Medellín, Colombia, is a tale of two cities: a formal, consolidated city built along a river valley; and a densely populated informal city that grew among the surrounding hillsides. In 1991, Colombia’s second largest city was the most violent in the world. By connecting marginalized parts of the city to its safer, more established areas, […]
Arsenic, a deadly poison abundant in Bangladesh’s soil and rock, has leached up through the water table into wells across the country, exposing an estimated seventy-five to ninety-five million people, including thirty-five million children. Major portions of northern India, where five hundred million people live, may also be affected by arsenic and other groundwater contaminants. […]
When post-election violence erupted in Kenya in 2008, food markets were destroyed and prices soared. In response, Solidarités International, a French NGO, designed Garden-in-a-Sack, a low-cost urban gardening system targeting 20,000 households living in the crowded Nairobi slums of Kibera, Mathare, Kiambiu, and Mukuru Lunga-Lunga. Garden-in-a-Sack is a simple three-step process. The sack gardener fills […]
In South Africa, hundreds of thousands of workers commute daily from the outlying townships or informal settlements into the cities. This has given rise to the rebirth of the trade in refreshments, loose cigarettes, sweets, and snacks along sidewalks and public spaces. A redesign of the “café-de-move-ons,” or coffee carts, popular in the 1960s, the […]
In Haiti, the production of wood charcoal, the primary source of cooking fuel, contributes to severe deforestation and environmental degradation. More than 90% of Haiti is now deforested. Many children die of respiratory infections from breathing indoor cooking fumes. Sugarcane charcoal was developed as an alternative to wood charcoal. Dried bagasse, the waste product from […]
In Tanzania, the majority of people live without electricity, yet a third of the country uses mobile phones. Bernard Kiwia, a trained electrician and vocational-school instructor, collaborated with the for-profit social enterprise Global Cycle Solutions (GCS) to design a phone charger from scrap bike and radio parts. Made from spokes, brake tubes, clamps, motors, and […]
Favelas ring Rio de Janeiro’s hillsides, and many of their residents still experience clashes between police and the gangs that control the neighborhoods. In 2007, Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn, of the Dutch partnership Haas&Hahn, created the Favela Painting Project to bring art and beauty to the built environment. Following in the footsteps of previous […]
Approximately 10% of the world population has a disabling hearing impairment, and 80% of them live in developing countries. The most expensive part of a hearing aid is the battery, which needs to be continually replaced. The Solar Aid solar-powered hearing-aid battery recharger, developed in Botswana, helps those with hearing disabilities afford to continue in school and […]
Every year, nearly seventy million people, or 200,000 a day, move from rural areas to urban cities. In South Africa alone, more than 2.2 million homes are currently needed, and an additional 180,000 homes will be needed every year to keep pace with rapid urbanization. The Plastic Formwork System is a method of building cast-in-place […]
