Ever since taking Modern Housing, I had the idea that I did not really want to be the next Koolhaas of architecture (although that would be freakin' awesome) but rather get into infrastructure planning/implementation and housing rehabilitation in urban Third World cities. Saying that automatically sounds like it requires master plans and oversized housing projects that are doomed to failure, but I really do believe that there are ways to renew -- at the risk of sounding like a speculator -- blighted areas without gentrification and massive urban upheaval. Although the problem of slum dwellings is a large-scale one, and there is no one perfect solution that is guaranteed to work, any renewal program must be developed and implemented on a small scale. Within the fabric of these widespread slums there exist so many tiny nuances that must be carefully studied, understood, and taken into consideration before any sort of plan is made.
There are over one billion people living in slums or inadequate housing in the world today. Many of these slums exist on the immediate peripheries of urban cities and not in the rural countrysides. In fact, much of the slums that exist today are a result of rapid urbanization paired with inverse industrialization and a stagnant economy.
Morra da Providencia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Kibera Slum, Nairobi, Kenya
Gecekondu neighborhood, Ankara, Turkey
Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, Jakarta
Mumbia, Maharashtra, IndiaI am writing a research paper on this topic, particularly the favelas in Brazil, for my Eminent Domain and Neighborhood Change class, but I don't really know if I can wrap my mind around the innumerable complexities. Can architecture really solve (or at least attempt to intervene on) a problem that is highly social and closely tied with politics and the economy?
There are over one billion people living in slums or inadequate housing in the world today. Many of these slums exist on the immediate peripheries of urban cities and not in the rural countrysides. In fact, much of the slums that exist today are a result of rapid urbanization paired with inverse industrialization and a stagnant economy.
Morra da Providencia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Kibera Slum, Nairobi, Kenya
Gecekondu neighborhood, Ankara, Turkey
Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, Jakarta
Mumbia, Maharashtra, India
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1 comment:
Yes it can and no it's not easy. I'm from Turkey so in fact, that photograph was a rather familiar site to me-one you can easily ignore by staying inside a safe triangle of rather hip neighborhoods, but once you get out, you it's striking to see how common it is. I guess politicians first have to understand that building new cool restaurants/ music venues/ shops/museums etc. etc. and forcing the habitants of these neighborhoods to live elsewheredoes not mean urban renewal, it simply means and brutality.
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