Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania, 2021

Dar es Salaam Today March 24, 2021

Dar es Salaam city is the commercial capital of Tanzania. It is located on the eastern part of the country, and with a population of 4 364 541 as of 2012 census, is the largest city in East Africa. Administratively, Dar es Salaam consists of five urban districts, namely: Dar es Salaam City Council formerly Ilala District, as well as municipalities of Temeke, Kinondoni, Ubungo, and Kigamboni. Downtown Dar es Salaam alias the CBD is situated in Dar es Salaam city council's area of jurisdiction.

Spatially, the overall spatial form of the city is radial, emanating from a system of four major roads, i.e., Kilwa Road, Nyerere Road, Morogoro Road, and Bagamoyo Road, that radiate from the CBD and link the city with the hinterland. In terms of urban solids and voids, the city consists of predominantly high-rise buildings with mushrooming modern skyscrapers in the CBD, with buildings of decreasing heights towards the periphery.

However, while the vertical urban plane is becoming incredibly impressive with aesthetically appealing buildings that are architecturally innovative and even metaphorical particularly in the CBD, the horizontal urban plane leaves much to be desired. So far, there seems to be no serious urban design efforts and investments in urban space treatment or creation of new well designed and furnished public urban spaces like squares, plazas, pedestrianized shopping streets, paved walkways, treated pavements, parks, etc.

The above weakness of the city's spatial form seems to emanate from flawed urban design approach by which new individual buildings are inserted into existing urban fabrics without paying heed to the horizontal urban plane, hence giving priority to the vertical urban plane. But then, the horizontal urban plane is equally or probably most important spatial aspect of the city! Since time immemorial, greatness of cities has always emanated from the complexity and quality of their urban voids.

People's experience of the vertical urban plane is indirect, often aesthetical and reinforced mainly by spatial appearance, shape, and size. Some aspects of the vertical urban plane like skyline may not even be fully accessible for experiencing from the ground level.

However, people’s experience of the horizontal urban plane, is direct. While it can also be aesthetical, it is mainly social and economical. It is on the horizontal urban plane where people walk, sit, work, eat, play, rest, communicate, etc. The functional roles of the horizontal urban plane are mainly reinforced by the types, construction quality, and spatial organization of urban space outfitting as well as the material used for such outfitting.

Finally, but not least, Dar es Salaam city offers ample facilities and services that include: an international airport that has recently undergone massive expansion with a brand new state-of-the-art third terminal; several universities and institutes; world class hotels including top brand hotels like Hyatt Regency, Sheraton, Hilton, Ramada, Rotana, and Golden Tullip; great restaurants and night clubs; banks; hospitals; world class football stadium; and golf ground.

The photo video above, is a 2021 update of our 2018 photo video about Dar es Salaam city. It therefore omits most of the photos of the earlier video and presents new photos that portray physical developments completed, took place, or under construction after 2018.

Such developments include new terminal 3 at Julius Nyerere International Airport; new traffic interchange at Ubungo; recently launched five-star hotels including, among others, Five Points By Sheraton, and Johari Rotana Hotel; as well as new apartment blocks nearing completion in Kinondoni municipality called Magomeni Kota.

Some older photo dating back to 2018 and earlier in the video are purely illustrative for emphasizing some features of the city like suburban areas, beaches, and social life.

Take a look at the video everybody and enjoy!!!

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Video music by

https://www.bensound.com

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