How can urban management be supported to curb continued slum growth? But then, what are slums and what are the main limitations to effective and inclusive action? These questions initially framed a pragmatic research approach taken to understand slum development and its challenges. While currently a major Developing Region urbanism, slums have existed for as long as cities have and share a common and evolving growth pattern that is responsive to cities’ structural vitality and focused on prosperity. Limitations to effective management involve overcoming negative perceptions with non-inclusive and ineffective approaches, and comprehensively understanding slums’ complex social, spatial, and environmental dynamics.

This presentation will discuss a proposed Place Prosperity Framework (PPF) and agenda for slum intervention. The PPF follows a theoretical and operative model for prosperity to guide intervention in slums and vulnerable communities in Developing Regions. It helps to comprehensively define their complex (physical, spatial, social, and subjective) nature through a network of descriptive properties, revealing an organic property map. Furthermore, it helps to analyse, identify, adequately resource, and collaboratively implement the most appropriate, catalytic yet manageable path of action that will bring positive change and enhance prosperity for the ‘soon and now,’ while strategically mapping and planning actions to be implemented ‘sooner rather than later.’ The PPF is recently tested in a case study in a slum community in Lagos, Nigeria, providing a basis for a pilot project and framework for further refinement. The seminar will draw out feedback and recommendations for further application of the method and theory.

Dr Aisha Abubakar is a researcher and architect, her research interests are in the sociology of place character, urban prosperity, and inequality. Her work and research currently focus on in-depth place (slums) assessment and characterization with emphasis on cognitive aspects of spaces, and on building appropriately targeted, dynamic, and collaborative intervention sequences that enhance prosperity. It also focuses on how social network analysis tools and methods can be applied to enhance the efficiency of such processes. She is particularly interested in ways that urban design can reach out to other disciplines to build robust and dynamic theoretical platforms to guide practical actions and interpretations.