Multi-family Housing Block (former Universal)

Lobito [Lubito, Olupitu], Benguela, Angola

Housing

In 1953, Francisco Castro Rodrigues (1920-2015) arrives in Lobito where he will apply the principles of the Athens Charter (1933), (which he translated into Portuguese and was published in the Arquitectura magazine in 1948), in the development of Urbanization Plan of the city (1969-1972) according to the four vital functions: housing, leisure, work and circulation.

The building of the insurance company "A Universal" (1957-1961), a mixed block of housing, services and commercial areas, with its monumental scale, mark the city entrance designed as a Unité de Habitation, is clear the work referenced to Corbusier lexicon adjusted to the tropical climate.

The preliminary project, designed in 1957, is initially developed for SOREL company and approved by the City Council in 1958, the same year when the insurance company "A Universal" buys the plots 426 and 427 and proceed with the project keeping the program, already approved of a ground floor with a large commercial space, office spaces on the first floor and small dwellings on the upper floors. The building closes the urban near the Caponte neighbouhood, and is defined by the 25^th of April and 15th of August streets, and the large Square Patrice Lumumba, for which it designed the main facade. Taking into account the location, and with the objectives of dignifying the entry in the commercial downtown, and the importance of the company, Francisco Castro Rodrigues affirms the monumental character of the building getting the authorization to raise the height limit of the main building facing the square above the definitions of the Urban Plan.

The main building has 9 floors, and extends laterally through a smaller volume of 6 floors establishing continuity with the existing buildings. On the ground floor of double high-ceiling, and throughout the "L" plan shape a commercial portico gallery is defined protecting pedestrians from the sun. The intermediate floor designed for offices stick out beyond the facade limit as a "box" of transition between the commercial gallery and the upper volume of 5 floors of housing. The entrance is evidenced by a balcony and a waving slab. In both volumes is defined a cover slab standing on pillars, in the main volume protecting a community space such as workshops and living spaces and on the lower volume a community laundry. The circulation is guaranteed by a horizontal gallery in the rear facade, and two symmetrical stairs and a service stair on the outside.

The composition of the facades is defined through several deep levels of orthogonal grids producing shading areas and balconies. The chromatic differentiation of different grids enhances the reading of "layers" from the evidence of the structure, to the balconies, window and guards.

Francisco Castro Rodrigues works the themes of modernity in relation to new ways of living, which can be seen in the internal organization of housing, in the combination of housing, with leisure and working spaces in the same building, in the design of an open horizontal gallery, on community spaces in the coverage, on the use of color, and also in the artistic expression of the structural elements.

 

Original by Ana Magalhães

(FCT: PTDC/AUR-AQI/103229/2008)

Adaptation by Ana Tostões e Daniela Arnaut.