Cities are growing, and they are growing upwards. This is far from just being a contemporary phenomenon of course – for more than a century, high-rises have been an integral part of urban settlements worldwide. This growing of cities encompasses a complex web of processes – advancements in transport links, urbanisation, and migration to mention a few. This growth of cities, however, is all too often linked with governmental failure to adequately support all facets of the urban population. Informal settlements are then born – people carving out spaces for themselves to live amidst a lack of state support.
These informal settlements often harbour similar characteristics; they are usually located in the urban peripheries of cities and have a densely packed yet low-rise typology, as in the Khayelitsha township in Western Cape or Tondo in the Philippine capital of Manila. An obligatory feature of these settlements is improvisational architecture – corrugated iron sheets, for example, fashioned together to create roofs, or salvaged wooden boards functioning as a layer of security for a dwelling. When these examples of architectural inventiveness are applied in a high-rise setting, though, it makes for a fascinating study of how high-rise structures - so often associated with luxury and an aspirational way of life – can also harbour extraordinary spatial improvisations.
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