Residential · Apartments
Contemporary apartment living designed around the rhythms of everyday Ethiopian family life
The Weletekidan Apartments development presented HGC with the opportunity to think carefully about what genuinely good apartment living looks like in the Addis Ababa context — as opposed to simply stacking as many units as the plot allows. The result is a residential building where unit quality, communal spaces, and building services have all been given equal weight, creating homes that are comfortable, well-lit, and dignified in the long term.
Each apartment unit was designed with the Ethiopian household in mind — generous reception rooms suitable for receiving guests, separate kitchen areas with adequate ventilation, and bedroom layouts that afford genuine privacy between family members. The temptation in residential design is to compress room dimensions to the minimum permitted by regulations; HGC resisted this, working instead to find efficiencies in the structural grid and circulation strategy that would allow room sizes to remain comfortable without expanding the building's overall footprint.
Natural light and cross-ventilation were priorities from the earliest design stages. Units are double-aspect where possible, with windows positioned to capture morning light in bedrooms and afternoon light in living spaces. Deep balconies — common in Ethiopian domestic architecture — provide shaded outdoor space and act as a thermal buffer between the glazed facade and the interior, reducing solar heat gain without sacrificing daylight.
The entrance lobby was designed to function as more than a circulation space. A well-proportioned, well-lit ground floor lobby with clear sightlines to the lift core and stair gives residents a sense of arrival each time they return home. Communal areas on the upper levels provide informal spaces for neighbours to interact — a consideration that is often overlooked in residential developments but that significantly affects residents' quality of life and their sense of belonging within the building.
Building services were designed for reliability and low maintenance cost over the building's operational lifetime. The electrical distribution system, water supply, and drainage were all sized generously to accommodate the realistic demands of fully occupied households, and access panels for maintenance were incorporated discreetly throughout the common areas. Generator backup for critical systems — lifts, lobby lighting, and stairwell lighting — ensures residents are not left stranded during the power interruptions that remain a reality of urban life in Addis Ababa.
The building's external character was developed through the composition of its balconies, window openings, and material palette rather than applied decoration. The facade reads as a considered arrangement of solid and void — recessed balconies creating deep shadow lines that give the building texture and interest across the day as light conditions change. The material selection prioritises durability and low maintenance, with a render finish in a warm neutral tone that will age well and complement the surrounding residential fabric.