informal housing

Tiny home village for unhoused reisdents in Torrance, California.

Tiny House Villages for Addressing Homelessness: An Interview with Yetimoni Kpeebi

One researcher's perspective on the potential of tiny homes and owner-built housing as one tool to fight the housing crisis.

February 20, 2025 - Mark Tirpak

Dense informal settlement on steep hillside in Brazil.

Housing as a Climate Resilience Strategy

Ensuring that housing, including in informal settlements, is safe and healthy for its residents is a key tool in the fight to build more sustainable and equitable communities in the face of climate migration.

December 11, 2024 - Time Magazine

Digital drawing of orange Combi microbus popular in Lima, Peru.

Urban Planning in Lima, Peru

For some people, ‘urban planning’ and ‘Lima’ do not go together. In fact, the Peruvian capital effectively highlights various facets of the urban planning world.

July 23, 2024 - Marcelo Remond

Mexico City from the air

A Compact, Connected, Clean, and Inclusive Recovery for Mexico

As the Mexican government charts the country’s recovery from COVID-19, a newly published paper charts national solutions to urban transportation and housing challenges that will put Mexico’s cities on a path to prosperity and resilience.

March 9, 2021 - Compact Connected Clean and Inclusive Cities in Mexico

South Los Angeles

L.A.'s Long History of Informal Housing

The story of informal housing is one of changing racial and class demographics, economic opportunity and needs, and regulatory control.

February 7, 2019 - Boom California

Inequality and Informality in New York

For a MoMA exhibition about urban inequality, Brooklyn architects SITU Studios documented informal housing in New York.

January 29, 2015 - Arup Connect

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.