SFI takes first steps toward a science of slums | Santa Fe Institute - Iceweasel Feb. 6, 2013 8 p.m. Slums in the world’s fast-growing cities are often seen as problems and, in most cases, outside the law. But, from Paris and Tokyo 150 years ago to Mumbai and Johannesburg today, slums consistently emerge as a byproduct of the socioeconomic pressures of rapid urbanization, and they often don’t get the credit they deserve as entry points to the city for poor migrants, or for the economic activity they generate. With as many as a billion people now living in slums, understanding what might place these communities and their cities on paths of increasing socioeconomic opportunity is a priority. A new research project now under way at SFI, in collaboration with the nonprofit Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and backed by a generous grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks to expand the scientific study of urban slums worldwide. Read the article in Txchnologist (January 22, 2013) More about SFI's research of the science of cities here. Read the MediaBistro article
Informal Settlements Research ISR Accueil: essor Tierra Construida / Terre Construite » Hassan Fathy, construire avec ou pour le peuple ? par Thierry Paquot Cet article de Thierry Paquot a paru initialement dans les Cahiers d’histoire (n°109, juillet/septembre 2009). La présente version, quelque peu remaniée, a été relue et approuvée par l’auteur. L’architecte égyptien Hassan Fathy (1900-1989) est avant tout mondialement connu pour son ouvrage, Gourna, a Tale of two villages, publié en anglais au Caire en 1969 et traduit en de nombreuses langues, dont le français dès 1970 sous le titre plus combatif et militant de Construire avec le peuple (éditions Jérôme Martineau, nombreuses rééditions chez Sindbad, puis Actes Sud). Il ne faudrait pas pour autant minorer son œuvre architecturale ou sous-estimer ses autres interventions théoriques et politiques sur l’extension du Caire ou plus généralement sur l’urbanisme. Ancien et nouveau village Une fois le site retenu, il convient d’exploiter au mieux les traditions locales. Quarante ans après
airoots/eirut Cities, Scaling and Sustainability | Santa Fe Institute - Iceweasel Organizers: Luis Bettencourt, Geoffrey West Cities, Scaling, and Sustainability SFI's Cities, Scaling, and Sustainability research effort is creating an interdisciplinary approach and quantitative synthesis of organizational and dynamical aspects of human social organizations, with an emphasis on cities. Different disciplinary perspectives are being integrated in terms of the search for similar dependences of urban indicators on population size - scaling analysis - and other variables that characterize the system as a whole. A particularly important focus of this research area is to develop theoretical insights about cities that can inform quantitative analyses of their long-term sustainability in terms of the interplay between innovation, resource appropriation, and consumption and the make up of their social and economic activity.
Up in the air: Citizen scientists map food dangers in Nairobi Top: Sohel Ahmed and colleague prepare to release the balloon; bottom: Some of the photographs taken from the air (Photos: Sohel Ahmed) "We were intimidated," says Sohel Ahmed, a researcher at University College London who has just returned from work in an informal settlement in Nairobi called in Mathare. He isn't talking about the danger of working there. He's describing his first experience of trying to inflate a five-foot wide balloon in one of its narrow alleys. With some help from a local tradesman, Sohel and his team managed to master the gas canister and the research got the lift it needed. Sohel is working on a project with IIED and partners at the Muungano wa Wanavijiji, a federation of Kenyan slum-dwellers' associations. By walking through Mathare with the balloon on a string the team can produce accurate, up-to-date maps of a part of the city that is terra incognita on official documents. Every second during the balloon's 90-minute flight the camera takes a photograph.
Practical Action - technology challenging poverty - Practical Action Latin America In Peru and Bolivia, we help communities set up small-scale technological solutions in remote areas where there is no access to basic services, including electricity, heating, clean water and sanitation. Western Africa Building on our recent extension of consultancy work into west Africa, Practical Action has recently set up an office to deliver impact at scale in Francophone west Africa. Eastern Africa Our offices in Kenya and Sudan work with communities to develop practical solutions in energy, agriculture and urban water and waste, reducing the impact of conflict and disasters. Southern Africa Our Southern Africa office works primarily in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, with an emphasis on improving access to clean drinking water and better sanitation in urban slums, increasing the productivity of smallholders in arid regions, and increasing energy access in rural and urban areas. South Asia UK office
urbanology