On informal developments

Through the last fifty years in most of the world, illegal-unplanned-undesigned-informal housing/ settlements-informal architectures contemporary vernacular architecture, was produced by using common sense but was created independently from each other. We speculate on the concept “vernacular” once more and claim that informal settlements with its simple solutions, local materials and conditions match with the definition of the “vernacular”. These parasites like informal architectures make big contribution to the planned city. Informal settlements with their way of adaptations and characteristics of growth and may produce motivating questions and resolutions. These settlements contain lessons about ecology, recycling, acclimatization, transiency, sustainability and flexibility which are current areas. In Turkey informal settlements are left to demolition by the architectural intelligentsia and authorities. It is possible to conserve informal areas without losing their quality of life in both building and urban scales. Utopia for some architects has a proposed structure of future cities as collaged views and layers and are provoking a new understanding of today’s metropolis. Most motivating utopian city projects are unfinished, open to contributions, addible and transformative ones. Only informal settlements may be representing better architectural and urban qualities being one of the main sources of architectural knowledge on all scales.