CENTRALIDADE DO LOBITO

BENGUELA, ANGOLA

PROJECT NAME

LOCATION

STATUS

START YEAR

BUILT YEAR

LAND SIZE

MAIN PROGRAM

 

PROJECTED POPULATION

SALE PERCENTAGE

AVERAGE SALE PRICE

Centralidade Do Lobito

Benguela, Angola

Built

2012

2014 (Infrastructure ongoing)

Residential

2.95 sqkm

 

66 mansions

100%

US$200/sqm

       As a part of the National Urbanism and Housing Program, many centralities are constructed around Luanda to accomplish this goal. Centralidade Do Lobito is such a project, where the main goal of the project was to provide as much housing as possible in a very short amount of time. In this attempt to rapidly satisfy quotas, infrastructure is severely lagging behind. Like many other centralities, Centralidade Do Lobito is filled with buildings that looks the same without any differentiation or recognizable characteristics between buildings. Wide roads fill the in between space in a grid, with no green or public space planned. One road connects the centrality to the nearby town, making traveling to work places extremely hard on anyone who is going to live here. Supposedly the first 648 homes

were delivered in August of 2013; however, these units lacked working electricity and water. Focus was put towards the new Lobito

port and refinery, and not much effort was made to connect the housing project with the rest of Lobito. It was not until December

2017 did the first 118 ‘functioning’ units appear. The schedule for providing basic infrastructure to the rest of the units has not been set.

      Part of the Angolan housing portfolio, Centralidade do Lobito presents the same problem as many of the other centralities. It

is suspected that this is also a project funded by CITIC as it is managed by the same company as the other centralities, but it is

unclear where the funding for this centrality comes from. Similar to others, this centrality also features working infrastructure (roads, electric grids, and sewage) within the development, but the connection between the project and the surrounding is severely lacking and therefore not functional. The question also remains for schools and hospitals, where residents have to travel fairly far in order to receive basic education and medical care as the development does not host any of these. Currently, the project is scheduled to be receiving residents again in August of 2018.

 

 

RELATED MEDIA COVERS

ANGOLA BELA: Entregues as Primeiras 648 Residências em Agosto na Nova Centralidade do Lobito

TPA: Centralidade do Lobito

ANGOP: Funcionários públicos recebem casas na centralidade do Lobito

PHANTOM URBANISM CENTRALIDADE DO LOBITO