We invited locals to participate in the study. But in a different way. 

The result was overwhelming. 

Locals made the cover of their life.

They took into their hands the architecture study and embroidered their own story over it.

Academic and real life languages converged perfectly in a beautiful way.

We proposed that the craftsmen of Chicala handbroided the coverbooks using the colors that illustrate his day-to-day, in a clear analogy between the shads of gray that mark how outsiders look at the neighborhood and the colorful way in which the locals feel their life over there.

The result is very touching and strong for everyone involved.

The cover is a genuine gesture of emotional connection, an intimate representation of each craftsman about the place where he lives and how he can improve it literally with his own hands.

The Chicala Observatory is part of "Making Africa" - A Continent of Contemporary Design. A major exhibition of The Vitra Design Museum that sheds new light on how design accompanies and fuels economic and political changes on the Continent.

The Chicala Observatory was presented in the following Museums and events:

- Vitra Design Museum (Germany)

- Gugghenhein Bilbao (Spain)

- Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB - Spain)

- Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Israel)

- Venice architecture biennale 2016 (Italy)

To involve the local community in a project that had the subject of their lives and day by day routine.

The inspiration for this creative gesture and community integration is winner of the Pritzker Architecture prize and director of the Venice Biennial in 2016 architecure that says "it's time to rethink the entire role and language of architecture .

"The Chicala Observatory " is a way to create a new dialogue between the local and the global.

The Chicala Observatory

The London Metropolitan University and the Agostinho Neto University developed an Arquitecture academic study about the mesh of the poor neighborhood Chicala architecture in Luanda, Angola.

?A book was published with that study, with an edition of 750 units.

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The subject of the book was about the lives of Luanda's people, but the truth is it had never been close to the intimate story of its inhabitants because of its academic nature.

The research was developed with very limited funds, but despite the limitations we wanted to make a memorable project with the local community.