Urban Slums As Spatial Manifestations Of Urbanization In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study

Of Ajengule Slum Settlement, Lagos, Nigeria VS Thinking about urban density hypothesis on

Ecuadorian middle cities.

The reading that deals with the slums in African cities, is based more than anything in covering

what is a neighborhood explicitly, and in defining its context and its causes. As mentioned in the

text, the neighborhoods are informal and irregular settlements that are caused by the rapid growth

of cities. These have always existed, especially in those first cities that emerged at the time of

industrialization, and therefore, due to the need for settlement, in the era of urbanization. These

settlements today are illegal, since there are no regulations that regulate their spatial organization

or institutions that endorse.

They are specifically covered by the slums in many cities of sub-saharan africa. Its main reason is

the need for shelter, housing and search for a better quality of life (in which work is included). The

residents of these settlements come from rural areas and move to the urban areas of the city. Some

of the most relevant characteristics of these settlements are:

1. Overcrowding (because many people live in minimal spaces).

2. Inadequate hosing
3. Severe lack of toilet and sanitation.
4. Self-constructed shelter (plastics, tin sheeting, wooden planks)
5. Dense proliferation of small
6. Severe social problems.
7. Being built on land intended for another use.
8. Not being subject to planning permission.

In other words, the slums are symptoms of immigration phenomenon. Among its most common

causes are population growth and bad governance. Some of the recommendations to control the

growth of slums, are:

  The country should be able to meet the housing needs of low-income people.
 Housing at affordable prices for the majority of the urban poor.
 Urban development policies must address the livelihoods of slum dwellers and urban
poverty, over improvement of housing, infrastructure and environmental physical
conditions.
 Strategies for generating urban employment.
 Community mechanisms to deal with urban crime.
 Urban planning and management policies designed to prevent the appearance of marginal
neighborhoods.

On the other hand, in the reading about Ecuadorian middle cities, emphasis is placed on urban

densification strategies for cities in Ecuador. Contrary to the previous reading that consisted of the

causes of the marginalized African neighborhoods, this reading seeks to establish the criteria to be

used to plan and redefine a city urbanly. These conditioning factors will depend to a large extent

on the social characteristics of the population:

1. Establish the grid or checkerboard, to define the base pattern to plan.

2. Define the homogeneity of uses (infrastructure): vegetable gardens (middle class and
lower class meet), commercial activities, sports).
3. Settlement policies or strategies, which gives rise to urban divisions characterized by
social group, urban spaces and their form of uses.
4. Define mobility infrastructure.
5. Prioritize habitable and non-habitable zones.

“These process of fragmentation, separation and definition of asymmetrical relationships between

different parts of the city, identify urban areas where each part has a specific role and character,

defined functions and inhabited by a distinct social group”. Cities as Rio de Janeiro, Bogota,

Caracas & Lima, are the ones that have been widely debated worldwide because of their successes.

If in Sub-Saharan African cities, these planning strategies of the middle cities of Ecuador were

considered from the beginning, informal settlements would be greatly reduced because the city

would already be organized urbanly with its specified uses according to the zone. that is studied.
 THESIS

Theme: Spaces to live: Influence of spatial quality and its natural environment on the behavior of

street children.

Title: Child care center.

Description: It is a shelter for abandoned children, girls and adolescents, in the municipality of

Haina, province of San Cristobal, with a capacity of 300 users and 63 employees, designed to meet

the basic needs of these children, educate them and develop their Comprehensive skills and

abilities.