Urban Diversity

The large social projects under construction in the peri-urban areas of Luanda are designed for great numbers of people, and might fall in the trap of creating severe homogenous environments as the quantitative measures become more important than the qualitative. The large social and economic divisions between the settlements in the urban and the peri-urban areas is also enhancing the urban divide.

For a sustainable development to take place, the city should allow for inclusive urban programs that encourage diversity and promotes integration. The rehabilitation of the railway and thus the improvement in public transportation is an important step towards decreasing the spatial poverty trap that the majority of the peri urban-population are facing. The improved connecticity and communication might also enable growth in local productivity and job opportunities.

Through providing ... (24-h street, urb facilities; culture, edu, health, marketplace, ...)

Make usage of the human potentials at the site,facilitate local initiatives

POTENTIALS

SKILLS

KNOWLEDGE

ENTHUSIASM

Portable Streets

The concept of the portable street is based on the fact that a large portion of today’s cities exist in informality, and that it is necessary to find ways to integrate the formal and the informal sectors. Inspired on the bouquinistes of Paris, the piece of urban furnuture made of fibreglass or metal allows accomodating street vendors with quality and comfort, adding a new element to the urban landscape.

Source: www.architetor.jaimelerner.com

The Principles of New Urbanism

1. Walkability2. Connectivity3. Mixed-Use and Diversity4. Mixed housing5. Quality Architecture and Urban Design6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure7. Increased Density8. Smart Transportation9. Sustainability10. = Quality of Life

Source:

drinking water

rain water/ drainage

grey water

black water

electricity grid

solar power

informal

formal

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24h

SCHOOLLIBRARY

HEALTH CEN

TRE

ACTI

VITY

CEN

TRE

NIGHT CLUB

Urban Nerve

”Poor urban residents identified water supply and better in-site sanitations facilities as problems for which they require assistance (...) Housing and constructions, however, were not identified by the poor urban resident as problems for which they needed assistance.”

(Source: Deveolopment Workshop, Poverty Reduction in Urban Areas, p 13)

By focusing on architectural answers to the challenges of sanitation, water and energy supplies, people will be given a solid base on which to establish a home. Through acknowledgment of local skills and productivity, a meetingplace between a top-down and a bottom-up approach is likely to be the most successful. When given the opportunity to participate in the development of society, people are encourage to become more responsible citizens, and the feeling of connection and belonging is strengthened.

We intend to work with an infrastructural element of systems and urban facilities that will provide social assistance and enable densification of the existing informal settlements in connection with the railstops in the peri-urban area of Luanda.

“Instead of seeing a green map with red dots for cities, we can more realisticly see a network. This provides another perspective on planning. Instead of town planning, we need holistic perspective in planning.”

Source:

According to Lars Orrskog, The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), a sustainable town will look like a ‘tuft of tang seaweed‘ Source:

Section Primary Nerve

s

Natural riverElectricity Water Drainage Purifying vegetation

Trash-for-Cash

Section Secondary Nerve

Nerve system server

Water:-rain water-drainage-clean water-gray water-black water-fog farming

Power:-solar pv.-wind-river/basin..-grid

Waste management:-bio waste-paper-plastic-tin-glass-etc..

Farming

Urban Bridging

A linear development is taking place in the form of an urban corridor along main transportation-routes. With the rehabilitation of the railway, the area connecting the rail-stretch will experience growth and further densification. The peri-urban areas easily become just an out-fading of the city, lacking its own identity or place-specific program.

The railway, operating on ground level, is in itself a physical divider of space. The rail-stops however become natural meeting points and even marketplaces. An uninterrupted pedestrian crossing would typically be an elevated bridge, but has the potential of being something more than just a point of transit. The elevation allow for visibility and has a signal caracter, the crossing-point gathers people and could function as a meeting-point, and the connection that bridge the community could successfully house communal amenities such as educational, cultural, social and health facilities.

The Butterfly Effect

“The butterfly effect is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely, a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. Although this may appear to be an esoteric and unusual behavior, it is exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position. The butterfly effect is a common trope in fiction when presenting scenarios involving time travel and with “what if” cases where one storyline diverges at the moment of a seemingly minor event resulting in two significantly different outcomes.”

Wikipedia, 2011

The Bridging House Reference

As an architect practicing in Mexico, Fernando Romero, director and founder of Laboratory of Architecture (LAR), is concerned with borders and the bridging of borders, be it physically, socially, environmentally, or in other ways.

This tea house in Jinhua Architectural Park is a small-scale version of that unbuilt museum, suitably called the Bridging Tea House and based on “two fundamental elements in the typological conformation of Chinese gardens: the bridge and the teahouse.” Like the museum which acted as bridge and exhibition space simultaneously, this design does double duty.

www.archidose.org, 2008

Local inspirations