The Great Green Wall Initiative was conceived in 2005 halt desertification and restore 100 million hectares of degraded drylands across eleven Sahelian countries. Promoted as a continental corridor extending from Dakar, Senegal, to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, the Initiative was initially envisioned as a linear “wall” of trees 7,000km long and 15 km wide. During the planning phase of the Initiative, green belts around cities were considered but ultimately abandoned. However, in recent years, the Initiative has evolved to integrate human settlements, sustainable farming, livestock cultivation, livelihoods, food security, market value chains, and access to resources and amenities. This studio examines the Great Green Wall as a socio-ecological system whose logic may operate infrastructurally within metropolitan Dakar, organizing ecological networks, productive ground, and public space in ways that structure urban growth, identity, and environmental performance.

Across the majority world, the pace of development is accelerating at an astonishing rate. By 2050, Africa’s population is projected to equal that of India and China combined, with urban populations doubling as cities expand into informal and under-resourced territories. Urban areas that were a fraction of their size two decades ago are now coalescing into expansive metropolitan regions, often without adequate infrastructure or attention to ecological systems. These conditions intensify exposure to urban heat, stormwater flood risk, and water contamination, amongst others. Drawing on theories of urban metabolism and systems ecology, the studio approaches the city as a set of interrelated flows, including water, energy, food, materials, labor, and waste, and investigates how landscape-led infrastructure can reorganize these flows to support ecological function while accommodating dense urban occupation. In this way, buildings, landscapes, and infrastructure are interrogated as components of a single evolving system.

The studio affirms landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, and planning as interdependent disciplines that must work collaboratively to address the challenges of climate change. Working with key communities and governmental sectors in Dakar, where political momentum and implementation pathways have been emerging over the past eighteen months, students will engage community leadership to test sites and programs for potential impact.  Students will undertake some group-based research, while design projects will primarily be produced individually. Requests to work in pairs will be considered, with corresponding increases in project expectations. A studio trip to Dakar, Senegal, is planned, and vaccinations will be recommended.