House to get new house

By Merga Yonas

The Winning Design of The New Parliament

A consortium of designing and architectural companies, Addis Mebratu Consulting Architects and Engineering, Studio Seven and Geluk Trieurniet Architects-- a Holland based company, were awarded a one billion birr project for the design and architectural work of the new Parliament construction project on Tuesday.

The bid for the award, which was issued four months back, has attracted the interest of seven companies in designing and architecture for the construction of the new Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia's Parliament building. However, only five companies applied for the bid where each should make a consortium with a local and international designing and architecture company, Addis Mebratu, owner and general manager of Addis Mebratu Consulting Architects and Engineering told The Reporter.

Later, the Panel of Jurors, consisting of architects and engineers representing the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development (MoCUD), the Association of Ethiopian Architects and the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture and Building Construction (EiABC), has examined the technical matters of the proposal. The winning entrant intends to entrust the tasks of preliminary design, design for execution and works supervision concerning the construction of the new parliament building.


According to Addis, after fulfilling the procedure and the needed requirements, his company and the two formed consortium were awarded in the presence of Abadula Gamada, speaker of the House of Peoples Representative; Kassa Tekelberhan, speaker of the House of Federation and other Parliament members last Tuesday.

MH Engineering and K2N Engineering came as second and third companies respectively. The project, budgeted at one billion birr, will start in nine months and be finalized two years from the due date of its initial project period, he added.

For many years, the lack of designing competition has compromised the quality of various building in the country, Mebratu said. However, the recent move of the Ethiopian government focusing on design competition rather than financial competition will improve the quality perspective of constructing buildings.

The project, to rest on 31, 463 square meters of land, is located in front of the current parliament building, built during the time of Emperor Haile Selassie in Arat Kilo, Arada sub-city.

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