Student Work
Bamboo resource mapping in Ghana
Second floor planting corridor
Title
Nima Market
Project Description
The studio aims to challenge our understanding of the role of architecture by relocating architecture in a new context, where our familiar design tools are no longer available. It is in such spaces that “architecture without architects” takes place, and “habitats made by people” are created. Based on our experiences during the field-trip to Ghana, each student is challenged to develop architectural concepts that respond to substandard living conditions, socio-spatial exclusion and overall lack of infrastructure.
In reaction to the abandoned structures and food contamination problems in Accra City, I choose Nima District as a case study, documenting the left-over buildings and the contamination causes. The design is based on a specific site with abandoned structure as a paradigmatic example.
The project redefines the exposed structure with a new “productive enclosure”: a new roof for collecting clean rainwater, and a new facade made out of local bamboos with fabric and planting pipes in combination with hydroponics technique. The new building not only produces clean vegetables for the community, but also serves as a new public space escaping from the chaos of streets. It transforms from a blighted ruin into an urban oasis, as a “new tool” for the city.