The Association of Ethiopian Architects’ (AEA) had a debate over the building height revision that the city of Addis Abeba began implementing six months ago.
The Association that held its 17th Annual Convention and exhibition at Sheraton Addis from August 28 to 29, 2015 had a hot debate during the last panel of the first day of the Convention. The panel discussion on “Regulatory Components of the Structure plan of Addis Abeba: Building Height”, was attended by Lealem Berhanu, deputy manager of the Addis Abeba and Surrounding Oromia Integrated Development Plan Project office that worked on the revision of the Master Plan for the city with the Addis Abeba City Administration Urban Planning Institute.
The chance of speaking was given to only few speakers and the panel entertained limited questions reasoning that there was a time constraint.
The panellists unanimously agreed that there needs to be a limit in building height but the current revision of the city’s Master Plan was said to be inconsiderate of the city’s context, specifically, land availability.
“The building height that is being proposed in the city is good for the land owners but the division of the city into sections for a certain kinds of height is not proper,” said Yohannes Abay, Building Information & Modelling researcher at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture & Building Construction (EiABC).
Two buildings that are constructed at the same place with only construction time difference are going to have different heights without any other factors explained Yohannes.
Chanchissa Debela, an architect who worked with the government in the revision of the Master Plan, said that the height revision was prepared to last for the following 100 years. It also depended on the structural plan of the city and density of the residents.
“This is a measure that fulfilled the demand of the developers,” Chanchissa said.
That view was also shared by Abebaw Sinte, director of the City’s Urban planning Institute who said that 95pc of requests from the customers were about increasing building height.
The new Master Plan divides the city into four zones, dictating the heights of the buildings that are to be constructed in these zones.
Zone I constitutes areas that are the centres of the city and are the major sites of construction currently. They are located around roads with higher traffic flow. Zone II constitutes areas near 40m wide roads. Zone III and Zone IV are places far from main roads.
According to the revised regulations, the buildings in Zone I, which is in the centre of the city, will have a minimum of 19 storeys; Zone II building heights will be in the range of nine to 19 storeys; Zone III buildings will be between five and nine stories; located at the outskirts of Addis Abeba, Zone IV constitutes residential buildings up to ground plus five, not higher than 21m.
Abebaw said, “These changes do not apply to social service delivering buildings, like schools and hospitals although they are in the same zone with others.”
This is the fourth revision of the regulation on building heights in the city. The first one was made in 1993 with the Master Plan, and it divided the buildings into three general categories: small, medium and high, the maximum height not exceeding 10 floors. The second one that came in 2002 restricted buildings to 10 floors, and the third revision, in 2011, extended it to 52 floors.
The difference with the current one is its division of the city into four categories with different ranges of heights.
But, for Mahider Gebremariam, an architect, the new revision which is not aligned with the financial capacity of the majority investors will lead to illegality.
“People will construct as they wish and pay the fine as they can get it back from two months of rental fees,” Mahider emphasised.
Lealem stated that the Project office that has made the revision did not include academic research but considered the need of the investors and the places where the buildings are to be constructed.
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