Rwanda, with its population of 12,600,000, growing 2.8% yearly, and significant investments in infrastructure and construction in its capital Kigali and six secondary cities identified as economic poles of growth, aims to achieve a 35% urbanisation rate by 2024. Kigali and Rwanda’s secondary cities are currently revising their master plans in response to the pressure of rapid urban growth in infrastructure and services. To address the lack of public spaces in its cities, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Rwanda Housing Authority, local authorities, the Global Green Growth Institute, and other stakeholders have committed to deliver a range of activities in this area. Their commitments include the assessment of public spaces, which will be used as a baseline for the purpose of reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals public space indicators (11.7) and further revision of the master plans of Rwanda’s secondary cities. This article firstly builds on the existing knowledge and understanding of public spaces in Rwanda’s planning documents, followed by an examination of how multiple actors in Rwanda interact in order to promote a nation-wide public space agenda. The main findings indicate emerging forms of innovative collaboration and partnerships for public spaces involving all levels of the Rwandan government, development partners, the civil society sector, and other stakeholders. The article concludes that, as planning documents and strategies on public spaces are in place and in line with the recommendations of the New Urban Agenda, given the limited budget for its development, Rwanda needs access to innovative funding sources in order to effectively implement public space initiatives across the country.
Development countries in Africa will see 75% increase of its current building stock until 2060 due to the economic development, rapid urbanization and population growth. Rwanda?s Third National Communication under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change estimates that the carbon dioxide emissions from buildings will increase by 574% by 2050 in the business as usual scenario. The aim of this paper puts sustainable architecture and green buildings in a context of rapidly urbanizing Rwanda, showing five recently constructed brick buildings that exploit the culture while meeting the sustainability demands of the 21st century. Global sustainability agendas are advocating for the use of brick for its durability, quality, with environmental, economic, and social benefits for construction sector. This paper provides insights on the policies, such as the Green Building Minimum Compliance System, advocating for the use of brick as a sustainable construction material. Despite the rapid urbanization in Rwanda, the existing sustainable construction practices help in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, while this paper also documents results on social and economic perspectives for the community from construction sector.
Ranko Radovic (1935-2005) was one of Serbia?s most notable architects, urbanists, and professors, with a prominent influence on European scholarly discussions on planning urban centers and public spaces, which have come to light not only through his research design proposals but also through numerous publications, seminars, conferences and lecture notes. The importance of Radovic lies in his profound and early understanding of urban issues that became common across Europe in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He focused on the composition, ideologies, traditionality and innovation of cities, while striving to create paradigmatic shifts in urban design with the parallel retainment of strong cultures. Radovic, strongly influenced by his European experiences, created urban schemes based on his strong ideals that were a product of deep urban perception and collective criticism deriving from his experiential research. As a result, this paper seeks to show and discuss how his time and practice in Finland, and particularly his research designs for the areas of Herttoniemi and Vuosaari in Helsinki (1995-1996), shaped how he perceived the concepts of urban spatial identification, geometry, and historicity, and how these elaborations evolved through his urban planning and design schemes in Serbia?s northern province of Vojvodina (1997-2000).
With a population of close to 13 million, and an annual growth rate of 2.86 percent, Rwanda plans to position itself as a climate resilient, low carbon, low unemployment, reduced poverty country, with a strong services sector by 2050. Its projected increase in its urbanization rate from a current value of 18.4 percent to 35 percent by 2024 is driven by strong political will, significant investments in infrastructure, service provision, and human capital development. Rwanda’s secondary cities, identified as economic nodes of growth, are currently undergoing revision of their masterplans in consideration of climate change realities and the pressure on infrastructure and services due to rapid urbanization. Currently, cities in Rwanda do not yet have a system of public open spaces. Where available, such spaces are usually hardly accessible and need upgrading. To address this, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Rwanda Housing Authority, City of Kigali and six secondary cities have committed to deliver on public open space related activities and targets under the yearly performance contract ‘Imihigo’. The outcomes of their commitments support the climate-responsive revision of masterplans of the City of Kigali and six secondary cities. This paper presents public open space initiatives in Kigali and the results of the technical assessment of public open spaces and participatory planning and design workshop in Nyagatare, secondary city in Rwanda’s. It also discusses ongoing policy changes and initiatives that aim to promote public open spaces as crucial for urban public health.
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