The Old Gang in the “New” Neighborhood

In 1995 and 1996 I lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil while doing fieldwork and research for my Masters of Architecture thesis. One of my research sites was a small favela Continue reading →

Vertical Sites and Services

On January 28, The New Yorker published an article about Caracas under Hugo Chavez with the provocative title “Slumlord.” The author, journalist Jon Lee Anderson, has spent time with Chavez Continue reading →

Novelizing Journalism

Every so often, a book about poor people captures the attention of large numbers of first-world readers. Journalist Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Continue reading →

Economic Efficiency or Urban Quality of Life?

“Paving Streets for the Poor: Experimental Analysis of Infrastructure Effects” is an economics paper published last month by Marco Gonzalez-Navarro and Climent Quintana-Domeque. According to the abstract, “This study is Continue reading →

Supergraphics Then and Now

A few days ago Adriana invited comments on a video about a project called Philly Painting. According to its website, “Philly Painting is a neighborhood beautification project of unprecedented scale, Continue reading →

Art and Cartography

Representations of informal settlements in the work of visual artists are often of interest to architects designing projects in informal settlements. In my last post, I wrote about an artist Continue reading →

Slumscapes

The title of this post is taken from a series of paintings by Jeff Gillette, a Southern-California-based mixed-media artist and painter. Gillette, in his artist’s statement, writes of his visits Continue reading →

“Informal” Designers, Part 2

My last post looked at stair design in favelas in São Paulo, Brazil, and how spatial constraint, material availability, and communal negotiation impact design. This post will look at another Continue reading →

“Informal” Designers

As I noted in my last post, professional architectural design has recently come to be seen as a valid and potentially effective approach to improving informal settlements. I have long Continue reading →

Why Design?

I’d like to take as my starting point the blog entries posted here by Proyectos Arqui5 about their experiences designing upgrading projects in barrios in Caracas, Venezuela. I’m struck by Continue reading →

From Occupation to Squatting?

“Occupy” is both the title and the defining directive of the current global protests against income inequality and lack of accountability for the economic crisis.  The word occupy, in English, Continue reading →

The Architect’s Gaze

Intro Post by Bethany Opalach In representational works of art, the image itself is the object of our perception and attention, while the subject is transformed into only part of Continue reading →