Incremental Housing – The new site & services
The rapid urban population surge of the 60s driven largely from migration with resultant massive unauthorized city expansion provided challenges in finding effective housing interventions. Upgrading programs became widespread despite high monetary and spatial costs. This lecture focuses on a mimic of the informal housing process which offered a direction for policy, adopted in the 70s by development agencies worldwide and known as ‘site and services’. Difficulties and unresolved challenges in these projects ended their attraction and they fell out of widespread use by the mid 80’s. However, as credible studies indicated that urban population growth was expected to double in the next 20 years, a ‘site and services’ approach has again recently become the option of choice for housing intervention as one of the few proactive options available. After-the-fact ‘catchup’ policy of upgrading communities as the policy choice was no longer seen as sufficient.
Reading Development 