Cine-Esplanada Flamingo

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The Cine-Esplanada Flamingo or Cinema Flamingo is a former open-air cinema in the Angolan city ​​of Lobito . The open-air cinema, which opened in 1963, was designed by Francisco Castro Rodrigues and, with its modernist architecture adapted to the climatic conditions, is considered one of the most famous works by the Portuguese architect.

history

Establishment of a cinema empire in the Portuguese colonies

After the end of the Second World War, the Portuguese entrepreneur Joaquim Ribeiro Belga secured the marketing rights to initially well-known Spanish films and American universal films in Portugal, thereby building up a broad corporate network. With the founding of the two companies Sulcine and Moçambique Filmes in the 1950s, he secured the sole marketing rights for films in the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique. With a strategy comparable to that of the American film industry, Ribeiro Belga began to build large cinemas in the colonies in order to show the films marketed by his company there.

Ribeiro Belga developed the principle of the “Cine-Esplanada”, a kind of open-air cinema with a structural infrastructure. After the concept did not work in Lisbon, he pushed for implementation in the Portuguese colonies, initially in Angola. The first Cine-Esplanada was created with the " Cine-Esplanada Miramar " in 1959 in the Angolan capital Luanda . He had the second Cine-Esplanada called “Flamingo” built in Lobito together with the Lobito Cine Club under its chairman António Vieira da Silva. The order for this was given to the Portuguese architect Francisco Castro Rodrigues , who was the head of the architecture department in the municipality of Lobito. Castro Rodrigues had already drafted an urbanization plan for the city, as well as the commercial building " A Universal " and the building of the municipal market.

Modern tropical cinema architecture

The Cine-Esplana was built on the southwestern edge of the city center directly facing the Atlantic on a slight slope towards the mangrove beach. The complex was built in a rectangular shape, walled, with a length of 95 meters and a width of 75 meters. The wall was only open to the salt pans , where the eponymous flamingos are said to have gathered, and to the south-east to let in the evening sea breeze. There was a large screen facing the sea, framed by the terraces of the two bars and landscaping. The roof, which consisted of a V-shaped exposed concrete construction with a span of 16 meters and was stretched by metal ropes, together with the huge screen, represented the main elements of the building.

The entrance to the Cine-Esplanada was on the northwest side - a large "FLAMINGO" above it - corresponding to the central axis of the auditorium. The outer walls at the entrance consisted of two contrasting walls: on the right side a zigzag wall with sharp edges to delimit the Bar da Noite ; on the left a wavy and continuous wall that houses the Bar da Esplanada . The projection booth building was characterized by decorative panels made of multi-colored marble.

Francisco Castro Rodrigues designed the cinema in an architecture of the 1950s that was adapted to the climatic conditions and is equally modern . He combined the natural conditions - the wind, the sea view, the hillside location, the salt pans - with a desire for well-being and progress. He also used the new possibilities of concrete and flexible iron structures for the roof structures. To do this, he worked with his engineering colleague Fernando Falcão and Bernardino Machado, a specialist in iron structures.

Opening in 1963

The cinema was opened on October 31, 1963, the cinema got its name after an advertisement on the local radio station, and is primarily intended to allude to the flamingos that regularly nest on the bank. The cinema held up to 1200 viewers and is said to have been sold out regularly. In particular, the combination of the benches preheated by the evening sun and the subsequent night breeze from the sea is said to have ensured that the audience enjoyed the cinema. The cinema was only allowed to be visited by white Portuguese, the black population was excluded per se.

After independence

With the independence of the Portuguese colony of Angola and the withdrawal of the Portuguese colonial power, numerous Portuguese settlers also left the country, including the cinema entrepreneur Ribeiro Belga. The cinema - like all private buildings - became the property of the Angolan state. In the years that followed, films were occasionally shown, some of them “socialist films” with Soviet and Cuban support. Films were shown occasionally until the early 1990s, but in 1992 the descendants of Ribeiro Belga officially got the building back. Nevertheless, a small elementary school has been using the cinema since 1999, and churches occasionally use the area. Large parts of the facility have now fallen into disrepair, and the overall structure can still be seen.

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 31664.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Paulo Cunha: Citizen Ribeiro Belga, o mundo lusófono a seus pés. In: À pala de Walsh. July 8, 2018, accessed April 9, 2020 (Portuguese).
  2. ^ Cristina Salvador: Francisco Castro Rodrigues, o arquitecto do Lobito | BUALA. In: buala.org. March 24, 2011, accessed April 9, 2020 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ a b c d e Ana Magalhães, Ana Tostões, Daniela Arnaut .: Cine ‐ esplanada Flamingo. In: Património de Influência Portuguesa (HPIP). Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, accessed April 9, 2020 (Portuguese).
  4. ↑ Washington Santos Nascimento, Marilda dos Santos Monteiro das Flores: LUANDA E SUAS SEGREGAÇÕES: UMA ANÁLISE A PARTIR DAS SALAS DE CINEMA (1940-1960) . In: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (ed.): Mulemba . tape 9 , no. 17 , 2017, ISSN  2176-381X , p. 80-89 , doi : 10.35520 / mulemba.2017.v9n17a14598 .
  5. ↑ Fassil Demissie: Colonial architecture and urbanism in Africa: intertwined and contested histories . Routledge, London 2016, ISBN 978-1-315-25993-2 .
  6. ^ Tiago Lourenço: Cine-Esplanada Flamingo. In: Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA). 2011, accessed April 9, 2020 (Portuguese).

Coordinates: 12 ° 21 ′ 42 "  S , 13 ° 31 ′ 41.7"  E