African Public Spaces?

What is public space in African? Does it exist as we may presume? At the current, we are analysing and comparing urban life and presumed public spaces in selected segments of four African cities to map what we know about these cities. It is a first step in deepening cross-cultural understanding: An exiting start of a new exiting scientific journey along Dakar in Senegal, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Maputo in Mozambique, and Lusaka in Zambia.


Image by Vaggy Georgali
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Royal Visit to Expo

Besides meetings with the authorities and the official events of the state visit, King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands visits the ‘Next City Living Lab’, the Dutch pavilion at Beijing Design Week. The expo embodies innovation and creativity for a better urban future, it also aims to demonstrate the spirit and strengths of Dutch design: Delft University of Technology presents Reclaiming the Human Space to promote social sustainability and better standards of life. In this expo, the king is being informed on the future urban challenges in the People’s Republic, including humanisation of planning, integration of social groups, recreation of community places, and rehabilitation of daily-life environments. This agenda is exposed in the midst of other exhibitions from leading Dutch design firms including West8, OMA, MVRDV, NL Architects and UN Studio.

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