Sustainable planning for poor communities: urban design studios as a catalyst for development in Colombia

Abstract

This chapter addresses the potential role of sustainable urban design studios as catalysts for development in slum communities of the developing world. Understanding urbanisation processes in the developing world is important to our sustainability challenge because most of the world’s population will live in these places. oreover, world urbanisation patterns are both a key problem as well as a primary resource. Urban proximity makes sustainability with density possible, however urbanisation is both energy intensive and destructive to natural resources.