1

Support self-construction through self help

housing - developing countries’ context -

Why? How? Limits? Possible guidelines?

Pauline Touranche, Exchange student in 4th year of Architecture

studies, from La Villette in Paris, France.

Pauline Touranche

2

Introduction According to the Habitat Agenda, “in many countries, particularly developing

countries, more than half the existing housing stock has been built by the owner-

occupiers themselves, serving mainly the lower-income population. »1

Indeed self-construction is the more direct answer to the basic need of shelter one

would build up because it cannot be solved in any other way. Self-construction

concept can at first be seen as a necessity. It is a primary form of architecture to

which people turns to with very limited means.

Are there not important aspects to be considered in the way people settle as it is

done spontaneously, in a building process learning from direct experiences of the

context in which the house is settled? And how, from a shelter professional’s

point of view, architects should interpret and consider self-construction?

Because nowadays, in a developing country context, self-construction is broadly

done in a very independent way, with poor means, sometimes in illegal

circumstances, on dangerous sites, this way of settling is threatened but also

threatens somehow its inhabitants. And the main answer to self construction’s

limits has been to erase its realization and provide many, fast built and cheap

housing units, all identical, too often un-adapted, and thus left empty.

What can be done to adapt a spontaneous way of settling to today’s issues, to

improve poor people’s living conditions? Could some guidelines be defined,

useful for residents and professionals, able to facilitate and organize self-

construction sustainability?

The Rich Lecture of Self-construction’s Architecture Foreword The starting point of this investigation is the observations made in a European

context that when people take part in the design, or construction process of their 1 UN Habitat The Habitat Agenda Goals, Principles, Commitments and the Global Plan of Action.

1996 http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/docs/1176_6455_The_Habitat_Agenda.pdf

Sustain self construction through self-help housing

3

day to day environment (the house itself but even its surroundings), they are very

often much more able than building professionals to meet their own needs and

desires.

There is in these circumstances a part of appropriation and participation that, to

me, is necessary to generate “good built environments”.

Considering self-construction in a developing country context is rather different,

but still the lecture of the resulting architecture is an open book of clues as to learn

how people use, or need the space to be. In this perspective, self-construction

presents an undeniable reason to be studied carefully.

Just from looking at this picture of an informal self construction on Smokey

Mountain in Manila, Philippines, different categories of information can be got:

Ways of Using the Space – Defining Building Types The way people use the space is understandable from the building choreography.

From the picture above it is rather difficult to assume the uses of the space done

by its users. Plans and sections can make this apprehension more explicit as it has

been done in the experience lead by SADEL and ASDEAR in Tunisia.

Where before starting a program of organized self help housing, these

organizations have made observations and studies to understand better the existing

Pauline Touranche

4

framework. They learned that courtyard was a omnipresent polyvalent space in

each house people built by themselves, the rooms of the houses were rather long

and narrow, and that they were used only for sleeping as kitchen was improvised

outside.

This choreography of buildings’ shape is very much influence by the uses and

habits of their users, culture and beliefs, social and gender organization as well.

Building Materials and Construction Devices Used The materials used in self-construction process are the one found around the place

where the house is built. These resources vary from a rural context to an urban

one. Where the picture above has been taken, on a mountain made of garbage,

mostly left over pieces of plastic, wood, metal, cardboard are used as well as any

piece of industrialized furniture as the piece of mattress used as façade material.

In the countryside for instance in the Philippines a self settler would rather use

available bamboo or stones like in the northern, mountain areas.

These materials will influence the way the houses are built, but they are also

adequate to the place they are used in the sense that they are local.

Climatic or environmental issues also very often influence the way they are then

implemented. As we can see on the picture, the house has been elevated, because

there are risks of sliding soil, especially during the rainy season.

Reading self construction gives many informations as to know the materials

available on the site and the devices used to implement them.

Expression of Needs What can already be read from the above picture is that this family needs more

space: to store (basket hanging from the wall), or a place to dry the washed

clothes, from a general view the house tends to extend on each side to the outside.

The expression of the needs of the users from the space configuration starts to

show the limits it has achieved and that should be taken into consideration.

If there are too much goods in a room, there is a need of storage, if the cooking is

made outside, it’s wether because of the smell, or because there is no space inside

where the pretented kitchen is used for something else, it is also because the

climate allows cooking to be done outside.

Sustain self construction through self-help housing

5

Indeed a deeper look to a spontaneous shelter can give many clues about the needs

of its inhabitants, especially from what you can see the house is not able to

provide an answer. Limits show needs, a need satisfied is no longer a need.

Hindrances to Decent Living Conditions The Habitat Agenda includes this general definition to what should guarantee a

Shelter: “Support progress and security for people and communities, whereby

every member of society is enabled to satisfy his or her basic human needs and to

realize his or her personal dignity, safety, creativity and life aspirations ».

The first limit of self-construction is reached as soon as the house threatens these

basic needs. The reasons why they fail in that are not only financial or material

(because we can see many housing project with expensive materials and devices

enable to achieve them), the problem is mainly in terms of lack of technical

assistance and means, but also because of a lack of awareness and support from

the authorities to start with.

Even if the qualities and assets of self construction have to be considered, as

nowdays there is a go back to the roots and a carefull attention brought on

vernacular architecture for its adapted feature to the place the building is located,

spontaneous architecture should also be considered as a proper architecture. But

obviously its limits have to be underline and that’s where architects and building,

social professionals have to work on improving it, step by step, hand by hand with

its architect, the resident themselves.

Organized Self-help Construction as an Answer to the limits of Self-construction2

The concept of organized self-help housing is rather recent (100 years) and means

that there is a facilitating organization that both assists the households that have

2 This 3rd part has been very much influenced by Astrand, Johnny and Mario Rodriguez, 1996 Organized Small scale Self-help Housing.

Pauline Touranche

6

chosen this program, and that bears a responsibility to authorities and financial

agencies.

« To support the efforts of people, individually or collectively, to produce

shelter » the Habitat Agenda strongly advices governments to facilitate

community-based production of housing, through promoting it, new policies,

integrating and regularizing existing self constructions, and through facilitating

access to housing resources (such as land, finance, infrastructures, buildings

materials).

A Human Perspective The starting point of a self-help project is the participation of the families taking

part in it. Their needs and resources are what is going to define and shape the

design of their houses. Studies, surveys, interviews and many observations are, of

the many tools the facilitating organization can use to better understand people’s

experiences and needs. Self-help programs’ slogan sound as facilitating an

architecture for people by people.

Cost Efficiency It is the most famous advantage of self-help housing programs. Indeed people’s

participation in the working process (partly of fully) enables to considerably lower

the cost compare to similar produced houses by contractors within the formal

sector, as you can see on the board bellow.

“Financial Aspects” from Organized Small scale Self-help Housing by Astrand, Johnny and Mario Rodriguez, 1996

Sustain self construction through self-help housing

7

The way the project is organized is key to keep the self-help project competitive,

as well as the amount of time the families can spend on working, together with the

capacity and efficiency of the facilitating organization. We can also strongly

believe that in a long-term view, the cost of maintenance will be reduced as the

residents have learnt how to repair and run the houses.

Common Participation What it also brings out, as a new asset from self-settlement process is that

developing a project in community makes the development of a neighborhood

sustainable and lively. The teamwork allows to learn about the future

neighborhood but also to discover the potentials of sharing work in community.

But here again, as the cost efficiency, generating an identity and feeling of

community is a fragile construction. It depends also on the way the program is

organized and the timelines, when a self help housing project is late, families

loose energy and thus money, which will brings out less motivation..

The facilitating organization has to play a constant part in sharing with the

families, bringing support and advises.

Proposal for Guidelines As we can guess from the description of the self help housing process, it is a

whole organization that needs to be adapted to each project, families’ situation

and resources available by the last ones and the site.

But still, there are general advices architects and residents could refer to, as to

achieve sustainable and fair self-construction in an organized process.

Enable the Families to Contribute to their own Development The families need to be involved, in many ways of participating, in different

phases of the project so that after that the facilitating organization leave the work,

the families are not lost in their own home. For that also, they should be aware of

any decision to be taken in the process and have the last word.

Pauline Touranche

8

Consider the Existing as the Starting Point As we have seen, the existing pattern before support is provided to the families is

rich of information to consider. It’s not because spontaneous, or self-construction

is fragile that it should be ignored or erased. If you look at the many projects done

by many architects whose challenges are only to design many, fast to build and

cheap housing units, they do not solve the housing crisis for low-income

households. They are even bringing in new problems because their design is not

able to consider many other parameters than are part of the quality of living as

much as having a toilet box… What happens generally if the project are not

adapted to people uses and needs, they won’t stay in, which generate important

loss of money…

Clear Objectives, Timetable and Responsibilities To stay competitive, a self help project has to follow a realistic and strategic

pattern that clearly defines who has to do what, and this has to be agreed between

all the families and the actors involved.

Provide Permanent Support, Advice and Training The facilitating organization should encourage and accompany the families

through the different phases of the project by providing the mental energy

necessary but also training and training about construction devices and technics.

Numbers of self-help programs in construction have shown that the residents were

refinding self confidence and proud through their work.

Research in Alternatives A self-help project has something experimental and in that sense it should go

further in researching for financial alternative means to make it possible for each

family to shelter oneself. The research in alternatives should also look for

affordable, easy to implement but also environmentally friendly construction. This

challenge should be in the objectives of the project since the beginning, we

couldn’t make anymore the economy of this issue.it should not be anymore taken

away issue.

Sustain self construction through self-help housing

9

References

Astrand, Johnny and Mario Rodriguez 1996 Organized Small scale Self-help Housing. Kahn, Lloyd 1973 Shelter ISBN-10: 0-936070-11-0

Skinner R.J and M.J Rodell 1983 People, poverty and shelter: Problems of self-help housing in the third world London: Methuen & Co. ISBN-10: 0416309607 Tannerfeldt, Göran and Per Ljung 2006 More Urban, Less Poor: an introduction to urban development and management.

London: Earthscan. ISBN 978-1-84407-381-8.

UN Habitat 1996 The Habitat Agenda Goals, Principles, Commitments and the Global Plan of Action. Retrieved from: http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/docs/1176_6455_The_Habitat_Agenda.pdf