Informal Settlement on UP Diliman Campus

Kim Dovey and Reden Recio

The view from the Board of Regents Room in Quezon Hall, the administration building of the University of the Philippines (UP) System, reveals the core of the UP Diliman campus as a beautiful and well-manicured place—a vast green lung within the dense and often intense Metropolitan Manila. As is less known, the large campus is also home to informal settlements that occupy about 20 percent of the original campus land grant. This report is an investigation of this informal urbanism on the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines. It maps the spatial extent and material conditions of informal settlements across the campus and demonstrates the degree to which they are integrated with campus life through informal transport and street vending. The settlements provide affordable housing, cheap labour, transport, and retail services throughout the district. The populations of these settlements are difficult to measure accurately but estimates based on available data indicate over 70,000 residents. The report also explores some possibilities for these settlements with the aim to open up conversations with key stakeholders and to stimulate debate and understanding. 

A copy of this preliminary study is available below.