Informal settlements are where cities are made

Informal settlement can be broadly defined as the incremental, unauthorised and self-organised production of affordable housing and urban infrastructure.

While often misunderstood as a euphemism for ‘slum’, informal settlement is best understood as a mode of city production – a form of architecture, urban design and planning. It may appear unplanned but there are rules – a kind of spatial logic that shapes urban development across cities of the Global South.