Focusing on the design of large-scale housing schemes, this doctoral dissertation examines the extent to which the architecture of dwelling was affected by the oil-led geopolitics of the Cold War, and influenced by the modernist logic of architectural design and urban planning in Iran’s period of high-modernisation (1945-1979), as Eskandar Mokhtari termed it. This study questions the influence of the country’s geopolitical position during the Cold War, and its impact on the architecture of dwelling. It shows how a series of experimental housing solutions, initiated by leading Iranian architects mostly educated in the West (Europe and North America) became a physical expression of both the state’s modernisation demands and people’s everyday needs. Finally, it illustrates how the design mechanisms employed by these architects enabled for a continual and constant change and transformation in their proposed housing schemes, and empowered the users of space to designate and establish a set of relations with their living environment. While this study could be seen as a contribution to the discourse of urban modernisation in Iran, mainly by focusing on the agency of the dweller in the transformation through time of public housing districts in the country, it also aims to address some current issues related to the design and production of public housing. It seems that in the process of housing development, architects and decision-makers with different backgrounds employ two distinct approaches that mostly cannot be resulted in a convergent solution. While this gap between visions and realities of public housing policies and designs might be seen as a universal as well as a common phenomenon, this issue resulted in many critiques on the development of public housing and built environments, in Iran. Iranian architects criticised the government for its top-down housing policies overemphasising the application of industrialised methods for the production of houses, but neglect the importance of people’s socio-cultural practices as well as vernacular patterns of inhabitation for housing design. On the contrary, decision-makers describe housing solutions provided by architects mostly as visionary and inefficient. Accordingly, investigating overlaps between these divergent approaches is of vital importance, as it would foster and promote a dialogue among multiple stakeholders involved in the process of housing development, and illustrate the roles that architects can perform therein. In Iran’s period of high-modernisation, the architecture of dwelling was widely seen as a place to fulfil the state’s ambitious goals of modernisation projects, and simultaneously to resist universalising tendencies. The Iranian Finance and Planning Organisation prepared five distinct Development Plans, where housing for middle and low-income families held a prominent place. Indeed, these Plans projected the national and international socio-political and economic condition of the time that resulted from rural-urban migrations and the demographic changes being seen in Iran. Accordingly, each Plan led to the construction of a series of large-scale housing projects in urban areas. Among these projects, Kuy-e Chaharsad-Dastgah (1946-50), Kuy-e Narmak (1951-58), Kuy-e Kan (1958-64), Kuy-e Ecbatana (1972-92), and Shushtar-Nou (1975-85) were designed and developed as experimental models by leading Iranian architects, to promote and foster a synthesis of Western living standards and Iran’s vernacular patterns of inhabitation. By investigating these models initiated in three different stages of modernisation in Iran, this dissertation, first, unfolds the processes that created/led to collaboration and negotiation among visions and realities of stakeholders (particularly architects and policy/decision-makers) involved in the production of houses and provision of housing solutions. Then, it shows how the mechanisms employed for the design of these housing schemes enabled for a continual and constant change and transformation. Finally, this study argues that each of these housing models is embedded with a form of inhabitable voids that could be seen and read as heterotopia, as Michel Foucault defined. In other words, incorporating some local archetypes into the design process of these projects implies and creates a certain type of place that the ‘other’ space would flourish. Accordingly, these heterotopic voids might include a creative potential/characteristic to be perceived as an omnipresent tool from the disciplinary toolbox of architecture that would cater for providing certain forms of relationships among people and with their living environment.@en

The first interactions of the child with its environment can already have long-lasting impacts on its worldview (weltanschauung) and psychoanalytical state. This makes the architecture of housing, especially in poor regions, such as Nalasopara in Mumbai, a critical key point for the development of the next generations. However, after the economic liberalization of India, affordable housing has increasingly shifted from vernacular environments towards a dehumanizing accommodation of people in redeveloped chawls, so-called “vertical slums”. This thesis aims to investigate the matter and propose an alternative for the chawl redevelopment that can foster children's development and create a sense of community and identity in their dwelling environment without neglecting the pressing issues of density and affordability.

In recent years, Mumbai has experienced rapid urbanization due to its economic growth. This large influx of migrants, who are looking for opportunities in the city, has led to an issue of overpopulation. It has been estimated that the population will grow to 28 million within the next few years. More than 40% of these people live in informal settlements in extremely poor conditions while two-thirds of the population lives on only 5% of the total area of the city. A clear separation can be seen between different income groups within the city of Mumbai, as well as in the rest of India and the global south. This social polarization is not beneficial for the city nor its inhabitants and current housing schemes don’t provide the tools to tackle this problem. In Nalasopara the same issue is at hand where a city is divided into two part: the eastern area where most of the low-income lives while in the west more and more large towers are being constructed for the middle and high-income groups. This problem has only increased in the past 20 years. This increasing social polarization and a widening income gap lead to spatial and social inequality in Nalasopara and Mumbai. This contributes to unfairness between the rich and poor, unfairness in upward mobility, harsh borders between different income groups, different accessibility to public space and ghettoization of certain groups. Which leads to a disconnect between the city and its inhabitants. This project aims to design and create a framework where all income groups have access to accessible urban spaces & affordable housing. While softening the boundaries between income groups but maintaining the qualities, individuality and opportunities for each income group. Which in turn will encourage diversity within this framework to re-connect the people with each other and with the city. Thus creating an example which will stimulate the development of socially depolarized, sustainable urban settlements in the global south.

In many of the processes of urban renewal the Social Space produced by the inhabitants of the existing communities is often overlooked. The project makes a claim for the recognition of this "type of space" and further develops strategies so that the built form can be adaptable and open to the constant production and reproduction of Social Space. Ideas behind open system theory and open city planning are used to create a tool set for an acupunctural urban plan that can deal in this in-between of the purely physical urban environment and the social dynamics it holds.

An alternative proposal for the densification needs of Gerji site in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The design itself is systematic and highly flexible, on a larger scale, it could be an example of a gentler way of deification that is caring for the people involved.

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa but only 20% of its population lives in urban areas. The relevance of this fact entails that traditions, economic activities and their social structure are still highly attached to the rural, which is reflected in the ‘’ruralization’’ of the urban areas, that have retarded the progress of cities according to the goals set by the government to achieve modernization. In The capital, Addis Ababa, traditional practices rooted in the countryside are part of the daily activities fostering a juxtaposition and fragmentation of land uses emphasizing the proliferation of informal economies and the unforeseen urban growth where lower and higher-income groups live side by side. In that sense, I find in these challenges an opportunity to propose an inclusive scenario enabling adaptations over time, while pretending to dignify the lives of the current residents and newcomers by granting the same accessibility to decent homes and healthy environments through the sense of appropriation for their own living environment.

In São Paulo, Brazil, the urbanization of workers without education or a steady income has caused a large demand for social housing, with 800,000 families forced to live in settlements and slums without a legal basis. At the same time, the crime rates of the past decades brought forth a standard of ‘enclavement’ of urban blocks, with fences protecting shared outdoor spaces. These add to the segregation of a city that already has immense inequality. Although many have written about creating a safe living environment with architecture in the Western world, applications in the global south are lagging behind. This thesis explores how architectural design can positively influence safety in the periphery of São Paulo, taking into account socioeconomic segregation, local building practices, and social equity. For this, a literature review, a comparative analysis of precedents, a contextual analysis, and research by design are used. The design is made for Parque Cocaía, a greenfield site with environmental restrictions on the outskirts of the city, in Grajaú. It shows how the design of building types that foster the creation of communities, public space that invites life into the streets, and dwelling types that allow watching over the public realm and shared spaces can all contribute to a safer living environment. The design combines lessons learned from Western theory, social housing precedents, and the local context and thereby offers an alternative to enclavement as a means to assure safe living. Future research and design can build on this to prevent further segregation of Brazilian society.

In the past decades Mumbai has experienced a huge increase of citizens who, drawn by the economic opportunities of the big city, come to Mumbai for chances of a better life. The city is struggling with the effects that this has on the city. A big part of its population reside in informal settlements, living under impoverished circumstances. This graduationproject revolves around improving these circumstances through the development and design of durable, affordable, qualitative social housing that is able to reach high densities while maintaining a qualitative level of living.

Addis Ababa is a city experiencing a huge population boom, and where the vast majority of housing can be classified as “slum”. State-owned kebele housing, which houses an estimated 40% of the city’s inhabitants, has very low rents but is not maintained, leading to deterioration. Thus, the city is left with a severe shortage of adequate housing. Current state-led developments intended to alleviate the acute housing problem do not address the specific situation of Addis Ababa, and do not allow for the flexibility and adaptability that is required by residents. This research and design project focusses on a specific site in Gerji, owned by the Federal Housing Corporation, and proposes a new model for mid-density, low-rise development which is specific to the context of Ethiopia and suitable for the varying and different living patterns of people in Addis Ababa. The project includes ethnographic research, looking into the lifestyles and daily habits of local residents, as well as documenting their homes and living spaces. Further research was conducted into vernacular and historical building styles and construction methods present in Ethiopia, which was used to inform the design and better understand the specific context of Ethiopia. The research concluded that many different living patterns must be accommodated in a new development, and that this should allow for flexibility and adaptability as household incomes and expectations change over time. Moreover, homes should be suitable for the climate and materials and construction techniques should be informed by local customs in order to aid social sustainability. Finally, tenure options, functions and typologies should be mixed to create a diverse and resilient neighbourhood. The proposed design addresses the research by offering three distinct typologies of building, all of which offer the flexibility needed to allow for different functions and uses. These three typologies are aimed at different sectors of the community and are proposed to be offered in different tenure models. The design is simple and uses adobe bricks and laminated bamboo lumber as its main construction materials. These both use raw materials that can easily be sourced locally and can be processed cheaply on site, using local labour. Ultimately, the proposal achieves a density similar to that of local state-funded housing developments, known as “condominiums”, suggesting that this more varied and site-specific approach to tackling the housing shortage is feasible for Addis Ababa. Adopting such an approach, which looks to local customs and vernacular styles for inspiration, is a radical alternative to the unsustainable route currently being taken in Addis Ababa.

Burkina Faso is a developing country that is in a demographic transition. Its diverse population with dozens of ethnic groups, each with its own values and traditions, is growing at an extreme rate and exemplifies the phenomenon of rapid urbanization. However, the current social housing programs exclude more than 50% of the population, living from less than 75 euros a month. Housing is not accessible to the majority of the population, because of the high demand, the rising cost of basic building materials such as iron and cement, weak policies, no collaboration between the state and private sectors, and a large low-income population. This research and design project aim to contextualize issues such as high population growth, rapid urbanization, and the lack of mass social housing aimed at the Burkinabé population, whilst considering its context and cultural values. Planning for the expansion of cities, which were originally built for a limited few, is a challenge many countries in the Global South face and one that applies to all architects, planners and designers around the world. This paper shows that considering contextual Burkinabé strategies, such as the vernacular way of constructing with local techniques and materials whilst considering the harsh climate, and the way the large variety of ethnic groups communicates and shares resources, is important when wanting to scale up the rural dwellings to a city scale. Fusing both the vernacular and an African modernity offers viable solutions to the spatial development of the country’s urban growth.

The study aims to investigate humane housing solutions for rapid urbanisation happening all over the globe, specifically engaging with the case of Nalasopara, Mumbai, taking into account issues of density, affordability, economic development, gender and participation.

The Master's thesis "A Spatial Dialogue in the emerging city of Addis Ababa" explores the intricate dynamics between formal and informal housing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Authored by a German-Ethiopian architectural designer, the thesis critically examines the oversimplified categorization of traditional "sefer" settlements and modern condominiums, shedding light on their impact on social, economic, and cultural aspects. Through the combination of architectural and ethnographic research methods, the study uncovers the unique cultural nuances and spatial needs of Ethiopian dwellers. It challenges stereotypes associated with informal settlements, revealing unexpected similarities in how residents creatively appropriate their homes, irrespective of architectural differences. The subsequent design proposal for a housing complex in Yeka Abado integrates formal and informal elements, emphasizing flexibility, communal spaces, and income-generating opportunities. The thesis advocates for a holistic, inclusive approach in architecture, emphasizing the importance of incorporating cultural heritage and community engagement. The design project serves as a conceptual exploration rooted in extensive research, aiming to bridge the gap between modern design concepts and traditional practices for inclusive and culturally responsive housing solutions.

In developing cities across the globe, as in Addis Ababa, the number of residents is growing while the amount of good-quality housing remains low. The demand for low-income housing is rising rapidly due to the contemporary aim to eliminate the unhealthy living conditions and the influx of migrants. Without newcomers a city would not be able to grow, as internal migration is essential for urbanization. Research has shown that migration within a country can even play a role in poverty reduction and economic development. A large amount of migrants can, on the other hand, also put pressure on a city when the city fails to have the capacity to adequately house all the newcomers. In turn this may lead to the formation of informal settlements, as previously mentioned. This describes in very few words what has and still is happening in Addis Ababa. The cities government realized at the beginning of this century that the capital suffered a tremendous housing backlog and initiated the previously mentioned IHDP with good intentions. Unfortunately the result did not live up to its initial goals or the citizens needs and expectations. Only half of the predetermined amount of units were built, thereby the construction costs increased making the units unaffordable for one of the target groups; the lower-income. This so-called urban renewal begins with clearing out the site, meaning the often clinical demolition of entire neighbourhoods. Moreover, this means that the places which used to function as a foothold, the informal settlements, are being destroyed and replaced by static housing units where the newcomers and other poor can only dream of living in. This research and design proposal aims at investigating the importance and potential of transitory spaces within developing cities. Eventually it has the goal of providing the poor with a foothold in the city, by creating truly cheap housing for a temporary period, through the creation of a permanent structure, which encourages the individual or group to develop.

In the Netherlands there is a current tendency of areas with extreme growth as well as areas with extreme shrinkage. Because of the increasing population in cities like The Hague, social problems intensify. Among these problems is the issue of social-spatial inequality. This occurs when the distribution of life chances is dependent on the place where you live. When the differences between places have an unjust distribution of life chances as a consequence, it is called social- spatial inequality. The intention of this project is the development of a new approach, the Urban Biography, that makes it possible to get an elaborated understanding of the development of a public place, whilst using the physical, social and mental aspects of that place. This approach makes it possible to be able to read and understand the city, or a specific place at a higher level, in order to grasp the identity of this place. Especially important for this identity are the physical, social and mental aspects. Current research often lacks at least one of these aspects, which often results in a design that is only focused on the physical and not the human aspect. The basic idea is that studying these different parts will help with the understanding of the current situation of social-spatial inequality in growing cities. This deep understanding will create the opportunity to alter the public space in order to match both the historical characteristics and the challenges of the future, like the reduction of social-spatial inequality, in order to create a design for a more just future. This Urban Biography approach is applied to the case of the city of The Hague. This city has a strong distinction between rich and poor neighbourhoods. Considering the current differences between the neighbourhoods of the city, the neighbourhood, Statenkwartier is chosen to research in more detail. This neighbourhood is not necessarily the neighbourhood that comes first to mind when thought about social-spatial inequality, but is indeed a very interesting case. The elaborated study of the city as a whole and Statenkwartier in more detail, result in a redesign of the public space for Statenkwartier. The design will contribute to the reduction of socialspatial inequality in the city.

The goal of the graduation studio is to research and design housing solutions that improve the livelihood of Addis Ababa’s urban dwellers. Combining analysis, planning and design, the participants of this graduation studio were challenged to use multidisciplinary research methods and tools to elaborate design proposals for the development of a pilot housing project in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is following the urbanization trend which can be seen across Africa. This is reflected in the population growth in Addis Ababa which has doubled from 2.3million in 2000, to 4.5million in 2020. The primary reasons for this rural-to-urban migration are education and work. We find that unmonitored overcrowded households, long commuting distances and high urban expenses pose obstacles to the progress of all Ethiopian students. This project places due importance on arriving students, as I believe that acknowledging this group as critical to the future development of Addis Ababa and Ethiopia as a whole.”

Housing projects being developed in the future, must challenge the previous problematic development trends built on efficiency in the past. In order to do so, Jan Bredenoord, Paul Van Lindert and Peer Smets state, within their book ‘Affordable Housing in the Global Urban South: Seeking Sustainable Solutions’, that new communities being developed for the future must foster resilience. Resilience is a systems ability to adapt to change. Cities and urban spaces make up, as Charles Correa once said, “a whole system of spaces that people need (Correa, 1989).” “Urban living involves... a whole system of spaces that people need.” Charles Correa In nature, Bredenoord and his colleagues explain, “ecosystems have survived over time by adjusting to changing circumstances resulting in a search for equilibrium between two opposing poles, of efficiency and resilience. The healthiest systems have an optimum balance between the two extremes, which may be described by the term sustainability (Bredenoord et.al, 2014).” Furthermore, cities and urban spaces can be seen as patchworks of “green space, biodiversity (including people), non-biological structures (buildings), biophysical processes and energy flows, and are in that way comparable to natural ecosystems (Maddox, 2012).” The balance between the two extremes, sustainability, can be defined as a trade-off between efficiency and resilience. On the one hand, too much efficiency will lead to little diversity and stagnation in the system, while too much resilience will lead to too much diversity and a lack of coherence and purpose to grow. The goal for future housing developments should therefore be at aiming for an optimum balance between the two. It is upon this background that the graduation project’s topic of ‘Resilience’ and the research question of the project was defined.

With almost 110 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the largest and most populous country in the Horn of Africa. In the current trend of global urbanization, Ethiopia’s cities are rapidly growing. A tripling of the urban population is to be expected in 2050, putting a big pressure on the housing stock and employment opportunities. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital is growing at 3.8% per year, as more and more people from smaller villages or rural areas search for a better life standard. Statistics show that among the relatively young migrants, 6 out of 10 is female, coming from different social and cultural backgrounds. Women in Ethiopia, and to a larger extent those living in rural areas, suffer from a lower social status in the patriarchal society. They struggle more to find appropriate housing and supporting networks. This thesis invests the opportunities to create gender sensitive housing to pave the way for these new urban women. Furthermore, it proposes an alternative to the current mass housing strategy.

India is the second most populated country in the world, counting for over 1,3 billion people, a number that is rapidly increasing. In line with the rest of the world, India is, next to its increase in population, seeing a rapid urbanization, with Mumbai in the centre of it all. Considering the increase of population and the urbanization of India, it is only a logical cause that its capital is now growing at an unprecedented pace. In only fifty years’ time, the population of Mumbai has tripled, with no apparent end to be seen. Almost needless to say, the city is struggling with these numbers. What might be even more striking is the fact that in the same time span, the percentage of people living in slums has risen from roughly ten percent to as much as fifty percent of total population. And although slum dwellers form half of the population, their homes only take up 6% of the total land area. The conditions in which many of these dwellers live, are alarmingly unhygienic and according to the Census of India unfit for human habitation. Many of them will end up in so-called “Chawls”, five story high apartment blocks, closely packed together. From an economic perspective it is almost impossible to compete with the developments of the Chawls. It is simply not possible to house any more dwellings on a piece of land, without making substantially higher buildings, which would no longer be economical. The developers have maximized their profits, with hardly any regard for the dwellers needs. When visiting the village of Nalasopara, a mere 2,5 kilometres away from the Chawls, the stark contrast between the two becomes obvious. Whereas the village accommodates in many of the social and economic needs of its inhabitants, the Chawls are very monotonous and lack the richness in sociospatial layers. A large variety in hierarchy of spaces can be observed in the village, constituting a layering in the way spaces are used and the interactions between people taking place. This hierarchy is not present in the Chawls, resulting in a scarce variety of spaces and how they are used. Although most of the dwellers have broken the bonds of village community, that does not mean the spatial practices originating in the village are also thrown away. Moreover, the “village way of life” has certain qualities, which can serve also those who do not originate from the village. Not paying attention to those, which is happening now, is a lost opportunity. These qualities could be used to overcome the problem of the lack of sociospatial layers and not meeting the social and economic needs of the dwellers. This project represents an attempt to overcome some of the issues described above and will show a design that tries to combine the qualities of the village together with the reality of the Chawls. It will show a design that introduces hierarchical spaces in the overcrowded areas of the Chawls, to blur the boundaries.

How can the ‘Tabula rasa approach’ be avoided and through a development strategy which can be phased in time, within the existing fabric of the sefer, avoiding relocation of the residents to other parts of city and maintaining existing social networks and provisions.

The world is increasingly urbanised. Especially in those countries that are in rapid development, the migration to the city is extreme. This is the case for Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. Its population growth exceeds the number of newly built housing, and the housing that exists is unfit for a majority of the urban population. People create their own solution and move to informal neighbourhoods: neighbourhoods where they build their own houses and earn their money on the streets. While the conditions in the informal settlements are far from optimal, people can live their life and create their own opportunities. Somehow, they make a living that they cannot make in formal housing units: either due to the rent they cannot afford to pay, or due to the inability to earn an income in the way they do in the informal neighbourhood. In this way of living the life in the informal neighbourhoods, temporality plays an important role. People are versitale, can adapt to different situations, different circumstances. They can build up a process, starting something from scratch with the resilience to improve it, one step at the time. The streets are vital: pedestrian flows are economic opportunities. Converting any moment, any place into an opportunity that fits the situation the best: from a kitchen to a shop through the window, from a outdoor stall to an outdoor cooking spot, from a place of moving and travelling, to a place for gathering and meeting. Spaces can transform, dwellings can transform, adapt to circumstances, adapt to serve the opportunity that seems most succesful. It is this temporal element that makes them resilient. But these people are also vulnerable. With the current neighbourhood conditions, a lack of good quality housing, a lack of a well patterned street-network, a lack of services and hygiene, a lack of legal ownership, the dangers are clearly visible: fire, flooding, eviction and disease are potential enemies, created by their living situation. These people, of which there are so many in a city like Addis Ababa, deserve a home that caters their needs, actively engages them to use their abilities to improve their neighbourhood with the right acces to services, streets, economic opportunties. How can we use the theme of temporality to create such dwellings? In this project, a built environment is envisioned that combines the informal way of living (earning an income, having social relations), with a good quality of dwelling. It provides a framework in which people can built their dwellings tehmselves, keeping them affodable, and being able to constantly adapt the home to what they need most. It generates outside space as well as people flows on lower as well as higher levels to increase the economic opportunities for all of the people living in the area.