My good friends over at ProxyArch are working on a book for Columbia University's SlumLab that will be published soon. Called Informal Toolbox, it is a series of 'tactics' for working in informal settlements such as favelas. Here is the book's description from it's authors: in 2008, the SLUM LAB visited Paraisópolis, a Brazilian favela in the heart of São Paulo, eliciting a series of architectural ‘tactics’ conceived to integrate and transform “critical urban areas”, sprawling tracts of informal housing that support a dynamic social and spatial life. Part architect’s journal, part field guide, the Informal Toolbox delves into the promises and perils of slum upgrading while offering a glimpse of the fantastic creativity and manifold instabilities of life in the favela.
The book is a result of a studio at Columbia University called 'SLUM Lab' lead by the Urban Think-Tank, the architecture and urban design group from Caracas recently made famous by the documentary Caracas: The Informal City (click for a link to youTube preview).
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