Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis

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Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis

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  • Project Name: Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses
  • Student Name: Tongay José Upuere Dango
  • Softwares/Plugins: Archicad , AutoCAD , Google Earth Pro , Adobe Photoshop , Adobe Illustrator , Adobe Indesign
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Excerpt: ‘Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses’, is an architecture thesis by Tongay José Upuere Dango, from ‘Faculdade de Arquitectura e Planeamento Físico – UEM’, ‘Universidade Eduardo Mondlane’, that seeks to revive the spirit of a region where various events once took place, through architectural interventions that hold relevance to the site.  The project focuses on restoration of the historic Masjid Baraza Mosque Street, which has many old homes along with the first mosque constructed in the Mafalala neighbourhood, Maputo City, Mozambique.

Introduction: This architecture thesis is an attempt to revitalize the Masjid Baraza Mosque Street in Maputo City, Mozambique. The idea for the project came about when it was realised that the death of a leafy tree that had been planted in the middle of the space to make room for automobiles’ entrance had killed the spirit of the area where numerous activities had previously taken place. The following factors contributed to the development of the proposal:

1. Community public spaces — Public areas in a community that first have qualities of self-belonging and later have qualities of gathering, neighbourhood, and work (often referred to as informal).

2. Relevance — A term that relates to an object’s physical characteristics and dynamics.

3. Memory — Memory is what allows areas, points, and channels to be used and preserved. Up until a certain point, a portion of them contribute significantly to the physical layout of space.

4. New uses — A proposal to enhance a certain spatial set that incorporates obstacles and/or factors that affect the construction and deconstruction of the set.

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Site Context

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Aerial Drone Photography of Mosque Masjid Baraza Street
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Historical elements that generated the neighborhood
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Type of historic houses and their variation

Masjid Baraza Mosque Street features antique homes made of wood, metal, and zinc sheets, the majority of which were constructed before 1975 at specific historic locations. It is a path with built-up elements of memory. Part of them have endured over time and space, but others have vanished, been altered, or been replaced.

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Entrance of Goa Street with detail of a wood and zinc historic house
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Goa Street

From the corner to the cloistered, a set of significant articulated spaces and on-site memory required intervention. The site analysis focused on the area within the aspect of the memories it contained.

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Entrance of Masjid Baraza Street
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Marien Nguabi Avenue

Following this strategy from the start, there was a need to preserve many of the historical objects and collect other lost elements along the way. Another major objective was to connect public spaces and isolated places on the street.

Design Process

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Built vs unbuilt spaces in 2019
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Pedestrian behaviour along the street

The first occupants of this neighbourhood came from coastal towns on the Islands of Zanzibar, Comoros, Seychelles, Angoche, and Island of Mozambique, where fishing is the primary source of livelihood. This was discovered by studying the elements floating in space and time that were connected to this place.

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Ideas at the beginning stage
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Types of ropes fold used to study and select the one’s used for the project

Identifying the elements to be implemented while designing was aided by taking photos, looking at satellite photographs, talking to senior people, young people, and children who frequently use public space, as well as hand-drawn analyses of each area of the street. It was also helpful to comprehend how they might be put together to restore this historic street, which has many old homes along with the first mosque constructed in the Mafalala neighbourhood.

Final Outcome

Floor Plan of the proposal
Floor Plan of the proposal
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Tridimensional drawings of each transformation along the street and Sections

As part of the thesis, a single roof structure was proposed that unified the spaces in Masjid Baraza Mosque Street, Mafalala neighbourhood, Maputo City, and the historic structures were restored to their original appearance.

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Layers of the project – Punctuating the landscape of the street and arranging public niches according to their history

Additionally, it was determined at the conclusion of this work that activities in public spaces primarily occur in linear spaces that are frequently associated with trade and, secondarily, in little pockets of space that are very rich in spatial diversity.

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Before and after intervention in the middle of the street (Masjid Baraza second sector of the street)
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Rebirth of Lifalala dance – After the transformation of the area 5
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Column and connections details

Furthermore, it was established that particular areas of focus are a result of the built environment’s composition, morphological organisation, and plot boundaries, and that the communal public space is the one that conveys a memory of the past. One example is the “Mpama” tree, which typically is left outside the plot by the inhabitants because their forefathers advised them not to cut it. People often recall fond memories of their childhoods spent in the public places developed surrounding these trees over the years.

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Tridimensional drawing of the proposal

Conclusion: Through a variety of design interventions that have relevance to the history of the site, and collective memory or people, this architecture thesis as a whole accomplishes the objective of reviving the spirit of an urban region where countless activities once took place.

[This Academic Project has been published with text submitted by the student]

Site Context

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis

Design Process

Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis

Final Outcome

Floor Plan of the proposal
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis
Mafalala – Community Urban Spaces, Memory, Relevance and New Uses | Urban Revitalization | Architecture Thesis

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