Shantytowns as New Sub/ Urban Ideal

What can the shantytown teach us about urban development? What can it teach us about suburban development? Will we be retrofitting multi-unit apartments into today's McMansions in 50 years? Architect Teddy Cruz is hard at work answering these questions as we speak.

See Rio de Janeiro:

See Tijuana:


Now see Teddy Cruz's "Mi Pueblo" San Ysidro Pilot Village:


NYT article about Teddy Cruz via Archinect. See the Wikipedia entry for "shanty towns" for more on that topic. Robert Neuwirth writes about his four years living in squatter towns in his blog, squattercity. And be sure to check out Bryan Finoki's tour-de-force post, urban syntax: at the border, at his blog, Subtopia: A Field Guide to Military Urbanism.