Many people have argued that global cities can take lessons from informal communities like Dharavi and the favelas of Brazil. Designers Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian have created a new framework for city development based on these informal cities.
They call their idea Self-Generative Communities, and offer step-by-step instructions on how to learn from informal cities and improve the urban areas we already have.
"We propose living on the grid of a new urban fabric that distributes self-generated resources-food, learning, skills, human talent, and labor-and creates natural connections among inhabitants and nature. This way of living draws from the lessons that the world's poorest inhabitants have to give us without romanticizing the difficult and unfortunate aspects of impoverishment. The SGC is a portrait of humanity not at its poorest, but at its most resourceful, responsible, and aware of its surroundings. The objective of the SGC is to realize homegrown socioeconomic sustainability by investing in the proper handling of the natural environment and technology."
FULL STORY: Learning from Informal Cities, Building for Communities
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Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
City of Santa Clarita
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
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Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service