Addis Streetscapes

He asked me what kind of Pizza I would like to have and I said I would like to see the menu. It turned out he didn’t have one. I offered to help him out and eventually designed everything from his menu to his pizza boxes. Only the menu could be printed while I was there. I hope to see all the other items on photo some time soon.

The fact that the compound fared well until now doesn’t mean propositions for better typologies can not be made. These are mostly related to the traditional Ethiopian way of appropriating space. It has been said before, Ethiopian traditional living is all about communal spaces. What matters here are the (often irregular) spaces in between. These form the breeding ground for all types of activities. Let it be social, cultural or practical activities (example: household).

For people living on the ground floor of the G+4 high rise, these same living patterns can be revived in this new context. For the majority of the people however, those living on higher floors, small corridors offer no real alternative.

For this project I zoom into one particular type of high rise block to rethink the vertical village. Considering a staggering 150.000 units (about 4000 blocks) have been built throughout the country it is important to think how the existing situation can be adapted to better fit the needs of it’s inhabitants.

The main problem with those higher floors are the outside spaces or the lack there of. Spaces here are reserved for circulation only while having outside living quarters is an obvious necessity. We even observed a family sitting outside for Buna in the narrow corridor. The traditional coffee making process consists partly of roasting coffee beans. The roasting produces a considerable amount of smoke. The basic condominium units offer no mechanical ventilation. Doing it outside would make sense. Only one of the reasons these corridors offer no appropriate alternative.

A household roasting coffee beans inside (without mechanical ventilation)

It should be noted that the condominiums were designed to be as cheap as possible. Meant for the poorest of the poor the skeleton follows a economical logic commonly found in social housing. The sub letting system profoundly changed the social and economic dynamics of the neighbourhood. The owners, now having gathered some capital, could invest in a few adaptations to make the blocks more attractive and livable.

The very first and simplest addition that comes to mind is an extension of the corridors and convert them into full fledged balconies that offer outside living spaces to its inhabitants. The rigid discourse of the engineers who presented these structures might be in stark contrast with the one of Ethiopian living but this doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to “hack” it. Extending the existing framework is the simplest and most economic way of adapting an already existing system.

This simple but effective “hack” could possibly reintroduce the possibility of more social cohesion within the respective typology. At this moment the narrow corridors prevent social interaction. As illustrated in the figure below people living nearest to the staircase are unlikely to have any activity in front of their apartment because this would hinder circulation for their neighbours (red areas).

It is known that social connections between direct neighbours is less likely occur because of this lack of space. Social relations are thus not made on the basis of proximity anymore. This diminishes social control in the neighbourhood and leaves many responsibilities left in between. The question to be asked: Is this an early sign of ghetto formation?

During our stay we were lucky to meet some people involved with the built environment. Bringing us closer to knowing what those abstract lines on a computer really mean. One of the most memorable experiences was the visiting of two different building sites. Both of them are coordinated by Fikre-Jesus Mesfen, a local architect in Addis Ababa. This young (read: young for an architect) architect proposed to visit two of his projects together with him. He gave us a very elaborate tour of both of his most finished projects.

One of these projects is a luxury villa in the embassy area near Megenagna (see map). Fikre (meaning “ my love” in Amharic) was so generous to give us a complete tour of this modernist villa sitting on a hill side on the fringes of the city. Every room deserved its own story. Step by step Fikre explained us the ins and outs of the design process. From site preparation to furnishing.

He is an indispensable part of the minibus system. One of the many young stewards assisting the drivers on the go. They usually sit next to the sliding door. When the car is moving they collect the fees from passengers. When passing through a minibus stop he hangs out of the window shouting out the destination of his bus. 

The system is a crossing between a taxi and a bus. You get on at vaguely defined stops but you can get off pretty much anywhere you want on the way. I find myself using this system much more often than the LRT network because of its flexibility. Something the LRT cannot offer because of its rigid structure.

Streets are the business in the 'Old Addis'. Every day, thousands of street vendors occupy their space on the streets. There are shoeshiners sitting on the sidewalks. There are street vendors selling shoes and second-hand clothes on the blanket laid down on the street. There are fruits sold on the mobile carriages. There are chewing gum, cigarette, book and lottery sellers walking around the sidewalks. Informal business is booming.

In the 'Old Addis', next to this very informal commerce, there are little one storey high shack shops and workshops. By standing in the endless line they create the street front. The borders between the street and the shop are blurred. Just by passing by a workshop you can see wooden chair is made by a local craftsman. Little shack shops display their goods on the space front of them to attract passing by people. There is a platform for it that is higher from the pavement. Sometimes the platform serves as a bench and you can see people having a break there. Entering to a shop is fluent as it is part of the street. Due to this buffer zone between street and shop, the change from public to collective to private happens gradually.

Next to the busy informality the 'New Addis' is under construction. Modernist and postmodernist high risers are pumping out all over the city, being concentrated next to the big roads like the Churchill and Bole road. These buildings could be where ever. It is only the Amharic billboards next to the English ones referring to the Ethiopia. It seems like many of these buildings got here with the use of copy-paste method since these are not regarding the local context. It is not a new nor unexpected phenomena happening here. Fast growth and changes in urban environments in their desires to ‘catch-up’ and become a global city has been actual many development countries. This has been creating modernization plans that cut off from the local traditions. K. Stoll(1) claims that Addis Ababa with rest of the Africa is infected with ‘Dubai fever’ as referring to the enthusiasm towards Dubai like theme park.

This 'New Addis', like Bole, have very little of informality left that is so common for the rest of the city. Bole is one of the trendiest areas in the city. There you can find covered and guarded shopping malls and the fanciest nightclubs and cafés. They are introvert structures having only the inside atriums functioning as shared spaces. However, you can’t just enter in an instance. There are guards checking everyone entering the mall. Furthermore, the new malls are distanced from the street with a fence or a little parking lot for customers. There are a lot of labels and some goods on windows attracting people to enter but nothing displayed outside of the borders. Space between the street and the mall is clearly separating one from other. Here you become more of a real customer instead of someone just passing by as it happens in the old Addis.

The Grand Housing Program of the government was/is a grand undertaking. Large quantities of buildings had to be built. Cost analyses had to be made. Standard models had to be designed. One of the most reoccurring typologies within the condominium compounds is the communal building. In our Gotera this place is called “Gibbi”. According to my friend Biniyam this means “place of gathering” in Amharic (primary language in Ethiopia). For the sake of convenience I shall call every other building similarly.

A Gibbi in Jemo. Worku’s shop in the middle part and the photo studio on the second floor. A shop for household items found its way too (left).

Architecturally these two-storey buildings have a very basic structure. They are not all exactly alike but they all retain their one strength: adaptability. In every condominium we go these Gibbis have been filled in differently. Originally these were only intended to serve as schools, places of prayer or washing places. They were not intended to be privatised at all. As time went by the communities felt the need to have private functions there. Some people got together in the respective gibbi buildings to buy them and start their business there.

The gibbis are built as such that multiple different businesses can have their spot. The building can be modularly adapted to whatever the users want to with it. The configurations are more or less guided by the structural division of the spaces. In some cases however I observed new spaces being created. Especially in the empty space created by the staircase like Worku did.

From left to right : Worku’s shop in Jemo, the gym in Gotera, “Gibbi” in Gotera

The first floor originally has no divisions. There are only two small rooms on the extremities of the large space. I visited a gibbi inside the Jemo (1) condominium and found that the huge space had been divided to accommodate a photo studio (seen below). Jemo condominium is one of the most of center condominiums in Addis Ababa. There is less need for cafés like we find them in Gotera. It could be said that the connection to the countryside life is stronger here. The studio is there to show us the aspirations of people. In the background (left) we see a small “traditional” setting to emulate an inherited past. At the same time we observe a cottage style house as a backdrop on the right. It is clear that urban life is not fully integrated in the minds of inhabitants of Jemo.

In Gotera, one of the more central condominiums, social life has completely enveloped the Gibbi typology. The main attraction poles are the “Gibbi” (right) and the local gym (left). As explained in another article, social cohesion and urban life are much more present here. 

A national rail network is on its way (also a Chinese investment). The main train station being near the intersection of LRT lines (la Gare area). Theoretically this area should become the easiest accessible point via public transport in the whole of Ethiopia in the future.

You can find our interactive map here.

The city doesn’t have one important center but rather many hubs. It is now obvious the Ethiopian/African style opposes rigidity and favours a dynamic and fluid way of living. Given this searching for one real center is a difficult thing to do. At least more so than in most Western cities.

When we ask people what could be considered to be the center of Addis we first get a few weird looks. As if this is not a question to be asked regarding Addis Ababa. When we do insist we hear a lot about Mercato (Piazza). Especially older people like to refer to this. Piazza is an historic center named and built by Italian colonialists. It is a big area full of shops. The commercial center of the city.

Note that, at the moment, this place is located at the fringes of the LRT network (see interactive map). The minibuses still rule here. As I said earlier, infrastructure wise, the main center will develop in a completely different area. It is difficult to predict whether or not this new center can evolve to more than just a representative center. Will it be a true center that can be referred to as one by its inhabitants?

The La Gare/ Churchill road area being proposed as a pedestrian only area.

New proposals are waiting for approval. One of them is turning the whole La Gare area into a pedestrian area. It is an attempt to free up space in the suffocating car dominated labyrinth the city has become. Again, it is difficult to predict how this area will be appropriated. At the moment the area can only be identified as a place of circulation. No public life takes place here. Instead, a few government buildings/ company buildings take up valuable space essentially turning it into a working/business district. An Ethiopian person would never decide to meet here for leisure purposes.

The city of Addis Ababa is a fluid assembly of entities. Public transport, private transport, living functions, commercial functions and cultural functions all flow together in a delightful continuum. In contrast to other “more developed” cities the amount of anchors that keeps this continuum from drifting off is much smaller. The network is a backbone that structures the city. It is solid, it is massive, it will not move for at least the next century to come. Other variables will have to adapt to this given.

Slowly the wild city will be tamed by the forceful LRT structure. Looking at the immense concrete columns is equal to getting a glimpse of the city’s future.

The evolution of the city to the species of the vertebrates introduced some novice type of spaces. In some parts the lines run in between two road directions. The underlying spaces consequently are quite difficult to acces. Because they are dry spots in the rainy season some people decide to hang out/ live there.

Nevertheless we can barely call these places hospitable. Once again one of the few open spaces within the city is squished between cars. While the height of the structure has it’s obvious benefits this leaves the streetscape alienated. New ways should be found to give this enormous structure more sense within the context of Addis Ababa. 

Given the notorious appropriating skills of Ethiopian people we could expect the following scene:

This picture was taken during rainy season. The structure thus provides adequate shelter for street vendors. Taxi drivers also claimed their waiting spot.

All over the city we discover new ways the structure can give meaning to the streetscape. Even without official measures the strange organism called appropriation found its way.

Two LRT lines converging to form the shared part of the network.

Even if people can get creative finding ways it’s not always possible. This often occurs in places where cars prevent acces to the sheltered environment of the structure. It is at this point I would carefully like to introduce the term “non-place”

The term “non-place” refers to a place to which people are unable to identify to. These are often spaces of transit devoid of social control and have little to no character. The spaces created by the structure could certainly be categorised as such. As said earlier street vendors offer little resistance by using it as a shelter. 

Traditional Ethiopian courtyard house have common spaces, like shared cooking area and bathroom. Central common space provides the chance to spend time together. Therefore, lively social interactions with neighbours is common in Ethiopian culture. Zeki, who has lived some years abroad shared how it may be challenging for people returning from abroad to be back in their home towns. He explains that it is like losing your privacy. By living abroad, they have used to close the door and be on their own. But back in their towns, after being in your room for some hours, people start to worry and come to ask about you. They have used to live openly with their neighbours.  But Addis is already different, he adds.

Traditionally this kind of socializing with neighbours take place in between very private and most public spaces. Therefore it is necessary to focus to the spaces that mediate between inside and outside to evaluate continuity of this culture.

Theoretically, private domain and public domain are not monolithic terms on its own. These two can not be separated from each other. Referring to the framework of the Streetscape Territories, the urban space can be understood as discontinuous collective space, from the domestic scale till the scale of the city. It is the significance of the everyday life that constantly defines and redefines the boundaries. Furthermore, these are the in-between spaces that blur inside and outside and adds to variety of common spaces.

Our home in Addis Ababa is located in the Gotera Condominium. This is a great chance to learn how these in-between spaces are appropriated during the everyday life of the people living in condominium. The first few days we were staying in the block 63, 3'rd floor, flat 17. Apartments on the same floor are connected with a narrow gallery hallways type of opened space. These spaces serve as access to the apartments and also extending the apartments.

Our apartment shares this ‘gallery’ with a neighbouring apartment and this is separated from the rest by a gate. On the other side of the gate neighbours are having dinner front of their apartment. The Ethiopian music is playing loud.  Two ladies and a man are chatting, laughing and singing along the songs. One of the ladies is cooking something on the pot and sitting. Meanwhile their neighbour is arriving home. She is a middle aged lady. She enters her apartment without stopping for greeting. I am on the other side of the high gate and can’t even have an eye contact with them and so I am losing a chance to interact .

This narrow in-between space front of the apartments is used for household works by many. There are people washing laundry and hanging it to dry there, preparing food and making buna(traditional Ethiopian coffee) ceremony. People living on the ground floor are more privileged, since they can extend this space to the open space between the apartment blocks.  So there are ladies preparing injera (traditional Ethiopian bread), kids playing and spices lied on linen to dry. There are many reasons why these spaces are often appropriated by their residence. There are practical reasons like lacking space inside the apartment and saving electricity by using fire for cooking. But it is also common to use space front of house for this kind of activities and it is keeping traditions.

In the case of Gotera condominium we can say that there is definitely the need for these in-between spaces, since even narrow galleries are often appropriated by the residence. However, the culture of socializing as way of living is in threat since these spaces are narrow and do not allow longer stay and wider use. In-between spaces in the this new modern way of vertical living are crucial and have to get more attention.

Static space

We have started to map this static space and are trying to give a visual representation of the different feels of every compound. Results soon to come!

In the case of Gotera the function of housing seems to have been partially replaced by commercial activities. Over time the community has evolved to be much more than just a place to live.  So much that you could live in the city without ever leaving Gotera. Because of it’s fixed geometry and the laws prohibiting other constructions it will not evolve to have a centre of it’s own soon.

The only constructions that serve communal functions are low rise constructions strategically place within the compound. They are lower constructions designed for gatherings and school purposes. Over time they were privatised by entrepreneurs. Restaurants, pool cafés, gyms, photo studios, beauty studios, etc.

Its location within the city means that the compound offers good acces to all kinds of transportation methods to its inhabitants. First of all the ringroad runs right next to it making it easily accessible by car. This made it easier for the ever evolving minibus system to adapt and create a stop next to it. Taxis also have a semi permanent waiting spot at the entrance. Considering the high concentration of people living there it is surprising the designers of the newly installed LRT (Light Rail Network) didn’t make a stop near the condominium. Especially considering the line runs there anyway.

Another factor keeping Gotera from completely mix (melt…) with its environment has to do with it’s street network. First of all it has only one entry road. This creates a completely safe bubble within the expanding outer core of the city. Especially considering the community is guarded 24/7.