Regional Community Architects Meeting in Chiangmai June 12-16 2010

The Regional Community Architects Meeting which ACHR organized in Chiang Mai last week (June 12-16, 2010) may very well have been the biggest-yet gathering of    COMMUNITY ARCHITECTS IN ASIA.  

 

Kirtee Shah, described it this way:
   "The energy of the young, their maturity and subject    strength, richness of ideas, environment of    togetherness and belonging, spirit of sharing, scale    (23 countries!), variety and promise - all that was    stunning and inspiring to me. It is working! It made    me feel young again!"

Summary Here and more news on YPs Community Architects.
Full report on Com Arch. meeting to follow soon.

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Go to ACHR Home Savings / Upgrading Tsunami Recovery Understanding Asian Cities Evictions - Housing Rights Young Professionals Download Library News - Asia Urban Poor About ACHR history Links Page

 

Tibet Heritage Fund

See Andre as a "Heritage Hero" in Leh Old Town India on BBC 24/07

Preview on BBC site Here

See the work of THF in Tibet here
and in Leh here

and
Tibet Heritage Fund Website Here

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ACHR VIDEO Homepage HERE

CITIES and DENSITY There is a growing trend in Asian cities to demolish low income informal settlements and relocate their residents in six to eight storey apartment blocks. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that: 1. low income groups (other than white-collar workers and some of the better-off among the poor) are unhappy with the high-rise solutions for sociological reasons; 2. the units are expensive to maintain and instalments for lease or ownership are more often than not unaffordable for the poor residents; 3. residents cannot carry out any informal businesses in the apartments (apart from activities such as giving tuitions or running beauty parlours); and 4. the residents become poorer and some of them destitute. As a result, the majority of them sell their “possession” informally (if they can) at throw away prices and move back as renters to informal settlements in the city centre. The city governments and their planners argue that high-rise apartment living is necessary for it provides higher densities, better social and environmental conditions and enhances the image of the city as a “world class” or “global” city By Arif Hasan. Asiya Sadiq, Suneela Ahmed                          August 2009

Read more HERE or DOWNLOAD the paper 157 KBs HERE

 

 

 

SAVINGS & CREDIT & COMMUNITY FUNDS A new way for development by people. A report on the international meeting held late last year in Bangkok, attending by grassroots teams and supporters from nearly 20 countries practicing savings and credit and using community funds as a the way forward for development by PEOPLE for PEOPLE. “The world has changed and we need a new way to make more change possible - by people - and by a new system of flexible finance by people and from people. And this meeting is the biggest gathering of people who actually believe in this kind of new development. So it means something” Somsook Boonyabancha.

To learn more
Download 52 pages of discussions. reports and transcripts from the meeting .
2.2.MG from the Download Library here.

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NEWS on Savings Networks & Up-grading in Urban Poor Asia    THAILAND - CAMBODIA - NEPAL - LAOS - VIETNAM - PHILIPPINES - MONGOLIA - INDIA - SRI LANKA - INDONESIA - EAST TIMOR   Here

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TSUNAMI     RECOVERY Why is People Centered Recovery Important ? Earlier 16 PAGES of TSUNAMI UPDATES THAILAND INDONESIA SRI LANKA INDIA For People's Centered Perspective News on the Tsunami in Asia please go  HERE

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Working with the urban poor in Asia

 

Tibet Heritage Fund - UNESCO Award HERE    Congratulations to Andre and the team

 

Development Reform - February 2006   
Pakistan Karachi   
International Loans and the Failure of Urban Development

PAKISTAN
Update on OPP- RTI

ACHR and HABITAT DAY 2005
10,000 slum dwellers at Suan Luang, Bangkok
150 community leaders and others from 15 countries
A thousand or so suit-less community people at UN-ESCAP
Field visits to 10 Thai Cities to see people centred city-wide up-grading
- Brief Report

THAILAND
Ban Mankong Handbook
The Handbook details City Wide Upgrading in
13 Cities in Thailand - Download from Here

VIDEO Update HERE Technology and the Poor HERE DOWNLOADS New in The DOWNLOAD LIBRARY Bangladesh UP Housing By Iftekhar Ahmed May 2007 ACHR 2004 Activities Book Tsunami - ACHR Newsleter Intro to Understanding Asian Cities Ban Mankong Hanbook

New E-News for June 2010 HERE
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    inYear One
One Page of Statistics on ACCA's First Year HERE
Our report on Year 1 of the ACCA program ia available for download in the Download Libary HERE
Extracts will appear on the website soon.
Earlier Reports - ACCA homepage here

A program that is building an urban poor community upgrading process in Asian cities that is :

implemented by people

based in action

driven by real needs

city wide in its scale

strategic in its planning

done in partnership

structural change oriented

The 32 large projects approved so far are helping about 3,797 urban poor families to get secure land and housing, as direct beneficiaries of the projects, and are also facilitating the creation of City Development Funds, as new joint financial mechanisms in all these cities.
Small upgrading projects (walkways, drains, toilets, water and electricity supply systems, community centers, etc.), which have been approved in 286 poor communities in 29 cities are allowing poor community people to collectively develop solutions to immediate problems they face and are leading to more active involvement in the communities and more collaboration with their local governments.

Our report on Year 1 of the ACCA program is available for PDF download in 3 sections here
Earlier Reports - ACCA homepage here

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“After twenty years, I thought things would be getting better here. But I’m sad to see that after all that struggle and all that progress, the housing situation for the poor in Korea is getting much, much worse.”

 

After 20 Years ACHR returns to South Korea to speak with the Urban Poor and support groups.
Download the ACHR report from its visit from the Download Library here

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23 Nov 09
The World Class City Concept and its Repercussions on Urban Planning for Cities in the Asia Pacific Region. From Arif Hasan HERE

A Coversation about Upgrading

An exchange between an international team of professionals who are struggling to find ways to support community-driven upgrading, and a group of community people who are actually doing it. .  ACHR has prepared a 10-page illustrated report which describes the lively exchange: "You thought upgrading a slum was just a matter of paving a few lanes and laying a few drainage pipes ? THINK AGAIN!
Download from the Download Library here

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PEOPLE & DISASTERS

When DISASTERS happen, how do communities most affected by them cope? And why is it so important that space be made for these communities to be at the centre of the process of rebuilding their lives and communities ?
Special Report    24 pages of text and photos from 11 countries in Asia coping with disasters. From ACHR's workshop at WUF Nanjing.
Download from the Download Library here

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Understanding Asian Cities - resource page Somsook Boonyabancha: Unlocking People Energy Arif Hasan: Privatising Clifton Beach - and More Kirtee Shah: India, Architects and the poor "If the present trend continues then the rich-poor divide, evictions, informal settlements and exclusion will increase with not only the poor but also the rich living in ghettos surrounded by armed guards and security systems (this is already happening). " New wriitng from Arif Hasan What has happened with Asia's urban poor since 1987? Introduction HERE Download the booklet Intro to Understanding Asian Cities from here 32 pages PDF file 1.6 megabytes - with photos

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Eviction Watch & Housing Rights Evictions resume at Bassac, Cambodia KARACHI 2940 houses demolished in last 4 months The Word from the Poor on Evictions Evictions and LAW Street Vendors and Evictions Lyarie Expressway - a human tragedy. HERE Trends re Evictions in Asia 2004-2005 EVICTIONS ZIMBABWE ZIMBABWE CRISIS at the SDI Web-site NEWS On Forced EVICTIONS PAKISTAN Jan 2006 HERE INDIA JANUARY 2005 HERE JAPAN NAGOYA  JANUARY 2005 HERE

 

 

This site is updated as often as possible. Bear with us as we  become familiar with the new technology and experiment to see what works and does not.   
Much of our  material is written by friends for whom English is a second or third language and we thank them for their efforts.  
   

ACHR HOMEPAGE continues HERE page 2

This site is updated as often as possible. Bear with us as we  become familiar with the new technology and experiment to see what works and does not.   
Much of our  material is written by friends for whom English is a second or third language and we thank them for their efforts.