Informality through Sustainability

Informality through Sustainability explores the phenomenon of informality within urban settlements and aims to unravel the subtle links between informal settlements and sustainability.

Penetrating its global profile and considering urban informality through an understanding of local implications, the authors collectively reveal specific correlations between sites and their local inhabitants. The book opposes simplistic calls to legalise informal settlements or to view them as ‘problems’ to be solved. It comes at a time when common notions of ‘informality’ are being increasingly challenged.

In 25 chapters, the book presents contributions from well-known scholars and practitioners whose theoretical or practical work addresses informality and sustainability at various levels, from city planning and urban design to public space and architectural education. Whilst previous studies on informal settlements have mainly focused on cases in developing countries, approaching the topic through social, cultural and material dimensions, the book explores the concept across a range of contexts, including former Communist countries and those in the so-called Global North. Contributions also explore understandings of informality at various scalar levels – region, precinct, neighbourhood and individual building. Thus, this work helps reposition informality as a relational concept at various scales of urbanisation.

This book will be of great benefit to planners, architects, researchers and policymakers interested in the interplay between informality and sustainability.

Author Biography

Antonino Di Raimo, FEA, is a Reader in Architecture at the University of Portsmouth’s School of Architecture (UK), where he is also a Co-Lead in research. He joined the University of Portsmouth in 2017. Prior to this, he had been teaching in Italy (University of La Sapienza) and Albania (Polis University, Tirana).

Steffen Lehmann, Assoc. AIA, RIBA, AoU, is Director of the School of Architecture at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (USA), and a full Professor of Architecture. He is also Founding Director of the interdisciplinary Urban Futures Lab and Director of the Future Cities Leadership Institute.

Alessandro Melis, RIBA, ARB, AoU, is a full Professor of Architecture Innovation at the University of Portsmouth (UK) and the co-director of the Cluster for Sustainable Cities. He is the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 17th International Biennale of Architecture in Venice 2020–21.