Uploaded on 2017-02-08 by Felix da Mata

The photo shows the Luanda Bay on the downtown of Angola's capital, Luanda. Pretty apparent is that there is a lot of construction going on in the area, not only thanks to the obvious site right in the foreground, but also the numerous tower cranes in the background. The waterfront promenade is next to a "generous" avenue with four lanes in each direction. Quite a lot of "glass towers" can be seen scattered among an otherwise relatively low rise environment. Not as clear, but still visible, is the existence of colonial architecture in the mids of the contemporary urban landscape. The amount of construction visible, pared with the towers also present in the photo, makes it reasonable to assume that there will be an increase in population density in years to come. This however, is speculation. What is not is that the glass facades which make those towers so "attractive", are for the vast majority of cases, an energetic catastrophe given the city's climate. The image shows us that there is a trend towards not only towers, but also glass skins on them. Recognising this, can allow measures to be introduced which target the adverse impacts stemming from such trends, as for example, the strict regulation of what kind of facade technologies are approved, or energy efficiency quotas needing to be met.