On Monday, November 9th, the SLUM Lab studio hosted Brazilian architect Ruy Othake for an afternoon workshop of presentations and critiques.

Energy Usage for Sao Paolo Favela Households: Biogas in Context
Strategy
This paper for seeks to triangulate energy needs for Sao Paolo favela communities such as Paraisópolis and Canthino do Céu. Triangulation here denotes extrapolation between general information on sustainable technologies for energy production and English-language literature relating Brazil’s energy policy in low-income settlements. The research explores [...]

This project stemmed from health care research, looking at systems of care, health insurance, healthcare policy, and health problems related to the open waste line that is the Pirajussara river.
The favela network of Pirajussara, along the border of Embu and Sao Paulo, has 4 typical conditions:
1) backyard: the river is embedded within the favela backyard, [...]

Article on Slum Tourism from the NY TIMES here.
By most accounts, slum tourism began in Brazil 16 years ago, when a young man named Marcelo Armstrong took a few tourists into Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s favela, or shantytown. Today, on any given day in Rio, dozens of tourists hop in minivans, then motorcycles and venture [...]

A feature on MVRDV’s project for Luizhou, China – courtesty of eikongraphia. A hillside “development” that mimics the slum fabric for a grouping of luxury condos.

Two technology links:
Google on cloud computing, mapping and activism
MIT on the top ten emerging technologies, including (directly from the DeviceGuru link:
Connectomics, which attempts to physically map the neural circuits that collect, process, and archive information.
Reality mining data gathered to learn more about human behavior and social interactions.
Modeling surprise Software that combines massive quantities of data, [...]