Ethiopia is going through rapid urbanization and population growth in the recent two decades with lots of migrants from the rural areas, resulting in a dramatic housing shortage. The same situation happens also in many other developing countries in the Global South, where affordable houses are demanded. By exploring an affordable housing scheme for mixed-income groups, this project is trying to find a way to create an inclusive community where different income groups can cohabit and have equal rights to participation, diversity, and appropriation. At the mean time exploring affordable housing scheme strategy in the context of Addis Ababa with the guideline of the studio. Residents could feel significant connections to their communities, and residents can shape outcomes for the communities and a sense of belonging by participating. The design will research how different income groups define places as home and to what degree private and public realm could be mixed to create coherent living quality for all income groups. World widely, mixed neighborhoods which involve complicated social ties and special combination of different income groups, are damaged by the standard, rigid planning methods, resulting in larger social segregation as well. This project can contribute to rebuilding an inclusive and resilient urban form.

This graphic novel is the result of a micro-ethnographic research to Summit, a district of Addis Ababa. Using graphic techniques borrowed from the architecture discipline, this graphic novel aims at bringing together representations of everyday life in Summit, that show how human life shapes its environment and vice versa. This graphic novel not only represents the architectural qualities and spatial relationships, but also reveals the hidden narratives of ordinary stories.

This research booklet brings together a selection of a qualitative analysis to aspects that characterize the History, Religion, Politics, Arts and Craftsmanship of Ethiopia, in general, and Addis Ababa in particular. This booklet compiles information collected from different sources (mainly bibliographic references and digital archives). The result of the survey is processed using new visual outputs that allow a panoramic account of many aspects that characterize the case study (Addis Ababa).