Helena Fernandes De Raeymaeker

Kikanzu Cambamba

 Embracing informality and resilience in Luanda’s public space


Zungueira - Angolese for female street vendor  
Musseque - Angolese for slum, favela, an area where construction is not regulated.
Kikanzu - Angolese (Kimbundu dialect) for neighborhood, village, family

Welcome to Angola. During my first visit to the capital, I was amazed by the liveliness of the public space. City life here is fascinating and very dynamic. Streets and squares in Luanda are so busy and intensively used that the road and the sidewalk become one large shared space where people meet, children play, products are bought and sold, etc. In Luanda, public space is created organically rather than through formal planning. Especially zungueiras and children bring life, colour and shape to these places. That is why this project focuses on them and their most common living environment: the musseque.

The landscape of the musseque and therefore also the interactions and activities that take place there are the most vulnerable to the enormous consequences of our changing climate, namely flooding, water nuisance and heat stress. In Amsterdam, climate adaptation has become a core value for design and is already anchored in policy making, but in Luanda the urban area is growing so fast that planners cannot keep up with climate adaptive interventions.

The resilience that we as landscape architects strive for in urban landscapes is still invisible in Angola and this graduation project seeks to change that.

Looking at the natural conditions of the landscape around the Cambamba river in the Cassequel district, I see the richness of Angolan nature as a key to solutions for flooding, water nuisance and heat stress in the public space. The river becomes a source of life and change in this neighborhood.

The design builds on the existing qualities of the place and strengthens what is already there: a resilient community. Schools, informal markets, green-blue streets and meeting places support a community that is able to adapt. People live close together, seek shelter under trees or canopies, sell goods, take care of their families and maintain a rich network of daily interactions.

The river functions as a connector – the lifeline and driving force behind change in Luanda’s urban environment.
 

Graduation date: 8 May 2025
Graduation committee: Marieke Timmermans (mentor), Aura Luz Melis, Philomene van der Vliet
Additional members for the exam: Jana Crepon, Remco van der Togt