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(1)The Philippines is one of the most rapidly urbanizing countries in Asia

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Academic year: 2021

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(1)

The Philippines is one of the most rapidly urbanizing countries in Asia. This trend reflects the effects of years of high rates of natural population growth and consistent rural-to-urban migration.

Urbanization in the Philippines has been led by Metro Manila, also known as the National Capital Region (NCR), since the 1950s.

Metro Manila and the other five metropolitan areas of the country (Metro Davao, Metro Cagayan de Oro, Metro Angeles and Metro Iloilo-Guimaras) produce 80% of the Philippines’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and no development strategies for the rural areas have been programmed for the foreseeable future.

The spread of informal settlements in the Philippines has become a phenomenon associated with big cities and unplanned expanding urban centres. From the early 1970s to more recent years, estimates of the number of informal settlers in the country have varied, ranging from 470,000 to 2.5 million families. Current estimates place the number of informal settlement families (ISFs) at about 1.5 million, 15% of the Philippines’ total urban population.

Many ISFs live in chronic urban poverty and are daily confronted by physical, economic, social, legal and environmental risks. They have limited or no access to security of tenure, capital, social networks, environmental safety and legal security. As in other developing countries, the pervasiveness of informal settlements in the Philippines can be linked to low income, inadequate urban planning, lack of serviced land, lack of affordable social housing, and many other factors.

In Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao and other growing urban centres, informal settlers live in sprawling slums that do not meet the most basic needs (or, worse, are used as dumping grounds for hazardous wastes) where they are continually exposed to serious health risks.

The issue has been too often addressed in ineffective and episodic ways: demolitions, relocations to extra urban areas, overcrowded tenement buildings.

The aim of this work is to demonstrate that the informality that shapes this settlements and has been filling the social housing provided by the government so far, can’t be repressed, and should be incorporated in what is commonly considered “proper”

architecture. These two aspects can successfully work together to generate an environment that responds to the needs of the people.

Formality can lay the basis for informality to happen and evolve in solid, safe and hygienic conditions. This is the principle that defines the whole strategy here proposed for the chosen case study, the former dumpsite Smokey Mountain in Tondo, Manila.

The project also focuses on the creation of public spaces at the street level, using abandoned areas and existent and new buildings, in order to create a continuous connection between parts of the city that share the same margins, but are not linked to one another.

Another aspect that is pointed out is that in contexts characterized by scarcity of resources (funds and materials), vernacular traditional buildings should be the main references in architecture, as centuries ago people managed to protect themselves from the weather elements with simple and effective precautions, without high-tech and expensive solutions. Of course, these precautions and architectural forms have to be actualized and adapted to the needs of a family living in a city of the 21st century, and not in a hut in a rice field, and this is were architects, engineers and planners should contribute with their expertise.

Lyza Rossi

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