Nathalie Jean Baptiste: Cities in Their Own right - Culture and Planning Values in the Swahili Coast in Time of Global Environmental change

Urbanism in Conflict

Cities in Their Own right - Culture and Planning Values in the Swahili Coast in Time of Global Environmental change.Nathalie Jean Baptiste, Ardhi University Dar es Salam

At the core lies a particular unit, a Swahili house, organized in a symmetry of architectural elements, but immersed in an asymmetrical and often vulnerable environment. In the last 20 years the environment along the Indian Ocean Coastal Zone of Tanzania  has changed and can barely sustain the population growth. Islands such as Zanzibar and Pemba are facing unprecedented change in their coastal ecosystems, the frequency of flood peaks has increased by 65% displacing thousands of people. The conflict lies between the dreams, aspirations, the organization of neighborhoods as well as the availability of land and cascading environmental risks. Can planning and design reconcile such conflicts? Do we have the tools to better explain the tension between state vision, community wishes and climate? This lecture takes place at a time of recurrent questions on what Southern Urbanism can be. Those of us doing research in the South are increasingly asking ourselves in which disciplines and academic communities do our propositions unfold. One starting point is the recognition that cities in the South, and in particular Swahili coastal cities, are cities in their own right with entangled realities, conflicted interests, simple lives yet lived in an increasing complex geo-economic setting which is fueled by different urbanization trajectories. The Lecture will attempt to address these entangled conflicts and also focus on recent propositions and planning promises.

The lecture is part of the lecture series: URBANISM IN CONFLICT: CITIES, CONFLICT AND CONTESTATION

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