Residential · Luxury
Twin towers redefining luxury apartment living in Addis Ababa
Bole Tower is one of HGC's most distinctive residential commissions — a pair of G + 10 + 2 basement apartment towers rising from a shared podium in Bole, Addis Ababa's most desirable residential address. The project presented a compelling design challenge: how to give two towers a unified identity while ensuring each feels distinct, and how to create a genuine sense of luxury in a market still defining what that word means in Ethiopia.
The decision to frame the development as twin towers rather than a single mass was both architectural and practical. Two slender towers on a shared basement podium cast less shadow, allow cross-ventilation between units, and create a memorable silhouette from the surrounding streets. The shared two-level basement provides private parking for all residents — a significant amenity in this part of the city — as well as building services, storage, and mechanical plant that would otherwise eat into the residential floors.
The podium level, shared between both towers, was designed as an activated ground floor with lobby spaces, a residents' amenity zone, and landscaped external areas. This approach lifts the residential floors away from street noise and provides a clear threshold between public and private life — something rarely achieved in Addis Ababa apartment buildings of this period.
Each floor plate was designed to maximise the number of corner units, which benefit from dual aspect views — Addis Ababa's skyline to the north and the green residential streets of Bole to the south. Unit layouts were tested against Ethiopian living patterns, with generous reception rooms, separate kitchen spaces, and en-suite bathrooms in each bedroom. Ceiling heights were pushed to the maximum the structural system allowed — a detail that makes an immediately perceptible difference to the quality of space.
The façade system uses a rhythmic pattern of deep-set windows and projecting balconies that provide solar shading to the glazing while giving residents genuine outdoor space — another relative rarity in Addis apartment buildings. HGC's structural team designed a flat-plate concrete system for the floors, enabling the clean ceiling lines and flexible partition layouts the client required.
