We climb endless stairs to mountains made of piles of stone. There, the stairs end and paths traced between the rocks begin, until they disappear and every route becomes invisible. We are climbing the hills of San Juan de Lurigancho.
San Juan de Lurigancho is the most populous district in Lima and Peru; more than half of its inhabitants live in informal human settlements, forming the city's slums and periphery. These neighborhoods constitute that part of the city that is rendered invisible—though it is not truly invisible—and which does not appear on maps or in urban plans.
Seventy-six percent of informal settlements have at least one form of community organization to address their challenges, yet they completely lack a place for gathering—a collective space to lay the foundations for their development.
