Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America

Latin American cities have always been characterized by a strong tension between what is vaguely described as their formal and informal dimensions. However, despite intrinsic semantic implications, the terms formal and informal do not refer only to the physical aspect of cities but also to their entire socio-political fabric. Given the fact that informal cities and settlements exceed the structures of order, control and homogeneity expected to be found in the formal city, the wide-ranging essays in this volume from disciplinary areas such as anthropology, architecture, history, cultural and urban studies, and sociology are concerned with the need to produce alternative methods of analysis in order to study the phenomenon of urban informality. This book provides a thoroughgoing review of the work that is currently being carried out by scholars, practitioners and governmental institutions, in and outside Latin America, on the question of informal cities.

Felipe Hernandez is an architect and Lecturer in Architectural Design, History and Theory at the University of Liverpool. He has an MA in Architecture and Critical Theory and received his PhD from the University of Nottingham. He has taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), The Universities of Nottingham, Sheffield, East London as well as at the School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University. He is also the author of numerous essays and articles examining the situation of contemporary Latin American cities. He is editor of 'Spaces of Transculturation: Architecture and Identity in Latin America', Journal of Romance Studies, Berghahn Journals (Winter 2002), and co-editor of Transculturation: Cities, Space and Architecture in Latin America, Rodopi, Amterdam – Atlanta, 2004. He is currently completing a book on contemporary Latin American architecture in the Andean region. Peter Kellett is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at the University of Newcastle. He qualified as an Architect in 1980 and worked in Latin America before joining the University as a Lecturer in 1985. His research is focussed on housing, particularly on understanding how disadvantaged households create, use and value dwelling environments in developing world cities. He has published widely, and in addition to his work in Latin America he has worked on DfID-funded comparative research projects in Asia and Africa. In the UK he is part of a multi-disciplinary team working on an NHS Estates research project evaluating heath environments, and a CABE-funded project evaluating innovative design in the public sector.