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.

Australian High Commission / Planning Systems Services

Architects: Planning Systems Services
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Project Year: 1993
Photographer: Planning Systems Services

Quantity Surveyor: DG Jones

- 14 May 2015
- Kililo Mtamu
Embassies , Sustainability , Contemporary African Directory , Selected Works ,

Designed in 1987 for the Government of Australia, this building, on Riverside Drive, Nairobi exists entirely as a result of the efforts of Planning Systems Services and the Quantity Surveyors D G Jones.

Australian High Commission / Planning Systems Services

Knowing that the High Commission wished to move out of the City Centre, the two practices identified the Riverside Drive site, introduced the landowners to the High Commission, and negotiated the construction finance.

The major theme of the design features treated eucalyptus poles as external columns interspersed with large glass panels, overlooking the well treed site.

Eucalyptus, indigenous to Australia and imported into East Africa in the late 1890's for fuel wood, have grown magnificently in Kenya since then and have become a major part of the city landscape, being used throughout East Africa for power and telephone cable poles.

This project is very symbolic and has embedded meaning in its choice of materials. However its stands out independent of this symbolism and anyone will relate to it as a successful project both in its context and as a diplomatic solution. It has so much design value that it still stands out as one of the best design in its locality despite being relatively old.

Australian High Commission / Planning Systems Services

Its stark combination of natural materials and off the shelf materials is matched by few and it’s a timeliness reminder to designers that great solutions are not necessarily far-fetched but are rather informed combination of the available tech, materials and skills.

CLICK TO REVIEW LINKED STORY

Netherlands Embassy in Mozambique / Kaan Architecten
Man, security, diplomacy, dignity, respect, nationhood, the state, separation of powers, union and freedom...these are the words that impregnate the mind at the sight of the royal dutch embassy in Maputo, Mozambique. It is a clean fresh take at embassy design, only rivaled by the British embas...

- © Australian-High-Commision-Plannning-System-Clos...
- © Australian-High-Commision-Plannning-Systems-Mai...
- © Australian-High-Commision-Plannning-System-Main...
- © Australian-High-Commision-Plannning-Systems-Rea...
- © Australian-High-Commision-Plannning-Systems-Sid...
- © Australian-High-Commision-Plannning-System-Clos...

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

If you want your own avatar and keep track of your discussions with the community, sign up to archiDATUM >>

SELECTED WORKS

- The Plantation: A film By Jaco Jonker For the People of the Forest
- 06 Jun 2016
Jaco Jonker smiles when I ask him how his thesis should be read, almost as if it is an obvious allusion to further clarify that it simply...
- BDO_22 Wellington Road / Paragon Architects
- 01 Apr 2016
The BDO building lives to an agenda of a street relationship, something not seen much in South African commercial work. The restaurant pa...
- Dalton House / Alberto Morell Sixto
- 19 Jul 2016
Sometimes architecture is as simple as a sigh, yet portent like the cause of the sigh. It takes a particular process, an integral compoun...

CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DIRECTORY

- Villa Agava / Driss Kettani
- 22 Jan 2017
Villa Agava is a contemporary house, Yes, but not in the conventional sense. It explores the tenets of traditional Moroccan space plannin...
- Firth 114802 / Three14 Architects
- 13 Oct 2016
Designed for a young family in the suburban area of Rondebosch, Cape Town, this house sits on an elongated site with views towards Devil’...
- Villa Z / Mohammed Amine Siana
- 30 May 2016
The Villa Z is a product of very strict city regulations, ones that ultimately confined the building into a 15m distance in a tight squar...