ACCRA FUTURISM

ACCRA FUTURISM RESEARCH METHODS GROUP 4

Team Members: Tobias Corry Anahita Mohammadkhani Ethel Ng Constantina Alambriti Daria Pavlova

Mapping the effects of the International Trade Fair on the surrounding LaBadi Slum and Beach Resort areas in the 1960s, considering the spatial relationships between all three sites

Images on right (top to bottom): Site 1: LaBadi Beach Resort in current condition Site 2: LaBadi Slum Housing in current condition 1

Site 3: International Trade Fair at Opening

PROJECT ABSTRACT After Ghana’s independence in 1957 the country’s first leader Kwame Nkrumah initiated the planning of International Trade Fair that was open in 1967.

The International Trade Fair was designed and constructed by Ghana National Construction Corporation (GNCC). The architects that got appointed for the job were Polish designers Jacek Chyrosz and Stanislaw Rymaszewski who were working along with Ghadanian architect Victor Adegbite. The architects worked closely with draftsmen from Ghana, UK and socialist countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary and Yugoslavia. Such relationships showed how open Ghana is towards the West after the fall of the old regime.

The pavilions of the International Trade Fair carried a sense of radical modernity with sharp edges, rough concrete textures and regular repeated patterns. The Trade Fair was made out of four parts housing exhibitions of different nation state. The main area held a permanent collection that then lead to a circular African pavilion through the access ramp.

Site 3 International Trade Fair

Site 2 LaBadi Slum Housing

After that the journey led you to the pavilions of local firms and international firms.

The visitors could enjoy various exhibitions, events and performances.

The International Trade Fair was a part of a larger urban reconstruction of the capital Accra, especially parts such as nearby Labadi area and the seashore.

Labadi area was considered by government as congested, run-down, and without appropriate infrastructure for the time. It was foreseen for demolishing. In 1960s the Town and Country Planning Division proposed 2 masterplans. The 1967 proposal was led by Polish planners Luba and Jerzy Grazyna. The masterplan has introduced new road network, sewage, water and electricity facilities. The masterplan was largely influenced by planner’s earlier re-planning project of the 19th century worker’s district in Warsaw that was destroyed in the World War Two. And as seen on the proposed maps new plans consisted of clearer grid of structures comparing to the existing dwellings.

The other part of Accra that was affected by the plans of reconstruction and improvement was the city’s seashore. It was proposed as early as 1958 by the British architects and was meant to be integrated into the design of the International Trade Fair. The design was very ambitious, proposing leisure, cultural and sport facilities.

The beach was meant to have a high-rise hotel between the greenery and roads.

The design was seen as extravagant by the local government and only a fraction, such as a small restaurant and a beach facility were built.

Now on that location there are several upscale hotels that look over the Labadi Beach.

Looking at the proposed plans from the 60s and current maps we can tell what an important role International Trade Fair played in Ghana’s social space and planning.

The Fair was built and is still standing and being used, even though lacking in maintenance. It is used as exhibition space, political rallies, and religious festivals.

Just as Labadi’s beach plans were never realized to its full potential, we can see the same occurrence with the Labadi area comparing 1960s plans and current maps of the area.

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Site 1 LaBadi Beach Resort

MAPS CONSULTED: Provided by Lukasz Stanek from local Ghanaian Archives

Town and Country Planning Division LSC Masterplan Proposals (Series)

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GNCC Pre-1967 International Trade Fair Plan

LaBadi Programmes and Road Networks

DECIPHERING MAPS - PROCESS: Decoding our sources proved difficult due to the nature of their production and the age of each piece. We therefore obtained information by pursuing a series of exercises which extracted the little data we had and filled the gaps in with informed speculation

Aligning co-ordinate points on GIS Software

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Deciphering Text and Increasing Contrast

Assigning Key to Map with some Assumptions

LSC MASTERPLAN PROPOSALS - OUTLINE OF THE STRUCTURAL ORGANISATION

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Residential

Pedestrian Connection Grade I : Connection with services, i.e.

Industry

Pedestrian Connection Grade II : Connection to cantonments

Main Traffic Routes

Leisure

Pedestrian Connection Grade III : Accompanying main streets,

Main Sector Roads

sport centre, resting places, cultural services

connecting neighbourhood service centres

Social Services

LSC MASTERPLAN PROPOSALS - PRESENT-DAY ROADS OVERLAYED ONTO PROPOSED STRUCTURAL ORGANISATION

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LSC MASTERPLAN PROPOSALS - PHASING

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Residential

Park

Kindergarden

Post Office

Restaurant

First Stage Phasing

Open Space

Children Playground

Education

Administration

Second Stage Phasing

Sports

Industry

Market

Petrol Filling Station

Commerce

Third Stage Phasing

Sanitation

Library

Neighbourhood Centre

Worship Hotel

WC

GNCC PRE 1967 INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR PLAN Buildings Main Traffic Routes Main Sector Roads ITF Roads

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Site 2

Site 3 International Trade Fair

LaBadi Slum Housing

Site 1 LaBadi Beach Resort

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Axonometric - Documenting the Movement between three distinct areas in the Labadi Area International Trade Fair, Labadi Slum Clearance, Beach Resort

C

B

C A B Site 2 LaBadi Slum Housing

Site 3 International Trade Fair

A Site 1 LaBadi Beach Resort

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Axonometric - Documenting the Movement between three distinct areas in the Labadi Area International Trade Fair, Labadi Slum Clearance, Beach Resort

PERSPECTIVE A The relationship between the LaBadi Beach Resort and the adjacent areas of housing proposed is ambiguous in the maps found, with only a large road depicted separating the two sites. We have assumed that the significance of the resorts close proximity to the housing scheme is to enable residents close-by to have access to the waterfront with further visitors coming from the wider Accra area. This is why we have included footbridges over the proposed roads, inspired by those seen in the International Trade Fair, as well as a drop-off point for local public transport. These interventions continue the modernist principles of automobile and pedestrian separation.

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PERSPECTIVE B The connection between Wider Accra and the International Trade Fair is highlighted in many Slum Clearance plans as a bustling pedestrian thoroughfare. Green areas containing commercial activity, such as markets, line a strong axis through the scheme produced by the Town and Country planning division. We assume this was because of the high expected footfall towards the Trade Fair, with those operating off of stalls reaping a large profit from goods sold to passers by. We portray this major thoroughfare as a route bounded by high rise blocks, a decision stemming from the Pre-1967 plan and much of the socialist Architecture constructed at the time of the proposal.

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PERSPECTIVE C The International Trade Fair (ITF) played a significant role in functioning as the social ‘place-making’ in the waterfront communities. A user-centered feature that attracts and unites the much segregated communities together, forming a social connection between the Labadi slum clearance and the Beach resort. In reference to the ITF scheme, despite its vibrant busy markets facilitating international market sector growth, playful yet soft landscaping is imagined to serve as children’s amusement park surrounding the pavilion and beyond. This view from a tower block conveys the healthy balance of economic and social grounds.

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ROUND PAVILION - INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR 1966 The Round Africa Pavilion is at the end of the ramp to the International Trade Fair, it is a place for visitors to gather before they enter the “Made in Africa” pavilions. The pavilion built for ITF had been adjusted and modified several times and thus it was different from the plan and sections in some historical documents. The pavilion is rebuilt with an additional glass roof after the fire in 1970.

The 3D model made intented to show the form of the pavilion at the time of ITF in 1966.

International Trade Fair project, aerial-view drawing, 1965 (Jacek Chyrosz Archive, Warsaw) ©Lukasz Stanek

Truss section on roof

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Historical document of plans and section Round Pavilion from archive

Roof detail in plan

Round Pavilion section

A F

B

C

D

E G

A: Exterior view, facade and water feature ©Google Image B: Column detail ©Lukasz Stanek C: Interior view, upper floor ©Google Image D: Exterior view, facade and site context ©Google Image E: Staircase ©Lukasz Stanek F: Interior view, lower floow ©Lukasz Stanek G: Interior view, lower floor facing the entrance ©Lukasz Stanek

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ROUND PAVILION - 3D PRINTED SECTIONAL MODEL

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Maps: -

Ghana National Construction Corporation, 1967. Map of La Badi Slum.

Warsaw: Rymaszewski Archive.

LaBadi Programmes and Road Networks - Data for Map Unknown Town & Country Planning Division Detail Planning Group. Basic Map Masterplan Proposals. L.S.C. Labadi Slum Clearance, 1:5000 Town & Country Planning Division Detail Planning Group. Outline of the Structural Organization. L.S.C. Labadi Slum Clearance, 1:5000 Town & Country Planning Division Detail Planning Group. Phasing of Implementation. L.S.C. Labadi Slum Clearance, 1:5000

Secondary Sources: -

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Jackson, I. (2019) ‘N/A’ [PowerPoint Presentation]. Accra Futurism Research Methods.16 October 2018.

Max Bond, John Owusu-Addo, “Aspirations,” Arena, the Architectural Association Journal July-August 1966, 62.

Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture and Adjaye Associates. (2017). Marine Drive Tourism Project, Accra. [Online Video]. 12 December 2017. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0a1vPmbysI. [Accessed: 14 January 2019].

Polónyi, C., 1992. An Architect-Planner on the Peripheries: Case Studies from the Less Developed World. Budapest: P&C. Stanek, L 2017, ‘The Master Plans of Baghdad: Notes on GIS-Based Spatial History’ Jadaliyya.

Stanek, L. (2015) ‘Architects from Socialist Countries in Ghana (1957-1967): Modern Architecture and Mondialisation.’ Society of Architectural Historians Journal, 74:416-442.

Uduku, N & Stanek, L (2015), ‘Architectural pedagogy in Kumasi, Baghdad and Szczecin: Radical pedagogies’ Volume, vol. 45, pp. 16 - 21.

“What is the role of architectural history in current architectural practice? Can the revisiting of the 1960s projects in Accra be relevant for current discussions and practice, for instance concerning the waterfront of the city?”

The dynamic transformation of urbanisation in Accra post independence, has suffered primitive internal segregation, especially areas that are “home to a large ‘informal proletariat’” (Gillespie, 2015). Besides the racial hierarchy, class division has shifted the urban morphology of the city in linear forms. Not only nation zoning towns like James Town as the British, Usher Town hosting the Dutch and Osu the Danish, one example given by Gillespie’s field trip (2010), is the area covered in the La community in Accra divided with a “high concrete wall, topped with barbed wire and patrolled by private security guards” separating the farmer’s land and the government built mansions.

Much like the most recent controversial border wall proposition by America’s president Donald Trump or the historical Berlin wall (1961, shortly after Ghana’s independence in 1957); both designed for the mere purpose of geographically disconnecting two distinct groups of people and their way of living. It would appear as if this comparative research method on regional demarcation is ineffective, as the reappearance of physical barriers in the US Mexico border exists regardless of the negative outcome of the Berlin wall. But I believe the effectiveness or relevance of research would be significantly subject to user experience and not just juridical or economical difference. Therefore we can apply the implications from anthropological analysis on life on these borders to internal mainland conflicts such as communities like La in Accra where the proletariat are suffering urban segregation from the rich. Therefore it is somewhat clear that this significant political history of inequality in Ghana is ignored in current architectural practices. Resulting in luxurious gated mansions built on urban commons, some of which the proletariat community members claim the land being their “ancestral birthright”.

This increasing complexity within the origins of this marginalised land provokes a certain architectural anxiety (referred to as “a hangover from colonialism” by Tom Gillespie) within current and future planning of the urban development of the city and communities. My central thesis is that current architectural practices should reflect and base any design discussions on the historical transformations and conflicts in that context, but also take into consideration the dynamic contemporary world of design. To test the relevance of this conceptual statement, I aim to study and th conceptualise infrastructural and urban developments of the 20 century until today.

The dynamic reimaging and development of Accra’s waterfront consists of different variations of historic colonial settlements that change after Ghana’s independence. This transformation and

redevelopment of the urban scheme of the waterfront, is the key to our research. The need for change in urbanisation due to political subjectivity highlights the significance of architectural history in current architectural practice. Perhaps the evolution of contemporary design needs a more adaptable approach to consider political, economic and social changes. Teddy Cruz, Mexican architect whose study of the US Mexico border has leaded the focus on “blurring conventional boundaries”, discusses the contingency of recycling and development of infrastructure with a concept and research that is derived from traditional Mexican slum housing. The use of architectural history is vital in Cruz’s architectural practice today; he restates in an interview that “we seem to endlessly move through a historical pendulum of actions and reactions, an ideological carrousel that help us construct models of possibility.” (Archinect, 2019) Conceptualising the cycle of design for Accra’s waterfront post colonialism was therefore subject to the historical pendulum of actions and reactions that constructed and reconstructed the architectural scheme.

The International Trade Fair, a realised project, that was part of a larger post-colonialism urban development for the waterfront of Accra, played a significant role in functioning as the ‘social placemaking’ for the waterfront communities. A user centred feature that unites the segregated communities, and despite its lack of maintenance, it is still functioning as a place for social, political and religious gathering today. The much wider scheme that stretched to Labadi and the Beach resort was disregarded as “extravagant” by the local government and therefore only realised a small fraction. The modernity of the design in such areas inhabiting proletariats perhaps startled the developers, as it had not occurred in Accra’s architectural history. After the fire in James town in 1895, the British proposed a plan for a set density urban planning. This historical limited intervention perhaps was the influence for this drawback. To grasp this process and refer back to our statement, the historical urban portfolio in this instance would be irrelevant to the time at which those areas needed the change. With a quick research on Architecture firms and practices covering a big radius of Accra today, along with observation study on the conditions displayed on Google Maps street view dated February 2016, there are no visible signs of architectural projects on the reproduction of such areas. The Labadi slum clearance scheme that was proposed in the 1960’s for the redevelopment of the urban morphology and regulatory facilities (such as maintenance of sewage, water and sanitary facilities) of Labadi is also non-existent. By revisiting the 1960’s plans and geographically mapping and layering the proposal with the existing world map via QGIS, the current road network that is proposed on the ‘L.S.C Labadi Slum Clearance 1:5000’ master plan has not been structured as designed. The drawback for such a scheme meant that it did not employ “extra-economic means” for the city and therefore was not given priority and pushed aside completely. Accra, having developed entrepreneurial governance, has de-humanised the approach to architecture and architectural projects. Therefore, with no authority over urban or rural land, design firms and architectural practices will be designing to meet “inappropriate planning regulations” (Gillespie, 2015) to increase revenue and facilitate private-sector growth as the role of the state. This results in no consideration or relevance to architectural history. The ambiguity of land ownership has also caused drawbacks in development and renovation in communities like Ga.

Maxwell Fry, a British architect whom, as a refinement to the European modern-movement, he designed a ‘housing compound’ typology for rethinking the village-planning house design in West Africa from 1946-56; “a type frequently used in Ghana, taking the form of mud-walled structures of the remote villages, and later concrete…” (Jackson and Oppong, 2014). The topic of materiality in this historical context has been vital for Fry in the architectural planning of Tema, Ghana. Fry also developed this concept of exchanging planning ideas from Europe to realise the Green ring road of Accra, soon after Liverpool gained UK’s first ring road in 1944.

To conclude, the role of architectural history in current architectural practice is vital and directly relevant as they are the formula for addressing the complexities of urbanisation. My argument goes beyond the physical boundary as a source of division, but how its symbolic power can infect its urban and social surroundings and create conceptual boundaries. This infection will remain in the community and adapt to its surroundings until it is treated. However as architectural practices and government institutions today in Accra continue to ignore the transformation, struggles and conflicts in the history of Accra, the conditions of these issues will remain unresolved and community projects will remain unrealised.

Bibliography;

Gillespie, T. (2015). Accumulation by urban dispossession: struggles over urban space in Accra, Ghana. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 41(1), pp.66-77.

Lukasz Stanek (2015). Architects from Socialist Countries in Ghana (1957-67): Modern Architecture and Mondialisation. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 74(4), pp.416-442.

Archinect. (2019). With Teddy Cruz on "Power" and "Powerlessness". [online] Available at: https://archinect.com/features/article/93919/with-teddy-cruz-on-power-and-powerlessness [Accessed 20 Jan. 2019].

Mezzadra, S. (2013). Border as Method. Duke University Press.

Grant, R. (2009). Globalizing city: The Urban and Economic Transformation of Accra, Ghana

White, R. (2019). Spatial History Project. [online] Web.stanford.edu.

Available at: http://web.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/pub.php?id=29 [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].

Liscombe, R. (2006). Modernism in Late Imperial British West Africa: The Work of Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, 1946-56. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 65(2), pp.188215.

Jackson, I. and Oppong, R. (2014). The planning of late colonial village housing in the tropics: Tema Manhean, Ghana. Planning Perspectives, 29(4), pp.475-499.