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During the mid XX th century the former outskirts of Barcelona was the field of an unprecedented urbanization process addressed to housing purposes. A very heterogeneous system of settlements occupied the steep hillsides of Tres Turons and Collserola. These former deprived residential suburbs became, in less than twenty years, fully urban neighbourhoods with extreme densities and urgent needs. From beginning the 80’ to our days “Barcelona on slope” has become the conceptual and physical frame for urban renewal policies. Although there’s still much to do, the large amount of accomplished plans and actions calls for an evaluation and a synthesis from which probable criteria for future actions can be inferred., Postprint (published version)

The enabling approach to housing markets promotes financing systems based on family savings, public subsidies and mortgage loans to unleash the potential of individuals and communities to produce and improve dwellings. However, the approach failed to benefit lower-income households, as they have less ability to generate savings or make mortgage payments. These households are forced to use informal mechanisms to access housing, such as purchasing land in illegal subdivisions or squatting on public land and incrementally building their dwellings. The present work argues that supporting the incremental housing construction undertaken by poor households through an enabling approach can make a signifi cant contribution to solving the housing problem in Latin America. The paper discusses the challenges and opportunities in executing this new type of programme, which requires coordinating the resources and capabilities of the beneficiaries with those of the different levels of government and the civil society. While this paper draws on experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean, the proposed approach is also relevant in other settings.

Developing countries have been experiencing an accelerated urban growth with high levels of informal housing (houses that do not comply with property rights regime and urban regulations). This trend has brought renewed attention to the study of developing cities in general, and of the informal housing sector in particular. This study examines the relationship between land use regulation, housing price, and informality, in the metropolitan area of Curitiba, Brazil. Using a simultaneous equation model, the study conducts a regression analysis to understand the magnitude of the effect of urban regulation on formal housing price and the effect of rising formal housing price on the quantity of informal housing. Three hypotheses are tested: (a) more restrictive land use regulation increases housing price in the formal housing market; (b) an increase in formal housing price causes the quantity of informal housing to rise; and (c) an increase in formal housing price in one geographic area causes the quantity of informal housing to rise in neighboring areas. The study shows that for three regulatory variables - minimum plot area, minimum front setback and minimum frontage - land use regulations that limit the density of occupation have a significant positive effect on price. Regulatory variables that affect building height - maximum number of floors and floor-to-area ratio - have the opposite effect, possibly because single and multifamily units are not being analyzed separately. The study finds that the price of formal housing has a negative effect on the quantity of informal housing in the same location, but this effect turns positive in the adjacent and more distant locations. As expected, the rise in formal housing price in one locality pushes people to the informal sector in more distant neighborhoods. However, in the same locality, a rise in price decreases the quantity of informal housing. The results indicate that high priced areas act as a bar to the development of

This paper presents the results of a study about a resettlement process from the area of El Morro in the neighborhood of Moravia in Medellin (Colombia), to state-built houses. It describes the different ways in which the residents occupied the architectural spaces of the new houses. The intention is to show the tensions that emerge when the new inhabitants try to reconstruct, in a different environment, their traditional way of life and sense of home, characteristic of popular culture., Este artículo presenta los resultados del estudio realizado al proceso de reasentamiento de los habitantes del sector El Morro del Barrio Moravia (Medellín-Colombia) a viviendas construidas por el Estado. Expone las formas de apropiación del espacio arquitectónico de estas viviendas por parte de sus habitantes, con el fin de caracterizar las tensiones que emergen cuando tratan de reconfigurar en estos nuevos entornos sus tradicionales formas de vida y el sentido de hogar de la cultura popular

Delhi is experiencing the highest population growth rate among mega cities in India. By 2021 its population is projected to be around 27 million. The consequence of rapid increase in population and the changing socio-economic pattern in Delhi has resulted in an acute shortage of housing and related infrastructure especially for the poor and low-income households. Nearly half the population however lives in conditions of miserable poverty, crammed into overcrowded slums and hutment. Delhi’s informal housing is a reflection of a poor and inappropriate urban planning system, with a lack of public investment and restriction in the formal land and housing market. This paper reviews the housing delivery system and the problems associated with the housing delivery system in Delhi and presents a broad guideline for policy makers to improve the housing delivery system in Delhi. It was found that to improve the housing delivery system of Delhi multiple sectoral approaches are required. The study demonstrates that the informal housing sector and its quality can be improved and transformed into formal housing by improving the essential infrastructure.

This study examines the intersections of the economy, property rights, land use, and housing within a tourism destination context. Housing is a human need, and when neither the public nor the private sectors are providing it, people will provide it for themselves in the form of self-help housing. Accommodation within informal settlements is an important segment of the housing market, and in many developing nations, the majority of housing that is available to the poor and working classes. The question then becomes not how to prevent informal housing but how to manage it. The research here considers the impact of tourism on the housing markets, particularly as they relate to Mexico’s informal housing, which is a significant component of the country’s housing inventory. Influences such as new, wealthier competitors for land and housing products, changes in expectations around land use and design standards, and the political motivations for economic development may affect the housing market dynamics. This interdisciplinary work seeks to identify the interrelated drivers of informal housing and develop workable recommendations for policy makers working in this sector. The findings of the research indicate that tourism has a significant impact on housing markets in Mazatlán. It was also found that a substantial component of the housing stock originated as informal settlements (known as invasions) and that most of those have now been serviced and incorporated into the community. New invasions continue to occur, however there is more support from the municipality in terms of urban planning, infrastructure, and services than was expected. The process for the creation of a new informal settlement was sufficiently standardized that a high-level process map was able to be developed to graphically represent the steps. The study’s GIS analysis revealed that housing parcel sizes for the poor and working classes has remained modest over time. Land parcels in gated communities tren

Cet article analyse, dans une approche historique, les dispositifs mis en place par la municipalité de Medellin pour contrôler l’expansion de l’habitat informel sur les collines environnant la ville. Ce phénomène ayant longtemps été considéré comme transitoire, les dispositifs de planification se sont limités à établir des limites urbaines formelles, laissant la ville informelle à l’écart de toute initiative de planification. Un changement s’opère à partir des années 1970, qui voient l’intégration progressive de ces espaces à la ville formelle à travers des programmes se prévalant d’approches plus intégrées. Depuis les premières initiatives reconnaissant ces invasions et œuvrant à leur amélioration, jusqu’à la construction d’infrastructures d’envergure et la mise en place du Projet Urbain Intégral (PUI), nombreux ont été ces dispositifs. En dépit d’efforts et d’avancées notables dans les conceptions de ces phénomènes comme dans les modes d’action engagée, l’actualité fait état de processus durables d’exclusion sociale, et d’une réalité urbaine multiforme dont les enjeux demeurent., Marginality and urban inclusion at Medellin (Colombia) : a historical study employing planning instruments A historical approach is used to examine schemes set up by Medellin city council to control the expansion of informal housing on the hillsides surrounding the city. Such expansion was long considered to be transitory, hence planning measures were restricted to establishing formal limits to city development, leaving the informal urban areas out of any planning initiative. The 1970s saw a change of approach, with the gradual integration of these areas into the formal city by distinct programmes rather than more integrated schemes. From the first measures introduced to acknowledge, take better account of these informal expansions into account and improve them, up to the construction of infrastructures of sufficient scope and the implementation of the Integral Urban Project, there were many such schemes. In spite of considerable efforts and notable advances in perceptions of these phenomena and in the modes of action taken up, news items often report evidence of lasting processes of social exclusion, and testify to a multiform urban reality the issues of which remain alive.

Les marges urbaines non réglementaires des villes du sud supposent une maîtrise et des solutions par des procédures de régularisation – restructuration et de relogement des familles concernées. L’exemple présenté dans ce travail est déroutant dans la mesure où les solutions préconisées par les pouvoirs publics ne font qu’amplifier la marginalité des plus pauvres en les déplaçant de la ville intramuros vers un site marécageux à l’écart de la ville. Un retour sur la production et les traitements des marginalités urbaines durant la période coloniale permet de mieux situer ce qui s’est passé plus de deux décennies après l’indépendance, de comprendre les mécanismes et les modalités de production de ce recasement dénommé « Nedjma », implanté à quelque huit kilomètres d’Oran, deuxième métropole algérienne. Comment les pouvoirs publics ont pu initier ce programme et le « vendre » comme une mesure de lutte contre la marginalité, une opération dont les vertus publiquement affichées étaient celles de soulager les familles en difficulté ?, When public powers produce new urban marginalities. The case of the rehoused people of Nedjma in Oran (Algeria) The informal urban margins within towns and cities of the South imply the need for a command of the situation and solutions involving regularization procedures – reorganization, then rehousing for the families concerned. The example set out in this work is disconcerting in that the prescribed solutions emanating from the public authorities only aggravate the marginal situation of the poorest by moving them from within the city to a marshland site far from the centre. A review of the production and treatment of urban margin situations during the colonial period puts what has happened more than two decades since independence into perspective, helps understand the mechanisms and modes of production of this rehousing called “Nedjma”, implanted eight kilometres from Oran, Algeria’s second largest city. How could the public authorities have initiated this programme and “sell” it as a measure for combating marginality, an operation whose publicly announced virtues were to relieve families in difficulty ?