An Urban Framework Based on the Slum

They call their idea Self-Generative Communities, and offer step-by-step instructions on how to learn from informal cities and improve the urban areas we already have.

"We propose living on the grid of a new urban fabric that distributes self-generated resources-food, learning, skills, human talent, and labor-and creates natural connections among inhabitants and nature. This way of living draws from the lessons that the world's poorest inhabitants have to give us without romanticizing the difficult and unfortunate aspects of impoverishment. The SGC is a portrait of humanity not at its poorest, but at its most resourceful, responsible, and aware of its surroundings. The objective of the SGC is to realize homegrown socioeconomic sustainability by investing in the proper handling of the natural environment and technology."