Shaping Addis Ababa

Abstract

This chapter looks at the evolution of Addis Ababa through the agency
of diplomacy. It focuses on the urban morphological and architectural
manifestation of diplomacy in the city, based on a timeline of five recognizable
periods. Using exemplary cases, it illustrates the physical and spatial impact and architectural influences associated with diplomacy and diplomatic institutions. This chapter looks at the evolution of Addis Ababa through the agency of diplomacy. 1 It focuses on the urban morphological and architectural manifestation of diplomacy in the city, based on a timeline of five recognizable
periods. Using exemplary cases, it illustrates the physical and spatial impact and architectural influences associated with diplomacy and diplomatic institutions. Subsequently, we argue that the emergence of Addis Ababa as a diplomatic center in its first couple of decades has anchored it as a sustained political center, while diplomatic developments that followed and their physical manifestations played a vivid formative role in the city’s urbanization. Within Addis Ababa’s poly-nuclear structure, the diplomatic institutions prevail as frames and points of reference, spread out over the whole city.