The Perfect Slum

Trends in the Symbiosis of People and Building

Besides people, the most prominent things around us are buildings. Whereas architecture is concerned with buildings, psychology and anthropology mainly deal with people vis-à-vis other people. In this lecture, dr. Sytse de Maat investigates the relationship between people and building, presents a model of how it works, and points out the trends in its evolution.

Centerpiece of his thesis is a study on informal settlement (slums) where vernacular and tradition meet the planned city. In his quest to understand why slums look like they do, he presents an archaeology of the habitat of one billion people today.