Designer: Ramson Sanford

Drawing team: Ramson Sanford, Joseph Mandwa, Ntabuly Nana, Ivan Josephat, Godfrey Mgaya, Emmanuel Sungi, John Julius and Florian Malavanu.

Status: proposal


    The proposed cultural centre will be the first cultural centre in Tanzania and bring revolution to architectural styles of Dar es salaam and Tanzania. The cultural centre was designed so as to bring culture close to people especially those who live in Dar es salaam city who seem to forget their origin culture. The cultural centre is proposed along Sam Nujoma road in Dar es salaam, very opposite to Mawasiliano tower.


The centre will include;

Exhibition hall

Art gallery corridor

Restaurant

Office spaces

Library

Conference hall of 1000 people

Arts performance hall of 2500 people

Recreation areas

Design

    The cultural centre will consist of three buildings which contain different activities. The first building will consist of exhibition spaces, art gallery corridor and restaurant. The second building which looks like calabash will consist of office spaces, library and conference hall. The third building which looks like African drum will consist of arts performance hall.

First building

    The first building which will include exhibition hall, art gallery corridor and restaurant is designed to meet requirements and function well. The building has curves which go inside to its both sides, which makes the entrance to be very welcoming from far. Also the curves harmonize with other two buildings which have round shapes and bring psychological comfortability to passengers between them.



   The building has no side windows and instead there are skylights at the roof which are covered by ETFE material so as to control light in exhibition spaces. Side windows can make sun rays to fall on the object and form glare. Above the building there is an art gallery corridor which runs above all three buildings. The corridor also has skylights so as to control light inside. The art gallery corridor also act as a connector to those three buildings , the three separate buildings look like one building by that art gallery corridor which runs above them.

Second building

   The second building looks like calabash, others call it cultural tower because it is the tallest among other three buildings. The building will consist of 25 stories of office spaces, library and conference hall. The cultural tower has an open end at the top which helps in the harvesting of rain water. The building has many strong colors which make it seem from far. The tower sits on a podium which has a curved round wall. The podium helps to the structure of the building.

Third building

    The third building will consist of arts performance hall. The building form comes the function of the building. The building is used for entertainment, and by looking in Tanzanian societies , playing drums is used as a source of entertainment, so the building form was inspired by the African drums.


     The drum like building will have one hall of capacity of 2500 people. The building have four entrances by which one lead to the backstage and three others to the hall. There are eight leaning inside columns which helps the roof structure of the building.

conclusion

    The building construction has not started yet, because the project has not proved by the government or any developer. The designers are looking forward for any developer/investor or financier to carry on the project.