ETHIOPIA

OBJECTIVE OF THE VISIT

this study tour to ethiopia in 2008 was organized after the students participants had executed a design project in the periphery and were to present the results to the public housing and urban planning authorities. once having travelled so far from europe they obviously had to benefit from their presence in the country. apart from the getting to know formal and informal settlement quarters in the capital addis abeba, they embarked on a tour visiting some giz projects to built several new universities (one fore each province) but also to see the outstanding cultural sites.

TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE

the church was and still is an important social force in ethiopia. until the communist coup in 1984, 280 days a year are religious feasts or days of rest. therefore, apart from purely residential construction, most traditional monuments are connected to religious purposes - and ownership.

traditional construction materials are earth and thatch [for the poor], stone [for the powerful], eucalyptus [for the modern economy] and concrete [especially for the chinese and for international ventures].

COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE

Although both, the british and the italians hat tried to gain control over what is ethiopia today, a formal in internationally recognized International annexation of the area by europeans was only achieved faschist Italy 1936, and lasted for five years until 1941. The interest by the Italians can be explained since neighbouring ERITREA had been an Italian colony already. Given such a short period of occupation, Italian cultural and infrastructure achievements were remarkable and can still be traced in many aspects. 'COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE' is one of them.

a similarly influential period was the communist regime 1974-91under the dictator-like MENGISTU.

Hence, most of what we characterize as 'colonial' actually stems from italian influence. We were shown some remainings from that period by the architect Fasil Giorghis, who published a rather complete book on the subject. There also exists an excellent essay about colonial architecture in ethiopia, published in robert hesson's blog 'northern architecture centre'.

KEBELES AND INFORMAL ARCHITECTURE

technically speaking, a kebele is the smallest civil administration unit in ethiopia, comprising at least 500 families. They were created by the revolutionary government with the idea of local self-administration - very similar as the UJAMAA units in Tanzania under Nyrere in the same epoch. Surprisingly they still exist today, although the meaning nowadays in the urban context rather refers to a popular neighbourhood without formal streets and sometimes deficient infrastructure.

as the architect Fasil Giorghis reports, many of these central 'living areas' are now being removed and the residents displaced in order hand over these sites to commercial developers.

CONDOMINIUM HOUSING

BOLE SUMMIT HOUSING .
SHELTER
xxx

in a rural tribal society, public housing is something completely out of imagination. It was only when ethiopia was declared a colony by subsequent european states, and when addis abeba developed into a relatively big city, first such projects were introduced. the italian government was the first to built public housing - presumably for their own staff - which is still in perfect state today.

the ethiopian population lived in their self- or collectively constructed KEBELE neighbourhoods - until some politicians considered those to represent an eyesore and decided on public housing as a solution. They engaged their housing institute had developed the so-called CONDOMINIUM housing scheme - five storey walk-up minimal space apartments which were very economical and expected to pay for themselves. GIZ executed the project employing local artisans and tried to avoid creating a ghetto by locating the buildings next to existing neighbourhoods.

when in view of scaling up the project by locating a new 200,000 people suburb BOLE SUMMIT only consisting of condominium housing, GIZ got worried and contracted KOSTA MATHEY as an external consultant to guarantee the best social and ecological solutions, which he did with a small team and presented it to the authorities and the professional public in 2008.

In parallel some students of him in Darmstadt chose the neighbouring hill BOLE BEMI for a future extension, since the topography of BOLE SUMMIT only allowed the accommodation of half of the projected numbers of persons.

Certainly the higher employment and ecological standards - although eening more sustainable - were more expensive that the chinese competitors who calculated with their own staff and standards. Under these circumstances, GIZ unfortunately lost the tender for the deal.

Download for the BOLE SUMMIT proposal:

Download for the BOLE BEBA proposal

THE TOUR ACROSS THE COUNTRY

DEBRE LIBANOS / DEBRE MARKOS

DEBRE LIBANOS s one of the uncountable prilgrimage churches in ethiopia - not too far way from the capital on the route to debre markos. more impressive than the church itself was the burning sun on the large plateau - and the healthy instinct of the local population to gather underneath the few trees in order to benefit from the shadow they provide.

DEBRE MARKOS, on the other hand, is a small provincial capital where one of the 10 or so new universities [one for each capital] was being built - under the direction of a german team leader provided through the giz. he showed us the construction site including the blocks of provisional toilets. yes, there also are toilets in the new building. well done! But nobody had considered that toilets also produce effluents which also have to go somewere. But this problem can be fixed technically - more serious seemed to be the academic staffing aspect - professors don't fall from the sky but must be prepared over years. in the meantime, the country is hiring professors from abroad - especially india [where they are affordable at least]

TIS ISAT BLUE NILE FALLS / TIS ABEY

the blue nile, before reaching the tana lake, passes a set of powerful waterfalls, but part of stream is also used for electricity generation. - poor like most primary schools in the country - provides practical economy lessons in acquiring donations in the voluntary sector. this may prevent the girls to work in the quarry later on [the men don't seem to be strong enough for that job].

BAHIR DAR / TANA LAKE

BAHIR DAR is a city located on the tana lake, and from here a boat trip invites to several small islands. one of them hosts the monastery entos eyesu wich from the artistic point of view may not be world class, but nevertheless is somewhat revolutionary as it accommodates male and female monks at the same time.

GONDAR

GONDAR in spite of its 350,000 inhabitants is not really a vibrant city - but it can be quiet being proud of its past: for more than 200 years it was capital and residence of the emperor or ethiopia. the various remainings of the emperial compound are still impressive and can be visited.

LA LIBELA

Lalibela may be the most impressive ste in ethiopia, for its combined cultural value, architectural space, and the surrounding landscape. It is an orthodox religious centre was meant to become the new jerusalem after old jerusalem was captured by the muslims. apart from this unique monument, also indigenous architecture is well-preserved in the surrounding villages.

PERSONALITIES

although this visit to ethiopia was offered, in the first place, to the authors of the urban development proposal for BOLE BEBI, in academia you cannot be bureaucratic since this would carry a wrong message that student should take for their future life. of course, personally, nobody should never stop learning, even while teaching at the same time.

This essay-documentation covers the first 11 days of the visit organized by PAR staff. However, part of the group stayed for another 8 days which supposedly took them towards the South of the country, and where they met the GIZ expert alexandra linden in awassa, south ethiopia.