A free PDF of the book is available here on the HABISP publications website
The book, São Paulo Architecture Experiment (SPAE) launched in São Paulo at Museu da Lingua Portuguesa on Sept. 20, 2010. I worked as lead designer on the book, which is a collaboration between Columbia University's S.L.U.M. Lab in New York (directed by Urban Think Tank) and the Secretary of Habitation in São Paulo (SEHAB). The publication is organized in 12 chapters, documenting 12 SPAE favela sites in the city of São Paulo, followed by tactics and strategies of urbanism and architecture proposed by S.L.U.M. Lab researchers. Each chapter begins with an in-depth map of the site, followed by interviews I conducted with each respective favela project coordinator in SEHAB along with researcher proposals, including critical commentary by architects, urbanists, and site directors. In documenting the 12 sites, the book has a common theme of water, which is a major issue for the city of São Paulo, concerning problems of access, distribution, and drainage, as 2010 brought the heaviest rainfall and flooding to the city in 63 years.
My contributions of content include an introduction article (below), a research proposal for the site Paraisópolis, and critical comments, in addition to various maps and data visualization. Melissa Ramos and William Boning assisted the graphic design.
The book is written in English with Portuguese translations. Interviews were translated from Portuguese to English.

FAVELA VERNACULAR IN THE URBAN FRONTIER

Architectural vernacular, or the building as manifestation of a utilitarian purpose, is historically unique in its wide range of means of expression, reflecting specific conditions of time and place. The Brazilian favela, which appeared in the late 20th century, is a modern vernacular that takes on a new definition of place, capitalizing on opportunities of informal development due to multiple levels of historical neglect from the public and private sectors.
Historic models of utilitarian construction show the local population's use of immediate building materials in response to climate and topography as the main influence in the expression of a built work. Often erected by the dwellers themselves, popular historic images of vernacular housing bring to mind the curved formations of bent branches or compacted masses of mud or snow. In the twentieth century, as housing was increasingly commercialized and materially detached from the local context, a shift is clear in the means of formal expression from local to outsourced. In the most salient model of commercialized housing, the suburban United States, the disconnect from the end user is most apparent, which gave way to rapid construction as the house became a more generic object determined by material and labor costs. The favela is an interesting combination of this historic and modern contrast of vernacular expression. The in-flux of rural immigrants to urban centers and the ease of construction permitted a faster development of favelas, which rivals that of U.S. subdivisions. The structures, as determined by the most inexpensive materials (mainly cast-in-place concrete and hollow brick), are ultimately formed by the specific needs of the end user, who is directly involved in the construction process. Family size determines the initial and ever-changing form, which expands with each generation. Outside regular land tenure and zoning, the areas of occupation avoid typical commercial-based development, while the dimension of time, of familial growth, is what shapes the favela.

The context in which the favela is constructed is the greatest point of divergence from most other vernacular housing typologies. Remote or otherwise uninhabited locations are the condition in which most historic and modern vernacular housing is located, as it has largely been associated with the expanding of frontiers. In the case of the favela, opposite movement is occurring, as the modern frontiersman moves from the rural to the urban in a global trend, which is rapidly shifting demographics. The new margin of developed territory is within the city. The typical favela grows in the "in-between" spaces of highly developed areas in an attempt to fill in the undesired land that has been ignored by developers, while remaining close to public services and places of work. This unique condition of informally integrating rural immigrants into highly developed and populated areas creates a dynamic of social exclusion within close physical proximity. Interaction between the informal favela and the surrounding formal city largely consists of a co-exploitation of this marginalized condition, through the exchange of free development and (partial) infrastructure for the neglect of formal infrastructure, education, and other public resources.
However dire some conditions may be, they foster the misconception that the favela is a place of rampant poverty and misery. While lower economic classes occupy the favelas, residents are most often employed, and earn incomes averaging one to five times the minimum wage. Self-driven economies of real estate and commercial activity vitalize the favela, as banks, fast food, and franchise retail stores have already moved in. This high degree of physical and economic development further validates the need for integration into the surrounding formal city through the installation of formal infrastructure, a fact which current municipalities are highly aware of, and working to mitigate.
S.L.U.M. Lab works with the Secretariat of Habitation in São Paulo to expand on their research and projects in favelas, testing theories and suggesting trade-offs, continually asking the question of what is the mediation between the systems of the informal and formal and what new approaches could be implemented. As cities in Brazil continue growing at the high rate of urbanization, informal settlements will continue to grow into the surrounding city. The way in which the informal settlements and the city dismantle the present marginalizing conditions will largely decide the success of the merge of each side into the other, and hopefully legitimize a new favela vernacular.