2024-05-20T03:42:12-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/124892558/without-housing-reform-is-a-tower-of-david-coming-to-your-city Julia Ingalls 2015-04-09T18:12:00-04:00 >2015-04-12T23:09:58-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/n0/n0sz7clc8us2rssg.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Justin McGuirk&rsquo;s Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture should be required reading for anyone looking for ways out of the bleak social inequality we&rsquo;re stuck in. There were 40 million more slum dwellers worldwide in 2012 than there were in 2010, according to the UN. Private markets clearly can&rsquo;t provide universal housing in any way approaching efficiency, and governments are often hostile to the poor.</p></em><br /><br /><p>In his book, McGuirk analyzes numerous de facto housing solutions for overcrowded cities, including the infamous "<a href="http://archinect.com/news/tag/327072/tower-of-david" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Torre David</a>" in Caracas, an abandoned high-rise which became an iconic squatter's structure partly because of government ineptitude and indifference.</p>