Maputo. O interior de quarteirão. Aprender de uma apropriação informal

• Autor(a) principal: Leandro Alcibiades de Jesus González
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/139642
• topic: Artes; Arts

After 46 years of Mozambique's independence (June 25, 1975) the difficulties in dealing with the rapid phenomenon of city growth are evident. In a context where urban expansion is characterised by the appearance of informal settlements, the capital, Maputo City, is divided between a central "cement city", built in the pre-independence period, and a peripheral "reed city", which grew exponentially with the post- -independence rural exodus. In reaction to this reality, there is a growing concern with the problems raised by the informal periphery, which is reflected in a panoply of researches that study its needs, seeking to present strategies for its improvement. However, this dissertation tries to take the opposite approach and gaze at the cement city, which is also undergoing rapid transformation. This interest is motivated by the high patrimonial value, not only of its urban design and modern architecture, but also of the informal appropriations that have taken place since the country's independence. Here we have seen a semi-abandonment of the city by the settlers, and its subsequent occupation by locals coming from the periphery. These were responsible for a redefinition of the original use of several parts of the urban structure, which characterise the atmosphere of the city, having in itself an important role in consolidating it in the collective memory, as a city for all and not only for the colonial settler. Nonetheless, in the current projects that are appearing in the capital, there is a disregard for the potential of some of these appropriations, adopting urban and architectural models that in no way reflect the complexity and richness of the functions acquired by the different spaces of the city since the arrival of the new inhabitants. It is then, in order to foster the study and discussion of the patrimonial value of the phenomena described above, that the following dissertation focuses on the identification and analysis of the informal artefacts and appropriations of everyday life, seeking to understand their contribution to the vitality of public space, as well as of originally private spaces. Focusing on a study area representative of the entire central zone of the capital, we seek to map the diversity of existing appropriations while reflecting on the relevance of new urban paradigms, perhaps better suited to the urban dynamics of Maputo.