English
Saipal/“Pão da Cidade” Bakery
Maputo [Lourenço Marques], Maputo, Mozambique
Equipment and Infrastructures
Located in the Maxaquene Quarter, this industrial building is marked by the curvilinear plasticity characteristic of Pancho Guedes, its designer. A series of curved concrete arches, that expressively draw the outer profile of the building, also define the main inner spaces of the naves for bread production. It belongs to the self-described “Stiloguedes”; it was, along with the residential building Prometheus, at Polana (1951), one of the first examples, dating from 1952-1954. The Bakery was originally designed to serve as the seat and factory of the Cooperativa de Padeiros de Lourenço Marques (Bakers Cooperative), a role that it played for a short period. It consists of a rectangular-plan volume, with a transversal section composed by the structural connection of two parabolic arches, repeated several times along the longitudinal development of the building and shown in the top exterior elevations, in a cluster united by the vaulted roofs, marked by the sculptural volume of the chimney and interrupted at the centre of the south-western elevation, where the fantastic shapes of the elements of inner support are visible from outside. The back area of the building was recently subject to alterations for its conversion into the headquarters of a business.
