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Mozambican Architecture
Unnumbered Dossier
Few articles on architectural topics appeared in the local press from the mid-1970s through to the early 1990s. For one thing, virtually no private sector and very little public sector building was going on during those years. A symbol, perhaps, of this near paralysis in construction was the abandoned Quatro Estações [Four Seasons] hotel on the marginal, sabotaged by the colonialists in 1974-1975 and never completed; it stood empty for three decades. The shell was finally demolished on 31 March 2007 [see short video below].
This page, therefore, restricts itself to posting links to websites featuring current architecture as well as the work of major Mozambican architects such as Pancho Guedes and José Forjaz.
Links on Contemporary Mozambican Architecture
◊ An Archisign webpage illustrating work done on the Inhaca Island resort (across the bay from Maputo, 45 minutes by boat): the buildings, dating from the 1970s, were upgraded. Click here to jump to the company’s page on the project.
◊ Ruben Morgado is a young Mozambican architect who has a modest web presence here.
◊ 30 November 2010
James Earle. Luxury or lifeline: building crèches in Mozambique. An article on a design for a creche in a Maputo suburb by Pierre d’Avoine. Click here to jump to the text.
◊ This is a news channel for architects and builders on developments in Mozambique, e.g. an announcement that a road is to be built, or that new schools are to be constructed. Click here to jump to the site.
◊ The web pages of the Faculty of Architecture at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane.
«Pancho» Guedes (b.1925)
Amâncio d’Alpoim Miranda Guedes or Pancho Guedes was the most important and influential architect in pre-independence Mozambique, involved in around 500 projects mainly in what was then Lourenço Marques, but also in Angola and South Africa. After 1975 he held a professorship at Wits. The links below are to developed websites which give a fair idea of his importance.
◊ The official Pancho Guedes website. Includes a detailed biography, a downloadable PDF file of a tribute from Wits University in South Africa dating from 2003, and a page of links [all linked below]. Click here to jump to the website.
◊ A detailed professional biography of Guedes, with illustrations, by Cedric Green. Click here to jump to the website.
◊ Links to several other websites with information about Pancho Guedes. Click here to jump to the page of links.
◊ Download a PDF file of a tribute volume, Viva Pancho! by clicking here. The cover and the text are downloadable separately.
◊ Entitled «Architecture on a Grand Scale» this website presents a photographic album of Guedes’ work. Click here to jump to the site.
◊ A short Wikipedia article on Guedes. Click here to jump to the page.
José Forjaz (b.1936)
José Forjaz designed the monument to Mozambican heroes in Maputo and was a member of the Assembleia Popular, as well as holding cabinet positions.
◊ The website of José Forjaz Arquitectos. Click here to jump to the home page.
Above: The monument to the heroes of the Mozambican revolution, designed by José Forjaz in the Praça dos Heróis Moçambicanos.
◊ An article: ‘The work of José Forjaz in Mozambique’, by Denise Denis, from Environmental Design: Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre no.1-2 (1988), pages 94-103. Click here to download a PDF file of the article.