Open Building in the global South

Several decades ago, the Open Building approach attracted a substantial interest in so-called “developing countries.” Investigations in “slum upgrading,” “informal settlements,” “user participation” could be found in South America, South Asia and Africa. This chapter reassesses the role that the Open Building approach can offer in the global South by presenting a range of projects which have been conceptualized and built with no reference to Open Building as a concept. However, these projects are based on the idea of encouraging long-lasting residential architecture planned for change. The chapter is premised on the belief that there is a need for new forms of governance and regulatory frameworks that allow for experimentation and testing out of alternative forms of delivery. This is especially important in the countries of the global South considering unique socio-economic conditions as well as a large degree of informality in residential development processes. The possible implementation of Open Building in the countries of the global South is discussed by analyzing several case studies based on the basic principles of Open Building.