As James Corner notes in his essay, The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention, maps are often static expressions of an area that do not take any sort of change or time into account. In order for maps to become useful tools that can encourage change, they must begin to address the actual conditions within a location. While it is often easy to be reductive when mapping, it is far more valuable to dig deeper into the possibilities that a map can reveal (Corner 213).
Since mapping is never a neutral exercise, and it will always be seen through a particular lens, what is the most productive way to depict a given location, and how can designers question mapping conventions (Corner 221). In such a rapidly changing world, it is necessary to include time in almost any map that is meant to enable change (Corner 226). Additionally, representing a population on a cultural level, which can only be achieved with community participation, will provide an invaluable tool for any designer. There are numerous projects that demonstrate the success of community input in architectural and planning projects, and if mapping is supposedly what is generating these designs, it only makes sense that it would also be driven by local knowledge (Corner 241). By producing a “game board” map, as Corner refers to it, architects would be able to discuss a large variety of concepts proposed by any number of people using one single image as a base. Allowing it to be an open system with a factual base that can be altered depending on need, or desire would invariably create productive designs that consider the culture, and its future.
In places such as São Paulo, there is a desperate need to accurately, yet inventively record the conditions of the informal areas of the city. A simple, aerial view will not suffice, since it cannot accurately represent the character of any given neighborhood. Tracings from satellite images of favelas would simply appear as a jumbled mass of lines with no boundaries, and would not give any insight into the culture or atmosphere. In a location that is in a time sensitive situation regarding urban renewal as well as addressing the ever worsening flooding problems, an accurate and future oriented map is essential to create any new designs.
In the case of São Paulo’s flooding problem, it has become increasingly necessary to divert flood waters to reservoirs throughout the city’s periphery (Franco 2). In order to best decide where reservoirs and accompanying canals and widened streets, designers should create maps that address concerns in each specific neighborhood that will be effected. By doing so, this will allow architects to address specific concerns of the entire community, not simply a government official who has never even stepped foot in the favela before. Architectural interventions in informal settlements must take into account the vast variety that exists even from one neighborhood to another, in addition to the creation of accurate maps that take both the comments of the community as well as the physical and temporal aspects of the area.

James Corner: Agency of Mapping
Franco de Mello: Filling Voids