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GROUNDING
KNOWLEDGE
reflectionsoncommunity-driven
developmentinSouthEastAsia
ii iii
Peoplethemselvesmust
haveresponsibilityforthe
developmentandchange
oftheworldtheylivein.
AmartyaSen
iv v
and land tenure projects on the ground. The understanding that comes
from that on-the-ground educaton does not shy away from idealism, from
compassion, from friendship, from excitement and from rage at injustces.
The Asian Coaliton for Housing Rights (ACHR) and the Community
Architects Network (CAN) have great faith in that on-the-ground educaton,
and have for many years been enabling good-hearted and idealistc young
students, architects, planners, engineers, social scientsts and development
professionals to have experiences working directly with poor communites,
in real projects, at grassroots level. The partnership between ACHR and
the Development Planning Unit (DPU) of University College London to set
up an experimental internship program for recent DPU graduates is one
example of this.
The stories described in this report have been writen by some of
the interns who took part in that DPU program. They show vividly how
our educatonal system for preparing professionals to go out and make
the world a beter place can be dramatcally improved by grounding that
educaton in a bit of this on-the-ground learning, with poor communites,
and how that second educaton can go a long way towards narrowing
that gap between educaton and reality.
We would like to thank the Rockefeller Foundaton for its support
to ACHR and to CAN, between 2011 and 2013, which has helped us to
strengthen the role of professionals in supportng a housing process in Asia
which is led by poor communites themselves. We would also like to thank
the Development Planning Unit of UCL for their support of this experimental
collaboraton. And fnally, we give our big thanks to the Associaton of
Cites of Vietnam (ACVN) in Vietnam, the Community Development
Fund Foundaton in Cambodia, the Homeless Peoples Federaton in the
Philippines and the Ciliwung Merdeka NGO in Indonesia which all agreed
to host DPU interns.
ACHR/CAN
Bangkok
October,2013
Foreword
The stories in this report are all about how tacit knowledge about
development emerges among professionals, when they work on the
ground, in real-life situatons, as partners with poor communites. And
these stories are also about how those real-life conditons have helped
young professionals to challenge and re-learn the theories they had
studied in their formal development educaton. We call this kind of post-
professional second educaton an on-the-ground educaton.
There are many terms in the development feld that we professionals
use very lightly, without really much thinking about them: poverty, people,
community, urban poor, partcipaton, empowerment, ownership, equality,
community-driven. We may use these terms to describe the various
phenomena of poverty that we study and intervene in our professional
lives. But they may not mean much to us untl we really start working
closely with poor community people and start realizing how profoundly
the poor are excluded from the lions share of development programs
and projects, which are supposed to be empowering them, elicitng their
partcipaton and increasing their ownership of the development of their
lives, housing and setlements.
Its no exaggeraton to say there is a huge gap between the
understanding of poverty that development professionals acquire in their
formal educaton and professional interacton, and the understanding
of poverty that some manage to acquire by rolling up their sleeves and
working with poor communites on their housing, upgrading, infrastructure
vi vii
Bagotlo, TAMPEI and the communites in Kep, as well as UPDF staf. What
we have experienced, and what we have learnt from you has helped us
to understand through practce the rich, complex, and powerful reality of
community processes, and to believe in the capacity and energy of people
to be the makers of their own development. Thank you.

Thank you to all members of the Community Architect Network
(CAN), for sharing with us your knowledge and passion in supportng
community processes.

Last but not least we would like to thank all the staf from the
Development Planning Unit, Dr. Caren Levy, Dr. Camillo Boano, Dr. Barbara
Lipietz, Dr. Caroline Newton, Giorgio Talocci, and William Hunter for their
support in forming this internship programme which we hope can be
contnued in order to enrich the life and professional path of other students
in the DPU.
JohannaBrugman,
BarbaraDovarch,
ZahraKassam,
FrancescoPasta
ArielShepherd,
Bangkok
October,2013
Acknowledgments
We interns would like to start by thanking all the members of the Asian
Coaliton for Housing Rights for giving us this invaluable opportunity to
share the knowledge and practces of community driven processes in
Asia, and your generosity, support, understanding and trust in us during
these six months. Many thanks, Somsook Boonyabancha, Supawut
Boonmahathanakorn, Chawanad Luansang, Maurice Leonhardt, Tran Thi
Minh Chau, and Somsak Phonphakdee for opening your doors to us and
helping us see how people are the owners of their own solutons, as well
as guiding us to discover our role as development professionals in more
depth and clarity.
Many thanks to all of ACHRs partner organisatons which we
worked with, including the Associaton of Cites of Vietnam (ACVN), the
Community Development Foundaton (CDF)/Urban Poor Development
Fund (UPDF), the Homeless Peoples Federaton of the Philippines (HPFP)
and Ciliwung Merdeka. We will take with us many lessons from your work
on the ground.

Thank you to all the communites and community leaders, that
opened your hearts and homes to us during these six months in partcular
Le Viet Hung and Huu Nghi community in Vinh City, all the people of Hung
Hoa Commune, all the people connected to Ciliwung Merdeka and Sanggar
Ciliwung, Bapak Sandyawan and the communites of Bukit Duri, Ofelia
viii ix
Foreword iv
Acknowledgments vi
Introducton 1
Themes 4
How to read this book 8
4 countries, 4 processes 10
On the ground 12
Cambodia / FrancescoPasta
Overview 14
Working context: UPDF and Can-Cam 16
Triggering citywide upgrading in Kep 20
Indonesia / ArielShepherd
Overview 50
Working context: Ciliwung Merdeka 52
Planning around evicton in Bukit Duri 56
Philippines / ZahraKassam
Overview 82
Working context: team Tampei 84
Mapping at city scale in Manila 86
Vietnam / JohannaBrugmanandBarbaraDovarch
Overview 108
Working context: Vinh City CDF 110
Partcipatory mapping in Hung Hoa 114

Refectons 148
Aferword 160
Contributors backgrounds 162
Contents
x 1
Community-ledupgradinginAsia
The Asian Coaliton for Housing Rights (ACHR) is a network of local
development organizatons actve in lower-income communites across Asia.
Though working in very diferent contexts, they are linked by the frm belief
that people must be the actve subject of their own development. This means
that governments, internatonal organizatons and development agencies
should not regard vulnerable people as passive recipients of one-size fts all
ready-made solutons as conceived in conventonal development theories
and practced in major insttutons worldwide but instead a space should be
opened to support communites to take initatve and work together to improve
their lives themselves. Such actve spaces of partcipaton and dialogue work
towards including people in planning the future of the city, in turn reshaping
cites to respond beter to a diversity of human needs. Physical upgrading acts
a mechanism for a much broader upgrading, whereby citzenship exercised on
the ground in turn starts to restructure social relatons within the city.
To trigger such a process, ACHR and its afliated organizatons count
on a fexible fnance system and emphasize collectvity and collaboraton
between diferent players, within an actve network of knowledge exchange.
ACHR provides low-interest loans to poor communites to upgrade
their setlements and purchase the land, ranging from small infrastructure
improvements to big housing projects. Giving the opportunity to access funds
to a segment of populaton that would otherwise be cut out of it is obviously a
Introducton
2 3
TheACHR/CAN/DPUProfessionalInternshipProgramme
The ACHR/CAN/DPU Professional Internship Programme was launched in
February 2013 with the objectve of providing a full immersion of on-the-
ground-training to DPU alumni in working with communites and their
organizatons. While supportng the advancement and experimentaton of
methodologies towards community-led development, it also helped clarify
our role as development practtoners. This initatve is built on an existng
partnership between ACHR and DPU developed over the last three years, in
which the MSc Urban Development Planning (UDP) with MSc Building and
Urban Design in Development (BUDD) undertook feld trips to Bangkok to
learn about Thailands innovatve Baan Mankong housing programme.
As DPU students we deeply appreciated the more reality-based
development educton we received, grounded in a pedagogy of acton learning
and acton research that used real case scenarios in most of the projects we
worked on. The feld trip was an opportunity to learn directly from innovatve
practces in community-led urban development as well as opening a space to
interact directly with communites, and test newly learnt methodologies .
The ACHR/DPU Professional Internship Programme is a signifcant
step in this contnuous process of grounding and testng academic learning
into the realites of communites and situatons in the developing world. This
programme helped us realise that work in the feld is not as easy as it may appear
on paper, its emotonal, challenging, awkward, uncertain and unpredictable,
demanding a set of skills that cannot be learned in the academic environment.
We believe that ACHR and the community movement in Asia provides a very
unique learning space, and contributes signifcantly to the intenton of creatng
more grounded professionals, able to work and understand the realites of
poor communites and development work.
We hope this small book is able to convey our passion and some of our
learnings, inspiring other young people to work towards more just societes
and environments, and that you enjoy reading it!
major point, but the cornerstone of this approach is that the loan is collectve.
The money is dispensed under the conditon that the community is organized
and already partcipatng in savings groups, conditons that together typically
guarantee the loan payback. In managing a loan collectvely, people must
decide together what to invest the money in, and organize how to pay the loan
back. This way the upgrading process is governed by the people themselves,
and the project materializes due to their own work and resources; the sense
of ownership, and pride that people feel for their upgraded setlements is,
indeed, one of the most important results.
Furthermore this form of upgrading is usually more afordable than
conventonal top-down solutons, as the people responsible for its planning
and executon are also its benefciaries, ensuring only the true needs and
resources of the community are responded to. Community architects,
linked internatonally through the Community Architects Network (CAN),
and community builders ofen assist the design process, providing technical
support and developing low-cost sensitve design solutons together with the
future residents.
To address the growing conditon of urban poverty it is fundamental
that upgrading projects and processes of inclusivity work together at the city
scale. Towards this end, Community Development Funds have been set up in
recent years. They are localized revolving funds jointly managed by community
representatves and local authorites at the city scale, overseeing loan payback
and deciding together in which communites to reinvest the money. This city-
wide process is propelled further by exchange visits between communites,
sharing with each other how to overcome obstacles and increasing inspiraton.
The ultmate goal of networking and actvatng lower-income communites is
to increase their voices and negotaton power as a collectve subject, taking on
a greater decision making role within urban development processes.
Communites across Asia are ofering us a working example of how
a diferent way of development is possible. What is being realized is a deeply
contextualized development, grounded on making use of local resources, that
by working together emancipates vulnerable people as actve agents of social
transformaton.
4 5
Design
Far beyond what a conventonal understanding of design entails, in our
work design is a process of collatng and materializing peoples visions and
aspiratons about their future as both individuals and a collectve. The goal
may be to succeed in the building of a new setlement, however this involves
collectvely assessing peoples resources and capabilites such as fnance,
available materials, existng skills, availability of land, number of people, politcal
support and so on. Design as a collectve process brings together, such factors
into coherent forms, and in light of circumstantal obstacles and opportunites
is also inherently a process of strategic planning.
When the lack of space, tme and access to informaton impacts the
design process, how to keep moving, and respond appropriately? Given the
gaps of informaton, how to produce and represent a fexible methodology,
rather than a determinate design, which can be comprehensive enough to
capture a vision, but fexible enough to handle new informaton when it arises?
Although lack of access to informaton generally impedes the mobilizaton
process, we found sometmes it can be an opportunity in design as youre held
back from jumping into the details prematurely, and can explore the costs and
benefts of reorganising how people live more generally.
Appropriate, afordable design ofen demands questoning commonly
held building standards and norms. Design, employed in the broadest sense,
becomes key to mediate between communites and government on the
inappropriateness of standards, redrawing the line between legal and illegal.
Complementng the design of the built environment with social structures
which respond to standards of health and safety, communites are able to
propose upgrading that touches a meetng point between their aspiratons,
available means, and government codes and regulatons.
As a collectve outcome that brings together our subjectve experiences
across diferent contexts, this book is not sequentally structured. There were
however 5 broad overarching themes that we felt underlined our work in in
Kep (Cambodia), Jakarta (Indonesia), Manila (Philippines) and Vinh (Vietnam):
People mobilisaton
Ultmately, the core of people-driven change is for the people themselves to
bring alternatve solutons to the discussion table on how to reorganize their
lives and design their environment. Sometmes, communites have one voice,
are organized and ready to take initatve, but in other circumstances many
people feel fearful or doubtul about collectve acton, lacking belief or will to
challenge what is currently on the table for their future, and so the community
remains fragmented and loose. How can we trigger peoples energies and
hopes? What catalyzes interest and belief in people-driven change? How can
we enable and support this?
Over these six months we learnt that mobilisaton involves more than
anything bringing together already existng but ofen fragmented practces,
ideas and will power out of isolaton, together into an arena of greater visibility,
perceived relevance, and potental impact. Such belief in bridging the gap
also relies on the governments openness to working with the urban poor,
precedents felt close to hand, and the existence of infuental fgures.
Themes
6 7
How can circuits of upgrading start shifing how decision making
in the city happens more fundamentally? This requires not only a directon
of vertcal insttutonalisaton, but horizontal thickening. Infrastructural,
environmental, and fnancial systems are also being questoned and revised
via this upgrading process, how to fuel such alternatve systems? When groups
start planning responses, and solutons to commonly felt environmental and
fnancial pressures together, such as upgrading in a food prone zone, managing
drainage, or giving birth to health care insurance division within a CDF, we can
start to imagine how another way is possible.
Strategic partnerships
Urban pressures have causes and efects that reach further than communites
themselves, and even beyond lower-income sectors of societes. Collectve
acton must go beyond gaining solidarity within a partcular community, and
instead search for common ground among diferent social groups, insttutons,
organizatons, and consttuencies. But how to bring the proximate and intmate
concerns of vulnerable communites together with other insttutons and
movements working towards greater social and environmental justce? How
to ensure collaboratons beneft both partes, and the gravity of letng people
take ownership of the process is appreciated?
Such strategic partnerships arent handed over ready to go, like
any relatonship they require tastng, trial and error, adjustment, nurturing,
patence, a balance between trust and critcism, awareness of each others
strengths and weakness, and above all, work!
Mapping
Maps make change; they are tools which can bring clarity, form and accessibility
to ofen undervalued informaton, while the process of mapping itself can
mobilise and empower individuals.
At every scale, from the single household to the entre city, mapping
is a powerful tool to encourage people to think about issues in a diferent
way. By looking at issues spatally it increases awareness of the problems and
resources shared between people, as well as sites of opportunity within a
common environment. A map can be a technical drawing, setng the ground
for infrastructural upgrading, or used to tell a story of a partcular place,
but whatever the purpose, maps represent spatal relatons. By grounding
informaton into a shared spatal reality, it brings greater clarity to the issue at
hand, while presentng relevant informaton to that partcular topic in a more
efectve, universal and accessible format.
Maps also act as a flter: while bringing greater legitmacy to some
forms of informaton they simultaneously erase others and may be used as
an instrument of dominaton. For this reason when people make their own
maps of areas overlooked in governments books, then can become incredibly
powerful negotatng tools as they bring visibility to that which was previously
rendered non-existent in the eyes of the government and society at large.
Scaling up
Given that most problems impactng the urban poor are not local, but occur
city-wide, or naton-wide, to bring more long-term, sustainable responses
requires working at multple scales. So while it is important to never lose
sight of the local scale, it is equally important to see how the site impacts,
and is impacted by the surrounding environment. Each scale has important
informaton to bring forward in any comprehensive strategy. Sometmes the
local government is critcal for providing politcal leverage against higher level
decision making, and other tmes we must fnd ways to work around them.
8 9
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Partcipaton is appropriaton 26
Link people, build networks 32
Make informaton legible 36
Cultvate mess! 40
The advantage of scaling down 60
Filling in design: innovatve materials 66
Mapping the kampung 70
Afordable housing 76
Making links across Valenzuela city 88
Playing with standards 96
Capitalizing on an event: whats next? 102
Startng with community work 116
Getng ready for mapping 122
Mapping priorites 128
Thinking at scale 134
Being inspired by others experiences 138
People take ownership! 142
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People mobilisation
Mapping
Design
Scaling up
Strategic partnerships
How to read this book
Increasing peoples confdence
to take acton into their own hands
Collectvelycross-balancingbetween
resources,capabilites,aspiratons,
andobstacles
Groundingsharedinformaton
intoaspatalreality
Workingstrategicallyatmultplescales
toincreasetheimpactofupgrading
Findingcommongroundamong
diferentsocialgroups,insttutons,
organizatons,consttuencies
10 11
JohannaandBarbara
wherewelcomedbytheAssociatonofCites
ofVietnam(ACVN)toVinhCity.TheyworkedinHungHoa,aruralcommune
undergoingurbanizatonwherecommuniteshavebeenpartcipatnginACHRsAsianCoalitonfor
CommunityActon(ACCA)Programmesinfrastructureanddisasterreliefprojects.Withthegovernments
supportBarbaraandJohannaexploredforthefrsttmeinVinhthepartcipatorydimensioninrural
developmentplanning,andnewwaystoengagewithcommunitesinruralplanningatcityscale.
Communitymappingwasusedasthemainmethodologytofacilitateadialoguebetween
communitesandlocalauthorites.
Zahraworkedin
MetroManilawiththe
PhilippineActonforCommunity-ledShelterInitatves,
Inc(PACSII),whichassistcommunitestomobilize
themselvestoacquirelandandhousing.PACSIIhasa
technicalarm,theTechnicalAssistanceMovementfor
PeopleandEnvironment,Inc(TAMPEI)andafnancialarm,thePhilippine
ActonforSlumUpgradingFacility(PASUFI).Zahrasmainfocushasbeen
tointroduceareaplanningfornewcommunitesatacitywidescale.In
additonsheexploredalternatvesustainablemicrofnanceschemesand
advisedPASUFIontheircreditcollectonandfundsmanagement.
V
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, V
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Barbara Dovarch and Johanna Brugm
an
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The ACHR/DPU Professional Internship Programme
was launched in four countries: Cambodia, Indonesia,
Philippines and Vietnam. In each of these countries we were
welcomed by ACHRs partner organizatons, and exposed to
diferent contexts and processes.
ArielwaswelcomedtoJakartabytheNGO
CiliwungMerdeka,whosupportsmarginalizedfamilies
livingalongontheCiliwungriveratBukitDuriandKapmpungPulo
byassistngwithfoodresponse,providingaccesstohealthandeducatonandcapacitybuildingactvites.
Inresponsetogovermentregulatonstowidentherivertheyhavecreatedtheirownproposalforonsite
rehousingratherthanrelocaton.Arielhasbeenworkingonstrengtheningthisproposalwhilepartcipatng
inafordable,appropriatesolutonsfortheurbanpoormoregenerally.AdditonallyArielhasbeenreportng
ontheprogressofcommunity-basedrehousingandlandclaimsinPluit,NorthJakartaandinYogyakarta.
Jakarta, In
d
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e
sia
Ariel Shepherd
countries,
processes
4
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FrancescoworkedinPhnomPenhin
collaboratonwiththeUrbanPoor
DevelopmentFund(UPDF)andsupportedthe
localCANnetwork.Francescosmainactvites
unfoldedinthecityofKepwhereheconducted
mapping,surveyedactvitesanddesign
workshopswithdiferentcommunites,linking
peopletogethertofndcommonsolutonsfor
housingandlandrightsatthecityscale.
12 13
On t he gr ound
14 15
autocratc control of the Cambodian People Party, in power for the past
twenty years, since the UN-sponsored electons. Corrupton and cronyism
are very widespread: the country ranks 157th (out of 176) in the corrupton
percepton index compiled by Transparency Internatonal.
The economy is growing fast, but most of the profts go to the
government crowd, which is underselling the country to foreign and local
private investors. Real estate developments are changing the face of Phnom
Penh, and major infrastructural and speculatve projects are being carried
out all across the country. Tourism is also growing quickly, so towns such as
Siem Reap and Sihanoukville are booming.
Land ownership is ofen unclear, especially in urban areas. The
Khmer Rouge regime forcibly empted all the cites and destroyed the
cadastre, so many land ownership documents no longer exist. When the
regime collapsed many empty buildings and land plots became occupied
by new people. As no accountability system exists against government
planning, the oppositon is virtually non-existent, and the judiciary system
is corrupt, the lower-income populaton is partcularly vulnerable to
evictons. However, government housing policies have recently undergone
some pro-poor changes.
PsahOrussey,Phnom
Penhsbusiestmarket.
CAMBODIA
overview
Cambodia is a country with a young, rapidly growing populaton, as millions
of people died during the Pol Pot era and in the famine and war that
ensued. The country is stll largely rural and 80% of the populaton is living
in the countryside.
The Khmer Rouge regime sought to achieve a radical social
restructuring founded on an agrarian utopia, leaving the country beheaded
of its intellectual and administratve class. With the withdrawal of the
Vietnamese army in 1989 and the peace agreements of 1991, the country
was fooded with foreign workers from internatonal agencies and NGOs
operatng within the framework of the UN Transitonal Authority in Cambodia
(UNTAC) that managed the country untl the frst democratc general
electons in 1993. Stll now, an impressive number of NGOs and internatonal
agencies are at work ofen competng on Cambodian ground.
Afer decades of civil war, Cambodia is now at peace under the
TheWhiteBuilding,in
centralPhnomPenh,is
emblematcofCambodias
troublesomehistory.Built
asahousingestatefor
governmentclerksinthe
60s,itwasabandoned
undertheKhmerRouge
andisnowsquatedand
underthreatofdemoliton
tomakewayforspeculatve
developments.
16 17
Adiagramshowing
thewebofrelatonsin
whichUPDFandCAN-
Camoperate.
Roth
community
architect
UPDF
Nylen
mediaoperator
headofCAN-Cam
Sokly
community
architect
CAN-Cam
Visal
managing
director
UPDF
Danak
community
architect
CAN-Cam
Udom
UPDF
ThemainpeopleI
workedwith.CAN-Cam
isaloosenetworkthat
hasmorethantwenty
members,onlythreeof
whichworkfull-tmewith
communites:Nylen
headofCAN-Camand
responsibleformedia,
SoklyandDanak.
Key:
ACHR Asian Coalition for Housing Rights
CAN Community Architects Network
CDF Community Development Foundation
(formerly UPDF, Urban Poor Development Fund)
local CDF Community Development Fund
CSNC Community Savings Network of Cambodia
NGOs Non Governmental Organizations
UPCA Urban Poor Coalition Asia
UPDF and CAN-Cam
The Urban Poor Development Fund (UPDF), now known as Community
Development Foundaton (CDF), acts as a country-wide Community
Development Fund, allocatng funds and coordinatng the actvites
of provincial CDFs. It sits in a very delicate but infuental positon, as it
mediates between government departments at the natonal level and
lower-income communites who are linked through the large Community
Savings Network of Cambodia.
I assisted the CAN-Cam team, the Cambodian architects and
professionals afliated with the CAN network, operatng under the umbrella
of UPDF. Working in UPDFs central ofce in Phnom Penh I had the chance
to collaborate with the core team that deals with community-led upgrading
across the whole country. Working with communites at diferent stages of
the process, I was able to understand in practce how upgrading stretches
well beyond the provision of land and housing,: from inital mobilisaton
to savings groups setup, mapping, housing design, and constructon,
learning about building techniques directly on the constructon sites with
community builders, as well as experiencing collateral initatves such as
community-run cooperatves, decent poor housing projects for the most
disadvantaged families, mangroves plantng on the seashore.
Throughout all this, building a relaton of trust with the members
of CAN-Cam was vital, as they could enrich my understanding and, most
importantly, ground my work into the local context. However, in the very
beginning the Cambodian community architects seemed prety doubtul, if
not scared, of this pale newcomer.
Working
context,
Cambodia
18 19
UPDFstaf,community
buildersfromallover
Cambodia,andcommunity
leaders(localandfrom
Thailand)praytogether
beforethenewtraining
centreconstructonstarts.
Communicaton with my peers in the ofce was one of the main
challenges I faced from the start, although things have improved over tme.
Its not simply a mater of words, but of cultural customs as well: there are
things that should not be told, and things that need to be told in a diferent
way from what Im used to. A Cambodian friend explained to me: We
avoid discussion: for us, discussion brings problems. People in Cambodia
ofen pass through convoluted roundabout expressions, and its not easy
to interpret what they actually mean. Sometmes I would say something
straightorward and they would look at me shocked or start laughing on
the spot. If I proposed something, deciphering their opinion about it was
always hard. As Visal, the managing director of UPDF, remarked laughing,
We are not used to Western style! And Id be lying if I said that I got to
understand fully the expressive codes of Cambodians.
The organizaton in the ofce is very loose, yet there are rigid
hierarchies that need to be taken into consideraton. Youngsters dont
take initatves without listening to what Seniors have to say, though
ofen Seniors are busy, or absent. Sometmes, I tried to encourage young
community architects to take decisions and act by themselves if nothing,
for a mater of practcality and it seemed like I was strring a rebellion in
the ofce.
It has been quite challenging to fnd my way through this, gain the
trust of the people in the ofce and manage to work on the ground. For the
frst few months, I worked exclusively in the ofce with reports on topics I
didnt know frsthand and visited a couple of communites to help on the
constructon sites. One day, I was openly told: We are lucky to have you
here. We are very happy! But we dont know how to use you!, laughing
out loud. Three months afer I had arrived, I was told: Last week we had
the meetng about what you can do. You can work in Kep.
20 21
D
e
s
ig
n
M
a
p
p
in
g
S
t
r
a
t
e
g
ic
a
llia
n
c
e
s
and provincial authorites. We intended to conduct community mappings
in all the setlements; to map the vacant land plots in the city, as many
communites are now squatng on public land and will soon be relocated;
and to discuss some design optons for the upgrading schemes. In a city
the size of Kep, its really possible to work on the upgrading process at the
urban scale.
Unfortunately we started working in the period preceding
the natonal electons, which considerably hindered the process. Kep
Municipality and the Province are governed by the Cambodian Peoples
Party, which holds power at the natonal level too. As the politcal system
in Cambodia is extremely opaque, local authorites didnt want us to mess
with people in the communites, especially those who are negotatng
relocaton or on-site upgrading.
The authorites have plans to speculate over land in central Kap, so
they wanted to avoid clear discussion about housing and land ownership
ThecommunityofNesat
(Fishermen)hasbeen
setledonKepsseafront
forgeneratons,but
withoutlandtenure.As
thenamesuggestsmost
ofthetheinhabitants
makealivingfromfshing.
Thegovernmenthasnt
informedthemyet,butis
planningtorelocatethem,
probablytocleartheland
toselltoaresort.
Eventually I was assigned to the challenging task of working in the city of
Kep, on a citywide process of upgrading, involving 10 communites both in
the city centre and in the rural areas.
All the communites had been surveyed in 2012 by CAN-Cam, and
are in diferent situatons in regards to terms of land tenure, income and
organizaton. While some communites had already atained the legal status
of community with strong savings groups, others didnt want to be involved
in the provincial CDFs actvites. While some own their land, others are
facing evicton and need to relocate, unless the authorites accepted the
on-site upgrading soluton.
The main objectve for this inital stage of upgrading at the city scale
was to strengthen the relatonship among these low-income setlements,
by linking their upgrading actvites savings set up, relocaton layouts,
infrastructure upgrading and on-site reblocking schemes in order to
present a comprehensive alternatve development plan to the municipal
Somecommuniteswith
uncertainlandtenure.
KohTonsay,wherepeople
maybeevictedfromtheir
seasidehousestobuilda
resort.PunliResmaiPhum
Kaep,grownbetween
abandonedvillas,is
negotatngrelocaton.
Kasino,developedaround
theCasinosemptedshell,
isthelargestcommunity
andmaybegranted
on-siteupgrading,though
nothingisconfrmedyet.
Triggering
citywide upgrading
in Kep
22 23
untl afer the electons in fear of damaging their votes. They simply wanted
us to conduct mapping and enumeraton of the communites and provide
this informaton to the government what they referred to as the frst
step, refusing to discuss what would happen afer this. One of the main
challenges we faced was how to promote peoples collectve acton without
the government perceiving it to be a threaten to the status quo.
Things were even more intricate, as I quickly realized how blurred
the line between the communites and the government is, and between
their respectve interests, in a context where practces of politcal cooptaton
are the norm. Ofen it wasnt easy to understand if our interlocutors were
representatves of their community or emissaries of the government,
because they were both at the same tme.
Our plans were quite ambitous, especially considering that we
were two inexperienced architects (both for the frst tme alone in the feld),
with litle organizaton and practcal support from UPDF, receiving tacit
oppositon of the government, coupled with litle community mobilisaton
on the ground. And, of course, the limit of tme: at this point I had only
two months available. Given these constraints, it was clear for me that our
focus had to be on how to trigger a self-sustainable process, rather than
carrying it out alone or delivering anything concrete.
To a certain extent, community mobilisaton, networks, and
resources were already present in Kep. My main queston was, what can be
our role in fostering them, so that people can propel the process forward
by themselves? We had to try to build a collectve understanding with the
people of the dynamics at work in the city, and the way to counter them
together. My work in Kep was basically made up of clumsy atempts at
answering this queston.
Inpreparatonforthe
communitymeetnginPunli
ResmaiPhumKaep.
24 25
A brief history of Kep
Kep is a resort town built by the French on a wonderful promontory on
Cambodias easternmost stretch of coast. In the years between the
Independence (1953) and the coup of Lon Nol and the civil war that ensued
(1970), Kep was a holiday retreat for the elite, and dozens of villas were
built for the wealthy people, including the royal family.
Nowadays things are quite diferent and Kep looks more like a
ghost town of about 15.000 people. During the Khmer Rouge regime, the
city was abandoned; subsequently people looted the villas to their bones.
Most of these once luxurious residences lies now crumbled or in ruins,
with cows eatng grass in their gardens. Some of them have been taken
over by poor families. In the interstces between these buildings, various
communites of squaters setled down.
Kep is stll a touristc town, at least for Cambodian standards.
Foreign and local tourists are making a comeback, new hotels are opening,
and there are plans for the restoraton as boutque hotels of some of the
crumbling modernist villas. The value of land in the central area is therefore
very high, and many communites have to be relocated further afeld.
26 27
In Apiwat Phum Kaep, a setlement
with low levels of organizaton and trust in
the community insttuton itself, we tried to
conduct a social mapping. There were many
people present who looked at the map with
interest, but without taking any initatve, not
partcipatngactvely.
SoIfeltwehadtoclarifythings:thismap
isnotforus,thearchitects;itsnotfortheCDF
or UPDF; and its not even for the authorites;
itsforyou!Exactly,wewillnotgivethismapto
thegovernment,buttoyou.Soyoucanuseitas
youwantandyouwillhaveinformatonthatthe
governmentdoesnthavebecausetheydont
know all these things that you know. So when
theyllmoveyou,iftheymoveyoufaraway,you
can tell them Look! Our jobs are here. If they
give you the land for ffy houses, you can tell
themLook!Wearesixty-one.
Such a statement in the context of
Cambodiamaybeinappropriate.Danaklooked
atmewitheyeswideopen,likeinshock.Imnot
sureIdidtherightthing,andIwillneverknow
what she translated. Later on, she explained
me: I think this is strange for Cambodia
because people sometmes are scared of the
government. Anyway, afer this people took
part into the mapping and proved to be the
most dedicated and partcipatve communites
wevebeenworkingwithuntlnow.
As outsiders, we can aford to speak
out a bit more bluntly sometmes. I think we
shouldtakeadvantageofthis,whenitcanhelp
tostrengthenpeoplesself-confdence.
Speakout,ifyoucan!
ThemappinginApiwat.
Partcipaton is
appropriaton
During my tme in Cambodia working with communites I refected at
length about partcipaton, and experienced it in practce. Partcipaton
is undoubtedly one of the most debated and contested concepts in
development, a word subject to confictng interpretatons, which lends
itself easily to sometmes dangerous manipulatons. However, I was thrown
into a situaton of urgency, in which I had to act and do something in a very
short tme. To not get stuck in the crux of partcipaton I had to treat it not
as a goal to achieve, but rather as a directon, a reference point guiding
which path we should walk on.
Even so, it was not easy to move in that directon. Assertng opinions
publicly is not common place in Cambodia, as discussion is seen, culturally,
as something to avoid. In most cases the people we were working with were
clearly not representatve of the whole community. Sometmes community
leaders took the lead and boldly imposed their personal vision. This way,
subdued community members would generally follow the directons and
take part in the actvites - but such an obedient form of partcipaton
hollows out the meaning of the upgrading process, crippling its impact.
But what could I actually do? Unable to speak Khmer, I was relying
completely on Danak for translaton,who felt more comfortable talking
one on one with the community leade, who would then hopefully spread
the message to the people. How could I try to infuence how people were
partcipatng, when the communicaton system I relied on was so delayed?
Triggering
citywide
upgrading
inKep
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
28 29
Itsgoodwhenthemapgetsso
crowdedthatyoualmostcant
seeit!Butitmaytakesome
tmeandalotoftalkingfrst.
Themoment
tostopandhaveachat
One day we went to the rural community of
KompongTrolaktofacilitateamappingsession.
To get there we traveled many kilometers in a
tuktuk,followedbywalkingforhalfanhourin
the mud of the rainy season. When we fnally
arrived only six people out of about 300 were
there,eventhecommunityleaderwasabsent!
There was no point in making a community
map with so few people, so we decided to
cancel. Instead, we tried to learn from the six
atendees if and why they thought that the
mapping was relevant. They wanted to show
inthemaptheinfrastructurestheyhave,those
they are currently building with ACCA funds,
and those they hope to build with another
loan. Also, in the map they wanted to show
thatallthehouseholdsofthecommunitywere
contributng to the savings groups! So they
agreed that it was important to do it with as
manypeopleaspossible.Wereturnedtwodays
later,thistmetoover60people,manyofthem
actvelyinvolvedinthemapping.
Onthecontrary,inPunliResmaiPhum
Kaep the community leader didnt recognize
the importance of mapping as a way to make
a beter relocaton layout. He told us that the
communityhadnotmeforthisanddidntwant
to organize a community meetng to discuss
it. If you want, you can do it by yourselves,
gatheringinformatonhomebyhome,hetold
us. We didnt do it and went to eat fried food
instead,toventourfrustraton.(fp)

Convincingpeopleto
drawtheirdreamhouse
orthecommunitymap
wasnotimmediate,
andofenpeoplewho
acceptedtotakepart
refusedtotakethepencil
intheirhand,preferring
togiveinstructonsto
someoneelse.
Over tme I learnt that it is not the people who need to partcipate
in our process, rather we have to partcipate in theirs. In their day to day
lives they are already dealing with multple issues of housing, land tenure,
income generaton and livelihood security, on top of that negotatng
with the authorites. It is fundamental that people become aware of the
capacity of upgrading processes to impact their lives, and appropriate it,
not only for the upgrading to be sustainable, but also transformatve. This
is probably the core of community-led upgrading, yet it wasnt so clear to
me at the beginning. Sometmes people need to be encouraged to step
forward and get their hands on the process. We can do a lot to motvate
them to do this, as they ofen expect our support and guidance.
Many tmes as we started working with communites, introducing
ourselves, explaining our plans, I saw many doubtul expressions (my face
must have looked confused too, as I could not follow what was being said).
I wondered: is this meaningful to them? Why are they here, what do they
want to achieve, what are their expectatons? Do they really believe in
what we are going to do?
We came across many failures or disappointments, in these
months of community work. A large share of it was due to the governments
attude, and the sometmes scarce support from UPDFs central ofce
played its part, too. But most ofen, the problems we ran into were rooted
in the lack of commitment by the people, which was a result of their litle
understanding and belief in the process, limited trust in us, and consequent
estrangement from the actvity.
So before startng mapping, drawing, talking, or whatever, we
found it was crucial that people understand why this map, this drawing, or
this discussion is relevant to them, what they can achieve from it. Only if
this relevance is understood, and felt, will people desire to partcipate in a
way that builds their own upgrading process.
30 31
Drawingtwomaps
togetabeterone
InOKrosa,veryfewpeoplegotclosetothe
blanksheetonwhichthecommunityleader
wasdrawingthemap.Butatacertainpoint,
two men moved a table to the side, took a
piece of paper, and started doing a parallel
map. Many people who didnt want to take
partintotheofcialmapjoinedthesecondary
map.Weweretakenbysurprise,andatfrst
thought to bring them back, but then we
notced that they were mapping areas that
thepeopleinthefrstgrouphadlefblank!We
realized how important this spontaneously
created space to draw was. So in the end
wegottwomapsofthecommunity,eachof
themwithinformatonthatwerenotpresent
in the other, and we united them into one,
muchmorecompletemap.(fp)
Imagesfromthemapping
inOKrosa.
Imagesfromthesmall
groupdiscussionsin
Apiwat.Thiswaypeople
wereconfdenttoexpress
theiropinions.aboutthe
layoutdesign.
Makepeoplefeelcomfortable
Sometmes, even if many people are present at a workshop, they
hesitate to engage in the process. In Apiwat Phum Kaep we wanted to
introducesomepossiblelayoutoptonsfortheupcomingrelocatonofthe
community, but everyone was sitng so far from the posters that they
probablycouldntseeanything.Wetriedtoencouragethemtositcloser,
buttheyjustfeltmorecomfortablesitngafar.
An efectve way to support peoples partcipaton, in my
experience,istobreakthecommunityinsmallergroups.Inthiswayeven
the most bashful people feel comfortable to raise questons, doubts,
and express their opinions. Its also good to let them choose the group
compositon themselves, so they can stay with their friends and the
people they feel more confdent with. When we tried this approach in
ApiwatPhumKaep,weheardnewvoicesandopinionsanddiscovered
newleadingfguresinthecommunity.Also,insmallgroupstheystarted
discussingaboutmoredetailedissues,suchashowmanyfamiliescould
shareawellorabamboohut.(fp)
32 33
Resultsfromexchange
In Apiwat we experienced how much impact
exchangeacrosscommunitescanhave.Many
communites in Kep share the same problem,
theyaresoongoingtoberelocated,butsome
aremoreorganizedoneisalreadybuilding
thenewcommunity,othershavestrongsavings
groupsandgotloansforsmallinfrastructures.
Sincethebeginning,leadersfromothermore
organized communites regularly visited and
tookpartintheactvitesinApiwat.
TheleaderfromSopemonkontoldthe
peoplehowhiscommunitygotorganizedand
whatproblemstheyfacedbeforestartngthe
constructon,andtheleaderfromPunliResmai
explained how community fnance works. As
a result, some people previously disinterested
cametoaddtheirnamesandinformatonon
themap,andmostimportantlythecommunity
decidedtosetupsavingsgroupsagain.
Not always things were made
smootherbytheconfrontatonwithexternal
people. Once Apiwat people agreed on a
layout, a leader from Punli Resmai heavily
critcized it claiming that his communitys
layoutwasbeter.Wefearedthatpeoplewould
stepback,consideringhimamoreexperienced
and authoritatve fgure. But instead, they
countered his observatons, defending their
decision,andmakingitstronger.(fp)
ImagesfromApiwat
workshoponlayoutdesign
andfinance.
Link people
build networks
Taking a citywide approach implies that upgrading processes should not
be carried out by each community in isolaton, but instead by pooling
together all kinds of resources such as funds, knowledge, and skills to
develop alternatves for the future of the city as a whole. Even though
pressures are experienced locally, they are ofen shared by communites
across the city: by engaging with authorites about common problems and
collectve solutons, it becomes possible to contend forces emanatng at
the city scale.
In Kep there are already organized communites and an actve
CDF, providing a rather strong platorm to build from, but such networks
are governed by community leaders and commitee members. Of course,
this is to a certain extent unavoidable, but without much involvement of
community members themselves a few people rather than the majority
oversee city-wide upgrading in Kep, and the links are more vertcal than
horizontal. Furthermore, communites representatves in Kep CDF board
were unwilling to engage with unorganized communites without the
approval of the authorites. Only the authorites can persuade them to set
up a community, they said. However, its possible to get people organized
and involved in a less top-down manner, working with them on the basic
problems they face and looking for common solutons together. The ofcial
set up of the community doesnt necessarily need to be the frst step.
Indeed, a diferent kind of approach is needed, since the authorites are
not collaboratve and actually try to manipulate the communites.
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
Triggering
citywide
upgrading
inKep
34 35
In practce, what could we do to link the communites horizontally
in Kep? One way is simply to introduce to the people the city-wide
perspectve with maps and informaton that they can keep for themselves
and use. It is also good to bring people to other communites, to see what
is actually happening there in partcular where community-funded
upgrading projects have already been implemented. A visit by the members
of Apiwat community to Sopemonkon the only housing project currently
under constructon is being organized at the moment. However, people
are ofen so busy that its not easy to bring them around, sometmes not
even to gather them for a couple of hours in their own setlement. So, a
good alternatve is to bring community leaders to other communites to
share their experience. Everytme we worked in a community, we were
with some other communitys leader to compare their situaton and give
suggestons.
Leadersfromthreedifferent
communitiesexchangeviews
aboutrelocationlayouts.
Buildingknowledgeinpractce
The exchange of knowledge of course doesnt happen only between
communites but also between them and the architects and workers.
In Cambodia there is an important movement of Community Builders,
skilled constructon workers and crafsmen with knowledge about
cheapconstructontechniquesandmaterials,linkedthroughanatonal
networkcovering9provinces(notyetinKep).Theirpractcalcollaboraton
with architects and communites is blurring the boundary between
professional expertse and traditonal wisdom, community people and
technicalassistants.
Anewspacedevotedtothisexchangeiscurrentlytakingshapein
theoutskirtsofPhnomPenh:UPDFstrainingcentre.Itsconstructonwas
initselfanexampleofthisapproach.Itwasdesignedandbuilttogether
bycommunityarchitectsfromPhnomPenhandcommunitybuildersfrom
alloverthecountry,employingbamboowiththetraditonalknowledge
ofexpertbuildersfromKrateandKohKong.Itstartedwithaone-week
bambooworkshopwithstudents,architectsandbuilderswherewelearnt
the basics of building with bamboo. Once completed in autumn 2013,
thecentrewillbecomeaspacewherecommunitybuildersandarchitects
fromalloverCambodiacansharetheirskillsandpractcenewwaysof
building.(fp)
UPDFstrainingcentrefor
communitybuildersand
architects,underconstruction
inPhnomPenh,summer2013.
36 37
Upgrading is also about building and sharing knowledge collectvely. A
signifcant contributon we can give is to bring together, condense and make
legible the great wealth of knowledge which already exists but scatered
across diferent actors and places. Making this data easily accessible,
including putng it into more practcal formats, is also a way to ensure that
the process is more open, and easier for more people to take part!
UPDF has already collected extensive informaton about
communites, however it is usually buried either in the heads of the ofce
workers, or in dusty, hefy reports that occupy dozens of shelves in the
ofce. So its not always easy to access or make a sense of this data.
Although community people are ofen involved in collectng data about
their setlement, they arent usually part of the greater collaton process at
the citywide level, so its ofen the case that they dont have an overview of
the citywide situaton, dont bring the issues to a city level and cant easily
make use of the data itself. During CDF meetngs a great deal of informaton
emerges, but only a few representatves from the communites take part,
and then data is collected and taken into UPDFs registries.
In Kep we started our work by collatng all the informaton that
already existed but spread between various places and forms. We spent
one day visitng the communites, talking to leaders and people living
there, and once back to Phnom Penh we linked together all the informaton
wed gathered with the informaton already existng in the reports. The
result is the frst draf of this map, which atempts to sum up and visualize
Make
informaton
accessible
UPDFsreportscontain
alotofdata,butthey
arenotsoeasytoread
andinadequateto
spreadinformation
amongcommunity
people(considerthat
theliteracyratein
Cambodiaisquitelow).
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
Triggering
citywide
upgrading
inKep
38 39
Distributngthemap
Aferdouble-checkingthemapwithCDFrepresentatvesandtranslatng
it into Khmer, we printed many copies and distributed them among the
people of the communites where we worked. At the beginning of each
meetng,weintroducedthemapandexplainedthecity-wideapproach,in
orderforpeopletogetabroaderperspectveontheupgradingprocessand
understandtheimportanceoflinkingwithothercommuniteswhichshare
similarproblems.Manyaspectsofthereactonswerenoteasyformeto
interpret due to language barriers, but I could clearly see many people
interested, observing and commentng the maps together; sometmes
theyevencametoustoaskformorecopiesofthemap.(fp)
the overall upgrading process across Keps communites. In the following
weeks, the map was updated and corrected several tmes, including
informaton collected through community mapping, CDF meetngs, talks to
the authorites and our own observatons.
The map shows the number of households in each community and
their land tenure; the community legal status; the amount of savings, in
total and per household; and a brief summary of the communites situaton
and achievements. It selects and synthesizes a lot of informaton previously
scatered among diferent people and archives into an easy-to-read format,
making the informaton more accessible to community people.
40 41
Imagesofthe(fast)
processwithwhichthe
communityofPunli
Resmaifnalizedtheir
relocatonlayout.
Communitymeetngs
focusedmoreonthe
interiordesignofhouses.
Punli Resmai Phum Kaep
When we arrived to Punli Resmai we proposed to start the day with
producing a social map of the setlement, mapping how people live there
now, and the features they feel important to retain in the resetlement. We
also soon found out that the physical survey conducted the year before
by CAN-Cam contained many mistakes, so it was important to re-map the
Working with organized communites tends to be smoother, easier, and
generally more efectve. But sometmes mess is surprisingly fertle. Our
role as technical supporters can be more incisive and constructve in a
context that is less structured and organised, if we manage to navigate
through it. I experienced this while working with two communites living on
public land in central Kep that will soon be relocated: Punli Resmai Phum
Kaep and Apiwat Phum Kaep.
The issues faced by both communites were similar, however there
was a notceable diference in their level of organizaton, which impacted
how we were able to work with them, and consequently the outcomes
achieved. Punli Resmai already has actve savings groups, its community
leaders have strong characters and are among the most actve members of
Keps CDF. The community is compact and they already applied for ACCA
funds for a water pumping system. On the contrary, in Apiwat, people have
litle belief in the abilites of the community, and they recently stopped
saving together, withdrawing their money from the common fund. In the
frst days, it seemed they were not even able to organize a meetng for
mapping.
In both communites, we worked on the design of future relocaton
layout. But because the authorites hadnt yet indicated a relocaton site,
we werent able to get into much detail, so they were more theoretcal
relocaton layouts than practcal.
Cultvate mess!
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
Triggering
citywide
upgrading
inKep
42 43
Playitbyear

Before we set of to Kep I prepared a detailed schedule of our plan to

introduce to the CDF and authorites. As soon as we arrived I realized
that I could just as well bin it, as nothing was going to go as foreseen.
The meetng with the local authorites? No one had warned them.
The talk with the communites representatves in Kep CDF? Mr Ho, our
contact,hadforgotenaboutourarrival.Whenwemanagedtotalktoa
representatvefromtheprovincialauthority,chasingherinthestreet,she
basicallytoldusKids,theelectonsareapproaching.Dontmessaround.
She also explained to us that a community, designated to be upgraded
on-site,wasactuallygoingtoberelocatedbutitwasasecretandthat
thegovernmenthadnointentontodiscloseanyinformatonaboutthe
relocatonsitesforcommunitesonpublicland.Thefollowingday,when
we met the CDF members, they explained to us that many setlements
in which we planned to work didnt want to join, and they had no clue
abouthowtoestablishalinkwiththem.Furthermore,oneofthebiggest
communiteshadjustdisintegratedandpeoplehadwithdrawnalloftheir
moneyfromthecommonfund.
So within the frst 24 hours of arriving in Kep, we realized that
theupgradingmaphadtoberadicallymodifed,andthatouractonplan
madenosenseatall.Inthefollowingdaysitbecameclearthatwedidnt
need an acton plan at all because the communites - those who were
mobilised,atleast-wouldsetthepaceandtheprogramme.Ittookmea
whiletoacceptthis,andseetheadvantagestojustletngthingsfow.
In this kind of work, with the main goal to mobilise people
at diferent levels, and with a high level of unpredictability, it may be
counterproductve to make rigid plans with a fxed idea of how things
should pan out, as youre forever trying to force a partcular directon.
Thechallengeisinsteadtobeabletodeviseastrategywhichiscoherent
but fexible enough to absorb all the unforeseen events, occasions
and obstacles which will be many! It has to be the context, with its
contngencies,thatinformouracton;ourstrategythereforeadaptsand
changesbytheday,infactsbythehour.Inotherwords:dontmakeplans,
playitbyear! (fp)

setlement to get an accurate map for negotatng with the government.

They refused: they just wanted us to prepare a relocaton layout. We
said we could start discussing about what theyd like to see in the new
setlement, they could draw their dream house and community. No: We
want a plan. Now well just do the plan. They pulled out a big sheet of
paper they had already prepared, showing their idea: a row of houses
along a main road. No common open spaces or facilites. Just forty houses
and a road, something resembling the average middle-class development
in Phnom Penh. Yet the way they live now is very diferent. They have a lot
of open space, vegetaton, and animals. They built huts in wood, bamboo
and with thatched roofs, equipped with hammocks, where they meet to
play cards, talk, eat dinner together, and they even have a volleyball feld.
None of these features or actvites appeared in their visualizaton of the
future setlement, but they were not open to thinking about using the
space diferently.
While doing a model of the plan we tried to introduce a community
centre in the middle, but they placed it on the far end of the setlement,
only if we have space, as a lefover. As they already had a very fxed vision
of what they wanted their future setlement to look like, our role became
reduced to that of an AutoCAD drafer. We tried to suggest layouts with
clusters of houses sharing smaller common spaces, similar to how they
currently manage the space, but these were all rejected because houses
have to be all the same. When I asked about the method of allocatng of
plots, they had already decided the fairest method would be a lotery.
Avisualofthelayoutupon
whichpeoplefinallyagreed.
44 45
Firstdrafandlatestversion
ofApiwatmap,identfying
61households,thejobs,
membersofthefamily,
andcommonspacesand
ammenites,aswellas5
clustersoffamilies..
Apiwat Phum Kaep
In Apiwat, we started the actvity discussing with the community about why
the map was so important, even if they were going to have to relocate, and
indeed the results were relevant. First of all we found out that there were
9 families more than what the government surveyed in 2012, which led to
the queston: will the government provide land for all of us, or only for the
ofcially recognized households? Then we managed to get the name of
each family, the job of the head of the household and its workplace locaton,
which shows clearly why most of them cannot aford to be relocated very
far many fshermen need to live by the sea, many women sell crabs in Kep
market nearby, etc.
Also, we learned that this linear setlement is made of fve
clusters, where people gather in small open spaces, and visited them.
Many people agreed that in the new setlement they would like to keep
these kinds of spaces, and share them with the same neighbours they have
now. We did the dream house exercise, and even if everyone was very shy
in the beginning, we got 26 houses pinned up on the wall in the end, and
twelve people were brave enough to present in front of the others.
Because the design couldnt get into technical details, we were
able to discover more informaton about how the community organised
themselves, current ways of living, their needs, the socio-economic
context, their desires of relocaton, and what would be needed to retain.
Community people themselves were more aware of the importance
of some elements of their current livelihoods and we were able to start
drafing a new setlement layout together from a very diferent standpoint
Peopleexplainingtheir
dreamhousedesign.
Mostofthemwould
liketohaveadetached
houseonstlts,with
spaceforanimalsandto
growplantsandtrees.
46 47
Afersmallgroups
discussion,representatves
explaintheirviewson
thelayouts.Everygroup
agreedonanintermediate
layoutasthebestway
forward;however,many
concernswereraisedand
suggestonsmade.
developed a method and a logic of using space themselves, that can
apply to any site. They also demonstrated a pragmatc understanding of
the queston, trying to merge their desire of a linear setlement recalling
their current setng and a more compact layout to fnd enough space in
the inner city. Afer the collectve design sessions, they decided to resume
savings group, waitng for the government to tell them where will they be
relocated.
As community architects, we had an actve role in the sensitvity of
this design process. I think the lack of organizaton, and maybe uncertainty
in this case helped to have more open and productve discussions, and
explore many diferent possibilites with less biases or predetermined
visions.
Thepartcipantstothelast
dayofworkshopinApiwat
PhumKaep,inwhichpeople
agreedtorestartsavings.
Eachlayoutismadeup
ofsmallclustersaround
commonspaces,that
refectthecurrent
organizatonofthe
setlement:thefamilies
sharingthemarethesame
currentlylivingnearby.
Linearlayout
Compactlayout
Intermediatelayout
Thedesignprocesscarried
outbycommunitypeople.
than in Punli Resmai. And indeed the organizing principle, and startng
point of the new layout was from these open spaces that they currently
use together. In additon the names of the new families were included, as
well as planning who wanted to live beside who.
Finally, afer a week, the people of Apiwat agreed on a layout
that is, in my opinion, far more complex and sensitve than the one of
Punli Resmai. They did so by discussing through their current way of life
and spatal organizaton, identfying the elements they value, and trying
to transpose them in the new site. Though the site is stll fcttous, they
48 49
Theresnorecipe
forpartcipaton[...];
everytmewehave
toreinventit,and
experimentanew.
GiancarloDeCarlo
50 51
Floodingintheriverbank
kampungofBukitDuri.
Duetopoorlanduseand
neglectedinfrastructure,
foodingisbecominga
frequentoccurance.
capacity to reliably manage fooding in Jakarta is severly limited. Meanwhile
the river itself has become a dumping site for waste, and critcal water
catchment areas are being waterproofed by unmitgated opportunistc
development, such that food water is now dirter and faster, arriving more
frequently with less warning, such that fooding is more hazardous than in
the past.
In January 2013, nearly half of Jakarta was underwater for almost a
week, ensuing billions of dollars in damage. The government of Indonesia,
under incredible pressure to tackle the fooding problem, accepted a USD
190 million World Bank loan to improve water fow in the city, by dredging
and widening canals and retenton basins. Rather than critcally questoning
how development practces are helping to create a conditon of inundaton,
removing obstacles to increase the fow of water is cast as the soluton to
the problem, thereby justfying the destructon of hundreds of kampung.
Public skeptcism is startng to grow however, questoning how impoving
water fow into already inundated areas will help fooding in the long term.
The newly appointed pro-poor govenor Joko Widodo, nicknamed
Jokowi, ofers hope to low-income people of Jakarta. He promised publicly
there would no longer be any condemnatons and evictons, but instead
legalizaton of illegal kampungs, land rights, planning and appropriate
housing for those without land ttle. However the ability of the governor to
infuence autocratc natonal government projects remains questonable,
and his promise has already fallen short.
You cant talk about Jakartas urbanism without talking about the resilience
of the kampung, or urban village. Kampungs are indigenous setlements
built by people seeking work opportunites in the city, and contnue to
provide an essental stock of afordable housing. These densely populated,
low-rise neighbourhoods blur distnctons between working and living,
public and private spaces, and they add to Jakartas economy considerably,
while actvely protectng the cultural and social fabric of Indonesian society.
Kampungs are celebrated in identty making of Indonesian cites,
however those that contradict government spatal planning, are rendered
invisible in city maps, so they contnue to exist without land ttle and
remain marginalised from upgrading programs and many public services.
Such areas are vulnerable to large-scale ruthless evictons under empty
promises of inadequate housing solutons and minimal compensaton.
In establishing Jakarta, the Dutch fashioned a complex system of
foodgates and canals to protect a city sitng below sea level. Afer ensuring
that key areas in the city remain food free, decision making about where
excess water goes remains to be an ad hoc system of trial and error, in
additon essental infrastructure has been lef to rot over tme, and so the
JAKARTA,
Indonesia
overview
Jakartaskyscape:
kampungsand
megabuilds.
52 53
Despiteourdiferences,
togetherwehaveonehope
forabeterlife.
Ciliwung
Merdeka,
Free River
The Ciliwung River and Pluit Reservoir are large water bodies in Jakarta, set
to be normalized under Jakartas Emergency Flood Mitgaton program.
The Ministry of Public works is nominally responsible for all water bodies
in Indonesia and for their normalizaton, however the implementaton
- including removal of land and people - is ultmately lef up to the will
and limited capacity of the local governments. The normalizaton project
of Ciliwung River will leave roughly 15,000 families in need of housing.
No reliable rehousing programme exists for evicton victms, the common
Working
context,
Jakarta
Lef:governmentimages
illustratngthenormalizaton
ofCiliwungRiver.
Right:aerialviewshowing
wheretheprojectwillimpact
kampongsinBukitDuriand
KampongPulo.
54 55
PrincipleSectonof
HumaneVertcalKampung
bythecommunityofBukit
DuriandNGOCiliwung
Merdeka.
Members of the community presented their proposal for a Humane
Vertcal Kampung in Bukit Duri to Jokowi when he arrived. He liked it so
much he brought directors from the housing agency to see it days afer
his inauguraton. The proposal recognises the regulaton width used in the
normalizaton plan, but challenges the architecture of the embankment
itself such that onsite reblocking of the setlements is a possibility, and
access to the river remains public.
The placement profle suggested I would be working with CM
to facilitate the partcipatory design process of their Humane Vertcal
Kampung. Despite the hope Jokowi had brought, on arriving I realised this
task was more the ideal case scenario, as it was going to be a challenge
getng the project approved on insecure land ttle. Overnight my role
fipped, from facilitatng an architectural design process to that of increasing
the viability, visibility and legitmacy of the vertcal kampung proposal. And
in the context of the normalizaton project itself, representng the design
process for Bukit Duri and Kampung Pulo as a methodology such that it can
be used as a rehousing soluton along the entre Ciliwung River.
approach remains to be violent clearing coupled with empty promises of
compensaton and housing. The few tmes housing has been built it is too
far away, and lacking amenites for it to be a viable opton.
Charites abound which are eager to donate tme or money
to temporarily improve the situaton for marginalised people, but are
inadequate to accomplish structural change. There are not yet any ACHR
housing projects in Jakarta, but two organisatons exist which facilitate
the vulnerable urban poor in overcoming practces of exclusion and
inaccessibility: the Urban Poor Consortum (UPC) and Ciliwung Merdeka
(CM, Free River). UPC has existed for 20 years, commited to defending
peoples rights in scenarios where such rights are being systematcally
violated. In Pluit reservoir UPC secured meetngs with Jokowi for the
residents, and organised design workshops bringing CAN architects from
Yogyakarta, to envision mid-rise housing strategies.
Since the big food in Jakarta in 2007, Ciliwung Merdeka has
provided support to vulnerable individuals along Ciliwung River in the
areas of Bukit Duri and Kampung Pulo. Initally providing disaster response,
the NGO has grown to run health care and kampung improvement
programmes as well as environmental, art and cultural educaton. Their
mission is to facilitate and empower the residents, partcularly women and
children, to be proactve and make a beter life for themselves.
Jokowi gave a warning that he planned to visit Bukit Duri on his
electoral campaign. CM took advantage of this opportunity by working
with professional architects to prepare a proposal for an onsite reblocking
rather than relocaton in the context of Ciliwung Rivers normalizaton.
CMtheatre,musicand
communityhouseinBukit
Duri.Culturaleducaton
programmesusemusicand
arttobuildconfdenceand
bringawarenesstochildren
abouttheirsituatonof
marginality.
56 57
Sketchdepictngthe
possibilityofonsite
reblocking.Ratherthan
teardownandbuildanew,
thissystemallowssome
builtstructurestostay
untouched.
set back land, according to natonal regulatons. While the incentve of
the proposal is to secure an alternatve to relocaton, the proposal also
realises the inadequacy of the normalisaton project to mitgate fooding
on the long term, and suggests a beter way forward to approach food
management which starts to correct inundaton, and lives with and
responds to fooding and unpredictability, rather than trying to stamp it
out. In this way the scapegoats, the encroached kampung setlers, become
the possibility makers for a beter Jakarta.
People living on the river edge have adjusted to living in an area of
high exposure to fooding. For example when the water is high many access
their homes from the second foor by using gang planks that connect to a
Humane Vertcal
Kampung proposal
In order to create the proposal for Jokowis visit, CM facilitated focus groups
in communites across Kampung Pulo and Bukit Duri, to collectvely decide
on guiding principles for a new kampung. Five main themes emerged:
1. The embankment to become an actve public space, such that the river
remains an accessible public good;
2. Housing constructon system that allows for self-build system of
material infll;
3. Partcipatory design by and for the people;
4. Communal living and public spaces;
5. Flood responsive design of river edge and housing.
The alternatve design of the embankment in the vertcal kampung
proposal challenges the governments indiscriminate use of heavy
hardscape in a food-prone area, while questoning the uniform width of a
7.5m inspecton road which renders the river inaccessible. If the inspecton
road is reduced to the minimum width needed for emergency access, and
the minimum plot size reduced, a mid-rise housing typology can ft on the
Floodresponsive
embankmentdesign.
Thedesignincorporates
adynamicmaterialand
socialedgeconditonthat
respondstoandabsorbs
changingwaterlevels,
embracingfooding,rather
thantryingtocontrolthe
temperamentofthewater.
Planning around
evicton
in Bukit Duri
58 59
building on dry ground. Residents here are also linked by an SMS network
to communites living further upstream, so they can know ahead of tme
when fooding will occur, and reconfgure their lives accordingly. At a certain
threshold fooding will always be a hazard, but via small practces they have
introduced a resilience to fooding, building a community that sofens how
such a hazard impacts their lives. Such adaptve modes of learning to live
with fooding will be erased in the name of a food risk management plan
which will likely add to the state of inundaton in Jakarta.
Some communites on Ciliwung river have built embankments that
absorb water rather than redirectng it downstream, while others remove
trash from the river and despite not having access to centralize rubbish
pick-up having made concerted eforts to not dump in the river. Together
with the actvites of environmentalist actvist groups, the foundatons of
a comprehensive food mitgaton programme are already in place, but
just need support and scaling up. Recognizing and validatng these eforts
presents a strong case for on-site upgrading as part of a larger alternatve
and adaptve food mitgaton proposal.
My original role was to support partcipatory design of building, but
slowly over tme it enlarged to encompass best practces for food mitgaton
as it relates to housing security, as thats where what prompts the queston
of evicton. But these concerns act on two very diferent scales, and as
a practtoner trying to mobilize interest on the ground, families facing
evicton have far more immediate and important questons to answer than
questons around long term environmental sustainability and governance.
Ultmately the queston is how can best practce food solutons for the city
plug into, map onto and compliment positve practces already at work on
the ground for a more efectve food management soluton at much lower
cost for the city, and in bringing the diferent scales of concern together,
how can responses to an ecological threat work together with housing
solutons for the urban poor?
Awomencontnuestorunher
businesssellinghomemade
friedtofuandspringrolls
despiteexperiencingknee
levelfoodinginBukitDuri.
60 61
Renderproducedby
ArchitecturePractceYuSing.
Thepowerofasingleimage
CMworkedwiththearchitecturalpractceYuSingtoproduceaconcept
render of a vertcal kampung in preparaton for Jokowis visit to Bukit
Duri.YuSingturnedtheideasfromthefocusgroupsintoadesignconcept.
The render shows that on-site reblocking is not only possible, but can
besociallyandeconomicallysensitve.Theconceptsketchhasplayeda
critcalroleinlegitmizingthepossibilityofon-sitere-blockinghoweverat
thesametmeithashadanegatveimpactonthepartcipatonprocess
withinthecommunity.
Despite repeatng that the image only shows one possible
outcomeandisinnowayfnalized,theimageneverthelesshascreateda
senseofcompletoninthedesignprocesswithoutafeelingofownership.
The process of partcipatory design produces an invaluable space to
work through and overcome doubts, concerns and diverse interests.
Such opportunity was lost in outsourcing the design process, and the
image has possibly solidifed previous doubts about collectve acton
as in the image what they see frst is problems which will emerge. But
without the professional render its possible that Jokowi would never
have notced the community, and now they are on his radar as actve.
In urban contexts such as Jakarta decisions are ofen made project-by-
project and spontaneous processes of partcipatory design face a big
challenge.Howtocreatearepresentatonthatontheonehandcaptures
theatenionofthegovernment,andsecurestheirtrustandreliabilityin
ourdesignprocess,butdoesnotlockorreducecreatvityandspiritofthe
partcipatoryprocessitself? (as)
The advantage
of scaling-down
Jokowis response to the Vertcal Kampung Proposal by CM was positve,
he used the render image during his campaign trail and brought housing
ofcials the day afer his inauguraton to listen again to proposals by the
community. His response made publicly was that the design must be
cheap, legal, and have consensus, however it remains unclear what this
interest means in practce. As no no programmes are in place to support
partcipatory planning in Jakarta, CM must essentally facilitate the
producton of a detailed design proposal with the community that can
convince the governors team of its afordability, feasibility and confict-
free implementaton.
As community architects, this is great: there exists an audience
dedicated to the plight of urban poor in Jakarta who encourages partcipatory
design, and if received well, the project could be implemented, potentally
at scale along the river and across the city. But the situaton on the
ground is such that evicton is likely, as the proposal contests government
regulaton to widen the river, and no examples of community-led design
exist in Jakarta to serve as inspiraton. Coupled with confictng and diverse
needs across the communites, which are unlikely to be resolved easily,
such conditons create a situaton of apathy to partcipatng in the detailed
planning of the vertcal kampung.
Since February the community house in Bukit Duri has hosted
weekly public discussions invitng surrounding RTs to plan collectvely how
to approach the government, and fll in the details of the design. It remains
Planning
around
evicton
inBukitDuri
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
62 63
incredibly difcult to access informaton on the specifc details of the
governments rehousing plan for families who will be evicted. Depending
on which side of the river youre on, diferent local government manage
the rehousing, furthermore within Bukit Duri itself land ownership is split
between Ministry of Transportaton and Public works, with those living
on the former feeling safe from evicton. At the start 70 people across 8
communites representng 700 households were showing interest in the
public discussions, but with problems outweighing solutons solidarity
presented itself as a huge challenge. By May the numbers atending had
dwindled greatly, and the director of CM decided to independently resign
from the process.
Over tme it became clear to me that to try to achieve a single
design soluton to appease everyone, the diferent fractons of government,
the various kampungs across Kampong Pulo and Bukit Duri when there are
so many unknowns is not only an incredibly difcult task, but likely to be
compromised. The widening and canalizaton of the river is being managed
and implemented haphazardly, experiencing internal conficts between
diferent sectors of the government, and external skeptcism of the long
term benefts is raising. What we do know about the future is that it is
incredibly uncertain, its not clear if anyone actually knows with confdence
what will happen to the land in queston, or how the people living on it
will be rehoused. There is great advantage to this uncertainty in terms
of contestng an inevitable outcome, however with very litle objectve
informaton it is very difcult to work together at the scale needed to devise
a strategy and produce a plan which challenges that of the government.
Since the unraveling of the weekly public discussions our role as
facilitators of the planning process as been twofold. Firstly to fnd ways
to increase engagement in partcular aspects of the planning and design
process of the Humane Vertcal Kampung. We started focus groups to
address diferent parts of the proposal such as experimentng with low
cost housing materials, a system for room allocaton in mid-rise living
depending on socio-economic needs, livelihoods survey, surveying site
and experimentng with constructon methods. At this more intmate and
Observingthesmalldetails
Whatseemstobealmosttakenforgrantedinthekampungishowthe
fexibilityofuse,andconstantappropriatonofspacesmakeslivingon
low and inconsistent incomes possible in Jakarta as it allows uses of
spaces that can constantly change according to needs of livelihoods
andlive-workeconomies.Whilepeopleareawareofhowrelocatonto
anewareawillimpacttheirlivelihoodsintermsofdecreasedaccessto
amenites,thereseemstobelitleawarenessofhowrestructuringthe
social environment will impact their lives as well. The lifestyle change
fromonethatiscommunalandfuidtoonethatisprivatzedandfxed
hasmanyhiddencosts,imposinglimitatonsonlive-workeconomiesand
abilitytocareforetheneedsofyourfamily.Belowisanimagedepictng
theblurinessbetweenpublicandprivatespacesoutsidemyhouse.(as)
private
public
semi-public
semi-private
64 65
Rather than trying to reach agreement on what people with
diverse interests want to build anew together, the line of enquiry changed
directon, and became what is special about the kampung that you dont
want to loose, and hope to retain in the future, wherever you are? A survey
was created in another focus group trying to capture the characteristcs of
the kampung which are valuable to its residents, with the trigger queston
What will you miss from Bukit Duri?
Bukit Duri is in a very strategic locaton, close to a natonal market
and three statons ofering the inhabitants low-skilled casual-labour job
opportunites, and opportunity for live-work economies. Being in walkable
distance to socio-economic ammenites and public services such as schools,
clinics, small and large traditonal markets in the area, which would be
hard to access if relocated, was peoples most frequent response. Many
social qualites of the neighbourhood such as trustng neighbours, friends,
ability to share resources, and systems of organizaton and support were
also mentoned. The answers which are locaton based start to substantate
solidarity and an argument for on-site rehousing, while the social-amenity
based start to queston the suitability of conventonal high rise living.
Where will our kampong be
cut? How to measure that
whichalwaysmoves.
Without having access to the governments
plansforNormalizaton,thecommunityhadto
calculate themselves where the setlement will
be cut, who will be impacted, and how much
space will remain. Surprisingly, this proved to
be a difcult task! As the river height always
changes,asetbackmeasurementfromtheedge
wouldntbeprecise.Boyshadtoswimacrossthe
riveratdiferentspotstofndthecentre-pointof
theriver,andmeasurefromthere.(as)
Calculatng
whereBukit
Duriwillbecut
afertheriver
widening.
Thecollectvelybuiltfoatng
toiletispreferredtothe
setbackgovernmentbuilt
publictoiletasitadjuststo
fuctuatngwaterlevelsand
providesamplespacefor
washingfacilitesaswellas
apopulargatheringpoint.
directed scale of discussion people felt more comfortable partcipatng in
the conversaton, and the result was much more productve as the space
existed to talk through and overcome doubts and difering opinions. By
breaking the large goal into digestble pieces it turned the process from
impossible to feasible.
Secondly we shifed into looking for common ground. People
dont want to be relocated from Bukit Duri and Kampung Pulo because
their kampung provides a form of security and happiness. In the past the
government has provided very litle public services to the kampung, and in
response families have worked together to build a beter and more secure
life for themselves, requiring a lot of tme and money which will not be
recognised in compensaton. The queston of fair compensaton opened a
discussion on how the kampung has developed over tme, from collectve
work, ingenuity and creatvity within the community to overcome a situaton
of marginality. Recognising what people have achieved, and ultmately own
together, brought forth some solidarity in the upgrading process.
66 67
Filling in design:
Innovatve
Materials
One of the agreed concepts of the vertcal kampung proposal is self-build
material infll. The Ciliwung River ofers a contnuous supply of rubbish, how
to use such a resource? We facilitated a series of workshops exploring how
to use plastc botles as an alternatve form of building constructon, for
its afordability and zero carbon impact. Plastc botles ofer an alternatve
building technology that is much lighter than conventonal concrete
constructon, therefore also responsive to Jakartas increasing inundaton
problem.
Workshop 1: we split into focus groups with hundreds of
plastc botles, and simply explored how to connect the botles to each
other to create a constructon component, in the end each group presented
their prototypes, and we discussed together the strengths and weaknesses
of each.
Workshop 2: we flled two 1x1x1 panels with 2 preferred
connecton systems from the previous workshop. The problem to solve
evolved from how to connect the botles to each other to how to plug the
botles into an opening.
Workshop 3: we repaired a gap in a balcony using the
preferred system from workshop 2. The problem to solve became how to
ft the botle stacks into diferent size openings securely. During this session
we were approached by Ibu Bete, a single mother in the kampung with
bags full of plastc botles, requestng we replace her broken window with
botles.
Planning
around
evicton
inBukitDuri
Oppositepage:workshops
experimentngwithplastc
botleconstructon.Ina
citywhichisslowlysinking
buildingexploringthe
possibilityofusinglighter
constructonmaterialsis
imminentlyneeded.
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
68 69
opportunites in incremental infl. There are technical challenges, but
also social. While some people saw botles walls as a viable alternatve,
others felt it looked ugly. The ultmate goal however is that people have the
freedom to fll their walls with the material of their choice, botles merely
being one opton. As plastc botles are considered a waste product they
ofer an incredibly accessible and botomless resource in the context of
Jakarta. Botles can be crushed and covered in thin layer of cement such
that you cant even see it anymore. These workshops served as a way to
feel out in practcal terms the opportunites, limitatons and fexibility of
using alternatve infll materials. Unless a system of botle constructon
can be tested such that propertes of safety, resilience and longevity are
beter understood, the government, and the majority of the community
will see it as risky. As a practtoner theres a push and pull between the
desire to implement what you see as an opportunity, and holding a sense
of responsibility in experimentng with peoples lives.
Another botomless resource is plastc straws, so we explored
the possibility of reusing plastc straws to create a woven material that
could potentally be used for screens, roofs, or cladding. Possibly because
of the delicacy of the straws, or the colour, boys were rarely interested
for very long, and the workshops evolved of their own accord into how to
use plastc straws to make fashion accessories. Our headbands have been
popular within the kampung, and outside, since then Ciliwung Merdeka
has been invited to host workshops to showcase these products.
Workshop 4: flling Ibu Betes Wall. Her upstairs foor
beams had started to sag, so the preliminary discussions with her were
about how to correct this sagging. This was followed by how to fll the hole.
Ibu Bete asked us and what about when there is a food, and I must clean
the botles, or if I must replace a botle stack? Thus the problem to solve
changed again, from a mechanical queston of how to fll the hole, to a
maintenance one. Eventually we developed a system in which the botle
stacks are strong, and can be replaced easily.
As infll the botles can be crushed and covered in a thin layer
of cement, these workshops served as a way to feel in more detail the
Belowandopposite:
workshopsusingplastcto
createheadbands,lamps,
seats...
70 71
and investments met with with sporadic government and/or third party
interventons. Evicton compensaton is only for individually owned
buildings, discreditng communal systems of labour and investment.
Mapping collectve investment could theoretcally help people bargain for
more fair and collectve forms of compensaton, on top of individual.
As we held more informal discussions about the unique nature
of the kampung, interest in creatng a community profle started to grow,
but we didnt really know how to start, and we were stll uncertain about
what we wanted to show. The trigger came unexpectedly, through a
delicate collaboraton with another NGO, Solo Kotakita, which specializes
in increasing the accessibility of community data via visuals and media
representatons. Solo Kotakita sent us two interns from Harvard University
to produce a community profle of Bukit Duri and Kampung Pulo. They
arrived with a fxed noton of what they wanted to produce, our partcipaton
was limited to that of collectng survey data for their infographic. It wasnt
clear how this process was benefcial for us, nor what context the product
could be used in. However what existed was a large number of people
excited to work together in producing a community profle, this presented
an opportunity impossible to pass by, if only we could get our hands on the
process!
The interns had a short tme in Bukit Duri, so were concerned about
getng systematc data, within a specifc tme frame in order to compile the
graphic, but werent so concerned about how the data was collected. Our
response was twofold: frst to remake the survey according to what people
in Bukit Duri felt to be important characteristc data of the kampung, such
as percentage of indigenous Botowi people. Second to conduct mapping
ourselves in all 35 RTs to collect the remaining data while holding informal
discussions about the oncoming normalizaton.
Knowing that mapping can be a lengthy process we devised
an acton plan with the keenest mappers, to ensure the interns could
trust us in getng them the data on tme. We created mapping teams,
discussed where to map, by whom, on what day, as well as what the maps
will communicate, and created a guide so that frst tme mappers were
Mapping
the kampung
Community mapping is ofen considered a tool of empowerment, but
such an outcome is not guaranteed, and if maps dont have purpose or an
audience, the positve impact can be short lived. How to ensure maps have
a life? Sometmes the trigger or target comes from outside.
Ciliwung Merdeka has helped facilitate many mapping exercises
across Bukit Duri, some end products of site work conducted by university
students, other made with the individual RT leader heads, however none
captures a specifc kampung character. These maps lie nested together in
the atc of the community house.
The queston of community profle came up many tmes in talking
with various stakeholders. You cant rely on an act of generosity to save the
kampung, you must show its worth, I remember one man saying. How can
one individual community show its worth? But thats how exterminaton is
legitmized. Kampung life in general is under threat to new development
and Bukit Duri, along with all the other setlements along the riverbank,
represent and stand as a large fronter to this mass deleton.
What makes these kampungs unique is how communites have
been organised and invested a lot of money and tme over the years in
the building of services and amenites such as mosques, roads, water
infrastructure, toilets, health clinics, schools, to overcome marginalisaton
and build a beter life for themselves. We agreed that a spatal profle
could show the special hybrid and evolving nature of the kampung, how
it has grown as a product of peoples individual and collectve endeavours
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
Planning
around
evicton
inBukitDuri
72 73
Incrementalmappingtoclosethegap
Many maps have been made of Bukit Duri and Kampung Pulo, but
nonecatchtheessenceofkampunglife;kampungissimultaneouslya
physicalandsocialenvironment,howtorepresentthebuiltenvironment
sothatitspeaksofitssociallife?Atthelocalscaletheresolutonishigh
enoughtoseeindividualactvites,practces,publicspacesetc.butmisses
thesignifcanceofcross-cutngconditonsonkampunglifeandgrowth.
Mapsproducedatbroaderscalearetoosimplistc,includingimportant
featuresonly,losingtheimportanceofindividualpractces.Howtoshow
thekampunglifeacrossthewholeareewithoutlosingtheindividual?
Tomaptheareainonesitngwouldbeimpossibletoorganize,
sowedecidedtomapatthelocalscale,andsttchthemapstogetherlikea
patchwork.Inareaswhereweknowpeoplepersonallywespontaneously
gathered people together and mapped as far as we could in every
directon,weretheinformatonendedwefoundanothergrouptotakeit
further.Wherewehadnocontactswehadtomeetwiththecommunity
leader,andmapwithfewerpartcipants.Mappinginapublicspacesuch
as a street with high foot trafc was always our frst choice as nearly
everyonewhowalkedbywascuriousandwouldengageinsomeway,but
publicspacescanbeapremiuminverydenseareas.(as)

MappingGuide:together
wecreatedalistof
questonsandsystemof
colourcodingandsymbols
toensurethatallthemaps
wouldspeakthesame
language,andpotentally
cometogetherintoone
largermap.
confdent facilitatng the process and we could have multple maps being
made at once. The interns were relying on us to collect the data, so when
we proposed our plan to gather the data ourselves they didnt hesitate to
say yes, possibly relieved to forget about the details and use their feld tme
for other observatons.
In the end we didnt succeed in mapping all 35 RT areas, however
we did gather all the completed surveys, and the interns were able to
produce infographics for us from their rooms in Harvard. Im not sure if
these images will ever see daylight, but it can not be denied their presence
in Bukit Duri was instrumental in triggering the initatve to start working
on a community profle. The relatonship was not a pleasant one at the
beginning, we fought, and cried a lot, but ultmately this disagreement
gave us the resources and will to do it our way.
74 75
Diferentideasoncommunityprofle
The interns arrived wantng to map where, and to what extent areas
lacked access to basic services, a mapping process Solo Kotakita had
alreadyconductedwithgreatsuccessinSolo.Howeverthesituatonon
the ground in Solo was very diferent, and as a result many challenges
arose. In Solo the mayor had started to experiment with partcipatory
budgetng, so visualising an areas lack of access to basic services
relatvelytootherareasmadeiteasierforcommunitestopartcipatein
budgetngforums.Theinternsstatedfromtheoutsettheydidntwantto
touchthesituatonofevictonhereinBukitDuri,howeveritwasclearthat
producingamapshowingwhatthecommunitywasmissingwasfarless
useful than a map showing the extent of what the community and the
governmenthasalreadyinvestedinthearea.
Another discrepancy was the scale of resoluton. The interns
wanted to create block data per RT from the surveys to visualise the
diversitywhichexistsacrossKampungPuloandBukitDuri,butagainwe
werentsurehowthiswouldbeuseful,andinthechallengeofmobilizing
peoplewefeltwecouldntafordtolosesightoftheindividual,sopushed
to map in more detail. However the interns felt it was too difcult to
plugtheself-drawnmapsintotheCADmapstheywereintentonusing
Itjustdoesntft,andthemapsarentanaccuraterepresentatonthey
kept saying. We agreed to try using the CAD map as the base image
for community mapping, so the informaton could be inserted easily,
howeveritwasimpossibleforthecommunitytolocatethemselvesinthe
CADmaps,asthebuildingoutlinesconstructedfromanaerialviewsbear
virtuallynoresemblancetohowthingslookontheground.
Beforemeetngitseemedlikeourcollaboratonwasperfect,we
neededsomeonetohelpusvisualizethekampungenvironment,andthey
werekeentocreateaspatalprofleinJakarta,butovertmewediscovered
our understanding of partcipaton and community profle were very
diferent,aswereourinterests.However,withadelicatecombinatonof
trialanderror,patenceandtrust,wemanagedtofndcommonground,
andbothgroupsbenefted.Inhindsightifwehadplannedmorepriorto
theirarrival,thediscrepancyinourapproacheswouldhavesurfaced,and
itsverypossiblewewouldhaveseenmorediferencesthansimilarites
andgivenupbeforetrying! (as) PeoplefromdiferentRTs
withtheirmaps.
76 77
conventonal housing solutons do not. The workshop encouraged us to
expand on the meaning of afordable housing in relaton to mainstream
housing soluton.
Ciliwung Merdeka was invited to present their community design
for a vertcal kampung mid rise living. Eko Prawoto, a famous Indonesian
architect, spoke about the incredibly delicate and tangled nature of
kampungs, warning that copying aesthetcs and constructon characteristcs
alone wouldnt directly translate into the dynamic characteristcs of
kampung life, calling for partcipatory design if retaining kampung qualites
was really the goal. CM followed on a similar line, talking about how in the
kampung economic spaces are produced over tme via micro practces of
Elastcityandafordability
Collectve appropriaton and temporal use of spaces maximize space in
the kampung while reducing the cost of daily life. The privatzaton of
livelihoods and amenites in most standardizaton solutons brings with
itmanyhiddencosts,forthisreasonthepossibilityofsharingamenites
shouldremainanoptonthatmustbebuiltintothedesign.Marginalized
individuals are usually surviving on low as well as inconsistent incomes,
andsoafexibleenvironmentthatadaptstothewaxingandwaningof
resourcesreducevulnerabilitytoexternalshocksandpressures.Features
suchasblurringbetweenpublicandprivatespaces,live-workeconomies,
andcommunalandelastcpublicspacesarekeyfeaturestoafordability
ofthekampungenvironment.(as)
Thevariouswaysuseandownershipofspacesextendinandout.
Erasmus Haus hosted a design workshop and exhibiton ttled Afordable
housing and super-kampungs in Jakarta earlier this year. The event was
curated by Daliana Suryawinata, an Indonesian starchitect from SHAU,
and The Why Factory (T?W), a research arm of Dutch architecture ofce
MVRDV. It followed up on an exhibiton previously held in Amsterdam which
introduced the super-kampung as a conceptual design soluton to save
urban-villages facing extncton to the rapid propagaton of anonymous
superblocks spreading across Asian cites.
The workshop valorized characteristcs such as individuality,
human-scale, fexibility, collectvity organic-growth, publicness and
diversity within Jakarta kampungs. To bring innovatve solutons to the
discussion table around Jakartas housing problem, famous architects were
invited to suggest strategies for increasing vertcal growth in kampungs,
while making sure to preserve their essence and livelihoods.
Afordable housing housing, Suryawinata pointed out in the
opening speech, means a lot more than cheap to build, and if we want to
develop appropriate housing solutons for Jakartas urban poor, this must
be addressed head on. In a way kampungs, partcularly the informal ones,
present the best method around (albeit unplanned) to house low-income
people in Jakarta, as characteristcs such as the opportunity for incremental
infrastructure, the ability to appropriate and use space in temporary
ways, and the blurring between public and private spaces and amenites
aford fnancial security, safety and community life to the residents which
Afordable
housing
Planning
around
evicton
inBukitDuri
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
78 79
such that the kampung doesnt lose its essence, or its people, incrementally
triggering and actvatng organic growth at a pace which doesnt shock
the system, including labour from inside as well as outside. Ofen the
people themselves were earmarked as the drivers of the vertcal growth
process, governing where and when new infrastructure should enter,
managing the producton of space themselves. Admitedly its an idealist
noton to imagine Jakartas housing authority to even consider taking
these proposals onboard, however, the housing ministry team did seem
to recognize afordable housing must be more than cheap to produce, and
must consider how people are to contnue supportng themselves and
their loved ones, which contrasts sharply to how housing has been thought
of in the past.
What groups struggled to visualise was the partcipatory process,
statng the image represents one possible scenario only. I could relate to
this, and was reminded of the dilemma in YuSings image of the Humane
Vertcal Kampung, where to sell the idea it needs a physical form, and
such form brought necessary visibility to the Bukit Duri community, but
at the same tme the rich and ever so delicate input which can emerge in
partcipatory design and planning was lost, and locked peoples image of
the future.
Given the scale of the case sites in queston, the number of families,
and size of the area, coordinatng partcipatory design from the ground
up would be an unruly task. Kampungs are built collaboratvely by the
community over tme, but we dont refer to these as cases of partcipatory
planning, because it was never sketched out ahead of tme by the residents.
In the same way I think the proposals by more mainstream architects pushed
the limits of our conventonal understanding of partcipatory planning and
design, from one in which all the future residents gather around a piece of
paper and design together their new layout to a more actve partcipatve
producton of space, within a tme-based process. As an architect I see the
opportunity in design to both frame, and manage partcipatory processes at
scale, such that communites can govern the growth of their environments,
while questoning conventonal understanding of partcipatory planning.
negotaton that can not be copy-pasted into a design without thinking
critcally about how, when, and by who spaces are used, repeatng Ekos
point, that the future users themselves must partcipate in the design for
housing that fts their lives.
In closing the exhibiton, groups exhibited their proposals for
fostering vertcal kampung growth, made during the workshop. To be honest
I was skeptcal, antcipatng merely aesthetc applicatons of kampung
characteristcs, however the results were surprising. The proposals almost
unanimously presented sensitve strategies to scale up already existng
economies, and introduce physical and social infrastructure, adding to the
existent built environment rather than tearing down and building anew
Thekampungsspatal
arrangementallowsfor
afordableliving.
80 81
Ofallthepreposterous
assumptonsofhumanity,
nothingexceedsthe
critcismsmadeofthe
habitsofthepoorby
thewell-housed,well-
warmed,andwell-fed
HermanMelville
82 83
ManilaBay,oneofthe
mostpollutedareasinthe
Philippines.
The government now runs a Community Mortgage Programme to
supply loans to legally organized communites to purchase the land and
cover constructon or improvement costs (both for on-site upgrading and
relocaton), and a recently started scheme of mid-rise social housing in
urban areas. However, these policies only touch the surface of the highly
contested land problem.
The Philippines is also prone to natural disaster, from typhoons to
earthquakes and volcanic eruptons. Environmental degradaton, partcularly
in urban areas, only increases the problem, and most poor communites are
subject to fooding every year in the rainy season. At present the government
is relocatng families located in what are identfed as high-risk areas, mainly
waterways, as a pre-emptve disaster response and beter food-control.
Although the process is intended to be consensual, and alternatve housing
will be provided by the authorites, the urgent clear up of waterways is the
priority, with precedence over partcipatory upgrading.
Such urban pressures are brought to an extreme in Manila, a
sprawling metropolis of more than 10 million inhabitants that serves as the
countrys politcal, economic and cultural hub, where uncontrolled sprawl,
polluton and speculaton put poor communites under high pressure to
relocate.
MANILA,
Phillippines
The Philippines has a peculiar character: though geographically situated
in South East Asia, the country resembles the Pacifc coast a lot more than
its neighbouring countries, due to fve centuries of Spanish and American
colonizaton.
Spreading across more than 4000 islands, the archipelago is
home to many diferent ethnic groups, languages, religions and traditons,
although Tagalog has been adopted as a lingua franca, and English is spoken
or understood by the majority of the populaton.
The countrys economy is currently booming, and cites the main
drivers of development. However, the pace of urbanizaton is not matched
by shared economic growth, as state policies are directed at the creaton
of wealth, rather than job places. In such a labor surplus economy, with
the highest populaton growth (1.9%) and urban populaton (68%) rates in
the region, housing for the lower income sectors of society is a preeminent
issue, especially in urban areas. Land in cites is becoming increasingly
valuable, with concerns of a realestate bubble: as there is no socially
responsible land use policy in place, the urban poor experience tenure
insecurity and evictons. In additon to this, state services in support of low-
income citzens are completely inadequate: for example, only 0.09% of the
GDP goes to public housing (in Thailand is 0.53%).
Informalsetlementon
waterinManila.
overview
84 85
ThePACSIIand
TAMPEIteam
translators, so knowledge and support was always readily available.
I worked in close collaboraton with the youth group TAMPEI. They
are similar age as me so instantly I felt close and friendships developed.
TAMPEI members acted as my companions, translators, teachers, motvators
and friends throughout my tme there. I realized it is so important to
involve young people for a number of reasons, beyond the humor and fun
they bring to the workplace. First of all their motvaton; given their young
nature , they will go over and beyond what is asked from them. They have
fresh and constantly evolving technical expertse, as they are stll learning
and willing to work outside the box, and they are happy to share it with
community members and other non-architects/engineers in simple terms,
through practce. This expands the learning circle signifcantly while closing
the gap of professionalism superiority. Theres a chance to afect the next
generaton and watch them develop a passion for thisThe eagerness,
optmism and creatvity of the youth brought alternatve and innovatve
perspectves to the challenges the communites face. And because they
are local students they possess local knowledge and local language making
them excellent translators for English but also for culture.
The biggest challenge TAMPEI faces is is the high turnover of
members, which they hope to tackle in the future through more outreach
and more fnancial incentves.
Team TAMPEI,
the role of the young
Working
Context,
Manila
The Phillippines is very unique in that the country works in unions, and
people are ofen part of many organizatons. This may be one reason
for why the ACHR process of community-driven change is signifcantly
developed and organized. The ACHR network in the Phillippines is driven
by the Phillipine Acton for Community-led Shelter Initatves, Inc. (PACSII)
who encourages and assists communites in getng organized, startng
savings groups, and mobilizing themselves to acquire land and housing.
PACSII have 3 main divisions; a technical arm, the Technical Assistance
Movement for People and Environment, Inc (TAMPEI), a fnancial arm,
the Philippine Acton for Slum Upgrading Facility, Inc (PASUFI), who
together collaborate with Homeless Peoples Federaton Internatonal
(HPFPI), stretching across cites in the Philippines, especially in disaster
prone areas. Each organizaton has its own individual strengths, skills, and
responsibilites, but in working together towards one goal as an alliance,
gaps in the process are flled-in in a collaboratve, and synergetc way,
which is vital to the process. Many organizatons are working together
covering the ACHR process from orientaton to savings implementaton,
and coordinaton with the authorites on multple levels.
At frst the scale and politcal context of the Phillipines was
overwhelming, but the various partners working across parts of
Manila made it easy to adjust. As a practtoner in a foreign context the
challenge of translatng languages as well as technical know-how, was
less of a challenge than I was expectng because PACSII is partnered with
86 87
The CAN regional workshop in 2013 was hosted in Metro Manila. The regional
workshop invites architects, engineers, urban planners and academic
insttutons from across the CAN network in Asia, from Japan to India, to
share about the community-led upgrading progress in their country. Using
the incredible enthusiasm, incentve, and diverse perspectves brought
together in the same place, members worked together for this short tme
to try to fnd creatve solutons to overcome challenges faced by individual
communites, as well as obstacles and botlenecks in the upgrading and
land buying process more generally in the host country.
The evoluton of ACCA into a city-wide approach in regards to
fnancing, organizaton, and strategic alliances is new. For CAN and its
afliatons, the workshop in Manila gave critcal space and opportunity to
share and refect between countries and practtoners what such a city-
wide approach means in practce on the ground, how to get fragemented
upgrading projects to support each other, and work together at a city-scale,
what are the tools needed to contnue bringing a city-wide focus to other
cites.
For Metro Manila, the new element of a city-wide approach in the
CAN workshop, brought an opportunity to consolidate, concentrate eforts,
and fnd a common directon to the various separate actvites currently
happening in the metropolitan area, both in preparing for the workshop,
and at the workshop itself. My main role in preparing for the workshop
was to bring onto one page the upgrading processes already taking place
in cites across the Greater Meropolitan Manila area, visualizing how they
are already working towards a city scale but with having litle idea of what
it meant, working at a city-scale! The workshop worked with communites
from three municipalites in the Greater Metropolitan Manila area: Bulacan,
Valenzuela and Caloocan.
From the beginning of my tme in Metro Manilla I helped
prepare all three cites for the workshop. But given the vast reach of the
communites and the distance between cites as well as the independence
of local initatves as the workshop drew closer we decided it was best
to split into teams. I helped focus on Valenzuela and four communites
within it: Pinagbuklod Tadhana Homeowners Associaton, Bagong Nayon
Neighbourhood Associaton, Samahang Magkapitbahay ng Sapa Area, and
Del Rosario Compound Neighbourhood Associaton.
The Philippine Alliance has been working towards a citywide process
for a while, but the workshop became a fantastc goal seter and vision to
atain for many of the ACHR afliated organizatons. With a high-profle
event and deadline to prepare for, mapping and data collecton already in
moton was able to have an achievable goal of city-wide to work towards.
Realizing
the city scale
in Manila
Communitymappingin
Valenzuelainpreparaton
fortheCANworkshop.
88 89
!"#$%&'$#" )*+,
Making links
across Valenzuela
The communites within Valenzuela, Caloocan and Bulacan are
connected only via the Urban Poor Alliances working within their city,
the workshop and preparatons aided the citywide process by linking the
communites together. Preparing for the workshop required working on
two scales, the local and the city scale in parallel, with a constant back and
forth between the two. The data collecton, mapping and discussions needed
to prepare the communites for the CAN workshop presented an opportunity
to start thinking for the frst tme about how the separate actvites happening
in Metro Manila are linked, and how to strategically enhance this link.
Amapproducedduring
theCANworkshop,
showingtherelatons
betweenPitahoa
communityand
othersetlementsin
ValenzuelaCity.
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
Realizing
thecity
scalein
Manila
Together with the young professionals and student architects, we
conducted mapping actvites across many communites to make more
transparent the connecton between their actvites and situatons within
the greater context of the city, while at the same tme assembling and
visualising how the alliance is currently working across Metro Manila more
generally. The series of mapping exercises had a twofold impact. Firstly
they helped communites see that there werent alone in the challenges
they experienced, as many other communites were dealing with issues
such as threat of evicton, inadequate site development proposals, land
purchase, lack of adequate drainage, access to government housing
programs and exposure to natural disasters; communites could envision
more easily the benefts of partcipatng in the workshop, as a way to trigger
Communityactvites
inValenzuela:tellinga
communitysstory,and
measuringtheroads
accordingtotheBP220
standard.
90 91
an inital platorm for working together across the city. Secondly mapping
across communites layed out the priorites and lines of inquiry for the
workshop, and formed the frst steps of larger citywide map showing the
environmental and housing issues experienced across communites, and
their own priorites. Spatalizing these issues across the cites of Valenzuela,
Caloocan and Bulacan aided thinking about solutons at the city-scale, and
enter conversatons with stakeholders and local members of government
more easily.
Owing to the cross migraton of people across the country and
its locaton as the northernmost point of Metro Manila, Valenzuela City
has developed from an agricultural area into a well-mixed, multcultural
metropolis, an economic and industrial centre. Valenzuela is composed of
32 barangays, the smallest administratve unit. It was reported in 2012 that
Valenzuela city alone has 31,273 informal setler families, a number that
does not include families who are not part of any community associatons.
Defendingalternatvethinking

Thispictureshowsacomunnityleaderspractcal
demonstraton of why landfll is not the right
answer to inundaton problems, not only for her
community specifcally, but on a broader scale
for the city. She flled a glass full of water, threw
a handful of stones in it and described that by
this landfll, the water spills out. She questoned
herfellowmembersastowherethiswatergoes,
whomitafectsandifneighbouringcommunites
are land-flling too then are they in turn afected
bythewaterspill?Bydemonstratngthatlandfll
mayonlyexacerbatefoodingproblems,sheurged
Valenzuelas communites to work together on
alternatvewaysofbuildingresilience.(zk)
Many are recipients of various social housing fnance programs
such as the CMP (Community Mortgage Program), CLASP (Community
Land Acquisiton Support Program), and GLAD (Group Land Acquisiton
Program) however Valenzuelas communites face many similar issues;
they are all prone to fooding and typhoons in the rainy season and must
follow the BP 220 standard for reblocking. Re-blocking obstacles are due to
a combinaton of a lack of technical and legislatve awareness, funding or
savings groups mobility, and minimal support from the authorites. Working
with professional engineers in the past has not proved very successful
as it was expensive and generally produced inappropriate, unafordable
solutons.
VUPA (Valenzuela Urban Poor Alliance) helped HPFPI, PACSII and
TAMPEI introduce the savings groups and the housing process to Valenzuela
communites. Having the cooperaton of the community members is vital
but so was the local knowledge, intmacy and passion of local alliance
VUPA. Given that savings groups really demand community mobilizaton, it
can be difcult to get the process of the ground, but the local confdence
and informaton sharing of VUPA helped more adverse members trust the
Mapping
Lolomboy
community.
92 93
process, and overcome their concerns, by discussing and confrontng with
people from other communites.
Many communites in Valenzuela partcipatng in the CAN
regional workshop were new, preparing them for the workshop involved
introducing them for the frst tme to the upgrading process and the
work of the Alliance, community data collecton, and city-scale mapping.
While working with these new communites the queston was always how
the local situaton contributes to and is afected by the city scale to fnd
common struggles between communites across the city, and envision
Mapping
Lolomboy
community.
working more collectvely across the city. It can be difcult to see the value
of looking at problems at the city scale when they are experienced locally,
and temptng to get drawn into site specifc issues. How to bridge local and
city scales concerns?
We used mapping at a city-wide scale in communites to introduce
the noton of city-wide planning, in the exercises we used a large city map
to locate and identfy personal links to the city such as family and friends,
also areas they travelled for work and other purposes, as well as transport
links, to see the embeddedness of the community within the city, and the
94 95
Expandingtheinfuenceoflocalconditons

Duringoneofthemappingworkshops,weplacedamapofthecityon
thewallandaskedcommunitymemberstolocatetheirsetlementonthe
map.Ithoughtthisactvitywouldbeshort,buttomysurpriseittooka
lotofdiscussiontolocatetheirpositon.Onceidentfedit,peoplewere
askedtomarkareasinthecityvisitedfrequently,beitforworkorpersonal
reasons,andtheyidentfedareasweretheirfamilylived,worklocatons,
aswellasmajortransportlinks,hospitalsandschools.
Afervisualizingthemultplepersonalconnectonstothecity,it
waseasytointroducetheideaofcitywideandtounderstandtheneedto
avoidthinkingofupgradingasonlycommunitybycommunityupgrading,
butwhyweshouldinsteadthinkofthecityasaninterconnectedwhole.
Forexample,acommunitywhichexperiencesfoodingmultple
tmes a year wanted to do a land fll as soon as they purchased their
land. We followed the city mapping exercise with mapping actvites
thatoutlinedthefowofwater,andhowtheirpersonalsituatonwillbe
afectediftheylandflltheirentrearea.Throughthemappingitquickly
becameapparentthatifallthelandwasflledtherewouldbenospacefor
thewatertofowoutoftheircommunityandintotheocean.Asaresult,
community people started thinking about alternatve solutons to their
foodingproblem,designinganewdrainageplanandpresentngtotheir
fellowcommunitesthereasonswhytheyshouldlearntolivewithwater
insteadofalwaysresortngtolandfll.
As practtoners we dont know what works, what will trigger
thinking outside the box, but its in the collectve process of thinking
through alternatve ideas that contributes to a level of confdence, and
empowermenttobeopentonon-conventonalmethods.(zk)
positon in regards to other communites. These mapping exercises helped
everyone involved to gain a beter understanding of the meaning of city-
wide.
It became quickly apparent that the process of preparaton was
not a passive exercise at all, and that my role of preparing for the workshop
carried with it the potental and responsibility of being a catalyst, using the
workshop as motvaton to really push processes forward towards a large
scale of interacton and management. I was amazed at how the process of
preparaton alone can impact these processes so much. Throughout the
preparaton stage I constantly questoned how my actvites would help
implement the city-wide perspectve, but it came together at the workshop
where the lengthy mapping preparatons served as an invaluable resource
to develop stategies towards city-wide acton and to bring peoples needs
and community initatves into a positon of collectve acton, planning, and
decision making circles about the future of their city.
At the workshop communites across Metro Manila were able
feel how working together and coordinatng actvites at a city-wide scale,
could have benefcial impact, and how such collectve acton enabled a
positve dialogue with local government. The communites of Del Rosario,
PITAHOA, Bagon Nayon and Samasa Parada within Valenzuela city were
introduced to each other for the frst tme at the workshop, this brought
overdue awareness of each others existence, and empathy; with a deeper
understanding of locaton, distance and consequences of upgrading
between communites, design proposals started to develop a more holistc
approach, being more sensitve to how their individual upgrading eforts
would afect their friends. For example in preparing for the workshop, one
community in Valenzuela, previously adamant on landflling as their only
opton upon purchasing the land, became open to other more ecological
solutons.
I used the term city-wide liberally throughout the prepartaion
process as if I knew with confdence what it meant to be working to a city-
scale, but actually behind the words I realised that the term can not be
imposed to every project. In hindsight I realise that we approached the
citywide planning has to be specfc to cae as community-driven processes
at the city-scale, if producing a structural change will never follow codes or a
prescriptve concept to be copy pasted across cites, but instead something
that emerges over tme in response to the evoluton and strategic use of
local resources and scaling-up of local initates and maybe no one knows
ahead of tme what city-scale means in each context.
96 97
Mapping
tobetakenseriously
During the CAN workshop, in Barangay we
were assigned to develop a reblocking plan
that could satsfy concerns of fre safety and
density,(evenifnotnecessarilycomplyperfectly
with ofcial standards). A setlement map
already existed, made by an engineer hired
by the community some tme before, but we
quickly realized it wasnt accurate, containing
manymistakes,partcularlyinhowthemore
denseareaswithmaze-likealleysandself-build
structureswererepresented.Aferdiscussing
with the community how and where the map
waswrong,wetogetherrealizedtheneed
of having an accurate map to work on, when
proposing viable and convincing alternatves
planstothegovernment.Fromheretheentre
setlement,352households,wasinvolvedin
averycarefulremappingprocess;notonly
theofcialsofthecommunityassociatonas
it happens most of the tme, but the majority
oftheresidentsaswell.Theyalllearnthowto
measure their houses and how to represent
thisinformatononascaledmap.Itwashard
work but all the residents were amazingly
commited,andperfectonistaboutthedetails,
workingovernighttofnishthemapwithinthe
workshop.
It was evident that even expert
engineersarenotabletomapproperlywithout
the partcipaton of the inhabitants, as only
communitymembershavethenecessarydepth
of knowledge and orientaton capacity within
suchextremelydenseandmazysetlements.
(bd)
Playing
with standards
A considerable obstacle to the legalizaton of informal setlements is
constructon regulatons: standards imposed by governments are ofen not
easy for low-income communites to atain. In the Philippines, the standards
for socialized housing projects are regulated by the Batas Pambansa Bilang
220 act, known as BP220. Informed by concerns around health and safety,
it includes standards such as minimum lot size, housing size, setback and
road width, among others. In cases of setlement formalizaton, to reblock
an existent tghtly packed neighbourhood such that it is considered legal
under BP220 requires reconfguring, opening-up and de-densifying the
area, and such thinning of assets and resources , combined with expensive
land values, make it difcult for most poor communites to rebuild on site, or
relocate within the metropolitan area of Manila. Vertcal designs are rarely
considered due to higher constructon expense, ownership complicatons
and livelihoods disrupton. Thus lower-income communites are faced with
two optons: either move to cheaper suburban areas, severing their socio-
economic livelihoods, or build illegally again. PACSII helps to lobby the local
government into subsidizing the land purchase. However theres room for
contestng such requirements, as the BP220 admits variances in cases in
which strict observance will cause unnecessary hardship to the case of
regional consideratons/characteristcs, peculiarites of the locaton and
other relevant factors.
In early 2013, a community in Valenzuela proposed to rebuild
their setlement with roads narrower than the standard, and afer seven
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
Oppositepage:overnight
mappingsessioninBagon
Nayoncommunity.
Realizing
thecity
scalein
Manila
98 99
Designatthethreshold
MygroupintheCANworkshopwasworkingonarelocatonplanforSamasa
communitywiththeaimtoinvolvefamiliesfromneighbouringcommunites
tosharethelandcosts.Peoplewerepushingfora20sqmplotsolutonwith
minimalopenspaces,tosqueezeasmanyfamiliesintothesiteaspossibleto
keepthecostslowwhileowningindividualplots.Theconvenienceofsucha
designwasitsafordability,butfortherestitwasunsuitableforcommunity
life,andlikelytoberejected-therepresentatvefromthelocalauthority
declaredthatsuchaplanwouldneverbeapproved.
We mediated between two rather unyielding positons, the
communitysandthegovernments.Weconcludedthat,ifeveryfamilywas
tohaveitsownlot,incompliancetotheBP220standardnotmorethan75
familiescouldbeaccommodated:notenoughtopurchasetheland.Itwas
unavoidabletobringinmorefamilies,eitherbyreducingthelotsize,road
widths, and commons spaces or building up vertcally. We visualized the
frstoptonwithmockupmodelsandsketches,toshowthatitwassmall
andpacked,buttheystllpreferredittotheideaofstackingfamiliesontop
ofoneanother:itwasimportantforthemtoownthelotindividually!
Eventually four layouts were developed, one refectng the
communitys wishes, one stcking to the BP220, highlightng their
respectvedrawbacks,andothersthatmixdiferenthousingtypologiesto
accommodatediferentfnancialmeansandrequirements,whilerespectng
thestandardsasmuchaspossible,toreachacompromise.Giventhemany
uncertain factors, the goal was not to provide any defnite layout, but to
develop collectvely an understanding of how such variables interact, in
orderforthepeopletobeabletoplaywiththesevariableontheedgeof
thestandard,andnegotatesuccessfullytheirrelocaton.(fp)
PeopleinSamasatriedhard
tomakealayoutaccording
tothestandard;butthe
onlywaytobringinenough
peopletoreachafordability
withoutinfringingthelaw
toomuch,wasbuilding
vertcal.
re-submissions had their plan approved by the municipality. This case
of legally bending the rules created a very important precedent for the
rest of the city: following this many other communites submited below
the standard plans, and thanks to Valenzuelas willing administraton,
four more were approved this year. Community architects PACSII and
community builders familiar with BP220 regulatons and building codes,
assist communites in designing upgrading plans with reduced standards,
such that they can aford land purchases on or near site. Such alternatve
planning proactvely questons and successfully works around the very
regulatons which in practce are contnually cutng low-income groups
from being included in the formal city.
The BP220 standards were conceived as planning guidelines to
ensure new neighbourhods are built to a standard of health, safety and
liveability. Such a narrow understanding of planning assumes that good
quality urban spaces, housing and general well-being can be generated
merely following a set of numeric guidelines, without consideraton of
the social-economic constraints and needs of the inhabitants. Building
codes arent necessarily suited to the partcular conditons experienced by
people on low and inconsistent incomes and should not be implemented
without critcal questoning of their suitability and greater impact on
peoples lives. The alliance is actvely pressuring the approval process of
upgrading schemes to open up and consider readjustng norms such that
the formalizaton process is more accessible to needs on the ground.
Questoning of the appropriateness of rules and regulatons, and their
impact on how the city redevelops is not likely to come from the government
or the communites alone as both are working under highly constrained
resources, and pressures to turn over slum areas, the workshop brought to
the forefront our responsibility as the third sector designers, engineers,
etc. to bring to the table the needed resources, atenton, creatvity,
experimentaton and openness to work through sensitve alternatves. This
does not mean handing over designs for communites to make work on
their own, but instead facilitatng a process of realizing possible scenarios
and evaluatng impacts, desirability and feasibility together; this requires
100 101
we however develop and share succesful strategies, such that each site of
formalizaton is not startng from scratch, can help with this tension.
Codes dont make areas safe, healthy or liveable, human practces
do. Unpacking the reasons behind regulatons around health, safety and
liveability can help to develop alternatve, more inclusive methods of
securing peoples safety and the quality of their environment.
For example regulatons around fre safety demand a partcular
road width for greater accessibility by the fre truck, and easy, quick
evacuaton of people. An alternatve soluton, proposed by Bagon Nayon
community in Barangay ,has been to negotate a swap agreement with
factories that sit on their land, whereby the factories are asked to create
exit ways through the occupied areas in exchange for remaining there. This
negotaton, in combinaton with widening some of the alleys to achieve
the minimum 2m width, and cleaning of street cluter to make the transit
fuent, and fnally identfying sites for a fre protecton water supply ofers
an alternatve system than that of the stand fre safety code under BP220.
It is possible to achieve health and safety requirements without strictly
complying to these regulatons, by incorporatng strategies of ofen already
existng social infrastructure to complement physical adjustments .
Design, employed in the broadest sense, is key to mediate between
communites and governments; redrawing the line between legal and illegal,
and complementng material infrastructure with organizatonal structures,
communites can submit upgrading proposals that touch a meetng point
between their aspiratons and available means, and the government
guidelines. Furthermore, with the assistance of technical supporters the
communites are able to substantate their claims and convincingly justfy
their challenging and adjustment of the law. Planning is not merely an act
of creatng subdivision schemes to ft a set of standard requirements, but
instead ought to be seen as a complex process in which many other aspects
need to be taken in consideraton. Partcipatory planning as an actve, open
process was one of the central issues during the CAN workshop, in which
communites worked with i internatonal teams of technical supporters to
overcome obstacles in upgrading, and prepare plans for upgrading.
careful balancing of available resources and assets, weighing out the costs
and benefts of diferent choices and sacrifces, while challenging partcular
aspects of BP220 norms.
There is not one way to plan a cluster of houses, or neighbourhood;
when we play with plot sizes, setbacks, constructon methods, infrastructure
arrangements, sharing of resources and ammenites, diferent social
propertes emerge, with diverse impacts on livelihoods, afordability,
and sense of well being. Owning a private toilet will always be the most
desirable opton, however if resources are limited this wish can come at a
great cost.What we can do is create a space of dialogue which allow people
to weigh out the costs and benefts of having a communal toilet, versus a
semi-public toilet versus a private toilet, for example. Maybe it will turn
out that the space saved in sharing such an amenity can hold a playground,
or another family, or the constructon costs suddenly become afordable,
which is worth more to the community. The atenton and tme needed
to facilitate sensitve discussions and design is met with and impulse to
apply standardized regulatons to formalize areas as quickly as posssible. If
Itshardtogetasensefor
whatnewlayoutswillfeel
likeontheground,and
howwillimpactonpeople.
Ifpeopleactouttheir
actvitesat1:1scalethe
realimpactsareinstantly
realized,beingagreat
triggertodiscussbeter
layoutandreconfgureof
housingandopenspaceso
thatcommonspacesare
maximized.
102 103
Over the course of the workshop the diverse practtoners together with
communites brought enthusiasm, excitement, passion and creatve
solutons to overcome the problems being faced by communites in Metro
Manilla. By targetng how programs are inaccessible to communites and
highlightng the botlenecks in the upgrading process while recommending
Realizing
thecity
scalein
Manila
Capitalizing
on an event:
whats next?
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
GrouppictureinValenzuela,
attheendoftheworkshop.
solutons to strengthen community-driven acton for land tenure and
housing at the city scale, the workshop helped to bridge the gap between
government-led housing and land programs and communites.
Community-driven initatves in Metro Manila have been happening for
a while, but the CAN workshop was an opportunity to consolidate and
expose the collectve achievements of the Alliance to each other for the
frst tme while elicitng recogniton, validaton, and support for scale of
the achievements from the local government and local stakeholders, and
greater CAN network. The involvement of various partners, and their
commitment to the whole process rather than only parts, is vital to the
success of the upgrading process.
Such a large-scale endeavour needs to be complemented by the
fnancial support and city-level funding. Through the workshop actvites
new communites were exposed to the management, and workings of
CDFs. CDFs give the space for communites to take initatve, and lead their
104 105
Workingtogether
There are so many facets of teamwork that are exposed at diferent
tmes and in diferent contexts. Teamwork is so crucial in this process,
weallknowthebeneftsbutmoreofenthannotweforgettomenton
thatwearemoreproductvewithinateamnotonlybecauseofthejoint
knowledge but more the compensaton of an individuals limitaton in
strengthandenergy.InsuchateamlikeIhadinthePhilippines,therea
numberofdynamicandmotvatedpeopleandinsuchaprocessasthe
peoplesprocess,thereisalargeamountoffacetmeandefortinvolved
(whichwealladmitisoneofthegreatestthingsaboutthiswork)butit
canalsoburnyououtveryquickly.WhatIfound,asIwasbuildingup
mystaminaforthisworkisthatalotoftheteamwillcompensatefor
yourlimitatonswithoutanyformalindicatonofthemdoingso.Inother
words,peoplestepinwhentheyseeagap,notforstatusorformeritbut
togettheworkdonethattheybelievein.Thisisnotsomethingyousee
inmanyworkplacesandIdonotknowwhattoatributeitto,perhaps
the energy of the people involved in such a dedicaton to change the
situaton,perhapstheprocessofempowermentitself,perhapsthebelief
onehas.itcouldbemultplereasons.Thisisarefreshingbenefttome,
somethingIdidnotexpectatsuchalargescaleofwork.(zk)
MayorofValenzueala
attheCANregional
workshop
Shifingthefocus:
projectstoprogrammes
Our role as community practtoners ofen begins working project by
project,inourthinkingandfnanciallyinourbudgetng.Thisconventonal
processiswhatgovernmentsanddonorsarefamiliarwithandpreferto
workwith,asstand-aloneprojectsaremorequantfableandlessrisky.
Howeverasorganizatonsgrowandpracttonersgetmoreexperienced
and networked in the feld we are pushing for a more process based
governancesystem,wherebytheprojectbasedoutlookisonlyastepping
stonetoalargergoal.(zk)
own devleopment, with the support of Government and other partes, this
can become a process that is insttutonalized and supports the acton of
simultaneous change at a city level.
During the workshop members developed a greater awareness
of how the upgrading in high food risk areas impacts other communites.
This awareness grew from thinking about the impacts of development on
how fooding is experienced by their neighbours, to impactng the state
of fooding in the city more generally. As more communites started to
develop more holistc, integrated and environmentally sensitve visions
for a beter food management soluton, new platorms for social change
partnerships and collaboraton were created. PACSII and HPFPI ofces are
holding a Natonal Mapping actvity for the communites of Valenzuela
later this year to take a new approach to food management forward.
With many communites meetng each other for the frst tme,
togehter with the focus on city-scale and with the energy and intensity of
the workshop, these community members began to realise they are not
solely responsible for the housing environmental problems they face, nor
can they solve them alone, instead solutons must emerge at a larger scale
discussion involving local government, universites and professionals who
believe in people driven change. Furthermore community leaders, HPFPI,
PACSII and the Mayor of Valenzuela have signed an MOU to contnue with
this people driven process towards a city-wide upgrading plan in Valenzuela.
106 107
Knowledgeisalways
acquiredthroughsome
formofpartcipatonina
communityofpractce.
SilviaGherardi
andDavideNicolini
108 109
Collectvehousingincentral
Vinh.Largefamiliesshare
just30sqmsosuspended
andtumbledownillegal
extensionsmadewithwood
andmetalarefrequent.
deep-rooted local practces and inevitable development pressures. While
rural areas of the country contnue to exist in a distant past made of local
knowledge handed down through traditonal practces , the cites rapidly
become a new metropolis. Some mountains are stll untouched and coastal
areas deserted; meanwhile sites both in the north and the south are among
the most touristc places in the world. The youngest generatons are both
curious and fascinated by new and internatonal new trends, yet protectve
and proud of their culture and natonality.
These dynamics afect even a small city like Vinh, of around
500,000 inhabitants, located in north-central Nghe An Province, on a delta
surrounded by mountains, bordered by the East Sea. From the early 30s,
it developed as a port and banking town, known for its strong working
class, revolutonary movements, and important fgures such as Ho Chi
Minh President. The cityscape is characterised by low-rise housing with
standardized narrow frontages and deep interiors, houses are brick, typically
pastel coloured and highly decorated. Dilapidated collectve housing in
the form of row houses and apartment blocks is also quite common. They
sit in sharp contrast with the new high rise buildings scatered around the
central area of the city, the result of the Doi Moi (Renovaton), a series
of economic reforms initated in 1986 with the goal of creatng a socialist-
oriented market economy mixing state control with market mechanisms
and external private investments.
Aviewfrompost-DoiMoi
Vietnam:acommunist
propagandabillboardwith
acorporatesponsor,and
HoChiMinhsstatueinthe
background.
Only forty years ago Vietnam was desecrated and dreadfully wounded
by the war, but amazingly it has revived mainly due to its populatons
strong character. Its a country extremely rich in culture and environmental
beautes, with 4000 years of awkward history and fascinatng legends.
Vietnam is a single-party Socialist Republic, ofcially espousing
communism. There is an electoral system, however only politcal
organizatons afliated with, or endorsed by the Communist Party
can partcipate in electons. The Party has a central role in all organs of
government, politcs and society, performing key administratve and
executve functons at all levels together with the relevent unions. The
diferent unions have a hierarchical organizaton similar to the party, and
they have representatve members included in the Government People
Commitees at all levels. The Vietnam Fatherland Front is an umbrella
group, covering mass organizatons such as the General Confederaton of
Labor, the Communist Youth Union and the Womens Union, and is regarded
as representatve of the people, a politcal seat of their power, and for this
reason Vietnams consttuton gives it a special role in the politcal system.
The country experiences many of the growing pains and
contradictons of modernizaton, being contnuously stretched between
VINH,
Vietnam overview
110 111
Working
context,
Vinh
Vinh City CDF and
city-wide partcipaton
Nowadays Vinh is a developing city, expanding quickly from its constructon
and trade-in industries and incorporatng its peripheral rural areas into the
urban context. Since 2005 the government of Vietnam has approved the
development strategy for Vinh to become a frst class city and cultural
and economic hub for the Northern-Central region. At the same tme Vinh
is following a progressive trajectory in urban planning, making room for
partcipatory planning and the needs of poor communites in the urban
and rural areas of the city.
Vinh has been selected as one of ACHRs Big Sister Cites in Vietnam
and plays an important role in ACHRs Asian Coaliton for Community
Acton Programme (ACCA). This is possible due to the Associaton of Cites
of Vietnam (ACVN) and the eforts of the city to support community-
led upgrading of collectve housing and small infrastructure projects
through the establishment of a city-wide Community Development Fund
(CDF). The CDF operates at diferent scales receiving funds from various
internatonal donors and the city government, and acts as a revolving fund
for communites, incentvizing individual community members to organize
themselves into community savings groups. By allowing communites to
access sof loans with longer repayment periods, and oversee upgrading
actvites themselves, the CDF is the principal mechanism supportng poor
peoples partcipaton in decision-making and upgrading actvites in both
urban and rural areas of Vinh.
Following this progressive trajectory in Vinh, the city government
together with ACVN and ACHR invited us to explore new, scalable
methodologies that could strengthen the partcipatory dimension in rural
development planning with the aim of creatng a more integrated and
holistc planning process, able to include not only physical but also socio-
cultural, environmental and economic aspects in the development of Hung
Hoa Commune.
HungNghicommunity,the
frstandmostsuccessful
CDF-runhousingupgrading
projectsinVinh.
CDFsoperatonacross
diferentscalesinVinh.
112 113
Huu Nghi community: our home in Vinh
We had the great opportunity to live in Huu Nghi Community, with the 29
families who are the protagonists of the most successful ACCA housing
project in Vietnam. Previously the families lived in dilapidated collectve
row-houses, facing hard living conditons, lacking support or recogniton
from city authorites.
In 2007, the authorites announced plans to redevelop all
collectve housing in Vinh using the traditonal top-down approach, using
in-situ upgrading or relocaton. But thanks to the ACCA programme,
ACVN and Vinh Citys community development fund (CDF), as well as
help from the community architects, the families were able to re-design
their houses themselves, which allowed them to negotate with the city
authorites and fnally get their plans approved. The new houses are built
with recycled materials and share walls and foundatons, and the loan was
repaid by organizing an efcient system of community savings. This case
set a powerful precedent for housing policies in Vietnam.
What it is amazing about this place is the feeling of pride,
happinessand solidarity of the people. Here everything works like in a big
family! Our favourite part of the day was in the afernoon when everybody
came back from work to play badminton in the street. Everyone is chatng
and laughing, mothers run around babies giving them food, kids invent
new games every day, and some collect vegetables in the garden. We
will never forget their lively street partes with traditonal wine, fruit, and
techno music to dance all night!
We will also never forget our host Mr Hung, who played a
fundamental role in the re-development, thanks to his strong character,
heart, and amazing leadership skills. When we asked him what the strength
of the process was, he said that without common sense and solidarity
among the community they wouldnt be able to do anything. He helped
us with precious advice, encouragement, and the atenton and care of a
father. His family welcomed us in their world with great availability and an
open mind, teaching us important values and principles of their culture
and real life which will stay with us forever.
114 115
LandscapeinHungHoa
Communewithwater
acquacultureandfshing.
Goingtoworkbetween
paddyfeldsandirrigaton
canals,whichcharacterize
thelandscapearoundVinh.
To contribute to the pro-actve engagement of the people and
the intentons of inclusivity and partcipaton of the city government, we
introduced community mapping as a tool to facilitate a dialogue between
communites themselves and between them and the government. The
purpose was to fnd common problems and solutons in the area, and
generate together a new vision for Hung Hoa commune based on the
needs, realites and priorites of the people.
The six months work process in Hung Hoa was achieved in six
phases, however, this doesnt mean that the process happened linearly.
The division into phases came out at the end of the process, in hindsight,
only afer having the whole picture. Even if we had a general idea
about what we were trying to achieve, and organize in each actvity, the
overall evoluton of the process was contnuously stepping forward and
backward, depending on the diferent resources, energies and availability
of communites.
The work in Vinh City unfolded at Hung Hoa Commune, an area facing
transformaton from rural to urban environment. In Vietnam the
commune is an adminstratve entty referring to rural areas of the city,
while the urban parts are referred to as wards. Hung Hoa is located in
the outskirts of Vinh, stll preserving typical Vietnamese rural features
including strong social networks, traditons, and livelihoods such as rice
farming, aquaculture, fshing, and sage cultvaton used for handicrafs.
Hung Hoa has been beneftng from the atenton of the city
government, as community groups in some of the hamlets have been
actve in partcipatng in development actvites by forming savings groups
and accessing the CDF to fnance upgrading of small infrastructure, mainly
roads, as well as disaster relief projects.
Participatory
mapping
in Hung Hoa
116 117
Mappingtheimpactsoffooding
andwaterpollutonacrossHungHoa
In the frst workshop, representatves from hamlets across Hung Hoa
mapped the impacts of fooding and associated problems of water
polluton experienced in their commune. By using diferent coloured
papertorepresentvaryingdegreesofimpact(high,mediumandlow)we
were able to see the geography of both fooding and water polluton,
morespecifcallyhowvulnerability,exposureandimpactdifersbetween
hamlets,andfuctuatesacrossthecommune.Atfrstsightthismapmight
looksimplebutitisinthissimplicitywhereitsrealstrengthsare.Looking
inmoredepththemapcanbeseenasacreatvespacegivingthepeople
theopportunitytovisualizeandraiseawarenesswithintheircommunity,
andtothegovernentaboutthemangitudeofimpactsoffooding.Atthe
sametmethefoodmapisaspacewherepeoplelearnttoworktogether
foracommoninterest.Weusedthismapinlatermeetngstointroduce
discussions about the fooding, where it acted as an important catalyst
to inspire the leaders who had not been able to partcipate in the frst
workshoptogetonboardandsupportthecommunitymappingprocess.
(jb)
Womanpresentingamapof
floodinginthecommune.
The mapping process in Hung Hoa was kicked of with a workshop organised
with the leaders of the nine hamlets comprising Hung Hoa commune,
the city and commune government representatves, with the support of
Tee and Minh Chau from ACHR, Nga from ACVN/CAN, Boram working at
UN-HABITAT in Hanoi, and very important for us, the Hung Hoa Learning
Team. The workshop sought to bring diferent actors together to discuss,
meet each other, and identfy the common development priorites of the
commune. Community representatves partcipated in a mapping exercise,
mapping the impact of fooding across their commune.
Partcipatory
mapping
inHungHoa
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
Afternoonintheriverside
hamletofHoaLam,setfor
relocationbylocalautorithies.
Startng with
community work
118 119
Ourvoices:HungHoalearningteam
Without translators we wouldnt have been able to do anything, so
as a priority we focused on organizing a group of students to help us
converse. The vice chairman of Vinh City contacted us with the vice
chairmanofVinhUniversity,whoarrangedforustoworkwithstudents
of the Foreign Languages Department. Afer a selecton based on the
studentsmotvatons,wesetuptheHungHoaLearningTeam,agroup
of 18 English-speaking volunteers who were enthusiastc to work with
communites.Atthebeginningwethoughtthatitwasamaterofpure
translaton, but soon we realized how important it was the students
understoodthesignifcanceofpartcipatoryplanning,andwhatitmeans
inthecontextofVinh,forthemtoreallybeabletohelpus.Sometmes
wehadtosuggesttheyuseamoretactulattude,orstopthemfrom
drawing on the maps, or request they translate our questons to the
community, rather than answering on their behalf. Translators are not
passiveactorsinpartcipatorypractce;theyneedtounderstandcarefully
communitydynamicsandbetrulyengaged,otherwisetheactviteswill
defnitelysufer.Weexperiencedamutuallearningprocessnotonlywith
communitesbutalsowiththestudents.Theymadeusawareaboutsome
culturalaspectsandlocalmanners,fundamentalforoursocialrelatons
andworkandweguidedthemfromscratchintheprocessofcommunity
partcipaton. Gradually we built a relatonship of trust and were able
to work as a team ensuring the meetngs and mapping sessions were
benefcialandconstructve.Thiswasanamazingachievementforallof
usandsomestudentsbecamereallypassionateandstrongbelieversin
theprocessofpeople-drivenchange.(bd)
The impact of fooding on their livelihoods and living conditons
was identfed as the common priority and most pressing problem of the
area, and they mapped how the yearly fooding impacts the nine hamlets
diferently.
At the same tme, a mapping exercise was conducted with the
community members in the hamlet of Hoa Lam. People in this hamlet are
fshermen living on the river banks, and are going to be relocated to another
area as they are signifcantly afected by fooding once a year. The aim of
the mapping was to explore and understand community relatons in their
current setlement, to be taken in consideraton for the new relocaton site.
This workshop was an important platorm supportng people in
conductng an inital survey of the situaton and identfying the development
priorites to be explored in more depth later. The mapping workshop was
also a way of introducing the mapping process in Hung Hoa and building
support and credibility in it. Also, by people coming together, discussing,
and working through their commonly held problems, relatonships were
formed between community people themselves as well as with government
representatves, producing a good environment for collaboraton in the
future.
MappinginHoaLam:
preliminarymeetingsand
theworkshopitself.
120 121
MappinginHoaLam.
Learninghowtofacilitate

OurmappingactvityinthehamletofHoaLam,willstayinourmemory
forever! It was extremely confusing and not efectve at all in terms of
outcomes.Itstartedwithabriefintroducton(which,inhindsight,wasnt
very clear!) followed by getng people to group themselves according
to their neighbourhood relatons. Each group took the big papers and
started hastly drawing their houses and an approximate subdivision of
the hamlet. From the beginning they talked loudly, and in the end were
literally shoutng to each other and the groups kept going in this way
fortwohours.ItwasimpossibletoheartranslatonsbytheVietnamese
students and difcult to interrupt the lively discussions to ask what was
beingincludedinthemap.EvenourACVNcolleagueswhocametohelp
usthatday,founditchallengingtomanagethesituaton.Wehadnoidea
whatwasgoingon!Orhowtobringanydirectontowhatappearedtous
astotalchaos!
Following the mapping session we met with the students/
translatorstogiveusfeedbackabouttheexercise,andhelpusunderstand
whathappened.Apparentlypeoplethoughtweweretheretofacilitatethe
constructonoftheirnewhouses,sowhatthegroupshaddonewastodraw
theircurrentplots,includingthenamesofthefamilymembers.Itturned
out the heated discussions were a debate among neighbours over the
truenumberofpeoplelivingineachhouseassomeweretryingtoinclude
their sons or daughters who already had a home elsewhere. Possibly
they thought by reportng more family members they could be enttled
to more land on the new site. Moreover, there was a misunderstanding
ofthetermcommunityrelatonships:ratherthanmappinghowpeople
in the hamlet manage their lives together or they perceive themselves
as a community, they took the queston literally to mean the number
of relatves living in the setlement and where. From this experience we
learnttobemoreorganized,morecoordinatedandclearinexplainingour
roleandthereasonwhyweweretheretothecommunity,aswellasthe
purposeofthemappingactvity.
Mapping sessions improved in the other hamlets, becoming
moreproductveandcalm,howevergetngpeopletounderstandour
positonandkindofsupportwewantedtoprovideremainedachallenge
throughoutourtmethere.Probablytheyhadaclearpictureonlyatthe
endofthe6monthsprocess! (bd)
122 123
knew the people of the commune well so were able to advise on how best
to structure the mapping exercise so it would be successful.
The meetngs started with a discussion identfying the problems
and opportunites that the people were experiencing in each hamlet,
as well as prioritze topics people felt were more important to discuss
further and visualize with mapping. Across the nine hamlets fooding and
associated problems were the main topics of discussion, and we thought
about diferent ways in which the mapping could help to respond to this
problem.
We also conducted transect-walks guided by the community
representatves, giving us the opportunity to see with our own eyes some
of the problems people were facing in the area, and learn from their
We organised an inital briefng session in each of the nine hamlets prior to
the mapping actvity, to facilitate community engagement in the mapping
process. We felt very anxious but excited every tme we we jumped on the
motorbike and arrived at the community hall, wondering who will show
up and whether or not there would be interest in the process. Many tmes
we were welcomed with karaoke and the traditonal Nghe An province tea,
and typically the representatves of diferent unions such as women, youth,
army, and farmers unions would be present to partcipate in the meetngs.
Some union representatves had deep understanding of the
partcular situaton and history of the area, but possibly most importantly,
Getng ready
for mapping
Partcipatory
mapping
inHungHoa
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
Below,andnextpage:pre-
mappingmeetingsinvarious
hamletsaround
HungHoa.
124 125
Walkingonthe
embankmentin
PhongYen
WalkinginPhongYen
OurtransectwalkinPhongYenwasoneofthemostlivelyandrichest
walkswehad.Wewereledbytheheadofthehamlet,veryyoung,kind
andavailabletogetherwithtwooldervice-leaders.Aninterestngteam
inacontextwherethehierarchyofpower,partcularlyrelatedtoageand
roles,isquitestrict.
Theyshowedusthestrengthsandweaknessesofthehamlet:the
conditonoftheroads,thelackofproperdrainage,andtheembankment
constructedbythegovernmentwhichpreventsfoodingononesidebut
worsens it on the other. They then showed us some traditonal older
houses which some people stll maintain with great care, the ponds
foraquaculture,thepaddyfeld,thesedgeplantaton,aplantusedto
makehandcrafs,andpointedtoaforestinthedistancetellingushowit
protectsthemfromfooding,andcontributestocleanwaterandair.
They also told us the story of a princess, who was given the
landbyhergrandfather,theking,totakerefugeinduringhardtmes.It
seemsduringawarshehidthere,andthehamletoriginatedaroundher
presence.Thecommunityhadbuiltatempleinmemoryoftheprincess,
that they showed us with great pride, the temple is also a museum
holdingherbelongingsandancientdocuments.Oneoftheleaderstakes
care of it with devoton, and he explained how the use of the temple
has changed over tme, and that it was a secret meetng place for
revolutonary groups during the Ho Chi Minh era. As the Vietnamese
culturetaughtus,wepaidourrespecttotheprincessstandingbarefoot
onasedgematinfrontofthealtar,keepingincenselitbetweenjoined
hands,weclosedoureyesandbowedthreetmesbeforepinningitina
bowlfullofash.(bd)
Thetransectwalksin
KhanHau,HoaLam,
andPhongPhu.
responses, practces and ideas to resolve them. We also visited important
places to the hamlet such as temples and rice felds, learning how people
live and work together. Finally the community representatves and other
members organized a local team, to be responsible for organizing the
mapping actvity, actng as our point of reference and main contact with
the hamlet.
All these actvites worked together as a set of strategies to facilitate
community engagement and incentve ownership of the mapping process
by the people. It proved to be successful in building understanding between
diferent groups such as the young, old, and women on how mapping could
work for their interests, as well as for the interests of the whole hamlet.
The actvites were also an opportunity for people to discover ways to get
organised using their internal resources as well as existng community
structure to work together for common purposes.
126 127
Diferencesandtheirimpactinourvisits
In each hamlet we visited we experienced diferent responses to our
presence by the communites, and diferent levels of interest in the
mapping process. Some of them where welcoming and curious, others
couldseeinthisprocessanopportunityandtookownershipofit,while
othercommuniteswereskeptcalanddidnthaveaninterstpartcipatng,
despitespendingendlesshourstryingtoconvincethemaboutitsvalue.
We notced that it was in the more disadvantaged hamlets, like Phong
Yen,wherediscussionsfowedmoresmoothly,peopleweremorewilling
to share their situaton with us, and transect walks were richer. Also
out of these hamlets some of the best maps were produced, and some
representatves played leading roles in later stages of the process. The
diferenceinresponsesbetweencommuniteswasevidentandmadeus
askourselves,why?WhyifinthebigpictureHungHoaisanareawhere
peopleshareacommonlifestlyeandculture,andareequallyafectedby
thefood,thenwhyaresomepeoplereluctanttopartcipate?Theremightbe
manyanswers,butfromourexperiencewecansaythatmoredisadvantaged
communitesweremoreopentotrynewwaysandriskmoreinorderto
bringchangetotheirlivingconditons.Andweconsideredthisasagreat
resource,bringingenergyandinitatvetothemapping,sothattheprocess
gainedstrengthandscaleduptolevelsweneverthoughtitwouldhad.(jb)
Oppositepage:group
picturesofsomeofthelocal
teamssetupinthehamlets.
Below:headofPhongQuang
hamlettalkingindepthabout
theproblemsofthearea.
128 129
To initate each mapping session we brought forward topics raised in the
previous discussions, chose which topics to explore in more depth, and
assigned a focus group to map each topic. Across the hamlets, peoples
main interest was to map the drainage and associated problems caused
by fooding. In parallel to problems mapping, another group mapped the
resources and positve aspects of their hamlet, including the saving groups.
All hamlets used the existng government map as a base for their
mapping, however some hamlets had to complete the map by hand as
not all the informaton was present. The food map was diferent in every
hamlet. Some mapped the existng drainage channels identfying and
prioritzing the ones that needed upgrading. Other hamlets mapped
solutons, identfying the fow of water in one partcular drainage channel,
and ideas on how to get the water to fow out of the commune beter.
People also included important geographical features in the area such as
the lower and higher ground, as well as the sources and sites of water
polluton, and the areas more impacted by the food.
Some actvites went beyond mapping. For example in Phong
Quang afer drawing an accurate drainage plan including technical
devices for improving the system, people then worked on a cost
estmate. They made a list of materials and cubic meters needed and
calculated the cost of each, as well as the total amount. The result was
a very high fgure and people were quite discouraged, but with a bit
of encouragement they started to discuss how to reduce the costs.
Mapping
priorites
Partcipatory
mapping
inHungHoa
Followingpage:mappingthe
drainageandsavingsgroups
inPhongYen.
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
130 131
Arepresentative
fromtheVeterans
Unionexplainsa
mapidentyfingmain
drainagechannelsand
solutionsforabetter
drainageinPhongPhu.
They ended up cutng the labour costs (as they realized a lot of people
in the hamlet have building skills) and uncovering ways to get some of the
materials for cheaper prices. In this way the community discovered and
reorganized their social capital untl the total cost was signifcantly reduced,
understanding the value of doing it themselves.
Thepowerofaline

The mapping sessions were a way to explore both the positve and
negatveaspectsofpeopleslivesinabroadsense. It sounds like an
easyexercise,butactuallyitwashardtoimplement!Vietnamesepeople
aregenerallyverypractcalandrealistc,wantngtofocusonthepresent,
onthecurrentconstraintsandmainissues.Everyminutetheydedicated
to working with us was an investment; it needed to have meaning for
them,aclearpurposeandanobjectve.Thiswassoclearintheirmind
that at the beginning they asked us to pay them to partcipate in the
meetngs, since that tme with us could have been used in the paddy
feld.Itwasalongtmebeforetheyfeltthatsuchtmeinvestmentwas
forthem,andnotforus!Toencouragepeopletotalkaboutthepositve
aspectswetrieddiferentwaysofaskingquestonsabouttheirlivelihood,
theirtraditons,communityeventsandinternalwaysoforganizaton...
But the reacton always was to focus on the fooding issue and the
possible drainage system, this was their priority and the need to deal
withitbecamethefocalpointofeverythingwedid.Acrossthehamlets,
as soon as the mapping session started people were keen to draw
the drainage lines; the meaning and strength of all our work with the
communityisembeddedinthoselines,anditwasthroughthisissuethat
peoplewerekeentomobilizeandworktogether.Yetinthinkingabout
possible drainage solutons, community members started to refect on
theirassets,andexploretheavailabilityofdiferentresources,creatnga
spacetothinkaboutplanningtheirfuture.Withoutfooding,forexample,
theywillbeabletoenjoytworiceharvestsinsteadofone,improvingtheir
livelihoodsandlifeingeneral.Talkingaboutpossiblescenarioswiththe
improved drainage system, allowed us to explore together community
lifeinthehamletswithapositveattude,getngattheendwhatwe
weretryingtoachieve,probablywrongly,atthebeginning...
(bd)
In mapping resources people think about the diferent assets that
existed in their hamlet and community. These include fnancial assets such
as saving groups as well as environmental, economic, and cultural resources.
Sometmes, they also identfed the services and infrastructure that were
important for them including schools, hospitals, and sports areas both currently
existng as well as needed.
As an overall result all the hamlets produced a map depictng the
drainage and associated problems caused by fooding as well as their resources.
All maps were shared and presented to all the people involved in the mapping
exercise, where everyone had the opportunity to express their concerns as
well as start thinking on how they could develop a soluton together. Some
hamlets began to see the potental of saving groups in supportng infrastructure
upgrading actvites, while others began thinking about arguments they could
use to negotate with the government. In this way the mapping was successful
in supportng community mobilisaton across diferent levels.
132 133
Adaptng
Theactvitystartedwithsomewomen,mainly
membersofthewomenunion,tryingtomake
senseofagovernment-mademapofthearea.
Our plan had been to map the members of
each savings groups, and locate their houses
on the map. It seems like a simple process
right?Howeverafer30minutesofdiscussion
and confusion, I could see that the women
were struggling to read the map and locate
their houses, and because of this were losing
interest. So my instnct was to intervene, and
fipthemapovertoitsblankside
For a moment I thought that the
exercisewasover,assomeofthewomenwere
abitshockedfromthischange,however,slowly
they started to map the informaton from
scratch,accordingtotheirownunderstanding
of where the families were located within
the hamlet. The result was great! Initally I
wasnotveryconvincedasIcouldseealotof
imperfectonsinthemap,butIquicklyrealised
howpowerfulthismapreallywas,aswomen
could proudly present it to other members
of the community confdently and sharing
importantinformaton.Thisexperiencetaught
me the importance of being engaged and
always aware of the moment as facilitator,
andtheneedtoadaptto,followandincentve
peoplesenergyandcreatvity.
(jb)
Awomanpresentstothe
hamletthewomensavings
groupmap.Itshowsthe
spatialdistributionofthe
savingsnetworks,thatarenot
integratedyet.
134 135
Lessonsfromleadership
During our tme in Vietnam we experienced the importance of having
good leadership for development processes of partcipaton to succeed.
This might seem obvious, but considering the hierarchical structure of
the Vietnamese politcal system and society, this element is essental,
and the mapping process would have never succeeded if it was not for
the presence of certain characters. Very interestng leaders operated at
diferentlevelsinthecity,andtheircapacitytomakethenecessarylinks
between communites and diferent levels of government, enabled the
scaling-upofcommunityinitatestothecitylevel.FromMrHung,ourhost,
welearnttheimportanceofhavingthecapacitytomobilizecommunity
members to work together for common goals, and the need to use the
rightstrategieswhichpeoplecanunderstandtoachievethesegoals.From
Mr. Chinh, the Vice-chairman of Vinh City Government, we learnt the
importanceofhavinganopenmind,beingabletoseetheopportunites
in applying partcipatory methods and initatves to development in the
city. In Hung Hoa, Mr. Coung, the Vice chairman of Hung Hoa Peoples
Commitee(theCommunesauthority)taughtustheimportanceofhaving
a deep understand of how people think and act in the communites, in
ordertoencouragethemtocollaboratewithoneanother.Leadershipwas
anessentalelementinhelpingpeopletoorganizeandworktogetherin
creatngacommunemapandactonplan.
(jb)
LeaderofKhanHau
presentingthemapofhis
hamlet.
A meetng was organised involving the heads of the nine hamlets, together
with the relevant union representatves who had key roles in the mapping
actvites, with the support of Linh, a community architect from Hanoi and
Tam, a student of Vinh University.
All the maps the communites had made earlier in the process,
representng the channels and ducts to be upgraded, were exhibited
around the conference room, so each leader could present the map
made in his hamlet, and people could look closely at the maps from other
hamlets.The common priority was stll the fooding, but unlike the inital
meetng, the issue was explored in far more detail while startng to look
at possible solutons. While the lively discussion contnued, we layed out
a big base map of the entre commune, and and people started flling it in
using the hamlet maps as a reference. The channels in need of upgrading
or constructons in the single hamlets joined together, and the hamlet
problems became commune problems. Moreover, the diference between
the main ducts connectng the hamlets and the small connectons located
within them became more prominent, and the map started representng
the drainage as an operatve system of the entre commune connected to
the city.
People also discussed how to prioritze the interventons. From
discussing the problems together it was realised the main drainage
channels, although not performing so well, already existed across the
commune, and it was the small connectons between, located within
Thinking at scale
Partcipatory
mapping
inHungHoa
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
136 137
the hamlets, that were mostly absent. It was agreed that though the
main channels did need atenton, it could be done later, and it was
more important to upgrade the small connectons frst, one-by one, with
the involvement of the entre commune. They also felt it was easier to
manage implementaton, hamlet-by-hamlet, as well as easier to mobilise
and organise the savings groups at this scale. The representatves of the
Womens Union proposed to organize a grounp to coordinate the process
at the commune level, including representatves from each hamlet. This
meetng was fundamental for scaling up the process from the hamlet level
to the commune level, and for people to acknowledge the strength of
working and organizing together at a larger scale, considering the physical
benefts as well as the more intangible ones in terms of motvaton and
spirit, when taking acton collectvely.
Mappingthedrainage
acrosshamlets,atthe
communelevel.
Thewomanpresentngthemap
Duringonemeetngtheheadofoneofthehamletswasabsent.Whenthe
tmecametopresentthedrainagemapforthathamlet,weaskedwho
couldreplacetheheadofthehamletinpresentngthemapandawoman
stoodup.
She presented the map carefully and clearly, explaining the
conditons of the drainage channels and ducts in the hamlet as well as
theproposedsolutons.Thiswasaveryimportantmomentforanumber
ofreasons.Alltheleadersofthehamletsweremen,soshewasthefrst
woman presentng a drainage map to the other hamlets, but also, in
Vietnam,likeinmanyothercountries,issuesrelatedtotechnicalaspects
tend to be a male feld. Furthermore the woman presentng the map
hadntbeeninvolvedinthemakingofthedrainagemap,asshehadbeen
busy mapping the saving groups. Yet, the depth of understanding and
clarity she displayed in presentng the map demonstrated she had the
knowledge and awareness to talk about the drainage issue exactly like
themen.Theorganizatonofsavingsgroupsisrunmostlybyfemales,and
savings rarely go towards physical upgrading. However, in an informal
conversaton following the presentatons, a group of women were
discussing with some men about the fnancial aspects of the plan, and
oneofthemenaskedWhynotuseoursavingagroupstocreateafund
fordrainage?! (bd)
Womenunionleader
presentingthemapofher
hamlet.
138 139
contribute more money than those that do not. Moreover they organized
a group of volunteer labourers from diferent hamlets to work together
on weekends across the whole commune, explaining to us how this local
labour force signifcantly reduced the costs of constructon.
The questons raised by leaders of Hung Hoa Commune were
mainly related to the issue of land. Indeed, according to the current
regulatons regarding the transformaton of land from rural to urban,
many roads in rural areas need to be widened in order to comply with the
road width regulatons for urban areas.
Betweencompettonandlearning
OnthetouraroundHungChinh,thefrstthingHungHoapeopledidwhen
they started walking the upgraded roads was to measure the width of
the road with steps. They were checking if the width complied with the
governmentstandards.Oneofthemevenbrokeofabranchandstarted
measuringwithitandasked:Thisis3mwide,not3.5m...why?.The
guideexplainedthattheroadhadbeenconstructedbeforetheregulaton,
and since it was very well maintained it was tolerated. In the same way
Hung Hoa people scanned with critcal eyes the conditon of the houses
andtheirmaintenance,thegardens,thewidthofthedrainageductsand
howtheywerecoveredetc.OnthewaybacktheyrefectedHungHoais
morebeautfulthanHungChinh,andwecandomuchbeterthanthem;
attheendofthedaytheirdrainageisnotthatgood!.
Vietnamese people can sometmes be quite compettve,
comparingthemselvestoothersandtryingtobethebeterone.Thisis
goodasitcreatesanincentvetotakeactonanddothebestpossible,but
itcanalsopreventpeoplefrombeingopen,appreciatngandlearningfrom
otherpeoplesachievements.Weasked:Whatarethepositveaspectsof
theprocessinHungChinh?totriggeraconversatonaboutwhattheyd
learnt,andtheypointedtohowwellpeopleweremobilizedthere,andthats
it!However,thewaytheydiscussedthefnancial,organizatonalaspects
androadstandardsinHungHoafromthenon,wasclearlyinfuencedby
the visit, and also evident in their acton plan. Probably inside they are
awareofwhattheytookawayfromthesitevisittoHungChinh,andhowit
wasimportantforthem,onlytheydidnotwanttoadmitit!(bd)
Scenesfromtheexchange
visit:arrivalatHungChinh
communityhall,Hung
Hoaleadermesuringthe
roadwithastick,andthe
participantsonthewayback
afterthefieldvisit.
Two important actvites were organized with the support of Minh Chau
from ACHR and Linh, community architect from Hanoi: a one-day feld visit
and a meetng for drafing the acton plan.
The feld visit was organized with the invaluable support of Miss
Duong, secretary of Vinh City CDF and member of the Women Union at
the city level. She arranged a group of around 45 people including hamlet
and union leaders of Hung Hoa Commune and two coaches, to give them
the opportunity to visit the Commune of Hung Chinh, another rural area of
Vinh City, previously involved in ACCA program.
The leaders of Hung Chinh Commune shared with Hung Hoas people
their experience and involvement in the ACCA program, including the process
of applying for and receiving small loans from CDF for road upgrading. They
also shared their experiences on how they mobilized families to contribute
to the savings groups, and the system to organize these contributons fairly.
It had been agreed, for example, that those who live beside the road had to
Being inspired by
other experiences
Partcipatory
mapping
inHungHoa
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
140 141
ActonPlanforHungHoa
-Setngupamanagementgroupatthecommunelevel.
-Formingamanagementgroupineachhamlet:
Makingapropersurveyofthepeopletobeinvolvedinsavingactvites;
Hamletleveldrainageplanwithlistofmaterialsneeded,detailedcost
calculatonandcostreductonstrategy.
- Setng up a savings system that balances benefts received from the
upgrading with income. Considering subsidy possibilites of accessing
otherresources(cementfromgovernment,loanforthepoorestetc).
-Communitymeetngs,bringingmoredetailsintoplans,andcalibratng
ofsavinggroupstoprojectedcosts.
-Preparingforimplementaton(mobilizingmoneyandlabour,askingfor
cement).
-Startngconstructon.
RepresentativesofHung
Hoahamletsmakinga
firstdraftactionplanfor
drainageupgrading.
This means that families living adjacent to the road had to give up
part of their land. The leaders of Hung Chinh agreed this was one of the
most difcult parts in the process of road upgrading and explained the ways
they tried to overcome it. For example, all the families beneftng from the
upgraded road also contributed to the cost of setback and reconstructon
(of walls and fences) faced by the families giving up their land; however
they werent able to gather proper compensaton for the loss of land.
This is a concern also for the people in Hung Hoa Commune, so a useful
opportunity to learn from others experiences.
The leaders of Hung Chinh commune then took the people of
Hung Hoa Commune on a transect walk, and we had the chance to see the
upgraded roads and analyse their improved adjacent drainage and sewage
ducts, properly covered and made with cement.
Following the day spent at Hung Chinh commune, we organized
a meetng with the leaders of Hung Hoa Commune, to prepare the
community presentaton for the government. The idea was to draw up a
frst acton plan to be presented with the commune map of the drainage
system. During the meetng we talked through the issues of road standards
and the need to develop the roads and drainage/sewerage systems
together. People wanted the government to accept the drainage as the
main priority, rather than the roads, and when upgrading the drainage
systems by themselves, they agreed to follow the standard road width
regulatons. Another important topic was how to organise the fnancial
aspects and mobilize savings and resources. We discussed the importance
of self-organizaton in terms of people contributons, and explored the
possible establishment of a common fund organized through saving groups
specifcally for implementaton of the drainage plan.
The two-day actvity was long and intense but we defnitely
accomplished a lot; the feld visit with the community of Hung Chinh was
critcal and inspiring, as an opportunity for Hung Hoa community to get
frsthand experience of an upgrading process from inital mobilizaton to
implementaton.
142 143
City government, Ms. Huyen, the chairperson of city Womens Union, and
Ms. Duong, the secretary of the city CDF and member of Womens Union.
The four communes of Vinh City, Hung Hoa, Hung Chinh, Hung Dong
and Nghi Kim are diverse in their experience with community-led driven
upgrading. Nghi Kim commune has a very good experience in mobilizing
people to work together, partcularly about land contributon; Hung Chinh
commune, (which hosted our feld visit) has implemented an ACCA project;
Hung Hoa has the very new experience of community mapping process,
whereas Hung Dong commune has no experience in community-driven
process but is facing several infrastructure problems.
The workshop kicked of with an introducton by Mister Chinh who
emphasized the importance of peoples acton in CDF/ACCA approach,
followed by Minh Chau explaining the ACHR/ACCA program in Asia and in
Vietnam and Ms. Duong presentng a review of ACCA actvites in the past
3 years. Following this we held a short actvity to prioritze the problems,
for this the four communes listed their priorites separately, and then
compared them in a big panel. It turned out waste water management was
the frst priority for all communes, including drainage and sewerage, and all
their related environmental impact.
VinhCitysvice-chairman,
MrChin,talksinfrontof
representativesfromthe
citysruralhamlets.
MisterThefromPhong
Yenhamletpresentingthe
communedrainagemapand
theactionplanofHungHoa
Commune.
A city-wide one day workshop was organized together with Minh Chau from
ACHR, and Linh and Nga from CAN/ACVN on community-driven upgrading
and mapping. The city CDF invited 3-4 leaders from each of the 46 hamlets
making up the rural area of Vinh City, so about 160 community members
were in atendance. Two lecturers from the Architectural Department of
Civil Engineering at Hanoi University were also invited to partcipate, as
well as Mister Chinh, the head of the City CDF and vice-chairman of Vinh
People appropriate
the process!
Partcipatory
mapping
inHungHoa
Mobilisingpeople Design Mapping Scalingup Strategicalliances
144 145
Letnggo
Presentng the community acton plan and
the mapping to the government ofcials and
othercommuneswasanimportantstep,asit
collectedallthepreviousefortswehadmade
withthecommunites.Herethemainlessonfor
uswastoletgoandunderstandthatthiswas
the community space and their opportunity
to demonstrate not only to themselves but
alsotootheractors,thattheywereorganized
with the necessary informaton and future
planningcapacitytocontnuewiththeprocess
alone. For us, young professionals, it was
very rewarding to see all the eforts needed
to initate this process coming together, and
having a very positve response from the
governmentrepresentatveswhowerehappy
to support and even replicate this process
in other communes. This step taught us
the satsfacton to act just as a catalyst for
communityprocessestostart,andhavingthe
capacitytoletgoandbelievinginthepeopleto
contnuetheirprocessbythemselves.
(jb)
Alltheteamfeeling
proudafterthemapping
presentation.
was an opportunity for people from the communes to demonstrate their
real priorites, which were diferent to what the government had previously
thought. Considering the conventonal top-down approach of decision
making in the country, and the strict socio-politcal structure, this small
process set an important precedent in rural development planning in the
city of Vinh.
Returningthemaps

Thisisnotastorybutjustanimage,animageinwords.Attheendofthe
meetng we gathered all the community leaders and representatves of
HungHoatogethertoreturnallthemapsandothermaterialsproduced
during our mapping process. Their expressions were really positve and
they seemed proud, and the impatence they showed waitng for their
turntocollecttheirmapswasquitemoving.Westruggledduringthesix
months to get people to feel some ownership over the process, so that
moment demonstrated to us we had achieved this in some way. It was
probablyduetothefactthatinthisfnalworkshoppeoplewereableto
getawholepictureoftheprocess,tounderstanditdeeply,andasthey
said,torealizethebeneftthatthemappingactviteshadbroughtthem.
Theimageofthemleavingthecommunitycentretogetherasarealteam,
laughingandkiddingwiththerolledmapsundertheirarmslookingready
foranynewchallenges,isoneofthemostbeautfulimagesofourworkin
HungHoaCommune!(bd)
During the priorites exercise the leaders of Hung Hoa shared
again the acton plan with people of the commune, and they decided
which two hamlets would be the frst start on the constructon of small
connecton channels for drainage improvement. They chose Phong Yen
and Phong Phu, the hamlets closest to the urban area and the main
connecton between the city and the commune. The vice-leader of Phong
Yen hamlet then presented the Hung Hoa commune drainage map and the
related acton plan to the government. It was interestng to see the map
made by the community in comparison with the governments map, which
showed the plans for Hung Hoa, and acknowledging that one perfectly
completed the other in terms of informaton and interventons needed.
The government gave very positve feedback showing interest in replicatng
the community-driven mapping process in the other communes of the city.
The meetng was successful in terms of startng a networking process
among the diferent communes at the city level, increasing awareness of
the ACCA programme and CDFs work in the city, and initatng a dialogue
between the city communes and the city government. In partcular, this
146 147
...Thereisnodefnite
methodology.People
havetheirownrhythm.
Peoplesthoughtsand
dreamscannotbe
formatedtoftintobest
practcemodels.
PerweenRahman
148 149
R e f l e c t i o n s
150 151
feelings of panic, laughter, confusion, meetng and working with many
people in diferent places. At some point in the Philippines I consciously
realized this, and suddenly felt full of energy, self-confdence, and lighter.
It came to my mind a piece of a poem, which I once saw in a paintng, we
have to be light like birds not like feathers. Feathers are inert objects that
cant oppose the air sweeping them around; but birds, with their subtle
structure and their mind, are able to fy, navigate the air streams, and tread
wherever they want. Their light fight is not random, it has a directon.
So when they sent me to Kep with Danak I didnt regard it as a
kamikaze operaton, even if it had rather suicidal aspects. At frst I found
it slightly unreasonable that we were posted to Kep alone, with no clear
instructons or orders as I knew we were dealing with extremely serious
issues, and not something to take lightheartedly. But quite quickly I saw it
as a great opportunity instead, and became confdent and relaxed because
I knew that looking around we would fnd the people, energies, and ideas
to set the upgrading process in moton somehow.
I think we professionals should just forget about this concept;
we should stop thinking about ourselves as accumulators of knowledge
and informaton, able to deploy it in practce when we reach an adequate
level. We - as all people - are more like nodes where streams of diferent
knowledges fow, intersect, merge, and may change directon. To me this is
a liberatng thought, which opens the way to endless possibilites.
There are many, many people I want to thank for this learning. They helped
me not only to grow but to become a happier person, which is possibly the
best kind of growth one can experience. I hope through my actons Ill be
able to reciprocate this in some way.
Although I went to Cambodia for a so-called junior professional internship,
I never felt a professional. Indeed, I never even liked the word, with its
technocratc implicatons; but stll, being qualifed as such made me feel in
the beginning some kind of pressure and expectatons from others.
When I was asked at UPDF what I preferred to work on, I
answered: Design with communites! But actually, I found the prospect
of being posted to design something for real with vulnerable people quite
frightening: the impacts on their lives can be large, for beter or for worse,
and I had no clue where to start from; I didnt have enough knowledge,
skills, experience ; basically I felt I was not ready at all.
Now, afer six months, I can say that I am not a professional,
meaning an individual repository of all the knowledge necessary to solve a
problem, and I will never be! But the good thing is that this doesnt mean
that I cant do anything, actually quite the contrary.
Knowledge is scatered across many people and places; what we
can do is go looking for them, bring them together, link ideas, and of course
add ours too. Its a collectve process where everyone gives, everyone
takes, and in the process diferent kinds of knowledge contaminate each
other and produce new knowledges. The meetng of people from diferent
backgrounds and cultures only makes this process more fertle and
powerful, miscommunicaton becomes just a minor issue.
No single person has the soluton, but each of us can contribute
to build one. I didnt understand this overnight, it took me many months,
Francesco
Pasta
152 153
helping people see the value and strength in what they have together, as
building blocks towards a strategy which increases housing security rather
than decreases it, retains socio-cultural practces rather than erases them,
and sees the river as a resource rather than something to fear. I have learnt
so much that would be impossible to learn at a desk, but the following four
will follow me wherever I go:
Lesson 1: People not pipes run the city as quoted by AbdouMaliq
Simone. Whatever your background, however unimportant one feels her
input to be, you have something of great value to contribute to a discussion
about your future, and the future of your city. Ideas of technological and
intellectual salvaton run deep, but knowledge as basic as how the housewife
choses to prepare her home for yearly fooding is equally important to that
of an hydraulogist in regards to planning beter food managment strategies
for the city. Producing spaces of dialogue that enable these knowledges to
work together is vital for the future of our cites.
Lesson 2: Despite shifing a lot between disciplines in my studies
the skill I consistently relied on was diplomacy. For the lucky few diplomacy
comes naturally, but the art of talking with others in a sensitve and efectve
way is exactly that, an art, and potental ramifcatons highly overlooked.
Lesson 3: Crises creates drive, but so does feeling valued. If people
can feel valued for their diferences rather than internalizing condemnaton,
I sense obstacles of mobilizaton would become mute points.
Lesson 4: When you take something for granted its very easy to
lose it, and the more special that something is, the more difcult it is to
retrieve afer its lost. From a public well to a forest, if we can learn how
to appreciate and value what we possess together, whether its at stake of
being lost or not, how to defend its existence will fall into place.
Terimakasih sekali Ivana for your incredible strength, vision,
botomless afecton, vision, and relentless belief in community-driven
change, tmksh juga Sanggar boys, partcularly Muis and Pele, for making
peoples desire to live a beter life possible and being subject to my
contnuous experiements, and Bukit Duri for taking me in with such warm
and open arms, Ive grown a lot, thank-you.
Working with Ciliwung Merdeka I was fortunate to experience frst-hand
how urban redevelopment processes and projects unfold on the ground in
a highly contested area of Jakarta, and are experienced by individuals; from
design and planning (or lack of it as the case may be), communicaton and
socialisaton, to implementaton. Within one realm natonal planning was
brought together with the intmate scale of the habitus; in one conversaton
we would bounce between discussing methodologies towards a collectve
management of Ciliwung River while talking through peoples concerns of
having a strangers wet laundry dripping on their drying rice. The space
produced in this feedback between scales is fertle, creatve, and best of
all burstng with possibilites of collectve acton, however the everyday is
felt to be mundane, so ofen difcult to catch.
I lived in the community of Bukit Duri for over six months. Here
I was not only witness the day-to-day practces acted on the theatre of
the street, but to some degree part of how people make decisions about
both the everyday and the exceptonal; preparing the home for business,
celebratons, or a change of seasons; preparing the street for various
events, making use of her liveliness, openness, protecton and other
oferings; the creatve, and ofen collectve responses to both the daily
hardships and surprise shocks, which together produce the rich kampung
culture. As a stranger immersed in the everyday I had the privilege of
seeing uniqueness in the socio-physical environment otherwise taken for
granted. Most of my tme was spent experimentng with diverse ways of
Ariel
Shepherd
154 155
arrive at solutons in a democratc and open way. It takes tme, and the
process ofen looks simpler than it actually is, but it really does get the job
done in the best way possible.
The DPU feldtrip to Bangkok working with CODI forced me to be
totally immersed in the work and situaton I was in at that tme, however
however that immersion was only a very short tme. For me this internship
was a learning experience and an experiment in fnding a balance between
total immersion, such as the Bangkok experience, and my work in the past
which wasnt immersive in at all. To leave on a positve note, the changes
that have occurred in myself are immense and stll going . This was a true
learning on the job experience and I feel very fortunate to have experienced
this great next step following the Urban Development Planning course at DPU.
Zahra
Kassam
This experience has been a steep learning curve, personally and
professionally. I was outside my comfort zone and felt I was being challenged
in every directon; my eyes saw things I would usually overlook and take for
granted.
During my tme at DPU studying urban development planning we
learned a lot about partcipatory mapping and the noton of social justce,
both have been a great help in my work in Manila. I assisted in scaling-up
all the mapping previously done in Manila, so I was working with maps
almost everyday in preparaton for the workshop. Similarly refectng on
concepts of social justce I was able to really appreciate the great work
being done by PACSII to bring social justce to many urban poor in the city,
I also found that my experience from the Bangkok feldtrip came in useful,
as it opened my eyes for the frst tme to many dynamics and relatons at
play in reality that you dont learn in the classroom. I got to start practcing
the art of thinking on my feet, to be fexible, and to recognize and follow
the paths and opportunites which people open for me. Fluidity is essental
in community work and that is impossible to learn in a classroom alone.
ACHRs famous tagline the people are the soluton was
introduced to me last year, and a year later is as fresh as when I frst heard
it. Working with people on the ground, is now my passion, and it is the
baseline, the core of all interventons. Even though my task was for fnance,
due to circumstances there I was assigned to mapping, and now I believe
more than ever in the power of mapping as a process which allows us to
156 157
practtoners is to fnd the best way to support it.
The process in Hung Hoa allowed me to do exactly this. I understood
the importance of building a strong platorm composed by diferent actors
that can support one another in order to scale-up community initatves at
the city level. I realized the power of having a fexible fnancial system in
place so that money is accessible to the people, giving them the opportunity
to bring benefts to their communites in way that transcend the physical
level. I also learnt to work with the existng community resources, such as
the key people in the communites able to mobilize other members, the
skills and creatvity available within the community people, and the existng
community structure and rhythm allowing people to organize themselves.
During my journey with ACHR I learnt that development work is
about crossing the boundaries between the personal and the professional,
and closing the gap from what divide us from people in the communites
by learning from peoples own initatves and skills. We, professionals, think
that our role is to act and do something or give advice to communites on
what to do, we have many opinions and sometmes we talk a lot. What
I realized is that instead of actng and talking, what it is really useful for
communites is to be able to step back, observe and learn from peoples
own initatves and dreams, and fnd the way to build them stronger. That is
the real skill and it is not easy.
I thank you Somsook, Tee, Nad, Minh Chau, Maurice and all in
ACHR/CAN network for your immense generosity. I thank Vietnam, Mr Hung
and family, all in ACVN, Yen, Tam, Linh, Barbara, Francesco, Ariel, Zahra and
all friends in communites. This tme was and will always remain precious in
my life.
Whatmakesafreburnisspacebetweenthelogs.Abreathingspace.Too
muchofonething,toomanylogspackedtootghtlycandousethefames
justlikeapailofwaterwould.Sobuildingfresrequiresatentontothe
spacesinbetweenasmuchasthewoodafregrowssimplybecausethe
spaceisthereinwhichthefamethatknowshowtoburnwillfnditsway.
JudyBrown
Johanna
Brugman
In the feld life feels more intense, days are longer, the sun seems hoter,
feelings are stronger and emotons can easily make you cry but on the other
hand stars seem to shine more, colors are brighter, your laugh is louder, and
you learn to see beauty in things that you never considered before. Vietnam
was not easy for me. Here I learnt for the frst tme some of the realites
of communites, development work, and my role as urban development
planner. And despite the intense moments I experienced, there is now no
doubt in my heart that working close to the people is the place I want to be.
I believe that only in this way I will be able to understand more in depth the
complex realites of communites, making my professional practce more
informed and sensitve to peoples real needs and priorites. Thanks to these
six months, I found the strength not only physical and mental, but most
important, inside my heart to endure and believe in this work.
What impacted me the most in this experience was the enormous
strength inside community people, and their immense hope in believing
that change in their lives is possible. I was very fortunate to see this not
only in Vietnam, but also in the ACHR Regional Meetng in Bangkok, and the
CAN workshop in the Philippines. Here I witness an inspiring movement of
community members coming together and discussing their achievements,
challenges, and future strategies for change. I also learnt the powerful way
in which a community is built by people sharing their feelings, hopes and
sufering together. These experiences allowed me to understand a bit more
the deep meaning of a peoples process and how our role as development
158 159
authorites. We also learnt the unpredictability of partcipatory practce,
such as the need to plan in detail every step, followed by being ready to
give up with those plans.
I had many I cant moments in which I felt stuck, discouraged
and disappointed and I had to stop and try to reassess and reframe the
situaton. But I realized that it wasnt only a mater of our capacity or
incapacity to support communites, it was equally important that people
acknowledge the value and potental of their own involvement in the
process and not always this happens easily. When we had the trust, the
challenge was to be a good guide without leading the process, passing the
leadership to people (even when they counted mainly on us), and at some
point, being able to disappear. The process of positoning myself was one
of the most challenging aspects for me: feeling part of the communitys
collectve thinking, bridging aspiratons with insttutonal wills, stepping
back to let the self-determinaton process fow.
The contextualizaton was also challenging, stepping into the
context naked and putng on step-by-step the clothes of reality. It
was very hard do deal with the countrys socio-politcal structure, stable
hierarchies and strict bureaucracy with our limited understanding and
ability to navigate the internal power relatonships. I realized over tme it
was necessary to accept we could never know everything. Furthermore
our knowledge proved much less important than our capacity to trigger
already existng creatvity, resources and skills within the community, which
just need to be uncovered. The diversity of people who got engaged was
another important strength of the process: women, farmers, youths and
elderly people, veterans, university students and young professionals, all
in a shared space of interacton, in which all diferent kinds of energies and
voices came out.
Together we deconstructed reality trying to see things from a
diferent perspectve, trying to give the right weight to each diferent angle
and actor, constructng a new knowledge. The whole experience with all
its teachings is now a treasure for me, carefully guarded as a source from
which to draw when I will feel lost again in the amazing chaos of practce.
It is hard to condense into such a tny space what I learned in my six months
in Vietnam, such a range of experiences between the professional sphere
and personal growth, with great overlap and enrichment between the two.
It was certainly a great opportunity to enter into a real situaton in such
depth, even if in a very small scale, be part of an artculate process and end up
sowing a frst seed for what we hope one day will be a consolidated practce.
Thanks to the open mind of the vice chairman of the city, the
government permited our presence and work in the rural areas; without
that permission we wouldnt be allowed to approach the community,
even if the communites themselves had wanted it. However, for the local
authority, the people in the communites and the students, this kind of
process was totally new. Thus, our work in Vinh started from scratch with
curiosity as mainspring, coming out of our efort and passion and having to
cover many diferent aspects.
Day by day we saw ourselves adaptng and the process shifing;
the local people gradually changing their perspectve from one of complete
confusion at the beginning about what our role was, to supportng and
believing, sometmes even more than us, in what we were trying to
achieve. Over tme we developed a purpose and kind of contributon
we could ofer to them that was appreciated. We experienced the slow,
delicate and powerful process of building trustworthy relatonships and
spaces of dialogue, not only between us and the diferent kind of actors,
but also among the communites themselves and between them and local
Barbara
Dovarch
160 161
processes and debated issues of housing, land and setlement; mostly, they
shared lives, perspectves, values and stories with communites across South-
East Asia.
The present book retells this collectve conversaton. It interrogates
and (re)confrms the signifcance of our diferent practce(s) and the constant
need to negotate and reconfgure meanings and positons including where
we, as experts, are located. By refusing a conventonal, safe, expert-based,
object-oriented culture, the experiences collected in this book illustrate that
a diferent urban planning and architectural practce is possible. Design and
planning here, are conceived as a holistc practce loosely aiming at imagining,
making, strategising, building and inhabitng urban spaces. This practce carries
a twofold obligaton. On the one hand, it seeks to facilitate a comprehensive
imaginaton of transformaton and change. On the other, it demands a
practce that aligns itself with the collectve will and voices of traditonally
marginalized individuals. Within such practce there is no safe ground because
no standpoint is free from interrogatons by alternatve constructons of power,
of knowledge. Instead, a fundamental gesture is required: going beyond ones
personal and professional comfort zone, beyond safe areas of expertse, of
representaton and culture; crossing boundaries dancing between worldviews
and knowledges and in that process, seeing the world diferently.
Reading the book is a pleasure: the work undertaken is almost palpable
and as one progresses through the pages, it is as if new friendships have been
struck, new worlds unveiled with their rich tapestry of struggles, aspiratons
and innovatons. In the diverse experiences recounted, the book reafrms the
need to contnue working in partnership to challenge the technical expertse
of defned disciplinary planning and design realms that produce out-of-touch
practtoners, interested in formal aesthetcs. This is a call for a practce that is
fexible enough to accommodate contradictons and complexites embedded
in the producton and reproducton of cites and spaces but stable enough
to accept feedbacks, in all its aspects.
DPU
London
November,2013
Afterword
Founded in 1954 by Oto Koenisberger, the Development Planning Unit (DPU)
has maintained a clear focus on urban development and planning since
incepton. This unique combined emphasis underpins a belief in planned
interventons in which women and men of diferent classes, ethnic groups,
religions and ages can exercise real individual and collectve choice in their lives
and contribute towards economically, socially and environmentally sustainable
and more just urban futures. The DPUs mission is to build the capacity of
professionals and insttutons to design and implement innovatve, sustainable
and inclusive strategies at the local, natonal and global levels working with
the enormous potental of urban poor communites. Key to developing such a
sensitvity to urban development planning and design, is practce. And practce
has been and remains a key foundaton of all DPUs educaton programmes:
through practce-based feld-work in London and in cites of the Global South,
the MScs seek to build students refexivity and the ethical sensibility that
underpins socially just urban development planning and design.
This is where the Junior Professionals Internship Programme comes
in. The pilot programme, born of inspiring feld visits in Thailand since 2010,
intends to facilitate the immersion of MSc alumni within actve community
groups engaging with governments for improved housing conditons across
South East Asia. The unique partnership was envisaged as a collectve learning
process, founded on knowledge-sharing and innovaton development, and
grounded in the partners actual tactcal interventons and local experiences.
During six months, DPU alumni supported mapping, planning, designing
162 163
ZahraKassam/
IcomefromNairobi,Kenya.Imanurbanplannerwithafnancebackground
specialisingincommunitydrivenprocessinurbanplanning.Afercompleteing
my BA in Business Enterprise, I simaltaneously completed the professional
qualifcaton as a Charterd Accountant whilst working with UN-Habitat. In
my capacity with the UN, I worked in various branches: Youth and Partners,
LandandShelterandTransport.IcompletedtheMsc.inUrbanDevelopment
PlanningattheDPU,UCLin2012.InthePhilippinesIwasinvolvedinexploring
partcipatory processes in development planning as well as conductng the
buildupmappingandotherworksforthe2ndRegionalCommunityArchitects
NetworkWorkshopinMay2013.
FrancescoPasta/
I studied Architecture in Italy and Turkey and subsequently worked in an
architectural frm in Istanbul and in an NGO in Diyarbakir (Turkey). Here,
witnessingtheefectsofexclusionarypoliciesonthestructureofcitesandthe
livesoftheirinhabitants,Istartedthinkingabouthowwecanhelpbuildamore
inclusivealternatveofdevelopmentalsothroughdesign.Afercompletngthe
masteratDPUandtakingpartinacommunity-basedconstructonprojectin
EastLondon,IwenttoCambodiawithCAN-ACHR,andIdecidedtostaysome
moretmeinAsiatolearnmoreaboutcommunitywork.FromNovember,Ive
beencollaboratngwithOpenspace,aBangkok-basedcommunityarchitecture
ofce,andthecompanyTar-Saeng,specializinginhousingandfurnituredesign
fordisabilites.
ArielShepherd/
My background and interest generally is in linking local acton and interests
related to landuse with larger city planning. I started studies in engineering,
but moved quickly to architecture because questons about individuals were
neverraised,andthenmovedtodevelopmentandplanningbecausequestons
of society and land were never raised. My interest in the Jakarta project
was questons of how you retain the delicate socio-cultural-economic tes in
reblocking towards more vertcal living arrangements, and the challenge
of partcipatory design when tme and space present their own challenges.
Afertheendoftheinternship,IchosetoremaininBukitDuritocontnuemy
engagementwiththelocalcommunity.
Contributors
backgrounds

JohannaBrugman/
Iamanurbanplannerwithinterestsinpartcipatorytoolsforslumupgrading
and the intrinsic topics of collectve acton, land security, accessible fnance
andcityplanning.In2008IcompletedaBachelorofPlanningwithHonoursin
JamesCookUniversity-AustraliaandrecentlytheMScofUrbanDevelopment
PlanningattheDPUinLondon.Ihaveexperienceworkingforgovernmentin
policydevelopment,landuse,environmentalplanning,andhousingforremote
Aboriginal communites. I have also conducted research into Indigenous
LandUseAgreements(ILUAs)inAustralia,theBaanMankongNatonalSlum
UpgradingProgrammeinThailand,andtheevolutonofpartcipatorybudgetng
inBogot-Colombia.IamcurrentlybasedinPhnomPhen-Cambodiaworking
withasmallgrassrootsorganisatonspecializedinmappingandenumeratons.
BarbaraDovarch/
IamfromSardinia,Italy.Iamasociologistlookingatthebuiltenvironment,
specializing in community driven approach within architecture, urban design
andplanning.AferdiferentexperiencesindevelopingcountriessuchasKenya,
India,Brazil,Chile(includingEasterIsland),Iworkedfortwoyears(2010-2012)
asteachingassistantandfeldworkcoordinatorattheSchoolofArchitecture
and Urban Design in Alghero (Sardinia, Italy). Some of the projects I have
been involved in regarded Roma people living in camps, children designing
public spaces; co-housing, sustainable local development and sustainable
tourism; slum upgrading, community organizaton within informal economy.
InVietnam,myworkentailedaprocessofexploringcommunitypartcipaton
inruraldevelopmentplanning.InthefutureIwouldliketoexploremoreabout
mappingwithincommunity-drivencitywideprocesses.
164 165
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commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their creaton
under identcal terms. This license is ofen compared to copylef free and
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This book is the result of the collectve work of all fve interns, with the
suggestons and support of DPU, ACHR and CAN. The layout design and
editnghavebeencarriedouttogetherbyFrancescoandAriel.
Storyboxesauthorsareindicatedbytheirinitals.
All the pictures in this book should be credited to the authors or friends
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