Thesis Abstract

The widely accepted classification of countries into opposing categories of developed and developing implies a shared linearity in development that does not exist. The industrialization and capital buildup in urban areas and the subsequent creation of jobs that formed the driving forces behind urbanization in the countries in the 1^st world have been substituted by urban deindustrialization and rural capital buildup eliminating jobs.  At the same time, we have passed a transitional point in global urbanization as global urban population has for the first time surpassed global rural population. The global countryside has reached its maximum population and will begin to shrink by 2020, while cities continue to grow by a million babies and migrants each week.  As urban areas in developing countries harbor 95% of total population growth, the “urbanization of poverty” and the prevalence of informal settlements as a form of urban growth demands a reconsideration of the urban condition.

An examination of these settlements reveals non-linear, self-organizing growth patterns that form the basis of an emergent system of urbanity. Recognizing the potential of these systems to inform sustainable planning practices, a study of the emergent, adaptive qualities in informal cities will look for opportunities to recreate and implant similar conditions in formal cities. Another potential focus will be finding conditions that allow for interventions that trigger a symbiotic relationship between formal and informal urbanisms as a tactic for upgrading without sacrificing existing complex systems.

Through initial mappings and research, a diagrammatic approach to complex systems and networks in informal cities will attempt to reach an understanding of the agents involved in emergence. Representations of physical manifestations of driving catalysts and reactions will characterize an architecture of emergence, looking for solutions in sustainability. Locating points of inefficiency in formal urbanity and creating appropriate connectors will allow the informal sector to capitalize on the surplus demand and waste in the formal sector.