By the year 2000 there will be around the world about 50 cities of over 15 million inhabitants each: 40 will be in the Third World. Charles Correa, a pioneer in developing low cost shelter, discusses the implications of this significant trend based on his experiences in Bombay and internationally.

The author makes the case for those principles he believes to be most important in housing, namely: Equity, Incrementality, Pluralism, having Open-to-Sky space, the Disaggregation of the elements that make up the urban context to allow for participation in forming one's own environment and to facilitate Income Generating activities. He cites examples from all over the world, using demographic patterns, public transportation policies, squatter settlements, etc. to illustrate his concerns.

On a city and regional scale, Correa emphasises the need to restructure our urban centres and to use the rapidly expanding populations and space itself as primary resources and tools for development. Correa' s broad perspective, in both architectural and planning thought, has been instrumental in initiating a strategy for diverting and handling rather than stemming the global urbanisation of the Third World.