Apparent disappearance of vernacular architecture - In the northern regions
I have just returned to Kumasi from a five-day trip to the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana and strongly feel that I should share my experiences about the apparent disappearance of vernacular or traditional architecture in the three regions.
Advertisement
As a student in the Department of Architecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), my class had undertaken a rural/peri-urban study programme in Wa and its neighbouring village of Nakori in the 1970s. That was the first time that most of my classmates and I had been to the north and we eagerly produced measured drawings of residential as well as communal buildings for our rural studies for the architectural design studio work for the following academic year.
Such field work involved meetings with the traditional rulers, civil servants and members of the community. At the end of the next academic year, staff members and some students went back to present all the documented buildings, as well as design proposals for health centres, school buildings and residential buildings to the same traditional leaders, opinion leaders and members of the community at a mini durbar.
Travels
In the early 1990s, I was fortunate enough to have been appointed (after an extensive interview process) as the Architect and Site Planner for the 15- year National Tourism Development Plan of the newly created Ministry of Tourism. (University teachers went on strike for two years). I was therefore privileged to have travelled across the length and breadth of Ghana to meet representatives of the various district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies who had already identified potential tourist attractions in their localities.
Then only a few days ago, I was part of a team of collaborators from the Spatial Panning Faculty of Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany, the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture and Building Construction in Addis Ababa, the Spatial Planning Faculty of Namibia University and the Department of Architecture at the KNUST, Kumasi working on a joint research to produce a handbook for African Universities in Green Infrastructure and Urban Biodiversity (GIUB) that visited the three northern regions. The trip took us to the Weichau Hippopotamus Sanctuary near Wa, the Chief's Crocodile Pond in Paga, the Tono Irrigation dam and Club House and the Slave Market also in Paga. This most recent trip gave me the theme for this article.
Soon after leaving Wenchi for Bamboi, the change in the vegetation could easily be noticed. We had left the tropical rain forest behind and were now in the Savannah belt. Palm trees and grassland could be seen far and wide, as well as a few baobab trees. My greatest surprise, however, was at the development of buildings for residential, educational and economic activities in most of the settlements we drove through.
The three northern regions had been known through the years to have produced generally two types of buildings - round or circular - and rectilinear buildings which were all done in mud.
An exception was the rectilinear house with rounded edges which was common among the Lobi people in Wa and its environs. Mud had been used for various reasons. Not only was it readily available but it also was a bad conductor of heat and was, therefore, the ideal material to counter the high diurnal temperature ranges between daytime and night time.
Some architectural historians further believe that the round buildings easily reflect or deflect the intense sun rays.
Most of the vernacular buildings were done with either sun-dried bricks or mud walls laid in courses and this could still be found in the rural settlements along the road.
Sandcrete blocks and corrugated metal roofing
However, on entering the urban areas in the three northern regions, the situation was completely different. Built forms found in all the towns were mostly in sandcrete blocks and reinforced concrete with corrugated metal roofing sheets and a few reinforced concrete roofs. Even in the rural settlements, corrugated metal roofing sheets are also very common today. Public buildings such as schools, offices and health facilities looked no different from those found in Accra, Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi for example. Worst of all, some public buildings even have facades in glass which is deemed to be "modern" despite the intense solar radiation in that part of the country. Globalisation seems to be taking over and the built forms, massing of buildings, as well as the building materials used all hinted at the demise of vernacular or traditional architecture. Should this trend continue, vernacular or traditional architecture will be buried sooner than later, and all urban settlements across the length and breadth of Ghana will look alike.
I could not but wonder as to whether all the new buildings in the major urban settlements have been designed and their construction supervised by Ghanaian architects (who may have been educated at the KNUST where architectural education started in Ghana) or by foreign architects. Whatever happened to the various courses in the relevance of culture to architectural design (not limited to the embossment of Adinkra symbols on wall surfaces) and architectural science with its emphasis on natural ventilation, the use of courtyards and the avoidance of direct solar radiation on openings in walls facing the east and west (along the sun's daily movement)? Clients may demand the use of certain materials such as glass for building facades to make the buildings look "modern" but should professional architects bend over backwards and damage their reputation because of money?
In the desert states of the United States of America (USA) such as Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada for example, some of the leading actors and actresses in the world live in buildings constructed in mud. Improved mud construction can be done using kiln-dried bricks and rammed earth. KNUST also produced the "Tek-block" machine several decades ago and this has been used to produce mud or earth blocks to build structures on the KNUST campus and also in some communities in Tema. Considering the level of available technology in Ghana, perhaps we could start with sun-dried bricks, rammed earth construction and the Tek-block which will all be a huge improvement on the present traditional construction methods using traditional materials and techniques in the three northern regions. Perhaps the "one district, one factory" administrators could consider this and get as many of the numerous unemployed youth to produce improved building materials for the people. Additionally, perhaps it may be necessary to get the district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies in the three regions to consider developing specific public or communal buildings and residential facilities built using improved materials and construction methods so that future generations can have an idea of how their forefathers lived. Vernacular or traditional architecture must not be allowed to disappear in Northern Ghana.
The writer is the Past Head, Department of Architecture, KNUST
Past Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Building Technology, KNUST