Processes of urbanization and the global energy and environmental crisis are driving an increasing interdependence between the various regions of the planet, establishing at the same time a structural base of shared interest in issues involving the use of the their territory and the environment.
It is critical that future generations of architects provide a concrete contribution to solving the problems of marginal urban areas, taking a clear stance against the view that architecture belongs only in the gratuitous and extravagant realm, that it can act only in metaphysical contexts characterized by unlimited resources and infinite possibilities. “Extreme” situations with rigid restrictions constitute a challenge for architecture, forcing it to face the contradictions produced by the great processes of territorial transformation.
The slums have become the only available option for the neediest citizens, and not just in developing nations. Creating “illegal” (and thus “invisible”) spaces is often the only way to secure resources that would otherwise be unavailable: square footage, water, electricity and work.
The term slum refers to an informal or unplanned area of residence, considered irregular or illegal due to the lack of deeds and registered property owners. Slums are synonymous with crowding and high population densities: very little square footage per resident and high occupancy rates. To live in a slum means to suffer the lack of basic services, including health care, drinkable water, garbage collection, electricity, transportation and infrastructures. The houses themselves, built illegally or using inadequate methods, are below the minimum standards set for housing by the respective cities and are often made using rapidly degradable materials, discarded or recycled and often ill suited to the local climate and conditions.,Finally, slums are a concentration of poverty and social exclusion: the low incomes and impossibility of improving one’s quality of life are made even more intolerable by the high numbers of vulnerable social groups, high crime levels and other factors associated with social degradation.
The title of the session, “Slum(e)scape” suggests a re-interpretation of urban alienation, a view that sees challenges instead of escape, that seeks to create new opportunities for development, alternatives to the established urban center and founded on citizenship, social inclusion, space and architecture for everyone. It is thus not a question of creating an access to the dominant urban models for these marginal locations, but instead of creating, in these outlying areas, new models of urbanization with low social and environmental entropy.
To achieve this, we must reexamine our attitudes towards globalization, moving beyond critiques of the cultural homogeneity and economic exclusion it engenders and looking at the opportunities it presents for creating new social roots, new experiences in innovative social construction.
Among the primary objectives is making young architects more aware of issues with a strong social and ethical component, creating interest and opening possible scenarios for professional careers.
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