Good article that I found when looking into pre-colonialist approach to urban planning in African cities.
What they say about the importance of recognizing the value of informality — and working with rather than against informality — absolutely resonates with what I’ve observed in a lot of cities in USA (and elsewhere) where I’ve lived or read about, as far as the unfortunate modern urban planning tendency to “sanitize” and homogenize traditional neighborhoods that had very resilient economies and cultures.
URBAN PLANNING AND CLIMATE RESILIENT AFRICAN CITIES
DR. PATRICK BRANDFUL COBBINAH, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Here’s the link: https://www.undrr.org/words-action-implementation-guide-land-use-and-urban-planning/urban-planning-and-climate-resilient-african-cities
“Informality is a defining feature of African cities. Studies show that informal economic activities constitute 80 percent of economic activities in urban Africa. Over 80 percent of land tenure arrangements are mostly informal, via the leadership of traditional, indigenous or tribal leaders. And more than 50 percent of urban residents live in locations characterized as informal settlements. So, informality is the foundation of Africa’s urban development/growth. …
“But urban planning has so far failed to acknowledge the importance of informality in Africa’s development paradigm, frequently treating it with heavy handedness (via demolition, eviction etc.), or using it for political gains. Until urban planning in Africa is deconstructed to focus on matters and issues that are of concern to its citizenry rather than implementing foreign and colonial ideologies, the potency of informality will not be realized. Informality in itself is not a problem – it’s the lack of urban planning’s capacity to work with informality that’s the problem.”
Near the end, I enjoyed the photo and description of the Makoko Floating School in Lagos, Nigeria:
“The Floating School was a movable ‘watercraft’ located in the centre of the community of Makoko, built like a pontoon on a series of plastic drums or barrels, making it less vulnerable to flooding and extreme weather. It was also designed to harvest rainwater, recycle organic waste, and use renewable energy.
“With a total size of about 200 m2, the floating prototype structure is scalable and adaptable for other uses, such as community hubs, health care clinics, markets, or even housing. … This idea now constitutes the backbone of a larger project on African Water Cities to develop climate-adaptive floating homes and other buildings to improve adaptation efforts in locations, including Cairo, Kinshasa, Luanda, Abidjan, and Dakar.”
And, googling African Water Cities, I found this gem: https://fortomorrow.org/explore-solutions/african-water-cities
“Water Cities® is a nature-based ecosystem for inclusive built environments on and around water towards sustainable urbanisation and climate change adaptation. Through extensive research in several African cities and proactive action in the built environment, Water Cities was established as a venture to pioneer innovative solutions – with exemplary building solutions such as Makoko Floating System (MFS™) – to shape the future of human civilisation.”
Go check out the article, the illustrations are beautiful! I can so picture my coastal area flourishing with this model. The illustrations at the top of the article shows an aerial view that reminded me of aerial views of our coastal Florida region after a hurricane. Except that what would’ve been miserably flooded streets, ruined houses, are instead a deliberate network of canals, filled with small boats moving about their business. And houses designed to float or otherwise accommodate being on water.