HOUSES FOR CHANGE

UPTOWN VS. DOWNTOWN

Skyscraper versus Slums: The two urban structures with the highest density are probably the most contrasting structures we can imagine. While the upper-class neighborhoods consist of luxurious high-rise while the poorest areas of the world are self-constructed habitats known as slums, villas miseria, favelas, bidonvilles and shantytowns and mainly consist low-rise buildings. The characteristics of these urban tissues make them opposites of each other.

THE VERTICAL SLUM

The Vertical Slum proposal combines the better of two worlds: On the one hand it takes the infrastructure, planning and height (to a certain extend) of the modern skyscrapers. With this we ensure an hygiene and safe environment. On the other hand the informality, the human scale, the relation with the earth and the social communities of the informal settlements to create a lively neighborhood. In this structure we will ensure an ability to grow and reach an incremental urban tissue, leaving space for public functions to arise. Compounds of eight families share their community space and necessary facilities and simultaneously take advantages of the social control and safety of the compound-living.