In the coming weeks at Brookes we have a series of debates around the subject of culture and tradition. I thought I’d share the topics with you and see if anyone has any interesting thoughts. The first Topic is:
‘Culture is enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training’
Be grate to hear peoples comments.
Things have slowed a little this week, this has given us a chance to reflect and spend time on site with the carpenter working out some final details.
After a break from building at the beginning of the week, we returned to Darmang on Thursday and noticed that all the cracks in the earth wall had been repaired and a darkish earth plaster had been applied. Our neighbour Robert explained that it was his wife. When we spoke to her later to find out her technique we were really surprised to learn that the plaster was earth, water and the inside of an old battery* (which gave the dark colour)! She also told us that a good material to use for this is the waste product from palm oil production, which is a stringy orange organic matter, as this helps to bind the earth. As well as being a huge help to us, Mrs Osei’s intervention and advice demonstrates the importance of working with the local community, and shows that in this context traditional local skills are still relevant.
We spent the rest of the Thursday in Nsawam buying wood for the top half of the structure. It will consist of a lightweight timber frame – much of the inspiration for the details has come from looking at the local kiosks and chop bars. It is worth noting here the price of wood – a simple timber frame and door with mosquito netting and mesh is going to cost almost the same as the rest of the structure put together. In the afternoon we put a protective coating on the rammed earth walls – a mixture of water and white glue which just acts as a surface hardener. We picked up the technique from Stumble Inn in Elmina and used it on some test walls last year.
Friday was spent beginning to fit the underside of the roof with the bags filled with straw/coconut husk/banana leaf. We decided to use the central member of the palm frong for this given its length and strength. In darmang and most local towns and villages in this region they are used in earth wall construction, roofing and as panels. We talked to Robert about sourcing some and managed to get around 30 lengths for minimal cost. Halfway through the process of fitting the first section there was a thunder storm with a very strong wind. Even right under the roof we were still getting quite wet from the spray. The timber frame will be quite open so we are now discussing using plastic sheeting that can roll down and be fastened in storm conditions – we are hoping that this could be water bags sewn together by the local seamstress.
As it was Ben’s last day on site we met with friends and community leaders in the evening to discuss progress and the future. A lot of the work done in the workshop and beyond is now being consolidated and will form a part of a Darmang Development Strategy being put forward by VPWA and other local stakeholders.
The carpenter Bernard is starting work on the timber frame on Monday, and I will be fitting the rest of the roof. I will update the blog next week with progress of the structure and more information on how our work will be feeding into a wider strategy.
*We have since discovered the inside of old batteries are used in Ghana for a number of things including blackboards in schools.
A week after the participants went home we wanted to update everyone on the weeks progress. As you can imagine its been somewhat slower pace with our 4 hands instead of the 32 we had last week, but things have moved. The roof is now on and fully braced including pegging and tying. We’ve varnished all the bamboo. We mixed some pesticide in with the varnish for the untreated bracing pieces to see if this helped prevent infestation. We dug a drainage channel to carry the run off from the roof, and filled this with sand and stone to prevent erosion.
Yesterday we (reluctantly) took the decision to dismantle the middle section of the adobe block wall. Large cracks had been forming and this part of the wall was very weak. To rectify this, we laid a new foundation coming in at 90 degrees from this wall. Top of this we built a small return which has now been tied in to the original wall and all built up to the same height. It took a couple of days, but is now complete, and hopefully this should make things much simpler in the long run, especially as the timber framing goes on next week.
So with the exception of a few aesthetic details, our role on-site as builders should be at an end, and we can revert back to doing the paper based architectural stuff and hand over to the carpenter/mason to finish off the structure next week. Fingers crossed we should be able to report back with the final product in a few days time. Photos of all of this below.
We arrived on site on Monday a little bit overwhelmed with the challenge of finishing the structure, this quickly depleted as our local workforce arrived and began to help us make more earth plaster. We were hoping to get the roof on first thing but with no sign of the carpenter we carried on bracing the structure using split bamboo and bamboo pegs.
The carpenter and his team arrived after lunch and began on the tin roof, we were almost done when the rain started light at first but quickly turned into a storm! With us protesting at how dangerous it was to be working in these conditions the carpenter finished the last few sheets.
It was amazing to see how much water the roof was creating – we also became aware that our drainage channel had been dug too far in and the water was forming a new path dangerously close to the pad foundation for the bamboo. With the help of our trusty foreman Kujo we redirected the rainwater and made a note to rework our drainage strategy when the ground dried.
Tuesday was`spent finishing the bracing and working out details for the lighter timber frame above the earth walls. We had some help from local boys to re-dig the drainage channel – just in time for another downpour!
We will be returning to site on Thursday to work with the carpenter on the rest of the structure, also to try to fit a gutter to help us utilise the water from the roof. We are also hoping to arrange a meeting with the village elders when construction is complete to get feedback on our posters and to introduce the wider ideas such as water management developed as part of a ‘village strategy’.
Please click on the symposium tab at the top of the page where you can find all presentations from the symposium participants
Day 13 was the final push to get as much of the structure for the Green Ghana seed bank and storage facility finished as possible. Additionally to communicate some of the ideas behind the ‘Village Strategy’ developed by the medium and long-term groups back to community leaders. An amazing amount was achieved including finishing all the earth construction for the walls and testing a bracing system for the bamboo frame.
During the afternoon the village elders paid us a visit to see how work was going on site we also presented to them some ideas around building maintenance and renovation in the form of posters, we were able to explain how we had incorporated some of these concepts into the design of the prototype structure.
After another late night on site the team returned to the VPWA headquarters in Pokuase for the last time. It was a sad goodbye. We want to thank all participants for working extremely hard over the last two weeks and helping us to produce a really important body of research that will add to the debate around sustainable development and construction in Ghana.
In the next two weeks we hope to have finished the rest of the prototype structure and upload documentation from the workshop so watch this space…..
Travel in Ghana Can be hard work…..so, to ensure a genuine experience much of yesterday evening and this morning were spent perspiring in traffic and bouncing off the walls along the highway. A five hour journey to cover the 25 miles out of Accra after the symposium was followed by a gut busting journey in the back of an overground truck this morning as we made our way to Elmina to stay with our other local partners, Sabre Charitable Trust – where we’ll spend the next few days learning about bamboo as well as finding out about their work.
The afternoon began with a visit to the Sabre’s new kindergarten school. Working with Arup, this will be the second school they have worked on, and it is due to be completed in the next couple of months. Unfortunately, weather conditions made a visit to the completed school in Dwabor impossible, but hopefully tomorrow will bring the sun to dry the road out.
The rest of the afternoon was spent at the bamboo testing site, where we were introduced to the treatment process, and began to think about working with bamboo. Tomorrow we’ll be on site all day working first hand with the material and exploring the potential of the material, which grows around 4 to 5 times faster than wood, can be as strong as steel, and grows in abundance in a country where timber consumption has left only 20% of the natural forests remaining. Thoughts and feedback to follow.
On Thursday a wide range of thinkers and practitioners from various backgrounds came together in Accra for the Local Vs Global International Symposium to discuss strategies for sustainable development in the face of rapid growth. After the many months of planning and long hours of organisation the day was a great success. The various guest speakers sparked lively and engaging discussion throughout the day. As well as being an opportunity for many organisations to meet and share their knowledge, the purpose of the day was to start new conversations and partnerships that we hope will continue on and act as a catalyst for a more common agenda within the sector.
A full write up of the day including each participant’s presentations will follow, but below are the key themes from each speaker:
1. Symposium Introduction – Major Mustapha Ahmed (rtd.)– Deputy Minister for The Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing
– When building houses we need to consider the environmental practical’s in Ghana; Land Provision, Accessibility, Infrastructure and Money
Session 1 – Sustainable Construction: Challenges and Opportunities
2. Ghana Green Building Council – Foster Osae-Akonnor
– There is no need to re-invent the wheel. Using sustainability rating tools on Ghana’s new buildings and want these to be wider implemented.
3. OS House – Samuel Bittir
– Using Local and Global materials to develop new construction ideas and find a meeting point of environmental, economic and social – designs are proving too radical and materials are undesirable for the Ghanaian market.
4. Sabre Charitable Trust – Charlotte King, Laurence Mensah, Steven Cole
– Increasing Building standards in Ghana through education and training
Session 2 – Creating Sustainable Livelihoods
5. VPWA – Hayford Siaw
– Economic sustainability has to be a primary consideration
6. INBAR (International Network of Bamboo And Rattan) – Micheal Kwaku
– De-forestation has left only 20% of Ghana’s natural forests – Teak takes 15 years to reach maturity, bamboo only 3-6 years
7. DENG – Ghana Institute of Solar Energy – Hans Kissieh
– The energy is flowing from above – lets go direct.
8. Mat-To-Fore – Gareth Selby, Chris Simmonds, (Sustainable design and Bio-gas Introduction)
– Re-define lifestyle by introducing simple things. Give rural poor of Ghana back their dignity
9. Building Roads and Research Institute (BRRI) – Frederick Wireko Manu, Joseph Agyei Danqua
– A paradigm shift needed – trying to develop solution to reduce the use of concrete
Session 3 – Mass housing Solutions
10. UN-Habitat – Cristophe Lalande
– Housing is more than houses. Understanding how the housing sector works is fundamental to develop strategies to prevent slum proliferation
11.1. Housing The Masses – Ellen Oteng Nsiah
– Multiple stake holders need to work together and use their combined skills to create affordable homes
11.2. Ministry for Water Resources, Works and Housing – Theresar Tufour
– Policy is Essential – New policy is bringing in all the stake holders
11.3. Habitat for Humanity – James Ayando
– Changing their ways as not currently having enough outreach – Don’t mange project but ensure community manage their own.
12. People’s Dialogue
– The burden of climate change is mostly on the poor – Development must involve the people it is for and use local knowledge
Final remarks
13. Architecture Sans Frontiers-UK – Anthony Powis, Ben Powell
– Working with communities not for them – and developing strategies to build on this symposium through the implementation of a platform through which we can continue to work together.
The ASF-UK team have now arrived in Ghana and the final phase of preparations for the workshop has begun. In the last few days we have met with UN-Habitat in Accra to arrange the symposium which will now be held on Thursday 8th September. We’re really excited about the potential of the event in providing a platform from which to move forward, and hope it will provide an opportunity for new partnerships to develop.
Since arriving we have also spent some time in Darmang, which is where many of the activities will be taking place during the workshop, including the site where we hope to build the test structure (See Image). To try and begin working with the local community we have been speaking to village elders in Darmang about the arrival of the 13 international workshop participants. We’ve been discussing how best to use their skills to benefit the community, and how we can engage and learn from one another.
Today we will be travelling along the coast line to Elmina to meet with the Sabre trust to finalise our short programme with them. During this we hope to experiment with Bamboo and look at its treatment and application as a structural component, as well as exploring the opportunities for creating sustainable livelihoods.
This will be the first of a series of blogs published in the coming weeks, including daily updates of activities during the workshop taking place between 3rd-17th September. Please check back regularly for updates and to see how things are progressing.
Sophie, Ben and Anthony
Local Vs Global: Strategies for Sustainability in the face of rapid development, UN-Habitat and Architecture sans Frontiers Day Symposium, Accra, Ghana, September 7th 2011
This one day ‘mini-conference’ hosted by ASF-UK and UN-Habitat in Accra coincides with the publication of the UN-Habitat Ghana Urban Housing Sector Profile and the ASF Local Vs Global workshop in Ghana. This event will bring together a spectrum of thinkers including local practitioners, policy makers, academics and UN-HABITAT staff as well as local community leaders. The Symposium will involve keynote presentations on a variety of topics relating to sustainable development with a focus on the built environment and housing.
Local Vs Global 