Unraveling a Chaos: a Vertical Habitat for the Slum Dwellers

Abstract

More than 17% of Islamabad consists of in Formal settlements, slums and/or squatter communities. These settlements on the edges of the city have created what can be called as points oF conflict (socioeconomic conflicts). With over 800 dwellings, the Afqhan Basti of HI is considered the largest of such settlements in Islamabad Located at the gateway of the citadel (Islamabad), the refuses live at 24sa t per person-a density thrice as high as it should have been the 8, 60000 sqrfit. of land ‘occupied by the refuses has to be evacuated by the developing authority, who wants to bring it for more purposeful use. The idea is to relocate the settlement vertically, freeing up the land for the city authority and providing the displaced refuges an infrastructure to live in The Focus of my thesis is to decipher the current setting roping out urban Features, tracing cultural elements and recreating them on a vertical plane. The only sustainable solution lies in building an infrastructure which can be relevant to the user group. It is therefore integral to the idea, to carry out an urban analysis of the current settlement to trace out Features which link them to this site and are also rooted in their past