After a successful opening of at the Urban Dreamscape project, part of the event ‘Global City – Local Identity?’ in Dar es Salaam, Stars of Dar is moving on and actually is now on display at one of its Stars! The exhibition is being built up at the Slipway in Dar es Salaam and can be visited for free most part of the day.
Moreover you will be able to find everything about the Stars of Dar on the dedicated web page starsofdar.tumblr.com. You can see the videos on Dar es Salaams most important public spaces already now.
Stars of Dar is a project developed by the Architects Association of Tanzania and African Architecture Matters, in close collaboration with the ARDHI University.
Casablanca served as laboratory for European architects to experiment with modernist mass housing in the 40’s and 50’s. The visions of modernist architecture spread all over the world, suggesting new structures in housing, work, transport, and leisure.
The spatial structure in Casablanca has been extremely transformed and appropriated by the inhabitants over time to respond to the requirements and aspirations of everyday life. The exhibition Learning from Casablanca shows the results of multi disciplinary studies undertaken in the previous year by students from Morocco and various parts of Europe. Films, multimedia presentations, posters and models present the stories behind the transformation.
The ‘debates on tour’, organised with the Netherlands Architecture institute as part of African Perspectives 2011 on 4 November at the Sacre Coeur and on 5 November at the Ecole Superieure de l’Architecture, will use these unplanned developments as starting point for a debate on the possibilities of adaptation in contemporary planning issues. 
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Learning from Casablanca is developed by Casamemoire and African Architecture Matters, with contributions from the Ecole Superieure de Casablanca, Université Hassan II, Delft University of Technology, the universities of Utrecht and Stockholm, ARCAM, the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Morocco and the City of Amsterdam. The project is generously made possible by the Netherlands Architecture Fund.
African Perspectives 2011 in Casablanca is about to start. The 5th conference of ArchiAfrika, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is again going to be special. From 3 to 5 November an international crowd will gather and visit places in Morocco’s largest city for lectures, debates, exhibitions, films and more on ‘the African Metropolis’. Many countries in Africa but also from elsewhere in the world are represented. Find the programme – with Saskia Sassen, Farrokh Derakhshani, Iain Low, Abderrahim Kassou, Jord den Hollander, Ola Uduku, Tom Avermaete, Joe Osae-Addo, Antoni Folkers and many others - on www.african-perspectives.com.
We are confident that we can organize streaming of at least part of the African Perspectives event. Keep an eye at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/african-architecture-matters if you want to be with us over long distance!
When the Dutch Afrika Museum wanted to give its visitors an idea of current day Africa, African Architecture Matters advised them to ask people on the continent themselves how they wanted to be represented. An interesting experiment involving an architectural competition with an outcome unknown to the museum’s planners: ‘The time a Western ethnographic museum could say “this is how it is over there” is over.’
Read Femke van Zeijl’s article here.
… the meaning of architecture and planning for everyday life, based upon interviews with key persons in Dar es Salaam society and street interviews …
Dar es Salaam is a vital and vibrant city, the pumping heart of the country. It accommodates millions of people, all together to work, learn and live. Every corner of the country is represented and due to globalization also almost all other parts of the world.
Living together with so many people from different backgrounds and lifestyles does create it challenges and problems, but it certainly also creates opportunities. To accommodate all this, there are the city infrastructure and the buildings, from housing, schools, offices, factories, shops, shopping malls, restaurants and hotels to informal structures and sheds. Public spaces like markets, parks, squares and bus stations play an important role in the organization of the city.
The symposium ‘Global city – local identity?’ will focus upon Dar es Salaam in the global perspective and is organised by the Goethe Institute and the Architects Association of Tanzania.
It provides a valuable platform for staging the exhibition ‘Stars of Dar’, introducing an overview of the city’s best architecture and public spaces and the opinions on these by key members of the Dar es Salaam society.
The exhibition, organised by the Architects Association of Tanzania, ARDHI University and African Architecture Matters, will enhance the debate on the quality of spaces and buildings and the meaning planning and architecture has for everyday city life.
Ten architects and ten public personalities from Dar es Salaam will present their favourite and/or remarkable buildings and will motivate their choice. Next to this, also the public will be heard through street interviews at 3 public spaces.
These components will be presented in an exhibition, developed and built by students of ARDHI University. The opening of the exhibition will be combined with a debate on the importance of public spaces and buildings and meaning for daily city life in Dar es Salaam.
The exhibition will be shown during the conference and after that in an exhibition space for a period of 2 weeks.
Media training by Daladala TV during the workshop
The workshop can be followed via http://starsofdar.tumblr.com. The blog will also present the end results which can later be used for developing an architectural map of Dar es Salaam.
More info on the symposium and related activities like the production of an architectural journal by a group of young architects and students with help from Camenzind can be found via http://www.goethe.de/ins/ts/dar/en7861885v.htm
Van zaterdag 29 oktober tot zondag 6 november 2011 organiseert African Architecture Matters in samenwerking met Casamemoire en ARCAM een reis naar Casablanca en Agadir in combinatie met deelname aan de 5de African Perspectives conferentie, die plaatsvindt van 3 tot 5 november 2011 in Casablanca.
De reis is bedoeld voor professionals op het gebied van stedenbouw, architectuur en woningbouw (woningcorporaties, ontwikkelaars, beleidsmakers en architecten) en richt zich op de ontwikkelingen van de modernistische bouwprojecten van de jaren ‘40 ‘50 in Marokko. Ook uw Marokkaanse vakgenoten zullen deelnemen aan deze reis. Doelstelling is gezamenlijk kennis te nemen van de ontwikkelingen van deze eerste projecten van grootschalige woningbouw, die gekarakteriseerd worden door zeer inventieve, door bewoners zelf uitgevoerde en niet in deze mate geplande, transformatie. Toch lijken deze wijken nog steeds een prettige stedelijke omgeving te bieden. De reis beoogt te duiden wat daar aan ten grondslag ligt.
Voor beide steden staan bezoeken aan enkele van deze wijken op het programma onder leiding van Casamemoire, een organisatie die zich sterk maakt voor het behoud en onder de aandacht brengen van het architectonisch erfgoed van Casablanca. Verder bestaat het programma uit presentaties en mogelijkheden tot uitwisseling van ideeën, onder andere als onderdeel van de conferentie African Perspectives. In de internationale debattenreeks ‘Debates on Tour’ organiseren wij in samenwerking met het Nederlands Architectuur Instituut ronde tafel discussies over de ongeplande transformatie van stedelijke ruimte en de mate waarop hierop geanticipeerd kan worden.
De reis is onderdeel van een groter geheel waarbij getracht wordt door analyse van de ontwikkelingen in deze wijken te leren en inspiratie op te doen voor de ontwerpopgave waar we in Nederland, in Amsterdam maar ook in andere steden voor staan.
Het ligt in de bedoeling om in het voorjaar van 2012 een vervolgonderzoek op te zetten, bijvoorbeeld in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. De resultaten van dit onderzoek worden ism ARCAM gepresenteerd in juni 2012. (zie ook Planning Thriving Cities, a mutual economic and thematic exchange mission)
Het maximum aantal deelnemers voor deze reis is 25 inclusief de begeleiding. Indien u interesse heeft in deelname, neem dan gerust contact op met African Architecture Matters via office@aamatters.nl.
Sankofa Garden City Park van prijswinnaar Kobina Banning
Inventief, dynamisch en creatief, zo kun je veel Afrikaanse stadsbewoners karakteriseren. Middels 12 visies op de gebouwde toekomst van Afrika, ontwikkeld door Afrikaanse ontwerpers en kunstenaars, laat Blueprints of Paradise zien dat Afrika meer is dan wildparken, sloppenwijken, conflicten en natuurrampen. Sommige van de ontwikkelde ideeën zouden wel eens goed van pas kunnen komen in onze eigen steden en dorpen.
Op 17 juli en 11 september zal Berend van der Lans, directeur van African Architecture Matters en gastconservator van de tentoonstelling Blueprints of Paradise, een lezing houden voor Museumjaarkaarthouders in het Afrika Museum. Hij zal vertellen over de ideeën en mensen achter de inzendingen en de Afrikaanse steden waarvoor de plannen bedacht zijn. Voor kinderen is een parallelprogramma ontwikkeld. De lezingen starten om 14hr. Zie voor meer informatie en registratie www.afrikamuseum.nl of mail info@afrikamuseum.nl.
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