Light Touch on the land – continued conversations about architectural change, informality and sustainability

Abstract

[EN] Including ‘informally constructed’ buildings in the cornucopia of ‘vernacular’ has its opponents. They are not visually compelling, strongly represent the ‘other’, and their unpopularity derives from worldviews that prioritise ‘architecture’ as modernity rather than, perhaps, ‘buildings’ as humanity. However, it is argued that informal settlements are not only the kernel of new cities (using modern materials), but are inevitable and sanitized by health legislation, with slum ‘clearing’ having different potentials, to ‘slum building’. Considering informal settlements in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in the early 1920s, and subsequent slum clearances due to post-War health legislation, tracking their continued negative, (and ambivalent connotations at the end of apartheid), and most extensive manifestations in current times, this paper considers informal settlements as recyclers of matter, distinct representations of cultural change (from the rural to the urban) and vectors of opportunity (driven by early health legislations). For the a global north which assumes culturally static societies, advocates for carbon-neutral construction, and renewable construction materials and recycling, there is possibly much we can learn from informal settlements, addressing complex and diverse world views, recycling, political organization and spatial planning. Also, viewed from the lofty perspective of the global north, such vernaculars are viewed derisively, are the focus of multiple, globally-crafted sustainable development goals, and are considered as ‘problems’ rather than, ‘solutions’. Thus, migratory trajectories, social and cultural change, and the continued use of existing and found materials is real for many millions of people globally. These constantly negotiated territories provide compelling ground for re-assessment, reflection and repositioning, interpretation of the vernacular.