English
High School (former National High School Almirante Lopes Alves/ School of 3rd level Comandant Saydi Mingas)
Lobito [Lubito, Olupitu], Benguela, Angola
Equipment and Infrastructures
Designed by Francisco Castro Rodrigues (1920) and located between the railway line and an area of residential expansion of Lobito, it was opened on the 23rd September 1966. The existing facilities are the built part of a wider programme of high schools composed of autonomous blocks united by sheltered galleries and outer areas for sport and scenic purposes. The high temperatures of the local climate were decisive in the establishment of the buildings in the northwest/southeast direction – the largest façades benefitting from the prevailing winds from the southwest – in the longitudinal arrangement of classrooms and in the design of their longer sides with concrete grilles and glazing which may be adjusted when open. It was a “High School in the Open Air”, according to its architect. It is the present seat of the Third Level School Comandante Saydi Mingas. The elongated bodies of horizontal proportion with three floors feature their skeleton structure in exposed concrete in an exemplary manner; the modulated, open series of classrooms which form a significant section of the façade are separated/protected from the exterior by the wide screens arranged in blocks. This element conveys great visual lightness to the whole, besides being more resistent to degradation and to lack of maintenance over time.
