Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

Armando Tivane 178 / Promontorio

Architects: Promontorio
Location: Rua Armando Tivane 178, Maputo, Mozambique
Interior Décor: Promontorio
Project Year: 2014
Photographer: Promontorio
Website: www.promontorio.net

Programme: 12-Storey office building with street retail
Gross Built Area: 12,000 sq.m plus 4,000 sq.m basement parking

- 18 May 2018
- Datum Editorial
Residential , Contemporary , Contemporary African Directory , Selected Works ,

The project is located in downtown Maputo, capital of Mozambique. Due to both economic growth and speculation in recent years, the urban pressure in the centre of the city has resulted in a series of new buildings being built in its main avenues, some even of disproportionate height.

Armando Tivane 178 / Promontorio

This development has gradually altered the social and urban character of the city. In addition, the market pressure on the urban fabric has led to a diversification of uses of which office building is an example.

Armando Tivane 178 / Promontorio

The contingent use of residential buildings as workspaces due to informality and shortage of proper office space, has led the developer considered reasonable, businesswise, to build an office building in an eminently residential area of the city. Located on Armando Tivane avenue, in the immediate vicinity of Julius Nyerere avenue, this 12-storey building follows the confining buildings both in terms of street alignment and storefronts at ground floor level.

Armando Tivane 178 Promontorio

With a two floor parking basement and a rectangular plan with a central distribution core, it can be broken down on 6 to 8 potential fractions per floor. Emphasizing street continuity, the facade foreground develops in alignment with the contiguous building albeit an individual expression by the oblique recess of its planes, broken sequentially, above the cornice.

Its East-West exposure led the facade design to integrate a shading system of vertical louvers incorporated in a concrete post-and-lintel composition, rendering the building an abstract character which in turn reflects its modular flexibility.

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Lubango Centre / Promontorio
With 9-storey, the building includes residential, offices and shops served by a common access and underground parking. On the ground floor, a sheltered and cross-ventilated open gallery generates a shaded and fresh space, allowing direct access to the shop fronts, to the residential and office...

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