Design Yearbook 2017

Studio 1 – Caravanserai - Zanzibar
Prue Chiles & Claire Harper
This studio builds upon the body of work and progressive thinking of previous years in an ongoing research project, which seeks to understand
and conceptualise new paradigms for architecture and spatial planning in Zanzibar: a semi-autonomous archipelago on the East-African
‘Swahili Coast’. The projects all address tightly interwoven economic and socio-political issues but from different angles, and although the
chosen sites are spread around Unguja: Zanzibar’s largest and most populated island, just as much attention and conversation has gone into
the wider issues and connections. Collaboration began with a 2060 scenario-based mapping exercise, which through certain assumptions,
precedents, strategies, and the mediation of carefully measured contingencies, proposed a sustainable spatial schematic for Unguja in just
over 40 years time. In December 2016, the team travelled to Zanzibar to validate research to-date, and armed with individual mappings
of key subjects to be explored, they began to enrich their lines of enquiry. The countless interactions, observations and discussions; from
liaising with the Local Planning Department to designing and constructing a new public toilet block with a local NGO; were all invaluable
to understanding some of Zanzibar’s most pertinent development issues, so that they could be addressed through responsive and responsible
architectural proposals.
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Angie Hei Man Lau Empowering Rural Zanzibar