FORMS OF FREEDOM
African Independence and Nordic Models
La Biennale di Archittettura, Venice, 7 June–23 November 2014
The National Museum – Architecture, Oslo, 23 January–19 April 2015
Timeline
1961 The Nordic Council decides on a common foreign aid
policy
Introduction
1965 FINNIDA (Finnish International Development Agency)
is founded
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
1962 Governmental foreign aid agencies are founded in Sweden
1965: SIDA (Swedish International Development
Authority) replaces NIB
1967 The Arusha Declaration – Nyerere’s political
programme for socialism, independence, and welfare
(Nämnden för internationellt bistånd – NIB), Norway (Norsk
Utviklingshjelp), and Denmark (from 1971 called Danida)
The East African Community (EAC) is founded by
Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania
The Nordic Africa Institute is founded in Uppsala, Sweden
1963 Kenya becomes independent, with Jomo Kenyatta
1968 NORAD (Norwegian Agency for International
Development) replaces Norsk Utviklingshjelp
as prime minister (president from 1964)
In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. holds his
famous anti-racist “I Have a Dream” speech
1971 Prime Minister Olof Palme of Sweden visits Zambia and Tanzania
Julius Nyerere makes his first state visit to the Nordic
countries (below)
1973 Global oil crisis
The Organization for African Unity (OAU) is founded by
thirty-two African countries
1976 Julius Nyerere visits the Nordic countries again
The University of East Africa is founded in Makerere,
Uganda, for students from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika
1964 Zambia becomes independent, with Kenneth Kaunda
as the country’s first president
1977 The East African Community collapses
1978 Jomo Kenyatta dies, and Daniel arap Moi takes over
as president
Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge as the United Republic of
Tanzania
Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison, following his
arrest in 1962
1985 Kenneth Kaunda makes an official visit to the Nordic countries
Julius Nyerere retires as president
1985
Kenneth Kaunda på offisielt besøk til Norden
Julius Nyerere går av som president
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 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, 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 Independence 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”. Building 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
3
Organizing the Exhibition
“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 Norwegian architects, and meetings with their families
and colleagues as well as with ambassadors, architect
associations, architect schools, museums, aid workers, 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.
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 materialized 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 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
4
The former president of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, outside his
residence in Lusaka, 13 November 2013
5
The Pilot
The Nordic Tanganyika Education Centre, Kibaha, Tanzania (1963–68)
Architects: Bjørn Christoffersen and Rolf Hvalbye
Technical Planning: Norconsult, Project Manager: Oddvar Bjærum
Architects on site: Torvald Åkesson, Halvor Fossum, Liv Skeie
Building 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 buildings, industry, and infrastructure. The council therefore 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 appointed 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.
Nordic experts lived in Kibaha while the Nordic Tanganyika Education Centre was being constructed
“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.”
The architects Bjørn Christoffersen and Rolf Hvalbye
lived for a while in Kibaha in order to survey the
Kibaha, Nordic Tanganyika Project, Final Report on Planning and Construction,
Prepared by Norconsult AS November 1968.
Julius Nyerere, Tapani Katala and Oddvar Bjærum in Kibaha,
Tanzania
1961
Tanganyika (Tanzania)
wins independence,
with Julius Nyerere as
prime minister
(president from 1962)
6
1962
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
Government aid
organizations are
established in Sweden,
Denmark and Norway,
in Finland from 1965
1963
February: The Nordic
Ministers’ Committee
signs an agreement
with Tanganyika to
establish a multiinstitutional center for
health, education and
agriculture in Kibaha
outside Dar es Salaam.
August: Experts visit
Tanganyika with
proposals for a center
Planning starts.
Julius Nyerere makes
his first state visit to
the Nordic countries
1964
Tanganyika and
Zanzibar merge as the
United Republic of
Tanzania, with Nyerere
as president
Building starts. In June
Julius Nyerere inaugurates the Rural Training
Center, which would
provide courses to local
farmers
1966
Kibaha Secondary
School is completed,
for 600 talented boys
from all over Tanzania
1967
The Arusha Declaration – Nyerere’s
political programme
for socialism, independence, and welfare
Kibaha Training Health
Center is completed.
Capacity 200 000
patients a year, and 3
years education program for 20 nurses
1968
The Nordic Tanganyika
Center is completed,
also containing a
library, sports fields, an
assembly hall, shops,
and housing and
administration buildings.
1970
Tanzania takes charge
of the center, renamed
Kibaha Education Center,
with the King of
Denmark and President
Julius Nyerere both
present at the ceremony.
7
Even as the architects had become familiar with
tropical architecture, the complex evinces typically Western and Nordic ideals of architecture and
planning, and the basic structures of the buildings
– white, low, geometrically simple, and multiinstitutional – 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.
Dining room for six hundred boys, photographed by Karl Henrik
Nøstvik during a study trip in 1967
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 centre 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.
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.
Kibaha, then and now: the dormitories photographed by Karl Henrik Nøstvik during a study trip in 1967 and by the National
Museum in 2014
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-institutional centres covering agriculture, health, and
education were not established. But Kibaha was the
first of several pan-Nordic projects that followed, including 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
8
9
Icon of Independence
Kenyatta International Conference Centre, KICC (1966–1973)
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
Building Contractor: Gordon Melvin and Partners
Commissioner: Ministry of Works / Kenya African National Union (KANU)
Administration: Norsk Utviklingshjelp / NORAD
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.
1962
The Norwegian foreign
aid agency Norsk
Utviklingshjelp is
founded (replaced by
NORAD in 1968)
10
1963
Kenya becomes independent, with KANU
leader Jomo Kenyatta
as prime minister,
presiden from 1964
(until his death in 1978)
1965
Architect Karl Henrik
Nøstvik is among the
first group of experts
that Norsk Utviklings­
hjelp sends to Kenya.
He starts working for
the Kenyan Government in The Ministry
of Works
1966
Karl Henrik Nøstvik
is commissioned to
design KANU Headquarters’ Building in
Nairobi.
1966–67: The project is
titled “The KANU Building for the Government
of Kenya” in Nøstvik’s
drawings, with a 27
floor tower
1967
The East African
Community (EAC) is
founded by Kenya,
Uganda, and Tanzania
“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
1968
The project is now
titled “Government
Offices & Conference
Hall (Kenya African
National Union Headquarters Building)”
1969
1968–69: New title:
“Government Offices
and Conference Hall”
1970
“Government Offices
and Conference
Building”
1972
“IBRD/IMF annual
meetings 1973 at Kenya
Conference Center”,
now with the 32-floor
tower
1973
Jomo Kenyatta opens
the Kenyatta Inter­
national Conference
Centre (KICC) for the
first World Bank
Conference in Africa
11
movies of the 1960s. Equally impressive is the complex, 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 international 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.
The concrete elements are hand-chiselled
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
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 modernization project for Zanzibar and a 500-meter-high tower
in Qatar. This unfulfilled architecture is presented
elsewhere in the catalogue.
“… a new nation like ours needs symbols”
D.M. Mutiso, Chief Architect in Ministry of Works, 1967–74 interview in Byggekunst, 3/1974
12
13
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
15
World Bank Schools
Zambia World Bank Education Project, ZWBEP (1971–78)
Project Director (1971–74): Halvor Fossum
Norconsult 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
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.
Sixty-five secondary schools spread across the entire country were to be planned, designed, and built within five years.
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.
“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.”
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
1964
Zambia becomes
independent, with
Kenneth Kaunda as
the country’s first
president
16
1966
1966–70: Zambia’s First
National Development
Plan draws up extensive
plans for the country’s
education system
1967
Norway and Zambia
sign an agreement to
cooperate on aid.
Norwegian teachers
have been in the
country since 1966
1969
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
1970
Norway (NORAD) is
financially involved
Henrik Fürst, Assistant Director of Norconsult AS., speech at The Norwegian Engineer Association, 17.10.1972
1971
Construction starts
1973
Oil crisis, closure of
Rhodesian border, and
dropping copper prices
make conditions for
contractors difficult
1974
13 schools are
completed
1976
Major parts of the
project are completed.
Evaluation starts
1978
Program is finalized
17
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 computer 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 classrooms, assembly rooms, laboratories, workshops,
restrooms, and kitchens.
The elements in the main structure, such as fundaments, 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 geometric patterns. As with the other construction materials, 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
18
19
Freezing Fish in the Desert
Lake Turkana Fisheries Development Project – Kalokol Freezing and Cold Storage Plant (1977–78)
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
Building Contractor: Veidekke/Furuholmen
Administration: NORAD
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 tradition of fishing. At the beginning of the 1960s, however, 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 developers 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 enthusiasts, the plants in the atrium garden are watered,
and fish is dried both inside the plant and on the
1970
The construction of the
road to Turkana starts
20
1975
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 economists and many more
1977
Nøstvik is commissioned and starts
designing
1978
Draft for “Turkana
Fishermen’s Co-operative” ready in February
and complete drawings
for “Lake Turkana
Fisheries Development
Project” in November
“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.
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.
“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.
1980
The project was completed, with freezers
delivered by Kværner
Kulde. These have never
been in use
21
Ujamaa Urbanism
Master Plan Tanga 1974–95
Commissioner: Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD), Tanzania
Involved 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)
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.
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. International socialist principles were translated differently
in the countries that had gained their independence.
In Tanzania, the policy of ujamaa (Swahili for “community” 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
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.
“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.
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.”
“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.”
Julius Nyerere in Blueprint for Dodoma, Report and Accounts 2 / 1974-75, Capital Development Authority, Dar es Salaam.
Professor Karl Otto Ellefsen, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, 2014
1961
Tanganyika becomes
independent. About
90 per cent of the
population lives
scattered across the
countryside, outside of
organized villages
22
1964
Tanganyika and
Zanzibar merge to
form the United
Republic of Tanzania
1967
Arusha Declaration:
President Julius
Nyerere’s political
programme for
independence, social
equality, and welfare
1972
Government offices
are partly relocated to
regional capitals
139 drafts from forty-nine countries (including thirteen drafts
from Scandinavia) enter
the competition for
a new government
building for the TANU
party in Dar es Salaam
1973
1973–75: Preliminary
project for urban plans
for Mbeya, Moshi,
Tanga, and Tabora
1974
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
1975
The Ardhi Institute in
Dar es Salaam is
founded as an
academic centre for
architecture and planning. Several Nordic
planners are attached
to the institute
Pilot studies for Tanga
are carried out. Master
plans for the cities
of Moshi and Mbeya
(1974–95) are finalized
The organization of
rural life is laid down
in the Villages and
Ujamaa Villages Act
Master plans for the
cities of Tabora and
Tanga (1975–95) are
finalized. (1975–95)
1976
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
23
Just as with the villages, the cities were to be constructed 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 country,” the master plan for Tanga states in its introduction. 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 inhabitants, reveal an exceptional optimism and confidence
in the future.
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 various types of buildings could add to this structure.
24
The urban and regional planning in Tanzania in the
1970s was motivated by the need for nation-building in a country framed by colonial borders and
composed of many different tribal communities. It
was a goal that welfare development and modernization 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 transformation of the cities take place, even though various pilot
projects were completed.
25
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 organic, dynamic nature and also great flexibility, according 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 exhibition 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
26
27
Renewal of Zanzibar
After his successful work on the Kenyatta International 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
“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
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.
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.
“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
28
29
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 # 1, C-print, 2014, 80 x 80 cm
Zambia # 4, C-print, 2014, 80 x 80 cm
Zambia # 7, C-print, 2014, 80 x 80 cm
Zambia # 10, C-print, 2014, 80 x 80 cm
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
35
37
Kalokol Freezing and Cold Storage Plant, Lake Turkana
Projects
Kidatu Hydropower station and
camp, Mtera, Tanzania
1970–1975
Architect: Joe Lindström and
Thorbjörn Roupé (SWECO)
SIDA/TANESCO
The list of projects is not exhaustive, but presents an overview of the material we have unearthed until now.
Upper Primary School Building,
Loketo, Msongani, Nairobi, Kenya
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
NORAD / Ministry of Works
1963
Secondary Schools, Building
type, Pilot project, Kiambu,
Kenya
Architect: Kjell Kove (and Einar
Grimsgaard)
NORAD / Ministry of Works
(Education Unit)
The Nordic Tanganyika Project,
Kibaha, Tanzania
1963–1968
Architect: Bjørn Christoffersen and
Rolf Hvalbye
Technical Planning: Norconsult,
Project Manager: Oddvar Bjærum
Architects on site: Torvald Åkesson,
Halvor Fossum, Liv Skeie
Nordic Council / Government of
Tanganyika
1967: Muguga Green, K.H.Nøstvik.
1968
Swedish Housing Project for
Government Quarters, Upper
Kinon-Doni, Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
Architect: Lars Erik Magnusson
Government of Tanzania
1964
Cooperative Centre, Moshi,
Tanzania
Architect: Lars Erik Magnusson
(first proposal)
SIDA/DANIDA
1965
Kenya Science Teacher College
(KSTC), Nairobi, Kenya
Architect: Graham Mc Cullough
Project Manager: Leif Lindstrand
(National Board of Public Buildings
(KBS), Sweden)
Nämden for Internationellt bistånd
(NIB) / University of Uppsala /
Ministry of Education
Thika School of Community Nursing, Finn Bø
Training Centre for Women and
Girls, Musoma, Tanzania
1965–1968
Architect: Lars Erik Magnusson
UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO)
Thika School of Community
Nursing, Thika, Kenya
1965–1969
Architect: Finn Bø
NORAD / Ministry of Works
1966
Kenyatta International
Conference Centre (KICC),
Nairobi, Kenya
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
NORAD / KANU/ Ministry of Works
Building for the Governmental
Press, Nairobi, Kenya
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
NORAD / Ministry of Works
40
1971
Canteen for police officers and
work shop for police vehicles,
Kiambu, Kenya
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
NORAD / Ministry of Works
1967
Kafue Gorge Township
Development, Housing for
workers at Kafue power station
in Kafue, Zambia
1967–1976
Architects: 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, Kenya
1967–1969
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
NORAD / Ministry of Works
1969
Nordic Co-operative College,
Kenya
1969–1972
NORAD / SIDA / DANIDA / FINNIDA
/ Ministry of Cooperative Development and Marketing / Ministry of
Works
Hostel for Nursery Students at
Mathare Mental Hospital, Kenya
Architect: Aasmund Dahl
NORAD / Ministry of Works
Secondary School (Domestic
Sciences) for girls, with
dormitories, Songea, Tanzania
Architect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen,
Rodahl & Partners
Ministry of Education / The 2nd IDA
Education Program (Susan Miller
Williams, Jes W. Stork)
NORAD/DANIDA
Secondary School (Agriculture)
for boys, with dormitories,
Bagamoyo, Tanzania
Architect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen,
Rodahl & Partners
Ministry of Education / The 2nd IDA
Education Program (Susan Miller
Williams, Jes W. Stork)
NORAD/DANIDA
Secondary School (Technical) for
boys, with dormitories, Mtwara,
Tanzania
Architect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen,
Rodahl & Partners
Ministry of Education / The 2nd IDA
Education Program (Susan Miller
Williams, Jes W. Stork)
NORAD/DANIDA
Kisumu Airport Terminal
Building, Kenya
Architect: Jørg Mund
NORAD / Ministry of Works
Zambia World Bank Education
Project (ZWBEP), Zambia
1971–1978
Project Director: Halvor Fossum
Norconsult: Architect: Gunnar Hyll
(Chief Architect) /Halvor Halvorsen
/ Paul Irgens / Steinar Rosenvinge /
Torstein Ramberg. Chief Engineer:
Bjørn Lunøe
NORAD / Ministry of Education
1970
Private Houses, Embassies,
NORAD residencies, etc. Kenya
1970–1992
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
NORAD
Nutrition Centre, Thika, Kenya
Architect: Håkon Drage
NORAD / Ministry of Works
1970: Secondary schools. Kjell Kove.
41
Nairobi Hills Complex,
Departementsbygninger, Nairobi,
Kenya
Architect: Leif Åmli and Olav Holm
(Bygning for Social Security)
NORAD / Ministry of Works
1974
Jamuri Park Exhibition Pavilion,
Kenya
Architect: Leif Åmli
NORAD / Ministry of Game and
Fisheries
Kenya Commercial Bank, Nyeri,
Kenya
1972–1981
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
1971: NATEX, Einar Dahle; Cappelen, Rodahl & Partners
Exhibition Pavilion, Saba
Exhibition Ground (The Dar es
Salaam International Trade Fair),
Tanzania
Architect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen,
Rodahl & Partners
Private commission: National
Textile Corporation Ltd. (NATEX)
National Textile Corporation Ltd.
(NATEX), Tanzania
Architect: Einar Dahle, Cappelen,
Rodahl & Partners
Private commission: National
Textile Corporation Ltd. (NATEX)
Institute of Management
Development (IDM), Mzumbe,
Morogoro, Tanzania
1971–1976
Architect: Norman and Dawbarns
NORAD / DANIDA / FINNIDA /
Ministry of Works
District Development, Mbere,
Kenya
Architect: Jørg Mund
NORAD / Ministry of Works
Stigler’s Gorge, Rufiji, Tanzania
(unrealized)
1971–1981
NORAD / Norconsult / Hafslund /
Norplan
1972
Sheria House, State Law Offices,
Nairobi, Kenya
Architect: Jørg Mund
NORAD / Ministry of Works
42
The Cooperative Education
Centre, Moshi, Tanzania
Architect: unknown
DANIDA/SIDA
Kimathi Institute of Technology,
Nyeri, Kenya
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
1972: Mbeya Agriculture Centre, Bjørn Christoffersen and Rolf Hvalbye
1973
Cabins for Tourists to
Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
“Madara Hut”
Architect: Cappelen, Rodahl and
partners
Headquarters by Einar Dahle
NORAD / Ministry of Tourism
Building Research Unit (BRU),
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
1973–1979
Architect: Esten Dal
NORAD
Swimming Pool for Greenacres
School, Kenya
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
Masterplan for Moshi Town,
Tanzania
Architect: Antti Hankkio (Team
leader)
Ministry for Lands, Housing and
Urban Development
FINNIDA
Lindi Regional Development Plan
Project, Tanzania
Architect: Pekka Raitanen (Team
leader)
FINNIDA
Mtwara Region Integrated
Development Plan Project,
Tanzania
Architect: Markuu Visapää
FINNIDA
Science Building, University of
Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
NORAD / Ministry of Works
Housing Compound for
Expatriate Staff in Mtwara and
Lindi water supply project,
Tanzania
Architect: unknown
Private commission: Finnwater Ltd.
Vacation home for Mr. Majithia,
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Architect: Einar Dahle; Cappelen,
Rodahl & Partners
Private commission: Mr. Majithia
Teacher Training College,
Tanzania
Architect: Einar Dahle; Cappelen,
Rodahl & Partners
NORAD / Ministry of Education
Health Training Centres, Central,
Coast, Eastern, Nyanza, Rift
Valley and Western Provinces,
Kenya
Architect: Håkon Drage
NORAD / Ministry of Works
Smallholding Schools, Busia and
Taita Hills, Kenya
Architect: Jørg Mund
NORAD / Ministry of Works
Hospital and Health Care
Centres, Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
1971–1973
Architect: Tapio Toumari
Ministry of Transportation and
Public Works
Nordic Tanzanian Agriculture
Project, Mbeya Agriculture
Centre (Uyole), Tanzania
1972–1977
Architect: Bjørn Christoffersen and
Rolf Hvalbye
Nordic Council
NORAD / SIDA / FINNIDA / Ministry
of Communications, Transport and
Labour
Masterplan for Mbeya Town,
Tanzania
Architect: Bo Mallander (Team
leader)
Ministry for Lands, Housing and
Urban Development
FINNIDA
Public Libraries and School
Libraries, Eldoret and Nyeri,
Kenya
1974–1975
Architect: Jørg Mund
NORAD / Ministry of Works
Veterinary Laboratories, Karantina, Kenya
Architect: Jørg Mund
NORAD / Ministry of Works
1971: IDM, Norman and Dawbarns
Triple Tower Project (Unrealized)
1973
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
Private commission: Oberoi
Hotels
Health Centres and Hospital,
Kenya
Architect: Mund Associates
Ministry of Health
1973: Cabins for Tourists to
Kilimanjaro, Cappelen, Rodahl & Partners
43
Ministry for Lands, Housing and
Urban Development
FINNIDA
Architect: Heikki Tegelmann (Team
Leader)
Ministry for Lands, Housing and
Urban Development
FINNIDA
Bank Branch Buildings, Tanzania
Architect: Mund Associates
National Bank of Tanzania
1979
Mbegani Fisheries Development
Center, Tanzania
Architect: Trygve Kleiven
NORAD
Marine Pollution Research
Laboratory, Mombasa, Kenya
Architect: White Arkitekter
UN Food and Agriculture
Association (FAO)
1974: District Hospital, Makueni, White Arkitekter
Public Health, Toxicology &
Pharmacology and Animal
Production Unit (PHTP), Nairobi,
Kenya
1974–1975
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
University of Nairobi
Mpongwe Mission Hospital,
Zambia
Architect: White Arkitekter
Ministry of Health
SIDA
Zanzibar Conference Centre,
Shopping Centre, Hotels etc.,
Zanzibar, Tanzania
Unrealized
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
Government of Zanzibar
1975
Uhuru Corridor Physical Regional
Planning Project, Tanzania
Architect: Aune Svensk
FINNIDA / Ministry for Lands, Housing and Urban Development
Masterplan for Tanga Town,
Tanzania
Architect: Rainer Nordberg (Team
Leader)
Ministry for Lands, Housing and
Urban Development
FINNIDA
Medium cost houses for the
Zambian Railway, Lusaka, Zambia
Architect: Tarki Liede
National Housing Authority
1976: Onnela housing compound for Nordic development workers; Rautavirta, Heikki
Siitonen
Mombasa Law Courts, Kenya
Architect: Jørg and Ingelby Mund
Ministry of Works
1976
Dandora Community
Development, Nairobi, Kenya
1975–1978
Architect: Gunnar Hyll
NORAD / City Council Nairobi
Training Centre, Embu, Kenya
Architect: Jørg Mund
NORAD / Ministry of Works
Masterplan for Tabora Town,
Tanzania
Architect: Mårten Bondestam
(Team leader)
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
Kenya Fisheries Department /
Ministry of Cooperative
Development
NORAD
Swimming pool, bar, discotheque
and kiosk at Hotel Bwawani,
Zanzibar, Tanzania
1976–1977
Architect: Karl Henrik Nøstvik
Private commission: Oberoi Hotels
Vocational Training School for
Blind Women, Singida, Tanzania
Architect: Carl Erik Fogelvik
Ministry of Works
SIDA
Sugar Factory, Tanzania
Architect: Mund Associates
1977
Rural Health Facility Type
Drawings, Pilot project for
Health centre, Kimalewa, Kenya
Architect: White Arkitekter
SIDA/PMU (Swedish Pentecostal
Relief and Development Agency)
District Hospital, Makueni, Kenya
Type drawings, pilot project
1974–1976
Architect: White Arkitekter
Ministry of Health
Sawmill, SAO Hill, Tanzania
Architect: Esten Dal
NORAD/FORINCO
Office Building for East African
Literature Bureau, Arusha, Tanzania
1974–1977
Architect: unknown
NORAD / East African Community
(EAC)
1975: Dandora Community Development, Gunnar Hyll
44
Onnela Housing Compound for
Nordic development workers,
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Architects: Rautavirta, Heikki
Siitonen
1978
Housing for experts, Tanzania
Architect: Mund Associates
NORAD/DANIDA
Lake Zone Regional Planning
Project (LZP)
1978–1982
Extension to hospital at
Mchukwi, Tanzania
Architect: White Arkitekter
Private commission: Swedish Free
Mission
Maternity Clinic at Ikwiriri, Rufiji,
Tanzania
Architect: White Arkitekter
Private commission: Swedish Free
Mission
Nyanza Provincial Hospital,
Kisumu, Kenya
Master plan and building extensions
Architect: Mund Associates, J.A. Flo
NORAD / Ministry of Works
Children’s home, Waijr, Kenya
Architect: Mund Associates, J. A.
Flo
Private commission: NGO
Boarding school for the Norwegian Mission in Langata, Kenya
Architect: Mund Associates
Private commission: The Norwegian
Mission in Langata
Housing Lake Turkana, Kenya
Architect: Mund Associates
Ministry of Works
NORAD
School for Deaf Children, Hola,
Kenya
Architect: White Arkitekter
Private commission: Kenya Sweden
Friendship Association (KESFA)
Kenya Industrial Research
Centre, Thika, Kenya
Architect: Mund Associates
Ministry of Works
Lake Turkana Fisheries
Development Project, Kalokol
Freezing and Cold Storage Plant,
Kenya
1977–1980
Muhimbili Hospital, Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania
1979–1981
Architect: Seppo Aho
Ministry of Works
1977: Rural Health Facility Type Drawings,
White Arkitekter
45
FORMS OF FREEDOM
African 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 contributors
Co-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 to
Juulia 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 Manager
Nina BerreNina Frang Høyum
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
© The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, 2015
Editors: Nina Berre, Nina Frang Høyum
Curator: Nina Berre
Co-curator: Gro Bonesmo
Design: Anne Andresen
Translation: Stig Oppedal
Front page: Julius Nyerere, Tapani Katala and Oddvar Bjærum in Kibaha, Tanzania. Courtesy of Mary and Oddvar Bjærum.
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.
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
FORMS OF FREEDOM. African Independence and Nordic Models
La Biennale di Archittettura, Venice, 7 June–23 November 2014
The 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.
nasjonalmuseet.no