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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Sarah Johnson

Historic market in Kinshasa ready to reopen to a million shoppers a day after five-year makeover

A building as long as two football pitches made with ventilated clay bricks over a portico running its full length. In the open space in front of it are piles of metal rods and other building equipment
Opening in February, the DRC capital’s main market will house 10,000 traders, with 272 toilets where there were once just nine. Photograph: Martin Argyroglo/Think Tank Architecture

Selling vegetables was Dieudonné Bakarani’s first job. He had a little stall at Kinshasa Central Market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Decades later, the 57-year-old entrepreneur is redeveloping the historic marketplace that gave him his start in business to be an award-winning city landmark.

Bakarani hopes to see the market, known as Zando, flourish again and reopen in February after a five-year hiatus. The design has already been recognised internationally; in December, the architects responsible for it won a Holcim Foundation award for sustainable design.

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