The Incremental City as a Participation Strategy for Co-Produced Neighbourhoods: An Alternative Urban Development Model for Rapidly Urbanizing Regions

In order to create resilient and sustainable cities in Africa, it is necessary to accept that replicating traditional urban design and urban development patterns of the global north is not suitable to adequately incorporate the differing framework conditions prevailing in this diverse context. Rapidly urbanizing regions in combination with socio-economic challenges need novel approaches to sustainable cities with the potential to create long-lasting positive impact regarding resourcecons umption and social development. Various experts are demanding to accept the informal sector as the predominant form of future urban space production, anticipate the development of self-built settlements, and incorporate them into formal planning processes. (Werthmann, 2014) The concept of co-produced neighbourhoods takes up the above-mentioned approach of anticipation and develops it further into the ´Incremental City´ strategy, a hybrid urban development model that brings together aspects of top-down planning and bottom-up self-organisation as well as giving ample space for informal self-building. (Turner, 1977; Caminos, Goethert, 1978; Aravena, Iacobelli 2016). This paper outlines the key aspects regarding the implementation process of the Incremental City planning strategy for co-produced neighbourhoods based on a dissertation published in 2021. (Giralt) The focus lies on a first approach for good governance, stakeholder engagement and policy innovation for inclusive development. It summarizes the prerequisites for successful co-produced cities, describes the urban coding approach, which combines the urban plan with a code of conduct and set of responsibilities for the different stakeholders involved, and demonstrates how to adapt formal framework conditions to informal practice in order to pave the way for successful co-produced neighbourhoods.