From the squatter settlement : a program to build the city

Abstract

The making of a place is an important theoretical issue in occidental architecture, especially when it addresses the creation of places meant for communities. Architects working in that field are confronted with a number of issues. They come from the existence of legal and administrative norms, and from the very status of the architect in the western world - from his/her ambiguous position between state, power and society. These issues, explicitly or not, limit the field of his/her practice. Squatter settlements in the developing world are built in totally different circumstances. Created under illegal conditions, they provide us with an opportunity to observe the creation of new environments located outside of our legal and ideological spheres. Comparing the way they appear with the way places are created in our societies can allow us to locate and to explore the boundaries of our field of action, and to investigate unexpected ways of making new collective places. This thesis is an exploration of the role that squatter settlements can play in the creation of future urban environments. The first chapter introduces the reader to the problems inherent in the creation of new places by architects, through works by different authors. The concepts of smooth space and striated space, which are used all along this thesis, are described. The work of the French architect Henri Gaudin is presented. While having theoretically the potential to create urban and collective environments which allow the development of a community life, Gaudin's work confronts the issues mentioned above when it comes to practice. This chapter ends by stating the interest the study of places which are not submitted to official normative systems holds for architects. The second chapter presents the concept of squatter settlement, through a critical reading of seven surveys of these environments. These surveys are intended first to provide the reader with the information necessary to the argument of the next chapters, and second to look at the different lenses through which squatter settlements are observed from the occidental world. A constant appears: surveys which are made for exploration purpose do not reduce the environment to a set of parameters, which is the case with surveys aiming directly at a future intervention. The third chapter is the presentation of a squatter settlement in Bombay which I personally surveyed during a two weeks fieldwork, in May-June 1987. As opposed to the purposive surveys described in chapter II, my approach was an attempt to find in the settlements images and qualities which go beyond its immediate reality, and to get an image of its possible future. The application of this approach to a reality as harsh as a squatter settlement is not easy, but is worth wile. Unexpected connections are more likely to appear, and the qualities of the environment are easier to find. "Reduction can always occur later through science or critique". Finding qualities in a squatter settlement leads to an argument in favor of their preservation. By doing so, are we not at the same time validating the processes which led to their creation at the end of the XXe century - that is, an exploitive and disruptive development? The answer is by no way easy, and calls for an exploration of these processes. The fourth chapter deals with this question . While it is true that squatter settlements find their origin in development, the same can be said for the official cities in the developing world. From this, considerations on the concept of structure of space, introduced through Harvey's and Castells' works, allow us to describe the squatter settlement as a unique opportunity for official cities to create contextual urban environments, and to counterbalance the importation of market-exchange oriented theories of urbanism. The fifth chapter is a conclusive one. This exploration of squatter settlements, through their representations , their socio-spatial reality, their local characteristics and a global view of the squatter phenomenon, allows us to redefine our position towards them. How do they answer the issue of creating a place? What do they tell us about the limits of our own practice? How can the qualities found in them be adapted to an official practice of architecture? These conclusions are presented side-by-side in what is called a "conclusive territory".