HARARE: THE GOOD THE BAD & THE POTENTIAL

Written by David Gouverneur

HARARE IS A DUAL OR HYBRID CITY. A SIMPLIFIED VIEW OF THE CITY SUGGESTS THAT THERE ARE THREE MAJOR COMPONENTS: THE OLDER COMMERCIAL, BUSINESS AND INSTITUTIONAL CENTER, THE WEALTHIER NORTHERN SUBURBS, AND THE LESS AFFLUENT AND MORE DISTANT RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS TO THE SOUTH. A quick analysis of demographic projections suggests that if no planning, design, and political actions are taken, social disparities and spatial segregation will increase over the next decades. There is no precise information on the percentage of the population of Harare that lives in informal settlements. Official figures indicate that it is close to 35%, but professional expertise brings this figure closer to 50%. If the current spatial trends continue, the wealthier groups will continue to dwell in the north, with the emergence of new service and administrative centers, the traditional center will lose importance, and the less affluent population will occupy a more distant south. Increased social tension would be inevitable.

Harare is at a stage of urban development where it is relatively easy to introduce new planning and design paradigms. It presents good overall environmental quality, the urban densities are moderate, and there is land available for urban infill that can be built on, therefore avoiding urban sprawl. The city and country in general do not present the levels of violence that characterize other developing nations. One aspect that will deserve special attention is the conservation and intelligent use of the ample system of vleis or dambos (linear and shallow wetlands) that crisscross the city, and that play an important role in the city’s ecology and the conservation of hydrological resources. Today the vleis are relatively free from urban occupation. However, they are being gradually polluted by waste water coming from urban areas and by fertilizers from smallscale urban crops. To secure them from unwanted occupation is absolutely necessary and can be done by making them more accessible as public spaces, with institutional or community stewards that will care for them, capture and treat the polluted waters and secure their environmental and landscape role.

It is important to mention that in Harare there are two particular conditions that are not common in most developing cities. Before independence the local population lived far from the urban center and the wealthier residential areas. They were separated by ample protected green zones; the negative outcome was enhanced spatial segregation while the positive resulted in the preservation of the cities natural assets. Additionally, current zoning by-laws impede mixed-use developments throughout the city. These regulations result in residents of poor neighborhoods having to commute long distances to access the commercial areas and metropolitan services in the center of Harare. The zoning restrictions eliminate the possibility of incorporating income-generating activities within the neighborhoods. For local authorities it is increasingly difficult to enforce these codes, particularly in the lower income communities.

To make Harare a sustainable city and a competitive one in the African context, the city needs to be proactive and creative in addressing social disparities and spatial fragmentation. This will require a very different set of design paradigms with the clear intent of integrating the formal and the informal areas of the city. The city would benefit from the creation of areas of new centrality; offering jobs, services, and amenities closer to the residential areas, avoiding time and energy-consuming trips to the city center as the sole provider of such amenities.

Most of these aspects were tackled by the group of students from the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Design, who took the special city of Harare as the studio site for an entire semester. The proposals contained in this publication offer creative insight on how urban growth can be managed to achieve a sustainable and just metropolitan area.

The majority of the proposals were directed to retrofit the peripheral and less affluent areas of the city, and to reconnect them to the wealthier zones. Similar studies focused on the growth of the northern part of the city should absolutely be conducted in the future. The inherent message is that if the city envisions a strategy that will strengthen the most challenged areas, the entire city will benefit.

Finally I would like to point out the importance of applied research of this nature. New paradigms in all fields of knowledge, including urban studies, usually emerge within Academia. However, with cities being the most complex of human inventions, responding to natural and social forces, urban research necessarily has to be tested by working directly in cities and not in distant labs. The perceptions and opinions of community leaders, city planners, developers, and bus drivers alike, in relation to how their city behaves and how it can be improved is equally important as that of an urban specialist.

The work of the students of the University of Pennsylvania was possible thanks to the vision, generosity and passion of public officials, professionals, students, and ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe that shared with us their knowledge, concerns, and aspirations in relation to the urban future of Harare. We would like to express our deepest appreciation for their involvement and contributions.