Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Asmara attains World Heritage listing

 An apt award…
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Frank: They made it.
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Lloyd: It took a few years. Getting the local community interested. Since the mid-1990s. Getting the paperwork together. Then lobbying. Application made beginning of 2016. Granted mid-2017.
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Frank: Something odd though. The architecture is not indigenous. It’s Italian futurism. It’s colonial.
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Lloyd: Still, the Asmara citizens regard it as theirs.
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Frank: What do they use the buildings for?
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Lloyd: Jane Jacobs once said: “Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
Maybe Eritrean Air could use it as a plane...
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Voice-over

UNESCO recognized Asmara in Eritrea as a World Heritage site on July 8, 2017. As a colony of Italy from 1889 to 1941, Asmara contains well-preserved modernist buildings designed by Italian futurists. UNESCO describes it as “an exceptional example of early modernist urbanism at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context.”
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