Governments and local authorities in developing countries could not ignore the vitality, actions and products of the informal sector in housing and settlements. In Egypt; as in many developing nations, the informal sector provided, throughout the past decades, the majority of housing units and environs for low income groups, solving their urgent need for shelter, closely related to work and services. While depilating invaluable agriculture land, providing poor social and physical quality, internal and external living, the informal housing and development process, proved hard to match, control or stop. The government and related institutions couldn’t compete with the ‘meagre’ affordable product built by the users and demand groups. The positive aspects of informal and related incremental developments were accepted and deployed in formal policies and housing scenarios since the 1980’s; advocating loose partnership between central and local authorities, and the targeted low income families, and collectively resulting in legal housing developments that could be improved with time. Limited success marked the applications of the said policies of joint endeavours and incremental developments; and informal housing and settlements continued to grow. A new scenario was adopted and applied since 2005, entitled ‘Build Your Home’; aiming at avoiding the drawbacks of earlier developments’ policies and actions; invariably lacking: reasonable outlook, quality external spaces and efficient control. Nine years later, it is possible to review and assess the experience; pointing-out its merits and shortcomings, including; distorted development, in-completed infrastructure and services, thin population, and absence of community living. The present work critically looks into the promise and misfortunes of Incremental Housing Developments in Egypt, with emphasis on the recent experience of ‘Build Your Home’; addressing and suggesting means of improving: the ‘inefficient’ Process of implementation and the ‘humble’ Products; in Incremental Development Projects. The paper comprises three parts: 1- Incremental development process, on potentials and actors’ roles, 2- ‘Build your Home’ Incremental Housing, Egypt, 2005 -2013, a critical analysis, 3- Revitalization of Incremental Housing Developments – Proposed Framework.
A model is proposed for predicting and measuring the housing satisfaction level of public housing schemes in South Africa, a case study of the Gauteng Province (economic hub of Southern Africa). The suggested model assumes the measurement of housing satisfaction both subjectively, in terms of beneficiaries’ satisfaction with the housing environment; the adequacy level of the dwelling and its environment. It is hoped that such a model will help in testing different types of public housing provisions in South Africa and assist in identifying the most predictive and useful factors that need to be given proper consideration in the implementation of policy governing public housing provision. This paper introduces the model and its development process and the outcome of its testing and the validation programme will be reported later. It is important to note that the research model has been developed to fit the conditions of South Africa and its application in a different set of condition would need further alteration and adjustment to fit the specific context.
The article discusses research oriented towards spatial planning evaluation practices as an important contribution to achieve positive improvements on the efficiency and effectiveness of the planning system. A significant part of current planning problems are directly connected with the necessity of dealing with uncertain scenarios and future dynamics variations. This increasing uncertainty has been engaging the plan making process and is currently leading urban planners to flexible planning models especially supported on monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. The research focuses on the evaluation theories and the methodologies that have been developed around the world, seeking to present a survey on the state of the art on the matter. A focus is therefore established on three evaluation methodologies (General Plan Evaluation Criteria; After the Plans; and the Policy – Plan / Programme – Implementation – Process) and some measures are identified in order to adapt and apply these theories to the main instrument of Portuguese local planning system – the PDM (Plano Director Municipal). The findings show the benefits of the evaluation practices in spatial planning, as well as the advantages for the sustainability of the Portuguese local planning system. Moreover, the research identifies positive contributions coming from these specific methodologies to the evaluation of the Portuguese local master plans (PDM).
For some years now our research group deals with self-building, which is a subject that is particularly topical today. Its benefits are now known to everybody: the economy of expenditure, the response to the specific needs of users but also ethical reasons concerning ecology, respect for nature and the attention to the recycling and reuse of materials. Working in this field we have been able to establish what the most common limits of the process are: the inadequacy of the legislation (especially in Italy) of the rules and regulations; the unpreparedness of the productive sector; the guarantee of acceptable levels of quality of what is built (training for auto-builders, process control, and security). Just this last point is dealt with in this study. It aims to identify what the most effective information systems are for the self-builders in order to assure the quality of the product (the building) and the process. The current means of spreading turned to self-builder often give only general information. This work aims to offer an analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of different forms of communication in this sector (training courses, videos, textual printouts, graphic printouts, etc..) through which an easy, immediate and complete understanding of the setting of the project and the way in which it must be realized (use of materials, application techniques, phases of the work) can be guaranteed.
A majority of the world’s population is housed poorly. That is, a majority of the world’s population lives in informal or irregular settlements, in makeshift shacks and huts made from brick, and tin and cardboard, often in spaces off the formal service grid yet very much part of the urban fabric. Typically, these dwellings are built with no mind to building code requirements, must less with consideration of energy efficiency or sustainable construction. The reasons that the world’s majority is reduced to living in such slums and shantytowns are complicated and vary from place to place. However, most slum and shantytown dwellers have been excluded socially, economically and/or spatially from the dominant legal and social order. This reality poses serious challenges to the goal of realizing energy efficient and sustainable construction on a wide scale. This panel seeks to explore urban planning challenges to achieve that goal. To that end, the panel will explore various legal and policy steps that might be taken to effect socio-economic-spatial inclusion and thus promote more widespread sustainable and energy-efficient construction. First, construction inputs will be considered in the context of green building certification systems and the challenges of expanding those systems into low-cost, mass housing. Second, consideration will be given to practical measures that can be adopted to promote more energy-efficient construction and renovations in slums and shantytowns globally, both to improve quality of life and energy use in the short and longer term. Third and finally, the panel will review examples of urban planning reform legislation and regulation in different countries and offer suggestions for a more progressive, inclusive legal and regulatory urban planning agenda going forward.
Professor Vitor Abrantes describes a speech delivered by him at the IAHS World Congress on Housing in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. He addresses his speech to other professors who attended the event. He states how the great island of Madeira has been mentioned in historical evidence regarding the Portuguese discovering the sea route to India. He states that the Portuguese have sought to discover new cultures and connect the world, ranging from the conquest of Ceuta in 1415 to their arrival in Japan in 1543.
