Design for a bank in Ethiopia
OIII Architects from Amsterdam designed this bank building for a competition for a new bank in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In the end, it was the design of German architects Henn that won, but the OIII entry still looks pretty amazing.
(Link and source image: Designboom.)
The Dutch design was by far the better than the German. The building’s shapes and the skin, especially at night, remind me of sand dunes sculpted by the Saharan winds. I do, however, wonder how a country as impoverished as Ethiopia could have a bank with that much cash to afford such an imposing and, surely, expensive (assuming most of the materiel and technical skill will need to be imported) monument. I believe the bank made the wrong choice.