Towards a progressive understanding of informal settlements

the contribution of the fringe-belt concept

Abstract

Urban morphology is a body of knowledge concerned with the physical form of cities. It includes several theories, concepts, and methodologies. One of these is the fringe-belt. Fringe-belts are intimately related to the process of urban development: in a city, each period of growth is followed by a phase of slow growth or no growth, in which land is occupied by specific uses, mostly institutional, industrial, and open spaces. The concept was firstly proposed in Central Europe, and it has been recently applied into different geographical contexts to describe and explain this sequence of periods of expansion and stagnation of cities. However, the application of the concept into the Global South is less explored. The usefulness of fringe belts for planning practice (addressing conservation and transformation) and its ecological nature (including the recognition and maintenance of significant open spaces) has been discussed. Using the case study of Salvador, Brazil, this paper argues for an innovative dimension of the concept: its relation to informal settlements and its relevance to study the peripheral growth in Southern cities.