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view of the Avenida Guerra Popular

We've been walking around in Maputo for a week now, visiting sites and people, making skecthes, looking at buildings, asking about, and just trying to get to know the city.

the st. Antonio church, by architect Nuno C. Lopez, (also known as "the juice press" ;)

At the three schools we met Victor Sala (principal at the arts school), Marie Louisa (principal at the dance school) and Tandzo Moya and Louis Filipe (teachers at the music school). As the report from 2007 states, they are all in need of larger and more suitable spaces, and they all agree that it would be a great benefit to locate the schools on a common campus. We're starting to get a grip of how these schools are working and what their needs are.

the dance hall at the Escola Nacional de Danca

As the report was funded and supported by norwegian officials, we have also discussed the matter with some of the norwegian people engaging in cultural projects in Maputo. Many of them work directly with the three schools in cultural exchange initiatives and developping projects.

A dozen of different sites in and around the city centre were proposed in the report. After having visited most of them, and discussed them with the involved parties, we are starting to get an overview of wich ones that are the most suitable for the project. We will also have to take into consideration wich of the sites that would be best suited in the sense of an educational case.

one of the sites, the Praca de Touros, an old bull fighting stadium

The last couple of days we have also been so lucky to meet with architect and founder of the faculty of architecture at the university of Mozambique, José Forjaz. He has been helping us to get a crash course in Mozambican building traditions and supplies us with much needed maps and drawings.