Informal settlements : the world's invisible communities

Abstract: Since the beginning of the new millennium the world’s population has increased exponentially fast. The majority of this growth has been accommodated for by urbanization of the developing world. This in turn has lead to a wide spread of informal settlements. Thus, areas of urban slums, that have risen illegally on the marginal lands within and at the periphery of the formal city. Informal settlements vary greatly in size, age and composition, between countries as well as within their cities. The one aspect that they share is that of unacceptable/ inhumane living conditions. In 2001 almost one billion people of the world’s total urban population were living in slums and if no major actions are taken this will have increased to two billion by 2030. Informal settlements are evaluated in relation to their surrounding landscape of poor sanitation, insecure housing, hazardous grounds etc. However modern day slum-upgrading programs mainly focus on improving their infrastructure, such as roads and houses, and in doing so ignoring the potential of public space as an important community value. Finding value in our surrounding landscape as well as working with the public spaces is a key factor in landscape architecture and could therefore be a helpful tool when upgrading these areas. This thesis aims to investigate the question, if landscape architecture exists within the setting of informal settlements; as a concept of the importance of common space and as a profession, by looking at four different projects where landscape architects have been involved and taken on the role as mediator between government, private investors, NGOs and local communities of developing countries.