Description
The Central Library (also known as Maktaba Kuu ya Taifa, National Central Library, Tanzania National Library) is on the edge of Upanga, near the central commercial area of Dar es Salaam and nearby the Goan Institute (Dar es Salaam Institute). The building is positioned on the end of Ingles Street⎯now Maktaba (meaning “library” in Swahili) Street. The immediate surroundings were largely unbuilt and mostly grown with palm trees at the time of construction in 1966.
The Central Library, according to its architect Anthony B. Almeida, is one of his most successful works of contemporary tropical architecture, making use of natural light and cross-ventilation. The client, said Almeida, was deeply involved in drawing up the brief, but Almeida only submitted plans to them for discussion, no elevations, perspectives or models. On the design he wrote: “This, being the first Library of its kind for Tanzania, whose people had now begun to enjoy education and its benefits, I wanted the building to appear to call the people to come in. For this reason, the main staircase that leads from the ground to the first floor adult library is an open ‘grand’ staircase attached to the outside of the building, and not hidden within the building, thus very visible and very inviting.” (Almeida, letter, 2005)
The library is a self-contained, two-storey building with a square, nearly symmetrical layout. The building takes a rectangular form, hollowed out so that the ground floor has an H-shaped plan and the first floor an eight-shaped plan. The core of the central staircase and the rectangular volume housing stairs and a lift on the backside extend, and appear as sculptural volumes above the building. The entrance is at the front, eccentric in the facade, with a broad staircase leading to the main entrance on the first floor. In the foyer are issue and control desks. From there, visitors can go to a lecture room to the right, or to the lending library to the left. The lending library has an open plan. The front wing is connected to the back wing with a bridge with stairs and lavatories on the sides. The back wing again has an open plan and contains open book stacks and catalogues. The two main wings are also connected with a reading room and a staffroom.
On the ground floor is the children’s library entrance, on the side of the building, which leads to the foyer with control and issue desks. The front wing is a children’s and secondary school library. A gallery, with the lavatories and stairs on the sides of it, leads to the back wing where books are catalogued and stored. The two patios between the two wings are play and acting areas. Foldaway doors between the children’s library and the patio allow the patio to be used as an open-air reading area. The means of solar shading are similar to those used in Almeida’s own residence A.B.A. House, designed a few years before: canopies projected from the roof slab, asbestos solar screens and horizontal exposed concrete bands parallel to the building. The louvred windows, foldaway doors, the open plan and the patios allow ample ventilation.
The building appears as a more or less heavy horizontal volume, supported by a series of lighter small vertical stilts. The relative closeness of the solar shading and the horizontality on the first floor contrast with the transparency of the windows and the verticality of the columns on the ground floor. The closeness of the solar shading also emphasises the entrance. The horizontality of the volume, resulting from its proportions and the horizontal bands, is also counteracted by the asymmetry of the planes of solar shading and the sculptural volumes on top. Alternating concrete panels with a pattern of arches enliven the ground floor front facade. Originally, the possibility of adding an extension at the back of the building had been provided for, and the building was also foreseen to accommodate one more storey on top.
Today the building has unfortunately been topped up by two storeys and was painted. The extra storeys appear vaguely as a copy of the original, but lack the intelligent coping with light and air, and the careful rhythm of the screen solar shading and walls. Additionally, a large billboard was erected on top. In the original building, partitions were introduced, some windows were replaced and gates were mounted. The building is still very centrally located. Somewhat set back, it sits along Bibi Titi Mohamed Road, the main traffic artery through the centre of the city and the plots adjacent to it have been developed. Maktaba Road has become a main entrance and exit road to and from the city.
References
Burssens, P. (2005). Anthony B. Almeida. Modern Architecture in Tanzania Between 1950 and 1975. Architecture Serving Colonial and Post-Colonial Politics? [Doctoral dissertation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven].
Letter from Anthony B. Almeida to Pieter Burssens, May 2005.
Main façade in its original state
Main entrance in its original state
Exterior view. During an extension the original two-storey building was topped by another two storeys
Exterior view in 2024
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.