Abstract:
Badaro has been experiencing significant urban transformation over the decades
affecting its socio-spatial practices in the neighborhood. It has attracted developers to
the neighborhood commodifying land as an asset at the expense of its social value.
These dynamics have been translated into the densification of the neighborhood, and
many open spaces were lost. And with the ongoing recession, many privately owned
built and unbuilt properties in the neighborhood have been left either fully or partially
vacant, waiting to be developed for real-estate speculation.
This thesis seeks to explore ways to activate the built and unbuilt vacant properties in
Badaro as spaces with opportunities, using the neighborhood’s urban assets and
resources. It looks into the structures of incentives that lead to vacancies in the city, as
well as encouraging the use of the vacant lots albeit temporally as a strategy to advance
the public and social value of land, fostering shared commons and inclusivity in Badaro.
My thesis shows that vacant properties can be activated albeit temporarily. However, to
foster a long term public life in Badaro requires that some of the vacant lots in the
the neighborhood will have to be purchased
