INCREMENTAL HOUSING – AN URBAN PROACTIVE STRATEGY TO MEET THE GROWTH CHALLENGES OF THE NEXT 20 YEARS
Tuesday, 23 March 2010, 16:30 - 18:30, in meeting room W2-7
Hosted by the Global University Consortium Exploring Incremental Housing
Homebase: MIT-SIGUS
MIT Support Team: Aylin Yildirim, Nicole Beattie, Campbell Mayer
Informal building and expansion – a pay-as-you-go process – is the de facto pattern of growth in the low-income sectors of rapidly growing cities in the Third World. Their simple starter makeshift 'cores' often transform themselves to 'middle-income' housing given sufficient time and limited constraints. But they do not stop there, but add extra units which are a net gain to a city's housing stock and provide rental income to the families.
The anticipated explosion of Third World cities will result in a tremendous need for housing, with concurrent demands on land with severe impacts on urban expansion. Costs of building 'instant' housing are prohibitive, and upgrading slums after-the-fact dooms us to expensive catch-up efforts and compromises urban development. Capitalizing and expanding on the incremental process suggests ways for cities to guide their growth in partnership with the proven energy of the informal sector.
The session includes:
- Early experience in 70s and 80s of 'site and services' and core housing which provides the base for current thinking.
- Presentations of incremental housing process research by universities grouped into regional teams from Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
- Introduction of new approaches including a 'rapid, real-time surveying' approach using innovative cell-phone technology, along with research into computer modeling of the incremental process to aid policy formulation.
- Culminating discussion on the efficacy of incremental housing and explores appropriate next steps for deeper understanding and policy definition.
Three key issues are explored:
- How do the informal sectors succeed in building successful neighborhoods and good citizens? What triggers, what catalysts drive the incremental growth?
- How can the incremental process be directed and made a more effective force in supporting appropriate city growth? What role is appropriate for the government without stifling individual initiative? How could the other stakeholders – private sector, NGOs, etc. – participate in supportive programs?
- And fundamentally does the incremental housing model offer a way proactive way to effectively cope with the expected rapid urban growth?
