Informalising Architecture: The Challenge of Informal Settlements

Abstract

AbstractTransgression is often driven by the power to exercise choice and consciously cross the line. As Kim Dovey, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Melbourne, explains, informal settlements, which have grown up globally out of immediate need for shelter and community, and are legally precarious, transgress established codes of ‘land tenure, urban planning, design and construction’. Their condition requires transgression, even if they are subversion through necessity rather than by design. So what is architecture's future role in informal settlements? And what can be learnt from this more ad hoc and incremental model of urban design?