Towards Informal Planning: Mapping the Evolution of Spontaneous Settlements in Time.

Abstract

Maddalena Iovene¹, Graciela Fernandéz De Córdova2, Ombretta Romice¹, Sergio Porta¹ ¹Urban Design Studies Unit (UDSU). Department of Architecture. University of Strathclyde. 75 Montrose Street, Glasgow, G11XJ, UK. 2Centro de Investigación de la Arquitectura y la Ciudad (CIAC), Departamento de Arquitectura, PUCP. Av. Universitaria 1801, 32 San Miguel, Lima, Peru. E-mail: maddalena.iovene@strath.ac.uk, gdcfernandez@pucp.edu.pe, ombretta.r.romice@strath.ac.uk, sergioporta@strath.ac.uk Keywords (3-5): Informal Settlement, Peru, Lima, Model of Change, Urban Morphology Conference topics and scale: Reading and Regenerating the Informal City Cities are the largest complex adaptive system in human culture and have always been changing in time according to largely unplanned patterns of development. Though urban morphology has typically addressed studies of form in cities, with emphasis on historical cases, diachronic comparative studies are still relatively rare, especially those based on quantitative analysis. As a result, we are still far from laying the ground for a comprehensive understanding of the urban form’s model of change. However, developing such understanding is extremely relevant as the cross-scale interlink between the spatial and social-economic dynamics in cities are increasingly recognized to play a major role in the complex functioning of urban systems and quality of life. We study the urban form of San Pedro de Ate, an informal settlement in Lima, Peru, along its entire cycle of development over the last seventy years. Our study, conducted through a four-months on-site field research, is based on the idea that informal settlements would change according to patterns similar to those of pre-modern cities, though at a much faster pace of growth, yet giving the opportunity to observe the evolution of an urban organism in a limited time span. To do so we first digitalize aerial photographs of five different time periods (from 1944 to 2013), to then conduct a typo-morphological analysis at five scales: a) unit, b) building, c) plot, d) block, and e) settlement (comprehensive of public spaces and street network). We identify and classify patterns of change in the settlement’s urban structure using recognised literature on pre-modern cities, thus supporting our original hypothesis. We then suggest a unitary model of analysis that we name Temporal Settlement Matrix (TSM). Reference List Caniggia, G., & Maffei, G. L. (2008). Lettura dell’edilizia di base (Vol. 215). Alinea Editrice. Conzen, M. R. G. (1958). The growth and character of Whitby. A Survey of Whitby and the Surrounding Area, 49–89. Hernández, F., Kellett, P. W., & Allen, L. K. (2010). Rethinking the informal city: critical perspectives from Latin America (Vol. 11). Berghahn Books. Kropf, K. (2009). Aspects of urban form. Urban Morphology, 13(2), 105–120. Muratori, S. (1960). Studi per una operante storia urbana di Venezia. Palladio, 1959, 1–113. 22. Porta, S., Romice, O., Maxwell, J. A., Russell, P., & Baird, D. (2014). Alterations in scale: patterns of change in main street networks across time and space. Urban Studies, 51(16), 3383–3400. Watson, V. (2009). “The planned city sweeps the poor away…”: Urban planning and 21st century urbanisation. Progress in Planning, 72(3), 151–193. Whitehand, J. W. R. (2001). Changing suburban landscapes at the microscale. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 92(2), 164–184.

A Fine-Grain Multi-Indicator Analysis of the Urban Form of Five Informal Settlements in East Africa

“…The proposed methodology overcomes limitations of previous ad-hoc qualitative assessments, for example [8,9], as it is based on a set of systematic steps and focuses on blocks rather than entire settlements. It also provides advantages over existing quantitative methodologies, for example [10,11], as it describes the urban form of informal settlements through a comprehensive set of indicators, measuring aspects of the urban fabric and configuration of the street network, the scale of which permits replicability. The application presented in this paper shows that outcomes are detailed and varied, i.e., through interview data (Table 1), maps of the indicators (Appendix A), density plots ( Figure 2), and similarity matrices (Figure 3), thus providing a solid basis for the interpretation of local dynamics that affect the development and form of informal settlements and the eventual proposal of design strategies aimed at their upgrading.…”

“…However, these typological models primarily focus on the relation between entire informal settlements and the wider urban context and thus lack focus on the spatial structures within the settlements. Iovene et al [10] argue that informal settlements develop similarly to premodern cities based on a comparative study with several urban form metrics, focusing on an informal settlement in Lima, Peru, and a neighbourhood in Venice, Italy. Hillier et al [11] argue that spatial and locational factors influence the development and level of consolidation of informal settlements, based on analysis of informal settlements in Santiago, Chile.…”

One metropolis, two scenarios. Sustainable urban development contraddictions in the metropolitan area of Lima

“…Thus, the Peruvian planning approach will not be usually oriented on land-use planning, and urban projects as a basis of intervention on urban development (Fernández-Maldonado, 2019). For this, the generation of knowledge to understand the city structure by considering also the heritage, rural, and natural areas and its development with qualitative and quantitative analyses (Iovene et al, 2018) is key.…”

Integrated urban morphology approach to investigate urban design of Qambar Sindh

“…It changes, existing perception about chaotic and organic nature of urban fabric in settlements or area under investigation [28]. This spatial structure of urban fabric is result of urbanization process and inept actions of various people in very consistent way with regular socioeconomic resource, material, and energy flow for sustenance of urban spatial structure [29]. The especial focus of urban design is on public spaces i.e., streets, parks, public infrastructure, and way public domain is castoff and experienced on daily basis [30].…”