Eastgate Centre, Harare
| Eastgate Centre | |
|---|---|
 The pink-hued Eastgate Centre, with its distinctive chimneys | |
 Interactive map of the Eastgate Centre area | |
| General information | |
| Type | Retail and office |
| Location | Harare, Zimbabwe, G13 Eastgate New Complex |
| Coordinates | 17°49′52.6″S 31°03′11.5″E / 17.831278°S 31.053194°E |
| Construction started | 1993 |
| Completed | 1996 |
| Owner | Old Mutual Properties Old Mutual Zimbabwe Ltd |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 9 |
| Floor area | 55,000 m2 (590,000 sq ft) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Pearce Partnership |
| Structural engineer | Ove Arup and Partners |
| Quantity surveyor | Hawkins, Lesnick and Bath |
| Main contractor | Costain-Sisk Joint Venture |
| References | |
| [1][2] | |
The Eastgate Centre is a shopping centre and office block in the business centre of Harare, Zimbabwe, designed by Mick Pearce and built by Ove Arup and Partners. It is a unique example of building ventilated and cooled entirely by natural means.
Architecture
[edit]
The Eastgate Centre was commissioned in 1961 opening its doors in 1996 on Robert Mugabe Avenue and Second Street in the business downtown of Harare, Zimbabwe.[3][4] The project cost $36 million.[3] It was designed by Zimbabwean architect Mick Pearce and built by engineers from British firm Ove Arup and Partners. Eastgate contains nine storeys of commercial space lined up into two rows that ran along a glass-covered atrium, with retail shops situated on the first two floors and offices above them.[4] The rows are connected by skyways that span across its atrium held up by cables. Arup reduced the use of steel for the construction of skyways, minimising its costs and at the same time accounting for easy maintenance of supporting cables and their jacking points.[5]
In-between the commercial spaces there are forty-eight brick funnels connected to each office and store. Funnels channel cool air from the basement and allow hot air to escape from the top of the building.[6] Its massive concrete walls work to reduce of solar-heat gain, and the patterns of the masonry are inspired by indigenous architecture of stone walls found in Great Zimbabwe, ruins of a city 200 miles southeast of Harare.[6][3]
Passive cooling design
[edit]
Despite its tropical location, Harare has harsh temperate climate due to its altitude, where a typical daily temperature swings between 5 to 14 °C.[7] Eastgate incorporates passive cooling system, which conditions the interior air temperature by harvesting cool night air and dispensing it around the interior of Eastgate during the day.[8] In his design Pearce was inspired by the termite mound's specific architecture that maintains a constant temperature in a "climate that fluctuates greatly between 35 degrees at night and 104 degrees during the day". The mound draws in outside air, then cool it by pulling it toward the base of the structure through chambers carved out of the wet mud, while hot air escapes through flues at the top of the mound.[4]
To incorporate environmental technology engineering firm Ove Arup ran a computer simulation and analysis, concluding that: "no direct sunlight must fall on the external walls at all and the north façade [direction of summer sun] window-to-wall area must not exceed 25%. They asked for a balance between artificial and external light to minimise energy consumption and heat gain. They said all windows must be sealed because of noise pollution and unpredictable wind pressures and temperatures, relying on ducted ventilation. Above all, windows must be light filters, controlling glare, noise and security."[9]
Passively cooled, Eastgate uses only 10% of the energy required by conventionally cooled building with similar space.[10] When actively cooled, the centre consumes 35% less energy to maintain the same temperature as a conventionally cooled building.[11] The inclusion of passive cooling, instead of importing air conditioning, saved $3.5 million.[3]
Legacy
[edit]The construction of Eastgate, Zimbabwe became the "forerunner in incorporating green building technologies in the sub-Saharan Africa".[12] Eastgate is emulated by London's Portcullis House (2001), opposite the Palace of Westminster. The distinctive giant chimneys on which the system relies are clearly visible.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "Eastgate Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe". engineeringforchange.org. Engineering For Change. 1 September 2021. Archived from the original on 30 May 2024. Retrieved 31 May 2025.
- ^ Pearce, Mick (2016). "Eastgate". Pearce Partnership. Archived from the original on 6 May 2025. Retrieved 31 May 2025.
- ^ a b c d "Learning from Termites". AIArchitect. Retrieved 6 December 2025.
- ^ a b c Bissell 2009, p. 41.
- ^ "Eastgate: Creating more resilient buildings inspired by nature". Arup. Harare, Zimbabwe: Arup Group. Archived from the original on 17 June 2025. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
- ^ a b Bissell 2009, p. 43.
- ^ "Eastgate Development, Harare, Zimbabwe". Arup. Archived from the original on 14 November 2004.
- ^ Charlesworth, Esther (2006). City Edge. Netherlands: Taylor & Francis. p. 185.
- ^ Atkinson, Jon (October 1995). "Emulating the Termite". The Zimbabwean Review. 1 (3): 16–19.
- ^ Pearce, Mick (10 December 2003). "Architects for Peace profile and excerpt". jury report of the 2003 Prince Claus Award. Archived from the original on 13 September 2019.
- ^ "See How Termites Inspired a Building That Can Cool Itself". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021 – via YouTube..
- ^ Chigwenya, Average; Zhakata, Trish Isheanesu (9 December 2020). "Adopting Green Building Technologies for Sustainable Development: Insights from Harare, Zimbabwe". International Journal of Real Estate Studies. Department of Property Studies and Urban Design, National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Sources
[edit]- Bissell, Janice (2009). EDRA40. United States: Environmental Design Research Association.
Further reading
[edit]- "Sustainable Architecture", The Architectural Review, UK, Sep 1996.
- Baird, George (2001). The Architectural Expression of Environmental Control Systems. Spon Press. ISBN 0-419-24430-1
- Gissen, David (2003). Big and Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1-56898-361-1
External links
[edit]- Mick Pearce Official Eastgate Project website
- ARUP Eastgate Project site
- Webb, Robert (11 June 1994). "Offices that breathe naturally". New Scientist (1929). Retrieved 31 January 2006. Full text available to subscribers only.
- ArchNet Digital Library Photographs and diagrams of the Eastgate Centre.