Quote: On Slums

I have been working over the past few weeks on a report for short term consulting job that analyzes slum upgrading policies across Asia (hence my hiatus from blogging).  As I sifted through past research projects I came across this quote:

“A slum is not a chaotic collection of structures; it is a dynamic collection of individuals who have figured out how to survive in the most adverse of circumstances.”  Rediscovering Dharavi by Kalpana Sharma 2000

Struggling to make sense of various slum upgrading policies, financing schemes and institutional frameworks that still have not eliminated the problem of slums, I found this quote on squatter’s ability to overcome adversity as somewhat inspiring.  Of course I am not advocating romanticizing the poverty that exists in slums. Instead practitioners should simply take time to reflect on how squatters have already overcome so much before our plans were even created.

- Melissa

International Urban Planning Capstones

It’s May, which in the world of academia means spring conferences, commencement ceremonies and thesis projects.  Today students at NYU’s Wagner School of public service will be displaying their final capstone projects at the 2011 Capstone Expo.  Instead of requiring an individual thesis, students at Wagner complete a capstone project, by work in small groups as consultants for two semesters with client organizations.  This year Wagner urban planning students had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects across the world. Below are profiles of a few of this year’s international planning projects.  For more information about this evening’s Capstone Expo view this invitation.

Participatory Planning in Agonda, India by Amy Faust  |  Amy, a Wagner urban planning student, participated in an international planning studio course through Pratt Institute Agonda, India.  She primarily focused on solid waste management systems within this participatory planning project.  The captions below describe more of the project.

Amy facilitating a discussion on waste management during a participatory planning workshop in Agonda, India.

Agonda beach. Tourism is a major industry there, though the village is still small and rural. The community is engaging in a planning process to encourage tourism, but diversify the economy, improve infrastructure, preserve the environment and maintain the rural character.

Waste along a river in Agonda. Since there isn’t a system for solid waste management, the waste produced by the tourism industry, for example, is often illegally dumped – plastic water bottles, bags and food packaging are a particular issue.

Slum Upgrading Background Study in the Philippines by  Ariana Karamallis MacPherson, Kim Powell and Melissa Reese  |  The purpose of this Capstone was to examine institutions, policies, financing mechanisms and data gathering strategies as they relate to slum upgrading in Metro Manila, in order to inform the World Bank in their development of future slum upgrading strategies for the Metro Manila region. Ariana, Kim and myself conducted field research in Metro Manila last July, which included interviews with local academics and government officials, as well as visiting informal communities to learn about their plans for upgrading.

Plans showing the location of the St James Riverside community, an informal settlement in a frequently flooded area.

Children in a community that had been part of a World Bank financed upgrading project.

Recommendations for Slum Upgrading in the Philippines by David
Colner, Andres Mitnik, and Javier Serra  |  David, Andres and Javier followed up on the background research done by the previous team by creating a report that provides recommendations for designing mid-rise social housing developments in the Philippines.  The recommendations were made after conducting field research in Metro Manila, a selected analysis of international case studies, and a desk review of best practices in Southeast Asia.

An example of Mid-Rise Socialized Housing: Euesbio Bliss in Pasig City

Community Map of UP Bliss in Quezon City, Metro Manila

A Habitat for Humanity development in Taguig City,  Metro Manila

- Melissa

The Wagner Planner: The Impact Issue

This year’s Wagner Planner, the annual newsletter of NYU Wagner’s Urban Planning Student Association, has just been published.  It features work about both New York and international planning issues.  As the editors write:

In the latest edition of The Wagner Planner we asked what current students, alumni, and faculty are doing to have a real impact on tough urban challenges.

Three Encountering Urbanization writers also have pieces about India, the Philippines, and Brazil.  Read the whole publication here.

- Melissa

Urban Form in Shanghai vs New York

Berlin

New York

Istanbul

After last week’s post Comparing Urban Form and then seeing these amazing comparative maps by French artist Armelle Caron I was inspired to investigate urban form a little deeper.  One description of Caron’s work says,

Caron strips cities of their spatial context. Roads and rivers become irrelevant, districts and parks disappear. The relationship between built-up areas and empty spaces is obliterated. The city is hung out to dry by its smallest constituent parts. The cartographic compact – maps, however imperfect and partial on paper, are reliable real-world guides – is nullified. The city is un-mapped.

As a New Yorker that spends a large portion of my time studying Asian cities, and traveling to them whenever the opportunity arises, I am always curious as to why some of my favorite artistic interpretations of comparative urban form never seem to compare Asian cities with western cities.  This stark contrast based on shear size of Asian cities compared with Western cities seems an exciting enough reason to further explore their urban patterns. So I decided to use Open Street Maps and some basic Photoshops skills to compare city blocks in Shanghai’s Pudong district (on the eastern side of the river) with lower Manhattan, since both serve as financial districts. Of course my maps are not as in depth of a study as Caron’s deconstructed cities but you can still notice a striking difference between Shanghai’s massive new development in Pudong (east portion) with the Bund and other historic development in Pu Xi (west portions).  Even more striking though is that even the blocks of Pu Xi seems large compared to lower Manhattan.

Shanghai

Manhattan

After walking the massive blocks of Pudong this summer I was not that surprised when I realize that one block in Pudong was the same size as about 6 blocks in Lower Manhattan.  What is surprising though is to consider what the size of these city blocks may mean about the density of these cities if future development mirrored these sections.

Melissa

Construction & Deconstruction of the Shanghai Expo

Between 2004 to 2010 the government of Shanghai relocated over 18,000 households from the 528 hectare site of the 2010 World Expo.  This of course resulted in massive demolition projects and subsequent construction of new housing projects in more remote parts of the city. Last summer I had the opportunity to visit the Expo as part of an NYU course abroad.  For this course I choose to research how the government of Shanghai relocated the 18,000 households.  So when I came across Bricoleurbanism’s post on the (de)constructing the Expo I was very excited to see a satellite image comparisons of the site in 2004 and 2010.  If you look closely below you will notice a compact village in the southeast portion of the site in 2004.

2004 The future site of the 2010 World Expo

2010 World Expo Park Constructed

Of course this post led me to further wonder what was happening with the Expo site today, since the Expo closing ceremony in October?   It was hard to image that this massive event, costing over US$ 40 billion, was constructed to only last six months.  From my trip this summer I already knew that the China Pavilion was intended to be a permanent structure while the other countries’ pavilions would be torn down to make way a park and other land use.  I found some interesting pictures of the rest of the Expo between October to December 2010, as it has turn into a massive demolition site.  By now most of the pavilions are probably completely gone suggests a few bloggers, but I have yet to find more recent images. In the coming months it will be interesting to see how Shanghai decides to reuse this prime land.  Below are a few photos of the demolition from various bloggers.

“Why do they need to construct something before they start demolishing?” I asked. “It’s China,” said my friend, who’s Chinese. “If they’re building a wall, it’s to hide something behind it.”

Constructing a wall to divide the permanent portion of the Expo from the demolition site. Image and quote from: Shanghai Skiok!

 

 

The deconstructed UK Pavilion as of December 2010. Image from Shanghai Scrap.

Read a first hand account of the demolition site from Shanghai Skiok! and see more pictures from CNNGo.

Melissa

Hong Kong

In a few days I will be traveling to Hong Kong for two weeks to take an NYU course on Global Food Cultures in Hong Kong. Although the class is about food I am hoping to use this opportunity to explore the unique public housing program in Hong Kong that houses about 45% of the city’s population.  This is the second largest population (within a capitalist society) to be housed in government owned estates.  My research though for the course will focus on the policies that have allowed wet markets and supermarkets to be developed within public housing estates.  Below are a few historic and recent photos that I found while researching.

Hong Kong in the 1960s

Hong Kong in the 1990s

Hong Kong Today

On Christmas Day of 1953 over 50,000 squatters were left homeless when a fire swept through the Shek Kei Mei settlement in Hong Kong

The Shek Kei Mei Fire

In less than 12 months the Hong Kong had rehoused all displaced familes in Shek Kip Mei into public housing blocks like this

Recently constructed public housing blocks

A traditional market in Hong Kong

Happy New Year!   Melissa

Housing Strategies in Metro Manila

After eight long months of researching, writing, analyzing, and some fun, my capstone team has finally finished our final project (aka group thesis) on slum upgrading strategies in Metropolitan Manila.   Our work included traveling to Manila for three weeks in July and researching housing strategies and slum upgrading projects with two local World Bank consultants.  Our final paper will hopefully contribute to the World Bank’s plan to help  Metropolitan Manila  develop a unified slum upgrading strategy.

The story of Manila’s lack of affordable housing is one complicated by the fact that this metro area of 11 million people is also comprised of 17 separate local government units that do not coordinate affordable housing projects.  Also in Metro Manila about 50% of the total population can not afford to acquire any form of secure housing, forcing millions to inhabit the city as illegal squatters.  However there is hope as many communities have self mobilized to apply for the Community Mortgage Program to upgrade their own informal settlements.  Also Habitat for Humanity has been building medium rise developments resulting in much improved communities.  Please enjoy a few pictures from our experience this summer.

A flood wall that had been washed away by Typhoons Ondoy in 2009 and the new retention wall built to protect an informal settlement from future floods.

The mascot of the Philippines National Housing Authority in Manila.

A medium rise Habitat for Humanity housing project consisting of four buildings with twelve units each.

Children in a community that had been part of a World Bank financed upgrading project.

Plans to showing the location of the St James Riverside community, an informal settlement in a frequently flooded area.

Our capstone team including our two local consultants and friends Tanya and Grendell.  Thanks for being such a great team!

Melissa