Ghana: 2011 Open ARchiTecture Challenge receives entries from over 30 countries

Jan. 9, 2011 - PRLog -- Ghana: 2011 Open ARchiTecture Challenge receives entries from over 30 countries


Organization Name: Nka Foundation, Box Up 1115, Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana
Website URL: www.nkafoundation.org
Project Title: GHANA: 2011 OPEN ARchiTecture CHALLENGE
(International art+architecture Design Competition)
Contact Person: Barthosa Nkurumeh, PhD (Project Director)/ Frank Appiah Kubi,  
(Community Coordinator)
Voice Phone Number: (+) 0246422934  
Email Address: info@nkafoundation.org, nkaprojects@gmx.com.

Nka Foundation (nkafoundation.org) is pleased to announce the results for the Ghana: 2011 Open ARchiTecture Challenge. Entries were received from over 30 countries. The challenge was to design and build units of a model arts village in the Ashanti Region of Ghana for replication in other parts of the sub-Sahara. The design entry was to include a Multipurpose Arts Center, Residential Courtyard that sleeps 21 persons, Community Kitchen, Courtyard for arts studios and a Recreational Sports Ground on a 10-acre lot with earth under the feet and within a budget of $42,000-$62,000. We are inclined to building for the arts with earth because in West Africa, from the cities to the low-income villages, earth architecture is fast giving way to modern dwellings made of cement-blocks and corrugated zinc-roof that are expensive and thermally and acoustically problematic.  

Thus, we were interested in design solutions that integrate art into architecture for a more sustainable future.  We emphasized that the design should provide a comfortable, and multi-use of space and should be easily built from local materials and local labor at low cost for use by the international arts community.  The international competition is of the Open Source Share, which implies that we aim at making the design process and design documents open to all who may use, improve and adapt them to generate a more practical and contemporary design trend for the region.

Twenty top finalists were chosen by the Preselection Jury of artists, architects, and administrator with relevant expertise, which were forwarded to the Main Jury.  The Main Jury consists of architects, who work with architectural firms and architects associated with the academy; they were responsible for the selection of the grand prize winner who will receive $1,000 cash prize, the Second and Third Place who will receive $500 and $300 respectively. The winning project will be executed between August 2011 and August 2012 as a part of the Foundation’s Arts Village at Abetenim.

The Grand Prize winning design is Open Jewelry Loop (Entry #20) by Mitsuru Hamada from Japan; the Second Prize winning entry is Gye Nyame (Entry #8) by Giuseppe Calabrese from Australia; and the Third Prize was awarded to Abetenim Art Village (Entry #22) by Claire Taggart from UK. Winners are invited for the 2nd Kumasi Biennial Symposium: Community Arts in Focus which will run from July 16 to August 6, 2011 at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana where they are expected to present their designs. Prizes to the winners will be awarded at the symposium closing banquette.  

Open ARchiTecture Challenge is a project of Nka Foundation (www.nkafoundation.org), a registered NGO in Ghana with focus on the arts for human capital development in the region.  On the fringes of environmental issues and Open Source concept, we hereby call for International Development Partners to help us construct the winning designs in some way that would be mutually beneficial to all.  It will be exciting to hear of serious interests from university departments, gap year students, training workshops organizers, international program organizers, development agencies, the eco-community, and volunteers from around the world.

Come! Let’s generate choice for those who say they are economically underprivileged despite the abundance of inexhaustible local resources.  Join us!  For additional information go to www.nkafoundation.org.



MAIN JURY:  
GEORGE WILLIAM KOFI INTSIFUL, Architect, Department of Architecture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana; JOHN CHUN HAN LIN, Architect, Department of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; VERENA MAEDER, Organic Architect, Solid Earth Adobe Buildings Ltd, New Zealand; JASON McDONALD; Architect, Rahoul Singh Design Associates, India; VINCENT VAN DER MEULEN, Architect, Enviu/OS-House, The Netherlands; EPHRÈME OUEDRAOGO, Architect, Shelters Architects, Burkina Faso; and KIKUMA WATANABE, Architect, Kochi University of Technology, Japan.

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Nka Foundation is an artist initiative founded in mid 2000, as a non-profit organization with focus on the arts for human capital development in sub-Sahara Africa. The Foundation continues to foster cross-cultural synergy for human capital development through community arts practice and infrastructure, especially in rural communities in the Anglophone, Lusophone and Francophone African settings. Programme includes community arts residency, conference, special project, workshop, and exhibition.