Kelly Chan – Learning From Lagos: Contemporary Architects Harvest the Slums for Design Inspiration

artinfo.com – June 2012 – A few days ago, architecture and design magazine eVolo published a conceptual proposal called “Favela Cloud,” a formal scheme to redevelop the Brazilian slums of Santa Marta. Renderings for the master thesis project by Aalborg University graduate students Johan Kure, Thiru Manickam, and Kemo Usto depict a massive, porous steel “cloud” made from interconnected polyhedral modules. The amorphous form is raised upon a forest of intersecting poles and made accessible by lift or by whimsically off-kilter spiral staircases. Perched high above the cinderblock shanties of Santa Marta and basking in the midday sun, “Favela Cloud” is meant to proclaim the dawn of a new age, one in which the long-neglected urban poor are both entitled to and empowered by progressive architecture.