Informal suburbs, consisting of makeshift housing, are called villas miseries – short: villas - in Argentina. This designation goes back to a 1957 novel by Bernardo Verbitsky: “Villa Miseria también es América” (America is also villa miseria). Verbitsky describes the shocking conditions in which people who moved from rural areas to the city in the 1930s live. Different governments - both civil and military – over time have tried to eliminate these villas by tearing down the barracks and forced people to settler somewhere else. An informal suburb, or a villa miseria is a place that is not conform to official city planning regulations or norm.
Normally these are dwellings that are built very close to each other where people live in self made barracks in precarious living conditions. They usually develop spontaneously and are officially not recognized as residences. They are often located at the city boundaries in bad neighborhoods that are, however, still within the city boundaries.
Villas are typical of developing countries and the classic result when people with very limited financial means search for a place to live. They either arise as a result of the city planning authorities’ inability to meet the needs of the entire society, or simply as a result of poverty which makes it impossible for many people to afford a “normal” apartment.
Among others, they have the following characteristics:
- quick increase of barracks built from various materials such as clay, metal sheets, cardboard, paper etc.
- deterioration of the ecosystem surrounding them
- major social problems
