CITIES IN TRANSITION 2016
FINANCIAL PROCESS Any low-cost development process needs to be well planned beforehand to ensure the participants can afford the project. Taking care and maintaining the already existing livelihood of people is crucial as well. In case of creating new businesses and income possibilities such as tourism services, first providing them for the needs of the locals creates the most sustainable base for continuity. The financing process can be roughly divided in individual and communal financing. The first step of both is to start an organized savings fund. The community savings are based on smaller saving groups and an organized bank that collects the savings and gives the monetary aid for each group member one by one. To get possible external funds and negotiation position with the city, reframing is needed to change the attitudes. Showing the participating will of the settlers might help persuading and convincing the financers. The external funding possibilities are different organizations, NGOs, the city and different pilot architecture projects. After ensuring sufficient amount of funds, the community material bank is created to provide the basic building materials. 252
BUILDING PROCESS The on-site development process starts with workshops to motivate and organize the community to collaborate with government officials and to find skilled persons to take responsibility for the process. The next step is negotiating about land ownership to get legal rights for staying. When the funding is ensured, a core team is selected to start developing the actual housing project and to study the livelihood options. By implementing a test project the design can be effectively and easily tested to develop it further. Furthermore, it can be an educational tool to share both new building techniques and combine those with the local ones. After, or even together with the test project, the actual area development can begin by cleaning the site to arrange proper sanitation and waste management, to arrange water and electricity connections and to start building and upgrading the public spaces. The participatory building process starts by educating the settlers to ensure the same resilience principles of the structure. The education can also include new livelihood possibilities such as sea farming or entrepreneurship. To ensure socially sustainable process it is important to maintain the community socially organized. As the practical process is finished the community needs to create norms for living to avoid social problems. It is also crucial that the community can stay as independent as possible to have the same rights and to avoid segregation.