The Informality as a Catalyst of New Developments

"To which extent the scale of the informal settlements could effectively co-exist with the necessity of an affordable mass-housing provision through a top-down intervention?"The solution proposed will try to integrate the potentialities that these two approaches embrace, during the different steps of the design process, from the urban analysis until the final architecture result. The area that will be investigated for the design proposal is the Dejach Wube Sefer: Its position is remarkable for the proximity to the main institutional and commercial areas of the capital city (town hall, St. George cathedral, commercial center): for this reason in the last decade it became a strategic place for companies offices (telecommunication centre), headquarters of governmental institutions (police station and academy) and services (hotel, offices, banks) especially all along the western street to the Entoto Mountains.The eastern street is also gradually gaining importance, due to several main reasons, among them the main ones are: new tertiary activities are being built on its opposite side and the higher Importance of the university campus place northerly. One of the main characteristics that make the Sefer unique is its heterogeneity of functions and people: the formality of the new constructions co-exists with the tradition of the Old Villas and the old Ras Palace as well as with informal clusters scattered all around. The design decisions consequently will have to face these conditions of people heterogeneity, with different needs and spaces demands. Moreover the final project should include new commercial opportunities in order to improve and strength the site potentialities. Such commercial opportunities, especially in this part of the Sefer, seemed to be Impeded by the massive retain wall running all along its corner (built because of the enlargement of the East-West street).