Description
The Mutamba Building, designed by architect Vasco Vieira da Costa in 1968, functions as an office, commerce and services building. Its name originates from its prominent location on the southern side of Mutamba Square, which remains at the heart of Luanda‘s city centre, flanked by landmarks like the Finance Ministry to the west and the City Hall to the east. Today, it serves as the headquarters of the Ministry of Urbanism and Public Works of Angola.
Situated at the junction of downtown Luanda and the ascending upper city with newer buildings, the Mutamba area symbolises the intersection of different times, featuring what remains from the old city with buildings dating back the 19th century the modern city mainly developed between the 1950s and the 1970s – brilliantly exemplified by the Mutamba Building – and the contemporary city developed after the 1980s, quite literally mirrored in the high-speed glassy (and thus reflecting) transformations taking place in buildings from different eras.
The Mutamba Building, at first sight, may appear as a parallelepiped-shaped block emerging above the trees. However, a closer look reveals more complexity. It is a building composed of distinct volumes occupying the northern part of a city block, with three façades and two right-angled corners, formed by the intersections of three streets in the Mutamba area. Starting with the north-facing “main façade”, there is a ten-storey rectangular block partially supported by pilotis. Behind it are one or two additional floors set back from the upper volume. This setback forms an additional recessed floor above the slab/balcony where the columns are located. When the trees had not yet grown, the block from the northern side must have appeared to float above the columns, as if subject to a magnetic field.
Yet, turning any of the corners dispels this illusion. The sidewalls of the parallelepiped reveal that it consists of three narrower volumes, with the central body set back between the other two. Viewed laterally, the taller volume has only nine floors, rising above a podium of three storeys elevated on pilotis, asymmetrically extending along the side streets. From the south, the base appears as two unequal arms flanking an open courtyard behind the main block. An arcaded gallery runs along the three street façades, providing shelter to pedestrians and access to commercial and service spaces.
The building‘s structure is functional and straightforward. Each outer strip contains offices, interrupted by the stairwell and lifts near the middle. The central strip consists of wide axial corridors for distribution, ventilated at the ends by a checkered grille filling the vertical slits in the side walls.
The architectural design reflects two primary concerns of modern architects in former Portuguese colonies: ventilation and protection against solar exposure. Their designs were often guided by the objective of protecting occupants from tropical heat and humidity through natural means like shading and ventilation. Vasco Vieira da Costa aimed to strike a balance between ideal solar orientation and prevailing winds, seeking what he called a “compromise solution“.
In the Mutamba Building, while the lower floors are shaded due to the stepping back of their façades, the basement levels are solely protected by sliding shutters made of slanting wooden slats, as they can benefit from the shade provided by the surrounding buildings and the trees planted along the sidewalks. Solar protection on the upper floors is achieved through a brise-soleil grille consisting of continuous vertical slats made of reinforced concrete. Small horizontal slats of the same material and thickness are integrated within the intervals between the vertical slats. These blades, combined in two perpendicular directions, shield the building from the sun‘s rays. Furthermore, openings above the entrance doors capture air currents sweeping through the central corridor, facilitated by grilles concealing vertical openings in the gables.
On the extensive north and south façades, brise-soleil slats create a continuous texture, concealing and obfuscating the visibility of framing elements and floor slabs. Consequently, the southern façade presents a uniform textured surface. On the northern façade facing Mutamba Square, the textured surface predominates but is interrupted on the first two floors by projecting concrete “boxes.” These rectangular elements encompass a structural module, spanning the width and rising two storeys in height. On the seventh floor of the parallelepiped block, the brise-soleil grid is replaced by an extensive horizontal “box”, less prominent than on the lower floors but more so than the slats of the continuous texture. Fixed vertical fins, consistently spaced apart, are affixed within this box.
Is this ensemble an explicit reference, albeit on a different scale, to the commercial floors of the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille? Certainly, and that is not the only one common feature, considering the axial distribution corridors and other Corbusian aspects. In the context of influences from Europe, Brazil and Africa, Vasco Vieira da Costa aligns more closely with the Franco-Swiss master than with the formal freedoms inspired by Brazil.
References
Caldas, J. V. (2011). “Design with Climate in Africa. The World of Galleries, Brise-Soleil and Beta Windows”. DOCOMOMO Journal, 44, pp. 16–23. https://doi.org/10.52200/44.A.8F2DXU59
Caldas, J. V. (2013). “Mutamba Building. The Virtuosity of the Brise-Soleil”. In: A. Tostões (ed.), Modern Architecture in Africa: Angola and Mozambique. Lisbon: ICIST/Técnico-University of Lisbon, p. 402.
Caldas, J. V. (2016). “ Ministry of Urbanism and Public Works)”. Heritage of Portuguese Influence. HPIP. https://hpip.org/en/heritage/details/76
Grilo, Maria João (2011). “Vasco Vieira da Costa, Os Caminhos Sombreados do Sol”. In: La Modernidad Ignorada. Arquitetura Moderna de Luanda. Alcalá de Henares: Universidad de Alcalá, p. 200.
Quintã, Margarida (2009). Arquitectura e Clima. Geografia de um Lugar: Luanda e a Obra de Vasco Vieira da Costa. Porto: Iperforma/Soapro.
On the northern façade, on the seventh floor, the brise-soleil grid is replaced by an extensive horizontal “box”.
The lower floors are protected by sliding shutters made of slanting wooden slats
On the northern façade, the textured surface is interrupted on the first two floors by projecting concrete “boxes”.
Originally published in: Uta Pottgiesser, Ana Tostões, Modernism in Africa. The Architecture of Angola, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Birkhäuser, 2024.