Proximal Design in South African Informal Settlements: Users as Designers and the Construction of the Built Environment and its Fire Risks

In many countries, deaths and injuries due to fire in urban areas have been reduced by more equitable infrastructure, more affordable and accessible formal housing, and the provision of state services, including urban planning, professional fire-fighting services, and building regulations (Rush et al 2020). Such developments have proved more challenging in low-and-middle-income-countries, where 95% of the world’s fire deaths and morbidity remain (WHO 2004). Fire risk is particularly stark in informal settlements, which currently house one billion people across the globe. In Africa alone, this number is expected to grow to 1.2 billion by 2050 (UN-Habitat 2016). The definition of an informal settlement varies around the globe, but in the case of South Africa it is often referred to as an ‘unplanned settlement on land which has not been surveyed or proclaimed as residential, consisting mainly of informal dwellings (shacks)’ (SACB 2012).