Civic Resilience Laboratory

Presentation: Messy Urbanism 2.0: Urban Informality as Resilience in Seattle, WA

Cities worldwide exhibit distinctive self-organizing patterns of informal urbanism that both predate and persist alongside the modern, ordered city. In the Global North, urban informality- the systems that generate physical manifestations of informal urbanism- is dismissed as a uniquely Global South phenomenon.  Yet urban informality in the Global North remains expansive, heterogeneous, and deeply embedded in the lives and livelihoods of urban residents, especially those with limited resources (Mukhija and Loukaitou-Sideris 2014). The visibility of informal urbanism have only grown since the COVID-19 pandemic, furthered by widening inequality, global recession, and geopolitical disruption. A decade ago, Messy Urbanism: Understanding the ‘Other’ Cities of Asia (Chalana and Hou 2016), examined these dynamics across Asian cities, foregrounding “messiness” as a critical lens for urban complexity. Building on this foundation, this work reframes urban informality as resilience, focusing on Seattle.  We examine the messiness of urban informality through the lenses of housing, livelihoods, urban agriculture, and civic life.  We argue that efforts to eradicate informality in Seattle are misplaced, and that design and planning make room for informal urbanism, and engage with, its inherent messiness for more resilient futures.

Keywords: Mess Urbanism; Urban Informality; Global North; Resilient Futures

Bio: Manish Chalana, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, with adjunct appointments in Architecture and Landscape Architecture. His work focuses on historic preservation planning, planning history, and international planning and development, with particular attention to India. He has published in leading journals including Future Anterior, Journal of Architectural Education, Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning History, Planning Perspectives, and Public Historian. He co-edited Messy Urbanism: Understanding the “Other” Cities of Asia (2016) and Heritage Conservation in Postcolonial India (2020).