About Roberto Rocco

I am an Associate Professor at the Section Spatial Planning and Strategy of the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. Our chair is one of the leading research centres in spatial planning in Europe. I am the editor of the Routledge Handbook on Informal Urbanisation. If you want to contact me, please write to r.c.rocco@tudelft.nl

Diego Sepulveda

Posted on Nov 12, 2014 by Roberto Rocco

Dr. Diego Sepulveda is a designer and a regional planner. He is specialized in regional development with experiences on infrastructural development and socio spatial integration, with particular interest on the conditions for integration of the local levels on the metropolization processes. Lately his work is defined by the integration of the climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in a developing economic context.

Position & organizations:

– teacher and senior researcher, coordinator of the Complex city region Lab, department of Urbanism at Delft University of technology;

– guest professor at amongst others Buenos Aires University, Vienna University, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile;

– active researcher at the Randstad Centre for spatial planning in The Nederland, from where he has participate as consultant for diverse governmental and non governmental projects, In China, India and several cities in Latin-America;

– diverse publication, his work have been part of several studies from academia to multilateral agencies (e.g. the world bank and the inter-American developing bank).

Laura Smits

Posted on Nov 10, 2014 by Roberto Rocco

Laura Smits has been working in Haiti since 2012. First working on participatory urban design and mapping in informal neighbourhoods of Port au Prince with Architecture for Humanity; then for UN Habitat documenting informal urbanisation processes and working with government on spatial planning and housing policy, and now for Cordaid on a project about upgrading and activating public space.

In Haiti, the Canaan area north of Port au Prince is a fascinating example of informal urbanisation. In less than five years, the area went from being uninhabited to housing around 150,000 people. Analysing the institutional and social processes at play in the settlement of the area can provide us with valuable insights in informal urbanisation, but also is key in developing appropriate ‘interventions’ for the area.

Vera Kreuwels

Posted on Nov 8, 2014 by Roberto Rocco

Vera is an urban planner working as a technical advisor for CRS. In (post-) disaster and –conflict settings she seeks to assist affected communities with community based local solutions that offer safe, adequate and durable shelter within an integrated settlement approach. She has worked in several emergency and long-term urban and rural reconstruction projects in Haiti, Pakistan, Philippines, Central African Republic, Bosnia Herzegovina and Gaza.

Giorgio Talocci

Posted on Nov 5, 2014 by Roberto Rocco

Giorgio Talocci is a Teaching Fellow in the MSc Building and Urban Design in Development at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit (University College London), where he teaches the modules ‘Critical Urbanism Studio II’ and ‘Urban Design for Development’ and coordinates the DPU summerLab workshop series. In the last years, Giorgio and the MSc BUDD team and students have been working along with urban poor communities, grassroots organisations, networks of professional and academics. Treading on the multiple thresholds between Global North and South, formality and informality, doing and not doing, design as activism and design as research, they endeavour toward a collective, shared and people-driven production of space and knowledge in nowadays’ contested urbanisms.

Kria Djoyoadhiningrat

Posted on Oct 30, 2014 by Roberto Rocco

Our following note speaker is Kria Djoyoadhiningrat, an architect and co-founder of Casa Legal, a multi-disciplinary support strategy to develop informal settlements. He believes the best experts in the design process are most of the time the inhabitants and the users. Kria dedicates himself as professional to harness their power.

Marco Ferrario

Posted on Oct 21, 2014 by Roberto Rocco

Our second confirmed speaker – Marco Ferrario, co-founder of micro Home Solutions (mHS), favors minimalist, functional architecture to bring good design where it has never been and where it is needed the most: low-income settlements. In India, he is working with other professionals to promote a multidisciplinary approach in urban planning. Marco graduated from the Politecnico di Milano and worked as an architect in Italy, India, Singapore and USA. Since 2009 he works with mHS and as consultant for various organizations.

Confronting [In]Formality Symposium

Posted on Sep 25, 2014 by Roberto Rocco

International Symposium ‘Confronting [In]Formality’
Location: Berlagezaal, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology
Date: 11th December 2014

* The initiative is sponsored by the Chair of Spatial Planning and Strategy (TU Delft) and Motiv.

Abstract

There is a growing attention for informal settlements and economies as important urban phenomena worth the attention of urban planners, designers and policy makers , We are witnessing a big raise in studies and projects on informality by architects and urbanists. There is a general belief that these informal structures possess an untapped potential to contribute to urban development.

Nevertheless, there is a substantial lack of knowledge on concept of informality. In the first place informal systems are strengthened by the public sector’s neglect of socio-spatial exclusion in cities. At the same time the incorporation of the informal structures in the formal urban development framework can erase the unique qualities and opportunities which informality brings to urban life.

Description

The symposium focuses on how informality is understood by contemporary practitioners in order to confront the shortcomings of urban planning and design. Responding to the current lack of discussion on this perspective at TU Delft, we would like to invite professionals, academics and students to discuss the diverse approaches in practice and academia towards different geographic and socio-economic contexts.

For a complete overview of the programme, see our website https://confrontinginformality.wordpress.com/

Join our LinkedIN group on http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Confronting-In-Formality-8190018?home=&gid=8190018&trk=my_groups-tile-grp

Thanks for sharing!

Todor Kesarovski, Yos Purwanto, Daniel Radai, Belinda van Zijl

Graduating masters students in Urbanism, TU Delft

confronting [in]formality

Informal Urbanisation: Understanding and Mitigating a Global Phenomenon

Author Archives: Roberto Rocco