Micro Home Solutions & The Favela Painting Project

Design with the other 90% Project:Will Callahan, Andrew Creamer, Kochan

Desai

Favela Painting Project

• Favela’s around Rio de Janeiro are notorious for high crime rates

• 2007, Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn came up with idea for Favela Painting Project

• This socially entrepreneurial project meant to beautify neighborhood, bring media attention to need for improvements

• 2010, employ local Santa Marta favela youth to paint murals over 75,000 sq. ft. of public square

Creativity in the Favela

• They are using art, and not increased police or military forces to combat crime and corruption

• Many studies have shown that the “broken window” theory is true, that the more dirty and run-down a city looks, the more likely people are to not take care of it, commit more crimes

• Hired local youth, who will take pride in their work, and not let it get destroyed

• Drew people to see from miles around, giving the community a sense of togetherness and importance

• Taught them proper safety and painting methods, can be used for future self-sustainability

micro Home Solutions• In the Indian Government’s slum-resettlement colony of

Mangolpuri, people moved away from the city are alloted 250 sq. ft. plots

• In order to make any kind of sustainable income, people were building extra floors on top to sublet, these were often shaky and dangerous

• Great demand for housing, increasing density of population• In 2010, Design Home Solutions created to “improve self-

construction practices and accommodate rental models”• They offer small affordable home-improvement loans, and

architects who design and monitor construction, to decrease danger

Creative Aspects of micro Home Solutions

• With a relatively small amount of outside help, they are helping many people help themselves

• Providing safe and affordable housing for the many homeless

• While architects design and monitor construction, individuals build their improvements themselves, increasing pride in their homes, etc.

• Boosting the economy significantly, giving more income to those who have plots of land, to spend in their local markets

Interview Impressions

• People felt they had no access to affordable housing, couldn’t get jobs

• Wanted to see something done with abandoned buildings, bring new business in, get rid of crime which tends to occur in these locales

• Felt very little pride in the appearance of their community, other than the mural near Samaritan, underneath which many homeless people congregate

Re-using Unused Buildings Project (RUB)

• Buy up unused, dilapidated buildings in the area• Offer people in the area opportunity to get in on the

restoration, and transformation of these buildings into low-income apartment complexes

• Similar to the Design Home Solutions Project, have architects to watch over building, but still produce pride in the people about their work

• Hire local people, especially people who will be living in the building, to paint and decorate the outside

• Put in a small playground/park, to create a central area for the community, sense of community