The Dialectics of Functional and Historical Morphology in the Evolution of a City: The Case of the Stone Town of Zanzibar

Abstract

This paper reports a study of historical and functional morphology of the Stone Town of Zanzibar in Tanzania. The town is interesting because its mostly fi ne-grained physical fabric with an irregular street grid shows a remarkable degree of consistency despite the fact that it evolved under signifi cantly different social, economic and political conditions. Therefore, the study of historical morphology was aimed at identifying if the town went through any structural changes despite its physical continuity; and the study of functional morphology was aimed at identifying the relationship between functions and the structure of the town. For historical morphology, three street maps representing three distinct historical phases of the town were studied using the techniques of the axial map analysis of Space Syntax. For functional morphology, the relationships between the axial structure of the present day street grid and land use patterns, ownership patterns, building classifi cations based on ethnic infl uences, signifi cant buildings and streetscape elements, and building conditions were studied explaining spatial distribution of functions in the town. The study found that the axial structure of this town had a diffused pattern of syntactic centrality that took different shapes in different phases of its development. The study also found that the axial structure of the town has been a strong force determining the present-day spatial distribution of functions in the town. Based on the fi ndings, the paper then describes a dialectical relationship between history and function in the Stone Town. By combining historical and functional morphology, this study provides a methodology for an enriched understanding of the morphological processes of growth and transformation of a city, in which historical and functional specifi city of the city is complemented by a more generic description of the street network offered by Space Syntax. As a result, the study contributes to standard Space Syntax analysis that usually takes a synchronic view of cities and spatial structures for the sake of a more generic theory of urban form; and to historical research that usually consults any number of historical sources for the sake of a rich description specifi c to a historical reality, but does not analyze the spatial morphology of cities in a comparative or systematic way. With the enriched morphological perspective of this study, it may now be possible to describe precisely the socio-spatial and spatio-temporal processes, emphasizing the relationship between design and the politics of power, of other traditional cities that went through similar historical experiences, as did the Stone Town of Zanzibar.