SIGUS makes available various publications related to the research and its activities.

The following publications are available through SIGUS or directly from the publisher. Costs vary, and a handling charge will be added if ordered through SIGUS. Note: many of the publications are available in libraries.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE UN WORLD URBAN FORUM IN RIO.
Prepared for the Global University Consortium by SIGUS Homebase, MIT. 2010. A quick visual tour of the events at the UN Forum. Favelas everywhere left a powerful impression on the participants.
See Report

THE UBIQUITY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM – Housing priorities around the World.
Lee Dykxhoorn. Prepared for the exhibit at the UN World Urban Forum in Rio, March 2010. Situated within the context of the exhibition hall with thousands of occupants per day, a participatory structure was developed which mapped the conception of home from a myriad sources. Each viewer was asked to take a blank card and draw what represented their home on the font side. The viewer was then asked to place their card onto a stacked system built up over the several days of the Rio exhibit: each card was cut to have slots that fit together, making a house of cards. The informal nature led to an irregular pattern of growth, mimicking the favelas in the informal settlements in Rio.
See Report

InSituPHOTO - INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION.
Prepared by Victoria Lee and Ben Stone for SIGUS. 2009. This report explains InSituPhoto, a means of rapidly visualizing building siting, repairs, upgrades, and other architectural changes and tracking the costs of such changes. InSituPhoto can be performed quickly and on site with the use of readily available technology: digital camera, laptop computer, and portable printer. The process and the final product, a printed image, are intended to facilitate discussion between non-profit agencies, professionals (architects/contractors/developers) and clients, by building trust, providing a mutually comprehensible image, and creating a permanent record of the decisions reached.
See Report

A parallel approach was taken in Yangzhou, China, as part of an 'old city' conservation program.
See Report

WALL POSTER: TALLER-DISENANDO UNA NUEVA COMUNIDA: SAN CAYETANO, EL SALVARDOR, June 2004.
A workshop of SIGUS in association with the families of the San Cayetano Istepeque and the NGOs Balsamo and REDES. SIGUS partnered with 45 earthquake-displaced families in designing their resettlement community through a rapid action- planning process. Both adults and children were participants: there were two parallel workshops with several joint sessions to exchange ideas. The workshop goal was to design a new community plan that located the main components to allow immediate implementation. The outcome was a subdivision plan with definition of the properties (the individual lots); the alignment, expected use and surfacing of the road; location of public space; and location of public water standposts, water tower and pipe retriculation.
See Report

EXTREME MAKEOVER - Third World Cities.
SIGUS. 10-23 June 2008. Designed by Sabrina Kleinenhammans. A SIGUS-MIT collaboration with EBA of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, and the Department of Architecture of the National University of Singapore. This report summarizes a 2-week summer workshop which explored contrasting approaches in planning for urban growth. Singapore with its policy goal of doubling its population offers a unique opportunity to understand how a highly managed city would tackle the rapid growth challenge. Bangkok offers the opposite approach, a seemingly less planned, less controlled situation, but nevertheless a very much alive and more exciting city.
A print version ($30.70) or a free pdf is available here

REFLECTIONS FROM THE MANILA WORKSHOP: The Philippines.
SIGUS. January 2006. Book is designed by Non Arkaraprasertkul. Since the late 1940s, international development agencies have promoted programs and policies in tackling poverty issues, and tremendous funds and energy have been invested. What has been the impact after these 35 years? And to us as architects and planners who purport to be experts in spatial issues, what has been the effect on housing? This theme guided the 2-week SIGUS workshop in Manila, January 2006. MIT students in partnership with students from the Santo Tomas University of Manila revisited housing projects developed in the late 1970s. The goal was to take a fresh look at housing with as little preconceptions as possible – no in-depth background reading was required nor wanted. The documentation format and approach followed the experience from a previous workshop in Lima, Peru, which focused on squatter settlements from the 1960s and which now are an integral part of the city.
See Report

January Workshop Publications
Several of the early workshop reports are available in printed form. More recent workshops are only available on CDs. Copies may be obtained from SIGUS - and a donation to the Caminos Fund would be appreciated to defray costs!

Urban Upgrading CD
The 2001 version of the CD "Upgrading Urban Communities: A Resource for Practitioners" is still available. It is being distributed by the World Bank Thematic Group for Services to the Urban Poor, and was sponsored by the Cities Alliance and DFID. Contact "urbanhelp@worldbank.org" A web version is found at: http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/

Water and Sanitation for All Toolkit: A Practitioner's Companion - Website and CD
Under preparation for the Water Utility Partnership, a joint program of the Union of African Water Suppliers (UAWS), Regional Center for Low Cost Water and Sanitation (CREPA), and Training, Research and Networking for Development (TREND). Sponsored by the European Commission and the Water and Sanitation Program. The aim of the Toolkit is to provide sector practitioners, policy and decision-makiers access to information on current trends and knowledge gained from past experience regarding water supply and sanitation service delivery to low income areas. The Toolkit should enable readers to identify problems or challenges, and draw up a strategy for addressing these challenges using information and other resources assemble for this purpose. See: http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/waterandsanitation/

Environmental Strategies for Cities
This is a prototype web site being developed by SIGUS and the IIEH (International Institute for Environment and Urbanization), London, for the World Bank. See: http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/urbanenvironment/

Dead Cities Heritage Corridor: The Syria Workshop
A collaboration of the MIT Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture and SIGUS, 1997. The report may be directly ordered from the MIT Aga Khan Program. This third issues of 'Works in Progress' presents the results of a summer workshop on the Dead Cities of Syria. A model for preservation linked with development is proposed for the approximately 1000 Dead Cities in northwest Syria, structured around a heritage corridor.

Action Planning For Cities: A Guide for Community Practice
Nabeel Hamdi and Reinhard Goethert. John Wiley & Sons, 1997. (Order directly from publisher. Email: customer@wiley.co.uk; or www.amazon.com; Fax: 44-1243-843294). Also available in Chinese.

What others have said:

"This book has much to recommend it. Any reader who is already at the coal face of action planning will find it a useful reference work. Any reader who works in an ivory tower for international funding agencies will find it an invaluable introduction to the alternative approach. The case studies make very interesting reading and the book is peppered throughout with photographic illustrations of community workshops in session, exhibition materials, visual aids, etc.

-Tim Catchpole, URBAN DESIGN, October 1998

'Plan for Action' Wall Chart
Large format chart for running Community Action Planning workshops. The chart is intended as a complement to the book 'Action Planning for Cities'. The chart was developed through field experience in Bangladesh. Only available from SIGUS.

La Microplanificacion
Un Proceso de Programacion y Desarrollo con Base en la Comunidad. Reinhard Goethert and Nabeel Hamdi, with Sebastian Gray and Andrew Slettebak. The World Bank, Economic Development Institute, 1992. Spanish. (English original available from Intermediate Technology Press.)

Urbanization Primer
Project Assessment, Site Analysis, Design Criteria for Site and Services Projects for Low Income Groups. Prepared for the World Bank. Horacio Caminos and Reinhard Goethert. MIT Press, 1978. Spanish translation Ediciones G. Gili, Mexico, 1984.

Kairo-Zur Leistungsfähigkeit Inoffizieller Stadtrandentwicklung
Reinhard Goethert. (German) Politik und Planung 17, Deutscher Gemeindeverlag und Verlag W. Kohlhammer GmbH, 1986. Available from Lehrstuhl fuer Städtebau und Landesplanung, 5100 Aachen, Schinkelstrasse 1, Germany.

Back to the Future
A Proposal for a Sustainable Heritage. Reinhard Goethert. A SIGUS Publication, 1997. 12 pages.