Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Addis Ababa is the capital and economic engine of Ethiopia. Founded in 1886, it was not until the 1970s that low agricultural production and poverty in the Ethiopian countryside started to drive the migration that spurred the city’s rapid growth. In the early days, people settled along the Addis Ababa’s rivers and water bodies. Recent urban development has turned its back on these waterways by using them as sewers and garbage disposal sites. The urbanization pattern of the past decade has been marked by the government’s desire to fit the image of a world-class city worthy of being Africa’s diplomatic capital.

The Urban Design Studio’s goal is to develop spatial design concepts that strengthen the social, economic, and ecological capital for Addis Ababa. Rapid population growth has resulted in haphazard urbanization, including many Kebele neighborhood housing areas and high-rise condominium buildings. The city’s urban explosion has left its rivers and water bodies neglected; some were filled in to accommodate expansion. 

The 2017 master plan for Addis Ababa allows the development of many condominium buildings in the periphery of the city, where people from kebele housing in the prime downtown area are being moved to make way for the so-called “world-class downtown” projects. Beautifying Shegar is one such government-sponsored project that has already displaced a large number of kebele residents, who now live far from their livelihoods, public transport, and social infrastructure that low-income people need to survive and thrive.

After careful study of the Beautifying Shegar project and its impacts, the Urban Design Studio developed alternatives to the top-down planning process that would make Addis Ababa more resilient to climate shocks and usher in holistic development.The studio also explored the power and potential of water to make Addis Ababa a truly world-class city of the future.  

To further the “world-class vision” of Addis Ababa, the Prime Minister’s office launched the Beautifying Sheger Project in 2019. It aims to improve the city’s riverine areas to increase tourism and green space, and job opportunities during the three-year construction phase. The billion-dollar project will ultimately cover 56 kilometers of the city’s rivers by channeling it and constructing parks along its banks. 

The Beautifying Sheger Project is a part of a growing Chinese interest and investments in Ethiopia. The China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) is the contractor for the Beautifying Sheger pilot project. Foreign loans for infrastructure projects in railways, energy, and roads have furthered the legitimacy of the Ethiopian government and strengthened the country’s economy. However, loans and investments in speculative real estate and projects like Beautifying Shegar detract from holistic growth that should include the social and ecological capital of Addis and other Ethiopian cities.  Import of Chinese consumer goods (worth $3.4 billion in 2015) has hurt local industries since the exports from Ethiopia to China are less than one-tenth of the import amount. 

 Beautifying Sheger Project Video 

The Beautifying Shegar Project, funded by the Chinese government, was launched in late 2019. The first phase of development along the rivers in inner Addis Ababa has already begun. The project is being criticized for not providing adequate relocation housing for displaced residents, and for causing ecological damage to the water and natural systems of Addis that will reverberate for generations to come. The role of the Urban Design Studio is to focus on developing nature-based infrastructure systems that can enhance the city’s ecology and citizen stewardship, and make Addis a world-class, 21st-century city.

Urban Design Studio students and faculty visited Addis Ababa in February 2020. Through partnerships with the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction, and City Development (EiABC) and the Addis Ababa Resilience Project, they attended a series of lectures by experts in urban design and planning fields to better understand issues such as housing, water, sanitation, and green infrastructure in Addis. They also attended a lecture on the design process and goals of the Beautifying Sheger Project.

Accompanied by students and faculty from EiABC and local volunteers, the Urban Design studio teams visited five selected sites along the tributaries of the Great Akaki River. We walked along and across the rivers and communities at these sites to understand their physical, ecological and social conditions. We were also able to interview residents living and working along the rivers to better understand what their challenges are, what aspirations they have for their rivers, and how they view the Beautifying Sheger Project. Every evening, the students and faculty met to analyze our findings from our site visits with the aim of getting a holistic understanding of the challenges and opportunities the five site areas present.

On the last day of our stay in Addis Ababa, we presented our preliminary findings and concepts at The Urban Center, a popular hub for dialogue on urbanization and design. The presentation was open to the public and attended by local professionals, students, and interested citizens. We were grateful to receive constructive feedback on the principles we devised and the initial design concepts developed for the five sites—such input from local experts been crucial in guiding our work throughout the semester.

Our analysis led us to devise ten principles to guide our design concepts for holistic development that would strengthen and enhance the social, ecological and financial assets of Addis Ababa. This is not a list of things to do, but a reflection of the shared values of the Studio. 

The goal of the Urban Design Studio is to propose spatial design concepts that strengthen the social, economic, and ecological capital of Addis Ababa by pairing water programs with nature-based interventions, livelihoods, and social stewardship. After careful study of the top-down Beautifying Sheger Project and the city’s master plan, the Urban Design Studio teams developed alternatives that will make Addis Ababa more resilient to climate shocks, pandemics, and other crises that are likely to come. In particular, the power and potential of water to make Addis a genuinely world-class city of the 21st century was explored; many top cities now recognize that nature-based infrastructure enhances urban ecology, sustainability, and citizen's well-being.

The five sites selected for the Studio work sit along the path of the Beautifying Sheger Project, and were carefully studied during our visit to Addis. Beginning in the tight knit community of Kechene at the foot of the Entoto Mountains, we made our way through the heart of Addis Ababa and studied Piazza, the historic urban center and Ambassador, the city’s central business district. We also visited an urban farming community in Peacock Park, in the Bole district and finally the Akaki lowlands, an agricultural and industrial part of Addis close to the border of Oromiya region.

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