ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a decade of research and teaching focused on urban flooding in order to discuss the impact of our work as architects, educators, and activists on seeking a better built environment. Every year, in southeast Asia the approximate equivalent of two Katrina-like hurricanes occurs. In most of those regions where 2 billion or more people live, the majority of them in cities, annual rainfall is over 50 inches. For 500 years, residents of towns and cities have struggled with the rainy seasons in Latin America and Southeast Asia. In 2011, the Global Shelter Crisis seminar moved to the University of Texas at Austin and continued its focus on Acaba Mundo. The project expanded the initial objectives of the proposal with thoughts on the agenda of contemporary planning and confronting its consequences in Brazilian urban policy and its participatory aspects. In the informal settlements that shelter about one-third of mankind, normal rainfall signifies fear.
