This book shares the results of a decade of research aimed at finding housing solutions for underprivileged people. In Brazil, the architect Ana Rosa Chagas Cavalcanti temporarily lived in favelas to better understand their spatial logic. This participative observation revealed that labor is the primary social practice shaping, designing, and governing the spaces of these informal settlements. The study shows that, for people struggling with their physical survival, labor is a priority which outweighs the aesthetic, comfort, and hygiene standards that current architectural practices are chiefly concerned with. Therefore, the right to housing must integrate the right to work, and labor must be considered a key social variable when designing housing solutions for informal settlement contexts. From theoretical discussions to examples of real architecture in the global south, this book presents both challenges and potential approaches to creating better housing for the residents of informal settlements.
Available at: https://www.jovis.de/en/books/details/product/housing-shaped-by-labour.html
Critics about the book:
(2019, October, 23) Book mention (on facebook) “Housing Shaped by Labour” is acknowledged as a book which cites the study from the Nobel Prize winners in economics (2019) Esther Duflo and Abjit Banerjee, in the disciplines of architecture and urbanism. Available online at: https://www.facebook.com/JOVISVerlag/? tn =%2Cd%3C-R&eid=ARAdlzRrQ3H-ilZIstQlbQrgdFIaeJx-LAm7CBlmSXwHPB6z0Vy_FClQ6HGhJjfEt-fxAUrbdg3Oguo6 (23 October, 2019)
“The 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their
experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. Congratulations! See how Esther Duflo's and Abhijit Banerjee's work is used for
architectural thinking on the relationship of housing and labour in informal settlement surroundings in our book "Housing shaped by
Labour" by Ana Rosa ChagasCavalcanti:”https://bit.ly/2oWJmrO #housingshapedbylabour #nobelprize
(2019, Sept. 18) Mentioned by Prof. Arnold J. Kemp (SAIC) at CAA’s website as a must read book. Link: https://www.collegeart.org/news/2019/09/18/member-spotlight-arnold-j-kemp/
(2019, May) Book mention “Housing Shaped by Labour: The Architecture of Scarcity in Informal Settlements” is acknowledged by ‘Society of Architecture Historians’(SAH) as one of the recommended books in the category Building Types.link: https://www.sah.org/ docs/default-source/booklists/may-2019-booklist.pdf?sfvrsn=cde05a9b_2
(2019, January) Book mention “Housing Shaped by Labour: The Architecture of Scarcity in Informal Settlements” is acknowledged by ART BOOKS as one of the recommended books in the category Architecture and Planning (Spring 2019).link: https://sep.yimg.com/ ty/cdn/artbook/SPRING2019_spreads.pdf?t=1616201149&