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.

British Council, Freetown / Manser Practice

Architects: Manser Practice
Location: Freetown, Sierra Leone
Project Year: 2013
Photographer: Manser Practice
Website: www.manser.co.uk

- 12 November 2015
- Edwin Seda
Embassies , Urban Renewal , Sustainability , Editor's Choice , Selected Works , Modern Africana , Contemporary African Directory , Africana ,

The British Council is perhaps the biggest export of architectural heritage across the world, comparable only in second place to the Dutch. The latest addition to the portfolio of architecture in Africa is the Freetown British council, a building that has now become synonymous with social and cultural endeavors in Sierra Leone.

British Council, Freetown / Manser Practice

The building alludes to clean and entrenched values of embassies but still bears with it a homely feel, a departure from the contemporary office like feel to embassies and a foray into a scared and convoluted relationship between the people of Sierra Leone and the British pursuit of diplomacy.

British Council, Freetown / Manser Practice

From the Project Architect:
At the end of the Civil War in Sierra Leone, the existing 1950s British Council building was an important but very run down social and cultural hub in the city of Freetown.

British Council, Freetown / Manser Practice

To bring the building back to life, The Manser Practice worked with local consultants, using materials that were available locally and construction techniques that were suitable for the low-skilled local workforce. Refurbishing the building involved stripping it back to its original design and then adding extensions to both rationalise the layout and help improve the natural ventilation that the building had relied on from its inception.

British Council, Freetown / Manser Practice

Our ability to work closely within the constraints of climate, skills, materials and political context from the outset allowed the project to be built in very difficult circumstances.

CLICK TO REVIEW LINKED STORY

New British High Commission / Kilburn Nightingale Architects
Designing an embassy or a consulate poses a myriad of challenges. Architects face a task to resist the temptation to design that which is wholly representative of the mother country without necessarily applying contextual measures. Questions ponder. ‘Home’ country or the host? Concepts; materi...

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British Council Building /Emma Vergette
As opposed to most Embassy and Embassy related compounds the British Council Building in Addis Ababa replaces the usually high solid walls with a rather porous design with open railings that maximise visibility of the building, a clear indication of the approachability and openness of the Coun...

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