Sunday, May 10, 2009

Villa Grazia, Asmara

Villa Grazia, AsmaraThe Villa Quarter of Asmara is doted with fabulous residences dating from the Art Deco era.

This is the Villa Grazia which is listed in Asmara, Africa's Secret Modernist City by Denison, Yu Ren and Gebremedhin as dating from 1942 by architect Antonio Vitaliti.

Denison et al write that villas of this size were not built after the 1940s because many expats left during the federation with Ethiopia in 1952 and single storey dwellings were preferred.

To me this is a classic building as a ship complete with a rounded bow and deck railing along the side.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City~ Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

2 comments:

  1. Hello there. This is not so much a shameless plug for my blog, but a genuine push in a direction you might be interested in - The Longford Theatre in Stretford, Manchester, England. Long negelcted unfortunately and badly painted. Anyway, I thought you might like - http://doorsintothepast.blogspot.com/2009/05/longford-theatre-stretford.html

    Cheers,

    Claire.

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  2. Thanks for the link Claire.
    A fantastic building. I hope someone can see the potential in it and really make something of it.
    I've stolen the link from your blog if anyone would like to know more about The Longford Theatre. http://www.longfordcinema.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete