Socio-spatial characteristics shaping the public-private interface in informal settlements : the case of Ramlet il-Qortin

Abstract

Urban interfaces between the private and public realms play a key role in allowing degrees of different forms of social and economic exchanges. Within informal settlements, the physical morphology of structures is closely integrated with social networks and domestic economics, determining a complex use of open space and innovative trade-offs between the private and public space and ways in which different engagements and activities are connected. In this research, a micro-scale analysis of public-private interfaces is performed within a Maltese coastal informal setting, taking the Ramlet il-Qortin settlement as a case study. The key research goal is to investigate the relations between the private realm and the public sphere in this context, shedding light into how such communities function and the role of the interface and its characteristics in inhabitants' every-day life. The research explores the importance of interstitial spaces in four chosen areas within the settlement, studying their effects on form giving within the area as well as how these maintain social connections in informal settings. Within a wider study of order and rules, this study also discusses the notion of self-organisation which determines spatial order in informal settlements, and how these are expressed within the interface realm. As part of the research methodology, analytical frameworks are devised from the theoretical research; these serve as guides for observing interface relationships, further using mapping and photography to visually represent these public-private typologies based on the criteria of connectivity and proximity along realms, transparency via intermediate elements and other additions. Later framework refinements cater for contextual elements drawn from the settlement. The collected data reveals that the interface plays a major part of the everyday life of inhabitants, especially given the ergonomic size of their boathouses. The results clearly indicate how, despite informal morphologies seeming chaotic or random, there is often an underlying logic as to their emergence and growth, both at macro and micro scale. Analysing informal settings and adaptations unravels various forms which are continuously in the process of incremental change. The results of this study identify different typologies observed in Ramlet il-Qortin involving different levels of connectivity and proximity with the public sphere, intermediate elements determining transparency and other fixed or ephemeral adaptations.