ABSTRACT
The study of ‘unplanned’ settlements is traditionally closely allied to the view from 30,000 feet, the elicitation of global forces like geography, topography, economics, society, culture and so on. It is possible to seriously annoy senior academics by insisting that the form of unplanned settlements is not best described by a-spatial measures, or at least that the shape and detailed pattern of the settlement can be explained in spatial terms. Similarly, where they can bring themselves to look, the architectural observers usually deal with the physical reality of the barrio/favela/etc. in strictly picturesque terms.
