Urban Design

"Urban design is the process of designing and shaping cities, towns and villages."

I have never lived in a big city - I grew up in a suburb of Harare (Salisbury to me), lived for many years in a village near Portugal's second largest city, Porto (which is still tiny compared to London or New York) and now live in an even smaller village a few kilometres from the beach resort of Albufeira, on the Algarve coast. 

But my heart belongs to Harare, a well-organised city with lots of modern buildings, tree-lined avenues and well-planned green spaces.

Here are two photos by my friend, Judy Jane (I've posted the second one before).

For many more photos, have a look on skyscraper.com. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the quality of Harare's urban design.

This post is part of the Sunday post challenge hosted by Jake. Check out more Urban Design at Jakesprinters.

Wonderful

Jake is back (Yay!) and he has suggested the theme wonderful for today's Sunday post.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, wonderful is an adjective that means "inspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration; extremely good; marvellous".

 

Well, when I was a child growing up in a suburb of Harare, my parents would take me to the largest park in the centre of the city. (I can't remember what it was called then; now it is called Harare Gardens). I was small, it was enormous and full of beautiful flowers and trees. It inspired in me delight, pleasure and admiration!

 

We used to visit the Garden before the Monomatapa Hotel was built

 

Unfortunately they never took me to Victoria Falls! Much later, when I visited Zimbabwe in 1985 I was hoping to have the chance of finally going there but my godfather said it wasn't safe, so I didn't go. All the pictures I've seen convince me that those Falls are absolutely wonderful!

 

Don't forget to visit Jake's blog for links to other entries.

City

"City" is Jake's choice of theme for this week's Sunday post.

Harare

I have actually never lived in the centre of a city. I grew up in a suburb of Harare (called Salisbury at the time). This city has a very special place in my heart.

Harare (view from The Kopje)

Harare (view from the Meikles Hotel)

These photos were taken by my friend Judy, in 1996.

Funchal

Some time ago I visited the island of Madeira and fell in love with the city of Funchal. If I didn't have a phobia of travelling by plane I would have put in for a transfer there. It is a very beautiful place.

Funchal (view from our hotel in the older part of the city)

Funchal

Funchal (view from the Botanical Garden)

For other entries, visit Jake's blog.

Road

Jake has suggested "Road" as the theme for this week's Sunday post.

I am partial to the tree-lined variety.

Road through the spa town of Caldelas, near Braga, northern Portugal

I also like roads that have lots of interesting things to see on either side.

Samora Machel Avenue, running all the way through the city of Harare, Zimbabwe (Jameson Avenue)

The road between S. B. Messines and Algoz in the Algarve is very boring in comparison.

When I arrived seven years ago people were already complaining about it. I later found out why - it wasn't very wide, lacked markings and good lighting but had loads of pot-holes. In the rainy, winter months it was hell to navigate!

Like every normal person, I love roads to be safe and well-paved.

Each time elections came, whether it be national or local elections, politicians always promised to fix this particular road but nothing happened. It seemed nothing would ever change. There were protests by the local population and more promises from the politicians and again nothing happened. It went on and on and on.

Last year when I read that they were actually going to do something about it, I thought, "Yeah, right, I'll believe it when I see it."

And I finally saw it today! It still needs markings and pavements and good lighting, etc. but it has a new tarmac!

Lots of people who live in Messines and work in Albufeira can finally give a sigh of relief. 

Jake's comments' section, has lots more interesting takes on this week's theme, but I would also like to suggest you take a look at the magnificent photos of a road on a blog I follow, Zimbabwe Absurdity.

Also on my blog: Flamboyant tree-lined streets in Harare

Design

This is the Eastgate Centre! (It's the building with lots of chimneys on top.)
 

What makes it truly remarkable is that this "green" building is ventilated and cooled by natural means, inspired by the self-cooling termite mounds of Africa!

 Eastgate Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe -  image by David Brazier,

  (CC BY-SA license)
 source: this Wikipedia article

Opened in1996 in central Harare, it is a mid-rise shopping centre and office block which has over 5 000 m2 of retail space, 26 000 m2 of office space and parking for over 400 cars.

Inside, a comfortable temperature is achieved without conventional air-conditioning and heating so it consumes less than 10% of the energy that other buildings of the same size require. Isn't that fantastic?

The architect, Mick Pearce, specialises in eco-friendly buildings that are low cost and low maintenance, using resources that are available locally. Unsurprisingly, he has won several awards for his designs.

You can find more pictures and information at: Green Building in Zimbabwe Modeled After Termite Mounds | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

and here.


For more info on this Sunday Post Challenge visit Jake's blog.

I'm African and proud of it!

Well, I've started my first blog and named it "Africa to Algarve" so I guess it's about time I added a post about Africa.

Where to start?

I had a life in Africa. It was a good life. 

The capital, Salisbury (Harare) had many tree-lined streets and my love of trees began there.

Blakiston Street - Harare, 1975 (from wikipedia - photo by Graham Bould)

One of my favourites was the Flamboyant Tree with its large flame-coloured flowers - a breathtaking sight in summer.

In 1970 my mother and I spent a few months in Portugal with my Portuguese granny and extended family. The only things I remember liking were the many shades of green of the Portuguese countryside and summer days that only ended after 9p.m. due to Daylight Saving Time. I was so overjoyed when my dad sent us our return tickets that one of my cousins felt offended!

Then in 1977 my parents decided that it would be safer to up sticks and return to Portugal. Angola and Mozambique were seriously messed up by then and bombs were going off in shops in the centre of Salisbury. 

We left before Rhodesia turned into Zimbabwe and civil war and dictatorship ruined my beautiful, prosperous country. 

I hate to end a post on such a sad note but devastated is how I feel after reading that life expectancy in Zimbabwe is now one of the lowest in the world!

 

Storks and the city

As I was parking my car early on Friday morning I heard a flapping sound nearby, looked over the wall of a delapidated factory and found myself staring at about six white storks and their nests, right in the middle of the Silves town centre! 

 The sighting of these birds reminded me fondly of when I was a child growing up in a suburb of Salisbury (now Harare). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stork

Storks (black storks, I think) were frequent visitors to the grassy plots next to our house, but they disappeared when those plots were built up. 

  

Did you know that in 2000 a stork's nest got tangled in power lines and caused a blackout all over Lisbon and southern Portugal? No? Well I didn't either, I was living in the north of the country then!

 

Now protected and off the endangered list, they continue to make their enormous nests in high places - on the top of electricity pylons and even on chimneys and palm trees in the centre of this Algarve town.

 

How could I have been going into Silves quite often for almost 3 years and have only seen them now?