Manila's Other City: Toward a Counter-Relocation Approach

Abstract

This thesis explores the spatial and economic dynamics of informality in Barangay 105, Tondo, Manila, one of the most densely populated informal settlements in Metro Manila. Located along the industrial edge of the city, the barangay is shaped by rural displacement, state-led resettlement efforts, and infrastructural neglect. At the heart of the site are 25 warehouse structures, originally constructed as temporary relocation housing. Over time, these buildings have been incrementally transformed by residents into permanent live-work spaces, generating a distinct informal morphology that mirrors broader patterns of adaptation across Manila’s socioeconomic landscape.

Informality, in this context, is not peripheral but central to the city’s functioning. Approximately 20–35% of Metro Manila’s population resides in informal settlements, many of which operate as self-sufficient ecosystems in the absence of state support. In Barangay 105, waste picking and small-scale recycling form the core of the local economy. Each day, informal workers collect, sort, and resell large volumes of waste, integrating themselves into larger material flows that connect domestic labor to regional and global waste economies. Despite their critical contributions, these workers remain structurally excluded from planning, labor protections, and service provision. To analyze these dynamics, the research draws on large-scale cartography, detailed studies of urban vernaculars, comparative case studies, and the documentation of daily routines.

Government housing responses have historically relied on mass relocation, often displacing communities to distant peripheries. Programs such as those led by the National Housing Authority (NHA), the Community Mortgage Program (CMP), and the Zonal Improvement Program (ZIP) have repeatedly failed to address the needs of informal residents, instead severing their access to livelihoods and social networks.

This thesis critiques these relocation paradigms and proposes a counter-relocation approach: one that strengthens communities in place rather than removing them. The design focuses on reimagining 15 of the existing warehouse structures as a distributed network of community depots: multi-use infrastructures that embed housing and economic production into the urban fabric. The project centers incremental, solidaristic, and community-led spatial strategies that reflect and strengthen the informal socioeconomic landscape of Tondo.