Asmara, the capital of the small East African country of Eritrea, bordering the Red Sea, is one of the most important and exciting architectural 'discoveries' of recent years. Built almost entirely in the 1930s by the Italians, who transformed it into a hotbed of radical architectural innovation, Asmara has one of the highest concentrations of Modernist architecture anywhere in the world. This superb building-by-building survey, illustrated with previously unpublished archival material and specially commissioned photography, chronicles the colonial past and remarkable survival of a city that has evocatively been described as "the Miami of Africa."

Modern Architecture and its Representation in Colonial Eritrea offers a critical assessment of architecture and urbanism constructed in Eritrea during the Italian colonial period spanning from 1890-1941. Drawing together imperial projects, modernist aesthetics, and fascist motives, the book examines how the merger of these three significant influences yielded a complex built environment that served to emulate, if not redefine, Italian colonial pursuits. As Italy’s colonia primogenità or 'first born colony', Eritrea and its capital, Asmara, not only bore witness to the emergence of politicized interiors and international expositions, the colony became a vehicle that polarized issues of race and gender. Exploring discourses of modernity in Africa, this book moves between histories of architecture, urbanism, literature and media to describe how Eritrea and Asmara became a crucial fulcrum for Italy's ill-fated pursuits in Ethiopia and other neighboring countries. Consequently, modern architecture inscribed Eritrean subjectivities while redefining technologies that affected constructions of the colonial interior. Modern Architecture and its Representation in Colonial Eritrea demonstrates how architecture in Asmara reshaped the creation and reception of Italian East Africa.

The ancient city of Asmara is the capital of Eritrea and its largest settlement. Its beautiful architecture was rediscovered by outsiders in the early 1990s. In this book, the authors offer an original analysis of the colonial city, providing a history not only of the physical and visible urban reality, but also of a second, invisible city as it exists in the imagination. The colonial city becomes a fantastical set of cities where each one reflects the others as if in a kaleidoscope. This book breaks new ground and moves us a little further along in the attempt to decipher Asmara in terms of contemporary theory. The book brings together scholars from a multiplicity of disciplines who have shown the ways in which colonial and postcolonial criticism has served as a platform for new, diversified readings of Asmara. The book examines the current realities of Asmara in order to address the continuing effects of the legacy of colonialism upon the city dwellers.

Today, nearly a century after the National Fascist Party came to power in Italy, questions about the built legacy of the regime provoke polemics among architects and scholars. Mussolini’s government constructed thousands of new buildings across the Italian Peninsula and islands and in colonial territories. From hospitals, post offices and stadia to housing, summer camps, Fascist Party Headquarters, ceremonial spaces, roads, railways and bridges, the physical traces of the regime have a presence in nearly every Italian town. The Routledge Companion to Italian Fascist Architecture investigates what has become of the architectural and urban projects of Italian fascism, how sites have been transformed or adapted and what constitutes the meaning of these buildings and cities today. The essays include a rich array of new arguments by both senior and early career scholars from Italy and beyond. They examine the reception of fascist architecture through studies of destruction and adaptation, debates over reuse, artistic interventions and even routine daily practices, which may slowly alter collective understandings of such places. Paolo Portoghesi sheds light on the subject from his internal perspective, while Harald Bodenschatz situates Italy among period totalitarian authorities and their symbols across Europe. Section editors frame, synthesize and moderate essays that explore fascism’s afterlife; how the physical legacy of the regime has been altered and preserved and what it means now. This critical history of interpretations of fascist-era architecture and urban projects broadens our understanding of the relationships among politics, identity, memory and place. This companion will be of interest to students and scholars in a range of fields, including Italian history, architectural history, cultural studies, visual sociology, political science and art history.

Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, has one of the most extensive surviving ensembles of modernist architecture in the world. To this day, the influence of the former colonial power of Italy from the early 20th century remains visible. Many of the buildings, erected in the futuristic, expressionist, cubist or rationalistic style have been preserved and dominate the cityscape of Asmara. UNESCO is considering to make the city a World Heritage Site in recognition of its outstanding modernist architecture. The impressive photographs by Stefan Boness convey the unique atmosphere of Asmara as a living museum of modernity. New, changed and revised edition of Asmara - The Frozen City (2006)

This is a unique and exquisite collection of photographs of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, illustrated with poetry by one of Eritrea?s leading writers, in the original language, and translated into English. Containing erudite and accessible explanatory narratives of the history, culture, economic, linguistic and spiritual life of the peoples of Eritrea, this is a rare publication to emanate from this fascinating, but little-known and historically isolated country. The book testifies to the rich blend of African, Arabic and European influences that shape the identity of the city. It exposes the sensual and aesthetic nature of the indigenous culture, and rich heritage of modernist architecture from the 1930s, as well as the less savoury Italian fascist legacy from the same period that still influences the culture and languages of the peoples today.

This volume studies the architecture and urbanism of modern-era Italian colonialism (1869-1943) as it sought to build colonies in North and East Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. Mia Fuller follows, not only the design of the physical architecture, but also the development of colonial design theory, based on the assumptions made about the colonized, and also the application of modernist theory to both Italian architecture and that of its colonies. Moderns Abroad is the first book to present an overview of Italian colonial architecture and city planning. In chronicling Italian architects' attempts to define a distinctly Italian colonial architecture that would set Italy apart from Britain and France, it provides a uniquely comparative study of Italian colonialism and architecture that will be of interest to specialists in modern architecture, colonial studies, and Italian studies alike.

Scarred by decades of conflict and occupation, the craggy African nation of Eritrea has weathered the world's longest-running guerrilla war. The dogged determination that secured victory against Ethiopia, its giant neighbor, is woven into the national psyche, the product of cynical foreign interventions. Fascist Italy wanted Eritrea as the springboard for a new, racially pure Roman empire; Britain sold off its industry for scrap; the United States needed a base for its state-of-the-art spy station; and the Soviet Union used it as a pawn in a proxy war. In I Didn't Do It for You, Michela Wrong reveals the breathtaking abuses this tiny nation has suffered and, with a sharp eye for detail and a taste for the incongruous, tells the story of colonialism itself and how international power politics can play havoc with a country's destiny.

The book addresses the challenges of urban water security and adaptive management in Sub-Saharan Africa, exploring and interlinking novel concepts of ecosystems services, watershed investments, and boundary work. Specifically, the book’s goals are to (i) present a conceptual framework for the urban water sector from an ecosystem services perspective, highlighting the specificities of the Sub-Saharan context; (ii) develop an operational approach to designing and assessing the impacts of watershed investments, based on ecosystem services and boundary work; and (iii) test the approach through a case study in Asmara, Eritrea, and discuss the findings and lessons learned that can be applied in other contexts. Through a fully worked out case study, from identification of water challenges and opportunities to spatially explicit modelling, the book offers a sound and accessible, coverage of issues and proposed solutions to better operationalize ecosystem services, watershed investments and boundary work, to promote adaptive management, and achieve water security in the context of rapidly developing cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The book is an effective tool for capacity building of diverse stakeholders on the urban water sector, including water managers, local and national policy-makers as well as a suitable resource for both undergraduate and post-graduate courses in planning and geography.