Download - ENHR 2007 Rotterdam

Planning in process: AORTA as a new instrument for the upgrading of informal settlements in developing countries
3.2.1 The basic networks
First of all, the community spirit is to be encouraged to convince everyone that the future
intervention is for the best of every single inhabitant. Then spokesmen are elected to start the
planning phase. Depending on the size of the community their number should be large enough
to prevent decisions that are based on specific personal interests, but small enough to keep up
a high spirit of community and the possibility for an effective operation potential. Together
with specialists for urban planning and technical engineers, they form a council to deliberate
on further steps.
4 The AORTA toolbox
4.1 Communication problems during the planning process
A great obstacle in communication between planners and habitants is the lacking capability of
the habitants in reading and understanding technical plans. 3d Computer animations may be
impressive for presentation, but create a fixed final state which is difficult to accommodate to
the circumstances, as the handling of the software requires high specification and skills. For
involving the public in the decisions, a new platform for communication and discussion has to
be developed: The “AORTA toolbox”, a communication tool, easy to handle, applicable
intuitively, that fills the gap and allows both parties to express themselves, putting their ideas
across. It provides a collection of materials and icons to act as a construction kit in a selfmade
demonstration model.
4.2 Getting started
With today's internet technology, satellite and aerial photographs of nearly every point of the
earth are easily available and at hand in an excellent quality. The satellite photo of the
operational area is glued in a reasonable scale, e.g. 1:200, on a soft material, like a plate of
cork or styrofoam.
First of all the existing urban structure is rebuilt with semiabstract items. These items are as
close as possible to the archetype to be understood by everyone, but abstract enough to act as
a symbol. E.g. a single shack, in the model made out of folded beverage cans, underlines the
coherency of the archetype to be pictured, but still can be read as a simple geometric volume.
a.beverage can b.cut to open c.winding off d.cutting out e.folding f.pricked needle into the “shack”
Fig. 3: Building a shack model
Workshop: Housing and Sustainable Urbanisation in Developing Countries
Author: Moritz Groba, Jochen Hansen, Christian Krause, Christoph Ruckert
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