Inside Africa Hall: A Modernist UN Legacy Reimagined

When Italian architect Arturo Mezzèdimi set out to conceive Africa Hall in the Ethiopian city of Addis Ababa in the late 1950’s, he knew the building would have enormous symbolic importance. Countries across the continent were asserting their independence from colonial powers, and Ethiopia’s emperor Haile Selassie had asked him to create a grand gathering place for African leaders to forge their own future together. Mezzèdimi, a self-taught architect who was responsible for numerous public buildings in and around the country’s capital city, rose to the occasion with a stately structure on a plinth with a concave facade, circular plenary hall topped by a dome, colorful mosaics, and specially commissioned large-scale artworks. It was inaugurated as the headquarters for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in 1961, and, two years later, it became the birthplace of the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union.

More than a half-century later, Mezzèdimi’s nearly 60,000-square-foot monument to Pan-African unity was in need of attention: The concrete facade had deteriorated, and the building did not meet current standards for lighting and accessibility. The ECA, whose membership had swelled since the building’s inception, had outgrown the plenary hall. Technology was dated, furniture was worn, artworks had suffered the chips, tears, and fading of time. With the approval of the UN General Assembly and support from UNESCO, the African Union and the government of Ethiopia, the ECA hired the Australian firm Architectus to oversee a $57 million renovation with the goal, says associate principal Simon Boundy, a specialist in heritage conservation, to create a world-class conference and cultural center and “integrate all the upgrades behind the scenes so the building maintains a sense of authenticity and historic character.”

Architectus Updates Africa Hall For A New Generation

Research alone took two years. Boundy got in touch with Marcello Mezzèdimi, a grandson of Arturo Mezzèdimi who had also become an architect and was doing research for a book on Africa Hall. The project team pored over old photographs as well as Mezzèdimi’s hand-drawn plans, which were remarkably detailed and preserved. “It really helped us to look at those drawings,” says Mewded Wolde, an Addis Ababa native and an architect in the studio that Architectus opened in the city during the design phase of the project. Ultimately, the work also involved expert teams in Italy, India, the U.K., and Dubai. When there were questions about how to integrate new elements in the historic fabric, team members asked themselves: “What would Mezzèdimi do?”

Structural repairs were paramount: The concrete was remediated and 2 million brown, orange, and off-white mosaic tiles recreated and installed on the exterior. Original windows were swapped out for high-performance glazing.

Brick By Brick: Tour A Symbol Of Modernist Ambition

In the plenary hall, Architectus accommodated the ECA’s expanded membership by replacing the two horseshoes of desks Mezzèdimi had designed with three, all outfitted with built-in digital screens. Another curved LED version was installed above the podium. After Boundy and colleagues visited the UN headquarters in New York and took note of the goldleaf backdrop of the Assembly Hall’s podium, they decided to affect a similar look for the podium backdrop in Africa Hall, using an alloy of copper and zinc to “create a linkage between the two spaces,” Boundy notes.

Special care was taken with the artworks, including the iconic stained-glass triptych by renowned Ethiopian artist Afewerk Tekle in the double-height entry lobby of the building directly behind Africa Hall and connected to it by a bridge. Pieces of the 1,615-square-foot work, entitled The Total Liberation of Africa, were loose, cracked, or missing. The original maker’s grandson was hired to carefully disassemble and clean or replace the glass, reinforce the framework, and put everything back together again. Meanwhile, conservators up on scaffolds tended to a massive canvas piece depicting African flora and attached to the curved wall of the Africa Hall lobby. In the rotunda, floor mosaics portraying the continent’s fauna that had been removed during a 2004 renovation were faithfully recreated.

Beautiful Art Pieces Add Color To Africa Hall

Furthermore, more than 500 original furnishings Mezzèdimi specifically designed for Africa Hall were refurbished and returned to their original location. Lighting was added to the underside of his extraordinary star-shaped lounge seats scattered across the delegates lounge, calling attention to their form and brightening the space without introducing new wall or ceiling fixtures. “It was a way to get the light levels up without grabbing too much attention,” Boundy explains. Where additional pieces of furniture were needed, the team selected unobtrusive contemporary designs.

The whole project took 11 years, but by 2024 Africa Hall was ready for its closeup. The UN secretary general and the prime minister of Ethiopia presided over the grand reopening. Back in 1961, Mezzèdimi had witnessed the building’s inauguration. Last year, Boundy and Wolde were present for its official rebirth.

Witness The Rebirth Of Africa Hall By Architectus

Maintaining A Sense Of Authenticity + Historic Character

ARCHITECTUS: MEWDED WOLDE; BAYABLE EWNETU; CANDACE CHRISTENSEN; MATTHEW HUGHES; CHRIS WARDLE; LIEHAN JANSE VAN RENSBURG; GEOFF CORDINGLEY; BEN GRASSICK; RUSSEL OBST; DAVID GOLE; CLAIRE SCHOFIELD; LUKE BLAKE; LINDY SHAW; MEGAN RANDERSON; LUKE PENDERGAST. BUILT ENVIRONMENT COLLECTIVE: LIGHTING DESIGN, STRUCTURAL ENGINEER, MEP. RSM CONSERVE: ART CONSULTANT. SEOUL FURNITURE: FURNITURE RESTORER. RITMO: FURNITURE SUPPLIER. ALEC ENGINEERING AND CONTRACTING: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT MAHARAM: CHAIR FABRIC (CAFÉ, LOBBY). PEDRALI: TABLES (CAFÉ). ARTE & D: CHAIRS (HALL). PASCALE DIVANI: ARMCHAIRS (BAR). KVADRAT: CUSTOM OTTOMAN FABRIC (BAR), SEATING FABRIC (LOUNGE). EGE: CARPET (LOBBY). THROUGHOUT MAPEI: PAINT.