Favelas
Regularizing Informal Settlement in Latin America
Informal settlements - unregulated, makeshift housing - create substantial safety and health risks in Latin American countries. While clearing of settlements is not a solution, letting them be is not an option. Gregory K. Ingram suggests that regularizing programs combined with upgrading assistance can be effective means of improving conditions.
An Olympic Ghost Town in Rio de Janeiro
Preparations for the World Cup and Olympics are displacing hundreds of families in Rio de Janeiro. One neighborhood next to a major stadium has been turned into a ghost town.
Guardian
Mega-Events Take Toll on Brazil's Slum Dwellers
This op-ed from Al Jazeera looks at some of the negative ways preparations for the World Cup and Olympics are affecting the poor in Brazil.
Al Jazeera
Rio de Janeiro Residents Protest Olympics Projects
As the city of Rio de Janeiro prepares to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, residents there say many of the projects underway are violating their rights.
The Globe and Mail
Rio's Slums to See Massive Redesign
Ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, officials in Rio de Janeiro are taking on a massive upgrade project in the city's slums.
Guardian
Bringing a Favela to Life With Vibrant Colors
Two artists have teamed with a favela in Rio de Janeiro to use bright colors to re-frame the slum as a more vibrant area.
CNN
Hopeful Progress in Brazil's Slums
Redeveloping the slums of Rio de Janeiro has been on the city's agenda for decades. Despite the many challenges, some new efforts seem to be paying off.
People's Daily
Questions of Relocation in Rio's Unstable Favelas
Mudslides and unstable housing are common in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro where officials are trying to get people to relocate to safer areas.
BBC
A Toolkit to Improve the Slums of Brazil
Brazilian slums represent huge segments of the country's urban population, especially in Sao Paulo. Upgrading them into economically sustainable segments of the city is a challenge, but a new toolkit offers a path to success.
Citiscope
Brazilians Reinterpret Their Living Spaces
In this paper, Gustavo Rivera Jr. (Ph. D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago) evaluates the economic and sociocultural impact of recently developed public housing estates within the favelas of Belo Horizonte.
The Urban Reinventors Online Urban Journal
Mapping Needed to Improve Slums
Understanding and improving the Brazilian informal settlements known as favelas will require more information about the slums -- especially in the field of mapping.
Harvard Design Magazine





















