A true legacy in the field of architecture and beyond, Oscar Niemeyer, who died at the age of 104, has traveled into the heart of many, one of which is graffiti artist Eduardo Kobra. In honor of the Brazilian architect, Kobra created a 61-yard art piece on the side of a building in Sao Paulo’s financial district. The...continue reading

Straw bales, a by-product of the mechanical harvesting and threshing of grain, are produced in large quantities in mechanised agricultural areas. The traditional rectangular bales, which are cheap and can be manhandled individually, are appropriate for building. Standard bales are produced within the baler by compressing quantities of straw into flakes about 100 mm thick. These layers are...continue reading

what is an Eco-house? Eco-architecture sees buildings as part of the larger ecology of the planet and the building as part of a living habitat. This contrasts with the more common notions of many architects, who see a building as a work of art, perhaps on exhibition in a settlement or as ‘frozen music’ in the people-less pictures...continue reading

It costs you more to rent an apartment in the upmarket suburbs of Dar es Salaam than in any other city in East Africa – and, no, that is not cause for celebration. It simply means that living in a modern apartment in Tanzania is far beyond the reach of millions of ordinary Tanzanians. With the country facing...continue reading

Project: Tanhouse Architect: Epitome Architects Limited Client: Eng. George Alliy Status: completed, 2014. Photographs: Epitome Architects Limited Tanhouse is 13 storeys office building located on plots 34/1 Urisno along Ali-Hassan Mwinyi road Kinondoni Municipality, Dar es Salaam. The building looks elegant with exceptional character from surround buildings. The building has dedicated space for commercial activities such as banking,...continue reading

When drawing the initial thoughts of a design we make, as a rule, black marks on white paper. Black represents solids, white the space between the solids, between the enclosure. Yet those white areas are not empty, nor are the solids uniformly the same. Light affects both to varying degrees, and both are there to be manipulated by...continue reading

Project: Night-club Designer: James Mbellah Client: F. Mbowe Financier: CRDB Status: proposal    It is very rear to see buildings with western culture adopt our local culture, but at this particular building, it happen. The proposed night club which reflects the Tanzanian culture will be built in Kigamboni Dar es salaam.     The building will have exhibition...continue reading

A building is an assemblage that is firmly attached to the ground and that provides total or nearly total shelter for machines, processing equipment, performance of human activities, storage of human possessions, or any combination of these. Building design is the process of providing all information necessary for construction of a building that will meet its owner’s requirements...continue reading

Put a group of architects, urban designers and planners in a sightseeing bus and their actions will define the limits of their concerns.  The architects will take photographs of buildings, or highways or bridges. The urban designers will wait for that moment when all three are juxtaposed. The planners will be too busy talking to look out of...continue reading

Glass has been used to enclose space for nearly two millennium and is one of the oldest man-made building materials. At the same time continual improvements to the manufacturing and refining processes make glass one of the most modern building materials today, one that shapes the appearance of contemporary architecture unlike any other. Almost any task associated with...continue reading