What visions for the future of the “Greater Maputo”? What territorial images and analytical interpretations we can build on to envision long-term strategies and political decisions to promote integrated and sustainable development? Moving from these questions, through an innovative methodology and a transdisciplinary approach, the book offers a tool-kit for reading and rethinking the Maputo metropolitan region, from the perspective of a more balanced and comprehensive rural-urban relation. In addition, the volume outlines a combination of key guidelines and spatial scenarios for a possible agenda for the sustainable development of the Province of Maputo, with particular attention to the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus. The book presents a selection of the main results of the research project “Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!” funded by Polisocial Award 2018 – the social engagement and responsibility programme at the Politecnico di Milano – to support PIMI, an ongoing educational and research programme at the Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo.

Laura Montedoro, architect and urban planner, is an associate professor of Urban Design and Urban Planning at Polytechnic of Milan, where she has been teaching since 1998. Since 2011, she has been involved in research on urbanization in Global South countries in the context of international cooperation, with particular attention to African cities and the growth models of reference. She is co-director of the Master “Design for development. Architecture, Urban Planning, and Heritage in the Global South” and member of the scientific committee of the PIMI Project – Master and Doctoral training project funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in Maputo and the Faculty of Architecture of Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. She is also a member of the PAUI Doctoral Board at Polytechnic of Milan. Her publications for this same publisher includes: Università e cultura: una scissione inevitabile?, 2020, with Gabriele Pasqui; Lo spazio pubblico come palinsesto, 2017; Open Mameli. Un percorso sperimentale di partecipazione, 2016; Marrakech, o dello spazio celato, 2013, with Bruno Melotto.

Alice Buoli, architect and PhD in Territorial Design and Government, is post-doctoral fellow and adjunct professor of Urban Planning and Urban Analysis at Politecnico di Milano. Her academic and professional experience combines urban research in the Euro-Mediterranean context, African urbanism, borderlands studies, creative practice research, editorial and curatorial activities. She has been a Marie Curie experienced researcher for the ITN ADAPT-r “Architecture, Design and Art Practice Training-research” at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn (Estonia) and the assistant curator for the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2017. Her most recent publications include the edited book with Luca Gaeta Transdisciplinary Views on Boundaries: Towards a New Lexicon, 2020, published by Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.

Alessandro Frigerio, architect and urban designer, PhD, is post-doctoral research fellow and adjunct professor at Politecnico di Milano. His research and professional activities investigate the processes of sustainable urban development or regeneration in a transcalar and socio-ecological perspective, combining landscape, urban, and architectural design. He has worked in Europe, Africa, and Middle-East, with a special interest in East African urbanization and projects in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, and Somalia, cooperating with local authorities and international organizations such as UN-Habitat (Urban Planning and Design Branch) and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS). He also collaborated with research and teaching activities by the Measure and Scale of the Contemporary City Lab and the International Cooperation Lab at Politecnico di Milano and he is currently part of the teaching staff of the Master “Design for development. Architecture, Urban Planning, and Heritage in the Global South”.