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.

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Embassy of Switzerland in Nairobi / Roeosli Maeder Architects

The Swiss federal office for buildings and logistics recently acquired a piece of land for the construction of a new embassy in the Rosslyn green estate, a residential area just outside the centre of Nairobi

Abidjan New Swiss Embassy / Local Architecture

The recently completed Swiss embassy in Ivory coast stems from an old 1960s building that once house a diplomat from Norway. It is a creative endeavour that much as it reflects the neighbourhood in Cocody that is stands in, still manages to breathe a fresh breath into embassy architecture, one that has most often been characterized by fortified buildings

British Council Khartoum Sudan / Dive Architects

Refurbishment of the existing premises grew from the need to reduce solar gain and rationalise circulation. A new escape stair runs behind a brise soleil wall built from simple concrete blocks 'on edge' chosen for their local availability. Internally the building was completely reorganised to provide better library and seminar facilities on the ground floor and new office accommodation over the...

British High Commission Tanzania / Manser Practice

Of all the embassies that the Manser Practice has done for the British Council, the Tanzanian one perhaps serves as an impeccable source of patronage for the office, a fusion of conclusive metaphors and ambivalent facial expressions to a building that invites a composition of sustainable outlooks and vestigial pride, perhaps in an attempt to fit within the street that is low lying and mute.

British Council, Freetown / Manser Practice

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. The building alludes to clean and entrenched values of embassies bu...

Embassy of the Netherlands / Dick Van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek

The new Embassy of the Netherlands is a building that thrives within its environment, seeking new ways to deal with both the thermal nemesis and the contextual significance of a growing architectural language in Ethiopia's stone architecture. It is a vision that is intended to set an example for a sensitive and sustainable approach towards existing natural and landscape values in Ethiopia

US Embassy Maputo/ Allied Works Architecture

Realizing a design that incorporates security while ensuring transparency can be a hard nut to crack. However, the new US Embassy design embraces a concept that comprises an intricate interlacing of weaving, screening and revealing. The perceptual sense of safety granted to embassy habitats is surreptitiously provided through the choice of walling materials (a series of site-cast concrete walls...

French Diplomatic Campus in Nairobi/ TERRENEUVE Architectes

The project design is strongly marked by the antagonism between the high level of security requirements and its home office. The geopolitical context of increasingly unstable and defensive aspects is dominant in most diplomatic designs and heavily constrains development and architecture of this campus which is aimed at expressing the universality of values held by the French culture: openness...

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; materials; labour; technology….and so on. And yet these facilities exist or are projected to exist within exi...

Australian High Commission / Planning Systems Services

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. 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 th...

US Department of State Bujumbura / Perkins and Will

Located on a 8.3-acre gently sloping site, the new U.S. Embassy in Burundi provides a modern, safe, and energy efficient campus for promoting democratic principles and economic growth in Burundi. Contemporary in design and function, yet respective of local context, the new embassy building features an open and welcoming entrance with security integrated into the design to ensure the safety and ...

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 embassies across Africa. The clean crisp lines, suave white washed walls and timber struts that dot the peri...

South African Embassy, Addis Ababa/ MMA Design Studio

This complex serves one of South Africa’s most important missions abroad being the seat of the African Union and provides for both bilateral and multi-lateral functions. This is one building that presents an image of Africa in the modern times. It is not romantic about the past or futile in depicting modern design.

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 Council.