This article proposes a new approach towards the design and planning of social housing destined to residents living in informal settlements of Brazil. It is aimed at restoring the proximity between the labor and domestic functions within the spatial domain of the house. This need emerges from a field research aimed at addressing the spatial logics emplaced by residents in Brazilian favelas. The integration proposed in the article is meant to be achieved with the combined goal of improving the living conditions of the residents, sustaining also their socio-economic development, while promoting also the economy of the city. Graphic guidelines are shown to the reader after a critical analysis of the main systems of housing currently emplaced for unprivileged people. ... Read more

This doctoral thesis mainly consists of a series of journal publications written by the author between 2015 and 2019. The doctoral thesis presents the results of ten years of research on informal settlements, with particular reference to Brazilian favelas. The research aimed to understand the social dynamics of the production of space in these settlements. To this purpose, the author took residence in favelas and performed field research for a total of six years, including the witnessing of a resettlement process from a favela to a formal social housing development in the city of Maceió, in Brazil. The social dynamics that produces and influences the space of the favelas observed in the field were systematically codified in a new pedagogic tool by the author. As main findings from the analysis, it emerged that labor primarily shapes, plans and governs space in informal settlements. Working activities explain the emergence of these settlements, influence the dynamics of space inside the domain of the house, influence the shape of streets up to the margin of the favelas, but also has influence on city and global scales. From the residents’ perspective, labor represents both a means to earn their subsistence, livelihoods and underscores their inner self-esteem as human beings. Working practices originally present in the favelas were in fact restored in the social housing development to where citizens were relocated, with their original domestic function. According to this thesis, labor practices of inhabitants of informal settlements must be addressed when designing housing solutions for deprived citizens fighting for their survival and must be considered as a housing right. The reasons why the current housing approaches do not contemplate work are understood in context and interpreted according to their historic and economic backgrounds. A housing architectural and planning approach aimed at restoring the combination of working and domestic functions of human beings is proposed instead. ... Read more

Many of the inhabitants of the favelas are masons who learned the construction practices in the slums by buildings houses and infrastructures to their families and neighbours. A considerable number of these masons work in the formal city, in formal companies and share their knowledge for the profit of their communities and vice versa. Often, they engage in the constructions of the favela, especially during the weekend and their free time, in order to generate more income to their families. This article focuses on the importance of masons within informal settlements. They are agents of transformation and improvement in their neighbourhoods, and they are important actors in case of a contingency situation. A case study in the Grota de Santo Antonio/ Favela do Telegrafo and in the Favela Sururu de Capote (both located in Brazil) with the use of ethnographic tools will address this topic. The article concludes that the practices and the knowledge of the masons who live in slums are circular and tackle both the informal and formal city and they are based on the capacities and the resources of the communities within this complex scenario. ... Read more

Este artigo propõe discutir a habitação social de massa no Brasil. Investiga-se um desenho da moradia social que parte do que existe nas favelas, ou seja, das práticas sociais de dentro das favelas, notoriamente as relações de trabalho em um sistema de circulação econômica contemporâneo. O artigo ensaia uma linguagem arquitetônica que parte das práticas sociais a partir de uma revisão sobre como estas se fundem com a linguagem da arquitetura tradicional, e bem como da discussão da porosidade urbana dentro das favelas (tendo como estudo de caso a Grota do Antigo Telégrafo em Maceió). Pretende-se, assim, humanizar as práticas do arquiteto e experimentar novas formas de abordagem do estudo da moradia de massa no Brasil.s ... Read more

This article addresses the notion of architecture in informal settlements. The intellectual reflection derives its roots from an in field research of almost four years in Brazilian Favelas. According to the author’s experience, there are tools and strategies that the so called “architects” of favelas use to build their houses but they are unwritten in the traditional architecture study. The research identifies several unwritten tools and modes of experiencing architecture in the favela. In the current paper they are described and classified as tools of perception, tools of conception and tools of negotiation. As it is widely known, the favelas aren’t built by professional architects. Usually the spaces are designed by a network of experienced masons in the community; or, through owners’ auto-construction (autoconstrução) or even, through joint efforts of groups of inhabitants (mutirões) of the community.
Often, the layout of houses in the favelas does not derive from official plans. In poorest settlements, inhabitants and builders may use sticks to draw the limits of houses in the floor of the field of intervention. Sometimes, putting the furniture of their future houses on the floor of the terrain of construction can be also a way to both guess, speculate and measure the size, the proportion and the layout of the future house. On the top of the drafted limits, around the furniture, inhabitants usually build a frame, shaped as a grid, in which an infinite amount of materials are assembled in order to constitute the walls of the house.
These are only some the many accounts of the numerous calculations and tools adopted by the architects in informal settlements, that have a particular system of signification for those who live in the favela and that can be also in contrast to the principles and norms that current architecture adopts. For example, the foundations of many houses in the favelas can consists of locally available materials casts (such as shells of Sururu, in the favela Sururu de Capote in north-east of Brazil).
The analysis of strategies adopted in the favelas to design space opens a debate. On one hand, on how to address planning in the Favelas based on principles of dignity in the building practices of informal settlements (i.e. safety and hygienic standard). On the other hand, current architecture bases its foundations on principles and notions sometimes distant from the functions and practices of inhabitants. This implies in a broader discussion between the technical apparatus of architecture and the logics of doing architecture in the field, with limited resources, as a way to both discuss architecture as a technocratic apparatus, and to build a debate based on the challenges that arise from the communication of the practices of inhabitants and, non parochial theories. ... Read more

Most of today’s Brazilian Social Housing Institutional complexes are standardized mass buildings. They are planned in the periphery of cities, have no connection to public transportation systems and are disconnected from their respective local context. The planning approach to housing is compliant with ‘state simpli cation models’ which turn a blind eye from the dynamics of the informal sector. This unprecedented study demonstrates that the polarization between institutional planning and the changing needs of society continues to expose the vast inequalities between social classes. This is analysed through a historic study of the Brazilian working class system and its development over recent years. The study compares two very distinct scenarios: on one hand, social housing conceived by traditional stakeholders, institutions and real estate agencies seems to follow a disciplinary approach and segment the life of privileged workers/formal workers. On the other hand, less privileged workers are allowed to freely build their own housing. Thus, this article traces a -binary interrelation between planning for the privileged and for the unprivileged, explaining how favelas became a legitimate form of mass housing in Brazil. ... Read more

Favelas are a world heritage site since 2012. This particular fact triggers a binary opposition in informal settlements study: from the materialist perspective to the idealist one. That includes neoliberal effects, such as commodification, and a romantic depiction of the favela. An ethnographic study scrutinizes Brazilian society and embeds narratives against the contradiction of informal settlements theory. Interviews with favela inhabitants, policy makers, actors, and planners show how different society actors of society comprise favelas in Brazil. The aim is to study the controversial implications of a heritage legacy in the context of favela everyday life. ... Read more

This article explores a concept of autonomous architecture that is endemic to post-neoliberal labour systems. Current housing production is directly influenced by the commodification process of living and by social practice tunes, which influence the space production. This directly implies city porosity, creative classes, knowledge economy, urban manufacturing, self-help and self-organization.
In the context of autonomous architecture, the classification of the dwelling system can be divided into three main parts. Firstly, a shift from art to craft that reflects on the dwelling system and which can expand the discussion on architectural autonomy. Secondly, the idea that post-neoliberalism expels people from the system of production allowing for emergent economic cultures to thrive (ex. knowledge economy) whilst underlining the concept that architectural autonomy can be both utopian and dystopian. Thirdly, most of the new forms of exclusion of the labour system move towards the negotiability of economic values instead of establishing a fixed frame of values. Therefore, this article describes spontaneous settlements as critical spaces to the aforementioned instances about autonomy, architecture and labour. Its porosity, labour dynamics, negotiation of values and increasingly active role in the global projection creates a particular scenario within the built environment. Ethnographic studies in the Favela do Telégrafo in Brazil contextualize a critique on the discourse of labour, architecture and autonomy. Thus, through this article the aim is to discuss Brazilian favelas through a critical analysis on the construction of labour systems within these communities.
Keywords: favela, planetary urbanization, labour, neoliberalism, informal architecture ... Read more

This essay is conceived as a reaction to the past conference Shaping Cities of the Urban Age at the 2016 Venice Biennale, Reporting from the Front. In light of numerous global crises, urban explosion, housing shortages and rising social movements, contemporary architecture is increasingly being pushed to investigate the social dimension, impact and implications of urban design. In particular, architectural education institutions and practices are expected to be more focused on the social fabric and to address current economic and politic scenarios. How could design dialogue positively influence the great social phenomena in cities where the scarcity of resources, migration, urban informality, global warming and economic crises are the most thriving endeavours? The essay speculates that the importance of labour of slums’ dwellers can assist planners and architects to design with social impact. Authors who study informal settlements usually do not mention that labour practices are the main driving force behind the design of slums. Labour is currently shaping the slums, in terms of material usage and otherwise. ... Read more

Este artigo ensaia sobre como a autoconstrução pode levar a compreender os desdobramentos das políticas de direito à moradia no Brasil. Ele se foca no sistema econômico pós-neoliberal que se relaciona com o direito à moradia no contexto da autoconstrução das favelas. O estudo se subdivide em duas partes: sendo a primeira uma revisão bibliográfica na literatura sobre o direito à cidade produzida pela London School of Economics (LSE) no projeto Urban Age e, a segunda, um estudo etnográfico na Favela do Telegrafo em Maceió, Alagoas (Brasil). Conclusões mostram que moradia brasileira possui diversas características que podem contribuir para crítica e para teoria urbana no que diz respeito ao direito à cidade, através do conceito dos “sujeitos urbanos” de Saskia Sassen. Esta crítica pretende abordar desde os os processos de manufatura da moradia até mesmo os processos de commodities da moradia autoconstruída por meio de seus crescentes aluguéis e valor de uso, terra e aluguel. ... Read more

This article aims to produce guidelines for the design of social housing according to the existing self-help contexts of slums, based on findings inferred from an etnographic research in the "Favela Grota de Santo Antonio" through 7 years of field observation (2008-2015). This survey proved that the growth of working activities (which happen in inhabitants' houses) strongly modified the space in that favela. Furthermore, a critique on both the systemic planning of housing and the labor in post-neoliberalism outline those issues in a global scale. ... Read more