[A]FA Tamale Old Airfield | Urban Furnishing(s)

This term, the [A]FA Tamale Old Airfield | Urban Furnishing(s) project enters a phase of realization, focusing on (Terrazzo) prototyping and construction development. Building on design work carried out over the previous semester, the lab continues as an ongoing design-build process leading toward the implementation of Urban Furnishing(s) between September and November 2026, followed by a second construction phase scheduled for February 2027.

After the first phase of tree transplantation in May 2025 and the completion of the principal design phase in June 2026, the upcoming stage shifts the emphasis from design development toward material realization. Students will work directly with questions of fabrication, detailing, construction methods, and on-site implementation strategies, developing prototypes that operate between landscape elements and urban infrastructure. Particular focus is placed on on-site prototyping and the translation of design into built form, involving professional collaboration and construction processes.

Merging material research with landscape design, and body–space investigations with the urban scale, the Urban Furnishing(s) studio has so far operated across multiple scales and registers—from the tactile to the territorial.

Since 2020, [A]FA has been developing the transformation of the Tamale Old Airfield into a public landscape through a series of spatial interventions commissioned by the local municipality. The project has engaged with Tamale’s inner-urban peripheries as both central and marginal conditions, using design and research as tools to mediate between urban development and ecological systems. In collaboration with municipal authorities, traditional leaders, local partners, and the University for Development Studies in Tamale, the former airfield is being reimagined as a shared urban landscape for cultural, recreational, and economic use.

Baerbel Mueller, with Abdul-Rauf Issahaque

There are no positions available for new students this term.