From March 10th to April 1st, architecture and urban design students from Ardhi University and TU Berlin collaborated in a summer school format to research urban heritage from below in the city.
The Simulizi Mijini summer school was developed by architecture and urban planning staff from Technische Universität Berlin and the architecture school at Ardhi University. For three weeks in March, a team of 21 students from both institutions collected stories and memories from residents in the neighbourhoods of Sinza, Mwenge, Tandale, Upanga and Posta in Dar es Salaam.
Drawing on a rights-based approach to heritage, these stories explore the complexity and richness of urban culture when approached through the eyes, memories, everyday practices and commemorative rituals of city dwellers themselves.
Through informal interviews and walks with local residents, storytelling workshops and mapping exercises they ask: how do residents perceive urban heritage in Dar es Salaam?
March 9th – April 2nd, 2016
Week 1 – Discovering the symbolic and institutional face of the city
Week 2 – Deepening the research: how residents perceive the city (newer neighborhoods: Sinza to Tandale)
Week 3 – Deepening the research: how residents perceive the city (older neighborhoods: Magomeni to Kisutu (city centre))
Week 4 – Creating a legible outcome: storytelling and mapping the research
The stories created collaboratively by the students were presented during the April 1st, 2016 symposium in Dar in the format of do-it-yourself booklets. They could be read sitting on the stools built as part of Alex Roemer’s residency project.
The fieldwork was built from the students’ interest in seven topics: open and green spaces, access and boundaries, habitat, gendered spatialities, visual culture, markets and trading activities, temporary space-making.
A counterpart fieldwork will be organised in Berlin in August 2016. The results of the two summer schools will be made available on an interactive platform: www.urbannarratives.org
Mafunzo/utafiti ujulikanao kama Simulizi Mijini/ Urban narratives yafanyikao wakati wa kiangazi ni mpango endelevu ulioanzishwa na wakufunzi mbalimbali wa usanifu majengo na mipango miji kutoka chuo cha Teschische Universitat Berlin na shule ya wasanifu majengo chuo kukuu Ardhi.
Katika mwezi huu Machi, wanafunzi 21 kutoka kwenye hivi vyuo wamekuwa wakikusanya simulizi mbalimbali kutoka kwa wananchi kutoka maeneo ya Sinza, Tandale, Mwenge, Upanga na Posta hapa Dar es salaam na pia wanategemea kukusanya simulizi kama hizi mnamo mwezi wa nane mwaka huu huko Ujerumani kama ilivyopangwa.
Utafiti huu umejengwa na ari kubwa ya wanafunzi katika kutaka kujua mambo ya kipekee yanayoifanya Dar kuwa kama Dar kwa kupita nyumba baada ya nyumba na kuhojiana na watu mbalimbali pamoja na kukutana na waendesha Bajaji, wamachinga na wengineo.
Urithi mjini: ni nini? Wa nani? Urithi mjini unawezaje kujenga miji shirikishi?
Kwa kupita maeneo mbalimbali kutoka Sinza hadi Posta wamepata historia mbalimbali za jamii mbalimbali na jinsi zinavyohusiana na mazingira yao kupitia mada mbalimbali walizokuwa nazo ambazo ni Miundombinu, Sehemu ambazo hazijajengwa, Makazi, Tamaduni onekano na simulizi, Ujinsia mijini na Sehemu za kijani.
Kazi yao inatafuta kuuliza maswali juu ya maana mbalimbali zilizopo kuhusu upekee wa miji na urithi uliopokwa mbinu za uandishi ili kuweza kuweka kumbukumbu hizi kutoka kwenye nyanja za chini sana hadi za juu. Tafiti hizi zitakuwa zinapatikana katika tovuti ya: www.urbannarratives.com
