Commercial Bank of Angola

Luanda [São Paulo de Luanda], Luanda, Angola

Equipment and Infrastructures

A 1959 project by Januário Godinho de Almeida (1910-1990); the early, preliminary sketches were made in 1954 and it was inaugurated in 1967.
An emblematic building on the skyline of Luanda’s coastal road, it is divided into two main sections: a square base where the public counter operates which defines the limits of the block and connects the building with the scale of surrounding constructions, and a rectangular-plan tower with multifunctional autonomous floors which rises from the centre of the plot and bears the name of the bank in gigantic letters. Its external style is marked by the strong contrast between levels of solids and voids, between textures and colours of the cladding materials – such as the granite of the structural elements and the glazed tile of the side gable. At present it is the seat of the Bank of Poupança e Crédito.

• Elisiário Miranda