publications

Informal Toolbox: SLUM Lab Paraisópolis

Informal Toolbox: SLUM Lab Paraisópolis

Informal Toolbox: SLUM Lab Paraisópolis documents part of an evolving conversation between SLUM Lab researchers from Columbia University GSAPP, governmental organizations engaged in informal settlement upgrading, human rights activists, and partner academic institutions, all of whom share a belief that architecture has the potential to act transformatively in critical urban areas. This bilingual publication was produced as a collaboration between the São Paulo State Housing Secretariat (SEHAB) and Urban-Think Tank, and presents a catalogue of projects that work as a toolbox of ideas, with the aim of integrating precarious communities and the formal city through urban and land regulation, access to infrastructure, and improvement in environmental, habitability, and health conditions. It originated out of extended and ongoing research around São Paulo, and specifically within the Paraísopolis favela.