Located on a newly rezoned parking lot in central Dar-Es-Salaam, the Mozzi Group HQ is a six-storey office building of 1000m2 in total housing a showroom on the ground floor, office and meeting spaces on the four floors above, and everything is capped by a rooftop garden walled with panels textured with traditional geometric patterns cut-outs offering a culturally-filtered view of the cityscape.

Commissioned with a tight budget, the building is nonetheless a stylistic and functional heir of the Swahili vernacular architecture of Tanzanian coastal towns. Authenticity is non-negotiable. The inexpensive construction request did not affect our desire to aim for the simplest form of addressing human needs, which is found in the vernacular techniques of any society, and to remain faithful in our approach to architecture as an exercise to create liveable and admirable spaces in the context of contemporary African living. The expandable structure is aligned with aesthetics of the land it is built on and the aspirations of the people who will use it. The largest part of the plot is left as an open parking for future expansion when the need arises.

The Mozzi Group HQ, though the new kid on the block, aims to be accepted and integrated in the local urban fabric. The main entrance is chiselled from the street corner offering an inviting curve for pedestrians to enter the ground floor showroom, to soften its new intrusion in the former empty space or to offer a short shaded-relief from the sun, a friendly refuge.

Religion being one of the guiding design principles of the brief, intimate spaces such as lavatories and praying rooms were strategically segregated by floor levels to create comfortable spaces for all and a pleasant experience to work there.

The intentional 4m floor height permitted the visual expansion of the economic working spaces volumetrically and each floor contains a balcony meticulously shaded to offer the homely resting courtyards dear to the Swahili architecture.