Camenzind #9 / Anza #1

M AKI NG OUR CIT Y

POWER

“TREAT YOUR BUILDINGS AS IF THEY WERE NEWLY BORN BABIES!” PL ANS

PROLOGUE

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Architecture, although we often don’t realize it, has always played a central role in our culture; in our homes, places of worship, offices, and shops. The 21st century – called by some, ‘the century of the cities’ – has brought much socio-economic transformation to Africa. The African continent will most probably experience immense population growth – the United Nations estimates that Africa’s population could more than triple in this century. Most of this growth will take place in cities – architecture will play an intrinsic role in this process.

There is no platform in the form of a magazine in East Africa to discuss this situation. A gap this magazine seeks to fill. A magazine that is a vehicle for open criticism and constructive exchange of opinions; a platform to launch innovative solutions; a place for the discussion of typically local phenomena, and as a source of information for decision makers.

To kick-start this magazine, a four-week workshop was setup by Camenzind Magazine from Zurich, to work with a group of young, ambitious and vibrant university students and recent graduates in how to form a future editorial team for a magazine that will fill this lack of an East-African architectural magazine. The workshop included training in text writing and editing, photography, art and production, and finally marketing and strategy to ensure the long-term existence of the magazine.

After fun (and loud) discussions, bouncing ideas back and forth, we finally came up with the magazine title ANZA, a Swahili word meaning “start”. We found this name suitable as it references both the beginning of this East African architectural magazine, and the start of a long but hopeful journey for East African cities and their peoples. Aside from this name being ideologically powerful, we all agreed that it was also typographically beautiful.

One may well ask: ‘can a diverse, multidisciplinary, student-published magazine, dealing with issues concerning people and spaces, issued biannually, compete with newer, more interactive, faster formats like blogs and online forums?’ Our reply: one can never know unless they ANZA! Ahsanteni na Karibuni

U TA N GU LIZI

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Usanifu majengo, japokua mara kwa mara tumekua hatuutambui, siku zote umekua ni sehemu ya utamaduni na maisha yetu: majumbani mwetu, sehemu za kuabudia, maofisini na madukani. Karne ya 21 imeleta mabadiliko makubwa ya kijaamii na kiuchumi katika bara la Afrika, na imekua ikiitwa karne ya majiji. Bara la Afrika litakumbana na ongezeko kubwa sana la idadi ya watu-Umoja wa mataifa umekadiria kwamba idadi ya watu barani Afrika itaweza kuongezeka hata zaidi ya mara tatu ya idadi ya sasa katika kipindi cha karne moja. Ongezeko hili litatokea sanasana katika majiji- na katika usanifu majengo.

Hivyo basi, wataalam na umma kwa ujumla wanatakiwa kujadili kwa uwazi mambo ya kiusanifu majengo na ya kimiji yanayohusiana na ukuaji wa majiji haya. Lakini hakuna ulingo katika mtindo wa jarida kwa ajili ya kujadili mambo haya. Jarida la ANZA limehaririwa Dar es salaam, jiji ambalo linakua kwa haraka zaidi barani Afrika. Jarida hili litakua ni chombo cha ukosoaji wa wazi na mabadilishano ya mawazo yanayojenga; ulingo wa kuzindua utatuzi wa matatizo; sehemu ya kujadili mambo halisi ya ndani ya nchi, na kama chanzo cha kupasha habari kwa wenye kufanya maamuzi.

Katika kuanza kutengeza Jarida hili, Jarida la Camenzind kutoka jijini Zurich, Uswisi liliandaa warsha ya wiki nne kufundisha kundi la wanafunzi wa vyuo vikuu na wale ambao wameshamaliza chuo miaka iliyopita ambao ni vijana wenye malengo na shauku ya kutengeneza bodi ya wahariri ya hapo baadae kwa ajili ya jarida ambalo litaziba pengo la kutokuwepo kwa jarida la Afrika mashariki lenye kuhusu mambo ya usanifu majengo. Warsha hiyo ilijumuisha mafunzo ya uandishi, uhariri, upigaji picha, sanaa na uzalishaji, na mwisho elimu ya soko na mikakati kuhakikisha uwepo wa muda mrefu wa jarida.

Baada ya majadiliano makali yenye kufurahisha na ya sauti ya juu, mgongano wa mawazo hapa na pale, hatimaye jina la Jarida likapatikana; ANZA, tumeona jina hili linafaa kwa sababu kwetu sisi huu ni mwanzo wa safari ya Jarida la Afrika mashariki kuhusu usanifu majengo na pia ni mwanzo wa safari ndefu ya majiji yetu ya kutumainiwa ya Afrika mashariki na watu wake. Mbali ya jina hili kuonekana kwamba lina nguvu, sisi wote tunakubali kwamba lina muonekano mzuri kiuchapishaji.

Mtu anaweza kuuliza: “ Hivi jarida ambalo limechapishwa na wanafunzi wa fani tofauti tofauti ambao hata hawana taaluma yoyote ya uandishi, ambalo linajihusisha na mambo yanayohusu watu na nafasi, linalotolewa mara mbili kwa mwaka, litaweza kushindana na tovuti mpya, ambazo zinatembelewa na watu wengi zaidi na mabaraza ya kwenye mtandao” Jibu: mtu hawezi kujua hadi watakapoANZA! Ahsanteni na Karibuni

TAHARIRi

EDITORIAL

Mwanzo…

Baada ya siku takribani ishirini za shughuli nyingi, zilizoambatana na karamu kwa nyakati Fulani kwa ajili ya kuwaaga waratibu wanaoondoka na kuwakaribisha wale wanaoingia; baada ya majadiliano yenye kufurahisha na ya sauti ya juu: tuna jivunia kuleta kwenu toleo la kwanza la jarida jipya la Afrika mashariki lenye kuhusu mambo ya usanifu majengo: ANZA Toleo hili la kwanza ni toleo ongozi ambalo lina fafanua “ni jinsi gani” na sio “inawezekanaje” kwa yale mambo ambayo tunajua yanaweza kufanyika; kupitia toleo hili la kwanza tuna matumaini ya kujifunza njia bora zaidi za kufanya mambo ambayo yanaweza kufanyika kwa kufanya jarida hili.

Kwa baadhi ya watu kutengeneza jarida kwa wiki nne, ukiacha kwamba ni jarida linahusisha maeneo ya taaluma zaidi ya moja, stadi na ufanunuzi wa kina wa mambo, inaweza kuonekana kama ni ndoto.

Sisi – tulio sukumwa na malengo yetu kutengeneza baraza jipya kuunganisha majiji yetu ya Afrika mashariki yanayobadilika – tulijua hatutakuwa na kitu kingine tunacho kitafuta bali ni mafanikio.

Katika kuendeleza falsafa yetu, toleo hili la kwanza limejaa maudhui ya namna mbali mbali na itakua hivyo pia kwa matoleo yote yatakayofuata. Kuna mchanganyiko wa makala za kimataifa na za ndani ya nchi ambazo zinajumuisha kazi za kitaalam, na mahojiano na wasanifu majengo wakongwe wawili wa Tanzania, makala fupi fupi kuhusu maono ya siku za baadae, makala za kuvutia kutoka kwa watu wa mtaani, na nyingine zilizo andikwa na timu ya wanafunzi, jarida lililojaa historia, uchanganuzi, na lenye kusimulia.Msisimko wa toleo hili utawafaa wasomaji wa aina nyingi.

Kwahiyo, bila matata zaidi, acha ANZA ya kwanza iongee yenyewe.

Asanteni sana na furahia toleo!

The Beginning…

After twenty long and busy days of tireless work, with the occasional party to bid farewell or welcome outgoing and incoming participants, after the fun, loud group debates and discussions; we are proud to present to you the first issue of a new East-African architectural magazine, ANZA. This first issue is a pilot that explores the “how” rather than the “can,” for we know that it “can” be done. We hope to learn the best ways to do what we know can be done by doing it. For some, putting together a magazine in four weeks, let alone an interdisciplinary, technical and exploratory magazine, might seem overly ambitious. Driven by our ambition to create a new forum to engage our changing East-African cities, we knew there was no option but to succeed.

In keeping with our philosophy, this issue is full of diverse content. There’s a great mix of both international and local articles, including scholarly works, interviews with two pioneering architects-of-old in Tanzania, pieces on visions for the future, articles inspired by real people on the street, and others penned by the participants. Rich with history, analysis, and narratives, the vibrancy of this issue will suit a broad range of readers.

So, without further ado, we will let ANZA ya kwanza, speak for itself.

Ahsanteni sana and enjoy the issue!

— Wahariri.

— The Editors

C O N T E N T S

2 “WE ARE CONFIDENT THE NEW PLAN WILL SUCCEED”

An Interview with Saturnine Katanga by Paul K. Bomani

9 LEARNING FROM AFRICA

By Geert Cobrink & Katharina Posselt

3 THE DIE HARD MODERNIST — Anthony Almeida

By Comfort Badaru

10 MAKING A MODEL OF DAR ES SALAAM

By Abella Mutalemwa & Comfort Mosha

18 MAURITIUS SUSTAINABLE ISLAND METROPOLIS

By Vinesh Chintaram

4 TRANSFORMATION OF DAR ES SALAAM

By Sylvia Graf

10 INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Photographs

20 DAR ES SALAAM & ITS ARCHITECTURE

By Brenda J.N. Kaira

5 OUR LIFELESS SHELLS

By Anitah Hakika

14 FROM HOME TO WORK Photographs

22 ON THE TRACES OF A PHOTOGRAPH By Łukasz Stanek

6 THE STORY OF THE BOY FROM TANGANYIKA WHO WENT TO ISRAEL TO STUDY ARCHITECTURE

By KANYWANYI Kanywanyi S.

15 WHERE SHALL WE GO FROM HERE

By Ketema Abebe

23 BABU SPEAKS

By Paul K. Bomani

8 ADDIS ABABA: EXTRACTING CHARACTER FROM VOIDS

By Dirk Hebel & Dr. Elias Yitbarek

16 RURAL URBANISM IN RWANDA

By Astrid Weisel

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WE ARE CONFIDENT THE NEW PLAN WILL SUCCEED An Interview with Saturnine Katanga: Chief Quantity Surveyor of The National Housing Corporation

By Paul K. Bomani

QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE NHC Illustration courtesy of National Housing Corporation, Tanzania

The current housing deficit in Tanzania is estimated at 3 million units, growing at a rate of 200,000 units per year. What strategic plan does the NHC have to address this high demand for housing?

We have a 5 year plan to build 15,000 new houses by the year 2015. This is the largest single project ever undertaken by the NHC. 70% of these houses will be sold, while 30% will be for rent.

Why are so many of the 15,000 houses for sale as opposed to rent?

Actually, the NHC currently has over 16,000 houses that are for rent. Therefore, the 30% [of the new houses that will be for rent] will add to our already large stock of rentable properties. Also, this is a continual process: we will surely have more projects beyond this 5 year plan.

How many of the 15,000 houses target low-income earners, and what are the challenges of low-income housing?

5,000 of the new houses target low-income earners. The biggest challenge with regards to low-income housing is that there are no mortgage facilities that will offer long term (15–20 year) loans to low-income earners. But the government is working on that, and soon we will be able to cater more to this group.

How then do you finance your projects? Have you considered joint ventures?

As a corporation we take out loans from the bank. Also, we use a pre-selling strategy where people can purchase houses or begin to make payments before the construction of a house is complete. Other than that, we do welcome public-private partnerships, and actually, there are several big joint ventures already underway.

Started in 1962, NHC had a lot of buildings built in town centers. What are NHC’s plans for projects outside cities?

We are focusing more outside the city now. We are operating more and more in regional and district centers, but we are yet to venture to the village centers. Our goal is to move forward stage by stage.

In what way is infrastructure a big challenge for the NHC? Infrastructure is one of our major problems. From roads, to water, to electricity, when we are building a new project, our particular site may not be in the authority’s immediate plan [for infrastructural improvement]. Therefore we have to provide this infrastructure – which, unfortunately, drives up the price of our houses.

How is the government helping to solve these challenges?

Well, we are run as a corporation, but we are under the governments Ministry of Land and Human Settlements

Development. Generally, however, the government is supporting us in many ways. For example, our investment projects get tax exemptions that help to lower the price of our houses.

Most of NHC’s old houses were built in the 1960’s and 70’s – what is your strategy in managing these houses?

In the past we found that maintaining these properties through renovations entailed unrecoverable costs. For that reason we sold many of these properties to their tenants.

However, many of the houses in prime areas were not sold off. The current strategy with these remaining old houses – that are under performing – is to demolish them and erect new structures with higher density.

It has been documented that there are NHC houses that are illegally sublet, sold, or used for purposes deviating from lease agreements. What strategy does the NHC have to address this?

There is now an initiative where we go to all NHC rented properties to make sure that the inhabitants are legal tenants, and that NHC buildings are being put to their rightful use. This program has partnered with Ardhi University – where we have teamed up with their experts (including a team of students) to track down these properties.

What informs the architectural design of your new buildings?

Do you hire design firms?

Actually we have our own in-house architects as well as engineers, environmental engineers, electrical engineers, plumbers, etc. In terms of architecture, we have a design catalog that we use in accord with the target market for each particular project. We also send experts abroad to see what others are doing so that we may improve our designs and technologies. Additionally, apart from sending our experts abroad, we engage private experts from within and outside the country on our new projects. The extent of this usually depends on the workload facing us, or the technology used in the design. An example of a technology that we have incorporated from this framework is the Tunnel Form Construction building technique which is new to Tanzania.

Do you think that there is need for more public discussion on housing challenges?

There must be! At the same time we need continued support from the government with infrastructure; this will lower the price of our housing. Nevertheless, the government has been very supportive of our new 5 year plan.

With this, we are confident the new plan will succeed.

Started in 1962 as the first organization after independence by first president and Father of the Nation of Tanzania: Julius Nyerere.

In 2005 parliament passed legislation that would allow NHC to operate as a business.

NHC is Currently under a 5 year plan – ending in 2015 – to build 15,000 new houses for sale and lease: 10,000 medium and high-class houses.

5,000 low-income houses.

Currently has: 2,310 buildings with 16,429 houses worth 1.045 trillion Tsh. (approximately $630 billion USD).

Yearly revenue from houses about 30 billion Tsh. (approximately $18 million USD).

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M

ore often than not the works of Anthony B. Almeida, the 90-year-old Tanzanian architect of Goan descent, are described by many (including himself) as modernistic. We wanted to know both what he really means by this statement, and his opinions on other issues currently affecting the city. However the biggest quest on our visit was to gain an understanding of what Almeidas’ personal approach to architecture is.

In pursuit of the truth, we visited the ‘Almeida residence’ located right opposite Coco Beach in Oyster Bay; the Beverly Hills of Dar es Salaam. We were led to the lounge, where we met him.

Right before getting to the lounge, an aged man about five feet tall, small-bodied with little hair on his head, was standing by the door. From the few pictures I had seen of Almeida online, it was certainly a match. With a big smile on his face he said, “Hullo, you are all very welcome.” On first impression, I must admit the energy he had was definitely not what I had imagined.

He then led us into the lounge and told us to feel free to look around as he had some of his work hanging in the room. Very confident and proud of his achievements, he started explaining more about his projects. Despite the poster in the lounge that reads “less is more”, he is a man of many words.

Unlike most, Almeida became an architect “by accident”, as he says. His father originally wanted him to study to become a civil engineer. However when he arrived he realized the university would not be opening until six months later. So, to do something in the meantime, he traveled to Bombay where one fateful day he found himself in front of the architectural school. As studies there began earlier, he signed-up. The longer he studied, the more he fell in love with the subject, and followed his architectural studies until the end (though he never told his father this).

“I don’t do what my father did, I design for the present”

According to Almeida, the features of that period inspired the language of his architecture. But by “modern” he doesn’t generally mean the architecture of the 1930’s. “Modern means ‘of the present’, and what is modern now, will be tradition after a while”.

Since opening his practice in 1950 he considers himself a “diehard modernist”. For him being modern is not a question of the appearance of a building but of the approach:

“Don’t copy what your forefathers did, but try and understand why they built the way they did.”

In doing so, you can build a building that at the same time is practical and of its time.

Besides being practical in terms of function, his buildings also “wholly rely on the climate” and are built out of what is available in the specific region (in the case of Almeidas’ house this also includes all the furniture). This helps to explain why all nineteen of his projects, built between 1955 and 2008 in Dar es Salaam, use their windows as part of a ventilation system (due to the hot climate) and are characterized by concrete (as sand is available on site).

Taking his house, the Almeida residence, as an example, the windows are louvered with circular shading devices spanning the entire window area. The windows are also placed in a sequence of large diagonal ones to small and low in height (about 500mm

THE DIE HARD MODERNIST

By Comfort Badaru Illustrations by Omari Shegilla floor to sill level) for effective cross-ventilation. Hence the room is cool through and through. There is no need for an air conditioner, which I can affirm from first-hand experience.

Regarding functionality; the house is designed in a way that, despite the low bedroom windows, privacy is maintained, as the roof over the lounge appears to be about 1000mm to 1st floor to sill level. The roof is made of hollow clay pots and this helps to prevent heat penetration through the roof to the room.

In designing for the present (in the 50’s), Almeida made great use of the local materials that were within the region or area in which he was designing.

As he described all this I couldn’t help but think to myself, “he must have paid more attention to his house because it is his house”.

As if he read my mind he let out the statement “the best architect is the one who builds his own house.” He went on to explain how he addresses the practical considerations involved in building informal architecture “if someone were to create their own shelter, they would put into consideration practical aspects like where to get the materials, the kind of climate they live in, the neighbors (ensuring that the structure doesn’t disturb the peace), the budget he has to work within and so on.”

As regards clientele, Almeida always preferred (and still does) the client to give him a detailed brief and then leave the rest to him. By the time the client has asked him to do the project, he trusts him enough; hence there is no need for interruptions or interference

“Its not what you do, but how you do”

during the process. “Then you can start doing architecture”, he explains. He related this notion to a doctor “when he is doing his work, there is no need for the patient to interrupt and ask to make changes.”

Also, unusually, he has never produced models for his clients, always just delivering buildings. Despite which, according to him, no one has ever complained about his buildings. My final question to him was “if you were given a chance to go back to the beginning of your architectural journey, what would you redo?” to which he, unsurprisingly, replied, “Nothing.”

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Transformation of Dar Es Salaam

l e s s o n s l e a r n e d f r o m u r b an r e g e n e r ati o n p r actic e s f r o m a r o un d t h e w o r l d By Sylvia Graf

Lesso ns to be learned “In 1990, UN-Habitat announced its global “Sustainable Cities Program” […]; Dar es Salaam would be the first of twelve model cities.” (Kohlert, 2007, p. 035-01) Three years later, the UN-Habitat “Sustainable Dar es Salaam Project” was formed, to coordinate and integrate development through the local administration. In 1995, “working groups were established to achieve the following goals: renew the city centre, eliminate environmental dangers, promote the economy and, in particular, improve living conditions in the unplanned settlements. Unplanned settlements house 80% of Dar es Salaam’s population and cover 75% of the space. These areas lack roads, drinking water supply, sewage systems, electricity or waste removal mechanisms.” (Kohlert, 2007, p. 035-02) With an accelerating growth and a migration towards the city, Dar es Salaam is faced with large organisational problems. What can be done?

One way of increasing the prosperity of a city is to promote the economy through local tourism. For the renewal of the city centre lessons, can be learnt from cities like Barcelona and Buenos Aires, where large parts have already been successfully redeveloped.

Concepts for the restructuring of Dar, such as the dissertation of Christine Kohlert (2005) give great impetus for the public discussion of development possibilities. And finally, the social aspects of city redevelopment need to be looked at. This relatively brief compilation of thoughts should, of course, be an appetiser to read more.

Tourism Tourism can help directly (by creating employment in tourism, public revenue) and indirectly (beach traders, tourist guides, souvenirs production, etc.) to reduce unemployment and therefore stimulate the economy. Fundamental to an effective tourist industry are appropriate investments in accommodation providing businesses and in infrastructure. What often happens is that international development investments, which are supposed to benefit the whole population of a region are used unilaterally to focus only on the development of tourism sites, with the hope that this will bring foreign currency to the area. Of course, the money of big travel businesses and tourism enterprises will be spent in places where a big profit is to be made. Hence, selective investment control can influence the development of locations both positively or negatively.

Many tourists who visit Tanzania combine a safari/trekking round trip with a seaside holiday on Zanzibar. Dar es Salaam doesn’t really feature in the catalogues of tour operators. Dar is neither a National Park, nor a beach resort. There is some conference tourism, but conference attendants rarely leave their hotels to enjoy the city. To increase the stimulus to the tourism industry Dar would need to offer more to city break tourists. Additionally it might be beneficial for increasing the number of tourists to collaborate more closely with international travel businesses.

Will urban regeneration which improves the city centre make a difference? What makes city breaks interesting, what are the tourists “usually” looking for? Exciting buildings and plazas to visit – historic sites or new iconic buildings – parks, gardens, museums that offer unique exhibitions, sightseeing bus tours, different atmospheres in different quarters, nice hotels, the cafés and restaurants that you can visit after a successful shopping trip, bars, night clubs, discos ... but also a good and well laid-out infrastructure and a certain amount of security (which also improves through proper road and public transport maps). In a city like Barcelona visitors can even combine the city break with a swimming holiday at a beach close to the city centre.

Hardly any other European metropolis has seen such an active urban development as Barcelona. Today’s Barcelona was shaped by a synthesis of historic urban development and modern urban reorganisation. You can find all that a tourist is looking for in this city: various quarters with different identities, signature buildings, museums of all kinds, open spaces which provide offers for all users – young and old, restaurants, bars, shopping areas, a promenade which leads you from the harbour to the beach and connects the city to the sea – and a lot more.

The effectiveness of Barcelona’s urban design can be related back to the active collaboration of influential people from politics, economy and the public, and to local development policies which used the 1992 Olympic Games as an impetus. Important for the success was that the Olympic Games Project didn’t start from scratch – it was embedded in a large process of long-term town planning: there existed a strategic plan for Barcelona that reached further than the Olympic Games.

City planning was understood as a process, which is more or less implemented through short-term projects. Public-PrivatePartnerships brought together very different stakeholders and enabled them to influence the implementation of the projects.

Barcelona was looking to re-position itself in the Mediterranean - it was looking for change: access to the city was improved by building a new motorway, sporting areas were improved massively, during the time of construction unemployment was reduced in the building industry, during the Games and afterwards jobs were created in the tourist industry.

Barcelona’s success was taken as a role model for the reorganisation of the Puerto Madero area in Buenos Aires. In the 1980s, after decades of neglect, “the port became the protagonist of a cultural and urban recovery”. At the time the country was going through a deep recession, which led to an administration model that was “based on the establishment of an urbanizing association that would generate its own financing”. This corporation defined development locations, promoted more attractive sites, and established deadlines for the construction of buildings in order to avoid speculative investors who would sit on empty land. A two-part bidding mechanism was created to avoid speculative manoeuvrings to delay the project and an uneven architectural quality of the proposals.

“The main innovation of the master plan was not evident in the urban proposal […], but in its vision of administration. They proposed a simple and efficient system of materializing a project that would offer a global image, but that could be broken down into operations of a controllable scale for private developers”. Today the Puerto Madero development is seen as success: the opening of plazas, parks and other public spaces brought the community together; the sites have sold for more than 240 Mio US dollars and by 2007 the area has generated more than 20,000 jobs.

In Hamburg, one of Dar es Salaam’s partner cities, such a megaproject is still under way. The development of the HafenCity (harbour area) is projected to take about 20 years. In such a long-term project “the structure must [be] […] robust enough to weather the ups and downs of the economy as well as the changing approaches and trends in architecture”. Such long construction times, however, can also lead to an increase in price. The new building for the philharmonic orchestra, which should become Hamburg’s spectacular new landmark, increased in cost from initially estimated 77 Mio to now at least half a billion euros.

Sugg e s ti o n s f o r r e d e v e l o p m e nt in Da r

There have already been some master plan suggestions for developing Dar es Salaam in recent years. The question is: what can be learned from other mega-projects? Are there new methods that can be used for large scale urban redevelopment?

One of the projects that aimed at finding new approaches for Dar’s regeneration is the dissertation of Christine Kohlert (2005). She developed a concept for the redevelopment of the city centre by using a dual planning method, which is based on analysing the historic plans of a city with the Space Syntax Method* (developed

by Bill Hillier) and on a more intense understanding of the city through field-work and discussions with local residents.

The first residences of Dar es Salaam, which were built by Sultan Majid, were facing the harbour – the German colonisers sustained Majid’s idea by creating a promenade, locating public services within this zone and extending the city land inwards from there.

Through German and English colonial times the city grew and the urban structure, which was segregated into three distinct parts (the African, Asian and European areas) from the beginning, split apart. The development of the Mnazi Mmoja Park under the British mandate introduced a spatial barrier between the African and the Indian quarter; the Europeans increasingly moved to the city’s northeast. Segregation has increased and the previously crosslinked quarters have grown further quicker (especially the African quarter) without regard for interlinking roads.

A port is a zone of trade – a space for exchange and communication. The aim is to redevelop the city, to promote the economy, and to create a centre that enables the different cultures to amalgamate, to help Dar es Salaam’s society to form its own unique identity.

As it is known that the redevelopment of the harbour zone gave an impetus for regeneration in many other cities, Christine Kohlert suggested taking the harbour, as part of Dar’s heart, as a starting point.

Kohlert proposed the following measures (2005, 2007): ► As a first step: extension of the Morogoro Road (one of Dar’s main roads) to the harbour, with provision of public transport facilities ► Sustainable and careful local development interventions ► Traffic calming in the harbour zone, increase of pedestrian activities ► Allocation of a public parking area at the harbour ► Conversion of today largely unused harbour quays into a lively, urban water front extension to the city. ► Creation of additional pedestrian links between Mnazi Mmoja Park and the town centre, activation of the park as a green public leisure zone with suitable attractions for residents and tourists ► Establishment of a cultural centre, which offers educational facilities to the local population and interested foreigners, to be open to all social classes and ethnic groups ► Urgent restoration of existing attractions, such as the national museum and the botanic garden, historic and listed buildings; integration of those attractions into any new plan and the search for the centre’s identity ► Creation of a link to the southern part of the city (Kigamboni) by building a spectacular architectural bridge and a signature building, such as a maritime museum on the site opposite to the harbour.

C o nclu s i o n s Some attention should be turned to enhancing Dar’s infrastructure: The plans for the bridge to Kigamboni are well underway; the ferry has already been upgraded. However, the city depends on three main arteries, which are permanently blocked with traffic. Also

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the creation of mixed use areas and social housing is important.

Redevelopment not always benefits everybody. In Barcelona the reorganisation measures lead to an increase in plot and house prices. Investments were only made where profit was to be foreseen. An increased establishment of service industries raised the prices even further. As the predominantly private investment didn’t offer public residencies less affluent people left the city.

The same story of gentrification could be told in other cities. If you take New York, or Berlin – as soon as a quarter gets redeveloped many of the previous inhabitants feel alienated and are ousted from the place where they have lived so far. The latest example that has probably even brought riots to a city is the Lea Valley area in London, which is being redeveloped in order to prepare for the Olympic Games next year.

R e f e r e nc e s Garay, A. (2007) On the Administration of Urban Projects: The lessons of Puerto Madero. In: CASE: Puerto Madero Waterfront. Lienur, F (editor), Harvard Design School, Prestel Verlag, Munich, Berlin, London, p. 74 – 83 Gorelik, A. (2007) The Puerto Madero Competition and Urban Ideas in Buenos Aires in the 1980s. In: CASE: Puerto Madero Waterfront. Lienur, F (editor), Harvard Design School, Prestel Verlag, Munich, Berlin, London, p. 62 – 73 Große-Wilde, C. (2008) Millionengrab Elbphilharmonie. In: ART Das Kunstmagazin – www.art-magazin.de – 27/11/2008 Found at: http://www.art-magazin.de/architektur/12958.elbphilharmonie_hamburg (11.09.2011) Hillier, B. (1996) Space is the machine. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Höing, F. (2004) Freiräume für die HafenCity Hamburg. In: Topos Nr. 48, Callway Verlag, München, Germany, p. 35 – 42 Found at: https://www.topos.de/media/Heftthema/b0162665_Franz.pdf (10.09.2011) Kohlert, C. (2005) Urbane Restrukturierung einer afrikanischen Hafenstadt. m press, Martin Meidenbauer Verlagsbuchhandlung, München, Germany Kohlert, C. (2007) Dar es Salaam: restructuring of the harbor, dual planning method. Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, Istanbul, 2007, pp. 035-01 – 035-13. Found at: http://www.spacesyntaxistanbul.itu.edu.tr/ papers%5Clongpapers%5C035%20-%20Kohlert.pdf (08.09.2011) Lüske, M. (2003) Phasen der Stadtentwicklung und Konzepte der Stadtplanung in Barcelona. Exkursionsprotokoll. Universität Mannheim, Geographisches Institut, found at: http://zgb.bw.lo-net2.de/site/BarcelonaExkursion.pdf (10.09.2011)

In a city where ethnic and financial segregation is as high as in Dar es Salaam, and where the average daily income buys less than three bottles of water urban interventions need a publicly well discussed and inclusive approach! No question: outstanding signature buildings do attract tourists, and with tourists, cash comes into town – but maybe the most important lesson to be learned is that such large redevelopment processes need a very strong and transparent organisation and a very robust financial concept. As nice as a harbour redevelopment might be, it can only be a success if most people that live in Dar will eventually benefit from it and get roads, drinking water supplies, sewage systems, electricity and waste removal mechanisms.

Ndeketela, D. (2011) Tanzania: Nation in U.S. $130 Million Bridge Plan In: East African Business Week (Kampala) 22 August 2011 Found at http://allafrica.com/stories/201108230356.html (17.09.2011) Schmidt, C. (2005) Tourismus in Entwicklungsländern. Seminararbeit. GRIN Verlag, Norderstedt, Germany Vorlaufer, K. (1996) Tourismus in Entwicklungsländern. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung durch Fremdenverkehr.

Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, Germany

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s of nd plaza streets a f o e rk o f a netw ment o th idea that the move e s th e n ons in o ti c d rm e e attra gs, dete od is bas rmines th e buildin te e th d The meth to a m t o re n fr e nt ovem therefo depende certain m itors, and a is v g g of a city, in n s in ri it v b ri d r the th itants an fo on points b ti is a c s h a ra in b tt a ’s city is the . Not the nt pattern se roads moveme e along tho th , vement ry a e contr . This mo t” th n n e o m – e v road n urral mo h build a rm “natu s! ents whic ced the te m u le attraction d l plans e o l ia tr a x ti in een spa r aided a tax has n te tw y u e S p b e m s c o n Spa it) with thod c onnectio parts of yntax Me om the c a city (or Space S f o e derives fr s th a stem” h y z s it la and p work w e in the ts o c e T a e . p d tr s s ri g ry ll a ban of a gh eve connect y” (quality ass throu n, which nnectivit es that p o n li “c are draw accest e s y e th tl g c nalyses and lon are dire a t t s a m e th w te s s fe y e s “the her lin e more 32). The arded th unt of furt 996, p. 1 lue is aw the amo a y v b (Hillier, 1 h s s the ig e h s re a (measu alue” (a on – incre gration” “global v te e n connecti th “i e lines ), e th e th f n ne) and r lines) o gh this li li e u a th ro g o th r in e s le sib on to th re cros h a colou ssed wit comparis ections a n re in n p o x e c e n li rt is e sho ads d). ility of th tion of ro egregate accessib to blue (s he integra ) T le . average d ib like ri s s g s a e n z a ily acc own pla e the urb red (eas f well-kn m o o that mak fr n me city s o ig e s s f h e at reac iction o the red d r th re fo m p d u e e tr s c th u spe f cities in ot only elps for tanding o ut also h od was n rs b th e , e d n n o m u d r n is Th bette are in Lo , or for a lgar Squ rime rate c the Trafa to y it il b 05) suscepti hlert, 20 quarter’s tries. (Ko n u o c t n e developm

OUR LIFELESS SHELLS

By Anitah S. Hakika

Like the human life itself, buildings are subject to danger when un-cared for. So you had a grand design in which its construction guarantees fifty plus years as its lifespan, how come it’s hardly five years after construction and the building has started to deteriorate? There are many factors which may cause a building to deteriorate and eventually “die”. This article will focus on the factors which are a result of the users of the building failing to meet their end of the bargain; and that is to keep the building in good condition.

Is it true that after a building has been constructed, there is nothing more to be done to the building apart from using it? The answer to this question is a capital NO! Unlike a cooked meal, the only thing remaining is for it to be eaten but buildings don’t use the same philosophy; they are more like newly born babies. The tough job does not arise from making them but rather keeping them in good condition after their birth. Their parents who are the primary custodian of the children, have the sole responsibility amongst many to feed them, clean them, cloth them, take them for check-ups regularly to keep track of their health and most importantly to safeguard the children against any harm; be it physical or psychological.

How can a newly built building resemble a newly born baby? Have you ever observed the facial reaction of a person getting into a newly built building and compare it with that of first time parents? How about the fact that buildings too need to be cleaned on the regular like babies? Cleaning will not only remove the cobwebs and dust from the floors, walls and ceiling but it will also keep these parts of your building shining and attractive to look at. Regular cleaning also helps the user to notice faults in different parts of the building and call for professional help for maintenance before the problems increase.

One might ask how a building can be dressed up. Unlike a baby, dressing up a building does not happen more often, it is only done periodically through painting and or polishing of its facades. Yes, a well painted and or polished building not only looks attractive, it also protects the building against harmful attacks from elements of the weather.

Newly born babies cannot talk, nor can buildings. So, how can one know if there is a problem with them? It’s simple, have professionals take a look at them periodically to keep track of their well-being. For babies, you take them to the professionals, but for buildings, you bring the professionals to them. Building professionals like architects, property valuers and contractors have the ability to spot and foresee a problem in any of the parts of a building and advice on the solution accordingly. Most problems when detected at an early stage do not require a building user to move out, but instead, the rectifications can be done while the user continues using the building.

It is evident that people prefer no maintenance to any maintenance after “moving into” the buildings and this on its own may contribute to the “killing” of the building.

But before one chooses to close their eyes on doing maintenance, think what would come of a newly born child when it is left unattended. Until then, treat your buildings, whether you are renting or you own them as if they were newly born babies!

6

THE STORY OF THE BOY FROM TANGANYIKA WHO WENT TO ISRAEL TO STUDY ARCHITECTURE

‘He was not sure how good an architect he would be when he returned home, but he was confident he would be the only Hebrew-speaking architect in Tanganyika’ A large percentage of people in Tanzania don’t know what Architecture is or what it is really about. People, even professionals who should have an idea about what it is, sometimes calls architects ‘architectures’, as a mark of their confusion over what an architect really is. An architect (literally ‘the master builder’) is accorded the appropriate respect in many countries but over shadowed in Tanzania.

Apart from understanding Architecture, there is often very little awareness of the people who are supposed to be an inspiration for the new generations; little awareness of the people who have contributed most to the profession of Architecture in this country. How can these pioneers of architectural practice in Tanzania be an inspiration to new generations if so little of their story is known?

WHO IS BEDA AMULI? Beda Jonathan Amuli, born on 27th May, 1938 at Machombe village, Masasi, Mtwara region in Tanzania, was the first indigenous African to be registered as an architect in 1966, he was also registered in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. He was the first to sit on the Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors and he also had the honor of being the first Chairman of this board after the 1997 act. As

By KANYWANYI Kanywanyi S. the first African in East Africa and Central Africa to start a private architectural practice 1969 in Tanzania and 1973 in Kenya, he had the honor of being the first Chairman of The Architectural Association of Tanzania of which he is still an active member.

Amuli recalls “the idea to become an architect initially came to me in the form of engineering”. When he was in standard eleven at St. Andrew’s college, Minaki, now Minaki secondary school, there was a Greek contractor who was constructing buildings for a Health Centre and medical school, his work inspired Amuli to be an engineer.

In 1957 when they were preparing for their final exams for the Cambridge School Certificate his British mathematics teacher Ms. Leeson persuaded him to study Architecture if he did well in his exams, because he was very good in Geometry. So in filling career forms his first choice was Architecture.

After doing well in his Cambridge School Certificate, he was the first and only African student to be selected from Tanganyika for Architecture at The Royal Technical college of East Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. His 1st year Architectural class at The Royal Technical college of East Africa had eight students of which five were from Tanganyika, namely Arch.

Mohamed Sumar, Joe Colaco, Jaghder Singh, Peter Rowlands and Beda Amuli himself.

All of them were sponsored by the government of Tanganyika. “It was therefore when we started our 1st year I came to know what Architecture was! Thanks to Ms. Leeson, my maths teacher at Minaki” he says.

While Beda Amuli was in his 2nd year, TANU came up with an offer for a scholarship in Architecture at Technion, Israel’s institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. Beda Amuli who was 21 years old at the time became the pioneer for the program as there was no other African with the right qualifications except him at the Royal technical college, so he won the scholarship and went to Israel with the help of TANU. There he enrolled in a full-time degree course in Architecture at the Technion in 1960. For this chance, he today thanks the late TANU Youth League Leader Joseph Nyerere, who facilitated him receiving the scholarship against the will of the colonial director of Technical Education.

His admission to the Technion was historical for the fact that it was the first time an African was enrolled at this university with over 4000 students in twelve engineering faculties, founded in 1922. He was the first African student to study in Hebrew, after studying Hebrew for eight months before starting his studies at Technion in October, 1960. Amuli would tell curious campus visitors that he was not sure how good an architect he would be when he returned home, but he was confident he would be the only Hebrew-speaker in the country. He mastered the language, in addition to his knowledge of English and his native tongue, Swahili. He was admitted to 2nd year B. Arch, a degree program lasting five years.

On completion of his third year in 1962, he was selected for a world students exchanges program to work with the Dutch Railways Architectural office in Utrecht, Holland, for the summer holidays. After finishing his fourth year he worked with Zevet International Architects, Tel Aviv, for the whole summer before going back to finish his 5th year at the Technion. Zevet had by then got the Kilimanjaro Hotel project in Dar es Salaam so they offered for him to join them after finishing his finals in June 1964. In October 1964 they posted him to Dar es Salaam and he became their resident associate in Tanzania.

BEDA

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

For Zevet, Beda Amuli was in charge of supervising the construction of the Kilimanjaro Hotel Project 1965, the Co-op centre building project 1965-1966, and the NDC Headquarters 1967, he also selected the Ngororo Wildlife Lodge site 1966, the Mikumi wildlife Lodge site 1966, and mafia Fishing Lodge site 1967. Other projects he carried out under Zevet were Seaview Flats for Tanzania Railway corporation 1966 and several private houses.

Towards the end of 1968, there was some misunderstanding among the senior partners and he feared he would be caught between them, so he decided to step aside, he submitted his resignation to all three senior partners and left Zevet in February, 1969.

After this he started his private practice as the sole proprietor. He also opened another private practice in Nairobi in Sunglora House, Tom Mboya street in 1973. When travelling became difficult as a result of the break-up of the East Africa community he had to wind down the Nairobi office in 1982.

Beda Amuli (front-right) with classmate Mohammed Sumar

7

PROJECTS

The first commission for his private practice in 1969 was the TANU YOUTH LEAGUE COMMERCIAL PROJECT. It was a ten storey complex on the site where the MAFUTA House Complex now stands (Azikiwe street). It did not take off due to funds but they were paid for the work done. “That was the opening funds for B.J. Amuli Architects” he says.

KARIAKOO MARKET PROJECT

The previous site had a building of steel structures, a military camp which was called Carrier Co – a British carriers company. When this company left the building, the building was used as a market but later it became very dilapidated. In the beginning of 70’s the city council thought of developing the market. Amuli says when he got the project he was delighted, a city engineer interviewed him and he showed him some sketches of a market from Israel and he explained to him how the dynamics of the market worked; he had done a market project as his fourth year project when he was in Israel and there he had done some research for the project: “although the market was not exactly as the market is now,, this student idea gave me a guideline to design a real African market”.

The concept he developed was based on traditional a African market. He says: “An African market is normally under trees, so we made trees from concrete”. Talking on the project brief he says the client (the city council) had no idea what they wanted, but since he had done research on markets before this he had a clear vision what should be built. For this reason he insists that city councils and other institutions should

AMULI

Kariakoo Market, 2011

have in-house architects who understand their needs and who can brief project architects, otherwise the building will not satisfy user needs.

He made sketches and they were approved by the city council at Karimjee hall. Engineers Gordon Melvin and Partners made structures for him and he told them that the structure would be a parabolic hyperbola so it must be done properly, the engineers made a model of the roof structure for him, once he was satisfied he started to design the market. The council wanted it built as quickly as possible and they offered the construction contract to Mecco without tendering it.

Other projects

Amuli’s other projects include The NBC training college now Ruaha university, this is one of his favorite projects because the whole campus has his design. Also The Institute of Finance Management (IFM), Dar es salaam, the master plan of Mzumbe university, a hall of residence for The University of Dar es salaam, CCM Regional Headquarters – Moshi, most of the regional NBC buildings as well as the Co-operative Union headquarters in different regions. He has done more than eighty projects as the sole project architecht; including churches, mosques, godowns for milling corporations, factories, warehouses, NHC buildings, CRDB buildings, Schools, Hotels, Post offices, NSSF buildings and several private houses including the Family house of President J. M. Kikwete- Bagamoyo.

Projects under B.J. Amuli Architects Partnership

Amuli’s partnership has built the NSSF Regional Headquarters Building and conference Hall, Kigoma; several offices and laboratories for water basins for The Ministry of Water and Irrigation; also The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs building; The National Institute of Accountancy lecture theatre and office-building; MOI extensions; and The Ministry of Health Welfare Building, Zanaki street, Dar es Salaam.

Beda Amuli is still practising from his office B.J. Amuli Architects which has been on the roof garden floor of the Co-op centre building, Lumumba street, Dar es Salaam, since 1969. In 2007 he decided to go into partnership with the architect N. Alute under B.J. Amuli Architects Partnership, after this he decided to take a low profile. He has eight children and six grand children (none are architects!).

Amuli expressed his displeasure with the ‘Public Procurement Act’, he says in the field of architecture, architects are supposed to be commissioned and not to tender for their projects, he says this system leads to corruption chaos in architectural practice since some architects resort to bribes to get contracts:“things started going wrong after architects and quantity surveyors were grouped with construction companies in the Building Contractors Act. However, consolation came in form of the 1997 ‘Architects and Quantity Surveyors Act’. But here again before long we were hindered by the Public Procurement Act”. Amuli thinks that stakeholders especially AAT should analyze this situation and seek a better way forward.

In the context of the 50th anniversary of independence, Amuli is not pleased with how things have been going in urban planning, architecture and the construction industry in general. He is very concerned by the issue of antiquities which have been destroyed for the construction of new buildings. He also says the city now has few sports facilities; open spaces are developed for other uses so the city lacks enough gardens and open spaces in general; he says a lot of things are mis-allocated, residential plots have been allocated in places that were not allowed and the same applies to industrial buildings.

He also talked about the issue of investors who come with their designs from abroad.

In his view local architects are not to blame for these ‘glass jungles’. He complains that sometimes these designs are not suitable for the climate; he says these foreign architects are here for a short period of time but the buildings they bring remain for a long period of Beda Amuli (left) with his room-mate, the American Daniel Litwin, 1960 time. Maintenance of these buildings will be much more expensive if foreign architects have to be brought in from abroad, whereas a local architect would be able to go by foot; he sees this as a cost which is unnecessary and hopes the AAT will address this. Amuli is optimistic however that things will improve and that local architects will come through.

Amuli also advises that buildings should employ full-time in-house engineers to take care of them, for which he cites the examples of the Kariakoo market and Kilimanjaro Hotel, both of which used to have in-house engineers.

This is the story of the boy from Tanganyika who went to Israel to study architecture against the odds. Who now knows how good an architect he has been, which he could never have known back in Israel: “I have done quite a lot in my practice” he muses.

In a continuation of Amuli’s own comments on the subject; if the system doesn’t value architects in the way that it should, how can society value them? In particular, there is a failure by the government to reach, survey and service an area before people come to reside there; and a failure to recognize the vital role of architects in this process. After these people reach these areas they just develop their plots without regulations and without architects, they don’t think about utility, they don’t realise that they need architects to reconcile for and function.

They therefore find a fundi (mason, usually un-skilled) to build it, and its done!

Amuli is right, the AAT, Ministry of works, Ministry of Lands and Human Settlements Development should collaborate and seek a better way forward, people must be made more aware of of what architecture really is, what it can do for them, and its role in society.

God bless Africa, God bless Tanzania!

An African market is normally under trees. we made trees with concrete"

Addis Ababa: extracting character from voids 8

By Dirk Hebel & Dr. Elias Yitbarek

When you move through the streets of Addis Ababa in 2011 you are flanked by iron metal sheets painted in green and yellow stripes. These sheets have become an omnipresent companion in the city and fence-off the areas of major urban renewal projects. This reminds one of the tabula rasa ideology, propogated by the modern movement at the beginning of the 20th century in Europe. Yet Addis Ababa is not a playfield of ideologies, it is merely facing the question of how to handle the large areas in the central part of the city, which are mostly single story developments and defined as “no-or low-income” residential areas, or simply: slums.

When Menelik II founded Addis Ababa in 1886, he asked the chiefs and their entourage who helped him to win victory over the Italian occupiers to settle around the emperors palace (the “Ghebi”), so he could continue to be in control of them. These small neighborhoods, called “sefer” became the driving force behind the new city’s development. At first, the “sefers” were separated by natural buffer zones like rivers, slopes or streams, but during the years, these boundaries became more and more indistinct due to the incredible speed of urban growth. Nevertheless, those first settlement have existed on the same site for the last 125 years; naturally preserved social communities, where people and families live in a very close economic and social relationship to each other. They can be seen as micro-cities in a larger urban network. These areas occupy most of the inner city, but do not correspond to the City Administration’s plans for density, sanitation, safety or public accessibility.

In 1986, a Master Plan was developed for Addis Ababa by an Ethio-Italian technical cooperation team, consisting out of 75 Italian and 45 Ethiopian professionals. The plan, which was only introduced in 1994, proposed for the first time the installation of utility systems and road networks as major planning instruments and attempted to introduce the idea of Addis Abba as a multi-centered urban conglomerate. But it focused mostly on large new residential development sites on the outskirts of Addis Ababa and the extension of road networks towards those sites, as well as connections to neighboring cities. As a result, industrial areas are developing along these axial lines at a breathtaking and uncontrolled speed. The city is eating its hinterland and is in danger of forgetting its unique history and character.

In 1998, the City Administration initiated a revision of the Master Plan, which was introduced in 2003. This amended vision is a plan that is responsive to a market-economy.

In this sense it attempted to re-organize major functional areas of the city and introduce a double ring road system for better accessibility to all parts. Various “sefer” areas were cut in half or were simply destroyed by these road projects. For the first time since 1886, social boundaries and income possibilities were affected, and many people from these areas had to leave the inner city for the outskirts in the hope of finding new possibilities.

But as well as these major road projects the 2003 Master Plan also proposed to re-develop the old “sefer” areas, now called districts or “Woredas”. 14 new major urban projects in six districts, covering more than 280 hectares of land in the core area of Addis Ababa are in planning to be redeveloped or are already under construction as a result of this urban renewal strategy. Higher densities, better living conditions, connection to urban utilities, safety and economic prosperity are the guidelines for these developments. Of course, there is no question of the necessity of such a major urban redevelopment in the inner city – 80% of which is occupied by single-story corrugated iron sheds. But the question, which needs to be addressed relates to the essential character of Addis Ababa. Is it enough to focus this master plan on a purely economic oriented market ideology? This question is discussed here by looking at three case studies that examine whether Addis Ababa at risk of becoming a city without character.

All fourteen urban projects in question use the planning instrument of a so-called Local Development Plan (LDP), also known as a detail plan. These plans can be seen as lower level strategies used for the implementation of a general master plan. In theory LDPs, among other things, try to capture the physical, social and economic aspects of a city. One of the main objectives of LDPs is to create a place that defines the life of its users: a place that is shaped by building blocks, street networks, squares, facades, etc. in other words, a place that is crafted by urban design elements which endow it with a character.

When places of urban character nurture a civilizing effect upon their citizens and when they allow citizens to identify themselves, in the words of Norberg-Schulz, with the ‘genius ioci’ of the place, then we can truly say that there exists urbanity. ‘Genius loci’, here, is understood as the context of a place linked to societal connotations. Therefore, in the broader sense, our interest is in the search for an urbanity of character, which includes: conviviality, security, social contact, aesthetics, productivity and the general wellbeing of its inhabitants.

The vision and concept underlining the preparation of LDPs should be the basis for shaping the urban fabric. The way a given area or a space is transformed into a place, therefore,

is greatly anchored in the concept and strategy of an LDP. In this article, emphasis is placed on the creation of character through the primacy of open spaces (voids) that harbor social contact. Social interaction is not a luxury but a necessity. It is not external to the collective identity of human beings, but an essential characteristic of that identity.

The “Parcel (Plot) – Block – Open space” logic The cases of Casa-inches & Lideta Following the 2003 master plan, two areas were developed with an LDP. First, Casainches, an old area in the centre of the city, not far away from Meskel square. Also the “Ghebi”, which was built under Italian occupation in the 1940s. It was bulldozed in 2006 and underwent a major transformation as a new business quarter. After the old building mass was completely removed, several office buildings, hotels and service units were developed. The usual practice when preparing local development plans, was to parcel the given area into plots of land and assign a Building Up Ratio (BUR), land use and building height. What is expected from the architect is to respect these parameters, which are very much focused on the individual building. This phenomenon can also be witnessed in the Lideta area, the second major re-development project in the city. With the help of an LDP, the ‘object’ was given priority over the ‘void’, even though traditional social spaces, roads and pathways and historical buildings formed an appropriate network already. But instead of building the LDP on those already existing qualities, the plan proposed an open-field ideology, neglecting questions of identity, geography and, with it, character. The process that results in this kind of urban fabric could be summarized as first a “Parcel”, then a “Block” then an “Open space” approach. Contrary to the reality of a city it starts from a strict two-dimensional vision ending up into a collection of three-dimensional blocks placed in fragmented, leftover open spaces.

Generally, in Addis Ababa, once the municipality permit is secured the architect is usually cut-off from the consecutive design and implementation processes and the final product and construction is largely left to the developer. Thus, at the moment, one can say that the design and construction of a building is not only ‘object- oriented’ but also ‘wallet-driven’.

Typically, this results in a jungle of buildings with left over spaces in-between. The focus is so much on the object/ “figure” that the open space/ “ground” emerge as it is developed.

More often than not, these negative left over spaces end up being no-man’s land or garbage collection spots; hence, the need to reverse the usual “Parcel – Block – Open space” design sequence into an “Open space – Block – Parcel” logic.

The “Open-space – Block – Parcel” logic The case of Basha Wolde Chilot

Basha Wolde Chilot is located in a prominent historical part of the inner-city of Addis Ababa and will be the third major redevelopment area in the city. It covers about 39 hectares of land, bordering a river to the West, the national Parliament premises to the East, Arat Kilo area to the North and an old settlement to the South. Under Menelik II the area served as the servant quarter for the palace and was characterized by its sloped area towards one of the rivers of Addis Ababa, running from the North to the South. Again, in a tabula-rasa approach, the original settlement of Basha Wolde Chilot was demolished and an LDP was prepared that could guide the new development. Even though the LDP was already agreed on by the municipality, the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) was asked to rethink the strategy, since the draw-backs of the two first re-development areas became more and more obvious during their construction.

In contrast to the LDP, which was developed previously, the urban design strategy of EiABC for the Basha Wolde Chilot project starts by carving out a network of open spaces from a perimeter- block layout. The vision is to have well defined spaces that could provide a site for social and small-scale economic interactions. The open spaces are designed in such a way that their scale creates a sense of intimacy and functional hierarchy. This is opposed to the common practice of having large-sized fragmented blocks surrounded by bigger open spaces that the inhabitants do not relate to. The concept of having a smallscale network of open spaces is inspired by the spatial fabric of the low-income areas of Addis Ababa. These are voids between housing units used both for day to day household chores and larger communal activities as well as small scale trade activities. These spaces, owing to their varying sizes and locations, accommodate everything from the smallest outdoor activities such as manual coffee grinding to the largest activities such as erecting tents for wedding or funerals. Thus, the spaces are amenable for private, semi-private/ semi-public and public activities, which are responsive to the culture. The aspiration is to create places – spaces that strongly enhance the socio-cultural and economic activities of people; places that are the combination of space, context and social interaction – a place of character that enhances a sense of belonging, that makes the residents proud to identifying themselves with it, and this identification with their surroundings boosts their own sense of identity. In addition, the block structure is surrounded by colonnades, which protect the social spaces from sun as well as rain, and follow the tradition of the neighboring Piazza area, built by the Italians in the 1940s. EiABC even proposed a new technique to regulate the façade structure of the buildings, avoiding full glassed facades, which destroy the social character of the neighborhood and increase the energy consumption of the buildings.

This is a call to look at neighborhoods, not as a mere collection of building blocks as if people were just numbers, but also as places that satisfy the social, cultural and psychological needs of their population. This concept is anchored in the belief that social interaction and the need to bond with fellow dwellers are inherent characteristics of human beings.

9 The molecules of minerals, plants, animals and human beings bond with each other to make the larger bodies exist for what they are. It is natural law that this cohesion and interaction bring life, while separation and disintegration lead to death. Similarly, on a larger scale, dwellers need to bond with their fellow neighbors in order to enjoy a fulfilling life. Consequently, an approach that promotes the supremacy of open spaces/voids over blocks/objects creates places that are conducive to human interaction.

Therefore, in the Basha Wolde Chilot project the open spaces are defined by perimeter blocks. The concept of a perimeter-block avoids the fragmentation of buildings both horizontally and vertically through the use of contiguous layout and uniform height, these blocks are then parceled into plots. The above process is encapsulated in the logic of “Open space – Block – Parcel”,turning the previous model of “Parcel – Block – Open space” upside-down; reversing the previous process of making LDPs into a process of making urban designs.

L e a r ning from A f r ica

By Geert Cobrink & Katharina Posselt A city is shaped by numerous factors. It’s a combination of a physical location with economical, demographic and political conditions, personal vision, zeitgeist etc. A formula with a great number of variables. The complexity of this formula is the reason why no city is really comparable another and why people have always entertained fantasies about building the ‘perfect city’. But which factors are important for the creation of the perfect city?

Favela

The differences in the appearances of cities are absolutely enormous. In this article we would like to emphasize one question which we think is of great importance for the future of urbanism: how does a city grow? Is it planned top down by the government (formal city), or is it grown from the bottom up by letting people build their own houses (informal city)? In what ways are cities different and , what can they learn from each other?

Top Down (f o r m al u r b ani s m )

Formal urbanism is found primarily in the Western world. An excellent example is the Netherlands where top down city planning has a long history; while cities in other countries grew in an informal way, sometimes even up to the 20th century.

Before the 20th century urbanists were principally occupied with the design of public spaces.

At the beginning of the 20th century things changed, as the population of the cities increased rapidly. New building

legislations were introduced to provide minimum quality for the living spaces being built. This resulted in new housing demands which became guiding principles for city planners.

After the second world war this became even more important when demolished buildings needed to be replaced and the baby boomers urgently needed living space. That is when the scale of new housing projects drastically increased and urbanism became principally about building houses.

always immediately filled in with an informal power structure.

People form committees to decide over building extensions and matters of public interest. These power structures are needed to strike a good balance between personal and public interest in the (over)crowded informal cities. Otherwise internal wars and conflicts between inhabitants become a threat to all inhabitants and the informal economy, which outnumbers the formal economy in many of these cities.

This new way of urbanism was meant to replace (sometimes literally) the organically grown historical city with all its problems. New cities were build top down with the intention of providing affordable housing and equal living conditions for everybody. This formal approach, combined with modern building solutions, resulted in rational, industrialized and generic cities all over the world. New (satellite) cities and suburban extensions were build with diverse results. Most of the targets set by the government where reached: large scale housing projects with a lot of affordable space, public greens, light and air. Still, the current public and professional opinion on these formal cities is often negative. These neighborhoods are said to be a concentration of cheap houses, placed in large scale, uniform districts. The industrially produced buildings are too big and too rigid and therefore not capable of necessary changes.

They have lost their human scale and , as a result, people feel unsafe and even dehumanised.

These are the major problems the informal cities face in developing countries: • Lack of a top down planned infrastructure of roads, water supply, electricity and sewage systems.

• Lack of secure living conditions. People will not invest in the upgrading of their houses if they are not sure they can stay there for a longer period.

B o tt o m U p (in f o r m al u r b ani s m ) Today the majority of city growth takes place outside the Western world and faces other problems. Economical and demographic tendencies make cities in Africa, South-America and Asia grow much faster than cities in the West. In these developing countries, there is another type of urbanism: the bottom up (informal) variant. Informal urbanism stands for individuals or groups of individuals who built their own house, without planning, necessary infrastructure or agreement of landowners and government.

The large scale informal urbanism is a combination of the following factors: • the attraction of the city (for earning money, work, means of existence) • a dysfunctional housing market (too few and too expensive) • availability of land to build on and • a dysfunctional government (no formal planning institute / no anti squat surveillance)

The consequences of these problems – unhygienic and un-secure living conditions combined with a high rate of criminality – are reflected in the statistical life expectancy in these cities.

The life expectancy (at birth) in informal cities is way below that of either their own rural communities or Western formal cities. These figures tell us big steps have to be made to give the ever growing amount of slum dwellers a better perspective.

W h at can b e l e a r nt f r o m o n e an o t h e r ?

The formal and the informal urbanistic approaches both have their pros and cons. Looking at the enormous difference in life expectancy it is clear that formal Western urbanism creates a higher standard of living than informal urbanism. Nevertheless, both kinds of urbanism have their problems and their qualities.

It is striking to see that the qualities seen in informal cities can solve the problems in the formal ones and vice versa. Is the ideal city somewhere between both types of urbanism?

Our answer is yes. The ideal city can be reached by formalizing the informal city and by de-formalizing the formal city. Both paths lead to the ideal city, but there is a big difference in time and difficulty.

We will start with the hardest way to reach the ideal city: the formalization of the informal city. In this scenario problems are numerous and hard to solve and the explosive The above listed factors are growth of informal cities makes universal. Not only are informal things even more difficult. The settlements all over the world the Western world has also seen the result of similar factors, but they great problems occurring in the also face similar problems. The Life expectancy at birth for the world and development groups, 1950 informal cities. That is why the UN similarity in factors is striking, as is to 2050. Source: United Nations Population Division (2001), World made the decrease of the amount Populations Prospects 2000, Figure II.I the way inhabitants cope with them. of slum dwellers a millennium goal.

The inventiveness of the inhabitants to get access to basic This target will probably never be met because of a lack of infrastructure is a world wide (probably evolutionary) principle. financial resources. We think the problems of the informal If not available in the beginning, people will build their houses cities can be solved by formalizing the cities. Careful planning, anyway and will try to get connected to basic infrastructure basic infrastructure and secured rights for the inhabitants are later on. vital for slum upgrading, but this will probably only happen on The informal dwellers often start by squatting a piece of availa small scale. able land on wich a temporarily hut is built. As time goes by the The best solution would be to provide these conditions already hut becomes larger, better built, higher, with more floors and before the houses are built. connected to basic infrastructure. Every time money is available the house is customized a bit more to the demands of the The other way to reach the ideal city is to de-formalize the inhabitants. This makes housing in informal cities adjustable formal city. Western cities face a different kind of problem. over time. This way every house becomes a unique reflection The inhabitants feel a kind of remoteness towards the city of the demands of its inhabitants, within financial and technical they live in, but which they are not able to change, remodel or possibilities. personalize. Within their financial range, they can choose out of a catalogues of cities, neighborhoods or houses they want The existence of slums and informal cities is often the result of to live in. Especially in the Dutch situation city extensions are a failing government. They are not capable of providing their ordered by the government and designed, planned, developed citizens with suitable living conditions, so people squat the land and built by (semi) private parties. These parties are often also and built their own houses. Informal cities and neighborhoods responsible for selling or renting out the buildings. Besides are often places where the government has no authority. There the interests of the future inhabitants of the houses, other is no law enforcement, no formal economy and no supervision interests start to play an important role when government on urban structures. The absence of governmental power is and (semi) private parties participated in large scale house

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For these problems mentioned above, de-formalization could be the answer to reach an ideal city. That is exactly what is happening nowadays in the Western world. Within existing infrastructures land becomes available for small scale private developments. These unique houses, built by their inhabitants, are not only a reflection of the demands and the personal taste of the owners, but also a piece of the new city. This way people are becoming more involved in the appearance of their city and will start to feel more responsible for it. Private initiatives for the public space and more communication between the inhabitants can lead to a positive result.

We say: learn from informal cities, let people design and build their own houses; ones that correspond with their needs and desires. Then houses will be built which are adaptable and capable of growing with the demands of the owners. People deserve to live in their dream house. With some aesthetic and technical support from architects for designing and building their houses people will be able to build their own city. Then urbanists can go back to doing what they used to do: designing the form and the contra-form of the city.

MAKING A MODEL OF DAR ES SALAAM

By Abella Mutalemwa & Comfort Mosha As you walk along the street of a city, you get an experience. Each road, street, building, place has its own character that makes it unique and full of activities.

As the thought crosses our minds we wonder ‘what if we could see the whole city?’ Get a view of the city... appreciating it more and in its’ splendor and uniqueness.

The beautiful buildings, old and new, glass and block-work, residential and commercial, all put together, and assembled as buildings. The trees, releasing a lovely breeze. Then it came to us! The city would be there, almost tangible... a MODEL! A model is ‘a three dimensional representation of a proposed or already built structure typically on a smaller scale than the original one.’

Thinking back through the years, Dar es Salaam has been growing and growing in terms of infrastructure and buildings. In all this growth, there has never been a ‘model’of Dar es Salaam portraying a 3-D physical representation of the city.

Dar es Salaam has so many special buildings and sites to see, some being historical, others contemporary, some old, others new.

Imagine a copy or representation of all these historical and contemporary buildings, blended with spectacular bright colours displaying green trees, beautiful sandy beaches, exquisite hotels that are a ‘must-stay at’, giving you the beautiful city of Dar es Salaam. It would surely be a site to see.

Looking at other countries, incredible models of their cities have been made over the years, an example could be Shanghai, China. Their model is contemporary, eye-candy, artistic, and most especially it draws you in, to the extent you can actually see and picture yourself in Shanghai, exploring the many places.

A model of Dar es Salaam would be an interesting sight to so many people like students, planners, engineers, contractors and tourists, just to mention a few, who would learn so much from it. It could also attract investors within and outside the country, to come to Dar es Salaam, which in the long-run will be quite beneficial to many parties of people.

A model is an identity of the city, because its never going to look similar or even the same as another city’s model. It will remain unique and different in terms of its features; natural or man-made, hence one should be made.

Finally, we are calling out to everyone who shares the same views as us, join us in making an identity of our beautiful city of Dar es Salaam. Let this model be a reminder of everything our city once was, is, and going to be in the future for our children, grand children and great-grand children to witness in their times.

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building. Buildings have to be built quick and cheap to be cost effective.

Secondly houses need to be easily sold on, therefore are not to specifically designed: they are ‘one size fits all’ rather than ‘custom fit’; and pursue mass production over quality. This principle existent since the second world war, has resulted in neighborhoods designed for quantity and mediocrity. Large scale neighborhoods without identity have been built where people struggle to feel at home and everybody tries to find their scale, place and identity. Inhabitants are seen as customers and have no possibility of customizing and personalizing their environment.

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from page 9...

Most citizens of Dar es Salaam live in informal settlements. These areas of the city grow fast and without the control of the authorities. They are almost never shown on photographs. We were look­ ing for the fascinating, beautiful and touching, but also the typical moments of informal settlements, showing houses that their inhabitants erect and keep with pride.

Photos by Anitah Hakika, Omari Shegilla, Emanuel Gamassa and Scholastica Nanyaro

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Informal Settlements

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Fro m H o me To Work

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Photos by Anitah Hakika, Omari Shegilla, Emanuel Gamassa and Scholastica Nanyaro

Where shall we go From Here?

Urban Sprawl and Food Security

By Ketema Abebe East Africa is one of the most food insecure regions of the world. The current famines, particularly in the Horn region, are threatening tens of millions of lives and have developed into an enormous challenge with global relevance. This crisis is sometimes reported to have emerged from a population growth that accelerates food demand. However, the relationship between population growth and food security is much more complex. Food security is also connected to climate, the environment, political and social factors.

This can clearly be observed at the edge of the city, which is, in times of rapid urbanization, in constant motion. At the edge, people from all walks of life that migrate to the city compete with the indigenous fringe population for scarce resources. Agricultural fringeland and urban sprawl also compete heavily.

This situation has now reached boiling point, and directly affects food security. This presents a significant challenge to social scientists and policy makers rethink the approaches to the problem.

What makes the matter even more urgent is the fact that development theory has not yet found a definite way to understand African urbanization. Urbanization was traditionally equated with modernization and growth, but this theory is clearly contradicted by the current development in the African cities.

As for urban managers and politicians, the current urban food security situation seems to be invisible to them. Policymakers are usually preoccupied by higher priority issues concerning urban unemployment, housing, slums, overcrowding, transport and infrastructures, though these serious social problems are caused by misguided urbanization.

The Ethiopian Scenario

Addis Ababa, which has rapidly transformed from a quite small and clustered household settlement into an attractive African metropolitan area with a population of 3 million residents, has grabbed and continues to grab enormous fringe land in all directions. Periphery areas like Sendafa, Holleta, Sululta and Dukem formerly produced dairy products, supplying the residents of Addis Ababa through the Shola Milk Enterprise. The Addis Ababa fringe is also endowed with considerable rich black soil for crop production that has been supporting both fringe and urban dwellers. Enormous parts of these farmlands are now converted into urban land use including warehouses, stores, factories, institutional buildings and infrastructure.

Thus, the fringe areas have now ceased to be a source of livelihood subsistence, without providing means of alternative livelihood. The urban invasion and phenomena connected to it are leading toward a greater inequality of resource and income access.

Ethiopia with its urban population of 16 % (which equates to 12.6 million) is said to be one of the least urbanized yet most rapidly urbanizing nations in subsaharan Africa. According to the Ethiopian Ministry of work, the urban population is increasing by 4.3% per year and is projected to grow to a further 17.8 million by 2015 and 22 million by 2020. Hence, about 40% of the nation’s urban dwellers are living below the poverty line.

The current urban population of Ethiopia is distributed across 605 towns. The population of these towns ranges from 591 to 3 million residents. These small towns and cities are competing for land resources with their immediate fringes, and it’s a competition for survival. Urban dwellers require land for multiple uses such as residential, institutional infrastructures, quarry, construction, urban agriculture and also for urban recreation, fuel wood and timber purposes.

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Privatization and the poorest segment of society

The land constitution of Ethiopia excludes rights of possession in terms of land transfer, succession, collateral and mortgaging. The available rights are those user rights that ensure individual use but not individual possession. Over the past three and half decades, the mantra for land was “… All rural lands shall be the collective property of Ethiopian people and no person or business organization shall hold rural lands in private ownership”. This was replicated and re-constituted by the subsequent government that affirmed the state ownership of land. Hence, groups and communities of the fringe land users remain as “Tenant of the state”. Thus, urban sprawl into the fringes is extended through sanction of the state. Similar principles are applicable to the urban context, where individuals or groups are only allowed to sell built property and not the land that it stands on.

In this context, the promotion of privatization and economic liberalization on one hand, and state withdrawal from major social welfare programs on the other, carry the risk of depriving large portions of the population of their livelihood. As land is often targeted for privatization, the current rate of urbanization has a strong impact on the devastation of native vegetation in these areas by denuding the entitlement status of the indigenous population. The poorest segment of society is deprived from accessing their means of life. This is especially the case as compensation for the grabbed land is not properly arranged within the framework of participation in which a large proportion of the leasing value goes to the state. The “tenant of the state” only receives a small proportion from the leased land which ultimately fails to meet the needs of life sustenance. The poorest part of the society, when displaced from their land, ask themselves: “Where shall we go from here?”

Conclusion: Food insecurity as a result of urban sprawl

For globalization and the global economy, the market is at the forefront, rather than social welfare provisions. Social welfare is social support of the weaker and more downtrodden members of a society.

The disparity in lifestyle between urban and rural, between rich and poor, between capitalist and workers have become a central phenomenon of the new millennium.

Food is the largest share of household expenditure in both rural and urban Ethiopia and East Africa.

Increasing food prices most probably lead to economic, political and social turmoil. The current trend in food prices is alarming, and has an unpredictable future. Some reports argue that the hike in food price it the result of three issues: population growth, household diet improvement and income growth.

I want to argue strongly that these are not the principal cases. Rather, food insecurity and food hikes have emanated from the consequences of urban sprawling and the grabbing of land that could yield considerable food. Therefore, urban sprawl is a major cause for the loss of productive crop land; livestock wealth and vegetative land cover which immensely exacerbate both environmental and grazing conditions. Also, sprawling deprives traditional rural communities of employment and exacerbates rural–urban migration. Furthermore, absence of state policy in rejuvenating the displaced with rational compensation remains the principal concern. Social welfare programs and sustainable state polices have not yet considered the issue of re-establishing misplaced livelihoods.

Acknowledgement: My sincere thanks go to Prof. Dirk Hebel who encouraged me to contribute scholarly articles to such competing international journals.

References Berkes, F. (Editor), Common Property Resources: Ecology and community based Sustainable Development: Behaven, London 1988 Bromely, D.W., Economic interest and Institutions. Black well, Oxford 1989 CSA, Ethiopian Statistical Abstract, 2011 Fasil and Gerard, the City and its Architectural Heritage, Shama PLC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2007 IFAD, CPR and the Rural Poor in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1995 Gould, J and K. William (Editors), A Dictionary of Social Sciences, The Free Press, New York, 1964 Gordon Marshal (Editor), Oxford Dictionary of Socilogy, Indian Edition, Oxford University, Press Inc. New York 2005 ILRI, Impact of Land Distribution on Land management and Productivity, 2002 In the Ethiopian Highlands: Working paper No.43, ILRI, Ethiopian Statistical Abstract Nairobi, Kenya.

Jasper Stage, Jorn Stage and G. Mcgranashan, Is Urbaniztion Contributing to higher food prices?, 2010 Journal of Environment and Urbanization, Vol.22, p. 199-215 Lipton, M, Why Poor People Stay Poor? Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, USA 1977 Ministry of Works and Urban Development, Plan for Accelerated and sustained Development to end poverty: Urban Development & Constructio Industry Component of PASDEP, Final unpublished draft. Addis Ababa 2006 Teketel Abebe, Kebede,”Tenant of the State”, The Limitation of Revolutionary Agrarian Transformation in Ethiopia 1974-1991, Department of Sociology, Lund University, Sweden 1998 Sen, Amartya, Poverty and Famine: an Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Oxford University Press, Delhi 1981 World Bank, Accelerated development in Sub-Saharan Africa, World Bank, Washigton DC, USA 1981

Globalization, policy and urban sprawl The Ethiopian urbanization policy has not yet taken hold of the rapid, sprawling impact of livelihood on fringe communities. Several constitutions and guidelines fail to recognize the alarming impact of urban sprawling on the livelihood and food security of the fringes. Thus, the fundamental issues that affect the livelihoods of the community have to be explained. First, globalization remains the principal deriving force that aids sprawling into potential food production areas. Second, privatization of extensive land is sanctioned by globalization through market intensification mechanisms and encourages real estate enterprises to aquire land through lease rights. Thus, privatization carries the risk of depriving large portion of the population of their livelihood without delivering the expected promises.

When fringe lands used for urban development, the traditional resource user’s possibility to utilise it for food production is weakened. The neoliberal model of development underestimates the risks and the consequences of subordination, and often focuses solely on profit maximization. Global liberalization supports the control of economic and political activities through market competition. The global paradigm thus pauperizes the community of rural land users and results in labor bondage. Urban sprawling should be discussed as a multi dimensional issue that includes threats to livestock, vegetative land cover, medicinal plants, poultry products and environmental deterioration in general.

The other point worthy of note is the entitlement denudation that takes place in the process of land grabbing and sprawl. Here it is necessary to explain the concept of entitlement and how it works in livelihood maintenance. Amartya Sen, the Indian noble prize winner, defined entitlement in relation to ownership that connects one set of ownership to another through certain rules of legitimacy.

According to the Bible, we can borrow rich examples from the Egyptian Famines who lived around 1745 BC, and who, over seven consecutive years demonstrate how the Egyptian community survived using three entitlement mechanisms. The first entitlement consisted in the households purchasing food from the Pharaoh with whatever money they had. The second entitlement was for exchanging livestock with crops. The third entitlement was the mortgaging of land for exchange of food crops.

The rural fringe community of Ethiopia has also a number of entitlements in different forms. Some people have money, cattle and goods. In the case of Ethiopia, land is not an entitlement because it is the property of the state that cannot be mortgaged. Therefore, when people are evicted from their land they are not only loosing the land but they also loose livestock wealth which is accounted to a larger portion of entitlement.

In this context, the absence of state social welfare programs that could support the displaced community is a principal setback in Ethiopia. The state does not take responsibility for welfare provisions via social security systems offering services and benefits to meet the basic needs of people that have been affected by the policies of central or local government.

rural urbanism in RWANDA

By Astrid Weisel The growth of cities and mega-cities, followed by the emergence of slums with their negative effects on ecology, society, health and infrastructure, is a much discussed phenomenon. Though, the rural population worldwide has also been on the rise; it has increased from 1.5 billion to around 3 billion in absolute figures, even though the percentage of population has reduced from 80 per cent in 1950 to 50 per cent today. To avoid uncontrolled urbanization it is crucial to think about new sustainable planning strategies for rural areas.

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Local Situation Rwanda

Rwanda, roughly the same size as Hawaii, is not only one of the smallest countries in Africa, but also has the highest population density on the continent - one which can roughly be compared with Holland (on average 350-400 inhabitants/ square kilometre). A large part of the population lives on subsistence farming, i.e. they supply themselves with food from their own piece of land.

Therefore, dispersed settlements are characteristic of the the cultural landscape in large parts of the country. The “land of a thousand hills” with its small-scale agricultural use resembles a large garden with a very special charm. The capital Kigali is supposed to develop into a service and communication location for the whole of central Africa and is one of the “hypergrowth” cities (annual growth rate of approximately nine per cent). However, the rural population will also continue to increase. Currently there is a predicted population increase of 2,78 per cent per annum; a density of approximately 1000 inhabitants/ square metre will be reached in 2050, comparable with the current density of Bangladesh.

Due to this increase the resources in Rwanda such as land, water and energy, are extremely limited.

For this reason, the project in Rwanda should show that,

1. it is essential to read and understand the existing settlement structures and elements and to know about the respective background (local context);

2. the existing vernacular architecture and urban structure provide local potential for future densified development, especially in an increasingly globalized world;

3. the interacting effects of existing settlement structure with new technologies (water and

research project: “urban & settlement planning Nyanza – Rwanda” University-cooperation & interdisciplinary research The master plan for the district Nyanza, by a team from Technische Universität München (TUM), Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and the local community, is the first applied research project resulting from the cooperation between TUM and KIST that is involved in research as well as in science. In order to create a holistic and forward-looking approach, it has been a priority for this project to work with an interdisciplinary team to account for the interactions between settlement and landscape development, land-management and infrastructure supply. In January 2009, KIST set up a department for architecture and urbanism to promote the academic education of local experts in the long run. Previous to this Rwanda did not have an architecture and urban development course, so this represents the most sustainable kind of development cooperation.

REGION characteristics The district of Nyanza is located approximately 70 km south of Kigali. Since administrative reform in 2006 Nyanza has been the capital of the new South Province. Nyanza used to be the King´s residence, now an art and history museum is situated there. Due to its growth in importance, the municipality is faced with numerous tasks in urban planning; it needs new space for administration as well as for commerce and housing. The landscape around Nyanza is characterised by rolling gentle hills and wide, plateau-like elevations. While the hill ridges are populated, the swampy, very fertile valleys are mostly free from buildings and are cultivated co-operatively. Houses, farmyards and plots form the basic units for various settlement models whose structures range from: the prevalent dispersed settlements; one-street villages; villages built around a common; agglomerations with commercial use and villages with a central market area.

energy supply) based on regenerative resources play an important role.

NYANZA future strategies and spatial

Furthermore a general question is raised within this theme: Is the pre-modern agricultural society, that still exists in the rural areas of Rwanda and shaped a scattered settlement pattern with a high rate of subsistence farming able to overleap the industrial era and thus the modern city and develop directly into a post-modern service and knowledge-based society?

Urbanisation of landscape as opposing model to the traditional city

Considering the global consumption of resources the ecological footprint of Rwanda is still very low, whereas the apparent efficiency of industrial countries results in a large ecological footprint.

Compact city systems are generally considered to be space saving and therefore sustainable.

Though this assumption fails to take into consideration which territories are required to supply the city, e.g. with food and to dispose of the waste.

In contrast, the rural areas with their scattered settlements could be used for urban concentration and could be valorised on the basis of local closed-loop models for the production of food and the securing and generation of other primary factors such as ground, water and energy. It is conceivable that by use of innovative communication technologies and an area-wide upgrading of ITC-infrastructure, the existing principles of urbanisation will take a totally different course from the industrial nations` history and that a new type of settlement will be created. This is particularly the case where cities are increasingly disintegrating and rural areas are becoming more and more urban.

INFRASTRUCTURAL CONCEPTS for water and energy as spatial elements

The graphic shows that different infra-structural concepts – centrally or de-centrally organized – can influence the further development of settlements.

► The implementation of centrally organized grids for electricity, gas and water benefits areas of higher agglomeration like cities or towns. This implies that migration of people from the rural to the urban areas increases, resulting in the emergence of slums. ► Decentral systems allow an urbanisation of existing settlement structures, which will, depending on the chosen service system, cause new patterns of urbanisation. ► Intelligent synergies of high-tech and low-tech show new possibilities for infrastructure provision independent from fossil fuels and at the same time achieve economic independence and self-reliance in order to create new jobs. ► It is quite possible that development steps completed in industrialized nations can be left out in emerging countries thanks to technological innovation (leapfrogging).

Thus, the “ecological footprint” of these countries can remain small in the future and give an example for industrial nations.

‘rural’ – Rwabicuma

concepts

The project started with an analysis in order to identify local characteristics and specific qualities followed by looking at two exemplary areas.

The administrative structure, which splits the district into 10 sectors, again sub-divided into 5-6 cells, supports a decentralised distribution of daily needs. Near to the relevant administrative buildings on cell or sector level, there are – and also shall be in the future - different public amenities, like smaller markets, health centres, primary schools, kinder-gardens. It is an urbanistic chance to form a spatial-architectural concept for these sub-centres.

Landscape protection zones Wetlands in valleys are able to prevent erosion and flooding and are important areas for assuring water quality. Hence, these wetlands should be used for a highly diverse agricultural production in some areas. In other areas they should be restored in order to improve their crucial role in the ecosystem (as carbon sinks). Ecological buffer zones, in the riparian zone along the streams and brooks, as well as reforestation zones will be defined and then realised. The visual orientation between settlement and landscape will be kept by spatial interruptions within the populated areas– especially on the anticlines – which provide visual axes towards the landscape.

Decentralised models (with local networks) for water and energy supply will be provided in the rural areas; these are based on the, already common, practices of rainwater collection in cisterns and also the use of biogas.

Construction manuals have been compiled with a simple pictorial guide on how to build a cistern, to create aquifer systems from roofs that feed a shared cistern i.e. in the center of a settlement cluster. Great importance was paid to the local accessibility of cheap available materials such as bamboo and quarry stone.

Using an example of biogas production (from dejection and biomass) for cooking and lighting, it was shown that the existing settlement structure demands different system sizes, thus three different spatial densification strategies have been defined.

1

In the existing villages of a certain density, a biogas plant will be built on community level, using the waste produced by 30 households, as well as dung from a cooperative cow barn.

2

Dispersed rural areas with a certain density will be concentrated in a way that five to six households share one digester.

3

In rural areas with difficult topography and poor conditions for infrastructure implementation, no further densification will take place, here each household is encouraged to get one yz plant that will be fed by the waste of five people in addition to the plant waste or dung of one cow. For

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this to work an agricultural parcel of at from page 17... least 1.2 hectares is needed.

These strategies are, for the most part, transferable to other settlements throughout the region The centre of Nyanza is expected to develop into an urban centre that is an important, identity creating, secondary city in the south of the country that will reduce the urbanisation pressure on Kigali.

Its topography will be the primary model, with areas displaying a specific spatial pattern: a dense building structure and public spaces on the hilltops, residential areas with medium density on the slopes and more rurally influenced agriculture and living areas on the lower slopes. The concept includes a specification of areas with a functional emphasis, but they remain principally mixed used areas. The special characteristic of hilltops, usually occupied by public buildings will be strengthened by recommendations for positioning of further public buildings there, such as museums. The museums also play an important role for the identity of Nyanza and for the generation of job opportunities and are expected to promote sustainable development for tourism.

The existing central energy and water supply will be extended by relatively conventional means, and added to with a biological wastewater treatment in a central sewage plant. The planning requirement was to adjust the site of the plant and the grid of the pipes to the topography in order to minimize the need of pumps and thus avoid energy consumption. The remaining biosolids/ sewage sludge can be used as fertilizer or for power generation.

Based on the extended central infrastructure, new settlement zones with high and medium density can be connected and existing settlements can be upgraded and densified.

‘urban’ - town centre Nyanza

network city as vision for Nyanza

Based on the endogenous values and the character of the traditional dispersed settlement, we could see the appearance of something new within the urban cultural landscape – the emergence of landscape-cities. They would be characterized by a polycentric urban structure with different centres and subcentres that are linked with each other (the network city) and topographically linked with a small-scale pattern of agricultural and settlement areas.

There would be centralised and decentralised systems for infrastructure provision, based on regenerative energies and resources. Infrastructure and settlement systems are developed as transformable structures that could be modified step-by-step to incorporate more high-tech technologies.

Aspects such as ecological farming, organic food, finishing and direct marketing will contribute to strengthening the regional economy and to creating local value chains that make the region largely self-sufficient; a phenomenon which is gaining importance worldwide.

This new urbanisation model is innovative regarding its conservation of resources; it will also be able to cope with the forecast increase in population expected in rural areas. In addition it could be a means of maintaining most of the population`s livelihood. In this context, architecture and building culture can contribute directly to strengthening regional identity and thus form the basis for development.

The Future of East African Cities

Mauritius Sustainable Island Metropolis

By Vinesh Chintaram

Preamble

According to the UN Scheme of Geographic Regions, East Africa (EA) consists of 19 territories, including some western islands of the Indian Ocean. The region is renowned for its safari, its stunning landscape and for its unique wildlife and biodiversity. It is also believed that the “homo sapiens” originated from this region of Africa, marking the beginning of the time immemorial “African civilization” moving towards the outer world. Moreover, this part of Africa played a vital role to connecting Europe and Asia during the early trades.

The territories faced fierce European Imperialism between the 19th and the 20th centuries. All of them became part of the European colonial empire. And one of the most acclaimed territories was the small island Mauritius, due to its strategic position in the Indian Ocean on trade routes dating back to the 16th century.

Mauritius lies some 900 km off the east coast of Madagascar and was formed by volcanic activities some 10 million years ago. Today, the crater forms a central plateau surrounded by mountains. This geological/geographical feature has greatly influenced the development of the islands during the colonial periods and the drastic change it has witnessed since its independence.

The tiny territory of Mauritius gained its independence from Great Britain in 1968. Prior to the colonization process started by the Dutch in the 16th century, it was uninhabited, a green paradise. One of the most famous descriptions of Mauritius was made by the author Mark Twain in 1896 : “you gather the idea that Mauritius was made first and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius”.

From an agriculture-based economy, Mauritius built itself a reputation by diversifying its economy towards textile, tourism, business and ICT. It is very often mentioned as an economic reference in Africa. It is also well respected for its goodgovernance and political stability amongst others.

From a bird view, the island still appears very green. Indeed, 75% of its surface area is covered by green spaces. This comprises of agricultural lands (mostly sugarcane). The forests occupies a small area, and only 2% of the endemic forest is still left.

The built up area is concentrated in the capital Port-Louis and on the central plateau (major towns), where more than 50% of Mauritius’ 1.3 million inhabitants live. With 629.5 inhabitants / km² (2009 estimate), Mauritius has the highest population density of Africa, though the birth rate remains quite low.

Like several African countries, the island has witnessed a continuous population rise, along with a huge community of expatriates. This has lead to a greater demand for housing and together with the increase of economic activities, the requirement for new buildings and infrastructure have lead the construction industry to become one of the most active sectors in the country.

Moreover, taking into account the climatic change that already has its impacts locally, it must be noted that, in the quest to develop its less than 2000 km² of land, Mauritius will not stand long as being the “Star & Key” of the Indian Ocean unless a sustainable development approach is undertaken.

Recently, decision makers together with the civil society, multidisciplinary professionals and other stakeholders were brought around the same table to discuss the future development of the island in order to implement the concept of sustainability under the banner “Maurice Ile Durable” (MID). The current Prime Minister, Dr. Navin Ramgoolam, initiated the MID in 2008. He keeps reiterating the fact that the MID is a national project where each and every one must act responsibly. The MID is a project which is not only orientated towards energy savings but is also a new social and environmental integrated concept that keeps improving the quality of life of Mauritians, along with economic growth.

Moreover, Mauritius also forms part of the Small Islands Development States (SIDS) network that aims at enforcing sustainable development in the 52 member island states.

These territories are highly vunerable to global warming due to their low-lying coastal land. Tourism industries like the one in Mauritius is at big risk given that it relies greatly on its beaches.

Sustainable land management & territorial planning have become very crucial and the existing development plans are being reviewed with a greener approach, eco-building designs are being encouraged, new policies especially on energy efficiency are being implemented as well as the sensitization of the population towards environmental issues is undertaken.

By pledging to become the first island state worldwide to be fully carbon neutral, Mauritius has undertaken a very challenging step and could become a reference for the African continent, especially the East African countries.

1. TRANSPORTATION The way we travel and transport goods has a dominant carbon footprint on our environment. Proper infrastructure, road network and cleaner transportation means are essential for sustainable development.

Surprisingly, Mauritius is the second African country (behind the Seychelles) to top the number of vehicles per capita.

According to statistics established by the World Bank, in 2008 there were 159 passenger vehicles for each 1000 people in Mauritius whereas South Africa had just 108 per capita, Kenya for instance had 15 and Tanzania had only 4.

Compared to other East African Metropolis, Mauritius has a very high growth rate for personal cars. This phenomenon is basically due to increasing purchasing power of its citizens as well as competitiveness of products available on the market.

But most importantly, this trend is due to the lack of efficient public transportation. The annual growth of more than 5% of vehicles on the roads is TEN times the population growth. This is a very alarming issue.

Nearly 98% of this transportation depends on fossil energy.

The road transportation problem thus has a direct impact on the environment. It is a known fact that is over 30% of Greenhouse Gases are emitted by road vehicles only in Mauritius.

Besides, the road network is growing to respond to the increasing number of vehicles in circulation. However, the question remains to what extent the small island can afford given that land is scarce. Many emphasize the fact that building new roads will not solve the transportation problem in Mauritius, as it is a proven fact that the number of vehicles rises with new roads being built. .

Durig the last decade, a “Light Rail Transit” project was projected, but the consecutive governments have not been able to implement it until now. The LRT aims at promoting public transportation between the town of Curepipe (central plateau) and the capital city, Port-Louis. This should reduce the vehicle flux on the roads towards the capital, thus relieving congestion problems over Port-Louis, which is actually a great handicap for its good operation. The Government of Mauritius has requested the support of Singaporean expertise to move ahead with the LRT project.

Mauritians need a new culture for travelling. It is undoubtedly crucial for Mauritius to find rapid and efficient replies to the transportation problem. If not, becoming a sustainable island will stay just a myth. Moreover, besides infrastructural projects, the authorities should develop new policies to keep the tropical island cachet which makes Mauritius different from places like Singapore, which is a city mainly built for vehicles. Pedestrians as well as cyclists (especially in urban areas) should play an integral part in the design process of our cities.

2. LAND USE & PLANNING Land use and management is a crucial issue in the overall and sustainable development process of Mauritius. Since

independence, drastic changes transformed the island’s 19 landscape. The country’s cadastral data base is completely outdated. Recently, the government set up the Land Administration, Valuation and Information Management System (LAVIMS) to get a better grip on land management.

This tool is expected to play a useful role for better planning in Mauritius.

Since the early 1970s several planning schemes have been made to modernize and develop the country. However, these were hardly implemented, basically due to alternate decision makers. The last major initiative is the National Development Strategy (NDS) which was set in 2003 and is a useful tool for strategic development in defining urbanization area, infrastructure, natural conservation areas, etc. However this document reveals to be unpractical and does not reflect the reality at various levels and thus requires frequent review.

Despite these odds the NDS has a major objective to optimize land use in urban areas and encourages the “urban regeneration”. This is intended to reduce for instance long distance transportation from rural areas to the city, reducing cost of road infrastructure. It is also meant to maximize the quality of service and life within the conurbation. Theoretically, the document encourages the concept of “cities for more human beings and less machines”. Green spaces, pedestrian areas and proper public transportation within the main cities are made a key factor for sustainable development.

Since years, there has been the wish to delocalize most activities, economic and administrative, from the capital Port-Louis to the inner/central part of the island. The Ebene project which is also known as the “Cyber City” works towards this goal.

However, due to lack of proper planning and implementation, there is a lack of efficiency in the global operation of the same especially regarding transportation issue.

Moreover, in the Mauritian culture, each family strives hard to have its own individual house. But from a realistic point of view, spatial limitation is a real challenge. Until now, when developing social housings, the authorities could not find a proper planning strategy for such projects. Thus instead of densification, horizontal development still dominates. Moreover, massive land under agriculture (sugarcane cultivation) is being converted to promote real estate projects and the sprawling of conurbation is increasing.

However, the NDS is now being continuously reviewed and policies are made more efficient to sustain spatial development.

3. GREEN ARCHITECTURE & CONSTRUCTIONS

Designing and constructing eco-friendly or sustainable buildings has definitely become a core concern for making Mauritius a sustainable city/state island metropolis. The rapid growth in the construction sector is very alarming. Not only the demands for residential projects but also the demand of the exponential economic development is high, with building and related infrastructure mushrooming. Actually, 25% of the surface area of Mauritius is built up and agricultural land is continuously conversed to buildings & infrastructure.

Given that buildings generally consume nearly 50% of the overall energy supplies, it is vital to design them so that energy consumption is minimized.

It is to be noted that nearly 40% of the local construction market comprises constructions of individual houses (of less than 250m²) that occupy over 70% of the built up areas. There is a great need to change the mindset of the population and raise awareness about the role of architects to design sustainable houses (though small in size).

In Mauritius, there is 1 architect for each 10.000 people.

Because of this low rate, the place of architects is still far from being set properly in the development process. Over 50% of buildings are constructed bypassing the architect’s service.

Fortunately, competent authorities and professional organizations are striving hard to value the role of architects in the national construction process and several programmes are being implemented to achieve this.

Several policies, such as the Energy Efficiency Bill and the Construction Control Bill, are on an implementation stage to guarantee greener buildings in the future. Moreover few “high-tech” buildings have recently been built and several are in construction process, bearing green labels like BREAAM, Green Stars, LEED amongst others.

Here, there is a big risk of not differentiating between acting sustainably on the one side and making “sustainable development” a profit making business only on the other side. Many are those in Mauritius who have set pseudo green business specially in regards to green products (energy production and construction materials). As this becomes “trendy”, it becomes a very profitable business.

Most of the according products and technologies are imported from developed countries to those which are developing and least developed, without proper local integration. It is known that many such technologies are quite expensive and, given the socio-economic situation of many African countries, generally remain unaffordable.

Architects have once again a great role to play in the design process by combining aesthetic and technical performances of buildings. “Low-technologies” (LT) are seen as being the most appropriate in many African countries. The most efficient LT can be found in for example in many “ksars” (nomad settlements which later turned into castles/cities located in the Sahara desert). The nomads in the region developed numerous techniques to face the hostility of the desert: heat control, from over 45°C under the sun to 20°C inside their house, with use of local materials, indirect natural ventilation through air convection system, efficient underground water distribution system (the “Fouggara”) amongst others. It is clear that in our present age, such LT are no more efficient given the new development constraints, but architects can get inspiration from these techniques and combine them with modern technologies to meet the requirements of society.

In the professional milieu of architects, much effort, slowly but surely, is being undertaken to design responsibly by emphasizing on maximizing natural light and ventilation, rain water harvesting and encouraging the use of local materials as far as possible. Waste management in the building life span (from design and construction to possible demolition) is a key point, also in economic respects. Fortunately some architects in Mauritius have taken up the challenge to design buildings and particular individual houses that adapt to the local context as far possible.

4. ENERGY

During the early post independence years, Mauritius produced 60% of its electrical energy need through renewable energies (hydroelectricity & bagasse obtained from the sugar industry).

Today, however, the island produces only 20% of its needs from renewable energies (wind and solar energy inclusive).

Energy management (production & usage) is at the centre of Mauritian concerns given the rapid growth in construction industry mentioned earlier.

In order to drive Mauritius towards a sustainable metropolis, and a reference amongst the SIDs, several concrete actions have already been undertaken by the government which is aiming a production of 35% of electrical energy from renewable sources. For instance, Wind Energy Parks are actually being implemented. Grants have been allocated to encourage use of solar water heaters especially destined for residential purposes. Moreover, the government has set the Small Consumers Production (SCP) programme to encourage individuals to install Photovoltaic panels and be self-sufficient; the extra energy is purchased by the authorities and can be driven back to the main grid. Besides, with the assistance of foreign aid agencies such as the Agence Française de Development (AFD), a special fund is available to encourage many such projects with the collaboration of local banks by allocating “green loans”.

Low energy consumption lamps have been put on the market and subsidized by the government. The authorities are also upgrading street lights and traffic lights with LED lamps.

Moreover, the government is leading a series of energy audits for its buildings to upgrade them. However, in reality, many of these buildings are completely out-dated and should be demolished to give place to operational and sustainable buildings

as well as to maximize land use in urban areas and especially in the capital, Port-Louis.

In the early 1990s Mauritius pioneered the ethanol production from sugarcane in order to reduce its dependency on fossil fuel especially used by vehicles. Unfortunately the project was not promoted enough and it was left to its initial stage of development. However, emerging countries like Brazil, inspired by this Mauritian technology, have developed ethanol production at an industrial scale that is surely contributing to their sustainable development. Very recently, Mauritius has decided to once again launch the ethanol production in order to keep the sugar industry flourishing in spite of the international market depression in the sector and to maximize on this green fuel a the same time.

5. WATER

Water remains the most precious natural resource. Many parts of the world and especialy the African countries face fierce draughts that cause severe impacts on the society. Famine is one of the many negative results of water scarcity.

Mauritius, being a tropical country, receives an abundance of rainfall. However, the effect of climate change is felt. The local climate is changing significantly, and Mauritius faces alarmingly dry periods.

Moreover, even though there is sufficient lakes & reservoirs in Mauritius, there is a great problem of water lost / leakage because the current infrastructure is outdated and distribution is inefficient. Here again, the Singaporean experience is of great importance for Mauritius. Singapore, as mentioned earlier, is only 1/3 the size of Mauritius. With a population 4 times bigger, it manages to distribute water properly to all its citizens and with an insignificant loss.

Hence, Mauritius benefits from the Singaporean knowhow to improve the water management system. Besides potable water, wastewater management is a peculiar situation especially in urban areas. This issue is strongly connected to the planning and urbanization strategy and it is part of the focus point for sustainable development.

6. WHAT’S NEXT ?

Mauritius has proved its determination to be a reference state worldwide. Besides its various recognitions, such as being the African leader in tourism as well as exemplary for good governance, anticorruption fight, human rights protection, gender equity and education amongst others, Mauritius has shown a tremendous sense of responsibility towards environmental protection and sustainability. In 2006, in the World Economic Forums’ Environmental Performance Index, Mauritius was ranked at the 58th place whereas in 2010, the island was ranked 6th worldwide and 1st among the african countries as the one that most endeavours towards environmental protection. However, there is still a long way to go.

Developing better (efficient and welcoming) public transports (e.g. Bus & Tram), to discourage private vehicles on the road, along with proper land management of residential areas, work places, services and equipment and leisure places are integral parts for sustainable planning. Encouraging renewable energy production and waste management are also crucial. Adequate and efficient policies in all sectors remain at the very centre of all green initiatives and the involvement of the civil society in the whole process is crucial.

The ball is rolling in Mauritius. Several platforms to encourage exchange and debate onto the matter of the sustainable island have been initiated at a national level. The interaction between authorities, academics, NGOs as well as the civil society is increasingly encouraged. Educating the population at grassroots and make it green conscious is one the biggest challenges, but the fieldwork is already operational by many environmental volunteers.

The country has also adopted the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in its development process. And here again, NGOs and the civil society in general play a crucial role to sustain development for a better future.

The goal to achieve a sustainable island state is on good start.

Mauritius can be the Greenest African Metropolis and so can the other East African Cities!

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Dar es Salaam & Its Architecture

By Brenda J.N. Kaira

Figure 8 The NIC building on Samora Avenue

Dar es Salaam, as its name suggests “Haven of Peace” is a beautiful serene old city by the Indian Ocean. Its appeal is in the natural harbour, water front and historical architecture that can be traced to 1862 when the Sultan of Zanzibar first landed. Originally planned to be a summer home for Sultan Omani Sultan Seyyid Said, since then Dar es Salaam has grown into a cosmopolitan city; a place for everyone to stay and find their future. The capital city of the United Republic of Tanzania until it was shifted to Dodoma in 1974, Dar es Salaam remains the country’s commercial and administrative center.

Dar es Salaam city’s rich history and cultural heritage is evident in its architecture that is a multi-layered amalgamation of many cultures. Its architecture may be divided into Colonial and Post-Colonial periods. The Arabic, German, British, Swahili, Indian were Colonial whilst Early Independence & Free market were Post-Colonial. The Indian and Swahili influences were more of lifestyle and architectural shapers and had little political impact on the city.

COLONIAL PERIOD (1860–1961) Arab Period (1860—1891)

The Arabs were the first to arrive and constructed several buildings along Sokoine Drive in the city centre. The strongest evidence of Arabic architecture remaining today can be seen in the double storied “Old Boma” the sultan’s official hotel (fig.1). Arabic architecture was prominent between 1860 and 1891. Its architecture was influenced by available construction materials and resulted in popular building features; chunky walls of coral rubble set in lime mortar, plastered and painted white to suit the hot humid coastal climate; characteristic of Dar es Salaam. The floors were made of coral block placed on rafters and mangrove poles. The facades comprised of pointed crenellation to the tower and doors and shutters were made of timber finished with carved floral and geometrical patterns, similar to those seen in Bagamoyo and Zanzibar. Occasionally crenellations were placed on the front or street façade and the upper floor recessed inward to create a tapered finish after plastering into a smooth wall line.

According to Sutton (1970), these were typical characteristics of the East African Coastal architecture.

Figure 4 St. Joseph Cathedral, Sokoine Drive (Kaiser Strasse)

Figure 3: High Court at Kivukoni Front (former Azania) in the late 19th C and its current state-2010

German Colonial Period (1891—1916)

The German period that lasted from 1891 to 1916 commenced with the Sultan giving permission to the German East Africa Company to establish a station in 1887 (Sutton 1970). The Germans caused economic confusion between different groups in the city resulting into an armed resistance from 1888 to 1889 involving the entire coastal region. The Germans stepped in, curtailed the resistance and took over Dar es Salaam in 1891, establishing as their administration seat, main port, commercial and communication centre. Germans introduced town planning ordinances with residential zoning based on racial lines. Continuing with the already established Arab technology, their architecture introduced civic and public buildings with arcades, verandahs and high ceilings creating airy rooms (fig. 2, fig. 3 & fig. 4). These features moderated the hot humid climate through shading and enhancing coolness.

Samora Avenue (Unter Den Akazien) lined with trees, was birthed during this period as a prominent commercial and shopping centre behind the port installations and lighterage wharf at the western end of the sea front.

British Colonnial Period (1916—1961)

Figure 1: Old Boma Building built 1860’s, Sokoine Drive Figure 5 Karimjee Hall

From 1916 to 1961 the British took political and economical control of Dar es Salaam from the Germans. Finding most of the infrastructure established, the British contributions were minimal and rather opted for maintenance and expansion. One of which was keeping the racially segregative zones as the city was developed further. They introduced high pitched roofing to buildings for example the Karimjee Hall (fig.5). The British like the German chose continuity and seamless blending with the existing built environment by working within the context and adopting the existing architecture in the areas the Germans had already established. Building the City Centre in piecemeal construction they achieved such harmony with the surroundings, that their contribution is almost unnoticeable (Sutton 1970). Some of the British buildings listed by Moshi (2009) are Old Museum building; the Ministry of Education Building, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building, the High Court and New Africa Hotel (later demolished) that were added to the European area. Meanwhile the British regarded the Indians as an important social group because of their contribution to the economy and awarded them large commercial plots resulting in Uhindini (Asian Zone) .

Indian Influence

Figure 2: City Hall- built by the Germans in 1903

This had more of a cultural and architectural impact than political. The first Indians arrived during the Arab period. They were traders in search of trading opportunities in Dar es Salaam and later became naturalized citizens during the British period. As they settled into their new status as citizens they introduced elements of Indian architecture to temples, mosques, and commercial and tenement buildings in the centre of town. During the German period, the Indian community had their own residential zone-“Uhindini”. As families became longer established, the characteristic small simple buildings comprising of family business and residences transformed into large tenement buildings as they prospered during the British period. Typical tenement buildings were divided into shops on the ground level and residential flats for families on the upper level with internal and external access staircases

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located within rear courtyards according to Sutton (1970). Their architecture consisted of remarkable facades; above shop level they displayed delicately ornamentation and unique form and massing (fig 6).

The degree of decoration depended on the status of the building in the streetscape that is its function such as the temples and the financial status of the owner. Some buildings went as far as to display the name of owner and year of construction in plaster work. This portrayed the prosperity of the family, on their front façade bulwark. Typical Indian tenement buildings consisted of three to four storeys.

Sometimes the buildings featured balconies.

The Swahili influence It occurred during the German and British colonial periods and is named after the Swahili language spoken in Tanzania and is indigenous to the ethnic population that inhabited the East African coast [Moshi 2009]. While the Germans planned their large spacious blocks and houses, the Africans were confined to the third zone for “natives” where they carried out their own architecture. A Swahili house plan consists of six rooms, three on each side with a passage down the middle leading on to the front to a small veranda called “baraza” overlooking the street. Families used the central corridor, verandah and street as communal space. Swahili houses were mostly built with temporary materials, due to the building restrictions imposed by the Germans and the low income earned. They were also constructed with a variety of materials such as wood, earth, stones, plaster; roofing was made of coconut frond (makuti), opened up petrol tins (madebe) and corrugated iron (mabati) as noted by Sutton (1970:14) as seen in fig.7. Swahili houses are built close to one another and the street for purposes of commercial activities taking advantage of the street [Sutton 1970]. Today “planned” Swahili type houses are made of permanent materials have tap water.

In conclusion, religions such as Islam, Christianity and Hindu, played their role in creating the diversity of architecture in the Dar es Salaam City centre. This can be seen in the several Christian churches, Islamic mosques and Hindu temples distributed all over the city. Some architectural influences (Arab, Indian and Swahili) shared common attributes such as two storey buildings with shops at street level and residences on the upper floor or at the back of the ground level. The separation of these functions was introduced by the Germans.

POST COLONnIAL PERIOD (1961— The Early Independence (1961—1967) The 1961 Independence brought with it a new status as the capital city of the Republic of Tanganyika and the abolishment of the racial based zoning that was practiced in the colonial periods according to Moshi (2009). Dar es Salaam enjoyed the freedom to construct any type of building establishing total independence from everything colonial. Demand for new space and infrastructure for the new capital brought new development activities in all the three zones named European, Indian and African.

Existing buildings owned by individuals were nationalized for management under the National Housing Corporation (NHC) formed in 1962 (Ayubu 2009). The architecture during this time inclined toward the functional international style modified to suit the local climatic conditions departing from the earlier styles. Examples of the buildings constructed during this period are international hotels: Kilimajaro-Kempiski Hotel on Kivukoni Front, and mixed use buildings: NIC Investment House on Samora Avenue (fig.8) Sutton (1970).

During this period two master plans for the city were commissioned at intervals of 20years, 1949 and 1968. Indian type buildings continued to be constructed in the Uhindini and Kariakoo areas while modified Swahili Type morphology dominated Kariakoo until the 1968 Master plan. The 1968 Masterplan, saw the emergence of landmarks such as Kariakoo Market and Cooperative Building constructed. Before this the 1949 Masterplan influenced the urban structures and concepts. It determined the architectural development of the city centre reflecting the identity and ambition of the new

Figure 6 The Dawoodi Bohora Education Trust Building showing the commercial ground floor and residential upper floor and unique decoration of the bulwark.

Figure 7 Houses in Kariaokoo made of temporary building materials. source: Sutton

socio-economic and cultural order. New structures were constructed higher than the existing two storeys (fig. 9). A struggle with a new identity that would be a symbol of the new nation regardless of the inherited history issued.

Multi-storey buildings did not appear until 1967 when Dar es Salaam embraced the new architecture; International Style with characteristic brutal practicality [Sutton 1970]. As concrete became a popular building material, these buildings bore common features such as egg-box pattern and concrete louvers as sun breaker units Sutton (ibid). Concrete was commonly used for commercial, official and educational buildings. The new structures of this period were characterized by high-rise buildings with a podium of two to three levels and a recessed tower transforming the skyline yet striving to maintain the human scale and existing character of the street. The towers frequently displayed horizontal bands of openings. Structural system dictated the shapes of door and window openings, roof type and literally defined the shading devices which resulted in climatic conditions modifying international styles by emphasizing the need for shade and ventilation.

Free-Market Economy Period (1985—2011) This period continues to be characterised by rapid developments in construction within the city. It is the “free market economy” policy introduced in 1985 to encourage private investment resulting Tanzania opened its doors to the world. Globalization enabled an ease in exchange of material, technology; IT, human recourses and information transforming the trend of the building industry. The client or developer’s demands became more international with the explosion of high-rise buildings employing global material; glass façades and aluminium cladding (fig.9). Climate conditions continue to be ignored perhaps with the advancement of technology in controlling a building’s indoor climate. The architecture produced during this period a mixture of several styles, is characterized by both modern and post-modern (fig. 10). The podium and tower (that helps maintain the human scale), urban elements such as canopies and colonnades that create pedestrian friendly environments and they have extensive application of glass façades. This has ensured that the products today lack continuity with the existing context. This uncoordinated renewal of the city centre, has lead to some of the architectural heritage; old German residences in the eastern part of the city to be demolished and replaced by new multistorey structures such as office and institutional buildings.

Conclusion In 1979 a new master plan was laid out; one more pragmatic to the nation’s rapid growth and ever increasing population resulting in unplanned settlements. Unfortunately most of its development controls were never adhered too. The efforts made by the three municipalities and the Dar es Salaam City Commission (DCC) which presides over the city centre to deal with the issue of high demand for space through redevelopment schemes has not been successful either. The renewal has remained uncontrolled and uncoordinated. Architecture in Dar es Salaam has come a long way, it has transformed over 140 years, from one that was always sensitive to the climatic conditions and its built environment to one less aware of its surroundings. New structures are changing the local character of Dar es Salaam whose history is retold through its architecture. Instead of blending, it seems contemporary architecture is on a mission to erase its historical foundation.

REFERENCES: Ayubu, G. Disappearance of Architectural Qualities of Streets: a Case of Samora Avenue in Dar es Salaam Tanzania

Figure 10 The glass facade Samora Mall (under construction) , the brutalism Extel House ( 1970) and the German Nyumba Ya Mayai) ( before 1914)

Unpublished thesis in partial fulfilment of the Masters Degree of Architecture. Ardhi University. 2009 Moshi, E. Urban Transformation: Changing building types in Kariakoo, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). Oslo.2009

Figure 9 compare the older 2 storey building in the foreground to multi storey ones in the background. Note too how the new structures fail to blend with the existing landscape.

Sutton, J.E.M. Tanzania Notes and Records 71: Dar es Salaam City, Port and Region. Tanzania Society. Dar es Salaam.

1970

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Building Export from Socialist Poland:

On the Traces of a Photograph By Łukasz Stanek In February 1981, the main Polish architecture monthly Architektura [Architecture] dedicated an issue to “Polish architects in the World” [pic. 1]. While presentations of designs delivered by Polish architects abroad were not rare on the pages of Architektura, the dedication of a whole issue to this topic was unprecedented. With an economic crisis hitting the country, the editors returned to the pride of socialist Poland: the export of architecture and urbanism. Capitalizing on the post-war experience of the reconstruction of Warsaw, Gdańsk, and the construction of new towns such as Nowa Huta and Nowe Tychy, Polish architects and planners had been much in demand since the 1960s and their commisions included such key projects as the master-plans of Baghdad and Aleppo; administrative buildings in Kabul; museums in Nigeria; the trade fair in Accra and governmental buildings in Ghana; followed in the 1970’s by large-scale research projects such as the General Housing Programme for Iraq and the regional plan and urban plans of the Tripolitania region in Libya.

Strikingly, none of these high-profile projects is featured on the cover of Architektura. Instead, the full-color image chosen by the editors was a rather surprising one: on the first plan one sees several palm trees; on the second something between a building side and a beach—a lot of sand in any case; and on the third, where one would expect the blue sky meeting the sea, one discerns an object with three white large chimneys which could be an ocean liner but is, more probably, an industrial facility.

How to make sense of this choice? Were the editors dreaming about a sunny cruise when preparing their February issue in the midst of Polish winter? Without discounting this option the cover also seems to convey something of the ambiguous atmosphere surrounding the work of Polish architects on foreign contracts. These contracts meant for them, not only the possibility of realizing projects, getting away from the grim reality of socialist Poland, but also the rare opportunity to travel and to earn significantly more than it was possible to back home. All this resulted in a combination of admiration and jealousy among their peers, and perhaps it is this marked irony that the cover of Architektura is referencing.

But what is it the building shown on this cover? Architektura is not of much help here, but a visit to the archives of the International Trade Fair in Poznań offers the answer to this question. After the Second World War this fair – which during the Second Republic (1918—1939) fashioned itself as a showcase for architectural experimentation – became one of the most important hubs for trade between enterprises from the socialist block. The journal Polish Fair Magazine, published in Polish, English, French, and Russian, features the building from Architektura. The 3rd issue of 1979 reproduces the facility in black and white and the shot makes it clear that the building does not stand in a jungle but rather on dunes covered with scarce vegetation [pic. 2]. The picture does not have a caption, but it was included in an article presenting Polish export projects in Libya—a country which since the revolution of 1969 and the proclamation of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in 1977, became one of the most important trade partners for Poland and several other countries in the Eastern Block. The text lists two neighborhoods in El Marj, constructed in the late 1960s near to the city of Barca, which had been destroyed in an earthquake; the text also mentions numerous infrastructural and engineering projects as well as services offered by various Polish firms. One of them was BUDIMEX, responsible for 600 houses, 1200 agricultural farms, 600 km of roads and two power plants in Libya, including an already completed one in Benghazi. It must be this power plant that made it to the cover of Architektura; which is confirmed by the caption in another issue of the Polish Fair Magazine (1/ 1981), where the building pops up again, now in full color, trimmed to a square format.

In the 3rd issue of the Magazine that same year the photograph reappeard again but now in an advertisement, not for BUDIMEX, but for another important agency of foreign trade – Energoexport – which, as the advert states, specializes in “power plants and industrial objects” built together with Western firms [pic. 3]. Advertisments like this, viewed from the perspective of the present, hint not only at the complex networks of dependency between state firms in socialist Poland, but also at their various pragmatic forms of cooperation with Western firms; this does not quite fit the picture painted by the dominant discourses in architectural historiography seeing the Cold War solely through the prism of the East-West competition.

The best account of the political economy behind the building in Benghazi can be found in the BUDIMEX files at the Archiwum Akt Nowych [New Files Archive] in Warsaw. Here, some of the Libyan counterparts of the Polish firms become visible; the documents show that the management of the company was under pressure to improve its performance on the international market. This was inscribed into a shift in the motivation for the export of architecture and urbanism by the Polish regime in the 1970’s. Since the late 1950’s the objectives had been predominantly geopolitical ones, feeding into the support of the processes of decolonization by the Khrushchev administration and stabilizing the post-war order in Europe; however, this changed in the next decade. With the recognition of the Polish borders by West Germany and with the necessity to pay off loans granted to the regime in Warsaw by Western financial institutions, the economic objectives started to prevail over the political ones. Yet while Polish technology became more and more outdated, it was labor—and intellectual labor in particular—which became a key export commodity for Poland. From a country of proletarians, socialist Poland was becoming a proletarian among countries, having not much to sell but labor.

If for the Polish regime the Benghazi power plant was, first of all, a commodity, it could have been also looked at with aesthetic gaze. In the archive of the Polish Architects Association (SARP) in Warsaw, among hundreds of dossiers of Polish architects, there are two that contain photographs of the power plant. These images, together with a set of schematic drawings of the plant and the administrative building, are to be found in the dossier of Wojciech Empacher, who claims in the accompanying CV to have designed the power plant in Benghazi together with his colleague K. Goliński. A different photograph of the Benghazi plant was included in the dossier of the architect Maciej Siennicki, who lists in his CV the “architectural design and the collaboration on the working design of a power plant in Benghazi” but he does not mention the names of his collaborators, as he is himself not mentioned in the dossier of Empacher.

The CV’s of the two architects reveal that their paths crossed at the Warsaw state “architecture office BISTYP”, and this explains the distribution of authorship for power plant. This office specialized in typical projects like industrial plants, but it also contributed to the most innovative architectures in the 1970’s in Poland, such as the central railway station on Warsaw or the “Spodek” auditorium in Katowice.

Tracing references to BISTYP in journals specializing in building technology and construction allows one to add a new set of images of the Benghazi plant to the ones gathered so far. An article published in the journal Przegląd Budowlany [Building Review, 10/ 1976], which featured numerous articles by Polish engineers sharing their experiences of building in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, is illustrated by a photograph of sedimentation plants, and the article shows a black and white snapshot of the power plant as well, centered on its large volumes and three chimneys and surrounded by an array of technical equipment, vehicles, sheds, and vegetation. Yet the most complete account of the plant can be found in a paper from Inżynieria i Budownictwo [Engineering and construction, 15/ 1977] which includes an account of the site, the technological specification of all buildings and facilities, but also the organization of the building site and the terms of the contracts between all the firms involved, including WestGerman but also French, Dutch and British firms providing materials and equipment, as well as the Belgian supervisor. The article also gives an account of the most interesting technical solutions that were implemented, for example the sun-protective finishings on the roof and on the facades—all of them illustrated [pic. 5].

The photographs from the SARP archive are very different. Probably taken by the architect himself, the photographs in the Empacher dossier frame the abstract quality of some architectural details and the rhythms of the façade, in contrast to the complexity of pipes and conductors [pic.

6]. The images of the power plant Siennicki enclosed in his dossier—under a dramatic clouded sky, lit by a sharp light which emphasizes the volumes and the lines on the facades—are signed in an elegant typeface (“Power plant in Benghazi [Libya]. Façade of the main building”) [pic. 7].

Both sets of images aim at persuading the viewer that the building is a piece of architecture: a claim which was instrumental to the objective of both architects submitting their work to the SARP in order to be granted the status of working “creatively”, which came with specific tax benefits during socialism. Evidently, in order to make the argument about the creative labor of the architects, their photographs exclude any other types of labor involved in the process, including that of technicians and engineers, let alone that of the Polish and Libyan workers employed on the construction site.

Curiously, the very same photograph reappears in the promotional folder of the architectural firm Dona from the early 1990’s. The gaudy folder, typical for the first wave of advertisements entering Poland after the end of socialism, shows a collage of designs delivered by the three partners Zbigniew Kargol, Janusz Przychodzki, and Wiesław Rzepka. The power plant in Benghazi appears here in the company of several projects in Nigeria, including embassies, university buildings, offices and industrial plants. This time the image is less the proof of an aesthetic achievement and more a demonstration of the capacity of the partners to control large-scale commissions in free market conditions, collaborate with Western firms, and use modern technology: a competence gained during the work on export contracts.

-------The research for this essay was developed in the framework of the program Socialist Competence. Export Architecture and Urbanism from Socialist Europe, ETH Zurich/ Warsaw Museum of Modern Art, www.south-of-eastwest.net The author would like to thank Piotr Bujas, Alicja Gzowska, and Ola Kędziorek for their assistance. Łukasz Stanek is the 2011–2013 A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in The Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

babu spe aks

23

By Paul Bomani Illustration by Omari Shegilla

1.

Cover of Architektura 2, 1981, “Polscy architekci w świecie/ Polish Architects in the World”

2.

Magazine polonaise des foires 3 (54), 1979, p. 18. Archiwum Międzynarodowych Targów Poznańskich (Poznań)

3.

Polish Fair_Magazine 3 (62), 1981, p.

14, Archiwum Międzynarodowych Targów Poznańskich (Poznań)

4.

Magdalena Łabęda, “Budowa elektrowni Bengazi II w Libii” [The construction of the power plant Benghazi II in Libya], Inżynieria i budownictwo 15, 1977, p. 169

“Elektrownia w Bengazi (Libia)” [Power plant in Benghazi (Libya)], in dossier no. 387 (Empacher Wojciech), Archiwum Stowarzyszenia Architektów Polskich (Warszawa)

5.

“Elektrownia w Benghazi (Libia). Elewacja budynku głównego” [Power plant in Benghazi (Libya).

The façade of the main building], in dossier no.

1254 (Siennicki Maciej), Archiwum Stowarzyszenia Architektów Polskich (Warszawa)

6.

7.

The Bengazi power plant in the promotional folder of “Dona LLC,” Zbigniew Kargol, Janusz Przychodzki, and Wiesław Rzepka, early 1990’s

On a calm Sunday evening in Dar es Salaam, I find myself walking you not heard? They build houses out of cardboard in the West!” towards an interview that may or may not happen, with questions He calmly retracts to explain to me that his year of birth was that I pretend to understand – questions imbued with a simplicity 1938, when the nation of Tanzania was not yet born. “I am a verging on the generic. To these shallow questions, I shamelessly Tanganyikan” he states comically, “I am not a Tanzanian. It was assign a depth. A depth like convergent ideas piercing the surface Tanganyika that sent me to school.” I quickly seek clarification, of water. “When were you born? What is your history?”

“Do you mean that the union with Zanzibar should be broken?” He I arrive to find Babu ordering fresh oranges from a street vendor. responds sternly, “No! Why would we want to curse ourselves? The “I know what’ll happen, I know the way things work around here: union should not be broken. I only use Tanganyika to denote the you’ll take my story, go make millions and forget me!” he says past period of our country,” he explains. with a hint of playfulness and the astuteness of age. Adamant to A cab-driver pulls out of the prime taxi spot which is under the convince him otherwise, I respond, “we are volunteer workshop Mwarobaini (neem tree) in front of Palm Beach Hotel; this is participants putting together a magazine…” Wondering how I where guests of the hotel first explore when they’re in need of taxi could begin to get him to talk about the disconnect between the services. (The local cab-driver-fraternity has a system in place Dar of today and the Dar of past. that determines whose turn it is to park here.) Lo-and-behold it is Chairman of the local cab-driver fraternity, Mzee Salehe Sulaiman now Babu’s – Mr. Chairman’s – turn to park his car at this prime Swala, 73, sits down on a boulder at the foot of a tree. “Okay, let spot. He undemocratically commands a break to move his car to me see your questions.” He agrees to do the interview: an allusion the watering hole. Will we finish this interview, or will commerce to the oral tradition we learn of in history books, an emblem of invade a dialogue between the youth of a country and the people the tradition of learning from wisdom; wisdom not by virtue of who have seasoned with it. I wonder. age, but by virtue of seeing in a world romanticized by the act of Born in Mngazi, close to Morogoro and the Selous Game Reserve, looking.

Babu revisits his past: his father, Suleiman Swala was an educated “Maji hamna, umeme hammna, watu mjini wanalalamika. Je man, a tax collector. “My father passed away when I was in class wale watu vijijini wasemaje? Asilimia 80 yao hawajawai kuwa na four, and with this came the end of my formal education. Had my umeme tangia uhuru. Huku mjini watu wanauwezo wa kununua father been around, things would have turned out different. I would genereta, lakini wanalalamika have advanced my formal edufrigi na runinga hazifanyi kazi. cation. I reckon I would have Kwani watu wa vijijini sio been a minister by now,” he walipa kodi? kwani wao sio wa ponders with no hint of despair Tanzania?” in his voice. (“There’s no water, no electricHe explains how he had started ity; you city dwellers complain to drive taxis in 1958 Dar es as though it is such an injustice Salaam, before the indepenwhen 80% of the rural populadence of Tanzania. “I’ve had tion has never had electricity several detours though, from since independence. You working in a pharmacy, to mancomplain about fridges and aging buses in the earliest bus televisions not working, while transit system in Dar, to truckyou have the luxury of buying ing, to working in Habibu’s generators. What of the people Car at Kabete Road in Nairobi, in villages, are they not tax Kenya. I have seen many things, payers, are they not citizens of many places.”

Tanzania?”)

“What positives have you seen Mzee Swala continues to give in Dar in all these years?” I ask me an example of a market close him. “Well,” he staggers to find to his home, Mkuyuni Market, an answer, “I would have to say where most of the food and prothey did quite well with some of duce coming to Dar es Salaam the roads that were built in the pass, yet there is no tarmac past. I don’t know if there are road connecting this market to any contractors today who can Morogoro Town – “only a small match the excellence of some of section of this road over the those roads. Look at Ali Hassan Kilosa Hill is paved,” he states.

Mwinyi Road, Mandela Road, When I ask him how the city has transformed over the years, Babu Airport Road, Samuel Nujoma Road, those roads are top class.” is brought to life. His animated face indicates a subject that has And as though he were driving home a point on deafened ears, he troubled him for some time. asks: “And why do they keep building only in the city, why don’t “Bands used to play ngoma-za-kienyeji (traditional drum-based they expand outside the city?” dance music) every weekend in Buguruni, Magomeni Mapipa, all “How about the way people relate with each other, especially the over the city. These bands would welcome different racial and ethnic groups?” I ask everyone; it was safe for the whole family. “ Ban d s u s e d t o p lay him. He pauses, measuring his words as a Now they have introduced Mdundiko and ng o m a - za - k i e n y e j i Bajaji (rickshaw) boils past, “yes, to some Taarab and other sorts of music which are extent people mix more now. But there are every weekend either indecent, or spew verbal slurs and still groups that keep to themselves, and insults; they incite animosity, and sometimes think that they are superior to others. I will in Bugu r uni , even violence. ” Mag o m e ni Ma p i pa , not mention any names. But look at the Babu pauses for what seems like a moment Chinese, for example, who are coming into all o v e r t h e cit y. the country: a lot of people complain that of introspection. “Mwenge, Mwenge!” the T h e s e b an d s w o ul d they are infiltrating local business and what daladala (commuter bus) conductor calls for passengers in the background. “Why w e lc o m e e v e r yo n e ; not, but they have no superiority complex. can’t we build on our own ngoma and create will sleep with us, ride the daladala it wa s s a f e f o r t h e They something better. There is no culture left.” (commuter buses) with us, and work with us. w h o l e fa m ily.”

Babu continues, “You cannot tear down old They simply see a human being as a human buildings and erect new ones. Expand outside being.” of the city! And our houses, why can’t we construct houses like “You know?” he asks rhetorically: “what we lack today is long nyumba-za-msonge (traditional circular mud huts) using modern term planning. During independence the nation had 9 million peotechniques and materials, while preserving our cultural heritage. ples, now they are over 40 million. We need to start planning long Or have we been transformed into a nation – strictly – of squares? term. Plan not just for the next 100 years, plan for more, perhaps How come in the West they build houses out of boxes? Yes! Have 150… 200 years.” Wiping the sweat tittering from his forehead,

24

from page 23...

he unexpectedly shifts gears “watoto wetu sasa wanalishwa Blue-Band, Blue-Band sio siagi, sisi tulikuwa tunalisha Cerelac na Quaker-Oats” (“Children are now fed BlueBand, but that is not butter. We used to feed our children Cerelac and Quaker-Oats.”)

“Forgetting all our challenges,” he affirms, “Dar is a great place.

There are many great people in this city, sometimes it may seem like they are hard to find, but they are many people with good hearts. Many communities in Dar live as though they are a big family, everyone taking care of the other, and looking after each others’ property and what not.”

In closure I ask him: “What is your favorite avenue to drive through in Dar? Which destination excites you when a potential client seeks taxi?” He responds, “the route that will be stress-free, that is the one. Like Masaki or Oysterbay. There is no traffic going to Masaki or Oysterbay: that is a ride I enjoy.”

As Babu reaches the period of his response, a Chinese man comes from behind the tree seeking taxi. Babu thunders to his feet to negotiate with this prospective client. I breathe a sigh of relief: this time commerce did not rain on the campfire.

Babu will not speak if no one is listening.

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