Informellt stadsbyggande i Östafrika
2005

When was the last time you had some good news from Africa? Usually when
reports from this continent are broadcasted, it’s about wars, epidemics, starvation,corruption or the stagnating economies.
In many ways Africa has remained a
Dark Continent from a western viewpoint. But isn’t there more to this picture - doesn’t inventiveness and private initiatives keep developing things anyway?
Lack of national economical development doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s
no development at all - and what kind of development is really desirable in the long run? Are there other ways to prosperity than those that we have been using in the west - and is it possible to translate this debate to the discourse of urban planning and architecture?
This book gives you news from Uganda; good as well as bad. It aims at bringing all these diffi cult questions into attention, adding to the global discourse on town-planning and development.
It collects essays, pictures, interviews, facts and observations from Kampala and its informally growing suburbia. Also included are some imaginary projects proposing various changes, ameliorations and design
interventions. Everything originating from a course held at the KTH school of
architecture in 2002. Since the African experience proved to be signifi cant in many ways, several of the students have later on decided to do their fi nal thesis work in different parts of
Africa. Jonas Jernberg even returned to Kampala together with Chalmers student
Andreas Huss to do a research based on the spatial consequences of urban
agriculture. Back home again, they both became co-editors of this book, together
with Martin Hedenström and Teres Selberg, who also have been responsible for
the graphic design. Not to forget the invaluable help from Christin Svensson.

The other Participants in the course were Jenny Andersson, Lena Stina
Andersson, Malin Belfrage, Anders Borg, Malin Dahlhielm, Anna Edblom,
Anna Elmquist, Lina Färje, Malin Hansson, Matts Ingman, Rodrigo Jorge,
Maria Jonsson, Yeneba King, Kajsa Laring, Eva Latour, Nico Liljenberg,
Louise Lindquist, Remi Mazzenga, Christina Rask, Jonas Torsvall, Charlotta
Turesson, Lida Voutsina. Assistant teachers were Helena Andersson, Martina
Sovré and Petter Kärnekull. Everyone has contributed to this book in one way or
another - making it obvious how much there is to be learnt from Kampala.

Informal Spaces
The informal spaces of Kampala are spaces of fl ow and interaction.
Moving through the settlement you experience a sensation of fl oating space. The notion
of direction is subtle. The feeling is like moving through nature, in a forest, on a fi eld or
on a water surface crossing between rocks in a boat. You feel you are moving freely on
a surface that is one and complete, undivided. Through this continuous surface you feel
you are connected to the environment in the wide sense.
Different directions of space are one main feature within the physical structure of the
informal settlements. This means that the physical structure is not the result of some
planner or architect having a vision about directing space. There is no system that is
planned, no axis, no grid, no exact measures what so ever. The spaces you experience are
the result of an organically development where one individual’s initiative is added on to
another. Together all these different initiatives create a settlement, a city, a whole.