This volume collects the results from the Politecnico di Milan’s award-winning “Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!” research-by-design project, which studied various transdisciplinary approaches to development in the context of the Global South. The challenges of urbanization are well known, but that only goes so far in aiding implementation. From local considerations like water access and housing rights to global issues like climate change, territorial development demands solutions that address the needs of the specific population while keeping such goals as sustainability and inclusion in mind. By focusing on a number of towns within the Maputo Province of Mozambique, and thus addressing many of the issues endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa, the research, structurally presented so as to aid those who may require introduction to the issue, makes a clear case in favor of always keeping the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus in mind when formulating development strategies for improving people’s lives, as well as the wisdom of marrying academic findings with the insights accrued by local NGOs and institutions, thereby expanding the potential idea bank beyond the Eurocentric status quo that has tended to dominate the field.
Part 1 : Sustainable territorial development of the Maputo Province Debates, research, and innovative perspectives.
Chapter 1 - A Capital in History: widening the temporal and physical context of Maputo (Paul Jenkins).
Chapter 2- The demography of the Maputo Province (Inês Macamo Raimundo).
Chapter 3 - The demography of the Maputo Province (Integrated Multisectoral Research Programme (PIMI).Origins, Trajectories and Horizons) (Carlos T. G. Trindade, Domingos A. Macucule, João T. Tique).
Part 2: Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!: a “research by design” project WEF-sensitive territorial assessment and strategic guidelines for the Namaacha,Boane and Moamba region.
Chapter 4 - Introducing the Maputo Province A tentative assemblage of planning tools and visions (Alessandro Frigerio, Alice Buoli).
Chapter 5 - Unpacking Territorial Development in the Namaacha, Boane, and Moamba Region A Cartographic Narrative (Alice Buoli).
Chapter 6 - Energy-food challenges and future trends in Mozambique and in the Maputo Province (Davide Danilo Chiarelli, Lorenzo Rinaldi).
Chapter 7 - Trans-scalar and WEF-sensitive strategic scenarios for an integrated territorial development A proposal for the Maputo-Boane-Namaacha Transect as a green-blue metropolitan armature (Alessandro Frigerio).
Part 3: A transdisciplinary lexicon of sustainable planning in sub-Saharan Africa.
Chapter 8 - Agriculture and Food security Implications on sustainable development and the WEF Nexus (Maria Cristina Rulli, Davide Danilo Chiarelli, Nikolas Galli, Camilla Govoni).
Chapter 9 - Water and Climate Change Water management in transboundary river basins under climate change (Andrea Castelletti, Elena Matta).
Chapter 10 - Energy An essential asset for the development of African continent (Matteo Rocco, Lorenzo Rinaldi).
Chapter 11 – Environment A bioclimatic approach to urban and architectural design in sub-Saharan African cities (Valentina Dessì).
Chapter 12 - Urban Forestry Perspectives from Sub Saharan Africa between planning and global challenges (Maria Chiara Pastore).
Chapter 13 - Governance Rethinking paradigms and urban research approach for Sub-Saharan African urbanism (Paola Bellaviti).
Chapter 14 - Mobility Developing countries through the lens of megaprojects, equity, sustainability, and development (Paolo Beria).
Chapter 15 - Society Maputo: a case of social Non-Simultaneity? A city repertoire of issues (Agostino Petrillo).
Chapter 16 - Rural / Urban / Metropolitan Trying to reduce inequalities through planning (Laura Montedoro).
Laura Montedoro is an architect and urban planner, specializing in the History of Art. She is also an associate professor of Urban Design and Urban Planning at the Polytechnic of Milan, where she has been teaching since 1998. Since 2011, she has been involved in research on urbanization in the countries of the Global South within the context of international cooperation, with particular attention to the cities of Africa and the growth models of reference. She is a promoter and referent of the Agreement between Politecnico di Milano and M_EIA, Mindelo_Escola Internacional de Arte de S. Vicente, Cabo Verde, and with the ENAM École Nationale d’Architecture de Marrakech. In the context of the Polisocial Programme, she has been part of the research team ‘Mo.N.G.U.E. (Mozambique.Nature.Growth.University.Education)’, which is focused on Mozambique (Polisocial Award 2016, coordinator Michele Ugolini), and serves as scientific coordinator for the 2018 Polisocial Award-winning “Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!” project, a study for the integrated development of the region BOAne, MoAmba, NamaacHA, Mozambique. She is co-director of the “Design for development. Architecture, Urban Planning, and Heritage in the Global South” Master’s program and a member of the scientific committee of the PIMI Project – the Master’s and Doctoral training project funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in Maputo and the Faculty of Architecture of Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. She is also a member of the PAUI Doctoral Board. On invitation, she has held lectures and seminars at both Italian and international universities; moreover, she has activated co-tutelages of degree and doctoral theses with the ETSAM of Madrid, the Universidade Autonoma de Lisboa and the School of Architecture and Design of Melbourne.
Alice Buoli is an architect and Ph.D. in Territorial Design and Government. She is currently an assistant professor in Urban Planning and a tutor for the PhD program in Urban Planning, Design and Policy (UPDP) at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano. Her academic and professional experience combines urban research within the Euro-Mediterranean context, African urbanism, borderland studies, creative practice research, and editorial and curatorial activities. Over the past years, she was involved in different international projects and institutions, such as the MSC Initial Training Network “ADAPT-r - Architecture, Design and Art Practice Training-research” at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn (Estonia), the Tallinn Architecture Biennale TAB 2017 “BioTallinn”, and the “Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!” project (recipient of the 2018 Polisocial Award) at Politecnico di Milano.
Alessandro Frigerio is an architect, urban and landscape designer, PhD, as well as a post-doctoral research fellow and adjunct professor at Politecnico di Milano. His research and professional activities investigate the processes of sustainable urban development or regeneration within a transcalar and socio-ecological perspective, combining landscape, urban, and architectural design. He has worked in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, with a special interest in East African urbanization and projects in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, and Somalia, in cooperation with local authorities and international organizations such as UN-Habitat (Urban Planning and Design Branch) and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS). He has also collaborated on research and teaching activities with the Measure and Scale of the Contemporary City Lab and the International Cooperation Lab at Politecnico di Milano and is currently part of the teaching staff of the Master’s program “Design for development. Architecture, Urban Planning, and Heritage in the Global South”.
This volume collects the results from the Politecnico di Milan’s award-winning “Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!” research-by-design project, which studied various transdisciplinary approaches to development in the context of the Global South. The challenges of urbanization are well known, but that only goes so far in aiding implementation. From local considerations like water access and housing rights to global issues like climate change, territorial development demands solutions that address the needs of the specific population while keeping such goals as sustainability and inclusion in mind. By focusing on a number of towns within the Maputo Province of Mozambique, and thus addressing many of the issues endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa, the research, structurally presented so as to aid those who may require introduction to the issue, makes a clear case in favor of always keeping the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus in mind when formulating development strategies for improving people’s lives, as well as the wisdom of marrying academic findings with the insights accrued by local NGOs and institutions, thereby expanding the potential idea bank beyond the Eurocentric status quo that has tended to dominate the field.