Abstract
This paper presents a methodology for exploring housing conditions through the perception of children who live in informal settlements, employing photography as the research tool. Informal housing is usually in a bad condition, affecting the health of users and often putting their lives at risk; but this is not always something users are aware of. In this sense, finding ways to make bad housing conditions visible can contribute to their improvement. With this in mind, this paper concerns children´s perception of their dwellings and how these observations and insights can contribute to improve quality of life in these impoverish areas. The research was conducted with children aged between 6 and 12 years old, living in informal settlements of the Southern periphery of Bogota, Colombia. The findings confirm “old topics” regarding housing conditions and open up “new topics” as well; all of them defined by children's perceptions. In this sense, findings can help built environment practitioners and informal self-builders, understand how housing conditions impact children's health and wellbeing, and support their exploration of alternative housing solutions.
Highlights
Informal settlements are an overwhelming reality for most Latin American cities and the global south, with an estimated 1 billion people living in these areas (UN-HABITAT, 2006)
In 2012 more than 80% of the population lived in cities and 23.5% or 113 million people of the Latin America’s urban population were estimated to be living in conditions defined by United Nations Human Settlements as slums (ONU-HABITAT, 2012), and figures are on the rise
This paper addresses, on the one hand, issues around poor quality housing in informal settlements and, on the other hand, the Right to Housing propounded by the government and the Colombian Constitution
Summary
Informal settlements are an overwhelming reality for most Latin American cities and the global south, with an estimated 1 billion people living in these areas (UN-HABITAT, 2006). Informal housing in most cases has poor quality, especially in terms of overcrowding and environmental conditions, of natural light and ventilation (CEBALLOS et al, 2014) In this sense, both public policy and academic debates address the subject from the perspective of the Right to Housing for every Colombian citizen. Housing has a universal dimension common to all people, it has a dimension associated with the different cultural contexts where people and social groups develop (DEFENSORÍA DEL PUEBLO, 2007) Within this frame, this paper addresses, on the one hand, issues around poor quality housing in informal settlements and, on the other hand, the Right to Housing propounded by the government and the Colombian Constitution. It explores housing conditions through a methodology that draws on childrens perspectives of their built environment, with the aim to identify themes that affect children and that are important to them
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