Windhoek:

Suburban peripheral protection paranoia

Above you see pictures of three garden gates/fences of various eras. The first is the the old fashioned scrolly wrought iron gate I remember when I was little. Easy for burglars to leap over but maybe there weren't so many then. Let's say that prior to independence in 1990 all gates and fences were like this, about 1 metre high. Next you see a typical garden wall, in the standard tasteful vibracrete surmounted by Dachau type razor wire, circa year 2000 and two metres high. Next you see the gate and wall of a newly erected house, i.e. 2005, some 3 and a bit metres high.

I am interested in the trend here - that is, the rate of average suburban wall height growth in Windhoek against time. The level of suburban paranoia I thought would increase exponentially; however, this is weighed back somewhat by the increased cost of building higher structures. Let is then guess that the rate of increase is quadratic, commencing at the 'origin' of year 1990. We then try to fit a parabola through points (x=1990, y=1; x=2000 y=2) where y is your average peripheral wall height.

This gives a relation like y = 0.01x^2 + 1, which when we substitute our year of 2005, gives y = 3.25 metres, a good approximation to the height of the 2005 wall. Extending this, we see the in the epochal year 2030 the height of the average garden wall and gate in Windhoek will be 17 metres, and in the year 2200 it will have attained 442 metres, higher than the plateau of the Gamsberg rises above the surrounding plain.

Have a safe weekend

bill torbitt

and more ugli fica tions
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.....another newly erected eyesore in the middle of Windhoek is the addition to the College of the Arts, a rather beautiful 'colonial' building even with an ugly '70's extension next door. It had a nice little garden with rockery and lawn sloping down to the road (Fidel Castro St.), where students used to sit after lessons - now an spiky metal fence surrounds the whole (see pictures). Such a fine sludge colour too. A notice on the fence proclaims it to be the work of HJ Schulze so if you want an ugly fence of your very own you know where to go. Maybe there were security concerns at the college; but the only disaster I know of was when a member of staff, either playing computer games or trying to destroy financial records after hours, set fire to the main reception office. Spend the money rather on a new piano, or other instruments? You must be joking.
All part of the Namibian suburban periphery protection paranoia, of which more next time.

bill torbitt

More ugli fica tions of Windhoek

The Ohlthaver and List group, Namibia's only conglomerate, which used to be a patron of opera and stuff like that (the music silly, not the browser) but since the death of its founder now firmly in the hands of the bean-counters, has given the city centre one of its most "attractive" features - a project which started in a orgy of constructional activity, and which most people assumed was going to emerge into a new shopping centre, turned out to be a car park - presumably finished but we don't know what the red spikes are for on top. Behind this stunning erection is another O&L effort - an ersatz German office block (yellow in background), its name as imaginative as the architecture ("Town Square") and just as unsuccessful commercially.
The other prime block of Windhoek CBD is occupied by a fruit and veg emporium (converted from a beerhall), appropriately in lemon yellow, and a cash building materials warehouse. The margins on potatoes and plasterboard must be higher than anyone realised.
More uglies tomorrow, and as always your suggestions welcome.

bill

The

ugly- fica tion

of Windhoek

When driving through Windhoek lately I adopt a practice which is no doubt dangerous and contrary to traffic regulations - I try to keep my eyes closed. This because at every turn, some inoffensive older building has vanished to be replaced by some badly designed eyesore. You could drive up Jan Jonker, and enjoy the blue and emerald relief of the municipal pool by the small and thankfully not too successful Maerua park shopping centre, and have a burger at Saddles, overlooking the lawns and tennis courts - now all of that is swept away, to be replaced by a vast concrete block which looks not so much like a mega-mall before completion but Chernobyl after 'completion'.
And what about the weird erection rising in Klein Windhoek? I hope the 'designers' will hold a competition in which you have to guess the architectural style which is intended to be captured - my guess is mainly Greek orthodox, with a touch of Japanese pagoda and flavoured with Amsterdam townhouse. But it is difficult to be sure.
The problem is that, unlike other professions, Namibia is a country where you can be throwing coconuts out of a tree one week, and be a practicing architect the next.

More eyesores tomorrow folks. Your contributions welcome.