Lean Urbanism in Central Africa

Building and improving the resilience of villages, towns and cities in developing regions of the world and in Central Africa specifically, demands a lean approach of small-scale, incremental developments that require fewer resources to incubate and mature. This chapter views the pathways to Lean Urbanism in Africa through the lens of its physical scales, development patterns, regulatory standards and zoning anomalies. Both time-tested strategies and innovations in design and construction, essential in the building of resource-efficient, durable, and healthy communities, differ in the methods and practices from those deployed in the United States (US) and European Union (EU) where the movement of Lean Urbanism began, because of great differences in the physical, social, and economic contexts.