Modern methods of construction for displaced communities in Izmir, Türkiye

This international partnership was set up to scope the adoption of modern methods of construction (MMC) in the context of the unregulated 'tiny house' market in Izmir, Türkiye.

Due to local policy gaps, displaced communities, and lack of housing, tiny houses have emerged as an informal (and unsustainable) solution. The lack of regulation poses risks and long-term issues around planning, health and safety, and environmental sustainability, to name a few. This project investigates MMC as a pathway to develop local employment capacity while concurrently addressing this urban development challenge.

Informal housing settlements represent a significant global challenge, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where approximately 1 billion people reside in substandard housing with limited access to basic services such as water, sanitation, and drainage (Satterthwaite et al., 2020). These settlements often emerge due to rapid urbanisation and unregulated migration along with insufficient formal housing supply, resulting in the occupation of land without legal rights.

In Türkiye, informal settlements commonly referred to as "gecekondu" ("built overnight") emerged in the 1960s as a consequence of the need for cheap labour in cities and uneven distribution of wealth between rural regions and urban centres (Yılmaz and Kurt, 2022). While the Turkish government has introduced formalisation measures multiple times since then, such as the 2018 initiative to secure land tenure rights, these efforts have fallen short of addressing critical issues such as hazard risk mitigation and transparent regulation of non-compliant developments (Iban, 2020).