Addis Ababa was founded as the administrative capital of the geographically and ethnically diverse Ethiopian Empire in 1886 (Appendix 1). Since Ethiopia, in addition to the special case of Liberia, is the only African state that had not been colonized, hence Addis Ababa has an indigenous city structure. Unlike in colonial dominated cities where the Western powers have left alongside a modern infrastructure also a legacy of social, ethnic and geographic segregation, Addis Ababa in that case has a higher degree of social mixing, but with little infrastructure. A modernization of the city was impeded through economic and ideological barriers in both the feudal system of government under Emperor Haile Selassie, as well as the subsequent socialist military regime. In 1991, after a nearly two decades of civil war, the Ethiopian People‘s Revolutionary Defense Force (EPRDF) seized power in Ethiopia. Since then, the state and city government system changed significantly, and steps were taken toward a market economy. Since the beginning of the 21st century Ethiopia has experienced an economic upturn and a delayed economic growth of around ten percent. Addis Ababa is now apparently a boomtown and a huge construction site. Despite these hopeful developments, the situation for a larger majority of the population remains precarious. In recent decades, the economic development of urban expansion as compared to the increase in the population lagged so far behind that according to a study by the World Bank probably there has never been a city so far that was so large and poor.

Addis Ababa is often referred to as the „Brussels of Africa“, mainly due to the presence of the headquarters of the African Union. The German government intends to support the AU in the provision of adequate facilities to support it. For the Department of Peace and Security (Peace & Security Council, PSC) a building is being financed that would help in the control and preservation of peace in the troubled continent.
It is essentially an administrative building for all work unitsof the PSC - including a situation and operations center asa high security wing. Facilities that would be provided area conference room, a library, offices and the necessaryinfrastructure. The building would have about 12,000 sqmGFA and should be climatically equitable, energy efficientand maintenance-friendly.

The building is being funded by the German government.The execution and implementation of the project is being supported by the German Society for Technical Cooperation(GTZ) part of the Foreign Office in Berlin.

The building is centrally located in the heart of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, on the grounds of the African Union (Appendix 1). The current property of 7.7 ha will be expanded to the east with the adjacent area by more than 200% to a further 14.2 hectares. The area expansion of the site for the AU will be free to use as given by the Addis Ababa City Administration (Appendix 3).

In the south-east, the Bole International Airport is approximately 6 km away, international hotels such as Sheraton is 5.5 km, the Hilton is 5 km and the German Embassy is 6.5 km away.

On the expansion site, a convention center (African Union Congress Center / AUCC) will be built, which will be left for the Chinese Government by the AU (Appendix 6 and 13). On the southeast, a hotel complex of the highest standards is being privately financed. The construction of this site will commence shortly.

The information flow of Chinese planners is quite minimal. The work on the open areas and the connections of the developments and the parking concept is excluded.