12 years after: lessons from incremental changes in open spaces in a slum-upgrading project

While slum upgrading usually focus on shelter and basic infrastructure, few accounts document how open spaces in upgraded neighbourhoods change over the years, and post occupancy evaluations of whether these open spaces meet community needs are scarce. To address this knowledge gap, the study revisited two areas in a slum-upgrading project in Baseco, a landfill on Manila Bay densely populated by the urban poor. We documented changes in open spaces over 12 years and identified three challenges; 1) a lack of community buy-in to NGO-led initiatives; 2) a mismatch between designed facilities and resident preferences and/or needs; 3) disproportionate allocation of resources to new construction projects vs. maintenance of constructed projects. The findings suggest that better neighbourhood outcomes can be achieved by: 1) better understanding community needs and livelihood patterns; 2) re-examining the appropriateness of design and planning standards for informal contexts; and 3) emphasising resident participation and leadership from the start.