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Winner of the ACSA/AIA Housing Design Education Award!

There is an increased interest among architects, urban specialists and design professionals to contribute to solve "the housing problem" in developing countries. The Invisible Houses takes us on a journey through the slums and informal settlements of South Africa, India, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti and many other countries of the Global South, revealing the challenges of, and opportunities for, improving the fate of millions of poor families. Stressing the limitations of current approaches to housing development, Gonzalo Lizarralde examines the short-, mid- and long-term consequences of housing intervention. The book covers - among others - the issues of planning, design, infrastructure and project management. It explains the different variables that need to be addressed and the causes of common failures and mistakes, while outlining successful strategies based on embracing a sustained engagement with the complexity of processes that are generally invisible.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Figures(p. ix)
• The Author(p. xiv)
• Acknowledgments(p. xv)
• Credits(p. xvii)
• 1 Learning From the Poor: Most of What Architects, Urban Specialists, Policy Makers and Design Professionals Need to Know About Housing Can Be Learned from the Informal Sector(p. 1)
• 2 Invisible Millions: The Multiple (and Contradictory) Faces of Poverty and Informality(p. 34)
• 3 Invisible Markets: On Why to Buy a $60,000 House in a Slum, and Other Distortions in Housing Markets(p. 56)
• 4 Invisible Land; About Houses Built on Distant, Wasted and Fragmented Land(p. 79)
• 5 Invisible Informal Processes: About the Way Land is Occupied and Houses are Produced, Purchased, Installed and Enlarged(p. 96)
• 6 Invisible Infrastructure: Housing is Not Actually About Delivering Houses, But About Developing Infrastructure, Collective Services and Economic Activities. But, Where?(p. 114)
• 7 Visibly Vulnerable, Invisibly Resilient: On Why Disasters Are Not Strictly "Natural" and Reconstruction Projects Sometimes Represent a Different Type of Disaster(p. 128)
• 8 Invisible Freedoms: On an Ethical Position Towards Housing in Developing Countries(p. 147)
• 9 Invisible Power: On Who Does What, When and How-a New Framework for Understanding Low-Cost Housing in Developing Countries(p. 167)
• 10 Rethinking and Designing Low-Cost Housing in Developing Countries: It is Not About Simplifying the Problem, but Rather Committing to Collective Sustained Effort and Embracing Complexity(p. 180)
• Bibliography(p. 213)
• Index(p. 222)

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CHOICE Review

"The 'housing problem' in developing countries is not ... a problem of missing or inadequate dwellings, and its solution is not ... the provision of shelters. Rather, it involves creating conditions in which people can live lives they have reason to value." This profound statement is the thesis and opening paragraph to The Invisible Houses, by Lizarralde (Univ. of Montreal), a well-written book on low-cost housing. The author focuses on developing countries, but the premise can and should apply anywhere to all building stock. In the first seven chapters, readers are exposed to critical issues that range from ways informal settlements function to land management and infrastructure. Worldwide case studies and black-and-white illustrations help clarify issues. In chapter 1, Lizarralde delves into assumptions made about slum housing and that many of them are ambiguous or erroneous. This sets the tone for the rest of the book, especially chapters 8-10, in which theoretical framework is introduced that, ultimately, can lead to housing responsive to the needs of stakeholders. This refreshing read rallies around people instead of merely architecture or the bottom line of a developer. An excellent companion to The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain de Botton (2006). Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above. --Lauren B. Allsopp, University of Oregon

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Gonzalo Lizarralde is a professor at the School of Architecture, Universit de Montral. He has more than 15 years' experience in the field of housing and project management in developing countries. He has authored more than 50 articles on the subjects of housing, post-disaster reconstruction and project management. He is a founding member of i-Rec, an international network for improving post-disaster reconstruction.