A new perspective

It is always interesting to be an architect/landscape architect/urban planner in a new city, as every new thing, new smell, new trade, new color is valuable to your own research. In the other hand, everything that you study, every map, every plot, every traffic road is valuable to you as a tourist. Hence, just getting lost in the city helps you find the way for new creative solutions. This is one of the ups of being in this kind of professions. Hence, aside from our daily responsibilities, during the weekends we have dedicated our time to explore nearby settlements and tribes. This has contributed not only for our planning in the CBD but also has help us to understand the city as an alive organism that is constantly mutating. 

During our first weekend we had the opportunity to visit the Sukuma tribe. It consisted of vast lands used for farming and cattle and then, once in a while a small one room house appeared in the horizon. This were houses made of soil or sun cooked bricks. They served no other function but to shelter the family from cold, heat or rain. The toilet was a mere hole in the ground, and the boundaries of the plot were defined by using a common cactus plant from the region that served as a fence. Entertainment? None. Aside from an old Nokia model cellphone, the tasks during the day seemed very obvious and simple: shepherd the herd, dismember the corncobs or remain under the shadow of a tree.

Sukuma tribe house type

Corn

Cattle coming from the river

On our second weekend we visited the "informal settlements" around the city. These refer to the group of people with no permit to inhabit the land, but that for some reason they have just taken the land to build. About this situation, Mwanza law mentions that if someone has lived somewhere for more than 15 years, then they automatically have the right/permit to stay there. This is the case for this kind of area. However the conditions are not good for a healthy living. The area lacks infrastructure, the environment is not safe to wonder around and the houses are unsafe to inhabit. 

Happy kids

Informal Settlements

Nonetheless, in a very different concept of what a city is, these settlements work quite well within the community. They, by themselves, have manage to work as an organized group. They educate the young ones, they wash clothes together, they sell the surplus of their crops and they manage to live a happy life. However for oneself, used to the chaos of the urban areas, these settlements seem to be capture by time. Time stops, and there is nothing left but sun, a tree and a shadow. You are back to the simplest from of life. 

I wonder now, how to impose the urban chaos to a community that has it all figure out by now. What kind of spaces should our team deliver for this people to fill comfortable and at ease with them? We can also think it the other way around, how would you suddenly manage your time when placed in this kind of community? What would you miss from the city and what would you value more? 

Sketch by: Hannu Eerikäinen

Story by: Natalia Rincón

An old city center

Today is a rainy day in Mwanza. Its beautiful so smell the rain and hear it dropping in the metal roof of the house. The garden we see from our window is vibrant, drinking water as if it would have been very thirsty. 

We are waiting for a ride that would take us to the office. Today we are going to finish a presentation we have been working on this week. This, we will show tomorrow to the Mwanza urban planning area. Its about the field trips we have been conducting during the weekend and the beginning of the week. It will also point out the opportunity areas that we think the city should work at first. 

Regarding our findings, after several hours under the warm sun of Mwanza the Mwanza-Tampere team has enough information to continue with an analysis of Central Business District (CDB) of the city. Some important findings are:

- Around the CBD we find that most of the buildings are commercial. The majority of them serve also as housing to the owners of the shop.

- Most of these buildings are 1 or 2 stories high, meaning that the skyline of the city is mostly low rise. 

- The market area is very chaotic. It is not easy to recognize and it extends towards the streets full with traffic. 

- There is a lack of public spaces around the city. People normally rest in a chair on the side of a sidewalk, under a tree, or even close to streets full of smog and traffic. 

- The waterfront, one with the nicest views, is not used as a public space. Instead it serves as a back   side of the buildings there. Some parts are now starting to be used for informal commercial stands.

- The river coming from the lake is very contaminated as it carries trash from the whole city. Currently the space along the river is forgotten. 

- Informal settlements on the hills are a big challenge to the city as it is difficult to provide better housing for this people.

These are few and important issues that we can point out now and that make this task very interesting, and the team has done a lot of brainstorming to provide good solutions. However the most difficult task would be to implement the new development plan. This step, is normally the most challenging one as it involves a lot of stakeholders and should be oriented to the economy of the city.

Below a map of the old CBD. The borders of the old city center have now expanded towards the fishing market (north), the city council (north east), and the informal settlements (south). The buildings in black represent a religious, governmental office or market area, while the other ones are mostly commercial and market settlements. With the lake on the west side and the market on the south east area, how would you walk through the center of Mwanza? Which path looks more appealing to you?

By: Natalia Rincon

Field Trip

GIS or Geographic Information System has been designed to store, manipulate, analyze and manage data. As this system provides spatial data it is easy to read information from a map, hence, it makes it a great tool for urban planners.

Example of GIS map showing roads and buildings.

Example of GIS map showing population density.

The urban planning department of the cities normally have this information stored in big data bases. This eventually allows the city to make educated decisions on how a city should grow by retrieving, for example, the following data:

-Amount of schools

-Buildings with 2, 3, 4 or more floors

-Highways, main roads, secondary roads

-Means of transportation

-Green areas, wetlands, lakes

And a lot of more information concerning the nature, the city and its inhabitants.

Since 60% of the population in Mwanza lives in "informal settlements" it is difficult for the city to keep track of everything and this gives space to an uncontrolled growth of the city.

During thursday and friday the Tampere team, along with a group of volunteers from the urban department team in Mwanza, has been recollecting data from the city center. It is an exhaustive task that would bring good knowledge on the current status of the city center. Eventually this data will be used to provide a creative and realistic urban design to Mwanza's city center.

Gewa and Mu from the urban planning team

Maduhu and Natalia reviewing some information

By: Natalia Rincon

A world class city

Singapore city is one exceptional example of how a city can change its pattern in very little time. With less than 50 years from being independent Singapore has managed to change its status from "country under development" to "developed country". The city has grown economic and urban wise; it is an attractive spot for tourism and investments and the population has increase it's quality of life.

Today the Tampere-Mwanza team had a meeting, together with the city council of Mwanza and a consultant from Singapore. In here we discussed the direction of the city of Mwanza for the next 20 years. Also, the visitor from Singapore, shared some knowledge on what are the necessary steps to follow in order to become a World Class City. 

The biggest challenge? Cultural change. A city cannot be changed if there is no awareness in its citizens. Therefore educational and awareness programs play a big part on the process. 

Tomorrow the Tampere and Singapore team will meet again to discuss in detail every step of the process.

From left to right:
Singapore - Suburbana
Ministry of Lands
Mayor from Ilemela Municipality
Ilemela District Commissioner
Mwanza City Director
Depute mayor - Mwanza City Council

Overview of Singapore and planning Framework
Presentation

By: Natalia Rincon

The first glance

Houston we have landed. After a smooth and long flight we have installed ourselves in a house along the main road just 2km away from the city center. The first thought of the city: green. It's mild warm weather allows vegetation to pop out in between hills and rocks. It doesn't end.

Welcoming to the city of Mwanza

Aside from the landscape, the city is also a very welcoming place. Their citizens are caring hosts that look out for their visitors. As an example of this,  today we had a meeting with the City Director and the Urban Planning team who greeted us to their city. We were glad to hear that the Mwanza team is very excited about the project and very eager to see the how the city will develop during the next 20 years. Tough work indeed. Nonetheless, we are also very interested in all the peculiarities that this lively city of Tanzania has to offer to the citizens of Tampere.

Mwanza and Tampere team with the Director of the City

Another side of Mwanza is the life. It is everywhere. With little agility we manage to sneak among traffic, horns honking, a guy carrying a sack of potatoes over his head, someone pushing you on the left side and ambitious sellers; we are finally in the market area. The smell of ginger, chilly, lemon, mango and fish cover the atmosphere. The market doesn't stop for no one. Exciting, appealing, precarious. Just fascinating.

Radio Station Show

Away from the crowd and back to the offices of our host we end up, in an uncanny way, in a radio station studio. Everybody welcomes us and we stare in amusement into the sound cabin. When the radio host starts he glances at us and waves at us: "So Tampere team, say something to the city of Mwanza and the city development project". With disbelief we manage to explain the project and encourage citizens to engage in the project by challenging the team. I think the team thought it was a very good improvised show.

Once the working day has passed and we are ready to have dinner, we decided to go shopping for some vegetables and fruits. Accompanied by a local kid we decided to engage on the adventure of bargaining in swahili. After pointing at mangos, avocados and pineapples we were ready to make our offer. We just took the money we had in our pockets and offered it to the vendor. Thanks to our little friend the vendor agreed however, as we saw a bitter look on the vendor, we wondered how that would have turned with out help.

By: Natalia Rincon

Urban Planning Team in Mwanza

The first work exchange of 2014 from Tampere to Mwanza is starting next week: Two planning specialists from Tampere, Janne and Hannu, and one architecture student, Natalia, from the Tampere University of Technology are spending one month in Mwanza. They will join their efforts with the Urban Planning Department of Mwanza City in order to update the Mwanza Central Area Development Plan. Natalia will finish off the work as part of her Master’s Thesis upon return. The work consists of field survey, interviews as well as collecting and compiling data in order to find out the actual needs of the community and to solve the rising issues of eg. traffic, recreation areas and building in Mwanza.

During this month we will follow their interesting experience in Mwanza through stories and pictures in this blog. 

Picture Saara Pakaslahti