Editing Shanty town (section)

==Construction==
[[Image:Villa31.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Shacks in ''Villa 31'', near Retiro Station, Buenos Aires, Argentina, showing construction.]]
Shanty towns tend to begin as improvised shelters on [[squatted]] land. People build shacks from whatever materials are easy to acquire, for example wood or mud. There are no facilities such as electricity, gas, sewerage or running water. The squatters choose areas such as railway sidings, preservation areas or disputed building projects.<ref name="Encyclopedia">{{cite book |last1=Caves |first1=R. W. |title=Encyclopedia of the city |date=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-25225-3|page=176}}</ref> Swiss journalist [[Georg Gerster]] noted, with specific reference to the ''invasões'' of [[Brasília]], that "squatter settlements [as opposed to [[slum]]s], despite their unattractive building materials, may also be places of hope, scenes of a counter-culture, with an encouraging potential for change and a strong upward impetus".<ref>{{cite book|last=Gerster|first=Georg|author-link=Georg Gerster|title=Flights of Discovery: The Earth from Above|year=1978|location=London|publisher=Paddington|page=116}}</ref> [[Stewart Brand]] observed that shanty towns are [[environmentally friendly]], with people recycling as much as possible and tending to travel by foot, bicycle, rickshaw or [[shared taxi]] rather than car, due to poverty.<ref>Stewart Brand,[http://newurbannetwork.com/article/stewart-brand-new-urbanism-and-squatter-communities-13243 Stewart Brand on New Urbanism and squatter communities] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320201153/http://newurbannetwork.com/article/stewart-brand-new-urbanism-and-squatter-communities-13243 |date=2011-03-20 }}, ''The New Urban Network'', reprinted from ''Whole Earth Discipline'', Penguin.</ref>