The invisible houses [electronic resource] : rethinking and designing low-cost housing in developing countries / Gonzalo Lizarralde.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Learning from the poor : most of what architects, urban specialists, policy makers and design professionals need to know about housing can be learned from the Informal Sector -- 2. Invisible millions : the multiple (and contradictory) faces of poverty and informality -- 3. Invisible market : on why to buy a $60,000 house in a slum, and other distortions in housing markets -- 4. Invisible land : about houses built on distant, wasted and fragmented land -- 5. Invisible infromal processes : about the way land is occupied and houses are produced, purchased, installed and enlarged -- 6. Invisible infrastructure : housing is not actually about delivering houses, but about developing infrastructure, collective services and economic activities. But, where? -- 7. Visible vulnerable, invisibly resilient : on why disasters are not strictly "natural" and reconstruction projects sometimes represent a different type of disaster -- 8. Invisible freedoms : on an ethical position towards housing in developing countries -- 9. Invisible power : on who does what, when and how : a new framework for understanding low-cost housing in developing countries -- 10. Rethinking and designing low-cost housing in developing countries : it is not about simplifying the problem, but rather committing to collective sustained effort and embracing complexity.