Pemba

Corinna Del Bianco, PhD, is an adjunct professor of urban design at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Her research and professional interests regard the documentation and analysis of the places’ cultural identity with a focus on the culture of living in self-built urban environments. She is a founder and board member of the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco, a private foundation based in Florence, Italy, dedicated to dialogue among cultures.

Foreword by Michael Turner

Abstract

1 Introduction

1.1 Spontaneous Living Spaces, a research project

1.2 Understanding Africa’s great cultural chance

1.3 A glance at Mozambique

2 Studying the Mozambican self-built houses in the city of Pemba

2.1 The relevance of the current housing issue in Mozambique

2.2 Pemba and its relevance in the dwelling issue

2.3 Research goals

2.4 Methodology and essential literature review

2.5 Chapters organization

3 An interpretative framework of habitation in Mozambique

3.1 The origins of the Mozambican house

3.2 Outlining the urbanization trends over the history of Mozambique: from a rural to an urban society

4 Understanding Pemba

4.1 An integrated analysis

4.2 City scale overview

4.3 Framing the Pemba case study

5 Unpacking four settlement types in Pemba

5.1 The four selected neighbourhoods: selection and survey

5.2 Formation and recent evolution

5.3 Urban morphology

5.4 Houses’ spaces and functions

5.5 Elements and objects

5.6 Types analysis and typology determination

5.7 New characters of living

6 Conclusions

List of figures and tables

Acronyms

Essential Glossary

Acknowledgements