Architecture and Urbanism in the Global South

The nations of Africa, Central and Latin America, most of Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are collectively known as the Global South, which includes practically 157 of a total of 184 recognized states in the world according to United Nations reports. It is argued that most of the efforts in architectural and urban production, place making, place management, and urban development are taking place in the Global South and will continue to be so over the next several decades.

The Global South continues to experience a multitude of influences. Architecture and urbanism have experienced dramatic transformations that instigated critical questions about urban growth, sustainable development, regenerating and retrofitting cities, the quality of urban life, health, liveability, identity, multiculturalism, among others. In some regions within the Global South, architecture and urban environments are developed in tandem with environmental degradation, ethnic and regional conflicts and mass displacements of refugees, political and economic instability, among other undecorated realities. In essence, this conveys a sharp dichotomy that is emerging as a new field of investigation, discourse, and writing.

Within the severe duality of transformations in the Global South, this series aims to depict and capture architectural and place production and to portray it to the global professional and academic community. The series places emphasis on architecture and urbanism of cities and settlements in the Global South which is defined geographically to include key capitals, major cities, and important settlements within Africa, the Arabian peninsula, the Indian Sub-Continent, the southern Mediterranean and the Middle East, South America, and South Asia.

Written by international experts and researchers, the volumes will cover a wide spectrum of topics that range from vernacular architecture, architectural heritage, urban traditions, explorations of the works of global south and international architects, to themes that include the architecture of squatter settlements, housing transformations, urban governance, the impact of globalization on cultural identity as manifested in architecture, and sustainable urbanism.