Abstract

“Spontaneous urbanism is interesting in the sense that it has not been designed by the administration. Thus the relation with power is here different. Those arrangements are the result of body desire, and not the result of regulations and laws. Michel Foucault in “Security, territory, population” reminds us the importance of the link between control, regulation and city: ‘It is because a police regulates cohabitation, circulation and exchanges that cities have been allowed to exist’.” – Séverine Roussel & Philippe Zourgane (Roussel & Zourgane (eds), 2006: 50)

Taking direction from the well-received exhibition Design with the Other 90%: CITIES (2011 – 2012), organized by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in America, this seminar will refer to the notion of “Architecture ‘with the Other 90%’”. It makes reference to collaborative community-led architectural projects emanating from the African continent (namely Nigeria and South Africa) to illustrate the shift towards “Architecture ‘with the Other 90%’” in addressing spontaneous urbanism in these regions.

The prequel to the Design with the Other 90%: CITIES exhibition was the 2007 exhibition Design for the Other 90%, its premise was to address the fact that the majority of the world’s seven billion population live in cities and one billion live in informal settlements within urban areas. It is projected that this number will double by 2030. The exhibition showcased design solutions which tackled the basic needs of 90% of the world’s population in these urban areas, i.e., sanitation and clean water and over-crowded living conditions (Smithsonian Cooper- Hewitt National Design Museum, 2015). In conceptualizing the sequel to the 2007 Design for the Other 90% exhibition, the curators heeded the criticism levelled on the exhibition and replaced the ‘for the Other 90%’ with the more inclusive terming of ‘with the Other 90%’, which ultimately speaks of including the communities who benefit from the design intervention in the design process, and moving away from a patronizing type of “design tourism” visible in many social responsibility design initiatives in recent years (Arieff, 2011).

The seminar’s central focus is to illustrate this shift in social responsibility design philosophy and approach by referring to interdisciplinary architectural and design projects addressing spontaneous urbanism from Nigeria and South Africa that are community-led, participatory and human-centred, and which additionally promote active citizenship.

The main case studies that will be referred to and analysed in the seminar are the Makoko Floating School in Lagos, Nigeria by NLÉ Architects lead by Kunlé Adeyemi (NLÉ Architecture & Design, 2015) and the Design Indaba 10x10 Low-Cost Housing project by Luyanda Mpahlwa, from MMA Architects, for a one family home in Freedom Park (Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town) (Design Indaba, 2015). Both these projects engaged the community in the design process and used sustainable processes and low-cost locally sourced materials. Further they also provided prototypes for future sustainable building methods and designs for these communities in these historical informal settlements.

Bibliography

Arieff, A., 2011. Design With, Instead of for, the Other 90%. CityLab. [Online]. Available: http://www.citylab.com/design/2011/10/design-with-other-90- cities/273/

Design Indaba, 2015. 10x10 Low Cost Housing Project. Design Indaba. [Online]. Available: http://www.designindaba.com/projects/10x10-low-cost-housingproject

NLÉ Architecture & Design, 2015. Makoko Floating School. NLÉ Architecture & Design. [Online]. Available: http://www.nleworks.com/case/makoko-floatingschool

Roussel, S. & P. Zourgane (Roussel & Zourgane (eds), 2006. Architecture and Vegetation: hybrid home spaces. Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing.

Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2015. About Design with the Other 90%: CITIES. Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. [Online]. Available: http://www.designother90.org/about

Bio

Milia Lorraine Khoury obtained a BTEC diploma in Foundation Studies in Art and Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (London) in 1999. In 2003, she completed a BA Fine Art Honours degree at Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town in the area specialism of Sculpture and Discourse/History of Art. Further, she obtained a Masters in Philosophy in Fine Art degree from Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town in 2008. Research interests include: Sculpture; Public art and Public Space; The City as a Museum; City and Urban Design/ Planning; Urbanism; Site-Specific Art; Installation Art; Situational Art; Memorials And Monuments; the History of Architecture; Design Theory; Design Thinking/Research; Photography and the History of Representation. Additionally, she has taught at tertiary level for thirteen years and she is active in the field of Visual Art and Design History/Theory and has published several articles and conference papers within the area. She is currently a lecturer in History/Theory of Art and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (Cape Town) in the Faculty of Informatics and Design.