Summary
·
OMT
Architects announced last year designing what would be Africa’s tallest hybrid
timber tower in Zanzibar city
Dar es Salaam. After designing one of the world’s tallest timber towers in Zanzibar, Germany-based OMT Architects is embarking on new projects in the Isles.
These are to include, among others,
Moyoni town houses, Vizazi and Chei Chei housing projects, according to the
firm’s founding partner Leander Moons.
The latter, CheiChei Living project,
is a multi-family four-storey apartment building complex in Zanzibar where the
building material is gaining popularity.
OMT Architects announced last year
designing what would be Africa’s tallest hybrid timber tower in Zanzibar city.
The “Burj Zanzibar” will rise 96
metres and accommodate 266 residences and recreational and conferencing
facilities using locally available wood.
Through the plan, the Isles
government expects to attract tech companies to turn the island into a leading
hub for Africa’s technology companies.
In the Burj Tower project, OMT will
partner with n partnership with BirkBirk Heilmeyer Frenzel Architects,
engineering firm Knippers Helbig Advanced and CPS Developers.
“Our goal is to promote the use of
timber within the affordable market,” he said during a just-ended conference on
timber role in construction industry in the US.
He added, “We want to demonstrate
how timber can be used to create more sustainable housing solutions to the
needy”.
The new development seeks to turn
Zanzibar island into a leading hub for Africa’s technology companies using
timber for construction.
The proposed 28-story tower will be
located in Fumba Town, some 20 km away from the Zanzibar Stone Town, a
protected site for its historical relics.
In his presentation at the
conference held at Portland, the US, Mr Moons showcased the landmark projects
using timber, saying they can tackle the housing crisis given their
availability in Tanzania.
“The experience gained from the
previous projects has resulted in the further development of more complex and
larger timber buildings”, he pointed out.
“Mass timber offers numerous
benefits for high-rise construction”, he further added; suggesting its optimal
use even in high tech construction projects.
However, he acknowledged challenges
that the local timber value chain faced in Africa, including little awareness
of their potential.
“OMT Architects recognises that the
demand for timber as a construction material needs to grow before challenges in
the local timber value chain can be overcome.
“OMT’s projects in Africa aim to
create more awareness of the potential for mass timber in construction.
“Supporting the local value chains
to empower local communities and support local wealth creation while limiting
transportation and importing impacts”, he explained.
The company’s vision is to develop
urban and residential solutions and in so doing “transform the construction
industry into a more sustainable sector”.
According to Mr Sebastian Dietzoid,
the CPS chief executive officer, the value chain from timber housing has the
potential to become an $8 billion industry.
“We want to do large-scale
developments in Tanzania, and we want to do it with timber,” he was quoted
recently as saying.
He said the African countries have a
backlog of over 50 million residential units and that his firm is currently
producing 300 to 400 units in the Isles out of the needed 6,000.
“In Dar es Salaam there are over
70,000 houses that people can afford. These affordable houses don’t have to look
like refugee camps, they can be beautiful houses made from sustainable
materials”, he said.
Tanzania, he explained, can
capitalise on this because, according to him, it was producing about 1.5
million cubic million sawn timber per year.
The country has vast forestry
resources which, he said, can produce 42 million cubic meters of sawn timber
per year “enough to feed the world with timber”.
No comments :
Post a Comment