hotel meeting bloc a

The Grand Hotel N'Djamena is part of an architectural complex that also includes other buildings for major political events. It stands in a central part of the city, directly overlooking the Chari river. The building rises seven storeys above ground; it is rectangular and organised around a courtyard. The ground floor houses the double-height lobby, the restaurant, the café, the business lounge and all the administrative offices. The upper floors contain the hotel's 187 rooms, designed in different sizes and layouts: the higher you go, the larger and richer the rooms become, up to the deluxe suites/apartments on the top floor. The seventh floor also has a panoramic restaurant and a conference room. The structure is reinforced concrete and concrete blocks, while all internal partitions are plasterboard; interior finishes include marble, porcelain stoneware, gold inlays and plaster in different colours. Besides providing sun shading and a bioclimatic function, the portico is the building's most distinctive feature: on the ground floor it is formed by sturdy rectangular columns clad in red stoneware; floors one to four are rendered and marked by a series of pointed arches, while the top two end in a series of openings between pillars. Looking up the façade from the ground, the fronts appear to become progressively emptier and the whole building "lighter". The porticoes are protected by metal balustrades that reinterpret traditional mashrabiya screens in a contemporary way; their gold colour shimmers in the light, giving the building a precious quality. The design sought to optimise the building's energy performance and to reinterpret some typical features of the local culture in a contemporary way.