Tag Archives: Community Centre

The July-August 2025 edition of the Architectural Review has published an extended 9-page feature article written by Lois Quartey and Julia Gallagher on the Accra Community Centre, Ghana. The building designed by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, with Theo Crosby as the lead assistant, opened in 1951 and quickly became an important educational, cultural, and social hub in the city. It was paid for by the United Africa Company in an attempt to foster local support after its ‘Swanmill’ HQ was looted and burned following the 1948 Accra riots. TAG provided some drawings and photographs that accompany the article.

The primary thrust of the piece is to raise awareness of this significant historic structure – especially how it was used in the independence campaigns and beyond – and to stress just how vulnerable this building is. Currently being used as a mere store and at risk from the Marine Drive development plan – the article expands on what we covered here https://transnationalarchitecture.group/2022/06/22/accras-renaissance-fishing-harbour-marine-drive-and-a-new-cathedral/ back in 2022.

It’s a deceptively simple and even ordinary building at first sight – but after spending time exploring it’s two interconnected courtyards and assembly hall it quickly begins to feel at home, climatically comfortable, and a nice place to be. It’s also a significant structure because of its design pedigree and especially because of its political significance – so many important speeches, gatherings, and events took place here in the advent to independence and beyond. It’s also home to one of the largest installations by leading artist Kofi Antubam – that alone should secure its future. Our model that replicates one made by Fry and Drew featured in the recent V&A Tropical Modernism exhibition too.

If foreign and leading agencies such as the V&A museum and Architectural Review are prepared to give this seemingly humble building exposure, critique, and cause for preservation – surely the case can be made to restore this heritage structure and to weave it into the wider Marine Drive masterplan. Champions of Ghanaian culture https://www.design233.com/articles/in-trust-for-the-people are behind saving these works and raising awareness, but much more needs to be done.

To deliberately allow a ‘managed decline’ and slow demolition is a tragic waste and short sighted view of the building’s rich political history.

In Trust for the People: Community Centres in 1950s Ghana

By jacksoniain

August 8, 2022

Africa, British Colonial Architecture, Fry & Drew, Ghana, transnational, Tropical Architecture, United Africa Company

Accra’s Renaissance? Fishing Harbour, Marine Drive, and a new Cathedral

By jacksoniain

June 22, 2022

British Colonial Architecture, Ghana, Heritage, United Africa Company

2 Comments

Returning to Accra after a 30 month break, I was expecting there to be changes, but not on the scale I witnessed. Three major projects have commenced – the new cathedral; the Marine Drive project; and the new fishing harbour. When completed they will have a drastic impact on the city and how it is experienced. Marine Drive, in particular, promises some spectacular changes to the much neglected and large sea front. For a port city Accra has never really utilised its enviable position overlooking the sea with its refreshing breeze, until now. The scale of the Marine Drive project is vast and incorporates the set design piece of Independence Square as its focal point.

The project for Marine Drive initially commenced back in 1958 with Geoffrey Jellicoe as lead designer, and various other projects have been mooted since. Jellicoe’s proposal centred around the Community Centre, and also utilised the cricket stadium and polo pitch on the current site of Black Star Square, as well as a golf course and series of club houses.

1958 plan for Marine Drive: source PRAAD

After so many other false starts it looks like Marine Drive is finally going to happen this time, with Sir David Adjaye as the lead architect. Whereas Jellicoe’s design was mainly concerned with providing sport facilities to the Colonial residents, the new proposal includes provision for other leisure facilities including beach bars, shopping, a promenade, and a series of residential and commercial towers. Sir David’s practice is also designing the new Accra cathedral and initial ground works have also commenced, with the site hoarded off and clad with architectural renderings explaining the project’s concept.

A rendering of the new Marine Drive project: towers around Black Star Square.

The fishing harbour project has resulted in an extension of the old breakwater wall along with some major engineering works linking the shore to the harbour, as shown above.

It’s impressive that the city is conducting works of this scale, ambition, and vision. We’ll continue to record the developments here and to document the changes.

We also revisited the classic modernist constellation of the law court, library, and community centre. Whilst the library is still in use the community centre is not, other than as a store. It’s looking particularly tired, and the building fabric is beginning to deteriorate. Its future is uncertain, and as it sits within the Marine Drive development area discussed above it isn’t clear what, if any, it’s role will be. Even the beautiful Ghana Club is potentially at risk from the new development. It’s been mooted that the club might have to be physically moved to a new site. It’s not an impossible solution as the upper level is a timber structure with louvred facades. It could be jacked up and rolled to a new location, but equally it’s also disappointing that these older structures were not incorporated and woven into the new plans.

Notes from Tema, Ghana 2018

By jacksoniain

January 19, 2018

Africa, British Colonial Architecture, Fry & Drew, Ghana, Tropical Architecture

2 Comments

Notes from Tema, Ghana

We visited Tema, the new port and town built 10km east of Accra in the 1950s and early 1960s. Planned as part of a suite of infrastructure projects including, an aluminium smelter, docklands, and hydroelectric dam, the town was to provide model housing in a series of self-contained neighbourhoods, called ‘Communities’. Each has its own central market area and Community Building surrounded by a series of residential areas. The houses are set around schools and recreation areas, and grouped according to size and occupant income.

Market within Community 1

Community Centre and Market Area in Community 1

Community 1 Housing and Garden

Community 1 low-rise flats

We began at Community 1 and explored the market area, complete with extended community centre, before finding some of the distinctive ‘Type iv’ housing. The housing has been extended and in-filled but the original basic form is just about discernable. Other housing had been supplemented by gardens and painted facades. The low-rise flats with central access staircase have been well-maintained and there is a strong sense of pride in the neighbourhood here.

Type iv Housing shortly after completion in late 1950s. Courtesy of Michael Hirst

Type iv Housing in 2018

Michael Hirst designed the Type iv housing. He studied at the Architectural Association in the Department of Tropical Architecture before moving out to Ghana (then known as Gold Coast) in the mid 1950s. He worked for the Tema Development Corporation, and lived in the Denys Lasdun designed flats in Tema. We had a good look for these flats and hoped to track them down – but alas, they eluded us….

Community 2 Housing

At Community 2 we saw some grander properties (surely inspired by Maxwell Fry’s work in Chandigarh), as well as a market with vaulted roof and carefully detailed concrete and guttering system. The structure is, however, badly corroded and in need of urgent repair. The traders informed us that the market is likely to be demolished and replaced shortly.

Community 2 Market

We moved on to Tema Manhean, the ‘replacement fishing village’ built to house the Ga People who were displaced with the building of Tema (see our paper for more detail). The settlement wraps around the light house and is made up of a series of compound houses designed by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew. We found one compound that was built in 1961 (as noted by the date etched into the concrete during construction) and barely modified since. It was a perfect example of just how successful and adaptable the compound typology can be.

Tema Manhean Compound

20 August 1961: Tema Manhean Compound Housing

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Conserving West African Modernism Workshop – Edinburgh University

By jacksoniain

July 14, 2017

Africa, Conferences, Ghana, Heritage, Tropical Architecture

3 Comments

Ola Uduku and colleagues at Edinburgh University hosted an excellent workshop this week on West African Modernism, combining some of the sessions with Docomomo Africa. The result was a very rich series of encounters, exchanges and discussions.

Ilze Wolff presenting Rex Truform’s factory in Cape Town

Ilze Wolff gave a very poignant paper on Rex Truform, the clothing factory in Cape Town designed by Max Policansky in 1937. Ilze’s investigation goes beyond the built fabric and stylistic qualities of the structure – it considers the workers’ stories and what it was like to be a part of the everyday life of this significant building in the city. Ilze is also publishing her findings and interventions through a series of booklets: see Open House Architecture for more details.

Shantanu Subramaniam’s presentation on Community Centres and Libraries in Ghana

Shantanu Subramaniam presented his recent fieldwork on the community centres and libraries of Ghana. In addition to architectural surveying and cataloguing Shantanu is also considering the environment performance of these structures and testing their ability to modify climate and interior temperatures.

Joe Addo’s skype presentation on modern architecture in Accra

Joe Osae-Addo joined us via Skype and shared his film on modern architecture in Accra. The film presented an autobiographical account of Accra and its modern architecture, as seen and experienced by Joe from his childhood onwards. It is a compelling piece that will deliver far more impact in changing ‘hearts and minds’ than reports and conservation legislation.

You can watch the film here: https://stream.liv.ac.uk/s/hav96uun

We also discussed the DOCOMOMO presence in Africa and whether there should be regional groups [such as West Africa, Southern Africa and so on], to generate a more critical mass and greater influence. The reliance on the fiche methodology was also questioned – or at least its limits acknowledged – and we considered the use of ‘narrative’ and social history as a means of generating meaning, significance and connection to these structures beyond the fetishisation of the physical attributes, and tangible qualities.

Cumbernauld townscape

On the final day we were treated to a site visit to the new town of Cumbernauld, and Stirling University.

Cumbernauld housing

Cumbernauld Megastructure

Stirling University

—Transnational Architecture Group

Archive

Tag Archives: Community Centre

Architectural Review revisits the Accra Community Centre

In Trust for the People: Community Centres in 1950s Ghana

Accra’s Renaissance? Fishing Harbour, Marine Drive, and a new Cathedral

Notes from Tema, Ghana 2018

Notes from Tema, Ghana

Conserving West African Modernism Workshop – Edinburgh University