Better Understanding Self-Organizing Cities: A Typology of Order and Rules in Informal Settlements

Notions of order and rules play a key role in organizing the arrangement of built and unbuilt spaces. Order is achieved at various scales, such as the global, the metropolitan, the district and the neighborhood scale, by using formal and informal rules, regulations, plans and policies. Rules are the conduit by which the spatial order of urban areas is implemented and achieved. Combined with order, they are key tenets of modern planning, influencing the layout, patterns, and processes that shape urban areas. Set within the context of a wider understanding of order, rules, adaptation and how the city self-organizes and transforms, this paper examines a typology of order and rules determining the spatial order in informal settlements. The paper views the city as a dynamic system of formal rules, regulations, plans, codes and emergent informal rules, protocols and conventions that modulate and facilitate adaptation, incrementalism and step-by-step housing change in informal settlements. Using a case study of kampung Lebak Sililwangi in Bandung, Indonesia, the research deconstructed the local spatial order that exists and identifies two main rule types, namely defined and understood rules. These rules represent a set of socially acceptable activities, tasks and principles that residents use, modify and adapt to produce and refresh existing built and unbuilt spaces to meet varying needs. Rules may change from understood to defined rules and vice versa, and in this setting, systems of self-organization and arrangement of order continue to evolve and adapt. The paper is aimed at providing a deeper understanding of the nature of order and types of rules, including their relationship to the public interest and the production of negative externalities.