The Invisible Houses

Authored by Gonzalo Lizarralde of the School of Architecture at the Université de Montréal, this book takes us on a journey through the slums and informal settlements of South Africa, India, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti and many other countries of the global south, revealing the challenges of, and opportunities for, improving the fate of millions of poor families. Lizarralde points out that fixing the housing problem is not a matter of providing shelter but rather, about “creating conditions in which people can live lives they have reason to value.” He explains the different variables that need to be addressed and the causes of common failures and mistakes, while outlining successful strategies based on embracing a sustained engagement with the complexity of processes that are generally invisible.