The Addis Ababa House

In its early decades, the -Ethiopian capital, founded in 1886, witnessed a very specific form of -architecture. At the beginning of the East African country's first -urbanization process, a mixture of vernacular knowledge and a new cosmopolitan mindset led to an archi-tectural type that local professionals refer to as the 'Addis -Ababa Style': Pavilion-like buildings of different sizes, made of stone, earth, and wood, characterized by expressive pinched roofs, generous verandas with curtain walls, and a high degree of detailing. Today, those graceful, -appropriate, and nature-based buildings are under threat of being swallowed up due to shortsighted economic interests. In cooperation with the Institute for Architecture in -Addis Ababa (EiABC), architects of Berlin's Technical University studied this typology with regard to its embeddedness in local resources, climatic conditions, and craftsmanship. As such, they employed the -'Addis -Ababa House' as a case study to discuss the possibility of a non--industrial building type that -reflects the desire for a cosmopolitan urban life.