Urban Limitrophe

What does it mean to design from an African perspective? And how do questions of identity, belonging, and culture shape the spaces we create?
In this episode, I speak with Eunice Nanzala Schumacher, architect and founder of My African Aesthetic, about how her experiences living between Uganda and Norway inspired a deeper exploration of African aesthetics, design philosophy, and placemaking. Through conversations with architects, artists, designers, and community-builders from across Africa and its diasporas, Eunice and her team have been documenting the ideas, histories, and practices that shape how people create meaningful places and communities.
Together, we explore:
African aesthetics, design philosophy, and placemaking
Identity, diaspora, and the meaning of home
Why documenting African knowledge systems matters
Professor Mugendi's concept of "Africa with a K"
The search for an African placemaking toolbox
Ultimately, this conversation explores what happens when different worlds meet. As ideas, identities, and cultural traditions move across borders, they reshape how we understand home, belonging, and place. It is a reminder that home is not always somewhere we return to—it is something we continually create.
Guest: Eunice Nanzala Schumacher
Acknowledgements:
This episode is co-supported by the Nurubian, the University of Toronto School of Cities and the Department of Geography and Planning. 
About Urban Limitrophe:
Please visit www.urbanlimitrophe.com for all episode show notes, references and guest details. 
To access social media, newsletter, and additional projects visit: https://linktr.ee/urbanlimitrophe
Please address any related communication to hello[at]urbanlimitrophe.com 
Credits: 
Music by Imany Lambropoulos
Podcast concept, development, and design by Alexandra Lambropoulos

A gift isn't always free. But when a foreign government offers to build your parliament—for free—it's easy to miss where the real cost lands.
In this episode, Dr. Innocent (Ib) Batsani-Ncube discusses China's role in constructing parliament buildings across Africa, and what these projects reveal about architecture, power, procurement, and urban development.
Drawing from years of research across Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho, Ib unpacks how these landmark buildings reshape cities and political systems—from imported construction materials and sidelined local architects to leaking domes that only foreign maintenance crews can repair.
Together, we explore:
How parliament buildings shape political culture and urban identity
What gets lost when foreign actors design local democratic spaces
Why procurement and infrastructure are never politically neutral
The tension between modernity, symbolism, and local belonging
What ordinary citizens, planners, and parliament staff really think about these projects
This episode explores how infrastructure is never just infrastructure. Parliament buildings are not only physical spaces — they shape governance, political culture, procurement systems, and the everyday experience of cities. By examining who builds these spaces and whose visions are embedded within them, the conversation raises deeper questions about sovereignty, urban identity, and development in African cities.
Dr. Batsani-Ncube's book, China and African Parliaments, is available now via Oxford University Press. 
Guest: Dr. Innocent (Ib) Batsani-Ncube
Acknowledgements:
This episode is co-supported by the Nurubian, the University of Toronto School of Cities and the Department of Geography and Planning. 
About Urban Limitrophe:
Please visit www.urbanlimitrophe.com for all episode show notes, references and guest details. 
To access social media, newsletter, and additional projects visit: https://linktr.ee/urbanlimitrophe
Please address any related communication to hello[at]urbanlimitrophe.com 
Credits: 
Music by Imany Lambropoulos
Podcast concept, development, and design by Alexandra Lambropoulos

We often think of innovation as something inherently good — new technologies, sleek apps, disruptive ideas, and economic growth.
But who actually benefits from innovation? And what gets erased in the process?
In this episode, Alexandra speaks with Dr. Pierce Otlhogile-Gordon, a knowledge architect and social change educator based in Botswana, about the relationship between innovation, development, land, power, and cultural knowledge systems.
Together, they unpack Botswana’s efforts to build an innovation economy beyond diamonds, while exploring larger questions around colonialism, intellectual property, indigenous knowledge systems, youth unemployment, and the politics of global development.  
Dr. Pierce shares how land, policy, history, and local knowledge shape what innovation can — and cannot — achieve; how national ambition meets lived reality; and what other countries, regions, and cities can learn from Botswana’s approach.
Together, we explore:
How innovation is shaped by policy, history, and place
The opportunities and constraints facing emerging entrepreneurs
Why innovation is never truly neutral
The relationship between indigenous knowledge and intellectual property
The tension between national development goals and everyday realities

Guest: Dr. Pierce Edward Cornelius Otlhogile-Gordon
Acknowledgements:
This episode is co-supported by the Nurubian, the University of Toronto School of Cities and the Department of Geography and Planning. 
About Urban Limitrophe:
Please visit www.urbanlimitrophe.com for all episode show notes, references and guest details. 
To access social media, newsletter, and additional projects visit: https://linktr.ee/urbanlimitrophe
Please address any related communication to hello[at]urbanlimitrophe.com 
Credits: 
Music by Imany Lambropoulos
Podcast concept, development, and design by Alexandra Lambropoulos

How will water scarcity shape the future of cities, migration, and global stability?
From climate change to migration, the African water crisis is deeply connected to global challenges — and global solutions. 
In the final episode of this series, we explore why water scarcity is not just a regional issue, but a global one. We unpack the legacy of extractive systems, the role of youth and local leadership, and the urgency of declaring not just a climate emergency, but a water emergency. 
Through the lens of the TransAfrica Pipeline, we ask: what does global responsibility look like in a time of water crisis — and what can we do to build a more secure, just, and caring future?
Guest: Dr. Rod Tennyson & Dr. Romila Verma
Series: How the Trans Africa Pipeline (TAP) Can Solve the Sahel Region’s Water Crisis
What if water infrastructure could do more than deliver clean drinking water — what if it could transform economies, support food security, reduce climate migration, and unite communities across borders?
In this 3-part series, Urban Limitrophe explores the story of the TransAfrica Pipeline (TAP) — a visionary project to bring clean, desalinated water across the Sahel through a 7,000-kilometre pipeline powered by renewable energy. Through conversations with co-founders Dr. Rod Tennyson and Dr. Romila Verma, we unpack how water connects to everything: agriculture, innovation, migration, environmental justice, and community resilience.
Acknowledgements:
This episode is co-supported by the Nurubian, the University of Toronto School of Cities and the Department of Geography and Planning. 
About Urban Limitrophe:
Please visit www.urbanlimitrophe.com for all episode show notes, references and guest details. 
To access social media, newsletter, and additional projects visit: https://linktr.ee/urbanlimitrophe
Please address any related communication to hello[at]urbanlimitrophe.com 
Credits: 
Music by Imany Lambropoulos
Podcast concept, development, and design by Alexandra Lambropoulos

Why do some water systems work— and others fail?
Successful water infrastructure isn’t just about engineering. There’s a hidden social side — shaped by governance, culture, and power — that often determines whether systems actually work, or get built at all.
In this second episode, beyond the technical side of infrastructure to explore the social, ethical, and ecological dimensions of water access. Dr. Verma introduces her Four Pillars of Water Sustainability — science, governance, economics, and cultural connection — and we explore how these ideas can reshape how cities, towns, and regions manage water today. From sponge cities to sacred rivers, we discuss why collaboration and care are at the heart of any truly sustainable water system.
Guest: Dr. Rod Tennyson & Dr. Romila Verma
Series: How the Trans Africa Pipeline (TAP) Can Solve the Sahel Region’s Water Crisis
What if water infrastructure could do more than deliver clean drinking water — what if it could transform economies, support food security, reduce climate migration, and unite communities across borders?
In this 3-part series, Urban Limitrophe explores the story of the TransAfrica Pipeline (TAP) — a visionary project to bring clean, desalinated water across the Sahel through a 7,000-kilometre pipeline powered by renewable energy. Through conversations with co-founders Dr. Rod Tennyson and Dr. Romila Verma, we unpack how water connects to everything: agriculture, innovation, migration, environmental justice, and community resilience.
Acknowledgements:
This episode is co-supported by the Nurubian, the University of Toronto School of Cities and the Department of Geography and Planning. 
About Urban Limitrophe:
Please visit www.urbanlimitrophe.com for all episode show notes, references and guest details. 
To access social media, newsletter, and additional projects visit: https://linktr.ee/urbanlimitrophe
Please address any related communication to hello[at]urbanlimitrophe.com 
Credits: 
Music by Imany Lambropoulos
Podcast concept, development, and design by Alexandra Lambropoulos