Accra can be roughly understood as a group of “villages” (= neighbourhoods) located next to each other. Peop le mostly know their own daily circuits and do not perceive the city as one single entity.
16 NovThe Circle Landmark
16 NovCircle is the most known traffic landmark of the city. The landmarks are more related to the activities taking place rather than the built infrastructure. Attached to the roundabout, which works as a major traffic distributor, there is a busy market, informal street market and trotro-station.
The commercial activities are directly related to the amount of traffic flow. Or, one can state: the congestion of public space is directly proportional to the congestion of traffic.
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- circle landmark
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- circle market
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- circle trotro station
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- circle trotro
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- circle market zoom
NEGOTIATING SPACE
11 NovNEGOTIATING SPACE is a practical research, a reflection on the relationship between space and society; the coexistence of social, cultural, economic and ecological dynamics in the context of a squatter settlement. Instead of approaching squatter settlements with the intention of solving its urgent problems with a “western” urbanistic strategy, we will approach it with an empiric, common sense, sharp vision of how people appropriate and perceive the space and city they live in.As Koolhaas said about Lagos: Shortcomings have generated ingenious critical alternative systems. Without romanticizing or fast conclusions, we will study these urban dynamics throughout a multidisciplinary interactive research and conception of urban actions.
We will develop a spatial intervention in Old Fadama as a common act by the inhabitants to understand the dynamics of the place, to stimulate critical thinking and to inspire future processes of urban development on the context, operating at the city level as well as international. The development of the urban act itself becomes a research on methodology of a graphical, interactive urban design process. The output of the participative fieldwork and [creative] mapping process will be translated into a support or platform for multiple uses in the Old Fadama atmosphere – not as a stigmatized slum, but as part of the diverse city life.
From 7/11 till 6/12 we are in Accra (Ghana) to set up the methodology and collaboration with inhabitants of Old Fadama, Ghanian artists and academics to develop an urban act in Old Fadama’s public space. During this period, every two days, we will post reflections and interpretations of are fieldwork on the blog. We would like to read your opinions, suggestions and thoughts on the process that we are carrying on!
Thank you!
Barbara Roosen and Ana Beja da Costa
Tags: landscape, scenography, urban design
Intro to Old Fadama
5 NovThe squatter settlement of Old Fadama, in Accra, is stigmatized with conflictual political, social and ecological interests. The space of the neighbourhood is in a overlapping stage of appropriation of the inhabitants, the dead ecosystem of the Korle lagoon and Odaw River and the development plan of the government: the Korle Lagoon Recreational Project.
The government calls for evocation to implement a recreational project, as the Odaw River and Korle Lagoon are the sewerage of the city, i.e. a dead ecology. The restoration project is going on, to canalise the river and dredge the lagoon, threatening the adjacent neighbourhood Old Fadama, as we know it today; Old Fadama is mostly inhabited by migrant farmers who live in the uncertainty of loosing their homes and work.
How to turn these contradictory interests into a synergy? And what is the supportive role of spatial devices within this process?
The negotiation goes on since a long time, but politics move slowly. As long as the government plans are not clear, nobody is willing to invest in the neighbourhood. Many essays, articles and speculations have been written on the life and appropriation of space in the squatter settlement. The inhabitants got tired of another interview, another questionnaire without visible result…
Tags: landscape, urban design
