Throughout history, the street is seen to play an important role; that of a zip that puts urban life together. Streets provide the access that enables us reach our properties, give us orientation which helps us understand and map our world as well as help us to get basic needs such as food.

Besides the dominant programme of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, streets are more importantly connectors to adjoining land uses, thus functioning as ‘a zip’ that opens and closes, to allow both circulation and bring back life to the street.

In this article, KN3 Street, better known as the African Union Boulevard, is picked since I believe it transcends various scales in both its formation and transformation, thus composing a rich case study for the suggested way of reading the City of Kigali.

Indeed, African Union Boulevard – which stretches from downtown Kigali roundabout to Remera – fits within the definitions of urban street, peri-urban street as well as a neighbourhood street.

In my article today I will focus on the part of the road between the roundabout and the Sopetrad area.

Belgian professors De Meulder and Heynen decompose three conceptual models within the role of space; space as neutral receptor and reflector of socio-economic processes, space as a possible tool in the launch of certain social processes and space as a scene in which social processes occur. They argue that when space is viewed as neutral receptor and reflector of socio-economic processes, space is not "a determinant experienced”, but instead the focus should be on the "influence exerted” by social mechanisms in the field of labour, capital movements, social relations [and] discriminatory practices.

The second conceptual model sees the ‘spatial articulation’ of space "as a possible tool in the launch of certain social processes”, while the third conceptual model views "space as the scene in which social processes occur.”

They capture the particular actions and interactions between the scene and the play, as would be applicable in the spatial organisation of most neighbourhoods and cities in the world.

Evidently, streets in Kigali are increasingly becoming social hotspots in an attempt to fulfill the social needs for the city users, a greater percentage of whom pedestrians.

Streets in general are seen as successful sites for social gatherings in the city; the community can either participate in or just observe activities in the street.

However, when one gets a closer look into the KN3 Street, which I have often referred to as the ‘palm-street’ (owing to the type of trees aligning it), a different perception begins to germinate.

The palm-street is empty of pedestrian action, which in turn would attract viewers enhancing diverse social drama.

The predominant species; vehicles dash through the street every other second, a scene that nobody enjoys watching, except perhaps on a day of safari rally, Tour de Kigali or the motorbike rally whose idea is yet to be conceived here.

In terms of social life, the street offers an empty scene; that of a lack of open community spaces within the street.

People struggle to develop a sense of belonging to such places and instead a feeling of spatial exclusion sets in.

A reflection on my hope for this street as one that has every potential to bury the colonial mentality of a divided Rwanda ethnically and economically (Kiyovu for the ‘rich’ and that for the ‘poor’) inspires me to look at this street a little more critically.

Looking at KN3 Street as a possible scene in which social processes occur, it should be capable of promoting the sense of community, a venture I see largely missing on the palm-street.

KN3 is still insufficient of the spatial articulation that possibly becomes a tool in the launch of certain social processes.

For those that don’t believe me, the absence of pedestrians and pedestrian crossings at this stretch between Payage and Sopetrad is a clear sign here.

Allan Jacobs, in his book ‘Projects for Public Spaces’, he argued…"on successful city streets, people must appear at different times…time considered on a small scale, hour by hour through the day.”

If indeed the combination of the social and spatial elements of a city produces PLACE, then the palm-street’s emptiness has to be faced critically, otherwise it remains just an aesthetic artefact for the city.

If no alternative ideas are injected into this area, the otherwise supposed to be a ‘living tissue’ of the City of Kigali, in favour of the colonial mentality, continues to act as a marginalization corridor, that does not only restrict pedestrians into particular niches but also causes a disjoint between adjacent territories, Upper and Lower Kiyovu. Pedestrian bridges

Several readers of this column have challenged me to follow my critiques with helpful suggestions. In this case I would recommend introduction of pedestrian bridges crossing over and allowing more social integration between both neighbourhoods, hence diluting the perceived symmetry even more.

The scene for more people becomes an interesting drama for passers-by to watch, and who, more often than not, get attracted to join in.

Innovative architectural interventions on the adjacent areas and the harsh topography of the upper Kiyovu coupled with human scale activities that blend with the landscape could be helpful too.

This requires that buildings along this street attempt to host mixed-use programmes that attract a wide spectrum of people.

This way the predominantly ‘open zip’ begins to close up at some points in time, hence creating scenes for social interaction which is what the city needs and actually wants and the ‘union’ suggested in the name becomes even more realistic. The author is a lecturer at the department of architecture in the University of Rwanda.