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Monomotapa
Hotel
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Click link on thumbnail. More images...! . . . |
Location
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Harare, CBD | |
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Designers
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Roy Densem | ||
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Date
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1971 | ||
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Original
Client
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., hotel group | ||
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Style
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Late Modern | ||
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Discussion
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Monomotapa
borrows its name from the original Shona inhabitants of Great Zimbabwe
- the Mwenemutapa. One of the most uniquely shaped buildings in Harare,
'Monos' was and is a fine example of how a building can be designed to
communicate well with a natural park on the one hand and urban conurbation
on the other.
The building arcs the Harare Gardens in a warm embrace that highlights a strong interplay of form and function in a symbiotic relationship. Built in the manner of 'beton brut', at a time when in was fashionable in Zimbabwe (Kaguvi Building and Zimbank House), the building even draws some comparison to Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation in its construction. While the extremely narrow strip windows and un-ornamented facade suggest modernism, the 'brutalism' of its external finish and its curvilinear form suggest a later language of architecture. Based on the northern fringe of the CBD, it's major drawbacks are its inadequate traffic design and vehicle parking. While recent upgrades, (mainly aesthetic) have tried to redress this, they could only do so much, due to lack of expansion space on the hotels frontage. An icon in both form and reputation Mono's is still a prime landmark on the Harare cityscape, 30 years after its construction. That it is still as popular and admired today, inspite of very minimal changes to its form and facade, speaks volumes of its uniqueness. Ref. The Author |
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Web
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Credits
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Lonely Planet for image . |
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