Housing/ urban design
Problem:
Urbanization continues to outpace formal production modes of providing affordable and adequate housing for the growing masses – in about 20 years, 2 billion people or one-half of the urban population will be living in precarious, slum-like conditions.
While many existing formal supply channels cannot cope with the growing demands for shelter, cities develop informally, without sufficient infrastructure, threatening the health of its inhabitants and the balance of our eco-system.
Despite their devastating impact, these informal cities are for many urban dwellers the only viable alternative for accessing land, services, job opportunities and social mobility.
The flexibility and adaptability of auto-construction and self-organizing systems have proven the most resilient counterpart of the current economic crisis – informality has become an integral part of the dominant (formal) mode of urban production.
The crisis of the human habitat is the downside of a global economic system that fails to produce adequate housing conditions for the growing urban population. New building technologies and financing mechanism will be key for the development of sustainable urban environments in the developing context.
The Architecture of Social Investment
Our approach:
Between bottom-up and top-down planning, formal and informal production modes, the provision with low-cost housing is not only an existential premise for the urban poor but also the basis for income generation, financial security and economic empowerment.
To contribute to theimprovement of poor housing conditions, we supported the urbaninform competiition "The Architecture of Social Investment" at the end of 2010.
The entry KIBERA PUBLIC SPACE PROJECT 02 from Kounkuey Design Initiative won first prize, with overwhelming acceptance. The project inspired the jury not as a best-practice project that not only shows how to upgrade living conditions in an informal settlement by the integration of an community, but also how to support step by step economic empowerment through long term commitment.
See the clip of the KIBERA PUBLIC SPACE PROJECT 02 in Nairobi, Kenia here. For more information on the urbaninform competition please click here.
Our partner urbaninform also participated in the MOMA Exhibition "SMALL SCALE - BIG CHANGE, New Architectures of Social Engagement" from 3 October 2010 - 3 January 2011 in New York. For more information on the MOMA exhibition please click here.
For a general introduction into the topic please have a look at the urbaninform movie clip on You Tube.
In cooperation with urbaninform we have recently launched URBANIMPACT, an initiative focusing on the improvement of urban living conditions. URBANIMPACT aims at bringing together diverse actors that construct the future human habitat, especially architects/ urban designers, governmental and non-governmental organizations active in development cooperation as well as social business inititiatives of the private sector.
URBANIMPACT’s mission is to promote social impact business initiatives as integral components of urban development.
URBANIMPACT’s goal is a socially just and ecologically sustainable urban development, in which the urban dweller is empowered and guidelines of resource-efficient development are established and implemented. Please see detailed information on URBANIMPACT here.
If you would like to support us in making the life of urban slum dwellers sustainable and shaping the future of informal cities, please click here.
