Forming the Public Realm Through Spatial and Non-Spatial Measures: Public Space and Community Organization in the Peter Nanyemba Informal Settlement, Windhoek

In informal settlements, public space and community organization are continuously reshaped through everyday practices. Peter Nanyemba, in Windhoek, Namibia, faces recurrent flash floods that prompt spatial and non-spatial responses. This article examines how these measures contribute to forming the public realm, understood as the interaction between public space and community organization. Based on semi-structured interviews with residents and experts, mapping, and a community feedback workshop, the study analyzes processes at household, neighborhood, and administrative-block scales. Findings show that spatial and non-spatial measures operate as an interlinked system: they can foster spatial adaptation, collective learning, and community organization, but also generate fragmentation, inequalities, coordination problems, and maladaptive outcomes. The study shows how recurring environmental risks and everyday responses continuously reshape the public realm through physical and organizational processes.