African Design Magazine ADM #39 April 2018 | Page 50

AZA18
networks and form. This type
of city has accommodated and
still accommodates migrants,
enterprise and social constructs
all beyond the purview of state
documents of development/zoning
plans & building code,” he adds.
Housing is a majority of this fabric
ranging from 60% - 70% of all built
form. “In Mumbai 60% of our city’s
population lives in what the state’s
instruments call slums, which
despite the bottlenecks of light,
ventilation and services, slums
are the most affordable housing
available. The development of our
cities cannot be addressed without
addressing the adrenal of the
challenges of liveable affordable
housing, livelihood and equity, all of
which are interconnected,” Padora
points out.
Keynote
speaker
Maria
Fernanda
Derntl
of the
University
of
Brasilia,
Brazil
stresses
that she
will be both a speaker and a
listener at AZA2018.“It will be
a great opportunity to share
thoughts on how memory and
resilience were approached by
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AFRICAN DESIGN MAGAZINE © | APRIL 2018
architects and urban planners
in experiences in Brazilian cities.
But I am sure it will also be great
to listen to other practising
professionals and researchers
on the subject so that we can
compare our experiences and
possibly find convergences and
similar issues.
“I have been in touch with
professors and researchers from
the University of Pretoria for
the last a few years and I hope
to keep up this dialogue, as this
has benefited the University of
Brasilia. In the past, Brazilian and
South African architects articulated
connections that had significant
impact on how each modernist
movement developed later and
found its own identity. I hope our
ongoing dialogues will inspire
new ideas for both sides. And the
conference will be an arena for
exchange and cross-fertilisation of
knowledge,” she continues.
“Social practices and local
experiences can shape
architectural and urban design
in many and unpredictable ways.
History of architecture is also a
history of how people resisted
or objected to projects imposed
by authorities. And even if those
people did not succeed completely
in their resistance, projects have
often changed during planning and
construction because individuals
or groups made demands or took