Land, Rights and Innovation

Geoffrey Payne

Every day millions of people around the world spend their hard-earned income improving houses they do not officially own or legally occupy. The vast majority are poor householders in urban areas of the South, where, in some cities, more than half the population lives in various types of unauthorized...

Land Reform and Peasant Livelihoods

Krishna Ghimire

This critical analysis of the performance of land-reform programmes on a world-wide basis is written by several prominent scholars who have extensive experience in field research, advisory work and the implementation of reform programmes. They provide empirical evidence from many countries how impro...

Brick by Brick

Kelvin Mason

This book reviews the theory and practice of technology transfer, change and development. It looks at definitions of Appropriate and Intermediate Technologies in the modern, global context. Based on the experiences of a project of working with brickmakers in Peru, Ecuador and Zimbabwe, the text look...

Double Standards, Single Purpose

Saad Yahya

For the majority of the urban poor in developing countries, European standards for housing and infrastructure are inappropriate and unaffordable. But what is the alternative? This was the issue addressed by an international research project within ITDGs Shelter Programme, of which this book is the m...

Timber Pole Construction

Lionel Jayanetti

The book offers a general introduction to timber poles as a construction material. Timber poles have served throughout history as a low-cost, environmentally friendly and structurally efficient building resource. As a result of the establishment of both commercial plantations and community forestry...

Making Common Ground

Geoffrey Payne

This book provides a comprehensive review of experience in designing and implementing a wide range of partnerships for efficient and equitable use of urban land. Using examples from countries throughout the world and at all levels of economic development,

Building in Partnership with the Maasai

This publication presents the process of participatory technology development (PTD) working with local training institutions, women's groups and development agents to design and build improved housing. Experiments with stabilised soil blocks, rammed earth walling, ferro-cement roofing and rainwater...

Small Scale Vertical Shaft Lime Kiln

Kelvin Mason

The Small Scale Vertical Shaft Lime Kiln covers in depth the design, construction, and operation of a particular type of lime kiln: a continuous, natural draught, mixed feed, vertical shaft kiln (VSK). The manual focuses on 'small-scale' production and is aimed at lime-burners, technologists and fie...

Storm Drainage

Pete Kolsky

Millions of slum residents across the world suffer the hazards and misery of frequent flooding of their streets and homes, which may result in savings of a lifetime being washed away in a few hours, damaged property, loss of work and time, and higher risks of diarrhoea, worm infection and other heal...

Labour-based Road Construction

Paul Larcher

This book brings together up-to-date, undocumented information on the practices of labour-based road construction in low income countries around the world. It draws on the experiences of practitioners working in this field who describe tried and tested ideas, and also looks at failures and their cau...