ABSTRACT
The Portuguese architect Januário Godinho completed the design of the Banco Comercial de Angola’s tower in 1960. The construction of the 22-storey building took 7 years and it would become the tallest skyscraper built in Luanda at that time. The headquarters of the first private bank established in Angola was located at the capital’s seafront and aspired to representing the growing modernization and economic progress of the Portuguese colony. “Portugal’s tallest building”, paradoxically built in Luanda, presented some novel technical solutions, amongst which was the first ducted air-conditioning system in the country. Although the tower was built before the first oil crisis (1973), in a period of great enthusiasm towards artificially controlled environments, it offered a hybrid solution and promoted a rather sensible use of energy. The origin of this sustainable formula can be traced, however, to economic and technical constraints rather than to ecological awareness.
