The basic brief from the client for this 10 storied apartment building in Upanga, Dar es salaam, Tanzania, was conditioned by their experience in living in an apartment building with a baby. Each apartment was to be self sufficient so that there was no recourse to other levels for amenities such as clothes drying. The largest open space left in Upanga partly provoked the curved walls that allow views of the playing fields from the rear bedroom; a synthesis of the ‘traditional’ building forms of Tanzania was another determinant.