Built on the alluvial plain of Kinshasa, the planned city of Matete is bordered on its peripheral areas by green spaces and benefits from a diversity of housing types and facilities laid out on serviced grids, compared to other neighborhoods of the city. Demographic pressure, population densification, and the spread of self-built housing on the former grid-based urban fabric—largely driven by rural exodus, the departure of colonial settlers on the eve of independence, the decline of the National Housing Office (ONL), the anarchic occupation of land extending to the foothills of hilly zones in complicity with the customary authorities of the time, and finally the shift to the rent-to-own system during the Zairianization period—are among the main factors underlying the current transformation of this former turnkey housing area.
A local land-use and development plan has now become necessary in order to address the effects of this spontaneous growth generated by upward urbanization.
All articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Show abstract
Full Text