September 2012
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September 2011
1 post
Breaking Borders: Latin Pratt Exhibition →
Latin Pratt is putting on a large and impressive exhibition titled, “Breaking Borders”, in the Robert and Hazel Siegel Gallery in New York. U-TT’s work will be featured along with over a dozen other firms’ projects. Definitely stop by between Sept. 8th and November 30th. More details on the Breaking Borders website.
August 2011
1 post
November 2009
11 posts
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Ruy Othake Workshop
On Monday, November 9th, the SLUM Lab studio hosted Brazilian architect Ruy Othake for an afternoon workshop of presentations and critiques.
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Corrego do Mina
Corrego do Mina – Favela along a creek with flooding risk. Images:
The “formal” city has numerous public facilities and parks. Corrego do Mina could use access to more of these.
Strategy for developing housing along the hillside.
The open hillside developed with new housing.
Drawing connections between housing and the surrounding favela fabric.
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Boulevard La Paz
Boulevard da Paz is a site with extreme changes in topography, located on the outskirts of southern Sao Paulo city. The area lacks nearby employment opportunities and has problems with physical access along steep slopes. Water control is also an important issue as stormwater creates the risk of landslides.
I hope to use Boulevard da Paz’s topography to its advantage – creating an...
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A Paradox of Urbanization
Efforts from the government has been made to develop housing programs to provide improved living conditions and right to hous
ing for the families here in São Francisco for decades. However, the process of replacing people into the new vertical dwellings creates problems like gentrification and residents unable to pay for the development and therefore, stay, in their new homes. Also, the...
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Link City
My site is Vargem Grande which is located on the crater named Colony. It’s 40km from downtown in Sao Paulo.
Centralized City and Decentralized City
Concept diagram
Connection
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Favela do Moinho
Site issues:
1. Access – confined by traintracks on all sides, there is only one point of access. 2. utilies – only one water connection for entire favela, illegal electricity and illegal sewage that ends up in rivers 3. sanitation is very poor – piles of garbage, stagnant water and sewage runoff 4. nearby is an area notirious for all-day drug use, violence, etc.
As you can see in the...
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Cocaia and Nova Grajau within the Billings...
A prototype of ecological housing and land remediation on a local scale in Cocaia + Nova Grajau is an example for other sites on the Billings Reservoir. It restores the water quality of the entire reservoir through 3 local stages of natural remediation, while redirecting floods + storm runoff through street trails, housing tiers + reservoir burm islands. Incorporating new housing,...
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Parque Sao Domingos
Parque Sao Domingos is essentially an island favela surrounded by middle-class housing. There are 669 inhabitants living in a fairly small plot of land. The site has a unique condition of having a large soccer field as well as a sports court that have been religiously not invaded. The two main issues of the site are: a) all the houses bordering the street to the southeast have been built...
February 2009
13 posts
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Proposal: Re-Graffiti-ing Hoograven
Photography courtesy of Lambert.
Proposal: Youth social network driven by cultural events. Through a social network which provides dutch-morrocan youth cultural events, they socialize among those with the same interest and find themselves in the society. Variety of dutch-morrocan youth prefered cultural events are held in multiple locations in all over Hoograven. Each time a different...
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Research Summary / Architecture Proposal
1. informal economies: Slum dwellers have little or no access to formal sector jobs. The informal economy fills the gap left by the formal economy, as it fails to manage the growing population of the urban poor.
2. informal space: Economic exclusion leaves slum dwellers with no access to formal property or space. Space is created and adapted individually and organically to meet individual...
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Informal Food Trade, Mexico City
Informal food markets dominate the distribution chain in Mexico City.
Informal Food Markets in Mexico City
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RECIPROCITY
SLUM LAB / URBAN THINK THANK / MOROCCHOLLAND
R E C I P R O C I T Y
HYBRICITY-DIVERSCITY
The research is focus on:
Organics; Exchanges of living material, be it people, food, plants, disease, etc. how are these more fragile consumables (or threats) supported with technologies, infrastructures, policies, etc.
· Evolution. Urban DNA
· Trades and improvements of crops,...
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Values, investment and return in land use
Generally, the urban redevelopment costs huge money. There are construction costs, real estate, marketing costs and etc. It means that somebody should pay for that money, because developers want to collect the money that they invested.
Thus, developers shows interest the slum areas which are low real estate cost but high value for development in the city. They want to make a profit as much as...
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November 2008
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October 2008
5 posts
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Plug-in Infrastructure
The open network of ramps/walkways/bridges aim to accomplish: improve wayfinding and circulation within Paraisopolis to its periphery, contain programmatic elements, generate and distribute energy. I began developing a grain diagram of Paraisopolis that defines the negative spaces/existing corridors that these walkways can plug into – so rather than being contained within the site, allow...
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Productive Striation 2
Dear Miranda,
A series of images documenting my process over the past couple of weeks:
1. Two images from last week’s pinup, showing the beginning of a second system used for shading (the zig-zag canopy).
2. One topographical plan at the scale of Paraisopolis and its surroundings – I’ve been looking at how our site is only one of many sites which form a strand of connected basins, flooding...
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Slum Terminals
10.10.08 Presentation
Due to the nature of the topography in Paraisopolis, and the superimposition of the grid road system, there are areas in Paraisopolis where the roads are too steep for bicycle use. Initially, I proposed a system of elevated bikepaths/walkways that would be integrated with the road system of Paraisopolis. Per the comments from last week, I’ve adjusted the system to...
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inFARMal network
Zachary Aders - Urban Farm
After plotting points at the corners of every favela construction (mapping the points of existing columns+footings), I was able to analyze the density of construction across the area of Grotao and compare that with the slopes of topography.
The farm network I’m proposing would be supported by pouring more concrete around columns of existing houses and footings of...
September 2008
10 posts
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Expansible Units
When developing social housing projects, great life quality issues are attended, with low and very limited budget and time to dispose of. Given this situation, efficient and practical projects are stated where the possibilities of answering the final user’s identity are reduced. These “standard” solutions often shows indifference to the reality of the individual; the alley used for...
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Infrastructure as Architecture
Open Axis of Bridges, Ramps, Walkways. Provide connections not only within Paraisopolis, but also to the rest of Sao Paulo. Bridge the Gap : physical, social, economic barriers. Engage the diverse conditions of Sao Paulo in such a manner that disrupts the norm. Connect Paraisopolis to Sao Paulo’s Metro / System; thus, reducing commuting time and increasing travel distances =...
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Embedded Architecture
The intention of this project is to generate an operational landscape of site stabilization, where architecture is embedded in a thick system of walls for both hillside retention and stormwater management. The goal is then to produce a continuous edge condition where circulation and occupation coexist, beginning at the existing roads that surround the area and criss-crossing the site–dotted...
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Urban Transportation Hub
Integration through Transportation and Transit Links
Design Objectives:
To create a transportation hub on the site in order to make the favela more accessible from the outside.
Following with the previous objective, to create a public center that can attract not only people from the favela, but people from the city proper as well.
To introduce energy efficient and low impact transportation...
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Aquatic Pavilion
Intention: to create a networked system through systematically placed hubs which will facilitate localized living. This aquatic pavilion will provide conditions for survival with minimal resources. As a means of improving its environment, this space serves as a bio cycle: it will collect and purify water, create food security through the implantation of hydroponic gardens, introduce...
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Marginal Sources
Approximately 20% of Sao Paulo’s population reside in favelas, more than 2 million people. As a result of the dense population and lack of infrastructure, favelas such as Paraisopolis are faced with an energy crisis. Oftentimes the residents are forced to tap into existing power lines, an endeavor that is both risky and illegal in order to power their homes and businesses. With an ever...
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August 2008
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April 2008
4 posts
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Kolkata, India Aquaculture: A Case Study in...
Below is a case study of the wastewater reuse aquaculture system in Kolkata, India.
Kolkata, India Aquaculture: A Case Study in Wastewater Reuse
Providing sanitation is recognized as being of prime importance in improving the general health of populations. By providing sanitation, infant mortality caused by communicable diseases, such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea is greatly reduced, as...
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Energy Usage for Sao Paolo Favela Households:...
Energy Usage for Sao Paolo Favela Households: Biogas in Context
Strategy
This paper for seeks to triangulate energy needs for Sao Paolo favela communities such as Paraisópolis and Canthino do Céu. Triangulation here denotes extrapolation between general information on sustainable technologies for energy production and English-language literature relating Brazil’s energy policy in low-income...
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Building capacity:// the re-assignment of waterway...
Simon Bussiere 4.5.08 Harvard GSD 6445
Green Infrastructure in the Non-formal City; “Investigation” Report:
Q: How can the Favelas best harness (on-site) storm-water runoff in order to produce the greatest residual social/economic/ecologic net benefit?
Premise:
In the second phase of this research seminar (Green Infrastructure in the Non-formal City: GSD 6445) entitled “Familiarization”,...
March 2008
3 posts
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Data Mining: Top 10 Technology
Two technology links: Google on cloud computing, mapping and activism MIT on the top ten emerging technologies, including (directly from the DeviceGuru link):
Connectomics, which attempts to physically map the neural circuits that collect, process, and archive information. Reality mining data gathered to learn more about human behavior and social interactions. Modeling surprise Software that...
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