When asked to build housing for 100 families in Chile ten years ago, Alejandro Aravena looked to an unusual inspiration: the wisdom of favelas and slums. Rather than building a large building with small units, he built flexible half-homes that each family could expand on. It was a complex problem, but with a simple solution — one that he arrived at by working with the families themselves. With a chalkboard and beautiful images of his designs, Aravena walks us through three projects where clever rethinking led to beautiful design with great benefit. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector

Comments

1. Is heard simple but it is not, however Aravena could include this concept in its architecture, there is its achievement!
2. Ödev var diye geldik.Yoksa ne işimiz olur.
3. Great stuff! 👍
4. FANTASTICO!
5. morrisey I think
6. Finally the main question in the field of the architecture is not just about “how to design the best designed buildings“ which is referred for upper class of group of people / neighborhood resolved with advance technologies but it has concerned what to to do or how to find more pragmatical solutions for neglected spaces in the world where people are really under the poverty and these numbers are continually rising up.
7. so did they take away private property to build this forrest?
8. I am amazed by the things this man made for his country and architecture
9. Thats what the portuguese arquitect José Cisa Vieira has done for many decades, like with the buildings for the arab comunity in Berlin
10. Loooooved it!!!!! 😄
11. What where the other 3 projects? I would like to know how he was able to combine the 4 projects.
12. I don't get his hairstyle
13. An inspiring speech that can spark a major discourse on design approach and process
    Arch student
14. He is talking about the "Volonté Général"! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_will
15. Grande Aravena!
16. 👍
17. This was truly inspiring! Congratulations on your "Nobel Prize" of architecture (Pritzker) as well as your recent appointments to this year's Venice Architecture Biennale.
18. I haven't even started the video yet and I'm already challenged: I've never thought about bringing the community into the process of architectural design and I'm an Arch student.
19. the power of 'common sense', : incredible inspirational statement
20. Congratulations!! I was really inspired by this speech!!