Informal Settlements of the Global South

Bringing together case studies, including the US-Mexico borderlands, the Calais encampment in France, refugee camps in Kenya, Uganda and Bangladesh and ’informal’ enclaves in India, China, Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa, this book challenges the thinking about the governance of human settling, mobility, and placemaking.

Gihan Karunaratne is a Sri Lankan-born British architect and studied at Royal College of Arts and Bartlett School of Architecture.

He has taught and lectured in Architecture, Urban Design and Interior Design in the UK, Sri Lanka and China. He writes and researches extensively on art, architecture and urban design.

Gihan’s current research interests are in architecture and urban conditions within cities which are undergoing constant physical, economic or social changes in patterns of urban living.

In many of his projects he has researched and explored the underbelly of the city in detail, specifically focussing on non-conformist marginalized communities. From urban transition courses and temporality in the Global South, he remains actively engaged in urban research with focus on informal settlements and communities.