Office buildings in Ghana
What is an office building? How should it look like and what materials need to be used for its construction? To be able to answer such questions, it is necessary to briefly discuss the origins of the office building.
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The office building or office block - a building containing several floors of office accommodation, was quite common in the larger cities of Western Europe and North America in the 18th century. The rapid expansion of trade in the 19th century following the Industrial Revolution, and the introduction of new constructional techniques and building services meant that many more office blocks were built, and that they could be economically built to a much greater height than before. Significant factors in the expansion of the office block as a building type included the introduction of new building materials such as cast iron, wrought iron and later steel, the invention of the passenger elevator (or lift), the invention of telegraph and the telephone, as well as the introduction of electric light. It must be noted, however, that the "Chicago School" is the name given to those pioneer architects who in Chicago, United States of America (USA) during the 1880s and 1890s, led the world in skyscraper office block construction.
Open plan and individual offices
The office building was introduced to Ghana (in the then Gold Coast) by the colonial British administration. Consequently, what pertained in the United Kingdom (UK) was introduced in the Gold Coast and other former colonies. Initially, these office buildings were used by the colonial civil servants in civic buildings which are now located in the Ministries' area in Accra and the regional offices in the regional capitals across the country. The office building is no longer the preserve of civil servants. Over the years, private businessmen and women have also built office blocks for their operations and Ghana is no exception. Generally, there are two broad types of offices - open plan and individual offices or cubicles. Open plan offices have no walls separating individual office spaces and all workers can see what goes on in the office. Office cubicles can have solid walls from the floor to the ceiling or short partitions to separate one office space from the other.
It must be pointed out that the tallest office building in Ghana for a very long time was the Old Cedi House opposite the British Council Hall in Accra. It was designed by the Faculty of Architecture (staff and students) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Standing at 13 stories, it was originally designed and built for the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). Perhaps by Ghanaian standards, it may look like a very tall building and the disastrous attempt to demonstrate fire fighting in tall buildings which led to the untimely demise of a female fire fighter arguably may have confirmed its "tallness" to Ghanaians. Around the world, however, there are several examples of skyscraper office buildings rising over 100 stories. In the USA, for example, steel construction is the commonest approach used to build skyscraper office buildings. The Petronas Towers skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia built to commemorate the coming of age of the country was however, built in reinforced concrete.
Green buildings
Many of the high rise or skyscraper office buildings around the world have been built in more recent times as "green" buildings. In other words, they have been built to reduce the carbon footprint as a result of climate change and its effects. Thus, mechanised air conditioning has been reduced to acceptable limits. For example, in Zimbabwe, the Eastgate Development for the 55,000 square metre mixed-use city centre development designed by Michael Pearce and built between 1991 and 1996 in Harare uses passive environmental system to cool the building. This ventilation system costs one-tenth that of a comparable air-conditioned building and uses 35 per cent less energy than comparable conventional buildings in Harare.
In Europe, the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt, Germany, designed by Foster + Partners, is often referred to as the first "ecological skyscraper" in the world because of the new technology used for heating and cooling. With two floors below ground and 58 floors above ground, the 300 metres high building has a number of light wells and garden atriums with a series of four-storey garden atria positioned around the perimeter of the building in a spiralling pattern so that each office floor faces an atrium on one of the three sides. Similarly, K. E Yeang's buildings in Malaysia, China and Vietnam have been designed and built using natural ventilation and landscaping and have been described as eco-architecture.
What do we see in the design of office buildings in Ghana today? Many architects in Ghana are designing buildings that can only work with mechanised cooling systems in these days of green architecture. Atriums, courtyards and landscaping which can encourage and provide natural ventilation have not been used in the design of many office buildings. As a result, many Ghanaian office buildings cannot function without mechanised ventilation. Just like the ubiquitous columns adorning several buildings - both residential and office buildings across the country lately -, glass has become the "latest" hot cake in office buildings in Ghana. Glass is now extensively used in many office buildings across the country. Many architects may state that the extensive use of glass in office buildings is what clients ask for. To many clients, glass facade shows how "modern" or "current" an office building is but architects must be able to explain all the implications - particularly the long-term operation and maintenance of these "glass" boxes to their clients, especially in this era of green architecture and challenges with power generation.
Sick building syndrome
The result is that presently, there are some office buildings in mostly the urban centres in Ghana which have glass facades on all four sides or elevations. This is in spite of the fact that direct solar rays from the east in the mornings and from the west in the afternoons penetrate the walls and heat up interior spaces. Arguments may be put forward that several new different types of glass are now on the market and that these new materials have special qualities that provide comfort to the users of the office buildings. There is also no shortage of company representatives in Ghana promoting various types of building materials, including glass. Their primary consideration has been to push their products and earn higher commissions. Special qualities in building materials, however, do not come cheap and invariably tend to affect the overall building costs, annual rent and sometimes the health of users of such facilities. The "sick building" syndrome which sees several users with unexplained long periods of sickness in a working environment is an established fact in many office buildings around the world. It has been established that various viruses and bacteria are actually transmitted through ducts installed for ventilation systems.
Can we continue to forge ahead with glass boxes as offices forever? Is this the only way to proceed with office building design in Ghana? Are there other alternatives? Surely there must be other ways of designing and building office buildings. Examples cited above indicate that in countries with similar climatic conditions, a lot of effort has been put into designing office buildings with ecological or green considerations to not only reduce the construction cost but also the running costs of office buildings. They also improve the health of users of the facilities. This way, we can reduce construction costs of office buildings and also promote a more healthy working environment in Ghana. The office building in Ghana can be saved and must be saved.
The writer is Past Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Building Technology, KNUST
Past Head, Department of Architecture, KNUST. Writer’s e-mail: