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Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture
What makes the city of the future? How do you heal a divided city?
In Radical Cities, Justin McGuirk travels across Latin America in search of the activist architects, maverick politicians and alternative communities already answering these questions. From Brazil to Venezuela, and from Mexico to Argentina, McGuirk discovers the people and ideas shaping the way cities are evolving.
Ever since the mid twentieth century, when the dream of modernist utopia went to Latin America to die, the continent has been a testing ground for exciting new conceptions of the city. An architect in Chile has designed a form of social housing where only half of the house is built, allowing the owners to adapt the rest; Medellín, formerly the world’s murder capital, has been transformed with innovative public architecture; squatters in Caracas have taken over the forty-five-story Torre David skyscraper; and Rio is on a mission to incorporate its favelas into the rest of the city.
Here, in the most urbanised continent on the planet, extreme cities have bred extreme conditions, from vast housing estates to sprawling slums. But after decades of social and political failure, a new generation has revitalised architecture and urban design in order to address persistent poverty and inequality. Together, these activists, pragmatists and social idealists are performing bold experiments that the rest of the world may learn from.
Radical Cities is a colorful journey through Latin America—a crucible of architectural and urban innovation.
In Radical Cities, Justin McGuirk travels across Latin America in search of the activist architects, maverick politicians and alternative communities already answering these questions. From Brazil to Venezuela, and from Mexico to Argentina, McGuirk discovers the people and ideas shaping the way cities are evolving.
Ever since the mid twentieth century, when the dream of modernist utopia went to Latin America to die, the continent has been a testing ground for exciting new conceptions of the city. An architect in Chile has designed a form of social housing where only half of the house is built, allowing the owners to adapt the rest; Medellín, formerly the world’s murder capital, has been transformed with innovative public architecture; squatters in Caracas have taken over the forty-five-story Torre David skyscraper; and Rio is on a mission to incorporate its favelas into the rest of the city.
Here, in the most urbanised continent on the planet, extreme cities have bred extreme conditions, from vast housing estates to sprawling slums. But after decades of social and political failure, a new generation has revitalised architecture and urban design in order to address persistent poverty and inequality. Together, these activists, pragmatists and social idealists are performing bold experiments that the rest of the world may learn from.
Radical Cities is a colorful journey through Latin America—a crucible of architectural and urban innovation.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
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June 1, 2024
How to best house the poor is something that all governments grapple with. In South and Central America, where this book is set, the problem is more urgent, since Latin America is both the most urbanized area on earth and also hosts many of the fastest-growing cities in the world. (Mexico City, to provide an example, grew from one million to fifteen million people in just forty years. Try to imagine putting together a reasonable plan with growth rates like that.)
The central thesis of this book is that people end up doing what's best for themselves, and in most of the large cities in the world, this means building their own shelters. Historically, we label large collections of such housing 'slums'. McGuirk prefers the less-loaded term 'informal housing,' and notes (without citation) that about 80% of the world's people currently live in such neighborhoods; an astonishing number to affluent Westerners. The point is: Crime is high in these areas, medical care and schooling are poor, and yet people manage to live in them, year after year after year, and the majority of the inhabitants have jobs and aspirations and, in many cases, no real desire to move someplace else.
Instead of flattening these barrios and replacing them with government-sponsored low-cost housing, argues the author, we should simply try to find ways to improve living conditions within these neighborhoods -- acupuncture, he calls it, instead of surgery. We then set off on a tour of nine major cities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico to learn first-hand what works and what doesn't.
* * * * * *
It's hard to imagine a major US city electing a philosophy professor with no political experience as mayor, but that's exactly what Bogota, Colombia did back in 1997. At the time, murder rates were high, governmental corruption was rampant and the social fabric was nearly completely destroyed. Professor Antanas Mockus was the right man for the moment -- a man who understood that restoring some sense of civic pride and personal responsibility for the condition of the city was imperative. His methods were, shall we say, unorthodox -- mooning an auditorium full of fractious students to get them to shut up, hiring 4000 mimes to direct traffic (and firing the entire, highly-corrupt traffic police force), dressing up as a caped crusader to remove graffiti from walls. But, astonishingly, it worked. People were shocked into discussions with their neighbors, public shaming of bad behavior replaced police brutality, and the results were mind-boggling: a 70% drop in homicides, traffic fatalities by 50%, water usage dropped by 40% and his approval ratings hovered in the 70+% range. This is one of the more cheerful parts of the book, even if this exact recipe for success was probably specific to one time and one place.
One of seven Library Parks set up in a barrio of Medellin, Colombia.
* * * * *
I scrapped my first attempt at reviewing this book, because it was essentially a litany of facts. I had rather expected a Latin version of Owen Hatherley's Trans-Europe Express; a book about the way architects have found clever ways to house urban populations. But this book essentially fired the architects in the first chapter, noting that the paternalistic days of architects telling poor people what was good for them were over. This was much more focused on clever collaborations between municipal governments, housing activists, the unwashed poor and -- yes, in a reduced role, architects -- to deal with the rapid expansion of South American cities.
If the goal was to make me want to hop on a plane and head south, it worked.
Note: A Brazilian reviewer here noted some serious deficiencies in the book, and his words might be worth considering.
The central thesis of this book is that people end up doing what's best for themselves, and in most of the large cities in the world, this means building their own shelters. Historically, we label large collections of such housing 'slums'. McGuirk prefers the less-loaded term 'informal housing,' and notes (without citation) that about 80% of the world's people currently live in such neighborhoods; an astonishing number to affluent Westerners. The point is: Crime is high in these areas, medical care and schooling are poor, and yet people manage to live in them, year after year after year, and the majority of the inhabitants have jobs and aspirations and, in many cases, no real desire to move someplace else.
Instead of flattening these barrios and replacing them with government-sponsored low-cost housing, argues the author, we should simply try to find ways to improve living conditions within these neighborhoods -- acupuncture, he calls it, instead of surgery. We then set off on a tour of nine major cities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico to learn first-hand what works and what doesn't.
* * * * * *
It's hard to imagine a major US city electing a philosophy professor with no political experience as mayor, but that's exactly what Bogota, Colombia did back in 1997. At the time, murder rates were high, governmental corruption was rampant and the social fabric was nearly completely destroyed. Professor Antanas Mockus was the right man for the moment -- a man who understood that restoring some sense of civic pride and personal responsibility for the condition of the city was imperative. His methods were, shall we say, unorthodox -- mooning an auditorium full of fractious students to get them to shut up, hiring 4000 mimes to direct traffic (and firing the entire, highly-corrupt traffic police force), dressing up as a caped crusader to remove graffiti from walls. But, astonishingly, it worked. People were shocked into discussions with their neighbors, public shaming of bad behavior replaced police brutality, and the results were mind-boggling: a 70% drop in homicides, traffic fatalities by 50%, water usage dropped by 40% and his approval ratings hovered in the 70+% range. This is one of the more cheerful parts of the book, even if this exact recipe for success was probably specific to one time and one place.
One of seven Library Parks set up in a barrio of Medellin, Colombia.
* * * * *
I scrapped my first attempt at reviewing this book, because it was essentially a litany of facts. I had rather expected a Latin version of Owen Hatherley's Trans-Europe Express; a book about the way architects have found clever ways to house urban populations. But this book essentially fired the architects in the first chapter, noting that the paternalistic days of architects telling poor people what was good for them were over. This was much more focused on clever collaborations between municipal governments, housing activists, the unwashed poor and -- yes, in a reduced role, architects -- to deal with the rapid expansion of South American cities.
If the goal was to make me want to hop on a plane and head south, it worked.
Note: A Brazilian reviewer here noted some serious deficiencies in the book, and his words might be worth considering.
October 15, 2016
This book is just rubbish.
I found it by chance while looking for urban transport in South America- being a brazilian myself- and I don't know how to describe my disappointment.
This is the kind of architecture literature that people find acceptable: where slums are described as resourceful, where poverty is considered exotic and interesting, where the foreword contain anarchist quotes, and there is no mention whatsoever about objective elements of urbanism, transport, zoning, topography, history and city-scape. Being from Rio de Janeiro myself and knowing slums intimately, I could only laugh by reading the cliché over used phrases about periphery, about crime, about police brutality, about corruption. It's as if someone built their worldview through NY Times articles or stupid movies like Central do Brasil.
I thought the book would have a chapter dedicated to Curitiba, the city where BRT was invented and where this urban solution can be evaluated, the very own notion of new architecture, but nothing, he just talks about Bogotá in the same politized, bipolarized way he talks about Rio, and this is all you have about BRT. Clearly there is more to these cities than this romantized black and white viva la revolucion lens can offer?
I expected pages about Argentina tram networks, the biggest in S. America, about Mendoza, yet also nothing. Instead he just goes on and on about politics in a superficial way, talking of dictatorship, coronelismos and similar content more fit to forum posts.
Clearly the kind of useless ramblings of leftist leaning first worlders visiting poor/exotic/resourceful third world with not a single objective or rational word about urbanism or architecture; they only see what they want to see and are willing to distort information in order to build this narrative to you. We can imagine how amazing it must be for such kind of americans or europeans to visit Brazil or Colombia: they can always go back, they are not stuck here, having to come up with real solutions for real problems; it's the same orientalizing, romanticizing tourism british people did in the middle east centuries ago.
I found it by chance while looking for urban transport in South America- being a brazilian myself- and I don't know how to describe my disappointment.
This is the kind of architecture literature that people find acceptable: where slums are described as resourceful, where poverty is considered exotic and interesting, where the foreword contain anarchist quotes, and there is no mention whatsoever about objective elements of urbanism, transport, zoning, topography, history and city-scape. Being from Rio de Janeiro myself and knowing slums intimately, I could only laugh by reading the cliché over used phrases about periphery, about crime, about police brutality, about corruption. It's as if someone built their worldview through NY Times articles or stupid movies like Central do Brasil.
I thought the book would have a chapter dedicated to Curitiba, the city where BRT was invented and where this urban solution can be evaluated, the very own notion of new architecture, but nothing, he just talks about Bogotá in the same politized, bipolarized way he talks about Rio, and this is all you have about BRT. Clearly there is more to these cities than this romantized black and white viva la revolucion lens can offer?
I expected pages about Argentina tram networks, the biggest in S. America, about Mendoza, yet also nothing. Instead he just goes on and on about politics in a superficial way, talking of dictatorship, coronelismos and similar content more fit to forum posts.
Clearly the kind of useless ramblings of leftist leaning first worlders visiting poor/exotic/resourceful third world with not a single objective or rational word about urbanism or architecture; they only see what they want to see and are willing to distort information in order to build this narrative to you. We can imagine how amazing it must be for such kind of americans or europeans to visit Brazil or Colombia: they can always go back, they are not stuck here, having to come up with real solutions for real problems; it's the same orientalizing, romanticizing tourism british people did in the middle east centuries ago.
February 6, 2015
Much gets written about the mass-urbanisation happening in China and Africa, but Latin America is often strangely overlooked, even though it went through almost identical patterns half a century ago, and in some countries has over 80% of the population living in cities. In the process it experimented with many different approaches, often swinging rapidly back-and-forth between housing as a basic human right for the government to provide, and the sometimes-ideological, sometimes-merely-pragmatic, ideal that people (by which, of course, we mean the poor), should build their own houses.
In more recent times, cities such as Medellín in Colombia have been internationally recognised as places that have been completely transformed (in this case, from the murder capital of the world) largely through architecture, and the region is full of architecture-as-activism projects.
And so McGuirk, previously editor of international architecture magazine, Icon, sets off on a tour of Latin America to find out how much the reality lives up to the hype. (The short answer: It doesn't, but it's still impressive anyway.)
The book takes an extended look at numerous approaches to city-building (in the loosest sense): from the very basic level of providing housing (PREVI in Perú, and the Quinta Monroy "build people half-a-house and let them build the rest" approach in Chilé); through the gentrification of the favelas in Rio and the effects of the city building out for the Olympics and the World Cup; the transformation of public spaces (such as Medellín's library parks); the crucial importance of transport infrastructure in cities where being poor can add two hours to how long it takes to get to work … or a hospital; what happens when 3000 people take over an abandoned 45-storey corporate skyscraper as a squat (with no elevators); or when mega-cities get big enough to span national boundaries; to Antanas Mockus’ attempts to transform Bogotá primarily through transforming the people themselves.
These all make for fascinating stories, and the author does a good job of avoiding oversimplification — understanding, and reiterating constantly, that there are no easy answers to many of the questions that these projects are attempting to deal with (or themselves raise), and that it’s often unclear to what extent any of these can be successfully replicated elsewhere.
The travelogue-interview style of writing can drag and grate at times (particularly when he goes full-blown architecture nerd, wandering Peruvian social housing projects playing spot-the-architect: “That’s clearly a Stirling, but is that a van Eyck or an Alexander?”), and the book presupposes a quite high level of understanding of architectural topics, assuming that the reader needs no further explanation for the continual references to Le Corbusier, Brutalism, etc. This makes the book a difficult read at times, particularly in the early chapters, which is particularly disappointing, as there’s no real reason why this should be so. The book will be interesting and useful to many non-architects, and providing a simpler entry-point to some of the concepts would have made it much more accessible. Thankfully I found the subject matter compelling enough to plough on through the worst parts. The areas I had known something about previously have had much too little written about them in English, so this is a very welcome addition, even with these flaws.
I was also slightly surprised to find only a single passing remark to Porto Alegre’s now-widely-copied approach of Participatory Budgeting, and none at all to initiatives like Belo Horizonte’s “People’s Restaurants”, or São Paulo banning all public advertising as noise pollution. But there’s room for many books on all these topics — and hopefully there are indeed many more to come.
[Advance review copy provided through edelweiss]
In more recent times, cities such as Medellín in Colombia have been internationally recognised as places that have been completely transformed (in this case, from the murder capital of the world) largely through architecture, and the region is full of architecture-as-activism projects.
And so McGuirk, previously editor of international architecture magazine, Icon, sets off on a tour of Latin America to find out how much the reality lives up to the hype. (The short answer: It doesn't, but it's still impressive anyway.)
The book takes an extended look at numerous approaches to city-building (in the loosest sense): from the very basic level of providing housing (PREVI in Perú, and the Quinta Monroy "build people half-a-house and let them build the rest" approach in Chilé); through the gentrification of the favelas in Rio and the effects of the city building out for the Olympics and the World Cup; the transformation of public spaces (such as Medellín's library parks); the crucial importance of transport infrastructure in cities where being poor can add two hours to how long it takes to get to work … or a hospital; what happens when 3000 people take over an abandoned 45-storey corporate skyscraper as a squat (with no elevators); or when mega-cities get big enough to span national boundaries; to Antanas Mockus’ attempts to transform Bogotá primarily through transforming the people themselves.
These all make for fascinating stories, and the author does a good job of avoiding oversimplification — understanding, and reiterating constantly, that there are no easy answers to many of the questions that these projects are attempting to deal with (or themselves raise), and that it’s often unclear to what extent any of these can be successfully replicated elsewhere.
The travelogue-interview style of writing can drag and grate at times (particularly when he goes full-blown architecture nerd, wandering Peruvian social housing projects playing spot-the-architect: “That’s clearly a Stirling, but is that a van Eyck or an Alexander?”), and the book presupposes a quite high level of understanding of architectural topics, assuming that the reader needs no further explanation for the continual references to Le Corbusier, Brutalism, etc. This makes the book a difficult read at times, particularly in the early chapters, which is particularly disappointing, as there’s no real reason why this should be so. The book will be interesting and useful to many non-architects, and providing a simpler entry-point to some of the concepts would have made it much more accessible. Thankfully I found the subject matter compelling enough to plough on through the worst parts. The areas I had known something about previously have had much too little written about them in English, so this is a very welcome addition, even with these flaws.
I was also slightly surprised to find only a single passing remark to Porto Alegre’s now-widely-copied approach of Participatory Budgeting, and none at all to initiatives like Belo Horizonte’s “People’s Restaurants”, or São Paulo banning all public advertising as noise pollution. But there’s room for many books on all these topics — and hopefully there are indeed many more to come.
[Advance review copy provided through edelweiss]
February 11, 2019
He presents some interesting ideas (none of which are his own) but the absolutely condescending tone he uses to describe the people he meets (especially indigenous people) is absolutely insufferable. He also lacks so much context, his writing had a strong I’ve been here for like a week and I’m gonna act like I know more about this place than the people who live here.
The topic is so fascinating but he wasn’t the right guy for this I guess, the tone especially bothered me as someone who is Latin American.
The topic is so fascinating but he wasn’t the right guy for this I guess, the tone especially bothered me as someone who is Latin American.
November 2, 2024
Thoroughly enjoyed this - thought provoking indeed
January 5, 2015
SO SO SO SO GOOD.
kind of inaccessible? in that- i don't have the architectural/historical/philosophical/political background. (i mean we learned about le corbusier in high school but it was all about FORM, i don't know if we touched on his political(?)/social housing shit at ALL, thanks ap art history lol). and like, my knowledge of for ex. neoliberalism is really informal, and of free trade agreements and washington consensus i pretty much only know that they wreck everything. DESTROY CAPITALISM
buuut, from my very limited pov, really good coverage and understandable despite not knowing a LOT
kind of inaccessible? in that- i don't have the architectural/historical/philosophical/political background. (i mean we learned about le corbusier in high school but it was all about FORM, i don't know if we touched on his political(?)/social housing shit at ALL, thanks ap art history lol). and like, my knowledge of for ex. neoliberalism is really informal, and of free trade agreements and washington consensus i pretty much only know that they wreck everything. DESTROY CAPITALISM
buuut, from my very limited pov, really good coverage and understandable despite not knowing a LOT
December 11, 2016
An important book to read for those interested in radical architecture and alternative urban futures, although at times very boring to chug through. This stems from the author's sensationalist writing style, which seems designed to filling up more page numbers while adding a sense of urgency that is wholly unnecessary (not to mention repetitive and paternalistic). Nevertheless, as someone interested in urbanization and social equality, this was a very valuable read. I particularly appreciate how McGuirk always manages to pull back from the brink of ideological polemics to taper his approach with a healthy dose of pragmatism.
June 9, 2017
An enjoyable read that's great for the layperson, urban planner/architect, or those interested and/or with background on spatial theories. I enjoyed the case studies, and how the author wove interviews and observations with textual research and his own analysis, quoting theorists on space. The book has that perfect balance between all those, making it an easy but very informative read. However, the concept of "slums" and rebuilding/resourcefulness can be questionable here, as it could be seen as a form of exoticism, and needs a deeper analysis.
April 15, 2015
very good and also very interesting!! the emphasis of the book was on how to make cities more equitable for the poor. lots of good examples of how architects (and planners, and engineers, etc) can't jut create things in vacuum, and need to work with the community in order to incite social change. lots of good lessons to be learned, and all examples were from south american cities (as opposed to europe, which people tend to focus more on when thinking about sustainability and urban design)
March 6, 2017
What if architects, displaced citizens, and public housing authorities behaved like Jack Reacher? That is, what if they were bum-chucking, swift-witted vigilantes hellbent on rattling the massive Latin American housing crisis caused by inequality, misguided utopianism, and political corruption and incompetence? Find out for yourself and read Radical Cities. This is a firm recommendation (and props to my pal Steve who got me this book as a Christmas gift.)
Read
October 2, 2019It started out with interesting historical surveys. Then it lost its fizz.
February 7, 2021
«Ciudades Radicales» es un viaje de mochila y también un reportaje —una mirada desde el exterior— sobre lo que ocurre con las y los pobres en las ciudades latinoamericanas. El autor recorrió el sur global americano desde Tijuana, el ecuador político, hasta las ciudades miseria de Buenos Aires, documentado las «ciudades» —no invisibles como las de Calvino sino todo lo contrario— que se construyen fuera del mercado global del suelo, en la informalidad y la solidaridad de quienes poseen poco o nada.
Esta obra no debe ser un vehículo para romantizar la pobreza urbana en América Latina, sino para poner el foco sobre dos ideas centrales: 1) el desastre urbano que están causando los gobiernos neoliberales y 2) que otros urbanismos cuyas bases estén en las personas y no en el capital es posible.
Cada «ciudad radical» en su particularidad es un ejemplo de resistencia, de cooperación y de producción social del hábitat, tres cosas que las autoridades suelen desconocer y menospreciar. Para estudiantes de urbanismo, planeación y arquitectura, esta es una obra fundamental para entender a ojo de águila el panorama urbano América Latina. La prosa de McGuirk es amena y sus entrevistas con gente local aportan vistazos desde el interior de estas utopías.
Esta obra no debe ser un vehículo para romantizar la pobreza urbana en América Latina, sino para poner el foco sobre dos ideas centrales: 1) el desastre urbano que están causando los gobiernos neoliberales y 2) que otros urbanismos cuyas bases estén en las personas y no en el capital es posible.
Cada «ciudad radical» en su particularidad es un ejemplo de resistencia, de cooperación y de producción social del hábitat, tres cosas que las autoridades suelen desconocer y menospreciar. Para estudiantes de urbanismo, planeación y arquitectura, esta es una obra fundamental para entender a ojo de águila el panorama urbano América Latina. La prosa de McGuirk es amena y sus entrevistas con gente local aportan vistazos desde el interior de estas utopías.
March 31, 2018
"While architects have been focusing on spectacular buildings they could export to China and Dubai, the real gains were to be made on a diffenrent plane entirely, at the level of infraestructure, networks and politics. Designing a good building becomes a rather academic exercise when the entire system that allows that building to materialise is geared towards increasing social inequality. New social and political frameworks also need designing."
And that's exactly what this book is trying to describe. Design an architecture are moving beyond the sculpture building.
I'm from Colombia and I'm doing postgraduate studies on urban design. A teacher told us that he was happy to have a group of students working in goverment as he thought that anyone can actually design decently, but the tools that allow for better designs that can help to reduce inequalities are yet to be imagined, as the ones we have today are ususally inefficient or there to serve corruption.
And that's exactly what this book is trying to describe. Design an architecture are moving beyond the sculpture building.
I'm from Colombia and I'm doing postgraduate studies on urban design. A teacher told us that he was happy to have a group of students working in goverment as he thought that anyone can actually design decently, but the tools that allow for better designs that can help to reduce inequalities are yet to be imagined, as the ones we have today are ususally inefficient or there to serve corruption.
October 24, 2020
Good introduction to various interesting things that happened in South America but somehow I'm not sure if I should trust in everything author wrote. Too often he sounded like he knew everything about situation he described even though it was obvious that he didn't.
Also if I didn't knew anything about history of South America I'd think that the worst thing that happened to them was NEOLIBERALISM. military coups? right wing dictatorships? well, they were bad because theyoften brought the n-word I mentioned earlier.
Also if I didn't knew anything about history of South America I'd think that the worst thing that happened to them was NEOLIBERALISM. military coups? right wing dictatorships? well, they were bad because theyoften brought the n-word I mentioned earlier.
Read
January 16, 2021nice to read something with some optimism and concrete (lol) possibilities and projects (though 2014 feels like a different era for LatAm really). the e-book is a bit crap, photos are published miles away from the relevant sections so its hard to picture stuff. shows the stitches of maybe being several reported articles expanded into a book with repetitions of some context and history etc. good though, surprisingly few explanations of the neoliberal turn considering it's a Verso book.
July 24, 2017
Gran lectura para conocer más sobre cómo crecen las ciudades y que soluciones se implementaron en Latinoamérica (con y sin éxito) para enfrentar el déficit habitacional. Prosa muy dinámica y entretenida y buenas fotos a color.
October 30, 2017
In Radical Cities, the author travels across Latin America in search of architects and politicians attempting to address vast inequalities in housing. If you have any interest in housing reform, this book is a good place to start.
December 10, 2017
Enjoyable and informative read, describing social housing efforts across south and Central America. Learnt lots and some oddball schemes described that seem to have worked.
Oddly little in the way of conclusion though, and ended on a dull case of Tijuana and the American-Mexican border.
Oddly little in the way of conclusion though, and ended on a dull case of Tijuana and the American-Mexican border.
October 1, 2019
Justin's journey across Latin America is intriguing and insightful. He explored different solutions to the housing crisis across Latin America, where he went looking for urban innovation through architecture.
December 20, 2016
A necessity for anyone interested in urban planning, urbanity, or just the social life in general. Latin America has experienced mass urbanization far longer than China or Africa let alone the U.S.
March 6, 2018
Definitely not light reading, but it gave me a cool intro to urban studies that I was looking for (plus made me want to go back to Bogota!!)
December 28, 2019
v interesting case studies, to be sure, but almost a year after having read it, i have a hard time recalling the main takeaways. it might be my memory, tho
April 28, 2020
Fascinating account of a range of radical approaches to municipal government across Latin America.
May 17, 2020
I found this book informative and easy to read, although I didn't read the chapters in order. He draws a lot of information from experts and locals from each case study, and provides some political and cultural context for each case, which are clearly just summaries of the history that has shaped each of the cities he talks about. In general, I thought it was a good book that touches on different aspects of informal settlements, mostly on housing, and can help spark interest in specific topics that readers can continue reading or researching about.
June 8, 2021
Wonderful and easy read. Justin did a great job explaining the policies, architecture and problematic that most LATAM cities are facing.
April 24, 2023
Yeah let's do it. Let's be more bottom-up, horizonal, improvisational and context-specific
November 18, 2023
Great book with different chapters for different cities. Gave me little knowledge nuggets for each, worth the read!
November 4, 2024
This book taught me so much and gave a good look into informal housing, and it’s held up over time so far, which impressed me.
August 6, 2015
Este libro es un must-read para cualquiera que tenga el mínimo interés en política social y desarrollo con enfoque en América Latina. Básicamente hace un recuento y análisis de diversas experiencias de desarrollo y transformación urbana a lo largo y ancho del continente, en sus diferentes manifestaciones: cultura cívica/ciudadana, vivienda social, transporte urbano y otras obras de infraestructura como parques, bibliotecas y demás, así como de personajes claves en estos, entre ellos el antiguo alcalde de Bogotá y candidato presidencial Antanas Mockus, a quien le dedica un capítulo completo. Da un poco de envidia leer como las ciudades y sus alcaldes deberían funcionar en realidad.
También abarca nuevas formas en que los arquitectos, ingenieros, políticos y demás han cambiado la forma de ver a los barrios, ya no como amenazas externas a la ciudad sino como parte integral de esta, y aprendiendo de como la gente resuelve sus propios problemas para en base a estas experiencias crear políticas publicas y soluciones de infraestructura que de verdad resuelven problemas, por ejemplo los teleféricos en Caracas, las casas construidas a mitad (para que sus habitantes las terminen) en Chile, la otorgamiento de títulos de propiedad colectiva a organizaciones de residentes en lugar de títulos individuales a personas, lo cual motiva a organizar mejor la tierra y la construcción.
En fin, el libro es sumamente interesante y fácil de leer, y se aprende muchísimo. Recomendado totalmente.
También abarca nuevas formas en que los arquitectos, ingenieros, políticos y demás han cambiado la forma de ver a los barrios, ya no como amenazas externas a la ciudad sino como parte integral de esta, y aprendiendo de como la gente resuelve sus propios problemas para en base a estas experiencias crear políticas publicas y soluciones de infraestructura que de verdad resuelven problemas, por ejemplo los teleféricos en Caracas, las casas construidas a mitad (para que sus habitantes las terminen) en Chile, la otorgamiento de títulos de propiedad colectiva a organizaciones de residentes en lugar de títulos individuales a personas, lo cual motiva a organizar mejor la tierra y la construcción.
En fin, el libro es sumamente interesante y fácil de leer, y se aprende muchísimo. Recomendado totalmente.
April 29, 2015
very nice architecture study book, looks at argentina, rio and 'the' favela, caracas, and has chapter on torre david in caracas, a pirated living space, bogota, medillin, and tiajuana (a disaster).
medellin is of particular interest in that there is simultaneously an on going human rights disaster and some institutional action for better housing, libraries, transportation (cable cars becuase really, there are no streets as such), also lima, the first chapter, looks at some very 'old' urban renewal and how that has morphed into unique and livable housing over the decades.
a bit dry writing but pair this with something like witold's How Architecture Works: A Humanist's Toolkit and Makeshift Metropolis: Ideas About Cities and you'll be smartest on the block about slums and their genesis and transformations
medellin is of particular interest in that there is simultaneously an on going human rights disaster and some institutional action for better housing, libraries, transportation (cable cars becuase really, there are no streets as such), also lima, the first chapter, looks at some very 'old' urban renewal and how that has morphed into unique and livable housing over the decades.
a bit dry writing but pair this with something like witold's How Architecture Works: A Humanist's Toolkit and Makeshift Metropolis: Ideas About Cities and you'll be smartest on the block about slums and their genesis and transformations
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