Restaurante Zambi

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Restaurante Zambi in Maputo
The chimneys are characteristic of Pancho Guedes

The Restaurante Zambi is a restaurant in the center of the Mozambican capital Maputo . The building, built between 1954 and 1956 according to plans by Pancho Guedes , is located directly on the city's waterfront (Avenida 10 de Novembro 8) and is still one of the most famous luxury restaurants in the city. The reason for the construction was the visit of the Portuguese President Francisco Craveiro Lopes in 1956.

history

Shortly after Pancho Guedes had moved to Mozambique in 1953, he was commissioned to design a restaurant complex in the center of the colonial capital Lourenço Marques for the planned visit of the Portuguese President Francisco Craveiro Lopes . After two years of construction, the restaurant called "Zambi" was opened in 1956 for the President's visit. As part of the visit (other sources speak of coincidence) the "Exposição de Activitades Económicas de Moçambique", a kind of "colonial exhibition", was organized on the waterfront, which was supposed to show the achievements of the Portuguese colony. The restaurant also had three thematic pavilions designed by Guedes (“Tourism”, “Radio” and “Arts”).

construction

Pancho Guedes designed a ground-floor, semicircular structure for the restaurant that opens onto the Bay of Maputo . Towards the ends of the form, the roof descends in two triangular points. The opening of the semicircular shape - the “courtyard” of the building, so to speak - is intended as the restaurant's terrace. The three pavilions that originally belonged to it consisted of the ephemeral materials wood, bricks and pipes and thus contrasted with the (permanent) concrete used in the restaurant.

Typical characteristics of the architect Guedes can also be seen in the Restaurante Zambi: three pointed, mushroom-shaped chimneys adorn the roof, which slopes slightly towards the opening. Together with Antero Machado and João Ayres, Guedes designed colorful, playful works of art with plants and birds on the facades and inside the building. Two works are titled Tropismo e Aves (Tropism and Birds) and Plantas Fantásticas (Fantastic Plants). The plasterer Gonçalves Diogo took over the execution.

style

Stylistically, the building can be assigned to "Style 6", described by Guedes himself, which bears the title The gentle art of bending space (A elegant arte de curvar o espaço) . This style is similar to his own style 5 and is based on the model of Frank Lloyd Wright . Wright used equally strong symbolic curves in his designs, not least in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , but also in single-family homes such as the Solar Hemicycle House in Middleton, Wisconsin, and the How to Live in the Southwest House in Phoenix, Arizona.

It was Guedes' aim to consciously live and use "round rooms", since round rooms are usually only "residual rooms". Buildings designed by him that are also assigned to this style are the reception building for a cement factory in Matola ( Portaria da Fábrica de Cimentos, 1954; not realized), the Hotel na Ponta Vermelha in Lourenço Marques / Maputo (1953; location unclear) and Casa Canha (1970) in Houghton , Johannesburg .

Changes

The restaurant is still open today under the same name - "Restaurante Zambi" - and is considered one of the luxury restaurants in the Mozambican capital. While the facade images and the basic structure of the building have been restored almost true to the original, the interior has been completely changed.

The building is not a listed building, but is listed in the Portuguese monument database Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico , which also includes works by former Portuguese colonies, under the number 31717.

Web links

Commons : Restaurante Zambi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stiloguedes - V (bis) - Restaurante Zambi de 1956 - chaminés e murais (imagens actuais). In: housesofmaputo.blogspot.com. March 15, 2016, Retrieved June 12, 2016 (Portuguese).
  2. ↑ Stiloguedes - V - Restaurante Zambi de 1956 - Baixa de Maputo - Arquitecto Pancho Guedes. In: housesofmaputo.blogspot.com. March 14, 2016, Retrieved June 12, 2016 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ a b c Miguel Santiago Fernandes: Pancho Guedes - Metamorfoses Espaciais . Colecção Arquitectura. Caleidoscópio, Casal de Cambra 2007, ISBN 989-8010-71-1 , p. 64 f .
  4. ↑ Alda Costa: Pancho Guedes e todas as artes. In: Buala.org. January 6, 2011, accessed June 12, 2016 (Portuguese).
  5. ^ Philipp Schauer: Maputo. Architectural and Tourist Guide. Ed .: Philipp Schauer. Self-published, printed by Brithol Michcoma, Maputo December 2015, p. 30 .
  6. ^ Swiss Architecture Museum (ed.): Pancho Guedes. An alternative modernist / An alternative modernist. S AM, no. 3 . Christoph Merian Verlag and Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel 2007, ISBN 978-3-85616-353-2 , p. 13 .
  7. ^ Tiago Lourenço: Restaurante Zambi. In: Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA). 2011, accessed June 12, 2016 (Portuguese).

Coordinates: 25 ° 58 ′ 47.9 ″  S , 32 ° 34 ′ 45.8 ″  E