This article examines urban policies and projects in Luanda during the 1950s, focusing on the housing and offices built by Diamang, a colonial mining enterprise that operated in northern Angola but maintained premises in the city. Although Diamang was criticized in the public sphere for being at odds with the drive to modernise Luanda, it was still permitted to construct housing for its officials and indigenous workers. The article explores overlooked agents, bureaucratic procedures, and an apparent institutional autocracy that constrained architectural practices in the city. These contrasting perspectives shed light on the period preceding significant “modernising” policies, providing a fundamental understanding of the tensions and complexities surrounding urban space in Portuguese-speaking late-colonial African cities.

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Luanda,Diamang,Urban planing,Architectual dissonances,Modern architecture

• Other Humanities - Humanities

This publication is an output of the following project(s):

• Dominance and mass-violence through Housing and Architecture during colonial wars. The Portuguese case (Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique): colonial documentation and post-independence critical assessment
• Architecture, Colonialism and Labour. The role and legacy of mass labour in the design, planning and construction of Public Works in former African territories under Portuguese colonial rule