It's a bold new experiment and it's already won a prize. Residents in a jam-packed slum, many of them living in one-room tin shacks, help design their apartments in a brand new building.
Teens seeking to socialize together in public this summer are discovering that their presence is often treated as a problem. Why it matters: The decline of malls , cheap hangout spots and welcoming public spaces has left teenagers with few places to gather without money or access to a car, urban designers and youth researchers say. State of play: With few options, teens have organized large gatherings in cities nationwide, which local officials have dubbed "teen takeovers ." - Some cities have responded with curfews aimed at keeping minors from gathering in public, although research shows they aren't effective. Others enforce "no unaccompanied minors" policies , which teen advocates say punish all young people for the actions of a…