[a]FA Guabuliga Market_ Ghana 

From 2018 onward, [a]FA has been researching and designing a market  project for and in Guabuliga*, a farming community located in northern Ghana. This term we will realize the project, working on steel pre-fabrication in Tamale and starting construction on site in Guabuliga. The project is realized in collaboration with and commissioned by Chief Salifu Mahama Tamburie, the Austrian‐Ghanaian NGO Braveaurora, and the people of Guabuliga.

 

 

 

 

* The 2018 project brief was:

RESEARCH We will look at a variety of grown/vernacular and planned markets and market designs in diverse cultural contexts (research in Vienna). We will analyze the given regional context (northern Ghana) in regards to its spatial, environmental, economic, and dynamic/ migratory characteristics. We will investigate the given spatial, environmental, infrastructural and programmatic situation on an urban scale (Guabuliga). We will investigate market typologies on architectural scale. We will analyze the use of (market) space at the scale of the human body. We will map market space and market life and its time/space dynamics. We will try to understand the socio‐cultural parameters which generate market life as it is in Guabuliga and neighbouring communities. We will identify existing and potential building materials.

DESIGN We will come up with a concept and pre‐design for the Guabuliga Market in the course of our field trip in February 2018, starting from the scale of 1:1000, to the scale of 1:1. We will work out the design back in Vienna, including construction drawings, in collaboration with other departments in the IoA, such as Building Construction and Structural Design.

By end of May 2018, we will produce a representational portfolio, which we will hand over to the NGO Braveaurora, to raise additional funds for the realization of the design project. A project review will take place at Angewandte Vienna on June 16, with representatives of Guabuliga and board members of the NGO Braveaurora present

PRACTICE As soon as there are sufficient funds to start the construction of the Guabuliga Market project, we will get involved again. Depending on the complexity and innovativeness of design proposal, we will either implement and build ourselves, or hand over plans to a local architect/contractor.

 

 

 

This is an ongoing project with an already selected team of students.