The Italian Cultural Institute in Addis Ababa – under the Cultural and Scientific Cooperation Agreement with the Università Iuav di Venezia and in cooperation with the EiABC – Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (University of Addis Ababa) – organized an event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of architect Arturo Mezzedimi (1922-2010).
The lecture, delivered by Jacopo Galli (Department of the Cultures of the Project, Università Iuav di Venezia) on 29 June, retraced the life and career of Arturo Mezzedimi, an immigrant who climbed up the social ladder in his Country of adoption.
From the start of his career, when training for his profession among the Italian bourgeois community in Asmara up to the construction of “Selassie’s Imperial gifts” to Eritrea, Mezzedini succeeded in the extraordinary feat of designing the City Hall and the Africa Hall, the first seat of the African Union and currently the permanent seat of UNECA – United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
