Seeking Disciplinary Relevance in the Informal City: Rebuilding Architectural Practice through Community Engagement

Abstract

Building is a crucial act for residents of informal settlements. Notwithstanding this normative architectural practice finds it challenging to engage with the socio-spatial complexity inherent to the collaborative making of buildings in informal settlements. This chapter seeks to explore how architectural practice can be rebuilt through community engagement so as to find disciplinary relevance in the informal city. In this exploration, I engage with architects who have experience with multidisciplinary projects that straddle the formal and informal, who engage in an impure and hybrid mode of architectural practice that is grounded in its context—a grounded architectural practice employed as liminal space, where the contradictions between the formal and informal can be addressed and resolved. I approach this search for disciplinary relevance as an urban geographer seeking to understand the reality of informal settlements, as well as an architect wanting to transform the built environment in a way that improves the lives of marginalized residents. Nonetheless, this exploration focuses on the rebuilding of architectural practice through community engagement, rather than imposing normative architectural practice onto the informal city. The exploration is situated in the context of Cape Town, and employs two case studies that offer a view of architectural practice and community engagement as urban socio-spatial phenomena characterized by a high degree of informality.KeywordsGrounded architectural practiceInformal settlementsCommunity engagementActivity theoryDevelopmental work research