Mercatornet.com – June, 6, 2013

Poverty is no news to Africa: actually the poverty porn dominates media frames about the continent. What is new however, is the rising tide of innovation and creativity. From Cairo to Cape Town, Lagos to Lusaka, some are silently working for change, carving a niche and retelling a sordid narrative punctuated by wars, poverty and famine. Just as African mobile networks are transforming the way commerce operates, architects are also giving rein to their imagination. It was therefore heart-warming having a chat with Chiagozie Fred Nwonwu, a Lagos-based Nigerian writer, about his recent visit to Makoko and his impressions about the Makoko’s new floating school.

Makoko, a slum in Lagos State, Nigeria, was partially demolished last year by the government – drawing public ire. However, from this apparently hapless city, springs forth an innovative green architectural solution that grants hope to the hopeless. The Makoko Floating School designed by NLÉ Architects with sponsoring from the United Nations Development Programme and Heinrich Boell Foundation.

Chiagozie attended at a local workshop last year, where participants were encouraged to come up with innovative ideas to solve local climate-change problems. “Makoko was one of three communities in Lagos that were identified as to be in great need of the type of interventions the workshop aimed to propose.”

See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/harambee

Sanjukta Ghosh * *M.Sc, Department of Geography, Session: 2010-2012, University of Calcutta, India.

ABSTRACT: The slums of Kolkata represent a contrasting picture that is reflected in terms of poverty and disorganization surrounding the communities. The slum dwellers of Kolkata live in conditions that are not actually fit for their rehabilitation. To alleviate such chronic problems several initiatives have been undertaken by government as well as by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Various slums have been portrayed in this paper as case studies to draw transparent picture of slum diversity. The historical background analysis along with recent developmental plans for their amelioration has helped in drawing current plight in the slums of Kolkata.

Keywords: Slums, rehabilitation, chronic problems, diversities and developmental plans.

International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention ISSN (Online): 2319 – 7722, ISSN (Print): 2319 – 7714 www.ijhssi.org Volume 2 Issue 3 ǁ March. 2013ǁ PP.48-54

Read more (PDF-format): http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/v2%283%29/version-4/H234854.pdf

Posted by Future Cape Town on June 4, 2013

The global community of designers, urban practitioners and community organisers is largely in agreement over what type of urban form promotes inclusive cities: mixed-use, mixed-income neighbourhoods that enable mobility, encourage pedestrianism, and incorporate multi-use public spaces. But the architectural team in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the primary agency responsible for planning and land development in India’s capital, is busy designing high-rise low-income housing that looks like the failed projects of the Bronx and the banlieues. Far from becoming the “world class city” it is striving to be, Delhi is poised to repeat the public housing mistakes of the West…

In the east Delhi neighbourhood of Sundernagari, an intensive community interaction process in designing a pilot project for RAY itself resulted in a design of four-storey cluster units. By maximizing light and ventilation but limiting direct sunlight in the summers, the design ensures year-round energy efficiency. The plan still achieved densities of 600 households per hectare, roughly equivalent to a dense urban slum.

Read more: http://futurecapetown.com/delhi-choosing-high-rise

Part 1/3 – Q/A from UNB stundents to Rem Koolhaas. Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil; August 2011.
Shoot and Edition by Gabi Celani.

Part Two and Three of the lecture are also online.

South African Goverment (Pretoria) May, 22, 2013. allAfrica.com
Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale today tabled a R28.1 billion budget before Parliament saying the 2013/14 financial year allocation signified the government’s determination to eradicate the problem of homelessness in the country.

The 2013/14 budget allocation showed an increase of almost R3 billion when compared to what was given to the human settlements sector in the previous financial allocation. Minister Sexwale told Parliament that the government was committed to providing quality housing and building sustainable human settlements in the country as part of efforts to build a better and more inclusive society than that created under apartheid.

Quoting from the National Development Plan, he said inefficiencies and inequalities in South Africa’s settlement patterns were deeply entrenched and “bold measures are needed to reshape them.”

He added that the 2013/14 budget was important as it contributed to the total economic development of the country.

“Our budget should be seen as a catalyst in this process including job creation through our twin empowerment and construction programmes of Women and Youth Builds.

“Incrementally throughout our term, the budget has been earmarked primarily to address the poorest of the poor. In continuing to do so, let there be no doubt that our quest is not to be patted on the back for chasing numbers at the cost of quality,” he said.

Read more: http://allafrica.com/stories/201305231153.html

Nextcity.org – May, 27, 2013 – This special issue of Forefront is part of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Informal City Dialogues, a year-long collaboration with Next City and Forum for the Future taking place in six rapidly urbanizing cities around the world. The project aims to foster a conversation about creating more inclusive and resilient cities. Read weekly dispatches from our cities, watch short films and engage with others at nextcity.org/informalcity .

From the second story of his lemon-yellow home in north Manila, Alberto Legarda Evangelista, 71, surveys the leafy neighborhood he has lived in for the past decade. Below the open-air veranda where he sleeps through the humid nights, a young mother is singing a quiet lullaby to her twins. Nearby, the shouts of teenage boys playing a game of basketball float over the chuckles of their parents, who are whiling away the midday heat with playing cards and sodas.

All of this would be a postcard of suburban idyll were it not for the fact that Evangelista lives in Manila’s largest public cemetery, Cementerio del Norte, along with some 1,000 other families. Century-old tombs have been converted into stalls selling sachets of shampoo and instant noodles, flowered pathways into public washing stations, grassy knolls into doghouses. Car batteries power radios, karaoke machines and television sets; clotheslines are strung between crosses. The “home” Evangelista lives in is actually a mausoleum housing eight graves. He considers himself lucky — the breezy second story where the deceased’s family pays their annual respects doubles as his bedroom. “Look at my view,” he says, pointing his cigarette out towards the field of tombstones. He tells me this the strongest, safest home he’s ever had.

Read more: http://nextcity.org/slum-lab-manilas-quest-to-build-a-better-informal-settlement