Accra updates April 2026

We returned to Accra to take down the Kingsway Stores exhibition. It’s currently in storage at the emerging and wonderful Si Hene Foundation. The future of the exhibition is quite exciting – the details are still being resolved, but it’s certainly going to travel around Ghana and onto Nigeria (details to follow – and we’ll post updates here). Si Hene has it’s own collection of Kingsway archive material too – so it’s the ideal spot. The exhibition was dismantled and transported on the motorbike-truck.

I gave a talk to the archivist-curator-artists at Si Hene on our work, methods, practice and community engagement. This was great fun and the quality of the projects being produced here is astonishing.

After dismantling the exhibition there was time to search out some new, old, and modified structures. First on the list was the School of Law from 1959.  Designed by Zdzisław Borysowicz of Nickson and Borys. I came across an archival image of the building in the Borys archives – and was eager to visit…

The kind people at the School allowed us to explore and take some photos. 

Check out the curved brise soleil – how was this cast with such accuracy? It’s a similar size and proportion to the nearby Library also designed by Borys – but this time curved. This would involve some very tricky and geometrically complex formwork and there doesn’t appear to be a climatic/comfort reason for doing so? There was also the usual terrazzo and concrete with crustacean aggregate – all carefully finished.  The most dramatic part of the design is the zig-zag concrete solar shading. This is projecting from the main facade – and appears to hang, unsupported. It’s audacious and brave. There’s new glazing been added behind, but the overall effect is just about retained… The brise Soleil features on the south and north facing facades – was tropical modernism becoming more of a ’style’ than a pragmatic solution by this stage?

Borys designed some of the finest buildings in West Africa. In Accra alone this includes the library, Padmore Memorial Library, PRAAD, Court extension, the law school – and as we went onto see, some excellent housing too.

There’s a fascinating villa in the Borys archive. It’s a house for “Mr and Mrs Pepera, Accra, Ghana”. Pepera was an industrialist and business owner and his family owned some large plots of land across the city. He commissioned Borys to design a house on Switchback Road in Accra. One of the facades contains a distinct mosaic mural. With the help of Allotey Bruce Konuah the family told us that the house had been redeveloped, but the mural survived. We went to take a look. It seems that the house has been rebuilt in a similar style and the mural has either been remade, or possibly partially preserved. 

There’s a few other interesting dwellings on the same stretch of Switchback Road – how long they’ll remain isn’t certain – the land value and rapid development is forcing vast highrise construction here and these villas set within large landscaped gardens are at risk. 

There are some smaller clinics and hospitals along this road too, with accompanying residences. 

The new @adjayeassociates offices opened earlier this month in Accra. It’s an impressive structure with generous interior and exterior spaces for exchanges, meetings, displays, and studios.  The gallery contains some of the most beautiful and carefully crafted models we’ve seen. 

Stabilised rammed earth (swishcrete) features heavily on the exterior – mirroring the marble clad vertical fins and approach of Lasdun’s Takoradi bank . The most startling aspect of the design is the decision to raise the structure up from the ground level. The structural span is vast and courageous, with the entirely building appearing to perch on a large round concrete drum form at one end (it’s a kind of inhabitable piloti containing a fire escape). It’s quite an unusual gesture to only use as a means of escape.

The structural solution is impressive – but it left me wondering why was it done? Is it referencing the modernist piloti concept, or the colonial bungalow model, or perhaps the former US embassy in Accra ? The underpass could make for a great outside studio, exhibition space, or a spot for a planted garden and evaporation pool – but it’s only used to provide shade for parked cars at the moment… Perhaps the landscaping and activation of the space will follow – it takes time to bed into a space like this – and the roof garden and kitchen makes up for it with views to the ocean and across the city. 

Going back to the ‘rammed earth’ – it would be good to know the cement content. Are we really dealing with a pigmented concrete solution here rather than adobe ? 

Very grateful @phelim_owusu for kindly giving us a tour and to @k_of_i for organising the visit.

Finally a visit to the Danish embassy – a villa set in gardens in North Ridge. Architect unknown – but a careful design that blended the garden and interiors – perfect setting for the art exhibition, performance, and gathering.