Asmara Architecture a World Heritage
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Asmara Architecture A World Heritage 1 Asmara Architecture A World Heritage 2 3 n February 1, 2016, the Erit- DAM); Kassel / Germany - (Kassel The exhibition is based on the book rean Government applied to Centre of Architecture - KAZimKU- Asmara – Africa’s Secret Modernist the UNESCO World Heritage BA ); Stuttgart / Germany - (Gallery City by Edward Denison, Guang Yu OCommittee to have the city centre of the German Association of Ar- Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhin (Merrell of Asmara, capital of Eritrea, listed chitects - “Wechselraum”); London Publishers, London/New York, 2003). as a UNESCO World Heritage. This / Great Britain – (Royal lnstitute of It consists of four thematic units exa- marks the peak of endeavours many British Architects - RIBA); Tel Aviv mining not just the architecture, but people in Eritrea and the world at / Israel – (Bauhaus Center); Cai- also its current as well as its histori- large have been and are making to ro / Egypt – (Goethe-Institute and cal social context. Initiator and ow- preserve this jewel of architecture. DAAD); Lagos / Nigeria – (Goethe- ner of the exhibition is the Eritrean- The UNESCO Committee will make Institute); Lomé / Togo – (Goethe- German initiative “4Asmara – Arbate the decision in July 2017. Institute); World Congresses of the Asmera”. The Bauhaus Foundation International Union of Architects Dessau is responsible for the exhi- In October 2006 the Asmara Ar- (UIA) in Torino, Italy 2008, and bition design, produced by the late chitecture Exhibition was shown for Durban, South Africa 2014; Tübingen Rainer Weisbach. Photographs by the the first time in Berlin/ Germany / Germany – (Shedhall); Bologna / British photographer Edward Deni- – (Architecture Centre of Germa- Italy - Fondazione Cassa di Rispar- son visualize the architectural culture ny – DAZ). From there it took off mio in the Museo della Città; Graz of Asmara. Michael Tesfai, chairper- for a long journey to 15 venues in 9 / Austria – (House of Architects son of “4Asmara – Arbate Asmera”, countries, seen by more than 50 000 - HDA); Munich / Germany – (Pasin- has created and manages the website visitors: Frankfurt a.M. / Germany ger Factory). www.asmara-architecture.com. (German Museum of Architecture – Part of the exhibition is the film City 4 5 of Dreams (Eye Level LLC, Washing- before it makes its decision on the support these cities. Tourism scientist The next venues of the exhibition in Foundation and former Africa Repre- ruction), the German Africa Busi- ton, 2005) by Ruby Ofori and Edward application. Prof. Reiner Hartmann, University of 2017/18 will be Cape Town / South sentative of the German Chancellor, ness Association (Afrikaverein der Scott. It introduces the city and its Bremen, introduces in this book his Africa (Hertex Company Showroom); HE Petros Tseggai Asghedom, former Deutschen Wirtschaft), the Goethe- architecture in the form of a docu- Second goal is to form a global city- plan for a study, which will help tour Nairobi / Kenya (UN-HABITAT Ambassador of Eritrea in Germany Institute and over 30 private enter- mentary with numerous interviews network of classical modernist ar- operators to develop global tours of campus and at Embassy of the Order (now Russia), UNESCO, the Inter- prises and persons. Hertex Fabrics testifying to the love of the people of chitecture. To this effect the organi- classical modernist architecture. of Malta to Kenya in April); Berlin national Union of Architects (UIA) Company is supporting the Asmara Asmara, the Asmarinos, for their city zers of the exhibition appeal to cities / Germany (on the World Heritage and the BDA (Federation of German Exhibition in South Africa. It first and their commitment to preserve it with similar treasures of classical mo- Third goal is to contribute to the Day, June 4); Miami Beach / Florida Architects); the curators Naigzy helped presenting the exhibition at as a cultural heritage. dernist architecture, among them in postcolonial discourse about colonial – USA (Art Deco Museum in Sep- Gebremedhin and Prof. Omar Akbar, the World Congress of Architects particular Miami Beach in the USA, legacies in the field of culture. This tember 6 – December 31); Havana / former President of the Bauhaus UIA2014 in Durban and has offered a The Asmara Architecture Exhibition Tel Aviv in Israel, Napier in New is particularly relevant in the con- Cuba (Art Museum in Old Havana); Foundation, Dessau, and the Bauhaus showroom as the venue in Cape Town pursues the following goals. First Zealand, Bolzano-Gries in Italy, Sau- text of Africa, which has inherited Stuttgart / Germany (Weissenhof staff, in particular, the late Rainer in March 2017. For more information goal is to support the application at badia and other cities in the Italian architecture from the time of coloni- Settlement); Dessau / Germany and Weisbach. In Eritrea we received about the exhibition refer to our web- the UNESCO World Heritage Com- Latium region, Gdynia and Wrocław alism with racist segregation in urban probably in other venues in Poland, wide support from government de- site: www.asmara-architecture.com. mittee. This exhibition wants to draw in Poland, Lakki on the Greek island development. In this context we Lithuania and Italy. partments, in particular the Cultural international attention to this cultu- Leros, Dessau, Weimar, Stuttgart document excerpts of a debate that Asset Rehabilitation Project (CARP) For “4Asmara – Arbate Asmera”: ral heritage. Visitors of the exhibiti- (Weissenhof Settlement), Darmstadt evolved from the presentations of the Many people and institutions have followed by the Asmara Heritage Bisrat Kiefle, Carolyn Murphey Mel- on may sign the appeal in this book and Berlin in Germany. Such a net- exhibition. supported the Asmara Architecture Project (AHP). The main sponsors chers, Christoph Melchers, Konrad that Asmara’s architecture becomes work will help the participating cities Exhibition, to whom we extend our are the German Ministry of Foreign Melchers and Nina Melchers, Mekon- a UNESCO World Heritage. The list to preserve their architecture jewels. Eventually, when these goals have gratitude. Only a few can be men- Affairs, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft nen Mesghena, Nina Nedelykov and of signers will be submitted to the It will attract culture minded people been reached the exhibition may find tioned here: the patrons Dr. Uschi für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), Michael Tesfai. UNESCO World Heritage Committee from all over the world to visit and its permanent site in Asmara. Eid, President of the German Africa KfW (German Bank for Reconst- 6 7 Vittorio Cafiero‘s 1938 plan for the development of Asmara Contents Introduction 5 A World Heritage – Asmara Africa’s Modernist City Omar Akbar and Naigzy Gebremedhin 11 One of Africa’s most beautiful Cities Uschi Eid 17 UIA strongly supports initiatives for Asmara Ar Esa Mohamed 18 Asmara – a History of Courageous Women Yisehak Yosief 39 Asmara Architecture and the Postocolonialism Debate Raimund Rütten, Naigzy Gebremedhin, Edward Denison, Gaetan Siew and Charles Majoroh 40 Asmara World Heritage Appeal 44 The Potential of City-Tourism Rainer Hartmann 46 Imprint 48 8 9 he city of Asmara as we know Italian architects designed and built it today developed from a for the needs of the growing city. conglomeration of villages. A spectrum of modernist buildings TWith Italy’s occupation of Eritrea in came into being, which on an area of 1889, it grew to become the country’s about four square kilometres in the capital city. The design principles town centre, unites the most diverse and architectural styles were wholly architectonic movements and charac- indebted to European tendencies at teristics of the period. Most of these the turn of the century. Around the use the architectural language of the still modest city centre, from 1935, a Architettura Razionale, the Italian A World Heritage phenomenal expansion took place, Modernism of the 1920s and 1930s. initiated by Mussolini’s imperialist Asmara engagement in East Africa. Asmara In 2001 the Eritrean government, was to become the new Rome of the on the initiative of CARP (Cultural Africa’s Modernist City „Africa Orientale Italiana“. Assets Rehabilitation Project), put a preservation order on this special Omar Akbar and Naigzy Gebremedhin Between 1935 and 1941, Asmara part of Asmara’s historic heritage. In developed rapidly, and transformed 2016 the Eritrean government has itself from a relatively provincial city filed its application to the UNESCO of the European style into a highly World Heritage Committee to have sophisticated metropolis, one of the Asmara listed as World Heritage. The most modern cities in the whole of application was carefully prepared by Africa. The character of its appea- the Asmara Heritage Project (AHP). rance today derives from this period. 10 Cinema Impero © Edward Denison 11 International Architecture at the became a canon of Classical Moder- At the time of Asmara’s period of legendary 4th International Congress the indigenous quarter in the north, philosophy of racial segregation, a beginning of the 20th century nism recognised worldwide. growth from the mid 1930s, the of Modern Architecture (CIAM) densely populated and with irregular native quarter away from the Italian young Italian architects faced a meeting on board the passenger structures, the diagonal blocks of town, separated by a mixed commer- At the beginning of the 20th century, Up to the middle of the 1920s Italian wealth of new, large-scale building steamship Patris during a Mediterra-