Housing Provision and Bottom-Up Approaches: family case studies from Africa, Asia and South America

THIS EDITED VOLUME contains a number of perspectives in regard to understanding housing and users’ preferences, and particular emphasis is placed on the physical structures of housing. Whilst the range of papers covers all regions of the South, there is a particular concentration on North Africa and the Middle East.
The first paper looks at the relationship between household behaviour and the use of the immediate environment. The author emphasizes the importance of a good understanding of these relationships in order for housing policy to be appropriate to the diverse needs of households and their members. Papers from Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Libya and Israel look at how users perceive, and how they have modified, housing that has been constructed either on the commercial markets or by governments. The general lesson that emerges from these studies (in addition to specific experiences) is the importance of flexibility in housing design and in planning and building regulations. The studies offer a rich understanding of how housing space is used in different social and cultural contexts.
A number of further papers look at other aspects of housing. One considers how families in war-damaged villages in Lebanon adjusted to life and the task of reconstructing their housing. Using this experience, the author comments on the appropriateness of intervention strategies in disaster prone areas. Another paper offers a detailed study of vernacular dwellings in China, touching on physical and philosophical aspects of housing. Two papers from South Africa discuss the diverse needs of the urban poor in post-apartheid South Africa and the background and needs of District Six in Cape Town. The final paper looks at the particular problems of vulnerability in a group of low-income residents in Lima (Peru) who have built their houses on a former rubbish dump. This paper shares with others the common theme of the need to find and bring together the bottom-up strategies of the local communities with the top-down procedures of professional planners and government officials.