Bloco Habitacional O Leão Que Ri

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Bloco Habitacional O Leão Que Ri

Bloco Habitacional O Leão Que Ri , in English "Apartment block of the laughing lion", is a residential building in the Mozambican capital Maputo on the corner of Rua Kwame Nkrumah / Avenida Salvador Allende. The building, erected in 1958, is an example of the expressive architecture of Pancho Guedes .

history

Pancho Guedes saw the need for further residential buildings in the former Lourenço Marques and in 1953 designed a building for his own property at the intersection of the then Rua Heróis de Naval and Rua Princesa Patrícia streets. Construction began in 1956 and the house was inaugurated in 1958. For a while, Guedes ran his studio in this house.

Barrel detail of the back of the residential building

Guedes, who is best known for the modern architectural style that is not wanted in his mother country Portugal , designed a four-story, three-part building with two stairways. The ground floor initially offered storage space for vehicles. While the first two floors with six apartments each have large balconies facing the street, the third floor is continuous and decorated with numerous geometric shapes. The fourth floor cannot be seen from the street behind a cornice and, without a roof, served as a place to relax for the residents. The end sides, which shape the shape of the entire building, have two ventilation shaft exits at the level of the fourth floor, each with five points facing the street. One entrance is guarded by a small laughing lion ( statue ). Guedes himself says he designed the building based on a drawing by his six-year-old daughter. The building critic Hoetzel describes the building as follows: "It plays with an ornamentation borrowed from local motifs and colors, and a clear structure in sculptural , organic forms."

The building belongs to the “Stiloguedes” by Pancho Guedes, a modernist architectural style with African elements influenced by Picasso and Miró . The residential building is also one of the best preserved and most symbolic works by Pancho Guedes.

The street level of the building was later converted into garages, and there have been small shops there since the end of the 20th century. In 2000 the building was given a coat of paint and small repairs had to be carried out. Because of the trees in front of the building, however, it no longer has its original charisma.

Statue of the “smiling lion” in front of the building.

Since 2011 the building has been in the preselection for a list of monuments for the city of Maputo. It is listed under the number 19885 in the Portuguese monument database Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico , which also includes works by former Portuguese colonies.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mike and Minette Bell: O Leão que Ri - Smiling Lion. In: Artefacts.co.za. 2010, accessed June 22, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b Elisiário Miranda: Edifício Residencial "O Leao Que Ri". In: Património de Influência Portuguesa (HPIP). Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, October 18, 2012, accessed June 22, 2014 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ a b c Sofia Diniz and Manuel Freitas: Bloco habitacional O Leão Que Ri. In: Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA). Retrieved June 22, 2014 (Portuguese, 2003/2012; with numerous photos).
  4. ↑ Jorge Ferreira: O Arquitecto Azul . 1st edition. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra 2010, ISBN 978-989-26-0067-3 , p. 91 (Portuguese).
  5. ↑ Amâncio (Pancho) Guedes: A Aventura da Arquitectura, o Desafio ao Formalismo . Exposição no Consulado Geral de Portugal in Maputo. March 2011, p. 12 .
  6. ↑ Dagmar Hoetzel: An alternative modernist. Pancho Guedes retrospective in Basel. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: Bauwelt 40-41. 2007, p. 2f. , archived from the original on July 26, 2014 ; Retrieved June 22, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bauwelt.de
  7. ↑ Jessica Marques Bonito: Aquitectura Moderna na África Lusófona . Recepção e difusão das ideias modernas em Angola e Moçambique. Ed .: Instituto Superior Técnico. Lisbon December 2011, p. 129 f . (Portuguese, online [PDF]).

Coordinates: 25 ° 57 ′ 46 ″  S , 32 ° 35 ′ 25.8 ″  E