Preferences and perspectives of sustainability in informal Roma settlements

Abstract

The intent of the article is to highlight the fact that Roma micro-environments contain as part of their context certain social and cultural premises, embodied in spatial forms and informal settlement construction manners that all together correspond with the principles of sustainable architecture. Methodologically, the article begins with the idea that the informal Roma settlements were built by the Romani, without an explicit professional influence and represent a quality induced by the need to functionally organize a community where everyday activities take place. Hence, the physical entities and the construction techniques in the settlements are the objects of research on knowledge and skills of a community in which the individuals are connected horizontally and hierarchically and can thus achieve positive relations inevitable for such realization. In that manner, it is possible to systematize inside a settlement a base of characters of physical structure as completed individual and group knowledge and potentials for further, acceptable advancements in that area of construction. The purpose of the paper is in drawing the attention to very concrete resources of the Roma community which should, with a gradual increase of capacities, be taken into account during the realization of the projects themselves and during the organized self-build and self-help processes as well as the process of housing condition advancement in the settlements. In a broader sense, the reduction of cost for the Romani has the potential to reduce a social distance towards them, especially in the Western Balkans where a significant portion of the population faces the same financial limits when it comes to housing advancement.