City of Reeds A study of Mozambican architecture
September
2013
Booklet. 01
I M AG E S
1. Dwelling, Homespace 2002 2 Women walking down the street, Homespace 2002 3 Gated House, Homespace 2002 4 Water Towers, Bernd and Hilla Becher 5 Still of Youtube Reed Weaving 6 Self Built House Guide by Dominic Stevens (http://www.dominicstevensarchitect.net/) 7. City of Reeds Website 8. Girl Weacing in Quelimanne, (http://candler. emory.edu/news/ird/?p=653)
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Information booklet for research project running from 19th of September till 9th of October. @cityofreeds
words by Emma Hall
C O N T E N TS
About An summary and introduction of City of Reeds. 6
Why Motivation for the project 17 How Methods 18
Where Where the project is taking place 10
Background in peri-urban research List of literature and sources guiding the project 26
What An summary and introduction of City of Reeds. 12 Who The team involved. 15 3
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CITY OF REEDS
1• An architectural research project on peri-urban settlements in Maputo, Mozambique.
2• Output; a catalogue of typologies from the caniço city (city of reeds) through Analytical photographs, illustrations and films
SEPT 2013 5
A BOUT
“urban change requires new systems not simply new forms. Mapping the character and qualities of the systems humans are part of to interpret and describe the way they manifest in relation to each other can suggest models for our own future-city organisation and order. Mapping is design� Denise Hoffman Brandt, Plot Design, Slum Lab 2011, pg 8
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An introduction to the project
constructional practices of the community also explored in the upcoming study will be important cultural practices and symbols which reflect the identity of the community. The first part of the project (Sept 2013) draws from an earlier study of the Caniço city (Homespace, 2012). The September project aims to look deeper at the environment on an individual level, concentrating on narratives in the city. This will be grounded by focussing on a study of craft and materiality. Work will be compiled into a digital archive documenting the characteristics of the caniço city through photography, film and illustration and accessible to a wide audience through the website (cityofreeds.virb.com). This will be accompanied by a set of zines/booklets. In this way work is even accessible to the inhabitants of the city who can hopefully become part of later stages in the project. The long term ambition for the project is the use of the resource for the implementation of new systems at a small level which are informed by the study. In the short term though the study simply acts as a starting point for more exploration and discussion into African and Mozambican architecture, especially with consideration of this class.
City of Reeds, is an ongoing research project studying Mozambique’s native architecture through the Caniço City*; the peripheral periurban area around Mozambique’s ‘cement’ cities**. The name is derived from the literal translation of the Portuguese term for the Caniço City; cidade de Caniço. An area typically inhabited by the country’s poorest citizens, the architecture and urban planning of the Caniço city could be deemed as redundant. However the Caniço City’s ephemeral nature and practices may offer new architectural systems and languages to aid design for the majority; the lower class. Evident in it’s informal self-made structures is the selfsufficiency of the community within the Caniço city. In taking a closer study of these practices, designers can get a clearer sense of how; “dwellers [...can] play an active role in improving their own living conditions” to aid them in creating socially conscious design as set out by the UN habitat II conference (1966) (Kellet, P,2005) . In light of this, City of Reeds is also part of a larger school of thought coming from contemporary theorists who recognise the wealth of this new “urban vernacular” (Rapport). As well as the material, spatial and
Portuguese for City of Reeds; cidade de Canico. **Cement cities is a phrase derived from the Portuguese for the cement city; cidade de cimento)
Dwellers must play an active role in improving their own living conditions
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…Dwelling from Homespace Study 2009…
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CITY OF REEDS SEPT 2013