Cine‐esplanade Miramar

Luanda [São Paulo de Luanda], Luanda, Angola

Equipment and Infrastructures

The Cine-Esplanade Miramar is a project of the late 1950s or early 1960s by the brothers and architects João and Luís Garcia de Castilho. It was built by the designer’s family company and is located at the top of the ravines south of the port of Luanda.
In the design of the wall that separates it from public space a number of materials and volumes are blended – exposed stone, glazed tile and rendering with horizontal canopies and towers for lighting. The cinema auditorium, with its support areas surrounding it, consists of a projection room and stalls partially covered with a wood-lined canopy suspended from concrete pillars and with a masonry screen backed by the maritime landscape of the bay. The bar and terrace are still open to the public while demolition of the whole complex is expected.

• Elisiário Miranda