A special publication produced by Urban-Think Tank and the TdLab at ETH Zürich,Markets in the Tropicspresents the research, debates, and encounters that emerged from two summer schools with Universidad del Norte focused on thecentro histórico of Barranquilla, Colombia. Published as a limited edition newspaper, it gathers local and international expert opinions on the current trade-offs facing the city, and examines the potential of furthering participatory and trans-disciplinary methodologies in urban design. Encompassing historical recollections, future scenarios, interviews, and workshop findings, the publication also includes contributions from Armando Silva, Roland Krebs, Christian Sieber, Peter Mörtenböck, and Helge Mooshammer.

Can architecture and design respond to cities under stress? Capital flight, debt, and social crisis have left visible scars in urban environments worldwide. Buffeted by powerful forces, the endemic vacancy and deteriorating buildings that confront a visitor to Athens today are only the most immediate symptoms of longer-term decline. With its roots in a research and design initiative led by Urban-Think Tank, this book presents a collection of 101 spatial ideas that map a post-crisis vision for the city. Focusing on small and large-scale interventions alike, the authors identify and mobilize the latent potential found in the Greek capital by demonstrating how what already exists can be used in creative and unexpected ways. Targeting a range of challenges, from the economy and public space, to immigration, health, mobility, and poverty, Reactivate Athens: 101 Ideas can be read simultaneously as a both an in-depth toolkit and call to action. Alongside material produced by Urban-Think Tank, the book, which is written in Greek and English, includes contributions from Maria Kaltsa, Thomas Maloutas, and Panayotis Tournikiotis.

Reactivate Athens: 101 Ideas

Publications

Informal Toolbox: SLUM Lab Paraisópolis documents part of an evolving conversation between SLUM Lab researchers from Columbia University GSAPP, governmental organizations engaged in informal settlement upgrading, human rights activists, and partner academic institutions, all of whom share a belief that architecture has the potential to act transformatively in critical urban areas. This bilingual publication was produced as a collaboration between the São Paulo State Housing Secretariat (SEHAB) and Urban-Think Tank, and presents a catalogue of projects that work as a toolbox of ideas, with the aim of integrating precarious communities and the formal city through urban and land regulation, access to infrastructure, and improvement in environmental, habitability, and health conditions. It originated out of extended and ongoing research around São Paulo, and specifically within the Paraísopolis favela.

Informal Toolbox: SLUM Lab Paraisópolis

Informal City: Caracas Case is the result of an urban research project initiated in the Venezuelan capital by the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes) and Urban-Think Tank. This publication is a form of compendium of informal and cultural developments that pertain not only to Caracas, but to almost every Latin American metropolis. Including contributions from Saskia Sassen, Sabine Bitter, Helmut Weber, Neil Smith, Marjetica Potrc, and Armando Silva, it offers a new urbanism applicable to cities around the world and makes the need for a profound change in our understanding of urban culture evident.

Title	Markets in the Tropics
Release	July 2015
Managing Editor	Marie Grob
Guest Editor	Alice Herzog
Design	Mayra Monobe
Sponsor	ETH Zürich (Innovedum)
Pages	40