Asmara: Conservation and Development in a Historic City: Fid-Bau Portal

Asmara: Conservation and Development in a Historic City

Rodwell, Dennis

Eritrea is one of the world's youngest and poorest countries. Cultural heritage programmes are at the forefront of its affirmation of national identity and central to its perception of sustainable development.

Asmara, planned by the Italians as their colonial capital for the region, has been described as ‘Africa's Secret Modernist City’. The city centre is host to an exceptional range of late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century architectural styles, including a number of iconic buildings from the 1930s. It has remained largely untouched since the 1940s.

This paper outlines the national context. It aims to summarize the key urban and building conservation issues facing the historic centre of Asmara, and how these are being addressed both within themselves and in the context of the integrated strategic plan for the expanding city. The plan's overall approach is one that seeks to achieve a balance between the demands of conservation and development, supporting traditional small-scale mixed uses and the human culture that goes with them in the historic core, whilst encouraging the siting of large-scale new developments in locations that complement rather than conflict with the established urban fabric and architectural heritage.

Although the geographical and historical context is very specific, the approach that is being pursued in Asmara is one that offers lessons for the sound practice of urban conservation elsewhere in the developing and developed world.