Abstract
Cities in Africa are growing rapidly, but urban planning is lacking. Urban populations have few options and end up finding housing in informal settlements, which are developed without government-controlled urban planning resources. Informal settlements have become a major dynamic in African urbanization.
The purpose of this research was to empirically clarify the process of African urban development, with a focus on informal settlements, and to provide insights into the paradigms of urban planning in Africa. At the first onset, this paper explores development patterns of informal settlements using survey data from Nairobi, Kenya.
This area of focus is the Mukuru Kwa Njenga settlement, which was illegally formed in an industrial area and houses approximately 150,000 people in a one square kilometer area. This case study was conducted onsite via field surveys using observation, measurements, and interviews by specifically examining layout planning, material, building plan and use, building coverage ratios, plot ratios, housing and land affordability, and characteristics of developers.
The results are as follows:
(1) Spatial structure in informal settlements is not uniform. For example, we identified squatter areas with iron sheet houses and narrow streets, planned areas with high-rise buildings made of concrete blocks arranged in a perfect array, and intermediate conditions.
(2) In informal settlements, structures are built and rented to tenants by plot owners who are referred to as structure owners. As a general rule, plot price and room rent are set by structure owners. Plot price, which is related to plot size and the presence or absence of access roads, is unaffordable for most residents. In contrast, room rent, which is related to the size and type of room, the presence or absence of basic services in the room or plot (such as water, sanitation, and electricity), land conditions (such as roadside, low-lying, and flooded areas), and security, is generally fixed in accordance with the area and offers low-income residents a wide range of choices.
(3) Few structure owners reside in their own structure, and others are non-residents who build and rent structures for profit. Some own and manage more than one structure. Therefore, informal settlements are not so much a place to live, but rather an attractive investment opportunity for structure owners or developers. This tendency is more applicable in planned areas than in squatter areas in informal settlements.
