The world’s big cities are growing upwards – and in new ways

In Dakar, extensions go up rather than out – and not always strictly by the book. The research project Vertical Informality investigates new forms of settlement in the Global South, and Nikolai Brandes has just returned home from fieldwork in Senegal.

11.11.2026

Strictly speaking, it is Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, that is the starting point for the project, which investigates how big cities in the Global South are increasingly seeing settlement grow upwards. Here you see unregulated extensions, sometimes done DIY-style. Part of the explanation is that people employed in the city avoid disproportionately long commutes this way.

Postdoctoral researcher Nikolai Brandes has now been to Dakar to see whether the settlement pattern mirrors what he has seen in Maputo. And the conclusion is that there are significant differences owing to the countries’ and cities’ histories. This is reflected, among other things, in different administrative cultures.

Construction going on in Dark, Senegal. Photo: Nikolai Brandes

“In Mozambique, the state’s resources are extremely limited, and it is openly acknowledged that settlement cannot be fully regulated. In Senegal, which has been relatively democratic since the mid-1970s, regulation is better, but not complete,” says Nikolai Brandes.

Higher than the municipality allows

In the Médina district, for example, he saw buildings of 10–12 storeys where permission had only been granted for eight. But he also saw extensions that were carried out in a more organised way than in Maputo, namely by medium-sized construction companies with profit in mind, as opposed to the more homemade buildings in Maputo, where people build for their own needs.

Housing block in Dakar. Photo: Nikolai Brandes.

“There is a large Senegalese diaspora that sends money home. That makes somewhat larger investment projects possible in the middle class. People in these cities are developing clever and, by avoiding further use of soil, even ecological ways to deal with spatial limitations. There is clearly potential for us all to learn something from these strategies and practises”, says Nikolai Brandes.

The question of who can build, and where and how, is central to the research project Vertical Informality. The project brings together architecture, anthropology and history, combining spatial mapping, architectural surveys, archival research and ethnographic fieldwork.

In addition to Nikolai Brandes, Morten Nielsen, visiting professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture, takes part as project leader. He is currently at the main location, Maputo, on three weeks of fieldwork. The project runs through 2027 and is funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Read the project description
Photos: Nikolai Brandes.