Research Summary / Architecture Proposal

1. informal economies:
Slum dwellers have little or no access to formal sector jobs.
The informal economy fills the gap left by the formal economy, as it fails to manage the growing population of the urban poor.

2. informal space:
Economic exclusion leaves slum dwellers with no access to formal property or space.
Space is created and adapted individually and organically to meet individual economic and social needs.

Possible application in Utrecht:
Moroccan immigrants, like slum dwellers of the developing world, are excluded from western capitalist society.  Informal concepts can be applied to fill this gap, at the economic and spatial levels.  Design and policy can work together to address this issue.

Policy proposal:
1.a  property ownership program; reconfiguration of the welfare state:
-Generate capital for immigrant population.
-Reconfigure long-term investments in unemployment and income support to     short-term investments in construction
-Long-term municipal gain through property taxes, implemented with a 20-year abatement plan

1.b  small capital enterprise program
-entrepraneurship program to encourage marginal and small enterprise
-training programs

Design proposal:
2.a  design your own home and business
-input from occupants should be encouraged to better satisfy individual needs
-can parametrics create an interface to mediate between input (design criteria-family size, lifestyle etc) and ouput (financial loss/gain, form)