+ CHAPA CIVIC DATA LAB [data activism]

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL / 2015 - current

Chapa Civic Data Lab

Sponsor
National Science Foundation (2015 - 2017)

Research Assistance (TTU CoA)
Brianna Deleon, Jesus Ruelas, Jorge Ituarte Arreola, Ana Merino Garcia, Darian Hut

Extension
Latin American Housing Network

SITUATED DATA | ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP | INFORMALITY | URBAN REDEVELOPMENT

Chapa—a local term for an urban guide —is a transdisciplinary data action research initiative for inclusive design in and with urbanization-vulnerable communities. Initiated in the context of a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, Chapa encompasses a range of projects that use situated data processes to reveal, preserve, and reimagine urban places collaboratively, particularly those historically excluded from access to the design disciplines.

Active Chapa projects focus on the social, material, and economic dimensions that enable the densification and redevelopment of rental housing in informal settlements, and the Latin American Urban Design Lab (LAUD-LAB) at Texas Tech University. The LAUD-LAB is a collaboration among urban design studios and Chapa research clusters that synthesizes aspects of Chapa’s data findings into proposals for housing and urban transformation, such as the recent Sensitive Densification studio.

Visit the Chapa website for more information.

Chapa stems from a study that documented over 1,000 dwellings across two of São Paulo’s largest informal settlements

A partnership between Chapa and the UNAS community organization in Heliópolis focuses on drawing youth into community and urban development processes and introducing them to QGIS.

The identification of rental risk in the Heliópolis favela formed the basis of the Sensitive Densification studio.