Celentano, G (2021) The regenerative development potential of the construction sector in the informal city: The cases of Bangkok, Nairobi and Cape Town. DSc thesis, ETH Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract
Our society is facing the urge of resolving two primary challenges. On the one hand climate change, triggered by unsustainable production and consumption patterns, results in the imminent threat of environmental collapse. On the other hand, a severe raising housing gap in the global south induces the sprawling of inadequate undignified informal urbanization. These challenges are intertwined since the housing construction sector significantly contributes to the societal environmental impact, adding to the burden of the climate change emergency. Given this context, the current dissertation aims to unfold and operationalize the regenerative potential of the housing sector within the informal city, therefore conceiving the housing construction as a trigger for holistic sustainable development. To achieve the stated objective, this work is articulated around three case studies utilized to assess the impact of housing construction-related actions on the project societal dimension within a specific project scale. These are: shelters within the post-disaster reconstruction context, assessed at the material level; the informal city of Bangkok, assessed at the building unit level; and the informal city of Nairobi, assessed at the territorial level. A fourth case study is then introduced to combine the three scales within an integrated assessment: the informal city of Cape Town. This is also utilized to identify specific construction-related actions capable of impacting the societal project outcome and sustainability as intended within the regenerative approach. The methods utilized to assess the case studies are mixed and include data collection on the field through semi-structured interviews, mapping, stakeholder assessment as well as supply chain mapping, technical assessments, and social network analysis. A theoretical framework is then proposed to assess the housing construction regenerative potential, expressed as contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. The framework is based on the learning from the case studies and their stakeholders’ based multilevel approach, and is proposed as the basis for an operative tool for project management and post-evaluation, serving the humanitarian actors active within the construction sector. The present dissertation demonstrates the relevance of looking at the housing construction sector in the informal city as an opportunity to restore local economies, wellbeing and ecosystems through tailored strategies, varying from material production to management schemes. It shows the validity of adopting a regenerative approach within the informal settlements upgrading and affordable housing delivery to target at once the achievement of social and environmental justice.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction sector; sustainability; urbanization; wellbeing; affordable housing; climate change; environmental impact; learning; sustainable development; network analysis; social network analysis; case study; stakeholder; interview |
| Index terms: | affordable housing, informal settlement, sustainable development goal, post-disaster reconstruction, residential construction, dissertation, dimension, operative, project management, Nairobi, network analysis, urbanization, humanitarian, case study, project outcome, validity, mapping, well-being, environmental impact, consumption, construction sector, housing, climate change, local economy, justice, interview, society, social network analysis, sustainable development, strategy, upgrading |
| Subjects: | housing and residential development, communities and social development, spatial and geospatial analysis, research methods, health safety and environment, Geography, sustainable design, principle, urban planning, economic analysis, legal systems, project completion, construction type, strategic management, evaluation and assessment methods, research dissemination and communication, practitioner, climate science, consumer economics, environmental impact, industry analysis, post-disaster and reconstruction, construction integration, management, project management theory and practice, health monitoring assessment and metrics, data analysis and analytics, mental health and wellbeing, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Ethics, Health and Safety, Project Management, Geographical Context, Sustainability, Urban Studies, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Governance, Construction Technology |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here