Consultancy for the Comprehensive Rehabilitation of Bait Al Ajaib, House of Wonders in Stone Town. Zanzibar.

Zanzíbar, Tanzania (2019)

Project description
Heritage rehabilitation consultancy project for studies, diagnosis, rehabilitation guidelines, intervention and assistance proposal, and accompaniment in the first security and stabilization measures following ICOMOS prescriptions. This intervention is the starting point for the comprehensive recovery of Stone Town, the historic centre of Zanzibar.
The most powerful expression of the meaning and image of Beit al Ajaib has always been the view from the sea. Inserted on the coast of Stone Town, the recovery of the altered and diminished volumetry from the moment of the destruction of the Royal Palace complex in 1896 is a fundamental guideline of intervention that aims to balance the perception of the building. The proposal to recover the roof in its original configuration and the exterior reconstruction gallery of the third floor of the building recovers the figure of the relationship: background between the facade of Beit al Ajaib and the clock tower in terms of a dialectic of balance that preserves the presence of the colonial mark while reverting the damage caused to the balance and elegance of the original building. The reconstruction of the roof plant and the roof of the building is one of the most emblematic and delicate actions proposed. It must be an exercise in sensitivity in integrating the essential features of the tradition that generated this typology of space/coverage to mark the nuances that differentiate our performance in the 21st century.