BWA Journal

Methodology

The project addresses family life, culture, traditions, and vernacular architecture of Bolgatanga in the design of the family complex. The landscape of Bolgatanga is a mixture of clay and rock so in order to create a modern yet sustainable housing unit that accommodates this town, it is important to use the locally sourced material: earth. The use of earth was very common in the vernacular architecture of northern Ghana and acts as what we now know as a sustainable material. Using earthen blocks would not only become a sustainable practice for the project but also design a building that encompasses the traditions and culture of the local community. Near the site, Bolgatanga has a fair trade market. Similar to the goal of Bolga Fair Trade is to reduce poverty by selling textiles, foods, oil, jewelry; the family complex will allow opportunities for users to develop these crafts. The African family unit is constructed within the extended family and most aspects of family life is shared by both, extended and immediate family members. The family complex took inspiration from the complexity of family life in the housing unit organization. 

Site Organization

In the concept design phase, we incorporated various field conditions to create an understanding of the trajectories, vector boundaries, constraints and enclosures. These subjects provide opportunities presented by the site's larger context and program possibilities.Using field conditions, we combined and created several diagrammatic possibilities. As we found reasons to describe these conditions, we noticed that they mimic pedestrian foot traffic and clusters of housing units. The twig-like vectors imitate a directional foot traffic, while striated openings represent where the foot traffic would be derived from which became the designated place for the housing units. In the openings of striated field conditions, housing placements were developed.The housing masses are staggered, stacked, and dispersed around the site. The result of the layout led to the creation of a few large and pocket courtyards, breezeways, and connections to the surrounding buildings. At the ground floor, the main community space is excavated and tiered into the ground with a foot drop every 2 steps for a total of 6 steps. The intended uses of the community area are community gatherings such as drum circles, basket weaving, and other cultural traditions of Bolga.

Building Circulation

There are three different housing types: single, double, and family. Taking in consideration that the dynamic of African families are more extended than those of the nuclear dynamics like in Western culture, the boundaries of family may not be limited to only living together under one roof. To accommodate different family dynamics, there is one of each unit nearby to allow several family members to be near one another while not being under the same roof. The housing units are arranged to have family apartments near the doubles and singles. Along with the three unit types, each apartment possesses the same layout basics of living, bedding, and toilet.

Materiality

To accommodate Ghana’s climate while incorporating vernacular architecture and the limitation of materials, Earth bricks are the main material used for the family complex design. As a group, a singular mold design was created for the facade and form. By using a singular mold design for the complex, it creates less need for the importation of materials as well as giving the community the opportunity to build the project themselves. Not only will the final materiality of the family complex benefit the community, but it will also bring it together during the construction period. The goal for the Earth block design was to fabricate a brick that allowed natural airflow, natural lighting, and that has practical durability. The basic earth block composition consists of earth and water. However, we desired a fiber that would increase the brick’s robustness and began a process to find one. Sand, rose petals, coconut husk, and pine needles have all been fiber contestants. After several trials with the different fibers, sand and coconut husk were the superior fibers in terms of durability. The sand added a solidarity that was needed while the coconut husk gathered the tight fibers in chunks. For a smoother wall appearance we decided not to use the coconut fibers and to only use sand as an additive in our mixture.

Assemblies 

The brick design proved to be useful in multiple aspects of the projects’ design: providing structure, air fluidity and porosity. Depending on how this singular brick is laid out different levels of privacy are created through the perforation percentage. Depending on the part of the unit, the brick perforation percentage changes. They are clearly displayed along the exterior of the border of the designated zones.The apartment’s interior layout will not have any permeability to distinguish between rooms.The living rooms have the highest porosity levels, where the wall assembly connects the publicness of a front porch to pocket community spaces. This also allows more natural ventilation into the first interior space of the unit. The bedroom areas combine vertically stacked horizontal bricks (a column) with the most porous wall assembly. And lastly along the toilet area the bricks have the least amount of porosity to allow the most amount of privacy. In this case, all bricks are assembled to form a column. Structures in the brick layout are visibly shown and are conveyed with two columns of the brick laid down together. All columns are reinforced with rebar and concrete is used to create a more stable brick structure.

Achieved Outcomes

The site organization, building circulation, materiality, and assemblies allowed us to create a space that understands the complexities of Bolgatanga. It is understood that in the typical family unit, not everyone in the house is under the same roof. By adding the single, double, and multifamily unit assortments, more family individuals are still able to live near one another. The clusters of family units begin to imitate family clans and architecturally display how complex these family relations may become. Most modern housing complexes possess more than living, bedding, and toilet. Westernized complexes lose a sense of community and engagement with others when kitchen and showers are included inside the living quarters. The pocket community spaces, kitchen areas, and shower quarters were separated from the housing units in order to keep the close knit dynamic of the African community alive. 

By Giovanni Montrel, Tychelle Causey & Jaisha Victorian