Client: Birago Group
Date Completed: 2009
2010 AIA Las Vegas Merit Award, Unbuilt Category
This housing development was a response to the growing need for affordable housing near coastal Africa’s capital city of Accra. The issue of constructability had to be taken into consideration. Traditional Ghanaian construction methods and materials include concrete block, stucco, wood and light steel construction. Regional labor and building methods would help keep construction costs at a minimum.
Careful attention was given to the study of traditional Ghanaian living behaviors, specifically the notion of naturally ventilated open living spaces. As a result, users are afforded the ability to control the permeability of the windward and leeward exterior walls by incorporating jaloused windows, louvered transoms and overhead door systems. It was important to orient the units in such a way as to best harness the prevailing southwestern winds.
This region also receives abundant rainfall. Rainwater would be diverted by inward sloping butterfly roofs and retained in water cisterns to be dispensed later throughout the dry season for irrigation.
