Badabing Badaboom

BADABING BADABOOM

TROPICĀNA SŪTRA

The said meta-narrative sets out a framework to establish a series of alternate equatorial fantasies. The following ambition was to tackle a specific theme of the over-arching research which resonated from the historical events that shaped today’s tropical canon. This undertaking a view of architecture through the lens of oppression that is consistent with the colonial exploits preceding and proceeding Ghana’s independence in 1957. Currently, the illegal gold mining industry in the relatively peaceful West-African nation recalls the prospecting spirit of the early colonialists. However, instead of a conquering European power, it is now the opportunistic Chinese that profit from the abundance of Africa’s natural resources.

The thesis probes into the discourse of today’s oppression by questioning the power relations between a rural majority, and an immigrant minority.

(2015) Dunkwa, Ghana

THE GOLD COAST

Dunkwa, Ghana

How can the first Sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence through the vision of Kwame Nkruma fall under colonial oppression, yet again?

Ghana’s liberation was marked by its change in name from the Gold Coast in 1957. Appropriately named for its abundance in the natural resource and decisively changed for the connotations of exploitation and slavery that it imbued, the recent influx of Chinese immigrants have revived the ravages of yesteryear by prospecting for Gold in the rural areas of central Ghana. With arguably less consideration of the environment and its people than their European predecessors, illegal mining (of which the Chinese are 90% responsible for) has become a major blight in the once centre of Africa.

Ghana’s West-African location made it convenient for European sailors to legitimately export slaves and resrouces (cocoa, gold) and to distribute them to the Americas. Despite the Ghanaian government’seffortstotightenimmigrationpolicies,China’spresence throughout the rest of Africa makes it almost impossible to stop the illegal immigration of Chinese nationals from both land and sea.

The neighbouring countries of Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo with liberal immigration policies as well as corrupt border controls points allows access to the former Gold Coast with minimal resistance. The Chinese have predominantly used this method of entry after new laws were established pertaining to illegal mining.

As for the legitimate method of accessing the mining sites, the Capital city of Accra is located a few hours away from the centre of the mining activity. Around these sites the local towns have established themselves and now depend on the illegal mining of Gold to sustain the small communities. The largest of these towns is Dunkwa which is a 6-hour drive from Accra and hosts the largest population of Chinese immigrants.

China has recently taken over the United States as Africa’s largest investor. In Ghana alone, China made a deal to loan $3 billion to develop Ghana’s infrastructure on condition that 60% of the jobs are awarded to Chinese companies. While intending to be mutually beneficial as with most development funds, the established Chinese presence in Ghana has opened doors for thousands of illegal immigrants to take advantage of a land plentiful in natural resources but poor in finance, technology and expertise.1

The Chinese government denies all accusations of neocolonialism and to a large extent, the Chinese presence in Ghana is legitimate with an estimated 20,000 in the field of infrastructure, 11,000 in legal mining, 6,000 in businesses, and 4,000 professionals.

Due to escalating number of incidences resulting in the deaths of both Chinese and Ghanaian illegal miners in 2013, over 120 Chinese immigrants were arrested and thousands more deported in an attempt by the government of Ghana to put a stop to illegal mining. However, the regions in Ghana are ruled by individual chiefs that are susceptible to bribery and corruption making the complete elimination of illegal mining almost impossible.1

Acts of reparation are often masks for alternate agendas. While the Colonial Development Fund of 1945 claimed to enhance the societies of its colonies, it also provided an unofficial avenue of remaining in control of local production and exports. The ChinaAfrica Development Fund of 2009 is reminiscent of this relationship and revives its effects on the colony.1

ColonialDevelopmentFund1945China-AfricaDevelopmentFund2009

The European empires passed the baton of oppression to the United States and both were considered legitimate in their own time. Slavery was once legal, and exploitation was masked by investments.

Today, China has taken the baton and the effects are no less severe on the people and land of Africa. In Ghana, the Chinese are depended upon and scorned at the same time. Working for the Chinese gives Ghanaians a little more than what they would be earning in their local trade but the Chinese still take most of the profits from the mining which leaves the locals with an unequal sense of entitlement.1

1 https://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/ghana-takes-action-against-illegal-chineseminers

TOP 10 GOLD AS PERCENTAGE OF GDP FOR 2013

Although cocoa has taken over gold in being Ghana’s primary export, the former Gold Coast remains on of the highest in terms of gold mining as percentrage of GDP in the world.1

https://www.gold.org/supply-and-demand/interactive-gold-market-charting

TOP 10 GLOBAL PRODUCTION VOLUMES FOR 2014

While Ghana is 9th in total gold production volumes, it is also one of the smallest countries on the list. When compared to China, which in terms of area is 40 times larger than Ghana but produces 4 times more gold, Ghana far exceeds the production of gold per square kilometre which makes it the richest country in terms of gold.1

1 https://www.gold.org/supply-and-demand/interactive-gold-market-charting

BADA BING

The legitimate is generally accompanied with a certain degree of illegitimacy. The process through which a boom town is developed involves the initial scramble for the natural resource and the establishments of sustenance for the scramblers. These establishments are often basic and pertain directly to the industry; banks, bars, gold traders, and gold refiners. It is only when other functions of more complexity are introduced that the town is able to flourish beyond its dependence on the resource.

The narrative is informed by the themes of selected films and books that depict various interpretations of oppression.

Ghana’s National Theatre building, donated by the Chinese in 1992 stands unused for most of the year and yet the country considers it as a symbol of national identity by putting it on their currency.

As with any growing immigrant population, the inevitability of informal settlements eventually lead to the establishment of a Chinatown. These enclaves are generally associated with a proportional degree of social inequality between the local and foreign population.

FriendshipArchway,WashingtonD.C.

The thesis rejects both the philanthropic donation of an irrelevant building, as well as the racial and social segregation of communities that is prevalent in the early Chinatowns.

NationalTheatre,Accra,Ghana

The institutional typology of historical stock exchanges is referenced for the proposed Gold Exchange building.

Denver

Ballarat

Most boomtowns that endure the gold rush that catalysed them display a consistent urban phenomenon. What began as an irregular town plan is formalised into a regular grid that envelopes or superimposes itself onto the original fabric.

5.

Externally, the form revives the articulation and construction of the independence era by the early modernists. The equatorial sensibilities and climatic innovation sites the structure to its context, unlike that of the cladded national theatre building.

6.

7. Unity Hall, KNUST|John Owusu-Addo|1963

8. Accra Central Library|Nickson & Borys|1956

9. College of Engineering, KNUST|James Cubitt and Partners|1953

10.

11.

12.

1. Main Library, University of Zambia

2. Former American Embassy|Harry Weese & Associates|1956

3. Accra Shop houses

4. Scott House|Kenneth Scott|1961

National Museum of Ghana|Fry, Drew, Drake & Denys Lasdun|1957

International Trade Fair|Chyrosz & Rymaszewski|1964

Paa Joe Stadium|KNUST Development Office|1964

Wesley girls’ high school|Fry, Drew and Partners|1946

Opoku Ware Senior High School|Fry, Drew and Partners|1952

BADA BOOM

Dunkwa is a boomtown situated 6 hours from the capital city of Accra. Sustained by an immigrant Chinese minority that controls the mining, the boom is on the verge of a bust should the mining cease or the Chinese leave.

The projected development parcels a figure from within an existing ring road where the imposition of a grid will define the town’s subsequent urbanisation. The Gold House, commissioned by the Chinese government, will catalyse this urban development and eventually metabolise beyond the extent of the ring.

Chinese shophouses located along the periphery of the ring road provide supplies and services for mining while housing the immigrant minors on the upper level. A Lucky Supermarket sustains the local Chinese population and suggests the inception of a Chinatown.

The Crown Casino, an aptly named structure in the midst of the dust-coated town rises above the dirt with its reflective blue glass and its cladded walls. A building exclusive for the Chinese informs a program in the proposed building.

The town is populated with Gold traders, refiners and everything related to mining. The structures rage from a tin shack with a pained sign to a bunker-like building with googled images of gold bars on banners.

A rural population of Ghanaians make up the entirety of the city centre. While bustling with activity and seemingly autonomous, the locals remain heavily reliant on mining and therefore the Chinese immigrants despite the lack of integration between the races.

The proposed Gold House is shown incomplete to reflect the instability of state sponsored initiatives. It is also a representation of the boom or bust - should the town flourish and existing or new investments continue to fund construction, the building will be completed and the functions further legitimated. Should the town bust, the foundations of the ruin will serve as a plaza and market space that remains bustling with local activity.

SNAFU

Cape Coast, Ghana

A SNAFU STORY

The legitimisation of small-scale gold mining in Ghana is initiated by the Chinese government through a philanthropic gesture of developing the goldrush boomtown of Dunkwa. Though charitable on surface, the initiative attempts to bury the ravages of exploitation of which the Chinese themselves are currently responsible (after taking the baton of oppression that the European empires left behind).

Sino-African relations in Ghana are seemingly resolved as China ceases to illegally mine gold, and the Chinese commission a Gold House that eliminates corruption and empowers the miners. The building officially functions as a Gold Exchange and a Gold Miners’ Union, but not without an inevitable touch of illegitimacy by the opportunistic neocolonials…

GAANA PE NYIN NYE CHINA BOA KO SI NE SIKA GUADI

(GHANA WILL GROW WITH CHINA’S HELP TO LEGITIMISE ITS GOLD INDUSTY)

加那須要中国協助其金工业的发展

(GHANA NEEDS CHINA'S AID IN DEVELOPING ITS GOLD INDUSTRY)

The politics of conditioned air drives the architecture. Through a series of leaky programs, the function of the building symbolises the power relations between Chinese immigrants and a rural Ghanaian community. Chinese restaurants and casinos leak conditioned air into the Ghanaian Gold Exchange and Gold Miners’ Union. The air above 1m is then leaked down into a public market before being pressurised through the chimney. The condensers face in towards shaft of the chimney, creating a negative pressure which exhausts all the air out of remaining openings.

THE RESTAURANT

SustenancefortheChinesepopulationishiddenfromthefunctionsbeneathbutservicesthembyspillingconditionedair

Whilethegoldindustryislegitimised,glimpsesofitsprevalentneocolonialismcanstillbeseen,fromwhichtheunionreliesonforitsconditionedair

THE EXCHANGE

Whilethetradeisconsolidatedandmadetransparent,Ghanaremainsdependantonanunseenentityaboveforitscooling

THE CHIMNEY

Thethermalterminus,whereconditionedairfromthetieredprogramsispressurisedandevacuated

1. Ruins of the incomplete building accommodates an informal market

2. The Chinese restaurant overlooks the town, symbolising the Chinese omnipresence despite the cessation of illegal mining

1. Ghanaian Union and Exchange offices

2. Chinese casino leaking air onto the trading floor, leaking air onto the market

3. The chimney exhausts conditioned air with its generated hot air

4. The market experiences the recycled cooled air from the building above

5. The walls, steps and railings are used as containers and scoops to maintain the cold air at a height before overflowing to the spaces below