La Pyramide, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 1968-73 – Rinaldo Olivieri Today, this building in the commercial centre of Abidjan is partly squatted but mostly empty, with only a few shop spaces open for business. The internal hall is gutted and remains inaccessible. With its high cost of maintenance and an inefficient ratio of rentable spaces to circulation infra­structure, the building became a prominent investment failure of the Ivorian city. Its sombre but striking silhouette represents an iconic marker of the optimistic aspirations of its era