NATIONAL BANK ‘The National Bank building marks a strategic point in the city's street network. It stands at the large crossing of the North-South axis of Churchill Road and the East-West connection between the Palace hill and the Old Airport. The round form and raised platform indicate the bank building's claim towards monumentality. ‘The bank consists of two concentric volumes - a oylinder and a dome. From the outside the cylindrical form is built of a continuous chain of 20 similar segments. ‘These concrete parts are shaped through two parabolic cut-outs with a larger one from the bottom and a smaller one from the top, thus forming H-shapes. ‘The holes left from the construction process of pouring the concrete elements in moulds are closed with a regular pattem of brass elements. The thin, elegant window profiles are of similar material From the inside the dome is the dominating space. Between the cylinder and the dome are the offices and bank counters. In the centre of the dome are two circular stairs that lead in an almost ceremonial way to the safe. The dome is constructed of V-shaped concrete elements that are stacked with decreasing height and inereasing til ‘The National Bank’s functions and spaces are arranged in a concentric form, an echo of the traditional built forms of huts and churches, which follow similar a shape and layout.é .ezzANINe Fog PLAN srowa rooretay LyiGENERAL POST OFFICE ‘While some of the buildings of the 1960s in Addis Ababa attempt to work with local themes and symbolic motives, the General Post Office is designed in a truly non-contextual, modemist manner. Itis an abstract composition of finely proportioned volumes clad in a well constructed, though universally applicable curtain wall facade. ‘The aim of building a large, new General Post Office with related administrati- on, service, and exhibition functions as well as public facilties for a bar and a restaurant was to establish a renewed, modern city centre along Churchill Road, ‘The intended public accessibility of the nowadays heavily guarded complex can still be sensed from the exceptionally low fences. ‘The two vertical slabs with different length and direction, and the long hall are connected by a covered walkway that rests on extremely slender columns. 1 A SSEseseESS ey,