Final Presentation

The following is a pdf in which we outline the process used to study projects going on in slums from all over the world and the players involved. The goal is that by organizing and categorizing this information, using a system of frames we created, designers will gain insight into how to best work in slums.

Final Presentation

We hope to continue to work to make the chart above an interactive website, hopefully in a partnership with an established social design organization.

case studies

Dan – Havana & Lima
Ryan – Zyrek & Philippines
Julia – Kibera & Thailand
Quillian – Mexico City & Dhaka City
Noel – Rio de Janeiro & Darava (Mumbai)
Josh – Newark & Soweto (Johannasburg)

Local:Global Organizations

Local : Global Networks

The urban population has been rising for decades. Within this, the population of urban slums have been rising exponentially. Without land ownership, these citizens’ rights are limited or even obsolete. With their power in numbers, they have begun to organize.

Proposal for Moving our Research Forward

We agree our proposal will be a provocation (what if?) rather than conclusive instructions for practice (this is how it is). When posing the question this way, we seem to agree that the potential for new frameworks involves channeling a diverse set of organizations (of various scales, compositions, funding sources) to maximize effectiveness through cooperation. Additionally, we talked about focusing on a particular geographic area(s) to add depth to our research.

After giving this more thought, I am proposing a slightly modified direction. Taking into account our resources (in terms of time/expertise), I think we should consider how we can be most effective with our work. The prior post about Mumbai highlights the complexity of the issues we are engaging. It is difficult to speculate on how the specifics of slum redevelopment in Mumbai (or any other city) are transferable across cities, nations, continents. Essentially, they may be too specific to be meaningful at the larger scale – nevermind the effort required to do a truly effective case-study or find a novel collaboration between two organizations.

Despite this, there are certain paradigms present in the Mumbai example that are transferable or have value in the fact that they are distinct from practices in other contexts. I propose that we operate more at the level of paradigm rather than nitty gritty. More after the break…

Slum Rehabilition Authority – Mumbai

Large-scale government coordinated efforts (led by Mumbai’s Slum Rehabilitation Authority) are taking place in Mumbai to rehouse the vast population of slum inhabitants. The process is largely market-driven with government authorities selling land occupied by slums to developers for private development. Because of density pressures in Mumbai, this land has incredible value to private enterprises. In exchange for he land’s development rights, developers are required to provide new housing to existing inhabitants, while the remainder of the site is open to private market-driven use. Not surprisingly, this process is often plagued by corruption and unfulfilled promises, but the existence of a formal mechanism for addressing slums locally is worth our attention. More after the break…

Globalization, Politics, Economy – The Context of Slums

“The root cause of urban slumming seems to lie not in
urban poverty but in urban wealth.”
- Gita Verma, Slumming India: A Chronicle of Slums and Their Saviours

I came across a series of papers addressing the ‘Culture of Open Networks.’ Although the majority of the writing addresses new media, a pair of essays by Mike Davis and Saskia Sassen examine the presence/evolution of slums in the contemporary city. The specific focus is Bangalore, but their analysis of ’slum production’ is a helpful addition to our general research. As we look further at the opportunities available to us as architects/designers, it is important to remain cognizant of the larger socio/econ/poli structures influencing the physical context we see in front of us.

Here are the Davis/Sassen essays
Here is the full publication entitled In the Shade of the Commons: Towards a Culture of Open Networks

CLIFF

CLIFF is a facility that has been designed to provide loan finance for slum development projects that are implemented by the urban poor, and which have the potential to influence policy and practice that in turn can lead to a scaling-up in the provision of suitable housing and related infrastructure for the urban poor.

The CLIFF concept emerged from a DFID-funded research project – Bridging the Finance Gap in Housing and Infrastructure – conducted by Homeless International in collaboration with local partner organizations in a number of countries.

The CLIFF project is expected to: 1) develop a finance facility (CLIFF) to assist organizations of the urban poor to carry out successful community-driven infrastructure, housing and urban services projects at city level, in conjunction with municipalities and the private sector; 2) Develop a sustainable finance facility (CLIFF1) in India to continue providing specialist financial services to the urban poor after the end of project funding 3) Develop a sustainable in-country finance vehicle (CLIFF2) in at least one other country (if further funds can be raised) to replicate the concept in a different institutional setting and to benefit additional communities/cities.

CLIFF is co-ordinated internationally by Homeless International, and currently implemented at the local level by two indigenous CBO-NGO alliances – the Indian Alliance and the Kenyan Alliance.

The direct funding inputs for CLIFF (to date) are DFID (£6.84m), Sida (20m Krona, £1.5m approx.),The Homeless International Guarantee Fund (£0.6m), Local revolving loan funds owned by SPARC and Nirman (approximating £1.2 million in India and £0.5 million in Kenya). These funds flow through the World Bank’s Cities Alliance program, which administers the facility on behalf of the donors.

Thanks to Ryan for pointing this out.