Urbanistica informale degli slum nelle città metropolitane. Processi migratori e modelli significativi delle forme di inurbamento. Interventi sperimentali negli slum di Mumbai

The phenomenon of slum with its related problems interests different regions in the world and it is one of the most interesting topics for the multidisciplinary research, in particular on issues of urban migration in large cities. For various reasons, it is difficult that this phenomenon could be formalized by the planning tools. The main aim of this dissertation is to analyse, interpret, evaluate the different social and economic factors of informal settlements that characterize the growth in the metropolitan areas of many countries. On this basis, the research compares the different urban and suburban informal settlements that have not yet acquired and certified. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first deals with a survey of the slum settlements in some countries strongly characterized by the phenomenon of slum: Mexico, Argentine and Brazil in Latin America; Kenya in Africa and India in Asia. In order to analyze this phenomenon, and its broader aspects, the thesis focuses on the dynamic not only of the migration flow, from Europe to America, but also of wars, conflict and persecution which are causes of illegal immigration, that, particularly in Africa, are a very topical issue. The second part of the thesis treats Dharavi and Shivaji Nagar slums in Mumbai (India). They are the most important examples of informal settlements in Asia because of different levels of aggregation, and also because urban and social literature recognises them as the most difficult problems for size and complexity. Mumbai was the city where the empirical research took place. The collaboration with Indian architects allowed to describe experiences and cases study that helped to understand models of aggregation and sustainability of the slums considering political activities and projects produced by the Municipality of Mumbai. Stakeholders interviews, characterised by different age and gender, made possible to understand and represent different housing and land reclamation of slums. This research underlines the difficulties that cities will have as increasing of the land use due to non programmed migration flows. Therefore, urban planning, interested on the periphery, the enclave of poverty and social distress within the city, needs to choose which kinds of urban design tools could adopt. In fact, zoning, as land-use planning tool, needs to face with these new realities so as to suggest solutions for redevelopment of informal settlements especially where it is important to consider the socially and economically consolidated contests.