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African Development
Lessons from the Africa Urban Infrastructure Summit
summit attendees
Imagine a future for urban Africa in which free thinking reigns supreme, roof tops are adorned with urban parks, and the streets are littered with electric powered scooters.[read more]
Future African Cities: The New Post-Colonialization [VIDEO]
Konza Technology City, Kenya
A recent lecture questions how many of the latest master-planning proposals for rapidly developing African cities are at best fictional renderings of false utopias, and at worst artifacts of a new type of exploitation.[read more]
Why LEED Doesn’t Work in Rural Africa and What Will
LEED relevant in Africa?
Sustainable building in disadvantaged, rural communities cannot be limited to architecture. Project success must be considered at a larger scale to include community involvement, building techniques, and development.[read more]
Can 'Co-Production' Bring Infrastructure to Informal Settlements?
Panorama of Kosovo settlement, Nairobi. Source: Ruco Van Der MerweIn the informal settlements of Nairobi, basic infrastructure provision remains a major issue. Generally speaking, neither the government nor private firms want or have the capacity to provide universal basic infrastructure, such as laying water pipes or paving roads. One...[read more]
African Cities to Triple in Size
Traffic in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo by Nick M. Much of the growth of cities this century will take place in Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. Already the region has about 200 million people living in slums, the highest number in the world, according to the United Nations. It was a little over a year ago that the continent’s...[read more]
Sustainable Cities Collective
What's New on
“I agree I think that the nature of human interaction and involvement depends on the nature of the actual facility itself. Getting people in and around fossil fuel burning power plants is seen as a security risk, but that still leaves many components of our infrastructure that could benefit from being noticed (and that citizens could benefit from noticing). I think of examples like John ...”
“I thinks it's provocative. In Florida, we were given tours of muncipal water treatment facilities as children, less so access to energy facilities. There is a cogeneration facility at MIT that sits comfortably in the urban context, as thousands pass by daily. But I'm always concerned that critical systems and humans should not mix for the most part. Educational programs may make the same point ...”