Ibni Betak: Not Just A Backyard

Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem IBNI BETAK: NOT JUST A BACKYARD Heba, Hussein; Noha, Darwish; Eslam, Salem Modern Sciences and Arts University, Giza, Egypt arch_heba82@yahoo.com, noha.a.darwish@gmail.com, eslaamahmaad@gmail.com 1- Abstract Beginning to grow in the early 1960s and reaching its development heyday in the period 1974 to 1985, only then, the phenomenon of the urban informal development was recognized by the state as an unwelcome reality. Since 1977, successive housing projects and polices were launched as an ultimate solution to wish away the urban informality, but without recording an enough success as a formal alternative. By 2005, as a part of Mubarak's presidential elections program, the National Housing Program (NHP) was announced, aiming at absorbing the rapidly increasing population. This paper aims at providing a deeper understanding of the extent to which 'Ibni Betak', one of the seven axes of the NHP, provides an opportunity and, at the same time, upraises the need for informal extensions. It reviews an applicable project, proposed for one of the neighborhoods of the 6th district of 'Ibni Betak' at the 6th of October city, that was placed the second nationally in the competition of "Urban Revitalization of Mass housing"1 organized lately by the UN-Habitat 2014. The concept principles use an analytical, participatory approach, through contacting the actual local households on site and observing their opinions and complain via the social media. Three site visits were conducted to the locality and a social survey was sent. Results showed that informal extensions will be an unavoidable future as an only way to adapt the residents' needs. Simple interventions, concepts and policies that respond to the needs of the people, are suggested to be a principle to protect the project from turning into informal areas. Also, they will enhance the dwelling affordability and the environmental, economic, social sustainability aspects of the project. Key Words: Informal extensions, transformations, Ibni Betak, Affordable Housing. 2- Introduction After 1952 revolution, the process of public housing provision witnessed a deep involvement of the Egyptian government, where the achievement of social and economic equity was a top priority for the socialist government between the years 1955-1965. Considered as a basic human right, satisfying the low and middle income housing needs was its responsibility2. Accordingly, various housing projects, weather popular, economic, middle or public, were implemented throughout Egypt’s urban areas. Due to the state of war, a considerable drop was witnessed in the production of public housing in the years 1965-1975. After 1975, the adoption of the free market policy caused a sudden shift of responsibilities of housing provision from governmental to individual one. However, the public production of mass housing has increased significantly3. Indeed, key 1 http://masshousingcompetition.org/results/national Kardash, 1993, p. 42 3 Kardash, 1993, p. 43 2 1 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem ready fully-equipped residential units were not affordable to the low income target group. Despite lots of subsides and special terms included in most of these projects, all are usually absorbed by economically better off groups1. In 1977, the national new towns policy was launched as an ultimate solution to wish away the urban informality that reached its heyday between the years 1974-19852, but it failed to reach the target group, resulting in thousands of fully built and equipped low income flats that remain unoccupied for many years3. On the other hand, it was not until the late 70’s when the idea of self-help processes was introduced as a non-conventional form of housing provision. In the early 80’s, many schemes were proposed, however most were never implemented. Even the proposals which are partially executed have often been subjected to major changes of objectives. According to Salama, the government has followed a ‘systematic approach’ that over-concerns about physical features, and undervalues socio-economic and cultural factors and people participation. In the Egyptian experience of self-help projects, the population role is limited to build for the government its project which is rubber stamped in all of its details. Even the extension of core house should be according to a pre-determined plan. People’s participation was always causing the authorities’ fear of expected poor quality, which made the authorities see it as a process of producing slums. 3- Literature review Tipple (2000)4 argued: “Every house is a work in progress”. According to him, every house can be considered as a ‘living museum of habitation’, showing the gradual transformation from its prime design resulted from the imagination of the people built it to the better or worse interventions done by those who occupy it. Tipple (2000) expects ‘healthy, vital, steadily improving environments’ to result only if the users take part in alternating and changing part of their physical environments to respond to their needs and demands. 3-1 Quality of house: According to Pirsig (1974)5: “Quality is the continuing stimulus which our environment puts upon us to create the world in which we live...” Kardash (1993)6 considered the ‘ability to change and add to your home’ in order to accommodate changing family requirements, as a pre-requisite of quality, in addition to ‘self-expression’ needs. 3-2 The main problem of “mismatches”: Self-help projects include basically the involvement of different parties, which often means different priorities and interests. When mismatches between the supply representing the professional vision and the demand representing the users’ actual needs occur, users dissatisfaction is the natural result, leading to modifications done by the users to realize their satisfaction and needs fulfillment. 1 Kardash, 1993, p. 69 Sims, 2012, p. 66 3 Kardash, 1993, p. 51 4 Tipple, 2000a, p. 40-41 5 Pirsig, 1974, p. 245 6 Kardash, 1993, pp.28-29, 327 2 2 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem 3-3 Transformations: In 2013, Aduwo, Ibem, & Opoko1 defined transformation to be: “the changing of the original form and spatial configurations of a dwelling unit by the occupants in order to meet current needs and expectations”. According to previous studies2, adaption, transformation and mobility are the three basic ways to fulfill residents’ growing needs. Adaption, including intervening in person’s cultural and social norms, was seen as an uneasy solution3. On the other hand, Tipple A. (2000)4 argued that moving is difficult in the housing market in Egypt. This greatly supports “transformation” to be the most likely reaction as a ‘moving while standing still’ solution. Actually, transformations play an important role in enhancing the residents’ life. Socially, the increase in the dwelling area can bring families together5 and enhance the residents’ sense of pride and belonging to their dwelling units6. Economically, the development of local shops and outlets are naturally distributed according to the local need, supporting income generation activities7. Besides, some extensions gave more space allowing renting or future usage considered as future investment8. Culturally, transformations provided a solution for separation of boys and girls at night9. On the urban scale, more responsive, dynamic multifunctional estates are provided, in addition to improving the uses densities and distribution leading to overlapping daily activities and maximizing the usage of the available space and resources10. However, extensions result in problems of obstruction11 in addition to overloading the existing infrastructure due to the increased densities that it cannot support12. Besides, people’s desire for more indoor habitable space is accompanied by an inescapable by-product of less open space13 having negative implications for the health and well-being of the people and the environment14. Environmentally, poor natural lighting and ventilations are considered as the most serious problems15 as they disregard the safety and health regulations of the building16. Socially, problems of cross-circulation and lack of privacy are usual consequences in the internal spaces of the dwelling17. In addition, structural problems may occur on the existing foundations. Finally, unfinished exteriors send negative image about the place discouraging private investors and new settlers18. 1 Aduwo, Ibem, & Opoko, 2013, p.3 Mohit, et al., 2010; Aduwo, et al., 2013 3 Mirmoghtadaee, 2009, p. 70 4 Tipple A., 2000 5 Tipple A., 2000 6 Manalang, Munemoto, Yoshida, & Espina, 2002 7 Kardash, 1993, p. 206 8 Kardash, 1993, p. 323 9 Tipple G., 2012 10 Salama, p. 1 11 Salama, p. 6; Shiferaw, 1998 12 Salama, p. 6; Shiferaw, 1998; Kardash, 1993, p. 289; Tipple A. , 2000 13 Kardash, 1993, p. 297; Aduwo et al., 2013, p. 11 14 Aduwo et al., 2013, p. 11 15 Kardash, 1993, p. 288; Salama, p. 6 16 Kardash, 1993, p. 288 17 Salama, p. 6 18 Kardash, 1993, p. 289 2 3 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem 4- The National Housing Program (NHP): The National Housing Project was launched in year 2005, as a main part of Mubarak’s presidential election campaign. It aimed to 500 thousand housing units for the low income on 6 years. The NHP includes 7 axes; axis of providing land in new cities for investor to build housing units, axis of ownership of housing units in the new cities, axis of providing small units (30-40 m2) for rent for people who need care, axis of providing small-sized plots in the new cities (Ibni Betak), axis of providing units of 63m2 for rent in the new cities, axis of family house in 6th of October city (rent) and axis of ownership of the rural house. The selection criteria of project beneficiaries of any of the seven axes determined them not to be Map 1: showing the location of ‘Ibni younger than 20 years old. The beneficiary’s income Betak’ throughout the country shouldn’t exceed 1000 L.E. in case of being single or 1500 L.E. if he/she is married. Besides, it's not allowed for the citizen and his family (husband, wife, underage children) that has a housing unit/plot in any of the Urban Communities Authority cities to apply for this project. 4-1 ‘Ibni Betak’ program (the 4th axis): “Ibni Betak” project is the fourth axis of the seven axes of The National Housing Project. “Ibni Betak” axis provides about 20 thousand units as an initial phase. The project is basically a site and service one that provides residential plots of 150 sqm, besides the services and infrastructure. The citizen Figure 1: plot dimensions and constructs his housing unit on an area of 63 sqm only and 12 building regulations (by authors) sqm for the exterior stairs. The house consists of a ground floor and two upper floors built with governmental financial support depending on the construction stages. The plots are with on front side and three neighbors. Citizen doesn't choose where his plot is or what is the model of housing, but this is done by lottery. Figure 3: a sample of a plot place and dimensions (source: a resident) Figure 1: Ground floors of some of the program models 4 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem The house prototypes provided let the household built it incrementally according to his needs and priorities in accordance to the construction considerations. Besides the selection criteria stated for all the axes of NHP, the beneficiaries of ‘Ibni betak’ should be less than 40 years old. Moreover, the applicant must be living within the administration boundaries of the city he/she wants to get a plot in. The project total area is 1665.58 Fadden; where 654 Fadden are located in the 6th of October city, and the rest are distributed among other cities with smaller portions. The project provides 96694 plots in all of the sites together. 41965 plots are in the 6th of October city.1 Figure 4: showing the percentage of ‘Ibni Betak’ in each of the 13 cities The project main goals are the revival of the self-constructed, financed and administrated ideas. According to the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) and the ministry of housing, the project aimed at enhancing the participatory role of the users. Actually, the role of participation is very limited in the implementation of Ibni Betak project as the role of the user appears in the final stages of the implementation through the sub-contractor and maintenance phase, and did not show the user role in the design or predesign phases through preliminary studies or participation views. Moreover, the role of the state ends by the provision of infrastructure and financial support, and it doesn’t adopt any community participation programs. 3-3-2 ‘Ibni betak’ in the 6th of October city: ‘Ibni betak’ is a self-help housing program that was implemented identically in 11 governorates. The 6th of October city was selected as it represents almost 43.4% of all the plots in the 13 cities. The 41965 plots in the city were distributed on 7 districts, whose locations, shape and design were of unclear logic (map 2). Map 2: showing the 7 districts of 'Ibni betak' in the 6th of October city. The sites are all located to the south of AlWahat road; the thing that represents the main barrier between them and the main city. 5- The study proposal: 5-1 Site selection (the 6th district): The project methods were mainly conducted in the 6th districts (11442 plots) as it is the only one 1 NUCA, 2012 5 Map 3: shows the 6th district and its context and the location of the locality within it. © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem that is directly located one the main road (El wahat road) and the nearest to the main city. The western north edge of the district faces the industrial zone on the other side of El-Wahat road, while the eastern northern one faces October cemetery on the other side of Dahshor southern connection road (map 3). 5-2 Data gathering procedures: Throughout this project, various data gathering methods were used. That was because of the fact that the locality was almost a ghost city, mainly due to the lack of infrastructure, so as to reach as much as possible of the residents. 5-2-1 Questionnaire It was designed to include four main parts. The first was designed to collect data on the socio-economic characteristics such as; age, marital status, education level, profession or job, household size, income & expenditure priorities. The second part was designed to collect data about residents’ perception about ‘Ibni betak’, through asking about main advantages of the project and why it may be suitable for them, plot price, construction costs, loan situation & their expectations about the project future. The third part was a trial to have a deeper understanding of the residents lifestyle and daily activities by asking them about the type of family extension, What the main activities done by each of the family members outside the home, mode of travelling to school, distance between the school and home, distance between his/her work and home and the main indoor activities carried by the family. The last part was asking about the problems the users pinpoint , how they see the future of ‘Ibni betak’ and their recommendations according to their needs and expectations. The questionnaire was distributed to 13 people on site and sent to 2 people through email with the help of the head of the coalition of ‘Ibni betak’ youth. 5-2-2 Visits and interviews Two visits were conducted to governmental authorities. The first was to the ministry of housing, while the second was to the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA)1. Interviews were carried out with the responsible figures of ‘Ibni betak’ to know the authorities vision and perception about the project and its problems if any. The first site visit was mainly to conduct an urban survey of the current condition of the site. Building usage, conditions, heights as well as physical transformations and extensions were surveyed for one neighborhood of the district. The second site visit was mainly reporting the vision of the construction company on site responsible for the implementation of the infrastructure of the 6th district. The third site visit was conducted with the beneficiaries on the first Friday of December 2013, on the monthly meeting done by the residents and households to discuss the problems, facing those who have already settled as well as the others who didn’t settle yet, as well as their needs. This was carried in collaboration with “coalition of ‘Ibni betak’ youth”. An interview based mainly on the questionnaire structure mentioned before was conducted, besides a site tour with the residents. 1 NUCA is the governmental authority responsible for the all the urban projects and developments in the new communities, among which is ‘Ibni betak’ project. 6 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem 5-2-3 Social media survey: Mainly two facebook pages related to the beneficiaries of the area were surveyed; namely “‫ أكتوبر‬6 -‫( ”إبني بيتك المنطقة السادسة‬Ibni betak the 6th district- 6th of October) and “ ‫إئتتف بتباإ إبنتي‬ ‫( ”بيتتك‬Ibni betak youth coalition). Posts, problems, photos and comments were surveyed since the 1st of April, 2012 till the 1st of November, 2013. As being younger than 40 years old was a condition to benefit of the project, a facebook page was the most popular way of communication between and with the householders. The aim of surveying the facebook page is to explore the people complaints in their daily comments. Also, young people nowadays take actions and make decisions collectively mainly through the social media. Although many of the household work and live abroad, they are always in contact with their neighbors and encourage their actions through social media. Observing this all helped the researchers to create a clearer image and background about the households. 6- Analysis: 6-1 Physical analysis of the locality: 6-1-1 Land uses analysis: Land uses map (map 4) shows a very obvious segregation of uses. The monolithic residential land uses contributes to the urban form with 98.2%, while the mixed uses are totally absent. Only two commercial buildings already exist, however further are planned but still not built. No green areas or other community facilities are provided. This total segregation in uses means long walking distances to daily needs, which is actually not common in low and middle income communities. People needs are expected to drive them to transform some of the purely residential uses into mixed land uses plots for more accessible services. Map 4: Existing land uses in the locality 6-1-2 Building heights analysis: Map 5 shows building heights analysis. It can be observed that many of the plots have at least 1 floor which means that the project policy succeeded, when it stated that the land will be taken from the household if he/she doesn’t complete the first floor within the first Map 5: Existing building height in the year. This forced people to start construction early, locality despite the absence of infrastructure. As observed from the map a big ratio of the residents finished construction and completed the three floors so as to be exempted from the rest of the premiums. Although there are almost no one already mobilized to the locality, and although most of the infrastructure has not connected to the houses yet, some cases of vertical extensions, represented in the 4th floor, are recorded. Although being small ratio, they indicate that more and more transformations can be erected in the very near future. 7 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem 6-1-3 Block analysis: Blocks consist of plots arranged back to back were homes are attached side by side. Each home has a front and back yard. Each of the back and front yards ranges between 3.5 to 4.0 meters. This means that a total setback between buildings from their back sides ranges between 7.0 to 8.0 meters, while on their completion; they will be about 12.5 meters high. These long narrow double backyards actually will not provide enough privacy between neighbors. Residents, weather in Figure 5: showing the broken their ‘back garden’ or inside their home, are easily over privacy of backyards (Photos by: El looked by their neighbors. Gabalawi K.) Figure 6: shows the typical layout (right) and section (left) for a block 6-2 Social survey and interviews analysis: The social survey was distributed among the householders in one of their monthly meeting as well as via email. Although responding rate is considered good (75%), the sample (9 persons) is narrow to an extent. Actually, reaching people was a great problem as they are not on site, as most of them have not settled in the area yet. Moreover, some of them did not like the idea of answering a survey; they preferred to be interviewed more. Interviews took the form of semi-structured ones based on the designed survey. However, people had a lot to say beyond the questionnaire. According to the survey results, being a ‘private home’ was the most common answer (100%) of the respondents on asking them about reasons beyond choosing ‘Ibni Betak’. Some of them (28.5%) added making a family home where their sons can live with them as a second reason, 14.2% added the the proximity of the project to his work. Finally, other respondents (14.2%) added the compatibility of the construction policies with their economic conditions. Upon asking people about their unfound expectations in the project, most of the respondents (85.7%) said that lack of services in the place was totally unexpected shock for them determining it as main reason for not moving and settling in the project after 3 years of its planned date of completion. Others (42.8%) mentioned that they expected to be supported by the government in the construction period; the thing that has never, according to them, happened. Figure 7: showing the ladder as pre-designed (left), and the informal RC stair extension from the exterior (middle) and the interior (right) (Photos: by authors) 8 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem The almost total lack of infrastructure and absence of transportation means represented a serious problem for 71.4% of the respondents, especially those who own no car. The lack of facilities, and shops to buy their daily needs within the project area further aggravated this problem. On the other hand, some respondents (57.14%) said that their biggest problem is the lack of security. Interestingly, when respondents were asked about the type of family they are planning for after living in ‘Ibni Betak’ and in the future, the entire sample (100%) mentioned that they are willing in an extended family where their sons will live with them in the same house to become a family house. Figure 8: showing some of the recorded already done transformations From the interviews with householders, it was shown that the government forces inhabitants to design their houses with a ladder to the roof while they want to have a complete stair from the ground floor to the roof. The government told the people that their houses' structures can’t carry a complete stair to the roof as the foundations are very weak. People don’t believe in this argument; “My house is only 65 meters and I have 16 column, one of the columns is 80X90cm, and all columns are steeled with 16 rod, so how they are telling us that our houses can’t carry a complete stair… One of the inhabitants completed the stair to the roof, when he went to ask about the electricity they force him to demolish it and he Figure 9: A facebook post that shows the discontent of a household for that the exemptions are for those who actually having the money to complete the three floors, and not for those who can’t even complete the 1st one. Source: https://www.facebook.com/etlaf.ibnybetk did”. Said by Ayman (an owner) (fig 7). It seems that the government tries to take some steps to prevent future fourth floor erection, but according to the respondents’ tale, it seems that it doesn’t want to face the people with its intension. Actually, it was observed that people have already begun transformations before even moving to the site. This was either by completing the outer shape of the plan to the most outer edge or extending to a fourth floor (fig 8). Figure 10: A comment on one of the pictures showing one of the buildings with a fourth floor extension, and the comment says that they would do the same instead of the box of matches they are living in. Source: https://www.facebook.com/etlaf.ibnybetk 6-3 Findings of analysis of social media: The facebook pages gathering the householders can be considered a pure mirror reflecting all what people think of, intend to do or complaint about. The posts and the comments reflects many intensions, but some intended actions are obvious to be very 9 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem common such as; the intension to extend vertically to a fourth floor, in the footsteps of one of the residents. A common opinion was to postpone this until having the entire infrastructure connected. This is besides many other problems and complaints about the attitudes of middle contractors, the construction company responsible for erecting the locality infrastructure and other problems. 1 On the other side, the page deeply reflects the attempts of the households to know each other and to take actions together, which gives them more strength. The thing which is stated in the goals of the page in its ‘About’ page2. 7- Project proposals and recommendations: Figure 11: showing proposed different packages applied on the same prototype ‘Not just a backyard’ –as mentioned before- proposed solutions ranged from the units redesign to strategic policies of provision and management. Here, the paper is to concentrate on reviewing the proposed ideas related to the prevention of, or in other words, formalizing the informal expected transformations and extensions. 7-1 Packages instead of prototypes: Introducing a new way of understanding the appropriateness of environments, Christopher Alexander saw the place as a pattern of events. According to him, the most fruitful forms are those which recognize the existing patterns of events (Alexander, 1979).3 ‘Being different’ can be considered the main finding of this study. The residents of ‘Ibni Betak’ widely vary in their type of employment, family needs, level of income and many other aspects. One can ‫إئتف بباإ إبني بيتك‬, 2013 https://www.facebook.com/etlaf.ibnybetk/info 3 Alexander, 1979 1 2 10 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem consider that more variety will surely be there among the 11 governorates where the project is implemented. However, the provided prototypes do not differ in program or area; but only in the placement of the entrance and some similar aspects. The concept of providing a series of ‘packages’ is proposed to provide some freedom of choice according to needs, family type, need of income generation, etc. This is to create more responsive flexible environments. An aim of this proposal is to provide all the choices within the setbacks and design of the provided prototype, as most of the houses have been already built (fig 11). 7-2 Backyards as pedestrian passageways: Figure 12: Proposed layout Figure 13: Proposed section As for the design of the backyards, where privacy is broken, they are not accessible or even visible from the streets, in addition to the basically car oriented master plan, ‘Not just a 11 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem backyard’ proposed converting these backyards collectively into pedestrian passageways network, as another layer of circulation. By this we mean diminishing the area of ownership in some land plots through eliminating the backyard to transform it from private space to semi- public space owned and managed by its residents. This area is transformed into a pedestrian hub with mixed land uses carrying for the daily needs of residents through shops in the ground floor as well as a social activity space where neighbours gather and interact and their children play. Some inventive methodologies such as yearly competition for the best run and managed pedestrian hub can make residents more eager to take care of that space and the users committee Map 6: showing the pedestrian passageways network and the hierarchy of the streets assures its proper management and defies any kind of unacceptable informalities. Also, electing a local manager for each block can be another alternative for managing this semi-public space. The diminishing of ownership, by converting the private backyards into semipublic pedestrian hubs is made up by allowing fourth floor, horizontal extensions in the third and second floors and introducing some income generating activities. On the other hand, ‘Not just a backyard’ doesn’t suggest certain exact plot to have this extension or that. It even shouldn’t determine which type of mixed uses will be introduced Figure 14: the proposed passageway replacing the to this certain plot. It actually suggests backyards controlling the process not the product. For instance, the fourth floor should not be allowed for three adjacent buildings oriented in the south to the backyard, so as to allow the sunlight to penetrate to the houses in front. Minimum distances between certain types of commercial activities may be determined as well, etc. Economic issues: Accordingly these parts of people’s plots will be converted from totally private space into semi-public one. People are to be allowed instead to either extent this part in the third floor or half of the fourth floor. Besides, they will have the opportunity to rent flats or shops as an income generation method. Social issues: The proposed passage will provide a safer place for pedestrians from traffic and stranger dangers. Introducing commercial daily activities on that passage will provide 12 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem more street eyes. Besides, it is expected that this passage will be a main gathering place for neighbours instead of each having his 24 m backyard with broken privacy. Environmental issues: This proposal will allow better ventilation due to alternative shaded and lighted areas, resulted from upper extension (fig 17). Besides, introducing green areas will help in providing less polluted air coming from the industrial zone opposite to the locality at its western north side; in the wind direction. Cultural issues: The proposal gives the opportunity of expansion to fulfill cultural needs always raise in the two-room flats as mentioned. Figure 15: economic sustainability Figure 16: Social interaction and sustainability Ownership policy: The proposal aims at its core to be a win-win one, that is it changes the ownership of the backyard from private to semipublic, but on the other side, it compensates people with extra inner spaces, either through extending horizontally an upper floor or having a fourth floor. Moreover, it opens the door for them to introduce mixed uses or rent some floors legally, which will surely contribute to their monthly income. Figure 17: Environmental sustainability Integration with private sector in the public housing: Although the heavy economic base of the 6th of October city, the private sector was totally apart of the contribution in ‘Ibni betak’. It is thought that it would have been much more effective to target the workers in the industrial zone to be the main residents of ‘Ibni betak’ and to encourage factories’ owners to subsidize the project infrastructure, in return of being free of some of the taxes. This would have carried weight for both the government and the project. 8- Conclusion: ‘Not just a dwelling and not just a backyard’ is a message that householders are always in need to send to the professionals and designers. Housing seems to be in need for designer who is sharp-eyed enough to be able to understand standing patterns and at the same time to be thoughtful enough to replicate them in his design schemes1. Unfortunately, it seems that 1 Kardash, 1993, p. 26 13 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem Egyptian governments, after more than 60 years of housing provision, still does not get that sharp eye, leading to the failure of most of the housing projects to satisfy people’s needs. ‘Not just a backyard’ is a primary trial to understand and moreover expect what patterns can be there and redesign according to this. Social, cultural, economic and environmental sustainability can be achieved with minimum interventions, only when satisfying people needs is the priority in the design. In self-help projects, the chance of choice can be as effective as people’s participation when the future residents are unknown at the design stage. The paper aims to launch the idea and open the doors to possible innovation for future developments of similar projects based on some ideas: the idea of mixed land uses within the area, the idea of social pedestrian hubs, the possibility of including several alternatives suiting different needs and capabilities, the possibility of dealing with climatic ad environmental issues within such projects,…….The ownership and management of the semipublic space( the new harah) is another challenge that should be further investigated According to the Mass Housing Revitalization committee review, ‘Not Just a Backyard’ developed ideas that improve public space, promote cultural viability, introduce economic activities, identifying high value areas based on location, neighborhood environmental sustainability, improve microclimate through vegetation, urban agriculture and urban furniture, initiate contact with central and local government, private sector, civil society, professionals & academia and encourage corporate social responsibility1. A limitation of this study is its very small sample weather as questionnaire respondents or interviewees. The small sample is non-representative of the real population and gives only primary indicators. Further research is needed to search for off-site householders and integrate their life patterns and styles into the proposed packages. 9- Acknowledgement: Authors would like to thank gratefully each of Amr Achraf, Lina Al-dawood and Dyiaa Bassam for their great efforts throughout the competition as team members, and Dr. Ashraf Botros for his help and guidance. 10- References (NUCA), N. U., (2012), "Nabza 'an Ibni Batek (A summary about 'Ibni betak')". Powerpoint presentation. Aduwo, E. B., Ibem, E. O., & Opoko, A. P., (2013), "Residents’ Transformation of Dwelling Units in Public Housing Estates in Lagos, Nigeria: Implications for Policy and Practice". International Journal of Education and Research, Vol.1,No. 4, 1-20. Alexander, C., (1979), "The Timeless Way of Building". New York: Oxford University Press. Boudon, P., (1972), "Lived-in Architecture". London: Lund Humphries. 1 http://masshousingcompetition.org/results/entry/356 14 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III Ibni Betak: Not just a backyard, Heba Hussein, Noha Darwish, Eslam Salem Kardash, H. S., (1993, January), "The transformation of public housing provision in Egypt and the rolof self help". PhD thesis. U.K.: University of Newcastle. Manalang, R. T., Munemoto, J., Yoshida, T., & Espina, C., (2002, November), "A Study on Residents’ Self-built Improvements at MRB Dwelling Units in Metro Manila". Journal of AsianArchitecture and Building Engineering, No.184, 177-184. Mirmoghtadaee, M., (2009), "Process of Housing Transformation in Iran". Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, Vol. 14, No. 1, 69-80. Mohit, M., Ibrahim, M., & Rashid, Y., (2010), "Assessment of Residential Satisfaction in Newly Designed Public Low-Cost Housing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia". Habitat International, 18-27. Salama, R., (n.d.), "Evolving Housing Environments: A Study of Public Housing Transformations". IAPS 14, 1-11. Shiferaw, D., (1998), "Self-initiated transformations of public-provided Dwellings in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia". Cities, Vol.15, No. 6, 437–448. Sims, D., (2012), "Understanding Cairo: the logic of a city out of control". Egypt: American University in Cairo Press. Tipple, A., (2000), "Extending Themselves: Users Initiated Transformation of Government Built housing in developing countries". Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Tipple, G., (2012, September 4), "Informal Public Housing Expansion: Transformation of existing multi-storey stock in Egypt". Network Session at the 6th World Urban Forum. Naples. http://www.bowerstudio.com.au/2010/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Extending-the-basichouse.pdf [Date of accessibility: July, 2014] https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=520860587960372&set=pb.241848685861565.2207520000.1383248198.&type=3&theater [Date of accessibility: October 31, 2013] http://masshousingcompetition.org/results/entry/356 [Date of accessibility: October 25, 2014] http://masshousingcompetition.org/results/national [Date of accessibility: October 26, 2014] 15 © ARCHCAIRO 2014: Responsive Urbanism in Informal Areas, Towards a Regional Agenda for Habitat III