Contributory Practices – Grassroots Urbanization in Ethiopia

The architects Zegeye Cherenet Mamo and Marc Angélil have been collaborating over the past decades on a series of projects across Ethiopia in education, research, and practice. Building on initiatives such as the establishment of the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development and the rural model town Bura-NEST, they discuss questions of spatial planning that is socially and ecologically equitable in addition to future forms of urbanization in the Horn of Africa. In their conversation, they make a case for contributory practices as a countermodel to capitalist spatial production—practices grounded in participation, contextual responsiveness, and collaborative design.