The Modern Ruins of North Ghana

THE MODERN RUINS OF NORTH GHANA DAVID FLECK

CULTURE IN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXTS ELECTIVE RANJANA THAPALYAL

Select an object of regular use from your daily life as an art/design/ architecture student. Trace the geographical and historical journey it has made in reaching you, and consider the social, political, ecological and ethical questions that arise.

I have chosen an alternative approach to this question. As I look forward to working in Ghana next year on architectural projects in a rural community setting, I was interested to investigate the implications of using a material which is used extensively in contemporary architecture worldwide: concrete.

This booklet includes a short discussion around the use of concrete in North Ghana, accompanied by an architectural proposal as a response, which I will be continuing to develop into a built project over the coming year.

During a trip last summer to North Ghana, I noticed a strange architectural phenomena. While driving along the long rural roads through the bush, I saw that the landscape was punctuated by the concrete carcasses of buildings.

Crumbling, dilapidated and overtaken by nature, these husks appeared as ruinous memories of buildings which used to be there, but when I enquired with my local friends, I found that they weren’t ruins at all, but rather extremely slow ‘works in progress’.

It interested me that instead of local vernacular materials, these ‘half buildings’ were exclusively made from concrete blocks. Seen as a material of progress and modernity, concrete is now generally favoured over other building techniques in the area, despite the economic burden it carries which leads to prolonged construction periods. The high capital costs of building yourself a home in the northern regions of Ghana, coupled with the lack of access to mortgages or loans, means that when people choose to build a home they do it piece by piece over years, even decades. As soon as they have some spare money they will buy the next batch of blocks, and the walls will rise by another few inches, only to be left again for months on end.

I see this phenomena as a failure of globalisation, which can be described as a process of ‘delocalisation’1. As discussed by Shiva in ‘Earth Democracy’, “Localisation of economies is a social and ecological imperative. Only goods and services that cannot be produced locally - using local resources and local knowledge- should be produced non locally and traded long distance”2. In North Ghana the importation of not only physical construction products, but also methods and ideals, is having a detrimental effect on the economy and living standards of the people.

The influence of concrete in construction in Ghana stems from colonial times, when during the British rule of the country regulations were put in place stating that all new buildings must be constructed with either stone or concrete.3 Even after independence in 1957 this culture continued, as the new administration sought to present Ghana as a thriving and progressive society. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, made use of an ahistorical aesthetic in the country’s development to underline their freedom from colonial rule and their modernity.4 During this time much of the rural working population migrated to urban centres for jobs, and seeing this new ‘architecture of progress’ in the cities they returned home and tried to emulate it in a rural setting. This drastically altered the dwelling typology in the north of Ghana and the way in which people lived- for generations people had lived in typically clustered settlements, in round houses with a series of courtyards and social areas, and due to the inherent difficulties of building similar structures with concrete blocks dwellings quickly became rectilinear and autonomous.5

For many in Ghana concrete now signifies progress and wealth, and consequently local materials and traditional techniques are seen widely as outdated and attached to the stigma of extreme poverty. It is argued that to reverse this perception the more prestigious building developments in the country need to champion the reintroduction of traditional materials.6 Next year I will be developing and constructing a school and workshops with a community in North Ghana, and the issues of perpetuating the use of concrete clearly point me towards using alternative local technology. However I find myself experiencing a tension. Said describes how an imperialist sees the “outlying regions of the world” as having “no independence or integrity”7, and I wonder to what extent my desire to intervene might verge on an imperialist view that these communities are incapable of making their own decisions. Susan Denyer, in her book “African Traditional Architecture”, asks: “Should traditional styles be allowed merely to decay? This is of course a question which can only be answered in each community of people concerned. It is certainly not for outsiders to dictate policies which may be said to spring from sentimental European notions of conservation or a hankering for a return to pre-industrial harmony. What is important though, is that those making the decisions - including ordinary citizens as well as administrators and planners- should not still be inhibited by feeling that everything about traditional architecture is wrong.”8 On the following pages is some visual research and an architectural response, in the form of a concept proposal for a new school building in the rural north of Ghana. Over the next year I will be developing this design, and helping oversee it’s construction with the community in the local area. This is the point where thoughts have to become reality, where aspirations are tested on the ground. Through the project I aim to advocate the creative use of traditional building materials and methods, displacing the use of concrete and hopefully imbuing traditional materials with a new worth. The design seeks to preserve a relationship to local vernacular building typologies, while also presenting a modern and desirable new architecture. These designs will be developed alongside the local community, so that they are empowered to influence their new built environment. However the tension still remains- to what extent is it up to me to decide what is best for this community, and how far should I challenge the status quo?

1

Joost Smiers, Arts Under Pressure: Promoting cultural diversity in the age of globalisation (Zed Books, 2003), 85 2

Vandana Shiva, Earth Democracy- Justice, Sustainability and Peace (South End Press, 2005) 3

Janet Berry Hess, Imagining Architecture: The Structure of Nationalism in Accra, Ghana (Africa Today 47, 2000), 42.

4

Ibid., 40-45

5

George W. K. Intsiful. “The Impact of Globalization on Local Architecture in Ghana,� in Architecture and Identity, eds. Peter Herrle and Erik Wegerhoff (Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2008), 152-153.

6

Richard Acquaah Harrison, Housing and Urban Development in Ghana: With Special Reference to Low-income Housing (Kenya: UN-HABITAT, 2004), 53.

7

8

Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (Vintage, 1994), xxi

Susan Denyer, African Traditional Architecture: An Historical and Geographical Perspective (Heinemann Educational Books ltd, 1978), 193

<< Image taken outside the village of Chuchuliga in North Ghana, Summer 2013 > Photos by François-Xavier Gbré “Through his seductive photographs of crumbling buildings, François-Xavier Gbré interrogates the architectural evidence of colonial history and highlights what he terms the ‘absurdity’ that power brings.”

We Face Forward : Art From West Africa Today, Manchester Art Gallery, 2012

<< Photos by Nyani Quaimyne We Face Forward : Art From West Africa Today, Manchester Art Gallery, 2012 < Plans of Kasuliyili, a traditional vernacular village in North Ghana Labelle Prussin Architecture in Northern Ghana : A Study of Forms and Functions, University of California Press, 1969 >> Photos taken by children during a photography workshop run with local children in Chuchuliga, North Ghana, in summer 2013. As part of a project called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Through Their Lensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, 18 children were given disposable cameras and asked to describe their lives through photos.

> Contemporary examples of traditional building methods and materials. In Burkino Faso, Francis KĂŠrĂŠ has used compressed earth blocks and walls to build a colleciton of exemplary schools and community buildings. http://www.kerearchitecture.com

The proposed new classroom blocks are placed around these trees, creating sheltered internal space where the children can play and circulate around the school. The area enclosed by these blocks will provide a safe and shaded spaces reminiscent of the local vernacular dwellings where traditional mud structures are built to form closed circles.

Many of the soils in north Ghana contain clays, the most common being laterite which gives the earth a distinctive red quality. These soils are suitable for use in compressed earth construction, a process where a simple formwork is made and earth is packed hard into it to form the wall. The formwork can then be removed, revealing a solid wall which due to the density is far more durable than traditional earth building.

Compressed earth walls can be made significantly more durable with a few simple techniques. Raising the wall slightly above ground level prevents it from being damaged by insects or surface water, sheltering it from direct rainfall prevents the surface eroding, and the wall surface can be protected with different types of plaster coating or even natural butters!

The earth walls can be further strengthened by enriching the soil with a small proportion of lime or cement. The great advantage of this material is that it can be very economical- if suitable earth can be excavated on site then expenses are reduced to the cost of labour alone.

By building the new classroom blocks with compressed earth walls, we will be establishing in the community an example of a revived and improved traditional building method. To presume that this will change the building culture in the area is unrealistic, but perhaps in itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own small way it can begin to release local resources from their undeserved stigma. << Satellite Image of thelandscape just outside Chuchuliga, North Ghana, where the proposed school is located. > Concept Plan for a new school constructed with compressed earth, Chuchuliga, North Ghana. >> Artistic Impressions of the finished school.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Denyer, Susan. African Traditional Architecture: An Historical and Geographical Perspective. Heinemann Educational Books ltd, 1978 Godsen, Chris, and Chantal Knowles. Collecting Colonialism : Material Culture and Colonial Change. Berg, 2001 Harrison, Richard Acquaah. Housing and Urban Development in Ghana: With Special Reference to Low-income Housing. Kenya: UN-HABITAT, 2004 Hess, Janet Berry. Imagining Architecture: The Structure of Nationalism in Accra, Ghana. Africa Today 47, 2000 Intsiful, George W. K. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Impact of Globalization on Local Architecture in Ghana,â&#x20AC;? in Architecture and Identity, eds. Peter Herrle and Erik Wegerhoff. Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2008 Prussin, Labelle. Architecture in Northern Ghana : A Study of Forms and Functions, University of California Press, 1969 Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. Vintage, 1994 Shiva, Vandana. Earth Democracy- Justice, Sustainability and Peace. South End Press, 2005 Smiers, Joost. Arts Under Pressure: Promoting cultural diversity in the age of globalisation. Zed Books, 2003 We Face Forward : Art From West Africa Today, Manchester Art Gallery, 2012