Dar Es Salaam - feasibility study and analysis of city and landscape
Our office has set up this study of the urban region of Dar Es Salaam, for which we are working closely together with local institutions and international experts in the field of urban planning and demographics.

forecast
After the extraordinary expansion of Asian cities over the last three decades, the predictions are that the next region of change will be Africa. Changes will most certainly include a further degree of urbanization.
The United Nations databank forecasts that between 1995 - 2015, 18 of the 40 fastest growing cities in the world will be African cities. By 2015, 9 of the 50 biggest cities in the world will be African.

Dar Es Salaam - capital of Tanzania - is, according to the UN, estimated to grow from 1.8 million inhabitants in 1996 to an expected 3.8 million by 2015. But already last year, the department for urban planning in Dar Es Salaam, estimated that between 4 to 6 million people were living in the city. The growth-rate is so enormous that official figures from a census are out of date the minute they are published. Beside that, the official census does not give a reliable overview of the actual physical situation; houses are built continuously on all available open land - in river valleys and on steep slopes of hills - with the associated risks of destruction through flooding by water or mud.

Where will this growth take place? Where will be the logical areas for development? And how will this urban expansion take place? Our main objective is to get an understanding of the constructive layers of the urban region of Dar Es Salaam, by studying its recent development history, eventually attempting to indicate potential areas for expansion and development. This study forms part of an ongoing investigation into other areas of the continent.