• • 19 June 2015
  • 
  •  Peninah Mutonga
• Education Centres , Selected Works , Contemporary , Contemporary African Directory , Modernism , Modern Africana ,

From the Project  Architect:

The Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Presidential Library and Museum is the first public facility in the country of Equatorial Guinea designed to showcase and preserve presidential documents, photographs, videos and artifacts. Located in the city of Mongomo, the complex includes the 81,000-square-foot Library and a 19,500-square-foot headquarters building for the Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Foundation for Humanism and Peace, designed as an integral part of the Presidential Library.

The Presidential Library comprises five main components arranged along the wings of the H-shaped facility around the entrance grand pavilion: the Museum-Exhibit Gallery, the Presidential Archive Storage and Research Center, the Assembly Areas (including a 250-seat auditorium), a large reception hall, a Presidential conference center and a multi-purpose room, and the Presidential Suite, consisting of a presidential office, living areas, private dining facilities and a bedroom. Service spaces include a full kitchen to serve to special events. The site includes a ceremonial entry for guests and museum visitors with a separate roadway for VIP and Presidential drop-off. Other exterior feature spaces include the building front esplanade, and an exterior sculpture courtyard-corridor leading to a water feature.

The exterior façade of the Presidential library is clad in contrasting tones of Italian travertine hand selected by the architects from the quarries in Tivoli, Italy. Upon arrival, visitors ascend steps of the same vein-cut Travertine to enter the main hall beneath the cover of a travertine clad roof canopy that appears to float over the glass entry wall. Once inside, this high roof canopy continues as the ceiling, flanked by skylights that allow filtered daylight to fall down the interior wall faces of vein cut travertine and fill the space with natural light during the day.

At night, the skylights allow a breathtaking view of the skies above. At the end of the great hall is the entrance to the auditorium featuring a wall of luminous onyx panels. Beyond the great hall and auditorium, visitors enjoy views into a central courtyard through an interior arcade of stone and glass, moving along rich Tropical Olive wood panels that clad the walls of the Ballroom and Stateroom for distinguished guests and visiting heads of state.

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