Ricardo “Ricky Davinci” Nobangela

Ricardo “Ricky Davinci” Nobangela

urban planner, illustrator, and creative entrepreneur

urban planner, illustrator, and creative entrepreneur

I am an urban planner, illustrator, and creative entrepreneur working at the intersection of city-making, culture, and visual storytelling. My practice blends technical urban planning with creative expression to document, reimagine, and humanise African urban spaces particularly environments that are often misrepresented or overlooked. 


Through illustration, live drawing, spatial research, and community-based projects, I explore how people move, gather, trade, and create culture in the city. My work focuses on streets as social infrastructure places of memory, resistance, play, and identity and it focuses on people in how the spaces around them influence their behavior and movement. Whether I’m drawing a neighbourhood during an open-streets experiment or a party in a bar with people dancing and singing, my goal is always to centre lived experience.


Pushing culture forward matters to me because cities are not just built with concrete and policy they are built with stories and for the people. When communities see themselves reflected with dignity and creativity, it shifts how value is understood and who gets to shape the future. My work is about reclaiming narrative power, celebrating everyday urban life, and using creativity as a tool for spatial justice, connection, and imagination. 

I am an urban planner, illustrator, and creative entrepreneur working at the intersection of city-making, culture, and visual storytelling. My practice blends technical urban planning with creative expression to document, reimagine, and humanise African urban spaces particularly environments that are often misrepresented or overlooked. 


Through illustration, live drawing, spatial research, and community-based projects, I explore how people move, gather, trade, and create culture in the city. My work focuses on streets as social infrastructure places of memory, resistance, play, and identity and it focuses on people in how the spaces around them influence their behavior and movement. Whether I’m drawing a neighbourhood during an open-streets experiment or a party in a bar with people dancing and singing, my goal is always to centre lived experience.


Pushing culture forward matters to me because cities are not just built with concrete and policy they are built with stories and for the people. When communities see themselves reflected with dignity and creativity, it shifts how value is understood and who gets to shape the future. My work is about reclaiming narrative power, celebrating everyday urban life, and using creativity as a tool for spatial justice, connection, and imagination.