Book Review| June 01 2021 Review: Age of Concrete: Housing and the Shape of Aspiration in the Capital of Mozambique David Morton Age of Concrete: Housing and the Shape of Aspiration in the Capital of Mozambique Athens: Ohio University Press, 2019, 310 pp., 72 b/w illus. $90 (cloth), ISBN 9780821423677 Ana Tostões Ana Tostões Tecnico, University of Lisbon Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2021) 80 (2): 235–237. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2021.80.2.235 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Ana Tostões; Review: Age of Concrete: Housing and the Shape of Aspiration in the Capital of Mozambique. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1 June 2021; 80 (2): 235–237. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2021.80.2.235 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentJournal of the Society of Architectural Historians Search David Morton's Age of Concrete is an amazing book recounting the story of the city of Maputo, Mozambique's capital, focusing on the development of its subúrbios—the spaces in which the city's inhabitants challenged colonial-era building rules and confronted the postcolonial circumstances surrounding the construction of an independent Mozambique. Morton's refreshing narrative reveals an inspired storyteller who delves deeply into facts regarding the people whose daily lives and environments shaped the country's history. Under colonialism, many African cities were divided into central urban cores and large, informal peripheries deprived of basic urban infrastructure. While city centers were often designed with Western settlers in mind, the peripheries became large slums for the native working classes. This stark spatial division has left permanent marks on contemporary African metropolises across the continent. Morton's work builds on this history in tracing Maputo's development from the 1940s under Portuguese colonial domination, through moments of revolution... You do not currently have access to this content.