Storage Depot, Asmara

I was intrigued by this amazing building from the first time I saw it.

The facade is rounded, in fact it is a completely circular building with a central core and roadway within the structure.

The two storey high frame around the doorway is striking but in the end even that is dwarfed by the height of the monumental entrances either side of the administration block.

In Asmara - Africa's Secret Modernist City by Denison, Yu Ren and Gebremedhin the building is identified as originally being the Spinelli Store when it was built in the late 1930s.

From their information it appears that Spinelli was a local businessman who owned a nearby villa. It is now the Africa Pension and that is where I stayed when I visited Asmara in 2003.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City - Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

Zig-Zag Garage, Asmara

Asmara is home to a wonderful institution that was probably built during the 1950s when a lot of American personnel were stationed there as part of the United Nations presence in Eritrea.

It is a bowling alley, a manual bowling alley. When you play there, you get assigned a young boy who skips down behind the pins and resets them after each ball is bowled. It is fair to say it is a nerve-racking experience just making sure he is out of the way before you take your next shot. You can just make him out behind the pins in this grainy pic. And there was a rut in the lane which meant I only got 4 pins. That's my story am I'm sticking to it.

Across the road from the Bowling Alley, however, is an amazing Modernist building. The Lonely Planet guidebook rightly calls it the Zig-Zag Garage. As you can see from the photo it is a mass of triangles and zig-zags.

Asmara is full of Modernist buildings and this service station can hold its zig-zag roofline high amongst this elevated company.

Lonely Planet say '...there's probably no other building like it in the world'.

Reference:
Lonely Planet, Ethiopia, Eritrea & Djibouti ~ Frances Lindsay Gordon, 1st Ed, November 2000

Ministry of Land, Water and the Environment, Asmara

For a few short years at the end of the 1930s, perhaps lasting through the Second World War, this incredible Modernist building was, according to Denison, Yu Ren and Gebremedhim in Asmara, Africa's Secret Modernist City, the most exclusive brothel for Italian officers. At that time is also housed a bar and casino.

Today it is the office of the Ministry of Land, Water and the Environment.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City~ Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

Irga Building, Asmara

This building is next to the fabulous Fiat Tagliero Building in Asmara.

According to Edward Denision in the Bradt Guide to Eritrea the Irga building was constructed in 1961 and designed by Carlo Mazzetti.

While walking around on the wing of the Fiat Tagliero building I did manage to grad my gaze to the Irga building and capture this unusual view.

Reference:
Eritrea, 4th (Bradt Travel Guide)~ Edward Denison

Mai Jah Jah Fountain, Asmara

The Mai Jah Jah Fountain follows the steps down from the suburb of Gezzabanda towards the centre of Asmara.

Contructed from a series of large rounded columns this fountain with the surrounding flowerbeds certainly makes a statement.

From what I hear, I was lucky to see it with the water running because I know other people who have been to the fountain several times and never got to see it running.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City~ Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

Red Flats, Asmara

One of the many Art Deco apartment blocks in Asmara. My favourite part is the alternating metalwork on the window of the stairwell.

Villa Grazia, Asmara

The Villa Quarter of Asmara is doted with fabulous residences dating from the Art Deco era.

This is the Villa Grazia which is listed in Asmara, Africa's Secret Modernist City by Denison, Yu Ren and Gebremedhin as dating from 1942 by architect Antonio Vitaliti.

Denison et al write that villas of this size were not built after the 1940s because many expats left during the federation with Ethiopia in 1952 and single storey dwellings were preferred.

To me this is a classic building as a ship complete with a rounded bow and deck railing along the side.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City~ Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

former Government Building, Asmara

Yesterday's post of a building in Rayners Lane in London with a circular section on the corner reminded me of this former Government building in Asmara.

Comparing the buildings now, I can see that they are quite different but they both do have a circular element addressing the corner of their sites but the London building has a more acute corner allowing a fully circular construction.

The other similarity comes from the corner elements sitting above the roofline of the rest of the building and they each have an eyebrow providing shade for the top level windows.

Surely in the case of the English building this is purely a decorative feature or is that being unnecessarily cruel.

And they are both on Avenues. Alexandra and Martyrs'.

A Villa in Asmara

This is a typical residence in the Villa district of Asmara. Obviously it has seen better days bvut there is a glimpse of fabulous villa where perhaps wealthy Italians could spend an interwar winter in North African sunshine.

I think it is interesting to see the heavy wooden window frames in the rounded section of the building. I think elsewhere these would be slimline metal windows and the do look a bit clunky here.

The other thing of note it the pair wrought iron gates and indeed the metal fence partially hidden under the garden foliage. They were almost certainly locally made as many gates, fences and window shutters are still made today by an cliche of craftsmen (and boys) in another part of the city.

St Francis of Assisi Monument, Asmara

This art deco style monument to St Francis of Assisi dating from 1953 is outside the St Francesco church in Asmara.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City~ Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

Bar Royal, Asmara

There are so many fantastic buildings in Asmara that sometimes you don't know where to look next.

This is Bar Royal, a chic cafe on a busy corner. And it is the way that this building addresses the corner that makes it stand out.

The facade is quite plain and curves in a smooth arc around the corner with the cafe entrance set back a little from the footpath. Above the door, two metal-railed balconies follow the curve of the building.

It goes some way to explaining what an extraordinary place Asmara is to say that this is just another building in this amazing city.

Avram Villa, Asmara

A glimpse of the Avram Villa in Asmara well hidden behind the purple flowers of the Bougainvillea grwoing over the walls of the property.

According to the Lonely Planet Ethiopia, Eritrea & Djibouti guidebook, Avram Villa was built for the L'Atilla family in the 1930s.

LP also refer to the unusual 'surfboard' loggia on the rooftop terrace.



Reference:
Lonely Planet, Ethiopia, Eritrea & Djibouti ~ Frances Lindsay Gordon, 1st Ed, November 2000

Asmara Wine & Liquor Factory, Asmara

Looking at this picture of the Asmara Wine & Liquor Factory reminds me so much of this city once you are away from the main streets of Liberation and Martyr's Avenues. The wide, almost dusty, streets are all but deserted, certainly there are very few cars. And more often than not the most memorable colour is the purple of the bougainvillea.

The building itself is a long horizontal mass arranged asymetrically around the entrance. Two rows of irregularly spaced windows which perhaps have been altered over time. As can be seen in the second picture, it seems unusual to me for the windows of the separate floors to be so different.

I like the light green band along the roofline bearing the incomplete name of the factory and the scale of the yellow rectangular element around the doorway and the 15 panes of glass above it. It looks like the arrangement of glass and the doors occupy the same area on the facade making the haphazardness of the other windows more puzzling.

former Casa del Fascio, Asmara

As one of Benito Mussolini's pet projects it was natural that Asmara would have an example of Facist architecture and perhaps not surprisinging that it was the Casa del Fascio or Facist Party Headquarters that would be that building.

This monumental, yet austere, building was designed in 1940 by Bruno Scalfani. It built on an earlier Casa del Fascio which operated as a Social Club for party members. That building was set back from the street and was accessed via two flights of stairs directly off the footpath.

This allowed Scalfani, whose building was sited at street level, to incorporate the assembly hall at the heart of his structure on the second storey.

The asymetrical facade is dominated at one end by this tower topped by an arrangement of three narrow vertical windows.

The original plans, reproduced in Asmara - Africa's Secret Modernist City by Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren and Naigzy Gebremedhin, show four of these narrow windows at the top of the tower.

The authors note that 'At the base of the tower is a huge vacant space upon which a sculpture of the Facist eagle was intended to hang, though it appears the scheme was never realized. Above the space for the eagle is a balcony from which Mussolini, if he had ever come to Eritrea, would almost certainly have made his speeches.'

Inside the foyer, two staircases lead to the main rooms on the second floor. The rounded balconies on the upper floor provide elegant curves to the ceiling above the stairs.

Again on the upper level, the metal work of the balconies incoporate Eritrean flags which must have been added since liberation in 1991. I wonder what was originally intended for these spaces as the Italians themselves were evicted from Eritrea in 1941 by the British and probably the building was not completed by then.

The metalwork on the bannisters leading up the stairs incorporate these magnificent flame torches. These may or may not have been part of the original design.

Today, the building is used by the Ministry of Education.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City~ Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

Eritrean Electricity Authority, Asmara

This is one of my favourite photos from Asmara.

I like the juxtaposition of the horse-drawn cart, complete with car wheels, passing the Eritrean Electricity Authority building.

As for the building itself, I find the triple column arrangement at the apex of the gable fascinating. I'm not sure if it is the shape of the actual structures or the negative space around them that makes it most interesting for more. It is probably the combination of both.

Then to top it off, the logo of the Eritrean Electricity Authority, a light bulb inside a electricity bolt with a transmission pylon in the background.

Cohan's Villa, Asmara

Asmara has a number of villas built before WWII in a variety of deco styles.

Cohan's Villa, according to Lonely Planet, was built in the 1930s for a prominent Jewish trading family.

To me the standout feature is the blue tinted windows that wrap around the corners of the building.

I also like the line in the wall which is set a different levels. I don't know if it was designed this way or if the wall has been leveled at it's current height.

Reference:
Lonely Planet, Ethiopia, Eritrea & Djibouti ~ Frances Lindsay Gordon, 1st Ed, November 2000

Wikianos Supermarket, Asmara

When I sat down and asked myself, 'where in the deco world will I go tonight?', my thoughts turned to Asmara. What was the name of the supermarket in Liberation Avenue? Reaching for my trustly Lonely Planet guidebook it automatically openned to the map of Asmara and I had my answer. Wikianos.

Wikianos Supermarket is in one corner of a large mixed residential/commercial building which takes up a whole block.

It was designed by Antonio Vitaliti and constructed in 1944. Quite late for an Italian building in Asmara.

The photo above shows the driveway entrance to the inner courtyard of the building. There are massive curved walls leading off the main street which are echoed in the windows on the balcony on the second storey.

To me the most interesting part of the building is the corners. The corner balconies are rounded as opposed to the right-angled roofline which cover them.

Reference:
Lonely Planet, Ethiopia, Eritrea & Djibouti ~ Frances Lindsay Gordon, 1st Ed, November 2000

Bristol Pension, Asmara

Another Art Deco building in Asmara, the Bristol Pension. I don't know what the accommodation is like there but it is an art deco building so it must be worth a look on that basis alone.

The building is symetrical around a central stairwell. There are two small balconies on the second storey.

At the base of the building roughly cut dark stone has been used to give the building a level base.

According to Asmara - Africa's Secret Modernist City by Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren and Naigzy Gebremedhin, the building was built during the 1940s, originally as an apartment block, and was named the Bristol Pension in the early 1960s.

They also note that the interior floors are topped with finely ground seashells 'providing an incredibly smooth finish'.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City~ Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

Red Sea Pension, Asmara

Another example of the many Art Deco buildings in Asmara.

The sign above the door on the right reads Red Sea Pension and the building presents a sweeping curve from a central driveway.

The wings have simple windows and a continuous concrete eyebrow providing some shade.

The central driveway has curved walls each side of the entrance which are continued onto the second storey where the roofline reaches slightly higher than the rest of the building.

Each end of this raised section supports a thin metal flagpole which is often preferred in Asmara to the usual wooden ones.

Shops & Apartments, Asmara

This is an interesting building in Harnet Avenue, Asmara.

A row of shops occupy the ground floor while the upper floors contain apartments accessed from stairs in the central tower.

The Total signage on the front of the building indicates a garage or service station but there is no evidence of petrol pumps on the street and the central doorway doesn't look wide enough to fit a car.

My favourite detail is the support for the thin flagpole on the central column. Usually these decorative elements follow the rule of three but here we see the rule of four.

Four metal bands supporting the flagpole tapering towards the base.