• Tipo de publicación: libro
• Editor: JOVIS 
• Lugar: Berlin
• Fecha: 2013 (1 ed.)/ 2015 (2 ed.)
• ISBN: 978-3-86859-225-2

Within the rapid pace of urbanization worldwide, citizen engagement in improving urban environments has recently been perceived to have intensified. Moving beyond traditional urban planning and responding to governments’ inability to provide for large portions of their cities’ inhabitants, residents employ limited resources to devise innovative solutions for various shortages and challenges they face in their everyday. By means of inhabiting and improving often poorly designed housing estates and urban spaces, their action on space responds to the harsh living conditions at the local level. Resulting from a South-South reflection, the book identifies common themes and differences showcased in 15 projects that highlight the transformative potential of community initiatives in five cities—Mumbai, São Paulo, Istanbul, Mexico City, and Cape Town. Through analytical illustrations, the book reveals their operational modes, the actors involved, and the organizational steps taken. Interviews with residents, local agents, architects and policy-makers provide insights into how these initiatives address local challenges. As a result, «Handmade Urbanism» projects a possible political urban imaginary shaped by these processes, fostering a critical dialogue with architecture and urbanism. The book includes the documentary «Urban Future,» offering additional on-the-ground perspectives. The foreword, titled «The Community,» is written by Richard Sennett.