Proposed by Kotaro Horiuchi for a competition in August last year, the Table Housing project located at 34 Marathonos Street Athens Greece. With budget of 600,000$ BT, the 3-floors project using steel frame structure and covering 200 m2 of plot area. Read the full description from the architect below:
‘Eating’ is one of the most crucial and basic activities of human existence. Relocation of ‘Eating’ space from interior space to exterior space will result in expanding the activity of ‘communication’ into open communal spaces. Traditional eating space will be removed from buildings and relocated to shared space called TABLE.
By removing the ’Eating’ functions from the building program, the size of the floor space in the building will be kept to minimum functions. The conventional private activity of eating will transform into a new type of communal communication space.
Dwellings, such as dormitory and housing units, traditional compartments of ‘Dining room’ and ’Kitchen’ are transformed into the exterior communal space TABLE.
Hotels, offices and restaurants will also have TABLE. Educational, library and public buildings will also create TABLE. Connecting different types of programs through the continuous space ‘TABLE ‘.
TABLE will bring us the new type of eating and communication culture in contemporary urban lifestyle.
The site is in the historical Kerameikos and Metaxourgeio district (KM) that is probably the least populated part of downtown Athens. The required programme is the housing unit should be capable of hosting 18 students in 440M2 of primary use. And a general plan with a viral-type development scenario is required.
1. Know the difference between Proj. Obj and Des. Obj
2. Focus more on proving the need of you project
CHAPTER 2
2. Strategies that could be applied to your project problem
Since I am doing a self sustained community development, I must research the basic elements in a selfsustained community. I SHOULD HAVE A CERTAIN TECHNOLOGY for it to be self sustained -- it will be my DESIGN FOCUS.
3. ORGANIZE the whole chapter 2. THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST CRITICAL PART IN MY THESIS.
Private interest in land in the Philippines is so pervasive that the welfare objectives upon which land use planning is found like “distributive justice”, “equitable access to benefits of land use”, “land as natural resource” and not as a commodity of trade” are confined to the realm of rhetoric. Untrammeled private interest in land has two manifestations. One is a highly skewed pattern of land ownership. The other is a weak State incapable of effecting redistributive justice and social equity objectives.
To the Filipino land is life. To the dispossessed, to acquire land has become an obsession, to at least have a share of this earth, a little place they can call their own. To the one who acquired too much, land is life – and more. It adds to the holder social status, enormous wealth, and political power.
LAND USE PLANNING IMPLICATIONS OF THE LGC
In the advent of the Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160 the regulation of land use through the comprehensive land use plans enacted through zoning ordinances has been devolved to LGUs. The code directs to “…continue to prepare their comprehensive land use plans enacted through zoning ordinances which shall be the primary and dominant bases for the future use of land resources…” National government assistance in the form of guidelines and standards formulated by the NEDA and DILG and through Executive Order No. 72, the HLURB. The review and approval of local land use plans have also been transferred to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in the case of component cities and municipalities, and the Regional Development Council in the case of highly urbanized cities and independent component cities, and the HLURB in the case of provinces.
GOALS OF PRESENT- DAY URBAN PLANNING
The Local Government Code has mandated LGUs to plan and manage their respective territories. Planning is simply defined as the public control of regulation of the pattern of development.
The General Welfare Clause. Urban land use planning entails, among other things, the physical translation of the general welfare clause:
“Every local government unit shall exercise the powers expressly granted, those necessary implied there from, as well as powers necessary, appropriate, or incidental for its efficient and effective governance, and those which are essential to the promotion of the general welfare. Within their respective territorial jurisdictions, local government units shall ensure and support, among other things, the preservation and enrichment of culture, promote health and safety, enhance the right of the people to a balanced ecology, encourage and support the development of appropriate and self reliant scientific and technological capabilities, improve public morals, enhance economic prosperity and social justice, promote full employment among their residents, maintain peace and order, and preserve the comfort and convenience of their inhabitants.”
Often, when formulating their vision statement, LGUs look around everywhere else for ideas but tend to ignore the general welfare clause at the proper source of the goals of local planning and development. Other critics, especially some NGOs claim that the general welfare clause is inadequate as a source of ideas for formulating development goals. Surely, they have not looked at them hard enough.
Vision of the “Good” City. Hildebrand Frey envisions a good or livable city as one in which the hierarchy of human needs is adequately provided. Frey adopts Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs as follows: the most basic are those for air, water, food, shelter, sleep and sex. Next comes the need for safety and security. Then, as the individual feels more secure, he seeks to satisfy his need for love and belongingness, for self- esteem, and esteem from others. Beyond these basic needs are yet higher needs which are no longer hierarchal but nevertheless interrelated. These higher needs include truth, order, justice, beauty, unity, comfort, and self sufficiency.
Based on these concepts of basic and higher needs, Frey takes an inventory of what a good city should provide its citizens:
1.Provision for all physical needs
·A place to live and work
·Reasonable income
·Education and training
·Transport and communications
·Access to services and facilities
2.Security, safety and protection
·A visually and functionally ordered and controlled environment
·A place free of pollution and noise
·A place free of accidents and crime
3.A conducive social environment
·A place where people have their roots and children their friends
·A sense of community and belonging to a place or territory
4.A good image, reputation, prestige
·A place that provides a sense of confidence and strength
·A place that gives status and dignity
·A place that offers opportunity for individuals to shape their personal space
5.A chance to be creative
·A place that allows communities to shape their own districts and neighborhoods
6.An aesthetically pleasing environment
·A place that is well designed (aesthetically pleasing)
·A place that is physically imageable
·A place the promotes culture and is itself a work of art
URBAN RENEWAL OR REDEVELOPMENT
In the Philippines, renewal or redevelopment of slums and blighted areas usually results in increased densities in inner city areas. The conservation of single storey make shift dwellings to permanent medium rise walk up apartments increases residential density.
For urban renewal schemes to become sustainable, treatment should not be limited to residential redevelopment. Job creation must also be incorporated in urban renewal or redevelopment programs b allowing mixed use developments provided these are compatible with residential use.
DEMAND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
This set of strategies could be considered as alternative to or complementary to the supply- augmentation strategies. The effect of the urban form of the following strategies is the same as those of the supply- management approaches, that is, they encourage compact built forms resulting in more efficient use of lands for human settlements.
Improved Rural Services. By improving the level of welfare of rural residents their desire to migrate to the urban areas might be dampened to some extent. To create this desired effect, development intervention should be one that will tend to weaken rather than strengthen the urge for rural-urban migration. Examples of intervention that reduce the rural-urban population flow are agrarian reform, rural resettlement, irrigation development, rural electrification, potable water supply and efficient rural telecommunications.
Relocation or Resettlement. This is an effective way of decentralizing the urban population. But the economic and social costs are high both to the relocated families and to the society in general. Social benefit-cost calculations should be made before any decision to adopt this option is taken.
Title: Eco Master Planning
Author: Ken Yeang
Date Published: 2009
Fundamental to the ecomasterplan is its green infrastructure, a framework that enables the organization of human life around nature, as an armature of the design landscape. It is the provision f this eco infrastructure that differentiates an authentic ecocity from others which are simply aggregates of eco-engineering and hardware.
The green infrastructure is essentially a network of interconnected natural areas and open space within the site that links to those outside it. It enables conservation of natural features and characteristics within the site, maintenance of ecological connectivity and nexus between habitats, and retention of the ecosystems’ integrity and functions. Further, it serves to sustain clean air and water to create a greater habitat for sharing resources among species, to provide channels for species movement and interaction as well as a wider array of other development opportunities for the flora and fauna.
The green infrastructure occupies the site, providing an ecological framework and nexus across its entirety and retaining links to surrounding green belts and habitats.
HABITAT CONNECTIVITY
Climate change has let to evidence of the migration of organisms as they shift their ranges towards cooler climates. The migration translates into ecological disruption as organisms encounter obstructions in our built environment (roads, drains, hardscapes, buildings, etc) to their migration. Creating landscape corridors allows species safe passage.
To maintain connectivity, for instance across roads and highways, other obstructions and impervious hardscapes surfaces, the green infrastructure can be designed to span these by means of ‘eco bridges’, wide bridges that are landscaped and laid over roads and passageways or, similarly, as ‘eco- undercrofts’. These devices stitch together all the green areas and enable the green infrastructure to criss- cross interconnected over the entire terrain. Of course, conventional masterplans may lay claim to promoting similar corridors; however, upon closer inspection, physical continuity is usually found to be non- existent or virtual – while the green spaces with in such masterplans are laid out to indicate an intended ecological corridor, they in fact fail to connect and ae actually dissected by roads and other built structures.
Eco masterplanning ensures that this green infrastructure is purposefully integrated with other infrastructures, such as with the blue infrastructure, the grey infrastructure and with red infrastructure.
The eco infrastructure thus functions to provide the following outcomes: cleaner and enhanced water supplies ans source water protection; purer air; reduced urban heat island effect; moderation of impact of climate change and increased energy efficiency.
Design begins with the identification of the site’s existing green routes and potential for new connections. This green infrastructure will become the wildlife corridor, linking new green spaces with larger habitats, as green routes through existing urban areas connecting to other urban areas and even larger green areas. These corridors also form new habitats in their own right. They connect wildlife corridors that already exist, for example, in the for of woodland belts or wetlands, vestigial agricultural land and vegetated stands, existing landscape features such as over grown railway lines, and green areas beside waterways.
This green infrastructure, then, lies not just within the site but is connected to other larger habitats external to the site, so that the entire region becomes an expanded network of green infrastructures.
INTEGRATING URBAN FORM
The eco infrastructure can also serve to define the hierarchy and form of habitats and natural green spaces within a human community, and also the region framed by the scale and form of the urban development and its associated engineering infrastructure. Its networks would be integrated to establish links with the valuable natural features of the locality, and at the same time would interweave the functional requirements of urban form, and new green space provision, with habitat networks and with other ecological services such as sustainable drainage infrastructure.
This green infrastructure in the eco- masterplan becomes the dominant green framework within the site and across its landscape. As nature’s infrastructure and as a design principle, the green infrastructure should have precedence over the grey infrastructure in the masterplan to create, strengthen and rehabilitate ecological connectivity across the landscape. In this way, he plan’s subsequent insertion of the red infrastructure on to the natural environment will result in a environmentally positive contribution, conserving the ecology as opposed to causing ecological disruptions.
This green infrastructure must be an essential and integral component at all levels of urban planning (national, regional and local). It might be regarded as part of existing conservation practices in sustainable resource management – particularly relating to the sustainable management of land, ecosystems and water resources, including production (energy and food crops), pollution control, climate amelioration and increased porosity of land cover. It is vital to biodiversity, particularly in relating habitats at a variety of landscape scales. We need to be clearer, however. That the design of this green infrastructure differs from conventional open space master planning because it requires ecological connectivity and considers multiple functions and benefits for the locality’s ecosystems and green spaces in concert with land development, urban growth management and engineering infrastructural planning.
Environmental benefits of eco- infrastructures include:
·Carbon sinks – to absorb carbon dioxide. Studies have shown, for example that 1 hectare of woodland can absorb emissions equivalent to 100 family cars
·Pollution control – attenuating noise and filtering air pollution from motor vehicles; removal of sulfur dioxide and reduction of particulates by up to 75 percent. Noise attenuation can be as much as 30 decibels per 100 meters. Wetland ecosystems are also effective in filtering polluted run off and sewage.
·Natural cooling – reducing heat island effect, which otherwise can increase urban temperatures – relative to those in open countryside – by up to 5°C. Vegetation in the eco- infrastructure provides natural cooling. A single large tree can be functionally equivalent to five room air conditioners and supply enough oxygen for 10 people.
·Micro- climate control – improving local microclimate conditions by providing shade in summer; reducing wind effects created by streets and wind loads on buildings, potentially cutting heating requirements by up to 25 percent
·Flood prevention – reducing excessive run- off and increasing rainfall capture. This reduces the risk of flooding in low- lying areas and can also recharge moisture and groundwater.
·Biodiversity enhancement – providing a broad framework for natural systems and their functions that are fundamental to species and habitat viability, healthy soils, water and air. It ensure a wide level of species connectivity, interaction, mobility and sharing of resources across boundaries. Such real ecological improvements in connectivity enhance biodiversity and bolster habitat resilience and species survival.
Title: New Urbanism and Beyond
Author: Tigran Haas
Date Published: 2008.
THE CITIES WITHIN THE CITY
In matters of architecture and urbanism, fundamental principles are of universal value, but realizations are always local and regional, adapted to specific climates, topography, social habits, materials, and industry – i.e., to geographic/ ecological and cultural contexts. Sustainable means ecological, and has nothing to do with progress, modernism, ideology, advanced or reactionary attitudes, creativity, industry, or economy as they have been propagated for the last two centuries.
Waste equals food is a crucial urban principle because it allows to conceive of regenerative, closed- loop system on multiple scales, from the community garden to the regional economy. Applied to design, it translates first of all into safe, healthful material flows that generate no waste. Safe manufacturing and cradle to cradle material flows not only to ensure that the materials built with are beneficial, they also provide clean, productive economic base for healthy urban growth. By eliminating the very concept of waste, human industry becomes a regenerative thread in the urban fabric.
On the scale of building an community design, closing the loop allows us to respond to natural flows of water and energy. Closing the loop on water flows means designing a site in harmony with local topography, soil, and vegetation so that rainwater percolates slowly through the earth and follows a natural course through the watershed rather than racing down a concrete culvert. This may be the most important consideration for architects and planners.
The second principle of good design recognizes the unlimited energy of the sun, which powers nature’s cradle to cradle cycles and provides the earth’s only perpetual source of energy income.
All of these developments will influence the future. While natural light and fresh air are becoming more common elements in the energy systems of new buildings, the direct use of solar and wind power is not often seen as a viable option.
As urban residents enjoy the benefits of cleaner air, the demand for renewable power will transform wind into a new cash crop.
The third principle, celebrate diversity recognizes that all healthy ecosystems – natural and urban – require a multiplicity of interdependent forms. In a healthy ecosystem, each organism fits exquisitely in its place and in each system an abundance of fitting organisms thrive together. In short, evolution generates biodiversity.
Title: Environmentally Responsible Design
Author: Dr. Louise Jones
Date Published: 2008.
RELATIONSHIP OF HUMANS AND NATURE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
In much of the ancient world, nature was regarded with awe and fear; people were thought to be helpless in the face of its power. Architecture in ancient cities, was, by its very nature, environmentally responsible. Construction technology was based on manual labor, working with regionally availably materials that satisfied the demands of climate and topography.
The design and construction of high performance buildings is dynamic and evolving. It is commonly recognized that a whole building, integrated- design approach is most effective when implementing environmentally responsible design criteria. This ensures the optimal performance for the desired design goals. It is critically important that valid evaluation systems are available to set parameters that can improve quality, decrease the life cycle environment impact and optimize life cycle costs of the buildings. These rating systems must provide the data required to support innovative principles and practices that protect people’s health and well being as well as planet earth’s health and well being. Only then will this generation be able to meet their needs without negating the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
The Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) was developed in United Kingdom in 1990, making it the oldest of the commonly used assessment methods. Offices, homes, schools, industrial and retail units, are among the range of building types BREEAM explicitly addresses. In addition, other building types can be assessed using custom made versions of BREEAM.
the BREEAM evaluative categories for design and procurement include the following:
·Materials (asbestos mitigation, recycling facilities, reuse of structures, façade, or materials, use of crushed aggregate and sustainable timber)
·Land (previously used land, use of remediated contaminated land)
·Ecology (land with low ecological value or minimal change in value, maintaining major ecological systems on the land, minimization of biodiversity impacts)
·Pollution (leak detection systems, on- site treatment, local or renewable energy sources, light pollution design, nonuse of ozone depleting, and global warming substances)
Title: Designing Community
Author: David Walters
Date Published: 2007.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE PLANNING PROCESS AND THE CHANGING ROLE OF URBAN DESIGN
“…This demonstrates how planning theory and practice abandoned its original concepts and methods of physical design and master plans in favor of a quasi- scientific, open ended system approach to problem solving….”
Title: Urban Design for an Urban Century
Author/s: Lance Jay Brown, David Dixon, Oliver Gillham
SELF- SUSTAINED COMMUNITY PROVISION FOR INFORMAL SETTLERS
INTRODUCTION
Metro Manila and Economy
Metro Manila is the total urban area that is composed of different cities and the surrounding urban fringe. The proper city Manila is only one of the big cities of this urban agglomeration. Metro Manila, or the 'National Capital Region' as they say in the Philippines, is a real metropolitan area. On 636 square kilometer live more than 10 million inhabitants. [1]
Many in-migrants are unable to find adequate work or shelter; they become part of Manila’s ever growing population of “Urban Poor”. If they are lucky, in-migrants may obtain low- paying jobs in construction, transportation, or other services. Many others though become homeless living and scavenging.
Urbanization and Population Growth in Metro Manila
As the nation’s capital becomes more and more highly urbanized, it also experiences urbanization’s adverse effects. The metropolis is surrounded of human misery and degeneration, endless miles of slums, and more slums ----- there are 526 slum communities located in all its cities and municipalities.[2] The country has focused to develop in only one area, which is Manila, resulting informal sectors to settle into private and government owned properties. Underground communities will therefore spread in urban areas since they are drawn by job opportunities and technology advances; rapid population growth will be expected. Slum communities are detrimental for the growth and development of Manila and Philippines as a whole. Private and government owned properties are inactive and are becoming a barrier for promoting better lives for the Filipino people.
HOUSING PROVISION FOR INFORMAL SETTLERS
This trend of population concentration in urban areas creates complexity in meeting the basic daily needs and coping with the fast pace of life that results to social, cultural, political and economic problems, which eventually leads to urban poverty.[3]
Pasig River is one of many sites in Metro Manila where in- migrants settle. They are considered as informal settlers--- having no formal ownership of the land they live in. Because of its over population, Pasig River has been polluted and is considered as a “dead river” in the 90’s.
Background of the Study
Urban Poverty and Major Issues
The poor in cities suffer from various deprivations such as lack of access to employment; adequate housing and infrastructure; social protection and lack of access to health, education and personal security.[4]
There is a potential growth in issues like poor public transport, uncoordinated infrastructure provision, bad housing, low levels of public health and improper waste management. People live at very high densities because the amount of space required for daily living and movement between different activities are becoming more and more complex. Rapid urban growth became apparent that the various reform movements--- with interests in land rights, housing and economic justice--- shared common concerns, and needed to coordinate if they were to bring about lasting change. [5]
Housing Problems
Urban housing is a fundamental component of every city. The city's housing condition reflects not just the income levels and level of well-being of its inhabitants, but to a certain extent, clearly show the social and spatial inequalities that exist within the city. As a growing megacity confronted by numerous large scale urban problems, Metro Manila's housing situation remains to be a priority metropolitan concern for several decades now.[6]
The housing landscape of Metro Manila shows extreme polarization. Numerous upscale housing development projects are sporadically emerging across the metropolis alongside the continuous burgeoning of shanty towns and slum dwellings all over the city. Continuous massive influx of migrants from different provinces to Metro Manila further intensified the demand for settlement space.[7]
Informal Settlers and Poverty
Poverty in the Philippines is most acute and widespread in rural areas. Although Manila certainly has its share of urban poor, the National Capital Region has the lowest poverty incidence in the country. The rural poor tend to be self-employed, primarily in agriculture or casual labor. They are almost all landless.[8]
Planning and Poverty Reduction
It can be seen that the concept of development has an economic dimension, but that it goes beyond measuring GDP. It is now widely recognized that development involves distributional issues and that the continued existence of mass poverty is incompatible with this development concept irrespective of the overall level of income.
Poverty reduction is therefore crucially linked to development and it cannot claim genuine progress in development if it has not made significant inroads into levels of both absolute and relative poverty.
The government has adopted strategy of improving the livability of poor communities and provision of access to basic urban infrastructure and services to build sustainable urban communities. In this regard, the government has started to improve land administration and management.[9]
Community Development
The government scaled up community based housing programs to provide landless urban poor access and secure tenure on urban lands. One of these programs is the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) that provided low cost financing to organized household communities for land acquisition and development. The sustainability is doubtful due to the informal settlers’ poor loan repayment performance. Several shortcomings have been noted. First, the program does not always provide a realistic option for addressing tenure concerns because either some land owners have no intention of dealing with the community or some communities lack the requisite negotiating skills. Second, while the CMP is designed mainly to help squatters on private lands but it does not offer much help to low-income renters who also might want to have secure tenure through ownership. Third, the main benefit from CMP is access to land but it does not meet problems of slum upgrading and provision of basic services or infrastructure.[10]
Government Strategies and Organizations
The Philippine government reaffirms its support to the Habitat Agenda on the provision of adequate shelter for all and the promotion of sustainable development. Enshrined in Article XIII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution is the right to adequate shelter of the Filipino people. In translating this mandate into concrete initiatives and measures, the Philippine government forged linkages with the civil society, the private sector and the academe. This is in order to transform the underlying government philosophy of building on the initiatives and capabilities of the people as well as making them partners instead of mere recipients of development.
Beyond paying lip service to the Habitat agenda, the Philippine government, since 1996, has installed policies and legislations aimed at implementing the Habitat agenda.
The passage of these important legislations may be credited to the synergism in the tripartite cooperation among government organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs) and people's organizations (POs).
To complement the efforts of the legislature, the executive branch issued Executive Orders on the curtailment of professional squatters and squatting syndicates, formulation of comprehensive land use plans by LGUs, reformulation of the National
Urban Development and Housing Framework for 1999 - 2004 and streamlining of the process for issuance of permits on housing and subdivision development projects.
Moreover, the Philippine government also devised many programs to provide security of tenure and regularize informal settlers occupying public lands.
Taking note of the housing requirements of the formal sector as well, the Philippine Government also established a home lending program with fund contributions coming from the social security institutions as well as other government financial institutions.[11]
Statement of the Problem
The revival of Pasig River is is led by the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRCC). One of its programs is to provide housing facilities to the informal setters alongside Pasig River. There are about --- informal settlers along the banks of the river and they are detrimental in improving the condition of the area. This program would help the organization make best use of its agenda in improving the natural environment.
The informal settlers are considered to earn very low at a day to day basis and the government sponsors or needs to subsidize the funding of the shelter provision in order to develop their lives and to improve or revive Pasig River as well.
The project calls for a housing facility for the informal settlers that would provide them shelter and at the same time improve their lives in their own community. A housing facility also includes infrastructures (roads, housing units, drainage systems,
etc.) utilities (water and power) and common facilities (open spaces, schools, health centers, market) accessible to their needs.
The project also needs to recognize the informal settlers families (ISF) involved to the relocation project. The relocation site needs to be determined and studied for the health and safety of the future settlers.
Problem Objectives
Relocation site for the informal settlers along the banks of Pasig River are needed as the PRCC would pursue their programs in reviving the Pasig River. The project calls for a housing facility for the informal settlers that would provide them shelter and at the same time improve their lives in their own community and addresses the following concerns:
1.To provide a site that is safe for the future settlers
2.To have an accessible roads, housing units and drainage system to the site
3.To provide the future setters utilities such as water a power
4.To have an accessible (or provide) common facilities such as school, market, health center and open spaces(park)
Project Scope and Delimitation
This research is to develop strategies or approach in providing the informal settlers along the banks of Pasig River(one area) housing facilities. This research is also to determine which area in alongside the river are to be involved in the relocation.
Definition of terms
1.Informal Settlers
2.Poverty (noun)- state of being poor
3.Urbanized (transitive verb)- to make an area of countryside or a village into a town or part of one
4.Housing (noun)- provision of accommodation; the provision of space to live
5.NHA- National Housing Authority
6.Population (noun)- all of the people who inhabit an area, region or country
[1] Pa- Riles: the UST-CCMF Tondo youth community development program participatory action research experience
