Avenida Maputo Design Thesis

The thesis explores the ways in which economic and architectural practices, embedded systems and forms of adaptation enrich and erode modernist practices in Maputo. The paper looks at the planning, economic processes and policies and their resulting urban and architectural manifestations, by exploring how endogenous forms and systems contrast with, intertwine, and coexist with modernist practices. From utopian visions to cemented realities, the first chapter analyses the ensuing plans and projects in order to better understand the underlying ideologies examining their demise, their successes and their subsequent appropriation. The following chapter shines light on the way architectural and urban practices, stemming from specific socio-economic conditions and embedded forms of adaptation contrast with, erode, and at times enrich, earlier modernist practices. The last chapter studies how formal and ‘informal’ methods interweave and can coexist. The proposal reconsiders both practices; high modernist and endogenous, which are seemingly antagonistic, as legitimate ways of engaging with planning and transforming the city.