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Akaki Lowland Urbanism envisions an innovative strategy to improve the livability as well as the socio-economic livehoods of residents in the encroached floodplain of Addis Ababa,Ethiopia. Instead of annual inundation and hardship in low lying areas inhabited by low-income and displaced populations, a strategy of establishing a low-ground + high-ground landscape that will foster livability on high ground as wel a adequate drainage of storm-water run-off and seasonal agricultural schemes on low ground, is proposed.

Incremental Floodplain Urbanism:The project envisions an alternative re-settlement strategy of ‘fingers of high ground’ that will re-use soil from cut and fill operations and dredged river silt to build the landform of the fingers. Then, an incremental building strategy will follow on top of the fingers based on the Kechene housing housing aggregation typology that intergrates housing with small-scale, private agricultural space as backyards. The low-ground areas between the fingers will become water collecting infrastructures during storm events while serving as ground for urban agriculture during the rest of the days of the year.New bridges and transportation hubs are also proposed along the spine of the fingers, which will enable people formerly living on the low-grounds to have better connections with the city and its infrastructure, and live with resilience, harmony and improved economic opportunity