Rethinking Urban Slums

Rapid urbanization in Iraq, as in many other developing countries, has significantly widened socio-economic gaps, pushing thousands of people each year to migrate to major cities in search of better living opportunities and improved quality of life. Many of these newcomers settle on the outskirts of affluent urban areas, where they provide essential services to nearby communities but end up living in informal settlements due to financial constraints and lack of affordable housing.

Currently, over 4 million Iraqis reside in such neighborhoods, which are often deprived of basic services such as clean water, sanitation, electricity, and adequate healthcare, while also placing an increasing strain on urban infrastructure and municipal resources.
This project addresses these challenges by identifying “boundaries”, both physical, including roads, utilities, and architectural façades, and symbolic, such as social stigmas and exclusionary practices, as the core problems that isolate these communities, effectively transforming them into “cities within cities.”
The primary aim of this project is to study urban slums and empower residents through sustainable architecture and urban design, fostering inclusive community growth and bridging socio-economic divides. It
emphasizes incremental, in-place interventions that improve living conditions without necessitating relocation.
Informal settlements are not unique to Iraq; globally, they reflect deeper social, economic, and planning deficiencies. Conventional approaches like demolition and relocation fail to address these root causes, are costly, disruptive, and often rejected by residents.
Therefore, the project proposes a different vision for developing informal settlements by socially and economically empowering the community through architecture and urban design, providing them with basic needs, blurring the boundaries between slums and their surroundings, and gradually redeveloping the area without high-cost, large-scale urban interventions. This is achieved by involving the residents in the development process rather than excluding them.