Re-Imaging Kigali: Public Space in the Informal Settlements

SOURCE Grant 2023-24
Crown Thesis Award 2024-25
Exhibited as part of the “Rwanda Housing Project” on Apr. 16, 2024

Site: Kigali, Rwanda
Advisor: Yutaka Sho
Research Assistant: Tianchi Zhao

2023-2025

"Informal settlements" is a contested term. It generally describes spontaneously built dwelling clusters without imposed urban planning, sometimes associated with "slums" and "ghettos," terms that carry negative connotations. Informal settlements are contested urban spaces. On the one hand, the Rwandan government, striving to paint a "modern" image of Kigali with shiny skyscrapers, sees the informal settlements as underdeveloped areas. The self-built neighborhoods in Rwanda are vibrant spaces that exhibit how people desire to live, and they provide alternative insights into how public spaces could be in an urban context. This project is critical because the region is relatively under-researched, and the informal settlements are quickly being demolished by the government of Rwanda.

From my first field trip to Rwanda in August 2023, generously funded by the SOURCE grant in 2023, I gathered a tremendous amount of data, which led to three preliminary arguments. First, due to material and spatial constraints, private life is radically exposed in public spaces in the informal settlements. Second, the public space in the informal settlements manifests a juxtaposition of globalization and its localization. Third, the public space exposes the paradox between the "informal" economy and the "formal" economy on a governmental management level. I will fully develop these arguments in an illustrated essay to be completed in May 2024.

I plan to continue my inquiry into this subject for my Honors Thesis. With additional funding for phase II, I will go back to Rwanda to fill the gaps in the already-gathered information and also expand my research to more informal neighborhoods in Kigali. I will also utilize my connections in the government sector, among the developers, and local architects, established from my last field trip, to generate conversations that are meaningful to the research. Additionally, I also plan to do field work in neighboring counties, Uganda and Kenya, to expand my arguments about the informal settlements to a larger territory. With the additional information, I will expand my research findings in the form of writing and drawings. In spring, 2025, as part of my architecture thesis project, I will also propose speculative architectural interventions in the informal settlements based on my research findings. The strategies will be defined after the arguments are formulated.

My research is important in two ways. From a practical perspective, the subjects of the research, informal settlements, are disappearing quickly. More than 7,000 houses in Kigali are currently labeled to be demolished. Documenting and analyzing these spaces with architectural disciplinary tools is an urgent task. Second, this research can directly inform the architecture practices and housing stakeholders on their development decisions. In my first visit to Kigali, I talked with architects who are local and foreign to Rwanda, government officials from the European Embassies who sponsor housing projects, and local residents. They expressed that the constructions and renovations need to be further instructed by well-grounded research of the informal settlements. This second phase of the research will strive to make the research conclusions accessible to these groups of people.