In Lima, informal settlements emerge from the construction of straw houses in the desert under poverty and precarious conditions. However, after seven decades of existence, they have transformed into relatively integrated neighborhoods in the city, with considerable level of development. This article describes how an urban fabric emerges within inverted planning processes, from large to small scales, from the city to the house (urbanization-division-consruction), being this inversion the engine of its development. Straw houses, the only material that enables communities to settle in the territory, apart from offering shelter, have become a strategy for city making. Housing is either a workshop or a store, a contribution to the urban fabric; it also changes its functions according to the needs of dwellers; housing expands as the neighborhood densifi es, transforming its typology (from hou...

Este texto se basa en la investigación "Vivienda como generadora de ciudad en Latinoamérica: asentamientos informales en Lima-Perú", llevada a cabo en el Departamento de Urbanismo y Ordenación de Territorio, de la ETS de Arquitectura, de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, con el apoyo del Plan Propio de Ayudas al Personal Investigador en Formación de la UPM, en colaboración con la Facultad de Arquitectura de la Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, en Lima.