A look into the collective intelligence of Khetwadi’s steel artisans.

More than a third of Bogota, the capital of Colombia, is estimated to be self-built by the inhabitants, mainly in the periphery of the city. In this article, we learn from Andrés Sánchez of urbz Colombia about the emerging forms of organisation and constant transformation in these self-built neighborhoods.

Since many years, the inhabitants of the San German neighborhood (located in Usme, in the metropolitan area of Bogota) have been developing many different projects on public space improvement and infrastructure, that permitted the amelioration of life conditions. The main goal is to promote projects of community improvement on social and cultural levels of the San German community. 

Breathing life into a community´s vision for a ¨restorative cell¨ using Bamboo 

Workshop da construção civil / Civil construction Workshop in Sao Paulo

A record book of 20 houses built by the mason Ataide Caetite in the Paraisopolis favela, which reflects on how the economic and cultural dynamics are reflected in home construction and design.

The inception of urbz Colombia and the flow of local movements in Bogota

Reviewing Sondgo and its functioning residential and work places, thirteen years after the initial plans were drafted. (The Hindu, 19.06.17)

Local contractors design their ideal Dharavi homes which are exhibited at Zaha Hadid's Maxxi in Rome. 

When pavement dwellers are chased away, which happens often, they have no other option than making a new home on another the sidewalk. 

The official target of producing millions of quality homes for all can be re-imagined, as one in which the process of construction itself becomes a transformative moment.

Experiments with EPS to build our new office in Shivaji Nagar. 

While New York and London house the people that move from city to city, all acquainted with the etiquette of an urban lifestyle, Bogotá and Bombay are cities of villagers on the road to urbanization. 

Planning the planned city of Navi Mumbai. 

After a handstorm workshop to make a variety of user-oriented objects and with a pilot house on its way, a report about the updates of the Homegrown Cities Initiative

Housing must be seen as a process rather than a product: its values lie in the relationship and inter-action between the actors, their activities and the produced house.

While residents may live here and work elsewhere, this neighbourhood also shows a high level of its own economic activities.

In collaboration with local pedreiro Ataide, the urbz team helps build a house in Paraisoplis right from digging the foundations. 

How to provide housing for all classes of people who need it, taking their varied livelihoods  into account, while balancing their relative abilities to invest in housing?