Beyond informality: Traders as space experts in their own informal settlements

The spatial layout of built environments influences the distribution of commercial activities. As literature has shown, commercial activities can enhance the process of urban consolidation of informal areas (Hillier et al, 2000; Shafiei, 2007). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the correlation between spatial factors and the distribution of internal and edge commercial land use by applying new methodological means, such as a combined space syntax analysis of the street network with Inter-visibility (van Nes & López, 2010), and statistical analysis of the economic issues and band analyses. The cases used in this study are three informal areas in Cairo: Ezbet Bekhit, Ezbet Al-Nasr and Abu Qatada. These settlements are selected because they are predominantly self-grown and have not been influenced by city plans or land use regulations. This research attempts to underpin the following questions: Are the distribution and rate of commercial activities mainly driven by the local spatial composition of the area itself? Or, is it more related to how the settlements are embedded in the overall structure of the city? As it turns out, this research has demonstrated in detail that the distribution of commercial activities takes place on the plots that are located along the spatially most integrated, most distributed and most inter-visible parts of the neighbourhoods in relationship to the whole of the city. The results of this empirical study contribute to further understanding of a theory of an optimal distribution of plots, in which effective land use is defined as an interaction of two core factors: inter-visibility and spatial accessibility. This two-variable approach can be used strategically as a tool to guide the regeneration of informal settlements and transferring economic integration to deprived areas of the city.UrbanismArchitecture and The Built Environmen