PROJECT 649 (local competition entry) is a proposed mixed-use development envisioned to be a template of reintegrating (instead of pushing away) informal settler communities in highly urbanized cities of developing countries. The idea is to provide high-density, self sustaining, prototype master plan/ housing that also allows for urban farming (aquaponics, hydroponics, oyster farms, etc) and reintroducion of species (local flora and fauna) within the urban fabric

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BASECO, a brownfield, port area, in Tondo Manila is the test site for this study. The project borrows the idea of using 40 foot shipping containers as the main building component (see Onagawa Container Housing by Shigeru Ban) stacked 1 unit apart from each other, all contained in a 9-storey steel frame structure standing on concrete beds. The voids in between the units will serve as expansion areas for the residents thus utilizing their 'capacity to build'; inspired by the concepts of participatory design process from the projects of Elemental / Alejandro Aravena.

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