Informality through Sustainability
Urban Informality Now
Antonino Di Raimo editor Steffen Lehmann editor Alessandro Melis editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:31st Dec '20
£105.00
Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.
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.
"This is a novel reflection on informal settlements and their conditions linking a robust range of contexts at multiple levels of urbanization with crucial issues of environmental regeneration, economic as well as social equality and racial justice. Inevitably, the discourse on sustainable and responsible practices encompasses the urgency to prioritize a human centered design approach in order to observe and register those patterns. It is in this pursuit of interdisciplinary contributions through the lens of sustainability, where the book might well make compelling revelations."
Maria Perbellini, Dean and Professor, School of Architecture and Design, New York Institute of Technology, USA
"Antonino Di Raimo, Steffen Lehmann and Alessandro Melis explore new directions into understanding the phenomenon of Informality. Presented as a three-part unified framework, Informality opens new research directions and is a must-read for future multidisciplinary thinking and creation of sustainable urbanized worlds."
Tom Kovac, Professor, RMIT University, Australia
"A breakthrough book outside of stereotypes! The authors demonstrate with clarity and methodological rigor that cities are never the product of a single deterministic will, but they are the result of the rise of sudden innovations, of independent – often informal – dynamics which are consolidated by the creativity of the inhabitants, by actions produced by individual and collective actors, whose outcome often exceeds the intentions and control of the most powerful actors. The book explores different resilient communities that, through fertile bricolage, produce powerful alliances between intentionality, spontaneity, causality and design."
Maurizio Carta, Full Professor of Urban Design, University of Palermo, Italy
ISBN: 9780367354770
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 1180g
416 pages