Appropriation & adaptation: research and response on the current condition of the Baixa de Maputo, Mozambique

Appropriation & adaptation: research and response on the current condition of the Baixa de Maputo, Mozambique

Zonderland, S.S.

Meyers, L. (mentor)
Koopman, F. (mentor)

Architecture

RMIT

Maputo Studio

2012-01-31

The Baixa de Maputo is the historic core of the city of Maputo Mozambique, developed from the 17th century onwards from the Dutch fort Lijdzaamheid, the subsequent Portuguese fortified trading post to the heart of Lourenço Marques, the capital of the Portuguese colony, and after 1976, as Maputo, capital of the independent nation. The introduction of automobile traffic around 1945 favoured development of the new, broadly laid out modernist part of Maputo and caused a slow dilapidation of the Baixa de Maputo. Recently however, new development within the eastern part of the Baixa and the former industrial harbour area is creating a revival, but the city centre is however facing urban transformations with a severe impact on the composition and the functioning of the city. These recent developments in and around the Baixa ignore and deny its quality and by doing so form a threat to its identity of a melting pot of social, cultural and economical classes and activities. The developments de-democratize the city centre and by replacing the existing fabric have a severe impact on the composition and the functioning of the city and the inclusivity of its inhabitants. This project proposes a democratic respond to the current state of the city, matching conservation of spatial, economical and social quality with the accommodation of new requirements and programs. The project reacts on its context by including instead of excluding, enhancing instead of hindering and embracing instead of repelling, and at the same time the project identifies itself with recent developments and suits the evolving image of Maputo as a modern Metropolis. On the urban scale, the implementation of a sequence of spatial moments connects the different identities of the Baixa, develops the waterfront area as an social generator and provides a more accessible connection with the higher eastern part of the city centre. On the architectural and human scale this projects accentuates the most present cultural, economical and social value of this African city, which for me is the public street life and its adaptation and appropriation of space and build environment. The street life is defined by small-scale commercial activities based on gaining maximum necessities trough minimum means, which are provided by street vendors, car washers, parking guards etc and their receivers of service and/or goods. These activities form the complex, active and vibrant part of the public life. The project includes the public life to the architecture and vice versa and by doing so accentuates this typical identity of Maputo. The project accommodates social and economical street activity by facilitating its determinants (flow and gathering of people, bounding objects, shadow and sufficient space) and extra basic needs as water points, public toilets and urban furniture.

Maputo

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7c65db2a-5357-4ec6-997f-c375a24e35d1

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2012 Zonderland, S.S.