URBAN AND RURAL APPLICATIONS

Displacement occurs at every level of urbanity. Displacement brings informal settlements that ride the line of being constructed in a temporary way but serving as a semi-permanent residence. I will be using refugee camps as the "rural" model and slums as the "urban" model. Unlike slums, refugee camps are planned from the beginning, but grow organically. Slums are unplanned and also grow organically. I began by looking at traditional planning for refugee camps. The layout is based on efficiency, but the organization is based on order. In analyzing how stages of permanence can be applied to existing layouts of refugee camps, I developed my own efficient yet decentralized model for rural displacement. 

The layout is based on the understanding that the a circle is the most efficient layout to maximize reach of utilities. The organization is decentralized with multiple micro-centers, which are the communal areas. It is from here that utilities spread and housing infill begins. The communal centers include administration, hospitals, schools, parks and recreation. This is in an effort to avoid the problem of a well-served center and an underserved periphery. With housing surrounding certain communal nodes. All housing is well-served by one communal area or public function. It is from these public functions that utilities are served. Therefore, housing is never more than half the distance away from two communal spaces. 

The application to a rural area can be implemented in whole and operate as a city within itself. For many of the Sri Lankan refugees relocating in Tamil Nadu, the lowest income sector was relegated to the rural areas rather than being integrated with the urban. What is more interesting is laying this model over an existing residential area. What communal centers already exist? What part of the model is needed? For instance, in Dharavi, most of the informal housing acts as semi-permanent. One of my criteria for what constitutes a later level of permanence is density. Communal areas can be superimposed on Dharavi. Any housing that would be lost from the communal areas would be relocated to a second story of existing housing, after it is made more structurally adequate.