TITLE:
The Footprint of Walking and Street Activities to the Architecture of the Street: The Case of Dar es Salaam
AUTHORS:
Fortunatus Bahendwa, Henry Rimisho, Angelica Katama
KEYWORDS:
Walking, Street Architecture, Socio-Economic Activities, Spatial Design
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.7 No.3,
September
5,
2019
ABSTRACT: Street and the activities bound within it associate the social, cultural,
economic and spatial significance with walking, apart from its mobility aspect
of moving from point A to B. The conventional requirement for street design
provides for distinctive and defined spatial organization, visual expression and
functions. Given to socio-economic condition of the population in cities of
least developed countries, street has become
part of platform for both walking and economic activities. In this respect, the
streets are exposed to transforming formal and informal socio-economic
activities amidst the hardly isolated function of walking. Such street dynamics
have influenced the street organization and hence the architecture of the
street questioning the authenticity of conventional design orthodox. The case
study is done in Dar es Salaam city to acquire empirical data that provide
insight on such phenomenon. It is revealed that the influence of socio-economic
activities in streets overrules the
conventional requirements such that they shape the walking condition and the
architecture of the street. Thus, it is concluded that the design for walking
has to take into consideration the socio-economic context of the locality and
its impact to the architecture of the street in order to achieve convenience of
both walking and the street visual expression.