Rethinking the Informal City

Felipe Hernández is an Architect and lecturer in architectural design, history and theory at the University of Cambridge. He has an MA in Architecture and Critical Theory and received his PhD from the University of Nottingham. He taught previously in the School of Architecture at the University of Liverpool, and has also taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), the Universities of Nottingham, East London and Nottingham Trent. Felipe Hernández has published extensively on contemporary Latin American cities, focusing on the multiplicity of architectural practices that operate simultaneously in the constant re-shaping of the continent’s cities. He is the author of Beyond Modernist Masters: Contemporary Architecture in Latin America (Birkhäuser 2009) and Bhabha for Architects (Routledge 2009) and co-editor of Transculturation: Cities, Space and Architecture in Latin America (Rodopi 2005).

“This anthology represents a huge effort due to the diversity of realities that exist within Latin America. Cities have different dynamics according to their characteristics such as population, economic resources and territory…Therefore, the effort made by the editors to collect a group of professionals and researchers interested in Latin American cities is remarkable and mark this book as an important contribution to the knowledge of informal urban spaces in Latin American cities.”  ·  Urban Studies Journal“…a worthwhile and timely contribution to the field of Latin American urban studies, which will help to fill the current gap in literature on the Latin American city…this book’s major contribution is in its exploration of the social, spatial, cultural and aesthetic processes which constitute the informal city, which is (re)presented as fluid, dynamic, and most importantly, as part of the city. This aspect should ensure its interest to scholars of space and culture; as in rethinking the informal city, we are forced to re-evaluate our understandings of the city itself.”  ·  Space and Culture

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsForewordRahul MehrotraChapter 1. Introduction: Reimagining the Informal in Latin AmericaFelipe Hernández and Peter KellettPART ONE: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVESChapter 2. The Form of the Informal: Investigating Brazilian Self-Built Housing SolutionsFernando Luiz LaraChapter 3. Informal Practices in the Formal City: Housing, Disagreement and Recognition in Downtown São PauloZeuler R. Lima and Vera M. PallaminChapter 4. The Formal Architecture of Brasilia: An Analysis of the Contemporary Urban Role of its Satellite SettlementsAnnalisa SpencerChapter 5. The Evolution of Informal Settlements in Chile: Improving Housing Condition in CitiesPaola JirónChapter 6. Housing for the Poor in the City Centre: A Review of the Chilean Experience and a Challenge for Incremental DesignMargarita Greene and Eduardo RojasPART TWO: CRITICAL PRACTICESChapter 7. Rules of Engagement: Caracas and the Informal CityAlfredo Brillembourg and Hubert KlumpnerChapter 8. Integrated Informality in the Barrios of HavanaRonaldo RamirezChapter 9. Formal–Informal Connections in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: The Favela-Bairro ProgrammeRoberto SegreChapter 10. Spatial Strategies and Urban Social Policy: Urbanism and Poverty Reduction in the Favelas of Rio de JaneiroJorge Fiori and Zeca BrandãoChapter 11. Urban and Social Articulation: Megacities, Exclusion and UrbanityJorge Mario JáureguiChapter 12. Public-city in Manifesto: The Formal City In-formed by Public InterestClaudio VeksteinNotes on ContributorsIndex