Edsa and S Super Hwy at dawnSQUATTER SETTLEMENTS IN METRO MANILA
These photographs were made over the past five years [2001-2005] as part of a survey of the architecture of informal settlements in Metro Manila. The study had city planning, architectural and economic components and resulted in the soon to be published Lungsod Iskwater, The Evolution of Informality as a Dominant Pattern in Philippine Cities, by Alcazaren, Ferrer and Icamina. The survey grew out of a comment by the Cuban-American urban planner, Andres Duany, who, in a lecture about the metropolis, noted that the solutions for Manila’s myriad urban problems would more likely come from the squatter settlements than from the exclusive enclaves that Manila’s elite inhabit.