More than half the world population today lives in cities. In India alone, it is estimated that within the next two decades 380 million people will migrate from rural areas into metropolises. That is equal to 20 new cities the size of Mumbai or São Paulo. In this context, it is somewhat ironic that Western real estate firms are promoting sprawl in Indian cities as the norm. As demographic and geographic developments in Asia, Africa, and South America will inevitably lead to increased urbanization, one might think that cities in these regions should prepare for the numerous ‘consequences’ that come with dramatic population shifts to urban zones. Surprisingly few politicians, bankers, and urban planners, however, have thought it necessary to take action.

MAS Context 10: Conflict

‘Build Simply: South of the Border’

Publications

On December 7, 1972, a few hours into their mission, the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft turned away from their destination – the moon – and looked back to where they had come from – the Earth. They photographed what they saw, and their photograph of a fully illuminated Earth has become one of the most widely distributed images of all time. What captured the world’s imagination on that day was not an image of what lay in outer space, but a new image of our own world; a new way of perceiving what we thought we understood.

Space Matters: Exploring Spatial Theory and Practice Today

‘Gran Horizonte: Curriculum For a New City’

Within the contemporary city and contemporary global context (more specifically in what we have termed the Global South) there exists a network of restrictive borders, a network of limiting mechanisms generated by physical, geographical, political, social, cultural, and economic difference. These apparatus manifest themselves in various ways to inhibit essential forms of interaction and communication within the urban context by generating privative difference. But this milieu of restrictive edges also presents a valuable opportunity, one in which new forms of social design and communication are made possible. These borderlands introduce the possibility of manipulating their inherent, yet conventionally ignored, flexibility into new spaces of interaction. Social design can be strengthened through this critical engagement with the plasticity of the edge – by unearthing the territory of Border-Space.

Trans 18: Politics

‘Trans-Borderlands: Activating the Plasticity of Urban Border Space’

The most prevalent contemporary model of social housing – government-owned and constructed spaces that are rented to the public at affordable, subsidized rates – is only one of many possible approaches to providing dwellings for those members of society excluded from traditional property markets. In the vein of alternative social housing, we see the possibility for government to help establish conditions for the construction of homes without actually providing the home itself. We feel the key is balancing self-determination with top-down planning.

Title	Real Estates: Life Without Debt
Authors	Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner
Release	November 2014
Editor	Fulcrum (Jack Self, Shumi Bose)
Publisher	Bedford Press
Pages	136

‘Capitalism and Freedom’

Real Estates: Life Without Debt