This studio deals with context-sensitive neighborhood upgrading in Kanyama settlement, Lusaka, Zambia. Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa is distinctive both in terms of the pace of its development and the underlining mechanisms and patterns of this growth. Especially the central urban agglomerations of African nations are experiencing an enhanced rural-to-urban migration as well as an influx of population from areas of precarious and unstable conditions. In order to turn Africa‘s fast-growing urban areas into sustainable places to live, there is an urgent need to understand the local context to develop strategies for appropriate upgrading measures.
This studio will take Zambia’s fast-growing informal settlement “Kanyama” in Lusaka (capital of Zambia) as an example to develop context-sensitive up-grading interventions. We will focus on a specific neighbourhood within the settlement with the aim of designing and visualizing measures to improve re-silience and the quality of life in this neighborhood – while at the same time maintaining and respecting the existing socio-economic context. A special emphasize will be given to the questions of climate change adaption and pub-lic space design as well as adequate housing conditions, suitable infrastructures and ideas to promote community-led resilience initiatives.
This studio is organized in parallel with the MSc. Lusaka Studio “Community Resilience in informal Lusaka” and includes joint lectures and discussions to support the collaboration and mutual learning experiences between both studios.
In addition, the seminar “Mapping Urban Resilience” is linked to the studio, where all participants analyze and synthesize the data generated during the summer school in Lusaka and feed this information into their project development in the studio.
