While governments and property developers struggle to provide answers, some residents are taking matters into their own hands, by constructing buildings that are rising higher into skylines, and that they can call home. ... [s]ome leading architects are redefining their own role from designing buildings to offering guidance for eclectic self-build projects. These range from low-cost towers that aim to improve lives in some of the world's poorest urban neighborhoods, to utopian skyscrapers that promote imaginative new ways of living.
"It's already happening in my country," said Arif Hasan, 76, one of Pakistan's best-known architects, who has worked in the slums of Karachi for over 40 years. "People build their homes themselves and architects -- in some cases, not all cases -- give them advice."
"These are usually single and double-story houses. But, now, people are building six, seven floors." It might sound precarious. But adhoc high-rise housing, self-built by residents or local communities, has succeeded in providing homes for tens of thousands of people.
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