| Abstrakt: |
In most cities of the developing world, informal settlements are both the most common residential context and the dominant means of obtaining housing. Since many of these cities are rapidly approaching ‘megacity’ status, the issue of informal settlements becomes striking in its enormity. This paper aims to highlight the problems and potentials of informal settlements and review broad-brush design directions for their upgrading. Cognizance is taken of the organic morphology which characterizes these settlements and historic design reaction in this regard. South Africa's informal settlements can be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century and the early days of industry when a combination of crop failure and the lure of cash wages began to attract rural dwellers to urban areas. Almost immediately a housing shortage arose, yet while action was taken to house white migrants, little was done for blacks whose number was considerably larger. Informal settlements sprang up almost overnight, grew as rapidly, and despite aggressive state attempts to eradicate them, both persist and continue to expand today. One such ‘unwanted child’, Winterveldt, is a large informal settlement in the Pretoria metropolitan region. In existence since the early 1940s residents here have created their own homes, spaces and urban environment. Official response to them has varied over time, and reflects the alternate design directions examined in the first part of the paper. |
Full text from SpringerLink