In urban design, suburbs can be a contentious topic. That is in part because the term lends itself to nebulous and ever-changing definitions. In its simplest form, the suburbs are residential communities within commuting distance, located a fair bit away from the heart of metropolitan areas. The American context sees suburbs viewed with some hostility, with racist ‘redlining’ practices a dark legacy to particular suburbs in the country. In a more superficial sense, American suburbs have often been criticised for their uniformity in appearance – portrayed as soulless dwellings absent of a sense of community.
When we pan out and explore the phenomenon of suburbia in a global context, conflicting meanings begin to take shape. Mumbai's urban condition, for instance, is a story of two types of suburbs. Mahul to the eastern part of the metropolis is an area where pollution has caused health issues for its population, while suburbs like Bandra are home to a more upscale clientele –home to a host of major banks. Casablanca in Morocco harbours a similar suburb dynamic, where suburbs like Ain Diab feature trendy restaurants and suburbs like Sidi Moumen have historically been more deprived.
The divided urban nature of cities in India or Morocco means that a key concern, affordable housing, has been addressed through both building housing in the heart of metropolises and building housing in the suburbs. Two affordable housing projects in the suburbs of major cities in these countries bring to the forefront important questions – can suburban housing cater to low-income groups, and if so, is there a way for it not to isolate the very community it houses?
The suburbs of Casablanca are home to one such project – the Dar Lamane Housing Community. Completed in 1983 by Charai + Lazrak Architects, the scheme was initiated to provide housing for low-income residents of nomadic and rural origin. The land used was reclaimed, having formerly been a quarry in an industrial suburb of Casablanca.
The spatial organisation of the community is, on the surface, very simple. Urban public space and the clustering of dwellings being prioritised over specific design solutions for individual units. A market, mosque, and communal facilities make up the central space, easily accessible for the whole community. Six housing clusters then flank this space on three sides, consisting of concentric rectangular strips of apartment blocks encircling a communal courtyard. Pedestrian strips divide the apartment blocks, while the housing clusters are separated by market streets – lined with shops and restaurants.
Although the settlement was designed with the vehicle in mind, the scheme eschewed the classic suburban pattern of tarmacked roads dividing housing into pedestrian-hostile streets. Instead, there is a separation between car and pedestrian without prioritising the car. Cul-de-sac parking areas are approachable from the peripheral roads on the edge of the site, while meandering streets that run the length of the site provide uninterrupted pedestrian movement.
The Dar Lamane Housing development, with the regional individuality of its residents being given full priority, makes for a thriving community in a suburban setting, with an architectural language conducive for socialising with an appropriate level of privacy.
The need to provide housing for low-income residents was also a pressing concern in Indore, a city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Here, architect B.V Doshi was tasked with devising a solution for housing people living in informal settlements in the suburban industrial township of Aranya. A sample of 80 homes were built in 1989, but Doshi’s overall vision was apparent. In contrast to the formal housing in the Dar Lamane Housing Community, the Aranya scheme embraced informal growth, where incremental development would take place within a legal, economic, and organisational framework. The sample homes were made up of loadbearing brick on a concrete plinth with plastered and painted walls. Doors and windows could then be fabricated on-site, in effect giving the residents even more agency over the design of their own homes.
Like Dar Lamane, Aranya was designed as a low-rise, high-density housing settlement, with intimate and public spaces in close proximity to each other. Larger communal spaces are planted with trees, while more private areas are accessible through various niches and corners. Vehicular and pedestrian traffic were clearly segregated, with cars limited to rectilinear and formal roads 15 metres wide. Services were key to the project, being placed at the back of house plots, with a range of income groups accommodate across the area of the site.
Located 6km from the Indore city centre, Aranya had the Delhi-Mumbai highway to its east and fast-growing industrial areas to its north, south, and west, with the vision for its residents being that they would be provided with convenient linkages to the city and employment opportunities in the urban centre, while still being able to come home to a thriving community.
Dar Lamane and the Aranya housing project both addressed the important issue of housing residents of a city in a suburban area - separate from a city’s main cluster of urbanization. Questions, of course, remain. The residents of Dar Lamane, while being provided with employment opportunities in the settlement’s local markets, in turn, do not have easy access to jobs in the urban centre. It can be argued too, that its residents can be isolated from the potential cultural exchange present in the cosmopolitan centre of a city like Casablanca. The Aranya settlement, on the other hand, was swallowed by the urban sprawl of Indore, and although the original vision is still apparent in its urban fabric, it is a clear departure from Doshi’s original vision.
As architects, urban planners, and local governmental authorities seek to devise solutions for housing low-income populations, perhaps a glance towards city suburbs might shed some light on housing models to emulate, and housing models to depart from.
