Modern urban and architectural heritage conservation in a postcolonial context: Maputo's "City of Cement"

Abstract

Forty years after the Independence of Mozambique from Portugal (June 25th 1975), the difficulties in assessing and rehabilitating the modern architectural heritage of colonial origin are evident. The structural adjustment programmes, a consequence of contrasting doctrinal changes and expressed in the adoption of specific economic reforms, together with a prolonged civil war (1974-1992), have contributed to the progressive degradation of the historic urban centres and their services. This essay focuses on the built heritage of Maputo, and aims to deepen the knowledge of 20th century architecture and urban ambiences and of the particularities involved in the conservation of architectural heritage associated with the postcolonial context. The difficulty of this task is related to the specificities of “modernity” itself: the recognition of this patrimony and its tutelage, its routine maintenance, the deterioration of materials and infrastructures, the loss of functionality and adaptation to new functions, the changes in the surrounding areas and the fact that these spatial and conceptual spaces were developed within a distinct social, economical and cultural framework, extraneous to their contemporary condition.