Community Participation in Urban Integration of Rio de Janeiro Favelas

Funded by the Inter-American Development Bank and sponsored by the Municipalidadede Habitação of Brazil, the Favela-Bairro program aims to integrate informal shantytowns (favelas) into the city by transforming them into functioning neighborhoods. Planejamento Arquitetônicoe Ambiental (PAA) has been involved infavela upgrading, an essential element of which is community participation in design and planning. To support this work, the Capstone team prepared a handbook of best practices for incorporating community participation methodologies into design and planning, and devised a survey tool to help PAA understand how favela residents view their experiences with upgrading projects in their community.