Informal laneway encroachment: Reassessing public/private interface transformation in urban villages

Abstract

The public/private interface is a zone that mediates private functions from the publicness of street life. An interface's adaptive capacities and immediate effect on public life make it critical to liveability concerns in informal urbanization, yet one that is understudied. Public space is assumed to be relentlessly encroached, but adequate data is lacking, and the spatial diversity of encroachment remains unarticulated. Through detailed surveys of more than 45 km of laneways across twelve urban villages at varying densities in China and India, this study contributes to understanding how informal urbanization responds to an increasing intensity of urban life. A conceptual framework of laneway encroachment is developed in which interface transform through the processes of cantilevering (upper floor encroachment), serrating (ground floor encroachment) and accessing (projecting a spatial claim). Cantilevering both reduces light yet affords shelter to street edges, while serrating both reduces public space yet affords social life and space for spill out. This study argues that interface transformation is not an uncoordinated free-for-all, but a process mediated by both formal codes, informal performative rules and cultural norms.