La Biennale di Archittettura, Venice, 7 June–23 November 2014The National Museum – Architecture, Oslo, 23 January–19 April 2015

African Independence and Nordic ModelsFORMS OF FREEDOM

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Introduction

It is well known that Nordic architects played a key role in establishing modern welfare states in their home countries. Their efforts to help modernize and build up the liberated colonies in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, on the other hand, have received far less attention.

The liberation of Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia in the 1960s coincided with the founding of development aid in the Nordic countries, where there was wide-spread belief that the social democratic model could be exported, translated, and used for nation-building, modernization, and welfare in Africa. The leaders of the new African states, for their part, wanted partners without a murky colonial past, and they also admired the progressive results achieved by the Nordic welfare states after the Second World War. Moreover, Nordic politicians had shown significant political support during the African struggle for independence. The Nordic social democracies and the new African states established solid bonds built on a shared progressive outlook, good intentions, and an almost naive belief in the potential to replant the Nordic model in an entirely different geographic, demographic, and cultural context.

Travelling as part of Nordic expert delegations, the architects were employed and salaried by Nordic aid

organizations. Some of them were hired by Nordic firms with commissions in Africa. Many signed job contracts with African authorities and worked as developers and planners in African ministries and municipalities, frequently alongside architects from other countries – not least the United Kingdom – with long-term experience in Africa. There was a great need for architectural aid in building the new African states: according to Karl Henrik Nøstvik, one of the first architects to travel to Kenya, in East Africa in 1966 there was only a single African who was a trained architect (David Mutiso, educated in England and employed as the chief architect in the Kenyan Ministry of Works).

The exhibition “Forms of Freedom: African Inde-pendence and Nordic Models” explores the projects carried out by the Nordic architects during the 1960s and 1970s and revolves around two concepts: “building freedom” and “finding freedom”. Build-ing freedom refers to the actual nation-building that took place through master plans for cities and regions, infrastructure, industry, and institutions for health, education, and governance. Finding freedom, conversely, refers to the modernist, experimental free zone that emerged during the encounter between Nordic aid and African nation-building.

“… you would be surprised to see how widely the principles of the Arusha declaration are known and appreciated in this country […] – the right for the people to elect their own leaders,– the importance of self reliance, and break the dependence of foreign influence– the emphasis on development of the rural areas where the majority of the people live,– the distribution of incomes to avoid the establishment of a rich powerful upper class.”Prime Minister Oddvar Nordli, speech to Julius Nyerere at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, 29 April 1976

The Nordic Council decides on a common foreign aid policy

Tanganyika (Tanzania) wins independence, with Julius Nyerere as prime minister (president from 1962)

Frantz Fanon’s anti-colonial novel The Wretched of the Earth is published and becomes highly influential

FINNIDA (Finnish International Development Agency) is founded

1965: SIDA (Swedish International Development Authority) replaces NIB

Governmental foreign aid agencies are founded in Sweden (Nämnden för internationellt bistånd – NIB), Norway (Norsk Utviklingshjelp), and Denmark (from 1971 called Danida)

The Nordic Africa Institute is founded in Uppsala, Sweden

NORAD (Norwegian Agency for International Development) replaces Norsk UtviklingshjelpKenya becomes independent, with Jomo Kenyatta

as prime minister (president from 1964)

In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. holds his famous anti-racist “I Have a Dream” speech

Julius Nyerere makes his first state visit to the Nordic countries (below)

The Organization for African Unity (OAU) is founded by thirty-two African countries

The University of East Africa is founded in Makerere, Uganda, for students from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika

Prime Minister Olof Palme of Sweden visits Zambia and Tanzania

Global oil crisis

Julius Nyerere visits the Nordic countries again

Zambia becomes independent, with Kenneth Kaunda as the country’s first president

Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge as the United Republic of Tanzania

Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison, following his arrest in 1962

The East African Community collapses

Jomo Kenyatta dies, and Daniel arap Moi takes over as president

Kenneth Kaunda makes an official visit to the Nordic countries

Julius Nyerere retires as president

Kenneth Kaunda på offisielt besøk til Norden

Julius Nyerere går av som president

The Arusha Declaration – Nyerere’s political programme for socialism, independence, and welfare

The East African Community (EAC) is founded by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania

1961 1965

1962

19681963

1971

1973

1976

1964

1977

1978

1985

1985

1967

Timeline

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“Forms of Freedom: African Independence and Nordic Models” was shown at the Nordic Pavilion (co-owned by Sweden, Finland, and Norway) during the Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2014. The exhibition responded to the overarching theme “Absorbing Modernity 1914–2014”, which the biennial’s director Rem Koolhaas had introduced in January 2013. Koolhaas encouraged the curators of the various national pavilions to reflect critically upon the history of modernization in their home countries by presenting unofficial, undiscovered, or otherwise unknown aspects. The present exhibition is the result of over a year’s worth of investigations and archive searches, excursions to Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia, interviews with still-living Swedish, Finnish, and Nor-wegian architects, and meetings with their families and colleagues as well as with ambassadors, architect associations, architect schools, museums, aid work-ers, and users. A particular highlight was interviewing Kenneth Kaunda, the last surviving head of state from the era, during an unforgettable meeting in his residence in Lusaka, Zambia, in November 2013.

The Nordic architects’ activities in Africa have largely been overlooked in the histories of both aid work and architecture. The exhibition serves as the first stage in documenting the Nordic “expert export” to Africa – or more specifically, to Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia, all three of which were important partner countries for Norway, Sweden, and Finland during a brief, intense period until 1980, when the nature of aid work changed.

In the exhibition, archive material such as drawings, professional photographs, private slides, news-paper clippings, reports, documents, minutes, and quotations have been ordered chronologically and

arranged in a series of free-standing archive walls. TV reports from the 1960s and 1970s document optimistic state visits between the partner countries. New photographic interpretations by Mette Tronvoll and Iwan Baan, who in 2014 visited Zambia and Kenya, respectively, on assignment from the National Museum, show how some of the materi-alized architecture is currently received, absorbed, adapted, and transformed.

The exhibition explores the current status of the architectural legacy of Nordic modernism, which in its day was meant to herald progress and optimism. This is also the focus of a two-day international symposium in March 2015, which is a collaboration between the National Museum and the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. The symposium will broaden the exhibition’s perspective and serve as the basis for a research publication.

The former president of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, outside his residence in Lusaka, 13 November 2013

Organizing the Exhibition

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19701961 1962 1963 1964 1966 1967 1968

Tanzania takes charge of the center, renamed Kibaha Education Center, with the King of Denmark and President Julius Nyerere both present at the ceremony.

The Nordic Tanganyika Center is completed, also containing a library, sports fields, an assembly hall, shops, and housing and administration buildings.

The Arusha Declara-tion – Nyerere’s political programme for socialism, inde-pendence, and welfare Kibaha Training Health Center is completed. Capacity 200 000 patients a year, and 3 years education pro-gram for 20 nurses

Kibaha Secondary School is completed, for 600 talented boys from all over Tanzania

Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge as the United Republic of Tanzania, with Nyerere as presidentBuilding starts. In June Julius Nyerere inaugu-rates the Rural Training Center, which would provide courses to local farmers

Planning starts. Julius Nyerere makes his first state visit to the Nordic countries

February: The Nordic Ministers’ Committee signs an agreement with Tanganyika to establish a multi- institutional center for health, education and agriculture in Kibaha outside Dar es Salaam. August: Experts visit Tanganyika with proposals for a center

Government aid organizations are established in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, in Finland from 1965

The Nordic Council adopts a pan-Nordic cooperation on foreign aid, and appoints a ministerial committee that immediately sends a delegation to several African countries to identify potential projects

Tanganyika (Tanzania) wins independence, with Julius Nyerere as prime minister (president from 1962)

The Pilot

“The initial project institutions were chosen because the Tanzanian authorities had given agriculture, health, and education developments the highest priority and because such institutions would be important elements of the country’s own development programme.”Kibaha, Nordic Tanganyika Project, Final Report on Planning and Construction, Prepared by Norconsult AS November 1968.

Nordic experts lived in Kibaha while the Nordic Tanganyika Education Centre was being constructed

Julius Nyerere, Tapani Katala and Oddvar Bjærum in Kibaha, Tanzania

The Nordic Tanganyika Education Centre, Kibaha, Tanzania (1963–68)Architects: Bjørn Christoffersen and Rolf HvalbyeTechnical Planning: Norconsult, Project Manager: Oddvar BjærumArchitects on site: Torvald Åkesson, Halvor Fossum, Liv SkeieBuilding Contractor: Italian Construction Co. Ltd.Commissioner: Nordic Council / Government of Tanganyika

In 1961, the same year that Tanganyika became independent from the United Kingdom, the Nordic Council established a pan-Nordic programme for providing economic and technical aid to developing countries. After achieving decolonization, many of the new states in Africa needed to build their own education and health institutions, government build-ings, industry, and infrastructure. The council there-fore decided that Africa was the most interesting continent to launch their efforts in. After studying several countries, including Nigeria, the decision fell

on Tanganyika (which later merged with Zanzibar to form Tanzania). Though the main reason for the Nordic cooperation was to provide a greater amount of total aid, another express goal was to strengthen the pan-Nordic community. And not least, it was hoped that Nordic values of democracy and the welfare state could serve as an example for the new African states and show that peaceful, regional cooperation was possible.

Already the following year, in 1962, the newly ap-pointed pan-Nordic Committee of Ministers signed an agreement with President Julius Nyerere about underwriting and building a large-scale education and health centre in Kibaha, about 40 km outside Dar es Salaam. The centre was paid for according to a scale that corresponded to the Nordic countries’ relative contributions to the UN’s administrative expenses (Sweden 50%, Denmark 20%, and Finland and Norway 15% each). The programme was to be based on Nyerere’s three target sectors for developing the newly independent nation: education, health, and agriculture.

The architects Bjørn Christoffersen and Rolf Hvalbye lived for a while in Kibaha in order to survey the

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Kibaha, then and now: the dormitories photographed by Karl Henrik Nøstvik during a study trip in 1967 and by the National Museum in 2014

on-site conditions and assess the arrangement and placement of the various facilities, while the designs were mainly done in Norway. Scattered across a hilltop in Kibaha, the resulting buildings included a secondary school for six hundred boys, a health cen-tre with a fifty-bed capacity and educational facilities for twenty trainee nurses, an agricultural training centre, living quarters for pupils and teachers, a library, an assembly hall, and administrative facilities.

Common facilities such as the library and the sports ground were situated in the lower-lying areas of the landscape, while the dormitories, the health centre, and the residences were built into the slopes. The buildings are connected by covered walkways that provide shelter from the sun and rain. Natural cross-ventilation ensures a comfortable indoor climate in the dining room, the library’s atrium garden prevents direct sunlight from reaching the book collections, and dormitories are efficiently arranged with gardens lying in between.

Even as the architects had become familiar with tropical architecture, the complex evinces typical-ly Western and Nordic ideals of architecture and planning, and the basic structures of the buildings – white, low, geometrically simple, and multi- institutional – bring to mind the municipal buildings found in Nordic satellite towns. And in fact, Christoffersen and Hvalbye had designed Linderud School in the suburban Groruddalen district in Oslo around the same time.

In 1970 Tanzania assumed responsibility for the centre, which then changed its name to the Kibaha Education Centre. For several years afterwards, the Nordic countries continued to help the centre operate and develop, and they also sent teachers. There is no doubt that the centre’s founding helped develop the region, and the centre currently has around nine hundred employees. The open landscape has become overgrown during the course of time, however, and the buildings suffer from decay, failed renovations, and a lack of maintenance. The school nevertheless continues to offer one of Tanzania’s best secondary educations for talented boys and girls from the entire country. The health centre has been expanded with a new hospital building and serves as a regional health centre for seven districts.

For Julius Nyerere, Kibaha became a pilot project that he wanted replicate throughout the entire country, in particular around the large cities, both in order to meet the demand for agricultural goods and for the services to be available to pupils, teachers, and local inhabitants alike. However, similar multi-in-stitutional centres covering agriculture, health, and education were not established. But Kibaha was the first of several pan-Nordic projects that followed, in-cluding cooperatives and a purely agricultural project in Mbeya, the latter of which was also designed by Christoffersen and Hvalbye.

“I would like to make it quite clear that the Tanzanian government would like more Kibahas, and as many as possible!”President Julius Nyerere, 10 January 1970

Dining room for six hundred boys, photographed by Karl Henrik Nøstvik during a study trip in 1967

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Jomo Kenyatta opens the Kenyatta Inter-national Conference Centre (KICC) for the first World Bank Conference in Africa

1973

“IBRD/IMF annual meetings 1973 at Kenya Conference Center”, now with the 32-floor tower

1972

“Government Offices and Conference Building”

19701969

1968–69: New title: “Government Offices and Conference Hall”

The project is now titled “Government Offices & Conference Hall (Kenya African National Union Head-quarters Building)”

1968

The East African Community (EAC) is founded by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania

1967

Karl Henrik Nøstvik is commissioned to design KANU Head-quarters’ Building in Nairobi. 1966–67: The project is titled “The KANU Build-ing for the Government of Kenya” in Nøstvik’s drawings, with a 27 floor tower

1966

Architect Karl Henrik Nøstvik is among the first group of experts that Norsk Utviklings-hjelp sends to Kenya. He starts working for the Kenyan Govern-ment in The Ministry of Works

1965

Kenya becomes inde-pendent, with KANU leader Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister, presiden from 1964 (until his death in 1978)

1963

The Norwegian foreign aid agency Norsk Utviklingshjelp is founded (replaced by NORAD in 1968)

1962

Icon of Independence

Karl Henrik Nøstvik was among the first group of experts that Norsk Utviklingshjelp, the forerunner to the Norwegian foreign aid agency Norad, sent to Kenya in 1965. Along with doctors, veterinaries,

agronomists, and teachers, Nøstvik was to help create infrastructure, welfare, and new monuments in a country that two years previously had liberated itself from British colonial rule.

In March 1966, while employed at the Kenyan Ministry of Works, the Norwegian architect was tasked with designing the headquarters, and de facto government building, of the political party, KANU. The hectic planning work of the following years took place in a close dialogue with the president himself, “Mzee” Jomo Kenyatta.

Along with the congress hall’s amphitheatre, the thirty-two-floor-tall office tower, which remained the tallest building in East Africa until the 1990s, became a symbol of freedom, progress, and modernity. Julius Nyerere, the first president of the neighbouring country of Tanzania, did not think such majestic monumentality was relevant for the new African democracies. But the Kenyans themselves did not see the KICC as pompous. The building adorns the Kenyan 100-shilling note, and in 2012 the Daily News newspaper and the Architectural Association of Kenya placed KICC first in a list of Kenya’s fifteen most important buildings.

Kenyatta International Conference Centre, KICC (1966–1973)Architect: Karl Henrik NøstvikBuilding Contractor: Gordon Melvin and PartnersCommissioner: Ministry of Works / Kenya African National Union (KANU) Administration: Norsk Utviklingshjelp / NORAD

“Very soon it became clear that ‘Mzee’, that is President Kenyatta himself, wanted to have his say. Many trips were made to the President’s private residence [...] virtually every week. Kenyatta turned out to be a rather impatient gentleman who could not understand why it took so long to develop the plans for the structure.”Karl Henrik Nøstvik, “Report to Norwegian Development Aid” May 31, 1967, The National Archives of Norway

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The tower, featuring a circular floor plan, was the first building to use slip form in Africa and was made in concrete with a hand-chiselled and at the outset maintenance-free layer of cement and basalt. A rotating restaurant with a helipad on top opens up towards the sky. The amphitheatre is covered by untreated concrete elements that join together in an apex. These two buildings stand on an elevated base and are accessible by way of symmetrical ramps. The complex has been characterized as “the corn cob and the African cabin”, “Mzee’s index finger”, and “the closed and open lotus flower”. Visitors are struck by the wide array of Kenyan woods used in the interior decoration and by how the congress hall evokes the futuristic architecture of science-fiction

movies of the 1960s. Equally impressive is the com-plex, sophisticated openness that Nøstvik created between the outdoors and the indoors, resulting in a natural ventilation and a comfortable indoor climate. It is only when the sun has lost its intensity, at around 3:30 p.m., that its rays reach all the way into the building.

Drawings stamped around 1970 show that the tower expanded from twenty-seven to thirty-two floors and that the conference areas were added to the base in order to accommodate plans to organize internation-al conferences. KICC opened in 1973 in conjunction with Nairobi serving as the host city for the World Bank’s first conference on the African continent.

Today the tower is painted pink. The restaurant has not rotated for a long time and is now surrounded by a giant advertising billboard. Nevertheless, these changes do not prevent the building from remaining a landmark in the sprawling metropolis that Nairobi has become. KICC was also destined to be Nøstvik’s greatest success. He extended his contract with NORAD and thereafter founded his own firm in Nairobi, which he ran until his death in 1992. During this period, Nøstvik, dubbed “the tallest man in Africa”, also designed several projects that were erected in Kenya and the nearby countries: living quarters for embassy staff and aid workers, hotels, fire stations, schools, university complexes, bars, and swimming pools. He also nearly managed to realize two other impressive commissions that probably would have won international acclaim: a moderniza-tion project for Zanzibar and a 500-meter-high tower in Qatar. This unfulfilled architecture is presented elsewhere in the catalogue.

The concrete elements are hand-chiselled

“… a new nation like ours needs symbols” D.M. Mutiso, Chief Architect in Ministry of Works, 1967–74 interview in Byggekunst, 3/1974

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President Jomo Kenyatta congratulates the architect Karl Henrik Nøstvik during the opening in 1973. David Mutiso, chief architect at the Kenyan Ministry of Works, is on the right

Opposite page: the entire complex with conference hall, office tower, and amphitheatre

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Sixty-five secondary schools spread across the entire country were to be planned, designed, and built within five years.

Program is finalized

1978

Major parts of the project are completed. Evaluation starts

19761974

13 schools are completed

Oil crisis, closure of Rhodesian border, and dropping copper prices make conditions for contractors difficult

1973

Construction starts

1971

Norway (NORAD) is financially involved

1970

April: Zambia is granted a loan by the World Bank, earmarked for 65 secondary schools, four teacher colleges and one polytechnic. The plan is to complete the construction by 1974. December: Zambia and Norconsult AS sign a contract for the 65 secondary schools

1969

Norway and Zambia sign an agreement to cooperate on aid. Norwegian teachers have been in the country since 1966

1967

1966–70: Zambia’s First National Development Plan draws up extensive plans for the country’s education system

1966

Zambia becomes independent, with Kenneth Kaunda as the country’s first president

1964

“By standardizing the individual rooms instead of the entire school building, we achieved a flexible floor plan solution without losing any of the advantages of standardization […] the choice of construction allowed for the rooms to be assembled in a multitude of different ways.” Henrik Fürst, Assistant Director of Norconsult AS., speech at The Norwegian Engineer Association, 17.10.1972

Zambia World Bank Education Project, ZWBEP (1971–78)Project Director (1971–74): Halvor FossumNorconsult AS. Architects: Gunnar Hyll (Chief Architect), Harald Halvorsen, Paul Irgens, Steinar Rosenvinge, Torstein Ramberg, et.al. Chief Engineer: Bjørn Lunøe Ministry of Education: Halvor Fossum, Esten Dal, Cecilie Juell Møller, Arne Monsen, Seymour Wax Commissioner: Ministry of Education / NORAD

World Bank Schools

In his first national development plan after Zambia’s independence in 1964, President Kenneth Kaunda strongly highlighted the need to raise the country’s general level of education. Increasing the number of secondary schools was regarded as instrumental for recruiting students to higher education, which in turn was to provide the necessary competencies and

manpower to promote the new country’s economic, social, and political development. In April 1969 Zambia was granted a loan by the World Bank. The funds were earmarked for building nine new secondary schools and for expanding fifty-six others. The loan was also meant to cover the costs of building four teacher colleges and one polytechnic. The schools were spread across the entire country and were to be planned, designed, and built within five years, so that the total capacity increased by 22,000 pupils.

The matter was urgent, and the contract between Zambia and Norconsult AS was signed already in December 1969. The following year Norad allocated funds for project administration and consultancy fees. The Norwegian architect Halvor Fossum, who from 1967 was employed by the Zambian Ministry of Education, had led the negotiations with both the World Bank and Norad.

The specifications were detailed. The schools had to accommodate existing buildings, topography, and climatic conditions. They would have to be able to service different types of education and be flexible

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enough for future changes. The materials had to be either locally produced or available, and unskilled labour should be able to be used for construction. Moreover, maintenance costs had to be low, and the schools were not least to be built for the least amount of money in the shortest possible time.

In order to meet these demanding specifications, Norconsult developed a standardized system of prefabricated modules and tested out new com-puter technology during the planning. In line with the ideals of structuralist architecture and planning, the system was founded on a basic unit, in this case 8 x 8 m. The units could be arranged in many different combinations and be adapted to different spatial needs, different urban and natural contexts, existing buildings, and highly diverse usages such as class-rooms, assembly rooms, laboratories, workshops, restrooms, and kitchens. The elements in the main structure, such as funda-ments, columns, and girders, were made of concrete. Steel was used to construct the window and wall areas and the arched ceilings. The arched roofs, covered with corrugated asbestos sheeting, give the schools their characteristic appearance. The top panels of the end walls were made from transparent fibreglass elements that filtered the light in geomet-ric patterns. As with the other construction materi-als, the sandwich elements of the side walls could be produced locally, even though the material had never previously been used in Zambia. Norconsult also supplied the furniture and interior decoration.

Ultimately, modern technology was unable to solve this major national construction task in a short

amount of time, or to deal with the series of minor and major problems that cropped up under way. In 1976 – two years after the project should have been completed, but was still under construction – the Kenyan Ministry of Works and Norad launched an evaluation process that resulted in a critical report. The architecture was described as monotonous and alien to Zambia, the walls were too thin, the furniture broke easily, the rain gutters were clogged with plant waste, the toilets were not working, and the machines and educational equipment were too advanced. The overall project was deemed to be too comprehensive and also confusingly organized. But the report also highlighted certain positive features, such as the functionality of the room units and not least the fact that the project would provide thousands of young girls and boys with a secondary education.

In order to solve the maintenance problem, the engineer Bjørn Lunøe, who during the construction period had been employed by Norconsult, initiated in the 1980s a Norad-supported system for preventive upkeep. This boosted the local efforts and sense of ownership, with one of the schools even composing its own maintenance song. As of today, the buildings vary in how well they have been maintained and how much they have been transformed, but the schools are still in use. Many young Zambians have received and continue to receive their basic education here. According to the architect Gunnar Hyll, this pertains to as many as 1.5 million pupils since the schools were completed in the 1970s. Despite their great diversity, such “World Bank Schools” have forged a strong common identity and have become a concept in Zambia.

“The shape is unfamiliar to Zambian conditions and does not fit easily with existing pitched roofs. Strong feelings were evoked from a number of Heads and teachers. Many did, however, admit that after some time they had accepted the appearance of the buildings. It definitely gives a strong character to the schools.” Evaluation report on Zambia World Bank Education Project. Republic of Zambia, Ministry of Education. Lusaka, 1977

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“In Turkana, people do not traditionally eat fish. They do not like it,” says Thore Hem, economist working in Turkana 1979–80 and photographer of these images.

The project was com-pleted, with freezers delivered by Kværner Kulde. These have never been in use

Draft for “Turkana Fishermen’s Co-opera-tive” ready in February and complete drawings for “Lake Turkana Fisheries Development Project” in November

Nøstvik is commis-sioned and starts designing

The work to establish a freezer plant near Kolokol begins. A number of Norwegian experts took part in the planning: anthro-pologists, fishery and freezer engineers, transportation econo-mists and many more

The construction of the road to Turkana starts

Lake Turkana Fisheries Development Project – Kalokol Freezing and Cold Storage Plant (1977–78)Architect: Karl Henrik NøstvikBuilding Contractor: Veidekke/FuruholmenAdministration: NORAD

Freezing Fish in the Desert

In 1977 Karl Henrik Nøstvik was commissioned to design a modern cold storage plant for freezing fish in the Turkana Desert in northern Kenya, an area that paradoxically enough had neither electricity nor a tra-dition of fishing. At the beginning of the 1960s, how-ever, the Kenyan Ministry of Fisheries had started to develop the fishing of Nile perch in Lake Turkana, the largest desert lake in Africa. After a lengthy drought, the goal was to combat the increasing poverty and infant mortality among the local nomads, whose traditional sustenance consisted of the milk, blood,

and meat of goats. Around 1970, Norwegian devel-opers start constructing a 300-kilometre-long road north towards the desert lake. From 1971 on, Norad provided boats and equipment and backed a fishing cooperative with financial and administrative support.

The plant was built in the small town of Kalokol. A large, covered area with plenty of shade, where trucks could load and unload, separated the plant’s two main areas: one consisting originally of a zone for fresh fish, dried fish, and a freezer, and another that included administrative offices, a mechanical workshop, and a boat shop. A naturally ventilated lecture hall and an atrium garden with green plants visualize the optimism and goodwill that drove the project, whose aim was to create welfare for all. Nøstvik’s original concept of designing the plant gate as a fish, complete with a gleaming eye-cum-lamp, would probably have made the fishermen proud, but was ultimately scrapped in the final project.

Today the freezer plant stands empty, with machines and equipment that have never been in use. The offices are used by local entrepreneurs and enthu-siasts, the plants in the atrium garden are watered, and fish is dried both inside the plant and on the

“We were still naive. We introduced to Kenya concepts that worked in Norway with-out seeing what was going to work locally.” Kjell Harald Dalen, Ambassador to Kenya, quoted in Michael N.I. Lokurua “The failure of the Norwegian supported fish factory in Turkana, Kenya: an ecological-historical perspective”, Egerton Journal of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education, 2008.

19801978197719751970

flagstone-paved walkways that Nøstvik meticulously designed to lead people in and out of the plant. This monumental, semi-decrepit complex, which only requires superficial maintenance to seem like new, has created a certain urbanization in Kalokol – the population has increased somewhat and a fuel pump, a police station, and a few stores have cropped up. Recent discoveries of oil reserves in the area have led some people to be optimistic about continued development, while others are concerned that the

natural heritage and the nomads’ traditional lifestyle will be undermined.

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1961

“Planning should embody the ideology of the country,” the master plan for Tanga states in its introduction. Tanga Master Plan 1975–95, Dar es Salaam, 1975.

1975

The organization of rural life is laid down in the Villages and Ujamaa Villages ActMaster plans for the cities of Tabora and Tanga (1975–95) are finalized. (1975–95)

Master plan for the new capital Dodoma is finalized by the Canadian firm Project Planning Associates, Ltd (PPAL). Finlands’s Paavo Mänttari (MLHUD) was involved at an early stage in planning

1976

Pilot studies for Tanga are carried out. Master plans for the cities of Moshi and Mbeya (1974–95) are finalized

The Ardhi Institute in Dar es Salaam is founded as an academic centre for architecture and plan-ning. Several Nordic planners are attached to the institute

Dodoma replaces Dar es Salaam as Tanzania’s official capital. The same year also sees an intensification of rural reforms, whose aim is for all rural dwellers (84% of Tanzania’s population) to live in so-called ujamaa villages within three to four years

19741973

1973–75: Preliminary project for urban plans for Mbeya, Moshi, Tanga, and Tabora

Government offices are partly relocated to regional capitals139 drafts from for-ty-nine countries (in-cluding thirteen drafts from Scandinavia) enter the competition for a new government building for the TANU party in Dar es Salaam

1972

Arusha Declaration: President Julius Nyerere’s political programme for independence, social equality, and welfare

1967

Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form the United Republic of Tanzania

1964

Tanganyika becomes independent. About 90 per cent of the population lives scattered across the countryside, outside of organized villages

“Nyerere’s vision was of cities as humane habitats and of Tanzania as an egalitarian socialist state, achieved through the planning of urban structures consistent with Ujamaa ideology and low key monumentality.” Professor Karl Otto Ellefsen, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, 2014

Master Plan Tanga 1974–95Commissioner: Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD), TanzaniaInvolved Governmental Institutions: Ministry of Works, Capital Development Authority, National Housing Corporation, Ardhi Institute, the University of Dar es Salaam; and Bureau of Resource Assessment and Land Use Planning, the University of Dar es Salaam

Masterplaner for fire regionhovedsteder (1974–1976)Team Leader Tanga: Rainer Nordberg Team Leader Mbeya: Bo Mallander Team Leader Moshi: Antti Hankkio Team Leader Tabora: Mårten Bondestam Coordinator: Jakko Kaikkonen (MLHUD)

Ujamaa Urbanism

Under the leadership of President Julius Nyerere, Tanzania was to be developed as an egalitarian, modern welfare state that would simultaneously advance and uphold traditional local values. Interna-tional socialist principles were translated differently in the countries that had gained their independence. In Tanzania, the policy of ujamaa (Swahili for “com-munity” or “extended family”) was laid down in the Arusha Declaration of 1967.

While Tanzania’s first five-year plan emphasized education in order to build expertise and thereby economic independence, the second five-year plan (1969–74) emphasized decentralization and regional development. The authorities in Tanzania and the Nordic countries shared a belief in centrally planned

economies and saw urban planning as an integral part of such systems. Urban planning was to be understood as coordinative planning for society as a whole.

Nyerere was convinced that a socialist welfare state could not be established within the framework of modern, market-based metropolises such as Dar es Salaam. The country was therefore divided into regions, each with a regional urban centre that in tandem were to absorb the population growth of the largest cities. In 1973 Tanzania also chose to found a new official capital in Dodoma, a move that was intended to strengthen decentralization according to the principles of ujamaa. Also in accordance with ujamaa, the architecture in the new capital was to be sober and down-to-earth.

In theory, the policy of decentralization tallied with the Nordic economic model and with Western donor countries’ desire to combat regional poverty.

“[there is] no need for ostentatious projects like skyscrapers and super highways; the city would be a home and not a monument.” Julius Nyerere in Blueprint for Dodoma, Report and Accounts 2 / 1974-75, Capital Development Authority, Dar es Salaam.

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International planners and architects, including several from Finland, were involved in regional and urban planning in Tanzania in the 1970s. Finnish projects included developing regional plans for Lake Zone, Uhuru Corridor, Lindi, and Mtwara and urban plans for Mbeya, Moshi, Tabora, and Tanga.

Along with the international ideals of architecture and urban planning that prevailed at the time, it was the Arusha Declaration that formed the ideological framework of these plans. The populace was to live and work in small-scale, self-sufficient units, in a modern interpretation of traditionally African family structures. Social equality was to be created through common architectural standards. Urban plans were drawn up in accordance with the principles of structuralism. The goal was not to create something that resembled the traditional villages in appearance, but that continued the principles behind how these villages were organized. The urban plans established a general structure as well as principles for how vari-ous types of buildings could add to this structure.

Just as with the villages, the cities were to be con-structed as compact units that each consisted of a so-called ten-cell housing unit, that is, ten residences that shared a plot of arable land – an idea that based itself on the extended family as the economic and social unit. This arrangement was to promote a collective and cooperative production. The cities were to be as self-sufficient as possible so as not to siphon resources away from the countryside.

“Planning should embody the ideology of the coun-try,” the master plan for Tanga states in its introduc-tion. This idea is characteristic of the urban planning that was carried out in Tanzania from the 1970s on with assistance from Nordic experts. The plan had certain utopian aspects, as evinced for example in its strong belief in the feasibility of building a new society in a brief span of time by reinterpreting traditional lifestyles through modern urban planning. The floor plans for the ten-cell system, as well as the prototypes for urban villages and townships ranging from four thousand to twenty-five thousand inhabit-ants, reveal an exceptional optimism and confidence in the future.

The urban and regional planning in Tanzania in the 1970s was motivated by the need for nation-build-ing in a country framed by colonial borders and composed of many different tribal communities. It was a goal that welfare development and moderniza-tion should encompass the entire country, and that policies of industrialization and urban development were to serve these goals. The policies could be seen as an opportunity to transfer the Nordic model to African conditions, and the intentions and concepts of planned economies permeated the entire project. But the results can also be seen as exemplifying how Nordic planners had found a venue for carrying out monumental projects that in their home countries could easily have been rejected for being unrealistic. And subsequent events do in fact show that the plans, in spite of their stated ambitions, could not hold back the urban expansion or prevent people from migrating from the countryside to Dar es Salaam. Nor did a lasting, ujamaa-based transforma-tion of the cities take place, even though various pilot projects were completed.

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Triple Tower in Qatar

Following the success of the Kenya International Conference Centre (KICC, 1966–73), Karl Henrik Nøstvik received several major commissions within the geographic, political, and commercial context he had become a part of as a self-employed architect in Nairobi. With KICC he had demonstrated that he could pull off assignments that were large-scale, monumental, and complex. This is perhaps one of the reasons why the Indian hotel chain Oberoi hired him to design a gigantic tower that was to be built in Qatar. The tower was to have several functions and include both land and sea entrances, a marina, tanks to convert saltwater into freshwater, hotel rooms, offices, apartments, vegetation-rich terraces, and a rotating restaurant with lounges and bars.

Nøstvik’s proposed building consists of three constructive “stalks”, where the various floors could grow forth independent of one another, like a plant. The floors could be built as either closed rooms or open terraces. This system gave the tower an organ-ic, dynamic nature and also great flexibility, accord-ing to the architect: in order to accommodate new functions, new platforms could be added, or some of the open terraces could be converted into rooms. A series of meticulous pencil drawings, probably done by the architect himself (he had sixteen employees at the firm at this time), show various ways in which the tower could be adapted and modified. It was to have

been five hundred metres tall and would probably have been the world’s tallest building if it had been constructed.

The drawings of the tower were shown at an exhibi-tion in Jeddah in 1974 along with projects from the two Danish architect and engineering firms Henning Larsen and CBC Byggeadministration. Apart from its presentation in the exhibition brochure, this wildly imaginative project has until now languished in obscurity in Nøstvik’s archives in Nairobi.

“By having three towers with floors growing out from the shafts at any given position, maximum flexibility could be achieved. For example, if there is a greater need for office accommodation, the design is such that this could be done either by filling in the terrace spaces or having more floors growing out of the shafts.”Karl Henrik Nøstvik, Project description

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Karl Henrik Nøstvik made several site visits to Zanzibar. His site plan shows the western part of Zanzibar’s capital, Stonetown. The new conference centre was to be located in the northern end.

“Considerable effort has been made to reflect in the design the island nature of the country and the local cultural values […] without imitating or plagiarizing examples of existing local architecture.” Minutes of the 1st Planning Meeting, 15th March 1974

“Mr. Nostvik would spare no effort or personal sacrifice, to ensure that these projects, when completed, were worthy of the faith shown in him by the Zanzibar Government.” Minutes of the Consultants’ pre-planning meeting, 11th March 1974

Renewal of Zanzibar

After his successful work on the Kenyatta Internation-al Conference Centre (1966–73), Karl Henrik Nøstvik founded his own architect firm in Nairobi and received the type of large-scale commissions that architects could only dream about in Norway. There was a great and urgent need to build institutions and various large-scale facilities in several of the new nations in East Africa. On the recommendation of the Indian hotel chain Oberoi, with whom Nøstvik had enjoyed previous contact, Zanzibar’s second president, Aboud Jumbe, commissioned the Norwegian architect to carry out a multi-stage project to modernize the small archipelago nation. The optimistic commission included several individual projects: an international conference centre that could accommodate 2,500 visitors, and that included a 500-seat restaurant; a super market; a theatre; a shopping centre in the Old

Town in Zanzibar, at the site where slaves had once been sold; a hotel on the east coast of Zanzibar; and a hotel and conference centre in Pemba, one of the other islands in the archipelago.

Nøstvik’s archives contain one of the few remaining site plans. The plan, which President Jumbe himself approved, shows the western part of Zanzibar’s capital, Stonetown. Nøstvik has elongated and corrected one of the colonial era’s partially existing and previously planned axes between north and south, each with its own panoramic view. The new conference centre was to be located in the northern end, close to the existing hotel Ya Bwawani.

Nøstvik’s organic, concrete-brutalist proposal for the conference centre, which according to Nøstvik

himself – was not to imitate or plagiarize the local architecture”, would probably have been a breath of fresh air compared with Zanzibar’s other examples of postcolonial architecture, such as the rational residential areas or the Ya Bwawani hotel that East German architects had designed. Jacqueline Resley, the young American interior decorator employed at Nøstvik’s firm, was ultimately tasked with carrying out the only part of the original commission that

saw the light of day: an organically formed swimming pool, and a bar with a concrete, mushroom-shaped cover. The project was finalized in 1978 as part of the Ya Bwawani hotel. Until the mid-1980s it was here, beneath Nøstvik’s inverted concrete umbrella, that the international socialist elite convened, while the architect’s detailed, inventively constructive vision for the conference centre was consigned to existing only on paper and in maquette photographs.

Mette Tronvoll (b. 1965) is one of Norway’s most acclaimed photographic artists. She was trained at the New School for Social Research, Parsons School of Design, and lives and works in Oslo. Tronvoll often works with photographic portraits that explore humanity in an almost documentary way. Her works have been displayed at a number of major galleries and museums the world over, and have been purchased by several of them, including Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the National Museum in Norway.

On assignment from the National Museum, Mette Tronvoll travelled to Lusaka and the Eastern Province in Zambia in March 2014, in order to photograph buildings, pupils, and employees at the schools that were part of the Zambia World Bank Education Project.

Zambia # 4, C-print, 2014, 80 x 80 cmZambia # 1, C-print, 2014, 80 x 80 cm

Zambia # 10, C-print, 2014, 80 x 80 cmZambia # 7, C-print, 2014, 80 x 80 cm

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Iwan Baan (b. 1975) is an award-winning Dutch photographer, trained at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. After his first commission as an architecture photographer for Rem Koolhaas / OMA in 2005, he now travels around the world documenting projects for several of the world’s foremost architects. Baan is interested in how people live in – and use –architecture, and in the social and political context of architecture. He has been represented at several major exhibitions, and his work is frequently used in books and magazines.

On assignment from the National Museum, Baan travelled to Nairobi and Turkana in Kenya in March 2014 in order to document the current use of two of Karl Henrik Nøstvik’s projects: the Kenyatta International Conference Centre and the Kalokol Freezing and Cold Storage Plant.

Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi

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Kalokol Freezing and Cold Storage Plant, Lake Turkana

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1963The Nordic Tanganyika Project, Kibaha, Tanzania1963–1968Architect: Bjørn Christoffersen and Rolf HvalbyeTechnical Planning: Norconsult, Project Manager: Oddvar BjærumArchitects on site: Torvald Åkesson, Halvor Fossum, Liv SkeieNordic Council / Government of Tanganyika

1964Cooperative Centre, Moshi, TanzaniaArchitect: Lars Erik Magnusson (first proposal)SIDA/DANIDA

1965Kenya Science Teacher College (KSTC), Nairobi, KenyaArchitect: Graham Mc CulloughProject Manager: Leif Lindstrand (National Board of Public Buildings (KBS), Sweden)Nämden for Internationellt bistånd (NIB) / University of Uppsala / Ministry of Education

ProjectsThe list of projects is not exhaustive, but presents an overview of the material we have unearthed until now.

Training Centre for Women and Girls, Musoma, Tanzania1965–1968Architect: Lars Erik Magnusson UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Thika School of Community Nursing, Thika, Kenya1965–1969Architect: Finn BøNORAD / Ministry of Works

1966Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), Nairobi, KenyaArchitect: Karl Henrik NøstvikNORAD / KANU/ Ministry of Works

Building for the Governmental Press, Nairobi, KenyaArchitect: Karl Henrik NøstvikNORAD / Ministry of Works

Canteen for police officers and work shop for police vehicles, Kiambu, KenyaArchitect: Karl Henrik NøstvikNORAD / Ministry of Works

1967Kafue Gorge Township Development, Housing for workers at Kafue power station in Kafue, Zambia1967–1976Architects: Björn Lundqvist, Harald Mjöberg, Holger Wästlund (SWECO)Ministry of Power, Transport and Works

Muguga Green Housing (Norse Green) for Nordic experts and Kenyan citizens, Nairobi, Kenya1967–1969Architect: Karl Henrik NøstvikNORAD / Ministry of Works

1968Swedish Housing Project for Government Quarters, Upper Kinon-Doni, Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaArchitect: Lars Erik Magnusson Government of Tanzania

1969Nordic Co-operative College, Kenya1969–1972NORAD / SIDA / DANIDA / FINNIDA / Ministry of Cooperative Develop-ment and Marketing / Ministry of Works

Hostel for Nursery Students at Mathare Mental Hospital, KenyaArchitect: Aasmund Dahl NORAD / Ministry of Works

Secondary School (Domestic Sciences) for girls, with dormitories, Songea, TanzaniaArchitect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen, Rodahl & PartnersMinistry of Education / The 2nd IDA Education Program (Susan Miller Williams, Jes W. Stork) NORAD/DANIDA

Secondary School (Agriculture) for boys, with dormitories, Bagamoyo, TanzaniaArchitect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen, Rodahl & PartnersMinistry of Education / The 2nd IDA Education Program (Susan Miller Williams, Jes W. Stork) NORAD/DANIDA

Secondary School (Technical) for boys, with dormitories, Mtwara, TanzaniaArchitect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen, Rodahl & PartnersMinistry of Education / The 2nd IDA Education Program (Susan Miller Williams, Jes W. Stork) NORAD/DANIDA

1970Private Houses, Embassies, NORAD residencies, etc. Kenya1970–1992Architect: Karl Henrik NøstvikNORAD

Nutrition Centre, Thika, KenyaArchitect: Håkon DrageNORAD / Ministry of Works

Kidatu Hydropower station and camp, Mtera, Tanzania1970–1975Architect: Joe Lindström and Thorbjörn Roupé (SWECO)SIDA/TANESCO

Upper Primary School Building, Loketo, Msongani, Nairobi, KenyaArchitect: Karl Henrik NøstvikNORAD / Ministry of Works

Secondary Schools, Building type, Pilot project, Kiambu, KenyaArchitect: Kjell Kove (and Einar Grimsgaard)NORAD / Ministry of Works (Education Unit)

1971Kisumu Airport Terminal Building, KenyaArchitect: Jørg MundNORAD / Ministry of Works

Zambia World Bank Education Project (ZWBEP), Zambia1971–1978Project Director: Halvor FossumNorconsult: Architect: Gunnar Hyll (Chief Architect) /Halvor Halvorsen / Paul Irgens / Steinar Rosenvinge / Torstein Ramberg. Chief Engineer: Bjørn Lunøe NORAD / Ministry of Education

Thika School of Community Nursing, Finn Bø

1967: Muguga Green, K.H.Nøstvik.

1970: Secondary schools. Kjell Kove.

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Exhibition Pavilion, Saba Exhibition Ground (The Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair), TanzaniaArchitect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen, Rodahl & Partners Private commission: National Textile Corporation Ltd. (NATEX)

National Textile Corporation Ltd. (NATEX), TanzaniaArchitect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen, Rodahl & Partners Private commission: National Textile Corporation Ltd. (NATEX)

Institute of Management Development (IDM), Mzumbe, Morogoro, Tanzania1971–1976Architect: Norman and DawbarnsNORAD / DANIDA / FINNIDA / Ministry of Works

Smallholding Schools, Busia and Taita Hills, KenyaArchitect: Jørg MundNORAD / Ministry of Works

Hospital and Health Care Centres, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania1971–1973Architect: Tapio ToumariMinistry of Transportation and Public Works

District Development, Mbere, KenyaArchitect: Jørg MundNORAD / Ministry of Works

Stigler’s Gorge, Rufiji, Tanzania (unrealized)1971–1981 NORAD / Norconsult / Hafslund / Norplan

1972Sheria House, State Law Offices, Nairobi, KenyaArchitect: Jørg MundNORAD / Ministry of Works

Nairobi Hills Complex, Departementsbygninger, Nairobi, KenyaArchitect: Leif Åmli and Olav Holm (Bygning for Social Security)NORAD / Ministry of Works

Kenya Commercial Bank, Nyeri, Kenya1972–1981Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik

Nordic Tanzanian Agriculture Project, Mbeya Agriculture Centre (Uyole), Tanzania1972–1977Architect: Bjørn Christoffersen and Rolf HvalbyeNordic CouncilNORAD / SIDA / FINNIDA / Ministry of Communications, Transport and Labour

The Cooperative Education Centre, Moshi, TanzaniaArchitect: unknownDANIDA/SIDA

Kimathi Institute of Technology, Nyeri, KenyaArchitect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik

1973Cabins for Tourists to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania“Madara Hut” Architect: Cappelen, Rodahl and partnersHeadquarters by Einar DahleNORAD / Ministry of Tourism

Building Research Unit (BRU), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania1973–1979Architect: Esten DalNORAD

Vacation home for Mr. Majithia, Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaArchitect: Einar Dahle; Cappelen, Rodahl & PartnersPrivate commission: Mr. Majithia

Health Training Centres, Central, Coast, Eastern, Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western Provinces, KenyaArchitect: Håkon DrageNORAD / Ministry of Works

Veterinary Laboratories, Karan-tina, KenyaArchitect: Jørg MundNORAD / Ministry of Works

Triple Tower Project (Unrealized)1973Architect: Karl Henrik NøstvikPrivate commission: Oberoi Hotels

Swimming Pool for Greenacres School, KenyaArchitect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik

Lindi Regional Development Plan Project, TanzaniaArchitect: Pekka Raitanen (Team leader)FINNIDA

Science Building, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, KenyaArchitect: Karl Henrik NøstvikNORAD / Ministry of Works

1974Jamuri Park Exhibition Pavilion, KenyaArchitect: Leif ÅmliNORAD / Ministry of Game and Fisheries

Masterplan for Mbeya Town, TanzaniaArchitect: Bo Mallander (Team leader)Ministry for Lands, Housing and Urban DevelopmentFINNIDA

Masterplan for Moshi Town, TanzaniaArchitect: Antti Hankkio (Team leader)Ministry for Lands, Housing and Urban DevelopmentFINNIDA

Mtwara Region Integrated Development Plan Project, TanzaniaArchitect: Markuu VisapääFINNIDA

Housing Compound for Expatriate Staff in Mtwara and Lindi water supply project, TanzaniaArchitect: unknownPrivate commission: Finnwater Ltd.

Teacher Training College, TanzaniaArchitect: Einar Dahle; Cappelen, Rodahl & PartnersNORAD / Ministry of Education

Public Libraries and School Libraries, Eldoret and Nyeri, Kenya1974–1975Architect: Jørg MundNORAD / Ministry of Works

Health Centres and Hospital, KenyaArchitect: Mund AssociatesMinistry of Health

1971: NATEX, Einar Dahle; Cappelen, Rodahl & Partners

1972: Mbeya Agriculture Centre, Bjørn Christoffersen and Rolf Hvalbye

1973: Cabins for Tourists to Kilimanjaro, Cappelen, Rodahl & Partners1971: IDM, Norman and Dawbarns

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Public Health, Toxicology & Pharmacology and Animal Production Unit (PHTP), Nairobi, Kenya1974–1975Architect: Karl Henrik NøstvikUniversity of Nairobi

Mpongwe Mission Hospital, ZambiaArchitect: White ArkitekterMinistry of HealthSIDA

Zanzibar Conference Centre, Shopping Centre, Hotels etc., Zanzibar, TanzaniaUnrealizedArchitect: Karl Henrik NøstvikGovernment of Zanzibar

District Hospital, Makueni, KenyaType drawings, pilot project 1974–1976 Architect: White ArkitekterMinistry of Health

Sawmill, SAO Hill, TanzaniaArchitect: Esten DalNORAD/FORINCO

Office Building for East African Literature Bureau, Arusha, Tanzania1974–1977Architect: unknownNORAD / East African Community (EAC)

1975Uhuru Corridor Physical Regional Planning Project, TanzaniaArchitect: Aune SvenskFINNIDA / Ministry for Lands, Hous-ing and Urban Development

Masterplan for Tanga Town, TanzaniaArchitect: Rainer Nordberg (Team Leader)Ministry for Lands, Housing and Urban DevelopmentFINNIDA

Masterplan for Tabora Town, TanzaniaArchitect: Mårten Bondestam (Team leader)

Ministry for Lands, Housing and Urban DevelopmentFINNIDA

Bank Branch Buildings, TanzaniaArchitect: Mund AssociatesNational Bank of Tanzania

Marine Pollution Research Laboratory, Mombasa, KenyaArchitect: White ArkitekterUN Food and Agriculture Association (FAO)

Medium cost houses for the Zambian Railway, Lusaka, ZambiaArchitect: Tarki LiedeNational Housing Authority

Mombasa Law Courts, KenyaArchitect: Jørg and Ingelby MundMinistry of Works

Dandora Community Development, Nairobi, Kenya1975–1978Architect: Gunnar HyllNORAD / City Council Nairobi

Training Centre, Embu, KenyaArchitect: Jørg MundNORAD / Ministry of Works

1976Onnela Housing Compound for Nordic development workers, Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaArchitects: Rautavirta, Heikki Siitonen

Swimming pool, bar, discotheque and kiosk at Hotel Bwawani, Zanzibar, Tanzania1976–1977Architect: Karl Henrik NøstvikPrivate commission: Oberoi Hotels

Sugar Factory, TanzaniaArchitect: Mund Associates

1977Rural Health Facility Type Drawings, Pilot project for Health centre, Kimalewa, KenyaArchitect: White ArkitekterSIDA/PMU (Swedish Pentecostal Relief and Development Agency)

School for Deaf Children, Hola, KenyaArchitect: White ArkitekterPrivate commission: Kenya Sweden Friendship Association (KESFA)

Lake Turkana Fisheries Development Project, Kalokol Freezing and Cold Storage Plant, Kenya1977–1980

Architect: Karl Henrik NøstvikKenya Fisheries Department / Ministry of Cooperative DevelopmentNORAD

Vocational Training School for Blind Women, Singida, TanzaniaArchitect: Carl Erik FogelvikMinistry of WorksSIDA

1978Housing for experts, TanzaniaArchitect: Mund AssociatesNORAD/DANIDA

Lake Zone Regional Planning Project (LZP)1978–1982

Architect: Heikki Tegelmann (Team Leader)Ministry for Lands, Housing and Urban DevelopmentFINNIDA

1979Mbegani Fisheries Development Center, TanzaniaArchitect: Trygve KleivenNORAD

Extension to hospital at Mchukwi, TanzaniaArchitect: White ArkitekterPrivate commission: Swedish Free Mission

Maternity Clinic at Ikwiriri, Rufiji, TanzaniaArchitect: White ArkitekterPrivate commission: Swedish Free Mission

Nyanza Provincial Hospital, Kisumu, KenyaMaster plan and building extensionsArchitect: Mund Associates, J.A. FloNORAD / Ministry of Works

Children’s home, Waijr, KenyaArchitect: Mund Associates, J. A. FloPrivate commission: NGO

Boarding school for the Norwe-gian Mission in Langata, KenyaArchitect: Mund AssociatesPrivate commission: The Norwegian Mission in Langata

Housing Lake Turkana, KenyaArchitect: Mund AssociatesMinistry of WorksNORAD

Kenya Industrial Research Centre, Thika, KenyaArchitect: Mund AssociatesMinistry of Works

Muhimbili Hospital, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania1979–1981Architect: Seppo AhoMinistry of Works

1976: Onnela housing compound for Nordic development workers; Rautavirta, Heikki Siitonen

1975: Dandora Community Development, Gunnar Hyll1977: Rural Health Facility Type Drawings, White Arkitekter

1974: District Hospital, Makueni, White Arkitekter

FORMS OF FREEDOMAfrican Independence and Nordic Models

The exhibition was produced for the Nordic Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice 2014, by Norway’s National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, in collaboration with The Museum of Finnish Architecture and The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design.

Thanks to the exhibition team and contributorsCo-curator and exhibition architect Gro Bonesmo and her colleagues in Space Group Architects (Gary Bates, Wenche Andreassen, Helle Bendixen); assistant curator Cathrine Furuholmen; graphic designer Irma Boom and her assistant Akiko Wakabayashi; history consultant and researcher Thore G. Hem; photographers Mette Tronvoll and Iwan Baan; former student at Kibaha Education Centre Ezekiel Moshi; video photographer Nicholas Sullivan Hellsegg; Triple Tower model maker Olav Ringdal; Ignas Krunglevicius for the teleprompter installation; translators Kari Arku, Peter Cripps, Margherita Podesta Heir, Stig Oppedal; to photographers in Africa 1960–80 represented in the exhibition: Bjørn Christoffersen, Tore J. Brevik, Einar Dahle, Thore Hem, Rolf Hvalbye, David Keith Jones, Jesper Kirknæs, Bernhard Matheson, Karl-Henrik Nøstvik, Roald Pettersen, Steinar Skoglund, T.H. Tønnesen et al.; and toJuulia Kauste and Hannu Hellmann from The Museum of Finnish Architecture; and Lena Rahoult, Veronica Hejdelind and Karin Åberg Waern from The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design.

Special appreciations to The National Museum staff: photographers Annar Bjørgli, Therese Husby, Børre Høstland, Inger-Lise Røvig and Jeanette Veiby; conservators Marie Kleivane and Alexandra Pogost; logistics specialist Eivind Johansen, press and marketing staff Eva Amine Wold Engeset, Kristin Grønvold, Beate Orten, Petter Stewart-Baggerud, Kristoffer Busch; librarian Eli Østensvig; exhibition technicians Rune Andreassen, Petter Ballo, Pablo Castro, Nicholas Sullivan Hellsegg, Geir Korsmo, Christian Tony Norum, Olav Ringdal and team leader Jørgen Vidnes.

Special thanks to On site architects, engineers and planners in Africa in the 1960s and 70s: Seppo Aho, Oddvar Bjærum, Jouko Berghäll, Mårten Bondestam, Finn Bø, Bjørn Christoffersen, Aasmund Dahl, Einar Dahle, Håkon Drage, Jørn Atle Flo, Halvor Fossum, Antti Hankkio, Olav Holm, Rolf Hvalbye, Gunnar Hyll, Paul Irgens, Dick Lindberg, Joe Lindström, Cato N. Lund, Bjørn Lunøe, David Mutiso, Rainer Nordberg, Juhani Pallasmaa, Maths Prag, Pekka Raitanen, Jacqueline Marie Resley, Ingrid Roneus, Heikki Siitonen, Kari Silfverberg, Liv Skeie, Heikki Tegelmann.

And to: Aref Adamali, Kaisa Alapartanen, Sinikka Antila, Tom Anyamba, Thordis Arrhenius, Gabriel Banda, Dalton Barrientos, Joachim Beijmo, Outi Berghäll, Kjersti Berre, Mary Bjærum, Hans Brattskar, Johan Brisman, Andrew Byerley, Claes Caldenby, Erik Dahl, Karl Otto Ellefsen, Odd Eliassen, Leif Engh, Tore Linné Eriksen, Mike Fergus, Britta Fossum, Jérémie Michael McGowan, Ulf Grønvold, Etambuyu Anamela Gundersen, Lars Gundersen, Roar Gjessing, Halle Jørn Hansen, Peter Heller, Saija Hollmen, Erik Hvalbye, Akbar Hussein, Göran Hydén, Immanuel Imama, Else Ishaug, David Charles Jourdan, Humphrey Kalanje, Kari Karanko, Kenneth Kaunda, Jesper Kirknæs, Ingunn Kleppsvik, Birte Kyhn, Seija Kinni, Even Kolstad, Tapani Koivula, Juhani Koponen, Anna Langaard, Mari Lending, Sonja Lindstrand, Michael Lokuruka, Pauline Lokuruka, Elisabeth Lorenz, John Trygve Lundeby, Cyriacus Lwamayanga, Eva Madshus, Peter Makachia, Grethe Horn Mathismoen, C.J.M. Maweu, Thomas Melin, Wallis Miller, Marianne Millstein, Emma Miloyo, Anthony Mukwita, Victor Mutelekesha, Esse Nilsson, Olle Nordberg, Astrid Nøstvik, Brita Nøstvik, Cecilie Nøstvik, Karl Andreas Nøstvik, Arve Ofstad, Nicolo Ornagih, Markku Piispanen, Inga Resley-Nøstvik, Lars Reuterswärd, Yngve Sahlin, Berit Sahlström, Maija Simola, Erik Bertil Sjöström, May Sommerfelt, Iina Soiri, Elina Standertskjöld, Ulrika Stenkula, Sven Erik Svendsen, Marit Sørvald, Göran Tannerfeldt, Jan Thews, Jørn Tyrdal, Mats Utas, Veikko Vasko, Dick Urban Vestbro, Lennart Wohlgemuth, Berit Aasen.

And: The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Architectural Association Kenya, Daily Nation (Kenya), Norwegian Embassies in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, The Finnish Embassy in Tanzania, Kenya National Archives, Kenyatta Conference Centre, Kibaha Education Centre, Ministry of Works (Kenya), Norad’s library, The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, NRK, Pandora Film AS, School of Built Environment – University of Nairobi, School of Architecture and Design – Ardhi University, SIDA, SVT, The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, as well as the schools we visited in Zambia; Kamwala, Libala, Munali, Nyimba, Chipata and Chizongwe.

Curator and Director of Architecture Project ManagerNina Berre Nina Frang Høyum

The exhibition has been supported by Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nordic Culture Fund, Nordic Culture Point, The Museum of Finnish Architecture and The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design.

© The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, 2015

Editors: Nina Berre, Nina Frang HøyumCurator: Nina BerreCo-curator: Gro BonesmoDesign: Anne AndresenTranslation: Stig Oppedal Front page: Julius Nyerere, Tapani Katala and Oddvar Bjærum in Kibaha, Tanzania. Courtesy of Mary and Oddvar Bjærum.

Image credits: p. 2 © Per Svensson / Aftenposten / NTB Scanpix; p. 5 © Nina Frang Høyum; p. 6 courtesy of Mary og Oddvar Bjærum; p. 7 © Bjørn Christoffersen; p. 8 og 9 (upper) © Karl Henrik Nøstvik; p. 9 (lower) still image from video © Nicholas Sullivan Hellsegg; p. 10–12, 14 courtesy of K.H. Nøstvik’s family; p. 13, 15 © David Keith Jones; p. 16 © Bernhard Matheson; p. 17 Zambia World Bank Education Project, Final Report, Norconsult AS 1979; p. 18 courtesy of Gunnar Hyll; p. 20, 21 © Thore Hem; p. 23–25 courtesy of Rainer Nordberg; p. 26–29 courtesy of K.H. Nøstvik’s family, p. 30–33 © Mette Tronvoll; p. 34–39 © Iwan Baan; project list p. 40–45: tourist cabins in Kilimanjaro © Nasjonalmuseet, Onnela housing compound © Nina Berre, other images in the project list courtesy of the architects; p. 47, 48 © Annar Bjørgli.

Photo/digitization of slides, prints, drawings etc: © Nasjonalmuseet

President Kenneth Kaunda’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly 4 December 1964 is replicated in Ignas Krungleviciuc’s teleprompter installation in the exhibition

nasjonalmuseet.no

FORMS OF FREEDOM. African Independence and Nordic Models

La Biennale di Archittettura, Venice, 7 June–23 November 2014The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, 23 January–19 April 2015

The liberation of Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia in the 1960s coincided with the founding of state development aid in the Nordic countries, where there was widespread belief that the social democratic model could be exported, translated, and used for nation-building, modernization and welfare in Africa. The leaders of the new African states wanted partners without a murky colonial past, and established solid bonds with the Nordic countries, built on a mutual belief in progress.

During a few intense years in the 60s and 70s, Nordic architects contributed to the rapid process of modernization in this part of Africa. These young architects found themselves in the field between building freedom and finding freedom: Building freedom denotes nation-building through city planning, infrastructure and industry, and institutions for education, health, and state bureaucracy, whereas finding freedom points at the modernist, experimental free area that emerged from the encounter between Nordic aid and African nation-building.

This is the story of this architectural production, exploring how some of these works were absorbed, rejected, adapted and transformed.

Photo from the Nordic Pavilion in Venice, 2014.