges, agricultural production must either increase development within current
areas of production or expand to new land areas of production (Rechcigl & MacKinnon 1997). While the
latter expansionist proposition is limited both in the near and long-term due its inevitable contestation with
space for human and ecosystem habitats, the former proposes increasing the efficiency of agricultural
resource production for broader applications. Research in the field of industrial ecology has demonstrated
the immense potential of increasing natural resource efficiency through the use of by-products. The
principle behind the by-product synergy is to convert ‘wastes’, from primary agricultural processes into
useful resources for secondary applications (Bailey 2003). Recent studies have shown that renewable global
agricultural-by product resources can meet rising demands for fiber resources for building applications
(Youngquist et al. 1996).
Within post-agricultural material markets, coconut husk waste is sustained by the renewable growth of 12
million hectares of coconuts throughout the coastal hot-humid region annually (Figure 4). Across the hot-
humid region, 95% of coconut production is composed of small-scale isolated operations controlled by
farmers who live on less than $2 daily (Greer 2008). The comparative advantage of coconut material streams
over more abundant agricultural by-products is based on its high composition and advantageous extraction
state of the valuable natural binder, lignin, within coconut husk waste. The ability of lignin within coconut
waste to be processed at low-energy, non-toxic conditions to yield a range of high performance building
products, makes this proposition a highly reactive technological and economic proposition to pertinent
environmental problems within rapidly developing contexts. Coconut board products have demonstrated
significant potential to substitute with timber-based materials and compete with commercial technologies
to modify the quality of indoor air.
The introduction of coconut-by products to the construction industry for multiple uses affords significant
impacts on the coconut value chain. In Ghana, contemporary coconut-by product consumer markets are
divided into a large local food economy and a smaller global consumption market around high-end food
and cosmetic products. The large-scale local economy is heavily based on the production of coconut oil,
copra products and the informal sale coconut water from raw coconut husks. Waste husk material derived
from informal sale of coconut water forms the single, yet most reliable resource for Ecofibers-Achitech Ltd.,
with daily supply rates of between 54-60 tons. Intermediary actors, such as coconut water sellers and
farmers, are able to deliver waste husk products to sites of collection and receive monetary compensation
where they typically spend time and resources solving daily husk-disposal problems.
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Figure 4. Global availability and production of agricultural by-products for building applications
In partnership with an agro-industrial company, Ecofibers-Achitech Ltd., the processing of coconut-by

products (binderless composite boards) is evaluated and optimized in relation to other alternative by-
products such as plywood, low-high density timber and composite products, insulation and roofing
products. As a startup company, Ecofibers-Achitech is positioned as outliers to a historically established
agricultural industry. Although coconut by-products for agricultural applications (coir mats, peat blocks, and
raw coir bales) are viable alternatives to alleviate long-standing nutrient retention, erosion and pest control
problems, they are viewed as threats to well-established farming traditions supported by petroleum-based
chemical fertilizers, additives and pesticides. Current consumers of coconut by-products are largely
experimental agricultural and horticultural businesses that purchase such products for long-term
water/nutrient retention applications, and as such do not ensure consistent demand.
The coconut-board by-product offers significant opportunities in process and product upgrading that
impact the value chain and vulnerability of producers and subsequent users. Mechanical and chemical
material testing of coconut boards developed in Ghana is enabled by the collaborative multidisciplinary
setting within the university. Data from material testing are then used to inform the engineering of next
fabrication cycle of coconut products at Ecofibers-Achitech Ltd. The subsequent processing upgrading of
the husk-product, to reduce energy for production and the emission of harmful gases affords favorable
working conditions for industrial employees. In weighing the significant advantage of coconut composite
boards over open-air biomass combustion or the use of natural coconut pith over synthetic binders, such
processing conditions and their adverse health effects on worker’s health offer comparative life-cycle values
that ensure product optimization does not occur at the expense of deteriorating working conditions.
However, the technical and structural value of coconut by-product building materials described here lies in
conflict with social and cultural values of ‘pro-development’ prevalent in developing contexts. Such value
systems are rooted in 20th century political frameworks in developing contexts, which identify with the
‘modern’ image of architectural systems and materials found in Western socioeconomic contexts with
inherently different environmental resources and burdens. The influence of such ‘modern’ values impact on
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the integration of coconut by-products in critical ways – negative cultural associations with natural
materials, perceptions of low durability and high maintenance, diminished sense of environmental control
amidst changing thermal expectations and a perceived increase in micro-organism activity within the
building environment. In order to overcome such negative social perceptions, user-interaction at both the
module and system prototyping scale is employed as a double-edged tool for the purposes of evaluation as
well as inducing new perceptions of material performance.
MODULE SCALE: TRANSLATION OF VALUE THROUGH THE USE OF CULTURALLY-SITUATED DESIGN
In the creation and reconstitution values of coconut by-product building materials, the design of the
architectural system is proposed in relation to technical, environmental and social evolution of the Ghanaian
adinkra façade system over the last four hundred years. Adinkra are visual symbols, used since the 17th
century within West African culture, to transmit concepts and core cultural and cosmological knowledge.
The persistence and spread of adinkra within the contemporary local and diasporan architectural
landscapes, despite significant changes in material technology is evidence of the symbolic system’s ability to
project and absorb meaning across time and cultural boundaries. If the social perception and evaluation of
adinkra geometries are investigated in relation to formal technical and environmental propositions around
increased surface area, multiple integrated function and diffused flows of natural resources within the
facade, then social, technical and environmental criteria of performance can be developed in respect to each
other.
Pre-17th – 18th century adinkra façade systems in the region were constructed from natural materials (earth
and biopolymer fibers) that were susceptible to damage by rain and heat, requiring high maintenance over
time (Figure 5). Such strength and durability problems were overcome in post-18th century façade systems,
at the advent of stone and concrete material technologies. However, despite the ‘optimization’ of material
technology from low tech, non-durable materials to weatherproof, high strength components, there was a
loss in the collective work of façade components for multi-functional performance. For instance, pre-17th
century adinkra façade systems, made from earth and bamboo components, the multi-scalar ‘positive-mass’
components of the adinkra pattern constituted the structure of the vertical facade members, transferring
both vertical and horizontal loads from other parts of the building to the ground. The ‘negative-space
perforations’ within each symbol adopted bioclimatic functions, allowing cross ventilation throughout the
external and internal perimeters of the building. Structural and bioclimatic performance was constituted by
an economic and environmental transaction between positive and negative members, which when grouped
together communicated aesthetic, social and cultural meaning.
Figure 5. Persistence and adaptation of Adinkra architectural facades despite change in material
technologies since the 17th century.
The shift mid-18th century to rammed earth structures, where adinkra patterns were mostly relief
decorations, greatly diminished structural and bioclimatic function in service of its aesthetic parameters.
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Although its use as a perforated brick in 19th-21st century facades was recovered, the level of structural and
volumetric integration seen in pre-17th century adinkra systems was never recovered. Today this modern
application of adinkra bricks has been to a large extent relegated to a form of nostalgic decoration and as a
device that permits light and air across the building boundary. In determining the performance of coconut
by-product façade systems, the particular demands of the urban hot humid climate (high latent loads, high
dry-bulb temperatures, poor indoor air quality, minimal diurnal and seasonal swings) are likely to require
multiple types of methods of operation that reflect more of a pre-17th century working mechanism of
components and a larger volumetric distribution of material to aid effective interaction with external natural
resources.
At the module scale, geometric characteristics of coconut media are designed in response to both technical
and specific core qualities adinkra patterns commonly used within the test-bed site in Accra. The local
production of adinkra facade systems offers critical opportunities to engage local architectural identities in
rethinking the role of social criteria as it pertains to sustainability. Through design exercises of adinkra
geometries, the variation of core elements of adinkra patterns (system of rotational symmetry, reflection,
order of repetition, logarithmic curves, legibility) will be investigated in relation to formal elements that
affect its structural, mechanical and sorption performance (scale, density, depth/thickness, perforation,
surface area, organic content). Parametric form-finding experiments, producing iterations of components
generated at the module scale, will be investigated in relation to (i) shading to minimize heat gain (ii)
quantity and distribution implications of perforations for enhancing airflow and views (iii) inlet-outlet
geometries. Data from parametric design of the module will be used up to inform initial façade-scale
visualizations of coconut adinkra envelopes.
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SYSTEM SCALE FEEDBACK LOOPS THROUGH PARTICIPATORY DESIGN AND DIGITAL ENERGY
SIMULATION
Research at the system scale occurs within a digital simulation platform that serves as an iterative and
synthetic context for testing the impact of culturally responsive forms on environmental performance and
vice versa. The integrative digital framework also serves as a model for the physical test-bed construction in
Ghana, in order to reintegrate the material and system performance hypothesis with relevant social and
cultural criteria within an urban context in Accra. Such qualitative and quantitative feedback will be used to
re-inform façade layout, operation parameters and control strategies within the test-bed. Two parallel
methods of investigation will be used to evaluate the technical and social performance of the digital model.
Full-scale system visualizations generated from module design exercises will be exhibited in a public
installation where feedback and design inputs from users based on their semiotic interaction will be
collected (Figure 6). Semiotic interaction here primarily refers to how users determine the significance of
objects based on a composite of former and present knowledge of the façade characteristics and physical
experience of visualization (Peirce 1955). As part of this fieldwork methodology, user surveys and semi-
structured interviews are used to explore the dynamic capacity of the visualizations to produce new
perceptions and meanings (Barthes 1972).
Figure 6. User interaction and evaluation of adinkra coconut façades using projection-based visualizations.
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The global design of the adinkra facade will be developed in response to both shading strategies that can
aid in reduction of thermal gains and airflow strategies that maximize ventilation through the interior.
Computer fluid dynamics (CFD) will be used to investigate the relationship between the (i) scale (ii) location
(iii) quantitative distribution (iv) inlet-outlet ratios of perforations and interior airflow patterns. Energy
simulations are used to investigate the implications of coconut material systems on the reduction of cooling
loads and controlling airflow. The digital simulation framework provides the critical ability to assess the
thermal performance of coconut over competitive material technologies; integrating data gained from
material fabrication and testing, such as thermal conductivity, heat capacity and thickness. EnergyPlus
software is used to evaluate the impact of material properties of the coconut system on the reduction of
cooling loads within a space (Figure 7). A comparison of the thermal gains of a concrete façade with that of a
coconut external façade system for a building show the seasonal and diurnal reduction of indoor
temperatures through a reduction in conduction and radiation. Typical midday temperatures in Accra are
about 1-2°C higher in the coconut board skinned concrete building. However, in the late evening and night,
it is significantly hotter in a concrete building where unwanted heat gains are radiated into the building’s
interior during the nighttime when latent loads rise to a maximum.
Figure 7. Energy simulation showing the reduction of mean radiant temperature of interior space using
coconut external envelope system as a thermal buffer within Accra’s hot-humid climate.
INTEGRATED PERFORMANCE CRITERIA FOR BUILDING MATERIALS WITHIN BUILT ECOLOGY

FRAMEWORK
Through an integrated understanding of performance criteria for agricultural by-products, the metrics for
the development of 21st century building technologies is expanded beyond quantitative criteria concerned
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with energy reduction and efficiency towards context-responsive technologies that interact with climatic
resources at the building boundary and engage the social context through culturally situated design (Figure
8a). The integration of knowledge and value systems moves this research from a ‘multidisciplinary’ to a
transdisciplinary framework. The emergent transdisciplinary context, through a break with established
disciplinary theory, standards and models of representation (Dillon 2008), facilitates an inclusive and
relational understanding of social, environmental mechanical and economic performance. Through this
framework, the translation of values across performance realms is enabled to inform composite forms of
performance. A critical example of this is reshaping the social performance of coconut by-product building
materials by engaging its economic and environmental comparative advantages over competitive material
technologies as well as engaging alternative local knowledge and value systems that have profound
political, economic and social impacts on user acceptability and identity (Figure 8b).
Figure 8a. Integrated performance criteria for building technologies.
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Figure 8b. (left) Performance of coconut envelope building technology

(right) Conceptual mapping of composite performance facilitated through the translation of values across
performance criteria
CONCLUSION
Given current energy consumption profiles, population and economic growth in developing contexts and
their consequent demand on energy resources will form critical determinants of future qualities of life
beyond regional boundaries. The urban hot-humid region, which represents the largest demand of future
energy markets, necessitates the development of local renewable material resources for future building
ecologies as an alternative to energy consumption patterns of developed context. The implications of the
geographical alliance in this research constructs new forms of engagement with stakeholders in the
developing context by providing a political and economic platform for emerging sustainable industries,
where national funding mechanisms, policy gaps and institutional frameworks are largely absent. The
reflexive, co-locational development of the technology engages entrepreneurial groups, culturally situated
tools and users within the hot-humid region to stimulate local knowledge economies.
The interscalar design methodology confronts the social perception of traditional systems at the material
scale as regressive socioeconomic systems through design feedback loops that engage module and system
scale strategies to translate contending value systems. The material-based impact of this work addresses
critical life-cycle metrics that can be used to propel local and regional industrial development of low-carbon
products to drive sustainability metrics in material life cycles. The integrative framework for quantitative and
qualitative performance brings the notion of architectural identity and its working mechanisms through
culturally-situated and context-responsive design to the forefront of building technology development.
Within the architectural discipline, this research expands the role of architect within the development
building systems by challenging current building research and development frameworks that view the
architect as end-consumers of technological products, mainly facilitating the integration of these products
into buildings. The proposed research framework affords architects the agency to evaluate technological
products under broadened performance criteria in order to inform new avenues fundamental research and
building integration. As an architectural technology, the integration of this low-cost lightweight coconut
board as an external skin is highly desirable for environmental load reduction in low-middle income housing
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projects in the developing urban hot-humid region. The global architectural implications resulting from the
effective thickening and aeration of the facade proposes a conceptual and physical shift from two
dimensional, materially inert, stationary surfaces towards a responsive, dynamic boundary for inhabitation,
storage and exchange.
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ADAPTING THE NIGERIAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT TO CLIMATE CHANGE.
Opaluwa Ejiga, University of Lagos, Nigeria, opalsejigs@gmail.com

Adejumo T. Olatunji, University of Lagos, Nigeria, tadejumo@unilag.edu.ng
Morakinyo O. Kolawole, Federal Polytechnic Ede, Nigeria, kwlemorakinyo@yahoo.com
Abstract
Recent flooding of two-thirds of the states in Nigeria is a pointer to the impacts of climate change. The country will
need to cope with rising temperatures and increased precipitation (rainfall). Over a period of time, the
unpredictable changes in weather patterns is expected to stress infrastructures, endanger flora and fauna of both
rural and urban settings, render unfit and/or destroy habitations, increase illness and deaths among vulnerable
populations. In spite of the mounting challenges and its associated risks, the Nigerian built environment and
indeed Africa’s are yet to integrate climate adaptation into their developmental program. Today’s infrastructural
investment within the country is not taking into consideration the effects of climate change nor are they targeted
to meet the requirements of a long lifespan, this is further compounded by the inadequacies of the urban and
rural management systems that in most cases are ill informed of the changing risks situations/scenarios. Within
this discourse, of significance is the necessity to link current official adaptation plans to an enhanced and
expanded natural risk assessment, management and mitigation program with a capacity to adequately respond
to such anticipated challenges. This paper addresses some of the challenges confronting the vulnerable
populations and adaptation of the built environment. The paper also discusses implementable strategies that will
enhance adaptation activities within the Nigerian urban environment, by describing a probably potential climate
change adaptation structure that is all encompassing.
Keywords: adaptation, built environment, climate change, community management.
INTRODUCTION
Recent studies classify Nigeria as one of the flood prone nations on the Gulf of Guinea (FME 2009). It is
anticipated that the global climatic phenomenon would multiply the occurrence severity of present risks
with devastating social, economic and spatial impacts (Onyenechere 2010, Revi 2008). A worrisome scenario
is the inability of urban poor in various slums to cope. This category of people, account for almost half of the
population in the built environment (Revi 2008). The central point of this paper is on adaptation led
planning to cut down climate change threats and improve the built environment’s capacity in tune with the
nation’s priorities and challenges. The paper will try to exchange the reactive centred responses by
suggesting an adaptive flood management path for a more sustainable future. The adaptation process is
viewed from two stand points namely a frightening population projection of about 800 million people by
2050 (FME 2009) and massive migration from rural to urban centres.
In the last decade of twentieth century, urban Nigeria began to outdo its rural counterpart in per capita
income and GDP by as much as three times (Aworemi 2011). Its agricultural sector contributed less than 15
percent to the GDP (Iguisi 2011). Protecting the stability betwixt the rural and the urban environment
becomes essential as the socioeconomic and natural resource variance of rural-urban and interurban places
intensify (Adger 2003). Shuaeeb (2011) identified the oil boom of the 1970s; poor livelihood quality; critical
moments in the creation of new urban formal-sector living and working conditions in an age of
globalisation; and inferior rural educational development policies as factors that influenced resettlement in
Nigeria. A new addition is climate change. Iguisi (2011) and NASPA-CCN (2011) submitted that the dwindling
fortunes of the nation’s agriculture sector could be compounded by climate change causing further
migrations. Currently, about sixty percent (60%) of Nigeria’s population live in urban centres (Shuaeeb 2011,
Daramola et al. 2010). It is anticipated that over the next few decades, the urban population would rise to
about 87% generating three mega cities namely Lagos/Ogun, Abuja/Nasarawa and Onitsha/Owerri/Abba
(Abbass 1998, Aworemi 2011). This will significantly increase pluvial flooding and demands a pragmatic
adaptation mechanism.
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Climate change adaptation in Nigeria’s urban landscape is a policy concern on basis short term because of
its close links with infrastructures, livelihood, power, security and ecosystem (Boko et al. 2007). Nigeria, like
most emerging economies; China and India, is intensifying her efforts on a large scale provision of
infrastructures in housing, energy, water, telecommunication, health care and transportation sectors, to
favourably help her development. These facilities have an average lifespan or service life of 35 to 50 years.
The bone of contention for Nigeria is to study if its current path of growth, expansion and development
framework may be more suitable than a commitment to adaptation and eco-friendly structure and
construction. A climate strategy that is compatible with Nigeria’s peculiar state, strengths and capacities
may be beneficial to both her and the world’s goal better than an unoriginal policy or framework from a
somewhat different setting.
CURRENT CLIMATE CHANGE PALLIATIVE MEASURES, DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND URBAN

REHABILITATION IN NIGERIA
Despite scholarly works, early environmental crusades on these issues, Nigeria’s involvement with the issue
of climate change is of a slow start (Opaluwa et al. 2012). Nigeria has been deeply absorbed with the
demanding situations of poverty, political, social development and economic challenges (Ozor et al. 2010).
Since 1999, the Nigerian government has initiated and implemented nationwide technical appraisals of the
dangers of climate change, its impact, adaptive and mitigating alternative choices (FME 2003; 2009, NASPA-
CCN 2011). These appraisals, being mostly externally driven and funded, were coordinated by the Federal
Ministry of Environment - FME (FME 2003; 2009; NASPA-CCN 2011), which is far from being a political
powerful ministry. This governmental arm is mainly focused on the science domain of climate change,
closely related to the International Panel on Climate Change – IPCC – order of business and style of analysis
(NEEDS 2010, Ogbo et al. 2013). This approach is wanting in its involvement with the complicated character
and high level vulnerability in Nigeria, which is likely the most vital component in risk mitigation
(Adebamowo et al. 2012). The nation’s stance on climate change is noticeably opined to an instilled
obligation of rectifying historical emissions by the Annex I countries (Odeku et al. 2004, Salami 2012). Hence,
it is centered largely on the greenhouse gas-energy nexus (Hascic et al. 2012). As a result of Nigeria’s low
scientific research culture and her passive status in IPCC, the discussions and strategies on adaptation is
lacking effectiveness (Salami 2012).
The nation is currently losing a good chance to create and bridge an official climate change adaptation
agenda with the natural risk assessment, management and mitigation capacity being developed after the
flood which occurred in 2011 & 2012. A number of averagely productive post disaster reformation and
mitigation programmes; subsequently after the major flooding of Bayelsa, Kogi, Lagos, Rivers, Niger states
between August & October of 2012, has unusually changed the awareness, the organizational attention and
effort at susceptibility decrease and hazard mitigation. Nigeria has a centralized command system to combat
disaster in terms of management – NEMA. There is the need to review present guidelines for the built
environment to provide the basic foundation for a more evidence-based set of climate mitigation and
adaptation standards for the Nigerian urban built environment, which could act as drivers for regular growth
(Ogbo 2013, Dimuna et al. 2010).
The government and its Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs) are targeting sectors with direct impact
on infrastructural development, urban governance and poverty. A big gap is noticeable in the authority’s
campaign on the built environments development plan and vulnerability reduction for vulnerable persons
in the urban area. The urgency to provide even-opportunity to land, housing and access to sufficient public
services to most of city residents is still in controversy. Deepening the vulnerability of many urban residents
is the rate of demolitions most times without relocation in major cities like Lagos and Abuja between 2003
till now. Ending this deadlock will cause a change from providing basic services, access to livelihood and
housing, to guarantying their continuous supply, use and funding. Nevertheless NEMA or its related
agencies are not dealing with urban vulnerability or risk mitigation, which demands active support and
networking by the climate change community to sustaining the built environment & advancement
(Adebamowo et al. 2012). If not, urban adaptation and mitigation could be confined to subscribing
operationally empty proposals and agreed to documents between Nigeria and Annex I countries, with little
influence on the most vulnerable (Opaluwa et al. 2012).
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DOWNFALL AND TEMPERATURE CHANGES
The rise in changing environmental conditions as an important risk throughout this century remains a fact
but, there is yet substantial instability regarding exact mechanisms and influences, particularly related to
precipitation. Despite the uncertainty, there is a wide unanimity on the range of first-order climate change
impacts in sub-Saharan Africa:
! An overall rise in both average minimum and maximum temperatures by 1-4°c, contingent on
actual atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations (FME 2003), with a strong effect on evapo-
transpiration levels and consequently human activities, agriculture, and forestry, particularly in dry
and rocky regions.
! This could contribute to an average surface temperature increase of 2-4°c, which would entail
variations in the operations of some communities and in the location and practice of building all
over the nation, with an accelerated use of passive solar and energy efficient design (FME 2003).
! This zonal temperature increase, accompanied by changes in the international climatic system, may
result to a mean increase of 5-15% in yearly water downfall, with resultant effects on
agriculture/food security, housing and health.
Figure 1: Surface Air Temperature Changes over time Figure 2: Flooding of Lokoja, Kogi State in 2012
(Source: Salami 2010). ( Source: Google Images).
EXTREME WATER DOWNFALL CASES; RIVER AND INLAND FLOODING
The next significant climate change risk is the rise in watercourse and midland deluge, especially in the
south-south, north & south-west and north-central zones of Nigeria. Hundreds of thousands were affected
by the September 8, 2012 flooding, thousands more are presently affected by the deluge caused by the six
to nine months of increased rains in Nigeria (NASPA-CCN 2011). This is predominately due to the soaring
people concentration across these zones, combined with very high vulnerability as a result of a combination
of poorly planned and implemented flood management systems and high degree of impoverishment,
which through recent years have extremely reduced the surviving ability of thousands of residents of Nigeria
(NEMA 2011). Changes in climate are envisaged to escalate the severity of flooding in many Nigerian states
and West African sub-region.
Lagos, Rivers, Kogi along with other states in the south-south and North-central, which are key to Nigeria’s
economic life line, have encountered terrible flooding for three successive years since 2010, leading to huge
economic losses, loss of lives and break down of infrastructural services (Adebamowo et al. 2012). The
damaging floods of 2012 were caused by a combination of factors; dam release, extreme weather etc
(Momodu et al. 2012, Emodi 2012).
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Figure 3: Fluctuations in annual rainfall in Nigeria Figure 4: Actual and projected annual heat wave day
(Source: Salami 2010). (Source: NASPA-CCN).
ADAPTATION – WHAT WAS, WHAT IS AND WILL BE – IN NIGERIA
In view of the possible hazards in connection with climate change, a significant amount of work on
differentiating and comprehending adaption is therefore in progress. Earlier parallels of adaptation where
accompanied with strategies and social science study on the existing acclimating ability of governments,
civil groups and markets to manage climatic disturbances. The financial implications of imminent
adaptations are evolving by considering the divergence between the fiscal shortfalls associated with
possible situations of technology comprehension and dissemination. First, it is essential to characterise
adaptation by who is responsible for it and the concern of all interested parties participating in it. It is
obvious that every person and every civilisation have been adapting and will adapt to climate change
throughout the time of man’s existence. Adaption by individuals in some cases is carried out in reaction to
the climate risks faced (Hascic et al. 2012). More adaptations are carried out by the government for the
general public in expectations of changes; then again, it is always in reaction to singular severe events. But
this process of policy management is not isolated; they are entrenched in societal procedures that mirror the
connection between individuals, their people system, abilities and communal resources, and the state
(Adger 2007). At times, differences are derived between intended adaptation, expected to be undertaken by
governments for the public and independent adaptation by persons.
Present researches, are fixated on recognising universal elements of recovery. These elements comprise the
human and economic resources, the adaptability and creativity in government establishment and the
private sector to comprehend chances related to climate change, and the basically hidden health conditions
and comfort of person(s) confronted with the effects of climate change (Adger 2001). The solution is to
choose the distinctive features of the institutional and technological situations that stimulate specific but
justifiable adaptation. Combined approach is vital in accelerating adaptation gaining impetus from political,
environmental interactions, and other academic perceptions. Studies on combined approach have shown
(Agrawal 2001, Klein et al. 2007) that the magnitude of the people pledged to the collective action, the limits
of the assets in danger, the ability of the people concerned being in one accord, the spreading of accrued
value of management and more influences are wholly crucial in defining the eventual success of
joint/combined supervision. Investigative study is requisite to how combined approach is pivotal to the
extent of adaptation at different levels of decision-making. Currently, the understanding around reactions to
climate change as a combined approach are basically used to appraise the degree of nationwide
collaborative fight in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions within the UNFCCC instead of on the means and
ways by which adaptation develops (Roberts 2008, Dimuna et al. 2010). Earlier climate variation conflicts
with possible situations stemming from climatic environmental sample try-outs in pursuit of a clearer
perception on adaptation.
Migration, for example, is a coping mechanism used throughout history by societies as part of their resource
utilization strategies and as a means of coping with climate variability (Adger 2003). In Nigeria, urban
migration remains a significant factor in livelihood resilience even as of today. If the anticipated migration is
not accessible to those on the receiving end, it may eventually intensify the need of forced migration,
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normally embarked on as a last resort when other possible survival tactics have been tried. Owing to
international differences, migration may be a restricting option in many parts of the world; therefore other
means of reinforcing adaptive capacity and improving resilience are necessary. These may be built on
current coping strategies or may seek to initiate new ideas in relations to technology or organisational
and/or societal advancement.
BUILDING AN ADAPTATION FRAMEWORK FOR THE URBAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Evolving a climate change adaptation framework for Nigeria’s built environment will involve initiating
discussions on environmental development and growth, vulnerability, identifying individual risk factors,
changing focus of on-going investments and programmes and the development of new relationships amid
a wide variety of stakeholders. A reasonable way ahead is to develop the current drive of risk management
and mitigation efforts. This is most efficiently done by conventionalising them into urban regeneration
initiatives and mobilization from the grassroots through non-governmental organisations – NGOs,
community-based organisations – CBOs and diplomatic means in particular cities. Having in mind that a
number of these actors have little or no knowledge of climate change issues, the building of a structure
connecting dialogue, engagement and action would be valuable move.
This structure would need to provide a connection between federal, state and local
government/community-level policy, governmental institutional arrangements and interventions at city and
community levels. It would likewise function as a stage for discussions between government
representatives, political heads, NGOs and CBOs who are keen in trying to direct communal and individual
momentum towards positive ends and individuals who could supply the motivation for executing adaptive
measures. Possible urban climate change adaptation frameworks are put forward hereafter.
AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL
Nigeria has not developed a national programme on adaptation to tackle climate change risk reduction
relatively due to institutional splits & divisions within the governance system of the nation and its economic
state. The onus majorly lies with the Ministry of Environment, which has poor cooperation and working
relationship with other key ministries. To incorporate a comprehensive sequential climate change plan into
the total preparatory and investment procedure of Nigeria’s government would suggest a restructuring and
strengthening of this role, with strong backing from the Ministry of Finance acting as the principal figure in
outlining fiscal and monetary policies to induce both mitigation and adaptation, founded on a national
programme for adaptation. This may require some amendments on certain sections of the constitution and
the creation of a climate change secretariat to tackle inter-sectorial matters and harmonise policies and
programmes.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) as a government parastatal, is the leading disaster
management agency, with much of the task and actions centrally controlled and coordinate. SEMA (only
one in each six geopolitical zone) has been reduced to Rescue Coordinating Centres – RCC or Disaster
Reaction Units – DRU (NEMA 2013), which are poorly funded at this level and is non-existent at community
level. The proposed climate change agenda could reconstruct current NEMA functions deficient of
adaptation with medium and long term climate adaption. Government agencies and departments
associated with urban development and poverty reduction should be the pivot of the built environment
climate change risk palliation at the federal level and the principal outfit for climate strategy and guideline
formation once suitable community and state capacities are put in place.
More so, the government of Nigeria may include the formation of a national crisis and susceptibility charts
that comprises climate change, its associated risks and effects on economic activities. This will facilitate the
detection of important communities and sectors for intervention and thus allowing access to windows of
opportunities inside NEMA. More succession of public building and supporting infrastructure, crisis
preventive standards will be required. A number of insurance covers for medium and short term risks to
public services and systems and motivations (cash rewards and rebates) for public – private – community
collaboration similar to the drive in the power and agricultural sector need to be set up. High level
organisations that pool private and public sector components, pressure groups and the academia
(environmental, sciences, technology & social sciences) will need to be put in place at the federal level to
come up with detailed studies and solution driven networks in and relating to their areas of expertise.
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Teaching, learning, training and capacity building at tertiary institutions particularly universities for public
administrators, environmental managers and the media will require being kick started.
Figure 5: Role of the Federal Government in CC Figure 6: Role of the States Government in CC
Adaptation. Adaptation
AT THE STATE LEVEL
Disaster management at state levels needs to go beyond the six geopolitical zones to having one in each
state. This may include beefing up and enlarging the capacity of all RCC/DRU. This can be structured along
existing flood, land pollution, desert encroachment, and land erosion hazards reduction endeavours.
Substantial levels of capacity building will be needed to organise and make ready these agencies to assume
these added duties and come up with implementable adaptation programmes. The boards of the ministries
of environment and finance will have to incorporate climate change adaptation into their regular
forecasting and recurring costs framework and allow cooperation among overlapping sectorial mitigation
and adaptation investments. Alterations are essential in the appropriate housing, urban development and
town planning in its three dimensions – policy planning, physical planning and urban management – public
services and systems legal coding, to incorporate disaster and climate adaptation matters into architecture,
planning and development. Training and capacity building of officials and administrators on climate change
assessment and adaptation is a vital investment in human resource development. The necessary actions for
incentivising private endeavours regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation is best directed by
government in some states e.g. Lagos, whereas in some others a private sector driven initiative is most ideal.
AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL
Every community must establish a system of climate change associated community based disaster
management and mitigating ideas and plans, particularly for informal settlements and shanty towns in
dangerous and susceptible locations. This would make available a starting point for a state-wide discourse
on applicable mitigation and adaptation strategies comprising all stakeholders. This is important to building
doable city adaptation schemes.
Present laws, regulatory and governing frameworks and the established culture of most cities in Nigeria are
insufficient or none existent to tackle the challenge of climate change adaptation and mitigation. A
city/community governance, planning and services distributing structures along with institutional
arrangements will be needed to tie urban renewal and development with interim and regular risk reduction
and eventually to climate change adaptation. The foundation to this is the building of people rights and
service distribution to the underprivileged and most susceptible to make sure that present irregularities and
systemic vulnerabilities are confronted. This may include further strengthening and interventions in real
estate and housing provision, people amenity delivery, policies and an organised atmosphere at the state
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level. It is most likely to be successful when put into action through the establishment and continuous
reassessment of community development programmes. The right urban policy to facilitate multiple
interested parties’ participation with pre-planned risk sharing and adaptation will assist in generating the
right monetarily profitable inducements for adaptation associated with community driven activities,
particularly in slums.
Figure 7: Role of the Local Government/Community Figure 8: Role of the Civil Society Organisations
in CC Adaptation. in CC Adaptation.
Inside the limits of this enlarged structure, a community – and state – scale hazard management scheme
requires combining climate change and disaster prevention concerns amidst the existing land use and
zoning instruments, into urban system and advancement strategy, into regional territorial strategy and
applicable domestication of building codes to regulations and infrastructure development standards. An
essential action backing this would be the setting up of a user friendly; if possible a polyglot (local
languages) Geographic Information System (GIS) on both urban centres and regional territory disaster
management plans on the information superhighway. It should be connected to a general data bank (also to
be established) that keeps details of housing and land ownership information, building permissions and
government assets in public services and systems. This would become the structured basis within which
community and urban regeneration and development are synchronised with adaptation and mitigation. A
home owner – business sector – government collaboration to fund, construct and retrofit houses and public
infrastructures to disaster resilient standards at community stage and a PPP strategy to tackle flooding,
erosion, desertification and all other challenges at city level will need to be looked at for every city.
THE BUSINESS SECTOR LEVEL
Assuming the accessibility to a generally open hazard adaptation framework, the private sector should be
stimulated to create the right risk assessment, adaptation and mitigation strategy for all and sundry
(individuals, firms, etc.) in susceptible areas. This would allow for a sense of balance between demand and
supply initiatives, for example; devolution and dissipation of amenity franchises.
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS LEVEL
These groups ought to be spearheads in giving support and organising awareness on adaptation schemes
focusing on the delivery and augmentation of infrastructures and general privileges, steer the community
model projects to assess different ways of community-based adaptation, purposely for Nigerian favela and
informal settlements and susceptible persons and groups. CSOs can give independent response and
reactions, checks and balances on the effective operation of private and public component set-ups
overseeing disaster and climate change risk adaptation and mitigation.
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CONCLUSION
The degree of coming in contact with hazard in Nigeria is unpredictably certain; vulnerability in most cases
causes more risk in her communities. Decreasing this susceptibility will mean a change in public policy,
mobilization and innovativeness from palliation for adaptation. This requires to be established in the actual
institutions, politics and culture of Nigeria and needs to concentrate on the impoverished and vulnerable
persons via a combination of strategy, monitoring, financial systems, official and supporting channels. This is
most likely highly executable by integrating climate change, risk assessment, mitigation and adaptation
activities into current programmes, and developing a series of substantial relations with community
redevelopment interventions being advocated and started in some Nigerian communities.
Achieving this needs operating several levels of adaptation framework, which functions at federal, state and
community (local government/city) levels and connects civil society organisations, the state and private
sector. Testing by implementing a rich and all-encompassing adaptation programme in a number of model
communities will allow for further investigations into adaptation.
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development in Africa’, Presented at the Sustainable Futures: Architecture and Urbanism in the Global South
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SPACE, ARCHITECTURE AND INFRASTRUCTURE “IN-BETWEEN CITIES”. GDANSK - SOPOT CASE
Aleksandra Sas-Bojarska, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland, aleksandra.sas-bojarska@wp.pl

Magdalena Rembeza, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland, magrembe@pg.gda.pl
Abstract
Division of the city, infrastructural barriers, empty spaces, no man’s land with chaotic development, cut-off areas,
which we can observe in many big cities, threaten the city’s image and functioning. Urban planners world-wide
are discussing how to stop these processes leading to disintegration, aesthetic disturbance and ugliness, but still
we have no satisfactory solutions. The problems can best be observed in the areas in-between cities. One of the
main questions for urban planners and architects seems thus to be: how to connect the city spaces instead of
creating the barriers, how to create the areas “in-between” friendly, safe and attractive?
The presented case study, related to the space, architecture and infrastructure between Gdansk and Sopot in
Poland, illustrates the issues arising from the wrong spatial planning systems and the lack of a coherent policy
between the neighbouring cities, causing spatial, functional and visual barriers. The article presents some ideas
and guidelines helping to solve such problems. The set of integrated mitigation measures such as environmental
policy, spatial and urban planning, metropolitan plans, SEA/EIA system and landscape architecture which are still
not sufficiently implemented in practice in Poland, has been presented. They can be used to protect and enhance
a unique environment, cultural heritage and landscape and to create new values, like attractive public spaces in-
between cities.
Keywords: infrastructural barriers, values, threats, divided cities, mitigation measures.
INTRODUCTION: PROBLEMS OF DIVIDED CITIES
One of the main sources of threats to the urban environment is excessive and often unjustified development of
traffic communication. The New Athens Charter of 1998 classifies five main problems of the modern city, including
air quality, level of noise, the quality of the housing stock, size and access to green areas, and transport.
Soil, water and air pollution, noise, harm to health, consuming non-renewable raw materials, the huge demand
for land, and congestion are being classified as negative effects of transport growth. The Athens Charter of 2003
added to these negative effects: creating barriers and obstacles, fragmentation of the neighbouring urban
systems and landscape structures. As a consequence, most of these negative effects are being revealed in a
degradation of landscape.
World experiences show that the increase in the number of road connections not only fails to meet the growing
transportation needs, but even further complicates them. Construction of new routes does not meet new
transportation needs. New roads are immediately filling with cars so there is a growing need for further
realizations.
Demands for the technical parameters and scale of new connections are growing, because of technical progress
and the increasing needs of users. That can cause an increase in the number and speed of vehicles. Growing
demands connected with safety requirements force the widening and straightening of routes. Thus, it becomes
possible to overcome almost any barrier, used in the construction of city streets under the toughest conditions.
As a consequence, the development of road construction, absorbing more and more areas including often the
most valuable ones, threatens the quality of the environment and landscape of the city. The number of
transportation areas in Poland is slightly lower than the settlement areas (964 thousand hectares to 1035
thousand hectares of settlement areas in 1999) but road transport in cities is a source of almost 70% of
contaminations, even though the roads are only 3,2% of the country’s area. The effect of densification of the
traffic system is increasing the “shredding” of space. This is followed by a loss of density and compactness of the
city, shredding tissue, disintegration of landscape, destruction of natural ecosystems, changes in the
physiognomy of the area, the interruption of natural, functional and compositional connections. One cannot
deny the truth of professor Bogdanowski’s statement, that: “transportation grows to the size of a terrorist today”.
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CASE STUDY
Introduction to a case study

The urban planning effects at the border of Gdansk and Sopot exemplify the problems created by road
infrastructure dividing the city. The discussed area is bordered by Gdansk to the south and by Sopot to the
north. Gdansk is a thousand-year old port city of 455 thousand inhabitants, while Sopot is a small historic
city of 40 thousand inhabitants, and a health resort and watering place. They are both located on the coast.
Gdansk, Gdynia, Sopot and a few smaller towns create Gdansk Agglomeration, located on the northern coast
of Poland.
The subject of discussion is the realization of two big investments at the border of the two cities: the Green
Road and the Sport Hall Ergo Arena. The lack of coherent metropolitan policy between the two cities
(despite the agreement of both cities), resulted in their separation by the new road. There is no coherent
system of public space around the new sports hall that could link both cities and exploit the unusual
qualities and potential of the site.
Values of the area
Surrounding areas
The surrounding area consists mostly of valuable and protected zones and elements of natural and cultural
heritage. From the west side, it is surrounded by beautiful hills called Tri City Landscape Park and from the
east, the water of Gdansk Bay, which is a Protected Area Nature 2000 - part of the European System of
Protected Areas. From the north, the area is surrounded by the listed historical area of Sopot, from the west
by a pulmonary hospital and Caritas Hospice in historical “Stawowie” Park and the urban structure of Oliwa
with its residential wooden houses from the 19th/20th century. From the south, the area is bordered by
residences of Gdansk. It is high density, multi-family housing with a population of 7 to 11 thousand
inhabitants per square kilometre. Part of the surrounding is retail, service, craft and storage areas.
All these circumstances create serious planning limits. The decision to construct the road and sports hall in
this area would always cause conflicts. The question in this case is not how to eliminate, but how to
minimize it.
The area of analysis

The several hundred metre wide strip on the border of Gdansk and Sopot until recently was a green
extensively used terrain, with unique natural, cultural and landscape values.
Figure 1: The eastward view of the Baltic Sea and Figure 2: The westward view of the Tricity Landscape
undeveloped area before Sport Hall Ergo Arena Park and undeveloped area before Ergo Arena
construction (Photo J. Zelazny). construction (Photo J. Zelazny).
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The border area of Gdansk and Sopot is covered by different forms of protection: environmental, natural,
cultural, landscape, ground water resources and spa. There are protection zones related to monuments,
visual exposure and landscape of Sopot.
The 500 ha area consists of several zones laid in a characteristic, linear pattern, parallel to Gdansk Bay. From
the east, the area of the Coastal Strip is located along the Gdansk Bay within the administrative boundaries
of Gdansk and Sopot. The belt extents 6 kilometres in length and 800 metres in width. The unique European
strip of coastal dunes, forests, and sandy wide beach make an attractive landscape.
The allotments located on the flat, lowland area are located to the west of the sea. The Graniczny Stream,
totally hidden underground in pipes, flows through this area. Groundwater occurs in 3 - 12 metres above sea
level. Based on groundwater resources, the deep sea water intake called ‘Bitwy pod Plowcami’ is functioning.
The most valuable element, which creates the unusual identity of the place, is a historical object of
Hippodrome together with a racecourse lying on the western side.
The beginnings of the Hippodrome date back to the 70s of the 19th century. In 1898 horse races started.
Then the wooden stands for 2300 people, totalizator hall and horse track were built. Sopot is one of three
existing classic racecourses in Poland. The Hippodrome consists of listed historical buildings, as well as
contemporary buildings built after 1945.
Some works connected with a revitalization of the Hippodrome are being carried out. The revitalization
covers all the investment works related to building new elements, renovation of existing ones and
development of the public space. The effect of the works is a modern horse riding centre, whose main core
are the historical buildings of Hippodrome located in extensive green areas.
Before the road division, the area of analysis had tremendous potential due to the proximity of the sea and
sandy beach from the east as well as sport, horseracing functions from the west and undeveloped green
areas. The moraine hills of Tri City Landscape Park visible from all over the area at 150 metres above sea level
create added value. The events like Pope’s Mass in 1986 and the concert of Tina Turner took place here. It
proves that such places for mass events are still needed in Tri-City.
Key element I – route Green Road

The Green Road cuts an area between Gdansk and Sopot in a trench route, creating an unsurpassable
technical barrier. As part of a larger communication net called Via Hanseatica, it runs through the Tricity
Agglomeration as a basic system. The role of this system is to take traffic from congested and blocked Tricity
transportation system. Otherwise, it provides also a route to the Sport Hall Ergo Arena.
The considered 800 metre part of the Green Road was built on the border of Gdansk and Sopot in the
neighbourhood of large housing estates (Zabianka, Wejhera). Two variants of implementation of this
fragment of Green Road were considered: a viaduct and an open trench. Before the formal procedure
commenced, an ecological study for this fragment was prepared. Both variants were rated as threatening to
the environment and development, but the tunnel indicated as less conflicting.
The authorities of Gdansk and Sopot, which together were planning and co-financing the road, have chosen
to implement a variant of the trench. The road was opened in 2012. The construction of the road
necessitated the building of the tunnel under the railway line. The 28 metre pedestrian- bicycle route had to
be constructed to link Subislawa Street at Zabianka estate with Sopot’s Hippodrome.
Key element II – Sport Hall Ergo Arena

Sport Hall Ergo Arena is located on the border of two cities, Gdansk and Sopot, 3 kilometres from the centre
of Sopot, 10 kilometres from the centre of Gdansk and 1 kilometre from the coastline of Gdansk’s Bay.
Several dozen hectares of land, on which the Sport Hall is located, also includes a parking area. Ergo Arena
can host up to 15000 people, which allows the organization of the whole spectrum of different events and
activities, making this place unique.
The history of building of Ergo Arena

The history of this investment started in August 1999 when the Office of Physical Culture and Tourism
together with Polish Sports Associations agreed to build the multifunctional sport and entertainment hall. In
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2000 the authorities of both cities signed the agreement about the partnership. The winner of the
nationwide open SARP competition for architectural and urban design was chosen. In 2005, Gdansk and
Sopot signed another partnership agreement under which both cities are equal investors but the leader of
the project is Sopot Municipality. Hall construction began in 2007 and finished in 2010.
Multi-functionality of a building
The building consists of a main hall and secondary sports hall. This enables the organization of sports events
of the highest rank in most indoor sports (basketball, volleyball, handball, hockey, ice hockey, tennis, table
tennis, badminton, horse riding, martial arts, athletics, motorsports, windsurfing). It can also be adapted to
the organization of concerts, theatre and opera performances, film screenings, conferences, exhibitions and
fairs, business meetings, banquets, shows. The main building is made up of two parts. The first one is a
massive, reinforced concrete base partially hidden underground and contains the two lowest levels of the
object. The second one is a cylinder of light curtain walls with steel frame covered with perforated sheets of
titanium – zinc. The Indoor Athletics World Championships were held here in March 2014 because of the
building’s multifunctional character.
The problems of the case study

Despite the lengthy planning of both objects, and numerous studies and expert opinions, after their
completion, many doubts have arisen regarding the real negative effects of the implementation of the route
and indoor arena.
The assessment of the case study proves that the broad paved space of a technical nature has been made on
the biologically active area. There was irreversible damage to the urban fabric of this part of the
agglomeration. The route, due to its parameters and traffic, cut the functional and spatial structure in-
between Gdansk and Sopot, and at the border of housing and green spaces, sports and recreational areas.
Figure 3: Green Road (Tricity Landscape Park visible in Figure 4: Green Road. Big housing estate visible on the
the background, Hippodrome on the right, housing right, behind the noise barrier. Ergo Arena visible in the
estates on the left) (Photo A. Sas-Bojarska). background (Photo A. Sas-Bojarska).
Although the road in trench is less harmful to the landscape than a viaduct, it still creates serious visual
threats due to its scale and dimensions. It does not complement the historical buildings. It creates an
artificial barrier to the long strip between Gdansk and Sopot. The road in a trench has eliminated a lot of
connections and inhibited the transitions that now can only be made by pedestrians and a cycling
footbridge. A broad technical barrier between the two cities of Gdansk and Sopot has been created. The big
scale of the road is being intensified by the noise barriers. Poor visual effects are enhanced by the
uninteresting form of screens and bright, randomly chosen colours that are a permanent part of the
development, disturbing the previous harmony and character of the landscape. The visual barrier has
appeared in-between great housing estates and recreational areas.
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Figure 5,6,7,8: Green Road as a technical barrier (Photo A. Sas-Bojarska).
The large width and cavity of the route worsened the conditions of using the area close to the Green Road,
in particular the coastal green belt and the Hippodrome. The permanent separation between the
recreational, sport and cultural areas from housing areas has occurred. This aggressive investment destroyed
attractive views, both for inhabitants as well as for walkers and tourists. In conclusion, the quality and
comfort of life of inhabitants, living next to the route, has been lowered.
The planned investment runs along the edge of the areas that are precious due to their cultural values. At a
considerable distance as a large-scale, linear object it interferes visually in the protected zones of Sopot.
The route made it necessary to canalize the local stream from the discharge place to the Hippodrome. In
urbanized areas, converting open streams to underground canals is not beneficial in the long term because,
despite the negative changes in the natural environment, it reduces the natural water retention and
increases the risk of flooding.
Because the Sport Hall is located quite far from the local train stop (about a 15 minute walk), it limits
accessibility to the public communication stops. Such a localization requires a large amount of parking
around the facility and is promotes individual communication instead of public transport, which is not an
environmentally friendly solution.
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Figure 9: Sport Hall Ergo Arena (Photo A. Sas- Figure 10: Parking around Ergo Arena (Photo A. Sas-
Bojarska). Bojarska).
Of course, the choice of localization of such an object open for all residences of the agglomeration is
indisputable. It is very important, especially in a situation while in other parts of Tricity, housing estates are
being built by developers in the valuable areas. They are causing the effect of shredding the urban space as
in the Coastal Strip of Gdansk. The localization of this Sport Hall is better than the developer’s investment.
With such a powerful investment, the public spaces surrounding the hall could have developed and
connected two divided urban structures. Unfortunately, it did not happen. The area surrounding the hall is
still undeveloped, littered, dark and dangerous.
The conclusion of the case study

The agreement between the authorities of Gdansk and Sopot concerning the Sport Hall failed to include the
goals of sustainable development in a wider urban context. This decision cut an urban tissue. The huge
technical barrier between housing and sport-recreational areas has been created and the landscape has
changed.
An area directly close to the Sport Hall has been designed and arranged as a typical hardened and visually
unattractive technical space. An extraordinary location due to its proximity to the coastal strip and the
historical Hippodrome has not been used. The whole area in-between Gdansk and Sopot should be
attractively landscaped with attention to the potential of space, and should offer sport, recreational and
cultural functions for the whole agglomeration. There are wonderful opportunities for urban development
for public spaces, available and beautifully arranged.
The problems that have arisen in the planning and implementation of investment on the border of Gdansk
and Sopot are the result not only of individual decisions but most of all they are the effect of an erroneous
spatial planning system in Poland. Therefore, a closer look should be taken at these more general reasons.
PLANNING CIRCUMSTANCES IN POLAND
The complicated planning situation in Poland in many cases precludes the implementation of the principles
of sustainable development in urban planning. Although there are a variety of planning tools, their
inconsistency, ambiguity and constant changes make them ineffective.
Spatial planning in Poland – system or chaos?

The spatial planning system in Poland cannot be assessed positively, due to many circumstances. The Act on
Spatial Planning and Development (March 27, 2003 with subsequent amendments) defines the principles of
spatial policy-making and regulates the processes of spatial management in Poland. This act specifies the
division of tasks and responsibilities between different levels of public administration in the field of spatial
planning and determines all details.
The general structure of the spatial planning system in Poland is divided into the national, regional and local
level, which respectively consists of the:
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- National Spatial Development Concept,

- Zoning Plan for the Region,
- Study of Conditions and Directions of Spatial Development, Metropolitan Plan and the Local Spatial
Management Plan.
The reform of the Polish Planning Law, which began after 1989, aimed to increase the supply of investment
areas in cities, which resulted in a significant liberalization of building regulations. The liberalization of law,
as a reaction to previous socialist system constraints, stimulated by a postmodern tendency to deregulation,
led to a significant fall in spatial management. According to many experts, the current planning system in a
market economy leads to chaos or even results in cluttering of the Polish space.
The main reason for the state of affairs presently is the resignation from the formerly existing General Plans
and their replacement by the Study of Conditions and Directions of Spatial Development. It has only a
recommendatory status and is not an act of local law. Basic tools of local spatial development are covered by
the Local Spatial Management Plans. However, there is no legal obligation for creating Local Plans in Polish
Planning Law. Hence, they are mostly prepared voluntarily and many municipalities treat it as a redundant
expense.
Environmental Assessment Procedure

One of the tools supporting spatial planning and decision making in Poland is the Environmental
Assessment System. It consists of:
• Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), related to spatial plans, strategies and policies,
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) - related to activities that may be harmful.
The SEA/EIA system improves the process of planning, construction and operation of new activities, plans
and strategies. EIA is often being used improperly in Poland. In spite of how useful this system is in theory,
we can observe weaknesses that lessen its potential and cause many spatial and landscape problems:
• EIA is often treated by investors as only a formal requirement; necessary for gaining building approval.
• Analyses are concentrated on quantifiable factors, like air, water, or noise pollution.
• There is no cooperation among experts from different fields.
• “Non-material” aspects, like landscape – as not “objective” - are usually ignored.
• Landscape is treated as isolated and a less important element of the environment, because it is not
quantifiable.
• There is no systematic approach to prediction of landscape changes.
The current practice of predicting impacts has been based mostly on the independent investigation of
individual elements of the environment. All these factors determine the low effectiveness of environmental
assessment systems in Poland.
Metropolitan Plan
The Metropolitan Plan, dedicated, according to Polish law, to main metropolitan areas, is a new planning
tool. The need for implementation of the Metropolitan Plan should be indicated at a higher level, which is a
Zoning Plan for the Region. It is being taken into consideration also when making the National Spatial
Development Concept. The Metropolitan Plan determines the rules of space management, and it is being
resolved for an indefinite period. It is not a law as in a Local Spatial Management Plan. It defines only the
general localization of a certain investment or an enterprise, in accordance with the Zoning Plan for the
Region. It does not replace in terms of law the decision of building and spatial development conditions.
The Metropolitan Plan is subjected to a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The cities of Gdansk
Agglomeration have not prepared yet the Metropolitan Plan. It resulted from the formal and legal conditions
that neither prevented the preparation and approval of this document, nor the Strategic Environmental
Assessment of such a plan.
The Metropolitan Plan followed by a Strategic Environmental Assessment would improve the policy of
cohesion and integrity between Gdansk and Sopot.
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GUIDELINES
In the case considered, the effects of spatial and urban planning might have been much better for the
sustainable development of Gdansk and Sopot if such tools like a metropolitan plan, SEA/EIA system and
landscape architecture were better used. But the most important should be the implementation of the
general principles of sustainable development. They can be found in such documents as the Constitution of
the Polish Republic, the National Environmental Policy and other development strategies, coherent with EU
polices, which are still not sufficiently implemented in practice in Poland.
Planning guidelines
Metropolitan Plan
The idea of a Metropolitan Plan has emerged to ensure the proper development of complex structures of
metropolitan areas. In such big structures, different conditions can be examined only in the wider scale of a
whole area. This kind of metropolitan area is certainly Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia. The Metropolitan Plan
would enable a complex investigation of the planning conditions and realization of the most important
goals of the whole agglomeration. Obligatory SEA procedures would assure all environmental circumstances
and impacts are taken into consideration.
The Metropolitan Plan would allow for optimal planning connected with the development and
transformation of an area in-between two cities. In particular, the spatial relationship of the two cities
and Sport Hall and its transportation system would be considered. It should refer to landscape and
hydro-geological analyses and different conceptual designs of technical infrastructure and roads
regarding spatial, functional and compositional relations with Gdansk and Sopot. Such a plan should
also take into account the status of the health resort of Sopot and the principles of management in this
different area. The plan should give the general conditions of landscaping in a landscape protection
zone which includes the entire town of Sopot. The implementation of the Metropolitan Plan requires
public participation, which would help with the social involvement and engagement of local
communities.
EIA
The Green Road cuts the area of many different formal, spatial, environmental and landscape
circumstances. Therefore, the EIA procedure should have been conducted not only as a formal
procedure, but with the highest respect to best practice and all circumstances.
In such a complex and important case, the potential effects in all elements of the environment, as well
as effects on peoples’ life and well-being, should have been recognized and assessed. The indirect, long-
term, cumulative, permanent, irreversible and unavoidable impacts should have been indicated, as well
as their spatial scope, scale, significance, and the uncertainty of the prediction.
In this case, the prediction and assessment of changes in hydro-geological and hydrological conditions
seemed to be crucial. Hydrological effects would have been the result of a cut-off of the natural
migration ways of underground and surface water. It should have been important to assess indirect
changes in the quantity and quality of underground water intake and mineral water intake. The
magnitude and significance of changes in air quality and noise should have been predicted, related to
housing and recreation areas. Adequate mitigation measures should have not destroyed the landscape
and character of the area. Regarding the unique character of Sopot, a health resort, and touristic town,
named ‘Pearl of the Baltic sea’, it should have been crucial to predict negative impacts related to cultural
heritage, landscape, and visual quality of the space. These impacts would have been caused by new
infrastructural objects (tunnel, stabilization walls, noise barriers). Landscape studies and landscape
architecture planning related to land use, land surface, engineering objects, small architectural objects,
materials, colours, greenery, lighting should have been necessary. The design process of engineering
objects should have been treated as a chance to enhance the visual quality of space in the area between
Gdansk and Sopot.
We may assess, observing the state of the space after construction phase, that the EIA of the Green Road
was not a success. The real landscape and visual impacts are on a big scale, negative, and non-
reversible. The new road and noise barriers became controversial. The cut-off space became extremely
technical. The area lost its natural character and local identity.
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Project guidelines
The approach to resolve the problem of dividing city space should be based on the following rules:
• Instead of cutting the valuable urban tissue with new roads, it is better to improve the public
transportation system. As an example, a case of Curitiba can be mentioned, where the unique
transportation system based on a combination of aspects such as: organizational, economic, spatial
planning and design, has been implemented. There are many possibilities to improve the public
transport system in the Tricity case, like in Curitiba. Existing rail, tram and bus systems should be
developed, which would decrease the need to build new roads. The Green Road should have been
planned as a local road rather than a transit road.
• Excessively wide roads that create barriers should not be designed in the urban tissue. For the needs of
transit traffic, existing artery roads should rather be used and modernized or covered tunnels should be
built.
• A valuable urban tissue of natural, cultural and landscape values should not be wasted for technical
functions. A perfect example is Regan’s’ Park in Gdansk, located near the studied area, where the
allotments were converted into the public park for all residents of Tricity and tourists, becoming a
favourite place of recreation. The open green area around the Ergo Arena should also be converted into
a public park.
• If the urban tissue must be divided, due to transportation needs, this problem should be minimized
during the design process. The perfect example of using technical space for urban function is the area
under the viaduct in Darling Harbour in Sydney, where an attractive public space for residents has been
designed.
• In a situation where the space is already divided, high quality connections between the surrounding
areas should be created, which did not happen in this case.
• Landscape architecture should be used to create new landscapes. For this purpose, some actions should
be considered:
a. Development of a system of public green spaces that link the separated areas,
b. Recreational development around the Sport Hall Ergo Arena (new sport and recreation
programme, a tourist information system, buffer zones),
c. Use of landscaping to improve the quality of space (slopes, retaining walls, stairs, walkways,
acoustic screens of attractive forms and colours, street furniture, flooring, green, lights, colours).
Such actions would prevent the occurrence of a number of negative effects implemented in this unique
area.
CONCLUSION
The space between neighbouring cities, often recognized as no-man’s land, may undergo strong and
uncoordinated investment pressure, which results in chaotic development, divided spaces, and many
negative environmental impacts. Some impacts are irreversible and permanent, while some may be
minimized, although mitigation is usually time consuming and costly. Avoiding potentially threatening
impacts through effective urban planning is better than repairing negative changes.
Each city has its own circumstances and directions of sustainable development. However, some cities
require special protection and enhancement of their unique environment, cultural heritage and landscape.
The case study from the area between Gdansk and Sopot proves that we can easily destroy spatial,
functional, environmental and landscape values. In order to avoid such destruction, the need to think of a
metropolitan area as one resilient organism, in terms of integrated space, environment, transport and
society, arises. The areas in-between cities should connect, not divide, as we observe in the case study of
Gdansk and Sopot. Considering the wider circumstances and urban context should be the key elements of
planning in-between spaces to protect what is valuable: local identity, environmental and landscape values,
and to create new values – like attractive public spaces.
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REFERENCES
Bogdanowski J., 1999. ‘Krajobraz miasta − kontynuacja czy banał współczesnej architektury’, AURA 12.
Rembeza M & Rozwadowski T., 2012. ‘Idealism and practice of public participation in the context of the rising
pressure of economic success. The Coastal Strip in Gdansk as case study’, EFLA Regional Congress, St.
Petersburg.
Sas-Bojarska A., 2006. ‘Przewidywanie zmian krajobrazowych w gospodarowaniu przestrzenią z

wykorzystaniem ocen oddziaływania na środowisko na przykładzie transportu drogowego’, Wydawnictwo
Politechniki Gdańskiej, Gdansk.
Sas-Bojarska A., 2013. ‘The green waterfront of a city. Where are the limits of good planning? Gdansk case’,
49th ISOCARP Congress 2013, Brisbane, Australia, http://www.eventure-online.com/parthen-
uploads/95/13BRI/add225975_nUKQUYTbh6.pdf
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PLAYGROUND TYPOLOGIES AND MATERIALITY FOR SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC OPEN SPACES IN AN

URBAN CONTEXT!
Andrew Gill, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, agill@uj.ac.za
Abstract
The process of urbanisation will result in an increase in population densities and extended land usage. The need to
maintain and provide sustainable public open spaces within future and existing urban developments will
therefore become more critical.
Presently, there are still a large number of undeveloped sites in the older suburbs of Johannesburg bordering on
the inner city. These sites are owned and maintained by the City of Johannesburg and provide public open spaces
ranging from small pocket ‘parks’ to large destination parks, many of which incorporate some form of playground
equipment.
Research was conducted on a sampling of public playgrounds within these ‘park’ settings to establish: space
utilisation and layout, the type of play equipment and subsequent play opportunities provided for children, the
general condition of the playground equipment in relation to vandalism and maintenance, and other facilities
available on the site.
All authors writing on childhood development concur on the benefits of play for healthy development, with
specific importance placed on outdoor play. However research has shown that the traditional forms of
playground and play equipment design, which prevail in the majority of public parks surveyed for this study, do
not adequately meet the developmental needs of children. They are also proving to be unsustainable within this
context.
The aim of this study was to establish design criteria for alternative playground typologies for public playgrounds
and play equipment, in order for them to better meet the developmental needs of children, and in turn contribute
towards the sustainability of public open spaces in poorer urban areas. Examples are discussed that were
developed within the constraints of the established design criteria.
Keywords: playground typologies, public open spaces, childhood development.
INTRODUCTION
This paper advocates that in order to make public open spaces sustainable they should be designed and
managed in such a way that truly benefits the communities they are meant to serve.
Although specific focus is placed on children’s playgrounds, the need for context-specific design solutions to
address spatial development and socio-economic problems that co-exist within a city, are also considered.
The playgrounds that are the subject of this study are situated in a variety of public open spaces owned by
the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and colloquially referred to as ‘parks’ and they are managed and maintained
by Johannesburg City Parks department (JCPZ 2008).
Concepts of childhood development theory and theories pertaining to urban public open spaces are used to
frame the discussion regarding the design of sustainable public open spaces (POS). This study posits that it is
the design of POS that will ultimately determine their sustainability.
Sustainability of POS
If POS are not sustainable they may disappear due to increasing land demands associated with densification
of urban centres. Sustainability can only be achieved if economic, social and environmental concerns are
equally addressed (Du Plessis 1998, p. 45). In the interpretation and principles of the current by-laws, there is
no clear distinction made between environmental and social sustainability. Humans and the environment
are grouped together in terms of policy that is intended to: minimise harm, maximise benefits and comply
with legislation intended to protect the environment and human health and safety (Public open spaces BY-
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LAWS 831/2004) (CoJ 2004, p.4). Although social sustainability is considered integral in sustainability
measurements, it is assessed according to its own criteria. The measure of social sustainability of POS should
be determined by the extent to which they are used, and the degree to which they actually benefit the
public’s needs.
In an ethnographic study of Joubert Park, situated in the inner city of Johannesburg conducted by Marais,
she is critical of current policy governing the use of POS. Marais (2013, p. vi), claims that the CoJ has rules and
regulations that aim to exclude certain users from the park. In the process of enforcing these ‘rules’, the City
ignored its own responsibility as laid out in the by-laws. It also became apparent that the City’s ideal users
are different from actual park users and this causes conflict around the use of public spaces, making them
socially unsustainable.
However it is not only ‘poor’ policy that excludes certain users from these parks but also ‘poor’ design
decisions that contribute to the social unsustainability of these spaces. Although some of the reasons may
be historical, many of these spaces have not been adapted or redefined to meet contemporary society’s
needs.
The managing agent

Johannesburg City Parks (JCP) is responsible for all the playgrounds and ‘parks’ in which they are situated.
Currently JCP manages 2 343 parks. It is also responsible for the management of cemeteries, open green
areas, street trees and conserved spaces equalling a total area of 22 278 hectares (JCPZ 2008). This agency
was created specifically to take care of parks and environmental concerns by the CoJ. It was incorporated as
a section 21 company in the year 2000. A section 21 company is not intended to make profit but to provide
services, “in a manner that is efficient and business like” (Nel, cited in Marais 2013, p. 159). However there
appears to be a conflict of interest as to whether the current developments, use and maintenance of public
spaces (in general) is actually ‘in the interests of the whole community’ or in the interest of the managing
agent.
As play is considered to be such an essential part of childhood development (Isenberg & Quisenberry 2002),
it is important that quality play spaces are preserved and made available to all residents and specifically
those in medium and high-density, low-income residential neighbourhoods. This premise is actually
supported in by the 2040 Growth and Development Strategy’s outreach process (CoJ 2011, p. 107). Some of
the key principles/strategies relating to the regulation, management and use of public space, read as
follows:
• Encourage public spaces that offer diversity and flexibility in both purpose and use.
• There is a need for people to live, work, learn and play in close proximity.
• Make allowances for the poor in terms of the regulation and management of the built
environment and the use of public space.
The CoJ also has a Public Spaces Charter to uphold (c.2006). This charter aims towards creating a ‘liveable’
inner city, with culturally appropriate and authentic public places that are accessible to all. The CoJ aims to
increase the number of quality public parks and playgrounds within or immediately adjacent to the inner
city. It is also stated that in line with these objectives, “all new and refurbished public open spaces will be
designed, developed and upgraded in a manner that is compliant with ecological best practice” (CoJ
c.2006). This objective however needs to be expanded to include both social and economic ‘best practise’ if
sustainability of these spaces is to be achieved.
Design for social exclusion

In theory, POS in urban areas should be democratic spaces that “provide opportunities for a wide range of
activities and benefits relating to: social, environmental, physical and mental health and economics”
(Dunnett et al. cited in Woolley n.d. p. 4). Public open spaces should be designed and managed in such a
way that people living in urban areas can realise the full potential of these benefits. Residents need to be
able to readily access these spaces and use them freely. If individuals, through no fault of their own, are
unable to use such spaces in ways they would like to, then this can be defined as a form of social exclusion
(Wooley n.d. p. 2).
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There is also a trend towards greater regulation of public spaces, often justified by the need for improved
‘safety and security’. These ‘exclusionary practices’ vary in application and are dependent on existing social
relations, political practices and cultural traditions in different locales and institutional settings (McCahill,
cited in Dohety et al. 2008, p. 91). Design is used extensively for this purpose, for example, “through
surveillance and monitoring devices, access and security systems” (Graham & Marvin, cited in Dohety et al.
2008, p. 291). Design for exclusion also happens on a smaller scale, such as a park bench designed in such a
way that it is too uncomfortable to be slept upon by a homeless person. Social exclusion can also however,
be the inadvertent result of poor or inappropriate design solutions.
It is from this position that I would like to suggest that the current design and (resulting) management of
many children’s playgrounds situated in POS are inadvertently creating a form of social exclusion (if play is
considered a normal activity) by not providing appropriate benefits for the residents they are meant to
serve. This may ultimately render them unsustainable.
Historical context - the ring of blight

The public playgrounds that were the subject of this study are located in the suburbs that border on the
eastern side of the inner city of Johannesburg. These suburbs were initially established for working class
residents during the period 1889 to 1904. The suburbs at the centre of this study and the dates they were
established are: Troyeville (1891) Bertrams (1889), Lorentzville (1892), Judith’s Paarl (1896), Bezuidenhout
Valley (1902), Kensington (1903), and Malvern (1904) (Residential development in Johannesburg n.d.). These
heritage suburbs are representative of similar developments to the west and south of the inner city. The land
usage of these suburbs has remained largely unchanged with the majority of new developments radiating
outwards and away from the inner city. This trend has continued up until the present. These ‘poorer’
residential suburbs bordering the inner city have all suffered various degrees of urban decay over time, to
the extent of being referred to as ‘the ring of blight’. Some of the more decayed areas have been
redeveloped into sporting and educational precincts or re-zoned for light industry.
Figure 1: Eastern portion of early plan of Johannesburg suburbs 1897 (Source: Wiredspace, 1897, amended by
author).
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What is noticeable from this early map of Johannesburg (See Figure 1) is that no large parks or POS were
established within the inner city (with the exception of Joubert Park (Marais 2013, p. 143), with a tendency
towards smaller neighbourhood ‘parks’. This may have been due to the fact that at this time the urban
fringe was within walking distance of the inner city, offering unlimited access to open spaces and play
opportunities for children. Of more significance to this paper is that (despite an ever-increasing population
density), the allocation of POS has remained largely unchanged. This can be determined in an overlay of a
portion of the original plan of Johannesburg, with a recent satellite image of the area (See Figure 2).
Figure 2: 1897 map of Johannesburg overlaid on 2013 Google image (Source: Compiled by author 2014).
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OUTDOOR PLAY ENVIRONMENTS AND CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
The literature consulted relating to outdoor play and playgrounds is compiled from the premise that play is
critical for human ontogeny. Play has in recent times been neglected with more importance being placed on
formal teaching as the key to learning and development. Prior to this period most cognitive development in
children occurred through observation, exploration and play (Pellegrini, Dupuis & Smith 2007, p. 263).
All authors concur that playgrounds offer crucial and vital opportunities for children to play, and in turn,
that; “All learning, emotional, social, motor and cognitive, is accelerated, facilitated and fuelled by the
pleasure of play” (Duerr Evaluation Resources n.d. p. 1). Play is now considered to be essential for brain
development and is related to the development of intelligence, certain academic and reasoning facilities. A
lack of free and spontaneous play can be detrimental to the developing child (Frost et al. 2004, p. 10).
Outdoor play provides many benefits for children and provides opportunities to expand their range of
activity (Isenberg & Quisenberry 2002, p.5).
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In order to determine the developmental benefits associated with play, play is categorised by different play
types or play forms. These include: Functional or Sensorimotor play, Social play, Constructive play, Pretend or
Fantasy play, Games with Rules and Free play (Mentin 2003, p. 16-20). Research has shown that the content
of the outdoor environments has a direct impact on children’s outdoor play, and that the play-type directly
impacts on childhood development (Naylor, 1985, p.125). Therefore it is imperative to identify design
methods and processes for producing quality outdoor environments that promote development and
learning in children (Herrington & Studman 1998, p. 204; Mentin 2003, p. 88).
FINDINGS FROM THE SITE SURVEYS
The majority of research and resulting literature relating to playgrounds is written from a childhood
development position. There is however far less research conducted from a design perspective. This is
despite the fact that the manner and frequency with which the playgrounds and equipment are used by the
children, and therefore the developmental benefits derived from these forms of play are inherently bound-
up in the design of these spaces. It was from this premise that a survey of eight playgrounds was conducted
over a period of five years. The playgrounds are located in both “public utility public open space” and
“recreational public open space” as defined in the (Public Open Spaces BY-LAWS 831/2004) (CoJ 2004, p.5).
The ‘range’ of playgrounds is situated in demarcated small neighbourhood parks, demarcated destination
parks, non-demarcated public utility and marginal spaces. The objective of the site surveys was to establish:
• The type of play equipment on site and subsequent play opportunities provided.
• General condition of the play equipment with regard to vandalism and maintenance.
• Recent design interventions on the sites.
• Accessibility to the site and play equipment for differing ages and abilities.
• Settings and other facilities on offer.
The aim of the research was to establish design criteria for playgrounds that holistically contribute towards
childhood development and the sustainability of POS in which they are situated. The parks that were
surveyed were classified into the following types:
Large destination park:

Rhodes Park: 390 000m² in total with a dedicated play area of approx 10 500 m².
Demarcated neighbourhood parks/community centres:

Fuller Park: 6 500m². Received upgrade during the 2003/2004 period and again in 2010.
David Webster Park (Previously Troyeville Community Park): 9 360m². Received upgrade during the
2003/2004 period and further upgrade to sporting facilities in 2013.
Bertrams Park: Upgraded in 2010.
Non-demarcated public utility and marginal spaces:

Fotheringham Park: 191 053m². No maintenance to playground since 2008
Alexandra Park: 204 912m². No maintenance to playground since 2008
Compound site: 31 857m². Recent installation during 2002/2003 period
Hofland Park: 16 845m² in total with separated play area of 1 600 m². Playground equipment relocated to
fenced-off area in 2012.
Play opportunities
Without exception all the playgrounds surveyed for this study would be considered as traditional
playgrounds which make use of traditional play equipment.
The design of these types of playgrounds dates back to the early 20th century. As a result of mass
urbanisation of factory workers, these playgrounds were primarily developed for the benefits of poor
children growing up in crowded city conditions (Mentin 2003, p. 23). The playgrounds were often situated
on hard level surfaces to accommodate popular ‘street games’ played at the time. The lack of grassed
surface on which to play was a reflection of management policy rather than the preference of children
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(Naylor 1985, p. 117). The main goal of these ‘designed’ playgrounds was to attract children away from the
hazardous streets and vacant lots and into a ‘safer’ play environment.
Traditional playgrounds are equipped with swings, slides, merry-go-rounds, and jungle-gyms constructed
from steel and timber. This ‘traditional’ playground equipment was primarily designed for large muscle
activity in order to promote physical fitness (Mentin 2003, p.30).
Figure 3: Traditional playground and play equipment in Rhodes Park (Source: Author 2008).
The current playground area in Rhodes Park (See Figure 3) is an example of a traditional playground design.
This playground has remained relatively unchanged since its initial inception. Some of the more recently
upgraded ‘parks’ still rely heavily on this ‘traditional’ design solution.
Condition of the play equipment

The traditional play equipment manufactured mostly from steel and timber all shows varying degrees of
vandalism and breakages. There is evidence of metal theft of components leaving the equipment unusable
(See Figure 4). In some cases, entire pieces of equipment have disappeared. There is evidence of superficial
maintenance of equipment such as painting and replacement of simple components. For example, most
timber swing seats have been replaced with uncomfortable rubber straps. Unfortunately it is highly unlikely
that the intricate cast-iron components and brass-laminated slides that have been looted will ever be
replaced.
Figure 4: Vandalized play equipment in Fotheringham Park (Source: Author 2008/2014).
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The site surveys revealed that playgrounds in non-demarcated public utility and marginal spaces were far
more vandalised than those in secured areas. There was also no indication of any attempt to replace or
repair broken equipment. The decisions to either cease all maintenance or relocate the playgrounds to
within fenced-off areas (as discussed later) has the unintended consequence of excluding users from these
POS.
Upgrading of the sites, design interventions and unintentional exclusion.

Fuller Park, David Webster Park and Bertrams Park all received upgrades as projects associated to the Greater
Ellis Park regeneration programme, commissioned by the CoJ and implemented by the Johannesburg
Development Agency (JDA 2005).
The David Webster and Bertrams Park projects included public participation and outreach programmes in
the form of custom made artworks, mosaics and street furniture (See Figure 5) (Bertram's Road Park n.d.).
This was hugely successful in creating both novelty value and a unique ‘sense of place’.
Figure 5: Custom designed furniture in David Webster Park (Source: Author 2008).
The solutions for the play equipment were however not so novel, as traditional equipment sourced from
catalogues was used. There was some consideration given to smaller children’s needs by providing more
age appropriate traditional equipment.
Another significant play opportunity provided was a skateboard basin which has proven to be a ‘poor’
design decision (See Figure 6). A lack of adequate drainage resulted in the basin becoming flooded with
rainwater, creating a cesspit. This is now completely dysfunctional and cannot be used as intended.
Subsequent upgrades have been done to basketball courts and similar sporting facilities and the inclusion of
a large chessboard, but unfortunately these seem to have restricted access.
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Figure 6: Flooded skateboard basin at David Webster Park (Source: Author 2014).
Another example of a design solution that unintentionally contributes to excluding users is that of the
upgraded Bertrams Park (See Figure 7). This park was intended to serve a “diverse community” and a primary
school in the area which has no sporting facilities. The primary school formed a committee that would be
responsible for maintaining the park (Bertram's Road Park n.d.).
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Figure 7: Ariel view of upgraded Bertrams Park.
However access to this park is restricted (See Figure 8). This park has been closed to the public on numerous
weekend site visits. This is despite the by-laws stating that: (2.4.1) “Public open spaces must be managed,
and where appropriate developed, in the interests of the whole community” ... and, (2.10.2.a) “The council
must ensure that parks should be open to the public from sunrise to sunset” (CoJ 2004, pp. 6, 9). It can be
assumed that the reason for the park being closed is (understandably) to prevent metal theft and vandalism.
This action is justified by a ‘restriction of access’ clause in the public open spaces by-laws, which states: (2.8)
“The Council may restrict access to any public open space or to any part of a public open space for a
specified period of time” and, (2.8.b) “to reduce vandalism and the destruction of property” (CoJ 2004, p. 9).
The site surveys showed that traditional play equipment in unprotected areas is badly vandalised rendering
the equipment useless and often beyond repair (See Figure 4). Therefore, the design decision to create this
particular playground typology has had the unintended consequence of excluding users.
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Figure 8: Bertrams Park closed to the public at 10:15am on a Sunday morning (Source: Author 2014).
The only other significant development made (to Fuller Park) was the addition of a football court with a
concreted surface and low surrounding wall. This area does provide alternative play opportunities, even if
used as unintended.
The relocation of Hofland Park playground to a secured area has not provided any alternative play
opportunities. It is now in every sense a traditional playground situated on a hard-levelled concrete surface
with no shade, whereas the original site was well wooded and grassed. This design decision appears to have
been made purely for maintenance reasons.
Additional facilities on offer.

There are other less obvious but equally important design criteria that are not always considered, such as:
shaded areas over play equipment, seating for child minders, ablution facilities, play opportunities for
toddlers and barrier-free solutions. The lack of these types of facilities can result in the exclusion of certain
users. Only Rhodes Park (as a destination park) has accessible ablution facilities on site, and the relocated
Hofland Park has drinking water available. All upgraded parks have included seating for adults and child
minders.
PLAYGROUNDS, PLAY EQUIPMENT TYPOLOGIES AND RESULTING DEVELOPMENTAL BENEFITS.
All the playgrounds surveyed for this study would be described as traditional playgrounds containing
traditional play equipment. According to Naylor (1985, p.123) this widespread solution only really benefits
the managing agent. The reasons are that they are relatively easily maintained, are readily available and can
be ordered through catalogues as individual pre-manufactured items. This makes it is easy to predetermine
costs, and they can be delivered and installed in a relatively short period of time.
However, Mentin’s research (2003) has shown that although these forms of traditional playgrounds support
physical and social development, they do not support emotional development. They also do not offer
opportunities for fantasy and dramatic play which fosters relationships and friendships, and “do not create
stimulating and interesting challenges adequately” (Mentin 2003, p.84). This form of playground design
does not take into consideration all the development stages of children. They also do not support cognitive
development which is cultivated through constructive and imaginative play. Traditional play equipment is
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indicative of highly predictable and repetitive play functions and is unsuitable for fostering mental
development and creative thinking (Mentin 2003, p. 85).
A latter development in playground design developed in Denmark after the Second World War was the
concept of the adventure playground. Basically children were observed creating and constructing their own
play environments with available rubble, pieces of timber and other basic building and waste materials
(Heseltine & Holborn 1987). Although these playgrounds manifest in a variety of forms, the fundamental
principle is that: children create their own play environment and build their own play structures (Naylor
1985, p. 121).
These types of playgrounds go by the names of: Constructive playgrounds, Junkyard playgrounds, and
Imagination playgrounds. Although by nature the design of these playgrounds differs greatly, they are
based on similar criteria (compiled from various sources) in that:
• They have very few fixed facilities besides an office or storeroom.
• The majority of play elements/equipment are not fixed in position.
• The loose elements are intended to be arranged and constructed by the children as part of the play
activity.
• The loose components are constantly rotated and alternated for novelty value.
• They provide multi-level recreational surfaces and can include sand and water features.
• They require supervisors to assist the children.
The main goals of the adventure playgrounds are: to promote the creativity process by giving children the
opportunity to make whatever activity they are doing their own, and for children to develop a variety of
cognitive skills by continually being stimulated and challenged (Wardle cited in Mentin 2003, p. 27).
A recent development in play equipment design (See Figure 9) is the multi-play structure which combines
several of the individual pieces of equipment into one play unit. This composite approach allows for various
elements to be arranged according to budget or spatial constraints. The components are usually also pre-
fabricated and items can be ordered from catalogues and can be constructed on site according to a chosen
plan or layout.
Figure 9: Multi–play (Monolithic) structures (Source: Anon n.d.).
Although the play-types offered could be considered as typical, the configuration of elements, scale and size
introduces an element of uniqueness into each structure. Multi-play structures have the disadvantages of
offering constricted play space and do not allow for the different abilities and ages of children playing
simultaneously (Mentin 2003, p. 41). There are some examples of these ply-structures in public parks in
Johannesburg; however they come at a premium cost. The quote given for the supply and installation of a
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multi-play structure similar to the one illustrated above (to meet municipal regulations) was in excess of five
hundred thousand Rand (approx. US $ 50 000 at the time of writing) (Williams 2014).
Contemporary playgrounds are individually designed by architects or landscape architects. These are
usually large and expensive endeavours that display contemporary designs, sculptural quality of landforms,
decorative non-functional architectural structures and purpose-designed play structures (Mentin 2003, p.
27). Often the motives of developers of such grand public spaces are beyond that of child development. The
play structures or ‘play sculptures’ in contemporary playgrounds are generally designed and created
according to the conceptual or aesthetic criteria of the designer or artist and often do not meet the full
range of developmental needs of children. They can however promote social play in the form of retreat,
quiet play and conversing (Mentin 2003, p. 28).
‘Landscape-based' playgrounds are an attempt to offer different and varied play-types as alternatives to
existing playgrounds. Research results indicated that when simple landscape
elements were introduced into playgrounds, different types of development were encouraged. Landscaped
elements could link cognitive understandings of space with design layout, and vegetative rooms enabled
children to develop a sense of place within their play environment (Herrington & Studtmann 1998, p. 204).
CONCLUSION
The research revealed that outdoor play opportunities for children within this urban context are actually
decreasing. The greatest cause appears to be from metal theft and vandalism. A significant amount of play
equipment has been vandalised beyond use or has completely disappeared. This trend is likely to continue
as densification of urban areas increases. The densification of ‘locationally advantaged’ areas (as mentioned
in this study) is being encouraged, as this form of development comes at no capital cost to the State and
relies heavily on existing infrastructure and private sector investment to address current housing demands.
(Gardner 2010; Joburg East Express 2014, p. 1-3)
The reaction by the managing agent regarding these playground problems appears to be either to halt all
maintenance, or relocate the playgrounds to secured areas with restricted access. Where there has been
some attempt to introduce new play opportunities into some of the upgraded playgrounds they have not
achieved the desired outcomes. It could therefore be deduced that the current ‘design solutions’ are
excluding users and also not providing adequate benefits to the residents, thereby contributing to the social
unsustainability of these POS. Traditional play equipment is also proving to be economically unsustainable
due to the continuous maintenance and replacement costs. Alternative solutions for playgrounds such as
multi-play structures and contemporary playgrounds are prohibitively expensive within this context.
Design criteria for alternative playground typologies in POS

Considering design as a problem-solution, a set of design criteria has been established that could inform
playground designs that encompass the space-use values required within this context. These design criteria
for alternative playgrounds are listed under the following themes:
Playgrounds must support child development needs more holistically, by offering:

Greater diversity to extend the range of play-types offered.
Age and ability-specific play opportunities.
Opportunities for free, imaginative and dramatic play.
Varied complexity levels and multiple challenges.
Possibilities for 'quiet' and transitional spaces which are often neglected in traditional playgrounds.
Ease of accessibility by all children onto any structures.
Playground designs must be context-specific by allowing for:

Installation/fabrication methods which can accommodate site variations, existing vegetation and
promote the use of landscaping techniques.
Varied, enhanced and contextualised arrangement of the elements onto the site.
The provision of facilities that are lacking in the local environment.
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Playgrounds must be designed for the benefits of the residents as opposed to the managing agents
through:
Being accessible at all times.
Truly meeting the needs of the residents.
Countering the ‘one-size-fits-all’ mentality adopted by the authorities by offering a diversity of
solutions.
The design of playgrounds must contribute towards the sustainability of POS through:
The use of vandal-proof elements.
Increased durability relating to the materials and finishes used.
Using design to address the perceived ‘problems’ as opposed to enforcing ‘rules and regulations’
on the user.
Considering the diversity of all users’ needs.
Contributing towards creating a unique ‘sense of place’.
Be safe to use regarding:

The choice of materials and fixing methods.
The height of structures to prevent serious injury from falls.
Prevention of entrapment in tight openings and injury caused by moving parts.
Clear observation of children at play.
Conceptual development of play-block system.
Figure 10: Concept sketch of Play-Block system arrangement on site (Source: Author 2010).
The concept for this design (See Figure 10) was to develop a system of interlocking blocks that would allow
for easy installation onto a variety of existing sites. The modular approach would allow for site specific and
varied configuration of elements, creating a unique novelty value and sense of place at each individual site.
The arrangement of elements is intended to create a play-space or environment that is conducive to
promoting free and imaginative play opportunities.
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Figure 11: Concept sketch of individual Play-Block components (Source: Author 2010).
The aim is to manufacture these bocks from pigmented weather resistant and vandal -proof materials. The
forming process should allow for the inclusion of detailed signs and symbols that may appeal to children
and have possible educational benefits. Prototypes are to be developed to investigate the possible use of
either cement based or recycled plastic materials, and to determine the viability of this solution.
A similar approach to playground design could be achieved by using some of the many pre-fabricated
concrete components made for building and engineering purposes. The example (See Figure 12), proposes
the reuse of pre-cast concrete road barriers arranged vertically, to create a space for children to use
imaginatively, which is vandal proof and maintenance-free.
Figure 12: Sketch of play-space using existing pre-fabricated components (Source: Author 2012).
These design proposals are examples of many possible alternative solutions. It is however imperative that
decisions on what play opportunities to provide for children should be based on a thorough understanding
of all existing and lacking facilities in their local environment (Naylor 1985, p. 124). Equally, design decisions
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about physical space should be evidence-based (Whitemyer 2010). Design solutions must be tested within
the specific context for which they are intended. Ultimately it should be “the children’s judgement alone
which decides whether play equipment [and playgrounds in POS] are ‘good’ or not, as they are the definitive
users” (Naylor 1985, p.123). Although there is paucity of design research to support the technological
dimensions of play, research of this kind should become an essential starting point for future design
development and implementation.
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MSc thesis, The Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
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Naylor, H., 1985. Outdoor play and play equipment, Early child development and care, vol.19, pp. 119 -129.
Pellegrini, AD, Dupuis, D & Smith, PK., 2006. ‘Play in evolution and development’, Developmental review, vol.
27, pp. 261-276, http://www.sciencedirect.com.
Whitemyer, D., 2010. The future of evidence-based design, viewed 20 March

2014,http://www.iida.org/content.cfm/the-future-of-evidence-based-design.
Wired Space, 1987. Plan of Johannesburg and suburbs, viewed 21 March

2008,http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/9352/BCS2_1142%20JHB.JPG?sequence=1.
Wooley, H., n.d.. Excluded from streets and spaces? Viewed 5 March 2014,
<http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.71417!/file/7woolley.pdf>.
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STUDY OF GUIDELINES OF DARMO CORRIDOR SURABAYA AS A FLEXIBLE SPACE DURING CAR FREE
DAY PROGRAM
Fath Nadizti, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Indonesia, dizzhimura@yahoo.com

Happy Ratna Santosa, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Indonesia, happyratna@yahoo.com
Abstract
In 2009, the municipality of Surabaya initiated a Car Free Day program every Sunday morning at Darmo corridor
to provide the needs of public spaces, which increased significantly following its population increase. People are
invited to occupy space in the corridor by doing various activities, later forming a public space in the corridor.
Since public involvement in this program is increasing, the corridor is getting crowded, and thus, people’s
satisfaction reduces. The purpose of this study is to prevent the comfort level of Darmo corridor from decreasing to
encourage people’s engagement in the public space. We would manipulate the activity zones, then deliver
alternatives that would be analyzed through an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The product of this
study includes the guidelines to manage Darmo corridor to become more comfortable. Furthermore, the corridor
will be able to be a comfortable flexible public space by applying the guidelines.
Keywords: car free day, public activities, public space.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the development of cities is rapid. Surabaya, as the second biggest city in Indonesia, had reached
a population of 3, 110 187 by 2012. The need for public space is increasing, while the availability of the green
open space is limited accounting for only 0.5% and far less from the government requirement of 20% of the
total area. Therefore, in 2009, the municipality of Surabaya initiated a Car Free Day program every Sunday
from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. in Darmo corridor, since constructing a public space to answer the needs of public
spaces is difficult.
People are invited to occupy space in the corridor by doing various activities such as, running, cycling,
having picnics, exhibiting hobbies, promoting companies, etc, later forming a public space in the corridor.
Since 2010, the numbers of unorganized activities increased as the enthusiasm was shown by the intention
to get involved in the limited space. The corridor shifts into an overcrowded public space during the
program and delivers an uncomfortable space. In dealing with the problem, the municipality of Surabaya
created another Car Free Day program in Kertajaya corridor in 2011 to distribute the load in Darmo corridor,
so that the corridor would be a more comfortable public space.
Figure'1:!Car!Free!Day!area!at!Darmo!corridor!
However, we doubt that the strategy was sufficient in improving the comfort of the corridor. Considering
the lack of the current government’s intervention, and the need to encourage society to use public spaces
by increasing physical and psychological comfort, we posit that Darmo corridor needs to be managed
immediately. We admit that managing public space must be comprehensive and cannot be assumed to be
taking place from only one point of view.
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PUBLIC SPACES: LITERATURE AND FACTS
Public space is defined as people oriented spaces and designed based on what people need, so that the
space is able to accommodate public activities. It is an area where everyone could engage in individual or
communal activity, and everyone has rights to use public space without being discriminated because of
social or economic condition (Carr 1992). Furthermore, city development and its space limitations have to be
considered in developing public space. Shared Street is introduced as an approach by looking at a street as a
physical and psychological part of its neighborhood, and used simultaneously for vehicle, community
activities, and social contact (Southworth 1996). This approach integrates pedestrians, vehicle movement,
and public activities in the same area. There are Shared Street design characteristics, such as; part of
housing/settlement or public area, having traffic separators; prioritizing pedestrians; clear entrance; having
direct access to residences; and equipped with street furniture & urban elements.
Pursuing public space through a shared street approach has been done during a Car Free Day program
implemented in Jakarta. Held along Thamrin and Sudirman Street, this program attracts people to get
involved because it’s located in the most iconic area in Jakarta, Bundaran Hotel Indonesia (Indonesia Hotel
Roundabout). Various activities are held over a wide scale, from small to big scale, including permitting Trans
Jakarta (bus, public transportation) to operate in the corridor during the program. It gives a big impact in
structuring the public space. Activities on a big scale are held in a determined location, to avoid accidents,
since a lot of people are involved. Other activities will follow in a flexible way, yet deliver an overcrowded
public space. Another example in Malang, they already have a city square functioning as a public space.
Designed to accommodate people’s needs, this square is equipped with urban and landscape elements. This
space is not only used for sports, exhibitions, concerts, or carnivals, but also enjoying the ambience of the
place. Considering the local culture of hawker food, some spaces for selling food & beverages are provided
so that it won’t disturb other activities.
Based on those reviews, we agree that the social context should be regarded in the comprehensive
approach besides its shared street & public space criteria.
METHODS
A qualitative descriptive analysis method was used in this study. We looked at various activities in Darmo
corridor as the social context. It was taken by observing the corridor during the Car Free Day periodically to
investigate the variety of held activities (see Table 2). The result was inventorised, and later would have been
manipulated to carry out the zone of activities. A literatures review about public spaces and shared streets
has been synthesized and adjusted with the context of the corridor as a public space (see Table 3).
Table 1. The variables and descriptions

Variable Definition Parameter Operational
X1: the activities Held activities at the Zone of activities Exploration:
corridor during the Car manipulating the zone
Free Day program. to get alternatives.
Y1: the criteria People oriented spaces, Public space criteria Literature: analyzing
designed based on what literature to be
people need, and able to synthesized into the
accommodate public context of study.
activities (Carr 1992).
Table 2. Inventory of activities

No. Activity Picture Description
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Promoting goods or services.

1. Promotion Stand Using flooring elements, and
roofing elements for a big scale.
Selling street snacks, antique

goods, clothes, toys, etc. Some
2. Trading sellers are moving by bicycle or
food truck, others are staying in
one spot.
Renting toys to accomodate

3. Children’s area
families coming with children.
These are sports which occupy a

4. Field Sport space, as a sport field, and stay on
their sport field.
These sports move around the

5. Moving Sport public space, such as: running, in-
line skating, cycling, et cetera.
Self-existance is the aim of the

6. Community community activities. They occupy
space to exhibit their interest.
Table 3. Public space criteria to be achieved

No. Criteria Description
1. Safety Users’ safety while using the space
2. Orientation Clear orientation of zone and circulation
3. Psychological comfort Engagement with the space and other people
4. Physical comfort Thermal comfort, glare, shadow, urban elements
Analytic Hierarchy Process

The activities zone manipulation delivers 3 alternatives. Those were analyzed through an Analytic Hierarchy
Process. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a method that helps to get the ratio of qualitative data, such as
opinion, feeling, behavior, and trust. Using AHP, we started with structuring the hierarchy of the research
question or hypothesis. The hierarchy includes the purpose that wants to be achieved, criteria, sub-criteria (if
1421
necessary), and alternatives of possible solution. AHP was used to analyze the result of alternative zones.
Figure 2 shows the hierarchy process structure in this study. Level 3 is the alternative solutions for the study
purpose (Level 1) by considering criteria at the second level.
Level 1 Comfortable public space
Level 2 Safety Orientation Psychological Physical

Comfort Comfort
Level 3 Alternative 1 Alternative 2 Alternative 3
Figure 2: Analytic Hierarchy Process.

Relative measurement scale would be used to avoid subjectivity in scoring the alternatives. This scale made
a relative and interest-based decision into absolute score.
Table 4. Relative measurement scale

Interest in
Definition Description
absolute scale
1 Equally important Both activities would aim the purpose
Decision shows a few interest on one
3 One is more important than others
activity than others
Decision shows interest on one activity
5 Important
than others
Decision shows stronger interest on one
7 Very important
activity than others
Decision shows the strongest interest in
9 Highly important
one activity
In between decision value which is
2, 4, 6, & 8 In case compromised is needed
similar
RESULTS
The result is the most feasible activities zone as a guideline for the Car Free Day program at Darmo corridor
(see Figure 3).
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Legend!
Field!Sport!Area! Children!Area! Community!Area! The!Bungkul!Park!
Moving!Sport!Area! Trading!Area! Promotion!Area!
Figure 3: Activities zone as a guideline for the Car Free Day program at Darmo corridor
In this alternative, separated activities based on the velocity would increase the safety factor. Moving sports
area (blue) should be located on the west lane of the corridor and separated by the boulevard with
community (brown), promotion stand (orange), trading area (yellow), and children’s area (pink). Accidents
caused by high velocity activity could be avoided, especially for children. The children’s area should be
located in front of the Bungkul Park (green), as the park is the main landmark and entrance to the corridor.
The trading area may be located on both sides of the children’s area to support children’s activities, such as
renting toys, selling foods, or goods. The field sports (purple) should be located on the edges of the corridor,
so that they won’t be disturbed by circulation of others. Moreover, field sports and moving sports could be
integrated and make a smooth transition of space. A community and promotion area should be located
together next to the trading area. Those two areas mostly have the same activities: exhibiting their interests.
By locating them in the same area, the ambience and public engagement in the area would increase
because of the crowds. The equipment would be easily organized in the same area. This relates to
psychological & physical comfort in the public space. By managing the activities zone, spatial orientation
would be clearer, the safety issues, and psychological & physical comfort could be achieved.
DISCUSSION
The analyzed alternatives using the Analytical Hierarchy Process with 4 criteria from the literatures and case
study review delivers the activities zone that should be, as shown in Figure 3. In general, this study meets its
purpose, as public space criteria are achieved. Considering velocity as the main issue to deliver a proper
result can increase the comfort level in the corridor during the program. The activities zone will bear a clear
orientation, spare the crowdedness, and then prevent the result of an uncomfortable Darmo corridor as a
public space, where people’s engagement might decrease because of discomfort. Moreover, urban
elements are needed to support the safety, orientation, and comfort in having public activities in this
shifting corridor, such as; signage, utility, and landscape elements.
However, there is some critical review of this study. In dealing with social impacts, the results are too rigid to
be implemented directly. There will be a grey zone where some activities are mixed in the area, which is not
a problem because the phenomenon is part of social agreement. We realize that limiting the flexibility of the
space will stimulate people to ignore the activities zone then repeat an uncomfortable space. Therefore,
wider public engagement has to be considered to gain depth, with the context for further study. This may
include current programs, authorized parties and residents of the corridor in making guidelines, instead of
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hard-coding the activities, then delivering a less contextual result. In fact, getting deep into the process of
place making in this corridor would be very interesting so that it increases the quality of the study.
CONCLUSION
We posit that the result of this study will generate Darmo corridor into a comfortable public space and
provide lessons for further study. Future research of this particular corridor needs to examine the present
condition of the program and its context, so that it could increase the richness of the case. Finally, by looking
at normative treatment in the criteria and making alternatives may also improve the AHP model.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research is supported by Department of Architecture, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology,

Indonesia.
REFERENCES
Carr, S., 1992. Public spaces, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Detik.com. 2014. 6 Tahun Car Free Day di Surabaya Berhasil, Rute Bebas Asap Ditambah, viewed 9 March 2014,
http://news.detik.com/surabaya/read/2014/01/03/155142/2457777/475/6-tahun-car-free-day-di-surabaya-
berhasil-rute-bebas-asap-ditambah?nd772204btr.
Southworth, M et al., 1996. Streets and the shaping of towns and cities, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Surabaya.go.id., 2010. Pelaksanaan Kegiatan Hari Tanpa Kendaraan Bermotor Tahun 2012, viewed 13 June
2012,http://www.surabaya.go.id/infopenting/detail.php?id=1161.
Wartapedia.com. 2012. Car free day: Komisi C DPRD Surabaya Minta Kaji Ulang, viewed 10 April 2012,
http://wartapedia.com/nasional/nusantara/7554-car-free-day-komisi-c-dprd-surabaya-minta-kaji-ulang
Your reviewer comments are as follows:
Reviewer 1: Content and structure This document seems like something that could be used to assess an
internal urban governance and decision making process, but its relevance to the external reader remains
unclear. There are also a number of methodological aspects which seem questionable. For example, why are
X1 and Y1 variables being introduced, while they are not needed later on? The author seems to assume that
the reader can (and wants to) follow descriptions using terms such as “in front of Bungkul Park, “on both
sides of the children’s area” etc. , while the described design decisions are not explained anywhere (for
example, why should a trading area be located on both sides of children area? To some readers this might
seem not a good idea.). It must be remarked that recommendations from abstract review were not taken
into account. Writing style and conclusion The meaning of the paper for an unrelated reader is not clear, and
is not put into perspective by the author.
Reviewer 2: Interesting, though technocratic; the limitations of the study are however acknowledged. Some
English grammar and language editing will be required.
Additional comments from the Editors: This paper is accepted for publication and presentation. However,
the comments of the reviewers must be addressed throughly in the submission of the print-ready version of
the paper. The language needs to be addessed as it is currently very poor. The format and referencing must
striclty adhere to the UIA 2014 Durban prescribed format. The concerns of the second reviewer must also be
considered.
! !
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AN ARCHITECTURE FOR MARGINALISED SOUTH AFRICANS: THE ROLE OF EDUCATION
Annemarie Wagener, University of the Free State, South Africa, awagener101@gmail.com
Abstract
The quality of architecture in economically and socially disadvantaged communities of South Africa is poor.
Schools of architecture are partly to blame, for implementing a curriculum and pedagogy that do not address
students’ general lack of understanding of such inequalities. The first part of this paper addresses the
predominant architectural design theories implemented within schools: Beaux-Arts, Modernism, Post-modernism
and to some extent Neo-modernism. An analysis of these, in relation to the needs of socially and economically
disadvantaged communities, indicates that they do not meet the challenges posed by the on-going struggles of
marginalised communities. The second part of the paper investigates examples of community-based student
projects in an attempt to explain the influence of these theories on the pedagogy and curriculum on individual
schools. To develop a South African educational model, critical thinking and cross-disciplinary research are
proposed as a way of achieving a critical pedagogy; thereby enabling architecture students to address the
inequalities between advantaged and marginalised communities in South Africa.
Keywords: community architecture, South Africa, architectural education theory, critical thinking.
INTRODUCTION
Few would deny that the quality of architecture in the historically socially and economically disadvantaged
communities of South Africa is poor. A review of two influential books on South African architecture since
the 'dawn of democracy' in 1994, illustrates this imbalance in architectural quality and quantity. In Joubert's
(2009) publication on 100 prominent buildings of the first decade after 1994, only one fifth are located
within disadvantaged communities. Deckler, Graupner and Rasmuss’s (2006) monograph on architecture in
a South African landscape of transition, found seven projects based within poor communities worthy of
mention out of 36. These findings encapsulate the problem, because as Saidi (2005, p. 1) points out,
“through architecture a society reveals in a visual manner its values, aspirations, beliefs and its cultural
composition”. The values reflected in these two publications indicate that South African schools of
architecture must systematically review the way in which students learn about the architectural needs of all
South Africans. Such complex and deep-seated inequalities can only be remedied through systematic
intervention.
The first part of this paper reviews the major theories that have influenced worldwide architectural
education. First, influences on pedagogy and the curriculum are reviewed. After making the case for a closer
relationship between academia and the broader community, the educational models of the Beaux-Arts,
Modernist, and Post-modernist eras are discussed in terms of their response to the needs of the users of the
built environment. A brief overview of post Post-modernist theories follows.
The second part of the paper investigates the influence of architectural education on the quality of life in
marginalised communities, by means of three case studies of community-based student projects. Finally,
critical thinking is proposed as a new epistemological approach for South African architectural education:
one that may result in a built environment that meets the challenges posed by the on-going struggles of
marginalised communities.
AN ARCHITECTURE FOR MARGINALISED SOUTH AFRICANS
Resolving the socio-economic crisis in South Africa, requires the urgent provision of quality housing and
community service buildings. Spector (2011, p. 30) observes a “disturbing shift” in the ability of architecture
to balance that which is authentic and real, with what is not. As a result students still believe that
‘architecture’ is a new building on an empty piece of land (Parker 2013) or worse, a computer rendered
design concept within a customised context. Buchanan (2012) blames this on tutors who believe that
rigorous preparation for the pragmatic requirements of practice, compromises students’ creative freedom.
Despite many opportunities for combining studio-based exercises with “almost anthropological immersion
1425
... in the site as a social milieu” (Parker 2013), Buchanan (2012) accuses these tutors of setting increasingly
irrelevant projects.
Instead of paying lip service to ‘architecture for the poor’, tutors should inspire students to find site-specific
ways of seeing (Parker 2013), thereby enabling them to meaningfully address the needs of the
disadvantaged. Built objects, argues Murray (in Deckler et al. 2006) are presented as iconic objects instead of
in terms of their socio-cultural and economic impact. The profession consistently holds up a meagre
collection of architectural icons in architecturally underserved areas, such as the Red Location Museum
(Noero Wolff Architects, New Brighton, Port Elizabeth 2011); the Hector Pieterson Memorial (Mashabane
Rose Architects, Orlando West, Soweto 2002) or the Soweto Theatre (Chibwe Afritects, Jabulani, Soweto
2012). These “acupuncture points” (sharpCITY, in Deckler et al. 2006, p. 1) are presented as a solution to
these shortcomings, rather than to emphasise the dearth of meaningful architecture in less visible
communities.
Unless we enrich our academic discourse by crossing disciplinary boundaries, we cannot resolve the
“complexities of practice at the margins” (Murray, in Deckler et al. 2006) of the current South African
architectural landscape.
Levels of change
To meaningfully change the outcomes of South African architectural education, the system itself must be
changed. The following analysis at the levels of pedagogy, curriculum, and epistemology may reveal those
changes that are necessary and possible:-
Pedagogical change - teaching what we always did, but in a different way - would arguably be the easiest,
but certainly the least significant change.
At a more complex level, we can reconsider what we teach and change the curriculum. To make a significant
impact, curricular change has to be addressed on levels that almost inevitably lead to bureaucratic
entanglement, with resultant timidity on the side of tutors and staleness in the eventual outcome
(Colomina, Choi, Gonzalez Galan & Meister 2012).
The most difficult, but most effective intervention is epistemological change: aligning the philosophies
underlying South African architectural education with the socio-political transition of the South African
community.
Saidi (2005) asks three important questions: 1) who should determine the curriculum; 2) how are content
decisions made; and 3) why should some things be taught, and others not? Countries and schools develop a
pedagogy that, as Saidi (p. 3) puts it, “is specific to their kind of society”. Educational systems however are
subject to many external influences, for example the requirements of international accreditation bodies,
local geographic and social realities, and the needs of individual students. The demands of international
accreditation bodies are based on a presupposed definition of architecture (Sunwoo 2012). Imposing a
definition that is out of phase with the local architectural, intellectual or cultural milieu, may require radical
adjustments (Saidi 2005) and ultimately result in an obsolete curriculum.
User-needs focused education

The argument presented in this paper assumes that the ultimate product of architectural education is a built
environment that fulfils the needs of its users. Determining the identity of the client of the education
process is less clear-cut.
Let us consider two enduring educational models. The Bauhaus (1919 – 1933) responded to a need for
change from an architectural education of “historical art form and an entrenched academism that seemed
bereft of contemporary significance” to “discover[ing the] means of expression that reflected the Zeitgeist”
(Barnstone 2008, p. 48). The Bauhaus model in particular emphasised that art stood in the service of industry.
By the end of the 1960s, student projects at the Bauhaus-inspired Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) were
intentionally experimental and unpredictable, but also "potentially more relevant for an expanding field and
the culture it saw itself serving" (Salomon 2012, p. 37).
1426
The Architectural Association (AA) in London has a similarly clear conception of its client, having "reclaimed
a role for the school of architecture as the crux of architectural culture and the site of disciplinary
reinvention" (Sunwoo 2012, p. 38). Whereas the Bauhaus model serves the industry, the AA serves the
profession.
Westfall (2011) explains Hegel’s concept of Zeitgeist in relation to architecture: ‘Geist’ refers to the unique
influences on a specific ‘Zeit’, or time. Some believe that combining this concept with French philosopher
August Comte’s (1798 – 1857) theories on how physical scientists use qualitative methods to understand the
role of man in society, helps us understand how changes in artistic style indicate social change. It can
therefore be argued that by understanding the Zeitgeist, we can understand changes in social progress. If,
as Spector (2011) believes, the Zeitgeist of an era both permits and requires a particular approach to
architecture, this raises the question: what is the Zeitgeist reflected by the outcomes of South African
architectural education?
A sustainable architectural curriculum is one that benefits all of society, and can only last and evolve as long
as it is aligned with its context (Saidi 2005). Yet, almost 100 years after the formation of the Bauhaus, many
graduates are still poorly prepared for entering an unfamiliar, changing professional environment (ibid.) and
as a result deliver a less than satisfactory service to the majority of South Africans (Deckler et al. 2006; Saidi
2005). South African students need to be prepared for the realities of practice in an environment where, as
Fisher (in Deckler et al. 2006, p. 3) observes, “the graveyards [are] the fastest growing part of the landscape,
after the houses”. Preparing students to successfully practice in this design environment is arguably the
primary task of schools, for as Saidi (2005, p. 6) remarks “[t]he way a learner is trained ... has an influence on
the kinds of problems they consider important in the built environment”. In other words, our pedagogy and
our curriculum illustrate the Zeitgeist of South African architectural education.
THE MAJOR ERAS OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
Architectural education has historically been influenced by three prevalent design theories. In the late 1800s,
the Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts) movement led to the creation of the École des Beaux-Arts (1648 – 1968); the
Bauhaus (1919 – 1933) arose from the Modern Movement and its Modernist curriculum influenced
architectural education until the late 1960s; Post-Modernism led to wide-spread and radical curriculum
changes in the 1970s. The on-going reintroduction of many of the formalistic components of Modernism
under Neo-Modernist education is a reaction to what Rem Koolhaas calls the “nightmare of [Post-Modern]
semantics” (Salomon 2012, p. 39).
Following is an overview of the history of architectural education, with specific attention to integration of
knowledge and an understanding and respect for the real world.
The ‘École des Beaux-Arts’, the first formal school of architecture, was opened in France in 1743. The Beaux-
Arts model became synonymous with French architectural education until 1968 (Moffett, Fazio &
Wodehouse 2003; Sadler 2008), and continued in England and the USA into the 1930s. Remnants of the
Beaux-Arts pedagogy still remain today, notably the atelier with its patron, or tutor/studio master. Beaux-Arts
era students were not required to interact with the built environment. Even for their final examination
before entering the profession, they were all given the same site and problem (Salomon 2011). The “stiffly
formal” (Sadler 2008) École model disregarded technology and technological advances, but instead clung to
a conservative curriculum based on classical architecture (Moffett et al. 2003).
When tutors uncritically repeat the method in which they were taught without adapting to the needs of
student cohorts, student dissatisfaction is inevitable. This is exactly what led to the final demise of the
Beaux-Arts educational model in the late 1960s. In Paris in 1968, École students famously accused its
curriculum of being non-responsive to contemporary social and political problems and demanded that it be
changed to reflect their views for a changed social environment.
Long before the final demise of the Beaux-Arts epoch, Walter Gropius in 1919 established the icon of
Modernist schools of architecture, the Bauhaus. Sadler (2008) believes that the difference between the
Beaux-Arts and Modernist movements lay not in their pedagogy, but rather in their interpretation of the
principles of function, context and structural rationality. The Bauhaus curriculum encouraged students to
1427
experiment with, and implement the new materials and technologies that became available after WWII. By
the height of the Modernist era student projects were responding to post-war needs for housing, schools
and hospitals, and urban redevelopment (Sunwoo 2012). In response to a demand for greater attention to
site selection and programming (Salomon 2011), students by then were also selecting their own sites and
independently resolving their identified problems.
In contrast to its technological experimentation, Modernist urban design principles demanded rigid,
functional zoning of cities and housing. Tenants were infamously contained in high-density tower blocks,
separated both by, and from landscaped spaces (Sadler 2008). By the late 1960s as Beaux-Arts students and
staff revolted against the “class segregation perpetuated and augmented by present bourgeois urbanism”
(ibid, p. 46), a growing concern about the type of housing estates that thrived under Modernism introduced
cross-disciplinary investigation into the anthropological and social content of student projects (Salomon
2012).
Once the Avant-Garde artefacts of the Modern Movement became academically institutionalised and
architecturally commonplace Modernism, its original supporters challenged its relevance. The way for Post-
modernism was paved. The long-standing and rigid framework of contemporary Modernist architectural
education, Saidi (2005) believes, causes insularity and resistance to change. Some therefore believe that
architectural practice in South Africa must reposition itself away from the influences of Modernity, towards a
“better fit within the Post-modern, globalising world of hyperreality” (Murray in Deckler et al, 2006, p. 4).
Post-modernist theory "embraces the concepts of affectiveness, problems, emotions and uncertainty, which
... characterize the South African society" (Saidi 2005, p. 173). Its flexibility and ability to be modified, Saidi
argues, encourage more fluidity around subject content, project delineation, and classroom management.
Exploration of concepts, content, and methodologies across disciplinary boundaries are therefore expected.
In this way, Post-modernist learning becomes co-operative, interpretive, and individualised, so that
differences in race, gender, and even learning styles, are valued as resources and not reviled as obstacles.
Sunwoo (2012, p. 24) considers education as “one of architectural postmodernism’s most productive
arenas”. The Modernist model was spread across the globe by educators schooled at the Bauhaus; similarly
the ‘radical’ beliefs of “neo-avant-garde intrigue” (Sadler 2008, p. 44) at schools such as the AA was spread
through visiting scholarships by its graduates (e.g. Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, and Bernard Tschumi).
Despite its attempt to correct the shortcomings of Modernism (Joubert 2009), Post-modernism is not
problem-free. While Saidi (2005, p. 176) believes that a particular strength of post-modern pedagogy is that
encouraging critical thinking skills in learners enables them to become practitioners who “examine the
values that underlie their ethics and guide their actions”, Spector (2011, p. 24) warns that it leaves behind
the formal and clear progression from “necessary beginning points [and] convergence toward important
ends” of the Modernist curriculum.
Without clear guidelines, it is all too easy for schools “to follow the profession into producing the unruly
undergrowth that follows clear-cutting and the anarchy that is inevitable following liberation from tyranny”
(Westfall 2011, p. 151). Hassan (2003, p. 303) makes no bones about the issues around Post-modernism: “we
hardly know what postmodernism (sic) was”. For such a lack of theoretical clarity to blur the boundaries
between pedagogical freedom and curricular chaos is no great leap, and is arguably part of what has led to
some of the shortcomings of South African architectural education.
There is lively debate amongst theorists about the on-going relevance of Post-modernism. Sunwoo (2012)
attempts to understand whether Post-modern education is still relevant or on the brink of extensive
changes by analysing extensive changes to the AA's curriculum in 1973. Kirby (2010) makes the salient point
that “postmodernism has been declared dead for as long as it has been alive”.
Spector (2011) believes that Neo-modernism - which he himself refers to as “modernism lite” (p. 25) - may be
the next major theoretical influence on architecture. Neo-modernism (or Super-Modernism) reflects the
influence of computers on design through the pushing of structural and gravitational boundaries (Joubert
2009) and supports students’ ability to express their individuality - but lacks a will to improve the qualities of
the built environment. Such a “void in values” (Spector 2011, p. 25) is clearly out of phase with the
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requirements of contemporary South African society. Neo-modernism is therefore unsuitable as an

epistemological base for architectural education in South Africa.
Hassan’s (2003) observation, that no one knows what lies beyond Post-modernism, illustrates the problem:
there is no evidence of a suitable architectural theory to take the place of Post-modernism’s role (such as it
was) in guiding architectural education.
Modernist and Post-modernist models are still implemented in many schools but despite the waning
popularity of their underlying theories, uncritical acceptance of alternative ‘solutions’ would be unwise. Saidi
(2005) describes the contemporary Modernist curriculum as one with its purposes, experiences, methods
and assessments arranged in a logical and sequential way. Sunwoo (2012, p. 24) believes that the Post-
modern-inspired move towards intellectual and critical practice in the 1960s came at the loss of
Modernism’s “realistic” approach to architectural education. Table 1 compares the characteristics of Beaux-
Arts, Modernist and Post-modernist education.
Table 1: Major theoretical influences on architectural education

Model/theory Pedagogical strengths Limitations
Beaux-Arts • Formalised the architectural • Detached or complacent reflection,
curriculum and pedagogy the “lone genius”
• Conservative curriculum
• Separation of program and structure
• The disregard of technical innovation
Modernism • Logical and sequential • Traditionalism and insularity:
• Fewer barriers between aesthetics, graduates not prepared for societal
technology and society change
• Relatively dynamic, intuitive, scientific, • Tendency toward formalistic
creative training functionality and formulaic solutions
• Sense of civic responsibility
Post- • Supports critical thinking: suitable for • Focus on the semantic rather than on
Modernism societies in transformation pragmatism
• Acts as social, political and economic • Theoretically poorly defined
change agent
• Eclectic exploration of cross-
disciplinary methodologies: leads to
disciplinary self- questioning
Neo- • Supports students’ ability to express • Does not fit with the requirements of
modernism their individuality community-oriented architecture
• Exploration of boundaries
Sources: Joubert 2009, Moffett et al. 2003, Saidi 2005, Salomon 2012, Spector 2011, Sunwoo 2012, Westfall 2011.
THE STUDIO AND THE COMMUNITY
The South African architectural education model

South African qualifications in architecture can be achieved through accredited courses at universities, or
universities of technology. University courses are structured in two parts: 1) a three year Bachelor’s degree
and 2) an additional two-year professional degree, the M Arch (prof). Universities of Technology offer a three
year National Diploma, with an additional year of study leading to a BTech (Architecture). A two- year
Master’s degree in Technology (MTech) is also offered at some universities of technology. The accrediting
body is the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP), with international accreditation
by the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA).
As a former colony, South Africa inherited the Beaux-Arts, and Modernist/Bauhaus models of education.
Based on traditional, discipline based knowledge, the resulting curricula are typically “well thought out,
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planned and almost simplistic” (Saidi 2005, p. 77). It is not surprising then, that Deckler et al. (2006) now ask
how South African architectural practice can move away from its typically modernist approach (closed,
absolute and over determined), to one that is more objective in its views. The answer may lie in Kruss et al.'s
(2012, p. 6) hope for “a more comprehensive, holistic and developmental vision” in the way in which
universities engage with the wider society. Unfortunately for South African society, Saidi (2005) found that
even well after the millennium, the curricula of most schools still served the wealthy and powerful, and that
addressing the problems of the poor did not form any significant part of their goals.
Deckler et al. (2006) found that at both professional and academic level, issues of social agency, race and
ethnicity are often superficially lumped together under the concept of ‘humanism’. When students become
used to avoiding “messy contact” (ibid.) with the problems for which they are developing architectural
solutions, as professionals they will tend to continue with this approach to community design.
Despite growing interest, there is as yet little empirical research on pedagogical approaches in South African
architectural education, making it difficult to analyse the reasons for both successful and unsuccessful
attempts at interaction (not merely theoretical interventions) in South Africa. Kruss et al. (2012, p. 6) are
developing a framework for research on relationships between “knowledge producers and users” which may
prove useful for this purpose.
Community-based architectural student projects

There are precedents for community-service projects in schools of architecture that resulted in significant
advantages for the communities in which they were based. Three case studies as presented: one
international (the Rural Studio), and two South African community-based projects which the author was
involved with at the University of Johannesburg in 2012 and at the University of the Free State in 2013.
Arguably the best known of all community based student projects is the Rural Studio program founded 20
years ago by DK Ruth and Samuel Mockbee at Auburn University, Alabama. The Rural Studio philosophy is
that everyone, rich or poor, deserves the benefit of good design (Rural Studio 2014). Students work with
impoverished communities in West Alabama and together with their ‘clients’, they define solutions,
fundraise, design and build their projects. The program requires students to examine their selected site in
terms of its social characteristics, and in particular the impact of the poverty of the community on their living
conditions (Salomon 2011). Students do a compulsory project during their undergraduate studies, and
selected students are permitted in their final year to partake in a group thesis project, where they propose,
design, develop and build a project in the same community.
The Department of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) believes that transformation of the
urban built environment cannot take place unless architects are skilled in participative planning (Parker
2013). In true Post-modernist style, students are encouraged to develop schemes rooted in context (Barac
2013). Alexander Opper, convener of the masters’ program believes that “[y]ou have to ask what else is
possible outside the norm – the so-called norm, because informal settlement is becoming the norm” (Parker
2013).
The intervention described here is part of the on-going ‘Informal Studio’, an in-situ urban upgrade project. In
this case, the intervention was based in Marlboro South, an impoverished informal (and nominally illegal)
community situated within five kilometres of Sandton, arguably Africa’s wealthiest precinct. What started as
a request by master’s students for third year students’ help on a ‘real life’ Urban Design project, became a
seven-week immersive academic and personal experience.
Third year student groups were required to present two schemes: a solution for an immediate problem; and
a medium term proposal for the upgrading of residents’ temporary living units. The master’s students
focused primarily on a medium- to long term urban intervention. Within the first week, police and private
security companies raided Marlboro South and evicted scores of households. In the following weeks another
community housing building burned down, and a once-in-a-decade snowfall caused great misery. Despite
(or probably because of) these setbacks, and initial reservations amongst community members, the students
formed an emotional bond with the residents of Marlboro South. One reason for the success of the project is
that community members acted as co-researchers (Parker 2013), and rather than designing for them,
students worked with residents to redesign their living spaces.
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This ad-hoc project could have resulted in problems around assessment and outcomes in a school with a
less Post-modernist educational model. Third year tutors had to re-organise their programs and completely
re-think the assessment process at short notice and students had to perform under much pressure and with
little formal structure. Intermediate critiques were pinned up on walls in Marlboro South, and created much
interest amongst residents; community members travelled to the school to take part in discussions and
attend the final presentations. Artefacts presented for academic assessment included in-use installations,
personal anecdotes, photos, videos, computer models, prototypes, models and drawings.
Despite the problems described here, students (and tutors) found that the project positively affected the
way they think about architecture (Mabandu 2013), making it very much worthwhile. Arguably the greatest
achievement that came out of this project is that a process map created by tutors Eric Wright and Claudia
Delgado became the basis for discussion between architects and the City about collaboration around the
challenges addressed by the Informal Studio (le Roux 2013).
In contrast to the Post-modern approach to education at the University of Johannesburg’s Department of

Architecture, the curriculum and pedagogy of the Department of Architecture at the University of the Free
State (UFS) is firmly rooted in Regional Modernism. The curriculum refers heavily to Critical Regionalism, and
the preservation of the vernacular architecture of the Free State and Karoo regions forms the basis of many
projects. The goal of the Department’s honours course is “for students to come to terms with the art of
townscape - the merging of history, topography, geography and the built environment - the context for
most commissions in architecture” (Peters & du Preez 2013, p. 5).
As part of the annual ‘Conservation’ project, students in 2013 mapped and documented the remains of
many of the buildings that were demolished in the town of Richmond. The purpose of the demolitions was
to give spatial definition to the requirements of the South African Group Areas Act, 1950 (ibid.). A book on
the research created through the project, was published by the Department to raise the awareness of all
South Africans of the impact such legislation had on certain population groups.
All three these initiatives, the Rural Studio at Auburn, the Informal Studio at the University of Johannesburg,
and the Richmond Conservation project at UFS, illustrate how curriculum and pedagogy can make a
significant contribution to sensitising architecture students to the hardships created in poor communities
through insensitive planning and design.
CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
The foregoing analysis of the poor quality of South African community architecture points a finger at the
quality of its architectural education. The architectural profession should seek a “new sense of cultural
identity and cultural confidence” (sharpCITY in Deckler et al. 2006, p. 1) to enable it to create the
architectural interventions that may rebalance some of the inequalities between the built environments of
the wealthy and the marginalised. Schools in turn should break away from “academic abstraction and
obsessive search for novelty and technical profession” (ibid.).
The analysis of the theories of Beaux-Arts, Modernism, Post-modernism and even Neo-modernism indicates
their influence on, and the overall format of, architectural education. It has also become clear that they are
not entirely suitable as an epistemological basis for decisions about pedagogy or the curriculum. The cross-
disciplinary research that forms part of Modernist- and Post-modernist design must now be applied to
architectural education. Theories such as Situated Learning developed by education specialists, or even
management theories such as Complexity Theory, may well prove to be a solution to some of the
shortcomings of the South African architectural education model.
Critical thinking - the identification of faulty and unreliable assertions or meanings (Saidi 2005) - is proposed
as a possible vehicle of change. Critical thinking has long been “a valuable part of the architect’s kit”
(Westfall 2011, p. 149) and can help to merge architectural and humanitarian thinking. As a result, critical
thinking can create the critical pedagogy required to “transform oppressive institutions or social relations”
(Saidi 2005, p. 176). Good teaching is after all, the educational equivalent of good design (Little and
Cardenas 2001, Buchanan 2011).
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REFERENCES
Ballantyne, A., (ed.) 2008. Architectures: Modernism and after, Wiley: Hoboken, NJ. Available from Wiley E-
books.
Barac, M., 2013. ‘Pedagogy: University of Johannesburg, South Africa’, The Architectural Review, vol. 223, no.
1394, pp. 100-101.
Barnstone, D., 2008. ‘Not the Bauhaus: the Breslau Academy of Art and Applied Arts’, Journal of Architectural
Education, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 46-55.
Colomina, B, Choi, E, Gonzalez Galan, I & Meister, A., 2012. ‘Experiments in architectural education’, The
Architectural Review, vol. 232, no. 1388, pp. 78-89.
Deckler, T, Graupner, A & Rasmuss, H., 2006. Contemporary South African architecture in a landscape of
transition, Double Storey, Cape Town.
Hassan, I., 2003. ‘Beyond postmodernism: toward an aesthetic of trust’, Modern Greek Studies (Australia and
New Zealand), vol. 11, pp. 303-316.
Joubert, O., (ed.) 2009. 100 years + 100 buildings, Bell-Roberts, Cape Town.
Kirby, A., 2010. ‘Successor states to an empire in free fall’, The Times Higher Education Supplement, May 27, p.
42. viewed 11 March 2014, <http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/411731.article>.
Le Roux, H., 2013. ‘Marlboro South’, Domus, vol. 969, viewed 20 March 2014,
<https://www.domusweb.it/content/domusweb/en/architecture/2013/05/20/ marlboro_south.html>.
Mabandu, P., 2013. ‘Architecture comes to life in Marlboro South’, City Press, 6 May. viewed 12 February
2014, <http://15.111.1.87/argief/berigte/Citypress/2013/05/06/CP/8/PM_Marlboro_South.html>
McClure, U., 2013. ‘The good, the bad and the ugly: the use and abuse of the research studio’, Journal of
Moffett, M, Fazio, MW & Wodehouse, L., 2003. A world history of architecture, Laurence King, London.
Parker, F., 2013. ‘Art and Design: shacks are the new normal’, Mail & Guardian, 8 March, viewed 12 February
2014, <http://mg.co.za/article/2013-03-08-00-shacks-are-the-new-normal>.
Peters, W & du Preez, K., 2013. Richmond 2013: a study in conservation, University of the Free State
Department of Architecture, Bloemfontein.
Rural Studio 2014, Purpose and history, viewed 20 March 2014, <http://www.ruralstudio.org/about/purpose-
history>.
Sadler, S., 2008. ‘An Avant-Garde academy’ in A Ballantyne (ed), Architecture: Modernism and after, Wiley:
Hoboken, NJ.
Saidi, FE., 2005. ‘Developing a curriculum model for architectural education in a culturally changing South
Africa’, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria.
Salomon, D., 2011. ‘Experimental cultures: on the "end" of the design theses and the rise of the research
studio’, Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 33-44.
Spector, T., 2011. ‘Architecture and the ethics of authenticity’, Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 45, no. 4,
pp. 23-33.
Sunwoo, I., 2012. ‘From the "well-laid table" to the "market place": the Architectural Association unit system’,
Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 65, no. 2, pp. 24-41.
Westfall, C., 2011. ‘Toward the end of architecture’, Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 149–
157.
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PHYSICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH MALTEPE-BAŞIBÜYÜK DEVELOPING

AXIS IN THE TRANSFORMING CITY OF ISTANBUL
Asst. Prof. Dr. Demet Mutman, Maltepe University, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Maltepe, İstanbul,
Turkey, demet.mutman@gmail.com
Prof. Dr. Demet Irkli Eryildiz, Maltepe University, Faculty of Architecture and Design, İstanbul,
Turkeydemeteryildiz@gmail.com
Asst. Prof. Dr. Candan ÖZÜLKE, Maltepe University Faculty of Architecture and Design, Maltepe, İstanbul,
Turkey,candanzlke@yahoo.com.tr
Abstract
In parallel to worldwide urban processes, 1980s Turkey and the city of Istanbul showed rapid development and
renewal implementations, which take place both formal or informally. Today, Istanbul is a city of specialized
quarters with business, culture, tourism and housing whereas the city faces the loss of identity, change in its
pattern, fragmentation in social and physical texture and as well as a shift in its local inhabitants. The role of the
city is redefined within the globalization process and the urbanization of the city clearly shows a variety of
invisible borders between societies, settlements and economies.
This paper focuses on a developing axis of Istanbul where social and physical fragmentation is visible in its
formally and informally built texture. Maltepe-Başıbüyük axis, at the Asian side of the city is a vertical section from
the Marmara Sea towards the forest area in the North and composes former modernist settlements of 60s,
informal settlements of the 50s to 80s, informally constructed housing cooperatives mostly for low and middle-
classes, besides the public and private sector's housing complexes for the high income groups.
The aim of this research is to define a development tool for a sustainable and humane living environment in
rapidly transforming mega cities such as Istanbul, where urban settlements are being regenerated regardless of
their local, cultural, historical and physical potential. Through detailed analysis, mapping and evaluation, this
research will overlay cultural, social, economic, physical and environmental fragmentation processes among the
axis. By the use of its potential, this research targets an alternative sustainable development tool for the area,
define a second choice and a different vision of urban upgrading model of similarly transforming and
fragmenting areas of the city and the region.
Keywords: urban transformation, urban fragments, Maltepe-Başıbüyük axis, İstanbul.
INTRODUCTION
This paper focuses on a developing axis of Asian Istanbul, where social and physical fragmentations are
clearly visible among its formally and informally built urban texture. After a brief urban development history
of the city, an on-site urban and social fragmentation phase will be clarified through a time line. Through this
type of re-reading of the city, the aim of this paper is to overlay the social, political and spatial
differentiations within a rapidly developing and transforming urban section, whilst creating an evaluation
and a future expectation for similar case situations of the city.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE URBAN DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY OF ISTANBUL
Cities have always been undergoing transformation for an upgraded urban image and spatial quality.
Today’s changes in social and spatial needs, technology, urban texture, life quality and economy are creating
push forces for higher expectations as well as capitalist reflections on the remaking of cities. These push
forces therefore are bringing new transformation projects of waterfronts, riverbanks, harbors, public spaces,
inner city developments and public squares as new symbols of the city. In order to reach a vigorous life,
devastated urban settlements are going through a re-designing process and new image urbanities are
popping up as new old town centers, remade urban cores, newly developed fragmented neighborhoods
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within the formerly built texture. In this rapid transformation process, projects are targeted to boost the
economy and help cities compete in an international arena.
Istanbul is the engine of Turkey with its multilayered history, culture and social background, rapid
urbanization, increasing population, number of large scale projects and investments. Due to these
multilayered components, the city deforms its own pattern and silhouettes rapidly. The city is composed of a
mixture of historical, modern, informal, transformed, gentrified, and preserved spatial and social
environments. As many other worldwide cities, the city of Istanbul faced rapid urban development, a
peripheral sprawl whilst transformation of inner city neighborhoods, forced evacuations or gentrification
processes of neighborhoods, physical or non-physical borders within the city or in other words
fragmentation.
As many other big cities, the city of İstanbul faced a rapid urban transformation process in the 1980s. Along
with economic reforms, formerly prestigious inner-city districts gained new popularity among higher-
income social groups, who got attracted to the idea of living in central locations that are close to financial
districts (Ergun 2004). Most of the physical transformation associated with globalization has taken place with
the development of gated communities, five-star hotels where the city is packaged as a consumption
artifact for tourists besides new office towers, expulsion of small business from the central districts,
beginnings of gentrification of the old neighborhoods and global images on billboards and shop windows
(Oncu 1997). As a result of a new political vision, grand projects of physical and cultural fields started to
develop in order to push Istanbul to become part of the global scene (Yavuz 2002). The historical
neighborhoods and inner city areas of Istanbul started to host new middle class populations and faced a
dynamic in and out flow of population. Today the city continuously sprawls towards East, West and North as
shown in Figure 1.
Figure 2: Urban reflections of the political inputs on the urban development process in Turkey.
In the last three decades, Istanbul’s socio-cultural and urban identities have been undergoing a radical
transformation. Although Istanbul has always been a city of duality, fragmentations and polarity, the city has
1434
never displayed such intense qualities of heterogeneity before as it is today (Keyder 1999). Economic policies
have a strong effect on urban growth and change in the country and in each period the urban environment
has been shaped by the economic policies of the state. As in other countries, social and cultural change in
Turkey has followed economic cycles (Uzun 2001). While today’s cities are being shaped within the effect of
a global restructuring process, urban housing has been evolving by itself with the interaction of these
changes. The development of housing areas and creation of the environment are therefore being formed
under the effects of a confused interaction between globalization and the city’s own history (Turgut 2010).
Political and economic conditions of the country as shown in Figure 2 flow with the major shifts of the city of
Istanbul's urban development structure. An economic crisis in the 1970s led to the abandonment of
Istanbul’s city center, after the ethnic minorities left these neighborhoods in 60’s and stability was achieved
only through international loans. Throughout the period of 1961 till 1980s, urban policies mainly focused on
housing and underlining the state dues in providing shelters for the citizens. Political instabilities of the
period brought a Turkish coup-d'etat in 1980 until 1983 and as part of the Social Housing policy, an
important input of urban timeline had been the support of collective housing.
On the other hand, since the 1980s, Turkey started to face global impacts and a neoliberal economy from
1984. According to the new political aim, the city needed to be a global actor and therefore Istanbul had to
be pushed forward onto the global stage. Grand urban and architectural projects with cultural strategies
started to be built up one after another. The upper middle class, who wanted to be out of this process,
started to migrate towards the peripheral Istanbul including the Maltepe area at the Asian side. Informal
development of the city started to decline between 1980s to mid-1990s due to credit support for mass
housing. However, insufficient housing production brought out the model of middle class workers’ housing
cooperatives of 1930s to that day as private companies. New gated housing complexes, collective housing
and singular buildings were being constructed at informally developed or environmentally potential areas
of the peripheral city.
In mid-1980’s, peripheries of Istanbul for residential settlement became more popular for urban middle high
and high-income groups and by 2000’s onwards, inner city residential areas became more affordable and
desirable for middle-income groups. Although this type of resolution of groups brought the need of security
discourse in the world, this tendency depended on other reasons, according to Kurtulus (2005). The reason
for security tendency in Istanbul’s case became the urban elites, who were trying to integrate global
consumption cultures into their residential area and the supply capacity of the investors who realized the
potential of urban elite demand on the urban environment (Kurtulus, 2005). Developments caused by
changing economic structures and global influences have created a new metropolitan life-style of middle
and upper income groups, which has resulted in a demand for luxurious new houses. The development of
new housing patterns over the last thirty years in the city is analyzed in four categories: Garden cities-
suburbia beginning from the 1980s, luxurious housing-villa towns and settlements beginning from the
1980s, multi-storey residences beginning from the 1990s and the mixed inner and outer city housings
beginning from the 2000s (Turgut 2010, Turgut et al. 2010).
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FRAGMENTATION THROUGH URBAN AND SOCIAL LEVELS: DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE FOR MALTEPE-
BAŞIBÜYÜK AXIS
Maltepe is one of İstanbul's neighborhoods with approximately 450 thousand population and the 10th
largest neighborhood of the city. The district is located on the Anatolian side of the city and is a former
waterfront neighborhood and today’s newly developing residential area as well, as shown in Figure 3.
Maltepe started to develop as a summer residential area on the peripheries of the city of İstanbul and by the
1960s onwards, a rapid urbanization took place especially towards the northern section of E5 Highway of the
neighborhood.
Similar to other Marmara seashore Asian neighborhoods of the city of İstanbul, Maltepe started as a formally
developing summer residential area between 1930 and 1960 as shown in Figure 4.
1950s: Summer residents. 1960s: Transformation of singular summer residents

onto apartment blocks.
Figure 4: Development timeline of the Maltepe-Başıbüyük axis between 1950s-1960s.
Basically due to rapid migration from east Anatolia to the west, mostly the city of İstanbul faced a huge
internal migration and an increase in housing demands. However, lack of housing supplies forced
immigrants to create their own housing solutions. Eventually with the internal migration flow to the city and
due to the land potential, the neighborhood created a fragmentation through the E5 highway between the
south and the northern urban pattern, as shown in Figure 5.
According to this fragmentation, the formally developing residential zone of the south Maltepe was quite an
opposition to the informally developing residential area of the north Maltepe. This self-supply housing
system brought to many western Anatolian cities and mostly to the city of Istanbul an informally developed
area, more or less 50% of today's whole cityscape and according to the major of Maltepe, Mr. Mustafa
Zengin, nearly 1/5 of the total housings in Maltepe are informally built within the neighborhood (URL 1).
1436
1960s: Informal settlements around E5 highway. 1970s: Horizontal and vertical enlargement of
informal areas.
For the last thirty years in Istanbul, generally the urban pattern was composed of fragments of periods,
styles, functions and socio-economic communities as an intense quality of heterogeneity. In this manner, the
fragmentation through the physical and socio-economical levels as visualized in Figure 6 through the
Maltepe Başıbüyük axis, aims to overlay the urban development pattern at a former periphery and a
currently developing part of the city of Istanbul.
1990s: Development of middle and high class 2010: Infill recreation zone development.
housing sites via renewal projects or deprivation of
forest area.
Recently transforming and developing Maltepe-Başıbüyük axis exposes different housing structures as
informally developed former ‘gecekondu’ (slum houses) and ‘apartkondu’ areas, informally developed
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cooperation houses for middle income population, formally developed cooperation houses for middle-
income population, formally developed singular houses and apartments, social housing blocks by Housing
Development Administration (TOKİ) especially around informally developed housing areas and formally and
recently developed gated housing blocks for the high-middle social groups. Through this development axis
within the defined timeline, this area overlays a significant development model for all the formerly
peripheral and currently under the globalization and rapidly urbanization pressured neighborhoods.
SPATIAL IMPACTS OF POLITICAL DECISIONS ON DEVELOPMENT OF THE AXIS
Through 1960s rapid urbanization, informally developed single-storey gecekondu areas started to increase
their heights according to family needs, while the 1965 property law and 1972 municipal plan permitted the
informal transformation of constructions from gecekondu units to apartment buildings. And with the
support of these permits, former gecekondu areas of one or two storey houses, started to shift into the
apartments of informally developed areas. This shift in the physical pattern also enforced the starting up of
many local construction firms. This current trend created a new market which has developed and get
supported among and through informal networks of the informally developing urban areas. These informal
networks basically relied on the family, kinship or communal relationships of the immigrants. During this
process, Maltepe Başıbüyük axis has immigrant communities of the Black Sea and East Anatolia regions at
most.
Figure 7: Development of the Maltepe Başıbüyük axis with informal and formal residential units up in the north of
E5 highway.
Over the past decade, Maltepe has an increasing value for the real estate market. Many formerly built
informal settlements and gecekondu areas are transforming into apartment blocks, mid-high class housing
sites, gated housing areas, besides several mass housing blocks shown in Figure 7. According to the former
mayor of the neighborhood, Maltepe is with its pros of sea views, earthquake resistant topography, fresh
climate and despite its cons of informally developed areas, high socio-economic and cultural differences and
the distance to the central city, still attracts the real estate market.
Figure 8: New development zone at the Maltepe Başıbüyük axis up in the north of E5 highway.
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Housing Development Administration (TOKİ) served as a project partner for a transformation project
informally developed in Başıbüyük gecekondu zone, while Istanbul Residence Development Plan Industry
and Trade Inc. (KİPTAŞ) constructed a housing site for 6500 unit high rise housing, towards the forest area in
the north section of the neighborhood as shown in Figure 8. A private construction firm brought a giant
climate blocking wall gated housing site, besides these newly constructed zones in the up-north area. These
urban injections, created a rapid shift of the physical pattern of the neighborhood from an informally
developed low or mid-rise housings in north Maltepe to the gated-high rise housing areas mixed with
formally constructed informal settlements, in addition to huge deprivation of the forest and a great loss of
water reservoirs, besides the socio-economic fragmentation.
On the other end of the section line, which formally developed the south section of Maltepe E5 highway,
many summer residential housings that are located at the sea shore changed their uses for trade and leisure
(restaurants, shopping areas, cafes, etc.) basically with the 1960s rapid urbanization effect. Former summer
housing areas of Maltepe, due to the 1965 Property law and 1972 municipal plan lost its singular housing
value into subdivided 5 storey apartment blocks. In addition to this transformation, the construction of the
1984 Kadıköy-Pendik infill road by the seaside meant the settlement lost its direct access to the sea.
The new development catalyzed the functional transformation radically. With the infill road's opening,
waterfront areas became a service zone for leisure and commercial activities whilst the infill sea shore zone
developed as a green zone. Recently a new addition from 2012 as shown in Figure 9, is a secondary infill
structure on site for creating a recreational and an emergency meeting zone, started to get the attention of
the inhabitants. The new 120 ha area infill ground was to hold a large meeting zone, culture and leisure
activities, green areas and an amusement park within. However the construction decision made directly by
İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality by neglecting the district municipality and its community, which created
controversy among the neighborhood, due to its decision making methodology and the environmentally
negative impacts on site.
Figure 9: Infill site at the sea shore of Maltepe (URL 2).
These new additions in the neighborhood, according to the politicians, supports an increase in the
population of the neighborhood and basically develops an attraction zone via several renewal projects. The
transformation of Maltepe area from the north to the seashore in the south clearly shows the fragmentation
of physical, social and environmental impacts as well as the physical reflections of neoliberal policies on the
city structures. Spatial reflections of globalization and new development based interactions are creating
fragmented spaces, societies and a dynamic mixture. This article aimed to overlay this fragmentation of
differentiating physical, social and economic layers as well as their development possibilities.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FRAGMENTATIONS ON THE AXIS
The clash of global and local dynamics related to the cityscape creates different spatial forms and rapid
changes in socio-cultural and spatial patterns. The rate of change in the urban housing environment is
continually increasing as the effects of globalization occur in the contemporary city. Such dynamic processes
create a multilayered physical pattern over the course of time. There are numerous interrelated factors to
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the growth of cities. Immigrants from rural areas and small sized cities create pressure on existing housing
stock and increase the development or enlargement of informal settlements. Natural growth of urbanized
groups leads large populations to seek affordable accommodations. Deterioration through excessively high
densities of tenants and high density multi-storey constructions replacing the previously constructed
settlements, change the social, physical and the economic interrelations of the area.
Recently in regenerating metropolitan, informal settlements or deteriorated housing stock is being replaced
with high-rise housing gated communities, geared towards high income groups. İstanbul has been facing
this new situation caused by the new social and spatial urban dynamics. Its urban texture has been changing
as any metropolis which is undergoing the trauma of warp speed urbanization. According to the
international investigation of cities done by the Urban Age Project, Istanbul may not be growing at the
dizzying pace of Mumbai and Shanghai, or suffers from the widening social inequality and violence of São
Paulo, Mexico City or Johannesburg; Istanbul faces many of the same challenges confronted by all Urban
Age cities including London, Berlin and New York’s economic stability, social cohesion and climate change
(Burdett & Nowak 2009).
In this manner, in the case of Maltepe with a population around 450 thousand, urban regeneration and new
development zones are interlinked closely and in some cases mutually interact with each other in physical,
social or economic manners. Maltepe until the mid-1990s remained one of the most important industrial
zones of Istanbul Asian side (Tekeli 1992). The population is mainly from the central and north eastern
Anatolia. Since the land used to be vacant state-owned and close to industrial areas, immigrants were ready
to settle in the region. Although the neighborhood has had infrastructure and services since the 1970s,
inhabitants couldn't obtain land titles or building permits (Ünsal & Kuyucu 2010).
However, with the neoliberal impacts on urbanization and the land use, Başıbüyük, as Ünsal & Kuyucu states
(2010), became a poor informal gecekondu settlement, located in a thriving real estate zone. Therefore
Maltepe Başıbüyük zone suddenly took the attention of the real estate market and brought middle and high
class residential projects. And today the region faces a mushrooming effect of an expanding urban and
social transformation within nearly every street from south to north of the section line. This rapid
transformation however brings physical refreshment to the socio-cultural background of the neighborhood.
In this manner, the change is creating a mixed physical, social and economic pattern, and change in fact
would not bring any social interaction between communities. This situation in Maltepe thus is another
reflection on the fragmented city.
CONCLUSION
Since the 1980s, urban transformation has defined an urban renewal and restructuring process in Turkish
cities. Istanbul as Turkey's global power, has a very large range of urbanization, shift of patterns, former and
informal settlements located entwined together, social and economic fragments meeting at every level.
Invisible and visible walls/borders meet each other where society literally differs. Today the city contains a
mix of all of these fragmentations. Maltepe Başıbüyük axis in this manner gives us a possibility to visualize
different urban development levels and political impacts on social and physical fields. Neoliberal policies
change the city of Istanbul sharply, where politics is quite clear in the research axis. The new urban
transformation practice starting from neo-liberal policies brings us not only a new touristic zone but leads
the economy to shape the urban environment more than environmental or societal needs.
Maltepe-Başıbüyük axis is where the social and physical fragmentation is visible in its formally and informally
built pattern. This developing axis also brings several urban critics as the need for migration policies and
housing development for the unexpected potential of in or out migrant populations. At the same time, it is
also essential to have a sustainable political implementation and urban development strategy within rapidly
growing cities as Istanbul. Sustainability is not only for economics but also in political and physical aspects
and brings out the potential for better living conditions within the city for the citizens. However, the
planning developments for the research zone show clearly that each policy or strategic move gets an
opposing step by another institution or policy. Therefore, neither the environmental nor the societal needs
or potential are taken into consideration for a better planning option within the region.
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REFERENCES
Burdett, R & Nowak, W., 2009. Urban Age Istanbul, City of Intersections, London.
Çakir, N., 2007. ‘Impacts of current urban dynamics on urban transformation’, unpublished Masters Thesis,
İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science, İstanbul.
Ergun, N., 2004. ‘Gentrification in Istanbul’, Cities, Vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 391-405.
Ergun, N., 2006. Gentrification Kuramlarının Istanbul’da Uygulanabilirliği, İstanbul’da Soylulastirma Eski
Kentin Yeni Sahipleri, Behar, D., Islam, T., (Der), Istanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, Istanbul.
Gumus, K & Mekki Berrada, E., 2006. ‘Istanbul, cities rchitecture and Society’, La Biennale Di Venezia 10.
Mostra Internazionale di Architettura, Offset Print Veneta, p.181-188, Verona.
Keyder, C., 1999. Istanbul: Between the global and the local, Rowman & Littlefield, USA.
Kurtuluş, H., 2005. ‘Bir Ütopya olarak Bahçeşehir’, in H Kurtuluş (eds) İstanbulda kentsel Ayrışma, Bağlam
Yayıncılık, İstanbul.
Ohmae, K., 1995. The end of the nation state: the rise of regional economies, Free Press, London.
Oncu, A & Weyland, P., 1997. The myth of the ideal home travels across cultural borders to Istanbul. Space,
culture and power: The new identities in globalizing cities, Zed Books, London.
Taylor, P., 2000. ‘World cities and territorial states under conditions of contemporary globalization’, Political
Geography, no. 5, pp. 19-32.
Tekeli, D., 1992. ‘Development of urban administration and planning in the formation of Istanbul
Metropolitan Area’, in I Tekeli (eds.), Development of Istanbul metropolitan area and low cost housing, Turkish
Social Science Association, Istanbul.
Turgut, H., 2010. Urban dynamics and transformations and their impact on urban housing: The case of
Istanbul’, Open-House International, vol. 35, no. 4.
Turgut, H & Inalhan, G., 2007. ‘Cultural and spatial dynamics of Istanbul: New housing trends’, ENHR 2007,
International Conference-Sustainable Urban Areas, Rotterdam.
Turgut, H, Yönet, AN & Torus, B., 2010. ‘Global dynamics and new residential developments in Istanbul:
Trends and expectations’, Design, Technology, Refurbishment and Management of Buildings, Santander,
37th IAHS World Congress on Housing Science, Spain..
Uzun, CN., 2001. ‘Gentrification in Istanbul’, Netherlands Geographical Studies no. 285, Utrecht.
Unsal, Ö & Kuyucu, T., 2010. ‘'Challenging the neoliberal urban regime: regeneration and resistance
Başıbüyük and Tarlabaşı’, in D Göktürk, L Soysal & I Türeli (eds.), Orienting Istanbul Cultural Capital of Europe?
Routledge, Oxfordshire, pp. 51-70.
Yavuz, N., 2002. Gentrification kavramını türkçeleştirmekte neden zorlanıyoruz?, Istanbul’da Soylulastırma
Eski Kentin Yeni Sahipleri, Behar, D., Islam, T., (Der), Istanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, p.59-69, Istanbul.
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PEOPLE AND PROJECTS: THE IMPORTANCE OF CATALYSTS IN TEACHING COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE

IN SOUTH AFRICA
Amira Osman, University of Johannesburg, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA), Johannesburg,
South Africa,amirao@uj.ac.za
Jhono Bennett, University of Johannesburg, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA), Johannesburg,
South Africa
Abstract
Our understanding of architecture has significantly changed over time. Having been trained in a post-modernist
idiom in the eighties, one of the authors has witnessed the transformation of the profession and architectural
design teaching over this time. Younger architects have been educated at a time of intense debates on relevance,
justice and new professional values. They are now having to invent new roles for themselves and develop new
methods of practice as they navigate this relatively uncharted terrain.
The teaching of architecture in general, and residential architecture in particular, has significantly changed over
the years. Rooted in participatory design approaches and post-modern teaching pedagogy in architecture, this
paper re-thinks the design studio, which is now many times extended beyond the confines of the university
campus, building metaphorical bridges between academia and communities.
The idea of catalysts is key in terms of achieving an intimate understanding of the settings within which students
and staff operate and where project sites are located. Thinking in terms of catalysts influences processes of
identifying potential community collaborators as well as potential project briefs and sites.
Some individuals/groups are perceived as “institutions” and champions within their communities: in the sense
that they are known, respected, accepted and many activities seem to either be initiated by them, supported by
them or revolve around them. Identifying these individuals/groups is paramount to the success of a project. These
individuals/groups become agents of change. Planning and design interventions may either enhance or
undermine this agency capacity and the potential to institutionalise it. This concept is linked to previous research
and writing on urban acupuncture and agency in the built environment.
Identifying where interventions could take place, what kind of intervention and anticipating the kind of influence
it would have on the surroundings is critical. Mapping existing energies and forces in an area may provide
indicators as to where input may have the most potential for triggering a variety of responses. That is after all the
ultimate aim: to intervene where it will generate a response thus allowing more agents to become actively
involved in the formulation of the built environment.
Key people/groups and small projects are thus seen as vehicles for collaboration, development and learning. This
paper presents a process of engagement between the design studio and communities in a proposed framework
for this particular component in the teaching of architecture. These generic concepts are reinforced through some
case studies and reflections on practice.
Keywords: catalysts, community, architecture, South Africa.
INTRODUCTION – UNDERSTANDING ARCHITECTURE OVER TIME AND CHANGED TEACHING

APPROACHES
Modernist thinking and design processes are now assessed beyond the beautiful artifacts and spaces that
they produced – modernism also generated massive failures and hostile spaces. There has been a reaction to
this in post-modern thinking and practice. However, Peter Buchanan also refers to “postmodern relativism”,
lamenting that it is “powerless to effect fundamental change” due to its “unquestioning tolerance”
(Buchanan 2012).
Today, young designers are constantly looking for more relevance and a desire to be of benefit to society –
the social intentions of design. This does create some questions around professionalism, practice and the
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political function of architecture. And, very importantly, it also leads to questions around how design and
technical solutions are generated. But this dilemma is not new to the profession.
The history of architecture has generally been a history of ‘important’ buildings and of patrons who could
afford the services of an architect. Massive urbanisation and industrialisation in the 19th century, and the
accompanying “exploitation, poverty, overcrowding and squalor” led to a new focus on the social benefits of
architecture (Glazer 2009, p. 7).
The social intentions of modernism are well known to the extent that it has been described as ‘evangelist’ in
nature: “Modernism was a movement with much larger intentions than replacing the decorated tops of
buildings with flat roofs, molded window-frames with flat strips of metal, curves and curlicues with straight
lines. It represented a rebellion against historicism, ornament, overblown form, pandering to the rich and
newly rich as against serving the needs of a society’s common people” (Glazer 2009, p. 7).
It is generally perceived that modernism aimed to create new, healthier environments for the masses –
environments with light and air, and urban parks: “‘Dwelling’ brought together observations on the
deficiencies of sanitation, pollution, crowding and open space availability…” There was a focus on better
sanitation, light and air and good locations and parks (Gold 1997, p. 69).
Yet it went on to produce highly controlled environments, which were to a great extent de-humanising in
scale/space: “This perceived failure expressed the dwindling belief in the capacities of human beings to
shape socio-spatial reality and is commonly attributed to a naïve modernist belief in the complete
transparency of socio-spatial reality and the human possibilities of predicting and planning the
development of society...” (Lindblom 1959 in Oosterlynck & Albrechts 2011, p. 2).
Modernism is also perceived to have aimed towards a form of social engineering and discipline. This started
early in history when buildings were assumed to “condition and discipline” as well as to promote “political
order or a religious system”. (Bernd & Rouk in Bell 2004, p. 136). Even the “straight line displayed power”
(ibid. 2004, p. 138).
Habraken declared that modernism was a regressive movement as it failed to acknowledge the complexity
evident in older contexts in terms of multiple decision-makers and articulation of the different levels of the
built environment (John Habraken in “10th International Conference ‘Open Building and Sustainable
Environment,’” 2004).
With these changed thinking and differing approaches to architecture and the making of space and the built
environment, came different approaches to the teaching of architecture. Present day practice entails
thinking beyond the confines of ‘site’ and acknowledging the role that a building has to play in the broader
urban context. Then came the acknowledgement that space is co-produced. These have seen major
transformations in the profession, moving away for the architect as maverick artist, a “solitary genius”
(Buchanan 2012), a “grand tradition of design” where architects operate in isolation and produce
masterpieces serving a wealthy strata of society.
Bell explains that architects must explain the importance of the service that they may offer to the 98% of
people that do not use the service of architects (Bell 2004, pp. 12–13). The author also explains that this is
not a “patronizing” intention and aims to acknowledge the exchange that happens between architects and
communities towards the achievement of “quality design for those underserved.”
Alternative approaches to design, development, housing are being explored through changing the interface
between architects and their clients, which also affects the interface between universities and their settings
– in many cases aiming to move the architectural studio outside the confines of the university campus.
“In the process the university will develop a stronger connection with the city and communities within the
city. The city thus becomes the training ground – the laboratory where partnerships and networks are built.
This process could then contribute towards the development of a more enlightened approach to
professionalism – challenging elitist, expert-driven approaches of the past and acknowledging and
respecting local ways of doing, while at the same time improving practice through the application of the
wealth of knowledge available at universities” (Osman 2007).
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Collaborating with a variety of people within a given community may mean more possibilities for detecting
where and how interventions could ultimately have significance, whereby teaching methods are made more
relevant, meaningful partnerships, networks are established, communities are empowered through effective
participation, skills-sharing and cultural and technological transfer is achieved. This is a 2-way process and
implies the creation of a mutual learning ground: from students/researchers/lecturers to local workers
(skilled and unskilled), local entrepreneurs, the general community and vice versa. This implies a focus on
process where the outcome may not be a built, tangible project but an equally significant unbuilt, intangible
process with a purpose to build trust and actively achieve community engagement. Ideally these solutions
would emerge from contexts within which we operate and not from an abstract theory removed from
reality. This process is further explained in Figure 1.
To achieve these aims, it is becoming apparent that catalysts, in the form of people and projects are key to
allow for an understanding of context, an understanding of where interventions are needed as well as an
achievement of a balance between “visioning” and “action”, where the short-term interventions are
conceived within a long-term vision. (Oosterlynck, Albrechts, Van Den Broeck in Oosterlynck & Albrechts
2011, p. 7).
Figure 1: This diagram introduces a processes of engagment which results in catalytic products, processes,
mechanisms, methods which may support/enhance a community’s negotiating power. This allows the
researcher/practitioner/educator to reach a point of first measurable results to allow for accountability and
effectiveness. This is a cyclical processes with the point of engagement always being based on the latst available
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information.
CATALYSTS – DEFINITIONS AND INTENTIONS
The idea of catalysts in the creation of space and design is not new. Attoe (1989) described “catalytic
architecture” as follows: “It describes the positive impact an individual urban building or project can have on
subsequent projects and, ultimately, the form of a city. It encourages designers, planners, and policy makers
to consider the chain-reaction potential of individual developments on civic growth and urban
regeneration. It advocates design control as part of a catalytic strategy for urban design” (Attoe 1989, p. xi).
The author continues: “Catalysis… is both an appealing metaphor and an appropriate process for rebuilding,
one that is sensitive to its context and also powerful enough to restructure it” (Attoe 1989, p. xii). It is
interesting to note that it is acknowledged that the “catalyst” may be transformed, merged, disappeared or
may remain identifiable in the context (Attoe 1989, p. 70); and there are also failed/negative catalysts –
leading to a “failure to light a spark” (Attoe 1989, p. 71).
While the catalyst may be a spatial or architectural intervention, it could also be an individual or group: “A
discussion of the chemistry of urban architecture would be incomplete without reference to the people who
make it happen. The urban chemist does not stand outside the process but is integral to it and influenced by
it… effective people are as important to the catalytic process as a well-conceived appropriately staged
development. People get the process going. In one city a corporation executive might be instrumental, in
other cities a development corporation, a highly respected individual, a popular mayor, or an alliance of
citizens” (Attoe 1989, p. 73). Attoe continues with the chemistry analogy by explaining that the urban
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context is less predictable than the laboratory, needing “nudging at the right time” and “appropriate
finesse” to keep the process going.
CATALYSTS IN COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE
Osman (2007) explained that the idea of catalysts is key in terms of achieving an intimate understanding of
the settings within which students and staff operate and where project sites are located. Thinking in terms of
catalysts influences processes of identifying potential community collaborators as well as potential project
briefs and sites.
The author continued to explain that some individuals are perceived as ‘institutions’ and champions within
their communities: in the sense that they are known, respected, accepted and many activities seem to either
be initiated by them, supported by them or revolve around them. Identifying these individuals is paramount
to the success of a project. Collaborating with a variety of people within a given community may mean more
possibility for detecting where and how interventions could ultimately have significance.
How individual agents may be “held together” to achieve a “joint direction for a possible future of cities that
directly and indirectly might be shared by an unspecified number of individual agents” (Salet and Gualini
2006, p. 3) (Oosterlynck, Albrechts, van den Broeck Oosterlynck & Albrechts 2011, p. 4).
In projects carried out by the author over a number of years at an educational institute, the students, in
consultation with lecturers and with identified community collaborators, identified where interventions
could take place, what kind of intervention and anticipating the kind of influence it would have on the
surroundings. This was initiated by a mapping exercise where existing energies and forces provided
indicators as to where input may have the most potential for triggering a variety of responses, the ultimate
aim being to intervene where it will generate a response thus allowing more agents to become involved in
the formulation of the built environment. It is important also to note that “a strategic approach to spatial
planning entails choosing certain goals and places above others” (ibid, p. 3)
Key people/groups and small projects were thus seen as vehicles for collaboration, development and
learning. “Co-production implies a specific focus on how spatial transformation may facilitate social
innovation both in the substantive sense of improving the satisfaction of local needs and in the process
sense involving non-conventional grassroots and disadvantaged actors and groups” (ibid, p. 3). Social
innovation here implies the empowerment of socially disadvantaged groups and non-conventional actors in
strategic planning processes – this leading to the transformation of space (ibid. p. 5, p. 9).
The author’s previous work with communities thus became a process of mutual learning. Because
participatory approaches in design can only be explored through real-life projects, design-build processes
became an integral part of the courses. Currently more reflection is needed on these past experiences –
especially with regards to the question of the ethics of practice in contexts of poverty and informality. While
in the past, little thought was given to this aspect of community engagement, it is evident that the ethics
issue will become critical as the profession and academics are being held more accountable.
However, it is also evident from past and present practice in the field that the definition of architecture is
being re-considered, professional practice being expanded beyond the conventional and that training of the
future architect will have to acknowledge these considerations.
GUIDELINES FOR THE USE OF CATALYSTS AS AN APPROACH TO COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
As presented, it is important to identify potential catalysts in any given context before embarking on any
interventions. Similar to a process of “reading context” by Hamdi in Small Change, where “pickle jars” and
“bicycle shops and bus stops” were identified as the potential catalysts that could be used to generate
change in community and context (Hamdi 2004). Also referring to the concepts presented in Small Change,
these initial interventions need not be costly or large.
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While identifying community might be difficult to achieve in some situations (Hamdi & Majale 2005), using
key individuals as potential catalysts might be an approach that facilities the harnessing the energies of a
diverse group of people who may not necessarily be in complete agreement, but who are able to join
together in a common vision for their community.
Another aspect to be used in guiding the use of catalysts in the form of individuals and small projects for the
teaching of community architecture is the fact that any immediate intervention needs to be understood in
the context of a long-term vision for the area where the projects and research investigations are being
carried out.
As mentioned previously, the ethical considerations are becoming increasingly important and clear
agreements need to be articulated between the community in question and the university.
Several aspects should be considered towards the achievement of these intentions:

• While rapid asseessment is needed, and indeed rapid interventions in some cases, this should
always be combined with long-term thinking. As preliminary appraisal is being carried out, students
should be trained in searching for design clues for the development of the long-term vision.
• Decision-making regarding the key structuring elements for the settlement/context – these may
not necessarily be confined to spatial elements – as planning needs to be understood in terms of
social and economic development.
• Managing the relationship between community and educational institutes as well as managing
expectations is crucial. Ethical considerations and accountability systems need to be considered
upfront. While this has not been the norm. Consider ‘parachute architects’ coming into African
contexts, building and leaving as quickly as they came – or even our own practice of community
engagement over the years where real impact and/or benefits and risks have not been measured
and where failures have happened, none have been held accountable. This conitnues today, as an
example, in informal settlements upgrade projects, where the name of the ‘invisible’ architect is
rarely mentioned under the pretence that it is a community generated design. This means that no-
one is held accountable for failures and no clear practice guidelines are enforced to ensure that
communities achieve a high quality service.
• Exploring the achievement of more diversity in settlements through studying the not so obvious
solutions. This may mean, as an example, consideration of alternative tenure/ownership options
and/or using interventions, construction methods, material selection, process decisions as an
income generation opportuities for a community.
• Invetsigating design from its various angles. One way is to investigate finance options – questioning
where government funding stops or extends – linking that to thinking on where the “city ends and
the building begins” (Kendall nd), and equally where planning ends and architecture begins. This
means being able to offer insight on community and individual resources and the innovative use of
funds. In a similar manner, constantly addressing issues of integration and social cohesion through
the spatial and design interventions.
• Consider how technological know-how may be shared through a participatory workshops and
adopt an approach to technological and cultural exchange, which takes into account locally
available skills as a starting point for a design process. For students and communities equally, this
translates into ‘knowing by doing’.
CATALYSTS – PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH (PAR) AND COMMUNITY SERVICE
One challenge with the approach to teaching presented in this paper is the distinction between the projects
as an ‘educational process’ versus the intention to deliver a ‘community service’. This is further complicated
by the fact that the projects thus undertaken have a strong research component. These various intentions
need to be clearly communicated to the community, as well as the extent of involvement. Ideally, the
university would have a long-term partnership agreement with the community as this guarantees a level of
continuity for both the receptive community as well as creates a ‘teaching ground/environment’ where
there is a strong sense of partnership and a high level of agreement/understanding between the parties.
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This process of engagement has previously been identified as a process of Participatory Action Research
(PAR): Participatory Action Research (PAR) attempts to render development assistance more responsive to
the needs and opinions of local people, an alternative approach to development projects usually
implemented through a technocratic process. The researcher is viewed as a change agent, who is required
to be independent of macro-social organizations. In this process, research is transformed into interactive
communal enterprise (Osman 2007).
The author continues to refer to the definitions of PAR, explaining its cyclical and reflective nature where the
communication of results implies, not only communication to an academic audience, but also returning the
knowledge to the participants (Babbie & Mouton 1998).
Most importantly it is explained that, for both the research and educational processes, an adaptive strategy
is adopted; proclaimed the most intelligent strategy (Jones 1976). This is very important when working with
real communities in real time. While it is understood that academic programmes are restricting, there must
be a level of flexibility in terms of the set brief and the expected outcomes of the projects. This is another
reason why multi-year engagement with a select community may render the results more satisfactory to all
involved.
TEACHING COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE – DEFINITIONS, INTENTIONS AND AN OPEN WAY OF

THINKING
The approach proposed by this paper has more to do with process than product whereby teaching methods
are enhanced and made more relevant, meaningful partnerships and networks are established and people
are being educated and empowered through participation, skills-sharing and cultural and technological
transfer. This is a 2-way process and implies the creation of a mutual learning ground: from
students/researchers/lecturers to local workers (skilled and unskilled), local entrepreneurs, the general
community and vice versa.
“Designed and emergent systems are thus seen to be equally important in this possible new set-up. A
heightened sensitivity to various forces of urbanisation needs to be developed among practitioners and
policy makers. A balance needs to be achieved between stability and transformation in the built
environment: Multiple levels of the environment where multiple agents may intervene in transforming their
areas of control through complex decision-making, modification, adaptation and appropriation. This will
hopefully contribute towards the generation of a layered and complex environment which fosters a sense of
belonging, ownership and pride. This is direct opposition to conventional approaches to decision-making in
the built environment which is a top-down process, strictly planned and rigid. This strict planning results in
monotony, fragmentation, mono-functional environments and dis-empowers people (professionals and
communities alike)” (Osman 2007).
It is becoming apparent that there is a need for professionals to have both social and technical skills when
dealing with disadvantaged communities. In training future professionals, universities need to instill
understanding of informal economies, settlements and structures and the role of the professional in
interacting with alternative systems and ‘ways of doing/living’. This need has led to the use of the term
‘community architects’ in South Africa, especially with regards to informal settlement upgrades. However,
the terms as used for community members who receive a minimum of training to be able to assist student
and professional teams is believed to be rather unfortunate in that it undermines the role that professional
architects may offer (Goethe Institut et al. 2012, Hennings et al. nd, Worchester Polytechnic Institute WPI and
Community Organization Resource Centre CORC, n.d.) – this terminology also fails to acknowledge that the
community architect is a fully trained architect who elects to practice in an alternative manner that ensures
participation and relevance (as described in Hackney & Sweet 1990).
While it is important to train future architects in the methods that acknowledge the co-production of space
and permit participation, it is also equally important to understand that this multiplicity has technical and
spatial implications when making design decisions. A distinction between the permanent and fixed
components of the environment are crucial in achieving structure, robustness and identity the adaptable,
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changeable and transitory is just as crucial in achieving more complex decision-making process and
democratic environments. There also needs to be a balance/interface between the planned and unplanned
needs a degree of disentanglement of physical and administrative systems at various levels of the
environment, where change in one system does not disrupt the others (Osman 2007).
George Elvin considers the “reconfiguring” of architecture, and calls for systems that allow for participation
and choice by the inhabitants, especially in situations where initial funding is limited. He explains the four
processes that might be utilised such as remodelling, custom systems, off-the-shelf collage, mass produced
customisation (George Elvin in Bell 2004, pp. 32–36): “Construction systems should encourage participation
in design and redesign by end users. They should do so with an eye not only for up-front costs, but also life-
cycle costs, including repair and maintenance” (George Elvin in Bell 2004, pp. 35–36).
Change and permanence in the built environment have been advocated by researchers and practitioners,
one of them being Habraken: “Habraken’s approach suggested that a system of key structures could be
placed permanently in the urban environment, to support the infill elements provided by future residents.
The idea was to provide accommodation that would meet the needs of future generations, as well as those
who first occupied the sites, since infill could be changed with no negative effects on the structural integrity
of the whole” (Richard Milgrom in Goonewardena et al. 2008, pp. 274–275).
This ‘Open Way’ of building and intervening in the environment is believed to be very relevant to addressing
accessibility and affordability issues in South Africa as well as ensuring more participation and acceptance
from the various role players in the process of developing sustainable human settlements (Osman 2007).
CASE STUDY 1 – AN ARTS CENTRE IN MAMELODI, PRETORIA

The Mamelodi Heritage Forum is an existing entity with a centre located in a prominent location in
Mamelodi, Pretoria. Over a number of years, the Housing and Urban Environments (HUE) research team at
the University of Pretoria have worked in collaboration with members of the centre in various small projects.
This was an NRF/UP funded project. The major intervention made was an arts centre within the existing shed
structure of the Heritage Forum. This was built by an honours group from the Architecture, Landscape and
Interior Architecture Department within the School of the Built Environment in 2007.
Subsequent to that, several small project were linked to the project over the next few years. The project
collaborators were mostly local artists, one of whom has just launched a website bokgoni.wozaonline.co.za
where he showcases his work, some of it at the arts centre that was built by the UP students.
The ultimate intention was to develop a Centre for Research and Applied Technology, CReaATe, “with the
intention of transferring technical knowledge to small, medium and micro construction enterprises” (Osman
2007). It is important to note here, that after several years of experience on this Mamelodi project, the
researcher started to replace the concept of ‘technical transfer’ with that of ‘social, cultural and technical
exchange’.
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Figures 2-5: The top two images are of the arts centre which was constructed within the shelter of a large shed at
the Mamelodi Heritage Forum. Both images present the work of artist collaborators from the neighbourhood.
Bottom right image is Obed Mahlangu working on a mural as part of the project and bottom right are the UP
students constructing a class room in an informal area – both projects that were generated due to the then on-
going links with with specific individuals in Mamelodi.
CASE STUDY 2 – FELICIA’S HOUSE, NELLMAPIUS, TSHWANE/PRETORIA

Felicia’s House is located within a medium-density, low-cost urban environment in Nellmapius, a township
near Mamelodi, Pretoria. This is a government-subsidised house, also called an ‘RDP’ house, referring to the
Reconstruction and Development Programme and implies a ‘give-away house’ under the Housing Subsidy
Scheme.
Felicia looks after orphaned children and the small RDP house has accommodated up to 20 children. The
University of Pretoria and Technical University of Eindhoven (TUe) students collaborated (remotely) on
designing much-needed extensions to the house and some funding was provided via TUe. The University of
Pretoria designs are presented here. The project was also intended to showcase how a typical urban
settlement site may be densified using readily-available material and local labour (Osman & Davey 2011).
However, Felicia proceeded to build the house in the manner which she preferred by having a linear
building on one side of the plot, not linked to the RDP unit. This may have been due to the limited skills of
her builder as it avoids intervening in the existing building at all. It may also be a lack of understanding for
the spatial/functional benefits of the proposed extension which might have been better
presented/communicated to her by the students and the research team.
This being said, the collaboration with Felicia has certainly led to some improvement in the conditions of the
house and it has become established in the neighbourhood as a children’s home over the years.
1449
House
subsidised
1015 Aces Street
Adaptability Potential: Medium
Nelmapius
Tshwane
Government-
Project description and location
Design by University of Pretoria
subsidised
students
Felicia’s House, 1015 Aces Street, is
located within aPotential:
Adaptability medium-density,
Mediumlow- stre et fro nt stre et fro nt
cost urban environment in Nelmapius, A
a township next to Mamelodi, Pretoria.

Project
This description and location
is a government-subsidised house, Design by University of Pretoria
also called an ‘RDP’ house, with RDP
students
being a colloquial
Felicia’s termAces
House, 1015 for ‘give-
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away housing’
located withinunder the Housing
a medium-density, low-
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stre et fro nt streplay-room
et fro nt
Subsidy Scheme
cost urban and referring
environment to
in Nelmapius, A
the Reconstruction
a township next toand Development
Mamelodi, Pretoria. Ex. kitchen
Programme. Felcia’s House is part ofhouse,

This is a government-subsidised a ERF. 1014 ERF. 1016
ERF. 1014
ERF. 1015
ERF. 1016
settlement
also calledofan RDP houses andwithshe RDP
has
ERF. 1015 different owner different owner
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occupied
being a the premiseterm
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New courtyard New courtyard
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away housing’ under the Housing
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is fully-owned by Felicia toand
New garage/
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she lives there with her daughter and
the Reconstruction and Development
New bedroom New covered balcony New bedroom New bedroom
Ex. kitchen
grandson. Felicia looks after almost store
Programme. Felcia’s House is part of a New staircase
20 orphaned children, and there was ERF. 1014 ERF. 1016

ERF. 1014
ERF. 1015
ERF. 1016
settlement of RDP houses and she has

ERF. 1015 different owner different owner
a request for additional structures and

New bedroom
occupied the premise since 1998.

upgrading to the existing house to A
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ERF. 1034 ERF. 1034 bathroom
Extended
The house is fully-owned by Felicia and FIRST FLOOR PLAN (phase 2) SITE & LOCALITY PLAN
she lives there with her daughter and

Scale 1:100 Scale 1:100
grandson. Felicia looks after almost New staircase

store
Figures 6-8: children,

20 orphaned TheDesign by University of Pretoria
photograph on the left shows the house before additions and extensions. The plans show how
and therestudents
was
a request for additional structures the
the intention was tostreintegrate and new and old compenents with the creation of a central courtyard. Photo by
stre et fro nt
A
upgrading to the existing
Newet fro house
nt
covered to
balcony
Calayde Davey, CSIR, 2011. Drawings by University of Pretoria students as part of HUE, NRF project. ERF. 1034
A
ERF. 1034
FIRST FLOOR PLAN (phase 2) SITE & LOCALITY PLAN

New lounge
passage
New garage/
play-room
Ex. kitchen New staircase

New lounge
ERF. 1014 ERF. 1016
RF. 1014 ERF. 1016 ERF. 1015
passage
ERF. 1015
ferent owner different owner
New bedroom
New covered balcony Walkway

Walkway
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store
New staircase
New staircase
A
ERF. 1034
different owner Section a-a (phase 2) ERF. 1034
different owner
FIRST FLOOR PLAN (phase 2) Scale 1:100 SITE & LOCALITY PLAN
passage New lounge

Walkway
y
20
Section a-a (phase 2)

Scale 1:100
passage New lounge
Walkway
Figure 9: This section shows the two storey planned addition in relation to the single storey existing house and
the courtayrd created in between (Drawings by UP students
20
as part of HUE, NRF project).
20
Figure 10-12: Two of Felicia’s children outside the house as it is today, with the new extension (built in 2009) on
the left and a solar geyser installed (Photos by author 2013).
CONCLUSION
This paper has looked at the changing understanding of architecture and how this has had an impact on
professionalism as well as teaching. Universities have had to adjust to this change, leading academics to take
1450
their students outside of the studio to find real life contexts, situations and people to act as a training
ground for students, while also presenting communities with much-needed professional services.
It is here acknowledged that an understanding of catalysts in the form of identified individuals and small
projects may become important vehicles for practice and teaching. Some definitions of catalysts are
presented as well as the complexities of this not being an ‘exact science’ and needing intimate
understanding of unique circumstances to be able to achieve success.
The paper proceeds to explain and discuss some concepts related to community architecture, questioning
the current use of the term and associated problems. The paper strongly advocates for an open way of
thinking about the built environment, thus achieving technical and spatial relevance while facilitating the
long-term engagement of a community with the structures and spaces created at the outset of a project.
In the use of catalysts in community architecture is further elaborated where the focus on larger visions is
believed to be crucial before any short-term interventions are implemented. However, it is also evident from
past and present practice in the field that the definition of architecture is being re-considered, professional
practice being expanded beyond the conventional and that training of the future architect will have to
acknowledge these considerations.
Some guidelines are thus presented in in order to offer some direction when engaging in these kind of
projects. Achieving a balance between the individual and the community, between the small intervention
and the larger vision, between respect for what is already there and a new envisioned future, between the
benefits of a specific community and the links with the wider urban context, between what is permanent
and what is transient are guiding factors in these guidelines.
The distinction between these projects as an educational process, community service and research projects
is discussed. The links with Participatory Action Research (PAR) are acknowledged. The case studies
demonstrate the range of projects, collaborators that might be achieved in this process.
This paper hopes to have argued for a change in professional practice that is presented at university level
through well-considered processes that are documented as research and as lessons for future teaching and
professional engagement.
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Babbie, E & Mouton, J., 1998. The practice of social research, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
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Glazer, N., 2009. From a cause to a style: Modernist architecture’s encounter with the American city, Princeton
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Francis, London.
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Goonewardena, K, Kipfer, S, Milgram, R & Schmid, C., (Eds) 2008. Space, difference, everyday life, reading Henri
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Oosterlynck, S & Albrechts, L., 2011. Strategic spatial projects: Catalysts for change, Routledge Chapman &
Hall, New York.
Osman, A., 2007. 'Building a bridge from the studio to the townships', Innovate pp. 26–30.
Osman, A & Davey, C., 2011. 'Sustainable building transformation in the South African housing sector', CSIR
case studies'.
Worchester Polytechnic Institute WPI, Community Organization Resource Centre CORC, n.d. Reblocking: A
partnership guide a handbook to support the reblocking of informal settlements though a multiple
stakeholder effort, WPI Cape Town Project Centre.
1452
TOWARDS A FUTURE AFRICAN CITYSCAPE: DECO NOUVEAU AFRIQUE (DNA)
Mikhail Peppas and Sanabelle Ebrahim, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa,

ecologyandcycling@gmail.com
Abstract
Cities in South Africa are transitioning from colonial replicas of former foreign strongholds into settings that more
fully represent an African milieu. Apart from obvious changes such as street names, other factors are investigated
that might be required to evolve the City of Durban into a habitat that resonates with locals and appeals to
tourists, business visitors and government delegations. Taking a cue from the 1925 Paris Exhibition titled
International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts, an innovative genre bursting out of Africa has
been initiated. The DNA progression, ‘Deco Nouveau Afrique’ originated by Green Heart City, gives cadence to
revived energies in artistic frontiers. DNA foregrounds the human ‘heart in art’ as heightening consciousness
around wind, wave and sun technologies incorporated into techno-arts. African Indigenous Knowledge Systems
are combined with cultural and artistic activity to offer the world another direction in human achievement.
Through practitioner-led interventions, a variety of activations are tested by innovators at Green Heart City
Movement. These include cultural icons representing the dreams and ambitions of local inhabitants and treating
the streets as living beings. Open House Durban is envisaged to unlock the doors of some of the City’s most
architecturally impressive, socially intriguing and culturally important buildings. Set to coincide with UIA 2014,
Open House Durban presented by Green Heart City will showcase 20 great buildings, from the obvious to the
overlooked. The 20 have been chosen to surprise and delight the public, each one offering a unique insight into
Durban’s architectural story. An analysis of different activations (green heart regalia, BunnyKats, green felt
heartcakes, city poetics, graphic novels, future design, and cultural ecology) reveals the appealing and
economically viable innovations to be incorporated into the planning of a future African City. Transnational
indigenous knowledge is the glue that can hold Africa together.
Keywords: Deco Nouveau Afrique, Open House Durban, techno-organic arts, green-consciousness, Ubuntu
crossroads.
INTRODUCTION
The DNA progression ‘Deco Nouveau Afrique’ gives cadence to revived energies in artistic frontiers.
Originated in the City of Durban, South Africa, the human ‘heart in art’ aims to heighten consciousness
around wind, wave and sun technologies incorporated into techno-arts. DNA as the next aesthetic, created
by Green Heart City, celebrates an innovative genre bursting out of Africa.
In previous centuries Africa has been the Dark Continent that has relied on hand outs from continents
regarded as more advanced. The dependency scenario is noticeably shifting into a time and space where
Africa is pivoting from begging bowl (receiver) to breadbasket (provider) of the world. The primary area of
gifting is the emergence of a platform (DNA) that blends art, industry and telecommunications and stirs the
elements into a fresh calabash of the human spirit.
Deco Nouveau extends reinvigoration into cooperation and cohesion of the arts, ecology and humanity with
impetus arising from the groundswell of the Art Deco Movement of the 1920s. Art Deco sought to create
relationships between art, decoration and industrial design. Part of the Art Deco Movement was dependent
on elements from Africa such as abstractness, masks, African figures, circles and triangles.
Aspects of Art Deco spiralled out of Africa into the Paris Exhibition showcase of 1925. Now is the time for
Durban – as a top ranking art deco city in the world – to reignite this eclectic energy in techno-arts. DNA
combines African Indigenous Knowledge Systems with cultural and artistic activity to offer the world
another direction in human achievement.
Africa is emerging as a space that will nourish the imagination of the world by surfing the new wave of
techno-arts. Ancient meets hi-tech, with green-consciousness at the forefront of architecture, furniture,
clothing, craft and music design.
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The world is shifting to new platforms which will require a blending of capitalism and Ubuntu*. Alongside
competition and coercion is a drift towards incorporating greater cooperation and cohesion.
The earth has a rapidly expanding population that requires a multi-faceted paradigm that focuses on
‘energising the masses’ through design. There must be a defence in support of mass individualism**
through rallying the sectors/forces of Deco Nouveau. Central to DNA is the invigorating of dreams, shapes,
and spaces, and for the heart to be seen and heard in shape and performance.
Africa is taking its place in the world and is seen as a pivotal player, serving the world with a fresh integrity
green with possibility. In exploring identity amidst the future African cityscape, this paper maps urban
outlines and Africanised shapings in visual culture mythologies and mosaics.
SanKofa Book & Design Fair Durban parallel projects presented by Green Heart City Movement and
endorsed by the International Union of Architects (UIA) World Congress Durban are foregrounded as
contemporary approaches to Urban Design. As such, the design of space is recognised simultaneously as an
aesthetic entity and as a behavioural setting (Sepe 2013, Foreword). The projects feature a Book & Design
Boma, Open House Durban photography and sketch competition highlighting 20 great Durban structures,
and Deaf Pavement Poets rendering nature-themed poetry in sign language amidst mobile pop-up BooK
Benches and the Freedom Word Mobile. Various Green Heart activations around the City of Durban have
motivated the formation of communities of practice while seeking to retain and enhance place identity
(Sepe 2013, Foreword).
“Under the influence of globalization, the centres of many cities in the industrialised world are losing their
place identity – the set of cultural markers that define a city’s uniqueness and make it instantly recognisable.
A key task for planners and residents, working together, is to preserve that unique sense of place without
making the city a parody of itself” (Sepe 2013).
THE CULTURAL ECOLOGY OF CITYSCAPES
Critical to Shumaker and Hankin’s (1984) reflections on place attachment is the notion that few fields of
inquiry are as clearly interdisciplinary in nature as the study of human feelings about places. “This theoretical
complexity is inevitable, for the emotional bonds of people and places arise from locales that are at once
ecological, built, social, and symbolic environments. Although environmental psychologists, social
psychologists, and urban sociologists have been particularly involved in analyzing place attachments,
architects, anthropologists, folklorists, and humanistic geographers have also contributed significantly to
this rapidly expanding field of inquiry” (Hummon 1992, p. 1).
Place-identity theory emphasizes “the influence of the physical environment on identity and self-
perception” (Hauge 2007, p. 1). City features such as a vibrant arts scene, quaint bookstores, museums and
parks, bustling streets, and an efficient public transport system evoke a sense of place and attachment.
A central feature of a Great City is that it produces legendary leaders in the fields of literature and music. A
contributing element of Durban becoming a Writing Capital is the hi-tech culturally relevant library to be
erected on the Centrum Site, Middle Durban. SanKofa Book & Design Fair Durban anticipates that the new
library would house an African Writers’ Museum.
American anthropologist Julian Steward defined ‘cultural ecology’ in his 1955 book, The Theory of Culture
Change as “the study of the processes by which a society adapts to its environment” (About.com). There are
cultures and places that would have died out long ago if they had not adapted to the physical landscape
and changing political economies.
International websites such as The Culture Trip and CNN Travel list a number of festivals and cities in Africa
as worthy of inclusion in travel itineraries. These include the Cairo International Book Fair; Algiers waterfront
and terrace cafés; Lamu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kenya; the carefully laid-out network of cycle lanes
1454
in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe; a spellbinding fishing village in St. Louis, Senegal that boasts 200 vibrantly painted
fishing boats; Maun, Botswana as the perfect place to launch your safari; Windhoek Street Festival and
Oktoberfest; Grahamstown National Arts Festival; and Kumasi’s seemingly limitless Kejetia Market in Ghana
(Molocha, Eveleigh 2013).
South Africa’s heritage tourism attractions include the Cradle of Humankind at Sterkfontein Caves in
Gauteng; Pinnacle Point Caves at Mossel Bay, Western Cape; and the suburb of Yeoville in Johannesburg.
Sterkfontein is the world’s richest hominid site. “The site is also renowned for studies carried out on fossilised
fauna, wood and stone tools which were made, used and discarded by hominids in the past” (SA-Venues).
Pinnacle Point Caves at Mossel Bay is the site where a team of archaeologists found amazing evidence of
occupation by people from 170 000 and 40 000 years ago and the earliest evidence in the world thus far of
the systematic exploitation of marine resources and symbolic human behaviour (Mossel Bay Municipality).
Various diasporic communities have made Johannesburg their home. The suburb of Yeoville is the “cultural
melting pot of Johannesburg where the Rastafarian, the gay, the Nigerian, the Ethiopian and a host of other
cultures occupy a dynamic but harmonious niche” (Joburg 2012). It is said to be one of the most diversified
suburbs in the world.
UBUNTU ON THE SIDEWALK
The main streets of a bustling City Centre, abundant with a variety of traffic, represent ‘Ubuntu crossroads’
where different cultures can interact in an environment offering colour and excitement. The streets in urban
spaces reflect the plurality and the fundamental underlying multiculturalism with every passerby on the
ground who may be from a different continent and brings with him/her an entirely individual culture (Pande
2010, p. 4).
The Green Heart City Movement hosts eco-arts activations featuring hearing and Deaf Pavement Poets
sharing sign language poetry performances accompanied by harmonica and accordion tunes at outdoor
spaces such as pavement cafes and parks. The eventings create awareness around Deaf culture, sign
language, and visual attentiveness.
!
Figure 1: Deaf Pavement Poet Ismael Mansoor renders a signed poetry performance at the Corner Café, Durban
(Photo: Ravi Moodley).
Deaf and hearing cultures attach different values to activities favouring vision or sound. Walking out with
awareness, Deaf Pavement Poets could assist hearing urban landscapers in reading the rich texture of the
sidewalk, and treating the streets as living beings. Street culture holds a mirror to society; the street
assuming a stage where the drama of life unfolds. In her walks with expert companions, psychology
professor Alexandra Horowitz explores different levels of attention to “unravel all the unseen, unsmelled,
and unheard miracles of a city block, the wonderlands of sensation and awareness that bloom behind the
looking glass of our evolutionarily primed everyday inattention” (Popova 2013).
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SANKOFA BOOK & DESIGN FAIR DURBAN
The International Union of Architects (UIA) World Congress Durban has endorsed three Green Heart City
Movement parallel projects under the umbrella of the inaugural SanKofa Book & Design Fair Durban to be
held from 01 to 17 August 2014. This will mark the first book fair for Durban and is set to become an annual
feature on the City’s cultural calendar. The event is themed ‘Open Source Open City Open Season,’ with the
slogan: ‘SANKOFA Writing with the Future writing with the Past’. The Design platform will showcase reading
lamps, book covers, bookcases, bookshelves and the SanKofa Reading & Storytelling Chair. The three parallel
projects are:
Green Heart City Book & Design Boma

A meeting place for writers, illustrators, publishers, literary agents, booksellers, designers, architects and
social entrepreneurs to network and exchange ideas trending on the literary and design landscape.
KwaMuhle Museum will serve as the Nerve Centre for Boma activations. Key elements include The Frameside
Lounge, Open House Durban Photo & Sketch Exhibition, Word Garden with TreeNotes, Green Heart City
Identity Display, BookCamp and Caravan of Words where writers will craft stories on ‘Durban and
Democracy’. The KidZone will feature Life Size Scrabble, storytelling and character role-plays from African
folktales.
Food Wagons will serve traditional local foods - bunny chow, samp and beans, and local beverages such as
Frankie’s Ginger Beer from the Midlands. The Freedom Word Mobile – Kunene Wagon will be stationed at
the Book & Design Boma and promote an African Writers’ Museum. The Tower of Text (ToT) experience
invites UIA 2014 delegates and the public to build a Book Tower out of contributed books which will then be
dropped off at orphanages, old age homes, and correctional centres. The ToT is structured as an attempt at
the Guinness Book of World Records.
!
Figure 2: Preliminary drawing of ‘le Grande Situpon’ SanKofa Reading & Storytelling Chair by Durban-based
multi-media artist Helge Janssen 4DNA.
Open House Durban

An artetexture showcase, Open House Durban is envisaged to unlock the doors of some of the City’s most
architecturally impressive, socially intriguing and culturally important buildings. Open House Durban will
highlight 20 great buildings in recognition of 20 years of democracy in South Africa. From the obvious to the
overlooked, the 20 have been chosen to surprise and delight the public, each one offering a unique insight
into Durban’s architectural story.
The 20 Durban structures will be documented through the photographic lens and the sketch block – to
promote the idea of creative economy. UIA 2014 delegates and the public will be invited to photograph
and/or sketch some or all of the buildings during a 20-day period from Saturday 26 July to Thursday 14
August. Submissions will be displayed as part of a Photo & Sketch Exhibition and prizes will be awarded for
the winning photograph and sketch including impressions statement in each of the two categories: Open
and UIA 2014 Delegate.
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Participants will be encouraged to write stories about what they felt about Durban and the building/s they
had documented in particular. The 20 structures that feature as part of Open House Durban 2014 are:
1. City Hall Durban

2. Memorial Tower Building, UKZN Howard College Campus
3. Surrey Mansions
4. Diakonia Centre
5. Mariannhill Monastery
6. Phansi Museum
7. KwaMuhle Museum
8. Mazisi Kunene Museum
9. Suncoast Casino and Entertainment World
10. The Playhouse Durban
11. Alliance Française de Durban
12. Royal Natal Yacht Club
13. uShaka Marine World
14. Moses Mabhida Stadium
15. Enterprise Building
16. Old Station Building
17. Emmanuel Cathedral and adjoining historical cemetery
18. The Bat Centre, Small Craft Harbour
19. Rossburgh Fire Station
20. Las Vegas apartment block, North Beach
Figure 3: A Sign Language mural painted by Deaf and hearing artists on the outer wall of the Visual Art Studio at
the Bat Centre attracts interest amongst local and international visitors (Photo: Sanabelle Ebrahim).
Mobile Pop-Up BooK Bench with Deaf Pavement Poets

‘Parks 4 Read’ is an ongoing initiative that is held in a park setting. BunnyKats, leprechauns, and Irish rag doll
Bridie Beag exchange integrated tales to encourage a love for reading and drawing. This is achieved with the
assistance of local writers and artists interacting with the public and sketching BunnyKats reading miniature
classics on the BooK Bench. Hearing and Deaf Pavement Poets will write and perform poetry covering 20
years of democracy in South Africa and what it means.
1457
!
Figure 4: Musician Richard Ellis (left) and authors Hitesh Surujbally and Victoria Pereira exchange integrated tales
on the BooK Bench at the SanKofa BooKmarKet Durban stand, Sustainable Living Exhibition, September 2013.
BunnyKats; Bridie Beag Little Brigid, the lucky Irish rag doll; and Leprechaun encourage children to read as they
pore over miniature classics (Photo: Sanabelle Ebrahim).
GREEN HEART CITY MOVEMENT
Green Felt Hearts Poetry Arts Experience is a citizen-based organisation in association with Cycles 4 Social
Justice (C4SJ) and Ecology & Cycling that encourages arts and poetry experiences around themes of ecology,
sustainable living, fashion and cycling. One of the aims is to have everyone wearing a green felt heart as an
emblem of fostering a continued love affair with the natural environment. The hearts will assist Durban in
being affectionately known as Green Heart City. The plan is to establish an international Green Heart
Movement originating from Durban. The organisation is registered with the World Poetry Movement.
Green-hearted BunnyKats are made by crafters at the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust. The BunnyKat motto is
‘Read Write Draw... X-plore’. During a recent visit to Ireland, a pack of BunnyKats befriended traditional
leprechauns at the Leprechaun Museum. The intertwining of BunnyKat and Leprechaun folktales advanced
the idea of linking Durban and Dublin as Writing Cities.
!
Figure 5: BunnyKats green-hearting at Tourism Indaba Durban 2013 (Photo: Sanabelle Ebrahim).
Green Heart landscape sculptures, climate regalia, BunnyKats, green felt heartcakes, city poetics, futuristic
design, and cultural ecology reveal some of the appealing and economically viable elements to be
incorporated into the planning of a Great City on the east coast of Africa.
The Green Heart Movement seeks to position Durban as Green Heart City, in a similar light to
the way in which New York is known as the Big Apple and Paris is referred to as the City of Love.
In South Africa, Cape Town has the Mountain, Johannesburg has the Brixton Tower and the
mine dumps, and now Durban is becoming recognised for the giant Green Heart, following on
from earlier but fading symbols of bananas, sugar cane, rickshaws and surfboards. The key
challenge for a city brand revolves around the issue of how to develop a strong ‘umbrella’
1458
brand that is coherent across a range of different areas of activity with different target
audiences, whilst at the same time enabling sector-specific brand communications to be
created… In order to develop a strong brand, policy makers need to identify a clear set of
brand attributes that the city possesses and which can form the basis for engendering positive
perceptions of the city across multiple audiences. Such attributes are those that the city brand
would wish to see evoked when relevant target groups are asked the question, ‘What comes to
your mind when you think of this city?’ (Dinnie, 2011, p. 5)
The ‘Green Heart City’ reference celebrates Durban as a leading eco-city in Africa. Visual cues include the
beachfront promenade, sustainable building design of the Moses Mabhida Stadium, development of a clip-
on cycle bridge that crosses over the mouth of the uMngeni River, and, as a legacy symbol arising out of
COP17, the Living Beehive structure in Durban Botanic Gardens, Africa’s oldest surviving botanic gardens.
Figure 6: Idolobha Elinhliziyo Luhlaza - isiZulu version of the phrase ‘Green Heart City’ (Artwork: Sanabelle
Ebrahim).
Highlighted below is a proposed activation by Green Hearts to revitalise a semi-utilised Durban eco-scape,
the extensive gardens running alongside Margaret Mncadi Avenue (formerly Victoria Embankment) to
realise an attractive feature integrated into the expanding Smart Port of Durban.
GREEN HEART BOULEVARD
The Embankment vicinity has palm trees, cobblestone footpaths, yachts, bicycles and ecological abundance.
The envisaged Green Heart Boulevard offers an ideal public space such named to hearten locals strolling
along the Embankment sporting green felt hearts and interacting with artists, Deaf Pavement Poets,
accordionistas and penny-whistle players while enjoying Durban’s glorious weather. The socially refreshed
Embankment would follow the curve of the yacht basin and evoke an infectious carnival or mardi gras
atmosphere.
!
Figure 7: View of the Embankment from the Royal Natal Yacht Club (Photo: Sanabelle Ebrahim).
The name Green Heart Boulevard echoes the affectionate new reference to Durban as Green Heart City. The
‘Green Heart’ title can be anchored by constructing a giant green heart sculpture towering above the
1459
Embankment festivities. The sculpture would be visible from aeroplanes and cruise liners, making it a
prominent symbol for the City-Port of Durban.
The sculptural theme of ‘Ancient meets Hi-tech’ would showcase an iconic Green Heart design that features
elements of ancient African wisdom. Symbols such as the Sankofa bird, complemented by a weather vane
and original sayings sandblasted on to the sculpture, example ‘Green hearts beat fresher’, ‘Take a walk on
the Greenside,’ and ‘Green with Glory’ would be included. The structure will be powered by solar film, dye
solar cells and LED lights, coupled with sound effects celebrating Durban as the beating heart of South
Africa.
!
Figure 8: Preliminary drawing of the Great Green Heart Landscape Sculpture by world-renowned artist Alex Flett
4DNA.
A rekindled fondness for Durban Harbour will foster an invigorated identity for an advancing Smart City-Port
and endear the public with a sense of place attachment. Proposed activations include adventure trips on the
narrow gauge railway line that feature art and environmental workshops on the Fun Train, a BayWide
BookBarge, and SanKofa BooK Bridge spanning the City-Port transforming the Embankment into a bustling
locale of choice. City-Port culture spin-offs include enhanced hospitality and tourism opportunities in the
Greater Durban Area.
A working harbour with an atmosphere of glorious African fantasy is envisaged. The active features of the
harbour – giant cranes, storage sheds, shunting yards, trains and carriages – would be culturally-decorated
and painted in Zulu beadwork or zebra-stripe graphics. A symbiotic relationship between the citizens and
the port will see the citizens of Durban as part of the harbour and the harbour a part of them.
!
Figure 9: View of Durban Harbour from the Royal Natal Yacht Club Photo: (Sanabelle Ebrahim).
Implementation
The name Green Heart Boulevard evokes a vibey arts fest culture, adding fascination to the proposed
Integrated World Expo (IWE) that would stretch across an inner city band and side streets bordering The
Playhouse ending up on The Boulevard. The revitalised Embankment would provide great opportunity for
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outdoor art exhibitions, Botanical Backdrop Picnics, street musicians, mime artists and other cultural
activities.
The Green Heart Boulevard concept entails linking cycle trails alongside the central bayside embankment
with interactive landscape structures, bandstands and pavilions. This will promote, in particular,
opportunities for blind and other cyclists and Deaf Pavement Poets to be integrated into the wider public
with The Braille Trail. Both innovative and exhilarating, the trail emphasizes open spaces in the City with a
refreshing determination to grace the scene.
The intention is to use the Victorian subways – some of which are permanently sealed off with barbed wire –
as a link to the harbour and narrow gauge railway line. A weekend library on the Fun Train will encourage
the public to ‘let reading be their lifestyle’. The initiative would serve as a link to the new Durban Library
planned for the cultural precinct in the City Centre.
A Deco Nouveau Afrique (DNA) ethnic fence incorporating images of green hearts, caterpillars, butterflies,
sunbursts, windmills and leaves will be made from traditional materials such as wood, grass, stone, wire and
beads.
Specialised car guards would be integrated into the concept. To add atmosphere, car guards will be dressed
in flamboyant costuming featuring harlequin hearts and berets instead of orange bibs.
An annual S’dumo Bike Festival on the bayside embankment will spark renewed love for the cycle and cycle
ownership. The S’dumo bike was used as a form of cultural representation linked to social attentiveness in
the days of cycling in the outlying areas of sprawling townships of the 50s and 60s. The public will be invited
to create cultural heritage cycles that showcase KwaZulu-Natal.
Figure 10: ARROWSA-Bechet Ubuntu S’dumo Bike (Photo: Mary Lange).
Cycle lanes will be constructed on the harbour’s edge. People will be encouraged to ride bamboo bikes.
Yoga and tai chi weekend sessions will be held on the grass verges.
Each participating school will be allocated a 100m grass segment to plant with. Organic horticulture will
include indigenous plantings and vegetable gardens. Annual competitions will be held at year-end for the
best maintained grass segment.
Wind Instrument Weekend will showcase the Jewish harp, flute, harmonica, concertina, accordion,
harmonium and African drum, linking to the pipe organ at City Hall Durban. Deaf Pavement Poets will
deliver nature adventure poetry and theatre acts on the harbour embankment.
Community impact
Sections of the long embankment will refresh some of the run-down and neglected City areas such as Albert
Park and Park Street. This will enrich the lifestyles of the inhabitants and provide a boost to the economy by
way of artistic expression and tourism. Some of these run-down areas can be linked up to the harbour by a
footbridge erected across the envisaged magical esplanade. Footbridge arches are to feature traditional
designs, wire and beadwork.
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Sustainable positive impact

Equal and open access and mainly free eventing will provide opportunities for strollers, flower sellers, sight-
seers, cultural promoters, artists, landscape sculptors, musicians, performers, Deaf Pavement Poets, cyclists,
and buskers.
DNA (DECO NOUVEAU AFRIQUE) - FUTURISING THROUGH AN AFRICAN LENS
Taking a cue from the 1925 Paris Exhibition showcase titled International Exposition of Modern Industrial
and Decorative Arts (French: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes),
Integrated World Expo (IWE) seeks to reignite this eclectic energy into cooperation and cohesion amongst
the techno-organic arts, ecology and humanity.
Motivated by Green Heart City, Integrated World Expo (IWE) is scheduled to be launched in
August/September 2015. The event will feature several strands including industrial design, architecture,
furniture, jewellery, fashion, live painting, visual theatre, cinema, screen dance, scriptwriting, poetry, music,
photography, SanKofa Book & Design Fair Durban, murals, and geographic foods.
The 2015 edition will incorporate a Deaf Pavilion to encourage Deaf/Hearing artistic collaborations.
Consequent exhibitions will focus on different marginalised communities such as the blind, albino,
paraplegic, and autistic.
Green Heart City Movement envisages that IWE serve as an annual platform for integrating global artists and
industrial designers. One of the prime aims of IWE is to encourage greater integration on a global scale. IWE
seeks to integrate South Africa into the whole of Africa, and then Africa and South America increasingly into
the wider world.
As part of the legacy of IWE, Durban will benefit from the support of visual practitioners in setting up iconic
green heart activations around the City. Themed ‘X-citement from Your City’, each Friendship & Sister City to
Durban will be invited to send a heritage item to IWE. A Friendship & Sister City Pavilion will showcase these
heritage items which could be anything from a book to an eco-vehicle, artwork or opera star.
!
Figure 11: Green Heart City waistie by Helge 4DNA (Photo: Helge Janssen).
SANKOFA MYSTICAL SKYBIRD
Integrated World Expo (IWE) proposed by Green Heart City Movement is guided by the concept of the
Sankofa bird as uniting humanity across the globe. The Sankofa bird floating across the continent in the
crisp air of Africa is a powerful image which can be incorporated in watch, jewellery, wallet, clothing, and
furniture design using feathers, shweshwe fabric and other materials. As part of continental integration in
design and fashion, ancient symbols such as the Sankofa bird need to become more embedded in
contemporary consciousness, conversation and street buzz.
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!
Figure 12: Limited edition Green Heart shweshwe wallet by Helge 4DNA (Photo: Helge Janssen).
The principle of Sankofa is symbolized as a prophetic bird born from the wisdom of Ghana’s
Gyaman and Asante cultures. The West African symbol represents the importance of
understanding one’s past in order to build for the present and future. The symbol itself is a
bird, which signifies the human spirit. The head of the bird points backwards toward the past,
and it holds an egg in its mouth, which represents the wisdom of our origins. Sankofa is a
principle of hope, which states that in order to know how to obtain one’s goals and dreams,
one must understand his or her history and use that knowledge to make healthy choices and
decisions for the future (Sankofa Empowerment).
!
Figure 13: Sankofa SkyBird representation (Artwork: Sanabelle Ebrahim).
CONCLUSION
The notion of Africa Rising epitomises a “giant continent awakening from poverty and disaster, now bursting
with hope and opportunity” (Perry 2012, p. 32). According to the International Monetary Fund, GDP (gross
domestic product) across sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 countries has risen on average by 5% to 7% per year since
2003 (Perry 2012, p. 33). Of the ten fastest-growing countries in the world in the past decade, six were
African (Perry 2012, p. 33). “Business increasingly dominates foreign interest in Africa. Investment first
outpaced aid in 2006 and now doubles it” (Perry 2012, p. 34).
Receding African pessimism paves the way towards a unified continent invigorated with imagination and
renewed purpose. Alongside policy, inclusive methods of unifying nations through the fusion of people and
environment may be achieved at the crossroads of eco-arts and crafts, industry and design.
An intervention based approach guided by devising a grouping of progressive enablers can be designed to
create an enhanced city experience. This is integral to accelerating the transition from colonial atmosphere
to Africanised environment in the future African city.
God bless Africa,

all her sons and daughters
and her Great Cities of the future
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Notes
*Ubuntu is an Nguni word which has no direct translation into English, but is used to describe a particular
African worldview in which people can find fulfilment through interacting with other people. Thus it
represents a spirit of kinship across both race and creed which united mankind to a common purpose
(Boddy-Evans n. d.).
**Mass individualism refers to a trend where companies offer consumers options for customising their mass-
produced purchases in an attempt to help consumers feel that they are being served as individuals (Shaw
2005).
REFERENCES
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<http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/culturalecology.htm>.
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<http://africanhistory.about.com/od/glossaryu/g/Ubuntu.htm>.
Bell, DA & de-Shalit, A., 2011. The spirit of cities: Why the identity of a city matters in a global age, Princeton
University Press, New Jersey.
Boddy-Evans, A., Ubuntu, viewed 11 January 2013,

<http://africanhistory.about.com/od/glossaryu/g/Ubuntu.htm>.
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<http://travel.cnn.com/top-unsung-african-cities-500006>.
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Review, pp. 1-15.
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(eds.), Place attachment, Plenum, New York, pp. 253-278.
Joburg. 2012. It’s the weekend and Yeoville is rocking, viewed 27 May 2013)
<http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&id=907&Itemid=52>.
Molocha, D., 2013. ‘Ten best African cultural events’, The Culture Trip, viewed 26 May 2013,
<http://theculturetrip.com/africa/articles/ten-of-the-best-african-cultural-events/%0A>.
Mossel Bay Municipality. World Heritage status for Pinnacle Point Caves? Viewed 27 May 2013,
<http://www.mosselbay.gov.za/news_article/220/WORLD_HERITAGE_STATUS_FOR_PINNACLE_POINT_CAVES/0
4_June_2012>.
Pande, A., 2010. Where the streets have no name, Salaam Baalak Trust, New Delhi.
Perry, A., 2012. ‘Africa rising’, Time Magazine, vol. 180, no. 23, pp. 30-37.
Popova, M., 2013. The art of looking: What 11 experts teach us about seeing our familiar city block with new eyes,
viewed 14 November 2013,
<http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/12/on-looking-eleven-walks-with-expert-eyes/>.
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SA-Venues. Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng, viewed 27 May 2013, <http://www.sa-

venues.com/attractionsga/cradle-of-humankind.htm>.
Sankofa Community Empowerment, Inc. 2013. The Sankofa Bird, viewed 18 March 2013,
<http://sankofaempowerment.org/sankofa-bird/>.
Scott, C., 1999. The spoken image: Photography & language, Reaktion Books Ltd, London.
Sepe, M., 2013. Planning and place in the city: Mapping place identity, Routledge, London.
Shaw, A., 2005. ‘Consumer culture: “Mass-Produced Individuality”’, viewed 2 April 2014,
<http://greenjeansbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2005/12/consumer-culture-mass-produced.html>.
Shumaker & Hankin., 1984. ‘Place attachment’, in RJ Ursano, BG McCaughey & CS Fullerton (eds.), Individual
and community responses to trauma and disaster: The structure of human chaos, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
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THE CHALLENGE FOR PROSPERITY IN MEXICAN CITIES
María Teresa Trejo Guzmán, Instituto Tecnológico de Querétaro - Colegio de Arquitectos del Estado de
Querétaro - Federación de Colegios de Arquitectos de la República Mexicana, México,
arq.teretrejo@gmail.com
Abstract
Market laws determine today’s cities by prompting them to make a profit, thus pushing them into a financial and
territorial re-structuration which brings about overcrowding. This is the neoliberal model, with its characteristic
open economy, wherein several sectors’ interests prevail over social groups, hence, conditioning worldwide
development.
Urban development and transformation phenomena are a constant in communities. This study-work
identifies two contending perspectives in today’s urban advent, especially for cities like the ones in Mexico. The
first perspective refers to the neoliberal model, stuck in the globalization process, and also to the way governance
prompts developing cities to adjust their structures in order to achieve economic development. The second
perspective refers to the Prosperous Cities Initiative of U.N.-Habitat proposed in 2012 whose strategic political
project prompts local governments to commit to adjusting politics, strategies, and actions towards the new
concept of prosperity.
This study-work analyzes both of these perspectives; hence, their main characteristics are drawn and are also
linked to urban development in Mexico. The intention is to push Mexican public politics, before urban
development and transformation phenomena, to be holistically managed, by binding strategies in an inclusive
and creative manner. Finally, the planning of several challenges and the actual realities toward the achievement
of prosperous cities in Mexico are also presented.
After thirty years of a non-equitable developmental model, and before an initiative disguised as equity, the
question arises, is the Prosperous Cities Initiative actually convenient to Mexico?
Keywords: challenge, prosperity, holistic, globalization, quality of life.
INTRODUCTION
The city plays an important role as an intervention sector, widely acknowledged in the global context.
Urbanization has increased as a result of overcrowding. To face the global market, metropolitan areas
concentrate urban infrastructure to be able to offer multinational companies the necessary tools to spot
investors and make a profit.
By claiming development, urban politics turn cities into urban markets where productivity, equity,
infrastructure, and environmental sustainability are still very far from conciliation. Better quality of urban life
is a constant in strategic agendas of public administrations. Consequently, cities face two big challenges, to
fight general crises and to head towards prosperity.
THE GLOBAL CONTEXT
“Globalization may be understood as a developmental theory which shows better integration among
different regions around the world as its biggest feature, but this level of development obviously affects
social and economic conditions of countries” (Trejo 2008).
Economic development
Generally speaking, development should imply favorable and progressive changes. As a verb, ‘to develop’
means the way changes will be made, but as an adjective, ‘developed’ is seen as a judgment where
differences are to be considered. In 1949, the world was first labeled in zones, “developed and undeveloped”
(Obregón 2007, p. 3); later, the concept was re-defined due to its close relation to economic growth.
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Developing countries were then born, and more recently, the connotation ‘emerging economy’. Historically,
cities have been and will continue to be instrumental to and a result of economic and social development,
thus, it is mandatory to achieve better performance when conducting city affairs.
There are two general aspects to be minded when it comes to economic development. First off, the paths to
better economic growth support must be identified. However, let’s not forget that it is the city, the one and
only trigger to economic growth. Secondly, and probably the hardest one, is to have the city dwellers
integrate to the development process, because the city belongs to anyone who, by working, also generates
urban productivity; in other words, “the city must turn inclusive” (Trejo 2008, p. 45). It comes easy to mention
these two aspects, productive and socially inclusive, but very hard to get them to conciliate.
NEOLIBERALISM AND THE CITY
In many different countries, the neoliberal model, characterized by its open foreign economy, has turned
exports into the main axis of the accumulation system where different sectors impose their interests upon
social groups. In this model, development is expected to generate ‘the trickle-down effect’ which states that
wealth on the top should mean benefits to society, but it’s not always like that; sometimes, life conditions
may improve, but hunger and illiteracy remain.
Governance and urban development

By definition, urban politics have always been in charge of promoting economic growth. But in modern
cities, globalization, influenced by multilateral politics, has inflicted a change. Despite trying to integrate
social activities to target areas due to their potential for production as well as their contributing to the
nation’s wealth, today, economic aspects prevail over social aspects. Basically, the tendency is to make the
city more productive by investing in its infrastructure and by guaranteeing liberty of performance to
prospective investors.
In this regard, the city is perceived as an intervention object. This economic development scenario is subject
to external elements that condition urban development. The World Bank contributes with nearly half the
public financing for urban projects in developing countries; it does this to affect structural adjustments.
Developing countries must overlook protection norms, privatize national assets and companies, and create
new reforms to be able to lower operation costs. Simply put, the World Bank proposes “to re-consider urban
planning in order to control global reality”.
According to the World Bank, governance is “the way to enforce power in the management of economic and
social resources of a developing country”. This statement was borrowed from the institutional economy in
U.S.A.’s developing prime time; according to Osmot, this concept is the constitutional frame which allows
controlling operation costs better. The necessary technical elements shall be generated for management
transparency, and shall be responsible for social and economic development. This structural adjustment has
“governance” as its main instrument, and it’s applied to the city in order to make it part of a system of rigid
hierarchy.
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Figure 1: Urban planning re-consideration in order to have better control of global reality
(Prepared 2008).
These adjustments by the World Bank took place in the 80’s and 90’s. The objective was to control urban
development through institutional system control that, according to neoliberal politics, is the goal to
accomplish. A map that concentrates the main characteristics of urban planning neoliberal re-consideration
was built in order to control global reality and, from my personal point of view, the opportunities for
performance. See Figure 1.
List of considerations:
• Regarding economic development, the paths to better support and to make the city inclusive must
be found.
• The tendencies consist of making the city more productive and to invest in its infrastructure; the
city is looked at as an intervention object.
• It also must be considered that cities are vulnerable in population and urban aspects (including
migration).
• It is subject to international organisms.
• The World Bank considers the city as a structural adjustment element.
• The World Bank uses governance as its intervention strategy, thus, being able to control urban
development through the institutional system.
• The consideration leads to work on integration ideas, visualizing the city as a palimpsest which
would establish a dialect that should organize urban context in continuous motion.
The city binomial

Nowadays, the perception of the city, both emotionally and effectively, has decayed. The city “seems to have
turned incomprehensible” (Carati 2004, p. 13), for most city governors, this fact is not perceptually relevant,
nevertheless, cities communicate, and they’re emotional. Urban dimension tracing goes beyond material or
formal aspects, the city, in current terms, offers a variety of available archetypes that shall be taken
advantage of.
If we consider the city as the binomial ‘material city – non-material city’, we meet the actual shape and the
substance that binds, made of human motion and traveling that we realize within the solidly built city. To
reach dialogue between these two parties, involves the binding of micro and macroscopic components. Yet,
globalization does not seem to recognize this binding need.
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“The actual project, the material city that defines the city boundaries, is inevitably dependent on the
political design of socio-economic planning; it always deploys perfectible results, never absolute. It also
reacts to the actual city with certainty, to the continuous advent demands, to real time necessities and
urgencies of the community. The material city planner should not overlook obsolescence in design, he or
she shall satisfy social interests with an aesthetic vision” (Landry 2009, p. XXIII).
The transparent city, the non-material city, is made of the lives of people that inhabit it, and of their fleeting
traces left on the environment. “The non-material city is generated by the presence of human beings; it’s a
communication system wherein people socialize on the urban scenario by performing daily activities, be it
formally or informally”. The non-material city is everything we feel, individually or collectively; it is the
impressions, pleasures, as well as spiritual and bodily pains. “Here we live, on the streets our smells bind,
smells of sweat and incense, of new bricks and underground gas pipes, our tense and idle flesh, but never
our gazes” (Fuentes 2008, p. 26).
The material and non-material cities intend to synthetically describe the elementary urban place, they help
us visualize the combination, integration, correspondence, and the imposition given by the complex
environment, well structured, layered, relational, and of multiplicity, that we call city.
In spite of what multilateral politics dictate, it shall not be forgotten that city space is one of collectivity, one
that represents the place where dwellers realize their own personal quests. Places are defined by streets and
buildings; they offer different tours, thus, giving space a unique sense, representative and symbolic.
According to Carlos Mijares, the city is an unfinished book read by its inhabitants day to day.
By making reference to the binomial material city – non-material city, we intend not to forget our human
essence as architects in an environment of urban planning. It is our duty to see about city advent because it
is there, ultimately, where -given globalization- most architecture is done.
QUALITY OF LIFE
Cities face big challenges, amid these, to offer better quality of life to their dwellers. “The concept Quality of
Life, is used for different purposes aimed towards the people, for instance, as support to national and
international politic formulating. The concept is generated by social processes after the acknowledgement
of basic needs: housing, education, and health. There are external factors of environmental character of
complex solution which fall into this concept, but to the traditional external social issues, poverty and
unemployment, we must add others of psycho-social character, derived from management and
organization models, as well as from the ways to inhabit; an example given is the neoliberal developmental
model which has been referred to in this work-study. Quality of life is a useful construct to measure
satisfaction and welfare; it is reached by means of different objective and subjective factors such as
happiness, health, political stability, security, family and community life, climate, geography, gender equity,
and social stability” (Trejo 2013, p. 4).
As an axis does, the Quality of Life concept must be led to propose improvement to current city issues, from
a “holistic perspective of that issue, present before the inner built city” (Amadei 2002, p. 85); the soaring of
its levels is a constant topic in strategic agendas of international public administrations.
In order for cities to offer better quality of life, the World Bank (Borja & Burgess 2002, p. 89), presented in
2000 “The New Integral Developmental Scenario of Cities” whereby, it is stated that cities should comply
with four characteristics or conditions:
• They must be competitive (they must correct administrative inefficiency and reduce operation
expenses).
• They must work on the quality of life (environmental decay, crime, improvement of urban services
and infrastructure).
• They must have good government and management by increasing the number of resources towards
urban intervention through service privatization politics.
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• To show bankability “let the city show financial support, increase its income, in other words, credit
liability criterion” (Trejo 2013, p. 5); certainly, all of it in pursuit of access to financing.
A map which concentrates all these points, and which also includes personal stands has been made (See
Figure 2).
Before urban transformation and development phenomena present in cities and neoliberal multilateral
political tendencies, it is now the time to analyze the other perspective, the Prosperous City Initiative of U.N.-
Habitat.
THE CHALLENGE FOR PROSPERITY
Prosperity is implicit in cities. It is the result of social and institutional innovations. It implies long term vision
and consideration of different elements. It is the city the place where human beings satisfy their basic needs
and have access to public essential assets, where ambitions, aspirations, and other material and non-
material aspects of life are realized, hence, providing joy and happiness, where individual and collective
progress perspectives can be realized. Prosperous cities consolidate and solidify the right to common assets;
urban planning and organized social participation are essential elements in them.
Figure 2: New scenario of city integral development (Prepared 2008).
THE CHALLENGE FOR PROSPERITY
Prosperity is implicit in cities, it is the result of social and institutional innovations. It implies long term vision
and consideration of different elements. It is the city, the place where human beings satisfy their basic needs
and have access to public essential assets, where ambitions, aspirations, and other material and non-
material aspects of life are realized, hence, providing joy and happiness, where individual and collective
progress perspectives can be realized. Prosperous cities consolidate and solidify the right to common assets;
urban planning and organized social participation are essential elements in them.
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If assertive strategic planning were realized by adequately investing in people (education, health, and
employment) with the intention to train them to be able to hold actions and options that favor them, and
that would also benefit social common assets, we could aspire to have prosperous and sustainable cities;
cities with labor strength that could also impulse economic development, whose inhabitants might also
favor social economic welfare, where adults would enjoy good health and would also be able to participate
socially and economically.
Prosperous City Initiative U.N.-Habitat

The way to prosperity implies the consideration of different dimensions. Prosperous City Initiative (U.N.-
Habitat 2013) is a political strategic project for local governments that commit to adjust politics, strategies,
and actions toward the new concept of prosperity. The initiative articulates local, regional, and global issues,
and even though volunteer, it’s also responsible; the initiative provides developmental assistance, analysis,
and strategies, among others. It is commanded by prosperity norms which, when observed and followed,
will lead to a Prosperous City Certificate.
The initiative suggests five dimensions: equity, infrastructure, quality of life, environmental sustainability,
and productivity. Urban powers (laws, regulations, and institutions) serve as its main axis.
• Infrastructure must be kept systematically for a long term by assisting communications and
transportation.
• Environmental sustainability demands compact cities, energetically efficient, with investment in
renewable energy, less polluted, accessible and clean.
• Social equity and quality of life move ahead as one due to general access to public and
community assets which direct civic empowerment. Social inclusion has to be promoted since
prosperity feeds on equity.
• Urban areas highly contribute to national productivity. Crowded city economies make cities
more competitive and benefit overcrowded zones. City productivity soars, becomes more
competitive, innovative, and prosperous.
The challenge for prosperity in Mexican cities

Mexico is a country that definitely needs to thrive. Being part of the Prosperous City Initiative U.N.-Habitat is
an alternative to be chosen and taken individually by cities. Despite several Mexican cities being able to
integrate to the group of Prosperous Cities, and many more are half way through the process, the process is
still slow and has several flaws that shall be assisted in a prompt and efficient way.
I will now describe the case in Villa Corregidora County, in the state of Queretaro, Mexico. This city was
granted the Prosperous City certificate by U.N. Habitat. In one of the many tours I take around the city, I
learned that this county was favoured by the city with nearly one kilometre of urbanization. However,
sewage pipes were not installed, and people continue to use latrines. Furthermore, running water pipes
were not supplied either; everyone takes water from the same community line to be able to obtain a share
of the vital liquid. There are many points that do not obey the Initiative; it is true that this is only the first
stage, but the reality of a prosperous city is nothing but a brush stroke; better actual quality of life for the
dwellers is yet to be accomplished.
The biggest challenge posed to cities is to improve the quality of life for urban citizens by allowing their
actual worries to be part of strategic development. In the Worldwide City State Report 2013, regarding the
topic Prosperity in Cities, several results were found. Two of them are to be shown in this study-work:
• “Public administrations, generally speaking, are inefficient; they offer scarce impulse to quality of
life improvement. It also unveiled bad financial management, undertrained personnel, and lack of
interest by politicians” (UN-Habitat 2013, p. 76).
• “Public administrations prioritize easily noticeable elements in search of better quality of life such as
city parks, clean sidewalks, health clinics, spaces for leisure, art, and culture. It states that even
though prosperity can’t be implemented thoroughly, working on better quality of life is the
threshold to prosperity” (UN-Habitat 2013, p. 77).
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Analysis of perspectives in Mexican urban advent

U.N. Habitat approves of the city being turned into a platform of solutions to confront crisis in a
pragmatic and efficient manner. It claims that cities may react by empowering social and political bonds,
hence, providing bottom up solutions. Those cities are in good position to impulse production in actual local
economy sectors, to generate employment and incomes, those cities are fundamental in guiding nations to
more inclusive, productive, creative, and sustainable paths. In other words, it acknowledges the city as a
structural element of adjustment, alike the World Bank. Simply put, both of those ideas, show the same
prototypicality. Reflecting in this study-work, the Prosperous City Initiative U.N.-Habitat is exactly the same
speech as one of the New Scenarios of City Integral Development.
In Chart 1, the approach of challenges and realities toward prosperous Mexican cities is shown. Several
points of those characteristics corresponding both of those perspectives analyzed in this study,
Neoliberalism and City, and Prosperous City Initiative U.N.-Habitat, were selected. Several of those were
planted as challenges, and reflected as realities in Mexican cities; some of those considerations were also
accounted for from a personal perspective, as a result of this research paper.
Challenges Realities
Governments shall acknowledge the Support and acknowledgment of human intervention

importance and potential of human are nearly none
intervention
Environmental sustainability The sustainability culture has been initiated but the
process is slow, especially about regulations
The different factors that determine city In public politics, holistic consideration of factors that
growth, strategies, human capital, determine growth is scarce. Some of them are looked
corporations, investment, education, and into but others are ignored
political forces, have to be considered
If urbanization is planned and well managed, Distribution mechanisms for prosperity are slow. There
prosperity distribution will move forward isn’t enough experience and there is also lack of interest
to improve
Good governance and management We intend to work on it but we are also a nation with
high levels of corruption
Access to public and community assets Its promotion has been initiated but I assume, based
mostly in embedded bad practices, that public space
heads toward civic empowerment
Urban management and planning as City management heads to the creation of favorable
mechanisms to the creation of favorable surroundings but politicians are afraid of the unknown
surroundings
No city can claim to be prosperous when a big Mexican cities claim to be prosperous and boast high
percentage of its population live in extreme quality of life even though there are more than 53.3
poverty million poor people
The participation of civilians empowers Governments fear the empowering of citizens. There is
communities and allows citizens to be part of lack of awareness toward social empowerment
development
The implementation of systems that guarantee The implementation of opportunities for everyone is
equality of opportunities for everyone, slow. The push of the vulnerable population is not taken
especially for the most vulnerable advantage of.
Cities with business atmospheres and The promotion for entrepreneurial culture is scarce and
entrepreneurial favorable cultures are more weak. Most of the support goes to big companies
likely to be prosperous
Poverty. There are over 53.3 million poor The seriousness of the problem is denied, there are high
people in Mexico levels of inequity and poverty
As far as economic development is concerned, Many cities are now competing and looking for better
we need to find better support and to make the support, and others are trying to become more
city more socially inclusive inclusive. But many others are not.
Crisis. Mexico has been applying neoliberal The biggest problem is the enormous inequality in
economic reforms since 1982 wealth distribution
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Working on infrastructure improvement Governments are concerned, but unfortunately, low

quality due to corruption is often present
To promote better quality of life by minimizing Inefficiency in public administration
bad financial management. To train personnel
and to push political parties to get interested
Increase on productivity This is one of the most relevant aspects to Mexican
cities; they worry about it so much that the holistic
vision of welfare is neglected and doesn’t reach all of us
CHART 1: Challenges and facts toward the prosperous city in Mexico (Prepared 2014).
CONCLUSION
Only when governments manage cities holistically, getting rid of inefficient old practices, and only when the
city finds equilibrium, reducing energetic expenses and ecological decay, conciliating productive and social
scopes, only when urban powers implement opportunities for everyone, allowing the empowerment of
citizens, and when poverty stops being a secondary issue, when strategies aimed to face the challenge of
inclusive prosperity are linked transversally and interdisciplinary, only then, an innovative and prosperous
city will flourish. The cities with the best practices and performances not only get their strengths exclusively
from their condition as world economic powers, or from their sophisticated structure, but also from their
capability to improve the quality of life for their citizens.
In regards to these issues, the Mexican government has made important decisions that, although a bit
drastic, shall strengthen life conditions for its people. We are now going through a series of reforms that are
expected to open the doors of competition, as a nation before the world. Among these, are internal revenue,
labor, energetic, and of course, educational reforms. Mexican cities in search for prosperity shall consider
and work on international dimensions to accomplish access to the economic resources that control
development. Indeed, Mexico has accepted the challenge to change, nevertheless, the new reforms
proposed by the government might not achieve the change unilaterally; the change also implies harmony
among these dimensions and excellence in the conduction of public politics.
Finally, after confronting those two perspectives, resulting in the approach of challenges and realities
toward the prosperous city in Mexico, and after 30 years of an unequal developmental model, and also
before a mere initiative disguised as equity, the question arises… is the Prosperous City Initiative really
convenient to Mexico? The answer is simple. We must think in global terms but endeavor locally. If public
politics in developmental phenomena and urban transformation are holistically managed, if we bind
developmental strategies transversally and in an inclusive and creative way, but not just to follow indicators
but also to strengthen the levels of life quality, with excellence and equity for all Mexicans alike, then,
whatever we accomplish will be convenient to our nation.
REFERENCES
Amadei, G et al., 2002. Cittá costruita qualitá del vivere. Desideri Valori Regole, Casa Editrice Marietti S.p.A.,
Genova-Milano.
Borja, J et al., 2000. Local y global: la gestión de las ciudades en la era de la información, 5th Edn, Taurus,
Madrid.
Borja, J & Burgess, R., 2002. La cittá inclusiva. Argomenti per la cittá dei PVS (paesi in via di sviluppo), Franco
Angeli, Milano.
Calvino, I., 2012. Le città invisibili, Oscar Mondadori, 32th ristampe, Italia.
Casais, E., 2009. ‘Políticas Económicas y Pobreza: México 1982-2007’, PhD thesis, Universidad Complutense
de Madrid, Madrid.
Chacón, R., 2004. La calidad de vida y la planificación urbana, Departamento de Planificación Urbana,
Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela.
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Corboz, A., 1983. Il territorio come palincesto,in Sullà città contemporanea, Franco Angeli, Italia.
De Botton, A., 2006. Architettura e felicitá, Ugo Guanda Editore, Italia.
Emery, N., 2007. L'architettura difficile. Filosofía del costruire, Christian Martinotti Edizioni s.r.l., Milano.
Fernández, J., 1997. Planificación estratégica de ciudades, 3th. Imp., España.
Fuentes, C., 2008. La Región más Transparente. Santillana Edic. Grales, S. A. de C. V., México
Landry, C., 2009. City making. L’arte di fare la città, Codice edizioni, Torino.
Mattongo, C et al., 2008. Ventuno parole per l'urbanistica, Crocci editore, Roma.
Obregón. A., 2007. ‘Planeación para el desarrollo humano y bases metodológicas para su instrumentación.
Análisis de las experiencias en Andalucía y Jalisco’, PhD thesis, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid.
Osmot, A et al., 2002. La cittá inclusiva. Argomenti per la cittá dei PVS (paesi in via di sviluppo), Franco Angeli,
Milano.
Rogers, R., 2000. Ciudades para un pequeño planeta, Gustavo Gili, España.
Trejo, MT., 2008. ‘Interazione delle scelte di intervento tra la progettazione urbana e la valutazione
economica, nell ottica della Qualità del Vivere in termini del Spazio Esistenziale dell’Uomo’, masters’ thesis,
Politecnico di Milano..
Trejo, MT., 2011. ‘Presentación ponencia "Pensar Global, Actual Local. Por una mejor calidad de vida en
nuestras ciudades"’, Querétaro, México.
Trejo, MT., 2008. ‘Presentación ponencia “La pobreza, un reto inclusivo y sustentable”’, Noche sin Techo,
Querétaro, México.
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PART 8 : GLOBAL STUDIO, ADDRESSING POVERTY AND INFORMALITY THROUGH DESIGN EDUCATION
AND PRACTICE
Global Studio (www.theglobalstudio.com) is a people-centered action research project since 2005,
focuses on how participatory design and planning can better serve the needs of the urban poor. The
exhibition, People Building Better Cities has been shown in 8 countries and 12 cities in 2013 and it
shares the Global Studio approach, processes and outcomes. The Global Studio – CSuD exhibition,
People Building Better Cities, will again be shown in association with this program. For full program
details see www.peoplebuildingcities.org
The Global Studio at uiA 2014 Durban will aim to review of the Global Studio focus area. They will
also be providing a brief outline of the POST 2015 Action Plan workshop objectives. Post 2015, the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will replace the poverty alleviating 2000-2015 Millennium
Development Goals. What can the design professions contribute to the SDGs and the global
framework for development?
Anna rubbo (link to http://csud.ei.columbia.edu/people/staff/), B.Arch (Melbourne), D. Arch

(Michigan), research scholar, Center for Sustainable urban Development at Columbia university.
Formerly at the university of Sydney, she was a member of the un Millennium Project Task Force on
improving the lives of Slum Dwellers (2002-04) and went on to found Global Studio in 2005.
rodney Harber, architect, urban designer town planner, is principal of rodney Harber and Associates.
He has decades of community development and design experience. He lectured for 4 decades
nationally and internationally. rodney has represented architectural education in Africa and is on the
unESCO and uiA Education Commissions. He has been involved with Global Studio since 2005.
Jennifer Van Den Bussche is project manager for Global Studio, and director of Sticky Situations.
She is a Project Manager with exceptional organisational and facilitation skills, complimented by a
background in construction, training in architecture, and experience in Community Development. She
is currently undertaking a Masters Degree in international and Community Development.
GO TO CONTENTS PAGE
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE GLOBAL STUDIO
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SYSTEMS DESIGNER – RETHINKING THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT IN THE AGE OF RESILIENCY
Ms. Liz Ogbu, UC Berkeley / Studio Ogbu, liz@lizogbu.com
Abstract
What is a resilient community? As we seek to understand the contemporary city, the notion of resiliency is both
complex and compelling. From the storm-ravaged communities of New Orleans to the economically depressed
townships of South Africa, the effects of climate change, economic crises, rapid urbanization and globalization
have profoundly shaped the current realities and future development of our cities. It is in this context, that the
concept of resilience is increasingly taking hold. It is emerging as a more holistic and adaptable lens through
which to view the challenges and opportunities for transforming the conditions of the city for the urban
population in general and the urban poor in particular. For the architect, this shift in perspective also presents a
shift in framing the profession itself. What does it mean to design a resilient community? While the built
environment plays a prominent role in these conversations, it is but one element in a system of forces shaping the
city and the human experiences within it. In short, there is an increasing need for architects to design the systems
themselves, not just buildings, in order to support resiliency.
Through resiliency-inspired projects in three cities (Detroit, USA, Kano, Nigeria, and Nairobi, Kenya), this paper
seeks to examine the evolving role of architects as designers of systems. These projects creatively address the
chronic stresses that negatively impact the quality of life in the cities in which they are located. From introducing
more interactive methods of user engagement to working with a more interactive design process to developing
more systemic design solutions, these projects provide methods and insights as to how to bridge our
understanding of the role of design and our aspirations for resilient communities.
Keywords: community engagement, design process, Detroit, innovation, Nairobi, Nigeria, resiliency,
systems design.
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INTRODUCTION
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the U.S. mainland, wreaking devastation across
several cities, most notably New Orleans. The storm surge and failure of the levees to protect the low lying
city led to over 80% of the city was under water. Over 2000 people died, tens of thousands more had to be
rescued, and the city’s population of a half a million was displaced, some for months, other for years. Nearly
10 years after the storm, the city is still in a state of “recovery” (Zimmerman 2012).
On January 12, 2010, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the nation of Haiti. Over 200,000 people were killed
with nearly 300,000 others injured. The earthquake also devastated significant pieces of the country’s
infrastructure and left more than 1.5 million people homeless. Over 800,000 of those people still remain
without long term shelter today (CNN 2014).
On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck the northeastern United States, namely New York and New
Jersey. While the numbers of displacement and death pale in comparison to the two disasters listed above,
the storm crippled the financial capital of the U.S. for days. When it was over, there was over $60 billion
dollars in damage. Almost two years later, significant areas are still struggling to recover (Dosomehting.org
2013).
These storms are just a few of the significant natural disasters to hit globally in recent years. For architects,
these situations present immediate needs for our services, from post-disaster shelter and aid infrastructure
to longer term reconstruction. In recent years, these events have sparked conversation around an issue of
equal significance that has implications for design professionals: resiliency.
“Resiliency” is defined as ‘the ability of people, communities and institutions to prepare for, withstand, and
bounce back more rapidly from acute shocks and chronic stresses’ (Rodin 2014).
Perhaps the most relevant aspect of that definition to architects is not the “acute shocks” but rather the
“chronic stresses.” In the aftermath of both the earthquake in Haiti and the hurricane in New Orleans, many
familiar with those places commented that the natural disasters which brought forth stark images and heart-
wrenching statics of pain and devastation merely revealed the economic, political, and social disasters that
had been brewing for decades. In other words, the acute shock laid bare the ongoing chronic stresses which
already had a crippling effect on quality of life in these places. Conversely, in the northeast U.S., stories
emerged in the aftermath of the storm about how in communities like Red Hook and the Rockaways, tight
knit community groups filled the inadequate response gap left by government agencies and national relief
organizations. These community groups were not organizations created to address the acute shocks of
natural disasters but rather the chronic stresses of everyday life. And yet, they became an important conduit
to helping residents survive and recover from the storm and its effects.
Just as the acute shocks are impacting global cities with ever increasing frequency and scale, so too are the
chronic stresses. Corruption in Athens, foreclosure crisis in Las Vegas, rapid urbanization in Shanghai, and
economically depressed townships of Johannesburg are just a few examples of chronic stresses that
significantly impact on the quality of life in cities globally. As the concept of resiliency takes hold,
governments, nonprofits, foundations, and researchers are beginning to look at resiliency less as a reactive
climate-specific agenda and more as a proactive holistic lens through which to understand and engage the
challenges and opportunities for addressing these ongoing stresses. In effect, resiliency is becoming a
means of positively transforming people’s quality of life. Initiatives such as the city of San Francisco’s
Neighborhood Empowerment Network, Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Challenge, and
Medellin’s social urbanism agenda all reflect this broader interpretation of resilience.
As a profession, architecture has been largely engaged in the topic of resiliency as it relates to environmental
sustainability. As conversations around resiliency expand to encompass a broader agenda, the profession
must also expand the frame through which it views the concept if it is to remain relevant in these
conversations. And yet, expanding the frame often means moving beyond the building to consider the
larger system. Making the shift to systems design requires rethinking the role of the designer and the very
process of design. Through resiliency-inspired projects in three cities (Detroit, USA; Kano, Nigeria; Nairobi,
Kenya), this paper will explore the evolving role of architects as designers of systems. From transforming the
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methods of user engagement to rethinking the end product, these projects provide methods and insights as
to how to bridge our understanding of the role of design and our aspiration for more resilient communities.
Detroit Future City

Last year, Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. It was, in effect, an acute shock. But as
in the examples noted earlier, the acute shock here had long been preceded by economic, political, and
social stresses that had steadily eroded quality of life in the city over decades.
Detroit had been one of the powerhouses of American industrialization. At the beginning of the twentieth
century, Henry Ford, along with Ransom Olds, David Buick, and the Packard brothers helped make Detroit
the automobile capital of the U.S. At one point, the city produced half of all U.S. cars (Florida 2013). At the
city’s peak of 1950, it had a population of nearly two million (Myler 2013). Today, that population stands at
just around 700,000. It’s a 60 percent decline in a city still designed to house more than double that.
A number of factors began to contribute to the city’s slow yet precipitous decline. Some factors, such as the
growth of the suburbs (i.e., decline of the city’s tax base), decentralization of the auto industry (i.e., loss of
low-skilled manufacturing jobs), the city’s heavy reliance on the auto industry economy (i.e., little economic
diversification to help weather the industry’s decline), are all chronic stresses. Others such as the racial riots
of the 1960s, the oil embargo of the 1970s, and the bankruptcy of firms like General Motors in 2009 are acute
shocks that helped reinforce the city’s path towards bankruptcy.
The combination of shock and stresses brought considerable challenges to daily life in Detroit. The city has
nearly 40 square miles of vacant land and approximately 78,000 abandoned and blighted structures (Carey
2013, Clark 2013). Overall, the city’s 133 square miles are enough to fit the footprint Manhattan, Boston, and
San Francisco within it (Carey 2013). While that large size made sense in its heyday, the current reduced
population and municipal budget often result in perverse situations with municipal services. An estimated
50 percent of the city’s street lights don’t work, only about half of the city’s 400 public buses are in running
condition, and the average police response time to the highest priority crimes is 58 minutes (Davey 2013,
Marketplace 2013). As planner Toni Griffin once remarked, Detroit had “become the poster child for an
American City in crisis” (Griffin 2013).
And yet for all the statistics that point to a city in crisis, there have also been activities that could be the
seeds of recovery, from the increasing presence of small creative and technology companies in the
downtown corridor, to smaller informal neighborhood groups banding together to provide services to fill
the services gap, to the growth of social and cultural entrepreneurs and impact organizations setting up in
various communities throughout the city. These seeds became part of a citywide visioning project
undertaken by the Kresge Foundation and the City of Detroit starting in 2010. The project, Detroit Future
City (originally the long term planning framework of the Detroit Works Project), was the first of its kind in
Detroit, and innovative for the U.S. overall. There had been a few masterplans developed during the years of
decline. All had been based on the premise of returning the city back to its original glory in terms of
population and industry. Detroit Future City was the first to be developed grounded in “the realities of the
numbers and what it takes to run the city” (Dittmer 2013). To embrace such a process required a
multidisciplinary team. Led by planner Toni Griffin, the team also consisted of Buro Happold (engineering
and infrastructure), Hamilton Anderson Architects (neighborhood and land use design), Alan Malick (public
land), ICIC/Interface (industrial building assessment/economic growth), and Detroit Community Design
Collaborative (community engagement).
For a vision-focused effort, its embracing of the stark realities inherently made it a more resilient-focused
plan. The project team started with the premise that the auto industry would never regain the capacity to be
the driving force of the local economy. The team also accepted that the population was likely to continue to
fall before finally stabilizing. As the team explored how to develop a vision that balanced aspiration with
reality, they surveyed what was working well in the city. With such a frame, the social entrepreneurs and
local neighborhood groups were not treated as exceptions in the “crisis city” but potential foundations on
which future development could be based, precisely because they were helping people weather the shocks
and crises.
The ultimate result of this process was a strategic plan that began to appropriately align resources with
opportunity and map out a framework that best coordinated investment of those resources (Detroit Works
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Project 2012). The framework deals with five major focus areas: economic growth, land use, city systems,
neighborhood, and land and building assets. Resiliency worked its way through the framework in many
forms. The seeds of resiliency mentioned above gained new agency here, such as turning haphazard guerilla
gardening to a coherent scalable urban farm strategy that allowed scalable productive use of the abundant
vacant land. Detroit Future City is also grounded in systems thinking. Addressing the challenges of Detroit
and strengthening its ability to thrive can’t be found in siloed solutions. Everything is interconnected. For
instance, creating vibrant neighborhoods in which people could thrive is tied to both land use and
economic development. Economic development is also tied to the city’s infrastructure. The people-centered
plan also deliberately thinks about how to meet people where they’re at and engage them meaningfully. In
this day and age, for any plan to be successful, it has to be embraced, relevant, and driven by city workers
and residents alongside the municipal government.
The latter point also offers the clearest opportunity to see how this is also a story of reframing the process of
design. The community engagement process was one of the most innovative elements of this project.
Architects and planners often employ community engagement in such projects, but the default, particularly
in the American context has been the “community meeting.” Often held at large “neutral” neighborhood
locations such as a local school or community center, these meetings have the reputation of not being very
productive. Rather than representing a cross section of the community, they tend to feature an
overrepresentation of the most active – and often most opinionated – community members. As a result,
many designers (and clients) treat it as a perfunctory step in the design process rather than a productive and
creative one.
The project team here, led by the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) turned the process on its
head. They realized that people were one of the greatest assets that the city had (Pitera, 2013). Designing a
successful vision based on real on-the-ground conditions wasn’t just about an expert view from the top but
engaging people in the process of design. And for a city where many were jaded about the current
institutional efforts around change, a perfunctory community meeting was not an effective engagement
path. In fact, the first phase of the project, which didn’t have a specific team partner dedicated to
engagement and which relied on traditional engagement strategies such as the community meeting, was
largely considered to have been ineffective (Dittmer 2013). The DCDC took a more creative approach to
engagement. Embracing the diversity of city residents, it employed multiple forms of engagement, from an
online gaming platform to community dinners to a citizen storytelling project called Detroit Stories. And in
an effort to also deploy tactical engagement efforts, the team utilized the “Roaming Table,” an interactive
piece of furniture with questions about the life in Detroit and desires for the future. The tables popped up in
locations throughout the city, offering what DCDC Executive Director Dan Pitera calls “random acts of
engagement.” Finally, the team also made use of community champions. These were community members
who could serve as a conduit to bring expertise about their neighborhoods to the design team and also help
bring the design process to the neighborhood level through events like neighborhood dinners. The
engagement process was a success. Over two years, the team connected with people over 163,000 times
(Detroit Works Project 2012) and the findings from those conversations became critical to the content of the
plan.
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Detroit Future City diverse community engagement strategies (Detroit Works Project 2012).
The plan was released for wide distribution in 2013. Despite the bankruptcy proceedings, funding has been
secured, mostly from foundations to undertake the first steps of implementation. In addition to long term
strategies, the plan laid out pilot projects that could be carried out a small, neighborhood-based scale to test
and tweak the viability of the strategies. These projects are intended to be led in large part, not by the city,
but people on the ground such as the community champions identified in the plan’s development phase.
Armed with grant funding, they can collaborate with design firms as needed and receive additional
technical support from the Detroit Future City team. In many ways, the projects to be produced in this phase
resemble more what we traditional associate with architecture. But by emanating from this larger process,
they are potentially stronger and offer a chance at greater resiliency. As one of the project team members
noted, “Good design is relatively easy. It’s the pre-design that’s hard but that’s important to make the design
better” (Dittmer 2013).
Safe Space Nigeria

In April 2014, news reports emerged of the kidnapping of over 230 girls from a girls’ school in Northern
Nigeria (Memmot 2014). The Islamist militant group Boko Haram – which translates as “Western education is
a sin” – is blamed for that crime as well as numerous attacks on education, social, and civic institutions in and
around Northern Nigeria in recent years. While news of these horrific attacks makes headlines around the
world, they are acute shocks that add pressure to an already a challenging normative condition.
Nigeria is the most populous country and second largest economy in Africa. It’s abundant with natural
resources: it’s the largest oil producer in Africa and the 4th largest natural gas exporter in the world (Eia.gov
2013). Yet, despite the natural resource wealth, it is a country with significant disparities between rich and
poor. The country ranks 158th out of 182 countries in the Human Development Index (Transparency.org
2013b) and 118th out of 134 countries on the global Gender Equity scale (Mercy Corps 2013). It has
experienced its fair share of acute shocks such as the Biafran War in the 1960s, the oil embargo of the 1970s,
several military coups, and more recently, terrorist attacks. But similar to Detroit, the quality of life for many
in the country has steadily eroded over time due to chronic stresses. Corruption in Nigeria is rampant. It
ranks 144th out 177 countries in the world in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index
(2013). Infrastructure development and maintenance has been notoriously poor. For example, the country
ranks as one of the lowest in the world for net electricity generation per capita. Blackouts are a common
occurrence (Eia.gov 2013). And more than 60% of the country’s population lives on less than $1 a day (Brock
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2012). Poverty is particularly concentrated in the less resourced north. Poverty outcomes are twice as high
there than in the south (British Council 2012). It is here that Boko Haram thrives, in part because this region is
predominantly Muslim, with many local communities adopting Sharia law, but also because the poverty
leads to greater numbers of disenfranchisement.
Women have particularly been affected by the country’s economic (and social) disparities. Nearly half of the
country’s 162.5 million people are female. Yet women make up the largest “share of the poor, unemployed,
and marginalized” (Mercy Corps 2013). And the percentage of women and girls living in vulnerable
conditions is significantly higher in the north. It’s in this context that several NGOs and aid agencies, such as
the UK’s DFID (Department for International Development), have been operating. In particular, these groups
have been developing programs to target young girls.
Within the international development community, there’s strong belief that girls are the most effective
solution to end poverty. It’s based on the idea that by delaying early marriage and first birth, ensuring health
and safety, supporting completion of secondary schooling, and providing tools to social and economic
empowerment, it is possible to improve the health development outcomes for the girls and ultimately, their
families, as they become wives and mothers. According to the initiative the Girl Effect, child brides have
twice the pregnancy death rates of women in their 20s (2013). But an extra year in primary school can boost
a girl’s wages by 10-20%. And giving females the same access to non-land resources as men could reduce
the number of hungry people in the world by 100-150 million. Increasing resilience in northern Nigeria
requires addressing some of these outcomes.
Seeking to develop “Safe Spaces” in which girls would better be able to achieve positive anti-poverty
outcomes, Nike Foundation, in collaboration with DFID and Population Council, launched a program called
Girl Hub in several target countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Rwanda). The Nigerian hub
has focused most of its attention in the north of the country. It’s a challenging context given the acute
shocks of violence and chronic stresses of poverty. Sensitivities around religious and cultural norms also play
a role in complicating female-focused development initiatives. To help provide some out of the box thinking
that could generate new ideas for what Safe Spaces could be, Girl Hub Nigeria engaged two consultants
with architectural training, Marika Shioiri-Clark and Liz Ogbu, to identify insights and develop concepts.
Similar to the previous project, the time for pre-design was extensive. In order to understand appropriate
concepts, it was necessary to do deep ethnographic dives into the girls’ lives. It was important to understand
both significant events as well as daily hopes and struggles. It was also critical to not look at the girl in
isolation. In a context where the girl’s life is dictated by almost everyone but her, it was necessary to map out
these additional stakeholders and the extent of their influence. To that end, the team interviewed parents,
siblings, government school teachers, Islamiya school teachers, clerics, and local leaders.
Image from interview synthesis process (Shioiri-Clark and Ogbu nd).
Although some workshops were held, the bulk of interviews occurred with individuals or pairs. Similar, to
Detroit Future City, the design team conducted the interviews within the community, at personally
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significant locations such as an interviewee’s house or place of business. It was important for helping to
construct a picture that wasn’t just focused on issues like education and financial literacy but also took into
account the entire context of a person’s life.
As they mapped out the life of a typical girl, they found that one of the biggest challenges to creating a new
Safe Space is the intense regulation of a girl’s time. There was very little time that wasn’t already accounted
for and it was hard to introduce new spaces that could become easily sanctioned. Furthermore, there existed
some suspicion around “female empowerment programs” promoted by aid agencies. The community,
namely the male members, believed it was an affront to existing cultural and religious hierarchies. Finally, for
young girls, marriage was often the defining event in their lives. There was strong community desire to
protect the girls until they reached this milestone (Shioiri-Clark and Ogbu 2012).
However, the team’s diverse forms of engagement yielded content that also pointed towards seeds of
change and resilience. They found that though education, financial literacy, and social interaction can often
be perceived as threatening, when girls were supported by male figures such as their fathers in this effort,
they became positive deviants. They also found mothers who wished for their daughters to gain such
knowledge so that they could cope if they ever lost their husbands, something that can often contribute to
greater descent into poverty. And they found that while it would be challenging to create new activity
centers for girls to add to their schedules, there were existing sanctioned spaces where new activity could
occur such as Islamiya school and the water well.
Out of these insights, the design team developed a framework that helped define the different types of
existing spaces and the types of activities that could occur within that framework. They then designed
several specific concepts, such as Water Talks (informal lectures on issues of family planning, financial
literacy, and career pathways at the well), Service Academy (a play on the Girl Scouts which could be
convened at Islamiya School and offered a structured and supervised way for girls to engage a wider public
through Koran-sanctioned community service), and Marriage Prep (a “finishing school” that in addition to
teaching good wife skills such as cooking and cleaning, it could also teach them family planning, financial
literacy, etc.). Receptiveness to the ideas were then tested in the field through small workshops with girls
and interviews with other stakeholders. Several ideas tested well, including Water Talks and Marriage Prep.
Girls and other stakeholders found that they provided desired experiences but did so within accepted
norms. Based on feedback, these two ideas are now being tested at pilot scale.
Storyboard from Water Talks idea (Shioiri-Clark and Ogbu n.d.).
Many international development programs around girl empowerment often rely on contradicting
traditional hierarchies, but these concepts quietly but deliberately disrupted from within. The role of the
designer was less about creating new spaces and more about designing new programming platforms that
could fit into existing spaces. By providing opportunities to equip girls with better socioeconomic assets and
their internal capacity to leverage them, these Safe Spaces could help break the cycle of intergenerational
poverty and increase the resilience of these communities.
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SmartLife (Kenya)
In September 2013, Nairobi was the scene of a horrific terrorist attack. Al-Shabaab militants, many from
neighboring Somalia, stormed the Westgate mall, one of the city’s premier shopping establishments.
Throwing grenades and shooting through the crowd, they lay siege over the mall for over 80 hours. When it
was over, nearly 70 people lay dead. The country was left in shock and mourning (Howden 2013).
Many of the other acute shocks that have hit the country in recent decades have been much more localized,
such as ethnic violence related to national elections. But as in the previous examples, it’s the chronic stresses
that have made the most lasting impression on quality of life issues. Some stresses are political in nature,
such as the ongoing refugee crisis triggered by the political instability and violence in neighboring Somalia
or the entrenched corruption (Kenya fares only slightly better that Nigeria on Transparency International’s
Corruption Perception Index). Issues of poverty are significant, with nearly half of the population of 45
million living in poverty. Unemployment hovers at around 40% (CIA.gov 2013). And infrastructure spending
is quite low, leading to problems with everything from transportation to water access.
Issues of health, such as clean water and nutrition, also factor significantly in daily life, particularly at the
bottom of the income ladder. Throughout the country, 17 million people lack access to safe water. Children
in particular feel the impact of this lack of access. Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death for children
(excluding neonatal). And water, sanitation and hygiene related illnesses and conditions are the number 1
cause of hospitalization for children under 5 (Water.org n.d.). And over 80% of pre-school aged kids have
Vitamin A deficiency.
In Nairobi, only 60% of the city’s three million in habitants have reliable and affordable access to clean water.
And knowledge of and access to hygiene and nutrition products can be tenuous. It’s into this space the
three organizations sought to make a difference. The organizations, Unilever, Water and Sanitation for the
Urban Poor (WSUP), and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) were all interested in these health
issues. They were also aware that the issues had often traditionally been dealt with in silos. In other words,
one project might deal with water access, another with hygiene, and yet another with nutrition. Wanting to
move past the intractability of these siloed problems, the trio conceived of an idea in which a new scalable
social enterprise could be created to provide clean water, hygiene and health products, and health
education. With this idea in mind, they approached the design consultancy IDEO.org to help them design
the business.
IDEO.org is the sister nonprofit to the global design and innovation consultancy IDEO. The nonprofit is
focused in particular on using human-centered design to address poverty related challenges. Even though
IDEO.org is not a built environment specific firm, they do embrace environments-related challenges. There
was also an architect who worked as a member of the project design team (Other team members include an
industrial designer, a business designer, a graphic designer, and a mechanical engineer).
In order to understand how to position the business, the San Francisco-based team undertook a deep dive,
spending two weeks in Nairobi. Much of the first week in the field was spent in an active pre-design phase,
interviewing the various stakeholders in the ecosystem. They talked to end users, water sellers, food sellers,
and even the government agency in charge of water provision. Similar to the previous projects, their
conversations explored not only the core issues at hand, but tried to construct a picture of the ways in which
people lived, the things they needed and desired, and the ways in which existing commercial and
governance infrastructures supported or hindered those things. During the interviews, they heard things
such as the differing role that women and men play in making decisions around water and health-related
products, perceptions around health, and fears of counterfeit products.
These conversations were helpful for providing focus to the design direction. But the team also felt that the
qualitative data still left some fundamental questions about the business unresolved. Realizing how hard it
can be for people to visualize beyond their current worldview, they decided to introduce a more active form
of engagement in their pre-design process. That engagement was the full-scale live prototyping of the
business. In architecture, prototyping is often takes one of three forms: a reduced scale model of the
building, a full scale mockup of a building component, or a full scale model of an entire structure. While the
first example can take place at any point in the design process, the latter two typically occur later in the
design process. Such prototypes are not fully resolved ideas but they do allow a way to test the validity of a
design approach. Prototype was conceived differently here. It wasn’t an outcome of the design process but
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an integral part of the pre-design process. By approaching it from a perspective of exploration rather than
validation, the team hoped to find answers to some of the outstanding design questions.
Using data that they had already gleaned from the interviews and research into potential business models,
the team developed a business idea to prototype at full scale. From creating a prototype name (SmartLife)
and brand, to purchasing health-related products and water to sell, to creating brochures that explained
different membership options, the team tried to create as authentic an experience as possible. They believed
it was critical to testing people’s real reactions and motivations. To run the test, they chose a neighborhood
that had a high need (government water only flowed from the taps twice a week). They took over a stall and
prototyped a kiosk, hired a cart seller for the day to test the idea of a mobile business, and had one of their
translators work as a door-to-door saleswoman.
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Images from the SmartLife prototyping process (IDEO.org 2012).
By the end of the day, they had sold 520 liters of clean water and several nutrition and hygiene products
(IDEO.org 2012). But more importantly, they gained important knowledge in what needed to be the
fundamental structure of the business. For example, they found that while people didn’t reject the health
products, clean water was the driver. It was the biggest pain point in their life and any option that offered an
affordable, reliable, and convenient access to it would draw their patronage. The best business proposition
was to use water as a carrot to engage people in the health products and education. It also became clear
that it wasn’t a choice of a single touch point but in fact the development of all three as a system. People
valued the convenience of the door-to-door saleswoman, but because of the prevalence of counterfeit, they
wanted to know that there was a kiosk where they could complain if needed. Since water was really heavy,
the mobile cart functioned well as the delivery arm. But the men who drove the carts could not be the same
person functioning as a door-to-door salesperson because they often lacked the educational level to do the
health education and it created a sometimes complicated interaction with the primary purchaser: women.
Armed with these insights and some follow up interviews, the team designed the business from soup to
nuts. The more traditional forms of architecture and design were integral to the system created. Design
parameters were created for the kiosk based on the interview and prototyping data. The parameters
included simple elements like providing visual access to the water purification equipment to help build trust
around the cleanliness of the water among customers visiting the shop. Advice was also provided about
how to navigate different potential kiosk configurations. Graphically, a whole branding strategy was created.
Because the entire team worked in concert, these elements were designed collaboratively and were
integrated into other aspects of the business model such as how to appeal to target customers and how the
business could be sustainable.
The full scale pilot of the SmartLife business launched in February 2013 in two locations in Nairobi and has
been highly successful. The insights from the pre-design process are strongly reflected in the day-to-day
reality of the business. And the employees of SmartLife have found that in carrying forth the mission and the
structure of the business, the customers have in fact become more like “family” (Mukami 2013). Getting to
know their customers enough to meet their water and health needs has become more like helping their
customers meet their life needs. In so doing, they’re helping to strengthen the neighborhoods in which
they’re working and build greater resiliency.
CONCLUSION
Although these projects cut across very different geographies, contexts, scales, and issues, there are some
consistent themes. Acute shocks and chronic stresses play a combined role in influencing quality of life.
While there were clear and fairly recent acute shocks in all of these locations, the projects all sought to
negotiate the pervasive nature of the chronic stresses as the path towards deeper long term change. The
nature of the challenges at hand often meant that none of the design teams could work with just the built
product as their scope of work. They had to embrace the larger social, economic, and political contexts.
From trying to understand the different stakeholders to designing strategies and products that
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encompassed a multiscale approach, they approached these challenges with a systems approach. A
substantial empathy driven pre-design process often enabled the ability to work at a systems level. The
process of engagement was always creative, dynamic, and tangible. It allowed all the design teams to ask
different and deeper questions that resulted in much more human-centered and resilient solutions. Finally,
all the projects negotiated implementation in tactical ways. Pilots – both in terms of the program and the
architecture – enabled a more iterative approach through which the projects could more easily evolve.
In short, these projects approached design and its role in addressing some of society’s most pressing
challenges in a holistic way. Interestingly, this aligns well with the notion of resilience and the
interconnectedness that it represents. Architecture and design clearly can have profound relevance in this
emerging context, but it requires some fundamental changes in the way in which we practice. As these
projects demonstrated, those changes aren’t about abandoning the tools we posses as designers, but
integrating them with a repertoire of analytic concepts that synthesize different types of knowledge and
that negotiate both the built product and the overall system. As the need and demand for such projects
increases, this is a professional shift that is not only about the resiliency of the communities we seek to
support but also the resiliency of the profession itself.
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school-in-nigeria
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ARCHITECTURE AS EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
Tiziana Panizza Kassahun, Eiabc Ethiopia, tizikassahun@gmail.com

Stefano Cardini, Domus Academy Laureate Universities, Italy, stefano.cardini@gmail.com
Abstract
The purpose of an early warning system is to warn people that something bad is likely to happen. How can
architecture possibly work as early warning system? We have a theory, an assumptions and an aspiration.
The theory is that no sustainable urbanisation will be possible without pursue the effective and efficient
realisation of human rights for all. The assumption is that by monitoring architecture on progress we can
trace a chain of information which can forecast and signalize a lack of human rights. The aspiration is to
promote architecture as a framework that integrates the norms, principles, standards and goals of the
international human rights system into the plans and design of cities.
ARCHITECTURE AS EARLY WARNING SYSTEM is a collection of international and interdisciplinary
brainstormings serving a book project titled Human Rights and Architecture that Tiziana Panizza Kassahun
started in Addis Ababa 3 years ago. By now the collection counts 20 brainstormings performed by different
professionals and institutions all over the world. This paper reports on the brainstorming conducted by the
two authors in Milan Italy at the Domus Academy Laureate Universities in May 2013. It focuses on innovation
at the intersection of human rights, technologies, architecture on the urban scale. The content is intended to
be an inspirational input for the creation of a possible future app linking architecture and human Rights and
it is based on pure imagination. One of the challenges of this paper will be how to report on a free chain of
powerful ideas and convey them into a base for a more academic and critical conversation.
Keywords: human rights, smart-phones, architecture, sustainable cities
INTRODUCTION
The title and the choice to report on the Milan’s brainstorming should not mislead. ARCHITECTURE AS EARLY
WARNING SYSTEM is not about computing intelligence or smart-phones. It is rather an intuition: architecture
is thoroughly connected with all types of human rights. When that connection is missing in communities,
families, individuals, and environments, cities are in the highest danger.
20 brainstormings and the participation of diverse actors came into a form of partnership to explore how
human rights in architecture lead to positive outcomes, including economic vitality, environmental
sustainability, financial viability, and human livability suggest the notion of a productive framework with
which architects, city dwellers, designers, planners could view, analyze, and engage the complex dynamics
of their work to comply with human rights in an attempt to think how architecture can support human
rights, and when human rights can offer a critique of architectural practice.
Topics of the brainstormings are: gated communities, gender equity, displacement, access to food supplies,
playgrounds and street children, disabilities and architectonic barriers, traditional values, racism, health,
slavery, minorities, migration, construction material and many others.
The participants consistently and persistently redefine the focus of the topics on the “warning” aspects of
urbanisation, while connecting ideas with each other. The discovery is that rights abuses, massive poverty
problems, medical care emergencies or drinking water shortages can all be connected to causes (among
others) related to building or architecture. Broadly speaking, human rights are dominated by legal culture
and some “rights” are quintessentially juridical. However, it becomes soon clear that a great deal of human
rights do not necessarily fall within the legal culture and its human rights practices. There are many ways in
which architects contribute to negate human rights- albeit this may not be direct. Sometimes the cruellest
violations are through acts of omission.
An estimated 650 million persons- if including the members of their families, almost a third of the world’s
population, living with disabilities are to be linked to a significant overlooked architecture challenge.
Looking at architecture through a lens of human rights calls attention to the fact that architecture is
something that often is imposed on people as an active act of discrimination and marginalisation.
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From urban renewal projects in the 50s and 60s through to water privatization and dam projects, many
communities pay a heavy price for urban and infrastructure development.
Lack of human rights are disturbances adversely affecting the stability of the physical and moral human
settings and requires that architects have an all-inclusive understanding of the human rights concerns
influencing their designs.
The interesting thing about architecture and human rights is not that there is a correlation. What we should
care about are the reasons why there is a correlation. Human rights principles are too often overlooked by
urban planners and architects resulting in unsustainable urbanisation. In the wake of this warning, it
becomes urgent to develop theories and methods that in a direct and detailed manner can address and
critically analyze the spatial and temporal productions of urban architecture. Human rights connected with
building process is not just icing on the cake. It’s not just beneficial, it’s urgent; it’s urgent because the
potential to impact local communities is all in that process of building. If failing to define how to, it can be
disruptive to the point of an unsustainable future for all of us. The metaphor of an early warning system tells
us that architecture includes a wide range of actions, interventions, programmes, activities, mechanisms to
address structural risks to prevent the escalation of unsustainable urbanisation.
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BRAINSTORMING AT DOMUS ACADEMY LAUREATE UNIVERSITIES MAY 2013, MILAN, ITALY
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that
they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the
neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such
are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity
without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere”
(Eleanor Roosevelt).
The words of Eleanor Roosevelt stir up the dust, whip some air into our stilled pools of thought, and get the
breeze of inspiration moving again. The brainstorming at DA begins with looking for Eleanor Roosevelt’s
small places. Finally we find them. They are in our pocket. They are in our cell phones. The idea is to make
human rights become the true killer app for architecture.
SMART
Apps for smart phones, tablets and other gadgets are making big urban centers feel smaller than ever,
making it easy to catch a ride, find cheap eats, check out street art and make new friends. However they
seem to overlook human rights issues. While there is a proliferation of labels, rankings, scorecards,
guidelines, and phone apps that add to almost any aspect of consumption, there is still a lack of offer on
how to inform decision making at the point of architecture and urban life choices. Today when people “use”
architecture, they generally do not inquire if the building they live in led to loss of life. Or if in the street they
shop there are toilet facilities for homeless people. Or if the garage they park their car came from tearing
down older historic housing. The app can help people figure out what apartment to live, to rent or to buy is
likely to be a good fit with human rights. In the end, architectural decisions are one of those many variables
and there is a need for human rights to open up new realms of inquiry and interpretation in urban life styles
and choices.
Similarly, with smart phone and tablet technology has come a steady stream of new apps for people in the
construction, architectural, and design trades. From color selection, measurement, calculation, and design
inspiration, the list goes on forever and in some cases enables them to do their job while on the go, but no
application whatsoever helps them to add the dimension of human rights approach as part and parcel of
the design and decision-making process.
There is a need for new innovative tools serving all construction stakeholders as a basis for strong
argumentation and allowing for more coherent and efficient negotiation processes. A tool which brings
architects and construction the foremost human rights as well as human rights watch’s in-depth reports,
allowing them to learn more about current challenges and opportunities to create change.
From empowerment of city engagement strategies to participatory service, co-design processes, inclusive
architecture, human rights urban setting. From effective methods of stimulating civic engagement and
community governance of the urban environment where public space is increasingly being taken over by
market forces and more than political persecution, environmental disaster or conflict, forced evictions are
caused by development.
SOCIAL
Smart phones use is increasing faster and faster, and using people’s voices in order to spread the cause of
human rights is a smart strategy. For instance, if people cherish their own rights – as most of them do – then
it may be wise of them to cherish the rights of others because they can reasonably hope for reciprocity. A
new mobile app to provide city dwellers with information on the go with immediate, personalized access to
the stories of the people living in areas where human rights and environmental abuses are taking place or at
risk. These are uploaded to a website which then shows the report and its location, using the phones GIS
technology, on a map as its happening. The community-based app relies on user input to determine where
human issues are located. And beyond mere maps, the app allows user to post photos and stories of their
own community. The community-based app relies on user input to determine where human issues are
located and can also be searched geographically, to find out what is happening in a user’s neighborhood. In
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order for neighborhoods to be safe and lively they depend on people who are able and willing to invest
time, energy, creativity, their presence, and their social networks in improving and enlivening local
conditions. If neighborhoods are to be safe and supportive environments for children and other
dependents, neighbors need to know and watch out for each other and feel a basic responsibility for their
environment. Neighborhoods are sustainable if they have a genuine mix of population in terms of different
kinds of interests and needs, as well as in different kinds of assets that residents have to contribute to their
neighborhood. This can also help planners and architects to understand better the impact of their work on
communities and start a dialogue with them.
NETWORKING
When the user is an architect, the application works differently. Professional values will be re-assessed and
methods and techniques for professional engagement will be developed and the ethics of practice will be
fully interrogated. Practical ideas and inspiration to architects wanting to apply the human rights approach
in their design and day-to-day work will focus on their professional tasks and locations. The app also brings
together the text of international agreements, United Nations resolutions, conventions and declarations on
a variety of topics, ranging from eviction to the economic empowerment of slum dwellers and should be
designed to allow individuals and organizations to post live reports of issues that are occurring right where
they are. An alphabetical list of search terms will enable architects to locate the most current versions and
agreed language of documents negotiated by the international community. They summarize basic
principles that can inform urban planning, policies, and programs in the process of redesigning and
redeveloping urban areas to be more gender-sensitive, inclusive, and responsive to everyone’s needs. With
this intuitive human rights architecture-matching application, the inspiration can now be translated into the
exact drivers the project is looking for. All architects have to do is snap in issues and the app suggests a
palette of norms to match plus additional solutions and case studies.
SCORED
The purpose of human rights measurement is to check progress. Using the level of importance users place
on a location’s characteristics, the app generates a list of top buildings, neighborhood, open markets, fair
trade stores, towns or cities most suitable for them. An interactive map provides a way to search
geographically and demonstrates where the hubs of innovative urbanism are unfolding. Users can also
browse with a timeline, filterable by scale and keyword, providing another access point to the content.
Concepts of human rights and user’s settings may generate recommendations for the best place to live or
areas to avoid. For most settings, there is an adjustable slider that user can move in order to give importance
to certain categories. There is a map searchable by type of problems: housing rights, other human rights,
environmental issues, historical sites, demolitions, displacement, gentrification, food security issues,
diversity and so forth. It could also be searched geographically, to find out what is happening in a user’s
neighborhood. The community-based app relies on user input to determine where human issues are
located.
Looking to such places as described by Eleanor Roosevelt, every architect will need to find inspiration from
the human rights to explore new building paths and establish new architecture models with the goal of
achieving the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.
Design always begins with the mind conceiving a question, rationalizing the context, understanding the
ethic and ends with the imagining of a solution. Our best wish is architects to overtake the brainstorming’s
metaphor and pass the challenge over them.
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BRAINSTORMING PARTICIPANTS:
Tapana Choochartpong, Thailand

Carmen Gisella Cianci, USA/Italy
Jenai Kavarana, India
Tanya Khosla, India
Taylan Kılıç, Turkey
Yu-Wei Kuo, Taiwan
Yihan Liao, Taiwan
Lauren McCullogh, USA
Ekaterina Merzlikina, Russia
Manassanun Noksakul, Thailand
Putthikoon Penwan, Thailand
Ju Li, China
Ng Yin Seng, Singapore
Pascucci Denim, Canada
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ARCHITECTURE IN THE BORDERLANDS - UNSUSTAINABILITY IN THE AFTERLIFE OF COLONIALISM AND
DESIGNING THE CITY OF SUSTAINMENT
Dr. Eleni Kalantidou, Prof. Tony Fry, Griffith University, e.kalantidou@griffith.edu.au
Abstract
Borderlands are places that used to be part of the colonial or developing countries discourse and currently
experience the afterlife of their imposed existence. They experience unsustainability as more than the biophysical
impacts of the city; they face its modes of defuturing via structures of socio-economic classification, physical and
cognitive de-skilling, population growth and ghettoisation, artificialisation of food, surveillance and exclusion. By
ontologically designing their inhabitants, borderland cities nourish conditions of conflict and survivalism, which
will subsequently lead to revolt and chaos. Despite being perceived as destined to become non-places or ghost
cities, borderland cities could consist of a paradigm of sustainment and social resilience, ecology and values of the
Common. Part of this proposal is the introduction of the borderland city as the reconfigured space of learning in
the framework of unlearning and relearning, by adopting as its main educational platform praxis deriving from
theory, re-coding of need and desire and establishment of design concepts such as metrofitting, re-use and
elimination by design. In this context, the implications of the contemporary global unsettlement due to climate
change and geopolitical conditions will be addressed and the role of architecture as a re-directive practice will be
discussed under the burden of urban dysfunctionality and population endangerment.
Keywords: city, borderlands, unsustainability, unsettlement, colonialism.
INTRODUCTION
Architecture is deeply embedded in the extension of the status quo. It extends it by ever delivering ‘the
new’, is directed by the wishes of the client, complies with the codes, standards and market norms. It awards
accolades to its own, remains seduced by style and exercises its conscience via token humanitarian gestures.
What architecture does not do (and by implication what architects do not do) is to except responsibility for,
and deal with what the profession has brought into being (from heat-sink cities to over
sized/engineered/aestheticized/priced commercial structures; from domestic developments that no
architect on the planet would dream of living in to ego-expressive monuments to themselves, and more).
Meanwhile in a world moving toward the proliferating consequences of a changing climate the status quo is
under threat (Dyer 2008). Within this situation the dominant domain of architectural practice, the city, is
increasingly in flux. The city is becoming of and in a borderland (Fry 2014). This is to say, the cultural diversity
and economic inequity of many cities is resulting in the formation of conditions of cultural and economic
exchange that produce a hybrid mode of being, a betweenness, a tension, that is neither ‘the One’ or ‘the
Other’. This ‘development’ has of course been in play now for decades and in many cases has its causal roots
in the break-up of colonial empires post World War Two (Legg 2007, Mitchell 1991, Sims 2012). Layering
onto this urban ecology are the increasing numbers of cities that now find themselves between what they
were/are and a precarious future in which their survival is not assured. Thus what is emerging, what is new, is
the arrival of a borderland where people who lost their nation of belonging, and who made a space in which
to belong in a foreign city are at risk of losing it. Both the city and these people are between placement and
displacement. Moreover, as informal settlement grows in cities at risk so existence in such a borderland will
proliferate (Fry 2014). Effectively, colonialism is meeting unsustainability and becoming a unified defuturing
force. Within that, there is a great necessity for the recognition of poverty and social and environmental
destruction.
What has just been sketched is a negation that underpins the conceptual poverty of the vast majority of
architects (progressive and conservative) – a poverty brought to the environmental landscape of sustainable
architecture. Put simply: architects pursue the sustainable (a ‘good’ move) while turning away from the
visage of the unsustainable as it was and is becoming (an act of idiocy). Likewise, the city as a warzone is also
cast outside the remit of how the city is projected as an object of sight and experience (Graham 2010). Come
to think of it, working under the auspices of the likes of ‘post-urbanism’, ‘new-urbanism’, green urbanism’ or
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‘sustainable urbanism’, are other markers of the abandonment of sustaining of that which most needs being
sustained (Fry 2014).
By design, the way our cities are presented misleads – fragments are projected as if they formed a whole.
Beauty conceals destruction, function the imminence of disaster, expressed wealth the depth of poverty,
excess the extent of waste, order the presence of disorder, operability the vulnerability of technological
dependence. Above all, as we hear from the past as it foretells the future, the city is the illusion of
permanence – whereas it is but a passing moment, which may be brief or linger. Cities fail, fall, crumble,
decay, are destroyed, abandoned, are washed away. Consequently, there is no stable urban foundation on
this planet and permanence is an illusion. That ‘we’ act as if this were so, is merely an indicator of how little
‘we’ understand of the fundamental nature of time as change within planetary and cosmic dynamics. All
such complexity has nothing to do with us, but it does. We are part of it. It is elemental to ‘our worlds’, we
are makers or unmakers of our futures in it. Moreover, in all our difference, we now find ourselves in a
moment that is exposing that we are in fact unmaking the conditions upon which we depend. In this
moment of defuturing (understood as the temporality of unsustainability), we can only continue to be (a
viable species) if we make another way, a making of adaptation in order to make time and futures. Cities are
‘pressure cookers’, especially those with the greatest inequality and largest informal segments; this is our
distributed challenge, a challenge than can only arrive and be worked upon in fragments. Certainly it can
arrive as a particular project (and needs to made to do so as such), but mostly it comes/will come to
presence as a task and imperative (as the people who live in the delta region of Bangladesh affirm).
The need for food, shelter, thermal comfort, kindness and care are not mere needs but a directive force able
to be collectivized and mobilized. Herein resides the basis of praxis: understandable as the collectivization of
such needs as they become articulated within the remit of sustainment, to form the basis of action be design
(Fry 2011).
MOMENT ONE: ARCHITECTURE IN THE BORDERLANDS AS THE ARCHITECTURE OF BETWEENNESS
We, all of us, are between then and now – the move to the first city some 7,000 years ago (Uruk, in Southern
Mesopotamia) remains a still unending journey to urbanization, which, if completed, leads to the end (the
question is of what). It took our species over 150,000 years to commence this journey. Arrival for many has
not been as coming to ‘a place’ but in the indeterminacy of the existence in a borderland. The passage from
non-settlement to settlement may well never be completed, for the consequences of settlement (for
instance, the impacts of unchecked accumulation) have opened into an epoch of unsettlement, a condition
of being, ontology and psychology in formation that folds into, and extends, the borderland (Kalantidou &
Fry 2014).
Of course the emergence of unsettlement does not arrive as a general and uniform condition, rather it
comes in the vast differences of inequity, time and place. Four very different examples, and borderland loci,
make to point.
Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia on the island of Java, is a fated city. As with all cities it is a city that exists
between now and the event/moment of its eventual destruction. Many, most, cities never contemplate
moment, but Jakarta cannot be one of them. The population of the greater metropolitan area is now over 26
million. The City will not survive, at best, in a way anything like it is, or, at worst, at all. How long has it got? If
things go very badly, maybe 50-80 years, if they go well, perhaps 150-200 years. Why? Jakarta is a sinking
delta city exposed to sea level rises (a great deal of it is below sea level) and it is subject to regular and severe
flooding. The city is at a point where 13 rivers converge, the clearing of coastal mangroves has increased its
exposure to storm surges, the hills above the city have been cleared for development and so speed run-off
en route to the streets, it is in a cyclone prone area and the volcanic island of Java is on an earthquake fault
line. In other words, Jakarta is and increasingly will be, an unsettled city in matter, mind and body. As this it is
one of many. Globally some 750,000 million coastal dwellers are deemed to be at risk from sea level rises
with 200,000 displaced by 2050 (Skretteberg 2009). More recent evidence provided by the European Space
Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite, demonstrated the rapid acceleration of the melting of the Antarctic glaciers
leading to sea levels rises that could ultimately reach four metres and consequently erase from the surface of
the earth countless coastal inhabited cities (Carrington 2014).
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Dhaka is another delta city that exists in another moment of betweenness. It exists in a condition where
climate change and sea level rise place it in a space of defence and abandonment. Unsettlement here is that
moment between the ‘now’ (where adaptive practices, like rising houses to a level where they will not be
inundated, are already underway) and the unknown ‘then’ when the city, in part or in whole, will become
unliveable. Just as the people in the crowed island of Java have nowhere to go, so it is for the people of the
delta region of Bangladesh; they will not be welcome in the hill county, which is the only place they could
go. The reason for this is stark: India has built a high-tech fence along its border, patrolled by soldiers,
thousands of kilometres long, to keep them out.
Cities everywhere are now actual or potential warzones – in this respect, everywhere is a New York,
Baghdad, or Bogota – fear is posited with and in the borderland. In effect, if by degree, we now live in a
world of expressed or repressed fear where the environment has been weaponised: planes, trains, buildings
have all become actual or potential death delivery systems. Fear, threats and risks such as the invasion of the
informal have been militarizing the city: a ‘climate’ of thought or real omnipresent danger has produced
omnipotent techno-culture of surveillance (sometimes visible, mostly not). Life now becomes lived between
a false sense of security and the shadow of insecurity – bag searching and electronic screening at airports,
and government building; city-wide CCTV cameras; para-military police armed with submachine guns at
airports, ports, special political or sporting events all come together to make the dialectic of
reassurance/security-disconcertion/insecurity as a very evident feature of the everyday unsettlement of
everywhere (Graham 2010).
The betweenness of settlement and unsettlement takes many other forms. Like the hot, dry, windy, and
cyclone prone town of Port Hedland, a place from where Australian mining companies ship huge volumes of
the iron ore extracted from Western Australia mines to China (Fry and Kalantidou 2012). These mines
depend upon a very large number of ‘Fly-In/Fly-Out (FIFO)’ workers. To reduce costs, it has been proposed
the town to become a city of 50,000 to 100,000 plus inhabitants. How to attract this number of people to the
remote and inhospitable place is one issue; an even larger issue arrives once it is understood that these
people are to be invited to settle in a condition of unsettlement. Underscoring this statement is the fact that
the iron ore deposit will be exhausted in 40-80 years. The place has little else going for it. It will all but die.
These examples are not simply geographically specific conditions of the present but more generally
harbingers of more generic forms of the future that demands another kind of design thinking and action to
current modes from architecture, planning and urban design. The examples stand as challenges to the
status quo. They stand before architects as just one of the manifestations of an agenda that they have to
learn to address, that is whereas architecture will become part of the solution to the unfolding human
condition, which deludes itself as it currently is and is most evident with so often ‘sustainable architecture’
being implicated in sustaining the unsustainable.
MOMENT TWO: ARCHITECTURE, REDIRECTION AND THE BRIEF - A PROVOCATION AND A CHALLENGE
The appeal to architects to create and execute an agenda of the redirective transformation of ‘what is now’
demands a new economy of practice, new knowledge, another mind-set, and a much greater acceptance of
the futural responsibility. By implication this means the very nature of the brief changes. There are starting
places that are not based on an NGO ‘doing good’ voluntarism.
Architecture has so far contributed to a dystopia that still hasn’t been recognized as such, without meeting
the necessity for addressing ways of turning it into a viable topos where humanity, based on conditions
previously described, stands a chance of surviving. The available discourse of sustainability and the
positivistic scenarios in which, technological interventions will enable the continuation of an ever lasting
culture and economy of destructive ‘consumption’ and destruction all based upon a politics, fragmented
disciplines, practices and behaviours, have been developed out of the historicity of Eurocentrism,
anthropocentrism and colonialism. The modern perception of life, where empiricism and reason conquer all,
still allows the avoidance of confronting the uncontrollable unbalance that Western modernity has caused in
the biosphere, wealth distribution and value of human life. Even though there are scattered voices coming
from different fields of intellectual activity, underlying the necessity for change, an accurate representation
of what is and what is going to be hasn’t surfaced yet. But there are known futures to be faced.
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Subsequently, this generates the need for a re-directive approach based on a clear understanding of what
demands redirection, not as an undoing mechanism but as a new discourse that adopts a philosophy of life
that could enable the possibility of a future. The action of destroying established beliefs and habits and
empowering new practices that could support human existence requires the employment of a variety of
strategies, including a re-directive brief, which will have as a specific role the revealing of the
dysfunctionality of the present and the potential of effectively preventing an undesirable collapse. The re-
directive brief’s purpose is a constant shifting to what needs to be revealed so as to empower the effort to
sustain what needs to be sustained, eliminate what needs to be eliminated, recode and reuse what needs to
be recoded and reused. This task is very specific in its abstractness (Fry 2009).
The first step is to confront what is; the meaning of the nature of the contemporary condition of defuturing,
or put differently, the negation of acknowledging how certain human activities and behaviours are
shortening the duration of humanity and the predictability of their outcomes. Following this, the re-directive
brief’s goal, as a key strategy, is to point out the ineffectiveness and failure of the measures taken by
governments, organizations and practitioners in the name of neo-liberalism and populism; to counteract the
exhaustion of natural resources, and impacts of climate change, unsettlement, war, poverty and inequity; to
intervene all by exposing the reality of a present wherein unchecked economic growth still rules,
borderlands become more and more distinct out of conditions of inhabitability, conflict, surveillance and
exploitation, and as a consequence, unsettlement becomes a condition of permanence. Stating that a
construction of a new conceptual ‘tool’ will provide solutions to the predominant problems of Western,
developing and underdeveloped societies is not the case here. On the contrary, the purpose of a re-directive
brief is to alter profound notions of practices that in the alarming context of defuturing beg for
repositioning.
Consider the case of architecture and how it is perceived to be by itself, by its representatives and its
recipients, a symbol of permanence in illusory structural conditions of permanence (the city). Architecture’s
architectonic over the last two hundred years, has proven to be rigid, a structure of knowledge that
everything is predetermined and predefined, a statement of immovability. By keeping alive a conceptual
predisposition in tune with modernity’s narrative, it refuses to identify the failure of building just for the sake
of it.
Still, by retaining its position as a fashionable practice, it fails to recognize that the adoption of ‘greener’
practices and building structures that consume less energy don’t respond to the crucial political, economic
and psychosocial issues that affect populations globally; by perpetuating a condition of permanence
through iconic structures and lack of suitable planning for the lifecycle of buildings according to climate
change, population mobility, food scarcity and uncontrolled urbanization, it becomes a hindrance, an
additional factor that contributes to, rather than working to counter, a defuturing future. As a discipline it is
unable to recognize the need for itself, and all others, to be redirected, and re-formed in order to be able to
conceptualize and develop viable new suggestions of dwelling and community living. In this specific
instance, the creation of a re-directive brief is of critical importance in relation to architecture, as initially an
indicator of an ‘education in error’, an outdated pedagogy, irrelevant to the contemporary requirements
that architecture could serve and fulfil (Readings 1997, Semetsky 2008). Secondly, it would address the
issues of cities without a future, cities of the borderland and cities that do have a future providing they will
be redesigned, un-designed and have their defuturing elements erased from the urban milieu in order to
make flexible and tolerable environments for inhabitants. Overarching all these interventions is the
subordination of architecture to an economic activity, ways of life and culture that are futural.
Demonstrating the obvious, that ‘do no harm’ does not apply only to medical but all practices, is
consequently a confrontation of the imperative of redirection; the ethical dimension of redirection that
should currently be not an option but a prerequisite. According to Max Weber “the grandiose rationalism of
an ethical and methodical conduct of life flows from every religious prophecy…in favour of the “one thing
that is needful” (Weber 2009, pp. 148-149); guessing that this one thing is anthropocentrism, all human
actions and human ethics are driven by what every era designates as best for humanity, usually in the name
of nation or empire, religion and family. This recognition usually stays anesthetized along with its ethical
implications. Henceforth, the re-directive brief is one medium to make apparent to people their intrinsic
need to interpret the milieu in which they exist based on a certain kind of humanness, the one that
constructs their fundamental beliefs. It is also about making them realize in which actions this has led them
to and with what consequences. Ethics in the framework of design should not be voluntary but internally
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binding, coming from an overwhelming understanding that the designed always incorporates “a state of
Being” (Heidegger 1962, p. 244), which enables an ontological condition of care that it is transformed into a
material practice via ‘things that care’.
In view of this fact, the re-directive brief is not and cannot be a fixed entity. The recognition of the ever-
transforming nature of the designed positions the re-directive brief influx. The new that arrives continually
redefines the brief and adds to its efficacy. It cannot be standardized because of the ever evolving dynamic
of design and the ever-changing being of the designed, of ‘that’ which it is, communicated to people
according to an understanding of a certain temporality (Heidegger 1977). The changes that designed
entities go through in the course of their history define their inner truth that seeks to be unconcealed by
humans in order to be able to grasp their own being -in contemporary terms- their own survival. This task is
very specific in its abstractness. It refers to existing examples of design that demonstrate a lack of
perspective, a fear of time and a denial of actuality with the most representative being the aforementioned
cases of Jakarta and Dhaka but also modern cities such as Port Hedland and New York or otherwise, the
‘metapolis’, a realm that promotes the colonization of time (Virilio and Lotringer 2008), the annihilation of
physical boundaries and the Private, that can’t protect neither provide, that doesn’t stand still but its
structurally unmovable. Going back to architecture’s agenda and the requirement of a re-directive brief, the
specificity of the task lies in the border of betweenness of what the city is and what needs to become.
Against this framework, metrofitting (retrofitting at an urban scale and across every material and immaterial
sphere of urban life) becomes an example of a large-scale situated mechanism, which provides the
possibility of viability in a context of dramatically different conditions. This process of change is a platform of
praxis that delivers conceptual support and organizational directives addressed to all levels of modern
hierarchy, from national authorities to unofficial communities who live and breathe within the urban sprawl.
Engaging different strata to the project of sustainment, eradicating their imposed hierarchical differences
and putting people to a position of taking accountability for what needs to be altered now and in the long
run is the initial part of the task. Metrofitting is all about recognizing the interrelatedness of all aspects of
living in the city in the context of climate change, war, inequity and unsettlement and adapting to what
these conditions necessitate environmentally, economically, organizationally and psychosocially.
Adaptation requires an evaluation of what the locality has to offer and how this can be financially viable in
the future, how communities can be strengthened in order to welcome new comers from devastated
environments (for example, war or environmental refugees) and what aspects of the city are endangering
the life of its inhabitants or could endanger it in an upcoming disaster in terms of health, physical structures
and social disparities.
The next step entails imagination grounded upon existing potentials that need to be tracked down and
mapped as to create and develop a narrative of a future metrofitted city. The execution of a metrofitting
plan involves a change of established regimes of rules and requirements and a redirection of the practices
used and the mentality hidden behind the design process. Designing for metrofitting is not an aesthetic
exercise structured upon abundance. On the contrary, it is a confrontation with all that threatens and, as
such, demands the employment of architectural skills within a trans-disciplinary milieu, in relation to
technologically low impact activities, the adoption of vernacular practices adjusted to the locality, the
possibility of the urban fabric enabling urban farming, the introduction of passive heating and cooling and
the re-code of spaces as communal and environmentally responsive. Moreover, it also requires an address to
fundamental issues and conditions of inequity. Despite the description of a situation that hasn’t arrived yet,
it is not speculative for an imaginary city but an example of the application of the re-directive brief in a large
urban context.
MOMENT THREE: AFTER ARCHITECTURE, UNLEARNING/RELEARNING/NEW LEARNING AND THE CITY

OF SUSTAINMENT
The City of Sustainment is not a utopian vision. It is not a ‘sustainable technology’ wonderland. Rather, it is
‘what already is’ redirected as a matter and idea. It is a thinking to be brought to the city. Intellectually it
means asking and answering what needs to and can be redirected in the contexts that have been outlined
to make the city more environmentally, economically, socially, and culturally resilient (defined as ‘the
capacity to deal with what the past and present have determined as the forces of the future to be coped
with’). To be able to do this requires the deconstruction of the very conceptual and operational foundations
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of the city and thereafter a reconstruction on the basis of the imperatives of Sustainment. So
comprehended, it is also responsibility, framed by what the present can see coming from the future,
enacted.
Translating this understanding into practical action requires the formation of a new design sensibility,
informed by an understanding of fated, borderland and potentially viable cities, as well as modes of strategic
intervention in practice (like the use of the re-directive brief), that can in a variable context of informed
process:
- unmake much of the city and in so doing create the means to remake it. The implication here is that
unmaking is not just a material act upon the fabric of the city (although it in part may be) but is
equally the unmaking of dysfunctional social and cultural conditions – this with whatever social and
cultural capital remains (or can be appropriated) to remake and sustain a potential for futurally
viable social and cultural life. In this context dealing with poverty, crime and violence are deemed as
much as a part of the address to the unsustainable as are climate change, deforestation, hyper-
consumption etc.
- learn to identify and devise the means to eliminate as much as of what negates the futural viability
of urban life as possible, and thereafter appropriately and situationally deal with what has been
abandoned. To be able to do this obviously means that the identification of ‘what negates’ requires
a rigorous method of inquiry that goes well beyond the instrumentally self-evident (traffic
congestion, the excessive use of potable water, the production of huge volumes of non-organic
waste going to landfill, bad land use, a massive non-renewable energy load and so on). An example
of one of the most pressing actions in this context is perhaps the ‘re-scaling’ of the city (via spatial
compression, clearing and re-designated use). This is an action that can only happen if prefigured
by the creation of a new mode of urban governance and law.
- transform modes of education currently operative (education so understood is not viewed as the
acquisition of knowledge but more fundamentally as the ontological designing of our mode of
being-in-the-world; in this respect there is no distinction between parenting, play and schooling).
The redesign of education thus becomes an absolute imperative, not on the basis that everyone can
be re-educated or educated in a new paradigm but rather that the world would become a different
place and world-making would become a different thing, if a sufficient critical mass of ‘new learners’
existed. The key to education remade is the formation of ecologies of mind predicated upon
relational understanding rather than divisions of knowledge. Undoubtedly, specialist knowledge
will always be needed but it has to be under the direction of ‘a fundamental understanding’ of what
is necessary to know in order to be a knowing being.
- comprehend the phenomenal forms that mediate worldly encounter. From Plato’s (cited in
Heidegger 1998) ‘allegory of the cave’ exposited in The Republic to the contemporary insights of
Michel Foucault, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and others, it has been recognized that our relation to the
world is mediated aesthetically. The world arrives for us via perceptually prefigured modes of
seeing, hearing, smell and touch. The transformation to sustainment, the transformation of the city,
cannot come to be without aesthetic destruction, recreation and a new truth that displaces
practices of deception (from the forms of facades to computer interfaces).
CONCLUSION: THE CITY OF SUSTAINMENT IS NOT A THING IN PLACE
Design as it has been framed by what has been said is not ‘an output’ or ‘a specific practice’, rather it is a
redirective process of dealing with the designed worlds of human existence that in significant part negate
the future potential of our being (design so understood is thus deeply implicated in the essence of the
unsustainable); it does not deliver anything ‘finished’ (Tonkinwise 2005). What this indicates is that it is an
unending work. Moreover, brought to the city and the notion of sustainment, what this work itself
symbolizes is the unsettling of the city as it is and the commencement of a process of reconfiguration that
starts to remake what a city is, from its current condition (in its difference). Our circumstances of
unsettlement, the rise of borderland, the prospect of the loss of cities and the transformation of those that
will remain cannot be resolved by trying to stabilize the status quo. It has gone. The time of the measure of
our task, our work, design is not identifiable by calculation. It is the time of our existence. It ends with us.
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REFERENCES
Carrington, D., 2014. ‘Doubling of Antarctic ice loss revealed by European satellite’, The Guardian, 20 May,
viewed 1 June 2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/19/doubling-of-antarctic-ice-loss-revealed-by-european-
satellite.
Dyer, G., 2008. Climate wars, Scribe, Melbourne.
Fry, T., 2011. Design as politics, Berg, London.
Fry, Tony, f/c 2014. City futures in the age of a changing climate, Routledge, Oxford.
Fry, T & Kalantidou, E., (eds) 2012. Futuring Port Hedland, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane.
Graham, S., 2010. Cities under siege, Verso, London.
Heidegger, M., 1962. Being and time, trans. J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Harper and Row, New York.
Heidegger, M., 1977. The question concerning technology, trans. W Lovitt, Garland, New York.
Heidegger, M., 1998. Pathmarks, ed. and trans. W McNeill, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Kalantidou, E& Fry, T., (eds) 2014. Design in the borderlands, Routledge, Oxford.
Legg, S., 2007. Spaces of colonialism, Blackwell, London.
Mitchell, T., 1991. Colonising Egypt, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Readings, B., 1996. The university in ruins, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Sims, D., 2012. Understanding Cairo, American University Cairo, Cairo.

Semetsky, I., (ed) Nomadic education, Sense Publications, Rotterdam.
Skretteberg, R., (ed) 2009. Norwegian Refugee Council Report, NRC, Oslo.
Tonkinwise, C., 2005. ‘Ethics by design, or the ethos of things’, Design Philosophy Papers, Collection Two, pp.
49-58.
Virilio, P & Lotringer, S., 2008. Pure war, Semiotext (e), Los Angeles, CA.
Weber, M., 2009. From Max Weber: essays in sociology, Routledge, Oxford.
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ENGAGING DESIGN WITH SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL RESILIENCE. A CASE STUDY FROM
CAIRO’S CITY OF THE DEAD
Costanza La Mantia, Postdoc Fellow/University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa,

costanza.lamantia@wits.ac.za
Abstract
The City of the Dead is the name of Cairo’s historic cemeteries. They are both part of the incredibly rich
architectural heritage of the city and one of the most populated informal settlements in a city where 75% of
housing is informal. They are a unique case of an extraordinary coexistence between living and dead people, but
also one of the few green infrastructures of the city, rich in vegetation, water wells and water tables. This paper is
an account of a long collaborative research project, culminating in the production of a participatory "counter-
vision" of the future of Cairo’s historic cemeteries. A vision inspired by the principles of urban resilience in all its
connotations, and triggered by a series of small experimental projects developed together with the inhabitants. In
reflecting on this experience in Cairo, this paper sets a series of questions around the role of design in the complex
contemporary urban scenario: How can we impact resilient transformations in cities while using far fewer
resources to address more people's needs? What is the role of design in operationalizing sustainability and
resilience principles within this highly multi and interdisciplinary framework?
Keywords: socio-ecological resilience, urban cultural landscape, design as a trigger of change.
INTRODUCTION
My experience in Cairo: a journey into complexity

Having long lived and worked in Cairo, an extraordinary, complex and, in some ways resilient city, I started to
develop a fascination for complex systems and informal dynamics; the deep implications of the resilience
theory for urban disciplines brought me to re-examine several years of previous work performed in Cairo
under a new lens.
There, I was involved in a 3-year international research project called ‘Living in the City of the Dead’, started
in 2009 as a partnership between the Milan Polytechnic, the NGO Liveinslums and the Ayn-Shams University
in Cairo (2009-2011). Within this research we developed a complex and in-depth analysis of the City of Dead
(or Al-Qarafa), a quite peculiar informal settlement in Cairo. The results of this first research project, together
with the relationship forged with the inhabitants, pushed the NGO Liveinslums to start another project, with
the intention of producing short term and long-term actions and strategies supporting the inhabitants of
the area. This second project was called ‘Inside the City of the Dead’ (2011 - ongoing) and it is the one from
which most of the data, provisional results, and graphic material used in this paper are taken, and from
which many of my considerations on the process are inspired and rooted in.
Not only is the City of the Dead a place of refuge for low-income residents, but it is also a unique urban
cultural landscape (Barthel et al. 2005). The long and articulated experience in the City of the Dead, rich in
anthropological and social values, tangible and intangible heritage, and lush with green spaces and water
sources (scarce in the city) – pushed me to work in a cross and inter-disciplinary context, challenging my
background and the traditional knowledge on disciplinary boundaries, by forcing me to navigate a hybrid
role: researcher, urban planner, urban designer, facilitator, strategist, negotiator and more. The highly
complex and conflicting situation surrounding al-Qarafa made me wonder if – in the light of the resilience
theory – we should maybe try to re-focus the planning process as a sort of open-ended one, and explore the
supportive role that design can play in this new framework.
Resilience theory and its implications in urban disciplines

True sustainable development is about achieving a balance between several objectives (environmental,
economic, social and cultural) over dynamic time and spatial horizons, advocating holism versus
reductionism (Hellströmet et al. 2000). A deep understanding about how urbanization can be directed
requires considering cities as complex socio-ecological systems. This implies a shift in the focus on
increasing the urban capacity for renewal, re-organization and re-development (Gunderson and Holling
2002, Berkes et al. 2003) by thinking about urban resilience as the path to sustainability.
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Urban planners, economists, and sociologists have described cities as self-organizing systems in which
emergent bottom-up processes create distinct neighbourhoods and unplanned demographic, socio-
economic, and physical clusters. On the other side, ecologists and social scientists have studied emergent
ecological and social phenomena, without exploring the landscape-level implications of interactions
between social and ecological agents (Alberti 2008). New models of thinking are subsequently needed to
face a world of such rapid changes.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Searching for an integrative perspective

Theories are meant to provide structure for understanding. If complexity theory enabled us to see the world
under a different light, resilience theory presents a new way of viewing outcomes and place value on these
intangible outcomes, helping urban planning processes in focusing on qualitative concepts over traditional
quantitative data when making decisions.
Most theories fail to demonstrate sufficient understanding of the interrelations and interdependencies of
social, economic and environmental considerations, resulting in a wide gap between theories and practices
when shaping sustainable urban development. The resilience approach is both relevant and appropriate to
the study of sustainable urban development because it provides a flexible framework: one responsive to
issues of scale, context, time, and changing social, cultural and environmental conditions.
Goldstein (2009), arguing about the need of an integrative perspective between social ecological sciences
and planning, proposes the concept of “communicative resilience” as a conceptual foundation for shared
work across the two fields. He states that as urban disciplines could benefit from acquiring the socio-
ecological perspective, resilience thinking could benefit from experimental planning thinking and design
disciplines for better understanding the dialectic between social–ecological dynamics, collective knowledge,
identity and space (Goldstein 2009).
When we look at how the issue of urban resilience is framed from the urban design perspective, we can refer
to Lister’s definition of “adaptive ecological design” (Lister 2007). She developed such a definition starting
from the proposition that certainty and control of traditional planning and design approaches does not
correspond to systems like cities, since they are complex socio-ecological systems. This definition, linked
with the “collaborative urban design” framework (Corner 1999, Czerniak 2007), brings us to Hargreaves’s
statement about how participatory processes are able to draw “schemes that are most resilient to feedback
are the most likely to survive” (Hargreaves 2007, p. 223). Hargreaves also says that when resilience is taken to
a design and management context is how the tension “between efficiency and persistence, constancy and
change, and predictability and unpredictability” is handled (Hargreaves 2007, p. 216) and thus suggests to
frame the design process as a collaborative one set in a shared social learning process. Similar positions are
held by Berrizbeitia (2007) – an American urban designer and landscape architect working with the
collaborative design approach.
Pickett, Cadenasso et al. (2004), exploring new tools to help improve the link between urban planning,
urban design and ecology, propose an interesting methodology based on the “emergent metaphor”
framework. Metaphors play an important role in science, being a tool of exploration and discovery, and
providing new ways of discovering structure within novel or unfamiliar situations by relating them to
familiar experiences (Ashkenazi 2006). In this framework, first a meaning of the metaphor (core definition)
must be articulated, and then modelling strategies to translate the abstract definition to specific cases must
be used (see Pickett, Cadenasso et al. 2004). In Pickett’s conceptual methodology, the powerful metaphor of
“cities of resilience” – proposed by an urban planner and an ecologist (Musacchio and Wu 2002) - helps in
searching for parallel layers of connotation of social ecology and urban disciplines, to advance the links
between ecological science and the practice of urban design and planning. With this methodological
framework - aiming at re-conceptualizing resilience in a design perspective – Pickett states that both the
metaphor and technical definition of resilience begin to point toward the enhanced integration of ecology,
social science and urban design, but he also calls for a further improvement of this methodological model
from planning and design perspectives.
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In Pickett’s framework one of the most relevant implications in linking ecology with design is that human
perception, learning, and resultant actions are a part of the human ecosystem (Picket et al. 2004). This calls
into question the capacity of human ecosystems to learn from the process itself, evolving their current state
toward a better condition, and it is here that the powerfulness of the Resilience metaphor can help to have a
different perspective, to shape the decision making processes and converge toward common goals, defining
new forms of alliances around shared strategies and shaping parallel forms of adaptive governance.
The metaphor of City of Resilience used in Pickett’s interdisciplinary researches and case studies (Pickett et
al. 2006) recalls the wider concept of Urban Resilience, allowing one to acquire an integrative perspective by
implying the parallel framing of a complex system of factors affecting urban transformations. Similarly, a
thematic framework for urban resilience research developed by the Resilience Alliance (an international
research organization specializing in resilience research) sees urban resilience capacity emerging from the
interaction among four wide thematic focuses: Built environment, Metabolic Flows, Social Dynamics, and
Governance Networks. This thematic framework can help in naming and framing this complex system of
factors, and in exploring the complex dynamics of socio-ecological systems that shape urban resilience
capacity.
Figure 1: The four interconnected research themes for urban resilience research (Resilience Alliance 2007).
Cairo’s Al Qarafa: A complex, socio-ecological, urban cultural landscape

Al Qarafa (called the City of the Dead by foreigners) occupies 7.6 km2 on the eastern edge of Cairo, and has
been used as a cemetery from the eighth century onwards. Over the centuries, Al Qarafa grew into a multi-
purpose zone, creating a combination of monumental domed and vaulted structures dating from as early as
the 9th century, as well as contemporary clusters of informal dwellings.
With residential clusters, markets, religious schools, Sufi hostels and small workshops, it has diverse
functions beyond those associated with a burial site. Even most of the ancient and monumental tombs are
inhabited, since the tombs have family burial courtyards with spaces for overnight accommodation,
residential, commercial, and industrial structures. Cohabitation between living and dead people has always
characterized this unique place, and today there is no reliable statistic as to the number of inhabitants.
The residents of al-Qarafa live inside a funerary building typology called a Hosh, in structures or multi-storey
buildings built upon the Hosh’s foundations, and in makeshift informal homes on the borders of the
cemetery. In some cases, residents illegally occupy the tombs, but frequently, the legal owners eventually
acknowledge the squatters’ role as the Hosh’s guardians and maintainers.
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* toilets
* 1st room
eir
* green patio
* tomb access
* main entrance
* 2nd room
* secondary entrance
* funerary chamber
(underground)
Common
Figure 2: Axonometric view of the most common typology of Hosh, "hosh"
the funerary typology
building.
Today, its ancient monuments are falling into disrepair and its population struggling to sustain itself. Despite
the fact that the cemeteries are an integral part of the city, during the last century they have been blocked
from the rest of the city andThe
igins of the inhabitants adjacent neighbourhoods,
characters of reflecting
other spatially
shanty the towns
social neglect
areand alienation
that the rest of Cairo's inhabitants have developed toward the people living in the area. This physical
delineation
13% born into
totally absent here:
the cemeteries makes it easier to identify the cemeteries as a unique, complex and spatially defined urban
system, which, for all the above-mentioned
• residential characters,
areasisaredefinable
not as an urban cultural landscape (Barthel et
overcrowded,
al. 2005), made up of complex cultural, natural and social systems, and characterized by very peculiar
87% cominggovernance
from other areasones.
of Cairo
• the cemetery has a recognizable and
ordered structure
• Social systems
• it encompassing
Al-Qarafa is a rich cultural centre, is full of beautiful
pilgrimage sitesmonuments, historic
and historic buildings from throughout the
millennia, and is one of Cairo’sstratifications
fastest growing informal
and settlements
rich urban – though estimates for the current
fabrics
jor causes ofpopulation
settlement are hard to gauge, ranging from 200,000 to 800,000. The area is rich in open spaces, in which the
community develops various• activities
it is fullwithout
of green
formal areas.
support or facilities. Despite the size of al-Qarafa’s
Qarafa bourgeoning
n° population,
% public services are scant.
Moreover, comparing it to other cemeteries,
of alternatives Cairo 1000 64 City of the Dead
er house too small 27 1.8
the dryness of climate and soil has made
he family Populati Population
these places more “adapted” for living. How-
rates too high on 169 11.3 (2008)
pse of the previous (2008) 116 7.7
ever ‘living in 600.000
a tomb’- is still a taboo for the
e 17,8 800.000 citizens, which perceive
rest of the of Cairo’s
imity to the workplacemillions92 6.6
ing inside the cemeteries 182 12.1 the cemetery as the extreme and degraded
g nearby the family 422 28.1 margin of the city.
The City of the Dead is also an unique urban landscape, characterizing the Cairo skyline
Density Density
36.500/km² 2.300/km²
Figure 3: Diagrams showing the density of Cairo and of the City of the Dead.
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Inside the City of the Dead 1.2
!
• Natural systems
The cemeteries are full of green spaces both amongst the buildings and inside them, making the site one of
the few green lungs of the city. Beautiful historic mosques, gardens, patios and some green farms and
nurseries also comprise the urban fabric of Al-Qarafa. In the Muslim tradition plants, trees and vegetation are
part of religious landscapes, therefore the fabric of the Islamic cemeteries are dotted with small gardens,
green spaces and trees along the streets and inside the monumental tombs.
Cairo
City of the Dead
0 2,5 5 10 15
Km
Figure 4: Al-Qarafa is sided by Al-Ahzar Park, the main green area of Cairo. Mosques gardens, patios and some
green farms and nurseries also comprise the urban fabric of al-Qarafa, decreasing urban density and being an
important part of the urban ecological networks.
Two of Cairo’s 13 natural springs (Ayn al-Syra and Ayn al-Khiala) are located in the southeastern section of al-
Qarafa, and they form consistent reservoirs. Despite being some of
Cairo’s main water reserves, they are heavily polluted. In addition, the construction of Cairo´s metro has
blocked the drainage channels between Ayn al-Syra and the Nile. As a result, water from the two artificial
lakes has been seeping out through cracks in the basins’ walls, forming huge polluted water tables, and
resurfacing to cause subsidence, destruction and abandonment of historic buildings. The seepage is
destabilizing burials and causing the destruction and abandonment of historic buildings: a situation that
threatens the urban environment and the health of the living communities.
Obou
Qali r city
obey
a
Giza
New
Cairo
Badr
city
6th ay
October
1
5
0 5 10 15km m
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Political and Social Characteristics Physical Characteristics
- Urgency of planning solutions for the area - Easy spatial identification as a unique
complex system (physically defined
- Highly fragmented and borders)
controversial stakeholders landscape
(needing innovative governance - Presence of two important water
systems) reserve (currently representing a threat
because of pollution)
- Importance of the area as urban
cultural landscape (tangible and - Role and potential impact on
intangible heritage, cultural, urban ecosystem services (green rate,
anthropological and social values, fresh water and fresh air production)
etc.).
Governance Social Dynamics Metabolic Flows Built Environment
- Location and environmental relations
Networks
- Informal area (richness in social with the rest of the city (important part
Urban Resilience Thematic Focuses
networks and informal economies)City of the Dead of the ecological networks and green
corridors
Figure 5: Cairo contains 13 natural springs, two of which, Ayn al-Syraofand
theAyn
metropolitan arealocated
al- Khiala, are of in the
south-eastern section of al- Qarafa. Cairo)
• Governance systems
Since 1934, when a government decree called for the demolition of Bab al-Nasr cemetery and the construction
of a park in its stead, repeated proposals to implement major demolitions have been put forward. The latest is
a Vision from the strategic plan for greater Cairo, ‘Cairo 2050’, where the Egyptian government envisages the
demolition of most of the cemetery, relocation of residents, and the building of a tourist park in its place. Still,
the cemeteries are a metaphor of extraordinary spontaneous adaptive governance, where a sort of laissez faire
attitude of the Government allowed a rich socio-cultural landscape to emerge: a landscape made of different
shades of legality (and therefore of formality), where communities adapt and survive thanks to informal
networks and mutual support, establishing flexible behaviours and deals with Hosh guardians and owners.
Figure 6: The different time-perspectives on the City of the Dead: Al-Qarafa in the 18th century, nowadays and in the
Governmental Vision from Cairo 2050.
• Multi-scalar dynamics
The size, location, environmental, social and cultural (tangible and intangible) multi-level relations of the
cemeteries with the rest of the city, together represent both a great challenge and a great opportunity for the
development of the entire city of Cairo. The area represents one of major informal areas in Cairo – a city in
which 70% of housing is informal- and from a theoretical standpoint, informality is a complex, nonlinear system
in which patterns intersect and mutate in unexpected ways, while from a planning and design standpoint, the
informal can serve as a laboratory for the study of adaptation and innovation.
Figure 7: Summary of the characteristics of the cemeteries identified following the Urban Resilience Thematic
Framework.
The area shows a high complexity level, underlining and crosscutting some of the most urgent issues Cairo has
to face: the upgrading of informal areas, the management of natural resources and the ecosystem services,
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social improvement and sustainability, as well as the dichotomies between conservation/innovation and
identity/development. The following table summarizes some of the characters of the area, defining the
suitability of the case study in relation to the above mentioned resilience thematic focus (see Figure 7).
FROM RESEARCH TO ACTION VIA DESIGN
Pilot projects and participatory action research

In 2010, the NGO Liveinslums started a very articulated and open-ended action-research project in the area
of the cemeteries. The project, named Inside the City of the Dead, was composed by numerous activities, all-
assuming as a basic foundation the ‘right to stay’ of the current inhabitants by considering them the main
stakeholders in any transformation and the main contributors in bringing useful knowledge for the definition
of the local context, the rules of action and the evaluation of available resources.
The general aim of the project was to progressively stratify internal and external knowledge on the area
by involving various stakeholders, and to build a collective Vision which could be sustainable, plural and
inclusive,
CAIRO AND THEtaking
CITY into account
OF THE DEAD the people, the historic and monumental environment as well as the socio-
ecological
Population (2008) networks already existing
Funerary-based ineconomy
the area. Through a progressive
Cairo contains andtwo
13 natural springs, iterative
of fieldwork, the research
activities were mainly focused *28%
at decrypting, interacting
which,and activating
and Ayn local dynamics for promoting change
600.000 -800.000 *8,1% undertakers
gardians Ayn al-Syra al-Khiala, are
Density
located in the southeastern section of
with and within the local community.
2300/km²
Commerce-based economy
*31% craftsmans al-Qarafa. Ayn al-Syra and Ayn al-Khiala are
Galila El Kadi
*12,8% occasional jobs Alain Bonnamy 2001
overflowing and are heavily polluted by
discharge from nearby factories and other
Following the above-mentioned general strategy, a as pilot projects and as series
factors. of micro-actions serving
test of emergent strategies -both in terms of feasibility and responsiveness of other

Al-Qarafa is sided by Al-Ahzar Park, the stakeholders- were put
in place, aiming at the v a l o r i s a t i o n of local r emain
s o ugreen
r c e area
s . While
of Cairo.progressively
Mosques bringing forward the
gardens, patios and some green farms and
general action-research, Liveinslums started the two pilot projects Slow Tourism and
nurseries also comprise the urban fabric of Micro-Gardens, relying on
the direct support of local partners and on a network of contacts with private institutions, committees of
al-Qarafa.
inhabitants, local associations and governmental authorities.
• Slow-Tourism project (2009-2011)

The City of the Dead is quite an amazing but also a very elitist tourist attraction: It is not part of the official
obour city
tourist circuits, stigmatized as a dangerous and shady place and, even for the few that are able to go, it is
Qaliobeya
badr city
Giza
essentially limited to some of the monuments. In this scenario, the inhabitants are often the only attendants of
new cairo
amazingly stratified layers of history, traditions, religious and cultural uniqueness of Cairo.
6 october
Figure 8: Images of daily life in the City of the Dead.

City of the Dead
15 may
0 2,5 5 10 15 Km
0 5 10 15km
DIALOGUES ON THEsocial
The incredible Cairo: Mapping
MOVE richness Informality
and anthropological Inside the –City
complexity of the cemeteries together Deadthe 1.1
of the with historical
and vernacular heritage – remains unknown and therefore inaccessible to the most, including many Cairenes.
Tourism remains inaccessible, and with it a possible source of income for all the micro-cosmos of activities
and inhabitants of Al-Qarafa, condemned to marginalization and poverty. On the contrary the Slow Tourism
Project envisages the area as a sort of “living anthropological park.”
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Figure 9: Reproduction of the flyer for the first experimental tour (2010) showing some of the tourist paths
developed within the Slow Tourism Project.
The idea was to develop a system of alternative tourism circuits in the City of the Dead by leveraging the
principles of integration of local resources (understood as the integration of the multiple territory values) and
relational capital (based on the chance to get a real interaction with different people and cultures). Even
the name Slow Tourism, clearly inspired by the well-known Slow Food philosophy, wants to affirm a
different idea of tourism as one based on knowing different culture, interacting with it, experiencing history
and customs, as simple everyday life activities.
Figure 10: Visualization of the socio/economic and spatial characters of the micro-gardens project, represented in
the most common Hosh typology.
• Micro-gardens project (2010-on going)
Micro-gardens are out-of-soil (or soilless) vegetable gardens grown via hydroponic culture or with the use of
mineral substrates in place of fertile soil. The agricultural containers are built with recycled materials
gathered from the neighbouring Zabaleen district. The soilless methodology also provides an alternative
solution to the problem of fertilization of the sandy soil, allowing use of the place without violating the
sacredness of the burial space sited in the patio inside the Hosh.
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MICROGARDEN PILOT PROJECT
TECHNICAL BENEFITS
1_ The sacred land inside the hosh is neither used nor compromised
so as to respect the tombs.
2_ The environmental issue related to sandy soil -too draining and so
not appropriate for growing gardens - is overcame through the
micro-gardens tecnique
3_ There is a 20% water saving comparing to traditional agriculture
tecniques.
4_ The chance of starting cultivation in all seasons -thanks to the
constant and favorable climatic conditions in Cairo- makes
Figure
DIALOGUES
11:the
possible for Mapping
ON inhabitants
THE MOVE towas used
establish
Cairo: to visualize
a Mapping
permanent activity. strategies for extending the network of
Informality micro-gardens,
Microgarden involving
Project 2.5 new
families.
5_ The possibility to move or remove micro-garden containers
ensure a certain spatial flexibility which well match with the
inhabitants exigences.
In addition to that, the removable structures allow the micro-gardens to be easily moved in case of population
6_The possibility of progressively supplementing or replacing the
displacement. The training was done door
use of solutions with self-made compost allows the further lower- to door: a daily commitment for each family performed
within their own
ing of production costs.dwellings, establishing an intimate relationship to strengthen community participation to the
project.
Figure 12: Some of the micro-gardens’ containers made by recycled materials.
DIALOGUES ON THE MOVE Cairo: Mapping Informality Microgarden Project 2.3

The advantages of the micro-gardens techniques are many: thanks to the soilless agriculture, the
environmental issues related to poor soil quality are overcome; there is a general 20% water saving compared
with traditional agriculture techniques; and there is the chance of progressively supplementing or replacing
the use of mineral solutions with self-made compost.
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Figure 12: Mapping was a

fundamental tool, from
stakeholder identification
to strategy development.
Both the development of experimental tourist pathways, the production of a community-based travel guide
on sustainable and cultural tourism in the City of the Dead, and the conceptualization, building and
installation of micro-gardens were realized through open planning meetings, community and participatory
design workshops and community training sessions. More broadly, the projects was generally based on an
extensive participatory methodology performed using various techniques, starting with participatory
mapping and ranging from interviewing to ‘shadowing’.
AN ALTERNATIVE VISION FOR THE CITY OF THE DEAD
‘Birka + Turba: living systems into the City of the Dead’

Within the aforementioned framework, research goals and assumptions, a Vision for the alternative approach
to the complexity of the site started to emerge. This Vision can be considered as a guide toward a possible
future, as well as about the future of the resident communities. The rationale is that, if approached through
interventions able to generate multiple effects (acting in the sense of social, physic and economic
development), The City of the Dead has an enormous potential also for the sustainable development of the
surrounding areas and for the City at large. The Vision therefore underlined the need of linking the City of
Dead to the ‘formal’ City, acting mainly on its border and empty spaces, and developing economic and work
opportunities, public green spaces and services for the inhabitants, while revealing its potential as a generator
of sustainable development dynamics for the whole city.
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Figure 13: The Birka concept.
The Vision had the purpose to visualize this kind of integrative strategies and in order to start a discussion with
an exemplification of this kind of strategic approach, amongst many project concepts, two interventions in
two opposite zones of the cemeteries were selected: one in the southern and the other in the northern one.
The first intervention is called Birka, and it is located in the environmentally degraded Ayn el Syra lake area.
The second one, called Turba-Bazaar, is located in a wide, empty area of the northern cemeteries (currently
used as an informal dump). The two interventions work together fundamentally as one living machine,
where one intervention is conceived as ‘ productive’ and the other one is conceived as ‘interface’ serving as a
selling point for what is produced in the southern part and as a functional and social connector with the
surrounding neighbourhoods.
The strategy, beyond Birka + Turba, is developed crossing material (urban design projects) and ‘immaterial’
(strategies and policies) actions, targeting sustainable development for the local community and the city at
large
• Birka
The concept foresees to re-use the polluted water by using a system of draining-pools, designed by re-tracking
the partially lost urban fabric of the cemeteries in the flooded areas. This new water-landscape becomes
a productive system for agriculture, fish farming and bio-fuel production, being at the same time an accessible
agricultural and cultural/recreational park for the entire Cairo population.
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Figure 14: Other images of the Birka concept.
The idea was to initiate an urban rehabilitation project centred on the water/flooding issue through the
construction of a system of phyto-remediating pools draining and cleansing Ayn al-Syra waters. The pools
would apply Archimedes’ Principle to drain the water, reclaiming the lost urban fabric with their patterns. The
drained water would be subjected to a phyto-depurative process to create a safe resource for agriculture, fish
farming, and other secondary household purposes.
Figure 15:
Sample
sections
from the Birka
concept.
Rather than designing the distribution of the pools, Birka sets guidelines and principles for determining the
location/depth of the pools and distribute/organise their pattern in relation to the monuments to be
recovered. The application of the guidelines and principles shape, as a result, a to-be-designed water park for
all Cairo´s inhabitants.
Figure 16: The Birka concept sets guidelines and principle to approach the flooded monuments and to
selectively replace filtering pools to the unrecoverable urban fabric, while keeping its pattern.
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The concept shows how – through the construction of a series of pools, simply dug into the ground, and by
using specifically selected plants – it is possible to generate a process of progressive purification of polluted
water, where, for each type of pollutant agent, there is a type of algae or plant that can help in the elimination
through the natural metabolic processes of a living machine.
Figure 15: Ideal section of the complex agricultural and water-park envisaged by the Birka concept.
The Birka concept was clearly a response to the Government intention of transforming al-Qarafa into a green
park, interpreting this idea at a grassroots level, by considering the inhabitants as one of the regenerative
elements and crosscutting the themes of water conservation, urban farming, monument preservation and
sustainable community development. Furthermore, the concept pointed at how an urban rehabilitation
process could benefit communities through the creation of micro-economies linked to agriculture and
distribution of water for domestic use in the whole City of the Dead.
This operation would generate a new complex public space, which is together a new urban agricultural park,
used by the inhabitants, characterized by vegetation, water platforms and shadow areas; These specific
actions, underlying a single strategy, correct the flows that link the cemeteries with what is around, putting
local resources already present in the area - water, tourism, communities, business activities - and taking
advantage of spontaneous dynamics and processes.
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Figure 16: Visualization of the Birka concept.
• Turba-Bazaar
The Turba intervention locates in an area of “fluxes of exchange” between the northern border of the City of
the Dead and the close neighbourhoods, and it targets the issue of absence of proper common and public
spaces and consistent, formal commercial activities in the area.
Figure 17: Axonometric explosion of the Turba-Bazaar concept.
The idea is to create a “hub” of exchange for social and micro-economic activities by covering an unused
space and building a bloc of basic services (e.g. community toilets, public kitchens). The simple shade
proposed makes use of natural ventilation to guarantee a shady and cool place to carry out some of the
activities normally performed in the streets, under the harsh sun.
Figure 18: Ideal section of the Turba Bazaar, showing the principles of sustainable construction.
The Turba concept is represented by an open building, covered by domes (recalling the surrounding
mausoleums), and makes use of advanced sustainable construction techniques to stand as an example of low-
cost, sustainable construction in arid climates.
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Figure 19:
Ground floor plan
of the Turba- Bazaar
concept, showing the mix and the flexible use of the spaces.
The two presented concepts underline a single strategy linking the cemeteries around and interconnecting
and putting in value resources by taking advantage of spontaneous dynamics and processes already present
in the area or potentially easy to activate and correlate: water, agriculture, communities, tourism, business
activities, etc. These examples underline a wider and more general vision recognizing the City of the Dead as a
very important part of Cairo, attributing it a new image and a new role: A productive and ecological park -but
also an important ‘living’ tourist destination. This Vision frames the cemeteries as a sort of eco-museum (or an
inhabited ethno-anthropological park) interacting with a stratified and complex reality. The strategy takes also
advantage of degraded ecosystems to initiate a progressive rehabilitation of the city’s ecosystem services and
to test possible replicable approaches.
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Figure 20: Visualization of the Turba-Bazaar concept.
The role of design along the process: a trigger of change

The complex and articulated systems of actions/projects just described constitute the progressive emergence
of a new, alternative vision for the City of the Dead. Design techniques were both present and central in all the
phases of work and in different ways: from tool of enquire to driver of change. Specific techniques were
applied within a general collaborative design processes responding to emerging needs and issues.
A wide set of interpretative/analytical maps were produced, representing ethnographic and social data,
environmental and architectural characters, uses and spatial relations, cultural and social implications of the
site. Around those maps, sets of different participatory activities were organized, with the purpose of
transforming the emergent complex analytical framework in spatial hypothesis, visualizing possible
modifications of the built environment that would be socially acceptable, economically affordable and
environmentally sustainable. Both the processes of producing and discussing the maps with different
stakeholders brought to underscore the relevance of political processes and stakeholders involvement within
this multi and inter-disciplinary framework, by addressing and reshaping perceived-needs and desires, and by
focusing the common interest in the definition and analysis of possible scenarios.
This brought the research group to progressively enquire and visualize this emerging scenarios/strategies
through international urban design and planning workshops, architecture degree thesis, and other smaller and
inter-related field researches. Around a progressively emerging idea of ‘Living Park’, a series of consultations
and participatory activities were organized in order to listen and mobilize different actors and stakeholders. An
Open Space Technology with the inhabitants, some of the owners of the funerary buildings and commercial
activities, civic associations and local institutions was organized on site, and a series of meetings with different
Egyptian governmental institutions were held, as well as consultations with other private stakeholders. All
those meetings were aimed at activating dialogue and triggering dynamics of change about the
stigmatisations toward the area, the state of deprivation of the inhabitants of the cemeteries, and ultimately,
the policies. In some of those meeting the Birka + Turba concepts were utilized to illustrate the general Vision:
assuming them as a starting point to bring about a shared transformative strategy for the area.
Figure 20: Some of

the maps produced through and used for the
collaborative activities.
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The result of this complex process was the opening of a dialogue between the Government and various
stakeholders on a very problematic area, with a new, complex perspective. Some of the stakeholders consulted
in the process showed interest in the Birka project, starting to develop a feasibility study and checking on the
availability of the General Organisation for Physical Planning (the main planning body in Egypt) to support the
project. In parallel, both the Micro-Garden and the Slow Tourism Projects were piloted, giving the first positive
feedback. Unfortunately for the project, destabilisation following the 2011 Egyptian revolution made fostering
dialogue and negotiations impossible and discouraged possible investors previously interested in the Birka
strategy. Similarly, the drop in tourist presence brought a de facto end to the Slow Tourism Project.
Nevertheless the Micro-Garden project thrived, still being continued by Liveinslums with new families and new
experimentations.
CONCLUSION
Using sustainable urban design for visualizing urban and community development
Later on, in the light of a deepened study of the resilience theory, I have revisited the entire process and used it
to delineate a methodological approach to address resilience in complex socio-ecological landscapes. This
approach foresees using design as a trigger of change to engage collaborative decision making processes
on very complex urban issues. The methodology aims to operationalize the Urban Resilience Framework and it
is based on the principles of learning and adaptation.
The approach proposes to apply collaborative design techniques to address social and ecological networks
and resilience in complex urban landscapes, while in parallel using them to stimulate and engage stakeholders
in a complex, iterative decision making process. The complexity of the case study in which the methodology
was rooted brought me to understand the importance of visually translating the value of natural, cultural and
social capital and ecosystem services in order to better show the impact of a possible integrative intervention
strategy and to trigger new, creative strategies, promoting discussions around them. As it happened in the
Cairo case, this can help to improve decisions and actions relating to the use of land, water, and other
elements of natural and social capital engaging with different levels of governance (including the existing
informal networks and dynamics), in order to mitigate/redirect unsustainable issues affecting the area.
Referring to the presented case study, the progressive emergence of the idea of a Living Park was possible
thanks to interactive consultation processes and a series of collaborative projects used to trigger discussion.
The Vision itself was therefore an evolving idea, resulting progressively from the application of the findings of
the various ongoing action-research phases to a wider and more complex, strategic approach to the area.
Beyond a vision, it is a counter-vision: it counter-poses a collaborative intelligence against the top-down logic
of the government’s Cairo 2050 development strategy.
Operationalizing the urban resilience framework: A new alliance for planning and design
disciplines?
Many researchers from the urban disciplines assert that increasing scientific understanding through
evaluation of urban ecosystem dynamics has the potential to contribute to urban land use plans that are
proactive rather than reactive. The thesis underlined by the presented methodological approach is that
the interaction between process and model - understood as the learning process emerging from
analysing possible spatial configurations- shapes resilience in itself, coming to a shared goal setting through
the elaboration of collaborative strategies. To better explain this methodological statement we can say that
such a proactive approach to urban planning would include testing and evaluating place-specific urban
design scenarios, both for their role in identifying landscape patterns and ecological processes that build
resilience in urban ecosystems (Felson and Pickett 2005), and for the intrinsic capacity to support the learning
process, the decision-making and the planning process in itself (Holling 2002, Folke 2006, Goldstein 2010).
In this approach, urban design – in its collaborative interpretation – becomes a tool within the planning
process rather than an outcome. As in the case of the cemeteries, the series of projects were conceived
and used as visualizations of possible spatial configurations and integrative regeneration strategies (rather
than as precise outcomes) and were framed within a public consultation/negotiation process, with the goal of
stimulating a new emergent and shared strategy, overcoming also linguistic distances. And design, in its
various forms, comes to help give shape to ideas, intuitions, and desires, transforming them in maps, projects
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and objects; integrating them with ecological issues; proposing new perspectives and activating multi-scalar
processes and dynamics in an open-ended process.
The dynamics of cities are non-linear; therefore their problems cannot be solved by linear planning
methodologies. For investigating new ways of changing the built environment, we will need innovative
means of planning that deal with urban complexity and that are based on ecological and adaptive-inspired
approaches (Berrizbeitia 2007), able to challenge notions of modernism and postmodernism, project and
process, as well the classic notions of urban planning and design. The presented case study and derived
methodological approach are not meant to be a response, a solution, to the current difficulties of planning and
design disciplines in dealing with a complex, ever-changing, socially unequal and ecologically compromised
urban world. Rather, the paper attempts to experiment and reinterpret the way in which we approach cities
and the issue of their complex transformations, by using the logic of ‘learning by doing’ (Kato, Ahern 2008),
and by opening new questions, and calling for further interdisciplinary experimentations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All the images are property and courtesy of Liveinslums NGO, with varying authors.
Special thanks go to Liveinslums NGO and all its members, partners and collaborators:
Silvia Orazi
Gaetano Berni
Marianella Sclavi
Marialuisa Daglia
Alessandro Colli
Virginia Chiappa Nunez
Filippo Romano
Francesco Giusti
Luca Astorri
and … to the many others that even just participated either to a workshop or a mission, building, piece by piece,
this amazing adventure and valuable action-research.
1517
REFERENCES
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Springer, Netherlands.
Alberti, M & Marzluff, JM., 2004. ‘Ecological resilience in urban ecosystems: Linking urban patterns to human
and ecological functions’, Urban Ecosystem, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 241-265.
Ashkenazi, G., 2006, ‘Metaphors in science and art: enhancing human awareness and perception’, Electronic
Journal of Science Education, vol.11, no. 1.
Barthel, S, Colding J, Elmqvist, T & Folke, C., 2005, ‘History and local management of a biodiversity-rich, urban
cultural landscape’, Ecology and Society, no. 10, p. 10.
Berkes, F, Colding, J & Folke, C., (eds.) 2003. Navigating social-ecological systems: building resilience for
complexity and change, vol. 393, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Berrizbeitia, A., 2007, ‘Re-placing process’, in J Czerniak & G Hargreaves, Large parks, Princeton Architectural
Press, New York, pp. 175-197.
Cadenasso, ML, Pickett, STA & Grove, MJ., 2006. ‘Integrative approaches to investigating human-natural
systems: the Baltimore ecosystem study’, Natures Sciences Sociétés, no. 14, pp. 4-14.
Chelleri, L., 2012. ‘From the «Resilient City» to Urban Resilience. A review essay on understanding and
integrating the resilience perspective for urban systems’, Documents d’Anàlisi Geogràfica , vol. 58, no. 2, pp.
287-306.
Corner, J., 1999. ‘Recovering landscape as critical cultural practice’, in J Corner (ed.) Recovering landscape: essays
in contemporary landscape architecture, Princeton Architectural Press, New York.
Czerniak, J., 2007. ‘Legibility and resilience’, in J Czerniak & G Hargreaves, Large parks, Princeton Architectural
Press, New York, pp. 215-250.
Felson, AJ & Pickett, ST., 2005. ‘Designed experiments: new approaches to studying urban ecosystems’,
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, vol. 3, no. 10, pp. 549-556.
Folke, C., 2006. ‘Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for social–ecological systems analyses’, Global
environmental change, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 253-267.
Goldstein, BE & Butler, WH., 2010. ‘Expanding the scope and impact of collaborative’, Planning Journal of the
American Planning Association, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 238-249.
Gunderson, LH & Holling, CS., 2002. Panarchy: understanding transformations in human and natural systems,
Island Press, Washington D.C., USA.
Hargreaves, G., 2007. Large parks: A designer perspective, in J Czerniak & G Hargreaves, ibid, p. 223.
Hellström, D, Jeppsson, U & Kärrman, E., 2000. ‘A framework for systems analysis of sustainable urban water
management’, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 311-321.
Holling, CS., 2001. ‘Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological and social systems’, Ecosystems, no.
4, pp. 390–405.
Kato, S & Ahern, J., 2008, ‘Learning by doing: adaptive planning as a strategy to address uncertainty in
planning’, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 543-559.
Lister, NM., 2007, ‘Sustainable large parks: Ecological design or designer ecology?’, in J Czerniak & G
Hargreaves, ibidem, pp. 35-57.
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Musacchio LR & Wu, J., 2002. ‘Cities of resilience: Integrating ecology into urban design, planning, policy, and
management’, Special session abstract for the 87th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America/14th
Annual Conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration, Ecological Society of America, Washington, D.C.
Pickett, ST, Cadenasso, ML & Grove, JM., 2004. ‘Resilient cities: meaning, models, and metaphor for integrating
the ecological, socio-economic, and planning realms’, Landscape and urban planning, vol. 69, no. 4, pp. 369-
384.
1519
METROPOLIS EDGES: FROM SUBURBS TO RESILIENT BELTS: A PARADIGM FOR THE SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT OF METROPOLITAN SETTLEMENTS
Elisa Brusegan, Order of Architects of Treviso, Italy, ordinearchitettippc.treviso@gmail.com

Serena Guadagnini, Councillor Order of Architects of Treviso, Italy, ordinearchitettippc.treviso@gmail.com
Abstract
The UN-HABITAT 2012/2013 State of the World’s Cities Report identifies climate change and the wasteful
expansion of cities in endless peripheries as the major problems of contemporary metropolis. A convergent urban
growth pattern characterizes both developed and developing countries: the unsustainable low density-based
suburbanization. The gradual moving away from an urban centre coincides with the inability to manage open
spaces. Fringe areas become undefined places, characterized by degradation and inequalities.
The life of civilizations has historically depended on the ability to address threats, restoring conditions of safety
and balance, even if this has necessarily meant leaving long-lasting marks on the landscape.
This paper provides a city model whose urban edges become resilient belts on different scales: a means of
adapting to climate change, a mechanism for giving open spaces an identity, and a spatial, economic and
cultural resource.
An urban fringe project as an extensive system of territorial control – like the greenbelt was - is still valid today, but
the challenges are different. A regional and urban fringe project, which creates synergies with site-specific climate,
resources and culture, triggers sustainable development in degraded areas of expansion.
This paper can contribute to the drafting of international guidelines for planning resilient and identity-shaping
urban spaces. Resilience will be truly effective if it becomes a factor in shaping identity, in synergy with the specific
physical and cultural features of a region.
Keywords: urban edges, sustainable development, model, resilient belt, social inclusion.
INTRODUCTION
Since 2008, humankind has faced cascading crises, from economic, to environmental to social. The UN-
HABITAT 2012/2013 State of the World’s Cities Report describes this situation, stressing that the
environmental crisis is due to the convergence of urbanization and climate change.
One century ago, only twenty per cent of the world’s population was living in urban areas. In the least
developed countries, this amount was as low as five per cent. In 2007, humankind took a landmark step
because for the first time in history, the urban population outnumbered the rural, identifying the beginning
of a new ‘urban millennium’. Today, eighty-two per cent of people and seventy per cent of world urban
residents are found in developing countries. In addition, it is estimated that, between 2010 and 2015, the
amount of people on the planet is increasing at about 200, 000 units every day and that ninety-one per cent
of this daily increase is in developing countries. In particular, the UN Report identifies the 21st century as the
“Asian Urban Century”, because half of the world’s urban population lives there. By 2050, it is expected that
the seventy per cent of the world population will be living in urban areas. (United Nations Human
Settlements Programme 2013, pp. 25-40).
Cities are developing both in developed and developing countries through their peripheries’ wasteful
expansion. Indiscriminate conversion of rural land to urban uses generates an unsustainable low density-
based suburbanization. Here the urban fabric is fragmented and its vast interstitial open spaces have neither
identity nor character. The gradual moving away from an urban centre coincides with the inability to
manage open spaces, even if they constitute precious and not saleable goods. In most cases, the open
spaces of large urban configurations in developing countries are not planned. These settlements follow
extreme density patterns: very low or very high. Economic forces and spontaneous growth sharpen spatial
and social disparities, which are aggravated by inefficient use of land and resources. Slums are the most
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visual expression of urban poverty. Target 11 of the UN Millennium Development Goals, describes typical
slums in developing countries as unplanned informal contiguous settlements, characterized by social and
economic isolation, irregular land ownership and low standard of sanitary and environmental conditions.
They combine to various extents the following characteristics: inadequate access to safe water, inadequate
access to sanitation and other infrastructure, poor structural quality of housing, overcrowding, insecure
residential status. Even if slums are often not recognized and addressed by the public authorities as an
integral part of the city, UN-HABITAT estimates that nearly 1 billion people (one-sixth of humanity) live in
slums all over the world. Slum prevalence is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America.
Large cities, their unplanned edges and their poor neighbourhoods are also the most affected by climate
change, in terms of temperature increase, global sea level rise, floods, droughts and the intensification of
extreme events. Huge urban agglomerations may choose to ignore quality of life and environmental
problems, in the belief that these issues can be dealt with later. This path leads them toward the risk of
finding it increasingly difficult to attract investment, labor and skills, compromising future prosperity.
Sustainable development visions are a remedy to these global crises. They provide ready, flexible and
creative patterns that can mitigate the effects of regional and global crises in a balanced and efficient way.
Figure 1: San Paulo (Source: Finotti 2012).
TAKING POSSESSION OF URBAN EDGES AS A CHANCE
In this historical period, large urban settlements are threatened by the increase in population and climate
change. Consequently, the research of a sustainable development paradigm must address these
abovementioned issues.
To give the environment a structure and an identity is vital. The act of taking possession of a place is
ancestral and linked to the definition of its edges and of its landmarks. They enable man to orient himself in
a perceptual and sensory way.
A settlement’s edges establish a difference: they define a certain control over a particular area. They have a
value of defense, recognition, identity. The concept of boundary is independent of that of scale, because it
can be applied to different scales, in order to identify a discontinuity. Boundary modifications on every scale
are a cultural product and they determine transformations which can be designed. Both architecture and
city arise from the delimitation of a place.
In the Neolithic Age, man defines safe places and religious areas through embankments, poles knocked to
ground, dykes, depressions. They identify portions of a region that have different features from the
surrounding environment (Benevolo; Albrecht 1994). The development of cities introduces a spatial
discontinuity. A settlement’s edges are constituted by walls, dykes, mountains, hydrogeological elements
1521
(rivers, water basins, lagoons), green belts. The ancient Roman cities’ foundation established a strip along
the city walls (the pomerium). This urban edge was considered sacred and it was kept free from buildings
and farming activities.
From the Middle Ages to the 20th century, the European city arose around an intersection point, which
became its centre, and developed inside a specific border. For example, rigid edges between settlement and
water constituted an advantage for the development of Venice. The Venetians soon understood the need
for developing the city into a regional frame, whose key players were the lagoon, the sea and the drainage
basin. Over time, they demonstrated an awareness of taking possession of the surrounding region, through
the definition and modification of territorial edges.
Even the model of the garden city is a reference to urban edge design. The famous garden city diagram
proposed by E. Howard represents a defined and compact town, with a limited size. The urban settlement is
developed on 1000 acres (an area with one and a half miles diameter). It hosts about 30, 000 inhabitants,
giving an overall density of 30 people per acre. It is divided into neighbourhoods, conceived as social and
developmental entities. Each one is based on the population required for one school and it has its
community sub-centre. In the earlier stages, schools buildings might serve also as the main social centre.
Public buildings and equipment are placed in the centre of the garden city, shops intermediately, while
factories, railway and sidings are located on the edge. The town has also a central park and an inner green
belt, or ring park, 420 feet wide, containing playgrounds, schools and other community services. This
settlement is surrounded by an area of 5000 acres, permanently dedicated to agriculture and hosting about
2000 dwellers, with a very low density around 0,4 inhabitant per acre.
The green belt pattern was introduced as an answer to specific social and economic changes, linked to a
need for urban growth control and urban form definition. Victorian city overcrowding moved E. Howard’s
work; Londoners’ recreational demand motivated R. Unwin; disordered country developments inspired P.
Abercrombie (Valentini 2005, p. 165).
Figure 2: Neolithic Avebury Circle, 2400 BC (Source: Benevolo; Albrecht 1994).
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Figure 3: Erbil Historical centre, Kurdistan region (Source: Benevolo; Albrecht 1994).
Figure 4: Cittadella Historical centre, Italy (Source: Benevolo; Albrecht 1994).
Figure 5: Venice lagoon (Source: Fabian; Viganò 2010).
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Figure 6: The green belt theorized by E. Howard (Source: Howard 1902).
Figure 7: Milano, 1884 and today (Source: City of Milan).
Over the centuries, the urban environment breaks down its edges and disintegrates. When the concept of
urban edge fails, the quality of public open spaces collapses too. Green areas, arable land and public open
spaces disappear, decreasing quality of life and environmental and climatic features. Urban spread and
endless suburbs are evidences of this phenomenon.
The indiscriminate urban growth subverts the ancient model based on centre and edges. Edges are neither
means of defense nor expression of cultural identity anymore. They are limitless and not designed.
Nowadays, urban edge design is still valid as an extensive control system over the surrounding region. An
open spaces project, based on permeability and developed on different scales, can trigger a regional long
run regeneration project, starting from the urban fringes and spreading across the inner areas of settlements
over time. An urban connective tissue design has the chance of activating the entire metropolis, starting
from its edges.
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Figure 8: Urban edges in San Paolo (Source: Finotti 2012).
Figure 9: Urban edges in Rio de Janeiro (Source: Finotti 2012).
The settlement edge design represents an effective starting point to manage urban development through
connective open spaces. Today the challenges are different, compared to those on which E. Howard’s green
belt diagram is based. The settlement fringes are the points where urban wasteful expansion and climate
change reveal their most evident and destructive effects. It is a regional and urban edge project, which
activates synergies with specific local features, such as climate, resources and culture. Such a design strategy
could be the way to generate sustainable development in degraded suburbs.
First of all, this requires a holistic and multi-scale approach, considering regions with similar cultural and
geographical phenomena. Referring to Lewis Mumford’s definition, a region is an area defined by common
primordial conditions in terms of geological structure, soil, plastic structure, water network, climate, flora
and fauna. It is partially modified and re-determined by human colonization, through the acclimatization of
new species, the development of towns and landscape transformation (Mumford 1938, p. 371). The
definition of “region” is for Mumford the cultural premise of his regional approach, a “regional outlook”
which represents an enlarged vision on environmental and social issues, adopting the region as the spatial
unity for a balanced development between natural resources and human institutions, for planning
advanced progress (Brusegan 2013, pp. 23-57).
The Italian engineers who planned the Venetian lagoon edges in the 16th century, demonstrated a synergic
vision of its issues, designing long-term interventions, consistent with the unique aim of its safeguard.
Also, Howard’s urban approach is grounded on a fundamental holistic method, identifying values, as the
contact with nature and the settlements small size. In his writings, Mumford highlights that Howard went
beyond the urban – rural dichotomy, adopting a regional outlook. The key problem for Howard was “how to
restore the people to the land – that beautiful land of ours, with its canopy of sky, the air that blows upon it,
the sun that warms it, the rain and dew that moisten it” (Howard 1902).
While fundamental geographical entities change over centuries, human institutions modify over
generations. A regional and multi-scale project must establish a contact point between man’s time and
nature’s; future generations’ safety will depend on it. Urban design is a temporal art, it is an ethic and
1525
sustainable operation. The project represents research for a broader architecture, which gathers solutions on
both small and large scale, managing the time dimension. “Sustainability requires a different conception of
time and a different conception of transformations which imply different design tools and judgment. In the
sustainable conception of time two times are opposed: the time of rapid transformation that is often
unconscious, and the slow and gradual metamorphosis that for assumption is inherent, conscious and is
part of the nature of what is being transformed” (Albrecht 2012).
A NEW SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM BASED ON EDGES
This paper examines the possibility of defining a sustainable development paradigm, based on urban edges.
The model is intended to be flexible and focused more on the process that generates urban forms than the
forms themselves, so that it can be adapted to different specific contexts.
Edges, the places where current threats in terms of wasteful urban expansion and climate change effects are
most critical, are the starting points for the renewal of the entire urban agglomeration. Edges act as linear
breaks in continuity between two areas. They are the places where discontinuities are revealed. Quoting
Kevin Lynch (1960), they are “linear elements not used or considered as paths by the observer. They are the
boundaries between two phases [..] lateral references rather than coordinate axes. Such edges may be
barriers, more or less penetrable, which close one region off from another; or they may be seams, lines along
which two regions are related and joined together. These edge elements, although probably not as
dominant as paths, are for many people important organizing features, particularly in the role of holding
together generalized areas, as in the outline of a city by water or wall” (Lynch 1960). Shores, walls, highway,
railroad, rivers, the edges of urban development, the margins between formal and informal settlements, can
all be considered examples of this urban element, depending on the inhabitants’ perception.
This paper proposes an urban sustainable development paradigm called ‘Resilient Belt’. The term resilience
(from latin: [resilire] to bounce, to jump back) stresses the ability of a system to recover after an alteration
(Fabian; Viganò 2010, pp. 92-99). Urban edges, on different scales, become project areas. They are no longer
simply borders where linear breaks in continuity are revealed, but resilient belts: they are designed to be
both climate resilient – which means adapted to climate change effects - and socially resilient – which
means flexible to social needs and social appropriation. They have to be measured and designed to restrain
the urban development, trigger urban regeneration processes and address climate change. Therefore, they
become an adaptive design strategy to dampen climate change pressure, take economic and social
advantage of it and foster cultural identity.
Urban borders acquire the features of the adjacent areas, achieving a double value: both a filter for
mitigating climate change effects and a porous strip to allocate public functions, which combine with the
existing private ones. The edge is a defense against climate change risks, an adaptive place able to mitigate
its effects. Couple this environmental function with other uses in order to release synergies. Edge design
establishes synergic uses for this space.
On a smaller scale, urban edges must pursue the same objectives: the adaptation to climate change, a
synergic mix of public and private functions, an increase of public spaces for social interaction. These
acupunctural interventions must be integrated in a regional framework and connected with regional
resilient belts in order to define a network of resilient identity-making places.
THE RESILIENT BELTS: DIFFERENT STRATEGIES FOR DIFFERENT SCALES
The first design action is the identification of the urban region and its main edges. They are perceived linear
breaks between different areas on different scales. At a regional level, rivers, infrastructures, water basins,
discontinuities between formal and informal settlements can be considered edges for the urban settlement.
At a neighbourhood scale, unsafe, unhealthy buildings and unusable open spaces constitute other kinds of
urban edges. Nevertheless, they have potentialities as defense against climate change and as a catalyst of
social functions.
1526
After having identified them, the following step is the urban and architectural edges project. The margin’s
dimensions must be designed. Its extent must be increased or decreased to establish a specific permeability
degree. To amplify the edge cross section gives the opportunity to allocate new functions and to manage
synergies. Edge thickening allows the design of different elements, to restrain the urban settlement, to
activate functional synergies and to adapt to climate change. They are equipped green strips, open areas or
multifunctional buildings. The earthmoving, controlled through design cross sections, is a useful strategy to
give the edge a form and a specific extent, which varies depending on site-specific features, such as soil,
contour lines, climate and vegetation. Substitutions of buildings considered at geological risk,
environmental regeneration, reuse of abandoned yards and soil stabilization through new vegetation could
be effective strategies.
The new edge acquires the features of the nearby areas, mixing defensive, infrastructural and recreational
functions. It becomes a complex system, which combines different functions: climate change adaptation,
connection, residential, collective spaces for social interaction, direct relation with nature, agriculture, water
supply and regulation. Infrastructures, recreational open spaces, linear parks, herbal purification plants,
water and waste network, are all suitable functions for the edge, to generate functional synergies and an
urban resilient framework at a large scale.
Permeable spots such as open spaces and public buildings can be included in the edge design to enhance
synergy. Public poles act as attractor spots, visual landmark and cultural reference, defining a network of
interconnected public spaces, which serve as a frame of reference to orient the observer. They are located
along the resilient belts in a maximum walking distance of 800 metres, in order to be reached with a 10-
minute walk. They host fundamental functions linked to neighbourhood survival and they give protection
from devastating climate phenomena (floods storms, droughts, wind, high temperatures, sea level rise).
They are built to resist natural disaster caused by climate change. They could be complex public buildings
for education and healthcare (schools, libraries, cultural centres, hospitals, shops, studios) or open spaces for
agriculture and water storage. Along with them, public poles also host spaces for recreational and cultural
uses. They must be designed in order to activate the dynamics of social appropriation of the site, fostering a
sense of community and social inclusion. For instance, some parts can be left uncompleted or ready for
future extensions, depending on population needs. They are built using traditional building techniques and
local materials, supporting the local economy.
If the urban margin is marked by a river or water basin, the creation of a linear park for collective recreation
can be a good strategy to activate new synergies and gain a collective space. In poor metropolitan areas,
basins are often used to accumulate waste materials or as sewers. Informal settlements along rivers are
threatened by floods, landslides and unhealthy water conditions. The demolition of barracks and buildings
considered a geological risk is necessary. Flora with deep roots can approach the water, while small scale
vegetation can be located on its banks, in order to further stabilize the soil and prevent geological risk.
Buildings, vehicular roads, walking paths, and green areas can be used as linking points between the two
banks. The water basin banks can be designed to host residential, agriculture, herbal purification or to hold
water. The river water can be filtered and reused for non-drinkable uses. The new park is resilient against
flood and landslides and flexible, since it is a complex system, which combines different functions:
connection, residential, water supply and environmental regulation.
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Figure 10: Linear park along a water basin in Cantinho do Céu (Source: Lotus 2014).
Figure 11: Pirajussara favelas in San Paulo is built on a river (Source: Prefeitura do Município de São Paulo 2010).
In case the urban settlement spreads across the hinterland, parks and green strips will be enhanced to
restrain indiscriminate urban development and improve climate conditions. The vegetation can block
predominant winds, reduce the ‘heat island’ effect, foster biodiversity, prevent desertification. Green
resilient belts can also host agriculture, water basins or other areas for food or energy production. Their
functions, linked to climate defense and subsistence, safeguard and make them vital for the whole
community. Otherwise, the resilient belt can be planned through earth moving and buildings designed to
mitigate climate effects and to protect more fragile functions (farming, energy production, water storage).
1528
Figure 12: S. Casamento Barbitta, L. Zardo, edge project in Sahel to address climate change and protect inner
farming areas (Source: Albrecht 2012, p. 89).
Poor urban settlements’ fringes can be revitalized through the punctual integration of educational,
healthcare, sports facilities. They can be hosted in new structures or inside re-used buildings. They can make
use of solar passive technologies and are adapted to the specific climate conditions. They are conceived in
order to resist – at least partially - the natural disasters caused by climate change. They foster a sense of
community and social inclusion, encouraging local economies.
Figure 13: Noero Wolff Architects, school along the urban edge of Cape Town (Source: Lotus 2010).
At a neighbourhood scale, unsafe, unhealthy buildings and unusable or abandoned open spaces are
perceived as urban edges. Nevertheless, they haven’t been touched by endless urban development,
therefore gaining a priceless value. They also have the potential of protecting the settlement against climate
change, triggering an urban regeneration processes, and fostering local identity.
Acupunctural interventions making use of local resources and techniques can be helpful to transform these
useless edges into smaller resilient belts. Acupunctural strategies include the removal of small tiles of the
urban fabric considered at risk. Degraded or unsafe buildings would be removed and replaced with open
spaces. Regeneration is conceived through several steps that envisage the gradual creation of a new urban
environment. The regenerated places host new sport facilities and social functions such as education
1529
centres, childcare centres, and shops. These open areas are spaces of exchange and indeterminate common
use.
The strategy of raising the edges of the land is useful to prevent the inhabitants from occupying the area
with informal settlements, protecting these piazzas with modelled borders from invasion.
A further acupunctural strategy concerns the transformation of building portions, integrating private and
public space. This needs a careful evaluation of the existing situation, its culture, local materials and
techniques, climate and site specific features, in order to calculate the need for every potential move and its
effects in terms of density and added value. Building replacement rules are established, to manage urban
density and enhance the relation of buildings with public space. They include demolition and construction,
expansion on roof level to arrange common functions, side extension to enhance private or public areas,
basement re-design to integrate spaces for social interaction. Built-up areas can also be extended through
verandas and balconies, allowing an increase in useable floor area and a more efficient exploitation of the
land.
Existing buildings become safer, adapted to climate conditions and more energy efficient, through punctual
substitutions which integrate different functions and urban spaces for social inclusion.
Figure 14: IUAV team led by A.Aymonino e M.Ferrari, acupunctural strategies (Source: Garofalo 2008).
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Figure 15: team S.L.U.M. Lab, “Pocket Parks” project Héliopolis project strategies (Source: Prefeitura do
Município de São Paulo 2010).
Figure 16: San Paolo (Source: Finotti 2012).
CONCLUSION
The urban edge design constitutes an opportunity for the sustainable regeneration of existing large cities. It
must include resilient belts both at a regional and at a neighbourhood scale. It will be truly effective if it
mixes environmental protection and functional complexity.
In fact, to join adaptive strategies against climate change and aspects which are usually associated with the
city centre (functional mix, open spaces for social interaction, high density) can produce an identitarian
appropriation of the regenerated urban edges.
Environmental resilience will represent a powerful option if it becomes also a key for trigger synergies with
specific physical and cultural regional features. The concept of resilience is intended not only as an
adaptation to climate change but also as flexibility to changing social needs. Density is not only conceived in
terms of quantity but of social inclusion. Open spaces at different scales are the way to enhance urban
quality through social interaction and a close relationship with nature.
1531
The sustainable development paradigm based on edges must be applied in a specific place, starting from a
physical, environmental and cultural analysis. Dimensions and effects of the model should be studied, to
understand how much the method can foster climate adaptation, urban regeneration and social inclusion.
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BEYOND GLOBALISATION: LIBERATING ARCHITECTURE FOR A NEW ECODEVELOPMENT
Céline Veríssimo, Center for African Studies, University of Porto and Department of Architecture, Portuguese
Catholic University, Portugal, celineverissimo@yahoo.com
Abstract
Architecture practice, and education, evolved as a tool to serve a rising market-based economy with power over
land, resources and people. The control of the human environment by capital forces driven by globalization has
produced sharpening social inequality and a rising ecological crisis. Cities, as humans’ habitat, are more than
places for the unequal distribution of wealth, production, poverty, accumulation and waste. Self-organisation is
the feature that allows urban complex systems to develop their own autonomous structure and become less
vulnerable to external changes. Resilience is the feature that emerges from this process in order to cope with
unpredictable changes in the environment. Based on current practices drawn from the case study of Dondo,
located in the central region of Mozambique from the date of independence in 1975 onwards, the self-organised
urban system can effectively evolve without planned intervention by a centralised authority. As long as the urban
system is capable of absorbing the impact of disruption without damage and gradually overcoming obstacles, it
can develop continuously through self-organisation. This is explained through existing political ecology theories
envisaging a society that is both equitable and in harmony with nature.
Nowadays, the importance that spatial dimension has to sustainable urban development, and spatial justice
becomes less about high technology, power and capital, and more about the way space is effectively used and
worked out in order to satisfy local requirements of society and its natural conditions. Therefore, calling attention
to the spontaneous production and management of housing, urban space and natural resources as a positive
form of city growth this paper suggests new grounds for a liberated architecture. Released from its perverse
dependence on capitalism, architecture might regain its social and ecological responsibility by joining
multidisciplinary efforts towards mutually beneficial collaborative processes involving the community, urban
stakeholders and decision-makers and trigger the materialization of a new ecodevelopment.
Keywords: liberated architecture, spatial self-organisation, participatory architectural education,

ecodevelopment, Mozambique.
INTRODUCTION
This paper looks at the concept of decentralised construction of the built environment and urban
transformation which remains under-developed in existing political ecology literature. In the
neighbourhoods of the case study of Dondo city, located in Sofala Province, the central region of
Mozambique, the urban environment materialises by means of social spatial production, i.e. the
participation and appropriation of the pre-existing natural environment by society in order to construct its
habitat and fulfil its needs in a lasting, balanced manner. This is so precisely because “human participation in
nature’s processes is the natural condition of human existence” (Schmidt 1971, p. 79) in the same way that
‘participation’ and ‘appropriation’ are fundamental rights for a just and democratic city (Lefebvre 1972). In
order to resist the effects of marginalisation in the dualistic city, the external space that surrounds the house
– which I call the ‘Outdoor Domestic Space’ – is strategically adapted to integrate both farming and
businesses, shaping a green and ruralised pattern of urbanisation, called here the ‘Agrocity’. Nevertheless, its
current development is constrained by poverty and social spatial segregation caused by the predatory
action of capitalism. Assuming that there is an innate relationship between humanity in nature in the sense
that its balance is a precondition for survival, where communities decide their production of space. Since
Industrialisation there has been a strong rupture with the tradition of ‘democracy’ and ‘ecology’ –
environmental and spatial justice that needs to be recovered. It is possible for societies to reassert
collaborative practices (that are capable of making compatible economic and social development with
environmental conservation) and self-organisation by relearning from scratch and merging it with
modernized knowledge.
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Architecture and planning practice evolved as a tool to serve a rising market-based economic power over
land, resources and people. The control of the human environment by capital forces driven by globalization
has produced sharpening social inequality and rising ecological crisis. Cities, as humans’ habitat, are more
than places for unequal distribution of wealth, poverty, accumulation and waste. Under severe adversity, the
importance that spatial dimension has for sustainable urban development becomes less about high
technology, power and capital, and more about the way space is effectively used and worked out in order to
satisfy local requirements of society and its natural conditions. Therefore, by calling attention to the Outdoor
Domestic Space non-built dimension of the city and to the spontaneous production of urban space as a
positive form of growth, this paper’s main objective is to investigate the poorly understood characteristics of
Mozambique’s urban informality where urban quality of life is collectively maintained through self-built
housing, domestic farming, landscaping, water and waste management, entrepreneurship and disaster
prevention. I analyse the extent to which Dondo’s existing preparedness and resilience upon successive
stages of crisis is transferable to architectural education and practice in other contexts of the North or the
South when facing long term adversity (e.g. urban exclusion, poverty, pollution, etc), as well as sudden
external shocks (natural disasters, forced evictions, forced displacement, armed conflicts, etc) resulting from
political economy austerity or linked with climate change. The further research outcomes are expected to
deliver new grounds for a collaborative institutional and educational change towards a liberated and more
responsive architectural education and practice. Policy makers and urban practitioners might regain their
social and ecological responsibility by joining multidisciplinary efforts towards mutually beneficial
collaborative processes involving civil society, urban stakeholders and decision-makers, to release
themselves from the dependence on a global market economy.
POLITICAL ECOLOGY THINKING OF THE HUMAN HABITAT
The dialectical relationship between humanity and nature, in which humanity transforms and is
transformed, is the essence of its own nature, as an innate state. In this sense, Marx and Engels discussed
ecology before the term was even coined in 18661. Their position on ecology was actually based on political
economy: both humanity and nature are exploited by class power and both will be free only when liberated
from class power (Parsons 1977, p. xii). The domination of natural land and its resources and, through this,
the domination of society by capitalism is therefore the essence of humanity’s alienation from nature and
the division between town and country (agriculture and non-agricultural production) (Foster 2000, p. 9), the
human habitat – the city, and nature. The self-management of property by the people found in pre-capitalist
societies is the basis of the non-alienating relationship between humanity and nature. Marx examined
historical pre-capitalist societies and countries where capitalism had not been fully introduced and popular
forms of pre-capitalist resistance were strong (Marx 1964).
In Capital, Marx uses the concept of metabolism to describe the interrelation between nature and society
through labour, which he defines as a “process between man and nature, a process by which man through
his own actions, mediates, regulates and controls the metabolism between himself and nature that is
prescribed by the laws of nature itself” (Marx cited in Foster 2000 p. 14). The interactive, evolutionary and
transformative character of nature and society are understood as ecological or dialectical. According to
Marx, organisms of a system not only adapt to their common environment but also interfere, participate and
change it through ‘metabolic interrelations’, which are reciprocal interactions between the parts, through
labour. Marx and Engels’ materialism highlighted the role of determination through material factors such as
space and natural resources, counterbalanced by the role of the political economy and society (Vaillancourt
1996). Therefore, ecology is the dialectical interpretation of nature and the city, acknowledging the effects
evident in human history and its social and political evolution. Likewise, given that both the city and nature
are socially produced, this process is understood through political ecology, which includes culture and
political economy in the analysis of living systems (Greenberg and Park 1994). The logic of Marx’s
‘humanistic ecology’, as a dialectical form of interpreting human and natural processes in search of an
!
1
The German zoologist Ernst Haeckel coined the term ‘oecologie’, from the Greek ‘oikos’ (house) in 1866, and
provided the first definition of ecology: By ecology we mean the body of knowledge concerning the economy of
nature - the total relations of the animal to both its inorganic and organic environment (Stauffer, 1957).
1534
egalitarian self-reliant society in balance with the natural environment, is pure political ecology.
Although Marx’s work is built on the earlier utopian socialists2, he did not propose utopias, but instead the
study of the actual class struggle, e.g. the Paris Commune during the civil war in France (Engels, 1932) which
is the difference between utopian socialism and Marx’s materialistic approach. As Marx analysed the Paris
Commune, this paper looks at Dondo’s urban experience to show how people are actually organising
society, space and nature in a spontaneous, but apparently viable manner, which challenges both ecocentric
and anthropocentric assumptions concerning the increasing disjunction between the human habitat and
nature.
In the sense that Marx identifies the pressures of political economy on society and on environmental
transformation, he is identified as the pioneer of political ecology thinking (Benton 1996, pp. 58-56),
developed much later in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of emergent radical cultural ecology, development
planning and ecosocialist thinking (Benton 1996, Foster 2000, Adams, 2009). Urban political ecology is
defined as a school of thought about critical urban political-environmental research (Heynen et al. 2006)
concerned with capitalist urbanisation which main thinkers are Henri Lefebvre (1967), Neil Smith (1984),
Piers Blaikie (1985), and David Harvey (1996). Urban marginalisation challenges in the cities of both North
and South nations can only be fully addressed by converging the efforts of policy making, planning,
architectural education and practice towards one single direction. Only then, we will be capable of
understanding the relationship between people, space, politics and the environment considering the forces
of globalization and tackle housing and urban challenges. Yet, a political ecology approach towards the
lessons learned from decentralised urbanisation, as found in the spontaneous neighbourhoods of the
developing world cities where many innovative lessons can be learned, in addressing the city under growing
global political economy austerity and ecological crisis remains under-researched in existing academic
literature regarding urban political ecology studies.
SPATIAL PRODUCTION THAT UNIFIES SOCIETY AND NATURE
Cities, and especially informal cities, have been widely perceived and addressed as diametrically opposite to
nature. What the case study of Dondo in Mozambique demonstrates is the assumption that cities are
complex systems which emerge from dynamic relationships between humanity and nature where nature is
spatially produced in a self-regenerative process. Reality from the field confirm that self-built and self-
managed houses and neighbourhoods are best provided and managed by the people than by the state
(Turner 1976) and explains that the spatial production of nature is developed to create social, ecological and
spatial conditions in scenarios of extreme and enduring adversity which ensures not only the survival but
the prosperity of the community (see Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4). This process is self-organised and primarily
supported by cultural knowledge and community resilience which enabled rural family-based societies to
historically adapt to foreign oppression and natural disasters and deal with today’s urban challenges. This is
the reason why conceptualising spatial production of nature has to be taken into the realm of decentralised
practices as those found in Dondo, considering the social, ecological and political context in which they exist
as a step forward to a new ecodevelopment.
!
2
Marx and Engels were influenced by early utopian socialists like Robert Owen (1771-1858), Charles Fourrier
(1772-1837) and the Comte de Saint Simon (1760-1825).
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Figure 1: Aerial view of Dondo’s urban and suburban informal neighbourhoods and self-organised domestic
business facing street in Dondo (Source: Googlearth 2012, author 2010).
Figure 2: Pleasant urban environment and domestic farming in the collectively organised neighbourhoods of
Dondo (Source: author 2010).
Figure 3: Self-built maticado houses in Bairro Nhamayabwe, Dondo (Source: author 2010).
1536
Figure 4: Mapping rural-urban continuities (Source: author 2012).
In Mozambique, as well as Africa, traditional family-based relations favour community engagement and
collectivism rather than the individualism of nuclear family structures. Similarly, a negotiated patronage is
preferred to election of representatives and the family subsistence economy is based on social redistribution
or reciprocity rather than on use-value exchange (Jenkins and Wilkinson 2002). On the one hand, in
Mozambique there is growing popular resilience and insurgence (Hanlon 2009, 2010 and Serra 2003) and,
on the other hand, there is a social inclination towards decentralised collectivism, negotiation and
reciprocity (Jenkins, 2002). This clarifies the ambiguity concerning the spatial public-private spheres, which is
analogically transferrable to social relations, i.e. the Mozambican household collective-individual scale
provides the inherent potential for organising social movements (collaborative efforts at community level)
as well as for engaging in collaborative negotiations (collaborative efforts at institutional level) to meet
1537
mutually beneficial interests – for the common good. Therefore, the institutional role in the scenario of a
resilient decentralised transition could be enhanced through collaborative processes in budgeting,
planning, design and policy-making. The evidence from the case study provides a framework of ideas within
which, on the one hand, civil society has already been struggling against oppression and mutual
disengagement from the state and institutions as a means of self-empowerment in a silent revolt. On the
other hand, the pioneering municipal efforts developed since 1998 towards decentralised participatory
governance involving the community has introduced bottom-up forms of official relations with the
community, as well as a strategy for municipal self-empowerment (Roque and Tengler 2000).
The resilient urban metabolism defines, in spatial and ecological terms, the production of nature required to
provide humans with a habitat that satisfies their living conditions in a way that a more egalitarian
civilisation and the natural regeneration of life are assured (see Figure 5). As a complex system, the Agrocity
has to be recognised as a whole that arises out of the complex interactions of its sub-units (neighbourhoods)
and individual units (Outdoor Domestic Space) as well as the interaction between the system and its
environment (culture, ecology and political economy), rather than analysing its component parts. This is
why its behaviour can only be defined by its organisation or structure, which is its social organisation. Our
relationship with nature is bound by reciprocity, in the sense that humanity not only adapts to nature but it
also changes it. Likewise, it may be mutually positive or negatively reciprocal. Furthermore, cooperation
between humanity itself and humanity and natural life is a natural process which has been corrupted by
centralised oppressive regimes where humans subjugate one another. So, if conditions are met humanity
may naturally reorder society in a decentralised and cooperative manner so that the relationship between
humanity and nature may be mutually beneficial and prosperity of all living systems will be more likely to
unfold.
Figure 5: Sample outdoor domestic space functional and resource map (Source: author 2012).
Considering the subsistence economy of the self-organised model of society and urban formation found in
Dondo, spatial production for habitat may be understood as a reconfiguration of the metabolism between
society and nature because as a social process, it belongs to nature’s processes. The way in which the
Agrocity develops itself as a semi-rural green urban system is “nature being humanized while society is
naturalized” (Schmidt 1971). The system adapts to changing conditions through resilience, which starts
spontaneously at the individual ODS level, as the building block widely distributed within the sub-units of
the whole system. Although ODS per se does not change the conditions of the system, it is its interaction
with the sub-units and the environment over time that adapts, under kinship, self-reliance and mutual aid
social relations, eventually propagating in time (see Figure 5).
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Figure 5: The outdoor domestic spaces interactive dynamics with other components forming neighbourhoods at
local level, and emergent behaviours at global levels (Source: author 2011).
Following the gradual failure of the capitalist model and some loss of resilient cultural knowledge, both
developed and developing world nations will probably struggle to relearn and find alternative ways to deal
with problems such as global warming, climate change, peak oil, food crisis, hunger, poverty, terrorism and
the bankruptcy of nations, among many other problems. However, Mozambique and many other nations in
the developing world may probably be now in a more advantageous position to cope with the current
global challenges than the developed nations, since the Agrocity shows one way out of this catastrophic
scenario. Since the innate proximity of humanity and nature has endured in many places through cultural
knowledge, the same resilience that has proved successful in the past in dealing with extreme adversity is
probably even more important today.
So far, the case study of Dondo provided evidence that its urban system does not depend on globalisation
to survive, although it suffers from poverty and social inequality. Whatever historical political, economic and
natural events dictated, the communities have managed to respond through spatial resilience and self-
reliant strategies given continuing skills, capacity, experience, confidence, optimism, and updated
traditional knowledge. Since spatial resilience is a property able to respond to shocks and improvise
solutions that wealth, the market economy and the centralised state cannot satisfy, this proves that as long
the conditions are in place to distribute resilience widely over the decentralised system, it might have more
chances of succeeding than a centralised system.
POLICY AND PLANNING IMPLICATIONS
There is a crisis in development models and policy makers and planners are beginning to look for new ideas
from outside the narrow spectrum of statism and neoliberalism, both in general and more specifically in
Mozambique (IESE 2012). The approach put forward here attempts to help address the impasse of
contemporary forms of ‘participation’, which even though participatory budgeting and planning may have
little impact on ordinary people, at least it shows that the municipality is potentially open to new thinking
and new approaches which may increase its resilience and self-reliance.
1539
This paper is primarily about self-organisation of space, and not about governance, but a new
ecodevelopment can only realise its full potential if there are changes in governance. Some of the research
findings indicate significant implications for policy and planning in a development context and its
applicability in architectural education. The findings suggest that under a collaborative process, multiple
urban stakeholders might work together towards common goals, contradicting mainstream top-down
architectural design, urban planning and policy-making processes. In fact, in many cases the dialectics
between top-down planning and bottom-up self-organising collectivism has proven to facilitate and
enhance emergent systems, catalysed by appropriate development practices (Hamdi 2004). This section
puts forward some policy implications which may be supportive of a change in paradigm of architectural
education and practice and reinforce the potential of a liberated architecture and a new ecodevelopment.
They are grounded on the notion that the human habitat is the materialisation of the dialectic between
society and nature, whose symbiotic performance may reverse the self-destructive tendency of the current
world crisis, and will largely rely on cooperative efforts towards common goals.
The Agrocity includes a form of social relations associated with the production of space which involve
mutual aid and reciprocal relations between civil society and nature in the management of neighbourhoods,
cities, land and natural resources. The social production of space means the transformation of nature by
society and implies equitable, autonomous, safe and sound urban development with self-organised resilient
tools which can be extended and useful in policy-making, architecture, planning and monitoring through
collaborative processes between the authorities and civil society, making use of cultural resources (through
valuing skills, knowledge, people, local values and organisation) and natural processes (mimicking cycles,
ecosystems, habitats, resources, biodiversity, and the elements). The self-reliance and resilience nature of
this process is based on traditional knowledge which has not only to be validated by the authorities, but
support ways in which people themselves acknowledge the importance of their own traditions to affirm
their own identity and keep this process alive. This popular basis of self-reliance and resilience may move
Mozambique, as well as other nations, away from adversity by supporting and developing a more
autonomous urban society.
Therefore, acknowledging and supporting urban development such as the one found in Dondo could
increase local food sovereignty, economic growth and knowledge transfer, as well as improved lifestyles in
both urban and rural areas, and eventually ecological rehabilitation. Supportive urban policies ought to
consider collaboration processes with the communities which gives people the ability to control and
manage their own close and distant environment from home, the bairros, and the city together with the
urban authorities and other urban stakeholders, by: (1) integrating natural processes, elements and cycles
into the urban site in such a way that livelihoods are secure and space is safely produced; (2) recognising
cultural knowledge, cooperation, self-reliance and resilience as the driving force behind environmental
management, spatial transformation and domestic production; (3) acknowledging the cultural, ecological,
political and economic implications of the Outdoor Domestic Space shaping the Agrocity and disseminator
of its benefits (for society and nature); and (4) developing collaborative efforts for local autonomy counting
with all urban stakeholders from civil society to the state, which are non-hierarchical and in which all the
parties work together to serve common interests. This could lead to the incorporation of appropriate
methods technologies and other forms of foreign progress if proven successful when tested locally and are
compatible with local characteristics in terms of space, climate, technology, amongst other aspects –
together with the specific features of local ecological and social processes.
Given the current world ecology and political economy crisis, the most important value in architectural
education now is to contextualise the profession with reality, rather than the ‘prize architect’ illusion. This
implies updating the architectural education agenda, or change in paradigm, towards a focus on spatial and
environmental justice by converging knowledge from teaching, research and practice for a unified agenda
that addresses real spatial problems. This ecodevelopment theoretical framework integrates a real
understanding of local challenges for tackling spatial segregation, urban environmental problems and
environmental degradation. The methodology of a liberated architecture has an exploratory and discovery
character (dynamic system) in order to acknowledge humanity as part of nature (dialectical) and embody
participation in planning and design (equality). In addition to classical architectural education curricula,
there would be a theoretical background in Political Ecology, Sustainability of the Built Environment, and
Participatory Design and Planning Processes & Right to the City, together with a hands-on, learning-by-
doing approach in studio courses.
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ECODEVELOPMENT
AUTONOMY
! !
DIVERSIT
SPATIAL
Civil%Participation Urban&Political&Ecology&
!
CP UPE
SD
! !
DEVELOPMENTAL ENVIRONMENTA
SO
FLEXIBILITY
! !
RESILIENCE
Self"Organisation*of*space
Figure 4: The theoretical framework of liberated architecture towards ecodevelopment (Source: author 2013).
For the reasons mentioned above, it is very important to teach students many approaches to the problems
of architecture, the city, society and nature from the perspective of the different stakeholders and, balance
and differentiate different viewpoints based on both facts (past and present) and theory. Therefore, we are
facing a window of opportunity to advance the architectural education further through the embodiment of
a participatory and political ecology approach, as a means to: (a) transfer and discover knowledge in a
mutual and iterative learning process amongst architectural students, teachers and society; (b) hands-on
learning and teaching in real case scenarios (participatory design and planning processes from strategic
design to construction stages); and (c) contribute in recovering spatial and environmental justice (see Figure
4). Preparing students for future urban challenges means preparing them to develop their own critical self,
to be resilient and multifaceted in order to (a) work in collaborative processes with multiple urban
stakeholders; (b) deal with a changing work scenario, and (c) engage as professionals for making cities a
better and just place to live.
CONCLUSION
This paper has attempted to demonstrate the way in which resilience has simultaneously restored the
traditional social system and discovered a new environmentally friendly urban system through a replicable
cell-based model, from which the Agrocity can be built. The cell, the Outdoor Domestic Space, is the
building block in this new return to the innate relationship between humanity and nature. The emergent
property of the Agrocity lies in the level of the wider system. Since it is not possible to predict the
development of the wider system from an understanding of the individual cell alone, although the cell is
fundamental, the next stage would be to understand in detail the emerging properties of the Agrocity
system when the cells interact with each other and with the whole environment - i.e. the way the cell groups
itself locally (the ODS within the neighbourhood) and the way a larger system - the city, is built up from local
groupings (clusters of neighbourhoods within the city) by focusing on the community- neighbourhood level
of organisation.
1541
There are resilient movements throughout the world, in particular indigenous movements in the Americas
and Asia, and social movements in Europe, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand (e.g. Transition Towns,
the Asian Peace Alliance and Guerrilla Gardening). The Agrocity, as a pre-existing phenomenon that is
emerging in the case study of Dondo seeking community autonomy and prosperity in times of crisis, is part
of a worldwide phenomenon, but instead of being driven by ideology it has evolved in a purely
spontaneous manner. The case shows that the essence of spatial resilience is diversity, which strengthens
the transition to a new ecodevelopment. What is already happening in Dondo is actually an integral part of
the wider phenomenon that is now evolving on a global level.
Given the rise and proliferation of small and medium-sized cities in Mozambique (and in Africa) and the
increase of a predominantly global urban population, the future of urbanisation depends on recognising the
flaws that dominate conventional city planning and exacerbate urban poverty, so that the inherent
strengths of the existing decentralised informal urban expansion practices are acknowledged and
supported. People will continue their self-reliant livelihoods independently of the dominant formal system
as long as this proves to be effective. Yet, both may benefit by moving closer to each other if incentives in
the form of acknowledgement, support and facilitation are made available. Collaborative efforts towards
architecture design, city planning, budgeting and policy-making represent a mutually beneficial opportunity
for civil society, private agents and the state, whilst also preserving vital natural resources, driving social
equity, increasing popular participation in the local economy and building up a local sense of community
identity and raised personal self-esteem.
This attempt for social change involves a reflective institutional, planning and architectural approach that
looks inwards to the grassroots community. Constructing an operational framework for increasing spatial
resilience and decreasing urban vulnerability to political and/or environmental crisis to other cities based on
the practice developed in Dondo indicate that the first stage in the resilient transition to ecodevelopment is
to maintain intact and enhance livelihoods during periods of (ecological and/or political economy) crisis
during the evaluation and diagnosis of the urban system. The second stage is the implicit response to crisis,
which is the creation of a new alternative mode of production based on a self-organised society in pace with
nature’s self-regenerating processes by visioning the needs and measures for recovery, well-being and
prosperity of the urban system. The third and last stage is focused on the maintenance and consolidation of
ecodevelopment needed to keep resilience widely propagated and the self-regeneration capacity highly
dynamic within the urban system through a multi-dimensional approach. The multi-dimensional levels of
spatial, social, economic and political production evolve from the household at ODS to the wider community
at a global scale to maintain and scale up ecodevelopment. Since under the rule of global capitalism
livelihoods challenges and environmental degradation will continue and even increase, a radical change
towards ecodevelopment should unfold in order to shift towards a system that preserves both humanity
and nature. Yet, since a sudden rupture and clean slate would lead to a deeper crisis and further hardship,
the elements and processes of the new mode of production must prepare the transition and mature within
the current system.
The ecodevelopment resilient transition must not be seen as a sudden transformation, since weariness with
changing political and economic reforms or a fear of novelty and uncertainty could generate resistance to
change. This is the reason why ecodevelopment, based on the case study of Dondo, does not imply change,
but instead continuation of well-preserved dialectical relation with nature: the legitimate
acknowledgement, facilitation and optimisation of its own self-organised ‘normality’. Unconsciously,
unconnected people in different parts of the world have already started the transition to ecodevelopment as
a natural reaction against an erroneous and unnatural path driven by global capitalism. Societies in the
world are re-discovering the innate human-nature values within ecodevelopment and will start engaging
with it massively and consciously once they discover that it does not imply any conflict and is not something
externally imposed, but rather the way things naturally are. Once the advantages are realised in practice, the
levels of popular and institutional engagement with ecodevelopment may have a good chance of spreading
widely throughout the world. This struggle for survival and prosperity of future generations through
resilience is what will push people in the direction of a new ecodevelopment. Maybe once pushed to the
edge and fully aware of the source of the threat, an informed global network for social unity will eventually
emerge and give rise to a more instinctive form of ecodevelopment.
1542
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Hamdi, N., 2004. Small change: the art of practice and the limits of planning the cities, Earthscan, London.
Hanlon, J., 2009. ‘Mozambique: the panic and rage of the poor’, Review of African Political Economy, vol. 36,
no. 119, pp. 125-130.
Hanlon, J., 2010. ‘Mozambique: the war ended 17 years ago, but we are still poor’, Conflict, Security &
Development, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 77-102.
Jenkins, P & Wilkinson, P., 2002. ‘Assessing the growing impact of the global economy on urban
development in Southern African cities: case studies in Maputo and Cape Town’, Cities, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 33-
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Marx, K., 1973. Grundrisse: foundations of the critique of political economy, Penguin in association with New
Left Review, Harmondsworth.
Marx, K & Engels, F., 1998. The Communist Manifesto, Verso, London.
Roque, C & Tengler, H., 2000. Dondo no Dhondo - Perspectivas de Desenvolvimento Municipal Participativo,
Centro de Serviços de Sofala, Beira.
Schmidt, A., 1971. The concept of nature in Marx, NLB, London.
Serra, C., 2003. Cólera e catarse, Imprensa Universitária, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo,
http://www.open.ac.uk/technology/mozambique/pics/d105697.pdf.
Turner, J., 1976. Housing by the people: towards autonomy in building environments, Marion Boyars, London.
Wills, MA, Briggs, DEG & Fortey, RA., 1994. ‘Disparity as an evolutionary index: A comparison of cambrian and
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ABIDING ARCHITECTURE: WHAT I’M LEARNING FROM WORKING IN TITANYEN, HAITI
Dr. Marie Aquilino, Associate Professor, Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, France, mjaquilino@hotmail.com
Abstract
Today in Haiti 357,000 people remain in the squalid conditions of 496 camps, where the risk of cholera,
malaria, and rape remain very high. Eighty-four percent of these residents have been there since January,
2010. Ninety-nine camps -- or 42,000 people-- are highly vulnerable to mudslides. All told, 58% of the adults
have no work, even though most of the displaced remain in the metro area. The current policy of emptying
the camps by promising rental subsidies will not work. In 2012, 70,000 people were again on the move,
either forced from camps or their lives upended by storms. Still, the city’s population is expected to grow by
three million in the next twenty years, doubling current figures. Seventy-five percent of this growth will be in
informal settlements. For these reasons, the price of wasting the peri-urban territories just beyond Port-au-
Prince, which are critical to resilient development but fast becoming tragically missed opportunities, is
inestimable. This paper explores new planning tools for peri-urban development in Titanyen, Haiti that
recast our understanding and approach to scale as well as suggest new ways of working with modules that
emerge from pertinent, manual gestures to become adaptive strategies within existing systems. For
architects to have a place in recovery that is not rooted solely in building technologies, they must gain
confidence to read the process differently--through an understanding of government, money, and land.
Smarter choices and good decisions are the result of invested systems that can justify and leverage limited
resources and capacities into a broad and coherent vision for reconstruction that is fair and equitable over
time. We are exploring this process through constant acts of abiding.
Keywords: post-disaster recovery and reconstruction, peri-urban development, informal urbanism, urban
decentralization, Haiti, resilient urbanism, abiding architecture, systems architecture.
1544
This is how riots start.
Figure 1: Titanyen, Haiti.
Six students amble down a hill, laughing and chatting. They cross a busy highway together, agree on how to
divide up the work and set their backpacks in the shade. The two in cargo shorts hold the tape measure,
while another tucks the end of a large schematic map under his chin so he can mark the folded section with
a pink felt pen. The others mill around, jotting down details about plants and alleyways as they peek into
storefronts. Max stares off into space from under his baseball cap. Only Jisak, the young man from Thailand,
starts to draw. They all ignore the panic in a man’s voice until his rage catches their attention. He is tall and
powerful, fortyish, and already shouting as he rushes through the veranda. I am across the street talking to
my guide as the men start to gather. Some voices defend the students, others join the fury. Most of the men
are speaking in Créole, and each seems angry about something different. I rush to shake the big man’s hand
and hold on tight with both of mine. He yells over my questions. But I don’t let go. Our hands gesture
together as he tries to free himself from my embrace. The group of shouting men gets larger. No one from
the blue and white police station moves to quiet the crowd. In French, my guide whispers that the big man
is terribly afraid of what we are going to do with our maps and drawings. He is sure they will be used against
the village, given to people in the government to favor decisions beyond his control, used, he is sure, to
force them to move. The lightning shift to violence in Haiti is not irrational. So I hold on to his calloused
hand. I’m afraid that if I let go, our negligence could get someone hurt, or worse. I wouldn't be among the
injured or dead; neither would one of my students. The dead would be from the village, someone trying to
be heard, someone ignored or forced to take sides. “Who authorized your visit,” another man wants to know.
Yelling and shoving and pleading, we suddenly agree on the guides who will walk us through certain
neighborhoods and keep us out of others. It could as easily have gone the other way.
Titanyen, Haiti has a tortured and brutal history. Thirty thousand of François Duvalier’s rivals were executed
in the scrubby, treeless hills during his three-decade reign. Then, as if this were a place given only to decay,
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tens of thousands of bodies, victims of the earthquake, were dumped in immense trenches hidden from the
road. I remember the tears when I saw those images in the Haitian press more than three years ago.
Today some 6,000 people live in all manner of tiny houses. Some homes are made from recycled corrugated
metal, others are weak cement block that would never withstand another earthquake, a few are built of
plywood and raised off the ground, and a handful are made of mud. Most were assembled by family
members and are by now somewhat protected from neighbors by a fast-growing, spiny cactus that acts as a
very good, thick, fence. Some have small gardens and some occupy a strange zone between the
neighborhood and the national highway, where twice a week a sprawling market extends in all directions.
Of the twenty-three water spigots, half are working. Roland, one of our new guides, tells me that no one
believes the water is truly clean enough to drink, though residents must use it for every need. He laughs and
shakes his head when I ask him about the enterprising newcomers claiming to sell miracle water.
Figure 2: Titanyen, Village Resident Figure 3: Titanyen, Market.
As we wend our way through tiny passages and shortcuts, we pass shops decorated with extraordinary,
surreal paintings. The manicurist shows off her prowess in two wild images painted directly on the facade. In
her depiction of a pedicure, the left and right feet are cut off below the knees and float on a brushy dark
green background; a file, buff, brush and nail cleaner hover below the beautifully shaped and coated
toenails. In Paris, Haitian paintings sell for a fortune.
Figure 4: Titanyen, Bridal Shop. Figure 5: Titanyen, Pedicurist.
Roland is talking about when he used to go to church, and his concerns for the town. He is dumbfounded by
how many people pass through offering to build schools. There are already six schools in Titanyen, but only
one clinic--and it isn’t well run. Nearly all of the young men who join the walk tell us that if they could leave,
they would never come back.
There is no electricity, Roland tells the students. In winter, when the days are short, the adults leave work
early and few go back out. You can understand, he says, why the community does not tolerate individual
ownership of a generator. I watch as a young girl wipes her little sister’s bottom and tosses the soiled paper
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into the street. Human waste in Haiti is still collected in plastic bags and thrown in piles that are burned at
night. The greatest threat to health on the island is not an earthquake; it’s garbage. Last summer, riots broke
out here when residents, fed up with the living conditions, burned a bus and several cars. We are working at
the Montesinos Foundation, just opposite the village. During the struggle, furious residents ran up the hill
seeking refuge in the chapel. The army lobbed canisters of tear gas over the pews while eighty-nine children
took cover with their teachers in the refectory. Father Charles had plans to move the chapel closer to the
road, so doors and windows were never added to the building; everyone liked it this way. Then two of the
demonstrators were shot dead.
However unlikely a candidate, Titanyen is critical to resilient development in Haiti precisely because it is one
of the many peri-urban zones up the road from Port-au-Prince. The capital’s bloated population is expected
to grow by three million in the next twenty years, doubling current figures. Seventy-five percent of this
growth will be in informal settlements. The price of wasting the peri-urban territories just beyond the capital
to missed opportunities is inestimable. So for the past two years we have been trying to grasp the region’s
potential. We work here in student, faculty and community teams with the Caritas Italia organization,
helping Father Charles design and build the Montesinos Foundation, a school complex and residence for
abandoned children.
During our tenure, which ends in late 2014, we hope to program the site as a system that would mitigate
risk, manage water and soil, sponsor alternative practices in energy, grow viable crops, enable metal and
brick work, and sell baked goods along a small commercial strip. The buildings--classrooms, workshops, a
water station, canteen, some tiny stores, and storage--should promote on-site learning by testing renewable
technologies. A series of gardens are planned to explore opportunities for peri-urban agriculture. The
proposal also includes vocational training intended to stimulate job opportunities for the neighboring
community.
In our first year, students and faculty investigated construction techniques and tested simple material
solutions that make good sense. Each student team detailed a carefully phased suite of master plans that
would allow for greater connection with the surrounding community and strengthen the site’s fragile
ecology according to different priorities and budgets. We are now working with Father Charles on the
bakery and water station, which are scheduled to be the first part of technical school built this year. The
work encompasses roughly three acres that front the national highway.
When we speak about the Montesinos project like this, we envision the Foundation as a living laboratory,
one that enables communities to become their own first line of defense, capable of practicing and
monitoring resilient energy, water, waste and agricultural systems.
But: This is hardly the whole story. This is the grant proposal and the work we’ve done largely off-site in Paris.
Now we are asking ourselves, what does all this mean in practice? There is a lot of activity at the back side of
the site for which we are not responsible directly. Dormitories are nearly complete, classrooms are active,
sanitation is still lacking but water management is being discussed. The finished buildings were put there by
Food for the Poor, who offered them irresistibly free of charge to the Foundation, though without any
attention to site planning or infrastructural needs. They simply plopped down seven buildings where the
terrain is more-or-less flat. They’re not terrible, and they're far less of a disaster than the four almost-finished
structures for which the Foundation paid half a million euros, three years ago, to a questionable Miami firm
with ties in the Dominican Republic.
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Figure 6: Montesinos Foundation ClassroomsFigure 7: Montesinos Foundation Dormitories
In practice, the work and the process are typical in unequal doses of poor advice, nepotism, good will
arrogance, interchangeable priorities, and an unrelenting sense of urgency that renders any distinction
between chronic and acute need pointless. Still, activity is a good thing. While it mixes hope and promise
with havoc and waste, and with what goes wrong every day, activity is also the proof that “things” are
moving forward.
After two years in Titanyen, I am more inclined than ever to argue we champion the chaos, embrace its
unsteady ambivalence and imperfection. I don’t mean to suggest we should recreate chaos or use its
ubiquity to wiggle out of the responsibility we have to Father Charles, but rather that we see in the chaos
opportunities to abide one another.
Abiding is much more than listening; it’s listening times ten, from both sides, in conversation, with deference
and humility. Abiding occurs in encounter and relationship, in being available, in following and connecting.
Abiding also troubles our grasp of what we are responsible for and to whom we owe this responsibility. In
abiding, we stay on; abiding complicates our sense of time. In our efforts to grapple with abiding, we are
learning to read the process differently. Abiding has recast our approach to scale and encouraged us to try
out new ways of working with modules that emerge from pertinent, manual gestures to become adaptive
strategies for building within existing systems.
An abiding aarchitecture
To imagine and explore the relation between abiding and architecture requires, I’ve found, that we hold two
ideas simultaneously in play.
The first, I call points of attachment or anchors. Anchors arise from never losing sight of the macro scale, the
scale of territory, of the whole. Scale, I’ve learned, is not simply size or making something bigger, repeating
or making more of something. Scale is not, in effect, the action of moving up a scale. Scale is a tension.
Scale is the complex terrain that encompasses the physical and communal potential of a territory. Scale
provides insight into what to hold on to and what points in the process and system to assure and complete.
Where, that is, to anchor ourselves. Scale also tells us where we can be open and fluid and give into chaos.
Scale then is the narrative, the story of the place. Whether at the scale of community, the sprawling market,
the need for water or better agricultural practices, or at the scale of the parish church, scale, we have
discovered, is the filter of exigencies and constraints. Working with scale in this way leads us away from
before leading us toward design, as it requires that architects understand something of the diverse systems
already in place before they rush in.
If we follow this logic, scale is also money. Money changes a city. But as designers we rarely have a solid
grasp of what things cost. How does money circulate within the momentum and distortions of the local
economy? How do people acquire land? How long does it take to pay for a house? Do families subdivide or
extend their home for income? How do people manage their resources? How do they bank? What
percentage of residents has access to money, and is that money easily earned, borrowed and repaid? Credit
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determines what gets built and who gets to live in any given place. Answering these questions allows us to
anchor design within existing financial systems, promote the best financial tools and models, and know
where the money is so that we can determine what to leverage. All this matters because when borrowing is
expensive and people don’t have access to credit, buildings are less safe and people less secure.
Scale is local governance. Design professionals often have little idea how municipal governments with tiny
budgets and small staff work, which leads us to distorted proposals. If we help reposition policy from within
the existing governmental framework, we can anchor design in a confident, incremental approach to
housing. We can better protect people from wild speculation by designing the codes of conduct and
agreements between neighbors that enable communities to reach up, toward greater responsibility and
compliance.
And scale is the exchange we have with communities that allows us to provide the help that is needed. As
designers, we hesitate to admit who is participating in whose project. Frankly, communities participate
primarily in our projects. We still have little grasp of how communities reason or understand their political
and economic realities. To participate in their process would require we stop thinking in terms of projects.
Projects are making us irrelevant. If we could give up some authority and take more value in being invisible,
avoid turning the community’s motives into something we can draw, we might strengthen and anchor
communities’ ability to seize strategic economic opportunities.
Scale is also as much our ability to interrogate the past as it is our modesty in helping shape what happens
when we are gone.
Scale, I am suggesting, is gaining confidence to read the process through the messy, yes chaotic, realities of
local government, money, land and history. Smarter choices and good decisions come from invested
systems that can justify and leverage limited resources and capacities into a broad and coherent vision for
reconstruction that is fair and equitable over time. Anchors are the creative solutions that add value and
momentum by shifting investment from front-loaded projects and short-term fixes to systems that enable
people over the long term.
We also abide in a place. We reside, nest, squat and stay put. That abiding endures, is steadfast, lasting and
perseveres is precisely because it folds specific acts of making into the wider frame of existing systems. Our
experience has taught us that an abiding architecture is at once systemic and immediate. So we make
modules that could be walls, doors, floors, roofs, joints, bits of furniture or playgrounds. Initially, these
modules have no particular application, no preordained program, no precise scale and no certain inside or
outside; they are simple, affordable, modest, replicable units that are complete in themselves. We then
eliminate the need for complicated tools and machines and rely upon local knowledge and expertise, such
as boat making. Students maximize the potential of the module by working with the 'Res': remake,
repurpose, repeat, redo, reiterate, reconfigure, refit, rethink, rework, replace, recombine, research. Always
working with their hands. Haitian families make their homes and lives incrementally, in stages, in and
through their daily routines. This incremental architecture then begins to give shape to the anchors we
discern from the analyses of scale. They begin to assemble. Renowned development economist Ha-Joon
Chang tells me that we should take making things more seriously, because a knowledge economy will never
be enough. Making, he contends, is vital to growth, productivity and raising living standards.
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Figure 8: Presenting the Modules
When we weren’t welcome in the village last December it was because the angry man would not abide our
presence. The students wanted to have a better sense of the space, the transitions, interstices, barriers,
passages, patterns of access and services, and the extraordinary central presence of the market, much of
which you don’t see from the road. They wanted to investigate the town’s vibrant artisanal traditions, and
were concerned that the work we are doing on the hill better address the needs and priorities of the village.
Later that evening, from safely inside the compound, the students told me that they didn’t understand that
man’s anger. But Titanyen is not a public space. You can’t simply wander into a village that is on its guard,
wary, and pitched for a fight. The big man did not abide us, and why should he? In the three-and-a-half years
since the earthquake, the humanitarian and development communities have struggled to abide Haitians.
We have all heard the countless stories of egregious waste. Five billion dollars spent, and yet so terribly little
to show for that gargantuan sum. The stories of disaster capitalism that mix profit with shame.
Neglecting the importance and potential of the peri-urban territories north of the capital left two-hundred
thousand people in nearby Caanan in a ghastly slum--an ecological and social calamity where the conditions
are so perverse that all the locals can say is that they have been "rolled in flour."
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Figure 9: Canaan, Haiti (photo credit: Chris Ward)
In Morn Cabri, again not far from our site, the “unscrupulous optimism” of those who cheer isolated
successes at the expense of greater equity has manifested as thousands of tiny mystery homes built by
Dominican crews. Designed to be hemmed in by factories, the little block desert is the largest housing
project in Haiti. However, it is not planned for earthquake victims.
Figure 10: Morn à Cabris, Haiti (Photo credit: Chris Ward).
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And in neighboring Zoranje, plans for an exemplary community that would have proved our commitment to
build back a better Haiti quickly became a two-million dollar charade that required little more than a
contest, a conference and an opening day to briefly lift everyone’s spirits. The sixty model homes built in this
low-lying, marshy village are now curiosities, a ghost town of dingy shells peeling under the hot sun. The
guards left long ago. Doors and sinks, counters and toilets have been pulled out by people who need them.
Weeds are making their way through the infill, and goats are the exhibition’s only visitors. Some of the larger
living rooms are being used as public latrines. Many are squatted.
The reality is heartbreaking.
What, then, is to prevent Titanyen from becoming another Canaan, neglected and eventually overrun by
newcomers with nowhere else to go; or another district within a widening industrial zone; or a Zoranje,
where design is at its worst? New homes and new residents are changing the landscape, but there is still
time before Titanyen is swamped by desperate people on the move.
This is an important moment for the village. USAID plans to support buildings and infrastructure for 156 new
homes directly across the street from the Montesinos Foundation. We need new planning tools. So I think
about abiding. Abiding underpins our modest ideas of anchors and modules--the place and the means of
entering existing systems--as we work to temper the pace of urgent need in Titanyen.
In our view, the way to help people flourish is to withhold judgment, embrace chaos, open ourselves to the
other person’s possibilities, and realize that desires are mappable onto one another. Writer George Saunders
suggests that “universal human laws-- need, love for the beloved, fear, hunger, periodic exaltation, and the
kindness that rises up naturally in the absence of fear/hunger/pain--are constant, predictable.” Abiding
comes from paying attention to how people arrange their lives, taking care, for example, to consciously
grasp what role a home plays in negotiating chronic need; or in being aware, simply aware, of how people
come to understand one another and agree, or not. To be sure, to say we need abiding solutions will not
always be the same as calling for durable ones.
We need to abandon our default position. Judgment and mercy stymie abiding. To ensure people’s safety
and foster their ability to prosper, to promote fellowship and self-determination, dignity must be undeniably
imbricated in human flourishing. In Titanyen, abiding is dignity’s first principle.
Figure 11: Children re-interpreting our module, Montesinos Foundation.
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REFERENCES
Davis, I., 2012. ‘Main report: What is the vision for sheltering and housing in Haiti, summary observations of
reconstruction progress following the Haiti earthquake of January 12, 2012’, ONU-Habitat.
Fitzgerald, E et al., 2010-2012. ‘Helping families, closing camps, using rental support, cash grants, and other
housing solutions to end displacement in camps: A tool kit of best practice and lessons learned’, Report for
E-Shelter, CCCM Cluster, IOM, and IASC, République d’Haiti.
Harvard University Graduate School of Design with MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism, 2011. Designing
process: Opportunities for long-term sustainable urbanization in post-disaster Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Boston.
Hilarie, Y, Milfort, M & Je, AK., 2012. ‘Le Mystère des lodgements de Morn à Cabris’, Le Nouvelliste, viewed 19
December 2012,
http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article4.php?newsid=107003
International Finance Corporation, 2011. Integrative economic zones in Haiti, IFC, Washington, D.C.
Levine, S, Bailey, S & Boyer, B., 2012. Avoiding reality in Haiti: Land, institutions and humanitarian action in post-
earthquake Haiti, Humanitarian Policy Group and Overseas Development Institute, London.
Ministère du Tourism, 2011. Reconstuire en mieux nos communautés: Catalogues des prototypes de lodgements,
République d’Haiti.
Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti, 2011. Has Aid changed: Channelling assistance to Haiti before and after
the earthquake, United Nations, New York.
ONU-Habitat, 2012. Haiti deux années d’Appui d’ONU-Habitat aux efforts de réfondation territoriale, ONU-
Habitat, République d’Haiti.
ONU-Habitat, 2012. Inititatives de restructuration des quartiers précaires, reconstuire mieux et améliores le cadre
de vie, ONU-Habitat, République d’Haiti.
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SHARING, JOINT PLANNING, SELF-BUILDING, FOR A PROFESSIONAL ANTI-SEISMIC AND ANTI-

CYCLONE SCHOOL IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
Arch. Edoardo Milesi, Studio Archos, Italy, milesi@archos.it

Arch. Giulia Milesi, Studio Archos, Italy, giuliamilesi@archos.it
Arch. Valentina Marinai, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy, valentina.marinai@gmail.com
Abstract
Due to the state of emergency, non-governmental organisations (NGO) and missionary groups often build in an
unsuitable manner in relation to: available resources, workers’ skills, and actual needs of the affected populations.
There is no doubt that part of the damages and deaths sustained in Haiti due to the earthquake of 2010 can be
directly linked to the improper buildings erected with the aid coming from first world countries, which introduced
wrong building methods, unsuitable for the area.
The dry building technique (proof of the mechanical, technological evolution of traditional techniques compared
to chemical processes) is certainly easier to understand by everybody; resistance against wind, rain, sun and
maintenance are well visible. It is able to easily adapt to local materials, stimulating the workers and users to
recycle and re-use. The know-how is transmitted through comprehensible and shareable behaviours that relate to
conscious and unconscious memories within us. Sustainable technology must be written on the walls like an
abacus. Like instructions for use, applicable to everybody.
The construction site represents the place to train, educate and inform volunteers and the communities involved,
about good practices and virtuous behaviour for peaceful cohabitation on this planet. We are well aware that
building together is able, like nothing else, to stir forms of appropriation, pride, identity, that are essential for the
work in order to generate social inclusion.
A professional school in Haiti built with 5x15x400 cm wooden beams and metal joints to withstand earthquakes
and winds up to 170 km/h.
The technical school designed for the Monfort Missionaries is intended to fulfil the need of imagination. The
population of Haiti needs more than subsidized aid. Haitians cannot act for long as spectators of their social life.
Collaborating in the construction activities is essential to feel part of the community.
Keywords: self-building, sharing, joint planning, Haiti.
INTRODUCTION
“A border is mainly and first of all a word that can be used in all directions—painful and essential, beautiful
or disastrous, sane or hysterical. (…) . In a way, borders are the ‘skin’ of places and also a rough skin to most
ideas. Borders are our definitions and are too thin. There is nothing to hold because we don’t see the other
side of the border properly” (Sigalit 2013).
The themes of international cooperation in architecture and joint planning processes will be discussed. We
will talk about architecture for the community or public architecture.
Today, we must completely rethink about the role of the architect who must face a modern reality,
consisting of conflicting trends.
The sphere of architecture and cooperation is divided between: relief projects, development projects and
public projects. Each of these three sectors implies different strategies, actions, choices and budgets and
each of them refers to a different phase of the disaster that inevitably influences the architecture and design.
We can imagine that a disaster follows a scheme that transforms it in time, into a development opportunity.
A specific timeline, a different budget and actions correspond to each phase of the disaster. The phases of
the disaster leading to development are: relief, recovery, reconstruction and development. A different
architectural response refers to each of these phases. The first phases of the disaster require quick, often
immediate response times, and often rely on significant budgets, subsidised by governments and
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governmental and non-governmental associations; the last phases, meaning the reconstruction and above
all the development phase, foresee long-term projects with financing spaced out in time and of lower
amounts.
The first scenario concerns relief projects, which consist of all those architectural activities intended for
situations immediately after a natural catastrophe or a disaster of other type.
In the development projects, the ‘time’ factor allows experimenting in the technological and social
participation sphere. These are architectural activities intended to face situations not immediately after a
disaster, but in the following years, or critical situations. The goal in this case is not only construction, but
promoting development, assuming that the architecture can be a tool to improve the life conditions of the
communities. In this case, different from the first scenario, the goal does not consist in quick building and
direct actions, but on the contrary, a response is given in order to produce long-term effects, after analysing
current conditions and problems. In this case, the communities’ participation is essential for the
development of the project. First of all, information must be collected and an accurate analysis must be
carried out on the life styles of the inhabitants, the needs of the community, and development potentials
within the same community. Subsequently, a suitable method is selected and compared with any goals
pursued by local authorities. In this type of interventions, local authorities and governments boast a key role
in case projects, plans or financing are available. The sustainable development of the project will be
achieved only by following the guidelines provided by official bodies. In lack of authorities or official
regulations, the project must be anyhow developed in line with the community for which it is intended. The
technological issue is different compared to the first case; appropriate and appropriable technologies must
be exploited in these projects; development projects can be conceived only through an aware use of the
raw materials and local technical know-how. For this reason, all the architectures that fall within this vast
scenario concern the future, which has nothing to do with the relief phase that must only be overcome. A
long-term vision of the architectural project means that once building is completed, the process will carry
on, creating new development opportunities and scenarios born spontaneously from the potentials offered
by the new architecture.
The last scenario within which architecture and cooperation have a role, is in public architecture. This is
certainly the widest and most complex scenario. Public architecture puts architectural resources at the
service of public interest. Ernest Boyer and Lee Mitgang (1996) thus define public architecture in their book
Building Communities: “The design of public architecture is an unknown architectural category, also as
planning for the community, social design, humanitarian design and pro bono. The main characteristic
consists in the fact that this type of design serves somehow the community and is not created only for
personal scopes and interests”.
The technological issue in development projects

The introduction of new technologies and building systems in situations like those occurring in countries
under state of emergency or developing countries, must often deal with some critical factors, such as: quick
demographic growth and change of life styles; the lack of sensitivity and civil participation; the weakness of
the regulatory framework and its application; fragmented and inefficient organisational structures;
insufficient and unsuitable materials and infrastructures; limited financial resources; limited human
resources; lack of an environmental monitoring system. These factors often represent the main causes for
the failure of these local building projects and also of those promoted by bodies operating in the
international cooperation sphere.
The introduction of materials, technologies and their diffusions requires a strict multi-disciplinary
methodological approach that allows a selection and implementation process of suitable technologies able
to take into consideration the peculiarities of the project context and integrate with local traditional
practices and skills of the local population. One of the crucial points for this type of project is the selection of
the material which must be chosen first of all, to perfectly satisfy the structural needs set forth by the project,
such as the ability to withstand natural events like hurricanes and earthquakes. Moreover, materials and
technologies must be implemented that can be easily repaired and/or replaced, and that ensure a fairly long
life cycle of the building. The technology must also feature the lowest number of components as possible, in
order to reduce the building cost, and also to facilitate transport of the components, construction, and as
previously mentioned, any repairs, and also to help local workers, who are often not properly trained, to
understand the building system. Another essential aspect consists of choosing materials that do not require
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excessive works, energies or water; for this reason, dry building systems are preferred, since these types of
architecture are generally erected in places where energy and water are not always available or are
extremely pricey.
In this type of project, design and the use of alternative technologies for the draining of waste water and
disposing of waste are of key importance; for the supply of potable water and in hot, humid environments,
particular attention must also be paid to the design of naturally ventilated environments. Services are often
lacking in areas were the international co-operation operates. The architectural project loses its meaning
and we can no longer talk about project-process when aspects are overlooked, like infrastructural ones.
Particular attention must be paid to the technology of development works. Solutions like phytodepuration,
recycling of waste and natural ventilation allow suitable responses to local and building needs.
A suitable design must pay particular attention to the building’s durability and resilience in extreme events.
The project must satisfy the needs of the population and community, who must also adapt to changes in life
style and a potential lack of resources. The anti-seismic design is an example of durable and resilient design.
The buildings constructed according to anti-seismic principles are not destroyed by an earthquake, but
suffer only slight damage; on the contrary, non-engineered structures cause significant damage. The
balance between the use of natural, low-cost materials and technologically high efficient materials is crucial.
One of the main challenges of design in developing countries is to find suitable technologies implementing
low-cost materials that could entirely or partially replace the use of highly resistant materials like steel or
reinforced concrete.
A CASE STUDY: HAITI
On 12 January 2010, an earthquake made Haiti famous worldwide. In the days immediately after the
earthquake, the entire world knew the exact position of the epicentre, the number of deaths and material
damages caused by the seism. But not everything was disclosed, in fact, it was hidden that the country had
been suffering from many years from a complex political and economic situation. Comments were hardly
raised around the thick network of international interests, with the French, then the Americans and currently
the United Nations involvement that has afflicted the island and stopped the country's development. The
goal of this chapter is to provide a picture of the community, economy, political and environmental situation
of the island, thus trying to understand the deep reasons that led Haiti to be the second poorest country in
the world, unable to handle immediate states of emergencies, and mainly to lay the basis to become a
strong society, free of foreign invaders.
Geographical and demographic context

Haiti occupies one third of Hispaniola Island, located in the Caribbean, between Cuba and Puerto Rico. The
rest of the island is occupied by Santo Domingo. It boasts an area of 27,750 square kilometres and divides
360 km to the east, the border with the Dominican Republic (Country Studies 2011).
It enjoys a tropical climate with dry and humid seasons, the former from December to February, while the
humid season goes from April to November. Rains vary significantly within the region. 3000 millilitres of
precipitations fall in the North-East on an annual basis. The average temperature of the island is 27°C. Since
it is located at the centre of the tropical monsoon corridor, Haiti is annually exposed to hurricanes, flooding
and other natural disasters.
It relies on a few natural resources, due to the scarce area and high environmental deterioration. Wood is
certainly the main natural resource of the country. Mangrove forests cover approx. 180 square kilometres of
coastal area. This important resource is jeopardised nowadays by the uncontrolled deforestation of recent
years. Moreover, Haiti features many sites that produce building materials like gravel, calcareous stone, clay
and sand.
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Figure 1: Example of a slum in the city of Port au Prince.
Haiti has approx. 9,719,932 inhabitants, 85-95% of African origin and 5-15% coming from other countries.
The island boasts a human development index, classification method of a country based on the analysis of
three main factors like life expectancy, education and gross domestic product per capita, equal to 0.456,
thus ranking in the 161st position over 187 countries analysed. The life expectancy is 62.17 years old; the
literacy index is 47.1% and 40.6% of the population is unemployed (Quandl 2012).
Currently, approx. 54% of the population lives in an urban area, and this percentage will grow by 2050; the
population density is equal to 364.04 inhabitants per square km; only the capital Port-au-Prince counts
approx. 942,194 inhabitants. 70.10% of the population lives in slums.
In addition to being one of the most densely populated countries in the world, Haiti is also one of the
poorest. The GPD per capita is approx. 1200$ a year and approx. 80% of the population lives under the
poverty threshold (54% lives with less than 1$ a day, while 24% live on 2$). During the last decades, the work
and life situation worsened to the point that one Haitian on eight emigrates, usually to the Dominican
Republic. The international community has always assisted Haiti's development. Since 1973, the United
States are the main donors of funds and programs for education, food and the employment of the Haitian
population. Between 1995 and 2003, only the United States contributed to the development of the country
with 850 million dollars. In 2004, with the implementation of the MINUSTAH operation, an additional 230
million dollars were donated.
Haiti’s points of weakness

Natural disasters, usually tropical storms and hurricanes, have always had a devastating impact on Haiti, and
this is due to the vulnerability level of the Haitian society. Nearby countries, in particular Cuba, Jamaica and
the Dominican Republic are also afflicted by the same catastrophic events, but without sustaining the same
dramatic scenarios of Haiti. Just remember the Chilean earthquake that occurred only one month prior to
that of Haiti, of 8.8 magnitude, 500 times stronger than the earthquake that shook Haiti, of magnitude 7.0,
which caused less damages to people and buildings (Padgett 2010). The same local authorities recognized
the presence of vulnerability factors of the society when compiling the Action Plani, a document written by
the Haitian Government on 30 March 2010, with the aim to provide a picture of the post-earthquake
situation and supply guidelines for reconstruction. The Action Plan states: “Very soon after the earthquake it
was obvious that such a toll could not be the outcome of just the force of the tremor” (Government of the
Republic of Haiti 2010).
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High population density in urban centres

The first point of weakness consists in the high population density in Port-au-Prince. Historically, the island
population has always been a rural community, with a percentage of urban population equal to 20%
compared to 80% of inhabitants in the countryside. As of today, this ratio has changed dramatically, with
approx. 45% of the population living in the cities, in particular in the city of Port-au-Prince. This migration
towards the city led to the construction of non-regulated villages, where 67% of the population is currently
living. Many of these slums rise in areas featuring unstable lands subject to flooding and landslides, thus
exposing the most vulnerable population to great risks.
Lack of a building standard:

The second point of weakness consists in the lack of building regulation and minimum building standards.
This fact was underscored by the devastating effects of the earthquake, which destroyed approx. 105,000
houses and severely damaged approx. 208,000 houses. In addition to dwellings, 1300 schools and approx.
50 medical structures were destroyed. This vast destruction can be only explained by the institutions'
inability to regulate constructions. Poverty plays an essential role in this process. The island's building sector
is based on block and cement constructions, improperly built due to the high cost of cement, therefore
many builders add sand, thus obtaining a weak, low-quality cement. Also reinforcing is often missing or not
sufficient, due to economic reasons.
Figure 2: Example of inappropriate construction in Haiti.
Lack of a town general plan:

The third factor mentioned in the Action Plan consists in the urbanization or its lack; in fact, there is a total
lack of control over the property of lands and their use. The high bureaucratization level and cost of private
property prevents most of the population to purchase it, and forces it to regulate transactions outside the
government systemii. Due to the general impoverishment of the population, people build where, how and
what they can afford without paying any attention to safety or the environment.
Environmental deterioration and climatic change:

The last point of weakness consists in environmental deterioration. This is the result obtained after the
massive deforestation of the territory that occurred in the past centuries; only 2% of the territory is currently
covered by forests (Swarup 2009). Between 1990 and 2000, Haiti lost 44% of its forests. According to the
University of Yale, Haiti ranks in the 155th place over 163 countries, with regards to environmental
deterioration (Crane et al. 2010). The phenomenon is due to the massive production of coal, source of
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income for millions of people and main energy source. Deforestation renders the territory even more
vulnerable to environmental disasters like flooding and landslides, and it also causes a significant damage to
local economy. The frequent flooding and landslides cause the destruction of the fertile layer of soil which is
dragged towards the sea and rivers, with the consequent impossibility to cultivate the land.
The earthquake of 12 January 2010

On 12 January 2010 at 10:53 p.m. local time, an earthquake of 7.3 magnitude on the Richter scale shook the
island of Haiti for 35 seconds. After the first shock, three aftershocks followed after 7, 10, and 60 minutes of
magnitude higher than 5 degrees.
It was the most powerful earthquake that had affected the country in 200 years. The earthquake epicentre is
near the land surface, approx. 10 km deep, and at 17 km south-east of the capital Port-au Prince. The shock
was felt across the entire island.
Figure 3: The city of Port au Prince after the earthquake.
The impact on the population was devastating. Approx. 15% of the Haitian population was affected by the
disaster, corresponding to approx. 1.5 million inhabitants. According to local authorities, 230,000 people
died and approx. 300,000 were wounded. Approx. 1.3 millions lost their homes and fled to Port-au-Prince;
many survivors moved to the capital, where international aids were sent (Reliefweb 2011).
The destruction of infrastructure was enormous. Approx. 105,000 dwellings were completely destroyed and
208,000 severely damaged. Over 1300 schools and 50 medical structures collapsed or became completely
unfit for use. The port of the capital, which is the main port of the island, became unfit for use due to the
severe damage.
The earthquake worsened the already challenging environmental situation of the country, entire mountain
slopes collapsed, carrying with them trees, cultivable soil, and entire towns built in high-risk areas. The
earthquake produced 19 million cubic metres of debris and rubbles.
The international humanitarian response was enormous. After the earthquake, the international community
allocated sums of money for the relief and reconstruction phases. After one year from the earthquake,
approx. 1.74 billion dollars were donated, but over half of the sum subsidized between 2010 and 2011
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remained in the hands of the donors; private organizations and individuals contributed with approx. 3.10
billion dollars through donations made to NGOs. Humanitarian aid for Haiti was donated by:
34% by civil and military bodies

28% by the United Nations and NGOs with projects in collaboration with the United Nations
26% by other NGOs
6% non-specified
5% by the International Red Cross and national Red Cross associations
1% by the Haitian Government.
As of today, only 43% of the funds donated by international humanitarian organizations reached Haiti.
The buildings' performances during the earthquake

The most common building type in Haiti, and in particular in the Port-au-Prince region, consist of small
dwellings used by one family or for commercial purposes; the non-engineered structure, usually consists of
cement blocks and reinforced cement. These constructions feature one or maximum two storeys, even
though it is not rare to find three-storey buildings erected with this technique. These structures are built
with walls in blocks of non-reinforced cement and thin pillars, generally under-sized and not properly
reinforced. The floors are built with reinforced cement slabs, of thickness from 10 to 15 cm. Light sheets are
used for the roof, supported by a wooden structure. The foundations reach a depth of approx. one metre
and consist of cement mortar and rubbles or rocky material. These buildings were completely destroyed.
During the last decades, most of the buildings were erected with a reinforced cement mesh structure with
curtain walls made in non-reinforced cement blocks. This system is usually suitable for constructions erected
in seismic areas, provided it is designed and built at state-of-the-art. Unfortunately in Haiti, the bearing
structure in reinforced cement is not properly designed, and often the walls are not suitable to match the
pillars and beams of the bearing structure; for this reason, the structure does not perform evenly. One of the
most common damages caused by the earthquake consisted in the collapse of the walls under the weight of
the structure in reinforced cement and shifting of the floors.
Figure 4: Example of the most common damage caused by the earthquake.
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The low quality of the building materials is another cause for the significant damage sustained by the
buildings due to the earthquake. This is the result of the lack of laboratories that carry out structural checks,
lack of tools to build state-of-the-art and total lack of structural tests. It is common to find pillars and walls
out of plumb by 5/7 degrees and pillars arranged according to an irregular mesh. The thick cement is not
even and features gaps, cement bags are put between the pillars and floors, thus totally compromising the
joint performance of the two components.
Even if extremely rare, there are buildings that were not severely damaged or totally destroyed by the
earthquake. Many historic buildings in wood that are scattered all over the island did not suffer excessive
damage to the structure, since the latter is much more flexible. The only damage was caused by lack of
maintenance prior to the earthquake.
The current challenge

The current challenge of the Haitian government and international community is the living challenge, trying
to find solutions that can provide shelter from hurricanes and storms to the people that are still homeless
nowadays. In addition to the issue of providing homes, it is important to improve basic services which are
currently totally lacking or unsuitable. Another immediate need consists in removing the rubble from the
roads, which is still surrounded by walls of debris that prevent orderly reconstruction. Also the matter of
potable water is of primary importance, considering the fact that today, only 64% of the population can
access potable water (Quandl 2012). These challenges must be at the centre of the efforts of the
international architectural community that promote development projects in Haiti.
Figure 5: Example of proposed building from the humanitarian aid after the earthquake.
THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL
“Architecture for the poor need not be poor architecture” (Global Studio).
This chapter presents the project of a building-technical school in Port au Prince, followed by Studio Archos
in collaboration with Caritas of Bergamo and the Monfort Missionaries in Haiti.
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A well-studied project can teach, educate, trigger social processes, and is only achievable through well
designed architecture.
The project of a school implies many functions, in additional to educational ones: it is intended to be a
meeting and exchange place, where racial and social hierarchies are eliminated and where everybody can
express their skills at best. The Ecole Technique Pape Jean XXIII was thus born, a project not limited to act as
a school, in the typical meaning of the term, but a virtuous example of the application of all the principles
concerning the participation and involvement of the community and good architecture; where participation
and sharing are not only intents, but transform into reality through walls and pillars.
The birth of the project

The project for a building school in Haiti was born from the will of architect Edoardo Milesi and proposed to
the Monfort Missionaries in collaboration with a group of Italian humanitarian volunteers. In 2012, Caritas of
Bergamo donated 500,000 Euros for a project in Haiti; Haiti boasts approx. 15,200 educational institutes,
approx. 90% of these are not public and are managed by international, religious or NGO communities
operating on the territory. This thick school network educates 67% of children in the elementary cycle, a
percentage that drops to 30% in subsequent cycles (Crane et al. 2010). The idea to build an elementary
school was therefore discarded, while the construction of a school for construction workers was proposed.
Architect Milesi quickly understood that, due to the conditions of the existing local constructions and high
rates of male unemployment, a building school would have represented an excellent opportunity to begin
an education and involvement process of the local community. Between the end of September 2012 and
February 2013, the design was developed by Studio Archos in Bergamo, by architects Edoardo Milesi, Giulia
Milesi and Francesco Poli, with the technical assistance of engineers Marco Verdina and Paolo Abbadini. The
design foresees dry construction, following self-build principles and pays particular attention to timeframes
and building costs. The volunteers left in March 2013 to begin work; 10 Haitian boys will be selected on site,
who will be the first students of the school and will take part in the construction since the first phase,
assisted by the volunteers, in order to learn dry building techniques.
Goals and principles

The main goal consists of erecting a building school that operates even before being built, a construction
site acting as participation and education point.
Figure 6: Carpenters at work fixing the roof beams.
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Joint planning:
The first principle, consisting of joint planning and non-colonizing architecture, underscores the intention to
involve the local population in each phase of the project, from theoretical to practical ones. The goal of this
type of approach to design and participation consists in not imposing a method, but to propose a project in
line with the local culture and traditions, by involving the population.
Figure 7: 3rd lesson held by Arch. Milesi in Haiti about the construction materials.
Self-build:
The second principle consists of self-building, intended as an operational method that allows the quick
assimilation of the building processes and exploited technologies, so that this school will not stand as single
example, but will allow the operation to be repeated in the future, without the need for external help. In
order to pursue this goal, dry construction with wood has been chosen that, in addition to providing a
technologically appropriate response to the seismic hazard, it foresees a construction by phases, which is
easy to understand. The self-build process can be defined as a coordinated and guided process. It is not
based on non-regulated self-building but it is an intervention where suitable technological know-how is
applied, organized effectively, in order to represent a process that provides suitable responses.
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Figure 8: Transport of the truss without the aid of machinery.
Figure 9: Assembly sequence of the truss.
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Self-building in regions like that of Haiti means thinking about a type of culture that relies on the definition
of primary needs, appropriation or re-appropriation of the surrounding, even in the most material and
spatial aspects.
Figure 10: View of the school a month before the completion.
The architectural design:

The third principle consists of the quality of the architectural design. Architectural clarity is required in
projects like the one that has been carried out in Haiti; however, the simplicity of the design shall not
prejudice its validity from an architectural point of view. The design of the school tends to the so called “zero
stylistic degree”, this means that it is perfectly able to communicate its technology through an architecture
that is not based on virtuosities; its aspects can be perfectly understood and acknowledged by everybody.
All technological and stylistic choices have been thought first of all, in view of a construction by phases, an
extremely important factor when building in areas like that of Haiti, where it is not always possible to carry
out construction on a regular basis, due to the weather conditions and difficulties in procuring building
material. The construction of the school was interrupted from April to October (2013), during the monsoon
season. However, the structure was not compromised in any way.
The technology:
The technological system used, is based on four main materials: wood, reinforced cement, iron and cement
blocks. The school is erected from the ground, through a concrete bed cast on site. The reinforcing cement
and iron are both found on site. The wooden structure rises on the reinforced cement bed, to which it is
connected at the base through iron plates, properly studied and built on site. The main structure consists of
wooden beams of standard sizes 400x15x4.5 cm, delivered on site through containers. The nine trusses
which constitute the school’s structure are built on the ground in two parts, then they are moved and
erected on plates, without the aid of machinery. The wooden beams are cut according to the sizes indicated
in the drawing, focusing on minimizing waste, then they are assembled and bolted. In conclusion, the iron
plates are positioned, which serve to house the components that connect to the structure. The structure’s
wind-bracing is ensured, in addition to the intermediate floor, by iron tie-rods along the perimetric walls and
diagonal struts that support the intermediate floor. The roof consists of iron sheets secured to the wood
structure. The high inclination level of the roof is studied to allow ventilation of the rooms below. Another
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key technological aspect is the phytodepuration system, a natural depuration system of waste water that
prevents polluting the soil and compensates for the lack of a suitable sewer system on the island.
Figure 11: Example of construction detail of the roof.
The entire school has been thought to be built in phases. Each phase is well defined, so that the work can be
interrupted at the end of each phase, without compromising the work or general result.
1566
Figure 12: View of the school from the second floor.
1Government!of!the!Republic!of!Haiti,!2010,!Action!plan!for!national!recovery!and!
development!of!Haiti:!immediate!key!initiatives!for!the!future,"viewed!28!September!
2013,!
<http://www.haitireconstructionfund.org/hrf/sites/haitireconstructionfund.org/files/
Haiti%20Action%20Plan.pdf.
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UN-INSULATED: A VISION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
Garret Gantner, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, garret.gantner@gmail.com
Abstract
Increasingly, the boundaries of architecture as a discipline are being transcended, as professionals take on a wider
array of projects that go beyond objectified design and begin to include other goals as design criteria. However,
the educational programs which produce new and future architects ignore even normal practice models and
have yet to adapt to new explorations of the value of the discipline in a larger context, keeping future practitioners
insulated from the discipline's full potential. Disciplines which require successful interweaving in the profession
remain nearly entirely separate in academia, even as shared or overlapping content is pursued. The
contextualization of the architect's role as a societal player is often either missing or de-emphasized in favour of
the architect's positioning of oneself within the narrow scope of the profession. The result is an insular education
that views architecture as a single discipline and leaves students ill-prepared for the reality of interdisciplinary
practice. It minimizes the architect's role to merely a preparer of buildings in an era in which a small but growing
generation of architects is seeking to erode that perception of the discipline and transform it into one that
promotes comprehensive design strategies including problems of social engagement, environmental
sustainability, cultural sensitivity and genuinely pragmatic problem-solving. In response, architectural education,
particularly through design studios, requires a fundamental re-evaluation and retooling in order to embrace the
future of architectural practice.
Keywords: architectural education, interdisciplinary education, architectural profession, integrated studios.
INTRODUCTION
It may be widely agreed that a high level of analysis, critical and creative thinking is – and ought to be – a
core emphasis of a contemporary architectural education. While the extent to which this is achieved may be
a matter of debate, few (if any) involved in educating the future creators of the architectural profession
would object to these fundamental objectives. It may also be widely agreed that the purpose of an
education is to prepare one for the profession – not simply as contributors and producers, but as leaders and
shapers of a discipline whose future is not entirely knowable. Herein lies the important difference between
training – which instructs one to do; and education – which instructs one to think.
What is less certain is whether the same level of analysis, critical and creative thinking that is demanded of
students in their design studios is being applied to the design of architecture curricula that is intended to
deliver such an education. (To use a similar analogy: as educators, are we simply doing? Or are we thinking of
the most effective means to achieve the goals of cultivating greatness within and for the architectural
profession?). While a certain amount of variation does exist, and methods vary from place to place and
school to school, there is a similar underlying structure – and, often, a similar underlying content – which is
typical in nearly all contemporary programmes, and is based on a set of assumptions around the
understanding of what the future of the profession is and how the preparation for entry into it can best be
achieved.
It is time to examine whether the assumptions that have driven these developments remain true. Through a
look at the contemporary shaping of the profession, an analysis of learning methods, and experiential
lessons from the forming of a new programme at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in
Rwanda at which I was part of a team forming a new curriculum from 2009-2013 and served as Head of the
Architecture Department from 2011-2013, this paper examines the ways in which contemporary
architectural education can be re-thought to better prepare students for a more realistic and valuable vision
of the profession.
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EDUCATING TOWARDS THE FUTURE OF PRACTICE
Current models of education

It is important to begin with an understanding of where the current model of education has brought the
profession (it is not necessarily a place of high regard). Architecture is rarely considered an essential
profession; a position that becomes more apparent when comparing to the standing of other professions
outside the design disciplines. Most would consider medical professionals essential for the well-being of a
society’s physical health; most would consider educational professionals essential for the well-being of a
society’s knowledge and cognitive reasoning; most would consider structural engineering professionals
essential for the safety of a society’s habitations and infrastructure. These professions, among myriad others,
are considered essential not in an industrially economic sense – i.e. not only because of any particular
product they produce – but because of their contributions to the well-being of a society. Yet if posed a
question about how essential architectural professionals are to the well-being of a society, responses would
likely be less consistent and less impressive.
Furthermore, few (if any) educators would likely claim that the tasks facing architects in practice a few
decades from now are readily predictable, and fewer still would likely claim that the tasks facing architects in
practice are likely to be the same a few decades from now as they were a few decades ago. Yet the manner
in which architecture is taught – however inadvertently and unconsciously – tends to make exactly these
assumptions.
The basis for nearly all architecture programmes is one rooted in the idea of the architect as a singular
designer that was developed over the course of the early and mid-twentieth century. As the governance of
professional practice decreased the flexibility of how architectural practices are ‘supposed’ to operate, the
educational field focused more and more on accredited programs producing graduates to be registered
within that system. Through what at the time was a beneficial partnership between profession and
educational institutions, common ground was developed as to what, exactly, and architect is. The trouble is
that not only have the principles of this partnership have remained the same even as the practice of
architecture is changing, the specific methods have remained in place as well. While there has undoubtedly
been tweaking of the content delivered by educational programs and updating of its content to embrace
new theory and new technology, the underlying assumption that architecture is a very narrow discipline
with very specific tasks similar to those practiced in the past remains unchanged.
As the backbone of an architectural education, the design studio follows a combination of two primary
pedagogical methods. The first is an artistic paradigm, emphasizing creativity and imagination as a source of
information and perceptual experience as a mode of assessment – which is reflected in the profession by
professionals most frequently citing ‘artistic flair’ as the primary driver of career choices (Stamps 1994). The
second is a transmission, or didactic, model of pedagogy, in which a group of students removed from
external forces (ideological, material, social, contextual, etc.) ‘receive’ skills and information as delineated by
experts, linking competence and ability with the relative amount of information absorbed (Crysler 1995).
Teaching towards an expanded vision of the profession

These pedagogical methods – perhaps unwittingly – generate an understanding that first, architecture is
(and only is) what the most venerated professionals of the time say it is, a resultant of the transmission of
information likely to include past theory and practice experience encountered or developed by said
venerated professionals; and second, that architecture has no real non-monetary value beyond the
satisfaction or genius of the creator (this coming from the emphasis on an artistic paradigm of evaluation). It
implies that design is predominantly a physical manifestation of the whims of a designer, with the methods
of justification for those whims being a secondary concern that can be validated either through precedents
created by a venerated professional, or spoken of in purely self-referencing artistic terms. It implies that
creative capacity is linked to the emulation of pre-defined mastery (or, in some cases, stylistic challenging of
previous mastery) and has little relationship to pragmatic problem solving, entombing architecture within
the confines of a very narrow vision of the discipline: the creation of commodity objects, nothing more. This
represents a fundamental failure of the discipline to communicate – and demonstrate – the value design
may have. In contemporary education, it must be understood that mimetic design and the perception of
architecture as the mere production of imagery devalues the profession, and in response, we must seek to
restore the discipline to its inherent and deserved value by maximizing its relevance in, and it's contribution
to, society. The vision of the architect as a singular artist is based on an outdated conception of the
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discipline, one prone to economic hardships to a far greater degree than any of the other ‘essential’
professions outlined at the beginning of this chapter (precisely because it is seen as unessential). But the
perceived irrelevance of the profession, and the out-dated mode of education, are self-perpetuating
restraints that need not be taken as a given. An education for the future of the profession needs to dispel the
common thinking that architecture must be relegated to a service of ostentatious luxury and instead
approach it as one of many means for producing a better built environment for a deep aggregate of users.
Efforts to move in this direction are sometimes dismissed on the grounds that there is no market for
architects as agents of social cohesion, economic development, or human habitation. The public conception
that architecture is only about artistic flair and excludes genuinely pragmatic problem solving with any sort
of societal relevance is probably a dominant one. To some extent this view is true; but this limitation is an
artificial construct of our own profession, often reinforced by licensing bodies and legislative frameworks. So
long as architects present themselves only as the preparer of buildings (and buildings as nothing more than
either utilitarian containers at the most basic or inhabitable sculpture at the most opulent), the forces
driving the engagement of architects will continue to view the profession as largely irrelevant to
environmental, social, and developmental concerns. And so long as students are educated in an exclusively
artistic paradigm, they will be likely to respond professionally primarily through the “beauty of personal
visions” (Stamps 1994).
The point is not to replace an artistic paradigm of studio education, which has been demonstrated to be an
effective means of developing critical thinking skills even where other disciplines fail (Schendel 2013), but to
strategically apply it in ways that adds value to the education and expand the artificially narrow scope of the
profession. Though the initial programme specifications (drawn up mostly by policymakers in 2008-2009) of
the nascent B.Arch degree programme at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology called only for the
bridging of a skills gap in architecture – an astonishingly low (but, unfortunately, common) ambition for a
university as it looked only at a lack of technical training rather than the potential positive societal impacts
from a rigorous education, by 2011 onwards an entirely different agenda had been outlined by the young,
international staff of the Architecture Department. Cognizant of a growing, beneficial erosion of the
perceived limitations of the architectural profession internationally, and taking advantage of the fact that
the licensing and regulatory bodies which often hinder a more holistic approach were yet to be established
in Rwanda, the programme developed at KIST advanced the idea that design may be more than responses
to physical problems; that it may become a way of addressing the myriad needs associated with continued
economic, environmental, and infrastructural development. Through publicly-oriented design projects and
real-life participatory design studios, students faced not only the typical challenges of tectonics, form-
making and visual output, but also – and perhaps even more importantly – challenges of social
engagement, environmental sustainability, cultural sensitivity, and genuinely pragmatic problem-solving.
Consistent with UNESCO’s recommendations on education for sustainable development (UNESCO 2005), the
programme used specific local initiatives (in this case, Rwanda’s initiatives on low-carbon development and
ongoing urbanisation) as frameworks for elaboration, thus applying the artistic production pedagogy of
design studios to acutely relevant and concerns. By turning the educational focus outward to the greater
world (beyond the self-constructed limitations of the architectural profession) rather than inward to
academia, it challenges students to participate in the issues affecting their own city, country and region. It
represents a conscious effort to instil upon the profession a larger responsibility to do more than just build,
but to work within a larger social context and perceive their work as part of the shaping of the society and
environment in which they, and their compatriots, live.
At a minimum, approaching the pedagogy in this manner – a combination of a philosophical expansion of

the discipline’s boundaries and grounded participation – prepares students for a more flexible field of
opportunities and promotes the potential re-shaping of the profession to address contemporary needs. It is
not intended to dictate the terms of what an architectural practice is (as most current programmes do), nor
does it assume that future practice will be a mirror of the standard way of operating today – and the specific
results from this approach at KIST remain to be seen (the first students graduated only in May 2013). But it is
important to distinguish a small change in content to try to shore up this aspect of the discipline from a
genuine shift in the delivery method of the education. Such experiences must be real, managed by students
as a means of questioning the position of themselves not only within the discipline, but within the social
context they will practice in as well. Simply adding socially-driven content to the coursework, without
practicing and allowing open-ended briefs to explore it, only reinforces the transmission model of
pedagogy; it requires a ‘master’ (the instructor) to pass along to the underlings (students) what they ‘ought’
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to know about the profession (Crysler 1995). While this may achieve a minor victory in terms of informational
content, it is hardly conducive to the students’ future abilities to shape their profession in response to
evolving ideas and as-yet undetermined needs.
Curiously, even the largest, notoriously conservative professional degree accreditation bodies already ask for
this in their conditions for accreditation. Between the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the
Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA), the American National Architectural Accrediting Board
(NAAB) and their substantial equivalency agreements, over 56% of the world’s population are in countries in
which an architectural degree programme must “[be] prepared to be active, engaged citizens able to
understand what it means to be a responsible member of society and to act on that understanding” (NAAB
2014); must show an “understanding of the relationship between people and buildings, and between
buildings and their environment, and the need to relate buildings and the spaces between them to human
needs…” (RIBA 2011); and that there should be “evidence that the school is involved in understanding the
environmental problems of its community and that it is endeavouring to make contributions to their
solutions through the study of real problems” (CAA 2007). The CAA goes even further, stating
“encouragement is given to include opportunity for ‘live’ and community development projects… Such
project focus is seen as appropriate to achieve user-oriented cultural and social sensitivity and
understanding of the architect’s role and responsibilities to their community” (CAA 2007). There is an
inherent clash between the vision of the architect as a singular artist and the architect as a relevant social
player who utilizes his/her artistry to make valuable, positive, and necessary impacts. Until it is recognized
that the choice between master designer and pragmatic problem solver is a false one, the educational
system will continue to teach towards the past, rather than preparing students to shape their own
profession in the future.
LINKING EDUCATION TO THE PROFESSION
The disconnect between education and practice

Conceptually, practising architects are expected to understand foundational principles of structural
engineering; urban design and planning; graphic presentation and production; and ecological design, to
name but a few, and to be able to successfully interweave the expertise provided by these disciplines into
their own work (for which those disciplines must – ideally – have a foundational understanding of
architecture as well). In short, architecture is a collaborative discipline, usually requiring co-dependence on
consultants with expertise outside the discipline. Yet academia rigidly separates and categorizes them as
individual, unrelated disciplines, even as shared or overlapping content is pursued: the contemporary higher
education system is based on single-track delivery systems left insulated from each other. Despite the
existence of particular, shared ingredients between any number of educational tracks (to elaborate on the
previous example: knowledge of structural statics; knowledge of basic urban design and planning
techniques; knowledge of ecological systems, to name a few), these ingredients are incubated separately; as
if educational seeds were a sort of bacterial culture in which cross-contamination must be avoided. Even in
more liberal-arts based education systems, the formal means of encouraging an interdisciplinary approach is
typically left at the door once the programme of study is declared. While there may be professions for which
such an insulated, linear track is appropriate, in architecture this is a needlessly and damagingly insular
approach, for numerous reasons.
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Figure 1: Diagrammatic curriculum of the typical single-track curriculum. Even as shared content is pursued,
students remain insulated from each other, and the education of professional collaboration is non-existent.
First, it is fundamentally at odds with the way in which architecture is generally practiced. Rarely do
complete projects spring from an architectural team without consultation, without external input of
expertise, or without the input of any number of other professionals forming a collaborative team of
practitioners with varying types of expertise. In practice, interdisciplinary collaboration is not a dangerous
cross-contamination but a fruitful co-dependence that allows each discipline to have specialized knowledge
without losing sight of a larger whole generated and synthesised by the collaborators. Thus, in reality, most
design projects require not single working tracks for each discipline, but conjoining, intersecting, and
sometimes shared tracks of production; it would be difficult to imagine a successful project in which the
architects and their team of consultants all work independently of each other, without communicating, and
without collaborating. Even in successful collaborations, it is not all so uncommon for each of the disciplines
to (either overtly or secretly) bemoan the ignorance or lack of fundamental understanding of their
collaborators regarding their own discipline. Frankly though, this ought not to be surprising, considering
that the team involved has been educated in a way that emphasizes the uniqueness and absoluteness of
their own discipline, without the need to adjust to or even understand other influences on the design – a
result of the education system. This is particularly problematic for architects; while engineers and science-
based disciplines can often fall back on mathematical proofs or verifiable experiments, architects focusing
only on artistry can only fall back on self-proclaimed affirmations not always likely to convince sceptical
audiences.
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Figure 2: Diagrammatic project delivery timeline of a hypothetical project utilizing multiple consultants (Note:
the choice of consulting disciplines is only a single example consistent with other examples in this paper; it is by no
means indicative of most, or even necessarily a typical architectural project).
Second, it ignores the power of experiential learning in favour of simpler information transmission. But the
accumulation of data as information does not necessarily connote learning, and must not be mistaken for it.
There is ample evidence that learning is better achieved experientially, under the guidance of real expertise,
as it allows students to engage in the educational content regardless of their own particular learning styles
(Kolb & Kolb 2005) and allows faculty members to provide guidance around unforeseen and/or previously
unexperienced issues (Hickcox 2002), focusing the faculty intervention at the precise moment of need while
fostering the students’ problem solving abilities rather than trying to prepare them with a pre-determined
answer – something that would quite unrealistically require the instructor to anticipate all potential issues in
advance. When actively engaged, students are able to process information in a way that best suits them and
synthesize an independent response, rather than delivering or reciting learned ‘truisms’ concocted for a
particular mode of learning.
Third, it all but eliminates the possibility of peer-to-peer dialogue of students from varying but related
disciplines who are likely to collaborate in practice. One of the primary reasons schools of architecture
devote space to design studios, which students can use at all times as opposed to only during scheduled
class times, is that we advocate the student-to-student learning that goes on there outside of lectures and
instruction delivered by faculty members. Dialogue amongst students within and across studios and
support courses is crucial to the success of this mode of learning and working; this much is often assumed in
an architectural education. But given the workings of the architectural profession, the decision to limit this
peer-to-peer dialogue to within the architectural discipline seems arbitrary and constricting. Students from
differing disciplines have differing expertise that, when put together, allows for the exchange of knowledge
(both formally and informally) in a way that is most accessible to their peers. (This also helps chip away at the
limitations of a transmission model of education, in which students are more likely to sit back and wait for
the more knowledgeable professional to bestow information upon them, rather than actively engaging to
obtain it).
Fourth, it impedes architecture students’ ability to develop a peer support network outside of the very
insular discipline of architecture. Because of the long hours, intense deadlines, and focus on individualised
production of the typical architecture curriculum, students tend to cut off or minimize relationships outside
the programme and look increasingly to (again) the knowledgeable professional to teach them how to
succeed (Crysler 1995). Aside from limiting one’s world view and social interaction, this creates an
unnecessary limitation to moral support for the student, as there is no guarantee he/she will get support
from within the programme.
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Fifth, it (unintentionally and perhaps unconsciously) communicates that each individual is responsible only
for his/her own limited scope, not for the success of the collaborative team as a whole.
Lastly, and most pragmatically, it is an unintelligent and inefficient use of a schools’ resources. If both
architects and urban planners are expected to know the fundamentals of urban design; architects and
engineers the basics of structural design principles; architects and graphic designers the basics of visual
presentation theory; architects and ecological designers the basics of sustainable design methodologies – to
give a few examples – then it makes little sense to educate them in different classrooms, on different
schedules, within different educational tracks, by different staff members. While there is an obvious concern
to limit class sizes, recent research suggest that class size alone is not a major indicator of learning in higher
education (ULC 2010, Wößmann & West 2002), and the benefits of interdisciplinary interaction may be a
better investment.
Integrating tracks to promote interdisciplinary education

Fortuitously, addressing the first problem (i.e. the disconnect of education from the way in which
architecture is practiced) has the potential to create a framework for addressing the others.
The issue has been that, in an effort to (appropriately) focus on critical thinking and creative processes, the
typical architectural education (inappropriately) assumes that teaching the practice of architecture (aside
from, typically, one or two lecture courses), is beyond the scope of a formal architectural education. Since
there is not enough time for both subjects in a degree programme, the thinking goes, one should first be
covered in school before handing students off to the profession to cover the other. It thus assumes one must
choose between teaching architectural content and teaching the manner in which it may actually be applied
in practice.
This is a false choice. Teaching the practice of project delivery need not be a subject requiring additional
attention, but a method for learning the chosen content. Mature students (those nearing entrance into the
profession), of all related disciplines, would benefit from the experience of approaching a design project as a
collaborative team, structured in the way they would actually work in practice, as consultants to each other.
To the detriment of their programmes, a single-track education system (perhaps unintentionally) assumes
that students of graphic design, urban design/planning, structural engineering, landscape ecology, or other
disciplines have nothing to contribute to each other. There is no real rationale behind this assumption. While
a fourth year structural engineering student, for example, may have far less knowledge than a structural
engineering professor, the student’s knowledge (assuming a reasonable degree of quality of the education)
is certainly adequate to help instruct a fourth year architecture student on structural design principles and
analysis. Likewise, a fourth year architecture student, though less knowledgeable than his/her professors,
should certainly be capable of communicating basic architectural design principles and objectives to an
engineering, urban planning, or landscape ecology student. Similar comparisons can be made for a number
of other related disciplines, with the purpose of increasing the comprehension needed for holistic project
(and professional) success.
Doing so requires certain foundations of mutual understanding between students. The breadth of subjects
covered by architectural education already recognizes this, as most programmes require students to gain at
least fundamental knowledge of graphic production, urbanism, structures, ecological issues, and potentially
an array of other topics as well. The same foundational knowledge is necessary for each of the individual
disciplines as well; the major difference being that the core subject areas within each discipline will be
developed in far greater depth for their fields. Thus, a sensible way of managing their education is to group
students not by which track they are on, but what they are intended to be learning at a particular point in
time. Student ‘tracks’ may conjoin and connect to the tracks of other disciplines for fundamental courses,
then split to develop their core competency areas in far greater detail, before coming back together for the
mature, integrated design studio.
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Figure 3: Diagrammatic curriculum relationships in an uninsulated approach. Shared content is delivered in an

integrated manner, and the education of professional collaboration simulates normal project delivery methods
(Note: the detail of the related disciplines (those other than architecture) is not developed in this diagram. There
may well be important linkages between them as well, particularly between landscape ecology and urban
design/planning, but the development of other disciplines is beyond the scope of this paper and beyond the
expertise of the author.)
In this way, the simulation of a project delivery in actual practice (reducing the disconnect of education from
practice and increasing the emphasis on collaborative responsibility), delivered in a way that emphasizes
experiential learning, allows students to connect with those in varying disciplines early in their academic
experiences, setting the stage for peer-to-peer dialogue and support while sharing limited school resources
in the education of each student group. The intersecting educational tracks produce the conditions for
cross-pollination of student learning, rather than controlled delivery of information to be done only by
venerated professionals. Students have a chance to experience normal practice methods without explicitly
being taught them through traditional lectures, and gain the opportunity to enter the profession having
already worked with a team of consultants in a (semi-) professional setting. The education is enhanced by
using more engaged experiential learning methods, and the profession gains from more professionally
competent students entering the field.
CONCLUSION
With its combination of an artistic paradigm approach and transmission model of information presentation,
the current architectural education strategy is one that assumes a minimal role for its own future
practitioners (and teaches towards this); remains pragmatically disconnected from practice; and eliminates
one of the best means of promoting learning amongst separate but related student disciplines. This
approach is reinforced by a single-track education system, which insulates disciplines from each other and
suppresses a forum for meaningful peer learning and exchange. It reduces the scope of what an education
may provide, teaching towards an antiquated vision of the profession, even if the vast majority of course
content is appropriate for fostering creative thinking.
The solution for providing a stronger education, then, is not necessarily to radically alter the content
presented (though an expanded vision of the utility and intrinsic value of architecture would constitute a
breakthrough in opening the possibilities of the profession and getting students to think critically about
their place within it), but to strategize the most intelligent means of delivering that content for those going
into a field in which exact future needs are unknown and project realities include co-dependence with other
design and technical disciplines. The full scope of the profession – or, rather, the full possibilities of the
future of the profession – must not be excluded from the educational system; the architect as an agent of
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social, cultural, and environmental importance (beyond mere artistic flair) requires emphasis early and often
in an architectural education. Achieving this, and linking it to practice, would be enabled by replacing single-
track progression through insulated disciplinary programmes with a progression that joins educational
tracks at logical delivery points, uses the exchange to build peer-learning opportunities, brings them
together to deliver mature work in a practice-simulated setting.
Architecture occupies a unique position in the educational structure in that it is not neatly classifiable as a
discipline. Schools organize into a faculty structure in any number of ways: as planning; as fine arts; as
engineering; as construction; as the ‘built environment.’ Unfortunately, this organization is normally
determined not by any analysis of what actually needs to be taught and shared between disciplines, but on
a more superficial categorization of someone’s (who the ‘someone’ in this sentence is often unknown to
educators currently involved in the programme) understanding of whether architecture is a predominantly
artistic or predominantly technical discipline. These superficial classifications are probably the biggest
impediment to the implementation of the educational proposals presented here. In reality, architecture is
both artistic and technical, but also much more; it is social, cultural, environmental… the possible
interdisciplinary linkages spread well beyond what is presented in this paper, and the potential vastness of
the interweaving of programmes would cause some obvious logistical headaches. But the purpose of this
educational model is not necessarily to be all-encompassing of every possibility, but to create a framework
to encourage collaboration, promote a continued dialogue, and prepare architects for ways in which they
may successfully work in practice. Which linkages are most important will depend on local circumstances,
regional emphases, and philosophical stances, all of which have the potential to add richness to the
architectural discourse.
Ultimately, it is vital that the organization of an architectural education not be the core restriction in the
development of future professionals – and of the potential expansion of the profession itself. So long as
students remain insulated from the full scope of their possibilities – through a narrow vision of the
profession and isolation from peers in linked disciplines – an architectural education runs the risk of being at
best unnecessarily restricting, at worst stifling of a creative reshaping of the profession in response to
currently unknowable future realities. It would behove educators to un-insulate the teaching of architecture,
and set the stage for a better understood profession.
REFERENCES
Commonwealth Association of Architects, 2007. Qualifications in architecture recommended for recognition by

CAA, CAA, London.
Crysler, G., 1995. ‘Critical pedagogy and architectural education’, Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 48,
no. 4, pp. 208-217.
Hickcox, LK., 2002. ‘Teaching through experiential learning’, College teaching, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 123-128.
Kolb, A & Kolb, D., 2005. ‘Learning styles and learning spaces: Enhancing experiential learning in higher
education’, Academy of Management Learning & Education, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 193-212.
National Architectural Accrediting Board, Inc, 2013. 2014 conditions for accreditation: First draft, NAAB,
Washington, DC.
Royal Institute of British Architects, 2011. RIBA procedures for validation and validation criteria for UK and
international courses and examinations in architecture, RIBA, London.
Stamps, AE III., 1994. 'Jungian epistemological balance: A framework for conceptualizing architectural
education?’ Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 105-112.
Schendel, R., 2013. ‘A critical missing element: Critical thinking at Rwanda’s public universities and the
implications for higher education reform’, PhD thesis, Institute of Education, London.
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UNESCO, 2005. UN decade of education for sustainable development: 2005-2014, UNESCO-Education for
Sustainable Development, www.unesco.org/education/desd.
University Leadership Council (ULC), The Advisory Board Company, 2010. Rethinking the connection between
class size and student success, Washington, DC.
Wößmann, L& West, MR., 2002. ‘Class-size effects in school systems around the world: Evidence from
between-grade variation in TIMSS’, European Economic Review, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 695-736.
1577
UN-BUILDING POVERTY AND BUILDING HEALTH
Paul Pholeros AM, LFAIA, Healthabitat, Australia, pproad@a1.com.au
Abstract
This paper challenges the scope, design and method of any architecture linked to development work and will
prescribe ways to un-build poverty and build health.
The prescription for the un-building of poverty will involve making some immediate community improvement as
part of the design methodology. It will require detailed assessment of the multi-layered design problems common
to development work, learning new ways of telling the development story to those most effected by the works,
combining human stories and hard data to define success or failure and developing ways to engage the next
generations in the work to sustain people, their health and wellbeing.
Keywords: Architecture, housing, health, housing for health, development, poverty.
INTRODUCTION
Wealth gives options in daily life. If you are reading this, chances are you have choices in food, clothing and
housing.An architecture born of wealth elevates materials, forms and theories and often places them above
the well being of places and people. The provision of essentials such as safety, the ability to wash, remove
wastewater and cook a meal are all assumed.
Overlaying this architectural language of wealth on those living in poverty can build even greater poverty,
particularly in development work involving the domestic living environment and housing. The failures over
time may remain invisible as the measure of a project’s success will be by the traditional methods of
architectural photographs showing how the project looks at completion, how many houses have been built
or the number of awards received.
Using project examples, this paper challenges the scope, design methods and evaluation of any architecture
linked to development work and will prescribe ways to un-build poverty and build health.
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THE BUILDING AND UN-BUILDING OF POVERTY
Building poverty, one brick at a time

Some of the building blocks of developmental poverty include the work of the architectural and design
professions.
Large-scale projects involve big money and short time lines. These combine to ensure there will be a flawed
program design and delivery methodology and the first brick has been placed.
Any work that places the development of policy, planning processes and the production of academic
papers, like this one ahead of some immediate action that benefits the local community will be placing
another brick.
Language and policy that set general, rambling, aspirational project goals will define the local people, the
recipients of the work, as the fundamental problem. Broad targets let the development team off the
evaluation hook so these targets will exclude hard data or long-term local community engagement. Add a
brick.
False measures of success will ensure that only the variables considered important by the development
team will be measured. The broader the initial goals are set, the more likely some form of success will result
as project failure will be hard to define. Add one more brick.
Obscuring where the money goes by separating planning and implementation budgets will place the final
brick. Insisting on sustainability criteria when making projects for the poor, whilst not imposing the same
criteria on the wealthy, will lead to cheaper, poorer quality solutions and ensure much of the development
budget never reaches the supposed recipients.
Un-building poverty
The prescription for the un-building of poverty will involve starting small and making some immediate
community improvement as part of the initial design methodology. This will become the basis of both the
project delivery and ongoing maintenance method for the continuing program.
It will also require matching the complex problems common to development work with an equally diversely
skilled design team that must include the local community with individuals given specific tasks and an
income from the project.
The design team, working with the local community and families, combine human stories with clearly
prescribed methods and hard data to evaluate the success or failure of the work of sustaining people, their
health and wellbeing.
And the last challenge, to work out where the money really goes? A bold goal is to aim for 80% of all monies
ending up in the fabric of the project.
BUILDING POVERTY: HOUSING FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN REMOTE AREAS OF AUSTRALIA
Since 2008 the Australian Government, in partnership with state and territory governments, has been rolling
out the largest, remote area, Indigenous housing program in the country’s history. 3 Over 10 years,
AUD$5.5bn will be spent building 4,200 houses and upgrading 4,800 houses. Put more simply, $5.5bn will
be spent on 9,000 houses to improve the living conditions of an estimated 70,000 people. This equates to
over $610,000 per house being spent.
Many may be convinced to support this expenditure if the final product and quality of the work was
commensurate with the money being spent. Un-contested budget calculations 4have shown that over 50%
of the funds are being spent on delivering the program and less than 50% on the houses.
!
3http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/our-responsibilities/indigenous-australians/programs-
services/housing/national-partnership-agreement-on-remote-indigenous-housing
!
4
!Website link from Healthabitat published papers on the budget expenditure
!
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Testing of houses nationally5 over the last two years has shown that both new and upgraded houses rarely
provide the most basic functions such as safe electrical systems, a working shower, toilet and kitchen.
Requests by Indigenous communities, where the national program has been implemented, for the testing of
the completed houses or the records of the final handover inspections have been met only with public re-
statements about the large amounts of money spent, but no testing.
When this housing fails, and failure has been assured by poor construction standards, lack of local
community involvement and no co-ordinated plan for ongoing maintenance, the poorest people in the
country will be blamed for not valuing the ‘huge investment’ made in their well-being. This program also
makes one grand false assumption – that houses completed by a large, big budget program will work. That
is, they will provide some benefits to those who in live in them.
The implementation of this costly national program is an affirmation that the Australian government
endorses by its actions providing the poorest housing to Australia’s poorest people. It measures the success
of the program by the dollars spent.
This is quite simply the building of poverty in a country with one of the highest wealth per capita in the
world.
BUILDING POVERTY: WITH THE PROMISE OF SANITATION AND TOILETS IN NEPAL

If we change the scene from Australia to consider the large, internationally funded sanitation programs in
Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.
In Nepal, ‘sanitation program’ is code for the provision of toilets, and occasionally water, for the very poor.
There are examples, planned by non-government organisations (NGOs), of program solutions that favour
the low initial capital cost toilet.
One example is the ‘AUD$300 toilet’ with an observed life of between zero and six months .6 How can the life
of the toilet be zero? Given limited materials7 and basic instructions for making the toilet, the family must
show ‘initiative’ by finding the other materials required for walling, roof structure and a door for privacy and
also provide the labour and skill to complete the toilet. After the materials are handed out, there is no further
technical advice or support therefore it is not surprising that only a few toilets are completed.
Taking the stated cost of the ‘cheap’ toilet as around $300, the cost of materials provided by the NGO
amounts to, less than $50 (see figure below). The other $280 may either be used in program administration
charges or village sanitation education programs by non-village ‘experts’ or be seen as the contribution by
each family. How much of the stated budget ‘sticks’ in the village is not known.
!
http://www.healthabitat.com/big-issues/where-is-the-money-going
!
5
!Website link describing the nationally recognized Housing for Health methodology to independently test
houses that is used by Healthabitat.
http://www.healthabitat.com/big-issues/a-working-shower-in-2017
!
6
!Observations and detailed notes of toilet design construction and function provided by CHDS Nepal a small
health NGO regularly involved in delivering health projects in Nepali villages and aware of the health
consequences of poor or failed toilets.
!
7
!The materials supplied are: 1 Asian style toilet pan, 5 cement rings, 2 bags of cement and 2 sheets of roofing
iron or concrete tiles for roofing the toilet.!
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Figure 1: The materials list and cost of a poor quality toilet.

If completed, the toilet is a pit in the ground with no effective wastewater treatment. Within months, any
absorption through the soil clogs, the pit fills and overflows. There will be no maintenance available and the
toilet will be abandoned. There is no follow up inspection by the donor agency to assess toilet function or
adequacy.
Figure 2: The construction details of a poor quality toilet.

What is promoted by the NGO as the measure of success is the ‘number’ of toilets built. A banner
proclaiming ‘10,000 built’, rather than the function of the toilets, becomes the measure of success. The
banner helps promote the program and attract more money to do more of the same.
Poor people receive poor technical solutions and this results in poverty being built, one non-functioning
toilet at a time.
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BUILDING HEALTH: THE AUSTRALIAN HOUSING FOR HEALTH PROGRAM 1985-2014 – LINKING
HEALTH AND THE LIVING ENVIRONMENT
Figure 3: The nine Healthy Living Practices from top left in order of priority are:
1. Washing people, 2. Washing clothes and bedding, 3. Removing waste safely
4. Improving nutrition, 5. Reducing overcrowding, 6. Reducing the impact of animals, vermin or insects, 7.
Reducing dust, 8. Controlling temperature, 9. Reducing minortrauma.
The Housing for Health program was developed to improve housing, the surrounding living environment
and consequently health.
It is based on safety and health principles, initially developed in 1985, called Healthy Living Practices (HLPs).
The Healthabitat medical director originally derived these HLPs after six months of work using local, national
and international health data. They clearly and precisely link the parts of the physical environment that most
influence health and give them an order of priority. These principles have been regularly improved and
refined over 29 years.
The Housing for Health program has been implemented throughout Australia. It has proven that immediate
action, always improving some houses on the first day of a project, when guided by well defined safety and
health goals, is not only possible but that it is essential to inform and complement the longer and more
complex design and planning process.
Engaging any community in these larger goals is slow and complex, but the immediate action of the
Housing for Health program increases the community’s understanding of the goals and the actions needed
to achieve them.
The HLPs have simple language descriptions of their goals, for example HLP #1, the ability to wash a child
once a day, and the associated graphic representation of the key elements of the goal, shows both the
interconnection of parts needed to achieve the apparently simple wash.
Figure 4: Healthy Living Practice #1, The ability to wash a child once a day.
Each of the HLPs also has defined, repeatable tests to assess the function of the health hardware, of things
needed to work to ensure access to health giving services.
The Healthy Living Practice tests
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Take for example a working shower as one way to wash, has seven key tests that are shown below. The
shower function only passes the test when all items work.
1. There is a cold water supply of adequate pressure
2. There is a cold hot supply of adequate pressure
3. The temperature of the hot water is greater than 44°C
4. The hot water tap is working, can be turned on and off and does not leak
5. The cold water tap is working, can be turned on and off and does not leak
6. The shower rose directs water onto the person washing as has no leaks
7. The drainage of the shower is working
In Australia, in over 8,000 houses tested that are lived in by Indigenous people, only 37% had a working
shower by this test. In the same houses10% of houses had safe electrical systems and only 6% had a kitchen
where food could be stored, prepared and cooked.
Over the last 15 years in Australia, immediate action from the Housing for Health program has been needed
in over 200 project communities. Each project has only started when there is money in the bank for the
improvement works, not just the money for assessment or planning alone.
By Australian standards, the average budget per house of AUD$7,500 is a modest amount. This money has
been used to make the safety and health improvements on houses, and to pay for all staff, materials and
transport. On the first day of any project local community teams were given ‘on the tools’ training and
employed to help assess and fix houses.
For community members, scarred by the education system and often with low literacy, they feared that any
type of ‘training’ would reveal their inadequacies. Selecting a schoolroom setting for the initial training work
would send people fleeing. So the setting for training was important, and a hands-on method of testing and
fixing meant that using a pen and paper was not the focus of the work. The results of house testing were
recorded with the minimum of words and where words were used they needed to be reviewed by
community staff, and then carefully edited to make their meaning concise.
People with low literacy are not stupid, simply not literate – they would often memorise the 250 tests
required on each house – in the correct order! The house survey questions have proven to be valuable for
literacy education linking simple words and numbers to important actions. With many houses to check in
each project, the work involves the constant repetition that helps learning.
Working in pairs helped reinforce skills. Wearing the yellow Housing for Health team caps built team identity
and using custom made tool belts, for carrying the testing and fix tools, increased efficiency and built
prestige. These simple tools allowed local community members to improve their houses using valuable
newfound skills.
As team members gained confidence some would go on to become trade assistants, helping the plumbers
and electricians complete the more major fix works, and this was the route leading to apprenticeships and
trade qualifications and un-building poverty.
Technology can provide great benefits if the systems are designed with those using them in mind. The
Housing for Health database records all data collected on each house and makes reports describing
immediate, urgent fix work as well as longer term works needed. The database has had 100+ versions since
first being released in 1999. These multiple versions reflect the constant revision and improvement that have
occurred. This has been due to the database designers working ‘on the tools’ in the projects, not just sitting
in their city offices working with computer code. This has linked the database design staff with the
community and the day to day complexities of running a project in the field. Confronting issues such as,
power failures, extremes of climate, the chaos of community life and broad demands on each project
manager all of which can be distractions from producing accurate data. Experiencing this project detail has
led to the better design of data systems and the better the data system, the more efficiently resources have
been targeted to the essential health works.
Having local community people running the database in each project has been very important. The
computer, or magic box, is no longer seen as the sole domain of the ‘outsiders’. The database was designed
to be used by local staff to produce the work orders that lead to the immediate house improvement. On the
first day of a project, the community has seen its own people testing and checking houses in the morning,
entering data by lunchtime and the production of a health prioritised list of urgent works to improve the
houses. After lunch comes the commencement of more major fix works and improving the same house
checked that morning.
After the immediate action, any reporting back should first be to those most impacted by the work.
Householder reports have been generated by the database to advise each family on the function of their
house. Various reports are produced later for all those involved in either the project or the overall program.
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Why things stay the same: myths that exclude the local project community
Developing and sustaining myths about the lack of capacity, errant behaviour or lack of education seem to
be universal tools used to avoid engaging with any community. The language may vary from hostile to
condescending, but the intent and subsequent actions are focussed on exclusion. Myths are used to
reinforce existing housing orthodoxy, maintain old power bases and prevent change.
In Australia, Indigenous people are regularly defined as ‘the problem’ and the three most prevalent
supporting myths are that “they trash houses”, “they will not work” and “the problem (of Indigenous
housing) is too hard to solve”.
“Indigenous people wilfully damage houses and that is why the houses are in such poor condition” or “they
trash houses” and “they need educating”. Flowing from the first myth is the inevitability of house failure, and
therefore no need for usual professional design, supervision and maintenance services.
Currently, data collected by Housing for Health projects 8on over 238,000 items fixed in over 8,000 houses
improved show that only 8% of items needed repair due to any type of damage, abuse or misuse. Compare
this to the 20% of work required as a result of poor design, specification or faulty initial construction, and
72% of work required for overdue normal routine maintenance required on all housing. Whilst not
condoning or excusing any wilful damage, if all the tenants were perfectly behaved, over 90% of the housing
problems would still remain.
“Indigenous people will not work, therefore bring all the required project staff to the project”.
Myth two reinforces the need for external structures and skills coming into a community and doing the work
for them.
Over 77% of the national Housing for Health team is comprised of local Indigenous people 9. We have never
had any difficulty recruiting the local staff all of whom are paid to do a broad range of productive work on
their own community houses. Work includes community liaison, translation, survey testing work, fix work on
houses, assisting trades, computer data entry, lunch making, transport and technical research assistants.
“The problem of Indigenous housing is too hard to solve”.

The last myth again reinforces the inevitability of failure. And if failure is all but assured, then the
measurement of the results of any program is really unessential.
Over the last 15 years Housing for Health projects have lifted house function rates significantly in over 8,000
houses in over 200 communities for an average cost of $7,500 per house. A detailed health review,
conducted by a state government health department, completed independently of Healthabitat10, showed
that over a ten year period, the Indigenous population, living in over 2,000 houses improved by the
program, had a reduction of 40% in hospital attendances for key health issues caused by a poor living
environment.
This health evaluation proved that not only can Indigenous housing can be improved, but also that health
improvement will follow. This result is supported by over 150 years of public health literature and in 2014,
regularly proving health gain should not be needed to justify functioning housing.
!
8!Data is taken from the Healthabitat website. Data quoted was current 15/5/2014 but will
change regularly as new work is completed.
http://www.healthabitat.com/housing-for-health/results/why-the-houses-need-fixing
!
9!Datais taken from the Healthabitat website. Data quoted was current 15/5/2014 but will
change regularly as new work is completed.
!
10!Closingthe Gap 10 Years of Housing for Health in NSW, An evaluation of a healthy
housing intervention. Aboriginal Environmental Health Unit Population Health Division,
NSW Department for Health.
!
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BUILDING HEALTH – THE NEPAL VILLAGE SANITATION PROGRAM

The village sanitation program in Nepal started when a village requested the design and construction of
toilets to alleviate illness.
The project partners11 agree to start project by constructing only two toilets with waste disposal systems.
The project was managed locally by CHDS Nepal, and used local labour and materials. This trial allowed for
all partners to gauge their ability to effectively work together, plus the villagers had have a chance to
observe the process of construction, view the results, assess the appropriateness of the systems and then
discuss any modifications necessary for the continuation of the project.
In contrast to the US$300 toilets discussed previously, the priority was not the number of toilets built or the
capital cost but the safe disposal of human waste.
The program initially aimed to provide village families in Nepal with the ability to dispose of human waste
safely by the construction and installation of toilets to collect and remove waste and septic tanks to treat the
wastewater. During the first design sessions in the village it became clear that people were cooking on fires
inside enclosed houses using green local timber. This produced large amounts of smoke and had a major
impact on respiratory health.
The design brief had to expand to accommodate this additional health risk. Biogas systems were produced
in Nepal, and it was decided to trial a biogas digestor on one of the toilet buildings. A rainwater storage tank
was also provided for dip flushing and hand-washing as reticulated water was scarce.
Figure 5: The toilet building with bio-gas plant. From right to left, rainwater tank behind, toilet building, animal
dung churn, biogas chamber below ground, final waste collection point and liquid run off.
The toilet systems were built using local expertise, labour and materials and for long term health gain,
education on hand washing and the ongoing assessment and maintenance of the toilets and waste systems
were seen as important activities.
The capital cost of the toilet developed in Nepal is AUD$1,500. This allows for a toilet building and either a
septic tank or biogas waste treatment unit. Each stage of the building program constructs 10 toilets and
these will comprise a mix of both waste treatment systems accordingly to each family’s situation. This price
includes all labour, materials and management. Additional to this cost is a family cash contribution and ‘in
!
11!The project partners and respective roles were Healthhabitat - Program Coordination,
Rotary Club of Dee Why Warringah and RAWCS - Program Coordination, Community
Health Development Society (Nepal) - Program Management, Village Development Support
Committees – Project support.
!
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kind’ contribution of labour for excavation and material transport to each site. A detailed look at the value of
this investment follows.
Whole of life cost
The cost of this toilet is AUD$1,500, the family cash contribution is $82 and the in-kind contribution for
labour, transport materials to site and excavation is also valued at $82. The total initial (capital) cost is $1,625.
If the $1,625 is seen as a 25-year investment this gives an annual base cost of $65.
The 25-year life will be achieved, by ensuring initial design, material and construction quality and ongoing
maintenance. The current program has ongoing design development, quality control inspections at the
handover of every round of 10 toilets and contracts each family to pay a monthly maintenance levy of $1.
This $12 a year maintenance cost added to the base cost investment will enable the safe removal and
treatment of waste water for $77 per year of a family group of, on average, 10 people.
Cost offsets
Offsetting the cost is the value of 4 hours of biogas produced each day over a month that may replace $5 of
LP gas equivalent over a month. The high price LP gas has meant many families have had to use green
timber for cooking leading to increased smoke in the living environment impacting particularly on children
and women. This resulted in poor respiratory health noted by the villagers and the local hospital.
The availability of biogas also reduces the cutting of young trees for fuel. Maintaining trees reduces erosion
and the catastrophic loss of the precious terraced farming land owned by a family.
The use of high quality fertiliser, (not expensive imported chemical fertiliser) from the biogas plant residue
has led to a family increasing yields from their spinach crop from $1 a day to $3 a day for 2 months of every
year. This adds an additional $2 a day ($14 a week) for 8 weeks or $112 in income.
Whilst not every family in a village has the land or animals to make bio-gas feasible, around half the families
in the current program have received biogas system and the combined impact on the village as whole of the
above economic model is important and becoming more visible through house improvements, more smoke
free houses and reduced timber cutting.
Assessing the real cost of the ‘cheap’ alternative
Taking the stated capital cost of the alternate ‘cheap’ toilet as around $300, the cost of materials provided by
the donor / NGO would amount to at most $50. The other $250 may either be used in program
administration charges or village sanitation education programs by non-village ‘experts’ or be seen as the
contribution by each family. How much of the stated budget ‘sticks’ in the village is not known.
Equally important, is the ‘in kind’ labour and materials needed from each family to complete the toilet. This
financial model considers that the labour of the poor is either ‘free’ or essential to show commitment to the
program.
If we place a value the labour of the villagers based on the HH CHDS toilet noted above, and add an ‘in-kind’
labour component of $43. The cash contribution by each family needed for completion of the toilet is
around $240.
The part completed toilets observed in a number of villages confirm the fact that without skills and guidance
the quality of the work will not be equivalent to the HH-CHDS toilet.
So, in summary the costs are:
• Materials supplied - $43
• In kind labour -$43
• A family cash contribution to complete the toilet - $240
The base cost of the ‘cheap’ toilet is then $325.
Now assume the following performance of the ‘cheap’ toilet.
The toilet life will be approximately 6 months with constant use given an average family of 10. The toilet
soakage chamber volume is approximately 1 cubic metre (or 1000 litres). Calculating a 1litre dip flush used
twice daily by 10 people, or 20 litres a day for 180 days, would mean that 3,600 litres passes into the soakage
chamber. Then also assume that approximately 50% (or 1,800 litres) of the untreated waste is able to soak
through the soil, when the toilet is new, and the soil is porous. This leaves over 1,600 litres filling the
chamber and overflowing. The toilet system can no longer dispose of human waste safely.
During the brief working life of the toilet the human waste is disposed of safely. As the toilet fails, at the end
of the 6-month period, there will need to be an equivalent program to provide replacement materials at the
same base cost, and the family is prepared to reconstruct the toilet every 6 months.
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The cost of building 25 ‘cheap’ toilets over 25 years to ensure the safe removal of waste would be over
AUD$8,000. And on the credit side there is no employment, no skill development, no biogas and no increase
in crop production or income.
As it was the plight of poor people that originally generated the idea of building ‘cheap’ toilets, then the real
cost of approximately $8,000, over 25 years, is unlikely to be consistently available for continual
reconstruction. As a result of these costs, there will be no consistent safe removal of human waste and the
health impacts of toilet failure will continue.
Beyond financial cost: health, employment and skill development.
Any comparative assessment must consider the health impacts of safely disposing of human waste,
reducing smoke in the houses, the long-term employment of villagers and the skill development of the
program management skills of the CHDS management team. These are all paid for by the program and
included in the unit cost for each toilet.
Whilst these benefits are hard to medically quantify in poor, rural, Nepal villages there is little debate by
public health or development professionals about their importance.
The ‘cheap toilets’ will not spread the aid dollar further and help more poor people. The only thing spread
will be untreated waste. Constant failure of these systems will reinforce that poor people are poor and their
health will continue to decline despite the large sums of money spent. Any evaluation of toilet function, if
conducted, will probably conclude that the toilets were not properly used and that more education
programs should be conducted to improve performance. The village will be considered to have a completed
toilet program and therefore not eligible for future programs.
The need for sanitation programs will remain constant. Each stage of the aid program process will be
defensible using the current development jargon “Community engagement, gender equity, climate change,
capacity building and empowerment.”
Poverty has been constructed as systematically as a brick wall is built, one brick at a time.
The sanitation program in Nepal has to date built 137 toilets in three villages that are now used by more
than 1,000 people.12
The project experiences noted in this paper demonstrate that the wall of poverty can be dismantled slowly,
by starting small, having family participation and community leadership, quality design and construction,
local skill development and employment. This combined with planned, ongoing maintenance can ensure
that small amounts of money can be targeted to un-build poverty and improve health.
The author never conceived this as an academic paper, rather these are the consolidated recollections of
completed project work by an architect practitioner. The visit to the conference will be used to continue
other project work in South Africa.
!
12 !Website link from Healthabitat giving the latest information on the Nepal Village
Sanitation Program http://healthabitat.com/healthy-living-projects/nepal.
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CATALYTIC APPROACHES TO INFORMAL BUILDING IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA

Joseph F. Kennedy, New School of Architecture + Design, San Diego, California, USA,
livingearth62@gmail.com
Adam Perry, University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape, South Africa, aperry@ufh.ac.za
Abstract
Because of technological, political and social challenges in South Africa, traditional (local) building systems have
been largely abandoned for industrial construction methods. The authors have investigated the challenges and
opportunities of using earth and other traditional building methods to provide shelter in South Africa. Their
findings suggest a research methodology and protocol designed to focus on extant examples, barriers, successes,
failures, geographic distribution, current practitioners, etc. in regards to building strategies that use local
materials and that could lead to the renewed utilization of these techniques. They believe that such a research
strategy could help guide activities toward pending issues in sustainable development in rural areas in South
Africa, as well as serve as a potential model for other regions. This research could help improve the design,
economy and physical performance of informal dwellings and other structures. The authors hypothesize that
traditional methods hold value as a repository of tested solutions that can be applied to current housing issues.
Through utilizing unique North-South networks and resources, the authors propose initial ‘catalytic’ opportunities
(where modest efforts can have large impacts) for design research based in part on current earthen-mapping
strategies applied in Europe and the US, as well as service-learning models such as Global Studio, Rural Studio,
CalEarth, etc. Through evidence-based approaches, rational strategies toward addressing the challenges of
applying local materials in the informal building sector can be best realized. Through community-engaged social
design activity in South Africa, mentor-student teams can tackle this research agenda through real-world
projects, learning, cultural exchange and outreach, and thereby add to the global database of sustainable
approaches to human needs as identified by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
Keywords: South Africa, earth construction, design research, traditional building, informal building sector.
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INTRODUCTION
The intense push toward modernity in South Africa has marginalized traditional building techniques such as
earth and thatch. In recent decades, concrete block construction has become dominant (Fay 2011).
Traditional techniques depend on earth, stone, grass and other locally available materials (Frescura 1981).
Such materials are now largely rejected. Even considering the potential economic benefits and the
availability of earth, ‘mud’ is used widely as a pejorative term. However, low incomes and lack of access to
materials make conventional approaches often out of reach for rural residents. In rural areas, earth and other
traditional building materials are still most likely to be used, and simple strategies for revitalizing traditional
construction could have greatest impact. The authors hypothesize that a locally-developed hybrid
architecture utilizing traditional and conventional materials can be improved to maximize the use of local
materials while still supporting contemporary lifestyle needs through innovative design strategies and
selective use of conventional materials.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRADITIONAL BUILDING

Earth and other traditional building techniques have been demoted in South Africa for centuries. Africans
have long been deprived by invaders of their culture, include the built culture. Missionaries discouraged the
old ways of building (Folkers 2010), and the social disruptions of apartheid hugely impacted the built
landscape. Since 1994 there has been a national call to modernize the country wherein earth is dismissed as
a symbol of poverty. Those advocating for traditional materials and methods face an unclear code climate, a
rural population well-aware and desirous of the benefits of industrial building, and a situation where earth
construction is difficult to monetize.
“Mud” and “mud schools” are stigmatized by government (Daily Dispatch, 29 July 2013). Our concern is that
mud as an appropriate building material is caught in the middle of a political fight without a clear
understanding of the technological and social issues involved. Scapegoating of earth is shortsighted, given
the huge backlog in housing in the rural areas. This is especially true as in parts of the country where a type
of hybrid mud construction currently thrives. We suggest that efforts are better applied to the exploration of
ways of innovating on traditional techniques rather than totally abandoning them. Some of the most
promising approaches are to apply improved building practices to hybrid building strategies.
Technical challenges and opportunities
Poor practices lead to dismissal of any system, and, unfortunately, traditional building in South Africa has
suffered much in this regard. Improper detailing, inadequate foundations and poor plastering techniques
have all diminished earth and other traditional materials as viable building materials. However, such
problems can be solved. The authors have collected some of the identified challenges to earth and other
traditional building techniques as well as potential opportunities to solve them as outlined below (with
input from Zami 2009).
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Technical Challenge Opportunity

Inconsistent international code environment Adoption of regional code (2013). Engagement with
regarding earthbuilding. code issues at the global level.
Less durable than many conventional building Can provide good connections with conventional
materials. building materials- Informal builders need to know
basic rules of thumb to prevent common errors.
Labor intensive Encourages local employment.
Is not desired by the private sector as a preferred Techniques may already have accepted local
option. Even considered a “poor” construction support, such as stabilized earth bricks, are good
material. ways to introduce hybrid methods. Researchers,
designers and builders must improve the technical
shortcomings and “rebrand” earth through
improved techniques.
Lack of political support. Lobby and inform relevant South African
departments about the benefits of earth.
Has design and structural limitations (height, tensile Use techniques only where appropriate. Most earth
resistance, wall thickness, only usable for in situ building systems are well-suited for rural situations.
construction where there is clay)
Needs more maintenance than many conventional Improve mixtures and forming methods. Utilize
building materials sustainable finishes such as lime.
Necessitates special skills which are often not Utilize all available technical resources. Record
available in community settings. Traditional building traditional building systems. Support traditional
skills are being lost as builders die. builders as repositories of values.
Is not yet globally standardized in regards to codes Implement (2013) regional agreements regarding
and regulations, as well as standards to evaluate the earthen construction. Utilize existing standards
finished product. Local governments and (ASTM etc.) Test and evaluate systems. Use tested
communities are not aware of potential benefits. curricula to train planners and building inspectors
and local government.
Little coordination with local communities to create Innovative education and outreach programs. Use
viable strategies social networks to spread innovations.
Less accepted by professional builders, architects, Create high-end earthen prototypes. Focus on more
etc. easily monetized systems.
While challenges are significant, innovative strategies such as those promoted by Rural Studio,
Development Workshop, CalEarth, Craterre, and the Auroville Building Center (among others) point toward
a potential architecture that honors the building materials available to rural South Africans. Hybrid solutions
that combine earth and readily available industrial materials can be encouraged in South Africa. Much useful
current information about successful strategies, educational programs and technical details related to
current trends in earth and other traditional methods can be found in the Proceedings from the biennial
EarthUSA conferences, the most recent (Gardella 2013) of which contains articles about successful technical
developments, educational strategies, and prototypes pertinent to improving shelter provision in rural
South Africa, with authors from Mexico, Iran, Chile, Brazil, Nepal and many other countries. In 2011 more
than 50 researchers contributed to a Map of Earthen Heritage in the European Union indicating earthen
building traditions in Europe (www.culture-terra-incognita.org). Similar nomenclature and graphic strategy
can be applied to mapping earthen and other traditional techniques in South Africa. Similar efforts are
currently under development for North America by the French architect Elsa Ricaud (Gardella 2013).
As far as existing prototypes of hybrid earthen architecture, of particular note is the work of Diébédo Francis
Kéré. His Center for Earth Architecture in Mali as well as the Gando Primary School in Burkina Faso are
examples of utilizing local skills and resources is a sophisticated way. In this and other buildings, traditional
materials such as earth are divested of negative associations and made fresh again (Diabate 2010). Similar
‘rebranding’ will be crucial to overcome the stigma attached to traditional techniques in South Africa.
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Figure 1: Compressed earth blocks, Dennilton, South Africa (Courtesy NextAid).

Political challenges and opportunities
While technical issues are significant, political and social issues regarding building with earth are more
pressing. Earth can be technically successful, yet still not widely adopted by the people due to lingering
negative perceptions (Zami and Lee 2008). While acceptance of rammed earth standards from Zimbabwe by
the regional organization SADC now makes rammed earth building legal in South Africa
(ecodesignarchitects.org.za), political neglect or pressures keep traditional techniques from being viable.
The public sector needs to reverse course and support innovation as well as underwrite earthen prototypes
to encourage the private sector. We see the irony that traditional techniques are largely used for tourist
complexes and village museums, but are made illegal for conventional construction. The work to correct
traditional architecture’s image will take time, but mostly requires the presence of excellent, desirable
examples of these techniques applied in a modern way that people can experience directly. They will
necessitate an improved rural development culture in South Africa.
Societal challenges and opportunities

Municipalities are generally poor developers. Many rural dwellers are unaware of available housing
programs and loan opportunities. Housing representatives show little interest in conducting workshops to
help educate residents on these programs. The potential of earthen building to penetrate mainstream
housing policy discourse is limited. Government policies are inconsistent. On one hand they support
indigenous (earth) building, but on the other hand severely limit what can be built with these techniques. In
addition, earthen projects are usually disqualified from receiving grant funding (Perry 2012).
In order to effectively impact the rural housing situation, one must be able to connect with the community.
Because rural areas are so widespread, conventional efforts are costly and limited. Creative means of sharing
information using communications technology (such as smart phones) can be developed to educate about
innovative earthbuilding and hybrid strategies. Widespread efforts to communicate can achieve two aims:
addressing the drawbacks of earth as a building material and better explaining and demonstrating its
benefits. Culturally-appropriate education and training systems are critical to rebranding earth in order to
overcome resistance to using it. However, these efforts are for naught if economic resources are unavailable
to enable actual building construction.
Economic challenges and opportunities
While rural residents have some access to credit, rural housing subsidies are accessible to residents only if
they can access such subsidy through intermediary banks. Unfortunately, intermediary lenders often charge
high interest that it can cripple first time borrowers.
A lack of coordination between government programs and end users has limited the impact of current
policies. Many residents have difficulty sourcing application packages or other materials related to housing
subsidies and loans (Perry 2014). This situation leads many to develop their own houses using whatever is at
hand. Building with local materials such as earth can offer some reprieve to the more structural, insidious,
1591
and invisible boundaries to creating adequate shelter. This shows ingenuity and agency by the people in
contrast to the failures of government.
Perry (2014) has also observed that the market for a local building block has stimulated small business
activity. With skilled workers within the rural areas rare, some skilled in construction choose to take
advantage of this niche opportunity. Competent builders that develop a good reputation are sought after
and paid comparatively well. Some workers bring urban building skills to the community. While this self-
initiated activity is helpful, rural self-help projects could benefit from more experienced involvement from
the Department of Human Settlements to determine local best practices. But the most important task is to
reverse the loss of traditional building knowledge crucial for hybrid architecture to thrive.
SHELTER PROVISION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Over the past several decades, there has been a dramatic loss of traditional builders and buildings,
particularly in Africa, as exemplified by the situation in Nigeria. In fact, in Nigeria it is becoming increasingly
difficult to find extant examples of traditional construction (Onyegire 2013). While traditional knowledge is
now being recognized as having critical cultural value, such efforts are only just beginning, and the loss of
traditional buildings continues at a fast pace. The United Nations University has developed the Traditional
Knowledge Institute (www.unutki.org) wherein various forms of traditional knowledge are honored and
shared. Such models could be applied to traditional and hybrid buildings in South Africa.
While traditional building techniques are becoming popular again in various parts of the world, in South
Africa, the opposite is true. People seek to build with conventional materials, with concrete, brick, and metal
or tile roofs being very popular. Attitudes towards what would be considered waste in other parts of the
world is different in South Africa, as scrap materials are conserved in high-poverty areas. It is very common
when abandoning a property for owners to remove window frames, for example, from buildings to use
elsewhere. While many rural South Africans dream of building an extravagant house with industrial
materials, immediate reality often means a necessary return to traditional methods because of lack of
monetary resources (Perry 2014)
Figure 2: Traditional earth plastering on an AIDS hospice near Rustenburg, South Africa (Joseph F. Kennedy).
While not comprehensive, the authors’ field investigations suggest there is much hybrid building practice
taking place in rural areas. Industrial materials are more often used because a certain aesthetic is desired. For
example the use of cement plaster gives a modern feel to an earthen wall. But traditional materials such as
earth, stone and thatching grass are still widely used as well. Some intriguing directions for architectural
approach to this homegrown hybrid architecture have been developed by architect Andy Horn throughout
South Africa (www.ecodesignarchitects.co.za). While much informal architecture is well-done and solid,
1592
much else is unsuccessful, with untrained builders compromising safety and structural integrity through
inappropriate practices. Introducing best practices through viral educational strategies in rural areas could
potentially help ameliorate this problem.
In rural South Africa, building technology and know-how with local resources is driven by the desire to save
money. There is evidence that many residents in the Eastern Cape are now experimenting in their
homesteads with different approaches to construction that minimize the amount of cement needed to
produce durable soil-cement blocks so to reduce costs. These blocks use five to fifteen percent cement by
volume, with the rest of the block composed of a mixture of topsoil and fine-grained felsic subsoil. It has
been discovered by more experienced builders that these brownish silicates and clay from below the topsoil
form the strongest bonds with sand and cement when making stabilized bricks (Perry 2014). Rural builders
themselves often recommend using cement stabilized soil bricks in the internal walls while continuing to
use commercially produced concrete blocks and fired-clay bricks in the foundation and external walls to
protect against the elements.
The assumption that concrete block construction is superior to earth construction needs to be field tested.
The performance of both is affected by how they are constructed and maintained. Mainstream construction
is not indestructible, and ‘modern’ buildings and houses using concrete blocks can quickly fall apart when
neglected (Perry 2014), or fail catastrophically in disasters (Kennedy 2004).
There are opportunities for training to enhance the quality and upkeep of earth using building technologies
(Evans et al. 2002, Kennedy et al. 2014, Kennedy 2004). Robust training in building maintenance in rural
areas in all provinces of the country would bolster job creation and empower homeowners to maintain their
own houses. Self-help builders who are trained to improve the quality and durability of earthen housing
materials and construction would probably eliminate many of the assumed negative aspects of earth
construction, particularly when it comes to long-term maintenance of traditional material in housing and
buildings. Dedicated training programs can be based on existing successful models (Barrow cited in Gardella
2013). Other innovative training opportunities can result from community partnerships with non-profits or
university and high school student and teacher teams. However, all stakeholders in the process must be on
board to ensure successful projects.
Building strategies and tactics that use local materials and skills
There is real potential for the revival of local materials and systems as there are many South African
architects and builders working with these ideas. There is also an international storehouse of knowledge for
people desiring skills training and extant examples from a great variety of builders easily accessible online. In
South Africa there are several training centers, including Tlholego Village (rucore.org.za/tlholego-village)
and the McGregor Alternative Technology Centre (www.mat.org.za). Many skilled natural building
practitioners, architects, educators, and training manuals are available but resistance to traditional
techniques remains in South Africa, and innovative strategies are often looked upon skeptically from a social
or political point of view as ill-advised, utopian, flights of fancy (Perry 2014). Further research is needed to
understand these resistances and uncover these and other technical, social or political barriers to success.
When learning about the continued importance of earth as a building material and as a viable low-cost
construction technology around the world, we see numerous examples of greatly improved and
professionalized traditional techniques such as cob, rammed earth, straw-clay, and earthbags (Kennedy
2014). In South Africa recent lessons have been learned about the usefulness of soil cement building in the
Eastern Cape and the success of cob and earthbag construction in the Western Cape and elsewhere.
Rammed earth is approved by code and qualifies for bonds (Insynch.co.za. 2014). Compressed earth blocks
are relatively common and are popular for their clean modern shape. It is clear that earthen construction can
continue to offer the low income majority an alternative to conventional higher cost housing based on
industrial materials such as brick and concrete once social and technical issues are addressed.
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Figure 3: Making mud for construction at building course at Tlholego Village, near Rustenburg, South Africa
(Joseph F. Kennedy).
Earth housing maximizes local employment creation, minimizes the cost of housing per square meter, and
also maximizes the empowerment of rural people in maintaining their own houses and homesteads. The
evidence from the former Transkei indicates that self-help as well as builder-constructed earthen houses
have already made a major contribution to the construction of ultra-low cost homes and buildings (Perry
2014). This activity is in spite of the political rhetoric advocating for modern concrete housing.
Using earthen construction designs, standards, and technologies could radically increase the delivery of
improved housing to the majority of low income South Africans. It will be important to collect, analyze and
understand the examples from rural communities where earth technologies have been chosen over more
expensive conventional techniques. With such a database of positive contemporary examples of up-to-date
earthen building technologies, it will be possible to decide what techniques will be most effective. While it
may be difficult to achieve, it is essential that earth construction avoid the powerful negative associations of
mud with inferior standards, poverty, and backwardness. The real issue that needs to be tested is the
potential for traditional or hybrid earth building technologies to deliver a demonstrated, customer-
approved, cost-benefit performance that is better than conventional concrete building products and
technologies.
An important next step for the national government is to objectively assess the technical, economic, social
and cultural performance of earthen building products and technologies in comparison to conventional
building products and housing systems. Some questions that need to be answered: How much money, time
and energy (for transportation of materials) is saved? What is the relative durability of earthen products and
cement products? Where is employment created when using earthen building technologies? What are the
side by side comparisons of earthen and conventional concrete houses and buildings? In addition, it will be
important to know whether earthen construction and building products enable small-scale building
enterprises and self-help builders to improve upon their construction repertoires over time through trial and
error learning. Lastly, does the use of earthen products and technologies empower home owners to
maintain and repair their own homes?
CATALYTIC POSSIBILITIES FOR THE RESEARCHER/EDUCATOR/PRACTITIONER

Given the scope and complexity of rural shelter provision, innovative strategies need to be developed to
address the problem through applying strategic interventions. Luckily, this type of work is of increasing
1594
interest to public interest architects, designers, builders, educators and students in partnership with local
communities. Creating pipelines of possibility will provide an opportunity for mutual learning,
empowerment and economic upliftment that benefit all sides. Such opportunities can be designed to be
catalytic in that small strategic efforts with minimal resources can have a large impact through leveraging
social and information capital in creative ways. Well-designed socially-based processes can integrate
simplicity, elegance, replicability, excellent design, local materials and skills together for community success.
Architecture schools can take a leading role in this design effort.
The role of the Academy
Universities and other educational organizations, both in South Africa and abroad can play a direct role in
solving architectural problems in rural South Africa. In fact, pedagogy is a key place to implement ideas
regarding humanitarian architecture (Jones and Card 2011). Studio courses in particular can partner with
humanitarian projects to take advantage of underutilized design resources (Verderber 2003).
Evidence based design research can help cut through irrational prejudices against traditional identify, define
and support the implementation of best practices (Kopec, Sinclair and Matthes 2012). An agreement on a
design research agenda for sustainable human-centered development in South Africa would help avoid
duplicated efforts, and increase the knowledge base for effective work in the field. Academic partnerships
with business and communities could help create funding and other mechanisms for real projects to
germinate and grow. However, this type of ‘outside the box’ thinking will be complex, given the highly
regulated environment of architectural education and the previously-identified issues with earthen
construction.
Figure 4: A volunteer American architect works with local community members in the design process of a
community center, Dennilton, South Africa (Joseph F. Kennedy).
The architect as catalyst: The role of practitioners
Long-term successes in sustainable development are rooted in local communities and rely on their assets,
skills and agency (Kennedy 2004). However, architects can be a catalyst to spark a positive reaction in willing
communities (Peterson, in Bell and Wakeford 2008), and through well-considered partnerships and
interventions, humanitarian architects can effect significant change. As Swenson writes “[c]hange is never
easy for an established community. But when it improves the quality and quantity of affordable housing
while respecting a place’s inherent history, values, and culture, change is a positive force” (Swenson cited in
Bell and Wakeford 2008). “Architect as catalyst” can help describe those that seek to enable positive
community change. A catalyst is a substance that enables chemical change without itself being changed. A
catalytic approach can conserve human capital to achieve the needed levels of solution. Current strategies
that depend upon on volunteerism are not sufficient to the size of the problem.
Once it is clear that agency, control and responsibility lay in large part with the local community, designers
can act more strategically and avoid wasted effort. Local social, physical, and knowledge assets can be
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maintained, grown and replicated through long-term associations. Thinking in generational terms can help
ensure lasting positive change (Klinker cited in Kennedy 2014). Given the pace of social and environmental
trauma, this will only be possible through a comprehensive and holistic approach (Cousins 2013). It is crucial
that approaches developed elsewhere be adapted to local South African situations.
Opportunities for sustainable humanitarian approaches

Local problems are incredibly varied in South Africa. While there are certain common patterns, one-size-fits-
all solutions are imported from outside are often inappropriate. However, some aspects of solutions
implemented elsewhere may be replicable (Kennedy 2004). “Asset and process” -based development
approaches work better than those based on need and solely focused on technological solutions (Fan 2012,
Borrup 2006). In addition, long-term engagement is necessary for transformational change, with “slow
prototyping” over time leading to locally-adaptable robust solutions (Thorpe and Gamman 2011). Designers
are beginning to create easily comprehendible ‘languages’ of design approaches that can be utilized in
response to local conditions using community-centered collaborative processes (Architecture for Humanity
2012, Bell and Wakeford 2008).
Efforts in South Africa can utilize service learning service-learning models such as Global Studio, Rural
Studio, CalEarth, etc. – inspiring examples of creative partnerships between educational institutions,
business, government, the non-profit sector and local communities that can help multiply impacts of
investments through holistic approaches. ‘Purpose Built Communities’ has found success in the Southern US
through tackling housing, wellness and education at the same time in defining communities (Cousins 2013).
In addition, informal adoption of innovation by the local population, ideally through a teacher-training
process, is necessary to magnify the positive impacts of a relatively small number of professionals. The work
of John Norton and Development Workshop is an excellent example of introducing a sustainable solution
(woodless construction) based on a system developed elsewhere in a similar climate (Norton 2012).
Figure 5: Innovations in earthbuilding (in this case earthbag construction) taught during a training course in
Dennilton, South Africa (Mark Mazziotti).
PENDING ISSUES IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL AREAS

The goal of this paper is to raise questions and indicate possible viable paths forward. In choosing a
common metric, we have turned to the United Nations. According to the UN, “[t]he eight Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of
HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed
to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized
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unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest” (www.un.org/millenniumgoals). The
approaches of shelter provision described in this paper address the following MDGs:
• Target 1.B: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and
young people. Creating a local economy reliant on local resources such as earth helps create jobs in
these regions otherwise isolated from the economy.
• Target 7.A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and
reverse the loss of environmental resources. Through reducing reliance on high embodied energy
materials like cement, energy costs and attendant pollution can be reduced.
• Target 8.B: Address the special needs of least developed countries. The building provision approaches
described here are designed for local communities with minimal physical or economic assets, but
strong creative and social assets.
• Target 8.F: In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies,
especially information and communications. Through the catalytic strategies described here such
information can spread quickly and thoroughly to local communities.
Figure 6: Completed earthbag building, Dennilton, South Africa (Joseph F. Kennedy).

Contemplating how best the approaches described in this paper can help meet the above goals raises
additional questions for future research. These include:
• How can successful strategies become potential models for other regions?
• How can design using traditional materials be improved?
• How to best integrate traditional techniques with conventional materials?
• What are locally-appropriate construction details?
• How can communities self-organize to utilize asset-based approaches that build on traditional rural
South African strengths and values?
• How can mentor-student teams (like Global Studio, Rebuild Global, Rural Studio) from abroad or
local schools best help solve rural shelter issues in South Africa?
• How can efforts reach more people and educate more? How can a consortium of academic actors
tackle a research agenda through real-world projects?
• How can cultural and technological exchange become truly supportive of local evolution?
• What is the current state of traditional architecture in South Africa?
• What current activity and examples of new construction using natural materials exist in South
Africa?
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• What are the impediments to implementing proven strategies, and research case studies of
approaches elsewhere that might be useful in the South African context?
• What is the role of South Africa in regards to regional sustainable building and development?
• How can successful strategies in sustainable building construction, especially plastering, be
showcased and taught?
• Can creating village-scale models with an integrated economy and a goal of using local skills and
materials help build replicable examples of human development married with ecological
regeneration?
CONCLUSION
We have chosen to highlight the persistence and possibility of vernacular building practices rather than to
emphasize an erosion of traditions of self-help in rural communities. It appears that building, expanding and
renewing upon what extant hybrid examples there are may create more opportunities for vernacular
building traditions and practices to intersect with modern building. We have observed the synergies
embodied in hybrid housing designs, materials, and building methods, which results when different cultural
understandings interact, borrow, and learn from each other. The antagonism towards traditional housing is
significant but earthen construction will continue to persist in practice because it meets certain functional,
social, and economic needs. Our paper hopes to stimulate a more comprehensive and technically-savvy
approach to understanding the potential of what is available to the rural poor in South Africa: earth and
other local materials.
REFERENCES
Bell, B& Wakeford, K., (eds) 2008. Expanding architecture: Design as activism, Metropolis Books, New York.
Borrup T & Partners for Livable Communities, 2006. The creative community builder’s handbook: How to
transform communities using local assets, arts and culture, Fieldstone Alliance, St. Paul, MN.
Busch, J., 2008. ‘Socially responsible design: Making a difference’, Contract, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 52-54.
Correia, M Pasquale, L & Meccahas, S., (eds) 2011. 2011 Map of Earthen Heritage in the European Union, Culture
Lab Editions, Belgium.
Cousins, T., 2013. ‘The Atlanta model for reviving poor neighborhoods’, Wall Street Journal, 14 September,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324009304579040862988907966.html
Diabaté, I., 2012. ‘Toward a local modernity in Africa: Diébédo Francis Kéré’s Center for Earth Architecture’,
Harvard Design Magazine, Spring/Summer, no. 35, pp. 160-163.
Fan, L., 2012. ‘Shelter strategies, humanitarian praxis and critical urban theory in post-crisis reconstruction’,
Disasters, vol. 36, no. S1, pp. S64-S86.
Fay, D., 2011. ‘Migrants, forests and houses: The political ecology of architectural change in Hobeni and
Cwebe, South Africa’, Human Organization, vol. 70, no. 3, pp. 309-320.
Folkers, A., 2010. Modern architecture in Africa, Sun Architecture, Amsterdam.
Frescura, F., 1981. Rural shelter in Southern Africa, Ravan Press, Johannesburg.
Gardella, C., (ed) 2013. Proceedings 2013 EarthUSA Conference, EarthUSA, New Mexico, USA.
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no. 26, pp. 24-26.
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Architectural Theory Review, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2011.621543.
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Kennedy, J, Wanek C & Smith, MG., (eds) 2014, in press. The art of natural building, 2nd edn, New Society
Publishers, Gabriola Island, Canada.
Kennedy, J., (ed) 2004. Building without borders, sustainable construction for the global village, New Society
Publishers, Gabriola Island.
Kopek, D, Sinclair, E & Matthes, B., 2012. Evidence based design: A process for research and writing, Prentice
Hall, Boston.
Kroiz, L., 2012. ‘Review: Citizen architect: Samuel Mockbee and the spirit of rural studio’, Journal of the Society
of Architectural Historians, vol. 71, no. 2, pp. 241-242.
MacLeod, D., 2002. ‘The case for improving the performance of indigenous earth dwellings in rural South
Africa’, viewed 19 March 2002, agrement.co.za.
Norton, J., 2012. Woodless construction (1-3), Practical Action, practicalaction.org.
Thorpe, A & Gamman, L., 2011. ‘Design with society: Why socially responsive design is good enough’,
CoDesign, vol. 7, nos. 3-4, pp. 217-230.
Verderber, S., 2003. ‘Compassionism and the design studio in the Aftermath of 9/11’, Journal of Architectural
Education, pp. 48-62.
Zami, MS., 2009. ‘Potentialities of contemporary earth construction addressing urban housing crisis in Africa
– A lesson from Zimbabwe’, unpublished paper.
Zami, MS & Lee, A., 2008. ‘Using earth as a building material for sustainable low cost housing in Zimbabwe’,
The Built and Human Environment Review, vol. 4, (Special Issue 2, pp. 40-55.
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WORLD IN TRANSITION – A STRATEGY FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY PEDAGOGY IN DIFFERENT CULTURAL

ENVIRONMENTS
Saija Hollmén, Aalto University, Finland, saija.hollmen@aalto.fi

Tiina Laurila, Aalto University, Finland, tiina.laurila@aalto.fi
Matleena Muhonen, Aalto University, Finland, matleena.muhonen@aalto.fi
Abstract
The international Master`s Degree Programme in Creative Sustainability (CS) at Aalto University is a joint
teaching platform for the University Schools of Art, Design and Architecture, Economics, and Engineering in the
fields of architecture, business, design and real estate. The CS programme offers courses and projects that bring
together students from different fields to develop a more rigorous, multidisciplinary approach to problem solving.
World in Transition (WiT) is a combination of CS courses organized by different schools of the Aalto University. The
courses and design studio projects address issues of development and globalization, in different scales depending
on the discipline. By bringing them together, WiT establishes a multidisciplinary platform for collaborating with
disadvantaged communities at grass root level. The focus of WiT is on community empowerment through
participation, sustainable design solutions and cultural awareness.
This paper aims to demonstrate Aalto University’s approach to pedagogy in the context of globalization and
development through World in Transition. It examines the challenges and drawbacks of the approach, as well as
its outstanding benefits to communities in the world majority context, and to learning processes in multicultural
environments.
The strong social and cultural emphasis of World in Transition calls for commitment and personal involvement. It
offers students an opportunity to test their own skills and potential in communication, problem solving,
teamwork and participatory planning methods. It challenges them to put their ideas and knowledge into practice,
and to step from vision to implementation. With its multicultural and interdisciplinary approach, World in
Transition prepares students to confront real life challenges at a local as well as global scale – while being
connected to the practicalities of human life at the grassroots level.
Keywords: multidisciplinarity, university pedagogy, development, globalization, participatory planning.
INTRODUCTION
Universities are facing a major challenge in the contemporary world: the rapid change of our societies, as
well as the transformation of our technological, societal and environmental context of living is forcing
universities to respond to the issues of globalization and development. Attention is increasingly turned
towards the world majority context, to cities and societies where people live with limited resources and
scant access to information. The rapid urbanization and growth of cities all around the world is both a risk
and an opportunity – which depends largely on our capacity to adapt and react to emerging situations.
In western universities, there is a growing tendency to promote multi- and interdisciplinary pedagogic
entities. However, it has become evident that the existence of siloed structures within universities poses a
threat to the development and long-term societal impact of these valuable institutions. Often this historical
structure prevents collaboration between faculties, while appearing to promote administrative convenience
rather than growing pedagogical ambition. In this scenario, some contemporary interdisciplinary initiatives
seem to be inward-facing reactions to an existing institutional structural deficit rather than pedagogies
capable of addressing majority human needs in an effective manner. Nowadays, even the very definition of
many disciplines tend to fracture; new disciplines are born from within old ones, resulting in ever greater
dispersion (Youngblood 2007). However, rigid disciplinary segregation no longer meets the needs of our
contemporary societies. The challenges of globalization demand lateral thinking, the dissolution of
boundaries and artificial divisions that separate faculties and disciplines.
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How, in this situation, can university pedagogy adapt to changing societal circumstances? What action and
measures can it take to respond to current needs in varied global conditions? How can disciplines
communicate with each other in an effective and fruitful way within inflexible organizations such as
universities? What kinds of pedagogic approaches are needed to enhance learning in cross-disciplinary
situations?
This paper aims to demonstrate Aalto University’s approach to pedagogy in the context of globalization and
development. It addresses the challenges and drawbacks of the approach, as well as its outstanding benefits
to communities in the world majority context, and to learning processes in multicultural environments.
MULTIDISCIPLINARITY IN UNIVERSITY PEDAGOGY
The terms multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary are often confused and used almost interchangeably.
Youngblood (2007) describes their difference and presents a useful definition:
a) Multidisciplinary is what happens when members of two or more disciplines cooperate, using the
tools and knowledge of their disciplines in new ways to consider multifaceted problems that have
at least one tentacle in another area of study.
b) Interdisciplinary or integrative studies is what happens when researchers go beyond establishing a
common meeting place to developing new method and theory crafted to transcend the disciplines
in order to solve problems (Newell 2001; Repko 2005).
Multidisciplinarity can be project based or personal. That is to say, it can be defined through a project in
which several experts from different disciplines come together to find a solution – or through a
multidisciplinary mind that possesses the capacity to handle simultaneously perspectives and languages
stemming from several disciplinary origins. Whatever the case, intertwining and interacting threads of
knowledge are woven into a new type of fabric when people approach a problem from multiple directions
around the same table.
Rather than merely bringing experts or students from various disciplines around a multifaceted problem to
bounce opinions off each other, we should start by asking: “What can I learn from you that allows me to
recognize what is useful in my field to be shared with you?” If individuals have access to each other’s
knowledge through collaboration and unprejudiced teamwork, they need not to possess knowledge of all
domains themselves. Continued knowledge-building is a social project (Hollmén, Rose 2013) which requires
open-minded discussion and self-criticism – as well as mutual appreciation and respect.
Interdisciplinary thinking stems from a solid and strong foundation of multidisciplinary endeavour. Although
one must be well grounded in multiple disciplines (Youngblood 2007), interdisciplinarity is more than just
transferring multidisciplinary challenges from two or more persons into one. It is a relatively new form of
problem-oriented critical thinking that focuses on process rather than domain (Repko 2005).
Interdisciplinarity becomes the means in a process of seeking resilient solutions, not the objective itself.
Providing an egalitarian and non-authoritarian learning environment is a prerequisite for a successful

interdisciplinary course. The teachers, whatever their disciplinary origin, should be able to work comfortably
within in their own areas of knowledge, while being encouraged to form new networks so that professional
development can occur in the contexts of need. The initial questions posed to the class should be such that
there are no wrong answers. The focus should be on the phenomena at hand, not on the professional
competence of participants. As the course progresses, the different perspectives of the challenge begin to
emerge through various fields of expertise. However, the original positioning of the question must be
encouraging to all in order to reap the benefit of having participants from different fields.
Reciprocal learning can teach us essential things about our own discipline, and help us start positioning our
knowledge relative to the knowledge of others. As the ‘big picture’, so often lost in our fragmented reality,
starts to emerge, so does the relevance of the individual’s expertise and its meaning.
AALTO UNIVERSITY’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
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Aalto University was formed by merging the Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki University of Technology
and the University of Art and Design Helsinki into one entity. Established in 2010, the university builds on the
combined 300 years of history of these three highly regarded universities (Aalto 2014).
Creative sustainability
The international Master’s Degree Programme in Creative Sustainability (CS) was launched in autumn 2010.
It is a joint programme between the School of Arts, Design and Architecture (Aalto ARTS, Department of
Design, Department of Architecture), School of Business (Aalto BIZ, Department of Management Studies)
and School of Engineering (Aalto ENG, Department of Surveying, Planning and Geoinformatics). The degree
programme offers a multidisciplinary learning platform in the fields of architecture, business, design, and
real estate economics.
The CS programme brings together students from different fields to study in multidisciplinary teams. The
purpose is to increase their understanding of different disciplines and enable them to adopt a holistic
approach, and to encourage them to produce new sustainable solutions for human, urban, industrial and
business environments. The pedagogical approach is based on the integration of teaching and research,
problem-based learning, blended learning and a strong connection to practical outcomes (Aalto CS 2014).
World in Transition
World in Transition (WiT) is a combination of CS courses organized by the Aalto Schools of ARTS, BIZ and ENG.
By bringing together courses that examine issues of development and globalization, WiT established a
multidisciplinary platform for collaborating with disadvantaged communities at a grassroots level.
The history of Aalto University courses on development issues and globalization dates back to the time
when the three universities were still separate. 20 years ago, the Department of Architecture at Helsinki
University of Technology launched a course called Interplay of Cultures that focused on participatory urban
planning and building design. The name of the course was later changed into City in Transition.
The Sustainable Global Technologies programme (SGT) was launched in 2006 at the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at Helsinki University of Technology (HUT). The programme offers a 20-credit
Master’s and PhD-level educational module on sustainable technologies, combining the viewpoints of
urbanization, technology and development. Great emphasis is placed on teaching methods to enhance
communication and interaction between students, lecturers and project partners. The SGT programme was
designed to attract students from all departments and fields of study, first at HUT and later at Aalto
University. SGT is now aiming to increase awareness, education and research in the fields of sustainability,
development and technology in multidisciplinary environments. Courses included in the module are State of
the World and Development (2 ECTS), Sustainable Communication (2 ECTS), Sustainable Global Technologies (6
ECTS) and Sustainable Global Technologies Studio (10 ECTS). The SGT programme has organized continuing
education courses in collaboration with Aalto Professional Development (AaltoPRO), Asian Institute of
Technology, University of Nairobi, UN-HABITAT, and UNEP.
The courses How to Change the World – Innovation toward Sustainability (6 ECTS) and How to Change the
World – Sustainability Projects (6 ECTS) were launched at the Helsinki Business School in 2009. The How to
Change the World project course (6 ECTS) focuses on sustainable business, social entrepreneurship and
inclusive business.
Although the three course modules above were originally offered by three different Aalto schools and
disciplines – architecture, business and engineering – soon after Aalto University was formed, it became
evident that there was a certain amount of overlap and that collaboration would bring synergy and not only
enhance both multi- and interdisciplinarity, but also be financially feasible. Since 2012, the three course
modules have been developed together under the umbrella concept of World in Transition.
Ever since its establishment, the World in Transition module has sought to explore and expand students’
understanding of different cultural environments. Over the years, field trips have been made to Senegal,
Benin, Cambodia, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, Lebanon, Mozambique and Rwanda. In all these locations,
the course has had a strong collaborative liaison with local NGOs, communities and universities.
With its field trip and practical projects, the WiT combination of advanced Master’s-level courses provides a
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solid base for developing a genuinely interdisciplinary learning platform. Students with different major
subjects share the same context, yet approach the projects from their own perspective. The focus of WiT is
on community empowerment through participation, sustainable design solutions, and cultural awareness. It
aims to provide students with a wider perspective and help them understand the processes and practice of
their discipline when working in changing cultural contexts.
The problems of urbanization are gravest in developing countries. Seen as a metaphor of the world, a
chaotic city challenges students to put their ideas and knowledge into practice, to take the step from vision
to implementation. The design studio projects employ different scales for different disciplines, but they
share a participatory and practical approach to problem solving. Deriving its name of one of the WiT courses,
City in Transition, formerly called Interplay of Cultures, the multidisciplinary World in Transition module
underlines positive prospects and possibilities for change.
WiT course schedule

World in Transition starts off the academic year with a common lecture course that prepares students
mentally to understand the dilemmas of globalization and development. The aim is to provide students with
a basic understanding of various cultural contexts, and to teach them to identify problems and possible
solutions. After the lecture course, the other courses continue addressing the themes from the point of view
individual disciplines: urban development, architecture and engineering, and business management.
The spring term begins with a period of seminars and lectures, in which the students from all WiT courses
come together to prepare projects prior to a field trip. The emphasis is on the socio-cultural, economic and
ecological aspects of the country and city where the field trip takes place. Students receive a wide range of
background information on the contexts and communities they will be working with.
The seminar period also allows students to get to know each other within group exercises that prepare them
for teamwork during the field trip. Students from different disciplines are grouped into multidisciplinary
teams. Each group chooses a project related to a community, which has been prepared in collaboration with
an NGO in the partnering country. The emphasis is on a participatory approach, since the work is done in
close collaboration with the local community. The aim is to enable and facilitate change towards a better
environment, better products, services and processes, in order to empower the local people and society.
WiT field trip

The two-week field trip takes place during Period IV (in the second half of the academic year). The location of
the field trip can vary depending on available contacts and resources. During the academic years 2012–
2014, the field trip has taken place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. WiT collaborates with the Centre for
Community Initiatives, CCI, a non-profit organization established in 2004 in Tanzania to help poor
communities develop their quality of life through sustainable solutions. In 2014, as part of the WiT module, a
master class in architecture took students to Rwanda, where they designed public spaces and buildings with
local communities in the rapidly growing city of Kigali. Local universities and students have been
incorporated into every project, to help Aalto students access the local community and interact with local
residents. Contacts with the partnering countries, institutions and NGOs are established through the
networks created by the WiT course teachers in their development-related projects.
During the field trip and the entire design studio, students from different disciplines need specialized
tuition. Instruction in every branch of expertise is required in order to prevent misunderstandings and
ensure positive results. A course of such intensity as WiT calls for considerable responsibility from the
organizers; it is not irrelevant how student projects are defined when working with disadvantaged people.
There must be no risk of misleading the community’s course of development, possibly creating tragic
consequences. Appropriate expertise is therefore essential to ensure correct methods and approaches to
problem solving. It is vital for the success of the process to develop a strong cooperative teamwork with
local experts and resident groups. Collaboration with other universities and institutions is also of vital
importance.
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Studio project
The projects are defined in collaboration with the local community, and finalized after the field trip as teams
continue to work on their projects back in Finland. All students receive tutoring from a teacher in their own
discipline, defining their project in terms of the theme of the multidisciplinary group.
The deliverables include studies and reports on local socio-economic and cultural issues, architectural
projects, such as housing or public building design, product design, urban planning and local business
development. The final review takes place at the end of the academic year.
Feedback trip
Once the studio projects are completed, at least one member from each team should be given an
opportunity to return to the partner community, to share and present the results of the design period. The
purpose of the feedback trip is to facilitate the implementation of projects, to create ownership and
empower the communities. The local partners must not be left with a feeling of having been exploited
culturally; the information and know-how gathered during the course should be shared with the
communities and put into practice.
WORLD IN TRANSITION COURSES
The World in Transition courses operate in different schools of Aalto University, but are connected through
the Creative Sustainability Master’s Programme and also closely linked by WiT. The contents of each course
are briefly outlined below:
State of the World and Development (introduction: Aalto ENG, SGT programme)
State of the World and Development (2 ECTS credits) serves as a general introduction to the programme and is
a precondition for taking any of the other four courses. The lecture course highlights the environmental,
social and economic aspects of sustainable development and explores the dilemma of development. The
course has guest lecturers from different universities and organizations.
The course helps students recognize global actors in the field of sustainable development. They will also
learn to understand the main principles behind global governance and environmental policies. The course is
held during the first quarter of the academic year (Period I).
Responsible teachers: Professor Olli Varis, Matleena Muhonen.
City in Transition (architecture and urban planning: Aalto ARTS)

City in Transition Theory (2 ECTS) and City in Transition Studio (12 ECTS) examine the reality of urban planning,
architecture and landscape architecture outside Europe and the industrialized world, taking cultural
understanding as the point of departure. The emphasis is on the historical, socio-economic and cultural
development of emerging nations according to vernacular principles. The course features guest lecturers
from different universities and organizations.
Responsible teachers: Professor Trevor Harris, Saija Hollmén (course coordinator), Helena Sandman, Taru
Niskanen.
How to Change the World (business and corporate responsibility: Aalto BIZ)
How to Change the World: Innovation Toward Sustainability (6 ECTS)
Corporate Responsibility (CR) and sustainable development imperatives are typically framed as necessary
requirements, “a contemporary must-do,” for businesses. This course aims at breaking and broadening this
sometimes negatively motivated mindset by exploring paths and alternatives for creative and innovative
responses to sustainability challenges. Global environmental and social sustainability problems are taken as
starting points for innovation of new forms of economic activity, business models, and organizational forms.
The course addresses three main areas of sustainability innovation: energy- and material-efficient business
models, poverty alleviation through entrepreneurial approach, and social entrepreneurship.
Responsible teachers: Professor Minna Halme, Armi Temmes, Sara Lindeman.
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Sustainable Global Technologies, changing course (innovative technologies: Aalto ENG)

The content of Sustainable Global Technologies (6 ECTS) changes annually. In 2011–13, the theme was
urbanization and development, with a special focus on sustainable technologies and their use in the context
of the developing world. The main topics were energy resources, transportation, waste management, water
resources management, ICT, and housing and urban planning. The course emphasizes the importance of
recognizing/understanding one’s own discipline as part of a multidisciplinary group. The course features
guest lecturers from different research groups within Aalto University.
Responsible teachers: Professor Olli Varis, Matleena Muhonen.
Development of the World in Transition in 2013–2014

Because Aalto University strongly encourages multidisciplinary studies, the above courses were opened to
students from all Aalto University faculties. Consequently, in 2012 there were students from different
disciplines participating in all of the WiT courses. Making the City in Transition and Sustainable Global
Technologies courses available to students from other disciplines widened the approach to problem solving,
and it was recognized that some projects would benefit if there were more engineer and design students in
the CiT projects and more architect and design students in the SGT course. In autumn 2013, City in Transition
Theory was still an independent course in the curriculum, although in practice it was merged with SGT
theory so that architecture teachers too were involved in teaching the SGT course.
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Figure 1: The diagram shows the overlap of WiT courses during one academic year.
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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND PARTICIPATORY PLANNING
A group of visitors from a foreign university can easily arouse expectations in a poor urban community: Why
are these people here? What are they doing? How can we take advantage of them being here? Especially in
many African cultures in which reciprocity is tightly embedded in the social code, time and attention is also
considered a gift. If visitors ask locals for their attention, it is only natural to expect a favour in return
(Kapuściński 2002, p. 277). In some circumstances, light skin colour can still be misconnected with wealth –
whereas in the case of students, their most valuable possession most often than not is their intellectual
potential and their ideas, rather than any material belongings or money. Through conversation and
discussion with the local community, interaction can become a reciprocal exchange of information and offer
learning opportunities for all. Communicating an attitude of arrogance and superiority to a poor community
would be indefensible; underestimating people’s intelligence in any circumstances can have detrimental
consequences. Humans need to be encountered with respect and dignity, their integrity appreciated. Only
from such premises can an equal basis for communication and sharing be established.
Moreover, social coding and the rules of communication and for showing respect and disrespect vary from
one culture to another. Understanding cultural locality is the foremost requirement when working in
different cultural contexts, especially with disadvantaged communities.
The biggest threat on this planet seems to be the overabundance of human beings – yet at the same time, it
is our greatest resource. How can we turn this threat into an opportunity in poor urban communities, how
can we capitalize on the human potential that is so overwhelming, yet untapped? For any development
project, the indicator of success is the level of engagement of the local community. How should we interact
with people, one on one, in such a way as to make them feel that their human potential is perceived as
valuable and useful? People are more likely to participate in and be part of an endeavour that aims at their
benefit when they are appreciated – on their own terms. A fair and equal opportunity to share ideas and
insights draws attention and invites engagement. Taking ownership of a project on a communal and even
personal level is facilitated when ideas are shared on the grass root level; when people get an opportunity to
actually do something, preferably something tangible that has visible consequences.
The expressed goal of Aalto University’s World in Transition courses is to respect people regardless of their
origin, social status or wealth. In all phases of course planning, the main idea is to bear in mind the lessons
learnt from decades of development work, successes as well as failures, and the pedagogical principles WiT
has committed itself to. The WiT attitude is based on respect, community engagement and participatory
planning – in all circumstances.
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Kigali master class

In January 2014, the Kigali master class under WiT took 10 students of architecture from Aalto University to
Kigali, Rwanda, for a two-week field trip. The purpose of the class was to study possibilities for creating
public spaces that could serve as a catalyst for urban development in the villages surrounding the rapidly
growing city of Kigali. As informal settlements are moved away from the city centre, pressures mount to
develop the city’s master plan, and also to improve the planning of umudugudus (villages), where people
from the informal settlements are evicted to. After identifying two such villages in the outskirts of Kigali, the
class worked with the communities to outline master plans for the villages as well as individual building
design projects in them.
Aalto students were paired with architectural students from the Kigali Institute of Technology (KIST) to work
as equal peers in design. The KIST students also served as translators of Kinyarwanda in specific situations.
The input of KIST students was essential to the success of the course as they enabled Aalto students to
communicate with locals and discuss specific questions related to their environment: their wishes and hopes
for the future of the village, the current employment situation and prospects, public services and
transportation – what is urgently needed and what is not.
Interaction with local residents took place in informal situations. What helped our students most in
overcoming language barriers and building trust, was their engagement in everyday activities: playing
football with the children of the village, cooking and eating dinner in local homes, hanging around in the
village marketplace to chat with people doing their everyday chores; carrying water, collecting harvest,
tending cattle. Such involvement taught them more than any formal inquiry or interview ever could.
Learning from the everyday life of people – what makes their lives difficult, and what makes them happy –
was a necessary lesson in order to create meaningful architecture for these conditions. Participatory
planning is about being open and receptive, vulnerable even – it is not an academic exercise.
The real-life challenge

The complexity of the societal and cultural challenges we are facing today tends to be too great to be
addressed by any single discipline. Many universities face the challenge of adapting to their rapidly
changing relevance within the societal needs of the future (Hollmén, Rose 2013). World in Transition offers
students from different faculties an opportunity to test their own skills and potential in communication,
problem solving, teamwork and participatory planning methods. Many of them have been inspired to take
further action to continue the work they started during the course. Their feedback suggests that the
opportunity to work with real clients and real projects have been a unique thing in their studies. The course
has been a life changing experience for them, both in their personal and professional lives.
The strong social and cultural emphases in the World in Transition courses require commitment and personal
involvement. For its participants, it is an unforgettable real-life experience in teamwork, a life-long
inoculation against tunnel vision and narrow-minded thinking. With its multicultural and interdisciplinary
approach, World in Transition prepares students to confront real-life challenges at local as well as global scale
– while being connected to the practicalities of human life at grass root level.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We wish to thank all the people who have been and continue to be part of the development of Aalto
University’s World in Transition courses. Special thanks are due to Chris Rose, Graduate Design Teaching and
NSF Science-Arts-Design consultant at Rhode Island School of Design, for his valuable and helpful insights.
REFERENCES
Aalto University, 2014. Aalto university history, viewed 2 April 2014, http://www.aalto.fi/en/about/history/
Aalto Creative Sustainability, 2014. About creative sustainability, viewed 2 April 2014, http://acs.aalto.fi/about-
creative-sustainability/
Gergen, K., 2009. Relational being. Beyond self and community, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
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Kapuściński, R., 2002. The shadow of the sun – my African life, Penguin, London.
Lepik, A., (ed.) 2011. Moderators of change, Hatje Cantz, Germany.
Hollmén, S & Rose, C., 2013. ARTS + ENG: Future collaborative academic models at Aalto, Aalto University,
Finland.
Newell, WH., 2001. ‘A theory of interdisciplinary studies’, Issues in Integrative Studies, vol. 19, pp. 1-25, viewed
1 April 2014,
http://www.units.muohio.edu/aisorg/pubs/issues/19_Newell.pdf
Palleroni, S et al., 2004. Studio at large: Architecture in service of global communities, University of Washington
Press, Washington.
Repko, A., 2005. Interdisciplinary practice: A student guide to research and writing, Preliminary edition, Pearson
Custom, Boston.
Youngblood, D., 2007. ‘Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and bridging disciplines: A matter of

process’, Journal of Research Practice, vol. 3, no. 2, article M18, viewed 1 April 2014,
http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/article/view/104/101
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TOWARDS ENTREPRENEUR ACTIVIST ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE
Hermie E Delport-Voulgarelis, Senior Lecturer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa,
voulgarelish@cput.ac.za
Rudolf Perold, Senior Lecturer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology South Africa,
peroldr@cput.ac.za
Abstract
This paper explores how design education and practice can address informality and poverty. Student projects at
the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) often engage with informality and poverty, both in the studio
and on site as design-build projects. However, in relation to professional values there is still a gap between what
students are exposed to during their training and the opportunities which they have to act upon these values once
they enter the profession.
Since the promulgation of the Architectural Profession Act in 2000, the scope of professional registration in South
Africa has widened. Graduates from CPUT can now enter the architectural profession as independent
practitioners. This has an important implication for architectural education: Universities of Technology (UoT’s)
cannot focus only on providing technicians as employees in architects’ offices; rather National Diploma and
BTech graduates must be equipped with sufficient skills to start and manage their own practices. Due to an acute
awareness of the socio-economic disparities in South African society, as reflected in our own student demography,
the Design-Build Research Studio (DBRS) at CPUT is developing an alternative form of work integrated learning
(WIL) pedagogy which prepares students to enter the profession as entrepreneur-activist architectural
practitioners.
We will present a case study of one such project, focusing on a highly specific developmental problem: the
upgrading of RDP housing through additions and alterations. The project explores professional engagement with
low-cost housing on a one client, one practitioner basis. We conceive this as a hybrid practice: part entrepreneur,
part activist. Such a hybrid practice requires a skill set much wider than what students are traditionally equipped
with: knowing how to supplement extremely limited budgets through subsidies or sponsorships and designing to
allow for a degree of informality while satisfying building regulations; amongst others.
Rudolf Perold and Hermie Delport-Voulgarelis are senior lecturers in the Department of Architectural Technology
at CPUT. They coordinate the Design-Build Research Studio (DBRS), which provides students with learning
opportunities in the real world through the design and construction of architectural interventions. Their work at
the DBRS informs their respective doctoral research at the Hasselt University in Belgium and CPUT.
Keywords: education, design-build, alternative practice, entrepreneur.
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INTRODUCTION
“For we may soon find that we have too many architects skilled at designing museums and mansions and
too few able to work with indigent people and communities in need of basic housing, sanitation, and
security” (Fisher 2008).
This research is undertaken in response to the pedagogy and curriculum of traditional architectural
education; to the current architectural professional milieu in South Africa and to an international ground
roots shift towards more meaningful architectural education and practice (Wu 2007).
Architecture is traditionally taught in the design studio. In the studio, project work is focused primarily
around the design of fictional buildings. Although the projects might imitate real-life scenarios as far as
possible or even be set in response to actual problems or opportunities, students very seldom (if ever) get to
see the actual final product or meet a real client. In solving the design brief, there is a focus on showcasing
individual creativity rather than collaborating with others, and often a lack of engaging with wider
contemporary issues. Projects are often criticized for having little relevance to reality (Buchanan 2012).
Solutions to projects are most often communicated through graphic presentation, since it is obviously
impractical, if not impossible, to build the actual designed buildings of a class full of students. A different
approach to the traditional studio teaching environment, the design-build or live project, has been practiced
increasingly during the past decade in various international and local architectural schools. Live projects are
defined as “a type of design project that is distinct from a typical studio project in its engagement of real
clients or users, in real-time settings. Students are taken out of the studio setting, and repositioned in the
‘real-world’” (Sara 2006, p. 1). Design-build projects are essentially a sub-text of live projects and can be
defined as “hands-on approaches […] in the form of full-scale construction exercises” (Erdman, Weddle, &
Mical 2002).
The live project and design-build teaching approach in part answers the criticism of the traditional studio
and the search for a more meaningful curriculum in current architectural education literature. The
introduction of a predominantly practice based architectural curriculum with the focus on interdisciplinary
and live projects is prevalent in current discussions around architectural education and mention is made
that “the live project is an excellent medium for imparting a sense of ethics and social responsibility and for
exploring legal concerns in practical terms” (Jann 2009, p. 83).
THE PRACTICE FIELD IN SOUTH AFRICA

Since the promulgation of the Architectural Profession Act in 2000, the scope of professional registration in
South Africa has widened. This has necessitated the rethinking of South African architectural education.
Graduates from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) can now enter the architectural
profession with the option of becoming independent practitioners. This has had an important implication
for architectural education: Universities of Technology (UoT’s) cannot focus only on providing technicians as
employees in architects’ offices; rather students with qualifications that lead to professional registration as
Technologists and Senior Technologists must be equipped with sufficient skills to start and manage their
own practices. Architectural education can no longer only focus on providing technicians that will work in
somebody’s office, but should focus on training individuals that can manage their own practice.
Universities of Technology, being born from the former Technikons, have a vocational practice orientated
focus, which distinguish them from traditional Universities. The Universities of Technology to that end
provided very specific “workplace learning” activities for students (Winberg, Engel-Hills, Garaway, & Jacobs
2011, p. 19), which in most instances means learning through working in a commercial architectural practice
for an architect. However, there are other forms of practice that has not been used or explored extensively,
either pedagogically or as workplace learning opportunities.
REDEFINING THE SCOPE OF PRACTICE
Internationally and locally, disparities between the affluent and the poor have become glaring and visible
through open, accessible media and the easy availability information. The scope of this economic and social
disparity, coupled with ever growing environmental problems can is part attributed to “infrastructure design
that treats poor people as less valuable than their wealthier counterparts” (Cary & Public Architecture 2010,
p. vi).
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Design professionals in the built environment, including architects, mostly work for a client from the more
affluent part of society, a client that can afford to pay for professional services. “Unlike law and medicine,
which have developed strong programs to provide access to legal representation and health care for all
members of society, for the most part, architecture is currently structured as a fee-for-service industry”
(Pealer 2008).
The client sets a problem or brief, which the designer resolves and the client receives “in exchange, highly
customized responses to their specific needs” (Fisher cited in Brigham 2009, p. 3) and the professional gets
compensated for the service. In the milieu of clients with little money, design work becomes a luxury item, is
therefore mostly non-existent and as a result leads to environments that simply “happen” without valuable
professional input. The contemporary architect has very much become removed from the larger part of
society, to such an extent that the notion of the architect as “civic champion” has been lost and replaced by
the architect in glossy magazines featuring exclusive design work to a limited audience. (Cary & Public
Architecture 2010, p. xv).
“In architecture, this form of practice has led to the design and construction of many visually powerful and
functionally successful buildings, but it also greatly limits the number and types of people served by the
profession” (Fisher 2008).
There are, however, architectural professionals that have re-defined the manner in which they work, and for
whom they work, specifically addressing informality and poverty in their practice. These professionals are
changing from being predominantly pre-determined problem solvers into a problem identifiers or project
initiators (Cary & Public Architecture 2010, p. xii). This change in work approach asks of the architect to
become an entrepreneur, identifying the project and problem and then finding the funding to pay for both
the professional services and the execution of project. A place has opened, locally and internationally, for
this new kind of professional – one that works on the ground, close to the needs of the broader community
– and in South Africa the structure of the profession allows for Architectural Technologists and Senior
Technologists to define themselves as such independent professionals.
EXAMPLES OF RE-DEFINED PRACTICES
One well known and by now rather big practice focusing on working directly with communities, is
Architecture for Humanity. Founded by Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr in 1999 with two volunteers, a
cellphone and laptop and zero beneficiaries to currently being located in over 20 countries where they are
involved in designing, developing and managing and financing the construction of a variety of projects
(Aaronson & Architecture for Humanity 2012).
The firm Public Architecture, established by John Peterson in 2002 in San Francisco defines themselves as “a
new model for architectural practice. Supported by the generosity of foundation, corporate, and individuals
grants and donations, Public Architecture works outside the economic constraints of conventional
architectural practice, providing a venue where architects can work for the public good.” They aim to
identify and solve “practical problems of human interaction in the built environment and acts as a catalyst
for public discourse through education, advocacy, and the design of public spaces and amenities” (Public
Architecture 2014).
In South Africa, we have the likes of Jhono Bennett and Architecture for a Change. Jhono Bennett
experienced live and design-build project during his architectural education and has since graduation
engaged in community practice work in a variety of different manners. He has co-founded 1:1 Agency of
Engagement, which aims to specifically “create a platform for spatial design academics, community groups
and professionals to critically engage with and develop socio-technical solutions and methodologies in the
developing sector of South Africa” (1:1 Agency of Engagement 2014). His personal aim is to “develop
additional modes of practice for myself, and other spatial designers, to effectively support South Africa's re-
development processes” (Jhono Bennett 2014).
Architecture for a Change is as close as one can get to a hands-on design-build practice that engages in
meaningful work. They have done interesting experimental design-build projects that address alternative
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human settlement strategies, such as the Tower Shack that is both a residence and internet café in Tarlton
Informal Settlement and the Mamelodi Pod, which is a transition housing unit with sustainable ideas
incorporated such as “insulated walls, solar electricity and rain water harvesting” (Architecture for a Change
2014). These three young architects “strive to create change through architecture. We strongly believe in our
product and therefore developed our philosophy of MAD - manufacture, architecture and design” (ibid).
DIFFERENT SKILLS SETS
When students operate in the milieu of alternative practice it is important to understand and remember that
although the live project can instill specific values, it is still an imitation of the real world and not entirely
equal to the real world (Brown 2013).
The experience and development of a set of different values and skills occurring through the live project
process can be attributed to the work of students not being judged “only according to the academic value
systems of the university or the cultural value systems of the educators and practitioners who assess their
work, but also by the value systems of the client and communities who receive it” (ibid.). These different
experiences require careful integration into the curriculum and the “‘recontextualisation’ of both academic
and professional knowledge domains” to allow for “the alignment of workplace and academic interests”
(Winberg et al. 2011, p. 13).
Some of the situations and experiences that students would need to develop values and skills for are
pointed out by Ceridwen Owen (2012) from interviews held with a number or practices working within
alternative practice principles. Practitioners stated that there is a transformed client-architect relationship, in
which clients are primarily driving the design development process and the process therefore becomes
much more collaborative. The contract existing between the client and architect is very different from that
of a standard practice relationship and in the “absence of an economic contract, parties must renegotiate
the basis of the exchange so that it is seen to be mutually beneficial”. The extent of the services must also be
carefully monitored and there are potential “complications in establishing boundaries around the scope of
architectural service”. The architect often does not have a choice in the professional team, who are mostly
made up of professionals ready to be involved in an alternative kind of practice. It is also clear that when the
practitioner plays a pro-active role and define projects and problems, they get to choose their clients as
much as the clients choose them.
Callantha Brigham (2009, p. 30) highlights several practice management challenges that are present in live
community projects which would be essential for students to understand before they get out in the practice
world. Firstly, in order to facilitate engagement with a community, it is incredibly important that a director or
facilitator within the community itself exists. The architect might need to assist in getting such a person
selected. Secondly, very clear limitations about the extent of services should be in place. This can be aided
by creating a very detailed design brief which goes beyond mere functional aspects but that includes
operational and maintenance information. Thirdly, the challenge of maintenance gets special mention since
in a project where “funding has to be secured in order to establish the facility in the first place, there is a
good chance that money for ongoing maintenance will likely be an issue. An architect working on the
project must be cognisant of this (if it is an issue) and design accordingly.” Fourthly, the challenge of
managing risks and liabilities, including for insurance purposes, is pointed out. Fifthly, the budget and
project must be managed more rigorously than for a normal project, since community projects can put
financial strains on a practice.
In the sixth place, the architect or practice engaging in community work has a great responsibility in
ensuring that they have the necessary skills to engage in and complete the specific project, since the
community is reliant on the practitioner in the sense that they do not appoint but rather receive the services.
In the seventh place, these projects often are transferred from one goodwill practitioner to a next and some
professional courtesy is important when taking and handing over the project. In the eighth place, careful
control and protocol for payments and disbursement is needed if the practice does not want to bear
additional costs. In the ninth place, Brigham points out that protocol around the architect’s role in
communications and any liabilities should be clearly established and managed to avoid problems and
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dissatisfaction on both sides. The very specific and unique challenges for educational institutions that
engage in this work, also gets a final, special mention.
Practices that engage in community work do so in a variety of manners. Of course the work cannot be
exclusively pro bono, since a practice would not survive like that. These practices explore delivery methods
and models that make business sense.
Some practitioners “who have engaged in community service also readily admit that the combination of
creative opportunities and goodwill engendered on pro bono projects often lead to greater recognition
both within and outside the profession, which in turn attracts media attention and translates into more paid
work opportunities” (Brigham 2009, p. 5).
Other practitioners combine community work with teaching. Operationally, this could mean taking the
project into the studio, where the educational institution would compensate the practitioner for the
teaching value, the students do an essential part of the work and time is a bit more relaxed than in practice
(Owen 2012). There are also practices that have established a place for project teams dedicated to
community projects. Staff engaging in these projects feel rewarded in terms of experience, which in turn has
positive spin offs in their other work (ibid.).
The variety of community practice modalities reflect the “nature and current state of professional practice”,
which is as important as the underpinning knowledge domain of the architectural discipline to include in
the architectural curriculum, especially at a University of Technology. A responsive WIL curriculum also
considers, amongst other aspects, “philosophies of education, theories of teaching and learning, and
educational research findings; the role and forms of assessment and feedback; the practical, ideological and
policy context of the academic department, institution, and higher education system; and the practical,
ideological and policy context of the profession” (Winberg et al. 2011, p. 14).
DESIGN BUILD RESEARCH STUDIO AT CPUT

The Design-Build Research Studio (DBRS) at CPUT was founded by the authors in 2011. The DBRS researches
alternative architectural education through the introduction of live and design-build projects into the
curriculum. “The spirit of design/build programs can be summarized as vernacular, technically sustainable,
and community-empowered. These qualities together form the soul of a design/build program, making it a
pioneer in sustainable discourse. Such qualities and methods of teaching should play an important role in
the future of architectural practice and education” (Wu 2007, p.9).
The live project also re-introduces the client to students as a real entity, where the client is not a passive
partner in a live project, but an active and engaged participant in the process who has a vested interest and
expects value in the project’s outcome (Brown 2013).
The DBRS is currently engaged in formalising a collaborative, professional projects office, which will focus on
making the practice experience for students and clients a reality. Through introducing students to a different
way of practicing architecture as part of their education, the DBRS hopes to influence future practitioners to
engage in meaningful practice and a new way of generating both project work and income (Design Build
Research Studio 2012). The live project “reintroduces to architectural education’s simulation of professional
practice the contingency of a client” (Brown 2013) and at the DBRS the traditional definition of client is
challenged.
“Design-Build Studios have become an exemplary way to combine teaching, research, practice, and
development cooperation. Although they remain a young and almost unexplored field, a strong demand is
emerging to build up an innovative network that stimulates international and interdisciplinary knowledge-
transfer related to design-build studios, promoting research and cooperation among the participants
involved” (Correia, Carlos, & Rocha 2013, p. 796).
AN ONGOING PROJECT
The DBRS is currently involved in a project that deals with the upgrading of an existing RDP house. This
house is part incremental house, in the sense that it has been added to already a number of years ago. The
client, who is also the owner and occupant of the house, has been saving some money towards the upgrade
of the house. Since the owner could contribute financially to the project it seemed to be the perfect case
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study for DBRS to engage with and to establish ideas around the upgrading of low cost housing and to,
through simple and effective design interventions, set an example for the upgrading of houses in the
immediate and broader community and investigate the manner in which a professional practice could
engage with such a project.
Housing subsidies in South Africa are structured in the form of a lump sum or capital subsidy, which
is allocated to individual households. This subsidy covers the purchase of land, the cost of necessary
planning procedures, infrastructure development as well as the house itself (Huchzermeyer 2006, p.
35). These houses, referred to as RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) houses, are usually
between 36 to 40 square meters in size on sites of 350 square meters or smaller (Campbell 2008, p.
6). Extensions to these freestanding houses are generally in timber and recycled corrugated sheeting,
making it clear that households received financial assistance only in accessing the completed standardised
core dwelling unit. For extensions and improvements, households are left to their own
devices (Huchzermeyer 2001, p. 4).
The Reconstruction and Development Programme was introduced in 1994 to “address the immense socio-
economic disparities brought about by the consequences of apartheid” and although the intention of the
programme was that of reform and redress the legacy it has left in the housing provided has not been overly
successful. The housing has been critised as being “cheap, dreary and ugly, resembling the bleak building
programmes of the apartheid state Madiba fought his whole life to bring down” (Lokko 2008).
The upgrading project that the DBRS is involved with initially involved only the replacing of the current
roof. After careful consideration, simple interventions made it possible to create both a small loft space
within the roof area and a small additional bathroom that could be rented out for extra income upon
completion. There are many owners of RDP houses that have some finances available which can be
used towards the upgrading their existing house. If they could utilize these funds with proper design input,
they could benefit from a design that might serve a broader purpose than simply replacing or fixing of the
existing structure. We believe that there exists substantial opportunities for architectural practitioners
to become involved in this under-explored area of the housing market.
CONCLUSION
We simply cannot say it better than Thomas Fischer: “the challenge lies in creating a pipeline for our
graduates who want to make this their career. There are still too few internship opportunities and no clear
route for those who want to do this work for a living. I do think we can solve this problem – in part because
the demand for this work remains enormous – but we still need to figure out the educational requirements,
the career path, and the financial support for public interest designers. Although, as long as we stay focused
on the work that the world needs us to do, I do believe that the rest will eventually fall into place” (Riddle
2013).
The opportunity exists to make a profound contribution to architectural education, practice and social
sustainability in South Africa. By identifying and implementing projects that introduce students to a new
and different aspect of practice, the doors are opened to wide possibilities. We need to research and practice
alternative strategies to support and facilitate the improvement of the living environment for the non-
traditional client in South Africa by stepping out of our traditional practice modality.
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REFERENCES
1:1 Agency of Engagement, n.d.. 1:1 Agency of engagement, viewed 2 April 2014
http://www.1to1.org.za/p/home.html
Aaronson, D & Architecture for Humanity (Eds.), 2012. Design like you give a damn Abrams, New York.
Brigham, C., 2009. 'Enabling good deeds in design 1!: How can architects provide community service as part
of their practice!?' NSW Architects Registration Board, Sydney.
Brown, JB. (2013). '“An output of value” ‐ exploring the role of the live project as a pedagogical , social and
cultural bureau de change', AAE Conference.
Buchanan, P., 2012. 'The big rethink Part 9: Rethinking architectural education', The Architectural Review,
http://www.architectural-review.com/academia/the-big-rethink-part-9-rethinking-architectural-
education/8636035.article?sm=8636035.
Campbell, M., 2008. 'The peoples housing process: a viable option for quality low cost housing? A case of
Amathole District Municipality', Proceedings of conference held in Cape Town, Southern African Housing
Foundation, Cape Town.
Cary, J & Public Architecture (eds.), 2010. The power of pro bono, Metropolis Books, New York.
Correia, M, Carlos, G, & Rocha, S., (eds.) 2013. Vernacular heritage and earthen architecture, CRC Press, Leiden.
Design Build Research Studio, 2012. viewed 3 April 2014,

https://www.facebook.com/DesignBuildResearchStudio.
Erdman, J, Weddle, R & Mical, T., 2002. 'Designing/building/learning', Journal of Architectural Education, Vol.
55, no. 3, pp. 174–179.
Fisher, T., 2008. 'Public interest architecture: A needed and inevitable change', Berkeley Prize, viewed 2 April
2014, http://www.berkeleyprize.org/endowment/essays-and-articles-on-the-social-art-of-architecture/tom-
fisher-essay
Huchzermeyer, M., 2001. 'Housing subsidies and urban segregation: a reflection on the case of South Africa',
Proceedings of conference held in Cambridge (MA), Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, viewed 9 September
2008, http://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/dl/602_huchzer-meyer.pdf
Huchzermeyer, M., 2006. 'Challenges facing people-driven development in the context of a strong, delivery-
orientated state: Joe Slovo Village, Port Elizabeth', Urban Forum, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 25-53.
Jann, M., 2009. 'Revamping architectural education: Ethics, social service, and innovation', International
Journal of Arts and Sciences, vol. 3, no. 8, pp. 45–89.
Lokko, L., 2008. 'Mandela’s built legacy and a new dawn for african architecture', The Architectural Review, pp.
170–181.
Owen, C., 2012. 'Pro Bono Publico', Architecture Australia, vol. 101, no. 3,
.http://architectureau.com/articles/the-service-of-architecture-for-the-public-good-can-be-a-gift-without-
expectation-of-reward/
Pealer, C., 2008. 'Professionalizing pro bono practice', Architectural Record,

http://archrecord.construction.com/practice/clients/0810probono-1.asp
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Riddle, M., 2013. 'Metropolis Q&A with Thomas Fisher on PID Week', viewed 2 April 2014,
http://www.publicinterestdesign.org/tag/thomas-fisher/
Sara, R., 2006. 'Live project good practice!: A guide for live Projects: Defining the territory', CEBE Briefing
Guide Series, no. 8, pp. 1–7.
Winberg, C, Engel-Hills, P, Garaway, J & Jacobs, C., 2011. Work-integrated learning!: Good practice guide,
Presented at the Workshop on work-integrated learning for public institutions on 24 February 2012 at the
Murisi Auditorium, CHE, Pretoria.
Wu, S., 2007. 'A new trend of architectural practice and education community-based design / build
programs', http://www.mcgill.ca/files/mchg/wu_isd_essay.pdf
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PART 9 : SOUTH AFRICAN PLANNING INSTITUTE (SAPI)

SAPi (http://www.sapi.org.za) has over 1700 members and is overseeing the growth of the urban and
regional planning professions in South Africa. SAPi aims to engage the built environment professions
on collaborative and multi-disciplinary approaches to place making, project cross-overs and the
possible professional integration towards the creation of great places.
yusuf Patel studied Financial Economics at the university of london, Development Planning and
Quantity Surveying at WiTS. He is a professional planner and a development specialist. He has a wide
range of experience including integrated Development Planning, infrastructure investment, Affordable
Housing and Community Development. He is Executive Director at Basil read and President of SAPi.
GO TO CONTENTS PAGE
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UIA2014 DURBAN Architecture OTHERWHERE SOUTH AFRICAN PLANNING INSTITUTE
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CAMPUS AS A SPATIAL ENVELOPE FOR TERTIARY EDUCATION: ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES OF
‘WORLD CLASS’ UNIVERSITIES
Maksim Puchkov, architect, PhD, pro-rector for research, Ural state academy of architecture and arts,
Ekaterinburg, Russia, puchkov@usaaa.ru
Abstract
This paper is devoted to the general requirements of spatial conditions for modern ‘tertiary education’ (tertiary
education in terms of UNESCO: as professional university and postgraduate training). This research investigates
the qualities and strategies of a comfortable spatial environment for the successful research / educational
complexes in modern communities. A modern university is the place for the forming of mentality (knowledge,
innovations, competences), and a meeting place. The best universities become the catalysts for the development
of regions, but new educational technologies demand new spaces.
Through an analysis of university campuses (from the top global campus lists) we form the characteristics of the
comfort architectural environment and urban strategy for the university space, which would be useful for research
and educational activities.
The contemporary university campus is a ‘cluster’, it can be organized in several types: distributed in the city fabric,
local cluster and greenfield campus (outside the city).
We can mark some principles for the successful modern campus:
1. Code and identity: the common values of the university must be implanted into the space forms.
2. Autonomy and resilience: it needs resources for development and independent management.
3. High qualities of the architectural environment: the spatial forms of the university must be attractive for
the best staff and students.
4. Ecological stability as integration in natural landscapes and climate.
5. System of local transport and engineering infrastructure.
6. Safety and social comfort as university traditions: architectural forms integrate university values in local
space.
7. Primary objects of the modern university campus are research/educational centers. It is a mixed-use
building, which unites research and teaching spaces for different spheres of knowledge in one spatial
shell.
The conclusions of the paper were used as a basis for the project for a new campus at Ural Federal university in
Ekaterinburg (Russia, the Europe-Asia border), which will be constructed by 2020.
Keywords: campus, architectural environment, sustainable development, world-class university.
INTRODUCTION
The distinctive feature of the world’s top universities is their global scope of activities and influence owing to
international educational programs and leadership in scientific research. These universities have successfully
integrated research and education, ensuring their orientation to practice and competitive advantages in
education.
According to recent studies carried out by the World Bank (Salmi 2009, p. 12), universities and scientific
research institutions are becoming the main driver of scientific and technical advancement and a basis of
regional capitalization. Across the world, tertiary, i.e. higher vocational education, is recognized as the most
promising sector of the modern-day economy (since 1963, the World Bank actively participates in the
development of educational systems of developing countries and countries with a transit economy).
These new developments in education, according to UNESCO, are characterized by several features. Firstly,
the education space has become global. Universities participate in the global economy, which means
greater responsibility and the need to create a uniform space for interactions between representatives of
different cultures on an urban planning scale. Secondly, the most important part of tertiary education is the
academic environment. It should correspond to world class standards. The term ‘world-class universities’ is
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used today to mean research and education institutions which are well-known in the world (appear in
principal university rankings).
The academic environment includes not only the virtual world of the intellectual elite, i.e. the faculty, but
also its architectural embodiment in the form of premises for research and study, public spaces and
comfortable accommodation. A world-class university is impossible without an environment that ensures
interactions between top quality professionals, and such an environment is impossible without high quality
space and infrastructure (Table 1).
Den
Place Surface, ha Total Density
Type of sity:
Name of Type of constru- of
universit Me
campus structure cted surface
y n/h
rese surface
Countr use a
City rve
y d
d
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Cambridg Harvard Research City - 238. 1 245 00

USA 32 300 1.5
e University private local 9 0
Massachusetts
Cambridg Institute of Research City - 1 013
USA 68 14,9 300 1,5
e Technology - private local 000
MIT
University of Research Suburba 220
USA Berkeley 500 111 - 1,3
California State n - local 0
Great University of Research City -
Oxford - - 95 - 1,6
Britain Oxford Private local
City -
University Paris- Research 140
France Paris disturbe ≈27 - 253 190 0,9
Sorbonne-V State 0
d
Tsinghua Research City - 1 980 00
China Beijing 392 15 123 0,5
University State local 0
Guangzho Research City - 169. ≈50 1 004 40
China Jinan University - 0,6
u State local 5 0 0
Moscow state Research City - 205, 1 000 00
Russia Moscow 120 322 0,5
university State local 7 0
Table 1. Indicators of some of the world-class universities and characteristics of their campuses.
One of the important features distinguishing world-class universities from others is its particular spatial plan,
environment, and unique architectural appearance. The university campus as a typological planning unit
and a form of physical and spatial existence has arisen relatively recently. Campus is a cluster-type complex
that can include teaching and learning, research, pilot production, recreational and residential facilities and
spaces in a single separate territory.
SPATIAL MODELS OF CAMPUS

Generally, all university complexes as sets of educational facilities can be divided into three basic types:
distributed urban complexes, local urban complexes of integrated or «campus» type, and country (or
suburban) university campuses.
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Type 1: distributed urban complex. This is, basically, a set of university facilities dispersed or scattered
around the city environment. It is effective and works well only where the city environment contains cultural
and social objects of great value, such as New York University in Greenwich Village, New York.
Type 2: local university complex. It is a campus of high density in a city context. The isolation of an area of
this kind creates problems in relation to development, new construction, safety (the campus requires
modern access control and surveillance systems), social comfort and location of laboratory facilities which
require special zoning.
Type 3: country (suburban) university campus. It is normally located outside the dense urban fabric and is
characterized by several distinctive features, such as a clearly delineated and protected territory, an
emphasized public entrance to the campus, privacy, and high quality landscaping.
We can identify criteria and factors which distinguish the spatial arrangement and architectural plan of
successful university complexes, although later developments may render their typology more diffuse.
In terms of scale and size (number of students), there are several types of university campus:
Microcampus in a city environment, concentration of all facilities in one project (Bocconi’s University,
School of Design in Copenhagen. A mono-block campus (the Skolkovo Business School as an example,
Figure 1).
Figure 1. Skolkovo Business School, Moscow, Russia (photo by the author).
Minicampus – this type is characteristic of classical universities, new universities (up to 2000-5000 students),
where ‘college’ planning concepts are used, or some other dense spatial grid as a basis for architectural and
planning solutions (Campus and the city 2009).
Micro- and mini-campuses are characterized by high building density and presence of one main space as a
‘communicator’ and place of social interactions.
Classical campus – with a system of malls and colleges, the Oxford’s university is being a characteristic
example. A college presents a historical spatial scheme, the center of the composition being a cloister, a
tetragonal open space, or quadrangle, typically a square or rectangular shape with functional spaces around
it (Figure 2). A mall is an inner pedestrian space; playing the role of a signifier space.
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Figure 2. Merton College, Oxford, UK (www.wikipedia.org).
Macrocampus is a complex of high building density and/or complex structure, usually lending itself to
reconstruction. Over time, classical universities would end up having such a structure after extensive
changes in their program.
Megacampus. This type consists of several universities (from 2 to 10) with a common social, utilities and
transport infrastructures (Guangzhou) – up to 250,000 students (the biggest university today). The basic
architectural and planning principles of mega-campuses can be described as follows:
- a fractal structure (each element of the megacampus is relatively independent, repeating the
general structure of the mega-model),
- common infrastructure (transport, social, utilities),
- spatial and stylistic diversity.
Megacampuses can be linear, unfolding along a spatial communication and composition axis (UrFU Figure
3); it can be a university with a city facade.
Figure 3. Ural Federal University. Master plan schematic, Ekaterinburg, Russia (sketch by the author).
Megacampuses, being multi-zonal and shaping the city environment, are characterized by large territories
and spaces which form separate cities; these have room for expansion and are filled in freely and
independently from each other (the Megacampus of Guangzhou. Figure 4; Skolkovo, Figure 5).
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Figure 4. Mega campus GZUC, Guangzhou, China (Source: www.gzhu.edu.cn).
Figure 5. Skolkovo, Moscow, Russia (Source: www.membrana.ru).
CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES
The features of a contemporary campus and criteria that need to be met to ensure its sustainable
development can be formulated as follows:
1. Availability of a strong idea and vision in relation to development. The concept includes university’s
charter and identity as its supreme symbolic values. This vision attracts students and faculty, the main
attraction being courses rather than buildings. The space is transformed and changed to accommodate this
concept, and is integrated into the architecture and landscape.
2. Autonomy and self-administration, implying the availability of a separate territory (in which the university
facilities are located) and availability of reserve territories for development (which in many cases are
considerably larger in area than the principal territory).
3. The architectural and spatial environment of the campus meets heightened requirements for quality of
life and study; it is capable of attracting top professionals and international students, with predominantly
pedestrian access to all teaching/learning, social and residential facilities. Inner public spaces are also
essential, as well as a public zone for visitors, forming a public entrance space communicating with the city.
4. Integration into the natural landscape – green campus. The campus landscape typically includes parks,
forests, and lakes. Green campus is one of the most promising concepts maintained by many well-known
universities. It uses eco-buildings, zero heat waste buildings, and a lot of landscaping. Green areas are used
for recreation and are, at the same time, reserves for further development.
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5. Modern utilities and transport. The campus should be readily accessible from the city center and from
other places (the airport and railway station); it should also have its own internal transport and, where
possible, autonomous utilities.
6. Successful university campuses are characterized by low population density, on average, no more than 80
people per 1 hectare, and low building density with 3-4 levels for laboratories and teaching buildings, and 4-
5 stories for residential units (where free space is available). Low rise buildings and human scale are
considered essential for creating a comfortable architectural environment (Figure 2).
7. Security (both technical and social) is a special issue for a university campus, as well as social comfort.
Technically, access to each campus should be controlled, and socially it is important to ensure tolerance in
relationships between students and between faculty and students.
The type of city and its welfare characteristics are very important for the campus; equally, the brand,
reputation and characteristics of the university as a cultural and educational center are important for the
image of the city, therefore the campus cannot be completely isolated from interaction with the city space.
In successful universities, its environment and the entrance part of the campus are, at the same time, a
public city space where both students and faculty and city residents can participate in social interactions.
The plans of next-generation university complexes reflect the diversity of functional and spatial schemes
created (depending on local planning and landscaping situation) based on manipulation of technological
units of the campus.
The research and education center is a new typological unit of the university complex that is different from
the classical university teaching building of the previous century A research and education center is, first of
all, a multi-functional building including various premises which, combined under one roof, provide a
synergy effect (Kliment 2010).
The basic components of a next-generation research and education center, or functional groups of spaces,
are as follows:
1. Teaching and learning spaces, which allow for the specifics of the teaching and learning processes and
technologies.
2. Spaces for research. Typically, these spaces can be divided into:
- laboratories (from 3 to 20 persons);
- experimental production premises;
- workshop, seminar and meeting rooms (from 5 to 20 persons);
- offices of researchers, research leaders, doctoral students, and common rooms for formal and informal
events.
3. Research support and administration. This functional group can include the following:
- events halls (for example, a hall for presentation of dissertations – 100 persons),
- information centers for distance learning and teaching, local libraries and storage spaces.
3. Administrative premises. These are executive offices, units, meeting rooms, premises for staff ensuring the
operation and maintenance of the buildings. A special group is represented by catering (restaurants, bars,
canteens, and cafes with their auxiliary premises), and conference facilities (from 500 persons up). These
premises can be made transformable.
In addition to these basic functional units, the research and education center should have lobbies,
communication and recreation spaces such as covered courtyards, internal gardens; successful, effective and
architecturally impressive research and education centers should necessarily have some kind of recreation
and communication space which acts as a consolidating center (Figure 6).
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Figure 6. Ørestad College, Copenhagen, Denmark (Source: www.membrana.ru ).
THE CAMPUS OF THE URAL FEDERAL UNIVERSITY
Ekaterinburg was chosen as the seat of the Ural Federal University (UrFU), a regional center and fifth city in
Russia in population terms.
The site for the new campus of the Ural Federal University was chosen based on a review of various
alternatives.
The review of two most suitable sites (named ‘Shartash’ and ‘Akademichesky’) has provided the following
conclusions (Figure 7):
- in terms of access and transport, the Shartash site is much more attractive, as it is 7 km
closer to the center and to the existing campus of UrFU, and 11 km closer to the airport
than Akademichesky; the location of a technopark on this site is more effective because of
access and distance to the airport (Figure 7);
- According to the concept of sustainable development, the university should follow the
campus model, be integrated into the natural environment and have connections with the
city. With regard to this parameter, both sites seem to be interesting but they imply
different models – for Shartash it would be development along the latitudinal axis between
two lakes towards the Ekaterinburg Ring Road.
The spatial structure of the new campus for UrFU was further refined and its structure is now based on 10
core research and education centers devoted to principal breakthrough technologies (from Internet
technologies to biochemical and metallurgical technologies), with separately arranged technopark areas,
residential and public facilities (UrFU Concept and Program 2009). The project should be realized by 2020
(Figure 8).
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Figure 7. Territorial location of the new campus of UrFU (in collaboration with IOSIS Group, Paris , France, 2010),
Ekaterinburg, Russia (photo by the author).
Figure 8. UrFU campus. General view of the technopark’s zone (sketch by the author).
CONCLUSION
Contemporary universities demonstrate a considerable variety of strategies that may be used for creating
space for a world-class university, which we can take advantage of depending on the planning context and
educational specifics. One of the main planning ideas underlying the modern university campus is a single
architectural spatial environment with educational, social and residential facilities which are as open and
dynamic as possible. At a campus, public and social space is always more important than personal space,
provoking growth of the university’s social capital.
Today, correlation between good quality space for teaching and learning and research is direct; rational
arrangement of the university in relation to the city environment, availability of spatial resources and
utilities, high quality emblematic architecture for new educational and research institutions is not just one of
the strategies but the only way to create a high quality competitive academic environment.
REFERENCES
Hoeger, K & Christiaanse, K., (eds) 2009. Campus and the city, Urban design for the knowledge society, gta
Verlag, Zurich.
Kliment, SA., 2010. Building type basics for College and University facilities, Wiley, New York.
Moscow School of Economics, 2009. Concept and program for the development of Ural Federal university (in
Russian), SKOLKOVO, Moscow.
Salmi, J., 2009. Sozdaniye universitetov mirovogo klassa (The creation of world class universities, in Russian), Ves
mir eds., Moscow.
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POSSIBLE FUTURES FOR THE AFRICAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT TOWARDS 2050
Dr. Gillian Adendorff, Department of Construction Management, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University,
PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa, gillian@adarchi.co.za
Prof. John Julian Smallwood, Department of Construction Management, Faculty of Engineering, the Built
Environment, and Information Technology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, PO Box 77000, Port
Elizabeth 6031, South Africa, john.smallwood@nmmu.ac.za
Prof. Chris Adendorff, NMMU Business School, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, PO Box 77000, Port
Elizabeth 6031, South Africa, cadendorff@nmmu.ac.za
Abstract
Africa’s built environment has been a subject of focus at the top of every local, regional and national planning
and political agenda. There are important questions to ask as to where these future properties will be built, who
will construct them, what will they be like and whether the built environment will meet the needs of future
generations towards 2050. The question of Africa’s existing built environment stock and its capacity to meet
future needs, poses a major key issue toward 2050.
In Africa, countries are continuously exposed to the fast changing external environment of the 21st century.
Political leaders and decision makers are faced with daunting challenges associated with rapidly fluctuating
regulatory and legal changes, macro-economic trends and risks, socio-political transformation, globalisation,
technological innovation, increasing competition, environmental concerns as well as pressures and expectations
for building community support . It is therefore important for African countries to position themselves in the
rapidly changing, complex, and global environment. Africa, striving in the midst of a changing global
environment, requires the application of built environment based planning, and if possible, change navigation in
some form or other.
The environmental scanning approach firstly entailed the affirmation of what is already known and knowable
with respect to what prevails at the intersections of Africa and its built environment development, and then the
exploration of the many ways in which environmental scanning and built environment development could co-
involve, synergise, and inhibit each other in the future. Then to examine what possible paths may be implicated
for Africa’s poor, and vulnerable built environment. Environmental scanning is a methodology designed to help
researchers, nations, and organisations alike through this creative process. This paper identifies drivers of change,
and then combines these drivers in different ways to create a set of possibilities in terms of how the future built
environment of Africa could evolve.
Keywords: driving forces, built environment, society, government policy, strategy.
INTRODUCTION
During 2013, the built environment was the focus of every local, regional, and national planning and
political agenda, and frequently featured in the media. There are important questions to ask as to where
these future properties will be built, who will construct them, what form they will take and whether the built
environment will meet the needs of future generations towards 2050 (Worthington 2004, p. 2, UNDP, 2011).
The question of the existing built environment stock and its capacity to meet future needs poses a major key
issue toward 2050 (UNDP 2011, Worldwork 2011, p. 28). The world has only recently realised the pressures
the planet is subject to, however the focus on green issues is now deeply embedded in humankind’s
collective psyche (Silke 2011, p. 54).
As population pressures increase in the medium term, built environment professionals will feel the
environmental pressure in everything from cradle to the grave (UNDP 2011, p. 90). As most of the world’s
population is now living in urban areas, it is in these areas that the main economic, social, and
environmental processes that affect human societies take place. Urbanisation is now commonly regarded as
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one of the most important social processes, also having an enormous impact on the environment at local,
regional, and global levels (The World Bank 2011, p. 28). In general, it is recognised that in order to respond
to the concept of sustainability, urban areas have to maintain an internal equilibrium between economic
activity, population growth, infrastructure and service, pollution, waste, and noise in such a way that the
urban system and its dynamics evolve in harmony, internally limiting, as much as possible impacts on the
natural environment (Barredo, Demicheli, Lavalle, Kasanko and McCormick 2004, p. 111).
Urban sprawl reveals that information and existing tools for urban policy are insufficient in providing an
adequate understanding of urban systems. Questions regarding the sustainability of large regions
surrounding the metropolitan areas are sometimes posed in global terms. How we anticipate, recognise,
measure, and interpret urban problems and how we respond to them will determine the overall
sustainability of the urban system (Barredo et al. 2004, p. 111). As half the world’s population now live in
cities and the number of urban dwellers is constantly growing, undeniably, the 21st century is being
recognised as the ‘century of cities’ (Krawczyk and Ratcliffe 2010, p. 7). Cities in the modern world are the
subject of focus; a world that is shaped by rapid technological developments, expanding globalisation,
profound cultural shifts, and new economic trends. In this very complex and well-connected world, cities
function as the nucleus of human activity, frontiers of progress and engines of economic growth (UNDP
2011, p. 3).
Cities are seen as a key factor that will shape the future of the world (UN 2011, Krawczyk et al. 2010, Silke
2011, p. 102). There is, therefore, an on-going endeavour to ensure their prosperous and sustainable
development, alongside the provision of good living conditions for all their inhabitants (UNDP 2011, p. 98).
Land-use development increases complexity even further and makes it even more difficult for urban
planners and policy makers to understand the internal and external interdependencies of such urban
systems (Krawczyk et al. 2010, p. 279). Contemporary cities struggle with a whole range of problems that are
predominantly the result of an inability to deal effectively with the consequences of recent trends and
events (Worldwork 2011, p. 35). The main problematic areas include economic growth, urban finance, social
development, environmental quality, and governance. Continuous structural changes in manufacturing and
built environment services sectors combined with global competition put major strains on the economies of
countries and cities (Krawczyk et al. 2010, p. 223). Many urban regions also struggle with high sectorial
unemployment and lack of financial resources for the development of necessary infrastructure and for
tackling social and environmental difficulties. The lack of sufficient financial resources is usually a result of a
combination of a weak economy and inappropriate management of existing built environment resources
(Silke 2011, p. 120). Lack of sufficient funds is an important limitation for the development of necessary
infrastructure, such as transport and communication facilities, environmental protection services, the
general built environment and social amenities (Krawczyk et al.2010, p. 71).
The economic, social, and environmental problems characteristics for cities are difficult challenges for their
built environment leaders and administrators, be they at local, regional or national level. On one side, the
demands placed on cities and their governments are increasing; on the other, many urban regions are faced
by the failure of local democracy, citizens’ apathy and conflicting political interests (Krawczyk et al. 2010, p.
40). Present urban management approaches and mechanisms often fail to deal effectively with these
challenges (Ratcliff 2001, Krawczyk et al. 2010, UN 2011, p. 56). It is increasingly becoming apparent that new
approaches and mechanisms are needed to address these built environment problems in a more effective
and comprehensive manner (UNDP 2011, p. 111).
Most of Africa’s built environment difficulties are the result of an inability to cope effectively with the
consequences of both global and local change and the extreme complexity of urban and regional systems
(Worldwork 2010, p. 23). It is ever more being recognised that urban planners, architects, built environment
specialists and policy-makers lack an effective future-orientated approach that would enable them to
anticipate future transformations; efficiently prepare for ensuing consequences and address the inherent
complexity (Ratcliffe, Krawczyk and Kelly 2006, p. 349). There is a growing need for planners and decision-
makers to become ‘visionary’ in: building environment, community support and creating alliances; taking a
long-term view and cultivating best practices; embracing both diversity and authenticity; committing to
social equity and community pride; and in planning for liveability and advocating sustainability on land-use
development (UNDP 2011, p. 29).
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Above-mentioned challenges can be addressed by adopting and further developing approaches and
methods from the Futures Studies field developed over the past five decades. The Futures Studies field has
generated an extensive body of knowledge on trends and forces creating the future (Roux 2010, p. 67).
Future Studies embraces a whole range of methods and techniques that enable the exploration of what lies
ahead in a systematic, rigorous, and holistic way. However, even more so, Futures Studies offers a different
way of thinking and acting about the future (Krawczyk 2006, p. 358). This article will be undertaken in order
to address the existing need for an effective future orientated approach in land use development, city
planning as well, as how future thinking and methodologies can be used to fulfil Africa’s built environment
needs. Thinking about the future has been present in human history virtually from its beginning. What is
important today, for all areas of life, is a growing realisation that recognition that the future is not
predetermined and human actions can influence its course (Ratcliffe 2002a, p. 29).
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The primary objective of the research was to investigate the drivers of change affecting Africa’s built
environment over the next forty years. The secondary objective of this paper will be to not only offer what is
already known and knowable about what is happening right now at the intersections of Africa and its built
environment development, but also to explain the many ways in which environmental scanning and
development could co-involve – both push and inhibit each other – in the future. Then to begin to examine
what possible paths may imply for Africa’s poor and vulnerable population with regards to built
environment demands. Furthermore, this article will attempt to indicate how different approaches to, or
solutions provided will lead to different outcomes. This research will not attempt to predict the future, but
rather to illustrate the plausible futures, taking into account the prevailing and future forces and factors,
both external and internal, that will impact on Africa’s built environment. Future research indicates that too
many forces work against the possibility of obtaining the right forecast (Caldwell 2010, Hartmann 2009,
Herbst and Mills 2006, p. 287).
The future is never stable, but merely a moving target (Roux 2010, p. 576). No single ‘right’ projection can
therefore be deduced from past behaviour. The different maps of the future should be represented by
telling alternate stories that can illustrate the possible solutions in dealing with the current and future
challenges for a better future (Siwale 2007, Adendorff 2011, p. 97). Through this action, the practical
implications, implicit world views, ethics and the idea of built environment progress are analysed. The
application of futures techniques will be informed by the context of Africa. A ‘surprise free’ prognosis of the
future for Africa’s built environment was investigated, coupled with an ‘ideal realisable future’ as determined
in terms of the concept of progress in the Africa context. The aim of the research was to provide practical
inputs for government officials, academics, public policy makers, and built environment specialists, as well as
land-use development governance practitioners who are involved with the development of current and
future government strategic policies thereby ensuring plausible, good governed built environment
frameworks Futures (Bell 2003, Roux 2010, p. 7).
DRIVERS FOR CHANGE AFFECTING AFRICA’S BUILT ENVIRONMENT
A definition of a driver is the transformation in an environment brought on by any natural or human-

induced factor that directly or indirectly causes a change. A direct driver therefore indisputably influences
specific processes and an indirect driver operates more diffusely by altering one or more direct drivers
(Nelson et al. 2006, p. 89). Driving forces can be viewed as uncertain, as they are influenced by the rapidity of
change. This makes it harder to anticipate the future (Kasperson, Kasperson and Turner 1995). This
uncertainty is not only influenced by the rapidity of change, but also the new ways and values of looking at
change (and the inherent conflicts of these new values and the existing and familiar ones) and of course, the
driving forces of change (Bassanini and Scarpetta 2001). Researchers and decision makers will need to
understand paradigm shifts and driving forces in order to combat this uncertainty (Caldwell 2010, p. 233).
Driving forces are adequately strong, which enables a direct course of expansion of the society and changes
in the environment (Bassanini and Scarpetta 2001, Nelson et al. 2006, p. 25). Driving forces set the
preliminary course for development, and their impacts are powerful enough to change the course of
progress. Their effects can be short and sharp, or long lasting (Caldwell 2010, Nelson et al. 2006, p. 453).
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Driving forces function at various levels of intensity and scale, reverse direction, appear, or disappear as the
case may be (Kasperson and Turner 1995, p. 105). The development of any scenarios is based on the
identification and articulation of the driving forces. Driving forces therefore are elements that can cause
change to occur and their unfolding and interaction is responsible for the trends envisaged in each scenario
(Hartmann 2009, Nelson et al. 2006). However, it is more important to understand the fundamental "forces"
that drive trends in whichever direction, so researchers and decision makers will have a framework in which
to relate to the more detailed trends (Caldwell 2010, p. 26).
Demographic drivers
Most people generally recognize the role that demographic trends play in shaping societies, mature
economies, emerging markets and the environment (Shediac, Moujaes and Najjar 2011, p. 506). According
to O’Brien et al. (2009), one of the more prominent goals for the 21st century will be to achieve balanced and
sustainable population levels. Africa’s demographic landscape, which in large part remains predominantly
rural, has been experiencing a considerable transformation in the way its population is distributed and
concentrated (Kulindwa, Kameri-Mbote, Mohamed-Katerere, Chenje and Sebukeera 2012, p. 5). Sub-Saharan
Africa’s population in 2011 was estimated at 856m. By 2050 it could be almost three times Europe’s and by
2100 might even be three-quarters of the size of Asia (The Economist Online 2011, p. 28). By any measure,
Africa is by far the fastest-growing continent, however population growth has been increasing at an
alarming rate globally, argued to reach the 10 billion mark by 2050 (O’Brien, Brodowcz and Ratcliffe 2009, p.
289). African population in particular has continued to grow at a very high pace during the last decade.
Whereas population growth in Southern Africa has plummeted and is expected to remain just above zero in
the coming decades, this is mostly due to the toll of HIV/AIDS in that sub region (Engelman 2011, p. 95).
Growth rates in other sub regions are only slowly decreasing and are projected to remain above 1.5 per cent
annually to 2040 (UN 2008, p. 150). As growing population increases the demand for fossil fuels and
increases stresses on other resources, intensifying demand for food, water, housing, schools, hospitals arable
land and other essential materials. Due to the fact that Africa remains largely rural, this increase in
population causes a proliferation in rural activities such as farming and encroachment into forest and
woodlands. Small farmers are forced to work harder, often on shrinking farms on marginal land, to maintain
household incomes (WCED 1987, p. 193).
Managing demographic growth poses important policy challenges. By 2050, Africa will have more than 1
billion working age people. If governments set a target unemployment rate of 5 percent and counts on a 67
percent labour participation rate that means the country needs to create about 7 million jobs per year. To
pull that off, the governments would probably have to boost economic competitiveness by supporting key
sectors and promoting increased labour productivity through innovation (Shediac et al. 2011, p.
7). Paradoxically, despite the major challenges posed by rapid urbanisation, Africa’s cities may be too small.
It is believed that to be competitive globally in manufacturing and services, Africa will need cities in 2050
that are much larger than those of today. This is because big cities generate powerful economies of scale
(Dobbs, Smit, Remes, Manyika, Roxburgh and Restrepo 2011, p. 60). One rule of thumb is that each time the
size of a city doubles, the productivity of the activities within it increases by around 4-8 percent and a firm
operating in a city of 10 million people has unit costs around 40 percent lower than if it operated in a city of
only 100,000 (AFDB 2011, p. 35). Literature indicates that Africa’s urbanisation varies greatly from country to
country. Countries like Barundi, Rwanda, Malawi, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso are still overwhelmingly rural,
whereas in Djibouti and Gabon more than 80 per cent of the country’s population lives in urban areas.
Nigreria, the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa, has seen the proportion of people living in urban
areas grow from 44 to 52 per cent in 10 years (Samuel and Atinmo 2008, p. 56). Despite urbanisation in the
region being unbalanced, researchers argue that African urbanization in particular has the highest rate in
the world. Studies on African urbanisation put this rate at around 3.5 per cent per year, and the percentage
of urbanised population at 53.5 per cent by 2030 (UN-HABITAT 2007, UNICEF 2005, UNDP 2005, p. 30). The
rate of this increase becomes evident when the percentage of urbanised population in 2030 is compared to
2005, when this percentage was only 39 per cent (UNCHS 2001, WRI 2005, p. 11).
Economic drivers
There is something decidedly different and new about the economic landscape of sub-Saharan Africa. After
stagnating for much of 45 years, economic performance in Africa is markedly improving. In recent years, for
example, growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in Africa is accelerating to its strongest point at about 6
percent a year, while inflation registered below the two-digit level, its lowest point (Arbache, Delfin and
Page 2008, p. 13). An upward shift in the recent African growth rates suggests that a trend break may have
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taken place around the mid-1990s (Mbeki 2011, p. 8). Annual GDP growth in Africa was a sluggish 2.9
percent in the 1980s and 1.7 percent during 1990–94. Since 1994, however, the pace of economic expansion
in Arica has approached the threshold of moderate growth of 5 percent a year. Even if the record is
measured more conservatively with regard to per capita income, the shift is perceptible: relative to its
prolonged stagnation or contraction, per capita income grew by 1.6 percent a year in the late 1990s and by
2.1 percent to 3.0 percent per year since 2000 (Arbache et al. 2008, p. 14). Despite the recent oil price shock,
growth has remained good. From 2004 to 2006, the annual growth in GDP and per capita income, when
weighted by each country’ GDP, approaches 6 and 4 percent, respectively. Although improvement in
aggregate output does not necessarily indicate broad economic development of the region, the current
growth episode has nonetheless lasted 12 years altogether, a period that is neither trivial nor brief. Average
incomes in Africa have been rising in tandem with those in other regions. The top performers in Africa are
doing very well compared with fast-growing countries in other regions (Go and Page 2008, p. 57). If recent
trends continue, Africa will play an increasingly important role in the global economy. By 2040, Africa will be
home to one in five of the planet’s young people and will have the world’s largest working-age population
(Rand Merchant Bank 2011, p. 9).
Global executives and investors cannot afford to ignore the African continent’s immense potential, as a
strategy for Africa must be part of their long-term planning. Today the rate of return on foreign investment
in Africa is higher than in any other developing region (World Bank 2012, p. 456). Early entry into African
economies provides opportunities to create markets, establish brands, shape industry preference, and
establish long-term relationships. Business can therefore help build the Africa of the future (Rand Merchant
Bank 2011, p. 9).
In recent years, Africa has experienced an economic resurgence. The emerging economies, particularly
Brazil, India, South Africa, and China, have recognised Africa’s potential as an investment destination and a
source of natural resources (African Development Bank 2011, p. 513). Over the past decade, despite the
successive global food and financial crises, Africa has however been growing at an unprecedented rate.
Though it will take decades of growth to make major inroads into Africa’s poverty, there is now a growing
optimism about Africa’s potential (African Development Bank 2011, p. 47).The performance of most African
economies during the global economic crisis of 2008/9 was testimony to Africa’s underlying resilience and
robust fundamentals. This made it possible to preserve macroeconomic balances and to implement
economic policies that alleviated the impact of the crisis. On the other hand inequality has become more
pronounced and more visible as young Africans are finding themselves excluded from the labour market
and the formal economy with rising youth unemployment. Unless Africans can find a way to promote
inclusive growth, then African growth itself may only become a source of instability (African Development
Bank 2011, p. 11).
Social cultural drivers

The Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provides the
most widely used index through which to track human development and the living conditions of
populations across the world (Cilliers et al. 2011, p. 17). It captures progress in three basic capabilities: living
a long and healthy life, being educated and knowledgeable, and enjoying a decent standard of living. The
most recent report, released in 2010, finds that “the past 20 years have seen substantial progress in many
aspects of human development. Most people today are healthier, live longer, are more educated, and have
more access to goods and services” (Diamandis and Kotler 2012, p. 40). The world’s average HDI (which
combines information on life expectancy, schooling and income) has increased by 18 per cent since 1990
and, overall, poor countries are catching up with rich countries in the HDI (Cilliers et al. 2011, p. 17). Almost
all countries have benefited from this progress, with only three – all in Africa, namely the DRC, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe – having a lower HDI today than in 1970 (The Zimbabwean 2012, Dean 2010, p. 99).This
convergence, the 2010 report notes, “paints a far more optimistic picture than a perspective limited to
trends in income, where divergence has continued” (UN 2010, p. 101). UN (2010) HDI measures indicate that
India pulled away from Africa over the last two decades, largely because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the
associated decline in life expectancy in Africa (Cilliers et al. 2011). Yet, African HDI values have begun to turn
upward again, and the International Futures base case forecast suggests that the continent will roughly
track the rates of rise in India and even China going forward. To be sure, poverty as measured in health,
education and income is currently particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in countries such
as Niger, Gabon, Lesotho and Swaziland. As noted by the UNDP, a quarter of the world’s multidimensional
poor (458 million people) live in Africa (Kumar 2010, pp. 48-49).
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Technological drivers
Research and the development of new technologies can drive environmental change in positive and
negative ways. They may increase the demand for natural resources, their application may impact on the
integrity of ecosystems and they could offer an opportunity for more efficient use of natural resources,
cleaner production techniques and improved environmental management (Power, Brozovic, Bode and
Zilberman 2005, p. 78). In the last 20 years, the global advances in technology have been monumental (CNN
2005). Key areas of development include more effective monitoring and assessment techniques, such as
remote sensing, the transformation of information and communications technologies, biomaterial
engineering, rapid advances in biotechnology and genetic modification, and more efficient and faster
transportation (UNEP 2006). Technological innovation can therefore offer important opportunities for
responding more effectively to challenges in areas such as economic productivity, agriculture, education,
gender inequity, health, water, sanitation, energy, built environment development and participation in the
global economy (UN Millennium Project 2005b, p. 275).
The pace of technological change in Africa has been slow and is mostly linked to FDI and it has not
contributed significantly to enhancing the availability of products and services required by Africa to
promote development (FAO 2003). More than 500 million sub-Saharan Africans do not have access to
modern energy and access to electricity, vary widely across the continent (4DNetwork 2012, p. 192). As Sub-
Saharan Africa accounts for over a tenth of the world’s population, it only generates 3 per cent of global
electricity with a large share of it (71 per cent) currently being produced by South Africa alone (Eberhard,
Rosnes, Shkaratan, and Vennemo 2011, p. 136). Although coal-fired power stations predominate in South
Africa, the rest of the continent remains largely dependent on hydropower. The need for more power
stations in the rest of the continent has also long been recognized (UN 2012, p. 23). In many countries,
electricity demand continues to grow, fuelled in particular by growth in incomes and rural urban migrations
(UNDP 2012, p. 56). The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation commits the global community to making
technological investments in Africa, particularly with a view to increase the pace of industrialization, but also
for improved management of resources, such as water and energy, and the improvement of service
provision in these areas (Du Toit 2011, p. 354). African countries had mostly been users of technologies
produced in the West, as well as acted as a discarding ground for out dated technologies discarded by the
West, and therefore remained on the technological border. Africa in general now has a major dependence
on imported technology and will need to add to investment in this area and concentrate on the
improvement of suitable technologies (Hartmann 2009, Ventura 1985, p. 103).
Political drivers
Governance (local, national and regional) relies on values and principles that the public holds (Hartmann
2009, Kennedy 2003, p. 90). The relations between the state, civil society and the private sector is heavily
relied upon by governance, even though the purpose of these sectors vary depending on the priorities and
principles of a set social system (Herbst and Mills 2009, p. 65). Empirical analysis typically does not, however,
find that greater democracy increases economic growth. Instead, other aspects of better governance,
including reduction of corruption and improvement in the rule of law, correlate more clearly with higher
growth (Khan 2012, p. 57). Advance in quality of governance is apparent in recent years and will probably
continue across the continent over the next 40 years. Physical human security is fundamentally important to
good governance and development, and the news and prospects are unfortunately mixed.
Governance is found within the political, economic and administrative sectors, and it can also affect
expansion which includes the potential for sustainable environmental management, market efficiency and
the understanding of basic rights (UN-HABITAT 2009, p. 190). First-rate governance is able to develop
economic development as well as the potential to produce fresh opportunities for improving human well-
being as well as general development (Hartmann 2009, p. 292).There are a significant number of countries in
Africa that are regarded in the midst of institutional collapse. They have low per capita incomes and poor
and declining governance scores (Desker, Herbst, Mills and Spicer 2008, p. 417). The Central African Republic,
Côte d’ Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone have no chance of development in the
immediate future (Herbst 2005, p. 9). For this category of countries, development is not even on the
agenda. It is further argued by Desker et al. (2009, p. 4) that the most these countries can hope for in the
medium term is to avoid institutional collapse and perhaps to begin to establish the preconditions for
development. During 1999, some African countries, namely Sierra Leone were classed as the poorest
country in the world and according to Fyle (2000), the indisputable reason for its poverty was due to bad
leadership (UNHCR 2009).
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Africans value democracy both as an end and as a means to improved government policies, performance,
and social wellbeing. The World Bank (2012) strategy for Africa indicate that although the payoffs to
economic reforms fell during the global crisis, policymakers continued with prudent economic policies, even
in the face of contradictory policies elsewhere due to fact that the public demanded them (Cilliers et al.
2011, p. 64). The voice of civil society is now increasing, as evidenced by Uwezo on education in Kenya,
citizen report cards in Ghana and the various groups demanding accountability for resource revenues
(World Bank 2012, UN, 2011, p. 14).
Moreover, respondents to surveys also see democracy in procedural as well as substantive terms. Popular
understandings of democracy are based on liberal notions and include the protection of civil rights and
liberties, participation in decision-making, rules for elections and electoral participation. Africans, therefore,
believe civil liberties are essential, central to their overall quality of life revenues (Mcgregor 2012, p. 486).
When asked to choose between different systems of government, most Africans support democracy and
reject authoritarian regimes, particularly those characterised by one-party rule, military rule and strongmen
revenues (Bratton and Mattes 2000, p. 303). This appears to be a wholesale rejection of the failed political
systems of the past. Electoral behaviour shows encouraging signs of democrats at work. Relatively
impressive turnout figures at elections across Africa indicate that citizens place a high value on political
participation, despite often poor delivery. However, as can be expected, popular participation in flawed
elections is slower to come.
Environmental drivers
Hundreds of millions of Africans ultimately depend on the region’s plentiful natural resources. For this
reason, Africa cannot allow its precious resources to fall prey to mismanagement, degradation and
underutilisation. Researchers assert that Africa’s abundant natural resources could lift millions of people out
of poverty. African Governments therefore recognise these dangers and have begun to take steps to
preserve and protect such assets (Elwaer and Steiner 2006, p. 23). Over the past two decades, African
countries have sought to consolidate their efforts towards sustainable development despite the economic
difficulties the region has experienced (Kulindwa, Kameri-Mbote, Mohamed-Katerere, Chenje, and
Sebukeera 2006, p. 4). Many African countries have embraced access to a clean and productive environment
as a fundamental human right for their citizens. At the regional and sub-regional level, Africa has also
adopted forward-looking responses (Kulindwa et al. 2006, p. 1261). Through the African Union (AU) and
NEPAD, the region’s response to tackle poverty and hunger, underdevelopment, governance problems and
environmental degradation, African leaders have recognized that a healthy and productive environment is a
prerequisite for the successful implementation of its programmes (Home 2006, p. 56).
Spearheaded by organisations like the African Union and the New Partnership for African Development
(NEPAD), this pro-active attitude toward Africa’s resources is making encouraging changes. It has been
argued that there is a new spirit, a new optimism that a healthy, just and equitable, and prosperous future is
possible (Elwaer et al. 2006, p. 34). The lack of adequate infrastructure is the third largest obstacle, and is an
issue that extends across the continent. The World Bank estimates that Africa’s infrastructure deficit is
US$93bn (Rand Merchant Bank 2011, p. 22). Naturally, this also provides one of the biggest opportunities for
those companies that develop and provide infrastructure. The significant infrastructure challenges that the
region faces have been highlighted by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness 2011 Report.
This report indicates that South Africa and Namibia have the highest infrastructure ranking among the SSA
countries in the survey. It is striking, however, that Namibia is ranked 54th out of a total of 139 countries in
the survey. Some seemingly attractive African economies languish close to the bottom of the infrastructure
table, including Angola, (136th) and Nigeria (135th). The shortage of electricity is probably the biggest
infrastructural problem. More than 30 SSA countries experience power shortages on a regular basis. These
shortages take a heavy toll on the private sector, with losses in sales and equipment estimated to be around
6% of turnover for formal businesses and as much as 16% for informal enterprises. Of the larger economies,
Angola, the DRC, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda are reported to suffer regular blackouts (Leandreah 2012,
Ghanaweb 2012, Eze 2012 Angola News Network 2012, p. 89). Despite the much publicised problems, South
Africa and Southern Africa still have relatively good access to electricity. Africa’s road and rail infrastructure
also pose a challenge with the density of paved road and railways falling well below the averages of other
low- and middle-income countries. Africa has only 204km of road per 1,000 square km of land area. Of this
only 25% is paved. This is significantly lower than the world average of 944km per 1,000 square km (of which
50% is paved). Road capacity is however limited as the majority of roads have one operational lane in each
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direction. Of the larger economies, it is South Africa, Namibia, Botswana as well as Ethiopia, which have good
road networks, and Angola, Chad and Mozambique are on the opposite end of the scale. Apart from
Southern Africa, all SSA countries have very poor rail infrastructure. Service rather than physical capacity is
regarded as the major issue. Transit time, reliability, security, and service frequency are all regarded as
problematic factors. There are numerous delays in rail freight crossing national borders. Locomotives from
one country are often not permitted to travel on another country’s network, mainly because of the inability
to provide breakdown assistance to foreign operators (Rand Merchant Bank 2011, p. 22).
Legal drivers
Across rural Africa, land legislation struggles to be properly implemented, and most resource user’s gain
access to land on the basis of local land tenure systems. These usually involve diverse combinations of
“statutory” and “customary” entitlements, and multiple and overlapping rights over the same resource
(Cotula 2001, p. 97). In recent years, earlier emphasis on replacing “customary” with “modern” tenure
systems has given way to recognition that land policies and laws must build on local practice (Cotula 2001,
p. 10). Several African countries have recently adopted legislation that provides (some degree of) protection
for local land rights. This shift in policy thinking raises the need to better understand what is happening to
land tenure systems on the ground (Lamba 2005, p. 46).
Recent emphasis on the need for legislation to build on local practice is a major step forward compared to
the past (World Bank 2011, p. 30). On-going debates on the formalisation of land rights (which tend to be
centred on individual land registration programmes) must avoid the trap of appealing but simplistic one-
size-fits-all solutions. Where resource access rights are multiple and overlapping, as is the case in much of
rural Africa, registering individual property rights would raise important technical and political challenges,
and would entail that unregistered right holders lose access to vital resources (Aladin Web 2007, p. 977).
Therefore, legislation that aims to secure resource claims based on locally recognised tenure systems, rather
than to overhaul them, is in many cases the most effective way to secure access to natural resources. In this
temptations to idealise the “local” must be resisted (Cotula 2001, p. 78). Many customary systems are
inequitable as regards social status, age, gender and other aspects. In the process of change affecting
customary tenure systems in many parts of Africa, local elites steer that change and make the most of it,
while weaker groups are losing out. This raises the challenges of finding ways to “square the circle” of
recognising and securing local land rights, which are the entitlements through which most rural people gain
access to land; while avoiding entrenching inequitable power relations and unaccountable local institutions
(Claassens and Cousins 2008, p. 15).
Given the great diversity of local contexts, there is no blueprint solution to secure evolving land rights in
Africa. Rather, emphasis must be placed on the process to design and implement context-specific solutions
(Cotula 2001, p. 107). This raises the need to properly understand the changing dynamics of customary land
tenure in each specific context; to fully take account of these dynamics, and of the diversity and often
overlapping nature of land rights, in devising tailored policy interventions; to tackle power imbalances at the
national as well as at the local level; and to establish processes for accountability and transparency in both
policy design and implementation (AladinWeb 2007, p. 801). The extent to which government action has
managed to reach rural areas in Africa has long been debated in the literature, ranging from positions
emphasising the limited impact of government policy in rural Africa (Hyden 1983, p. 37).
CONCLUSION
As presented above, the future African built environment has potential depending on Africa’s actions and
inactions. Therefore, it is the choice of Africans to choose which path to follow in terms of future built
environment development. If sound policies are implemented and all African countries work scrupulously,
sustainability of the built environment should be achieved. If, on the other hand, bad policies are
implemented, the continent will persist to fall behind with the associated consequences of poor human and
built environment development (UNEP 2012). A key element of the African built environment plan is to
invest and build infrastructure and utilities for the continent (NASEO 2012, p. 205). This will include investing
in water supply and sanitation infrastructure and services, improving storm water drainage and flood
mitigation, and storing excess rain water to address scarcity issues. Inadequate energy can also hamper
economic growth; therefore, built environment plans will have to increase access to modern energy services
and enhance energy security through investing in diverse energy sources such as hydro, thermal, and
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biomass (municipal solid waste). Improved solid waste management will strengthen efforts to collect, re-use
and recycle waste streams and to employ only sanitary landfills (GIT 2012, UNESCO 2003, p. 325).
Great strides should also be made to enhance the quality of life in the African built environment. The African
built environment plan calls for housing programmes to eliminate slums that will fast track construction of
new housing with secure land tenure (Global Economic Transition 2007). An African built environmental
management strategy would call for measures to be taken to mitigate heavily polluted watercourses and
mismanaged dumping sites, which both have negative impacts on human health. An African medical service
mapping exercise could in doing so lead to a comprehensive access to medical services strategy. Africa’s
planning process is fragmented and uncoordinated among various sectors, including land use,
infrastructure, transport, and housing and built environment planning (NDP 2011, Situma 2007, World Bank
2013, p. 45). This is a result of Africa’s built environment and city plans often lacking detail and integration
across sectors. Africa therefore requires macro-level planning that sets an overall strategy to create a
cohesive vision for channelling future built environment growth. Issues that must be addressed at a larger
scale include ‘smart growth’ and sustainability principles such as integration of land use and infrastructure
development, coordination of various transport systems, resource conservation, and environmentally
sensitive urban design. It would be most valuable to empower a common, central authority to administer
the overall, inclusive African built environment planning process such as the United States, African Union or
the World Bank (Thomas 2003, Westendorff 2002, p. 78).
In most large African cities, urban development takes place without core built environment improvements
(UNEP 2006, p. 26). In many instances, expansion of built environment systems is considered after the built
environment development has occurred, when it starts exerting additional pressure on existing
systems. This results in chaotic built environment development patterns and environmental hazards
adversely affecting the long-term quality of urbanised areas (Williams 2000). The key indicators that should
trigger an extension of infrastructure are therefore not clearly defined. As African cities experience
continued growth, infrastructure capacities are not able to keep pace with the scale of urbanisation
(McKinsey 2010, McCarney Blanco p. 55, Carmin and Colley 2011, p. 99). Efficiencies in implementing built
environment infrastructure projects in Africa must therefore be improved at all stages, including awarding
projects according to planned targets, securing financial closure, and executing projects within cost and on
time (Potts 2008, p. 47). Data from African governments and industry suggest that, on average, each project
suffers from 20-25% time and cost over-runs (UN 2012, World Bank 2013, p. 78). The inter-disciplinary and
collaborative urban planning process that is required would be further supported by integrated city
information databases (Williams 2000, Gudes 2010, p. 13).
A cohesive, long-term master built environment plan for Africa’s integrating sectorial plans for land use,
transport, infrastructure, and built environment planning at regional, state, and city level should be
prepared for the cities of Africa towards 2050. Progress in micro-level planning also needs to be
incorporated and complemented with comparable innovation and detail in macro-level planning in Africa.
The objective is to overcome problems caused by current built environment-planning practices that are
disjointed that result in unorganised urban growth and built environment development. To advance better
practice in sustainable built environment urban planning, Africa should set up a program to establish
collaboration among various cities, government agencies, and knowledge partners (Cisco IBSG 2010, p.
58). Knowledge partners may include industry leaders, experts, consulting groups, real estate developers
and builders, and academic institutions. Programs should therefore encourage peer-to-peer learning by
facilitating knowledge exchange (BU Strategic Plan 2012, p. 90).
The governments of Africa and various bodies within it should be very aware of the importance of energy
conservation. While enormous investment is directed toward meeting anticipated electricity demands,
policy makers also recognise the urgency of action on climate change, sustainable built environment and
the importance of energy security. They are encouraging both energy conservation and renewable energy
generation at state level. However, this awareness does not appear to be widespread among the businesses
and general community. Implementation of a wide-ranging public awareness and action campaign will
provide long-term foundations for other energy efficiency solutions (McKinsey 2010, UNCSD 2012, p. 2) in
Africa.
An effective institutional and policy framework is key to delivering transitional built environment and
reconstruction programmes and projects (USAID 2011, p. 104). Central to this is the built environment
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development of a strategic plan for Africa’s built environment sector, which sets out the objectives of
assistance, the respective responsibilities of governments and the humanitarian and built environment
agencies and relevant laws and standards. The strategic plan is the responsibility of the particular African
governments and the mandated coordinator. Sufficient resources must be dedicated to contributing to the
built environment development of the particular African countries’ strategic plan and this should form the
basis of individual agencies’ programmes and projects to ensure their response is appropriate, coordinated
and meets the needs of the entire affected population. Africa’s leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs and
decision makers alike, all owe its citizens aspects such as ethics, honesty, respect, trustworthiness, and not
doing harm to anyone or anything. African Leaders should strive to implement moral obligations to improve
the public welfare and add additional moral burdens that apply specifically to carrying out ones role as a
professional, as well as to serve the people of Africa. Decision makers therefore, have to maintain and
improve the well-being of current citizens, and in the built environment future as well as the life-sustaining
capacities of the earth (UNCSD 2012, UNEP 2006, p. 150). Housing should be seen in the context of
reconstructing the African built environment and rebuilding communities. Adequate time must be allowed
for participatory planning processes to ensure that the reconstruction process is community driven. An
integrated approach to planning should also be adopted, which addresses both short term and long term
needs whereby houses are coordinated spatially and programmatically with access to services, public
buildings, and livelihood facilities. This will prevent houses being left unoccupied after completion and
create a sustainable built environment in the long term (UN 2010). House designs must therefore meet
relevant standards, be culturally and climatically appropriate, durable, and easy to maintain, allow for future
African built environment adaptation and be developed in partnership with the intended occupants. While
architects are ideally qualified to advise regarding building form, engineering expertise is required to
conduct surveys and to ensure structural integrity, particularly in areas of high seismic activity (ARUP
2010). Services such as water, sanitation and electricity must be included in housing design to ensure houses
are not left unoccupied after completion. Standardisation and optimisation of designs can improve
performance, minimise costs, and facilitate speed of delivery and scaling-up. However, this must be
balanced against the requirements of specific households and the limitations of individual plots (MGI 2000,
p. 66).
The most appropriate method of implementation is dependent on the skills and capacity of the affected
population, local material availability, the complexity of construction, the timescale for reconstruction and
the availability of funding (ARUP 2010, p. 23). A single programme may include different methods of
implementation, for example, communities may self-build their own housing, while contractors may be
more appropriate for the African built environment. The method of implementation is critical in determining
the social, built environment, and economic impact of the reconstruction programme (Centre for Good
Governance 2006, p. 67). Each option has benefits in terms of skills transfer, economic and livelihood
recovery, and these may be experienced at a local, regional or national level depending on where cash, skills
training or materials are provided (ARUP 2010, p. 14).
The mixed reality of the African continent towards 2050 will inevitably contain elements of each of the
proposed scenarios. The next step will be to create a vision for a preferred built environment future of
Africa. The creation of an African economy that trades on a global scale by promoting traditional values
could be described as a preferred built environment future, as a sustainable Africa is indeed a prerequisite
for built environment sustainability. Africa has many obstacles to overcome before any built environment
developmental milestones are achieved. The continent is not only scarred by civil wars, but still has elements
of corruption, low life expectancies, uneducated population, failed infrastructure, and no access to
technology. This list still needs to be addressed in order to spark a sustainable African built environment. If
Africa can focus on improving their governance, the chances of positive built environment development will
be greater (Sachs 2012, p. 67). Africa’s common journey promises to be challenging and exciting, even
though it will be difficult. However, it also promises to be much easier, and more likely to be successful, if all
parties concerned face it optimistically with a positive understanding of the pace and character of social
built environment transformation. It’s ability to recall the past mistakes, to learn from them and to foresee a
better built environment future, makes life special and worth living as well as providing a meaningful built
environment future (Frey 2012, p. 22).
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MODERNITY AS THE FOUNDATION OF URBAN STRUCTURE IN CHINA: CASE STUDY ON A MODERN
URBAN RUIN!
Feng Qiong and Liu Jinrui, Tongji University, China, mingjiljr@126.com
Article I. Abstract
The historic downtown of Shantou, as a well-preserved urban texture of modern period, is now suffering
significant blows of poverty, recession and depopulation. Over the last decade, all regeneration attempts turned
futile. Construction and collapse of modernism act as a historical clue in our study, in which we explore that
spatial structure transformed from traditional “opus” format to “centrality” framework in early years and declined
in the shadow of modernism collapse in space and scale. Critically, it is further argued that all the regeneration
efforts will end in vain without the reconstruction of modernity. With the prevalent absence of modernity in
Chinese cities, the construction of modernity is still vital even in the emerging postmodern context of urban
transformation.
Keywords: modernity, Shantou, centrality.
Article II.
Article III. INTRODUCTION
Modernity is more akin to kind of a project designed by people in particular cultural and historical
conditions. The process of Modernity in western countries is divided into three stages: liberal modernity,
organization modernity and postmodernity (Giddens 1990). In the stage of liberal modernity, modern
generates transient and volatile to be a complete break with the traditional urban structure. In the stage of
organization modernity, many of the limitations are removed and the own inside borders emerge. The
project of modernity has been a more prominent manifestation (Dahlberg 1999). Compared to the
traditional political and economic systems, organization modernity means a much more complex social
system. Postmodernity emphasizes the difference, diversity, centrism and globalization, getting back to the
original discussion of modernity in many senses.
In this article, we see modernity as a rational social organization to emphasize its organization and
integration features. Urban space is among the most prominent carriers for such modernity. Unlike what is
reflected in other aspects of modern abstract art and so on, such modernity influence and establish a
particular spatial form through the operation of economic system and political system, by industrial
products and market economy. And it will further deeply influence our lives (Wagner 1994).
The historic downtown of Shantou is investigated by us as an important case for doing research about
modernity in China. Firstly, it is very symbolic since the whole procedure of modernity project, which is that
Shantou’s process indicates the early start, initially built and eventual decline of modernity in China. The
process can reflect the modernity construction in many other cities in China. Secondly, it is distinctive
dramatic that the glorious and wealthy beginning ends up in poverty and decay. In addition, the collapse
caused by lack of modernity and the postmodern measures taken to regenerate also conflicts dramatically.
We treat the historic downtown of Shantou as a phenomenon to have reflections on inherent contradictions
and conflicts of modernity in Chinese modern cities.
EARLY MODERNITY IN SHANTOU
Shantou, the only city with continental sea in China and praised as the only significant commercial port by
Engels, was forced to open in 1860 (Chen 2009). The process of modernity in Shantou began as a response
to trade and had gone through several stages. Mid-19th century to early 20th century could be seen as the
first start for Shantou as kind of a modern city, when social governance was done by community groups.
In China, community groups usually have less control over social affairs in many cities. Shantou was different
from those cities, which lead to the smooth formation of early modernity. Disparity to modern city’s
framework today, alleged modern city at that time was run by informal self-regulation. Shantou’s Chamber
of Commerce established in 1954, as a head office for commercial affairs while being an institution for local
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affairs and community management, revealing its power and influence over the city’s government for more
than 70 years. Running water, electric lights, telephones, light rail, tram, railways, highways and even airports
were built dependent on overseas Chinese businessmen and capital.
Modernity at that time can be defined as liberal modernity, while western ideas gradually penetrated into
urban society with Shantou’s opening for trade. The process of early modernity established in Shantou City
had a distinct characteristic of modernity project dominated by social elite, since it was the combination of
Chinese traditional culture and Western experience. Similar to many other cities, Shantou’s consumer city
mode was the key to the continuity of traditional social structure due to the lack of industrial. Modernity had
merely slight effects on urban structure, making the whole social structure analogous to traditional
industrial and commercial city, Suzhou as a typical representative.
Figure 1: The map of Shantou in 1920.

!
Shantou city, with a spontaneous and crushed spatial representation, had remained the traditional “opus”
format formed in the long feudal society in history. The traditional “opus” urban format usually appears in
the traditional industrial and commercial city. It has a strong distinction with local power center city such as
local capitals.
Organic generation and non-hierarchical structures were the basic features of Shantou city, which lead to
disordered urban landscape (Wang 2000). Integrity, diversity and differences were most prominent in its
spatial characterization. Architecture and urban space had no difference with those in traditional times.
Moreover, ancestral halls based on same surname acted as very important places in Shantou city, for its role
as informal supplement to Shantou’s Chamber of Commerce. Acquaintance society, as a characterization of
traditional Chinese society, was emphasized again in so-called modern city. Mutual alliance between the
same clan and the same surname formed the most stable business partnership and was cured in the city
through such architectural space as ancestral halls. With ancestral halls of various surnames across the city,
Shantou’s “opus” urban format was strengthened at that time. Nowadays, we can also see some of them in
Shantou’s historical downtown. The influence of ancestral halls lasted for decades and was self-reinforcing.
They made great contribution to the lack of modernity in Shantou.
Since industrial revolution didn’t take place in China, modernity was formed as a natural response to
colonialism. In such urban space, weak penetration of modernity in both social structure and the actual
built-up urban space was visible, actually only affected the city's elite.
INITIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERNITY
Completely different from the previous early modernity, the Introduction of Shantou City Hall by
Kuomintang in 1921 really caused a modern revolution in the way of organization modernity. The first elites
and intellectuals back from the West got into the city government and pursued modernity by means of
governance. Modernity construction and development could be elucidated as social and political
bureaucracy. Shantou City Hall conducted a democratic political reform in urban space, reinforcing nation-
building and social control by means of urban transformation. With urban space and architecture as a
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carrier, the governance had strong and powerful influence on modernity’s full penetration in overall civil
society.
The 1921 Shantou municipal system, apparently following the U.S. government framework, was formed by
three independent and mutual restraint parts, City Executive Committee, Counselor Committee and Audit
Office. Engineering Practice Bureau under City Executive Committee regulated urban space management
and architecture construction. Even when the government was reduced to City Executive Committee only in
1923, Engineering Practice Bureau still functioned as a strong component. Since urban space and
architecture were the most direct representation for modernity, that was governance and centralization. For
the framework of the organization, modernity, nation-state and centralization were the most stressed.
“Preliminary democracy is local autonomy, while implementation of municipal is part of such local
autonomy” (Gu 1929). Implementation of Three Principles of the People by Kuomintang, with people as the
core, aimed at achieving democracy and good civil society trough the implementation of modernity (Wells
2001). Municipal and the implied urban space became the government’s most direct course of action.
Urban governance form at the time was essentially lead by Urban Affairs Committee for political elites and
business elites to work together. The Urban Affairs Committee of Zhongshan Park and Public Housing
launched in 1928 was a very important institution for governance, which included the principal leaders of
Shantou City Hall and Shantou’s Chamber of Commerce (Huang 2009). At the beginning, leaders of
Shantou’s Chamber of Commerce consisted more than 70% of the committee. The City Hall had to seek
businessmen for collaboration. While the essential unity and integration for organization modernity was
luxurious under political and economic conditions of that time, Shantou City Hall lacked powerful control
over the whole community. Shantou’s Chamber of Commerce maintained its control over the management
of social affairs, with the union of the traders who were the main part of citizens. The Urban Affairs
Committee of Zhongshan Park and Public Housing really helped to the construction of urban public space
and public houses, in which political elites and business elites worked and gamed between each other to
promote urban space transformation in Shantou.
From the late 1920s of the 20th century to the late 1930s, a series of urban construction such as urban
transformation, reclamation and embankment, road expansion and park construction had taken place in
Shantou. After ten years’ investment and construction, Shantou celebrated its distinctive characteristics of
urban space, with a small park pavilion as the center, annular radial road network and continuous arcade
buildings (Shen 2010).
The graceful and orderly urban landscape demonstrated its character as an emerging modern city as well as
a quintessential commercial port. It was likened to a small Paris in living memory, while it was interesting
that Shantou took the same step of Paris’s urban transformation without even trying to imitate. “Centrality”
was the leading character of Shantou’s urban landscape, not only for its annular radial road network, but
also for its inner centralization, further strengthened by bureaucratic politics and precision governance
capability. Under the unified centralized mode of organization modernity, both strong capital injection into
and further governance capability refinement of urban space combined to intensify basic urban
transformation. In the game between capital and power, political elites and business elites deepened their
cooperation and maintained a win-win situation much more than before. City center space ended up being
mastered by elites with the public excluded, causing a kind of social space differentiation.
For instance, the public space around city center turned into private mansions, living space for civilians
further relocated from the center to the edge. The urban spatial form and the political and economic
foundation behind mutually reflected the opposite center- edge of both social and physical space as a result
of the spread of organization modernity.
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Figure 2: The 1926 city plan of Shantou.

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Figure 3: The map of Shantou in 1946.

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During this period of organization modernity, architecture and urban space acted as both the means and
the characterization, continuously strengthening modernity. Even it insinuated that the promotion of
modernity in urban space was the most successful process and practice, compared to education, politics and
legislation. Modernity was enhanced by the urbanism generated in courses of urban society.
Shantou, similar to most port cities opened for trade, put on a modern urban appearance at that time.
Modernist building materials and architectural language, as well as modernist architects grown up under the
influence of western culture, pursued modernity practice in local construction. Arcade buildings were
representative of the architectural style, by combining Renaissance, Baroque and Shantou traditional
building crafts and patterns. Arcade buildings were usually three-stage construction, with the colonnaded
below, windows, concave arch-style balcony and outside walls in the middle and parapet wall and pediment
above (Shen 2010).
Neat arcade streets changed the crowded, cluttered urban landscape and provided place for daily public life.
With department stores, movie theaters, office buildings and other public buildings as well as city parks
getting into the city, civil society was initially formed. Since the public communication, leisure and recreation
functions were accepted by citizens, a sense of participation in public affairs management were also formed
gradually. In 1930s, it was reported that some people participated in public affairs by buying lottery for park
construction, reporting burning ash affect public environment and delivering speeches in public parks
(Chen 2006). It was a great change of social habits since civil society and public space were weak in China’s
long history.
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Figure 4: The building façade of Shantou.

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At the time of that historical period, all "modern" features had a strong Western feature. People continued to
borrow and learn from the West and collaged them with traditional culture. Social contract and modernity in
western countries were established in the gradually mature of civil society and even through the means of
industrial revolution (Zhang 2012). While in China civil society was far from really established. In half of the
20th century, only a few cities of China had undergone such process of modernity by city autonomy,
Shantou was among them. All the other cities still based their society on their traditional agricultural society
economy system. However, even for cities like Shantou, modern rules such as credit, punctual and
compliance were still buried in traditional ruins. Traditional agricultural society economy system was behind
such glorious scene of western-style modern city.
IMMATURITY AND THE COLLAPSE OF MODERNITY
The modernity processes led by political and social elites and organized by learning from the western
experiences were stagnated with direct economic, social and political turmoil brought by the World War II
and civil war. After that time, China had chosen a completely different modernity way, comparing with the
one in the historical periods. After 1949, the People’s Republic of China opted to continue to fulfill its way to
the city's modernity through means of communist societies, urgently seeking to develop and shortening the
gap with western countries in order to achieve the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". It can be
elucidated that in the context of contemporary Chinese society, the most common "modernization"
reflected the new projects in organization modernity (Chen 2006).
Under the influence of the Soviet Union, modernity projects gave up the reliance on the market economy
and turned to collectivism (Minton 1997). In the time of 1950s to the late 1970s when modernity stagnated
and even shown as anti-modernity, modernity processes were characterized with single public ownership,
highly centralized management tools and egalitarian form of distribution. In terms of urban space and
architecture of that time, leading context was "the modernist should be considered as a capitalism and
imperialism which should be condemned or rejected". And modernity received a strong rejection in urban
space construction. Projects of organization modernity focused on industrialization while ignoring
urbanization, and even had a tendency to weaken urbanization which made a heavy blow to modern
architecture and urban areas. From the 1940s to the late 1970s, modernity in architecture and urban space
walked into suffocation (Denison 2010). Little construction in urban space took place in Shantou for forty
years. But after all, Shantou was able to preserve its historical downtown at that time.
Therefore, from the 1980s to the present, instrumental rationality had been the only one retained in modern
rationality. The whole society’s only chase was the pursuit of wealth. But the tragedy was that the
competition rules of free market were not fully formed. In the vigorous wave of urbanization in China,
modernity had been neglected. Although the design practices of modern architecture and urban such as
concrete frame, freedom facades, partition function were popular in a lot of cities, at that time the
construction of modernity were only Christians have their case. The lack of modern spirit in urban space and
architecture was obvious. Architecture and urban space was just one social phenomenon, but it was the
most obvious characterization of modernity. The modernization in urban construction was reduced to
construction only. What the rapid modernization brought to Chinese society was the solidification of
traditional agricultural society structure, rather than modernity. Worst to it was that the whole society
turned to reject modernity and urbanism, while embracing traditional relationships.
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Shantou, as China’s first opening-up batch of pilot cities in the social and economic, became special
economic zones in 1981. At that time, five places were selected to reopen to the world. They were Shenzhen,
Shantou, Xiamen, Zhuhai and Hainan. Since Hainan was a province in China, we will only take the four cities
into consideration.
Shenzhen was the only city with a blank resume but turned out to be the most successful one and it was
bringing about new advanced experience to other cities in China. Many researches were done to explain the
Chinese Speed in recent years. Shantou was the second richest city of the four when it was selected.
However, its subsequent development was quite a pity. Shantou was caught into a sustained decline and
low-level equilibrium trap. Shantou’s decline was really surprising for it had good foundations, location and
policy preferences.
The reason may be found in its past development as we mentioned before. Anti-modern and modern factors
formed in the early modernity process is the leading factor, with public spaces and ancestral halls existed
together in the city. The combination for traders of the same clan and the same surname was maintained
until then, making modern market rules being a waste paper. "Social acquaintance" staggered and rooted in
traditional agricultural economy society, in which lack of good faith and relying on personal relationships
were accepted. It then foreshadowed the continuous decline in the city’s subsequent development.
The decline of Shantou was fatal for its lack of modernity in its development as well as the strengthened
society. Its tragedy seemed to be accelerated after it had been selected as the testing ground for China's way
to modernization. The historic downtown of Shantou got into accelerated decline in the process of urban
eastward expansion in a transition formula. The historical downtown of Shantou was left behind and
became a place to do research in China’s modernity in past years.
CHINESE CITIES IN GLOBAL POSTMODERN CONTEXT
From 2000 to 2012, several attempts to regenerate the Shantou historical downtown all ended up in vain.
The 2004 Urban Demolition Plan ultimately failed, left the historical downtown in a dilemma between
demolition and preservation. With the city’s economic depression since 1990, the local government gave up
improving people's livelihood and protecting the old buildings there. With as high as 70 percent dangerous
houses rate in blocks, a huge loss of population and a trap of poverty all made this area gradually becoming
urban slums . A dramatic contrast was that modernity in the early 20th century left an indelible mark on the
streets form, urban landscape and architectural style.
The status quo depression is the evidence of lack of modernity in this city. The 2013 City Regeneration Plan
was launched not far from now, but the result is not optimistic and the recession velocity is seemingly out of
control. Also modern Chinese city’s fragile and incompleteness in modernity can be speculated here in the
observation of Shantou city, even with such dramatic conflicts in other cities being not quite prominent. It
will be a long process for modernity entrenched in China, and it requires more and more exhaustive radical
reform.
Modernity is replaced by simple and crude instrumental rationality and practical interests in China
nowadays. The pursuit of the ultimate city value is reduced to the practical interests maximize (Li 2005).
China has experienced the bad consequences for lack of core values of society in its rapid development.
Modern cities in China are tormented by barren culture. Consequently, the whole society lacks confidence of
local culture and turns to western cultures.
The turning to western cultures has a big difference with that in early 20th century. For a long period after
the end of World War II, reflection and critique are the themes of modernity in western countries, while
China takes an opposite way of anti-modernity. Clear conflict between anti-modernity and postmodernity
leaves China in the fog of urban transformation (She 2000).
In Shantou 2013 revival plan, as well as urban construction across China, the postmodern context is difficult
to avoid. Irrationalism in China’s society finds resonance in the criticism of rationality in postmodern. For
some of the modern cities such as Shanghai, postmodern factors are obvious.
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However, for most cities, blind turning to postmodernity is totally wrong and kind of evading rational.
Postmodern is a reactionary to modernism toward the ultimate as well as an amendment (Sun 2007). The
lack of modernity and modern rules such as credit, punctual and compliance exists not only in Shantou, but
also in most Chinese cities. The old regime and rules rooted in traditional acquaintance society bring about
throes of development. But only suffering and change can lead to a better future. Postmodern factors,
consumerism and globalization for instance, should be sweet poison for China city’s incomplete civil society.
Modernity, as well as the modern rules, legislation, judicature, education and administration are urgently
needed to be advanced. Cultivated modernity will still be the most important mission for urban
transformation and architecture design, while being the absolute basis for construction of benign Chinese
urban space.
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WICKED PROBLEMS FRAMEWORK: ARCHITECTURAL LESSONS FROM RECENT URBAN DISASTERS
Alexandra Jayeun Lee, Research Scholar, University of California Berkeley, CA, U.S.A; The University of
Auckland, New Zealand; The New Zealand Institute of Architects, New Zealand, lee.jayeun@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper extends the design framework of Horst Rittel (1930-1990), who argued that complex societal
problems that cannot be addressed using linear systematic processes, namely, ‘tame’ problems, may need
alternative approaches, since they are ‘wicked’ in nature. Urban issues such as informal settlements, poverty,
and overcrowding, are merely the physical symptoms of deep systemic issues beyond the control of
planners and architects alone, and hence, are ‘wicked’. Rittel, a thought leader of design thinking, coined the
expression “Wicked Problems” in 1973 to describe the complex issues of society situated in the real world
that cannot be solved using rationality alone. In fact, such issues need transdisciplinary understanding and
action to optimise decision-making based on multiple viewpoints and methods of inquiry.
Many of the ‘wicked’ attributes of society are amplified in a state of chaos such as in urban disasters, and this
paper argues that the wicked problems framework can lead to alternative visions through democratic,
transdisciplinary design strategies. The Rittelian framework is still relevant in today’s complex societies,
particularly in community development projects. This paper presents some of the key findings from three
post-disaster case studies, tracing some of the successful design decisions that were made by local
stakeholders with and sometimes without architects.
Drawing from an empirical research of professional responses to three recent disasters: the 2010 Canterbury
earthquake, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, this study proposes a re-
conceptualisation of urban disaster reconstruction that prioritises community empowerment through
democratic design processes rather than through architectural symbolism, and a re-conceptualisation of
architecture as a by-product of community-driven activities rather than as an end-goal.
Keywords: Horst Rittel, wicked problems, disaster recovery, community development, democratic design.
INTRODUCTION
Resurgence of democratic design

Societal progress through scientific innovation and architectural design has long been a central endeavour
for the architectural profession, mandated through institutional code of practice, and rewarded through
peer recognition and professional awards. By and large, however, the architects’ service to society is
demonstrated through practice. For instance, the community architecture movement of the 1960s remains
an emphatic example of the design profession’s commitment to and a concern for social justice. Such
practices were motivated in part due to the rapid urbanisation of industrial cities and the proliferation of
government-funded mass housing developments (Jenkins and Forsyth 2010, p. 69), most notably in the UK
and the U.S. In the UK the self-build champions such as John Turner (1972) and John Habraken (1972)
mobilised a new generation of builders and steered the government authorities to make the state-led
developments more inclusive and democratic. In the U.S. a similar movement came to be known as the
Community Design Centres. In the last decade, the community design movement is experiencing a rapid
resurgence under familiar expressions such as, participatory design, community-led design, co-design,
human centred design and public interest design. The concept of community-centred, democratic design
methods has also become widespread in other disciplines, credit to Horst Rittel (1930-1990), a UC Berkeley
professor of architecture who coined the expression “wicked problems” in 1973.
BACKGROUND
Theories of Horst Rittel (1930-1990) and the wicked problems

Rittel’s concept of “wickedness” describes a class of problems that are ill-defined, complex, and for which
there are no straightforward solutions, in contrast to tame problems that can be rationalised, and relatively
simple to solve. Tame problems Rittel argued that most societal issues are wicked, because most real world
problems have multiple facets and considerations that cannot be solved using rationality alone. As such,
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wicked problems require transdisciplinary response. The concept of sustainability, for instance, cannot be
considered from a single perspective, but requires knowledge and experience of multi-scale, multi-
generational, multi-disciplinary methods of inquiry (Lee 2010). Wicked problems require industries to work
together, rather than in their siloes. Wicked problems form an integral part of the society that generated
them, thus their resolution requires change at societal level. Brown et al. (2010) argued that
“transdisciplinary imagination[s]” are essential in approaching wicked problems for “just and sustainable
decision-making” (Brown et al. 2010, pp. 4-5).
Wicked problems and disasters

Many of the wicked attributes of society are amplified in a state of chaos, and nowhere is this more evident
than in the early days of a natural disaster in cities. In the past decade, the community architecture
movement has extended to disaster recovery, with the emergence of non-profit organisations such as
Architecture for Humanity (US), Emergency Architects (FR), Article 25 (UK), and Architects without Frontiers
(AUS) specialising in disaster recovery architectural service and consultancy. By and large, however,
architectural contributions to disaster recovery are few and far between, existing as part of a humanitarian
agency sponsored technical manuals for emergency/transitional shelters, or brought in towards the end of
the critical recovery period to rebuild infrastructure and housing. Architects are generally considered in
public as the last responders to disasters (Cesal 2013, Lee 2012, Sanderson 2010, Boano and Hunter 2010).
Charlesworth (2006) noted that architects are seldom party to the critical political decisions that determine
the reconstruction vision of post-conflict cities, and suggested “architects should adopt an interventionist
stance by taking a professional stand against the violation of human rights… [using] their design expertise”
(p. 16). In finding that architects have little political influence in post-conflict cities, Charlesworth sets out a
challenge for architectural researchers: “How can architects engage in… the problem-sharing processes
needed in urban centres… broken by systemic urban conflict? Is it our role to provide the definitive solution,
or rather to provoke… collective action in rebuilding civil society after the disaster…?” (p. 132). While
Charlesworth does not situate her research in terms of wicked problems, the evidence of the wickedness is
ubiquitous in her characterisation of urban disaster problems as needing to be “[shared]”, and in the
inherent challenge of providing a “definitive solution” in a place of systemic conflict. This paper re-evaluates
these issues by employing the Rittelian strategy of design inquiry to evaluate the wicked aspects of urban
disaster recovery process.
This paper argues that reconstruction strategies in many post-disaster sites have failed largely because the
wicked issues of architectural design have been approached as tame problems. Wicked problems require an
open systems approach that embraces multiple methods of constructing knowledge, that is, from the
collective knowledge of both professionals and civil society, and from the “humble position of uncertainty
and provisionality” (Brown et al. 2010, p. 39) rather than that of linear, positivist rationality that have, thus far,
dominated post-disaster management. So how is the architectural notion of “wicked problems” relevant to
democratic design decisions in urban disasters?
Reflection on systems thinking

In the first instance, it is useful to look back on what prompted Rittel to distinguish the tame problems
versus the wicked problems, in which he classified the former as the first generation systems approach and
the latter as the second generation systems approach. According to Rittel (1972, 2010), the systems thinking
of the first generation pertains to “attacking problems of planning in a rational, straightforward, systemic
way” (1972, 2010, p. 390) which has enabled revolutionary progress in aeronautics and led to improvements
in health systems and the environment. However, Rittel observed that such early successes in the systems
thinking were short-lived, because “most research about creativity and problem-solving behaviour is about
‘tame’ problems… (yet) all essential planning problems are wicked” (p. 392). Where the problem is
insufficiently understood, and where the consequences of an action taken in response to such problems are
unknown, the classical systems approach can lead to catastrophic failures. Herbert Simon described such
problems as “ill-structured problems” (1969), and Donald Schön called them the “swampy lowlands” of
reality (1983). Urban issues such as informal settlements, poverty, and overcrowding, are the physical
symptoms of more complex, interdependent systemic issues beyond the control of planners and architects
alone, and hence, are ‘wicked’.
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METHODS
Ethnographic research
A critical study on architecture’s relationship to urban disasters seeks a broad understanding of the attitudes
and intentions of architectural professionals. The author has opted to undertake an ethnographic study of
such architects rather than electing to study the specific buildings designed by them. Yet because
architecture is a discipline grounded in practice, case studies are a common research method in architectural
research (Snyder 1984) and this research has undertaken to study three of the recent events in Haiti, the
United States, and New Zealand, and interviewed some 50 experts who have experience in at least one of
the three disasters at those locations in the last decade. In lieu of undertaking longitudinal research of how
professionals responded to disasters at different phases of recovery, the research took a snapshot of their
activities across three case studies at different phases of recovery. The most profound observation to
emerge out of undertaking research across the three countries was not only the extent to which the
research informants were previously acquainted with one another within each case site, but also the fact
that these relationships were found to be common across multiple disasters (Figure 1). The complex
interrelationship of experts within the field revealed the close-knit nature of the expert community at such
sites, as well as amplifying the importance of a sense of community in establishing an effective practice.
Figure 1: Social network diagram of interview participants.
Ontological rationale
In terms of the methodology employed, the author followed a mixed methods research that resonates
strongly with the ontological position of Rittel. This study combines an empirical approach of theory
elaboration as developed by Diane Vaughan (1992) and a constructivist grounded theory method as
developed by Kathy Charmaz (2000, 2006, 2011). Constructivist grounded theory methods combine the
reflexive nature (i.e. construction) of semi-structured interviews with the analytical methods of grounded
theory. Theory elaboration methods set out a robust criteria for validating a theory, whereby the theory to
be tested is triangulated from multiple perspectives, academic rigour, transparency, and at multiple scales
(or ‘units of analysis’). At the centre of both these methods is the recognition of self, and ways of relating to
others. This means that in order to undertake a research about democratic design, and in order to make a
fair representation of views about a particular architecture (whether whole or in part), the research must
draw on the experience of the insider (the designer) as well as the outsider (the intended occupant or user).
In other words, both grounded theory and the theory elaboration method can make explicit what has been
made implicit by the researcher.
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The Rittelian framework
How these methods are relevant in testing the Rittelian framework is straightforward. This paper argues that
the constructivist approach can help to untangle some of the design problems of wicked situations, based
on the following observations. First, the wicked problems framework shares the philosophical position of
theory elaboration in their acknowledgement of multiple realities and the value of transparency. Second, the
grounded theory research is recognised as one of the first ways in which humanities researchers were able
to quantitatively evaluate qualitative data (Denzin and Lincoln 2011). By employing a set of robust, tried-
and-tested analytical tools developed by sociologists and ethnographers since the 1960s, it is possible to
deduct useful insights from interviews, using analytic strategies such as ‘coding’, ‘theory generation’, and
‘constant comparison’. Third, the method enables a cross-sectional comparison between disparate units of
analysis and distillation of large quantity of data through the process of ‘abductive’ reasoning. The research
has yielded three key themes as follows.
TOP-DOWN STRATEGIES
Build back faster

Rittel’s characterised design as an activity, which is “intended to bring about a situation with specific desired
characteristics without creating unforeseen and undesired side and after effects” (Rittel cited in Protzen and
Harris 2010, p. 14). However, whether the aims of ‘build back better’ are fulfilled on the ground is debatable.
Since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, the humanitarian aid sector has progressively
increased its influence by partnering with first-responder government agents and other specialised NGOs in
response to humanitarian crises, whether natural or human-induced. Though considered natural, disasters,
cyclones and earthquakes are increasingly associated with human activities, as a product of how we design,
manage, and live in our cities, using the resources available around us. International aid agencies and
governments often rush in their policy decisions in an attempt to demonstrate resilience after a major
disaster.
Nevertheless, systemic approaches that fail to consider the long-term effects can backfire, sometimes
exacerbating the effects of the disaster itself. The agenda for building back better changes according to how
a given disaster agency interprets its physical manifestation. In Haiti, it became ‘Build Back Better
Communities’; in New Orleans, it became ‘Bring New Orleans Back’; and in Christchurch, ‘Restore
Christchurch Cathedral’. A case in point, Haiti’s international design competition, which was spearheaded by
the Haitian government, led to an alienation of its own citizens, castigating the survivors under a veil of
political ‘tokenism’ (Arnstein 1969) where one maybe seen (populations in crowded areas are assigned
limited housing aid) but not heard (their minimal housing needs are not met). Two major oversights
emerging from this event are: first, the misallocation of critical resources that could otherwise have been
used to address more urgent, systemic housing problems in Haiti; and second, the outsourcing of housing
design to foreign design professionals. What resulted was a cluster of militarised transitional housing
compounds fabricated overseas – symbolically reminiscent of Western ideologies. In the temptation to
tame the wicked nature of Haiti’s crisis, some experts have resorted to dismissing this earthquake as just
another Haitian tragedy (Schuller and Morales 2012).
Yearning for the past

A German philosopher, Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) popularised the notion that, “all we learn from history is
that we learn nothing from history”. Perpetuation of Hegel’s adage is still evident today not only in urban
planning decisions and policies but also in behaviours of disaster survivors that reinforce this phenomenon.
An urge to return home has been a defining behaviour of displaced survivors, irrespective of the expert
advice given (Campanella 2010, Potangaroa and Kipa 2011, Smith and Wenger 2005). There is a high
probability of a disaster becoming a recurrent event, even though the specific intervals of its recurrence are
not always predictable (particularly earthquakes). Yet rebuilding over the likely path of future disasters is
commonplace amongst the survivors of disasters. People’s sense of attachment to the land – whether
personal, social, commercial, historical – is only heightened by the stark absence of place that had forged
their identity pre-disaster (Brunsma et al. 2007). The devastation of the February 2011 earthquake – which
was essentially an aftershock of the September 2010 earthquake – muted the discourse on architecture and
heritage at large, but the Christchurch Cathedral remained a contentious topic for all. Some supported its
demolition, while others wanted to see it reinstated. Architecture became a battleground for earthquake-
battered Christchurch citizens who saw it as a symbolic opportunity to reassert their ‘right to the city’. The
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cathedral became a media poster-child for the earthquake, and also a symbol of Christchurch residents’
identity, and perhaps, the last vestige of resilience and hope amid the lack of certainty.
Unlearning from history

Lessons from the case studies suggest that how to build back better after a disaster depends on what the
appropriate definition of building back better is. While the restoration of key urban infrastructure after
collapse is vital to making a place accessible and habitable again, the research has found that building
communities is equally, if not more, important than the physical reconstruction of a place. Building back
entails an impossible task of replicating a pre-disaster city in a post-disaster context, as survivors displaced
by the event yearn to return and persist in doing so despite the number of setbacks. Most people are not
resistant to change; they fear change when what they might lose outweighs the benefits of change. The key
issue here, however, is for whom rebuilding can be considered ‘better’. Architectural interventions spurred
by top-down recovery strategies have limited success without strong engagement with the community
throughout the recovery process, from inception through to completion. Some of the rebuilding agents
accustomed to operating in an autocratic manner see the objectives of ‘building back better’ as simply an
invitation to ‘build back faster’ under the mantle of ‘progressive’ design and ‘avant-garde’ concepts, but the
social reality of post-disaster complexities suggests they can undermine the wicked problems of building
back better.
BOTTOM-UP TACTICS
Everybody as designer
In his essay, The Reasoning of Designers, Horst Rittel stated, “everybody designs sometimes; nobody designs
always. Design is not the monopoly of those who call themselves ‘designers’” (1987, p. 1). The recognition
that every person affected by a decision being made has power to influence lies at the core of democratic
decision-making. Participation of disaster victims in rebuilding projects remains a major challenge for
disaster recovery (Davidson et al. 2007, Kendra and Wachtendorf 2007) because community engagement is
a resource-intensive activity, monetarily and in terms of time – two resources that all post-disaster nations
lack and need most (Quarantelli 1978). The extent to which citizen participation leads to project success or
failure is often determined by whether the agents of power – who assume authority over the project by
holding the purse–strings – are working with people or exerting power over people (Dupuy 2010). While
there is a considerable difference between the outcomes of the two approaches, the engagement processes
on the surface are seldom distinct from one another and thus difficult to quantify. Nevertheless, the reality is
that equitable citizen participation requires leadership and responsibility from all sides – not just politicians,
policy makers, and technical experts – but also from the community whose constituents are diverse and
knowledgeable.
Power of social cohesion

One of the lessons from Hurricane Katrina was that the neighbourhoods who were well-connected and
knew their neighbours, survived. Conversely, the least connected bore the brunt of the disaster’s impact. Not
surprisingly, those without access to private vehicles were from lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods, in
low-lying lands of the Mississippi Delta and these suffered the most flood damage. In the U.S., emergency
response to natural disasters remains the responsibility of local government, wherein the mayoralty has
statutory authority and accountability over civil military activities within his or her jurisdiction (Col 2007).
By contrast, in New Zealand, civil defence remains the responsibility of central government (Britton 2007),
which is conducive to a top-down disaster response and reconstruction process. The political actions
employed by the local authorities since the earthquake were described by the community as ‘scapegoating’,
‘hiding’, ‘excluding’, and ’not communicating’, which reflects the way authorities have managed
uncertainties and the recurrent aftershocks. Such reactionary tactics, in turn, obstructed the community’s
ability to contribute to early design decisions. Often, societal inequities pre-disaster continue to persist post-
disaster.
Design as choice
Nevertheless, design equity is as much about making professional services available to communities in need
as much as it is about democratizing the process of rebuilding generally. Where equity is not sufficiently
present, however, the study found that the local community finds empowerment through tackling the
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wicked problems themselves. A Latin adage, nihil de nobis, sine nobis, (‘nothing about us, without us, [is for
us])’ which is often employed by post-disaster community organizations reinforces an understanding that
empowerment is obtained not by having problems solved by others on their behalf, but by being supported
to tackle many of the wicked problems themselves. The Christchurch earthquakes became a catalyst for
galvanizing communities, and the overall improvement in social resilience has been a valuable outcome of
the disaster. Suburban communities like the Port Hills, Sumner and Lyttelton, that were initially ‘forgotten’
by council authorities in the early days of the earthquake implemented innovative resilience strategies such
as ‘time banking’, which enabled local communities to share their resources through exchanges of time
credits, and established community-led urban design groups to positive effect. These communities
demonstrated a strong sense of local identity and solidarity, enabling them to bounce back more quickly
compared to those who waited for actions by the powers-that-be. Disaster scholars acknowledge that
communities with strong networks affect the ability of individuals to activate informal ties in disaster
(Hurlbert et al. 2000), as was demonstrated in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (Aldrich and Crook 2008),
where “higher levels of social capital facilitate recovery and help survivors coordinate for more effective
reconstruction” (Aldrich 2012, p. 2). Knowing one’s neighbours, Aldrich argued, exceeded the benefits of
governmental support and economic resources.
Disaster can serve as a catalyst for renewing community spirit and resilience against future disasters, and, in
many cases, creates an even stronger sense of community than before (Aguirre et al. 2005, Kreps and Drabek
1996, Stallings 2003). Solving problems according to the community’s values – irrespective of whether they
align with expert advice – is an ethical consideration for professionals engaged in disaster recovery projects,
and also an opportunity to challenge the existing mores of professional practice. Design is an equalizer that
has the potential to re-empower communities struggling to restore their sense of belonging and identity.
Overcoming disaster capitalism

At the other extreme, architects can become inadvertent instruments of what Klein (2007, p. 10) calls,
“disaster capitalism”. Splintered leadership within governmental agencies can turn professionals into
scapegoats for public scrutiny. There were some misunderstandings within the media which bred public
contempt for well-intending architects. When the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) appointed a
Christchurch-born architect, Ian Athfield, as an Architectural Ambassador to Christchurch, it was interpreted
as a political bid for reappointment of the city’s mayor (Conway and Greenhill 2010). In fact, architects were
much more successful outside of the media limelight. At the national level, the NZIA worked with the
government’s Department of Building and Housing to develop strategies for mass housing post-earthquake;
Athfield proceeded to give over 50 public talks in his first year of his formal appointment as the Architectural
Ambassador in an endeavour to improve the public’s understanding of architecture; and many local
architects worked diligently with insurance companies to assess the damage of heritage buildings.
Despite such efforts, state-owned asset sales as a default economic strategy by the National-led Government
following the earthquake reinforces familiar tactics of disaster capitalism as seen in New Orleans and Haiti.
Even though scholars argue that government-led asset sales is a valid route of recovery strategy from lost
economic productivity (Stevenson et al. 2011), Farrell argued that New Zealanders are opposed to free-
market capitalism (Farrell 2011). The free-market policy is intended to foster innovation, but the lack of
design controls or establishment of standards meant that overall quality is lowered rather than pushed up.
Disaster can equally pave the way for heroic grassroots movements and community leaders to flourish, but
in the absence of architectural anchors, such as the aforementioned Christchurch Cathedral, that defined the
community, neo-liberal forces and hegemonic political-interest-groups can equally hijack the opportunity to
advance radical changes at the expense of disaster victims. Political proponents argue that the expert-
centred reconstruction is less time-consuming and more straightforward in decision-making and policy
implementation, but short-term advantages gained by such methods are lost in the longer term compared
with the community-centred approach.
Inasmuch as the socio-aesthetic convergence of architecture as an end product and as a process can create
tensions around architectural identity and empowerment, the concept of community design warrants
further reflection in terms of what it means (and for whom) in the post-disaster context. While the
involvement of architects in times of disaster offers no singular panacea to the complex environment of
disasters, architects involved in disaster recovery have the moral obligation to consider the consequences of
the professional service rendered as the legacy of their work will outlive those of most other experts,
including the first responders to disasters.
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CONCLUSION: BEYOND THE WICKED PROBLEMS, AN ARGUMENT FOR THE DESIGN DEMOCRACY OF
THE THIRD GENERATION
Future of democratic design

The Rittelian framework, while not explicitly employed by humanitarian agencies and designers as a formal
strategy, is a concept implicitly used by them. Framing post-disaster decision-making processes in terms of
wicked problems can help design-enablers in each community to navigate the complex environment of
disasters. Design education, more specifically, training in democratic design process is invaluable to
fostering creative capacities and commitment in our communities to reduce societal vulnerabilities when
natural disaster is afoot. Since 2012, Christchurch has hosted dozens of innovative events and projects
including the Festival of Transitional Architects (FESTA), a weekend dedicated to exhibiting new
architectural ideas and celebration of Christchurch’s transition into a new city. FESTA illustrates that
architecture can reflect community’s resilience and solidarity.
Some critics of humanitarian designers argue that architects are the last responders to disaster (Nussbaum
2007, Sanderson 2010), but this paper demonstrates that architects should work alongside the first
responders, and particularly with affected communities, because the groundwork for last responders cannot
wait until after the decision-makers and key stakeholders of disaster have left the room. This research began
with the question of how the ‘wicked problems’ framework is relevant to urban disasters, and has found that
wicked problems are, in fact, everywhere. Design leadership in the context of urban disasters often implies
physical transformation of post-disaster environments, but this paper demonstrates while the symbolic
impact of architecture through its lifecycle of construction, destruction, and reconstruction, remains a
powerful force for those it serves; architecture is an equally powerful agent in giving communities voice in
the process of disaster recovery.
Tim Brown, the founder of design consultancy IDEO, defended that society needs T-shaped professionals –
people who not only have deep specialisation in his or her field, but also ability to empathise with others
(Brown 2005). In other words, we need more architects. Yet an ethical pathway for architects cannot be pre-
defined (Lee 2012, 2013), as the reality of the working environment tends to be swamped with wicked
problems that require a series of improvised decisions and choices rather than those based on proven
solutions from the last century. The experiences of disaster professionals interviewed reaffirm that creativity
is an essential skill to have on stand-by, because design, ultimately, is a renewable resource and a source of
community empowerment.
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CITIZENSHIP, AGENCY AND CONTROL: CONTESTED URBANSCAPES IN THE MODERN CAPITAL OF
PAKISTAN.
Sundas Shahid, National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan, sundas.sh@gmail.com
Javaria Shahid, Columbia University, New York, USA, riash55@gmail.com
Abstract
When the Master Plan of Islamabad was designed by Constatinos Doxiadis in the 1960s, an internationally
famous and well-connected star architect of his time, the fundamental trope was that of human scale. A ‘Sector’
was designed such that it consisted of residential spaces for all income groups, including the lowest working class
to facilitate the wealthy. But like most Modernist cities conceived and designed in the 60’s it was city for the rich.
As the population increased, the city centers grew dense and the lowest working class, who were never really
conceived of as residents of the capital of the republic, were pushed towards the periphery of the city, forming
squatter settlements.
In the last forty years, thirty six squatter settlements have emerged within the outskirts of the capital city, as
‘communities within a community’ of underprivileged members of society, of which only eleven are
acknowledged by the government for aid. As the population continues to increase exponentially the inhabitants
are sporadically occupying more territory, and in order to facilitate and control these endeavors the government
plans to resettle the squatters that, in terms of government rhetoric, hinder its path to rapid urbanization.
This paper intends to discuss the idea of citizenship with regard to Henri Lefebvre’s concept of ‘right of space’,
which implies the right to urban life, defined as the right to appropriate and participate in the production of space.
The polemical intention of the paper is to define the evolving notion of citizenship in Islamabad, and its role in
creating equitable cities. The intention is to deliberate on the hypothesis that citizenship is an ideology
orchestrated through the geographies and imaginaries of inclusion and exclusion, as operational through space
and territory, and how the contestation of presences and absences in that space mark ownership, or the lack
thereof, to give rise to a new force of territoriality once that is promulgated through the various negotiations of
socio-political narratives of space.
Keywords: right to the city, master plan, doxiadis, citizenship, squatter settlements, modernist capital,
modern planning in the 1960s.
INTRODUCTION
The Hundred Quarter Christian Colony is one of the seven Christian informal settlements, referred to locally
as squatter settlements, ghettos and ‘kachi abadis’, that has resiliently survived within the picturesque
urban-scape of the capital of Pakistan over the course of some sixty years. The many informal settlements in
the city have been considered a ‘blemish’ on the pristine design of the master plan. Designed and built in
the 60’s by Constantinos Doxiadis it was the newly formed republic’s proclamation of democracy, the only
planned city in the country then and since, and one of the only ones in the region. But like many planned
cities of the 60’s it was a city designed for the rich and powerful, not the poor, and soon, in true modernist
episteme it was a modern city that succumbed to the informal ways of the evolution of a city that eventually
integrates its underclass.
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Figure 1: A deep alley in the 100 quarter Christian Colony.
The Christian colony is one such example of these developments. Over the course of the last few years the
colony, which was once just a group of clay structures housing household labor and garbage collectors,
nestled in a crevice of the grid iron master plan has grown into a burgeoning settlement of a few hundred
houses. The capital and its bureaucratic machinery would come to a halt were it not for the services
provided by the people of this colony. Unfortunately, their locale does not merit the same importance. The
area does not have a formal system for the provision of electricity, natural gas or sewerage. Neither do they
have a formal means of urban planning or development.
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Figure 2: Streets as social thriving spaces.
The colony thrives on only one electricity meter, shared amongst the entire populace of the slum. With very
few water pipes running through the colony, they have a non-existent sewage system. Ironically these are
the people that clean the sewage system for the rest of the city. The inhabitants thus greatly rely on the
communal taps that are found within the streets of the slum, waiting in line to fill their bucket of water.
Other times water is contributed as communal property from the households that do posess direct access to
water. Vegetable vendors patrol the unwinding streets, going from squatter to squatter delivering their
regular orders.
When viewed from a distance, the urban-scape mimics the Marghallas from the backdrop, soaring to the
skies as storey upon storey is added upon the existing houses to accommodate the ever rising population
and punctuated with blue water tanks and bright colored clothes hung at almost every terrace.
The streets connecting their houses are the greatest social spaces, this is where businesses are conducted,
where chess matches are lost and won, where kids play, where wedding processions take place, and
pertinently a space that the dwellers of the Christian colony share as their communal cache.
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Figure 3: Water used as cumulative property.

The community that resides within the parameters of the Christian Colony are almost completely
autonomous in deciding the course of their activities. Christmas is the most celebrated time of the year, and
for it they collect money from all households and decorate their colony in celebration. An activity that is self-
generated and self-managed.
Figure 4: Welcoming members of the Christian Colony.
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Figure 5: Chritmas in the Christian Colony.
Figure 6: Chritmas in the Christian Colony.
Despite all these obstacles the community, and many like it, continues to grow to the extent that 150,000 of
Islamabad’s population live in informal settlements. This colony offers valuable lessons for urban planners
and architects working to counter the problems of the modern master plans over the course of the last few
decades. Unfortunately the colony is looked down upon as a failure of the grand master plan, even though
evidence points to its grand successes in comparison to the modern master plan. In addition, the inhabitants
of the colony are forced to believe that their built environment and its informality is what needs rectification,
as opposed to being proud of their informal planning methods and use of indigenous building practices and
innovative use of recycled building materials.
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Figure 7: Girl from the Christian Colony.
Figure 8: Eager to participate.
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Figure 9: Boy from the Christian Colony.
Figure 10: Eager to participate.
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!
TERRITORY AND THE RIGHT TO SPACE
In 1947, when Pakistan came into being, several of its new citizens had to abandon their hearth and homes
and flee towards a newly formed country, a place that they could call their own, devoid of all class, religious
and racial segregation. But, it was a country whose specific geographic parameters and bearings were still
under dispute. It was this change in their territory that initiated a movement for reterritorialization, pertinent
for the existence of the new state. Pakistan needed a new capital, it needed to recreate an identity for the
inhabitants that could be a source of pride for their citizens. Islamabad emerged as the best location for the
capital, and was officially declared the final site for the creation of the new capital in 1960.
After a thorough analysis of the existing culture and prevalent values of the populace, a report titled ‘The
impressions from the site - the necessary data’ was published by Doxiadis, who believed in designing the
new city based on the habits and cultural values of the inhabitants. The design for the New Capital required
a new dogma. The answer to that Doxiadis found in the 'ekistic unit', which provided him with a new
architectural vocabulary with which he could design the new city. The ekistic unit gave him the basic
module for the 'human scale', a magnitude of space that could accommodate every individual throughout
the city. Through the iteration of this module, larger space hierarchies were produced and then meticulously
carved onto the spatial layout of the city in an order based on the class system dictated by the government.
“Ekistics caters to designing habitat starting with the human unit. The fifteen scalar elements that the
hierarchal order comprises of are the Anthropos, room dwelling, dwelling group, all the way to the scale of
the city, metropolis and megalopolis and so on. Doxiadis advocates that each space, its shape, size and
volume has to be dealt with at the corresponding scale level separately first, and then make sure that it
connects the ladder, from top to bottom in a nested hierarchy of functions, with all its corresponding
elements” (Doxiadis 1960, pp. 13-18).
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The fifteen scalar elements assisted in defining the city's overall dimensions and the dimensions of the basic
grid square, the modulus, which by continuous repetition forms the master plan for the city. These anthropic
moduli are accumulated to form larger blocks or sectors. These Sectors comprise of a five level Hierarchy,
dividing the populace into five distinct groups, as shown in the table below (Hull 2012).
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Class Community Population

V 30,000-40,000
IV 10,000
IIV 2500
III 100
II 1-4
Table 1 Population distribution.
These dwelling groups are self-sufficient and self-contained in terms of their day-to-day needs. In the heart
of every sector is a civic center or a ‘markaz’ consisting of business, medical, recreational, and civic activities.
In every Class V Community, there is space for a post office, a fire and police station, a large mosque, food
and clothing markets. For the Class III community there is the provision for a primary school, a small mosque
and a small market, and for every Class II community accommodates a kindergarten and a children's
playground. A similar hierarchal order can be discerned in the allocation of spaces for facilities as health,
recreation and sports etc. Every Markaz was to be self-sustained, to unite various social categories and
economic functions. It set up a framework within which the populace was to be available to be disciplined
until the means and methods of discipline became internalized.
Figure 11 Community Class IV, sub sector G-6-1.
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Since the conception of the capital, a very strong class system was resonant in the scheme of the master
plan. The organization of the social order was based on the spatial and functional array. The residents that
were to inhabit the sectors were conceptualized as the citizens belonging to various classes was organized
by the national bureaucratic hierarchy.
“Civil servants who have more or less the same income and belong to the same class of civil service should
be allocated to similar units. Houses given to peons should all be of the same nature, of the same design,
and the same accommodation capacity. Otherwise, bad feelings would be created among civil servants
belonging to one and the same class” (Hull 2012).
Figure 12: Doxiadis's drawing showing the spatial layout of the house types based on income.
The mixing of these varying populations was based on the idea of a gradual integration of the lower income
group to mature to the level of the higher income group so that they would eventually form a cohesive
strata of society. Also so the lower income may serve the needs of higher income class, this strategy resulted
in a society that was based predominantly on government scale and ranking as a representation of the
general order of social status, a further reinforcement of the governmental form of control.
Thus came about the beautiful city of Islamabad, the only to-date planned city in all of Pakistan, with its tree
lined streets, green belts alongside wide avenues and highways, roads which are regularly swept early in the
mornings before the urban inhabitants commute to work. Residential streets are cleared of domestic trash
and picked up and deposited in the communal trash for every sector and then picked up by trash trucks and
eliminated from the city altogether.
As the rightful citizens unflinchingly go about their daily routines, they do so unmindful of the lack of agency
of those that make their daily routines so routine, those who remain faceless and unimportant, as they have
been since the conception of the master plan of the grand capital.
These agents, responsible for their cities image, are the ones that dwell in impoverished slums within the
city. Labeled the 'yellow jackets' or the 'four class citizens', driven to the capital by the promise of
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employment and a better life when construction was booming in the 1960s, they chose to stay here with the
promise of a better livelihood. Once welcomed in the new capital to build and clean the city, they are now
deemed to live in insolvent slums.
Some of their comrades in the slums are those that migrated due to lack of job opportunities and
impoverished life conditions from areas of Central Punjab; from Faisalabad, Sialkot and Narrowal. Another
major reason for their migration to the capital was to flee from anti-Christian sentiments that are still found
in the rural areas of the country. Almost all the inhabitants of the slums the paper is focusing on are
Christians. These people are not only discriminated against for their status and occupation, but also their
religion.
When the capital was designed, it was designed pertinently to accommodate the bureaucrats and the elite.
The spatial needs of the service providers and those that cleaned their city were completely overlooked.
However, a change in the master plan was formulated in 1988 to give 30 plots in each sector to the dwellers
of the Katchi Abadis. But the change in the government has caused inconsistency in their urban policies and
these people continue to live in impoverished conditions.
In 1992 'The Punjab Katchi Abadis Act' was drawn up, deigning the criteria for legitimizing the slums within
the city. There are about thirty six slums in the city, of which only eleven are recognized by the government.
The legislation states that no dwelling will be recognized by the government which has been set up after
1985. In addition, according to the legislation, the government was to 'arrange civic amenities and civic
services' and to introduce schemes of 'community planning, housing, re-housing including low cost housing
and amelioration; and the rehabilitation of occupants of Katchi Abadis.
While the government has exercised its right to ‘evict or cause to be evicted unauthorized persons or
remove or cause to be removed encroachments from Katchi Abadis in accordance with the law for the time
being in force’, it has failed to ameliorate their existing conditions or to relocate the slum dwellers to spaces
with better or any infrastructure.
Mr. Kamarat Masee of the F-6/1 slum has alleged that his house has been demolished twenty four times to
date in the past five years. Mr. Kamarat is one of the 98,000 illegal residents living in the twenty slums in the
city of Islamabad. The constant demolitions have led to resilience of the inhabitants towards the
government's policies towards the slum dwellers. Their houses are mostly made of mud, bricks and iron
sheet roofs. While some dare not construct permanent structures as it would just be a waste of resources.
Others bribe the government officials and construct concrete houses, which has increased the number of
sturdy houses within the slums.
In other instances, we see the use of recycled building materials, like old windows, doors, piping, structural
elements etc. Again the aspiration is to keep the cost down in the event that the structures are demolished
and have to be built from scratch again. It is often the case that the structures will be demolished to appease
higher level government officials. Permission to rebuild will be given by lower level officials in a few months’
time and when they have received substantial bribes. The reason why the community puts itself through the
struggle repeatedly is because of their inability to find adequate, affordable residence close to the city
center, where most of them work. The other reason for this resilience is community ties. Within the
community lies the only acceptance they have been able to find in the capital, amongst their peers who do
not judge due to their religious affiliations, occupation and social standing, because they too are judged.
The only partially thought out attempt made by the government was to relocate them to a township called
Alipur Farash, which lacked basic amenities such as sewerage, gas and in some houses even electricity. Thus
this exercise was only to relocate the inhabitants to an equally impoverished place, only this time it was
away from the city center, and conveniently far from the eyes of the elite and the government.
As the population within these slums continues to rise, they thrive without the basic amenities. The
government, instead of taking actions to fix their deplorable conditions, has announced the final eviction
and demolition of twelve of the Katchi Abadis in the capital in March 2014, with no plan to relocate the
evictees from the slums. As the residents of the slums protest against the government action, they also fight
for their citizenship, their place in the capital they have served for generations. These people have lived in
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this country for more than 25 years, they have helped build it and have maintained the ‘clean’ image of the
modern capital for the entirety of their existence in this city.
It is under these circumstances that the right to citizenship for such inhabitants is contested. What really
constitutes the right to space? In a place where policy making is driven by economic development and
government interests, who speaks out for the non-franchised denizens?
Lebensraum, ‘living space’, was a key proponent of Nazi ideology. German expansion and the takeover of
other people's land was justified because they believed only superior races deserved space for their social
and economic reproduction and that inferior races should either be content with living in extremely
constrained spaces and should be evicted whenever superiors require greater living space due to
overpopulation in their given territories, or else they should be wiped out.
The tropes of urban planning in Islamabad are a reconfiguration of this fascist ideology. For years the
question of providing adequate housing for the poor was dismissed by allowing them to settle in informal
settlements so that the elites could benefit at the behest of the underclass. The land value of the land these
settlements occupy in the heart of the city has risen consistently over the course of many years and the
government and its many affiliates in the land developer sector now want to cash in on the opportunity to
seize this land, dislocate the inhabitants and monetize what was in Doxiadis’ master-plan left over spaces in
the grid iron spatialization of the capital.
An equal right to the city for all its inhabitants must be recognized as a fundamental human right. This is not
just the story of the Christian Colony in Islamabad, but the story of the thirty others like it in the city, and
hundreds across Karachi, Lahore and other urban centers in the country.
RIGHT TO THE CITY
The ideology of the ‘the right to the city’ was conscripted by Henri Lefebvre to radically restructure social,
political, and economic relations, both within the city and beyond. And the methodology for this scheme
was to direct the decision making towards the producers of the urban space and away from the state, to
enfranchise the inhabitants of the city that dwells within these precincts and are directly affected by the
decisions that are made regarding the space.
Since urban space is so pertinent to the ideation of ‘the right to city’, Lefebvre's interpretation is paramount
to this discussion. His views of urban space do not just superficially cede to just the physical manifestation of
it, rather they go beyond the objective strata of its discernment. According to Lefebvre three kinds of space
exist, ‘perceived space’, ‘conceived space’ and ‘lived space’. ‘Perceived space’ relates to the objective space
that the population distinguish, the physical space that they experience in their daily routines. ‘Conceived
space’ refers to our mental perception of space, space which is equivocal to individuals and groups. ‘Lived
space’ is the intrinsic assimilation of conceived and perceived space. Lived space is the true representation
of the population’s urban narratives. It is the nexus between the urban physical manifestation and the socio-
cultural aspects of a society. Lived space is not just a malleable set of points in which our social life unfolds,
rather it is a paramount component of it. Thus social life and lived space are irrefutably assimilated in a
complex realm.
The production of urban space requires more than just the physical attributes of the material space of the
city; it improvises all aspect of socio-cultural activities of the urban life. “The right to the city is like a cry and a
demand...a transformed and renewed right to the urban life”
The doctrine of Lefebvre's right to the city, entails enfranchisement of the population with reference to all
aspects of social life and lived space within the urban realm. Currently, enfranchisement is dictated to those
inhabitants that can legally deign themselves citizens of a particular country. But, Lefebvre's right to the city
dictates that enfranchisement should be promulgated to those that inhabit the city. Only those entities can
legitimately claim the right to the city that contributes to the production of social and lived space. According
to the doctrine of right to the city, citizenship is acquired not just through nationality, ethnicity or birth;
rather through the individuals input to the production of urban space. Lefebvre assimilates the notion of
inhabitance and citizenship to give rise to the ‘citadins’. He states that the right to the city “should modify,
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concretize and make more practical the rights of the of the citizens as an urban dweller (citadin) and user of
multiple services. It would affirm, on the one hand, the right to the users to make known their ideas on the
space and time of their activities in the urban area; it would also cover the right to the use of the center, a
privileged place, instead of being dispersed and stuck into ghettos (for workers, immigrants, the 'marginal'
and even for the 'priviliged')” (Marcuse 2009, p. 75).
The right to the city disabuses itself from pro government policies by the advocating two principles; the
right to ‘participation’ and the right to ‘appropriation’. The right to participation entails the citadin's central
and direct participation in legislative matters concerning their urban space, their enfranchisement must not
be filtered through other organizations of organizational bodies. And a way of struggling for a city and the
production of its urban space so that it is controlled by its inhabitants.
The right to appropriation inculcates the right to physically occupy and access urban space. By
appropriating their space, citadins re-establish the ties to their urban asset and to radically transforms our
notions of who truly owns the city. It is an attempt to distinguish between the use vale of urban residents
and the exchange value of capitalist agents and to question the government's attempt to valorize urban
space for their own interests.
These two combined together propose a political identity that integrates the activated citadins into the web
of social connections that encapsulate their city in a warp of autonomy.
AUTOGESTION
The process of urbanization is contigent to the autonmous force of its own. But where the autonomy
originates from greatly determines what the urbanization will represent.Right to the city is a way to
augment the rights of the urban inhabitants against the capitalistic interests of the governement. It is
termed as the ‘contract of citizenship’ and is further propogated as the idea of ‘autogestion’. Autogestion is a
way for urban inhabitants to self manage, to mobilze decision making from the grass root level and the
decentralization of control to autonomous local units. “Eeach time a social group.....refuses to accept
passively its conditions of existence,of life, or of survival, each time such a group forces itself not only to
understand but to master its own conditions of existence, autogestion is occuring” (Butler 2012, p. 100).
Autogestion is a methodology through which the people can be empowered. It enables the transaction of
autonomy from the capitalist avenues to the regular people, an avenue where it truly belongs. It has the
capactiy to bring about a radical social movement, contested through the urban.
By making the inhabitants realize their potential to autonomize their own territory and capability to
autogest, the gap between the government and the citadins can be minimized.
“The new political contract I propose will be only a point of departure for initiatives, ideas, even
interpretations. This is not a dogmatic text. What is important is that this idea of contractual citizenship gives
rise to a renewal of political life: a movement that has historic roots, roots in revolution, in Marxism, in
production and production labor. But the movement must go beyond ideology so that new forces enter into
action, come together, and bear down on the established order. This movement would accomplish
democratically a project that has been abandoned: the dictatorship of the proletariat. It would lead, without
brutality, to the withering away of the state” (Bidet & Kouvelakis 2001).
Under the current scheme of government policies regarding urban development, the city is being
fragmented into segments of territories, the boundaries of which are evident in both our conceived and
perceived spaces. Divided and commodified on the basis of race and economic differences, and aggravated
by the innuendos of government. These factors have managed to segregate users and quarantined them to
their sterilized spaces, now dominating all claims over the right to the city. Autogestion is a way of
countering this debacle, by opening up avenues where the citizen could encounter, play and interact with
one and increase their dependence on social connections within the consortium of citadins and so they may
contribute to the urban as a unanimous endeavor.
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This paper elucidates the segregation that exists in the urban dwellers, which is deeply rooted in the
conceived space and is inarguably reflected in the perceived spaces of the city. The first step towards fixing
the problem of inequitable urban development is diagnosing the problem itself. While in other geographical
locations; the concept of ‘right to the city’ may seem like a platitude of sorts, in a country like Pakistan it
remains a foreign notion to govern the denizens. It remains an alien yet vital concept that needs to be
retrofitted within our urban governance.
Henri Lefebvre's right to the city serves as a doctrine through which a framework can be formulated to serve
as a means to grant autonomy to these individuals. The right to participation and appropriation can be
morphed into the idea of autogestion. These concepts serve as a basis for developing a theoretical model on
which concrete programs can be initiated to give these communities the right to appropriate their space.
These doctrines foster the sentiments of interdisciplinary cooperation to promulgate social cohesion to
mitigate segregation within the conceived space. So the denizens may foster urban cultural diversity and
democratic urban governance.
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http://punjablaws.gov.pk/laws/385.html.
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EVALUATING THE IMPORTANCE OF TRADITIONAL URBAN SPACE IN SOUTH AFRICA’S CITIES: A CASE
STUDY OF THE USE OF URBAN SPACE IN FOUR SOUTH AFRICAN CITIES
Gavin McLachlan, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, architecture@nmmu.ac.za
Abstract
Electronic communications (ICT) and access to transportation mobility provide the connecting network for
communities of the relatively wealthy who often choose to live in a dispersed urban region. In South Africa,
however, where the recently urbanized only have limited access to ICT and independent transport, traditional
urban space is still the networking mechanism that the poor need. In South Africa this co-existence has led to both
creative vitality as well as conflict in the use of urban space. Resolving this dichotomy has important implications
for South Africa's cities. Important inner-city urban spaces were identified in Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Cradock
and Grahamstown. Activities were monitored over a twenty-four hour cycle and analyzed by type, duration,
intensity and spatial impact. Points of conflict and coherence were identified. The main findings of the study
include the vital importance of traditional urban space for the poor for whom it provides an important resource
for trade, the heavy demands that their intensity of use puts on the material fabric of the space, and their need for
space that unlocks opportunity. This intense vitality in the use of urban space is often perceived as hostile by the
relatively wealthy. The implication of the study for South African cities is the vital importance of maintaining
compact, traditional urban space as a key urban resource for the poor, and managing this resource effectively.
Keywords: social impacts, social impact, spatial cultures, urban opportunities.
INTRODUCTION
The change that has taken place in South Africa over the past few decades is well known and has been
widely reported. Many consider that the demise of Apartheid really represents the final end of colonialism
and the beginnings of the life of a truly modern state (Dumbrell 2013). The societal context within South
Africa is one of great diversity both in terms of race, ethnicity, religion and socio-economic status. While the
claims that South Africa is the country with the greatest divergence between rich and poor represent
somewhat exaggerated political polemic, it is true that as a developing country, many of our citizens are
unskilled newcomers to the money economy, while others have long had access to this. The consequences
for our cities of both the democratization of South Africa and the dynamic socio-economic conditions within
the country have been marked. Rates of urbanization are high and, as is the case elsewhere in the
developing world, those who are newcomers to the city are drawn from the poorest and most
disadvantaged sections of the rural communities. Simultaneously, along with the growing global digital and
wealth divide, those with the means are increasingly networked into the digitized economy and have access
to efficient private means of transportation. It is evident that wealthy and relatively wealthy citizens have for
some time favoured the dispersed urban form with its suburbia, green space, gated communities and access
to well resourced schools, shopping malls and medical facilities. A typical case is KHM, a close relative of the
author, who works in the financial services industry and lives in Johannesburg’s plush northern suburbs in a
gated complex and has no need whatsoever to venture into Johannesburg’s old Central Business District. He
is typical of a very large number of affluent South Africans. The author lives in Port Elizabeth where exactly
the same process, albeit on a smaller scale, has been going on for some time, as it has in Cape Town, Durban
and virtually every other South African city and town. For the large numbers of South Africa’s recently
urbanized poor who are living in social housing in the old townships or are in squatter camps, the situation
is markedly different. Access to the digitized economy is limited by lack of skills and money, and private
transport is very limited indeed. Although they live often in a dispersed location, theirs is not the affluent life
in the suburbs. The old inner city and Central Business Districts of our cities have become the domain of
many of these people. Informal traders crowd the streets, mini-bus taxis dominate the roads, many are
residing in what used to be commercial office buildings in these old inner-city areas and increasingly the
nature of shopping has changed to meet their needs. This process has served to increase the contrast
between the suburbs and the city with the suburbanites feeling threatened and unsafe in the inner-city.
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This paper is a description of a series of research undertakings by final year architecture students at the
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s School of Architecture. The aim of these research undertakings
was to try to establish through observation what was actually happening in the traditional inner-city space
in a number of towns in the western part of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. These inner-city
spaces were generally developed in the very late eighteenth or early nineteenth Century and had
undergone a number of changes over the centuries, all reflecting changing patterns of usage and
investment. Over the last three decades, they had become predominantly the preserve of a clientele that
reflected the larger changes in South African society. The issue that was being investigated was how well did
this traditional inner-city space meet the changed needs of those who now dominated and used it? Inner-
city spaces in Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Cradock and Grahamstown were selected. Teams of students were
allocated a space to study and they were required to observe usage of and in the space over a twenty-four
hour period, and to report their findings.
Figure'1:"Location"of"the"towns"
that" were" the" sites" of" study"
(Source:"Google"Maps)."
The theoretical framework for the research was based on thinking around the area of research known
generally as environment behaviour studies, especially on the work of Gary T Moore and others. In their
writings, they describe a systematic study of the usage of any space in terms of the interconnected concepts
of environment behaviour phenomena, user groups, and behaviour settings (Moore 1979, pp. 46 - 71; Moore
and Golledge 1976, pp. 138 – 164; Garling and Evans 1991). Environment behaviour phenomena are defined
as “a different aspect of human behaviour in relation to everyday physical environments” (Moore 1979, p.
49). User groups are seen as specific groups of people sharing common needs, such as children, women, the
elderly, etc. (Ibid. p. 50). The user groups that we decided to observe included informal traders, formal
businesses, pedestrians and vehicle users. Behaviour settings include “all settings from the room scale to the
region” (Ibid). We were looking to identify patterns of behaviour that were repeated in the selected urban
spaces, and we were concerned to identify the fit or misfit between the space and the pattern of behaviour.
From these observations we aimed to describe to some extent the real nature of the usage and importance
of the space through identifying key spatial issues. Moore (ibid. p. 51) sees the importance of this kind of
information in its role in the cyclical nature of the design process. This is a process that involves “user
research, policy decisions, programming, preliminary design alternatives, selection, design development,
environmental management, post-occupancy evaluation, and feedback into additional research, decision
making, and programming, and into improved general design knowledge” (ibid.).
The spaces
Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage are both part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Area, South Africa’s
fourth largest urban agglomeration. Port Elizabeth is the largest city in the metropolitan area, which can
trace its origin to the locating of a military garrison on the southern shores of Algoa Bay by the British in
1798. The topography of the site determined that the initial development would consist of a linear ribbon
along the coastline below an escarpment. The principal street, now known as Govan Mbeki Avenue, soon
developed as the principal commercial street. Four different, but strategic sections of this street were
identified and allocated to four groups of students. These strips of Govan Mbeki Avenue were the strip from
Market Square to Donkin Street (Team A), the Strip from Donkin Street to Russel Road (Team B), the strip
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from Russel Road to Brister House including the large taxi rank (Team C), and finally, the strip of Govan Mbeki
Avenue from Albany Road to and including Pier 14 (Team D).
Figure 2: Spaces Studied in Port Elizabeth (Source: Google Earth 19.08.2013).
Figure 3: View down Govan Mbeki Avenue from Team A and Team B (Source: Dempsey Photography 2010).
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Figures'4a:"View"of"Govan"Mbeki"Avenue,"Team"C"""""Figure'4b:"Russel"Road"Taxi"Rank,"
Team"C"(Source:"Photos"by"L"Stroth)."
!
Figure 5: Govan Mbeki Avenue at Pier 14 in Team D (Source: Photo by M van Wyk).
Uitenhage is the second city of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Area. It was founded by the colonial
representatives of the Batavian Republic in their brief inter-regnum in 1804. Uitenhage is located high up in
the Swartkops Valley below the Groot Winterhoek Mountains. It was laid out grid-iron style on the arable
land to the north of the river. Caledon Street and very quickly became the principal commercial street, and a
central strip of this street was allocated to a group (Team E).
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Figure'6:"Caledon"Street"in"Uitenhage"(Source:"Google"Earth"
19.08.2013)."
!
Figure 7: View of Caledon Street, Uitenhage, Team E(Source: Nelson Mandela Bay Publicity 2012).
Cradock is located on the Great Fish River about 200 kilometres inland from Algoa Bay on the N10 national
route to Johannesburg. It was founded by the British in 1812 as a military garrison in order to protect the
then Eastern border of the Cape Colony. Stockenstrom Street was then, and still is, one of the principal
commercial streets in the town. A portion of Stockenstrom Street was allocated to a group for study (Team
F).
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Figure'8:"Stockenstrom"Street"in"
Cradock"(Source:"Google"Earth"
19.08.2013)."
"
Figure 9: Stockenstrom Street, Cradock, Team F (Source: Photo by S de Vries).
Grahamstown is located about 130 kilometres inland and to the north-east of Algoa Bay on the N2 national
route to Durban. Grahamstown was founded by the British as a military settlement on the troubled eastern
frontier of the Cape Colony in 1812. It was located on a ridge between two streams and is set in a valley
surrounded by hills. It too was laid out grid-iron style with High Street as the central street space. High
Street quickly became the principal commercial space of the town. The final group was allocated High Street
as their space to study (Team G).
Figure'10:"High"Street"in"Grahamstown"(Source:"Google"
Earth"9.08.2013)."
!
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Figure'11:"High"Street"in"Grahamstown,"
Team"G.""
(Source:"Photo"by"B"van"den"Heever)."
!
The observations
Firstly, one must acknowledge that research undertaken by students, even fairly senior students, has its
limitations in terms of accuracy of observation and the general reliability of the findings. With this as a
cautionary background consideration, the observations and general findings of the student teams are
nevertheless notable as snapshots of the use of important inner-city spaces in South Africa in early 2013.
Observations of space usage were recorded photographically as well as with sketches and on data sheets.
Unfortunately, due to ethical considerations, the students were not allowed to interview any person. The
collected data was collated and interpreted by the student teams who interacted with three staff members
who provided advice on the process the students were using. The following is a brief summary of the
observations and findings of the teams of students.
The four spaces that were investigated in Port Elizabeth, all extensions of Govan Mbeki Avenue, can be
divided into three categories. Firstly, the two spaces stretching from Market Square to Russel Road (Teams A
and B), secondly, the space from Russel Road to Brister House (Team C) and finally, the space from Albany
Road to Pier 14 (Team D).
The two spaces stretching from Market Square to Russel Road are really very uniform in character due to an
urban design intervention in the early 2000’s that partially pedestrianized this length of Govan Mbeki Avenue,
and it is possible to consider the findings of Teams A and B together. The formality of the stalls and storage
boxes provided for the informal traders is noted by both teams (Braithwaite et al. 2013, p. 12; Boshoff et al.
2013, p. 11). Team B notes that “the intensity of informal trade ….begins to pick up from 11am as the street
becomes more busy…and there is a marked increase in the amount of groceries bought from informal traders
from 4pm” as people head homeward (Braithwaite et al. 2013, p. 13). Questions are asked about the flexibility
of the informal trader’s stalls, the adequacy of storage and display and their orientation (ibid.). The fact that
formal retail has adjusted to provide for the needs of the relatively poor African clientele that now dominate
the space is noted by both teams (Braithwaite et al. 2013, p. 12; Boshoff et al. 2013, p. 9). Significant volumes
of pedestrians are recorded by both teams and the provision for walking is considered by Braithwaite et al (p.
14) to be adequate. Fairly heavy vehicular traffic is noted by both and the difficulties of providing for loading
and unloading service vehicles is noted by Braithwaite et al (p18) as well as the generally inadequate provision
for parking. Observations regarding a number of other aspects in their documents include formal and
informal trade, shading, loading and unloading, waste disposal, walking, surface conditions, sitting, gathering,
ablutions, vehicles usage and parking. In general, they describe an active, bustling space with mixed
pedestrian and vehicular usage and formalized provision for hawkers as a result of the urban design
intervention, a space dominated by poor African pedestrians, their transport and their formal and informal
shopping.
The space from Russel Road to Brister House has a more complex pattern of usage. Adjacent to and an
extension of the street is the large Russel Road mini-bus Taxi Rank. It is clear from the study of this space that
the Taxi Rank is the generator of significant volumes of pedestrians both arriving and leaving, of significant
informal trade and considerable vehicular traffic and congestion (Monsma et al. 2013, pp. 6–9). The space is
restricted by the freeway interchange, the changes in level and the existing quite heavy flows of through
traffic around the Taxi Rank. Formal street edge businesses on the south side of Govan Mbeki Avenue and in
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Strand Street benefit considerably from the high numbers of pedestrians. The area is observed to be dirty
and harsh with no planting, a considerable amount of litter and signs of hard, unforgiving usage (ibid. p.11).
The space in Govan Mbeki Avenue around Pier 14 is a linear extension of the old Central Business District.
Pier 14 is an internalized inner-city mall. The street consists of narrow sidewalks, vehicular parking, four traffic
lanes and two Bus Rapid Transport dedicated lanes. The “arterial like nature of the street” with a “high
intensity of vehicular movement” is noted (Goosen et al. 2013, p. 9). Busses, mini-bus taxis, service vehicles
and private vehicles together create considerable congestion (ibid.). It is noted that “pedestrian
concentrations occur around strategic nodes such as taxi stops and the entrances to Pier 14” (ibid. p. 10).
Pedestrian volumes are described as heavy with a peak in the late afternoon (ibid.). Informal trade is
concentrated against the blank wall of Pier 14 between the entrances and there is “a lack of integration of
informal activities and formalised space” (ibid.).
Caledon Street in Uitenhage consists of narrow sidewalks, parking and four lanes of vehicular roadway. Team
E who were studying Caledon Street noted “high levels of pedestrian and vehicular activity mainly by
township residents” (Jennings et al. 2013, p. 13). Informal mini-bus taxi drop off points have developed that
cause congestion and there is a notable intensity of pedestrian activity that is periodic related to the train
station (ibid.). The intersection of Caledon and Market streets is observed to be particularly busy. There are
no seating or designed resting places for pedestrians and public ablutions are lacking (ibid. p. 14). All the pre-
existing trees have been removed to provide space for parking. Vehicular traffic is fairly heavy with
pedestrians crossing the street at controlled crossings and also jaywalking.
Stockenstrom Street in Cradock forms part of the N10 national road between Port Elizabeth and
Johannesburg. De Vries et al (2013, p. 6) state that “intensified traffic flow through the town has changed the
nature of Stockenstrom Street from a quiet residential street to a vibrant urban environment that presents
economic and social opportunity to its residents”. They identify the evidence of this new opportunity in the
old houses that have been transformed into formal and informal businesses, the use of bold signage to
communicate with the passing motorists and truckers, the demolition of unsuitable old buildings and the
redevelopment of these sites to suit new needs, the intensity of through traffic especially heavy trucks, and
the widening of the road to accommodate the increase in traffic (ibid. p. 12). The increase in informal trade is
also noted in relation to the mini-bus taxi rank and along the street edges. They conclude that “the role of
Stockenstrom Street has changed into a highly trafficked street….. where there is no longer a single
dominant user group and the space has to accommodate new users with a multiplicity of new needs and
forces”, in some cases they argue the old buildings and urban space suffice, but in others they have needed
adaptation (ibid. p. 21).
High Street in Grahamstown is a destination street that links the campus of Rhodes University at its south-
western end to the Cathedral of St Michael and St George at its north-eastern end. High Street has fairly wide
pavement sidewalks with trees and parking, and it also incorporates two tarred carriageways with a centre
island with some additional trees and some sculpture. Team G observed that “at the eastern end …..the
street is one chaotic jumble of pedestrians, shoppers and commuters” and that “the predominant user group
in this space is the poorer people from the townships” (Smith et al. 2013, p. 15). There is extensive use of
mini-bus taxis, with pick up’s and drop off’s happening anywhere along the street and this adds to the
congestion (ibid.). Large formal shops still dominate in High Street, but informal traders “sell goods along the
High Street edges turning their backs on the road and opening up to the pavement” and further increasing
the congestion (ibid. p. 16). There are also informal traders on parts of the centre island. The team observed
that while the middle part of High Street is equally busy the character of this portion with the Magistrates
Courts and the High Courts is more institutional. The south-western portion, near the University campus, is
the quietest. They conclude that the street “still provides the necessary and essential functions that the
community of Grahamstown need……and it is still fulfilling the role of a High Street” (ibid. p. 28) albeit under
changed circumstances.
CONCLUSION
It is apparent from the students observations and comments that these old inner-city urban street spaces
are experiencing heavy usage by a predominantly, but not exclusively, African clientele. The majority of
these users arrive by mini-bus taxi or by conventional public bus service. In the case of Port Elizabeth, the
nearby Metrorail Station may also provide access to the inner-city for many, but this was not examined by
the students. There has been a considerable growth in informal trade in all of these spaces as has happened
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elsewhere in the developing world. Formal trade has also adapted its offerings to be more suited to the
needs of the clientele who now dominate the use of these spaces.
A number of the spaces have been adapted in order to accommodate new needs. The space in Govan Mbeki
Avenue from Market Square to Russel Road has been adapted through an urban design intervention that
has attempted to accommodate the needs of the contemporary groups of pedestrians, vehicle users, formal
traders and informal traders who use the space. The space in Govan Mbeki Avenue from Russel Road to
Brister House has been considerably altered by the development in the 1990’s of the large Russel Road Taxi
Rank. In Cradock, the development of the N10 and the growth of heavy through traffic have led to both
changes in the buildings along the road as well as to widening of the road. It seems likely that in many of
these inner-city spaces a variety of interventions might be needed in the future as space usage intensifies
and changes.
In some of these spaces there was a lack of facilities that would provide for the greater safety and comfort of
the users. In Grahamstown, Uitenhage and the strip of Govan Mbeki Avenue around Pier 14, there were
reports of a lack of seating and gathering space and facilities and a lack of public ablutions. In Cradock, it is
really the opportunity for profit from the through traffic that has motivated the development of new
buildings and changes to the street. Provision for the needs of the disabled was only noted in the urban
design initiative in Govan Mbeki Avenue. Around the Russel Road Taxi Rank, considerable amounts of litter
were observed. It is self-evident, however, that for intensified use of urban space to be sustained the basic
human needs of the users must be provided for in a safe, convenient and clean manner and routine
maintenance is also required.
To sum up, the students observations describe in all cases busy, vital, used urban space. Nowhere did they
report empty streets or low levels of usage. The population predominating in these spaces has changed to
more accurately represent the demographics of these cities, which was not the case previously. Contrary to
popular belief, these traditional inner-city spaces are not dying, they are in fact vital and very busy to the
extent that in most cases there are signs that they are struggling to cope with the pressures of heavy usage.
This usage has changed in that there has been a considerable growth in informal trade, the focus of the
formal businesses has changed, the transportation links have changed to accommodate predominantly
mini-bus taxis, and the flows of pedestrians have probably become more intense. Future planning for the
use of these spaces needs to take into account these factors in developing scenarios of intervention.
REFERENCES
Boshof C, Haupt, T, Jafta, M, McBean, A & Storm, M., 2013. ‘The nature and role of Govan Mbeki Avenue from
Market Square to Donkin Street’, unpublished student report, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port
Elizabeth.
Braithwaite J, Stephenson, R, Njikelana, S, Roussouw, C & Muller, P., 2013. ‘An analysis of use and
infrastructure in Govan Mbeki Avenue between Donkin Street and Russel Road’, unpublished student report,
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth.
De Vries S, Briers, S, de Goede, T, Stewart, S & Wright, M., 2013. ‘An investigation into the changed role of
Stockenstrom Street, Cradock’, unpublished student report, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port
Elizabeth.
Dumbrell K., 2013. ‘Unpublished lecture notes’, Heritage Resources Management Course, Rhodes University,
Environmental Learning Research Centre, Grahamstown.
Garling T & Evans, G., (eds), 1991. Environment cognition and action: An integrated approach, Oxford University
Press, New York.
Goosen TC, Pretorius, J, van Wyk, M, Botma, C & Murdoch, Q., 2013. ‘A case study of urban space in Govan
Mbeki Avenue around Pier 14’, unpublished student report, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port
Elizabeth.
Jennings S, Hashe, C, Sipuka, Z & Barnard, E., 2013. ‘Uitenhage urban research project’, unpublished student
report, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth.
Monsma D Tonga, H, Stroth, L, Simic, I & Khemi, M., 2013. ‘A study of Govan Mbeki Avenue between the
Russel Road Interchange and Brister House’, unpublished student report, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
University, Port Elizabeth.
Moore GT., 1979. ‘Environment behaviour studies’, in JC Snyder and AJ Cantanese (eds), Introduction to
Architecture, pp. 46-71, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Moore GT., 1976. ‘Theory and research on the theory of environmental knowing’, in GT Moore & RG Golledge
(eds), Environmental Knowing: Theories, Research and Methods, pp. 138-164, Van Nosrand Reinhold, New York.
Smith T, van Niekerk, M, van den Heever, B, Keefer, T & Redona, JP., 2013. ‘Report on the High Street in
Grahamstown’, unpublished student report, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth.
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EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF COMFORT LEVELS IN BUILDINGS EXPOSED TO DIFFERENT WIND

ORIENTATIONS IN WARM HUMID CLIMATES
Dr. Odim Onuoha, Department of Architecture, Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria,
Odimodimgroup@yahoo.com,
Elijah Chika Azubuine, Department of Architecture, Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria,
chikazubuine@yahoo.com
George Chinedu Alozie, Department of Architecture, Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria,
george_alozie@yahoo.com,
Abstract
Thermal comfort problems associated with warm humid climates in Nigeria and other developing counties have
been a major concern for architects and other environmental designers confronted with the task of designing
buildings with acceptable indoor thermal comfort standards. This paper, through controlled experiments, studies
the indoor comfort levels of buildings with North-West/South-East (Model A) and North-East/South-West (Model
B) wind orientations. Data on thermal comfort factors including air temperature and relative humidity among
others were obtained from the experimental model buildings (Model A and Model B) specifically constructed for
this comparative experiment at the premises of Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria. Data obtained from the
experimental units and thermal comfort parametric ranges already established were analyzed using statistical
tools involving central tendency and dispersion. Results showed statistical significant differences for the air
temperature of the model buildings. Also, the differences in relative humidity of the model buildings were not
statistically significant. Model B with North-East/South-West wind orientation had a more acceptable indoor
comfort level. This paper therefore recommends North-East/South-West wind orientation for maximum air flow
as a passive means for the achievement of better indoor comfort conditions and consequently lower energy usage
for the development of low cost houses in warm humid climates.
Keywords: building, temperature, thermal comfort, warm humid climate, wind orientation.
INTRODUCTION
Givoni (1987) defines thermal comfort as the absence of irritation and discomfort due to heat or cold, or in a
positive sense, as a state involving pleasantness. It is therefore a subjective sensation which expresses
satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the thermal environment.
For the determination of thermal comfort, six major factors are considered. They are: Air temperature in the
occupied space; net radiant temperature exchange rate between the body and the environment; relative
humidity of the air in the space; rate of air movement around a person; rate of activity (or metabolic rate)
and insulation level of a person’s clothing (Heerwagen 2004; Koenigsberger, Ingersoll, Mayhem and
Sozkolay 1973). The first four factors are factors of the thermal environment while the other two are
individual or subjective factors. Other personal or subjective factors given by Markus and Morris (1980)
include: state of health, subcutaneous fat, sex, age, acclimatization, race, colour of clothing among others.
For the achievement of thermal comfort, the parametric ranges for the comfort factors have been identified
and numerical values for these parameters produced. Heerwagen (2004) gave the parametric comfort range
for air temperature in the occupied space to be between 20 and 270C, and relative humidity of the air in the
space somewhere between 25 and 55%. Architects and other designers are encouraged to try and achieve
these parametric comfort ranges when they plan and operate the built environment.
Odim (2006) defines a building as any structure with walls, roof and floor, a physical enclosure with some
means for creating a comfortable internal environment for human habitation and other uses. Therefore the
primary purpose of a building is to serve as shelter and provide protection from danger, inclement weather
and a place for safety among others.
The primary nature of warm humid climates is that it offers air temperatures and relative humidities beyond
the thermal comfort zone almost all through the year (Heerwagen 2004). This climate therefore poses
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several potential difficulties that may constrain comfortable building occupancy. These potential problems
need to be resolved at the architectural stage of building creation.
The need for proper estimation of the effect of wind orientation on indoor comfort levels of buildings
becomes very necessary in warm and humid climates, particularly in developing countries. This will aid
architects and other environmental designers in making provision for proper natural ventilation needed for
a more acceptable indoor comfort level.
This paper through experimental studies, therefore aims to examine and compare comfort levels of model
buildings exposed to different wind orientations in warm humid climates of Nigeria with a view to
determining the best orientation needed for human comfort.
AREA OF STUDY
This study was done at the premises of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Imo State University, Owerri,
Nigeria. Owerri is the capital city of Imo State of Nigeria. It is in the warm humid climatic zone of Southern
Nigeria.
Heerwagen (2004) gives three related composite climatic types of the warm humid climates globally. They
are: tropical wet, tropical wet and dry and subtropical humid. The fundamental characteristics of these
climatic types are that they offer warm air temperatures, high humidities, extensive rainfall, a substantial
cloud cover, slight air movement, and frequent periods of fog and heavy dew. The major challenge,
generally to maintaining thermal comfortable indoor conditions is the over heated, quite humid natural
environment.
We have the warm humid climate in southern Nigeria, which corresponds to the tropical wet and dry
composite type. It is one of the major zones of the tropical climates. It is found in a belt near the Equator and
extends to about 150N and 150S of the Equator (Koenigsberger et al. 1973). The mean maximum
temperature is 270 to 320C; relative humidity is 75 to 100%, vapour pressure 2,500 to 3,000N/m2. The sky is
frequently overcast. Mean annual rainfall is between 1185 and 2788mm with intensity over 500mm/hour.
Major wind direction is South-West both for wet and dry seasons (NBRRI 1983). Koenigsberger et al. (1973)
give some of the major world cities found in this climatic zone to include Dar-es-salam, Mombasa, Colombo,
Singapore, Jakarta, Quito and Pernambuco. Others in Nigeria given by Odim (2013) include Lagos, Calabar,
Aba, Port Harcourt, Benin City, Owerri (the study area) among others.
METHODOLOGY
The study was designed to use an experimental programme involving tests on model buildings exposed to
different wind orientations in warm humid climates. It also involved the collection and analysis of temporal
morphological data on the model buildings and their application on indoor and outdoor environmental
conditions and spaces.
Research data
Primary Data: Data obtained from the comparative experiment include indoor air temperature and relative
humidity of the experimental units. The maximum and minimum reading Sybron Taylor type thermometers
were used to obtain air temperature values in degree Celsius (0C). They were mounted on Stevenson’s screen
at a height of 1.20m above the floor level in order to reduce the effect of radiant temperature (tmrt) which
was assumed to be equal to the air temperature (ta) of the models (ta=tmrt).
Hygrometer (wet and dry bulb) with relative humidity tables were used to measure the relative humidity of
the models buildings in percentages (%). Measurements were taken in the morning and afternoon three
days every week for a period of 12 months (January to December 2004).
Rate of activity of 1.00 MET which describes and average metabolic rate of a sedentary person was assumed
for this study. Intrinsic clothing of 0.60 CLO which is equivalent to normal light weight indoor clothing was
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also assumed for this experiment. The environmental and subjective comfort factors were therefore
considered in this study.
A total of 574 data points were physically collected from the experimental units designed for this study at
the premises of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria.
The secondary data obtained include outdoor air temperature and relative humidity. They were obtained
from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Lagos. Other data obtained include thermal comfort
indices (TCI), comfort scales and parametric ranges. They were obtained from design manuals already
established and validated standards by authorities.
DESIGN OF THE EXPERIMENTAL MODELS
The model buildings were designed to have typical floor plans, sections and elevations. The same
construction methods and common building materials used in the warm humid climatic areas of Nigeria
were employed for the models. The walls were made of 0.150 by 0.225m hollow sand-crete blocks. The roof
consists of wooden roof trusses with corrugated zinc roofing sheets and asbestos cement sheets on wooden
batons for the ceiling.
The dimensions of the floor plan were 3.60 by 3.60m. The sectional heights from floor to ceiling level were
3.00m. The dimensions of the window openings were 1.20 by 1.20m. The window panels were made of
transparent ordinary float glasses on aluminum profiles. The door openings were 0.90 by 2.10m with
wooden frames and doors.
The orientations of the model buildings to the True North (TN) compass axis line were designed to be
different. Model A (ModelNW-SE) had North-West/South-East wind orientation with the window openings
facing the North-West and south-East elevations. Model B (modelNE-SW) had North-East/South-West wind
orientation with the window openings on the North-East and South-West elevations of the building (see
Figure 1 and Plate 1). The buildings were sited at an open space at the premises of the Faculty of
Environmental sciences, Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria.
A B
Figure 1: Plan of the model buildings
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Plate 1: Pictures of the model buildings
ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Statistical tools given by Moore (2000) were used to analyse the data obtained from the comparative
experiment. They include summary statistics involving the central tendency and dispersion of the recorded
indoor air temperature and relative humidity data of the model buildings. The results obtained of the mean
values, standard derivations, standard scores and coefficients of variation of the model are shown in Table 1
below.
Statistics Air Temp. (0C) Model Air Temp. (0C) RH % Model A (NW- RH % Model B (NE-
A(NW-SE) Models B (NE-SW) SE) SW)
Mean 29.59 28.25 81.81 82.64
Variance 14.89 16.04 260.49 237.26
Std. 3.86 4.00 16.14 15.40
Derivation
Std. Score -1.07 -0.91 -1.52 -1.6
Coeff of 0.14 0.14 0.19 0.18
Variation
Table 1: Summary values obtained for the central tendency and dispersion.
From the summary statistical analysis, results showed mean air temperature values of 29.590C for Model A
with North-West / South-East wind orientation, and 28.250C for Model B with North-East/ South-West wind
orientation. The relative humidity (RH) values were also obtained for Model A as 81.81% and Model B as
82.64% respectively.
These values were then compared to the upper limits of known standards of 270C and 55% for air
temperature and RH as given by Heerwagen (2004). Results showed that air temperature and relative
humidity of Model A and Model B do not conform to comfort standards despite their wind orientations. It
was also found that Model B with North-East/South-West wind orientation with air temperature value of
28.250C was closer to the upper limit of the comfort standard than Model A with North-West/South-East
wind orientation and with the value of 29.590C.
Two sample z-statistics were used to further achieve the aim of this experimental study. They were used to
test if there were any statistically significant differences in the observed effects of the treatments given to
the experimental units. Since the sample size was large and the population standard deviation was not
known, the appropriate normal distribution z-table was used for the test of hypotheses for the analysis.
1685
The null Ho and alternative Ha hypotheses were stated as follows:

Ho: Wind orientation has no effect on indoor air temperature (T) and relative
humidity (RH)
Ha: Wind orientation has effect an indoor air temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH).
This was expressed mathematically as:
Ho: µA (T) = µB (T): No difference exists.
Ha: µA (T) ≠ µB (T): A difference exists.
Ho: µA (RH) = µB (RH): No difference exists
Ha; µA (RH) ≠ µB (RH): A difference exists.
A fixed level of significance was assumed for the purpose of this test. The hypothesized difference between
the model buildings was assumed to be zero(0). For the purpose of the z-test, the procedure involved the
determination of the differences of the estimated standard errors of the model buildings. For a fixed level of
significance, the decision to reject or accept Ho lies on the calculated and expected values of z.
The relative humidity was tested at 5% significance level. The calculated (Z cal) value was 0.096. Also the
expected (Z exp) value was 1.959. Since the z cal < z exp, we accept the null hypothesis of no difference.
Therefore, the means of Model A and Model B (the average relative humidities of the models) do not differ.
The calculated (z cal) value for the air temperature was 0.640. The expected (z exp) value was 0.601.
Therefore since z cal > z exp, the null hypothesis of no difference was rejected. Therefore the average air
temperature of Models A and B differ.
This study was focused on natural ventilation as an aspect of passive (structural) control of indoor thermal
comfort in buildings. The paper, through experiments, therefore examines and compares the indoor comfort
levels of buildings with different wind orientations in warm humid climates of Nigeria.
Results showed that there exists a relationship between wind orientations of buildings and indoor comfort
conditions. It was found that the buildings with North-East/South-West (Model B) orientation had a more
acceptable indoor comfort level than that with North-West/ South-East (Model A) wind orientation.
The value of Model B was closer to the upper limit of the thermal comfort parametric range for air
temperature (a major comfort factor of the thermal environment).
Finally, it was also found that the comfort conditions (air temperatures and relative humidities of the
buildings do not conform to comfort standards despite their wind orientations).
Based on the results of this experiment, it was therefore recommended that buildings in warm humid
climatic zones of Nigeria be oriented to North-East and South-West with major window openings on these
elevations. This orientation will enhance a better air flow through the building which will contribute to a
more acceptable thermal comfort level and consequently lower energy usage in this climatic environment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We wish to thank Professor U. O. Nkwogu, the former Acting Vice Chancellor of Imo State University, Owerri,
who provided a piece of land in the University premises for the conduction of series of experiments on
thermal comfort and energy usage in buildings.
1686
REFERENCES
Evans, M., 1980. Housing, climate and comfort, The Architectural Press, London.
Givoni, B., 1987. Passive cooling of buildings, McGraw Hill Book Company, New York.
Heerwagen, D., 2004. Passive and active environmental controls, informing the schematic designing of buildings,
The Mc Graw-Hill Companies Inc, New York.
Koenigsberger, OH, Ingersoil, TG, Mayhem, A & Szokolay,SV., 1973. Manual of tropical housing and building,
Part 1, climatic design, Longman, London.
Marcus, TA & Morris, EN., 1980. Building, climate and energy, Pitman publishing Ltd, London.
Moore, DS., 2000. Basic practices of statistics, W. U Freeman and Company, USA.
Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, 1983. Nigerian

climatic zones and building design guidelines, Report no. 4, Lagos.
Odim, OO., 2006. ‘Passive design as ecotechnique for energy efficient buildings in the warm-humid
climates’, Unpublished PhD Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and Environmental
Sciences, Imo State University Owerri, Nigeria.
Odim, OO., 2008. ‘Experimental study on comfort levels of east-west and north-south solar oriented
buildings in warm-humid climates’, Architectural Science Review, Vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 324-327.
Odim, OO., 2013. ‘An assessment of comfort levels of buildings withshaded and non-shaded windows in
warm humid climates’, Advanced Materials Research, Vol. 772, pp. 835-838, Trans-Tech Publications, Zurich-
Durnten, Switzerland.
Okereke, PA & Odim, OO., 2007. ‘Potentials of passive solar design in energy conservation in buildings in the
warm-humid climate’, in A Ibhadode (ed), Advances in Materials and Systems Technology, Vol. 18-19, Trans
Tech Publications Ltd, Zurich, Switzerland.
Wagner, W., 1980. Energy efficient buildings, McGraw Hill Book Co, New York.
1687
DETERMINANTS OF HOUSING SATISFACTION IN PRIVATELY OWNED DWELLINGS IN EDENGLEN,

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Clinton Aigbavboa & Wellington Thwala, Department of Construction Management & Quantity Surveying,
University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, caigbavboa@uj.ac.za
Article V. Abstract
This paper presents findings on the survey conducted with residents in Edenglen suburb, Gauteng Province South
Africa, that are living in privately owned dwellings to assess their level of satisfaction with the residential
apartments. The study also investigates the factors which affect individuals’ satisfaction levels in privately owned
dwellings within, with regard to the physical and social aspects. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted
in Edenglen suburb in Johannesburg to determine the objectives of the study. The respondents involved in the
data gathering were residents of the suburb of Edenglen. The survey results revealed that residents were satisfied
in terms of their housing needs. Further findings showed that the majority of residents were highly satisfied with
the security provided in and around the suburb as well as the social aspects, such as neighbourhood friendliness
and distance to local amenities. Dissatisfaction mainly occurred with renters in comparison to home owners
especially with the aspect of maintenance. Due to the rising number of privately owned estates in South Africa, as
well as the low visibility of literature in this aspect with regards to South Africa, it is important to establish the
basic factors which contribute to residents’ satisfaction in privately owned dwellings. The paper contributes to this
body of knowledge.
Keywords: housing satisfaction, privately owned dwelling, Edenglen, South Africa.
Article VI. INTRODUCTION
Numerous studies on housing satisfaction have evaluated housing provisions by dealing with problems of
occupant satisfaction. Theoretically, the concept of housing satisfaction has been utilized in at least four
different ways:
• as a key predictor of an individual’s perception of general quality of life (Campbell et al. 1976);
• as an indicator of incipient residential mobility, and hence altered housing demands and effected
neighbourhood change (Speare 1974, Varady 1983);
• as an ad hoc evaluative measure for judging the success of housing developments constructed by
the private sector (Lansing et al. 1970);
• to assess residents’ perceptions of inadequacies in their current housing environment so as to direct
forthcoming private or public efforts to improve the status quo (Michelson 1977, Francescato et al.
1976).
For instance, Onibokun (1974) informs that the habitability of a house is influenced not only by the
engineering elements, but also by social, behavioural, cultural, and other elements in the entire socio-
environmental system. Hence, a dwelling that is adequate from the engineering or from the design point of
view may not necessarily be adequate or satisfactory from the inhabitants’ point of view. Onibokun (1974)
concluded that the house is only one link in a chain of factors, which determine people’s relative satisfaction
with their accommodation. Varady (1983) further argued that housing satisfaction acts as an intermediary
variable between background characteristics and mobility behaviour. In the work of Lane and Kinsey (1980)
they reported that housing characteristics were more crucial determinants of housing satisfaction than
demographic characteristics of housing occupants.
Residential satisfaction is influenced by the occupants’ perception of the various aspects of the house, the
aspects of the community and how the house and the community are managed. Occupants tend to make an
immediate comparison between their previous dwelling and their present housing and that also influences
residential satisfaction. In the evaluation of residential satisfaction, certain characteristics, services and
amenities in the residential environment may be identified that plays a role in housing satisfaction.
Residential satisfaction or housing satisfaction gives an indication of how people respond to the
environment in which they live (Francescato 1998). A completed residential building should be able to
1688
function in such a way that it satisfies the occupant’s needs. Once the building has been completed and it is
occupied, maintenance commences to ensure that the elements or facilities in the building function to their
maximum capacity. Occupants of the building will then evaluate the facility to determine whether the
building is functioning in accordance with its intended purpose (Nawawi & Khalil 2008).
Residential satisfaction is under the umbrella of post occupancy evaluation (POE) because the occupants’
satisfaction of any building (residence) is determined by the building’s evaluation. Kirk and Stirret (2011)
define POE “as part of value engineering that continuously improves the facilities in the building”. By that
time, the POE was being used based on the occupants’ needs, as the building performance is judged based
on the user satisfaction needs. The intention of the POE is to improve the quality of the building and to
identify the problems that can be used as benchmarks so that previous mistakes and unwanted features are
not included or repeated in future projects. Occupant satisfaction with the building is associated with the
efficiency of building performance. For POE to be more effective, management must ensure that they create
a working environment that is conducive to the safety and well-being of their occupants (students). The
managerial style of managers must be structured in such a way that they will attend to and embrace
occupants’ grievances timeously. The resident’s managers must empower their students so that they will be
more accountable and responsible for whatever they are doing in the residents (Chandrasekar 2011).
Measuring residential satisfaction is important because it broadens one’s understanding of how and why
occupants respond to certain factors in the environment in which they live as well as to certain housing
types and living conditions. It provides information that can be used to improve residential living conditions
of those people whose preferences and requirements are not known through the normal housing channels
and markets as they relate to the more affluent segment of the population (Francescato 1998). Residential
satisfaction is based entirely on the occupant’s individual definition of residential quality. For instance, one
occupant’s idea of good residential quality might be to have a toilet and bathroom inside the room, whilst
for another, it might not be. Residential satisfaction also depends on culture and, in some cases, different
socio-economic levels. Occupants usually compare what they consider to be high or good residential quality
to the current residential environment in which they reside. When the gap between what they expect and
what they have decreases, residential satisfaction increases (Amerigo & Aragones 1997). Hence, the preset
work is posed to evaluate the determinants of housing satisfaction in privately owned dwellings in
Edenglen, Johannesburg, South Africa. The methodology adopted is occupants’ post occupancy evaluation.
POE is a process that assesses how well buildings match user’s needs and also identifies ways to improve
building design. The main purpose of the study is to assess the building functional suitability and fitness for
its intended purposes from the building occupants’ perspective.
Article VII. Methodology

The data used in this paper were derived from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data was
obtained through the survey method, while the secondary data was derived from the review of literature
and archival records. The primary data was obtained through the use of a structured questionnaire survey.
This was distributed to a total of 150 occupants who are residing in privately owned dwellings in Edenglen,
Johannesburg. Out of the 150 questionnaires sent out, 135 were received back representing a 90% response
rate. This was considered adequate for the analysis based on the assertion by Moser and Kalton (1971) that
the result of a survey could be considered as biased and of little value if the return rate was lower than 30–
40%. The data presentation and analysis made use of frequency distributions and percentages of all the
respondents. The research was conducted between the months of July and October 2011. The questionnaire
was in two sections (A & B). The designs of the questionnaire envisage a maximum of 20 minutes for its
completion. Section A gathered the demographic information of each member of the estate that
participated in the survey. This included questions on their gender, their age, their ethnicity or population
group, and how long they have been living in dwellings. Section B collects information on the satisfaction of
the building and on the factors that determines satisfaction in privately owned buildings.
Findings and discussion
Findings from the 135 usable questionnaire revealed that 33% were female, while 67% were male. The
majority of the respondents (76%) were within the age group of 20-29, followed by (24%) of the respondents
who belong to the age group below 20. The ethnicity that comprises the majority of the respondents were
1689
blacks (97%), followed by (3%) whites. When the respondents were asked to rate the overall quality of the
building facilities (Table 1), findings revealed that respondents had high rating in some facilities in the
building. Respondents showed high level of satisfaction with access to public transport (MIS=4.56; R=1)
which was ranked first, followed by the building safety (MIS=4.32; R=2), Parking lot (MIS=4.30; R=3),
Community hall (MIS=4.29; R=4), Laundry (MIS=4.22; R=5), Bedroom (MIS=4.01; R=6), Toilet and bathroom
(MIS=3.76; R=7), Kitchen (MIS=3.47; R=9), Parking spaces (MIS=2.79; R=10), and TV room (MIS=2.41; R=11)
was ranked last.
Literature reviewed indicated that the intention of post occupancy evaluation study is to improve the
quality of the building and to identify the problems that can be used as benchmarks so that previous
mistakes and unwanted features are not included or repeated in future projects. The findings of the study
correlate with previous work as carried out in South Africa by Aigbavboa and Thwala (2012), where it was
found that the occupants of the building were satisfied with some aspects, such as the parking lots and
laundry rooms. From the physical observation of the satisfied building features, the research observed that
there were more than enough parking lots for residents who were vehicle owners, likewise the laundry
rooms had state of the art facilities as installed by the developers for the occupants’ usage. Also, the
occupants were satisfied with the access to public transport as the privately owned dwelling is situated very
close to a major road in the suburb. Hence, the present findings also support the statement as posit by
Nawawi and Khalil (2008) that a completed residential building should be able to function in such a way that
it satisfies the occupant’s need, which is what the developed residence has rightly done.
Table 1: Building features satisfaction level

Level of satisfaction MIS Rank (R)
Access to public transport 4.56 1
Building safety 4.32 2
Parking lot 4.30 3
Community hall 4.29 4
Laundry 4.22 5
Bedroom 4.01 6
Toilet and bathroom 3.76 7
Study 3.89 8
Kitchen 3.47 9
Parking spaces 2.79 10
TV room 2.41 11
Furthermore, when the occupants were asked to rate the level of the safety features (human and non-
human) in the dwelling, as shown in Table 2; it was revealed that they showed a high level of satisfaction
with all the safety facilities and features as provided by the local developers. For instance, the Lighting level
was ranked first (MIS=4.62; R=1), access to transportation (MIS=4.59; R=2), access control to building
(MIS=4.51; R=3), accessible fire-fighting equipment (MIS=4.47; R=4), accessible fire escape route (MIS=4.45;
R=5), a), while the visibility of the day and night security personnel (MIS=4.29; R=6) was ranked least. The
findings concurs with the general POE literatures which indicate that for a building to perform to its optimal
level, the building management must ensure that they create an environment that is conducive to the safety
and well-being of their occupants.
Table 2: Level of satisfaction with safety features (human and non-human)

Safety features and facilities MIS Rank(R)
Lighting 4.44 1
Accessible fire escape route 4.20 2
Visibility of the security personnel 4.18 3
Access control to building 3.96 4
Accessible firefighting equipment 3.90 5
Access to transportation 3.49 6
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CONCLUSION
This paper examined residential satisfaction in the context of occupants’ living in privately owned dwellings
to assess their level of satisfaction with the residential apartment’s characteristics. Findings from the study
revealed that the housing provided performed above average from the occupants’ evaluations; implying
that the houses matched the needs of the occupants in some aspects. In conclusion, the findings from the
study revealed that a majority of the occupants were satisfied with the building overall quality rating except
for few qualities. However, the result showed that the occupants were not satisfied with the study, toilet and
bath room, kitchen and TV room, as these were the common areas where the residents had contact. Hence,
it is recommended that the management of the apartments should consider improving this aspect in order
to make the apartments livable for the occupants. With regards to the safety features in the building, the
research findings revealed that the occupants had high levels of satisfaction with the provided lighting,
accessibility to fire escape route and the visibility of the day and night security personal around the building.
In essence, based on the comprehensive evaluation of the building satisfaction, the majority of the
occupants were satisfied with most qualities in the apartment which makes it satisfactory to them. This
study has shown that the outcomes of satisfaction studies in other housing settings cannot simply be
generalized to the present case study based in South Africa. Hence, differences arise from the occupants’
characteristics as well as from the features of the housing. However, the characteristics of the occupants
which predicted satisfaction were almost similar to those that determine satisfaction in other cultural
contexts. Therefore, the results revealed in this study gives valuable insights for the private provided
housing (apartments) in South Africa towards the improvement of much better residential apartments in the
near future because of the rising number of mid-income earners in South Africa.
Article VIII. REFERENCES
Abdulla, RS., 2009. ‘A descriptive study on students’ satisfaction towards the services provided by Universiti
Utara Malaysia’, MIS thesis. Universiti Utara Malaysia.
Amerigo, M & Aragones, JI., 1997. ‘A theoretical and methodological approach to the study of residential
satisfaction’, Journal of Environmental psychology, no. 17, pp. 47-57.
Birt, B & Newsham, GR., 2009. ‘Post - occupancy evaluation of energy and indoor environment quality in
Green Buildings’, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built
Environments, 15-19 June 2009, Delft, The Netherlands, pp. 1-7.
Chandrasekar, K., 2011. ‘Workplace environment and its impact on organisational performance in the public
sector organisations’, International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-
17.
Francescato, GB., 1998. ‘Residential satisfaction’, in W van Vliet (ed), The Encyclopaedia of Housing, Sage
publications, London.
Khalil, N & Husin, HN., 2009. ‘Post occupancy evaluation towards indoor environment improvement in
Malaysia’s office buildings’, Journal of Sustainable Development, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 187-191.
Kirk, SJ & Stirrett, CM., 2011. ‘Post - occupancy evaluation for added value at Trail’s End’, in Lean Construction
Institute of Michigan, Michigan State University, USA, pp. 1-17.
Kooymans, R & Haylock, P., 2006. ‘Post occupancy evaluation and workplace productivity’, in University of
South Australia, 22 January 2006, Auckland, New Zealand, Pacific Real Estate Society, pp. 1-15.
Moser, CA & Kalton, G., 1971. Survey methods in social investigation, Heinemann Educational, London.
Nawawi, AH & Khalil, N., 2008. ‘Post-occupancy evaluation correlated with building occupants’: An approach
to performance evaluation of government and public buildings’, Journal of Building Appraisal, vol. 4, no. 1,
pp. 59-69.
1691
Ojasalo, J., 2001. ‘Managing customer expectations in professional services’, Managing Service Quality, vol.
11, no. 3, pp. 200-212.
Pinder, J, Price, I, Wilkinson, SJ & Demack, S., 2003. ‘A method for evaluating workplace utility’, Property
Schwede, DA & Davies, H., 2008. ‘Occupant satisfaction with workplace design in new and old
environments’, Facilities, vol. 26, nos. 7/8, pp. 273-288.
1692
BUILDING DEVELOPMENT TRAJECTORIES
Jeremy Gibberd, UP, CSIR, Gauge, Pretoria, itshose@gmail.com
Abstract
Building development trajectories refers to the path being followed by the development of built environments.
This path can be influenced, and change, depending on external factors such as economic climate, client
preferences, legislation and fashion. It can also be intentional and have a specific direction and destination that is
established and followed by government and users, owners, planners and designers of built environment.
The scale and nature of social, economic and environmental pressures, climate change and the limited resources
to address these challenges mean that new built environment development models need to be developed. This
paper describes, and reviews, a sustainable development model for the built environment that addresses these
issues. The model aims to ensure that sustainability is not just a consideration in the development of built
environments, but is integrated in ways that define and direct building development trajectories.
The theoretical basis of the model is described and a tool and methodology for application presented. The review
and discussion of the model and tool is undertaken and recommendations for further research and development
are made.
Keywords: sustainable, building, development trajectories, BEST.
INTRODUCTION
This paper describes how the concept of sustainability can be used to direct built environment
developmental trajectories. In particular, it aims to address the following questions:
• What are the key sustainability development issues in the African context?
• What are appropriate sustainability indicators and targets for this context?
• If clear sustainability targets can be defined, what are the implications of this for the built
environment?
• Can corresponding sustainability targets be defined for built environments?
• If sustainability targets can be defined, how can these be used to direct built environment
development trajectories?
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXT
Sustainable development targets and measures, such as the Millennium Development Goals and the Human
Development Index indicate that Africa lags behind the rest of the world in a number of areas. Outlined
below, are indicators from these areas.
The proportion of people in Sub-Saharan Africa living on less than $1.25 a day in 1990 was 56%, this had
dropped to about 48% in 2010 (United Nations 2014). From a similar starting point in 1990, Asian countries
had dropped to between 15 and 30% by 2010 (United Nations 2014). Primary school completion rates in Sub
Saharan Africa in 2010 remain around 60%, while rates in countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are
above 90% (World Bank 2014).
The global ratio of employment to the working-age population in North Africa is 53% and 63% in Southern
African compared to ratios of around 70% in Asia (United Nations, 2014).
Access to the Internet in Sub Saharan Africa in 2010 is about 10 internet users per 100 people, compared to
levels of around 50 users per 100 people in Latin America and Asia (World Bank 2014). Globally, an estimated
863 million people live in slums in the developing world. In 2012, 62% of people living in Sub Saharan
African cities were living in slums (United Nations 2014). Carbon dioxide emissions in Africa doubled
1693
between 1990 and 2010, while emissions in developed countries, over the same period dropped (United
Nations 2014).
These indicators illustrate that significant development is still required to improve social and economic
conditions in much of Africa. They also show that sustainable development, strategies must address social
and economic conditions as well as addressing environmental concerns.
SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS AND TARGETS
Measuring sustainability performance can be highly complex, however there are number of widely used
indicators that can be used to capture a high level view of progress and appropriate for an African context.
These include the Human Development Index and the Ecological Footprint.
The Human Development Index (HDI), developed by the United Nations is used widely as a measure of
quality of life (United Nations Development Programme, 2007). It is based on:
• A long healthy life, measured by life expectancy at birth

• Knowledge, measured by the adult literacy rate and combined primary, secondary, and tertiary
gross enrolment ratio
• A decent standard of living, as measure by the GDP per capital in purchasing power parity (PPP) in
terms of US dollars.
A HDI of 0.8 or above in a population is generally accepted as evidence that minimum acceptable standards
of quality of life have been achieved (World Wildlife Fund 2006, Moran et al. 2008).
An ecological footprint is the amount of land and sea required to provide the resources that a human
population consumes and to absorb the corresponding waste. Consumption of resources and production of
waste and emissions used in the Footprint are drawn from the following areas:
• Food, measured in type and amount of food consumed

• Shelter, measured in size, utilization and energy consumption
• Mobility, measured in type of transport used and distances travelled
• Goods, measured in type and quantity consumed
• Services, measured in type and quantity consumed
• Waste, measured in type and quantity produced.
The area of land and sea required for each of these areas is calculated in global hectares (gha) and added
together to provide an overall ecological footprint per person, or per population (Wackernagel and Yount
2000). The Earth’s surface area can then be used to establish a limit for personal ecological footprints by
dividing the Earth’s carrying capacity by the human population. In 2006, this was calculated to be 1.8 global
hectares (gha) per person in (World Wildlife Fund 2006).
These measures, and the targets that they define, have been very effectively combined to into a graph show
in Figure 1. This graph plots countries and developmental trajectories in terms of HDI and EF performance
(World Wildlife Fund 2006).
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Figure 1: Human development and ecological footprint trajectories (World Wildlife Fund 2006).
This graph is useful for a number of reasons. Firstly, it defines in very simple terms, the requirements for
sustainability. This is represented by the grey area in the graph, and is the simultaneous achievement of
above 0.8 on the Human Development Index and an ecological footprint of below 1.8gha. This provides a
clear target that can be aimed for.
Secondly, by plotting the existing location of countries in relation to the sustainability target (the grey area),
it enables the developmental trajectories required to achieve sustainability to be determined.
Thus, from the graph, countries like India must improve their Human Development Index performance
without unduly increasing their ecological footprint, in order to achieve minimum criteria for sustainability.
For countries like Australia to achieve sustainability, ecological footprints must be reduced without losing
their already adequate HDI performance. A country like South Africa, which does not meet either HDI or EF
targets, has to improve performance in both areas to achieve sustainability.
The graph also prompts a number of interesting questions about the built environment. For instance, can
minimum built environment criteria for sustainability be defined for sustainability? Similarly, can existing
built environments be plotted in relation to these minimum conditions for sustainability? If so, can this be
used to determine the required upgrade paths, or development trajectories, for these built environments?
These questions are explored in the next section.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
The minimum criteria for sustainability defined in figure 1 are useful as they provide a clear target that can
be aimed for. It would be useful, if similar minimum criteria for built environments could be defined. In order
to explore this, one needs to derive the implications for the buildings of HDI and EF targets, and determine
the optimum built environment conditions for achieving these targets.
The definition of sustainability, as the simultaneous achievement of above 0.8 on the Human Development
Index and an ecological footprint of below 1.8gha, implies that built environments must enable, and ensure,
their occupant populations achieve these targets. An analysis of the HDI and EF sub criteria indicate that
clear requirements for the built environment of this definition can be determined, and described, in terms of
minimum standards and characteristics. This is outlined in table 1.
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Ecological Footprint and Minimum Built Built Environment

Human Development Environment Standards Characteristics
Sub Criteria
Food: Measured in type Occupants can meet their Local markets with low
and amount of food nutritional requirements ecological footprint foods.
consumed through affordable, low Ability to produce low
ecological footprint means. ecological footprint food.
Shelter: Measured in size, Occupants can meet shelter Appropriately sized, resource
utilization and energy requirements through efficient accommodation.
consumption affordable, low ecological
footprint means.
Mobility: Measured in Occupants can access daily Daily requirements
type of transport used and requirements using low accessible within walking
distances traveled ecological footprint means. distance.
Access to local public
transport.
Goods: Measured in type Occupants can access required Appropriate goods available
and quantity consumed goods through affordable, low locally.
ecological footprint means. Facilities to support efficient
usage / shared use of goods.
Services: Measured in Occupants can access required Appropriate services
type and quantity services through affordable, low available locally.
consumed ecological footprint means. Facilities to support efficient
usage of services.
Health: A long healthy life, Occupants can access facilities Access to sports, health, leisure
measured by life required for health. facilities.
expectancy at birth Access to healthy food and clean
water.
No local hazards such as violent
crime and pollution.
Knowledge: measured by Occupants can access facilities Access to primary, secondary,
the adult literacy rate and required for learning and tertiary and ongoing learning
combined primary, education. facilities.
secondary, and tertiary
gross enrolment ratio
Standard of Living: A Occupants can access Access to employment
decent standard of living, opportunities to enable a decent opportunities.
as measure by the GDP per standard of living. Self employment opportunities.
capital in purchasing Access to support for small
power parity (PPP) in enterprise development.
terms of US dollars
Table 1: Minimum built environment standards and characteristics of HDI and EF sub criteria.
The broad basis of this table has been refined in a tool called the Built Environment Sustainability Tool (BEST)
which consists of an Excel based tool and a manual (Gibberd 2013a). An analysis of HDI and EF requirements
and related built environment characteristics is used to develop assessment criteria and scales in the HDI
and EF related areas indicated below.
• Shelter
• Food
• Mobility
• Goods
• Waste
• Biocapacity
• Products
1696
• Services
• Education
• Health
• Employment
Built environment sustainability criteria and measurement scales in these areas are set out in the tool and a
manual. The manual defines optimal built environment arrangements for achieving HDI or EF sub criteria
performance and refers to this as ‘full capability’. Assessment using the tool then rates built environments
from ‘no capability’, which score ‘0’, to ‘full capability’ which score ‘5’ in terms of the extent to which the
required configuration or characteristics exist to support sustainability. The tool is illustrated in Figure 1.
Assessment criteria in the tool are shown as ‘BEST criteria’.
Figure 2: Built Environment Sustainability Tool (BEST).
The application of the tool has some conceptual similarities to the approach used by the World Wildlife Fund
to plot the graph in Figure 1. The first step in using the tool is to carry out an assessment of an existing built
environment, referred to in the tool as ‘Existing’. This can be an existing building or set of existing buildings
and the neighbourhood within which it is situated. If the assessment is for a new design, this should be
assessed in context, and include the neighbourhood within which it will be located.
As the tool aims to measure support for HDI and EF targets for occupant populations and not just the
performance of a single physical building, assessments must include the neighbourhoods within which
buildings are located. This is important as neighbourhoods and the facilities within these can play an
important role in enabling occupant communities achieve HDI and EF targets. For instance, an education
facility within the neighbourhood, if accessible, can enable occupants of a building to achieve the required
HDI education performance, even if this facility is not provided within the building they occupy.
Neighbourhoods are defined in the manual and refer to an area of approximately 2km around the building
being assessed.
Assessment of existing buildings or designs is carried out by scoring the sub criteria under the ‘Existing’
column in the BEST tool on a scale from 0 to 5 in accordance with the BEST manual. This process generates a
report at the bottom of the tool indicated as the ‘BEST report’ in Figure 1 and is also shown in Figure 2. This
report indicates areas of poor and good performance and can be used to develop, and refine, options for
1697
improvement. In particular, the spider graph in the BEST report supports this by providing a picture of which
areas have poor performance. This can be used to conceptualise integrated solutions which improve
performance in a number of areas at once.
Once identified, options are assessed by inserting these in the ‘Options for evaluation’ columns, as shown in
Figure 1. Options are then scored in relation to the BEST criteria and scales defined in the manual. After
scoring, the performance of the option can analysed by reviewing the newly generated ‘Proposed’ scores.
These are shown in the BEST report in Figure 1. In particular, comparisons of ‘Proposed’ with ‘Existing’ scores
reveal the level of change. Thus, the red line in the BEST report spider graph indicates the ‘Proposed’
performance, and by comparing this with the blue line ‘Existing’, the extent and nature of the change can be
ascertained.
Different options can be evaluated separately, or jointly, by turning options ‘on and off’ in the tool in order
to ascertain individual, and combined, impacts. The process of developing, and testing, options helps to
ensure that options proposed are responsive to the existing situation and are tested, evaluated and refined
before being selected for implementation. The facility to test different options and evaluate cumulative
impacts supports the development of long term sustainability plans, where identified options can be
scheduled to be implemented over time in order to maintain development trajectories where resources are
limited.
Figure 3: BEST report.
DISCUSSION
The description of the BEST tool and methodology provides a basis to return to and discuss number of
questions developed in the Introduction of the paper and this is outlined below.
Minimum built environment criteria for sustainability

The development of the tool shows that minimum built environment criteria for sustainability can be
described. It proposes that these be defined in relation to broader minimum criteria for sustainability,
namely the achievement of above 0.8 on the Human Development Index (HDI) and the achievement of an
Ecological Footprint (EF) below 1.8 global hectares per person (World Wildlife Fund 2006).
Minimum built environment criteria for sustainability in the tool therefore is the built environment capability
required to support the achievement HDI and EF targets. Full built environment capability for sustainability
means that all built environment conditions required for the achievement of HDI and EF targets by occupant
populations are met. These conditions are defined in terms of criteria in the BEST tool and measured using
scales in the manual.
By plotting existing performance on a graph, the ‘location’ of existing built environments (Existing) can be
established in relation to the improved situation as a result of adopting preferred options (Proposed), and in
terms of minimum built environment criteria for sustainability (a score of 5 for both HDI and EF capability
performance). This is shown on the ‘development trajectory’ graph of the BEST report shown in figure 2. This
is useful because it plots development trajectories that will be generated as a result of implementing
options, allowing this to be compared with the development trajectory required to achieve minimum built
environment criteria for sustainability, or full capability.
1698
High performance buildings and interventions

Within the BEST tool, high performance buildings and neighbourhood combinations are those that enable
HDI and EF targets to be achieved by their occupants. This means that the built environment must include
shelter, food, mobility, goods, waste, biocapacity, products, and services capability required for ecological
footprint targets to be achieved. It also means that the built environment must have education, health and
employment capability for Human Development Index targets to be achieved. Assessments carried out in
South Africa, Brazil and Norway indicates this type of full capability may rarely exist, and typically built
environments in developed countries have limited ecological footprint capability and built environments in
developing countries have limited human development index capability.
Use of the tool indicates that multi impact interventions can be a way of efficiently improving sustainability
performance of a built environment. This can be illustrated through a simple example. The introduction of
food gardens in an informal settlement achieved higher BEST scores compared to other more conventional
greening interventions such as solar water heaters. This is because the garden intervention generated
significant improvements across a range of criteria where there was poor performance including food,
employment and health and contributed to a marked improvement in capability to achieve HDI and EF
targets (Gibberd 2013). The potential for multi-function energy, business and learning (ENBULE) and water,
food and mobility (WAFOMO) facilities, as a means of rapidly improving local sustainability performance of
informal settlements is explored in the Neighbourhood Facilities for Sustainability concept (Gibberd 2013a).
Applications
The Built Environment Sustainability Tool may be used in a number of different ways. These are described
below.
• Architectural and urban design evaluation: The BEST can be used to evaluate designs by
measuring their capability to support the achievement EF and HDI targets. This assessment process,
and the resulting improved understanding of sustainability performance, can be used to improve
solutions through testing and refinement.
• Community involvement: A BEST assessment by a community of their neighbourhood provides an

understanding of sustainability capability performance and can be used to develop local
sustainability plans which address areas of poor performance. Sustainability plans can ensure that
sustainability performance is improved in an effective and efficient way by integrating and
coordinating local initiatives in a structured way. The BEST, with its broad focus on quality of life and
reduced environmental impact, may also be an effective way of involving a wide range of
stakeholders, and building consensus.
• Local government urban planning processes: Municipal urban planning processes related to
Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) and Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs) are required to
achieve local sustainable development. However these plans may not be based on a detailed
understanding of local sustainability performance and therefore proposed initiatives may not be
the most urgent priorities, or those most likely to generate the greatest impact. Assessment of
urban areas using the BEST can be used to establish areas of poor sustainability performance and
therefore inform the development of appropriate solutions. This helps ensure that local
government planning responds to local contextual issues and supports the development of local
building development trajectories that result in more sustainable built environments in the long
term. (Cohen 2006, Gibberd 2013a, Theaker & Cole 2001).
CONCLUSION
The BEST methodology and tool provides an interesting alternative model for assessing, and improving,
sustainability performance of the built environment. The concept of building development trajectories
provides insights into how built environments may be transformed over time. Linking building performance
to the Human Development Index and ecological footprint target achievement broadens the potential
scope and role of built environments to support sustainability.
1699
The methodology is of particular relevance to practitioners and researchers working in developing country
contexts where there are limited resources to address climate change and social and economic
development requirements.
Further research should be carried out to develop, test and apply the methodology and tool. In particular,
there is a need to understand, at a greater level of detail, the relationship between buildings and Human
Development Index and ecological footprint achievement in occupant populations. This will contribute to
the effectiveness of assessment criteria and the granularity of assessment scales in the tool. In addition,
there is a need to test the methodology and tool in different contexts, and with a wide range of users. This
will help refine the tool as an effective methodology for improving built environment sustainability.
REFERENCES
Cohen, B., 2006. ‘Urbanization in developing countries: Current trends, future projections, and key
challenges for sustainability’, Technology in Society, vol. 28, nos. 1-2, pp. 63–80.
Gibberd, J., 2013a. ‘Sustainable African built environments’, African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation
and Development.
Gibberd, J., 2013b. ‘Neighbourhood facilities for sustainability’, WIT Transactions on Ecology and the
Environment, vol. 179, pp. 225-234.
Moran, DD, Wackernagel, M, Kitzes, JA, Goldfinger, SH & Boutaud, A., 2008. ‘Measuring sustainable
development—Nation by nation’, Ecological Economics, vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 470-474.
Theaker, IG & Cole, RJ., 2001. ‘The role of local governments in fostering “green” buildings: a case study’,
Building Research & Information, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 394–408.
United Nations Development Programme, 2007. Human development report 2007/2008, United Nations
Development Programme, New York.
United Nations, 2014. The millenium development goals report 2013, United Nations, New York.
Wackernagel, M & Yount, D., 2000. ‘Footprints for sustainability: The next steps’, Environment, Development
and Sustainability 2, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 21-42.
World Bank, 2014. Highlights: World development indicators 2014, World Bank.
World Wild Life Fund, 2006. The living planet report,

http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/living_planet_report.pdf
1700
RESEARCH ON TRADITIONAL DWELLINGS UNDER DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS AND

CLIMATE
Shuai Fan, Liping Li,

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Civil Planning ,
Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming , China
fs1204@sina.com, llping402@hotmail.com
Abstract
According to local conditions of geography and climate, using local materials is the spirit of traditional dwellings.
The traditional dwellings were built by natural materials that come from the nature and no pollute the
environment. Field tests for indoor thermal environment of dwellings of different renewable materials under
different geographical climate conditions were carried out, and more specifically, the indoor temperature of
dwellings with different renewable material walls as well as the surface temperature of building envelope were
tested and comparatively analyzed. The test results show the current situations and features of indoor
temperature changes of the dwellings of different materials, which may provide a basis for improving the thermal
environment of dwellings and which may find the way of saving-energy and sustainable development.
Keywords: climate; dwellings; renewable material; energy; temperature
INTRODUCTION
Yunnan Province is located in China’s southwest border region. It is unusual place where 26 minority
nationality lived in, with splendid culture, folk custom and special indigenous buildings. In this region, the
geographical features are complicated. Basin, river valley, hill, mountain and plateau are scatted here
and there. Mountain and semi-mountain area is 94 percentage of the whole region. It belongs to
mountainous plateau. The climate in these districts rather differ in the character. Frigid , temperate,
subtropical and tropical climate exist. The indigenous buildings were built by renewable material and
traditional technique, harmonized with the Nature.
According to local conditions of geography and climate, using local materials is the spirit of traditional
dwellings. Many people lived in remote areas could be take advantage of the superiority of the nature and
keep away the pernicious at the nature, to build economically own houses by long-time life experience,
because that be restricted by geography climate, economic and communicant. Nature energy is used
sufficient in these homesteads. They build dwellings using circumjacent nature materials that come from the
nature and no pollute the environment, and old materials could be back the nature for circulation. it is a
building procedure of saving-energy and sustainable development, such as save transportation cost and so
on.
STONE DWELLINGS AT FOOTHILL AND ENVIRONMENT

Yuhu village (also called Xuegao village) is located under footing of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, fifteen
kilometers from Lijing County Town, the last and the highest village at northwestward in Lijing Basin, 2730
meters of elevation at village administration. The Mxin nationality calls the village as “en-nu-ken” that mean
“under foot of silvery stone shore”, where is edge zone of the under footing of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
and high mountain land area, climate of cold temperate zone of mountain region, the soil type with brown
soil and meadow soil and so on. The plantation contains a great quantity of sand and stone and is poor food
productivity. There is a Yu-lake at north of village. Yu-lake could be not dry up in the four seasons and be
built as artificial lake by minority headman of Mu family, where there are meadow of high mountain, wild
flowers, wild animal, mountain region landscape. It is said there are forty-one high mountain azaleas that
grow to tracts of forest in Sit-Deer level ground, how beautiful it is!
The dwelling of Yuhu village are tile-roofed houses with stone and wood structure. The dwelling is as
shown in Fig.1. From picture, the space scale and courtyard size of the dwellings are smaller than the one in
basin, with 2.35 meters of first floor height and 2.30 meters of second floor height, for the reason that village
near Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, elevation higher than Lijing ancient city, bigger wind in winter and lower
temperature. The dwellings are suit to local geography climate and conditions, for that combination with
small space scale and tight link is make for reducing heat dissipation and energy saving.
1701
Fig.1 The dwelling of Yuhu village
Here dwellings are very unusual whether the dwellings lived by people or animal houses, fence built by off
white rubble and a small amount of black rubble, they are coordinate and fused together with surrounding
high mountains, trees and rills, like nature object grow up from mountain region. There rubbles were nature
materials that were excavated from mountains distant to about two kilometers and no payment. White
stone is soft when excavated then change to hard under the sunshine. Black stone is hard and smooth. Local
people use these stone for building without more cost and long-distance transport, reducing building cost
and saving construction time. At the same time these stone absorb sun heat in daytime and keep heat out
the indoor, and let out heat in night keep heat into building, so that sun energy be used effectively.
In the other side, these nature materials come from the nature and could be circulate used when old
dwellings demolished, that could be not give rise to environmental disruption. These stone are green
building materials and sustainable development.
SCHISTOSE STONE DWELLINGS IN VALLEYS AND ENVIRONMENT

We assume everyone will use Microsoft Word. Lying at the valley and mountainous regions at the bank of
Jinsha River, Dong Lian Xiabanluo Village in Mingyin Township, Lijang has an elevation of about 1.500 m. Up
to Jul. 1999, there were no roads and electric lines connecting the village with the out world, villagers here
used firewood for illumination and cooking. It is said that last year, biogas generating pits were wildly built
in the village with the subsidy given by the government and RMB250 paid by each household, which is
believed to change the environmental and living conditions here. As far as we know, due to the backward
educational condition, there is no high school graduate in Xiabanluo Village; the living condition here is also
very poor, with little cultivated lands, serious water lacking and a high temperature ranging from 38 to 16 in
summer time. Dwellings in this village are mainly wooden houses and schistose stone structural houses. The
dwelling is as shown in Fig.2., and about 1% half timber tile-roofed houses.
The typical dwellings here are schistose stone houses, which are built with schistose stones quarried out
from the ground base. Such stones are very rich in this area; local people cut the stones layer by layer with
hammers and chisels and make them into different kinds of building materials. Large pieces (with 10-20 mm
in thickness, unequal length and width which ranging from 1.2-1.5 m in length and 30-40 mm in width) are
used as tiles, gravels and blocks are used to build walls. By such way, a dwelling which is harmonious with
the surroundings can be built by the villager themselves.
Fig.2 The dwelling of Xiabanluo Village
1702
We tested the thermal and luminous environment of the schistose stone dwelling of Village Head Mr. Zhu
and the stone-wood dwelling of his neighbors and took a 24-hour actual measurement of the indoor and
outdoor temperature of the schistose stone house. The indoor thermal environment comparing results of
the schistose stone dwelling and stone-wood dwelling at P.M. 14:00 20:30 are shown in table 1. As shown
in Table 1, we can see that when the outdoor temperature reached the highest 33.4℃, the indoor
temperature of the schistose stone dwelling was 28.6C and can reach as high as 30.2℃ to the most. Such
results show that the indoor temperature is high in summer times due to the low floor height, and the bad
ventilation since there are no windows at the back wall. As shown in Table 1, we can see that in the day time,
the indoor temperature of the wooden dwelling is lower than that of the schistose stone dwelling, but
generally speaking, heat insulation measures, like building two-layer walls, cultivating plants on roofs or
walls, and building gardens on the top of roofs are needed to be applied on both of the two kinds of houses
to improve its thermal conditions.
Table 1. Indoor air temperature of the stone dwelling and wooden dwelling
(P.M. 14:00 20:30)
Time 14:00 15:30 16:30 17:30 18:30 19:30 20:30

Outdoor air
temperature[℃] 33.4 31.4’ 31.3 27.4 26.1 24.7 23.7
Indoor air
temperature of
schistose stone 28.6 30.2 29.8 28.8 28.3 27.2 26.2
dwelling[℃]
Indoor air
temperature of
wooden 29.3 28.7 28.6 28.5 28.4 26.8 25.7
dwelling[℃]
EARTH DWELLINGS IN FRIGID CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

We carried out tests on several typical dwellings at Jinlong Street of Zhongdian County Town in Shangri-La
to research and compare the thermal insulation properties of traditional rammed earth walls. In the
buildings tested, dwellings is a Tibetan traditional rammed earth dwelling in the east-west direction, which
is of square shape in plane and has three rooms. The traditional rammed earth dwelling is as shown in Fig 3.
The three walls of this dwelling are rammed earth walls, and the other side is a corridor installed with glass.
The first floor of this dwelling has been changed into living room, bedroom and warehouse from the early
animal house, this is because changes in living style of the county town have taken place and the Tibetans
no longer take the stock raising such as yak as their main economic source. The corridor on the 1st floor is
installed with a steel frame glass door to form an adjacent greenhouse, which is beneficial for the utilization
of solar energy and heat insulation in winter. The 2nd floor is main space where the Tibetans live, which is of
square shape in plane with a living room and two bedrooms. The corridor on the 2nd floor is also installed
with glass windows. The roof is formed in such a manner that a double-pitch wooden roof is arranged on the
flat soil roof through supports.
1703
Fig.3 Tibetan traditional dwelling with rammed earth walls in Shangri-La
Fig 4. air temperature of the living rooms of Tibetan traditional rammed dwellings
As is shown in the fig 4, the outdoor temperature fluctuated from -4.6℃ to 16.3℃ on the winter solstice in
2005, with an amplitude of 20.9℃, and the minimum and maximum temperature occurred respectively at
13:00 on December 21 and 7:00 on December 22. In the living room of Tibetan rammed dwellings, the
indoor temperature fluctuated from 0.2℃ to 14.8℃, with an amplitude of 6.6℃, and the minimum and
maximum temperature occurred respectively at 13:00 on December 21 and 7:00 on December 22. The
amplitude of indoor temperature is 14.3℃ smaller than that of outdoor temperature, thus maintaining the
relatively stable indoor temperature. The temperature of the living room with a warm corridor is always kept
above 0℃.The test results also show the openable enclosed glass corridor on the 1st floor forms a unique
sunroom, whose greenhouse effect, heat insulation and transition effect play a role of excellent heating and
heat stability in the indoor rooms (living room and bedroom).
EARTH DWELLINGS IN HOT-DRY MOUNTINOUS REGIONS AND ENVIRONMENT

Research on dwellings in Mali Village, Yuanyang County in hot-dry mountainous regions and its
environment has been carried on remote and hot-dry regions of Yunnan Province. Subject to the restriction
on economy and technology, local people use soil and woods to build houses applicable to the local natural
conditions, such as “ Tu-Zhang-Fang”(soil-made house)and “mushroom house” (a combination of grass and
plat roofs). These dwellings are normally built on the slop of mountains. As a supplement for mountainous
regions, the plat roof can provide places for people to dry grains, melon and fruit and do housework. The
house’s plat roof is covered with serried wood beams with 25cm of thickness and sheltered by earth. The
building envelope is employed with rammed earth wall with 49cm of thickness or adobe wall with 35cm of
thickness. For the thermal inertia of soil, people living in these houses feel warm in winter and cool in
1704
summer. The heat stability rises with the increase of thickness of the soil layer. According to the measured
data obtained from many dwellings in the summer of 1995, as the internal surface temperature of wall
lowered by 7℃ (49cm in rammed earth wall’s thickness) and 5℃ (35cm in adobe wall’s thickness), the
surface temperature of plat-roof dwellings is 4.5℃ lower than outside surface temperature. It has better
heat insulation than tile-roofed or grass-roof houses.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the researches on traditional dwelling of different renewable materials under
different geographical climate conditions:
[1] Stone dwellings absorb sun heat in daytime and keep heat out the indoor, and let out heat in night keep
heat into building, so that sun energy be used effectively.
[2] The heat-insulation performance and heat stability of rammed earth wall is good, from the aspect of “full
life cycle analysis”, the rammed earth wall almost has no influence on the environment, so it should be
reserved
[3] The test results also show the openable enclosed glass corridor forms a unique sunroom, whose
greenhouse effect, heat insulation and transition effect play a role of excellent heating and heat stability in
the indoor rooms (living room and bedroom).
[4] In order to improve the indoor thermal environment, it is required to make a deep research on different
materials of the building envelope and the temperature changes to explore the energy-saving and heat-
insulation materials and structures to adapt to the local living style .
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Project Supported by Yunnan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China: Research on the Sustainable
Development in Buildings with Different Geographic and Climate Resources and Environment in Yunnan
(2003E0026M )
REFERENCES
Mao Gang. Climate Oriented Design Strategies. World Architecture (1998•1).p.15-17
[British] Brian Edwards Sustainable Buildings (2nd edition) [M] translated by Zhou Yupeng and Song Huahao
et al., Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press, 2003
Wu Liangyong. Study on Planning for Sustainable Human Settlements in Northwestern Yunnan Province [M].
Yunnan: Yunnan University Press, in Chinese (2000).
1705
THE BENEFITS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT PLANNING FOR AFRICA TOWARDS 2050
Dr. Gillian Adendorff, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Department of Construction Management,
PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa, gillian@adarchi.co.za
Prof. John Smallwood Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Department of Construction Management,
PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa,john.smallwood@nmmu.ac.za
Prof. Chris Adendorff, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Business School, PO Box 77000, Port
Elizabeth 6031, South Africa,cadendorff@nmmu.ac.za
Abstract
A successful city cannot operate efficiently in isolation from its environment. It must balance social, economic and
environmental needs. A successful city must offer investors security, infrastructure and efficiency, and should also
put the needs of its citizens at the forefront of all its planning activities. Poor

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PROCEEDING

DESiGn AnD lAyOuT

UIA 2014 DURBAN PROGRAMME PARTNERS AND GUEST EDITORS

Jia Beisi, Associate Professor of Architecture, university of Hong Kong

Martha Kohen, Professor, School of Architecture, university of Florida

naudé Malan, Senior lecturer, Development Studies, university of Johanesburg

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Stephen Kendall, Emeritus Professor of Architecture, Ball State university

UIA 2014 DURBAN GENERAL REPORTER-APPOINTED SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: MEMBERS AND

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UIA 2014 DURBAN SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

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UIA 2014 DURBAN CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

UIA 2014 DURBAN PROGRAMME PARTNERS AND GUEST EDITORS 4

A WORD FROM THE EDITORS

uiA 2014 EDiTOrS

THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS

what got included in the abstract and in the proceedings books.

UIA 2014 CATEGORIES OF PARTICIPATION FOR AUTHORS AND PRESENTERS

c) SPECiAl PrESEnTATiOnS. There will be a number of special sessions within specialised

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UIA 2014 DURBAN PANEL OF REVIEWERS

Ruzica Bozovic Stamenovic

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and cultural landscapes.

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also taught architecture at uJ for 3 decades.

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in Sandton, Johannesburg`s Corporate business district

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Project Design, thesis for Master and PhD student’s dissertation.

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M Friedland, LYT Architecture, Matthew.F@lyt.co.za

THE SYSTEM IN DETAIL

Figure 1: Typical construction of the Green School System

Figure 7: Typical Spatial Planning for the GSC.

BUILDING AND RUNNING COSTS

Primary Use Litres/learner/school day Litres / learner / school year

DELIVERY AND EXPANSION

Year Population +/- % change

COMFORT & HEALTH

ROOFS (MgO boards and Air films included)

WALLS (MgO boards and Air films included)

Figure 13: Diagram of light shelf (by author).

ECOLOGY - RESILIENCE - VALUES

WHAT IF YOU DISCOVER A ROMAN THEATRE UNDERNEATH LATE OTTOMAN DWELLINGS?

Figure 1: General view of Kaleiçi.

Figure 2: General view of Kaleiçi with its monuments.

Figure 3: Hadrianus Gate.

Figure 4: Hıdırlık Tower.

THE ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF KALEİÇİ

Figure 5: A traditional house in Kaleiçi.

Figure 6: The inner yard of a traditional house.