VIRTUAL Manchester Livable Cities

Abstract

Across the Global South, informal settlement upgrading is routinely approached through technocratic logics in which formalised upgrades, rigid engineering templates, and bureaucratic project cycles delay or restrict meaningful transformation. This paper challenges these paradigms by demonstrating strategies for informal settlement upgrading beyond the state. Centred on the Masiphumelele Wetlands informal settlement in Cape Town, the research proposes a regenerative design approach grounded in designing with water, waste, and community systems. Rooted in community agency, environmental connectedness, and local knowledge, these strategies act as interim, self-determined measures during the often decades-long wait for state-led interventions. Drawing on mixed-methods research—including hydrological mapping, biodiversity studies, household waste investigations, spatial analysis, participatory engagement, and research-through-design—the study uncovers the intertwined ecological and social systems shaping daily life in the settlement. The wetlands, canals, and waste flows of Masiphumelele are revealed not as urban problems, but as latent infrastructures: hydrological rhythms to work with, material streams to transform, and community practices that reinforce existing settlement patterns. Central to the proposal is the ecology of shelter, explored through regenerative wall-making strategies that convert waste materials into fire-resistant brick inserts and ecological partitions. These micro-infrastructures address recurring shack fires, reduce pollution in canals and wetlands, and introduce biodiversity-supportive green layers at the scale of the dwelling. The research demonstrates how regenerative urbanism can emerge from overlooked places and argues for a new paradigm in informal settlement upgrading in which regenerative, self-determined upgrading emerges incrementally, from the ground up, through through ecological repair, material ingenuity, and collective agency.