Creative Reconstruction: A Systematic Approach to Reinventing Large Cities in Democratic Republic of Congo

The current state of large cities in Democratic Republic of Congo highlights the necessity of reinventing cities. More than fifty years after the independence, these major cities, like Kinshasa the capital city, are in a state of are in a state of disrepair. They are damaged, dysfunctional, and more vulnerable. Today, these legacy cities do not meet the international requirements of livable cities. Democratic Republic of Congo faces the challenge of rebuilding its cities for sustainability. The movement for independence of African countries enabled the shift from colonial cities to legacy cities. It is important to understand the cultural and ideological foundations of colonial city. Commonly, colonial cities served as purpose-built settlements for the extraction and transport of mineral resources toward Europe. What's required is a creative reconstruction to achieve a desired successful urban change. Creative reconstruction tends to ensure urban transformation in relation with urbanization, by making continuous and healthy communities. Creative reconstruction seems appropriate way of building back cities in harmony with cultural values. The article provides a framework for urban regeneration. The study is based on principle of thinking globally and acting locally in building back better cities.


Background
The current state of large cities in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a matter of considerable public concern. These legacy cities are damaged, dirty, and dysfunctional. Since 1970s, large cities in Sub Saharan Africa have fallen into a serious state of disrepair 1 . Accordingly, they have lost the nature of livability. While livable cities have become the pivotal of the prosperity of a country, DRC's large cities seem retrograde and more vulnerable. With the urge to remake everything that is old or dilapidated, it is logic, for policymakers who want to increase the quality of in cities, to support the reconstruction process 2 . Rebuilding Kinshasa the capital city is now a high priority.
During colonial period, African cities served as purpose-built environments for European people in charge to ensure the exploitation of natural resources. These colonial cities are characterized by racial zoning with a high disparity between European neighborhoods and indigenous neighborhoods. These cities have been westernized at the expense of local cultural values. After the independence, DRC's successive governments have striven to renovate these legacy cities. However, the renovation of legacy cities is still a highly controversial issue, given the fact that it maintains the colonial identity. Just to say, the renovation is not a panacea for colonial cities.
Today, DRC's legacy cities are totally incompatible with the new realities; they can no longer satisfy the needs of local people. The urban form of colonial cities in Africa is marked by stark spatial, visual, social and radicalized dualities, between the planned and ordered center of administrative function and European residence, and the unplanned and apparently disordered native neighborhoods (Branwen Gruffydd Jones).Following the attainment of political independence, very little attempt was made by the new African governments to change the urban functions of cities, which were inherited from colonial governments (Akatch, 1995).
In this urban millennium, countries rely heavily on livable cities to ensure economic development. Drawing on the principle of better late than ever, all misguided attempt, contradictions, and failures of five decades should help to set a systematic approach to reinventing DRC's legacy cities. What's required is a creative reconstruction towards livable cities in accordance with local cultural values and the requirements of competitive cities in the 21 st century. Creative reconstruction gains the meaning of innovation. When people want right answers they strive to find appropriated solutions to the problems, when people want a different way of doing things they adopt a systematic or innovative approach to solving problems. What is creative reconstruction? The study will attempt to answer this question. J u n e 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 the intensification of poverty, sickness, and preventable death on a scale scarcely imaginable ( The table1 shows poor living conditions that predominate in Kinshasa due to the disintegration of infrastructure inherited from colonial period. Since the independence, Kinshasa's built environment has constantly degraded. Hence, the lack of availability of public spaces, accessibility of healthy and affordable housing, and the walkability of neighborhoods is increasingly high.

Colonial Period: Kinshasa as a Colonial City
It is true that colonialism led colonial powers (like Belgium, England, France, Portugal, and Spain) to get overseas properties for the exploitation of natural resources. Hence, most of cities in Asia, Africa, America, Caribbean, and Australia owed their genesis to colonialism. In Africa, colonial cities served as settlements for the extraction and transport of mineral resources toward Europe.
Colonial powers have built cities and institutions to increase their trade at the expense of per-existing indigenous settlements. Definitely, colonial cities were established by colonial powers through the exercise of dominance, in order to extract agricultural surplus, provide services, and exercise political control. Transport improvements then allow one society or state to incorporate other territory and peoples overseas. Colonial city served as an instrument of colonization and (in the case of the European overseas empires) racial dominance (Home, 1997).
When it comes to evaluate colonialism, many people give a negative opinion by saying that colonialism made a complete mess in the colonies. Colonial powers have forced indigenous people to adopt their languages, religions, customs, and institutions. During colonialism, colonial powers have deliberately replaced local languages, religions, customs, and institutions with their own in order to facilitate the communication and cooperation.
Throughout the colonialism, the Belgium built cities in DRC as anchors for its control of territory. Colonialism was an unstable and flawed foundation. After independence, one of the most critical issues for many of the new republics was that of the domination of a capital city and central government over the countryside and the provinces 3 .

Postcolonial Period: Kinshasa as Legacy City (Postcolonial City)
DRC has been the Belgium's colony. After the independence, the country did not have local leaders and planners with real expertise to lead and manage colonial legacies. In fact, local leaders were unprepared to care about colonial legacies. Legacy cities suffered from a discontinuity in planning system. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the government tolerated the migration of people to urban areas as part of the discourse of freedom. But this only propagated a crisis, because the surge in urban population was not planned, nor did it fit into a wider economic project. This triggered a new anti-urban movement (Steve Ouma Akoth,2013). J u n e 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

Kinshasa's Physical Environment
The continuing degradation of physical environment is posing serious problems for the quality of life. Since the independence, there has been a steady decline in the physical environment. Kinshasa can no longer satisfy the needs of its inhabitants. Kinshasa becomes too weak to deliver goods and services to its people.  The table2 shows the subdivision of Kinshasa into three parts, notably European, indigenous, and spontaneous neighborhoods. Kinshasa's spatial structure was based on the segregation of European occupants and indigenous people. Kinshasa is deeply rooted in racial zoning with the high degree of centralization of socioeconomic activities in European neighborhoods. This led to the disparities in infrastructure and access to housing (high standing houses). After the independence, most of rich and institutional authorities live in former European neighborhoods.
Spontaneous neighborhoods emerged from the movement for the independence. Contrary to indigenous neighborhoods, spontaneous neighborhoods are the consequence of anarchism; they are lacking in basic facilities.

Built Environment
After the independence, Kinshasa's built environment is increasingly dilapidated and ill managed. The constant increase in the population coupled with poverty caused a big deficit in housing and infrastructure. Moreover, the disintegration of many infrastructure inherited from colonial period is more acute than before.
 Colonial period (1881-1960): According to many experts, Kinshasa's built environment could afford to accommodate 200000 people at maximum capacity. Between 1920 and 1959, the population rose from 1600 to 402500.
 Post-colonial period (from 1960 to now): Today, Kinshasa is now the home for more than 10 million people. Kinshasa is so weak to deal with new demographic, economic, and spatial realities. It is also plagued by the political, financial, and legal hurdles.  Kinshasa's population is mainly due to migration (rural exodus, emigration, and displacement):  There have been more opportunities for job in Kinshasa than other large cities.This led the massive movement of people from rural areas to city, and also from other cities to Kinshasa. In 1975, the number of J u n e 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 industries in Kinshasa was about 725, even though this number has decreased significantly with successive looting happened in years 1991 and 1993. African countries are substantially more urbanized than is probably justified by their degree of economic development (Kempe Ronald Hope, 1998). Moreover, good living and working conditions were attractive to migrants. Kinshasa was well equipped with schools, hospitals, transport shops, centers for trading, processing and manufacturing, administration, religious organization or political and so forth).
 The war is now a contributor factor in a large influx of migrants in Kinshasa. Since 1998, DRC undergoes the ravages of civil wars, conflicts between African countries, dictatorial governments, and the intervention of powerful countries and other African governments. The eastern part of the country is subject to illegal exploitation of mineral resources caused by powerful countries. Populations in the eastern of DRC (provinces of Kisangani, Maniema, North and South Kivu) endure rapes, diseases, massacre, starvation, violence, serious abuses, and summary executions. These conflicts armed have already taken the lives of 5.4 million people from 1998 to 2008, and continue to kill 45 000 dead every month (International Rescue Committee study, 2008). These armed conflicts and humanitarian crisis are seen as the Great War of Africa, and importantly the world's deadliest war since the Second World War 4 . This desperate situation forces people to move from their places to safe places. Kinshasa is the rescue place for thousands refugees. Even if millions of displaced are located in neighboring countries 5 , the number of refugees flowing into Kinshasa is still increasing.
Today, Kinshasa is the third African megacity after Cairo and Lagos with a population estimated at 15.5 million. Kinshasa is the third and is projected to surpass Lagos in size by 2025 when Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo will have 16.7, 15.7 and 15.5 million inhabitants respectively (UN-HABITAT, 2008). However, this rapid growth occurs in unanticipated and overlooked ways. As well known, the lack of planning, poor subdivision practices, excessive land values, ineffectual zoning, archaic streets, and inadequate transportation have created a condition of congestion, unplanned and incompatible mixed land use, and economic distortion that render whole section of the city in a process of built-in physical decay and social disintegration (Eisner, 1993 p.494). A great city should not be confounded with a populous city (Aristotle). Just to say, Kinshasa is a deprived and retrograde megacity.

Natural Environment
Kinshasa's sprawl continues to reduce open spaces, connectivity of wetlands, and wildlife habitat. This chaotic urban expansion increases natural hazards including deforestation, slope instability thus resulting in erosion, landslides and flooding. Urban land expansion is one of the most direct representation forms of land use land cover change, and refers specifically to change in land use pattern and urban space distribution resulted from land, social and economic pressure (Alphan, Doygun,& Unlukaplan, 2009; Gilliesa, Boxb, & Symanzik, 2003).In other words, sprawl has been criticized for eliminating agricultural lands, spoiling water quality, and causing air pollution (Allen et al, 2003). Suffice to say, Kinshasa's sprawl, which is unplanned, accelerates the modification of natural environment at an alarming rate. From a logical standpoint, a city that plays the prominent role in a country's economy is a city that meets the requirements of livability. While cities are seen as source of jobs opportunities and economic advancement, Kinshasa is a city where there is a high unemployment and a great number of people living in extreme poverty. If cities are engines of growth, countries should take full advantage of urbanization and not hold back the opportunities it can provide for economic growth and poverty reduction 6 .Kinshasa is dysfunctional (it is not working properly), and it is far less likely to attract investment, create wealth, and reduce poverty. At present, Kinshasa is in a very bad condition.

Livability: Livable City
Planners found evidence of a strong correlation between the livability and the quality of life in cities. The concept of livability has become popular in the 1980s as planners began studying shifts in development patterns from the decline of urban centers to rapidly growing suburban areas (Federal Highway Administration, 2010). Livability defines good conditions of a place in such a way people can live and work in comfort and safety. Accordingly, livability is described by:  Affordable housing (promoting many housing types): a desirable neighborhood provides safe houses for all people. It fosters mixed houses for social integration (rich and poor).
 Public transportation: A desirable neighborhood improves mobility of goods and people through bus, car (taxi), bicycle, train, boats, tramways, air plane, etc.
 Good design and form: A desirable neighborhood shows a good level of landscape architecture. Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor public areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes 7 . A desirable neighborhood increases constructions with the quality of architecture. Suffice to say, a desirable neighborhood is identified with an outstanding beauty and dignity.
 Environmental protection: A desirable neighborhood tends to reduce pollutions (air, noise, water, and greenhouse gases). It increases public spaces (park, gardens, museum, and green spaces).
What is essential about livable city is that it ensures the quality of life people in accordance with cultural values. The desire for quality of life is universal and generates consensus across political and popular arenas. This common goal leads all responsible agencies and citizens to overcome their differences and coordinate their responses to constantly improve their cities 8 . In fact, cities have constantly changed since the beginning of civilization. In response to physical and socioeconomic factors they have grown, declined or undergone major restructuring (Couch, 1990). This dynamism is derived from sociocultural evolution, which is a reliable guide of how human beings strive to maintain cities as viable physical environments over time. The table4 synthesizes a livable city. The physical environment defines a living space combining natural and built environment for a lifestyle. The quality of life in city is based on the satisfaction of basic needs in terms of livelihoods, affordable housing, adequate infrastructure, and environmental protection. It can be said that a livable city develops the capacity to ensure health, comfort, shelter, education, sanitation, and other basic facilities. Livable cities can vary from one country to another with their architectural constructions, landscape architecture, and culture heritage. However, their common denominator remains the achievement of the community's cultural, physical, spiritual, and socioeconomic interests in living and working. A livable city is identified with healthy communities.
Literally, sociocultural evolution defines the culture of progress based on the fundamental principle of societies to look and move forward. This involves continuity of social and cultural changes to satisfy human needs in societies throughout times. Sociocultural evolution is a cumulative process in which new elements tend to produce a new form or structure which is qualitatively different from the ancestral or previous form. This explains why cities moved, are moving, and will continue to move in a desirable direction. Cities are complex and dynamic places of contradiction that have been compared to living organisms. They contain opportunities for developing the potential and enriching the lives of many of their inhabitants 9 .
From this perspective, there is need to modernize Kinshasa as well as other large cities. Modernizing DRC's large cities is a real opportunity to remake them in order to produce harmonious livable communities. Definitely, Modernization of DRC's large cities emphasizes the need for creative reconstruction.

Reconstruction Process in Urban Context
Since years, people have always found ways to solve problems. Based on the culture of progress, they developed strategies to improve their human settlements over time. So far, reconstruction serves as a strategy for building back better. It is a process with overlapping interests in renovating (rehabilitating or recovering), upgrading, and reinventing (remaking) cities. Reconstruction serves as a formula to reverse disruptive changes. Throughout the history, cities have been adversely affected by different phenomena resulting in disruptive changes, which undermine the quality of life. Reconstruction is the proper way to remake cities; it is the formula for rebuilding resilient cities. To some degree, the reconstruction process exhibits predictable characteristics. These include the tendency for damaged cities and industries to be rebuilt on the same sites, continuation of pre-war trends in population growth and urban expansion, continuation of predominance of certain industries, and continuation of previous social stratification patterns (Haas, Kates, and Bowden 1977). Reconstruction leads to improve architectural and socioeconomic aspects. The ultimate goal of the reconstruction is the transformation of a city into resilient city with prosperous and harmonious communities.

Failure /Collapse of cities
The resilience is the capacity to recover and become stronger than before. Reconstruction is the scheme to achieve urban regeneration. Urban regeneration is required to fill the gap between the actual and the desired reality, since it seeks to reverse the vicious spiral in which physical, economic, and social problems can be reinforced each other (P.S.Brandon, P.L.Lombardi, V. Bentivegna, 2005).
Reconstruction is based on creativity in the action to make difference between new and old form. It depends on the principle of adaptability. Reconstruction is a dynamic process that depends on the principle of adaptability in modeling change. The vision of modernity is not a fixed set of ideas; this is to say the movement of modernization is not static: it differs from country to country according to their realities, and evolved in relation with new circumstances over time. The study classifies two types of reconstruction, notably classic model and pragmatic.

Classic Reconstruction: Reconstruction Based on Cultural Heritage
Classic reconstruction (also called classic model) is the pattern of development that based on the conservation of cultural heritage. With respect to cultural heritage, conservation or art conservation focuses on protection and care of tangible cultural heritage, including artwork, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections (also referred to as conservation and restoration or preservation).
Conservation activities include examination, documentation, treatment, and collections care, otherwise known as preventive conservation 10 . Conservation of cultural heritage involves protection and restoration using any methods that prove effective in keeping that property in as close to its original condition as possible for as long as possible 11 .Conservation of cultural heritage is often associated with art collections and museums and involves collection care and management through tracking, examination, documentation, exhibition, storage, preventative conservation, and restoration 12 .
Cultural heritage is directly related to the tradition, which refers to beliefs or customs that existed for centuries as basic principle of living and working. Tradition is the inheritance of beliefs and practices from previous generation adopted by a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance dating from the long past. Developed nations in Europe (Britain, Italy, France, and Germany) as well as the USA are pioneers of classic model for reconstruction. In fact, this model classic tends to rebuild city from the same base. Classic model relies on the existing foundation and form to improve the city. Classic model promotes the protection of ancient constructions, lifestyles, and architectural design that hold the historical memory from generation to generation.
With classic reconstruction, cities in developed nations attest to the principle that each city has its own style and identity that reflect its cultural values. So far, their cities carry traditional values from previous generations that must be preserved for the current and future generations. In fact, their cities are full of historic and natural sites. The aesthetic of their built environment (such as bridges, buildings, streets, monuments, and landscapes dating back from past generations) are unique.

Pragmatic Reconstruction
Pragmatic reconstruction is the pattern of development based on technology. It tends to stretch the limits of tradition. It led to hybrid or utopian model towards rebuilding cities. Pragmatic reconstruction is a gathering of styles to create sophisticated cities devoid of tradition. A sophisticated city is based on technological values rather than cultural values. Rather than be attached to cultural dimension, sophisticated cities are based on utopian dimension. In fact, utopia is the expression of the desire for a better way of being and living (Levitas, 1990, p. 8).
It turns out numerous blueprints sparked by official utopianism in these countries often did not go beyond what had already happened or was happening in the developed world: abundance, industrialization, electricity and automation. It was precisely because modernization had not happened, but was yet to come, that potential existed to employ the vision to teach desire to desire, to desire better, to desire more, and above all to desire in a different way (Thompson, 1977, p. 791).
In the context of modernization, many developing countries embraced pragmatic reconstruction towards sophisticated cities. Hence, pragmatic reconstruction served as bridge between local cultures and Western culture. By approving pragmatic reconstruction, developing countries like China, deliberately have westernized their cities, given the fact that J u n e 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 international values derived from Western cultures. From the perspective of urban transformation, the Chinese city is becoming capitalist in many respects: the emergence of central business districts (CBDs), the uneven growth of territorial units, and the rise of new urban spaces such as shopping malls, signature architecture buildings and luxury residential enclaves (Gaubatz, 1995(Gaubatz, , 2005King and Kusno, 2000;Wu, 2005).
With the modernization, there is the emergence of such new urban spaces as malls, gated communities, migrant enclaves and suburbs and the widespread use of automobiles in urban China raise the important theoretical question as to whether the post-socialist Chinese city has become or is becoming capitalist in form 12 . Restructuring Chinese cities is a local process that exploits and constitutes global processes. It holds an exciting intellectual challenge for understanding global processes in different geographical contexts (Laurence J.C. Ma, and Fulong Wu, 2005).
To sum up, reconstruction seems to be a coherent recipe for continuous transformation of damaged or deprived communities. It can vary from classic model to pragmatic model; the ultimate goal remains the improvement of previous situation (even the current situation).Between classic model and Chinese Utopian model (pragmatic model) which one can match to DRC's cities?

Creative Reconstruction
When people want right answers, they strive to find appropriated solutions to the problems, when people want a different way of doing things they adopt innovative approach. Innovation concerns the introduction or implementation of a new method, practice, policy or service ( Van de Ven, 1980). Innovation refers to the process of bringing any new, problem solving idea into use. Innovation is the generation, acceptance and implementation of new ideas, processes, products or services. Acceptance and implementation are central to this definition; it involves the capacity to change and adapt (Kanter, 1983).
A country closely aligned with the principle of modernity embraces de facto the innovation in reconstruction. The principle of modernity attests to new initiatives for dynamic change, given the fact that nothing can remain static over time. The status quo in action plan is interpreted more often as a stagnation or refusal to formulate new way of solving problems. It can be explained by the frightening uncertainty of new ideas rather than old ideas (tradition) that used to serve as a blueprint for defined goals. Despite the fact that time of great change is also time of uncertainty, innovation is aimed to improve what has proved ineffective in action plan.
Even though it is difficult to accurately predict the future, it is wrong for any country to maintain the status quo in this unstable world that become faster and faster. An action plan defines the step that must be taken in order to achieve a specific goal. Creative reconstruction is formulated as a new strategy to create livable cities in DRC. Creative reconstruction gains the meaning of innovation.
Creative reconstructive as a social, technical, and organizational innovation is the product of a need, a desire, an aspiration, or a quest for solutions to a social problem. The focus of interest in creative reconstruction is to do things differently than the two types of reconstruction. Creative reconstruction in this way does not mark a break with the two models, but it maximizes their positive aspects towards restructuring cities. Creative reconstruction involves an eclectic mixture of the classic and pragmatic reconstruction. It is a flexible and realistic model that combines what is appropriate to rebuild DRC's cities in conformity with local expectations.

Figure5
: Creative Reconstruction J u n e 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 The figure4 illustrates the relationship of models of reconstruction within the context of urban regeneration. In DRC, the adoption of classic reconstruction can raise the issue of the conservation of colonial identity, whereas the adoption of pragmatic reconstruction can raise the issue of authenticity of cities. Creative reconstruction gives the possibility of reconciling classic and pragmatic reconstruction. It is clear is that creative reconstruction tends to take advantage of the two models by avoiding their imperfections.

Conclusion
The necessity of reinventing DRC's large cities illustrates the great merit of the reconstruction. The fact remains that reconstruction process paves the way for the successful urban change. However, the innovation is at the core of the process to achieve a desired outcome. The continuity in habitual ways of thinking and acting is often the default response to common problems, rather than opting new model, taking risks aspiring to reinvent these cities. Hence, creative reconstruction seems appropriate way of building back cities in harmony with cultural values.
Creative reconstruction tends to ensure urban transformation in relation with urbanization, by making continuous and healthy communities. In this urban millennium, the content of urban transformation includes more than the urban renewal, because areas which are not developed before are also in the scope of urban transformation (Bayram 2006). Creative reconstruction tends to optimize positive aspects classic and pragmatic reconstruction towards better cities for DRC.