Slum Lab

Breaking Borders: Latin Pratt Exhibition

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:44:26 -0400

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.

We’re excited to announce the upcoming launch of the new SLUM...

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 04:59:41 -0400

We’re excited to announce the upcoming launch of the new SLUM Lab magazine, Last Round Ecology. There will be a launch party on Friday, Sept. 16th at 7pm at Van Alen Books in NYC as part of Urban Design Week 2011. You can learn more about the free event and register for it by clicking on the photo above. We hope to see you there!

Pirajussara Network This project stemmed from health care...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:36:00 -0500

Pirajussara Network

This project stemmed from health care research, looking at systems of care, health insurance, healthcare policy, and health problems related to the open waste line that is the Pirajussara river.
The favela network of Pirajussara, along the border of Embu and Sao Paulo, has 4 typical conditions:

1) backyard: the river is embedded within the favela backyard, inaccessible to the public

2) road access: the river is alongside the road

3) cross-city access: one enters the home in Embu from Sao Paulo

4) access to park: river is next to green area with potential for leisure space

Along this 2.5 km strip of river network, there are 10 areas for intervention that fall under these 4 conditions.

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Comment:

This project attempts to systematize healthcare – could there be a social model to provide health insurance and possibly an HSA for citizen groups? Individual health insurance could also be an interesting model. How could this inform a responsive architecture?

-Zachary Aders

Ruy Othake Workshop

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:13:00 -0500

On Monday, November 9th, the SLUM Lab studio hosted Brazilian architect Ruy Othake for an afternoon workshop of presentations and critiques.

Eucalyptos.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:13:00 -0500

Eucalyptos.

Corrego do Mina

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:01:00 -0500

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.

Boulevard La Paz

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:23:00 -0500

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 economically and environmentally productive space for the favela residents. I am proposing the introduction of agricultural terracing along steep valleys that are currently unusable – growing high value crops to generate income and create jobs, reinforcing the slopes to prevent landslides and using gravity to treat agricultural and urban wastewater runoff.

Recycle Bank.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:18:00 -0500

Recycle Bank.

A Paradox of Urbanization

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:54:00 -0500

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 lives of residents could hardly be improved by solely providing living spaces; the lack of commercial and public spaces still renders the area a bleak urban landscape. Moreover, the construction of new highway, Jacu-Pessego, right through São Francisco will bring tremendous impact to the existing communities.

Link City

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:42:00 -0500

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

Favela do Moinho

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:36:00 -0500

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 site plan above, there is a lot of old industry and service surrounding the site… a lot of old dilapidated buildings. there is just not enough residence in the area to promote a healthy social situation, and the drug users took over. but this area is so close to downtown Sao Paulo, that it can really be somthing special…. something new and exciting for the entire city that will revitalize the area and bring businesses and people in the following years… the conditions in the favela are really just too poor to keep the favela there, but it is important that housing is first created just on the border of the site, so that the faveladores have a new home nearby before the favela is removed….

the basic idea is to cover the train tracks, the train yard, and the mill with a series of roof systems… this will provide program space on top of and below this roof system…

below is a conceptual site plan for intervention…

above you see the room system (some of which is covered in linear park, which is green), and then layered on top of the roof system are different programs – some cafes, galleries, some shops, some athletic facilities – so that we start to have an extremely active site, mixed with open areas full of grasses and trees, with beautiful views looking out to the rest of Sao Paulo…

the roof system will tie into existing buildings of the site and next to the site and will make connections to the rest of the city via ramps, stairs, platforms, elevators, cable cars, and more…

so the next question is what will the units of program look like…

a kit of prefabircated parts will allow for simple construction of a variety of complex shapes… the above image is only one example….

above is the aggregation of these program components, and the roof system will weave these elements together.

the above rendering is not the greatest rendering, but it gives my first overall idea of the system… but i intend for the design to be less massive than this, less solid… it will be segmented more and there will be more cuts into the roof to get light down below, and of course much of the roof will be covered with green grasses and trees and people… program space is on top of and beneath the roof…

Cocaia and Nova Grajau within the Billings Reservoir System

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:59:00 -0500

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, recreation and wetlands, this site is an integrated network of improved living and leisure.

Parque Sao Domingos

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:51:00 -0500

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 over a stormwater canal and are in danger of collapsing and b) the site is very dense and unhealthy in areas. The proposal currently is to do an “acupuncture removal” to de-densify and allow room to go down and repair the water canal. These open spacescan have leisure activities inside the favela, or the spaces on the edges can become programmed areas that are currently lacking in the site. A community center and new housing can be built over the existing sports court and the soccer field can be re-dimensioned and rearranged to allow for more program around or even underneath.

The Informal_Cité Soleil+Kibera Photograph: courtesy of yele...

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:16:00 -0500

The Informal_Cité Soleil+Kibera

Photograph: courtesy of yele foundation | yele.org

Study of social networks through the cases of youth culture and low-end technology-based networks in informal slums, Cité Soleil, Port au Prince, Haiti and Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya Slum-TV Newsreel for Peace “youth and violence” research_informal research_informal research_informal

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Comment:

Just to say that Slum TV is not based in Kibera, but based in Mathare, another slum in Nairobi. For further information visit the site: http://www.slum-tv.org

- Sam Hopkins

November 20, 2009 at 1:26 am

Proposal: Re-Graffiti-ing Hoograven

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:58:00 -0500

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 event takes place in one of many event locations and other networked event areas direct the scattered youth to the event location. All the locations are public that is exposed to the neighborhood. As what a little camera does to Kibera youth community and the culture, this network is a motivation for dutch-morrocan youth to what they can cause for their own cultural standing in the community and to find themselves in Dutch society.

Programs proposed: cultural obsession is a good vehicle to transfer the youth enthusiasm toward finding social identity of their own. Skateboard parks, Video graffiti walls, concert stages, and all include information interface integrated to the programs that direct the youth to the event. All the proposed programs are linked to existing local youth programs in an effort for cultural boost of the community.

View proposal (pdf).

INFORMAL BARRIERS Informal Barriers – PDF - Pietro Todeschini

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:31:00 -0500

INFORMAL BARRIERS

Informal Barriers – PDF - Pietro Todeschini

Informal Settlements Case Studies: www.storyofstuff.com

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:23:00 -0500

Informal Settlements Case Studies:

www.storyofstuff.com

Research Summary / Architecture Proposal

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:24:00 -0500

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 economic and social needs.

Possible application in Utrecht:
Moroccan immigrants, like slum dwellers of the developing world, are excluded from western capitalist society. Informal concepts can be applied to fill this gap, at the economic and spatial levels. Design and policy can work together to address this issue.

Policy proposal:
1.a property ownership program; reconfiguration of the welfare state:
-Generate capital for immigrant population.
-Reconfigure long-term investments in unemployment and income support to short-term investments in construction
-Long-term municipal gain through property taxes, implemented with a 20-year abatement plan

1.b small capital enterprise program
-entrepraneurship program to encourage marginal and small enterprise
-training programs

Design proposal:
2.a design your own home and business
-input from occupants should be encouraged to better satisfy individual needs
-can parametrics create an interface to mediate between input (design criteria-family size, lifestyle etc) and ouput (financial loss/gain, form)

Informal Food Trade, Mexico City

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:10:00 -0500

Informal food markets dominate the distribution chain in Mexico City.

Informal Food Markets in Mexico City

Informal Economy: Case Studies

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:05:00 -0500