NEW NATIONALCAPITALS

No new town typology is more indicative of the political andeconomic belief in speculative urbanization than the New NationalCapital. At present, no fewer than six new capital cities are beingplanned or constructed on the African continent—in essence 1 outof every 9 countries in Africa is building a new capital city. LikeCanberra, Washington D.C. and Brasília before them, these citiesare intended to project what an individual country aspires to be, asmuch as what it represents today. In this way, the appearance ofthis typology makes clear the perceived correlation between globalpolitical and economic status, and the production of novel or iconicurban form.The correlation between iconic urban form and a projection ofpolitical power is not new. What is unique however, is the inversionof this relationship to the point where the physical construction ofthe constituent components of the “global city” are now believedto be an expedient means to an end, rather than a direct product ofreal, growing economic and political status.

TECHNO / INDUSTRYCITIES

Another category of speculative urbanization that is frequentlybeing pursued on the African continent is also primarily orientedtowards the desire to attract foreign investment. However, ratherthan investment from individuals, these technology- or industrysectornew towns are geared primarily towards attracting capitaland/or partnerships from established foreign corporations andinstitutions. Here, universities, latent markets, strategic locationadvantages, and infrastructure upgrades are all leveraged as thebasis for proposing new urban settlement.What is striking when reviewing these proposals is not so muchtheir rationale for being—economic activity has historically beenthe driver of physical urbanization—but rather how little of theseproposals relate to the industry or technology that is supposedly attheir core. Too often, of the thousand-hectares or so commonlyassociated with a particular urbanization project, less than onequarterwill be devoted to the driver industry. The remainingportions are instead turned over to a familiar recipe of mixed-useactivities that does nothing more than replicate any of a numberof new town proposals being seen across the African continent.

NEW CBD / FINANCIALCITIES

As has been mentioned elsewhere in this exhibition, physical urban growth has historically been understood as the result of economic growth. However, at some point over the last 30 years, this relationship has been inverted. Now, with the advent and proliferation of global city rankings, alongside the urban spectacles being rapidly produced in China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, there is an increasing belief in physical urbanization as the ultimate driver of economic production. In this way, city building is now seen as an industry in and of itself—the most expedient means of generating foreign investment, low-skill high-paying jobs, and, most importantly, the image of modernity and prosperity.The speculative urbanization typology most illustrative of this inverted economic correlation is the New Central Business District or Financial City. Modeled specifically on the gleaming urban centers of Dubai, Singapore and Shanghai—to name just a few—these proposals for new urban settlement are driven less by the financial activities they are supposedly planned to house, than by the image of economic power that they are intended to project. Crystalline high-rises are rarely the best solution to an intractable socio-economic urbanistic challenge. Developing whole fields certainly doesn’t improve the efficacy of the type.

MIDDLECLASSHOUSING

Perhaps the most common speculative urbanization format beingseen on the African continent today is what we refer to as theMiddle Class New Town. These are developments said to beundertaken with the explicit intent of accommodating a particularcountry’s so-called “growing middle class.” This populationis projected to appear as a result of rural to urban migrationin combination with the economic expansion associated withmodernization.What is at issue with this particular format is that much of thehousing being produced is simply inaccessible to the generalpopulation from a financial point of view without substantialgovernment subsidies that many of the destination countriessimply cannot afford to provide. As a result, this particular type ofdevelopment can remain empty and physically deteriorating yearsafter its construction.In other instances, projects that are billed as being oriented toa particular population in need—in order to gain approvals orgovernment incentives—are ultimately built and sold to a verydifferent population. The rationale behind this shift is often said tobe the market. However, given the frequency with which it occurs,one might presume ulterior motives are often at play from thebeginning.

SOCIAL / SUBSIDIZED HOUSING

The development type that is perhaps most in demand on the African continent is also the one that is least frequently associated with the speculative endeavors illustrated herein. However, when we do find examples of large scale social housing projects, they are often tied to another kind of speculation—a quid pro quo for the rights to a portion of a country’s natural resources in exchange for the construction of the housing in question. The risk in such an agreement is enormous as many African countries are essentially mortgaging their future economic health in exchange for urbanization upgrades today.While China is often associated with these urbanization-for-resource-rights deals, a number of other global players are also participating in a kind of soft colonialism. In fact, one could argue that many of the urbanization programs promoted by the World Bank, UN Habitat, and other IGOs are intended to not only improve the quality of life for the average African, but to explicitly open up the continent’s various markets to outside global economic activity.

TOURIST +ENTERTAINMENT ENCLAVES

One of the most common speculative urbanization formats is the increasingly ubiquitous tourist and entertainment enclave. Following on the dubious urban growth models established in places like Spain and the Middle East, these resort cum urbanization projects are predicated on the open-ing up of an exotic landscape to foreign populations and their associated investment dollars. How-ever, unlike their 20th century predecessors, these entertainment and resort complexes are anything but mono-functional. Rather, in addition to expansive shopping venues, climate controlled “public” realms, “luxurious” accommodations, and vast entertainment provisions, these developments are increasingly including somewhat unexpected provisions such as central business districts, “main streets,” and in some cases even, education facilities.In this context, it is perhaps interesting to note the distinction between the African continent’s most common retail and entertainment format, the American-style mall, and these service-driven urban conurbations. While the typology of the former is often pejoratively associated with a kind of suburbanization, it has taken on its own very particular (and often successful) urbanistic form within the African context. The latter on the other hand, while seemingly more conventionally “urban” in its composition, is in fact far less inclusive from a socio-economic perspective.

LUXURY HOUSING ESTATES

Many of the myriad housing programs identified as part of this research are marketed as being oriented to one demographic (middle-class) only to eventually be implemented in such a way that the anticipated population is either unable to afford the housing product or is uninterested in purchasing the housing in question. As a result, for many property developers on the African continent, the safest bets are in the production of luxury housing that offers that greatest margins relative to the cost of production—particularly in contexts where more efficient building production techniques are not available. This aspirational housing is most often deployed in combination with the creation of secured areas of exception (enclaves) within the extents of existing metropolitan contexts. Such conspicuous excess—both real and implied—stands in stark contrast with the everyday realities of many of these projects’ destination countries.These projects, like the increasingly promoted middle class new towns discussed elsewhere in this exhibit, are clearly inaccessible to the vast majority of the African population. However, unlike those examples that disingenuously claim to be undertaken in service of a country’s growing urban populations, these developments make no pretenses about their desired clientele and intent—the monied elite and their associated investment dollars.

RADICAL REDEVELOPMENT

The bulk of the proposed urbanization projects included in this exhibition are planned for peripheral urban conditions—either at the extreme edge of existing urban settlement, or in entirely undeveloped greenfield sites. However, we have also chosen to include a handful of projects that are not intended for the edge, but rather are planned for the core. Their inclusion here has less to do with their particular geographic location than it does with their proposed scale—whole districts of an existing city—and the radical incongruity of what is being proposed relative to what is being re-placed.It is this notion of replacement that is the fundamental basis for inclusion of these projects in this atlas. The examples of Radical Redevelopment included herein are so extreme, so unconcerned with their proposed destinations, that one must question the core logic behind them. This questioning does not dissent from the basic understanding that these existing urban centers are in urgent need of upgrades to their infrastructure and settlement. What it does challenge is the notion that a successful urban condition can simply be reproduced in another context, despite fundamental differences in political control, capital resources and land tenure. And that this reproduction can be achieved in just a fraction of the time it took the reference model to achieve its presumed success.

GREENFIELD MEGA CITIES

Notwithstanding the sheer delirium of many of the speculative urbanization projects illustrated in this research, there is one notable new town typology that outdoes them all—the Greenfield Mega City. While the majority of the exurban development included herein ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand hectares, there are a collection of active proposals for new African urban centers that are so large they must be described as Mega-Cities. These projects are often proposed to be tens of thousands of hectares in size and include every conceivable element of contemporary city-making—from international airports to foreign trade zones to new financial centers to vast arrays of housing. In many ways, these projects represent an accumulation of many of the other typologies described in this exhibition.While none of the proposed Greenfield Mega Cities have yet been implemented, we can say with near assurance that however they ultimately end up, it will be radically different from how they were originally conceived.

SETTLEMENT FUTURES