(IN) VISIBILITY, POVERTY, AND CULTURAL CHANGE IN SOUTH AMERICAN CITIES

摘要

The purpose of this essay is both to celebrate and to critically question recent architecture projects in the "informal" settlements of South American cities. The argument is that these interventions in the continent's shantytowns not only have contributed to improving the conditions of life of poor people in urban centers but also have revealed the insufficiency of existing socioeconomic and political frameworks for reducing poverty. While architects eagerly welcome opportunities to insert buildings that resignify informal settlements in relation to the "formal" city, it is important to develop a critical discourse so that such projects really perform the function that political rhetoric assigns to them: to promote social inclusion and mobility. Let us begin this examination with some historical background.