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By: Fortunatus Bahendwa.
Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa
Residential architecture in rapidly urbanizing African cities often reflects standardized planning logics that assume fixed household structures and stable room functions. Yet, lived housing practices frequently reveal a different reality: dwellings evolve as sociocultural and socioeconomic requirements change over time. This article examines how user requirements are reflected through the transformation of residential plots and house layouts in Mlalakuwa, a high-demand settlement in Dar es Salaam. Drawing on field observation and mapped change narratives from 15 residential cases, the study treats post-occupancy modification as empirical evidence of “fit” (or mismatch) between initial design intentions and everyday living requirements. Findings show that transformation is widespread and patterned: most cases exhibit medium-to-very-high change intensity, largely driven by supplementary income generation through renting, changing household composition, religious practice needs, security concerns, and the need to sustain outdoor domestic life under densification. The paper then revises a socio-spatial conceptual framework that positions the house as a sociocultural construct and uses comparative typological/configurational reading to translate locally grounded dwelling logics into context-responsive design principles. The article concludes with a set of design propositions for residential layouts that can better accommodate incremental development, indoor–outdoor continuity, livelihood adaptation, and culturally shaped privacy and hospitality practices.
Keywords: User requirements, incremental housing, post-occupancy transformation, socio-cultural dwelling, rental adaptation
Citation:
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