Dutch Embassy Addis Ababa
The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Addis Ababa is the diplomatic representation of the Netherlands , Arubas , Curaçaos and Sint Maartens in Ethiopia . It also serves as a representative office and diplomatic mission for Djibouti and the African Union . It is located on the Ring Road in the Kolfe Keranyo district. Ambassador has been Bengt van Loosdrecht since 2016 .
history
The Kingdom of the Netherlands and Ethiopia have had very long diplomatic relations. There has been a Dutch embassy in the country since 1950.
New building program for embassies in Africa
In 1997, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a special program to build new embassy buildings that show modern Dutch architecture while at the same time adapting to the local conditions of the host countries. In addition to Maputo ( Mozambique ), Dar-es-Salam ( Tanzania ), Cairo ( Egypt ) and Dakar ( Senegal ), Addis Ababa was chosen as the location for a new embassy building.
The 55,000 square meter area of the embassy had been owned by the kingdom since the 1940s. The embassy building itself no longer met the requirements of the Foreign Ministry in the mid-1990s, and the residence was relocated to a temporary building. This and the diplomatic importance of the embassy in Addis were the reasons for building a new building here.
Awarded in 1998
In 1998, the Foreign Ministry's award commission commissioned the two architects Dick van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek to build the new embassy building. The order also included the renovation of the villa and the construction of a new entrance building, a staff house and a school. For Gameren and Mastenbroek, the awarding committee selected two Ethiopian architecture firms - ABBA Associates (with the architect Rahel Shawl ) and Elmi Olindo & Co Plc. - added. Arup Associates acted as an engineering and consulting firm for construction.
Opening 2006
The planning was completed in 2002, and construction work began shortly afterwards. In 2006 the newly designed embassy area was inaugurated. The cost was $ 7.32 million.
architecture
Description of the main building
The aim of the team of architects was to keep the interventions to a minimum and to leave the five-hectare embassy site overgrown with eucalyptus as untouched as possible. The embassy building, which also serves as the ambassador's residence, is centrally located on the site. The team of architects had the small new buildings (office, staff house, school) built in a row on the northern boundary of the site. The existing villa, which served as a residence until the new building, was left in the same place in the south-western corner of the site and has since served as the residence of the ambassador (s).
The two-story embassy building, which consists of a 140-meter-long, relatively narrow block, can be reached via a slightly winding street. It divides the embassy grounds in an east-west direction. The offices are in the front area of the building and the ambassador's living area in the back. The walls, floors and ceilings of the building have the same red and ocher hue and slight bumps as the Ethiopian earth. Together with the all-concrete construction, a cave character is created and is reminiscent of the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela . The building's roof garden has a contrasting effect, with various sand shapes in water basins reminiscent of Dutch polder landscapes. The embassy building has no heating, the heating / cooling is regulated via the windows, the wall insulation and wood stoves.
The other buildings - apart from the villa, which already existed - were also adapted to the site as carefully as possible.
reception
The work of the team around van Gameren, Mastenbroek and Rahel Shawl (ABBA) is considered an outstanding example of an architectural synthesis of Dutch and Ethiopian architecture. Critics particularly emphasize that the architects attached great importance to leaving the natural surroundings as intact as possible and adapting the buildings to them.
"At the outset of the twenty-first century, the Dutch government embarked on a project of embassy building around the world, among which figured three projects in Africa. Of these the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa (2005) warrants particular attention. A collaboration between Dutch architects Dick van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek and the Ethiopian firm ABBA Architects, this project represents probably the most profound work to have been implemented in Africa's recent past. Here, locality has been produced to engage a contemporary reading of site, enclosure and materials through acute interpretation of socioeconomic relations of local building and architectural production. The contour date and the combination of concrete with the richly colored local earth have affected a counter ambiguity whereby the building approximates the political. Translation through landscape tectonic has brough foreign and local spatial practice into intimate encounter, producing a new building type that transcends typological function and contributing toward new architectural knowledge out of Africa. "
Mission of the embassy
The main purpose of the embassy is to represent and represent the interests of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ethiopia and Djibouti as well as a contact point for the citizens of the Kingdom. In addition, the embassy serves as a permanent representative to the African Union (AU), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). The embassy is also the seat of Dutch development cooperation. In 2011, Dutch development cooperation carried out projects worth more than 31.55 million euros in Ethiopia.
An honorary consulate in Djibouti City supports the embassy in consular matters.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Report on Ethiopia. (PDF) Rijksoverheid [Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands], October 20, 2011, accessed on August 23, 2015 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Aydan Balamir: Embassy of the Netherlands - 2007 On Site Review Report. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Aga Khan Foundation, 2007, archived from the original on November 13, 2015 ; accessed on August 24, 2015 . 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.
- ↑ a b Royal Netherlands Embassy. In: Afritecture.org. July 15, 2010, accessed August 24, 2015 .
- ↑ Embassy Ethiopia / Bjarne Mastenbroek and Dick Van Gameren. In: Archdaily.com. January 13, 2012, accessed August 24, 2015 .
Web links
- Official website of the embassy (Dutch, English)
Coordinates: 9 ° 1 ′ 6.3 " N , 38 ° 42 ′ 55.5" E