Documenting the re-transformations of the built environment in Chingalire village, Malawi, for a sustainable development and resilience strategy : practice contribution

The village of Chingalire, Malawi, is being transformed into a model of sustainability. For the formulation of a development strategy, information on the village's changes was gathered over a year, focusing on the built environment since its beginnings in 1976. This research aims to initiate the documentation of these changes while reflecting on the quality, sustainability, and resilience of the village's built environment. It also provides an outlook for the development strategy, based on the acquired knowledge. Through semi-structured interviews with experts and villagers, the results show that most buildings were constructed by local builders (with no qualifications and a series of malpractices), with unsustainable materials, and following a 'modern' imaginary that negatively impacts the environment and is unaffordable for the locals. The lessons learned from previous constructions in Chingalire point towards preserving vernacular architectural values and appealing to new spatial designs.