The Cingapura project is a low-cost housing initiative in São Paulo, Brazil.
It is designed to try to move the poor population from favelas (shanty towns), where one quarter of people in São Paulo now live, into more permanent structures.
On top of this, residential security guards were to be employed to reduce crimes which were and are rife throughout the favelas in Brazil.
Also, many artisans who could practice their craft in a more free environment could not do so, as the buildings were closely controlled by the owners.
[citation needed] Those that were built were not very successful, as many of the families from the favelas found that the new apartments were too much of a change of environment.