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SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES: AVOIDING DISASTER IN THE INFORMAL CITY
The Philippines
Located in SE Asia, the Philippines is the 2nd largest archipelago in the world after Indonesia (7,107 islands, 3 main island groups: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao). 65% of land is mountainous with narrow strips of lowlands with 17,000 miles of coastline.
Unfortunately, this tropical expanse sits astride a typhoon belt, is highly vulnerable to earthquakes, and suffers drought, floods and storm surges. There are 26 active volcanoes. With around 4,748 people settled in every square mile in the National Capital of Luzon and Metro Manila, 1/3 of residents have no access to formal water supply or public sanitation and live in informal settlements.
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TAO-Pilipinas, a multidisciplinary group of architects, engineers, planners and geographers, is an organisation dedicated to serving marginalised populations living in these informal settlements.
Around the time it was founded, August 2001, poor communities living along the Pasig River in Manila were being resettled by the government (Pasig RIver Rehabilitation Master Plan) to clear 17 miles of informal settlements. Nearly 150,000 people live on its banks, in unacceptable conditions along the longest river in Metro Manila. There is no space, far too little light, too much noise, competing smells and odours and a total absence of peace and quiet. There were sites so dense that two people couldn't find the space to meet. The basketball court doubled as a parking lot for tricycles, pedicabs, and jeeps.
The Samapi: On-Site Reblocking
Pineda is a barangay, a local precinct/district alongside the Pasig River. A disused railway line follows the riverfront; the master plan required clearing a 9.1m easement along the bank, which meant demolishing the houses there.
The Council on Housing and Urban Development tried to ensure that the area would be transformed into a humane, decent and affordable settlement. Residents of this strip were afraid that if they agreed to let their houses be demolished, they would never be allowed back; as soon as they missed payments for the houses, they would be thrown out. The original residents are displaced and new residents move in.
The residents tried to negotiate and formed a coalition to deal with the government, the Samapi.
The Role of the Architects
They wanted to improve the site themselves through a bayanihan system if mutual self-help. This is when TAO were introduced to the community as architects to advise them on developing an alternative plan that would be acceptable to the government and the Asian Development Bank.
To develop solutions with residents is at the heart of their mandate at TAO-Pilipinas. They had to learn humility, to literally walk barefoot with the residents through the settlement and imagine themselves living their lives. They had to learn to listen.
This is known as barefoot architecture because it requires immersing into the community in order to create viable ways of bringing residents into the process so they can plan, design and implement changes that improve the residents' lives, and makes sense to them.
They developed a base-map from a seven-year old government structures plan, giving them the data they needed. They measures houses, peering around every corner of the tiny homes, around dirty laundry, into garbage dumps and make-shift drainage lines, over collapsing walls and hanging ceiling boards, into rotting gutters, smelly toilets and dark alleys. They listened to arguments about who had been their first as they stood, crouched, knelt and sweated. As they became a part of the household of Samapi, they were always fed.
Plan
In a process known as 'reblocking', the TAO traced roads across scattered houses to give sense of order to existing layout. River easements (unsafe distance from river for building) were established. Every house was located on the community plan. Open spaces were given to families who would have to be relocated.
Leaders were given the job to tell residents that changes needed to be made, for example the need to increase the road right-of-way to allow small vehicles to pass in case of emergency, such as a fire.
The community presented their alternative scheme to the National Housing Authority, and after six years of struggle, redevelopment went forward without the displacement of the original residents.
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Link to Interdependence
My brief of interdependence is relevant here as well, because the architects need to build homes that are suitable for the location - can be sustainable - and suit the residents' need - this is their role.
I aim to make this project for the rural part of developing countries, where there aren't slums, as much as squatters. The need to understand situations, the quality of humility, build relations and listen to the residents is the same in both cases.
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