Informality through Sustainability Urban Informality Now

Informality through Sustainability explores the phenomenon of informality within urban settlements and aims to unravel the subtle links between informal settlements and sustainability. Penetrating its global profile and considering urban informality through an understanding of local implications, the authors collectively reveal specific correlations between sites and their local inhabitants. The book opposes simplistic calls to legalise informal settlements or to view them as ‘problems’ to be solved. It comes at a time when common notions of ‘informality’ are being increasingly challenged. In 25 chapters, the book presents contributions from well-known scholars and practitioners whose theoretical or practical work addresses informality and sustainability at various levels, from city planning and urban design to public space and architectural education. Whilst previous studies on informal settlements have mainly focused on cases in developing countries, approaching the topic through social, cultural and material dimensions, the book explores the concept across a range of contexts, including former Communist countries and those in the so-called Global North. Contributions also explore understandings of informality at various scalar levels – region, precinct, neighbourhood and individual building. Thus, this work helps reposition informality as a relational concept at various scales of urbanisation. This book will be of great benefit to planners, architects, researchers and policymakers interested in the interplay between informality and sustainability.

Preface David Turnbull Introduction Antonino Di Raimo, Steffen Lehmann and Alessandro Melis Part 1 Part1. Introduction -What does Informality have to say to Architecture?: Decolonising the Enquire and the Enquirer Antonino Di Raimo Chapter 1. Visualizing the Political: Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman, in conversation with Kathy Waghorn Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman, in conversation with Kathy Waghorn Chapter 2. From a Marxist Arcadia to High-tech Favelas: The Latency of Informality in Archizoom and Andrea Branzi Pablo Martínez Capdevila Chapter 3. "I’m an imposter" [a Gödel-Cassandra incompleteness] François Roche - New-Territories Chapter 4. Informalityand Dissent: The Culture of Self-sufficiency of the American Rural Poor David Franco Santa Cruz Chapter 5. The Urbanism of Individual Arrangements: Understanding Specific Realities - The Case of Tirana Sotir Dhamo Chapter 6. Informality and Temporary Appropriation in Atlanta as a Prototype for Resilient Communities William Carpenter Chapter 7. Effected Butterflies: Informal Urban Migration of Monarchs and Humans Across the US-Mexico Border Mitchell Joachim and Nicholas Gervasi Chapter 8. Informality and Commons Simone Sfriso, Massimo Lepore, Raul Pantaleo, Barbora Foerster Part 2 Part2. Introduction - Informality as a Mode of Sustainability Steffen Lehmann Chapter 9. The Self-Organising City and Its Modus Operandi: Informal Urbanism and Public Space Steffen Lehmann Chapter 10. Housing the Majority, Destroying Agrarian Land: The Irreconcilable Dilemma of Cairo’s Informal areas Charlotte Malterre-Barthes Chapter 11. Informality and Mass Housing in Seoul: The Role of Informal Settlements in the Formation of Megaprojects Dario Pedrabissi Chapter 12. The Role of Adaptation in Changing the Micro-Morphology of Informal Settlements Paul Jones Chapter 13. Urban (in)formality and the New Unsustainable Landscape of the Global South: Case Study of Megacity Dhaka Mohammad S,H, Swapan, Atiq Zaman and Steffen Lehmann Chapter 14. Landscape - Infrastructure: Formal - informal Entanglements across Political Ecologies of Resource Use Daniela Perrotti Chapter 15. ‘AQUI ESTAMOS Y NO NOS VAMOS’: Contested Ground, Sustainable Informal Settlement and Human Consequence in the Urban Landscape of South Los Angeles Danny H. Ortega Chapter 16. The Hill and the Asphalt: a 50-year Perspective on Informality in Rio de Janeiro Janice Perlman Part 3. Part3. Introduction - Informal Behavior as a Form of Community Resilience Alessandro Melis Chapter 17. Informal Microclimates: Study on Self-Built Settlements and Human Comfort in Amman Ata Chokhachian, Daniele Santucci, Thomas Auer Chapter 18. Urban Form of Informal Settlements in the Western Balkans Dorina Pojani Chapter 19. Understanding Temporary Appropriation and the Streetscape Design: The case of Algiers, Auckland and Mexico City J. Antonio Lara- Hernandez, M. Yazid Khemri and Alessandro Melis Chapter 20. Reinventing City Planningina Contextthat "Hates" Planning!: A New Role for Architects, City Planners, and Institutions Besnik Aliaj Chapter 21. Roman Lessons: What if Informality was not a bug to be Corrected but a Bacterium Capable of Reactivating a Dormant Urban Metabolism? Alessandra Lai and Francesco Careri Chapter 22. Informality in Formality: The Case of a Neighbourhood in a Nigerian City Olufunto, Ayoola, Melis Chapter 23. Achieving Community Resilience through Informal Urban Practices: The Case of El Houma in Algiers Yazid Khemri and Alessandro Melis Chapter 24. Learning Place Attachment from the Informal City Cristina Dreifuss Chapter 25. Designing the "Off-Grid" City: Empowering the Transactions of Infrastructure Aseem Inam Index

Antonino Di Raimo, FEA, is a Reader in Architecture at the University of Portsmouth’s School of Architecture (UK), where he is also a Co-Lead in research. He joined the University of Portsmouth in 2017. Prior to this, he had been teaching in Italy (University of La Sapienza) and Albania (Polis University, Tirana). Steffen Lehmann, Assoc. AIA, RIBA, AoU, is Director of the School of Architecture at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (USA), and a full Professor of Architecture. He is also Founding Director of the interdisciplinary Urban Futures Lab and Director of the Future Cities Leadership Institute. Alessandro Melis, RIBA, ARB, AoU, is a full Professor of Architecture Innovation at the University of Portsmouth (UK) and the co-director of the Cluster for Sustainable Cities. He is the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 17th International Biennale of Architecture in Venice 2020–21.