A radical new approach offers a promising alternative to the failed social housing typologies favored by governments around the world. Those have proven to be dehumanizing and ultimately unsustainable. A general methodology developed from evidence-based optimal practices is discussed here in a Latin American context, although applicable anywhere in the world. Adaptive solutions that help to attach residents emotionally to their built environment in fact work towards long-term sustainability. Drawing upon new insights in complexity science, and in particular the work of Christopher Alexander, shows how to evolve urban form organically. The conceptual tools of "Pattern Languages" and "Generative Codes" support previous solutions that were never taken forward in a viable form.
| Chapter 1: | Design That Establishes Emotional Ownership." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 2: | Antipatterns of Social Housing." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 3: | A Geometry of Control." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 4: | Biophilia, Connectivity, and Spirituality." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 5: | The Experience of Christopher Alexander." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 6: | Construction Strategy." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 7: | Examples of Patterns and Generative Codes." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 8: | Layout Strategy." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 9: | Layout Sequence." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 10: | Practical Suggestions for Making Projects Work." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 11: | The Need for Adaptable Materials." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 12: | Focus on the small scale." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 13: | Either work with, or circumvent the system." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 14: | Maintenance Strategy." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 15: | A twenty-two step generative code." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 16: | Powerful tools for efficient design and repair." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 16: | Powerful tools for efficient design and repair." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 17: | Problems and Solutions." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 18: | Urbanism and liberation." | ES | PT | ZH |
| Chapter 19: | Uncomfortable Realities." | ES | PT | ZH |
Medellin, Colombia © Michael Mehaffy
Originally presented by Nikos Salingaros in Spanish (via Skype) to the Brazilian and Ibero-American Congress on Social Housing, Florianópolis, Brazil, 2006. Subsequently published in English in the Conference Proceedings, which unfortunately had very limited circulation.
This booklet has an entry in the AboutUs Wiki. Comments by Michel Bauwens, posting a section of the book on the P2P Foundation Wiki and also HERE. The ENGLISH portion can be found HERE. A project to produce this booklet together with other essays on Peer-to-Peer Urbanism never materialized; the entire PDF file is HERE. The PORTUGUESE version was published in three parts in the journal URBE -- Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, put together into a booklet HERE with an introduction by Lívia Salomão Piccinini. The SPANISH version is HERE. A small portion in ITALIAN was published in Bioarchitettura, No. 56, maggio 2009, pagine 52-59.
Despite confusing labels about translators in the published essays, they were written in English. The text was translated into Portuguese by Lívia Salomão Piccinini, and into Spanish by Núria Hernandez Amador and corrected by Ernesto Philibert Petit.