Apartments, Massawa

Apartment Building in Massawa

Gatehouse, Massawa

I think this is a little gatehouse at the port in Massawa. It has the outline of Eritrea of the roof left over from the celebrations for the anniversary of their independence a few weeks earlier. And I do love black & white checks but that's not a deco thing.

A Pair of Buildings in Massawa

I remember it was bloody hot the day we were in Massawa. Too hot for a lot of walking so this is as close as I got to this pair of buildings. The zoom brought them a bit closer!

A Commercial Building in Asmara

A commercial building in Asmara

A Villa in Asmara

The residential areas of Asmara has many buildings like this one. Modernist boxes reaching to various heights with little or no decoration. A thin line around the roof line and a single shade eyebrow encircling the entire building above the upper storey windows.

Apartments in Massawa

This is an interesting apartment block of indeterminate age in Massawa.

I find it unusual that the upper floors overhang the ground floor providing shade and shelter for the footpath. The columns on the open balconies are the same as the columns between the windows. The windows are shuttered so they may, in fact, not have any glass.

Decoration takes the form of a row of diamonds above the second storey windows and a more complex combination of repeating geometric shapes above the top floor windows. There is also the squares on the balcony walls and the 'union jack' panel in the centre of each balcony.

Villa, Asmara

I call this the 'Venetian' villa because of the venetian lion on the front of the building.

A House in Massawa, Eritrea

OK it is a little rundown but lots of Massawa in Eritrea is (or at least was, in 2003 when I was there).

This is a great house all the same. Three storeys with open and open, curved terrace and a flat roof.

The boxed section at the front of the house has two vertical rectangular panels of windows cut into the corners plus a third panel topped with a semi-circular section of windows. The central panel of windows differs from the other two in that it starts at ground level and the panes are offset rather than in the more usual grid pattern.

This garden at the front of the house is entered through a lovely double wooden gate.

Cinema Roma, Asmara

According to Asmara - Africa's Secret Modernist City, the design for the Cinema Roma was originally proposed in 1937 by Roberto Cappellano under the name Cinema Dux and although originally rejected the cinema was built soon after 1937 and for a time was known as Cinema Excelsior. The Roma name was adopted later.

The authors do not go into details of alterations to the cinema in 1944 by Bruno Sciafani but the plans reproduced in the book show an enlarged front facade similar to the current building and therefore, perhaps, a larger cinema overall.

The latter plan does not include the flagpoles so they may have been added realtively recently. They are similar to the flagpole on these Shops and Apartments in Harnet Avenue.

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

A Factory in Asmara

I have always thought this to be the Asmara Soap Factory but looking in Asmara - Africa's Secret Modernist City by Denison, Yu Ren and Gebremedhin I find that it is not the Soap Factory but its next door neighbour.

In any case it si a factory and it is in Asmara and it does have a spectacular three storey glass fronted tower and two square columns running from street level to the sky like two antenna.

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

Shops in Asmara

Recently I posted a photo of an apartment block in Reba Anseba Street, Asmara.

These shops are also in Reba Anseba Street, perhaps demonstrating just how ubiquitous this style of Modernist building is in Asmara.

This building also features local metal work on the doors and shutters for the windows. There are two on the footpath leaning up against the wall.

Also note the simple geometric pattern of the glass panes in the window of the tower on the nearside of the building.

Apartments, Asmara

These apartments are in Ruba Anseba Street in Asmara.

They are typical of many Modernist apartments built in Asmara during the later years of Italian colonalisation prior to WWII.

I especially like what appears to be loggias or pergolas on the second floor balconies.

A Building in Asmara

There is a lot to like in this Modernist corner building in Asmara. The metal balconies are sweet and note that the two on the corner do actually wrap around the corner of the building.

I really like that the top corner of the building has been cut-out to form a roof terrace and that the higher roofline behind it is stepped.

I can't can't tell you any more about it. This is just another fabulous piece of architecture in Asmara.

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

Hotel Torino, Massawa

Is the Hotel Torino in Massawa an Art Deco building?

I've seen in Eritrea by Edward Denison & Edward Paice that it was constructed in the late 1930s so from that point of view it sits firmly in the interwar period when, as the name suggests, the Italians occupied the area.

The shape of the windows, however, look back to an earlier time perhaps when the town was part of the Ottoman Empire. Yet to my eye the decoration has been simplified and stripped back to its basic form.

The curved facade, sitting on a prominent corner site, is a common streamline feature and with conventional windows I think the building could easily fall into that category of architecture.

What do others think?

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.