Informal Toolbox

Informal Toolbox is being printed: in 2008, the SLUM LAB visited Paraisópolis, a Brazilian favela in the heart of São Paulo, eliciting a series of architectural ‘tactics’ conceived to integrate and transform “critical urban areas”, sprawling tracts of informal housing that support a dynamic social and spatial life. Part architect’s journal, part field guide, the Informal Toolbox delves into the promises and perils of slum upgrading while offering a glimpse of the fantastic creativity and manifold instabilities of life in the favela.