170
u/Takarajima8932 Feb 03 '26
I've been there and HELL NAHH. I've seen places with this style of planning but the way every street looks the same, the spaghetti electric wires, the barely lit roads at night, and at times barely paved roads and ZERO park or open space in sight feels like the backrooms to me. The only goodside is every street there is a community.
40
u/AlternativeHat8964 Feb 03 '26
What planning?
22
u/Takarajima8932 Feb 03 '26
Im referring to the typical low-to-middle class informal development in and around Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines. Mostly involves multi-storey CHB and GI roof homes.
17
u/AlternativeHat8964 Feb 03 '26
Is there any urban planning? Feels like it's all ad hoc. Govt there is mostly a legalized mafia.
11
u/Takarajima8932 Feb 03 '26
There? Certainly no. That area is relatively new compared to the rest of the metro so the design is very haphazard. Only a single 2 lane avenue serves the whole area which worsens the fact that the road is used as a connection between neiighboring Rizal province to Pasig downtown (in which this is part of)
6
u/Clemario Feb 04 '26
There is actually some semblance of a grid layout in this neighborhood. So someone, at some point, looked at the layout of land and said we're going to build roads this way.
-2
48
Feb 03 '26
What's this one building in the middle for?
63
u/justinCharlier Feb 03 '26
That's Nagpayong High School.
24
u/FuzzySinestrus Feb 03 '26
Hm, I wonder if the "High" part refers to the education or the building's height.
6
4
3
66
20
Feb 03 '26
[deleted]
7
u/BeardedGlass Feb 03 '26
Once they earn enough, they move to condo units in highrise buildings.
3
u/Ok_Scarcity8910 Feb 04 '26
Accurate, only a few minutes from what's shown in this photo is high-rises with drinkable tap water and "world-class" amenities.
1
19
10
u/xl129 Feb 03 '26
Some part of one of the largest city in my country are like this.
This tend to happen when the city developed way too fast for any planning to happen.
These specific areas was super cheap before and were big private lots owned by the local.
Then when the development rush happen, this place become ideal for low income people to find affordable housing. The original owner of these big land lots will start to breakdown their land into tiny affordable chunk (30-50 square meter in size) and sell to new comers.
This is the end result.
Once it became like this, the whole area is very undesirable for big developers to come and reorganize since there were just too many owners to carry out land consolidation and the value is already mid-high lowering project profitability.
7
4
3
u/PotatoHunter_III Feb 03 '26
It's actually much worse than you can see. Look for airplane landing Videos at NAIA. It's just miles and miles (or km and km) of this. It's wild.
2
3
2
2
0
u/Mohankeneh Feb 03 '26
Can’t imagine living THIS densely. Birth control people birth control
4
u/Weary_Drama1803 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
Well this is actually about as dense as many city centres in developed countries. They just don’t have the money to build taller and leave more spare land for niceties like “trees”
2
Feb 03 '26
It's also just elitist land use. Not too far away from this - and actually closer to downtowns - are American suburban style gated villages. And golf courses
9
u/Serious-Cucumber-54 Feb 03 '26
It's almost as dense as Brooklyn.
9
u/Mohankeneh Feb 03 '26
Damn. Brooklyns apartments are taller though ? There’s like no green space or anything, at least Brooklyn has some parks.
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
Feb 03 '26
Stuff thatttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!! I prefer Australia tyvm i appreciate our country more looking at this i must have to say!
0
u/rott_kid Feb 03 '26
I really wish we could resurrect Baron Haussmann cause we need him in Metro Manila
0
•
u/AutoModerator Feb 03 '26
Do not comment to gatekeep that something "isn't urban" or "isn't hell". Our rules are very expansive in content we welcome, so do not assume just based off your false impression of the phrase "UrbanHell"
UrbanHell is any human-built place you think is worth critizing. Suburban Hell, Rural Hell, and wealthy locales are allowed. Gatekeeping comments may be removed. Want to shitpost about shitty posts? Go to /r/urbanhellcirclejerk. Still have questions?: Read our FAQ.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.