INTRODUCTION

Prepared by Thabo Lenneiye

FOLLOWING CHINA’S FAST-TRACK GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE EARLY 2000S AFRICA IS POISED TO BE THE NEXT MAJOR FRONTIER FOR DEVELOPMENT. THE RAPIDLY URBANIZING CAPITALS ACROSS THE CONTINENT FACE MAJOR CHALLENGES IN THE COMING YEARS LARGELY DUE TO THE LACK OF BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND POLITICAL WILL. Forward looking and pragmatic design and planning agendas are key. Harare is a unique and complicated case-study for this and many other reasons. The city has a robust history of planning due to it’s colonial heritage, but the distinct challenges of the 21st century that the city faces suggest that the reevaluation of these practices is long overdue.

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Case studies from cities like Bogota, where the changes implemented by Mayor Enrique Penalosa lowered the crime rates and catapulted the city into being one of the most widely admired examples of the effects of highly specific targeted interventions, are indicators that the holistic approach of landscape urbanism has a high degree of merit for the developing world. This impetus for context specific solutions is the zeitgeist of the 21st century, exemplified by things like the emergence of the slow food movement and the rise in popularity of locally sourced and produced goods.

Present-day Harare was founded in 1890. First as a Fort on a hill, currently called the Kopje, next to a small African settlement where a diviner used to sing all night. The shona word harari means the one who does not sleep in Shona. Over the next hundred years, the City expanded in all four directions. As the economy expanded after the Second World War, a decision was made to build a dormitory town to the south, beyond the industries and with a green belt between the settlement and the CBD. It is from this town, Chitungwiza, that most workers today commute into the CBD. Similarly this pattern of commuting for work can be seen from other areas around the city such as Epworth, Ruwa and Norton.

The vision by the Harare City leadership for 2040 is for an integrated modern city, combining commercial, residential, recreational, and green spaces where employment opportunities are seamlessly integrated into the life of the City. Having bought into this vision, Old Mutual advanced a grant to the University of Pennyslvania and Gensler to support a group of students and professionals to carry out the first phase of sketching out what could drive the integration of the city. The larger goal of this initial phase is to identify key low-impact interventions that will create the space for lower income areas to move socially and commercially within Greater Harare.

When faced with rapid urbanization, a major challenge is to minimize burgeoning poverty in cities, improve access of the urban poor to basic facilities such as shelter, clean water and sanitation and to achieve environmentally friendly, sustainable urban growth and development. The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo made available a group of students and Faculty to join the first phase. They concentrated on exploring potential future research areas in the CBD as the work of the vision evolves.

This publication captures a number of the project proposals from the first phase. The proposals represent the work produced by the graduate students from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, while the work undertaken by the students from NUST will form the basis of a future study on the potentials of the CBD. The goal is to foster dialogue between residents, the business community and the leadership in Harare on how to take the necessary steps towards attainable and implementable projects. The combined efforts are driving towards a more cohesive and inclusive Vision of Harare for residents, investors, and leaders alike.