THE TOPAANA SLUM

SLUM = housing with one or more of the following conditions:

inadequate drinking water;
inadequate sanitation;
poor structural quality/durability of housing;
overcrowding;
insecurity of tenure.
Topaana settlement in Skopje, Macedonia, is a long neglected fragment of the historic part of the
fast growing city. Its located between the city center, with the old town, and Chair Municipality. Its a
small community not more than 10minute walk from the city center, with 5000 dwellers of whom 99%
have gipsy origin.
The city is continually developing around the community, leaving it isolated and impoverished. For
further development of Skopje by year 2020, the city officials are planning on increasing the intensity of
city land use and rational land organization by creating more space for houses and buildings. That means
urbanization of the city areas that are in rudimentary or devastated condition.
Topaana has small, narrow streets and small, old houses that are built by their habitants. There is
just one larger street with a perpendicular connection to the city transit road. Here there is constant
traffic, especially in the afterwork period when a traffic jam appears by the people who want to avoid
the rush-hour on the main streets of the city. The district has almost no infrastructure, bad sewerage
system, low quality drinking water, problems with electricity etc. As a solution to this problem, the city
municipality suggests construction of a tunnel that will connect the city center and old town with the
Chair Municipality without creating traffic mess and leaving the street, that is a continuation of
boulevard Alexander the Great, clear for transit traffic. For that to be done, demolition of the illegal
houses and dislocation of the current dwellers is mandatory.
But new problem arises. People may be compelled to live where the authorities choose, they will
have no sense of true ownership and they may be apathetic when it comes to maintaining their new
home and community Is this the best way of solving the problem?
Maybe there is another solution A strategy to develop informal slums into permanent urban
districts through a process of gradual improvement to existing dwellings and providing economic and
ecological benefit, instead of causing social damage by demolition and rebuilding. Meeting the
psychological need of the residents to have a role in their own destiny by giving them the opportunity to
invest their own time and hard work into creating better dwellings, with a possibility to be extended
over the time as families grow.