The good folks over at Inhabitat wrote the other day about the Eastgate shopping center in Harare, Zimbabwe. Keen observers of webmeadow may know that I lived in Zimbabwe in 1998, and spent many an hour in that very building!
Eastgate is a neat place because, as the article points out, it was designed to mimic the ventilation system of a termite mound, and as such stays at a pleasant temperature all year round without any external heating or cooling systems. I remember someone telling me about this bio-mimicry design while I lived in Harare, but never learned any details about it at the time.
The post does not point out (though I will!) that Eastgate also serves as a very good meeting spot if you are gathering friends from various suburbs of Harare, as it's pretty much equidistant from all the major combi (mini-bus) terminals.
Also, there was an internet cafe on the third floor, and a super-tasty deli on the second. And, a joy for all us visiting Americans: Mateo's, a great Italian restaurant, in the primo ground floor location. They had fantastic garlic bread.
The termite-mound-inspired ventilation is sort of an urban and arid equivalent to passive solar design -- not every building has (or needs) great solar exposure, but there are still ways to use boring ol' physics and crawly ol' termites to make your building more comfortable and efficient.
