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. this approach mimicked that of the housing development board (hdb) in singapore (where over 80% of the population lives in hdb-developed public housing), hence the name "cingapura" ("singapore"). these structures are often called 'superblocks'.