Adapting to informality: multistory housing driven by a co-productive process and the People’s Plans in Metro Manila, Philippines

Abstract

Faced with an ever-increasing demand for land in Metro Manila, as well as with the domination of standardised low-income housing models, the local civil society and the urban poor sector embarked on the development of an alternative shelter approach: in-city multi-storey housing delivered through the People’s Plans. The article documents the emergence of the approach, interrogates its main assumptions and takes a closer look at the implementation process through two case studies, in Pasig and San Jose Del Monte. The article analyses the modality as an attempt to create a hybrid approach between formal and informal delivery systems within the built form conventionally associated with the imaginaries of the ‘formal’ city. The findings underscore the role of co- production in enabling the urban poor sector to leverage their approach, while documenting the need to move beyond a formal-informal dichotomy in both theory and urban development practice.