Enhancing security by instating the “shared” space as negotiator between private and public spaces; Places & place-making a comparative between a rural and urban setting. (original) (raw)

RE-EVALUATING PUBLIC SPACE IN URBAN SLUM: A CASE OF KORAIL BASTI

Proceedings of the 12th FARU International Research Conference (Faculty of Architecture Research Unit)At: University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2019

Slums are the undeniable truth in the urban fabric of developing counties. As per UN Habitat 30 percent of world's population live in slums and the vast majority of slums are located in and around urban centres. As reference, Korail Basti is Dhaka's biggest slum with a total area of around 110 acres of land. Due to spontaneous growth and density there is no viable public space for the intangible growth of the slum dwellers. But most often this crisis of such huge community is overlooked by providing bare necessities like-infrastructure for water, power, sanitation etc. with oversimplified , short term cheap schemes. However, on the deeper end it always failed to address the intangible needs of this community where cultural, recreational and social interaction can happen. This paper tries to re-evaluate the needs of viable public space in this type of dense urban slums, understand their present features from the existing public usage and analyses the constraints and scopes to incorporate them addressing the challenge of swarming density. This research has been carried out through diagram preparation from GIS mappings, field survey, photographic survey, one to one interview with the locals and questionnaire survey from the slum dwellers. The findings suggest us a clearer vision about the present public domain in Korail, its dependence on slum infrastructure and the local's aspiration for a better living condition. This paper focuses on the sequential process of understanding public integration, public usage and spatial inclusion of infrastructure and public domain within slums to transform it into consolidated neighbourhoods for the betterment of the city.

SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF URBAN SPACE IN INFORMAL AREAS IN THE G.C.R. “MISSING VALUES & PROBABLE POTENTIAL”

In Egypt, the term “informal areas” or “Ashwaeyat” has always been negatively perceived by the majority of people as a place of illegality, problems and crimes. However, it acts as a housing solution for a major sector of Egyptian Population. In addition, some of the Egyptian slums present a great potential when it comes to social relations between the inhabitants. Moreover, some of these areas especially those “ex-nihilos” like Hagganah provide some environmental privileges and climatic advantages. These areas recall in our perception the vernacular urbanism in cities, made and designed by their inhabitants according to their needs, long ago before urban planning science revolution or evolution. The difference between urban spaces in these areas and others conceived by the Government – especially those planned in order to solve the economic housing problem- evokes to a great extent the lived/generic urban space conflict. Nevertheless, the architectural types in these areas are far from being considered as advantageous. However, some of the existing buildings can be easily modified in order to increase their architectural qualities. The aim of this paper is to identify the features, acquaint with the pros in the slums, and the lessons learned by analyzing some examples of social production of urban space like in Haggana area through the environmental, social, economic and the executive aspects. Using Henri Lefebvre theories in “The Production of Space”, this research is a clear attempt to scrutinize the potentials and the possibilities of improving the disadvantages, in order for these areas to be incrementally considered as a possible solution for economic housing problem as well as providing a healthy social urban space for its existing users.

Slums: Aspects, Social and Spatial Analysis

Do you know that great numbers of slums exist all over the world? But what are slums first? They are greatly inhabited poor neighborhoods found in urban areas as informal settlements which are identified by unorganized housing and very bad living conditions. Each slum has its own size and characteristics which vary from one slum to another and from one country to another, but similar slums having similar characteristics and sizes could exist. Most of the slums lack one or more of many specifications such as durable housing, access to improved water and sanitation, sufficient living areas and secure tenure. There are many causes for slums' growth. These causes include economic stagnation, high unemployment, poverty, poor planning, politics and other concerns. Some slums are historical and remained till the present time. However, many slums existed in the urban areas located in the United States and Europe during the 19 th and early 20 th century. Nevertheless, slums in most cases nowadays are found in the urban regions of evolving and undeveloped parts of the world including developed economies. According to UN-HABITAT, around 33% or 863 million people of the urban population in the developing world in 2012 lived in slums. The highest percentage (61.7%) of urban population living in slums was recorded in Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by other regions in the world. Even though slums are unorganized and unplanned, there exist legally created and formed slums and illegal ones. A lot of information concerning social cohesion, spatial configuration, design, segregation, integration and other approaches could be learned from the issue of slums.

Common Space and Behavior at the Border between Slum and Metropolitan Area: The Case of “Catambor” and “Alvalade”

Sustainability

Composed of modern city centers and numerous slum patches in deep proximity and coexistence with one another, the Sub-Saharan African urban landscape is often perceived as chaotic or unorganized in nature due to the inconsistencies in the urban layout derived from the spontaneous occupation in said slums, in Angola, known as “Musseque”. This article focuses on the border between the “Musseque” of Catambor and the Alvalade Neighborhood as a point of interaction of both realities, influencing users to either adjust their activities to the streets or adjust the streets to their needs. With the purpose of understanding the streets’ environmental behavior settings and purpose improvements while preserving said environmental behavior, this study uses the behavior mapping method to identify the users’ stationary activities and then groups them by zone and occurrence, followed ultimately by a series of interviews. The results uncovered a degree of self-intervention by the users, ranging fro...

The study of slums as social and physical constructs: challenges and emerging research opportunities The study of slums as social and physical constructs: challenges and emerging research opportunities

2016

Over 1 billion people currently live in slums, with the number of slum dwellers only expected to grow in the coming decades. The vast majority of slums are located in and around urban centres in the less economically developed countries, which are also experiencing greater rates of urbanization compared with more developed countries. This rapid rate of urbanization is cause for significant concern given that many of these countries often lack the ability to provide the infrastructure (e.g., roads and affordable housing) and basic services (e.g., water and sanitation) to provide adequately for the increasing influx of people into cities. While research on slums has been ongoing, such work has mainly focused on one of three constructs: exploring the socio-economic and policy issues; exploring the physical characteristics; and, lastly, those modelling slums. This paper reviews these lines of research and argues that while each is valuable, there is a need for a more holistic approach for studying slums to truly understand them. By synthesizing the social and physical constructs, this paper provides a more holistic synthesis of the problem, which can potentially lead to a deeper understanding and, consequently, better approaches for tackling the challenge of slums at the local, national and regional scales.

Role of spatial hierarchy in resettling the urban poor: Implications of spatial configuration on privacy and interaction

International Conference on Cities and People (ICCP), 2016

The psychological needs of the inhabitants are directly influenced by the spatial layouts; hence the spatial organization plays a major role in housing. This role becomes even more significant, when housing a community such as the urban poor who has strong social ties. The Government organizations in Sri Lanka often resettle the urban poor in high-rise housing. Such housing interventions often do not acknowledge the spatial relationships and organizations of such communities. The hypothesis of this research is that the spatial configuration (hierarchical order) in housing is influenced by behavioral patterns of its inhabitants and vice versa. Hence it influences the overall level of satisfaction of its inhabitants. Hence this paper explores this relationship. The data were collected from an ongoing community housing project in Colombo-Thotalanga which is named as "Muwadora Uyana". Space syntax and in-depth interviews were the data collection tools. The first objective of the study is to study the original arrangement of a case to examine the rooted spatial hierarchy patterns. The second objective was to examine the same in a case where rehousing has taken place and hence the rooted spatial arrangements have been changed. The impact of spatial configuration on social interactions and privacy was specially focused on. The study has established the significance of informal spaces when housing the urban poor.

Urban Form and Public Safety: How Public Open Space Shapes Social Behaviour in Public Housing NEIGHBOURHOODS1

2015

This paper points out the relationship between urban form characteristics and social behaviour in public open space of public housing neighbourhoods in the context of safety and security issues. It is based on theoretical assumptions according to which the organization of space and its physical characteristics influence the relationship between people, their activities and ideas. The spatial configuration of neighbourhoods and their public space can affect the individual and collective patterns of their daily use which support local community identity and its integration into the global system of a city. At the same time it can be a generator of urban segregation and experience of insecurity. The paper is a brief overview of several urban theories as critical rethinking of spatial and social basis of the concept of the neighbourhood unit. These theories are dealing with the relations between urban form and forms of sociability, at the same time concerning the safety issue of neighbo...

The study of slums as social and physical constructs: challenges and emerging research opportunities

Regional Studies, Regional Science, 2016

over 1 billion people currently live in slums, with the number of slum dwellers only expected to grow in the coming decades. the vast majority of slums are located in and around urban centres in the less economically developed countries, which are also experiencing greater rates of urbanization compared with more developed countries. this rapid rate of urbanization is cause for significant concern given that many of these countries often lack the ability to provide the infrastructure (e.g., roads and affordable housing) and basic services (e.g., water and sanitation) to provide adequately for the increasing influx of people into cities. While research on slums has been ongoing, such work has mainly focused on one of three constructs: exploring the socioeconomic and policy issues; exploring the physical characteristics; and, lastly, those modelling slums. this paper reviews these lines of research and argues that while each is valuable, there is a need for a more holistic approach for studying slums to truly understand them. By synthesizing the social and physical constructs, this paper provides a more holistic synthesis of the problem, which can potentially lead to a deeper understanding and, consequently, better approaches for tackling the challenge of slums at the local, national and regional scales.

URBAN FORM AND PUBLIC SAFETY: HOW PUBLIC OPEN SPACE SHAPES SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN PUBLIC HOUSING NEIGHBOURHOODS

This paper points out the relationship between urban form characteristics and social behaviour in public open space of public housing neighbourhoods in the context of safety and security issues. It is based on theoretical assumptions according to which the organization of space and its physical characteristics influence the relationship between people, their activities and ideas. The spatial configuration of neighbourhoods and their public space can affect the individual and collective patterns of their daily use which support local community identity and its integration into the global system of a city. At the same time it can be a generator of urban segregation and experience of insecurity. The paper is a brief overview of several urban theories as critical rethinking of spatial and social basis of the concept of the neighbourhood unit. These theories are dealing with the relations between urban form and forms of sociability, at the same time concerning the safety issue of neighbourhoods and public spaces. Analytical concepts of these theories of urban heterogeneity and configurational characteristics of the space are often used in contemporary urban studies as a tool to measure the spatial performativity in the context of safety problems. Patterns of human co-presence, spontaneous surveillance and mixing of residents and strangers, who can be supported and generated through the configuration of urban structures, are considered as the mediators of experience of safety. Pointing out the safety issue in these theories, the argument of this paper is that urban form can be considered as a useful instrument for achievement of individual and community safety.